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Y’all! I did it! I can date now, and I got my license literally less than 20 minutes ago!!!!!!! Yayyyy!

Here's a bit of a prediction -- and let me preface this by saying that while I've been doing a bit of lurking here, I haven't done a thorough search through all the contest of champions topics. If someone else has already come up with something along these lines, I apologize for a redundant theory. I've been thinking about setup for Odium's champion; narratively, how will Brandon produce Odium's champion in just 10 days (not counting flashbacks)? I feel that the simplest way to give Odium an active role in producing that champion will be to use visions -- it's an established part of his power set, and it's something Rayse already tried with Kaladin. Rayse's methods were very different from Tanavast's; his visions were a raw and brutal attempt to mentally and emotionally shatter a target (not unlike the methods employed with the heralds on Braise), whereas Tanavast's visions were designed to warn, enlighten, and perhaps transform someone by offering them a chance to accept a higher calling. I'm willing to bet that the shard's intent played a large role in how the visions were used, and Rayse was limited due to how long he had held the shard (which is not to say that his attempt to break Kaladin was necessarily a poor choice -- it almost worked, after all). Now we have a new vessel, Taravangian. Based on the RoW epilogue, he wants to do something unexpected for his champion selection -- which I think partially precludes El or someone else with established loyalty to Odium (though i admit I could easily be wrong). I predict that he will use carefully edited visions of the past and/or future to create his champion, and here's how I see it happening for a few of our frontrunner candidates: Szeth - based on his established mental instability, his impending crusade against his own people, and Taravangian's past experience with manipulating Szeth, I think Szeth is the most obvious choice for a turncoat champion (despite his current oath to serve Dalinar). I think that visions involving people from his past (especially people he killed) would prove useful to TOdium, especially if he plants new words into their mouths similar to what Tanavast did at the end of each vision. For example, despite his unwillingness to forgive himself, Szeth still seems vulnerable to someone seeding the idea that he can correct past mistakes by doing X (X being whatever TOdium wants him to do). TOdium could even seek to accelerate Szeth's progress as a radiant, in an effort to help him reach his fifth ideal and thus divorce him from his oath to Dalinar (this is something Rayse would likely never do, which is the main reason I consider it here). Alternatively, he could simply seek to fully break Szeth -- make him turn to Odium for relief from his agony -- though I think that's more of a Rayse method. In any case, we know that we're getting Szeth's flashbacks, which could easily provide in-book context for a TOdium-induced vision to capitalize on. Gavinor - I include him here (despite the fact that I don't like the child champion theory) because he does have a rather direct route to accepting the role of Odium's champion. Imagine how Gavinor would react if TOdium forced him to watch Dalinar pummel Elhokar and shatter his shardplate, without offering the context necessary to realize that Dalinar was not attempting to assassinate the boy's father? What if that was the final vision in a string of visions where he saw the Blackthorn brutally slaughtering his foes (and sometimes his allies) thanks to the thrill? The boy has a hero complex, and TOdium has plenty of material to work with if he wanted to make the boy believe that his great uncle is a villain. The usual merits of the child champion theory apply, as well (forcing Dalinar to renege on the terms, thus giving TOdium much more freedom and damaging Honor's remaining power -- possibly even killing the Stormfather and making Stormlight difficult or impossible to acquire). Nalan - You could basically copy and paste my thoughts on Szeth here; he's similarly unhinged and vulnerable to the manipulation of his ideals. He's even working for Odium at this point. The biggest issue with Nale as champion is that I'm fairly certain Taravangian is hoping to achieve more than merely winning the duel. Anyhow, those are my thoughts for now. Feel free to comment, criticize, and/or offer further speculation.

The first round has concluded! Congratulations to @Aspiring Writer for earning first place with "The Light, The Dark, and The Sandy."! Congratulations to @Experience for earning second place with "Breath"! Congratulations to @The Unknown Order for earning third place with "Entry 9"! The current standings are as follows. @Aspiring Writer: 7 votes @Experience: 6 votes @The Unknown Order: 5 votes @Zephrun's Imperium: 4 votes @Frustration: 3 votes @Mage: 2 votes @Knight of Iron: 2 votes @Isabelle6060: 2 votes @Mystic Syn: 1 vote @Condensation: 1 vote Second Round: Music Music has the power to move us, more so perhaps than any other of the arts. Melody and rhythm and harmony form an arrangement of sound that can fill a room or be confined to a single person's ears. In this round, you will be creating a piece of music. Submissions will be in audio format (and should include a title). Submissions should be submitted by September 29th. Get creating!

