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Okay, so I was reading the theorizing in general cosmere about how in the Gavilar prologue the Stormfather felt very different. I saw a lot of people saying it’s Ishar, something I agree with. This is gonna move along a few lines related to that, but starting with the point that made me post it here: 1) that reminds me of how Zellion talked about how his adherence to his oaths kept his Torment at bay at least somewhat. We know all Heralds are crazy, and one of the counterpoints to the “StormFaker is Ishar” theory was: ‘he’s far too lucid to be Ishar.’ But we know some of the Heralds insanity is magical in nature, which sounds, to me, not unlike a Torment. We know vast amounts of investiture (like a Radiant sweating an oath) and oaths, help Ishar overcome his insanity, again something reminiscent of Zellion’s Torment. He can summon his blade immediately after being in the sun, and could get past his Torment while following the oaths. Brandon said Sunlit Man had SA5 spoilers. My pitch is: StormFaker was Ishar, he was potentially bonded to the Stormfather (who said he “has experience with” Ishar) and/or he used his pre existing Bondsmith powers to highjack Gavilar/the Storm father’s budding connection and manipulate Gavilar. (We see that Dalinar can pull people into visions, I’m absolutely sure Ishar can do the same lolol). He could do all of this because HE was a Bondsmith/had sworn Bondsmith oaths, which ended after Chana (probably) and Gavilar died and the Stormfather decided to sever their bond, leading to his descent into full, unmitigated insanity which coincidentally started almost immediately after those two events. He also goes to get his sword right after these events, presumably because he wants his powers back, having lost them with his lost bond to SF. 2) that theory still works without Ishar being bonded to the Stormfather, especially because that could be a leap. (I think that the Stormfather said there hadn’t been a Bondsmith in centuries.) The other part of it though, hinges on Ishar having a Torment. All the Heralds are nuts, but it seems to ME like he’s extra nuts. And something like the Oathpact seems like the type of thing that could be created with Dawnshard level power. And we know the Dawnshards were both on Ashyn and all over Roshar, as is Ishar. So the second part of the theory is: Ishar’s insanity is part of/worsened by his Torment. Either because he’s a Herald or he held a dawnshard or both, he has a Torment which he can only overcome while a) following Radiant Oaths or b) around someone ELSE following radiant oaths or maybe c) around a TON of Investiture but that seems less likely cuz he’s nuts right by a perpendicularity. 3) more evidence for Ishar/SF bond I think is how easily Ishar (almost) takes the bond from Dalinar. He seems to know the connection well, as with the connection to Odium. We know that he now curses the Stormfather and that the Stormfather can still see him, something I’d argue is because of their potentially stronger connection now. I think it explains why the Stormfather is so jaded when it comes to trusting Dalinar as well. He’s just had a bad experience. That was a lot, so thank you if you read it, but if not: TL;DR: Ishar is the StormFaker cuz he bonded with the Stormfather and manipulated Gavilar. He held a Dawnshard at one point and now has a Torment. The SF bond suppressed the effects of his Torment, but losing the bond caused him to go crazy(er) after the Stormfather ended their bond post-Gavilar/Chana death. Tear apart my theory, provide feedback, lmk what you think!!:)

"I should have bought a VIP pass," Mat muttered to himself, staring at the long registration line ahead of him. He should have figured the convention would have way more people than the year before, what with Stormlight 5 and all, but had weighed the extra cost of the badge against the benefits and chosen the cheaper option. A choice he was beginning to regret. Eventually, he made it to the front of the line and picked up his badge. Number 1748. Isn't that the number of pages in SA5? He thought he remembered that fact from the Shardcast spoiler-free review that was posted the day before. That's a fun coincidence. And a very long book. The designated SE meeting spot was in front of the Exhibit