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I just wanted to start a list of minor questions people have going into Rhythm of War. Put them all in one place so maybe we can put our heads together to solve them. This is meant for minor questions, not major plot points. my Questions: Was Danlan Marakothra a member of the diagram or just working with Graves because she believed his stated goal? What happened to her and will we ever see her again? Where is Kalak? I’ve never seen any theories I find credible about where he is, what he’s up to. Who is Dova? Is she really a herald? Is it Battar, Paliah, Vedel? Who is Navani’s family? Is she from the senior Kholin branch? A family killed by the Kholin brothers? Sister to another high prince? Same questions but for Aesuedan. Where are Hesina’s parents? Is she a bastard daughter or a lord or is one of her parents just a low dahn lighteyes that married a darkeyes? What happened to Tarah? Will she come back into the story? Kaladin’s story? Will Laral? What happened to Redin after he killed his father? What does Brandon have planned for him? Who will be the first Stoneward we see? Who will be the next member of Bridge 4 to attract a Spren? is Lys the assassin one of the Heralds? Is she Chana? Vedel? What are the oldbloods? How many are there and when did they rule? let me know what your minor questions are?

So the Horneaters (Unkalaki), and the Herdazians descend from humans and singers and have singer ancestry. In Horneaters this gives them extra back-teeth, red hair, larger size, and are closer to the cognitive realm. For Herdazians it just seems to give them rock-like carapace fingernails. The Natan people and the people of Babatharnam descend from humans and Siah Aimians and have Siah ancestors. The Babatharnam manifest this with blue-ish veins visible beneath the skin and the Natans have faintly blue skin. They may also have other Aimian characteristics but this is all we know about so far. What's with Thaylen Eyebrows? Where did this come from? Does anyone have any idea?

In the afternoon of the day he died, Gavilar offers the gem containing Ba-ado-Mishram to Eshonai with the intention to return the Listener gods and the cycle of desolations. In Szeth’s prologue in Way of Kings we see Gavilar give the gem to Szeth and tell him not to let the Parshendi have it. Did he change his mind in the meantime? It seems like he has had a change of heart about his plans in the six-eight hours between events. Did Nale and Kalak speak to him? One of the other Heralds? it’s my speculation the sphere contained Ba-ado-Mishram but there is no proof. I’m assuming the sphere Gavilar shows Eshonai is the same he gives to Szeth. is this the same gem both times? Does Gavilar get it back or does he have more than one? did he change his mind or does his plan just require the Parshendi don’t have that sphere?

