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Will Yalb meet Shallan again? If so, will this introduce the now Dawnshard infused Rysn to the Knights Radiant and Dalinar? Since Dalinar is a Bondsmith, would it be possible for him to Connect with the Dawnshard somehow? What would happen if they did Connect? Could they, combined, defeat Odium? I personally don't think so, but who knows what the Shard is capable of.

All spoilers - RoW, Dawnshard, Cosmere, WoB, r/cremposting, whispers of fictive headmates, etc: In a nutgreatshell: I propose that the herald Ishi and the radiant Melishi are one and the same. 1. MELISHI We know that Melishi was a Bondsmith prior to the Recreance. He was bonded to the Sibling. He enjoyed a position of authority among the Knights Radiant. He lead a strike team to capture Ba-ado-Mishram. He was warned that this would have unintended consequences. He ignored this warning. 2. ISHAR We know that Ishar was a Herald of the Almighty. He is currently the mad God-Priest of Tukar. He is obsessed with spren, the Nahel bond, and Connection in general. He is preposterously skilled in combat - far more than even the Blackthorn and several Knights Radiant. Before he was a Herald, he was a part of the development of surgebinding on Ashyn, which led to the destruction of Ashyn, and was part of the subsequent exodus of humans from Ashyn to Roshar. He is still studying the fundamental forces of the Cosmere with an eye towards their manipulation. 3. SIMILARITIES I mean, basically all of it? ISHI, MELISHI - their names are pretty dang similar. Both had positions of authority in the Knights Radiant - Melishi from the way he is spoken of in the Gem Archive, and the Knights Radiant being literally called "Ishar's Knights." Both are closely associated with Bondsmiths. Melishi was a Bondsmith (bonded to the Sibling), the historical Ishar was the Heraldic patron of Bondsmiths, and the modern Ishar tried to steal a Bondsmith's bond to the Stormfather. Both are closely associated with Connection. We really only know Melishi in the context of gems mentioning Ba-Ado-Mishram, who in another gem is specifically discussed in terms of majuscular Connection. Ishar, in RoW, is all about that Connection. Melishi captured Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem (much the way Dalinar does to The Thrill). Ishar is studying a new way to capture spren, one that involves less jewelry and The historical Ishar was part of the development of surgebinding on Ashyn. The modern Ishar is trying to mess with the fundamental forces of Roshar. Melishi messed with the fundamental forces by capturing Ba-Ado-Mishram. The historical Ishar was part of the exodus of humans from Ashyn to Roshar. The modern Ishar is studying the persistence of Invested entities outside of their home. (This is pretty close to what Restares is doing on Roshar, and what Thaidakar is doing on Scadrial.) In the same way, Melishi was studying how to stop Voidlight from getting from Braize to Roshar by means of a spren. These seem similar - even progressive, one two three. The historical Ishar was part of the Surgebinding investigations that destroyed Ashyn. Melishi was part of the spren-capturing that caused the False Desolation and turned the parshendi into parshmen. The modern Ishar is on his way to becoming the subject of a Behind The Bastards episode. This guy genocides. And I mean, the methods of his madness are bad enough, but his *goals* are probably even worse! The guy should really be the Herald of Ignoring Externalities. "Playing with forces too big for him to control" seems like his bag, baby. He answers the question: What if Lanfear was like "okay, so we've got this Bore. What if we bored a BIGGER bore and then put THAT Bore in THIS bore? Problem solved!" This guy probably has a coffee mug that says "That's a problem for Tomorrow Ishar!" OMG I hate him so much. 4. PROBLEMS From the Gem Archive, we are told: ""This generation has had only one Bondsmith[...]" This suggests that there are multiple, changing Bondsmiths. But it does not imply that it all Bondsmiths are new. Heck, it tells us clearly that the 'multiple' part is not constant. I expect that none of these parts are constant. A) Heralds can bond spren. Look at Nale. Heralds can lead their Order - again, Nale. C) Heralds are immortal. Look at... well, 9 of them. (Sorry Jezza) D) We know that Ishi is older than the Heralds themselves. He was definitely alive during the time Melishi was alive. E) Again, Ishar tried to steal Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather - but another way of saying that is, he tried to bond a Bondsmith spren himself. F) Back in the day, the Nahel bond was less permanent. Maya says that she thought the breaking of her Radiant bond would hurt, but would not kill her. This implies that it would have left her able to be re-bonded to a new person, making a new Knight Radiant - much as she is on the road to doing with Adorablin. By this same method, a bondsmith could well have bon G) We are told by the Gem Archive that "This generation has only one Bondsmith." It does not imply that this one Bondsmith hasn't been a Bondsmith for generations - since, indeed, the beginning. And it does not imply that, just because there's only one bondsmith, only one of the Bondsmith spren is bonded. A person can have more than one Nahel bond at once. And if anyone was ever to do this it would be Mr. Bondypants himself. H) As a result, Melishi could have been bonded to more than one of the Bondsmith spren - before his attack on Ba-Ado-Mishram, or even, during it. I) Storms, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Ishar CREATED the Sibling - using his Bonding powers to combine Stormlight and Cultivationlight into a new "Bondsmith-level spren." (We need better vocabulary, here. Bondspren? Shardspren? Greatspren? Pleez halp.) J) Storms, I'm guessing that Ishi-Melishi is the one who created the Nahel bond entirely. 5. SIDE THEORY THAT'S TOTALLY BATSHIT, I KNOW Since Ba-Ado-Mishram was a Light-level spren, and the only other Light-level spren are the Bondsmith spren, I'm going to go ahead and suggest that Ba-Ado-Mishram could have been a Bondsmith-bondable spren. Ba-Ado-Mishram might have been a regular ol' spren of Odium, and her only association with Light was to forge a Connection between a Light-source - say Odium himself - and the parsh. Or, Ba-Ado-Mishram could have been the spren of Odium in the way the Stormfather is the spren of Honor, or the Nightwatcher the spren of Cultivation. BUT. What if Ba-Ado-Mishram was a spren like the Sibling - a meeting of the two? And what if, as I theorized about the Sibling, Ishar was involved in her creation? Ba-Ado-Mishram might have been a 'sibling' of Honor and Odium, or of Cultivation and Odium - creating a 'towerlight'-like blend of the two lights. Maybe the creation of such a blended greatspren was part of the Oathpact by which Odium and the Ashyn Refugees were allowed onto Roshar. Maybe there were two of them - three blended greatspren, in addition to one pure greatspren of Odium. Meaning there's one mixed greatspren, and one pure greatspren, that we have yet to meet - or at least to understand. If Ba-Ado-Mishram was a Bondsmith-spren, Ishi/Melishi could well have bonded her at one point - or indeed, could have been bonded to her even while he was imprisoning her. This might be the reason that the Sibling went into hiding, and refused to bond any new Radiant. His last Bondsmith had betrayed one of his other bonded spren! (Aside: I kind of wonder if the Sibling being tied to the Tower is actually not that far off from Ba-Ado-Mishram being trapped in a gem. But that's a bit metaphysical for the moment - save 4 l8r.) And, ifffff this is all true... ISHAR COULD STILL BE BONDED TO BA-ADO-MISHRAM. Still bonded. All this time! This could well be the reason that Ishar is so double extra super crazy at the moment. He could be bonded to a spren who is trapped in a gem and has been stuck underground for a few millennia. That's probably halfway to being trapped himself - halfway to being Taln. Probably not super awesome for the ol' mental health - just guessing. 6. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER My guess is that the history/mechanics went something like this. -Ishar was a human living on Ashyn -He was interested in the Surges - kind of the way Dr Faustus was interested in the spirits, Dr Oppenheimer in the atom, Dr. Eronaile the Power, or the current Ishar in playing Dr. freakin' Mengele with living spren. -Odium tempted Ishar with the power to manipulate the fundamental surges -Ishar did so, creating Surgebinders - probably creating the Nahel bond as we know it. -In doing so, he also delved_too_deep.gif, and created such instability on Ashyn that the planet was rendered uninhabitable - all but destroyed. (Side note - the name "Ishar" is quite a bit like the "Ishtar" of Biblical times. There's a lot of cross-pollenation among old deities, and their names... but Ishtar is associated with the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve with the forbidden knowledge that saw them cast out of Paradise. RIP Tranquiline Halls.) -Odium then asked Honor and Cultivation if he, and his people, could flee to Roshar. The Avasts agreed, under the condition that Odium would stay on Braize and not do, y'know, Odium Stuff. This was the Oathpact. -The Oathpact was created, not just by the power of the Shards, but by the power of Ishar the Bondsmith. He created the rules of the Oathpact. -The reason Ishar was able to bind Shards to an agreement, is the same reason that he was able to bind spren of the cognitive to people of the physical by means of the Nahel bond. It's the same reason that he is all about that Connection and always has been. You see, Ishar is - or at least, was - a Dawnshard. It could be UNITE, as in UNITE THEM; or it could be BIND, as in Surgebinding, as in Bondsmith ("binding contract" sounds a lot like an Oathpact to this attorney.) I'm guessing it's BIND. -Specifically, Ishar was given th Dawnshard of Binding by Odium. And specifically, he was given it by Odium *specifically* so that it would lead to the ruination of Ashyn, so that Odium could play upon Honor and Cultivation's sympathies to admit his people to their system - and in doing so, let him in, to war upon them, and kill them. -Ishar then wrote the Oathpact, and Bound the parties to it. The problem, here, is that - pacts are hard. Words are hard. Hell, I'm a lawyer. Writing contracts is hard. Ambiguities are unavoidable, and can be exploited by other parties - and sometimes ambiguities can be hidden by the drafter to exploit themselves. Odium found, or made, those ambiguities, and exploited them - leading to the death of Tanavast, the splintering of Honor, and the cycle of Desolations. -Hell, Odium might have done this same trick to the other Shards he Splintered. The Bondsmith's power to turn human words into the laws of the Universe is as beautiful and terrible as the very dreams of the skybreakers. (When you've got the Hammer of Gods, everything looks like a Nale. Sorry. No, no I'm not.) -I don't understand the current status of the Dawnshard of Bind. I know it profoundly affects Dalinar. That's all I know. It could be held by the Stormfather. It could be hidden, but was held long enough by Bondsmith-related entities that it suffuses all that they are. But, if I had to guess, part of the Oathpact was that the Dawnshard of Binding was splintered into ten pieces, and divided amongst the Heralds, whose main goal was not to be interplanetary warlords, but simply keepers of a power that was too great to combine - and too dangerous for Honor and Cultivation to want anywhere near Roshar. The Heralds, as prison-guards of the power that destroyed their home planet, were then banished to Braize, and never meant to return. Then Odium went all rules lawyer on them, found mad sploits, and thus the endless cycle of free-trips-to-Damnation. -Whether by Ishar's bindings, or the natural reordering of the world after Odium's people came to Roshar, the Nahel bond became as tied to Voidlight as it was to Stormlight and Cultivationlight. My guess is that three spren were created to be co-equal blends of the Shards in the system. The spren who resides in Urithiru is part Honor, part Cultivation. That spren has two siblings: Ba-Ado-Mishram, and an as-yet-unnamed (or at least, as-yet-unidentified) spren, one of which is of Honor and Odium, the other of Cultivation and Odium. -As a result of stacking playing-god on top of playing-god, Ishar/Melishi's capture of Ba-Ado-Mishram stopped what could well have been the imminent conquest of Roshar by Odium. But in doing so - well, Lews Sealing The Bore. Prepare For Unforseen Consequences. OOPS I DID IT A GAIN. This deprived the parshmen of cognition, deprived the spren of the ability to survive the breaking of their bonds, and probably other things that we don't even understand, because THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STICK YOUR DICK IN THE UNIVERSE. And... storms, it is quite possible that the name Ba-Ado-Mishram is a sobriquet. "Ado" could come from "Adora," the same root as the first syllable in Adolin's name, meaning "light" - and "Mishram" contains "Ish" and even "Ishr," which could be linked to the Herald. Maybe there's a Ba-Ado-Mishram and a, idk, Tet-Ado-Mishram, indicating Honor/Odium-light and Cultivation/Odium-light (or vice versa). Heck, maybe the "Sibling" is actually like Asha-Ado-Mishram - three Siblings, created simultaneously by the powers of a Dawnshard, in the hopes of a harmony that Odium immediately sought to destroy. Three multi-shardic blends - three little Harmonys - three little Adonalsiums - simultaneously beautiful in their unity, and terrible in their return towards that which was Shattered. -The phrase UNITE THEM is probably just a general, all-encompassing idea of the Dawnshard of BINDING. It might even be a mixed version, resulting from the Intention of dead Tanavast and mere echoes of the splinitered Dawnshard. However, I doubt it will be satiated until it has united the splinters of itself (if such they are), and, indeed, the Shards of Adonalsium. -I expect that is Hoid's biggest interest in the Rosharan system - the unification of the shards of the Dawnshard of Binding, towards his ultimate goal of the reunification of Adonalsium. -...which interest could very well be at conflict with the best interests of Roshar. -And, as a result, the biggest single piece on the Rosharan chessboard is probably... Rysn. Because A] maybe the only way out of the BINDing Oathpact is to CHANGE it... and B] because my girl Rysn real good at contract negotiation. TEAM RYSN BABY. ALL ABOARD DAT WANDERSAIL! Best from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where I am off-Trail hiding from a thunderclaststorm -Silver the Ridgerunner

