Perhaps Shane could have chosen better when he formed the Redcloaks and picked his second-in-command.
When my partner first read Broken Ground, he thought Stead was Karmo. Which initially doesn't make sense... but it got me thinking.
After all, why should Alix be second-in-command of the Redcloaks? What has he done to demonstrate that he would be fit for the role? We only see him as his original self briefly in one section of The Book of Shane. He is loyal to Shane, surely. It makes sense that he would be the first to follow him when he has lost everything else. He is sorely lacking, however, in "pagetime", character development, or any leaderlike qualities that I can see. He only serves to reveal that something strange is happening to those Conquerors who kept their spirit animals in passive state.
There is a harsh disconnect between the nervous, timid Alix we are introduced to and the stern, emotionless Stead of the later books. We don't get to see how he shifted from one to the other. We don't really know anything about the guy, whether as a Conqueror or a Redcloak. Indeed, it's up to the reader to infer that Stead is the rather forgettable soldier who showed up for a few pages in The Book of Shane!
What if my partner was onto something, and Karmo was the better choice for this position?
Karmo was introduced all the way back in Hunted, and although he only appears in a few books, he is a lot more developed as a character than Stead. He begins as an antagonist, albeit a sympathetic one, which is evident even before he gives his testimony to Shane in Venture. In that last section of The Book of Shane, we see them work together and build a better rapport than Shane and Alix ever did. Karmo strikes me as exactly the type of person Shane could use at his side. Loyal, but not a blind follower. More of an equal. Clever enough to come up with ideas to counter Shane's. Rational and usually levelheaded. We've seen he has a good moral compass. Shane clearly trusts him and thinks him capable, enough that he sent him to bring Dawson and Rumfuss to safety. He did succeed in retrieving Dawson (and recruiting Devin to the Redcloaks in the process).
And he has cool lightning powers. That's definitely a plus.
In ARHoE, once Karmo joins his ragtag band, Shane finds himself seeking out his new friend's counsel frequently. They become quite close; Karmo is the closest thing Shane has to a best friend. When their numbers grow enough that the order is named and a hierarchy established, the decision to make Jolt his second-in-command comes naturally to King. In the main timeline, he holds this position long into their adulthood. In the alternate timeline, he steps in with a heavy heart to take Shane's place, and leads the Redcloaks well for many years thereafter.
Alix was the first Redcloak, but Karmo was the one Shane chose to lead at his side. He deserves some recognition at the end of his story, I think.