I've started a reread of Oathbringer in anticipation for Rhythm of War, and just thought I'd spend way too long dissecting like one line that Pattern says. So, at the beginning of Chapter 40 of Oathbringer we have a letter sent to Shallan by the Ghostbloods explaining stuff about the Sons of Honor and the Skybreakers. After we get to read the letter, (on page 422 of the hardcover) Pattern drops this: Now, I know Pattern likes to drop the word "lies" in a crap ton of places that most of us wouldn't, and I don't believe that he's some sort of lie detector who will 100% always know when a lie is there. However, I do believe that the Branderson pays very, very deep attention to his writing and that he may have dropped this line as a flag to this reader, like "Hey, this thing is written by the Ghostbloods, and they have no reason to tell the whole truth to Shallan: just enough of the truth to keep her hooked and convinced that they have information she doesn't. Take the cue." Well, do I think there is any hard, textual evidence that this letter is a bit cremmy? Yes, but let's work it all out. Yes, I'm going to call it "crem" instead of "BS," just live with it. Here's the outline of the points that the letter made: Besides the Ghostbloods, there are (at least) two other secret societies: the Sons of Honor and the Skybreakers. Gavilar and Amaram were members of the Sons of Honor. The Sons of Honor sought to return the Desolation in order to strengthen the Vorin church, and this lead to Gavilar's assassination (although others also wanted him dead). The Skybreakers, lead by Nale, did not betray their oaths and have persisted since the Recreance. Nale kills those who are on the verge of becoming Radiants, or sends his Skybreakers/acolytes to do so because he fears new Radiants will lead to a new Desolation. (Alternatively, he turns them into Skybreakers if they are properly aligned) Shallan's mother was associated with the Skybreakers, who may have detected a budding Radiant in her household. This lead to her attempt to murder Shallan. However, the Skybreakers ended up believing this Helaran was the one bonding a spren. Helaran was sent to kill Amaram because of his affiliation with the Sons of Honor. The Skybreakers knew about a member of Amaram's army about to bond a spren, and this person was "eliminated." Kaladin was unknown to them, because otherwise he'd be dead. Now, let's sift through these 5 points and see if we find any crem. Point 1: No crem detected. This pretty much confirms what we see from Amaram's chapter in Words of Radiance about the Sons of Honor, and what Szeth sees later on in Oathbringer. The reference to others wanting Gavilar dead makes sense when you remember his last words about Sadeas and Thaidakar. I might modify the "vorin" bit just because Gavilar seems very cosmere-aware and less religious than just plain power hungry but otherwise this seems accurate. Point 2: No crem detected. We've seen this happen multiple times, and heard Nale's monologue. Point 3: Probably some crem. Some stuff isn't adding up here. Shallan's mom clearly knew that Shallan was the Radiant, so why would the Skybreakers suddenly decide that it's Helaran? They do not explain how Shallan's mother knows about Shallan's bond while the rest of the Skybreakers do not, and this looks like a major hole in the Ghostblood's story. At the very least, they are leaving out some details about either Shallan's mother or Helaran's affiliation. (warning: very minor spoiler for the Rhythm of War Prologue, which Brandon has read online.) Point 4: This is where my crem alarm went off. Let's think this one through. At first glance, the Skybreakers and the Sons of Honor have obvious opposing ideals and it's easy to buy that the Skybreakers would assassinate one of the Sons of Honor. But let's take a closer inspection and see if we've read any hard evidence of these two groups fighting. No. In fact, we've seen the opposite. Let's also look, again, at what Gavilar says as he's dying. He thinks he's been assassinated by either Sadeas or Thaidakar, not by the Skybreakers. Despite the fact that his assassin can STORMING FLY. Throughout his entire battle with Gavilar, Szeth only uses his surge of Gravitation. (okay tbh I'm not rereading to check but I'm pretty darn sure Szeth doesn't try to stick stuff to Gavilar with Adhesion, and also Decay probably wouldn't work against Shardplate so Gavilar has no reason not to believe he's using Skybreaker surges). The fact that Gavilar doesn't think his FLYING, GLOWING assassin is a Skybreaker would be simply ridiculous if he knew that they opposed him. (I'm also assuming Gavilar knows about the Skybreakers from his conversation with Nale). Well, you might say that we're now talking about Gavilar when we should really be talking about Amaram. That's a fair point, so let's look a the timing and execution here. First of all, why now? The Sons of Honor don't seem to have had much of a plan following Gavilar's assassination, besides the extensive mapping of the Shattered Plains which Amaram is caught conducting by Shallan. But at this point in time, Amaram isn't in the Shattered Plains at all: he's fighting some random skirmishes in the middle of Alethkar. Why would they Skybreakers kill him now, when they left him alone when the Sons of Honor were on the verge of success during the night of Gavilar's death, and when he actually decided to go to the Plains later? The execution is also, like, really weird. The Ghostbloods claim that Helaran was sent to kill Amaram as a test, but it's hardly a test of skill for a full Shardbearer to take down a plain warrior. If this is a test, it's a wimpy one. And after Helaran's failure, why not send another assassin? Yes, Amaram is a bit beefier as a full shardbearer now but we clearly see Szeth, who is weaker than a 3rd oath Windrunner, best multiple full shardbearers (using mostly gravitation, I might add) and we know there are 3rd and 4th ideal Skybreakers along with 5th ideal Nale. Any of these guys could easily wallop Amaram's not-so-sorry chull straight to Braize. The only argument you might make is that it would attract a ton of attention, but guess who's flying around murdering full shardbearers at the time? Szeth would be the perfect cover story: if the Skybreakers assassinated Amaram at any point during the first two books, it would have been pinned on Szeth, no questions asked. What an unfathomably stupid opportunity to ignore. Also, much like Gavilar, Amaram thinks Thaidakar is to blame (although Amaram may not know of the Skybreakers). I simply cannot buy that the Skybreakers want Amaram dead. But wait, how does this make any sense? These two groups are blatantly opposed in intention. My best guess is that Nale would kinda like being revered as who he is and be able to enforce the law, and that he's fine with Radiants and a Desolation as long as he's in charge of directing the events—hence his collaboration with Gavilar. Point 5: Possible crem. The proto-radiant mentioned here seems to be Tien, and he does die. So why am I calling out some crem? Because of all the crem in point 4. If Helaran wasn't sent to kill Amaram, why was he there? How could they have noticed Tien, but not Kaladin? I think that Helaran WAS sent to kill Kaladin, and that his attack on Amaram was a tactic to draw Kaladin out. They're on a massive battlefield, and it's not really easy to pin down where one random soldier might be. But if you know they've got the ideals of a Windrunner, you know that they're sure as hell going to run to protect their commanding officer. Kaladin hasn't committed any crimes (even petty ones) that they could pin on him, so they had to kill him in a battle since that's not really illegal I guess? Meanwhile, the Ghostbloods don't tell Shallan about this so they can claim that the Skybreakers want to kill the Sons of Honor. As for why Kaladin wasn't killed by the Skybreakers while he was a slave, I think Amaram's cover-up may have actually worked. The Skybreakers assumed that Helaran's mission was accomplished (and that Amaram killed him) after they were unable to detect any further radiant activity from the area. At the very least, I think this is easier to explain than all the problems with Point 4. So, what's the point? If my analysis is correct, it seems like the Ghostbloods are trying to frame the Skybreakers for actions against the Sons of Honor. Conspicuously missing from the letter is any mention of where the Ghostbloods themselves stand on this conflict. We know that both Gavilar and Amaram think Thaidakar wants to murder them, and that Thaidakar is connected to the Ghostbloods. Why not tell Shallan that the Ghostbloods are in conflict with the Sons of Honor? Shallan is ideologically opposed to the Sons so it would even make sense for the Ghostbloods to make the case that they don't like each other. This seems like a glaring detail to omit. Personally, I think that the reason the Ghostbloods and Sons of Honor are in conflict is something pretty nefarious that they aren't willing to reveal, and that they thus want to paint as much antagonism as possible on both the Skybreakers and the Sons so that Shallan doesn't hate the Ghostbloods even more. So, that's been my absurdly long analysis stemming from a single sentence uttered by Pattern. Yup. There ya go. I'd like to hear everybody's thoughts, and feel free to murder me with words if you disagree with my breakdown. Edit: forgot to include this mini-theory originally Mraize's phrasing about Tien's death is interesting. The exact quote is "From our spying upon the Skybreakers, we have records showing the only member of Amaram's army to have bonded a spren was long since eliminated." Eliminated. Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but should we just believe the Skybreakers knew of Tien, yet did nothing? Tien's completely innocent of any crimes, so it protects him from their direct assassination but I wouldn't put it against the Skybreakers to pull a few strings and make sure a messenger boy winds up on the front lines of combat. If this mini-theory is true, then it has pretty big implications about how Kaladin might react towards the Skybreakers if he ever find this out.

