Theory about the Ones Above

[ReadAndFindOut]

Who do you think the Ones Above are?

 

[imriel452]

Future Scadrians is my best guess, or Silverlight researchers....

[Weltall]

They're from a world that we'd already seen at the time the story was first published. That rules out Silverlight which we still haven't seen directly four years later and which Brandon wouldn't even indirectly reveal to us for another year or so after that WoB. Scadrians are the most obvious candidates since we already know they're going to develop FTL travel and the various things we see in the short story related to the Ones Above can all be explained in Metallic Arts terms and possibly (though not necessarily) with a kandra playing the role of the one who 'died'.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

Like the others I believe they are almost certainly Scadrians.

[Ashspren]

No doubt in my mind that they are Era 4 Scadrians. Sixth of the Dusk is the furthest along in the Cosmere timeline so far, and we know that in Era 4, the Scadrians are now a technology empire with space travel. Everything lines up.

[Feruchemist he/him]

They are certainly Era 4 Scadrians.

[bmcclure7]

On 8/4/2018 at 6:08 AM, Weltall said:

They're from a world that we'd already seen at the time the story was first published. That rules out Silverlight which we still haven't seen directly four years later and which Brandon wouldn't even indirectly reveal to us for another year or so after that WoB. Scadrians are the most obvious candidates since we already know they're going to develop FTL travel and the various things we see in the short story related to the Ones Above can all be explained in Metallic Arts terms and possibly (though not necessarily) with a kandra playing the role of the one who 'died'.

 Could you expound upon this?

 

Has there been word of Brandon on how the scadrians  Are going to develop FTL .  I always assumed that there ships would be going  In-and-out of the Cognitive realm and used that to travel between planets

 

They could be scadrians but i also  Can see them been surge binders.

[Weltall]

Please do not triple-post in the future, it's bad form and clutters the board.

43 minutes ago, bmcclure7 said:

 Could you expound upon this?

We know they're going to develop FTL by Era 4, the Aviar tracker can be explained with mechanical A-Bronze and a kandra can fake death easily, or a feruchemist could use F-Cadmium.

39 minutes ago, bmcclure7 said:

Has there been word of Brandon on how the scadrians  Are going to develop FTL .  I always assumed that there ships would be going  In-and-out of the Cognitive realm and used that to travel between planets

No, it's going to be actual FTL. Several magic systems including the Metallic Arts have the seeds for FTL travel 'built in'. Brandon has not given details and we've been trying to guess how it might work for years, but we do know that for Scadrial it's going to involve applications of the magic that we're only just starting to learn about and we have a step yet to see before we get to the kinds of machinery in question.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Weltall

[+DarthEllis]

I think one thing to mention is that Sixth of the Dusk has had Herdazian food (and hates it.) This could mean that the type of food was brought by a worldhopper unrelated to the Ones Above, but it is more likely that this type of cuisine is something that the Ones Above introduced First of the Sun to. This leads me to be inclined that Rosharans are related to the Ones Above in some way. I think that with what we know of Era 4 Scadrial, that it is incredibly likely that the Ones Above utilize Scadrian technology, but perhaps it is a coalition of Scadrial and Roshar?

[Casta she/her]

Also, the fact that Rosharans would be intrested in magical chickens totally makes sense to me.

[Fatikis he/him]

On 8/3/2018 at 1:39 PM, ReadAndFindOut said:

Who do you think the Ones Above are?

First aviar are not splinters of investiture. That would be like calling a Misting a splinter. They are a creature that has the ability to manipulate investiture. They are just like a human who uses investiture on another world. We were also told there were other types of Aviar.

Sak was able to bestow power on Vathi a virtually unknown individual so I wouldn't think this bond is very similar to a nahel bond. 
The Aviar that hide minds also do not appear to require any sort of bonding. They passively create what appears to fundamentally similar to a coppercloud. No bond needed. We've seen the human has no control over the abilities. A form of connection is needed with the Aviar, but it doesn't appear to be a full bond. Aviar are bought and sold. They are even commonly mutilated by their owners to prevent them from flying. So the fundementals of this bond don't appear to be very similar.

Roshar technology will heavily involve spren. First of Sun would be unable to replicate their technology to become advanced enough to invade. Scadrian technology while augmented with allo/feru is pretty straightforward. A computer developed on Scadrial would likely work on our same fundamentals and therefor could be replicated anywhere. Rosharian computing would likely involve spren.

Most likely The Ones Above are Scadrian, Rosharian, and likely other space faring groups. The rule of noninterference is likely a diplomatic measure put in place by multiple worlds. If you are the only space faring people why make these rules at all? There aren't any repercussions for acting as you want.

The interfering Ones Above I suspect are either The Set or Ghostbloods. Perhaps both.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Fatikis

[Leyrann]

I like your theory that they're Rosharans @ReadAndFindOut, but with the caveat I've never read Sixth of the Dusk.

[Calderis he/him]

Yeah, I'm with @Fatikis here.

We had a discussion about a week ago in discord where I said pretty much the same thing. 

Quote

I don't think the ones above are exclusively one group honestly...

I mean, at minimum if this group is a single one I lean Scadrian... But the whole fact that there are rules that they have to try and circumvent to interact with FotS implies there's some big interstellar treaty binding their hands

Considering they seem to be profit driven, I wouldn't be surprised if it's members of some multi-world corporation, and not a single planet

 

[tmnsquirtle]

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Yeah, I'm with @Fatikis here.

We had a discussion about a week ago in discord where I said pretty much the same thing. 

 

Is the discord public? I clearly don't have enough cosmere theories entering my eyeballs from this site alone.

[Leyrann]

1 hour ago, tmnsquirtle said:

Is the discord public? I clearly don't have enough cosmere theories entering my eyeballs from this site alone.

If you go up to the main Forums page the link should be at the right, I believe.

[Ripheus23]

Another reason for Rosharans [OB]:

Spoiler

Human Rosharans already came from another world, to Roshar. So there's precedent?

However, I don't know if either they or Scadrians would have reason to do as the Ones Above do in the story in question. I don't remember the Aviar magic system that well, but if my memory serves me correctly enough, it didn't seem particularly superior, in practice or principle, to the Metallic Arts or Surgebinding.

Of course there could be people like the Ghostbloods who were interested in other magic systems as such, but whether they would end up heading an organization such as the Ones Above would be part of, IDK.

[+Extesian he/him]

Cool video @ReadAndFindOut. Nice production value. I haven't seen what I assume is a series of them, I'll have to check it out.

My opinion on the Ones Above is that it may well be Scadrians but that its nowhere near as certain as a lot of people think. I think by that time there will be hacks for most or all magic systems that allow them to readily use investiture anywhere in the Cosmere. I also feel like its so far we can't extrapolate from *current* technology who will have those kinds of devices (though they do remind me more of Roshar or the IRE's device than of Scadrial. And I like the herdazian food WoB but as we know that Sixth will probably worldhop he could have easily tasted it in Shadesmar or actually on Roshar.

So yeah I actually think Roshar is almost as likely as Scadrial and I do rebel against the assumption that it is Scadrians. I also think its actually a Silverlight delegation of mixed nationalities, or perhaps a worldhopping group like the Seventeenth Shard. But my biggest thing is that it is way more uncertain than many think, most of the arguments for Scadrial I think are unlikely to apply by that era.