What does Honor Mean by "you must unite them"

[Dangerous_Pants]

In Dalinar's vision when the Heralds refuse to return to Damnation, Honor tells them he must unite "them."  

Does he mean Roshar as a single unified nation, or does he mean the blades?

It seems the Honor has splintered his power into very significant chunks in those blades, similar to how Odium has his 10 unmade.  The Stormfather indicates their power is much more significant than just using the surges they convey to the wielder.  Odium can't/won't claim the Honor's power as not to corrupt himself.  As Tanavast is dead, but isn't that saying that Honor's power is free to be claimed if it could be put into one place?  

Tanavast somewhat preemptively shattered Honor before he died, but Odium doesn't seem to have shattered him quite like (or as thoroughly) is alluded he did to Ambition/Domination/Devotion.  Is it officially said anywhere that he shattered Honor, or just that he killed Tanavast? Those seem like very different things.  

If those 10 blades were united/combined, would they approximate to Sazed being able to pick up the shard like Ruin and Preservation were picked up by Sazed in the Mistborn Series?  Wouldn't that be exactly what Odium wouldn't want, someone else, capable and not yet molded into insanity by the Shard's intent, to wield the power of Honor against him (and perhaps in league with Cultivation, putting him at a huge power disadvantage).  It was stated in Oathbringer that Odium didn't destroy the Stormfather because he feared a strike from Cultivation.  That implies the balance of power is very close.   

Does Shinovar serve as a repository of those blades for him to ensure that nobody can achieve that unification?  If he can't destroy them, the next best thing is to keep them out of the game or at least significantly dislocated from one another?   

If I were honor, and I knew I was going to die (perhaps as a result of disbursing his power in the first place), wouldn't the best way forward be to ensure someone else could pick up the power?  Tanavast dying doesn't seem to be the problem, it's that there isn't another righteous heir to the Honor Shard to apply it's power against Odium.  It doesn't much seem like any planet of just people, however united, could stand against one of the 16 without their own shard.  

Edited December 13, 2017 by Dangerous_Pants

[Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper]

I always thought he was referring to Roshar, or maybe the Radiants, but I can definitely see that and I think it would be a very cool possibility. (Sorry if you wanted a definitive answer, I'm not good at those).

[Killik]

I like your theory, perhaps there is a way for the Honor Blades to be united into a single item.  I'm not sure what it would qualify as though, how much of Honors power was disbursed to the higher level spren?  Is it enough that even together, the 10 honor blades would only create a splinter of honor and not put the wielder on the level of Odium?

An alternative is that Honor is telling Dalinar that he must unite the Honor Blades with the Heralds, although I would expect he would tell him to re-unite them in this case....

As totallly_not_a_worldhopper said, another alternative is that Dalinar has got the right idea of it and he is supposed to unite the peoples of Roshar and/or the Radiants.

[Lantern2814]

I like your theory too. I hadn't thought of uniting the Honor Blades. I assumed he was talking about the Radiants while Dalinar has been trying to unite the peoples of Roshar (which isn't a bad idea anyway).

Uniting the Honor Blades with the Heralds seems like a really bad idea. They should only be for sane people!

[BurntRose]

[OB] whited out. This is my first post so being extra spoiler paranoid! 

I thought he was talking about the radiants as well, but after oathbreaker I'm wondering

Spoiler

if this is in relation to either the 3 realms to access the power of the perpendicularity, or the humans and the singers united against odium.

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[Everstorm Entropy]

I recently posted about this in another topic.  I'm convinced that "Unite them" takes on different meanings; Dalinar, as a Bondsmith will always seek to unite instead of divide, and that seems to continually change depending on circumstance.

In WoK, Dalinar thinks he needs to unite the High Princes, therefore uniting Alethkar.  In WoR, Dalinar tried to unite the Knights Radiant to fight the coming desolation.  In OB, Dalinar wants to unite the Monarchs (i.e. uniting Roshar) to fight the voidbringers.  By the end of OB, Dalinar unites the three realms to create a perpendicularity. 

For future books, "Unite Them" could mean the KR Orders, the Honor Blades, the Heralds... lots of things.  Personally, I believe that Dalinar will end up uniting Odium, Cultivation, and the Splinters of Honor into a single Shard, similar to how Sazed creates Harmony from Preservation and Ruin.  I think Dalinar's ultimate role is going to be reforging Adonalsium.

[+Wax]

Honor also tells Dalinar to read the book.  Dalinar asks if it is the in-book Way of Kings, but never gets an answer as the vision finishes.

[badgertri]

Great theory. I wondered towards the end of OB if it was about uniting humans and parshmen. I think it was a scene with Moash where he said something about having willing host bodies for the ancient ones. If parshmen were against Odium would it be more difficult to find willing hosts and for Odium to influence events? It wouldn't be a solution for destroying Odium but for decreasing his effectiveness. I think Venli bonding a "good" spren may be the beginning.

This supports Everstorm Entropy's thoughts on "uniting them" having many meanings and it might be about fighting the war on multiple fronts.