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Besides the amazing technicolor hair, I mean. Like, is she said anywhere to be especially tall? Short? Wide-nosed? Pointy-chinned? If WB calls her, say, narrow-face, and OB has a minor female character with a narrow face, that might be a hint. (I had a dream last night that Vivenna showed up in OB as herself, under her own name. But I doubt it's gonna happen that way).

Waiting on Oathbringer has taken nearly as long as Rock's stew.. I am new to the forum and am excited to start exploring!

The red streamers of anticipationspren are floating around my head as I re-read the pre-released chapters in advance of Tuesday. Through my head rings the anthem of Queen; I want it all, I want it all - I want it all; and I want it now! And so I ask you all this question - what are you anticipating most from Oathbringer? To start us off: - Kaladin’s return to Urithiru and it’s fallout - The fallout from jasnah’s return to Urithiru. - Szeth’s inevitable interlude, now with 100% more Nightblood - Finding out about the Nightwatcher.

Can somebody kindly post all the Oaths of Knight Radiant that was spoken in Oathbringer with no additional comment, when he/she finishes the book? <3

Happy Oathbringer day, Lets not ruin anyone elses by spoiling the book for the people that may not read as quickly as you, or that may not be as fortunate to have obtained the book on the first day. I love you all my Bridge 4 Bretheren. Happy Reading.

@PeterAhlstrom I believe there is a typo in the first paragraph of p. 884 that is continued from p. 883. The last sentence of this paragraph reads, "In the real WOULD, they'd be in the water..." It should likely read: "In the real WORLD, they'd be in the water..." Hope that helps. Thanks for all your hard work!

Airsick Lowlander - second class needs to be a ranking here. That is all.

So, the Part 2 Epigraphs seem to be 3 different letters all addressed to Hoid/Cephandrius from Shards or at least envoys of Shards. I was curious to see if there was any new information on Shards or vessels so I typed them up in full here: Dearest Cephandrius, I received your communication, of course. I noticed its arrival immediately, just as I noticed your many intrusions into my land You think yourself so clever, but my eyes are not those of some petty noble, to be clouded by a false nose and some dirt on the cheeks. You mustn't worry yourself about Rayse. It is a pity about Aona and Skai, but they were foolish violating our pact from the very beginning. Your skills are admirable, but you are merely a man. You had your chance to be more, and refused it. No good can come of two Shards settling in one location. It was agreed that we would not interfere with one another, and it disappoints me that so few of the Shards have kept to this original agreement. As for Uli Da, it was obvious from the outset that she was going to be a problem. Good riddance. Regardless, this is not your concern. You turned your back on divinity. If Rayse becomes an issue, he will be dealt with. And so will you. Cephandrius, bearer of the First Gem, You must know better than to approach us by relying upon presumption of past relationship. You have spoken to one who cannot respond. We, instead, will take your communication to us - though we know not how you located us upon this world. We are indeed intrigued, for we thought it well hidden. Insignificant among our many realms. As the waves of the sea must continue to surge, so must our will continue resolute. Alone. Did you expect anything else from us? We need not suffer the interference of another. Rayse is contained, and we care not for his prison. Indeed, we admire his initiative. Perhaps if you had approached the correct one of us with your plea, it would have found favorable audience. But we stand in the sea, pleased with our domains. Leave us alone. We also instruct that you should not return to Obrodai. We have claimed that world, and a new avatar of our being is beginning to manifest there. She is young yet, and - as a precaution - she has been instilled with an intense and overpowering dislike of you. This is all we will say at this time. If you wish more, seek these waters in person and overcome the tests we have created. Only in this will you earn our respect. Friend, Your letter is most intriguing, even revelatory. I would have thought, before attaining my current station, that a deity could not be surprised. Obviously, this is not true. I can be surprised. I can perhaps even be naïve. I think. I am the least equipped, of all, to aid you in this endeavor. I am finding that the powers I hold are in such conflict that the most simple of actions can be difficult. I am also made uncertain by your subterfuge. Why have you not made yourself known to me before this? How is it you can hide? Who are you truly, and how do you know so much about Adonalsium? If you would speak to me further, I request open honesty. Return to my lands, approach my servants, and I will see what I can do for your quest. Interpretation: Letter 3 is definitely from Sazed but letters 1 and 2 are a bit harder to pin down. Based on the tones, I would say letter 1 is from someone who may have been Hoid's friend while letter 2 seems to be more antagonistic. Letter 2's writer also seems to admire Odium, which is curious. Looks like we have another Vessel name! Since Uli Da is dead, I guess that must have been the name of Ambition's Vessel? The "bearer of the First Gem" is an interesting title. I'm guessing it probably doesn't relate to Roshar despite the gem reference but who knows? None of the letters seem to come from Cultivation in my opinion. The first disapproves of dishardic worlds (Cultivation's relationship with Honor would preclude this) while the second is approving of Odium's initiative, which Cultivation probably wouldn't be since Odium kinda killed her lover. The phrasing in Letter 2 is kinda odd with the many references to the sea and whatever the heck Obrodai is. There's not much information on Autonomy but the apparent antagonism of Letter 2 might fit with Bavadin since she has bad blood with Hoid and seems to have some sort of relationship with Odium based on Hoid's grudge against the two of them. The allusions to the sea are weird however for someone whose main planet is half freaking desert though. It seems like its written by an agent and we know Autonomy is meddling outside Taldain so maybe this indicates some sort of plot on Obrodai (whatever/wherever that is)? Any thoughts beyond those?

How long is it going to take you guys to read Oathbringer? Just trying to gauge how long I'll need to stay off the forums after I start reading.

Hi all, On 12:01am Eastern time, November 14th, Oathbringer will be out, and at that time, you'll be able to discuss full Oathbringer spoilers. (You'll know because various topics in the Oathbringer board will be unlocked.) So we thought to make our policy clear on spoilers: You must preface topics with Oathbringer spoilers with the prefix [OB] in the front You are only allowed to post spoilers and spoiler topics in the Oathbringer Spoiler Board, Cosmere Theories, and some select work-related forums. For posts in the Oathbringer Spoiler Board you do not need to use spoiler tags inside a topic marked [OB]. For Cosmere Theories, you also do not need to put spoiler tags inside your topic if the topic has [OB] in the title. However, for Cosmere Theories, if you are adding Oathbringer stuff to an old theory without the [OB] tag, those must go in spoiler tags and you must make it obvious outside the spoiler tag that the spoiler is regarding Oathbringer content. For select things that do require talking about OB spoilers, in Events, Coppermind, and Arcanum forums, those are allowed but keep OB spoilers in spoiler tags Avoid and minimize spoilers in topic titles--even though those two boards will not appear in the Recent Topics ticker, topic titles still appear in Recent Activity and the forum home. You aren't allowed to post Oathbringer spoilers in places other than listed, even with spoiler tags. It will be nine months and then the Oathbringer board will be re-merged with the Stormlight board and you will not need to tag these spoilers. If you'd like to move something in the Stormlight Archive board to the Oathbringer board, to update it with new Oathbringer information, Report the post and we will happily move it to the Oathbringer spoiler board. Part-by-part Reactions Though the Oathbringer Spoiler Board will be very spoilery, very fast (maybe don't come there until you've read the book, as people do have copies that bookstores sold early), you'll have these five topics for reactions if you want to nerd out: Part 1 Reactions Part 2 Reactions Part 3 Reactions Part 4 Reactions Full Book Reactions For parts 1-4, they will not include the interludes immediately following it. On Discord All Oathbringer spoilers on Discord will be exclusively in the #oathbringer_spoilers channel for the nine month spoiler period and nowhere else.

Hello to all!!! Im here at one of my students request that i should join! i have been a fan for a little over 7 years but never came to the 17th shard. One of my students (junior high teacher btw) is an avid fan and loves the community, so im here now! Hi Salazar! Im a huge fan of Kaladin too Thank you all!

