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So, at the end of WoR, when Dalinar bonds the Stormfather, the Stormfather refers to Dalinar's blade as an "abomination". Is not Dalinar's blade Talen'elat's Honorblade? Why would the Stormfather refer to it as an abomination, when it is not a spren corpse?

Just listened to the end of WoR for the umpteenth time. It is the first time I noticed the stormfather pluralizing shards when saying Dalinar will be a radiant without shards. ...uh... Why was it pluralized? It is unnecessary to add that pesky little "s". It is probably just a literary thing. Here I begin to read too much into things... I get that he won't have a shardblade, but is he now permabanned from shardplate as well? Discuss

So here's what I found browsing the coppermind today: The Recreance was the day when all the KR abandoned their duties and spren, and the spren "broke," according to Syl. There were usually three Bondsmiths, and (at least) one of them had bonded the Stormfather, presumably. (http://coppermind.net/wiki/Order_of_Bondsmiths) The Spren "broke" when they were abandoned in the Recreance. So why didn't the Stormfather "break?"

Reading through WoR, I found Chapter 44's epigraph to be elucidative on a subject that has been previously discussed. Note the use of the singular "was" in the above sentence. This points to the conclusion that every Bondsmith bonds to the Stormfather. Yes, Nightwatcher or Cusicesh have been popular guesses for their bond-spren, but I believe that this paragraph excludes those possibilities. Arguing the other way, one could say that, in-world, "Their spren was understood to be specific..." meaning that this could be a misunderstanding similar to the Scadrian assumption that atium was a normal metal. However, I find this unlikely, since the sentence seems to be focused more on the "holiness" and exclusivity of bonding the Stormfather. Thoughts?

The Stormfather seems pretty irritated and unwilling to help Dalinar with being a Bondsmith. He said that he won't become a sword for him. Was the Stormfather just as annoyed back in the days of the KR? If so, the Bondsmiths never had Shards of their own. Even if the Stormfather was willing to help, how would he be the Shards for all three Bondsmiths?

I’ve looked for an answer to this question, but haven’t been able to find one. Apologies if it has already been discussed to death. I don’t have a theory to associate with the following observation, but am wondering: it is significant and, if so, do we have enough information to make sense of it? During the highstorm when Eshonai bonds the stormspren, Szeth also attacks the palace in an attempt to assassinate Dalinar. During this sequence, the Stormfather, Syl, and Pattern become extremely agitated. When I read the scene for the first time, I was so caught up in the atmosphere that I didn’t notice the possible overlapping. From the beginning of the chapter “The One Who Hates,” it is clear to the reader that the ongoing highstorm is Eshonai’s highstorm but not that Szeth is on the way. Eventually, based on Syl’s reaction and the narration, Szeth appears to be an agent of Odium. Starting off, in Kaladin’s storm dream, he speaks with Stormfather: Stormfather seems to be referring to Odium and the Everstorm that Eshonai will set into motion by bonding the stormspren and converting other Parshendi in a later storm. Pattern also agrees that something is off: And when Syl finds Kaladin, she also expresses alarm: Kaladin immediately begins to evacuate the palace, even though he still doesn’t know what is happening. It’s still not clear to the reader that Szeth is there. Syl's quote that "He's coming" still seems to refer to Odium. Once they reach the hallway where the spheres have been drained, but right before they see Szeth, Syl comments: Finally, we (the readers and characters) know that an assassination attempt is happening. When Kaladin tries to explain Szeth’s powers as deriving from the Nahel bond, Syl is adamant that he is something else, either having seen the honorblade, his use of stormlight, or not sensing a spren. Syl later points to Szeth’s blade as particularly troubling: What I don’t understand is why Syl makes the connection between the other ominous events and the arrival of Szeth. She clearly says “He’s here” in reference to Szeth when they find him during the evacuation. She’d already said “He’s coming,” but it seemed much more tied to the stormspren bonding and Odium. I know there are theories about Szeth having a connection to one of the unmade re: "the screams" as well as concerns about consuming so much stormlight. Is this Sanderson just writing an awesome chaotic scene or is there a clue in there?

