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What will happen during Kaladin and Szeth's Excellent Adventure to Shinovar? This fic originally started as an RP between me and BlindRadiant. It explores Kaladin and Szeth's inner turmoil and external adventure as they fight enemies, fight each other, and fight to obtain their goals in Shinovar. Major Rhythm of War spoilers below! Convergence Rated Teen, will top off around 50,000 words, currently at about 30,000 and posting weekly. This is chapter 1. For chapter 2, click here.

I hope so... Normally I think they wouldn't risk the Honorblades but Szeth is pretty pissed and he's got a so

One of the things I like most about the Stormlight Archives (and possibly what makes them so popular) is the moral questions is forces readers to consider. What is the right thing to do in a given situation? Szeth's biggest role in the story so far has been his work as the Assassin in White, killing King Gavilar and many other rulers across Roshar. As we all know, he did this because he was sworn to obey whoever held his oathstone, part of his punishment as a Truthless for raising the alarm that the VoidBringers were returning. His people believed it was a false alarm, and punished him. As we also know, he was actually correct the entire time, and the VoidBringers and Knights Radiant really were returning. Kaladin making him realizing this is what made him stop fighting at the end of WoR. Just before Kalading ends the fight, Szeth makes the comment that he was never Truthless, that he could have stopped the murders at any time. Kaladin counters that he's using the oath as an excuse, and that he's being a coward for not accepting that he had a choice. Presented from Kaladin's viewpoint, it's hard not to see the validity of his point. Szeth always had a choice. But in RoW, Dalinar makes the argument to Taravangian that keeping promises and oaths are part of honor. As far as Szeth knew, he was bound by a promise as part of his punishment (at least, as far as we understand how being a Truthless works), so he was honorbound to commit the terrible acts he did. But he always had the option to choose to reject the orders. Even if he had truly been wrong, and he truly was a Truthless, would it still have been honorable for him to reject the orders he'd been given? The SkyBreakers might be misguided, but they are still an order of Knights Radiant. I think it's fairly certain that this conversation is going to come up during Stormlight 5, considering that Szeth and Kaladin are travelling to Shinovar together. The two haven't interacted since their battle in the highstorm, which I suspect is a deliberate action on Sanderson's part. Honor (not the person) is obviously a subjective concept, but what do you think? How will the conversation between them go?

I've been almost completly certain of this for a while now, but I finally have confirmation. The Shin have been worshiping an Unmade. I know it's crazy, but hear me out. There is most definetly an Unmade in Shinovar Additionally Ishar says So we know almost without doubt that there was at least one Unmade in Shinovar, however that doesn't prove that they were being worshipped. The Shin hold the Heralds in high reguards, minor deities, but why would they refuse to return their weapons? Unless a higher power told them not to. What did Ishar know? The only thing Ishar said that he shouldn't have already known, was that the Shin were worshiping an Unmade.

I was recently playing dreidel with my family, and came across an interesting coincidence. In case you don't know, dreidel is a spinning top game with four different sides. Each is represented by a symbol (Hei, gimmel, nun, and shin). The symbol that was interesting to me was the one called "Shin". What you do when you roll a Shin, is to add one coin to the pot. In shinovar, there is a saying that "blessed is he who adds", and I can't help but wonder if Brandon got the name (and at least some of the characteristics of this culture) from the dreidel game. Thoughts? Has this been posted before and I couldn't find it?

