Cayden

One other thing to keep in mind, in WoR when Kaladin begins to use his surgebinding fully he attracts a swarm of windspren, we know that Shallan frequently attracts creationspren. Maybe speaking further Oaths will allow you to bond the non-sapient spren? If this is the case then it probably wouldnt bother Syl as much because they were not alive in the same way. I would be surprised if there is a link between a Knights spren and the plate itself though, at least not in the same way that the blades are. Because if that was the case then you would likely be able to bond plate... And finally... The variety of Spren which can bond with a human do not naturally exist within the physical realm, whereas normal spren do. Which would explain why plate cannot disappear into shadesmar like a blade can.

I was just about to mention this, personally I thought it was one of the funniest things i've ever read. it really starts the whole Bridge Four bonding process.

They could have been the original Fabrials, but its still up in the air. If they are spren then I suspect that they were what originally bonded with the Parshendi when Honor/Cultivation first terraformed the planet to create helpers for the newly formed humans. Perhaps they build the original cities based on the way certain sounds make. In a way I think that is one of the older aspects of their song. Imagine builders who could tune themselves together and work in unison? it would be an incredible boon for mankind. And if Odium had somehow blocked those spren from bonding with Parshendi then it might well explain the jealousy and hatred which could have caused the first Voidshendi(im not convinced that they are the voidbringers rather than just a single aspect of it) If they are Fabrials, then I suspect they are as much more powerful than normal Fabrials as Honorblades are more powerful than Shardblades. But how that would work I have absolutely no idea there just isnt enough information yet.

Possibly but I dont think so it just doesnt quite feel right to me. It seems like the blades form during moments of extreme need and to be honest I just dont think Jasnah has ever really needed one before. She could soulcast as a weapon. I think she gained more power during her time in Shadesmar. If she had a blade before she might have used it against that gang in tWoK rather than soulcast them.

It makes me wonder if we havent actually seen foreshadowing for the 4th Ideal already. "I shall not browbeat myself when my followers die for a righteous cause!" but no I still think it has to do with teaching other people to lead. Jezrien was the Herald responsible for training mankinds leaders in how to lead, how to be generals. So it makes sense that the Windrunners who had stylised themselves after Jezrien would do the same. Which is why I think Elhokar's request is so interesting.

Jasnah did not have a radiant blade so why would it have worked for her? whether she thought to infuse it with stormlight like Shallan did is another matter. I suspect the only lock they placed on it if any, would be a lock which stopped it from working unless a Radiant left from Urithiru to one of the others. Single way traffic perhaps?

As long as there isnt someone who is similar to Cordelia Ransom... Mr Pierre was merely trying to ride a tiger. But yeah I agree that Nalan's group has little to do with surgebinders, I doubt he even wants any of his followers to be able to surgebind, not yet anyway I think he will have a change of heart once he sees the everstorm.

Maybe Dalinar married cultivation? then she had to fake her own death because of the oncoming Everstorm? Okay I know this isnt the case but if Dalinar reminded her of Tanavast?

Shards can essentially bio-engineer entire races when they want to, so I dont think its out of the lines of possibility that The Parshendi were first tweaked into the Listeners by Cultivation. Perhaps as vessels for the Dawnshards. And then re-engineered in a more subtle way by Odium later in order for him to be able to control them.

Not really sure here, I suspect that he went to the Nightwatcher years before Galivar died, his wife around 3-4 years before the assassination and the way he looks guiltily at Renarin makes me wonder. What if he asked for Renarin to be capable of being a warrior? I dont think he asked for his health to improve as that doesnt quite feel right. Originally I thought that he asked for aid in getting over his grief, but I think that it is somehow linked to Renarin, we just havent got enough information to go on.

Myself I think it is some sort of ultra Fabrial. something the Knight could wear, fairly innocent looking and not too bulky. But when infused with Stormlight it grows and shapes itself into a suite of Shardplate imbued with stormlight (Hence the glyphs and colour) It could then act as not only a battery of sorts, because any stormlight they breath out would be caught by the plate and then absorbed by the armour itself. But as protection and a way to super-enhance their muscles and endurance. It would explain they way shardplate's damaged sections could be regrown, as well as how the Knight in Dalinar's vision could remove it at will, if it is a conscious decision to do so. This doesnt fully explain why it was left in full plate form during the Recreance though, so there are some massive holes in this idea. I suppose the other possibility if it is a spren based ability: Plate might be the body of the spren, the physical manafestation, while the blade is the mind of the spren which would explain why plate would not scream. And why the blade can be summoned but the plate cannot. Along these lines it makes you wonder if the Recreance wasnt just about breaking Oaths but about severing a sprens mental and physical self.