Hey y'all I'm just curious about something. During Oathbringer and Rhythm of War it is suggested heavily if not outright stated that the powers of the Bondsmiths are over powered to the point where Dalinar, by virtue of being bondsmith (correct me if I'm wrong) can speak on behalf of Honor. In Oathbringer we also learn that the surge of adhesion works for Bondsmiths in a more spiritual way than it does for the Windrunners, which allows them to forge spiritual connections in ways that the books have not made extremely clear yet. What I'm wondering is why this OP powerset is given to the Bondsmiths and not the Windrunners, who are bonded to honorspren (the spren closest in intent to Honor himself), and who use the surges of both adhesion and gravitation, which are both binding in nature. In contrast, the Bondsmiths can be bound to either the Stormfather (Honor's spren), the Nightwatcher (Cultivation's Spren), and the Sibling (Honor and Cultivation's child) and use the surges of adhesion and tension (which alters the stiffness of an object). In the case of the Stormfather it makes sense, but why would the Nightwatcher's Bondmsith be able to use Adhesion to such overpowered extremes? It seems to me that if any order of KR should be overpowered, it should be the Windrunners who seem the most related to Honor. Do we know of any in world explanations for this? The meta explanation is possibly that Brandon didn't want to give the largest order of KR the overpowered ability to bind planets as they saw fit, but are there in world explanations for this? Thank you.

