Brightlord Kaladin

[Kered]

With the known time skip of a year between books 3 and 4 and as known from the back flap of book 4 we know that year has been filled with a lot of battle. We can probably assume the current landscape in terms of territory owned is a bit different from where left off. Nothing to crazy because Brandon probably wants to record any drastic territory change in the actual book. But with this being said I think it'd be a nice chapter/side-arc of Kaladin taking back the land given to him by Dalinar and setting up some kind of basic governing of the land. How do we think that's going to look and what is it going to entail? How do you think Kal is going to handle it. 

 Personally, I think the lands and people in them are going to play a somewhat pivotal role in Kal swearing the next oath. Tinfoil a bit but it might even be the place he actually swears the oath. He might even charge some of the squires to specifically guard the territory and may put a few of them in charge. Also we know that Kal is probably going to resettle the people of Hearthstone in the lands. I think this arc is going to be pretty big in Kal's character development. Both in terms of protecting the people as well as potentially it being used as story justification to launch Kal a bit into the political sphere. 

[+Oltux72]

He would point out to the enemy that these people are important. The Fused have highly mobile forces. Such a resettlement would be a dreadful mistake as he cannot let himself be tied down defending that territory and his squires cease to be Surgebinders when he is gone.

At the risk of repeating myself, the KRs need to establish a project for dealing with the families of members. Them being in occupied lands is a huge security risk in terms of giving the enemy hostages. Not every Radiant will be willing to change his or her name and never visit home again. That is one of the likely functions of Urithiru.

[GoWibble]

7 hours ago, Kered said:

Tinfoil a bit but it might even be the place he actually swears the oath

This made me think that a reason that Brandon didn't have Kal swear the oath in Shadesmar was so that we wouldn't see an oath sworn from Shadesmar. 

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

At the risk of repeating myself, the KRs need to establish a project for dealing with the families of members. Them being in occupied lands is a huge security risk in terms of giving the enemy hostages. Not every Radiant will be willing to change his or her name and never visit home again. That is one of the likely functions of Urithiru.

Most of the Radiants are not going to be able to be taken hostages without a large force, so are you talking about the people in the lands?

 

I think that this could work, but yeah, with a small number of Radiants, having them go off and do their own thing in their own lands is not very defensible 

[datalaughing]

I think it would be a weirdly selfish move to have a war going on and Kaladin focused on taking back the piece of land that ostensibly belongs to him so that he can be a ruler. Kind of out of character for him. If you'd said he was focused on taking back his hometown, I could believe that. Still a little selfish, but not out of character for him.

But taking time to go to a piece of land he's never even seen, fight the enemy off of just that bit specifically so that he can tell everyone, "Now that I've liberated you, let me introduce myself. I'm your new brightlord. Let's work out how me ruling you is going to go." It would seem very out of place to me.

[Darth_Hel]

I don’t think he’d take it back because he wants to rule. But, I think if one person escaped and came begging Kaladin to help them and impressed upon him the responsibility as their Lord, he would internally feel that pressure. Brightlords that disregard and let their subjects die or suffer has been something that repeatedly drives Kaladin to the edge. Roshone, Amaram, Elhokar... each time Kaladin allows his anger get the best of him with them and makes stupid choices. He’d feel responsible to be better.