feruchemicalrockband

The Unmade causing the problems may have been technically Bah-Ado-Mishram. Kalak says something along the lines of how imprisoning BAM brought repercussions to everyone on Roshar, even the Heralds IIRC. Maybe due to Shallan's half herald biology it caused her problems/inflamed them.

I don't really see someone absorbing the Highstorm as it would be too similar to what happened in Mistborn. However, the Highstorm being controlled by someone is probably bound to happen at some point in the series. It's too important a feature of Roshar for that not to be part of some sanderlanche down the line, and "controlling the storm" has been brought up by a couple of different characters already. For that to happen though the Stormfather would have to be either dead or reduced to some kind of mindless state.

Well, the ghostbloods wanted two things that we know of. 1. Control over outgoing investiture from Roshar. 2. A way to remove Connection from investiture to move it and cognitive shadows away from their home systems. If we can assume that Gavilar was able to accomplish something, and put it in motion before the ghostbloods, we have to look at which of these would be possible. First is sending investiture from Roshar into shadesmar. This is only possible through a perpendicularity. At the time, the only existing/active shardpool was the one in the horneater peaks, cultivation's. Seeing as it's very unlikely that Gavilar could have set up an entire operation up there when the horneaters are still chilling in the peaks, this is unlikely. The second option has to do with removing Connection. Likely, anti-investiture may be key to removing Connection from regular investiture. There may be a way to use them together without causing an instant reaction. The last option is that Gavilar was able to accomplish something that makes their assassination attempt moot. Considering that Navani's prologue had a ton of stuff about Gavilar "living forever" and him "not being able to die", he may still be alive somewhere as a CS without connection.

The mental health definitely feels like more of a set up and character flavor then anything else. We'll likely see some form of established mental health facilities in the back 5, but Kaladin will think of himself as a patron of these facilities rather than it being his actual job. To me, it's pretty likely that the mental health arc Kaladin has gone through is going to be the linchpin in bringing the heralds back. At least on the non-magical side of things.

I would put Valour in the SURVIVE section since valour is seen as great courage in the face of danger, no just courage itself. It's courage when courage is needed to survive. Maybe instead of "To Leave A Mark", the last section could be DIVINE/DIVINITY? This idea came about because of the description given to Odium in one of the epigraphs. "God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context". That's a really weird and specific way to describe Odium. So going with the theme of godly shards, my immediate picks are: - Mercy seems a good pick. The mercy of God would be a good match to Odium's "divine hatred". Found a definition that says "a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion." - Endowment. The magic system on Nalthis is literally based on a "Divine gift from God". The slivers on this planet literally subsist on Divine Breaths. Seems a given. - Not certain on the last one. Maybe something to counter Endowment seeing as Odium and Mercy might be good counterparts. Invention?

The breath trick Vasher pulls off at the end of Warbreaker only works on awakeners who have lost their breath for a significant amount of time. There's a huge difference in Vivenna's reaction to gaining breaths when you compare when she first gets them to when she regains them from her shawl/carpet. Using it against an enemy invested in a different magic system would just make them back off from the new sensations, not what happens to Denth and Vivenna. And like others have stated, Kal was easily able to rip through the blankets Basher used against him in part 1, and those were probably more invested than a lifeless.

I think those dragons might actually be Larkins. Which kind of makes sense since they're the natural enemies of surgebinders.

Just as a disclaimer I'm assuming you mean the name of God of the Abrahamic religions. I did some research and found “He Who Makes That Which Has Been Made” and other similar names. Is that correct? If that is the case then I'll agree with the others that it's more likely that it's simply an effort to show that Evi didn't understand much of Alethi culture and was a bit dim. It was one of the few times we were shown this and not just told, so I'm considering it characterization more than anything.

