Wysawyg

Sorry. That was a typo on my part. My brain meant dart, my fingers typed blade.

Darn, there goes that (part) of the theory. WoB is interesting though... that, as you say, Cultivation had no part of the oathpact!

My personal theory as to where Taln really is is that he's still stuck in Damnation. Do we have a timeframe for where the Taln death quote occurs relative to the current timeline? I know the prevailing theory is along the lines of: Herald breaks in Damnation, Desolation begins but... What if the Oathpact is actually between Honour/Cultivation and Odium along the lines of "You can have your desolations but only when a herald fights and breaks" so the heralds abandonment only broke their side of it and left Odium free to start a desolation whenever he felt like it (why he's waiting to know I don't know!) The main reason I'm keen on Jezrien-as-Taln is just because it's means him and his honour blade are coming close to each other. Presuming that Nalan is going after the other honour blades in Shin. Plus who would feel the most guilt over breaking the oath but the guy dedicated to honour? Who would feel the most guilt over abandoning their own but the guy dedicating to leadership whose order values protection? Not really evidence-from-the-book-as-is but what-would-be-cool.

Jezrien. This might sound crazy and I don't think there's enough evidence to conclusive prove it yet (and WoB suggests not) but here goes: So WoB has hinted that Taln isn't Taln (though that could be a red herring) so I got to thinking to who it could be... We know that the current heralds are going crazy along the lines of their previous character so Nalan is taking justice to extremes and Shalash is breaking all her own statues. So how would the epitome of Honour break when he's broken the most important oath he ever swore? Answer: By trying to get back what he lost and taking on the role of the person he most betrayed. Taln who the other heralds abandoned to hell-equivalent. I think however it goes beyond Jezrien pretending to be Taln and into the fact that he believes he is now Taln. This puts a new slant on the 'Am I too late? in his PoV sections. From Taln-perspective, is he too late to stop the desolations? From Jezrien's perspective, I think it ties in thematically with Kaladin's plotline, is he too late to regain the honour he's lost by breaking the oath? This might also explain why the blade Dalinar bonded is not an honour blade as we know Jezrien doesn't have his honour blade... which I think will tie in with the narrative because: where is Jezrien's honour blade? Well, Kaladin got it back off Szeth so it's currently in Urithiru which is where Amaran is taking Jezrien. Herald and Honour-blade reunion? WoB says there isn't enough evidence yet for what happened to the herald-blade which leads me to think if my theory is correct, there isn't enough evidence that Jezrien is Taln. Other evidence is that the conversation between Nalan and someone in the Jasnah PoV prologue mentions Jezrien being a drooling mess. Obviously this occurs well before the epilogue to WoK where Taln/Jezrien arrives but I think Taln/Jezrien is definitely someone who could be described as a mess, perhaps a mess who is just starting to recover a semblance of sanity through pretence. Also when Taln catches the blade before it kills Amaran, did he really catch it or could he have used a binding to pull it to himself? I'm not sure what 'powers' Heralds have, whether it's the same as their orders or something more. Other possible evidence that I only discovered from checking the coppermind, this quote: “[The Makabaki] worship Jezrien, though they don’t accept him as a figure from the Vorin religion. They name him the only god.” —Teft about the Makabaki[1] I'm pretty sure that the current Taln was described as looking like a Makabaki so it makes sense that their God looks like them! I can't think of a good explanation yet so why Hoid tells Taln/Jezrien he's late... other than it possibly tying into the conversation about being the second person to <x> so Jezrien is the second person to 'be Taln' as it were or why the shardblade that Taln/Jezrien found somewhere didn't disappear when he was unconscious but still. So, complete madness or possibility?

I think Shardplate must have some kind of connection to the person's spren though. Note how in Dalinar's flashbacks, the shardplate has glyphs on plus one of the people he meets is able to make his helm disappear and re-appear at will. Whereas currently shardplate is grey unless painted and, while it can seem to adjust to its wearer's size I presume, it can't be consciously controlled. Obviously shardplate can't just be 'It's really the spren' like shardblades are but I think there has to be something spren-related in there.

I'm wondering if the clue is hidden somewhere in the Parshendi songs in the chapter heading. Perhaps there's a form that grants immunity from the Everstorm so the question would be how to get as many Parshmen as possible into that form. I don't think they'd have to trap the spren in the crystals, that's the cheat method, the old method was just to walk into a Highstorm with the right mindset to attract the right spren. So potential forms: Work form contains this line: "Seek first this form, its mysteries to bear. Found here is freedom from fear." Though we've seen Workform Parshendi forcibly StormFormed but maybe there's a difference between the Everstorm and the walking into a Highstorm with the right spren. Or perhaps DullForm is the answer: To find this form, one needs banish cost. It finds you and brings you to blight You could parse the lines as 'Cost will bring you to blight so banish it'. Would explain why all the Parshendi 'woke up' post desolation in DullForm.

Given the whole plateau was the Shattered Plains oathgate, could the central circle be the 'door' as it was and the entire glyph extent of Kholinar is the teleporting bit. Would explain why a lot of the big cities are glyph-shaped!

My use of killing was probably too strong. Eliminating would be better, given that he seems set to get rid of the KR (or at least prevent them from reaching full potential given the Oh Crap moment when attacking Elhokar leads to Kaladin's power up) and the decoded text from the chapter header . I really like GreyPilgrim's idea that the plan was supposed to be a last resort hence why using it too early is trying to get the rest of the Judean People's Front and People's Front for Judea etc out of the way because the Diagram was supposed to kick into action after they were already dead/defeated.

I went with Lift just for awesomeness. However I do think Kaladin (sans Syl) and Nightblood would have been an interesting combo. Add pre-Syl Kaladin in the cage... Kaladin: *mope* My life is pointless. Everything I do fails. Nightblood: Let's kill some evil! Kaladin: But what's the point? I never win! Nightblood: Who cares about winning? More killing!!

First post here so I hope I'm doing it right. Being mulling over The Diagram since I finished WoR and wondering why the 'save the world' plan also seems to be a 'kill the rest of the heroes' plan and I think I have an idea why (And I couldn't see this theory anywhere else so sorry if someone has already realised this). First, assume that the Nightwatcher is a lawful neutral character. It does what you ask for, not what's best for you/the world. So Taravingian asks for a way that he could save the world. Sounds like a good idea except... In order for Taravingian to save the world, he has to eliminate everyone else that could save the world. This might also play into the shifting intelligence. When he's brilliant, he doesn't have the compassion to care that he's dooming the rest of the MCs. When he's stupid, he doesn't realise the Diagram is also eliminating the composition. It might also explain why the Diagram is in code (especially the numeric code in one of the chapter headings). Much like Eshonai tuning to the song of peace, the inner conscience of Taravingian was screaming at him as he wrote and tried to disguise parts of the plan in the hopes he wouldn't understand it.