User:Thegatorgirl00/History of Roshar

History

Pre-Desolation Roshar

Creation and Early Inhabitants

The planet of Roshar predates the Shattering. The continent was specifically grown by Adonalsium. Much of the ecology of the planet existed from this time, including the highstorms and the spren. The singers werre the primary inhabitants of Roshar at this time and are likely the Dawnsingers spoken of in modern times. At some point after the Shattering, Honor and Cultivation settled on Roshar.

The Expulsion and Early Interactions

Main article: Expulsion

“ They came from another world, using powers that we have been forbidden to touch. Dangerous powers, of spren and Surges. They destroyed their lands and have come to us begging ”

— From the Eila Stele

Humans fled to Roshar from Ashyn, another planet in the Rosharan system. They had destroyed the planet using what Honor implied to be the dawnshards. Honor and Cultivation commanded the singers to take the humans in despite the forbidden powers they had relating to spren and Surges, and they were given Shinovar to live in since Shinovar could support the plants and animals they brought.{[book ref|sa3|113}} With the humans came Odium. The humans, possibly with Odium's influence, grew dissatisfied with what they were given. The conflict between the invading humans and the singers living on Roshar became the First Desolation.

A Vorin perspective on the history of mankind by Greg Call

The Heraldic Epochs

The Desolations

Main article: Desolations

The Desolations were conflicts between mankind and Voidbringers. The first Desolation occurred when humans invaded Roshar from the land they were given. Some of the singers were infused with Odium's Investiture and became the Fused. The Fused did not pass into the Beyond and were instead reborn into the bodies of singers. To combat this, the Heralds made a deal with Honor called the Oathpact. This deal sealed away the Fused on Braize. However, there was a loophole. The Heralds could choose to allow the Fused to return to Roshar, so they were caught on Braize and tortured. The return of Heralds and Fused and the conflict that occurred became known as the Desolations. The spren started to mimic the herald's Honorblades and the Knights Radiant were formed. They helped to fight and rebuild society after a Desolation.

The Last Legion

See also: Listeners

At some point during the Desolations, a group of singers known as the Last Legion were sent to fight in the farthest plains, most likely the ruins of Natanatan on the Shattered Plains. They followed the commands of the Fused and took whatever forms were forced upon them. Seeking freedom, they fled during a highstorm and took on dullform to escape the Fused's control. In order to avoid forgetting their knowledge, they composed songs, including Song of Listing, Song of Secrets and Song of Histories. They didn't, however, know how to transform into any forms except dullform and mateform by themselves. They planned to remain living as tribes and refugees, unnoticed and forgotten, as they studied and rediscovered the forms. Although it is not known exactly when this happened, it must have been prior to the Last Desolation as the Fused remained trapped on Braize from then until the True Desolation.

The Last Desolation

Main article: Last Desolation

“ A…a decision has been made. It is time for the Oathpact to end. ”

— Jezrien's words to Kalak

At the end of the Last Desolation, nine of the ten Heralds had survived the fighting. Like usual, they were supposed to return to Braize to hold back the Fused. Knowing they could not face more torture, however, they came up with a plan. Taln, the only Herald to have never broken during the millennia of Desolations and the only Herald who died, would remain on Braize himself. They had been warned that lingering on Roshar could lead to the start off anoter Desolation, but Ishar claimed that Taln by himself would be enough to hold back the Desolations and maintain the Oathpact. Rather than tell humanity the truth, the Heralds told everyone that they had finally won the fight. This deception lasted for four-thousand five-hundred years, when Taln finally broke under the torture.

The Era of Solitude

“The Voidbringers were cast back into the Tranquiline Halls. The Heralds followed to force them out of heaven as well, and Roshar’s Heraldic Epochs ended. Mankind entered the Era of Solitude. The modern era. ”

—Kabsal to Shallan

The False Desolation

Main article: False Desolation

“Something must be done about the remnants of Odium’s forces. The parsh, as they are now called, continue their war with zeal, even without their masters from Damnation.”

