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[OB] Unite Them


Thanatos

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Yes. I think he means unite all peoples (including listeners) and spren against Odium. As seems to be a consistent theme in OB. 

Spoiler

Not only in Dalinar's chapters, but throughout, we see people that are not necessarily with Odium, but find themselves in circumstances that put them against Dalinar's coalition. There  is definitely that theme in the third ideal for Bondsmiths, as he was able to unit the realms, perhaps this can extend to the shared as well. 

I can't seem to find any WOB excluding the possibility of un-sharing a shard. This could be another meaning behind 'unite them.' if Odium is to be stopped, they need a shard, preferably two, considering Odium's previous history.

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Definitely a question which has been bugging me since the second time the UNITE THEM was said, as Brandon does not use language lazily, including omissions.  Obviously, it is not Honour wanting Dalinar to unite the Alethi high princes against the Parshendi.  I think telling humans in Roshar to unite the shards of Adonalsium or some aspect of Honour is a stretch.  I think the two most likely answers are, A: to unite all of humanity, and likely the listeners as well, as while what was thought to be the voidbringers were Parshendi and the fused, some listeners did join humans against odium as well, which we are just starting to see towards the end of Oathbringer, hell we're even seeing spren of Odium (Renarin's bond) and one of the greater spren trying to switch sides aaaaaaaaaand a non-odium spren bonding with a Parshmen to create a Parshmen Knights Radiant, or B: that Honour actually meant unite the Knights Radiant and/or the Heralds, as both of those groups had themselves had a form of shattering before Honour was fully shattered. ooooooooor C: which would be both A and B.  Unite all of them to fight the thread that is odium.

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I thought I remembered "unite them" specifically not being said by Honor. Wasn't there a scene, maybe 60-70% through the book where Dalinar says something along the lines of "Unite who? Why do you keep saying that?" and Honor says "Saying what?", then they get distracted and we never find out who is actually saying it?

 

Also, this should have the OB tag on the title, right? (new here, so not 100% sure!)

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On 12/19/2017 at 8:27 PM, Thanatos said:

So what does everyone think Honor means by this repeating statement.

1. Unite the humans to fight Odium?

2. Unite the spren and humans together again?

3. Unite the pieces of Honor together?

4. Other... please explain.

Are we sure that it's Honor talking? I don't remember Dalinar matching that voice to Tanavast's voice anywhere. 

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  • Greywatch changed the title to [OB] Unite Them
On ‎12‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 9:30 AM, Mike son son Al said:

In WoR it was Alethkar and the Radiants, in OB it referred to Roshar and the 3 realms.  

Yea I kinda took the "Unite them" to have many meanings too.  I think it was mostly just about how Bondsmiths seek to unite everything.  I was initially disappointed to learn there could only be 3 Bondsmiths at a time but it makes sense now.  You can't have hundreds of people walking around that can unify all three realms.  Super powerful

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Unite them has many meanings. And will be a theme for Dalinar throughout. So the answer is yes to all of that. The kingdoms including the parschendi,  the radiants, etc.    But ultimately I predict it is meant to unite the shards on Roshar to become something new,  Unity if you will.  Similar to Harmony with Ruin and preservation.   Cultivation, Odium and the essense of Storm Father become Unity.  That's my end game prediction for the first 5 novels.

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2 minutes ago, Mutantspicy said:

Unite them has many meanings. And will be a theme for Dalinar throughout. So the answer is yes to all of that. The kingdoms including the parschendi,  the radiants, etc.    But ultimately I predict it is meant to unite the shards on Roshar to become something new,  Unity if you will.  Similar to Harmony with Ruin and preservation.   Cultivation, Odium and the essense of Storm Father become Unity.  That's my end game prediction for the first 5 novels.

Yeah that's a good prediction. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It likely intentionally has multiple meanings.  

I suspect one possible meaning is an un-splintering of the Honor shard.  Which would be a big deal both for the SA and the Cosmere as a whole.  That may be the event that gets us to a post-Book 5 Roshar equilibrium that ends the first arc of books.  We see that Tavanast had some long game that he was playing, and the shard ends up falling into the hands of Dalinar or Kaladin, or something along those lines.

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On 24/12/2017 at 2:15 PM, sctfn said:

Are we sure that it's Honor talking? I don't remember Dalinar matching that voice to Tanavast's voice anywhere. 

 I'm actually pretty sure he mentions toward the end of OB that the voice isn't one he recognises  (don't have my copy to hand), so it wouldn't be Honour / Tanavast saying to unite them. 

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  • 2 months later...

So, I have been relistening and reading all 3 books (I read Oathbringer after having read both books years ago) and I feel like “Unite Them” is referring to the Shattered Plains. Upon reading Way of Kings the first time years ago and then again recently I remember being struck by how many times the characters wondered about or commented on the Shattered Plains’ structure. Some of this is undoubtedly world building; however, on this second read through it just stood out so glaringly to me.

