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I'm hoping he's going to emerge from this slump to swear the 4th AND 5th Oaths towards the end of the book and save the day.

Here's a string of tweets with more info.

I can't remember when but I think we've been told somewhere that the inside covers will be pictures of Heralds like they were for Oathbringer.

You're referring to the chapter 7 annotation not chapter 8.

Brandon's posted his annotation for the chapter, telling us that Lalai had to die quickly because the series needs to be done with villains who don't have supernatural abilities or cosmere knowledge - as such figures are too easy as opponents now.

Brandon said on reddit the other week that he plotted the start of RoW like the conclusion of a book, imagining the 1 year time skip as the build up (that he's skipped) and then just giving us the payoff. It's then going to slow down for the bulk of the book. I imagine the rate of deaths will link in with that - lots at the start but not so many through the middle.

This gave us a more sinister angle on the ghostbloods than we've seen since Words of Radiance, and also raised a question of who among Shallan and Adolin's men is actually for the Ghostbloods.

In response to the nightblood speculation etc. We have an answer and it's NO. See attached quote from Michael Whelan's assistant source: https://www.tor.com/2020/08/17/behold-the-cover-to-rhythm-of-war-the-fourth-book-in-brandon-sandersons-stormlight-archive/comment-page-2/#comment-878270

Attached quote from Michael Whelan's assistant both confirms that it is Adolin AND asserts that it's an ordinary sword. Source: https://www.tor.com/2020/08/17/behold-the-cover-to-rhythm-of-war-the-fourth-book-in-brandon-sandersons-stormlight-archive/comment-page-2/#comment-878270

I've got each one at release: Way of Kings, took about a week - had stuff going on so couldn't just sit with it until it was done. Words of Radiance - finished at maybe 5am day after release Oathbringer - finished at I think 3am two days after release.

It's nice (and is already my desktop background). Though not my favourite stormlight cover - that's probably still words of radiance.

With Shardplate do you need a shield? Radiant weapons can be anything they need to be Though I suppose having a backup weapon/shield could be useful sometimes, we're yet to see much in this direction though

There job may be weird - but I imagine they're paid a decent wage to do a relatively task.

If you're right then there's a high chance he's going to be coming back which I really don't want to see. Maybe the theory above is a way of rationalising him not coming back - but still hoping....

Gavilar's behaviour in this prologue was abusive - I don't think that's particularly debatable. However this is a fantasy book and we don't have all the information. He could have been possessed, he could have a mental illness we're not aware of or he could have recently undergone some unknown incredible trauma None of these options would make his behaviour OK, BUT they would make it understandable and could cause the reader to be sympathetic to him - similar to how many of us find ourselves sympathising with Dalinar despite his war crimes. Stepping outside of fantasy, in real life many abusers have other serious problems that have contributed to their behaviour, that's not to say that whatever the abuser has endured somehow makes their behaviour ok BUT it is to say that life isn't black and white.