In RoW we saw Kaladin's first arc come to a close. As Kaladin is SA's main protagonist it's pretty hard to believe that he'll be killed off in the next book or completely written off in the back 5. I'm theorizing that Kaladin will be taking the role of Bondsmith in books 6-10, maybe as early as partway through book 5. It's pretty clear that Dalinar is setting himself up for failure in book 5. He'll be competing against a much more competent version of Odium who will be playing on a separate level compared to the old one. He's also going into the contest of champions from a really odd perspective. Dalinar claims that he's the greatest warrior in the Knights Radiant, but throughout RoW he's been trying to step away from the warrior role and take on a supporting role. While he does have a powerset with high versatility, he has a limited knowledge/experience with it. 10 days is not enough time to learn higher Bondsmithing techniques, even if he's sending Szeth and Kal out on a road trip to get Ishar. So I think Dalinar is going to lose his position as Bondsmith by one of: Becoming a Fused Dying The Stormfather dying Ascending Losing the Stormfather's bond Kaladin, on the other hand, has been set down a new path. The end of RoW sees him come to terms with his status as a soldier, forgiving himself for his past failures and accepting that he'll make more in the future. At the same time, he's begun to see himself as a person who can help people with PTSD and similar conditions. Book 5 might have Kaladin start the healing process with Ishar, and maybe Szeth as well. His fame has taken on a life of it's own, giving him legendary status in Urithiru and perhaps other places as well. It's Syl most of all that makes me think things are going to change for Kaladin in a big way in the next installment. For those that don't know, Syl was given her own icon for her interlude chapter. Character icons are important as they illustrate scenes that have happened or will happen. There's a wob somewhere explaining this but I couldn't quite manage to find it. Syl's clearly shows her wearing some kind of pack (Which is a really odd thing for a spren to do), looking behind her. To me, this provides extra credence the the 'Syl becomes fully corporeal in the physical realm' theory. This might cause Kaladin to lose the bond in some form, leaving him open to some other bond, ending with him as the Bondsmith. Here's a few separate ideas on how that might happen: Bonding to the Stormfather after Dalinar loses his bond Syl bonds to the Highstorm after the Stormfather is killed Kaladin finds Taln's blade (He would have gravitation, adhesion, cohesion and tension allowing for bondsmithing stuff) Kaladin takes Ishar's blade Kaladin bonds Bah-Ado-Mishram and unites the two storms (honestly this is a whole other thing) There's a few reasons I think Kaladin makes sense as the next lead Bondsmith. I'll list them here. Kaladin's first steps in dealing with mental health have begun as highlighted in RoW. Since Kal is about to go on a journey to find one such person with mental health problems stemming from battle shock, it might inspire him to continue it. In the gap between books 5 and 6 Kaladin might go on to unite the Heralds once more. Another group that needs uniting are the humans and the singers. Having someone revered by singers as the head of the Knights Radiant could go a long way to uniting the two groups. Or at least opening up talks between them. Kaladin is the only other character besides Dalinar who has received Highstorm visions. This indicates that Kaladin might have been a candidate for the Stormfather had Syl not taken him first (I'm aware that Radiants can bond multiple spren, Brandon just says it's highly unlikely). Feel free to poke holes in this, it's just an idea I've had bouncing around in my head for a few days. To be honest it's mostly because I can imagine a scene at the end of book 5 after the Radiants have pushed back Odium for a time with Kaladin brooding at the top of Urithiru looking out to the horizon and then the last line we just get : Unite them.

Sorry I don't really understand your point I guess. Also, Vin was able to create a future shadow with skill only. Seeing the future would probably create more. Either way we probably won't know more about this until SA 7.

It's not what Renarin knows that he can't see, it's Renarin's future itself. When Taravangian meets Odium at the end of Oathbringer he sees Renarin's name with rest of Odium's plans when he's trying to be intimidating, but his name is blacked out and from his name the rest of the words in the enhanced Diagram are blacked out as well. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but all the futures Odium is able to predict are depicted in gold but Renarin's name "blacks out the words into eternity". I'd say that's more than just what one or two odd visions are able to do. Plus, in RoW it's stated that the people close to Renarin are being affected by this too.

