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That last tidbit is, I think, brand new.

I was sort of hoping Silverlight was a thing of Physical Realm, but I will take a definite answer over two years of theories any day (-:

My understanding is that a significant chunk of worldhoppers aren't actually playing any Cosmeric games and aren't trying to put into action someone's plan. They just... are... So I am with the group that thinks it was more benign commerce Hoid was referring to. As much as a specific magic "hack" may be a thing in Cosmere, I doubt that it forms a basis for a significant undercurrent in the stories.

Pretty sure Hoid is accompanying a certain Elsecaller towards civilization right around the same time.

The answer is "yes". This was clearly written in a way to make us... take a pause and make an assumption. Which is completely fine.

Agreed. I will only add one caveat: there are examples in history when groups unrelated to each other adopted similar languages. Latin was adopted by Visgoths and by Franks: both Germanic tribes, and from these adoptions Spaish and French vernaculars were born. Bulgarians originally were not a Slavic tribe (more Turkic in origin, I think), but their eventual language (Bulgarian) is Slavic. But this is exactly why the fact the Shin and Parshendi speak languages from the same family makes me very curious. There is more than one way in which it could've happened, but they all are interesting.

I give you English and Cymraeg (Welsh) (((-: [*] [*] technically both are Indo-Eurpoean, but from two very different branches: Celtic and Germanic.

I am a sucker for linguistics these days, so this note from Brandon (reddit) attracted my attention. Parshendi, Shin and Horneater all have dawnchant-derived languages. This is really weird to me not because of linguistics, but because of all humanoid races/species on Roshar (Aimians aside), Parshendi look like the "most Rosharian", while Shin appear to be the "most imported"...

Fair enough, although the one blurb about the order of Truthwatchers we do have seems to be consistent with what is going on with Renarin. I myself have little doubt about it.

Jasnah is more of a Scotty in this analogy...

My working theory then is that we are seeing a (future) worldhopper who becomes a "prophet" of whatever it is Bavadin wants a portion of the population on Scadrial to worship. I see a lot of parallels between Trell-the-old-Scadrial-religion and Taldain as the place of origin: the whole Day/Night duality that makes total sense in the context of Taldain's Dark Side, but much less so on Scadrial. The second description of Trell in the books introduces the elements of autonomy... So, two challenges: what the heck? and how the heck? For what the heck, I believe the new idea is that Bavadin is not above setting multiple religions custom-tailored for subsets of the population that directly contradict each other, or are in direct confrontation with each other. For example, it is relatively clear from the comic (spot the reference kind of clear!) that the Sun god is Bavadin. But sand mastery comes from Bavadin's Investiture, and clearly, there are some other ways in which she affects the Darksiders. The how the heck? refers to the mechanism of Trell-the-forman becoming associated with Trell-the-Scadrial-religion. Wild guesswork here, but (a) worldhopping, (b) grooming by Bavadin. The appearance of Trell is very consistent with how Brandon hides worldhoppers in plain sight in other books, NOT with how he treats a future Shard Vessel. There is also the "why the heck?" question, and I dare not speculate. It appears that Autonomy for one reason or another wants to a have a LOT of religions it influences rather than THE ONE MONOLITHIC CULT any other self-respecting deity would go for. Can we fit this pattern with the Intent of Autonomy?

Cosplay idea: come in normal clothing as a "minor persona of Bavadin".

I am not certain that the Trell we see in the WH prose is Bavadin's incarnation. I do recall noticing the name when reading and wondering whether it was a case of foreshadowing, or whether it was a name Brandon liked and gave a new meaning to in the Wax and Wayne stories. The comic will tell - the episode Trell appears in is kinda important for in-story purposes, so when the narrative gets to it, we'll see if the foreman is still named Trell, or something else. I do agree with your other observation. It appears that Brandon has decided to Lift (pun intended) the veil on Bavadin with the publication of UA. I've just been re-reading the whole "Trell in Prose" discussion in a separate thread on this forum and the conversation about how Bavadin "rules" her world now comes out in a whole new light.

