10 Books of the Stormlight Archive

[Rock's Sous Chef]

First off, I'm not sure if this is where Ideas/Theories are to go. So I'm sorry if this is not in the right place.

I'm not sure if this idea/theory already has been discussed (as I have not looked too far back on this forum), or if Brandon has said anything about this, but as I was re-reading Oathbringer I had a thought as to why there might be specifically 10 books planned.

So, I know that the series is going to be split up between the first five and the last five books and that the second five in the series are going to act as a 'sequel' to the first. 

My idea is that the ten individuals that we learn about in each of the books (the people who the books focus on) are going to become the next set of ten Heralds that get trapped to try to hold Odium and the Fused Spren on Braize (Damnation). Let me know what your thoughts are or if there is a glaring problem with this idea. I just wanted to see some other opinions.

[AonEne he/him]

Hi, we're glad to have you on the Shard! This forum is actually for discussing the website and stuff like that; you're looking for the Stormlight Archive forum. https://www.17thshard.com/forum/forum/19-stormlight-archive/ 

I've moved your thread over there, so don't worry about it! I hope you have fun here! 

[Rock's Sous Chef]

Thank you so much!

[+Invocation]

There have been some theories about that, but I don't see it as much of a thing to happen. For one thing, I don't think any of them would put Taln or Ash back into it and they're both sitting in the back half of the books. They're proven weakpoints, Ash more so than Taln, but neither are good candidates to get tossed back into the very same thing that's left them broken to extremes. 

Dalinar is another oddity. He's Ascended once, sort of, and is also significantly older (in a physical sense, so Taln and Ash are debatable) than most of the other candidates, which doesn't spell out anything good for his ability to resist things like that without access to Stormlight and (RoW spoilers)

Spoiler

if I recall correctly, opening a perpendicularity that draws Light into the world to supercharge Radiants takes concentration, which Odium's torture probably wouldn't allow.

Dalinar is also a monarch, along with Jasnah, so both make minimal sense for that reason too.

Kaladin is the most likely for this to be the case, with his whole "self-sacrifice" thing. Shallan might be able to wall off the pain in another personality, but she's also not reliable in general. Szeth just isn't stable. I'm not entirely sure he qualifies as sane.

Renarin...is an oddity in general. Personally, I think his futuresight will have its day of fame and it may not be the best idea to toss him into an incarnation of hell when you can use him as a radar for if the ones you do banish some people to that and they begin to slip.

My money is more on them finding something else to solve their Odium problem, potentially a large perfect gem (maybe the core of Roshar or something) that they can trap the Shard in, while forcing Rayse himself to de-Ascend.

[RShara she/her]

Welcome to the Shard!

It's a fairly popular theory, but I'm afraid that I disagree with it a lot. The Oathpact is a failure--all it does is delay things. And there's really no way to tell time while being endlessly tortured, so there's no way for the Radiants to just decide to be tortured "only" for 10-20 years and then let go.

Other reasons can be found here if you are interested!