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I'M A KING'S WIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!! Get roasted!

I was just thinking and felt like I was being called to write this post so here it is. You may be having a hard day, if so this message is to you. I would like to tell you that everything is going to be okay and that you just need to stay determined and have hope. I believe that this will reach someone who will take this message seriously and changes a piece of them. Whoever you are. You are loved! okay. that was it. Hopefully reaches someone who needs it.

I now cook waffles!

Since the Nightwatcher specifically offers Dalinar a sword that "bleeds darkness and cannot defeated" in OB the simplest explanation is Vasher went to The Valley to ask to be able to consume Stormlight in place of a Breath to keep himself alive and his bane ended up being he had to leave Nighblood behind. He dies if he doesn't have a Breath to consume every week other than his Divine Breath and Stormlight is a lot easier to get than Breath, he doesn't have to convince anyone to give it to him it just shows up with every high storm. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6177

Day 14-Radiant Ok so for today's prompt I had a good idea - or so I thought at the time. I started sketching it out and thought "wait this makes no sense" but I was too lazy to start over so I went with it. What I was thinking was that maybe Shallan would compare herself to Radiant and feel awful. She's created this "perfect" persona and feels like she can't live up to her. Radiant would be disgusted and disappointed in her because Shallan can never be her. Something along the lines of "you are your own worst critic." Or something I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I started drawing it this is just me trying to justify what I drew.

I'm a Son of Honor! Of course that isn't very significant anymore...

Status: LOL! What do you call a snobbish criminal going down the stairs? I don't know why I'm laughing, but I find this so hilarious!

Yeah I noticed that as well. I'd have thought that Teft would be the natural "heir" to Kaladin as Chief Windrunner, as he's been Kaladin's second since the early days of running bridges. At first I thought maybe Skar's promotion was specifically for Bridge Four, but no, it was for the "Windrunners" as a whole. Of course, Sigzil was delegated the role of head administrator for the Windrunners for "supplies and recruitment" and Skar for "active missions", perhaps Teft is over both of them in terms of overall strategy (i.e., the Kaladin role that goes to Dalinar and co. meetings)? That's what Dalinar had wanted Kaladin to rotate into, a general who commanded from off the field instead of in it, but Kaladin demurred as being unable to see the Windrunners fly into combat without joining them. Which would mean Kaladin is truly "out" of the Windrunners as an organization.

So, my siblings got me the Doomslug mask and t-shirt for my birthday, and they arrived today!

^ This has been confirmed. Don't worry Shallan... Formless can't hurt you...

Not to derail the current excitement over everyone's favourite grumpy ardent but humans are growing closer to the Rhythms. Rlain says some are close to knowing/hearing the pure tones and Kaladin almost senses something when Rlain attunes. This is pretty big.

Seven weeks ago, you left port from First of the Sun, with Silverlight as your destination. Four days ago, your captain was found dead. Stuck long away from your destination, your only hope is to kill the traitors on your ship before they overwhelm you. Basics Factions Roles Welcome to Long Game 71! I am the GM for this game, and @Matrim's Dice is the co-GM. @little wilson is the IM. All credit for the original ruleset goes to @Wyrmhero. This game is an altered rerun of LG15.2. Lots of stuff was changed though, so don't go by that ruleset. A list of changes and clarifications can be found here. If you have any questions, just @mention me. Signups will end on October 22nd at 5:00 PM EST. This will probably be the normal rollover time. RP Background: You're working on a trading ship in the far future of the Cosmere, with workers from a variety of worlds. Feel free to make up stuff about future society and magic! Spectator List Player List Quick Links

