Theories upon theories

[RadiantNights]

Hey guys and gals, first post so don't rip me apart too bad.

I love all the theories on this site so here's my take on some...

1. On szeths blade- Branson has said there are three types of shardblades but everyone assumes that honorblades are also shardblades. In the prologue it says that honorblades are "weapons of power beyond even the shardblades." to me this pretty much means that the honorblades are totally different, but so is szeths. I believe that szeths blade is merely a specialized blade for windrunners. It makes sense (hopefully) that if the radiants had different skill sets then they would have blades specific to their surges and fighting styles.

2. Renarin/shallan- (more of a prediction than a theory) renarin is described to have a "blood weakness." well as blood is one of the 10 essences, I think that when shallan gets to the shattered Plains she will hear of renarins disease and she's going to heal him by soulcasting his blood as jasnah did for her. This will make renarin totally goo goo eyes for shallan and they're gonna "bom-chicka-bow-bow"

3. Szeths spren - Branson has said that szeth isn't bonded to a spren, but that doesn't mean he never had a spren. Where would his magic come from if he never had one? Szeth seems like a man of honor (obeying his master even when they make him do things he hates) so I think he could've been bonded to an honorspren. But by becoming truthless he basically gave up his honor and accepted his fate. The honorspren would've felt that szeth had no honor anymore and therefore left as syl did when kaladin was about to kill himself, only szeths didn't come back. Also szeth might even know he had a spren, syl followed kaladin for almost a year before talking to him.

4. Spren/Herald origins- this one's pretty far fetched so stay with me here. The coppermind wiki says that both honor and cultivation were splintered into spren. Doesn't that seem weird to you? I think that the spren are splintered from cultivation but honor splintered into the heralds. They call themselves "heralds Of the almighty" but couldn't that mean they are literally OF the almighty as in a part of him. This might explain why the heralds founded different orders but had overlapping surges.

5. Naming spren- with the observation that spren are bound when you measure them wouldn't you think you could also name them and give them tasks. This could be the explanation of cusicesh being so large, possibly an indication of age, and the fact that it shows up at the same time each day. Could someone possibly have named an ordinary spren and gave it a task which over time caused it to grow into this enormous spren?

6. Parshendi afterlife- this one's a little out there to. So the Parshendi don't like their dead to be touched, could this be because their souls can find their way back to their body but only if it's where he/she died? However what if the Parshendi were like the koloss and they made new Parshendi out if the parts of the old, might explain why bridge 4 doesn't find many Parshendi in the chasms.

7. Galivars death- I think the reason for assassinating Galivar is simple. The Parshendi know they're the voidbringers, and they wanted to go to war so they could attain their full voidbringer power and start the final Desolation.

[RadiantNights]

What do you think? Am I crazy or do some of these seem plausible?

[el_warko]

1. I like.

2. Like even more +1.

3. Plausible.

4. Under the impression that Cultivation was still kicking around, could be right though.

5. I like. Still think Cusicesh is a sink hole / return valve for energy back to the origin. My very own unsubstantiated theory which I just made up.

6. Possible, could also be that the Parshendi are coming from the opposite side (western) of the plains (consequently they are more likely to die towards the middle) and the Chasmfiends / scavengers have nom nom nom's of the Parshendi corpses before they get to the Alethi side.

7. Unlikely, the chapter written from Eshoani's POV would indicate that the Parshendi were trying to stop the Everstorm.

EDIT: Spelling and grammar modifications.

Edited January 8, 2014 by el_warko

[RadiantNights]

4. Yeah the coppermind was kinda weird about cultivation. It says the shard is still alive but it's been splintered into spree.

7. Oooooooo I haven't gotten to read any of the new sections hes released but that's very interesting. Kinda shakes things up a bit

[marianmi]

1) Not very probable

 

2) Don't think she can already do such a thing, she is new in soulcasting... and soulcasting the blood is pretty dangerous - Jasnah did it only because Shallan was dying.

 

3) There are no spren in Shinovar, the place Szeth comes from. So it;s very unlikely he had a spren.

 

4) There are "voluntary" splinters, and splinters created when a Shard is destroyed. It is probable Heralds are voluntary splinters of Honor - splinters that did not destroy Honor. Same with spren - splinters of Honor and Cultivation. Then there is Splintering as in Honor was destroyed, resulting "involunary" splinters, which are also spren. There are also spren there which are not from Cultivation and Honor. Also, Cultivation has not been Splintered (destroyed), so all current Cultivation splinters are "voluntary".

