Torrieltar

Got a better picture of the back cover thanks to /u/Jerigord on Reddit. @phoenix2563 had it right!

I'm very much on board with Tezim = Ishar. Navani's quote and Ishar's divine attributes make it seem all the more likely. https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/5t8kcl/

Brandon commented on a couple of these on Reddit:

Reddit has a pretty good list compiled here.

If Szeth has bonded or is in the process of bonding Nightblood, it could just be because Nale only held Nightblood, but hadn't bonded it.

I'm one of the ones who thinks Nightblood is causing it. Szeth's afterimage is described similarly to but distinct from the normal glow of Stormlight. This is very reminiscent the effect that Nightblood has on Nalthis, similar to but distinct from a normal BioChromatic aura. It would make sense that this aura would manifest differently on Roshar, a different Shardworld. I'm still undecided on whether or not Lift is the only one who can see it, though.

Hehehe... I saw that WoB earlier today, and I took it as a challenge to create a crack theory revolving around Adolin wearing different clothes. It was actually a lot of fun and I ended up finding a lot more evidence than I was expecting. Now I think I might be starting to believe it...

Have you ever had an insane theory made of flying chulls and pure malarkey? Have you ever extrapolated so much from a single line of text that you've realized that Shallan's stick is actually Adonalsium in disguise? Are you still convinced that Reckoners is Cosmere? Keep your aluminum foil lined hats on, because this thread is the place for you! Now's your chance to share all of those random ideas that you know no one would ever believe. I'll start with a theory about this WoB: Clearly, from the context of the quote, this new outfit is related to the Adolin/Sadeas incident, and considering that the outfit isn't a Kholin uniform, it's very clear that Adolin will no longer be fulfilling the same role as a prince of Alethkar and a leader of the Kholin armies. This is how it will happen: having discovered the culprit, the Alethi have Adolin exiled and Dalinar is forced to go along with it to maintain peace in Alethkar. But Dadlinar has a secret mission for Adolin, and this new outfit is involved--he wants Adolin to act as his secret diplomat to Azir! This development was actually foreshadowed multiple times in Words of Radiance. Notice Adolin's thoughts here, on page 583 of Words of Radiance: "Adolin took a gulp of wine, not trusting himself to reply. I should just get up and walk away. But he didn't. A small part of him wished for Sadeas to provoke him, push away his inhibitions, drive him to do something stupid. Killing the man right here, right now, would likely earn Adolin an execution--or at least an exile. It might be worth either punishment." To add a little support to that, the last time Adolin thought something along these lines was in the Way of Kings, pg. 185, which was also foreshadowing. "Dalinar, who might once have responded to the veiled slur, said nothing. Adolin gritted his teeth. It was flat-out unconscionable for Sadeas to be taking shots at his father in his present state. Perhaps Adolin should offer the pompous scumbag a challenge. You didn't duel highprinces--it just wasn't done, not unless you were ready to make a big storm of it. But maybe he was. Maybe--" Other than Taravangian, the only ruler Dalinar specifically mentions contacting via spanreed after Everstorm hit was the Emperor of Azir, who didn't believe him. If Dalinar wants to unite the nations against the Desolation, he'll need to establish stronger communication and trust with Azir, and what better way to do that than to send his own son? Adolin was seen looking through a fashion book in Words of Radiance, of which we see a couple of pages. The only non-Alethi outfit we see is Azish. Why? Because that's the outfit Adolin will be wearing in Stormlight Three as Dalinar's emissary to Azir! There's a theory floating around that Adolin will revive his Shardblade and become a Radiant. We know from in-book evidence and WoB that Adolin's Blade once belonged to an Edgedancer, and where was the only Edgedancer we know of last seen? That's right, Azir! Lift will train Adolin to become a Radiant. To be a diplomat, Adolin would have to have access to a lot of knowledge of other cultures. Luckily, Adolin already has a bodyguard who knows a lot about these sorts of things - Sigzil. And where's Sigzil from? Azir! So, what crazy, off-the-wall theories do you all have bottled up? They can be as elaborate as this one, or just a single sentence of speculation. As a final note, since this thread is for sharing theories we already know no one else would believe, let's try to just have fun with them and not shoot any of them down.

Brandon also answers a lot of questions on each of his updates. Here's what he's said so far:

Is this thread still being watched? This one's on page 608 of the hardback. "Hopefully, from that position, she wouldn't notice that Amaram was shorter than he should be. Even walking on her tiptoes--which was masked by the illusion--she was shorter than the highprince." Instead of highprince, it should be highmarshal. EDIT: So, I checked the paperback version, and this change has already been made

We do have this:

You're right about Hoid using Feruchemy to show up for all of these important events, though. Whether his Lerasium bead is involved with this or not is anyone's guess. Personally, I think he's using Chromium, but who knows?

