Susebron

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Susebron
God King.jpg
Family
Spouse Sisirinah
Parents Mother
Abilities Returned, Awakener, Cognitive Shadow
Titles God King of Hallandren, Susebron the Grand, Immortal Majesty[1], His Excellent Grace
Nationality Hallandren
Homeworld Nalthis
Universe Cosmere

When others look at something—a person—one may sometimes seem more beautiful than another. This is not so for me. I see only the colors. The rich, wondrous colors that make up all things and give them life.

— Susebron to Siri[2]

Susebron is the God King of Hallandren on Nalthis around 300 years after the Manywar.[3] He is a Returned and is given two or more Breaths every week by his subjects in order to keep him alive.[2] He is the fifth God King in the three hundred years since the Manywar.[4]

Appearance & Personality

As a Returned, Susebron looks much younger than his fifty years.[5] He is described as having dark hair, black eyes, and pale skin, though it is revealed later that he can learn to change his appearance at will.[6]

He is naive, having grown up in a virtual prison imposed upon him by his priests. He is highly trustworthy of them, and refuses to believe that they may wish him harm.[2] His main source of knowledge about morality is a book of stories that once belonged to his mother, the morals of which he follows from memory.[7] Later, he begins to figure some things out for himself, though he continues to hold to the book's rules, making him honest to a fault.[2] He's highly devoted to the people he trusts, including Siri and the priests, and refuses to abandon either of them. Nonetheless, he can be realistic in his asessment of others and is keenly aware of his own shortcomings as a ruler.[5][6]

He's very fond of sweets, and justifies eating a lot of them by saying that as a Returned, he can't gain any weight.[8]

History

Childhood and Early Life

Susebron was an infant Returned fifty years before the Pahn Kahl rebellion. At the time of his Return, the God King was unable to produce a child, and so the infant Susebron was given Peacegiver's Treasure and made the new God King after his predecessor gave up his Divine Breath to cure a plague.Template:Annotation ref[9] At some point either before or after his crowning, his tongue was removed so that he would be unable to use the wealth of Breaths that had been bestowed on him.[10] He was separated from his mother, though he managed to retain a storybook she used to read him. He had heard the stories so many times and looked at it over the years that he had memorized each symbol, and the morals of the stories in the book were in part the code by which he lived.Template:Annotation ref

Throughout most of his life, Susebron resided mostly alone in the black palace of the God Kings in T'Telir. Despite being the official ruler of Hallandren, he was kept away from its people and other Returned, only coming out briefly on special occasions, to hide the fact that he was mute.[10] At the time, he had not been taught to Awaken with a thought.

Marriage to Siri

To forestall a war between Idris and Hallandren, Susebron was promised the hand of king Dedelin's daughter, Vivenna. At the last moment, however, she was swapped for her sister, Sisirinah, and Susebron ended up marrying Siri.[1] For a long time, Susebron and Siri met only at night, as the priests wanted them to make a child, but neither acted, as Siri was awaiting Susebron's first move, while Susebron had no idea what was expected of him.[7] Initially, he feared Siri, uncertain as to why she spent her nights waiting, naked, on his floor. After she began to perform her moaning and screaming routine for the priests, he approached her with a book, hoping to start some communication.[11]

Siri taught Susebron to read and write using his mother's storybook and they started to converse, him writing on a board, and her speaking. Siri taught Susebron to read using the story book of his mother.[11] As he and Siri planned how to reveal to the other gods that had no tongue, the two began to fall in love. He would spend long hours with her, learning about things like sarcasm and mockery, and about places such as Idris, and Siri's life growing.[7] During one of those conversations, Susebron expressed an interest in meeting Austre.[2] Eventually, he and Siri consummated their marriage.[8]

The Pahn Kahl Rebellion

After much convincing from Siri, Susebron decided to finally reveal his true function in the court to the other gods, with the plan for failure being to flee with Siri.[12] However, before either could happen, Siri was taken away by the priests, under the guise of her pregnancy forcing her to stay in seclusion.[13] Almost immediately afterwards, the Pahn Kahl attacked the Court of the Gods, and imprisoned both Siri and Susebron.[14]

The latter found himself in a cell next to Lightsong, who sacrificed his own divine Beath to heal him, restoring his tongue. Now able to speak, and armed with enough Breaths to let him instinctively Awaken, Susebron freed his palace from the Pahn Kahl invaders and saved Siri.[15]

Soon after the rebellion was quenched, Susebron was approached by Vasher, who gave him the command to the Kalad's Phantoms strewn about the city.[6] He uses it to send them after the Lifeless bearing down on Idris. He himself remains in T'Telir along with Siri, now with far more influence on Hallandren politics.[16]

Attributes and Abilities

Throughout most of his life, Susebron was mute and illiterate.[11] He eventually manages to learn how to read and write from Siri, and has his tongue restored by Lightsong, immediately gaining the ability to speak.[2][15]

He has been gifted with Peacegiver's Treasure, a sum of approximately fifty thousand Breaths, granting him the Tenth Heightening and all the abilities of the Heightenings beneath it, including:[17]

  • Aura and Breath recognition - allows him to assess the number of Breaths a person possesses, as well as recognize Invested objects
  • Lifesense - allows him to sense people around him
  • Perfect Pitch and Perfect Color Recognition - lets him recognize individual tones and hues, and harmonizations thereof
  • Instinctive Awakening - allows him to know commands necessary for what he desires to do without learning them beforehand
  • Command Breaking - allows him to override commands of others
  • Agelesness - makes him effectively unaging
  • Greater Awakening - allows him to Awaken stone and steel objects

