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  1. This whole theory stems from my desire to redeem Tanavast. Because, even if what the rest of the heralds did to Taln was cruel, I can understand them. They were broken after thousands of years of torture. For Tanavast to not do something to help abandoned Taln is beyond evil. And I think he did something, something noble and stupid. Up until recently, I assumed Honor's death was a consequence of trapping Odium in the Rosharan system. But the timeline doesn’t work. Odium is trapped on Roshar for at least 4500 years. And that is a minimum. It may be even before humans came on Roshar. There is no evidence that he is not trapped when he manipulated Ishar on Ashyn. And that many years is slightly pushing the term ‘slow death’ of the shard. I think something happened between Aharietiam and Recreance that directly led to Honor’s death. First, I need to make a huge assumption. The Oathpact needs 10 people not only to share the pain of torture but to protect them from ‘magical’ insanity. The assumption is that if the heralds hadn’t abandoned Oathpact, they would still be broken people, but without that ‘magical’ madness. So the theory is that Tanavast as the vessel joined the Oathpact alongside Taln. Or at least shared his pain of torture. But only two of them weren’t enough. Over time they both went mad (hence Honor’s ravings during the Recrenesance). That made the vessel of the shard weak and open to attack from Odium. Connection to Taln also made Tanavast partly connected to Braise. As a bonus, it can explain why Odium was suspiciously inactive after Aharietiam. Why hasn’t he done the same thing the Mishram did – ignore the trapped fused and provide singers with the forms of power? It is better than nothing. And he can’t be trapped as BAM was. Tanavast actions bound Odium to the Oathpact and trapped him on Braise after Aharietiam.
  2. I think my opinion might be highly unpopular, but here goes. To start with, I really loved the character of Taln while reading the four books. I remember being giddy whenever he had a scene. He was my top fav side character. Just one problem. I thought he broke. I took the idea that taln broke as a fact. I am dumb and didn't realise that RoW in particular was hinting that Taln didn't break. The arrival of the everstorm to circumvent the oathpact and taln breaking in the same time frame was a little too wierd. And then Brandon confirmed it in a WoB. Some fans cheered, some fans were surprised and some fans felt vindicated as they already were expecting it. I was less than thrilled. The problem with Taln is he is JUST TOO DAMN PERFECT. I loved Taln when I thought that he tried his best and ended up giving humanity 4500 years of time. He was a very inspiring character. Now he is a freaking god. Apparently, he still has a lot more years of torture he can endure. He is nowhere close to being done. He is basically unbreakable. Taln, as he is right now, is vey antithetical to the themes of SA, and the fact that nobody is talking about it drives me nuts. First of all, NO HUMAN is strong enough to what Taln did. I mean where would you even cultivate the inner strength to endure so much torture? How can you even reach that level of determination? If instead, you think it's more likely that such strength can't be cultivated, you have to be born with it, it still makes Taln an angel who descended to earth compared to the rest of the humans. Because 4500 years is a mind-numbingly long time! A fact that I feel that many people are not giving the importance it deserves. If a random stranger says that he will die for you, you won't be inspired, you would be creeped out! I feel the same way with Taln. No one should be that self-sacrificial. That is not healthy, that is insane and scary. I would stay as far as possible away from him in real life. Can you imagine if a guy like that got angry with you over something? He might chase you to the ends of the earth. Second, he makes the lives of all other characters kinda pointless. The main theme of SA is that 'broken' people deserve to live happy lives (even after making mistakes). Teft deserves love. Shallan deserves love. Kaladin should not kill himself. Dalinar deserves forgiveness and redemption(debatable). But its very hard to say they deserve anything with the presence of an infallible person who has suffered so much more than them. All their conflicts and struggles seem melodramatic compared to the sheer amount of pain that Taln went through without making a mistake. . If the survival of humanity is the highest moral goal right now, Kaladin's life is just not priceless. It's nothing compared to Taln's worth as an 'unbreakable' human being. Because Kaladin just can't hold the desolation back for that long. Example: in tWoK, Kaladin briefly considers abandoning his friends and saving his own life. In WoR he doubts his own friends' love for him in the jail cell. In OB, he gets angry at Adolin for no reason and chides himself. These thoughts are not ooc for Kal even though he is a windrunner poster boy because everyone is fallible and breakable. Everyone makes mistakes and that's fine. Every character in SA has some insecurity about something, even Jasnah. If i must fall, I will rise each time a better man. Finally, he legitimises the oathpact and trivializes torture. The oathpact is a horrible plan and anything else would have been better. No human should be asked for that much. But Taln makes it look like it was the heralds who