robardin

"A sudden and calamitous ruin?"

Ruin?

RUIN?

Is something intending to try to winnow Harmony back into Preservation and Ruin?

On 9/27/2018 at 5:13 PM, Potus said:

I just feel like Brandon could have fleshed out Amaram and the reason why he suddenly went to Odium's side. I think it would have been cool to get a Son's of Honor pov from his perspective. Maybe those parts were moved for later books flashbacks. Or we may never know

I thought it was enough to have Amaram's own words on the subject...

Quote

"It's not Amaram I speak to anymore, is it? Who, or what, are you?"

"Oh, it's me," Amaram said. ... "Odium promised me something grand, and that promise has been kept. With honor."

"You still pretend to speak of honor?"

"Everything I do is for honor. ... It was honor that drove me to seek the return of the Heralds, of powers, and of our god."

"So you could join the other side?"

... "Odium showed me what the Heralds have become. We spent years trying to get them to return. But they were here all along. They abandoned us, spearman."

What wasn't clear to me was whether or not the Sons of Honor, headed by the Restares we seen references to but have yet to see "on page", have gone over to Odium as an organization, or if it was just Amaram. He only uses the first person singular throughout, except for when he refers to the SoH as "we" in terms of "trying to get [the Heralds] to return", so I think it's just him.

From his POV, he had worked with the SoH to "bring back the Heralds" by intentionally precipitating another Desolation, which would result in the return of the Radiants and True Vorinism. Then he learned that the Heralds broke (or tried to break) the Oathpact and have stepped completely away from leading humanity in any capacity, and that Honor was dead, so what is left?

Besides, as we see further, Amaram not only wanted the power that Odium promised him (all ten Surges - thanks to merging with Yelig-nar), but also for Odium to "take his pain" - the guilt he feels for betraying his own ideals in murdering his own men (Kaladin's squad) to steal the Shards. "You were supposed to be better than this!" Kaladin threw at him; and he had agreed, but did it anyway.

"You've switched sides to find peace, Amaram. But you won't ever have it. He'll never give it to you."