Theory on Unlocking the Other Oathgates.

[earthboundsyndicate]

You have to have a Radiant activate the portal from both sides, kind of short,I know, but there really isn't much to elaborate on.

 

 

 

If anyone else has any ideas, post a reply!

[Wrath]

Wasn't it implied that the others were broken at present? I'm expecting Navani to figure out how to repair them.

[Patrick Star]

Wasn't it implied that the others were broken at present? I'm expecting Navani to figure out how to repair them.

 

I thought that they were locked.  In the Lhan interlude, he mentions some sort of grate being present right where the sprenblade (that's what I'm going to call living shardblades) would have to go.

 

Last I checked, there were 10 different oathgates.  I'm guessing that each gate needs a radiant of a certain order, or more specifically a certain type of spren, to use it in order to unlock it. 

 

The reason that the stormseat gate was the only one unlocked is that it was the bondsmith-gate, and would not have been locked because the bondsmiths were shardless.  Locking it would have left no way to open it.

 

I'm hoping that the Kholinar gate requires a Windrunner to open 

 

That's my opinion, anyways.

[GreyPilgrim]

It has been heavily implied that the others are locked at present. However, I guess this will not remain the case.

[Ren]

It doesn't matter what order the KR in is, he just have to have a living Shardblade. Currently, Kaladin, Shallan and Jasnah are the ones we know that have progressed their Nahel bond far enough to have their own Shardblade. Also, you don't need to have KR at both sides, you just have to pour Stormlight into the spheres, since the Oathgates are mega-fabrials.

[Shardbearer]

It doesn't matter what order the KR in is, he just have to have a living Shardblade. Currently, Kaladin, Shallan and Jasnah are the ones we know that have progressed their Nahel bond far enough to have their own Shardblade. Also, you don't need to have KR at both sides, you just have to pour Stormlight into the spheres, since the Oathgates are mega-fabrials.

 

That only worked for the Gate in the Shattered Plains. They mentioned trying the same thing with the others and it didn't work.

[Ren]

That only worked for the Gate in the Shattered Plains. They mentioned trying the same thing with the others and it didn't work.

Yes, they are locked/blocked in some way or broken intentionally like a broken Soulcaster.

[Terra of Roshar]

I've been assuming that they just had to open them from the other side (the non-Urithiru side). Because they opened the one on the Shattered Plains from that side, but they've been trying all the others from Urithiru. Though this is probably too simplistic to be the actual reason. 

[Argent]

... sprenblade (that's what I'm going to call living shardblades)...

 

 

Ha! Little did you know that I already coined the term!

[earthboundsyndicate]

I thought that they were locked.  In the Lhan interlude, he mentions some sort of grate being present right where the sprenblade (that's what I'm going to call living shardblades) would have to go.

 

Last I checked, there were 10 different oathgates.  I'm guessing that each gate needs a radiant of a certain order, or more specifically a certain type of spren, to use it in order to unlock it. 

 

The reason that the stormseat gate was the only one unlocked is that it was the bondsmith-gate, and would not have been locked because the bondsmiths were shardless.  Locking it would have left no way to open it.

 

I'm hoping that the Kholinar gate requires a Windrunner to open 

 

That's my opinion, anyways.

 

The gates have grates on them, yes, but if you have a sprenblade, shouldn't you be able to cut through it?

 

[FirstSelector]

How about this?  Brother Lhan mentions "ten lamps on the walls, one for each of the ancient Epoch Kingdoms.  An eleventh lamp represented the Tranqulline Halls, and ..."  Shallan, on the other hand, sees only ten lamps.

 

I posit that the "lock" is the extra lamp.

[Kasimir]

FirstSelector, on 19 Apr 2014 - 2:49 PM, said:

How about this? Brother Lhan mentions "ten lamps on the walls, one for each of the ancient Epoch Kingdoms. An eleventh lamp represented the Tranqulline Halls, and ..." Shallan, on the other hand, sees only ten lamps.

I posit that the "lock" is the extra lamp.

But there's an extra grate too, no? So the extra grate and the eleventh lamp are possibly related?

[Patrick Star]

But there's an extra grate too, no? So the extra grate and the eleventh lamp are possibly related?

 

It's almost certainly a locking (or something like that) fabrial that keeps the oathgate from working.  I'd say that the grate is a normal grate, and the lamp is strengthening it.

 

I bet that the people who locked it were all like "Yo dawg, I heard you liked fabrials.  So I put a fabrial inside of a fabrial in order to keep the fabrial inoperational."