Ash dropped us this tidbit in today's chapter: This immediately reminded me of Nin's exchange with Szeth at the end of Words of Radiance: Ash says that the Shin began to worship her, but Szeth explicitly says they worship "The sun and the stars. Not men." Now, some people might interpret Nin's conversation as implying that Szeth is part of some splinter religion that worships the Heralds—this is what I thought on my first read-through—but I don't think this is the case. Szeth must have been an extremely devout, or else he would never have obeyed his Oathstone with such dedication. He was also probably a religious leader, perhaps one of the Stone Shamans themselves. In his POV chapters, he constantly references his beliefs about stone, and refers to the Sun as the god of gods. Nin isn't saying that Szeth worships the Heralds. Instead, he explicitly says "You, Szeth, worship order, do you not? You follow the laws of your society to perfection." This is not a truth about Szeth's religion. It is an observation made by a megalomaniac Herald who sees Szeth's devotion to law and calls it a religion because he thinks himself to be some sort of God of Law. So, what's up with Ash's worship? And with those prophecies about a new desolation, which make it strange that Szeth's warnings were ignored? The key here is Ash's statement that "I eventually left them behind." The current religion of Stone Shamanism is not at all the religion she was involved with. For all we know, it's been four thousand years since they worshipped Ash. Or maybe just a couple hundred. It would be great if she could tell us when things happened, but no such luck. Anyway, the tenants behind Stone Shamanism has lead to a lot of theorizing about it being an ancient religion from before the Desolations. Oaths and Truth are very important to them, which smells of Honor. Ash has Shin eyes, so they might be the first Human ethnic group to come to Roshar. Their refusal to walk on stone is highly theorized to be a remnant from the first agreement of humankind to not expand beyond Shinovar. Worship of the spren of the stones is also quite likely tied to the Sibling, especially since they see Urithiru as holy. This idea is also supported by their language: In addition, there are some parallels between the Shin and Horneater worship of gods of stone and mountains. If we follow these threads, it would seem that some Shin traditions might be ancient, tying as far back as to the original culture of the Dawnsingers. And I think this is precisely why they wanted to kill Ash. The Shin follow the precepts given to them by the Dawnsingers long ago. They follow Honor and Cultivation. They follow the gods referenced in the Eila Stele: "spren, stone, and wind," but stone in particular because it was the Sibling who raised the Misted Mountains and separated Shinovar from the rest of the continent. (Roshar doesn't have plate tectonics. Where else could mountains come from? The continent moves from highstorm weathering and crem deposition, so the land to the west is newer than the land to the east. These mountains are new. The Sibling is their jail-keeper, warden, and God) They are still bound by their agreement to never leave Shinovar. In the times of the Silver Kingdoms, each Kingdom had a special role. Alethela trained soldiers and prepared for war. Shin Kak Nish may have been the opposite; a place of peace and neutrality, remembering the original contract between the Dawnsingers and Humanity. Ash is a twice a traitor. She walks on stone and helps those who conquered Roshar. Then, she betrays the Oathpact and leaves Taln to suffer alone. Oaths and honesty are important to Stone Shamanism. I don't see them taking this well. But why switch to worshipping her? Pay attention to phrasing: One interpretation of this is that the Shin worshipped Ash because of their prophecies. Her betrayal allowed for the current situation, giving a chance for the Singers to return and take back their rightful land. Presently, the Shin are neutral. They do not send forces against the Singers or the Coalition. They sit back and let the Stonewalkers receive their punishment. But they are not on the side of Odium. If this is their motive, it might explain a lot. So yeah, that's my theory. TL;DR: As others have theorized, Stone Shamanism is a leftover from Humankind's first contract with the Singers. Because of this, they remain neutral in the current Desolation and are maybe sort of pleased that it is happening. This could explain why they wanted to murder Ash initially, but then worshipped her after their prophecies surfaced. Edit: I began this intending it as a post about Szeth, forgot that I began it in Character Discussion when I changed the topic a bit. Sorry mods! Please move this to a different thread if you feel it doesn't belong.

I noticed something that probably means nothing, but was interesting nonetheless. The humans first gathered together on Roshar in Shinovar. Afterwards they dispersed throughout the planet. If you look at the bible account at Genesis chapter 11 verses 1,2, and 8 it talks about the Tower of Babel, and how the work on the tower was stopped. Consequently the people dispersed out into the entire earth. Anyways the point is the tower is located in the valley of Shinar. Probably not where he originated the name but I thought it was interesting enough to mention.

