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  1. Do we know what Renarin’s Calling is? Because Adolin quite often talks how his is dueling, we know Dalinar’s is leading? But how about Renarin?
  2. So this is a comment I made in another thread, but I was really excited about it and wanted to share my theory and see how well it stands. I think renarin is the traitor from the diagram (epigraph from chapter 86) and his spren is Moelach. Why do I think this? Starting assumptions: Renarin has precognition, a know trait of voidbringers. Renarin has his blood sickness, described as some kind of epilepsy. Moelach is a powerful voidspren, specifically with precognition, and taints a body as it breaks apart from the mind (chapter 82, epigraph). These assumptions have led me to the conclusion that renarin may unwittingly be tainted by void spren, and mistakes his abilities for a manifestation of KR power. Also can't find page, Taravangian says something about Moelach leaving his area of operations, causing death rattles to become more rare. Discuss!
  3. In (flashback) chapter 94, "A Small Bottle," Dalinar asks young Renarin, "What did your mother [Evi] say about me?" Renarin answers, "The only honest officer in the army, ... the honorable soldier. Noble, like the Heralds themselves. Our father. The greatest man in Alethkar." Years later, after Cultivation anesthetizes his pain, this is what he actually becomes, or tries to. So in a way, these words of a loving wife acted on him in a similar way that Shallan's drawing acted on Bluth in WoR: showing him a vision of himself as a better man and nudging him in that direction. I'm not saying that Evi was a proto-Lightweaver (though wouldn't that be cool?). But maybe love often allows us to see others (spouses, lovers, children, parents, friends) as better than what they currently are, and that in turn encourages them to hope they can be that person and take the next step along that path. This tiny chapter is so powerful - - IMO the whole book is a masterpiece that gets better the more you re-read/review it.
  4. I just really liked the idea of Dalinar falling asleep and his family gathering around him. I’d say this is set in Kholinar or someplace close. I was going to draw little Jasnah conspiring with little Adolin up there, but I decided Adolin looked fine by himself. He wants to go get a cookie from the kitchen.
  5. So let’s talk Renarin, shall we? Now, if you fine folks are anything like myself, you might have found yourself confused by some of the reveals that Oathbringer brought about regarding Renarin and his powers. This was a twist that I saw coming a long way off, and so I was more than ready when we found out that Renarin had been affected by a voidish corruption and that this was the reason for his strange and ominous visions. If you’d like to see how WoR foreshadowed this moment, you can check out my theory Renarin’s Visions and Truthwatching and see all the reasoning for this twist. However, what I want to do here today is get into the nitty gritty of what’s really going on. Is Renarin a Voidbinder or a Surgebinder or both? Is Glys a Voidspren? How do the visions work? How did this happen? All those good questions are the ones that I’d like to try to tackle here. Theory Disclaimer: Most of these things have not been confirmed in canon and Brandon has been cagey about answering or confirming. However, this explanation is the one which seems most plausible to me based on the evidence at hand. So let me do a bullet point run-down of what I think is happening: Glys is actually a valid Truthwatcher spren, not a voidspren. Renarin is a valid Truthwatcher Radiant and therefore a Surgebinder with access to the surges of Progression and Illumination. Renarin uses Stormlight to power his surges, just like other Radiants. Glys has been corrupted by the Unmade Sja-anat. As a result of this corruption, in addition to his normal Truthwatcher powers, Renarin is afflicted by involuntary visions of the future which neither he nor Glys can control. The points above are those that I feel are fairly concrete, and I’ll go into the reasoning behind those ideas later below. However, upon this assumed situation, I believe that the following ideas are viable possibilities. The following points are less certain than those above, but these are the ideas that seem the most plausible to me, given the circumstances: The powers that the Fused display are expressions of Voidbinding. Renarin’s future visions are possibly also an expression of Voidbinding, but his other powers are not. If Renarin’s Voidbinding and Fused Voidbinding work in the same way, it is possible that all Voidbinding powers come from the influence of the Unmade, in that Sja-anat can grant Voidish future visions while other Unmade grant different powers, like illusions, frictionlessness, or gravity, as we see other Fused use. And upon these assumptions, we find several questions arise regarding the nature of the situation: If both Renarin and the Fused are Voidbinders, is a spren involved in the granting of Voidbinding powers to the Fused in the same way they were granted to Renarin? If Voidish powers are each affiliated with an Unmade, why are there seemingly 10 powers on the Voidbinding chart if there are only 9 Unmade? Does Odium grant a Bondsmith equivalent himself? If Voidbinding powers are not granted by the Unmade, how are they gained? In what way are Renarin and the Fused similar in situation that grants them the same powers? What caused the hypergraphia that accompanied the visions of the Everstorm, and why does that no longer happen when Renarin gets visions? All of which are fascinating, but unfortunately, more likely to get a RAFO than an answer in a signing line. The first I have already asked and been RAFO’d and I believe the others are going to be answered similarly, if attempted. If I had to guess, these are reveals that will happen in Renarin’s flashback book. Considering that book is in the back five, we’ve probably got a while to wait. Alas. Regardless, no