I have a simple proposal for how the Heralds can be A. born on Ashyn (except maybe Ash), B. Were elevated to heralds during the first Desolation to combat the fused who came in the first desolation, and C. Were not supernaturally old and didn't have extended lifespans... Why do we assume the humans came to Ashyn all at once? Why can't they have come in waves over tens or hundreds of years? We assume Ashyn was destroyed suddenly, but it can't have been too sudden as there was enough time to evacuate a large amount of people to Shinovar on Roshar and to create the floating cities of Ashyn that harbored cities worth of Ashynites. What if there were early refugees who left at the beginning of some war to move to Roshar, then the war gets worse and more people move and Shinovar starts to get full, the first humans go over the mountains, the war begins to destroy the planet with vast, destructive powers being unleashed on whatever the sides were and the planet is basically destroyed. During this period the Shin-Ahsynites start to kill Singers and the Singers fight back. The angriest of the Singers are offered great power and revenge by Odium in return for their obedience (Odium is playing both sides). Jesrien, King of one of the floating cities that is failing brings his people in a migration to Roshar and enters into a raging war with the fused giving the Singers a terrible advantage. Honor offers Jesrien and nine of his people the chance to oppose the fused and bring humanity over to Honor instead of Odium. This doesn't have a lot of evidence, but it solves the strange timeline issues around the first desolation and the migration of the Radiants.