were insufficient, not the freaking plan. Because of Taln, the other 9 heralds look bad, even though they were amazing people who went through the saddest times possible. SA is a optimistic series, but if you took a herald as the protagonist and went through their life, the desolations alone would put the series solidly in grimdark territory. They really deserve more respect, but who can NOT compare them to Taln? He also trivializes torture. No way around it. Torture is horrific and inhumane. It scars people in irreparable ways physically and psychologically. In a series with realistic depictions of battle shock, Taln sticks out like a sore thumb. If I am right in thinking that the heralds can heal in braize, how many times do you think Taln's genitals were shredded like cheese? Cuz let's be sure, that definitely happened in 4500 years even if the books will never show it happening ( shivers).( I hope I didn't break any coppermind rules with that sentence) I feel like there has to be an actual reason why Taln did not break. I have faith in Sanderson. Every other character in SA feels real to me. Even the evil ones like Sadeas and Rayse. I am just surprised that most fan discourse I see don't seem to question it and seem to think that Taln just weathered it with his own strength, which I find impossible. He must have had advantages right? If the ans is just that Taln is a Super Mega Alpha male chad boy with a golden heart, I will probably keep ranting about it.
  3. Tallet was well aware of the Herald he was named after. Most people that he knew growing up were named after Jezrien or Kalak; his was a much more unique name. When he asked his father if he was named after any relatives, the answer was a simple denial, followed by dinner in awkward silence. It wasn't because of any events in his parents' lives, either; they had simply decided on the name for no specific reason. At the time he was born, his parents hadn't thought that the meaning of a name had any importance, so they "went with what sounded good." They applied that philosophy to the raising of their family; decisions of any kind were made with patience and deliberation, but with no particular reasoning behind them. He had inherited his parents' attitude in his employment, going by whim applied with some measure of diligence. He became a sphere-maker, melting glass and forming it around small gemstones so they would be protected against wear and tear. It paid well enough that Tallet never thought about pocketing any spheres, but it was certainly monotonous. While working, he would think about his purpose. Not his Calling; that was glasswork, which he admittedly did not spend much time doing other than in sphere-making. Tallet's purpose, in his eyes, was to try and emulate his namesake. Taln was called the Bearer of Agonies, among more understandable titles. Tallat was especially curious about this title; after all, the Heralds had suffered equally grave wounds in their battles against the Voidbringers. During the Desolations, they suffered the privations of their armies and people equally, or so he had gathered from Vorin teachings. What made Taln stand apart from the rest of them? Once, when he had asked for the reasoning behind this, he was told that "Talenelat'Elin volunteered for the most deadly of battles, and sacrificed himself first before the other Heralds. After the Final Desolation, he was last to join them in the Tranquiline Halls. They had left him behind briefly, because they trusted him to win a battle that turned out to take several days." After hearing this, he was then given an hours-long treatise on the attributes and accomplishments of the other Heralds, circling back at the end to the Final Desolation. He resolved to go to the Order of Talenelat for answers that wouldn't be drowned out by descriptions of other Heralds. He enjoyed the teachings of the order, and learned far more about Taln than he thought would be possible. That earlier treatise about the other Heralds was a rockbud on the chull that was Herald knowledge. As the years went on, he listend to books that discussed Taln or his Order of the Knights Radiant; he did not have access to all of them, but occasionally the chance would arise to travel to Kholinar to visit the larger libraries. When news came of Dalinar Kholin refounding the Knights Radiant, Tallat was dumbstruck. He had heard rumors of the Kholin highprince being erratic at times, but he hoped this was not one of those times. He was of the opinion that the Radiants abandoned, rather than betrayed, humanity. If they were returning, then Tallat might get to join their number. Or, at the very least, he could witness them in temples the Order of Talenelat, for surely they would spend time receiving training from the ardents. In only a year, Alethkar was occupied and he had yet to see a Stoneward. From hearsay, a Radiant could be any ordinary person, but they needed to bond a spren beforehand. Tallat hoped that he would get to hear of someone doing so, but the occupying force kept him from hearing anything from the outside. To make matters worse, he was removed from sphere-making and relegated to pottery, something he had no expertise in. When he told this to his immediate superiors, they replied that the resident potter had died or fled, and that glassmaking was the closest skill that could be found among the populace. With no rebuttal for that, Tallet got to work and hoped for Radiants to show up. Day after day, week after week, with no end in sight.
