Draigon

I'm not sure we know when the war started, just that it ended when GranGran was a child.

I'm going to vote other since I think Brandon's going to make it a bit more complex than being able to point at who started the war. A fairly massive amount of time has passed since the original story. Enough time that Detritus was populated, contained in a dyson sphere, abandoned or wiped out, and is falling into ruins when the Defiant fleet first crash lands.

@Alderant Good to see you back. Take the time you need. I've enjoyed your character analysis here and in other threads.

@goody153 Thanks, this does a much better job of explaining what you felt was a bit off with Jasnah, and I agree that we haven't seen anything to explain her level of martial prowess. The closest hint we have of that is her showdown with the muggers in Kharbranth and only in that she was completely calm and controlled in a combat situation. For now our imaginations can fill in the gaps, but I agree with you in expecting Sanderson to address this at some point as we get know more about Jasnah.

@goody153 The term "Mary Sue" has such a wide variation of meaning that it's nearly useless in describing a character. The original use was to describe an author inserting themselves into a fanfic story in an idealized form. It has since been expanded to include "protagonist I don't like", poorly written character, cliched character, idealized character, power fantasy and a bunch of other possible interpretations. While there is some overlap between some of these descriptions, they're not all the same thing. It'd be more useful if you could express the problems you find in Jasnah as a character in more specific terms. Is she a power fantasy? Well she's certainly powerful, but she was taken out of the main action for nearly all of Words of Radiance. Also the most powerful we've seen her was at a point where all the Radiants were walking around as power fantasies due to readily available stormlight for all. Is she idealized? Shallan looks up to her, but is chafing at Jasnah's expectations of her. Navani loves her but is frustrated and at a loss for how to deal with her at times. Jasnah herself points out flaws in her personality and makes no claim to be perfect. Is she cliched? I think this is more of an opinion question. Depending on how widely or narrowly you define a character you can reduce them to a cliche or grow them to encompass multiple cliches or even flip the cliches on their heads and still be considered a cliched character. Is she poorly written? I don't consider myself an expert in analyzing writing, so the best I can do is say that I find Jasnah to be an interesting character that I want to know more about. She's not been the focus of the story yet and as such we only have limited exposure to who she is. What we've seen though has been enough to draw me in looking for more, and only time will tell whether Brandon delivers on this. Is Jasnah a "protagonist I don't like"? For some people I'm sure she is. I like her and so this definition doesn't work for me. As we try to figure who these characters are we're going to have a like/don't like reaction. It's completely normal that not everyone will fall on the same side of this equation. All that to say, using the term "Mary Sue" doesn't actually tell us what you think about Jasnah. The easiest default is to assume you don't like her character, but I'd rather know what do you actually mean you say "Mary Sue"?

It has been confirmed in world by the Stormfather that there are 3 "god spren" and that the third is the Sibling. How exactly the Sibling relates to Honor and Cultivation is certainly up for debate, but the Sibling's power level is at the level of the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher.

Have we ever seen the Oathgate activated by an Honorblade? When Kaladin brought it through at the end of WoR, he summoned Syl as a blade to work the gate. In Urithiru a radiant advanced enough to summon a blade was kept on "gate duty". I don't remember an Honorblade ever being used or mentioned as a possible key.

That was either raw investiture pulled from the spiritual realm to answer Dalinar's desperation, or a piece of the Stormfather forced into a form usable for operating the Oathgate. The Stormfather does seem somewhat injured after the occurrence.

I generally operate under the assumption that, unless a different familial connection is given, all Herdazians we are introduced to are Lopen's cousins. After all, a man can never have too many cousins.

In an effort to bring better understanding between our orders, Releasers and Edgedancers will be Slicking a portion of the roof for anyone who'd like to experience Abrasion firsthand. Windrunners will standing by.

I owe you my life [...] That's the only reason I haven't yet thrown you through a window.

The disease doesn't need to be horrible. Something as mild as a cold could be enough.

Look here. There is an more up-to-date extension of this thread in the Oathbringer spoiler area if you want to pursue it further.

