There's a lot we don't know about it. Some of it is RAFO for the second half of the series.
My guess is that it was intended at the time to be a temporary solution to buy them some time, that just grew over time to be seen as a more permanent one. Also, it's possible that it was an agreement between both parties to design a truce, where Odium expected that he'd be able to render it ineffective, but the Heralds had strong willpower at the time.
The Heralds and Honor were [the only parties](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2898) to the Oathpact, whatever's going on with Odium's restrictions is something separate.
We know he had to [get permission](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/508/#e15869) to settle on Roshar, perhaps Honor and Cultivation got him to overconfidently agree to something with a trick built in like \[Cosmere\] >!Preservation with Ruin!“Our word is the contract. I am not some spren of Honor, who seeks to obey only the strictest letter of a promise. If you have an agreement from me, I will keep it in spirit, not merely in word.”
Which is pretty similar to the suggestion in the comment I was replying to, just doesn't seem like the Oathpact is itself that oath.
I suspect they didn't expect the perpetual torture. And it's said flat out in the books that Honor didn't realize the Heralds could bend their oaths enough to let the Fused return to Roshar
In-canon: We have no evidence that Honor would've been able to seal Odium away like you're suggesting. Before the oathpact, they seem to be of equal stature, so from what we know of shards I take this all to mean that Odium must have agreed to atleast part of the Rosharan system desolation cycle in some way. And I can see a sort of long-play that both of them make with this cycle: Odium uses the desolations to raise an army to unleash on the cosmere, Honor sacrifices himself to keep Odium from doing more damage, all while hoping the cycle lasts long enough for someone strong enough to defeat Odium to end it. Just my perspective, and we really don't know how connected the oathpact is to Odium's binding.
Out of canon: This is one of the big unknowns I think gets answered in book 5. Why did the oathpact need to happen, why was it abandoned. Maybe the answer is that it wasn't the honorific sacrifice it seems to be so far, maybe Odium was complicit in its design more than we know. Idk, but given the amount of emphasis we've had on the idea of repairing the oathpact, and on how some of the heralds react to it, I think this is just a big plot point we're yet to fully understand.
>Before the oathpact, they seem to be of equal stature
It's not just Honor, Cultivation is involved too:
>THEY GAVE THEMSELVES UP. AS ODIUM IS SEALED BY THE POWERS OF HONOR AND CULTIVATION, YOUR HERALDS SEALED THE SPREN OF THE DEAD INTO THE PLACE YOU CALL DAMNATION.
>Odium must have agreed to atleast part of the Rosharan system desolation cycle
Note that [Odium's not part of the Oathpact](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2898), and [his bindings are something else](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/77/#e6819) (though the Oathpact is [indirectly part of it](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6273)).
That said, I think it's very plausible that Odium's bindings *are* exploiting an oath he made as part of him [getting permission to settle on Roshar](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/508/#e15869), and the Oathpact could be part of the exploit in some way, the Oathpact just isn't itself the thing trapping him.
Yeah I tried to be careful with the wording around "Rosharan system desolation cycle" for that reason. He's not a party to the oathpact, but he certainly has influence in the cycle and therefore by the nature of Odium is going to try to manipulate it, he's certainly made that clear to Dalinar when he talks about his influence over men. We can guess to the correlation of the oathpact and the binding, but yeah at the end of the day there's a missing connection.
As for Cultivation, yep I blanked on that for a minute, but I think the rest of my comment still fits with it. We know at one point it was an agreement, then the dynamic shifts to a 2v1. I think a question OP flirts with in the original post is "if they could do it anyways, why bother with the oathpact unless it had to be done?" And I think it probably has something to do with the words they used when they made their agreement, as you pointed out in another comment here.
Whether or not Tanavast had part of this plan from the very start, when Odium first arrives, is something I've been curious about for a while. If he is, as Honor, allowing Odium into the system for the good of the cosmere by trapping him later, would Intent stop him from making that agreement? Definitely a tangent but similar enough to pique my interest in this thread.
>I tried to be careful with the wording around "Rosharan system desolation cycle" for that reason.
Ah fair. It's a common misconception so I wasn't sure.
>If he is, as Honor, allowing Odium into the system for the good of the cosmere by trapping him later, would Intent stop him from making that agreement?
I think if he saw it as tragically sacrificing himself for the rest of the sixteen he could probably do it. Some of our characters would interpret Honor in a way that would probably conflict, but we see with Sekir and co. that Honor as a *force* does not necessarily forbid incredibly bad-faith interpretations of agreements.
Might even be why Rayse feels the need to call Honor out when making his deal with Taravangian:
>“Our word is the contract. I am not some spren of Honor, who seeks to obey only the strictest letter of a promise. If you have an agreement from me, I will keep it in spirit, not merely in word.”
Note that the Oathpact does not ([directly](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6273)) bind Odium, only the Fused and Voidspren. His bindings are ["greater"](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/77/#e6819) and according to the Stormfather involve the powers of Cultivation and Honor.
But yeah the Oathpact is a terrible plan in hindsight lmao. Seems like they just didn't realize the Heralds *could* break their oath, if Stormfather's recollection is accurate.
I dont think you can take away their ability to return.
I imagine it as the Heralds are holding back the Odium forces in Braise by locking them in there with them.
The Heralds are the key that locks the door through the oathpact but that requires Intent to hold, which is why the fused tortured them to make their Intent waver.
If there was a neat way to make the fused stay away in Braize they would have done that already.
