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That Elokhar is a Surgebinder is nothing new. He sees the same type of Spren as Shallan and is thus most likely a Lightweaver. But I think he might be further down the rabbit hole than we previously realized, as I believe he might have started Surgebinding already at the beginning of The Way of Kings.

 

 

Think back on the Greatshell hunt and the apparent assassination attempt. The cut saddle was

the king himself trying to make the others believe someone was out for him

, but they all seemed convinced that the almost empty Spheres powering Elokhar's Shardplate was a sign of an actual assassination attempt. But since he has already been seeing the "Truthsprens" for some time by this point (as manifested by his accruing paranoia), it would be much of a stretch to assume that he might inadvertently have depleted those Spheres himself during the assault on the Chasmfiend itself or prior to its appearance.

 

 

 

 

Now, I haven't the book with me right now - I shall have to look it up at a later time - but if this is indeed the case, then there might be room to reinterpret the events of the fight with the Greatshell altogether. Elokhar almost got crushed by the claw of the Chasmfiend, but Dalinar was able to save him by taking the blow upfront  and holding its claw back. This produced a burst of brilliant white light just as he caught the claw, just before the beast itself fell and was subsequently killed. While some think that the burst of light from Dalinar might have been either himself using latent Surgebinding abilities (which doubt, as he had probably not attracted a spren at this point) or just an effect of his whole Shardpate cracking (thus leaking Stormlight all over), I propose that this might actually have been Elokhar unwittingly using his Nahal Bond to Surgebind and save himself and his uncle - and thus depleting the Spheres in his armour and producing the flash of Stormlight.

 

I find this to sound quite plausible, though I have to admit that the audacity of this foreshadowing borders on the insane - and even so managed to escape detection for a long time, at least by me.

 

 

 

EDIT: A weak point to the theory though is that - assuming he is indeed a Lightweaver - his particular Surges wouldn't seem to (at least not intuitively) produce the effects of this particular scenario. The Soulcasting Surge of Transformation wouldn't have been able to help Dalinar hold back the Claw as nothing seems to have been Soulcast, and the Illumination Surge - while certainly able to produce a bright flash of light - would probably not be able to produce this kind of effect. 

 

On the other hand, the limits of either Surge are not well defined at this point, so even though neither seem to have an intuitive application that could have stopped the Chasmfiend claw, there might still be and *cough* unintuitive one.

Edited by Aether
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I like the theory but I think we need just a little more information to either confirm or refute it.

Umm...it's a stretch, but maybe Illumination can...bequeath Stormlight? Like Dalinar catches the claw and, rather then being serial crushed by a huge friggin' claw and having his armor and body exploded, Elhokar infuses his Stormlight into Dalinar's Plate. Think of it like your bank automatically transferring some money into your Checking account from your Savings account to prevent you from overdrawing.

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I like the theory but I think we need just a little more information to either confirm or refute it.

Umm...it's a stretch, but maybe Illumination can...bequeath Stormlight? Like Dalinar catches the claw and, rather then being serial crushed by a huge friggin' claw and having his armor and body exploded, Elhokar infuses his Stormlight into Dalinar's Plate. Think of it like your bank automatically transferring some money into your Checking account from your Savings account to prevent you from overdrawing.

 

It is possible that Elhokar is surgebinding as it does seem that he is seeing the crypics. However there are some barriers. Most notable is that he is clearly quite paranoid about them and we cannot say for certain if he has spoken to them to tell then any 'truths' about himself to strengthen the bond.

 

If Elhokar has bonded sufficiently to the Crypics at the time of the hunt then we do not need him to actually surgebind to account for the cracked gemstones. He could simply have infused himself in panic, thus depleting the gemstones.

 

Everyone was so focused on Dalinar's epicness that they may not have noticed the stormlight leaking from Elhokar.