—Drawer 30-20, first emerald

The False Desolation began when Ba-Ado-Mishram learned how to Connect with the majority of the singers, giving them forms of power and access to Voidlight. The Radiants, unaware of how she did this, sought a way to end the fighting for good, as the Heralds had promised them. The fighting became particularly intense at this time, as the singers made a push towards Feverstone Keep, possibly as part of a plan to capture Rall Elorim.

Working together, the scholars among the Radiants theorized that an Unmade could be imprisoned like a regular spren. That devised a plan to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram and prevent her from Connected with the singers and providing them with Voidlight. This plan would require Melishi, the only Bondsmith of his generation, and a special prison, likely a perfect gemstone. Although Melishi was confident the plan would succeed in destroying the Voidbringers, Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warned of unintended side effects. Although the plan seems to have succeeded, as Ba-Ado-Mishram has not been seen in modern times unlike other Unmade, Naze-daughter-Kuzodo's warning was correct. Because she had been Connected to all the singers, their Connection and Identity was torn out of them, creating slaveform or parshmen. The Radiants' horror for what happened likely contributed to the Recreance.

The Recreance

Main article: Day of Recreance

During the lead up to the Day of Recreance, many events occurred which demoralized the Knights Radiant. The Sibling, for some unknown reason, withdrew from Urithiru and forced the Knights to abandon their ancestral home. Many Radiants blamed this on a perceived unworthiness, including increased conflicts between the Windrunners and Skybreakers, but scholars of the time disagreed. This concern extended to potential infiltration by Unmade. While this was occurring, the False Desolation was coming to a close. The presumed success in imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram leading to the singers having their Connection and Identity ripped out of them likely influenced the Radiants. In the midst of this turmoil, the Radiants discovered the truth about the origins of humans on Roshar. The singers had been the original inhabitants of Roshar. The humans came as refugees from their homeworld, which they had destroyed with surges. After being taken in by the singers and given Shinovar, they invaded Roshar and started the Desolations. While Honor had comforted previous generations who learned this, this time he was dying. He raved about the dawnshards and promised the Radiants they would destroy Roshar like they had their homeworld.

As a result of these revelations, the nine of the ten orders decided to abandon their oaths and kill their spren. They believed that this would prevent the destruction of Roshar Honor warned them about. At the locations they left their plate and blades, men quickly began fighting over the weapons, leading to much death and destruction. The Radiants, other than the Skybreakers, were quickly turned on and killed because of the sense of betrayal felt. Society for both spren and humans drastically changed in the aftermath. Those with shardblades quickly consolidated their power, including using Arts and Majesty to justify women not wielding them. It is likely that this is when lighteyes truly came to power. The genocide decimated the populations of spren societies. Most of the survivors were children forced to spend centuries without nurture or guidance. Some societies took two thousand years to fully recover.

The Hierocracy and the War of Loss

Main articles: Hierocracy and War of Loss

The Hierocracy began when the Vorin Church decided to conquer the world and run the government rather than just provide spiritual guidance. They claimed their conquering was for the good of the people. Some of the most powerful ardents claimed to have visions from the Almighty, which they used to solidify their rule and obfuscate their religion. One of their main goals was to destroy knowledge of the failures of Vorinism, including Shadesmar, the Knights Radiant, and the Recreance. They were primarily successful, as even the major libraries on Roshar are missing this information. Before the Hierocracy could spread to the west, Sadees, the Sunmaker, united the princedoms of Alethkar to drive out the HIerocracy. They fought in many epic battles the likes of which have not been seen since in what came to be known as the War of Loss. The Sunmaker successfully cast down the Hierocracy and stated the visions were a fraud.

Sadees's win in the War of Loss affected much of eastern Roshar. Sadees declared himself king of Alethkar and began a conquest of Roshar. Although the extent of his empire is not exactly known, Herdaz and Azir were both included. He committed genocide in Azir and killed ten percent of the population. His empire quickly collapsed after his death, however, as he did not choose an heir, and his ten sons divided the kingdom into princedoms and became highprinces. The effects of the Hierocracy on Vorinism can still be felt in the modern time. The central leadership of the church was destroyed and split into mostly independent Devotaries. The ardents became slaves who could not own land or property. Their revisions to historical texts also perpetuate, and it is difficult to find information about pre-Hierocracy history or the Knights Radiant.

