Radiant Order Diagram Coincidence

[Rich2244]

I was reading another thread and this diagram was linked, my first question is whether it is official or fan created? As this kinda goes out of the window if it is fan created.

Anyway I was looking at the connections between orders, each order is connected to four others. It seems to me to be very odd that the major characters that are confirmed radiants all seem to be linked to each other with only a few outliers. For example Kaladin, Windrunners, is connected to Lifhtweavers, Shallan, Bondsmiths, Dalinar, Edgedancers, I'm fairly confident he will meet Lift very soon and Skybreakers, possible Szeth?, that last one is very questionable at the moment I know. But in my mind the two other characters who have influenced Kaladin the most so far are Dalinar and Shallan and they are connected.

Another example Shallan, connected to Elsecallers, Jasnah, Truthwatchers, Renarin, Stonewards, which I'll get to in a moment and as I said before Windrunners, again I would say Kaladin and Jasnah were the most influential characters for Shallan followed by Adolin, I'm assuming her and Renarin with get more closely involved in book 3. 

Next Dalinar, Bondsmiths, connected to Windrunners, Stonewards and Truthwatchers. Kaladin, Renarin and Stonewards. 

Jasnah in my opinion hasn't really been developed hugely thus far, she was dead most of WoR, the same with Lift we have only seen her in a few places so far. So while I have used them as connections to other characters I couldn't do one for them as they are largely connected to 'unknown' orders but I honestly don't think this is a flaw.

Renarin, Truthwatchers is connected to Bondsmiths, Dalinar, Lightweavers, Shallan and Edgedancers, Lift. This is my second assumption, Kaladin Lift being the first, that they will meet soon in book 3.

The major flaw in this is those two assumptions, I don't really have anything to go on for them and the Stonewards don't really fit at all, my theory is that Adolin will become a Stoneward. I am aware of the vinesword awakening theory that seems to be popular at the moment but honestly I can't see Adolin as an Edgedancer, this fills the gap with both Dalinar and Shallan as he majorly affects both characters and would be the only real character to fit, that we have seen so far.

Feel free to shoot holes in this, was just something I thought was interesting, maybe too much of a coincidence.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

Official. The chart itself is in the book (hardcover interior) The image with everything labeled is fan/community created, but accurate.

I like the idea that the lines between Orders imply some form of interaction/connection between their members. So far, the only "connection" to the lines that we have found is Windrunner and Lightweaver being far opposites and their spren not always getting along, but the same has been said about Windrunner and Skybreaker.

All in all, I like the theory and don't feel that I can properly comment without rereading the story again.

[Pagerunner he/him]

So, the image itself is fan-created, but the content is all accurate (unless there's a typo with Surge or Herald naming; I'm not looking too closely at the names right now.) It's an in-universe depiction, and there are cultural elements that aren't necessarily significant to the magic systems (like the infamous woman on chart in the back of the book, who is not intended to be anyone in particular).

It's definitely an interesting observation, but I think it's a bit of a stretch. It would mean that the individual characters and their stories were prophesied, something that, while possible in the cosmere, doesn't have the groundwork laid for it in this story IMO. Furthermore, Brandon has previously described the large symbols in the chart as "a concept or an ideal mixed with an essence, what they call the elements of this world..." so I'd view the connections as something between the Orders or the Essences/Attributes associated with them, not necessarily specific people.

All the connections you mentioned have also been reproduced on the other chart, in the back of the book. On both of these charts, the majority of the connections follow a simple pattern - connected to both adjacent Orders and the one opposite them. The only ones that are different are the Windruner/Edgedancer and Stoneward/Lightweaver; they also look slightly different on the other chart (in terms of the directions of the zigs and zags), but that may just be due to their placement. Uh... what was I saying again? Oh, right, if the connections refer to characters on one, then the other chart would have to be referring to the characters, as well. Which I don't think is likely.

[Treamayne]

I never viewed those lines through the middle as a connections between orders on opposite sides of the chart (e.g. Windrunners/Lightweavers). I always saw it more as all ten orders converge on the center of the chart. The connections between adjacent orders, always seemed to me because of the shared surge rather than any underlying character or order affiliation/animosity. The only connection lines that did not seem to have an immediate basic reason was Windrunners > Edgedancers and Lightweavers > Stonewards.

