Quick, somewhat baseless Oathpact theory

[Lightflame he/him]

Okay, I've been throwing this one around in my head for a while, so I just wanted to get it out.

 

The Heralds pop up every Desolation, right? Well, my theory is that Odium's purpose in triggering the True Desolation is not because he wants to kill everybody on Roshar. In fact, Odium not destroying life on Sel would imply (to me, at least) that he's only interested in the Shards, and couldn't care less about what they created.

 

Rather, I believe that Odium is triggering this Desolation so that he can draw out Taln and get him to break the Oathpact for good.

 

There does seem to be some proof for this. Jezrien says that Taln may be enough to hold the Oathpact, and Word of Brandon is that Odium can't leave Roshar without losing a great degree of power. Since Odium doesn't invest himself, the Oathpact would probably be the thing binding him to Roshar.

 

Also, this opens up a possible beginning of a defeat for Odium that is not a Mistborn redux: 10 people selfless and honourable enough to sacrifice themselves for the world reforge the Oathpact, binding Odium again. This would make a nice twist to subvert the normal "Everything must be resolved with epic battle" fantasy story. Since a major theme of The Stormlight Archive seems to be letting go of warlike ways and embracing honour, it would be a thematic fit to have that happen. (Oh, and the characters going into purgatory would be an easy justification for the time skip after the fifth book.)

 

Also, maybe I'll write about what I think the Oathpact is and why it was created later on. If my theories are correct, then it would pretty much spell out how to defeat Odium. And maybe I'll share my new Voidbringers theory later.

 

But for now, thoughts on this?

[Shardlet he/him]

I like aspects of it.  I think it would be cool if some Heralds reclaimed their positions (they have had several thousand years off now).  But I think it would be better if all nine did not.  I am beginning to think that Dalinar is being groomed to become a new Herald rather than a Radiant.  He is a great leader, after all.  His honor is legendary and his men love and revere him.  I think he would be an excellent choice for a Herald.

 

However, I would hate it if after 10 volumes, the only resolution is that Odium is now bound again in full by the Oathpact.  I think there needs to an ultimate and determinate resolution for Roshar where Odium is beaten and can trouble Roshar no longer.  I'm not sure that he should die though.  He is is just too good of an adversary for the cosmere as a whole to be destroyed at our first introduction (series-wise) to him.

[Gloom he/him]

I think having the Oath Pact restored to the flawed thing that it was where Heralds are forced to suffer endless torture to protect humanity from the gods is kind of pointless. That wouldn't even be a resolution, just a return to how things were prior to the Heralds abandoning their oaths. How long would it take before the next set of Heralds could no longer take the abuse? How many more near genocidal slaughters (desolations) would need to occur before accomplishing genocide in truth? What happens when some of these new Heralds decide they would be better off working with Odium?

 

Tanavast was the holder of the Honor Shard. It is unlikely he could lie, or even create something that would be misleading. Unless you're disputing that Dalinars visions are from Tanavast, it certainly looked like Odium was intent on destroying all life on Roshar.

 

Hoid has his own mission. I think of him as an agent of change. I'm fairly certain he isn't looking to restore the status-quot. Even if everything else was true, I believe Hoid would still interfere to try to put Odium at a greater disadvantage than he was in initially.

 

Dalinar is the Black Thorn. He is a warrior and I believe he will fight to the bitter end. He may be seeking to find a resolution to the war with the Parshendi, but, in my opinion, this isn't because he is tired of war, it is because he wants to make Alethekar stronger. I don't see Dalinar ever consenting to be Odiums punching bag for all eternity. I'm under the impression that Dalinar believes in decisive victories and doesn't hesitate to do hat is needed to achieve them. I believe that he is being prepared not as a Herald, but as the next holder of the Honor Shard.

 

From what I understand of the Cosmere, things are out of balance. Life as a whole is under threat. If the Cosmere is to continue, then some decisive victories need to be made. The events on Sel were a step in this direction, but while that victory was important, it wasn't decisive enough to turn the tide.

