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Does anyone need a rainbow today? I found this picture on my phone, gives me a lot of hope. Love you guys, happy holidays.

Lights, camera, action! Hello fellow people! (I assume you are a person) I'm here. That's all I have to say, see ya out there...

This has my vote. Either an interlude or, dare I hope, a novella, from Mraize's POV going to talk to Thaidakar, that is the stuff of dreams right there! I agree that I miss the old style inteludes, the snippets that we get from "An Accountability of Virtue" in Ellista's Oathbringer interlude are some of the funniest moments in all of Brandon's work. In Memorium of the Interludes we have lost, I hold up a glass and Axies you a collective question, If you had to make Ellista all of your favorite Inerludes, could you have Rysn to this challenge? Lift your glass with me Kaza I have a Teft time drinking alone, and though Ym starting to drift in my thoughts, don't worry I'll get Baxil to the point way before you say what Zahel is this all leading to. As I was saying, and I'm not Lhan when I say this, the Interludes from Stormlight Archive have Szeth the bar very high, and I am not Pulli-ing your leg when I'm Adin the fact that I think Brandon will come back to the wider scoped interlude, because Hesina the fact that we love them dearly.

Yes, you read the title right. No, I wouldn't have made this if we still had the downvote-button :-P But honestly, while Moash is chull dung, he is also incredibly efficient. You have to give him that. He gets stuff done. Just look at his track record as a villain in two books: killed off Elhokar, Teft, Jezrien and Roshone, almost broke Kaladin, almost killed Navani and almost prevented the Sibling from recovering. Compare this to some of our other villains: Rayse: Spent four books being tricked by Cultivation, lost every battle he commanded despite having the better odds, and got tricked by Mr T on one of his dumber days, and then died. Sadeas: Traded away the most valuable military company on Roshar for one Blade, failed to kill Dalinar and Adolin, lost Aladars loyalty, almost got tricked by Adolin, and then died. Amaram: Was manipulated by basically everyone, failed to control Sadeas army, got tricked by Dalinar, ate an Unmade, and then died. Mraize: Has spent three books being on the phone with Shallan, and then she hung up on him. I could go on, but I think you guys get it. Moash may be reprehensible, but at least he displays competency.

Avren’s plant was dead again. He knew as soon as it died, his sense alerting him to the death. It had lasted two months this time, which was pretty good. For him, at least. He really did try to keep it alive, but no matter what he did, it always ended up as a withered, brown husk. This time he could ascribe some of it to the cold weather and travelling. What am I even doing here? He froze momentarily, staring down at his tiny dead plant and wondering if he would soon be the same. With effort, he brought his focus back to the present. Everyone else seemed distracted by something up ahead, which meant it was the perfect time to do some... healing. He held the pot with one hand and brought the other to rest on top, shielding it like a dome. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. This wasn’t evil, he told himself. He was doing something good, giving this plant another chance. There it was, empty of life force. He began to pour his own into it, feeling a slight tingling in his hands. It was only a small plant, so it didn’t take much. He felt the roots uncurl, the green bleeding back into the shrivelled leaves. He opened his eyes and removed his hand from the top of the pot, revealing a healthy, green plant, just as had been on the first day he had received it. Satisfied, he stored it back in his pack. It wasn’t the best place for it, but he didn’t want to risk it getting damaged out in this weather. He hurried to catch up to the rest of the group.

