I have a strong feeling what we think we know about his origin is probably stuff he put out there himself. I keep getting the idea he is the original God or has a connection to them.
One thing I always liked about Rashek was how good his depiction had been made. Until the inquisitors and rashek started dying I, who had no spoilers about anything on the series, genuinely believed that rashek was a God. I genuinely though that the inquisitors were immortal and this was largely due to how they were presented. Even mistborn, the strongest people alive, the guys able to singlehandedly kill groups of people alone, stood no chance against an inquisitor. Atium or not, you didn't fight an inquisitor, that was madness. The best they could hope for was running away. And that was only for the servants of the lord ruler, as the man himself was on an even higher plane of existence. Other villains such as Ruin, Sadeas, The bleeder were good, but Rashek still stands as the best villain I've ever seen in all of media. The later character development we got out of him just made an already amazing villain even better.
imo: 1. Words of Radiance 2. Rhythm of War 3. The Way of Kings 4. OathBringer Decent gap 5. Hero of Ages 6. The Well of Ascension 7. The Final Empire 8. Warbreaker 9. Emerald Sea 10. Emperor’s Soul
The video sounded like the Lord Ruler created religion basing him as God because he just wanted it. Actually he had to do it. If ge let any religion to exist, then Ruin would alter the religious text over time and make someone to risk their life to release Ruin again. By enforcing him as God, he can controlled what faith and believe people have. Also he had to destroy keepers so that nobody would know what happened and turns against him to release the power again.
There’s definitely some spoilers for non mist born info here best you get is sazed/harmony confirming an afterlife in HoA no mention of the beyond of cognitive realm
The Lord Ruler is one of, if not the best villain in all of media. I went in the first book completely blind and that aura he had of all powerful yet mysterious God was genuinely believable. Until they revealed the nature of steel inquisitors and the Lord ruler I truly believed the characters were dealing with a God, which made the fight scene against the inquisitors so amazing. I actually screamed when Kelsier killed the inquisitor, I genuinely believed those fuckers were immortal and having Rashek knock Kelsier out with a single slap left me more surprised than I could remember being with a series. Holy shit that was one of the best books I have read in my life
If you rationalize TLR into being a good guy you could do the same to Hitler. He was a genocidal piece of shit, regardless of his plans to contain Ruin.
A lot of religions where not just made in isolation; the Greeks took gods from Egypt and vice versa. And a second is that if a kingdom conquers another, they’re religion could merge together, this is called ‘synergism’, that’s also how Zeus has many kids, because he used to be many. My fantasy book I’m writing has a lot to do with religion and how we can use it to control others, or as an excuse to commit genocide and/or colonialism.
Not really fair, Vin even if you took away preservation or Atium or deralihm* is a fully developed and finished character, Kaladin on the other hand is only at his third ideal, and has like 4 books to go. Ya vin takes the cake obviously but at the end of stormlight archive I think this will end differently.
I see Rashek as a man who said "Damm the consequences." He had a greater goal, and was quite good in reaching it. The costs just didnt mean anything to him. He did what he thought had to and all else, he just didnt care about.
He didn't even mention that he killed hundreds or even thousands of allomancers and feruchemists just so that he could not possibly die, and he wiped out hundreds of religions for what? People not knowing his past, he could have just said “I saved you from some god that was going to kill you all and end this planet as we know it” instead of making slaves out of millions of people that lived terrible lives and being beaten and killed. Ruin does not torture you, not directly at least through killing family and friends, he just swiftly kills you and boom, but no, the Lord Ruler had to painfully torture everyone, even sending some to be miners at a mine of the most valuable metal. The Lord Ruler was so paranoid that he had to make spies, soldiers, and priests (who were basically soldiers.) Could he not of made the changes to the world and lived a 'normal' life, forgetting about everything he'd done and lived like a 'normal' person, he just had to live a thousand-year life of luxury, killing everyone who did not accept him as a god? He was so paranoid he had to make an entire new species just to do the work he wanted them to, doing the same thing every single day of their life until they died. Did he just need to make a new EMPIRE? Most of the things Rashek did make no sense, he even killed a hero just to become that hero. Could he not just be a normal person, and just left gunpowder alone and not banned it? He could have done so many things differently, and they would have made such a big difference to the people lives. Could he not of made obligators, inquisitors, Kandra, Koloss, skaa, noblemen, and so many other things? And would people be happier without them? And he just could not of tried to move the planet farther away? The Lord Ruler is just selfish, If he wasn't, everyone would be happier. (This took so long)
I think, that Rashek as a Character did really hit some nerves, that are very present today. His ideas and arguments resemble very much the Bezos' and Musks of this world, who love to talk about long-termism and their great projects but completely ignore the ethics around it. I always loved in, that Elend in the end succeeds, because he is able to keep his human side despite its "ineffectiveness"
Man, I recently found your channel looking for some character writing structure and I must say that I love how you explain it. I can’t wait to explore and grow with your explanations. Cheers, -LRA
Been going back through the series again to get ready for book 5, and being in the thick of it again when I found this leaves me to think that there's been one massive omission here. Creativity hasn't been considered. Illumination isn't a strong surge on it's own, but when Shallan hides inside of an illusiory boulder in Words of Radiance, it entierly cuts off the light. A proficient, combat oriented Radiant with that surge could use it as a flashbang, become entierly invisible, blind their opponent directly without care for how Invested that opponent is by placing a 'solid' lightweaving around their head. Fighting someone with that level of creativity would be an absolute nightmare, especially if they could either transform reality itself inside of those illusions so that some of them had real impact and others didn't and you didn't have any way to tell. Alternatively it would be nearly as bad if you just couldn't meaningfully hurt them. If what few strikes you do manage to land are instantly healed then you are truely helpless. Transportation is also under represented here. Or at least it's potentially under represented. Consider the Nex-im for a moment. If Radiant Transportation can do something in some fashion similar to that when properly understood then it is potentially the greatest combat ability. Instantanious dodging, repositioning and generally making movement irrelevant. If you can put yourself into an arc that your foe cannot strike you from, but you can hit them, you all but garuntee a win. Especially if you have a Shardblade. Cohesion was handled generally fairly, though I do feel compelled to point out that it is not limited to stone only. So in theory a Radiant with that surge could just time the use of Cohesion well and allow for themselves to be struck with a non invested weapon.. which would then deform around their bodies rather harmlessly while simultaniously disarming their opponents. Last point I'm going to bring up is Bondsmiths.. they use their surges strangely. To the point that I'm not sure they can do the regular forms of sticking things together physically or harderning/softening physical objects. They also seem to be able to access whatever sort of light their bonded spren creates. Which does give them one massive advantage, they can just top up on Storm/Tower/Lifelight whenever they need too.
Trying to get into your content. Frustrating that you keep trying to keep things as short as you can. It’s a complicated topic and we are here to nerd out. Don’t be shy, it’s ok.
Fun fact: Ruins ability to speak, to deceit people and show them a person no one else can see is based on sizophrenia… Sizophrenic symptoms include to hear voices, mostly negative ones and to see hallucinations, it’s not unusual to see shadow people… There are simulations of it on RU-vid, if someone is interested in this topic.
Can’t wait to start the cosmere universe books, bought Mistborn since Sanderson recommended his fans read it first and it should be here in a couple days,
I appreciate this, I’ve heard a lot recently about the cosmere universe but haven’t started the books so it’s nice to have a quick overview to get my bearings before starting the books
It may be English semantics but I wouldn’t say we know they’re a primarily Roshar organization just that we’ve seen them the most there. It’s obvious they’re on many worlds from the kinds of investiture they possess.
