The Harlem Worldhoppers

Yes, this would be a flaw in the theory. A counterpoint would be that while Cultivation is more powerful than Sja Anat, she has not openly been involved in the conflict as of yet. Her manipulations have been in the shadows and I believe she is not ready or capable of direct confrontation with Odium. She usually lets the Nightwatcher handle errands and it is likely that she sent Sja Anat on this particular errand, possibly to see if she was trustworthy.

One of the great mysteries of Oathbringer and the Stormlight Archive thus far is determining the motives of the Ghostbloods. They have many investiture related objects from several shardworlds including a vial of white sand, an aviar, a tear of Edgli flower, a knife from Threnody and royal Idrian locks. They are aware that Sja Anat is willing to defect and are eager for Sja Anat to serve their unknown purposes. So how exactly would Sja Anat serve the Ghostbloods? Other than taking a powerful stick away from Odium, Sja Anat's ability to corrupt spren may give an insight into how she could be of use to the Ghostbloods. I believe that the mechanics involved in corrupting spren are similar to the mechanics involved in altering a spirit web. This would be akin to the effect of a normal person ingesting Lerasium. Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Lerasium overwrites Spiritual DNA. It can do some interesting things, and can overwrite your Spiritual DNA in different ways if you do it right. If a Surgebinder ate lerasium, he would become an Allomancer, but Brandon implied other things could be done. source We know that a nahel bond forms with an individual with cracks in their spirit web. These cracks are caused by experiencing severe trauma, similar to snapping in Era 1 Mistborn. Now here's where Shallan comes into play. She bonded Pattern before her family life was destroyed. While her parents may have been in an unhappy marriage, this would not be harrowing enough to cause cracks in the spirit web to form. This raises the question of how and when Shallan's spirit web was cracked and how she came to originally bond Pattern. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Why don't you have to say the words if you're just bonding a Cryptic? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Every Order's First Oath is the same. Then the Second Oaths for the Cryptics go into truths, but everybody says the First Oath the same regardless of Order. Which should raise the question of... Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Did [Shallan] say it when she was a teeny-weeny, like in the cradle? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] That should raise a question. She wasn't teeny-weeny, but it should raise a question there. source Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] How was Shallan able to bond with Pattern before she was broken? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] She was open to him even before she went through a lot of that turmoil Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] I thought everybody had to be broken in order to-- Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Well, that's their philosophy in-world. But I'm not going to say whether it's correct or wrong. I will imply that there are other means as well. source We also know that an unmade was influencing the Davar family at some point Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Was Shallan's family, during her childhood, being influenced by an Unmade? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Um, yes. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Was it <the corrupt...>? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] I'll RAFO that, but yes, there is some external influence there. Theory: Sja Anat is the unmade that was present during Shallan's childhood. Sja Anat altered Shallan's spirit web to allow a nahel bond to be formed with Pattern. Additionally, Sja Anat did so at Cultivation's request. Cultivation has powerful future sight as shown by The Diagram, which I and many others believe to be designed to intentionally mislead Odium. Cultivation's scheming against Odium has been going on for at least 5-6 years, as this is the age of The Diagram. Cultivation sent Glys to Sja Anat to be corrupted, giving Renarin access to surges which make him a counter against Odium. This sets precedent for Cultivation and Sja Anat cooperating. So how does this tie into Shallan's history? One only needs to look at the sequence of events caused by Shallan bonding Pattern. Shallan bonds Pattern. Her mother finds out and she conspires with a skybreaker acolyte to kill her. This event permanently scars the rest of the Davar family, driving Lin Davar down into a dark spiral. Helaran Davar joins the skybreakers after abandoning his household. Kaladin kills Helaran in attempting to save Amaram, setting Kaladin down his path. Given Cultivation's incredible foresight, she would have foreseen the consequences of Shallan bonding Patter and these consequences are obstructive towards Odium's goals. If Sja Anat is indeed capable of altering an individual's spirit web as I have theorised above, then she would be an incredibly powerful tool for an organisation such as the Ghostbloods and it comes at no surprise that they would be ambitious enough to pursue it.

As Butt reflected upon this he saw a stick. The Stick...

When you see someone with earrings and think they are corrupted by Ruin.