Edited by MadRand
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There has been discussion of Elhokar unwittingly using the stormilight from him plate gems and talk of Dalinar unwittingly using it.  Nothing very conclusive.  I don't see anything in the known (or suspected) Lightweaver skillset that would account for such a use of surgebinding.  Basically, I don't see how an illusion or soulcasting would have done anything there.  Alaxel's idea of a donation of light to Dalinar makes more sense, but without further info...

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Plate interferes in Szeth's Lashings; I personally assume that's to protect the bearer from hostile Investiture and works in both directions. I'm on record as saying Radiants can attune to the armor so it allows their own Surgebinding through, but I'm less than sure an entry-level Radiant would be able to do it. Also, Dalinar's Shardplate glows during that fight and on occasions where Elhokar is not present. 

 

Still, the suspiciously cracked gems could indicate he drained them unconsciously. I don't think his Plate took enough abuse to actually empty and thus crack the gems unless they were barely charged to begin with, and that would be noticeable when donning the armor. I think he only absorbed Stormlight like Kaladin does, though. Or he subconsciously tried to transform something, the Plate interfered, the Stormlight was wasted, and the gems got overstressed both powering and countering a surge.

 

On the other hand, there is additional evidence that an actual assassination attempt happened. The Chasmfiend moved unexpectedly and attacked the plateau instead of emerging onto the far plateau to go after the bait team. I'm not sure how you'd arrange either that or the cracked gems, but it was suspiciously conveniently timed. With an unexpected attack by a Chasmfiend that large and sabatoged Plate, Elhokar was at significant risk of death even without the cut strap. I guess you could get it to happen by using a set of gems a lot and then sticking them into the Plate; usually they'd be in a rotation because the oldest ones crack and are replaced by fresh ones. Also, even if he did use them for Surgebinding, it's still suspicious so many cracked. Jasnah Soulcasts a lot, but only transforming two humans at a distance shattered her gems.

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I've long been a proponent of the theory that the drained gems were a result of Elhokar unknowingly draining them himself. Note, though, that he doesn't have to actually do anything useful with that stormlight though, in order to drain the gems. He probably simply held the stormlight for a short time and let it drain out without using it for much. At his stage of development, he can probably hold it for only a few seconds, much like Szeth. 

 

And regarding the Cryptics - we have no confirmation at this point that they are the spren exclusive to the Lightweavers. In fact, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to the contrary, in my opinion. Every other Radiant order we've seen so far (which is 3; the Windrunners, the Edgedancers, and order 5) bonds with a spren that resembles a "regular" spren, but has awareness and directly communicates with the Radiant. The Cryptics are markedly different on several fronts; they travel in a group rather than singly; they have no resemblance to "regular" spren types; and at least for Shallan, they seem to require an "exchange" in order to produce a surgebinding effect. Also, Elhokar and Shallan perceive them very differently; she sees them subconsiously in her drawings while he sees them in mirrors. Now, it's possible that this all has to do with the somewhat unique nature of the Soulcasting surge. But it's also possible that the Cryptics are an entirely different class from Honorspren, and may represent a separate way of becoming a surgebinder. My point here is that just because Elhokar sees Cryptics doesn't mean he's going to be a Lightweaver. 

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I like the theory but I think we need just a little more information to either confirm or refute it.

Umm...it's a stretch, but maybe Illumination can...bequeath Stormlight? Like Dalinar catches the claw and, rather then being serial crushed by a huge friggin' claw and having his armor and body exploded, Elhokar infuses his Stormlight into Dalinar's Plate. Think of it like your bank automatically transferring some money into your Checking account from your Savings account to prevent you from overdrawing.

Nice thought. I was playing around with the idea of creating a flash of light and then Soulcasting that. Somehow. ... ... ... Needless to say, I discarded that idea.

 

There has been discussion of Elhokar unwittingly using the stormilight from him plate gems and talk of Dalinar unwittingly using it.  Nothing very conclusive.  I don't see anything in the known (or suspected) Lightweaver skillset that would account for such a use of surgebinding.  Basically, I don't see how an illusion or soulcasting would have done anything there.  Alaxel's idea of a donation of light to Dalinar makes more sense, but without further info...

