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Doylist motivations for Autonomy on Scadrial


Necarion

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Literary analysis can often be split into "Watsonian" (what is going on from an in-universe perspective) and "Doylist" (what is going on analyzing the writer from an external vantage point) viewpoints.  The terms come from Sherlock Holmes, where Holmes' activities can be analyzed from the viewpoint of Watson ('Homes need to do these three things to solve the mystery') or of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ('Holmes needs to set these three things up to make the final confrontation possible').

 

When we analyze Brandon's Cosmere, we frequently take an in-universe Watsonian perspective, incorporating Brandon's statements as supplements to what's going on within the Cosmere. However, I think there's a few good Doylist reasons for Autonomy to be on Scadrial - i.e., "why it would make sense for Brandon Sanderson to write this way", and not "why it would make sense for Autonomy to planet hop."

 

Firstly, In the next couple years, we're going to get a White Sand graphic novel, which should explore Autonomy's magic system in-depth.  Having Autonomy become active on and shift his focus to Scadrial, especially during the Second Trilogy, would give us our first real glimpse of Shard Magics when the focus planet shifts. I suspect many of the effects of Autonomy powers will be unchanged in spirit (perhaps large-scale manipulation of rock or metal) but will require metallic input and will be changed in their details.

 

Secondly, we don't actually have that much left to learn about the Three Metallic arts, relatively speaking (not that they're dull, they're just much better understood).  We need to (1) explore a couple more feruchemy powers, (2) nail down the rules of the last two allomantic metals, (3) learn FTL, and (4) figure out the last details of Hemalurgy. While FTL is cool, it's probably a plot point that will probably be saved for the Future trilogy anyway. Learning the rules of Hemalurgy will be fun (and disturbing) but I don't know that it can occupy an entirely new trilogy. (In the first trilogy, we had Book 1 introduce us to the rules of Allomancy, Book 2 more closely explored Feruchemy, and Book 3 taught us about Hemalurgy (and that everything we knew about Allomancy was wrong)).

 

In contrast, exploring an entirely new Metallic Art while fighting Autonomy would allow a second trilogy to have higher stakes. Simply hunting a Serial Killer or even fighting a Cold War is fun, but not quite the same as "Ruin wants to destroy all life in the world" or "Odium wants to destroy all life in the world." But...Serial Killer plot set during a Cold War where one side is helped by Autonomy, who literally wants to Kill God?

 

 

Side note: I suspect that if Iyatil actually is on Scadrial, we might end up seeing Hemalurgy in the Back Five of Stormlight. Which would be terrifying and exciting.  Has Brandon said whether you would steal one or both of the Surges from a KR or the Spren itself?

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Side note: I suspect that if Iyatil actually is on Scadrial, we might end up seeing Hemalurgy in the Back Five of Stormlight. Which would be terrifying and exciting.  Has Brandon said whether you would steal one or both of the Surges from a KR or the Spren itself?

 

We don't know. Presumably you would steal the spren bond, because they're what has the Surges, not you, but maybe not.

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Side note: I suspect that if Iyatil actually is on Scadrial, we might end up seeing Hemalurgy in the Back Five of Stormlight. Which would be terrifying and exciting. Has Brandon said whether you would steal one or both of the Surges from a KR or the Spren itself?

The surges seem to be part of the bond, or perhaps part of the spren itself. Maybe there are bindpoints in a radiant that link to the bond, but it will most likely break if not stolen whole and taken before hemalurgic decay gets to big.

And the incompatibility of the bond with most, if not all people who are not the original radiant will make it either break or regress. That is, if being bond to an hemalurgy doens't kill the spren, or if the spren can't just dissolve the bond on its own will and be released.

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I definitely agree that there are good Doylist reasons to ask why a Shard (almost certainly Autonomy) is messing around on Scadrial.  While I think the mixing and matching of powers is interesting, I would ask a slightly bigger question - if Brandon wasn't originally intending to write this trilogy, how did he incorporate a Shard vs Shard into the overall cosmere story?  Was this interaction already planned but in the background?  I'm not sure how to answer these questions.


I would contest the idea that we don't have that much left to learn on Scadrial.  Recall that there are 51 metals - 16 base, lerasium, atium, 16 alloys of lerasium, 16 alloys of atium, and the lerasium/atium alloy.  In addition to that, if you buy Chaos' theory that the Scadrians on the southern continent infuse metal with mists to as their magic system, there's 51 more new interactions.

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I would ask a slightly bigger question - if Brandon wasn't originally intending to write this trilogy, how did he incorporate a Shard vs Shard into the overall cosmere story?  Was this interaction already planned but in the background?  I'm not sure how to answer these questions.

 

Those are good questions.  It's possible that this Autonomy (possibly aligned with Odium) vs Harmony was plotted out from the beginning for the Second Trilogy (which was always planned), but Brandon decided to introduce it early in the Shadows trilogy. Since Shadows seems more strongly about Wax versus the Set and the rediscovery of Hemalurgy, the Cosmere-centric plots can be left as an ominous side-note (and possibly a way increasing the crossover value of the Stormlight Back Five).

 

Do we have confirmation that Autonomy is the Shard that's messing with Scadrial, or is that still just the general assumption?

As far as I'm aware, there is no confirmation yet (maybe we'll see on Tuesday), so it's still a general assumption. Obviously I happen to like the assumption (since "Braveheart" is not a particularly Shard-y name, and "Discord" seems a bit too tailored to oppose Harmony), but don't take that as dicta.

 

I would contest the idea that we don't have that much left to learn on Scadrial.  Recall that there are 51 metals - 16 base, lerasium, atium, 16 alloys of lerasium, 16 alloys of atium, and the lerasium/atium alloy.  In addition to that, if you buy Chaos' theory that the Scadrians on the southern continent infuse metal with mists to as their magic system, there's 51 more new interactions.

 

I am unfamiliar with Chaos' theory of powers of the Southern Metal Tribe. From what I know (not terribly much) I would suspect technologically advanced, but Metallically limited, Southern opponents as opposed to another 51 independent forms of magic. Allomancy is strong, impressive, and largely neutralized if the Southerners discover Cryolite and cheap aluminum smelting. This would fit with the Second Law of "Limitations > Powers."

 

Related, does anyone know if aluminum foil can shield something from Steelsight? (I know it seems to disrupt the Allomantic Fields associated with soothing and Speed Bubbles)?

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