Ten fools, heralds, unmade theory

[Dunedub]

Reading WoR, I noticed that basically three groups of ten significant individuals are mentioned. My theory is that each group matches up with one of the Shards. We know the Heralds are of Honor, and the Unmade (with their powers of clairvoyance, e.g. Moelach) probably represent Voidbinding and thus Odium. It's my guess, then, that the ten Fools express the attributes of Cultivation and the Old Magic. Perhaps the only reason they are looked down upon is because they exemplify this former system of magic, being scorned by Vorinism. What do you guys think?

[Cstryon he/him]

People dabbling in dark arts and magic/science that isn't understood by the masses, have often been called fools... You might be on to something. Using what ever magic is cultivations, and vorinism not understanding it, and possibly fearing it, might make them call them fools.

[High prince of geeks he/him]

But in words of raidience it mentions specific fools, and what makes them foolish. Like the one Kalladin compared himself to that talk about things he didn't understand but acted like an expert. I think that the fools are either made up people like fairy tales to teach kids not to be idiots, or when the church wanted to distance themselves from the  Knights radiance and began mocking them and calling them traitors and evil, each order of the knights was assigned a particular sin or foolishness. Eventually they split into separate groups of people.

[king of nowhere]

I think more likely the ten fools are just a metaphor there, not some group of hystorical people. like we have the 7 sins, cause in our world the arc number is 7, on roshar they have the ten fools, because their arc number is 10.

that makes me curious if cultivation has 10 something to match the unmade and the heralds.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I'm pretty sure the 10 Fools are just cultural constructs designed to parallel/complement the Heralds in Vorin teachings.  We also have WoB that while there is a fixed number of Unmade, that number is *not* 10.

[snote]

I'm pretty sure the 10 Fools are just cultural constructs designed to parallel/complement the Heralds in Vorin teachings.  We also have WoB that while there is a fixed number of Unmade, that number is *not* 10.

 

Someone says, "By Damnation's Eleventh name" in the same reverence as others do "The Almighty's Tenth name." Which leads me to believe that the number of Unmade might be 11. I also had a theory that each of the Ad Shards have a specific number. Like Preservation's was 16, Honor is 10, and Damnation is 11. I don't have any proof of this other than just guessing. It could very well be like someone said when I brought this up before, and that 16 is just the number of shards and therefore anything pertaining to them has a series of 16. 10 is also part of that in some way. 

In the real world, there is a form of Judaism that assigns numbers to biblical events. Like 3 is the number of God, 6 the number of man (since that's when he was created) and 6 repeated 3 times is man's attempting to usurp God, which is where we get 666. So, if Brandon had put something like this into the Cosmere it would be really interesting. I love numerological assignment. It is an interesting way to look at our world, Even if I don't put much stock in it as a form of divining meaning from the meaningless. I just think it a neat concept.

Also, the 10 fools have names. They might not have been a group that existed alongside of each other historically. They might have been individuals that exemplify the concepts that the respective fool represented and been assigned to the group to teach children and society what not to do. Like a fairy tale or parable. I like the idea that they are a heraldic like group though.

Reading WoR, I noticed that basically three groups of ten significant individuals are mentioned. My theory is that each group matches up with one of the Shards. We know the Heralds are of Honor, and the Unmade (with their powers of clairvoyance, e.g. Moelach) probably represent Voidbinding and thus Odium. It's my guess, then, that the ten Fools express the attributes of Cultivation and the Old Magic. Perhaps the only reason they are looked down upon is because they exemplify this former system of magic, being scorned by Vorinism. What do you guys think?

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure the 10 Fools are just cultural constructs designed to parallel/complement the Heralds in Vorin teachings.  We also have WoB that while there is a fixed number of Unmade, that number is *not* 10.

[Argent he/him]

I am with Weiry on the Ten Fools - it sounds like something Vorinism would do, taking the Heralds and creating their symmetric opposites to illustrate the "badness" in the world. We, as humans, personify things. Kind of similar to how Christianity pitts the seven deadly sins against the seven heavenly virtues. 

 

I supposed it's possible that the Fools were real, but given Odium's general reluctance to choosing a champion, I doubt it. 

[Cstryon he/him]

It'd be hilarious if the Ten Fools end up actually being The Heralds. Thousands of years of description, stories, interpretation, creating two different groups being opposite.

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

Just like Vasher, known as both Strifelover and Peacegiver?

Edited May 28, 2014 by PorridgeBrick