Ok, I don't really have a theory, just an observation. I'm looking for theories. Of the "primary" Radiants that we see in Oathbringer, at least 4 (5 if you count Venli) of them carry the designation of being unlike any other Radiants in the past. You have: Dalinar- able to open Perpedicularities, recharge stormlight (Stormfather notes how he's different than a Bondsmith) Renarin- bonded to corrupted spren, able to see the future (Ivory tells Jasnah) Lift- halfway into cognitive realm, metabolizes stormlight from food (Wyndle) Venli- Listener Radiant, has Fused Spren and Timbre, although pretty sure Rlain will join her soon, so maybe not that special but still unprecedented Szeth- has Nightblood but also I'm not even going to get into Hoid because I'm not sure he really counts but clearly no one else is like him, just ask Zahel. I'm summarizing and I understand the current Radiants don't exactly know what other Radiants were capable of in the past, but it's been Spren (and Zahel) who have commented how different they are. It could be plot device or it could be a final throw from the Shards to tip the scales somehow (looking at you, Cultivation). We might find out that Shallan, Jasnah, even Kal are unprecedented in other ways. Then again, they might be already in some ways and I just missed it. I have no unified theory on this and am open to theories why were are suddenly seeing Radiants who are unlike previous Radiants according to the Spren. Will it be common that the new Radiants in the True Desolation will be unlike the previous Radiants or are these few just special?

I, and I'm sure many others, have long suspected that music plays a larger role on Roshar than is explicitly said and that is is/will be one of the big reveals of a book that will suddenly help us understand what is going on a lot better. What better book for a such a reveal than one called "Rhythm of War" and feel like we just got in Chapter 15 some extra information so I felt like I would compile the definitive knowledge we have as well as the areas of speculation. Please help me add to these lists, both what we know and what you suspect. This can include Cosmere speculations, since I will be doing the same. Update: As has been pointed out, most of these have more to do with Sounds than Music. What We Know About Music and When It's Been Important in SA We have heard from the Listeners before about the music of Roshar which the humans are unable to hear. This ability to listen to the Rhythms allows Listeners to change form with a spren in their Gemheart during a storm. (Music and Stormlight?) Update: We know that the leaders of the Fused encased in stone were sing a song that Venli could tell was powerful. From Ch.15 we learn that the correct combination of light and music can attract spren to grow plants. Ryshadium attract musicspren even when there is no music playing. The Everstorm was created by chanting. Hoid's Flute (Music) is important and he can with it help/make a listener see the story he is telling (Light). Lightweaver's Ability affects both Light and Sound, (based on wavelength and frequency physics, I believe) Navani hears a pure note when Dalinar opens up the perpendicularity. Syl in her Interlude talks about the musicality of the storm, if I remember correctly. Update: Other spren, even deadeyes can hum to the Rhythms (we've seen Maya do this). There are probably many more and I will update this as I remember them or as others post things. Update: We also know that pure notes can be heard with Radiant Soulcasting. And chanting is used by ardents to do Soulcasting. In both cases there is the sense of harmonizing with other sounds. What We Might Speculate About Where/When Music Is Important in SA Roshar's landscape is an exact variation of a Julia set. I've often assumed this to be due to Rhythm of the planet creating such a mathematical formation. I believe this to be pre-Shardic and part of Adonalsium's design. Cymatics has been established early on as a possible explanation for why certain cities look the way they do. I've wondered about this being due to Dustbringers who I speculate based off of Malata burn things using frequency, potentially on a large scale when banded together. Another new potential explanation is that the Fused organically grow such shapes with Progression and they come out Cymatically due to the natural Rhythms of Roshar. This may also explain other patterns such as the Shattered Plains. Update: Could also be from chanting/music in general. We see in the Parshendi in general how the marbled pattern of their skin is unique for everyone and we've learned in RoW how the Fused maintain their pattern regardless of their body. Due to the prevalence of Light and Sound in Lightweaver, I've wondered if some or all of the other Radiant power can be explained by musical reasoning. For instance, as I mentioned, Dustbringers burning/disintegrating using frequencies and vibrations of resonances etc. Are Truthwatchers able to "listen" to the music of the spiritual realm or bring others into "harmony" with their perfect selves? Renarin can definitely do things with light and create a light illusion of a perfect self in the case of Moash. Do Edgewatchers "increase the tempo" of objects they are growing? Some of this sounds good to me as I write it and other parts sound like a stretch even to me, but I'd love input on this idea. Update: A suggestion that because sound creates microchanges in air pressure that that could account for Adhesion. Abrasion is in some ways the silencing of vibrations/sound. The "frequency" of Highstorms is currently not fully predictable, but what if it were with the right understanding of Roshar's Rhythms and their interactions? Is the Everstorm counter interference? Is the Origin the source of the music/Rhythms? Update: With all the new Fabrial insights we're getting, the metals, again, can be like tuning forks set to particular Rhythms. The cages need set patterns that could also influence the vibrations. Additionally, Logicspren can output certain frequencies it seems. Other spren in fabrials could account for the light/color connection. Additionally, we know that Honor supplies Stormlight - could Cultivation have more to do with Rhythm? We see how the combination of stormlight and music is so helpful in growing food, but only when combined. As an aside, could it be that Urithiru's Heart needs music/sound to help revive the Sibling? Does Kaladin's battle prowess have anything to do with hearing the Rhythms of battle? Or could his battle ability upgrade to hear this to then fight alongside someone as a war pair? The new Strength before Weakness t-shirt has me wondering about Kaladin and Venli and them being a war pair would be incredible. Now that I think of this, I want to see it so bad. Again, I'm sure I'm forgetting/missing things and I will update as people add ideas Light and Music In The Cosmere I don't remember any instance of music being magically relevant on Scadrial though I now wonder if the justification for metals always being Investiture relevant might have to do with them being Spiritual tuning forks of a sort. Update: Seekers hear pulses and it has been confirmed that they could hear the Rhythms of Roshar. In Warbreaker, sound and color are very important. We know that Awakening is used with sound commands up until the 10th heightening. We also know that people with lots of Breaths distort light around them to bring out the richness of colors. Finally, we know that color is important in Awakening, though we don't know exactly why it is necessary. Also, the Iridescent Tones in the religion based around the Returned in Hallandren - I always assumed both words to reference colors, but now I wonder about tones being a reference to music/sound. We also see certain painters being Invested enough to access the Spiritual realm in their painting and use of colors We know that Lightweaving is similar to Yolish Lightweaving, which I assume is pre-Shattering and from Adonalsium's original magic which I increasing feel is based on wavelength/frequency/music/arts? In White Sand, could Sand ribbons have any relation to frequency? Also, we see here that there is some color importance between invested sand and non-invested sand. Similar to how there are 3 realms, could it be that there is physical wavelength/frequency, cognitive wavelength frequency, and spiritual wavelength/frequency Update: We know Dawnchant to be a pre-shardic language on Roshar. Note its name: Dawn (light) chant (music). Coincidence? I think not! Again, I would love to add to this list of possibilities. tl;dr I see light and sound/music to a be fundamental magic system to both Roshar and perhaps the Cosmere as a whole with echoes all the way back to Adonalseum and I am trying to compile where we see it definitively and where it might be only hinted at. Thanks for reading and hopefully I get enough replies to further flesh out this theory. If someone else has already discussed this, I'm happy to be pointed that way as well.

