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Aight. So I was sitting on the couch watching a video when my mom walked in and started talking to Connie. I had my earbuds in so I couldn't hear very well. M: ... bored twice ... V: What? M: What? V: Did you say my name? M: No, I said bored twice. *continues to talk* M: I want you to eat a healthy lunch with fruits, veggies, whole grains... V: Pig brains? M: What? V: Why are you talking about pig brains? M: I wasn't... *continues to talk* M: So I'm going to go. V: WHAT? M: What? V: Why do you keep saying my name? M: I'm not. V: *embarrassed silence* So yeah...

So, this beaut arrived in the mail today. I read A Game of Thrones a few years ago but even though I absolutely loved it, I never got around to reading the rest of the series. But now I have all the 'A Song of Ice and Fire books *excitement increases*. Finding the package at my doorstep when I got home literally made my day . And yes, that is The Shard open on my monitor in the background if you were wondering.

Here's the next one! You're my silver: you keep the shades away. 10 days until Valentine's Day!

I was testing my new desk layout, and I drew my Fellowship characters! I think the pencil came through pretty well. This isn't exactly how they look, but it's an idea. I was gonna draw Martin drawing a rune, but I for some reason was thinking in monochrome and colored the scars black. A note, the black ink on Martin's jacket is where he's ripped patches off.

I have the impression that we're expected to think she's been practicing, although we certainly never see it. I am a bit frustrated at what a mystery Jasnah still is, but it's not like the books are too short and could use some filler - there is a LOT going on behind the scenes. Plus, she's got her own flashback POV novel coming. Also, in principle, "medicine" could mean 100% pure compounds (like aspirin or acetaminophen), which would be MUCH simpler to soulcast than a complex mixture like strawberry jam.

