My Shadowdays History[Discuss(and a bit of support TBH)]

[Karger he/him]

We have a bit more information on Rosharan history, culture, and "ecology" now and that has assembled an arrangement of facts that look something like a picture in my head.  I figured I may as well get it on the page so here it is.

Rosharan myth starts with the human exodus but one thing notably happens before it.  Odium tempts Ishar to experiment with surgebinding.  Reconstructing this exact series of events is difficult as we don't really have anything beyond an offhanded comment by the Stormfather.  We do know that these experiments eventually turned Ashyn into a wasteland and that the majority of humans had to leave.  Also the Eila Stele and Stormfather both indicate that Odium was not bound by Honor at this point(although we have no proof it does say they brought Odium with them).  This makes sense given that he was able to tempt Ishar. 

If I had to guess I would say Odium arrived in the system after careful consideration but knew he could not challenge the two resident shards directly.  As his gambit he tempted the humans of Ashyn into their experiments knowing what the resulting disaster would bring.  The panicking humans(probably including Ishar) go to him for help and he helps them crack the method they use to escape the disaster and arrive on Roshar.  This puts the foreign humans on Rosharan soil.

We know that the singers were commanded to take in the refugee humans and that the humans were given Shinovar.  I think it reasonable to assume that conflict did not instantly break out.  The humans were a broken people and the singers were commanded to take them in.  It would not surprise me to learn of a period of coexistence.  The trouble is that humans are not a monolith and that Odium is still around.  Individual acts of violence, theft or betrayal could escalate quickly between peoples who did not share a common language or history.  In this xenophobic environment reactionary singers might demand action from their gods but be refused substantial aid.  I would not think it surprising that diplomatic coups by early humans were responsible for this line.

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Beware the otherworlders. The traitors. Those with tongues of sweetness, but with minds that lust for blood

In human history violence puts a certain kind of leader at the forefront of human society.  They are charismatic, bold, aggressive, yet seeming to care deeply for those under them and refuse to see conflict as unwinnable.  This could be a descriptor of a Windrunner or in other words Jezrien.

Something that has always baffled me is the relative size of Makabakam and the position of its oathgate.  I might just be projecting here and it is hard to put into words but looking at the map I can't help but get the impression that it was the best established of the ten silver kingdoms.

I am also pretty sure that the human followers of Jezrien conquered it.  The only actual proof I have though is from Dalinar's Nalen vision.  Nale has always been a stickler for rules but learning that he and Jezrien were enemies puts this into context

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“An enemy, yes,” Jezerezeh said. “But an enemy who was correct all along, making me the villain, not you. We will fix what we’ve broken. Ishar and I agreed. There is no person we would welcome more eagerly into this pact than you. You are the single most honorable man I have ever had the privilege of opposing.”

I am pretty sure a group of humans concluded that creating a buffer state would teach the singers that humans were here to stay and that making peace was the best option.  Unfortunately things rarely turn out this way when you attack them.  In this case the singers must have been horrified.  I seriously doubt that a singer government controlled all singers everywhere.  However knowing people I am also pretty sure Jezien treated them as if they did.  Another layer of escalation in this war and so the singers did the unthinkable.  They betrayed their spren.

The singer betrayal of spren is what started me thinking about this in the first place.  What could the singers have done that was so bad that the spren would chose the humans over their partners of millennia?  Even the human betrayal did not turn them off humans forever.  This interesting line caught my eye.

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“I’m not killing the Sibling,” Raboniel said. “I’m … doing something worse. I’m unmaking the Sibling.”

Where do the unmade come from?  It is a long unanswered question but here is my theory.  The singer's only allies were unwilling to help them and they were facing what looked increasingly like a superior military force. 

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Our pity destroyed us. For their betrayal extended even to our gods: to spren, stone, and wind

Thinking they were out of options the singers went to Odium and he offered them a solution.  "If the spren won't help you we will make them help you."  Whichever group of singers did this were at least in my mind probably not representing all of singer society.  I actually thing the Stele was made as propaganda created to rally support against the human threat.  Either way singers unmade several of the great spren and the spren peoples reacted by abandoning the singers.  The result was that humanity gained a horrifying set of new enemies but singer society was devastated.  Without spren help the singers could not build homes, make tools, potentially even change forms.  The survivors of such a calamity would not have much left but hate.  Odium could not ask for anything more.  Worse still the singer war effort would have collapsed completely invigorating the human's in their push to force concessions.  When your enemy is down for the count it always seems like a good idea to make them cry uncle.  It is no wonder that the singers would go to Odium one more time and so the fused would have been created.