O_o, it didn't even occur to me that Dalinar might have been the one using the gems. Even so, I find it highly doubtful, as either of the plates might have interfered with it (as per Szeth's quote) plus the assumed fact that he didn't have a Spren at that point. Elokhar had at the very least attracted them.

Plate interferes in Szeth's Lashings; I personally assume that's to protect the bearer from hostile Investiture and works in both directions. I'm on record as saying Radiants can attune to the armor so it allows their own Surgebinding through, but I'm less than sure an entry-level Radiant would be able to do it. Also, Dalinar's Shardplate glows during that fight and on occasions where Elhokar is not present. 

 

Still, the suspiciously cracked gems could indicate he drained them unconsciously. I don't think his Plate took enough abuse to actually empty and thus crack the gems unless they were barely charged to begin with, and that would be noticeable when donning the armor. I think he only absorbed Stormlight like Kaladin does, though. Or he subconsciously tried to transform something, the Plate interfered, the Stormlight was wasted, and the gems got overstressed both powering and countering a surge.

 

On the other hand, there is additional evidence that an actual assassination attempt happened. The Chasmfiend moved unexpectedly and attacked the plateau instead of emerging onto the far plateau to go after the bait team. I'm not sure how you'd arrange either that or the cracked gems, but it was suspiciously conveniently timed. With an unexpected attack by a Chasmfiend that large and sabatoged Plate, Elhokar was at significant risk of death even without the cut strap. I guess you could get it to happen by using a set of gems a lot and then sticking them into the Plate; usually they'd be in a rotation because the oldest ones crack and are replaced by fresh ones. Also, even if he did use them for Surgebinding, it's still suspicious so many cracked. Jasnah Soulcasts a lot, but only transforming two humans at a distance shattered her gems.

When does Dalinar's plate glow other that when defending Elokhar (presumably literally standing over him, within touching range)?

 

If Jasnah's kill spree cracked two gems, then imagine what STOPPING A GIANT CHASMFIEND CLAW might do to the Spheres. I believe that it is well within the realm of plausibility that Surgebinding on that magnitude - whether on the part of Dalinar or Elokhar - might more or less deplete and/or crack eight fully Infused Spheres.

 

 

Also: another thought, if we allow the possibility that Dalinar's latent powers might have been what saved them, then I think we need for him only to absorb and hold the Stormlight - just like Kalladin does for the fight with the Parshendi - for it to produce that effect. It would have made him a lot stronger, and the expenditure of that amount of Stormlight in a blink of a second would have produced the burst of light.

 

 

EDIT:

 

 

I've long been a proponent of the theory that the drained gems were a result of Elhokar unknowingly draining them himself. Note, though, that he doesn't have to actually do anything useful with that stormlight though, in order to drain the gems. He probably simply held the stormlight for a short time and let it drain out without using it for much. At his stage of development, he can probably hold it for only a few seconds, much like Szeth. 

 

And regarding the Cryptics - we have no confirmation at this point that they are the spren exclusive to the Lightweavers. In fact, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to the contrary, in my opinion. Every other Radiant order we've seen so far (which is 3; the Windrunners, the Edgedancers, and order 5) bonds with a spren that resembles a "regular" spren, but has awareness and directly communicates with the Radiant. The Cryptics are markedly different on several fronts; they travel in a group rather than singly; they have no resemblance to "regular" spren types; and at least for Shallan, they seem to require an "exchange" in order to produce a surgebinding effect. Also, Elhokar and Shallan perceive them very differently; she sees them subconsiously in her drawings while he sees them in mirrors. Now, it's possible that this all has to do with the somewhat unique nature of the Soulcasting surge. But it's also possible that the Cryptics are an entirely different class from Honorspren, and may represent a separate way of becoming a surgebinder. My point here is that just because Elhokar sees Cryptics doesn't mean he's going to be a Lightweaver. 