SPOILERS AND ADDED INFORMATION: I had posted other bits of this else where in 2020 before the "Taln never broke" WOB, but consolidated all the ideas here in this post This theory and post came out before Rhythm of War, but updates have been made to include information from ROW SA5 Prologue: This is not discussed to avoid spoilers, but SA5 Prologue has some interesting information --- Weird Questions: 1) TALN BREAKING SEEMS ODD What broke Taln? He is crazy and insensate for 4000 years and then one day he says "No thank you". What could have broke Taln? And, in terms of timelines, Taln returned before the Everstorm crossed into the physical realm, so it can't be that the Everstorm freed Taln. Yes the Everstorm was in the Cognitive, but all the doom and gloom seemed to be about the Everstorm being pulled in the Physical Realm by Eshoni and her team. Since Taln returns at the end of The Way of Kings, then Taln must return in a way that is not related to Eshoni. And as I mentioned before, I don't think it makes sense that Odium suddenly found a way to break Taln after 4000 years of trying. Edit: we later got a WOB that Taln did not break 2) DAVAR FAMILY CONNECTIONS Why was the Davar family so connected to secret societies despite being a Vaden house of little note? They have connections to the Ghostbloods and the Ghostbloods have handed them a confirmed soulcaster AND possibly a Seon box. Why? And it seems Skybreakers may have been visiting as well for "reasons". As well, the Skybreakers are breaking paterns when it comes to the Davars. As far as we know, Shallan's older brother is the only Skybreaker to be using a dead blade. Is this special treatment for a member of the Davar family? And finally, Mraize seems to know the Davar family well enough to recognize the name immediately. The Davars would need to be pretty active for that name recognition to be so apparent. 3) CHILD SHALLAN AND HER IMPORTANCE Why did the cryptic go to Shallan as a child? Lift was chosen due to her strange connection to Cultivation, but why Shallan? And why twice? And what were Shallan's parents fighting about? Shallan remembers her parents having huge fights over Shallan's future starting from a very young age. What was that about? Connected to that, why is an dark influence attacking the Davar family? Why is Heleran given a shardblade and brought into the skybreakers? No other Skybreaker acolyte was given a dead-blade and sent to war (that we know of), so why is Helaran so non-standard? Shallan's parents also fight A LOT about Shallan's future. This seems to be a hint that Chanarach had a major plan for Shallan. 4) MAMA DAVAR IN THE KNOW Why was Shallan's mother so quick to try and kill "one of them". How does she know "them" so clearly? Why would she have such a quick and radical reaction? 5) MORE SECRETS What is Shallan's last secret. There is still something horrible in Shallan's past, and this has something to do with a Seon box and whatever Radiant was created to protect Shallan from. What is worse than killing testament? We also have strange internal thoughts from Shallan from WOR in Chapter 10: "The world ended; and Shallan was to blame". This thought has never been explained. What did Shallan do to end the world? "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades Another strange but overlooked instance occurs in TWoK when Shallan almost summons her Shardblade: If this is indeed Patters/Testement, then why would that Spren ask "What are you?" Testament should full-well know "what" Shallan is in terms of her being a human or a semi-radiant or anything like that. If this voice is Testament, then asking "What are you?" is very odd in my opinion. Shallan answers "I am terrified", but to me that always seemed ... not what the voice was asking Shallan. I always felt there was more to this that simply speaking truths. 6) THE FAMILY'S SAFE AND THE GLOWING LIGHTS ARE IMPORTANT (main data point for me creating this theory) People are very quick to discount Shallan's recollection of Lin Davar placing a glowing soul into a safe. I have always been very confused as to why Shallan is taken as "lying" to herself in this scene. Shallan has no reason to lie about the item being her mother's soul instead of a Shardblade. Lin Davar acted extremely quickly in that situation and made sure to place the item in that safe before dealing with any other issues. That to me is extremely telling. Why would Lin think the Shadblade wouldn't disappear eventually whenever Shallan dismissed it? Why would Lin think the Shardblade would stay in a safe if he managed to place it there quickly? Why would Lin so quickly run to place the item in the safe in the first place? Why is there an unused safe in that room? And then why do Shallan and Lin seem to continually see light coming from that safe for years and years? None of that vibes with "it is just a blade and Shallan is lying to herself" in any way. I just don't get it. Shallan having a Shardblade is not in anyway covered up by this lie, nor is the lie that Shallan killed her spren hidden by this lie either? There is no mental cover-up being done by Shallan making up a lie here. It seems everyone else dismisses Shallan, including Pattern, in favour of "Lynn put a sword in there". 7) EDIT FOR ROW: Then in ROW we get the timeline, and this does not hold up to scrutiny either. Shallan says her father put the item into the safe. WoR Shallan thinks that was a soul, but Pattern convinces her she is misremembering and that the item was a dead spren-blade. But that can't be a dead spren blade because Shallan has not unbonded Testament yet. Shallan does not think that a spren is trapped in that safe and we know this because Shallan then leaves to go speak with her spren in the garden AFTER the item is placed in the safe. Shallan acts immediately as a child in a way that doesn't even consider that her "blade" is in that safe. It just doesn't make sense to think a blade was placed into that safe based on the reactions of the two witnesses involved (which we learn Pattern is not one of) We take it from Pattern that Shallan is wrong here in her memory. However, In ROW we learn that Pattern is NOT an eyewitness to what went down in that room. Pattern sure has a lot of opinions about what Shallan saw, but Pattern was not actually there in the room and cannot actually know what Shallan saw go into the safe. Pattern assumed Shallan is lying to herself as Pattern sees many other lies around that event. But Pattern has no knowledge about who Mother-Davar was, what the safe was for, or why Skybreaker/Ghostbloods may have been in the home. Pattern is not a credible source of information on the events of that day. Shallan is the only living witness, and the actions of her father are consistent with the understanding Shallan had as a child. Shallan too noticed her father staring at the direction of the safe and the light. Only later in life is Shallan told again and again that her memory of those events are wrong by people who were not there. Both Lin and Shallan believe something is in the safe, and a sword does not match the other data points we have. There is "light" in that safe, and it is leaking out over time. And where di the blood come from? A Shardblade should not have done that. The blood has to be some other injury? The box is something. The light was something. Pattern is making assumptions and is wrong about this history with the safe. And why does Shallan see a glowing light coming from the box? Is it a soul like she believes? We learn in RoW that no herald soul can be trapped completely, and that the light of a herald will slowly leak out (is that what Shallan was seeing her whole childhood come out of the safe?). Is it her mother's soul escaping slowly to Braize? Or maybe could it be a perfect gem with Mishram inside? Who knows? But it is something. We have seen other glowing lights (Dawnshard and Dalinar hearing TwoK), so is she just mad, or did she really see something? Whatever it is, it does not make sense that Shallan thinks Testament is trapped in the safe if Shallan went and yelled at Testament after her mother was killed. Something was put into that safe, and to me the most likely answer is "her mother's soul". And firhermore, there is no reason to believe that Lin Davar would think a safe would ever prevent a Shardblade from reappearing in Shallan's hands. 8) HOID and MIDDLEFEST Hoid is downright shocked to see child-Shallan at the Middlefest celebration. Hoid sees something, but that something is unclear. When we originally read WOR, we assume HOpid is shocked to see a Radiant Child or perhaps a bonded spren. However, Shallan does not have a regular active sprenbond at the time of Middlefest, so Hoid did not see Testament or an active radiant bond There are a few things Hoid may have seen: a. Hoid saw Odium's touch on her family b. a dead-blade living-radiant connection line was still active c. the Cryptic team that watched Shallan. d. Shallan is so obviously a part of Chanarach that Hoid was gobsmacked by the resemblance. e. Shallan is noticeably different than other Rosharans due to her strange parentage. But whatever Hoid saw, it was not an active Spren Bond since we know Testament is a deadeye at that point in the story. ---- It All Put Together - A Timeline 1) JAH KAVED Chararach settled in the Davar estate in rural Jah Kaved. Chanarach is involved in several of the secret societies of Roshar just like most of the other heralds we have seen. Chanarach learns of the theory that a return of surgebinders will bring about a desolation. Chararach is completely terrified of returning to Braize and supports the culling of nascent surgebinding. Chanarach is involved in research and is a part of the search to create a method that prevents a herald from returning to Braize upon death. Kalak is also involved. 2) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS Chanarach commands a fair bit of influence and even has a Seon to communicate off world. It is unclear who knows who Chanarach is, but as she did settle in a rural area it is likely Chana's identity is not common knowledge even within secret societies (similar to Restares and Amaram). Chana exerts some form of influence and stays in-the-know with investiture theory and is able to contact others on Roshar or off-world. 3) CREATING THE SAFE Chana tries to devise a way to never return to Braize. She creates a special kind of safe that her soul could be placed in to. She thinks it will entirely prevent a return or will greatly delay her return to Braize. Chana has no way to test this as there are no herald-souls or returned-souls to experiment with. Possibly, the safe is akin to the Seon box in design or the safe may even actually be the Seon Box Shallan remembers playing with as a child? At some point, Chana tells Lin Davar what to do in case she is ever killed (place her soul into the box). In ROW we learn Kelek has some knowledge on this herald soul-leakage issue, so perhaps he was also involved in the Soul Box experiments in some way. 4) SHALLAN IS BORN Chanarach eventually has a daughter and names that daughter after her friend Shalash (Shallan says she was named after Shalash). Shallan may not be a "typical" offspring. She seems to be different from her brothers in some meaningful way. Perhaps Shallanis a cutting of Chararach or maybe Shallan conceived through some form or parthenogenetic process. Perhaps Shallan was created using breaths, as Tyn notes that Shallan seems to see colours better than most other people. EDIT: In a later WOB we learned that that non-returned Cognitive Shadows have had children Edit: In a later WOB we learned that Heralds can have children but it is complicated and effortful to do. Chana has special plans for Shallan. We know from WoR that Shallan's parents fought A LOT about Shallan's future. This implies to me that Shallan is somehow more intentionally convieved than her male siblings, and that Chana had something planned for Shallan that Lynn Davar had moral misgivings about. We are not sure what this is, but I think a lot of us will assume it has something to do with the Oathapact and/or returning to Braize. 5) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SPREN The Cryptics find out that one of the heralds has children or they discover a weird child who stands-out and is similar to the child of a Returned. The Cryptics send a delegation to investigate (WOB confirms heralds can have children though maybe it is difficult). At the same time, an unmade is drawn to the family. Testament begins to bond Shallan similar to what happened with Lift. Shallan eventually discovers what her mother is by playing with a Seon box at the Davar estate. The unmade's influence increases in an attempt to get the Herald to go insane and potentially get herself killed by Lin Devar or Shallan. 6) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SKYBREAKERS Shallan is discovered to be a surge binder by her mother. Her mother, fearing a return to Braize, refers to Shallan as "one of them". Note that Chanarach does not seem surprised that surgebinders are real. Chanarach has an absolute PTSD breakdown and attacks her daughter. Lin, who likely knew, steps in and Shallan is able to kill her mother in self defence. Lin Devar takes something and locks it away in the safe. We are told this is the Shardblade and Shallan's mother's soul. Shallan goes to the garden to scream at Testament and break her bond AFTER Testament is supposedly locked away in the safe. This timeline does not make sense even if we believe Testament could escape the safe. Why does Shallan believe her spren was trapped but also then in the garden? And how is Testament-blade = her mother's soul? There isn't a connection there logically. 7) SHALLAN KILLS A HERALD AND THEN TALKS TO TESTAMENT IN THE GARDEN After Shallan kills her mother, Shallan goes to Testament and breaks her bond. It is possible Testament told her more here as well. Shallan then begins to repress everything since Shallan has, in her mind, done the most evil act in history. "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades 8) CORRUPTION SETS IN Lin Devar begins to be corrupted even more. Lin also has mental guilt and wrestles with killing his herald-wife to save his daughter. He beings to protect Shallan at all costs for reasons that may be more than just guilt. Then Davar family hell ensues. The ghostbloods continue to cultivate the family. The Ghostbloods may not believe a herald could be killed by Lin or may not know she was a Herald. The Cryptics stay with Shallan as they don't blame her for what happened. They are still curious about what Shallan is and are researching what happens to a bonded-deadeye to its original radiant. The dark influence in the house may be more than an unmade as well. One of Chana's divine attributes is "obedient". I think this is significant. Lin is driven to rage every time one of his children will not obey him, and the word obey is emphasized many times. It may be possible the Lin's rage was a dark consequence of something Chana was doing, the safe's magical effects, or something else. It is also possible that Lin thought his children would inherit the divine attribute, and the fact they dont obey him drives him to rage. 9) BRAIZE AND SOUL LEAKAGE Chanarach returns to Braize. It may have taken some time for her to get to Braize. It seems the soul is leaking out of the safe over time (ROW: as we see with Jezrian in the gem). Or maybe it takes 5 years to find Chana on Braize since arrival was unexpected and because in earlier returns the heralds were able to "hide" for some time. Either way, the other heralds do not know that that has happened as they cannot detect the pain-bond while on Roshar. Edit: Ishar created the oathpact so he may be able to sense changes in it. 10) HOID SEES SHALLAN Shallan, with no bond, goes to Middlefest. Wit's magic or memory allow him to detect that there is something very strange about Shallan. Wit somehow knows what Shallan fights "is not truly natural" and encourages her to make a path for the light. It is unclear what Wit saw, but he knew more than the fact she was a surgebinder (even though she's actually a deadeye-binder at the time). 11) CHANA IS CAPTURED ON BRAIZE Chanarach is eventually found on Braize. For some reason, Chana either breaks to the pain or gives in to some deal Odium offers. It may have taken a while or been immediate. What is strange is that Chana has not been seen returning to Roshar, either Chana took some deal meaning she did not have to return or perhaps she intentionally landed somewhere remote. 12) TALN RETURNS WITHOUT BREAKING THE OATH Taln returns to Roshar completely insane and without breaking. What happens to Chanarach is unknown. All assume Taln broke. 13) SHALLAN BEGINS TO REMEMBER THAT HER MOTHER WAS A HERALD Radiant is created from memories of Shallan's mother. Or potentially, Radiant is somehow part of Chanarach. Radiant dresses in the same blue and red warrior outfit as the Herald Chanarach in artworks. Radiant is Shallan's repressed memories of who her mother was. It is also possible that Radiant is in someway Shallan's mother (connection mumbo jumbo and cognitive shadow stuff along with cultivation weirdness possibilities) Here is a description of Radiant: “She [Radiant] had chosen to wear her vakama; the traditional Vaden’s warrior clothing. It was similar to the Alethi takama but the skirt was pleeted instead of straight. She wore a loose matching coat with a tight vest and shirt beneath. The bright clothing features vibrant blues embroidered over reds with gold woven between and it had trim on the skirt” Here is Chanarach: 14) TESTEMENT MEMORIES Shallan is forced to confront what happened with Testament, and Radiant begins to see that she must help Shallan deal with her final truth. [Option 1] Shallan knows she killed a herald and that she sent her mother to damnation - possibly ending the world and starting the final desolation. [Option 2] Shallan does not know her mother was a herald, but will put that together in regards to the "hole" in her memory"

