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I've seen several discussions on Taravangian's ascension. Who foresaw what, what it implies going forward... that type of thing, but I haven't seen anyone incorporate into these musings what I find to be a hugely significant detail in how it happened. A quote from RoW Chapter 113: So immediately before his ascension, Taravangain died and his connection to his physical realm body was snapped. Severed. Nothing* in the narrative going forward implies that this connection was re-established like what happened with Szeth or Zahel's description of a "Type Two Invested entity" in chapter 15. Taravangain ascended to shard godhood as as cognitive shadow without a connection to the physical realm. Which probably has huge implications on his new status as Odium. To explore what these implications are, we happen to already have a precedent of a cognitive shadow ascending to become a shard bearer from Secret History. (Part 6, Chapter 4) Throughout the rest of Secret History, Kelsier/Preservation was pretty darn impotent whenever he tried to directly match Ruin and Ruin ran amuck, with the only thing holding him back being all that missing atium. Conclusion: Taravagain ascended as a Cognitive Shadow which severely hamstrings him, and might add additional constraints making it difficult to leave Roshar beyond just the contract with Dalinar. *Edit: I just remembered that only one body was found in T's room afterwords, and it was ruined by nightblood, and presumed to be T's when it was actually Rayse's. So the fact that his body wasn't found in the room has some implications against the theory that T ascended as a CS.

The books say that Odium was hurt in his past battles with shards. Does that mean Odium is now renewed/reborn since there is now a "new" one?

Hello! After reading Rhythm of War and thinking about the Cosmere as a whole, I came up with a crazy theory that had shocked me to the core, and I can't find anything that disproves this theory, so I want to share it here and get other's opinions of this. My theory has to do with Trell, who we learn the existance of in Mistborn Era 2, and connecting it with Stormlight Archive. First, my theory is based on two assumptions: 1) That Mistborn Era 2 takes place after the first 5 books of the Stormlight Archive. I saw a fan made image on Instagram a while ago that showed this was the case. Has new information changed this? I haven't seen any updated timelines for the books. 2) That Dalian will loose in the upcoming battle against Odium and become a pawn of Todium (Taravangian with Odium's power). My theory is that Trell is Dalinar working on behalf of Todium. Pg 1193 of RoW "So Taravangian knew the cosmere was in chaos. Ruled by fools. Presides over by broken gods." We see that Todium looks out into the Cosmere and sees all the corrupt leaders and the other shards/gods and sees that it needs to be made right. Later on that page he says "and now, Taravangian was going to save them all." Todium clearly has plans not only for Roshar, but for all of the cosmere to make things "right". It sounds like he's going along the lines of Odium's original plan of being the only god and possibly bringing peace and security to the cosmere. Pg 385 of Shadows of Self "The governor was planning to speak to the people of the city. Bleeder hadn't succeeded in killing him yet, and Wax suspected he knew why. Because when she murdered him, she wanted an audience." Here we see Bleeder, who is being used by Trell, trying to take out a major political leader on Scadrial. Clearly Trell wants the "corrupt" leaders killed in front of the public to try and win over the hearts and minds of the people to them. If Bleeder had succeeded there is likely more to Trell's plan to put a better leader in place. Perhaps even someone who is a minion of Trell who would bring the right sort of leadership to a major area of Scadrial. Pg 435 of Shadows of Self (there are a few lines here I'm not going to quote them all) but it confirms that the metal is not one that Harmony knows. So it is a metal from another world, from another god. Let's call this metal Taravangium. (Not Trellium, though it was Trell, aka Dalinar, who delivered this metal to Scadrial on behalf of Todium.) (formerly this metal was Raysium) We also know (I don't have a quote for this) that shards can sense the presence of other shards. If Odium was free of Roshar and working in the Scadrial system as Trell, Harmony would know. But, we do know that powerful humans (and other beings) can operate on a planet without the shard noticing. Pg 535 of RoW in the text at the start of the chapter (which we can assume is a letter from Harmony to Hoid) "Regardless, please make yourself known to me when you travel my lands. It is distressing that you think you need to move in the shadows". Dalinar, going by the name of Trell, powered by Odium, could come to Scadrial and work to recruit members to Todium's cause, and Harmony would not be able to detect him as long as he kept hidden. The final piece is from the Copppermind website, when looking up Trell, Sanderson has said that "Trell has been many things over the eons..." so why not use that name to sow some confusion. So there it is. My theory that Trell is Dalinar, working on behalf of Todium to bring peace to the cosmere and take down all those corrupt leaders and gods. Now what does this mean for the future of the cosmere...