I have just a basic understanding of the Cosmere (though I guess that's true of most of us until BS writes more books), but I'm confused about the whole shard/splinter/spren thing. (I'm talking about the shards of Adonalsium here - not shard blades or plate). If I'm not mistaken, I read/heard somewhere that the spren are splinters of Honor, who has died. It was his death that caused him to splinter. I realize it was just Honor's holder that died, but didn't the shard itself splinter into smaller pieces? But what about the Stormfather? He is also called a splinter of Honor and the Windspren are his children. So, are the Windspren splinters of a splinter? Next, the Nightwatcher is of Cultivation. So, has cultivation died/splintered too and Nightwatcher is one of her splinters? Or is Nightwatcher actually Cultivation as a whole? Wyndle (Lift's spren) talks about his Mother, so is he actually of Cultivation/Nightwatcher? If so, are some of the Knights Radiant of Cultivation instead of Honor? Also, how can Cultivation have Splinters (Spren) if she hasn't died/splintered? Finally, aren't the evil spren of Odium? How can he have splinters if he hasn't died/splintered? Also, does he have a "super spren" like Honor's Stormfather and Cultivation's Nightwatcher?

Before speaking his oaths to the Stormfather, Dalinar has a vision perhaps “stronger” than the others. The Stormfather says he didn’t send it: “No vision was sent this morning…A simple dream. Not of me.” I believe that Dalinar’s “dream” is a vision from the spiritual realm. The vision suggests that Dalinar had access to the spiritual realm as a boy. Now that he has unburdened himself of his guilt for “letting Gavilar die,” the visions reintroduce themselves. Dalinar is a Bondsmith, with Divine Attributes of “pious/guiding.” He may need spiritual realm access to accomplish his tasks. Dalinar’s sensitivity to the spiritual realm may be why the Stormfather chose Dalinar to reveal his visions to and to bond with. In the dream, Dalinar stands in darkness, then turns about and sees furniture and furnishings he remembers (emphasis in original): “My house, he thought. As it was when I was a child. Back before conquest, back before Gavilar… “Gavilar…hadn’t Gavilar died? No, Dalinar could hear his brother laughing in the next room. He was a child. They both were. “Dalinar crossed the shadowed room, feeling the fuzzy joy of familiarity. Of things being as they should be. He’d left his wooden swords out. He had a collection, each carved like a Shardblade. He was too old for those now, of course, but he still liked having them. As a collection. “He stepped to the balcony doors and pushed them open. “Warm light bathed him. A deep, enveloping, piercing warmth. A warmth that soaked down deep through his skin, into his very self. He stared at that light, and was not blinded. The source was distant, but he knew it. Knew it well.” In sequence, the first noteworthy aspect is the snippet, “back before Gavilar…Gavilar…hadn’t Gavilar died?” I interpret this phrasing to mean that Dalinar replaces one chain of thought with another. The unfinished thought refers to something other than Gavilar’s death that we do not yet know (and probably won’t find out until Book 5, Dalinar’s book). I suspect Dalinar remembered something that Gavilar imposed on him that for a long time cut Dalinar off from the spiritual realm and these visions. Some may disagree with this interpretation, believing Dalinar pauses because he remembers that Gavilar is dead. I think my interpretation is supported by the sequence of the “back befores” – the second seeming to come earlier in time than the first as Dalinar’s thoughts are returning to when he was a child. Regardless, the proper interpretation of this snippet doesn’t really affect the overall conclusion. I include it because I believe it is a look forward to what will come out in Dalinar’s book. The second noteworthy aspect is the emphasis on “things being as they should be.” “Should” states an ideal to which to aspire. The spiritual realm is the place of ideals. The paragraph further implies that Dalinar is done playing with swords, wooden or real. This bit foreshadows Dalinar becoming a shardless KR later in the chapter. Now the key passage, how he “knew well” the distant light, that it enveloped him in a “piercing warmth” and did not blind him when he stared at it, that it soaked “into his very self.” The “sun” in the cognitive realm is cold, but this light source embraces Dalinar down to his soul with warmth and comfort. Every aspect of this description reads like a spiritual experience, Moses standing before the burning bush. Further evidence: the surgeon stitching Dalinar’s wound during the climactic battle is amazed that Dalinar can still use his arm after so much scarring from prior wounds. SOMETHING must have supernaturally healed Dalinar over the years. Perhaps it was an incipient bond with the Stormfather, but I think it has more to do with some sort of spiritual bond. My thought is that the light source represents the remnants of Honor in the spiritual realm, just as the Highstorms represent it in the physical realm and the Stormfather represents it in the cognitive realm. Investiture, according to Brandon, exists in all three realms. Perhaps the spiritual realm has infused Dalinar with some limited self-healing power comparable to the resurrecting power of Divine Breath. But such speculation is best explored elsewhere than a post that is already too long.,. What are the implications of a KR with access to the spiritual realm? The epigraph about Melishi the Bondsmith provides some guidance. I’d appreciate hearing what others think on this subject.