Little is known about those who have achieved Tenth Heightening, but it is known that those who possess this level of Breaths have Perfect Invocation, allowing the Awakener to draw more color from objects used, draining them to completely white, rather than merely grey. In addition, Susebron is theoretically capable of Awakening without speaking - the ability of Mental Command - although he has not been taught how to do so.[6]

A third effect of the 10th Heightening is Color Distortion. Wherever Susebron goes, white objects in his their vicinity break up their colors like a prism, creating further colors. To show this off, he's usually dressed in white for public functions, although he wears black in private, as it is a more powerful color from Awakening standpoint.Template:Annotation ref

The Peacegiver's Treasure makes Susebron effectively immortal, and even if he were to suddenly be cut off from his weekly supply, he could still live for over nine hundred years feeding off it.[12] This amount of Breath might also make him immune to emotional Allomancy.[18] In addition, as the God-King, he's capable of using his divine Breath to heal multiple people instead of just one.[7] Whether this is because he was Returned young or some side-effect of holding Peacegiver's Treasure is uncertain.

Though little has been shown of Susebron's Awakening abilities, he is naturally extremely powerful by the virtue of the sheer number of Breaths he possesses. Shortly after regaining his tongue, he's capable of controlling hundreds of individual Awakened objects simultaneously.[6]

Though he is a king, it's uncertain how much in the way of political skill he has, as until very recently, he's been little more than a figurehead of the priesthood.[11]

Quotes

I don't think God Kings are supposed to be "sweet."

[2]

There is nothing so wonderful as you, even in my entire court. The mountains must be special indeed, to produce such beauty.

[2]

All of those stories are just tales told by people who lived lives before ours. What they say about humankind is true. I have watched and seen how people act. It is strange, for me, to interpret these things, for I do not see as normal men do. I am the God King. Everything, to my eyes, has the same beauty.

[2]

Development

Siri, Vivenna and Susebron were developed together. Originally, they were all characters from Mythwalker, Brandon's ninth, unpublished novel.[19] Susebron was unnamed in Mythwalker, going only by the name of the Emperor, but was likewise going to marry Vivenna (Vvenna in Mythwalker) before marrying Siri instead.[20]

The Emperor in Mythwalker retains the same divine status Susebron has, but the details are slightly different: he's significantly younger, has been crowned at the age of ten rather than shortly after his birth, and wears black rather than white in court.[21] He's also not a Returned, as Awakening did not yet exist in its current form.

Though the Emperor is present for Siri's marriage to him (in contrast to Susebron), his early meetings with her go much the same as they do in Warbreaker.[22] However, as the Siri in Mythwalker possesses powers that would allow her to regrow his tongue, the plot requires the two to remain in that initial state of non-communication for far longer than they do now.[23]

Though Brandon never finished Mythwalker, the buddying relationship between Siri and the Emperor was one of his favourite parts of the story, which is why he revisited it in Warbreaker.[24] Though their plot was re-written significantly to improve the pacing, the Emperor's personality did not change when he became Susebron.[19]

Trivia

  • Several people emailed Brandon saying that lacking a tongue, Susebron shouldn't have the sense of taste. However, this is a misconception born out of a common urban legend that the taste buds are segregated by taste on a person's tongue, while in reality, the roof of the mouth also has them.[25]
  • Though Susebron believes that he has hidden his book of stories from the priests, they are aware of it, though they decided to let him keep it as a memento.[26]
  • According to Brandon, Susebron might not make a good God-King, but he will certainly make an earnest one. It's possible that Llarimar will become his high priest.[27]
  • Though Susebron might appear in Nightblood, he will not be the focus of the story.[28]

Notes

  1. a b Warbreaker chapter 4#
  2. a b c d e f g h i Warbreaker chapter 29#
  3. Warbreaker chapter 2#
  4. Warbreaker chapter 32#
  5. a b Warbreaker chapter 36#
  6. a b c d e Warbreaker chapter 58#
  7. a b c d Warbreaker chapter 24#
  8. a b Warbreaker chapter 44#
  9. Warbreaker chapter 27#
  10. a b Warbreaker chapter 40#
  11. a b c d Warbreaker chapter 20#
  12. a b Warbreaker chapter 48#
  13. Warbreaker chapter 50#
  14. Warbreaker chapter 55#
  15. a b Warbreaker chapter 57#
  16. Warbreaker epilogue#
  17. Warbreaker Ars Arcanum#
  18. Skyward release party
    Arcanum - 2018-11-06#
  19. a b TWG Posts
    Arcanum - 2006-06-21#
  20. Warbreaker Prime: Mythwalker Chapter Thirteen
    Brandon's website - 2011-08-15#
  21. Warbreaker Prime: Mythwalker Chapter Fourteen
    Brandon's website - 2011-08-15#
  22. Warbreaker Prime: Mythwalker Chapter Sixteen
    Brandon's website - 2011-08-15#
  23. Warbreaker Prime: Mythwalker Chapter Eighteen
    Brandon's website - 2011-08-15#
  24. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2011-03-28#
  25. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2011-01-03#
  26. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-11-02#
  27. Steelheart Chicago signing
    Arcanum - 2013-10-05#
  28. Oathbringer Portland signing
    Arcanum - 2017-11-16#
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