After watching the livestream, one of the things that stuck out to me most was one of Brandon's comments on how Odium's position will change now that the power is in a new vessel. "Odium will have interesting, different relationships with a lot of different, interesting people in the next book." Obviously, we knew this was going to happen, but I thought it would be interesting to really start to dig into which people will be effected by the switch in vessels, and how their relationship and roles will change. The Fused The Fused are probably the biggest group that's going to experience the change. They get their powers directly from Odium, and as his greatest resources, they'll be the first ones Taravangian can use for his plans. I think Taravangian is going to clean house a bit, getting rid of any Fused that are no longer useful, similar to what El did with Leizan, since many have been alive for far too long, and "there's nothing sadder than a tool that has outlived it's purpose". The ones that remain would be like El, who are probably ones that would find the change in management revitalizing, and willing to serve this new Odium to rule the humans and end this war in a way that doesn't involve total destruction. The Dustbringers The Dustbringers in general have been built up as loyal to the Diagram, and their loyalty to the coalition has been tenuous at best. I think it would be a waste for that to just been thrown away now that the Diagram has disbanded, since nothing really came of it yet. The Dustbringers are still Radiants, and we don't know what their position within the coalition and new order of Knights Radiant is, but it's likely that they will have some sort of alligiance to the new Odium. That being said, I expect there to be some Dustbringers who don't ally with Odium, including Ral-na. Moash/Vyre Vyre is a pretty major case in this shift, and was the subject of the question asked in the livestream in the first place. His Connection to Odium is unique, and if he's Connected to the shard and not the vessel, it will likely be maintained. I don't think Taravangian will want to get rid of him, even without his eyesight he's a useful tool, and it's possible only humans can use the honorblade. How this affects Moash's character arc, we can only speculate. Probably the biggest change however, is how Moash responds to the new vessel, considering their goals are no longer in alignment. Moash wants vengeance on humans and their total extermination, Taravangian wants to "save everyone". He'll probably keep Moash in the dark long enough for Moash to remain a useful tool, but I wonder how Moash would react when it becomes clear that Odium now wants to rule the humans, not destroy them (if he survives that long, anyway). Another possibility, is that Taravangian's new influence on the Odium shard leaks over to Moash, providing him a direction for his passions aside from just mass extermination. The Unmade It's hard to say much here, since we don't know a lot about the different unmade. I think he'll have a much better relationship with Sja-Anat than Rayse did, however. The Iri This is the one I'm the most interested in, and the more I think about it the worse it gets. We know that the Iri have already allied themselves with Odium's forces, and will likely continue to be in service to Taravangian. We know that Taravangian wants to extend his influence past Roshar. We also know that the Iri are a population of humans that originate from beyond Roshar and Ashyn, and will eventually migrate to a new world. Altogether, this could have some scary implications, not just for the future of Stormlight, but the Cosmere as a whole.

I wasn't sure if this should go here or in general, but I opted for here to be safe, mods can move it if I chose the wrong place. I think we may have started to see the fulfillment of one of of the Way of Kings death rattles here at the end of Rhythm of War Specifically the chapter 11 epigraph: I think Taravangian might be the Broken One. Everything that he's done weighs on his soul as he himself admits, and now he's a god. He's reigning over the Fused. What this might mean for Cultivation's fate I don't know.

So now we know that Nightblood is big and bad enough to destroy a vessel. Now, while Szeth doesn't know that's what happened, Big T does know, and must be aware that NB is one of the only entities on Roshar of which he needs to be actively scared. He's also acutely aware of how dangerous Szeth is, both from a mental stability standpoint and a pure lethality sttandpoint. With all that in mind, I can't imagine he's not going to make a play for NB - what if Dalinar chooses Szeth as his champion? Mr T can't take the risk of NB being in play and must be formulating a plan to rid Szeth of the sword. Now imagine that OdiVargo's champion is wielding Nightblood. We've seen it straight up Annihilate heavily invested entities and chip an honorblade. Scary stuff. Thoughts?

Kaladin declares that he can't save everyone, and it's one of the most heartwarming moments in the book. Ironically, this leads to him getting the ability to save more people. Todd declares that he's going to save everyone, and it's one of the most chilling lines in the book. Ironically, his plans for "saving everyone" would lead to mass death. I know it's been said before that Mr. T is the anti-Windrunner, but here it's practically text.

