Dawnshard

Because he is possessed by Gavilar. It is Gavilar who kills Dalinar, just inside the body of Gavinor.

They could have used recycled Inquisitor spikes to get Feruchemist abilities

Great theory! I wonder if Sazed becomes Discord before that, and they need another shard to restore him to a more benevolent state.

I thought about how Brandon foreshadows. I figured he would want an ending to Stormlight 5 kind of like Rhythm of War. An interesting twist with a scary ending. Then I noticed he likes symmetry in his stories. He talked about this on Lost Metal at Dragonsteel. Alloy of Law is paired with the Lost Metal and Shadows of Self is paired with Bands of Mourning. So I figured the 2 pairs of brothers fighting would be great symmetry. But having Dalinar who is honorable be forced to work with Taravangian would be a cool twist. And to make it as scary as possible it would be the Shard Honor because Dalinar already made a deal with Odium.

I frickin love this! At Dragonsteel he talked about doing the assignment vs what he actually wanted to do. He has worked long enough keeping it subtle. There are hundreds of authors who can't write like Brandon. If you want selfcontained stories, you should read those other authors. He is the only one doing hard magic system crossovers. I loved the new information we got in Lost Metal. Identity locks? Awakened Locks that know if you have the passcode! Aetherbound! I'm so excited to see what he will come up with! It will be like nothing ever before. And when it eventually comes on screen? A whole new world. It will be like JRR Tolkien again. That much of a revelation.

So this is my big Stormlight 5 theory I have been working on. I told a piece of it at Dragonsteel Con at the stormlight 5 theorizing panel. So I think Taravangian will chose Gavinor to be his champion. When Elhokhar's child was being held in the palace, he was tormented to allow cracks into his spirtweb so the forces of odium could manipulate him. Dalinar faced with murdering his nephew's son or losing the duel will not kill the child. This deathrattle refers to this. However, Dalinar will die as Gavinor stabs him and is revealed to be Gavilar's Cognitive Shadow. Gavilar did not die when he was assassinated. He became a Cognitive Shadow like Thaidakar. Dalinar will uphold his oath and serve Odium. Unfortunately Dalinar will by the end of Stormlight 5, become the shard Honor. As the Shard Honor, he Must keep his promises and so the Shard will work with Odium to bring War on the Cosmere. Gavilar and Dalinar will work together. The back 5 stormlight books will focus on 2 sets of 2 brothers. Marsh and kelsier vs. Dalinar and Gavilar. Scandrial vs. Roshar. Last thought, I believe that Nightblood, which is the Dawnshard Destroy, will be used in the final confrontation to destroy Sazed and Harmony.

That is a very interesting theory. I just assumed he couldn't use his abilities because his soul was attached but not his abilities.

So as the person above pointed out. Nightblood is saturated with Investiture and leaks it as smoke. Also the command used to awaken him was destroy evil, which is what Vasher chose. It was in Warbreaker. I'm pretty sure it was to limit the amount of damage, it could do but that is speculation. Also Nightblood was more Invested than an Honorblade, and no explanation has fully convinced me as to why Nightblood has sooooo much Investiture. Way more than it would seem from awakening steel.

So we know Nightblood is full of Investiture. It is so full it bleeds black smoke. It is more invested than an Honorblade, can kill vessels of Shards, and was made by Awakening. Nightblood was based on shardblade design maybe even from the Honorblades. It seems to me that the 5 scholars at the height of awakening scholarship traveled to Roshar. Maybe to learn more about other worlds or other magics. They were impressed with shardblades. The sleepless were tasked with guarding the Dawnshards. One way to protect a dawnshard from Odium is to make it harder to reach. They gave it to Shashara, who created Nightblood along with Vasher. She was given the Dawnshard Destroy. They decided the best way to safely use it was if it was commanded to only destroy evil. They figured it would make the Dawnshard safer to wield. Rsyan was told not to bind a spren because using the Dawnshard in conjunction with Investiture is dangerous. Ie. Creating Nightblood with Awakening. A Shardblade so powerful because the dawnshard (similar to having the 5th heightening, or perhaps more) was used as the force to awaken it, maybe with additional breaths. What do you think an awakened soldier with the Destroy Dawnshard could do?

So we know Nightblood is full of Investiture. It is so full it bleeds black smoke. It is more invested than an Honorblade, can kill vessels of shards, and was made by awakening. Nightblood was based on shardblade design maybe even honorblade design. It seems to me that the 5 scholars at the height of awakening scholarship traveled to Roshar. They were impressed by the shard blades. The sleepless were tasked with guarding the dawnshards. One way to protect a dawnshard from Odium is to make it harder to reach. They gave it to shashara who created nightblood. She got the dawnshard Destroy. They decided the best way to safetly use it was if it was comomanded only to destroy evil. They figured that would make the dawnshard safer. Rsyan was commanded to not bind a spren because using the dawnshard in conjunction with magic is dangerous. Ie creating Nightblood with awakening. A shardblade so powerful because the dawnshard (similar to having the 5th heightening) was used as the force to awaken it, maybe with additional breaths. What do you think an awakened solider with the Destroy Dawnshard looks like?

