Does Nale Really Believe...

[DSC01 he/him]

...that the return of Radiants will bring a Desolation?

 

While we do not yet know enough of how the Desolations work to make very educated guesses, it seems pretty clear that the Radiants return with the Desolations as a reaction against them. I won't rule out the rise of Surgebinding drawing the Desolation, but it just seems so unlikely.

 

Nale has to know that the Desolation is coming and that slaughtering the only people equipped to stand against it is doing nothing to help. So what is he up to? Is it possible that he wants to make sure that Odium wins this time? Not because he is on Odium's side but because he is tired of it all. They abandoned the Oathpact to get away from the cycle of Desolation, torment, then rebirth into another Desolation, and yet another Desolation approaches.

[Swimmingly he/him]

I wonder if maybe Nale's making the old "correlation implies causation" error, having seen Surgebinders rise just before each Desolation in the past and extrapolating that to mean that they cause it.

[Moogle]

Nale has to know that the Desolation is coming and that slaughtering the only people equipped to stand against it is doing nothing to help.

 

This, I think, is giving the Radiants too much credit. Humanity survived when there was just ten Heralds, and quite frankly, there is no way the Heralds could have singlehandedly won each Desolation. Radiants didn't even help, to go by Kalak. Kalak remarks that the Desolation was the hardest one yet, and the enemy was growing "increasingly tenacious". That Desolation had the Radiants.

 

Normal men and regular arms and armor are very likely more than sufficient to deal with thunderclasts and Voidbringers. Or perhaps there's something to do with the Dawnshards, since Honor is sad those were lost.

 

Taravangian himself remarks that he doesn't have the power yet to deal with an ancient evil spren like Moelach. Heavy emphasis that he's going to have it eventually.

 

Humanity also has an "advantage" that pre-Radiant humanity didn't have: lots and lots of Shardblades and Shardplate. Not quite as useful as the Radiants, but a decent enough substitute I imagine. And they need it, particularly if there's not going to be any Heralds.

 

I suspect Radiants were more just for support and for helping after the Desolation was done. Taln remarks that the Radiants were formed, in part, to keep humanity from descending to the Stone Age each Desolation because they could retain knowledge. The abilities of the Radiants are not really focused on combat, except for Division. Cohesion is useful for shaping buildings out of stone, Soulcasting to feed people that had to be turned into a militia and so aren't farming, Elsecalling to reunite refugees, Illumination to help people not lose hope, Gravity to help with rebuilding big buildings, Regrowth to also grow food...

 

I'm also skeptical that the Radiants are necessary because the Diagram makes it clear that Taravangian may have to destroy them. The Diagram is intended to save humanity, and I sincerely doubt a supergenius-level Taravangian would kill off Roshar's only hope.

 

 

On a more on-topic note, Nalan is a Herald, with all the attendant knowledge. I trust in him not to make a basic error like "A->B, therefore B->A". If he was just... blatantly insane and wrong, he would be a poor excuse for a character, particularly since he seems quite rational (if terrifying and sociopathic) whenever he speaks. I am 60% confident that the Radiants do in fact have some relation to a Desolation coming. Nalan doesn't want there to be another Desolation, so I trust in him to make sure whatever he's doing will, in fact, stop Desolations from coming.

 

There is also the fact that one secret broke the Radiants and caused the Recreance. The only secret I can think of that would cause the Radiants to break their oaths is something as big as "oh, by the way, you guys are responsible for the Desolations".

Edited May 12, 2014 by Moogle

[FirstSelector]

It is worth noting that this upcoming Desolation is likely different than in the past due to the fact that there was only one Herald sent back to Damnation.  Now, we can only guess at what their true purpose and duties involve, but they appear to be holding Odium back in some way.

 

If the strength which Odium is able to fight the Heralds is proportional to the number of Knights, as a hypothetical, then Nale could make the argument that any additional stress on Talenel is dangerous.  In the past, there were ten Heralds guarding, and this wouldn't have been an issue until there were ten times as many Knights, and hopefully that would be enough make up for the Heralds folding early.

 

I think the exact details about the Desolations will be major plot points in future books.

[Monaco he/him]

This might just be a shot in dark but as Nalan is a SkyBreaker (THE skybreaker) his one big ideal is that no law should ever be broken, whether it be the law of that particular land or people. 

 

It is often mentioned that the Spren that come back to bond with the new radiants are breaking some form of law in the cognitive realm by doing so. Is this the reason then? Is he doling justice to the spren first and the 'law breakers' second?

[Shardmancer he/him]

@Moogle.. I like the theory that the Radiants caused the desolations.. Presumably unknowling and it was too late for them to stop it.. Something like that could of forced them to break there oaths... **intresting..**

[Apotheosis]

Is the Everstorm the Desolation, or is it only the beginning of one?

The Everstorm is a new thing made of older ideas, or something like that. It seems more like Desolations are started from the whims of Odium through his influence on the Parshendi.