Unprecedented Radiants

[TMC29ZX]

Ok, I don't really have a theory, just an observation. I'm looking for theories.

Of the "primary" Radiants that we see in Oathbringer, at least 4 (5 if you count Venli) of them carry the designation of being unlike any other Radiants in the past. You have:

Dalinar- able to open Perpedicularities, recharge stormlight (Stormfather notes how he's different than a Bondsmith)
Renarin- bonded to corrupted spren, able to see the future (Ivory tells Jasnah)

Lift- halfway into cognitive realm, metabolizes stormlight from food (Wyndle)

Venli- Listener Radiant, has Fused Spren and Timbre, although pretty sure Rlain will join her soon, so maybe not that special but still unprecedented

Szeth- has Nightblood but also

Spoiler

Died, but got to come back

 

Kaladin hesitated. “You… died?”

Zahel nodded. “Happened to your friend too. Up in the prison? The one with… that sword.”

“Szeth. Not my friend.”

I'm not even going to get into Hoid because I'm not sure he really counts but clearly no one else is like him, just ask Zahel.

I'm summarizing and I understand the current Radiants don't exactly know what other Radiants were capable of in the past, but it's been Spren (and Zahel) who have commented how different they are. It could be plot device or it could be a final throw from the Shards to tip the scales somehow (looking at you, Cultivation). We might find out that Shallan, Jasnah, even Kal are unprecedented in other ways. Then again, they might be already in some ways and I just missed it. 

I have no unified theory on this and am open to theories why were are suddenly seeing Radiants who are unlike previous Radiants according to the Spren. Will it be common that the new Radiants in the True Desolation will be unlike the previous Radiants or are these few just special?

[Nightweaver]

It’s an interesting observation! 
You could maybe make a case for Shallan being sort of unique as well since she swore enough oaths as a child to manifest a blade but seems to have regressed and had to re-swear oaths. 

[Rainier]

How could you leave out my boy Kaladin? He's different: he's reforming an entire order of Radiants with no Herald in sight, with no Honor to control him. That's probably the reason we're seeing so many strange, never before seen Radiants. If Honor were still with us. he wouldn't allow it. Since he's gone....all is fair game.

[Crylorenzo]

All this definitely feels reminiscent of the Preservation congruence of right people in the right time conflux. Definitely Cultivation, the question is how?

[+Invocation]

4 hours ago, Nightweaver said:

she swore enough oaths as a child to manifest a blade

And likely Plate as well, given her...reactions to it being mentioned.

[TMC29ZX]

While I agree Shallan swearing Oaths and having a blade at such a young age sure seems unique, I’m hesitant to add her to the list yet because we don’t know enough. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to hear Pattern say “you were the youngest person ever to swear the Oaths”. 
 

As for Kaladin, I do think he’s doing things no one else could do from a leadership perspective, but right now he has the same Windrunner abilities as everyone else at the 3rd Oath and none of them have shown anything that makes the Spren say “Well that’s new.”

 

As for Jasnah, we just don’t know enough about her story or abilities, and I don’t think Ivory is going to say too much.
 

We do know at least Lift and Dalinar have interacted with Nightwatcher/Cultivation. Cultivation ended up with Nighblood and now Szeth has him so that’s a point in her favor too. To me it’s very possible that Renarin somehow ended up with Glys cause of  Cultivation deal with Saj-anat but who knows.  That would leave Venli but maybe we would find out something in this book?
 

Again, I don’t have any theories, just the observation they are different than any previous Radiants.

[JoyBlu]

3 hours ago, TMC29ZX said:

 

We do know at least Lift and Dalinar have interacted with Nightwatcher/Cultivation. Cultivation ended up with Nighblood and now Szeth has him so that’s a point in her favor too. 

I was wondering if Shallan has visited the Nightwatcher? I don’t think I ever considered that before. Perhaps she was taken when she was quite young or when her mom was pregnant with her?

 

[Lemiltock]

On 15/10/2020 at 11:42 AM, TMC29ZX said:

While I agree Shallan swearing Oaths and having a blade at such a young age sure seems unique, I’m hesitant to add her to the list yet because we don’t know enough. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to hear Pattern say “you were the youngest person ever to swear the Oaths”. 
 

As for Kaladin, I do think he’s doing things no one else could do from a leadership perspective, but right now he has the same Windrunner abilities as everyone else at the 3rd Oath and none of them have shown anything that makes the Spren say “Well that’s new.”

 

As for Jasnah, we just don’t know enough about her story or abilities, and I don’t think Ivory is going to say too much.
 

We do know at least Lift and Dalinar have interacted with Nightwatcher/Cultivation. Cultivation ended up with Nighblood and now Szeth has him so that’s a point in her favor too. To me it’s very possible that Renarin somehow ended up with Glys cause of  Cultivation deal with Saj-anat but who knows.  That would leave Venli but maybe we would find out something in this book?
 

Again, I don’t have any theories, just the observation they are different than any previous Radiants.

