[Spoilers of Self] Scadrial and the greater Cosmere

[FirstSelector]

Spoilers for Shadows of Self.

 

Warning: this conjecture relies on some guesswork about the nature of Shards and, importantly, the ending of the Stormlight Archive.  It should not be read as a definitive statement, given how much we still don't know about these particular topics.  Instead, I hope to draw some conclusions that others find useful.

 

 

Let's collect a few things we know about Shards.  First, Odium has a way to take down shards.  This process is difficult.  Second, Odium could manifest on Scadrial.  It may show up as metal.  Third, it seems that the way Hemalurgic constructs are controlled by a Shard is quite general.  Fourth, Shards can have champions.  Fifth, Hoid has a grudge with Rayse and Bavadin, the holders of Odium and Autonomy.

 

We also know that Era 2 takes place after the Way of Kings.  Importantly, it is not clear exactly how long, meaning that the fifteen-year gap between Stormlight 5 and 6 could be relevant.

 

I conjecture the following: Odium and Autonomy are working together on Scadrial to undermine and defeat Harmony in Era 2.

 

Before getting to the in-book evidence, I want to address a few points.  First and most strikingly, depending on how we interpret the quote about the timelines, then I am in fact implying that Odium (or a sufficiently large splinter) survives the events of the Stormlight Archive.  It could also be the case that Era 2 happens in the gap years.  I would find Odium's absolute defeat at the conclusion of the Stormlight Archives to be unlikely at best unless there is a bigger, badder bad guy waiting in the wings.

 

Second, the connection between Rayse and Bavadin is tenuous at best.  Odium desires to be the only Shard remaining, meaning that Autonomy will eventually face his wrath.  However, I believe that Odium is clever enough to know when he will need help, and that he could somhow convince Autonomy to assist him in taking down someone with almost twice his raw power.

 

Third, "undermine and defeat" is purposefully vague.  This stems from the fact that we know almost nothing about a Shard's limits.  My proposed mechanism will involve champions, of which we know less.  I am well aware that this limits the predictive power of my theory.

 

Fourth, some of the evidence below is easily ascribed to other influences or Shards.  Since I am working with not particularly much in the way of hard evidence, I will necessarily struggle to prove that this solution is unique.  I contend that this acceptable, since it may open new avenues of thinking.

 

Now, the justification.

 

 

I. Unusual Hatred

 

Even before finishing Shadows of Self, a particular moment stood out to me.  Wax had just shot Lessie (again), and "let out a low-pitched howl from deep within, a raw shout that echoed into the night."  What happens next is remarkable:

 

It seemed to drive the mists back.

 

Before finishing the page, I figured that this was signalling that Harmony knew Wax was none too pleased with him.  However, Wax then describes himself as (emphasis his)

 

Hatred.  He didn't think he had ever felt hatred so intense as he did at that moment.

 

This is, of course, understandable, given what he had just been forced to do.

 

Let us compare this to Kaladin's imprisonment in Words of Radiance:

 

His mind betrayed him, and whispered things that were not true. [...] These untruths should have seemed ridiculous to him.  They didn't.

 

Again, emphasis his.  Kaladin had been sitting and stewing in his own hatred and depression for several weeks by this point.  His bond with Syl was weakening by the minute, and by time he is released from prison he's barely even a Windrunner.

 

Szeth also has a contribution here:

 

They should have killed Szeth.  I hate you.  I hate... everyone.  Glories within, what a strange emotion.

 

Still, emphasis his.

 

The latter two are, I think, pretty obviously explained by Odium's influence on Roshar.  Odium would like to prevent any resistance whatsoever for the upcoming Desolation, and what better way to do that than to destroy the nascent Radiants before they can reform.  In Kaladin's case specifically, Odium's influence is correlated with the weakening of Syl's bond.

