Death Rattles & The End of Stormlight

[+honorblades]

Hello. Prepare to be sad, because the theory I am about to lay out is not a happy one. I have outlined the bones of this theory as a comment on another post, but I hope to put it together here in a more readable and cohesive format. I do hope no one has put forth this theory before, though I did not see it when I searched. 

Here we go. 

We have seen many Death Rattles come to pass, and I will not touch on those for now. We have a few that do not seem to have happened yet, and I think a few of them are related. The Death Rattles I think are connected are intertwined in two complimentary theories. 

1. Dalinar will fail the Contest of Champions and become a Fused. 

2. Post-SA5, Odium will preside (perhaps as the sole Shard) over a ruined Roshar, where a rainstorm without end covers the continent. 

 

Let’s begin with the appropriate Death Rattles:

Quote

I hold the suckling child in my hands, a knife at his throat, and know that all who live wish me to let the blade slip. Spill its blood upon the ground, over my hands, and with it gain us further breath to draw

This Death Rattle is the core of my theory. Odium will appoint a “suckling child” as his Champion, and in order to win the Contest, Dalinar would have to kill the child. According to the terms of the agreement, if Dalinar kills Odium’s Champion, Odium will be sealed on Braize, which is what the “gaining us further breath to draw” refers to. 

Quote

So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life...

This implies my predicted ending to the Contest - that Dalinar cannot bring himself to kill Odium’s champion, and so Odium wins. Night reigns. 

Quote

The darkness becomes a palace. Let it rule! Let it rule!

I believe this is also a reference not specifically to the Contest of Champions, but to Odium ruling over Roshar. 

 

And now, a quote from RoW from Rayse-Odium:

Quote

“...You, Dalinar, will join the Fused. You will become immortal, and will personally serve me. Bound by your oaths. You will be the one I send to the stars to serve my interests in the cosmere.”

Now, Dalinar does have to die in order to become a Fused - I am not sure exactly how this will play out. I doubt this “child” will be capable of killing Dalinar, but it could be that Dalinar eventually dies of natural causes and at that point joins the Fused. I believe, however, that Dalinar will become a Fused at the point of the Contest of Champions, death or not. The consequences of Dalinar becoming a Fused will be dire - I think that this will directly or indirectly cause the death of the Stormfather. Without the Stormfather to guide the highstorm, I believe it will cease to exist, being replaced by a constant rainstorm that brings no Stormlight. 

 

Two Death Rattles that I think refer to this event:

Quote

Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us.

This is highlighting not only Odium’s victory, but also the never ending storm & the slow failing of gemstones that will not be renewed. 

Quote

The day was ours, but they took it. Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather!

This Death Rattle shows the confidence that Dalinar’s party felt going into the Contest - and the immediate betrayal when they are outmaneuvered. This is tenuous, but I also believe that the lamentations of “Stormfather” are not curses, but are longingly calling for a being who no longer exists. “They come, rasping” refers to the Fused & Singer armies, which Odium will not hold back from attempting to destroy the Knights Radiant. Lights failing, of course, refers to Radiants using the Stormlight and it not being renewed by the highstorm.

Quote

A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.

This, I presume, is from Dalinar’s perspective. The waters surging beneath are from the never-ending storm, and the child crying is Odium’s champion. Dalinar is weeping for.. obvious reasons. 

 

And finally ... 

Quote

Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.

Honor is dead, and Cultivation is either dead or beyond caring at this point. Taravangian rules. Odium reigns. (How is Taravangian the Broken One? I admit that I am unsure. I concede that the “broken one” could refer instead to someone who imperfectly reassembles the pieces of a Shard. Someone like Dalinar. It is difficult to say at this point.)

 

 

I suspect that may have come off as a little disjointed, let me lay out the full theory more clearly:

Rayse-Odium’s grand plan is for Roshar to serve as a training ground for an army that will conquer the Cosmere. This army needs to be strong not only to attack, but also to defend: the Surges are incredibly powerful, and Stormlight is an easily renewable source of free Investiture. This makes Roshar a very valuable target. Rayse-Odium meant to strike first, conquer the Cosmere before they knew what was happening. Ideally, Dalinar is instrumental in this plan as a Fused Blackthorn. 

Taravangian-Odium’s plans are a little bit more careful. He still needs Dalinar as a Fused, and he also needs a strong and hardened people to battle against others in the Cosmere. To that end, he will let the Fused and the Radiant coalition duke it out on the planet even after he has won. A constant war only does him good - the two people will only strengthen as time goes on, like two knives sharpened against one another. Furthermore, by destroying the Stormfather (and therefore the Highstorm), he takes away the thing that makes Roshar so valuable to those who would wish to conquer it - easy Investiture. Because he can provide Voidlight freely to those he wishes, this resource is not stolen nearly as easily. Dalinar as a commander of the Fused will travel from planet to planet, conquering those he cannot pacify with diplomacy. Odium needs an army of more than just Roshar, after all. 

