Nice Little potential Valor to Notum influence.

[DangerousPants]

When Notum is describing why he decided to make the jump to the physical realm.  It reads very similarly to Tanavast's burst of bravery, just in a quieter setting.  He, just before, describes realizing his decision to stay in Lasting Integrity as cowardly.  

Adolin asks if it was Maya's, and Notum doesn't know (as he doesn't know her voice).  But it seems implausible. 

His description of the voice "  I do not know the voice well," Notum said.  "So I could not say.  This was quiet feminine voice, calling me to arms.  I made my decision at that moment...."  

Also mentioned are the unusually short time for Notum to get functional in the physical realm and the distance.  And later inclusion and unanswered questions with the Unoathed's stand, shardplate colors, and such.  Notum's character arc sure does seem to line up valoriously, and for that matter, so does Adolin's.  

Some version of Valor, or very aligned intent/splinter?, does seem to nudge actions repeatedly.  It also suits a world where warfare seems more or less constant and Valor would have plenty to take in.  It makes me wonder if how much everyone wants to fight is natural or influenced on a subtle, constant level.   It seems awkward for a Valor shard to be so subtle and unnoticed, but what if Valor, however unnoticed, is satisfying its intent by relentlessly encouraging and...observing?...reaping?...cultivating?...valor from thousands of years of more or less ongoing warfare?  

I guess shortly put, if you're Valor, why not go where the action always is?  And since what little we firmly know of Dragons is that they're hard to recognize when they don't want to be noticed, and that Valor is female, there aren't many female characters we can simply state aren't or couldn't easily be Valor.  

Edited December 15, 2024 by DangerousPants

[Elder]

The issue I have with the idea of Valor already working on Roshar is that Endowment thinks that she and Valor are the only ones who know how to mind their own business.  Then again, Endowment and Harmony are offering different reports on what’s going on with Valor. 
I assumed it was the Wind who recruited Notum.

Edited December 15, 2024 by Elder

[DangerousPants]

Endowment doesn't say Valor isn't on another planet, just something like "they're the only two who managed any semblance of isolation"  

Endowment might also be an intentionally deceptive narrator (to Wit).  If you had Valor in isolation there, you'd have to lie about it, right?  Endowment says don't go looking for Valor, don't track her down.  Can't share plan with Wit, etc.  

My small thought is that Endowment got Vasher to go to Roshar as a messanger, and he took the exit opportunity from Nalthis as his "I just ran."  

[Elder]

Isolation on a planet with 3 shards is a stretch.

I can buy the idea that Vasher was part of Endowment’s aid to Valor.  I can buy that Endowment could be lying.  But Roshar is no place for isolation.

[Darvys]

I doubt Valor would risk exposure for such a subtle nudge, Hoid claims that any attempt to interfere can be sensed by other shards. If Valor takes action it'll be when Retribution goes to hide not while Odium suffuses the planet.

When reading I also assumed it was the Wind, whom no one in Azir is aware of at this point, another thing that stood out was the gust of wind that conveniently uncovered Adolin's peg which in turn let him pass the patrol unobstructed.

The epigraph claiming that the Wind wasn't involved in the east was wrong I think, she was there helping in small ways, even whispering briefly to Dalinar before his contest, calling Notum as she once called Syl is I believe another way she helped in the struggle against Odium.

[Inevitability]

7 hours ago, Elder said:

Isolation on a planet with 3 shards is a stretch.

I can buy the idea that Vasher was part of Endowment’s aid to Valor.  I can buy that Endowment could be lying.  But Roshar is no place for isolation.

Well if we are linking Valor with Fourth Moon, Valor would have been there before the other 3 arrived