 

Curiously, I think we can draw parallels with Wax - one of the least hateful people on Scadrial.  He is ordinarily very careful to reserve judgement, not killing out of hate but out of necessity.  Instead, he now feels an intense, remarkable hatred towards Harmony and the kandra at the same time that the mists pull away from him.  I claim that both effects are due to Odium's direct influence on Wax.

 

This is where the chronology issue comes into play.  In principle, there could be a splinter of Odium that could achieve a similar effect, so Odium does not necessarily need to be whole or even directly nearby.  Thus we could accept any solution that has a sufficently large amount of Odium on Scadrial without strictly having to worry about the timeline.

 

One might also object that Odium would have to expend considerable effort to influence Wax.  I will argue below that this is justified in this case.

 

 

II. Autonomy's influence

 

This point is considerably shorter, as several people on the forums have already commented.  The claim is simple: the new metal is due to the Shard Autonomy.  The evidence is straightforward - Paalm suddenly develops an anomalous independence streak, both for herself and the people of Scadrial.  This is very different than Odium's "divide and conquer" strategy.

 

One might argue that the metal, and its effects, is attributable to many sources.  Additionally, Autonomy already features prominently in a book (White Sand) and this would be a good time to introduce one of the seven remaining Shards.  Both of these points are completely valid, and I could not hope to provide a watertight argument that it must be Autonomy.  However, I believe that in conjunction with the other evidence it is likely.

 

I believe that Autonomy is the source of Miles' and Bloody Tan's madness, if we make the simplifying assumption that there is only one external force acting directly through Hemalurgy.

 

III. Champions

 

Here we must depart the realm of (shaky) evidence and move into pure hypothesis.  At the risk of saying too much, I simply hypothesize the following: Wax is Harmony's (unwitting) champion, and his defeat or death at the hands of another Shard's champion would be devestating to Harmony.  I do not claim to know anything about the particulars, or how this helps Odium in his quest, except that it is damaging in some way.

 

We do note that Wax seems to fit Harmony's Intent pretty well: he is profoundly destructive, but only in the quest to save others.  This is remarked upon quite a bit in Shadows of Self, where even his detractors admit he is effective.  Also, at the young age of twelve, he interupts a loan meeting with the poor man with the intent of letting the worker make an informed choice.

 

We do know that Harmony has been specifically looking out for Wax, going so far as to use kandra to ensure his survival in the Roughs.

 

 

My conjecture can thus be explained as follows:

 

Odium and Autonomy set out specifically to destabilize Harmony by killing his champion, Wax.  They do this by arranging for Tan to "kill" Lessie, then spiking Lessie with the Autonomy spike(s) to drive her mad.  In her Autonomy-driven madness, she is set up for a collision course with Wax, being careful not to reveal her nature until the end.  Then, when Wax realizes what he has done, Odium comes in and sucker-punches him in the same way he did Kaladin and Szeth.

 

The practical upshot is that Wax wants nothing to do with Harmony, putting both of them in unspecified but serious danger.  Should Wax and/or Harmony not figure things out in time, then Odium will be able to strike and kill Sazed and shatter Harmony.

 

Also, if anything like this is correct, it makes me feel so much worse for Wax and Lessie.

 

It's been a while since I've written a long-form theory, and I'm sure that this idea is riddled with errors.  Thanks for reading, and I look forward to comments!

Edit: formatting bug

Edited October 7, 2015 by FirstSelector

[FirstSelector]

I wanted to acknowledge one more important point: there may be an argument that Autonomy's Intent prevents collaboration with Odium. It could be that Bavadin gets around this by having a "target" in mind, i. e. Scadrial and its "controlling" god. Since Odium is acting in line with Autonomy to overthrow Harmony, they can work together.

