Where's WalDo: The Kandra Worldhopper

[Kobold King he/him]

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL MISTBORN AND STORMLIGHT PUBLICATIONS TO DATE.

 

Friends of the 17th Shard, a situation has occured. According to Weiry Writer, Brandon Sanderson has made it known to us through the Waygate livestream that there is another worldhopper whom we have all missed. A worldhopper who, quite apart from the likes of Hoid and Nazh, goes by no known alias and does not have an easily recognizable description. Apparently, a kandra has been travelling through the Cosmere.

 

I scarcely need remind anyone what a kandra is, or why picking one out from the crowd of Cosmere characters will be so difficult. Kandra can mold their bodies around any skeletal system, perfectly impersonating animals and even individual humans. At least one kandra impersonated another kandra. It may prove to be impossible to find a worldhopping specimen, especially when given so little information to work from.

 

But, let us not be daunted by the difficulty. As long as there are worldhoppers, there will be 17th Sharders to find them. In fact, I cannot imagine a world in which 17th Sharders didn't speculate ceaselessly about worldhopper identities. Finding a kandra isn't a hardship: it's a privilege.

 

Allow me to begin. Be warned, spoilers and tenuous logical connections follow.

 

First, we should specify what we're looking for in a kandra worldhopper. Obvious signs would be noticeably out-of-character thoughts or actions, death and apparent resurrection, or mentions of missing bones or bodies. If we knew our target's motivations, we would have an easier time of things. But for now, we must sadly stick to what we know.

 

The most obvious motivation I can think of would be as an agent of Harmony. We know from the recent batch of AoL annotations that Sazed is very concerned with Cosmere-wide events, and wishes to learn more. Sending a kandra to other worlds could work wonders towards revealing the secrets of Adonalsium. Unfortunately this idea gives us little indication of where we might find the kandra. Possibly Yolen, where it all began, or Roshar, a place of major Shardic interactions? Sel could also be a potential kandra destination. 

 

I put some thought into several deaths and resurrections. In Words of Radiance, both Szeth and Jasnah are presumed dead but are found later, very much alive. However, I do not believe either to be a kandra. We see Szeth's PoV in his chapter, and no indicators of kandrafication can be seen. In addition, Jasnah is seen Surgebinding in the WoR epilogue, which would suggest that she is who she says she is. It also seems likely that Hoid would have noticed a swap. While Szeth and Jasnah were probably not kandra-spottings, I believe that other cases of "deaths" should be investigated.

 

So there we have it--or rather, there we don't have it. There is a needle sitting in quite a big stormin' haystack right in front of us. Let's try to find it.

 

WalDo, the 17th Shard will find you. If you have appeared on screen, you will be found. Now, 17th Shard... let's get to work.

[Moogle]

Some traits of the kandra to get started:

• They don't have access to magic systems by default. They can probably use Breath if they receive it, and we know that they can take Hemalurgic spikes and use Allomancy/Feruchemy. We could look for a character who should have magic but doesn't (why hello there Taln-without-an-Honorblade), but it's also possible that a worldhopping kandra will have Hemalurgic knowledge, so this method isn't foolproof.
• Kandra do have an abnormally high ability to withstand punishment, as well as Blessings. Any worldhopping Kandra may have been enhanced with more Blessings than normal; we could look for people who are stronger than they should be, as well as those who don't die when they should (which works in with looking for people who could have died and came back).
• Harmony controls the kandra now, but he didn't before. Kandra are immortal (or at least have lifespans of a thousand years plus), and they existed for 1000 years before Mistborn: FE, so we could conceivably see a kandra in any released novel, even Elantris (which supposedly takes place hundreds of years before Final Empire).
• Kandra (one in particular, anyways) apparently like spoiled or rotted meat; any character who has a liking for abnormal foods should be investigated.
• Given the timeline (most novels take place after Mistborn: HoA), it's quite likely that any kandra sent are under Harmony's orders, so they'll definitely be seeking out threats to Scadrial as well as interesting knowledge. Sazed would prefer they keep to lower positions, though, likely because he doesn't want to interfere with anything important. The 'obvious' places for kandra are as things like mooks of important people, master servants, ardents, that sort of thing.

Yeah, no one's coming to mind!