Every chapter in the Stormlight book has a chapter header with an icon representing the PoV character and an arch on top of that with the Double Eye of the Almighty and the faces of the Heralds. The Heraldic visages represent thematic elements of the chapter or characteristics of the chapter narrator, while the Double Eye of the Almighty has been present consistently on every arch in every chapter of every book of the Stormlight Archive so far. I wonder if that's about to change with a new Odium on the block. Going forwards, we might see Double Faces of Passion on the chapter arches.

This isn't as much of a theory as it is a notable connection, but here it goes: I always wondered why the Mists in Scadrial never went into people's homes at night, seemingly disappearing at a house's thresholds. But then, I noticed something interesting: At the end of Oathbringer, when the Everstorm passes over Urithiru, Odium speaks to Taravangian, telling him to "open the window" several times before being able to speak with him "in person" as he does with Venli. Why would a Shard, even one trapped in Braize, need someone as insignificant as Taravangian to open a window? That seems almost fey-like from what is basically a god, and it got me thinking: could this be linked to the Mists back in Scadrial? What do y'all think?

Now that Taravangian has revealed to Dalinar that he was the one controlling Szeth, how does he expect to remain king of Jah Kaved? He is responsible for the death of their king as well as several high princes. I would expect him to have trouble keeping control of it once the truth behind Szeth's murders gets out. Also how does he expect to remain part of the coalition? In addition to ordering the deaths of the king and several highprinces in Jah Kaved, he is also responsible for the death's of 2 of Azir's Primes and he attempted to have Dalinar killed.

First of all I want to apologize for any grammer\spelling mistake I did in that post. english is not my mother tongue and even tho i'm learning english for a lot of time, it's not perfect and there's a good chance I'll use phrases you won't understand and\or grammer mistakes. After I cleard that out of the way, we can move on to the topic. the basic of my theory is that Nohadon was a bondsmith. I know that this is a realy common theory, so i'll try to make the reasons for why I think so short: 1. It make sense that the guy who wrote the book that changed Dalinar to the person he needed to be to become a bondsmith whould be a bondsmith himself. 2.the stormfather thinks that Nohadon was a good man, and I don't think he'll think that about Nohadon if he was not a bondsmith. I mean, the stormfather dosen't like kaladin, and kaladin is bound to a honorspren. 3. Nohadon's personality sounds like he'll fit in as a bondsmith. I also belive that Nohadon's spren was the nightwatcher, because the stormfather was also confused when dalinar talked about Nohadon, and the sibling was asleep et the time. And now for the final steps of my theory. We know that Nohadon was a king during a desolotion, and I think that Nohadon is the tipe of guy that will do whatever it takes to save his people, so he went to the valley and asked the nightwatcher for a way to save his people, and got from the nightwatcher (or from cultivasion) the smae boon and curse Taravangian got, or something similar to it. I have only one reason to think that, but I think that its a preaty good reason: in dalinar's last vision of nohadon, dalinar sais that Nohadon remines him Taravangian, and I don't think brandon'll put this without a good reason. Plus, even before dalinar notices that, It's not very hard to see that Nohadon is a little wierd. Nohadon is also having a godlike day, but instead of creating his own diagram because he understands that It probably won't last to the day it will be needed in the war in our days, he askes the nightwatcher-which is according to my theory Nohadon's spren- to insert a vision of his inside dalinar's minde when he comes to visit her. If that's true, it'll explein why the stormfather didn't knew about dalinar's last vision of nohadon and why it seemed like nohadon actually talket to dalinar in that vision. It also means that theoreticaly ther are more visions we did'nt see yet,and that it's harder to see dalinar's future because of it, which explains why odium, the diagram and even hoid mistake all the time when dalinr involved.