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

It's a very interesting idea, though some holes pop out at me.

 

There does seem to be some proof for this. Jezrien says that Taln may be enough to hold the Oathpact, and Word of Brandon is that Odium can't leave Roshar without losing a great degree of power. Since Odium doesn't invest himself, the Oathpact would probably be the thing binding him to Roshar.

 

I just want to note that Odium is invested on Roshar. I was also under the impression that he was not, but such is not the case. So there is a lot more than just the Oathpact holding him on Roshar. I also do not believe that Odium wants to leave Roshar, for the very reason that he has Invested himself there as well as the fact that he has put such efforts into fighting the Rosharan humans.

 

Also, if breaking the Oathpact would allow Odium to leave Roshar, then wouldn't the Heralds have broken it a long time ago? Yes, he would probably destroy them if they had, but I get the sense that the Heralds would rather die and leave humanity in peace than have to go through the horrors of the Desolation over and over again. Clearly there is strong incentive to hold the Oathpact.

 

While the binding Odium again idea is interesting, we have seen it before: (AMoL spoilers)

Isn't that exactly what Rand did at the end of the Last Battle? Reforged the thing that was holding the Dark One back from the world? Even if Brandon came up with the idea to bind Odium again before reading Jordan's notes, I think he would avoid doings something so similar in another work his name is on.

 

Shardet: I don't really see Dalinar becoming anything other than a Radiant, particularly since (in my mind) he is going to bite it relatively early on.

[Lightflame he/him]

Sorry, I didn't express myself clearly as to the reforging the Oathpact aspect.

 

I meant that reforging the Oathpact would be the first step to defeating Odium. Brandon says that the Stormlight Archive is divided into two five book sequences in his mind, and that there will be a time skip between books 5 and 6, which will "not be as long as the time skip between The Hero of Ages and The Alloy of Law". Book 5 could end with the Oathpact reforged, and then a time skip until Odium brings another Desolation. Then the new Heralds come out of purgatory and the story continues, with the aim being to use the Oathpact to defeat Odium. After all, if Odium gets a victory condition (Honor's champions giving up their honour by going back on their word for personal benefit), then Honor's side must have a victory condition that mirrors it. For example, Odium's champions forsaking their hatred and rage, or something of the sort.

 

Alternately, they don't have to go to purgatory at all. The Oathpact probably still stands as long as Taln doesn't break it, so if the characters find the victory condition they could actually win the Desolation and stop Odium. The characters could even win at the end of book 5. Brandon is incredibly fond of setting up one antagonist, then pulling the rug out from underneath us and revealing the true antagonist, who is much more dangerous and often takes the battle to a personal level. Odium so far has been set up as a typical "dark god" antagonist, and Ruin from Mistborn is there to convince us that Odium is super duper powerful. However, there could be an even bigger, badder antagonist behind Odium. After all, it's Brandon. He could introduce the real villain in the second half of the story.

 

Anyway, I have continued my baseless-ish theory.

[Shardlet he/him]

Dalinar is the Black Thorn. He is a warrior and I believe he will fight to the bitter end. He may be seeking to find a resolution to the war with the Parshendi, but, in my opinion, this isn't because he is tired of war, it is because he wants to make Alethekar stronger. I don't see Dalinar ever consenting to be Odiums punching bag for all eternity. I'm under the impression that Dalinar believes in decisive victories and doesn't hesitate to do hat is needed to achieve them. I believe that he is being prepared not as a Herald, but as the next holder of the Honor Shard.

 

I think the Heralds play a far greater role than being Odium's punching bag in the interim between desolations.  I think they play a lynchpin role in fighting Odium's forces during the desolations.  Also, this is the Everstorm, the final desolation, that is coming.  I'm not sure that the Heralds would go to damnation again unless humanity ultimately lost in the Everstorm. 

Which I doubt would happen since , if it did after 10 books and probably 11-15 years of waiting for the resolution, Brandon would find himself likely strung up by irate fans.