  4. Was the Shardblade Taln appeared with a normal Shardblade or was it his Honorblade that he retrieved or took to Braize?
  5. Some people have theorized that some of our Radiants will replace the current Heralds and re-forge the Oathpact. If so, I have a disturbing suspicion: Kaladin will eventually become the only Herald who doesn't break (he might break during the next few Desolations, but not later), and the other new Heralds will eventually be tempted to pin the whole Oathpact on Kaladin, as the original Heralds pinned it on Taln. I know, Kaladin has tried to give up before, but that is because he is more tormented than most Radiants. He would go to Braize with a lot more experience bearing up under suffering than the others.
  6. So I’m in the middle of Elantra’s and it seems that taln is suffering an affliction not unlike the hoed, he is in such pain he is essentially insane and like a hoed he constantly repeats a mantra as a coping mechanism and finally, like riino, he is only salvated when being enhanced from investiture, riino was enhanced by the lake and taln was inhanced for a small amount of time by dalinars oath, thoughts?
  7. I belive that wit has 4 surges. Wit was the first one to meet taln after 4500 so I think he took taln's honorblade. So he gets 2 surges form there and then he gets 2 surges form design
  8. There has been some discussion on the names of the Unmade referring to ancient hebrew and phoenician myth. Since this parallel is established, I thought it would be interesting to share some thoughts of mine regarding greek mythology, Dalinar and Taln. 1. Dalinar and Hercules/Herakles You may remember Hercules being this fun adventure hero of greek myth. He slays monsters, liberates people. Most known are the twelve labours at the end of which he goes down to the underworld/ Hades to capture the hellhound Cerberus. He is the guy of Disney`s "Hercules". Yet, in the original myth there exists a way darker side of our hero. He is a heavy drinker and a violent man. In fact in almost every myth Hercules murders somebody. Most famously he murdered his own wife Megara and children in a fit of rage. For some reason the people at Disney thought it cool, to cast the wife he later murdered in myth into the movie. According to some versions this was the entire reason he was tasked with the twelve labours as a punishment for his misdeeds. Here Hercules is depicted murdering his wife and children. https://www.worldhistory.org/Megara_(Wife_of_Hercules)/ This brought me to Dalinar. Like Hercules he has an alcohol abuse problem. He used to be this warlord who enjoyed to sack and destroy cities. Hercules is btw. likewise thought to have been a general and to have destroyed a lot of cities. One prominent example is Troy, which he destroyed with an army one generation before the trojan war. Hercules is of course heavily musculed like Dalinar. Both are this brute human force of nature who buldozer through everything, friend and foe alike. the episode of murdering his wife makes up the plot of two famous tragedies, one of the Athenian author Euripidies, and of the roman philosopher Seneca. In both versions his jealous stepmother Hera sends down the godess "madness" to earth to indue Hercules with mad rage. In this blindness he committs the crime. Interestingly enough however, Hercules still thinks he is guilty, even though his mind was influenced by the godess. He is so desperate he almost wants to kill himself. I think the parallel to Dalinar killing Evi under influence of the Thrill is pretty clear. At the end of his life Hercules is betrayed by Deianara who sends him a poisened shirt. According to some versions she did not know the poisen was fatal and merely wanted to make Hercules love her again. Anyways, the pain is so intense Hercules decided to burn himself on a pyre to end his agony. Through burning himself he ascended into being a god. Again, the parallel to Dalinars ascension to being-who-knows-what in OB is interesting. Obviously not everything in Dalinar`s life can be thrown into this Hercules mould, but I think the parallels are there. 2. Taln/ Philoctetes Philoctetes is a greek hero only hardcore nerds of greek mythology, like me know about. So allow me to introduce you to him. As Hercules was sitting in agony on his funeral pyre, nobody dared to put the wood on fire. The only one who managed to do it, was a certain Philoctetes a native of the area and a gifted archer. Thanking him Hercules gave him his famous bow as a gift. As the Trojan War came along, Philoctetes participateted as one of the primary heros. He was the best archer in the entire greek army. Yet as the navy was approaching Troy, Philoctetes got bitten by a snake. Because he was in such great pains he screamed all day and disturbed the entire army. Rather than caring for him the leaders of the army decided to abandon him on the nearby island of Lemnos, breaking the oaths they had sworn. On that island he stayed for the entire rest of the war, also during the events of Homers Iliad, which is why his story is not widely known. In the tenth year however a prophet sent by the gods came to the greeks telling them, they could not conquer Troy until they had retrieved Philoctetes. He carried the bow of Hercules, which had already taken Troy once before and would be needed to do it again. There are multiple tragedies depicting the greek delegation trying to get Philoctetes back to Troy. Needless to say the man was almost driven mad from pain by that point. In Sophocles version he almost committed suicide at the end of the play. Nonetheless, he was in the end convinced to return to the greek army. He was healed and In the last months of the war Philoctetes killed Paris, who had started the entire mess. A paralell could exist to Taln who was likewise abandoned against the Oathpact and was driven mad by pain after thousands of years of torture. Yet he could play a very crucial role in future books, even though he did not in RoW.
