The Knights Radiant and the relationship to their deities.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Sorry for the vague title. I wanted to avoid spoilers in it.

Now for the discussion. It seems to me that there is a widespread almost universal attitude among the fandom the the Knights Radiant will struggle back after their horrible setback and spend the back half setting things right to finally triumph over Retribution.

I am afraid this is not thought through. Let me list the factors that will in my opinion prevent that course of events

• Retribution has taken up Honor. In a sense he is The Allmighty.
• Roshar needs a source of Investiture. You cannot just splinter Retribution.
• They had a treaty. They have lost. The Singers have won.
• The other Shards will see Roshar as Retribution's seat and source of power. They will attack it as a whole.

Hence I think the Knights Radiant will split into multiple factions.

1. Those who accept Retribution as their god and the Blackthorn as their commander.
2. The Resistance
3. Those who follow Cultivation wherever she went
4. Those who hold dear the old ideals but recognize that they've lost and a treaty is a treaty. They'll try to do good with their limited means or they'll go into exile.

[Lord Spirit he/him]

There already are several factions

 1. Skybreakers, will probably split once they learn about Nale between supporting the singers and helping the humans. 
2. Willshapers, which is currently only singers

3. Enlightened spren radiants, who seem to want general peace

4. Those who follow Odium/Retribution, including most of the dustbringers

5. loyal radiants, including almost everyone else

 6. Other radiants, such the ghostbloods, those avioiding conflict like Ym’s daughter or other worldhoppers like sigzil or Hoid

Edited December 30, 2024 by Lord Spirit

[Argenti he/him]

2 hours ago, Lord Spirit said:

4. Those who follow Odium/Retribution, including most of the

 

I presume you mean the Dustbringers?

[Lord Spirit he/him]

1 hour ago, Argenti said:

I presume you mean the Dustbringers?

Yep! Fixed it

[the_archduke]

6 hours ago, Lord Spirit said:

 

3. Enlightened spren radiants, who seem to want general peace

 

We know of a grand total of 4 of these.  Renarin and Rlain (and their spren) wanting peace =/= the Enlightened spren wanting peace.  Mraize and Iyatil's spren seemed fine with the plan to capture Ba Ado Mishram rather than free her, so I don't think you can generalize like this.

Maybe Enlightened Mistspren may want peace, but who knows of Enlightened Crytpics, Inkspren, etc.