Ok, so I understand that Jezrien is the King figure of the 10 Heralds. I also understand that he was the Herald that founded the windrunners, and he hates the radiants now because of all the spren that were killed. What I don't understand is that Jezrien is the Stormfather. It doesn't make sense to me. First: Why would the FOUNDER of the windrunners bond with bondsmith? Second: Does this mean Heralds are spren too? So does that then mean they all can potentially bond? Third: I thought certain spren tended to bond with certain orders, such as honorspren to windrunners, cryptics to lightweavers and so on. If Jezrien being the Stormfather means he is a spren, then what kind of spren is he that he is bonding with a bondsmith? Any help or insight would be appreciated because this feels contradictory to me, and I am hoping I am just missing something. Btw, I am new on these boards, so if this is located in the wrong thread, or has been discussed before, I apologize and would appreciate any instruction/advice in navigating this forum for a newb. Thanks!

My theory is that the Bondsmith were exclusively bonded to the Stormfather. Obviously we know from Dalinar that the Stormfather can be bonded to a Bondsmith. I'm basing this idea on the epigraph of Chapter 44. Since my theory gets into semantics, here's the whole epigraph for reference. "But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious. —From Words of Radiance, chapter 16, page 14" (I don't know how this forum's formatting works) It says "Their spren was understood to be..." instead of "Their spren were..." implying that their was only one spren shared between all of them. My reading of the epigraph also rejects the idea that there was some specific pairing between the Bondsmiths and the spren of the Shards, since it says that "they did not seek to increase this by great bounds." If it had meant that they never increased past three, it would have simply said that they did not seek to increase this at all. This seems to imply that they only meant that they never went into the hundreds of Knights of the other orders, not that they had a very specific on to one correspondence with certain powerful spren. I think that it is writing about a specific time period (possibly immediately before the Recreance?) and stating how many they had at that time, not at all times. This lack of a one to one correspondence also shows that they were probably all bonded to the Stormfather, since if they were bonded to some other unique spren there would almost always be a specific number, and the phrase "which number was not uncommon for them" would never be used. Some other thoughts: 1. Looking at translations of the book in other language might help clarify since English pronouns aren't very good at specifying things like this. 2. If there are any WoB about multiple people bonding a single spren, that would probably help prove or disprove this.