It's not the visions Renarin has that I'm talking about, it's his ability to constantly cancel out Odium's future-sight. This should work the same with atium. The cosmere has consistent rules, and any ability that affects one future seeing ability should do the same to another.

Haven't read through the entire post yet, but something I have yet to see someone mention is how Enlightened Truthwatchers may be hard counters to atium. From what we know about how future-seeing abilities work in the cosmere, any time two abilities that have the potential to change the future (or negate future-sight) interact, they simply nullify each other. Seeing as Renarin (and now probably Rlain) are immune to Odium's future-sight, Enlightened Truthwatchers (Enlighteners? Futurewatchers?) must have some kind of innate anti-future ability, like electrum does for allomancy, except always on. Adding their enhanced healing from progression and living shardplate as an incredible defense, E-Truthwatchers nearly take the battle against a mistborn every time. The only way to counter this is probably using ranged attacks while burning atium, constantly wearing away stormlight before the E-Truthwatcher can get in range. This is assuming, of course, that all E-Truthwatchers are unable to create illusions like the regular ones, taking away the option of laser beams (really hoping we see this in SA 5).

I don't think T is going to let it come down to a battle of champions at all. At least not one that lets either him or Dalinar win. The terms were that either way Odium is stuck on Roshar. Before they set the terms they did talk about what would happen if either of them broke their word. T's plan is probably to make Dalinar and co think everything is going to plan, then subvert them causing Dalinar to break his word. This will cause to Dalinar to fall completely into Odium's control, and T will be able to start working his way into the rest of the cosmere.

He has the bridge 4 symbol "tattooed" onto his shardplate, so at least there's that. Pretty sure the rest of bridge 4 still has their tattoos.

Haha, no I don't think I'd mistake that scene. Someone definitely has said the same line Notum did though. Syl maybe?

Totally agree with you, I just thought his "Honor is not dead" thing was a quote from Kaladin, but I just checked and saw he never said that to Notum. Whoops! Great scene either way though, really liked Adolin this book.

There's another thread that is talking about this right now. I'll link it if I can find it, but the general consensus seems to be that Shallan swore her 4th oath with Testament in tWoK when she admitted she was terrified. She then bonded Pattern with the radiant oath, swore her next two truths to him, then admitting to killing Testament was her 4th oath to Pattern. So Shallan is at the 4th level with two Cryptics, where one bond is fractured but salvageable. Here's the post.

This is making me really scared for Kal and Syl. Seeing as in the next book they'll be traveling with Szeth and Nightblood (and maybe others) to cleanse Shinovar and find Ishar, and how Ishar has already discovered that honorspren are the closest to being able to live in the physical realm in their cognitive forms, he's probably gonna do something to Syl. Syl has also been in the physical realm for a long time and is the most connected of all the honorspren in the physical realm.... This is gonna be bad.

Wow, Notum's statement during the trial is what really got me. Him walking up to the podium and looking like he wanted to denounce Adolin to have his exile status revoked, but coming through with "Honor is not dead so long as he lives on in the hearts of men!" just shot straight through me. He was really impacted by Kaladin, huh? Ties well into the theme this book of Kaladin being an inspiration to others, loved that. Notum, Dabbid, Adin and even Lirin towards the end. What a great book. What were your favorite emotional moments this book?

So I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm not really going to give much proof on this because I'm little busy right now, but if any one buys into my theory and wants me to explain further I will. So essentially I think the 4th oath (at least for Kal) will be something along the lines of "I am not responsible for the choices of others." Biggest reasoning for this is Moash and his current arc of abandoning responsibility and placing fault on others. It would make for a good confrontation and subsequent swearing of the 4th ideal during the assault on the tower. I've got plenty more reasoning behind this and would like to see others poke holes in this, so let me know!