  9. There exists a theory, which has been RAFO'd, that the ardent Pai is herself Paliah. IF this is true, I suspect that Taln, the bearer of agonies, was NOT the one who broke. Instead, Paliah, who had recently been executed in Kholinar under the guise of being Pai was the one who broke... Thoughts?
  10. I wrote the above theory that Taln was at one point in league with Odium, but isn't anymore. I wrote that because Tanavast told Dalinar that Odium wanted the long break between Desolations so that humanity would forget and turn on each other (WoK Ch. 75). Taln is the key to that. There needed to be a Herald who never broke, but died in nearly every Desolation in order to tempt the other 9 Heralds into quitting. I want to add to that theory based on what we learned in RoW. In RoW we get a glimpse of how great the Heralds were at fighting. Nale takes an arrow through the head shrugs it off and dispatches Szeth easily. Ishar fights 5 windrunners at once and wins. Dalinar is amazed at how great Ishar is at dueling. The Stormfather say Ishar was average at fighting among the Heralds and Taln was by FAR the best. Taln, the greatest fighter among the Heralds had a reputation for dying the most. (WoK Prelude). This could be because he was so self-sacrificing and the greatest, bestest person ever, but it's very convenient because he needed to not survive Desolations in order to tempt the Heralds. The other minor support I'd like to add is that Taln is currently slotted to have the 9th book. 9 being the number of the enemy, the number of Braize, the number of Fused orders, the number of Unmade, the number of Heralds who quit etc. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/374/#e12214 I know in WoK Prime spoiler: I don't have a good idea of the specifics of how the subterfuge worked, but Taln is too perfect and he is crucial to the long break during which Honor died and the KR were (mostly) destroyed. It's more interesting if he helped trick the other Heralds and deeply regretted it due to his love for Ash.
  11. Taln seems too nice, self-sacrificing and has endurance beyond even what the other Heralds have. Or so it seems. This being Brandon I am looking for a twist. My theory w/ little evidence: Taln was a double-agent for Odium from the start, then turned on Odium in the last 4,500 years because he loves Ash so much. What do we know about Taln? He wasn't supposed to be a Herald, but then was included. (Stormfather in OB Ch. 38). An odd last minute addition that makes me suspicious. He had a habit of winning really difficult fights and dying in the process (Kalak in WoK Prelude). He makes a good show of it, but this approach guarantees he will die before the last Fused does. The Heralds end a Desolation by killing all the Fused and going back to Braize in a timely manner. Taln is guaranteeing he won't outlast the Fused in Desolation. While having an excuse for dying early and often because he takes on such difficult odds. He was the only Herald that never broke in the past (Stormfather in OB Ch. 38). Maybe that's because he was never tortured like others were. He was their inside guy. I'm thinking Odium's plan was to get the other 9 Heralds (the ones who were supposed to be Heralds.) to quit and humanity to grow complacent and in-fight. After the Knight's Radiants disband Odium is like "OK, go time! Taln, let the Fused loose." But, Taln has had a change of heart because he genuinely loves Ash and refuses. He is then actually tortured for a really long time and eventually break, but holds on long enough to mess with Odium's plans.
