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Ok so we have learned a good bit more with these chapters. The chapters themselves seem very short but at least that makes things feel quick. Hoid is back to being a carriage rider for Wax which leads me to the inevitable question: Does he know? Has Hoid made himself known to Wax or is his appearance vastly different from when he was a beggar in BoM. But maybe there's a chance it's not even Hoid an maybe it just became a name that people use now. Who knows but I hope Hoid is more active because he's a really cool as a character when he is part of the plot. Love him as Wit. The next thing that really interested me was Trellium. It seems to work a bit like Compounding (and is clearly what Tensin did at the ends of BoM) but less powerful since Miles would heal way faster. So maybe Trellium has some amplification components? Interested to hear your thoughts here. The prophecy is some scary stuff but I think it's more likely the ash would come from WMDs than Ashmounts or anything since in BoM we had this teased already. The next really nice stuff I appreciated was Wax and Max and it really made me ask a question if Max was an allomancer/ferring/twinborn as well. We still don't know how snapping works now. Maybe we'll see it through Max? But I think it would be fun, especially loved him being a bit of a little Wayne. And feel free to talk about anything else. Especially, what did you enjoy the most? What are you most interested in?

I can’t find the quote right now, but at some point in RoW, Jasnah offhandedly mentions, whilst saying how Shalash was a great firsthand historical resource and what not, something along the lines of “All those arguments and Jochi had been right and she had been wrong.” Whilst Jasnah is not perfect, statistically she should have won about half of those debates. I may have got the quote wrong, but that is a huge anomaly! All those arguments? Is it possible that our beloved Thaylen baker-scholar is more than he says? I doubt he’s a Herald, but could he be a Worldhopper or someone else who would have witnessed those events firsthand too?

Is the girl who looked up about ash? I just thought of this possibility but it seems possible. to my understanding right the heralds except ash are all from ashyn with ash having either come over young or been born on roshar, this means that the girl who looked up only makes sense if it happens very soon after arriving on roshar which means ash is around and considering the similarities between Shallan and the girl that’s constantly implied when the story is told is it possible it’s ash? another hint to this is that while shallan is showing pattern the story the image of the girl has her hair turn white without shallan intentionally doing so. The same color as ash’s hair. so after the story and even before hoid tells kaladin of fleet people see an inhuman shape striding through the highstorms, this appears to be fleet, but what is he. Hoid claims to have never told the story of fleet before and every time someone sees it they kinda ignore it, so why has the story seemingly fallen into the obscurity or been forgotten. Then the question become what is fleet is he a spren? Like a unique sentient wind spren kinda like the winds are sentient in many mythology, a cognative shadow?, maybe a combo like the stormfather the shadow of fleet?

Hi all! I wanted to share a quick cosmere fic that I've been working on today. The idea is that I'm going to do a short character study, between 1,000 and 2,000 words, for each Herald (I've written five of them already). They're generally based between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War. The first chapter is based off of Jezrien! I hope you all enjoy it. All feedback is welcome so long as you're not rude! https://archiveofourown.org/works/29924256/chapters/73652727

I can't remember if that was emphatically stated or not. I only remember Ash holding his hand and the emotion of that scene in the tent. Were (are?) they romantically inclined? Kinda hard when half the party is mad, I know

Good day fellas. It's been a while since I've posted on here and since I've checked in, so if this theory is old hat, I apologize. Tear me to shreds. But if not, I humbly submit this to the 17th Shard. I reread OB recently and I've been thinking of Brandon's repeated mentions of how the entire structure of Stormlight is going to be ordered; specifically that each order of Knights Radiant will have a flashback book through a different character's perspective. What I've not been able to wrap my head around is with who he's chosen for his flashbacks for the subsequent books - it seems we have an extra Lightweaver in the bunch with Ash - the Herald and Patron of Lightweavers - being present in the back five. With her inclusion, we've got representatives from each order present in Brandon's planned 10 book sequence: Kaladin/Windrunner, Shallan/Lightweaver, Dalinar/Bondsmith, Eshonai/Willshaper (probably), Szeth/Skybreaker, Renarin/Truthwatcher, Lift/Edgedancer, Taln/Stoneward and Jasnah/Elsecaller. So that leaves our interesting friend Ash - who according to tradition is the leader of Lightweavers. And we're missing a Dustbringer (or Releaser if you're gonna be PC about it) book. I think Ash is going to become a Dustbringer. This way she will make the flashbacks of the books nice and ordered and sequenced and each order gets one book. But I also think it works with the text. We know the Heralds are essentially just immortal (unless you have a special knife!) humans and thus fallible to human emotions that might attract the right type of spren. It also seems like another prerequisite for being a KR is to be flawed or damaged in some way and the Nahel bond is an avenue for that KR to explore their flaws and come to terms with them (Kaladin's depression, Shallan's repressed memories, etc.) Look at Ash's character for a second: what do we know about her off the top of our heads? She destroys. Brandon has spent three books putting in overt references to Ash destroying her own visage in works of art depicting the Heralds. Sounds a little Dustbringery to you? Ash is also sane, as we saw in her handful of viewpoints in Oathbringer but is dealing with an incredible amount of guilt for the last four and a half thousand years by leaving Taln to be tortured on Braize. There we also have the unofficial KR flaw - her mountain of guilt that gives her a compulsion to destroy any art depicting her as a way of ... atonement, maybe? Either way, I think this is enough to probably attract an Ashspren. We know from Malata that Ashspren like to destroy and have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. I think they would love the fact that Ash has spent nearly five thousand years destroying. If you were an Ashspren looking for a Nahel bond, she would be a prize catch, right? I think there's a little aversion to her being a Dustbringer in my head because I'm thinking along the lines of "but she's the Herald of Lightweaving! She just CAN'T be anything else!" But I think I've argued my brain out of that position. First, we know that Heralds can form a Nahel bond - Nale mentions he became a Skybreaker and shows off his fancy non-Honourblade shardblade. Who is to say that a Herald who joins an order has to join THEIR order though? There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule about it. Especially when they've gone through such changes in the past five thousand years. Ash is not simply the herald of beauty and creativity anymore. While some of the other Heralds have gone insane, Ash seems to have just gotten flipped around. She represents destruction now. So there ya have it. Let me know what you think.

