TruthwatcherDan

I've recently been thinking about the Stormfaker and any implications that may follow if he is indeed the real Stormfather... Imagine if the real Stormfather has been WORKING FOR ODIUM this whole time... I mean the guy seems pretty broken (understandably after seeing all his children die during the recreance) and cagey... it's not too much of a stretch for him to want to see the end of humanity on Roshar (and potentially his own life) after thousands of years of seeing humanity at it's worst. Him bonding Dalinar makes sense as well if you look at it through the lens of the Stormfather knowing Dalinar was being groomed as Odiums champion... why not supersize your evil champion with the power of a Bondsmith (unchained)... If the Stormfather is the Stormfaker it makes sense that he has evil intentions which we're yet to understand... he wanted Gavilar to bring on the voidbringers and free Odium as he hates humanity... So... if StormDaddy is working for Odium... could he BE ODIUIMS CHAMPION in SA5!? That would be an interesting twist... thoughts?

My suspicion is on Renarin... seeing into the future is a pretty significant ability in the Cosmere, and I don't think his bond with Glys is enough to justify such power... it's also why Renarin appears golden at times and can show people different (honourable?) versions of themselves. My theory... the Iriali are the direct ancestors of the Ashynites and Evi's bloodline carried one of the Dawnshards... Sja-Anat knew of this when she sent Glys to bond with him and wanted to have Renarin as one of the most powerful and influential allies she could possibly have. The Dawnshard may, or may not, have had something to do with his "blood weakness" (or epilepsy) but I'm not sure.

This is a really interesting and terrifying idea... if the old magic still effects a shard holder... then old mate Taravagian just became a million times scarier! Imagine Taravagian on his smartest day given nearly infinite time to achieve it, then throw in the fact he has the power of Odium. Storms! But then, inversely, what would his most compassionate day in the same context look like? Odium crying and handing out free hugs?

I say this on the assumption it affected the Nahel Bond as well, as Deadeyes didn't exist before the Recreance, which happened shortly after to the capture of BAM. However thinking about it now, the Listeners also have spren in their gemhearts and weren't affected, nor were any of the fauna with gemhearts... so there's something not right about the logic there. Maybe BAM does connect directly with the Singers, and the Deadeyes were a separate phenomenon (but IMO it's related based on Melishi's actions described in my post earlier). I always interpreted the quote below as hinting that there was more at stake than just denying the Singers forms of Power...

This is a really good summary, I think the only thing to clarify is BAM gained the ability to Connect to spren, and as a consequence Connected with the the singers (via their gemhearts). As you mentioned it effects the Nahel Bond as well... Deadeyes didn't exist before the Recreance either.. (RoW, Chapter 115, per Kalak) Creating Deadeyes when a bond is broken... Which makes me think that Melishi knew, or had some insight, as to what effects trapping BAM would have on Connection in Roshar (Singers and Humans) and went through with it anyway... that's such poor form Melishi! By extension, if this is the case, it also explains why The Sibling was so angry at humanity and why the Sibling's fabrials started "failing" prior to the their slumber... I'd certainly be angry if I was a spren and my Bondsmith was planning genocide!

I would love to see Kaladin acting as an agent for Harmony... the poor guy could use a little harmony in his life, it just seems constant agony the way it is currently. *Burns a glyphward for Kaladin: "Peace, Serotonin, Harmony"*

I kind of agree, her goal is to nurture and grow things to their potential without holding bias over what is good or evil. Cultivation is a chaotic neutral IMO; she's not manipulating she's "cultivating"... gardening is an apt metaphor; human's perceive the nature of what is being grown (flowers/weeds or good/bad)... whereas, Cultivation is the action/intent of watering, fertilising, and tending to the garden...the garden will grow regardless of what is planted, or how it is perceived, it simply is and cultivation brings out it's potential. His goal as Taravagian was to save Kharbranth and his people, which win or lose the contest of champions he has achieved. The question is can he balance his sanity and holding the shard of Odium and how does he get out of the Rosharian System... sane or insane, (T)Odiums eyes are set on the whole Cosmere based on what we read of his ascension!

