The Stormfather and Windrunner Oaths

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We know that each order/race has different methods/ideas of how radiants are chosen (Individual Choice, assigned by Committee, etc).  But despite that, I had the impression that the actual Oaths, their Acceptance and their ultimate interpretation, was always between the Spren and Radiant.  At least that always seemed to be the stance in WOB's. So why did the Stormfatehr chime in as the one to accept Windrunner Oaths?  He did for Kaladin, and others, but not for any other race/order that I can recall.  I had kind of assumed that he was just in charge of the Honorspren directly the way the Council or whatever is in charge of Cultivationspren's bonding choice, but I never before noticed the distinction in how The Stormfather actually does the individual Oath Accepting for Windrunners.  And now we learned that while he apparently has a lot of clout with them, he is not actually in charge and/or cant just Order them to Bond a Radiant the way the Cultivationspren's Council does.  So unlike the Cultivationspren Council he doesnt decide when and who they Bond, but he does do the Oat Accepting, which seems a strange difference.  

I wonder if it's always been this way, or if he's stepping into something new since became so much more post-Tanavast.  I wonder if this is the only Order he gets involved in?  I wonder if the other two Godspren have a similar role with any other Races.  Thoughts?

 

[Master Silver]

This could have something to do with the cognitive shadow of Tanavast merging with the Stormfather. 

[Truthwatcher Artifabrian]

3 minutes ago, Master Silver said:

This could have something to do with the cognitive shadow of Tanavast merging with the Stormfather. 

I agree. When the oaths were created, they were most likely tied to Tanavast’s cognitive aspect. And so when it merged with the Stormfather, he took up the task.

 We have seen this happen to Dalinar as well, so my guess is it has led to do with windrunners bonding honorspren, and more to do with them sharing a surge with Bondsmiths.

 Maybe the Stormfather accepts the oaths of any bondsmith or radiant that shares a surge with Bondsmiths. And because he accepts their oaths, they get a burst of power.

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4 minutes ago, Master Silver said:

This could have something to do with the cognitive shadow of Tanavast merging with the Stormfather. 

Agreed, though that would imply that it's a relatively recent development in radiant history and that Honor previously did it.  But even if that's the case, Im still unclear on why (or even if, I suppose) that's only the case for Honorspren and not all spren (since all are some amount of Honor).  Does Cultivation ever play that role, for example?  Is it specific to Honorspren as a race, and is it a Choice or something innate about them?  If he's the one that Accepts their Oaths, what going ont hat makes him able to do that  but still need to ask them to actuall Bond at all (in light of the windrunner shortage and the envoy mission).

[Master Silver]

57 minutes ago, Truthwatcher Artifabrian said:

I agree. When the oaths were created, they were most likely tied to Tanavast’s cognitive aspect. And so when it merged with the Stormfather, he took up the task.

 We have seen this happen to Dalinar as well, so my guess is it has led to do with windrunners bonding honorspren, and more to do with them sharing a surge with Bondsmiths.

 Maybe the Stormfather accepts the oaths of any bondsmith or radiant that shares a surge with Bondsmiths. And because he accepts their oaths, they get a burst of power.

I hadn't thought about the burst of power being a result of connection to the Stromfather. I just thought it was a very brief connection to the spiritual realm. 

[Leuthie]

This would make sense if the Radiant had to be in a Highstorm or near Dalinar to have Oaths accepted. The Stormfather doesn't see anything outside of those two circumstances. I don't believe Stormfather meant he listened to and evaluated each individual Oath. I believe he believes he determined the bases for the Oaths because of his Connection to Tanavast (who was the one who actually determined the Oaths when he held Honor). 

I find it interesting how many people believe that certain characters are perfectly reliable narrators. Stormfather is confused half the time he's talking with Dalinar but is too stubborn to admit it. When he does discover new memories, he says things like "when you did it, I realized that I always knew you could". He's an egotistical jerk. That doesn't make him bad, persay, but it's definitely a clear personality trait.

[+Harrycrapper]

1 hour ago, Leuthie said:

This would make sense if the Radiant had to be in a Highstorm or near Dalinar to have Oaths accepted. The Stormfather doesn't see anything outside of those two circumstances. I don't believe Stormfather meant he listened to and evaluated each individual Oath. I believe he believes he determined the bases for the Oaths because of his Connection to Tanavast (who was the one who actually determined the Oaths when he held Honor). 

I find it interesting how many people believe that certain characters are perfectly reliable narrators. Stormfather is confused half the time he's talking with Dalinar but is too stubborn to admit it. When he does discover new memories, he says things like "when you did it, I realized that I always knew you could". He's an egotistical jerk. That doesn't make him bad, persay, but it's definitely a clear personality trait.

The Stormfather accepted Lopens Oaths but there was no storm in sight when those occurred, so proximity to a Highstorm doesn't appear to be a factor. 

But yea, we've seen viewpoints where a Radiant swore an Oath from each order except Truthwatchers, Elsecallers, Stonewards, and Dustbringers and none have had the Stormfather accept their words. I've guessed that it had something to do with the fact that the Honorspren are all descended from the original 10 that the Stormfather created after the Recreance and the Splintering of Honor. But Syl isn't a part of that group and he accepts Kaladin's oaths, so no beans there. The odd thing is that he doesn't appear to even have any authority to reject the Oaths based on his personal opinions. He definitely didn't want Kaladin furthering his bond with Syl, but had to accept Kaladin's words regardless. At the same time, it seems the Stormfather is deliberately picking dull moments to accept Lopen's words just to piss him off. Strange. 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Harrycrapper

[Harkain]

ROW Spoilers

Spoiler

Imo I reckon it's probably something to do with the system of restrictions that got imposed on the radiants. They can't further their bond and increase their power until they say a certain oath which then needs to be double checked by the shards Cultivation and Honour. Imo it's supported by what happened when Venli tried to say the second oath but got rejected by Cultivation. Also just that we heard Cultivation respond to a KR's oaths.

I agree with the idea that this was original Tanavast's job for some of the Knights Radiant and the Stormfather picking it up.