Hall, so Mat headed there next. The hall still was closed to non-VIP badgeholders. Yet another reason to have splurged for it. But even if he had one, that didn't guarantee the others did as well. He turned the corner and there they were: a circle of people he didn't recognize. Time to go put faces to a name. This is going to be a fun weekend. * * * Welcome to MR67: 'Twas the Night Before SA5! I'm your GM, and your IM is @Elandera. Please feel free to go to her for any concerns before, during, or after the game. Mat and the other SErs are attending Dragonsteel 2024! But with Stormlight 5 so close, and the tension and excitement so high, some of them may have forgotten that this is not one of their games. Or maybe that was their plan all along… Rules are found below, and also in this doc. General Rules: Factions: Mat's Kickstarter: Signups are open starting now, and run until Monday, December 11th, at 3pm PST. The game will begin shortly after, and that will be the regular rollover time. I don't think I'll need to delay a turn going up during the game, but if something comes up in my schedule I thank everyone in advance for their patience Turns will always end at 3pm PST regardless of that possibility. Note that you may sign up with an RP character, but because in-game you're actually at Dragonsteel in person, that's who will show up in the writeups I guess that means this game also comes with the risk of someone else (AKA me) RPing as you, and if that makes you uncomfortable feel free to not sign up. But I'll be as courteous as I can. If at any point you feel I've crossed a line please yell at me and/or Elan, but I don't think it'll come to that. I'll be careful! Participants: Quicklinks:

This theory started out when I was rereading tWoK, and an epitaph stood out to me. It read: "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!" - Dated Vevahach, 1173, 8 seconds predeath. Subject: a prostitute. Background unknown. What stands out to me here is the clear allusion to the Kholin family crest: two glyphs in the shape of a tower and a crown. But then there's the odd duck: the spear. Why is the spear being grouped with the Kholin Crest? I think that this is the prediction that Kaladin is going to have to take up the mantle of the Kholin house. This got me to thinking: why would Kal have to do this? The obvious answer would be that all the Kholins die. And I think that's part of it. Navani, Renarin and Adolin I believe are going to die. This makes Dalinar believe he is the perfect candidate to be a Herald: used to war, already set up to take up Ishar's mantle, and now completely numb through heartbreak. I think Brandon's already been hinting that Dalinar is going to become a Herald, along with several other characters(Szeth for instance), and this would give him the perfect opportunity to do so. Shallan, now completely heartbroken over Adolin's death, refuses to take up the Kholin mantle, and Jasnah is already the queen. It would be possible for her to do it, but it doesn't seem in character for her to do it to me. So who's next in line? Kaladin. The former head of the Cobalt Guard, and the man who Dalinar trusted more than anyone. Also the most experienced Windrunner on Roshar at this point. So that's my prediction/theory. I don't know if anyone has caught this, or if Brandon has said it won't happen. Let me know your thoughts.

Not sure if this would be the right place for WOB discussion but: Comatose Originally, Kaladin and Moash were essentially the major darkeyes who were in a position to criticize the nobility and lighteyed culture. Now that Kaladin has kind of (if not emotionally) bought into the system to some extent, by outranking most lighteyes, and Moash has gone full villain, are we going to get another character playing that role of a darkeyed or lower class individual who is critiquing the system? Brandon Sanderson Yeah, I've been looking at that. One of the questions is whether Lift can justifiably fulfill that role, as someone who considers herself a bit of an outsider even among the Radiants. But let's hang a little bit of a RAFO on that, ask me after you've read book five. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/518/#e16188 Do we think the RAFO in book 5 could be referring to plans for a Moash rehabilitation arc to serve in that role?