You are spot on here, in Taravagian's eyes he has already achieved his purpose of saving Kharbranth and his people from destruction; win or lose the contest, they're safe. The predicament we see for Taravagian now is will he be able to balance his sanity/compassion/intelligence now that he holds the power of Odium... how his control or lack of control will influience his decisions... and how this will play into the wider Cosmere... (T)Odium is a total wildcard with the complexity of internal conflict going on there. With Szeth as (T)Odium's champion, the other link we need to consider is Cultivation's intent and foresight in giving away Nightblood. The history there is murky, but given she can seen the future, she may have seen it falling into Szeth's hands, with an outcome that Szeth is champion for the Team Radiant. However, if as you suggest Taravagian is playing a subtle game, he could mould Szeth into a champion for team Odium so subtly that Cultivation isn't aware until the last minute. She did set up Taravagian to become (T)Odium with unfruitful good intentions after all! This terrifies me because it would make for such interesting reading... but I'm not sure if Brandon would go there from an ethical/moral writing POV; he generally seems to suggest sensitive/triggering topics rather than writing them directly into the story... Like we have seen with Jasna's/Vin's past... Surely infanticide is up there as an ethical/moral boundary. I'm also wondering how (T)Odium will tread with Renarin now, given anyone that he, and he interacts with him, has their future shadowed from foresight... Maybe everyone should just have a mass group hug with our boy Renarin for the final ten days and screw (T)Odium up big time!

Go directly to damnation, do not pass go, do not collect $200 spheres! I am not a Stan of Syladin; we haven’t seen any romantic or sexual attraction between spren or spren and humans, in my opinion it’s not something they have capacity for. I suspect platonic relationships is all they’re capable of Spren and friends, not … buddies!

I've been thinking about how Szeth's oaths may play out in SA5; and some possible ways his narratives may come together, especially given that Szeth will be the flashback character in SA5. Here's our oaths to start as a reminder: I'm interested to see if Dalinar looses the contest of champions then how does Szeth's future play out in light of his Third Ideal? Does he become an agent of Odium by proxy of Dalinar's will? Does he break his oath to follow Dalinar consequently killing his (mysterious) Highspren? Does he say his Fifth Ideal, circumventing his Third Ideal? Or does Dalinar have the power of will to release Szeth from his Third Ideal without breaking it? What ever happens I think we will see a conflict for Szeth brought to light as we learn his backstory, particularly with that caveat in his Fourth Ideal: "So long as Dalinar Kholin agrees"... and it's going to be GOOD READING! Bonus theory: Imagine if Szeth-Nightblood are tricked/convinced into being (T)Odium's champion...? (T)Odium guy has so much emotional leverage over Szeth already, I can see him giving it a go... especially if Taravagian uses the advantage of no one knowing of his ascension to his advantage. Szeth has his Fifth Ideal as a nice little get out of my Third Ideal card to draw too! By the Almighties Tenth Name that would be a terrifying scenario for Dalinar, et., al! Nice knowing you team!

For a while I was team Susfather too... believing that Ishar was the one talking with Gavilar however... after re-reading WoR for the umpteenth time, I'm not so sure about it. The Stormfather hates humanity for killing the Honorspren, he has lied, and withheld information time and time again, and evensent the Highstorm (during the riddens) to the Battle of Narak to destroy everyone there... the guys a little unhinged! Syl goes so far as to describe him as "broken" (chapter 86, WoR). On a more general level, the Stromfather has spent millennia circulating Roshar like record on repeat... killing, seeing men kill, and seeing men break oaths. That's enough to drive anyone mad. I don't think we can take the Stormfather to be a truthful point of view given this context. Is it possible that the Stromfather was lying to Gavilar with promises of becoming a Herald? Motivating him to bring Odium back in the hope it would be the end of Roshar? for Odium to kill the Stormfather ending his torture? That's my current train of thought anyway!

I agree with you on this one… Brandon has said that the narrative structure in this one is going to be different to anything he’s done in previous books. Hopefully we get Battle of the Champions early, and then something even more mind blowing as a mic drop finisher.

I think that if mother-herald comes true, Chanarach being involved in the battle of the champions is a nice way to tie Shallan into the battle while forcing her to confront her past. Narratively it works. I really don’t see any of our Radiants or other “good guys” fighting on behalf of Odium, no matter how manipulative Todium is. Malata is an interesting option for Todiums champion that no one seems to consider… we haven’t seen her in battle but she seems like a bit of a boss to me! It doesn’t really fit narratively but I’d love to see a Dustbringer in action, if not Chanarach. Also, what’s the deal with El? Doesn’t hear rhythms, “replaces” his carapace with metal, doesn’t seem phased that his title was given to a human… I’m convinced he’s actually human but the question is… if so then who was he before turning to the dark side?

Welcome friend!