Can a bondsmith connect a person to a different investiture system? Not the mistborn system, but what about the selish systems? That would be cool especially for Jasnah who would research the crap out of the Aons.

Quick and fast theory. We know there are only 3 Bondsmiths, one for each godspren. 1. for Stormfather, related directly to Honor. 2. for Nightwatcher, related directly to Cultivation 3. for Sibling, related directly and equaly for both Shards. But now, Odium is also part of the Rosharan Investiture Ecosystem. He is fully involved into System, Planet is fully Invested by him. He also have smoething similar to Godspren himself, but is possible we will get others with mixed Intents, similar to Sibling. So my predictions for new Bondsmiths: 4. for Ba-Ado-Mishram, related directly to Odium 5. for something related to Odium and Honor equaly, Everstorm is highly Invested, may become conscious. 6. fore something related to Odium and Cultivation equaly, Sia-Anat seems to be good candidat. 7. For something related to all 3 shards equaly. I dont see anything for this by now. We also have Ishar, unbounded Bondsmith, with his Honorblade. So this can give us 8 Bondsmiths in total.

Navani has bonded The Sibling. What do you think her ideals will be? Knowing Dalinar's ideals "I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together" and "will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man. " We can know That her oaths will also follow uninification but with the personal twist ,so maybe it'll be uniting the people of The Tower or maybe smaller groups, like how she unites a group of scholars. Something about being an intellectual leader for sure. Also for her third ideal maybe recognizing the damage her light/Anti-light advancements have/will cause to spren. so something like "will take responsibility for what my discoveries can do...."

I've been thinking how weird it is how bondsmith spren can just make or conduct various forms of investiture come into the physical realm. I think they might be Spren of the spiritual realm, first off the investiture itself is of the spiritual realm so them manipulating something not of the cognitive realm is weird. Second the Nightwatcher can do some kind of trickery with connection though I may be wrong since it seems everything attributed by the Nightwatcher was actually cultivation. I have feeling that when the gods of Roshar made bondsmith spren and unmade the took creatures from the spiritual realm and made them or unmade them so that they could experience the physical and cognitive realms. what do you think? Also since all things in the spiritual ream exist as one, it isn't weird for them to be as different as they are as bondsmith spren because the are probably like given more individual identity out of the spiritual realm.

I thought about this while thinking about how Sanderson has treated other "inexcusable actions" OB spoilers below: RoW Spoilers: A lot of similarities right? I dismissed the similarities since there aren't any Bondsmith spren I see vibing with Moash but then Sanderson released that Knight Radiant order quiz, and he spoke about how even though they don't become radiant, Bondsmith squires still swore oaths simply for the ideals they represent. I could see Moash working under the current bondsmith in order to repent Bondsmith Ideals really go along with Moash and would be perfect for a redemption arc. Of course I don't like Moash for what he's done, but Dalinar's done just as bad and he's my favourite character in fiction, so the presentation is really the reason I forgive one over the other. The presentation as Moash as a villain makes me think this is unlikely but I just thought this would be a cool way for his story to go

Do we think the other Heralds had moments of lucidity when Navani bonded the Sibling, too? Or was Ishar special for one reason or another? If they did, I hope we hear about it.