There have been all sorts of theories regarding the origin and nature of the Stormfather and Nightwatcher. Mine is that Honor and Cultivation each invested the current incarnation of the Stormfather; and that Cultivation and either Adonalsium (though the “Old Magic”) or Odium each invested the current incarnation of the Nightwatcher. The Stormfather Both the Highstorms and the Stormfather pre-exist the arrival of Honor, Cultivation and humans on Roshar. Originally, the Highstorms were merely meteorological events. WoB states that at some point the Highstorms also became magical events. Our fearless WoB compiler RShara says she understands Brandon to mean “the stormlight part of the storm was added later, I'm assuming by a Shard.” Eshonai says the Stormfather is a traitor who was once a friend. This description suggests the Stormfather was the spren who personified the Highstorms to the Listeners. Eshonai also says the Highstorms and the Stormfather are involved in Listener form changes. Subsequent WoR events confirm that statement. The Stormfather now identifies himself as a sliver, a splinter and the spren of Honor. Humans personified Honor (the “Almighty”) as the Stormfather, by which the Stormfather became Honor’s spren. Though the Listeners claim the Stormfather betrayed them, it is unclear whether the Stormfather could have simultaneously remained a Listener’s spren. Eshonai’s comments suggest that the Stormfather may no longer be serving his function of overseeing Listener form changes, but we have no evidence of this. To the contrary, the Listeners continued to undergo their pre-stormspren form changes during Highstorms. The Stormfather’s failure to help Eshonai when she was being bound by the stormspren does not provide proof one way or the other. Throughout WoR, we see that the Stormfather has no autonomy regarding the bonding process. He accepts all KR oaths, and Syl says he has no power to stop the tightening of the Nahel bond if the KR “says the words.” This is no different than how he behaves towards Eshonai. The Stormfather states he is also a sliver of Honor. He claims he was present when Odium “murdered” Honor and fled. The following WoB provides guidance on how the Stormfather became Honor’s sliver: “Q: If Endowment were killed, would the Returned still come?” “A: Somebody needs to hold the magic. If no one holds the magic, the magic will gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then…” Odium (or rather Rayse) did not acquire any part of Honor’s splinters because other WoB says Rayse did not want to dilute his essence, his “hatefulness.” The only other sentient being in the neighborhood was the Stormfather. I believe the Stormfather absorbed Honor’s splinters and “fled.” Some indefinite time afterwards (immediately?), the Stormfather released Honor’s splinters, which greatly increased the number of Roshar’s spren (emphasis added): “Q: Were there spren bonds before Aharietiam?” “A: …The spren were around back then but they're not nearly what they are now. They've changed over the course of the book obviously…They are much more prevalent following Honor and what happened to him, but there were some spren on the planet before even that happened.” And, of course, the Stormfather retained a splinter of Honor as well. The Stormfather is thus simultaneously a spren, a sliver and a splinter of Honor, as he claims. But Cultivation has also invested the Stormfather. At a recent WoR signing, a fan asked Brandon to write something in his copy (emphasis added): “Q: For Words of Radiance, could you put a comment about something in the upcoming books, nothing specific, just something I can think about? Something like "Renarin has a spren" you wrote for somebody else in The Way of Kings? “A: [brandon wrote] ‘Stormlight makes plants grow.’" I believe the power of growth – Progression – belongs to Cultivation, not Honor. Cultivation is apparently the Shard responsible for stormlight, making plants grow and facilitating surgebinder healing. Thus, the Stormfather is a splinter of BOTH Cultivation and Honor. He may bring the Highstorms, but the stormlight the Highstorms contain come from Cultivation. The Nightwatcher We have not yet met the Nightwatcher and have much less information about her than we do the Stormfather. All we know is the following: Humans come to her for boons, which she dispenses together with a curse. Humans believe the Nightwatcher controls the “Old Magic.” Brandon has not explained what the “Old Magic” is. We believe the Nightwatcher selected Lift for Wyndle to bond with. This belief is based on Wyndle describing her as “Mother.” Since Syl and other spren call the Stormfather (and not Honor) “Father,” Wyndle’s designation suggests “Mother” means the Nightwatcher and not Cultivation. The Nightwatcher resides in the “The Valley,” which is located in the mountains between Emul and Greater Hexi. It is generally accepted in these Forums that the Nightwatcher is a rough analog to the Stormfather: Cultivation’s spren in the same way the Stormfather is Honor’s spren. This seems confirmed by Lift’s Nahel bond with Wyndle: the two surges granted Lift are Progression and Abrasion. Based on the surgebinding table and the concept of “cultivation,” these surges appear to stem from Cultivation. WoB states the analogy with the Stormfather is “on the right track” but not precisely correct. That statement suggests something else is part of the Nightwatcher. That may be why the Nightwatcher curses as well as grants boons. There are two other potential sources of Investiture in her: the “Old Magic” and Odium. According to the Coppermind Wiki, the “Old Magic” was the dominant religion on Roshar before the rise of Vorinism. Since Brandon has said that all Cosmere magic ultimately derives from Adonalsium, and we know Adonalsium has invested on Roshar, then the “Old Magic” may be derived from Adonalsium. If so, then the Nightwatcher is a spren of both Cultivation and Adonalsium. Alternatively, because the Nightwatcher curses her beneficiaries, Odium may have invested in the Nightwatcher. Both her name and behavior imply a darkness or meanness to her character. Human consciousness may have personified the uncertainties of growth and development in both beneficial and hateful terms, thus producing a spren comprised of both Shards. I find it interesting that the Nightwatcher’s curses seem unrelated to her boons: that would imply an almost schizophrenic or multiple personality spren whose two components don’t coordinate. We may not learn a lot more about the Nightwatcher until the second five SA books. That’s a long time to wait…