  12. So, let's talk about Hoid. Wow Ashspren, I hear you say. We've never heard that one before. But now let me make this a bit more intriguing: let's talk about Hoid and the Stonewards. At first, this seems like a strange combination. Hoid, given his Yolish abilities, seems to be more compatible with the Lightweavers–– storms, he even bonded a cryptic. However, there are two main facets to Hoid's relationship with the Stonewards that I wanted to explore. The first idea is the Ten Essences. I'm going to start with the role of gems, especially within the plot of the Stormlight Archive. As we all know, stones and gems play a huge part on Roshar. They power fabrials, reside in the hilts of blades, and are the cause for Greatshell hunts. Thus, whenever a gem is mentioned, it's generally a good idea to take a closer look. Take a look at the following table of the Ten Essences, spoilered for size (because it's a lot bigger than I expected, wow). I'm associating each row of the column with its respective order of the Knights Radiant, which I believe is a pretty safe assumption: The stones all seem pretty generic. Sapphire, a blue stone, goes to the sky-centric Windrunners. The Dustbringers are associated with rubies, as they invoke an image of heat and sparks. But, Number 9 on the table really caught my eye. The gemstone of the Stonewards is Topaz... where else is that stone used? The answer: that was one of Hoid's aliases, possibly even his given name. Spoilered for length, here's the WOB to back it up: (We could get into a whole other discussion about the "words on a page" deal, but let's not for right now.) So we already have this connection between the stone and one of Hoid's names. On top of that, though, let's examine the body focuses of Hoid's Radiant associations. Hoid is most prominently mentioned with regards to the Lightweavers, so the body focus there is blood. For the Stonewards, the body focus is bones. To demonstrate a prominent connection with both, I looked at The Traveler and specific imagery in that scene. For a color scheme, we're given lots of white, accentuated by red. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but there is an overwhelming amount of the colors of bones and blood shown in the scene. Additionally, the surrounding trees are described as "skeletal," and the juice from the pomegranate is "like blood." So, let's review before we move on: in accordance with the Ten Essences, we have determined that one of Hoid's aliases and the Stoneward gemstone are both named Topaz, and imagery from The Traveler reflects blood and bones, which are the body focuses of the Lightweavers and Stonewards, respectively. Next, we move onto human-to-human relationships. What is the significance of Taln, the Herald of the Stonewards, with respect to Hoid? An important thing to note is that Taln is introduced during the epilogue to The Way of Kings. Thus, Hoid is the among the first to hear that Taln has succumbed to the pain on Braize, and the Desolation is soon to arrive. However, it's clear that Hoid knows what is about to happen. We know why Taln is the one to announce the dawn of the Desolation; the other Heralds left him to suffer on Braize alone, as he was the only one who had not failed in enduring Damnation. However, why is it Hoid that receives him at the gates? Personally, I think that this was Brandon's way of alluding to a deeper connection between their characters. Specifically, I see many ways in which Hoid and Taln are painted as opposites. In the aforementioned epilogue, the differences are mostly superficial. To condense the key parts of the passages: Eye color: Hoid has blue eyes and is therefore high-class, while Taln has brown eyes and appears to be low-class Positioning: Hoid is comfortably perched on boxes, while Taln is cannot walk straight and is tripping over himself Material objects: Hoid carries an instrument, while Taln carries a giant Shardblade Beyond this, though, there are major points of contrast within Hoid and Taln's personalities. If we assume Taln to be like his fellow Stonewards, he is "dependable" and "resourceful," according to the chart of the Ten Essences. This is further affirmed by his long years of pain on Braize and how he was able to stand firm to protect Roshar. Therefore, the argument is not if Taln is dependable and resourceful, but rather if Hoid is the opposite of at least one of those qualities. We all know that Hoid is very resourceful, and this is virtually inarguable–– as someone who operates alone, going any way the wind blows, he has to be. But as to the question if Hoid is dependable, the answer is a resolute no. Here's why... Reading back through The Traveler, we witness a conversation between Hoid and Frost the dragon, who reminds him of his past wishes. Hoid and Frost reflect on the former's change over thousands of years, and why his involvement in universal affairs is an issue. Through this passage, it can be inferred that Hoid has changed his mind from an earlier conviction. This means that he is not sticking to what he has previously said, whether or not that