Ishar has shown that a Bondsmith unchained is EXTREMELY POWERFUL AND DANGEROUS. What is either Dalinar or the Bondsmith honorblade were taken off world to Scadrial. The timeline would actually be pretty accurate, and they could arrive about when Wax and the Set are looking for the Bands of Mourning. With an unchained Bondsmith, the wishes of Kandra and the Set would be fulfilled. The only thing needed would be 16 allomancers and 16 feruchemists. Their Connection to their power could be transferred to a single person, and then they could create unkeyed metal minds at will, with their metalmind quantities growing exponentially. Am I right or am I crazy?

I'm surprised that there isn't already a thread by this name. After Rhythm of War, Navani skyrocketed to the top of my list of favorite characters, both in SA and in the Cosmere at large. So here's a thread for all those that feel the same way I do. Time to fangirl over Roshar's favorite Scholar-Queen! [I'll probably contribute a post or two about why exactly I love Navani, but I think I'll keep the OP free of the details for now.]

Sounds like a device that would be really helpful to make Urithiru more inhabitable. It also sounds similar to the cold/tropical climate described in the Horneater Peaks. From Cord: Theory time - Sibling (or remnant thereof) is in the Horneater peaks now, making things lush. Cord's allusion to the "Ancient pact of the Seven Peaks" - sounds very oath-y to me. I wonder if a plot point of RoW will be Rock proving his devotion to his oaths by returning for punishment, qualifying him bond the Sibling, enabling him to charge the pillar underneath Urithiru to power the tower and make it nice and homey. Seems fitting - like a figurative stew wafting through the entire tower, bringing it to life. It tracks with his character.

Hello, first post, be gentle with me We don't really know that the Nightwatcher is a Bondsmith spren. It's a good theory, seems widely accepted and quite probable. But so far as I know, no in-book quote or WoB confirms her as such. I think it's likely that she probably is one of the three Bondsmith spren, as a counterpart to the Stormfather. She already has a magic system (-ish?) associated with her, the Boon and Curse: granting a wish but with a curse attached alongside it. Couldn't someone also ask her for the boon of being granted Radiancy (is that the word?). Has anyone in Roshar's history? Could she grant other spren bonds, lower spren or spren of the other Orders? And assuming she is a Radiant spren, could someone ask to bond with her? Could it be how she herself is supposed to be bonded? Could the next Bondsmith have to trek to the Valley and ask for the boon of bonding her? What could be the Curse to accompany such a Boon? Would they need to speak the Ideals or would the Curse, sort of, supplant the words?

After rereading Syl's Interlude I'm starting to get the feeling that Tanavast was the first Bondsmith. That one of his powers as the Shard of Honor was a Bondsmith. Syl said, She never once mentioned Ishar. She referred to it as "A Bondsmith." If it was Ishar, who I take it was the first human Bondsmith, at some point in that paragraph she would've referred to him as the one who did it. I take that to mean Tanavast, the Vessel of Honor, was the first Bondsmith who did all of the above. If it wasn't Ishar that did it the only other option would've been Tanavast.

This is my first post, so please go easy on me as this is a bit of a disjointed theory. Speaking with a friend while reading through Oathbringer, we were talking about what might be the other 2 Bondsmith Spren. I think everyone assumes the Nighwatcher is the 2nd. The "one that slumbers", I don't think is a crazy stretch to assume is possibly a spren somewhat entangled with Uruthiru. If honor and cultivation are responsible for half of the surges on the Surgebinding chart, how is the 3rd Bondsmith spren connected to the magic system? My thought is that the 3rd spren, Uruthiru's spren, is connected to the ancient fabrials. In a similar way that Shardblades and Shardplate are bastardizations of what was originally wielded by Surgebinders, I believe modern fabrials apply a misunderstanding of the original fabrials. Where Shardblades are dead spren, the fabrials trap or enslave spren to perform a function. Bringing this all together, I believe Navani starts to make some discoveries when it comes to fabrials, and eventually bonds with the spren of Uruthiru. She will come to be horrified about how modern fabrials have enslaved spren. I'm not a big fan of the possibility of all the Kholins becoming surgebinders, but this just seems to straight forward.