I believe this is how the Stormlight Archive will proceed going forward - Odium ruling over the planet, and the Radiants adapting in some way to this new environment. 

 

One last thing. 
I would like to include a very interesting tidbit from the Rhythm of War release event, which is available here on youtube. This evidence is from a reading of the eventual Sixth of the Dusk sequel, and is obviously unpublished and not-canon. For these reasons, I will hide it behind spoiler tags. Please read at your own risk. However, I do think the implications are ... interesting. 

Sixth of the Dusk Sequel Spoilers (unpublished)

Spoiler

This reading features a figure described as nearly 7 feet tall, incased in seamless metal armor, glowing at the edges, etched with a strange winged symbol on the breastplate. This being can fly, and apparently did so unaided from space to the surface of the planet and back again. They are also seen summoning a flowing metal weapon from mist. Clearly, this is a Knight Radiant of at least the 4th oath, and most likely a Windrunner. 

However, there is a single peculiar note. This being’s glowing color is mentioned twice, both times specifically as a violet blue. A violet blue. Stormlight is never described as violet, and Voidlight is unfailingly described as such. It seems to my comprehension that we are somehow witnessing a Knight Radiant that is powered by Voidlight, or some combination of Voidlight and Stormlight. Who else can provide Voidlight but Odium? 

Now, I know this isn’t solid evidence - that is why I put the disclaimer before and also why I hid this portion behind spoiler tags. Unpublished works are generally not worth speculating on, but still . . .  I think that the implications of this are huge. Please think on it, if nothing else. 

Thank you, as always, for reading. I hope you find this theory thought-provoking and wish to hear your criticisms in the comments. 

[cozz95]

I've read theories like this one and have to say they make increasingly more sense, especially when put together as nicely as this. It would suck for sure, but I would rather it suck and make sense than the other way around.

One thing I have to correct is concerning Sixth of the Dusk Sequel. 

Spoiler

That Knight Radiant is most certainly a Skybreaker. Did you notice how he asked does the law allow him to kill that man? As sure a sign of a Skybreaker as they come. Also the violet blue light indicates warlight for me and since all of this is happening far in the future (after Stormlight 10 I guess) it might point towards a happier ending. Although that doesn't mean the mid point ending has to be a happy one.

 

[Frustration]

Ok, two things above all else makes me doubt these kinds of theories,

1. It HAS to be a WILLING champion, a child can't do that.
2. It is a battle to the death, something the child can't win, at most it's a tie which frees Odium from the terms, but not a loss.

[Jasqueen]

What if the champion is Gavinor??? And that’s why dalinar is spending all this time with him in his childhood? 

Spoiler

[Jasqueen]

1 minute ago, Jasqueen said:

What if the champion is Gavinor??? And that’s why dalinar is spending all this time with him in his childhood

1 hour ago, Ookla The Frustrated said:

 

Ok, two things above all else makes me doubt these kinds of theories,

1. It HAS to be a WILLING champion, a child can't do that.
2. It is a battle to the death, something the child can't win, at most it's a tie which frees Odium from the terms, but not a loss.

 

 

[quackquack]

The children I can think of. 

Kaladins brother 

The rightful heir of Alethcar 

That Child in one of the interludes that wants to be a radiant .   

The death rattle relating to 3 of the 16.   The only broken one out of the shards in the Rosharn system are Cultivation, Odium and Honour.   Honour being the only broken one.  

There is potential that Cultivation or Odium will change hosts    And that the vessel could be Odium.  

Moash, he is a being of pain. He could be a prime vessel for Odium.  He is, also broken.  

[Shard-Hammer]

1 hour ago, Ookla The Frustrated said:

Ok, two things above all else makes me doubt these kinds of theories,

1. It HAS to be a WILLING champion, a child can't do that.
2. It is a battle to the death, something the child can't win, at most it's a tie which frees Odium from the terms, but not a loss.

I can see a child being fooled to join the battle as a champion, maybe someone that desperately wants to be a warrior, like Gavinor. Brandon gave him and Dalinar some time to bond in RoW, which could prove useful towards making the moment more devastating. I'm not sure if this is too much of a stretch tho. 

About the "to the death" thing, I imagined Dalinar would commit suicide if facing that situation, I think that's at least a possibility. 

