Kadish conspiracy theory time
Put on your tinfoil hats, folks. I concocted this bit of WMG while trying to come up with non-bahro things to do with the story in SAND, and I like it enough that I don’t want to keep it to myself anymore. Here goes:
Kadish was installed as the Grower by the Relyimah who still secretly operated within the Guild of Illusionists as a propaganda move to counter the growing influence of Anna and her “outsider ways” within D’ni society.
To explain...
The Relyimah were basically a secret police force that answered directly to the king, and who operated behind a legitimate front organization: the Guild of Illusionists. Officially, they were disbanded by King Lanaren in 5701 DE. Unofficially, I think that went about as well as taking down any shadowy pseudo-governmental organization ever does in Hollywood movies - that is to say, it didn’t. By my thinking, they stuck around, keeping quiet during the reign of the kings, but able to exert more influence (though still covertly) once the Guilds were put in charge of D’ni. Without a king directing their activities, it’s not unreasonable to assume that they devolved into the same sort of isolationist xenophobia that gripped much of D’ni over the millennia.
Anna was the focal point of a lot of controversial events leading up to the Fall: an outsider using Linking Books, an outsider marrying a D’ni citizen, an outsider having a child with a D’ni citizen, and an outsider agitating for the advancement of several economic and social equity proposals that flew in the face of D’ni’s longstanding tradition of rigid class stratification.
Kadish was a wealthy man who had been dismissed from the Guild of Writers. As a bit of context, Cyan didn’t cast Kadish as the Grower until after they needed to cobble together the Path of the Shell expansion pack (which is why it’s never mentioned in any of the Ages Beyond Myst-era content, despite Yeesha incessantly harping on him for deception and greed). As such, his dismissal (at least originally) had nothing to do with his assertion that he was the Grower. In the postmortem-esque Making of Uru in the back of the Complete Chronicles hint guide, the concept artist for Kadish Tolesa suggests that Kadish was actually just kind of a crappy Writer, and that’s what eventually got him dismissed.
It’s always baffled me that Kadish was able to build something as absurdly huge as Ahnonay while keeping it quiet (and while keeping the Maintainers away). He might have had a lot of money, but that’s a major infrastructure project, with a lot of hush money and a lot of people to have in on such an enormous scam. As a con man, that’s a lot of risk to take on. I also never quite understood why he was involved in the construction of Er’cana’s pellet factory - he was in the Guild of Writers, and the D’ni had two whole Guilds dedicated specifically to these sorts of projects: the Engineers and the Architects. As a Writer (especially a former Writer), his involvement seems oddly superfluous.
I think that the Relyimah saw Anna’s influence on D’ni society as dangerous, and moved to counter it with an appeal to tradition. They propped up Kadish - who at this point had been relegated to running an art gallery on Ae’gura - as the Grower. Using him as a new prophet that they could control, the Relyimah hoped to draw the D’ni back to the “correct path” - and the Watcher’s predictions of destruction that the Grower would reverse could easily be framed in such a way as to cast Anna as the villain to be opposed (which, to be fair, she actually was, just... not how they probably thought). Through their front in the Guild of Illusionists, they had access to the funding, labor, and expertise needed to construct the massive illusion of Ahnonay, as well as the necessary influence to ensure that Er’cana could be used to manufacture the pellets that Kadish would need to claim that he was the “bringer of light”.
So there you go, that’s my crazy Kadish conspiracy theory. Unlike my Watcher’s Pub / Temple of the Tree theorizing last week, I have absolutely nothing to back this up canonically, I just really like the idea. Like I mentioned, I kind of want to use it as the basis for a non-bahro story arc in SAND, but I have no idea how to actually ride it to a satisfying conclusion. Hopefully in 20 years when I finally get SAND off the ground, you’ll all have forgotten about this and the reveal will still be a surprise ;).