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So, I was discussing with several people on the Cosmere Discord, and I came up with a question about the Oathpact. I wanted to ask the wise members of the Shard what they thought. Do you consider Heralds to be an integral part of the Oathpact? Or is it more based upon the Honorblades? Is it both?

Hypothesis: The Shin worship Odium in the same way that much of Roshar worships Honor through the auspices of Vorinism. Looking at things through this lens allows for some very intriguing and entertaining possibilities. There is very little evidence to directly support or refute the idea, and so it remains mere speculation. But the more I think about it, the more sure I am that something very, very odd is going on there. With Stones Unhallowed likely to explore that a lot more, guessing what may come is a fun game for me. I started this thread in a sleep-deprived frenzy, and am slowly getting it cleaned. Also, this is a ridiculously massive wall of text, and so I'm using spoiler tags to hide it. There are also several sub-theories that I'm developing based off of this thought that are included, which contribute to the size. Edit: Heavy edits to introduction and point 1. Supporting reasons! Problems with the idea! Thoughts? Comments? Responses? I have edited some points, in order to rectify mistakes and confusions! Thank you all who have posted so far! Keep posting. I know this is a bit ridiculous, but I find myself enjoying this idea more and more as time goes by, even if I don't think it's actually true. Adding spoiler tags just to hide some of the post and make it less likely to accidentally give someone a coma when they run into it.

So I was inspired by @ShadowLord_Lith and his post about Shards. I wanted to ask this question in a broader forum area. If you were to be a Shard, what would your name be? Also, if you feel inclined, enlighten us on your magic system and world. I would be happy to hear! If I were to be a shard, I would be Affirmation. Magic in my world would be based upon strength of belief, being similar to Soulcasting. If you believe something, Investiture would affirm said thing, making it true. Also, another form of Investiture would be able to work upon the mind, Affirming certain beliefs inside of someone, similar to Soothing and Rioting. I could Affirm certain beliefs to make them stronger, while Dismissing others. In terms of a world, I would have several high mountains, which sat above a shadowed world covered by clouds. Below, your abilities would be far more powerful, due to the planet being undefined, while above, humans lived normally. There would be two types of magic, the mental Affirmations and Dismissals, and the physical Affirmations and Dismissals. As I said above, you can only truly change reality within the lower areas of the planet, the ones below the Godpeaks. So, this would prevent the destruction of humanity before it could develop a set of rules. The further one goes from the ground of the planet, the weaker their physical abilities would become. Conversely, those who possessed mental abilities would grow stronger the further you ascended. After all, creation is impulsive, while belief is built on already created ideas. Creation must come from something unformed, while honing something, that comes from what has been built. The Godpeaks were built by me personally, and as such, can not be affected by physical Affirmation. Someone could only destroy my Affirmation with intense amounts of Investiture, as to destroy an idea, you need a more powerful one.

Has anyone noticed that Szeth gets Nightblood in the end of Words of Radiance.

This was probably discussed previously on this forum but I couldn't find it anywhere so I'll ask. I don't have the exact quote in front of me but in WoR, right before Szeth comes to assassinate Dalinar the first time, Kaladin speaks to the stormfather in his dream. The Stormfather seemingly references the impending attack by saying something like "He comes...the one who hates." Since Szeth immediately attacks I assumed it was a reference to him, but seeing as Odium essentially means hatred shouldn't this be a reference to him? Does this refer to Odium then and the Stormfather was just giving a general warning about Odium's return that just happened to coincide with Szeth's attack? Or does this mean that Szeth was being influenced by Odium? Is there an answer for this out there?

This theory is that the phrase 'stones unhallowed' has more to do with the worldbuilding in Roshar than thought. There are many lines, moments and opinions in Stormlight that suggest there is a deep (time lost) ideology directing the Shin to not walk on Stones unhallowed. I can go through the book if necessary, though I'm sure the members here are familiar with them anyway. My theory here is that the stones that are 'hallowed' are a way for Odium to connect to individuals on Roshar, in much the same way that Ruin used spikes to impersonate/talk-to various mistborn ppls and used the non-metal prophesies to manipulate the world. This theory is that the Shin live on stones 'unhallowed' (and that this is an actual ancient truth), but Szeth as truthless was given a 'hallowed' stone and commanded to obey the holder. I believe this is a similar corruption (as Ruin) by Odium. This is what allows Odium into his head aka the screams in the darkness. we have a WoB that the screams are real (to him at least). Since he died, Szeth hasn't heard the screams (please check me on this, but make sure he wasn't on stone at the time). He believes it's because he died, but maybe it's because he gave up the stone. A lot of this is hidden in the history of Roshar and I believe Brandon will unveil it in coming pieces and tie it into the desolations in the same way as Mistborn. If you've read 'Mistborn the secret history; you'll have a good idea of what I'm thinking. I'll add one last thing here. The Shin have the honourblades. If kept anywhere, shouldn't the cosmic design arrange them to be held where Ati can't see them? (yes I know what I did there). The Stormfather fades in the Shin land, stones are unhallowed and they have the honourblades? Coincidence? Or design? (My theory is design from when the Heralds were sane).