  I think the idea of Dalinar taking up Honor is compelling.  There is of course (presumably) much work that  would need to be done in gathering all the splinters of Honor to effect a reforming.  But, Dalinar becoming a Herald and Dalinar eventually taking up Honor are not mutually exclusive. 

 

GreyPilgrim:  I see the potential for Dalinar to eat it in the first 5 books also.  But, I don't see anything to indicate this as any kind of certain.  Here's to optimism.

 

 

From what I understand of the Cosmere, things are out of balance. Life as a whole is under threat. If the Cosmere is to continue, then some decisive victories need to be made. The events on Sel were a step in this direction, but while that victory was important, it wasn't decisive enough to turn the tide.

 

I don't see anything of cosmeric import that has happened in either of the Sel books.  Since FjorDor and AonDor are both subsets of the same magic, I don't see the rebirth of Elantris as being a victory of particularly cosmeric significance.  Dominion and Devotion are both still splintered and when we left off of Elantris and Emperor's Soul, the people don't seem to be particularly shardically aware.  I also don't see any particular effect of cosmeric imbalance.  To be sure, Hoid believes that things are going to hell in a handbasket because of Odium.  And Honor seemed concerned by Odium's actions and goals.  But, even that seems more to me to be a 'this guy has got to be stopped or he is going to take over everything' kind of thing.  I don't deny the possiblility that there could be a cosmeric imbalance that will be detrimental to the entire cosmere.  I just haven't seen any real indication of it yet.

[Gloom he/him]

I don't see anything of cosmeric import that has happened in either of the Sel books. 

 

My bad, all these worlds get me confused sometimes. I actually meant Scadrial. You're right, Sel has been pretty low keep as far as cosmere shattering events are concerned.

[hoser he/him]

Whether it comes about through the reforging of the Oathpact or not, I see the first 5 book arc as staving off the immediate crisis, the "final" desolation.  The second 5 book arc would be creating a better situation moving forward. 

 

From Odium's POV, I think the final desolation is to wipe out life, or at least people.  I think that will free his investment in Roshar, so he can go back to being the Cosmeric menace we all know and love. 

[DocHoliday he/him]

The time span between HoA and AoL I'd 100 years or so. Dalinar sees his palace being destroyed in his vision of the Final Desolation. Buckingham palace, RW, has been around longer than 100 years. So the Final Desolation from Dalinars vision could very well still occur in book arc#2. We have no time frame after all.

 

I have to agree with Hoser, Odium wants all his power/Investiture back so he can get on with shattering the next Shard. My theory is that he didn't want to Invest but the Oathpact terms forced him to. The crux is, he can get it back, possibly in addition to some of Honors Investiture to fight Harmony. It's baseless, but I've never been able to figure out This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules he agreed to the Oathpact for unless it had the potential to pay off like the Lottery. I mean he didn't need it to shatter Devotion, so why Honor/Almighty?

[Windrunner he/him]

Hero of Ages to Alloy is 341 years, according to the Scadrian calendar.

[Gloom he/him]

So what was the Oath Pact about? What's different about Roshar than the other worlds we've seen. Well, Roshar has been invested by three Shards. Roshar has three fully functional  races. Scadrial has three races as well, but one could argue how functional the Koloss or Kandra are as a species. The Parshendi are a fully functional race with a cultural history. I'm assuming that the Aimians are as well. Then of course there are humans.

 

I would theorize that each Shard had a chosen people, but each of them realized that they lacked the versatility to create a well rounded functional sentient life-form. So each Shard invested some of their energy into each race. I think this is what the Oath Pact was centered upon. I also believe this was where things began to fall apart.

 

I would further theorize that the Aimians belong to Cultivation, the Humans belong to Honor, and the Parshendi belong to Odium. I think that Odium tried to cheat right from the start by putting more of himself into humans then agreed upon to weigh things more in his favor, but instead of simply accepting this and letting things play out, Honor invested additional energy into the Parshendi, corrupting Odiums favored race with an excess of Honor. This action pitted Honor and Odium directly against each other and made Honor the focus of Odiums displeasure. The Aimians were ignored in this process, and are the most balanced of all the races on Roshar. If the Aimians weren't forced to share their world with more aggressive races, they would probably build a thriving prosperous civilization, but because they are balanced, they lack the aggressiveness to compete with the other races.

