So Who is our new Bondsmith?

[Pagerunner he/him]

I think everyone's getting a little carried away with analyzing this artwork.

This piece of art is not part of Stormlight Four. It's part of the WoK 10th anniversary Kickstarter; they're doing a poster, like this, for each Order. Aside from the Windrunners (which are shown on the Kickstarter campaign page itself), we've gotten peeks at Truthwatchers, Elsecallers, Skybreakers, and Dustbringers, aside from this most recent Bondsmiths preview. And while there are several recognizable characters featured on the posters, there are a lot of unknowns, as well; especially with Skybreakers (which doesn't feature Szeth) and Truthwatchers (which doesn't feature Renarin).

But you'll notice that all of these pieces of artwork feature two Radiants, one male and one female. They're putting one of each on every poster (like they did way back in the old Immortal Words poster), which means there must be a female depiction of a Bondsmith for the sake of the poster. And she's an incredibly generic Bondsmith; her sigil is the Bondsmith sigil, her attire is the Bondsmith white-and-gold, her ornamentations are the Bondsmith's gemstone of heliodor.

And she's got a Shardblade, which Bondsmiths didn't have. Heck, in the original Elsecaller post from above, Jasnah had the Edgedancer sigil instead of the Elsecaller. So it doesn't look like these posters are being put through the rigorous vetting that book artwork is. (Like, for example, several pieces he's doing to go in the leatherbound, featured on his social media and the Kickstarter campaign.)

These posters aren't tied to a specific time in-story; it's not like they're "depictions of the Radiant Orders at the start of Rhythm of War," or something like that. They can contain specific characters, and they can contain archetypal examples of Radiants, and they're out-of-universe, so it's not like Dalinar gets a new Bondsmith friend and then tells her "Let's go pose for a band photo somewhere in Urithiru." Going back to Immortal Words poster I linked above, we're not going to theorize that there was an actual banner with those words hanging somewhere with a Stonward and a Windrunner guarding it. These are all artists' depictions; no more, no less. Whoever the next Bondsmiths will be, I don't think we'll learn anything about them from examining this poster.

EDIT: And, of course, right after I post this we get a Kickstarter update from Isaac:

Quote

Additionally, we would like to reveal two more of Steve Argyle’s art prints representing each of the Orders of Knights Radiant. While some characters we know appear in these pieces--like Kaladin for the Windrunners and Dalinar for the Bondsmiths you’ll see below--there are many figures representing the Orders in general. In other words, a lot of these figures do not correspond to particular characters in the book. The Windrunner prints we’ve used in the campaign graphics aren’t quite final yet, so we’ll reveal that one and others in a later update, but these two, for the Bondsmiths and Skybreakers are pretty much final at this point. Enjoy Steve’s vision of these Orders of Knights Radiant!

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Pagerunner

[Hen she/her]

3 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

So got two comments 

1. If you look real close, i dont think her left arm is covered by a safe hand sleeve. I think its just her cloak. That one arm is out and pushing the cloak back while the other is at rest, and thereby covered by the cloak

I’m pretty sure it’s a safe hand sleeve. The fabric on her left hand ends way above the cloak line, so either it’s a slanted cloak or a safe hand sleeve. 

[Pathfinder]

1 hour ago, Hentient said:

I’m pretty sure it’s a safe hand sleeve. The fabric on her left hand ends way above the cloak line, so either it’s a slanted cloak or a safe hand sleeve. 

Personally i see it like the below image, just the character is more from the side which is why it looks like a sleeve when to me it is a cloak. Especially when the coloring matches the cloak on both sides.

 

 

[Hen she/her]

20 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

Personally i see it like the below image, just the character is more from the side which is why it looks like a sleeve when to me it is a cloak. Especially when the coloring matches the cloak on both sides.

I see your point, but look at her arms. On her right arm the sleeve is short, so you can see her skin, on her left, (which is slightly hidden, but still in sight) the sleeve is longer, with no skin showing, which implies a safehand sleeve. Anyway, even if it is a safehand sleeve, it might just be a foreigner who's wearing one to make others feel more comfortable, and not for religion. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Hentient

[Passion he/him]

Why can’t it be Azure. That will also explain away the sword. (Sorry if this is way off; I suddenly cant remember at all what she looked like)

[Honorless he/him]

Could it be a historical figure instead?