The leader didn't even look at the mob this time as he watched them squabbling. "I think that we should ask Fura more about what's going on," Dazrion-son-Odium finally added above the croud. "I agree!" shouted Jes-son-Laal. "We should kill them for not contributing!" he echoed. Many shouted their agreement. "Whoa whoa whoa," Dazrion said. "That's not what I said at all! Why are you so eager to kill Fura?" "I say Lin-daughter-Lanari has been hiding something!" accused Eternum. "She wanted to know who Galatar's killer was, but had no concern for Illwei's! Did she already know?" That got some attention. But nobody seemed to be willing to bend on which. It was a tie. Again. Finally Ganeth-null-Shantis-Mawelar sighed. "Okay, bring out the chanceslip. Again." "Aye," said Sunwalker. "Since there's three... flip it twice, and... if it lands mark up twice, Lin is guilty. Mark down twice, Fura. One of each, Jes." This received a good cheer until Alvron, resident emissary of the Gods of Luck and Chance, stepped in. "Hold on a minute! The chanceslip could either land up, down or down, up! It's twice as likely for Jes to die as the others!" Back to square one. Finally someone piped up, "what about Stone, Paper, Shardblade? Have each take one, and then have the leader reveal which one he chose. Whichever loses to that, they die. The others live." This was finally agreed to, with a good bit of "for now"s muttered under breaths. The leader turned around, back to the three condemned, who huddled, arguing over who would get which item. Stone beat Shardblade, Shardblade beat paper, paper beat stone... somehow. He wasn't entirely sure how inconvenienced a stone would be with a piece of paper over it. But that was just part of the game. He turned his head, holding out one arm hiding his item while his other fell to his waist, reaching for his knife. Fura stood to the left, hand upright on his palm in the image of a Shardblade. Lin stood in the middle, palms pressed together as paper. And Jes stood to the right, fist clasped in the clumsy rendition of a rock. The leader turned fully, revealing his choice. Shardblade. "So Lin it is." He flicked the knife he was holding into Lin's throat before she had a chance to question the ruling. And the familiar, cursed sound of an Honorblade embedding itself in wood resounded throughout the hall. * * * Quinn0928 was lynched! She was a member of the Shin High Council and the Bearer of Kalak's Honorblade! Kalak's Honorblade has been redistributed! Battar's Honorblade has been redistributed or claimed! Vote Count: Quinn0928 (4): Eternum, STINK, Alvron, Ookla the Hypodecadal / Devotary of Spontaneity Furamirionind (4): Ooka the Larkin / Ventyl, Ookla the Grammatical / Condensation, Ookla who goes DORIYAH!! / Vasher 212, Ookla the Sprinkle / JesterLavorre Ookla the Sprinkle / JesterLavorre (4): Furamirionind, Ookla's Dice / Matrim's Dice, Quinn0928, Lotus Lotus (2): Ookla the Araris Valerian / Araris Valerian, Flyingbooks42 * * * PMs are (ssttiillll) open until the next Day turn! All PMs must be between two players only, and must also include @Ookla Fell From The Sky and @Elandera (but NOT Elbereth - she's requested to keep out of Player PMs). Other than that, go wild. The Night Turn will end at 5:00 PM PST on Dec. 13th, In about 23 hours. Yell at me if I've missed something. Honorblade List: Player List:

Chapter 17 This one has had little to no editing, so... don't judge too harshly.

Ishar: *Dissects physical spren bodies* Half the 17th Shard: This was the most horrifying scene in the book. The other half of the shard: Syladdin is back on, ya'll. No offense to anyone

Love this discussion. Speaking of the whole Son of Tanavast thing and the winds responding to him etc, I had a thought. There was a conversation between Moash and Odium in RoW where Moash drops the term avatar: RoW I-4 Then it comes up again in reference to Thaidakar: RoW 115 I think there is a reason the concept of an avatar is being introduced at this point in Stormlight. I think Kaladin could somehow be Honor's avatar. This would be why he can command the winds, is hard to kill, why even when he first holds a spear it feels right and he is preternaturally gifted with it, and the winds have been guiding him as he fights even in flashbacks. Now how this could happen as Honor has been shattered for quite a while before Kaladin is born - not sure. Maybe Honor gave this task to Syl the favored daughter before he was shattered, to find the right person. But this is my current theory for what's going on with Kaladin.

We know Honor's death was a lingering thing, that he was a long time dying after Odium Splintered him. What if it was Shallan who delivered the coup de grâce on the last living bit of Honor? Yep: Shallan killed God.

I thought that too! And in Mistborn: Secret History, Ruin told Kelsier that due to not having a Physical body, Kelsier was unable to properly use Preservation's power. I wondered if that might've been part of Cultivation's plan. But let's go back to who killed him: Szeth. He's also someone who was killed. Not just near-dead but dead-dead. His Cognitive self was reattached, albeit imperfectly, to his body via the Regrowth fabrial that Nale used (and that's why Lift sees him having a glowing after-image). However much Investiture was necessary to resurrect Szeth, an entire Shard definitely has more of it. Unlike Szeth, in whose case Nale was almost too late to reattach his soul to his body, Taravangian Ascended almost immediately after dying. I think the Shard reattached his soul to his body when he took it up. He was obviously Connected enough to his body for that to have been possible. And his body disappeared, poofed into pure power, just like a normal Vessel's.