use fretting over the information we don’t have when it’s so much more fun to dissect the information we do have. And Oathbringer certainly gave us plenty to dissect. So, let’s take the situation that I’ve outlined above and break it down with some textual evidence to help explain where these ideas come from. Glys the Truthwatcher spren and Renarin the Radiant This is one of the easiest points to guess, considering the wealth of information we have on the topic. A lot of this is due to the Renarin point of view chapters in Part 5. (Thank you, Brandon, I owe you my soul for those.) Renarin’s surges seem to work perfectly normally. He heals people with Regrowth at several points in the novel, fairly naturally. I believe we see a slight, unconscious use of Illumination in the scene with Adolin and Gallant, when Renarin makes a perfected vision of Adolin appear. Renarin also mentions trying to train with Shallan in using Illumination, but he has difficulty with it. Now, it could be assumed that Renarin’s failure to grasp Illumination is a sign that his surges are wrong, and yet I think this is simply another example of a Radiant finding one surge more easy to pick up than another. Shallan is naturally better at Illumination than Transformation. Lift is better at Abrasion than Progression. It seems common enough that Radiants have an affinity for one of their surges over the other. For Renarin, I believe this is that Progression is easier than Illumination. In addition to his surges, Renarin’s other expressions of Radiant abilities seem normal. Glys is able to form as a Shardblade, which no one deems as looking out of the ordinary. It also functions to open Oathgates. His healing factor works as the other Radiants’, albeit augmented by his power of Progression to make healing extremely rapid. Most tellingly, his powers use Stormlight, just as all the others do. Ivory says that there is a rightness to the bond between Renarin and Glys and that spren of Odium should not be able to bond with humans under normal circumstances. Through all of these things, one can assume that Renarin and Glys have a valid Nahel bond and are bonded as Radiant and spren, just as the others are. Sja-anat’s Corruption However, in addition to the normal suite of a Truthwatcher’s powers and the Nahel bond, there is another factor in the mix: Sja-anat. When Sja-anat speaks with Shallan she speaks of her son when telling Shallan that she is not an enemy, as though he would vouch for her. This is undoubtedly Glys. It’s interesting to note that this seems to indicate that Glys is working with Sja-anat, possibly willingly. Perhaps she approached a Radiant spren hoping that by giving changing one of them, she would have an ally who would help the Radiants trust her. Or perhaps it’s something else. Hard to say at this point. Regardless, it is because of this that Renarin can see the future, and why he is consumed with visions. Though it is possible that other Truthwatchers have a manner of foresight, I don’t believe it would manifest as Renarin’s does. Ivory states that future sight is a power of Odium, as the Vorins believe. I believe Sja-anat has been hoping to swap sides and is using Glys as a way to do it, as well as helping Shallan instead of killing them when they went through the Oathgate. Voidbinding So in the end, what is Voidbinding? Hard to say with certainty, since despite how often we see Voidbinders, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of answers about it. Working under the assumption that the Fused’s powers are Voidbinding we can see a few things, at least: Voidbinding seems to line up with surges in many cases, as we see Fused manipulating gravity and friction, just like Kaladin and Lift. It’s hard to tell if this means that Renarin’s corrupted sight is also a form of Voidbinding as well, since it doesn’t seem to line up with a Surge the way the others are. The Listener Song of Secrets speaks of Nightform, a form of power which can see the future, which seems as though it might be more similar to what Renarin can do than anything else we’ve seen. The question is, Renarin is getting his void-powers from a corrupted spren, but I don’t believe that the Fused have a corrupted spren giving them powers, which initially made me think that Renarin’s visions were not Voidbinding like the Fused. Now, I’m not so sure. For the moment, I think I will lean toward the idea that Renarin’s visions and the powers of the Fused are both Voidbinding somehow, even if we don’t have details to confirm anything either way. There’s just not enough answers for the moment. Time will tell. If anyone can get answers out of Brandon regarding this topic, I’d be greatly appreciative but I doubt he’s going to answer things. Conclusion There’s a lot that we just don’t know yet, but I’m excited to see where this goes in the future. For now, this is my best guess at what’s really going on until we get some more information on all of it. One thing that hasn’t changed is that I adore Renarin with all of my heart and somehow Brandon continues to write his plotline and character arc in ways which are intensely fascinating to me. Oathbringer has been a triumph and I can’t wait to see what’s in store!
  6. Key frames from animated tests of major Stormlight Archive characters. Kaladin Adolin Dalinar Jasnah Renarin Shallan Bonus: Wit Shattered Plains
  7. sheep

    Secret Keeper

    What does a Truthwatcher spren look like? Glys is designed to be somewhere in between Pattern and Wyndle, fitting the description of Ym's spren from the interlude chapter. For that matter, what does Renarin's toy thing look like? Another picture of Renarin, this time wearing Shardplate:
  8. I would love to see an adorable nerdy friendship that buds into crushes(or more) between Renarin and Rushu. Rushu is fascinated with fabrials and Renarin is intersted in how Urithiru works. It easy to see them being thrown together by Navani and them getting along since both of them have brains that are faster than their mouths.
