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Well another year has gone by. Tomorrow I'll be another year older. Where does the time go. Wherever it goes I want to thank the Shard for making the previous year awesome. Here is to an awesome upcoming year!!

I really didn't know where else to put this, but technically, it's a fan work and I really feel the urge to share it with someone in the world (the above picture is the title page). So, yeah, the title summarizes it pretty well: I just got my diploma thesis (which is, of course, the Austrian equivalent to a Master's thesis since we have a solid - albeit ever-decaying - tradition of doing things a bit differently than the rest of the world) graded and printed. This has been in the making for more than a year and it took me an inspirational retreat into a hut in the middle of nowhere, heavy shoulders from carrying half of our institute's library stock to my home as well as gallons of black, green and more experimental variations of tea. It also, somewhat oddly, got me into reading amazing authors not named Brandon (especially Dan Simmons, whose Hyperion-books I can wholeheartedly recommend), since I had to get away at times and also needed to broaden my by then relatively limited sf-horizon. In the end I feel immensely proud to put a work of mine in my Cosmere-shelf (see picture - it's the green one ). I'm even more proud I managed to balance my enthusiasm for the Cosmere and the constraints of scholarly writing in a way that makes me happy to have started this endeavor. I can finally say I know why I chose 'There's always another secret' as one of the inscriptions for the amazing Alethi bookmarks I ordered from Mi'chelle more than 7 years ago, which - incidentally - was also when I started my English language studies. This journey has indeed been a satisfying one. Also, for other students or scholars: Go and study Brandon's works, will you? From my own bibliographical study and subsequent work I can assure you that this barren field is ripe for plowing and cultivating. Lastly, here's the link via my university's library: https://unipub.uni-graz.at/download/pdf/5332929

So, I just noticed that there is a link to the Spanish Brandon Sanderson site, with a forums similar to this one. (Though less populated, but that is to be expected.) My computer was nice enough to automatically translate the site, which it seemed to do decently well. Then I found the topic about Knight Radiant Order Quiz results. With a poll. This is what got translated: So... I'm not sure if the order names are just hard to translate, or if it's just my computer being dumb. I'm guessing the second, but either way this gave me a pretty good chuckle at technology.

Hello People (I used this name online before book 3 FYI, it isn't based on that).

Hello! I hope you are well in these trying times. Due to the lockdown I found myself with a lot of free time which, of course, was spent reacquainting myself to a dusty reading list. The Stormlight Archive series had. Me. Hooked. In my heady pursuit to find the next fix I found this forum and you wonderful people! To say the least I am beyond excited for The Rhythm of War. Given that I wasn't aware of the sites existence during the last month I had no outlet for the pent-up energy I got from each read. Anxious to do something I started to doodle my favorite scenes. Eventually I found myself digging for an old drawing tablet gifted to me years and years ago and, with no job, had a lot of free time to learn how to paint digitally :)It was very challenging but after a bunch of youtube tutorials I'm glad to share the first fruit of my labor. In my Gallery is a painting I did of Kaladin after reading Oathbringer. I wanted to illustrate him flying ahead of a highstorm. Alas, there are a lot of things I wanted to do but currently lack the skills to execute. This is the first time I am sharing an artwork online and I hope you enjoy it!