Hey there everyone! I've been doing little analysis of the Tor.com preview chapters as they've been coming out and I thought I'd make a place to find them here. I'll update this post with every new episode along with my notes (With a bit more structure to them). One of the reasons I wanted a place for them here is so that I can keep my notes in written form so it's easier for people to point out where I'm making my mistakes. Anyway, one with the videos! Walking to Urithiru - Part 0 - Introduction and Predictions Notes: Predictions Hints to Gavilars pre-radiancy bondsmithyness Look out of any Heralds Will we see the black sphere? Anymore info on the Parshendi? Walking to Urithiru - Part 1 - Prologue, To Weep Notes: Listeners had songs about humans that make them sound like Voidbringers (Specifically Midnight Essence). "dark, formless monsters", have the songs over time conflated the two enemies of the surviving listener people (Humans and Voidbringers) into one? Seems to me the biggest difference between dullform and slaveform is that slaveform don't hear the Rhythms, what happened to them to remove their ability to Listen? Gavilar with 5 people 2 Officers Amaram Maybe Restares 1 old robed dude Maybe Taravangian Maybe just an ardent 2 Women If Restares, maybe Restares wife If Taravangian, maybe Adrotagia Maybe Vivenna Eshonai makes the connection between Listeners and Fabrials way quicker than any of us did Listener gods must be the Unmade, Do the Black Spheres contain the Unmade? Maybe just one, split apart? Is this simply a sphere of voidlight? Gavilar notices Eshonai humming to the Rhythm of Anxiety and tells her to calm down. Not only does he hear the humming, he recognizes the Rhythm as Anxiety. Can Gavilar hear the Rhythms? Gavilar seems to think that a single spren being captured is what turned the Voidbringers into slaveform. is one Unmade really all it took? Is it free now? Void light - somehow related to forms of power Klades one slave just happened to be Szeth? And obviously-evil Venli was with him? Voice in the Rhythms? Eshonai left the Shattered Plains to see the world. Upon seeing a map of the world, she mourns Did Gavilar intend on betraying the Parshendi or did he plan on allying himself with Voidbringers? Sad ending Walking to Urithiru - Part 2 - Chapters 1, 2 and 3 Notes: Starts with Oathbringer quote, author might be Sunmaker (past) Dalinar (future) Start with Dalinar vision - Six days after arriving at Urithiru Dalinar can now summon visions at will, I assume large building size shimmer is the Stormfather, was he always there? Dalinar noclips to skybox where he finds an easter egg Dalinar sees golden light, black shardplate and 9 shadows Golden light = Odium Black Shardplate = Odiums Champion 9 Shadows = 9 Unmade Black Shardplate - This is the first we've ever heard of this. This makes the voidlight theory stronger for the Black Sphere. Alternatively, what if the Black Sphere is actually a physical manifestation of Odiums Investiture and the Black Shardplate is made out of this? (Odiumian ugh) There's a familiarity for the figure in Black Shardplate, Dalinar recgonises something The person Adolin? Eshonai? Dalinar himself? Feelings Hate? Destruction? The Thrill? Davani have a chat Mention that Oathgates need to be activated on both sides. First, this means the Oathgates were intentionally deactivated and not just stopped being used. Second, only the gates on the far side were deactivated, no one was around to activate the Urithiru side of the Urithiru-Stormseat gate Scout fetches Davani Adolin is ordering people about to avoid thinking about his problems Urithiru becoming a city Rushu turns up, she is Navanis favourite Ardent before Shallan turned up, might be Vivenna? Sadeas Body - Scout is mentioned again Dalinar notes the wound that killed Sadeas is not an assassins wound, but the killing blow that a soldier would do to a man in plate. Navani suggested assassin but Dalinar says nothing, does he suspect the people around him? Adolin? Dalinar looks at the people in the room - mention of the scout again, is she Vivenna??? Polana says what we are all thinking, good riddance. No one disagrees. Dalinar takes his entourage to a balcony, overlooking large plateaus surrounding Urithiru for Radiants to Growth crops Another mention of planter boxes. Adolin threw Sadeas' sword into one of these. Their mention again makes me think that the sword will be found soon (Setup, reinforcement, payoff). Sadeas sword is Oathbringer. Dalinar makes a little speech about uniting Roshar Little aside about Squires, their powers are lost with distance, but maybe time as well? Lopen healed his arm when one of them was on the Plains and the other in Urithiru. Powers fade like Stormlight Dalinar confirms Urithiru is above the storms Shin Invasions are mentioned, good to know as these were previously hinted at with Shubreth-son-Mashamalan Did the Shin do this when they first arrived? Dalinar flashback Dalinar being a bamf Some of that good Roshar stuff (rockbuds, laits) Dalinar is around 17 at this point Dalinar describes the Thrill as a "Rhythm of killing and dying", does Nergaoul simply open people up to a Rhythm as they naturally attune to it during war? Archer, black bow, black arrows (Unknown material) under command of Brightlord Yezriar specifically hired to kill Dalinar Dalinar did not snort or spit blood Young Sadeas is a scummy dude Walking to Urithiru - Part 3 - Chapter 4 Notes Epigraphs hint more towards the author Possible contenders: Sunmaker (Less likely now) Dalinar still possible - Especially after this chapter Many have suggested but the first person I saw say it was Pagerunner suggesting Jasnah - words like godless heretic and hanging between realms 8 Days for the Everstorm to circle round Navani writing her memoirs that become the Part 1 Epigraphs of WoR? Everstorm is new this time around Silent lightning? Is it Spren? Maybe like the mist not making things wet? Dalinar getting visions from the storm, Odium is aware of Dalinar. Could Odium have moved to Roshar finally and that's what the everstorm is? Rushu is mentioned again, Rushu is definitely Vivenna Chanada, senior ardent in the warcamps, told all the ardents to not marry Navani/Dalinar - Could be Vivenna Revelations about Dalinars wife (Won't mention her name). They married so Dalinar could get some Shardplate. Dalinar reveals to Navani he doesn't remember her and Navani works out that it was the Nightwatcher that did it. Circumstances of her death are "Something about a city in rebellion against my brother, and my wife being taken hostage? That… and a long march alone, accompanied only by hatred and the Thrill. He remembered those emotions vividly. He’d brought vengeance to those who had taken his wife from him." What did Dalinar do?! Going up to the roof, Urithiru has lifts! Only a handful operating out of dozens. Looking forward to it getting another. Description of Urithiru which I'm not going to get into as we are getting a diagram of it in Oathbringer. I have a feeling this big window pointing towards the Origin may actually have a purpose Dalinar nervous about getting married Mention of True Spren and subspren, this may just be the Stormfathers opinion though Still lots of Urithiru unexplored Bridge 13 are guarding Dalinar as Bridge 4 have been assigned to "other duties" as they are "close to becoming Radiants", bloody nepotism Navani is wearing red/gold so she gets added to the "might be Odiums champion" list Aladars duaghter is mentioned as being at the wedding, May Aladar is now being added to the "Might be Vivenna" list Stormfather rocks up, giving Dalinar the "detached" feeling that he gives people when he turns up (Kaladin has described this in WoK, Eshonai and Kaladin again in WoR) "First in Millenia to bind me", not gonna read too much into this but does this mean the Recreance was about 1000 years ago? Davani get married Kadash has an issue with this - he implies he knows of bad things Dalinar did. Dalinar mentions that he hadn't thought about it this thing in years, meaning this is different to the Wife memory. Something bad happened at The Rift, Rathalas (Does anyone have any idea as to what this is?) Dalinar implies he's seen something higher than the almighty. "A warmth and a light" like his dream at the end of WOR? Walking to Urithiru - Part 4 - Chapters 5 and 6 Notes: Everstorm was at it's worst fighting a highstorm. I wonder if when the Highstorm and Everstorm meet again in the future, will it be as bad as the Shattered Plains (Huge sections of ground ripped into the air) Brandon seems to be signaling to us that this is not the case (multiple mentions of it not being as strong) Kals eyes are brown again, only go blue when summoning Syl. Not the use of Investiture, but summoning Syl? Hmm... Kal confirms that leaving Spheres out in the Everstorm does not charge them with Voidlight Weeping continues about half a day after the Everstorm passed. Seem Roshars meteorigical system hasn't been disrupted too bad Kaladin still refers to Moash as his friend, reminder that Roshone was sent to Hearthstone after convincing Elhokar to have Moash's grandparents, some rival silversmith owners, arrested and kept imprisoned until death. Dalinar wanted to strip him of power but he was instead sent somewhere "he couldn't do any more harm" New Spren, gloomspren. Rare for some reason Syl has an aunt? Roshones Parshmen were kept in a small structure in the garden. A single open space with benches for sleeping (Reminds me of the Skaa hovels). Kaladin feels a large hole ripped in the side. No idea what this means. We know that Parshmen that are left inside during the Everstorm won't change, but how "inside" do they have to be? If this hole was there beforehand, would it be enough to cause the parshmen to change? Kal reunites with his parents and I nearly cry Lirin and Hesina are maybe hiding something from Kal "our home still stands. We had to dedicate your spot to something else, Kal, but we can make space for you" and “Things have gotten better since you left [...] We can rebuild, be a family again. And there’s something else you need to know about. We-" Blightsong suggested to me that Hesina and Lirin may have another child Mara is mentioned, assuming Lirins new apprentice, a new girl moved in from elsewhere? Kal says these wounds are of a natural disaster, not an attack, where did the voidbringers go? "Moelach moves westward" - Could the voidbringers/Parshmen be drawn in that direction too? Syl remembers Kal as a kid. We know something was watching Kal as a kid because of his skill with the staff as soon as he picked it up. Syl says "there was… another voice. Pure, with a song like tapped crystal, distant yet demanding…" - The context isn't too great. We don't know whether this means the voice of someone watching Kal and calling to her (Authority among the Honorspren? Cultivation?) or another proto-radiant? Tien? He didn't seem very Windrunner Kal punching Roshone was great Ending on Kal once again calling Moash his friend Walking to Urithiru - Part 5 - Chapters 7, 8, and 9 Notes: I feel the Epigraphs are slightly less likely to be Jasnah. As this is only the preface, I think we aren't going to see any of Oathbringer the actual book, but we are going to find out what it contains and why it was written Kaladin refers to Urithiru as home Seems the Parshmen did transform and then left, I still think they are heading west. "Some of the older spren have four genders instead of two" - A reference to the Roshar of old, where Listeners were the only sapient creatures on Roshar and Brandon classified their 4 genders as Male, Female, Malen, Femalen Hearthstone has a spanreed! Turns out Laral is just really bad at picking up the blinking ruby Kaladin has a baby brother! One year old Oroden Kaladin leaves Hearthstone, showing everyone the Radiants had returned Syl forms a Shardspear, which is badass Chapter 8 - A Powerful Lie We open with Shallan struggling to draw Urithiru. I find this strange as it's just a big building, why can't she draw it? Perspective might be wrong but then just draw it on a smaller scale? Female Scout appears. She has now been identified as Lyn, the character that Brandon named after a redditor who posted on Reddit saying she wanted to live on Roshar. Probably not Vivenna Shallan pretending to be an Elsecaller so people don't work out she can cast illusions Hathams army where red and gold, Hatham is definitely Odiums Champion Shallan joins Adolin, Renarin, Dalinar and Navani in chatting about unifying Roshar and Renarin is cold for some reason "He wore his Bridge Four uniform, but had a blanket over his shoulders and was holding a cup of steaming tea, though the room wasn’t particularly cold. " Why? Tezim, a warlord in Tukar, claims to be an aspect of the Almighty. maybe a Proto-bondsmith? Argent suggested maybe Ishar, I'm not sure, could be a Herald though I hope the irony of Adolin saying only Dalinar could intimidate the forces of nature is not lost on everyone Dalinar starts pulling on Shallan. She feels "A leaping within her, as if part of her were being pulled by him." She describes it as a "tugging" She breathes in light, breathes it out on the map, the light then passed between her and Dalinar before becoming a huge map of the Rosharan continent Dalinar says the Stormfather did this, that "It wasn’t me or you, but us. " - almost exact way that Syl describes how the Nahel Bond grants powers to Kaladin. Bondsmiths must be able to create bonds with other Radiants and use their surges somehow Dalinar mentions to Odiums champion, black armor, red eyes, 9 shadows. Renarin is aghast at this. RENARIN, TALK, TELL SOMEONE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING List of all the Oathgates: - Azimir, in Azir - Shinovar - Panatham, Capital of Babatharnam - Rall Elorim, City of Shadows in Iri - Kurth in Rira - One lost in Aimia - Jah Keved - assumedly Vedenar cause it's capital - Thaylen City in Thaylenah - One on the Shattered Plains - Last one in Kholinar still no word from Kholinar, I'm guessing that city is fuuuuucked Interesting that Navani says that Aimia itself, the island, was destroyed. Chapter 9 - The Threads of a Screw Both Jofwu and Argent have commented on how it's very unusual how much emphasis is being put on the strata patterns on the walls. I had thought it was just Shallan showing off she is getting more comfortable around... Patterns... but the fact this chapter is named this is interesting The exact quote is "The strata here spiraled, twisting around the floor, ceiling, and walls like the threads of a screw. It was striking enough that Shallan took a Memory of it for later sketching." end quote Why is this the name of the chapter? Shallan seems both at home at Urithiru and also put off by it, it's very strange Find a copycat killer - killed one of Sebarials officers 2 possibilities 1. Someone knows Adolin did it through magic means 2. Someone is taking the oppurtunity to pin a murder on someone else If 1, it's gotta be Renarin, if 2, it'll be Ghostbloods or Sadeas widow, Ialai Person must have had access to the body before it was moved, so either Bridge 4 (doubtful) or Sadeas troops Seems other soldiers are referring to Bridge 4 as "the windrunners" Brandon made special note of how specifically sketchy Renarin is being in that room Renarin staring at Adolin, I feel like Shallan knows something is up with Adolin and is going to accidentally draw the scene or something and Renarin may already know that it was Adolin who did it via his "visions" Walking to Urithiru - Part 6 - Chapter 10 Epigraphs for Chapters 10 and 12 "Perhaps my heresy stretches back to those days in my childhood, where these ideas began. I ask not that you forgive me. Nor that you even understand." Okay, I haven't spoken much about the actual content of these prefaces, but what does it mean by "I ask not that you forgive me or understand"? What is the point in writing this or having some read it if not for them to understand something. I guess it could just be to recount events that you want people to know but this seems like a far more thoughtful peice than just a recounting of events. Hmmm Chapter 10 - Distractions Kal is searching area in a spiral moving outwards from Hearthstone to find the Voidbringers Mentions Gumfrems, a chull like beast that is killed for its Heliodor gemheart. I have long suspected all species "native" to Roshar have a gemheart and this gemheart allows them to bond with spren in some way and live on Roshar. Good to hear that there are other fauna than just greatshells and Listeners that have gemhearts Syl and Kaladin have a conversation about Syl having Spren children, she talks about how the Stormfather made some of them (Honorspren), helped shape them. Syl talks about how she would teach the little spren to fly and annoy Kaladin. I wonder if we're getting a glimpse into what seperates "truespren" and "subspren", like could a windspren be turned into an Honorspren if raised by another honorspren? Or is Syl just being silly? Kal calls Syl a Sylblade when she's in sword for and interestingly, she has a the windrunner symbol for a hilt, with lines of metal making the shape. I find this interesting because none of the other blades have been described as having this kind of hilt. Spoilers for next chapter but Renarins is described as quite simple and Shallans never makes any reference to any flowing lines like the Lightweaver symbol. Is Kal just SUPER Windrunnery and all the other radiants just filthy casuals? So Kal turns up and becomes a menagerie for everyone, encouraging everyone and stuff before being informed that the village was attacked by the voidbringers. The voidbringers had attacked a grain silo with a group of about 50 of them. Kal chats with a female ardent who very much has a crush on our rugged, moist hero in blue. She's going on the might be Vivenna list just in case... She talks about how a group of 50 were chased away by only a handful of people, but this is very strange as they could have taken the town easily. I'm assuming the voidbringers are basically under almost the complete control of an Unmade or Odium himself and he's trying to preserve and gather his forces as absolutely as quickly as possible, hence the lack of attacking and not even bothering to risk a single soldier to a little town in the middle of nowhere. Odium knows he's going to need every Listener possible this time around. She mentions that only a few red lights were seen from the group and this has led me to believe that the voidbringers are not in Stormform or Warform. She says that the witnesses described some red lights but not enough to be their eyes. They don't have glowing red eyes. They aren't in Stormform. They do have SOME glowing red lights. I believe these are the single glowing comet-like spren that Eshonai describes flitting about her head after she changes into Stormform. Warform does not produce this comet-like Spren. So, they aren't in Stormform, and they aren't in Warform, what form are they in? I do think it's a voidform as I think that's whats required for the little spren, but other than that I can't say. Syl and Kaladin have a little chat about Kaladins sex life and Syl seems to like to watch. Kaladin does wonder what Radiants Spren do whilst their Radiant is having sex and I do think it's an interesting question. It's just a strange situation for everyone involved really. We then find out where the Parshmen are heading to Kholinar... Which is to the East of both Hearthstone and Kharbranth. I feel like Kholinar is super messed up. Not only do they have a incompetant Queen, not only were they rioting to all hell, not only did it most likely have one of the largest populations of parshmen, but now it seems all the parshmen in Alethkar are heading their way! Honestly, at this point, I'm extremely worried about Ehlokars son. So we now have a switch to Adolins point of view. Adolin is hanging out with Gallant after losing Sureblood in the fight against the Stormforms on the Shattered Plains. They do seem extremely intelligent. Renarin joins Adolin and mentions that Ryshadiums have stone hooves. I don't think they are "native" to Roshar but they are definitely a lot more adapted to life on Roshar than a normal horse. Either Ryshadiums came to Roshar long before the current crop of humans/horses or they were changed once the Shards arrived. At this point, I wouldn't be surpised to learn they have a gemheart. Renarins had an interesting comment, it seems he's worked out that your standard horse doesn't fit on Roshar. Renarin tries to give the Shardblade that Adolin won for him back and Adolin realises that Renarin has his own blade. Renarin summons it and as I mentioned before, this one isn't big and fancy, just a long thin wavey sword with no crossguard. Renarin has a little moment where he talks about struggling to fit in and it's just the most adorable thing. Poor Renarin We then see Renarin breath in some stormlight and heal Adolins wrist, but something else happens here. The quote is: "A pulse of Radiance washed through Adolin, and for an instant he saw himself perfected. A version of himself that was somehow complete and whole, the man he could be. It was gone in a moment, and Renarin pulled his hand free and murmured an apology." Now, this sounds a lot like Allomantic Gold, Electrum or Malatium doesn't it? What I think is happening here is either: A) This is simply how Regrowth works as this is just the first time we've been in a PoV of someone it's being used on, so when Lift heals people, it shows them their perfect self too as something the body is trying to aim for This is a little bit of the Illumination surge leaking in and it's giving Adolin a vision of what his body is trying to heal (That's Heal with a capital H) into C) A persons perfect self is one of the things Renarin can "see" as he puts in WoR and he was just showing it to Adolin Whatever these options are, I'm pissed because my theory has been completely thrown out with the bathwater and I'm back to square one with Renarins weird futuresight abilities. Any replies are encouraged! Point out stuff I got wrong, maybe stuff I missed. I'll update this post for every video added. Thank you for your time! Walking to Urithiru - Part 7 - Chapters 11 and 12 Chapter 11 - The