I thought he was trying to teach her to Lightweave Yolen style. The way he does well he tells his tales to Kaladin. he makes them come alive to the listener. In a way very similar to what Shallen could do if she were better trained. but yes I think he was surprised. and I suspect he was soothing her during it as well. a lot of people think he was burning metal to sense her abilities, but makes more sense he was soothing her

Eshonai will have a PoV in Book #4 so not really anymore than Szeth having Book #3 as his PoV book. When he's only been in Interludes until then. Other than the first chapter of tWoK

What if the secret is that be opening themselves to the spren they open themselves to Odium now that Honor is dead? Think about it, Honor was still alive during the other desolations, he would have been able to exert a modicum of control over the Radiants to stop them from being taken over like the Parshendi. Perhaps without him, they have no shield to Odium except their own will? This might actually explain what Syl meant when she said to Kaladin that he is not supposed to be like this. Perhaps it takes far more strength of will to resist it now and if thats the case, then surgebinding could actually become a real problem. The Stormform Parshendi are nothing to what a truly out of control surgebinder could do. We've seen what Szeth could do, if there were hundreds of him being controlled by Odium... It might actually explain the Recreance to an extent if this is actually the case; because if their spren had been infected by Odium then the Radiants could not risk releasing them, so perhaps they intentionally locked them into their shardblade form to stop them from being able to do the same again with a new surgebinder. The spren within shadesmar might not even realise the significance and decided it was mankinds betrayal rather than the weakened state it places both man and spren in when they are bound.

Exactly, the thing is almost every trick Szeth normally uses to make him such a killing machine will not work against Kaladin. Szeth sticks someone to the ceiling? he tries that on Kaladin and Kaladin can likely just suck it in. Szeth reverses gravity? Kaladin does the same but at a lower stormlight cost. They were evenly matched in terms of abilities however: The cost factor is the bigger factor than most people give it credit. Szeth could not afford to heal his injuries while fighting at the same level. Kaladin could, and not only could he heal while still fighting at the same level as Szeth but he had Syl shard shifting to be whatever was needed for the situation. Every time Szeth has fought in the past has been against normal people, even normal people in shardplate are not really a challenge when you can do things that make them insignificant, and heal almost anything they do to you. I dont really think Szeth is a Knights Radiant now though, at least not yet. I dont think he can become one at all or he would not have needed Nightblood. Think about it. a true Skybreaker has similar abilities to Kaladin but instead of the clause to protect, they have a charge to uphold justice. They are essentially the anti-windrunner, If they could not counter what a wind runner does they would not be able to police them. But just like Wind Runners are able to beat most people, they are held in check by their oaths. I suspect that Skybreakers are bound just as tightly.

Just because its a Fabrial doesnt mean that it cannot be one that can be summoned/dismissed at all. I think with the right amount of investiture that you could probably have say a bracelet and then use that as the basis for growing your plate around you. Think about it... gems are used to power and grow new sections of the plate in the modern times. But what if that is merely an inadequate reproduction of what they've seen the Radiants do? What if they can literally grow/fix it by using their stormlight on it, and then once it is complete having a lot of that stormlight available for them to pull back at a later time should they need to, or further infuse should they start taking damage that needs repaired. In a sense it would be part of a repository/battery and part protection against harm, both physical and stormlight theft. I do wonder whether if a Radiant in full plate breathed out whether their plate would retain the expelled stormlight as well. If so then you essentially have a self sustaining battery. We've seen that both Kaladin and Shallan can pull back stormlight they have used so even if there are diminishing returns it would still make having plate incredibly efficient as opposed to walking around bare.

I suspect that Szeth becoming Truthless had more to do with Taravangian's machinations than anything spren related. They are very rare in Shinovar from what we know. Im more curious to know whether Szeth received visions alerting him to the coming desolation, think about it; If Odium can see the future, the short term future far better than Honor then he could likely be running rings around everyone, getting his Unmade to give certain people visions in order to set them on a path which would set the Parshendi up for their fall. I dont think this is how a desolation normally happens because I dont think the Parshmen have ever taken up slave form before, so he lacks an "in" to get them under his control. Perhaps in previous epochs there Voidspren merely went dormant and they could leash the darker aspects of those forms without Odium taking up the puppet strings. Maybe he gave Szeth visions, and played into Taravangians insights so that they would provide him his army?

