The New Oathpact

[Pagerunner]

There’s a fairly common theory out there that our main characters are going to form a new Oathpact. I’d like to lay out explicitly the hints I see for this, identifying what I believe a lot of people are subconsciously picking up on.

 

The Connotations of Oathpact

But let’s start off with the word itself. Stormlight is a fantasy series, so we’re used to getting made-up words that are two real words mashed together. Storm-light. Void-bringer. Even Brandon’s other series, you get stuff like God King and Lord Ruler. They’re simple ways to make proper nouns without inventing a new word. (Obligatory xkcd link: https://xkcd.com/483/.) It’s not the only way to do it: the series Mistborn makes up new words to great effect, like Allomancer or Feruchmist, as opposed to Stormlight’s Surgebinders and Shardbearers.

“Oathpact” fits the bill as one of those mashup words. But when you think about it, it’s an unnecessary amalgamation. We have a real-life word that is an oath and a pact; see if you can think of it. It’s not too commonly used outside of religious writings these days, but it perfectly captures both aspects of the word “Oathpact.” You need both the binding nature with a hint of divine flavoring to it (oath), and you need the two-party ramifications (pact). Did you figure it out? The word I’m thinking about is “covenant.”

It’s a word with a lot of religious baggage, but I think that fits well with the broader religious parallels of the Stormlight Shards. In a Way of Kings letter, Frost refers to Odium as “God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context.” There are many Shards we don’t know at all, and even more we only know by name; but for those we know a bit more about, we see them encompass attributes of divinity with a particular leaning towards a real-world religion or philosophy. Ruin and Preservation have Buddhist parallels, Autonomy’s avatars are reminiscent of Hindu avatars. In Stormlight, I’m seeing big elements of the biblical, Judeo-Christian God in all three of its Shards. For Honor, specifically, I see the aspect of making and keeping covenants.

There are many covenants in the Bible; perhaps some of the best-known ones are the Abrahamic Covenant (from Genesis, at the beginning of the Bible), the Mosaic Covenant (from the Deuteronomy, a little bit later) and the New Covenant (first introduced in Jeremiah, late in the Old Testament, and later referred to heavily by Jesus Christ). There are many more, of course (Adamic, Noahic, Davidic, or even the Eternal if you’re into that sort of thing), but these help illustrate two key points about biblical covenants.

1) Covenants have one or more parties involved with responsibilities. God is a party in all three of the major covenants I listed above. But the Mosaic is unique among the three in that it is also conditional on the behavior of Israel. Both sides in this agreement need to pull their part. (God, by definition, will handle his side of things, so that puts this on the back of humanity to hold up their end of the bargain.) The other covenants are called unconditional covenants; they are not dependent on human behavior, they are pure no-strings-attached promises from God.

2) Covenants have one or more parties as recipients. The Abrahamic has promises to Abraham (which is why it’s named after him), but it also promises all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Those parties don’t have to be limited to those involved in the covenant directly; “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.”

Those are two principles that I think we need to keep in mind when approaching Honor and how he distributes his power.

 

Honor’s Covenants

Each Shard can only use their powers in ways that align with their Shard’s nature (their name, their actual Shard of divine nature); this is something we see quite heavily in Mistborn but haven’t seen quite as explicitly from the Rosharan Shards yet. For Honor, I believe he can bring most of his power to bear when he does it through covenants with others. That’s what Odium was referring to in Oathbringer chapter 57:

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“Honor cared only for bonds. Not the meaning of bonds and oaths, merely that they were kept. Cultivation only wants to see transformation. Growth. It can be good or bad, for all she cares. The pain of men is nothing to her. Only I understand it. Only I care, Dalinar.”

This statement does come with all the spin from the opposing political party, but we can see the kernel of truth as to what Honor means: keeping oaths and covenants. When we see the constructs Honor has set up to utilize and apply his power, we can look for three important questions: Who are the participants? Who are the recipients? And what are the conditions?

The biggest example is, of course, the Oathpact proper. From Oathbringer chapter 38 (complain to the Stormfather about if the all-caps hurts your eyes):

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THEY GAVE THEMSELVES UP. 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 OT HONOR, AND HE GAVE THEM THIS RIGHT, THIS OATH. THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD END THE WAR FOREVER. BUT THEY WERE WRONG. HONOR WAS WRONG.