I was asking my followers about what theory I should do next when @Dannex suggested Ba-Ado-Mishram Which in my usuall style got me to go over everything we know for certain about BAM. And while I didn't get a theory on powers, I think I know where she is. In order to get to where Mishram is currently located we must first learn about the people who captured her, a quick read of the Gemstone Archive reveals two things related to BAM. 1. BAM had connected to the "Parsh" drawer 30-20 fourth emerald And something I think to be overlooked yet of more note 2.BAM's forces were going somewhere drawer 19-2 third Topaz Rall Elorim, is the only thing that this Radiant can think of after what appears to be multiple attempts to take Feverstone, I think it safe to assume this is the case. Now Rall Elorim is an intresting place, but at the same time very vauge, it has yet to be shown, in fact we only know a few things about it 1. It's called the city of Shadows for a reason, and Brandon won't tell us 2. It has an Oathgate 3. and it was one of the First places Odium took on Roshar. Now the only reason I could think of for a city to be called the City of Shadows was an unmade and currently only three are unaccounted for Chemorish Dai-Gonalthis and Ba-Ado-Mishram One of the first two was at the Davar household and one was so devestating that they caused the scouring of Aimia, but nothing like that has happened to either place, and was maybe in Shinovar. Another thing is the term Shadows, Shadows are created by a mixing of light and darkness, Light that is dark, or Voidlight, which happens to be something BAM could create. And nothing but shadows has been made known to us, almost as if the unmade were limited, or bound in some way. On top of that Odium's quick arival to Rall Elorim I believe is because he knows BAM is there, but has so far been unable to free her. Why? becasue his forces have only looked in the Physical realm. Knowing that Unmade have a large pressence in the CR The recreance Radiants knew this and did something clever, just like when a human is physically brought into the cognitive their CA is replaced so they brought the gem into the CR to hide BAM's cognitive presence. Aluminum gives an additional layer of protection and then place it in a convienent nearby city with access to the CR so as to hide any other oddities from the cognitive side, have the sibling keep the Oathgates from allowing CR travel, from any place but the Horneater peaks which is almost acrossed the enite continent, and you have yourself an airtight prision for an unmade. In addition WoK prime spoilers TLDR BAM is in the cognitive realm around Rall Elorim

