PeterZ wrote:Recall what Phrobus said in the prologue of WMC. That the events of Bahzell's story approach a cusps which can influence an entire related cable of universes. How, pray tell, can one universe influence others without contact with them?
That has actually been answered fairly clearly: the multiverse (which, as described, looks more like the multi-brane multiverse of modern cosmological theory than the continually branching splitting of Everett-Wheeler-Graham) was formed out of what had originally been the single body of Orr's power. The more universes Phrobus controls, either directly or by his agents the other dark gods, the more of that power he can draw on. Shifts in balance of power at that extra-universal level can have effects which can be perceived by the gods directly but not by created beings inside the universes, i.e. they change the local landscape.
PeterZ wrote:Each universe is decided by the choices made by the denizens within. Those decisions are independent of the gods and other universes. Unless creatures from those other universes can move between universes. We know that has happened. RFC has also telegraphed alternate realities in the books with Sword Brother. Feel free to speculate on your narrow guidelines. I prefer to take the full warp and woof of the stories as a guide to mine.
This looks rather like RFC's arabesque on how the Safehold story won't end.
His novels in the Bahzellverse to date have indeed involved crossings from universe to universe: that's where demons and devils come from. Aside from transfer laterally via wizardry in "Sword Brother", though, there have been no indications that the gods of light transfer agents in the same way; and if they did they'd presumably appear as analogues of low-level angels.
RFC has indicated in the past, when talking generally about his plans for this series, that it was to be in effect a next generation series. Bahzell, at about a hundred and ten or twenty, is still in his prime as a hradani, and he's certain to have a role in the plot as it unfolds, but he's not central to this series. However, Tellian, Markhos, Charrow, Kaeritha, will all by this time be dead or at least out of action. (Kaeritha could be around, but not active.) The fact that himself has elided what were to be two additional Bahzell books from the publication schedule doesn't mean that he's elided the events in them from the timeline. As regards the coursers -- had he wished, Weber could have given them an extended hradani-level lifespan from the start: they're a made-up species. The fact that he didn't implies fairly strongly that he intended them to be dead by now.
(It's worth remembering, too, that this is a five-book series -- longer than the total War God books previously published put together. In theory, Bahzell could have a large part to play in the overall story arc and vanish from this book as soon as Wencit and Kenhodan walk out of the bar. In practice, as RFC writes multi-point-of-view stories, and given the way in which the book blurb is phrased, I don't think this will happen. But I do think that this isn't, centrally, a "Bahzell" book, on the balance of probabilities.)
As far as what we actually know goes: between Bahzell and Leeana, there's been a set of references to the past which point to events in all four of the previous books and are entirely consistent with them. As was pointed out in the last thread, there's also nothing to say that there isn't a sixty-year-old half-hradani child out there corresponding to Vaijon's little comment at the end of WMC. The references to Leeana's apparent age have been paired emphatically with other references to her unexpected maturity, and RFC has very carefully provided the appearance of Isvaria (about which there was some speculation at the time, whether it made sense for her just to appear to provide a pep talk) as a mechanism for Leeana's extended lifespan.
As far as foreshadowings go: this snippet has highlighted, again, the dictum that Champions of Tomanak tend not to die in their beds. I would not go so far as to predict, but would not be surprised if Bahzell (at least) dies (probably heroically) before the end of the series, and (given Wencit's foreshadowings) at a point where things look very dark indeed. (One other small foreshadowing that makes sense with a sixty-year gap: "I’ve no doubt he does remind you of someone", in that context, suggests Kenhodan might be a son of somebody Bahzell has met.)
Dragging in another Bahzell from another universe would seem to me in that context to be cheapening the effect of that sacrifice. RFCs other books have shown that he's willing to kill off central characters, and he's spoken in interviews about the importance of showing the real cost of conflict, even (or especially) in a story arc leading to ultimate victory.