Parshendi escape from Kholinar

[Xabben]

One of the most unbelievable parts of the entire Stormlight Archive, for me, is the escape of the Parshendi from Kholinar's palace after killing king Gavilar. Even if the group of parshendi left a couple of hours before the assassination, the parshendi needed to navigate through a completely unknown territory for weeks before reaching the shattered plains. Moreover, we know by chapter 81 of RoW that they did not transform into war form until they reached their homeland, which means that they travelled using other, much slower forms such as the work form. Is it really believable that humans, with access to much faster travelling methods such as horses, wouldn't have found these parshendi just outside the capital city?

PD: Recall that the assassination was planned the same day that happened, which means that they didn't have much time to prepare for the escape.

Edited 9 hours ago by Xabben

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

6 hours ago, Xabben said:

One of the most unbelievable parts of the entire Stormlight Archive, for me, is the escape of the Parshendi from Kholinar's palace after killing king Gavilar. Even if the group of parshendi left a couple of hours before the assassination, the parshendi needed to navigate through a completely unknown territory for weeks before reaching the shattered plains. Moreover, we know by chapter 81 of RoW that they did not transform into war form until they reached their homeland, which means that they travelled using other, much slower forms such as the work form. Is it really believable that humans, with access to much faster travelling methods such as horses, wouldn't have found these parshendi just outside the capital city?

There are a few possibilities for explanations:

1. They didn't escape. Is it confirmed they made it back (yes, we know one or two did, but they might have left the main group and were forgotten when the larger group was captured)? The Alethi go after them and kill them, then go to war.

2. The Alethi weren't that focused on them. There were Parshendi in the palace that took responsibility for Gavilar's death and were executed. In the rush to solidify the country, the Alethi might just not have cared enough to search out one group of Parshendi.

3. They escaped. It's about 1090 miles from Kholinar to Narak, and that's a lot of area to cover, even for a dedicated search party. It's less than half that to the Unclaimed Hills, where it seems likely that they could escape easily.

6 hours ago, Xabben said:

wouldn't have found these parshendi just outside the capital city?

This I can assure would not have happened. With 2 hours of a head start, they would have gotten pretty far. It's about 150 miles to the mountains by Kholinar, and they (traveling at 3 mph) would be able to get 12 miles before a search began. A quick (AI overview, so take this with a grain of salt) Google search tells me that a mounted search party moves anywhere from 3-6 mph, depending on how thoroughly they search. Assuming 4 mph, the horse search party wouldn't reach them until both had gone about 144 miles (3t+12=4t), and that's not including food breaks, which take horses longer than people.

Edited 3 hours ago by Through the Living Hopper