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The squires progress faster specifically because they have Kaladin to help guide them. He discovered this all on his own, where they have his experience and guidance to learn from. Add in that from his time in the slave cage to the end of OB is barely more than a year, and they've done in a few months what he did in a year, because of his help. I understand the reason your frustrated, but I don't see it as an invalidation of what Kal has achieved. It's an additional achievement of Kal's that they're doing so well.

So, finished Oathbringer last night. I was talking with my husband, and he made an interesting point. When Dalinar reconstructed Honor's perpendicularity, it seemed to unite all three realms. Evidence: Stormlight doesn't originate in the cognitive realm (it manifests as a wave there too), but the perpendicularity released a huge amount of Stormlight. Whatever that means, I want to focus on Odium's reaction. Odium/Rayse looked on in horror and said "No! We killed you!". Note that he said we, not I. Since he hasn't used the royal we anywhere else, that means he was talking about a group of which he was a part. From this, I think he was looking at the Spiritual Realm and seeing Adonalsium, not Honor. Further evidence: whatever he saw made him shrink back in horror and lessen the Everstorm. The only thing that would be more powerful than a shard (save Harmony's two shards) is Adonalsium his/itself. I think that, in the Spiritual Realm where everything is perfected, Adonalsium never died. To paraphrase Navani, if it was really God, it couldn't have been killed. I think that the shardbearers merely broke the part of Adonalsium that showed up in the Physical and Cognitive Realms. What do you think, sirs?

Hi all, so I was thinking about Rock, aka "Lunamor" and his use of Stormlight. I apologise if anyone has posted a similar thread - I couldnt see one like it though. So from OB we get quite a lot of info about Rock which I'll list here. He calls himself Lunamor in his PoV He is married with children and we meet those people He has lied to Bridge 4 a number of times He can draw Stormlight like any squire of Kaladin's He doesn't seem to bond a spren despite many of Kaladin's top level officers managing it by the end of OB. So I was thinking that Rock could be a proto-Lightweaver rather than a WR. So my evidence is pretty complicated. I'll try to put it in as much a chronological order as possible. We see that Rock can "transform" people right from the start. He helps them by making stew for the bridgecrew as one of the first things Kaladin does to get them together. He is creative - he can sing and he is experimental/creative with cooking. We don't see him comment on unusual spren (like Elhokar) because he can always see them (he was born able to). He tells stories (like about the Horneaters came to live on the Peaks) and uses them to tell truths in a roundabout way. He met Wit at the Peaks - coincidence? He is clearly lying about being 3rd son in some way though the exact story isn't coming out. It seems that he is lying to himself about this too. "I am a chef" is repeated a lot. He "transforms" 2 different bridge 4 members in his PoV champter - Skar (who benefits from helping Rock draw in stormlight) and Renarin (who he helps by making him realise that he isn't "the wierdest") He also has a good idea about everyone's stories and how to help them as individuals. He also sees the "tenderness" in Kaladin that isn't something that many comment on - and he's right. He thinks that he is glad that Bridge 4 can't speak Unkalaki because they would find out all the lies he told them. He is horrified after killing Amaram (presumably because he promised he wouldn't fight) and this may suggest a moment of him "breaking" and opening himself up to a spren. On top of that, I feel that Lunamor has a somewhat "light" feeling to it. It sounds a bit like Luna (the moon) , or Lumina (latin for lights iirc). He also is a person who can "lighten" Kaladin's mood at times. He is always lit up because he is near the fire etc. He also doesn't like the wind/air the way Kaladin does - he says it is too thick - light is much less dense than air If you read through his PoV chapter with this in mind there are a number of other things that you might spot that might also point in this direction and I'd love some input on this. What do y'all think?

Yeah, especially when you look at what people want for Kaladin (e.g. lighteyes to help him fully confront his prejudice, someone who can take care on herself, Radiant or least with good fighting skills (we've seen what soulcasting can do), someone to help lift him out of his depression - that's off the top of my head) and you're like, hmmmm, well there is one person I can think of... On a literary level, in a good story, what us readers want for character A is what the author is making us want for character A. And if there's character B that is fitting into the characteristics the readers are set up to want for character A (even if that doesn't seem to fit into the overt storyline at the time), I find that hard to ignore. But Shalladin is pretty taboo around here, so I won't go too far down this path I genuinely LOL'd at this! The Knights Shalladin.

He loved small weapons. Our Sadeas was what some might call a dagger connoisseur. In fact, he really did have an eye for knives.

Honestly, I was glad Brandon went with this approach for Kaladin's character. Because too many times in fantasy novels, you have this almost infallible chosen one who, despite some struggles from time to time, always saves the day. As tough as it was to read about Kaladin's failures in Oathbringer, I think it's a more realistic circumstance. The fact of the matter is that one person can't always save the day every. single. time. A lot of the characters in Stormlight Archive live lives that are full of failures, but they press on anyways. That's the hope I'm glad to see the series bring to its forefront. His story wasn't always fun to read about in Oathbringer. I don't like seeing one of my favorite characters struggle so much. But it's realistic. He has seven more books to progress throughout. A character that brushes off struggles and always saves the day eventually becomes a boring character if that nature persists throughout a ten book series.