 

Good point. Upvote for you.

Edited by Aether
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When does Dalinar's plate glow other that when defending Elokhar (presumably literally standing over him, within touching range)?

 

If Jasnah's kill spree cracked two gems, then imagine what STOPPING A GIANT CHASMFIEND CLAW might do to the Spheres. I believe that it is well within the realm of plausibility that Surgebinding on that magnitude - whether on the part of Dalinar or Elokhar - might more or less deplete and/or crack eight fully Infused Spheres.

 

 

Also: another thought, if we allow the possibility that Dalinar's latent powers might have been what saved them, then I think we need for him only to absorb and hold the Stormlight - just like Kalladin does for the fight with the Parshendi - for it to produce that effect. It would have made him a lot stronger, and the expenditure of that amount of Stormlight in a blink of a second would have produced the burst of light.

 

It glows when he attacks a group of Parshendi archers threatening Bridge Four. Also, Jasnah cracked one gem by transforming a considerable mass at a distance. The amount of energy required to do that is much, much larger than you might assume, especially since it involved changing the elemental makeup of the target. Of course, it's hard to say how physical energy requirements compare to Stormlight consumption across types.

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I've long been a proponent of the theory that the drained gems were a result of Elhokar unknowingly draining them himself. Note, though, that he doesn't have to actually do anything useful with that stormlight though, in order to drain the gems. He probably simply held the stormlight for a short time and let it drain out without using it for much. At his stage of development, he can probably hold it for only a few seconds, much like Szeth. 

 

And regarding the Cryptics - we have no confirmation at this point that they are the spren exclusive to the Lightweavers. In fact, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to the contrary, in my opinion. Every other Radiant order we've seen so far (which is 3; the Windrunners, the Edgedancers, and order 5) bonds with a spren that resembles a "regular" spren, but has awareness and directly communicates with the Radiant. The Cryptics are markedly different on several fronts; they travel in a group rather than singly; they have no resemblance to "regular" spren types; and at least for Shallan, they seem to require an "exchange" in order to produce a surgebinding effect. Also, Elhokar and Shallan perceive them very differently; she sees them subconsiously in her drawings while he sees them in mirrors. Now, it's possible that this all has to do with the somewhat unique nature of the Soulcasting surge. But it's also possible that the Cryptics are an entirely different class from Honorspren, and may represent a separate way of becoming a surgebinder. My point here is that just because Elhokar sees Cryptics doesn't mean he's going to be a Lightweaver. 

 

A couple of items.

 

First, I agree that Elohkar probably unconsciously drained his gems.  However, I don't think that the energy was wasted.  He'd just been unceremoniously thrown off of his horse, and people die from that in real life.  It's possible that - even while wearing shardplate - he was injured during the fall (perhaps a twisted ankle).  And the energy that he absorbed was used to heal himself.

 

Second, Elohkar's ability to see cryptics in mirrors might be some form of scrying.  In popular folklore mirrors are supposed to show things as they really are (which iirc is related to why vampires don't appear in them - they have no soul).  And that's what appears to be happening here.  Mirrors are also popular devices for use as scrying tools, probably for the same reason mentioned above.  Elohkar appears to be aware of the fact that he's very inexperienced, and that there's probably a lot going on that he doesn't see.  As such, a likely desire on his part would be to pierce the veils of secrecy around him so that he can keep his kingship secure.  And he might very well have achieved his desire - in a very unexpected fashion.  As such, it's possible that he's gained the ability to scry, and his mirror is scrying tool.  Unfortunately, since he only expects to see a reflection when he looks in the mirror, it's showing him exactly that...  and including things that don't ordinarily cast reflections.

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I don't think Dalinar could have use Elohkar's spheres, Shard plate would have by necessity a blocking ability to prevent storm light from being drained from the spheres. Other wise Radiants would be way to easy to take down, just drain the sphere and bam they can't move.