Rift 33 years ago - a year after the last flashback Dalinar has managed to win himself some Plate of his own in what sounds like a less than official duel. Looks like Kaladin isn't the only one to kill a Shardbearer with no Shards of his own. You may remember that Dalinar actually married for a set of Plate but this was not the one he personally uses, Adolin actually receives this Plate eventually as mentioned in Chapter 14 of Words of Radiance. This flashback focuses on the attack on Rathalas, The Rift. This was the occasion that I believe Kadash was talking about that caused him to join the Ardentia. Annoyingly, I wondered where Rathalas was in Part 2 and it's RIGHT THERE ON THE ALETHKAR MAP. I need to be better for you guys, I apologise. I also guessed that this event was seperate to the wife event and I'm glad it seems that way. Dalinar, Gavilar and Sadeas take the walls of Rathalas before Dalinar falls for a trap and falls down the rift in the ground that Rathalas is seated in. This is a nice little call back to the first flashback where Sadeas says not even a rockslide could kill Dalinar. Dalinar surives the fall and eventually makes it to engage the citylord Tanalan. He is a Shardblade owner and the Shardblade he owns is the titular Oathbringer. Dalinar engages Tanalan and eventually forces him to retreat to a hidden room holding his wide and 6 year old child. The child is wielding Oathbringer and we fade to black. Now, there's been some arguments about whether Dalinar actually killed the kid or not. He says he's ashamed of what he did. Gavilar even mentions he killed their highlord and the heir so it can't be JUST that he killed the child, Dalinar knows Gavilar knows and yet still mentions that he'd be ashamed if Gavilar found out what he did. The chapter ends with Dalinar ruminating over a "brave boy crying". Now, I see two possibilities. Dalinar didn't kill the boy and is ashamed of taking his Shardblade without killing him, which could be seen as Dalinar getting soft which is why he's ashamed. The other option I find is that Dalinar took care of the child and Tanalans wife in a very brutal and unsavioury manner. Alethi glorify war and martial prowess but they do look down on excessive violence. I find this second one more likely in my opinion. One thing I do find strange is that Kadash is present for Dalinar and Gavilars chat but not at any time beforehand. If this is the event that caused Kadash to leave their army and become an Ardent, we must be return to this event to clear up what Dalinar did and why it caused Kadash to leave. Last little tidbit from this chapter is that the Sunmakers name was Sadees. Sounds like Sadeas's family may be descended from him. No wonder he joined up with the Kholins conquest. Chapter 12 - Negotiations Open with Dalinar having a gander over the view from Urithiru. He has a chat with the Stormfather about the old Radiants and the Stormfather refuses to talk to him about the reason that the old Radiants broke their Oaths. Says it's best left forgotten. I have a feeling that the reason for this is because if the new Radiants knew, they would forgo their Oaths too. Dalinar goes to meet via spanreed with various world leaders. May Aladar get's mentioned again. We also get mention of Kalami and Teshav again. They were in Way of Kings and Words of Radiance so they won't be going on the Might be Vivenna list. Kalami's wards however... Azish are negotiating with the Voidbringers. The Thaylen voidbringers stole boats. Some think they are attacking these nations where they are strongest (Boats for the Thaylens, war for the alethi, diplomacy for the Azish) but I'm not convinced. I think they are simply taking advantage of the situations they are in. The Alethi voidbringers are simply heading for Kholinar because it's probably their strongest group right now, the Thaylens just wanted to get off that tiny island or deny the Thaylens their ships (Or both) and whilst the Azish think they are delaying the voidbringers with their negotiations, I think it's the other way around. During this scene, May Alader is mentioned like 4 times. I've got my eye on you May Elhokar seems to have made some realisations about himself, he even mentions he believes himself a liar. Is it possible he's admitted some Truths to himself? I have a feeling that Dalinar is going to give Elhokar the Honorblade to allow him to accomplish his mission. Taravangian messages saying he has a Radiant and is heading to Urithiru to accept Dalinars authority. There's no way this could go wrong. Taravangian's Radiant is female, VIVENNA?! Walking to Urithiru - Part 8 - Chapters 13, 14, and 15 "I ask only that you read or listen to these words. In this record, I hold nothing back. I will try not to shy away from difficult topics, or paint myself in a dishonestly heroic light. I will express only direct, even brutal, truth. You must know what I have done, and what those actions cost me." answers the question "Why bother writing this" - theory: Author did something bad, everyone thinks its good, this is to tell everyone what they did and why it's bad Three short chapters Chapter 13 - Chaperone Nearly nothing actually happens in this chapter, Adolin visits Shallan in the night Assumedly this is the last or second last night of the Weeping This chapter is hilarious and a suprisingly sexy for something Brandon Sanderson has written. You go Brandon Sanderson Shallan mentions that the walls can't be scratched by a knife, extremely strong stone or something more... cognitive? She'd drawn over 20 pages of drawings of the patterns on the walls, something definitely going on with those patterns Adolin mentions born under sign of nine, horoscope? MAY ALADAR MENTIONED AGAIN End on "Neither of us is going to mess this up" meaning they will definitely mess this up. Chapter 14 - Squires Can’t Capture Kaladin spies on some Voidbringers before being seen Voidbringers not in war form or storm form! I was right! small amounts of carapace so not workform but still with hair so not warform I saw Calderis from the shard point out that they don't seem to be speaking to any Rhythms "They spoke like Alethi. Not a hint of an accent. With his eyes closed, he wouldn’t have been able to tell these voices from those of common darkeyed villagers from Hearthstone" Kal is spotted by a yellow ribbon spren who seemed to have been on the lookout. Kal realises they are not warriors of any type and surrenders Chapter 15 - Brightness Radiant Adolin trains Shallan in the Blade MAY ALADAR IS MENTIONED AGAIN. SHE IS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE IMPORTANT Pattern is described as humming a lot. This line "Pattern hummed softly a tone she’d come to recognize as confusion." I know it's a stretch but does pattern hum to the rhythms? Shallan created a new persona called Brightness Radiant which is... interesting Pattern offers to die "“I can die, Shallan. I can go. They will send you another to bond.”" So if a Lightweavers Spren dies, do the Cryptics just send another? Reminder that Spren have cities in the cRealm. Is this true for all Spren and orders? obviously not Bondsmiths but still That's it, not much else to say! Short chapters this week. For comparison, these three chapters clocked in at 8k words combined, Chapter 11 and 12 were 6k words EACH Walking to Urithiru - Part 9 - Chapter 16 Including last weeks prefaces just for a little context - Preface The book Oathbringer will give the reader an experience? Maybe will tell others how to experience what the writer has experienced? Maybe a guide to becoming a Radiant? Assuming the author is a Radiant Chapter 16 - Wrapped Three Times Finally find out where the Honorblade is at! Warm to the touch, no other shardblade has been described like this Room is described as having no strata patterns, this kills any theories about only Shallan being able to see them Stormfather basically confirms that the Honorblades are pieces of Honor, gifted to the Heralds and are part of an Oath, assumedly the Oathpact. had WoB on this before, nice to get it confirmed in text We also get a confirmation that Shardplate is linked to Oaths. Theories that it's forged by another Order have lost points and theories that it's a gathering of cousinspren has gained points Stormfather is unable to break Oaths. Tagent about why the Stormfather can't stop the Parshendi from transforming into forms of Odium and why he may be stopping them from taking forms of Cultivation or Honor, this may be part of the Oathpact Seems the Stormfather is aware of Adonalsium, I wonder how much he remembers of being Honor? Seems Odium is bound by the Oathpact by his nature. He is unable to break his own rules. Shards are unable to act outside of their Shards Intent much so it seems to me that the Oathpact isn't just something of Honor. It's something Hateful, yet also Cultivates Stormfathers odd comments about Odium: This makes it sound like there's a way of fighting Odium directly to cause damage permanently and this is different to the Champions thing which simply buys humanity time. Time to do what, who knows? Will this simply be the start of a new regular desolation cycle? So yeah, the Honorblade is being kept in a hole cut into a sewerline. I wonder what the Shin would have to say about that. Stormfather seems to confirm something long suspected about the Honorblades. Brandon has once said that if the Honorblades granted other abilities, you would have to know about those abilities in order to be able to use them. Stormfather all but guarantees that the Honorblades grant more powers than just the Surges."Like a Herald, nearly" As I said last week, Dalinar is considering giving the Honorblade to Elhokars team if Kaladin doesn't make it back, which it doesn't look like he will. Dalinar chats with a rude bridgeman from bridge 13. He has a Kholinar accent but is a little pale. He has a habit of rolling a coin over his knuckles. I'm sure we've seen this habit before in people but don't know where. If this is ringing a bell with anyone else, please let me know either in the comments before, Discord, Shard, Reddit, Twitter, I very much suspect this bridgeman is someone we've met before. Navani invented the watch Return of Zahel! Dressed with his robe belt as per usual. Looks like Vasher didn't take this oppurtunity to leave and stuck around. Dalinar has a wrestle and whilst this happens, he says that the Thrill was "The open secret of Alethi success.", do only Alethi feel the Thrill? Dalinar has a sword fight with Kadash whilst talking to one of the Iriali Triarchs which is such a Brandon Sanderson scene Iriali claims Dalinar stole Adolins plate And we get a mention of Evi! Feels nice to be able to say her name freely. Her brother is mentioned too, seems she did have family. Dalinar seems to have overcome his NW curse: Last time we heard shshsh was in Chapter 4, just before Navani and Dalinar got married. Options for what could have happened, some of these are heavily dependant on what the NW boon/curse is 1. Stormlight has healed his memory 2. Getting married to Navani means she is now his wife so he will start to forget her 3. Now that he has "moved on", it no longer fit the requirements for whatever the boon/curse is (e.g. Take away the pain) 4. Shadowfaxes theory: Navanis combined Timerial/Painrial resonated, with help from Dalinars Bondsmithing ability to do... something with other surges healed his pain through time. Walking to Urithiru - Part 10 - Chapters 17 and 18 Chapter 17 - Trapped in Shadows Syl mentions that the voidbringers seem to be being led by a higher voidspren, like her. I just think this means it's a thinking spren like she is instead of a windspren who just does as they please Syl also mentions that some, but not all, of the voidbringers are able to see her. I wonder what the difference between the two is... Some interesting info on these Voidbringers. So it seems that whatever the black spheres did (because at this point I believe whatever was trapped in the black sphere, this was key to stopping the voidbringers from transforming) it took with it a piece of the parshmans Connection and Identity. A part of their souls was literally torn away and they were unable to connect with one another and weren't even really aware of who they were. They were aware that what was happening to them was very wrong though. Assumedly, this also stopped them from transforming too Seems the voidspren isn't in control. He's directing them, but it seems he can't force them to do anything. I'm starting to think these voidbringers aren't being influenced by Odium at all. They are just running from humans and theres some spren that are willing to help them who just happen to be of Odium Chapter 18 Shallan goes out exploring as Veil Gets drunk and hit on, uses her Stormlight to heal herself from drunkness Shallan doubting her actual memories as not real is A VERY BAD THING Shallan forces herself more into the Veil persona, which is very worrying. We've even had a bit of foreshadowing from Tyn in regards to this. In Words of Radiance she warned Shallan: Shout out to SLNC for finding that Shallan is falling apart mentally. She's running from her problems by pretending she's someone else, she's convincing herself she is those people, she's starting to doubt she's actually who she thinks she is. This girl is developing some serious Dissacciative disorder I should also point out that Niveo on Reddit believes that the bouncer at the All's Alley bar is Demoux as the bouncer is described as having a large scar going from his cheek, to his forehead to his scalp. In the purelake interlude in WoK, we get this description of Demoux "Wonder how he got that scar across his scalp, Ishikk thought" It seems our copycat murderer isn't just copying Adolin. Seems they are copying other murders too. Could this be an Unmade? Just a Spren? A voidbinder? Does it just copy once or does it just keep going? I feel this may be our introduction to the next Unmade The Oathbringer inside cover with confirmed Uritiru location. Shoutout to Argent & others who pointed out that in the last video I said we haven't seen someone with a Curse using stormlight before. We have and it's Lift. Depending on what her Curse is though, it may actually be healing her. If it's the age thing, this may be why she's started aging again. Walking to Urithiru - Part 11 - Chapters 19, 20, and 21 As per usual, here are the two epigraphs we got this week Blightsong did point out that the talk of Spices kind of implies that if the author comes from a Vorin nation, they are male. Obviously this puts Dalinar at the top of the list Chapter 19 - Subtle art of Diplomacy 31 years ago, Dalinar 19 Our conquering trio are having dinner with some people from Evi's brother Mention how prolonged sieges are rare in Vorin kingdoms due to soulcasters. Would have thought soulcasters would be more common in the west as they are close to Aimia Dalinar being Dalinar Turns out all 10 royal families are descended from the Sunmaker, not just Sadeas Dalinar goes for a walk in the middle of a highstorm to fetch his knife, casual StormStrider which Dalinar flips off. Mention that StormStriders have been mentioned in WoK and WoR when Kaladin was trapped out in a highstorm both times. Could be cognitive entities or Spren, could be of Honor or Odium, we don't know much I actually am starting to like young Sadeas and Ialais relationship We see Evi enter the room. I want to say now that I do not think that Evi is Vivenna. I know I said I was going to suspect everyone, but I do not think this. Dalinar kills an assassin and we end the chapter with Dalinar eating the pork with the knife he used to kill the assassin and agreeing to marry Evi Chapter 20 - Cords to bind Another chapter of Kaladin talking with the voidbringers about the moral quandary of whether slavery is okay. Parshendi are learning that as you gain more freedom, you also gain responsibilities and those responsibilities can bind you just as strongly as any rope or chain. Interestingly enough, Kaladin tells them he's not able to see the yellow spren and this surprises the Voidbringers, which implies they can all see it. Kaladin saw it last Kal chapter so I assume he is lying? Syl can sense highstorms. Bit convenient "Oh, I can do it now that I need to" Interesting perspective on the Oaths and Radiants. The Parshendi are people too, doesn't that mean the Radiants Oaths apply to them too? Is Honor just a massive racist or were the Pasrhendi as we know them not the voidbringers after all? Chapter 21 - Setup to fall Shallan wakes up the next day after a heavy night drinking I like how open about her activities as Veil Shallan is being with Adolin. Shows the amount of trust she puts in him already. Though I am worried it's going to bite her in the chull at some point Shallan realises that they should have run out of Stormlight so far. Why hadn't they? I have a feeling this is related to the fact Urithiru is a little in the Cognitive Realm. The light from Stormlight is leaking because it's leaking into the pRealm. If Urithiru is partly in the cRealm, the leak would be slower Also, I thought a Highstorm signaled the end of the weeping but I guess not. Should have realised this last week. Interesting to hear that two of the warcamps are still in operation and that their transformed Parshmen are marching to Kholinar. Kholinar is definitely becoming hub Good to see Brandon didn't forget about Shallans guards. I'm not going to call them Squires cause I'm not sure they are Shallan teasing Adolin about him being like his father and how he's hiding something. Shallan is absolutely going to work out that Adolin killed Sadeas and it's not going to go well. Reach their meeting with Ialai Sadeas, and standing with her is Mraize Possibilities with what Mraize is doing there: 1. He is undercover and works as an aide to Ialai 2. Ialai is a ghostblood 3. Mraize somehow controls Ialai At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Thaidakar is a title just like Mraize and Ialai is Thaidakar. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Ghostbloods got their hands on Oathbringer (Sword) in some way. Walking to Urithiru - Part 12 - Chapters 22, 23, and 24 Prefaces Okay, I feel like Dalinar is basically confirmed at this point. The mention that this person isn't a Philosopher and that the reader may be smarter than them makes it sound like it's not Jasnah. Again, generally just more meandering about how this is a simple recounting of events Chapter 22 - The Darkness Within Now, I was hoping we'd get this meeting from Adolins perspective just for some fun dramatic irony but instead we get something far juicier It appears Mraize has a pet bird. Now, obviously everyone immediately jumps to "This is an Aviar". I'm going to make some for and some against arguments cause I don't think we can simply jump to this conclusion. For: Mraize having a pet bird is weird, why would he have a pet bird? Does this bird grant special powers? This would explain why he has a bird We know Mraize is a worldhopper, he could have gone to First of the Sun and gotten himself an Aviar We know Mraize likes to collect things from other planets, getting an Aviar is a Mraize type of thing to do Why would he have this bird on him now if he is undercover, this seems like a very bad idea. Unless his undercover position requires he be granted a special ability, like one granted by an Aviar Shallan doesn't recognise the bird, maybe that implies it's not native to Roshar? Against - Why would he have a pet bird? When in disguise, you normally want to draw attention away from your most obvious attributes. If he went missing one day, someone might ask where "The guy with the bird" went instead of asking "Where did the horrifically scarred guy go" - Mraize is a Worldhopper but First of the Sun is hard to get to, as per the Arcanum Unbounded essay - Having a bird with you is a bad idea when undercover even if it's a magic bird. Especially if this is a magic bird you want with you when you aren't undercover - Shallan isn't very well travelled and so may not recognise all species of birds. Either way, I'm not super convinced it's an Aviar but I do get why people have latched onto that idea and I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Let me know what you guys think down below. Before we move on to Mraize and Shallans conversation, I would like to point out that Ialai is warming tea with heating fabrials. Urithiru is nearly all out of Stormlight but Ialai can't be without her tea! Makes a brit proud Things to note from Shallans conversation with Mraize Ialai is not a Ghostblood, Mraize is watching her Mraize is more than willing to accept Listener allies if their interests align with the Ghostbloods Mraize knows Shallan used the Ghostblood symbol the previous night Mraize seems to be under the impression Jasnah attacked them first. Jasnah did have an army of assassins and spies on her payroll so I'm not surprised. Mraize acknowledges that he feels the wrongness about Urithiru too. The idea that an Unmade is present has gained some weight for me. Mraize leaves Shallan with a promise of information on Heleran. Whether this information is on his death and Kaladins role in it or whether the information is that Heleran is alive, it could go either way. Both have dramatic implications that could take Shallans character down interesting arcs. I feel the Heleran being alive one is the slightly less likely one for me, purely because it would require quite a complex series of events to take place to really make sense. Notice that when thinking about Heleran, she feels the need to become Veil. Shallan came out of her shell alot in WoR but it feels like she's traded one shell for another Ialai says to look within Kholin ranks to find the murderer. Some think she suspects Adolin but her wording to me seems she actually might be trying to be helpful here We learn Amaram is leading Ialai's investigation. I wonder if he brought Taln with him? And we end on the highstorms returning! Chapter 23 Storming Strange Kaladin seems to really be feeling protective of these Parshendi, I'm going to stick him on the list of "potential Odiums Champion". He's right now really being prepped for fighting for the "other side" Kals group has gathered a few more, but they still seem