“Fixer upper” was thought up by @Oudeis, if anyone does it it ought to be him, or at least with with his blessing. BUT, here’s a little diddy I’ve been working on for a while. When I first stumbled across this thread my initial thought was “someone really needs to do a parody to the song ‘Gaston’ from Beauty and the Beast.’” Well, now I present to you: ”Lightsong” enjoy

I completely fail to see how that isn't just waging the shipping wars on Kaladin's behalf. How, exactly, do you intend to discuss Kaladin's possible romantic interests without, you know, discussing his possible romantic interests? Shallan is one of those possible interests, and there's enough textual evidence for me to continue thinking that there will be more between them. It's not my fault Brandon decided to put his most obvious love interest in a betrothal with another character, and it's not my fault the last topic got closed. To be fair, we've got about 25 pages to go before we reach the length of the last one. I stand by previous posts: the best love interest for Kaladin is Shallan, there is significant textual evidence to support this pairing and undermine her actual marriage, and there's no way to have a topic about Kaladin's love life without it being directly involved in the love-triangle. I don't intend to fight anyone over it, and perhaps my phrasing as the great ship war was provocative (I don't think so, but maybe this while forum is as prudish as the author it's dedicated to), but talking about the love triangle simply has to be on topic. A short, heated, on-topic and completely necessary dabble in feminism, that I didn't really participate in. I appreciated the discussion, though. Once the thread was closed, it spread over every other thread even slightly adjacent, and I'm happy it did because there was a lot of good stuff (rehashed, of course) echoing around that's made its way into other topics. There's a lot of Shallan's characterization that's really, really good. There are ideas that got bounced back and forth, hashed and rehashed, supported and contradicted. That's just good theory talk, and that's what we're all (I am) here for. So I also want to push back against the 'topic drift' concerns. A certain amount of drift is to be expected 5 pages in, and I don't see it as necessarily a bad thing.

Welcome to SS Shalladin. It's a small (but graceful) yacht, so sailing just nearly straight into the wind is what it does best. "Sailing before landing"

So, I can't stop thinking about Shalladin, I don't know what it is, but the two together just feel right. I guess it won't happen too soon, because Kaladin and Shallan are still searching themselves but I kind of get a Navani/Dalinar vibe from them and hope that they'll end up together.

Something strange is going on with Nohadon. I trust Dalinar when he says that it's a vision and it's unlike the rest. Nohadon, inside that vision, speaks to Dalinar with familiarity, and directly addressed the manifestation of the thunderclast. The Stormfather also says that Dalinar was shown all the visions of Nohadon. And yet, in the vision, Nohadon addresses Dalinar directly: This is something that has not happened before. This is also the first time we see the question "what is the most important step a man can take," which will have great significance later on. Before I go any further, I want to extend some thank yous to the folks who beat into my head the possibility of this being a thing over on this thread. It took a lot of hard convincing but they finally won me over, so thanks for sticking with it everyone, especially @hoser and @Paragrin So the essence of that thread was trying to figure out who Odium was referencing when Dalinar Ascended and he said "No, we killed you." While I'm supposing that person is Nohadon, I don't want to get into that discussion per se, but rather, the proofs behind whether it's possible and what people think about him on a broader level, as a quick search didn't show a Nohadon topic. To boil things down, I think that Nohadon was a Bondsmith, and he was bonded to the Sibling. I think that after he died, he bound his cognitive shadow to the spren in a similar way to what Honor did, preserving him for the future and allowing him to connect with Dalinar. There is some textual evidence to support this theory. First off, of any order, the Bondsmiths would be the ones who would be able to accomplish something like this. The Way of Kings is also very much about unifying people. It's the book that inspired Dalinar to become a Bondsmith. Nohadon exhibits those traits of uniting instead of dividing. But let's continue on past this point. The evidence is not hard, but plausible, that Nohadon could both be a Bondsmith and accomplish such a task. We know there are only three Bondsmiths. In Oathbringer, we learned a few more things. So one Bondsmith that generation. They fear it's because Honor is changing. I put forth that it because this is when Honor intentionally splintered himself into the Stormfather. I say this because we know that Dalinar is the first to bond the Stormfather since the change. This means we can infer they had been previously bonding the Stormfather and one other spren since they were aware of their concerns with Honor. We have this information from an Elsecaller, saying that one Sibling had withdrawn. I put forth that this Sibling was bonded to Nohadon, and she discovered that Nohadon had preserved his cognitive shadow inside of it. Paragrin has solid evidence that with Connection, you can interact with people from the spiritual realm, even without it having a direct influence on the way the text formatting is displayed, or the internal voice is distinguished in the character's mind. I'm still going through my reread, but, in the chapter 'Bondsmith,' I found another little piece that made me think Nohadon was nudging Dalinar along. Dalinar has his reaction, the Stormfather rumbles around, as he is want to do, and then there is a disappointment beyond that. Which is what I am putting forth to be Nohadon's Cognitive Shadow bonded to a spren, using Connection to interact with Dalinar. He does this again later, answering the question he gave Dalinar earlier as Dalinar struggles for meaning against the pain of his past and questions the answer he came to so easily. On a more personal note, the way Brandon answers this question makes me feel like he wanted to see if they had picked up on some foreshadowing he had put into place, but I haven't scrutinized WoK or WoR, and this is from when WoR was published. He's reacting similarly to the when I asked about Helaran not being bonded to a spren during the WoR signing. So, brief wrap up, plausible evidence that it could be possible using a Bondsmith's power, Nohadon displays the right temperament to be a Bondsmith, Nohadon interacts with Dalinar in a way that could not be a vision and Dalinar recognizes to not be a dream, we have evidence that using Connection a character can interact with another in a way that doesn't alter book script, and the italics during Dalinar's Ascension pick up right where they left off conversing in the dream, where Nohadon answers the question he posed to Dalinar.

