Thoughts on Re-Released Prologue

[CtrlAltDepressed]

Just finished the prologue re-release. 

SPOILERS FOR PRE RELEASED CONTENT BELOW

 

A lot of thoughts. 

 

First and foremost - Vasher is helping Gavilar! Woah! Did not expect that. 

 

Secondly - I don't know where I stand on if this is Stormfaker or Stormfather. Im leaning Stormfaker at this point because it doesn't make sense to me that the Stormfather would feel such pain every time a Herald dies. From the storm in their eyes and the blue light, I think its safe to assume that it is someone of Honor, which leads me back to Ishar. I think he was the one in control of these visions if its not the real Stormfather.  

Edited July 29, 2024 by CtrlAltDepressed

[CtrlAltDepressed]

Just now, Nathrangking said:

I think that it is too soon to say that this is Vasher as he is already a well known quantity at court and his hanging around with the king would be odd. If it were he the king would also not need to be so cryptic as we know him already. Also it does not seem in character after everything that Vasher has done.

On the contrary I think the fact that he called him Vasher proves it is really him. He has been going by Zahel to anyone on Roshar, we haven't heard Vasher mentioned by anyone but Nightblood.

[Gilphon]

Vasher helping Gavilar makes a lot of sense- There's no way Gavilar was capable of independently discovering anti-Voidlight, but Vasher certainly could be. 

I'm kind of surprised I've never seen that suggested as an answer, really, given that we knew Vasher was hanging around the court. I guess we're still not used to thinking of Vasher as a scholar.

Also a bunch of small things makes me think the Stormfaker is less likely, now? Like the line about 'most of the herald are insane' was changed to just 'the heralds are insane', and it feels more clear to me that Gavilar was never told that he was going to be a Herald; he just made that assumption and the Stormfather chose to play along with that idea. 

Mind you it is still weird that the Stormfather felt the Herald die, and that he chose Dalinar despite explicitly saying that he wasn't going to do that. 

[alder24]

I'm stunned by the reveal that Vasher was working with Gavilar. It wasn't Gavilar who made anti-light first, it wasn't even Navani, it was a scholar from Nalthis - Vasher. Colors, I love this guy! 

 

39 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Secondly - I don't know where I stand on if this is Stormfaker or Stormfather. Im leaning Stormfaker at this point because it doesn't make sense to me that the Stormfather would feel such pain every time a Herald dies. From the storm in their eyes and the blue light, I think its safe to assume that it is someone of Honor, which leads me back to Ishar. I think he was the one in control of these visions if its not the real Stormfather.  

On the other hand I got more affirmed in my belief that's the real Stormfather. I was comparing this version to the earlier reading and a few minor differences were quite impactful for this theory - like Stormfather saying he's searching for a champion, instead of replacement of Heralds and some other stuff. 

As for Ishar, Heralds don't feel each other's regular death, Prelude was very clear about this. This prologue didn't change my opinion on this.

[Use the Falchion]

The Vasher reveal was a massive thing, and I HAVE QUESTIONS. Part of me wonders if Vasher was blackmailed into helping Gavilar, or if he was convinced that Gavilar was doing something to help overall, and then later joined the ardentia to get away from it all. Again. 

 

As for the Stormfather vs Stormfaker thing, I'm still leaning Stormfaker, but I do think the champion aspect is more of the Stormfather. I still think that there's a chance that it's both of them but to varying degrees, and that the Stormfaker may be Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow rather than Ishar, but I'm not entirely sure. 

 

Overall, I'm just here for the ride! 

[agrabes]

After reading the new version of the prologue, I am really excited for SA5 now.  Just everything about this draft feels better.  Gavilar's character fits way better with what we had seen from him before.  The 2022 version showed Gavilar as a nasty power obsessed one dimensional person.  This version shows him as, well, still nasty and power obsessed but no longer one dimensional.  It shows us that he was always power-hungry (which we knew) but that things changed over time.  That he was at one time both ambitious and still a mostly decent person, that he did really love Navani.  It hints that back then, Navani was also a schemer who did some pretty shady stuff to help her husband rise to the top and he fully trusted her to help him even if he was doing distasteful things.  It makes sense how people could have loved him and looked up to him, he reminds me of people in my own life.  If any of you work in the corporate world - he reminds me of how there are two different types of ambitious people.  One is out only for themselves and will do whatever it takes to get to the top, the other is also out 90% for themselves, but still has enough decency to take care of the people who they are leading and try to gain power mostly through doing things that make it better for most people.  Young Gavilar feels like the second version, who slowly morphed into the one who forgot to care about anyone or anything else than his own power.  The version of him we saw in RoW prologue and in the 2022 draft was just not someone anyone could have ever even liked, much less looked up to for years and years after he was dead.  It feels like Sanderson is a lot more back on form.  It's hard to describe in words, but it just feels right.

