How many politicians are working for the Ghostbloods? [Discuss]

[+Oltux72 he/him]

The Ghostbloods can

(Nalthis)

Spoiler

• promise you immortality

• promise you hemalurgic spikes
• travel to other worlds

And if they really want you dead, you will end up dead. Hence my question: Is the politics in most of the Elendel Basin a charade and are the Ghostbloods the true government?

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

While the Ghostbloods do probably have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, I doubt they'd do something as blatant as trying to puppet the government from the shadows, at least not so directly as what you're suggesting. And they definitely wouldn't offer up valuable secrets of the Cosmere to a bunch of government stooges, they'd just use money. And finally, that's more of the Set's thing and that didn't really work out too well for them in the end.

My personal theory is that Kel is actually trying to spread his religions, both in the North as Survivorism and in the South as the Sovereign, in an attempt to cultivate a whole bunch of soft power from religion and belief, rather than trying to deal with the restrictive hard power of government. Probably as a way to control the Cold War Scadrial is now in so as to prevent an actual war from occurring, which would be very counterintuitive to the Ghostbloods goal of protecting Scadrial. 

 

[Duxredux he/him]

Are we talking Era 2 or 3? To me it looked like the immenent nuking of Elendel was a time that Kel fully committed his available resources and personnel to counteract the Set, given the risk that he was coming back to a smoldering crater. His authorization of the Unkeyed Dor and the overt attack by Twinsoul and Moonlight would fit that. I may have missed them, but I didn't see indications that any of the senators stepped forward and helped much at all when what I assume were the other Ghostblood operatives reporting to Steris during the disaster relief efforts. If Kelsier has extensive plants in the senate, they were pretty useless in a crisis or informing him of Set plans.

If we assume that the Ghostbloods do control the government, it begs the question of if Kel wanted the Basin civil war (which seems very unlikely to me) or if he was simply out played by the Set. 

As for this list @Oltux72:

Quote

The Ghostbloods can

(Nalthis)

Spoiler

• promise you immortality

• promise you hemalurgic spikes
• travel to other worlds

And if they really want you dead, you will end up dead. Hence my question: Is the politics in most of the Elendel Basin a charade and are the Ghostbloods the true government?

Options 1 and 3 aren't sustainable for public officials in highly visible roles. Option 1 is horrendously expensive, difficult to recover resources should they defect, and if they actually are given what you suggest, someone will eventually notice either the visual clues to the bribe or that they aren't changing the way they ought to. The offer of option 3 pretty much disqualifies them from sitting on in important senate meetings if they are out world hopping right? As for option 2, as far as I know the Ghostbloods haven't devised Hemalurgic spikes that are charged by any method other than the standard, so offering politicians chunks of community member souls for their own gain would only work on the worst and most corrupt (or horribly ill informed). 

Beyond that, what you are describing just doesn't mesh with how he operated in TFE to me. Assuming Kel is trying to operate by the same rules that he did with his first crew, he tries to recruit good people that want to make good changes, and at least his Scadrian chapter with Moonlight and Twinsoul seem to fit that pattern. He's not working with a group with a predisposition to hate Scadrian nobility, and I don't think Twinsoul at least would agree to the blackmail, bribes, and extortion that you are suggesting. Trust is a huge component of Kelsier's crews and operation style. He places people he trusts in positions that he needs them in, and when people turn him down he doesn't kill them to keep his secrets (Clubs and Marasi).

I'm also still not convinced that Kelsier is amassing power for power's sake, political, religious, or otherwise. If he was, why step down as the Soveriegn, why hide away the Bands of Mourning at that elaborate temple, and why remain anonymous when he is worshipped as a major religious figure in the North? Kel actually has a better track record than most when it comes to giving power away to people he believes can do a better job than him. Look at his first plan to over throw the Luthadel government and later giving up Preservation to Vin. It wouldn't surprise me if the religious aspect in the South was partially to get the Malwish to accept Hemalurgy as a method of survival as well as obfuscation.

Edited March 29, 2025 by Duxredux

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 3/28/2025 at 2:40 PM, JustQuestin2004 said:

While the Ghostbloods do probably have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, I doubt they'd do something as blatant as trying to puppet the government from the shadows, at least not so directly as what you're suggesting. And they definitely wouldn't offer up valuable secrets of the Cosmere to a bunch of government stooges, they'd just use money. And finally, that's more of the Set's thing and that didn't really work out too well for them in the end.

But the government of Scadrial is in part the aristocracy. He could buy some noble houses.