Yes! *tag* You're it!

Shallan...?

I thought I'd update this considering this has been answered as per WOB:

Szeth will be heading to Shinovar with Kaladin to help bring sanity back to Ishar and to "cleanse" the country. Unless Szeth and Kaladin's arc - which includes using the Oathgate to get as close as possible to Shinovar, then travelling there by Stormlight, finding out what's going on in Shinovar, finding out how to fix Ishar, solving both of those problems, and then deciding on the fates of the leaders - takes place in less than ten days, I don't think Szeth is a viable option. Sure, Odium's forces could try and grab the Assassin In White and bring him back to Urithiru, but I'm not sure that'd make him a willing champion. I'm personally a fan of Gavinor being the champion, and have written more than I probably should about it. Honestly, I don't think Gavinor even needs to think that Dalinar is the bad guy. Taravangian can show up and say that he's Dalinar's old friend (truth) stuck in a bind (truth), and he needs help to get out and so he can save everyone (skewed perspective, but not untrue in Mr. T's eyes). Taravangian can note that helping him would be helping Gavinor gain back his own throne (technical truth with omission of context and facts), and more importantly, he can give Gavinor the man who murdered Elhokar. That enough would probably convince the child. My own personal feelings on this are that Nale has chosen the Singers, not necessarily Odium. So if he gets word of a splinter Singer group - like, say, Eshonai's group - then he'll have to make a choice. (YMMV, as several Sharders don't feel the same.)

TO ALL FELLOWSHIPPERS AND HOPEFUL FUTURE FELLOWSHIPPERS! THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE THING: SEASONAL IS OFFICIALLY REVIVED FOR SWEATER/SPOOKY SEASON!!!

Furious scribbling for future game

Wax & Wayne Draft 2 at 100%!!

I was curious in seeing what the names of Shards are in other languages. as in the official translations. Note, some of the Translations are not exactly the same as the English meaning, look at the comments below to see the actual meaning of some of them. Devotion (English) | Devotion (German) | 奉獻 (fèng xiàn) (Chinese) | Oddanie (Polish) Dominion (English) | Dominium (German) | 統治 (tǒng zhì) (Chinese) | Dominacja (Polish) Preservation (English) | Conservación (Spanish) | Bewahr (German) | 保存 [Hozon] (Japanese) | 存留 (cún liú) (Chinese) | Zachowanie (Polish) Ruin (English) | Ruin (German) | 破壊 [Hakai] (Japanese) | 滅絕 (miè jué) (Chinese) | Zniszczenie (Polish) Odium (English) | Odium (Spanish) | Odium (German) | 憎悪 (オディウム) [Zouo] (Japanese) | 憎惡 (zēng è) (Chinese) | Odium (Polish) Cultivation (English) | Bebauerin (German) | 養成 (カルティヴェイション) [Yousei] (Japanese) | 培養 (péi yǎng) (Chinese) | Pielęgnacja (Polish) Honor (English) | Honor (Spanish) | Ehr (German) | 誇り (オナー) [Hokori] (Japanese) | 榮譽 (róng yù) (Chinese) | Honor (Polish) Endowment (English) | Dotación (Spanish) | Gabe (German) | 捐助 (juān zhù) (Chinese) Autonomy (English) | 自主 (zì zhǔ) (Chinese) | Niezależność (Polish) Ambition (English) | Ehrgeiz (German) | 野心 (yě xīn) (Chinese) | Ambicja (Polish) Harmony (English) | 和諧 (hé xié) (Chinese) | Harmonia (Polish) Invention (English) | Invention (German) Mercy (English) | Piedad (Spanish) | Gnade (German) Valor (English) | Mut (German) Whimsy (English) | Schrulle (German) Truthwatcher (English) | Vigilante de la verdad (Spanish) Windrunner (English) | Corredor/a del viento (Spanish) Skybreaker (English) | Rompedor/a del cielo (Spanish) Bondsmith (English) | Forjador/a de vínculos (Spanish) Elsecaller (English) | Nominador/a de lo otro (Spanish) | Aufscheiner (German) Stoneward (English) | Custodio/a de piedra (Spanish) Lightweaver (English) | Tejedor/a de luz (Spanish) | Lichtweber (German) Dustbringer (English) | Portador/a del polvo (Spanish) Edgedancer (English) | Danzante del filo (Spanish) | Die Tänzerin am Abgrund (German) | Tancerka Krawędzi (Polish) Willshaper (English) | Escultor/a de la voluntad (Spanish) Dawnshard (English) | Odprysk Świtu (Polish) Connection (English) | Identity (English) | Investiture (English) |