So we learn from the Glyphs shown in one of the Oathbringer art pages that Kalad is the Alethi glyph for Eternal, we also learn that the suffix Lin or Rin in a name means "Born Onto" in an Alethi name from the Dalinar chapters where he names Adolin and where he thinks about Renarin's name. Adoda means light and Lin means born onto so Adolin means Born onto Light. Renarin means he who is born onto himself because Evi didn't fully understand the Alethi naming conventions. So does Kaladin's name mean Born onto Eternity? Kalad meaning Eternal and the 'In suffix meaning "Born onto". (Ignoring for a second any other people with Kalad in their names...)

Near the end of Oathbringer, a bunch of gloryspren appears around Dalinar. The same area is then seen in the cognitive realm in Kaladin's POV. However, there are no gloryspren in the cognitive realm. Is this an error, or is something different happening here?

So at the end of Oathbringer, Lunamor was able to draw and fire a Grandbow straight through Amaram's black heart. How the flip did he do this? I have no clue if anyone has done the math on the draw weights of Shardbows, but they fire arrows "as thick as three fingers", so the strength required must be incredible. They require augmenter fabrials in order to avoid shattering, and previously only people in Shardplate can fire them. I believe that Rock's miraculous shot was made possible through his status as an alaii’iku, his ability to see and communicate with spren. The augmenter fabrials involved with the bow enhance the durability of the metal, its tensile strength. If Rock was able to contact the spren, and maybe influence them with Stormlight, could he convince them to make the Shardbow more pliable? This would be like a weird offshoot of Soulcasting, where negotiations with spren lead to powerful affects. This might also relate to Tension in some way, too bad we know nothing about it. So bottom line is I'm saying that Rock somehow talked to the spren inside the fabrial and convinced/bribed/bullied. them to make the bow easier to draw. I wish I had more evidence, but we have so little info on both Rock and Fabrials. Perhaps part of Rock's conflict after Thaylen Field came from cussing out spren (Tensionspren?), which he reveres. What does this mean for the future of Lunamor? Well, I would like to see him and Navani team up to restore Urithiru. Not only would any interactions between those two be pure gold to read, we would get to learn more about spren and fabrials, and the Urithiru light-up scene needs to happen ASAP.

Spoilers for Oathbringer below. on page 1099 in my hardcover version: “The air around Venli - once crowded by the spirits of the dead - was now empty save for the single black figure of swirling smoke. She’d missed that one at first, as it was the size of a normal person. It stood near Odium, and she did not know what it represented.” ...(conversation between Venli & Odium)... “She swallowed, then started hiking toward the city. The dark spirit followed, the one of swirling mists, the last who had yet to inhabit a body.” Dalinar mentions the spirit on page 1121 as well, as he speaks to Odium through Venli. So, does anyone know what - or who - this spirit is?

