An underrated aspect of the Recreance

[KaladinWorldsinger]

So Nohadon gave up his power even though there were families that left their homes to reach a kingdom which they thought was mythical. Where the king really cared about the farmer more than taxes. So why did he leave, when things were looking good?

Probably because it was getting too ideal, too easy in some way. That is to say, Nohadon noticed himself getting to the power, getting too comfortable with his monarchy. He left because the power was bringing out complacency. 

If Nohadon is in some way responsible for the creation of the Knights Radiants as we know today, as people who take oaths instead of just Surgebinders, it makes sense why this Kingdom would suddenly seem mythical.

Did Nohadon notice himself wanting to ' spread' his new form of Radiants to everyone else, even by force? We know that at one point Young Nohadon believed that the time for a sword was necessary, did old wise Nohadon start to feel the same way? 

Did Tanavast go through the same thing?

When you teach someone, you can very, very, very easily fall into the trap of thinking that you are better than your student. Nohadon wrote a book of morals, Tanavast holds a shard of god's own sense of Honor.

Did they both start judging people 'lesser' than them? Did they want to control them? Teach them?

I think this is the same thing that happened with the Radiants too.

They were not just scared of having too much power, they were scared of wanting it too.

Let's take the Windrunners.

Alethela was the training ground for the Radiants, the supposed Silver Kingdom of War. Windrunners are the most numerous Radiants in any era. Their qualities are protection and leadership. Jezrien himself was 'King' of the Heralds.

Ever notice the fact that the Alethi, the the most warlike culture on Roshar, have river near them called the Windrunner? Kholins' color is Blue?

The Radiants had begun to have major political power too. I suspect that they had started becoming highly integrated with Royalty.

This is what causes the lighteyes( people who definitely are descendants of Radiants) to become an upper caste. 

I think it is very likely that the Radiants, who are connected to literal pieces of Divinity and get Superpowers, also started getting the Divine right to rule...

This wouldn't be a problem before the last Desolation because no one has time to seize control when they are busy fighting for survival. The Radiants never had too much power when fighting the Singers.

But after Aharitiem, the Radiants saw themselves getting too greedy and judgemental. We know from the gemstone archives that the Radiants started squabbling on many things with each other.

Tldr: The Radiants merged with the Royalty and got too powerful. They got scared and left their power alone

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

I've been starting to think that Nohadon and Tanavast actually swapped places at some point before Honor finally died. I believe the Cognitive Shadow attached to the Stormfather is actually Nohadon, and not Tanavast, hence the interesting Nohadon vision that Dalinar has.

It sounds like Honor's power tends to reject people who want it. It's certainly possible that Tanavast started to be at odds with his power, which caused him to start to lose control of it a little bit, and we know that he became obsessed with oaths at the tail end, even to the point of caring more for the oath than for the intent or reason behind it. Maybe that obsession was tied to him trying to realign himself with the power and take back control?

But what if Nohadon, in stepping down from his kingdom and rejecting his earthly power, became a prime candidate as someone who could take control of the shard, so then Tanavast did what some would call weak but stepping down from his own shard and passing it on to someone else? 

[Display-Names-Are-Stupid]

3 minutes ago, CognitiveShadow said:

I've been starting to think that Nohadon and Tanavast actually swapped places at some point before Honor finally died. I believe the Cognitive Shadow attached to the Stormfather is actually Nohadon, and not Tanavast, hence the interesting Nohadon vision that Dalinar has.

It sounds like Honor's power tends to reject people who want it. It's certainly possible that Tanavast started to be at odds with his power, which caused him to start to lose control of it a little bit, and we know that he became obsessed with oaths at the tail end, even to the point of caring more for the oath than for the intent or reason behind it. Maybe that obsession was tied to him trying to realign himself with the power and take back control?

But what if Nohadon, in stepping down from his kingdom and rejecting his earthly power, became a prime candidate as someone who could take control of the shard, so then Tanavast did what some would call weak but stepping down from his own shard and passing it on to someone else? 

It's an interesting theory, but my main question is how did Nohadon live so long? Unless their brief switch happened long before Tanavast's actual death.

Because Nohadon was around at the formation of the Radients, hundreds of years before the Recreance, and Tanavast was still alive at the Recreance. 

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

1 hour ago, Display-Names-Are-Stupid said:

It's an interesting theory, but my main question is how did Nohadon live so long? Unless their brief switch happened long before Tanavast's actual death.

Because Nohadon was around at the formation of the Radients, hundreds of years before the Recreance, and Tanavast was still alive at the Recreance.

I think the timing is pretty flexible. How do we know Tanavast was still alive at the recreance? Was it perhaps Nohadon instead of Tanavast? That's another potential explanation for Honor's fixation with oaths changing. Maybe Nohadon reacted differently to the Shard's intent than Tanavast did....

What if - their swap happens right at the point that Honor starts acting differently. Is it possible that Nohadon ascended to Honor right at the time that Honor turned against the Singers? And maybe that's why! But they could have tried to keep it under wraps. Plus, most of what we know about Tanavast is told to us from the Stormfather, who we also know has his own agenda and has been telling lies.

 

I also have a more in depth post about this theory here: 

 

[LewsTherinTelescope]

17 hours ago, CognitiveShadow said:

What if - their swap happens right at the point that Honor starts acting differently.

That was millennia after Nohadon lived, he was approximately around the time of the founding of the Knights while Honor started changing in their final days.

17 hours ago, CognitiveShadow said:

Is it possible that Nohadon ascended to Honor right at the time that Honor turned against the Singers?

That, on the other hand, was centuries before he likely lived, with the switch taking place during the first war Desolations before the Radiants began.

17 hours ago, CognitiveShadow said:

Plus, most of what we know about Tanavast is told to us from the Stormfather, who we also know has his own agenda and has been telling lies.

Honor's madness near the time of the Recreance is mentioned by the Sibling and alluded to in the gemstone archive.

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

1 hour ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

That, on the other hand, was centuries before he likely lived,

So you're saying theres a chance!

If he was a bondsmith as some suspect and as Brandon has repeatedly RAFO'd, I'd think it's possible for him to have survived for a very long time, no? He could have been the bondsmith bonded to the Stormfather, and perhaps they conspired together to take over Honor's shard but eventually that resulted in failure and the 'death' of Honor.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

3 minutes ago, CognitiveShadow said:

If he was a bondsmith as some suspect and as Brandon has repeatedly RAFO'd, I'd think it's possible for him to have survived for a very long time, no? He could have been the bondsmith bonded to the Stormfather, and perhaps they conspired together to take over Honor's shard but eventually that resulted in failure and the 'death' of Honor.

It's likely he was bonded before the Stormfather began making Bondsmiths, since the orders of Radiants didn't exist at the time of the first vision but Urithiru was around by the time of his death and the Sibling says when they were made Bondsmiths bonded the forces directly. It's not absolutely certain, though.

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

1 minute ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

It's likely he was bonded before the Stormfather began making Bondsmiths, since the orders of Radiants didn't exist at the time of the first vision but Urithiru was around by the time of his death and the Sibling says when they were made Bondsmiths bonded the forces directly. It's not absolutely certain, though.

Ooooh what if he was bonded to the Wind previously? I'm clearly shooting from the hip and grasping at straws to find ways to make my theory work lol but hey it's techinically possible I believe