[OB] Nale's abandoned mission

[11thorderknight]

So, the mystery of the Recreance has supposedly been revealed...and it's kind of a letdown. I mean, sure, the characters might be surprised that they're not native to Roshar (although they shouldn't be, their own religion talks about them being "cast out" of the Tranquiline Halls) but the readers definitely aren't. And on top of that, most of the characters greet the news with a pretty "meh" response. Sure, some of the Windrunner squires are talking it through, but none of the main characters seem to really care much. Certainly, none are running out to throw down their Blades. 

On top of that, the details of why humans fled to Roshar are still very unclear, as is the reason Nale thought that new surgebinders could bring about another Desolation. Am I missing something here, or is a big piece of the puzzle still missing?

[Heir of the Void]

20 minutes ago, 11thorderknight said:

And on top of that, most of the characters greet the news with a pretty "meh" response.

I honestly don't really get why people seem to expect a more dramatic response - almost every real country exists on land that was taken from someone else at some point if you go back far enough - recent cases like Turkey, Hungary, and the United States are just easier to point out. The vast majority of (real) people have no significant problem with this fact - certainly not enough of a problem to commit murder over - and I'm not sure why Roshar would be any different. 

25 minutes ago, 11thorderknight said:

So, the mystery of the Recreance has supposedly been revealed...and it's kind of a letdown.

Was it? I was under the impression that the Radiants were more perturbed by their God promising that they would destroy the world (again) with their Surgebinding than anything else, given that Radiants had apparently discovered the origins of man on multiple previous occasions without Recreance-ing. 

And besides, this is a Brandon Sanderson story. There's always another secret. We'll probably discover in book 4 or 5 that Odium was running some kind of psyop to get them to break their oaths, then in book 9 we'll find out that it was actually a false flag operation by Cultivation and blamed on Odium so he and Honor would weaken each other and allow her to take over. Or something. 

29 minutes ago, 11thorderknight said:

On top of that, the details of why humans fled to Roshar are still very unclear

I think it was something to the tune of "You maniacs, you blew it all up", but I could be wrong on that.
 

30 minutes ago, 11thorderknight said:

as is the reason Nale thought that new surgebinders could bring about another Desolation

We don't know; Mraize said in his letter explaining what happened to Shallan's brother that he didn't know. 

[Calderis]

The Recreance didn't happen just because they found out they weren't native. 

They also were led to believe they'd destroy the world. With the Shattered Plains as a mark of the destructive potential of their powers, and the lobotomization of a  entire race of people... Yeah, they probably started thinking they weren't the good guys they'd always been led to believe. 

[Mulk]

The Recreance also happened because according to the Stormfather, Honor was raving at that point, dying.  So, your deity is going nuts and telling you you're going to blow everything up, plus all the rest...yeah.  I think they thought they were preventing the destruction of Roshar.

[11thorderknight]

I agree with all the above posts - there's something about the Recreance that we still don't understand fully. My point is that, the way the info was revealed by Mr. T, it seems like he expects it to break the new Radiants; that's the part that's a little hard to grasp. 

Here's a thought - what if the Surgebinding that caused the cataclysm on Ashyn wasn't a direct result, but rather somehow empowered Odium to Desolate Ashyn and forced the humans to flee? Odium then followed then, and the singers thought he was their god? In other words - what if Nale has been correct somehow, all along?

[Doomdrinker]

10 hours ago, 11thorderknight said:

I agree with all the above posts - there's something about the Recreance that we still don't understand fully. My point is that, the way the info was revealed by Mr. T, it seems like he expects it to break the new Radiants; that's the part that's a little hard to grasp. 

I got the impression it was more meant to break dalinar in particular by making the  coalition fail, then Mr T would start his own coalition as the need for one is still very real 

[Everstorm Entropy]

I loved the reveal of the Recreance.  Honestly, I don't envy the burden of any writer that builds up a huge mystery and has to eventually give answers; no one will ever be satisfied when our own expectations start to get out of hand.

I found it to be a very powerful realization.  The Radiants found out that (a) They were effectively conquerers, NOT the defenders they considered themselves and (b) that the power of Surges is what destroyed their old world.  That places a LOT of questions on the oaths promised by the various orders.  For instance, the Windrunners promise to protect.  Are they really protecting if the ones they're fighting are trying to reclaim a stolen home?  Is it protecting when their own powers could be the cause of the world's destruction?

The Skybreakers have an easier time dealing with this, which explains why they were the only order to remain after the Recreance; swearing the 3rd ideal allows them to choose a specific code to follow, which effectively rids them of having to take a moral responsibility.

I think it's going to come into play more in the next book and we'll really see the implications of their growing Radiant powers and how destructive they could become as they continue to swear the ideals.