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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).

The Stormfather said that a Highstorm naturally cycles higher and lower in the sky and will at the highest point engulf the top of Urithiru. The last Highstorm we saw was at end of RoW, a few days before the end of the book yet before the 10-day countdown began, and Kaladin described it as being just below the rooftop. So in 10 days, the Highstorm will likely envelop the rooftop and make for a great battle scene! The timing of the contest is important, as the Stormfather may be able to extend time in Dalinar's last moments of the fight (if Dalinar does indeed serve as his own champion). He may ask for this if, say, he becomes severely wounded. It would be very interesting to see Dalinar take a pause in the fight and be able to think it through, and given the additional Investiture from the Tower (and potential Investiture from the Valley if the Highstorm lines up with both locations simultaneously— see linked topic below), then he'd have a lot of time to work with. The only problem is that Odium set the date and time of the contest, and he probably knows when the next storm will be, so does he want a Highstorm for the contest? If so, why? Perhaps Odium has done this so that he can command the Everstorm to meet with the Highstorm at this moment, causing a WoR-level phenomenon that we saw before. This is just speculation, so maybe we won't see any Highstorm, but we've seen either a Highstorm or the Everstorm used in the last battles since WoR, so it would only make sense for us to see them used again.

So this part intrigues me: Not You will be the one who does what I want and makes me smoothies and spanks the people I don't like. "Send to the stars and serve my interests in the cosmere." Does he mean trying to kill other Shards? Trying to gather all of Adonalsium? Something else? What does he want? And it's no longer Rayse. So what does Taravangian want of the Cosmere? Will he still want Dalinar's soul? Because if he wants to retain any semblance of "I'm a good guy!", he might let Dalinar free. I also wonder... to what extent does Dalinar have to obey the commands? Because he could do the commands, but only to the minimum usefulness, or rebel in some other way. There's my thoughts! Theorize, agree, disagree, whatever!

Here's a bit of a prediction -- and let me preface this by saying that while I've been doing a bit of lurking here, I haven't done a thorough search through all the contest of champions topics. If someone else has already come up with something along these lines, I apologize for a redundant theory. I've been thinking about setup for Odium's champion; narratively, how will Brandon produce Odium's champion in just 10 days (not counting flashbacks)? I feel that the simplest way to give Odium an active role in producing that champion will be to use visions -- it's an established part of his power set, and it's something Rayse already tried with Kaladin. Rayse's methods were very different from Tanavast's; his visions were a raw and brutal attempt to mentally and emotionally shatter a target (not unlike the methods employed with the heralds on Braise), whereas Tanavast's visions were designed to warn, enlighten, and perhaps transform someone by offering them a chance to accept a higher calling. I'm willing to bet that the shard's intent played a large role in how the visions were used, and Rayse was limited due to how long he had held the shard (which is not to say that his attempt to break Kaladin was necessarily a poor choice -- it almost worked, after all). Now we have a new vessel, Taravangian. Based on the RoW epilogue, he wants to do something unexpected for his champion selection -- which I think partially precludes El or someone else with established loyalty to Odium (though i admit I could easily be wrong). I predict that he will use carefully edited visions of the past and/or future to create his champion, and here's how I see it happening for a few of our frontrunner candidates: Szeth - based on his established mental instability, his impending crusade against his own people, and Taravangian's past experience with manipulating Szeth, I think Szeth is the most obvious choice for a turncoat champion (despite his current oath to serve Dalinar). I think that visions involving people from his past (especially people he killed) would prove useful to TOdium, especially if he plants new words into their mouths similar to what Tanavast did at the end of each vision. For example, despite his unwillingness to forgive himself, Szeth still seems vulnerable to someone seeding the idea that he can correct past mistakes by doing X (X being whatever TOdium wants him to do). TOdium could even seek to accelerate Szeth's progress as a radiant, in an effort to help him reach his fifth ideal and thus divorce him from his oath to Dalinar (this is something Rayse would likely never do, which is the main reason I consider it here). Alternatively, he could simply seek to fully break Szeth -- make him turn to Odium for relief from his agony -- though I think that's more of a Rayse method. In any case, we know that we're getting Szeth's flashbacks, which could easily provide in-book context for a TOdium-induced vision to capitalize on. Gavinor - I include him here (despite the fact that I don't like the child champion theory) because he does have a rather direct route to accepting the role of Odium's champion. Imagine how Gavinor would react if TOdium forced him to watch Dalinar pummel Elhokar and shatter his shardplate, without offering the context necessary to realize that Dalinar was not attempting to assassinate the boy's father? What if that was the final vision in a string of visions where he saw the Blackthorn brutally slaughtering his foes (and sometimes his allies) thanks to the thrill? The boy has a hero complex, and TOdium has plenty of material to work with if he wanted to make the boy believe that his great uncle is a villain. The usual merits of the child champion theory apply, as well (forcing Dalinar to renege on the terms, thus giving TOdium much more freedom and damaging Honor's remaining power -- possibly even killing the Stormfather and making Stormlight difficult or impossible to acquire). Nalan - You could basically copy and paste my thoughts on Szeth here; he's similarly unhinged and vulnerable to the manipulation of his ideals. He's even working for Odium at this point. The biggest issue with Nale as champion is that I'm fairly certain Taravangian is hoping to achieve more than merely winning the duel. Anyhow, those are my thoughts for now. Feel free to comment, criticize, and/or offer further speculation.