to only have 1 voidspren with them Time to talk about the voidspren, and I do think it's a voidspren. Some people think it's more like a Radiant spren or something else. It's possible it's both and this is a Voidbinding Spren, we know nearly nothing about Voidbinding. She seems very condescending to me, other than the image of a girl she's exactly what I was expecting Her appearance is of a girl from Shinovar and she walks by stepping on stone. This is really messing me up. She seems to be specifically being... heretical. She's taken the appearance of a Shin and is then on purposely, EXPLICITLY, walking on stone. Few ideas, StoneSpren? HeresySpren? The only other spren of Odium we've seen has been StormSpren so I feel StoneSpren lines up with that... but it's just so very odd. They have a quick exchange which imply there is some higher authority present when they arrive at their destination which we are still assuming is Kholinar. I'm very looking forward to seeing Kholinar Chapter 24 - Men of Blood and Sorrow We start this chapter with Dalinar remembering Evi She had pale yellow hair, not golden, not true Iri, so DEFINITELY VIVENNA Evi memories are coming back slowly Seems the Weeping has lasted a lot longer than usual. This seems odd as if you count the days, as Jofwu has been doing, you'd find that unless there were several days between some chapters, which we've had no indication there is, the highstorms seemed to have restarted after 2 weeks as they should have. oh well https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Wdigy6ZNX4EGRAaUskfM0LXNANksyM1JintSn4yKSyM/edit#gid=2005334307 Taravangian turns up with Adrotagia and a little retinue We get another mention about how good a friends Taravangian and Gavilar were and I just want to say at this point I think we can pretty much confirm that it was Taravangian hanging with ole gavvy in the prologue Taravangian seems to be having an off day. I don't see why he'd pretend to be stupider than he is, on a good day he may appear to be weak of mind simply by reputation and on a very very good day, he wouldn't have the empathy to know to pretend. To me, it seems that he's having a mid to lower day. Not so bad they had to cancel the meeting, but bad enough that Adrotagia basically talks for him. For those that don't know, an apoplexy is basically a stroke. This is what Navani believed caused Taravangians weak mindedness. And in Taravangians retinue, we get introduced to Malata of Jah Keved! Shes's a middle aged woman who likes to wear gloves instead of a sleeve over her hand, she is a Dustbringer or Releaser as they like to be called. She likes to stay quiet and smirk at people. I don't think she's lying about any of this so far. Her Shardblade isn't described as weirdly spike like so I don't think this is Talns blade. It wouldn't make much sense for her to pretend to be a Releaser with a Stonewards Honorblade. Gonna add her to the Might Be Vivenna list anyway just in case Dalinar offers to send some troops to help out in Jah Keved but it seems even the parshmen from there are heading for Kholinar I've noticed in this chapter how much Dalinar talks about his memories of Navani. Like, he talks about them a lot. I'm not 100% on board with the Dalinar-forgets-Navani theories but I'm not gonna lie, I'm definitely starting to bat for that team I love how Navani is almost acting as a stand-in for us Sharders, She's asking questions, she's doing research, she is literally confirming/denying our theories by confirming/denying her theories. I was very happy to see this. Dalinar worrying that Malatas Shardblade is an honorblade and this exchange where Navani asks Dalinar to check with the Stormfather that he's not healing his memories, it just feels nice to have characters actually being smart Dalinar thinks he asked for his pain taken away, and that took his memories too. I wonder how much of this is accurate. Taking his pain away seems to imply that he would remember his memories if they no longer pained him, but also taking his memories would take the pain away, so what was his curse? I'm curious about the "strange glass panes" on the inner walls of this chamber they chat in. I'm SUPER curious about the missing pillars in the rooms. What could have been placed there? Giant gems for storing light? Statues of Ash? It's almost a certainty that Tezim is a Herald at this point. I'm going to link Argents "Corrupted Heralds" theory http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/61089-the-heralds-obsessed-with-the-divine-attributes/ What a great storyline to have Dalinar fight against not just the Herald of his own Order, but having the guy who created the Knights Radiant in the first place fight against the guy who is trying to refound them! Dalinar once again has to fight against the urges and pressure to just conquer everyone. I don't doubt he could do it, but hot damnation if it's not a good ethical quandary. And we end on Dalinar saying he views his memories of Evi with a fresh and dangerous perspective. I wonder what that means? And to end today, we have this stunning inside artwork for the American hardback of Oathbringer. Done by Dan Dos Santos, we have confirmation that these are inworld pieces of artwork. The man on the left is Ishar, the Herald for Luck, Patron to the Bondsmiths and the absolutely stunning piece on the Right is of Ash, the Herald of Beauty and the patron of the Lightweavers. We also know that the back pages will have artwork for Jezrien, Herald of Kings and Patron of the Windrunners and Vedel who is the Patron for the Edgedancers. All around, these pieces are beautiful and I really hope we have these in the UK copies of Oathbringer Walking to Urithiru - Part 13 - Chapter 25 Prefaces: Still think this is Dalinar and I think the person they killed was Evi. The blurb mentions that Dalinar seeks the past and the past contains secrets he must not know. Could this be referring to the memories of Evi? Chapter 25 - The Girl Who Looked Up One of the best chapters we've had so far Shallan exploring the unknown parts of Urithiru. As it is my belief that Urithiru was soulcast, I think these strata were either done for the aesthetics of the place, or were legitimately placed in there to help people find where they are. It's wierd for them to be mentioned so much if not for a purpose The story tells of a great wall seperating the lands of people from the storms and the bad things. The girl climbs the wall to find out what's on the other side. There, she finds steps. The wall was built to keep them out. They were the evil ones. She climbs down the steps and steals some stormlight. The storms come and destroy the wall as punishment. The Spikes that the girl climbs the wall with are from a drawing when Shallan was younger. She's able to create Illusions of things she doesn't even remember drawing. Now the white hair on the other hand, I feel this is important. We've had a few intances of white hair, Hoid, last weeks image of Shalash, the imagery of the wall and white hair brings forth memories of Elantris. This I feel is important for something. I have a feeling by the end of the SLA we're going to slapping our foreheads when reading this story for how obvious it's meaning is. Now, the theme of the story to me is the most important part. The idea that those who think themselves safe from evil are the evil things themself. Now, if you think of pre-humanity Roshar as a crab paradise with the Listeners, this story could absolutely be framing things as humans are the evil intruders, coming to steal stormlight. The only question this raises is what does the wall represent? I've also seen a theory that this is representative of the Radiants. I really liked this theory and kind of ran away with it myself. In my interpretation, once humanity first came to Roshar, they were initially unable to bond Spren (The Wall) but once humanity was able to start surgebinding via Honor giving the Heralds the Oathpact (Shalash even has white hair in that piece of art!), the wall was destroyed by the storms (The Desolations) and the humans were punished. This even works with the "parshendi are evil" thing (They thought those on the other side of the wall were evil but turns out they weren't, just as we are finding with the Parshendi right now) The last figure standing up and walking out has to be, for me, one of the creepiest moments in any of Brandons works so far, I literally gasped Firstly, I do not think this is a Kandra. I've seen it suggested but I don't like it. Firstly, a Kandra wouldn't dissolve itself instantly to escape into the rock crevice like this one did. It would have stayed human for as long as possible. Plus, Kandra aren't that maleable, they can take several minutes to hours to shift forms, even if that shift is just thinning yourself out to fit in a crack. Shallan even says "Can a person look that much like a shadow?" whilst chasing them. I also don't think it's a dysian Aimian as it would have just disassembled and escaped in pieces. What I believe is that this is a Spren of Odium that is serving an Unmade. I don't think it's the actual Unmade itself as it seems to be rather... weak for simply an Unmade. If Unmade were as easy to defeat as simply catching a creepy looking dude, the desolations would have ended a long time ago. I think this Spren is on the level of the Red Spren that became a Thunderclast or the Midnight Essences, infact this may actually BE a Midnight Essence and Shallan is currently having to deal with Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother. A wierd moment occurs when Shallan first enters the room with all the exits, where a dozen versions of herself run into the room and disappear as they catch up to her. I'm not sure this is something Shallan did on purpose, is the stormlight around her fragmenting on it's own to reflect her own mind fragmenting? I really like the ventilation room cause it actually answers a question I had for Brandon. When you get a lot of people into any sort of enclosed space, it gets really hot really quickly. Heck, we have whole industries on Earth right now dedicated to getting rid of the heat generated by crowds of people and we still struggle. I've been wondering how Urithiru does it so it's nice to know that Brandon is taking these things into consideration. Description of the thing: Shallan transforms from Radiant to Veil and chases after the thing. It seems she barely even notices she turns into Veil and also forgets it when she finds Rock. Rock's been stabbed through the hand. Looks like this Spren is copying wounds as well as murders. This is another reason I think this is a Spren. I think there is more than one of these things about. There's so far been no correlation between where Sadeas was murdered and this market. It's not following Shallan or Adolin, Sadeas's murder wasn't anything to do with Shallan and the barkeeps murder wasn't anything to do with either of them. This still seems like a very wierd way for an Unmade to sow chaos but who knows, maybe it can only act if it's copying? We are then introduced to Ishnah who we met on the night Veil went out drinking as the woman who didn't say anything at the table of guards for Alls Alley. Ishnah is interested in the Ghostbloods and due to this interaction, she's going on the Might Be Vivenna list. Walking to Urithiru - Part 14 - Chapter 26 and 27 Chapter 26 - Blackthorn Unleashed Start this chapter with Evi and Dalinar hanging out Fun fact, in this chapter, Dalinar refers to Jezrien as Jezrien instead of the Vorin name Jezerezeh. Brandon has already confirmed this is a mistake and will be changed in the Audiobook, ebook and any subsequent printings. So make sure you guys keep hold of your first edition, dalinar-says-jezrien versions! They'll be collectors items one day! Not that we won't be the ones collecting... We see that Evi is clearly way more interested in this relationship than Dalinar. This supports the claim of "killing someone who loved me dearly" in the preface Dalinar preps for the battle ahead and mentions that Evi still owns her plate. Strange that she owns it and not her brother Toh At this point, I should mention that I believe that Toh will die before Evi. The complete lack of him or even any mention of him is suspicious to me We learn that Ryshadium also bond MusicSpren of all things. We know they have a Gemheart like most creatures on Roshar, but I really do wonder about MusicSpren, something related to the Rhythms maybe? Also find it interesting that the response is simply "They travel this far east?", for some reason I expected them to live in Shin like the other horses, but it makes sense that if they are more suited for Rosharan life, then they'll be found more commonly across the crabby part of Roshar Dalinar mentions the Thrill having a Rhythm to it again. I really do think the Thrill is simply opening someone up to a Rhythm somehow. But we also know from Way of Kings that there are different Thrills. There is the Thrill of Contest for duels and such and the Thrill of war, which is the feeling from mass slaughter we see Dalinar get. We don't know Nergaouls true ability but it may be that this is it. Sow chaos by opening people up to Rhythms that make them fight more. Nergaoul may be doing this on purpose for reasons we don't understand. Dalinar submitting to the Thrill here has his vision going red, everything stopping him from fighting becomes painful to his ears. My main theory of the night Evi died has always been Dalinar, cutting his way through a city full of rebellion to get to Evi whom he kills in the process. This, plus his accidental killing of Kholin forces, reinforces that theory in my opinion At this point, Kadash is still a captain in Dalinars guard. The event that occurs in Rathalas that made Kadash fall to his knees, wretching and leave being a soldier has yet to happen yet. This man just walked through a slaughter of hundreds and is barely fazed. What the hell did Dalinar do? To end this chapter, we have Dalinar, in the midst of the Thrill, goes to attack Gavilar but ends up coming to his senses before he does. Imagine a Stormlight Archive if Dalinar had killed Gavilar that day... Chapter 27 - Playing Pretend This chapter starts with Shallan hanging out with the all the political people Pattern even says it's a spren of Odium! The cities going dark is very scary. I feel like this is a bigger issue than they are currently making it. Cities going dark with all their spanreeds taken out will cause HUGE issues in terms of communication and logistics. It's like if every radio in an area went out, you'd basically be completely blind. Generally, the simplest explanation for this is it's something a voidspren can do. Other than that, not much else to go on. I'm wondering if this "army" is actually attacking Marat or if it's just passing through on it's way to Kholinar. It's got quite the distance to go Shallan works out some of the stuff we worked out, this is a mimic at play. She also starts drawing Sadeas without a specific Memory in mind, how long till she draws Adolin killing Sadeas? More Malata! Her Spren is called Spark, an interesting name. I've long suspected that Releaser spren are the higher version of FlameSpren, like HonorSpren are to WindSpren. Spark is a rather fun name. I wonder if they are DestructionSpren or something more clever... Apparently they like to break things to find out what's inside them Malata suggests not refounding the Radiants as they were before. I think she raises a good point, we've spent so much time focussed on the old Radiants and Urithiru, but why would the new Orders have to abide by this? I'm also certain that we will find out the secret that broke the Radiants in this book, it's been mentioned too many times in the book and in the extra material to not be an important plot point of this novel. If this secret is known before the Radiants become solidified, can a new Knights Radiant be created with this knowledge in mind? She also seems a bit dismissive of the Everstorm. Maybe this isn't a Desolation? Maybe this is something completely different? Shallan calls her annoying, I find Malata endlessly fascinating Ialai and Amaram turn up so that Ialai can declare Amaram regent. What I found odd is that she also names him heir. This basically means the Sadeas house is no more, it's now the Amaram Princedom. Is he heir to Ialai? Heir to the nephew? This is very odd, Ialai basically just commited political suicide Unless Ialai plans on marrying Amaram? And here we have Adolin blowing the lid off the Kaladin-Heleran connection. Shallan immediately shuts it out. I'm surprised she didn't become another persona to get away from it. Also, Adolin tells Shallan this, she very clearly is disturbed by it and instead of consoling her or talking about it, he wants to know why her brother wanted to kill Amaram. I think there's a reason Adolin isn't very successful with women I'm also thinking that if Adolin has revealed this information, either Mraize has lost his edge over Shallan or the Heleran information is something far juicier And then we have Shallan discovering the drawings she didn't draw. I'm not sure if she drew these. It seems strange that pattern doesn't remember her drawing them. I've seen someone suggest maybe it was the MimicSpren, that's what I've decided to call it, but that's able to mimic perfectly. It seems odd it would just scribble randomly. If it's not the MimicSpren, Shallan has started to forget things she's actually doing. I'm really enjoying watching Shallans descent into madness. Also her fifth Oath is so totally going to be "I am Shallan Davar" And we end with Shallan recruiting the Shallads to get up to some mischief. I'm assuming she's going to get them to fight someone or something then wait around to see if it gets repeated. Walking to Urithiru - Part 15 - Chapter 28 Prefaces: "I am the monster I fear we all can become" - I think my assumption from a few episodes ago still rings true. Whoever wrote this did something BAD and this account is to try and get people to understand what they did and why. This is a framing device. The last two chapters next week are going to confirm 2 things, something horrible to come and that Dalinar is responsible, then whilst reading Oathbringer, we're going to have that ever present dread of "What is it Dalinar did?" Chapter 28 - Another Option I almost forgot this chapter even happened cause 29 and 30 are so goooood We open with Azir declaring that the Oathgate in Azimir is going to be locked away until it can be destroyed. If you don't remember, Azimir was one of the cities negotiating with the transformed Parshmen. Looks like they've come to an agreement. Super happy that the Urithiru ventilation is getting a lot of attention. Urithiru is basically a science fiction Arcology, a city in a building. Years ago I helped some people try and work out some calculations about the feasability of creating a real life arcology. The main issues we found were the structural integrity of the center and accumulation of heat so I really am happy to see this addressed. I won't mention Urithiru's ventilation again... Dalinar knows about the "MimicSpren" and goes to check one of the vents in the room. He sticks a chair to a wall. Some people thought that the Surges manifested in fundamentally diferent ways between different orders but it really does seem like Adhesion works the same for Dalinar as it does Kaladin. Queen Fen also denies Dalinar with an air of finality and Dalinar takes a walk to clear his mind. Lyn comes to find Dalinar and let him know Bridge Four has found something. I had actually thought the Ghostbloods would have found this by now as it seems like the kind of thing they'd so but turns out Oathbringer hadn't been found any anyone. Makes sense, as it can't be easy to notice since the thing had sunk all the way into the stone Now, the screams of the Spren are interesting. I feel like people are going to dive on this for Adolin reviving his blade but it does seem, even in their dead screaming form, the Sprenblades still listen and remember what happens around them. Stormfather says he doesn't know of a way to revive Blades, once again another example of a character asking a question that I see asked a lot by the community, but I mean, stormzy doesn't know everything We get another mention of the secret that caused the Recreance. Again, I definitely think we are going to find out that secret in this book. Dalinar gives Oathbringer back to Ialai and they have an exchange which I really liked. Ialai really doesn't think that Dalinar killed Sadeas The rest of this chapter is just some wonderful philosophising. Amaram accuses Dalinar of being a hypocrite for standing on the corpses of thousands and then judging Amaram for killing just 4 men. Dalinar and Taravangian then have a discussion on God and what is right. Dalinar says he still feels there is a god. He has felt the warmth beyond. Whether this is referring to the actual beyond or Adonalsium, we can't know. We then get to hear another story from Nohadons walk to Urithiru, on our trip walking to Urithiru. It's about 3 farmers seen killing a man, but there were 4 farmers in the town. What would you do, if there is no way to determine the guilty from the innocent? How many innocent lives are worth a guilty one? How many are you willing to kill to save? Man, Dalinar really needs those Skybreakers backing him up... I really like the line about a hypocrite is simply someone in the process of changing. The Stormfather mentions an incredibly useful ability. He can show visions to whomever he chooses and ALSO have Dalinar appear in them if he wants. I actually thought this was about to lead to a SHOW EVERYONE THE VISIONS thing but he's just starting with Queen Fen. I had assumed that someone has to act a certain way to be considered a Bondsmith and have the Stormfather show them visions but no, I think he's free to pick and choose at will I wonder if both Dalinar and Tanavast will appear in these visions, or if Dalinar will take Tanavasts place. This also kind of solves the spanreed issue I was talking about last time. Instant communication is super helpful and for now, this will allow Dalinar to basically speak to whoever he wants to in the world. Its a helluva ability And that's it, thanks!

