[OB] Sons of Honor

[Wit Beyond Measure she/her]

From Mraize's letter, we know:

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There are at least two major institutions on Roshar, other than ourselves, which presaged the return of the Voidbringers and the Desolations, the letter read.

You are familiar with the first of these, the men who call themselves the Sons of Honor. The old king of Alethkar—the Blackthorn’s brother, Gavilar Kholin—was a driving force in their expansion. He brought Meridas Amaram into their fold.

As you no doubt discovered upon infiltrating Amaram’s mansion in the warcamps, the Sons of Honor explicitly worked for the return of the Desolations. They believed that only the Voidbringers would cause the Heralds to show themselves—and they believed that a Desolation would restore both the Knights Radiant and the classical strength of the Vorin church. King Gavilar’s efforts to rekindle the Desolations are likely the true reason he was assassinated.

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 421). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

And then back in the prologue of Oathbringer, we have:

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King Gavilar himself stood pointing at something on a table, surrounded by five others: two officers, two women in long dresses, and one old man in robes.

Why wasn’t Gavilar at the feast? Why weren’t there guards at the door? Eshonai attuned Anxiety and pulled back, but not before one of the women prodded Gavilar and pointed toward Eshonai.

...

“Thank you, Meridas,” Gavilar said. “Leave us for a moment, all of you.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 22). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

So, the prologue meeting that Eshonai stumbles into appears to be a Sons of Honor meeting between Gavilar and Amaram and four others (one soldier, two fine ladies, and one old man in robes), where no guards were even at the door, presumably because they wanted a very secretive meeting where even guards were not allowed to listen in. 

My question is, who are the four others?

Restares, perhaps Taravangian

The old man in robes appears to be Restares.  Amaram writes in a spanreed to Restares (WoR Page 1059), saying, "It has ever been our burden as the Sons of Honor."  Amaram had also presumably consulted with Restares via spanreed when deciding slaughter his own men so that he could steal Kal's Shardblade:  "Restares is right— this is what must be done. For the good of Alethkar.” (WoK, Page 703)

Restares is only mentioned in three places over all three books:  as one of three of Gavilar's suspects during his assassination (WoK prologue), when Amaram slaughters Kal's men (WoK), and when Amaram writes to Restares via spanreed (WoR).  The Stormlight Archive Wiki states that Restares is an Alethi brightlord, but I'm not sure that we know this even though Amaram implies that Restares said the theft of the Shardblade was for the good of Alethkar.  We never hear anything of Restares at all, which knowing Sanderson makes me suspect that Restares is a fake name given how often he gives other names to characters - Heralds like Darkness, Ash, Ahu, and Tezim or the five Scholars - to obfuscate their true identities.  I wonder if Restares is not in fact Taravangian or some other old dude we know well.

In Oathbringer (Page 242), Dalinar tells us that he had met Mr. T before "his strange illness five years ago."  

And then the strongest evidence that Taravangian is Restares and a Son of Honor is this quote from WoR:

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It had worked. Just as the Diagram instructed, Taravangian was king of Jah Keved. He had taken the first major step toward unifying the world, as Gavilar had insisted would need to happen if they were to survive.

That was, at least, what the visions had proclaimed. Visions Gavilar had confided in him six years ago, the night of the Alethi king’s death. Gavilar had seen visions of the Almighty, who was also now dead, and of a coming storm.

Unite them.

“I am doing my best, Gavilar,” Taravangian whispered. “I am sorry that I need to kill your brother.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (pp. 916-920). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

After Gavilar's death and access to the visions ended, Mr. T seeks the Nightwatcher, asking that he be the one to unite them, which led to the Diagram.  I will leave all discussion of the Diagram to other wonderful threads, though it does seem that followers of the Diagram and Sons of Honor diverge a bit.  However, keeping his position in the Sons of Honor (if he is Restares) would be a brilliant way to keep the information flowing from surviving allies there.

