Erklitt

That sounded like a good idea! I had never heard of the steel alphabet, but found it on the coppermind. Sadly, the result is just as cryptic: Y B I M W L S G Z R

I'm rereading TLM and wondering about the graphic that's under each 'Part X' title. Has there been any discussion of this? If there has been I couldn't find it. There are two rows of metal/number symbols. Of course those could be random, just for decoration, but I find that hard to believe. Yet I cannot think of any meaningful interprtetation. In numbers it's: 14 1 3 11 13 5 16 9 15 6 The metals are: nicrosil iron tin gold chromium zinc duralumin cadmium aluminum brass Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I tremble to suggest this, and maybe someone can help me out with a satisfying answer. Here's my problem: Ryan sabotaged Ulric's beacon. When John meets Ryan, they guess that it still worked in part since John got through, though somewhere unexpected. And Ulric somehow could trace where he had landed. Then it turns out Ulric's beacon really doesn't work anymore, and it was Logna who 'fetched' John. Nothing to do with Ulric's beacon. So, how did Ulric know that someone had landed in Stenford?

Yes, you definitely do!

Published in 'Arcanum Unbounded'. And what you're forging is (slight spoiler, but something you find out pretty much at the beginning of the story, so it's really more of a teaser than a spoiler): The way I take it, that's just showing how her personality tends to extremes. I'm not aware of any deeper meaning to it.

I don't think it's a spoiler to mention what story that is, but to be in the safe side...

Check out the chapter titles of part 1.

I don't think it's either of the two possibilities. I don't remember where Malata was at that moment, but guess she probably was there and represented the Dustbringers. She definitely is the only one whom Dalinar would recognize as a Dustbringer at that time. We're seeing this scene through his eyes, and he sees 9 orders represented. I can't point to any specific WoB right now, but I remember that on several occasions he said something to the effect that there is a limit to how long it is acceptable to misdirect your readers on any given subject. E.g. he promised after WoR that we would soon know whether the man entering Kholinar in that epilogue was really Taln, and he kept that promise in OB. By that reasoning alone, Shallan is definitely out as a secret Dustbringer. She's an experienced Lightweaver by now and bonded to a cryptic who is one of the main characters. Even if Chana was really somehow hiding inside Shallan, that wouldn't change the fact that Shallan herself is a Lightweaver, I just don't see BS suddenly coming around the corner with: 'I fooled you all about her real nature'. And I would claim almost the same for Ash really being Chana, though a little more tentativly. But we see her talking about how her father was just killed, she destroys Shallash images not Chana images, and all in all is too well established as herself by now in my opinion for BS to pull such a trick. I do think it's possible that Ash will become a dustbringer and is the 'real' representative on Honor's side, though Dalinar doesn't know it.

I couldn't find that rather old thread about who might be the kandra worldhopper on Roshar. But after all sorts of important people had been suggested, someone said: 'probably someone unimportant like the chouta seller'. Kudos, whoever you are: you were probably right!

The number 16 certainly is suspicious. But apart from that, I consider it a possibility that 15 of them contain the16 basic metals (or fifteen? would aluminum cancel the others? Can't remember just now...) and the last one contains atium in addition. Just saw that @Dl206 is of the same opinion: In addition, 16 might just be a red herring for us so that we're not entirely sure even now whether he's mistborn. Cool yes, but why would he need metal flasks then instead of armbands?

At first I thought it might be Lessie, but then I realized (after enlarging the picture) that she's wearing spectacles. So now my guess is Ranette, she uses magnifying spectacles in one scene. Otherwise, I think both women's description would fit.

Thanks @Treamayne and @Greywatch. The problem was not about the mechanics of quoting per se, but that the quotes always ended up in a new post, even when I had the cursor inside the post I tried to edit. Found a way now though: cutting it out of the new post and inserting it in the one I'm editing.