It is now confirmed that there is a continuation of the plot thread on there being a loophole in the battle of champions contract. I think it is likely that the contract loophole is that the battle of champions ends in a TIE. As per the contract there are no stipulations for a tie, thus nullifying the contract: I semi-predicted this a couple of years ago when theorizing about a few of the death rattles. It also makes the Szeth retcon make sense in the context. TLDR: Kaladin or another champion refuses to kill Szeth, resulting in a tie and thus freeing Odium. Szeth and Kaladin may confront this Unmade when they are in Shinovar. A child is also mentioned in another deathrattle: The only three people that I think are strongly tied to their homeland are Dalinar, Szeth and the Stormfather. I think that this does not refer to the Stormfather so I will skip him (even though he does seem like a baby sometimes). Both Alethkar and Shinovar have mountains nearby, but Shinovar does have a lot more of them. Szeth is also more likely to be on top of the mountains since he can fly. Also his birthplace is the Valley of Truth, a place that sounds like it could be prone to a flood. This would lead me to believe that Szeth is the child in this deathrattle: And that they will choose to not kill him. Also an interesting bit of foreshadowing if this is true: I also think it is funny that the only thing that has been retconned in the books is the taking back that Kaladin killed Szeth in WOR and making it a psuedo-suicide instead. If my theory is correct then the pre-retcon story would not make sense because why would Kaladin be allowed to kill Szeth before in WOR but he cannot now? That question gets eliminated with the retcon.

Warning: This post contains a single Stormlight 5 prologue spoiler, masked, and potentially significant spoilers should these theories prove accurate. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. Just as the Stormfather provides Stormlight and surgebinding powers to all of Honor's children, Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM) became the Voidmother proving Voidlight and voidbinding powers to all of Odium's children, all of her Singers, during the False Desolation. One BAM to Connect them all One BAM aligned them One BAM to draw them all And with her Voidlight bind them One gem severs the whole One gem divides them One gem rips away souls And then the darkness finds them In the Land of Roshar Where the Singers die And Listeners live We'll explore much relevant history leading up to and beyond BAM's imprisonment (see Coppermind's BAM and False Desolation articles for supporting canon references) and theories explaining the magical science behind what happened with BAM, her Singers, and related events. BAM-SINGER CONNECTION HISTORY The lead up to and fall out from BAM's gemstone capture includes: Long, long ago, Odium unmakes 9 spren who fight during many desolations in which BAM serves as highprincess and commander of Odium's forces, The last desolation comes where all but Taln survive, Taln holds Odium and his Fused on Braize all by himself (spanning a total of 4500 years), During the long imprisonment of Odium and the Fused, BAM somehow gains the ability to pull Voidlight into the Physical Realm and to Connect herself with all the Singers of Roshar, a feat previously only managed by Odium, making herself a little god (RoW 847-848), Even though Odium and the Fused are still trapped on Braize, BAM's newfound powers give her the ability to provide Singers with forms of power including all the Regal forms plus stormform, which allows BAM to wage war against the Knights Radiant during the False Desolation, with no end in sight, The Listeners, tired of endless war and manipulation from both Odium and Honor, "cast off everything - including our very forms - to find freedom," which severs their Connection to BAM (RoW 159), Honor's long, slow death begins around this time, The Knights Radiant form a special Strike Team to imprison BAM inside a gemstone in order to end the False Desolation, Because BAM is a little god and holds strong Connection to the spren and souls of every Singer in Roshar except the Listeners, these tethered souls and spren get sucked along their Connection to BAM, ripping out pieces of their souls, removing both their Identity and Connection, and possible damaging or destroying their gemhearts in the ripping process, Somehow even Honor and Cultivation's spren and the Sibling get damaged by BAM's imprisonment, though to a much smaller degree that perhaps signals a much smaller Connection between the Voidmother and "all who belong to Roshar," affecting the Sibling's abilities to make Towerlight and crippling Urithiru (RoW 621), Close