A number of things about that Temple of the Sovereign don't add up, even after you realize a lot of it was complete misdirection from our old friend Kelsier. Or rather, ESPECIALLY after I realized that... I started to think of what else might have been being misdirected away from. It's been established that Kelsier was the Sovereign, and that he wished to make it seem like the actions he took in the Southern Hemisphere - imparting Metalborn among them in the Firefathers and Firemothers, teaching them medallion technology with the Excisors - were somehow done by The Lord Ruler. Part of this obfuscation involved repeating iconography known to the Northerners as the Bands of Mourning - the metalmind armband bracers worn by The Lord Ruler, and described as having folklore associated with them even before the Catacendre as granting "all his powers" to the wearer. Meanwhile to the Southerners, to who he presented as The Sovereign, he gave an origin story of being the former god-king of the Northern Hemisphere, and imparted understanding of the same object - with similar iconography, as arm bracers - that functioned as medallions for all the metals: something that only he could create. Then he left "with his priests" to make this Temple, where he took great care to construct an elaborate distraction play, with a series of complex booby traps and doors that could only be opened once in a lifetime if you got the code wrong, leading to an apse with a raised pedestal with a broken display case... And underneath this apse, catacombs with a set of arm bracers of different metals, that was a dummy (empty of attributes, if they ever held any at all), somewhat grimly surrounded by the dead bodies of his former Southerner priests. Meanwhile, the real "Bands" of sixteen unsealed metalminds were melded into the spearhead attached to the statue of the Sovereign outside the temple - a statue that to the Northerners, matched their expectations of what The Lord Ruler looked like. It took Hoid's coppermind coin thrown to Wax to reveal that the Sovereign was actually Kelsier, the Survivor of Hathsin - and a WoB to confirm that Hoid was doing so specifically to "blow Kelsier's cover story", that that coppermind was something Kelsier "did not want to get out". (Of course, he must have been the one to have created it in the first place, so, how's that?) That is all just a recap. What I wanted to bring up was a review of the murals described at that Temple, and what they were supposed to represent, to either a Northerner or Southerner viewing them. Seeing what Kelsier did, it's possible they were meant to suggest one thing to a Northern viewer (wrt lore pertaining to TLR), and another thing to a Southern viewer (wrt The Sovereign). ReLuur's evanotypes of the Temple, as shown to Wax, Wayne, and Marasi in Chapter 3, showed: A mural... depicted a room with a central dais in the shape of a truncated pyramid. Set upon a pedestal on the dais was a pair of bracers made of delicate, curling metal, shaped in spirals. [This was to create a visual misdirection of what the Bands were?] A large metal plate set into a wall and inscribed with a strange script. [This was the puzzle Suit got Wax and co. past, with info from Jordis.] A statue that resembled the Lord Ruler, bearing a long spear. [hahaha.] Another shot of the mural, more detailed, which depicted bracers with many different metals twining together... "bracers for a Full Feruchemist." A different mural... depicted a man standing atop a peak, hands raised above him and a glowing spear hovering there, just beyond his touch. A corpse slumped at his feet. ... The face of the man in the mosaic had eyes upturned and lips parted as if in awe at what he held. He wore the bracers on his arms. Since ReLuur didn't actually get past the plate set in the wall to the "real" dais, the mural depicting the room with the dais and the pedestal and the bracers on it must have been outside. 1 - What is the deal with the mural of The Sovereign and a floating glowing spear, with the corpse at his feet? That obviously made the Northerners think of corpse = Kelsier, awesome powa bracer-wearing dude = TLR, glowing spear = the holy Lance of the Fountains of Survivorist lore. What were the Southerners thinking it showed? 2 - Are the "fake bracers" actually fake, or just empty? They are described as "silvery" when Edwarn hands them over to Telsin, not made of bands of many metals. What if instead of being the Bands, they are "Excisors"? Wouldn't that be just like Kelsier! 3 - Why were those dead priests down there, surrounding the "fake Bands" in concentric circles? As I was just speculating, perhaps they weren't fake. But it still seems rather gruesome for Kelsier to demand that "his priests" kill themselves in building this secret temple, that's not like him (or not like how we remember him from Era 1). So... What if they weren't (human) priests? Some of the bodies were described as having "shattered" with the cave-in triggered by Suit. What if they were kandra, and what he saw as "shattered" were the ones wearing funky skeletons instead of ones of human bones? I've always wondered what happened to the First and non-traitorous Second Generation of kandra, and speculated on the First Generation potentially still having Spiritwebs allowing for Feruchemy if they ever regained humanity (since that's how they were originally born)... And being tired enough to want to pass on of their own choice, decided to do it this way? Plus, the Southerners evidently did have legends of divine kandra-like beings, despite them being creations of the Lord Ruler. How would that have happened? Hmmm. Is that speculating waaayyy too far? 4 - The aluminum belt around the statue of the Sovereign - Wax later checked it as having "no kind of charge", but he couldn't exactly determine that by using Steelsight or Pushing on it, yeah? In fact, being unable to Steelsee or Push on the spearhead is exactly what made him originally think it, too, was aluminum. Now that he can examine it closely he can probably see it really is composed of (or at least, plated with) aluminum and nothing else - but what if it's an unsealed aluminummind, and he just hadn't thought of that (which is why it didn't open up to work for him)? An aluminummind storing... Identity? Of Kelsier? (Maybe it's not unsealed or unkeyed but just a straight up aluminummind he'll need to get back someday!) 5 - Why create such a powerful artifact, and then abandon it? That really, really doesn't sound like Kelsier. He's very goal-oriented, and whatever his goal was in doing all these shenanigans, it's hard to imagine they wouldn't be easier to achieve with the Bands of Mourning. Was its creation part of a larger Plan, perhaps with Harmony's blessing or involvement, and doing what he did was part of the price of his returning to the Physical Realm in some way? 6 - Once you have the Bands, couldn't you simply make any number of more Bands (limited only by the ability to procure all the different metals)? Why didn't Kelsier do that, or why isn't Wax and co. looking to do that?

https://i.imgur.com/5VPUTWH.png Sympathy.

How shall I put this? Brandon Sanderson is a butcher. He is most likely among the top 5 of bloodthirsty authors of our time. I wouldn't call him grimdark, because he does rarely show human depravation in gory detail, but it is there, make no mistake. Remember mass executions for making a political point during the Final Empire. Or bridge runs? To be told that your task is your death and there is no escape? Have you computed the death rates during the Catacendre? How many of the original Elantrians survived? What is going on in Dakhor monastries? Take Nalthis. How many Breaths were required to make the Phantoms? Do you think the original owners gave them up voluntarily? On Roshar, multiple desolations with death rates above 90%. Your chances surviving the Somne and then Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been larger than the series of desolations before Aharietiam. On Threnody, let's be real, evacuating a continent is not practical. Can you imagine the scenes in the harbors? Can you imagine the last weeks of Ashyn - the night skys turning red and smelling the burning land? I cannot; in fact I don't want to. But I can conclude that it must have happened. Every novel of the Cosmere is dripping blood. The packaging is nice, however.

Reading Chapter 8 made me wonder why Kaladin suddenly seemed to react so strongly to what Moash was saying and I think there's a factor outside his depression. I think it's significantly linked to him running out of Stormlight just at that moment. Ever since the beginning Kaladin described the intense feeling of taking in Stormlight, and I think he's been self-medicating his depression by using Stormlight excessively. The feeling of that takes his negative thoughts away and so he's now become accustomed to having it when he's in stressful situations (i.e. fights). I think his reaction to Moash makes a lot more sense when looking at it as Kaladin having a 'come-down' from this 'drug' as he's now not used to dealing with these thoughts on his own anymore, which is why Moash's words affect him so much in this more vulnerable state. Edit: This might be a precursor to Stormlight Savantism where you struggle to function normally without it? Edit 2: Upon rereading the chapter, there's a marked difference between Kaladin's attitude to Moash before vs after he's run out of Stormlight. Compare the last thing he says to Moash before he runs out of Stormlight to the first thing he says after

When, upon a reread of Warbreaker, you realize with surprise that much of the charming language you used to woo your wife came from Lightsong the Bold. (my wife still doesn’t know. Haha!)