I know, this conversation is going very sloooow, but still.... With the new revelations about Bavadin/Autonomy, it is clear that she chooses to influence different people through different means. Our observations about Eric wanting to be independent are very much in line with this. At the same time, I want to point out that there is no need for Investiture to be involved here (i.e., no need for Eric to be affected by "magic"): he is under the influence of Bavadin through one of her avatars for whatever reason she chose to influence him. This chimes with the recent WoB about Bavadin's levels of White Sand involvement. Eric always struck me as an odd person out in White Sand - he showed up for the first time very late in the book, played a *minor deus ex machina* and then tended to show up and be an appendage to the action.... A newer improved Brandon probably would've put an Eric cameo at the scene of Khriss&Co disembarkation (this one sounds kind of obvious), and perhaps another one of him spotting the carnage in Kerla. But if he is in the novel to be the conduit of Autonomy's will/control/whatever - this would make more sense. And for the record: yes, I too thought he was Hoid.

I think what is going here is more of a writer's transference, that we know Brandon does no occasion: Aether has already been poached for a certain Shard. My guess is, Brandon liked the image of Verdant growth and decided to reuse it/re-imagine it with Wyndle.

I now have a very strong desire to make a "We are Bavadin" t-shirt and wear it to a signing.

So... this puzzles me... We do have the "Radiant Gathering" scene at the end of WoR where Renarin names himself one. Why are you "less sure"?

And another thought. Roshar has a money system consisting literally of large colored translucent marbles. Why is it so strange then that poor children play with pebbles that are, ... well... colored??? The pebbles aren't a poor imitation of marbles: they are a poor person's imitation of broams.

At the end of WoR she emerges and orients herself with ease, so we do know that she has a good geolocation ability. However, this may not necessarily be a perk/Resonance, but rather simply a prime benefit of being an Elsecaller - they are travellers, after all... Looking from this perspective though, an Elsecaller primarily is known for boldly going where no one has gone before, transporting people, etc... so and internal GPS complete with the Cosmere equivalent of Google Maps (Silverlight University Maps?) actually sounds like a useful thing, just as memory is extremely useful for lightweaving.

We are Bavadin. You will be assimilated.

More Brandon's quotes from the same thread in response to @Argent: (linky) and a bit later (quoting only the directly related to Bavadin part): Confirmation of what we've been just thinking above.

@Chull #445: I am with @Argent on this one: whether Bavadin is capable of actually changing her gender appears to be less relevant to our main pursuits than the fact that she takes on both male and female personas, and many people know her by a lot of different, male and female names.

I like how you put it. Back to @Chull #445's comment: I think it is fair to make the following statements: 1. Prior to the Shattering Bavadin was a female of her species. 2. We do not know if she is a human, a dragon, or whatever the name of the third Yolish species was (escapes me at the moment). We suspect she might not be human, but we do not have solid evidence as of yet. 3. In her role as the Vessel of the Shard Autonomy Bavadin has chosen to advance her goals by establishing, supporting, coopting and possibly corrupting multiple religions. 4. We suspect not all of those religions are limited to Taldain. 5. Bavadin impersonates deities of the religions she elects to patronize/establish. Sometimes she impersonates ALL the deities in those religions. 6. In doing so she takes both male and female forms. 7. She has well-known (in-universe) and well-attested (possibly both in- and out- of universe, i.e., in books) male forms. 8. She has well-known and well-attested female forms. She has more female forms than male forms. 9. To put in @Landis963's terms, Bavadin weaponizes support for multiple religions. This is her MO. 10. We have suspicions that outside of Taldain Bavadin is up to no good. 11. She is confirmed to have played a certain (Brandon hemmed on it, so it must be something other than a direct participation to aid Odium) part in the events on Sel that yielded the Splintering of Devotion and Dominion. 12. Hoid has beef with her, or she has beef with Hoid. Not saying much here, it seems like everyone has beef with Hoid. Except for Rock. Rock just knows. 13. There are very unsubtle hints that she has played a role of Trell in the resurfacing of Trell as a religious cult on Scadrial, although, this is, by far, not a given. There are other candidates who are in the running. 14. The new preponderance of evidence suggests that she may be behind the old Trell as well, or at least that the old Trell was brought to Scadrial from Taldain. Again, not a given. 15. In the realm of speculation, but it is also possible, given what we know, that she is responsible for a slate of "prohibitionist" religions in various parts of Cosmere. A goal of a "prohibitionist" religion is to prevent the usage of Investiture on the planet. In some prior posts I called these "Abomination cults": they teach that the use of Investiture in whatever local form is an Abomination and must be stopped.... (Back then I was told it was all a dream and a coincidence, but guess who is laughing now....BWAHAHA)... But I digress. 16. We were also told

New word of Brandon on this is: So it seems like no one has offed Bavadin and taken Autonomy....

Bavadin, a kandra, and Stick walk into a bar.... Continue... (This is actually my next question to Brandon during an AMA)