Edited April 23, 2014 by Moogle

[bartbug he/him]

I'm pretty sure that Elantris is more like thousands of years before Final Empire.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I'm pretty sure that Elantris is more like thousands of years before Final Empire.

 

no it is definitely hundreds but not thousands of years.

[Baine he/him]

How do we know there's a kandra worlhopper?

[Kobold King he/him]

How do we know there's a kandra worlhopper?

Allow me to quote WeiryWriter from the Chatbox (you can see for yourself on the forum front page):

 

Weiry: There is at least one kandra worldhopper (identify unknown) that brandon mentioned in the Waygate livestream (transcript forthcoming) and to our knowledge we know all Shards for on-screen shardworlds

[WeiryWriter he/him]

How do we know there's a kandra worlhopper?

 

Brandon was asked during the Waygate Foundation Livestream at JordanCon:

 

 

Q: Are there kandra hiding in any of your books, besides the Mistborn ones?

B: Yes there are! [smugly] yes there are...

 

(source)

[Khyrindor he/him]

Well, I've been thinking about a massive reread...

[Kurkistan he/him]

Upvote for the title alone.

[Tempus]

no it is definitely hundreds but not thousands of years.

 

From that quote, I personally feel Elantris is between one and two thousand years. Why? Normally, if it were 200-999 years, you'd say "hundreds but less than a thousand". In this case, he clearly says 'not thousands of years'. In the USA an many other english speaking countries, it is common to refer to dates between 1000 and 2000 by the term hundreds. 1500 is the fifteen hundreds, not the one thousand five hundreds. This is the way people speak, normally, and with a number like say '1200' in his mind, he would think of it as twelve hundred naturally. Thus his particular phrasing makes slightly more sense.

 

No guarantees, of course. Just my thoughts on the specific way he phrases it.

 

 

 

---

 

As for the Kandra worldhopper... I did a quick search for rotten, rancid or spoiled meat, just in case it was that simple.

 

• An ardent named Lhan in Words of Radiance distributes rotten meat to the poor.

• A Hoed in Elantris is seen shuddering next to a pile of rotten meat

• Rock eats weird things

• Shallan is talking about metaphors for love with her brothers, and an unnamed brother says "Ha! Love is like spoiled food."

[RShara she/her]

I wonder if Mrall is a kandra.

[Kobold King he/him]

My searching for OOC characters has turned up pretty blank.

 

"The man who calls himself Taln" is a potential avenue of investigation. I've looked through his interlude, but nothing really sticks out. He specifically mentions "a trip", but that could mean anything. Mostly he just rambles about fire.

 

Do we have a definitive statement about what happened to Gavilar's body after Szeth got to him? Because if not, I fear Alethkar could be in for quite the upheaval if our kandra gets into those bones...

 

 

I wonder if Mrall is a kandra.

 

Ooh, interesting. I see a lot of speculation that he's an Aimian, but I could see "kandra" too. Do we have any precedent for kandra switching emotions on and off, apart from their deceptive skills?

[Tempus]

Aimians and Kandra share the shapeshifting ability, but not the reverse shadow ability (Aimians probably shift cognitively, while Kandra shift physically). If we see an Aimian shapeshifter without the reverse shadow, that would be a great indication.

[Tempus]

Kandra candidate - Gaz

 

He disappears after a bridge run. The chasms are full of skeletons from fallen warriors. He reappears as a deserter to become a trusted and loyal member of Shallan's (an important and rare surgebinder) retinue. With a very different personality. Well, slightly different.

[Kobold King he/him]

 

Kandra candidate - Gaz

 

He disappears after a bridge run. The chasms are full of skeletons from fallen warriors. He reappears as a deserter to become a trusted and loyal member of Shallan's (an important and rare surgebinder) retinue. With a very different personality. Well, slightly different.

 

And he's mysteriously capable of procuring a copy of Words of Radiance... Gaz just became a suspect. I will re-read Shallan chapters from WoR. I will report back with any inconsistencies in Gaz's character.

[RShara she/her]

Remember, they are master impersonators so are not likely to have personality changes

 

I nominate Clod for likely kandra candidate (kandradate?  sounds kinky...)

[Tempus]

Kandradate? Well, you'd never get bored. ^_-

[Kobold King he/him]

Kandradate? Well, you'd never get bored. ^_-

...

 

Back on subject...