My quarantine contribution: Peeps Before Death: I will protect peeps who cannot protect themselves.

I'm going to my grandparents. Connie will still be at home, and Mist will have her phone. Adios, mi amigos.

Fox's tears increased as Nath and Circe embraced her, and she smiled softly. Everything was going to be okay. For the first time in a very long time, Fox realized she had a love for the softness of these things called hugs. She should've given them a better chance. Two words escaped Fox's lips in something that could barely be called a whisper. Fox didn't know if Nath would hear her, and she didn't care. "Thank you."

I woke up 3 minutes ago, stumbled around in a blur and now somehow I’m at school im so confused how did I get here

Day 14: Armor. This... this is amazing. I finished this at around 11:00 last night 'cause I was really distracted all day after school, but man, was it worth it. I put a ton of care into the shading of the gold on her armor and the red cape and it just. Looks. Gorgeous. I'm so glad I decided to make her hair and eyes black and white too, it just... This is the best. This is the best one I have done so far. I'm not even going to give y'all the gesture, that would detract from how plain awesome this turned out. I was going to have a quote with this one, but none of the quotes from the story really worked, so I suppose I should just give some context for the people who care. The story that goes along with this is called "A Happy Ending" and it's a possible ending to the CBST RP where Star has aged quite a bit and decides it's time for her to pass on. She puts on her armor for the last time and says her goodbyes before fading away in a very force-ghost-like manor. It's really sweet and I'm glad I got to draw her like this in all her venerable regality. Also, just have to say. This is no longer true of my art.