So, like the tile says, at various times in SA, I'm pretty sure that Odium's forces are able to use the corrupted rhythms in a manner that is similar to emotional allomancy. They can't completely reprogram the way someone thinks, but they seem to be able to give a nudge in the desired direction. In particular, I think we see Ulim, Venli, and possibly a couple of stormspren use rhythms/vibration to manipulate others' emotions. I started down this line of thinking when I recently reread this Gavilar line from the OB prologue (Eshonai's POV): Given the juxtaposition of the words radiant and vibrant, and all of the stuff we learn about rhythms (i.e. vibrations) in RoW, I started to wonder if maybe the singers had at one point used vibrations in some kind of magical way. At the outset, I'll concede that the simplest explanation for Gavilar's saying that the singers are not longe "vibrant" is that he's just talking about the ones in slaveform. But indulge me. Looking back through WoR, OB, and RoW, I found a number of times where it seems pretty clear that either Ulim or Venli (or Ulim through Venli) use rhythms/vibrations to manipulate the emotions of others. Here's a rundown in chronological order. RoW Chapter 73 That's three times in relatively short order where we see this happen. Her mind growing fuzzy and circling back when she expresses concern about how manipulative Ulim is. Then Ulim's mocking laughter makes her gemheart vibrate. Note how Venli doesn't say that she "attuned" Agony, rather she felt herself attune it, almost like it wasn't her choice, but happened as a result of the ridiculing laughter. And lastly, she again starts to think that something is fishy with Ulim and he immediately starts with the obsequious puffery, accompanied by a rhythm, to cut off that line of thinking. RoW Chapter 77 Here we see Ulim vibrate energy through Venli while again peddling lies to get Venli on board with the plan to assassinate Gavilar. WoR Interlude 11 Here, just before the first highlighted passage, Eshonai is really angry about Venli not telling her that she knew stormform would change her. She's digging on on trying to figure out how Venli found out about stormform. She does not seem inclined to just let this go. But then Venli meets Eshonai's eyes, and hums to confidence while again repeating that they have to take this step, and Eshonai is just like, okay! and then proceeds to immediately do an endrun around the five and orders her stormform officers to round up any dissenters to be killed. In the second highlighted passage, Eshonai finally starts to have some doubts about what she's doing, and it seems like the stormform spren in her gemheart, mindless though it might be, senses her wavering and reacts, ramping up the new corrupted rhythms to push back. WoR Interlude 13 I'm not entirely sure what happens in the first part of this scene where Venli just smiles and goes along with Eshonai's position that they should wait. I imagine Ulim is saying something to her in her mind. Maybe pointing out that Eshonai is now the one manipulating her? Maybe congratulating Venli on making Eshonai think that the idea to wait was her own? I'm not sure, but there's something weird there. And then we get another instance of Eshonai poking into how Venli knows the things she knows and then something deep inside nudges her to move on. OB Interlude 3 I'm not entirely sure that in these two instances Demid is doing something similar to the other examples above. But Venli does seem rather agitated both times, yet quickly capitulates. I'll note that it's at the end of this Interlude when Timbre starts following Venli. Shortly thereafter she starts to be able to hear the old rhythms again, and as far as I can tell doesn't fall victim to this kind of emotional manipulation ever again. Bonus theory: all of this got me thinking that perhaps this is similar to what the ancient singers did, but not just with emotions. What if, rather than bonding with spren, the ancient singers were able to use the rhythms to communicate with the spren and ask them to manipulate the surges? The spren got some of those juicy thoughts and emotions they like so much through the rhythms, and got to manipulate things in the physical realm; the singers got to do cool magic that helped them out. Then the humans come along, all shiny and new, and the spren are like, whoa, now we can actually pass through into the physical realm more. And the singers are like WTF spren? ok, I guess we'll give this Odium guy a try.

Okay so I'm going to be travelling to college tomorrow. And that's really exciting and really scary. uhh... I guess prayers please, if you pray? Thanks!

I can only imagine the confusion of the people chasing him.

In the case of these, other people are the ones who applied the term 'god' to them. Powerful Being != God. Jasnah can obviously acknowledge that they exist, but can still firmly say that they aren't gods. By this logic, I could walk out into the world, yell "I AM NOW WORSHIPING A MICROWAVE", and then go around claiming that all atheists are wrong because microwaves exist.

When I read this in the books, I just interpreted the delegation offer as Sigzil being rather Azish, and his honorspren probably having a similar approach as him. We've had Sigzil pov but it didn't smell of unreliable narrator like Shallan "dissociates when her mother is mentioned" Davar, so I think it would be a shocking, but not a particularly well telegraphed twist if Sigzil was a spy. His odd (non)relationship with Wit raises some questions, but what do I know. Maybe he thinks Wit is too obnoxious to be around (I wouldn't blame him)

I have a few, though I'm not sure what's unpopular and what isn't: -Shallan's 'secret.' Really, that's it? You killed your spren? After the reveals in WoR I expected something so much worse. The whole plot point with Formless and even the trial fell flat. There was a decent amount of time spent on promising looking side characters as well that ultimately went nowhere. -All of Venli. She barely did anything with or learned anything about her Radiant powers, and she was at best an unsympathetic hero. Her flashbacks were easily the most unnecessary of the four flashback viewpoints, and she is basically a bystander for all of the important plot points. I expected so much more, both from her and Willshapers in general. She could be written out of the story right now, and nothing would be lost. -Navani's 'science' - the nitty gritty details of discovering the anti-magics felt a little too hand wavy and not as clean as I'm used to from Brandon. My eyes kind of glazed over when the 'technical' details kept coming up. -A general lack of lighthearted moments - I feel the story really missed the normal doses of Rock, Lopen and (as of OB) Lift. -The part three Dalinar and Jasnah scenes - while they contained some interesting moments, it felt like filler, a plot excuse to get them away from Urithiru. I see why it was done, but I can't help but feel the story would have been so much better if the two of them were at Urithiru the whole time. -A general lack of 'high' moments: Completely personal preference here, but nothing in this book came even close to 'Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do' or 'You cannot have my pain!' or the Tower or the fight at Thaylen City or the onset of the Everstorm/Kal's arrival.

Brandon said in the livestream that the deadeye spren is a relashonship that has been seen in other parts of the cosmere. My mind immediately jumped to elantrians. The elantrians had their investiture and their link to the Dor blocked because the command was incomplete. Because it was incomplete, they had sickly blotches, had no heartbeat, and could not heal. They themselves said that they were dead. That is what is happening to the deadeyes. Their command allowing them to exist or transition to their unbonded state or whatever happens after they break their bond is being interrupted mid-transition. This would explain the dead and clawed out eyes. This would explain why they seem to not access investiture or do anything with bonds. Ba-Ado-mishram Somehow allowed that transition to happen, so trapping her interrupted the command, just like with Elantris.

When you go skiing and all you can think is "abrasion!" And then you realize you want to be a Windrunner, but would be really bad at Lashings. I'd also be bad at abrasion-ing. There's a reason I'm probably a Truthwatcher, then...