Rather than choosing a child champion the same prophecies are fulfilled if Odium's champion kidnaps Gavinor, and attempts to execute him in the presence of people at Urithiru in an attempt to goad somebody who is not the champion prior to the fight to save him. This would violate the safe passage promise. and has some other advantages from the perspective of odium. 1) If the plan goes awry Odium's champion could still defeat Dalinar's champion because the plan doesnt require Dalinar being his own champion but it still might work if Dalinar is his own champion if somebody such as Kaladin is present (Possibly creating a Tien flashback moment) . Odium knows his predictive ability is not infallible so this is a far easier bet to hedge than say picking a child champion then having Szeth ram Nightblood into the kid's chest. 2) Instead of winning the contest it violates the terms, which is possibly a better outcome for Odium. 3) It fits with Taravangian's brutal, direct style 4) It could possibly lead to Dalinar becoming Odium's pet while still alive and because an oath is violated the stormfather possibly becomes a deadeye. 5) If odium loses in this case (Dalinar is champion and rescues Gavinor) it could still justify things like Dalinar permanently turning the stormfather into a sword by acting on his combat instincts instead of his judgement. 6) Narratively its more satisfying because it rubs personal salt in the wound and philosphy disagreement between Taravangian and Dalinar

Since Odium got an upgrade in RoW I’m expecting some big things . I absolutely have no idea who it will be . But there are some interesting options 1. El : this Fused is so feared his name is not to be spoken . Even the Pursuer watched his mouth around him . I suspect he is of a type we have not seen yet . One that uses Division ! 2. Moash even though he is blinded . I expect Odium can grant him an ability to compensate for loss of eyesight . Like sonar kind of like Daredevil . 3. Nale seeing how he is a Herald and handle Szeth like an unruly stepchild this is almost the worst option for Dalinar . He would be outmatched in fighting skill for sure 4. Adolin : I predicted Adolin to be Odium long ago . Born under the sign of the nine . Pissed at Dalinar for killing his mom . But mostly because he is the one person Dalinar would not want to kill which sounds like Todium all day . I like Adolin a lot so I hope this is not the case . But I would be wrong not to consider him 5. Someone we haven’t seen yet . My least favorite guess . As this is totally not like Brandon. To not foreshadow this . Lastly I don’t like Dalinar being his own champion . I keep thinking about the old lawyer adage . The guy who represents himself has a fool for a client . Dalinar doesn’t have shards and baring him gaining an Honor blade he won’t have shards . Sooo he would be better off letting. Kaladin do it . Or maybe using his bond smith powers to connect himself to Taln and try and borrow his abilities perhaps . I really would like Taln restored to be Dalinar champion but hey Dalinar seems dead set on kicking ass himself . what do you guys think ? Who will be Odiums champion ?

We have two characters that are continually brought up in the context of dueling - Taln and Adolin. Taln, being a herald and the last and maybe only that is still actively a part of the oathpact, has no reason to betray Dalinar, although he might be too lost to hold to it again, even if Dalinar somehow reforges the oathpact. I think we will see an arc where Dalinar convinces Taln to act as his champion, but Taln somehow becomes worse (Maybe following the death of another herald) and cannot function as the champion. I think this means that Adolin will try to step in. Another possibility I've been toying with is that T-Odium could argue for Adolin to represent him - the murder of Sadeas, the resentment for Dalinar, maybe Maya wakes up to him and tells him that what the Knights Radiant are doing is wrong. Adolin becomes Odiums Champion - maybe for a different type of contest, and Dalinar wins him back. Kind of like Star Wars on its head. Anyway thats all speculation, but what I'm curous is what the back 5 will focus on. We know that there will be a greater focus on the Heralds, and I think that means we will see the fall of Ashyn. I also think we will get a pivot for the villain, who Dalinar and potentially T-Odium will be working together to defeat: Ishar. Looking at the conflict, we see mirrors of events - the binding of the Thrill, the death of Jezrien. We see that Ba-Ado-Mishram having been locked away has fundamentally changed the previous singers. What have we not seen? Whatever the heck happened on Ashyn. We know that Ishar was there: What broke Ashyn? The powers of the Bondsmith: Bondsmith's unchained wrecked Ashyn. We get some clues from Rabonial as to what that entailed for the people there: So what happened on Ashyn? I think it has to do with the Unmade, who were made then unmade similar to what was happening to the Sibling in this book. Again, I think this was done by Ishar: I'm going to get into some Dawnshard spoilers here, so tagging up but I'll get out of there soon: Of all the Heralds, Ishar knew first hand the consequences of breaking oaths - for he was a connection sorcerer who had caused the floating cities of Ashyn to fall. He was the architect of the Oathpact - but also the architect of its deterioration: All of the other heralds we have seen basically state that Ishar is still sane, but we know that he is not from his own words We should not believe his words, even when he appears sane. I think Ishar was somehow connected to the bringing back of the voidspren too: We also know that he had been collecting spren, bringing them into the physical world for his sick experiments. So to wrap it up, I think Ishar is Mad. I think his madness was before his herald madness - that he's a mad scientist archetype, and that he will be the villain for the back 5. I also think there will still be a Taravang-ium redemption / de-escalation / needing to work with the Archetype of "God's Wrath", in the back 5 in order to protect the cosmere from whatever Ishar is doing.

Hey guys I was just thinking what if events turn such as kaladin becomes Odium's champion. He will not have to break any oath to do so as he will not be fighting anyone who cannot protect himself and also if fourth ideal is to leave those whom you cannot protect or to forgive yourself then what if he decides that there is no hope for human to survive and joins Odium's to protect parshendi and he will have to fight Seth in contest of champions, also Brandon have a thing for doing what is most unlikely so maybe. So, what do you guys think.