So, really, I suspect that the organic fabrials are the 'true' fabrials- it's what the things that evolved on Roshar use. The metal-based versions developed by the humans are a weird hack designed to get around the way they can't hear the rhythms. Most visibly, this has got to be what the Singer forms are- they transform by going out into the Highstorm, attuning the right Rhythms, and trapping the right kind of spren in their gemhearts. From a more Realmatic point of view: In the Metallic Arts, the molecular structure of the metal acts as a 'key' that tells the Investiture what to do. We have seen other keys that have similar functions elsewhere in the Cosmere; most notably the language-based magic systems on Sel. And if a language can act as a key in this context, it makes perfect sense that a Rhythm can as well- the Rhythms do seem to be something fundamental about Roshar, after all. Then we get that the humans have replaced one type of key with another. But the real holy grail here, I think, lies in combining the organic and metallic fabrials. The Rhythms are probably gonna produce some effects you can't get with metals, and vice-versa. Using both in a single fabrial could lead to all kind of crazy things. Priority one, though, should be finding a way to make an organic fabrial that's more efficient than 'have a guy sitting there, constantly beating a drum'. Perhaps that why the Heralds and Fused have been so impressed by the things accomplished by the metallic fabrials; metals are a lot easier to mass-produce and scale up.

Jek stands, stunned, for a moment. "We only had one kiss," he whispered. He turned away from the others.

I'm not sure why you equate a storyline where Rlain gets an honorspren - which it seems he certainly would like to have, and it would seem like he certainly deserves, except for the honorspren objecting to him being "of the enemy" because of his being a listener - is "that's Equality with a captial E and therefore blech, 2020 message fiction". But you're entitled to whatever goes on in your own head. I think your comments are saying more about yourself than anything about Brandon's writing direction. So, there is a reason the listeners and singers had never bonded spren with Nahel bonds before. We don't know what that is. If it turns out it was purely racial prejudice and now, after thousands upon thousands of years, it was all really just a misunderstanding that will now be easily overcome simply by having Radiant spren - who are inflexible sentient concepts, at core, not living creatures with malleable minds, until they form a bond to a living person - suddenly deciding hey, let's bond some singers/listeners after all, and now all the fighting will stop! - I would agree that is an unsatisfactory storyline. Completely agree. But there being a deeper secret as to why Rlain is shut out from bonding, yet Venli was not, that can be discussed and shown as to Why It's Different This Time (for that matter, one can boil it down to the question of, "not why did, but why could Timbre bond with Venli when this had never happened before?") , that I think is being set up. And yes. Sorry. I am totally rooting for Rlain to get a spren bond, honorspren or otherwise, and would greatly enjoy seeing an honorspren like Yunfah being impressed by the honor on display by Rlain in telling him he doesn't want Yunfah to bond him under such a pretense of "enforced diversity." If you want to get all 2020 about it, Rlain doesn't want to be viewed as an Affirmative Action Token, he wants to be bonded on his own merit. You can't say that's not admirable. And having read what you have of Rlain and how he's acted after what he's put up with from humans, you can't say he isn't worthy of an honorspren.