 

5) You don't "give tasks" to spren. You can create a "magical" effect with the right combination of spren type + stormlight + gem type + gem cut + glyph pattern.

 

6) Parshendi have kids the normal way - they even have a "form" called mating form in which they are more predisposed to ... make babies.

 

7) The reason Parshedi assassinated Gavilar was to stop the return of their Gods (presumably voidbringers), and with them, a Desolation...

[hoser]

Welcome! Have an upvote for poking your head above the side of the foxhole and joining our obsession!

 

You have presented a lot more than I feel like addressing at the moment, but I will give you information relevant to one of your questions. 

 

I want to apprise you of a resource (assuming that you are not already aware of it), that has quotes from Brandon outside of what is written in the books. 

 

Searching for Shardblade (twice, perhaps, due to an oddity in how it works) gets you a set of quotes including the following:

 

Lance Alvein

Can you confirm if the scene with Taln at the end of Way of Kings is entirely in Hoid's perspective? There was some discussion that it might not be, since Taln's honourblade was called a shardblade.

BRANDON SANDERSON (paraphrased)

That entire scene is in Hoid's POV, and the reason for it being called a shardblade is because honourblades are shardblades.

 

[RadiantNights]

1) Not very probable

2) Don't think she can already do such a thing, she is new in soulcasting... and soulcasting the blood is pretty dangerous - Jasnah did it only because Shallan was dying.

3) There are no spren in Shinovar, the place Szeth comes from. So it;s very unlikely he had a spren.

4) There are "voluntary" splinters, and splinters created when a Shard is destroyed. It is probable Heralds are voluntary splinters of Honor - splinters that did not destroy Honor. Same with spren - splinters of Honor and Cultivation. Then there is Splintering as in Honor was destroyed, resulting "involunary" splinters, which are also spren. There are also spren there which are not from Cultivation and Honor. Also, Cultivation has not been Splintered (destroyed), so all current Cultivation splinters are "voluntary".

5) You don't "give tasks" to spren. You can create a "magical" effect with the right combination of spren type + stormlight + gem type + gem cut + glyph pattern.

6) Parshendi have kids the normal way - they even have a "form" called mating form in which they are more predisposed to ... make babies.

7) The reason Parshedi assassinated Gavilar was to stop the return of their Gods (presumably voidbringers), and with them, a Desolation...

2. Don't forget that it'll take a while for shallan to get to the war camps and in that time jasnah will probably be training her during their trip. Also shallan already soulcast the vase into blood so maybe she's skilled in that particular essence.

3. Is there somewhere that specifically says there are no spren in shinovar? Saying that to me would be like saying there's no ants or flys in India. I can't see anything that would prevent spren from being there. There probably just rare.

5. If that's your argument then where is cusicesh's gem or glyph pattern? It would appear that cusicesh is quite the oddity in the spren system.

6. Does the sections hes released say that? If so I have some questions. Do they have a 9 month pregnancy and do they grow quickly once born? It seems that the althei think the parshendi only have like 30k troops but I bet it's much more than that.

7. If that was they're intention then they kinda messed up since the war of reckoning is pretty much the beginning of the desolation

[Shardlet]

Hi, RadiantNights.  Welcome to our corner of the internet.  Some good thinking here.  Many of my thoughts concerning you theories have been already presented by others.  But, I think there is a couple of places I can offer some tidbits.

 

2. Even so, I doubt it would be something that Shallan would be feeling ready to do.  And, if I were Renarin, I would prefer my more experienced cousin to do the task rather than someone fairly new to the game.

 

3. We have no word on whether there are spren in Shinovar or not.  Rysn comments on not seeing spren.  But this seems to me to be in response the the verdant greenery around her.  Such greenery is common elsewhere only after rains come when everything 'blooms' as it were (a time of great life activity).  In contrast, it is always like that in Shinovar.  Spren seem to more likely to manifest in response to change.  If so, then one would not expect to see as many spren in Shinovar where the plant life is much less dynamic.

 

5.  A key piece of the Geranid interlude is that the spren on froze in size when an actual measurement was recorded.  None of the incorrect numbers had an effect.  Similarly, I would suppose you could not lock a spren's nature or actions in place by naming or recording unless they first exhibited that behavior.