There's a lot to look forward to with Rysn, the Novella that's set between SA3 and SA4 ('Dawnshard') is about her. Not to mention some more very interesting interludes. It's worthwhile to keep the characters connected to her story (including pets!) in memory. This is somewhat of a spoiler but not a very big one I think, and a very interesting thing about Rysn, so decide whether you want to see it (it reveals one aspect of Rysn's future): Sorry about the double post, I know it's not supposed to be done, but I didn't manage to add quotes to my previous post. If that's possible and some admin sees this and can tell me how it's done, it will be appreciated! Good catch!! Information on Aimians will be forthcoming VERY SLOWLY, and most of them in WOBs. To be on the safe side, I'll spoiler the rest of this, but you asked, and I think there are no serious spoilers here.

Take with a grain of salt: 1. Pattern We're seeing a spren reawakening - it's only fair that we should see one becoming a deadeye. And he's known it all along, hasn't he? How - Shallan subconsciously finds her next truth, and simply is not able to admit it, it's too horrible*. So she does 'it' all over again. * SA5 prologue wide-spread theory spoiler 2. This next one contains Mistborn spoilers: 3. Hoid Design drives him to desperation, so he finally gets tired of life. Again: overdue, after all those millennia, and with Design being what she is. I mean, it's quite inescapable at this point?! Also, he's believed to be unkillable, and we're owed some REAL surprises now and then. How - He steals Nightblood and unsheathes it. It takes Jasnah entering Shadesmar to identify the body... ============================================================================== On a more serious note: Adolin is NOT going to die. His arc with Maya is too unique and important. And while we know spren react differently to the deaths of their knights, we know what it did to Syl - and seriously: you think a barely reawakened spren would be less devastated? Brandon simply can't do that to her.

The closest to this we have seen would be Design, taken up by Hoid after Elhokar's death. It makes me wonder: should we hope for Elhokar's influence to be quickly 'overridden' by Hoid's, or should we be terrified of the prospect?

First of all: welcome, @Elsecalling…! That was just a mix-up of shard and vessel. The WOB states that 'the Stormfather is kind of Honor's Cognitive Shadow'. Otherwise, this thread has me a little confused - some posts don't fit my previous understanding: Both the Stormfather and honor spren including Syl existed long before the splintering. So how they can be splinters of Honor? Being made of Honor (and Cultivation) is something different than being splinters, I would think. Or is the word 'splinter' used in two different senses here? One being a synonym for 'sliver (of divinity)' as Syl sometimes puts it, the other the broken pieces of the shard after splintering? I thought spren only exist on and are typical for Roshar? And what reason would a shard have to create spren anyway, and at the cost of its own destruction to boot?

I thought this was an interesting theory, although I agree with Still, you're right that something interesting is going on with Hesina. But it's not this. I just searched WoBs for Hesina, and found two more relevant ones. I guess the first one also puts an end to the biological interpretation of 'child of Tanavast' (pity - I liked that one). Since I still have them open, I might as well add this one that @Yumiya has alluded to in the OP:

I wonder: could it have been Hoid who brought Nightblood to Roshar? He might be considered a criminal on many worlds for many reasons. He's important enough cosmere-wise to be hunted through worlds. He keeps a low profile on Roshar because Rayse would kill him, so Azure probably has no way of knowing he's near Vasher and Adolin's and Kaladin's home. He was on Nalthis when Vasher still had NB and is now on Roshar. He could somehow have acquired NB on Nalthis and have it with him on his journey to Roshar. And he could have passed through Lasting Integrity with it on the way. He has some knowledge of where he has to be at any given time, maybe sometimes also what he needs to bring along? I don't think however that he was Taravangian's source. Edit: Should have searched WOBs before writing this. My bad!

Generally I would agree but ... this is Design we're talking about.

Thanks, @Frustration. I'm glad there are still people who realize that not every relationship involving strong emotions must be sexual in nature. That would be a poor world indeed.

No need, that's a very insightful theory! And by the way, welcome to the shard! My bad, I didn't remember this. So, as far as we go with this theory, it's probably the gender change. But several things: e.g. your WoB, and another about it being a special and difficult process for heralds to procreate, but especially the timeline (Mother dying in that very month - I mean: what are the odds??) got me thinking some more. What if Mother actually was the herald, but in order to have children they had to do things that would render the partner similar to the herald in some respects? With one of the side effects being they were (at least almost) equally hard to kill, and them 'inheriting' some character traits, including herald madness? I realize this is quite a stretch, but if Brandon is really going to dig into all those 'herald body mechanics' 'pretty deeply', this could be some nice foreshadowing.

