Skathan

Skathan
Abilities	Ageless; other unspecified abilities
Titles	Emperor of the Dynasty
Residence	Iiaria
Ethnicity	Darksider
Homeworld	Taldain
Universe	Cosmere

Skathan is the emperor of the Dynasty on the Darkside of Taldain.

Appearance and Personality

He appears to be in his mid-twenties.

Attributes and Abilities

“I have seen the Emperor do things impossible for a normal man. ”

—Baon, on Skathan

Baon tells Khriss that Skathan does not appear to age, and is said to have been alive for hundreds of years. He also implies that Skathan has other magical abilities. While Darkside does have some manifestations of Investiture, it is unknown if the source and nature of Skathan's powers are based on Starmarks or something different.

History

According to Baon and Khriss, Skathan resided in the Darkside nation of Iiaria.

“The Dynasty is quite proficient at keeping technology from spreading farther than they want it to. Skathan, the current Emperor, knows how dangerous a little knowledge can be.”

—Khriss, to Kenton

It is not known how Skathan came to power, but by the time of the crisis in the Diem it was implied that he had held autocratic control over the Dynasty for at least a century, and perhaps much longer. Khriss noted that Skathan suppressed the spread of new technology (such as pistols) among Darkside nations, along with at least some basic rights, like the right to travel between provinces. He also has an army of starcarved. Darksiders that lived in Kezare on the Dayside created an ethnic enclave known as Lonzare in the city, but this was not common knowledge because Skathan did not want people to know that there was traffic between the continents.

Some residents of the Dynasty actively worked to unseat Skathan. Loaten was his former Chief Minister of Diplomacy, and was rumored to have made an attempt on Skathan's life, although his motives were unclear. Skathan claims to have had Loaten executed for betraying him. Prince Gevalden came to Dayside looking for a weapon to use against Skathan, who has threatened to invade Elis if they do not voluntarily surrender to the Dynasty, to bring stability to his "troubled" homeland, which Khriss believed to be the sand masters. After Gevalden's death, Khriss traveled to Dayside to seek out the sand masters; she also performed scientific experiments on white sand and sandling carapace in the hopes of independently discovering a weapon that Skathan was not familiar with. Loaten told Khriss that the Dynasty was likely aware of her "secret" mission because it kept close tabs on anyone perceived to be an enemy; Baon was indeed sent to Dayside by the Dynasty to watch Khriss and determine if sand mastery was a threat to the Dynasty. While Skathan's Elite may be sent undercover alone for spying or assassination missions, he will alwys send a back-up when a mere soldier is undercover.

Despite Skathan's suppression of technology, the Dynasty had some of the most advanced technology in the cosmere during his rule.

Trivia

• In the prose version, the leader of the Dynasty was known as Scythe.

Notes

This page is probably complete!

This page contains most of the knowledge we have on the subject at this time.
It has yet to be reviewed.

This article was complete and reviewed prior to White Sand, but now needs to be updated.