Oathpact?

[Eugenides]

Stormlight Spoilers

So from the beginning, the abandonment of the oathpact was a big deal, the Radiants abandoned their job. But wasn't the oathpact necessary to keep the voidbringers at bay? So when the series or arc is over, whichever resolves the voidbringer problem, will a new oathpact need to be formed? Honor does not exist anymore, but Dalinar is portraying shard-like characteristics, so maybe he would be able to re-form it? Or perhaps Wit/hoid will have something to do with it. Regardless of how it would be done, is it necessary? Will they shatter Odium for good this time? If they do form the oathpact again, who will the heralds be?

[HSuperLee]

I feel most people are unfairly critical with the oathpact. The Heralds agreed to it, apparently with an idea that they could sustain it. It was extremely arrogant of them, but they're immortals with access to the surges fueled directly by Honor, so they probably figured they could hold out against the fused without being captured for an eternity. Arrogant, but not without merit.

That said, its not a sustainable plan, and I don't think it should be repeated. Nightblood seems to be capable of killing the fused, so there's some merit to executing them, but it would cost a lot of stormlight, time and effort. The best option would be a permanent sealing in Braze that's not dependent on Radiants or Heralds, but then the investiture seal has to come from somewhere, and for something that powerful, it would probably take a substantial sacrifice from a Shard to facilitate the seal. 

The best idea I have is simply that the radiants need to find some way to actually kill the Fused outside of Nightblood. Perhaps larkins? But yeah, there's no obvious answer to the fused problem. Maybe pushing them all into insanity somehow, maybe by Cultivating it? I don't know.

[RShara she/her]

So I think there's a couple of things mixed up here. The Oathpact involves the Heralds, not the Radiants. It was meant to bind the Fused to Braize. I don't know that they really anticipated the torture and breaking, since it had never been done before to their knowledge. And I don't think it'd be a good idea to reform it, because that would just start the cycle of Desolations over again.

The Radiants abandoned their Oaths some 2000-2500 years after the Heralds broke the Oathpact. And the Radiants weren't binding or holding anything back. Other than, like, their spren and the surges and their personal Oaths, and the like.

And also, there's my topic of reasons why it'd be a bad idea anyway

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by RShara

[Karger he/him]

1 hour ago, Eugenides said:

Stormlight Spoilers

The assumption is that everyone in the SA thread has read all of stormlight.  The only time you need a spoiler tag is when a new SA novel is out.  This tag must be in place for the first 6 months of the new novel's publication.  However it has been longer then that since Oathbringer.

[Weltall]

I suspect that Stormlight Archive is likely to resolve in a way that, if it doesn't end the hatred between humans and singers (after all, there's thousands of years of bad blood there) will at least offer the promise of eventual reconciliation. With that in mind even if some version of the Oathpact could be restored I don't think it's going to be. And @RShara provides a lot of reasons why that's not such a good idea.

Also, since the Fused are sustained by Odium's power, taking Rayse out of the picture one way or another could lessen or eliminate the threat they pose even if no reconciliation is possible. If Odium is forced to flee he's going to want to reclaim as much Investiture as possible before he goes and the Fused probably represent low-hanging fruit compared to some of the other things he's got going on. Of course if Rayse should be killed and someone else takes up Odium there's all sorts of options for how things could go.

Oh, on the reconciliation idea: Remember that while the Fused can be forceful, they can't actually possess a new body unless the current occupant allows it. Convince enough of the listeners to resist the process (say, isn't there a proto-Radiant listener who's covertly resisting Odium...) and you deny the Fused their reincarnation without having to kill them or their potential singer hosts.

Actually now that I'm thinking about it, what's probably the worst potential outcome for Roshar would be if Odium were somehow splintered like he splintered Honor, because we know that systems a Shard put in place can keep on going even if there's no Vessel holding on to the Shard. If Odium gets splintered and nothing has happened with the status of the singers, the Fused and the Everstorm prior to that point, you've got the makings of a Big Problem.

[Honorless he/him]

1 hour ago, Weltall said:

I suspect that Stormlight Archive is likely to resolve in a way that, if it doesn't end the hatred between humans and singers (after all, there's thousands of years of bad blood there) will at least offer the promise of eventual reconciliation. With that in mind even if some version of the Oathpact could be restored I don't think it's going to be. And @RShara provides a lot of reasons why that's not such a good idea.

Also, since the Fused are sustained by Odium's power, taking Rayse out of the picture one way or another could lessen or eliminate the threat they pose even if no reconciliation is possible. If Odium is forced to flee he's going to want to reclaim as much Investiture as possible before he goes and the Fused probably represent low-hanging fruit compared to some of the other things he's got going on. Of course if Rayse should be killed and someone else takes up Odium there's all sorts of options for how things could go.

Oh, on the reconciliation idea: Remember that while the Fused can be forceful, they can't actually possess a new body unless the current occupant allows it. Convince enough of the listeners to resist the process (say, isn't there a proto-Radiant listener who's covertly resisting Odium...) and you deny the Fused their reincarnation without having to kill them or their potential singer hosts.

Actually now that I'm thinking about it, what's probably the worst potential outcome for Roshar would be if Odium were somehow splintered like he splintered Honor, because we know that systems a Shard put in place can keep on going even if there's no Vessel holding on to the Shard. If Odium gets splintered and nothing has happened with the status of the singers, the Fused and the Everstorm prior to that point, you've got the makings of a Big Problem.

Or a great second arc