The Set's Faceless Immortals- Sleepless theory

[Nesh he/him]

We know very little about the red eyed Faceless Immortals that the set was working with.  WOBs that have recently come to my attention make me think that the might be Dysian Aimians, better known as Sleepless.  They are capable of imitating humans like the being we see in Bands of Mourning and are functionally immortal.  hey are not confined to Roshar as this this WoB from the Skyward release party demonstrates:

Questioner

Are there any Sleepless spies on other planets?

Brandon Sanderson

Sleepless are not confined to Roshar.

Skyward release party (Nov. 6, 2018)

 

We also know that at least some of them are affiliated with an unknown group (The Set) in the Cosmere as told by this WoB:

 

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Are the Dysian Aimians agents of Cultivation? If not, are they in league with another group (excluding the Knights Radiant) that we have seen?

Brandon Sanderson (written)

Kind of yes to both – kind of

General Signed Books 2018 (April 17, 2018)

 

 

So they have the abilities and the the possibility to fill that niche.  The only hang is the red eyes thing, but that could be from being co-opted by a Shard like Autonomy as is the prevailing theory about who Trell is.  I know it's not a lot to go on, but it's just something I wanted to throw out there.

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I like it! The only problem I can think of right now is that the faceless said he killed a homeless guy to get his body. Could still work. He might have killed the guy just to get rid of a witness, but I thought it was for the body. I don't have the book on hand to check so I might be wrong.

[Chiberty]

Quote

So it was that he wasn't at all surprised when, after two weeks of captivity, the door to the corridor outside his cell clicked open one night and a stranger stalked in. Male this time, with a ragged beard and wild hair. A beggar stolen off the street, Suit guessed.

So the Immortal wasn't even the one who said it. It was just a guess of Suit, which might just be based on what he knows about the kandra. Although, if they are Sleepless, I would expect there to be bugs mentioned in odd places.

[Nesh he/him]

2 minutes ago, ChickenLiberty said:

So the Immortal wasn't even the one who said it. It was just a guess of Suit, which might just be based on what he knows about the kandra. Although, if they are Sleepless, I would expect there to be bugs mentioned in odd places.

That is a good point, but don't Dysian Aimians do their best to hide their true nature when posing as humans?  The Coppermind has this to say:

 

Hordelings are usually about the size of a finger,^[4] and can be as large as a fist.^[9] Hordelings on Roshar often resemble native creatures known as cremlings simply to make them less noticeable to casual observers; they can take other forms.^[10] The hordelings of each Sleepless are not all identical, and often serve specific purposes.^[6] For example, because Arclo tries to pass as a human, many of his hordelings have protrusions on their backs that resemble human parts such as skin or eyeballs; he is also able to speak with a passably human voice.^[4] However, hordelings cannot actually shapeshift, so the nature of a Sleepless body is always visible upon close inspection.^[4] Sleepless therefore tend to cover their "skin" when possible, or use the appearance of older skin^[4] or tattoos^[3] to obscure their true nature.

 

Maybe these Aimians are particularly good at obscuring their nature, or Suit just never noticed.  That said, yeah that is a point against the theory, I won't take that away from you.

[Karger he/him]

If you read Edgedancer Aleco claims that the sleepless and the Radiants used to be allies.  Either he is lying, your theory is wrong, or there are more then one group of sleepless.  I cannot believe that Radiants would ally with the Set.

[Nesh he/him]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

If you read Edgedancer Aleco claims that the sleepless and the Radiants used to be allies.  Either he is lying, your theory is wrong, or there are more then one group of sleepless.  I cannot believe that Radiants would ally with the Set.

A race being a monolith is unlikely and there is a WoB that says that they are kind of agents of Cultivation and kind of allied with another faction, so I kind of figure that the individual Sleepless can have different goals just like humans, and might possibly be corupted by Autonomy.

 

 

[Karger he/him]

49 minutes ago, Nesh said:

A race being a monolith is unlikely

I know but when we talk about the sleepless I assume we are referring to the sleepless's government or overall philosophy as apposed to individual members. 

[Nesh he/him]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

I know but when we talk about the sleepless I assume we are referring to the sleepless's government or overall philosophy as apposed to individual members. 

I thought it was a nickname for their race.  So there are indvidual Sleepless and the Sleepless race.

[Karger he/him]

1 minute ago, Nesh said:

I thought it was a nickname for their race.  So there are indvidual Sleepless and the Sleepless race.

It is but in the second WoB I assume that he is referring to the sleepless as a hole rather then an individual sleepless.

[Nesh he/him]

Just now, Karger said:

It is but in the second WoB I assume that he is referring to the sleepless as a hole rather then an individual sleepless.

Well, yeah, but he waffled on it with the kind of.  That could mean may things such as "some are agents  of Cultivation some aren't and there's still the possibility of them being corrupted by other Shardic ifluence.

[Elegy he/him]

I don't think a Sleepless could have survived an explosion like that. They are immortal as in, not aging, but if all their hordelings are killed, that's it. So it doesn't make much sense for him to blow himself up in that situation. Good idea though.

[Nesh he/him]

2 hours ago, Elegy said:

I don't think a Sleepless could have survived an explosion like that. They are immortal as in, not aging, but if all their hordelings are killed, that's it. So it doesn't make much sense for him to blow himself up in that situation. Good idea though.

That's fair  I thought since they aren't even afraid of Heralds, who knows how much punishent they can take, but I see your point.

[Ripheus23]

The Faceless Immortals are actually known to the wider cosmere as the Shapeless Immortals, distant ex-cousins of the Sleepless and the Shiftless Immortals (dragons), plus the Snarkless who implacably oppose Hoid.

[Karger he/him]

34 minutes ago, Ripheus23 said:

Shiftless Immortals

shift·less

adjective: shiftless

(of a person or action) characterized by laziness, indolence, and a lack of ambition.

11 hours ago, Nesh said:

That's fair  I thought since they aren't even afraid of Heralds, who knows how much punishent they can take, but I see your point.

Well we also don't know why Nale would avoid them.  We see one killed in Dalinar's visions so they are clearly not immortal or unkillable.

[Wandering Investor]

3 hours ago, Karger said:

Well we also don't know why Nale would avoid them.  We see one killed in Dalinar's visions so they are clearly not immortal or unkillable.

Two reasons come to mind. Although I'd bet on the Herald winning, especially one that can shoot lighting at his enemies, maybe Nale is paranoid about facing any threat that could potentially kill him.

Or, more likely, the Sleepless as a race could pose a substantial threat to Nale's organization, or at least their goals. Basically, avoid annoying the group that is really hard to kill, can easily disguise  themselves, runs a rather good intelligence operation, and who knows what else. Oh, and they also might be working for Culti, who Nale would also probably avoid messing with.

[Karger he/him]

48 minutes ago, Wandering Investor said:

Or, more likely, the Sleepless as a race could pose a substantial threat to Nale's organization, or at least their goals. Basically, avoid annoying the group that is really hard to kill, can easily disguise  themselves, runs a rather good intelligence operation, and who knows what else. Oh, and they also might be working for Culti, who Nale would also probably avoid messing with.

That is what I thought.  Although Nale would probably win fighting a group of worldhopping immortals would be time consuming and potentially dangerous.