Wild Speculation: Radiant Order BFFs

[Stoneward]

So I've had a fun idea floating around in my brains recently. There's very little evidence for it, but that's never stopped me from coming up with crazy extrapolations. This idea is mostly based on chapters 19: Starfalls and 52: A Highway to the Sun.

 

These Dalinar visions are some of our only eye-witness accounts of Radiants in action, and they have something in common: two orders of Radiants working (or betraying all of mankind) together, wearing blue and amber plate. Windrunners and Stonewards, hanging out.

 

Maybe, they were good friends.

Maybe, they were best friends.

After all, if you were going to abandon the world, who would you want by your side?

 

And maybe, just maybe... the other orders had best friends, too.

 

Thoughts and Observations:

• In any military action, it's stupid to work alone. You have much better chances of surviving with someone to watch your back.
• If you have a specialized set of skills and attributes in an environment that can throw a variety of situations at you (ie: War), it's smart to team up with others who's skills compliment your own.
• We haven't yet seen a Radiant working without at least one other Radiant nearby.

An Interesting Fact: Stonewards and Windrunners mirror each other on the surge chart:

 

 

So here is my crack-brained, woefully-lacking-in-statistically-significant-evidence theory:

 

All ten Radiant Orders were paired with their mirrored order, based on the surge chart, and these order pairs consistently cooperated with each other to achieve their goals.

 

Discuss.

[digitalbusker]

In any military action, it's stupid to work alone. You have much better chances of surviving with someone to watch your back.

Of course. That's the first law of the Roughs.

So here is my crack-brained, woefully-lacking-in-statistically-significant-evidence theory:

 

All ten Radiant Orders were paired with their mirrored order, based on the surge chart, and these order pairs consistently cooperated with each other to achieve their goals.

 

Discuss.

It's possible. The chart does seem temptingly symmetrical, although there'd have to be at least one vertically-matched pair among the horizontally-matched ones. What do we think Stonewards do? If they're using the surges of Surface Tension and Civil Engineering to create big earthworks on the fly in combat situations I can see how that would synergize with the Lashings.

[Natans]

If the Windrunner are BFF of the Stonewards for sure they would be rivals of the lightweaver.

 

They spren are at odd with other (lie and honor) and they orders position are inverted, just saying =)

 

Maybe The spren that give the power to the order also pass some of their rivality, or is simple like if you are coiced for a kind of spren you naturally would have afinninty to some order and rivality with other given that pretty much anyone in a given order must have similiar mindset.

 

Honorable people dislike lies, and such=)

[Moogle]

I like this theory. It would mean Shallan and Lift working together. That would be something interesting. I'm not so sure their powers mesh well, though...

 

It's possible. The chart does seem temptingly symmetrical, although there'd have to be at least one vertically-matched pair among the horizontally-matched ones.

 

That would be the Bondsmiths (Order 10, yes I know it's only a theory I'm stating it like fact because I can) and Order 5. They're the only option, anyways.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Moogle

[11thorderknight]

It's possible, but doesn't fit with what we know of the Surgebinding chart. If you think about it, none of the adjacent surges really have that much to do with each other (aside perhaps from Gravity and Pressure, and even that is a bit of a stretch). If I were a general with the 10 orders at my disposal, I'd never think to myself "send in my Windrunners for aerial support", I'd think, "send in the Gravity binders". For synergy, it would then make sense to have a mixed group of Windrunners and Skybreakers, since both could fly (which is the primary requirement for the mission) but each has something to offer than the other doesn't. Likewise, sending in healers (4 and 5) Dividers (2 and 3), Soulcasters (6 and 7) etc.

 

I've always wondered why it was that Soulcasting seems to be the only named Surge (named in the sense of its practitioners being identified by the Surge name). Could be because the Soulcaster fabrials were the only ones that survived from ancient times, could be because Brandon originally meant it as a totally separate magic system and then retrofitted it in as a Surge. But it definitely makes sense for them all to be individually named. I mean, if you're out to dinner and someone drops dead of a heart attack, you don't go shouting for "an Edgedancer or a #5" you go shouting for "a Regrower".

Edited January 23, 2014 by 11thorderknight