Hey! I'm a new to the forums, but a huge fan of the books. So I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about my theory. I haven't seen this on the forum, so sorry if this a repeat and try not to go to hard on me. A bit of background: The Honor Spren view themselves as honors order, and were created by honor himself. And the they also see themselves as superior to the other spren. I don't think that this is just them being dicks and/or having a superiority complex. So presumably he gave his own order the most powerful abilities. But so far all we've seen from Kaladin is the ability to fly and the ability for adhesion. As cool as the superglue ability is, it's noticeably less impressive than the Skybreakers abilities for gravitation and division ( or blowing stuff up), and a bit less useful. Especially since the Windrunners were used as scouts. So why then did Honor give his order a bad or less useful secondary ability to his own order? In Oathbringer we saw that Dalinar and the Stormfather can react with Radiants, leveraging the Stormfather and enhance the surges of other Radiants ( example: Shallan making the 3D map, and the Battle of Thaylen City ect...). Also notice that the Bondsmiths also have adhesion, but Bondsmiths have spiritual adhesion whereas the Windrunners have physical adhesion. I don't think that the Windrunners ( honors own order ) and Bondsmiths ( bonded to lesser gods ) sharing the same surge is a coincidence. Dalinar's Spiritual Adhesion / effect on other knights + Windrunner Physical Adhesion + Stormfather ( Spren of Oaths) = Access to bond more than one order of Spren. ( Either Temporary or Permanent ). We know that the spren have to have a physical presence( i.e bound physically ) and they have to be bound spiritually spiritually to the person, so mixing everything together it would seem to make sense. The Bondsmith's ability to enchance other surges would be a good gate to making sure that the Windrunners don't go crazy with bonding, and the Stormfather being a sort spren of oaths would make a lot more sense. This is also probably gated under the fourth or fifth oath. It would also clarify why the Windrunners have adhesion, not for the superglue (which is just a side benefit) but instead so when the Windrunner is ready they can continue progressing and becoming more honorable. It would seem like something that Honor would want to do. Edit: While looking through the coppermind I came by this quote by the Stormfather to Dalinar. This sounds like foreshadowing to me. It would make sense that Dalinar is the most capable, because he can let windrunners (maybe more) bond more spren and join other orders. And it also fits with the Stormfather because he looks over all the radiant bonding already. I would like to hear your opinions on my theory! Also obligatory Kaladin + Jasnah is totally gonna be a thing.

Hi all, this is my first ever forum post, glad to meet you all! Intro As the title suggests I believe that Willshapers are the ones that create shardplate for the Radiants, or at least I believe my theory is pretty solid. I've been thinking alot about the Willshapers lately and Kalak and from the brief descriptions we have, they seem to appear as very finicky tinkerers. So I basically picture Kalak as the Iron Man of the Heralds who designed the shardplates(maybe some 'Honorplate'). There has also been alot of speculation that shardplate is comprised of subspren and comments from Brandon Sanderson's Q & As and subspren appearing around certain characters(Dalinar, Kaladin & Jasnah) point to this. I also believe that Bondsmiths might play a part in this process, I get more into that later on. How I think it works Since the subspren aren't able to make nahel bonds, therefore only able to manifest in the physical realm for a brief period of time. I think these spren are so drawn to the Radiants and their increasing connection to their sapient cousins, but can't bound because of the laws in place. So Kalak, being the inquisitive airhead decides that if they have shardweapons why not make shardarmor from other spren since Radiants can only have one bond per sapient spren. I imagine that in order to make this happen, the Willshaper will blend their surges together like how Dalinar blended Cohesion and Adhesion to repair the ruins in Thaylen City and somehow bring the spren from Shadesmar into the Physical Realm and use Cohesion to reshape them into shardplate(perhaps involving some sort of Godmetal, not too sure I'm not all that knowledgeable on that topic). Now where does the Bondsmith come in? Well that's simple, they use Spiritual Adhesion to identity key the Plate to the Radiant. I also think maybe another way to look at it is that perhaps a Bondmsith would open a perpendicularity that might affect the process in a way or something? Here is further evidence to back my theory(some speculation): Dalinar was capable of using 'Spiritual Adhesion' to communicate with others of different languages. It would lend credence to their Order's name, perhaps how they even got it like Windrunners and Skybreakers are best known for their flight abilities but can do so much more. The radiants takes the subspren(Will) and shape it into the best form for the knight(Shaper) There's been a convenient lack of information on the Order and their Herald and I'm sure we all know our favourite author has a penchant for leaving omitting delicious information for the sake of storytelling. We know Venli is probably on her way to become one and how she interacts with Dalinar's Radiants could be a big thing in the fourth Stormlight book. In Taln's ramblings about the latest Desolation, he talks about training and leading armies, Jezrien teaching men leadership and Kalak teaching them to smith Bronze. Kalak was probably the Herald of Craftsmanship and this translated to his Order as well. Anyways let me know what you guys think, I'm not that knowledgeable on the magic system in Stormlight, so technical and complex but I still love it. Let me know what I got wrong, or missed out. Cheers!!!

