Do you have thoughts on the Murray theory of Thjazi coming back as a god? I feel like it's completely out of left field, and Murray also brought up the theory the Sundered Houses were doing a ritual at the theater even though they don't seem to have any idea about that? Is there something I'm missing on why she thinks like this?
It takes me a minute to get specifically to this theory, so bear with me.
Originally, the idea that there would be a Sundered House ritual at the theater stemmed from the worry that Thjazi was (unwittingly) doing the work of the Sundered Houses because he was tricked or his work was compromised (24: Good Tidings; 24: Good Tidings):
On top of this, there's a general sense throughout Schemers of uncertainty over Thjazi's intentions and methodologies and how ruthless he may or may not have been and a general sense of paranoia—"Look at you, you're paranoid, I'm so proud of you"; "Too paranoid or not paranoid enough?"; the above "Not paranoid enough is its own trap"—from the Schemers, who generally felt pushed to question every action the players in this game have taken. To quote Bolaire this latest episode (28: Chasing Shadows), they feel that they're only pawns in Thjazi's game, not players themselves taking up his work.
I feel like this is generally the backdrop under which Murray / Marisha is thinking and theorizing. There's a groundwork for a belief here in Schemers that Thjazi and rituals of House Tachonis are connected in some way, that Thjazi was taking rather ruthless and unsavory approaches to everything, and that all plots and actions from all players should be approached with suspicion. It's an environment that's really specific to the Schemers table, a la the genre whiplash joke earlier in Convergence. I personally feel that this is the root of a lot of the frustrating theorizing that the Schemers table, largely through Murray (though this is not limited neither to her nor to her table), has brought to Convergence that's seen a lot of commentary. Specific ideas came up in Schemers that stayed around long enough to become sticky enough that their residue remains even after the core idea is disproven by new information or context in Convergence. Portions of an earlier logic are shed under new information, but auxiliary ideas or conclusions further down the chain continue to linger even without the original presumptions that gave rise to them.
On to the theory of the hour, Murray states that her reason for pitching the god-Thjazi idea as: "It seems like a lot of what Thaz was trying to do was thwart what was to come by trying to get there first. So why wouldn't he think that he could step into this role if it meant that a celestial Tachonis god of undeath is the alternative." Now, on its face, I think this is fairly reasonable logic for what is, well, I agree, a left field theory. However, I think the crux of this logic has been overturned by now.
This idea, specifically as framed in the second sentence, that Thjazi was working to subvert House Tachonis's machinations specifically by enacting these rituals before they can feels disproven by what we've learned in Convergence about the nature of the paints, the relationship of "making plowshares" to magic and magical objects, and Occtis's realization that the only connection between the plans of Thjazi and House Tachonis is the Stone of Nightsong. The Cloak was maximizing their limited resources by stealing items the Sundered Houses were interested in or poking around their work sites, which is in line still with part of what Murray said. However, we know that Thjazi and the Cloak were transforming objects against their original purpose: the paint rendered from the River Gavizdra is the inverse of what it was meant for, hence why it is a photo-negative of another method through the afterlife (the Stone of Nightsong). A massive element of the Cloak's work is to reshape these objects into another purpose, as Thaisha goes to do with the Pariah Blades and sees Shadia has already done so, and thus implicitly their work is to use the tools that interested House Tachonis and use them for different rituals to achieve work that ultimately works against the goals of House Tachonis. It is perpendicular to the methodology of House Tachonis, who use and profane similarly old means for their own ends where that desecration is not making inverse nor creating entirely new purpose—the intent is simply a few degrees off and enacted by only some adjustments to what is otherwise the original ritual.
That is to say, I think this distinction was lost while Murray / Marisha is trying to problem solve Thjazi's goals here even under new context concerning why he has a couple of tools in common with House Tachonis (the Stone, the coffin as mentioned in a Tannesar letter) and what Thjazi's methodology is (inversion), one that we see is vastly different from House Tachonis. That residue of an earlier idea remains: that Thjazi pursued the same tools thus must have been looking to enact the same rituals with the same ends as House Tachonis to lay claim to those ends first. It does not fit that new context of reforging tools to serve new purpose and create new magic as a sword to plowshare, but the weight of that sentiment lingers anyway.
This is where this god-Thjazi theory is born from, because this isn't the first time she floated the idea that someone is trying to bring back a god. She previously pitched this as a possibility that House Tachonis is doing so (24: Good Tidings):
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