Hello guys and girls, My name is Amelia, Millie, for those of you who don't wanna bother remembering that. I've read quite a few books in the Cosmere and spend a lot of time in the Coppermind. I've read Warbreaker, All the Stormlight Archives, Elantris, Mistborn Series, and a bunch of other's written by Sanderson that aren't in the Cosmere. My favorite is Stormlight Archives and I'm a light eyes which is fun and stuff..... so yeah..... please welcome me?

The story of the coalition: When Dalinar decides the world needs to unite to survive he begins sharing his vision around the world All of them react in the best possible way Until our hero finds the 21st century way to sucess He tries And tries And tries again! His efforts bear impressive results Sadly its still Part 4 Just as an army comes knocking uninvited The crescendo builds Leaving us all scratching our heads The End

Well, he does have the Moon Scepter. I suspect it, along with Connection and Identity manipulation could allow you to use Selish magic outside of the region if you knew what you were doing.

Thicker skin...I wish. I moved to Houston when I was 12. Kids weren't as nice there as where I was from and it cases it got bad. I've been dealing with depression since I was 13 and I'm past 40 so you can do the math. This was hard to post, and I almost didn't post it but I think it's instructive to hear from someone who has what Kaladin has to see what it's like. You probably know someone like this, going by the odds. And it won't look exactly like this but there are commonalities. For me the typical cycle looks something like this. Good things are happening for a while, I'm trying my best, and then something bad happens. Something not my fault. Sometimes not even happening to me but it affects me. A spiral starts. I start to believe I can't ever make it. I can't overcome. It will never be better than it is right now. And then I make a mistake. Something that is my fault. And it gets worse, until I believe I deserve the bad, and I start doing wrong or failing to do right and feed the cycle. The hell of it is, I know exactly what I'm doing, and I can't stop. The part of me in control no longer believes I should have what good I have. I look okay, even mostly act okay, but when your back is turned I tend to do things calculated to cause me pain or make it harder on me because I deserve it. The only real way up for me is love and compassion from friends and family who give it even when I'm at my worst. Like, you don't dig your own way out of depression. You need a ladder - a lot of times that's a therapist, but even if a therapist is part of it you need people close to you. I think that's why Rock needed to save Kaladin - why others had to come through and he had to fail. I can't even reach out at my worst. I can't tell people I'm hurting. I can't succeed when I'm hurting. I need someone to save me sometimes. I hate it, so very much. But it's reality - I need friends who call/text/message me just because. They are like my final line of defense. Kaladin has those things in Syl and in Bridge 4 now, so I don't worry much about him ever wanting to kill himself (or at least following through on it) but he won't be immune to spiraling down and locking up, no matter how good it gets. That's as far as I'm going to go down this track for now. For me, Kaladin is incredibly real. In a way, he's me. I can't be disappointed in him - this is what I do myself. I fail and it isn't always my fault that I fail, but I blame myself, do harm (not physical in my case) to myself, hate who I am at times...it's like Brandon interviewed me and squeezed every drop out of me that has to do with depression and wrote it onto the page in words far better than I could ever use.

@Windseeker I don't think he made a conscious choice to abandon his duties in the palace. As @SLNC noted above, he had a combat stress response, which is a real problem that soldiers face in battle when their mind cannot compute what is happening around them. See this from Wikipedia (full article here): His mind could not handle his friends suddenly killing each other, so he had an automatic shut down. It is a realistic response to an awful situation. It might be disappointing that he didn't swoop in and save the day at the last minute, but the story will get boring and repetitive if the same thing keeps happening over and over. Also, just because he had some setbacks in this book, doesn't mean he won't make forward progress in the future. I think he's set up nicely to make forward progress with his fourth ideal and the singer/human dilemma in the next book.

Probably reading too much into this but we see a woman in Urithiru who dresses like Tarah: Just an interesting coincidence most likely, but who knows with Stormlight books.