Torol and Ialai Sadeas

Torol Sadeas is undeniably close to Gavilar, willing to sacrifice his life for Gavilar's own during the assassination attempt and always 100% loyal to Gavilar despite the fact that, following Gavilar's death, he's tried his best to undermine and even kill Dalinar at every possible step.  Why the difference?  Apparently, Torol was privy to secrets about Gavilar's true, ruthless and Machiavellian nature - secrets of which Dalinar and Elohkar and even Jasnah apparently had no inkling.  How is that possible?  What secrets did he know?  And wouldn't we peg Torol as Gavilar's closest and most trusted companion outside of family?  Didn't Torol do all of the politicking with Gavilar when Dalinar refused?  So to me, it makes enormous sense that Torol was a Son of Honor, sharing the same ruthlessness and Machiavellian approaches as Gavilar and Taravangian and Amaram. 

In fact, Meridas was likely recruited by Torol, as was Ialai.  Just like House of Cards, Torol and Ialai are playing this game together, 100%.  So my thoughts are that Torol actually dressed in his soldier attire for the signing of the treaty with the Parshendi (hence he and Amaram make the two soldiers), and Ialai is one of the two women in long dresses.  So the other woman could be...

Aesudan

We see Gavilar pushing Jasnah into Amaram's arms.  Obviously, Gavilar wants to keep the Sons in the family.  And Aesudan tells El in OB that his father was ever so much better than he was:

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“Oh, Elhokar,” the queen was saying. “You were ever so oblivious. Your father had grand plans, but you … all you ever wanted to do was sit in his shadow. It was for the best that you went off to play war.”

“So you could stay here and … and do this?” Elhokar said, waving toward the palace.

“I continued your father’s work! I found the secret, Elhokar. Spren, ancient spren. You can bond with them!”

“Bond…” Elhokar’s mouth worked, as if he couldn’t understand the very word he spoke.

“Have you seen my Radiants?” Aesudan asked. She grinned. “The Queen’s Guard? I’ve done what your father could not. Oh, he found one of the ancient spren, but he could never discover how to bond it. But I, I have solved the riddle.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 813). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

Aesudan knows of one (but perhaps not the other) of Gavilar's spheres, and she seems to have continued trapping more bad spren, going even a step further by bonding.  But how was she privy to Gavilar's grand plans?  How did she know of his father's work and his ancient (evil) spren?  I'm thinking that was because she was one of the lady Sons.

Yet again, we see the same ruthless, Machiavellian nature in Aesudan as we do in Gavilar, Amaram, Torol, Ialai, and Taravangian.  They all fit beautifully together.

Edited December 25, 2017 by Wit Beyond Measure

[Calderis he/him]

As far as the two women I have no idea. 

The two soldiers were, in my opinion, Amaram and Restares. The old man in robes was Taravangian, as that is how he's always been attired. 

Taravangian was introduced to many of the ideas of the Sons of Honor, and much of this is what drive him to seek the Nightwatcher. Whether he was a member, or was being introduced and invited is unclear, but at least once the Diagram was written, he considered them to be fools. 

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Obviously they are fools The Desolation needs no usher It can and will sit where it wishes and the signs are obvious that the spren anticipate it doing so soon The Ancient of Stones must finally begin to crack It is a wonder that upon his will rested the prosperity and peace of a world for over four millennia

That section of the Diagram is referring to the Sons of Honor as fools for attempting to bring about a desolation in the first place. 

[Darvys]

The only thing that confuses me about Gavilar is how nonchalent he was when offering the sphere to Eshonai, it just made no sense from our perspective, there must be something we're missing which we'd likely get from his pov in a coming prologue.

Before reading that i always assumed that he was smart enough to use the other fanatical morons in the organisation to carefuly plan and kickstart a containable crisis (the parshendi rampage with new forms of power) which he would use to forcefuly unite part of Roshar in preparation for the impending desolation.