Koloss head-munching day in eight days! Yay! Also, I need to write a short story. (It's about dragons and books.) Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow morning. I have two completed short stories, and then this one that's half done. And... I need to submit one of them on Sunday to a thing. I was thinking I'd post them on here, and have people offer feedback and let me know which one of the stories was their favorite, so I know which one to submit. Plus, this is the fastest way to get feedback, considering some of you role-players are on all day. If you'd be willing to read through them and offer up some of your feedback, please comment so I can ping you tomorrow when I post the main thing. Because I'll have one day to make edits and stuff like that. One of the stories is about 600 words, another is about 4,000 (I think), and this other one I'm working on is currently about 3,000, although I'm only halfway done. Thank you sosososososo much for any help. I wasn't able to workshop any of these in creative writing, so I really need all the help I can get. Bridge Four!

When you give your teacher a copy of The Way of Kings!

People who don't like Moash, you're gonna love this

I think that Lirin is a good man but a poor father. His ideals are admirable, if occasionally shortsighted, and he is by no means perfect, but he's still a good man. His interactions with Kaladin are a big blind spot - the truth is, at this point he doesn't know his son any more. Kaladin changed hugely while Lirin thought he was dead, and Lirin is still coming to terms with that. But, because he is a good man, I believe that he can change. He's not there yet, but he can be.

Spoiler for chapter 108 of RoW. My favorite scene in the book.

I've seen several discussions on Taravangian's ascension. Who foresaw what, what it implies going forward... that type of thing, but I haven't seen anyone incorporate into these musings what I find to be a hugely significant detail in how it happened. A quote from RoW Chapter 113: So immediately before his ascension, Taravangain died and his connection to his physical realm body was snapped. Severed. Nothing* in the narrative going forward implies that this connection was re-established like what happened with Szeth or Zahel's description of a "Type Two Invested entity" in chapter 15. Taravangain ascended to shard godhood as as cognitive shadow without a connection to the physical realm. Which probably has huge implications on his new status as Odium. To explore what these implications are, we happen to already have a precedent of a cognitive shadow ascending to become a shard bearer from Secret History. (Part 6, Chapter 4) Throughout the rest of Secret History, Kelsier/Preservation was pretty darn impotent whenever he tried to directly match Ruin and Ruin ran amuck, with the only thing holding him back being all that missing atium. Conclusion: Taravagain ascended as a Cognitive Shadow which severely hamstrings him, and might add additional constraints making it difficult to leave Roshar beyond just the contract with Dalinar. *Edit: I just remembered that only one body was found in T's room afterwords, and it was ruined by nightblood, and presumed to be T's when it was actually Rayse's. So the fact that his body wasn't found in the room has some implications against the theory that T ascended as a CS.

I don't know if it's coded to emulate the experience on purpose, as Brandon is usually aware and intentional in depicting neurodivergencies and mental conditions, but as a a long time cosmere fan with strong ADHD, the syl interlude gave me Fuzzy Feelings Of Being Seen. On one hand, depicting a character mostly known as carefree, childish, sometimes pestering and prone-to-losing-her-intelligence-and-maturity character as potentially ADHD worried me it might be somewhat stereotypical and based on a surface understanding of the disorder ("oh look a butterfly! Haha!") . The idea that because ADHDers struggle to focus and are easily excited they're Happy-Go-Lucky goofballs is one you get tired of seeing at a certain point, y'know. But I feel Sanderson handled Syl's issue with attention very well and with a lot of understanding! Syl's struggling with her buzzing brain full of thoughts in order to get what she wanted to do done, her "hanging on" to important tasks trying to keep them in her mind and fearing she'll slip- not only they were a much more nuanced take on the trouble inattention and hyperactivity can cause to an ADHD person and how does it feel to battle them, but they also connected to issues like excutive dysfunction and emotional regulation which are less talked about but very central parts of the disorder! Other readers, ADHD or not- did you interpert the chapter that way? And specifically Fellow ADHDers- what did you think about the chapter as far as Representation and what not goes?

What is it with me and accidentally helping to start cults... But yes, s’mores are a must. *distributes to our new members*

Very nice! Personally, I’m half-hoping we get that described Interlude the other way: from THAIDAKAR’s perspective as one of his GBs comes to report to him on Scadrial. We’ve had Vasher’s, so we can have an offworlder interlude starring a major character without it spoiling another series. (Though seeing as Thaidakar’s identity is a major spoiler...) We almost certainly will get that novella though. “Mistborn Secret History 2: Ghostblood” could work as a title...

Are thou converting to the worship of the Gods of Luck and Chance?

