The History of Roshar

[Jace21 he/him]

Greetings Everyone!

I dont post very often and have only 1 theory to my name (about the unmade and dawnsingers) so you may not have seen me around.

I am trying to expand on that idea and solidify a theory of what happened in Roshar's earlier history and why.

Now since my last theory I have reread the Stormlight archive twice and the rest of the cosmere once to brush up on my realmatic knowledge. That said, despite having lurked here for years I still miss a lot of things and there are no doubt a lot of WoBs that I don't know.

With that in mind I want to try and create a kind of database of what we already know about Roshar's early History, both to see if there is anything I am missing and to provide a resource for others in their owm theory crafting as we prepare for Oathbringer.

Well here goes:

Pre-Honour/Cultivation

- Highstorms already exist

- Some spren (of Adonalsium) already existed

- As per the previous 2 points, the Stormfather / Rider of Storms already existed

- Parshendi already inhabit Roshar

- There were no humans on Roshar

- None of the "normal" species (horses, chickens etc) existed on Roshar

- Greatshells etc, already existed

- Humanity are native/ arrive

Post- Honour & Cultivation / Pre-Odium

- Honour & Cultivation Invest 

- The Heralds arrive/are created

Post-Odium / Pre - Aharietiam "Last Desolation"

- Spren "abandon" the listeners

- Voidbringers & Unmade are created/formed

- The desolations begin

- Some desolations are fought pre-KR

- Spren begin bonding with humans creating Surgebinders

- Knights Radiant are formed

- Urithiru was built

- The Oathgates were built

- Way of Kings was written

- Stormseat Destroyed

- After a desolation 9 Heralds abandon their duty and leave Taln alone to uphold the oathpact.

Post-Aharietiam "Last Desolation"

- The Recreance

- The Splintering of Honour

- Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow merges with the Stormfather

- The Hierocracy

- Oathgates Locked

- The Scouring of Aimia

- Words of Radiance is written

Unknown

- The Iriali arrive on Roshar

- The Shin arrive on Roshar

- The Oathpact is formed

- Soft-skinned animals are brought to Roshar

- Silver Kingdoms are founded

The above is in sections as you can see, but no particular order within those sections.

I have tried to innclude only things that have been either confirmed or heavily implied.

If there is anything that you think needs adding or if something needs to be moved to a different section please let me know, I think this sould be a useful resource. The Stormlight Archive more than any other Cosmere series seems to have a long history still intricately linked to the present story and lots of current theories.

Thanks!

Edited September 12, 2017 by Jace21

[FollowYourMuse she/her]

4 hours ago, Jace21 said:

The Heralds arrive/are created

- The Oathpact is formed

I would think that the Heralds and Oathpact are after Odium arrives not before?

 

The Stormfather betrays the Listeners -  I assume after Honor takes over or after  Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow merges with the Stormfather 

[Jace21 he/him]

We know the oathpact was not created to bind Odium, it's more of a side effect. I always assumed from this that the Oathpact was made pre-Odium amd he came and got caught in it after. I could be wrong though.

Good point, I'll add it in, I think it will have been once Honour arrived originally since the Stormfather merged with his cognitive shadow more recently.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

1 hour ago, Jace21 said:

We know the oathpact was not created to bind Odium, it's more of a side effect. I always assumed from this that the Oathpact was made pre-Odium amd he came and got caught in it after. I could be wrong though.

I don´t think the Oathpact necessarily has to be the thing that traps Odium. The Oathpact is the source of the Heralds powers, their return every Desolation, and probably the reason to why they have Honorblades. This was probably made in order to fight Odium and the Desolations. I think that something else is trapping Odium however.

[+Spicker]

11 hours ago, Jace21 said:

- After a desolation 9 Heralds abandon their duty and leave Taln alone to uphold the oathpact.

I just want to be clear because I have read conflicting information and it confuses me sometimes. This is the last desolation, correct? Atleast thats what they told everybody, right?

[Jace21 he/him]

I agree the Oathpact isn't directly responsible but there is WoB that says it has something to do with it if I remember correctly. Either way you're right, the pre-Odium nature of the Oathpact is an assumption on my part, I'll move it to unknown.

@Spicker It is a bit confusing. In book when they say the Last Desolation they are normally referring to Aharietiam, the desolation that had just ended in the prelude to WoK. This is when the Heralds said there would be no more Desolations.

The True Desolation is then the one that began when the Everstorm was summoned at the end of WoR. 

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Jace21

[Velvet Thunder he/him]

14 hours ago, Jace21 said:

I agree the Oathpact isn't directly responsible but there is WoB that says it has something to do with it if I remember correctly. Either way you're right, the pre-Odium nature of the Oathpact is an assumption on my part, I'll move it to unknown.

@Spicker It is a bit confusing. In book when they say the Last Desolation they are normally referring to Aharietiam, the desolation that had just ended in the prelude to WoK. This is when the Heralds said there would be no more Desolations.

The True Desolation is then the one that began when the Everstorm was summoned at the end of WoR. 

