theSurgeOfPhysics

I like this one or a variation. I think the oath might be something like “I will protect, even if I must sacrifice that which I hold dear”. He wouldn’t sacrifice his life, as that would mean every Windrunner would die upon swearing the last ideal. Rather, he might have to give up the spear, learn ways of peace, since he started to do that in RoW, where he realized there were many ways to protect.

So now that Taravangian has Ascended, what happens to his boon/curse? If he is free of it, will his release from the boon/curse be his downfall? We know that he lost to Odium merely to save Kharbranth, specifically his own family and grandchildren (whom he also spared of any details concerning his political plotting). Cultivation made it so that his intelligence and empathy would be inversely related on any given day, so if he acts with intellect and empathy/passion, will he break down at the end of Book 5 because of needing to save his grandchildren in one scene? We know at the end of RoW, he's drinking in all this power and blinding everything else out, including Cultivation's offer to guide and teach him. So maybe in Book 5, we see that overwhelming amount of knowledge clear up as he accesses his deep emotion for his own family. Selfish, but it might just save Roshar—and "save them all"—from Odium. Thoughts?

Can you soulcast a lightweaving image into, say, stone?

Totally missed this! I was thinking about the color, though, how both are red. Thank you for the link.

Why does Todium have to go through with the contest of champions? It was explained away in a sentence at end of RoW, but Todium is not Rayse at all. Why not just admit to Dalinar that he killed Rayse and took up the Shard of Odium? He's not the same person as Rayse and shouldn't be bound by Rayse's oath (at least how I see it).

Interesting connections with the garnet gem: both the Sibling's strata and spanreeds are garnet, and both are used for communication. What other gems have more specialized purposes?

Illumination is the Surge of "Light, sound, and various waveforms". So, have we seen all the waveforms yet? I'm thinking another could be energy in the form of heat.

It would likely be something we’ve seen hinted at before, like her Shadesmar journey. Jasnah is a great character, but after WoK, we don’t see too much of her. Her story is planned to be Book 10, so Brandon would likely only give more and more hints before he drops the big reveal of her past at the end of the back half of the series.

Chapter 100 of RoW is titled “Watchers at the Rim”. Why is this so familiar, and what is its meaning?

May have been discussed before, but why is the Sibling called the Sibling? Why not the Child? I feel that this is hinting that Honor and Cultivation created more than one spren together. Perhaps they made 10 children, all siblings of each other, and 9 of them fell to Odium as the Unmade. Sja-Anat calls the Sibling her cousin. She also says Odium can unmake spren: She mentions that their memories are lost, and we saw the Sibling slowly losing control in the chapters after all nodes were destroyed. Will there be a way to remake an Unmade, as Book 5 will deal with BAM?

Zahel mentions something interesting regarding Cognitive Shadows: Going back to this scene after the book, I see that it ties in nicely with the idea of Heralds being like spren. So who is “she” here? Is it Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM)? I’m wondering because Kalak mentions something similar in his last epigraph, and we know BAM affects the memories and thinking of spren and natives of Roshar (singers): If it is BAM, how does Zahel know so much?

Yes, also because he may subconsciously realize that Odium blinded his thinking and brainwashed him. If he wants to remain blind in that regard, then so too physically.

What exactly is happening here? This is when Moash is in the burning manor basement with Kaladin. Moash is taunting him when a pure, concentrated light explodes into the room: The figure in the light was Renarin, so is this his attempt at lightweaving? Does he lightweave possibilities (as he is able to see them), and he saw Moash’s alternative path which would’ve led to him living as a respectable Radiant Windrunner? Why does this cause Moash to feel pain again (he says to take the pain away)? This also ties in with Moash at the end, when he begins to feel pain: Is this weakening of the Connection similar to the scene in Ch. 8? Thoughts?

Wit and Jasnah are discussing warfare that will soon become obsolete when he says: A few pages later, Raboniel describes the outcome of combining Anti-Light with its positive as: We know that a compressed reaction will cause an explosion, seen earlier in the tower laboratories. Now that Navani’s journal has been sent to Kholinar for study, will we see a frightening new method of warfare by the Fused? This seems a bit too much like science-fiction, but it is not impossible in the plot given that we’ve seen flying airships. Thoughts?

That answers this nicely. Thank you