- NO MATING! - Adolin's safehouse in Kholinar being... his tailor. - "Monstrous terrors from the mythological past, enemies of all that was right and good. Destroyers who had laid waste to civilization countless times. They were playing cards" - Every time Kaladin accepts a challenge just for his Stormlight to run off is funny to me for some reason. - Shallan's conversation with Hoid.

I found a WoB that Nightblood's Sheath is made of Aluminum: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/171-oathbringer-release-party/#e8162 I find this very interesting for the following reasons. Nightblood's sheath is able to block Nightblood's consumption of the investiture of the person who is wielding it. We know from Mistborn that Aluminum is an allomantically inert metal and can also block pushing and pulling on emotions, and it is plausible that it could actually make it so you could not sense someone burning metals inside a box made entirely of Aluminum (though I don't have confirmation on that). The Fused are able to locate uses of investiture like spanreeds and Kaladin's small lashing of the rock that he does to get their attention, but strangely not things like summoning a shardblade or lightweaving. Azure has a soulcaster that is being used underground in a bunker lined with sheets of metal that block the Fused from being able to sense the fabrial being used. In our world, aluminum is a conductor is really high quality. It is used to create ElectroMagnetic Screening systems, which offer shielding from ElectroMagnetic waves. http://www.aluminiumdesign.net/why-aluminium/properties-of-aluminium/ I think that the metal lining that bunker is Aluminum, which is both an Allomantically inert metal and a metal that can block Nightblood's investiture draining. It would stand to reason that it is in fact a metal that can block all forms of investiture related sensation. So Nightblood can't feed on investiture when in his sheath because he can't sense it and the Fused can't locate the bunker because they can't sense it. This has a couple potential implications: Nightblood uses some kind of investiture sense like Bronze to be able to locate objects that have investiture in them. Unlike Bronze, this picks up on all forms of investiture, not just Allomantic uses, and is able to pick up on inert forms of investiture (investiture that isn't actively being used to change something, like a person's BioChromatic Breath). The Fused are using an investiture sensing, not a Spren sensing. Investiture usage may actually give off an ElectroMagnetic field, since it is able to be blocked by Aluminum.

So in the spring semester Orson Scott Card is teaching at my college. The class I’m taking is Speculative Fiction LDS Authors. I found out today that he wants us to read or reread all of Stormlight before the first class in January. Now I just need to finsih Oathbringer and the start the reread. It’s a lot to read over break, but my parents can’t get mad, because it’s for school. I’m excited and I had to share it with you all.

OK, my first topic here, I hope I do it right. I had a new theory about the whole Horneater businesses. Don't you guys find it odd that the "Chief" wanted to acquire shards? We don't know if it's the first brother, first senior cousin, or something like that who can be the chieftain. But why the hell chieftain's try to duel with Shardbearers? They have no experience in dueling properly, let alone facing a Shardbearer. I think something is missing here. The roles of first and second brother is obtaining food, the third brother is to learn a craft (cooking for example). The servants of the chieftain is his family, we don't know how big his family was. It doesn't make any sense that the older brothers had weapons "and they raised them in vengeance". Following the conversation, it's safe to assume that her wife wanted to know who is chief now. I only think of three reasons: The ascension to chieftain is in reverse in the peak. The younger brother is chief, he has to have the ability to protect the village. So Rock actually lost his younger brothers, and if Rock himself dies, the second brother is chief. The ascension to chieftain depends on the roles, first warriors, then craftsmen, then gatherers. The difference with the first one is that the Oldest warrior is chief, not the youngest one. Chief is exempt from the normal roles. If the first brother becomes chief, he cannot do the job that was assigned to him. Meaning that the 2nd and 3rd brother are now gatherers and the 4th one (Rock) is the craftsman. So the chief has to learn how to fight, how else could he protect the village, and challenge a Shardbearer? It also means that the names spoken by Rock were all in line to be chief, (that's why they picked weapons in vengeance) so in truth, Rock lost 3 chiefs that day. Finally, I think that his Oath (or role) didn't count anymore. He was just deluding himself and bridge four. He CAN fight and should do so, but was a coward and decided to continue his cooking. He hasn't broken his previous oaths, instead he didn't want to accept his new oath (role) of protecting his family. (He had named Kaladin and bridge four his family). What he did, killing Amaram with Shard bow, was actually an act of accepting his new role. He became chief before being captured and he knew that, but instead he didn't want to fight. So he has some explaining to do, that was why he was in a corner thinking. Bonus: I really hope Rock becomes a Stonewarden, he probably think he doesn't belong to bridge 4 anymore. what a twist! Bonus2: A shardbearer horneater chief? He is the king of the peaks now.

So when Teft swore the ideals it really annoyed me. Around the forum everyone is commending the moment when he swore the Third Ideal and saying it is emotional, while I just found it frustrating. I find things like this to be a common theme in books. What one character took years to accomplish, another accomplishes in a couple days. I just hate it when everything that one character worked for is made practically worthless when another character does it, three times faster. Now I know Teft probably bonded a spren long ago, but Brandon didn’t show it properly. I think that at the end at the Oathgate he should have sworn the Second Ideal.

