Child of Hodor

Oh that's right she hulks out to tear the things out with magic. And yes that one was not really built to.

Now that this podcast pointed it out “main character unlocks their powers in the last few pages and saves the day” really is most of his cosmere books. Elantris, all of SA (Kaladin, Kaladin, Dalinar, Navani) Bands of Mourning, Warbreaker Not necessarily a criticism but it does happen a lot. I feel like MB era 1 didn’t do it as much. More like they just figured out a secret involving magic. Or completely screwed up depending.

I think the one that has another origin is Re-Shephir because she has/is made of midnight essence which is an Aether. Aether's aren't native to Roshar, but whatever Re-Shephir was Unmade from she was probably on Roshar before she got was changed. BAM seems like a Bondsmith spren to me. She was connected to thousands of Singers at once, giving them forms when she was captured damaging all those Singers' spiritweb. She seems really powerful and connecting or uniting things is the Bondsmiths main thing. I see where you are coming from and in RoW they are trying to add the Sibling to the Unmade. I just think that's because they are trying to turn the Tower to their favor permanently and not to complete their collection of 10 types of radiant Spren. The other thing is some of these Unmade are real dumb and the radiant spren are not. The Thrill is a big dummy gleefully walking into Dalinar's trap at the end of Oathbringer. We see in an "enlightened" radiant spren in Renarin's spren and it isn't dumb or any more powerful than other Radiant spren, just different.

I forgot about this. I need to start my reread.

100% agree with Eric I don’t want question prompting shirts.

The voice from his youth is either an unmade or a Spren. My theory is it’s the same Highspren he’s bonded to now. He has notably never heard his current Spren speak.

@alder24 @Argenti @Duxredux Thanks for the responses! Makes sense.

They are classified as hemalurgic constructs on the coppermind, but I am unclear on if that rules out them also being cognitive shadows. There is a WoB where he says Kandra are not cognitive shadows because they didn't die they merely changed. Two railroad-sized spikes through the brain doesn't seem survivable. Do their spikes simultaneously kill them and "staple" their soul, or an investiture fossil of their soul, to their body? https://coppermind.net/wiki/Hemalurgy#Hemalurgic_Constructs https://wob.coppermind.net/events/331/#e9405

Such a coy sneaky man that Brandon. *Sigh* I guess I’ll read it.

I think someone bought the rights to it and then decided to put it "on hold" because it would be expensive, he's never been adapted before so it's not a surefire hit and all the streaming services started losing tons of money around the same time in 2022 which lines up with the timing. It's possible they picked it back up and are moving forward again. It would be neat if that's what it was. If it's an in-book Stormlight thing then the Heralds or the Radiant orders inspired by them would be the 6+3+1. Like who is on whose side, 6 side with the humans, 3 side with Odium (Nale+2 others) 1 is independent (Chana). If it's radiant orders 3 siding with Odium would be Skybreakers, Dustbringers and ???. 1 would be the Bondsmiths who unite the all and in the darkness bind them, wait wrong thing. Eh, it's probably another kickstarter announcement or something.

I know :). Maybe someday.

Good point! I forgot how much they like their naps :). Kind of sad how terrible a shape many of their minds are compared to the Heralds who are also a mess but have been tortured and don't get naps.

I mistyped Nohadon's name earlier and realized it's either a reference to the biblical Noah or an anagram for "Don Noah" hinting at him heading a crime syndicate of some sort (OG KR?!). Nohadon was a young leader after most of humanity was wiped out. His own nation lost 9 out of every 10 people. Other nations had it even worse. He was alive when Urithiru came to be. Is Urithiru an ARK?!?!?! Urithiru spaceship confirmed! Anyways, I think I found one of Brandon's puns or whatever and now you get to groan at it too!

Radiant seems like Shallan's idealized version of her mom, who was (probably) the Herald Chana. I would posit a theory that she absorbed her mother's soul and it manifests as Radiant, but there is no evidence of that magic being a thing, so why bring it up? I dunno I just think like the idea. I am 100% onboard with Chana being her mom, I am not onboard with her breaking. No one needed to break for the events of this series to happen. The Fused came back because of the piece of the Everstorm being moved to Roshar and summoned into the physical realm. It created a bridge for them (a lot of bridges in the series). I think Chana has been on Roshar as long as Taln who also didn't break this time either. She hasn't sought out her family because she tried to kill her daughter and feels bad about it. Why wouldn't the Fused have just retuned if she broke? Not like the Heralds are in any condition to help the humans. Even Taln is a total wreck. Why wait until the Everstorm was brought into the physical realm? The Listeners just barely succeeded in the summoning. I don't want to tell the Fused how to do their job, but if it were me I would actively help protect the people that Odium's big Oathpact workaround hinged upon instead leaving it all up to Ulum and the descendants of "traitors" who barely know any forms.

I don't think a bondsmith did it in the past. I think the Spren did it themselves. It can happen, Ishar knows that much. I think he fails because the spren is not wiling and cognitive beings like stick can resist change. They can become fabrials and blades on their own maybe other things are possible. In Nohadon's day they could become blades without anyone swearing oaths and Aimia was around before Honor's death. It was a silver kingdom. Stormfather has plot convenient amnesia. Him not realizing something is possible is not necessarily the final word. Plus he's been acting very different with Dalinar than he did with Gailvar, he can lie, but I don't think he's lying here. Thanks for letting me know about the WoB I wasn't aware of it. He says they are not descendents, they are not human - spren hybrids. He wasn't asked they are Spren transformed into living humanoids. I think they are just spren made into physical realm beings straight up and they either don't age or have extremely long lives, similar to spren who are live indefinitely unless unmade or antiinvestitured.

This is a well put together theory, I see where you are coming from. Thanks for finding that the WoB has been walked back. I didn't realize that. It kind of doesn't make sense for more than one Herald to be living in the same place. Nale and Kalak talk a good amount, but they've both got their own separate secret societies. I always thought Paliah made more sense as Dova. The place is named after her, she is the Truthwatcher Herald, one of the two with healing (Regrowth). Working in a secret hospital to murder patients to see the potential future (instead of the Truth) fits with the very specific inversion these heralds exhibit in their madness. Renarin sees the future but his spren has been "enlightened". Taravangian says he thinks she's Battar which he could be wrong about, but that would be kind of a silly secret. "I'm secretly a different Herald!!". That feels like a pointless twist since we don't know either Herald at all. Paliah is probably not Dova. Aesudan doesn't feel right as a Herald. I don't think he'd kill a Herald without letting us know a Herald had been killed. It would be a silly reveal 2 books later that a minor character who died was a Herald all along. SA5 Prologue spoiler: Aesudan was working with Gavilar to bring the voidbringers back which means more torture for her. None of the other Heralds, as insane as they are, want that. Even Kalak is only interested in Gavilar's work for the purposes of escaping the system. Auesudan is a petty villain imo. She is very impressed with herself for accomplishing very little. She brags about attracting multiple unmade and getting one to bond with her. If she was a Herald she's been around the unmade for thousands of years and as a Herald is worshipped as a literal divinity in some countries and as basically an angel in other countries she would not be super proud of attracting a few unmade. She would also know that Yelig-nar would kill her fairly quickly and she would go back to be tortured on Braize, something all Heralds seem keen to avoid. Odium mentions that she died offhandedly at the climax of OB, but he doesn't seem to care that much. The death of a Herald would be a bigger deal to him.

He's trying to convert them into physical realm being. Presumably because he wants to either do it to himself so he can be permakilled or to the Fused so they can be permakilled or both. I think this is actually possible. He doesn't know how to do it, but he knows it's been done before.

I think Valor will come into the story in the back half. The only reason I think this is a passage from RoW right before Taravangian kills Rayse it sounds like one of Brandon’s Shard Intent descriptors, but for Valor. Like Valor was influencing Taravangian. From RoW Ch. 113: If you compare that to how Odium is described when Dalinar sees it in OB it has the same cadence and format. Same with shards described in other series. OB ch. 57: My theory is either Valor was influencing Taravangian or Taravangian so exemplified the intent that he attracted the attention of the Shard in that moment. Either way I think Valor is coming.

Alyx: For those of you unaware of Mistborn: Birthright David: Who's unaware?!? I remember 16! I love in MB:SH when Leras is so pleased with himself that he hid the number 16 in the snapping when absolutely no one born on Scadrial would know the significance thus completely defeating the purpose he was using it for.

I think you are on the right track with what the one weird trick to compounding is (Arcanists hate him!). Essentially vampiric compounding. Drain someone else's health and burn it to compound it then store it. Somehow it needs to be unkeyed or whatever the word is for removing the identity lock. Is it as simple as order of operations, you drain it with Hemalurgy and compound it with allomancy then you can store it as your own with Feruchemy?

Kaladin is going there in part to help with Ishar’s mental illness. I think he’ll end up helping Szeth somewhat. Szeth freaks out a lot. Against Kaladin in their first fight he runs away. Somewhat in their second fight when Kaladin saves Dalinar. In OB he makes Lift go to Dalinar in the Thrill because he can’t handle the voices. In RoW he murders “Taravangian” in a rage. Yeah, Szeth’s family seems to have been in charge of the Honorblades at one point and Szeth has practiced with them before his exile then he had Jezrien’s blade for at least 6 years. He and Jasnah seem to be the most experienced with their powers of the non-herald POV characters. Now he has Nightblood and Nale told him he’d still teach him Division. Mass destruction.

Sazed pre-ascension. Post-ascension he'd be like "I can't bring myself to act that is why I never do the dishes" He is very even-keeled, he gives good advice, he's quiet doesn't own a lot of that would take up space. Only downside is he'd keep trying to tell you about a religion you should follow.

That's a good point. He also no longer can keep them from going back to Roshar after the Everstorm was brought to Roshar. He told Dalinar he literally cannot stop them which is why he can't agree to it as part of what he has to do if he loses the contest of champions.

The question came up on Shardcast: when during book 5 will the contest of champions begin? I am very confident it will start early on in Part 5 similar to how the battle of Thayen Field started early in part 5. In other words most of the book is taking place over the 10 days between the end of RoW and SA5. 1) This contest of champions was mentioned as far back as book 1 and agreed to in 3. It's the climax of the front 5 he isn't putting it in part 2 of the book. 2) This wob from 2020 talks about how Brandon did something in book 4 that sets up a difficult challenge for him and Karen (his continuity editor) in book 5. Karen is the keeper of the timeline. She makes sure the correct moon is out during a night scene, where the highstorm is and things like that. If most of the book is taking place over 10 days it will be very important to nail down who is doing what when and where in relation to each other.

I remember the sailors on the infinite sea! The infinite sea sounds a lot like outer space to me. My favorite Shardcast "What IS a ..." to date. What IS an arsonist? @Chaos Interesting you happen to mention Elantris was found fully built but unoccupied in this episode. It's almost like the previous inhabitants of Elantris just up and left. Obviously they could have all been killed but there were no skeletons or other remains found as far as we know.