Also, who knows, they might change their plan at the last moment and make Kaladin the champion, and even then Taravangian would have Gavinor to make this same move (I think this was mentioned in some of the most recent episodes of Shardcast) 

[cozz95]

Another quote that I think supports this theory.

Quote

Because he knows-same as I'm telling you-that the contest won't only be about who can stab the hardest with their spear?"

"What will it be about then?"

"Same thing it's always about, Jasnah," Wit said. "The hearts of men and women. Do you trust the hearts of those who fight on your side?"

I think this will be about Dalinar's heart as he holds the child in his arms. 

But Wit then says that if his version of the contract is accepted they won't have to worry about the hearts of men as they'll have him. Now this depends on what transpired in the epilogue, if Todium tricked Wit then, as you said it won't end so well, but if that meeting really did go as Wit wanted it to there might still be chance everything will turn out alright. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

On 12/4/2020 at 10:21 PM, cozz95 said:

Another quote that I think supports this theory.

I think this will be about Dalinar's heart as he holds the child in his arms. 

But Wit then says that if his version of the contract is accepted they won't have to worry about the hearts of men as they'll have him. Now this depends on what transpired in the epilogue, if Todium tricked Wit then, as you said it won't end so well, but if that meeting really did go as Wit wanted it to there might still be chance everything will turn out alright. 

Yeah, but they didn’t use Wit’s contract.

[coolsnow7]

2 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Yeah, but they didn’t use Wit’s contract.

This is a good point, but Wit doesn’t seem dissatisfied with the contract - in fact he seems even happier. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

3 minutes ago, coolsnow7 said:

This is a good point, but Wit doesn’t seem dissatisfied with the contract - in fact he seems even happier. 

We don’t really know how he feels - or if Dalinar told him they threw out his contract.

[Listener]

On 12/5/2020 at 7:50 AM, Frustration said:

Ok, two things above all else makes me doubt these kinds of theories,

1. It HAS to be a WILLING champion, a child can't do that.
2. It is a battle to the death, something the child can't win, at most it's a tie which frees Odium from the terms, but not a loss.

I agree. Maybe Dalinar cant kill a child but a child cant kill Dalinar either

On 12/4/2020 at 10:54 AM, honorblades said:

Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us.

This seems more like a Kaladin Rattle to me. 
And the biggest factor is, no one except Brandon Sanderson knows what the contest will actually be. 

 

On 12/4/2020 at 10:54 AM, honorblades said:

So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life...

But this part implies that something will go wrong in the contest due to an 'honorable' decision.

[Infinity Sliver]

So for some reason I cant quote the original so copy and paste it is

So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life...

 This one has always seemed more Kaladin to me,mostly cause we know he's the one that's closest to Honor

 

Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.

The way this is written,it never seemed to me that the "Broken One" was one of the three,but another one. And I always came upon Autonomy simply cause we know Autonomy creates a LOT of avatars and that may be why He can be referred to as the Broken one.

 

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk

[Zapata]

Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.

I had a thought: what if the three of sixteen refers not to the Shards, but to the Vessels? Tanavast, Koravellium Avast, and Rayse? Tanavast and Rayse are dead and Mr. T seems to be plotting against Cultivation, or at least not entirely aligning with her. What if we see him make a move against her and kill her, but that also injures him in some way? Then the only active Rosharan Shard would be a damaged Odium that is not held by any of the sixteen original vessels. 

[Bejarden]

11 minutes ago, Bearer of Agonies said:

Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.

I had a thought: what if the three of sixteen refers not to the Shards, but to the Vessels? Tanavast, Koravellium Avast, and Rayse? Tanavast and Rayse are dead and Mr. T seems to be plotting against Cultivation, or at least not entirely aligning with her. What if we see him make a move against her and kill her, but that also injures him in some way? Then the only active Rosharan Shard would be a damaged Odium that is not held by any of the sixteen original vessels. 

I find it weird that Rayse would have ‘ruled’ he was locked on braise for 4,500 thousand years and never was a big influence on anyone but the parsh post-humans coming to Roshar.

The only broken one is Tanavast as he is semi alive in the Stormfather as his CS and cultivation retreated for that long period of time. 
 

[Zapata]

1 minute ago, Bejardin1250 said:

I find it weird that Rayse would have ‘ruled’ he was locked on braise for 4,500 thousand years and never was a big influence on anyone but the parsh post-humans coming to Roshar.
 

I'd argue that the Singers were a pretty large part of the Rosharan civilization, though. And maybe "ruled" and "reigns" refers to the Rosharan star system as a whole, not just the planet. 

[Bejarden]

3 minutes ago, Bearer of Agonies said:

'd argue that the Singers were a pretty large part of the Rosharan civilization,

True though rule seems like the wrong word

He was a leader once on a hundred years when the Heralds broke 

3 minutes ago, Bearer of Agonies said:

And maybe "ruled" and "reigns" refers to the Rosharan star system as a whole, not just the planet. 