No Ookla, turn around, there is no mercy to be found in this forum! It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife! lol you have a point

I see your point and I suppose we do not know. I would argue that context is the best clue for the Traitor to be Venli. Nevermind in-story context (which @Leuthie aptly addresses in the post below mine), the dust jacket blurbs themselves give decent context. The form of the Sleepless' writing is very linear and paints a clear path towards each Radiant. I find it unlikely that they have one random misdirection along with several relatively clear descriptions. This seems especially true when you consider that the writing is likely intended to be ready by other Sleepless. I think this is a case where the obvious choice is the correct one. Also, I disagree with your assessment that Moash is a good candidate. I'd argue that he is not broken by ambition, but by vengeance. We never really see Moash being particularly ambitious. Even his desire for a Shardblade was really just a means to an end for his vengeance rather than a desire to advance. If anything I'd argue that Moash doesn't feel like he deserves to do/be better. Also his actions would eliminate him from potential Radiance as accepting your brokenness is part of it and Moash does the opposite and instead forfeits his pain/guilt/responsibility to Odium. I think you could make a very good argument for Moash to be Odium's Champion on the other hand... but that is a thought line for another topic.

All aboard! We may be a small craft but there's still room for more passengers. This is the key, isn't it? Adolin helps Shallan, but Shallan helps Kaladin. And Kaladin helps everyone. Is it wrong to start imagining Adolin as Kaladin's wingman? Trying to get him laid, telling him to pick himself back up after the most recent rejection. Maybe even a double-date that ends poorly when Adolin and Kaladin's date both notice the obvious chemistry between Shallan and Kaladin and.....I'm gone again. Sorry about that. Maybe you don't have to take sides, but this thread is practically designed to fight the battles of the great ship war. There's room aboard the Good Ship Shalladin, if you want to come aboard!

I don't see the deal here. syl is already dependent from kaladin. She already dies if he betrays his oath. By getting together romantically, none of this would get any worse. Kaladin is already forced to keep his oath or kill a sapient creature. You may say that you don't like the whole nahel bond thing, the idea that two sapeints are interconnected and that if one of them betrays oaths the other dies, and I agree, it's not an ideal situation. Once this situation is, however, I see no way adding a romantic involvment can make it any worse. In fact, I see it as making it better, because those two sapients are stuck with each other anyway, they may as well try to make the best out of it. Again, I don't see any big deal here. In every couple the people involved try to persuade the other to do stuff, be it something as simple as taking out the trash, or as complex as changing ideas on how to raise a son. You can say that both parties involved undergo character development where they both change to fit better with each other. This is often good for both parties involved: I wish I'd find a girl who would push me to overcome my lazyness and get in a better shape. Manipulation implies covert means and malicious intent, which is the opposite of what is happening here. Syl is not manipulating kaladin, she is talking openly and honestly with him about what she feels is important; she wants nothing but his good. Kaladin is not some clueless child that is taken advantage of, he is an adult fully capable of taking her ssuggestions and making what he wants with them. He resister her suggestions regarding elokhar, and he only lost powers because of his oaths, not because he refused to listen to her. And he kept resisting her suggestions about relationships. In fact, I'd argue that all of the bad things you say would happen if they entered into a relationship had already happened. The only thing they miss is physical intimacy, aside from that they are practically already in a relationship. And that goes for every other radiant we saw, though for syl and kaladin it's particularly strong. Notice that I don't want to take sides in a ship war. I am merely stating that there would be nothing unhealty in syladin - well, nothing unhealtier than already is - and I see it as a legitimate possibility.

I don't want to police anyone or stop them from expressing their opinion, but let's not let this escalade and transform into a Shalladin vs Shadolin thread or another "Shallan's choice" thread. That can put off people who have something else to say and are tired of the same arguments. Just my two cents..

Which is, unfortunately, one of the few things we do know about Nahel bonds. The bond requires you to have Snapped. That's what "being broken" is. Which means that this isn't a matter of "believing" your broken. It's a matter of needing places in your spiritweb for the soul of the Spren and your own to attach. The problem is we haven't been shown a minimum threshold, so everyone assumes the worst.

Dalinar: Do you have a weapon? Lift: Nope. Can't read. I loled

Probably my favorite was the description of all of the newly changed parshmens behaviors. Especially the Azish who decided to formally lodge a formal complaint as opposed to outright war.

"What? Now? I was saving that for a dramatic moment!"

