Comparing WoK and WoR Prologue timelines

[Mysty she/her]

I was re-listening to the prologue in WoK when a couple of things stood out to me

   1) Gavilar had left the feast several hours before Szeth left to go assasinate him

   2) Darkness and his nervous friend were talking with Elhokar when Szeth left.

 

Concerning the first point, in WoR, Jasnah's activities must have taken longer than I originally thought to account for the "several hours" of the king's absence Szeth noted, especially if Gavilar really did return to the feast like his said when leaving Jasnah after meeting in the hallway. So how long did Jasnah spend in Shadesmar? How long did it take to get to the meeting with Liss, two floors down from the spot she entered Shadesmar? and how long did she spend with Liss?

 

The "several hours" gap would also give Gavilar's bodyguard plenty of time to get out of Gavilar's shardplate before the attack began, making it easier for Gavilar to have gotten into the plate. Maybe the body guard was dismissed from duties for the night after getting out of the plate, which could explain why he wasn't there when Szeth arrived.

 

 

Concerning the second point, Darkness and his nervous friend must have left the feast almost immediately after Szeth left for Gavilar's rooms. Jasnah ran into Darkness in the hallway after she heard the drums abruptly stop but before the screaming began. Szeth mentioned the parshendi saw him leave the feast as a cue to begin their exodus from the palace. In order for Darkness to be seen by Szeth talking with Elhokar, then by Jasnah maybe a floor down right before the screaming began, Darkness must have hightailed it out of the feast.

 

Does Darkness know who/what Szeth is? why didn't he try to kill Szeth like he did Lift and Ym (besides the fact Szeth might have killed him before getting the stormlight-eating creature out)? Did he know what Szeth was leaving to do and why didn't he interfere with the assassination? What is Darkness's goal?

[Shardbearer he/him]

I just started my pre-release reread yesterday and noticed the same thing about Gavilar's early retirement.

 

I'm not sure whether Darkness knows about Szeth, but from his reaction to Jasnah I think he was able to somehow sense her new bond with Ivory or her ability to surgebind.

 

Also, "That creature carries my lord's own Blade..." could refer to Elhokar, which would make sense if they just finished speaking with him and were now talking about him. It could also be a reference to Szeth, who they would have seen leaving. So it does seem they left just behind Szeth.

[hoser he/him]

For me, a big mystery is why the Parshendi used Szeth.  

I was re-listening to the prologue in WoK when a couple of things stood out to me

   1) Gavilar had left the feast several hours before Szeth left to go assasinate him

   2) Darkness and his nervous friend were talking with Elhokar when Szeth left.

 

...

 

Does Darkness know who/what Szeth is? why didn't he try to kill Szeth like he did Lift and Ym (besides the fact Szeth might have killed him before getting the stormlight-eating creature out)? Did he know what Szeth was leaving to do and why didn't he interfere with the assassination? What is Darkness's goal?

One pattern would have Darkness knowing and approving of the Parshendi and Szeth's activities.  Darkness could account for the Parshendi using Szeth and thinking he might be effective.  The Parshendi seemed unsurprised at Szeth's abilities in Jasnah's version of the Prologue.  I can't imagine they were in the habit of buying slaves and Jasnah found him notable during the feast.  They had to have an information source to want to buy him and use him. 

The soldiers moved to surround the Parshendi. Jasnah ignored them, turning and stepping back to the broken doorway, hand on the wall, looking down at her father splayed on the rocks below, Blade beside him.

“There will be war,” she whispered. “And I will not stand in its way.” “This is understood,” Gangnah said from behind.

“The assassin,” Jasnah said. “He walked on the wall.”

Gangnah said nothing.

 

It is logical that Gavilar's action that was so frightening to the Parshendi would have been intended to bring back the Radiants and we know Darkness is opposed to that. 

In this pattern, Darkness has information from the Shin and apparently doesn't consider whatever Szeth is doing to be a problem the way Nahel Surgebinding seems to be. 

This would explain Darkness' presence.  He might also be serving as backup in case Szeth fails to kill the king.  It would be interesting, given his obsession with the law, as conspiring to assassinate the king is clearly illegal. 

The only other source for the Parshendi to find out how deadly Szeth can be that I am aware of is Mr. T.  Darkness could also be working with Mr. T.  Either could source the information about Szeth to the other. 

Edited January 27, 2014 by hoser

[Mysty she/her]

 

The only other source for the Parshendi to find out how deadly Szeth can be that I am aware of is Mr. T.  Darkness could also be working with Mr. T.  Either could source the information about Szeth to the other.

Did Mr T know about Szeth before he killed Gavilar? In Szeth's last pov chapter Mr T said the death rattles didn't start until after Gavilar found the parshendi and started making the treaty. How quickly could Mr T have reacted? I doubt he knew what they meant immediatedly, so time to figure them out, then to take it seriously, then to search for someone like Szeth for the parshendi? That timeline seens too tight, unless it took longer to work out the treaty than I thought.

But Mr T does know a lot about Shin culture. It is possible he studied the shin before all this happened, already knew about truthless, and merely hand to figure out if there was currently a truthless floating about. Not that the truthless would be a common topic to learn about in a study of foriegn cultures. It seems to fit more with searching for a way to explain away his guilt for becoming a monster to save others.