[Kasimir]

Patrick Star, on 19 Apr 2014 - 9:48 PM, said:

It's almost certainly a locking (or something like that) fabrial that keeps the oathgate from working. I'd say that the grate is a normal grate, and the lamp is strengthening it.

I bet that the people who locked it were all like "Yo dawg, I heard you liked fabrials. So I put a fabrial inside of a fabrial in order to keep the fabrial inoperational."

You're welcome.

And my guess is that the grate is probably made of the same material used in the lock--it resists the cut of a Shardblade. While we can probably surmise that material is distinct from that used to create Shardplate, the interesting question might be whether it is the same material used in the creation of half-shards.

[Patrick Star]

You're welcome.

And my guess is that the grate is probably made of the same material used in the lock--it resists the cut of a Shardblade. While we can probably surmise that material is distinct from that used to create Shardplate, the interesting question might be whether it is the same material used in the creation of half-shards.

 

Love the meme!

 

I think that your half-shard connection is very feasible.

 

Half-shards are made by inserting a fabrial into an otherwise-ordinary object in order to strengthen it.

 

Even if the Rosharian scholars didn't know how the oathgates worked (or what they were), they likely noticed that shardblades couldn't cut through the grates, which would facilitate the creation of half-shards.

 

There's a good possibility that the half-shard fabrial is simply a mimicry of the oathgate locking fabrial.

[hoser]

It may be helpful to consider the nature of the Oathgates.  We are given a few hints. 

• The Oathgate lock is impervious to Shardblades (even Shardplate is not impervious to Shardblades, but Shardblades are impervious to Shardblades)
• Shallan posits that the Oathgate lock is the same stuff as Shardblades (Shardblades are splinter-spren)
• Only livespren Shardblades work in the Oathgate lock.
• When Jasnah Elsecalls to where Wit is, it is described as: "The air in front of him blurred, as if heated in a ring near the ground.  A streak of light spun around the ring, forming a wall five or six feet high.  It faded immediately - really, it was just an afterimage, as if something glowing had spun in the circle very quickly."  Syl also engages in circling behavior sometimes when Kaladin fights. 
• When Kaladin travels to Urithiru through the Oathgate, there is a similar description of a glowing ring. 
• Jasnah considers the gates to be locked  (I assume that Jasnah has tried using Ivory in livespren-blade form in the remaining Oathgates).

Speculation:

• The glowing ring is a spren circumnavigating the space being transferred. 
• The Oathgate lock is a live spren, possibly related to Jasnah's oilspren or the Willshaper spren (maybe a non-sentient cousin, like windspren are non-sentient cousins to honorspren). 
• The Oathgate spren either transfers the space as Jasnah's spren transfers her or it allows the splinter-spren to transfer the space (If only we could get Syl or Pattern's description of the process).  

Application to locking:

The existing lock has a key that more or less requires a Radiant with a splinter-spren already.  No merely physical barrier could stop Jasnah, as pointed out in other posts.  Two possibilities occur to me (there must be other possibilities that more creative minds will consider): 

1. Another spren is used to lock the Oathgate.
2. The Oathgate lock spren is removed.

If another spren is used to lock the Oathgate, it must have an even more exacting unlocking mechanism.  What could that be?  A Bondsmith?  An Honorblade?  A Dawnshard (the default answer for any mystery)?

 

If the Oathgate lock spren is removed, then another must be enlisted somehow.  I can't wait to hear from Ivory. 

 

Wild speculation:

• There are many unexplained lines in the Surgebinding chart linking the orders.  Some of those lines link adjacent orders.  What if creating an Oathgate is something that only a Willshaper and an Elsecaller (the two orders that can travel) can do?  In this case, it may take Jasnah and a Willshaper to fix the remaining Oathgates. 
• Could a Truthseer tell us what it would take to unlock the remaining Oathgates?

 

These are really just speculations to stir further speculation that may puzzle out this mystery.  Have at it!

Edited April 19, 2014 by hoser

[PorridgeBrick]

There is also another interesting case of a material Shardblades don't cut. The sheaths used in the training grounds on the Shardblades are brittle and easily breakable normally iirc, but the Shardblades don't cut them. Now, since this can break normally, it's obviously not the same material as Shardblades. It also doesn't scream, nor does the Oathgate. I think that neither of these are spren, then– that, or they're lesser spren like windspren, creationspren, etc.

