[Theory] It has been foreshadowed that Adolin will be a Radiant.

[Jeiel he/him]

I might have mentioned this before in another thread, but I'm not convinced "the look" of a shardblade determines what type of spren it is, nor does this in turn define what Order the holder is compelled/limited to join.

 

What does that mean about the flame-looking shardblades? They get simple flamespren for a Nahel bond? (assuming the holder reawakens the spren, that is)

Edited March 19, 2014 by Jeiel

[shinintendo]

 

Wind blew in the opening in the wall, and Syl’s ribbon of light became mist, a form she often took. Silver mist, which grew larger, coalesced before Kaladin, extending into his hand.

Glowing, brilliant, a Shardblade emerged from the mist, vivid blue light shining from swirling patterns along its length.

It's different than vines, silver mist for Kaladin's blade.

Sure it could be just a specific summoning to a specific blade but Windle grew vines fast in the LIft prologue so I find it highly suggestive.

And there were more than just one KR per order, there is nothing preventing Adolin be a Edgedancer as well as Lift.

(I'll find it silly if there were 1 for each order than 2 than 3 etc...or only 1 per order like the Heralds)

[FlatLine]

It's different than vines, silver mist for Kaladin's blade.

Sure it could be just a specific summoning to a specific blade but Windle grew vines fast in the LIft prologue so I find it highly suggestive.

And there were more than just one KR per order, there is nothing preventing Adolin be a Edgedancer as well as Lift.

(I'll find it silly if there were 1 for each order than 2 than 3 etc...or only 1 per order like the Heralds)

 

Good points. I don't think Lift would ever meet up with the main characters either.

[11thorderknight]

His Blade is also described as eel-like and decorated with crystals - which is EXACTLY how Wyndle is described. I'm sure the various blades are somewhat affected by the nature of their spren, and that sounds for sure like an Edgedancer spren.

[sppipe]

I don't think the dead blade Adolin holds is relevant, Dalinar and Renarin both heard the screams when they summoned their blades after bonding a spren, meaning neither "revived" the blade, rather they bonded a different spren and then were forced to discard the dead one.

 

However, it would be interesting to see dead spren somehow come back to life, maybe if the current holder of the blade (dead spren) takes on the oaths of the original KR who forsook them, it would solve the problem of the depopulated sentient spren species. 

[Cheeky-eyes she/her]

As much as I would love for him to revive his blade, I think in order for the spren to come back they have to restore the missing part of themselves, so the Knight they bonded too has to reaffirm their oaths. There was a question Brandon answered about it. 

 

 

 

Q:  Is it possible then to reawaken a shard blade if that blade is wielded by someone who speaks the oaths of a Knights Radiant?
A:  (Thinking)...Yes, but it would be extremely difficult.  The spren in a shardblade are not trapped in a state of mid-transformation like the Elantrians.  They are stuck in an agony cycle after having a significant portion of their consciousnesses ripped out of them.  The Nahel bond is what allows Spren to think on [the] material plane and that has been torn away.  It would be like having a data jack installed and then having someone come up to your head and rip it out of your head.

Although looking at this now if handled correctly Adolin might be able to do it. Since he does talk to his sword often that does seem like foreshadowing for this. If the new, data jack so to say, Adolin inserts is the right fit the spren might come back to life, they would just have to be compatible.

 

Looking at the Surgebinding chart, the Dustbringers and Edgedancers share Friction in common, so maybe the vine-like spreading is related to that. Though I would have though Growth was why Wyndle manifested like that he might be like that because of both. In short though I don't think the fact that Adolin's shardblade appearing with vines necessarily rules him out as a Dustbringer as the two orders share a common Surge.  

 

(The chart for those interested: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4323-seattle-signing-report-out-101413/#entry67791 )

 

(Edited to fix the link since I didn't put a space before the bracket).

Edited March 20, 2014 by Cheeky-eyes

[+eveorjoy she/her]

As much as I would love for him to revive his blade, I think in order for the spren to come back they have to restore the missing part of themselves, so the Knight they bonded too has to reaffirm their oaths. There was a question Brandon answered about it. 

