Who exactly made the Oathpact?

[Arsteel]

Did Ishar forge the Oathpact himself with the powers he recieved from Honour, or did Honour forge the Oathpact? Also, did Ishar create the Nahel bond, and if he did, did he do it around the same time?

[Quantus]

It was a Pact so by definition it was both parties but we dont know the structure.  Ishar did have some unknown form of access to Surges prior to coming to Roshar with the rest of humanity, but the Oatpact made the Honorblades and solidified that form of the Power, which I assume was Tanavast's invention (since Ishar is still having to study and experiment figure out how to change the Oatchpact, I dont think he's on a Shard's level of Creation).  The Oathpact came in reaction to the war and the Fused, so it was after that and within a generation of the Migration itself. 

 

Quote

 

luke.spence (paraphrased)

How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).

Words of Radiance Dayton signing (March 19, 2014)

 

 

The Nahel Bond came later, and was the spren themselves figuring out how to mimic the Shardblades and the Heralds.  Ishar is credited with forming the Orders as an organization, but the Bond was already happening by then as (as far as we know) Ishar was not responsible for that initial discovery.  

[NameIess]

I believe that Ishar forged the Oathpact with the powers he received from Honor, but he did not create the Nahel bond, as the Heralds were surprised when it first happened. Ishar did, however, create the Knights Radiant, and I'm guessing that he used his powers to bind the Nahel bond to oaths.

[cometaryorbit]

Nitpick: Nahel bonds were pre-existing on Roshar, even before humans arrived: the term isn't specific to the Radiant bond.

The Radiant type bond weren't invented by Ishar either - Syl says spren did it by imitating the Honorblades- but Ishar did force the Orders into organization (its in the WOR epigraphs, where Ishar apparently threatened to destroy them all if they didn't accept order).

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As for the Oathpact, the Stormfather says "the Heralds went to Honor, and he gave them this right, this oath". So it was definitely initiated by the Heralds and probably Ishar specifically, but it's not clear how much guidance Honor gave them or how much of implementing the idea Honor handled.

[+ShardlessVessel]

1 hour ago, cometaryorbit said:

Nahel bonds were pre-existing on Roshar,

To add: the Nahel is pre-existing everywhere. Seons and other cognitive entities can bond in the exact same way as spren do, though the effects of such bonds are different. It's a basic feature of the Cosmere - a form of Connection.

In the case of the Radiant bond specifically, I believe Ishar's input was to add more structure to it. The Ideals of the Radiants are probably Ishar's doing. My speculation is that the Immortal Words are actual Spiritual Ideals that ishar used his power to Connect the spren to. A true spren could no longer empower a human who did not reflect the values represented by the Herald who held those Surges, thus creating a filter that hopefully prevents the wrong people from getting those powers.

[Arsteel]

Thank you all! This is exactly what was puzzling me.