So I was looking back through the scene where Shallan and gang is hunting the Midnight Essence and they come across that room covered in art, and I noticed something. Shallan says there are murals that depict 10 kinds of spren and guesses they're for each Order. There's just one small issue. There's 12 Radiant spren. The Bondsmiths have 3 unique spren. The passage in question with the relevant portion bolded. So what do y'all think? Is there a representation of just one of the Bondsmith spren? Is it an abstract representstion of the idea of a Bondsmith spren? Is this a writing error and there was supposed to be 9, with the glowing cloud, tree woman, and figure in front of a circle intended to be the Bondsmith spren? Perhaps the Bondsmiths were supposed to be unrepresented? I'm currently thinking either the second or third option, unsure though.

OK, so this has probably been pointed out before, and people are probably tired of The Girl Who Looked Up theories, but here I go. First: the hair. In Shallan's version of the story, the girl's hair changes to white mid-story. This is reminiscent of the Royal Locks on Nalthis. White hair signifies that a person is afraid, which fits in with the story - the girl had just started climbing the wall, which was a daunting and fear-inspiring task. The scarf. Shallan notes that the girl has a "vibrant red scarf." Brandon doesn't normally put in details like this unless they are important. Color is the base for the magic system on Nalthis. Note that it wasn't just a "red scarf", but a "vibrant red scarf." I find this detail to be important, as it reminds me of the way colors are described in Warbreaker. Perhaps the girl is an Awakener? No light. This is small, but in Hoid's version of the story, he emphasizes that the land had no light. Because of the darkness, the normal people couldn't see the wall. But if the girl was an Awakener of the Third Heightening, she would have been able to distinguish the slight color change of the shadows where the wall was. Anyway, that's just some things I noticed. Is the theory true? Most likely not. Did I spend way too much time thinking about this? Yes

So I have a weird thought - Brandon Sanderson has a way of foreshadowing things in strange ways. In fact, he has said that one of the reasons he likes Lift as a character is cause he is able to make her say weird things which character turn out to be foreshadowing of things in her own unique manner. As I was re-reading Oathbringer, Lopen struck me as a similar type of character. Often in Words of Radiance and in Oathbringer, he refers to himself as "The Lopen". He also seems to multiply cousins just when Kaladin seemed to need them. In the oathbringer, when training Bridge four to be squires - he lashes himself to the ground and then coaxes the ground by saying, "Don’t worry, dear one. The Lopen is vast enough to be possessed by many, many forces, both terrestrial and celestial! I must soar to the air, for if I were to remain only on the ground, surely my growing magnitude would cause the land to crack and break". Call this wishful thinking or conspiracy theories - but I really do think that there is more to Lopen than we know to date. After all the Herdazians are not completely understood by the Alethi (example, Rock - correction Rock is a Horneater, my mistake) Think any of this thinking makes sense or is it too far fetched?

To be clear, this isn't my original theory. I found it recently while going down a rabbit hole on the Stormlight Archive reddit. I really liked it and saw it wasn't being discussed here so i thought I would put it out there. I apologize that I don't have the link to the original source, I honestly couldn't find it again when I went looking. I also don't have exact quotes from the book but I will do my best. So it chapter 44 of Oathbringer, Shallan as Veil is in a bar with Red, Gaz, and Vathah while Ishnah is training them to become spies and informants. They do an exercise where they are given a short time to memorize details about people in the bar. When its her turn, Veil describes several people in great detail, one of which is a woman at the bar who is wearing a Thaylen style dress but isn't Thaylen herself. She is also wearing bright colors, green and violet I think. Veil says this woman seems to be flirting with the men, but is doing it playfully like she is not completely serious. She keeps looking around the bar like she is looking for someone. Fast forward to chapter 112, we have Kaladin's flashback remembering when Tarah left Amaram's army to go work as a scribe. Kaladin remembers her as liking to wear an older style of Thaylen dress even though she wasn't Thaylen. He also said she liked to dress in bright colors, colors that couldn't usually be afforded by a darkeyes. They talk about how she thinks its funny to outfit the young, new recruits to the army because they get flustered and think she is making a pass at them when she takes their measurements. So we have an Alethi woman who like to dress in Thaylen dresses and bright colors playfully flirting with men and possibly looking for someone in bar frequented by soldiers. I am convinced that this is yet another example of Brandon being incredibly sneaky with some foreshadowing. So if this is in fact Tarah, how much does she know about Kaladin's story since they separated and what will be her role in the the books going forward? I would love to hear your thoughts.