1. WoK chapt. 28. dalinar digs a letrine pit using his shardplate. he spends a while wondering why shardplate is only used for fighting, and not for farming or building... why didn't the randiants build shard shovels or picks? - he asks himself 2. the very next chapter is I-4. rysn and her basbsk are trading with an important shin man. rysn thinks he has a lot of slaves. her basbsk corrects her, telling her they are his gaurds. the shin treat warriors as the lowest of society, trading them in ownership with rocks.. he goes on to tell her that farmers are reveared in shin society. and the noble man they are trading with is a farmer. "you mean a land owner?"- Ryan asks. "no, just a farmer"- he replies... in fact, outsiders are not even allowed anywhere near the shin farming villages... supporting ideas : 3. Dalinars vision at Feverstone keep tells us there are many missing sets of shardblade and plate. 4. the shin collected most of the honorblades, is it a stretch that they might have collected regular shardblades too? I've seen this going around on the forum that the shin might have the extra shards. 5. in WoK I-6 - there is a man "recruiting" Szeth on taravangians behalf; he says Szeth is wasted potential like a "shardblade used to cut vegitables" , szeth replies - "you think like a "cukari", he who adds is to be reveared, I am he who takes away." I'm paraphrasing these parts. but any thoughts on this? I jumped to the conclusion that the shins "noble" class of farmers might be using shards? any other conclusions?

“The voidbringers are no more. The knights radiant are no more. We are all that remain.” This is from szeth thinking on the tower in WOR could this mean radiants are still around in shinovar? It could just be talking about the honor blades, but this feels different to me.

I was reading the article on the coppermind about the Dawnchant and this quote caught my attention: "They came from another world. Using powers that we have been forbidden to touch. Dangerous powers, of spren and Surges. They destroyed their lands and have come to us begging." Notice that the Singer writing this mentions another world (Ashlyn) and Destroyed lands. This leads me to believe that the humans took over Shinovar first. But some sort of ecological disaster caused them to go to the native Singer population and ask for more land. This might also explain why the Shin look so distinctive, they are the humans that stayed in Shinovar and where changed by the disaster that happened there. We also know that spren are rare in Shinovar, that would suggest that the cognitive realm is different there compared to the rest of Roshar. The powers of spren and surges mentioned might include abilities that warp the cognitive realm and make it hard or impossible for most spren to manifest in Shinovar. What ever was unleashed may have restructured the boundary between Shadesmar and the Physical realm in such a way that it distanced them or created a Sel like environment that is hostile to life. This is supported by Shinovar being the region of Roshar closest to Sel on the map. That region of the Cognitive Realm sea is called the Sea of Regrets, which is also evidence the something bad once happened there. I think that we will soon find out what caused those names and why Shinovar is so different from the rest of Roshar.

We know that the continent of Roshar (Cosmic address: Roshar, Roshar, Greater Roshar, The Knight, The Cosmere) was originally created by Adonalsium, and that Shinovar, at least after the arrival of humanity from Ashyn, is the only place on the planet that has "normal" flora and fauna - no spren, plants growing in soil, similar plants and animals to what we see on Earth/other planets. Did Shinovar always exist as this bastion of normalcy, or was the entire continent of Roshar created with "typical" life forms on it, and then just got scraped clean by the highstorms, leaving it open for other life to evolve?

On a careful reread, I rediscovered a conversation between Szeth and Nale, where Szeth refers to Nale as "Aboshi, a deific honorific previously reserved for the Spren of the Mountains..." From this I gather the obvious, that the Shin honor those spren as Gods, but what are these spren? Do they represent a spren for each mountain; a spren for all the mountains, or many spren in the mountains? Based on the sentence, I see them/ it as being powerful and large spren, since Szeth does not seem to treat all spren with equal reverence. Are these mountain spren why walking on stone is Sacred? We need more info on this. Have any of you addressed this before? Thanks.

So....I didn't see any other posts mentioning this, but I found myself thinking about Shallans story/play in Oahbringer, the one with the girl and the wall. We also found out that the humans were actually the Voidbringers and that the original inhabitants, the Dawnsingers, allowed the humans to live in Shinovar, which is completely surrounded by mountains and gets very little Stormlight. I'm thinking the story is actually a true history of when humans first came to Roshar and of the first human to cross over the mountains. Can anyone think of anything to support or deny this theory?

