[Oathbringer] Spren in chapter 102

[Govir]

I'm rereading Oathbringer (actually, relistening) , and just got to chapter 102: Celebrant. Towards the end of it, a Fused is talking to the dock registrar and says there were "2-3 humans, one honorspren, and one inkspren."

Do we know why the Fused thinks there was an inkspren and not a cryptic?

[NameIess]

15 minutes ago, Govir said:

Do we know why the Fused thinks there was an inkspren and not a cryptic?

Because they believed that Shallan was an Elsecaller, not a Lightweaver.

[Govir]

2 minutes ago, Nameless said:

Because they believed that Shallan was an Elsecaller, not a Lightweaver.

Oh ok. I was thinking Ico gave them the information (and assumedly know Pattern is a cryptic), but it does seem more like they were gleaning information based on the hydrator and half eaten food.

[+Invocation]

One of those little details where Jasnah's whole "Make Shallan pretend she's an Elsecaller" thing comes back into play. I love those little gems.

[Aspiring Writer]

1 hour ago, Invocation said:

One of those little details where Jasnah's whole "Make Shallan pretend she's an Elsecaller" thing comes back into play. I love those little gems.

Yeah, though after her stunt in with the whole Lightweaved army, Odium will now for sure know she's not an elsecaller.

[+Invocation]

29 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

Yeah, though after her stunt in with the whole Lightweaved army, Odium will now for sure know she's not an elsecaller.

Yeah, but that secret had to come out sometime. Giving a massive surprise like that at a turnpoint battle like Thaylen City was worth the secrecy.

[Aspiring Writer]

1 minute ago, Invocation said:

Yeah, but that secret had to come out sometime. Giving a massive surprise like that at a turnpoint battle like Thaylen City was worth the secrecy.

Oh yeah, I don't disagree, just stating a fact

[Gilphon]

Makes me wonder why it was a thing. It's a plot thread that got brought up a few times, but didn't really go anywhere, and now the cat's throughly out of the bag.

I wonder if Odium has some anti-illusion measures up his sleeve, and the plot thread is there to explain why he didn't think he'd need them at Thaylen City?

[kaellok]

13 minutes ago, Gilphon said:

Makes me wonder why it was a thing.

The first rule of battle is Know Your Enemy.  We get several hints in Oathbringer that people were looking for Shallan, but were following the trails that they expected an Elsecaller to leave, rather than a Lightweaver.  ie, they were looking in all the wrong places because they didn't know their quarry.

Odium had been preparing Dalinar to become His champion for decades.  Odium had been preparing Sadeas's army to turn for at least 5 years.  Nergaoul was probably not needed to make either of those things happen, but Odium brought it to play in its full force to up the odds because the forces of humanity had no counter to it--He believed.  Shallan herself (dubious tho she might be as a primary source in this matter hahah) that she observed her Illusions being far more effective than they had any right to be because of the overwhelming level of bloodlust in the turned Sadeas soldiers.

This heavily implies, if not outright states, that a Lightweaver with sufficient Stormlight is a soft counter to Nergaoul.  Odium brought one of his strongest weapons to a battle thinking to use it to ensure an overwhelming victory, and then lost (ok, probably closer to a draw, because humans killing thousands of humans is bad for the survival of humans) and also lost the weapon.

There's several reasons why Odium didn't win at Thaylen City, but Odium having no idea that the Radiants had a Lightweaver is one of them.

Also, I'm expecting there to be more knock-on effects from this in future books, especially regarding the people hunting Shallan.