This is a fork of a hastily-posted and incorrect previous theory that had some very interesting replies. I wanted to write up everything in a new thread with references; special thanks to CaptainRyan, Wandering Investor, lookingglass, Subvisual Haze, and ROSHtaFARian2.0. THEORY: The third Bondsmith is bonded to a large and powerful spren that powers the Urithiru fabrial network. For simplicity, we will refer to this spren as "the Sibling." Three Siblings and Three Bondsmiths In OB Ch 64, Dalinar talks to the Stormfather about the other Bondsmiths: Later, in OB Ch 111, they discuss the three siblings again: It has long been suspected that there are three Bondsmiths because there are three Shards on Roshar. We have long assumed that the Nightwatcher was the second spren, which the Stormfather seems to be confirming in this quote. Following this logic, the conclusion would be that Odium also has a "giant" spren and that the third Bondsmith has the job of wrangling them. I assumed this in my original post, and assumed that the Sibling referenced by the Radiants (see below) was clearly not a voidspren and thus must be the Nightwatcher. However, thanks to the clever people in that thread, I think this must be false. As an aside, in the WoR Ch 44 epigraph we learn that one Bondsmith "was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru." Honor and Cultivation When thinking about Honor and Cultivation, it's important to remember that their Vessels were lovers, so it seems reasonable that they would have children. It would be totally reasonable for the children of Shards to be spren, I think. Based on the Stormfather's language, I think now that the Sibling is a combination of Honor and Cultivation. In retrospect, this makes much more sense than having the Bondsmith be Connected to a big, nasty voidspren. There is no reason to believe it is impossible, but I don't think that Odium would allow a particularly powerful Spren to lend its aid to the enemy. In fact, as the Bondsmiths are the most powerful individuals in Honor's magic system, I find it unnatural that they would be Connected to Odium. The Radiant's thoughts on the Sibling We know much about the Sibling from the gemstones left by the Radiants. They are generically supportive of the entity, which suggests that it is not of Odium or the Unmade. We can also draw some conclusions: I think it safe to assume that the Sibling was a large spren, and either withdrew from men or was forced away (Ch 68 and 70 epigraphs, respectively). Note that zircon is the stone for the Elsecallers, experts on spren and Shadesmar. The Sibling leaving was at least correlated in time with the abandonment of Urithiru and possibly of the Knights themselves (Ch 87 epigraph): The Urithiru fabrial I'm presenting this theory a bit backwards - the original impetus came from my earlier thread and the many good replies therein. Nevertheless, I think much of the logic still hangs together. Urithiru is an interesting place for many reasons. Even in the book, Shallan, Renarin, and Navani have already realized the tower is huge fabrial (Ch 44, 44, and 109): However, they can't simply turn it back on by re-infusing the pillar (Ch 44): This seems to imply that the spren that powered the fabrial is no longer present. It's important to note that the pillar would hold an almost unimaginable amount of Investiture. In fact, if we wanted to store a spren with power on order of the Stormfather, I think we would need something like that pillar. Lastly, the tower provides magical defenses against the Unmade (Ch 73): Cultivation's influence on the tower My original idea had the Nightwatcher pegged as the inhabitant because of the following quotes (Ch 69 and 107): The first seems to imply that growing things in Urithiru was relatively easy up until something went wrong, and the second seems to imply that the issues persist. Urithiru is supposed to be the Knight's stronghold on Roshar, and having a good food source is part of outlasting a siege. As Urithiru was almost certainly created by Honor and probably Cultivation for humans, it would be not very logical to fail to provide a source of food for the tower. But given the climate, plants would ordinarily struggle to grow. A major Splinter of Cultivation living nearby would probably be more than enough to compensate, allowing for plant life. It is entirely possible that the plants growing are just another part of the fabrial network, but this does not change the conclusion if we believe the captured spren would still need to be significantly related to Cultivation. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER If we take the Stormfather's words literally and keep in mind Honor and Cultivation's romantic relationship, it seems entirely reasonable that the third Sibling is mix of their two powers. This Sibling is mentioned multiple times in reference to Urithiru, which has been established as an enormous fabrial. Putting these together, we can reason that this third Sibling powers the Urithiru fabrial and encourages plant growth. The third Bondsmith bonds this Sibling, which prompts them to stay in Urithiru. When this Sibling leaves Urithiru (either willingly or not), the tower's defenses fail and the Unmade can move in. How and why this occurs, how it is related to the Recreance, and the current status of the Sibling (apart from hurt and asleep) are all up for debate. The importance of Urithiru suggests that someone will need to find the Sibling and convince them to come back. Final thoughts My sincere thanks to everyone in the prior thread who contributed to these ideas. I welcome all commentary, and look forward to learning more. As a postscript, in my mind I imagine the Sibling as a huge warrior in Shadesmar, fighting off the influence of the Unmade.