This theory pulls together a lot of the loose ends left dangling at the end of OB into the what I believe is the most compelling case for the identity of the Sibling. This theory has a little bit of something for everyone, an explanation for the significance of the color of the Moons of Roshar, a satisfying explanation of the Realmatic source of Voidlight, the true nature of the Stormstriders, what exactly happened with Melishi's strikeforce, and of course the identity of the Sibling. So grab some popcorn and buckleup, it's a long ride. This theory started percolating when considering the extreme oddity of the three Rosharan moons, and the most strikingly their color. And from the offhand comment the POV character made in the RoW Interlude included in Brandon's July 7th Newsletter (spoilered below). We know from WoB (spoilered below, emphasis added) that each of the invested Shards on Roshar has a specific color or system of colors associated with them, Odium is red/gold, Honor is white/blue and Cultivation is green. The color that is noticeably missing, that happens to be one of the colors of the 3 moons of roshar, and happens also to be the color of the weird anti-glow nimbus of someone using Voidlight, and is coincidentally one of the two colors depicting linking relationships in the voidbinding chart is violet (the other voidbinding chart color is a yellow gold, clearly signifying Odium). This was the basis for the theory, but all good theories live or die on the solidness of the proof. The main proof for this theory comes from looking at the records in the Gem Archive and assuming that the drawer locations and gem numbers of the individual entries imply a rough relative chronology. I think it plausible to assume that the earliest gems would be placed in the lowest number drawers, and that the sequentially numbered gems are explicitly stating their relative chronology. The entries that refer to external events would seem to confirm this chronological assumption (and are noted in the comments below the entries). At the end of this post all of the entries for the gem archive are placed in chronological order based on drawer numbers and gem numbers, for anyone who just want's to read through the raw chronological listing. The gem archive is comprised of the following 3 types of entries: Personal Records (of the least interest to us in this investigation, with the exception of the Truthwatcher ones) Entries about the Tower and the Sibling (very important ones) Entries about the War with the Parsh during the False Desolation (including Melishi's strike force (also very important ones)) So given the above divisions of content and the assumption that drawer location and numbers reveal a chronological ordering, we can arrange the significant entries into a rough thematic and chronological ordering. Each ordered entry states the Drawer-Sub drawer number: Gem Type (Associated Radiant Order) and CH# where the epigraph can be found in the text. After the entry is a contextualizing footnote. Before we begin, I have to say, that after ordering and arranging them a very singular narrative begins to emerge with gaps that can be filled in by some educated surmises. First I'll give you the facts and then present the Grand Unifying Theory. PART 1: Personal Records The only really noteworthy entry in this category (other than the Truthwatcher entries that will be placed in the Tower/Sibling subcategory) is the following Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 Boy is that a doozy! This clearly establishes that at the time of the False Desolation the Sibling was unbonded, because if the sole Bondsmith was bonded to the Sibling there wouldn't have been any uncertaintity as to what is happening with the functioning of the Tower. It also means that the sole Bondsmith, Melishi, was either bonded to the Stormfather or the Nightwatcher (more on this later). PART 2: Records about the Tower and Sibling In this series of entries you can see that the Gem Archive records start with an undisclosed Elsecaller investigating the Sibling, implying that something was off about the Sibling at the start of our Archive derived chronology. Drawer 1-1: First Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 68 On first reading, this would seem to imply that Sibling has already withdrawn. But I think based on the subsequent entry by (I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume) the same Elsecaller Radiant, the tower is still partially functional. This Elsecaller investigated the Sibling in the Cognitive realm, and I think the reason that he/she doesn't hold that the Sibling has withdrawn by intent is that in fact the Sibling at this point hasn't withdrawn, at least not fully. The "I find counter to that theory" implies that she has some direct evidence that either 1) The Sibling hasn't withdrawn by intent or 2) The Sibling hasn't fully Withdrawn, or 3) The premise that the Sibling has withdrawn is false because some other process is at work upon the Sibling (namely corruption by Sja-Anat) that is causing the malfunctioning of Urithiru's subsystems. I'll return to this later in the Grand Unifying Theory portion. Drawer 1-1: Second Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 69 This shows that even when some Radiants believed that the Sibling had withdrawn, something was still powering some of the subsystems at Urithiru. Drawer 1-1: Third Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 70 Just more confirmation by the Elsecaller who has investigated what is going on with the Sibling from the Cognitive Realm (who likewise knows that Urithiru, at this point, is still somewhat functional) that an abnormal process is at work with the Sibling. Drawer 2-22: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This is early in the Gem Archives and shows that the plan to abandon the tower followed pretty shortly after the beginning of the breakdown of Urithiru's subsystems. Drawer 3-11: Garnet (Lightweaver) CH 73 This one is far more interesting, and one of the prime pieces of evidence for the speculation that Sja-Anat had been assualting the Tower. The two Truthwatcher entries in this series are also evidence for this surmise, with the small emerald one basically being a confirmation that Sja-anat had been at the very least actively corrupting Radiant spren. Drawer 8-1: Amethyst (WIllshaper) CH 65 This entry, and the ones that highlight the divisions in the tower, shows that the withdrawal from Urithiru was a stepped process, not a single mass exodus. Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 60 This combined with the drawer 30-2 small emerald heavily implies Sja-anat's presence at the Tower. We know that seeing the future is actually voidbinding (per Argent's signed book WoB). So this Truthwatcher might be wary because his/her fellow Truthwatchers are being secretive about their spren (because they are corrupted) or because prophetic writing similar to Renarin's count down to the True Desolation had begun to appear in the Tower. Drawer 16-16: Amethyst (Willshaper) CH 63 Another entry that highlights the divisions in the tower and shows that the leaving of the tower was a protracted affair. Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This entry is included to show its chronological context, because it is a VERY important entry, and the fact that the Sibling hadn't been bonded in a generation is very significant. Drawer 27-19: Topaz (Stoneward) CH 64 This entry is important for establishing a link to the external chronology by giving a plausible reason why the assualt at Feverstone keep was predominantly Windrunners. The record of 2-22 shows that at least one Skybreaker was displeased with abandoning Urithiru, and that group tends to act like a school of herring, one opinion is probably indicative of the opinion of the group. With the Skybreakers dragging their heels about leaving, and with the conflict between the orders at a fever pitch, it's a reasonable surmise to say this is one of the reasons that most of the Windrunners were present at the Feverstone Keep Recreance vision of Dalinar's. Drawer 29-29: Ruby (Dustbringer) CH 87 This, to me, reads like the last goodbye to Urithiru. And because it precedes the drawer 30 Melishi strikeforce Emerald series, it seems like at this point most of the Radiants had given up on the tower as a lost cause. Drawer 30-20: A particularly small emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 85 This entry shows that at least one Truthwatcher at the tower had their spren corrupted by Sja-Anat. With the alarmist tone of the Emerald in drawer 8-21 about being concerned about their fellow Truthwatchers, and the drawer 3-11 garnet expressing worry about the towers defenses being compromised, it's a reasonable surmise to think that Sja-Anat was active at the Tower. So the rough chronology of events about the Sibling and the Tower established through the Archive is the following: The Sibling began to behave strangely, things started to not work at Urithiru (assumed pre-archive) An Elsecaller investigated what was going on by checking on the Sibling in the CR and found that