Why didn't you tell me earlier? The first time I read one of the Cosmere books was after I read the Reckoners series. Warbreaker.

So, based on the seriously unexpected turn of events in RoW, I thought that you, @RShara, would like to know that the "T is Plant" shirt (still a classic line) has been duly updated, here it is:

I LOVE it! Also, I don't think we know the whole play yet And T definitely stabbed Rayse

SCANDALOUS

Are there any instances of golden Odium light outside of visions? Because the golden light could have a different cause, just like light becomes red when corrupted. Maybe it's a special use of Investiture that would make it golden with any Shard. Because Voidlight is basically Odium's body in the form of light and I think it's hard to argue with that. Another thing that speaks for violet as Odium's color is the violet flame that Dalinar sees when Odium shows him his Intent in Oathbringer.

Shallan kills Adolin would be very interesting.

When, after seeing the update with the pictures of the coins, and then getting your pins, you decide you are a raccoon, as you like shiny things with Cosmere symbols on them.

Nah, its a valid equivalence. Moash wasn't a ninja, lol. He walked over, cut the guy down, then held a blade in his eye until his Stormlight was burned out and then had time to acknowledge and salute Kaladin all without being disturbed or attacked by anyone. If he wanted to spit some nonsense he could have unless you think Moash couldn't talk and stab at the same time. Even disregarding that, when do we ever see Moash lie to anyone except in regards to keeping the assassination plot hidden? When does he ever just come up with lies to hurt someone's feelings? Vyre is just a poorly written plot device; he doesn't feel like any continuation of the character that I had read of before. Moash was selfish but not petty at all. Wanting vengeance for the death of his parents against the man responsible for that death isn't petty. Vyre is extremely petty though. He has a strong desire to kill Navani.....just because she's related to Elhokar? Because he doesn't think she's a good leader? How absurd. He acted with less nonsensical emotional framing as Moash and expressed no ill will towards Dalinar or Navani. He helped the Singers because he felt sorry for them its clear through his thoughts. That's like saying Kaladin is selfish because he chose to help Bridge 4 to distract himself and push himself out of his depression. You can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time which is to say you can have many motives for making a specific decision.

"Well." Laurelai replied, letting the pin be pulled from her grip and following it with a curious gaze for a moment before pulling her attention back to Lita. "If there's any night for an invigorating journey which ends in more drinks it's this night isn't it?" Laurelai was briefly distracted by the smoke spiraling from Lita's glass, the last dying puff of her cigarette that had been extinguished. She felt something pass across her mind for a moment but before she could register it as anything more as oddly familiar she winced as she felt a sharp pain in the temple. Briefly the smoke-scent seemed stronger and somehow changed, more burnt-wood and less tobacco smoke. With a swift shake to her head Laurelai dispelled both the sensation and the pain. It had likely just been a slight flaw in one of her Essence Marks, even a talented Forger couldn't get them perfect every time and mistakes were a part of life she was well accustomed to. But now was not the time to focus on failures, today was a resounding success that bordered on a miracle. True she had yet to actually see what Lita had to offer, but the very fact that Laurelai got so little of a read on the other woman was evidence enough. She could pick out most confidence tricksters, thieves and scam artists at a hundred paces, and while Lita certainly had the confidence for it there was something about her that spoke to the fact that she had not settled into such a small-time role. "So an invigorating journey, the promise of a drink and rumors of steel meeting skin is it? Quite the common combination of events on this night, I'm sure it's playing out all over the city." Laurelai said before standing with a smile and lowering her volume. "But somehow I don't expect most of those stories to unfold quite the same way this will." Motioning for Lita to lead the way, Laurelai took a moment to smooth her dress and adjust her posture before following, chin held aloft and mind whirling with speculation as to what was about to happen.

I hadn’t considered your first reason before, but I’d long suspected it was an internalized version of your second reason. In that deep down in their ancient culture they are aware that they are guests on Roshar and somehow Shinovar was sculpted to their purposes and they should be good guests by staying there. So theoretically, their culture morphed that into a religious belief that walking on stone (leaving Shinovar) was profaning it.