Back on the human side things would have looked great.  They were finally going to get the singers to concede to humanity.  Spren were becoming more pro human.  The war would be over soon.  Until the fused enter the field.  The fused and unmade might not be able to kill all the humans but they could certainly keep everything going forever.  Sooner or later the humans would realize that this was not a game they could win.  Intelligent ones start looking for a game changer.  Odium is waiting with his latest option.  I imagine his last exchange with Ishar before the first desolation ended went something like this.

Odium:  "I have this cool thing that can solve all your problems!"

Ishar:  "Seems great.  I just have one question."

Odium:  "A worthy passion.  Tell me what is your question?"

Ishar:  "Why is it that every time I go to you for a solution it gets me out of the pan and into the fire?"

Odium:  "UNPRINTABLE then tries to BS his way around things."

Ishar: "I have been talking to some old friends of yours.."

Scene direction Crowd pleasing entrance by Tanavast.

Tanavast:  "Hello Rayse"

Well feel free to pick this one apart.  I can't promise it is right I have nowhere close to enough of the requisite evidence.  Thanks for reading though.  I needed to get this one out there.

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Maybe the act of unmaking so many of the spren that run Roshar did more than just turn the rest of the spren against the Singers.  It probably prompted Tanavast to opt for the first contest of champions. Old Tanavast won it, and that was the deal that trapped Odium in system.  However Rayse found a way around the terms or the terms didn't cover the Fused, so the bums kept coming back, kept knocking Humans farther and farther back. Ishar and his ilk were either directly involved in the contest of champions or were able to study what Honor did to Odium.  They figured that there would never be time for Humans to build themselves back up if the Fused kept returning so they came to Honor and talked him into the Oathpact. The unchanged spren observed the Heralds and, having rejected the Singers,  sought out Humans to bond with, and those bonds mimicked what the Heralds could do,  even surpassing them in some ways.  But a human granted power without checks is a frightening thing. Now Ishar has a bunch of madmen doing more damage to the planet than any Desolation.  Fearing another Ashyn, He goes back to Honor,  he talks to his wife and the spren, and they come up with a game plan. New spren are created as a result,  and these guys will grant powers through the bond, only with caveats attached. 

[Karger he/him]

41 minutes ago, Bigmikey357 said:

. New spren are created as a result,  and these guys will grant powers through the bond, only with caveats attached. 

This is the one part of your theory I know is at least partially untrue as the Honorspren existed prior to human arrival(Syl's interlude).

42 minutes ago, Bigmikey357 said:

It probably prompted Tanavast to opt for the first contest of champions. Old Tanavast won it, and that was the deal that trapped Odium in system

That is an interesting possibility.  It does beg the question "why did Odium agree to the contest?"

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

55 minutes ago, Karger said:

That is an interesting possibility.  It does beg the question "why did Odium agree to the contest?"

The stakes had to be incredibly high in order for Rayse to be interested.  If I had to guess, if Honor won he'd voluntarily give up his power, if Rayse won he'd be trapped.  Rayse doesn't lose either way, at worst he's temporarily trapped in system.  Tanavast would agree because even if he lost he had his wife to fight the good fight. She seems more capable and better at future sight.

Maybe the new spren weren't born, maybe Honor imposed his will on his essence. Either way, somehow those rules, the Ideals, were implemented and incorporated into the spren.  

[Frustration]

This is amazing, the amount of thought put into it is simply astounding.

I saw a similar post and while I liked it I wasn't conviced.

I now fully support this theory.

[mathiau he/him]

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“Sorry…” Leshwi said. A joyspren burst around her, beautiful, like a blue storm. “Sorry? Venli, they’ve come back to us! They’ve forgiven us.”

I don't know if what the singers did was unmaking major sprens, but they definitely did something, probably something of same magnitude as the recreance