contrary to the general perception, the Sibling had not withdrawn with intent (this leaves several possibilities open, namely only part of the sibling had withdrawn or the sibling had been corrupted) Shortly after the Elsecaller's investigations into the problems at Urithiru, a decision was reached to abandon the tower. At least one Skybreaker objected to this, and this could be the start of the deepening divisions among the orders. Shortly after the decision to abandon the tower was reached, a Lightweaver expressed worry about the tower's defenses, implying that the problems with the Sibling were likely to affect the Tower's defense. Not too long after the concern over the tower's defenses were expressed, a Truthwatcher records his worry about his fellow Truthwatchers (sounds like a sublte assualt to me). General dissention reigns at Urithiru. The majority of the Radiants leave the tower. Melishi, the sole Bondsmith, and his strikeforce leave the tower to confront Ba-Ado-Mishram. PART 3: Records about the War with the Parsh & Imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram This is a pretty straightforward chronology, but where useful, the comments following the record entries contextualize the entry in terms of the Sibling/Tower chronology. Drawer 19-2: Third Topaz (Stoneward) CH 84 This is one of those records that establishes a correlation of the Archives with an external chronology. It's after the Willshaper returns to a squabbling tower (Drawer 16-16 amethyst) and before the disagreement with the Skybreaker and Windrunners record (Drawer 27-19 topaz). Of special note is the fact that there is no mention of the enemy having access to Voidlight at this point. Drawer: 20-10, Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 83 This I think is a small bit of foreshadowing, namely that the only perfect gem we know of, The Honor's Drop, is mentioned before the strikeforce sets out to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem. We know from Oathbringer that prior to the battle of Thaylen Fields the Honor's Drop wasn't imprisoning an Unmade, suggesting heavily that whatever had previously been imprisoned in the Honor's Drop no longer is. Drawer: 29-5, Topaz (Stoneward) CH 58 Chronologically and thematically this is interesting. On the eve of the Melishi's strikeforce operation, even the most dependable of Radiants were beginning to question themselves. Is this from the ramifications of what was going to be attempted with Melishi's strikeforce? Was this from the ravings of Honor? Was this from the corrupting influence of Sja-Anat? Whatever the cause, this record clearly sets the stage for the only view of the Recreance we get at Feverstone Keep, where predominantly Stonewards and Windrunners broke their bonds. Drawer: 30-20, First Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 77 This is the beginning of the denouement for the Knights Radiant. This is the eve of the Recreance, and chronologically it's immediately preceded by a Dustbringer bidding adieu to Urithiru (abandoned), the Sibling (withdrawn possibly partially, fully, or corrupted), and the Radiants (who very shortly will cease to exist as a group due to the wholesale abandonment of their oaths). Drawer: 30-20, Second Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 78 My guess is that one of the scholar radiants in this group is the Elsecaller who investigated the anomalies of the workings of Urithiru regarding the Sibling at the start of the Gem Archive. And further that her special understanding of how Voidlight was supplied enabled Melishi's strategem. Drawer: 30-20, Third Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 79 This one is an obvious call back to the Drawer 20-10 Zircon (the one about capturing an Unmade in a perfect gem), and implies heavily that at least part of Ba-Ado-Mishram was trapped within Honor's Drop by Melishi post strikeforce ops. Drawer: 30-20, Fourth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 80 Of special note in this entry is the only parrallel between what BAM and Odium did was in regards to the Connection with the Parsh. The implication from continuing to read the sentence is that Voidlight is supplied through this connection, but the entry only explicitly states that only the manner of Connection was similar. This is VERY important in the Grand Unifying Theory portion below. Drawer: 30-20, Fifth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 81 This seems to be only of Realmatic signifigance in that Connection and Identity are important for assuming forms of power. Drawer: 30-20, Final Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 82 Just a reminder that the False Desolation occurred after Aharietiam, and the fact that the Heralds lied about the Last Desolation is just one more reason to throw in the towel and give up on Radiance. The rough chronology of events in the War agains the Parsh in the False Desolation (with asides about where this fits in with the events in the Sibling/Tower timeline) are: The subsystems are failing at Urithiru, and there are fractious divisions amongst the Orders at Urithiru before the war with the Parsh (that comprises the False Desolation) are mentioned. The first mention of the war that would turn into the False Desolation is the drawer 19-2 topaz that talks about the Parsh's push to Feverstone Keep (which is a significant location because that's our one view of the Recreance) Before Melishi's strikeforce leaves to imprison BAM, even the Stonewards are questioning thier place as Radiants. That's a bad sign. Melishi's strikeforce sets out with the stated aims of 1) Denying the enemy their source of Voidlight and 2) Imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram (heavily implying that the second objective will accomplish the first). PART 4: The Grand Unifying Theory A lot of the preliminary thought about this is covered in my post about Voidlight not being Odium's Investiture which I initially abandoned but am starting to reassess as perhaps being more or less on the right track (spoilered below): So, you have seen the rough chronological progression of events, as reconstructed from the Gem Archives. Here is the Grand Unifying Theory, with each link in the speculative chain presented with evidence spoilered below it. The color of the Moons of Roshar corresponds to the 3 types of Investiture present on Roshar. Nomon (blue) represents Honor's investiture, Stormlight, (distributed through the Highstorm), Mishim (green) represents Cultivation's investiture, Cultivationlight, (most likely distributed through the Crem cycle), and Selas (violet) represents another type of Investiture,Voidlight, which I believe is another ecological manifestation of investiture, namely the formation of gem hearts in the native fauna on Roshar. We've seen spheres infused with Voidlight, the Fused giving off a nimbus black-violet anti-glow implying they are using Voidlight, and a Fabrial that uses Voidlight to suppress Radiance. The only explicity stated source of Voidlight was BAM in the False Desolation. Ba-Ado-Mishram (note the double hyphenation) is a tripartite being, and is the Sibling. The Sibling is a fusion of the original gods of the Singers, the spren of Spren, Stone and Wind, formed from the primitive beliefs of the native life on Roshar pre-shattering. I believe that it's a reasonable surmise that the 3 means of dispersing Investiture predated the arrival of Honor and Cultivation, and that the Singers original Gods were powerful Spren born of the accretion and focus of the three different systems of Investiture distribution. To extend the surmise, it's quite likely that when Honor and Cultivation invested on Roshar, and began investing in 2 of the 3 pre-existing channels for investiture distribution, namely the High Storm and the Crem cycle, the Singer's original Gods of the Wind and the Spren were displaced, leaving only the God of Stone (the one responsible for gemheart formation) with unfiltered Power, and speculative to be sure, but the God of Stone portion of the Sibling is probably the Sibling's primary aspect due to it's unsupplanted function. Probably the most compelling piece of evidence that Ba-Ado-Mishram is the Sibling is the chronological series of events presented in thg Gem Archive. When the battery for Urithiru stopped working, suddenly the Singers fighting in the False Desolation had an entity capable of supplying them with power in the form of Voidlight. Melishi, a Bondsmith not bonded to the Sibling, was able to use his Bondsmith abilities to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram (or as I posit a single aspect of the tripartite being) and the consequence of this imprisonment and Melishi's use of his Bondsmith power to affect Connection was a severing of Connection and Identity of all of the Singers connected to BAM. The Portion of the Sibling able to Connect and Distribute Voidlight, namely the Portion that was imprisoned by Melishi, was (until the start of the True Desolation at least) residing on Braize. The Everstorm is of Odium, the lightning it produces is Red (an Odious color) and for it to have