If Szeth son son Vallano went to Nalthis, how similar to the returned would he be? Would he have to consume a soul every week?

Does Szeth have the Gravitation Surge again? Either it's very subtly implied or I am overthinking things. What do you guys think? First point: Szeth doesn't say that he is not able to come, only that he doesn't want to. The journeyman skybreaker also seems to expect Szeth to join them in the air. I doubt she meant on foot, as even Szeth admits to Lift that she won't be able to outrun them since they can fly. For my second point: Szeth is now traveling with Nale. Nale is also traveling with two journeyman who can fly. Nale can also fly. Nale is absolutely dedicated to finding and killing Radiants throughout Roshar. Szeth seems to be keeping his pace with Nale and I find it very hard to believe that Nale would slow his pace down just for Szeth. His job would be significantly slower if he had to walk or ride a horse from city to city. Therefore, in order for Szeth to tag along with the group, Szeth has to be able to fly. Note that I am not saying Nightblood is what gave Szeth the ability to fly again. It could just as easily be a Gravitation Fabrial. We have already seen a Regrowth one, why not a Gravitation one? Edit: changed title, as I realized it could be seen from the home page of the forum without specifically being in the Edgedancer forum.

i am not sure if there is an other post on the subject (propably is)but after a quick search my efforts where fruitless so ... here goes so i was re-re-reading WoK and smt struck me as weird mostly because i never noticed it before (or maybe i did but i was so overwhelmed by the awesomeness that i forgot) after Szeth assasinates the old king he grants him his final wish to leave a message for his brother to find the most important words a man can say everyone remembers it and the reason is preaty obvius , he wants Dalinar to follow the codes and find what it was he discovered But there was smt else , Gavilar asks szeth to " not let them take it" refering to a dark sphere that he had with him Szeth obeyes and hides it somewhere in Jah Keved also an interesting fact that i discovered though it could be a coinsidence , Szeth's initial master who we meet in the third interlude uses him as a way to make "new friends" and as a witness to verify some of his crazy and far fetched stories well one of his stories is about a spere that glows dark instead of light now we are certain that he hasnt seen the rock but could he had heard about it from Szeth? one more note whatever it is it's existance is propably not known to the diagram since they surly dont have it and taravangian hasn't questioned Szeth about it . any way i am getting sidetracked any ideas on what the sphere actualy is ?

I hope this isn't some already pointed. But as far as I remember Szeth didn't never attract a Spren (regular Spren like angerspren, painspren,ecc...). I know that Shinovar is a place without Spren (indeed is hard to understand if there are no spren or simply the spren are invisible there) but is it possible that its popolation is also uncapable of attracting Spren (as Connection to her homeland) ? The problem here is the only Shin out of his country (as far as I remember) is Szeth and he has some oddity with him....Therefore is not really "standard Shin". If this is true, it's possible that many Shin choose to not leave Shinovar as defence aganist expose this strange features of their people. PS: As side, enigma....Do WorldHoppers on Roshar, attract Spren ?

So as we know at the end of WoR after Kaladin defeated Szeth, he took the honorblade and after he presented it to Dalinar(where he got caught off because of Navani demanding if Kaladin had seen the King) we were left in the dark as to what Kaladin did with Jezrein's honorblade. Here are some possibilities that i've thought (some/most of them might be common theories) Kaladin gave it to Dalinar and Dalinar just hid it somewhere in fear of the risk that another person might get a hold of it like Szeth did. Kaladin gave it to Dalinar in which he gave it to Elokhar or Adolin or somebody else. Kaladin informed Dalinar of it but they decided that Kaladin keeps and bonding with it but never ending up summoning it (cause he already has surgebinding and he has Syl for shardblade necessity which is just a better version than honorblades) which would probably also possibly explain as to why Kaladin ran out of Stormlight just by flying all the way from Urithru to Heartstone(just a they that Kaladin shoud've reached there without draining all of his stormlight) due to the more than normal amount of consumption due to the compouding effects of having both Windrunner and Honorblade stormlight usage. Kaladin informed it Dalinar of it and Dalinar kept it (would be really useful since stormfather is unwilling to become his personal shardblade as the current time of the story) since he can't wield shardblades and it was under Kaladin's suggestion(also makes sense since Kaladin trusts him). Wit stole it (unlikely cause he was found to be with Jasnah at the end). Kaladin informed Dalinar about it and he made bridge four stash the blade for him. Thoughts ? I'd like to hear about your theories as well if you have one.

