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My mind when they described Oathgates. What have I done?!?

OK, I dusted off an old map that speculated on the location of the Aimia and Shinovar OGs, because I started thinking about the fortress at the center of the Purelake, and I remembered that one of the Oathgate radials I drew, crossed through the center of the Purelake. And then of course I remembered Feverstone keep, that we know almost nothing about other than it is close to RallElorim and is on a plain. I of course wondered could it be a Coastal Plain in the rain shadow of the mountains? And then I wondered is it just pure coincidence that one of the radials just happens to cross through the Horneater Peaks and the Cultivation shardpools? The same radial, BTW, that Kholinar (the first gate captured) is on? So thinking about those two fortresses, I started thinking, yeah the Oathgates are cool and allow all the good little people move around, but these gates were built for WAR as well. And gates in the middle of cities are not very defensible, sure they can be locked and all, but come on?! If you were building a vast infrastructure like this wouldn't you want some safeguards? So I wondered, maybe there is a reason that the Purelake fortress is on a radial. And maybe Feverstone Keep as well. Maybe there are other fortresses scattered around Roshar, and they have oathgate rooms at their centers! Ok by that point the speculation train was running on full steam. Jumping tracks. Whoo boy. Urithiru. The middle of all of these Oathgates. A city tower. An Arcology. Cities need power to run. City wide heat, water, sewage, air circulation stormlight for quickly growing crops etc… Not to mention possibly having some sort of defensive array, or intra-tower teleportation pads or remote viewing screens, Mickey mouse alarm clocks. Lots of power. But all Urithiru has is a battery. A big honkin battery maybe, but just a battery. Ok people say that the Sibling is supposed to make it run, but show me a single location where Spren empowered a single thing? Yes they direct function, but they don't provide the actual power for it. Stormlight does. So just how the heck is that pretty battery filled? Well, we will just lower this itty bitty cage of gemstones down to the storm… Nahh. Well, the people using the Oathgates give extra stormlight… What? How? How is it collected and transported to the battery? OK, what about Bondsmiths? Just open a perpendicularity near the battery and bam! Full power baby! Ummm, first we don't know if all Bondsmiths could do that, or for that matter if any of them could, until Dalinar came along. It's been RAFO'd. Second, do you really want to be opening a GATEWAY to the Cognitive and Spiritual realms at the heart of your fortress city? That's just begging for some sort of desperation attack. Hmmmm. If only we had some way of collecting Stormlight from across all of Roshar… Hey gancho, we have this pretty array of gateways all around Roshar, why do they have to do just ONE thing? Why do the Oathgates have TWO spren? One of them certainly looks like a Giant Inkspren, but does that other one look like a giant bronze spren to you? Lets face it, a giant spren of the Elsecallers should be more than enough for shuffling stuff around through preprogrammed fabrials. So what is the white one's function? We know it's sentient, but it doesn't match up to any other higher spren that we've seen on camera. Maybe it's there for an entirely different reason, maybe it's there to funnel stormlight back through the network to provide power to the city?! So, you ask, why isn't the battery full? After all, it's been sitting there doing nothing for millennia. Well maybe the gates need to be unlocked. What about the Stormseat gate, it's unlocked now? Maybe it needs to be exposed and not covered in crem. What about the Thaylin gate? Bahh! I need a drink.