(Sitting in a tree....) Serious Theory Time: Szeth is rebuilding a moral code based on Nightblood, and that will seriously affect all of his future interactions. Spoilers for Oathbringer, Edgedancer and Warbreaker. When Szeth ‘died’ and was revived by Our Friend Nale he admired Szeth’s dedication to his law, and tried to recruit him to the Skybreakers. And then he introduced him to Nightblood. Nightblood, destroyer of evil and sword of terrifying hilarity. Would you like to kill some evil today? Nightblood is a super sword created to destroy evil, and it’s pretty darn good at it - well, the destroying part anyway. Most interestingly, however, is that Nightblood has a resonance with people. If someone is good/innocent/relatively moral, they will feel profoundly nauseated by Nightblood. If someone is evil/selfish/relatively immoral they will be filled with lust to claim and use Nightblood; all but inevitably ending in their death. Where does this leave us? Well, Szeth is starting to dedicate himself to, or at least live by the precepts of, the Sword. He will go about ‘destroying evil’ - but only those who are nauseated by Nightblood. This will create extremely interesting conflicts as he uses the ‘Nightblood Litmus Test’ to determine who he should kill, and if he should kill. This will especially be interesting when he runs into our ‘voidbringers’ the freed Parsh-people. It will be even more interesting when we run into ‘possessed’ parsh-people like Eshonai. Would they qualify as evil to be destroyed? But that’s an aside. Evidence for this theory: this mostly comes from Edgedancer. It’s pretty clear that Our Friend Nale was trying to recruit Szeth, and Szeth was hanging around, but he was not buying into the Skybreaker motto, and did not drink their kool-aid as it were. He’s openly questioning the man he believes to be the Herald of Justice. Interestingly too they have a discussion about being unable/unwilling to trust their own minds. Most strikingly, when Szeth notices Lift, he doesn’t turn her over to Nale’s ‘justice’. Instead, he uses the Nightblood Litmus Test. Lift is nauseated, passing the test, after which Szeth talks to her and helps her, instead of killing her or turning her in. So, I think Szeth, not trusting the minds or manners of feeble Men or their laws, is instead trusting himself and his behaviour to the Nightblood Litmus Test. Of course, there’s a lot left open - where will he go? To whom will he apply the test? But there we are!

