Search the Community

So, upon reading Edgedancer, a theory coalesced in my mind. It is my belief that the 10 Heralds (or, at least, the 9 who stayed) are now behaving as the 10 Fools. Or at least, they're now behaving as an inversion of their attributes (which is what I believe the Fools to be, inversions of the Heraldic archetype). Following this paradigm, Nale (who is supposed to be Just/Confident) is extremely unjust (see him murdering the urchin), but remains confident. Furthermore, he has allowed himself to be completely deceived. From his discussions, we know that Jezrien (Protective/Leading) is doing anything but leading (although he may still be being protective?). We also have hints that Ishi (name? - but Pius/Guiding) is likely either gone evil (inversion of piety), or is misleading people unintentionally (inversion of guiding). Also, Poor Taln was Dependable/Resourceful enough for a time, but has now broken, becoming impossible to depend on and without any resources. As an additional note of interest to this theory: the Everstorm came only after Taln, the last of the Heralds, allowed his behaviour to be inverted. While he remained Dependable/Resourceful, the Everstorm was held at bay. (This in turn leads to ANOTHER crazy theory: to stop the everstorm you need all 10 heralds to get their acts together? Or possibly to be replaced by 10 new Heralds?)

There are a few things about Nalan that have me curious about his (possible) abilities... and possibly the Skybreakers' as well. It's not really a proper theory or anything... but maybe you guys can help me figure this out and clear up my confusion. How many Nalan are we really dealing with, here? Here is where my confusion begins in Words of Radiance: Distance - (Interlude-2) We see Nalan in Iri hunting Ym. (Interlude-9) We see Nalan (aka Darkness) in Azir hunting Lift. (Chapter 88) We see Nalan in the Frostlands reviving Szeth (and offering him Nightblood). Iri, Azir, and the Frostlands are pretty far apart on the map of Roshar. Iri is far NorthWest, the Frostlands are far SouthEast, and Azir is nearer to the middle (but it's a little closer to Iri than the Frostlands). In any case, Nalan seems to be covering a lot of ground awfully fast during the events of WoR. How? I wonder how much time it really takes to travel across practically all of Roshar like that. If he is 'flying', then isn't that about the most overt way of getting around that he could possibly choose? If he is traveling by foot, then how would he cover so much ground so fast? Nalan's Minions- When he hunts Ym in Iri, he has no minions. When he appears in Azir, he has two minions. When he appears in the Frostlands, he again has no minions (and is carrying Nightblood). His minions are extremely knowledgeable about stormlight, investiture, and the like. One of them even has a shardblade... So I doubt that these minions were a couple of nobodies just drafted to help Nalan out in Azir only... and only for one case. Time - I'd be willing to believe Nalan simply travelled in one single direction during the events of WoR (First Iri, then Azir, then to the Frostlands) if it weren't for the time he spent on each case. In each case (Ym/Lift/Szeth) Nalan made it a point to explain how much work he'd put into each person. Nalan to Ym = "I had to look very hard to discover your indiscretion." Nalan to Lift = "Even the chaotic can be predictable with proper study.” (Presumably referring to her escape patterns, habits, etc.) Nalan to Szeth = "You? Not worthy? I watched you destroy yourself in the name of order, watched you obey your personal code when others would have fled or crumbled. Szeth-son-Neturo, I watched you keep your word with perfection..." On top of this, Lift already had prior experiences with him and knew he was dangerous. By the time she first saw him enter the palace during her story arc, she already had a name for him in her mind - Darkness. He seems to spend an awful lot of time and energy in each case and location he visits. Even understanding their laws and abiding by them. The mountains of paperwork he and his minions prepared in Azir to apprehend Lift could not have been an overnight task. To some extent, Nalan seems to have some roots in these places. His emotionlessness - When talking to Szeth: "He spoke the words calmly, without emotion." While chasing Lift: “'What was that?' Darkness asked, his voice cold, emotionless." Talking to Ym: “'You were an accomplice to murder,' the man said, pulling his gloves on more tightly, first one hand, then the other. He spoke with such a stark lack of emotion, he could have been conversing about the weather." Notable words from Lift: "He didn’t curse in annoyance. A fellow should curse. Made people feel real when they did that. But of course, Darkness wasn’t a real person. Of that, though little else, she was sure." and she also referred to him having "dead eyes" when she first saw him. All of Nalan's emotionlessness makes me feel like something more is going on than just a personality flaw. Are we dealing with more than one Nalan? Is it possible that we are dealing with Nalan's self-puppets somehow? ...mere husks of "Nalan Prime" whom we haven't really seen yet? Can he somehow use his Division surge to split thereby making "copies" of himself? Is the Nightwatcher involved? ...Or is he getting the help of an Elsecaller? Is he 'flying' and somehow avoiding detection from the general population? What the crap is going on? Am I missing something super simple, here?