to dying, Honor cannot help the Sibling, Urithiru, or the Knights Radiant, The Battle for Feverstone Keep begins before BAM's imprisonment since the enemy still pushes for that ground and parshmen are anything but pushy (OB 809), BAM's imprisonment, if during the Battle for Feverstone Keep, would have caused all fighting Singers to experience excruciating pain and then simultaneously transform into docile, mindless parshmen, All Singers Connected to BAM become parshmen through a break in Identity and Connection; only the Listeners escape because of their previously broken Connections to her, Hundreds of Windrunners and Stonewards at Feverstone Keep become the first to abandon their oaths en masse as Honor says, "they are the first" (OB 547), Two thousand years later, the Everstorm travels to Roshar through the Cognitive Realm and is brought through to the physical realm, and The Everstorm restores both Identity and Connection by repairing the Singers’ souls and possibly their gemhearts. SCIENCE-MAGIC THEORY BEHIND CONNECTION, CAPTURING SPREN, AND THE SINGERS' SOULS From Newton, we know: Force = mass * acceleration From Jasnah (OB 1179), we know that "concentrated Stormlight has a faint mass to it." So the more we accelerate the physical mass of the Stormlight, the stronger the physical force we have acting on the Stormlight and anything Connected to and by the Stormlight. How do we move or accelerate Stormlight? Navani's lecture on fabrial mechanics includes details on sucking Light into a gemstone in order to trap a spren inside a gemstone. We first lure a spren into close proximity to a gemstone with something it likes (e.g., flames for flamespren) and by using the type of gemstone it prefers (RoW epigraphs, Chapter 1). Interestingly, we already know the type of gemstones preferred by each Order of Knights Radiant (and each associated herald). Moash's knife had a large sapphire gemstone hilt that gave a subdued glow after capturing Jezrien's spren-soul (OB 1205), which makes me wonder if the gemstone in Leshwi's spear (RoW 80) that drained Kaladin's Stormlight and nearly sucked out his soul (RoW 101) was sapphire, as well. The first questions we must ask ourselves would be 1) what would BAM be attracted to and 2) what kind of gemstone would she prefer? To answer the second, maybe the Voidmother would prefer a heliodor, as the Stormfather would. As for the first question, she appears to like war and commanding, and she has shown particular interest in Feverstone Keep (OB 809). One might imagine Melishi, the False Desolation's Bondsmith, and her Strike Team showing up at the Battle for Feverston Keep with a large and perfect (or nearly perfect) heliodor gemstone, knowing that BAM would be nearby commanding her troops and in search of something in the area that interested her. Navani's next stages in capturing a spren (RoW epigraphs, Chapters 2-5) would be filling the gemstone to around 70% full of Stormlight (Voidlight in BAM's case) and then quickly sucking that Stormlight out to create a vacuum that will suck in a nearby spren. Suppose you take a brown paper lunch sack and suck the air out. It collapses, right? The same would be true of a Ziploc bag. By collapsing to reduce the volume, the bag equalizes the pressure. But what about something that has a rigid structure like a gemstone, especially a gemstone that doesn't leak? If you suck all the air out of a glass, for example, you'd suction that glass to your face since you've created a vacuum of extremely low pressure. Because air and Light will always seek the lowest pressure possible, they'll get sucked into a vacuum until the pressure outside of the gem roughly equals the pressure inside the gem. Since volume is inversely proportional to pressure, the larger the gemstone, the lower the pressure (where the lower pressure goes the stronger the vacuum becomes). And finally, the tighter the seal, the less a gemstone will leak and the stronger the vacuum will be. So large, perfect gemstones make the perfect traps for these gods. At this point, you might be asking yourself, how does the spren gets sucked in along with the Stormlight? That's where Connection comes in. When the Stormfather gives Stormlight to his children - his spren and his surgebinders - an invisible cord of Stormlight will Connect that spren or that Radiant to the Stormfather. The same can be said for the Voidmother's children - BAM's spren and her Singers: they're all Connected to their mother by a physical force from the Voidlight she provides. Let's say you have a massive gemstone and a larkin quickly sucking a ton of Light out of your stone. The gemstone will quest out seeking to replace all or almost all of the light it just lost with a powerful