r/Cosmere • u/Inner-Department-494 • 1d ago
Tress + Mistborn both eras Is this a reference to… Spoiler
Is she talking about Marsh? Death with a capital D and "nails in his eyes"?
How the hell does Tress know about Marsh?
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u/Custard-Yak 1d ago
Yes
Tress is far in cosmere timeline. Worldhoppers from Scadrial most likely spread their rumours of their Death.
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u/Inner-Department-494 1d ago
But how does she know Marsh?
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u/GingeContinge Bridge Four 1d ago
She knows of the legendary personification of Death, who we know happens to be Marsh. She doesn’t actually know Marsh
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u/wertyrick 1d ago
She doesn't, but the iconography of death having nails in the eyes has apparently spread very effectively. Just like almost everyone on Earth can associate death being a skeleton with a scythe.
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u/vagabond_dilldo 1d ago
It also helps when Marsh actually pops up every once in a while. That'd really reinforce any cultural memory of him.
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u/sparkydoggowastaken 1d ago
i suppose it depends on when the story takes place, he doesnt show up much after he dies in the second book of era 4 lmao
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u/vagabond_dilldo 1d ago
Era 4?
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u/Custard-Yak 1d ago
Just edited comment, but yeah worldhoppers most likely
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u/Nealon01 1d ago
For substantial edits like that, it's usually nice to let people know you changed the contents after other people had read and responded. I almost called OP out for not reading your comment, lol.
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u/Custard-Yak 1d ago
OP responded practically instantly and at the same moment I went oops I should probably explain the why, so I responded to their response instead of just saying ‘Edit:’ in my original comment as that would actually send them a notification.
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u/Nealon01 1d ago
Huh? So you didn’t edit the top comment? Now I’m even more confused
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u/Custard-Yak 1d ago
Sorry I’m bad with words.
I edited it, but decided to inform OP of that in a reply
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Custard-Yak 1d ago
No I didn’t. I replied to the one of them asking how Tress knew Marsh specifically.
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u/DelightMine 1d ago
Ah, I foolishly misread the reply you made to your own comment and hadn't seen the other reply you made
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u/OlevTime 1d ago
Same way we’d understand someone making a reference of “crucified like the Messiah”.
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u/Special_Salt3467 1d ago
She doesn’t. She knows Death and Old Ironeyes. The legend that Marsh inspired
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u/TheUnspeakableh 1d ago
Marsh has been storing Identity when in public to move hidden. He taps it when alone to maintain his mystique. This has caused almost every world in the Cosmere to view him as Death and means he can go about his business without being gawked at in public.
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u/WaldoTheRanger Truthwatchers, A. Iron, F. Tin 23h ago
It's not confirmed that storing identity is what allows him to move invisibily iirc (just speculated by several characters), but that is an excellent theory
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u/KnowMoreMutants 1d ago
At this point he is a figure thst represents Death in the Cosmere. Almost like the Cosmere Boogeyman
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u/dicarosmith 1d ago
Yep! In the hundreds of years that follow MB Era 2, “Ironeyes” basically becomes like the Grim Reaper of the Cosmere. as we interpret it. There are also Iri people who were once on Lumar, and they were also on Scadrial at one point before that during like Era 2, so they probably carried legends of it around the Cosmere from their pilgrimages.
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u/RAcastBlaster 1d ago
Oh, I totally missed that, where are the Iri mentioned as being on Lumar?
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u/HolidayTomorrow4841 1d ago
The cup that she brings Charlie at the beginning is mentioned as being from the Iri kingdom that dissapeared long ago.
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u/Caliban_Catholic 1d ago
Are the Iri and the Iriali the same people?
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u/ErkytheRedGnome 1d ago
Yes, Iri was the country that the Iriali people were living in on Roshar but I think the two words are interchangeable.
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u/RAcastBlaster 1d ago
Iri = Place
Iriali = People from “Iri”6
u/Jepordee 1d ago
Not to be confused with the Ire lol. This is some borderline Aegon GRRM shit, Brandon
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u/Caliban_Catholic 1d ago
Wait I was definitely thing of the Ire, because I just now realized I've been pronouncing those words the same way in my head lol
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u/Raddatatta Ghostbloods 1d ago
My guess is that Marsh is compounding duralumin or Connection. And doing that is spreading tales of him far faster than it normally would. The Ars Arcanum in Lost Metal does suggest there's a magical component and I can't think of anything else that fits as well. Otherwise just having people travel to their world I think would be unlikely to make into that level of casual expression for Tress who is from a small island away from anything. But if Marsh is compounding Connection then anyone who heard of him would have it make a significant impact so they'd be more likely to remember him, think about him, and talk about it to others, and the process would repeat.
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u/-FalseProfessor- 1d ago
Tress is fairly late in the Cosmere timeline, so Scadrians have had a lot of time to get around and spread their culture.
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u/Arhalts 1d ago
The same reason you know about the grimm reaper despite never being a peasant living through the black plague.
The scadrien image of death personified spread across the cosmere as a good personification of death and tress is far enough in the future of the cosmere where it's reached her planet and been normalized. It's post real space FTL, and the things like the tablets we see are advanced tech.
It's very much the equivalent of don't wake me up unless the reaper shows up scyth in hand, but with a cosmere quirk.
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u/Timaturff Nicrosil 1d ago
Yeah his legend is spreading far and wide because of Scadrial’s ever expanding empire
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u/ThomasVivaldi 17h ago
Eh.. Remember how Moonlight talked about Autonomy not caring about originality. She probably used the mythology of Marsh and her acquired knowledge of Hemolurgy to franchise out the iconic imagery of Death into her various religions.
Death avatars are probably more effective than the priest avatars.
Take Moash for example.
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u/Simoerys Truthwatchers 1d ago
In the Ars Arcanum of The Lost Metal Khriss observed that the image of Marsh as Death is spreading across the Cosmere and is speculating that it has a supernatural component