(K)Night's Radiant

[Lockheart]

Maybe it's a bit of a stretch. Or, perhaps I have really gone full potato and this is my way of letting the world know... This may get long, probably ranty, and as I've been wont to do lately will more than likely crash off topic not merely mid sentence, but the possibility of a word being left incomplete, because look! A weird bug! has been happening to me too much lately. Oh, and since I'm too out of shape and lazy to just bite the bullet and add a signature line (not only at the current moment, but also for the foreseeable future, because I just won't have the motivation, effort, or ambition and likely there is a woman somewhere who will drive to PA from Oregon to be my wife and give me lots of money, if I just cashapp her the $25 dollars she needs to buy enough gas to travel 3000 miles who has all of my attention at any given moment of my life), I'll just say here that I'm a tough pill to swallow, am very abrasive, and if you're offended by anything you read I'm not really sorry, since nothing is directed toward a real person (other than my self depreciation) and you should probably grow thicker skin. Everything isn't about you Janet. 

 

Idk if the upcoming thought has been touched on before, or if there's like, a super secret invite only hidden subforum dedicated to breaking this (probably reached for) tidbit down, and making it tick, fitting it into the story now, opposed to the last paragraph of book 10, just to have the claim to fame. Admittedly, this is the only Cosmere forum I take in... There's already far too much moving in my head to cram it with even more information about one of the few things to bring me joy lately.... 

 

Anyway... I spend some time each week staring up at the night sky (mostly hoping that an alien race finally shows up, and I can sucker them into taking off this dump before anyone notices them), as I'm in the middle of no where, I have a lovely view of the stars. (And if my neighbor ever installs a timer/motion sensor on his insane driveway light for his tenants or, someone does something bad like shoot it, the view would be glorious)

 

I'm sure some of you are aware that last weekend was the peak of the Perseids meteor shower (jaw dropping out my way), so I've been soaking up as much of the show as I can get. And as it always happens, my mind floats to the showers radiant point, the origin. 

 

Inevitably that resparks the idea that I've always found it.... interesting?  that a lost order of world saving knights with powers incomprehensibly vast should be called the Knights Radiant. And boy it suuuuuuure is coincidental that they shine like a star when full of Stormlight, and are wearing living plate. 

 

And each time my thoughts go there, and the coincidence makes me smile a bit, I remember that every time this train boards in the gray matter, I always end up under a table, with my tinfoil hat on, petting a cat that I've forced into a homemade outfit to make look like an Honorspren (totally kidding, but now that you've mentally seen it go with it!), telling myself that I need to login here instead of lurking and put my delusions in writing for you all to enjoy. 

 

So, without further adue;

 

There's always another secret, right? There's NO WAY the whole "night radiant/knight radiant" thing is a coincidence, is there? Let's for the sake of discussion all agree with me because I'm always right anyway, and say that the name is hinting..... At something.

 

WHAT COULD IT BE!??!

 

What's the play on the words about? The end game? How does it fit??? Is it the beginning or end? I need to know!

 

What do you all think? Let's put the heads together and figure this one out. Because, I'm turning 40 in about two weeks, and my family is.... Not known for their youthful appearances and about average life expectancy. I've got about 15 years left according to my math, which means... I'll never get to know how it ends. 

 

So, (K)nights Radiant is now the official end phrase/game/final secret for the Cosmere (according to me <and, as it was written above, I'm right. It wouldn't be on the internet if it's not true either>). So what is the connection??

 

 

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Shard.

1 hour ago, Lockheart said:

Maybe it's a bit of a stretch. Or, perhaps I have really gone full potato and this is my way of letting the world know...

<snip>

So, (K)nights Radiant is now the official end phrase/game/final secret for the Cosmere (according to me <and, as it was written above, I'm right. It wouldn't be on the internet if it's not true either>). So what is the connection?

