The Survivor, Ironeyes and the Rythm of Discord: Theory about a plotline in Era 3

[Benkinsky they/them]

Hi everyone!

I recently reread RoW, and when I was talking to a friend the other day I formulated a theory i now wanna post here more polished. I'll try to keep it structured, can't promise. Anyway, on to the topic

Short version of the theory:

I believe that Mistborn Era 3 will feature a sideplot about the Ghostbloods aswell as Kelsier working to discover to recreate the Rythm of Harmony, possibly to a) prove the difference between Harmony and Discord tangibly and b) to create anti-investiture weapons to combat Discord if necessary, for example by being able to kill Kandra. I believe this is likely because it has realmatic parallels to storylines, in both a) Harmony/Discord and the mixing of shards and b) an opportunity for Kelsier-Marsh moments. I'll elaborate on that.

 

Reminder of important things Navani and Raboniel discovered in RoW:

Anti-Investiture is possible. What you need for that is:

1) Some sort of tangible Investiture to manipulate. (On Roshar: Stormlight, Voidlight. On Scadrial: the mists?)

2) Knowledge of the existence of Anti-Investiture and the intent to invert the Rythms/Wavelengths to create it. (there’s a little booklet written by two brilliant women detailing all this)

3) A way to create the correct rythms, either with a person able to hear them (Roshar: a Singer, Scadrial: a Seeker) or an instrument created by someone who does (Roshar: the plates created by Raboniel and her singer scholars).

3.1) I don't fully remember if this is stated, I appreciate confirmation if someone has it: You need those who sing these tones either themselves or while creating the tools to do so to be sufficiently connected to the planet in which the relevant shard is invested (on Roshar: Navani singing Honor’s Rhythm, Raboniel singing Odium’s Rhythm, Eshonai singing Cultivation’s Rhythm). This is extra interesting on multi-shardic planets like Roshar where we have three “pure tones of Roshar”

4) To create a mixed Rythm (like War or Tower or Thorns), you need people with connections to the respective shards to come to a Harmony. (Roshar: Navani and Raboniel. Scadrial, i believe, Kelsier and Marsh. See below)

Reminder of hints at Era 3 topics found in Era 2:

-          Harmony is unstable, presumably due to an inequality in Ruin and Preservation’s parts in it.

-          As threatened by the Prophecy of the Hero of Ages, Harmony could also be Discord. We’ve seen the dark shadow.

-          While Lerasium doesn’t naturally exist anymore, Atium might be regrowing? Not sure about that one rn.

-          Wax’ and Steris’ Harmonium experiments created trace amounts of Lerasium, proving that while Harmony is its own thing, the combination of Preservation and Ruin is still relevant for its existence and how the duoshard works.

-          Kelsier has said that his goal is to protect Scadrial from whatever necessary. He has seen that Harmony is becoming unstable. He has seen how unstable Shards get himself, and other immortals aswell through Ghostblood intelligence.

 

The theory:

Era 3 will have a sideplot about the Ghostbloods preparing for the eventuality of having to fight for Scadrial AGAINST Discord by trying to find the Rhythm of Harmony in order to invert it. The prerequisites are:

-          Distrust against Harmony. Saze is getting worse, Kelsier knows it. Harmony supposedly respects its peoples Autonomy, including the Kandra. But we’ve seen him disregard that with Wax when “necessary”. Kelsier has reason to prepare

-          Knowledge about Anti-Investiture. By Era 3, I believe groups like Silverlight, the IRE, and most importantly the Ghostbloods will have a copy of Rhythm of War. The knowledge that Fused can be killed should interest Kelsier – both because it’s reason for him to be scared of death again, AND because it could be a much more practical weapon against out of control Kandra and other Hemalurgic constructs or whatever else Discord could create that “normal magic” is outmatched against.

And these are both given. I will outline how I think such a storyline could look like, and maybe you see how it could fit both as an interesting story and a very hype magic-related plot in a world where the “normal” magic is mostly fully discovered already. The latter is an “issue” for Sanderson because the discovery of new forms of magic is always hype for readers (new metals in Mistborn as Vin learns about them or discovers them, new Oaths on Roshar, new Aons, new Commands…) and at this point, all 16 metals are known. So “new” elements would either have to come from offworld (other God metals, other forms of Magic like the Ghostbloods in Era 2, or new discoveries like the Malwish have shown) or be new applications of existing things.

1)1) Kelsier and the Scadrian Ghostbloods want to find the Rhythm of Harmony. After how much Raboniel argues that Navani might not be able to hear the Tones of Roshar after Humanity has lived there for thousands of years, there is reason to assume that the Tone of Scadrial is either still two different ones (Ruin, and Preservation) OR it is currently, as of Era 3, the Rhythm of Discord. Finding the Rhythm of Harmony could therefore be proof that what God is currently doing is no longer Harmony, by contrasting the two Rhythms. More interestingly, the Rhythms offer the chance to create Anti-Investiture.

