A controversial figure in prophecy and mythology.
Spoilers below!
Prophecies[]
Andrasteia (Teia) said that, "The Lightbringer is going to be a genius of magic. A warrior who sweeps all before him. He will be great from his youth. He’s going to do things no one ever thought was possible, and bring us back to the true path. Lucidonius wasn’t even a good drafter. He figured out how to make colored lenses, but that hardly makes him a genius, does it? The Lightbringer will protect us. He will slay gods and kings.”
The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer Book 2) (p. 139)
Attributes that most agree on are that he is male, will slay or has slain gods and kings, is of mysterious birth, is a genius of magic, a warrior who will sweep all before him, a champion of the poor and downtrodden, great from his youth, He Who Shatters.
That most of the prophecies were in Old Parian and the meanings have changed in ways that are difficult to trace hasn’t helped. There are three basic camps: those who believe that the Lightbringer has yet to come; those who believe that the Lightbringer has already come and was Lucidonius (a view the Chromeria now holds, though it didn’t always); and, among some academics, those who believe that the Lightbringer is a metaphor for what is best in all of us.
- From the Third Eye to Gavin in The Blinding Knife
- Of Red Cunning the youngest Son will cleave Father and Father and Father and Son
- From Big Leo to Kip
- The Lightbringer will be unmirrored.
- From Felia and Andross Guile's research:
- The Lightbringer will return when 'Brother turns against Brother' and 'Men put power over Religion'
- 38 years from now, 'If upon that day when the Everdark gates open Full, and the Bane touch the Jaspers there stands no Lightbringer on the Jaspers shore, then shall the Chromeria fall as a river of blood pours from the Prism Tower. Then will seven towers collapse and with them, seven Satrapies. Ye shall know the time is short when the Bane rise from the seas. Atirat will rise off Ruic Head, and she who births him will become Ferrolux. She will open the gates fully which have been cracked. From Tyrea... (redacted)
- On a broken stone, the black fires of hell, on earth once more, shall unleash the 200 falling glories of heaven (or the 200 Fallen Glories)
- From Quentin's Research and Translation from the Forbidden Library - The Broken Eye chapter 57
Quentin finds that many of the old prophesies and their translations about the Lightbringer have been erased somehow, but he is able to piece some of the prophesies together:
- Death in hand, his card his lot / he fights/kills/struggles with forethought
- In the dusk of times the jinn will rise / Rivers flow blood and moon shine blue / Of Two Hundred will come the Nine / To bring about the end of time
- The rebels rise, the old ways lost / Heresy, hypocrisy--
- Back to the spinner's wheel / Rejected in blood / Victim of the Promethean's brood
- His hands are forged to take the blade, / His skin is dyed for war. / By father's father is he unmade / He all will save through what all abhor
- ... he'll pluck the immortal's own beard and steal the shade from his head in the Great Library
Theories[]
Candidates[]
There are several figures in the series that meet most of the criteria for being the Lightbringer.
Lucidonius[]
Lucidonius is widely believed to have been the Lightbringer after uniting the Seven Satrapies, overthrowing the pagan Color Gods, and founding the Chromeria. His name also means 'Light giver'. Orholam tells Gavin at his tower that Lucidonius 'was meant to be the Lightbringer but he chose conquest and sought godhood'.
Andross Guile[]
Andross has arranged and structured his life under the assumption that he is the Lightbringer. He specifically arranges scenarios and manipulates people so that he can fulfill as many of the prophesies as he can. Acting as the Prism after the events of the Battle of the Chromeria, Andross appointed himself as the Lightbringer, at least from an official basis. Andross believed this was necessary to give the Seven Satrapies hope and unity after the Battle.
Felia Guile believed Andross to be the Lightbringer.
Kip Guile[]
Kip fulfills many of the prophesies of the Lightbringer mainly by accident or circumstance. Kip begins to feel he may have a connection to the Lightbringer the first time he hears of its legends. In the hours proceeding the Battle of the Chromeria Kip and Andross played a game of Nine Kings to determine who the Lightbringer would be. After the battle, regardless of the outcome of the game Kip agreed with his grandfather that Andross should hold the title, though mainly for political reasons.
Cruxer and the other members of the Mighty believe Kip to be the Lightbringer.
Dazen Guile[]
Dazen has some of the most wild and bizarre experiences in the series, from becoming the first true Black Prism in generations to wrestling Orhollam himself. Dazen in his prime is arguably the strongest and most creative drafter in the history of the Seven Satrapies, and his feats with drafting Black and White Luxin are unparalleled in the series.
Ironfist believes Dazen to be the Lightbringer after he sees Dazen (as Gavin) draft White Luxin during the second Battle of Garriston.
While not considered by the characters in the book. Quentin actually meets many of the criteria. He is an outsider, but in a different way than Kip. He is doubtless a great man from his youth and recognized as a talented scholar. His duty at the end of the book is to help purge corruption and bring back true religion. He however wasn't even a drafter and could hardly be considered a genius of magic.
Dazen asks Sevastian's ghost 'you were supposed to be the Lightbringer weren't you?' And his little brother seemingly confirms it by remaining silent.
Sevastian's stepping out of the Great Mirror may be what Janis Borig refered to by "a man unmirrored." Implying he removed himself FROM a mirror rather than merely "having no equal" or being un-seeable by prophecy/without a Black Card.
Many Lightbringers
It is implied that the Lightbringer might not have been one person but instead a title in which many people could obtain. In that sense several could be lightbringers.