  9. We saw a lot of Odium and his various minions during OB, and witnessed them using several kinds of magic. But was any of this actually Voidbinding? I find myself unconvinced. Possible candidates: Stormform listeners summoning lightning and the Everstorm (at the end of WoR) The Fused Amaram (at the end of OB) Renarin The Unmade I will consider each of these separately. 1. Stormform listeners This one is pretty much put to rest by WoB from the Calamity tour - https://wob.coppermind.net/events/4-calamity-seattle-signing/#e5153 This was well after the release of WoR, and Brandon clearly said we had not seen Voidbinding at that time, so Stormform cannot be it. After OB, in which we saw how similar the Fused powers are to Surgebinding, I find myself wondering whether the Stormform were using Surgebinding to access Division? That's the one we know least about so far, and separating electrons from the air would produce lightning for sure. 2. The Fused We saw quite a bit of what the Fused can do, and boy is it similar to Surgebinding. So similar, in fact, that I believe this IS Surgebinding. Odium is somehow hacking Honor's magic system to power it using Voidlight rather than Stormlight, but this is no more a different magic system than if I modded my gasoline car to run on ethanol, then claimed the result was no longer an internal combustion engine. WoB again - https://wob.coppermind.net/events/173-oathbringer-san-francisco-signing/#e8340 So, red eyes on Fused mean they must be co-opting Honor/Cultivation magic, rather than using something different that is purely of Odium (ditto for the Stormform listeners). I've read a theory that Odium always works by co-opting existing magic rather than creating new things of his own, and thus Voidbinding is by definition just an Odiumised variant of Surgebinding. I don't buy that for metatextual reasons: Think Bigger, as Jasnah would say. It's just not satisfying enough for the boss adversary to have a magic system that, despite a scary sounding name, is identical to the one we already know except for a different fuel source. We already saw an evil shard magic system that works by stealing other magics, with Ruin and Hemalurgy. Brandon wouldn't repeat that so closely. Another theory is that different magics can seem similar because they all work by manipulating the same underlying physical surges. My problem with this is that, even if the underlying surge is the same, the way it is accessed should produce significantly different results. Brandon lists fabrials, Surgebinding, and Voidbinding as the main three magic systems in the Stormlight Archive. Fabrials and Surgebinding have much in common, but their capabilities are quite different at least so far. Maybe eventually the Surgebinders will learn to replicate everything we have seen a fabrial do, or the artifabrians may replicate all of the Surgebinding abilities, but that is not the case today. The differences between the Fused and Knights Radiant seem more on a scale with the differences between Knights Radiant vs. Herald use of Surgebinding, rather than the far larger differences between Surgebinding and fabrials. That said, the Fused don't seem to be 100% identical to how KR Surgebinding works. If I followed correctly, it appears that each Fused gets only 1 rather than 2 surges. They seem unable to lash anyone but themselves (so when flying they must carry others in a harness) and it is mentioned in several places that they are slower to change direction than the Radiants. Kaladin lashes others by pushing Stormlight into them. Could the Fused inability to do this be a result of powering their magic with a foreign form of Investiture? Perhaps they can hold voidlight within themselves, but it dissipates too quickly if transferred to other objects on Roshar. It has been speculated elsewhere that the speed difference could be due to varying planetary gravity. This makes sense to me because we know that lashings work naturally in integer units of gravity. Kaladin instinctively thinks in terms of one lashing, or a half lashing. He can easily hover by exactly cancelling out the natural gravity. He speeds up, not by continuously adjusting the amount of a lashing, but by applying one lashing on top of another in rapid succession. Odd thing here, though, is that Kaladin must be operating in units of one Rosharan gravity - otherwise he wouldn't be able to hover so easily. But the Fused are originally from Roshar too! So why would their use of lashing be tied to something different such as Braize gravity units? Maybe because they are powering the Surgebinding using voidlight, and Odium is on Braize? Possible question to ask Brandon: is the ratio between how fast a Windrunner vs. Fused can change speed the same as the ratio between mass of Roshar vs. Braize? 3. Amaram He got pretty badass there at the end, but was doing the same things we've already seen from Surgebinders. Amaram was to a regular Fused as Mistborn is to Misting. 4. Renarin Now this is where it gets interesting. We know he has a corrupted spren, but without knowing what a regular Truthwatcher does, there's no way to be sure exactly what effect this had. We do have: So we know there is something voidish going on here. At this point I think it is impossible to tell whether Renarin's visions are pure voidbinding, or some blend of regular Truthwatching with void abilities. 5. The Unmade Definitely powered by Odium, but I do not believe these are voidbinding. It seems that shards have considerable flexibility to act directly themselves (eg. Honor creating Honorblades, Ruin modifying writings, Endowment returning the Returned...) in ways that don't constitute a full magic system. I believe voidbinding will be more like other magic systems which can be accessed by anyone who meets the necessary criteria, while the Unmade are more in line with other unique one-offs done directly by Shards. In short: Stormform, Fused, and Amaram were using Surgebinding, not Voidbinding. The Unmade are something different entirely. Renarin has used Voidbinding, but we know too little to say exactly when or what that was. Almost everything to do with Voidbinding is yet to be seen.
