What breaks the deadlock?

[Frustration]

Wat leaves off with a deadlock: Odium's forces staying in his lands, Urithiru locked down with a massive crystal sphere keeping everyone inside, the Azish and Listeners in their lands, and no reason to leave, the Heralds locked on Braize with their minds in the SR. That leaves everyone locked in their current location.

So, what ends the deadlock at the start of SA 6?

 

I can see a few options

1. The Heralds break, this would seem to be the easiest solution, but at the same time it would also cause problems as that would leave the spren vulnerable.
2. The Well of Control, the Listeners take up the Well of Control, which was foreshadowed quite interestingly in WaT. This would be the most interesting but I doubt Brandon will go this route
3. Hoid comes back, I don't doubt that he will, my only question is how he breaks the deadlock.
4. BAM or Sja-anat does something, I think this is the most likely. And honestly I'm quite excited to see what happens.

[Deception He/Him]

11 minutes ago, Frustration said:

The Heralds break, this would seem to be the easiest solution, but at the same time it would also cause problems as that would leave the spren vulnerable.

I agree, that probably won't happen.

11 minutes ago, Frustration said:

The Well of Control, the Listeners take up the Well of Control, which was foreshadowed quite interestingly in WaT. This would be the most interesting but I doubt Brandon will go this route

With how much it was foreshadowed, it is guaranteed to happen sometime in the next five books but it would probably be used as a climax, not as the beginning of an arc.

12 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Hoid comes back, I don't doubt that he will, my only question is how he breaks the deadlock.

He might, but I don't think he could break it on his own, or at least he wouldn't want to. He could definitely play a roll, though.

14 minutes ago, Frustration said:

BAM or Sja-anat does something, I think this is the most likely. And honestly I'm quite excited to see what happens.

Yes, probably, but the question is how they will do this without instantly getting killed my Retribution.

[Jult]

26 minutes ago, Frustration said:

BAM or Sja-anat does something, I think this is the most likely. And honestly I'm quite excited to see what happens.

As soon as you said "everyone" was locked in their current situation, my brain went "except BAM". I agree with you that she is most likely to make the first big move.

13 minutes ago, Deception said:

Yes, probably, but the question is how they will do this without instantly getting killed my Retribution.

My guess is Honor will push back on any attempts by Taravangian to harm BAM. It really didn't like it when Tanavast betrayed her. 

 

There are some other smaller parties to consider as well:
-Axindweth is presumably in custody. She likely has allies who might come for her. 
-The Nightwatcher is around somewhere and I suspect Cultivation left some instructions for her.
-The spren societies (like the Honorspren at Lasting Integrity or the Cultivationspren in the Ring) may have something to say about all the recent activity. The creation of Retribution, the new Oathpact, the departure of Cultivation, and the curious case of the Unoathed (especially Notum) all seem like they'll really shake up spren society.
-Rysn is floating around with a Dawnshard right within Retribution's reach. She went into hiding with the Sleepless but I doubt we've seen the last of her.

[NameIess]

16 minutes ago, Jult said:

Rysn is floating around with a Dawnshard right within Retribution's reach. She went into hiding with the Sleepless but I doubt we've seen the last of her.

I had the impression that she was going offworld, possibly to start a Shadesmar trading company.

[Frustration]

52 minutes ago, Deception said:

Yes, probably, but the question is how they will do this without instantly getting killed my Retribution.

Well BAM did something with the Well that shields her from Odium's touch

17 minutes ago, Jult said:

Rysn is floating around with a Dawnshard right within Retribution's reach. She went into hiding with the Sleepless but I doubt we've seen the last of her.

Crap I was going to put that in but forgot, to put that in.

Just now, NameIess said:

I had the impression that she was going offworld, possibly to start a Shadesmar trading company.

That's what I thought when I first read it, but when I did a second look it never said one way or the other. I personally still think she left, but she could still be on Roshar.

 

There's also the people of the Origin that Puuli mentions, they could do something assuming they exist

[Jult]

6 minutes ago, Frustration said:

10 minutes ago, NameIess said:

I had the impression that she was going offworld, possibly to start a Shadesmar trading company.

That's what I thought when I first read it, but when I did a second look it never said one way or the other. I personally still think she left, but she could still be on Roshar.

Yeah it's not completely clear what her plan is, but it could involve leaving Roshar. Even if it does though, she decided to implement it on Day Nine of WaT. So, she didn't have much time to get offworld. Not saying she couldn't. But it would have been tight.

 

Giving some more thought to the Heralds breaking. I do not trust that they all have good intentions (looking at you, Battar). Could one of the Heralds "break" on purpose as a form of sabotage?

[Schizoposting]

Thematically, it's likely to be an inversion of a Desolation, i.e., the Heralds will return and the humans will attack the Singers. Perhaps this will be the result of Taravangian baiting them, but he is incapable of attacking on his own, due to the contract.

[Returned he/him]

I, too, think the BAM angle is most likely, though it may not be clear at the outset that she's the driving force. Other possibilities: El seems like a good candidate for stirring things up, the Radiants in Urithiru aren't going to stay sequestered forever, and once the time dilation ends we will start seeing offworlders with their own agendas. They all have options within and outside of Odium's schemes which may upset the current balance.

I also think it's possible that Odium will advance his own schemes in ways that will change things on Roshar, and that might drive a lot of change. But I suspect he'll be a far less front-and-center actor than he has been since Oathbringer, at least for a while.

[earthexile]

The logical development for Urithiru would be to work real hard on establishing a foothold in Shadesmar. Jasnah needs to get it together and expand the scope of her Elsecalling, maybe create fabrials for it or something. That's going to be the way in and out, if the force field thing remains for long. The city can probably sustain itself for a really long time, maybe even for generations, and the people there will live an isolated technological arcology life.

Jasnah and Renarin's new representative government, the political and physical isolation of the city, the bizarre economic potential of a city with Transformation abilities and infinite access to Towerlight, it's all going to be a cultural revolution.

On the Shadesmar side, Urithiru is not especially useful but it's very defensible, at the top of a very long spiral ramp. The draining of Cultivation's Perpendicularity will probably lead to a mass migration of the Shadesmar side of civilization, since the whole reason so many beings are living there is the interaction with the rest of the Cosmere. One of the logical places to expect a lot of them to turn up is Urithiru. Worldhoppers and merchants whose interests depend on traveling the Realms will be racing towards the city once they hear about the situation it's in: An impenetrable arcane city flowing with endless free Investiture, that hasn't decided how it's going to work yet. Every secret society and galactic conspiracy with guys in-system is going to want to be the one handling Urithiru's needs.

I think it's possible Urithiru becomes deeply connected to Shadesmar and the other worlds, way faster and more effectively than Retribution, the Listeners, or Azir can. It's going to be where the agents of the other Shards start showing up, because Taravangian is the universe's least favorite guy now. It might have a hell of a lot of interference and corruption and outside interests to contend with, but it'll all be happening anyway.

And if that all goes as crazy as I think it could, it's possible Urithiru is who breaks the stalemate, and begins to act against Retribution's world. Once again, alien humans will invade Roshar.