Thanks, then But I do want to come up with something, I probably owe that after my random takes and whatever I’ve done so far lol

Fair but what do you want me to do? I’m kinda busy irl right now and have some other things that make keeping track of what’s going on harder than normal, and finding a lot of elim reads in a game where yesterday there was one elim is difficult… I have stronger village reads but annoyingly I can’t trust those for long Currently that’s Kas/Illwei/you in the would not kill bubble. Araris I have absolutely no clue which is a problem and I agree that the peripherals are a good spot for elims to hide. Hence the Tani vote though I feel like I should probably change that. Maybe to xino…? Idk the fact that there’s a significantly smaller chance that any given person is evil is tripping me up I understand your read and honestly kind of agree I’m playing elimmy rn as well.

*sigh* I... cannot debate this. There will be no inspiration creation today.

@xinoehp512 I'm guessing a creation of our own, not just us playing music that someone else made?

Some 17th Sharders: "I hate Shallan for victim-blaming the bridgemen" The very same 17th Sharders: *victim-blame Shallan*

Sorry things have been absolutely crazy in my life and I've just been too exhausted to even read the thread. I keep opening it and then closing it after reading just a couple posts. XD I'm caught up now with the thread, more or less. I may have skimmed some for time's sake, so forgive me if I miss something. Illwei is active as ever, but I'm not getting an absurd amount of elim vibes from her. Kas, that was an interesting move you made having everyone vote for you. On one hand, maybe we should do it again and just be sure of who you are, on the other, you may have proved your point and been the right call for C1. I'm interested in this Tani is Sja hot take, but I want to go back and read again the reasoning for it. These seem to be the top votes this cycle. Does anyone have a VC? Still deciding who to vote for....-.-

Ehokar, Teft, maybe Rock, the Pursuer, Raboniel, a whole lot of bridge 4, Jezrien, most of the sailors on the Wind's Pleasure, and Kabsal are all dead. Veil's sort of dead. (Mistborn spoilers) (Elantris spoilers)

Wasn't scared of either Ruin or Odium, or the unmade, or anything really because Brandon gives every character more plot armor than all the shardplate in Roshar.

I agree with what you said about Ruin. Hero of Ages definitely felt more desperate than things have ever felt in Stormlight. And Ruin felt more terrifying than Odium, but I think that's partly because we have a better understanding of what Odium is than we did of Ruin.

Ultra. I study english, and have had courses on translation, and you are advising not to always just use the first word that comes to mind. That said, in what world is Wüstwerdung better than Verwüstung? aaah. i think I remember hearing/reading somewhere - might've been the same stream - that Heyne's marketing tells them that titles like that would be more popular, which.. I guess. "Kinder des Nebels" i see somewhat, Kinder do be born, so... eh. "des Feuers", that's Spook. Why is that Book 2? am I glad I switched to English pretty quickly in the cosmere, I think Mistborn 1 is the only thing I read in german. Maybe Warbreaker too, not sure. speaking of Warbreaker, what the storms is "Sturmklänge"????