It's the KRAKEN

Fruit, sugar, pectin, and water, actually. Strawberries don’t have their own pectin, so the gelling agent probably came from a lemon or orange jam. Citron Jam is also very good for it. So to soulcast strawberry jam Jasnah would have had to soulcast two kinds of jam since most jams actually contain a second jam as an essential ingredient. Yes, I make my own jams.

Well of Ascension

tWoK Edit: Changed meme to correct names

I got to tour the world as Godzilla today. I had an hour to go anywhere I wanted, in immersive VR in the Google Earth VR app. I have to say the view being Godzilla sized is fantastic! I got to see, virtually, one of the things I am most excited to see in real life, the 60 ft tall 1 to 1 scale Gundam RX-78 model outside Gundam Front (the flagship Gundam model store) in Tokyo. So cool.

Too much Kaladin chasing nodes.

I'm going to do some wild theorizing here, so hold on: First, spren exist mostly in the Cognitive realm. When they bond a Radiant, the spren is pulled into the physical realm. This mechanism is clearly still working. Second, when a Radiant dies, the spren either returns to the Cognitive realm or bonds a new Radiant. We saw this with the one Honorspren in WoR. Third, when an oath is broken, the spren's body materializes as a Shardblade. At least part of the Cognitive aspect returns to the Cognitive realm as a deadeye. We see this with both Maya and Testament. Fourth, this separation of physical and Cognitive did not occur prior to the Recreance. The spren expected pain, but not death. Fifth, this is roughly the same time at which Cuseicash the Protector began to appear. This megaspren appears at the same time every day, and looks toward the Origin. It drains something from each person who views it. Sixth, this is similar to the Shaod, where the Elantrians were trapped midway through transformation. Seventh, this all began at approximately the same time as BAM was captured. Eighth, Honor's tone was silenced that day. Based on this, we can draw a few conclusions: 1. Whatever happened has blocked the ability of a spren to fully transition back to the Cognitive realm when oaths are broken. 2. This is related to the capture of BAM. In order to do this, Melishi had to understand BAM to a very large degree. 3. At roughly the same time, Cusiecash began appearing and displaying a series of faces. This spren faces the Origin, which is connected to the highstorms and by extension to Honor. 4. Therefore, we can conclude that the capture of BAM somehow damaged the Connection of all spren to Honor's tone. 5. My theory out of all this is as follows: Melishi swapped BAM's Connection to Odium for Honor, and used that to imprison her. When doing so, though, Melishi unknowingly damaged the conduit that Connected the spren to Honor, prohibiting their return to the Cognitive Realm. The part of the spren that was not able to return formed Cusiecash, where they display the faces of their Radiants. These spren are trying to draw out Investiture to rebuild the Connection to Honor. The Recreance occurred because this severing also removed Honor's restrictions on Surgebinding. The spren, seeing what was to come and what had happened on Ashyn, chose to break their bonds rather than allow unchecked Surgebinding.

I was eating a hamburger, and suddenly started thinking about Stormlight. It hit me that what if Taravangian picks up Odium? If Rayse dies, but Mr T takes the Shard instead, and is the villain later on. What do you guys think?

So this has been discussed multiple times before, but usually as an off-topic discussion in another thread, so I wanted to make an entire thread, just to see if we could come up with a final count for how many allomantic metals there actually are. First, the basics. We have our 16 base metals: And then we have our 3 god metals: Edit: The other 14 godmetals are apparently also Allomantically viable. Easy enough. The tricky part is when we start thinking about God Metal Alloys. Lerasium can be alloyed with any metal to make a metal that rewrites people's spiritwebs to become a misting that can burn that metal. It's a complete waste of Lerasium, but they're still allomantically viable, so they make the count. 16 more. And then there's the possibility that Lerasium can be alloyed with the other two Godmetals to make a metal that turns people into Godmetal Mistings. Like an Atium Seer. This might not be true, as Lerasium and Atium are polar opposites, but I think it makes enough sense to make the list. Plus 2. Edit: If the other Godmetals are viable, then Lerasium should be able to make mistings for them too. 14 more. Then we have the Atium alloys. These are the most interesting, as it's actually an entire second list of 16 powers that we don't actually know anything about. This one WoB is basically all we have: So that means we have 16 more that make the list. And here's where things get into the really speculative. If each of those 16 is allomantically viable, we should be able to have mistings that can burn them, right? Well, that means Lerasium should be able to be alloyed with each of those to make a metal that makes a misting. So 16 more. Edit: There are a couple of other Godmetal Alloys that should be counted. Plus 11. All 11 of those could then be alloyed with Lerasium to make yet another batch of Misting Makers. Plus 11. And that's where I think we have to stop. Anything else would be way too speculative to make the count. But Harmonium can almost certainly be alloyed to do a bunch of things. So that brings the final, ultimate tally toooooooo Edit: Forgot to ever update the OP, but uh yeah, the number is a lot higher now. Like a lot. Just read the thread.

While I was re-reading Mistborn Era 1, there was a passage that I found really intriguing: HoA chapter 81: There have been a few discussions of what's going on in this scene over the years, see e.g. However, as I've searched around, I haven't found any discussions of what "Sight, Sound, Strength, Power, Glory, Speed!" is all about. For refreshing context, this is after Elend has used up his metals and is fighting Marsh, while Vin-as-Preservation is powering him directly. Some aspects are pretty clear: Vin is using her investiture to directly create the effects of various metals in Elend; when Elend burns duralumin (which I think it is implied he actually has as a metal still, as well as atium), it also amplifies the effects of the "pseudo-metals" that Vin is granting him directly. Indeed, Sight and Sound are accounted for by A-Tin and Strength is accounted for by A-Pewter. But here's where things start to get interesting. Also recall that Elend is fighting Marsh, who is using Feruchemical speed to move quickly -- somehow, Elend keeps up with him. Vin is ALSO granting the effect that Compounders are able to access -- he's effectively burning F-Steel, this is why Duralumin is bursting his speed even more. Power is the next interesting one -- I believe this is likely the effect that Compounders burning F-Nicrosil (e.g. investiture) get. Now we come to the last, and most puzzling and intriguing of them all -- Glory. What feruchemical or allomantic ability grants "Glory", and what does that mean?? I've come up with some possibilities: - it's actually just Fortune (as accessed via F-Chromium) or something: I don't think this is the case, all the Spiritual Realm shenanigans are because Elend is also burning atium (this is clarified in the paragraph after the quote of interest). - It's Identity (as accessed via compounding F-Aluminum) -- I don't think this is the case, but it's plausible I suppose. - It's Connection (as accessed via F-Duralumin) -- this is perhaps plausible (I'll get to why in a bit), but I kind of don't think that's what's going on - It's Determination (via F-Electrum) - maybe? But not sure why it would be called Glory.. I lean towards no. - The other standard Feruchemical and Allomantic powers don't seem related to "Glory" at all. So now we come to the god metals/alloys. It's not atium for obvious reasons, it is likely not any alloy of atium either since this is being Fueled by Vin (though I suppose it's not impossible; we don't know what F-Malatium does for instance (or do we? I haven't seen anything)). It might be interesting if it is F-Lerasium, that would somewhat fit I suppose, but it's unclear what the power is here -- perhaps it stores some notion of "godliness" or "Connection, specifically to Preservation" ? That would definitely make sense in the context of the scene, since Elend is connecting to Preservation's power direclty; perhaps F-Lerasium is what is allowing him to be fueled by Preservation's power directly (e.g. effectively take in the mists -- sidenote, perhaps this is related to why Vin was able to take in the mists). We also know by WOB that every god metal (all 16, and I suppose alloys of them as well) each generate 16 powers by alloying with the existing allomantic metals, so there's a whole plethora of possible powers out there; it could also be the case that Vin-as-Preservation is able to access any combination -- so it could technically be some allomantic or feruchemical power of one of those. Would be pretty interesting if it were. Now I've finished presenting all the possibilities, [minor spoilers for Stormlight] Anyways, very curious to hear more of your thoughts about what "Glory" really is!