 

6. If you are interested in reading material from WoR the click here.  Or click here specifically for the Eshonai POV.

 

7. It is unclear how related the War of Reckoning is the desolation.

[Bloodfalcon]

1) Not very probable

 

2) Don't think she can already do such a thing, she is new in soulcasting... and soulcasting the blood is pretty dangerous - Jasnah did it only because Shallan was dying.

 

3) There are no spren in Shinovar, the place Szeth comes from. So it;s very unlikely he had a spren.

 

4) There are "voluntary" splinters, and splinters created when a Shard is destroyed. It is probable Heralds are voluntary splinters of Honor - splinters that did not destroy Honor. Same with spren - splinters of Honor and Cultivation. Then there is Splintering as in Honor was destroyed, resulting "involunary" splinters, which are also spren. There are also spren there which are not from Cultivation and Honor. Also, Cultivation has not been Splintered (destroyed), so all current Cultivation splinters are "voluntary".

 

5) You don't "give tasks" to spren. You can create a "magical" effect with the right combination of spren type + stormlight + gem type + gem cut + glyph pattern.

 

6) Parshendi have kids the normal way - they even have a "form" called mating form in which they are more predisposed to ... make babies.

 

7) The reason Parshedi assassinated Gavilar was to stop the return of their Gods (presumably voidbringers), and with them, a Desolation...

3) I also don't think he has a spren, but would like to know where the WoB is that says there are no spren in Shinovar. We know spren can only be seen.... sometimes... and by certain people at that. It is equally possible that spren can't be seen in Shinovar as it is for them to not be there all together. 

4) Good explanation- thought I'd give props.

5) Semantics.

[Natans]

1 - Agree

2 - It is my duty to point you this thread  http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4570-featherwriter-fanfic-fan-club/  =)

3 - I think that the blade act like the spren

4 - =)

5 - Yes, i think that fabrial science are about just that =)

6 -  =)

7- Agree, and I say more Gavilar "Dark Gem" could be the reason why the parshendi killed him=)

Edited January 8, 2014 by Natans

[meddler]

2. I think Renarin's blood weakness is a side effect of his Nahel Bond. 

I think Renarin will end up being a Radiant himself and can't wait to see how his powers will differ

[Arook]

1. Szeth could have just a smaller type for windrunners, but I think it is more likely that he has the 3rd type of shard blade not yet described to us.

2. I could see shallan doing that if she does turn out to be talented in the blood essence. If what they refer to is in fact an issue with his blood not some other problem that they call blood sickness due to lack of medical knowledge.

[Cromptj]

1. Plausible

2. Read chapter 1 of WoR on Tor. Could still be possible though.

3. I thought we had WoB that Szeth's power was got in a different way to Kaladin's, this suggests to me that no spren were involved, even if he does not have a spren at the moment.

4. Don't buy at all.

7. Read the readings, specifically Eshonai's. It seems pretty unlikely.

EDIT: for grammar and clarity

Edited January 8, 2014 by Cromptj

[RadiantNights]

Holy crap I didn't even realize I did that. Hope I didn't ruin it for anyone

Edited January 9, 2014 by RadiantNights

[hoser]

@RadiantNights - this thread is in the Stormlight Archive forum non-WOR section.  The local convention is to avoid referencing WoR spoilers, although they can be spoilered out.  Spoiler references are fine in the WoR section.  I want to gently suggest that references to WoR content be spoilered out or the entire post hidden.  

[marianmi]

2. I think Renarin's blood weakness is a side effect of his Nahel Bond. 

I think Renarin will end up being a Radiant himself and can't wait to see how his powers will differ

 

Erm, no. Bonds have been around for a few years, Renarin had his weakness way before that.

There is a theory that Dalinar forgetting his wife is actually the Nightwatcher's boom, and Renarin's blood weakness his curse. 

 

2. I could see shallan doing that if she does turn out to be talented in the blood essence. If what they refer to is in fact an issue with his blood not some other problem that they call blood sickness due to lack of medical knowledge.

 

I don't think Renarin's blood weakness can be cured like that, since it may have a cognitive element to it as well.

IF he will get that fixed, it will be in a .. very different way. But I don't think he will.

Also, I hope Renarin will not get corrupted by a spren only he can see.

Edited January 8, 2014 by marianmi