Heralds Madness The Heralds are insane, and that seems to a plot point of increasing significance with Kaladin’s focus on mental health in RoW, Ishar’s plan being dangled as a plot thread for the upcoming KoW. However, a lot of unclear with the herald's madness. I don’t think it’s been confirmed but it’s collectively accepted that a major part of the problem is a ‘magical’ inversion of their divine attributes/purpose. However, what’s causing this isn’t clear. There are so many factors at play that could be screwing with the Heralds heads: Normal PTSD from millennia of torture + war Immortality related Cognitive shadow decay (brain trying to handle millennia of memories) Spiritweb impact of 'breaking' during the oathpact Spiritweb impact of actually abandoning the oathpact BAM being bound Honor's death/shattering Guilt over abandoning one of their closest companions to be tortured alone ??? (Nale specific, but bonding to a Highspren is making him worse) The heralds seem to think that this is purely a result (1) PTSD. Kalak says that they shouldn't be 'getting worse' anymore. Nale tells Szeth at Thaylen Field his loss of compassion is directly torture-related Ash told Adolin that "thousands of years of torture" is what made the heralds insane. Ishar seems only to make the ideal = lucidity connection when Navani swears her ideal. Ishar also says he needs to be sane to fix the oathpact, not that fixing the oathpact will make him sane. I don’t think it’s actually on the herald's radar that they have a 'magical' problem. The source of the magical insanity can't just be the impact of abandoning the oathpact or breaking since Taln seems to still have the 'inverted attribute (resolute/dependable - comatose and cowardice) and he never participated in either of those two things. The cognitive shadow memory problems are definitely an issue but it doesn’t make sense as a root of the herald's ironic madness. I think it's something later, probably BAM being bound and/or Honor's death, that is causing the 'curse'. Heralds are closer to Nahal spren than humanity at this point, per Kalak, and also directly connected to Honor (like the Sibling). What happened to the Sibling and all the spren was drastic and completely uwpredicted. Heralds getting uniquely broken (on top of trauma + memory problems) fits with the other effects we've seen. Furthermore, while, the heralds do seem insane even in the original prologue (Kalak's anxiety, he sees cowardice in Jezerin’s eyes) but it’s nowhere near what we see in modern Roshar. Jezerin is leagues more put together, and while anxiety does seem to be part of Kalak’s madness, but I would argue that his magical anxiety seems to be specifically social anxiety (he’s at his most fearful surrounded by crowds at Gavliar’s party and the Trial) as an inversion of the social organizer role willshapers seems to have had. What we saw in the prologue than the completely reasonable fear of torture driven by PTSD. Finally, on a meta level, this would also help tie two of the major plot threads (Dalinar’s plan to fix the Heralds and Adolin/Shallan’s quest to release BAM) in KoW.

Happy storming birthday!

Brandon says that he has people helping to find a conversion ratio, as it would be important in Era 4.

Thank you for that. My day has been improved by your mythological humor.

1. I think when Taravangian pulled it into the Spiritual Realm, he only pulled Nightbloods spiritual aspect, and the physical aspect is still laying wherever it was when it got pulled into the Spiritual Realm. I could be wrong, like I said, it's been a few months since I read RoW. 2. Personally, I don't think there's a permanent limit. I think it's just got a <insert time frame here> limit. Like it can consume a monthly amount of Investiture before becoming useless for a time. I'm using monthly only as an example, don't take it seriously.

Question is, where is Nightblood now? Taravangian pulled it into the Spiritual Realm when he used it to kill Rayse. Does Taravangian have it? Or maybe it's lost between Realms. Also, will Nightblood be useful anymore? We know it's Command is to Destroy Evil and that it went "dull" after consuming a part of the Investure of Rayse, but even if it is a special Awakened Object, will there be a limit to the amount of "Evil Destroyed" (i.e. absorbing Investure)?

This playlist is amazing. It may or may not be my new homework playlist. Thx for making it. Have you heard the album called 'Kaladin (Original Book Soundtrack)) from The Black Piper (link below.) Try Shallan's Lullaby first if you haven't. It is so good. I like yours better though. Sorry if link doesn't work. https://open.spotify.com/album/6TkE0QEZnDt6ABujASZMuj?si=_uEaWZLhSy6W2EcpAYDbHg&dl_branch=1

You are not alone. Shallan is one of my favorites, the other being Wit.

Yes, I think a lot of the Shard name translations are kompletter Müll, to put it lightly. (Lässt mich außerdem an die Übersetzung für "Desolation" denken, die man einfach als "Verwüstung" hätte handhaben können. Stattdessen schreibt der gute Mann: "Wüstwerdung". I don't get it.) I don't even want to start with the book titles which often have nothing to do with the actual books. (The worst offender being "Krieger des Feuers" = "Warriors of Fire" for Well of Ascension, which has nothing to do with fire, let alone warriors of fire.) Brandon has adressed this in one of his streams and said that the publisher wants the titles to sound more traditionally fantasy. But that's not a good justification. Heyne just doesn't care about giving the audience the best possible representation of the source material. Which is an enormously popular source material, so why even worry in the first place? As much as I, as I said, respect the translator's work, despite all its flaws, and acknowledge that he has a tough job - I'm not that forgiving with the publisher. Heyne is just dumb and they dropped a lot of balls on this one. Brandon would be way more popular in Germany if they hadn't messed this up, and I really hate them for it.

