[OB] Who's the Copycat Murderer?

[StormingTexan he/him]

Funny how one more chapter can prove so many theories wrong. 

[Wyndrunner he/him]

Could it have something to do with the damage the Radiants did by breaking their oaths? Like maybe Urithiru has a really bad presence in the Cognitive Realm which is attracting dangerous types of spren (like the Unmade). 

 

This would make sense because so far what we know is that both murders were crimes of passion; it was something about the emotion of the killings that caused them to be targeted by the copycat. What I can't figure out is why copy the murder? Is it some mindless spren interacting with the Physical Realm who is attracted to crimes of passion? Or is it, more likely, that there is something deliberately trying to recreate the murders? Which again leads to the question of why commit the murders. What is there to gain? Is it to try and reveal the original killer (like with Ned) or is there something more serious going on. I wouldn't be surprised if it were some kind of spren that thinks it is hiding the murders by framing the other murderers but it doesn't quite understand how strange it is to have a murder repeated exactly.

[Head Crabs]

I voted for other. I think this may possibly be a manifestation of the unmade or some kind of void/odium inluence that is attempting to sow chaos or perhaps cause adolin's fall. It seems almost mystical how even the ring marks on the second womans neck were 100% identical. Too good for a mundane human assassin. This is of course all supposition, but so is everything else here! So Ha! 

 

Life before death. 

[TheDarkDesperado he/him]

Yeah I'm going some sort of Odium thing, what this also means is that if Shallan can convince others of this then they'll start investigating Sadeas's death separately which could mean trouble but that's a different story. If it is an Odium thing my idea is perhaps some weakened form of an Unmade since the one's heard of seem to have farther reaching effects, I will revise this if the effect is discovered to be much larger.

[Seloun]

I actually suggested Unmade couple of weeks ago on this thread but I'm pretty surprised by the turn this has taken. While there's definitely seems to be a supernatural aspect, I think there are other possibilities besides Unmade influence; the copycats are oddly reminiscent of how spren tend to copy phenomena,

[Ansalem]

7 minutes ago, Seloun said:

I actually suggested Unmade couple of weeks ago on this thread but I'm pretty surprised by the turn this has taken. While there's definitely seems to be a supernatural aspect, I think there are other possibilities besides Unmade influence; the copycats are oddly reminiscent of how spren tend to copy phenomena,

The Unmade are often speculated to be spren.

[Dahak he/him]

10 minutes ago, Ansalem said:

The Unmade are often speculated to be spren.

Taravangian thought Neragoul was a Spren when he was speculating about triangulating it's position.

[Seloun]

22 minutes ago, Ansalem said:

The Unmade are often speculated to be spren.

Right, but what I was getting at was whether it was indirect (i.e. influencing a human, like the Thrill) or something more direct.

[Sayis]

Hey guys.

Is it at all possible that this is a lightweaver ? I mean, somthing so precise surely has to be either an illusion or a shard.

 

[kari-no-sugata]

A thought that occurred to me last night:

Quote

MACEN

Was Shallan's father influenced at all by Odium?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

 

Odium himself is not on Roshar itself but his forces are. So I would say that it's not literally Odium himself influencing the guy but his forces - eg one of the Unmade.

So... if we assume that the copy-cat murders are something of Odium, wouldn't it also be possible that the initial murders are influenced by this thing as well? (eg one of the Unmade) Eg, if this thing pushes someone over the edge into being a murderer then that also triggers a copy-cat murder. If so this means that this thing is doing something worse than doubling the murder rate.

This is not to suggest that the people influenced are all Odium's little helpers now. Using the Thrill doesn't do that.

 

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

9 hours ago, Dahak said:

Taravangian thought Neragoul was a Spren when he was speculating about triangulating it's position.

Brandon has said that people on Roshar would refer to Shards as spren too, so Mr. Ts defenition might be wrong.

[Salkara]

16 hours ago, DiamondMind said:

I suppose. Though I don't see how an intelligent horde of cremlings could accomplish something like this, even if it had reason to. 

Well, an intelligent horde of cremlings did kill two proto-Skybreakers in self-defense.

[kari-no-sugata]

Another theory: the copy-cat murder strikes exactly 24 hours after the original.

Quote

The man with the knife rubbed his chin. “Strangest thing, that he’d come back and kill a barmaid the next night. Left her body right around the corner from where he killed poor Rem.”

If so, that could possibly cause problems for Adolin as they might be able to finger him based on the narrower time-of-death.

[Stark he/him]

In another thread I made the mistake of assuming someone witnessed the second murder.  It seems they are identical within 24 hours, leading people to think it is a copy cat.  My mistake.

 

However, I do not believe the murderer is an Unmade, listener or human variant.  Something or someone that can go anywhere unseen, undetected, while having enough physical form to kill violently, in an identical manner.

 

I feel the copy cat is an Aimian.  We know part of their agenda is to keep people away from their island.  And that an Oathgate is on their island.  It would track that they would have an agent in Urithiru to prevent their gate from being re-opened.  How copy cat killings would accomplish this is unknown to me, but we also do not know enough about their motives yet.  

 

We saw in Edgedancer that a single Aimian was enough to take down two proto-radiants who had spoken at least their first two ideals.  They are capable of violence, and are skilled combatants, who have less to fear in a fight to the death than humans due to their hive nature.

 

I really think an Aimian is a good fit for the killer.  I just don't know why.

 

Thoughts?

[kari-no-sugata]

I could see Aimians not wanting the Oathgate to open... but, cremlings would really stand out in Urithiru. So any hints of them in Urithiru would be a red flag.

First question would by "why this method"? The method is really creepy. Why a copy-cat murder? They shouldn't be friends of Odium but the method "feels" very Odium-like to me. Second question would be "what is their end-game with these"? Are they trying to creep the people out to make them leave Urithiru?

Edited October 4, 2017 by kari-no-sugata

[Calderis he/him]

I've said in multiple places that it feels like Urithiru is the Overlook Hotel. 

I really think that the copycat murders are something that is a part of Urithiru. Connected to the darkness that Shallan feels connected to it. 

A murder deters to to contain conflicting Radiants perhaps? Don't use your insanely destructive powers to kill, because someone else will die in the same way? 

I don't know, I just feel like it's the place, and not an entity.