statement was a true promise or just passionate words. Additionally, Frost describes what Hoid wants as "dangerous," and Hoid's response–– or lack thereof–– demonstrates that he knows that his behavior can cause harm, yet he continues to do it. I'm not arguing that Hoid is a villain. What I am trying to say, though, is that you wouldn't be able to ask him for a favor and reliably assume that he would follow through. Again, this isn't a good or bad thing, it's just the way he is. Couple his lack of dependability with surface-level differences, and you've cracked the mystery of Hoid's relationships with the Knights Radiant. He essentially twins with the Lightweavers and heavily contrasts with the Stonewards. TLDR: Brandon's given us one of Hoid's aliases, Topaz, to imply a deeper connection between Hoid and the Stonewards. Through the body focuses of the Ten Essences chart, we can conclude that Hoid has connections to both the Lightweavers–– as we already knew–– and the Stonewards. After an analysis of Hoid and Taln's characters, it's clear that they are basically opposites, so Hoid's strongest relationships within the Knights Radiant must be the Lightweavers (similar) and the Stonewards (different). I know this had a lot of explanation and less of an actual theory, but I wanted to open up the theorizing to everyone else. What are your thoughts? Just saw a connection and ran with it, so I want to know what everyone else thinks about Hoid, his relationship with the Knights Radiant, Taln, the Stonewards, and anything involving all of them.
  13. I can't remember if that was emphatically stated or not. I only remember Ash holding his hand and the emotion of that scene in the tent. Were (are?) they romantically inclined? Kinda hard when half the party is mad, I know
  14. Alright Sharders, I know it's a long shot - but the payoff would certainly be worth it. I've spent some time combing over the gorgeous portrait of Taln by Donato Giancola released by Tor today. As I was drawn into the piece, I couldn't stop staring at the glyphs etching the top step he's standing upon. A cursory search turned up no in-world glyphs, but I'm hoping I've missed something you can help us find. Does anyone have any insights into the particular language etched here? Or any insights as to possible meaning? Or else confirmation that the inimitable Donato created these glyphs with his artistic license so I can sleep tonight?
  15. I believe a clandestine organization is behind the disappearance of all the shards missing on Roshar . But Taln’s blade I think it was the of a known group . So at the End of Way of Kings Taln shows up with a Sharblade . Since it was being worn and not dismissed I assumed it was a regular shardblade . The thought was Taln came back after 4K years couldn’t find his shardblade , went to the cache that’s brought up by Amaram in WoR and shows up in Alethkar . Then a WoB comes out and Brandon says that Taln blade was swapped out somewhere between the shattered plains and Alethkar . So Hoid is on the trip so of course he becomes the prime suspect . I assumed Hoid knows Taln from way back when and trying to do him a solid and help keep Taln cover by hiding his shardblade . So groups like the ghostbloods won’t hear and try and steal it .... We know the sons of Honor didn’t do it cause Amaram and the ardents were trying to get the Herald to tell them where the cache was assuming it was the cache or Honorblades . The ghost bloods were trying to kill them so I doubt it was them . So that leaves just two on screen groups that could of done it . The group I believe that has hidden the majority of the shards on Roshar ( The aimians) and the group I believe is behind the theft The Shin What made me decide on the Shin was that I don’t think the Aimians would left a shardblade in place of The Honorblade . The Shin Shamanate have someway of tracking the Honorblades . Szeth said upon his death they would come to claim it The Shin would not have a problem with Leaving a blade in place as a sign of respect . The Shin could transport thier and back thru shadesmar using the Lightweaver or Elsecaller blades . They could also disguise themselves using The lightweaver blade. ( Perhaps this is why Taln freaked out when shallan tried to Lightweave while he was in the cell ) he thought whoever took his blade was back . When he realized it was just Radiant he calmed down! If it is them for the first time they have the Stoneward Honor blade to study and train with . I don’t know if I’m right , but if I am . I’m greatly interested on how the Stone Shamans locate honor blades. .
  16. 1. Why was Jasnah in the market and why did she have drawings of the Heralds? Also, did Shallan draw them? 2. Who is the "Midius" Ash mentions in reference to Jasnah's sketches 3. When Taln told Ash to follow him, he said someone was waiting for them. Who? Subquestion: It seemed like he lost lucidity in the middle of leading Ash, and then that whole thing with Jezrien dying happened. (Seriously, Brandon, are you trying to ruin my solid thug-life rep? Second time I teared up reading this book.)
