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The Oathpact's Purpose


DrakeMarshall

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I will try to make this theory brief, but...

Basically, Honor is splintered. And usually a splintered shard doesn't really put up much resistance against another shard, since its power is all scattered.

I predict that Tanavast knew he would be splintered, and anticipating this, set up the Oathpact (Tanavast was notoriously bad at predicting the future, but he was also friends with Cultivation, who may have one of the most powerful future sights of any shard).

Even after he was dead, and no shardholder could mobilize the powers of Honor to fight Odium... The heralds and radiants (both wielding splinters of honor) are able to channel Honor's investiture against Odium after Honor's death.

I'm not sure precisely what rules are keeping Odium stuck in the Oathpact, but I am guessing Tanavast understood that by continuing to resist Odium after death, he would contain Odium on the Roshar system. Maybe Odium just really hates Honor, and Odium's shard intent does not permit Rayse to focus on other targets while Honor is still mounting resistance?

The basic gist of what I'm saying isn't particularly remarkable, but... What I am trying to emphasize here is that I would bet the primary purpose of the Oathpact was to appoint some humans to wield Honor's splintered power, so that Honor could still be a threat after the shard was splintered. Tanavast knew in advance that he was going to die, so he granted 10 people godlike powers, so that they could keep on carrying out his agenda after death.

People can still obviously draw on the powers of the shard of Devotion. Magic systems like AonDor and Surgebinding spring up naturally when a shard invests on a planet. But Devotion doesn't have 10 heralds. She didn't know in advance that Odium was going to kill her, or else she might have considered creating a Lord Ruler like being (or multiple ones, in Honor's case) to watch over Sel after her death.

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Quote

QUESTION

Was the Almighty still alive when the Heralds packed it in, and did the Radiants pack it in in direct response to what the Heralds did?

BRANDON SANDERSON

The Radiants did NOT abandon their post as a response to the Heralds. The Radiants abandoned it for some other reason which will become evident eventually. The Almighty was still around when the Heralds did their thing.

I think this basically disproves it.

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Also I am not sure how well Odium is contained in the Rosharn system.  Bands of Mourning spoilers below..

Spoiler

The red eyed immortal beings In the bands of mourning on Sadrial also Harmony shows Wax that he isn't just sitting and doing nothing he is holding back another shard or some other god from attacking the system. I think this might be Odium not sure, but who else could it be?

 

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10 hours ago, Humpty said:

Also I am not sure how well Odium is contained in the Rosharn system.  Bands of Mourning spoilers below..

  Hide contents

The red eyed immortal beings In the bands of mourning on Sadrial also Harmony shows Wax that he isn't just sitting and doing nothing he is holding back another shard or some other god from attacking the system. I think this might be Odium not sure, but who else could it be?

 

Quote

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

Odium is able to influence all 3 important planets in the Rosharan system, Roshar, Braize, and Ashyn

 

Spoiler

The common theory that Trell is could also be Autonomy (Bavadin From the letter) she has confirmed to be active in other Shardworlds.

 

Edited by AerionBFII
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On 2/18/2017 at 0:02 PM, Elendtheking said:

Interesting theory but the knight radiants were more of a side effect of creating the heralds: the sprens copied what Honor did. Also, I don't think it's said that the Heralds are more powerful than radiants so closer to godlike power even if it would make more sense

 

On 2/18/2017 at 0:33 PM, Markus said:

I think this basically disproves it.

 

I mean... I don't think my theory made a single claim about the radiants. The radiants are a natural result of honor investing, and yes, inspired by the heralds (but still basically something that unintentionally occurred). My theory addresses the heralds, not the radiants. The Oathpact, as I understand it, refers only to the situation the heralds were in where they came to Roshar every desolation and fought, then suffered torture in the in-between times.

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5 hours ago, Drake Marshall said:

I mean... I don't think my theory made a single claim about the radiants. The radiants are a natural result of honor investing, and yes, inspired by the heralds (but still basically something that unintentionally occurred). My theory addresses the heralds, not the radiants. The Oathpact, as I understand it, refers only to the situation the heralds were in where they came to Roshar every desolation and fought, then suffered torture in the in-between times.

But Honor was still alive at the time the Heralds quit.  The Oathpact had been broken by then.  Wouldn't he, seeing that they had abandoned the oaths, given the powers to other people?  And why wouldn't he set up a heir to his power like

Mistborn 1 spoilers:

Spoiler

Preservation did with Vin and Sazed.

 

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56 minutes ago, Markus said:

But Honor was still alive at the time the Heralds quit.  The Oathpact had been broken by then.  Wouldn't he, seeing that they had abandoned the oaths, given the powers to other people?  And why wouldn't he set up a heir to his power like

Mistborn 1 spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Preservation did with Vin and Sazed.

 

The Oathpact wasn't actually broken. Otherwise, that was going to be my post as well.

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1 hour ago, Markus said:

The Oathpact had been broken by then.  Wouldn't he, seeing that they had abandoned the oaths, given the powers to other people?

In addition to what Spool has said, the Radiants already existed before 9 of the Heralds abandoned their duties. Jezrien is on the record stating that "They[Mankind] have the Radiants. That will be enough" -Way of Kings Prelude

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