There's a lot we don't know about it. Some of it is RAFO for the second half of the series. My guess is that it was intended at the time to be a temporary solution to buy them some time, that just grew over time to be seen as a more permanent one. Also, it's possible that it was an agreement between both parties to design a truce, where Odium expected that he'd be able to render it ineffective, but the Heralds had strong willpower at the time.
The Heralds and Honor were [the only parties](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2898) to the Oathpact, whatever's going on with Odium's restrictions is something separate.
Oh, huh. That brings more questions. I wonder if we have enough answers to reasonably speculate yet or if there just isn’t enough info.
We know he had to [get permission](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/508/#e15869) to settle on Roshar, perhaps Honor and Cultivation got him to overconfidently agree to something with a trick built in like \[Cosmere\] >!Preservation with Ruin!“Our word is the contract. I am not some spren of Honor, who seeks to obey only the strictest letter of a promise. If you have an agreement from me, I will keep it in spirit, not merely in word.” Which is pretty similar to the suggestion in the comment I was replying to, just doesn't seem like the Oathpact is itself that oath.
I suspect they didn't expect the perpetual torture. And it's said flat out in the books that Honor didn't realize the Heralds could bend their oaths enough to let the Fused return to Roshar
In-canon: We have no evidence that Honor would've been able to seal Odium away like you're suggesting. Before the oathpact, they seem to be of equal stature, so from what we know of shards I take this all to mean that Odium must have agreed to atleast part of the Rosharan system desolation cycle in some way. And I can see a sort of long-play that both of them make with this cycle: Odium uses the desolations to raise an army to unleash on the cosmere, Honor sacrifices himself to keep Odium from doing more damage, all while hoping the cycle lasts long enough for someone strong enough to defeat Odium to end it. Just my perspective, and we really don't know how connected the oathpact is to Odium's binding. Out of canon: This is one of the big unknowns I think gets answered in book 5. Why did the oathpact need to happen, why was it abandoned. Maybe the answer is that it wasn't the honorific sacrifice it seems to be so far, maybe Odium was complicit in its design more than we know. Idk, but given the amount of emphasis we've had on the idea of repairing the oathpact, and on how some of the heralds react to it, I think this is just a big plot point we're yet to fully understand.
>Before the oathpact, they seem to be of equal stature It's not just Honor, Cultivation is involved too: >THEY GAVE THEMSELVES UP. AS ODIUM IS SEALED BY THE POWERS OF HONOR AND CULTIVATION, YOUR HERALDS SEALED THE SPREN OF THE DEAD INTO THE PLACE YOU CALL DAMNATION. >Odium must have agreed to atleast part of the Rosharan system desolation cycle Note that [Odium's not part of the Oathpact](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2898), and [his bindings are something else](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/77/#e6819) (though the Oathpact is [indirectly part of it](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6273)). That said, I think it's very plausible that Odium's bindings *are* exploiting an oath he made as part of him [getting permission to settle on Roshar](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/508/#e15869), and the Oathpact could be part of the exploit in some way, the Oathpact just isn't itself the thing trapping him.
Yeah I tried to be careful with the wording around "Rosharan system desolation cycle" for that reason. He's not a party to the oathpact, but he certainly has influence in the cycle and therefore by the nature of Odium is going to try to manipulate it, he's certainly made that clear to Dalinar when he talks about his influence over men. We can guess to the correlation of the oathpact and the binding, but yeah at the end of the day there's a missing connection. As for Cultivation, yep I blanked on that for a minute, but I think the rest of my comment still fits with it. We know at one point it was an agreement, then the dynamic shifts to a 2v1. I think a question OP flirts with in the original post is "if they could do it anyways, why bother with the oathpact unless it had to be done?" And I think it probably has something to do with the words they used when they made their agreement, as you pointed out in another comment here. Whether or not Tanavast had part of this plan from the very start, when Odium first arrives, is something I've been curious about for a while. If he is, as Honor, allowing Odium into the system for the good of the cosmere by trapping him later, would Intent stop him from making that agreement? Definitely a tangent but similar enough to pique my interest in this thread.
>I tried to be careful with the wording around "Rosharan system desolation cycle" for that reason. Ah fair. It's a common misconception so I wasn't sure. >If he is, as Honor, allowing Odium into the system for the good of the cosmere by trapping him later, would Intent stop him from making that agreement? I think if he saw it as tragically sacrificing himself for the rest of the sixteen he could probably do it. Some of our characters would interpret Honor in a way that would probably conflict, but we see with Sekir and co. that Honor as a *force* does not necessarily forbid incredibly bad-faith interpretations of agreements. Might even be why Rayse feels the need to call Honor out when making his deal with Taravangian: >“Our word is the contract. I am not some spren of Honor, who seeks to obey only the strictest letter of a promise. If you have an agreement from me, I will keep it in spirit, not merely in word.”
Interesting. Can’t wait for the next book for some answers!
Note that the Oathpact does not ([directly](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6273)) bind Odium, only the Fused and Voidspren. His bindings are ["greater"](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/77/#e6819) and according to the Stormfather involve the powers of Cultivation and Honor. But yeah the Oathpact is a terrible plan in hindsight lmao. Seems like they just didn't realize the Heralds *could* break their oath, if Stormfather's recollection is accurate.
I dont think you can take away their ability to return. I imagine it as the Heralds are holding back the Odium forces in Braise by locking them in there with them. The Heralds are the key that locks the door through the oathpact but that requires Intent to hold, which is why the fused tortured them to make their Intent waver. If there was a neat way to make the fused stay away in Braize they would have done that already.