  17. In Taln's interlude in WOR, he is undoubtedly not sane. However, some of his thoughts seem to be semi-lucid, and one particular snippet caught my eye: Taln goes rather quickly here from insane ravings, but grammatically sound, to a sentence that makes little sense. But, it does remind me of the street dialect of Spook, that went on to be High Imperial. I'm not a timeline expert at all, so this could be something more of a common ancestor type thing, but the thought that at his weakest his mind flips to thinking to himself in this way makes me wonder if he doesn't share something with Scadrial.
  18. Good day fellas. It's been a while since I've posted on here and since I've checked in, so if this theory is old hat, I apologize. Tear me to shreds. But if not, I humbly submit this to the 17th Shard. I reread OB recently and I've been thinking of Brandon's repeated mentions of how the entire structure of Stormlight is going to be ordered; specifically that each order of Knights Radiant will have a flashback book through a different character's perspective. What I've not been able to wrap my head around is with who he's chosen for his flashbacks for the subsequent books - it seems we have an extra Lightweaver in the bunch with Ash - the Herald and Patron of Lightweavers - being present in the back five. With her inclusion, we've got representatives from each order present in Brandon's planned 10 book sequence: Kaladin/Windrunner, Shallan/Lightweaver, Dalinar/Bondsmith, Eshonai/Willshaper (probably), Szeth/Skybreaker, Renarin/Truthwatcher, Lift/Edgedancer, Taln/Stoneward and Jasnah/Elsecaller. So that leaves our interesting friend Ash - who according to tradition is the leader of Lightweavers. And we're missing a Dustbringer (or Releaser if you're gonna be PC about it) book. I think Ash is going to become a Dustbringer. This way she will make the flashbacks of the books nice and ordered and sequenced and each order gets one book. But I also think it works with the text. We know the Heralds are essentially just immortal (unless you have a special knife!) humans and thus fallible to human emotions that might attract the right type of spren. It also seems like another prerequisite for being a KR is to be flawed or damaged in some way and the Nahel bond is an avenue for that KR to explore their flaws and come to terms with them (Kaladin's depression, Shallan's repressed memories, etc.) Look at Ash's character for a second: what do we know about her off the top of our heads? She destroys. Brandon has spent three books putting in overt references to Ash destroying her own visage in works of art depicting the Heralds. Sounds a little Dustbringery to you? Ash is also sane, as we saw in her handful of viewpoints in Oathbringer but is dealing with an incredible amount of guilt for the last four and a half thousand years by leaving Taln to be tortured on Braize. There we also have the unofficial KR flaw - her mountain of guilt that gives her a compulsion to destroy any art depicting her as a way of ... atonement, maybe? Either way, I think this is enough to probably attract an Ashspren. We know from Malata that Ashspren like to destroy and have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. I think they would love the fact that Ash has spent nearly five thousand years destroying. If you were an Ashspren looking for a Nahel bond, she would be a prize catch, right? I think there's a little aversion to her being a Dustbringer in my head because I'm thinking along the lines of "but she's the Herald of Lightweaving! She just CAN'T be anything else!" But I think I've argued my brain out of that position. First, we know that Heralds can form a Nahel bond - Nale mentions he became a Skybreaker and shows off his fancy non-Honourblade shardblade. Who is to say that a Herald who joins an order has to join THEIR order though? There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule about it. Especially when they've gone through such changes in the past five thousand years. Ash is not simply the herald of beauty and creativity anymore. While some of the other Heralds have gone insane, Ash seems to have just gotten flipped around. She represents destruction now. So there ya have it. Let me know what you think.