There is a passage in Words of Radiance that says: “They blame our people for the loss of that land. The city that once covered did range the eastern strand. The power made known in the tomes of our clan our gods were not who shattered these plains” (325 Sanderson).

This scene is followed by a fight which Adolin goes out of his way to talk about how the plateau battlefield looks like a multi tiered hill that had been separated apart, spending an inordinate amount of time and words pointing out how it must have been obviously been joined prior.

Now, I am still making my way through Words of Radiance and have yet to give a second reading of Oathbringer, I can’t help but feeling that “unite them” theory in relation to people or the kingdoms of Roshar could be nothing but flawed. He tried to unite all the princes of Alethkar in the first book and Sadeas betrayed him almost to his death. He tried to unite them again through duels and force of will in the 2nd book and still fell short (from what I can remember; still going through this one again). The 3rd book involves him trying to unite the continent of Roshar only to be betrayed again by people he trusts and again falling short of that lofty goal.

The third book reveals Dalinar’s ability to unite stone as well as other things and while his duties as a Bondsmith may extend to bringing people and Parshendi together to square off against Odium, or uniting the Knights Radiants and the left over Heralds again, I feel like Sanderson has demonstrated time and again that is not what is meant by unite them given how often it doesn’t work. His ability, to unite stone together, just makes sense that he would eventually level up to the ability of being able to unite stone so massive as to be that of the Shattered Plains; otherwise, what massive task could wait Dalinar that his powers could not handle as demonstrated in book 3?

The final two pieces of evidence I can give so far that “unite them” refers to Shattered Plains is think about Urithiru and the focus in the 3rd book about its lack of function. Jasnah, Navani, Shallan, and the ardents all struggled throughout the 3rd book to figure out how to get the darn thing working. Everything looked like it was setup to work if only some inexplicable thing could happen to get Urithiru going as it should. Could it be that the uniting of the Shattered Plains would allow for the awakening of Urithiru much in the same way that the (admittedly, confusing) end of Elantris when something very similar took place to allow for power to return? This fits in with the Shin’s reverence for stone and not walking on it. Maybe they understand the true power that lay dormant in stone, that same power that was shattered when the Plains were shattered.

Someone poke some holes in this as I feel like it’s pretty solid predicting, but I want to know if I’m misremembering parts from the end of book 2 or book 3 that might contradict me.

Finally, this is my first post on this forum or any forums online. Let me know if I’ve broken any of the rules or if posts need to be shorter than this massive tome.

 

Edited by Midavis
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15 minutes ago, Midavis said:

Finally, this is my first post on this forum or any forums online. Let me know if I’ve broken any of the rules or if posts need to be shorter than this massive tome.

Posts needing to be shorter than this? Preposterous! This is the kind of thing that this forum lives for. If anything you're more rules-heavy than most here; we usually don't go to the trouble of underlining book titles or citing sources; it takes too much work. *chuckles*

Guess I got a bit ahead of myself. I'm Elenion, call me Len. Welcome to the Shard! Watch out for people handing out cookies and other baked goods; they're contaminated with any number of nasty things, including Hemalurgic Spikes. Now let me tell you, you do not want to get one of those stuck in your tongue...

As for the meaning of Unite Them, I can't help you. There's a reason I mostly stay down in the role-play section. :ph34r:

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On 1/11/2018 at 3:41 AM, Arkboy said:

 I'm actually pretty sure he mentions toward the end of OB that the voice isn't one he recognises  (don't have my copy to hand), so it wouldn't be Honour / Tanavast saying to unite them. 

What's the speculation on who is talking?

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I'm pretty hard set against the Adonalsium theory. 

Mistborn Era 2 takes place either between the front and back halves of stormlight, or at the beginning of the second half, which means Stormlight will end, timeline wise, prior to Era 3. The Cosmere storyline doesn't end until Mistborn Era 4. 

If Dalinar is already becoming Adonalsium, that creates some major story problems. 

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I have felt that we overlook how weird  in-word The Way of Kings has been acting.In a flashback, Dalinar says he could see the words as if the words were glowing when he eavesdropped on Jasnah reading the book. At other times the book physically gives him strength, or gets zapped by a lightening strike. Dalinar is also having dream-visions with the author of the book, and these visions are unknown to The Stormfather.

Unite-them, to me, means to unite all the past bondsmiths. I think the bondsmiths are still connected to each other in a way that might be meaningful and useful. In any regard, it seems that something has been using The Way of Kings to talk to Dalinar, and I have a hard time believing that something is different than the "unite them" voice. 

I also think Odium saw the author of The Way of Kings when Dalinar took up Unity, or perhaps another bondsmith that Odium had been connected to. 

As to why Unity might be a proto-shard? I think bondsmiths have control of spiritual connection, and might be able to manipulate and control energy that is no longer associated with any one shard. Now that Honour is dead, the bondsmiths have an easier time grabbing that ambient, non-sentient energy associated with that shard. Danilar is beginning to pull the power of the bondmsiths so that he can pull the power of the ambient shardic energy. 

 

Just a hunch. 

 

 

Edited by teknopathetic
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