Interesting theory though (despite that version of the chart showing Dustbringers as Releasers <grin>). The flaw, to me, is in all these connections you make for characters, would imply that connections lines are missing. For instance, with your reasoning above, I would expect a connection between Dalinar and Jasnah, but there isn;t a line between Bondsmiths and Elsecallres.

[Rasarr she/her]

That's an interesting theory, but there is, I believe, a WoB that all of those are in-universe documents, so the chances that they show connections between several people in-universe are rather slim.

[The Sovereign]

Something I was thinking about during a recent Stormlight re-read: The Stonewards, Lightweavers, Windrunners, and Edgedancers may be the Radiant Orders who use Squires. This is loose speculation at best but we do know that the Windrunners have squires and I can't help but think that the Lightweavers would too as Shallan's soliders and slaves seem like they could be her proto-squires. If the Lightweavers do indeed have squires, then using their order's placement on the chart as reference, it isn't a huge leap to extrapolate that the parallel orders (Stonewards and Edgedancers) would also use squires.

As I said though, wild speculation.

[Sishal she/her]

3 hours ago, Iron Eyes said:

Something I was thinking about during a recent Stormlight re-read: The Stonewards, Lightweavers, Windrunners, and Edgedancers may be the Radiant Orders who use Squires. This is loose speculation at best but we do know that the Windrunners have squires and I can't help but think that the Lightweavers would too as Shallan's soliders and slaves seem like they could be her proto-squires. If the Lightweavers do indeed have squires, then using their order's placement on the chart as reference, it isn't a huge leap to extrapolate that the parallel orders (Stonewards and Edgedancers) would also use squires.

As I said though, wild speculation.

Didn't a WoB say that the squires are for the Windrunners, what the mnemonic abilities are for the Lightweavers? But I'm not 100% sure... I'll look it up. 

But if your theory is correct... well... I would love to see the squires Lift gathers around her

 

INTERVIEW: Jan 21st, 2015

Changing Hands, AZ

ZENBOSSANOVA

I said since Shallan has a unique ability of Memory from her blended surges, is fighting what Kaladin has?

BRANDON SANDERSON

No. His unique ability is “Strength of Squires”.

Found here: http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kwt='windrunners'

But who knows? Maybe we'll still see some other Orders with squires ^^

Edited October 25, 2016 by Sishal
Found the WoB :)

[BeskarKomrk he/him]

5 minutes ago, Sishal said:

Didn't a WoB say that the squires are for the Windrunners, what the mnemonic abilities are for the Lightweavers? But I'm not 100% sure... I'll look it up. 

But if your theory is correct... well... I would love to see the squires Lift gathers around her

Windrunners have more squires that are more powerful, and it's been suggested that other orders have them as well (though some do not).

WoB:

Quote

Argent

Shallan has this awesome Memory thing going on, Jasnah has this geolocation thing, Kaladin is a really good fighter - are those just their traits, or is there something supernatural going on?

Brandon Sanderson

There is something supernatural about those. Each Order... Well, how about this. If you look at scholars' interpretations, there are some scholars who think that these things are not supernatural, and some who think that they are. But, if you look, many Lightweavers had powerful mnemonic abilities.

Argent

So it's definitely tied to the Orders?

Brandon Sanderson

It's tied to the Orders. Now, I am not going to say that you've got them all 100% correct, but each Order, there are things that come with Order, things that do not add up from simple the "you get this power plus this power," there is something else going on. And I would say that for Windrunners, watch the number of squires and the power of the squires... these are abnormal for the Windrunners.

Argent

And each Order's squires are somehow different from the other Orders'?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeeeaaaa... some Orders do not have them.

Argent

But some have more?

Brandon Sanderson

Yea.

 

[Sishal she/her]

@BeskarKomrk Thanks for that, haven't seen that WoB yet. Gives me hope of seeing Lift with some squires

[Weltall]

On the 'who can have squires' thing, the Radiant in Dalinar's vision of the Purelake had them and was by all appearances a Dustbringer so I don't necessarily think we can use chart placement to figure that sort of thing out. That said, I'd bet on Edgedancers being one of the orders to have squires, especially if they're expected to act as combat medics owing to having Progression. And I'm sure it would be highly entertaining to see Lift's squires so I'm hoping that I'm right. *counts down the days until Arcanum Unbound releases*