[OB] Have You Seen Me?

[Wit Beyond Measure]

I love how we see modern-day Jezrien, King of the Heralds, three times in the series.

The first time we see him in the prologue of WoK as Szeth passes him outside of the Beggar's Feast next to a line of statues of the Heralds themselves, with the Shalash statue missing, of course.  I wonder if she saw her beggar father at the Kholinar Palace when she came for her statue.

The second time we see him (Ahu) in Dalinar's recollection of the day of Gavilar's assassination in OB (just before the feast so just before we saw him for the first time) on the Beggar's Porch at the Kholinar Palace sharing drink with Dalinar.  Jez rants and raves about Damnation, just as Taln does, and he mentions several of the Unmade:  The Black Fisher, the Spawning Mother, the Faceless, and Moelach.

And then the final time we see him is when Moash kills him, sadly, in the Kholinar Palace gardens. 

Each time he asks, "Have you seen me?"  Yes, I have, Jez.  Yes, I have.

Quote

The man trembled for a moment more, then jerked once, going motionless. When Moash pulled the yellow-white knife free, it trailed dark smoke and left a blackened wound. The large sapphire at the pommel took on a subdued glow.

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 1205). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

1

The sapphire is the gemstone associated with the essence of Jes and the Herald Jezrien.  Navani's journal, https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Navani1.jpg, says that the cut and the type of gem determine what kind of spren can be trapped inside.  Gavilar tells Eshonai in our prologue that, "with a very special gemstone, you can hold even a god."  

The Rhys interlude mentions the King's Drop being in an inner vault with some seemingly insignificant objects including an "old knife." It's possible that this knife had a sapphire pommel and was what Odium was really after.

So, what does this all mean?  Did Jezrien have a spren that is now trapped in the sapphire or is Jezrien himself trapped?  The Fuzed are like spren in that they can bond with Parshendi and be reborn, but the Fuzed were once just Parshendi themselves.  So is that what the Heralds are like?

Edited December 20, 2017 by Wit Beyond Measure

[Yezrien]

I've been thinking along the same lines. It wonder if it's possible that the heralds became spren-like after their first deaths, and they reincarnate by bonding with humans the same way Fused bond with singers. And the heralds' new hosts take on their original appearance through cognitive shapeshifting, like the Returned.

[SpeakoftheDeval]

I think when Gavilar says you could hold a god he means the unmade because he probably had some unmade trapped and has at this pony realised that they are the parshendi gods