Crackpot theory: Vasher is the Big Bad of the Voidlight Archive

[Nitpicking]

Hear me out.

Vasher is one of the Five Scholars. He probably knows as much as Ishar about Shards and Investiture, and it's probably different stuff.

He is also on record as saying, "I hate gods." He will extra-hate Retribution, who is trying to kill him by cutting off his supply of Stormlight.

And he has a real anger problem. He's definitely aligned with Odium. Yet he devotes centuries to selflessly trying to fix the Manywar that he started ... which is honorable.

So Vasher decides to remove Taravangian as Vessel. And he succeeds. And the di-Shard jumps to him. Now, he's a self-hating god of divine retribution. He decides that all other Shards (who he has said, even before taking up Retribution, he hates) must be destroyed, after which he'll Splinter himself as Virtuosity did.

I think it works. For me, personally, it has the huge advantage that I find Taravangian a boring and annoying character. Vasher is fun, and we haven't really seen a heel turn from Brandon that I can think of.

[Fizz9]

One problem, would he take the Shard?

[NameIess]

Problem: I don't think Vasher needs Stormlight. He can probably feed off of Towerlight, Warlight, Lifelight, etc. So there's no extra motivation to kill Taravangian.

Henceforth, he'll probably target Endowment, for reviving him in the first place.

[Nitpicking]

10 hours ago, Fizz9 said:

One problem, would he take the Shard?

Catch him in the right mood, and pitch it as his duty. He takes that very seriously, and he has a Lift-like habit of caring about other people when you don't expect it (as when he cured that little girl's PTSD in Warbreaker).

Of course, Autonomy is the one manipulating him, along with Cultivation. What, you didn't know they were allies all along? Note that Vasher's personality is also highly aligned with Autonomy--he's ambitious, he hates Endowment/Edgli for being controlling and manipulative ....

By the Space Age, Retribution combines with Autonomy to produce the Shard of Democracy. [removes tongue from cheek]

[Jult]

I maybe would have put this on the Cosmere board instead of the Stormlight board for.. reasons.

I fully agree that Vasher will have a major role to play eventually. I expect that at some point in the Cosmere's future, nearly all of the original Vessels will be replaced with characters that we've watched ascend. And Vasher's been on my shortlist of potential Vessels for a while. I've never really considered him as a candidate for Retribution, but yeah he's definitely on the right planet and his personality is a pretty decent match for the Retribution.

19 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

Of course, Autonomy is the one manipulating him, along with Cultivation. What, you didn't know they were allies all along? Note that Vasher's personality is also highly aligned with Autonomy--he's ambitious, he hates Endowment/Edgli for being controlling and manipulative ....

By the Space Age, Retribution combines with Autonomy to produce the Shard of Democracy. [removes tongue from cheek]

^That's a bit more difficult for me to get on board with. I do have some theories about Autonomy messing with Roshar, but I don't think Autonomy is allied with any of the other Shards. 

[Returned he/him]

I think that Vasher is a good candidate for a major or ultimate antagonist, but that's mostly a product of his being extremely knowledgeable and passively immortal: he can be on the scene long enough to take the role, and knowledge lets him be more aware of what's going on than most (especially more than we readers will know) while also making him extremely versatile in influencing events. It's a short list of characters who are similarly capable and so Vasher being on that list cannot be ignored. The biggest thing that makes me doubt him in this role is his apathy, and that apathy seems based (at least in part) on concern about unintended or uncontrollable consequences of his actions. Vasher sure seems deeply upset about things he's done, even though it's not clear which specific things trouble him the most. I feel confident that we'll get a lot more character development for Vasher, so maybe this will change.

I read his distaste for gods as being more about generalized hierarchies, dominance, and disdain more than "I oppose anyone who holds a Shard, and the Shards themselves". I could be way off on that. Since Shards can't really be destroyed, it's an interesting idea that he might favor an approach like Rayse's to shatter them into pieces too small to sustain Vessels as god-like.

I'm less on board with future developments continuing with the musical-Shards rotation that is so often discussed here. That could still be what happens, and obviously it matters who holds the Shards, but the pattern of "mortal defeats a Shard, takes the Shard, only to fall to another mortal in turn" is kind of clunky as the driving force of the plot. I hope that the Cosmere story turns on things other than that pattern, even if the Shards change hands along the way. I'm less and less inclined to buy "aligned with Autonomy" as solid evidence of anything, unless we elevate Autonomy to prime-antagonist status as well (and even then I'm not as animated about the idea as I used to be).

[Verdance he/him]

I just don’t see Vasher being that important at all, to be honest. Not that your reasoning is bad, but I feel like it doesn’t make much sense as something brandon would do.

[Nitpicking]

23 hours ago, NameIess said:

Problem: I don't think Vasher needs Stormlight. He can probably feed off of Towerlight, Warlight, Lifelight, etc. So there's no extra motivation to kill Taravangian.

I wrote that Retribution was "trying" to kill him. Remember, Taravangian's plan was to Unmake the Sibling. Warlight is restricted to those who pray to Odium, and I can't see Vasher doing that. Lifelight is probably thin on the ground with Cultivation not on Roshar. Lift can presumably still create it by eating, but we haven't seen her share it. I suspect the Nightwatcher is also capable of supplying it, but she's both unwilling to help foreigners (worldhoppers) and hard to find.

Note: I don't think Odium was deliberately striking against Vasher at all, I was just being witty. I suspect Vasher would hold it against him, though. (As Rayse said, being hated is Odium's job.)

[Nitpicking]

Hmm ...

Quote

She said that a chaotic universe meant the only actions of actual importance were the ones they decided were important. That gave people autonomy.

From Rhythm of War, Chapter 102, referring to Jasnah.

Jasnah is an avatar of Autonomy! We know from Words of Brandon that avatars don't always know what they are.

[Deception He/Him]

On 4/28/2026 at 9:09 PM, Nitpicking said:

Hmm ...

From Rhythm of War, Chapter 102, referring to Jasnah.

Jasnah is an avatar of Autonomy! We know from Words of Brandon that avatars don't always know what they are.

Wait ...what????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[Nitpicking]

1 hour ago, Deception said:

Wait ...what????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

What about what? That avatars might not know they're avatars?

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467/#e14744

Spoiler

An avatar is... a Shard manifesting a semi-autonomous piece of themselves that is still connected to who they are. An avatar, for instance, of Autonomy - depending on how Autonomy creates that avatar - might know, might not know, but they are still an aspect, they are still part of Autonomy.

Note the thread title. Jasnah as Autonomy's avatar is a crackpot theory. (Doesn't make it false.)