There's been a lot of discussion of the thoroughly unpleasant way Gavilar acts in the ROW prologue, but here's a theory on why he was like that. (Note this theory is born out of some discussion on the 17th Shard discord, this is my distillation of a conversation with various people in so don't credit me for the ideas) Observations In RoW Gavilar acts in an abusive manner towards Navani, he's dismissive and rude about his children, he's speaking of living forever and thinks everything is about him. Conversely we know from previous books that: He'd been reading "The Way of Kings" (which teaches far more moral behaviour) He'd started talking about the codes of war (which minimally encourage respect and proper treatment) He was getting visions from the StormFather teaching about uniting etc. Jasnah had positives to say about him (laced through WoK particularly) Sadeas criticised how he'd behaved at the end of his life BUT because it was the way Dalinar behaves in WoK i.e. morally When bleeding out his dying requests are i) hiding a void sphere (who from we don't know) AND ii) leaving a message to make Dalinar read "the Way of Kings" This set of actions AND his behaviour in the RoW prologue seem like two different people. Theory Gavilar was being possessed or otherwise controlled/influenced by something Voidish - perhaps one of the unmade. This influence was i) fairly recent, recent enough to not colour many lasting memories of Gavilar, AND ii) ended before he died - so he was his "normal" self giving Szeth the message for Dalinar. As an alternative the influence may have come on for brief periods at a time, so he was "normal" throughout the day but the voidish control would step in for a few hours here and there - pushing him towards certain actions. Another supporting point of evidence for this is Aesudan's comments in Oathbringer - she said Gavilar had discovered ancient spren - but hadn't known what to do with them whereas she had gone a step further, the result being possessed palace guards AND her attempt to bond with Yelig-nar. If Gavilar discovered any voidspren or unmade it is highly likely that they had access to influence him in some way. Counter evidence And Counter Theory The key counter point to all of this is the Oathbringer prologue. In this Gavilar is nice and friendly to Eshonai implying he's not currently possessed, however he's speaking of bringing back the voidbringers - exactly what possession would lead to him wanting to do. This gives rise to the counter theory that Gavilar was seeking to revive both the Fused and the KR and somehow take advantage of that for personal gain. If this was the case, then passing on the message about the Way of Kings to Dalinar would fit - continuing the KR side of the plan. BUT if he was only doing this to take advantage why continue now he's going to be dead? In this model Gavilar's dying request almost seems to require that he's set something in motion to bring himself back. Summary I'm not convinced on this but I think it's plausible - and I prefer the main theory here to the counter theory. I'm aware there will be other models too.

Because.... This book is going to be longer than Oathbringer despite the time skip. Can only fit so much in a book - and Brandon only has so much time to write. Though the Dawnshard Novella will help a little.

In terms of actual plot advancement not much happened here: Roshone set off with Godeke to the Manor Shallan's mission was a bust General combat with nothin particular achieved In terms of info-dumping this was massive: Cord got Shardplate from Aimia (what happened to Amaram's Plate?) 50 "Full Windrunners" and 250 squires Only 1 more HonorSpren willing to bond Jasnah has been interviewing Taln and Ash, and got a lot of info on the fused AND fabrials including that modern fabrials do stuff the Heralds have never seen Dalinar can summon a perpendicularity whenever he wants BUT it's exhausting Everyone's worried about Kaladin

Part of me would love to see Lirin become a radiant, particularly an Edgedancer though at the same time it would also be good for him to stay "ordinary"; I don't know what I'd prefer - I'm more interested in the development of his relationship with Kaladin than the development (or lack thereof) of his powers.

Until we got chapters 2 and 3 I thought Lirin was marked for death, I'm not so sure anymore and really hoping he doesn't die - seeing Kaladin continue to interact with him over a long period of time could be far more interesting - I'd love to see Lirin eventually accept Kaladin as a "protector".

If you go through the Shadesmar sequence in Oathrbinger, Adolin was actually incredibly useful throughout, so looking at an expedition now he has experience and useful skills. Obviously Maya is a massive draw back, UNLESS, she's healing... Also whilst Jasnah is probably the best Shadesmar traveller they have, they can't send the queen off on this sort of expedition, and Shallan's probably their second best - Shallan and Adolin have been married only 1 year, generally you keep newlyweds together to avoid, shall we say, "upset".

If they enter by the Vedenar oathgate the journey they need to take should be probably be slightly shorter than the journey they did in Oathbringer, and they can plan and bring some supplies whereas if Oathbringer all they had was what they'd happened to be carrying. In oathbringer they had the combined difficulties of opposition AND a lack of supplies - this time around the difficulty should be primarily opposition and not so much supplies - unless their supplies get stolen or something.

I think this has been the commonly held theory for a while. (after an initial now rejected thought that the Sibling would be something to do with Odium)

But do we know for sure if that is an end of part 1 interlude or end of part 2 etc?

This is true - at it's longest I think we can assume that it's going to be done in part 1 AND part 1 will contain other stuff too (Venli and Shallan PoVs). HOWEVER I don't think it will be easy - the question is how will it be hard? Riding the storm seems heavily telegraphed (parallel to Kaladin's escape in Oathbringer part 1), and it may still be the route it just won't be an immediate/simple step to do it.