I am reminded of Rober Frost:

Quote

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

1. Most likely Knight does not refer to Night at all. Remember that that is a connection peculiar to English and Sanderson presents these works as if they were translated for us to read and there is no indication that it would originally have had a connection between those two words that just happen to be homophones in our language.
2. If there is an implicit connection, then it is likely to be the one we already know: that humanity did not originate on Roshar (OB), and rather travelled from the stars (Ashyn) via some version of Elsecalling (which is similar to the Surge of Elsecalling, but not quite the same*) 
3. If the connection is implied to be for the future, then it is probably a reference to Era 4 - where many of the Invested Societies will find ways to accomplish FLT travel in the physical realm (SotD2_Preview, YNP) - including Roshar and its Radiant Knights. 

WoBs

Spoiler

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

In fact, we have seen short-range Elsecalling done by… Obviously Elsecalling’s not Bondsmithing, but you know that a Bondsmith powered a big Elsecalling [to migrate from Ashyn], one of the big things you’ve seen a Bondsmith do is get people between planets. And you have seen people use AonDor to Elsecall. You’ve seen them Lightweave, you’ve seen them do a lot of these things. They also could do some of this same stuff.

Showing that some names are more indicitive of the effect than the source (e.g. all Illusion Magic is "Lightweaving" whether it is Surges, AonDor, Yolish, etc.)

Quote

Questioner

So Hoid, was he considered a Lightweaver pre-Shattering?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that would be an appropriate term. There are lots of different terms that would also be appropriate.

Questioner

But was it basically the same thing?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, no Stormlight. No spren. So, not a Knight Radiant. But, similar magic. But you've also seen Elantris magic do this. So there are-- there are certain things that-- I'll just stop there.

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

That was not done intentionally. The fact that they act like Midnight Essence was done intentionally. You will see me playing with similar things just like Lightweaving works on different planets with things like this.

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

So one other thing to keep aware of in the cosmere - for instance they call "Lightweaving" any illusion-based magic working on the same fundamentals. And so you could argue - and people will use it that way in-world - that Bondsmithing is both an order [of Knights Radiant] and a power that exists outside the order.

Argent

And that would be maybe the power of Connection, the way Lightweaving is the power of illusion?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. And for instance, there were not Elsecallers to get people between Ashyn and Roshar, but on Roshar they would explain what happened there as Elsecalling. Does that make sense?

 

 

Edited August 18 by Treamayne

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Lockheart said:

There's always another secret, right? There's NO WAY the whole "night radiant/knight radiant" thing is a coincidence, is there? Let's for the sake of discussion all agree with me because I'm always right anyway, and say that the name is hinting..... At something.

Umm it is. Origins of words night and knight are totally different, google:

Quote

Old English cniht ‘boy, youth, servant’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch knecht and German Knecht . knight (sense 2 of the noun) dates from the mid 16th century; the uses relating to Greek and Roman history derive from comparison with medieval knights.

Quote

Old English neaht, niht, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch nacht and German Nacht, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin nox and Greek nux .

 

1 hour ago, Lockheart said:

What do you all think? Let's put the heads together and figure this one out. Because, I'm turning 40 in about two weeks, and my family is.... Not known for their youthful appearances and about average life expectancy. I've got about 15 years left according to my math, which means... I'll never get to know how it ends. 

Congrats, I wish you at least another 40!

1 hour ago, Lockheart said:

WHAT COULD IT BE!??!

What's the play on the words about? The end game? How does it fit??? Is it the beginning or end? I need to know!

Ignoring the origins of both words, there is this theory (not only my theory), that Dalinar will lose the Contest of Champions, this will hurt Stormfather or even deadeye him, stopping the Highstorm cycle, causing endless Weeping with no Stormlight - thus "night" of some sorts. There are numerous Death Rattles that support this theory and other foreshadowings, one very important is this one:

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! ”

—Collected circa Tanat 1173 by Taravangian. Subject was a young boy.^[44]