…

HONOR LET THE POWER BLIND HIM TO THE TRUTH – THAT WHILE SPREN AND GODS CANNOT BREAK THEIR OATHS, MEN CAN AND WILL. THE TEN HERALDS WERE SEALED UPON DAMNATION, TRAPPING THE VOIDBRINGERS THERE. HOWEVER, IF ANY ONE OF THE TEN AGREED TO BEND HIS OATH AND LET VOIDBRINGERS PAST, IT OPENED A FLOOD. THEY COULD ALL RETURN.

 

For the Oathpact, we see the participants were Honor (who provided the power) and the Heralds (who, at the very least, were responsible for their side of this conditional covenant, and I believe they received their Honorblades as a part of the deal as well). The recipients also included the Fused; they were bound on Damnation. They had no say in the covenant itself; they were merely on the receiving end of one of its parameters. And the conditions were the behavior of the Heralds; they would be sent to Braize, and as long as they didn’t break, the power of Honor was still in effect to shackle the Fused.

But in the passage above, we see hints at another manifestation of Honor’s power: whatever covenant it is that holds Odium in place in the Rosharan system. The participants there are Honor and Cultivation. The recipient is Odium. The conditions, we don’t know much about yet. We can infer there’s something about Roshar in there, which is why Odium wants to destroy the planet; but that may also just be a side effect of annihilating the Shards involved. Also from Oathbringer Chapter 57:

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“You can’t just … leave?” Dalinar asked. Without killing anyone?”

…

“A man cannot serve two gods at once, Dalinar,” Odium said. “And so, I cannot leave [Cultivation] behind. In fact, I cannot leave behind the Splinters of honor, as I once thought I could. I can already see that going wrong. Once you release me, my transformation of this realm will be substantial.”

 

But elsewhere, Odium saw another way out: a formal retraction from the legal representative of Honor, a participant and mediator. From earlier in that chapter:

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“So do it. Leave us alone. Go away.”

Odium turned to him so sharply that Dalinar jumped. “Is that,” Odium said quietly, “an offer to release me from my bonds, coming from the man holding the remnants of Honor’s name and power?”

…

“Oh, don’t fret so. These things must be done properly. I will go if you release me, but only if you do it by Intent.”

 

Honor’s covenants, the way he expresses his power, cannot be overcome by direct opposition. Odium is bound until he can find some way to get around it. If you’re going to court (and you did it), you either need to find a legal loophole (breaking the conditions), or burn down the court building. (Editor’s note: please don’t take either of these as actual legal advice.)

 

Radiancy as an expression of Honor

This concept of covenants is also manifested in ten other ways on Roshar; through each Order of Knights Radiant. There is a conditional covenant between Honor and each individual Radiant; they are both participants. (The Stormfather eventually takes the place of Honor; that’s why he’s the one saying “THESE OATHS ARE ACCEPTED.”) The recipient in this case is the Radiant; they get Surgebinding, they get a spren, they get the ability to utilize Stormlight, they get the Shardplate, so on and so forth. But the conditions are laid out in each Order’s Ideals. And there are two ways that a Radiant has to break their covenant with Honor: they can either act against their Ideals (which is what Kaladin did in Words of Radiance and what Shallan did as a child), or they can formally renounce their participation in the Oath (which is what happened at the Recreance):

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Questioner

Kaladin kind of went back on his Oaths in the second book, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. He started down that path.

Questioner

How could Shallan or Lightweavers go back on the Truths they make? And did Shallan do any of that in Oathbringer?

Brandon Sanderson

No, the Cryptics-- remember, how the spren is viewing this is very important. The Cryptics have an interesting relationship with truth. Harder to break your Oaths in that direction with a Cryptic. Harder to move forward, also, if you're not facing some of these things and interacting with them in the right way. But, while I can conceive a world that it could happen, it'd be really hard to for a Lightweaver to do some of the stuff. Particularly the ones close to Honor, you're gonna end up with more trouble along those lines, let's say.

Questioner

So then, what happened with the Lightweavers during the Recreance? Did they break their Oaths?

Brandon Sanderson

They did break their Oaths. I mean, breaking your Oaths as in "walking away from the first Oath" will still do it, regardless of what Order you are. You can actively say, "I am breaking my Oaths and walking away." Anyone has that option. But you also are holding the life of a spren in your hand.

The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson (Oct. 25, 2018)

 

This is why I refer to Surgebinding as Honor’s magic system. Sure, it uses spren of Honor and Cultivation; its ideals don’t necessarily have to align directly to something honorable. Just the mere act of making and following Oaths is Honor’s influence on the Initiation to the magic. (That, and the Radiants were in imitation of the Heralds and their Honorblades, which came about as a result of the Oathpact between them and Honor. No Cultivation in the original, no Cultivation in the copy.)