@RShara I think Kelsier is a little bit less egotistical and self-centered and possibly more empathetic post Secret History compared to The Final Empire. Having briefly held Preservation and having the heart to heart with Vin at the end of SH will have at least made a minor impact on his characterization. I agree that he will always be a bit egotistical but he is capable of keeping a low profile if it furthers his goals. His moonlighting as the Lord Ruler while saving the Southern Scadrians and making the bands in BoM along with the fact that the Northern Hemisphere who worship Kelsier himself were unaware of his antics suggests that he is fine with being secretive. We also have a WoB that Kelsier did not want anyone to know that he had been the one to create the bands and that Hoid was acting against him. Viridian Why did Hoid give the memory coin to Wax? What was his intention? Brandon Sanderson He thought that certain information was being kept, and certain lies were being perpetuated. And Hoid was a fan of that information being out. Viridian I'm still suspicious. Brandon Sanderson Oh, you should be suspicious of Hoid's motive. He and Kelsier do not get along. Let's just say... Kelsier did not want that information to get out. source If you come to the conclusion that Kelsier has worldhopped then Roshar is one of the most likely destinations. Roshar has been something of a worldhopper central with kandra and Demoux from scadrial appearing in minor roles and Vasher, Vivenna and Nightblood in potentially more influential roles. It is arguably the most investiture heavy shardworld we have seen so far and there is a plethora of wealth and knowledge to be gained from interested worldhopper parties. Given Kelsier's adamance in exploring the cosmere and gaining cosmeric knowledge to Spook at the end of SH, I think Kelsier would definitely be interested in events on Roshar. You are correct that Kelsier has probably not set foot on Roshar himself but his theoretical crew in the Ghostbloods are running ground operations there.

Oh I forgot about the devotary of sincerity @Vissy. I think it's a guarantee that Kelsier has worldhopped. He tells Spook that he wants to uncover all the secrets in the cosmere, then he makes the bands and disappears. He wouldn't be content to sit still for nearly 300 years so when he disappeared it must have been off world. This is supported by Wax's conversation with Sazed where Sazed implies that he is no longer able to contact Kelsier. If Kelsier were on Scadrial at the time then Sazed could communicate via the hemallurgic spike in his eye. The only way he would be unable to contact Kelsier is if he was dead, which is impossible given he has a cameo in the lost metal, or that he is off world and out of communication range so to speak.

Yeah, Kelsier has inquisitor vision in one eye and is described as having a spike in his eye by Ailik, the Southern Scadrian. Hemallurgy is definitely involved. It is possible however that Marsh is referencing Kelsier's work in The Final Empire as Marsh approved of the skaa rebellion and we don't know if he approves of Kelsier's goals post Secrer History. There's a WoB related to this somewhere. Edit: Found the WoB's 1. Questioner At the end of “Alloy of Law” Marsh tells Marasi he is giving the diary to Wax because “.. he does my brother's work”. At this time it was a reminder of Kelsier, but with Secret History and the third book out why does Marsh think we need someone to do his brother's work? Isn't Kelsier doing that himself? Brandon Sanderson Well. (laughs) Marsh is of multiple minds on what's happening with Kelsier at this time. When he's referencing his brother's work, he's specifically tells Marasi speaking to the lore of the Survivor. Like he's specifically talking to somebody, and he does believe this. He may not think that Kelsier is doing Kelsier's work anymore. But that depends on... You will see interaction between Marsh and Kelsier in the future. source 2.Questioner Does Marsh know about Kelsier's existence? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Questioner Ok. And are Marsh and him having like happy fun times together? Brandon Sanderson Kelsier and Marsh did not often have happy fun times. You can imagine if you want but, yeah. source

Thanks! I know there is only circumstantial evidence so far but I hope as we receive a Kelsier cameo in The Lost Metal next year that some light is shed on his motivations. We will also learn more about Sja Anat and the ghostbloods in Stormlight 4 due to Shallan's involvement so this theory will either become more concrete or shattered like Adonalsium over the next 2 years.