[Moogle]

A few things:

• I like a lot of your thinking here.  I didn't think of things in quite that light.
• I don't see Wax as Harmony's champion. The "champion" thing seems to be confined to Roshar/the cycle of Desolations, as far as I know.
• Wax feeling hatred is utterly understandable, and I feel attributing the emotion to Odium takes away from the scene. Sazed should be able to detect Odium's presence, if that's what is causing it, and we know from Ruin/Preservation that Shards can see each other.
• I don't expect Odium to be interfering with Scadrial at all while having to deal full-time with Roshar. Weakening himself and allowing Cultivation to further counter him doesn't seem like a winning strategy. I also would not expect Autonomous to be working with him. It would be like working with someone you know is a serial killer.
• I think the timing of Paalm's independence streak is notable: it's after Bloody Tan gets her killed. Did Bloody Tan spike her with the new metal, perhaps?

[FirstSelector]

I always thought (though now I am questioning) that the idea of a "champion" was something available to all Shards, as per Honor's words at the end of the Way of Kings.  At the very least, it seems that Harmony is taking special care with Wax, far above and beyond how he interacts with normal mortals.  Even the language TenSoon uses seems to imply that there is more to their relationship.

 

As for Odium's presence and leaving Roshar, I think this is why the precise chronology is important.  I imagined that by time Era 2 takes place, the Roshar story is finished and Odium's play for that world has run its course.  Or, alternately, he is stymied at the end of book five and takes some time to advance plans on other worlds before diving back into the Roshar fight.  Harmony apparently terrifies him, and I would like to think that Odium's plot against Harmony is something we'd see in a book.

 

Harmony is, I think, still a novice when it comes to the other Shards - it isn't until after they have the strange spike in hand that they suspect involvement.  By your argument, the instant the malicious Shard (whichever it is) came to Scadrial, Harmony could have acted to block him from interfering.

 

I don't think Tan spiked her, but instead whomever spiked Tan (giving him supernatural speed or whatever the prevailing theory is) got to Lessie after Wax buried her.

[Moogle]

I think there's no way another Shard actually came to Scadrial. I think a Shard can cover up small-scale activities, like what happened with Paalm, but actually coming and dragging a planet's worth of Investiture with you? There's no way Harmony wouldn't detect that.

[Dzeser]

Odium wants to be the only Shard. If Autonomy is working with him it makes Bavadin seem really stupid and if Hoid hates him we can rule out Bavadin being stupid but I like a lot in this theory. Especially the 15 year gap makes sense Odium would target Harmony if he gets the chance

[Mashadar Mistborn]

I pointed this out in the reactions page, but if Shards can affect one another's intents(Evidence: Odium entering into a deal that traps him on Roshar seems to be influenced by Honor's intent), then Odium may have corrupted Bavadin's intent towards hatred-fed desire for autonomy.

Brandon has said that he likes Bavadin, he also said something in the same answer about how Shards mess with the holder and it was hard to separate Bavadin from his Shard. Seeing as Brandon has commented that he would not want to be in the same room as Kelsier, who is at least benevolent, I don't think that he'd like  someone as cruel as Bavadin appears in this book. We also know that there is a degree of freedom to the interpretation of a Shard's intent, and a good person wouldn't have interpreted Autonomy in this manner. If Shards can  corrupt other, then it would be tactically sound for Odium to set a Shard to oppose Harmony by corrupting the Shard's intent with hatred. The red dots on "trellium" are not in a color scheme like those of even the god metals, which have uniform color ( this makes sense for a metal) but if Odium, who is associated with red has corrupted Autonomy, then this corruption could be evident in the seeming corrosion of his metal. I hope this was semi-coherent.

[Bremen]

Everyone seems to be assuming that Tan killed Lessie.  To me it was pretty obvious that the one who killed Lessie was Lessie.  She purposefully moved into the path of the bullet in order to die and push Wax to return to Elendel.  This final act for Harmony is what broke her, causing her to search out or be found by whatever entity provided the strange spike.

 

Maybe Tan was in on it, or maybe not.  I'm not sure what was going on with him, although it probably will tie in eventually in some way.