The Scouring of Aimia

Main article: Scouring of Aimia

What exactly occurred during the Scouring of Aimia is unknown but it appears that the vast majority of Aimia's ecosystem collapsed, leading to the extinction of the lanceryn and the near extinction of the larkin. Most creatures there are quite rare since the scouring. The island of Akinah, however, was not destroyed and is still protected from outsiders by the Sleepless. Hessi indicates in Mythica that Dai-Gonarthis may have been responsible for the scouring.

Gavilar and the Listeners

Since the Sunmaker's death, Alethkar had been in conflict with themselves. The rest of the world considered them to be a backwater with no real influence on world politics. All that changed when Gavilar Kholin decided to reunite Alethkar. He, along with his brother Dalinar and friend Torol Sadeas, fought to reunite the various highprinces. The war allowed the Thrill to gain a stronger foothold among the Alethi people. Dalinar in particular gained a strong connection with it, as Odium was hoping to groom him as his champion. At some point during the war or the aftermath as king, Gavilar began seeing visions sent by Honor warning him of the coming True Desolation and telling him to unite them. He interpreted the visions as needing to start a new Desolation to force people to unite, and he joined the Sons of Honor.

During an expedition to the Shattered Plains, Gavilar and Dalinar encountered the listeners. This interaction was the first meeting of humans and non-lobotomized singers in two thousand years. Gavilar grew fascinated with the listeners, and the two societies worked to form a peace treaty. The night of the historic signing of the peace treaty between humans and the last free enclave of singers, many important figures including some of the Heralds chose to attend. During the night, however, Gavilar revealed to the listener Eshonai his intention to bring back the Fused. The listeners chose to assassinate Gavilar rather than let that happen. His assassination and their confession led to the signing of the Vengeance Pact and the start of the War of Reckoning.

His brother's death combined with his actions under the Thrill inspired Dalinar to seek out the Nightwatcher. Cultivation interfered and took his memories of his wife in a plan to counter Odium's future for Dalinar. These actions would have a massive influence on the later conflict of the True Desolation.

The War of Reckoning

Main article: War of Reckoning

While the Alethi initially intended to exterminate the listeners quickly, the geography of the Shattered Plains and the existence of the gemhearts led to a far more drawn out siege. Both sides relied on the gemhearts to keep their people supplied with food. Both sides took significant losses, but it had a much larger effect on the singers. Ulim, a voidspren who had somehow found a way to escape Braize, used the desperation of the singers to convince Venli to rediscover the forms of power and summon the Everstorm.

The human side of the war served as a location in which many of the returning Knights Radiant unknowingly began to gather. Syl defied the orders of her people and the Stormfather and bonded Kaladin, the first returned Windrunner. Dalinar started receiving the same visions as his brother had before his death, starting the bond that would let him become a Bondsmith. Shallan,, the first returning Lightweaver, made her way to the Plains for a betrothal to Dalinar's son. Renarin Kholin bonded a Truthwatcher spren that had been corrupted by Sja-anat. Dalinar's visions combined with Navani's scholarship allowed for the creation of a translation key for dawnchant. This allowed humans to translate many ancient texts with previously unknown contents.

Approximately six years after the War off Reckoning began, the Herald Taln finally broke under torture and returned to Roshar. Not long after, the listeners used Stromform to summon the Everstorm, and Shallan found the Oathgate that would take them to Urithiru. This marked the start of the True desolation.

The True Desolation

“ I have seen the end, and have heard it named. The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm. ”

— Collected on Palaheses 1172, 15 seconds pre-death. Subject was a darkeyed youth of unknown origin.

Singers and the Everstorm

See also: Everstorm

Urithiru and the Coalition

See also: Urithiru

A map of Urithiru by Ben McSweeney

The Siege of Kholinar

Main article: Siege of Kholinar

The Battle of Thaylen Field

Main article: Battle of Thaylen Field