 

What niggles me is that the spren found a way to "copy" what Honor had done to create radiants. But by doing this, they give the radiant power and in return gain sentience in the physical realm. That suggests to me that Honor also gained something from the Oathpact. Maybe he didn't gain anything at all and its just an odd byproduct for spren as they just wanted to help, but it seems like they wanted to copy him because they also wanted some of what he gained?

[Calderis he/him]

3 hours ago, Velvet Thunder said:

What niggles me is that the spren found a way to "copy" what Honor had done to create radiants. But by doing this, they give the radiant power and in return gain sentience in the physical realm. That suggests to me that Honor also gained something from the Oathpact. Maybe he didn't gain anything at all and its just an odd byproduct for spren as they just wanted to help, but it seems like they wanted to copy him because they also wanted some of what he gained?

They didn't copy what Honor did in that aspect. They mimicked his creation, the Honorblades. 

[thejopen27 he/him]

My guess would be that all humans arrived in Shinovar and brought birds and horses and pigs with them (but no dogs). As they spread around the continent they changed and differentiated just like here on earth. The plants and animals from other worlds can only exist naturally in Shinnovar, protected by Cultivation. 

Why would the Heralds be formed before Odium arrived. The Oathpact has to due with Odium, the Heralds fight Odium. Why would they predate his arrival?

The Oathpact means that the Radiants get to be immortal and return to fight against Odium, but in return they have to be tortured by Odium and when one breaks Odium gets to start a new Desolation. The Oathpact specifically involves Odium.

Edited September 8, 2017 by thejopen27

[Jace21 he/him]

I doubt all the human arrived together, the Shin are consistently described as being physically different to the rest of Roshar. So are the Iriali for that matter. It strikes me as unlikely that these two groups arrived together, with the rest of the humans as well? Possible but I doubt it.

All we know about the Oathpact is that it was between the Heralds and Honour and is not directly responsible for binding Odium, though it is somewhat related. So the Oathpact actually does not involve Odium directly.

As for it being so the Heralds could fight Odium, we do not even know if the Heralds are originally from Roshar. We really have too little information to say that was the purpose of the Oathpact.

To the best of my knowledge your assumption thst the Oathpact is due to Odium is just that, an assumption. It always seemed more likely to me that the Heralds agreed to the Oathpact before they knew it would involve an endless cycle of pain, torture and death.

In my opinion the Oathpact was for some other reason, agreed between Honour and the Heralds which then had the side effect of binding Odium to he system once he arrived and keeping the Heralds trapped to the cycle of desolations.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

On 9/7/2017 at 1:49 AM, Jace21 said:

Pre-Honour/Cultivation

- There were no humans on Roshar

This is inaccurate. Humans predate all three Shards.

Quote

-Do humans predate the two shards' arrival on Roshar (I said two since Odium arrived later, he specifically mentioned all three)
Humans were on Roshar before Honor, Cultivation, and Odium arrived.

As for the rest, the only reason that I think the Heralds were born/hired after Odium arrived is because Kalak used the word "centuries" in the Prelude.

Quote

   "Jezrien?"

   The figure in white and blue glanced towards him. Even after all these centuries, Jezrien looked young, like a man barely into his thirtieth year. His short black hair was neatly trimmed, though his once-fine clothing was scorched and stained with blood.

That snippet always felt off. It seemed like too short of a time period. Even by my best estimates, the Desolations should've happened over the course of 3,150 years.

I stop qualifying something as "centuries ago" after 1,700 years. 3,000 years is well into where I would start saying "millennia(plural) ago."

Edited September 12, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Jace21 he/him]

15 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

This is inaccurate. Humans predate all three Shards.

Yeah I saw that WoB for the first time a few days ago, I need to move the humans arrival. It still bugs me, it's the first time I've ever heard a WoB that I thought made no sense. But we work with what we're given.

As to the rest maybe it was millenia to the Rosharans but maybe the Heralds only really live/age for their years on Roshar and not in Damnation?

Edited September 12, 2017 by Jace21

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 minute ago, Jace21 said:

Maybe the Heralds only really live/age for their years on Roshar and not in Damnation?

The Desolation that lasted 11 years was, in my opinion, written about as if it were not the norm. Even so, your idea would never reach "centuries."

We know that there are only 6,000 years between the Shattering of Adonalsium and the Heralds abandoning the Oathpact.[2] Odium has to do several things before arriving on Roshar(Ambition, Sel). Humanity needs time to recover between Desolations. There's hardly enough spare years for one century-worth of Desolation, much less "all these centuries."

I might accept some form of disconnect from reality(not like they'd really be keeping track of the years while being tortured in he||.) Not sure that could account for the large discrepancy between where I use centuries and when I use millennia, but that's how I use them. Brandon may have a different opinion on term usages.

[Jace21 he/him]

Looking at it you're right, the time doesn't add up. I'd never really paid much attention to the "all these centuries" comment from Kalak before. 

I personally would use "all these years" instead of "decades" and not think much of it, so it is possible that Kalak just uses the 2 synonymously.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Jace21