 

Although looking at this now if handled correctly Adolin might be able to do it. Since he does talk to his sword often that does seem like foreshadowing for this. If the new, data jack so to say, Adolin inserts is the right fit the spren might come back to life, they would just have to be compatible.

 

Looking at the Surgebinding chart, the Dustbringers and Edgedancers share Friction in common, so maybe the vine-like spreading is related to that. Though I would have though Growth was why Wyndle manifested like that he might be like that because of both. In short though I don't think the fact that Adolin's shardblade appearing with vines necessarily rules him out as a Dustbringer as the two orders share a common Surge.  

 

(The chart for those interested: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4323-seattle-signing-report-out-101413/#entry67791 )

 

(Edited to fix the link since I didn't put a space before the bracket).

 

Upvote for restoring my hope that Adolin's shardblade will be revived.

 

I don't think Adolin has the temperament of an Edgedancer. He looks at the big picture too much. Brandon has also said Lift will play a bigger part in later books. I think she will interact with some of the main cast.

 

I think by book 5 or 10 we will have a Radiant for each order and they will stand against a wall of black and white and red in the final battle.

 

 

“Ten people , with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red.”

—Collected: Jesachev , 1173 , 12 seconds pre-death. Subject: one of our own ardents, overheard during his last moments.

Sanderson, Brandon (2010-08-31). The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive, The) (p. 145). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

I could be wrong, but Brandon did say the last chapter of SA was in one of the death chants.

 

However, having just one Radiant from every order will be a full cast. Have two or more in any order will make things get confusing. Brandon could handle it, but it would make things more complex than they need to be. Why not just have one spren from each order come back to form a small united front of knights to save the world? It would be simple and clean plot.

 

Of course, watch book 3 introduce three new Lightweavers or Elsecallers.

[Awesomeness Summoned he/him]

I could be wrong, but Brandon did say the last chapter of SA was in one of the death chants.

He said the last chapter is hinted at in various places in the two written books, the chants were not mentioned specifically (unless there is another WoB I missed). It sounded more like there are various hints here and there that add up rather than one epigraph that tells the ending.

[Releaser]

He said the last chapter is hinted at in various places in the two written books, the chants were not mentioned specifically (unless there is another WoB I missed). It sounded more like there are various hints here and there that add up rather than one epigraph that tells the ending.

 

This was the WoB.

 

Q: The ending of Mistborn was hidden in the first chapter epigraphs. Is there something similar to that in The Way of Kings

A: There is, but they are hidden in different places. The last chapter of the Stormlight Archive is somewhere in these two books.

[+eveorjoy she/her]

I misunderstood. Still, I don't think we will see more than one from each order in the main cast.

[Speaker4thDead he/him]

Reference to Adolin being a Radiant, this quote from page 1023 stuck out to me:

"The monster could command inanimate objects! Adolin sliced through the tarp and then jumped forward to swing for the assassin. 

He found nothing to fight.

DUCK.

He threw himself to the ground as something passed over his head...."

 

Certainly not definitive but I think its worth noting. When I read this passage I read it as an outside command not from him, Also an interesting point is that he is in direct contact with his shardbalde during this passage. He also happens to be engaging in an act that is consistent with at least the first ideal of the kr. 

Could it be that the voice was from a spren. Im inclined to believe so.

Thoughts?

[+eveorjoy she/her]

Reference to Adolin being a Radiant, this quote from page 1023 stuck out to me:

"The monster could command inanimate objects! Adolin sliced through the tarp and then jumped forward to swing for the assassin. 

He found nothing to fight.

DUCK.

He threw himself to the ground as something passed over his head...."

 

Certainly not definitive but I think its worth noting. When I read this passage I read it as an outside command not from him, Also an interesting point is that he is in direct contact with his shardbalde during this passage. He also happens to be engaging in an act that is consistent with at least the first ideal of the kr. 

