Wherethewindgoes

Welcome to the forums! AMoL means A Memory of Light, which is book 14 in the Wheel of Time, a series started by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson. WoB stands for "Word of Brandon", which means all of the things Brandon says in interviews, Q&As, that sort of thing. Basically any information that's been said by Brandon somewhere other than his books.

This is a slight tangent, but I thought of this while reading through the thread and wanted to put it out there: The ardents are secretive about Soulcasting and don't let anyone see what they're doing. Have we ever actually seen someone use a fabrial to Soulcast? Perhaps something happens to ardents during Soulcasting that they don't want others to see, something that has to do with them crystallizing .

There might be something important about the positioning of the Heralds, not in relation to the Shadesmar map but to the Silver Kingdoms map, which has the same border but flipped. The only thing I can see is that Jezrien, who is called the Stormfather, is in the direction of the origin. Any thoughts?

I don't think the man who calls himself Taln is the writer--he's hardly conscious, and doesn't even know what's going around around him. His interlude makes it sound like he isn't faking. The spren would likely have the knowledge required, but Brandon specifically said it was a group of people. Which leaves either some group high up in the Vorin religion or a group we haven't met yet.

The blade Dalinar had isn't the same one that the man had in the WoK epilogue, though. They were shaped much differently. Taln probably bonded the Honorblade and dismissed it at some point, and then was given a normal Shardblade (likely by Hoid).

Which Honorblade are you referring to? I believe they're all accounted for--seven with the stone shamans, one with the man who says he's Taln, one with Kaladin, and one with Nalan.

There's a different scene, though, when Navani asks if the visions could be related to the Nightwatcher, and Dalinar says he knows what his curse and his boon are and they aren't the visions. Kaladin seems to just figure out his oaths (possibly with help from Syl), though, so I would imagine Dalinar could do the same, especially because the visions had told him to unite everyone as well. In terms of Dalinar wanting to forget some horrible thing his wife did (mentioned earlier in the thread)--wouldn't he then not remember why he had gone to the Nightwatcher, and not know what his boon was? Knowing she had done something horrible but not knowing exactly what it was isn't all that helpful, although maybe that's the sort of thing the Nightwatcher would do.

What about Gavilar's Shardplate? I don't think Elhokar lends out a set of Shardplate, and Dalinar said he won Elhokar's Shards from the Parshendi. So who has Gavilar's Shardplate?

Small WoR spoiler: On the main topic: We know that the Parshendi don't like humans touching their dead, but they don't touch their own dead either, correct? I think Dalinar mentions that they step over the bodies as they retreat. I doubt they would be willing to cut open other Parshendi and pull out their gemhearts.

I think this explanation makes the most sense--perhaps Shardblades, being spren, don't affect the physical aspect of an object but the cognitive, and living things have two cognitive identities, one of the living being and one of the actual physical parts it is made up of. The guards, and the half-shards, somehow have strengthened cognitive aspects. The fabrials the half-shards use are augmenting fabrials, but they aren't necessarily augmenting their physical durability--perhaps they augment an object's cognitive aspect, reinforce its sense of identity.

The Everstorm travels west to east, so it will go around the world and hit Shinovar from the west.

I think the 10th iteration looks a lot more like Roshar, except for that curve on the top right. In fact, if you take that part out and shift it to the other side, then rotate it, you get this... ...which looks rather familiar... So perhaps the shape of the continent was originally modeled after the Dragon Curve, but Aimia broke off somehow?

When Shallan and Kaladin fall into the chasm in WoR, Shallan survives the fall too, so I think that's just part of the physical enhancements given by Stormlight.

The map reveals just the continent, but the continent is the only major one on the planet. What latitude and longitude marks are you referring to?

There is this WoB, however: It doesn't seem Odium is directly involved in the Oathpact itself, just that the Oathpact had to do with the Heralds fighting him.