The Ones Above, from scadrial?

[King Cole he/him]

I've heard a lot of theories about "The Ones Above" being from scadrial. So far it seems to make sense. In era 3 they might have advanced their technology enough to visit other planets and the laws about having too much contact with less developed prices seem like something that Harmony would enforce. Also Brandon has said that we have met "The Ones Above" and no others that I know of have nearly as advanced technologies

[King Cole he/him]

Does anyone else have any other ideas about who they could be

[Ardjet]

As far as other theories, I've seen some ideas floating around here that the Ones Above are Silverlight dwellers or 17th Shard members. Given their specific interests in Sixth, with the shardpool and the Aviar, that could make sense.

[Farnsworth]

Their machine is a lot like a coppercloud, so it seems very likely that they are from scadrial, unless one of the surges does something like that. But since we know all their names and the surge names are fairly self explanatory, it seems unlikely.

[Faceless Mist-Wraith he/him]

2 hours ago, Figberts said:

Their machine is a lot like a coppercloud, so it seems very likely that they are from scadrial, unless one of the surges does something like that.

It has been a while since I have read the story, and I don't have quick access to it, how was their machine like a coppercloud?

[kenod]

2 hours ago, Figberts said:

Their machine is a lot like a coppercloud, so it seems very likely that they are from scadrial, unless one of the surges does something like that. But since we know all their names and the surge names are fairly self explanatory, it seems unlikely.

Illumination perhaps? Illumination is described as manipulating different types of waves, like light waves and sound waves. Going by how Allomantic bronze works it seems to me that kinetic Investure creates some kind of waves, as bronze mistings sense investure as waves. This could mean that the surge of Illumination has the possibility of hiding kinetic Investure.

[+Extesian he/him]

This is the most agreed theory, though I do wonder if it could be Taldain. We know it was the most technologically advanced before it was isolated by Autonomy, but surely it will be opened up again and SotD is way into the future. And the non-interference would fit with Autonomy's intent (if not Bavadin's actions).

Nalthis is also highly advanced and the MO of giving the locals things could fit.

That said the technology itself seems to blend best with Scadrial's magic so I still like the Southern Scadrians.

[Weltall]

One counter to the Ones Above being from Taldain is that Brandon told us they're from a planet we'd already seen or heard of by that point. By a sufficient degree of hair-splitting you could argue that Taldain and Silverlight (insofar as it can be grouped with 'planets') are included in that list since by the time Sixth of the Dusk came out we had already seen Baon and Iyatil and we also had out of universe knowledge of those places; similarly you could include Yolen via the WoR Ars Arcanum and Hoid. But in terms of what's firmly established in the books, the only planets we really 'knew' of at that time are Sel, Scadrial, Roshar, Nalthis and Threnody. And of those, Scadrial is by far the most obvious. I wouldn't put it past Brandon to have turned that into a red herring but at the same time it really does fit so well that I think that's where he's going with it. Not everything in the Cosmere has to be an obtuse mystery.

[Farnsworth]

On 3/27/2017 at 1:33 PM, Faceless Mist-Wraith said:

It has been a while since I have read the story, and I don't have quick access to it, how was their machine like a coppercloud?

My bad! I meant it was like burning bronze. The opposite of copper. It detects Aviar and bronze detects allomancy, so they are kind of similar that way.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

15 hours ago, Figberts said:

My bad! I meant it was like burning bronze. The opposite of copper. It detects Aviar and bronze detects allomancy, so they are kind of similar that way.

For the purpose of the "it's not automatically Scadrial" idea: Alerter Fabrials exist at the time of Era 2 Scadrial. It's entirely possible that they could expand to the point of detecting magic as well as people.
I don't remember what the machine looks like, but if they reach the point of managing space travel, I think they could make Fabrials look less... metal and crystal if need be