Howdy all, This is my first post on this forum; it's great to be here! Although I have perused this site for some time, please excuse me if this theory has been previously stated. I also wanted to mention that I heard this theory from a close friend, and I have added slightly to it. So the credit (or criticism) goes to him! In short, I believe that Brandon used the word "capacity" in a purposefully ambiguous way; the interpretation of this term has series-altering potential. Let's first separate fact from assumption. Fact 1: Taravangian was given his condition by asking for "the capacity" to save mankind. Fact 2: Taravangian's condition is defined by a sliding scale of attributes. As he grows more intelligent, he becomes less compassionate and vice versa. Essentially, Taravangian's character is defined by four traits--intelligence, stupidity, ruthlessness, and compassion. Assumption: Taravangian's "capacity" to save mankind is referring to his attributes of intelligence and ruthlessness--to a lesser extent) Specifically, it has granted him the capacity to have that outlier day of supreme intelligence, the day where the Diagram was created. There are several reasons why I believe that the above assumption is wrong. 1. Odium's Encounter--At the end of Oathbringer, Odium displays such a degree of foreknowledge and sheer intelligence that the predictions of the Diagram and Taravangian's potential intelligence seem inconsequential in comparison. Taravangian, based upon his intelligence and ability to make ruthless decisions, never stood a chance. He never had the "capacity" in this way. 2. The Diagram's Degree of Error--As the series progresses, the Diagram seems to stray further and further off course. Although some characters initially chalk this off to misinterpretation, it becomes clear that Diagram is flawed based upon unforeseen results. This concept is further reinforced through other characters, such as Renarin, predicting the future incorrectly. 3. Taravangian's Own Experience--Lastly, Taravangian himself notes that his outlying days are very similar. When he is both incredibly intelligent and stupid, he cannot interact with humans in a meaningful way. Also, his decisions when he is most intelligent/ruthless seem to actually be incredibly stupid (i.e. killing off his subjects for being stupid etc.). In short, the above reasons, especially in view of Taravangian's story arc, show that his intelligence/ruthlessness never even came close to giving him the capacity to save mankind. This does not seem in keeping with what we know about the Nightwatcher/Old Magic. Instead, I believe that Taravangian's "capacity" comes from his more neglected attributes--his potential for compassion and/or for extreme stupidity. These attributes will increase in importance as his character becomes more aligned with Odium. His stupidity may thwart Odium at some critical point, and his compassion is not compatible with being an effective ally of Odium. In a way, Taravangian seems very alike to Gollum. Each are maligned characters that may unintentionally tip the balance in the favor of good, and each are intrinsically tied to the trait of compassion--Gollum to Frodo's compassion and Taravangian to his very own. Furthermore, all this is in keeping with what we know about the Old Magic--namely, that boons are indeed granted but often in ways that are unforeseen/unconventional. Please let me know what you think. Regardless of whether it happens or not, this could lead to a very redemptive/beautiful story arc and could be a very Sandersonian twist. TLDR: Taravangian's capacity to save mankind refers to his compassion/stupidity rather than his intelligence/ruthlessness.

I was rereading OB and in the end Odium meets Taravangian and they make a deal in which the Diagram will work for Odium and in return Odium will spare anyone born in Kharbranth, their spouse and the city itself. I think this deal will be very important in the resolution of the first arc. 1 - There's the popular theory that Mr. T is a plant by Cultivation, i think the diagram was Cultivation way to bind Odium to an agreement which he, as a shard, has to follow as long as Taravangian keeps his word. 2 - This deal makes Odium ineffective against someone who was born in Kharbranth or their spouse. So i was trying to find some important character that was born in Kharbranth and was not Taravangian until i found one Hesina, Kaladin's mom. 3 - We know Hesina is not from Hearthstone and from some conversations in WoK we can assume she was born in a city, we also know Lirin lived in Kharbranth from a long time. So we can assumed they met there. 4 - We don't know when they returned to Hearthstone, i didn't find anything saying that Kaladin birth was in Hearthstone. And we know one of Kaladin grandparents is lighteyes, perhaps they were the ones who named him when they were still in Kharbranth. So in conclusion Cultivation plan was to force Odium to compromise with Taravangian, so that she could give an advantage to Kaladin, which might be Honor's champion.

I was wondering, with Taravangian's condition(changing mental capacity each day), would him bonding with a spren be affected in anyway. What are your thoughts, would anything happen at all?

So the idea that T's boon/bane was specifically created to take out Odium (as espoused by @RShara, @Calderis, and many others, myself included) just got one more serious bit of evidence with this recent WoB from the Tel Aviv signing: It seemed pretty obvious with the nature of T's boon/bane that it most likely required direct shardic intervention, but this is confirmation that Cultivation herself gave T his vacillating states of extreme intelligence/callousness and extreme stupidity/emotional empathy. It can be conjectured with near certainty from reading Oathbringer that the unfolding of Dalinar's boon/bane was specifically timed for effect. In Dalinar's case the memories arrived at key times to keep him moving along his path of Spiritual Growth. The fact that T has seen Cultivation herself and his bane/boon is most likely unfolding under the, at times, active guidance of Cultivation makes it far more likely, as Rshara likes to say, that T is a Plant, and that he and the Diagram are weapons specifically designed to take down Odium. What's incredibly interesting is that the Diagram has multiple layers of subterfuge, in a sense it exists to distract Odium from the true plan, while at the same time guiding key actors towards the desired end goal. So it is both smoke and mirrors and the true plan. There are quite a few threads with the specifics of this theory, I'll update this OP with spoilered thread links later, I've got to get some work done. Just saw this WoB and was pretty excited about the mini confirmation of one of the most exciting theories on the Shard. Exciting stuff!