2 2)      They run into an issue: Most existing Investiture on Scadrial is discord-coded. Meaning already mixed, which makes things more difficult. What they would need is actually pure tones of Preservation and Ruin, which as of Era 3 are probably very difficult to come by, since even our Era 3 protagonists will have been born on Harmony/Discord’s Scadrial, and are using its version of magic, which I assume gives off slightly different tones than it did during Era 1.  Now, if only there were people from way back when with strong connections to the original two shards respectively. Ideally, two people who share a connection with each other, which would make their efforts to create the Rhythm of Harmony even more narratively interesting. You know, something like:

          The Survivor, a Cognitive Shadow of a Mistborn made up off the old Shard Preservation’s Investiture.
and
Death, the last Inquisitor, a Hemalurgic Construct that was once Ruin’s strongest and most favourite single human toy.
and these almost-deities are also brothers.

Do you see my vision? There’s all sorts of dangers here for them: Kel might have disconnect from any Hemalurgy he’s using, like for his body, and Marsh might have to find a way to disconnect himself from Harmony to fully concentrate on Ruin in some sort. Maybe that’s Marsh in a Aluminium box or maybe that would be him burning Atium – extra scary because he NEEDS that stuff to live, literally. But imagine the potential for this storyline: the two semi-immortal Brothers, recreating the Rhythm of Harmony while the third member of the trio, Sazed, is currently haywire as Discord. While the Rhythm of Discord might be necessary to fight Kandra-Discord-Version, the Rythm of Harmony might be useful for a resolution to help Sazed snap back into it. It’s especially powerful when Marsh and Kel can prove how such opposing powers can work in Harmony while Sazed has lost the thread.

Bonus fun if the character to make use of that Rhythm in some way or another is a Feruchemist. Allomancers give off a variation of Preservation’s rhythm is assume, and Hemalurgists that of Ruin. But Feruchemy is a mix, it is innately Scadrian, and it’s also the magic that Sazed used himself. A kind of “pure/ideal” version of what Sazed once was (an Era 3 Feruchemist bearing the Rhythm of Harmony) confronting the mad Discord, kind of similar to Renarin confronting Moash with what he isn’t), could be very interesting. Either for Sazed to get back to his senses orrr for a new Vessel, if necessary.

 

So yeah basically I think the application of Rythm- and Anti-Light science on Scadrial could both be very interesting storywise (anti-investiture vs immortals for the fight against discord) AND has narrative potential for Kelsier and Marsh.

[Qianweilian He/him]

1 hour ago, Benkinsky said:

a sideplot about the Ghostbloods preparing for the eventuality of having to fight for Scadrial AGAINST Discord

I'm not sure this is going to be simply a "side plot." I think it might just be a large part of the plot alongside Autonomy's return

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

13 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I'm not sure this is going to be simply a "side plot." I think it might just be a large part of the plot alongside Autonomy's return

Brandon has said the title for Era 3 is Ghostbloods, so yeah definitely not a side plot. 

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

On 8/18/2024 at 5:11 AM, Benkinsky said:

Knowledge about Anti-Investiture. By Era 3, I believe groups like Silverlight, the IRE, and most importantly the Ghostbloods will have a copy of Rhythm of War

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Stormlight Era 1 take place during Mistborn Era 3? The plot sounds good, but the timeline might be misaligned.

You also mention using the Rhythms to bring Sazed under control, but that is the same problem as killing Rayse using Anti-Voidlight, there simply isn't enough of it to threaten a Shard.

I do like the idea of Kel and Marsh working together as it would be a good character arc as they have had some family issues in the past.

[Qianweilian He/him]

Mistborn Era 2 takes place in between Stormlight 1-5 and Stormlight 6-10

[Benkinsky they/them]

On 8/18/2024 at 1:23 PM, JustQuestin2004 said:

Brandon has said the title for Era 3 is Ghostbloods, so yeah definitely not a side plot. 

oh I forgot that, though I think I'll stick with that for now. By "sideplot" I meant mostly that I think it won't be the main characters themselves working mainly on the Rythm discovery science. We've already had one book where that was the MC's focal point. The Era 3 MC's might be Ghostbloods so Ghostblood Research will be present, but again I assume that's a B plot until it's done.

20 hours ago, Xiahida said:

You also mention using the Rhythms to bring Sazed under control, but that is the same problem as killing Rayse using Anti-Voidlight, there simply isn't enough of it to threaten a Shard.

You're right that they couldn't actually threaten Discord, but that's not necessarily what I mean. I imagine situations like

- Discord pulls someone into a vision like Odium does, and that person manages to hum the Rythm of Harmony to keep themselves from being fully convinced by what Discord is explaining.

- Discord tries controlling someone who has a pair of Hemalurgic spikes, and that person manages to fight against that Influence by attuning Harmony. (Marsh? Spook?)

- as mentioned before: Using Anti-Discord-Investiture to harm constructs that Discord is controlling, or:

- if Discord instead of Harmony changes something about how its Investiture works, say for example that a Feruchemist couldn't access an unkeyed Coppermind anymore, then maybe humming the Rythm of Harmony while using metal would influence the Investiture enough to follow the old rules rather than the new ones.

- or genuinely just shocking a Manifestation of Discord momentarily, flashbang style, in a crucial moment. Doesn't need to hurt him, just distract him for a second. We had bombs in Era 2, say someone makes a kind of flashbang with the Rythm. There's things where keeping the Shard distracted for a few seconds is enough, take for example the opening of an Oathgate or something akin to that in relevance.

These are just examples, not predictions