  10. First of all, Surgebinding as we see it from non-Renarin radiants is purely of Honour, and while certain spren that form the nahel bonds required for it are not of Honour, they are required to abide by his rules. Radiant Surgebinding is exclusively Honour’s magic system, based on the surges he found on Roshar. All the Honour-derived surges behave within similar restrictions. Honour by intent was focussed heavily on oaths, which he saw as absolutely binding and therefore constant, and the past that caused them, and this is reflected in the surges of his Radiants. For example, Radiant Progression can only grow within the expected life-cyle, or heal/restore to a past state, but cannot go beyond to cause new/unnatural growth, or heal you to a point later in your life. When Shallan lightweaves, she requires a past image to draw upon, and she often takes memories to facilitate this. Her drawings and illusions are best when they are taken or crafted from memories, and therefore the past. Similarly to growth/regrowth with Progression or the multiple lashings for Gravitation, there will be at least one other thematic power other than creating the light/sound as she currently does – perhaps something close to how Gold works in allomancy, showing some past or true version of the self, which would be integral to her getting over her current problems in later books, or else the ability to manifest visions of the past to mirror Renarin, possibly to reveal the full truth of the Recreance or early desolations. - Assuming that the core ideas here are correct, we can bring Odium in. We know from WoB that the red eyes of the parshmen and fused in WoR/OB are caused by one shard interfering with the magic system of another. I think that Voidbinding as Odium’s associated magic system will be revealed to manifest as a twisted version of whatever system is currently held in place by the shards of the worlds he invades. Odium does not wish to heavily invest where possible, and I think the idea of twisting the currently in place systems to suit his own needs fits this agenda well. This also explains the apparent “truth” of the Recreance revealed in OB – the humans coming with Odium may have used a twisted version of their previous world’s magics, “Voidbinding”, causing it to be destroyed, before taking up a new form of Rosharan Voidbinding to face the parsh people. This also presents a reason as to why the earlier Radiants were not so affected by the truth: there was an understanding, thanks to Honour, that Surgebinding was the pure form of the Voidbinding they had used against the parsh people during the first desolation, and not the same art that had caused the destruction of their previous world. He failed to make this distinction as he began to grow more affected by his shard towards the end of his fight with Odium, eventually leading to the Recreance, when men no longer saw the distinction between the two. The basis for this theory comes largely from the Surgebinding and Voidbinding diagrams – the Surgebinding glyphs are all symmetrical, and indeed the Vorins worship symmetry, which in essence is predictable and implies constancy. To me, the half-flipped open ended Voidbinding glyphs imply that they are warped from the original intention, or left open to new interpretation. As the self-proclaimed shard of Passion, and therefore emotion, it makes sense that Odium's magic system should be almost contemptuous of the already established systems, making mockery of other invested beings’ abilities. I also posit that the tenth, secret name for the Almighty, “he who transforms”, is actually a relic of Odium worship among the humans on their previous world – referring to his ability to warp the currently in place systems to his own ends. - Moving on to Renarin. Renarin, who has bonded a Truthwatcher spren corrupted by Sja-anat, and therefore of both Odium and Honour, should exhibit at the very least one corrupted surge. Either he will have access to normal Progression and a warped version of illumination, or to all four. So far, he has demonstrated similar regrowth to Lift, being able to heal the wounded. If he manifests some form of Odium influenced Progression, perhaps he will be able to force mutation in plants or animals, or artificially age people. I think it is more likely he will stick to normal Honour-derived Progression, although his other surge may interfere. Renarin’s Illumination surge was the major giveaway that something was different about him, as it is repeatedly stated that seeing the future is of Odium. The future is illuminated for Renarin in visions of stained glass, allowing him to predict events, future change that Honour’s constancy could not reveal. He has also been proven inaccurate, which is due to his own nature as a sort of half-breed Radiant – as he is trapped between Odium and Honour, he is blind to himself in his own Odium based visions in the same manner as Odium fails to see him in the diagram, and as such any predictions he makes where he has personal involvement are unreliable, similarly to two Mistborn burning Atium. He also seems to be able to create images like Shallan’s, although his method, or when they take place, has not yet been revealed. Personally I think it will relate to his visions, allowing him to create illusions of the things he has seen in the future, or else imitate the present which I expect to be a common ground. Renarin has also shown the ability to somehow finish off a wounded thunderclast using light, ostensibly from his illumination surge. Possibly he is using some form of progression and illumination to enforce his own truth on the thunderclast, or it may be related to his resonance. Speaking of resonance, Renarin will probably display something unique as his combination of surges is new ground – an interaction between both two surges and two shards. In conclusion, I think that Voidbinding is a generic art that manifests as a corruption of local magics, and on Roshar is related to the ten Surgebinding surges, but extrapolated towards change and the unknown to mock Honour's consistency. This explains the pre-Recreance stability, why the fused are able to imitate the Radiant surges to an extent, as well as the warping of Renarin’s abilities as a corrupted Truthwatcher while displaying some abilities more in line with the expected. Hopefully you enjoyed the sweeping assumptions made in this crackpot theory, and I hope that adherence to the Assuredness Movement has thoroughly convinced you of my correctness, although realistically I do think some of the ideas have merit.
