[OB] Book 4 Storyline Predictions and Discussions

[TequilaJack]

So how do you think Book 4 will progress. It is supposed to be based on Eshonai so I'll make the following predictions on how the story will progress:

Back Story:

- History of Parshmen and their gods

- Gavilar's intentions and his relationship with Sons of Honor

- Information on Desolation

 

Current Story:

- Shallan and Sja-Anat

- Dalinar and alliance building

- Queen Jasnah!

- Kaladin is a bit difficult as he found his parents and doesn't have any objectives. Maybe on his inability to progress as a Radiant. 

- Venli discovers about herself.

 

Interludes:

- Tarvangian's plan.

- Heralds backstory

- Moash

 

What do you all think? 

[Yezrien]

I think we’ll meet Ba Ado Mishram in book 4. Since Odium is worried about being drawn into a duel without his champion, he’s going to withdraw from directly managing the war effort, and his forces will need a new leader. They’ll find one buried under Kholinar.

This will probably come with revelations about the capture of BAM, which connects nicely with the history of the Listeners.

For additional interludes, I’d predict something about Nale joining up with the Singers. I bet they’ll have some mixed feelings about their new “ally.”

[Patrick Star]

9 minutes ago, Belzedar said:

I think we’ll meet Ba Ado Mishram in book 4. Since Odium is worried about being drawn into a duel without his champion, he’s going to withdraw from directly managing the war effort, and his forces will need a new leader. They’ll find one buried under Kholinar.

This will probably come with revelations about the capture of BAM, which connects nicely with the history of the Listeners.

For additional interludes, I’d predict something about Nale joining up with the Singers. I bet they’ll have some mixed feelings about their new “ally.”

I'm going to disagree with you on your first point, I think Ba-Ado-Mishram is in the sphere that Szeth hid.  We'll probably see it this book, but I don't think it's under Kholinar.

As for Nale, I'm curious about how that's going to go down.  We need to see exactly why Odium assassinated Jezrien in the way that he did, since Nale very possibly could have pledged himself to a side that needs to kill him to further their plans.  I'm interested to see what happens.

As for other stuff, I think we might get to see a showdown with Tezim/Ishar in this book.  I wouldn't be surprised if Taln and Ash end up being the ones to fight him.  You know, to stop a herald, you need two heralds, or something like that.  If the Ash-Dustbringer theory is true,  I could see them both starting to swear their ideals in this book.

Also, I'm in the camp of Rlain becoming involved in reaching out to the Listeners who escaped Narak.  He might team up with now-radiant Venli to do that.

So yeah, I think the two big factors not mentioned already are Taln and Ash, and Rlain.  Interested to see how that story goes!

[lu-tze]

1 hour ago, TequilaJack said:

Back Story:

- History of Parshmen and their gods

- Gavilar's intentions and his relationship with Sons of Honor

- Information on Desolation

 

I think Gavilar's personal intentions will remain hidden. If we gain insight, I think it will be through Dalonar's PoV. However I think Sons of Honor / Ghostbloods will be revealed, and the relationship between them, Taravangian, and whatever opposition he has.

Kal will need a few flashbacks, I think we'll continue with Tarah.

Also lots of Eshonai (Venli flashbacks). 

 

1 hour ago, TequilaJack said:

Current Story:

- Shallan and Sja-Anat

- Dalinar and alliance building

- Queen Jasnah!

- Kaladin is a bit difficult as he found his parents and doesn't have any objectives. Maybe on his inability to progress as a Radiant. 

- Venli discovers about herself.

I think more Navani than Jasnah. But speaking of, I'm holding out for some Kal/Jasnah sparks. We'll see quite a bit of Shallan + Adolin, probably struggles.

Of course Kal's primary antagonist for books 4/5 has been introduced: Moash. Learning to trust Szeth.

Also Shallan + Ghostbloods. And a shadesmar arc.

1 hour ago, TequilaJack said:

Interludes:

- Tarvangian's plan.

- Heralds backstory

- Moash

Mraise, Zahel. Maybe Hoid. Think we'll see the purelake again.

[WhiteLeeopard]

Axies will likely appear, as I think there was a WoB about it.

We may find out how and when the Listeners splintered away from the Singers to leave behind Odium.

