Necessary Eagle she/her Posted July 2, 2017 Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) I'm sorry if this is something of an incoherent mess, but I'm writing this half-asleep and I may not know what I'm saying. From what we've seen so far in SA, the budding Radiants have to figure out their oaths on their own. They reach a point in their development where they exemplify the spirit of the oaths, and then they suddenly know the right words to say. And they don't know that their spren can turn into swords. Wyndle says (or rather, dances around the topic not-saying) that bondspren are not allowed to mention the Shardblade thing before it happens. Since there's only a handful of proto-Knights scattered all around Roshar, and it's been thousands of years since the KR were a thing, they can't know anything in advance. But as you get more and more Radiants, sooner or later they're going run into someone else of their own order. And the Noobs Radient are going to ask their more experienced counterparts, "So how does this work, exactly?" The system is going to change, unless the bondspren have some objection to sharing the Words. Would the bondspren want the Words to stay secret? Would they object to their human partners telling the Noobs Radiant where Shardblades come from, or is it just against the rules for the spren to say it? Because if it's supposed to be all Top Secret Classified Keep Out That Means You, I can't see that working very well. It only takes one person to hear a KR talking to her sword and drawing a conclusion, or one Knight to have a Kaladin moment and find his Words while in public, and word will spread. Two possible conclusions about the Words: 1. The Words are instinctive when you reach a certain level, but nothing bad happens if you say them early. Nothing good happens either; the Words are just words until you grow into them. You can't just, say, bond a cultivationspren, read the Edgedancer oaths off of an index card, and boom, you're a full-blown Edgedancer. 2. It's the intent to fulfill your oaths that counts. You can read them off an index card and progress all at once if you sincerely mean to hold up your Order's Ideals. The KR 2.0 is doing things the slow way because they don't have anyone to tell them what the Ideals are until they level up themselves. Just to put that out there as a hypothetical possibility that I don't think fits with what we've seen; something in the back of my head that I don't have words for sees a way this makes sense, but that may be because of the aforementioned sleep-deprivation. I'll come back and see if still works when I'm not tired. Closemouthed Spren: Are bondspren mum about the swords because it's against their nature to give Radiant spoilers, or do they have a specific reason for keeping quiet? Also, do they forget the Ideals until their bond develops, or are they deliberately not telling those, either? Discuss. Edited July 2, 2017 by Necessary Eagle 2
Calderis he/him Posted July 2, 2017 Posted July 2, 2017 14 minutes ago, Necessary Eagle said: 1. The Words are instinctive when you reach a certain level, but nothing bad happens if you say them early. Nothing good happens either; the Words are just words until you grow into them. You can't just, say, bond a cultivationspren, read the Edgedancer oaths off of an index card, and boom, you're a full-blown Edgedancer. I'm pretty sure it's this one. The words must be said, but they are about the intent behind them. The words themselves will differ between Radiants. There's a WoB that states we will see the Windrunner Oaths from another person in a future book and the words will differ, but the meaning behind them will be the same. Because of this, I don't think just knowing what the Oath is is enough. It has to be internalized and truly integrated, not just understood, into their personality. So knowing what the Oaths are and speaking them by rote isn't enough. 26 minutes ago, Necessary Eagle said: Closemouthed Spren: Are bondspren mum about the swords because it's against their nature to give Radiant spoilers, or do they have a specific reason for keeping quiet? Also, do they forget the Ideals until their bond develops, or are they deliberately not telling those, either? Discuss. I think this is going to vary by spren type. Just my opinion though.
CJ Feboris Posted July 3, 2017 Posted July 3, 2017 Edgedancer spoilers Spoiler We see some of this in Edgedancer when Nalan is discussing with the proto-skybreakers (the ones who end up dying from the Aimian), he tells them that they need to level up, gives them a task to do so, but doesn't tell them the words to say. It could be that the senior radiants are the keepers of advancement or at least work in tandem with the bondspren to make it happen, this would fit with a militaristic structure of the windrunners and the skybreakers and their squires. But maybe it is also individual by order. There is an in book WoR quote that says someone was having a hard time with the lightweavers' oaths because he wanted them to be straightforward and they were truths instead. I'm with @Calderis on this. I think it is most likely #1.
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