Description: Is there a connection between the Oathgates and their locations and Urithiru beyond the obvious? Are there gates we don't know about? Where are the Oathgates in Shinovar and Aimia located? Hey guys Oathbringer is out, we have new maps! So going over the the map that Salkara made (the black and white one along with the idea of drawing straight lines from the colored map (sorry I don't know it's creator. Please forgive my use of it.) I came up with the 3rd map. Now I admit what I am about to say may not hold up on a globus of Roshar, and I CERTAINLY don't want to slight Brandon's and Peter's dedication, but I have to seriously ask if Brandon and Peter would have plotted this on a GIS program capable of creating a globus? The plot I drew up raises some interesting questions. 1) As you can see, you can plot all of the vectors thru or very close to where Urithiru is plotted on the map. So, question is why? Is there something special about Urithiru other than its fantastic defensive location, something that allowed the creation of the gates? Or, is it more mundane? Were the Cities' Oathgate locations chosen first and Urithiru simply happened to be a least common denominator location? 2) Two of the vectors connect different cities. Kholinar -> Azimir and Thaylen City -> Panatham. So extrapolating from this and treating all 10 gates at Urithiru as a common whole: DOES there need to be an even number of cities on a vector to balance the math? We know how much symmetry is valued on Roshar. That being the case what about the Stormseat->Vedenar->Urithiru vector? It's interesting that this vector continues thru Shinovar and then Aimia. Given that, I took some liberties. We know that Akinah is beyond one of the larger islands. And, as far as Shinovar is concerned, we now know that humans came from another world and humans love building cities on rivers and deltas. Given these facts and the vector line I think the gates may be close to the two points I plotted. 3) So that leads to a couple of flaws. Ral Elorim and Kurth. If they have them, where are their balancing gates to the south of Urithiru? 4) The huge gaps In the Northeast and Southwest. Why? One possible answer might be the location of Honor's and Cultivation's Perpendicularities. Maybe the gate vectors have to be a certain distance from the Perpendicularities. I realize the Kholinar vector goes straight thru the Horneater peaks. But we now know that Cultivation's is in the peaks. If the perpendicularity is in the northern peaks this might hold up. And if that's the case, even though the second Perpendicularity is supposed to appear in random locations and times, could there be something else on the Tukar Peninsula near Icewater?

I plotted out the Oathgate locations to see if there might be some pattern: I was hoping it would match up with points on the Radiant chart (or something similarly simple), but I can't see anything. Hopefully someone else notices what I can't. I used the following labels: X = Oathgate, exact location known ? = Oathgate, exact location unknown U = Urithiru, approximate location and here are locations listed out as the high storm blows (right-to-left): [X] Shattered Plains [X] Kholinar, Alethkar [?] Thaylen City, Thaylenah (exact location of city on island unknown) [X] Vedanar, Jah Keved [?] Kurth, Rira (Jasnah believed it be in Kurth, but may be elsewhere) [X] Azimir, Azir [X] Panatham, Babtharnam [X] Rall Elorim, Iri [?] Shinovar (hidden somewhere) [?] Aimia (exact location on island unknown)

Does anyone else get the impression of a similar thing happening in some other fantasy universe as far as how the description of it activating goes? The blinding flash of light and then being someplace else on a circular platform is so Storming cool, but I can't help but feel like it's reminiscent to something else from someplace. Not complaining at all, just hoping someone else might have an idea of what I might be thinking of.

I had considered putting this in the Edgedancer forum, but this post is far more about Lift's role in Oathbringer and if I had put it in that board I'd need add a Tag for Oathbringer anyway. I just finished my latest reread of Edgedancer and some thoughts came to me in comparing it to what we have so far of part one of Oathbringer. First, when Prime Aqasix (Gawx) talks with Dalinar in Oathbringer and speaks of considering negotiating with the Voidbringers has Lift returned to Azimir yet? When the Everstorm came to Azir, she was in the country next door, Tashikk. She isn't as proficient in her power as Kaladin, so she is still mostly walking as opposed gliding back to Azimir. I think it is odd considering everything Lift learned in Edgedancer that the Emperor of Azir and his councilors wouldn't at least listen to Dalinar a bit more. Maybe they are ignoring her or maybe she doesn't know how to convince them to listen to Dalinar. Still, I would not be surprised if Lift's interlude begins with her walking back into Azimir. The next Thought that occurred to me was Lift's third oath. "I will listen to those who have been ignored." As of chapter 24 who in Roshar is being ignored at the worst possible time more than Dalinar? Lift might be instrumental in getting Azimir listens to Dalinar. Finally, and this an obvious one, but it is still interesting, Lift will open Azimir's Oathgate in Oathbringer. You see I don't think all of Roshar will unite, nor all the Oathgates will be available by the end of Oathbringer. But Azimir will be because Wyndle became a Shardfork. Now I think Wyndle was not shown in Edgedancer as a blade not only because a sword is not natural for Lift, but also because Wyndle's sword appearance was held back for Oathbringer. Still, Brandon wanted to get Lift her shardblade quickly so she could open that Oathgate and so gave her shardweapon to her in her novella. Those were the thoughts that came to me. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Where do you think our awesome little Edgedancer will be in Oathbringer? Will she get to Urithru by the end of the book? Will we get to see her mouthing off at Dalinar or bantering with Shallan? Tell me what you think.

