Big face in the Storm and other theories

[Shardless]

I wanted to throw some theories out there. Forgive me if these has already been posted but I have not seen all of them somewhere.

First I think that Cultivation is the big face in the storm. I don’t think it was Honor and I definitely don’t think it was Odium. Dalinar’s dreams were more wrote and looking back it make sense that they were “recorded” in the past. I think that the big face in the storm is still living and it makes sense to me that it was Cultivation. The question I have though is that it makes more sense that the storms are cause by the remnants of honor like the mists were Preservation) but Cultivation appearing in Honor’s storms don’t make as much sense. I still think the face is Cultivation.

Also I read somewhere that Cultivation is older so the old magic that Dalinar visited and lost the memory of his wife probably came from Cultivation although it is a pretty nasty spell so maybe it comes from Odium

I also think that only Cultivation, Honor and Odium have been on that planet but that Odium is not currently on the planet. I know some people think that there is another, a third (and Odium is not the third) because of a quote from Brandon Sanderson. I don’t know where I saw the exact quote but the way it was phrased it made be believe that at some point in time there were three shards on the planet and Odium being there, then leaving would fit the way Brandon Sanderson said it.

I also think that Odium takes over the Parshendi to make them become voidbringers. Much like Ruin took over the Inquisitors, I think Odium takes over the Parshendi through their songs. That is how he controls them and they become like automatons. Perhaps in that last desolation they were not only able to beat the voidbringers but someone kill their songs. Maybe that is what brought Honor down, when they did someone so dishonorable as stopping the ability for Parshmen to sing songs. (Oh, the singing songs reference comes from the latest reading by Brandon Sanderson when he reads a passage from the point of view of the Parshendi)

I also think that the Radiant Knights abandoned the people once they decided to take the Parshmen as slaves. That is why they abandoned the people, because the people had no honor and there was no sense in defending them. Perhaps that is what allowed Odium to kill honor, when honor’s people created slaves and the Radiant Knights left.

So I think that the Heralds go somewhere to keep Odium off of the planet. They fight to keep Odium’s affect off of the planet and from taking over the Parshmen. The Herald that appeared means the Odium is back or that his influence is now back on the planet and the Parshmen are about to be taken over again.

- Shardless

[NewbSombrero he/him]

First I think that Cultivation is the big face in the storm. I don’t think it was Honor and I definitely don’t think it was Odium. Dalinar’s dreams were more wrote and looking back it make sense that they were “recorded” in the past. I think that the big face in the storm is still living and it makes sense to me that it was Cultivation. The question I have though is that it makes more sense that the storms are cause by the remnants of honor like the mists were Preservation) but Cultivation appearing in Honor’s storms don’t make as much sense. I still think the face is Cultivation.

You may run into some issues with the fact that we know Cultivation to be female, and the face certainly seems to be described as masculine.

Also I read somewhere that Cultivation is older so the old magic that Dalinar visited and lost the memory of his wife probably came from Cultivation although it is a pretty nasty spell so maybe it comes from Odium

Quote on Cultivation being older would be nice. We have definitely been told that Honor and Cultivation got to Roshar at the same time, but that's all I've seen in relation to that.

I also think that Odium takes over the Parshendi to make them become voidbringers. Much like Ruin took over the Inquisitors, I think Odium takes over the Parshendi through their songs. That is how he controls them and they become like automatons. Perhaps in that last desolation they were not only able to beat the voidbringers but someone kill their songs. Maybe that is what brought Honor down, when they did someone so dishonorable as stopping the ability for Parshmen to sing songs. (Oh, the singing songs reference comes from the latest reading by Brandon Sanderson when he reads a passage from the point of view of the Parshendi)

Now that is a very fun and interesting thought. I'll be curious to see where that goes.

[pdxtrent he/him]

I generally disagree with you on pretty much everything, but there is a theory buried in there that I LOVE, and that is that it is the enslavement of the Parshmen that led to the KR abandoning everyone.  I'm not sure it's correct, but it's the only moral wrong we see on such a vast scale that we've seen that might explain it, so far. 

I agree with the theory that the face in the cloud is something of Honor, and is connected to Dalinar's dream, and possibly what powers Stormlight itself.  It could be a Splinter that was created before Honor was Splintered, Which might have been what weakened Honor enough to allow Tanavast to be slain.

[Leuthie]

I believe the face is the highstorm spren. Wouldn't such a regularly occurring phenomenon have its own spren?

[Vortaan he/him]

There's a pretty large time lapse between the Last Desolation and the Recreance. Presumably Parshmen were being used that whole time if they are enslaved Voidbringers. So why the sudden reversal in ethics? The only thing I can think of is that the Knights Radiant maybe ran into the Parshendi. A race of honorable, freethinking Parshmen should really have had more effect on Alethi society than it has.. maybe last time, it did.

[darkanimereal1]

I believe the face is the highstorm spren. Wouldn't such a regularly occurring phenomenon have its own spren?

 

I ADORE this idea and just had the same thought this morning. Especially because the face in the highstorm seems not to be Honor or Odium, since he refers to both in a third-person manner (Referring to Kaladin as a son of Tanavast and also mentions Odium). This would mean that the highstorms are still something involving Honor (which I really believe, particularly since the Windrunners used to ride the Storms and they are bound with Honorspren to their surge abilities) because spren are said via WoB to either be of Honor, of Cultivation or of both.

[Chromium Compounder]

I've always called the face in the storms Stormfather. I figure it must be a spren, and most likely of Honor. I think of the storms, and the spren in them, as being Roshar's version of the mists or the shaod, meant to help those with their related shards investiture to get access to their power.

[Voidus]

I think it's obviously the ever-elusive dungspren. Highstorm comes through, kicks up all the chull dung into one mass which is great enough to manifest the all-powerful dung spren, this is also where crem comes from, it's basically just manure mixed with some shardic interference.
XD