[OB] Some Cultivation theorising

[+TheFoxQR]

Let me begin with a story that Hoid tells Shallan in OB:-

Spoiler

“Then be wise about it. There are two kinds of important men, Shallan. There are those who, when the boulder of time rolls toward them, stand up in front of it and hold out their hands. All their lives, they've been told how great they are. They assume the word itself will bend to their whims as their nurse did when fetching them a fresh cup of milk.
Those men end up squished.
Other men stand to the side when the boulder of time passes, but are quick to say, 'See what I did! I made the boulder roll there. Don't make me do it again!'
These men end up getting everyone else squished."
"Is there not a third type of person?"
"There is, nut they are oh so rare. These know they can't stop the boulder. So they walk beside it, study it, and bide their time. Then they shove it-ever so slightly- to create a deviation in its path.
These are the men who actually change the world. And they terrify me. For men never see as far as they think they do.”

My personal theory is Hoid is being alluding to the three Shards on Roshar here.

From what we know of Honor, he tried to hold Odium back. Perhaps he formed the Oathpact for that very reason. And he is dead. He tried to stop what was happening by directly working in contradiction to it, and this possibly consumed him. That could be the first person in the story.

Later on in the book, when Odium is trying to convert/corrupt Dalinar, he says these:

Spoiler

“Don’t blame yourself,” Odium said as Dalinar winced. “I made you kill her, Dalinar. I caused all of this. Do you remember? I can help. Here.”

Memories flooded Dalinar’s mind, a devastating onslaught of images. He lived them all in detail, somehow squeezed into a moment, the Thrill raging inside of him. He saw himself stab a poor soldier in the back. A young man trying to crawl his chest. “I was with you then.”

Dalinar fought atop a strange rock formation, facing another man who knew the Thrill. Dalinar dropped him to the ground with burning eyes, and called it a mercy. “I was with you then.”

He raged at Gavilar, anger and lust rising as twin emotions. He broke a man in a tavern, frustrated that he’d been held back from enjoying the fight. He fought on the borders of Jah Keved, laughing, corpses littering the ground. He remembered every moment of the carnage. He felt each death like a spike driven into his soul. He began to weep for the destruction. “It’s what you needed to do, Dalinar,” Odium said. “You made a better kingdom!” “So... much... pain. ”

“Blame me, Dalinar. It wasn’t you! You saw red when you did those things! It was my fault. Accept that. You don’t have to hurt.”

Very similar to the second person in the story.

If this is true, then it gives us a hint about both Cultivation and the way she is fighting Odium. I remember Mr. Sanderson implying that Cultivation is very good at seeing the future. Could she have predicted the role of Dalinar in Odiums's invasion? If so, is the boon she granted him specifically granted to counter Odium? If this is true, what about Taravangian's gift? Could she have intervened there as well? Is she, like the third person in the story, trying to cause only slight deviations in the events that are happening so that she can achieve the outcome she wants (Odium losing, or maybe Rayse dying and giving up the Shard to someone else)?

[VirtuousTraveller]

This appears to be your first post, and as a long-time sharder/lurker of the shard, I love this theory! =)

I hope you bring more posts as insightful as this to the forums!

[RShara]

Welcome!  Yes, there are a number of us who think that Cultivation is being extremely subtle and is nudging events toward a big ol' Odium take-down.  There's a lot of good info in this thread, if you'd like to take a look

 

[The Sovereign]

40 minutes ago, TheFoxQR said:

Very similar to the second person in the story.

If this is true, then it gives us a hint about both Cultivation and the way she is fighting Odium. I remember Mr. Sanderson implying that Cultivation is very good at seeing the future. Could she have predicted the role of Dalinar in Odiums's invasion? If so, is the boon she granted him specifically granted to counter Odium? If this is true, what about Taravangian's gift? Could she have intervened there as well? 

First, excellent theory, I've actually had a similar thought process bouncing around regarding Hoid's lesson to Shallan. 

Regarding Dalinar, yes, asterisk. She says to him that she will prune him so he can grow but that she COULD be making a weapon for Odium. I would interpret this as her reading the future and seeing a diverging path for Dalinar where either possibility is possible. I would guess that she foresaw that pruning Dalinar to prepare him had the best chance of successfully undermining Rayse.

As for Mr.T, I would assume that yes, it is a similar intervention.

I suspect that Cultivation is making subtle pushes where she can to undermine Odium. Mr. T's actions greatly affect how Dalinar acts so it is possible that the Diagram is means of forcing Dalinar's hand by essentially reshaping the world (politically, economically, etc.). This could also be Cultivation picking the playing field that she wants. With that said, the line in the Diagram that Renarin is the key makes me think that while each of these nudges have large effects on each other that really they are both just small moves in the larger game the Cultivation is playing to combat Odium. 

[1stBondsmith]

Well posted. Whether these are Shard allusions or just happens to be how Brandon has categorized influencing things on a world level, it was a very wise categorization. If Hoid did mean it as a commentary on the Shards, (which I can see being the case) he commented on the short-sightedness of men but could mean all levels of invested people. This has proven true many times with the Shards as well (or even the Lord Ruler's world-level mistakes), so it seems appropriate.