Back half prediction theory

[aetherbound he/him]

I saw somewhere on here a theory that the plot of the stormlight archive were going to be a ketek, it was a while ago, so I don't remember where, but this version is different enough that it warrants its own post. My idea is that book 6 will parallel the plot of tWoK, but with a twist: Since we've already seen tWoK from the human perspective, I think book 6 will have humans and singers reversed. At the end of WaT, the humans are in a very similar position to the singers at the start of tWoK, only really controlling Azir and Urithiru. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine one of the nations under retribution deciding to lay siege to Azir, turning it into something like the Shattered Plains were in tWoK. Meanwhile, Urithiru has the Radiants, some of the humans' most powerful fighters, almost equivalent to the Fused. However, due to the events of WaT, they're trapped, just like the Fused on Braize.

These are my my main predictions for books 7-10 based on this framework

Book 2: The humans start learning how to use surgebinding, the singers are working with a god so they can stand a fighting chance. This culminates in the everstorm, fully kicking off the true desolation and allowing the fused to return. The everstorm also allows for a sudden violent revolution by the singers. The humans, meanwhile, claim a location of supreme tactical importance (urithiru) and start taking the threat seriously.

Book 7: The singers start learning how to use voidbinding, the humans are working with multiple gods (whatever shards don't like retribution) so they can stand a fighting chance. This culminates in the highstorm coming back, fully kicking off the war to reclaim roshar and allowing the radiants (probably also heralds if they haven't shown up already) to return. The highstorm also allows for a sudden violent revolution by the humans. The singers, meanwhile, claim a location of supreme tactical importance  and start taking the threat seriously.

Book 3: I'm a bit fuzzy on what happens here, but I know that the coalition of monarchs happens here, led by dalinar. Several nations join up with/are conquered by the singers, an unmade is imprisoned. Surgebinders become a real, serious thing. Battle of thaylen field and stuff. 

Book 8: I'm a bit fuzzy on what happens here, but I think that the retribution equivalent coalition of monarchs happens here, led by El and/or the blackthorn, also Odium. Several nations join up with/are conquered by the humans, a herald(probably taln or ash) is imprisoned. Voidbinders become a real, serious thing. Battle of thaylen field and stuff but mirrored.

Book 4: A year has passed, borders are more or less locked. To make something change, science happens, and new weapons are invented. The singers hold a strategically pivotal point, but lose it to kaladin, navani, and the sibling. Because of all that's happened, a final battle is set up for the last book. At some point between the start of the last book and the end of this one, the world stops being mostly humans and starts being mostly singers. The humans gain a large number of reinforcements (spren). Odium changes vessels.

Book 9: A year has passed, borders are more or less locked. To make something change, science happens, and new (dawnshard based?) weapons are invented. The humans hold a strategically pivotal point, but lose it to el, the blackthorn, and chemoarish (ok, that one's just guesswork). Because of all that's happened, a final battle is set up for the last book. At some point between the start of the last book and the end of this one, the world stops being mostly singers and starts being mostly humans (probably not as much as the singers took over in the first ones). The singers gain a large number of reinforcements (present from trell, perhaps). Retribution changes vessels.

Book 5: There are three locations the singers want, they get one without raising a blade, lose another to betrayal/trickery, and gain the last one for a short time before it's immediately reclaimed. Everything comes down to a single battle involving swords, then ideals, and finally gods. An unmade is set free by the humans. The humans are basically defeated, but with enough plot hooks to allow for the second arc.

Book 10: There are three locations the humans want, they get one without raising a blade, lose another to betrayal/trickery, and gain the last one for a short time before it's immediately reclaimed. Everything comes down to a single battle involving swords, then ideals, and finally gods. A herald is set free by the singers. The singers/retribution are basically defeated, but with enough plot hooks to allow for mistborn space age.
 

I doubt I've gotten everything right, but I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon does some part of this.

Edited June 25, 2025 by aetherbound

[Nitpicking]

You could have humans come from other worlds to make the planet "mostly human", of course. There are still humans over (not on) Ashyn, for one thing.

[aetherbound he/him]

On 6/21/2025 at 8:45 PM, Nitpicking said:

You could have humans come from other worlds to make the planet "mostly human", of course. There are still humans over (not on) Ashyn, for one thing.

I more meant from a geopolitical standpoint, also, since when are there humans over Ashyn?

[Nitpicking]

 

1 hour ago, aetherbound said:

I more meant from a geopolitical standpoint, also, since when are there humans over Ashyn?

Brandon posted a sample chapter of The Silence Divine that takes place in a floating city over Ashyn.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/201-words-of-radiance-los-angeles-signing/#e12303

Not canon now, but I personally think it will be.

Edited June 24, 2025 by Nitpicking

[aetherbound he/him]

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure the silence divine happens before stormlight archive

[Nitpicking]

1 minute ago, aetherbound said:

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure the silence divine happens before stormlight archive

The Coppermind disagrees: https://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Silence_Divine#Setting.

[aetherbound he/him]

Huh, that's really weird considering what happened there. That's probably going to be relevant at some point in the back half as well.

[Nitpicking]

You have to wonder: do the Heralds from Ashyn know that there are still humans living in its atmosphere?

[earthexile]

12 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

You have to wonder: do the Heralds from Ashyn know that there are still humans living in its atmosphere?