He had the visions so he knew it was coming regardless of what they did, this leads me to believe that the rest of the Sons (the ones the Diagram would be refering to) were unaware of the real gambit and the extent of his knowledge.

Can't wait to know more about the guy, still have hope for him having had a ruthlessly effective plan before Szeth happened.

[digitalbusker he/him]

10 hours ago, Wit Beyond Measure said:

Yet again, we see the same ruthless, Machiavellian nature in Aesudan as we do in Gavilar, Amaram, Torol, Ialai, and Taravangian.  They all fit beautifully together.

I'm with you on everybody except Torol Sadeas. We have too many PoVs from him where he doesn't take the possibility of an oncoming Desolation seriously.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

I doubt that Torol or Ialai were involved. Remember: the Sons of Honor are deeply religious. Amaram and Gavilar are known to be devout Vorin followers. Aesudan worried a lot about the Almighty before her fateful encounter with Yelig-Nar. Restares is presumed by many to be an official within the Vorin Church (there is an interesting theory about Aesudan being his daughter). The Sadeases aren't religious at all. Mraize also doubts that they are part of a secret society, and he seems to know the Sons of Honor quite well. 

Personally, I think the last woman could be a Herald in disguise. Vedel and Chana are uncounted for. 

[.S.A.M.K.M]

I bet he sons of honor have amassed a lot of lore and relics, that they don't realise the true value of. If they don't realise what they have, it could mean odium not realizing what they have. If they are part of the Vorin church, I bet they have a stash of material that escaped the huge purge and edit of history.

[Diomedes]

On 25.12.2017 at 7:17 PM, Wit Beyond Measure said:

Yet again, we see the same ruthless, Machiavellian nature in Aesudan as we do in Gavilar, Amaram, Torol, Ialai, and Taravangian.  They all fit beautifully together.

There is some strong evidence pointing towards Gavilar`s machiavellian nature changing in the last few years of his life. He began reading the Way of Kings, Sadeas said he was getting "weak", Jasnah reconnected to her father in these last years.

He started to get visions. I think the Stormfather bestowes them according to Honor`s instructions only to those, who are somewhat worthy of them. 

This is probably the reason why Gavilar thought Restares, a fellow Son of Honor, intended to murder him. He was deviating from the true path of the Sons of Honor. He couldn`t do what "needed to be done". Maybe there was an argument between Restares and Gavilar prior to that fateful night?

My guess on the identity of Restares is him being in some high up position of the Vorin church. Their religiosity is what ties Gavilar, Amaram and Aesuadan together and them wanting to restore the classical strength of the church. It only makes sense if a powerful Ardent would be involved in their group, maybe even leading them after Gavilar died.

It is very likely that Restares will be a major villain in the next books. Maybe he will use the power of the vorin church to scheme with Ialai Sadeas against House Kholin. Dalinar`s hereticism already enraged the Ardentia aganist him. They will only need a little push... 

         

Edited May 17, 2018 by Diomedes

[Lightspine]

4 hours ago, Diomedes said:

There is some strong evidence pointing towards Gavilar`s machiavellian nature changing in the last few years of his life. He began reading the Way of Kings, Sadeas said he was getting "weak", Jasnah reconnected to her father in these last years.

It does seem so, huh? But what about what he was saying to Eshonai the night of his murder? He was fairly machivellian there.

Not to say i disagree with your other evidence though, I think he was having doubts but was still committed.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Lightspine

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Restares is the oe of the reasons as to why I wish Amaram was still alive. I was picturing the Sons of Honor as antagonistic Vorin crusaders. I wonder how Restares can fit into the coming books though. Either he would be an antagonist attemoting to take Dalinars spot as the defender of Roshar, or he’ll join forces with him, for the good of Roshar. 

[Angsos]

The high king or whatever Dalinar's title is a heretic and the Queen of the Alethi is a heretic, I kinda doubt the church is going to forgive that.