Something small I noticed while perusing the page with information on the Unmade. As we finally get all the nine names* of the Unmade, I noticed the following correlation (albeit, not ideal) with Unmade names versus their degree or awareness and, to a certain effect, power effects. This could be nothing major, but seems like an interesting little quirk: the more "-" there are in the name of the Unmade, the more self aware it is, and the more selective is its power (the latter is even less clear on that). For brevity and clarity of argument, please find the link to coppermind's article on the Unmade here and the Epigraphs, specifically Hessi's Mythica, here. We have the "three great Mindless Spren", per Hessi: Ashertmarn, Moelach, Nergaoul. All three are supposed to exhibit limited self-awareness; all three have a "area/regional effect" with, potentially, no Friend/Foe distintcion: Mythica specifically notes that Nergaul, the Thrill, affects everyone on both sides of the battle. I wonder if Death Rattles are applied randomly to anyone on both sides of the conflict (e.g. would the Parshendi also get Death Rattles, or humans allied to Odium? We clearly have evidence that Death Rattles also come upon those who are, or in proximity to those who are, directly or indirectly opposing Odium - e.g. Mr T's efforts, Bridge Four deaths). I am a bit hazy on the battle for Kholinar, but I believe Ashertmarn was affecting everyone within the palace, including the followers of the Cult (those who remember it better, could you kindly verify if that's the case?). [Chemoarish] - at the moment, unclear. Could be that she is a lesser Mindless Spren; as far as I know, no specific information is given, barring indications that she is often confused with the Nightwatcher and that the lore is varied, as per Mythica. Then we have the next rank of 4 with the self-aware spren: Yalig-nar, Sja-anat, Re-shephir, (Dai-gonarthis). Of the three we met, there is clearly a certain self awareness, especially in the case of Sja-anat. Their effects/powers are highly selective (in terms of affecting entities in their locale), if somewhat more localized: Yalig-nar effectively creates a supersolider, Sja-anat corrupts spren (in Kholinar only some of the spren were corrupted, I got the impression this is sometihng that is not done wholesale, but selective), Re-shehir selects how many midnight essences and the like are created, who they mirror, what numbers are produced and what they do - a bit like a carrier. Finally, we have the apparent leader of the Odium interests on Roshar, not only self-aware, but "keen on mind, a highprincess" (Mythica): Ba-Ado-Mishram. Self aware, leader of the forces, almost a royal among the Unmade. Likely has a selective global effect - based on the perfect gem library, somehow was feeding odiumlight to the Parsh on Roshar. Voila. I wonder what the significance is, if any? Could it be two or three entities were fused into one to produce the more self-aware entities with more selective actions? For now, I see two deviations due to lack of information - is Dai-gonarthis an Unmade, self-aware, with a selective power? And, more importantly, the name of Chemoarish does not fit the descirptions so far - in Mythica only three great Mindless Unmade are mentioned. But, assuming this name correlating with awareness and power relationship holds true, let's do a Mendeleev and make some predictions: it will be not very self aware and should have some variation on a regional effect that equally affects entities in a given area without selectivity based on Shard alignment. Notably, given what is mentioned in the Mythica regarding varied lore and confusion with Nightwatcher, it seems to me that the power is likely a little less monolithic and more varied, and manifests itself in ways that cannot be easily percieved to be epic / in-your-face (so, likely a more subtle, and varied power). Would be interesting to see what your take on it is, good forumers. *Based on assumption that any reserarch dealing with a collection of myths and partial sources spread over a timeline going through multiple centuries and even potentially millenia, the Mythica cannot get everything accurately, so uncertainty with respect to the identity of just 1/9 Unmade is impressive and is to be expected. Yet it mentioning Dai-Gonarthis makes it a reasonable educated guess, especially if this is coupled with the Death Rattle (link), making it a reasonable basis for allowing Dai-Gonarthis to remain in the Unmade set, until such time as more info is obtained/deduced.

As a Mormon I think I'd have to say that there are several points that are influenced in Brandon's books by our religion. But nothing that would take away from the stories if you don't know them. It is interesting though

Every one of the characters mentioned on the cover blurb was on a path towards Radiance. On tWoK, it was Shallan, Dalinar, Kaladin, and Szeth. On WoR, it was Kal, Dalinar, Shallan, Szeth, and Eshonai. On this one, it's the same four that were in the previous two, and the same Spren that was bonding to Eshonai having moved to Venli with her death. These are written in world by the Sleepless, and it would make sense that with Eshonai's death, they would continue watching the person her spren moved too. And it was Venli's ambition for power that lead her to betray the will of her people and push towards forms of power.

To be completely honest, during my reread of OB I forgot (Potential WoR spoilers)

The transcript for the Release is now live: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/171-oathbringer-release-party/