 

The New Oathpact

So, with all that groundwork, now we get to the meat of our prediction. Our ten main flashback characters are all going to be part of a new Oathpact of some sort. Lots of us, I’m sure, have felt it thematically, known it in our collective gut, but the passage that brings the most validation to the idea is from Oathbringer, Chapter 119:

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Kaladin Stormblessed stepped up beside Dalinar before the rubble of the wall, and Shallan Davar stood on the other side. Jasnah emerged from the city and surveyed the scene with a critical air, while Renarin popped out behind her, then cried out and ran for Adolin. He grabbed his older brother in an embrace, then gasped. Adolin was wounded?

Good lad, Dalinar thought as Renarin immediately set to healing his brother.

Two more people crossed the battlefield. Lift he had anticipated. But the assassin? Szeth scopped the silvery sheath off the ground and slammed his black Shardblade into it, before stepping up to join Dalinar.

Skybreaker, Dalinar thought, counting them off. Edgedancer. That was seven.

He would have expected three more.

There, the Stormfather said. Behind your niece.

Two more people appeared in the shadow of the wall. A large, powerful man with an impressive physique, and a woman with long, dark hair. Their dark skin marked them as Makabaki, perhaps Azish, but their eyes were wrong.

I know them, the Stormfather said, sounding surprised. I know them from long, long ago. Memories of days when I did not fully live.

Dalinar, you are in the presence of divinities.

…

Wait.

Those two only make nine, he thought to the Stormfather. Something told him there should be one more.

I don’t know. Perhaps they haven’t been found yet.

…

“Seven Radiants?” Jasnah said, skeptical. “Uncle, that seems a tall order, even if one of us is – apparently – the storming Assassin in White.”

 

The most important phrase: “Something told him there should be one more.” What is that something? This is happening after Dalinar has summoned the perpendicularity, after he has Ascended to Unity. Right now, he is seeing into the Spiritual Realm. He’s getting a hint of the future – ten people who will be united in… something. Not this battle. The tenth isn’t present (more on her later), and the Heralds just skulk off. This is something further away. Something that involves Orders of Radiants, like how he identifies Szeth and Lift by their Orders. He and Jasnah count seven Radiants, each a unique Order, and Dalinar goes on to give them tasks.

(Yes, there are ten total characters involved in that scene already; Adolin is also there, but you’ll notice the sentence structure for his appearance is different. It’s a side note in Renarin’s description. Every other character starts off the sentence as the subject, and they get some sort of action verb. The closest Adolin has is a question Dalinar asks; “Adolin was wounded?” But he’s not one of the Seven (since Jasnah specifies that’s seven Radiants), he gets excluded from Dalinar’s battle plan immediately following this excerpt, and he is the only character present not to be on the list for a flashback sequence in upcoming novels. So that’s why I’m leaving out of the New Oathpact.)

Aside from the seven Radiants in that scene, I believe the other three Orders (Dustbringer, Willshaper, and Stoneward) are represented by Ash, Venli, and Taln, respectively, with Venli being the one who hadn’t been found yet. (She bonded Timbre later in the chapter). I go into more detail in another thread of mine on exactly how I see those Orders lining up: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/64496-ob-the-five-pillars-of-the-stormlight-main-characters/

This lays out the participants in the New Oathpact. Our ten flashback characters, each acting as a representative of their particular Order (which could potentially tie in all Radiants as participants, or merely as recipients). That future formal covenant is what Dalinar glimpsed at Thaylen Field.

What are the effects, and who are the recipients? Well, I’m gonna go big or go home and say this is the permanent solution (or at least long-term enough to last until the last Mistborn trilogy) to Odium. Maybe it’s a better way of trapping him; maybe it’s replacing Rayse as a Vessel with these ten individuals, somehow. I haven’t seen anything that would directly point me towards specifics, yet, but Odium as the recipient scratches the itch that so many of us have.

Lastly, what are the conditions? Well, I think this gets us back to the biblical parallels. The Mosaic covenant, a conditional covenant dependent on the behavior of mankind, led into the New Covenant, which is an unconditional covenant where mankind are the only recipients. I think the New Oathpact has to close the fatal gap of the Heralds’ Oathpact; it relied on them being able to indefinitely hold up their part in the deal. Again, I don’t know what specifics would be, yet; we’ve got seven more books to go until the end of the series. But a lasting solution, in the vein of the biblical New Covenant, has to take the conditions out of the hands of the Heralds, the Radiants, and any other mortals. “SPREN AND GODS CANNOT BREAK THEIR OATHS”; maybe it has something to do with that, where it ties the spren population to the New Oathpact?