On the nothing new for Kaladin, Syl seemed aweful impressed when he split a highstorm with wind spren to protect the parsh. Also his "Fight with the wind" seems more than just windrunner fighting abilities.

 

I also disagree with the anyone could do what he did leaderahip wise. Hes a dark eyes with a shash brand and he not only survived the bridge runs he savied the others (more mindset than physical) I dont even think dalinar could have done that.

[dgreene196]

Other thoughts on the unusual modern Radiants:

• Venli - also worth noting that she can use Stormlight and Voidlight, which isn't normal - we'll have to see if they feel the same to her, or if there's some sort of difference.
• Renarin - he can't lightweave in the traditional way, but it certainly seems he can do, well, something.  Hopefully, we get more insight into his interruption of Moash's hateful conversation with Kaladin.   And the whole seeing the future thing.
• Kaladin - It definitely feels as though there are secrets to Kaladin we don't understand yet.  The wind. The possibility that Syl isn't quite like other honorspren.  And the fact that the shanay-im are fascinated by what he's done with the Windrunners in such a short time.

I know the suspicion is that Cultivation may have a hand in setting the deck to get the humans a fighting chance, but I do wonder if Honor had a hand in this, as well.  The spren fear that, without Honor, the Nahel bond could be more powerful.  Maybe that's intentional.  Honor clearly had time to prepare for his death, even if his own "death rattles" seemed to contribute to the Recreance.  Perhaps his death was sacrificial, setting up a chance for Rosharans against Odium - hmm, that's going to need a better name and acronym...

[Solant]

I think the short version is too keep our main protagonists separate/ more powerful/ distinct/ more interesting from the hordes of average KR we will undoubtedly have by the end. I enjoy this line of thought, though

Depending on how Adolin's arc turns out, I could see him on this list as well

[TMC29ZX]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:46 PM, Lemiltock said:

On the nothing new for Kaladin, Syl seemed aweful impressed when he split a highstorm with wind spren to protect the parsh. Also his "Fight with the wind" seems more than just windrunner fighting abilities.

 

I also disagree with the anyone could do what he did leaderahip wise. Hes a dark eyes with a shash brand and he not only survived the bridge runs he savied the others (more mindset than physical) I dont even think dalinar could have done that.

I agree with you on the leadership, I had said he was doing things others couldn't do with reforming the KR and turning bridge men into Bridge Four. As Dgreene196 said, even the Heavenly Ones are impressed by his Windrunners. As for the splitting the wind, I was under the impression that was a type of proto-plate but you're right, Syl did seem to be impressed by that.

 

 

9 hours ago, dgreene196 said:

I know the suspicion is that Cultivation may have a hand in setting the deck to get the humans a fighting chance, but I do wonder if Honor had a hand in this, as well.  The spren fear that, without Honor, the Nahel bond could be more powerful.  Maybe that's intentional.  Honor clearly had time to prepare for his death, even if his own "death rattles" seemed to contribute to the Recreance.  Perhaps his death was sacrificial, setting up a chance for Rosharans against Odium - hmm, that's going to need a better name and acronym...

Rosharans Alliance for Fighting Odium-  RAFO?

 

 

6 hours ago, Solant said:

I think the short version is too keep our main protagonists separate/ more powerful/ distinct/ more interesting from the hordes of average KR we will undoubtedly have by the end. I enjoy this line of thought, though

Depending on how Adolin's arc turns out, I could see him on this list as well

I also thought it could just be a plot device, which is understandable and totally fine. Like you said, with these being the main characters in this arc, they do have to stand out or they just blend in. And I agree, Adolin becoming a KR and re-awakening Maya would qualify I would think.  

[TMC29ZX]

Even the Heralds also know these Radiants can do things that haven't been possible till now. 

"“Who knows?” Ash said. “It doesn’t work the same for you all as it did for us, when we had our swords. You’re limited, but sometimes you do things we couldn’t. At any rate, I never knew much about it.”
 

Of course the flip side of that statement is there is much more they can once they are no longer limited. 

[Master Silver]

This brings up another question, would the heralds taking up their swords or possibly bonding spren help them recover their sanity? I would have thought that Nale would be more lucid than the other heralds because of the spren bond, and perhaps he is. But he is team singer (which I think is still different than team Odium), even if they are working together at the moment. 

 

[DracostarA]

On 19/10/2020 at 2:46 AM, Lemiltock said:

On the nothing new for Kaladin, Syl seemed aweful impressed when he split a highstorm with wind spren to protect the parsh. Also his "Fight with the wind" seems more than just windrunner fighting abilities.

I think Kaladin's specialty links to this, and the fact that he is referred to as 'Son of Tanavast' by the Stormfather when no other character has been.

Quote

Winds Alight (paraphrased)

In SA the Stormfather refers to several people as "Child of Honor", but only Kaladin as "Child of Tanavast". Is there significance to that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, there is.

Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019)

 

[Askhayr]

And we can also add that one time Kaladin killed that corrupted spren in Oathbringer, that seemed unique too if I remember correctly.

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Askhayr