 

I don't think Elohkar could have taken in the storm light and not noticed. The gems to power a suit are larger bigger even then probably all of the ones Kalladin had at any given time. I suppose it is possible that he immediately breathed it out. I wonder if the other groups of Radiants are even able to take in storm light like Kalladin and lift.

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I don't think Dalinar could have use Elohkar's spheres, Shard plate would have by necessity a blocking ability to prevent storm light from being drained from the spheres. Other wise Radiants would be way to easy to take down, just drain the sphere and bam they can't move.

 

I don't think Elohkar could have taken in the storm light and not noticed. The gems to power a suit are larger bigger even then probably all of the ones Kalladin had at any given time. I suppose it is possible that he immediately breathed it out. I wonder if the other groups of Radiants are even able to take in storm light like Kalladin and lift.

Well, there is the theory that Shardplates might not originally have been powered by Spheres, but by the KR wearing it. The Sphere slots themselves (if there indeed were any in the Plate in it's original form) could have been to house spare Spheres.

 

Also, I think it plausible that whomever used the Stormlight could have done so without noticing. Whatever one of them did would have had to happen so suddenly and forcefully that they might not have had enough time to notice - or at least realise - what they were doing. Kalladin had several instances where he got a sudden surge of power without knowing whence it came, or even that it was happening in the first place.

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I like the idea that Elokhar shattered his own spheres in the fight, and I re-read the chasmfiend fight twice to try to find any evidence, but I couldn't find anything that hints he was using any power.   I think it happened, but I don't know when he actually might have used stormlight to shatter the spheres.  

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Also, I think it plausible that whomever used the Stormlight could have done so without noticing. Whatever one of them did would have had to happen so suddenly and forcefully that they might not have had enough time to notice - or at least realise - what they were doing. Kalladin had several instances where he got a sudden surge of power without knowing whence it came, or even that it was happening in the first place.

 

But the key aspect there is that he noticed the surge of power.  Whereas, there doesn't appear to be any cognizence of any sort of power surge from any of Dalinar, Elhokar, or Adolin.  This is especially poignant when you consider the quantity of stormlight held in Elhokar's plate gems as compared to the palty amount that Kaladin carried at any given time.

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We know that Renarin sees a spren and it is speculated that he is or will be soon, a KR. What if he is the one who using the Stormlight and that is why he he brashly galloped into the fight without armor or weapons. The Stormlight couldve gave him strength and a feeling of power and adrenaline.

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But the key aspect there is that he noticed the surge of power.  Whereas, there doesn't appear to be any cognizence of any sort of power surge from any of Dalinar, Elhokar, or Adolin.  This is especially poignant when you consider the quantity of stormlight held in Elhokar's plate gems as compared to the palty amount that Kaladin carried at any given time.

I didn't make myself clear enough, I apologise for that. What I mean to say is that, even though such an enormous surge of power would surely have been noticed, it could have passed quickly enough for them not to realise what was happening at all. Given that they were in a rather dire situation, it could easily be overshadowed  by panic, and/or adrenaline. Maybe even the Thrill. If this was a one-off event, it could likely have been forgotten afterwards, since it probably wouldn't have been an event that Elokhar/Dalinar could reproduce.

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We know that Renarin sees a spren and it is speculated that he is or will be soon, a KR. What if he is the one who using the Stormlight and that is why he he brashly galloped into the fight without armor or weapons. The Stormlight couldve gave him strength and a feeling of power and adrenaline.

 

I'm skeptical of this.  He was pretty far away to be sucking in light from Elhokar's gems.