There's that Whig History again. I disagree, I think this is a story about superheroes who have to overcome personal flaws in order to unlock their superpowers, in order to stave off the apocalypse and defeat the evil god behind it. Again, why is it important? Who is it important to? Is it important to you? To Tor? To Brandon? It's certainly not important to the characters themselves, since the thing that's actually important is, once again, surviving the apocalypse and defeating the evil god behind it. Kaladin seems to want reconciliation, but Jasnah is fine with genocide, and Venli wants independence, not a war and certainly not allies in a war. The spren themselves are divided, with some bonding humans, others refusing, and still others actively planning revenge. There's no reason why this should end in racial equality any more than it should end in one side winning or both sides being destroyed. Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. There might be compelling reasons for everyone to work together, but there are even more compelling reasons why they're at each others' throats in the first place. There have been four thousand years since Antietam Aharietiam. We've had nominal equality between races for what, three hundred years, tops? And that we is only Western Europe and the US. Don't ask the Chinese Communist Party to tolerate ethnic diversity, because they're not interested. I'm not against racial equality, I'm against poorly disguised message fiction. I hope Brandon isn't writing that story, but it amazes me how strong the desire is for such content. Why would he? This is simply not his fight. He's not on Roshar to get involved in a war between Shards, he's on Roshar to get away from that nonsense. He even says as much. The only reason he's opened up to Kaladin is because of their personal connection, probably because Vasher sees himself in Kaladin, and sees his own past folly in Kaladin's future. He's left the fight behind, or is trying desperately to pretend like he has (remains to be seen). He's not Gandalf, fighting for the good guys. He's more like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino: old, retired, surly, with a strong desire to be left alone, but a heart of gold behind the gruff exterior. It's only once you mess with him personally that he'll unleash his full capabilities. In Gran Torino Eastwood didn't go snitching to the police, and I doubt Vasher is willing to become entangled by aligning himself with Dalinar so publicly.

lol @Rosharan A.C. I love it. Had to add:

If you are wielding Nightblood, any imprisonment is voluntary.

This is true - some had tabbed Rlain as possibly becoming a Bondsmith, as forging the bonds between humans and listeners, that could still happen. And I think the observation that once it's seen (by readers, especially) that Radiant spren can bond with listeners, as seen with Venli, even if they've already got a Voidspren!, that it would be unequal if somehow listeners could only be Willshapers. That makes little narrative sense.

One of my most enjoyable memories of Oathbringer's pre-release was the Meme thread on the OB spoiler board here on 17th Shard. I saw a new meme on one of the threads here already, so I figured, it is time. Here are three memes I'm going to start the thread with. I'm sure you all will make better ones as the chapters come out. I look forward to seeing them.

Now that we know what the Ghostbloods hope to accomplish, I can’t help thinking that the people who have the most to gain from being able to take stormlight off-world would be Nalthian Returned. We know that Vasher is able to evade the breath cost of the weekly divine breath tax by using stormlight instead. Maybe Yesteel, who would also have knowledge of Roshar, had the same idea as Vasher and decided to go to Roshar as well. On a more sinister note, perhaps Yesteel founded the Ghostbloods so that he could one day transport copious amounts of stormlight over to Nalthis and mass produce some Nightbloods. The next sample chapter supposedly has Vasher in it and is going to be pretty cosmere aware. I think having a Nalthian leader for the Ghostbloods makes it easier for Vasher to have an actual role in the Stormlight books. Maybe the whole reason Vasher travelled to Roshar in the first place was to hunt down Yesteel. Plus, we know Vivenna is looking for someone too so maybe Yesteel escapes at the end of the Warbreaker sequel and ends up on Roshar? His longevity would certainly help him live long enough to establish a secret organization like the Ghostbloods. The last thing I want to point out is that Yesteel was the inventor of the ichor-alcohol for Lifeless. Essentially, blood for dead things. Ghost-blood?

100 memes update 2 25 memes complete 1/4 of the way there

Yay! Good for you! By the way, my chickens have started laying eggs! Woohoo! Yay!

Willis wondered if his author, Fadran, would ever develop his character. Fadran decided that Willis can no longer wonder. Willis can no longer think. Willis is now begging for forgiveness.

