I reasoned that Palamon WAS formed at the start of the city age, but why do you not think Shin was born there? Where would he have been before and how would he otherwise have got there on his own to be adopted?

In Ghost Fragment: TLW 1, Shin uses language suggestive of Palamon being a settlement of nomads, trying to come together in the aftermath of losing everything.

"this will be the history of a settlement we called Palamon...We'd settled in the heart of a range that stretched the horizon...We talked about moving on...no real government...Basic tenets agreed upon by all..." All this suggests a place that came after something else. This card also suggests that

And if it was born at the start of the city age, that's FAR longer than the 10 or so years old that Shin would've been when he met Jaren? Unless you think Shin was born waaaaaaay back when the city was first founded, and that all this happened - the Crucible killings, Guardians and the Tower - in, like, the first 20 years of the city being created?

Why do you think it was all in one visit, and why would he have been there up until the town was burnt down? I agree that the burning was probably the fault of Yor - the grimoire cards seem to suggest that if not outright state it - but I got the impression that it was quite a while after Jaren's showdown with the magistrate?

Also, I fundamentally disagree with the idea that people can be Guardians without having a Ghost. It's the Traveller's Gift that gives them the power, Yor outright states that humans have "a spark" from their pitiful lives compared to that of a Guardian, and I'm fairly sure that it's canon that Ghosts look for the latent ability to store light in their hosts, not the amount of light already there. Something about making sure they won't just perma-die again if they're killed. But I think you DEFINITELY need to have a Ghost to have any of the Guardian's abilities. Do you have any info to back that up?