Venli will likely be spreading Listener culture among the Singers, about choice, free will and deciding who you are. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the book she must either flee with her followers or side with the humans during a crucial battle. 

I think we may see onscreen with bigger roles a couple more Heralds, maybe Ishar and Battar since they were both briefly mentioned in OB.

Taravangian will muddle through things with the Diagram as usual.

[Song]

3 hours ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

 

Venli will likely be spreading Listener culture among the Singers, about choice, free will and deciding who you are. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the book she must either flee with her followers or side with the humans during a crucial battle. 

I agree, I think Venli will recruit and join the radiants in the end. I also think Rlain will be part of it and will become a squire or even radiant.

Adolin will be a bit of a mess, dealing with his wife, his disillusionment with his Father, and the repercussions of Sedeas death.

We will finally get a Stonewarden.

Kaladin will say his 4th oath and Shallan will accept her 4th truth.

Shallan will finally realise she was a naive fool for infiltrating the ghostbloods. And we will see more of them.

I think that Moash will kill Taln.

And I think Lopen will make a spectacularly unsucessful pass at Ash.

[Naurock]

I wish we had more of a hint of what was wrong with the Horneater Peaks. What is this Unmade's ability? But maybe an army of Horneaters come marching down to attack the weakened Shattered Plains. Or else we see an expedition to the Peaks to investigate. 

[Bort]

I hope we see more of the Horneater Peaks, in particular, King Rock's triumphant return home as their new Shardbearer (that said, I hope Rock becomes Radiant regardless of his Shards). Possibly in part 5, leading an army of Radiants to free Cultivation's Perpendicularity.

And I think Lopen will make a pass at Jasnah. Bridge Four is, after all, the royal bodyguard.

[TequilaJack]

Maybe it's time we saw more of Cultivation. After Honor and Odium, she's really merged into the woodwork. 

[Angsos]

More Axies, Hoid and Lopen getting himself in trouble

[CrazyRioter]

I'm hoping for lots of Rlain (Rlain for Bondsmith 2k17, fight me).

More progress for Adolin and Maya (please Sanderson, you have no idea how bad I want this, these two are my platonic OTP of the year).

 

[Borio Singaldi]

My Predictions: I wanna go a bit more into detail. I'll be predicting more than just the storyline.

The prologue takes place on the night of Gavilar's death, probably through Elhokar's POV. I mean, a single viewpoint chapter from him would be nice, seeing as we never got one before and are obviously never getting that chance again. Also, I wanna know what he was talking to Nale and that other guy about. It had to be important, right? Right. The name of the prologue will be "To [insert verb]", following along with that common SA trope. I read somewhere else a suggestion that it might be "To Answer."

Other obvious things I don't need to mention but will anyway: The names of the five parts together undoubtedly form a ketek, the epilogue will be from Wit's POV as he has a philosophical monologue right before one more important thing happens in the Brandon Avalanche, some of our Radiants will advance in their oaths in part four or part five during the Avalanche (I also hope for Shardplate growth), and we'll probably get to know a lot more about the singers in this book, as it's sort of their book. Because of that, I think this book will also give us a clearer understanding of the ten levels of Voidbinding and nine levels of the Fused, which even Oathbringer has only lightly touched on (kind of like how Elantris barely touched on the Dakhor magic, or how the first two Mistborn books were elusive about Hemalurgy, making us wonder how this mysterious evil magic system really works).

Other story predictions: Dalinar will finish writing Oathbringer and publish it, Shallan will come to some sort of confrontation with Sja-anat and maybe even a rematch with Re-Shephir, Adolin and Renarin will find out the truth about their mother's death, more on the Ghostbloods like an actual appearance from the enigmatic Thaidakar, more on the Tukar/Emul war like an appearance from Ishar/Tezim, and Vyre killing another Herald and maybe Roshone too. I actually think it might be Ishar who Vyre kills. I also think/hope Dalinar will finally have dealt with the remaining highprinces not loyal to him ('bout time that finally happened, since he's only been trying to unite the highprinces for three books already).

