Witborn Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 (edited) Intro There has been a lot of jumping to conclusions lately about who this new god investing in Scadrial is. Many people assume it's Autonomy (Bavadin) (and with good reason), while a smaller chunk thinks it's Odium (Rayse). Given what we know, I think we do a disservice not to pay at least a little attention to our friend, Endowment. The purpose of this thread is not to convince you that it is Endowment as I'm not even convinced that it is, but simply to provide an opportunity to explore the possibility. I think there are some pieces of evidence that cannot be ignored. While Autonomy seems like a great choice because it makes sense thematically, and Brandon conveniently informed us of Bavadin's intent with the release of SoS, there are things (well one thing I found) against it being Autonomy. I'm going to layout some relevant points, quotes and WoBs and hopefully it sparks a conversation and implants some reasonable doubt into some people's thoughts. Name Assuming Trell is the name of the person bringing the metal to Scardial, it is possible this could be the name of someone from Nalthis. There was a Treledees. I'm not saying the person is VaraTreledees or Treledees the priest, but the name Trell could possibly be a variant of these names. It could work. Intent Endowment (or the intent/mandate) could be contributing to the actions of Paalm on Scadrial. She was endowed with powers not typically seen in Kandra. While it appears that she is fulfilling the intent/mandate of Autonomy, something Miles says before he died struck a chord: "You are fools!" Miles yelled at the firing squad. "One day, the men of gold and red, bearers of the final metal, will come to you. And you will be ruled by them." (AoL, p. 268, Nook version). Emphasis mine. That quote doesn't sound like someone wanting people to be autonomous... Red and Gold "The men of gold and red" in the quote above really stands out. The only other place (that I've found) that mentions these colors together is in Warbreaker. The priests of Lightsong all wear red and gold. Not a smoking gun by any stretch of the imagination, and most likely a coincidence, but it needs to be said. WoBs Here are some relevant WoBs that don't prove anything but may provide some insight. CHAOS Can Sazed "will" himself to any Shardworld if he so desires? BRANDON SANDERSONYes, he has the capacity for it. However, will he? Don't know. If he did there would be a lot of ramifications for it... I think this quote actually states that Endowment might have some issue trying to leave Nalthis without some unintended consequences. That's why I think something else is going on (explained below). INTERVIEW: Sep, 2012 Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim) SATSUONIIs it possible to give cats intelligence with Hemalurgy? Or transfer cat's identity to a human? BRANDON SANDERSONHemalurgy can do some very, very odd things. And the endowment of intelligence is a common result of tinkering with shard-based magic. Nothing big here, but an interesting use of the words Endowment and Hemalurgy together. It is from 2012, however... EDIT: Recent WoB also says Trell isn't from Yolen, so most likely can't be Bavadin... What's Going on? I don't know. Full stop. But I have a guess. I think someone on Nalthis (named Trell), maybe a Returned who took Lightsong's place (what does happen to their priests?) has acquired a rather large portion of Endowment via breaths or some other method, and has decided (for some reason) to come to Scadrial and mess with things there. As I said above, I'm not convinced this is what happened but it's something that I've been thinking about and wanted to hash it out and let you all refute it/support it/or just discuss it. Edited October 13, 2015 by Witborn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jozomby he/him Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 First off, you're right that this is a very large stretch without a lot of support. However, I love the fact that you're proposing a theory that doesn't involve a foreign shardholder. The more I research, and the more I think about it, I'm becoming convinced that Trell does not hold a shard. That's one point for you right there. I'm not sure, though, that an interaction of Awakening and Hemalurgy would look like what shows up in Shadows of Self. I don't see any evidence for anyone using Breaths. I love the idea of a someone (not a shard) being behind this, maybe even a worldhopper, but I'm not sure that Endowment is the right direction to go with this. I wish I had more time, but I don't. Sorry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witborn Posted October 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 I don't think that the newcomer is using breaths (or whatever magic system they came from) but I adapting their own investiture to the planet they are on. The result of someone coming from Nalthis wouldn't be using breaths, but finding a way that endowment would factor into Scadrial's magic system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jozomby he/him Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Hmm. So the idea is that somehow someone gets their hands on metal from another shard. How would that even look on another world? I think we can safely assume that Hoid's Lerasium bead has traveled off-world and stayed in a solid metallic state, recognizable as Lerasium, am I right? It's not like you can just gather a bunch of god-essence then go to Scadrial and it just morphs into metal. So Trell would need to have somehow obtained this foreign metal before coming to Scadrial. How do you distill metal from a God's essence? Or, maybe Trell showed up on Scadrial and invested in a locally occurring metal, causing it to change. That matches up with the idea of endowment, though it doesn't fit into the system of Awakening we're familiar with, and I have no idea how he would do that either. That's where I run into problems. If we can figure out where this new metal came from, everything else will start to make a bit more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormcrown Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Do you mind linking the WoB about Trell not being on Yolen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witborn Posted October 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 (edited) It's not official but news of it came from this thread, starting at post #77. Apparently he said it at a signing? I guess I can't be certain until we have audio confirmation. Hmm. So the idea is that somehow someone gets their hands on metal from another shard. How would that even look on another world? I think we can safely assume that Hoid's Lerasium bead has traveled off-world and stayed in a solid metallic state, recognizable as Lerasium, am I right? It's not like you can just gather a bunch of god-essence then go to Scadrial and it just morphs into metal. So Trell would need to have somehow obtained this foreign metal before coming to Scadrial. How do you distill metal from a God's essence? Or, maybe Trell showed up on Scadrial and invested in a locally occurring metal, causing it to change. That matches up with the idea of endowment, though it doesn't fit into the system of Awakening we're familiar with, and I have no idea how he would do that either. That's where I run into problems. If we can figure out where this new metal came from, everything else will start to make a bit more sense. True, finding out where the metal came from is important. I assumed it was a shard investing in the planet, but can a person not holding the shard do that? Would the investiture manifest as the magic from the home world of the person or as magic from the planet he is currently on? Interesting points. Edited October 13, 2015 by Witborn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PallonianFire he/him Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 I doubt we'll get audio confirmation on that WoB. I had a surrogate ask Brandon for me, and that night he told me Brandon said he wasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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