Questions about the Identity of the Stormfather [spoilers]

[Lomeon]

The quote that got me thinking about the Stormfather's identity was this:

I AM THE SLIVER OF THE ALMIGHTY HIMSELF!

from when he was confronted with the idea of bonding to Dalinar.

 

So What is a Sliver?

Sliver: Someone who has held a large part of the raw form of a Shard temporarily

source

 

Does this mean that the Stormfather has held, or is the cognitive aspect of someone who has held part of the Honor Shard?

 

Could this be connected to his Vorin association with Jezrien?

 

If this is true, why did he hold the power, how did he gain access (Shardpool in the Horneater peaks?), and what did he change while he held it?

 

Where was Tanavast when this happened?

 

Was the Honor Shard shattered at the same time that Tanavast was killed?

 

We also know that he is a spren of some kind as he forms a Nahel bond with Dalinar to form a Bondsmith.

 

"But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious."

 

Were all ~three of them bonded to the Stormfather? Is the Nahel bond necessarily one-to-one?

 

If so, how is he still alive assuming they are gone? Do spren only die if oaths are broken?

 

Could one of the old Bondsmiths have held the power, and would that make the Stormfather a Sliver?

 

I had intended to come up with a more concrete theory, but obviously have more questions than ideas. Hopefully this can help start a discussion some of you will find interesting!

[Argent]

Frankly, we don't have anything near an answer to most of those questions... Until not-so-long ago we all assumed that the Stormfather was just another name, a title, for Jezrien. Some had gone as far as to claim that Jezrien took on most Honor's power after the Splintering and his consciousness now resides in the Cognitive Realm as the being we know as the Stormfather, while the Herald's physical body is left to (metaphorically) rot; supporters of this theory usually believe that Szeth met Jezrien on his way to assassinate Gavilar. I am inclined to agree with this theory, but I also realize it's not without issues. First and foremost, if Jezrien's consciousness is the Stormfather, how is it that Bondsmiths from the Silver Kingdoms bonded with it (and we know at least one bonded, because it's heavily implied that the Stormfather survived the Recreance despite the severing of his bond)?

So I guess I no longer support this theory. I just changed my mind. I can't come up with anything coherent enough to explain everything about those two - there has to be a connection, because so many cultures associate one with the other, but I can't imagine what it could be.

[skavoovee]

I think that the reason the Stormfather survived the Recreance is because he didn't form Shardblades or (and I'm assuming this happens when a KR gets to a certain level) Shardplate for his knights.

 

Assuming the Stormfather is the one spren that all Bondsmiths bond (or whomever Dalinar ends up belonging to), I think that his knights weren't able to "abandon" him in the way that the knights in Dalinar's vision did. Since they weren't able to plunge him into the earth and shrug off their armor, he was able to survive.

[Gloom]

It wouldn't be hard to confuse the Herald who rode the storms with the spren who was the stormfather over a period of thousands of years. This is especially true due to Jezriens role within the Heralds. I personally think that since all of these beings have reached a mythological level, that confusing two such beings and combining them into one would be a simple enough thing to happen, especially due to the language shifts over that period of time and the tampering that was done to history during the time of the Heirocracy.