The Shattering of the Shattered Plains?

[Raceroa2307]

This is my personal theory on how the Shattered Plains shattered and I would like some feedback on whether on not this could be plausible.

So it starts with how Taln died. Jezrien tells Kalak that Taln died holding the northern waterway in the final desolation. I believe that this mysterious northern passageway could be the Shattered Plains. (I came to this conclusion because the Shattered Plains Oathgate is still working when none of the other ones are) If Taln did die holding the shattered plains, would it be much of a stretch to say he shattered it. Taln was a member of the Order of Stonewards, and likely has sworn all five oaths at the time. Even if he hasn't sworn all five he still has his Honorblade. He likely would have used his powers as a Stoneward to change the denstiy of stone to that of sand that got blown away by a highstorm. This would also be in brand with Taln because that guy is super op.

This is my theory, please try and poke holes in it. I have gone on for a while wanting to know for a fact whether this is true or not.

[AonEne he/him in an enby way]

Hey! Moved this to the Stormlight forum, Arcanum is for discussion of the website Arcanum. 

[Quantus he/him]

1 hour ago, Raceroa2307 said:

This is my personal theory on how the Shattered Plains shattered and I would like some feedback on whether on not this could be plausible.

So it starts with how Taln died. Jezrien tells Kalak that Taln died holding the northern waterway in the final desolation. I believe that this mysterious northern passageway could be the Shattered Plains. (I came to this conclusion because the Shattered Plains Oathgate is still working when none of the other ones are) If Taln did die holding the shattered plains, would it be much of a stretch to say he shattered it. Taln was a member of the Order of Stonewards, and likely has sworn all five oaths at the time. Even if he hasn't sworn all five he still has his Honorblade. He likely would have used his powers as a Stoneward to change the denstiy of stone to that of sand that got blown away by a highstorm. This would also be in brand with Taln because that guy is super op.

This is my theory, please try and poke holes in it. I have gone on for a while wanting to know for a fact whether this is true or not.

For what it's worth, so far only Nale is confirmed to actually have joined his corresponding order and thus be on the 5-oaths scheme.  

The fractal patterning is generally noted as a telltale feature that points to Division being the primary power involved, though the Windblades are similar but more likely a mass Soulcasting event.  In all cases there's usually an assumption that a Bondsmith was involved to allow the sheer scale of it, though a Herald still backed by Honor might be able to do similar.  

[Duxredux he/him]

I don't have the time to dig into this right now, but the topics you want on the Coppermind are the Shattered Plains, Natanatan, and for kicks the Roshar map. First, the Shattered Plains are located to the southeast on the continent of Roshar. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any water feature near the Shattered Plains, so it seems unlikely that Taln died there (which isn't to say that he wasn't over in the Southeast earlier in the Final Desolation).

There's interesting factors here. The Shattered Plains are part of one of the old SIlver Kingdom Natanatan. The capital, Stormseat, was destroyed during the Final Desolation, which was the last battle with the Heralds before Taln was left in Braise. When Kaladin flies over the Shattered Plains in a dream following the Highstorm, from an aerial view it looks as if the Shattered Plains were hit by a giant impact in the center creating a symmetrical shattering pattern - in fact this is key to how Shallan charts the Shattered Plains using the principle of cymatics and correctly identifies the Oathgate they use to transport to Urithiru in WoR because the circular platform defied the pattern. So... the Heralds were likely around when the Shattered Plains were formed, and the Oathgates allow the Heralds to move quickly to combat enemy forces, but it's unlikely that Taln died in the process of creating the Shattered Plains for the simple reason that they are southeast, not north.

Now as for why the Oathgate at the Shattered Plains was still active despite others being deactivated, perhaps they assumed the Oathgate had been destroyed. Perhaps the Oathgate had been rendered unusable and the spren that comprise it slowly reformed (that one's pure speculation, but living spren fabrials like Shard Plate reform, so perhaps they were slowly regenerated with each passing Highstorm).

