Do Radiants HAVE to be broken?

[Eluvianii he/him]

Until now every Radiant that has appeared has had issues. Big issues. But now they are saying you have to be like that in order to becme one.

Now, people with problems are common, depression, guilt, loss, things like that aren't hard to find but I think almost every character in Stormlight has suffered more in three books than the average person will in a lifetime. The Radiants were a big force back in the day, big enough to command a war over the storming world so we can assume there were thousands of them.

So, if you really have to be broken to become a Radiant, either the requirements are not as high as they seem and you could become a Radiant after only feeling guilty for killing ants as a kid or something, in which case the protagonists are just those who have suffered the most, hence the more suitable for a good story and accomplishing big things, or simply Roshar is just a really, really harsh planet to live in.

[Nathrangking he/him]

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Adolin and his sword that wants to kind of wake up a little bit. Most of the Knights Radiant have some sort of break in their mind, mental <a little> problem. Where Adolin appears to be the person in Stormlight that's most comfortable with himself. Is that going to cause a problem, or is maybe the fact that he, at least in his mind, murdered Sadeas, going to help bring that to fruition or give us a way towards something like that?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Let's, first off, say I'm not going to repeat this one because it's super spoilery. So let's try to talk around the spoilers.

In the Stormlight Archive, there is a tradition among the Knights Radiant that certain traumas and/or psychological handicaps are effective in drawing the attention of a spren. I haven't actually said if that is true or if that's [just] a tradition of theirs. But there is a tradition among the Knights Radiant. that they have noticed something consistent.

Does it mean that you have to in order to be a Knight Radiant? Well, there is somebody that I would call extremely psychologically well-adjusted, that by the end of the third book is well on the way to Knighthood.

There is something going on there, they are noticing something true. But it might not be as exclusionary as they think it is.

Footnote: Brandon clarified this question in this exchange.
source

 

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

How was Shallan able to bond with Pattern before she was broken?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

She was open to him even before she went through a lot of that turmoil

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

I thought everybody had to be broken in order to--

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Well, that's their philosophy in-world. But I'm not going to say whether it's correct or wrong. I will imply that there are other means as well.

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[RShara she/her]

Being broken at some point seems to be the most common method of being able to attract a spren, but yeah, as @Nathrangking quoted, I don't think it's actually necessary.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

You need a hole in your spiritweb where the investiture can fit. The most common way is through breaking, but there seems to be other methods as well.

[Fanghur Rahl he/him]

7 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

Until now every Radiant that has appeared has had issues. Big issues. But now they are saying you have to be like that in order to becme one.

Now, people with problems are common, depression, guilt, loss, things like that aren't hard to find but I think almost every character in Stormlight has suffered more in three books than the average person will in a lifetime. The Radiants were a big force back in the day, big enough to command a war over the storming world so we can assume there were thousands of them.

So, if you really have to be broken to become a Radiant, either the requirements are not as high as they seem and you could become a Radiant after only feeling guilty for killing ants as a kid or something, in which case the protagonists are just those who have suffered the most, hence the more suitable for a good story and accomplishing big things, or simply Roshar is just a really, really harsh planet to live in.

Actually, not all of them. Lopen didn’t have any real ‘issues’ (unless you count how annoying he is). Or at the very least nothing even remotely as severe as all the others.

[Scion of the Mists]

2 hours ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

Actually, not all of them. Lopen didn’t have any real ‘issues’ (unless you count how annoying he is). Or at the very least nothing even remotely as severe as all the others.

I see what you did there...

[Fanghur Rahl he/him]

47 minutes ago, Scion of the Mists said:

I see what you did there...

Well I’m glad one of us did. lol. That was actually totally unintentional.

[Philomath she/her]

I don’t have ebooks so I can’t directly quote this on here but there is a really great quote from MB:SH where 

Spoiler

Kelsier is trying to warn Vin about Ruin and he starts to realize that he can communicate with crazy people. At first he says they are people who are broken. But then he says he can find people who are “broken” but don’t manifest it in any way so it is more like they are just “open” to him. 

Like I said. No direct quote but those words are for sure what he thinks and uses himself. I thought that seemed to transfer well to the situation on Roshar. Especially since Rosharans would 

Spoiler

Consider Kelsier a spren.

 

[Steeldancer he/him]

Yes you have to be broken. But life tends to break you, and you don’t need to be as broken as our main characters to be radiant.

[Eluvianii he/him]

So, he's keeping quiet what he can but has hinted that maybe, just maybe without confirming or denying it, people on Roshar will start to discover other ways to do it.

Great, now I'm even more curious and we're at least two years away from the answers.

[StanLemon]

I'm very much of the opinion that someone needs to be "broken" but I use quotations because I think the necessary stress is very subjective to the person and how well they handle the trauma or stress.