I don't know if any of this has been posited yet, but this idea fascinated me. I got really excited about the Stormfather in WoR. So here's my theory/speculation about him/it. He refers to himself as a sliver of Honor (well, of the Almighty, but same thing) multiple times: He also says: Now, we understand that a sliver is an entity that has held most of the power of a shard for a time then released it, examples being (spoilers for Mistborn) If the Stormfather is a sliver, then when did he hold the power of Honor? I believe that it was when Odium killed him. When Odium killed Honor, by which we really mean he killed Tanavast, the Stormfather, who was present somehow, took up the power, did something with it, then released it. I assume that Odium did something more than just kill Tanavast; it would be lazy to just let the power sit there. So maybe he and the Stormfather clashed or something, and that is when the Stormfather fled, as he said. Now, based on his name, the obvious relation between him and the storms, and what he says about it that I have quoted, I think that he threw Honor's power into the highstorm/s. I do not know when Honor was killed (before the Last Desolation, or whenever), or if the highstorm/s existed before his death. Either the Stormfather created the storm then with the power, or added it to what already existed. We have WoB that the highstorms are a combination of something meteorological and something magical (obviously, on the magic), so I guess that it is the second, that the Stormfather added the power to the already existing storms, making them much more violent, then he became the sliver, the remainder of the Almighty for humanity. There are numerous potential implications if this is all correct; about the nature of the spren, Stormlight, etc. I believe there must be a definite amount of Stormlight that is continually recycled by the highstorm/s. Is that the power of Honor himself? It would make sense. Another question is, What does this mean of spren, particularly bonding spren? They are very similar to Seons and Skaze on Sel, from what we know, splinters of Shardic power. Did they exist before the death of Honor? Could they have been part of what the Stormfather did with the power? These may all very well be questions that have been answered already, but I don't really feel like searching that hard. If all this has been posited already, feel free to ignore. If not, do you agree, or have anything to refute? Am I hopelessly wrong?

I thought about this one today when I was meant to be studying other things (Learning is difficult when you're still living in a book's world). The specific number of Bondsmiths was stated in WoR as three. Always three. The epigraph implied heavily that the Bondsmiths made the choice to keep their numbers limited. However, Dalinar's actions at the end of WoR gave me another idea: What if the Bondsmiths can only bond with unique spren? I know, every sentient spren is unique, but there are other honorspren than Syl, more Cryptics other than Pattern and so on. The unique spren would be of the Stormfather level, and he is a fragment of Honor. (I don't know if this makes him a Splinter, or so on) So what if the NIghtwatcher is the same to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor? That would account for another Bondsmith. The final one gets interesting. Would they be tied to Odium's spren? I think it has a kind of poetic balance, based on the idea that to truly unite a people, you have to understand every aspect. One Bondsmith represents Honor (Dalinar), another Cultivation and yet another Odium. I'm interested in seeing what effect bonding with the Stormfather will bring about on Dalinar's personality. Does he remain a separate entity, or will the two minds fuse to a degree? If they remain separate, a Bondsmith could bond with Odium's unique while remaining level headed and not poisoned with hate. My previous theories have all been proposed before, or WoB'd out, but I think I'm finally getting on top of the speculation around here!