[Sebarial]

 "They do this by arranging for Tan to "kill" Lessie, then spiking Lessie with the Autonomy spike(s) to drive her mad.  In her Autonomy-driven madness, she is set up for a collision course with Wax, being careful not to reveal her nature until the end.  Then, when Wax realizes what he has done, Odium comes in and sucker-punches him in the same way he did Kaladin and Szeth."

 

Harmony arranged for Lessie to be killed.  So Wax would go back to the city.  The book mentions that Bleeder has commented on Harmony forcing her to do something in the past, I do not remember the exact wording.  I am pretty sure this was when she "died" Bloody Tan was controlled by Harmony to do so because she fell in love and would not allow him to return to the city.  She stated that she could never take him from the Roughs because he loved it there.  This is why Harmony "controlled" her.  He didn't do it directly, but he still controlled her just the same by controlling the events around her. 

Edited October 9, 2015 by Sebarial

[Voidus]

I think there's no way another Shard actually came to Scadrial. I think a Shard can cover up small-scale activities, like what happened with Paalm, but actually coming and dragging a planet's worth of Investiture with you? There's no way Harmony wouldn't detect that.

^

I think it's much more likely that a Shard gave some of their essence to an agent of some kind and sent them to Scadrial (The potential Parshendi mentioned in the Broadsheets seems the current favourite candidate)

As was mentioned if an entire Shard or sufficiently large piece of one came to Scadrial I'm pretty sure Harmony would detect it, I also think it's unlikely any would since they'd probably be too scared of Harmony to do anything openly.

There's also the quote that you actually included in your OP but then seemed to ignore that Odium can't even influence people on Roshar without the Unmade let alone on Scadrial.

[Ari]

I always thought (though now I am questioning) that the idea of a "champion" was something available to all Shards, as per Honor's words at the end of the Way of Kings.  At the very least, it seems that Harmony is taking special care with Wax, far above and beyond how he interacts with normal mortals.  Even the language TenSoon uses seems to imply that there is more to their relationship.

 

As for Odium's presence and leaving Roshar, I think this is why the precise chronology is important.  I imagined that by time Era 2 takes place, the Roshar story is finished and Odium's play for that world has run its course.  Or, alternately, he is stymied at the end of book five and takes some time to advance plans on other worlds before diving back into the Roshar fight.  Harmony apparently terrifies him, and I would like to think that Odium's plot against Harmony is something we'd see in a book.

 

Harmony is, I think, still a novice when it comes to the other Shards - it isn't until after they have the strange spike in hand that they suspect involvement.  By your argument, the instant the malicious Shard (whichever it is) came to Scadrial, Harmony could have acted to block him from interfering.

 

I don't think Tan spiked her, but instead whomever spiked Tan (giving him supernatural speed or whatever the prevailing theory is) got to Lessie after Wax buried her.

 

I agree with you that it's possible that a champion is a common thing to all shards. That would put Tensoon's comments about Wax being Harmony's "Ruin" in an interesting light- Wax is specifically Ruin's champion, not Harmony's.

 

Odium wants to be the only Shard. If Autonomy is working with him it makes Bavadin seem really stupid and if Hoid hates him we can rule out Bavadin being stupid but I like a lot in this theory. Especially the 15 year gap makes sense Odium would target Harmony if he gets the chance

 

I personally think Autonomy was interfering on his own, but keep in mind that the two intents are not at all incompatible. In fact, as long as Odium makes no move to interfere directly with Autonomy, and limits his manipulation to come short of slavery or controlling people as much as possible, then he'll be able to stay perfectly on-side with Autonomy. Especially if Odium's goal is to Splinter all other shards, and Autonomy's is to Splinter the ones he sees as meddlers.... well, then their goals align up to a certain point, and Autonomy just needs to have a double-cross ready for Odium later on.

