The Parchment

[Elmandr]

Kelsier's wife had a Parchment which depicted what the world looked like before the HOA...or actually we dont know exactly if TLR ruined the world or the deepness before him--but still. Where did she get this? How did she know this?

theories anyone?

[Andrew the Great]

Care to provide a quote?

[Reaves]

i think he is referring to the sketch of the flower. And that is a very good question; obviously such a paper could not have survived a thousand years of wear and tear. The only characters we know of who have lived that long are:

 a. -The Lord Ruler

b. -The Kandra

c. -the Mist Spirit

d. Ruin

e. Preservation

I don't know why any of them would be motivated to draw such a thing. In fact I doubt any of them did. And  how did it fall into Mare's hands? Any ideas?

[Chaos]

The Lord Ruler kept a lot of things from pre-Ascension in the building-within-a-building. The picture of the flower could have come from there.

Also, isn't it odd that the Lord Ruler would keep a lot of that stuff? Sounds to me like he almost... regretted what he did . That's just an observation of mine to go with my new theory of the Lord Ruler.

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

I feel like the Lord Ruler, if you think about it hard enough, is a much more human character than he appears to be on the surface.  I think he meant to help, and in order to do so, he ended up doing something that hurt, but stopped whatever the problem was.  So, what ended up happening was a bittersweet solution.

As for the parchment, couldn't it be possible that Keepers have artists, who pass images from person to person, putting them on record as pieces of art and hiding them?  Perhaps she was given it by a keeper who needed to get rid of it.  Also, it could be possible it was taken from the Lord Ruler's palace by a guard who was desperate for a few boxings to try and bribe his family out of a death sentence, or something like that.  There are dozens of theoretical solutions--choose the one you'd like.

[Miyabi]

I feel like the Lord Ruler, if you think about it hard enough, is a much more human character than he appears to be on the surface.  I think he meant to help, and in order to do so, he ended up doing something that hurt, but stopped whatever the problem was.  So, what ended up happening was a bittersweet solution.

I've said the same thing a dozen times over.  I totally agree with you.  Kind of like Hrathen from Elantris.  Trying to do good, but went about it the wrong way.