We also have this:

@Oltux72 I would respond by saying that people could be ferucheming by habit. The sleeping one is a bit harder to explain. I believe Sazed himself offers the solution that their unconscious mind knows that pewter will help thus will burn it. Sort of how you can heal yourself even when sleeping.

Welcome here! This is so true. TLR remains one of my favourite villains, but so much about what makes him compelling/interesting is implied but not shown directly. I find it really interesting how Brandon handled him. Spoilers for Mistborn Era 1: Hope to see you around the forums and on discord! Probably should continue this conversation here in the introduction threads, but if you want to discuss further I know there's a lot of people interested in The Lord Ruler here.

I don’t think this is a silly question. Odium has been set up as the main antagonist of book five, and possibly beyond that. The conflict needs to be resolved somehow. I don’t think it’s likely that Odium will be dealt with by combining it with another Shard, because we’ve already seen that happen with a Shard antagonist and having it happen again might feel repetitive. I also don’t think binding Odium with more contracts or trapping him in some other place is likely, at least as a long term solution, because I’m not sure there’s any version of that plan that doesn’t come off as stalling. It would end up feeling like it’s just a matter of time before Odium becomes a problem again. Odium being Splintered is a strong possibility, in my opinion. There would be consequences, since that would create lots of little Odium splinters which could be a problem in and of themselves, but the original conflict would be resolved and dealing with splinters sounds much more manageable than dealing with the Shard. Reforming a new Adonalsium out of all the Shards might be an option much later in the cosmere, but not during Stormlight. It involves too much cosmere stuff that’s beyond the scope of the story being told right now. Another option I think could happen is to replace Odium’s Vessel again, but this time with someone who will redirect the Shard so that it’s harmless to people. They wouldn’t be able to fundamentally change the nature of the Shard, but it might be possible to point it in directions that aren’t as destructive.

Not only the Spren, but some particular humans as well, such as Dalinar and Kaladin (which I strongly believe carry Splinters of Honor in them)

As far as I can tell the first use of it (mispelled in Brandon's original post) is in the TWG post HoA Q&A (2008) - Kinda funny that he just dropped it in passing. A subsequent post from @Chaos supports the inference this was the first time we heard the term.

That is incorrect. It is mentioned in the epilogue of Shadows of Self.

I find Feruchemy, being the most versatile, is the one that is most useful in daily life. Except for healing, which will make you suffer to store, the rest aren't all that bad. I am currently moving back and forth between a place that is too hot and too cold, so storing heat in one to use in the other will be a godsend, and being able to cool yourself in warm places is always useful to have. Controlling when I sleep by storing wakefulness will be really helpful for my storming sleep schedule. I feel you can always store strength throughout the day, just tad, to end up building up for a large store in the occasional moments you need to carry something too heavy or difficult for you to lift. Making yourself light whenever can be very useful (Just float down the stairs, practically zero gravity for the WIN) and I'm sure you can find a way to mess around with being heavier. Again, I don't think you always need to be as fast as you can go. Store some speed while walking, lying down, reading, basically whenever you don't need to move quickly, and have speed stored for when you're in a hurry. Speed of thought might be difficult to fit in your daily life, as you always need to think, but speed does take care of if that. The removal of senses is something many of us wish we could do at one point of another. Food burned in your house? Off sense of smell. Hurt yourself? Off any sense of feeling and block out the pain. Want to eat crappy tasting food for nutrition? Off sense of taste (I NEED this). Loud noise annoying you when reading? Off your sense of hearing. And all these senses you can increase at any time for any reason. (Not sure how to fit sight in daily life, in terms of storing without consequence.) Storing Memories. Need I go further? Storing breath wouldn't exactly be that hard. Just inhale really deeply, and boom. There are many times I wish I stored determination at a point I didn't need it so I could tap it later. Not sure how energy works. Store connection and become effectively multilingual. No cost. For someone who hates learning languages, yes, please. And rest of them are more cosmere magic related. (And the fact it's 4 - 1 is my point exactly!)

So, I know that not every minor character has to be someone mysterious. But I was looking through WoK recently and one small detail about Roshone’s steward, Natir jumped out at me: For anyone who’s read MB Era 2, you can probably tell which word jumps out at me here. It’s the cravat, which is a fairly common fashion accessory in Era 2 Scadrial. But this is the only time we ever hear of someone wearing one on Roshar. And we actually hear quite a lot about Rosharan fashion in the SA books, so it just seems weird. On the other hand, the scene is from Kal’s POV, and he presumably knows the word. So maybe it’s nothing. The only other things we learn about Natir are that he’s got slender hands and is married to a stern-looking woman named Alaxia. Not a super Alethi-sounding name that. We don’t ever see either of them again after WoK, so who knows if they’re still kicking around. Anyway, probably scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but just throwing it out there since we’ve got a tall steward wearing an article of clothing we’ve only ever seen on Scadrial.

