Why were the Skybreakers the traitors?

[adouloumis]

So I am not sure this is the correct subforum but I wanted the discussion to include potential RoW clues.

One thing that I never understood, and I have never seen theories about (though I am sure there are plenty) is why the Skybreakers of all orders were the ones that did not disband at the Recreance. This is the relevant quote.

Quote

This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at this time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal; and after they withdrew, about two thousand made assault upon them, destroying much of the membership; but this was only nine of the ten, as one said they would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine.”

—Words of Radiance, Chapter 38, page 20

It just never made much sense to me. Not the Willshapers who are freedom-fighters, not the Dustbringers who are always described as the most dubious of orders. But it was the Skybreakers, who value the letter of the law above all others. Subterfuge? That doesn't sound very Skybreakery.

 Nale almost certainly had a heavy hand in this, especially given that he was present in BAM's capture. But I cannot think of any good ideas about their reasoning. It seems though as if it is a clue about the true purpose of the Recreance.

And given that the next book is of the Skybreakers and where we will finally see the Recreance and Mishram's capture I believe (and hope), now is the time to discuss these things. Does anybody have any solid theories?

[AquaRegia]

No theory, just a few thoughts: 

1) Highspren are the sentient spren of the Skybreaker order, and, of the ten, they are the ones we know the least about. We know almost nothing about their personalities, their motivations, their ideals - other than unwavering adherence to law.

2) The Recreance was, essentially, breaking the law.  The Knights Radiant made Oaths, and chose (with the agreement of their spren, sure) to break those Oaths.  It may be that the Skybreakers simply could not abide that; from their point of view, it was EVERYONE ELSE who were "traitors".

[Aspiring Writer]

30 minutes ago, AquaRegia said:

2) The Recreance was, essentially, breaking the law.  The Knights Radiant made Oaths, and chose (with the agreement of their spren, sure) to break those Oaths.  It may be that the Skybreakers simply could not abide that; from their point of view, it was EVERYONE ELSE who were "traitors".

Uh, they were the only spren to still keep bonding people after the recreance. They seemed the MOST okay with what happened of any spren.

[Leuthie]

I don't trust any history of the Recreance. Every Radiant had to have made the decision to abandon Oaths. There's no evidence that half of them decided, with a protracted war killing the other half, etc. This was a community-wide decision and a universal act to dispand the Knights Radiant and remove surgebinding from Roshar.

As such, the Skybreakers didn't quietly betray the other Orders. Nor would the others allow an entire order to decide to not take part. 

I believe the Skybreakers were left behind to make sure all Radiants broke Oaths, as a police force, to prosecute any that refused. Once assured that all others broke Oaths, they would do so themselves. When the Skybreakers saw that spren were killed by the act of breaking Oaths, they couldn't very well kill their own spren. They didn't grow their order, however, and eventually it mostly died off to old age.

Except for Nale. He couldn't die, nor could he break Oaths. As an aside, it's possible that the Recreance itself was a reason why Nale bonded with a highspren in the first place. To be part of the monitoring team.

He eventually regrew the Skybreakers to watch for the return of Radiants, essentially continuing the reason they didn't abandon Oaths with everyone else in the first place. Only, by this time, he was insane and decided that Radiants must die to stop the return of the Desolations.

[Saal]

On 1/13/2021 at 10:39 AM, Leuthie said:

I don't trust any history of the Recreance. Every Radiant had to have made the decision to abandon Oaths. There's no evidence that half of them decided, with a protracted war killing the other half, etc. This was a community-wide decision and a universal act to dispand the Knights Radiant and remove surgebinding from Roshar.

As such, the Skybreakers didn't quietly betray the other Orders. Nor would the others allow an entire order to decide to not take part. 

I believe the Skybreakers were left behind to make sure all Radiants broke Oaths, as a police force, to prosecute any that refused. Once assured that all others broke Oaths, they would do so themselves. When the Skybreakers saw that spren were killed by the act of breaking Oaths, they couldn't very well kill their own spren. They didn't grow their order, however, and eventually it mostly died off to old age.

Except for Nale. He couldn't die, nor could he break Oaths. As an aside, it's possible that the Recreance itself was a reason why Nale bonded with a highspren in the first place. To be part of the monitoring team.

He eventually regrew the Skybreakers to watch for the return of Radiants, essentially continuing the reason they didn't abandon Oaths with everyone else in the first place. Only, by this time, he was insane and decided that Radiants must die to stop the return of the Desolations.

Wow. This seems highly plausible.

[+Child of Hodor]

On 1/13/2021 at 10:08 AM, AquaRegia said:

No theory, just a few thoughts: 

1) Highspren are the sentient spren of the Skybreaker order, and, of the ten, they are the ones we know the least about. We know almost nothing about their personalities, their motivations, their ideals - other than unwavering adherence to law.

2) The Recreance was, essentially, breaking the law.  The Knights Radiant made Oaths, and chose (with the agreement of their spren, sure) to break those Oaths.  It may be that the Skybreakers simply could not abide that; from their point of view, it was EVERYONE ELSE who were "traitors".

Yeah, Skybreakers are the least likely to break an Oath for “the greater good”. To them the Law is the greatest good and that includes their oaths. 

Plus Highspren are implied to be very weird. We haven’t  properly met any, but Brandon has hinted that some of Nale’s odd behavior is Highspren influence, not all of it is the Herald insanity.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431/#e13999

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Child of Hodor said:

Yeah, Skybreakers are the least likely to break an Oath for “the greater good”. To them the Law is the greatest good and that includes their oaths. 

Plus Highspren are implied to be very weird. We haven’t  properly met any, but Brandon has hinted that some of Nale’s odd behavior is Highspren influence, not all of it is the Herald insanity.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431/#e13999

So wait, are you implying that we should be calling them HIGHspren?

all I can think of is a hole in reality smoking weed now.