Shallan Davar is insane. Now, I know the first reaction of many of you would be to point out that, yes, of course she’s insane. It’s a requirement for the Knights Radiant. I mean, after all, Syl says in Words of Radiance that’s how they [Knights Radiants] all were, silly’ to Kaladin’s complaint that he was ‘broken’. None of current Knight Radiants that we know of (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Renarin, Lift) are shining examples of perfect mental stability. Also, in Shallan’s defense, she is guilty of both patricide and matricide, so you can’t expect her to be perfectly sane, can you? Which is fine, I don’t. Kaladin's an emotional wreck. Shallan's an emotional wreck. It’s a requirement for the Knights Radiant to have undergone some form of mental anguish. So, why am I talking here? Well, simply put, Shallan’s insanity is getting worse because she’s a Knight Radiant. Whereas Kaladin is getting better, Shallan is just getting worse as a direct result of her Ideals and her Surges. Let me explain why I think that. As revealed in Chapter Fifteen of Oathbringer, Shallan cannot emotionally use her Shardblade because of the truth she was forced to admit for her Second Ideal, that she killed her mother with Pattern. Therefore, to get around the emotional scars, Shallan creates a new personality, Brightness Radiant, to fight in her place instead. Now, while this may seem innocent enough, and one could argue it’s no different from the pen names that we Sharders use on the Shard, it’s not. Not at all. To explain why, let’s take a step back and talk about the human mind, more specifically psychology, more specifically Jungian psychology, most specifically archetypes. Carl Jung, based on the work of Sigmund Freud, claimed that the human mind is made up ‘archetypes’. Now, I’m just going to skim the basics, feel free to look around for a more in-depth analysis elsewhere on the internet. I also must admit to having a cursory knowledge of the subjects, so if you know more and I made a mistake, I apologize. Archetypes can be described as the building blocks of personality. A person is composed of dozens of these ‘archetypes’ each slightly modified and relating together differently to create the full spectrum of personality. This is why we have many common character types across many civilizations stories. For example, there’s always the ‘warrior’, the ‘hero’, the ‘wise man’, the ‘mentor’ (which sometimes overlaps with the ‘wise man’), etc. These form a ‘persona’ or your exterior personality. From this chapter, it’s kind of clear that the alternative personalities Shallan is creating are based off of these archetypes. This makes sense, as character archetypes are one of the basic tools of all writers, so it’d be natural to create personalities using them. Veil seems to be based off the ‘trickster’ archetype, and ‘Brightness Radiant’ seems to be based of the ‘knight’ archetype, perhaps with a handful of ‘stoic’ thrown in. It’s a bit early to tell for sure. The problem now arises that Shallan is separated from these archetypes of hers. Brightness Radiant speaks like Shallan is a different person, and Shallan can’t wield her Shardblade at all. They''re separate. In Jungian psychology, this is a huge problem. In Jungian psychology, one of the reasons for insanity comes from the idea that these archetypes aren’t lining up. In order to treat mental disorders, Jungian psychologists will attempt to have the subject comes to terms with themselves, ending in catharsis. Now, this should be what the Ideal of the Lightweavers force Shallan to do, but it's not, because of it's own Surges. Shallan can’t ignore the truths of her paths, so she must come to grips with them for an eventual catharsis. But she isn’t. She’s using her Surge of Illumination to create these false personas that are Veil and Brightness Radiant. But by doing so, she’s locking herself out of catharsis and forcing her emotions aside to where she won’t have to deal with them. By using Veil and Brightness Radiant, Shallan is repressing her weakness and flaws. She isn’t trying to be fixed. She’s just trying to create an illusion that she is. If this continues, Shallan might get even worse, possibly developing multiple personalities, which would (I must admit) make for a fascinating read. Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the subject, and I have an unbearable tendency to overthink things. I would love to hear the rest of your thoughts on this.

