Shadow Guardian

I already have the time off work so I can binge with impunity. Let me binge in peace! D: Given that most of the things I read are already serialized, I need more opportunities/reasons to sit and read something all the way through...

I would guess that they might have some kind of parallel, or at least tangentially related arc, albeit, separately, from Kaladin's own point of view, and Leshwi from Venli's point of view. While I think Kaladin will eventually make his way back to the battlefield and they will likely meet again there, he has a character arc to travel before that, and logistically, I can't think of very many ways for them to more directly interact until that point. Maybe if they were both moving pieces on the chess board as it were, but I think Kaladin and Leshwi have both been battlefield commanders moreso than strategic generals. That said, I do think it would be super interesting to see them have a non-violent encounter, where they could have an actual conversation. Someone more creative than me would have to think of the feasible scenario for that though.

Something that I have noticed is that the words of whoever is writing to Navani are mostly being taken at face value. There is someone or something that is strongly against the creation of fabrials/imprisonment of spren. While not unlikely, the more I think about it, the more this feels like something the diagram would do, not for any actual altruistic reason, but to plant that seed of doubt and to sew mistrust. Possibly as part of a larger plan to try to sabotage the humans in the fabrial "arms race" or for something else we don't quite see yet.

To bring up an earlier theory again, I actually kind of like the idea that there is an unmade per herald who broke under torture. Now, I think that the idea of there only having been 9 desolations so far is ridiculous, but if my memory serves, we have WoB that a desolation begins when a herald breaks under torture, then they all are sent to Roshar, desolation begins, etc. So let's say there have been 50ish desolations so far (the exact count doesn't matter). 1st herald breaks, we also get the 1st unmade, and the 1st desolation (I somehow doubt it would have actually been the 1st, but whatever). 2nd desolation, a different herald breaks first, we get a 2nd unmade. 3rd desolation, same herald breaks again, no new unmade, since that herald was already checked off the list as it were. Spread this out over 20, 40, 70, or whatever number of desolations that have happened, and eventually we have 9 unmade, 1 for each of the heralds that has broken first that particular time around. Given that Taln was somehow able to hold it solo for 4500 years, I could see him never having been the first one to break before now, hence only 9 unmade so far. Though this could mean a 10th is or will be added to the list soon enough. I think Odium's champion having 9 shadows and there being 9 unmade so far are both pretty big counters to the entire idea of 1 unmade per herald (or surge for that matter), since, despite the importance of the number 10 on Roshar, these theories currently require a lot of leaps in logic though some very specific hoops, but nonetheless, I think there's some merit, and we do have a penchant for crackpot theories that occasionally turn out to be true. My much simpler theory for why there are 9 unmade instead of 10 is that sometime in the past, one of them was actually destroyed permanently somehow.

>Don't need nonsense To be fair, I think said nonsense is good portion of the fun with Splintercast >Nightblood and lifesense He definitely has something. If it's the same as lifesense (probable), he can probably sense Wyndle as well. We have a bit in WoR where Vasher mentions Syl, and I'm pretty sure he was able to sense her with lifesense as well, even though he can't see her. >No stormwall for the Everstorm This always struck me as a little bit odd, since the imagery and description of it and the highstorm in WoR felt like 2 stormwalls smashing into each other. >No Oathbringer Splintercast D: RIP. I know there's probably more reasons at play, but I know it's also no small amount of effort on your part to keep producing these, which is certainly appreciated. It has definitely been fun listening though, back since the pre-release WoR chapters. I hope we get to see (hear?) more in the future, even if it only ends up being for the small(er) releases.

Isn't being Hoid reason enough? I don't think it's a perpendicularity, though off the top of my head I can't remember any known reason for Hoid choosing to be eaten by a greatshell besides, well, he's Hoid...

We on track for a once per month release schedule with these? Hope everything is going ok.

Glad this is back. So many distractions for it to make it to 4 eps with how "short" this is. XD I hope you didn't have to delay your reading by too long while waiting on a laptop to record with.

Would definitely love an Edgedancer Splintercast, if it's not already too late for that.

I was thinking about this because of the TOR reread, and I'm kind of inclined to think that Nightblood is probably shaped pretty similarly to a Feder, the type used in HEMA, though probably sized more like a montante. Feder Montante Not finding a good size reference, but think what people typically imagine for a claymore. The practice ones we use are Overall Length: 61", Handle Length: 16", Guard Length 12"

At the moment, I have to vote that Amaram is the bigger cremling, purely because Sadeas is at least honest about being the traitorous, selfish bastard that he is. Amaram goes to great lengths to hide what he is, so he gets my vote at the moment. This is, of course, subject to change depending on the day, because.