Granted. Unfortunately, you will never be able to find out what it was that you were given. I wish for the ability to travel through time.

Not exactly. Here are the only quotes I found about it. It's not quite as cut and dry as I remembered, but 'years' to me implies at least three. Since a year on Roshar is 500 days, that would be put it at at least 1500 days before the Everstorm.

Nice post, @Spoolofwhool! Have an upvote. There are a few points here that I want to address, though. First, my personal theory about how Taravangian saw into the Spiritual Realm is a lot simpler than the one about varying levels of investiture. I take the Nightwatcher's boon and curse at face value, Taravangian's fluctuates inversely to his compassion. I just think that there's some sort of threshold of intelligence beyond which the 'weight'(?) of someone's mind in the Cognitive Realm is enough that they begin to touch on the Spiritual Realm. There are probably any number of explanations for this that we really don't know enough about Realmatics to nail down. Second, I agree that any doubts I have about whether Taravangian had enough information going into the making of the Diagram to come to the conclusions that he did are far from conclusive. You raise some good points here. Third: Hope you don't mind reading an essay of my own... I would argue that, yes, it is that different. The difference between cult and national psychology is huge. The only times that they approach one another is when a nation is placed under a huge amount of pressure over the course of years, strong enough to unite almost everyone in a backlash against it, or through literally generations of cultural conditioning, neither of which was the case in Kharbranth at the time. Even then, in most cases, people wouldn't actually voluntarily commit suicide because you decided they weren't intelligent enough--you would have to hunt them down and kill them. Suicide cults are based almost entirely on personal charisma, which breaks down on a national scale, even for a city-state. They also depend on finding a few vulnerable members on society and separating them, whereas Taravangian would have to convince literally everyone. It's easy to imagine a nation of faceless sheeple being swayed to listen to Taravangian's arguments, but what if we imagine actual people? Would Taravangian be able to convince people like Gaz, Lopen, Bluth, Tvlakv, Moash, Yalb, and Elhokar to commit suicide through rational argument? None of them are particularly noted for their intelligence, and I can't imagine a single one of them being swayed under normal circumstances. Now, let's look a bit more into the specific obstacles that Taravangian would face. It's already an uphill battle, since despite Taravangian's cult following, he's largely seen as a weak, stupid king even within his nation and isn't taken seriously. He would have to reveal himself as super intelligent, but then some would distrust him. After all, this is a pretty superstitious society and he just proclaimed that his level of intelligence fluctuates each day, and maybe even explained the involvement of the Nightwatcher. Beyond that, it would also rally a lot of the upper class who mostly leave him alone because of his apparent stupidity against him. Even if he had the ability to convince the masses that suicide was in their best interests, he would be opposed by a lot of already entrenched factions, who might see this terrible idea of his as either inflammatory enough to cause them to rise up against him or an opportunity to turn opinion against him and score political points, maybe even seizing power from him. Think how much opposition Dalinar received to his strategies of working together with the highprinces to end the war on the Shattered Plains, and scale that up quite a bit. The ardentia especially would almost certainly condemn this kind of decision. From there, Kharbranth's diplomatic relationship with the other Vorin nations would be strained immensely, pressuring Taravangian to either retract his decree or be left alone as a tiny city-state with no military and no allies. And now any plans Taravangian might have had with the Diagram go kaput. I mean, it's theoretically possible that he could pull it off, but it would need to be the single thing he was working toward for years and years, totally setting aside any Diagram-related goals, with all the influence and political subtlety he could muster, and, of course, no guiding hand from the Diagram. Even then, the consequences would be severe. But I've been saying all of this without getting to the crux of the issue. Taravangian wasn't thinking about years of subtle political and psychological maneuvering to pull this off. He was so incredibly oriented towards intelligence and logic, without any empathy whatsoever, that he literally thought that he could just enact the law day and that most people would think it over, say to themselves, "Yeah, that makes sense," and commit suicide. It didn't occur to him that they could come to another conclusion as soon as he made the case to them in a rational and logical fashion. There was no idea of using fanaticism or cult psychology at all. That's the whole point of Taravangian not being able to make decisions on law on days when he's super smart--because it's monumentally stupid, and he knows it. Compare this with advice from the Diagram. There's still the same utter lack of empathy in the Diagram, but suddenly Taravangian understands how people work again? It doesn't add up to me. Lastly: The epigraph for Chapter 88 is the list for the dates of all of the Highstorms up until the coming of the Everstorm. It's not definitive proof that he knew the Everstorm specifically was coming, by any means, but why would he end the sequence there if he didn't? Also, note that the epigraph was actually a part of the diagram, so he had it written long before they got that particular Death Rattle.