An invisible wave crashes into the figures of shadow. They stumble. Instead of fear in their eyes there is only raw and unadulterated wrath. As one they race toward Vapor. Herate who only grunted when Vapor's blow landed. She pushes Vapor into the crush of shadows. Blows rain down around her as the sky is blocked out. Rish watches powerlessly as Vapor is showered with blows. I see first shame and then anger appear on her face as she whispers a dangerous question. No alarm comes to my face as I see her grip the knife which had nearly destroyed us both. "Love. You were faced with an impossible choice. You were ordered to take that knife and kill me. If you did not another would." Another tear runs down my right cheek. "I begged you to do it so that you would not be subject to harm. I told you that if this is what you had to do then you should do it." Love and warmth still merely fledglings flow from me. "No one should ever have to choose to kill. Instead of killing me you said that you were sorry and turned the knife on yourself. It was not because you were weak that you did so. It is because your love was so strong Fox that you could not kill me. You chose love Fox. That is strength, even if in the process you almost cost the cosmos something so valuable."

I'm not reading aything til the book is in my hand...my cold dead hand...wait thats not how it works.

I’ve seen several people in here discussing Zahel’s classifications, such as type ones... I re-read Warbreaker not long ago and if iirc the wording there was “type _ awakened entity”... whereas in this chapter he says “type _ invested entity... my question about this is does the distinction make a direct comparison impractical? At a glance I would posit these are two separate lists and he just used similar language... naming apparitions of two different types of investiture or beings similarly can still be comparing apples and oranges. I guess I’m saying all this because it seems people are trying to fit things from SA into a package from WB and it just doesn’t fit exactly right to me.

Perhaps this is odd coming from me, considering my username, but here goes nothing (and I apologize if some of this has been said, countered, etc. before in the thread, I just skimmed through part of it): One of my favorite sayings is “Truth is truth is truth is truth is truth.” Truth is the state of fact, the undeniable existence of something that you cannot say in any way, shape, or form is not real. Oddly enough, as I considered what is truly truth, I realized that meant very few things. (Pessimistic/Realistic view:) Scientific law, for example, is not necessarily truth. Many things have changed about science over the centuries that were once considered fact. Take a look at a scientist living in 1000 B.C. and a scientist living right now, and their scientific “truths” would vary greatly. I imagine the same would happen if you were to compare the knowledge from a scientist from 500 years from today to the greatest scientist of our age. Personally, I am inclined to believe that among the scientific laws there is a great amount of truth, but of course, I could be wrong, just as the many scientists before I was even born. Through this reasoning, I can safely rationalize that if scientific law, the most “factual” thing known to mankind can be wrong, then among mankind, there is no way to know if truth exists. Among our specialized experiences that form our unique and individual lives, we each view “truth” in differing ways. People who have suffered losing a loved one might say that the truth is that there is no greater pain than that, while those who might not have had loved ones to begin with might differ, saying that in truth, loneliness is the greatest pain that mankind can feel. Hence why we have opinions. Even what we call fact (the sky is blue) is relative, and ultimately subjective (what if you are colorblind to the color blue? What about night time, aurora borealis, etc.?). (Optimistic/Faithful view:)So does truth even exist? With all this evidence piled up against it, I say yes. Truth can, and does, exist. Why? Simple. Eventually, with enough time and patience, truth is made manifest. People, “facts”, some opinions will be proved wrong time and time again until there is only truth left (What proves these things wrong is described in the next paragraph). These “ultimate truths” are perhaps more rare than we would think. Think about my example about the truth about pain mentioned above. Maybe in this case, one truth does not exist, but both people are right, without question. They have both felt unimaginable pain, and for both of them, it is fact. They cannot, with their current experiences, deny it. What separates this from opinion, however, is that should we live the same experiences of that other person we would all know that truths sometimes deep and personal things that are consistent and existent with no way of opposing the facts. Both people can be right. So in a very odd, ironic sort of way, truth is inconsistent. I would not consider these “ultimate truths”, however, as the ultimate truths are the facts and reality that exist and are true regardless of whether or not one acknowledges them. In regards to ultimate truth, there is an ultimate source. To be frank, that is God. He is a benevolent deity who knows and understands all ultimate truths, has created with these truths, perhaps even created the truths themselves. And while I cannot prove to you now that there is a God who watches over the universe and its truths, I can ask that you wait. Ultimate truth comes with the passage of time. In the end, we will know for certain whether or not I am right or wrong. Dang. I feel like I kinda ran in circles there. I was trying to keep it logical, but I don’t think I’ve got enough practice to really convey what I mean. Hopefully you get the gist of it. TLDR: Really, to sum it all up, I mean to say that truth comes with time. Evidence can’t be found in this lifetime, so we’ll have to wait and see what truths are made manifest.

