Why don't the Ghostbloods want Warlight?

[Aeshdan he/him]

So at the end of Wind and Truth, when Shallan is talking with Thaidakar, he says 

Quote

However, without Stormlight - and with Mishram freed - our interests on Roshar are minimized.

But even though Stormlight no longer exists, Warlight is now apparently almost as freely available. You need Retribution's permission to access it, but the permission appears to be mostly automatic. And even if the Ghostbloods are worried about Retribution taking offense at their harvesting of Warlight, I'd expect them to at least try and approach him and strike a bargain for access, or trade with the singers for Warlight spheres in exchange for goods from other worlds. Plus it appears that the binding restricting spren to the Rosharan system is broken, which may indicate that Warlight can be taken off-planet freely. 

I could understand if Thaidakar proposed a truce because the time dilation renders any operations on Roshar impractical until it subsides, or because of the lack of accessible Perpendicularities, but the way he phrased it seems to specifically imply that it's the loss of Stormlight that makes Roshar non-viable for their original plans.

[DiePie]

They're essentially committing fraud, telling Retribution that they will use it for one purpose, and then taking it offworld and selling it. The Stormfather didn't keep record of who was taking stormlight, and why, but I suspect Retribution will be keeping logs that he can cross-check if anything suspicious happens. It makes the whole operation riskier. But that doesn't make it impossible, I suspect some group will try to make a killing off smuggling it. The Ghostbloods were the best candidate (before being dismantled by Shallan).

 

Another problem to consider is Taravangian's control over most of Shadesmar, and not only that, the access points between Shadesmar and the physical realm. Before nobody was guarding Cultivation's perpendicularity. But now, I'm sure checkpoints will be set up at each of the oathgates, and at the Shadesmar side of the Well of Control. There are only 12 reliable ways in/out of Roshar, and while I can imagine Urithiru or the Listeners being complicit in such an operation, Urithiru doesn't seem to be able to power the oathgates located there, and Kelsier doesn't know about the well of control. So in his mind, Warlight would need to go through one of 10 hostile checkpoints, and then travel through another planet worth of hostile territory ruled by a god with no inhibitions regarding human rights/dignity or the excessive use of force. Like I think once the Ghostbloods become more familiar with the customs Listeners (who seem to have the laxest oversight obtaining Warlight), they'll set up operations there.

 

Last thing to consider is that Navani's discovery in Rhythm of War is likely the final puzzle piece in obtaining unkeyed Dor, which is completely unregulated. It's probably why Kelsier is so willing to let Roshar go, he can get what he wants elsewhere.

[Schize]

Do the Oath gates even function anymore (even if they had access to investiture to power it)? I recall the giant Oathgate spren were shrinking down to regular size as Taravangian was taking on Honor/ascending to Retribution. 

[Aeshdan he/him]

3 hours ago, Schize said:

Do the Oath gates even function anymore (even if they had access to investiture to power it)? I recall the giant Oathgate spren were shrinking down to regular size as Taravangian was taking on Honor/ascending to Retribution. 

Yeah, Renarin mentions in his sequence that they don't work now (or at least the ones inside Urithiru don't). And the spren said that "Our era has ended".

[logicless.bt]

Honestly, why is Stormlight better than Dor anyway? Dor is already super widespread on a different world, and they must have supply lines of it because they used a lot during mistborn. Sure it might be dangerous to harvest, but that's speculative bc we've never seen it on screen

[thecaptain01]

1 hour ago, logicless.bt said:

Honestly, why is Stormlight better than Dor anyway? Dor is already super widespread on a different world, and they must have supply lines of it because they used a lot during mistborn. Sure it might be dangerous to harvest, but that's speculative bc we've never seen it on screen

The Dor sits in the Cognitive realm of Sel and is apparently an exceptionally dangerous plasma storm. Its why Sel is hard to get to/leave through the Cognitive realm.

I'm sure the Ghostbloods would have prefered the easier access to unlimited, less dangerous unkeyed Stormlight rather then the unlimited super dangerous unkeyed Dor.

[therunner he/him]

13 hours ago, Aeshdan said:

But even though Stormlight no longer exists, Warlight is now apparently almost as freely available. You need Retribution's permission to access it, but the permission appears to be mostly automatic. And even if the Ghostbloods are worried about Retribution taking offense at their harvesting of Warlight, I'd expect them to at least try and approach him and strike a bargain for access, or trade with the singers for Warlight spheres in exchange for goods from other worlds.

Retribution is rather clear he will be very controlling with Warlight, to have tight control over the population. He even called back all Stormlight and Voidlight, and would do the same to spren if he could.

Just giving to some off-worlders goes completely against this.

Additionally, Ghostbloods are effectively servants of his greatest potential adversary, another di-Shard. He would likely kill them immediately.

Finally, Oathgates no longer work and there is a single perpendicularity, making Shadesmar travel much more difficult.

To sum-up:
 

1. Ghostbloods can't gather Warlight, because Retribution is being stingy with it as means of controlling the populace.
2. Even if he wasn't, Ghostbloods are servants of his enemy, hence Retribution has no reason to help them.
3. Even if they did get some, travel in and out is much more difficult.

 

4 hours ago, logicless.bt said:

Honestly, why is Stormlight better than Dor anyway? Dor is already super widespread on a different world, and they must have supply lines of it because they used a lot during mistborn. Sure it might be dangerous to harvest, but that's speculative bc we've never seen it on screen

Dor is much more difficult to access, and there is likely time-dilation going on as well.

And Ghostbloods never had that much Dor, they had just 3 jars of it, despite their centuries of operations.