Recently, I was looking at a chart of the names of the Heralds and the numbers which corresponded to their names from 1 to 10. One thing caught my eye: the sixth Herald, Shalash (better known as Ash), is associated with the number Shash. Does Ash or the number 6 have any sort of association with the Shash brands for slaves? I don't know if this has been asked before, so if there is already a WoB, please let me know.

A relatively popular theory here is that Shalash will end up taking up the oaths of the Dustbringer radiants. While I'm not opposed to this theory the assumption that Shalash will become the dustbringer because of her new hobby of destroyering art seems a bit shallow to me... Instead I think Taln could be our dustbringer and Shalash the stoneward. I think it makes more sense to look at Ash and Taln's current weeknesses along with the divine attributes that define their potential orders (granted we don't fully understand how some of these apply yet). First off, the divine attributes associated with the Dustbringers are "Brave and Obedient". Taln is a much different man from who he was before. In addition to his ramblings we now know that he's become a coward. I don't think its a stretch to say that him working through his madness (with help from Ash) and finding his courage again is all but garanteed. Him overcoming his fear of battle would and swearing the dustbringer ideals fit well together. The divine attributes of the Stonewards are "Dependable and Resourceful". Now that the 2 of them have reunited I think its safe assume that Ash will be looking after and essentially babysitting Taln through his madness. As a redemption arc, it'd make sense to have one of the people that abandoned him be his rock in his time of need. This could be the perfect thing to get a stoneward spren's attention. Of course knowing Brandon none of this will be this straight forward, but you get the point.