I'm imagining a background silhouette behind the words on the front which is meant to be Taravangian, but just to trip people up a bit, in the foreground under the words is a steaming cup of tea with tea leaves next to it.

Bridge Four is the first group of people aside from our central characters who begin to glow. Teft mentions the glowing to Kaladin and we begin to see Lopen's particular pursuit of glowing when he begins to heal his arm at the end of WoR. It follows then that we should should see the mindsets of these people as they are able or not able to progress. This gives us a better understanding of the Windrunners and what their particular Ideals actually mean. Jasnah actually comes back in the very final scene in WoR. I didn't notice at the time, but have since had it pointed out to me that Jasnah was a surgebinder and as a surgebinder she likely always had a bit of stormlight in her. Stormlight in turn lets people survive ridiculous injury and what better way to fool assassins than to play dead up until the very edge of death at which point her other hinted at ability of traversing realms allowed an escape. Shallan is hard to deal with. As others have said she tends to deal with hard truths by burying them and covering them up. Her final scene in WoR is Pattern forcing her to confront an incredibly hard truth which throughout her life has led to dissociative episodes and inability to interact with reality. So Shallan being forced to confront this Truth and being unable to truly hide from it any longer is more than enough reason for her behavior to be erratic. Maybe this will help to bridge some of the gaps you've found, but whether it does or not, I hope that you can continue to enjoy the world Brandon is presenting to us.

Deadeyes tend to be drawn to the Shadesmar equivalent of where their blade is in the physical realm, however they could be on the far side o Shadesmar with no noticeable difference in summoning. We learn from Captain Ico that many of the Deadeyes are restrained somewhere safe in Shadesmar to keep them as safe as is reasonable.

I'm now put in mind of the Yaka arrow used by Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy which he controlled by whistling.

I'm not sure where it would fall in the various areas of technical advancement, but there is an active industry creating glass bottles with metal caps.

The Oathgate in Narak, the shattered plains, or Stormseat, depending on how you want to name the place, is the first Oathgate to be used in the series. It's the one Jasnah was looking for. I was about to say it was the first to appear in the books, but I think we actually get an inside look at the Kohlinar Oathgate during an interlude before we know what we're seeing.

The Oathgate plateau throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the idea, as interesting as it sounds. The Oathgate plateau doesn't fit the pattern. It's the whole reason Shallan is able to zero in on it when Feld points out her drawing as incorrect. Their theory at the time is the plains are like broken plate where the Oathgate plateau is like an etched circle which breaks apart from the rest of the pattern. I tend to believe that this is because Oathgates don't like to be moved and are incredibly hard to actually destroy. I do like the idea, I just don't think it fits. Further information from Brandon would be nice. Either in book, or a non-troll answer. Unlike the following which as far as I can tell is the last thing he's said about it aside from in book.

Shallan does recognize that the pattern of the city is likely a cymatic pattern, just like all the other dawn cities. The shattering of the plains is something like that cymatic creation but at an extreme level. Imagine a strike to the center of the city which is so strong that vibrations shake apart all the surrounding area. You still have a cymatic pattern, just much larger and likely not as controlled as whatever created the original city pattern.

I have, on occasion, happily toyed with the idea of an alternate universe version of Roshar where "Dark" versions of our main Radiants end up shaping the new orders. What if Gavilar didn't die? What if Kaladin went Skybreaker? All still very valid Raidiants, but a group not striving for the same translations of ideals that we see currently.

Urithiru is going to be a slow pressure cooker over the next year of in-world time. It will be interesting to see what comes of all the ingredients that have been tossed into the mix.

Yes, the language is confusing. When we're talking about splinters as entities, the term splinter is referring to small bits of investiture that have gathered together. Some splinters, like the honorblades, were created intentionally by Honor. Other splinters, like the spren, were preexisting coalesced investiture of which some had gained a level of sentience. The death of Shards via splintering, while related to splinters, is not the only way that splinters can come into existence.