  11. From the album: stormlight archive art

    Drew a better version of him. (My last drawing was awful)
  12. Should I have known this already? I kinda recall Sansderson indicating that Radiant spren are generally of the opposit sex from the bonded Radiant. I don't think Renarin is homosexual but I'm surprised we got a same sex nahel bond so early. Naturally, Renarin is the one dude whose head we aren't in....
  13. So far I have seen primarily focus on the future when talking about what Truthwatchers can possibly see. When Renarin says that he "sees" at the end of WoR could it include past, present, and future? We have the countdown indicating future. I don't see any evidence for present, but I speculate that they will be able to. Oathbringer chapter 6 excerpt below indicates seeing into the past is possible through connection. In Oathbringer Chapter 6 Syl walked up to him in the air. “They’re like I remember them.” “Remember them?” Kaladin whispered. “Syl, you never knew me when I lived here.” “That’s true,” she said. “So how can you remember them?” Kaladin said, frowning. “Because I do,” Syl said, flitting around him. “Everyone is connected, Kaladin. Everything is connected. I didn’t know you then, but the winds did, and I am of the winds.” “You’re honorspren.” “The winds are of Honor,” she said, laughing as if he’d said something ridiculous. “We are kindred blood.”
  14. So at the end of WoR almost everyone in the fandom started noting Renarin was acting "kinda shady", and then chapters 8 and 9 of Oathbringer removed the "kinda" and turned the "shady" dial to 11 and snapped it off. The conclusion that a lot of people seem to have reached is that Glys isn't what she says she is or that Renarin is going to turn evil/is already evil. An equal amount of much the same people would also tell you that such a plot twist would be very predictable and kinda lame. So here I am to offer some thoughts I had when thinking about this while procrastinating at work First let me set up where I'm coming from: - We know the bondspren are at least a mixture of Honor and Cultivation's Investiture. With some (Honorspren) leaning almost fully one way while other (Cultivationspren) lean the other. But I don't think we have a definitive WoB about if any of Odium's power is also mixed in there. -Seeing the future is said to be "of the Voidbringers". We know from previous books that facets of myth and legend on various shardworlds are in-fact hints or obtuse references to the natures or powers of the Shards that inhabit or shaped that world. So I am pretty confident in predicting seeing what is to come is associated with the Voidbringers in the cultures of Roshar because its something Voidspren or Odium himself are very good at. And hey look! It's also what the Truthwatchers pretty much do all the time! -For all their being personifications of concepts, spren do show a bit of an ability to make choices as long as those choices don't contradict their concepts. Like the dichotomy of truth and lies between the Honorspren and the Cryptics are part of their nature, but the fact that this has grown into a big racial conflict in Shadesmar between them as implied by Jasnah is probably not. The two people most likely chose to express their rivalry this way instead of it being something hard-coded in them as Honor/Lie-spren. So from that base I would like to posit that Truthwatchers bind a type of spren (Prophesyspren?) that are actually mostly (or even entirely) of Odium, explaining why they are associated with Future Sight. But who in ages past turned against their master and joined the forces of humanity in the conflict between the 3 Shards. Maybe they foresaw something that rankled them if Odium won, maybe their nature as beings who conceptualize "seeing what is to come" meant that they are afraid of losing their entire purpose if Odium wins (a Cosmere where he has shattered the other 15 and rules unopposed would probably be very dull and predictable to a race of Seers). For whatever reason they turned against Odium and joined team Roshar, then when the rest of the bondspren started to imitate the Honorblades and give birth to Surgebinders they followed suit. That explains Renarin acting super weird around mentions of Odium's Champion and the general distance and obscurity attributed to the Truthwatchers in history: its not just that they are aloof and cagey because they get to know deep terrible secrets by their very nature, it *is* partially that, but also that as technically Voidspren they have an innate knowledge of Odium and his designs. The aloofness also probably comes from the fact that the other orders and other spren still probably didn't trust them, and who knows what the general populace would have done if they had known. It also kinda explains why Renarin DOESN'T TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING. His father has pledged to destroy Odium and is bonded to Honor's own Sliver, what is someone who was already a wallflower before this all started supposed to do? Go up to Dalinar and say "Hey dad, just wanted to tell you all this super secret stuff I know from my bond with a fragment of the Lord of Hate, but its cool she says she's on our side!"? So yeah, Renarin, Glys, the rest of her kind and the order of the Truthwatchers. I believe they are ultimately good guys, they just have an INCREDIBLY complicated backstory that explains why they are so, well *shady*, about it all.