 

A Final Aside

As some of you may know, the working title for the Stormlight Archive series was the Oathshards. This has obvious connections with Honor, but we don’t know what the Oathshards actually were. Most of the specific terms from Way of Kings Prime (Honorblades, Shardblades, Shardplate, Surgebinding, Soulcasting) carried over unchanged. But what were the Oathshards? I haven’t seen the word appear anywhere in the released sample chapters from the original draft, and it hasn’t appeared in canon, either.

I’m of two minds about it. On one hand, it could be referring to the Blades and the Plates; they existed in the 2003 version, but the spren weren’t incorporated until the 2010 rewrite, so Oathshards may have been the phenomenon that encompassed the Shardblades and Shardplates (which are both Shards that a Radiant would get through an Oath), and the term disappeared during the rewrite when those phenomena were combined with spren.

But what if the Oathshards are still a thing? Something more like the Dawnshards (which, granted, we don’t know what they are yet) or the Honorblades, and these Oathshards are somehow what tie together the members of the New Oathpact? I’ll be keeping an eye out for this term as the series continues, for sure.

 

In Conclusion

Dalinar’s Thaylen Field “Avengers Assemble” moment was him looking through the Spiritual Realm at a future New Oathpact, comprised of our ten flashback characters, which will utilize Honor’s power in a new and more permanent way to bring resolution to the wars and conflicts plaguing the Roshar System. RAFO on the details.

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Pagerunner said:

The word I’m thinking about is “covenant.”

This is generally used to imply a relationship between God and the individuals.  I am not sure that this is the case with the oathpact which seems to imply an agreement between humans (in this case the Heralds) to maintain a sacred goal.  I personally think the difference is meaningful. 

[Pagerunner]

11 minutes ago, Karger said:

This is generally used to imply a relationship between God and the individuals.  I am not sure that this is the case with the oathpact which seems to imply an agreement between humans (in this case the Heralds) to maintain a sacred goal.  I personally think the difference is meaningful. 

When it comes to the God/individuals connection, you're exactly right. But Honor is definitely a party in the Oathpact:

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luke.spence (paraphrased)

How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).

Words of Radiance Dayton signing (March 19, 2014)

The power the Heralds utilize for the Oathpact is divine, and that power is from Honor. As the Stormfather said in one of the passages I quoted above: "THE HERALDS WENT TO HONOR, AND HE GAVE THEM THIS RIGHT, THIS OATH."

[Honorless]

I like it. What would the covenant entail?

So the Honorblades don't have anything of Cultivation? 

[Karger]

4 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

So the Honorblades don't have anything of Cultivation? 

The stormfather claims they were made from Honor.

[Honorless]

Makes sense, they are called Honorblades

Edited March 18, 2020 by Dreamer

[Pagerunner]

4 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

What would the covenant entail?

I'm hesitant to extrapolate more; I've gone as far as I think is a reasonable exploration of the clues Brandon is intended to write (failures of the Oathpact leading to New Covenant), and at this point trying to get any more specific would be essentially fanfiction masquerading as a theory. Some very cool possibilities; a ten-part Vessel with each of the Radiant Oaths helping to balance out Odious tendencies; freezing all the main characters in some form of stasis to trap them and Rayse until the final Misbtorn books; or even something that winds up with a Splintering of Odium. I haven't been able to pick up any clues as to what, though. I'm sure there are a bunch of clues in Death Rattles that haven't been deciphered yet, but I've been extremely unsuccessful in trying to interpret those beforehand.

9 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

So the Honorblades don't have anything of Cultivation? 

The name is the biggest giveaway, in my opinion. But Syl's explanation in Oathbringer chapter 87 is pretty telling, that the Honorblades were something from Honor:

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"The Honorblades are what we are based on, Kaladin. Honor gave these to men, and those men gained powers from them. Spren figured out what He'd done, and we imitated it."