 

We know that the Parshendi have dark gods. The humans worship the Almighty, and we can assume that the Aimians worship Cultivation.

[DocHoliday he/him]

I would theorize that each Shard had a chosen people, but each of them realized that they lacked the versatility to create a well rounded functional sentient life-form. So each Shard invested some of their energy into each race. I think this is what the Oath Pact was centered upon. I also believe this was where things began to fall apart.

This seems like a major hole in your theory to me. Odium's interest isnt in creating armies and worshipers or well balanced species. His interest is Shatering Shards. His perogative is moving from Shardwprld to Shardworld and inviting chaos and divisivness.

 

WoB is that Honor came to Roshar with his humans already created.They were already formed upon arrival, so that predates Oathpact IMO.

[Gloom he/him]

Well, I could speculate that Odium realized that Honor and Cultivation were likely to combine their power in mutual defense since WoB is that they came to Roshar together. Odium needed a way to limit their ability to do so. Using the creation of new races as a pretext to forge a pact that would incidentally prevent mutual defense sounds reasonable. I can't think of any other reason why Odium would make an exception and actually invest himself into a world. I agree that Odium isn't interested in creating armies or worshipers, but he is interested in splintering Shards, and he isn't interested in gathering those Shards. He isn't getting more powerful with each victory, he needs to use his intellect to out think and out maneuver his opponents. Two against one he'd lose.

[DocHoliday he/him]

I agree with you. He isn't getting more powerful with each victory, which is why it seems a very bad idea for him to be Investing in anything at all. this would weaken him, possibly substantially, if he has to por more of his essence into Parshendi than Honor did into humans, Im not seeing a net gain here for Odium. Yes he can knocK 1 (2) Shards of his hit list, but he wants to take on the remaining 10 or so, and lets not forget Harmony. Hes goingto need EVERYTHING at his disposal to knock that apex Shard of the pedestal.

 

In short, yeah, he needs to out think Honor and Cultivation. Pouring Investiture in to his "chosen species" however seems...brute-ish. He needs to be crafty and outplay his opponents, not outfight.

[Gloom he/him]

Okay, so I'll admit I'm fishing, but were getting at something here.

 

Why the Oath Pact? Because Odium realized that he needed to bind Cultivation and Honor in a manner that would prevent them from coming to each other defense. I can't even begin to reason another motivation that Odium would have had to create a pact with someone as far removed from himself as Honor.

 

To do this, he needed bait, and not just any bait, but bait that would be very tempting to both Honor and Cultivation. Both Shards would have needed to get something out of the Pact, and would need to be convinced that Odium did as well. Odium wouldn't have invested himself unless he believed that he would benefit from doing so, and we know he invested himself in Roshar, we have WoB on that. Odium appears to be a patient hunter. Ultimately, I don't believe he ever intended to honor the Pact, but needed it create the opportunity to kill Tanavast and eventually Cultivation. Once they were dead, he could withdraw his investment from Roshar and move on to the next Shard.

 

I'm speculating that the Pashendi, at the least, may have been part of this.

[hoser he/him]

Rising to the bait ... 

 

According to Vorin Mythology, people had been expelled from the Tranquilline halls and were refugees on Roshar.  Two things that Honor might have gained from the Oathpact would have been:

• weaker desolations
• extended time between desolations

 

Either or both of these might have allowed people to survive.

[DocHoliday he/him]

We're on the right track Gloom. 

