Talenel is a Hoed

[Kendelian he/him]

Both Talenel and the Hoed tend to repeat the same phrase or sentence without any real thought behind it. But Talenel speaks a full monologue of what he would say to a broken society. I feel like this theory fits too well for it to be just a coincidence. In addition, when Raoden used Aon-Dor in front of one of the older Hoed, that temporarily brought him out of his stupor. A similar thing happened when Dalinar opened Honor’s Perpendicularity, something that either reminded him of his true self or gave him a more solid mental standing.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

I really like this idea/theory and I never considered it

They do line up really well from a "symptoms" perspective

I would think that from a diagnosis perspective they line up as well IMO

Elantris & SA Spoilers just in case

Spoiler

• Heod were caused by a build up of pain in their non-repairing Dor powered mind/bodies
• Talenel similarly has been tortured in Braize for thousands of years and has doubtless built up tons of physical and mental pain in his body
  • We've learned in SA that the "slaveform" of all the Parsh was caused by BAM's connection to the majority of the people + the spren's capture, rupturing that Connection and marring their souls
  • Dead Eyes didn't appear until after BAM's capture

So seems to me that repairing the wound in caused by BAM's capture could be very similar realmatically to adding the Chasm line and repairing Elantris' function. Fixing that block may return the Heralds mentally (since they've also been getting worse since BAMs capture (my conjecture)

 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Kendelian said:

Both Talenel and the Hoed tend to repeat the same phrase or sentence without any real thought behind it. But Talenel speaks a full monologue of what he would say to a broken society. I feel like this theory fits too well for it to be just a coincidence. In addition, when Raoden used Aon-Dor in front of one of the older Hoed, that temporarily brought him out of his stupor. A similar thing happened when Dalinar opened Honor’s Perpendicularity, something that either reminded him of his true self or gave him a more solid mental standing.

Saying he is Hoed might be a bit too blanket of a statement, but I agree there is likely something very similar happening in both cases, causing a similar condition and similar symptoms.

[Authorspren]

This makes a lot of sense. The only problem with this theory that I can think of is that Talenel wasn't affected by the Shaod, meaning that his body's natural healing probably wouldn't be stopped. He'd be able to recover from any physical pain then.

Maybe his condition is more of a "mental Hoed", where instead of his body and mind being broken by the pain, it's just his mind. That would explain why he acts like a madman but his body isn't affected (except for stuff like uncleanliness, which could fit with insanity).

[Firesong she/her]

17 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Saying he is Hoed might be a bit too blanket of a statement, but I agree there is likely something very similar happening in both cases, causing a similar condition and similar symptoms.

Yeah, I disagree completely that he is Hoed. But I agree completely that it likely works on similar fundamental mechanics and principles. 

[Stormlit Shard he/him]

16 minutes ago, Firesong said:

Yeah, I disagree completely that he is Hoed. But I agree completely that it likely works on similar fundamental mechanics and principles. 

I third this because I believe he is definitely not a hoed, but again the pain was so great, and for so long that he has all the mental symptoms of being a hoed but almost none of the physical symptoms. It could just be Insanity that caused it otherwise and all the stormlight in a perpendicularity that came into him that made him come out of his stupor. 

[Kendelian he/him]

18 hours ago, Authorspren said:

This makes a lot of sense. The only problem with this theory that I can think of is that Talenel wasn't affected by the Shaod, meaning that his body's natural healing probably wouldn't be stopped. He'd be able to recover from any physical pain then.

Maybe his condition is more of a "mental Hoed", where instead of his body and mind being broken by the pain, it's just his mind. That would explain why he acts like a madman but his body isn't affected (except for stuff like uncleanliness, which could fit with insanity).

Yeah, that’s what I’m getting at