Fleet became the Stormfather

[starman2995]

In Words of Radiance, Wit tells Kaladin the tale of a man named Fleet, who races the highstorm. Fleet dies at the end, having run across the entire continent and ending in Shinovar. I think that when he died, he became invested with enough investiture from the storm that he was able to stay alive as a cognitive shadow, and possibly even ascend, though not to the level of a shard. There are a few key phrases in the story that are leading me to believe this:

1st, when Kaladin asks Wit if he was real, Wit responds "As real as I am". He could be twisting things, but I think he is being honest about him being real.

2nd, after Fleet has died in the story, Wit continues with "His body dead, but not his will, within those winds his soul did rise." This is the strongest part of my belief for a few reasons. First, we know that the highstorm is essentially a moving perpendicularity, as it is described as a place where all three realms meet. There is also enough investiture there to create a cognitive shadow. Furthermore, the wording "rise" (with the italics actually in the book) match with the theme of people ascending to become shards. Though this is a lesser case, it makes a lot of sense to me.

3rd, just after the last part, Wit continued "It flew upon the day's last song, to win the race and claim the dawn. Past the sea and past the waves, our Fleet no longer lost his breath. Forever strong, forever fast, forever free to race the wind." This seems to be talking about him riding the storm across the world at first, and then shows how Fleet continued to ride the storm forever. 

4th, this could just be part of the story, but it also gives a timeline for when this could have happened; near the start of the story, Wit said this: "In time long past, in times I've known, he raced the Herald Chan-a-rach. He won that race..." Mentioning a specific race with a specific herald gives more credence to the idea, at least in my head.

5th, right after Wit confirmed that Fleet died, he smiled. This seems to me to hint that Wit knows Fleet lived on, if not as the Stormfather, then at least as a cognitive entity sustained by Honor's power.

I'm not sure if Honor intended for Fleet to ascend at first; if it was a conscious effort from him, windspren, or the power itself, but it fits so well with everything I know about cognitive entities and people ascending (to become shards). 

Another connection from this theory comes from a WoB here:https://wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e9207 

"[referring to the Nightwatcher and Unmade] The Stormfather is different from the others because it's a Sliver." I'm not sure yet what significance this would hold, or what power the Stormfather has given/used up, but I feel like lends credence to the idea that the Stormfather was a human that became spren-like because he became a Sliver from holding the power.

If this theory is correct, then it also brings up another interesting question about other Shards and Avatars: are many other Shard's Avatars originally human/equivalent(singer)? Or is this unique? It seems like it would be extremely interesting in regards to Autonomy and her Avatars.

 

If you have any more evidence either for or against this theory, I'd appreciate it if you commented it.

[Frustration]

I think becoming one of the Stormstriders is more likely

[Weltall]

There's one massive thing you're forgetting which kills your idea: The Stormfather existed long before humans arrived on Roshar. He's the spren of the highstorm and the storm has existed as long as Roshar has. In his current form the Stormfather 'awakened' because of what Tanavast did and is a fusion of the original spren and the latter's Cognitive Shadow.

20 hours ago, starman2995 said:

"[referring to the Nightwatcher and Unmade] The Stormfather is different from the others because it's a Sliver." I'm not sure yet what significance this would hold, or what power the Stormfather has given/used up, but I feel like lends credence to the idea that the Stormfather was a human that became spren-like because he became a Sliver from holding the power.

See above: The Stormfather is a Sliver because he's merged with Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow, the latter being a Sliver by definition as someone who held a Shard and had their soul expanded as a result.

Quote

If this theory is correct, then it also brings up another interesting question about other Shards and Avatars: are many other Shard's Avatars originally human/equivalent(singer)? Or is this unique? It seems like it would be extremely interesting in regards to Autonomy and her Avatars.

The proper term for the holder of a Shard is Vessel and all of them were originally human, sho del or dragons since they all came from Yolen. Any Shard can make avatars like Autonomy does but she's the only one who seems to do it so regularly. Bavadin is still alive and Autonomy intact, so it's not the same thing as the Stormfather where he's a Sliver and the largest Splinter of a splintered Shard whose original Vessel is dead.

There appear to be few if any limits on what form an avatar can take, as Brandon has said that Autonomy's can be of any gender, any race and they don't have to be humanoid.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Weltall

[starman2995]

5 hours ago, Weltall said:

There's one massive thing you're forgetting which kills your idea: The Stormfather existed long before humans arrived on Roshar. He's the spren of the highstorm and the storm has existed as long as Roshar has. In his current form the Stormfather 'awakened' because of what Tanavast did and is a fusion of the original spren and the latter's Cognitive Shadow.

This doesn't fully discount my idea for Fleet. Just because the storm existed before humans arrived on Roshar doesn't mean that the Stormfather did as well. It is possible that a being similar to the Stormfather existed then, but it could have been very different from what he is now. Before, it could have been just a pool of investiture, like a Shard is before someone ascends to it. 

Currently, I'm leaning toward the idea that Fleet might have become something other than the Stormfather for some of the reasons you mentioned (possibly a Stormstrider like Frustration mentioned), but it seems blatantly obvious to me that, at the very least, Fleet is living on as a cognitive shadow as part of the storm in some form or another.

5 hours ago, Weltall said:

The proper term for the holder of a Shard is Vessel and all of them were originally human, sho del or dragons since they all came from Yolen. Any Shard can make avatars like Autonomy does but she's the only one who seems to do it so regularly. Bavadin is still alive and Autonomy intact, so it's not the same thing as the Stormfather where he's a Sliver and the largest Splinter of a splintered Shard whose original Vessel is dead.

There appear to be few if any limits on what form an avatar can take, as Brandon has said that Autonomy's can be of any gender, any race and they don't have to be humanoid.

I think you partially misunderstood what I was asking. I know that all of the Vessels were originally human (or close enough), and that Avatars are separate things. The thing I was curious about was if, for example, when Autonomy formed Patji, she could have instead "mini-ascended" a human (or equivalent) to become her Avatar, rather than fully creating it herself. That was the thought process I had because that was what I was thinking happened with Fleet.

[Leuthie]

Good interpretation, but I think it adds an unnecessary layer to the Stormfather/Honor/Tanavast entity that's already complicated enough.

There's also the parallel given in the last chapter of RoW (not the epilogue) which I can't describe here.

My interpretation:

Wit/Hoid/Cephandrius knew Tanavast, since he knew all of the original Vessels. Wit says he was once given a drink by Tanavast. Wit also likes that Odium is imprisoned, and that prison was built by Tanavast and Tanavast died defending it. Fleet is the result of Wit distilling positive parts of Tanavast down to a simple character. The story of Fleet is Tanavast's story distilled into a race. Chanarach is added to the story for familiarity, not accuracy. Racing the storm is a metaphor but also ends up being the final outcome. Fleet ran this race until it killed him, then continued until he actually rode the storm for eternity.

That seems a bit close to the mark for Tanavast. Instead of a race, it was a fight against Odium. The Oathpact was necessary to keep Odium at bay, but was an impossible promise for those involved to keep. They broke it over and over again, but they kept trying until Tanavast was finally killed, riding the storm for eternity.

 

[Pagerunner]

I've proposed this exact thing before, along with quite a few other potential avatars. You may be interested in reading through this thread: