Havoc

In addition to the related areas of research, it is notable that the last syllable of his full name - Xisisrefliel - does sound similar to 'Foil'.

This book would make an amazing movie. The art in the book is already incredible, though I'm a little disappointed we didn't get a clearer picture of the two oceans mixing. If it's made into a movie, one thing is certain. Every one of the Dougs must be played by the same actor.

Is there any reason it couldn't just be a Leecher Grenade that the Admiral surreptitiously activated in his pocket to drain the Bands? The grenades have already been shown to have an area-of-effect without the need for direct physical contact.

Now that we have 15 of 16 Shard Intents, here's my attempt at classifying them with known Dawnshards. Each Shard goes with the Dawnshard that's best related to its intent, even things such as Preservation being the absence of Change. Unconfirmed Shard and Dawnshard names are in red. Change Preservation Ruin Cultivation Ambition (The desire to want more than you have) Survive Autonomy (Survive independent of others) Mercy (Let others survive) Valor (Fight to ensure others survive) Prudence/Survival Think Invention Virtuosity Whimsy Honor (The loosest fit in this list) Connect (Concepts defined by a relation to others) Dominion (Control others) Devotion (Love others) Odium (Hate others) Endowment (Give to others) I'd love to hear other's thoughts about these.

I see Honor as an internally focused thing. A person's choices can be honorable, which may or may not have anything to do with the people around them.

I'm currently about halfway through the book, so no spoilers beyond that please. I've noticed that the Boomerang watches have very inconsistent consequences. It's originally said that you melt if you don't Boomerang back within 30 seconds. However, there are three occasions so far where a character only Boomerangs one way, and doesn't suffer any consequences of not returning. Zef sending Jax away right before his death Brigan doesn't teleport back from the power room, but Jax was melting at the time? Jax teleporting out of the containment tube Do these reflect something deeper going on, have I missed something while listening, or (impossibly) has Brandon given up on consistent magic systems?

That explains a lot. I didn't remember about that loophole. Before knocking out the guard, Jax spends quite a while tracking his patrol patterns. Well more than 30 seconds. I suppose you could assume he teleported back to the tube between observations, but it would have been nice to have a line about that.

I was re-reading the section where Mr. T ascended to Odium, and something caught my attention. Chapter 113 (Italics as per original text) That sounds to me as though Taravangian was losing hope, and some external force helped tilt the scales in his favor. And what external force was that? Bravery, otherwise known as Valor! What do we know about Valor? Sazed to Hoid - Epigraph to Chapter 25 We know that Hoid hated Rayse and was looking for a way to bring him down. Perhaps he did take Sazed's advice and approach Valor again. If Valor did indeed affect the situation here, that explains so much: Why did Brandon feel the need to give us 4 new Shard names? So that he could hide the foreshadowing for Valor. What exactly was the deal with Hoid's conversation with Todium in the Epilogue? Given his dealings with Valor, Hoid knew that Taravangium had Ascended to Odium. This conversation was his way of getting a feel for the newest Odium. The scene felt strange because Hoid does not want to let Taravangian know that he knows about the replacement, so he hid those relevant memories in the coin. Could one mortal really take down a Shard? Well yes, but it still seems odd that one person was able to out-plan a Shard. Okay, so maybe this was Cultivation's planning. But could a plan with so many moving pieces really work flawlessly without support? It's much easier if another Shard helps out at the pivotal moment.

That's a great catch. This whole exercise reminds me of how Robert Jordan used to hide grey men while writing.

Sure, it's possible to be brave without any of Valor's influence, but I think this case is different. The way Brandon has written the scene makes it very likely that the bravery is an externally induced emotion, as though Taravangian were being rioted. Add to the that the fact that Hoid would definitely have contacted Valor after Sazed's suggestion, and the pieces start to line up. Reread the epilogue with the understanding that Hoid knows exactly what has happened to Odium, but he doesn't want to let Taravangian know that he knows, and it makes so much more sense. Both the actions that Hoid takes as well as his commentary to Design.

Don't forget, both types of Aimians have different colours of blood. That pretty much confirms independent origins.

Why has no one listed the Sleepless as a secret society yet? They are clearly up to something, protecting Aimia as well as keeping a close watch on many of our main characters.

You could say that the structure of this book is Storm-lite.

Stormlight spoilers:

Thanks for setting up this forum Chaos! One thing that's always confused me about this book is what exactly Slaughter and Despair are. Are they Shards? If so, how are they sons of what seems to be another Shard?

Who all do we have so far as worldhoppers in this book? Hoid: Nothing to be said here Vasher/Zahel: Nothing new in this book Vivenna/Azure: Really interesting to see how competent Viv has become Riino the Lighthouse keeper: An Elantrian Felt: The spy from Mistborn finally gets a speaking part Nightblood: I wonder if the Fused that he kills are permanently killed... Some talk about Shashara sounding similar to Shalash Anything else I've missed?

These are three different letters, all written to Hoid: This is clearly from a shard who is the only one invested on their planet. This rules out Preservation, Ruin, Cultivation, Honour, Odium, Devotion & Dominion. I think Autonomy is also ruled out as Taldain is not accessible any longer, and thus it is not possible for Hoid to have had many intrustions into Autonomy's domain. Of the shards we know, this could only be Endowment. It could of course, be a hitherto unnamed shard. Brandon has told us that Bavadin/Autonomy likes to create multiple personalities, and have a presence on many worlds. This sounds very similar to what is quoted in the letter. Other sections from the letter that suggest Autonomy: This must be Sazed.

Oh, I agree that it's incredibly unlikely that Shalash = Shashara. I just thought that it's interesting for that connection to be drawn in the book so explicitly.

Definitely Viv. Given that Vasher has already been in WoR, I can't see this reviewer being so coy about him. Further, I don't expect to see a major use of breath, Lifeless, etc on screen.

When Brandon was in London for his Shadows of Self tour, I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions. The questions are listed in the signing thread, but I'd like to dig a bit deeper into one of his answers: And for good order, here's the passage in question: With all that out of the way, on to the theorycrafting... With Brandon's answer, it's now quite clear that in summoning her Shardblade, Shallan re-established her link to Pattern, which gave her the ability to soulcast. If it's Pattern that let her soulcast, then what were the other Cryptics doing here? I posit that they are complete red herrings and had nothing to do with Shallan's soulcasting at all, other than inadvertently scaring her into summoning Pattern. The voice she hears is Pattern prompting her into saying Words, the same way Sly prompted Kal to say the Words when defending Elhokar from Moash. Of course, for a Lightweaver, Words are about self-actualization, not oaths. Shallan's Words might be new or might be a repetition of ones she has said before, but that is a debate for another place. The Cryptics that Shallan 'saw' were actually chasing after her only out of curiosity at coming across a human who could sense them. But, what were they doing there in the first place? I think that as 'the lighteyes of the Spiritual Realm', Cryptics like to keep an eye on what the lighteyes of the Physical realm are up to. Specifically, they like to keep an eye on the rulers. The very first time Shallan drew Cryptics, they were hanging around Taravangian. I expect that's what they normally do, when not drawn away by something more curious. The only other place we've seen hints of Cryptics is around Elhokar. (this is well documented elsewhere on the forum so I'm not going to go into details here.) Surely it can't be a coincidence that we have spent time with exactly two kings over the course of the books and we've got Cryptics next to both of them. I expect that the next time Lift hangs out with Gawx, she's going to see a few Cryptics around him too. TL;DR: Liespren are lies

Brandon once posted this snippet from Oathbringer Book 2 on Reddit: Now that Lopen has grown back his arm, I'm even more convinced that this is him speaking. Clearly, Kaladin is reunited with Bridge 4 by book 2, otherwise they would not be able to use the surges.

That's a bit disappointing. It looked like a really sneaky easter egg.

4 of Dalinar's flashbacks from Oathbringer have been released as part of the Unfettered 2 anthology. Is there a place to discuss these chapters?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/5dpic4/oathbringer_spoilers_stormlight_three_update_5/da6f2fo/ Thoughts?

During my latest reread of WoR I noticed a connection between a few existing theories that leads me to believe that we're going to see Nalan chasing down Adolin very soon. Theory 1: Ym is an Edgedancer I'm not sure where I first read this, but there's certainly a lot of evidence for it: Ym uses Progression (Regrowth), so he's either an Edgedancer or a Truthwatcher. He lives up to the second ideal of the Edgedancers, "I will remember those who are forgotten." E.g. him helping out street urchins. His spren looks like what you'd see if you could only see Wyndle's crystals. We see Wyndle through Lift's PoV, and Lift has the special ability to see and interact partly with the cognitive realm, which is why Wyndle looks different from Ym's spren at first glance. His Interlude chapter arch has Vedel twice, the patron of the Edgedancers. (Lift's own chapter has Nalan + Vedel.) Theory 2: Nalan is only going after (proto) Edgedancers We have only seen Nalan try to kill two people, Ym and Lift. The moment you accept that Ym is an Edgedancer, it strongly suggests that Nalan is only going after members of that specific order. Perhaps he thinks their combination of surges is particularly dangerous. Theory 3: Adolin is on his way to being an Edgedancer His shardblade is described as having vines, so used to once belong to an Edgedancer. He is one of the few Shardbearers to talk regularly to his Blade. He lives up to the Edgedancer ideal we know: "I will remember those who are forgotten." e. g. holding on to his mother's locket and remembering her before each fight, and protecting a prostitute who was being bullied in Sadeas's camp. Theory 4: Adolin 'snapped' when killing Sadeas and is now on his way to becoming a surgebinder A few quotes: What does that remind you of? I think there's a strong case that something inside Adolin just broke, and he can now start to instinctively use stormlight, the same way Dalinar or Kaladin did before speaking the first Ideal. Wrap-up So we have a Herald that tries to kill Edgedancers, but makes sure to keep his killing legal, i.e. as 'justice' for some crime that the proto-radiant has committed. And Adolin is a proto-Edgedancer who has just begun to access some of his power, who has just committed a capital crime in Alethakar. (We might think he was justified, but according to the letter of the law, I'm quite sure Adolin was in the wrong) I think that in Oathbringer we're going to see Adolin leave the others for one reason or another, and find Nalan closely on his tail. This should be quite the battle, Herald vs. champion duelist.