Nale should have Plate.

[Overlord Jebus]

I can't believe I didn't notice this earlier.

Nale is a Skybreaker of the fifth Oath. If the Skybreakers get Plate as part of their Radiant progression, Nale should have a nice shiny set of living Shardplate.

 

[Leyrann]

Uh.

Yes.

[+Extesian he/him]

I also didn't notice it. I also can't believe I didn't notice it. But it is so obvious I reckon half of Sharddom is thinking "I can't believe those two didn't notice it". Nonetheless, you made me notice it so I applaud you. 

[Quantus he/him]

He should, and he likely does.  Flipside is that if the rest of the Heralds didnt wear Armor he may choose not to for various reasons.  If nothing else it IS a give-away that he's bonded a Spren, so he might be wanting to hide that fact for tactical reasons. 

[Mestiv he/him]

He just doesn't like how it looks, so he doesn't wear it.

I also didn't notice it.

[cantabile21]

Actually... do we have anyone else's word that Nale is indeed a Skybreaker of the Fifth Oath? i mean, the Skybreakers may adhere to the law to the letter, but if the law doesn't say anything about lying...??

Just a crazy thought!

[+Child of Hodor]

1 hour ago, cantabile21 said:

Actually... do we have anyone else's word that Nale is indeed a Skybreaker of the Fifth Oath? i mean, the Skybreakers may adhere to the law to the letter, but if the law doesn't say anything about lying...??

Just a crazy thought!

Other than Nale saying he is of the 5th oath, no. In OB when the Skybreaker is giving Szeth a rundown of the ideals she says it's been centuries since anyone has spoken the 5th which people think is Nale, but there is no independent confirmation.

Wearing shardplate presents a lashing issue even if it is a radiant's own active/live plate and not dead plate. In Dalinar's vision where he meets up with the Queen of Thaylena he starts out flying and the other KR says the plate had to be dismissed in order for lashing to work. Investiture resists investiture and all that. 

That would be another reason Nale wouldn't want the plate on. Plus, Heralds don't seem to think they need to wear conventional armor from what little we've seen. 

The writer reason is Brandon is saving radiant plate reveals for later books. 

[Wreith he/him]

23 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

Wearing shardplate presents a lashing issue even if it is a radiant's own active/live plate and not dead plate. In Dalinar's vision where he meets up with the Queen of Thaylena he starts out flying and the other KR says the plate had to be dismissed in order for lashing to work

The knight was wearing his own armor. The radiant Dalinar was playing had to dismiss hers so she could be lashed.
The windrunner himself didn't have any problems.
 

Quote

He shielded his face from the wind and looked forward. A Radiant flew ahead, resplendent in blue armor that glowed...

Quote

"You haven't summoned your armor yet; you had to dismiss it so I could Lash you"

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Wreith
to add quotes from OB

[+Child of Hodor]

10 minutes ago, Wreith said:

The knight was wearing his own armor. The radiant Dalinar was playing had to dismiss hers so she could be lashed.
The windrunner himself didn't have any problems.
 

 

Thank you! It would suck if they couldn't use half their powers in armor. I guess it's just a style choice for Nale plus the other reasons people have said. 

[Quantus he/him]

16 minutes ago, Wreith said:

The knight was wearing his own armor. The radiant Dalinar was playing had to dismiss hers so she could be lashed.
The windrunner himself didn't have any problems.

True, and that's probably the key in Nale's case: He might be able to lash through his own plate using his Spren-based abilities ONLY, and not with lashing created via his Honorblade, which technically is working/fueled differently, and may not have enough Keyed Identity involved to penetrate the Plate.

[Nymeros]

Yes.....I noticed. Nale should be the most effective combatant on the planet right now but you know, plot.

Lift couldn't actually die, right? Naturally, Nale hasn't dual wielded, or used his surges in combat or summoned any amount of plate. Then again, I don't know that we've seen him stressed as of yet.

@Child of Hodor I think you're thinking of dead plate. It's why Renarin has to remove his Plate gauntlets to heal when he is wearing his. Your own living Plate is fine as we saw in Dalinars visions.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Nymeros

[+Child of Hodor]

4 hours ago, Quantus said:

He should, and he likely does.  Flipside is that if the rest of the Heralds didnt wear Armor he may choose not to for various reasons.  If nothing else it IS a give-away that he's bonded a Spren, so he might be wanting to hide that fact for tactical reasons. 

He might not want to stick out while cosplaying as various law enforcement officers either.  He's got all the proper paperwork, but most constables don't have plate and people might start asking questions. We've never seen him in a battle where his life is really threatened he's stalked and attempted to kill an old man, an old woman and a 13-year-old girl. He'll summon his honorblade for the kill itself, but the honorblade isn't as ostentatious as plate or the spren blade. 

[hypatia she/her]

Wasn't there a WoB that all Heralds are mad and we shouldn't believe a word they say?

As the patron of the Skybreaker he should know the oath and personally I also miss the radiant eyes.

[+Spicker]

25 minutes ago, hypatia said:

Wasn't there a WoB that all Heralds are mad and we shouldn't believe a word they say?

As the patron of the Skybreaker he should know the oath and personally I also miss the radiant eyes.

I am just throwing this out there, do we actually see Nale use stormlight at any point? Or see his spren? (During one of his chases of lift maybe? I really need to reread the parts with him in it, because I honestly can't remember) Is there anything beside his word that confirms that he is a skybreaker and not just a herald? I searched the WoB's and this is the closest from him that I see:

pfranklin51 [PENDING REVIEW]

Nale mentions that he's the only Herald that ends up joining his Order of Radiants, eventually. Are there any Radiants that joined other Orders?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

No, good question.