After reading this, I used to be on the Stormfaker train but I'm now leaning against Stormfaker.  I think it was just the early draft nature of that preview which made the Stormfather seem off.  To me, this version reads as the Stormfather we know but a less experienced version.  It feels like he learned from his experience with Gavilar.  Or, it could be something to do with what we know about how the remnants of Honor are somehow merged with the original Stormfather spren.  Maybe at that point in the story (while Gavilar was alive) Honor was less integrated and the two disagreed about how to do things, etc.

[CtrlAltDepressed]

31 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

The Vasher reveal was a massive thing, and I HAVE QUESTIONS. Part of me wonders if Vasher was blackmailed into helping Gavilar, or if he was convinced that Gavilar was doing something to help overall, and then later joined the ardentia to get away from it all. Again. 

Helping Gavilar seems to line up with the motivations we have been given for him. We know a big reason for his coming to Roshar was an easier source of Investiture and he would need to spend some time after first arriving figuring out how to manipulate Light in a way that he can use it. 

 

It makes total sense to me that he would find a King to provide the resources he would need to test his theories and devise a way to manipulate the Lights. 

 

Im assuming he did it the same way navani did - with tones - but this has me curious if he needs to do something similar to Stormlight to subsist off of it. Perhaps the tone of Endowment? If so, is he creating breaths, or the breath equivalent of stormlight? (is he creating a static version of investiture like breath or a kinetic version like stormlight, probably the wrong technical term but I think you all will get the gist) I was under the impression he was using Stormlight directly to fuel his existence by making changes to his own perception, but this may imply that he has to manipulate the Light first. 

 

Very interesting all around. I wonder if his absence in ROW has anything to do with the Gavilar connection 

 

 

49 minutes ago, alder24 said:

On the other hand I got more affirmed in my belief that's the real Stormfather. I was comparing this version to the earlier reading and a few minor differences were quite impactful for this theory - like Stormfather saying he's searching for a champion, instead of replacement of Heralds and some other stuff. 

As for Ishar, Heralds don't feel each other's regular death, Prelude was very clear about this. This prologue didn't change my opinion on this.

It definitely made Stormfaker harder to accept, I think. Only for the reasons that I can't conceive of who this could logically be, and well if it quacks like a duck....

 

Some things still seem off about this. Stormfather was not asking Dalinar to be Honor's champion in the beginning. He was simply showing him the visions because Honor told him to. I seem to remember that it was the Stormfather's idea to propose the contest of champions, though, so that does seem consistent with his goals albeit very deceitful to Dalinar. 

 

It also seems wrong for the Stormfather to feel such pain every time a Herald dies. Are we to believe that all throughout the desolations, Stormfather was crippled by pain every time a Herald died? That doesn't seem right. I suppose it could be the Tanavast connection causing that pain, but it also doesn't make sense to me that Honor himself would be hurt everytime a Herald dies, something he expected them to do repeatedly. 

Edited July 29, 2024 by CtrlAltDepressed

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

For what it's worth, I think this reads like the Stormfather. He is still grumpy, still annoyingly vague, and still won't say stuff unless correctly prompted. The one thing that's wierd is his promise at the end, never to work with a Kholin again. What made him change his mind on that?

The Herald death has to be Chana right? The timeline is a bit muddy in my head right now, but this should be around when Shallan kills her mother. 

Vasher working for Gavilar is a bit surprising, but does clear up why he is on Roshar, although it's an answer that creates more questions: why did he help Gavilar? And what is his end goal now. Going to Roshar was obviously not just an attempt at a long overdue vacation. 

Storms, I've missed having these preview-weeks. It's been so long since Rhythm of War.

[alder24]

Oh, and we get confirmation of what many of us already knew, that Gavilar used an aluminum box to move Voidlight. That's neat, no need to keep us in the dark when we already suspected it.

