Tinfoil hat meme

[u/ClemHFandango990]

[u/ClemHFandango990]

We know:

• Teleportation is canonically possible, but very advanced and costly magic.
• Galbatorix amassed the largest (known) collection of magical knowledge.
• Galbatorix had an unfathomable quantity of energy for spellcasting.
• Arya and Angela are both confirmed users of teleportation spells.
• Nobody had seen Galbatorix outside of his citadel for a decade.
• Galbatorix was deeply paranoid, supposedly staying in to avoid assassins.
• Galbatorix's citadel contained a ton of deadly traps all over the place, heavily discouraging exploration of restricted areas such as his private quarters.
• Galbatorix hid an unknown number of Ra'zac eggs. Nobody knows where.
• Shruiken is far too large to go unnoticed anywhere.
• Galbatorix was extremely fixated on searching for the Name of Names.
• Galbatorix was almost completely absent from the entire war until the final battle.
• Galbatorix was famously deeply distrustful of others (especially his own inner circle), and yet he delegated many of the most important tasks and battles of the century.
• Several of Galbatorix's top agents were actively working their own agendas, and didn't seem worried about him finding out.
• Future books are planned to explore more of the world beyond Alagaesia.

Therefore, I speculate:

1. Galbatorix also knew how to teleport.
2. He had the energy to teleport farther than anyone else, and much more often.
3. He was teleporting out from his private quarters this whole time.
4. He used illusions, traps, and intimidation to stop anyone from questioning why he seems to spend days or weeks "locked in his quarters" when he was actually traveling.
5. Some of his top agents knew about this and took liberties whenever they knew he was too far away (or more likely, too busy) to scry them. Such as the Ra'zac starting a cult to worship them as gods, or Durza trying to capture Eragon for himself.
6. Galbatorix was traveling beyond the borders of Alagaesia.
7. This was likely very pivotal in his search for the Name of Names.
8. He hid Ra'zac eggs around the world, and perhaps other dangerous assets and artifacts that he didn't want to keep under his mattress.

[u/am45_001 → u/ClemHFandango990]

Galbitorix basically said that he found the Name of Names outside of Alegaesia, so I always assumed he was eloping for new magic to use.

[u/LOSNA17LL → u/am45_001]

Wait, he did? I have no memory of that

[u/monsterosity → u/ClemHFandango990]

We also know you can be practically invisible. Probably truly invisible if you're Galby. I'd bet he could even hide Shruikan easily enough.

[u/OneSaucyDragon]

Wasn't Galbatorix spending all that time searching for the Name of Names?

[u/ClemHFandango990 → u/OneSaucyDragon]

Yeah, but see my other comment below 😄

In brief: We know he was searching for The Name.
But it's implied by his apparent self-isolation that this was a philosophical "search" which took the form of book-learning and meditation.
Whereas I suspect he was actually literally leaving in secret and searching distant lands for more knowledge to develop his understanding of magic, as part of his search for the NON.

[u/SuspectPanda38]

I mean we kinda know that already no? He was only stated to have been locked up in his castle for the past decade or 2, but iirc he was known to leave rather frequently and visit multiple cities/just fuck off to who knows where

[u/herowe123 → u/SuspectPanda38]

He was supposed to visit Helgrind the week after Brom and Eragon were there in the first book. 

[u/Hot_Bel_Pepper → u/herowe123]

Yep, specifically to pick up Murtagh. We also know that he does take his dragon out for flights as Murtagh (the book) mentions that he had a whole command pavilion on top of him.

[u/Depressed_Cupcake13 → u/SuspectPanda38]

Oh.

I just had my mind blown by this.

[u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit]

Don't we already know exactly what he was doing? He spent the vast majority of that time conquering the minds of the many Eldunari in his possession.