[OB] The Recreance: Everything We Know

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

There are a lot of events that happen in quick succession in the time leading up to the Recreance. This thread will hopefully clarify what happened and add some speculation on what exactly happened. 

Abandonment of Urithiru

From the Part 3 epigraphs, we know that the Radiants were forced to abandon Urithiru because the Sibling receded. Not much is known about the Sibling or why he withdrew, but he is somehow linked to the function of the tower. 

Based on the epigraphs, this occurs sometime during the False Desolation. They speak of imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram to end the fighting. 

Honor's Declining Health 

During this time, Honor was dying and going a little bit insane. Rather than being supportive of the Knights when they learned the truth about their origins, he was raving about how they were going to destroy Roshar. He cared less about the people and more about simply keeping oaths, no matter what the oath is. His death didn't fully occur until after the Recreance, but he clearly wasn't well.

Imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram

I find this to be the most interesting point timeline wise. The Radiants at Feverstone Keep were fighting on the front lines before abandoning their oaths. However, the keep itself is not directly on the front lines. When the Unkade was imprisoned, the singers had their Connection and Identity ripped out of them, turning into the modern parshmen we know. This almost certainly would have ended the fighting. 

I believe the most likely scenario is that the mission succeeded, which acted as the final straw for the Recreance. The men at the keep would not have had any way of getting this information. However, there is an epigraph in WoR indicating that there was still fighting when the Knights abandoned their oaths. 

Quote

"This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at the time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal; and after they withdrew, about two thousand made assault upon them, destroying much of the membership; but this was only nine of the ten, as one said they would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine."

There are three explanations I can think of for this. 

1. The in-world book is wrong. After so many years, the author became misinformed about when the fighting ended. 
2. The fighters were not singers. We know there were humans on both sides of the war, so the fighting could have simply been between humans. 
3. The imprisonment happened after the Day of Recreance. This means some Radiants would have had to break their oaths later than others, as it requires Melishi, a Bondsmith, was necessary for the imprisonment. 

What We Don't Know

There is one group of people whose view of the Recreance we do not know: the spren who died. The other spren are very angry at humans for what heppened, but they were all children at the time. I find it unlikely they would know all the details of what happened to their parents. The main source of information on what happened, the Stormfather, admitted his memories from this time are fuzzy. I don't think our view of what the spren believed is entirely accurate.