matt987

Hmmm... You have me a bit stumped... Good points. RAFO I guess. Thanks for indulging.

The Oathpact does not directly bind Odium, rather by them being able to use Honor's binding powers to drag the Fused/Voidspren back to Braize, it ensures there are a lot of splinters (i.e. the voidspren/Fused are splinters of Odium) on Braize, which in turn connects Odium to Braize. For Odium to leave Braize a sufficient number of splinters have to leave Braize or be destroyed (e.g. I suspect Nightblood somehow destroys those splinters...). Your point about part 1 ending on a stop-gap measure makes some sense... In general I have been terrible at guessing how Brandon Sanderson will end a story, so willing to consider that I am way off.

Thinking about this and this is what makes sense to me... The Heralds, via their oathpact they are able to somehow bind and/or put to sleep voidspren. At the end of a desolation (or during it if they are killed) they would return to Braize (planet where Odium is trapped) and bring along the bound voidspren with them. A desolation would end, when either the remaining Herald's finished binding the voidspren on Roshar or they all died leaving some behind (but not enough to necessarily be a major impediment to humankind or due to the absence of Odium's influence after the desolation the voidspren would be very weak on Roshar). The reason for them having to go to Braize after binding as many voidspren as possible is that the voidspren on Braize are splinters of Odium and a sufficient number of them being on Braize ties Odium to Braize as opposed to Odium being able to travel to Roshar and attacking Cultivation and bringing massive destruction. The oathpact comes with multiple things. (1) allows the Herald to bind voidspren, (2) likely via the honorblade draw on the essence of Honor, and (3) in turn when they died or when the desolation was over they had to go to Braize and bring the bound voidspren with them there (in order to keep Odium there). Once the Heralds went to Braize, Odium would have to focus his attention on Braize, where he was, and the Heralds would feel the full direct fury of Odium until they broke, thereby returning to Roshar and freeing on Braize the voidspren they had bound. Once all 10 heralds would break Odium would from his limited vantage point on Braize turn his attention to Roshar and the voidspren would start making their way to Roshar thereby starting the next Desolation. If the Heralds would not act to bind voidspren within a limited amount of time, eventually it is possible enough voidspren would have been able to leave Braize and make it to Roshar enabling Odium to go to Roshar. The reason for 10 heralds, is to correspond to the 10 combinations of surges, which ensured the Heralds had the best ability to counter the voidbringers and bind as many of them as they could. In the last desolation, when 9 Heralds survived they had bound and put to sleep in a sense all or about all of the voidbringers. Taln who died, was back on Braize with the voidbringers he bound with him and that was enough to keep Odium's focus. As to why Taln was able to hold so long... One possibility is that by the other 9 heralds not bringing over their bound voidspren, Odium was weaker on Braize in the intervening period (due to having so many splinters asleep on Roshar). Alternatively as each Herald broke the voidspren he bound joined the torture, making it worse for the remaining. With the voidspren being asleep on Roshar, Taln, was not faced by as harsh a torture this time. - Regarding the oathpact, while Honor is dead and the Honorblades can no longer draw on his essence, they can still be used to bind voidspren, so the oathpact is still relevant. At this juncture with the Herald's broken there is a real risk that the voidspren on Braize will make it over to Roshar, thereby freeing Odium. To prevent that someone will need to join the oathpact, or at least gain the ability to bind the voidspren and go back to Braize with them. This is what I think the end of book 5 might be. In other words rather this is preface to the true desolation where Odium finally breaks out of Braize, which will happen when whomever takes up the mantle of the Heralds, breaks. Further it would seem that other things will happen that will make Odium's escape inevitable. Beyond Odium being able to escape Braize, there is a bigger concern in the Cosmere that he will be able to eventually leave the Roshar system. I think this is why Nightblood is present... Nightblood seemingly completely destroys voidspren (or anything it touches) as such, it is destroying the splinters of Odium that bind Odium to Braize (and Roshar). If Nightblood is used excessively then Odium will not have any splinters holding him to the Roshar system. In this way, it makes a lot of sense that Naln does not care what Szeth is doing with the blade as he understands that Szeth is destroying Odium's prison(s). Viviena (Azure) is chasing after Nightblood to prevent the unintended consequence of using him form occurring. With Honor dead, the strength of the binding of Voidspren weakened and whomever takes up the Herald's path, will only be a shadow of what they could do. Meaning that if someone goes to Braize with enough bound voidspren to prevent Odium from leaving, that binding will not hold strong regardless of whether the person can withstand Odium, leading to the eventual return of the desolation in Book 6. At that point with less voidspren around due to Szeth killing too many, Odium will easily make the move from Braize to Roshar, bringing the true desolation. Hoid who is out to stop Odium understands this and his goal his to shatter Odium. Likely he wants Cultivation to be a part of this which will result in both Odium and Cultivation being destroyed, thereby bringing some balance to Roshar (and preventing Odium from further threatening the Cosmere). The Kinght's Radiant at the higher ideals are better able to move between realms and such, and therefore the presence of them somehow ties into being able to pull over voidspren from Braize quicker and hence the reason why the Skybreakers prior to swearing to the Voidbringers were looking out for anyone exhibiting such abilities. I have some more on this but this outlines my major thoughts on this series and its place in the Cosmere.

