Death Rattles: Why?

[Patrick Star]

So, we know that the Unmade are odious sprenlike ancients that hate humanity, cause the thrill and create death rattles.  I have a specific question about the death rattles.

 

Moelach, one of the unmade, causes the death rattles.  Dying humans are given valuable snippets of information that they blurt out right before flatlining.  Why is he doing this?

 

Tarivangian's plan to save the world relies on the information that Moelach is feeding him through these deaths, so why would Moelach help him?  If the unmade really hate humanity, then why are they supplying the information necessary to save it?

 

Is Moelach forced to?  Is he feeding humans false and/or meaningless information?  If not, will he?  If they are always true, then why?

 

Perhaps they are meaningless (true, but don't really help humanity) in order to spur Tarivangian to kill more people?

 

What do you guys think?

 

Note: I am trying to analyze the premise of death rattles, not specific ones.

[Aleksiel]

There was a corrupted spren in one of Dalinar visions and Unmade can be bonded, so Moelach could be an old Truthwatchers' spren gone bad. It doesn't control its own actions and now gives glimpses of the future to anyone around it, but instead of stormlight, it fuels its power with the energy (?) of a dying soul. Thus, Moelach isn't in control of its actions, and the glimpses are genuine.

[Kobold King he/him]

I suspect that he's bound somehow, like the Stormfather is. He doesn't have a choice.

 

Maybe the Death Rattles ultimately benefit Odium's forces more than they benefit the KR. Is there a voidform with a connection to Moelach?

Edited May 17, 2014 by Kobold King

[Moogle]

Taravangian was fully aware of how Moelach's powers worked, and the Diagram does not warn away from using the Death Rattles, so I think we can take it as very likely that the Death Rattles are 'genuine' and not designed to lead Taravangian or humanity astray.

 

Also on a more meta note about the series, the themes of SA are to explore/show that what Taravangian is doing is not "worth" it. If "evil" actions like Taravangian takes are not actually effective then there would never be any reason to actually put destination before journey. This would make Taravangian's action pointless and Brandon would essentially be using a strawman. For this reason, I expect most of what Taravangian is doing (following the Diagram/using the Death Rattles) to be effective and not a trap designed to lead humanity astray.

 

I imagine the Death Rattles are a side-effect of whatever Moelach's primary purpose is. For example, it is possible that everywhere Moelach goes, he causes people to commit suicide, sort of like the Thrill but with depression. Hard to say. We don't have much information.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Moogle

[BrindIf]

It may be that the death rattles are a small side effect of getting a very bad vision when you die, totally spoiling your last minute of consciousness. After all, the fact that the vision is expressed loudly is not very useful for most people, except for Mr T.

And about him, I won't say that for the moment, he did lots of good from it. Death rattle push him to get and kill hundreds of innocents...

[Shaggai]

Also on a more meta note about the series, the themes of SA are to explore/show that what Taravangian is doing is not "worth" it. If "evil" actions like Taravangian takes are not actually effective then there would never be any reason to actually put destination before journey. This would make Taravangian's action pointless and Brandon would essentially be using a strawman. For this reason, I expect most of what Taravangian is doing (following the Diagram/using the Death Rattles) to be effective and not a trap designed to lead humanity astray.

I agree. They work, but they encourage people to kill lots of people in order to use the Rattles. This ties into my "Odinalsium" theory - Moelach is being forced to follow its Intent, and so its magic system requires killing, but it's trying to stop Odium so it's giving humanity glimpses of the future.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Shaggai

[indigosky he/him]

Could it be that Moelach is perhaps using the dying to hear snippets of the future?

 

(I'm new here, so please don't rip into me, I may not know all that much.)

 

I was just thinking that if Odium was anything like Ruin, then his foresight may be limited. To that effect, if Moelach is a splinter of him, or some form of Voidspren, then it may also be limited. 

 

Voidbinding is often linked to seeing the future, or at least, the Vorin religion seems to think so. If Voidspren could see the future by themselves, why would they need to do so to a bonded human (unless that was just one facet of the bond).

 

Maybe Moelach is bonding with people at the time of their death in order to gain glimpses of the possible futures. This could be to do with them passing to the spiritual realm, or being some sort of pseudo bond, perhaps relating to death. It could even be that by bonding the dying Moelach ensures it is free straight away, there are a lot of possibilities.

 

Sorry if this is completely crazy, if anyone has evidence that contradicts this please say. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

 

Edit: Sorry I forgot the key thing. Cultivation as a shard is said to be better with prophecy than Honor. Since people were created by the shards on their worlds this could be the reason that a Voidbond would produce some form of foresight, giving a boost to humans to get a better idea of what is to come.

Edited May 21, 2014 by indigosky