 

It's entirely possible that Autonomy has a beef with most other shards, seeing them as too paternalistic, or enslaving others, but sees Harmony as the biggest problem, as he is two shards at once. This would not necessarily require any overt manipulation from Odium, although I would probably agree that they may have worked together in the past, given that two shards that directly opposed their intents now lie Splintered.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Ari

[FirstSelector]

First, there are several good points made that Odium could hardly visit Scadrial without Sazed finding out.  That's true, but them sending Invested agents accomplishes the same thing.  And we note that all of the current restrictions we know about Odium stem from his current predicament on Roshar, so there's no reason to believe that he (or one of his agents) couldn't influence Scadrians in other ways once he is more free.

 

Second, we don't know enough to make claims about much foreign Investiture one needs to become "detectable" to the resident Shards.  It could also be possible that Shards can specifically hack the resident system to provide a cover.  Does a Shard need to visit the world directly to manifest a new Investiture?  I would have guessed "yes," since there is no clear way to take an un-manifested piece of Autonomy and bring to Scadrial where it transmutes into metal.  That sort of argument implies that Autonomy (or whatever Shard) must have directly visited Scadrial, and yet Sazed didn't notice.

 

Actually, there is a certain attractiveness to this plan: Autonomy directly invests on the planet, drawing Harmony's attention if he didn't already have it.  Then, Odium moves in with his much lower-profile agent to strike.

 

As an aside, it was verified in the SF signing that the other Shards could theoretically have champions and that Odium would (and perhaps has) work with another Shard, provided that Odium was in control of the arrangement.

[Moogle]

I agree with you that it's possible that a champion is a common thing to all shards. That would put Tensoon's comments about Wax being Harmony's "Ruin" in an interesting light- Wax is specifically Ruin's champion, not Harmony's.

 

We got a WoB on this!

 

Q [2:06:06]: Can all Shards have champions?

A: This is a, um, Theoretically possible, but you’ll find more about the backstory of why this works here (presumably he is referring to Stormlight).

(source)

 

It doesn't sound like non-SA Shards do it.

[Ari]

 

We got a WoB on this!

 

 

It doesn't sound like non-SA Shards do it.

 

Sweet.

 

Wax is metaphorically Harmony's champion at the very least, however. I do love that Kandra framing of him as Harmony's Ruin though, that was an excellent character beat.

[hypatia]

Doesn't this "Harmony's Ruin" rise another question:

Who's Harmony's Preservation?

Steris?

Perhaps even one of each aspect - Ruin, Preservation and Harmony?

[natc]

TenSoon literally calls himself Harmony's Preservation in the same sentence, I'm pretty sure.

[hypatia]

Yes, I should have been more precise - I thought of a human being like Wax.

TenSoon as a Kandra don't harmonize for me with Wax as the same level of representation for Ruin and Preservation.

This is only a feeling....

Perhaps this explains better, what I think:

Kandra

Paalm/Ruin - TenSoon/Preservation

Humans

Wax/Ruin - ?/Preservation

Edited October 12, 2015 by hypatia

[Patar]

Could Marsh be considered one of Harmony's champion? 

[DreamEternal]

Could Marsh be considered one of Harmony's champion?

"Champion" seems to mean something very specific that applies to the current conflit between Honor and Odium, even if it could happen to other shards. For other cases, I prefer the term "agents".

[ParadoxicalZen]

There is also the literal intepretation; Wax is Harmony's Ruin/ruin aka downfall?

[FirstSelector]

Indeed, I myself asked that question in reference to this theory.  I agree that the 'theoretically' hedge means that it's unlikely that other Shards are engaging in the same behavior, but at the same time we know that Preservation had a remarkably odd (in that Sazed remarked on it) relationship with Vin.  Prehaps she wasn't his champion, per se, but it does set a precedent for a Shard focusing on a particular person.

 

Even if Vin wasn't Preservation's 'official' champion, had she fallen in battle or deviated from her path it would have been disastrous for Preservation and Scadrial (and, perhaps, the cosmere at large).  So, interfering with these special individuals can be dramatic indeed even without them holding a title.