So, we know Nale is going around killing awakened Radiants, but he is also completely capable of bringing them back to life, even from Death by Shardblade (like you see in the original ending of WoR. Brandon once said he wanted to show that such a thing was possible, which is why that ended up in there originally. So though Szeth's death is different now, we still know that it is possible). When Nale resurrected Szeth, he said that his death set him free of his past commitments (possibly "cleansed him" I can't remember the exact words and do not have my book present to check for exact quotes). So my ponderance is: what if Nale is not only killing Radiants to satisfy some requirement of justice, but is also resurrecting at least some of them to refound an Order of the Radiants?

Hello! Just joined the site today as i just finished WoR!! Glad to see there is such an active and passionate fanbase for Sanderson's books! Here's my question/thoughts: So why do I see so many people saying Skybreakers don't have spren? Maybe I am completely missing something obvious so forgive me if that is the case. For starters, Syl makes a comment to Kaladin concerning the difference between Windrunners and Skybreakers, quote: "Sylphrena, an honorspren, mentioned to Kaladin that "Laws don't matter. Whats right matters." Highspren, and through them, the Skybreakers, judge and dispense justice according to the letter of the law and what may make logical sense to them" (17th shard wiki)" I remember Syl talking about the difference between how Highspren and Honorspren distinguish what should/should not be done. To me this all implies Skybreakers have Highspren. Also, when Szeth meets Nale, Nale asks him to join the Skybreakers. Then Nale throws him a shard blade and the blade seemingly talks to him. Again, I feel this indicates it is a spren. Would love to get clarification on all of this! Cheers!

Where exactly did Nale find an insect that extracts Stormlight from people? In the Lift interlude in WoR, he has it in his hand, and is described by Lift as like a cremling but with wings, which were bound along with its legs. What kind of creature is this and how does it factor into Surgebinding? How did Nale get his hands on it? EDIT: I now know that this is a Larkin.

After having a bit of a thought, and looking at the coppermind I've noticed some things, mostly involving Nale (or Nalan).. is he actually who he says he is? According to the coppermind, he is Darkness, he who hunted Lift and killed Ym, both who were potential radiants, then gave Szeth Nightblood. I know that Nalan hunts down people who have commited crimes, but if he is just finding people who he thinks should suffer for committing injustices, where is the talk of massive strings of murders in crime-ridden towns? It seems to me that he could be working for Odium, or something like him, to prevent the Radiants from returning in strength- but still trying to maintain the guise of Nalan. Note that I didn't throw in Szeth randomly, he could very easily be using Szeth to an end. I may be completely off, but I thought it MIGHT be relevant.

First, props to Moogle for causing me to re-read the back covers. And here is what I found in WoR: “It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit. Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves; they can brace a broken soul, but they can also widen its fissures.” [A quick observation: I thought that surges were the “powers of creation” and surgebindings were the ability to manipulate the surges.] I think what happened to Bent Nale is that his “fissures” widened, further breaking his soul rather than bracing it. Breaking the Oathpact might have been the event that first broke his soul (especially given his temperament). Remaining on Roshar might have broken him further. It continued his exposure to Stormlight, which Kaladin says “were the Surges reduced to some primal form.” (WoR, Hardback, p. 469.) This may be what Syl meant when she told Kaladin that too much Stormlight is bad for the health. An added possibility is that wider soul fissures invite Odium in. Many speculate that Odium has corrupted Bent Nale and the other Heralds. This may be the mechanism for such corruption - why Bent Nale’s Prologue companion notes that Ash is “getting worse” and he feels like he too is “getting worse” – too much exposure to Stormlight/the surges.