Ok. Out there theory time. Mraize says Gavilar was trying to become immortal. Gavilar yells Szeth “you can tell Thaidakar he’s too late” implying he had succeeded. We know Gavilar was attempting to move things to Braize and had antivoidlight. what if he moved his cognitive self to Braize and the loophole is the champion doesn’t need to be alive. Book 5 contest of champions Dalinar V Gavilar

Hey, @Moshi, Nice to meet you, and welcome to the group. As someone who also has too many hobbies, I can relate. At least I manage mostly to 'ignore' the other ones while I concentrate on writing, although they can cross over, such as when I get a chance to write a song in the context of my writing. You will find others on here who 'art' (like @Snakenaps and @karamel for two), so there is plenty to talk about, apart from writing. For what it's worth, I don't think you are 'very bad' at English at all!! I wish my Spanish was that good. My second language is French (from school, and maaaany visits to Paris), but my cousins live/lived in Spain, and my uncle worked there for decades, so I have been there some too, but really only can order four beers, ask for the time, and ask ?Hablas inglés? I am sure, when we get a chance to read your stuff, we will remember that you are writing in your second language and not give you a hard time over grammar, etc. (Although of course if you were going to publish, a good, solid grammar edit would be necessary, as it is for everyone.) I look forward to reading your stuff at some point

This question has kind of already been answered from the Mistborn saga

Rlain might have been a great Bondsmith for the Sibling. He just needed to be taught (by Navani) to perfection create Honor’s tone, harmonize with the Sibling to create Towerlight, be taught how to use the Sibling’s many disparate and complex fabrial constructs. I’m sure all of that could have been done easily within the context of the book...And, of, course, we all know that Rlain was happy to bond to any spren that wanted him. Or maybe Rlain is happy with his bond to a spren that carefully studied him for a protracted period of time, and wants him for his ability to bridge minds, his willingness to see the truth of things and share it. I think Rlain, bonded to a mistspren (though Awakened, by Sja-Anat), is perfect - I think that Singer Radiants make a certain amount of sense more closely aligned to Cultivation’s side of the Surges. As for Navani, it is absolutely true that the Sibling deemed her unworthy, but she makes a case for herself to the Sibling. Successfully. There is mortal danger for both of them, true. But she knows how to harmonize with the Sibling when it’s necessary. She knows how to vent away the Voidlight in the Sibling’s ‘veins.’ She has a learned, experienced understanding of the ways in which the Sibling integrates with Urithiru. And she does display attributes of a Bondsmith in this book. She advocates for the sharing of research, of discovery among the human alliance. She unites with a Fused leader in a common pursuit of knowledge, of discovery. Raboniel definitely views her as a friend by the end of their time together. When’s the last time a human and a Fused were friends? How many thousands of years? She does her best to protect the humans within Urithiru - leading them by surrendering when so many Alethi leaders might have fought to the last person. She grows so much in this book. Her relationship with the Sibling is precarious. We don’t know the extent to which the Sibling is fully recovered from the events that led them to sleep around the Recreance and the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram. But there is so much foundation that was laid in this book for Navani to progressed in the way that she did. And, for her, she needed to stand up for herself, for what she advocates for to the Sibling, in a way that she never stood up to Gavilar’s lack of faith in her. She is worthy.

Navani has self worth.That self worth does not mean she get to impose her will to subvert someone's agency over legitimate concerns. The Sibling does not want to bond a human because of the risks to the Sibling's safety and because they don't trust humans. That's their choice, their preference, and that decision is valid even beyond Navani's needs or wants. It's not about management, because the Sibling's problem isn't one of competency, it's a moral and ethical one based around Navani's use of spren and a rational fear born out of previous trauma caused by humans. To me, it's like trying to compel a bisexual person to date a man after they suffered trauma with an ex, and would prefer to be with a woman.

*Deep breath* @Hentient, @Ookla the Dragon, @Ookla the Sly, @Ookla the Shadowed, @Chasmgoat, @Spock, @rosin_the_beau, @Knight of Iron, @Ookla of Truthshapers, @Ookla the Intimidating, @Darkfinder, @Ookla the Monk, @Ookla the Rōnin, @Ookla the Rhadamanthine, @Ookla the Tortured, @Spren of Kindness, @Ookla the Groovy wanna be my Shardbuddy? Cause I have an official list and for some reason none of y'all are on it. What's up with that? Anyone else seeing this can be too, of course

It was based on @RShara's theory after Oathbringer that Taravangian was a plant by Cultivation, a secret covert agent placed inside Odium's perimeter to mess up his plans. Gotta admit, she was right, but not really in the way that we had been thinking (like mess up his plans at a key moment, not freaking Nightblood the Vessel and become Odium). Here's the original T-Shirt design, I actually spray paint stenciled a version of this on a t-shirt to wear to the Seattle Skyward signing.

