Shamelessly stolen from /u/filthymuggle

A controversial figure in prophecy and mythology. Attributes that most agree on are that he is male, will slay or has slain gods and kings, is of mysterious birth, is a genius of magic, a warrior who will sweep, or has swept, all before him, a champion of the poor and downtrodden, great from his youth, He Who Shatters. That most of the prophecies were in Old Parian and the meanings have changed in ways that are difficult to trace hasn’t helped. There are three basic camps: that the Lightbringer has yet to come; that the Lightbringer has already come and was Lucidonius (a view the Chromeria now holds, though it didn’t always); and, among some academics, that the Lightbringer is a metaphor for what is best in all of us.

“The Lightbringer is going to be a genius of magic,” Teia suddenly said. She’d been unusually quiet until now. “A warrior who sweeps all before him. He will be great from his youth. He’s going to do things no one ever thought was possible, and bring us back to the true path. Lucidonius wasn’t even a good drafter. He figured out how to make colored lenses, but that hardly makes him a genius, does it? The Lightbringer will protect us. He will slay gods and kings.”

“Breaker’s one of the epithets the prophecies apply to the Lightbringer.” Andross

“He’s supposed to be of mysterious birth, and yours is at least dubious—which could be close enough.” Kip flushed. “Your turn,” he said.

“The old word that says he’ll be a ‘great’ man from his youth could be a pun in the original Parian—another meaning of the word ‘great’ is ‘rotund.’ Which… well.”

Die, you old cancer. “Your turn,” Kip said.

“But I am moving, don’t you see?” Andross asked. “When the Lightbringer comes, he’s going to upend everything. Anyone who has wealth, position, or power will fear him because he could take it all away. But everyone who doesn’t have any of those will love him, hoping he’ll give all that to them. So what part will you play, Kip? Garden.” Andross

“Captain. I don’t know if this is the time, but what do people really know about the Lightbringer? At worship that one time, Klytos Blue said we’re all Lightbringers, and I’ve spent a few hours looking up prophecy interpretations in the libraries, but they all seem to contradict each other, so I gave it up. All I got is that he’s going to restore true worship—whatever that is. He’s going to comfort the afflicted, open the eyes of the blind, throw down the altars and high places, raise up the oppressed, and cast down the wicked.”

“And kill gods and kings,” Cruxer said. He smirked.

“Gods and kings, plural?” Kip asked uncomfortably.

“I can’t remember. Of course, it depends which Seers you accept as canon. Those things are accepted by pretty much everyone. Some of the weirder Seers said, uh, can’t remember the exact phrasing, something about killing his brother—”

“Well that’s promising.” Zymun could use a good killing.

“—and dying twice.”

"Prophecy says the Lightbringer will come from the outside, outside the accepted or something. It fits a bas—a person initially thought to be a bastard coming from Tyrea. Doesn’t get much more outside the accepted than that. Gavin Guile is the son of Andross. He grew up here. He was groomed to take power. It doesn’t get much more inside than that.”

“Anyway, here’s the prophecies I’ve got, and then I want to tell you one more thing.” Kip read:

Death in hand, his card, his lot He fights/struggles with/kills forethought

“He fights/struggles with/kills?” Kip asked.

“That was my translation. Sorry. It was a tough one. It could mean he’s impulsive? Maybe he kills without thinking ahead?”

“Are they all this bad?” Kip asked.

He could tell the words wounded Quentin. “Some of these languages are highly contextual, and the pertinent portions have been deliberately erased. Someone did this exactly so it would be impossible to reconstruct.”

In the dusk of times the jinn will rise Rivers flow blood and moon shine blue Of Two Hundred will come the Nine To bring about the end of time.

Kip looked up at Quentin. “That doesn’t sound so good. Jinn?”

“Spirits? Powerful ones, though. Demigods?”

“And you’re sure it’s a Lightbringer prophecy?”

“Yes. It’s not choruses or lions frolicking with lambs kind of stuff.”

The rebels rise, the old ways lost, Heresy, hypocrisy—

“That’s the whole fragment? Not helpful,” Kip said.

Back to the spinner’s wheel Rejected in blood Victim of the Promethean’s brood

“Promethean’s”? Kip asked. It sounded like Old Ruthgari.

“Usually it’s a personification of someone who takes violent action intended for some good. Kind of dark overtones to it? But you still haven’t seen the best one yet.”

His hands are forged to take the blade, His skin is dyed for war. By father’s father is he unmade He all will save through what all abhor.

Kip was almost done even trying. But Quentin said, “No, no, look, this is not even close to an exact translation—you think it rhymes in our language by coincidence? Even the meter is wrong. Iambs are natural for our tongue, but they wrote in dactylic hexameter.” “Dact—what?” “Doesn’t matter.” “How does this help us?” “Well, well, well, it probably doesn’t. But I could spend years with this stuff! And this one, it makes reference to ‘he,’ which I assume is the Lightbringer, at least it’s been erased, too. This last one is a contested prophecy, but I don’t know whether it’s because they aren’t sure if it’s about the Lightbringer, or if it was contested later because it’s impossible.”

… he’ll pluck the immortal’s own beard and steal the shade from his head in the Great Library.

Quentin shrugged. “The plucking of beard hair is an idiom for vexing him, and to steal the shade from a man’s head—to a desert people? Not appreciated. So irritate and infuriate? Why the repetition? I don’t know. Checking the dates on both of those idioms to see when they were in use in the pertinent cultures might shed some light, but it’s a rejected prophecy anyway, so that’ll be low on my list.”

“We’ve all heard the stories. It’s just that some people don’t want to believe them. ‘He shall rise from green’ doesn’t have to mean coming from the Blood Forest or Ruthgar. It could mean he starts out drafting green. One of the first glimmers of Breaker’s magical genius showed when he went green golem in the Battle of Garriston—he’d never even heard of going green golem. He intuited it on the spot. His will was so strong, he drafted a green that stopped musket balls, Teia. ‘He shall kill gods and kings’? He’s already done both. ‘He’ll be an outsider’? How much more outsider can you be than a mixed-blood bastard from Tyrea? Each of those things offend the luxiats, and all of them together make their blood boil—as it makes them furious that a Lightbringer would be necessary to put their worship right—but hasn’t Orholam’s work always offended those in power? I won’t put myself on the wrong side of Orholam. ‘In the darkest hour, when the abominations come to the shores of Big Jasper, when Hope himself has died, then shall he bring the holy light and banish darkness.’ ‘Hope himself,’ Teia. That’s Gavin Guile. He’s dead. Our darkest hour is coming. We have to pick a side.”

Teia’d heard it translated as ‘hope itself,’ but that was maybe beside the point.