[OB] How did Honor die!

[Korbin]

Okay guys I don't even know where to begin here but I'm curious. HOW DID HONOR DIE! Did Odium kill him? Did he go insane and simply leave instead of dieing. I'm not sure. Do they address this in the book?

[Mulk he/him]

Direct quote from Honor in one of the visions he gave Dalinar:

"Odium killed me."

So, we don't know the how yet, but Honor/Tanavast is dead, and everyone in position to know says so.  Part of the shard's power is merged with the Stormfather now the rest is splintered.

[Dangerous_Pants]

Not that it's anywhere referenced, but I think that was a deal Honor made with Odium to keep him on Roshar.  Odium is bound by his word to stay, reinforced with some amount of Honor's power, and in exchange Honor was weakened enough for Odium to kill him.  Tanavast died, but it does seem there was some intelligent divesting of his his power into splinters beforehand.  I think he planned to fight a losing battle as a result of binding Odium to Roshar and planned to eventually have someone else pick up the Honor Shard after putting it back together, so he split his power up into the Honorblades and other splinters like the Stormfather.  

[stormlore]

Honor isn't the only shard Odium has killed. He also shattered Dominion and Devation and killed Ambition.

[Leuthie]

Honor made recordings.  Honor empowered at least one spren with a Splinter.  There have to be more than that one.

Honor knew he was going to die.  I'm not sure even a Cognitive shadow of a Shareholder can Invest as much as Honor did into Stormfather to make those recordings, so his "Odium has killed me" statement was probably made before death (a good question to ask Brandon).

I contend that Honor sacrificed himself.  He gave a huge chunk of his power into Stormfather to bestow on Odium's future champion (another theory: Dalinar was chosen by the Stormfather because Odium had targeted him first, same reason Cultivation stepped in when Dalinar visited Nightwatcher).  This chunk of power has Intent of its own: Unity. 

Think of Honor with Unity when his followers are given the information that THEY are the actual Voidbringers.  It would be Honorable to keep the people that depend on him United, therefore, spinning such information would be within his Intent.

Think of Honor without Unity.  Is it Honorable to take up arms against those who are only fighting because YOU usurped their land, their power?  Neck no!  (Commence Honor as raving lunatic god who allows the Radiants to fall apart and eventually disband).

Honor sacrificed himself, probably with Cultivation's help (at the very least her precognition abilities).  He set the world up to defeat Odium by placing pieces of his power where they'd do the most good, weakening himself to the point where Odium (and whoever Odium is including in his "We") could kill him.

Also, we know Odium killed Tanavast by Honor's own words.  Do we have text or WOB that Odium Splintered Honor?

[Nymeros]

I'm more interested as to why he started losing his humanity at the end....

[Leuthie]

Does giving up pieces of himself in preparation for sacrifice not answer that, especially if a piece is large enough to cause one who picks it up to Ascend?

[Elerubard]

17 minutes ago, Nymeros said:

I'm more interested as to why he started losing his humanity at the end....

I think it was probably something closer to what Ruin did to Preservation as opposed to what we think happened to Devotion and Dominion. Notice how in Secret History Leras becomes more and more distant and confused as the novella goes on. Honor is a more active agent in his binding than Preservation was in his; to the point that one of the gemstone recordings, I think, note that Honor is having mental breakdowns. 

[Subvisual Haze]

7 minutes ago, Nymeros said:

I'm more interested as to why he started losing his humanity at the end....

The power of the shards can change your personality over time to be more like them.  Ati was apparently a kind and generous person, but holding the Ruin shard turned him into an angry crazy person after many millenia.  Tanavast also may have become more cold and rule-bound the longer he held the shard.

Also, Gods don't necessarily die all at once.  Tanavast probably got more confused and erratic as his mind slowly was destroyed.

[Nymeros]

So Tanavast likely sacrificed something that prevented him from being able to fight his Shards influence? Interesting. 

Do we know if his cognitive shadow merged with Stormfather after his death? Can you even function without  your cognitive shadow?

Edited December 14, 2017 by Nymeros

[twenty second of the sun]

On 12/14/2017 at 0:14 PM, Leuthie said:

Does giving up pieces of himself in preparation for sacrifice not answer that, especially if a piece is large enough to cause one who picks it up to Ascend?

Dalinar is confirmed to not have completely ascended to the point of shard yet, and Odium splinters the ones he kills to prevent what happened with Vin and preservation.

[Karger he/him]

I always thought that Honor used his power to hold back Odium via binding, his main ability.  My main question is what weakened him enough that Odium was able to shatter him exactly when he did.