Honor

Honor
by botanicaxu
Vessel	Tanavast
Slivers	Stormfather
Splinters	Spren
Status	Splintered
Perpendicularity	Honor's Perpendicularity
Magics	Surgebinding
Residence	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere

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“I am . . . I was . . . God. The one you call the Almighty, the creator of mankind. And now I am dead. Odium has killed me. I am sorry. ”

—Honor to Dalinar

Honor is one of the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium, and one of the three, alongside Cultivation and Odium, present in the Rosharan system. The original Vessel of Honor was called Tanavast. Following his death at the hands of Odium, Honor was Splintered. Honor’s Investiture is typically associated with a blue-white coloration.

Intent

Honor seeks to uphold oaths and agreements, and to bind things together. It is most notably about the choice of following laws or a set of ideals, even if one does not have an obligation to follow said rules. Although not centered around it, it supports laws and power, to what some would consider an unhealthy extent. It espouses a morality defined by adherence to oaths. The Intent holds the oath itself as being more important than the meaning behind it.

Many, such as the Fused, consider it to extend to a cosmic sense of justice and order, as well as the natural laws of the universe. They see its power as that which makes Surges into natural law.

Its Intent manifests in the oaths of the Knights Radiant, the oath-bound nature of Honorspren society, the bonding nature of Physical and Spiritual Adhesion, and etcetera.

Associated magic

by Connor Chamberlain

Creating one of Roshar's Lights

Stormlight

For more information, see Stormlight.

Stormlight is a gaseous form of Investiture associated with Honor. It was not created by him, as a proto-version of it existed prior to his arrival on Roshar, but in the present day, it has been subsumed into him. The largest Splinter of Honor, the Stormfather, is responsible for creating and maintaining the highstorms that bring stormlight.

Stormlight is crucial to the Rosharan ecosystem. Numerous animals form bonds with lesser spren, which most likely require Stormlight as fuel. Moreover, large quantities of Stormlight are necessary for singers to change forms. In Shadesmar, spren derive sustenance from Stormlight. While humans do not normally utilize Stormlight themselves, its presence makes them significantly healthier.

God Metal

Honorblades are made out of the God Metal of Honor.

Shardblades and Shardplate are both made out of a mixture of the unnamed God Metals of Honor and Cultivation. The precise proportion of the two differs depending on the type of spren that forms the Blade, or the order to which the Plate belongs; as such, there are at least ten alloys.

by Heatherly

In the highstorm

Surgebinding

For more information, see Surgebinding.

Surgebinding on Roshar is a magic system derived from both Honor and Cultivation. To utilize it, a person must bond a higher spren, which allows them to inhale Stormlight and use it to control Surges, a set of ten fundamental forces, although a single spren bond allows access to only two of them. Some Surges favor Honor, and others Cultivation, although only Adhesion is 'purely' of Honor.

Apart from spren bonds, Honor can also grant the use of Surgebinding through the Honorblades, weapons made out of his Investiture. Like spren, each Honorblade grants access to only one pair of Surges; in fact, Surgebinding came about as spren attempted to imitate the Honorblades.

According to the Fused, Honor is responsible for making the Surges into natural law.

Spren

For more information, see Spren.

Spren are Splinters holding the Investitures of both Honor and Cultivation, though in different proportions depending on the type of spren. Some spren are of pure Honor or pure Cultivation, though which type gets to call themselves "closest to Honor" is a matter of some debate among their society.

The most notable spren of Honor is the Stormfather. Unlike most other spren, Stormfather was created by Honor intentionally; moreover, he has merged with Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow, granting him greater access to the Spiritual Realm.

Direct intervention

Honor's particular intent lends itself well to binding and forming bonds. Among others, he bound Heralds to himself and tied them to the cycle of Desolations, creating the Oathpact to protect Roshar. He also tied Odium to the greater Rosharan system through some other means, making it impossible for Rayse to depart unless either the planet is destroyed or whoever holds the largest remnant of Honor's power willingly releases him.

History

by Marie Seeberger

Honor and Cultivation

Creation

The Shard of Honor was created, like all others, at the Shattering of Adonalsium, and picked up by Tanavast over ten-thousand years before the rebellion against the Cinder King. Though the Shards had an agreement to go their own separate ways, he and Cultivation traveled together to the Rosharan system. However, whatever the actual text of the agreement, Honor did not consider his actions to be breaking it, or exploiting a loophole in it. The reason for that could be that Tanavast and Koravellium Avast were romantically involved.