I rather agree with you, here. I obviously don't want to make is appear as if I'm "bored" with Kaladin's mental illness or anything, and I realize that his representation of depression is really meaningful to a lot of people. But I also feel like Sanderson laid it on a bit thick with this book. It's like he has a list of "Bad Things I Haven't Done to Kaladin Yet" and he's just going through it one by one. Struggling with depression and survivor's guilt? I'm on board with that. It's made him a really interesting character. But when you go on to say "oh and then your old best friend tells you to commit suicide and your dad hates you and you're fired and all of your friends leave and you're having magical dreams in which the entire world hates you and now your other best friend has been killed by the first one and - " I mean, at some point enough is enough, right? In a similar vein to this, Shallan's revelation this book didn't really have an impact for me. I know this has already been discussed in this thread, so I won't go into too much detail, but it just wasn't very meaningful with everything else that was going on. My very first reaction when she dropped her first "I have another secret" thing in the book was "haven't we already done this?" I was legitimately frustrated upon learning that because I thought we had finished the whole "Shallan killed someone in her past but can't remember" bit. Plus, the beginning of the book really sold the Three as a workable solution for me - having her plotline then be about merging with them didn't seem nearly as much like progress as he clearly meant it to. There were parts of Shallan's arc that I really liked this book, but most of it was undercut by the fact that I really wasn't interested in hearing another mysterious secret about her past. Upon reflection, these aren't unpopular opinions so much as just my criticism, but there you go.

I think it's more of "we didn't see enough to know" as opposed to "they weak". I mean, are Stonewards weak? Are Releasers? How about Truthwatchers? We don't know much about them. Its possible they are pretty weak, at least one of their surges, but if you extrapolate, being able to shape stone is pretty strong, and Venli is just getting started.

Jay sat up on the roof of the boat, having leaped up there so he could... well, he could admit it to himself. He was anxious to see land, because that would mean he could see Janice again. He needed to apologize. It was all his fault all those terrible things had happened to her. Of course, he also needed to admit to himself this might be a trap. So someone needed to keep a look out in case... What was that? "Guys, there's something in the water!" "May Hitlera watch over us all as we seek to find his will, in justice and light, may it be so." The voice sounds out from the back of the courtroom from a herald, sent before the judge to announce him. "Today, the Wandering God puts his trust in Lord Derival, who is acting as judge on behalf of the nation of Raodea." The lord walks through the door and past the jury to his seat, a minimalist chair made out of wood. He carries a walking staff that is stylized and decorated with gold, which symbolizes Hitlera's presence. The judge's seat is opposite both the jury and both lawyer's seats, forming a triangle of the three parties. Lord Derival is an imposing figure, more than 6 feet tall, and with ram's horns curling back behind his ears. He was a Guardian until his father died and he inherited his house, which was more than 25 years ago. Rumor has it that he won the Halcyon Festival by smashing his head through his opponent's shield. He hasn't lost any of his bulk or warrior's demeanor since then, but he has a reputation of being fair and level-headed, and his island is often cited as the most equal and diverse place to live in Raodea. "All right, then, let's see what we have here. Are the prosecution and defense prepared?"

Peakspren: "Be more like me"