Keep in mind that this is all speculation. Below are some relevant WoB's which I will dive into later 1. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] The Ghostbloods. Are they Kelsier's new crew? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Oh, good question. Do I wanna answer this or not? I'm gonna RAFO this one. Yeah, we're gonna RAFO this one. Billy Todd [PENDING REVIEW] Have there been interactions between Kelsier and the Ghostbloods? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] I will RAFO that. 2. ccstat If Kelsier (when Vin knew him) were to join one of the Rosharan secret societies, which one would he choose? Brandon Sanderson He would become part of the Ghostbloods, most likely, and would be in charge of them within a year. source source 3. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Yes, or no. With all of the cosmere books that have been put out, do we have enough information to deduce the Ghostbloods' motives? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Ummm... *laugher* I would say yes, but it's not like you are a fool if you haven't gotten it. Robert Jordan once answered a question like this saying, "Well, the answer should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer." Which I never thought was fair. Like, no, it was not. Szeth, some people guessed it. And some people will guess this. A lot of the foreshadowing in my books, it's this weird thing where, when you do proper foreshadowing, and then people have three years between books, they're gonna figure some things out. Which presents a really interesting challenge to me as a writer, because, like, there are big things that get revealed in Oathbringer, that people who have been steeped in the world for the last seven years... they kinda knew this would happen. We get the beta readers, and they're like, "So? Doesn't everyone know that?" But at the same time, the casual reader, beta readers were like "Holy cow! This is a huge revelation!" And books need to work both for the person who has been really steeped in it, and the person who's reading along that maybe doesn't want to go get all the spoilers from all the fan guessing. So it is this weird balancing act that, as a writer, you have to perform, particularly with the longer books in the longer series, where you want to make sure they're engaging to the hardcore fan, but not overwhelming to the person who maybe hasn't reread the books since the last one came out. And I don't know that I have that balance figured out, but it is something I think about a lot... source Kelsier's motivations post Secret History: After his interactions with Khriss and Nazh in Secret History, Kelsier realises just how little he really knows. Kelsier would see this ignorance as a weakness he must overcome, as to rise to the top he must acquire knowledge. Kelsier's conversation with Spook at the end of Secret History illustrate his quest to pursue knowledge of the cosmere. “Now, don’t be like that,” Kelsier said. “Our work is important. Vital. We’re going to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The cosmere, as it is called.” “It’s a big, big place out there, kid,” Kelsier said. “Bigger than I ever knew. Ignorance almost lost us everything. I’m not going to let that happen again.” He tapped at Spook’s ear. “While dead, I had an opportunity. My mind expanded, and I learned some things. My focus wasn’t on these spikes; I think I could have worked it all out, if it had been. I still learned enough to be dangerous, and the two of us are going to figure the rest out.” If there is one thing we know about Kelsier, it is that he compulsively meddles. He would not be content to swear an oath of non-interference like the 17th shard members. We know from a WoB that the 17th shard and ghostbloods do not work together. Furthermore, Iyatil has South Scadrian ancestry and was a former member of the 17th shard. It is plausible that she converted to the ghostbloods after a little persuasion from the god figure of her ancestors. So the 17th shard does not fit Kelsier, leaving the ghostbloods as the only known worldhopper organisation with a similar agenda. We know that Kelsier always feels the need to operate a crew. This is a constant between pre-Final Empire and post-Final Empire Kelsier, as shown when he treats Preservation/Fuzz as a crew member after determining his goal was to stop ruin and also at the end of Secret History when he recruits Spook. It is highly probable, then, that Kelsier post-Secret History has founded a new crew which is the ghostbloods. So what exactly are the ghostbloods up to? First of all, a minor piece of evidence linking the ghostbloods to Kelsier is the name of the organisation. Ghost= cognitive shadow, Blood= hemallurgy Now, as shown above, Kelsier appears to be on a quest to gather cosmere knowledge. In Mraize's basement we see artifacts from many worlds, including a knife from Threnody (possibly the knife which Nazh gave to Kelsier in Secret History), a vial of white sand, a dye flower from Nalthis (tears of Edgli), possibly Royal Idrian locks and in a later scene we see Mraize with an aviar. This shows that the ghostbloods are collecting investiture related artifacts from numerous shardworlds. The collection of these artifacts would tie into Kelsier's pursuit of cosmeric knowledge. Here's where things get a little crazy. I believe that Sja Anat has known Shallan since she was a child and is responsible for her forming a nahel bond so early in life before everything fell apart. 4. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Was Shallan's family, during her childhood, being influenced by an Unmade? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Um, yes. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Was it <the corrupt...>? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] I'll RAFO that, but yes, there is some external influence there. source 5. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Why don't you have to say the words if you're just bonding a Cryptic? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Every Order's First Oath is the same. Then the Second Oaths for the Cryptics go into truths, but everybody says the First Oath the same regardless of Order. Which should raise the question of... Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Did [Shallan] say it when she was a teeny-weeny, like in the cradle? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] That should raise a question. She wasn't teeny-weeny, but it should raise a question there. source This would tie in with the ghostbloods interest in Sja Anat, as she may be able to grant them nahel bonds in a similar fashion. This would add to their investiture collection. I see the situation as being similar to Hoid collecting investiture from different sources, though the end goals likely differ drastically. 6. Questioner How would - just really generally - the Ghostbloods react if they found or met Hoid? Brandon Sanderson (laughs) They... Some people among them know of him. Questioner So they know he's around. Brandon Sanderson Some of them do, not everybody. But they are aware of his existence. At least in lore, they don't always... Not all of them have connected the King's Wit to this person's lore, does that make sense? So what would they know? They'd probably want to get him and interrogate him. They would want to know what he knows, but he is really slippery and it's hard to get out of him what he knows. source Conclusion: There is a realistic possibility that Kelsier has at least had involvement with the ghostbloods. This could potentially set up conflict between Hoid and Kelsier as they would have similar pursuits and really don't get along very well. We know that Secret History was in the works from as early as 2006 so Brandon clearly felt like he had not finished telling Kelsier's story. Maybe Shallan will finally meet the mysterious Thaidakar with heavily scarred arms.