 

22 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Im assuming he did it the same way navani did - with tones - but this has me curious if he needs to do something similar to Stormlight to subsist off of it. Perhaps the tone of Endowment? If so, is he creating breaths, or the breath equivalent of stormlight? (is he creating a static version of investiture like breath or a kinetic version like stormlight, probably the wrong technical term but I think you all will get the gist) I was under the impression he was using Stormlight directly to fuel his existence by making changes to his own perception, but this may imply that he has to manipulate the Light first. 

It seems he should be able to create Endowment-light (at least if the process is the same as creation of anti-light, which might not be true, it might require unkeying Stormlight for example), but from WoBs we know that he hasn't figure out how to Awaken with Stormlight, so it seems unlikely - it probably requires unkeying at least.

Spoiler

ZenBossanova (paraphrased)

Can Vasher use Stormlight to Awaken things?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, all it does is keep him alive. But he has tried and has not figured out how to Awaken things.

Firefight Phoenix signing (Jan. 21, 2015)

 

Spoiler

Ilkhan2016

Breath and Stormlight are both forms of Investiture. AFAIK you can power any of the magic systems from any form of Investiture. Zahel is on Roshar, I believe, primarily due to how easy Investiture (Stormlight) is to come across.

AFAIK the form of Investiture doesn't change anything about the abilities. For example, Szeth was sucked out of Stormlight when he drew Nightblood; and Azure used Stormlight to Awaken in Shadesmar.

/u/mistborn is that right?

Brandon Sanderson

A lot of this depends on the Investiture and the magic in question. Azure was legit using Breaths, for example--ones she'd brought with her. But Szeth was able to feed Stormlight to Nightblood, much as Vasher uses Stormlight to keep himself alive.

To Awaken with Stormlight, the easiest thing to do would be to first change Stormlight into Breaths--something that Azure doesn't know how to do. (Admittedly, Hoid doesn't either, so it's not like it's a simple thing to achieve.) You could also theoretically use some magical (or mechanical) means to power your Awakening with a different form of Investiture.

Extesian

This is very interesting. Is it possible then in the Cosmere for the 'intent' (spin or however described) of Investiture to be changed? And I mean within reasonable limits (not the powers of six shards or any of that). Can a Shard effectively grow in power in a place (e.g. toward an avatar) through another Shard's Investiture being changed (not just corrupted)? Or is it just making one type ('intent' - you should canonize a word for this :D) of Investiture mimic the properties of another?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the ways of accomplishing what you're talking about would involve either 1) fooling/overwriting your spiritual makeup somehow. (This is what Hemalurgy does, for example.) 2) Refining the power somehow into a more pure form.

But there are a lot of variables. The way magic from Nalthis works, for example, the system is just looking for any available Investiture to power itself--and so basically anything will do, regardless of the source. This includes consuming your own soul, in some cases...

You'll see terminology coming along eventually that facilitates talking about all of this. I'm not yet decided on some of it.

Celestial_Blu3

How many Breaths does [Azure] have by her final appearance in OB?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.

General Reddit 2019 (April 25, 2019)

 

14 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

It also seems wrong for the Stormfather to feel such pain every time a Herald dies. Are we to believe that all throughout the desolations, Stormfather was crippled by pain every time a Herald died? That doesn't seem right. I suppose it could be the Tanavast connection causing that pain, but it also doesn't make sense to me that Honor himself would be hurt everytime a Herald dies, something he expected them to do repeatedly. 

The explanation is simple - he's now Honor's Cognitive Shadow, holding remnants of Honor himself and with that he's now indirectly a part of the Oathpact. He wasn't able to do that before Honor's death, but is now due to his Connection to the Oathpact gained from Honor's pieces. The pain wouldn't matter for an infinite Shard, with near infinite mind.

 

15 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

The Herald death has to be Chana right? The timeline is a bit muddy in my head right now, but this should be around when Shallan kills her mother. 

It clearly seems that has to be the case. In WoR both the Prologue and the flashback chapter of Shallan's mother's death (ch 10) are said to be "6 years ago."

25 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Vasher working for Gavilar is a bit surprising, but does clear up why he is on Roshar, although it's an answer that creates more questions: why did he help Gavilar? And what is his end goal now. Going to Roshar was obviously not just an attempt at a long overdue vacation. 

Yes, that raises a lot of questions. I wonder if this somehow led to him and Nightblood separating. 