To persuade them to increase their number above three was seen as treasonous. So, they can, but they are not allowed to? How else can this be interpreted? The "3" is so important that even suggesting the impossible is treason? Or are there other spren that could potentially make a Bondsmith?

Spoiler Warning: I use information from all three stormlight books along with a tiny bit from the mistborn series So, I put part of this theory on another thread, but since then I've thought more about it and refined it a bit. In short, Radiants form a "proto-plate" by a combination of their surgebinding and their secondary spren. Bondsmiths then take this and forge it into true Shardplate. So to get deeper into my theory, it was sparked by a quote from one of Dalinar's visons. Oathbringer page 352 "I think something might be wrong with my armor!" Dalinar shouted to him "I can't make my helm retract!" In response, the other Radiant made his vanish. Dalinar caught sight of a puff of Light or mist. Beneath the helm, the man had dark skin and curly black hair. His eyes glowed blue "Retract your helm?" he shouted "You haven't summoned your armor yet; you had to dismiss it so I could Lash you" Oh, Dalinar thought. "I mean earlier. It wouldn't vanish when I wanted it to" "Talk to Harkaylain then, or to your spren" The Windrunner frowned. "Will this be a problem for our mission?" Now the thing that is interesting about this quote is that Dalinar is referred to go to someone else for help with his plate. Many people suggest that plate is a bond with the lesser spren of a given order. For example, windspren for windrunners, gloryspren for Bondsmiths, etc. As interesting a theory as this is, and I don't think it's too far off the mark, it doesn't make sense given the above quote. If the bond a radiant had to their plate was just between them and the spren why would they need someone else's help to fix it? I believe that the man mentioned in the quote, Harkaylain, was a Bondsmith. To take a step back, I don't think Bondsmiths just magically whip plate out of the air. If they could do that, why not give regular people plate as well? I think that before a Radiant can get true Shardplate, they must make what I will dub "proto-plate." This proto-plate would be armor that was made out of a combination of that radiant's particular secondary spren and surges. We have seen something similar to this already on Shallan. Once a radiant had enough control over their proto-plate they could take it to a Bondsmith and create their full plate. So, here's where I think we start to see the literal result of the name Bondsmith. I think these Radiants had the ability to create bonds between people and spren. Now, we've seen Dalinar reach all the way between realms and bring them together, but we also know this is a new ability. I believe that the Bondsmiths of the past could do something similar, but on a much smaller scale. Bondsmiths could take the essence of the lesser spren, which exists mostly in the cognitive realm, and combine it with the Radiant's surges, which comes from their use of investiture, which is from the spiritual realm, and combines them and brings them into the physical realm to create plate. Now, a couple of other things that could help this theory make more sense. One of the major differences between modern plate and shards is the ability to dismiss them. Modern blades can be dismissed just like those the radiants had, but plate can't. I think this is because the plate is more tightly linked to their spiritual signature. As we know, shardblades are dead radiant spren. Now, while these spren have been bonded in the past, they are distinct beings, likely with their own spiritual signature. This means it's not that far off for them to be able to recreate a smaller version of that bond with people, even when their dead. If I'm correct the major difference with Radiant plate is that it contains some of the radiant's investiture. Now we have seen from feruchemy that when investiture comes from a certain person it is permanently linked to them and cannot be used by others. This could explain how no one has found a way to dismiss modern shardplate. They can use the physical item, much like you could wear a feruchemist's bracelet, but they can't actually utilize the underlying abilities. Another idea that I think makes this more likely is the fact that Modern shardplate is seen to be really similar across the board. We even see Dalinar use the gauntlet from Adolin's suit in TWoK. Now, if each order made their plate a different way, or just by their surges and lesser spren, it would seem plate should look very different depending on the order it came from. I propose that the reason they look the same is because they are made of the same material. When you really get down to it spren are just collections of Honor and Cultivations power given sapience. In this way all lesser spren are the same substance, just in different shapes. I would relate this to metal ingots used in forging. Each type of spren is a type of ingot. They are all made of the same material, say iron, but some are circular, others are squares etc. When the Bondsmith forges them together with the radiant's power the shape they were in before doesn't matter, only the material. Since all spren are effectively the same material, it makes sense that all plate would look extremely similar, regardless of the order it came from. I know this is a lot of theorizing, but given the lack of actual information we have on these topics i figured I'd at least give it a shot. I'll be the first to admit I'm no master realmatic scholar so if you have thoughts/ideas on why this would/wouldn't be correct or tweaks that need to be made let me know.

