This is a long story. [But she's willing to tell it; that door isn't down yet.] Desolations have occurred before, whenever voidspren return to Roshar.
Originally, the ten Heralds created what was called the Oathpact, binding the voidspren into Damnation. When the Heralds began walking Roshar again, we'd know a Desolation was coming. It wasn't common knowledge, but this was because they joined the voidspren in Damnation, and that the spren would be released whenever a Herald allowed it. The periods between Desolations were the time it took for the spren to find the Heralds as they hid, and then the time it took to break their wills once they were caught.
At first we had centuries to recover between onslaughts. Then years. The last two Desolations were separated by a matter of months. Technology was lost, kingdoms fell- we went from a space-faring people to fighting with stone tools. That was four millenia ago. We were told it had ended, that the voidbringers were defeated for good-
no subject
[Says Jasnah, heart clenching at the thought.]
This is a long story. [But she's willing to tell it; that door isn't down yet.] Desolations have occurred before, whenever voidspren return to Roshar.
Originally, the ten Heralds created what was called the Oathpact, binding the voidspren into Damnation. When the Heralds began walking Roshar again, we'd know a Desolation was coming. It wasn't common knowledge, but this was because they joined the voidspren in Damnation, and that the spren would be released whenever a Herald allowed it. The periods between Desolations were the time it took for the spren to find the Heralds as they hid, and then the time it took to break their wills once they were caught.
At first we had centuries to recover between onslaughts. Then years. The last two Desolations were separated by a matter of months. Technology was lost, kingdoms fell- we went from a space-faring people to fighting with stone tools. That was four millenia ago. We were told it had ended, that the voidbringers were defeated for good-
[But obviously not.]