Small details that may have a huge impact

[FrogKnight]

I wanted a post about small things that a reader may miss in the first read through that may have some effects in the future books. Please add on any that I probably have missed.

 

Urithiru -

In one of Dalinar's visions, a spren awakens stone to fight a Radiant and her men. I hypothesise that any stone can be used in this way except the stones in Urithiru. This probably is why Szeth's people look down apon "stone walkers".

"The only place in the East where the stones were not cursed, where walking on them was allowed. This place was holy." 

I-10

 

Parshendi -

It is obvious that there are some surviving parshendi who did not bond with the red spren. They may ally with Dalinar, considering that he may have the power to change the voidbringers back into parshendi.

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address

.—From Words of Radiance, chapter 30, page 18

Chapter 58

 

Rlain -

I was curious as to what part Rlain would play within the Knights Radiant, and I cannot be certain if this pertains to Rlain or not, it is a likely outcome.

But it is not impossible to blend
Their Surges to ours in the end.
It has been promised and it can come.
Or do we understand the sum?
We question not if they can have us then,
But if we dare to have them again.

 —From the Listener Song of Spren, 10th stanza

Chapter 33

 

I will add more later on, but please let me know of any other detail you believe may have a considerable impact on future books.

Edited June 9, 2015 by FrogKnight

[Adamir he/him]

While this may not apply, there was some rather obvious foreshadowing of Zahel being Vasher; he refers to ardents as 'monks', a word used only on Nalthis.

[Emerald101 he/him]

Jasnah sees Gavilar talking with Nale on the day of his assassination.

[FrogKnight]

While this may not apply, there was some rather obvious foreshadowing of Zahel being Vasher; he refers to ardents as 'monks', a word used only on Nalthis.

Yea, I left that out because i thought it was too obvious.

 

Jasnah sees Gavilar talking with Nale on the day of his assassination.

 

I actualy went back to check on that;She saw Gavilar talking to Amaram. Though she did spot Nale speaking with someone, Im not certain who that was.

 

“She’s getting worse,” the voice continued. “We weren’t supposed to get worse. Am I getting worse? I think I feel worse.”

“Shut up.”

“I don’t like this. What we’ve done was wrong. That creature carries my lord’s own Blade. We shouldn’t have let him keep it. He—”

The two passed through the intersection ahead of Jasnah. They were ambassadors from the West, including the Azish man with the white birthmark on his cheek. Or was it a scar? The shorter of the two men—he could have been Alethi—cut off when he noticed Jasnah. He let out a squeak, then hurried on his way.

I suspect that "my lord" refers to Jezrien. "That creature carries my lord's own blade" would then refer to Szeth and the honorblade he carries.

"we werent supposed to get worse. Am I getting worse?" shows that he is probably a herald. for my hypothesis to be correct, he cannot be Jezrien nor Nale. He also cannot be Talenel because he did not appear until the end of WoK. So this man can only be Kalak or Ishar. Ishar is suppose to be an old man, and not as...winey as this man seems to be. So with the process of elemination, this man can only be Kalak. Also, he does sound similar to kalak from WoK.

Edited June 10, 2015 by FrogKnight

[Emerald101 he/him]

huh. I could've sworn they were talking with Gavilar. Well, thanks for setting me straight

[Kelek's Breath he/him]

huh. I could've sworn they were talking with Gavilar. Well, thanks for setting me straight

Szeth sees them talking to Elhokar at his table in WoK.

[Moogle]

A good post! I appreciate how you spent the time doing some nice formatting. I hope you are showered in upvotes.

Regarding Urithiru, we have a WoB saying that the unhallowed stones thing is entirely cultural. I'll edit in the WoB when I get home.
 
Edit:

AhoyMatey
Why does Urithiru not have hallowed stones?

Brandon Sanderson
That'll be answered eventually. It's cultural, not magical.
(source)

 

---

 

Regarding Dalinar, his thing is to create bonds, not break them. I disagree with the interpretation of that passage for other reasons outlined here:

To repost some of my objections to the theory:

 

The 'obvious' way to read this passage to me (everyone else disagrees as far as I know, so typical mind fallacy and whatnot) is that Melishi had an army and was about to battle a group of Voidbringers. He retired to his tent, had a dreamvision (we've seen Dalinar have one of these), and in the morning this inspired a new strategy for him to take his army and avoid directly fighting the group of Voidbringers his army was fighting.

 

Perhaps he realized he could attack and pull the Voidbringers away from whatever area they were terrorizing and then loop around and fortify the village himself. Specifics don't matter to me.

 

Furthermore, keep in mind this is a book Shallan read. We got an out of context quote, but this is plainly part of a greater story, and it would be very hard for Shallan to miss the fact that she just read how the Voidbringers could be defeated by a Bondsmith through magic. She never comments on this, and she totally would. Because of this, I doubt this quote is that important.

 

The magical explanations to break the listeners free of their spren introduce new magic systems which we don't know exist. Nothing we know of indicates Adhesion or Tension are usable to break listeners free of their sprenbonds, and those are all we know Bondsmiths get. The Stormfather himself may be able to do something like that, but there's no way the Stormfather wouldn't just do that 24/7 if he could completely neuter the Voidbringers on his own. The Stormfather even says he would stop Eshonai's transformation if he could.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Moogle

[Guest]

Random thought: would Hemalurgy be able to remove a Voidspren from a Voidbringer?

Edit: I mean in a non-lethal way, or in a lethal way that would trap the Voidspren

Edited June 10, 2015 by LabRat

[Moogle]

Random thought: would Hemalurgy be able to remove a Voidspren from a Voidbringer?

Edit: I mean in a non-lethal way, or in a lethal way that would trap the Voidspren

 

I like this thought! Seems very likely to me that you can do this, since the listener has basically formed a bond with the voidspren, and bonds are Spiritual. Hemalurgy can steal anything encoded on the soul - and we know that includes Shardblades.

[Guest]

and we know that includes Shardblades.

We do!? How have I not found this WoB!? How does Hemalurgic Decay affect the Blade?

If a living Blade is stolen, does it remain alive??

[FrogKnight]

A good post! I appreciate how you spent the time doing some nice formatting. I hope you are showered in upvotes.

Regarding Urithiru, we have a WoB saying that the unhallowed stones thing is entirely cultural. I'll edit in the WoB when I get home.

 

Edit:

 

---

 

Regarding Dalinar, his thing is to create bonds, not break them. I disagree with the interpretation of that passage for other reasons outlined here:

 

I can understand that but then how were Parshmen originaly created? well, perhaps brandon will enlighten us on that topic within the next few books, though he may wait till the 2nd quintet(maybe Jasnah's book?).

[Moogle]

We do!? How have I not found this WoB!? How does Hemalurgic Decay affect the Blade?

If a living Blade is stolen, does it remain alive??

 

We don't know re. your spoiler. WoB:

Kurkistan

Can Hemalurgy be used to steal Shardblades directly, transferring ownership from the victim to the spike's recipient without a need for the recipient to physically take the Shardblade first?

Brandon Sanderson

A novel use of Hemalurgy which is not outside the sphere of its powers.

(source)

[Demiandre he/him]

On 10/06/2015 at 1:38 PM, Adamir said:

While this may not apply, there was some rather obvious foreshadowing of Zahel being Vasher; he refers to ardents as 'monks', a word used only on Nalthis.

Are the coincidences between the ardents and the monks only coincidences, or is there a deeper meaning in the Cosmere. Could there be an upper virtue which is pursued throughout the whole Cosmere ? When we know Vasher has a link with Roshar, I wonder if there is even a deeper relationship between both cases, why nt even from outside intervention ?