[mthorp25]

On 10/7/2015 at 4:58 AM, FirstSelector said:

Spoilers for Shadows of Self.

 

Warning: this conjecture relies on some guesswork about the nature of Shards and, importantly, the ending of the Stormlight Archive.  It should not be read as a definitive statement, given how much we still don't know about these particular topics.  Instead, I hope to draw some conclusions that others find useful.

 

 

Let's collect a few things we know about Shards.  First, Odium has a way to take down shards.  This process is difficult.  Second, Odium could manifest on Scadrial.  It may show up as metal.  Third, it seems that the way Hemalurgic constructs are controlled by a Shard is quite general.  Fourth, Shards can have champions.  Fifth, Hoid has a grudge with Rayse and Bavadin, the holders of Odium and Autonomy.

 

We also know that Era 2 takes place after the Way of Kings.  Importantly, it is not clear exactly how long, meaning that the fifteen-year gap between Stormlight 5 and 6 could be relevant.

 

I conjecture the following: Odium and Autonomy are working together on Scadrial to undermine and defeat Harmony in Era 2.

 

Before getting to the in-book evidence, I want to address a few points.  First and most strikingly, depending on how we interpret the quote about the timelines, then I am in fact implying that Odium (or a sufficiently large splinter) survives the events of the Stormlight Archive.  It could also be the case that Era 2 happens in the gap years.  I would find Odium's absolute defeat at the conclusion of the Stormlight Archives to be unlikely at best unless there is a bigger, badder bad guy waiting in the wings.

 

Second, the connection between Rayse and Bavadin is tenuous at best.  Odium desires to be the only Shard remaining, meaning that Autonomy will eventually face his wrath.  However, I believe that Odium is clever enough to know when he will need help, and that he could somhow convince Autonomy to assist him in taking down someone with almost twice his raw power.

 

Third, "undermine and defeat" is purposefully vague.  This stems from the fact that we know almost nothing about a Shard's limits.  My proposed mechanism will involve champions, of which we know less.  I am well aware that this limits the predictive power of my theory.

 

Fourth, some of the evidence below is easily ascribed to other influences or Shards.  Since I am working with not particularly much in the way of hard evidence, I will necessarily struggle to prove that this solution is unique.  I contend that this acceptable, since it may open new avenues of thinking.

 

Now, the justification.

 

 

I. Unusual Hatred

 

Even before finishing Shadows of Self, a particular moment stood out to me.  Wax had just shot Lessie (again), and "let out a low-pitched howl from deep within, a raw shout that echoed into the night."  What happens next is remarkable:

 

 

Before finishing the page, I figured that this was signalling that Harmony knew Wax was none too pleased with him.  However, Wax then describes himself as (emphasis his)

 

 

This is, of course, understandable, given what he had just been forced to do.

 

Let us compare this to Kaladin's imprisonment in Words of Radiance:

 

 

Again, emphasis his.  Kaladin had been sitting and stewing in his own hatred and depression for several weeks by this point.  His bond with Syl was weakening by the minute, and by time he is released from prison he's barely even a Windrunner.

 

Szeth also has a contribution here:

 

 

Still, emphasis his.

 

The latter two are, I think, pretty obviously explained by Odium's influence on Roshar.  Odium would like to prevent any resistance whatsoever for the upcoming Desolation, and what better way to do that than to destroy the nascent Radiants before they can reform.  In Kaladin's case specifically, Odium's influence is correlated with the weakening of Syl's bond.

 

Curiously, I think we can draw parallels with Wax - one of the least hateful people on Scadrial.  He is ordinarily very careful to reserve judgement, not killing out of hate but out of necessity.  Instead, he now feels an intense, remarkable hatred towards Harmony and the kandra at the same time that the mists pull away from him.  I claim that both effects are due to Odium's direct influence on Wax.