So I recently watched Frozen 2 and I could not help but find a deep similarity between the two pieces. The first thing that I notice is that in both works the main characters have to contend and struggle with the failings of their ancestors. In Frozen 2 Anna and Elsa find out that the inexplicable stories their father was told are actually very clearly explained by their grandfathers greed. This to me ran parallel to the issue brought up by the Eila Stele. In both of these instances the stories the main characters have been raised on are not so much an explanation of history as a placation of it. Each of these groups must then go about trying to make it right too. The other really huge point that I see in both of these books is the influences of mental health, and the ways that we see them overcome it, particularly with regard to Anna and Dalinar. After some really sad things happen and when all seems lost (I am trying to be vague just for good measure) Anna sings a solo song called "The Next Right Thing." This song begins as a soliloquy of despair but eventually transitions into one of determination. The opening verses reflect a state of mind that virtually every stormlight character has experienced (i'm inclined to say that everyone has at some point in their life) in that it feels like everything that has been overtaking you is crashing in. As the song continues she begins to recognize the idea that even when it seems everything you knew was over the only thing to do is to take the next step and do the next right thing. Although Dalinar's book has the luxury of being retrospective in its nature, both the book and the song resonate with the ideals of perseverance and strength that make these characters incredibly compelling to me. The last idea that I am thinking about after meditating on this is whether these characters will follow a similar path or not. In the climax of the film, Anna makes the choice to rectify her grandfathers wrongs and in doing so causes the destruction of her own kingdom. In this regard she takes it upon herself to make reparations towards the people of the forest. While I believe that the story Sanderson has woven is certainly more complicated, eventually the coalition of humans will have to acknowledged that it was the knights radiant that committed a mass genocide and enslavement. I wonder of we will be seeing anyone taking it upon themselves to make reparations for this particular act.

I have been rereading WOR to distract myself from, well, out there. In doing so, I am once again struck by BWS' continuity and his ability to answer some questions and let others linger. Here is one of each. "I was off duty, sir," Teft said. "Went to see what I could find in the market. Do I need to report every little thing I do?" "You went to the market to the market," Kaladin said, "in a highstorm?" "Time may have gotten away from me for a breath or two..." Teft said, looking away. Chapter 41 WOR This question of where was Teft off to was answered was in OB. Pretty clearly he was off abusing firemoss. One question not answered in OB--a question I did not even notice until I reread WOR is that of Rock's great strength. Sure he is big but he seems to have a strength that surprises even Kaladin. While in the chasms sparring with Rock, Lopen and Sigzil, he notices that Rock is swinging a log at his head: An entire log. How had Rock lifted the that thing? Chapter 12 WOR This question is not answered in OB. Rather, it was built upon when Rock kills Amaram with the shardbow: Kaladin glanced toward Rock, who stood over Amaram’s body, looking down, the enormous bow held limply in one hand. How had he drawn it? Stormlight granted great endurance, but it didn’t vastly improve strength. Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 1189). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. So when will BWS answer it? The Rock short story? ROW? Any theories out there? What other questions were answered? Left pending for a later book?

I was perusing the Arcanum when I came across a WoB that came with a potential option for the 4th Ideal of the Windrunners. The one suggested is, ""I will forgive myself for those I've failed to protect". Personally, I believe the fourth Ideal may be more along the lines of: I recognize that I must kill to protect OR I will protect the masses by stopping the few. In essence my idea is that Kaladin and all Windrunners will have to recognize that conflict will occur and that the average person (Singer or Human) can be caught in the struggle for power between greater forces than themselves. Therefore, to protect as many as they can Windrunners will have to kill or disable the greater forces of evil, and as a result their underlings. I may be completely incorrect. Please let me know your thoughts.