The Shin people of Roshar are always described as having "large eyes, like a baby." I have always taken this to mean that their eyes are unnaturally large - a quality we don't see on Earth, like Herdazian fingernails or the blue skin of Natanatan. However, I have started to think that Brandon actually might intend for Shin people to have typical, round, Caucasian eyes, while everyone else on Roshar has smaller, narrow eyes - like Asian people (I hope that's not racist somehow, it's just something I've honestly wondered while reading the book). There are two moments in OB that made me come up with this idea. First, when Dalinar encounters Odium for the first time, in Chapter 56, on page 547 in the hardcover version. And then later, when Kaladin encounters the Elantrian in Shademsar, in Chapter 97 on page 908. Now, having both Odium and an Elantrian described as "Shin" makes me immediately question that the Shin people have abnormally large eyes - because then I imagine Odium with big, baby eyes, and that really doesn't fit the image for me. I also think it's very unlikely that Rayse/Odium and this random guy from Sel have any sort of common ancestry that would account for them both looking Shin. Instead it makes me wonder if the majority of people in the cosmere have round, Caucasian eyes, except for the people on Roshar, who have smaller, East Asian eyes, so that whenever they see a non-Rosharan they immediately label them as Shin because of their eyes. This theory doesn't totally make sense, because there have been several worldhoppers - Hoid, Vivenna, Vasher - who are not mentioned as having Shin eyes. However, I think it's still definitely something to consider, and it might be a clue about the lineage of the Rosharan people and how their bloodlines changed after they expanded from Shinovar.

Hi team, Two part thought today: 1. How, if ever, will the Everstorm be stopped? Or will it be a new feature of Roshar that persists? If/when Odium is defeated/leaves, will the Everstorm remain? 2. Does the Everstorm just straight up wreck Shinovar? They have been protected from Highstorms thanks to their big mountains in the east and the fact that Highstorms weaken but their western mountains are less imposing and, as far as I can tell, the Everstorm has a more constant level of power. Thoughts? WoBs? Remember, we are not in the Oathbringer sub-forum so please do not use anything from there.

So I've seen this talked about in a few places, but wanted to put forward my ideas/thoughts about it. We know Roshar, the planet and the continent, existed pre-shattering, but Shinovar is so different from the rest of Roshar that I think it must have specific origin seperate from the rest of Roshar. My theory is that Shinovar was created by the shards after they arrived there, in the image of the life their vessels had seen. This is based on the distinctive nature of the ecosystem. Obviously a big part of this is being shielded from highstorms which allows life there to not have to be adapted to them, but it is still quite remarkable that this entirely different ecosystem would have naturally evolved there, especially since it seems to be similar to Scadrial fauna and fluara, and since Scadrial is based on Yolen, similar to Yolen fluara and fuana. So we have a region that is distinct from the rest Roshar, but similar to the homeworld of the shard vessels. This makes me think that Honour and Cultivation traveled to Roshar, and finding it so different from their home planet, one or both of them decided to make a little enclave of "normal" life there. Specifically it seems like something Cultivation would do, cultivating this area of land and the life in it. I don't think this is too outlandish an idea, but I would love to hear what people think of it. Maybe I took longer to explain it than was strictly necessary, but I wanted to show what my thought process was. And apologies if this has been addressed before, or it seems obvious, but I haven't seen anything specifically saying it so thought it would be interesting to put it out there.

I apologize if this has been proposed before (my searches didn't find it), but I think that Shinovar is the last remnant of Roshar's original, Earthlike ecology. My theory is as follows: Once, the Rosharan super-continent was Earthlike, with Shinovar at its eastern end. Then Odium sent the Everstorms, which began to erode the western part of the continent. In response, Honor sent the Highstorms, which laid down crem, creating new lands to the east. Over the course of the millennia, the original continent was eroded away up to Shinovar, while a new continent was created. Meanwhile, sea creatures began to migrate onto the new land (possibly with help from Honor or Cultivation) and, with the help of magic, evolved into chulls, axehounds, skyeels, and the rest. Now Shinovar is all that remains of the planet's original ecology. In addition to geology and the storms, this theory is supported by the fact that most of the non-Shinovaran wildlife of Roshar does not seem physically possible without the help of magic. In real life, a large land invertebrate like a chull would be crushed by the weight of its own exoskeleton, even in a lower-gravity environment like Roshar's (remember the square-cube law). Brandon has confirmed that chasmfiends require spren to survive, and I suspect that something similar is going on with the more mundane greatshells. Thus, these life forms must postdate all of the ambient magic that currently exists on Roshar. Moreover, there's Hoid's comment about the orphaned etymology in the term "axehound", which seems to imply that hounds once existed on Roshar but have been forgotten.