Based on what we know of OB so far, the result of Stormform, and by proxy the Everstorm, was to heal the Parshmen of the damage to their minds/souls that was done millennia ago. It apparently did not bond them with voidspren and automatically turn them all into Voidbringers, though it looks like it made such a process possible. Here's what I'm wondering: was the purpose of the Everstorm truly to heal the Parshmen? I know it did lots of damage and killed lots of people, but I find it strange that the Stormform Parshendi, with their red eyes and hateful Rhythms, were actually summoning a cure for their crippled people. That means a bit of Odium is flying around Roshar healing folks (as well as killing others). Obviously Odium's endgame is to convert the healed Parshmen (are they all Parshendi now?) into Voidbringers, but it's notable how vehemently the Stormfather fought the Everstorm too. In a way, the biggest splinter of Honor was fighting to keep an entire people crippled and enslaved, which seems contrary to Honor's intent. Even more interesting, there seems to be a degree of free will in the Voidbringer conversion process. Odium doesn't want slaves apparently - he wants angry warriors fighting for liberation. This is somewhat in line with his intent as a Shard, but doesn't quite paint him as the all-evil god we've come to expect.

This will be a short lived poll, but I want to know what you think. Will we hear from Kaladin again in part one? I think so because I don't think we will see him in part 2 at all and there was too much build up with the listeners for him to disappear for the rest of part one and all of part two. As the visual outline at the bottom of the post shows, one of the main three will not be in part 2. WoB is that we will get less Kaladin in Oathbringer, which we have already, but think this means he will be the missing POV in part 2 as well. Dalinar is going to be the POV character in all the parts. I don't think we are going to stop hearing from Shallan any time soon. So Kaladin will disappear after the thrilling cliffhanger at the end of part 1. Now I do think we are getting one more Dalinar chapter as well. So my guess it will be Dalinar followed by Kaladin, or the other way around. Now what do you think? Please let me know in the poll.