Also, we've seen a pattern in the chapter heading images. For each flashback chapter in the Stormlight books, it has shown the symbol of the main character of the book in reverse color order. For Kaladin in TWoK, there's the spear that has a black banner on it in his normal chapters, and a white one in the flashbacks. For Shallan in WoR, it's a white Pattern on a black background with a black Pattern on a white background for her flashbacks. For Dalinar in OB, we see the crest of the Kholin princedom in white with black symbols but black with white symbols in his flashback scenes. I believe that this will not be the case in the fourth book, because the flashbacks will be for Eshonai, who isn't alive now, so why would we need reverse-color chapters? No, I think the flashbacks will just be the normal Eshonai chapter headings (a Parshendi woman silhouette in Shardplate) while modern chapters with Venli will have hers in contrast (a Parshendi woman silhouette looking down at a spren in her hand).

I've noticed the books lengths are getting exponentially longer. WoR is about 80 pages longer than TWoK, and OB is about 160 pages longer than WoR, so a loose assumption could be that SA4 will be 240 pages longer than Oathbringer, clocking in at about 1,500 pages, which is longer than Sanderson's all-time favorite novel, Les Miserables (about 1,400 pages). I've actually wonder if it's one of Brandon's life goals to write a book longer than his favorite book. It seems to be going that direction.

Last but not least: the name. I think the book title will be in relation to a written work of the listeners or the singers, maybe "Song of Secrets" (likely, but maybe a copout) or "Eila Stele" (maybe too unconventional for a book name).

Edited February 13, 2018 by Firerust

[animalia]

On 2/12/2018 at 0:54 AM, Firerust said:

My Predictions: I wanna go a bit more into detail. I'll be predicting more than just the storyline.

The prologue takes place on the night of Gavilar's death, probably through Elhokar's POV. I mean, a single viewpoint chapter from him would be nice, seeing as we never got one before and are obviously never getting that chance again. Also, I wanna know what he was talking to Nale and that other guy about. It had to be important, right? Right. The name of the prologue will be "To [insert verb]", following along with that common SA trope. I read somewhere else a suggestion that it might be "To Answer."

Other obvious things I don't need to mention but will anyway: The names of the five parts together undoubtedly form a ketek, the epilogue will be from Wit's POV as he has a philosophical monologue right before one more important thing happens in the Brandon Avalanche, some of our Radiants will advance in their oaths in part four or part five during the Avalanche (I also hope for Shardplate growth), and we'll probably get to know a lot more about the singers in this book, as it's sort of their book. Because of that, I think this book will also give us a clearer understanding of the ten levels of Voidbinding and nine levels of the Fused, which even Oathbringer has only lightly touched on (kind of like how Elantris barely touched on the Dakhor magic, or how the first two Mistborn books were elusive about Hemalurgy, making us wonder how this mysterious evil magic system really works).

Other story predictions: Dalinar will finish writing Oathbringer and publish it, Shallan will come to some sort of confrontation with Sja-anat and maybe even a rematch with Re-Shephir, Adolin and Renarin will find out the truth about their mother's death, more on the Ghostbloods like an actual appearance from the enigmatic Thaidakar, more on the Tukar/Emul war like an appearance from Ishar/Tezim, and Vyre killing another Herald and maybe Roshone too. I actually think it might be Ishar who Vyre kills. I also think/hope Dalinar will finally have dealt with the remaining highprinces not loyal to him ('bout time that finally happened, since he's only been trying to unite the highprinces for three books already).

Also, we've seen a pattern in the chapter heading images. For each flashback chapter in the Stormlight books, it has shown the symbol of the main character of the book in reverse color order. For Kaladin in TWoK, there's the spear that has a black banner on it in his normal chapters, and a white one in the flashbacks. For Shallan in WoR, it's a white Pattern on a black background with a black Pattern on a white background for her flashbacks. For Dalinar in OB, we see the crest of the Kholin princedom in white with black symbols but black with white symbols in his flashback scenes. I believe that this will not be the case in the fourth book, because the flashbacks will be for Eshonai, who isn't alive now, so why would we need reverse-color chapters? No, I think the flashbacks will just be the normal Eshonai chapter headings (a Parshendi woman silhouette in Shardplate) while modern chapters with Venli will have hers in contrast (a Parshendi woman silhouette looking down at a spren in her hand).

I've noticed the books lengths are getting exponentially longer. WoR is about 80 pages longer than TWoK, and OB is about 160 pages longer than WoR, so a loose assumption could be that SA4 will be 240 pages longer than Oathbringer, clocking in at about 1,500 pages, which is longer than Sanderson's all-time favorite novel, Les Miserables (about 1,400 pages). I've actually wonder if it's one of Brandon's life goals to write a book longer than his favorite book. It seems to be going that direction.