  15. Before I start this topic let me make a few things clear. I love Renarin. I have several people in my life with both Autism Spectrum Disorder and Epilepsy. So I will be rooting for any character with such traits. Also, I Brandon doesn't write purely evil characters. He writes selfish, misguided, cruel, foolish, rude, prideful, wrathful, greedy, and jealous characters, but can anyone say they are pure evil? Ati who became Ruin was corrupted by his shard. Sadeas followed Vorism as he understood it. Vorism considers soldiers to be this highest male calling. It is a violent religion when you think of it that way. Hrathen started as an antagonist who realized he had followed the wrong people and, if you think about it, Dilaf was no more evil than Moash. Even Roshone is now showing a more human side. So suggesting that Renarin might be influenced by Odium is not saying he will turn evil or that he will be an antagonist. Shallan has a better chance of becoming an antagonist than Renarin at this point. Something is going on with Renarin that is worrisome. We have been told repeatedly that to see the future is of the voidbringers. Maybe it is a power of Cultivations as well, but other than Honor suggesting that Cultivation is better at seeing the future than him, we have no suggestion this is one of her common powers. Just because she is better than him, does not mean she is as good as Odium. She might be but we simply do not know. So Odium seems to be the primary shard for seeing the future on Roshar. Now we have only Renarin's word that a Truthwatcher sees. And to be honest, even Renarin has not explained what that means. We gather from his actions in WoR, such as scratching glyphs on walls predicting the Everstorm and his actions when the Everstorm comes, what seeing implies. That's also in WoR we read from Navani's memoir that the scratches on the wall suggest something bad and seeing the future is of the voidbringers. She knew when she wrote that memoir who had written those glyphs and why it was a bad thing. However, Renarin is not the only Truthwatcher we have read about. There is Ym, who doesn't seem to be getting visions before Nale kills him. But that was such a short interlude, so we can't be sure he wasn't scratching glyphs warning about Nale or the Everstorm. However, the is another Truthwatcher. The Stump from Edgedancer. Now we get a bit more time with her and with people who know her. I think someone would have said, not only is she mean to kids and laundering spheres, she has fits where she writes about the future. With all those kids there, one of them would have seen that and said something to Lift. So why is Renarin the only Truthwatcher having visions? Also, consider the surges of the Truthwatchers: Lightweaving and Progression. We have not seen Renarin use these surges, but we have seen these surges used. Lightweaving creates, for lack of a better word, holograms. Progression grows plants and heals people. Where in either of these surges is the ability to see the future? It's not Progression. Progression is a pretty straightforward surge. So maybe Lightweaving has the ability to see the future some how? Except, why can't Shallan do it? She did draw events that could have been in the past or present, but she has yet to draw the future. If Lightweaving has the ability to see the future, Brandon is going to have to do some great plotweaving to make it believable. Nonetheless, we have no solid evidence currently that the Truthwatchers surges give the ability to see the future. So why can Renarin see the future? And why is he so worried about Odium's champion? And why did Brandon hang this lamp on Renarin's abilities near the end of chapter 2 of Oathbringer? When an author points out something but does not explain it, that means pay attention this is important. He did this in Mistborn with Kelsier's real plan. He did this in Shadows of Self when hinting what Bleeder's real problem was. He did it with Kaladin's reason for becoming a slave for over half of TWoKs. This passage, especially the last sentence is a huge red flag that something is up with Renarin's powers. I don't think he has killed anyone at this point, nor do I think he will be Odium's champion and go evil. However, something is going on and we need to pay attention. I do hope Renarin gets past whatever it is in this book and is stronger for it. I'm rooting for him and he has his own book in the back half of the SA. I will be very disappointed if he goes evil-ish. Of course, he can't go truly evil, because Brandon doesn't write truly evil characters.
  16. So I was thinking about the fact that Renarin, we know, is a Truthwatcher and so has the two surges of Illumination and Progression. From the interludes, we know that Lift can use the food she eats to surgebind and heal herself but if she uses it too much it makes her tired and weak. My theory is that Renarin is doing this unknowingly and using up his energy which may be why he apeares 'weak' or 'sickly'. What do you guys think??
  17. So I was thinking about the fact that Renarin, we know, is a Truthwatcher and so has the two surges of Illumination and Progression. From the interludes, we know that Lift can use the food she eats to surgebind and heal herself but if she uses it too much it makes her tired and weak. My theory is that Renarin is doing this unknowingly and using up his energy which may be why he apeares 'weak' or 'sickly'. What do you guys think??
