Who's Who in the Secret Societies of Roshar

[+robardin he/him]

There are four groups with ulterior motives we've seen doing stuff in Stormlight Archive 1-3: the Sons of Honor, the Skybreakers, the Diagram, and the Ghostbloods. (Not counting whatever the Heralds-in-hiding may have been up to in concert, possibly orchestrated by Ishar.)

Some of them know about some or all of the others. But which ones are left, what have they done, and what are/were they after?

Help me flesh out this "Who's Who" summary!

The Sons of Honor:

Wanted to flush out the Heralds and restart the Knights Radiant by triggering another Desolation, in order to regain a true and direct connection to Honor ("restoring true Vorinism").

They obviously didn't know about the Skybreakers, an extant order of Knights Radiant headed by a Herald, then.

They also didn't know or don't believe that Honor Is Dead (even though Gavilar had started getting those visions where Honor said, "Odium has killed me"?)

They are or were directed by, or have a high ranking figure in, a "Restares" who we have yet to see, but who Gavilar mentions, and Amaram has consulted with and sends information to.

They do know about the Ghostbloods, as Gavilar says to Szeth to "tell Thaidakar that he's too late", which also implies they know/think the Ghostbloods would NOT have wanted Gavilar to do whatever it is he's done, which appears to be to release an Unmade; or probably just that they'd tried to get to the Unmade before Gavilar did.

Also, Amaram thinks the Shardbearer who tried to kill him (Helaran) was an example of how "the Ghostbloods grow more bold", and wonders "why Thaidakar would risk this".

But they don't appear to know about the Diagram - its organization or its predictions.

Or want to kill Jasnah (Gavilar's daughter!).

The Skybreakers:

Largely under the direction of Nalan, as suggested by Ishar, have been eliminating Surgebinders and proto-Radiants of all other Orders, to prevent the True Desolation. It's not clear that any Skybreaker other than Nalan knew that was the ulterior motive; their oaths and Ideals are to follow the law and to administer justice.

They know about the Sons of Honor, as they armed and sent Helaran to kill him, with a full set of deadspren Shards.

They have never mentioned or gone after the Diagram or the Ghostbloods. Or Jasnah. Have they? (Of course, now that they've mostly sworn for Team Odium, that's moot.)

The Diagram:

Largely under the direction of Taravangian, the creator of the Diagram based on his off-the-charts "day of maximum  capacity" granted by the Nightwatcher.

Their goal is to preserve as much of mankind as possible through the likely victory of Odium in the True Desolation, by swearing to serve him in exchange. (Taravangian hoped "for my people", i.e., under his dominion, but bargained down to just Kharbaranth and its people.)

They know something about the Sons of Honor, as Taravangian indicates that he knew what Gavilar was up to, and Graves mentioned that the Diagram only knew the term "Everstorm" "because of old Gavilar's visions", that Taravangian recalled as "confided in him the night of the Alethi king's death".

The Diagram does not speak of the Skybreakers per se that we've seen, but it comes to the same conclusion as they did (or their mandate from Ishar via Nalan), in a numerical cipher: "Hold the secret that broke the Knights Radiant. You may need it to destroy the new orders when they return." It also mentions the Honorblades, and they're not surprised that Battah would be in the Palanaeum.

They know something of the Ghostbloods, as Adrotagia wonders if the reference to "the wanderer, the wild piece" is to "Mraize", and a WoB explicitly states, "The Ghostbloods are in the Diagram."

Graves curses that "that woman, Jasnah Kholin, was right" about the parshmen being transformed into Voidbringers, which the Diagram wasn't explicit about. Probably based on Danlan's reports on what Jasnah had told Dalinar and Navani (it wasn't a widely disseminated opinion). But they had no interest in killing or recruiting her, and Jasnah has never mentioned them.

The Ghostbloods:

They have an unknown goal, but they do have something they're "trying to accomplish".

They know about the Sons of Honor, claiming Amaram as "prey" while spying on him (with Iyatil eventually going to blowdart him).

They know a lot about the Skybreakers, since they seem to know a great deal about how they viewed and used Helaran following their interest in a nascent Surgebinder in the Davar household (seems like an inside agent...)

They know about the Diagram, seemingly dismissing Taravangian as the one who "hides in his insignificant city, listening to its songs, thinking he plays in world events".

They have tried to kill Jasnah, after she had killed a number of their members, which implies she targeted them, and oh, I guess they're going to keep on seeking revenge, won't they?

AND, WHO'S FAMOUS?

The Sons of Honor counted the King of Alethkar and Highmarshal Amaram among their number, though both are now dead and their purpose seemingly debunked (which fact drove Amaram to Odium). We don't know who Restares was or is.

The Skybreakers have actively concealed their existence since the Recreance, despite an obscure note in the in-world Words of Radiance about how one of the ten orders "would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine". Yet Helaran knew enough to "seek them out" (per Mraize), though later he describes it more that Nalan was "impressed" with him, so maybe it was the other way around after all.

The Diagram recruits across national boundaries, and have a full Shardbearer in Graves, plus Danlan who works as a scribe for Dalinar, among their number. And of course, Taravangian is now king of both Kharbranth and Jah Keved.

The Ghostbloods have a symbol that is recognized by the underclass in the Alethi warcamps, and widespread and annoying enough that Jasnah had seen fit to off a number of them on her own. They were also an organization that Tyn knew enough about that she wanted to impress them and be admitted to their number, which she had not yet done.

So in a way, the GBs are the least secret of the four, in terms of their operations... Yet the most secret in terms of what they're after.

And they don't have any obviously highly placed members in terms of explicit political power on Roshar. (That we know about.) Whatever they're after, it's not direct rule, nor something that being able to directly rule in any way facilitates (or they'd pursue it).

And we don't know who Thaidakar is, though it seems Gavilar and Amaram do. Presumably not an Alethi highprice or something.

Edited November 21, 2018 by robardin

[king of nowhere]

graves is now dead

[+robardin he/him]

7 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

graves is now dead

What?! When?!! How??!!?

(I mentioned him in the context of how prominent a full Shardbearer would be among the Alethi, as an example of how highly placed the Diagram had their people)

 

[Mah'alleinir he/him]

23 hours ago, robardin said:

What?! When?!! How??!!?

(I mentioned him in the context of how prominent a full Shardbearer would be among the Alethi, as an example of how highly placed the Diagram had their people)

 

Killed by some fused when they took Moash

[Journey Before Pancakes]

Higher ranking members of Ghostbloods also seem to be Cosmere aware, with at least one a worldhopper.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

On 2018-11-22 at 0:25 AM, king of nowhere said:

graves is now dead

R.I.P. He was interesting. I wish Brandon would stop killing off my favorite antagonists...