Sealing the Oathgates

[Stormgate he/him]

We know that nine of the Oathgates have been sealed, except for the one on the Shattered Plains. But, how would someone seal the Oathgates?

I propose that they broke the gemstones, releasing the spren, and rendering the fabrial useless.

[Doc12]

I always assumed the reason no one could use the Oathgates anymore was because no one had a living  Shardblade to unlock the door anymore. Shallan used it with no problem,  didn't she?  And iassume that kaladin got bridge four back to urithiru using Syl.

The gemstones were still intact and workable,  only no one had the keys to use them. I think if Kal does get into Kholinar in Oathbringer, he'll be able to unlock the Oathgate there using Syl.

Course, feel free to correct if I'm off course 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Doctor12

[galendo]

8 minutes ago, Doctor12 said:

I always assumed the reason no one could use the Oathgates anymore was because no one had a living  Shardblade to unlock the door anymore. Shallan used it with no problem,  didn't she?  And iassume that kaladin got bridge four back to urithiru using Syl.

The gemstones were still intact and workable,  only no one had the keys to use them. I think if Kal does get into Kholinar in Oathbringer, he'll be able to unlock the Oathgate there using Syl.

Course, feel free to correct if I'm off course 

I think at one point Jasnah said she tried to get to Urithiru via the gate in Ahlekar, but couldn't because it was locked.  Since she presumably also had a Shardblade to try on it at the time, we can probably assume that there's more to the locked gate than just no one having a spren to turn the lock.

That being said, it's entirely possible that she wasn't able to make the gate work just because there was too much stuff built on top of the transport platform.  If the amount of Stormlight necessary to transfer things is a function of mass, and if in the intervening years people have built several buildings and whatnot on top of the transport platform, then it's entirely possible that there was just too much weight for the Oathgate to shift.  Gemstones can only hold so much Stormlight, after all.

It's possible that all that would be required to open the gate would be a bit of controlled demolition.  I don't think that's going to be the case (I suspect there was some other way of locking the turning part of the Oathgate in place, perhaps using the same material the Gate was made from originally), but it's the simplest answer I think we have, given what we already know.  Everything else is just speculation.

[Pathfinder]

10 hours ago, galendo said:

I think at one point Jasnah said she tried to get to Urithiru via the gate in Ahlekar, but couldn't because it was locked.  Since she presumably also had a Shardblade to try on it at the time, we can probably assume that there's more to the locked gate than just no one having a spren to turn the lock.

That being said, it's entirely possible that she wasn't able to make the gate work just because there was too much stuff built on top of the transport platform.  If the amount of Stormlight necessary to transfer things is a function of mass, and if in the intervening years people have built several buildings and whatnot on top of the transport platform, then it's entirely possible that there was just too much weight for the Oathgate to shift.  Gemstones can only hold so much Stormlight, after all.

It's possible that all that would be required to open the gate would be a bit of controlled demolition.  I don't think that's going to be the case (I suspect there was some other way of locking the turning part of the Oathgate in place, perhaps using the same material the Gate was made from originally), but it's the simplest answer I think we have, given what we already know.  Everything else is just speculation.

So this is a super huge stretch and requires a ton of coincidence so I do not think this is the reason, but could be a possibility, maybe to unlock a specific oath gate, you need a specific order? So the shattered plains are light weavers. Perhaps Alethkar required a wind runner and Jasnah had the wrong blade as she is an Elsecaller. Then after unlocked, any order can use it. Again I highly doubt this is the case, but just an idea that occurred to me that could maybe get additional ideas working. 

[Killik he/him]

42 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

So this is a super huge stretch and requires a ton of coincidence so I do not think this is the reason, but could be a possibility, maybe to unlock a specific oath gate, you need a specific order? So the shattered plains are light weavers. Perhaps Alethkar required a wind runner and Jasnah had the wrong blade as she is an Elsecaller. Then after unlocked, any order can use it. Again I highly doubt this is the case, but just an idea that occurred to me that could maybe get additional ideas working. 