I really doubt we’re going to see much of Thaidakar in Stormlight 5. He might be namedropped, and confirmed to be a Cognitive Shadow from a different planet, but other than that? I can’t see it happening. First off, there are too many other plot threads that need to be addressed and wrapped up in Stormlight 5, and Thaidakar is tangential to all of those. The pacing would feel really off if we suddenly took a break from the Odium threat to find out more about a guy who isn’t an immediate problem. Secondly, Thaidakar’s motives, plans and so on really need to be Mistborn reveals. That’s where the buildup has happened.

Shallan's past is so much more complicated than the other major POV characters, even beyond the fact she buried her memories of it to such an extreme. It seems like Brandon decided she would have multiple personas and went "Let's give her multiple of everything!" Shallan has 4 brothers. Dalinar, Kaladin, Venli all had 1 sibling each. 2 radiant spren of the same order. The controversial love triangle which is a traditional trope, but she's the only main character to be the center of one in the present day (Navani had one with Gavilar & Dalinar in their youth). Shallan had fraught relationships with and killed both her parents. We don't even know Dalinar's parents' names. We only meet Venli's mother. Kaladin has 1 parent he doesn't get along with, did not kill. Shallan's family had not one but TWO secret societies involved with them when she was growing up. There is implied to be an Unmade influencing her family in some way when she was growing up. Maybe more than one based on how everything else is her life comes in multiples.

I don't think he's a Radiant yet, but he would probably make a great Willshaper. Mostly its just personal preference. I think it's a lot more impressive if he's escaping and disappearing through his own skill, instead of using the same powers that everyone else uses. In this case, ironically, magic makes things less "magical".

I'm impressed he managed to perpetuate the worst stereotype of MPD/DID: that murder I committed didn't count because it was one of my other personalities that did it.

I vacillate on this so so much, and surely I will do so more as time goes on and I re-read the series yet again, but I’m wondering about this that Ishar says: He doesn’t say “Connection to Cultivation” but we know she fiddled with his spirit web too, and immediately after he says that we see Dalinar’s POV again so who knows if there was also a Cultivation connection there to sense. Who better to combine three shards than someone connected to them all? A shard of Colonialism and Conquest that combines growth/rules/hatred? It would not be a very satisfying ending for me, but could happen. Alternatively, if Odium is freed but Roshar is saved via an ascendency of Dalinar to Honor, I envision Cultivation being the architect of that and her motivations not being made clear until the Back 5 (where Lift is a main character and she is groomed to be the new Vessel of Cultivation) and Jasnah seeks to find out how to use her knowledge to save the Cosmere. Im using some hints from the excerpt from the Sixth of the Dust short story in the most recent newsletter for this, but given the timeline is likely hundreds of years in the future, it’s probably not as closely linked as I think. Lol

The last fine reinforced,for me,that Odium won that exchange and actually altered Wit's memory. That epilogue scared me,Wit had always been somewhat deific for me and outside of the story but still in it,and this book shatered that and well,the epilogue...man

The last line gives me hope that Wit somehow is the one that got ahead: that it "had gone exactly as he had imagined." Still, that epilogue was truly terrifying.

I've been under the impression that Stormfather has been around since before the KR. I imagine Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow merged with (or attached itself to) Stormfather. This particularly makes sense if Honor's Perpendicularity is in the highstorm. All to say that I'm not sold that these are former Bondsmith-spren, or something like that. I don't think they're Unmade either. They don't seem very evil for one... They hang out in the highstorm apparently, marching along with Stormfather. It seems like all the Unmade theories were based on the idea that they were connected to the Shattered Plains, and that's obviously not the case. They certainly seem more like spren than something physical...

I've been wondering about this for a while, too. I'm hopeful we may get some answers in Oathbringer - I was reading one of the Dalinar flashbacks from Unfettered II, and the giant stormstriders are mentioned there too (meaning it's extremely unlikely these are voidspren or thunderclasts): This is in Alethkar, not the shattered plains, so I also find it very unlikely that they are chasmfiends as Argent suggested.