the assumed ability to replenish Voidlight something else needs to be going on. I think this is best explained by the reasoned surmise that Odium, Connected to the portion of BAM that is able to supply Voidlight, is using that Connection to supply Voidlight through his storm. This is just like how Dalinar uses his Connection to the Stormfather to Supply Stormlight to his Radiants. The other two portions of the Sibling, the God of Wind and the God of Spren, are the massive Stormstriders seen hiding in the Eye of the Highstorm. . Here are possible objections to this theory and rebuttals. In the Hessi's Mythica epigraph in CH106 of OB, BAM is described as the following: This clearly states that she was a Highprincess among the Enemy Forces and the commander during SOME of the Desolations. If the Sibling/BAM is a composite Entity of the original Spren Gods of the Singers, it would make sense that they would initially side with the Singers. Also, one of the Desolations where she was a commander would definitely be when she was supplying Voidlight and Connection to the Singers during the False Desolation. So covering the vague SOME only requires her to be a commander during 2 Desolations really, but I think it's probably likely that she was a Commander for the Singers up until the Construction of Urithiru, it seems to have as it's foundational design principle the idea of big battery to install, so I think it likely that one of the first Bondsmiths to Bond the Sibling/BAM also was instrumental in creating the tower, and in terms of Absolute chronology this would have to be before Nohadon, because it's impossible to Walk to Something that hasn't been built yet. How do we know that Cultivationlight is part of the Crem cycle? We don't, this is just surmise, but we do know that Crem is invested based on a couple of WoBs spoilered below: How do we know that Sja-Anat corrupted the Sibling and was the reason, some/all of the Sibling withdrew? We don't but we have seen Sja-Anat is able to corrupt massive spren (the Kholinar Oathgate Spren), and the Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald and Drawer 30-2: particularly small emeralds about Suspecting fellow Truthwatchers at the Tower and the confirmation that at least one Truthwatcher was voidbinding (saw the future) is pretty compelling circumstantial evidence that Sja-Anat was active at the tower. I'll add more of these as you all start testing the limits of this theory with your amazing wobbery and generally sharp analysis Here's the closing portion where I'm going to put this all together in a chronological sequence of events that I think does the best job of explaining the crap ton of dangling threads that we had at the end of Oathbringer. Prior to the shattering, during the time when the Singers were the predominant sapient species on Roshar (and possibly the Reshi Islands too), there were 3 distinct methods of Investiture distribution. The Investiture that would later become Stormlight was distributed by the Highstorm, the investiture that would later beomce Cultivationlight was distributed by water and the Crem cycle to make the inhospitable rocky planet capable of sustaining life, and the investiture that would later become Voidlight was distributed as innate investiture sink in the form of gemhearts. The gemhearts were most likely just a means by which the megafauna of Roshar could access and be affected by the other forms of Rosharan investiture. Due to the importance of all 3 systmes of investiture, the Singer's gods coalesced as Mega Spren, namely the God of Spren (cultivationlight), the God of Wind (stormlight) and the God of Stone (voidlight/gemhearts). (The Shin and Unkalaki likewise worship a God of Stone, heavily implying that that this entity is still existant). After the Human's came, they brought their new ideas about the local phenomena, and the Influence of Cultivation and Honor's Investing of Roshar caused the original singer gods of Spren and Wind to be displaced. The three primary gods of the Singer then became to the Singers a single Entity and the Sibling was born. The Sibling thus Formed, aided their worshippers in the Wars against the true Voidbringers, namely the Human immigrant's from Ashyn (this is the portion referred to in Hessi's Mythica were BAM was a commander for some of the Desolations). At some point during the Heraldic Epochs, after the Knights Radiants were formed, the new Order of Bondsmiths discovered they could bond the Spren that are Conduits for the 3 type of Investiture on Roshar, namely the Stormfather (the God of Wind had been displace), the Nightwatcher (the God of Spren had been displaced) and the God of Stone (who at this point was combined with the original God of Wind and the original God of Spren). The Tower City of Urithiru had to be created after the Sibling was bonded, because it's built around the central Gem column to provide power to it's internal subsystems, and most likely to provide cultivationlight to the crops, and I also think that prior to the withdrawl of the Sibling, Urithiru recieved direct power from the Highstorm (using the component God of Wind to key and transfer Stormlight investiture). This takes us up to the time of the Gem Archive, when only 1 Bondsmith had been active for a generation (Drawer 24-18: smokestone), meaning that the Sibling was unbonded when subsystems at Urithiru began to fail. Shotrly after this, an Elsecaller investigating the Sibling in the CR (Drawer 1-1: zircons 1-3) noted that, unlike some thought, the Sibling hadn't withdrawn with intent. This combined with worry about Urithiru's defenses failing (Drawer 3-11: garnet) and the alarmist note of the Truthwatcher suspecting his fellow Truthwatchers (Drawer 8-21: second emerald), heavily implies that Sja-Anat had infiltrated the Tower, and that at least one of the Components of the Sibling had been corrupted. The Singer's at the start of the False Desolation don't appear to have been supplied with Voidlight (Drawer 19-2: third topaz), and it is only stated explicitly that they are Recieving Voidlight from BAM (Drawer 30-20: Fourth emerald) after the Tower had been mostly abandoned and the Sibling had fully withdrawn (Drawer 29-29: ruby). The Details of Melishi's strike force combined with the fact that the Singers were obviously lobotomized after the False Desolation and only had their Identity and Connection restored with the Coming of the Everstorm for the True Desolation, shows that at least along some fronts Melishi's strike force was successful. The gem archive entries about imprisoning BAM in the Honor's Drop imply heavily that this was the means to do it, and I think it can be surmised that just the God of Stone portion (the one able to supply Voidlight and connect with the Singers) was imprisoned. But at least at the beginning of the Battle of Thaylen Fields, BAM was no longer imprisoned, because the Honor's Drop was empty. The evidence of a Giant Luminous Spren, and a Sleek Alien Spren striding through the Highstorm close to the eye of the Storm, is heavily suggestive that these are the Components of the Sibling/BAM that were not captured by Melishi's strikeforce, and further more their descriptions fit with them being the Singer's original Gods of Wind and Spren (because their descriptions somewhat parallel the features of the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher, the Spren that displaced them from their original roles). The fact that Gavilar had access to a fabrial capable of teleportation of gems to Braize and that he had spheres filled with Voidlight, suggests that the portion of BAM capable of supplying Voidlight was at some point released from her prison in the Honor's Drop and returned to Braise to wait rebirth at the start of the next Desolation. Odium's Everstorm though seemingly capable of replinishing Voidlight, does not of itself replinish voidlight, because Voidlight is not Odium's investiture, it's a native flavor of Investiture (that probably has a shardic analog, but unknown which). The Everstorm has red lightning bolts, voidspren are golden-yellow or red, Voidlight is being bridged by BAM through BAM's Connection to Odium, and then pushed out through the Everstorm. The bonding of the Sibling is likely going to require the de-corruption of the Singer God of Stone prior to a Bondsmith being able to bond the Sibling, but if the Sibling is really a tripartite being, this gives the Sibling Bondsmith some room to maneuver, becasue from the gem archive we have seen that Urithiru can partially function, so if necessary the Sibling's bondsmith could probably venture out of the Tower with one of the 3 if necessary. That's it for Now, I am sure there are some edits that I am going to make to this monster of a theory, but this took far longer to put together than I was planning on spending. I'll address any critiques of this theory probably this weekend, cuz unfortunately crafting Cosmere theories doesn't pay the bills. Pip, pip, and as Sherlock Holmes would say, the game is afoot. *All records from the Gem Archive, organized just chronologically by drawer-sub drawer number spoilered below*