God of Roshar

On Roshar, Honor and Cultivation became the gods of the singers, a native Rosharan species. They also created intelligent spren around ten-thousand years before the True Desolation.

Around seven-thousand years before the True Desolation, human refugees arrived from Ashyn, seeking help after accidentally destroying their own world, and the two permitted them to settle on the planet, likely in the region now called Shinovar. Unfortunately, along with them came Odium, who by that point had murdered three other Shards -- Dominion, Devotion and Ambition -- and was now seeking to attack either Honor, Cultivation, or both. When the relations between humans and singers of Roshar broke down, singers turned to Odium to help them, leading to the creation of the Fused, Cognitive Shadows of singers who could be reborn into the bodies of their kinsmen every time they died.

To help the people of Roshar, Honor created the Heralds, binding ten people to himself and giving them similar resurrective ability, although one that did not require taking the bodies of humans. Moreover, he bound Odium to the Rosharan system, making it impossible for him to leave.

At some point, he and Cultivation combined their Lights in order to create the Sibling, who is considered their child. They were created in order to oppose Odium. and became a central figure in mankind's resistance against the Fused, acting as the control centre of Urithiru and as a Bondsmith spren.

After around three-thousand years, the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact after numerous Desolations in the event known as the Aharietiam. Sometime afterwards, Odium succeeded at Splintering him.

by Ari Ibarra

Honor's death

Death

“I remember at the end Honor was more obsessed with oaths. There were times when the oath itself was more important than the meaning behind it. But he was not a passionless monster. He loved humankind. He died defending you. ”

—The Stormfather

Honor's death, however, was a protracted event. Before passing away fully, Honor took some measures to help Rosharans in the future. Chief among them was leaving behind a series of visions to warn of the possibility of the True Desolation, and to leave behind some information that might be helpful. He prepared the Stormfather to be his inheritor, and gave him the task of choosing the possible recipients of the visions. At the very end of his existence, Tanavast was still capable of communicating with humans, but by then he was raving and no longer supported the Knights Radiant.

He died and his Shard was Splintered shortly after the Recreance, around two-thousand years before the True Desolation. Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow merged with the Stormfather, along with the largest portion of Honor's remaining power. That remaining power is sufficient to keep Odium bound to Roshar, and the Oathpact ongoing.

Influence

by Kyle Pearson

Honor and the Stormfather

“The Almighty accepted the excellence of any man or woman, regardless of what they did. ”

—Vorin doctrine

Honor is well known among the Rosharan people, and worshiped as a god. Vorinism calls him the Almighty and claims that he's the only deity, considering worship of Cultivation to be pagan. He's believed to be the creator of both Roshar and mankind. In the Vorin tradition, he has ten names, the last of which, Elithanathile, is only used by ardents, the Vorin priests. It's said he resides in the hearts of all people. As it's commonly believed that perceiving him directly would cause one to burst into flames from his sheer glory, he's typically represented by a divine prism with ten facets.

Vorins believe that the Almighty is also responsible for sorting out the dead and deciding on their afterlife. The best possible outcome is to be sent to battle in Tranquiline Halls, the lost paradise, and reclaim it from the Voidbringers. To achieve this, one has to pick a Calling - a purpose in life - and a Glory, an aspect of the Almighty that one strives to emulate.

After Honor's connection to the Almighty, and his death, were discovered, some Ardents tried to reconceptualize their faith after learning of Honor's death. To do so, they interpreted Honor as a mere aspect of the Almighty through which he revealed himself to the world. This position, however, is heterodox and heretical, with Honor's death and the idea of Honor being a mere aspect of the Almighty being rejected by Vorin orthodoxy.

Honor is also worshiped in Azir and the surrounding countries, though there he's known simply as God. The singers worshiped him and Cultivation once, before the arrival of Odium.

Trivia

• According to Brandon Sanderson, in Magic: The Gathering colors, Honor would be mono-white.
• The forbiddance on speaking the Tenth Name of the Almighty might be based around practices concerning the Tetragrammaton. This is held to be the most holy name of God in Judaism. Historically it is not allowed to be spoken except by priests within the temple, but currently it is not allowed to be spoken by anyone. It is taught that, when read in scripture, the name itself is not to be pronounced, but instead replaced with another name of God.

Notes

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