Could it be that the voice was from a spren. Im inclined to believe so.

Thoughts?

 

I love the idea. Upvote. We my be reading too much into it, but anything is possible at this point.

[FlatLine]

Reference to Adolin being a Radiant, this quote from page 1023 stuck out to me:

"The monster could command inanimate objects! Adolin sliced through the tarp and then jumped forward to swing for the assassin. 

He found nothing to fight.

DUCK.

He threw himself to the ground as something passed over his head...."

 

Certainly not definitive but I think its worth noting. When I read this passage I read it as an outside command not from him, Also an interesting point is that he is in direct contact with his shardbalde during this passage. He also happens to be engaging in an act that is consistent with at least the first ideal of the kr. 

Could it be that the voice was from a spren. Im inclined to believe so.

Thoughts?

 

It's worth looking at, but wouldn't Adolin have made a bigger deal about it than he did? 

[+eveorjoy she/her]

It's worth looking at, but wouldn't Adolin have made a bigger deal about it than he did? 

 

Well he could have missed it because he was fighting Szeth for his and his Father's life at the time. It all depends if things like this happen again in book 3.

[Golden Knife she/her]

 

Oh, storms, Kalladin thought, sitting back down, If they choose Adolin...

The thought should have made him sick. Instead, he found Syl's revelation oddly comforting. Not being along, even if it did turn out to be Adolin, made him feel better and drove away some small measure of his gloom.

             -page 747 of the hardback, when Syl talks about the cryptic she saw in the dueling arena, and more surge binders being chosen.

 

Also this?

[Speaker4thDead he/him]

To be honest I liked it for its ties to the idea of reviving spren.

If it were just him saying the command wouldn't we have seen more of this from his other fight scenes. It also happens to be in italics in the book. Which if you reference all the Syl/Kal conversations when she is talking directly into his head her words are also in italics. lol 

An example would be pg 1015 kindle:

"Kaladin, Syl's voice spoke in his head." Something is still very wrong. I feel it on the winds."

Edited March 20, 2014 by Speaker4thDead

[+eveorjoy she/her]

To be honest I liked it for its ties to the idea of reviving spren.

If it were just him saying the command wouldn't we have seen more of this from his other fight scenes. It also happens to be in italics in the book. Which if you reference all the Syl/Kal conversations when she is talking directly into his head her words are also in italics. lol 

An example would be pg 1015 kindle:

"Kaladin, Syl's voice spoke in his head." Something is still very wrong. I feel it on the winds."

 

It is possible because both Kaladin and Dalinar have had a voice give guidance to them just like that.

 

 

Kaladin’s panicked mind immediately sent his eyes downward. This wasn’t beautiful. This was terrifying. It was horrible. He was going to die! He—

 

It’s all right.

 

His emotions calmed in a heartbeat. Somehow, he knew what to do. He twisted in the air, dropping the rope and hitting the ground with both feet down.

Sanderson, Brandon (2010-08-31). The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive, The) (p. 843). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

The Words, a voice said, urgent, as if directly into his mind. In that moment, Kaladin was amazed to realize that he knew them, though they’d never been told to him.

Sanderson, Brandon (2010-08-31). The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive, The) (p. 926). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

Half the lads on that battlefield probably didn’t think they had any business being soldiers, at first, a part of him whispered. You don’t have the luxury of being bad at this. Don’t complain. Change.

Sanderson, Brandon (2014-03-04). Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive, The) (p. 125). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

So it could be the same thing happening to Adolin. We will just have to see, It is a clever idea.

[Releaser]

Reference to Adolin being a Radiant, this quote from page 1023 stuck out to me:

"The monster could command inanimate objects! Adolin sliced through the tarp and then jumped forward to swing for the assassin. 

He found nothing to fight.

DUCK.

He threw himself to the ground as something passed over his head...."

 

Certainly not definitive but I think its worth noting. When I read this passage I read it as an outside command not from him, Also an interesting point is that he is in direct contact with his shardbalde during this passage. He also happens to be engaging in an act that is consistent with at least the first ideal of the kr. 