• The Oathpact occurred after Honor came to Roshar.
• Culture also came to Roshar at the same time.(Correct?)
•  Odium came to Roshar(followed Honor?)
• The Oathpact had to have some thing appealing in it for Odium to agree
• The Oathpact had to have something appealing inn it for Honor to agree
• Culture might not be bound by the Oathpact
• The Oathpact allows for Desolations to occur
• The Oathpact allows for Champions of Honor
• The Oathpact allows for Champions of Odium (though he apparently didn't use them(speculation))
• Odium can be forced to choose Champions
• The Oathpact sends Honors champions to Hell between Desolations; which in some manner keeps Odium bound.
• The Heralds abandon the Oathpact.
• Honor dies centuries later
• The current (Final) Desolation begins centuries after that

What we need to figure out is what Odium can gain from all this nonsense I just typed

The Shards are able to war on one another freely prior to the Oathpact. So why would Odium halt what appears to be his advancement on Honors forces? He booted them from the Tranquiline Halls and then stopped. Rather than  rout his enemy he bound himself to gladiator like combat with rules and stipulations. 

 

I think he was bribed. I'm wondering if Honor didn't up the stakes of their fight to a winner takes all Investiture kind of thing. We know Odium wants no out side intent to interfere with his own Shardic intent, but what of Investiture? Can he siphon off power freely given?

[Isomere]

I'd recommend a dab of caution with some of the assumptions we are making about the Oathpact. The heralds were part of it, but Odium may not have been voluntarily involved. Is there any solid evidence that Honor or Cultivation were part of the Oathpact? I think it was formed after Honor came to Roshar, but I don't know of any proof of that. I suspect the rules that govern Shardic Avatars are much bigger than the Oathpact and apply to all 16 Shards. Think about the champions in Hero of Ages. All told, we just know so little about this stuff that it makes theories hard to reinforce.

[Oudeis he/him]

 All told, we just know so little about this stuff that it makes theories hard to reinforce.

 

I agree with Isomere. This place is a great forum for debating with intelligent compatriots, but too often I see people espousing their own theories on unprovable evidence, while tearing down others for not being unassailable. I don't ever want to discourage anyone from throwing out their idea just because they can't prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it's true.

[Gloom he/him]

What we do know is that Honor and Cultivation came to Roshar together.

 

Lance Alvein

Did Cultivation come to Roshar with Honor, or was she already on Roshar when Honor arrived?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. They came together.

 

Odium came after

 

Zas

People have been thrown by you saying that Odium is not native to Roshar.

Brandon

Odium is not native, that's the thing. Are any of them native? So if you dig the deeper question, are any of them native, ehhh, none of them are native to the planets you've seen so far. What I probably should've said to be more precise is that Honor and Cultivation were there long before Odium showed up.

 

Honor and Cultivation were romantically involved

 

StormAtlas

Were Cultivation and Honor romantically involved?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

 

Odium does not want to hold Honor or Cultivation. Odium wants to shatter all the other Shards.

 

Question

Can Odium pick up pieces of a Shard without changing the nature of his Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Any investiture, over time, will slowly change one’s personality, no matter how small that investiture.
Question

So Ruin and Preservation combine. When Odium slays the Shardbearers, why doesn’t he absorb the enemy Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Because that would actually change the way he views the world. The Shard would actually start to influence him, and could actually ruin who he views himself as being. So instead of combining them all, his goal is to destroy them all and be the only one left at his power level.

 

There are three Shards on Roshar

 

Chaos

How many Shards have existed on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Three

 

It is possible to destroy Roshar. (This is speculation, barely, based on the following.)

 

Chaos

What would have happened if Ruin *did* get the atium? Yeah, the world is destroyed, but how does Ruin "absorb" the atium so he can utilize the power?

Brandon Sanderson

He would metabolize it, just like the normal people have to do. However, if he did get it he would then be able to destroy the world.

 

I will agree that everything else is speculation. I believe that the Oath Pact was something unique to Roshar. I will also agree that Shards are not omnipotent gods and have to conform to a rule set, but I believe that the Oath pact was something along the lines of the agreement made between Preservation and Ruin, and that it would have been in addition to the governing principles of Shardic Law. I'll agree that it is speculation based on various theories that lead me to theorize that all three of the Shards on Roshar entered the Oath Pact, and it is also speculation on why they entered the Oath Pact.