The locking mechanism shifted for 3 different blades, presumably from three different orders.  This doesn't prove that it would work if all had been alive, but I think the gate would accept any Radiant who has ascended to the point of having a blade (3rd ideal?).  It seems likely that with a system of instantaneous travel across the continent, they would have built in some sort of lock/safety precaution to protect Urithiru and the other kingdoms.  

I feel like if I was a king of one of the connected kingdoms and I went to war with one of the others, a portal to their capital city would be pretty much my first stop for my whole army.  The Radiants must have been able to lock them out somehow.  I think we'll see them unlock the gates from Urithiru, but it might take a couple books to figure out how.  

[dvoraen]

Another possibility is that it's somehow tied to the Heralds and/or their Honorblades.  9/10 are locked, just as 9/10 quit their job, so to speak.  We don't know how Urithiru was built, for one ("by the hands of no man"), and it seems strange to me that the tower city would be built by itself without the Oathgate network coming along with it.

Personally, I suspect Dalinar will be required (as a Bondsmith) for them to be reopened.

[Oversleep]

14 hours ago, galendo said:

That being said, it's entirely possible that she wasn't able to make the gate work just because there was too much stuff built on top of the transport platform.  If the amount of Stormlight necessary to transfer things is a function of mass, and if in the intervening years people have built several buildings and whatnot on top of the transport platform, then it's entirely possible that there was just too much weight for the Oathgate to shift.  Gemstones can only hold so much Stormlight, after all.

Haven't they tried the Oathgates in Urithiru? Nothing was built on them as the city was abandoned. I suspect they tried them - after all, Kaladin would just teleport to Alethkar and continue his travel to Hearthstone from there, instead of trying to fly such a long distance.

[Pathfinder]

15 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

Haven't they tried the Oathgates in Urithiru? Nothing was built on them as the city was abandoned. I suspect they tried them - after all, Kaladin would just teleport to Alethkar and continue his travel to Hearthstone from there, instead of trying to fly such a long distance.

They did. Shallan attempted if I recall correctly. That is why Kaladin teleported back to the shattered plains and flew from there for hearthstone. 

[galendo]

1 hour ago, Oversleep said:

Haven't they tried the Oathgates in Urithiru? Nothing was built on them as the city was abandoned. I suspect they tried them - after all, Kaladin would just teleport to Alethkar and continue his travel to Hearthstone from there, instead of trying to fly such a long distance.

Yeah, but the Oathgates swap the stuff on each gate when they activate.  So if Alethkar to Urithiru has too much mass for the gemstones to transfer, Urithiru to Alethkar would also have too much mass to transfer.

[Naurock]

On 8/4/2016 at 9:01 AM, dvoraen said:

Another possibility is that it's somehow tied to the Heralds and/or their Honorblades.  9/10 are locked, just as 9/10 quit their job, so to speak.  We don't know how Urithiru was built, for one ("by the hands of no man"), and it seems strange to me that the tower city would be built by itself without the Oathgate network coming along with it.

Personally, I suspect Dalinar will be required (as a Bondsmith) for them to be reopened.

This seems like a fantastic theory. Radiants abandoned humans leaving the only gate that works is the hardest to access, I think because I'm not sure if they quit before the plains became the Shattered Plains. They probably didn't trust humans anymore and locked all the gates before quitting.

[Argel he/him]

I like the Bondsmith theory, but I'm inclined to expand it to say that the local rulers had some way to lock the gates, and with that method lost, a Bondsmith is the "brute force" moethod. Or maybe the "skeleton key" method. Either way, the idea is that each city could lock their gates.

[Humpty he/him]

I have a question did all ten Oathgates still work after the Oathpact was shattered ?? If Not then I think it was the Heralds that sealed them by abandoning the oathpact and the reason only one still works is b/c only Taln kept his oath. everything seems to run in tens.

[Rasarr she/her]

But isn't Taln an "Alethi" Herald? I mean, he did show up at Kholinar rather than at Stormseat (or Narak, going by its current name), and I've heard something about Heralds each being "assigned" to their own Silver Kingdom. Mind, I'm probably wrong about this, but if it's true, then it's the Kholinar gate that should remain open, not Stormseat's.