This is perhaps a joke theory. However, it might not. So first: EARTH IS COSMERE. But no, you say, Brandon says over and over again that Earth isn't Cosmere. Ah, but Earth isn't. What? Because Earth is no longer Earth.... It is Shinovar. Let me take you back. So Adonalsium "grows worlds". That is what He did with Roshar. But what is growing? It is building up. You see, Adonalsium built upon Earth to make Roshar. This is why most of Roshar looks nothing like Earth, cremlings, chasmfiends, crem, highstorms. All of that was added. But what part of Roshar looks nothing like the rest? Shinovar. Shinovar has chickens, dirt, strawberries, horses, people without the common epicanthic fold that is shared among most Rosharans. Now don't call me racist for counting that the Shin don't have epicanthic folds as evidence for Earth. But don't you see the similarities here? Shinovar is Earth. Shinovar is Cosmere. Thus, Earth is Cosmere. *mind blown*

I hope this isn't some already pointed. But as far as I remember Szeth didn't never attract a Spren (regular Spren like angerspren, painspren,ecc...). I know that Shinovar is a place without Spren (indeed is hard to understand if there are no spren or simply the spren are invisible there) but is it possible that its popolation is also uncapable of attracting Spren (as Connection to her homeland) ? The problem here is the only Shin out of his country (as far as I remember) is Szeth and he has some oddity with him....Therefore is not really "standard Shin". If this is true, it's possible that many Shin choose to not leave Shinovar as defence aganist expose this strange features of their people. PS: As side, enigma....Do WorldHoppers on Roshar, attract Spren ?

On Page 912 of Words of Radiance (my brother has the book so I can't give an exact quote until he gives it back), Taravangian says, "One of the Honorblades has been taken." Szeth replies, "Another one of the seven?" (Taravangian is lying though.) Let's do some super easy math. The Shin have the Honorblades. There were 10 Honorblades. Taln never relinquished his blade, so the Shin would only have 9 Honorblades. They gave one of the 9 to Szeth, to make him Truthless. That should leave 8 Honorblades. But Szeth says that the Shin only have 7 Honorblades. One of the Honorblades is unaccounted for. Where is it? Was there another Truthless? (Unlikely, because Szeth said in The Way of Kings that the Stone Shamans would be able to get his Honorblade back if he died.) Or did someone take it? And if so, who has the unaccounted for Honorblade? (It would be really interesting if Helaran's blade was the missing Honorblade.)

Something I just noticed - don't remember discussion on it before and found nothing with search. Chapter 6, Jasnah: I-10, Szeth (in Urithiru): Two knowledgeable people think there's something inherently special about the land of Urithiru. I doubt this is a co-incidence. Also, consider this: the Everstorm is due to hit Shinovar before Szeth can get there... but "everyone" thinks Shinovar is only protected from highstorms due to its location and mountains to the east of it, which would not apply to the Everstorm. If it has no "other" protection then the place is going to get wiped out by the Everstorm before Szeth can even get there. That would make for a poor story. But what if Shinovar is protected from Voidbringers like Urithiru? Also consider that the original working title for book 3 was "Stones Unhallowed". There's something going on here that we know very little about, I suspect.