I agree with those that don't want to see Kaladin suffering even more. And after his big breakthrough in RoW I hope and believe we'll see a triumphant Kaladin for most of SA5, before he fades into the background for SA6-10. Since Brandon has (IIRC) promised some level of closure after SA5, I can't imagine him leaving our favorite character to suffering at the end of it. However, I can well imagine the question coming up at some point in time and him offering it, maybe in connection with his fifth ideal. Maybe it will even happen for a short time, but my guess is if it does, it will be resolved and a better solution found before the end of SA5.

You have me fascinated! The longer I think about it, the more possible - even likely! - it seems to me. And there I was until now practically sure about the Mother = Chana theory. By now, I'm almost 50/50. As @Anomander Rake says, especially the blackbane and aluminum points are very valid; I wondered about both during a recent reread, without ever getting near to any specific theory about them. Also, the 'obedient' topic: I once started writing a post about Lin's constant complaints that no one obeyed him, trying to say it strengthened the Mother = Chana theory, but gave up when I realized all that happened after Mother's death, so it didn't really fit. And about 'brave': Lin detests his sons - except Helaran - for their lack of bravery in standing up to his dictatorship. Typical mad herald inversion of a virtue? As for gender, I think both are possible: Chana never having been a woman or a gender change. For Chana never having been a woman: I hold to the theory that in SA5 prologue it's a 'Stormfaker' rather than the Stormfather for most of the time. He drives Gavilar in the direction of the Sons of Honor, meaning he would want to strengthen Vorin orthodoxy like '5/5', and for that reason not contradicting Gavilar. And maybe in the vision the Stormfather was lying by omission, but then maybe in the context this misapprehension just wasn't important enough to point out. This explicit mention of something we seem to know by heart really could be intentional misdirection by Brandon. For a gender change: @Frustration 's WOB strengthens the theory in my opinion. If they just always automatically got their original bodies back, why would this process become important later on? There has to be more to that, and part of that could be that somehow an originally female Chana woke up in a male body for the last desolation. About the herald who died on the day of Gavilar's death: there's that theory about Jasnah's hired assassin being Vedel, and we never hear about her again. Maybe she found her match on that night? I admit that's a stretch. But not impossible. She's the only one left beside Chana who's not accounted for by at least a WoB if not in the books. And one more point in favor: the Mother = Chana theory has, among other valid points, stated that it explains why Shallan's familiy was the center of so much attention: spren, Skybreakers and Ghostbloods. But at least the Ghostblood attention happened years after Mother's death, and Skybreaker and spren attention also didn't cease after it. By the Shin. We haven't seen their viewpoints apart from Szeth so far, and IIRC Szeth has never seen Shallan. Jasnah has Wit's drawings, but she's secretive, not showing her cards. No reason to believe she'd make obvious discrepancies to tradition public. Also, as has been mentioned against the Mother = Chana theory, there's no hint Jasnah recognized Shallan's likeness in Chana, though of course that could also be because of this secretiveness. All in all, I think this theory has a surprising lot going for it, even though it's still crackpot !

According to some, the timeline fits exactly, as both events happen in the same month of the same year (no idea how they found that out). Further evidence fitting with that theory (thanks to many other posters!) - Chana has red hair (from official pictures as well as SA5 prologue), as had Shallan's mother - It would explain why the name of Shallan's mother was never mentioned; it would have given too much away - Given various WOB's, we've seen pretty much every herald at some time or other, and Chana and Vedel are the only ones about whom we're not sure where that was. There's a theory the assassin hired by Jasnah in SA2 prologue might be Vedel (healing turned on it's head my madness) - If Shallan knew her mother was a herald, that would explain what 'truth' could be even worse than what we already know: she didn't just kill her mother, she sent a herald to Braize who would probably break soon, starting a desolation. Quote from WoR (from memory, maybe not exact): 'The world ended, and Shallan was to blame'.