force. Once it captures a nearby Stormlight Connection cord, the spren will be drawn in along with the Stormlight the spren is tethered to. Yes, the Connection is mostly spiritual, but there is a small physical Connection, too (because the Stormlight Connecting them has a small mass, as Jasnah said, and mass * acceleration is force, as Newton said). If we yank hard enough on that tether, the spren cannot help but be pulled in. We see this with spren pulled into fabrials, yes, but also with human and Singer souls, tethered to their home planet by their Connection to the Investiture there. We saw Jezrien's spren-soul sucked into Moash's sapphire knife and Kaladin's soul nearly sucked into Leshwi's gemstone-capped spear, both of which had metal that specifically draws in Stormlight including the Stormlight cords of Connection. Let me digress for a smidge to explain that Identity and souls are nearly synonymous. For instance, the Fused (where each Fused is the soul of one ancient Singer fuzed together forever to a surgebinding spren, granting surgebinding powers and immortality) maintain their Identities - and most of their intellect, knowledge, and memories - even though they constantly lose the rest of their bodies because Identity is stored in the soul. Connection for the traditional Singer bond appears to be stored in their gemhearts since that is where their spren and probably their souls reside. Now I said all that to say this: this, this, this is how Singers' souls were ripped away, how their Identity and Connection were stolen, and how they became mindless parshman slaves, by having parts of their souls that were tethered to their Voidmother ripped free, likely destroying their gemstones in the process, as BAM and all her many Connections were sucked into her gemstone prison. With Singer souls damaged, they were not quite soulless and mindless nothings but nearly so. And with Singer gemhearts damaged or destroyed, the parshmen lost their abilities to bond any other spren or to hear the rhythms of Roshar inside their gemhearts. The Listeners were spared, maintaining their Identity and their abilities to Connect with other spren because they had previously severed their Connections to BAM before her imprisonment. TRAVEL & WORLDHOPPING We'd be remiss if, while we're here with Connection, we didn't speculate on travel and worldhopping. Connection tethers Invested individuals to their home planet, not letting them escape lest they rip out part of their souls, their Identity, and destroy their Connection. But of course there is a way around this problem, a way out, because this is Sanderson, after all. The remainder of the post includes a little speculation about how off-world travel may be possible based on what we know of Connection above and a single spoiler from the Knights of Wind and Truth prologue that gives a bit more detail regarding the quote above. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. I've kept all non-Stormlight cosmere spoilers out of this post.

Could the Stormfather be an Awakened being? It could help explain why he does not recollect a Herald dying as mentioned in the SA5 Prologue: He does not remember, because his memories have been tampered with. in the same manner as Wit's as seen at the end of RoW. Other theories seen so far: Current Stormfather being a fake/SA5 Stormfather being a pretender-Ishar/Cultivation shenanigans.

To preface this, I'm tired, so I'll probably delete this topic later. Now for the "theory" (please point out all the things I get incorrect): Cultivation is going to die at the end of KoWT. but that's not the end of her story. Since the vessels of Honor and Cultivation were in a relation and Honor died, Cultivation went fully into her shardic intent, while still being able to join Tanavast in the beyond (or whatever it's called). At some point I think Wyndle said something (in Edgedancer?) along the lines of (about Cultivaiton and Honor) I feel like of the shards we know of, Cultivation has the best future sight. So, Cultivation has some plan that "maximizes" growth in the peoples of Roshar (and not necessarily in the good or bad way). The protagonists are going to spend the second half of the Stormlight Archives trying to figure out what Cultivation's plan is. And just to throw this in at the end with nothing to back this up, Adolin has a chance of becoming cultivation, due to his "cultivation"-like relationship with helping Maya "develop" consciousness.

So, spoilers for the readings Brandon has done from SA5 (and all Cosmere) ahead. But my crack theory at the moment is : what if Kaladin becomes Odium’s Champion?? Thoughts? Sorry it’s a bit rambly, but it’s a new idea I had and I’m curious about what you all think.