Is anyone else getting the vibe that Dalinar is going to try to step down as "High King" in order to pursue his goal of unification? We've already seen him spend two books and part of a third realizing that forcing Alethkar to "unify" by force didn't really achieve the desired goal, and furthermore entrenched "The Blackthorn - Bloodthirsty Warlord" into the minds of most of the other monarchs. Regardless of whether Taravangian becomes another Bondsmith, I can see Dalinar offering "peaceful" Taravangian the position and moving most of the Alethi forces out of Urithiru in an attempt to sway the otherwise obstinate nations to unlock their oathgates.

Probably there is something I'm missing or that I fail to understand but, reading SA3 new chapters, there is something that keeps bothering me: how the Oathgates work. From chapter 12: With my (poor) knowledge of the English language, seems to me that you need to unlock both ends of the Oathgate before travelling from and to Urithiru. This seems also to make sense because if the Oathgates didn't work that way, Dalinar needed only to unlock the Oathgate to Kolinar in order to settle the riot in his hometown. But, if they indeed work this way, who unlocked the Oathgate in Urithiru when Shallan activated the Stormseat's one? If I'm not missing something obvious, I have a couple of ideas on the matter (but none truly convincing me): 1) The Oathgates in Urithiru were sealed by the Radiants just before the Recreance: Stormseat's was the one they used to live the Holy City. But, if that's the case, why don't use an Elsecaller to lock even the Stormseat's one and then leave with the Transportation Surge? 2) You could freely walk to Urithiru but needed some sort of "permission" to enter one of the Silver Kingdoms. Again this doesn't seem to be the case: first, the Oathgates seems like of Pairing Fabrials (with a kind of symmetry) and Navani seems to imply that they are locked on the Urithiru side. 3) Someone (maybe a Radiant Worldhopper... possibly among the lines of the Ghostbloods) unlocked it. But why? And how did he/she know Urithiru position and reached it? This doesn't seem to fit. --- Anyway, I'm starting hoping I missed something obvious because this seems such a pivotal plot point (helping Dalinar's Army flee the Everstorm and "forcing" the action of the new book) to not address it.

We now tentatively know the approximate locations of Urithiru and all ten Oathgates. I've marked them with blue circles on this map. (I'm guessing with the Aimian one.) You might have noticed that I also marked off a large area in red. This huge area is conspicuously devoid of Oathgates. I call it the Oathgate Deadzone. The central and northern parts of this region are farther from an Oathgate than any other point on the Rosharan landmass. These are the areas which, in the event of a voidbringer attack, would take the longest to receive Radiant assistance. I've got to wonder if there's a reason behind this. The simplest explanation is that this region had the least need for Oathgate-based military aid. Based on the present-day distribution of Shardblades, we might conjecture that Alethela and Valhav, which made up most of the Deadzone in the Silver Kingdoms era, were very strong countries, with lots of combat-ready Radiants among their populations. But if I accepted that explanation, I could hardly justify an ominous name like "the Oathgate Deadzone." So maybe there's another explanation for it. When I think of the old Desolations, I see the Heralds and Radiants spearheading a coordinated global defense. Voidbringers appear somewhere, and within the hour there are Elsecallers and Willshapers on the scene, doing reconnaissance. Within days there'll be a fighting force of Windrunners and Skybreakers, drawing the battle lines and probing the enemy's defenses. And then, a week or two after the initial enemy incursion, the bulk of our forces arrive -- huge armies of radiants, squires, and ordinary soldiers, marched in from the nearest Oathgate. Except in the Deadzone. There, with all the Oathgates far away, the Radiants' response time suffers. The enemy has more time to rally, to dig in, to fortify their position, and be ready for battle. This means the Deadzone is where the Radiants (and humankind in general) are weakest. It's a hole in their global defense network. It's a weakness the enemy can and will exploit. If the Radiants were smart, they would have filled in this gap by building an Oathgate out there, perhaps in modern day Elanar or Northgrip. So why didn't they? Is it because they could rely on local Alethi and Vedens protecting themselves? Or is there a more sinister, catastrophic reason? Well, you know what just happens to be in the Deadzone? The Horneater Peaks. And what's in the Horneater peaks? A shardpool. The only known stationary perpendicularity on Roshar. And I don't think that's a coincidence. I think... if I was sending an army of monsters to invade Roshar, I'd send that army through Shadesmar. And the easiest way to get them into the physical realm is through that perpendicularity in the Horneater Peaks. This is my theory. Odium's unseen voidbringer hordes will arrive en masse through that shardpool. The Horneater peaks are Ground Zero for every desolation. The Radiants probably tried to set up an oathgate-base in the area, but it was always overrun and destroyed early in the desolation. The voidbringers make it their priority to secure their LZ by rapidly and decisively taking control of the region. Expect shock troops. Expect death. From there, they expand outward until Radiant resistance is strong enough to push back. Then a brutal war of attrition begins, with each side trying to cripple the other using behind-enemy-lines surgical strikes -- which is what we've seen in Dalinar's visions. The Oathgate Deadzone is actually enemy territory. Voidbringer Central. Mordor. It always has been, and it's about to be again. And when the monsters of the voidbringer vanguard pour out of the Horneater Oceans, eager to establish their home base, they will not be happy to find a whole human culture camping out around their portal. If the Horneaters don't evacuate their mountains in a hurry, they're about to be wiped out. Hence my clickbait thread title. If that's not bad enough, Hearthstone is also inside the Deadzone. And I think House Davar's estate is as well. And so is Herdaz, and potentially hundreds of Lopen's cousins. The only tangible proof I could find is this: Herdazians and Horneaters both make their homes inside the Deadzone. The two human races descended from Listeners just happen to live inside the region with the worst Oathgate service. Their presence suggests this region was once home to large Listener populations, which I think would confirm my logic: Oathgates, no; Voidbringers, yes. Throw in a perpendicularity, and it can't all be a coincidence, can it? It can, obviously. But maybe it's not! This might be the reason the Alethi and Vedens are so warlike. Their ancestors were living on the front lines. They were the first line of defense when a desolation came, and the last ones fighting to retake their lost territory as it drew to a close. If this theory is at all correct, I think we can expect so see confirmation pretty soon. I predict that we'll soon hear about some very unusual parshman activity in Vedenar. (This part has Oathbringer spoilers.) Either way, I bet we'll know before book 4. Thoughts?

