[OB] Eshonai as future ancestor

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

(seizing last chance to post wild theories before my book arrives tomorrow)

My initial reactions to Interlude 3:

• Nooo!  I like Eshonai - she can't be dead.
• I doubt this will be a fakeout death, though.  Brandon has said he intends to go easy on those for a while.
• But Brandon also said that Eshonai will be the focal character of a future book?
• But but he also also mentioned that a future book might focus on someone who is no longer alive???
• arghhh!

But upon further reflection, it seems to me that within this same episode Ulim told us exactly what comes next for Eshonai.  Key quotes:

Quote

"Our leaders know exactly what they're doing. Them I obey."

and later on:

"We must be away and see what your ancestors need us to do."
"Our ancestors? What do the dead have to do with this?"
"Everything, seeing as they're the ones in charge."

Taking this literally, the listener ancestors are dead, yet somehow still active and pulling important strings.  Maybe they all become cognitive shadows?  Or there could be something uniquely listener-y going on - but either way it appears that many if not all listeners have a way to hang around after death with continuing influence.  So the door is open for Eshonai to be both dead and an important ongoing character, without requiring a fakeout or unique circumstances leading to her resurrection.

Crackpot time:

This episode confirmed a long standing theory that listeners contain gemhearts.  Other gemheart based Rosharan species are known to pupate, dramatically changing between forms that are barely recognizable as the same species.  Listeners can change forms without pupating, but their different forms are all still recognizable as the same species.  Could their lifecycle also include a larger transformation into something more significantly different?  A big enough transformation that they count it as dying and being reborn - in which case the ancestors might not be cognitive shadowy at all.

Main reason I think this might be true: we were told that the listener taboo about moving corpses came from the days when humans used to desecrate them in search of gemhearts, but this explanation stinks of misdirection (or at least not being the complete story).  The other place we've seen people hacking into 'corpses' to get gemhearts is pupating chasmfiends.  Could 'dead' listeners be the same?  It would be classic Brandon foreshadowing to have sat a giant clue like that out in the open this whole time.

[Wreith he/him]

I'm not entirely prepared to rule out a revival just yet, primarily because comet-spren is still lurking. It is unfortunately unlikely though.

shakily founded speculation:

So Unmade are probably ancient Listeners. This was previously suspected because of Rlain's mention in WoR.
Unmade are also spren, and because they've been explicitly compared to Heralds, also probably Cognitive Shadows (hooray ambiguous terminology).

So Unmade are Cognitive Shadows of ancient Listeners, called spren because that's what you do on Roshar.

 

Dawnsingers, the only time they're discussed with any depth at all, are also referred to as spren.
Perhaps Dawnsingers were also Listener Cognitive Shadows and Eshonai will become one of them.

[Shadowmancer he/him]

I doubt that the LIsteners would kill their own brethren, whether or not they considered them a new creature, in an attempt to simply forestall the humans from attacking them outright or releasing their ancient gods. As far as Listeners pupating, perhaps that occurs earlier on in their life cycle.

[Steeldancer he/him]

How can she be an ancestor if she had no children? 

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

18 minutes ago, Steeldancer said:

How can she be an ancestor if she had no children? 

I don't think that has to be a literal usage of the word.  dictionary.com gives 5 definitions, including the biological meaning but also:

"an object, idea, style, or occurrence serving as a prototype, forerunner, or inspiration to a later one"

and

"a person who serves as an influence or model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, spiritual, etc., descent is claimed."