While re-listening to WoR I was wondering if Chapter 32 "the one who hates" is actually referencing Szeth, which seems to be the obvious answer. Could it instead have something to do with Eshonai taking her new form during that same storm? I'm wondering because instead of staying with just Syl and Kaladin, we also get a super quick peek at Pattern also freaking out in Shallan's wagon. Curiously, we don't have any hint that Renarin's spren is bothered or that anything is bothering Renarin (since we don't have any reason to think he has a spren at this point in the story) though maybe it hasn't developed enough to respond? I'd be grateful for a link if this has already been covered, I did a search but am new to these stories and this website.

So my question is in the first section where Szeth kills gavilar. It mentions he takes care not to be hit by the shard blade because even the tempest he holds cannot revive wounds inflicted by shardblade. However, Kaladin heals his (arm?) after it was sliced through and his soul severed from it. Is it because Kaladin is bonded to a Spren? Or had he never tried it?

In saturday's Q&A at DragonCon Brandon mentioned that the way Szeth was reborn at the end of WoR was foreshadowed in WoK. Did anyone find it yet? (If not, I'm going to re-read the whole book ) Here's the whole Q&A: https://www.periscope.tv/w/apm9izF4blFyWE9BZ0Juall8MUJSSmpSandQd2dKdwzzXb9OjmLMVE4wuBThOy7igKnRGyihUezunRebVVhI Can't give the exact moment right now, because I'm at work. Edited to add link.

What did Szeth see that caused him to raise the alarm? This quote seems to say that it was more related to the Voidbringers than surgebinding. I really don't think he had any surgebinding before the honorblade.

I just finished re-reading Warbreaker and I noticed something pertinent Sanderson mentioned about Nightblood in one of the annotations: So my question is if we could see Szeth run into some very big problems when trying to use Nightblood in SA3. We know that throughout the story he has suffered from the guilt of the murders he's committed, and the agony he has at realizing he was never really Truthless drives him almost insane to the point to where he just lets Kaladin kill him. This to me points very strongly to Szeth "determining deep within his heart that he is evil", so if that's the case isn't there a good chance Nightblood will try to kill him?

So I was rereading the first chapter of WoK, where Szeth killed Gavilar. According to the chapter, before Szeth even tried to kill him, he noticed a Makabaki man with a pale crescent shaped mark on his cheek talking to a Parshendi, if I remember correctly. This, of course, is Darkness, or Darkness tried to kill Lift because she was using powers that "could return the Desolations to this world," and in Ym's case, he didn't show mercy, even though Ym had spent most of his life doing good by giving poor people shoes. And Gavilar who is kind of a mix between both of their cases. He was trying to/could return the Desolations, (Lift), but he still had somewhat good intentions, (Ym). So I believe that Szeth's real employer was not the Parshendi, but Darkness, or Darkness was influencing the Parshendi to send Szeth after Gavilar. Also, this is probably just a coincidence, but the name Darkness may have a connection with Gavilar's black sphere. So, am I correct, or partly? If so, (or not), please comment. Thanks!

Hey Sharders! Sorry about the title, it just feels right though. I know this theory has some holes in it. I can see some main ones myself. But I'm still going to post it. For me it started like this: Could the screams that Szeth hears be related to the screams of the dead Shardblades? I then thought that Szeth could have already been bonded to a spren, and that was why he heard screams. One of the things that go against this is that his Blade is not a spren, and therefore would not scream when he touches it. I also found a WoB that says directly that Szeth isn't bonded to a spren, so... Obviously, Szeth has had some emotional and mental trauma. (Hearing screams whenever you blink can do that to a person.) Anyway, his Honorblade once belonged to a Herald who had to go to a place of pain and torture between Desolations. Could this mean that his Blade "remembers" the pain and makes it's wielder hear screams? That's one idea. Another is that when Honor died, the Honorblades suffered and now scream, or something like that. In short it's like this: He hears screams because he's already bonded to a spren. (I'm pretty sure this one is false) He hears screams because he mentally unstable and his Blade had decided to be reminiscent. (More plausible than the first one) The Honorblades were somehow broken or are suffering now that Honor is dead. (Also plausible) Let me know what you guys think.