For how much research Brandon did to write about DID in Shallan's arc and depression in Kaladin's arc, I feel pretty certain that he did a good amount of research about abuse. I want to answer the question of why does Gavilar act that way by talking about the real life reasons for domestic abuse. For a bit of context, I work a lot with people who have been convicted of domestic assault. I would say about half of the clients that I work with have been incarcerated for either strangulating their partners, violating protection orders, or after being convicted of domestic assault on multiple occasions. I want to state one thing first - mental health issues and substance abuse do not cause domestic abuse. It can exacerbate it because people are more likely to make impulse decisions because of these factors, but it does not cause it in 99% of cases (yes, there are a few outliers, but we don't see any evidence of heavy enough substance use or severe enough mental health problems for Gavilar to be one of those outliers). I would also add that the extreme power differences between Navani and Gavilar. That's something that Gavilar points out to Navani in this chapter Right now, the best model for understanding domestic abuse is the Duluth model. This model suggests that domestic abuse is all about the abuser maintaining power and control in the relationship. This model has produced both the Power and Control Wheel as well as the Equality Wheel. I can't link to either as I have not posted enough, but I recommend looking them up. Now, you can argue that it is flawed or that another model is better, but after working with many batterers, I feel that it describes the reasons behind domestic abuse well. The abuse in dv (or domestic violence situations) is often not about lashing out or the batterer misdirecting their anger, but it is used as a weapon to get their way and maintain power in the situation. For example, I have had situations where I will be having an calm conversation with someone and I will tell them to do something they don't like. In an instant, they will be screaming at me as a way to intimidate me into changing my mind. Most batterers have learned that the most reliable way to get control of a situation is through violence, which might be why people with histories of domestic violence are more likely to engage in violence against law enforcement and perpetrate mass shooting. This also fits with what we know about Gavilar. He took control and maintains control over his kingdom through acts of violence. In the end, there isn't really one event that can cause a person to become an abuser. It has more to do with an need for power and control and the willingness to use violence to fulfill that need.