I’m currently rereading WoR. During the prologue it features Jasnah during the feast where Gavilar is assassinated. There’s a moment where her shadow is going the wrong way. I know she has had her episodes of lunacy in the past. I don’t think the shadow is necessarily that. I think it’s Ivory, her inkspren. I don’t know much about inkspren forms, but I assume they can puddle into basic shapes like a shadow. Her shadow seems to be pointing towards the sphere lanterns. I’m wondering if this has to do with her being in an order that deals heavily with Shadesmar and her becoming bonded to Ivory. Kinda similar to how Syl played tricks on Kaladin before gaining full sentience. Any thoughts?

At the very end of OB, Hoid retrieves the Cryptic that was about to bond with Elhokar. He says he thinks the reason he came to Kholinar may have been to find that spren. I find myself wondering what's so special about this particular spren? It's described as small and trembling, so clearly it's upset by having lost its Radiant. (Thanks fer nuthin', Moash.) But I don't get the impression that this is just a random act of kindness like him uniting the little orphaned girl with the woman who lost her baby. This feels like something that's meant to have a larger importance, and I'm curious if any Sharders have theories about why. Could this Cryptic be its species' equivalent of an Ancient Daughter, a spren that was made in an earlier era and might have knowledge about Aharietiam and/or the Recreance? Is it some sort of leader among the spren that could give whoever bonds it extra influence in Shadesmar? Something else?

So while this could be nothing, I was looking through some discussions about stormlight 4 and I started to connect some dots. While it is not confirmed, a lot of the fandom- and myself- believe Hesina, Kaladin's mother, to be originally from Kharbranth. If this is true, we known from the end of Oathbringer that all those who were born in Kharbranth and their spouses will be spared from Odium. We also know that Odium is bound by his word and so he must follow this deal he struck with Taravangian. While I've seen quite a few people saying this deal will end up being bad for Taravangian and that Odium ultimately got the better deal, I think this deal is what will bring about Odium's downfall, not Taravangian's. Now I should say this having any sort of possibility weighs heavily on Hesina being born in Kharbranth, but under the assumption that she is then this means that Lirin is spared by association. And yet, even with this deal potentially protecting him, much of the fanbase believes Lirin will die in Stormlight 4. This is where I think Odium trips himself up. If Lirin were to die as a result of Odium- so be singers, listeners, or corrupted spren- the deal between Odium and Taravangian will immediately become void. And while we don't necessarily know what happens when a shard's word is broken, it is my personal headcanon that a big part of the process for Honor being shattered was that he in some way broke his word. While obviously this has a lot holes in it, I just wanted to point it out as I've been seeing a lot of people talking about the Kharbranth deal and whether or not Lirin will die in the next book.