I don't think so, or at least they never mention it, even in their POV sections. At least not as far as I remember. They seem to perceive Ashyn as utterly lost and a complete failure of their civilization. Even Kalak, who we know was conspiring to find a way to leave Roshar, didn't bring it up as an option. If he knew there were cities of survivors there, I'm certain he would have wanted to go. It would mean that the destruction was not total, and that there was some reason for hope even there. 

In fact I suspect that discovering the perseverance of Ashyn's people will contribute to the spiritual healing of the Heralds under Kaladin.

[Nitpicking]

Do the Ashynites know that refugees survived the Great Disaster and their descendants (and 9 of the actual refugees) still live on Roshar? I doubt that, too, which will make for an interesting Book 9.

[earthexile]

15 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Do the Ashynites know that refugees survived the Great Disaster and their descendants (and 9 of the actual refugees) still live on Roshar? I doubt that, too, which will make for an interesting Book 9.

If they're living in flying cities, we can assume they're technologically advanced people, or at least the Cosmere equivalent who can accomplish such things with magics. They'd be high up in their own atmosphere, and Roshar is farther out from the sun than Ashyn. Good situation for astronomy. Supposing they've got anything like telescopes, maybe they've known about Rosharan cities existing for thousands of years. This could be especially interesting because we know the great Rosharan cities are built along sacred geometries, and from space might resemble glowing glyphs.

[Knuti]

Well, certainly an interesting theory.

But there is a reason for the Renarin/Rlain romance, they mean to make peace between Humans and Singers. And in my opinion, this is a necessity in the face of Retribution. Furthermore we should not forget, that the war aims of the Humans are quite unjust, if we remember the Eila Stele and the False Desolation.

So nothing of that will come to pass. Instead there will be book concentrated on Renarin (and Rlain?). And I think its content will be a peace between Humans and Singers (or certain factions of them) and the difficulties obtaining it. And then there will be further war. Between new sorted out factions.

[Lighteyed Lieutenant he/him]

Erm actually, a Ketek is symmetrical, so the mirror of books would be: WOK, WOR, O, ROW, WAT, WAT, ROW, O, WOR, WOK. 

(On a side note, I just realized how many Ws are in the S.A. Brandon likes W and O.)

In all seriousness, I feel that we could see some symmetry with characters, but with some alterations. Some characters are dead/gone. It might open with a lot of characters, like WAT had. Slowly, we refocus on our main movers and shakers. Instead of Dalinar for Oathbringer, we get Adolin. It would make sense for the climax to focus on Kaladin, considering his new role. 

[aetherbound he/him]

On 6/25/2025 at 11:46 AM, Knuti said:

Well, certainly an interesting theory.

But there is a reason for the Renarin/Rlain romance, they mean to make peace between Humans and Singers. And in my opinion, this is a necessity in the face of Retribution. Furthermore we should not forget, that the war aims of the Humans are quite unjust, if we remember the Eila Stele and the False Desolation.

So nothing of that will come to pass. Instead there will be book concentrated on Renarin (and Rlain?). And I think its content will be a peace between Humans and Singers (or certain factions of them) and the difficulties obtaining it. And then there will be further war. Between new sorted out factions.

Yeah, I don't think the factions are actually going to be humans vs singers, but I think a lot of this can happen with pro/anti retribution as the factions instead. It could get even more nuanced than that for all we know. This isn't supposed to be a complete prediction of everything

22 hours ago, Lighteyed Lieutenant said:

Erm actually, a Ketek is symmetrical, so the mirror of books would be: WOK, WOR, O, ROW, WAT, WAT, ROW, O, WOR, WOK. 

It is symmetrical, I'm just reversing the roles instead of the order because that makes more sense to me.

[DSCrankshaw]

On 6/21/2025 at 5:40 PM, aetherbound said:

I saw somewhere on here a theory that the plot of the stormlight archive were going to be a ketek, it was a while ago, so I don't remember where, but this version is different enough that it warrants its own post. My idea is that book 6 will parallel the plot of tWoK, but with a twist: Since we've already seen tWoK from the human perspective, I think book 6 will have humans and singers reversed. At the end of WaT, the humans are in a very similar position to the singers at the start of tWoK, only really controlling Azir and Urithiru. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine one of the nations under retribution deciding to lay siege to Azir, turning it into something like the Shattered Plains were in tWoK. Meanwhile, Urithiru has the Radiants, some of the humans' most powerful fighters, almost equivalent to the Fused. However, due to the events of WaT, they're trapped, just like the Fused on Braize.

It's possible you're thinking about the theory I posted here. I proposed that the themes of the first five books formed a ketek based on the First Ideal of the Knights Radiant:

1. The Way of Kings - Life before death. Kaladin chooses to live, and convinces Bridge 4 to do the same.
2. Words of Radiance - Strength before weakness. Kaladin learns to protect the weak, Shallan projects strength to shield her weakness.
3. Oathbringer - Journey before destination. Destination begets journey. - Dalinar takes the next step.
4. Rhythm of War - Weakness begets strength. Navani, Shallan, and Kaladin become stronger because of their weakness.
5. Wind and Truth - Death begets life. Dalinar sacrifices his life, Kaladin dies to become a herald, the deadeyes return to hold back Odium.