It is worth noting, Lightweavers don't speak "oaths", they speak "truths", about themselves primarily (afaik). All of Shallan's truths were exactly that, not oaths or anything binding, it was "I'm afraid", "I killed my father", "I killed my mother". As Maxal pointed out, it's far more about staying true to themselves as contrary to affixing themselves to a code or structure beyond that of the first ideal. Certainly Windrunners have a pretty narrow line to walk comparatively, but we know that different orders are more open to different things that they would not be (ie. at least one or more of the orders would have approved of Adolin's actions at the end of WoR). Even the Windrunners, I would argue have some flexibility, depending on the individual, because "what is right" is a subjective matter, and one person's sense of honor may vary from someone else's, and if they truly believe and "know" that their actions are honorable, I think their spren is likely to agree. Again, there's a spectrum here, and while Lightweavers may have the widest spectrum of flexibility that we currently know of, I don't think we know enough about the other orders and to say that they are "the most powerful" by any stretch. Each order simply has a certain core beliefs that they prioritize, and for the Lightweavers, that's being true to themselves, which to varying degrees, I think applies to all of them, just not at the same "priority level" as it would be.

XD I love listening to these. It's always interesting to get the different reactions, and to know what's waiting around the corner (page?) for past!Feather. Also, totally requesting video evidence of the table-flipping and setting it on fire.

Since this seems as good a place as any to put it, here's my Q/A from the BYU signing (paraphrased from memory): Q: We know that Hoid likes to collect various "trinkets" and powers from the various shard worlds he visits. If he could, would Hoid choose to have access to 'every' magic system within the Cosmere, or are there some that he would rather avoid for any reason? A: *nervous laugh* Let's just say that he's not very good at avoiding things that are bad for him.

Contrary to what most people seem to feel, I don't necessarily think that all of the bonded spren were 'betrayed' per-se. I tend to think that whatever the root cause of the recreance was, it had to do more with the nature of the nahel bond or what it may have been causing in the long term (I have a loose side theory that surgebinding may weaken the heralds, causing them to break sooner, but that's getting off track) rather than a response to anything that the spren had done (such as bond farming). The bond between knight and spren is not something to take lightly. Just with Kaladin and Syl, we know how close they are, and I just don't see every person in the organization being willing to break something that precious. Even if the spren 'were' farming bonds, to judge an individual because something their entire people were doing just seems harsh to me, and I think a lot of knights would chosen to judge their bonded spren individually rather than as a collective. An example would be Kaladin's prejudice against light eyes as a collective and how he judges them "all", but those closer to him, such as Dalinar and Adolin, he judges more accurately as the individuals that they are instead of just hating them as light eyes. That's not to say he doesn't keep some of his bias with them, but that's not the only thing he sees. I think it would be similar case between each Knight and his spren, judging the individual that they know, rather than only seeing what their "people" had done. My inclination has always been that the spren who were bonded to knights at the time of the recreance were just as aware as the knights as to whatever the "wicked thing of eminence" was that caused them to to disband in the manner that they did. Barring the individuals that must have felt otherwise, as a collective, I think that both the knights and bonded spren must have agreed that the route they took, and the manner in which they did it, was absolutely necessary. The primary argument against the spren being complicit to recreance is all of the modern spren, who clearly see it as a betrayal on the side of the humans, but I counter that just because the bonded spren knew why, does not mean that they ever passed that on to the rest of their kind, most likely by intention. Whatever the secret was, if the purpose in disbanding the KR was to cease the existence of surgebinders and to prevent the spren from forming more nahel bonds in the future, it makes sense for the spren populous as a whole to see what happened as such a betrayal that they would completely cease to form those bonds at all. One good reason for the spren to see a betrayal, instead of maybe an explanation by the bonded spren of "hey, this is why this has to happen" is the longterm effect. Where knowledge maybe wouldn't get passed on, or some maybe wouldn't care as much about it as it became more a thing of the past, the deep rooted feeling of being completely betrayed is, I think, far more deep rooted and long lasting. Perhaps I'm applying too many human attributes to the spren and their reactions, but from my interpretation as I've read, I don't think it nearly so far-fetched. The biggest counter to my theory, I think is the Stormfather and the sense that he gives off that the humans will betray the spren, since, if he was bonded at the time of the recreance, which is most likely, if not confirmed (memory is fuzzy ATM), than he would know the reasoning behind it, and I do not at all get the impression that the recreance was something that he agreed to. But then again, he, and also pattern, speak of the humans killing their spren in more of a "inevitable outcome" vibe, rather than a "you're going to stab me/them in the back one day" This.... Turned out a whole lot longer than I anticipated.... Sheesh. This is what happens when I rarely post, when I do, everything I have to say comes out in a giant wall-o-text. tl;dr: I don't think the reason for the recreance was because anything the spren intentionally did, and I think that at least the majority of the bonded spren were complicit in the decision to disband, but chose to let the rest of the spren think it was a betrayal in order to prevent future surgebinders. The Stormfather kinda throws a wrench in my theory.