 

Now that we've got that out of the way I'd like to say that it still makes a hell of a lot of sense to me. It is entirely possible that it's still wrong, but even science has added evidence up and come to faulty conclusions in the past, that's why they have fancy names like hypothesis and theory for their conclusions. I think, given the title of this thread, 'Quick, somewhat baseless Oathpact theory' that the reader is sufficiently warned should we wander from the land of theory to Hypothesis. We are basing our theories on our observations of Roshar after all.

 

On to Docs questions:

 

• The Oathpact occurred after Honor came to Roshar? I believe this to be true, but it is neither implied or said to be so.
• Culture also came to Roshar at the same time.(Correct?) Cultivation and Honor came together
•  Odium came to Roshar(followed Honor?) Odium came to Roshar later. Honor and Cultivation were on Roshar first.
• The Oathpact had to have some thing appealing in it for Odium to agree? Speculation - I believe so.
• The Oathpact had to have something appealing in it for Honor to agree? Speculation - I can't see any other reason he would agree to working with Odium.
• Culture might not be bound by the Oathpact? This is true - Speculation - I believe that the Oath Pact was a very complex world sharing agreement between the three, similar to the agreement between Ruin and Preservation.
• The Oathpact allows for Desolations to occur? Speculation - That is my take on it
• The Oathpact allows for Champions of Honor? Yes
• The Oathpact allows for Champions of Odium (though he apparently didn't use them(speculation)? Yes, but we don't know that Odium has never chosen a champion. We just know that Tanavast said it would be easier if he did, and that it would be unlikely for him to do so.
• Odium can be forced to choose Champions? I believe that, should the opposition be fierce enough he may see the need for a champion or champions in order to attain victory, I doubt he can be forced to the decision. I could be wrong.
• The Oathpact sends Honors champions to Hell between Desolations; which in some manner keeps Odium bound. - The Heralds are sent somewhere and tortured when they die during a Desolation, and are supposed to return when the Desolation reaches its end so they can be released to fight the next Desolation. Doing this was what kept the Oath pact intact, and may have been a needed buffer that protected Honor from Odium. The prelude was pretty clear that the Oath Pact ended when they refused to return to their place of torture. This is additional evidence that the Oath Pact was based on the Shards on Roshar.
• The Heralds abandon the Oathpact. Yes, this is canonized in TWoKs prelude.
• Honor dies centuries later. Yes, though exactly when he dies is still debatable. I have reason to believe that he was still alive up until the Recreance.
• The current (Final) Desolation begins centuries after that. IMO this is the big play by Odium to shatter Cultivation. Once Cultivation is shattered, Odium can metabolize the power he invested in Roshar and destroy the world.

[DocHoliday he/him]

TY for the detailed response Gloom. While not everything I posted was pure canonized fact, what I did post in bullets was intended to help us build ourselves a tower of "facts" to reach some sort of conclusions.

 

I'd like to point out Isomere that the very nature of a pact of any sort is an agreement between two or more parties. I emphasize agreement. Involuntarily forcing someone to agree to your terms is a form of extortion. Given that the Almighty is gone, it seems unlikely he was ever in a position to dictate to another Shard that "This is how it's gonna be!". And it is the Oath​pact . I certainly agree that the Heralds are apart of it, and as the representatives of Honor that would imply he to is involved, much as an ambassador speaks for his/her nation. Though you do make a point that we don't know the specifics of when it was established. WoB its that Odium came to Roshar long after Honor did. However it is entirely possible this was a requisite of the Oathpact.

 

Gloom makes excellent points concerning the idea of the Oathpact' s nature. It is a set of rules in addition to whatever the Laws of Shardic nature allow. 

 

What seems most important to me, is what would Honor or Odium gain from agreeing to the rules of combat.

Gloom's WoB that any Investiture from another Shard, willing or not, will change Odium' s intent.

