Is the Everstorm permanent?

[+Oltux72]

The Knights Radiant seem to be hopelessly outclassed, doomed to be wiped out fighting an enemy that cannot be killed. So we are getting a time jump of one year. How are they still alive? Is it possible that this contains the hidden assumption that the Everstorm  will persist, which just isn't true? If it faded out a few weeks after the end of Oathbringer things are not quite so hopeless again.

[Karger]

8 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

If it faded out a few weeks after the end of Oathbringer things are not quite so hopeless again.

I doubt a change that major happens off screen.

[DiePie]

They don't seem too outclassed, the outside of Alethkar, the Parashendi don't seem to have much of a will to fight (the former Azir Parshmen even lodged a formal complaint), and most of the Parashendi still need to trained, and are also majorly outnumbered by Humans. So the Humans have the better-equipped, butter trained and larger army, though the Parashendi have better commanders (the Fuzed), and more experience with surgebinding, as well as they are better prepared. So it seems pretty even.

[+Invocation]

Odium would probably have to actively dispel it, since it's wrapped up in his Investiture and will, so very doubtful that it goes away any time soon.

[Gilphon]

I mean, I don't think it's gonna go away on its own, but really that's just symptom of the real problem- that any solution that doesn't involve finding a way to permanently get rid of Odium is a temporary one at best. The Everstorm is basically just a more immediately obvious manifestation of that fact. 

But- Odium does seem to be actively controlling it, what with seemingly breaking physics by maintaining a constant speed most of the time. And then just kind of randomly speeding up so that it could arrive at Thaylen City when Odium wanted to invade. So I think there's a good chance that if he was somehow prevented from maintaining it, it might dissipate.

And on a tactical level, DiePie is completely right about almost everything, but I do dispute the idea that the Fused are definitely better commanders than the Humans. Like they're more experienced, but the majority of them are too mentally damaged to be all that good at giving out orders. There are some very skilled commanders among them, but you shouldn't think of that as the default. 

[DiePie]

1 hour ago, Gilphon said:

Like they're more experienced, but the majority of them are too mentally damaged to be all that good at giving out orders. There are some very skilled commanders among them, but you shouldn't think of that as the default.

I forgot about the insanity, that's a good point. Though considering that there are enough fused that they can be used as a sort of special ops force, I think that most of them are going to be used in the fighting. With Odium giving general battle plans and the fused still sane acting as a war council to carry them out and adding parts to make them more effective.

[Aon Tia]

I always thought that everstorm is there to stay and it will go only once Odium is defeated. But I like the idea of KRs somehow stopping the everstorm. That would be a big setback for them. 

[Honorless]

The Everstorm is permanent in the sense that it's a single storm circling the planet, according to in-world meteorologists like the Stormwardens, as well as other experts like the Veristitalians.

The way the Everstorm was predicted and the way the Stormfather talks about it makes it sound like a phenomenon that was "coded in" by Odium or perhaps he just corrupted an existing system. That would make it difficult to "turn off". The importance that was given to its advent in WoR makes me think that it will have future plot relevance beyond just being a part of the backdrop. I don't think it's very likely that it would have been resolved off-screen during a time-skip.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Dreamer

[Lucky MOPper]

On 2/29/2020 at 3:16 AM, Dreamer said:

The Everstorm is permanent in the sense that it's a single storm circling the planet,

Wait, it circles the whole planet? Would the Radiants have a huge advantage when it is over water then?

[Honorless]

1 hour ago, Lucky MOPper said:

Wait, it circles the whole planet? Would the Radiants have a huge advantage when it is over water then?

Odium can speed it up, as we see during the Battle for Thaylen City

[Lucky MOPper]

1 minute ago, Dreamer said:

Odium can speed it up, as we see during the Battle for Thaylen City

True, I just thought it went wherever Odium wanted it to go.

[Honorless]

3 minutes ago, Lucky MOPper said:

True, I just thought it went wherever Odium wanted it to go.

Odium can control its speed and intensity to a large degree, even manipulate where the lightning generated by it strikes (the Everstorm struck Taln's temple the hardest in Thaylen City). Do note that we don't know yet whether the Everstorm has a spren, like the Highstorm has the Stormfather

Edited March 2, 2020 by Dreamer

[+ILuvHats]

2 minutes ago, Lucky MOPper said:

True, I just thought it went wherever Odium wanted it to go.

I mean, the storm wall spreads across the entirety of Roshar from north to south. Odium doesn't have to send it to specific places, because it literally passes over every place during its cycle around the planet. As Dreamer mentioned, though, he can control a lot of other aspects of it.

[Kon-Tiki]

If Odium isn't controlling it, however, the Everstorm actually more regular than the highstorm. It hits every ~9 days and moves at about 1/3 the speed of the highstorm.

[Karger]

9 hours ago, Dreamer said:

 Do note that we don't know yet whether the Everstorm has a spren, like the Highstorm has the Stormfather

Well it does.  "Everything has a spren."  We just don't know what that spren is like.

[Honorless]

14 minutes ago, Karger said:

Well it does.  "Everything has a spren."  We just don't know what that spren is like.

That seemed more like Hesina's philosophy than a proven fact.

The Everstorm probably does have a spren though

[Karger]

1 minute ago, Dreamer said:

That seemed more like Hesina's philosophy than a proven fact.

The Everstorm probably does have a spren though

Syl confirms and strictly speaking everything does have a cognitive aspect.

[Honorless]

5 minutes ago, Karger said:

Syl confirms and strictly speaking everything does have a cognitive aspect.

Syl and Pattern put forward their conjectures

[Karger]

Just now, Dreamer said:

Syl and Pattern put forward their conjectures

Syl claims that Kaladin's spears had spren and she could have walked over and looked while in the CR to prove it.

[Honorless]

4 minutes ago, Karger said:

Syl claims that Kaladin's spears had spren and she could have walked over and looked while in the CR to prove it.

That would be a Cognitive aspect, not a spren

As for the Everstorm, Syl & Pattern theorize that it might have a spren, Stormfather never confirms but he does call it his opposite.

[Kon-Tiki]

Saying "everything has a spren" is to my mind the Rosharan overuse of the word. To Rosharans, any Cognitive entity is a spren, to include Cognitive Shadows like the Fused and the Heralds, as well as the beads. I think that's a definition that's overbroad and more confusing than useful, so I don't use it. As for whether the Everstorm has a spren, I'm in the "The Everstormmother is Ba-Ado-Mishram" camp, personally.

[Gilphon]

6 hours ago, Kon-Tiki said:

If Odium isn't controlling it, however, the Everstorm actually more regular than the highstorm. It hits every ~9 days and moves at about 1/3 the speed of the highstorm.

No, no, the thing is that it's impossible for a weather system to be that regular under normal circumstances. Like colliding with the Highstorm alone should mess it's speed and frequency pretty badly. Which is why the Highstorm became a lot less predictable once the Everstorm became a thing, and why the researchers were so reluctant to believe that the Everstorm could be that predictable.

The fact that most of the time it travels at a constant speed and takes a set amount to get around the planet tells us that Odium is always controlling it; the only way it could possibly be that regular would be if Odium adjusted the speed every time it encountered something that should speed it up or slow it down. 

[desi_sparta]

Could everstorm be the 10th unmade that was created after the breaking of Tal'n? Odium will be controlling it's movement like a trainer controls a newborn pup's movement until it becomes self aware enough to develop its own personality, like some of the unmades have?