When you daydream about how you would use feruchemy to break every Olympic record ever or using the Internet and copperminds to become a living encyclopaedia.

People are forgetting just how powerful the super smash brothers giga Marsh and 'Sovereign' Kelsier are. I'd say either of those two are the most powerful non-Shardic entities just below Hoid. Unless the Rosharans got their hands on some dawnshards the Scadrians take this one easily.

As @Zath cleverly pointed out above, the Oathbringer love triangle could Buck the trend of arranged marriages in Sanderson's novels. The plethora of arranged marriages is one of the most common criticisms of Sanderson's work, and I'm sure he is aware of this. He has also received criticism that many of his female characters are all too similar. However, I think this has become less true over time with his characters as his writing has improved. The next logical step would be to turn the Shallan-Adolin arranged marriage on its head. Some users above have talked about the 'fridging' of Adolin to achieve this but I find it unlikely. A potential Maya revival arc does not grant Adolin plot shardplate, as seen with Elhokar's near radiant experience. While I doubt this plot device gets reused so soon, there are other ways in which Adolin could revive Maya and die, or revive Maya and discover that he is not broken enough to be a radiant. Personally, I could see a mutual ending of the arranged marriage as Adolin has shown his willingness to step back and respect Shallan's wishes, while Shallan would inherently experience some character growth by confronting her past and her feelings for Kaladin.