Footnote: The questioner meant to ask if any Heralds had joined other Orders. Brandon may or may not have inferred that.
source

I don't really read this as a solid confirmation, but he also doesn't say anything to contradict it. 

I am not saying necessarily that Nale is not a skybreaker, just that he doesn't really live up to the powers that I am assuming he should have. Is there something restraining him, or am I assuming he should be more powerful than he really is?

[Nymeros]

Nale's madness does manifest as telling random lies....I'm not going to just disbelieve everything that every Herald says. That's absurd.

[Wreith he/him]

 

Quote

CCQ

I just read Edgedancer. I was just wondering... Did Ishar deceive Nalan on purpose or was he just wrong-- he had wrong information?

Brandon Sanderson

All the Heralds are insane.

CCQ

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

It manifests in different ways. Do not trust anything any Herald says. Ever.

CCQ

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

Nale trusts Ishar too much.

CCQ

Okay, but so did he do it on purpose, or...?

Brandon Sanderson

Um... So "on purpose" is a difficult thing when you're referring to someone with the psychology that Ishar has.

CCQ

Did he know what it was-- that it was a lie?

Brandon Sanderson

*sighs* Alright, I'll RAFO that until I get to him, but the answer is kind of a yes and a no. Okay? So there is part of him that knows and there is part of him that doesn't want to believe it. And yet the things he's been doing lately in Roshar are done because he knows what's coming.

source

That WoB was obviously before Oathbringer.
I think Nale might actually be getting better.
Which isn't to say that he shouldn't be suspect.

Without knowing his third ideal I find it hard to judge his motives.
A prevailing theory is that he swore to Ishar, but then we have to wonder what all Ishar has commanded him to do.

The biggest point of evidence I see that he may simply be avoiding the use of his more conspicuous attributes is that iirc we still haven't even seen his second surge. let alone armor if he has it.

[stonedshaman]

I think it's a simple as he hasn't had a need to summon shardplate yet

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

2 hours ago, stonedshaman said:

I think it's a simple as he hasn't had a need to summon shardplate yet

This. Just because you have Plate, you don’t nevessarily have it on at all times. Especially if you are Nale, who wants to keep a pretty low profile. He hasn’t been in a fight either, except for against Lift, who isn’t that threatening, so I’d say that it makes complete sense that we haven’t seen it yet.

Also, we know Nale joined his order. We saw the Blade. It would gain him nothing to lie to Szeth if how far he advanced. In fact, Nale does seem to be kinda humble, in his own wierd way. He openly speaks about being wrong and being mad, so it would be out of character for him to pretend that he reached to the final oath just to look cool in front of Szeth. If there is one thing you can trust Nale to do, it is to tell you the truth as he sees it. 

[Wreith he/him]

36 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Also, we know Nale joined his order. We saw the Blade

I agree with you largely, but I feel compelled to point out that this is not evidence. There are all kinds of missing dead blades this could be if Nale were inclined to be deceptive. 

[Ripheus23]

3 hours ago, stonedshaman said:

I think it's a simple as he hasn't had a need to summon shardplate yet

I think it's as simple as the black sphere is Nale's Plate.

[Naurock]

Yes @Overlord Jebus he should, but we haven't seen him in a situation where he would need it. Also considering we've seen Jasnah take a knife to heart, Shallan take a crossbow bolt to the head, and Nale was just chasing down every day people I don't see why it's necessary other than intimidation. 

4 hours ago, Wreith said:

I think Nale might actually be getting better.

I really disagree with this. Considering he fought for centuries on the sides of humans probably knowing this wasn't their homeland. Then broke the Oathpact, abandoning Taln. Spent years under the delusion killing innocent people (who as we've been shown so far, besides Malata, are kinda the best of people amongst humanity and are striving to be better people) THEN decided Humans have no right to the land. Nale is broken. Bad. If we're going down the Jasnah path of killing Heralds, get rid of him first. (I'm 99% positive they'll convince Jasnah that killing the Heralds is a bad plan.)

[Angsos]

assuming Nale has plate, he was killing ordinary people, not warriors and don't kill a fly with a bazooka unless you want lots of holes in your house.

[Wreith he/him]

15 hours ago, Naurock said:

Considering he fought for centuries on the sides of humans probably knowing this wasn't their homeland

I don't think he was a member of his order then, so he had made no Oath that would cause an issue here.

15 hours ago, Naurock said:

Then broke the Oathpact, abandoning Taln.

I'm not saying he wasn't broken. I'm saying he's getting better.

15 hours ago, Naurock said:

Spent years under the delusion killing innocent people (who as we've been shown so far, besides Malata, are kinda the best of people amongst humanity and are striving to be better people)

This under the guidance of Ishar. Again, still very broken here.
I don't think he began getting better until Lift forced him to confront the reality of the Everstorm.

Quote

In that moment it seemed, strangely, that something within him emerged. It was stupid of [Lift] to think that...she could see a difference in his eyes. But she swore that she could.
He seemed to focus, like a person waking up from a daze

And the Nale we see in Oathbringer is significantly more forthcoming but less confident.
He's painfully aware of his failings and he goes to significant length to ensure that the newest full Skybreaker doesn't swear to follow him.

He is supporting the Singers because of oaths he hadn't taken the last time he faced them.
But he made sure that Szeth was aware of this fact and free to choose to support the Humans.

[+ElephantEarwax he/him]

I thought about it, my thughts were just, he was standing around, why did he need to wear it? And at the battle of Thaylen fields he was just observing, why wear it to watch?

[RShara she/her]

Nale hasn't really been in a situation where he'd need to summon Plate. He hasn't been in any battles or even gone after anyone that's any kind of a threat. I kind of have a notion that Nale is also rather cowardly at this point, despite his talk, since he never does go after potential surgebinders that might be a threat to him, like Kaladin.