We don't actually know when Hemalurgy was discovered. The metallic arts have been on Scandrial for ages and there are WOB that Mistborn were around before the Lord Ruler's Ascension. Probably Hemalurgy too. It was only made way more widespread because Ruin showed the Lord Ruler Hemalurgy as a way to get more servants. There is no reason Worldhoppers, several who are immortal couldn't have brought that knowledge other places before the final ascension.

It says you have to find a spren that would touch that. We have seen some spren care about things that other spren find inconsequential. Honor spren don't care about the law as long as its right. Maybe cryptics care less about damage done by Hemalurgy. It seems interesting the word choice. When I read TWoK I didn't realize Shallan had a shardblade at first but its obvious when you go back and read it. Wouldn't count this theory out offhand.

I think that the surge Adhesion belongs to Honor, and Progression to Cultivation. However Odium has been around long enough that he can now grant his own surge. He has a Rhythm now after all. If he did it would allow new Radiants that could access his surge and then combinations with that surge and open up more categories of Knights Radiant. Also Cultivation needed to work with Honor to create the Knights Radiant, and guess what, it appears she is now willing to work with the new Odium. Welcome to the Knights Radiant part 2. Another new set of Orders coming for the Back 5. They um, might fight about that.

Zu was named in the Emperor's Soul, but there were other more cosmere aware characters. My bet that the agent sent by Kriss is actually Shai, with a tongue in cheek nod to her lesser nemesis from that story by taking the name Zu. She used an essence mark to become rosharan and then formed a connection to a spren. As long as she keeps up stamping within the time frame she has her bond. Also if by the time she swears the 5th Ideal then maybe she won't even need the stamp. Also Adolin said that her background was suspicious but that she had training. Secondly this is the most cosmere connected book yet. There are Feruchemists, World Hoppers, Hoid, Heralds, and Returned. Not surprised that Sel is coming out to play. I think Zu, Kriss, Jasanah and other scoloarly types will get along better (not perfectly), than Hoid and the boys (who seem to not get along with each other, even Vasher thinks he's an ahole). Hahaha love the connections.

There are 16 Allomantic metals and 16 shards. However in Rhythm of War we see Warlight. A combination of Honor and Odium's light. So how many total metal combinations are there? I suck at math. Also I am assuming there can be combinations of three or more shards to create a new light. Also I think you can condense light into a metal. So how many metals can a Mistborn Burn, if a Mistborn burns all metals. (How much wood can a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?)

It would be an anti-matter reactor and that would be even more powerful reactor. Also can you make the Anti-light into a metal? then you could make anti-investiture swords. It seems as if the various lights can be refined into a metal. Man Allomancy got so much more freaking powerful because if warlight is made into a metal that opens another 16 metals to combine it with, add ever shard, every shard combo, add multiple shard combos. Damn that so many metals. 16 shard metals. 16 normal metals you can combine = 256 metals. di-shard metals 256. so 65,536. then 3 combinations. storm thats like 16 to the 16th. PS. I suck at math don't hate me.

Aw thats true.

We don't know how they died. Just that they died in the Physical realm, not how long it took. Also we know he was opening them up and seeing what is inside. Sounds like he was looking for something, perhaps bindpoints, perhaps connection or maybe if they had gemhearts. We don't know but Ishar knows alot. i don't see him just wondering what would happen if... He had a goal and was looking for something.

I also think that the Different Bondsmiths have different powers. I imagine the Nightwatcher Bondsmith to be very different from the Stormfather Bondsmith. Also the new lights will play into this with Dalinar using more control over stormlight, Nightwatcher over Lifelight, and Sibling over Towerlight. I personally think they will add an Odium Bondsmith and end up with 7 totally Bondsmiths which might get crazy by book 10. I don't think anyone saw where Rhythm of War was going.

Sounds like something Hemalurgic or Dahkor-like.

I believe we saw notes or writing written by EL in the end of the book, separate from Rhythm of War written by Navani.

I think its interesting that the Lanceryn seem to be greatshells of the Air, there are greatshells of the water (either the reshi islands or maybe something like the santhid.) The Chasmfiends seem like Intelligent greatshells of the Land. We also have Honor - Highstorm, Cultivation - Mother of Roshar, And we have seen Curiosh the Protector coming out of the Sea. Probably not all connected but interesting.

I think Cultivation wanted Odium replaced so she can work with another Shard. It was the Vessel that was giving her problems. Due to how much mixing of the magic systems in this book we saw, I think all 3 Shards will be destroyed and recombined into new Shards. Cultivation is doing this to make the Planet more powerful to fight the war of the Shards that is coming. Taravagian will help her in this regard.

So I thought that Mistborn era 2 was after the first 5 Stormlight Books so the letters are still both written by Sazed but before he crafted Wax.

Really good theories! I agree that Kelsier would want to move Investiture around to maybe gain more power and grow his secret society. He can however manifest an Avatar. I don't think he could do that unless he had lots of Investiture al least enough to match one of the Unmade. I wonder if he picked up the sliver of extra Ruin Harmony hide somewhere to become balanced.