Last but not least: the name. I think the book title will be in relation to a written work of the listeners or the singers, maybe "Song of Secrets" (likely, but maybe a copout) or "Eila Stele" (maybe too unconventional for a book name).

The third prologue broke the mold if I remember correctly.

[Ripheus23]

On 2/11/2018 at 10:54 PM, Firerust said:

I've noticed the books lengths are getting exponentially longer. WoR is about 80 pages longer than TWoK, and OB is about 160 pages longer than WoR, so a loose assumption could be that SA4 will be 240 pages longer than Oathbringer, clocking in at about 1,500 pages...

Hmm, 80-160-240-320-400-480-560-640-720---that means SA10 will be a black-spherical number of pages long 

[Patrick Star]

15 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

Hmm, 80-160-240-320-400-480-560-640-720---that means SA10 will be a black-spherical number of pages long 

Is there a problem with that?

[Ashspren]

Quote

Questioner[PENDING REVIEW]

So...all the 3 Way of Kingsbooks begin from a different person's perspective in the past. Who're you doing next time?

Brandon Sanderson[PENDING REVIEW]

Let me see...so Gavilar is last, so he's not fourth. I think it's Navani, but I'm not 100% sure. Yes, I think it's Navani, but I will have to look at what I've got in my notes. The 4th one's been the wild card. I always went with Szeth first and Gavilar last.

source

I’m excited for a possible Navani viewpoint, especially if, like the other prologues, it takes place during the night of Gavilar’s death. I would want to see her level of grief, as it was seen as questionable throughout the series. 

I feel like Shallan might be pregnant in Book 4. But, she’ll probably still have problems in her relationship with Adolin. This will add a lot of drama... 

Honestly, I’m kind of worried for Shallan. Brandon has buried her in an extremely deep hole of problems, and it might take more than ten books to get her out... 

Another thing I’m looking forward to: WHAT IS THE STORMING BLACK SPHERE?! 

[Apollyon]

I have 3 words. 

Spoiler

Stick will burn.

But in all seriousness, I'm looking forward to seeing more Bondsmith things and hopefully seeing Rlain become one. I think he's a great candidate.

And... Shallan personalities. At the end of OB, she supposedly consolidated her personas and decided on Adolin, but I think her arc is far from over. She's still going to struggle with those. 

Last but not least, I want more Nightblood. and Shadesmar. Overall, I just want to see how Nightblood works realmatically, cutting through all 3 realms and all.

[+Oltux72]

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but Szeth will now stay with Dalinar. Dalinar and Navani will surely have a few questions about how and why Gavilar died. And they will ask about the other assassinations. And the attempt on Dalinar's own life. This means they will clash with Taravangian.

[Ripheus23]

On 2/11/2018 at 10:54 PM, Firerust said:

Last but not least: the name. I think the book title will be in relation to a written work of the listeners or the singers, maybe "Song of Secrets" (likely, but maybe a copout) or "Eila Stele" (maybe too unconventional for a book name).

I wonder if the titles of all ten of the books will form a ketek, like the part names do...

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

Oathbringer

...

...

...

...

Brings oaths

Worded radiantly

To the King of the Way

Well NM that doesn't actually make any sense

[Calderis]

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but Szeth will now stay with Dalinar. Dalinar and Navani will surely have a few questions about how and why Gavilar died. And they will ask about the other assassinations. And the attempt on Dalinar's own life. This means they will clash with Taravangian.

That's already known. It's the exact reason that Taravangian spun a tale of having a Herald to hide the Diagram. He already admitted to being the one to wield Szeth directly to Dalinar. 

Quote

“You … didn’t become king of Jah Keved by accident, did you?” Dalinar asked.
Taravangian shook his head. It seemed obvious to Dalinar now. Taravangian was easy to dismiss when you assumed he was slow of thought. But once you knew the truth, other mysteries began to fit into place.
“How?” Dalinar asked.
“There’s a woman at Kharbranth,” he said. “She goes by the name Dova, but we think she is Battah’Elin. A Herald. She told us the Desolation was approaching.” He looked to Dalinar. “I had nothing to do with the death of your brother. But once I heard of what incredible things the assassin did, I sought him out. Years later, I located him, and gave him specific instructions.…”

 

[+Oltux72]

Just now, Calderis said:

That's already known. It's the exact reason that Taravangian spun a tale of having a Herald to hide the Diagram. He already admitted to being the one to wield Szeth directly to Dalinar. 