I dont think it will heal until his issues with Amaram are resolved, either Amaram dies or is redeemed/put to justice. Until then its an unresolved issue and I just dont think Kaladin can get past it. Even with this 3rd ideal, Amaram is not protected by that in anyway shape or form. Elhokar deserved protecting, Amaram does not. And I doubt that the 4th ideal will be anything to bar him killing Amaram either. I suspect the 4th will be something about leadership. Which will tie in with Elhokar asking him to train him. and the fact that Jezrien was the one who taught people to lead. So no I really dont think this will get healed until Kaladins mental scars are healed.

I think it matters more how he handles things afterwards than what he actually did. No windrunner would have protected him because the 3rd ideal actually precludes them from doing it. Sadeas did not deserve protection, neither does Amaram. They might not kill them themselves but I think they would pull up a chair and have a nice glass of wine while someone else who wasnt bound by the same ideals did the deed. If Adolin hides it, or lets someone else take the fall he is walking a slippery slope, because it will mean he did it out of hatred rather than out of him really believing it was the right thing to do. I think if he actually tells them and is honest and open with the right people (i.e not everyone who would use it against him) then it will be the next step into him becoming a Releaser. If he hides it I think it will corrupt him, either by making him think he can get away with things, or by making him think he is not becoming a Knight because of it. If he starts to think that he will begin to loath and hate the others for not dirtying their hands and thus forcing him to do it and lose his chance. He walks the knife edge, whether he comes out unbloodied will be another matter.

I have one problem with it, and only one. He covered up his involvement in it, that gives an opening for a certain nasty Shard to potentially play on. But its still too early to tell, if he comes clean to the people who matter it might not be a problem, but it seems the sort of thing which could fester and become a problem if he does not act like it was a Just action. By hiding from his actions he is basically saying it was wrong for him to do it.

The Vorin church which just happened to be very anti Knights Radiant and everything about them. But perhaps their is truth behind it to an extent. What if Odium used to give people visions of the future to make them lay the path for him to come and Desolate the world? Perhaps the Truthwatchers are as much about filtering out Odium's influence regarding visions of the future as everything else. If they can see Odium's future's as well as Honor/Cultivations then they might have to be the ones to decypher the "truth" The death rattles are of Odium afterall, and they are all future events. so I think it likely that he might well be seeing the future from Odium, but that his spren bond is not yet strong enough to protect him from it.

This is one of the reasons I feel like the Recreance was designed to banish all intelligent spren from Roshar. Makes me wonder if Feverstone Keep was near the shattered plains and whether they were fighting the Parshendi of that time or whether it was against humans. Afterall in WoR they state that the current warcamps were a satellite city, what if it was actually a Keep designed as a last bastion against what remained of Odiums forces. Then the KR and Parshendi made a deal to banish the spren. Both sides agreeing to give up the power in order to stop their Gods from forcing them into things? Theres just so many possibilities its unreal, all of them as likely as another.

The betrayal seems to have been some way to force the spren to stay in their shardblade/plate form permanently without the ability to change that. Kaladin broke his Oaths and Syl was basically banished, she didnt turn into a blade/plate. That has to be part of the reason the spren are so hesitant, they didnt just kill the spren, they betrayed them in a way to turn them into something they would hate. I think in a way shardblades are similar to what happened to Szeth. Forced to do things they loath but unable or unwilling to change that even though it causes them pain.

Unless he cannot initiate the desolation? what if it has to be a willing participation from the first Parshman/endi? what if they have to be the one to open the door. Before that he can only nudge in the right direction and prod here and there? The Nohadon vision says about the surgebinder causing wars, but it never says against whom. What if part of it was against the Parsh race of that time? and that triggered them to give in to the Void spren?

I dont believe it really, I think that it was orchestrated in part by Odium. Even if it was some sort of pact between the KR and Odium to abandon their Oaths and Odium would leave the planet alone. To me the Recreance and Odium going away for a long time makes perfect sense from Odiums perspective. What is 4500 years to the life of a Shard? From what i've read they can think very long term. and While the KR were alive, while the Heralds upheld their Oaths then he was far more limited in what he could do. I think it was a way to systematically weaken mankind and trick them into eradicating their only hope for survival, so he could merely have set all this in motion and then gone away for a nice little vacation, then waited for the conditions to be just right, knowing that eventually some human or another would be stupid enough to start the ball rolling. Assuming he didnt orchestrate that from a distance using his Unmade, afterall we know they can effect people by their mere proximity. what would happen if they deliberately focused on someone? Could they do the same as the Stormfather and give people visions?