Hello everyone. I just read the forum rules and some things are unclear to me. And before making many mistakes, because I tend to walk on the lines that should not be crossed, I want to make sure where those lines are and what best practices I shall use? I am referring to these posts: So, I am from Europe and I do not understand the US concept of swearing. To use a Cosmere example: Galladon finishes his senteces with a specific phrase. He does not want to offend someone, but it seemed offensive to me at first. So in my experience the intent is the important factor. It is hard to talk about swear words without using them. But I can say " You are like an Apple" and I may use it to say that you are sweet, but I could also refer to the fact, that an apple is not sentient and I doubt the other persons kognitive capabilities. This is hard to be judged by others but the first thing mentioned in the best practice is "Assume the Best of People". So I think that kind of phrasing should be fine. I usually would not phrase it directly at a person but at his post/idea. But as far as I know swearing usually refers to some kind of specific words. I do not know which words are okay and which are not. In Europe we have actual free speech. There is only one thing you are not allowed to say, and that is denying the holocaust. The best example is poem by jan Böhmermann about the Turkish president where he just uses swear words and accuses him of extrem things like beastiality and pedophilia. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GBwQ4lPgo0) And this is perfectly fine because it is satire. But it would be forbidden here? I thought about a specific topic when this question came up in my mind. And due to my limited knowledge of the English language I do not know better or non swear words sometimes. The Topic is a RoW spoiler but i´ll still put it in here because it is the best example. Would this kind of swearing actually be blocked/forbidden? And what about swear words in quotes from the books or WOBs? because of this huge cultural difference between Europe and the US I just want to make sure. And I do not care about offending someone, but I try not to do it without a reason and there are a lot of Slur word I do not know about. E.g. "Anaconda" is a snake, and I may want to say that a specific spren looks like this snake but others might think about the Nikki Minaj Song and interpret the word as sexual or slur. And there are clearly a lot of examples that are less obvious. So how is that handled here usually and what factors a relevant? Another thing would be "Deliberate misgendering or misnaming other members." So, one of my basic rules is not to lie. What do you mean by gender? There is this huge discussion which is not politcs but philosophy in my opinion. What is truth. And for me truth is scientific truth. So basically XX is female and XY is male. Thats the truth for me. But if someone wants me to refer to them as the other gender and the definition of gender is not the topic of the discussion I deliberately use the gender they want me to use. But I assume that this is okay because a third party would have to complain? Usually I do not care about that when referring to a person but It is unclear to me. And if somehow this topic comes up, especially when we are discussing the gender of people not involved in the discussion, than again I should be allowed to state (my opinion) the scientific truth. That topic always confuses me and I assume people should accept the opinion of others and do not get offended by it. Has that ever been an issue here? The next thing i wonder is this(code of conduct): Deliberate revealing personal information of another community member (also known as doxxing) without their consent. What is consent? E.g. I revealed that I have ADD in my (new) "Introduce yourself" post. Is this now consent that it can be shared everywhere in this forum? especially as quote or something or a are others allowed to mention it outside of that topic? There is an ADHD specific topic and If I share somethinmg there I don´t feel like this automatically gives consent to everyone for sharing this. I´d prefer that a PN to ask for consent before sharing it would be best practice. But what are the rules (maybe i did not read it when reading the best practice and it is actually explained) And what about the mupltiple acounts rule. I personnaly do not care. But if I want to share something private, I would usually creeate a new acount and make it as anonymous as possible. So I am not allowed to do that? Next thing (from code of conduct): Hateful, hurtful, oppressive, or exclusionary remarks, including offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion. Does this also count if my remarks are against a fictional character especially if it is not my opinion but what I think is anothers character opinion? For example: (Way of Kings Spoiler) And if i quote her, I am actually posting a hateful remark, but it should be okay in my opinion because it is neither me actually stating that as a fact/my thought , nor attacking a real person. Next Thing(from code of conduct): Deliberate intimidation What do you mean by intimidation? E.g. "If you do not stop posting about Chiri-Chiri being dumb, I am forced to spam you with a dozen quotes from the book to prove you wrong" That would be an intimidation, but i assume it is not against the spirit ofthis law And Last but not least Spoilers. There are only rules for Book spoiler written? So What about movies, TV, comics, anime, .. And what about real life? Like the results of elections or sport events? And most impotantly. politics is forbidden, i usually see politics as the small area between law and philosophy. And only in the real world practical application. So I can compare a book character with a real life politician but I should not make the politicans agenda the topic. And philosophies like capitalism, marxism, nihilism, anarchchism, socialism are not politics in my opionon as long as you do not talk about an actual real life situation where this is implemented. And what about discussing the politics of Roshar? I am pretty sure that most of these things can be answered with links to other topics and general statements but if someone actually thinks about these topics specifically I´d like them to tell me if they want to discuss or not. So are you stating facts that chould not be discussed or are you sharing your opinion? Thank you very much for reading this and helping make this forum a place everyone likes to be in. (I hate the term safe space, but this is another topic )

When you dream that you're seeing a live-action play of WoR...it focused on Adolin and especially the duel, and I remember there being a lot of Shadolin/Shaladin/Kadolin/Shakadolin vibes. Also a side plot of Rlainarin. My mom, Rubix, and Chaos were watching with me for some reason

Another relevant WoB:

Wait... what? Moash murdered Wayne?!?

WOB has confirmed (more or less) that Odium didn't read any Breaths. Since he didn't identify Breaths by what memories they held, he must have excised Breaths based on another criteria. The only criteria that makes any sense is temporal. So Odium removed Breaths that held the last few minutes of Wit's memories to remove the conversation. That's it. I suspect that perfect pitch doesn't just snap into place with the 200th Breath. At 200 Breaths, your pitch recognition and creation ability is perfected. Breaths prior to that improve those abilities. Wit is old enough and experienced enough to recognized his current level of pitch recognition. He can probably identify how many Breaths he's holding (up to and including 200) by how well he recognizes pitch. Hence his use of the word "interfering" instead of "lost". Basically, the time after the final encounter is just meant to inform us that Wit is aware of the loss of memory without spelling it out.

Your theory actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe Nale simple knew that that combat would not be a challenge for him, and he did not deem necessary to summon his Shardplate. Besides, if things went south during the fight... He could simply summon it for extra help. However, I find Malim's comment quite interesting. I think this theory actually makes plenty of sense. Yes, it is true that the combat against Dalinar and his guard was far from a challenge for him, but Nale was not giving his all. If he had summoned both his swords and his Shardplate, I am sure the clash would have been quite different. Nale was controlling himself, fighting defensively and ineficiently on purpose. It is clear that he did not want to annihilate them all, but I wonder why. Maybe your theory about following the rules of engagement of the Heavenly Ones is actually quite accurate.

I can finally get this off my chest: I never would have thought that Brandon would allow himself to use such a lazy, convenient, stupid and useless plot device as the nodes. He clearly didn't know what to do with Kaladin in Part 3 and had to find something for him to do while other characters move the plot along. So he introduced a random number of crystals with no obvious in-world reason to exist that have to be destroyed. It's so far below his story-telling ability, it baffles me. I'm not used to that, at least not in his Cosmere works, and especially not in Stormlight.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the rules of engagement that seem to be in place between the Heavenly Ones and the Windrunners. They seem to avoid anything that gives an unfair advantage in their fights i.e: only fighting one on one, not targeting the wounded or noncombatants, etc. Since none of the Windrunners have Plate at the battle, and Nale is bound by oath to follow the rules of the Fused, maybe he feels bound not to use Shardplate until it is used against him. It's a stretch, I know, and Skybreakers are not Windrunners, but I think that might be part of why he didn't summon it.