 

[RShara]

Page, I'm going to counter with my

thread

[Karger]

37 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

I'm hesitant to extrapolate more; I've gone as far as I think is a reasonable exploration of the clues Brandon is intended to write (failures of the Oathpact leading to New Covenant), and at this point trying to get any more specific would be essentially fanfiction masquerading as a theory. Some very cool possibilities; a ten-part Vessel with each of the Radiant Oaths helping to balance out Odious tendencies; freezing all the main characters in some form of stasis to trap them and Rayse until the final Misbtorn books; or even something that winds up with a Splintering of Odium. I haven't been able to pick up any clues as to what, though. I'm sure there are a bunch of clues in Death Rattles that haven't been deciphered yet, but I've been extremely unsuccessful in trying to interpret those beforehand.

My personal favorite is allowing Heralds to retire and find a replacement.

[SanderFan69]

I think this makes the most sense as the end to the first arc, giving humanity time to prepare for the final showdown in the second arc. For whatever reason, Odium doesn't show up until the desolation starts, so I think reestablishing the oathpact would do more than just imprison the Fused. In addition, I feel like Brandon has been developing this possibility in a way that it would not be a cliffhanger. Throughout the series there have been several mentions of the value that mankind places on time. I think Hoid talked about it at the end of WoK and I think either the Stormfather or Honor's visions mention it to Dalinar. So, if the front-five ended with a new oathpact that buys more time, I would see that as more of a victory for humanity rather a cliffhanger for the next half of the series. 

[Pagerunner]

18 hours ago, RShara said:

Page, I'm going to counter with my

thread

Did you read my theory? What you said in your post doesn't run counter to anything I posted; in fact, they align quite well. The long-term inefficacy of the Heralds' Oathpact doesn't preclude the creation of another Oathpact, with different goals and new conditions. You suggested that:

Quote

Then the second arc is going to be the battle against Odium directly, to bind him in a way where he's harmless, or eliminate him as a threat, and will involve more of the greater Roshar system, the Heralds, the Shards, and who knows what else.

And I'm saying we've gotten a clue, through Dalinar's glimpse of the future at Thaylen Field, of the ten individuals who will come together and use Honor's power to accomplish that very thing.

[Isilel]

Personally, I hope that some of the existing Heralds are going to redeem themselves by returning to Braize for the break between the 2 pentologies and buying Rosharans time to come up with a different solution. They are going to be hunted down one by one and instead of capture & torture killed once and for all with  respective Raysium daggers. When the last of them is gone, the second series will start. Taln and Ash will remain on Roshar for reasons and keep the leadership informed about the attrition among their fellows.

Jezrien's death demonstrated that a new Oathpact, no matter how carefully constructed, can no longer provide anything more than a short-term relief, because human participants can be simply eliminated.

Regarding the working title of SA, the "Oathshards" would have most likely been another term for the honorblades, IMHO, since Taln's original arc in proto-WoK revolved around locating them and piecing together the defection of his fellow Heralds.

[Honorless]

22 minutes ago, Isilel said:

Personally, I hope that some of the existing Heralds are going to redeem themselves by returning to Braize for the break between the 2 pentologies and buying Rosharans time to come up with a different solution. They are going to be hunted down one by one and instead of capture & torture killed once and for all with  respective Raysium daggers. When the last of them is gone, the second series will start. Taln and Ash will remain on Roshar for reasons and keep the leadership informed about the attrition among their fellows.

Jezrien's death demonstrated that a new Oathpact, no matter how carefully constructed, can no longer provide anything more than a short-term relief, because human participants can be simply eliminated.

Regarding the working title of SA, the "Oathshards" would have most likely been another term for the honorblades, IMHO, since Taln's original arc in proto-WoK revolved around locating them and piecing together the defection of his fellow Heralds.

That's horrible. I don't think the Heralds need to redeem themselves, not even Nalan or Ishar. They've given enough: they've been tortured for generations and then fought wars as reprieve in a seemingly eternal loop.

[jamesbondsmith]

Seems OK, except Shalash/Ash was the patron of the Lightweavers, so I don't see how she would represent the Dustbringers, unless she went one step beyond Nale by joining a Radiant order while being patron of another.

[Karger]

11 hours ago, jamesbondsmith said:

Seems OK, except Shalash/Ash was the patron of the Lightweavers, so I don't see how she would represent the Dustbringers, unless she went one step beyond Nale by joining a Radiant order while being patron of another.

She is generally considered a Dustbringer because during Theylen field in OB one of each order was there but we had two Lightweavers and no Dustbringers.  Also Shallan has already had a book as a Lightweaver and every other order has a book with a flashback sequence corresponding to a member of their radiant order.