Something I Noticed in the Surges Chart

[cris34b he/him]

Just noticed. People noticed in the Surges chart how each order is connected to the one next to it, the one that shared a Surge, but that there were liens to other orders as well. I just noticed something.

 

Lightweavers has a line going to Windrunners, directly opposite from each other on the chart.

 

We have seen a Lightweaver and a Windrunner, two of our first Surgebinders. Couldn't stand each other for the most part, but who knows, maybe a coincidence, though we know for a fact the spren of the two orders dislike each other.

 

Next is Bondsmiths connected with Truthwatchers, also directly opposite from each other. Now, I find it would be a bit of a coincidence that Dalinar, our Bondsmith, happens to have a son who is a Truthwatcher. Perhaps there is something here also, maybe the spren of Truthwatchers don't get along with the Stormfather? I don't know, but I thought it a good idea to point out the relationships there so as to possibly help others with their theories. Let me know your thoughts. Please and thank you.

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

As a fervent Shalladin shipper, I take offense to the idea that their interaction boils down to "couldn't stand each other".

Something to add to your thoughts here: Shallash is Jezrien's daughter (as said in both WoB and the WoK epigraph). Perhaps the diagonal lines demonstrate the relationships between the Heralds, too?

[hoser he/him]

There are lots of unexplained lines. The surges can be explained by only the lines between surges and orders.  There are also:

1. Lines between adjacent surges.
2. Lines between adjacent orders.
3. Lines between opposite orders.
4. Lines between orders 1 and 4, 6 and 9.

{wild speculation}

The lines all represent abilities.

1. could be the special abilities for each order.  For example, the line between gravity and pressure might represent stormriding if that is the windrunner special ability.

2, 3 and 4 could be abilities that the two orders have when working together. 

{/wild speculation}

[Rew he/him]

Kaladin and Shallan (and by extension their spren) are set up in many ways to be the opposite of one another - with all kinds of dichotomies from gender, to light/dark eyes, to fighter/non-combatant, and even other characteristics that can be seen directly in WoR - i.e. Kaladin hates the rain and feels drained and grumpy in the Weeping, while Shallan delights in it. 

 

WoR also points out that the spectrum of KR and their Oaths/Ideals seems to be bounded on opposite ends by the Windrunners and the Lightweavers, but also in the structures of their organizations - Lightweavers were more fluid and free who delight in paradox/contradiction, while the Windrunners were a more regimented hierarchy who thrived on order and concrete action.

 

While it may be important that these two orders are set up as opposites and that this may be the meaning of the link between them, I don't know if we can generalize it between all the rest of the orders.  More likely, I would postulate, is that the orders are connected in some way with that on the opposite end of the line - but that connection is not necessarily an opposing connection (like that it seems the Windrunners and Lightweavers seem to have with their paradoxical love-hate relationship - as exemplified by Kaladin and Shallan's interactions - but it may be that they are two sides of a similar coin.  This doesn't mean they won't be attracted to each other - opposites attract and all.)

 

In some cases, it could be a supportive relationship - i.e. Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers may be more intimately involved in supporting one another - thus, the Truthwatchers being "below" the Bondsmiths may indicate their supportive function in assisting the Bondsmiths in whatever they do - helping them unify perhaps through vision and growth-potential. 

 

I don't think we know enough to be able to tease out what all the relationships could be - but I think they will probably be more complex than a simple opposition of focus.  It could be related to all kinds of things - their focus, their relative relationship to Honor/Cultivation, characteristics, Heralds they are patterned after, etc. Each relationship could be based off of one or more or none of those things, and each could be built from a different combination of them.  It will be interesting to see how these relationships develop though the rest of the series though.

[Wrath]

Perhaps the lines have to do with how the Orders interacted with each other? After all we know that disputes between Orders happened, but we don't know how they were actually resolved. The opposite Orders could have had some sort of right of judgement. Almost certainly not the case, but who knows?

[Seloun]

This has been discussed before (http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6905-analysis-of-knights-radiant-graph/) though not necessarily to conclusion.

 

The edges imply that the Orders have both point symmetry (about the middle) and line symmetry (about the horizontal axis). The adjacent edges between the Orders are probably just indication of their shared surges. The point symmetry is still unclear, but probably indicates some kind of antagonistic relationship between the Orders or their associated spren (e.g. Honorspren vs. Cryptics).

 

The horizontal line symmetry is perhaps the most interesting. This seems to imply that the position of the Order along the vertical axis is somehow important. Among other things, it's worth noting that the Heralds associated with the above-line Orders are all male, while the Heralds associated with the below-line Orders are all female. It seems likely that the 'height' of the Order in the graph is indicative of how much Honor/Cultivation is associated with the Order.