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The Ryshadium and the Knights Radiant


Leonardus

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After failing to come up with a witty title I gave up and just went with the obvious. :mellow:

Anyways the other day while rereading WoR, I started having quite a few random thoughts about these rather intelligent horses, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that their intelligence and size was due to some sort of spren bond like most Great shells. We also know that Ryshadium choose their riders, forming some sort of bond, so far we have seen only two Ryshadium (Gallant and Sureblood) and they match everything we know about them(So far).

Now the interesting thing that set me thinking was this particular quote:

Horses weren't terribly well known back then. Radiants had Ryshadium, but even kings had little access to ordinary horses.

It seems that the radiant put use to these horses capable of carrying people wearing shardplate, but one of the things that made me curious was the fact that the Radiants don't really need horses.

Going into battle in a desolation on a giant horse is asking for trouble,we saw how well that turned out for Adolin, and there's not really much point in the speed advantage when you're capable of sprinting at great speeds while wearing plate and infusing stormlight, there's also not much point in charging with a horse considering that the Radiants use shardblades and those don't tend to shove things around, overall Ryshadium, haven't impressed me so far in combat.

The other potential use for Ryshadium is transportation, Shardplate is heavy, and Running everywhere probably isn't a good idea, now the problem with this is that a lot of orders can move much faster than a horse, We know that Windrunners can fly and Skybreakers (probably) should be able to fly as well. Then we have the Elsecallers and the Willshapers who have access to the transportation surge making horses pretty irrelevant.

Now that leaves us with 6 orders who don't have any Surges that facilitate travel (Friction might work, but I doubt its as fast as flying or teleporting),but there's also the fact that in times of Desolations the knights have access to the Oathgates, allowing them to get to anywhere in the world really quickly, so Ryshadium for long travels aren't that useful either. The only use I can see to the Ryshadium is for carrying equipment but then again you might as well use regular horses, so I cant see Ryshadium being that special in that regard.

Honestly I'm kind of stumped on the practicality of Ryshadium (Shardplate for horses! :D) but perhaps someone else can enlighten me on how they can prove useful. :rolleyes:
 

Edited by Leonardus
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You raise some pretty valid points. Ryshadium don't seem to be anything special from what we've seen so far. What I expect is that we're only seeing a shadow of what Ryshadium are capable of--if one is actually being ridden by a Radiant, then they might have more flexibility (like how Shardblades are much cooler when wielded by a specific Radiant). Perhaps in Stones Unhallowed we'll see Dalinar being pleasantly surprised by Gallant's capabilities. :)

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Brandon's been pretty close-mouthed about Ryshadium, but there is something funky going on with them.

 

Q:  Why are Ryshadium cooler than regular horses? I suspect a spren bond.
A:  There is Investiture involved.

 

Q:  (Something about how he got his ideas for knights)
A:  A knight has a sword, armor and a horse.  (my interpretation of the answer is that Ryshadium were closely related to the ancient Knights Radiant)

 

Q:  Were the Ryshadium artificially enhanced or created, or were they natural?
A:  Oh, RAFO! Good question!
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Leonardus, you're right, they don't seem to make sense in the context we currently see them.  So, I decided to think about them differently!  What if the Ryshadium can turn into Shardplate?  Because of...magic!  Or something.  Okay, maybe not.

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  • 2 months later...

For some reason I want to think that they are Returned. Is that completely ridiculous? Is Endowment the only Shard capable of sending something back to the physical plane to fulfill a purpose. Also, I believe that a horse would be intelligent enough to have a general idea of what is expected of it, so if it were capable don't you think it would see itself as being huge and strong and beautiful, to look like what it thinks it's riders would want it to look like? 

 

I can't help but feel like this is impossible, but it's been on my mind since I first started to look into cosmere magic crossing into other worlds. 

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There's that weird bond between the rider and the Ryshadium. Dalinar's horse knew where he was and that he needed help (the Tower); Ryshadiums seem smarter than normal horses and have some moral code - Dalinar said his wouldn't eat a treat unless he thought he deserved it and so on. We don't know what Ryshadiums get from the bond yet.

 

Perhaps it's different when a Radiant rides a Ryshadium. Think how different the Blades and Plates are than then were. Since Ryshadium answer only to their riders (that they chose nonetheless, thus a Ryshadium is as personal as spren to surgebinders) and there's investiture involved, I think a Radiant's Ryshadium can do more than normal Ryshadium

Edited by Aleksiel
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All I can say, it wait to see what Kaladin does flying falling through the air on Dreamstorm.  You see a man riding a flying horse wielding a magical spear, you run. 