That would most likely lose him the war. It would be among the gravest errors he could make. Taravangian needs to die. He has heirs. In fact he has grandchildren. They are not going to and cannot, if they want to be taken seriously, stay in an alliance with somebody who imprisoned their king. That would destroy the coalition. You have two options You make it look like an accident or old age You make it look like poison and arrest Adrotagia, role up the Diagramm and blame it on them

If he's gonna name it Type 4 Invested Entity, then he's gonna have to go full Alcatraz Vs. The Evil Librarians and name it Type 4 Invested Entity and the Search to Destroy More Evil, or some such.

Because otherwise the world he is currently in will crumble? I suppose you have read Warbreaker, if so you must be aware unless something really bad have happened from Warbreaker to Stormlight 1 to Vasher completely change his philosophy He would never see a world falling apart and don't move a finger to even give information to humans , its a 100% out of character decision for him At first I thought he was hiding because he had some kind of a ploy rolling and he needed secrecy. This chapter shows it's quite not the case he just didn't bother to tell anybody which is... odd to say the least

On the reddit thread, Brandon just said we can assume Zahel whispered the commands. So he's probably not 10th heightening.

I thought this chapter's cosmere bleedthrough was handled much better than Ch. 13 - Kaladin's response is pretty much "Uh... what are you talking about here Zahel?" when Zahel started dropping references to stuff Kaladin has no knowledge or context for. It's good for the characters to acknowledge that the information being dropped is out of place. Especially stuff like "Type 2 Entities" or whatever. Zahel explains a few things that are relevant to Kaladin and the overall story of Roshar, while keeping the rest a thinly veiled secret like his Awakening abilities. It seems like from this that at least the Zahel/Azure/Nightblood storyline will remain primarily about the here and now and what is going on in Roshar. I also liked the Kaladin/Rlain interaction. This really should be the model for conversations like it in the real world. Kaladin has his ideas and tries to do what he thinks is right. Rlain says "Hey, I appreciate the thought, but you know what you are doing is not actually a benefit for me." And then Kaladin thinks about it and will consider how to do things a little differently the next time. There's no dug in dogmatic rhetoric being thrown out by either side. Just two friends honestly expressing their opinions and trying to do what is right, even if they start off with different ideas of what that is. I think I must just be a grumpy person haha. Reading the community's super hyped thoughts about cosmere crossovers annoys me, but reading the chapter itself was good. I'm glad people get what they want who love this stuff, but I'll leave it to you all to speculate.

He doesn't know something very important about the missing memories, though, Warbreaker spoilers:

Wait, I think you're crossing and re-crossing between IRL and fantasy here. I would say that in-world, Rlain has a very legitimate reason to reject an honorspren being "commanded" to bond with him. He's not ignorant of what a spren bond is at this point. I was shocked that Kaladin felt like he could do so. It was notable that he was only forcing Yunfah to "consider" Rlain "for a week", of course, and maybe they'll still bond when Yunfah shows up as requested to do his weeklong interview, and then Rlain saying "that's not how I'd want to bond a spren" ends up being exactly the factor that causes Yunfah TO bond with him. You can't say that that would not be a fitting narrative! Referring to "modern takes on social issues" is completely unnecessary (and feels to me like you're looking for a straw man to fight).

I think Rock is only growing into something else because he refused to fight in the first place, and is now leaving Bridge 4 altogether. Rlain is still an active member, only staying out of combat because he hasn't gained the abilities of a squire, and he desires to join the Windrunners as well.

Really? Felt extremely on point to me

This artwork is crabtivating...