Gesp! Nobody wake me up.

Hello I'm Jessica, but I prefer to be called Moshi ( xD its my "internet" name). I'm a peruvian (so english is not even my native language xD) graphic advertising designer, writing is really one of too many hobbies I have. I guess in hindsight, I really started writing way back at school, drawing manga strips for my and my friend's amusement (xD I was one of those girls the teacher always scolded for drawing instead of paying attention to class). I tried to draw a couple of manga books at school, but I was (and still am, to be honest) very slow at drawing, which leads to my hobbies branching into Painting/ilustration and writing separately. Even though I stopped writing after college, my mind kept daydreaming and creating characters and stories, so 4 years ago as a personal growth challenge to myself, I decided I might as well write those ramblings down and actually create something so all that time and energy my brain uses up making those things don't go completely to waste xD. Since I am a stubborn dummy, and I only read fantasy in english, I can't but write fantasy in english as well. TLDR: Writing is a hobby. I'm a noob. English is not my native language, so I'm very bad at it. Here to hopefully improve a bit.

I've updated my Stormlight Archive timeline for Dawnshard and Rhythm of War! Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zq5bJoKE83ggDCjH43i1hZi0CIpB2iAx7v37zQPVFK0/edit More info (including Dawnshard and RoW spoilers): Old Post:

It might just be, and I have to applaud this option, that Kal WON'T get a romantic option. He's not in the right place for one. He's not ready. Lin knew that. It isn't what he needs right now. Syl offers more of what he needs right now. I don't object to Sylladin as a ship, and I think it could work as they really do seem much closer than any other Nahel couple, and they suit each other in many regards, but Syl offers a lot without adding romance in. Not every major character NEEDS a romantic arc, certainly not in-narrative. Sex isn't the focus of the entire universe. Other types of love are important too, and much like say Elsa in Frozen, focus on non-romantic love can be refreshing.

So totally respect it doesn't work for you, to each your own. But since you did ask: 1. Breaking the bond requires both sides to agree in order for the spren not to die. 2. Personally I believe, and I think the books support this that no one truly starts the bond "worthy". That is the point of the bond. Personal growth. Navani may not be ideal, but she (or at least as stated by her/the book) is willing to put the work into being a better person. Like Dalinar. Like Jasnah. Like Kaladin and Shallan and Lift and so on and so forth.

Crazy theory - We know that, from Ishar's bit, that Radiants swearing oaths can cause some sort of recovery from insanity: We also know that right around the Recreance, Honor was losing his mind. And the spren that died during the Recreance were trying to save something...or someone. What if they were trying to restore Honor? If one person swearing the oaths could recover Ishar's sanity for a few moments, what about hundreds doing so at once? We can presume before the Recreance, the breaking of the bonds didn't cause spren to die as they do in modern times (points for this made already earlier in the thread). So the crazy plan may have been for all of the existing Radiants to break their bonds, free their spren, and have a whole lot of people bond at once. This is actually how I think things will go in Book 5 - we have a huge collection of deadeyes following Adolin around now, while Kaladin has essentially been training people en masse to be ready to bond as Radiants. Shallan 'primes the pump', so to speak, by figuring out exactly how the process to work with her dead spren, and in the end, Honor is restored through the collective action of a lot of people bonding themselves to the remnants of the Shard (Honor lives in the hearts of men, taken literally). There are two sections that really stood out to me regarding the problem with having Vessels for the Shards: This is referring to the conversation they had earlier: Initially this just reads like setting up for a democratic evolution on Roshar (and that's part of it, I'm sure). But combined with the first section - what if the Shards could somehow be borne by a group of people rather than just a single individual? What happened on Scadrial is one way to mitigate the influence of the Shards to prevent them from being so unbalanced (combine several of them together); perhaps another way is to instead spread the influence around groups of people. The Oathpact could have been an unintended prototype. As a separate note, I think one of the consequence for sealing away BAM was that it made the spren somehow mortal, or more mortal than before: This is probably why the Recreance ended up going as badly as it did, since Maya implies the spren didn't expect to die as badly as they did (or, spren die when they are killed...). I wonder though if this, in the end, doesn't work out better for the spren, allowing them to change instead of being immutable (something we may be seeing in Syl). -

Really getting a kick out of these replies, but a great deal of this speculation relies on the account of the Herald Kalak.

Called it

El is Hebrew for God. Also ‘to’.

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