What's up with the Honorspren?

[DracostarA]

We've had a number of hints now that something weird is going on with the Honorspren.

 The blurb of RoW says

Quote

no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.

In Chapter 5 of RoW we find that

Quote

Kaladin had lines of men and women ready to advance and say the oaths, but there weren’t willing honorspren to be found. At this point, there was only a single one he knew of who was willing, but didn’t have a bond.

And now in Chapter 9 we have

Quote

The honorspren cannot be trusted, the pen wrote. Not anymore.

from an unknown source.

This raises lots of different questions:

1. What's so special about the single willing Honorspren that hasn't bonded - is it waiting for someone in particular? I doubt it's Moash, but maybe Rock is ready but unwilling to say the Words and be a warrior?
2. Why are the Honorspren suddenly changing? Perhaps it's because no Windrunner has advanced to 4th/5th Oath and they do not trust the honor of humans until someone does? Perhaps it relates to Dalinar using Honor's power now that's causing them to be nervous?
3. Why can they not be trusted? The source from Chapter 9 seems to HATE Navani, particularly for doing things like trapping Spren which the Honorspren approved of. We know they have had wars in Shadesmar, so maybe they're encouraging the trapping of Radiantspren and refusing to bond so that they can conquer Shadesmar with greater numbers than the other Radiantspren?

Does anyone have any other theories about what's going on with them and why?

[Karger he/him]

Just now, DracostarA said:

Does anyone have any other theories about what's going on with them and why?

This probably has to do with whatever Odium's objective in shadesmar is along with whatever Captain Notum was unable to tell them.

[+Spicker]

I think the lack of trust in the honorspren has something to do with Honor being dead. I can see the secret pen pal being a lot of different “people.” I am leaning towards it not being of Odium though. If I had to guess i would say the warning is coming from cultivation or something related to her because of the way the talk about not trusting honorspren anymore (as if they had in the past). The big change I see is Honors death. 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

16 hours ago, DracostarA said:

We've had a number of hints now that something weird is going on with the Honorspren.

Actually, no we don't. Spren refusing to bond is not unusual: No Stonewards, one Elsecaller, one Willshaper ...

The Honorspren have a problem with public relations in Shadesmar. But that is not new.

16 hours ago, DracostarA said:

1. What's so special about the single willing Honorspren that hasn't bonded - is it waiting for someone in particular? I doubt it's Moash, but maybe Rock is ready but unwilling to say the Words and be a warrior?

The statistical extreme. It is picky.

16 hours ago, DracostarA said:

1. Why are the Honorspren suddenly changing? Perhaps it's because no Windrunner has advanced to 4th/5th Oath and they do not trust the honor of humans until someone does? Perhaps it relates to Dalinar using Honor's power now that's causing them to be nervous?

Why don't anymore Inkspren but Ivory bond? They have different attitudes and rogues.

16 hours ago, DracostarA said:

1. Why can they not be trusted? The source from Chapter 9 seems to HATE Navani, particularly for doing things like trapping Spren which the Honorspren approved of. We know they have had wars in Shadesmar, so maybe they're encouraging the trapping of Radiantspren and refusing to bond so that they can conquer Shadesmar with greater numbers than the other Radiantspren?

Because they break the consensus that new bonds should not be made among the Honorspren.

16 hours ago, DracostarA said:

Does anyone have any other theories about what's going on with them and why?

The majority of them is still enraged about the Recreance?

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

8 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The majority of them is still enraged about the Recreance?

Sometimes the simplest answer is the most likely. I'm inclined to agree because it just requires fewer assumptions for the time being.

[paperstones he/him]

I feel there has to be something with the way the Honorspren were created. The Stormfather created them but most died during the Recreance. He then created 10 more which created more after that. They are also oath bound and try to follow Honors path. 

Honor is now dead and their created has since bonded to Dalinar. Do they feel that Dalinar and the Stormfather are moving Honors Intent away from how they perceive it to be? Does this violate their oaths they feel bound by? 

This is complete conjecture but I feel this may play a role.

 

[Subvisual Haze]

Internal power struggle like generations of kandra? It occurs to me that the honorspren Captain Notum really shouldn't have been surprised that honorspren are bonding humans again or that the Stormfather himself had a bond.  The heads of Honorspren society may be keeping their people in the dark.

Another possibility is that Odium made them a non-aggression offer.  Sit out the fight, don't bond any humans, and I won't destroy your Shadesmar civilization.  They've spent a couple thousand years building their own civilization in Shadesmar, not everyone would necessarily be wiling to throw that away.

They could also be continuing to follow Honor's final instructions he gave while dying (ranting that humans could destroy the world with their unchecked powers).

Edited September 4, 2020 by Subvisual Haze

[StanLemon]

One important thing to keep in mind is that at some point the Honorspren tried to conquer all of Shadesmar. That would explain why people don't think that they can be trusted.