This is my first post, so I'm going to have to ask you to stick with me here. Honor, aka the Almighty, as we all know, is dead, splintered by Odium. My first thought was 'Oh, then the Spren must be his splinters.' WRONG. The spren have been around during the time of the Almighty, as shown by one point in the book (possibly a Words of Radiance spoiler) This says that Surgebinders existed during the time the Almighty was alive, and thus so did the spren (Nahel Bond). However, that does not mean the Spren are not -of- the Allmighty. I believe that all spren are a form of the Almighty's investiture in the world, as they seem to have all -bonded- with specific emotions/elements/abilities. WoR spoiler Now, second part of this theory. If the spren are all from Honor, what does that leave Cultivation? Well, that leaves him with Shinovar. Think about it. Unlike what Ruin and Preservation did, fighting for power, Honor and Cultivation decided to split up the land, they made a deal of sorts. Honor would get the land and shape it any way he wanted so long as it didn't mess with Cultivation's area. Thus the mountains around Shinovar so that Cultivation's land wasn't effected by the Highstorms. This would explain many things. First of all, it explains the lack of spren in Shinovar, since Honor has no sway there. Second, it would explain why the Shinese revere farmers and hate warriors, since warriors have to do with Honor, and farming has to do with Cultivation. Thirdly, it might explain the Shinese reverence of rock. The mountains that separate Shinovar from the rest of Roshar could be a holy symbol of their god's protection. Small side theory, I think Cultivation might actually be a man, since at the end of WoK, when Taravangian is talking to Szeth, he says, "Sometimes I wonder if the Lifebrother himself sent you to me." I know the Lifebrother is a nickname for one of the Heralds, and the Herald might have been an Edgedancer, which would explain Lifebrother, you know, growing plants and healing people could have to do with Life, but that is just a side theory. (thanks for the comments. I believe the Lifebrother might still be a Herald, though not Cultivation, and I do feel slightly stupid for posting this part.) WoR spoiler WoR spoiler Szeth's people, under the command of Cultivation, who I believe not only is still alive, but occasionally communicates with his/her people, gave Szeth a Shardblade as mentioned in the before quoted conversation with Taravangian. Not only does this mean Kaladin has the potential to be an immensely more powerful Windrunner but also gives an implication that the Nightwatcher is Cultivation. I say this because perhaps Szeth wished for the powers of a Radiant, and so got Windrunner powers, but in return for the great cost of being eternally enslaved, doomed to kill, and yet seemingly absolved of all sins he is forced to commit, for this is the price their god made him commit. Any thoughts?

Hello Sandersonians! while perusing some of the topics on here an idea came to me, so I'm going to share with you all. I apologize if this has been covered before. My theory is thus. I am starting to believe that Shinovar is a kind of safe-haven, a fortress if you will, for when the final Dessolation/Everstorm comes. A place to safeguard the races of Roshar and to allow them to endure the coming trials. Here is some of my thinking behind this. Shinovar is protected from the Highstorms : Shinovar is at the far west of the continent of Roshar, and is surrounded by a large mountain range that breaks the fury of the Highstorms. This provides Shinovar with natural barriers, that would help protect against both Invading armies, and a calamity such as the Everstorm. Shinovar is particularly fertile, and the Shin place emphasis on food production: With the culture of Shinovar placing so much emphasis on farming and food production. And with a environment tailored to producing vast amounts of food. Shinovar would likely have large stocks of food, a resource which can quickly become scarce during times of large scale war, an is invaluable for mounting an effective resistance. This would allow Shinovar to house large numbers of refugees and large armies. The Shin seem to retain more ancient knowledge than other cultures: Szeth's existence would suggest that the Shin stone shamans have a knowledge of surgebinding that has been largely lost in other cultures. Knowledge that would no doubt prove useful when fighting the Voidbringers. Shinovar has a curious absence of Spren: I am unsure if this point would support of discount this theory. This absence of spren could be an advantage, we know there are some 'evil' spren, and it could be argued that the voidbrigers themselves are spren. Though this would also mean the absence of good spren like Syl. Shinovar may be 'the place nearest to Honour': In the tWok there is a quote stating that 'Urithiru was placed to the west of Alethela, in the place nearest to Honour'. While there are many places west of Alethela, Shinovar is a strong possibility. If Honour is indeed in the west of the continent, it would make sense to make your stand against the voidbringers here, where Honour's power would be strongest. *Small spoiler from Words of Radiance* So that is some of my thinking behind my theory. Shinovar is vastly different from the rest of Roshar, and I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to find out it was intended as bastion to fight the dessolations from. Thought I am still unsure on how much I like the validity of this theory, I think it has some merit. Thank you for reading such a long post. Thoughts everyone?