If this has been posted before, forgive me, I didn't locate it elsewhere. Something occured to me and it seemed no one has brought it up. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BONDSMITH BONDS THE NIGHTWATCHER? The reason I ask is because the NIGHTWATCHER has access to the old magic. Sure Dalinar bonded the Stormfather, but that's just boring Honor. Ho hum . Will the Nightwatcher's Wordsmith be able to manipulate the old magic as well? What say all you wise ardents?

I have been thinking about Bondsmiths and the spren they bond with for a while now, specifically about the power these spren grant their bondmates. It takes no great leap in logic to wonder why. Look at how the Stormfather describes the power he grants to Dalinar: "Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, though they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle." Amazing right? But in this post I'd like to highlight a possible feature to the Bondsmiths and the power they wield that may be an added bonus, implied rather than explicit. Pure speculation, emphasis mine: “But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious. ” I highlight this particular passage because the bondsmith spren defy classification. In every other order one can pinpoint a general shape of what the spren of that order will look like, including characteristics, tendencies, and abilities. Honorspren are blue, playful, and can hide their presence in the Physical Realm from all but a few people. Cryptics have the distinctive symbol heads, can change size and shape but not go invisible in the Physical Realm, and hum when they hear lies. Inkspren can hide in the Physical, but when showing cannot change form, only size, and they are ultimately logical. I could do this for almost every order, spit out facts that differentiate them from other spren, other orders, based on what we find in the text. The point is that there are commonalities among them. Those spren who grant Bondsmith powers are different in that they defy typical classification. The only commonalities they share are that they hold more Investiture than any being on the planet who isn't a Shard and they grant Bondsmith powers to those they bond. After that the similarities end abruptly. We have met 2 of the Bondsmith spren in the text, Stormfather and Nightwatcher, and they could not be more different, either in appearance, temperament, and what would likely attract them. We haven't met the Sibling yet but it seems like it has a different function than the others as well. Take a look at another quote, emphasis mine: "So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address." Unique Abilities. That may not be evidence, but it is a slight indication that Bondsmiths are a bit different. In my mind they cannot just be talking about their regular surges, Adhesion and Tension in that quote. Even the combination of the two amounts to what Stormfather once referred to as a 'party trick'. Well enough preamble, Maybe-Not-So-Crazy Theory time. I have come to believe that Bondsmiths get abilities outside the traditional powers of their order based on which Mega-Spren they bond. I do not know what these abilities are so the speculation must come from what the Spren can do. For the Stormfather he grants his Bondsmith the ability to far see, i.e. he can get a real time video feed of any region the Highstorm touches. For the Nightwatcher it's uncertain, but she has been delegated the task of granting the boons and curses of the Old Magic. Any special ability she would grant to her Bondsmith, I would imagine it would be related to that. We know that the Sibling powered Urithiru and that in the past a Bondsmith was in permanent residence there. Would it grant its Bondsmith the ability to monitor anything going on in that city? All of these abilities fall outside any conceivable application of Adhesion or Tension, even if we attempt to factor in Spiritual Realm shenanigans. It sounds far fetched but we've seen Dalinar display some unique abilities that fall outside what his surges could account for already. Now I'm sure that there are functions that both fall outside what a Bondsmith's surges account and are possible for any Bondsmith to perform. Super Charging spheres according to one WOB is one such ability that all bondsmiths have. For the Stormfather to call Bondsmiths the most capable of Radiants has to mean something, right? I'm just thinking that unique spren with unique functions should grant different abilities as well. Tell me what you guys think.

Am I the only one who thinks that Adhesion is the dumbest of all the surges. Especially with Windrunners. We've only seen them stick people to things which they could could do already by just changing their gravity to the wall. It doesn't seem to be very effective or useful. With Bondsmiths we see Dalinar use Adhesion to spirtually connect to the Azish enough to speak their language but Windrunners are just stuck with a lame power that has been used in practicing with stormlight and never again. Any Ideas on what Adhesion might do additionally for specifically windrunners, if it does do anything more?

I'm on my 4th trip through OB now and I'm trying to keep my eye out for odd stuff. A part of chapter 38 got my brain juices bubbling. It's the scene at the end where the Stormfather has finished explaining to Dalinar and Navani about the Heralds betrayal. A Shin soldier walks into the cave where the Heralds left their blades. "The man fell to his knees before the wonder of the abandoned Honor-blades. But a moment later, the man looked to Dalinar, and then spoke with the Almighty's voice. "Unite them". Could Tanavast have been telling Dalinar to literally unite the Honor-blades? By this I mean, use his Bondsmith weirdness to merge them into one blade that grants all of the Surges and all of the intersections that would result from having them.