[Simas Polchias]

Kellhus as Frodo? 
So whose Sam and Gollum?   

You'll regret this question.

So, returning to that idea, I would make few assumptions to flesh it out:

1) The IF is the equivalent of the One Ring. A pinnacle of Inchoroi tekne, unrepeatable & irreplaceable. Here goes all that ideas about IF being the soul of the Arc etc.
2) Inchoroi race is equivalen of Sauron. Fallen angel with a mission of mass destruction and occasional seduction.
3) The IF was stolen by Ses & N-C during their stealth mission. That explains the especial hatred for that prisoner in the golden room and an importance of delivering him into Golgotterath alive. Also makes Heron Spear / Narsil a plot-decoy. 
4) Skinspies face thing is their secondary property, first is a IF-detection abilities. Unknowingly to themselves they were netting Three Seas to locate a stolen property. So, they are actually Gollum (a wretched thing in love with the vessel of alien power).
5) Kellhus found IF in Ishual, where it was hidden for the last two thousand years, and plans to bring it back to the Arc. We know about indestructible nature of the Arc golden metal, so it sings good with the same tunes about dragon breath and mountain Doom fires as the only mean of melting OR.
6) So. Sam. Dependable, wise, enduring. I vote Proyas.

[mrganondorf]

It just struck me that Simas could have been replaced ages ago--like whoever is controlling Simas used Simas to mold young Akka way back when.

[H]

It just struck me that Simas could have been replaced ages ago--like whoever is controlling Simas used Simas to mold young Akka way back when.

Yeah, in our re-read, I hypothesized that this could be the case, since replacement Simas knew of Inrau, which would seem to imply he had been a skin-spy for a long while...

[H]

Sorry for the double post, but I had discussed, breifly, with Wilshire on the Quorum about a new Nerdanel I had about skin-spies.

For one thing, it goes back to the "“Something impossibly ancient,” the abomination said softly. “Inconceivably beautiful.”" quote, from Darkness.  I still feel like this is a major clue that skin-spies are far older than we are lead to believe.  Of course, there is the possibility that it refers only to it's own makers and not itself, in which case there is nothing more there, but what is the fun in that?

So, if skin-spies really are ancient then it would stand to reason that they might have been around in far antiquity.  This could account for some of the fractiousness of Men during the Apocalypse.  Think of this anecdote:

Then, in 2131, after a dispute with King Nimeric of Aörsi, Celmomas himself abandoned his own Holy War. The following year disaster struck. Consult legions, apparently utilizing a vast subterranean network of tunnels, appeared in the Ring Mountains to the rear of the Ordeal.

Highly convenient for the Consult that there, on the doorstep of victory, the Ordeal was sundered and so the Consult's victory was all-but assured.  Sure, we are lead to believe that this was in the making the whole time, but it still smacks of something the Consult would most certainly be doing, finding preexisting wedges and driving them further home to assure the wanted result.

Nothing to really back this up, just a little idle speculation...

[Wilshire]

Potentially the interaction with the Nonmen Emissary wanting to touch Kellhus to prove that he wasn't a Ciphrang replacement. Could be they attributed skin-spies to Ciphrang replacement, and they developed some way to feel them through a simple handshake.

[H]

Potentially the interaction with the Nonmen Emissary wanting to touch Kellhus to prove that he wasn't a Ciphrang replacement. Could be they attributed skin-spies to Ciphrang replacement, and they developed some way to feel them through a simple handshake.

Yeah, forgot about that little bridge.  There is also the idea that he wanted to touch Kellhus to possibly get an idea about his Nonman blood, if that is something they can do...

[mrganondorf]

If Moe is in the business of turning skin-spies then it must have been a pretty simple matter to dispatch 3 to have them collect Cnaiur and deliver him to Kyudea at teh appointed hour.

[MSJ]

If Moe is in the business of turning skin-spies then it must have been a pretty simple matter to dispatch 3 to have them collect Cnaiur and deliver him to Kyudea at teh appointed hour.

Then he sent for Aurang also. Remember, the bird was there the whole time too.

[mrganondorf]

If Moe is in the business of turning skin-spies then it must have been a pretty simple matter to dispatch 3 to have them collect Cnaiur and deliver him to Kyudea at teh appointed hour.

Then he sent for Aurang also. Remember, the bird was there the whole time too.

i was wondering about that.  you are most probably right, the skin-spies are from Aurang and not Moe.  buuuutttt... i can't remember Aurang being directly involved with the 3 skinspies that collect Cnaiur.  what i mean is, the reader gets Aurang + skinspies + Cnaiur earlier, but later on it's just skinspies + Cnaiur.  possibly different skinspies.

OR!  Moe turns skinspies so that they still give the appearance of taking direction from Aurang.  unlikely, i know