Chadwick Boseman has passed away after battling colon cancer since 2016. Rest In Power, King.

"Too obvious" is tricky, because while it might be obvious to people on forums picking over every detail, it might be very much NOT obvious to people who just read through once. So something being "very obvious" here might read more like being "well-foreshadowed, obvious in retrospect but never saw it until it happened" to a lot of people.

Huh. Considering Dalinar's flashbacks were supposed to be in book 5, a trip to Braize makes sense. It would definitely remind him of Rathalas. And the scene where he'll potentially make the jump might be the one Brandon is excited about. This book did start with Gavilar opening that possibility.

I turned my ugly hand drawn profile pic into a fancy computer made one!

Not sure exactly what you meant by this but in my opinion more representation of mental health issues in media is a good thing if it is done well. What I mean is that some people (including myself) are tired of the whole DID thing for Shallan taking up screen time. We are hoping for some progression with more oaths as hinted at the end of OB. To be clear, I am comfortable with Shallan having DID or anyone else having DID. It’s more about a wanting progression in the book. Pretty sure some shard casts even talk about this issue.

THIS WILL BE EPIC!!! I have additiona theory about Szeth, mean: Szeth reach fourth Ideal of Skybreakers and atract many fellow Skybreakers causing Order to split.

This is something I've been predicting for years, so I'm so happy to see that someone else agrees.:) So yeah: my theory is like yours. In the prologue of book 5 we see Gavilar trying to breath new life into the Oathpact by replacing the broken Heralds with himself (and some other worthy individuals). Throughout books 4 and 5 more Heralds will die. And at the end of book 5 some of our heroes realize that they need to become Heralds in order re-establish the Oathpact and buy Roshar more time. This will likely include all the surviving main characters from the first 5 books (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Venli, and Szeth). At least two Parshendi will take place as well since by the end of book 5 the Parsh will have realized that Odium is the true enemy and Parsh and humans need to work together. And another crazy theory on top of this: the new Heralds actually want to go to Braize in order to talk some sense into those Fused that are still sane, and figure out how to get rid of Odium without destroying the entire stars system.

Per Brandon's website, the Dawnshard novella draft is now at 100%. Awesome!

This is an amazing explanation, great job. I'm reminded of the WoR letter, where Odium is described as, "He bears the weight of God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context." I've always found this quote interesting, because it implies that all the Shards hold (as I would describe them) "broken virtues." Divine hatred (also called wrath) often means justice, with the idea being that it is good for evil to be punished. Odium seems to be just the punishment without the justice, which actually might mean that if the Odium Shard merged with the Honor Shard you might have a possibility to get a Justice Shard. But that's neither here not there. The point is just that, as ftl said, the complexities of the Shards actually improve each other rather than hindering each other. It just happens the human (and possibly non-human) mind is not good at balancing the overwhelming presence of the intents.

Tis done

I saw somewhere here theory that Glys was deadeye - was broken by Recreance. Ad this leaves him vulnerable.

Suppose you start with a normal, human mind. Then a bunch of ants find a way to break up that "mind" into 16 pieces representing different aspects of it, and graft it onto themselves. So one Shard of that mind represents a human's drive to love, one captures their capacity for growth, one represents their sense of fairness, etc. The ants, having weak ant minds, are pretty quickly influenced by the Shard they hold, and soon become single-mindedly driven by their Shard's intent. And then the ants wonder - how could the original mind have even functioned, pulled in 16 separate directions by these 16 powerful Intents? Or would they have combined into one overarching intent? ...the answer, of course, is that when you had all the parts together, you had a normal, functioning mind, which balanced all of those at the same time, and it wasn't even particularly hard. It just worked. People have competing drives all the time, and part of normal day-to-day consciousness is realizing "hey I want this and that and I feel this and that, but THIS is the one of those feelings/desires that takes priority/is important right now, and this is one that I shouldn't act on at all". (Though god, on some days, it sure is hard to balance the part of my mind that needs to Work with the part of my mind that wants to play Videogames!) That's how I think of the relation between Adonalsium and the Shards/Shardholders. With humans as the ants in the above analogy, and Adonasium as the one mind. When all the shards were together, they formed one mind - and yes, that mind would incorporate some hatred (Odium) and some drive for destruction (Ruin), but also a drive for fairness (Honor) and growth and change (Cultivation) and so on and so forth. It's the breaking up of that mind into individual Shards which was unnatural, and created these strange single-minded "intents".

It's eight chapters late, but...

I've seen some discussion on Reddit that it could be the influence of Dai-Gonarthis. The only mention of him comes from a death rattle Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it! ” — Tanatesach 1173, 28 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed female street juggler. Note similarity to sample 1172-89

The Lies: 1) “They’re going to die, you know,” Moash said softly. “Shut up.” “Everyone you love, everyone you think you can protect. They’re all going to die anyway. There’s nothing you can do about it.” 2) “Do you remember the chasm, Kal?” Moash whispered. “In the rain that night? Standing there, looking down into the darkness, and knowing it was your sole release? You knew it then. You try to pretend you’ve forgotten. But you know. As sure as the storms will come. As sure as every lighteyes will lie. There is only one answer. One path. One result.” 3) “There’s a simple path to freedom,” Moash said [...] “The answer is to stop existing, Kal. You’ve always known it, haven’t you?” 4) “There is no fight to be won. We lost the moment we were born into this cursed life of suffering. The sole victory left to us is to choose to end it.” These are lies. Kaladin can protect people. He can do something about the danger they are in. Kaladin did not "forget" that suicide was his only option. He learned better. He knew that there were better options. It's a lie to say that the only path to freedom or release from pain is death. There are many paths to freedom. It's a lie to say there is no fight to be won against the forces of evil. This is a Desolation, it's been fought and won for the side of good many times before. The theme of Moash's entire speech is that life is terrible. That it's a curse to be born. That nothing good can ever come from life because others will always keep you down and destroy anything good that you have. That you can't even be good yourself, because others will do things to you that make you turn bad. Moash believes that he had no possible way of being a good person. No possible way of overcoming the suffering he's faced in his life. He is trying to convince Kaladin to believe the same thing. The Truth: Renarin's truth is to show both Kaladin and Moash that Moash is wrong. He shows that there was a way for Moash to be a good person. There was a way for him to overcome his suffering. It was not a curse to be born. Good can come from life. We know that Moash has freely chosen the wrong path multiple times which made life worse for himself, we've seen it on the page. Moash himself knew that, before giving away his feelings to Odium - he reflects on it in early/mid OB and even late in WoR. And the reason he feels pain from Renarin's vision is because the vision strips away the lies Moash has told himself, it forces Moash to confront the fact that much of his suffering is his own fault and that he still has the ability to change his ways and put in the work to become better. Kaladin himself has made a lot of progress in fighting his own tendency toward negative thinking. When he's doing well, he understands that all the things Moash told him were BS. But when he's struggling, those kinds of thoughts try to pull him back into the dark. Renarin's image was not "counterfactual" - it wasn't just some guy saying "Hey Moash, here's what you would have looked like if you'd become a Windrunner." It was a magical vision of what might have been and what might still be. Renarin used magic to prove Moash wrong and show that his entire premise for everything he says (that he had no way of being any different than he is) was false.