I was just reading the Szeth/Shin Conspiracy thread, and it got me thinking. The basic speculation was that Shin discovered Honorblades, and built Shone Shamanism around hiding the secret. I've been doing a second read-through of tWoK, and I like many parts of this theory. However, I'd like to propose my own. I don't think sacredness of stone has to do with Honorblades, but rather thunderclasts. Let me explain. Part 1: Mistborn spoilers*: *If you skipped this spoiler, it simply contains some evidence that Sanderson is capable of this kind of conspiracy-laden writing We also know that Shin religion has other truths preserved in its religion, after others have forgotten. Note that the Shin still know about stormlight (and by the use of the word "sacred" in this quote, I do think it stems from Shin religion, and not just Shen's knowledge of surgebinding): So, in The Stormlight Archive, we see the present-day application of Shin religion: Shin do not walk on (or interact with) stone. I would suggest that this branches from the ancient knowledge of thunderclasts, and their relation to stone. We know, from the Prologue, that thunderclasts 1) are made of stone, and 2) come from stone: I would suggest that Shin culture has preserved the danger associated with stone by labeling it "sacred". End part 1 of my conspiracy theory. Part 2: Think about the geography of Shin in the world. Think about the geography of stone. Shin religion, and its application with regard to stone, has effectively secluded the Shin people to the west in Shinovar. Likewise, they remain somewhat protected from the events of the east. Shin religion could be protecting Shin from the area of the world where Odium has influence. Where are the parshendi and parshmen (who may or may not have some direct relation to voidbringers)? Should the thunderclasts 'return', where would they arise (i.e. where is the world's mass of stone)? In fact, what has the landscape looked like in EVERY one of Dalinar's visions (the supposedly significant moments in the evolution of the world)? All of the visions have been based in rocky, highstorm-afflicted areas (i.e. not Shinovar). Everything that is associated with instability, change, and danger is located in the east, where Shin religion effectively forbids its people to 'trod'. Part 3: In the same way that I feel Shin reverence of stone is related to something significant, I think there's a reason that parshendi leave bodies untouched and lying on stone. In the event that the bodies do not die on stone, they are carried there. The parshendi affinity for stone, juxtaposed with the Shin deference, is somewhat telling. I don't have a solid enough theory to elaborate on this, but I would speculate that it has something to do with thunderclasts, pupating (as seen with chasmfiends), and the parshmen/parshedi ability to change forms. On Honorblades: Here's why I think the Honorblade theory (of Shin discovering and hiding the Honorblades) is incorrect: Through the same reasoning contained in what I said above, the physical landscape of the place where the Honorblades were left does not match that of Shinovar. I haven't seen anything that points to Shinovar being the location of anything of historical/mythological significance. That said, the fact that Shinovar isn't prevalent in any historical analysis we've seen seems significant and possibly telling. Here's a reason I could be wrong: Shinovar has been speculated by many to be the home of, or at least under the influence of, Cultivation. Based on Argent's thought, Cultivation could very well be involved in an elaborate cover-up. Why, though? I've got no idea. Tangents: Because I've dealt so heavily in this post with geography, I'd just like to bring forward the relative influences of the different Shards on different parts of the world. I think it's pretty well-accepted that the vegetation differences in Shinovar are attributable to Cultivation, while the Highstorms are attributable to Honor. From a Brandon Sanderson Q&A: The highstorms are not arbitrary. What their function is, I do not know for sure. However, as for speculation: I would guess that Cultivation has similar functions somewhere in the world. This means a "conciousness" and a "body". I reject the hypothesis that Cultivation is the Night Watcher, because nothing we've seen about Shards in other books indicates they can have an anthropomorphic form in the world (the nature of the Night Watcher does not seem to fit that of Cultivation, either). There is some power bestowed by Cultivation within the world that we have yet to see or to recognize. I would suggest that this material or energy is contained within Shinovar.

Ok, this theory combines several others and makes several (mostly baseless) assumptions: 1/ Ishar is in Shinovar and is responsible for the cultural developement of the Shin. Discussed here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4406-introduction-and-a-convoluted-theory/ 2/ Ishar's Order in the KR table is that of Bondsmiths Discussed here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4323-seattle-signing-report-out-101413/ 3/ Bondsmiths were able to forge shardplate and shardblades Discussed here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4396-do-bondsmiths-create-shardblades-shardplate/ Basically the theory is: Assuming the above are true (big ask + not supported by any real evidnece) Szeth commited some transgrassion, Ishar created his Sharblade and made him trutheless by giving it to him. Really, I appreciate this barely qualifies as a theory and with the little information we have we can make any theory fit the data. Thematically though this kind of ties in with the corrupted / Fallen Heralds idea as well as being a pretty plausible explanation for Szeth that does not require him to carry an Honorblade (which I am still not convinced by).