[OB] Radiant Siblings

[AllomancerSam]

So I looked for another topic discussing this and I couldn't find one, at least not one on the OB board.

Now I know I'm not the first person to notice that a lot of our main Radiants have lost siblings, and with WoR it was only three (Tien, Gavilar, and Helaran), and OB brings that number to five (with Eshonai and Elhokar), which is a heck of "coincidence" on its own, but when I started really thinking about it I noticed something else:

Elhokar: proto-Lightweaver

Eshonai: proto-Willshaper

Helaran: proto-Skybreaker

Gavilar: proto-Bondsmith (or at least on the same path that Dalinar was with the visions)

Tien: possible proto-Lightweaver

All of their deaths are (as far as we know) unconnected, but still, Brandon doesn't tend to work in coincidences.

Thoughts? Am I reading too much into this? Does this pattern have anything to do with The Sibling?

[Kaleid]

What is this about Tien being a possible lightweaver?

[AllomancerSam]

12 minutes ago, Kaleid said:

What is this about Tien being a possible lightweaver?

It's a theory that's been going around. Here are a couple of threads on it:

 

[RShara]

I disagree with both Tien and Helaran being proto-Radiants.  Helaran was slightly associated with the Skybreakers but he wasn't even to Squire or trainee status.  Tien, there's really no actual evidence for.

[Calderis]

12 minutes ago, RShara said:

Tien, there's really no actual evidence for.

Other than providing Kaladin with the same "spiritual sustenance" as Shallan (pulling him out of his emotional funks, and arguably the entire reason for the obnoxious ship), and carving a photo realistic horse from memory. 

Edited December 30, 2017 by Calderis

[thegatorgirl00]

I think it's a combination of two things. Knowing a Radiant makes you more likely to attract a spren. So siblings should both get chosen fairly often if they both follow the ideals. Second, you need to be broken to become a Radiant. For Kaladin, Venli, and Dalinar the death of a sibling contributed to the breaking. 

[Could Be Fire]

Like @thegatorgirl00 mention we have a WOB saying that it's not strictly a family relationship thing, but just that being around Radiants makes you more likely to become a Radiant yourself. This can cause positive feedback loops leading to a bunch of clustered Radiants. Basically having a Radiant around makes spren more likely to pay attention to the physical realm, so they more easily find people to bond with, so there are more Radiants around, so more spren are paying attention and so on. The WOB also mentions the spiritual web, I think? So it may also be related to the interactions between the spiritual bonds or "connection" between people and the Nahal bonds that literally meld with an individual's spirit web. Like, it might have been easier for Syl to bind with Kal because he was spiritually connected to Tien, who already had a Nahal bond of his own. 

For a non-familial cluster think of Bridge Four (now there's some squire stuff going on with them) but after Kaladin reveals himself we see a huge number of Windrunners and proto-Windrunners pop up in a very tight cluster. It basically seems like all of the Windrunners on Roshar are in the Kholin army. It spreads almost like a virus (Kaladin --> Bridge 4 --> Other bridgemen --> Kholin Army).

We can see a lot of the current Radiants forming sort of network. This may not be the best metaphor, but I just took by Developmental Bio midterm and it almost acts like the signaling during development to reinforce cell specification. Tien's Cryptic bond made Syl more likely to notice Kaladin which lead to the other Honorspren starting to bond with the rest of Bridge Four. Pattern starts re-bonding with Shallan when she's around Jasnah who we see bonding with Ivory when around Gavilar (a proto-Bondsmith). 

A good example of this effect is Elhokar. Personally, I think he's a super valid Lightweaver on his own merits, but I also think that a large factor in him being a proto-Radiant was basically being surrounded at all times by Radiants and squires (His sister, sister's ward, cousin, uncle, bodyguard, father, etc.)  

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Could Be Fire