I agree with Aleksiel. We haven't seen Ryshadium do anything cool yet, because we haven't seen any Radiants on a Ryshadium yet. Don't diss the horse because the batteries aren't included! :P

Edited by EMTrevor
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I'm trying to figure out what investiture would give them the enhanced intelligence and size/strength. 

 

Also, I found it odd that in Dalinar's vision of the Recreance, non of the Radiants approached on horses. I don't recall any mention of their breeding or of their origin in general. If the Radiants truly rode them, wouldn't they have been in the visions? At least the one of the Recreance. 300 Knights and not a single one riding one of these beasts. I suppose the bond to the horses could have been broken just the same as the Nahel bonds, and they were left somewhere before the blades were abandoned.

 

(not sure if that's a true spoiler, but I'm new here so i wanted to tag it just in case)

 

I'm far more interested in their origin than what they are capable of. It's been shown that they are highly intelligent and strong, now I want to know where they came from.

 

The only thing that keeps me thinking on my theory of Returned horses is that if there were selective breeding programs to make such incredible horses, wouldn't we see something similar in chull/other pack animals? Or possibly food animals bred to produce more?

Edited by ShyGuy
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Perhaps Ryshadium only bond with people that a spren would consider making into a Knight Radiant or that is already being followed by a spren; they are demonstrating one of the 10 facets of Honor.

Also, just to note, but horses are only native to Shinovar, yet Ryshadium aren't mentioned in particular to be limited to the Shin lands. I wonder if, partially, Ryshadium were bred/created as an attempt to make horses that could survive in the wild where highstorms are stronger.

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Perhaps Ryshadium only bond with people that a spren would consider making into a Knight Radiant or that is already being followed by a spren; they are demonstrating one of the 10 facets of Honor.

Also, just to note, but horses are only native to Shinovar, yet Ryshadium aren't mentioned in particular to be limited to the Shin lands. I wonder if, partially, Ryshadium were bred/created as an attempt to make horses that could survive in the wild where highstorms are stronger.

or maybe people who are likely to be chosen by a spren

 

 

I've been thinking about this lately. 

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I'm wondering if it's possible that the Ryshadium are, for lack of a better term, horse Radiants.  That is, have they bonded a spren themselves?  We know that it's possible to have a spren bonded and nobody else could see it because that's what Syl does.  We've seen two species bond spren in humans and Parshendi.  Why not horses?

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or maybe people who are likely to be chosen by a spren

 

 

I've been thinking about this lately. 

 

Alright, let's start the speculation spree.... If this is true, then all person bonded to a Rhysadium are potential proto-radiant... We have Dalinar = Radiant. We have Adolin = could be a proto-radiant or not, but his horse is dead, so... And we have Hatham..................

 

Now to which order to you think Hatham should belong to? :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

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Hmm.

I wonder what kind of impact Sureblood dying us going to have on Adolins progress. It just occurred to me that the Rhyshadium kind of remind me of the Dire Wolves of A Song of Ice and Fire... and they always seemed to reflect their masters person as, to the point that losing Lady had zoned and Cat worried about what might happen her.

I wonder if the same will happen with Adolins- that during the next book, he's going to try and procure another Rhyshadium, but find that none will accept him as a rider because of the Sadeas affair.

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Hmm.

I wonder what kind of impact Sureblood dying us going to have on Adolins progress. It just occurred to me that the Rhyshadium kind of remind me of the Dire Wolves of A Song of Ice and Fire... and they always seemed to reflect their masters person as, to the point that losing Lady had zoned and Cat worried about what might happen her.

I wonder if the same will happen with Adolins- that during the next book, he's going to try and procure another Rhyshadium, but find that none will accept him as a rider because of the Sadeas affair.

 

I don't know. I have been wondering what it does to the bond holder when the Rhysadium dies.... Does it create a vaccum similar to the one the death of a warder in WoT makes?

 

I don't think he'll try for another Rhysadium, I don't think the fields where they live is close-by. Dalinar took him there before the war, when he was just a teenager (which would explain why Renarin does not have one: he must have been too young at the time to make the trip).

However I do not think a Rhysadium would refuse to bond with Adolin because of the murder. Gallant bonded with Dalinar and Dalinar murdered dozens if not hundreds of people.... I think they see potential and kindness of heart. Despite a grim past, Dalinar had potential and a kind heart. Adolin was a kid with a lot of potential and a kind heart. He is now a grown-up with still with a kind heart, but an uncertain future. Maybe once he makes peace with his deed and once he tries again to live up to what he knows if best, he'll get another Rhysadium, providing he can make it to the field.

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