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I don't understand the Oathpact or the Desolations at ALL


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Everyone seems to understand how it all works. The Heralds . . . were chosen by Honor? To fight the Voidbringers? And then they died, went to Braize, stayed as long as they could, then when they couldn't handle it any more it started all over again? Can someone give me the simple version of what was going on and why everyone seems to understand it so much better than me?

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That seems to be a pretty good/simple understanding of what was happening actually.

Heralds were chosen by Honor to both fight the Voidbringers and help humanity rebuild after a desolation. When they died, they were sent to Braize to be tortured until just one of them broke, at which point another Desloation would start. 

I don't know that there is anything much beyond supposition as to exactly how the Oathpact was keeping Odium bound to the Roshar system or what the stipulations were for him to be free, but the basic mechanics are pretty much what you describe. 

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The short version is that Nobody actually knows all the details or implications of the Oathpact.  Right now we only know a few details for certain.  We know that the Oathpact is related to Odium being trapped in the rosharan system but that "[Odium's] being bound is greater than the Oathpact."  We know that the Heralds were alive and still human at the time of the great migration. We knwo that part of it involved Honor empowering ten Humans to become Heralds.  We know that the pattern they were stuck in was to return to Roshar, fight Odium's forces, and then die and return to Braize where they were eventually found and tortured by odium's forces there, and that should any of them break under the torture they would all return to fight another desolation on Roshar.  

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22 minutes ago, Eran of Arcadia said:

Everyone seems to understand how it all works. The Heralds . . . were chosen by Honor? To fight the Voidbringers? And then they died, went to Braize, stayed as long as they could, then when they couldn't handle it any more it started all over again? Can someone give me the simple version of what was going on and why everyone seems to understand it so much better than me?

So basically, the Heralds were mortal once. After Odium got trapped on Roshar, he created the Fused, which are ancient singers who can possess live singers, take over their bodies, and continue to fight, with all the knowledge gained therein.

Ten people went to Honor and offered themselves as a kind of plug, to bind the Fused to Braize, so that the Fused couldn't keep fighting. They became the Heralds.

What Honor and the Heralds didn't realize was that the Heralds, being human, could voluntarily bend or break their Oaths and let the Fused back to Roshar. The Fused found that they could torture the Heralds until one of them did that. Once one of the Heralds broke, the entire lot of them would start returning to Roshar, and that would start a Desolation.

The Heralds and the inhabitants of Roshar would then have to fight and "kill" each of the Fused, returning them to Braize. Then the Heralds would have to return to Braize as well, to keep them there. They would hide out, evade capture for as long as they could, fight when they had to. But since no one involved could die, and there wer elots more Fused than Heralds, eventually they would get captured, and the cycle of torture and everything would start over again.

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1 hour ago, Eran of Arcadia said:

Everyone seems to understand how it all works. The Heralds . . . were chosen by Honor? To fight the Voidbringers? And then they died, went to Braize, stayed as long as they could, then when they couldn't handle it any more it started all over again? Can someone give me the simple version of what was going on and why everyone seems to understand it so much better than me?

Have you finished Oathbringer?

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2 hours ago, Eran of Arcadia said:

Yes, I read all 3 books so I'm sure I'm just missing the answer.

The Stormfather explains it best.  At the very least he gives us most of our information.  During a war between humans and singers the singers went to Odium for help.  Odium gave them powers.  One of these powers was functional immortality.  You could kill one but provided their was another singer available it would come back.  This meant the singers could replace their soldiers at a much faster rate then the humans could as almost the entire population of singers effectively became soldiers.  This became even worse when the fused (reincarnating singers) figured out how to command surges.  Ishar figured that they needed to stop this and with Honor's help figured out a method.  Ten humans gave themselves up to trap the fused on Braize.  As long as they were on Braize no fused could get past them.  However Honor forgot that humans can break or bend promises.  The humans gave their oaths that they would stay on Braize and not let any fused out(we do not realy know the mechanics).  These humans now called Heralds under duress bent their promises allowing the fused out.  When this happened all ten Heralds would return to Roshar to stop them.  This caused a cycle of destruction called the desolations.  Each conflict was so bad that it cent society back to the bronze age.  Eventually the Heralds left Taln behind thus ending the cycle and starting the era of solitude until now.  That is about what we know.

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@Eran of Acadia: You provided a simple summary and others provided more detail. Is there anything more that you find confusing? Do note though, we know the "what" at this point but not the "how." We cannot really give you the mechanics it all.

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@Eran of Arcadia Have you checked out the Coppermind yet?  It's the Cosmere version of Wikipedia.  

The article on the Oathpact has a great synopsis:

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During the Desolations, Odium had given his soldiers powers, allowing them to remain past their deaths as Cognitive Shadows. After being killed, these singers, known as the Fused, were able to take over the bodies of other singers and manipulate the Surges with Voidlight. Everytime a Fused was killed, its soul it would simply be born again into a new host. This formed an impossible challenge for the humans as their strongest enemies could never be permanently killed, and so came the solution: the Oathpact.

Five men and five women gave themselves up voluntarily to this pact. With Honor's blessing, they traveled to Braize and sealed the spren of the enemy there. It prevented the Fused from returning, and so ended the war. Or so Honor thought. While gods and spren cannot break oaths, men can and will. The Fused captured the Heralds and tortured them. Eventually, one of the Heralds would break, starting a new Desolation. At the beginning, the Heralds were strong and hundreds of years passed between Desolations, but near the end, their souls wore thin. There were only 2 years between the last two Desolations. After Aharietiam, the Heralds realized that after all that time, there was one Herald that had never broken the oath and started a Desolation. Talenelat, the Bearer of Agonies. The other Heralds abandoned the Oathpact, leaving only Talenelat to uphold it by himself. For over four and a half millennia, Talenelat withstood the torture of the enemy, but he finally broke, joining the other nine who still live. This caused the True Desolation, currently occurring on Roshar.[citation needed]

After the Last Desolation, nine of the Heralds thought they abandoned the Oathpact, leaving only Talenel'Elin to uphold it.[1] However, despite what they believe, all the Heralds are still bound to the Oathpact.[2]

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On 7/22/2019 at 11:49 AM, Quantus said:

We know that the Oathpact is related to Odium being trapped in the rosharan system but that "[Odium's] being bound is greater than the Oathpact." 

According to the Stormfather, Odium was imprisoned ("sealed") by Honor and Cultivation - the Oathpact/Heralds imprisoned the Fused, not Odium himself. (OB Ch 38, "Broken People")

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AS ODIUM IS SEALED BY THE POWERS OF HONOR AND CULTIVATION, YOUR HERALDS SEALED THE SPREN OF THE DEAD INTO THE PLACE YOU CALL DAMNATION. THE HERALDS WENT TO HONOR, AND HE GAVE THEM THIS RIGHT, THIS OATH.

 

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