For the record, I was thinking Adolin as an Edgedancer would make most sense before I noticed anything about what kind of spren Maya was. Adolin helped the prostitute in WoR. He socialized with a lot of the Kholin soldiers, and later the bridgemen. He doesn't bat an eye at Shallan's significantly lower status, he looks out for Renarin, he gets along with Wit. And bonding a dead spren is pretty much the pinnacle of remembering the forgotten. Maya is about as forgotten as it gets. Especially since Adolin was starting to care about her before he even met her in the Cognitive Realm. (Also Evi sounds pretty forgotten/ignored, not just formerly by Dalinar but nobody else really talks about her outside the family, when you'd think there'd be some things like maybe Sadeas mentioning her from time to time to get under Dalinar's skin.) He was much nicer if a bit patronizing to Kaladin as a random bridgeman than as suddenly a captain. Adolin very clearly does a lot to stick up for the underdog in particular. He does have some notable things in common with Lift; his fear of becoming highprince or king sounds a lot like Lift's fear of being "eaten" by the Azish court and having things be expected of her. They both don't want to be seriously responsible or have commitments tying them down. They both have little regard for rules and do some ethically dubious things at times. Edgedancers are described as refined and beautiful. Wyndle certainly values aesthetic concerns enough. And you have Adolin, who insists on looking fabulous in an occupied city and reads fashion magazines regularly. Also, Evi's high regard of the Nightwatcher (and how much of a primary role she had in raising Adolin, and how much he's indicated as taking after her) does sound to me like it'd make a lot of sense/be narratively fitting for Adolin to bond a Cultivation spren rather than any other. On the subject of how Maya might be revived, considering what spren are, my best theory would be that knowing/envisioning (or re-envisioning) them would have to be a part of it. I think it's going to be like, Adolin talking to the Blade so much and then meeting Maya in the Cognitive Realm was enough for him to start thinking of her as a person, and due to how spren work, that's gradually making her more of a person. So I'd think if there's a lasting flaw in Maya or the bond, it would be her not having the even vaguely returning memories of the other spren because of not really being the same Maya as before, more a pieced together Maya-as-imagined-by-Adolin.

CHAPTER 3: ONE PROBLEM SOLVED Adolin is frustrated that workers won’t listen to Navini and always put stuff in the wrong place People are frustrated that they have to carry water Then it returns to Dalinar’s POV as he sees Sadeas’s dead body Dalinar restores order between bridge 4 and Sadeas’s soldiers. Then he reprimands them for being careless Palona Sebrial is pleased Highprince Sebrial gets some good news Dalinar decides how he will gets his troops in order And Dalinar proposes his plan

I've been reading some of Shallan last POVs and I really think her optimism at the end of OB was Shallan deluding herself again. I´ll quote some parts: Here we see her thinking of herself as 3 different, independent women. She treats Radiant and Veil as different people, yet she wants to be recognized as herself... () So if Radiant is the logical one, and Veil the compassionate and social driven drunk, "Shallan" is not any of those things? She creates 3 personas, extrapolating several characteristics and becoming a lesser self. We know she IS the 3 of them, but she more and more thinks she is not. Then, she chooses to identify with "Shallan" as the dominant persona, and that is an improvement since last time. Thats why this moment with Adolin is so important to her. On the other hand, Adolin, as the rest of the characters, think of her as Shallan, not Veil or Radiant (Shallan tells him about them in Shadesmar IIRC) So this is her anagnorisis (I don't feel like talking about the choice). I just think it is very curious that she denies the characteristics that "belong" to Veil and Radiant. As long as Veil and Radiant are the ones attracted to Kal, she is ok. I wonder who she thinks "Shallan" is... I think she practically bullied the guy into marrying her. He is in love with her, but we can see he is worried, and rightfully so. She keeps saying she's fine, even though she knows that Adolin knows she is not fine (how can he "see her" and think she is all right?). Anyway, I´ll read the remaining POV soon. I think there was an interesting quote from Pattern.

I don't think he failed his friends in Alethkar, he froze because he cannot save them all, he is no mindless thug that kills the ones he's pointed against. He is empathic. He was terrified when he realized he could kill (in a flashback). He is terrified again when he is confronted to the fact that he may have to kill people he wants to protect. Even though, he soon regained focus and moved forward. He is still struggling with his depression, but we see him more mature, and relaying more in his friends, instead of trying to do everything by himself. I think Kaladin´s entire arc will revolve around Lirins words about growing calluses, standing up for what is right, not trying to stop the storm by blowing harder. I've read many opinions about Kaladin being the cliched superhero who always saves the day. In OB Brandon wrote him in a different light and now people complains he failed and didn't save the day... Seriously? I know depressive people like Kaladin are usually frustrating (from an outside view), but they are fighting their own war.

So, as an Arcanist, I've listened to a fair bit of people talk to and with Brandon, and people diagnosed with depression are (unsurprisingly) eager to share their stories with him (usually) because of Kaladin. Regardless of how you spin off your story, I think the one thing I can guarantee you is that Brandon will be genuinely honored to learn about the impact his work has made to your life. Deeply personal stories like this are one of the rare times I feel we get the real Brandon - not that he is playing a role, but anyone who sits while hundreds of people line up to meet him goes into a bit of a robot mode. So, ignoring your request, I'd say speak from the heart. If you find the situation funny, smile and laugh as you are telling him about it. But if you want to give it a funny twist just for him... I don't know, it's your story, you do what you want with it, but from one stranger to another, I'd recommend you be honest with both Brandon and yourself. It's probably a good bonding experience, and one many people don't get.

I never cared for the triangle, and am not a Shallan fan in general, so her and Kaladin together was never something I considered right. So I’m glad that’s mostly over with. Hopefully we won’t need to read any more about this romantic entanglement. By the end of the book, I mostly decided that Shallan isn’t good enough for either of them, and that they should date each other.