Just finished reading this book and here are my thoughts... Sanderson has a way of introducing some clever twists so likely we are missing some key information here... Obliteration believes he is obligated to destroy the world with him being the last thing he has to destroy. His nightmares are of God calling to him and demanding that he destroy but he is not able to complete the job, perhaps it is his fear he is not worthy of the job (perhaps his statement that his nightmares will kill him is an expression of his fear that he will not be able to live up to his mission and he will thus be destroyed by God). His reading of the 4 horsemen a dozen times speaks of his struggle to understand his role and why he should be worthy while at the same time he believes the epics are evil. This fear drives him to rationalize that he is somehow worthy and doing the right thing (i.e. he is not overcoming the fear, rather the fear is driving him). He knows if he entertains doubts his power wanes (i.e again, if he lets himself doubt himself he will be destroyed). Perhaps a good speech about how he is not worthy or won't be able to accomplish his mission would make him lose his power, but we never find that out. He is not evil, per se, but rather seriously deluded. When David tells him that his nightmare's are what causes his weakness and not the weakness what causes the nightmare, he suddenly begins to realize that the dreams are not God demanding he do anything, but rather just an expression of his fear from his former life, that he cannot accomplish what God demands, which enables him to set aside that fear or actually confront it (i.e. he can now think he can do good which is doing what god wants and he should not fear failure). This is the reason for the laugh and the comment about the lord spake and he responded. He now realizes that is all a delusion and his fears were completely unnecessary (which also would mean he no longer has this fear and as such has lost his weakness). When he touches David, there is nothing about heat mentioned, rather the implication is that David winced in pain due to the existing wounds, so there is no attempt to hurt David, rather an oversight. He then goes away to reflect upon what happened and possibly his actions until then, trying to figure out what it all means. Perhaps that is what the end with the laughter is, not that his job is to destroy but really he should be doing what he thinks is really God's will and help mankind, hence him laughing at how he got it all backwards. On a separate note, just wondering if David is an Epic now or not... Too many odd pointers and not sure what to make of them. Also wonder what is going to be with Prof in the next book, which is titled Calamity... Strange, to let the leader of the Reckoners to become evil at the end of this book and not have him the title for the next one. Must be his story-line will be wrapped up in a story-line related to Calamity. What I really wonder is if somehow he (Prof) actually becomes Calamity... Also, with all those mad Epics out there throughout the world, I think a universal solution to them, will somehow be introduced. Simply telling Epics to conquer the fears, will not easily work, just look at David trying to rationalize with Prof when he is really Epic... It worked with Obliteration as Obliteration was a thoughtful person and on Megan as she cared and was not very evil in her time with David. Not sure, if this would have worked on some more naturally evil epics or those without something countering their Epic nature to begin with that would allow them to listen to this idea.