 

[alder24]

6 hours ago, Raceroa2307 said:

This is my personal theory on how the Shattered Plains shattered and I would like some feedback on whether on not this could be plausible.

So it starts with how Taln died. Jezrien tells Kalak that Taln died holding the northern waterway in the final desolation. I believe that this mysterious northern passageway could be the Shattered Plains. (I came to this conclusion because the Shattered Plains Oathgate is still working when none of the other ones are) If Taln did die holding the shattered plains, would it be much of a stretch to say he shattered it. Taln was a member of the Order of Stonewards, and likely has sworn all five oaths at the time. Even if he hasn't sworn all five he still has his Honorblade. He likely would have used his powers as a Stoneward to change the denstiy of stone to that of sand that got blown away by a highstorm. This would also be in brand with Taln because that guy is super op.

This is my theory, please try and poke holes in it. I have gone on for a while wanting to know for a fact whether this is true or not.

The timeline doesn't fit. By the time Listener's Last Legion abandoned Odium, the Shattered Plains were well Shattered for a long time - their songs said it. And The Last Legion most likely did it before Aharietiam - they said they abandoned their gods, which are Fused and Voidspren. Those were absent on Roshar after Aharietiam, so this had to happen long before. And Taln wasn't a member of Stonewards, only Nale joined Radiants. 

I believe they were Shattered by using the anti-tone of Stormseat. Every Dawncity has a Rhythm associated with it, a pattern that Cymatics create, so they also have an anti-rhythm. Combining them together would have a destructive interference, resulting in a catastrophical Shattering grinding stone into sand, just like Stormlight and Anti-Stormlight annihilate releasing huge amounts of energy. The source of that anti-tone was at the center of Plains, where the Stormseat was located - many described the Shattered Plains as something heavy dropped at its center breaking it all around like a plate.

[ScavellTane]

I think its less likely that the land itself was split that way using Division, but more like peeling off a scab. I think a "city-spren" was excised from Stormseat.

[cosmeredoug_30]

I was always under the impression that the shattered plains were Stormseat. I thought that the part of the city we see as Narak was maybe just the centre/very tall point of Stormseat and the whole of the Shattered Plains were actually the rest of the city. Since the silver kingdoms are known to have symmetry in their layout and the plains as a whole are symmetrical, I thought that each plateau was just a build up of crem around the original buildings of Stormseat, maintaining the city's original symmetry in a way. Is this still possible or was there a WoB that confirmed the plains were actually 'shattered' by some event?

[alder24]

4 hours ago, cosmeredoug_30 said:

I was always under the impression that the shattered plains were Stormseat. I thought that the part of the city we see as Narak was maybe just the centre/very tall point of Stormseat and the whole of the Shattered Plains were actually the rest of the city.

That was discussed in WoR, it was eventually confirmed that only the very center - Narak - was the place where Stormseat was, the rest was farmlands, some buildings or smaller cities. WoR ch 81:

Quote

She was certain by now that Stormseat hadn’t made up the entire Shattered Plains—the city hadn’t been nearly so huge. Structures like the warcamps had been outbuildings, or satellite cities

 

5 hours ago, cosmeredoug_30 said:

I thought that each plateau was just a build up of crem around the original buildings of Stormseat,

You've seen buildings of Stormseat, Adolin walked in one during the battle and cutting a hill made him end up only on the first floor. They aren't 100 ft tall like many plateaus are. WoR ch 83:

Quote

They were on the second floor of the building, but he estimated the buildup of crem outside would place that at about ground level. Indeed, from outside he heard a faint sound. Humming, resonating through the wall.

 

5 hours ago, cosmeredoug_30 said:

Is this still possible or was there a WoB that confirmed the plains were actually 'shattered' by some event?

Yes:

Spoiler

Questioner

(Written in someone's book with an arrow pointing at the Shattered Plains)

Brandon Sanderson

Great magic unleashed here.

Steelheart Seattle signing (Oct. 14, 2013)