  18. I don't think I've seen any discussion on this yet, so permit me to be (possibly) the first one to ask: what's the deal with Renarin's box? I can't remember reading anything of this box in the Way of Kings, but he seems quite preoccupied with it at several points in the Words of Radiance. We have WoB that it is not his Spren (though that wouldn't have been my first guess anyway). I don't think it would have something to do with his (past) medical condition either, as it would seem strange to be so taken by it. I thought it might have been the casing for his spectacles, and that he's developed a nervous habit of opening and closing it, but the descriptions of it doesn't seem to fit with that either. So, any suggestions? During my reread, I'll put in all references to the box in this post to help shed light on this: On a side note, I am slightly disappointed that Renarin turned out to be a Truthwatcher, if only because we won't be able to see him blow up stuff. EDIT: Included references from EMTrevor. I did not notice anything else on my read-through.
  19. First, this forum is such a cool space to have conversation and speculation among people with similar interests yet such different backgrounds. The different experiences that we have definitely feeds into how each of us reads and interprets, which makes for such a fascinating opportunity to share insights and see things in ways that we might not have thought of or picked up on. Certainly, there are aspects of the fantasy genre that are meant for entertainment – I, for one, love to get lost in a different world every once in a while, disconnecting from ‘reality’ and plugging into dreams and imaginations. However, much of the world deems writing, poetry, imagination, fiction, especially fantasy, as a luxury that is separate from and irrelevant to what is commonly known as ‘real life.’ So I wanted to begin, since this is my very first post in the forum, with a word of encouragement to you fine folks. As the saying goes, fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth (I am sure the progression of Shallan Davar and Pattern would agree with this), and fantasy, as removed from ‘truth’ as it often seems, is a pertinent example of lies through which much truth is often spoken. To those of you who are mocked for choosing to spend your time in a corner, head buried in a book, take heart and confidence in what you learn from your imagination, and in that confidence share your insights with those who might be afraid of the truths they might find within the lies they tell themselves: that reality is what it seems, fantasy is only escape and distraction, and survival is for the ‘fittest.’ Imagination is not a luxury, it is life. I think Brandon Sanderson does well in showing this in the Stormlight Archive, making manifest what we cannot naturally see in our world through spren. As said in one of the books, spren is change, or, at least in Roshar, a visual manifestation of change. To relate this to our world, things are changing all the time. We do not notice, and we take it for granted, but it’s true. Cells are constantly dying and growing; when we stand still, we are moving with the earth’s rotation; we are thinking, always thinking; etc. etc. One thing I wanted to touch on specifically, however, is the nature of light, which I promise I will relate to Truthwatching and Illumination eventually, so bear with me. Questions of sight do not usually inspire responses of detailed reality, with the physics of how one actually sees, in terms of what might even allow for sight – that is, for example, one does not think to tell of the light that reflects off of opaque surfaces and into eyes, or the lack or distortion thereof that might affect vision, or the scattering of such that red might be distinguished from blue, black and white and the shades between. For most, light is rarely thought of as an independent actor, but just a medium through which we see. Even for the blind, however, light exists: at the very least they can feel its warmth, its energy – they would not see in the same way because light exists differently for them. The point is that light is everywhere but it is often not considered – perhaps we actually see more than we think. Perhaps spren really do exist. I first noticed the correlation between spren and quantum theory in the interlude chapter in Way of Kings where two ardents are measuring spren. As a disclaimer, I am not a theoretical physicist, nor will I include any math here on this forum, but it is fascinating to compare the similarities. In classical physics, what we all perhaps learned in high school in one form or another, measurement does not change the state of what is being measured. For example, the weight of one paperclip today will be the same tomorrow, more or less. In quantum physics, however, the rules are different – measurement changes everything. To tangent a little, this discovery in the early 20th century has made physicists rethink how even reality works – what if quantum theory applies not just at the quantum (very very miniscule) level, but to everything? Not just physically, but cognitively as well? This is the context I am placing the Stormlight Archive in. Through fantasy, Sanderson has made manifest and broken down certain theories that pervade contemporary thought. In the previously mentioned interlude chapter, spren stop moving when they are measured. This is similarly the case in quantum theory (if interested, look up wave function collapse). Okay, cool. But so what? Here is where my theory on Truthwatching comes in. When Renarin says he sees, what he means is that he actually sees. Not ‘see’ in the conventional sense, but literally sees. Wow, really clear man. I know, I know. The closest analogy I could think of is The Matrix, where at the end -SPOILER-, Neo literally sees reality as the code of the Matrix since it is a computer program. What I’m saying is the Truthwatching is a similar thing, except instead of code, what Renarin, and other Truthwatchers, see is the spren (quanta) of everything. Everything. This has nothing to do with his visions. I am in the camp that says his visions are not a result of Truthwatching since Dalinar, Kaladin (dream), and Shallan (drawings), have the same experience (I believe FeatherWriter has a really good and well-written post on this). This brings a new connotation to Illumination. What “illumination” means is to shed light on or clarify. If Lightweavers use Illumination to create illusions (perhaps because of its combination with Transformation), maybe Truthwatchers see through illusions. To relate, if we look at an apple sitting on a table, we see it as still. If we shine a strong light (must be coherent light) on it, however, the shadow that appears will show a hole in the middle; i.e. the solidity of the apple is an illusion. Or, if we shine a light on any object, the boundary of the shadow will appear fuzzy even though the boundary of the object is solid; i.e. static boundaries are illusions – this is due to the property of diffraction and the wave-particle duality that light has, another consequence that quantum theory attempts to explain. The perfect place to extend this theory from merely the physical to the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, etc., is the space of imagination and fiction, which are as real as physical reality. I think this is what Sanderson is experimenting with through the separation of Physical Realm, Cognitive Realm, etc. Truthwatchers might be the only ones able to see what is actually going on. In our world, our eyes often deceive us. Perhaps to see as Renarin does would be to see through the deception of reality. See spren. See what matters. See the stories behind people (Ym). See beauty. And to be able to see would certainly help knowing how to heal whatever is damaged – I am defining ‘heal’ here not as cure or fix, which implies some sort of wholeness, but ‘heal’ as in growth (i.e. Progression not towards, but Progression from). Sometimes a word of encouragement or a pair of comfortable shoes might go a longer way than stabbing someone with a Shardblade, deposing an incompetent king, or summoning highstorms, and this is what Renarin can see. Of course, this is all speculation, and I’m sure what I’ve written is full of holes. So, thoughts?