 

I'd like to draw attention to this passage, describing Iyatil:

 

 

The short, tan-skinned person had some kind of carapace mask tied to his face, pulled tight. In fact, it looked like... like the skin had started to grow around the edges of the mask somehow.

 

 

Could Iyatil be WalDo? The skin around her mask has displayed the same fluid, amorphous quality we would expect from a kandra. She is Mraize's babsk, and Mraize has all the indications of being a worldhopper. She even displays great deception skills when she pretends to be a madwoman later in the book.

 

Granted, these attributes could be explained by more mundane things. Maybe Iyatil just wears her mask a lot, and the skin grew naturally. Maybe she's just good at deceiving people because, you know, it's her job. But she should definitely be considered a suspect.

[RShara she/her]

I was just thinking of Iyatil but I'm thinking she might be too obvious.

[Kobold King he/him]

I was just thinking of Iyatil but I'm thinking she might be too obvious.

Brandon Sanderson is very good at leaving clues for us to follow. I really don't think the kandra is running around without any indicators of its true identity. I really doubt that. Who or whatever it is, I'd bet my Breath that there are clues that will look really obvious once the story line is complete. Can you read "the Hero of Ages will bear the fate of the world on his arms" without smiling in understanding?

 

My point is, I don't think we should overlook Iyatil because she looks too obvious. The Zahel/Vasher connection also looks obvious from our perspective. In fact, the obviousness could be considered a mark in the theory's favor-- it's nigh impossible to predict without prerequisite information, but seems quite clear once the revelation has been made. Perfect Sanderson twist!

[Tempus]

 

 

Brandon Sanderson is very good at leaving clues for us to follow.

 

Terriswoman in Warbreaker. =(

 

 

Iyatil looks like a great candidate. So obvious I didn't even consider it. The mask means that Iya doesn't even need to have an actual body with bones to use, she can hide any disfiguring Kandra style stuff with clothes and mask. And she does have the strong worldhopping connections.

[Veil she/her]

• Kandra do have an abnormally high ability to withstand punishment, as well as Blessings. Any worldhopping Kandra may have been enhanced with more Blessings than normal; we could look for people who are stronger than they should be, as well as those who don't die when they should (which works in with looking for people who could have died and came back).

 

I'm sorry, but all I was thinking at this point was:

 

 

“They will come you cannot stop their oaths look for those who survive when they should not that pattern will be your clue.”

 

Which the more I think about it, the more that actually does sound like kandra. Replace "oaths" with "contracts" and...

 

XD Yep. No more late-night speculating for me.

 

(Though I do think it would be awesome if it turned out the Diagram was way more Cosmere-aware than non-uber-genious Taravangian could ever suspect. The comment about the Wanderer seems to fit with that possibility...)

[Ketek]

Good spot regarding Iyatil. And nice one for the Diagram quote, Veil.

 

Iyatil would be a very solid pick, someone has noted before how she seems to move like Vin - assuming Vin has not been resurrected and Iyatil is said kandra, perhaps those mannerisms were deliberately imitated because Iyatil idolizes her; we know TenSoon tried to hype her up as a god figure much like the TLR was.

 

Also, I would be very surprised if the Diagram did not have tons of references to the Cosmere at large. My hypothesis is that Taravangian was somehow imbued with Investiture from Cultivation, and we know she's better at seeing the future than Honor. This may have influenced Taravangian's genius intellect; to cultivate, you need to be able to see all possible avenues to ensure you nurture the best crops possible, no?

Edited April 24, 2014 by Ketek

[Shardmancer he/him]

Candidates for Kandra Worldhopper. (BTW - Love the comment of CLOD- great call..easy to impersinate and with blessing of speed/strength very duable.)- The ether alchohol though in its viens i feel like would be hard for a kandra- but who knows?

 

-Theory for kandra worldhopper - Elokar Wife back home in the capital- they say her behavior is growing erratic and she seems just like the perfect firgurehead to be replaced.

 

-Perhaps one of the original bridgeman, now a trusted member of Dalinar's army.

 

-Every Ardent in the camp seems suspicisous to me any scene they are in they seem to have other motives.

(I am just trying to think the closet to the action- but seeming unimportant character in the book)!

 

 

[Numb]

Doesn't Pearl sleep with Clod sometimes. Pretty disturbing behavior when he's just a lifeless but being a Kandra would be whole new levels of ewww.