 

Thanks for refreshing my memory.
This story is supposed to hold up when Navani and Jasnah begin to probe? Why weaken the Azish for example? And they will wonder why a cold Macchiavellian type spends so much money on hospitals. And if he knew the desolation was coming and he is that ruthless, why did he not eliminate his Parshmen? He may convince Dalinar, but Jasnah and Navani?

[Rainier]

On 2/11/2018 at 4:38 AM, Song said:

Shallan will finally realise she was a naive fool for infiltrating the ghostbloods. And we will see more of them.

Yes, but in typical Shallan fashion she'll only recognize she's in too deep when she's midway through drowning, believing until then that she was merely free-diving, and could totally hold her breath this long, promise.

 

On 2/11/2018 at 10:51 AM, Bort said:

King Rock's triumphant return home as their new Shardbearer

While Rock will eventually bear Shards, and eventually return home, I doubt it will ever be triumphant. There's too much angst in his murky past for a simple happy reunion. There's something he's running from, and the moment when it finally catches up to him will be a resigned moment, not a triumphant one.

[Eris]

The predictions about Renarin and Adolin finding out the truth of their mother's death is something I have been thinking a lot about. 

I'm going to build upon your prediction and say, Renarin most likely knew or figured out what happened but decided to keep it hidden, tact. This is because Renarin is an intelligent person and probably realised his father's strange behaviour and found the truth. So theoretically this could have been one of the many possible reasons why Glys bonded with Renarin and why he is a truthwatcher. 

Further, if it is cannon that to become a knight radiant, you need to be broken then what better way than have Adolin find out his father was not the honourable man he thought he was. His father was a monster that killed out of bloodlust and murder his mother, hating Adolin in the process because of his resemblance to Evi. This I think would do it but I don't know how this would tie into an Edgedancer oath except for Adolin remembering all the murders his father had done and properly remembering how his mother actually died because technically no one alive except Dalinar knows that he killed Evi. 

 

I think this would be an important element in both building up Renarin's character but also Adolin. 

I couldn't tag the original poster Ookla the Rusty

Edited December 30, 2018 by Eris
Couldn't tag the person

[What's a Seawolf?]

Thinking about predictions pre-Oathbringer, myself and many others thought Brandon would take the mysteries post WoR and spin them out over the course of the first arc of the SA.  Well, he dumped everything in the extraordinary third book and created a bunch of new mysteries for us to theorize about and look forward to.

I think the same thing is going to happen with book 4.

Almost everything we have questions/theories about will be answered, and in doing so Brandon will leave us with a heap of currently not thought of questions and mysteries for book 5.

So in book 4 I think we'll get:

-What's happening at the Horneater Peaks

-Ba Ado Mishram and most if not all of the remaining Unmade

-What happened to the good Parshendi

-The history of the Parshendi and what happened via the Radiant strike team in the past that trapped BAM

-Adolin and Maya (please don't die Adolin)

-Aimia

-Shallan's continuing mental breakdown and final resolution (whatever that may be)

-All things Ghostbloods

-Resolutions to Nale and Ishar, or at least their anti-Dalinar armies

 

And that's just off the top of my head.  It wouldn't surprise me if Adolin and Shallan had a baby in the 1 year gap either.  I think Dalinar killing Evi will be something taken care of in the 1 year gap.  (He will undoubtedly mention it in the in-world book Oathbringer, plus to his sons beforehand.)  Adolin and Renarin will reflect on it at some point in book 4, but it's not going to be a 'omg will Adolin and Renarin hate Dalinar now' plot point.

If all that sounds like too much, just remember, we would have said the same thing about everything that happened in OB pre-release as well.  But Brandon fit it all in.

[Joy]

I really hope that the Ghostbloods are a force to be reckoned with in Stormlight 4, because nothing's really come of that plot line so far--it seems like Brandon is still planting seeds for a future plot. Also, yes please to the group of Parshendi who escaped stormform. They can't possibly have escaped just to die in the highstorm...