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It could've happened at the instant they realized what was happening and they were all together or when he began to charge in and then gained the Stormlight and that motivated him further. Or maybe it was his spren telling him to help. Or maybe he is just wanting to help out and I'm making a big deal out of nothing. ;)

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I don't believe that it is possible for someone outside Shardplate to draw the Stormlight from the gems inside Shardplate. Look at Szeth's fight with Gavilar. Szeth is the most experienced surgebinder we have seen as a Point of View character, and from his POV we can infer that he has experience with fighting Shardbearers before his fight with Gavilar. If he could draw Stormlight from the gems just by being near he would have done so at any point in the fight, thereby disabling the Shardplate. Instead he doesn't draw any Stormlight from the plate until after Gavilar is completely incapacitated, and even then he has to open the Shardplate first before he is able to draw the Stormlight out so he can start healing himself. If he had the ability to draw Stormlight without first opening the plate he would have done so.

Edited by Beautor
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I'd be really disappointed, from a worldbuilding standpoint, if anyone other than Elhokar drained those gems. We're told that a Shardplate wearer can't be Invested, and that the Plate protected Gavilar's gems from being drained by Szeth during their fight. There's even a note made of the fact that Szeth is able to drain those gems once the breastplate is off and they're exposed, whereas he couldn't before. No, Elhokar's gems were either drained before he put on the Plate, or they were drained by him.

 

Edit: Great minds think alike!

Edited by 11thorderknight
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I am inclined to agree with you Beautor.  Either Elhokar did something or somebody put in flawed gems to begin with, to my way of thinking.  The fact that the gems were cracked suggests the latter since we didn't see any apparent big surgebinding effects.

Edited by Shardlet
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Admittedly, it's been a few months since I read it, but I don't remember Elhokar acting oddly ( glowing, soulcasting, whatever) during the attack. I think it's possible taking in Stormlight could be misinterpreted as feeling the Thrill, but I don't see any evidence that he felt anything other than his usual mix of reckless and scared.I am also unconvinced that Dalinar was drawing on Elhokar's gems. Plate is Invested and should block that, especially from a beginning Surgebinder like Dalinar.

I do think Elhokar will become a Radiant, I just don't see enough evidence to conclude that he is surgebinding yet.

On a side note, he said he didn't put weak gems in his Plate or orchestrate the chasmfiend's unexpected method of arrival. I think that is significant. Even if he did infuse during the attack, he was not responsible for the chasmfiend. I think there's far more going on under the surface than we are aware of yet.

March is not coming fast enough! :lol:

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I am inclined to agree with you Beautor.  Either Elhokar did something or somebody put in flawed gems to begin with, to my way of thinking.  The fact that the gems were cracked suggests the latter since we didn't see any apparent big surgebinding effects.

 

Actually, I feel like the cracked gems suggest the former - it would be really hard to sneak in dun, much less cracked (and therefore not glowing) gems into the king's armor as he's being dressed for battle. The gems are right smack in the middle of the breast plate, so Elhokar would literally have to get dressed with his eyes closed to miss the cracked gems. And whatever servants were helping him dress and were NOT in on the plot would all have had to have their eyes closed, too. Remember, in Shallan's POV when she first meets Jasnah, she described the gems in her Soulcaster as glowing "with the light of several torches". I'm sure the gems used for the king's Plate are at least as big and well cut. And there were, what, 10 of them in his Plate? Hard to miss that.

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Yeah, but Jasnah had to soulcast a great big boulder to crack one gem.  What you're suggesting is a massive expenditure of stormlight far beyond infusing.  If Kaladin were to suck in all the stormlight from those gems they would just go dark, not crack.  Then, for several of Elhokar's gems to crack, someone would have had to make an extreme usage of stormlight in a shorter period of time than normal infusing.  I just don't see anything happening other than Dalinar holding up the claw.  And we don't know of a surge (yet) which would really cause that kind of effect.

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Plate interferes in Szeth's Lashings; I personally assume that's to protect the bearer from hostile Investiture and works in both directions. I'm on record as saying Radiants can attune to the armor so it allows their own Surgebinding through, but I'm less than sure an entry-level Radiant would be able to do it. Also, Dalinar's Shardplate glows during that fight and on occasions where Elhokar is not present. 