I'm kind of conflicted about Wit's increased presence in the story. I've never been a big fan of Hoid in general, he's okay in small doses but I find his personality to be a little overbearing the longer he stays around. I didn't really like how much the protagonists rely on his information and planning to defeat Odium either. On the other hand, one of the reasons I dislike Hoid is because he's too much of a mysterious, mythical figure, and his new role in the books grounds and humanizes him. I think that's why the epilogue is so effective and being a tense build up to the next book (although I'm not a big fan of his relationship with Jasnah, but I don't think it will last that long so I can deal with it for now). I didn't really like Leshwi in this book. It kinda bugged me how she was the one to lead the listeners away from Odium while all Venli had to do was glow, it kinda devalued Venli especially considering she wasn't even supposed to be a Willshaper in the first place, so even that wasn't really her achievement. Also her position as a totally good and honest Fused seemed to kind of contrast with her role in Oathbringer, where she basically seduces Moash to the dark side by encouraging him to pursue revenge. I can't say that her character is inconsistent, because we didn't really know much about her in Oathbringer and it's not that strange for her to turn out different than she first appears, but at the same time I would have appreciated some moments of characterization to clarify the discrepancy. I really love Venli, I think having a character who's a pathetic coward being half forced and half actually trying to pursue the journey of Radiance is kind of funny and also legitimately interesting.. Also on the subject of Shallan killing her spren, I was kind of disappointed by it but I think her reaction kind of makes sense. It's important to remember that while killing her parents was horrible and traumatic, it was also done in self defense. Meanwhile Testament had only ever been a friend to her and hadn't really done anything bad, and yet Shallan killed her because she blamed her for her mother's death, not intentionally but still.

Hopefully @Kingsdaughter613 will be available to write Secret History 2, just in case Brandon never gets around to it! I know I don't get to choose how things work out (have worked out) for our favorite crew leader. But I can't help but feel that with Allomancy, Feruchemy, Hemalurgy, Realmatic technology, Cosmere awareness, allies, minions, spies, and hundreds of years... if there was a way, he'd have been able to find it.

I accept there will be uncles I cannot protect Apologies for the length but Stefon had a lot to say about Rosharan nightlife Transcript for size considerations:

I mean, Kalak’s been working on the problem for 4000 years, so... It’s been 350 years for Kell. First ten he was working on getting a body. Then he spends a few decades rebuilding South Scadrial. So let’s say we’re at 290. Then he really starts feeling that he can’t get off world. But he doesn’t know why and knows he doesn’t know enough to figure it out. So he sets that aside. Then he starts building the Ghostbloods as an organization. Let’s say this takes ten/fifteen years to really get moving off Scadrial. Now we’re at 275. He spends the next few decades gathering information. Around 250 Spook steps down and joins him. Meanwhile, Kell has discovered Cosmere politics and starts getting involved because, well, Kelsier. He can’t not. The next century is spent studying, learning about Cosmere politics, infiltrating governments and growing the Ghostbloods. At some point Kelsier gets distracted/needs a new project and sends the GBs off to find Yolen. Then he wants to know what’s hiding on Patji. He has the GBs find a passage to Sel. He starts dealing with Autonomy. He discovers that Drifter is rather more than he expected. He’s very busy and traveling offworld isn’t as important as learning everything he can and consolidating as much power as possible for himself and Scadrial. At some point during all of this he and Harmony have a (possibly manufactured) falling out. Also, he’s doing stuff on Scadrial. And Trell starts becoming an issue. About 150 years ago he really starts working at the Connection problem, which he now knows is a bigger problem than just his inability to get off Scadrial. And then works on that, but also on other things. It’s not his sole focus. There are more important things - like that idiot trying to bring back the Desolations which could potentially free Odium. And Harmony’s increasing lack of Autonomy (maybe they should steal him some...? Put it on the list.) And those Set people are causing trouble. And Drifter’s still being an annoyance. And he has to convince the Ghostbloods he can kinda worldhop even though he totally can’t. And some stupid chit on Roshar actually thinks she can declare war on him. (Ha! She has no idea...) He’s very busy! But, well, it’s perturbing. Annoying. It’s not URGENT, but... He’d really like to see those other worlds... He’s definitely going to get it before that idiot Herald though!

I'm in awe of how quickly people pointed out the big problem with Taravangian picking up Odium, his preference for dispassionate logic, without realizing the fix for that was already in place, in the form of dumb-but-emotional Taravangian.

The second fifty, anyway if you find a repost tell me, I'll replace it @AonEne @The Awakened Salad @DramaQueen @BreezeCauthon @I Am A Fish ... there where other people, No spoilers Elantris Mistborn Era 1 minor SH Mistborn Era 2 SA Cosmere

Thaidakar is gaining power so he can leave and kill all the nobleman on other planets

What I mean is that other emotions are shown to play a role in the Shard of Odium. When it comes up the fury and hate are aknowledged as the dominant forces of the Shard but there is some other stuff going on. I remember this occurring in three places. The least relevant is Sja Anet's interlude when she observes that, "The mind did not like being questioned, but the power... It liked questions. It liked arguments. It was passion." (RoW pg something). Then there are the observations of Taravangian as he ascends. "Passion. Hatred. Today Taravangian was only passion. Hatred, fear, anger, shame, awe. Bravery. The power loved these things, and it surged around him, enveloping him." (RoW pg something). And, "The power of gods. In his specific case, the power of emotions, passion, and --most deeply-- the power of raw, untamed fury. Of hatred unbound." (RoW pg something) And there was one more bit but I don't remember excactly where but it was along the lines of [something][loved?] all emotions but particularily the ones that happened when people struggled. Just these bits and things like the description of Nergaoul and Ashertman in Oathbringer say to me that while calling the power Odium describes the core idea of the Shard there is some other stuff that isn't captured in that name. The void gnaws, At chains of passion. Hatefully, Passion chains, The gnawing void.

Pardon me replying 2 months late. I would argue that T. did not kill Odium (as Odium is the shard), but actually killed Rayse. Not saying that he did not break the oath, only nitpicking your wording!

Not the Elantrians themselves--I think the Seons are the better comparison. The Seons bonded to a "broken" Elantrian (how do we not have a term for them??) all exhibit the following: Their minds aren't entirely there. Same for deadeyes. They're sapient beings that seem to have lost their intelligence. The Aon symbols at their center appear broken up. Similarly, the deadeyes show visible signs of not looking right. They loosely follow around the human they are bonded to. Just as deadeyes follow the human they are bonded to in Shadesmar. Might be some other things not coming to mind? My general suspicion is that it's a Connection issue. Elantrians were "broken" because the chasm disrupted their Connection to the Dor. And those effects seem to extend to the Seon they are deeply Connected to with a bond. So how does that relate to the spren? BAM was Connected to the singers and we saw that her capture damaged their Connection. The mechanics behind that are a bit of a mystery though... In any case, perhaps this Unmade was Connected to all spren on Roshar as well, (maybe dating back to before she was even Unmade) so her imprisonment broken their Connection too? But then why did it only affect them after Radiants broke oaths? Could guess that their bond with a stable human served as a lifeline for them, but it's still kind of weird. And what about the spren who weren't bonded? Is it possible that they were ALL (every last one of them??) bonded at the time of the Recreance? I feel like there's a lot of mysteries to be unraveled here, but I'm trying to work through my reread before getting in the weeds of this theorizing. XD