[Lord Spirit he/him]

To follow the general format of this thread so far

 thoughts on Vasher:

He makes sense as the reason Gavilar had anti-light. It took Navani and Rabonial, two talented scholars, several months (weeks?) to figure it out. Gavilar isn’t that smart, but Vasher… he’s very smart in terms of investiture, especially destructive forms. On the other hand, I’m interested to learn why he helped Gavilar. The way he’s described in this prologue reminds of Kelsier: protective of his planet, but sketchy otherwise.

 Thoughts on Stormfather/Stormfaker:

I was pretty confident of the stormfather after the first read, but there was a new section that makes me doubtful. When Gavilar asks the Stormfather why he’s not upset with his attempt to restore the voidbringers. The Stormfather responds “you will need someone to fight.” This sounds odd to me, since the stormfather sound be opposed to the voidbringers returning at all. 
 

other than that, I find it funny how the prologues have completely flipped in their portrayal of Gavilar, from “the great king of Alethkar” to “a jerk whose trying to get immortality”

[Kesamijr]

Personally with the whole Stormfaker stuff, I always assumed it was a combination of Stormfather and Ishar. That Ishar was manipulating the Connection between Gav and SF at times (as we see him do in RoW and we see many others do in Yumi) to interject himself as he wanted. I think at times it was really the Stormfather and others it was Ishar (the Herald death and musings of Honor’s failings felt very Ishar) though I do feel like that less without the “Gavilar is gonna be a Herald” obsession of the original draft.

Personally too, if my above theory is correct,  I wonder if Ishar has intervened in Dalinar’s connection ever, and considering the Stormfather blade got RAFO’d part of me wonders if that blade was Ishar. We see Dalinar force his spren to do something, which as people pointed out at the time, we’ve never seen elsewhere potentially indicating something different about their connection. Could also just be Bondsmith rule breaking shenanigans, but seems pointed that the first thing we see Ishar doing is trying to bring Spren to the physical realm, which could be about dimensional travel or BAM but also could be influenced by, seemingly, a similar thing happening to him. 
 

Might be a reaching crazy theory but it’s a fun time pre book like this trying to follow the threads so I figure indulge

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

19 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Yes, that raises a lot of questions. I wonder if this somehow led to him and Nightblood separating. 

Nighblood be like "We were supposed to destroy evil, Gavilar, not summon it!"

[CtrlAltDepressed]

22 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I wonder if this somehow led to him and Nightblood separating. 

2 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Nighblood be like "We were supposed to destroy evil, Gavilar, not summon it!"

Whats interesting about that is he doesn't seem to be trying to get him back. I think there is a wob that he is looking for Nightblood, but that does not seem to be a priority. 

It really feels like Vasher just tossed Nightblood when he got to Roshar and said 'Dad needs to do some work, go make new friends'
 

 

 

[Xaladin he/him]

Is anyone else bothered by timing? According to the chapter headings, Kaladin was made a slave 5 years after the Assassination, and the story begins almost a full year after that. Then here it says the Assassination was “7.5 years ago.” Perhaps chapter 1 of Wind and Truth isn’t chronologically after RoW? I looked at the interactive map/timeline, and it appears tWoK took a month and WoR took another two months? Doesn’t seem right. I’ll accept some rounding errors, but this seems too much for that.

2.5 years = 25 months, and 8 of those were Kaladin as a slave before arriving at the Shattered Plains. So, 17 months. Almost a full year of that is the gap between OB and RoW, so the events of ALL FOUR BOOKS took place in less than a year?

[Lord Spirit he/him]

4 minutes ago, Xaladin said:

Is anyone else bothered by timing? According to the chapter headings, Kaladin was made a slave 5 years after the Assassination, and the story begins almost a full year after that. Then here it says the Assassination was “7.5 years ago.” Perhaps chapter 1 of Wind and Truth isn’t chronologically after RoW? I looked at the interactive map/timeline, and it appears tWoK took a month and WoR took another two months? Doesn’t seem right. I’ll accept some rounding errors, but this seems too much for that.

2.5 years = 25 months, and 8 of those were Kaladin as a slave before arriving at the Shattered Plains. So, 17 months. Almost a full year of that is the gap between OB and RoW, so the events of ALL FOUR BOOKS took place in less than a year?

it definitely like Kaladin spent more than a month as a Bridgeman. But OB and RoW weren’t that long, so I think that about fits. Plus I’m pretty sure Brandon has some sort of timeline to reference.

