The Nahel Bond - Emotional Healing

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

During my most recent reread of the SA, it seemed to me that the Nahel bond works by taking someone who is broken - and who has a broken spiritweb, with at least one hole, and then a spen insert itself inside, and then leads their bondmate to heal (emotionally) themselves, sealing them inside, and thereby making the spren part of the person, thus granting them some of that spren's inherent abilities, as they are now "part spren", and it grants the spren more intelligence, as it is now part human (or parshman or whatever).

This seemed confirmed to me, when, in the vision that Odium invades in Oathbringer (I'd appreciate it if someone could find the quote for me; I don't have a copy with me now) Odium says that people cannot bear that much passion - read, emotion and feeling - without something to share it with).

This can actually fit in with the theory of how the final oaths of each order complete the emotional healing by teaching the Radient how to balance their healing method, and just be fully emotionally healthy.

(Half-crackpot theory - this may also explain what at the completion of oaths, why that spen's "family" of sub-spren can become part of them as well, but not through an actual bond, just Connection, and therefore it isn't as affected by the breaking of the oath, and why Bondsmiths, the masters of Connection, are the ones to go to with a problem with summoning Plate.)

 

The first Ideal is always journey before destination etc. - the the way that you live your life has value.

Then, every order works in their own way:

For example, Kaladin, as a Windrunner, dedicates himself to protecting others, thus giving himself a reason to live, and then slowly balances out the logic of that - it must be everyone, and, presumably, to stay emotionally healthy, there must be a limit or the goal of protection itself can drive him crazy.

Shallan, most obviously, has to grow past her denial to come to admit the truth of herself to be stable.

Lift, as an Edgedancer, dedicates herself to caring for those forgotten.

Dalinar, the warlord, dedicates himself to healing the rifts he used to create.

 

So on and so forth.

What do you think?

 

[Turin Turambar]

Ok for Dalinor...but that would indicate that a Radiant happens when they were broken in the inverse of their Radiant order. Not all Bondsmiths, I presume, were bloodthirsty overlords in their previous life. 

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

However, focusing on bonding can help almost anyone heal from whatever broke them

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

I have thought upon the OP's premise and it seems reasonable that that is in part what is happening. It made me think of a framework to how oath progression works that ties in neatly with the theory. Here goes.

1st Ideal: Overall Mission Statement.

This Ideal is universal to all Knights regardless of Order. The rest exclude Lightweavers since they are structured differently than everyone else. 

2nd Ideal: Order Mission Statement

This Ideal is the first unique Oath. It will roughly be the same for all Knights of that Order and my guess is that it ties in to the first of the Divine Attributes associated with the Order. For example, Windrunner is Protecting/Leading. This Oath and all the others will be about Protection. The other Attribute is what the Knight is all about. Their Oaths center on protection. They will be leaders. Since strength of squires is a Windrunner thing it makes sense to me. This also works for Skybreakers and Edgedancers. Skybreakers are Just/Confident and all their Oaths are about justice. They're a pretty confident bunch. Edgedancers (Loving/Healing) have Oaths that deal with love, and they're natural healers.

3rd Ideal: Personalized Expansion of Mission Statement

On this Oath the Knight takes ownership of their Oath, signifying what the Order means to them in the context of their Divine Attributes. It serves to narrow the focus and the words will be accepted as long as it's in the same theme as the Oaths. Compare and contrast Kaladin's and Teft's 3rd Ideal. 

4th Ideal: Refining Personalized Mission Statement

This Ideal is often the hardest to achieve because this Oath is the proving ground for one's beliefs. Skybreakers call this Ideal the Ideal of Crusade and it seems logical that the other Orders follow this pattern in a similar way. It deals with exceptions to the rules set and many will find it hard to achieve the proper equilibrium. Jasnah sparing Renarin, choosing compassion over logic, is what I believe is the impetus for her 4th Ideal. Kaladin could not say it because he couldn't come to terms with the fact that he cannot protect everyone. And although Lightweavers don't necessarily follow this pattern, if they have progressed this far then they are dealing with the hardest Truths they can come to grips with.

5th Ideal: Embodiment

The final Ideal is the one where a Knight internalizes everything that Order represents. I mostly got this from Nale's 5th. I am Law. You gotta be pretty confident to believe you are worthy to be an ultimate judge of mankind. And I believe people that can say Ideal 5 are those that most resemble their patron Herald pre-Last Desolation. Kaladin upon saying Oath 5 will be like Jezrian used to be before a dozen Desolations scrambled his brain.

Knights are broken when they enter their Nahel Bond. Spren fill the cracks more completely with every Oath spoken. By the time they can speak their final Ideal they will have been made whole with the soul merge between them and their Spren. To me, that's the same as emotional healing.