Right, on the subject of crediting memes and avoiding posting duplicates - while also not expecting people to reading 170+ pages before sharing a thing, I will say (mostly unofficially; this is coming from me, I don't know how many of the other mods or admins agree): If you made it, you can post it If you found it, at least link to where you found it. You don't need to go on a reverse image search quest, but a lot of the images you find on Google will come from either Reddit, or this thread; either way, it's easy to credit the creator (and a real one)

So, didn’t Sja-Anat say that she hadn’t ever enlightened a spren as large as the Oathgate spren before? The Sibling would be considerably larger. Wasn’t the Unmade that infiltrated the tower Re-shepir? I personally think that a Bondsmith broke their oaths with the Sibling, sending it into a coma-like state.

Prediction: Book 5 will end with the Shard Odium being passed from Rayse to Moash. He will be the new Odium.

I came across this one on Facebook.

I have a joke about the 4th ideal of the Windrunners but I'm not ready to say the words.

Nice catch! Fixed?! (sorry for poor editing skills)

So a lot of the theories I've been reading liken Renarin's illumination of Moash to allomantic gold or malatium. I have a different theory Renarin went in search of Kaladin, wanting to help him. Is it possible that Renarin did exactly what he was trying to do---help Kaladin. The truth was that what Kaladin truly needed at that moment was hope. Hope that his dear friend Moash could be a better person. That he was not beyond redemption. What they saw was indeed a possible version of Moash, perhaps if he has made different choices in the past. But could the trigger have been Kaladin himself?

Welcome to the Shard! I hope you enjoy all the secrets. What's your favorite book?

Yep. He changed it to Kal stabbing Szeths arm which disconnects him from the Honorblade and he falls to his death. It’s one of the main things that made me think of this theory as Kal didn’t seem to care about Killing until the Parshendi at the end of book 1. So it makes me think it’s an Oath related retcon. I really like this. And I can see this being true. I just feel like the 4th Oath having Kaladin accept his failures may not leave him room for character development for a 5th Oath. The main reason I have this theory is because I can’t see Kaladins depression being managed until he swears the 5th Oath and maybe not even then. Coming to terms with his failings seems like the conclusion to his character arc.

This is an interesting alternative theory on Kal's fourth oath. I have, like most people, assumed that it will be something along the lines of accepting that he can't save everyone. But with the release of the preview chapters I've begun to think about another possibility - something along the lines of acknowledging that sometimes he is the one in need of protection and allowing others to do the protecting. Think about all of the characters who have come around to check on Kaladin and how he reflexively shrinks away from it every time. The more I think about it, the more I like it, because it's also the oath that will lead to Kal gaining a form of self-protection in Shardplate. Something along the lines of allowing others to protect him would also tie in nicely with Kal's longstanding depression. It's so hard when in the grips of depression to acknowledge that you need help and accept it from others. It all just seems to fit. Would love to hear others' thoughts.

And I so want to see what Venli's up to now in the past year. Has she been coordinating with Dalinar at all? Is she a Radiant on Team Dalinar, or an independent operative? What happens when if or when she meets Rlain face-to-face?

I got a new one!!!

Alright, alright. This is the correct link I promise: imgur.com/gallery/ad3je Mild language warning.

Right, given that LG32 is up, I believe it's time to give my closing comments. Distribution This was… not the best distribution. It was mostly mine, to be clear, with DA helping. Essentially, DA rolled for one of each role, and then I nixed the ones which I didn’t want in the game, rather than coming up with a full set of balanced roles as I normally would have. This didn’t work terribly well. I did nix the Hazekillers, which I don’t regret - Hazekillers are fairly OP in that they protect the target and kill the eliminator putting in the kill. With few eliminators, and Ruin wanting to kill the Skaa as well, I didn’t particularly want to give the village that kind of power. What I didn’t do was nix the Assassin or the Steel misting (preferably the former). Which I should have. The biggest issue in this game was that there were relatively few players for a LG, and far too many kills. It didn’t happen, but there could have been five kills in a single night. Six in a cycle is more than a third of the players. That’s a bit much. So that did not turn out well. The game, actually, was balanced in favor of the eliminators as it stood, fairly heavily. It’s just that the kill roles landed on the elims before they killed enough villagers to win the game for the elims. The other lesson I learned regarding distribution this game was to be a bit more careful with roles for new players - Bart and Szeth were both wild cards, and I gave both important roles. In particular, the only player in the game who went completely inactive was Preservation. >> (Also, that was very unfair to Ruin, had I considered it more thoroughly: had Szeth been active, no one wants to kill a new player. I agreed to the roll of him as Preservation to avoid the potential of a dictator Preservation, but that’s not worth the price for Ruin.) Likewise, Bart and Arinian both killed every time. If I’d given the kill role to a more experienced player who could see how fast the deaths could stack up and wouldn’t kill every time, we likely would’ve had a considerably slower game. Other Mistakes One, I completely neglected to mention to Mage that he was a Metallurgist until he died. So that is two fewer vials than could have been in the game. It ended up not mattering because the game ended so early, but even so. Two, this one’s on Conq, but bears mentioning: Originally, Ruin was going to be a secret role. Until Conq posted the rules without taking out Ruin, it would’ve been secret, and the game would have been much more fun. (There’s a reason why none of the protects, except Hazekiller, protected against everything - that way, it was easy to slip in the fact that Preservation would be completely unprotected from Ruin’s kill, while seemingly protected from everything else except vigkills.) I do regret that, but we worked with what it was. There was a part taken out from the rules, as well, which was still part of the game: if Ruin died, it would pass to another person, until the game ended or Ruin killed Preservation. Again a moot point, though, as it didn’t end up being used. Other Notes Small note: I am somewhat sad I didn’t get to do more writeups for this game. I had plans for six or ten more, and then the game ended a bit earlier than I was expecting. Perhaps I’ll use the rest in another game. We’ll see. Particular calls out: Jondesu, Arin, and Bart for killing one elim each. Ecth, for putting up with another C1 death. Joe, for being an excellent Kelsier despite being very busy. Orlok, for signing up as a 17th player at the last minute. Also, props to both Aman and Orlok for driving discussion this game. Without either of you in the game, it would have been a significantly quieter game, which would have been sad. You both invested several (on the order of 4-10, at a guess?) hours per day into the game, and it showed. Particular thanks to DA for helping with this game, and a wonderful comic. Thank you all for playing this game. I certainly had fun, and I hope you did. I look forward to seeing you in future games.