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, Xaladin said:

Is anyone else bothered by timing? According to the chapter headings, Kaladin was made a slave 5 years after the Assassination, and the story begins almost a full year after that. Then here it says the Assassination was “7.5 years ago.” Perhaps chapter 1 of Wind and Truth isn’t chronologically after RoW? I looked at the interactive map/timeline, and it appears tWoK took a month and WoR took another two months? Doesn’t seem right. I’ll accept some rounding errors, but this seems too much for that.

2.5 years = 25 months, and 8 of those were Kaladin as a slave before arriving at the Shattered Plains. So, 17 months. Almost a full year of that is the gap between OB and RoW, so the events of ALL FOUR BOOKS took place in less than a year?

I don't think there is a problem. Off the top of my head, WoK takes place over around 100 days, WoR is around 80 days - that alone is almost 4 months. 3 months for RoW is certainly fitting, but I don't remember how long it took. 

WoR prologue is saying 6 years before, so that means we have to add 80 days and 1 year to it, which once again gives us around 3 months for RoW to make KoWT prologue take place ~7.5 years ago. It all fits in my opinion.

Yes, events of each book take place over a few months each. Things are happening fast.

Here's a detailed, fanmade (Jofwu) timeline: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zq5bJoKE83ggDCjH43i1hZi0CIpB2iAx7v37zQPVFK0/edit?gid=856252766#gid=856252766

RoW takes place over around 2 months. Gavilar's assassination takes place on 1167.10.7.3, RoW ends on 1175.4.10.5 - 7.5 years after. It all fits.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

I do wonder though, why does Kelsier want Restares/Kalak specifically? Won't any Herald do, or does he have a beef with him in particular?

[Subvisual Haze]

Vasher and Nightblood both seem like tools being used by Endowment+Cultivation in their long term anti-Rayse gambit.  

I like the little changes in tone from the original.  Gavilar comes across as more of a conflicted ambitious character rather than pure jerk.  Stormfather now reads as being misinterpreted by Gavilar regarding Herald vs. Champion instead of previously sounding like a manipulative liar intentionally leading Gav to false conclusions and stringing him along.

Edited July 29, 2024 by Subvisual Haze

[alder24]

7 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I do wonder though, why does Kelsier want Restares/Kalak specifically? Won't any Herald do, or does he have a beef with him in particular?

It was said in the prologue, he knows where BAM is hidden.

 

 

I was thinking more about Vasher, questioning why he even agreed to work with Gavilar on anti-light. Anti-light is like Nightblood, a weapon that destroys the soul itself, leaving no traces behind. A weapon so dangerous that Vasher killed his own wife to keep it secret and was carrying Nightblood for more than 300 years to ensure nobody would ever get it. So why the sudden change of heart? Why did he decide to create the very thing he sacrificed so much to hide? This does not really make much sense and it points me to the conclusion that his interaction with Yesteel made him realize that those weapons are needed. Thus he let go of Nightblood on bad terms and he started to work on creation of weapons like him, but this time without any sentience attached to them - anti-investiture. That's not a very satisfying answer.

[CtrlAltDepressed]

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

So why the sudden change of heart? Why did he decide to create the very thing he sacrificed so much to hide? This does not really make much sense and it points me to the conclusion that his interaction with Yesteel made him realize that those weapons are needed. Thus he let go of Nightblood on bad terms and he started to work on creation of weapons like him, but this time without any sentience attached to them - anti-investiture. That's not a very satisfying answer.

Very interesting point I hadn't considered. 

 

Just thinking out loud here, but it doesn't say that Vasher taught Gavilar how to do it. He just gave him a small sphere. As far as why he would create it at all, your point about Nightblood lead me down a different path. We know, for certain, that Nightblood is utilizing investiture, not anti-investiture. Perhaps Vasher is creating anti-light in hopes of killing Nightblood? I cant think of much else beyond a shard that could effect him. If presented with an anti light sphere, I imagine he would slurp it up as readily as anything else. 