@thejopen27 This is going to be a long post. I would recommend reading this if you were left frustrated at how the romance in Oathbringer was handled. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VqLjiUojkPqIfLJLyu7OnykTP3i-LG0f5f1KjRSJE6A/mobilebasic#h.wkauw2fpicg4 Firstly, I agree with everything you've said above except I actually enjoyed Wax and Steris' relationship and felt it developed somewhat organically. When I read Oathbringer I was left extremely dissatisfied with how the love triangle was handled. The wedding at the end is incredibly rushed and structurally jarring in my opinion. I personally believe that this was intentional and that the 'real Shallan' we see at the end is nothing more than a persona and that Shallan has forced her romantic feelings for Kaladin into the Veil persona. Shallan forces aspects of herself that she is either incapable of dealing with or dislikes onto her personas. After Jasnah chastises Shallan for her drawing of Kaladin she pushes her romantic interest in Kaladin onto Veil. This provides her with the wish fulfilment which is marrying Adolin. For her entire life, she has expected to be married off for political purposes and sequestered in a manor so the 'real Shallan' persona latches onto this opportunity for a little bit of normalcy in her turbulent life. I think what ultimately confused me the most with the love triangle is the reasoning behind pushing Kaladin towards Shallan through the chasm sequence and Syl's wingsprenning when it amounts to nothing. No character development for Kaladin, Shallan or Adolin. None at all. In fact, I think due to the lightweaver nature of oath progression as truths and self awareness, Shallan will fray her bond with Pattern by deluding herself, so Shallan's character may be regressing despite her apparent happiness at the end of oathbringer. Shallan's self delusion is shown when she dismisses any romantic feelings for Kaladin as Veil having 'bad taste in men'. Given their interactions in the chasm, this comment comes off as incredibly disingenuous and demonstrates the disconnect between Shallan and reality as she views her constructed personas as separate entities whose attributes do not originate from herself. I'm hopeful that all of Brandon's teasing and foreshadowing for Shallan and Kaladin being romantically involved pays off. It makes sense from a narrative standpoint as Kaladin would have to forgive himself for failing Tien before he can be in a relationship (see Tarah), and Shallan would have to integrate her personas and lift the mask of lies she has been wearing.

He's so good in Vikings!

I thought Timbre was a lightspren. Captain Ico, the lightspren captain that gives Kaladin and co their first boat ride mentions his daughter who ran away. I'm pretty sure his lightspren daughter is Timbre.

Poor Rysn, can't catch a break. If she were to become a bondsmith I wonder if she would have no shards similarly to Dalinar with the storm father. It feels like the abilities of a bondsmith are not well suited for combat.

I know it's a bit of an unpopular opinion but I voted Secret History. It answered a lot of questions which has been bugging me (Vin's suspicion of Hoid) and was a massive info dump on realmatic theory which I appreciated. Vin and Kelsier's final farewell was emotions and Kelsier's quest to punch deities in the face is hilarious. The end reveal that Kelsier is returning to the physical realm as a cognitive shadow stapled to a body using hemallurgy gets me excited for future mistborn novels as I feel that his full story has not yet been told.

I completely forgot about Rysn. I personally believe that Rysn will be one of the minor characters that plays a larger role in the back half of the books. I wonder if becoming a radiant would heal her legs or if her self-perception of being crippled prevents that. It would be bittersweet to see her become a radiant yet remain unable to walk.

Brandon has said Kelsier will play a small role in The Lost Metal so that will hopefully shine a light on his motivations. He is clearly not afraid to get his hands dirty to accomplish his goals. Serial killers follow a pattern in their targets so era 1 Kelsier could be said to be a serial killer targeting nobility, though he lumped in skaa who served the nobility. What if he is targeting allomancers and/or feruchemists to either harvest their abilities or remove their abilities from the gene pool?

I would love to see Adam Warlock in guardians 3. I think Travis Fimmel from Vikings would be a good fit

It would be an interesting turn of events if the mistborn serial killer were Kelsier. I've read your theory @Toaster Retribution And I think there is a solid argument for it being Kelsier. Brandon was writing Secret History from as early as 2006 so he has clearly felt for a long time that Kelsier's story is not yet finished.

I'm wondering how a mistborn would be born in the future given that allomantic abilities become diluted over time. If the serial killer used hemallurgy to achieve this then they would be open to Harmony's influence and I can't imagine Harmony allowing someone to use hemmalurgy for evil intentions. Is this mistborn the product of The Set's plans? Is it kelsier as some have theorised? Leave your thoughts below

I have to say Thanos is the first MCU villain that I found compelling. Outside of comic book films I despised Nurse Ratchett in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It takes some seriously good acting to make you hate a character so much.

I really want to see Adolin revive his blade next book. So far he has been such a perfect one dimensional character and I thought him murdering Sadeas might finally catalyse some character growth. Maybe he will have a falling out with Dalinar after discovering what really happened in Rathalas and this falling out could leave cracks in his spirit web for a radiant bond to fill.

I agree with wanting Rlain for bondsmith. Do you think he will bond 'the sibling'?