quote:

I think the theory that Akanthus has some ties to Volkenraand has something going for it.
Think about it:
- His actions in Greenguard (scorching magical beings) benefits Volkenraand directly, since they seem to be eager to gather refugees.
- Different to what we thought earlier, his interest in the Fissure only sparked recently, so his original agenda is different
- If his plans where focused on Greenguard, he'd be more concerned about the power struggle inside the Rose and characters like Amadeus, but he isn't, implying that his goals lie elsewhere.

So, headcanon:

> Akanthus grew up in the Land of Dragons with Saellah (unless he stole the original Akanthus' identity or something which I wouldn't even rule out anymore at this point)
> ???
> He moved to the Shapeless Empire, becoming the "Smooth Talker", where he was put on trial after gaining some knowledge
> ???
> He joins the Rose and we know the rest from here (largely)

What if, in the first ???, he went to Volkenraand, became their spy, and then began to work for them against the Empire? He infiltrated the Empire, but was found out and put to trial. Then after that, Volkenraand found out about the Rose (in a way the natural enemy of the Shapeless Empire), and joined them, keeping the eyes of the Empire away from the south and in the meanwhile giving cheap manpower to Volkenraand?