That’s probably right and would fix my problem with the language 

[metal get in my tummy]

On 05/12/2020 at 1:50 AM, Frustration said:

Ok, two things above all else makes me doubt these kinds of theories,

1. It HAS to be a WILLING champion, a child can't do that.
2. It is a battle to the death, something the child can't win, at most it's a tie which frees Odium from the terms, but not a loss.

Well... Odium can say: "Hey little Gavinor, be my champion and I will let you kill the man who murdered your father." I think that would convince a child who doesn't understand the stakes of this contest.

[Emurii]

This is an interesting theory, and I can't think what the "suckling child" could be, but it can't be a child who is tricked or fooled, because by definition a suckling child is a child still young enough to nurse...which I think is pretty far off from anyone capable of giving consent to this sort of thing. I do wonder about the use of "breath" there, though. Just a theory, but could this have some nexus with one of our Nalthian characters?

Storm rattle, I agree that this is Kaladin, and I think this has already come to pass during RoW. 

Three ruled, but now the broken one reigns. If this is indeed about Shards, I think the most obvious candidate for the "broken one" is Honor - neither Cultivation nor Odium is broken, but Honor is splintered. (It's a curious turn of phrase between rule and reign, though.)

Ultimately, I do not think anything too soul destroying is going to happen at the end of Stormlight 5 for writerly reasons. Brandon wants people coming back for part 2, and it's going to be a few years, so it needs to be a good memory. He's also trying to sell to studios for adaptations. He also never leaves us in the lurch at the end of a book - how much less so at the end of a (part of a) series? (As I keep telling my husband who is only part way through RoW, "It's alright. The eels don't get her.")

[Frustration]

57 minutes ago, Telantes said:

Well... Odium can say: "Hey little Gavinor, be my champion and I will let you kill the man who murdered your father." I think that would convince a child who doesn't understand the stakes of this contest.

That would be increadibly lame, in my opinion. which is another problem, it's anti-climactic. Oh no, it's a child I lose, just makes for bad stroy telling.

5 minutes ago, Emurii said:

Three ruled, but now the broken one reigns. If this is indeed about Shards, I think the most obvious candidate for the "broken one" is Honor - neither Cultivation nor Odium is broken, but Honor is splintered. (It's a curious turn of phrase between rule and reign, though.)

Odium reigns.

[Bejarden]

5 hours ago, Frustration said:

That would be increadibly lame, in my opinion. which is another problem, it's anti-climactic. Oh no, it's a child I lose, just makes for bad stroy telling.

5 hours ago, Emurii said:

I think we could get some good interludes about it and have a classic Sanderson twist when we’re not expecting it

 

5 hours ago, Frustration said:

Odium reigns.

The Stormfather is not the most reliable source on this stuff I believe

And how exactly did Odium reign

he has been stuck on Braise for 4500 not involved in Roshar

and isn’t broken at that point, he’s damaged but not broken 

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Bejardin1250 said:

The Stormfather is not the most reliable source on this stuff I believe

And how exactly did Odium reign

he has been stuck on Braise for 4500 not involved in Roshar

and isn’t broken at that point, he’s damaged but not broken 

How would Honor reign, he's splintered.

And Odium is wounded, he didn't splinter four shards without consquence

[Bejarden]

Just now, Frustration said:

How would Honor reign, he's splintered.

And Odium is wounded, he didn't splinter four shards without consquence

I just think that the Stormfather doesn’t know who reigns.

And odium is not broken he’s damaged

[Frustration]

1 minute ago, Bejardin1250 said:

And odium is not broken he’s damaged

I don't see the difference you would say you broke a mirror if you cracked it, whether or not it shattered

[Emurii]

Breaking/splintering a shard is a lot different from a shard incurring damage, though. It's like if you have a cracked versus shattered mirror, to use your analogy. (Additionally, we don't know that the power behind the shard is actually damaged, Rayse seems to have taken a lot of the damage as far as the clues we have go. Todd could be p powered.) The point of the rattle is that the "broken one" reigns, and as far as the big three on Roshar goes, that's Honor. 

As far as how Honor would reign while splintered, we know that we can combine entire shards a la Harmony, so I don't see why we wouldn't be able to reform Honor in some capacity - or at least reach some sort of critical mass there. A few WoBs have led me to a pet theory recently that Kal could take up the mantle of Honor, so I'm thinking about that possibility a lot - and I think "the broken one" could definitely be a reference to Kaladin as well, since he constantly refers to himself as being broken.