After a cursory search of the forums, I did not find the answer to the following question: Can any Oathgate teleport people to any other Oathgate? E.g. Assuming all Oathgates are unlocked (they currently are not) could the Stormseat Oathgate teleport a group of people to Kholinar (assuming a Radiant was there to activate the gate and the appropriate amount of Stormlight was available etc.)? I would venture a guess that yes, they can. The description of the Stormseat Oathgate in Words of Radiance suggests that Shallan had to select Uruthiru as the destination but that she could have chosen eight (8) other options. Lucky for everyone she did not do that as those gates are locked. On the other hand, we have in-world evidence that trade passed through Uruthiru during the era of the... uh, Silver Kingdoms? (Sorry, at work so I cannot look up exactly what the quote is nor what era it is from). There is a specific complaint about how Uruthiru was charging higher and higher tariffs for trade passing through the Oathgates. This makes it seem as if one first had to go to Uruthiru and then, from there, select another Oathgate to go to. Now, I assume it is possible that this type of travel was imposed by the Knights Radiant who refused to do direct travel from, say, Kholinar to Stormseat but I find it highly unlikely that every single Radiant would enforce such a decree. Would there not have been Radiants who disagreed with forcing all trade through Uruthiru at usurious rates? Anywho, it was just a thought I had while thinking of the Oathgates and all they entail. What say you Sharders? Was Uruthiru a hub by design or by decree?

On the day when Dalinar became bondsmith, he saw the oathgate on shattered plains flashing and saw Highprince Hatham arriving. But how did Hatham got the oathgate to work? I suppose Shallan said it could be opened by only Radiants : first the lanterns in that room must be infused with stormlight and the portal can be worked by only spren-shardblade. Both Kaladin and Shallan, as of yet revealed Radiants, were still in the tower. So who let Hatham in through an oathgate? In fact not just Hatham, but Elhokar, Sadeas and all those people who came to the city. How exactly they got in? I can't imagine Kaladin and Shallan standing at the gate like guards for an entire week, opening the portal for incoming people Or did they come by some other route than oathgate? Or did Shallan figure out how to work the portal without Radiants' power? Though I cannot remember reading that one.