So wait! Our heroes need lots of Knights Radiant? Taravangian has means of reducing the spren available to bond potential Knights? Luckily Mr. T is a trustworthy ally, not a traitor making private arrangements with Odium. Otherwise I might be worried. I'm sure it's just a random bit of world-building and not a detail that will turn out to be relevant later. Are these spren that allow manipulation of Gravity, Adhesion, Tension? I imagine the realmatic scholars among us can figure out what orders' spren is involved. I look forward to learning from the responses.

When the words "Unite Them" appear on the page, is that someone speaking to Dalinar? Is that him remembering Honor speaking to him in the vision, like an echo? Is that Dalinar reminding himself of his mantra or something? This really piqued my interest, because I'm rereading Words of Radiance. I've read WoK a bunch, and Oathbringer about three times. Only read WoR once, so I've been rereading it and searching for clues. The interlude chapter called Taravangian, where he sails into Vedenar to see the King die, he thinks about how Gavilar had the visions and explained it to him. Then the text, "Unite them" appears. Did he hear it too? Is he remembering Gavilar speak it? Is there a disembodied voice speaking to more than one person? What happened here? I really hope this isn't a Bondsmith thing, because I really don't want to see him become a Bondsmith as well, while actively trying to undermine Dalinar so much. Btw, that chapter is fantastic for theory crafting. They talk a lot about the diagram, his boon and curse, 2 Unmade, they talk about Dova and how she discovered their operation and even have a Deathrattle. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!? lol

I recently read the last part of OB and something occurred to me: Taravangian on one of his smart days (not his "day of genius") might be around the same IQ as Jasnah, more or less ("exact" isn't the point here). But consider the contrast between them: When he hears children singing that disrupts his concentration, his immediate impulse is to have them executed. Regarding Nohadon's story (that Dalinar tells him) about justice, it's obvious to him that you should kill all 4 accused, no matter if one of them was innocent. Jasnah's logical action was to kill Renarin when she saw his corrupted spren; instead, she hugged him and comforted him - she showed mercy and hope. "...the love of Jasnah Kholin did not fail." [That may not be an exact quote, but it's close.] And that's the difference: Love. Jasnah is crazy smart, but she is not a machine using cold logic alone: she adds emotion and intuition to her thinking. I have a feeling that this difference between her brain and Mr. T's brain will be important to the plot at some point. BTW, I know that the Jasnah we saw in Kharbranth in TWoK might not have been like this. All these characters fluctuate, like real people do. But I really think that Jasnah's strength is in her heart AND her head.