[Nesh he/him]

50 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I was thinking more about Vasher, questioning why he even agreed to work with Gavilar on anti-light. Anti-light is like Nightblood, a weapon that destroys the soul itself, leaving no traces behind. A weapon so dangerous that Vasher killed his own wife to keep it secret and was carrying Nightblood for more than 300 years to ensure nobody would ever get it. So why the sudden change of heart? Why did he decide to create the very thing he sacrificed so much to hide? This does not really make much sense and it points me to the conclusion that his interaction with Yesteel made him realize that those weapons are needed. Thus he let go of Nightblood on bad terms and he started to work on creation of weapons like him, but this time without any sentience attached to them - anti-investiture. That's not a very satisfying answer.

Yeah, this really soured me on Vasher.  What is it with the man and creating the deadliest things in the Cosmere?  I'm starting to think he needs to go into the Beyond, for the sake of everyone.

Edited July 29, 2024 by Nesh

[alder24]

41 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Perhaps Vasher is creating anti-light in hopes of killing Nightblood?

I doubt it, he wouldn't have left Nightblood if that was his plan. 

 

11 minutes ago, Nesh said:

Yeah, this really soured me on Vasher.  What is it with the man and creating the deadliest things in the Cosmere.  I'm starting to think he needs to go into the Beyond, for the sake of everyone.

No! Never! That's the perfect combination! 

Truthfully, he hates Shards and Endowment specifically, so maybe he just wants to mess with them and their plans?

[CtrlAltDepressed]

 

59 minutes ago, alder24 said:

doubt it, he wouldn't have left Nightblood if that was his plan.

Why not? I imagine he discovered anti-light after coming to Roshar, could very well be that he learned this after losing / parting from Nightblood. 

 

Do you think this is a possibility? It would be impossible to create enough anti-light to completely destroy the sword, but perhaps a targeted application could kill the Awakening, while leaving a super invested sword. Similar to how Nightblood killed Rayse but did not effect the Shard Odium. 

[Subvisual Haze]

I am still curious about

Quote

A Herald… a Herald has died… No. I am not ready… The Oathpact… No! They mustn’t see. They mustn’t know…

Before I had been onboard the Stormfaker idea and assumed this was Ishar wanting to hide events from the other Heralds.  That seems less likely as Stormfather now seems much more of one mind and relatively straightforward in his intentions.  Who would Stormfather want to conceal the truth of a Herald dying from and to what ends?

The (honor)spren maybe?  I know he doesn't like spren risking death to bond humans.  Maybe his original gambit was to be the only spren to bond a human, then use Gavilar as the champion in the contest.

[alder24]

12 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Why not? I imagine he discovered anti-light after coming to Roshar, could very well be that he learned this after losing / parting from Nightblood. 

Because he wouldn't have allowed himself to be separated from Nightblood and after OB he would have reclaimed Nightblood from Szeth, who was imprisoned, and destroy him if that was his goal. 

13 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Do you think this is a possibility? It would be impossible to create enough anti-light to completely destroy the sword, but perhaps a targeted application could kill the Awakening, while leaving a super invested sword. Similar to how Nightblood killed Rayse but did not effect the Shard Odium. 

Possible in theory, but in practice I don't think so. Nightblood is so saturated with investiture that it would be hard to target his mind only and he doesn't create any convenient visions like Rayse did. 

But Nightblood is sooo invested that he's under a lot of pressure, a reaction with anti-investiture might cause an explosion that might shatter his sword. Who knows (Brandon does).

 

6 minutes ago, Subvisual Haze said:

Before I had been onboard the Stormfaker idea and assumed this was Ishar wanting to hide events from the other Heralds.  That seems less likely as Stormfather now seems much more of one mind and relatively straightforward in his intentions.  Who would Stormfather want to conceal the truth of a Herald dying from and to what ends?

The (honor)spren maybe?  I know he doesn't like spren risking death to bond humans.  Maybe his original gambit was to be the only spren to bond a human, then use Gavilar as the champion in the contest.

It all depends on what his true intentions with Gavilar were. Maybe it’s because he knew  he had no way of avoiding new Radiants and that means another Recreance was coming (at least in his mind). What's worse for him, it would have meant he had to bond with someone and risked his life too - for which he might not have been ready. He might have been trying so hard to avoid this Desolation that he was ill-prepared for his failure. So he tried to hide the truth from everyone. Or he thought he had way more time to act, but now Gavilar had shown his true colors, admitting he would have just surrendered on Braize, the Stormfather was forced to search for a new candidate and start everything again - for which he had no time now, since a Herald just died.