Okay. This is borderline a joke, but it just fits. This epigraph has always bothered me because it doesn't make sense with what we know. Three of sixteen ruled, but now the broken one reigns implies four entities of Shardic power, with Odium as one of the three. I believe I might have solved it. It all chalks down to basic human error. These death rattles are the ones recorded by Taravangian, so we have no way of actually knowing whether or not they had the right word. The one I have in mind is "reigns"... What if, the dying person actually meant, "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the broken one rains?" Dalinar describes the Stormfather as broken many times, and the spren just seems... off. Throughout many situations in both WoK and WoR, he does things that don't seem particularly smart or honorable. And the Stormfather is in charge of the highstorms. So, whaddya all think? Silly coincidence, or possible theory? (Also, if anyone has said this before, I'm sorry).

After around 400 posts or so, I've realized that I still haven't made a single thread of my own. It's probably time to change that. So behold, my baseless speculation in grand, likely typo-filled, thread form. Now, like many of you, I at first thought that the Unmade were the counterparts of the Heralds. It just made a lot of sense that way: the Honor gets his über-powered men to lead his forces, and Odium gets his own mega-powered monsters to lead the Desolations. But a recent WoB has changed that. Now, if there are not the same number of Unmade as Heralds, then they cannot be direct counterparts to them. So what are they? Taravangian actually tells us in WoR. This is in reference to Nergaoul, the Unmade responsible for the Thrill. Now, before you ask, I am aware that Brandon is famous for unreliable characters. But Taravangian is one of the most knowledgeable characters in SA we know of. His information comes from an intelligence that completely, and utterly, transcends normal human thought. Barring any strong evidence to the contrary, we should take his word for it. But there is more. This is a section of Jasnah's personal notes in WoK. It's completely consistent with Taravangian's comment– the Unmade are forces, ideas given life like spren.But Unmade are much, much bigger than ordinary spren. Nergaoul's Thrill covers all of Alethkar. Moelach's Death Rattles occur all the way from Taravangian's hospital in Kharbranth to the Shattered Plains. And Yelig-nar can rip roofs off a building iirc (if anyone could find the quote for this one, I'd be very grateful). Only one spren so far can match this level of power: the Stormfather. He controls an enormous hypercane great enough to span more than the entire supercontinent. He's the Father to the Honorspren. The Nightwatcher, too, is likely this sort of spren, referred to as Mother by Wyndle. Interestingly, Re-Shephir, a likely Unmade candidate, is also called Mother. So the same relationship holds with the Unmade. The Unmade are 'parents' to the voidspren, who are just smaller splinters of Odium. These spren bond with a variety of things, like Parshendi, stone, and smoke(?) to form the Voidbringer troops. And, as we saw so epically with Dalinar, the über-spren can be bonded with too, with both the Stormfather, and the Unmade too. And here's one last quote to close this off. Now on to the far more theoretical portion of my theory (That sounded much less stupid in my head). We now know that the Everstorm is Odium's version of a Highstorm. As the Highstorm is led by the Stormfather, it follows that the Everstorm has its own über-spren, one of the Unmade. One of the Unmade we've seen so far stands out in particular for this:Yelig-Nar. First off, he's called Blightwind.With how little we have to go on, this is probably enough. But I'll add more anyway, because this post isn't long enough already. Yelig-Nar is also the most physically active Unmade so far. He kills Nohadon's men, rips a roof off a building (very stormy, right? Oh, and again, a quote for me, upvotes for you) , and doesn't seem to do the subtle, mental influences others like Dai-Gonarthis, Sja-Anat, Moelach, Nergaoul, et cetera are known for. Similarly, the Stormfather goes around smashing things with giant Highstorms, as opposed to someone like the Nightwatcher, who just screws around flipping people's vision and giving them bizarre eating disorders. And those "wails"? What sounds more "wail"-ish than the storm winds of a malevolent hypercane?Edit: Shoot, I posted before I finished. Give me a second to edit the rest in. Edit 2: Good enough.