  19. Alright. I know this is unpopular, and everyone wants to believe that Taln is amazing. I'm not trying to say that he's not... But I don't think he's the reason for the millenia long break between desolations. I think this is what Odium wanted and that he acted to make it occur. First we have this, from the Sleepless, on the back cover of tWoK. Then this from Tanavast. The length of time wasn't Taln holding out against unspeakable odds. It's what Odium wanted. Then we have Taln himself in WoR. He's so broken he sees the world as off its burning and he wonders why people aren't screaming. I am convinced that he broke long ago and that Odium has actively held him back. In order to allow the Fused freedom Odium had to let him free, because the Oathpact is still in effect. The natural point to do this would have seemingly been just after the Recreance, but with the singers crippled the Fused would have no longer had bodies to take. Being incapable of forms she also mean incapable of housing a Fused. So Odium needed the Everstorm to heal the Parsh in order for the Fused to take bodies. He needed the proper climate to push the listeners to take stormform, and he couldn't release the voidspren to facilitate that until events favored them actually being willing to take stormform and release the Everstorm. Releasing the voidspren at a time earlier would have played his hand and driven the Spren to again seek Radiants just as they're doing now. It would have destroyed any advantage the Recreance gave him. Why would he think he was late if the goal were to stay away forever?
  20. What exactly are we supposed to expect of the Heralds in the coming books? I would love to see Taln come to deal with his madness in someway, be reunited with his honorblade and lead men against the fused as he once did, but I doubt that would actually happen. So what can we expect of the Heralds instead? Are they so much of a wildcard that they will hinder Dalinar's quest? Will they help out and assist the Radants? Will they turn and support Odium? (is it even possible for a Herald to do this?) Maybe they'll just exist and not do much, but I highly doubt that. Will Moash/Vyre go around and pick them off one by one? I hope this isn't the case, but who knows. I'm eager to know what you all think and if we have any hints to base our guesses on.
  21. So, it appears that the whole Hoed mantra thing is Cosmere-significant, and //it's been 6 months since Oathbringer release, but I don't know how the Spoiler rules have changed, etc. I have included someone else's theory in a link below. I don't actually believe that theory, but it contains relevant information: Perhaps being Hoed is related to Savantism somehow?
  22. A relatively popular theory here is that Shalash will end up taking up the oaths of the Dustbringer radiants. While I'm not opposed to this theory the assumption that Shalash will become the dustbringer because of her new hobby of destroyering art seems a bit shallow to me... Instead I think Taln could be our dustbringer and Shalash the stoneward. I think it makes more sense to look at Ash and Taln's current weeknesses along with the divine attributes that define their potential orders (granted we don't fully understand how some of these apply yet). First off, the divine attributes associated with the Dustbringers are "Brave and Obedient". Taln is a much different man from who he was before. In addition to his ramblings we now know that he's become a coward. I don't think its a stretch to say that him working through his madness (with help from Ash) and finding his courage again is all but garanteed. Him overcoming his fear of battle would and swearing the dustbringer ideals fit well together. The divine attributes of the Stonewards are "Dependable and Resourceful". Now that the 2 of them have reunited I think its safe assume that Ash will be looking after and essentially babysitting Taln through his madness. As a redemption arc, it'd make sense to have one of the people that abandoned him be his rock in his time of need. This could be the perfect thing to get a stoneward spren's attention. Of course knowing Brandon none of this will be this straight forward, but you get the point.
  23. Who do you guys think would win? Lord ruler has no atium. The Heralds are Stormlight boosted by Ishar. Basically Immortal Fullborn or Immortal Heralds.
  24. In ch. 119 of OB Taln became lucid as soon as Dalinar released Honor's Perpendicularity, and in ch. 121 we find out that he regressed before the fighting started i.e. when the Perpendicularity disappeared. Could there be a connection between Honor's power and Taln's soul? Is Tanavast's madness related to this?
  25. In Oathbringer we learnt a couple of interesting new facts about Taln that differentiate him from the other Heralds So we now know that Taln never broke and was never meant to be a Herald in the first place. I have no clear theory as to why this although the former presumably is linked to the later but it does have some interesting potential implications. Were there originally meant to be nine Heralds instead of ten? If there were originally supposed to be ten, who was supposed to be the tenth instead of Taln, as it feels like a waste of a potentially interesting storyline to have the other as some generic human that has no plot meaning? Is the fact that only nine of the heralds ever broke linked to the there being nine Unmade in some way? How did Taln come to be involved in the Oathpact if he was not intended to be a Herald? What was Taln before he was a Herald and was that linked to him being the 'bearer of all agonies'? I don't know the answers to the questions, although for the last I think it would be thematically nice (if cliché) for Taln's lowly background being the source of his incredible will, but I think they are worth discussing and I love to hear people's thoughts
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