What follows is my current theory on how the 10 Heralds became the 10 fool's through the coarse of the Desolations. I will update this post as it evolves. I will try to provide links to all WOB. Quotes will come from the kindle versions of the books via cut and paste. I will list book, chapter, and location number. Bold will be my emphasis. Italics will be possible contradictory evidence. Number 18 here From Reddit Fantasy Bookclub Q&A with Brandon Sanderson Feb 28th, 2011 We will start with this quote which shows us all Heralds were in WOK. First, the Desolations occurred when the Heralds were sent back to Roshar after one of them broke under the torture of Odium. Second, each Herald is associated with a primary and secondary Divine Attribute. (Possibly primary from Honor, Secondary from Cultivation?) Third, the torture does not happen in the physical realm. It occurs in either the cognitive, or more likely the spiritual realm. Fourth, when Odium breaks a Herald, he is literally breaking part of that Heralds spiritual connection to the Divine Attribute. Fifth, Odium's goal was to break all the Heralds and bring about the the Everstorm, allowing him to shatter Honor and Cultivation. Sixth, breaking the Divine Attributes shifted them towards something more compatible with Odium and less compatible with Honor. This resulted in the attributes associated with the 10 Fool's. Number 19 in this WOB, says each is uniquely insane. NOTE: One of the biggliest issues with this theory is not knowing the 10 Fools attributes. Two Fools are named. Two have attributes. Cabine - He acts like a child although he is an adult. TWOK chapter 37, page 593, location 10668 Eshu - He speaks of things he does not understand in front of those who do. WOR chapter 71, page 593, location 16877 One issue I have here is that the 2 Heralds I would link these two too are both female. Paliah and Battar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) We have a WOB on this. Not a confirmation, but along those lines. 2) Herald. Primary Divine Attribute. Secondary Divine Attribute. Jezrien. Protecting. Leading Nale. Just. Confident Chanarach. Brave. Obedient Vedel. Loving. Healing Paliah. Learned. Giving Shalash. Creative. Honest Battar. Wise. Careful Kalak. Resolute. Builder Talenel. Dependable. Resourceful Ishar. Pious. Guiding 3) Since Odium was attempting to break the Heralds focus on their Divine Attribute, the torture most likely took place in the spiritual realm. The spren would probably know something if it took place in the cognitive realm. One thing pointing to the cognitive realm though is the fact that Taln appeared covered in condensation much like a shardblade. 4) By breaking the Herald, Odium shifted their Primary attribute to closer align with his shard and align less with Honors. This usually resulted in an almost inversion of the attribute. SPECIFICALLY I THINK ONLY THE PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE WAS BROKEN/TWISTED. Below I will show what I think the attribute shifted to after the Devine attribute. Herald. Primary Divine Attribute. Secondary Divine Attribute. Jezrien. Protecting. (Submission) Leading Nale. Just. (Arbitrary)(Judgement) Confident Chanarach. Brave. Obedient Vedel. Loving. Healing Paliah. Learned. Giving Shalash. Creative. (Destructive) Honest Battar. Wise. Careful Kalak. Resolute. (Weak-willed) Builder Talenel. Dependable. (Erratic) Resourceful Ishar. Pious. (Traitorous) Guiding These are based off of what we have seen or heard in the books so far. These are not perfect words, but the 17th shard manymind will probably come up with better. There are some subtle indications that only 9 of the 10 fool's have a strong history or mythology. Here is one concerning Lyft and pancakes. I think I subconsciously connected Lyft's silly quest to eat all 10 Pancakes with the 10 fool's. Research could not find a direct correlation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jezrien gives up on protecting humanity personally, submits to the Will of the group, and sacrifices Talenel to uphold the entire oathpact. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nale shifts from Just- working within the accepted standards of right and wrong to Arbitrary- following the rule of law without regards to morality.....he goes straight lawful evil. From Edgedancer Chapter 9, page 596 Arcanum Unbound, location 8565 Judgement not Justice. From Edgedancer Chapter 9, page 596 Arcanum Unbound, location 8565 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalash is pretty clear with her running around destroying art, and significantly art that depicts her and other heralds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kalak is in no way resolute when Jezrien meets him. He is in fact very weak willed, confessing that he cannot go back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talenel (if it really is him) comes back a broken man, highly erratic and unable to perform his duties as the Herald of War. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ishar formed the Knights Radiant originally, he led the Bondsmiths. He was also the one who promulgated the traitorous idea that 1 Herald could support the Oathpact. From Edgedancer: And And ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) We know there were not literally 99 desolation. I suspect there were 9. One each time Odium broke a Herald. Then the next time that Herald would not be tortured as hard so that about her would break first. Nine also being the number of Odium I believe would work well with this. After the Oathpact was discarded, Odium let humanity rewrite Roshar's history and religion in preparation for the Final Desolation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6) The corruption of the 9 Heralds weakened Honor, but the Knights Radiant provided some support, until the Day of Requience when they abandoned all their oaths. Honor shattered shortly after. I have to go back and find some more quotes and WOB to fully support some of this, but I will edit them in as I find them.

Hi guys, this might bore some (most) of you but this is my take on why the plants on Scadrial were turned brown after the Lord Ruler's Ascension. So basically, heres a bit of plant biology: Plants absorb light during the first phase of photosynthesis , converting specific waves lengths into high energy electrons, which are then used to create NADPH, ATP and Oxygen. Some of these molecules are then used in the second phase to make carbon molecules, which we break down into energy. However, only specific light waves are used by plants, namely the red, blue, purple and to a lesser degree yellow waves. The green light waves are not absorbed and are actually reflected - the reason why chloroplasts and plant cells containing chloroplasts are in our eyes, green. Because of the ash in the sky, plants were not able to get enough light, and thus were unable to survive. To combat this, the Lord Ruler altered many plants to have a new pigment (say chlorophyll-C) which allowed them to absorb green light waves and therefore get more energy - stopping them from dying. Thus, green light was no longer reflected by plants and they were brown instead (probably because light absorption isn't 100% effective and so the small resulting meld of colours looked brown to the people of Scadrial - like how paint eventually just turns brown when you mix too many different colours). Although this makes sense to me, I'm sure I've overlooked something, and I'm not sure why this would result in plants that were less nutritious to man kind. Maybe because of the ash? I'm pretty sure that at some point Sazed mentions that the plants help breakdown the ash so maybe this made them less nutritious? But yeah, there you go, the science behind the brown plants on Scadrial!

For once I'll post something unrelated to magical theory. :-) We know that falling ash was something people dealt with on a daily basis during the Lord Ruler's reign. We see skaa always having to clear up the streets and canals free from the stuff. While most people would see ash as a source of annoyance, the more enterprising of Scadrians must have realized that it was a possible source of profit. I did a quick Google search for the various uses of volcaninc ash and found the following: construction materials (e.g. ingredient for a kind of cement) abrasives (e.g. in hand soap) soil "conditioner" ceramics Those are some of the uses of volcanic ash here on Earth. If you were a businessman on Scadrial during the Final Empire, how would you commercialize the continuous ash fall in your surroundings?