RyanEl

Gavilar is an Alethi, and their culture is war. He united the princedoms the only way he knew how - by conquering them. I agree that Gavilar didn't start on his conquest with the best of intentions, but I think for him it was culturally appropriate: all the princes strive for dominance over each other, and we see this throughout the books with how much difficulty Dalinar has keeping the other highprinces in line, with how they constantly engage in border skirmishes at home even though they're technically united as one kingdom. I don't think Gavilar could have united them by anything else other than force, and even Dalinar comes to take a similar view later on. We also know that Radiants, despite their vows are not morally perfect. In Dalinar's flashback, the man he believes is Nohadon states: "Alakavish was a Surgebinder. He should have known better. And yet, the Nahel bond gave him no more wisdom than a regular man. Alas, not all spren are as discerning as honorspren." Perhaps Gavilar believed that a united Alethkar (even if by war) would fare better against a Desolation than separate, squabbling princedoms. We also know that Gavilar behaved oddly by Alethkar standards, especially near the end, that he believed in the Codes on a personal level even if he did not impose it upon his kingdom. Perhaps that was enough to start him down on the path to become a Bondsmith, even though he probably never got as far as Dalinar did. I agree that Gavilar and the Sons of Honor do appear like scumbags and everything we see them do has been pretty questionable, but I don't think we know enough to cast judgment upon them at this point.

Hi everyone - been stalking here from time to time but finally got around to making an account. Love reading Brandon's books, love to speculate on them and love how fast he writes - almost given up hope on a few other authors now...

I personally suspect Gavilar was on the path to being a Bondsmith but might have been totally mucking it up with how he was totally misinterpreting his visions, just like how Kaladin almost lost Syl by condoning Elhokar's assassination. Also, we now know Eshonai had one black sphere, so where did it go? I'm guessing Venli found it and was influenced in some way, eventually using it to reverse engineer stormform. This is just speculation of course since I think it's one logical leap too many, but if true, Gavilar did inadvertently succeed in his goal of bringing about the Everstorm. This prologue makes it very clear that the Sons of Honor seem to believe that bringing the Desolations will return the Heralds and Knights Radiant. Idle musing here: the Desolations, Heralds and Radiants are clearly correlated but which causes which? Are the Heralds Odium's wardens, tied to Damnation so they return alongside Odium, or are they along with the Desolations a kind of 'pressure valve' to let Odium blow off a little steam every now and then so he never regains enough strength to break free?