Could it be that the voice was from a spren. Im inclined to believe so.

Thoughts?

When I first read that part I thought the exact same thing. But upon a re-read of that part it also kind of felt like it was him telling himself to duck. He makes no reference to how some awkward voice told him to duck. 

 

I also seem to remember that at some point when Adolin was dismissing and calling up his blade, he thought he heard a sigh of relief.  Something like that. I've been looking for the quote, maybe I just imagined it in my sleep addled brain. If I find it i'll edit with the quote.

[Aleksiel]

Well, there are spren causing the Trill and death rattles, so this may be foreshadowing of another spren that is drawn to (potential) surgebinders and has some minimal communicative abilities.

[Grimm he/him]

I'm throwing my vote in for Dustbringers for two reasons.

 

1) So far all the radiants have acted around their proposed Radiant traits. Kal with protecting people (both wanting to protect and also having conflict with the notion of protecting everyone (Elhokar incident). Shallan with Truth and Lies, both ways there too. Dalinar; wanting to unite but also having a conflicting past of dominance and tyranny. This relates to Adolin through the Dustbringers attributes of Brave and Obedient. Adolin for the most part was the shining example of both being Brave (fearless in arena, self-sacrifice, standing up for prostitute, fighting at end of WoK, Chasemfiend scene, etc) and Obedient (listening to Dalinar and obeying even when he doesn't agree). The conflict with these attributes comes at the end, when Adolin snaps! 

Adolin stood for a moment, staring Sadeas in the eyes, and then something finally snapped. That's it. 

This conflict I theorise is necessary for all Radiants to undertake so they can better learn the lessons of being who they need to be for their respective order. I mean this to be different from the 'broken' requirement, although these both walk hand in hand. It seems to me that each radiant both represents their main ideals, but also have internal problems with them too.

 

2) Adolin is described as one the best duelists, and of course he wins the Arena bout (lets be honest, 1v1 or 1v2 he would have SMASHED Relis and Orange man if they teamed on him). Throughout WoK and WoR his ability is clearly defined as a badass on the field. To me he will always be one the men with the highest hit count, or the biggest (thunderclasts!). It is my opinion here that Adolin is being primed by Brandon to fit the role of kick-chull fighter, which, in my opinion, is what the Releasers will represent. Seems to me their surges (+ the prelude to WoK, reference of Dustbringers) indicate they are going to **** some baddies up! Division and Gravitation...oh boy, some fun stuff is going to come from this!
Anyway, the point is Adolin is being prepped to fit snug into this role of 'amazing fighter',  so when the announcement is made of Adolin becoming the first Releaser and revealing his epic fighting destruction melting super blast powers, everyone will go "Wow! he fits this so well, of course he is a Releaser, it's so natural, this makes sense! How epic!" 

So those are my two points He's got the mentality and he's got the physical prowess to fit right in as (I assume all the first will most likely be) the Order's respective leaders. 

[lol_king he/him]

I think Adolin will Be a skybreaker.

 

It is known that skybreakers have an innate ability to distinguish right from wrong.

adolin shows this three times, with Sadeas, Kaladin & Amaram. He instinctively knows that Sadeas & Amaram are not as they seem to be, and he knows that Kaladin is hiding something.

It can be said that shallan was hiding something too, but she was doing it on purpose while what kaladin was doing was not really working in his or anybody's favor.

 

The attributes of skybreakers are just and confident. I think Adolin is one of the most confident character we have seen. He is smart but not particularly intelligent, and it's the people with more intelligence & knowledge who are more doubtful (thus less confident).

While he broke the law when he murdered sadeas, but Kaladin strayed from his path too. And he hasn't formed a bond yet (not a complete one anyways), so it's not that big a deal. Maybe he will realise what he did was unjust which in turn will attract a spren.

Also, we can't take Nalan as an example of a true skybreaker, as his main goal is killing surgebinders based on small crimes which is rather unjust.