From Mraize's letter, we know: And then back in the prologue of Oathbringer, we have: So, the prologue meeting that Eshonai stumbles into appears to be a Sons of Honor meeting between Gavilar and Amaram and four others (one soldier, two fine ladies, and one old man in robes), where no guards were even at the door, presumably because they wanted a very secretive meeting where even guards were not allowed to listen in. My question is, who are the four others? Restares, perhaps Taravangian The old man in robes appears to be Restares. Amaram writes in a spanreed to Restares (WoR Page 1059), saying, "It has ever been our burden as the Sons of Honor." Amaram had also presumably consulted with Restares via spanreed when deciding slaughter his own men so that he could steal Kal's Shardblade: "Restares is right— this is what must be done. For the good of Alethkar.” (WoK, Page 703) Restares is only mentioned in three places over all three books: as one of three of Gavilar's suspects during his assassination (WoK prologue), when Amaram slaughters Kal's men (WoK), and when Amaram writes to Restares via spanreed (WoR). The Stormlight Archive Wiki states that Restares is an Alethi brightlord, but I'm not sure that we know this even though Amaram implies that Restares said the theft of the Shardblade was for the good of Alethkar. We never hear anything of Restares at all, which knowing Sanderson makes me suspect that Restares is a fake name given how often he gives other names to characters - Heralds like Darkness, Ash, Ahu, and Tezim or the five Scholars - to obfuscate their true identities. I wonder if Restares is not in fact Taravangian or some other old dude we know well. In Oathbringer (Page 242), Dalinar tells us that he had met Mr. T before "his strange illness five years ago." And then the strongest evidence that Taravangian is Restares and a Son of Honor is this quote from WoR: After Gavilar's death and access to the visions ended, Mr. T seeks the Nightwatcher, asking that he be the one to unite them, which led to the Diagram. I will leave all discussion of the Diagram to other wonderful threads, though it does seem that followers of the Diagram and Sons of Honor diverge a bit. However, keeping his position in the Sons of Honor (if he is Restares) would be a brilliant way to keep the information flowing from surviving allies there. Torol and Ialai Sadeas Torol Sadeas is undeniably close to Gavilar, willing to sacrifice his life for Gavilar's own during the assassination attempt and always 100% loyal to Gavilar despite the fact that, following Gavilar's death, he's tried his best to undermine and even kill Dalinar at every possible step. Why the difference? Apparently, Torol was privy to secrets about Gavilar's true, ruthless and Machiavellian nature - secrets of which Dalinar and Elohkar and even Jasnah apparently had no inkling. How is that possible? What secrets did he know? And wouldn't we peg Torol as Gavilar's closest and most trusted companion outside of family? Didn't Torol do all of the politicking with Gavilar when Dalinar refused? So to me, it makes enormous sense that Torol was a Son of Honor, sharing the same ruthlessness and Machiavellian approaches as Gavilar and Taravangian and Amaram. In fact, Meridas was likely recruited by Torol, as was Ialai. Just like House of Cards, Torol and Ialai are playing this game together, 100%. So my thoughts are that Torol actually dressed in his soldier attire for the signing of the treaty with the Parshendi (hence he and Amaram make the two soldiers), and Ialai is one of the two women in long dresses. So the other woman could be... Aesudan We see Gavilar pushing Jasnah into Amaram's arms. Obviously, Gavilar wants to keep the Sons in the family. And Aesudan tells El in OB that his father was ever so much better than he was: Aesudan knows of one (but perhaps not the other) of Gavilar's spheres, and she seems to have continued trapping more bad spren, going even a step further by bonding. But how was she privy to Gavilar's grand plans? How did she know of his father's work and his ancient (evil) spren? I'm thinking that was because she was one of the lady Sons. Yet again, we see the same ruthless, Machiavellian nature in Aesudan as we do in Gavilar, Amaram, Torol, Ialai, and Taravangian. They all fit beautifully together.

As I was re-reading WoK, I noticed Taravangian say something odd. When he revealed himself to Szeth, he says “Sometimes I wonder if the Lifebrother himself sent you to me.” To which Szeth replied, “To bloody myself so that you wouldn’t have to. Yes, that sounds like something one of your Vorin gods would do. Knowing that people associate Stormfather with Jezrien, who is worshipped in Vorinism, could the Lifebrother be the Sibling? The name pattern is similar. Stormfather, Nightwatcher, and now Lifebrother. And if the Sibling was necessary for “life” to survive on Urithiru, then the name is also appropriate. I haven’t seen any other reference to this outside of this scene. So the question is, could the Lifebrother be the Sibling?

So I was doing some readings on WOBs and I found this one: I thought it was interesting because I would have thought that Taravangian's smart days would be days in which he is closer in alignment with the cognitive realm. I think I have seen that theory before and now it is debunked. We know that beings that can see the future, such as shards and atium burners, often achieve this through connection with the spiritual realm. However, I thought that this connection is the "fortune" that Odium speaks of, and we know from him that Taravangian didn't use Fortune to create the diagram. This must mean that Taravangian uses some other means of prediction. My first thought would be that Taravangian is closer to the Spiritual realm and therefore closer to his perfect intellectual form, like an intelligence gold Ferring. Also, a lot of people seem to think that on smart days Taravangian is closer aligned with one realm and on dumb days he is aligned with another. Could that mean that on his smart days he is closer to the person he truly is? Maybe his Machiavellian tendencies are the real Taravangian and the smart days just emphasize it. Or it could be that on his dumb days he is closer to the cognitive realm and therefore becomes more like how he thinks of himself? That would make sense because a man that thought of himself as truly intelligent likely wouldn't ask for capacity. Not really sure, but I thought it would be a good discussion.