  20. Roshar OT4 is the best! I’ve been considering this pose for ages + + + I also have two Lift pieces
  21. On my current reread, among other things I am paying special attention to Renarin's development. And I have a theory what topic the Truthwatchers' ideals may be about. Different levels would have different wordings of course, but I would phrase the main topic as: "I will attempt a worthy task even if it seems impossible or will likely lead to my death" Several reasons for this: 1. It fits Renarin's behavior Actually many sharders have complained that Renarin tries to help even when he seems to have no chance of doing so. They say he is really a hindrance because he ties other resources / fighters that have to protect him. (Though in the case of the duel, I think he actually did some good by tying up one of the opponents for a while.) 2. Analogy to Lightweavers' 'ideal' Lightweavers speak truths to keep them 'real' in the middle of all their illusions; they need the self-awareness. WoR Ch.57 (Epigraph about Lightweavers) If Renarin's visions are really part of his Truthwatching - and I think they are - then seeing dark possible futures (like his final vision in WoR: "We will all die") can paralyze the seer by making him hopeless. He needs the strength of mind not to succumb to that. (Yes, during the vision he is paralyzed. That does not mean he cannot work to prevent that dark future after the vision is over.) So, in both cases, the ideal has something to do with counterbalancing the side effects of the surgebindings. 3. Chronology of events To be more concise, l’ll temporarily subscribe to the methods of the assuredness movement: In what follows I’ll state my theory as fact. That just makes for shorter sentences. The following scene likely drew Glys to Renarin. (Just like Kaladin protecting young spearmen attracted Syl.) WoK Ch. 13 Ten Heartbeats When first bonding his blade, he didn’t yet hear screams, but as a proto-Radiant he still didn’t feel right about it, just like Dalinar when he had bonded the madman’s Blade. WoR Ch. 14 Ironstance So, he grimaced when first touching it, but during the bonding he trained with Zahel (including jumping down buildings – all that happened during the bonding so he must have held the Blade! Never had realized that before.) He relaxedly talked fabrials with Kaladin, maybe even took rides with Adolin and laughed with Amaram. (It’s not quite clear whether the bonding was finished before that ride.) With all due respect for Renarin, I cannot see him hearing those screams all that time. Though the completion of the bond isn’t explicitly mentioned until later, it must have happened before Adolin’s plateau run to help Jakamav: Teft tells Adolin about Renarin summoning his blade: WoR Ch. 26 The Feather No way he experiences the same in that moment as during the whole bonding week. Now Renarin freezes. Now he hears the screams. Between bonding his Blade and this plateau run Renarin has made a step in his Surgebinding: he swore his second oath. "I will attempt a worthy task even if it seems impossible or will likely lead to my death" His trying to do something about that attacked bridge is him trying to be true to that oath. Same later with the duel. Of course, the latter also fits with what he did on the hunt, driven by the love for his family. The oath is not the whole reason, but it's part of it. The oath fits the character - as was to be expected. [On a side note: did anyone notice his quick grasp of Shardblade commands? The bonding was completed just a few days ago and after Szeth’s visit Renarin’s Shardblade lies ‘discarded at his feet like a piece of refuse’!]
  22. Major characters! CLICK HERE to open up full size. CLICK HERE to open up mini version to use in the new profile's cover photo. It fits!! I drew Sadeas to have a punchable face, and Amaram to be less punchable because he's supposed to be a smarmy smug wannabe-Radiant who looks like a normal dude from the outside. I imagined him to be late 30's or almost or about 40, because Jasnah was 34 as of WoK and he was her almost-husband. Taravangian is supposed to be like a wise sage kungfu master grandpa, who looks harmless. Taln wears yellow because topazes are the gemstone of the Stonewards, but later I looked it up and found out that topazes can come in other colours than orangey-yellow, but it was too late for that. Wit has a medieval pageboy haircut because his job is to something like a King's minstrel and his blue eyes are somewhere in between light and dark.
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