[Tempus]

I want to bring up the point that the gate was first activated in the middle of a gigantic highstorm. If the gates need a massive amount of stormlight to first boot up and unlock, it could be difficult to open them unless you do so during the middle of a highstorm where stormlight is in abundance.

[Argent]

One of the questions we should be asking is why Stormseat's Oathgate was left functional when all the others were locked. Could we, maybe, link the Heralds and/or the Orders to the capital cities of the Silver Kingdoms, and by extension - to their Oathgates? I am thinking, what if the 9 Heralds who survived Aharietiam went and locked "their" Oathgates? This would leave Talenel's Gate open, because he was not around to lock it. This mini-theory could even work, if we can link Stormseat to Talenelat'Elin, the Ancient of Stones, somehow... and we kind of can. Stormseat was the capital of the Silver Kingdom Natanatan, which according to the Coppermind, was known as the Granite Kingdom. Some of Taln's titles include Ancient of Stones, Herald of War, Stonesinew, and Herald patron of the Order of the Stonewards - it's easy to link him to granite, then to the Granite Kingdom, then to Stormseat. 

 

Alternatively, maybe it wasn't the Heralds who locked the Oathgates, maybe it was the Radiants. We know that one Order performed some great subterfuge at the expense of the others, and the unlocking / refusal to lock the Stormseat Oathgate could be a part of it. 

 

I like the Heralds version better, but the Radiants had a much closer relationship with the spren, and the Oathgates feel like something the Orders would've built (they require a Sprenblade to unlock, they work like a fabrial - which in modern age are powered by spren), so I don't know...

[Tempus]

This mini-theory could even work, if we can link Stormseat to Talenelat'Elin, the Ancient of Stones, somehow... and we kind of can. Stormseat was the capital of the Silver Kingdom Natanatan, which according to the Coppermind, was known as the Granite Kingdom. Some of Taln's titles include Ancient of Stones, Herald of War, Stonesinew, and Herald patron of the Order of the Stonewards - it's easy to link him to granite, then to the Granite Kingdom, then to Stormseat. 

 

Alternatively, maybe it wasn't the Heralds who locked the Oathgates, maybe it was the Radiants. We know that one Order performed some great subterfuge at the expense of the others, and the unlocking / refusal to lock the Stormseat Oathgate could be a part of it. 

 

Brilliant. That said, there is another option. All the active gates could have been locked. The Shattered Plains was shattered on purpose, after all - it's very possible that it was uninhabited at the time of the Oathgate locking due to the fact that the city had been smashed to smithereens. The gate was not locked because no one thought to travel there and lock it.

[hoser]

Great possibilities!  I even have another one.

 

I have this completely unsupported idea that the Radiants had a plan when they disbanded.  That there was a reason they left the Shardplate and Shardblades to be abused.  That they made provision for the Dawnchant and Way of Kings to be preserved at Vanrial.  Conceivably they wanted to leave a way to get to Urithiru and the Oathgate at Stormseat was more obscure than some of the others, so they deliberately left it unlocked. 

 

I am very curious about the Oathgate in Shinovar.  Szeth knew about Urithiru and I don't know whether Jasnah or Shallan tested going to or from Shinovar. 

 

Shinovar is supposedly the next place to get hit, so I wonder whether anyone will try to get there to help. 

 

The other thing I am very curious about is what happens when one puts an Honorblade in the Oathgate lock for both the locked and unlocked gates. 

[WitSpren]

I think that the Honorblade would work - but that is only a guess, as we have nothing real to go on yet.

 

 

On the "locking" the Oathgates, that could have been accomplished by the assorted cities building on the platform, structures that are too big to transport, unless you have astronomical ammounts of Stormlight.

 

Kholinar has the palace ++   built on the platform.     It would take a Lot to move that - I'm sure.

[potato]

Argent, I put forth the same Heralds-Oathgates theory here http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/7595-dawncities-linked-to-specific-heralds/ . It feels good to have someone as cosmere-knowledgeable as you independently speculate on (part of) it. I was convinced by others that the timeframe doesn't work out with the Recreance (unless the Heralds only hid as KR versus disappearing completely following the last Desolation.)

I am still utterly convinced that the Honorblades are the keys to the Oathgates.

[Argent]

It's possible that the Heralds had no part in the Recreance, but instead showed up after it and only then did they lock the gates. 

[Aether]

@Hoser: Nothing indicates that the fabrial part of the Oathgate is impervious to Shardblades. Renarin only lightly scratched at it, so we can only really know that it is resistant to it.