The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[Chrischa]

Aside from the Fool's gender, I thought it was very interesting how the Liveship books are basically the story of a White Prophet's failing. My theory for that is based on the fact that she (let's say 'she', as I'm now talking about Amber), fails to find her Catalyst, which was supposed to be Wintrow, and thus she misses out on many key moments.

I wonder how the story would have gone if Amber had managed to get on board Vivacia, and what would not have happened. I wonder if the serpents would have reached their cocooning grounds earlier, so that they would have emerged as proper dragons. Given the fact that the Fool reckons that this is his goal as a White Prophet, I've no doubt that the goal of Amber's mission in Bingtown was the healthy emergence as dragons of the leftover serpent. Their deformities are a sign of the things the White Prophet failed to do, while their being there at all is a sign of the things that the Catalyst did right, even without guidance.

So - what would have happened had she sailed off with Vivacia and Wintrow? She would have undoubtly been a pillar of support for Wintrow and his woes. She would have helped him to accept his fate, and merge closer with Vivacia. Consequently, Wintrow might not have tried to run away in Candletown, not been captured and marked as a slave.

But then, how come Amber knew she was supposed to find a nine-findered slave boy?

I can only guess that Wintrow wasn't supposed to become Amber's Catalyst until he got the slave-tattoo and lost his finger. Which would somehow put Amber in Candletown, managing to find her way aboard after they sailed off with their load of slaves.
The slave uprising might have happened, even though Wintrow was the main cause for it, and she would have needed to somehow survive both the slave uprising and Kennit's pirates. Afterwards, she would again have guided Wintrow as a member of Kennit's crew.
And at this point, I suppose, is where the White Prophet might have made the biggest difference. Wintrow freed She Who Remembers even without her, but if Amber had managed, through Wintrow, to convince both Swift and Kennit to help the sea serpents reach their cocooning grounds earlier, it might have made an enormous difference. Kennit and Swift wasted a huge amount of the serpent's time and energy in playing ego-games, while Wintrow at this point felt lost and useless.

What difference would it have made to the events that Amber was present at, had she been with Vivacia instead? Not too much, if I recall correctly. She helped Althea run away, befriended and organised the slaves of Bingtown, and played a major part in Paragon being launched for the rescue mission. On board Vivacia, she helped to keep Paragon sane and found her way out of the burning ship (another significant moment which tells us much about the Fool, I think, when she talks to Paragon's dragons).
I don't remember if there was anything else, but those are not major changes if you consider a White Prophet got into the play. She didn't really assist in the freeing of Tintaglia, which was the other key event to restoring the dragons.

That's why I find the Liveship books so enormously interesting, because there is this whole undercurrent of White Prophet/Catalyst, and what happens if they are NOT in the right place at the right time.