And Shallan's attribute is honest, while she is pretty good with lies, which attracted pattern in the first place.

 

As for him being a dustbringer, i don't see any evidence which supports this. he's not especially Brave or Obedient. Those can be said for Kaladin too (he jumped into the arena to save Renarin and Adolin which was brave, & he follows orders as much as Adolin).

But Szeth, who was selected by the Skybreakers, seems more Obedient than just, he Obeys, he breaks many many rules while doing so too. He seems more of a dustbringer than Adolin. Maybe Nalan just needed someone to kill a lot of people. And the bond he was talking about was his bond with the oathstone rather than the honorblade (i don't remember the scene clearly so not sure).

Szeth will probably end up doing the same thing as before, only instead of oathstone he will follow his God.

That was a little off topic, but i thought of it while i was writing.

 

P.S - Adolin also stayed in prison with Kaladin Because what happened was not right(just), that only Kaladin be jailed.

or he shouldn't have been imprisoned in the first place so he was protessting or something.

Edited March 20, 2014 by lol_king

[Pechvarry]

I just want to note that as a Dustbringer, Adolin would become the most dangerous man on Roshar. Great mobility, though not Gravitation level. Almost Dalinar level in how to move in Plate, easily Kaladin level with a weapon.

Now give him the ability to explode stuff.

This seems like a good enough reason to put Adolin's ascension as late into the books as possible. Do not expect him to start making oaths until book 7.

@lol_king: skybreakers are obsessed with the law; not intrinsic right-from-wrong. We can see this pretty much any scene that Nalan walks into.

Can someone upvote eveoryjoy's post that I accidentally downvoted?

Edited March 20, 2014 by Pechvarry

[+eveorjoy she/her]

WoB is tha tthe Skybreakers would not accept Adolin killing Sadeas, but several other orders would.

Edited March 20, 2014 by eveorjoy

[lol_king he/him]

I agree on the point that after killing Sadeas, he won't attract skybreaker spren (highspren?). But if he had already attracted his spren before the killing, then I still think he can be a skybreaker & by redeeming himself, or accepting his actions as wrong & telling Dalinar about his actions, which is the right thing to do.

 

Skybreakers are obsessed with the law. But i think they are more about upholding the law. What Nalan is doing is twisting the law & taking advantage of it for his own gains. I think it's in Nalan's nature to follow the Laws, but he's gone kind of crazy & thus can't be trusted as an example of a true skybreaker. He also doesn't have any spren to keep check on him.

 

I am aware of the WoB. But i don't think there are any Skybreakers alive who will frown upon his becoming one. Nalan's group most probably doesn't have any KR given that he generally finds a way to kill all surgebinders.

I interpreted the WoB as, there are more than one order who won't have a problem with Adolins actions, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he has the attributes to be one of them. And Becoming a Skybreaker after an inner conflictwill be more interesting.

 

Historically the Windrunners & Skybreakers didn't get along. With the progress of the love triangle, there will definitely be tension between Kaladin & Adolin. So there can be something there.

 

But just in case he isn't a Skybreaker, I support the spren reviving theory.

[Moogle]

Skybreakers are obsessed with the law. But i think they are more about upholding the law. What Nalan is doing is twisting the law & taking advantage of it for his own gains. I think it's in Nalan's nature to follow the Laws, but he's gone kind of crazy & thus can't be trusted as an example of a true skybreaker. He also doesn't have any spren to keep check on him.

 

I am aware of the WoB. But i don't think there are any Skybreakers alive who will frown upon his becoming one. Nalan's group most probably doesn't have any KR given that he generally finds a way to kill all surgebinders.

 

Current WoB seems to imply that Nalan is acting perfectly well as a member of the Skybreakers.

 

Source:

Q: Does Szeth have any Surgebinding powers . . . losing the honorblade?

A: He would not have any after losing the honorblade. However, he has been approached by a member of one of the orders. And so, it's entirely possible that you would see him going somewhere with that. He also has a very special sword, that does very special things.