I'm sure some of you could easily answer this: I understand that the Stormfather is Jezrien, but how does that make him a sliver of Honor? It seemed that in Dalinar's final visions in WoR, the Stormfather revealed that he was a sliver of Honor. Does that mean that the Heralds were slivers, and that was their connection to Honor, or did I misread something? Thanks!

The quote that got me thinking about the Stormfather's identity was this: from when he was confronted with the idea of bonding to Dalinar. So What is a Sliver? source Does this mean that the Stormfather has held, or is the cognitive aspect of someone who has held part of the Honor Shard? Could this be connected to his Vorin association with Jezrien? If this is true, why did he hold the power, how did he gain access (Shardpool in the Horneater peaks?), and what did he change while he held it? Where was Tanavast when this happened? Was the Honor Shard shattered at the same time that Tanavast was killed? We also know that he is a spren of some kind as he forms a Nahel bond with Dalinar to form a Bondsmith. Were all ~three of them bonded to the Stormfather? Is the Nahel bond necessarily one-to-one? If so, how is he still alive assuming they are gone? Do spren only die if oaths are broken? Could one of the old Bondsmiths have held the power, and would that make the Stormfather a Sliver? I had intended to come up with a more concrete theory, but obviously have more questions than ideas. Hopefully this can help start a discussion some of you will find interesting!

So Dalinar bonded the Stormfather. Quite awesome of him. But more importantly is the following quote. "But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds....Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of other orders was seen as seditions. Words of Radiance, Chapter 16, page 14." I propose that a bondsmith must bond with a spren that has authority in the spren world, like the Stormfather's authority over Honorspren. So the limitation to only a few bondsmiths is a result of their only being a few spren that are splinters of that magnitude. So since the Stormfather is already taken, for a new bondsmith to arise he/she would have to bond with someone like the Nightwatcher, or that spren in the Axies interlude. As to why it would be seditious to have many Bondsmiths, I propose that each Bondsmith was related to a specific type of spren: Honorspren, Cultivationspren, or ?Adonalsiumspren". The bondsmith would then have some influence over the formation of bonds, through the authority of their spren, and thus influence on who became a radiant. Syl had to defy the Stormfather after all. To have two Honor Bondsmiths would create division. Evidence of the ability for Spren to be "forced" against their choosing comes from Lift's interlude and how the Ring gave him to Lift.

Okay so lets say for instance that Szeth decided to go after Dalinar again. What do you think would happen if the Stormfather did choose to become a blade for him? Personally I think if he did, then it would likely be a blade of such power that it would make Honorblades act like twigs. Originally it made me wonder if all of the Honorblades were spren as powerful as the Stormfather etc but that doesnt feel right, there is no scream when Kaladin handles Jezriens blade. It is still a powerfully invested object though, just as Nightblood is. But I wonder just how much investiture the stormfather has, my bet would be in the order of 100 the magnitude of Nightblood. Im not sure if even an Honorblade would be able to do more than fend off Nightblood which is why I think there has to be some sort of checker on its power, the only thing I can think of would be the father of all blades

I'm new here so this may have been discussed before, but one of the things I am most curious about is how the different Spren in the book will get along. Will they become friends, rivals, something more...? Here are some of my thoughts. Syl Pattern Glys Ivory Wyndle Stormfather Nightwatcher How do you think these Spren will respond to each other? Do you think we will have a Spren POV in the next book?

My hypothesis basically goes like this: 1. The Stormfather is some sort of spren or spren-like being that is separate from Jezrien, the Herald. 2. When the Radiants were formed, the Windrunners learned from their honorspren about the leader of the honorspren, known as the Stormfather. 3. Someone in the Windrunners jokingly started to refer to Jezrien as "Stormfather" because he was their leader, and the name stuck . 4. Over several desolations (and the associated knowledge loss) and the 4000 years since the last one, people who heard the Windrunners calling Jezrien "Stormfather" started to believe he really was the Stormfather, helped by the fact that they never see the real one and/or Jezrien being awesome enough with his powers that it was believable . There is basically no real evidence for this, but I think it a believable hypothesis for how Jezrien might become know as the Stormfather and worshipped as such when he isn't. There you go, rip it apart if you wish .