So my idea of a bribe is out.

What does Honor have that Odium wants?

Odium' s goal is the shattering of every Shard.

So the only thing Honor has to offer is his Shard. Either up front or by making it easier(or taking less time) to shatter his Shard. Either that our giving up Cultivation's Shard, which is a really, really long shot.

The only reason I can see that in any way being beneficial to Tanavast, is because he needs to buy time. He ( supposedly) was ejected from the Tranquiline Halls. Perhaps the Oathpact was his way of getting to buy time to recuperate?

[Gloom he/him]

Oh, the Tranquiline Halls....

 

How many habitable planets are in the system that Roshar inhabits?

[Gloom he/him]

What if Braise is the Tranquiline Halls? What if the Oath pact was an agreement between Honor, Cultivation, and Odium to share the system? What if Odium used that agreement to his advantage and found a loop hole that allowed him to attack Honor? What if the Heralds were actually created to defend Braise, and they are forced back to their home world between desolations, a home world now completely dominated by Odium?

 

Roshar is not the home world of humanity, but it could be the world that was chosen by Cultivation. When things went south for Honor, he could have moved his people, or at least a portion of his people to Roshar. Once Honor had fled to Roshar, Odium pursued. He brought the Parsh with him. Honor invested himself on Roshar alongside Cultivation, but was still weak from losing Braise, vulnerable. The heralds abandoned him before he could recover, then later, the Knights Radiant abandoned him as well. Honor was left defenseless and splintered.

[Maximus]

My take is that Odium wanted the Oathpact so that he could break Honor's champions, thus weakening Honor. What I can't see is why Honor would agree to a pact that a) allowed the desolations to occur and b)required the torture of his champions. What could be worth that to him?

 

Also, the Oathpact was supposed to bind Odium in some way (assuming Odium is the enemy referred to). Yet desolations still occurred; torture of heralds still happened. It seems a very one-sided pact. We're missing a part of the picture that shows what Honor and/or Cultivation were getting out of it.

 

Honor and Cultivation are established in this system. Suddenly Odium shows up with intent to kill¹, and their response is to make a pact that seems to leave him holding all the cards.

 

¹It is possible they didn't know his intent, but I don't see Odium as being particularly deceptive, and it seems likely they knew something about the nature of Rayse/Odium.

[Isomere]

@Gloom: thanks for the work clarifying known and speculated details. I agree with everything you have said with one small detail. I remember reading a quote where Brandon implies that since Taln is still bound, the Oathpact is still in force. I can't find it and could be mistaken, will keep looking and get back to you if I find anything concrete. 

 

@DocHoliday: You are implying that if an Oathpact theory doesn't have Odium a willing participant it is wrong. I find this arbitrarily limiting. Some alternate oathpact theories that do not require Odium to participate but fit all known facts would include:

• Honor shows the Heralds a way to stop Odium from destroying the Cosmere. It unfortunately involves an eternity of torture and the eventual splintering of Honor, but the universe will be saved. They nobly sacrifice themselves for the greater good. 
• Honor was captured by Odium, the Heralds independently formed a pact to rescue Tanavast and trap Odium.
• Honor and Cultivation are defeated by Odium and driven out of the Tranquiline Halls. They flee to the Roshar System where a third shard has already set up camp. The three shards form an Oathpact to protect their worlds. As part of this, they empower Heralds with a way to trap Odium should he ever follow them to Roshar. 
• Same as above with only Honor and Cultivation involved. They form a magic system together as part of the deal.
• Many others...

I'm not convinced Odium was part of the Oathpact, but neither am I sure he was not. Odium seems likely to participate if it suited his long-term goals, especially if he could exploit or betray someone as part of the deal. 

 

@Maximus: I'd like to know what Odium would have managed without the Oathpact restricting him. It could have been staggeringly catastrophic, bad enough that Honor was willing to tolerate Desolations and expose his Heralds to Odium's whims. If this was an agreement between Odium and Honor they both would get something valuable out of it or the deal would never have closed.