[OB] Puuli, the Origin and Natanatan

[dantlee]

While I was doing an OB re-read over the holidays, my interest was piqued by the first Interlude chapter: Puuli, the lighthouse keeper. This interlude seems to be the most disconnected in all of OB: the others are characters we've met before, or give interesting hints into previously unexplored locations, or foreshadow later events in the book (and perhaps that's all this one is, too). 

The main information we get in this interlude chapter is a mysterious prophecy from Puuli's grandfather:

Quote

 

Had the time finally come, that his grandfather had warned of? The time of changes, when the men from the hidden island of the Origin came to reclaim Natanatan?
...

"They'll come with Light in their pockets," Grandfather had said. "They'll come to destroy, but you should watch for them anyway. Because they'll come from the Origin. The sailors lost on an infinite sea. You keep that fire high at night, Puuli. You burn it bright until the day they come. They'll arrive when the night is darkest."

 

So, having seen little to no prior speculation on Puuli, what are our thoughts on these mysterious sailors from the Origin? I think they could refer to:

1) The return of surgebinders to Roshar. "They'll come with Light in their pockets" and "they'll come to destroy" are pretty clear references to what we later find out: that the first surgebinders were humans, coming to Roshar from Ashyn by worldhopping (perhaps through the Origin, if it is a shardpool/perpendicularity as some have theorized), and that they caused immense destruction on both planets. 

2) The return of the Aimians. "Hidden island at the Origin" reeks of Akinah. Furthermore, we know thanks to Hoid (and WoB) that the residents of Natanatan have blue skin because they're actually Aimian-human hybrids. We already know Aimians are becoming more active throughout Roshar, and monitoring new surgebinders closely. It would make sense that they eventually plan to "reclaim Natanatan." The Light could refer to two things: Larkin, or Aimians regaining access to the surges (we know from the back covers that Aimians were once able to surgebind but lost the ability at some point).

3) The kingdom of Natanatan overlaps with where the shattered plains are currently located. Perhaps the prophecy could refer to the return of the fused (the Light being Voidlight), coming to reclaim their world?

4) Something completely unrelated to the above options that will be explored in the upcoming novella Wandersail. 

I'm sure there are possibilities I haven't thought of, but these were the main ones that came to mind. I know the obvious choice is option 1: that this interlude was simply meant to foreshadow the plot twist that human surgebinders were the original voidbringers, but I don't think that's the only significance to this quote and chapter. First, why would human surgebinders be "reclaiming" Natanatan when they were the ones who likely destroyed it? Furthermore, the interlude chapter immediately after this one is primarily there to foreshadow the translation of the dawnchant, and I don't think Brandon would waste two consecutive interlude chapters just to set up a reveal later in the book.

I lean towards the blue guys. There are too many connections between Aimians, the Origin, and Natanatan for me to think this is a total coincidence. But I fully admit we're still operating on very limited information, and I'm venturing into the area of wild speculation. 

[.S.A.M.K.M]

There is apparently a void based origin, could it lead to damnation?

[Govir]

I have a pet theory that Radiants (or Surgebinders in general) linger in Shadesmar after death like the ancient Parshendi do. This is based on the fact that holding Investiture lengthens how long you can hold on. My thought it that either Radiants of a certain oath level will become Cognitive Shadows, or Radiants that hold too much Stormlight will. Therefore I think the people this interlude is talking about are these Radiant Cognitive Shadows. I'm not sure how they'll manifest in the Physical Realm, but that's my theory for now.

[Stormlightning she/her]

I was just about to make a thread on this because I feel like it's one of the biggest foreshadowing moment for books 4 and 5 that we got in Oathbringer, and we've mostly ignored it!

One of the things that stuck out to me was that he mentioned how his grandfather had 1) apparently told him to watch for these people from the islands of the Origin, and 2) had experienced Desolations. Which makes him...remarkably old. I didn't connect the Natanan=half-Aimian thing until you mentioned it, but that leads me to believe that his grandfather was definitely a Siah. Or maybe is a Siah? *waves at Axies*

Edited December 28, 2017 by Stormlightning

[Crylorenzo he/him]

 

I like the idea of Aimians returning. It could also be that more humans will cross over; it's called the origin after all so it may be where the humans came from and we know that there are more humans on Ashyn who could come over. I know we believe Shun to be the original landing space, but with ships, that means nothing.

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

I made a topic about my thoughts on this a little while ago. I think this is a reference to the Night of Sorrows that has been referenced a couple times.