 

This is where the chronology issue comes into play.  In principle, there could be a splinter of Odium that could achieve a similar effect, so Odium does not necessarily need to be whole or even directly nearby.  Thus we could accept any solution that has a sufficently large amount of Odium on Scadrial without strictly having to worry about the timeline.

 

One might also object that Odium would have to expend considerable effort to influence Wax.  I will argue below that this is justified in this case.

 

 

II. Autonomy's influence

 

This point is considerably shorter, as several people on the forums have already commented.  The claim is simple: the new metal is due to the Shard Autonomy.  The evidence is straightforward - Paalm suddenly develops an anomalous independence streak, both for herself and the people of Scadrial.  This is very different than Odium's "divide and conquer" strategy.

 

One might argue that the metal, and its effects, is attributable to many sources.  Additionally, Autonomy already features prominently in a book (White Sand) and this would be a good time to introduce one of the seven remaining Shards.  Both of these points are completely valid, and I could not hope to provide a watertight argument that it must be Autonomy.  However, I believe that in conjunction with the other evidence it is likely.

 

I believe that Autonomy is the source of Miles' and Bloody Tan's madness, if we make the simplifying assumption that there is only one external force acting directly through Hemalurgy.

 

III. Champions

 

Here we must depart the realm of (shaky) evidence and move into pure hypothesis.  At the risk of saying too much, I simply hypothesize the following: Wax is Harmony's (unwitting) champion, and his defeat or death at the hands of another Shard's champion would be devestating to Harmony.  I do not claim to know anything about the particulars, or how this helps Odium in his quest, except that it is damaging in some way.

 

We do note that Wax seems to fit Harmony's Intent pretty well: he is profoundly destructive, but only in the quest to save others.  This is remarked upon quite a bit in Shadows of Self, where even his detractors admit he is effective.  Also, at the young age of twelve, he interupts a loan meeting with the poor man with the intent of letting the worker make an informed choice.

 

We do know that Harmony has been specifically looking out for Wax, going so far as to use kandra to ensure his survival in the Roughs.

 

 

My conjecture can thus be explained as follows:

 

Odium and Autonomy set out specifically to destabilize Harmony by killing his champion, Wax.  They do this by arranging for Tan to "kill" Lessie, then spiking Lessie with the Autonomy spike(s) to drive her mad.  In her Autonomy-driven madness, she is set up for a collision course with Wax, being careful not to reveal her nature until the end.  Then, when Wax realizes what he has done, Odium comes in and sucker-punches him in the same way he did Kaladin and Szeth.

 

The practical upshot is that Wax wants nothing to do with Harmony, putting both of them in unspecified but serious danger.  Should Wax and/or Harmony not figure things out in time, then Odium will be able to strike and kill Sazed and shatter Harmony.

 

Also, if anything like this is correct, it makes me feel so much worse for Wax and Lessie.

 

It's been a while since I've written a long-form theory, and I'm sure that this idea is riddled with errors.  Thanks for reading, and I look forward to comments!

Edit: formatting bug

Is it just me, or does this theory from a year ago hold MUUUUCCCHHHHHH more weight now? Seeing as how we have Bands of Mourning and AU to refer to? 

 

Anyone care to refine this thread now that we have more information ? 

[Toaster Retribution]

Well, first off, we actually dont know wether Bavadin is still alive or not, during Stormlight/Era 2 (I assume it is around this time Khriss wrote the essays). This is because of Autonomy being referred to as a she in the Taldain essay. Personally, I think Bavadin is still alive and kicking, and that Brandon just retconned, but we cant be sure. This does not really impact the theory though, as Bavadin/new Autonomy both could join Odium in a quest to beat the living crap out of poor Sazed.

I do agree with the guy who said that Wax´s hate feels justified without Odium being nearby to influence him. I think it is more likely that Autonomy has gone there herself than Odium joining in.