It's been quite a long time since my last post. During the period, I've finished OB, finally. As some guy here predicted, the book did answer some questions, and I'm noting that the number of queries I'm going to make decrease significantly when compared to the last thread. Here they are: - Let's remember the moment when Shallan hears about the return of Jasnah. At that point, Dalinar has refounded the Radiants, and new people with powers are popping up left & right. So when Adolin says You know what, she's back!, Shallan happily welcomes her princess. Huh? Really? How about giving that news a bit of doubt? She was the only 1 who witnessed Jasnah's death with her own eyes (and hands). She knows that she belongs to a group of Radiants who can create images. She's seen persons with the same power (both Kaladin and Szeth can fly). Of all people, she is the 1 who has used fake personalities to do various missions. I couldn't believe how she reacts when I read that part. - Speaking of her inconsistencies, Shallan in this book makes some stunning turn from the preceding ones. Where is her curiosity? 1 of the scenes I remember the most was when she jumped off the ship to be able to watch a santhid. Now she barely questions anything. OK I do know that in OB she's torn between 3+ personalities. But even when the true Shallan surfaces, I can hardly see traces of her inquisitive mind. - In a chapter, Dalinar is touched a bit by Odium, and he crumples down immediately. He knows that the god has only used like 0.1% of his 'power'. And Odium himself says he's not used with interacting with humans again, i.e. he has tried his best to hold back. He doesn't have to do anything and the Stormfather is already whimpering in some corner of the world. Now fast forward to the final battle, and during the confrontation, when Dalinar blabbers some words, Odium suddenly loses, saying Oh no! and retreating with a godly tail between his legs like a beaten dog? WTF? Well that's it for the questions. Now here are some of my personal thoughts on the book itself. I was surprised. A few times, a pleasant 1, such as when Dalinar faces resistance from other monarchs - unexpected for me but totally makes sense and great in retrospect. Others, not so much. The story feels incoherent and the climaxes lacking. It feels like somehow BS has changed from the man who wrote tWoK & WoR to this new man who wrote OB. And not for the better. Something has transmuted in him, not really in style, but maybe like in essence. Yes, OB is still 1 of the best novels out there, but when compared with its 2 predecessors, the book wanes. I like the concept "grip" to describe how great a story is. And man, I was hooked by the 1st 2 books. I set a time before bed to read. And I can remember vividly how fascinating it was when I read to the part where Kaladin jumped down into the arena to help Adolin fight, so gripping that I ignored the phone reminder alarm and read into the night to at least finish the whole scene. And you know what? I can't remember any moment like that with OB. In fact, what's alarming is that I found myself drifting into sleep a few times when having the book at hands. What a sad revelation. I don't really know where to point the finger to when trying to explain how or why OB slipped. It's quite hard TBH. So, what do you think of the book? Is it the best in the series? Better than 1 but worse than 1? Or definitely the worst of tSA until now? If so, what do you think is wrong with this last installment?

Hey guys, first post! Had a question, and couldn’t find the answer anywhere. We know Rock can see spren. Which implies he’s able to slip into the cognitive realm somewhat. Since he can see spren, does he recognize shardblades as dead spren?

Could this be the secret to corrupting true spren. I think it was said in the past san-jnat could only corrupt lesser spren, but now we have glys. I'm not suggesting in the past dead blades did not exist I'm sure some knights broke their oaths but no where near the numbers the recreance had. Now the idea is san-jnat isn't reviving the blade. But adding something to replace what was lost in their minds and birthing something new if based on the old personality. An unmade spren if you will. That's why it grants 1 radiant surge and 1 void surge.

I posted this on reddit a while back and wanted to run this idea by you guys. Ill try to keep it brief and will elaborate if anyone ask questions. Everything bases around Tanavasts shadow not exactly merging with the stormfather when honor was shattered. He's using the stormfather as a coppercloud/hiding place. Using the smallest nudges on Dalinar through the stormfather. His is the unite them voice/light that dalinar sees that the stormfather claims to not be doing. It also explains why Odium says we killed you. In that unity moment Tanavast revealed himsel, possibly not on purpose but with the realms togther Odium spotted him. Thiis part is my head cannon till more is said in the books. The rest is solid speculations. I think its all in the plan. The long game that him and cultivation came up with. Of the 3 I think it was said cultivation had the best future sight. Honor sacrifices himself allows his own defeat. His shadow hides in the stormfather till the right time. He left visions for the bondsmiths to get them on the right path. In the one vision, I'm sorry I dont have the exact quote, the one he tells Dalinar to vex him make him think he can win, get him to agree to a contest of champions. With cultivations help Dalinar did exactly that. Got Odium to agree to the contest. Cultivation took his memory but gave it back in time for him to face Odium call to be his champion. Odium was sure Dalinar would become his even renerin saw it in his visions. So right after Dalinar resist Odium the terms that were laid out in the vision were met. Dalinar pulls the relms together and Odium sees Tanavast. We killed you. It was after that dalinar was always seeing that light almost like he doesnt have to hide anymore To reach even farther he'll use the same method as the heralds to to gain a new body and pick up his shard again in book 5 when Dalinar reforms the honor shard. I guess it is possible that the unite them and other things are an echo of tanavasts left over after they merged but I feel the stormfather would realize that it was coming from him if this were the case.