A few possible spoilers have been dropped from casually glancing at the thread titles in the Oathbringer forum link. I though that sharders supposed to title it [Oathbringer Spoilers], and then their title. Are sharders on the Oathbringer forum supposed to spoiler their titles in this way?

[ Spoilers from the first 30 chapters of Oathbringer currently released ] So with the "final Desolation" pretty much officially underway as of the end of WoR, the main question going through my mind has been: how the hell can Odium actually lose??? Think about it. We know from Dalinar's visions and various other lore elements that in the past each Desolation nearly wiped out humankind. In fact, the justification for the current level of technology (or lack thereof) is that civilization is basically pushed back to the bronze age with each Desolation because of how devestating they are. And now consider this: that was with the full, organized strength of the Knights Radiant. Literal armies of them. Plus the Heralds! Now we have the Final Desolation coming, and so far there's only a handful of fledgling Knights Radiant, none of whom even have their Shardplate yet. Not only that, but the existing nations are super divided, and at the start of Oathbringer it looks as though it will not be easy to unite even a small number of them. So how can Odium screw this up? How could this be even a close fight? It seems to me that the only possibility is that the Listeners (at least some of them) are going to fight with humans. This is being set-up already at the beginning of Oathbringer, where we see groups of former parshmen slaves, healed by the Everstorm, basically just on the run. Not trying to attack, not out to kill humans in vengeance even (though they have real cause to want revenge). Just trying to survive, and most importantly not yet infused with any type of Voidspren (at least not in any obvious way). We also know that the Listeners way back made a choice to cut themselves off from their gods (Odium and co), restricting their forms drastically but earning freedom. They assassinated Gavilar in an effort to stop their "gods" from returning. They don't want to be Voidbringers, and I can totally see at least some of them fighting to maintain their freedom, refusing to be used by Odium. This could be what is "different" about this Desolation, the edge that humanity needs to balance the scales just enough to have a hope of winning. It would also fit with the themes established throughout the Cosmere books (spoilers for Mistborn series coming). We know from The Hero of Ages that the Deepness was in fact the mists. But more than that, it was Preservation's power tainted by Ruin. Ruin caused the Snapping process to be more brutal than it needed, killing people instead of just awakening their powers, covering the land and blocking out the Sun when it wasn't meant to, etc... This was Preservation's actual power, but Ruin managed to influence it. This shows that the influence of the Shards is not always rigid and distinct. There is overlap and intermingling, where multiple Shards use the same basic phenomenon. That is what the Thrill has to be. Dalinar's first revealed vision, where he fights Midnight Essence, with a poker. The Knight explains that any who feel the desire to fight should be compelled to go to Aletha. The Thrill USED TO BE a force for good, a way of telling people that they were destined to fight evil alongside the Knights (either as a full member or as a "squire." Since then, it has been twisted by Odium into something that makes people lust for battle and death. And without actual monsters around, they turn on each other, or make a game out of war, or almost kill their own brother. Odium is doing the same thing that Ruin did. But maybe it can go both ways. I've seen others here comment that it is odd that the Everstorm seems to heal the parshmen, making them whole again by reforging their Connection (incidentally, because of how we know this works from the second Mistborn series, this explains why they all speak unaccented Alethi). This seems like a very un-Odium thing for the Everstorm to do, especially since they do not seem to be possessed by Voidspren yet. What if Cultivation pulled the same kind of trick? Twisting the Everstorm just enough that it healed parshmen without automatically dominating them, giving them at least a chance to resist, run, be free, what have you? We know from the Jasnath-Hoid dialogue that the Everstorm is "new" or at least working differently than how the Desolations worked in the past. Perhaps the reason is that this time there are forces other than Odium at work on it. There are even hints about this in the depiction of the Midnight Mother. During Shallan's interactions, it is revealed that she was created to sow chaos, but that over time she became curious. Yes, it is a twisted, warped curiosity. But consider her actions at Urithiru. Did she flood the tower with monsters? Did she set about assassinating actual targets? No, she just copied what humans were already doing. Does this seem particularly effective? Or does it seem like a lost, broken creature trying to comprehend these creatures through the only relationship she understands: violence? My point is just this: she has actually changed since her creation. Just like the Everstorm is different this time. Just like maybe the Listeners aren't behaving the way Odium might want this time around. A big theme so far is how the good guys, left to their own devices, become corrupt and fell. But I think Brandon is hinting that maybe, just maybe, the reverse is true for the villains. Odium is banking on how time changes humans, makes them forget why they fought and abandon what they once were. But wouldn't it be poetic if the same was also happening to his forces? The Unmade have changed, however slightly. The Listeners seem to have changed as well. And maybe this time around they will surprise him, make him think that he could actually lose...

I wanted to put onto paper screen a few thoughts that have been rolling around my head, mostly about the different beliefs put forth by Szeth in Stone Shamanism, but also reinforced by how Listeners treat their dead. I want to bring up some of the relevant source material first. Szeth, WoK The Shin in WoK I think with this in mind, we can at least make some kind of supposition that stone can be analogous to metal or gemstones in some way. I'm not sure I'm entirely in the "Odium is invested in stone" camp yet, but I think that at least stone can capture spiritual connection. We have a couple pieces of evidence for this. First off, I want to point out a section from Szeth above. "His soul would be given to the stones upon his death." There's another piece of evidence from WoR. He states that he is bound to an Oathstone. Up until very recently, I have been under the impression that Szeth does what he does from personal honor, but we don't know much about Stone Shamanism. I believe that his soul was literally bound to his Oathstone. There's this segment from Nalan post the battle of Narak This implies that if there was a bond made between him and an Oathstone, it would have been broken by his death. (I don't know how much of this would be different with the updates, I've got the originals.) Without Nalan's intervention, I assume whatever bond they might have placed between him and the stone would have trapped his soul in the stone for eternity instead of allowing him to move on to the spiritual realm. I think a similar effect manifests across Roshar, which is why it is profane to walk on stone. It's also why the Listeners want their dead to be left to the stones. I don't have enough information to conjecture why it might be beneficial to them or why they might have been led to think so, but the high concentration of invested souls in the souls of the stones outside of Shinovar and Urithiru can explain why it is cursed. It also explains Alethi death rites. Soulcasting for the lighteyes. Literally using magic to remove the body and transform it, casting the soul into something else. Burning for the darkeyes, which is just as fitting. When you pray to the almighty, you burn a prayer. In order to prevent your soul from being invested in the stones, you need to soulcast it or burn it. I also think that Tien has a sense for these sorts of things, and that not all invested stone is necessarily negative. Kaladin repeatedly is cheered up by the stones that Tien gives him. There's been a buzz around about the strata being mentioned, and Tien is one of those to mention strata. Ok, so besides the immediate effects of Kaladin feeling better, I want to point out Hesina saying it's magic and a spren Nalan and Szeth mentioning the spren of the stones, and then also Tien mentioning the Light making the rock change. Edit: I found another piece of text, specifically pertaining to parshendi death Rites, to support the theory.

Here is a link to Tor's non spoiler review of Oathbringer. Enjoy.

So we all remember what happened to Shallan's brother Helleran *Spelling*, Which is when Kal killed him, Amaram took the blade and plate, He surely would not give the plate to someone unfitting, but as I recall he already had plate. However, in WoR, it was accounted that he had earned his Shardblade only a few months before instead of when he really took it from Kal. but that means that a bunch of his soldiers were present to corroborate the winning of the shard blade? Unless he said something like, Uhhh he won it In battle, at night, last night, you weren't there, but it happened. Amaram is too smart for that, He wanted the winning of his shard blade to be a matter of uncontested history. Plenty of witnesses around. So here lies the big question. Who did Amaram fell, to feign winning a shard blade? He's probably an accomplished warrior to have shard plate anyways, One who claims to have such a clean honor would have surely had to defend it at a few points in time. Here's the conspiracy, we know in WoR that Amaram's trying to scoop up that extra blade, but what if he didn't Feign killing someone for the other blade, what if he actually just was skilled enough to take another shardbearer down. I don't know if we've ever covered the issue if you can bond two shard blades at once. I for one think you could, I don't know if the bonding process has ever been discussed at great detail, whether a Dead Spren blade wielder could summon his shardblade in either hand, or if they have to hold the shard blade *As I think was stated*, as often as possible to "Train" the DeadSpren to which hand and what position to form to. Thoughts?

About half of Roshar has been declared to be Really Truly Obviously the author at this point. But why only settle for half? Suggest a character that no one else has proposed yet, you special snowflake. I'll start: 1. Bavadin. (okay, she's not from Roshar, but: c'mon, it's Bavadin). 2. May Aladar 3. Mraize's pet chicken

Thanks to Barnes and Noble, we've just had this STUNNING artwork from Oathbringer shared with us. I want to say it's Honor and Cultivation, but it could also be Ishar and Vivenna. Let the theorising begin!