Heralds & Knights have matching genders...

[dungeonfood he/him]

Hey guys, I've been skimming over the associations between the 4 developing Knights Radiant we've seen (including the one from the WoR interlude) and the Heralds. It makes sense that they seem to have matching character attributes (e.g. Kaladin clearly has Jezrien's "Divine Attributes" of protecting/leading), but I noticed that all 4 Knights also match the genders of their respective Heralds.

 

I want to throw a few ideas around for discussion:

1. Brandon's mentioned that we've met multiple Heralds already, beyond the opening chapter in WoK. Is it possible that there's some reincarnation or amnesia element that could make one of our main characters an actual Herald without us knowing?
2. If this gender aspect is, in fact, not just by chance, it opens the way for new guesses on people who could develop into Radiants. Note that there can only be one new female character that becomes a Knight (since we've got 3 female Radiants already out of the 4 female Heralds), and that person would have to match the attributes of Chach (bravery/obedience)
3. I haven't seen anything that completely nails down the mechanics of how spren are involved in the evolution of a Radiant, but does it matter that Syl is female while Kaladin is male?

[Gloom he/him]

I haven't seen anything that completely nails down the mechanics of how spren are involved in the evolution of a Radiant, but does it matter that Syl is female while Kaladin is male?

 

It might, it might be happenstance, or it might be that way for an entirely different reason. From the brief reading of the Lift interlude which Brandon had read, her spren can be assumed to be male. Wyndle didn't strike me as particularly feminine. Shallans cryptic seemed rather sexless, but could be male as well.

[Argent he/him]

Words of Radiance spoilers:

1. Suppose it's possible. However, all of our candidate-Radiants have a pretty solid past - as in, they remember everything down to their childhood. The only exception is Jasnah, but being the sister and daughter of two kings, as well as niece of the Blackthorn (and cousin to Adolin and Renarin), at least one of those people would've said something had she just popped out of nowhere. No, I think we can safely discard this one.
2. There are 5 female Radiants - Chach, Palah, Vedeledev (or Vev), Shalash, and Battar. Though I had to look the last one up. Also, to (probably) break your theory, Ym from the Words of Radiance interlude/reading is male, but he almost definitely would have belonged to Palah's order, had he been a Radiant; the only alternative, knowing that he can use Growth, is Vedeledev's, but she is also a female Herald.
3. Maaaybe, but I doubt it. Mostly because we've seen spren take whatever form they desire. I think Syl once turned into a man (to mock somebody in the army) - but don't quote me on that. What you can quote me on is that we've seen creationspren that look like urns and tables and never like a humanoid.

 

Edited October 21, 2013 by Argent

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I doubt it, in the Starfalls chapter of Way of Kings (one of Dalinar's visions) we see a female Stoneward, whose Herald, Taln, is male.  Also Elhokar seems to see Cryptics which would indicate he is a potential Lightweaver, just like Shallan.

 

Also, as Argent pointed out, Ym is very likely Palah's order since he has Growth and "probably" Light. Which has a female Herald.

[Natans he/him]

Hey guys, I've been skimming over the associations between the 4 developing Knights Radiant we've seen (including the one from the WoR interlude) and the Heralds. It makes sense that they seem to have matching character attributes (e.g. Kaladin clearly has Jezrien's "Divine Attributes" of protecting/leading), but I noticed that all 4 Knights also match the genders of their respective Heralds.

 

I want to throw a few ideas around for discussion:

1. Brandon's mentioned that we've met multiple Heralds already, beyond the opening chapter in WoK. Is it possible that there's some reincarnation or amnesia element that could make one of our main characters an actual Herald without us knowing?
2. If this gender aspect is, in fact, not just by chance, it opens the way for new guesses on people who could develop into Radiants. Note that there can only be one new female character that becomes a Knight (since we've got 3 female Radiants already out of the 4 female Heralds), and that person would have to match the attributes of Chach (bravery/obedience)
3. I haven't seen anything that completely nails down the mechanics of how spren are involved in the evolution of a Radiant, but does it matter that Syl is female while Kaladin is male?

 

 

 

I thought this too, but the Starfalls female Stoneward killed this theory to me =)

 

And in the "Day of Recreance Vision" I think that there are both female and male radiants of the stonewards and windrunners orders.

 

But take this upvote for you troubles (and for think the same thing that I thinked)

 

Peace

[Shardlet he/him]

This may be slightly off-topic, but has the red radiant if Starfalls been expressly confirmed to be a stoneward?  If we are just going by red armor, I note that both Ruby and Garnet are red in the KR table.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

This may be slightly off-topic, but has the red radiant if Starfalls been expressly confirmed to be a stoneward?  If we are just going by red armor, I note that both Ruby and Garnet are red in the KR table.

 

Her armor glows amber, not red, just like the Stonewards in the Recreance vision.

[Oudeis he/him]

Hey, can this be moved to the Words of Radiance discussion page for those of us trying to avoid Words of Radiance spoilers? Or just labeled better as containing Words of Radiance spoilers, at least?

[Gloom he/him]

I don't think that the Orders themselves are gender specific. The spren may take the form of the opposite gender when they bond to someone, or they may choose someone who is the opposite of their gender, or it may be a big coincidence with the tiny pool of Surgebinders that we have in play at the moment.

[Shardlet he/him]

Her armor glows amber, not red, just like the Stonewards in the Recreance vision.

 

Wow, I don't know how I got red into my mind.  Thx for the clarification.

[Windrunner he/him]

Moving the topic.

 

And also, Shardlet, perhaps you mixed it up with the Dalinar flashback vision we got from WoR? That female Radiant wore glowing red Plate.

[Shardlet he/him]

Maybe.  But it still boggles my mind that I was so far off.

[el_warko he/him]

Apologies if this consitiutes necroing.

Maybe.  But it still boggles my mind that I was so far off.

 

Shardlet, you can take solace in the fact that the wavelength for amber light is ~590nm, while red ranges from 620 to 750nm (depending on the shade).

 

You have been science nerded.

 

Apologies for the digression, but colours got me thinking about Warbreaker. Has Brandon ever indicated/discussed (in terms of wavelength or otherwise) pure colours?

[Argent he/him]

Not to my (considerable, but incomplete) knowledge.