KR theory

[Stormfather]

So I've had the past couple days off work and been thinking some and doing a little bit of rereading. I don't know if this has been suggested by anyone, but I haven't seen it so I thought I'd voice some thoughts I've been having.

My theory is that the story Hoid told Kaladin starting on page 800 is actually more significant than it seems. I think that Kaladin will more than likely become the head of the new KR order (which will be another uproar when Dalinar follows him), and it will be his job to lead them correctly.

The basics of the story that I got was there was a city that had a king and began to take his rulings to extremes and justified it as the kings wishes, but the king as dead and really they were responsible for the bad things they did.

To me the Heralds were the heads of the different orders of the KR, and then they suddenly disappeared. I think the KR did well for a while, but then were corrupted and the heads of the KR all justified it as carrying out what the Heralds, and thus Honor, wanted to happen.

I think this is what lead to what Dalinar saw with the KR abandoning their armor and duties. The order had become corrupt enough that the non-leadership decided it was better to leave the life than serve.

On page 646 we read "The tariffs through Urithiru were growing quite unreasonable. By then, the so-called Radiants had already begun to show their true nature." To me this is showing some kind of a subtle shift from what they did in the past, and it was getting out of control by the time the author wrote that. Granted the author clearly has an anti-KR bias, but it still shows something was going on.

So in a nutshell, I think Hoid told Kaladin the story because he knows what Kaladin will do, and he needs to learn to be responsible for what he does, not to do something because he things it is what a higher power wants, or even what the KR did before. He needs to do what is right and no do evil things because some king/herald wants him to do so.

Thoughts?

[Voidus]

I don't think that enough KR's will be formed during the series to form entire orderrs again, and if the Heralds are still around then I'd think they'd be the natural leaders not Kal. Although I think there's supposed to be a timeskip after the first 5 books so maybe new orders will crop up.

[Dros]

Yeah, it was my understanding that the Stormlight Archives is really a story about the Heralds, so although the KR, or those that regain the powers the KR had, will be an important part of the story, but not the main part.

I looked at Hoid's story as relating to the Alethi basing their culture on war and the warlords basically buying into the violence, bacuase, well, that's the way it's always been done. But I could be wrong, as well. It was rather a long and detailed story to be included by BS just to refer to something that was quite obvious already. So it might be more important than I give it credit for. I'll give you that.