 

 

I don't believe that it is possible for someone outside Shardplate to draw the Stormlight from the gems inside Shardplate. Look at Szeth's fight with Gavilar. Szeth is the most experienced surgebinder we have seen as a Point of View character, and from his POV we can infer that he has experience with fighting Shardbearers before his fight with Gavilar. If he could draw Stormlight from the gems just by being near he would have done so at any point in the fight, thereby disabling the Shardplate. Instead he doesn't draw any Stormlight from the plate until after Gavilar is completely incapacitated, and even then he has to open the Shardplate first before he is able to draw the Stormlight out so he can start healing himself. If he had the ability to draw Stormlight without first opening the plate he would have done so.

 

Actually, Szeth says his Lashing interfere with the gemstones in the plate (not the other way around).  That's a good point about Szeth not stealing the stormlight from Gavilar's Plate.  However, Szeth does not derive his surgebinding from a Nahel bond, and perhaps that affects his ability to retrieve stormlight from certain sources (just like he cannot hold stormlight as efficiently as Kaladin).

 

 

These kind of embody the ideal "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." We have seen that internalizing an ideal creates a Stormlight effect, so these flashes of Stormlight could be nothing more than Dalinar internalizing this ideal and gaining enhanced powers.

 

I think that's the second ideal of Kaladin's order, and Dalinar is strongly suspected to belong to a different order, which would have a different second ideal.

 

 

I don't think Dalinar could have use Elohkar's spheres, Shard plate would have by necessity a blocking ability to prevent storm light from being drained from the spheres. Other wise Radiants would be way to easy to take down, just drain the sphere and bam they can't move.

 

I don't think Elohkar could have taken in the storm light and not noticed. The gems to power a suit are larger bigger even then probably all of the ones Kalladin had at any given time. I suppose it is possible that he immediately breathed it out. I wonder if the other groups of Radiants are even able to take in storm light like Kalladin and lift.

 

I disagree.  Plate doesn't automatically have to block stormlight drainage.  In fact, would that even be necessary if none of the Radiants' opponents used stormlight?  Voidbinding could very well rely on a different fuel source for investiture (e.g., the black light in gem Gavilar gives Szeth).  If none of their enemies can use it, how would they have a mechanism to steal it?

 

If Elhokar internalized the stormlight, he may have noticed something change within himself.  However, we never see his viewpoint, so we can't be certain.  Kaladin didn't wonder if anything weird was happening the first few times he used stormlight, because he didn't realize it.

 

 

On the other hand, there is additional evidence that an actual assassination attempt happened. The Chasmfiend moved unexpectedly and attacked the plateau instead of emerging onto the far plateau to go after the bait team. I'm not sure how you'd arrange either that or the cracked gems, but it was suspiciously conveniently timed.

 

I doubt there are many individuals in Roshar with sufficient tools and power to redirect a chasmfiend's attack toward a specific target.  However, there is one individual that could probably do it that was definitely in the vicinity at the right time... Hoid.  I don't think Hoid's goals are nefarious, as he often is sympathetic toward characters that are largely "good".  But he seems very determined to accomplish his goals, which may mean accepting collateral losses (i.e., killing innocents) in some circumstances.

 

Hoid apparently was not going to join the hunt, but came riding in just as they arrived at the plateau.  Maybe he decided to show up because his precognitive abilities indicated that something important was going to happen, but only if he was there to sway events.  So he gets to the plateau, then disappears.  Afterward he tells Elhokar that he didn't even see the fight with chasmfiend.  I'm guessing it's because he went down into the chasm and used his lightweaving or something else to lead the chasmfiend to attack the plateau with all the people.  Not because he intended great destruction (although, sadly, there was substantial loss of life), but because he knew the unexpected attack would jump start Elhokar, Dalinar, or both along some necessary pathway, like forming or strengthening a Nahel bond.

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