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Quoth Hoid to Amaram, "You are what lesser cremlings like Sadeas can only aspire to be." This thread is basically me asking who you disliked the most. Personally I disagree with dear Wit. Amaram is a jerk and a chull, but Sadeas gives me the creeps. Why do I dislike them so unevenly? They both believe that what they have done/are doing/will do is the right thing. They both put on a face of honor. But Amaram seems less evil, I guess, because he's more like Dalinar? I guess he does a better job at hiding behind pretenses? Even if he is going along with the stupidest plan in the history of stupidest plans. Basically, I think one reason he seems less evil to me is that we get it from the beginning that he's a traitorous, double-crossing jerk with Kaladin's POV. Sadeas, on the other hand, seems like a nice guy. We get Adolin calling him an eel, yes, but he seems decent enough. Heaven knows I was cheering for him when he seemed like he was starting to listen to Dalinar. And then the betrayal happened. And now I cringe whenever he appears on-screen, especially when we're in his POV. So, TL;DR, basically Amaram is a jerk but not as much of a jerk as Sadeas.

So, after reading Words of Radiance, I went back and reread Way of Kings for kicks. And Sadeas' portrayal seems to have drastically changed from WoK to WoR; in WoK, Dalinar explicitly mentions how both he and Sadeas hated each other but tolerated each other for the sake of protecting Elhokar. In WoR, on the other hand, Sadeas ponders the idea of assassinating Elhokar and finds that he has basically no aversion to the thought anymore. Which... doesn't match the image of Sadeas as someone who would devote his life to protecting Elhokar, as Dalinar portrays him. Sure, maybe Sadeas was planning to betray Gavilar all along and never really cared about Elhokar from the start, but in that case, the incredibly suicidally brave idea of pretending to be Gavilar to draw Szeth's attention probably wouldn't have occurred to this hypothetical always-a-traitor-Sadeas. So... when did Sadeas change? Why did Sadeas change? Dalinar seemed to think that Sadeas was still the same man he'd always been, loyal to Gavilar and Elhokar's throne, up until he betrays them and leaves them to die- and even that's not totally out-of-character for someone who wants to protect Elhokar, not if he legitimately thinks that a mad Dalinar is a threat to the throne (after all, the Blackthorn would always be a threat to Elhokar if only through his sheer force of personality). Honestly, after reading WoK again, I'm of the opinion that some supernatural influence changed Sadeas slowly for the worse- a corruption of some sort or other, possibly done by one of the Unmade. After all, we know that the Thrill is caused by Nergaoul, and whereas Dalinar resisted the Thrill, Sadeas became addicted and started pursuing the Thrill (as described in WoR), which may have made it easier for him to be corrupted by Bad Things. Thoughts?

I'm never going to get the scene where Dalinar walks up to Sadeas with his squad of Windrunners in full plate and blade and says, "I have to say, you were right Sadeas. Trading these men for a Shardblade probably will be 'remembered as the most ridiculous decision ever made by an Alethi Highprince.'" I've been waiting for that comeuppance ever since I read that scene/line in WoK. Oh well, I guess I'll have to settle for a dagger in the eye.

Does anyone else feel that there is a potential problem with Dalinar and Amaram's particular friendship ? Amaram is a vassal of Sadeas; Sadeas and Dalinar aren't on particularly good terms now, so Amaram must be significantly conflicted. Any forces he brings will reinforce Sadeas, plus he adds a second (after now Sadeas himself) full shard-bearer to Sadeas' warcamp. In the event of any conflict between Sadeas and Dalinar, he's going to have a serious problem resolving his loyalties is he not ? And he must indeed be the subject of considerable suspicion from Sadeas as well, can't be an easy position for him.

It seems that Roshar needs to be united in order to survive the impending Desolation. We currently have two separate individuals who are attempting to accomplish this task that we are aware of. Taravangian is the ruler of Kharbranth, a small city-state renowned for it's hospitals and the Palanaeum. He has thus far attempted to achieve the goal of unifying Roshar through assassination and through trying to interpret the future by listening to the death chants of innocent people he murders. To date he has eliminated close to twenty world leaders through assassination and murdered a large number of innocent civilians who were under his care. We have seen no indication that other plans are in motion to stabilize the nations affected as yet, though to be fair those plans have been eluded to. Taravangian appears to only be worried about eliminating any possible rival leaders thus far. Taravangian appears to be aware of the efforts of the second person attempting a unification at a smaller level and chose to order the assassination of Dalinar Kholin rather than make any effort to work with him. Dalinar Kholin is High Prince of War, uncle to King Elhokar of Alethkar. He is attempting to unify one of the most powerful nations on Roshar through politicking and an iron fist. He has prophetic dreams that appear to have been sent to him by a being he believes to be a god called Honor. Honor is dead and Dalinar is aware of this as well. Dalinar began his efforts to unite his fellow High Princes through political maneuvering and encouraging them to work together in concert against the current common foe of the Alethi people. This strategy failed dramatically at the plateau called The Tower when High Prince Sadeas deftly outmaneuvered Dalinar and stranded him along with his heir and a large portion of his men surrounded and cut off from retreat. It was only through the actions and rebellion of bridge four and it's leader Kaladin Stormblessed that Dalinar was capable of retreating and salvaging a quarter of the forces he had brought to battle. Having recognized the futility of trying to coerce his fellow High Princes to work together voluntarily, Dalinar has forcefully bent his nephew to his will with the goal of finally unifying his nation under the rule of the king. It has been postulated that the methods of these men are, for all intents and purposes, little different. That by using the war that Dalinar seeks to end as an excuse for unifying his people, Dalinar is no better than the man who murders the sickly and feeble in their beds and orders world leaders assassinated so he can unite the world under his own banner. I would postulate that the difference between these men is immense. That Dalinar seeks to unite his nation to enable its survival. He doesn't seek power for himself, but takes what power he needs to accomplish his goals. He wants to see his people become more than they are, and he wants this for his people. Taravangian on the other hand seeks to unite the world under his rule, for his own personal glory and to ensure his own survival. He has no compunction about murdering innocent people and removing any obstacle from his path. What do you think?

Hi, I've been lurking these forums for a while, and thought I might post what I think the bridges look like. Obviously I'm basing it off of the descriptions in the book, namely these ones: This is the front and top view of the bridge: The bridge is roughly 10.3 meters (34 feet) long and 3.4 meters (11 feet) wide, which is slightly larger than specified in the book. The bridge is roughly 4.6 m3, which if the density of the wood is 600kg/m3 (but it's probably less) then the bridge has a mass of 2760kg, that's about 70kg per bridgeman, if there's 40 of them. If I remember correctly Brandon did state that Roshar has only 7/10 of the gravity of Earth, which would make 70kg on Roshar have the weight of 48kg on Earth. Here's a version with some crude dummy bridgemen: I'm not too sure that I got the design right. There are quite a few things that confuse me, such as it being stated that the bridge curves down at the ends. If there's anything I've missed (which I undoubtedly have) don't hesitate to tell me.

I'm new to this website, though not new to Sanderson. I was lucky enough to audit his creative writing class at BYU. And the off the wall theory is: Miles death proclamation could very well be referring to Sadeas and Elhokar. They are "men" and they wear "red and gold"(their shardplate), respectively. Why Miles would speak of them is beyond me... and might indicate I wanted to post at least one theory, harebrained though it might be.