Just in case it isn't, all I feel relatively safe speculating on is that she might be the Sibling's Bondsmith rather than The Nightwatcher's: this book is supposed to focus more on Urithiru's secrets after all

[GriffinMaze]

Its just art y'all. its a representation of a KR, not a book character

[SirNoSell]

Maybe it's the ancient Bondsmith Melishi. We know the stormfather than store memories.  Maybe Dalinar has access to ancient Bondsmith wisdom kinda like Aang Avatar but he isn't there yet in power?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

14 hours ago, Goatbringer said:

While it is more than likely some character we haven't met yet, I'm gonna go ahead and give a real left field prediction that it's going to be Khriss. She comes to Roshar, adopts the local customs, is chosen by the Nightwatcher due to her desire to bond the Cosmere together through her research: pow! Second Bondsmith. 

Who do you guys think?

(Scadrial)

Spoiler

Khriss met Wax at a party in Bands of Mourning , which is supposed to between SA5 and SA6. So she would either take the Sibling or the Nightwatcher off planet into the domain of another Shard,  or she has broken the bond after a few years only. Neither seems likely to me.

By her features she is not Thaylenah, Veden or Horneater. Indeed the simplest explanation is Navani or an unknown. Frankly, for all we know that could be Lift 5 years hence.

14 hours ago, Darth_Hel said:

Khriss seems unlikely. Felt commented that the nightwatcher doesn't like foreigners.

I doubt he can positively know. That looks like a conclusion from his own reception and maybe his companions'.
(Scadrial)

Spoiler

May we speculate that Cultivation has a problem with artifically created humans and hence causes the Nightwatcher to reject Scadrians specifically?

 

[Pathfinder]

8 hours ago, Hentient said:

I see your point, but look at her arms. On her right arm the sleeve is short, so you can see her skin, on her left, (which is slightly hidden, but still in sight) the sleeve is longer, with no skin showing, which implies a safehand sleeve. Anyway, even if it is a safehand sleeve, it might just be a foreigner who's wearing one to make others feel more comfortable, and not for religion. 

Maybe this image will help to better convey what i am trying to say. Picture this individual but from the angle we see in the bondsmith image. So both sleeves are, to me, are short, just the left one is covered by a cloak (the colors of what you perceive to be the safehand sleeve match the colors of the cloak on her right). That is why, to me, you don't notice her short sleeve on the left arm. Because her whole arm is covered/hidden by what i perceive as the cloak. Now you are completely and absolutely entitled to disagree, but now do you understand what i am trying to say?

 

 

 

Edit: found a better example in the woman in this image. If she was in a similar pose as the bondsmith it would appear that her right arm had a white sleeve while her left arm had a black sleeve but as we see its just her left arm is covered by her black cloak while the right arm pushes the cloak back revealing her white sleeve.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Pathfinder

[SirNoSell]

There was also this post shared. Now I'm not sure if that means he can't say more because there's no character or that he can't say more as it would mean spoiler.  I going with the very hard latter and saying that this confirms an actual Bondsmith character. 

[Gilphon]

So the sword looks regular sword-sized, not giant anime sword-sized. Which makes me think it's an honorblade. And, y'know, it would probably be easier to find Ishar's blade than it would be to convince the Nightwatcher or Sibling to bond somebody.

And yeah, this lady looks Azish, so it's quite possibly someone we haven't met. Or she could be one of viziers. 

[+Child of Hodor]

Confirmed in this interview that it is just a theoretical example of another Bondsmith not someone specific.  18:30 Mark

https://www.17thshard.com/news/features/interview-with-isaac-and-kara-stewart-r585/

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Child of Hodor

[GriffinMaze]

 

23 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

I think everyone's getting a little carried away with analyzing this artwork.

This piece of art is not part of Stormlight Four. It's part of the WoK 10th anniversary Kickstarter; they're doing a poster, like this, for each Order. Aside from the Windrunners (which are shown on the Kickstarter campaign page itself), we've gotten peeks at Truthwatchers, Elsecallers, Skybreakers, and Dustbringers, aside from this most recent Bondsmiths preview. And while there are several recognizable characters featured on the posters, there are a lot of unknowns, as well; especially with Skybreakers (which doesn't feature Szeth) and Truthwatchers (which doesn't feature Renarin).

But you'll notice that all of these pieces of artwork feature two Radiants, one male and one female. They're putting one of each on every poster (like they did way back in the old Immortal Words poster), which means there must be a female depiction of a Bondsmith for the sake of the poster. And she's an incredibly generic Bondsmith; her sigil is the Bondsmith sigil, her attire is the Bondsmith white-and-gold, her ornamentations are the Bondsmith's gemstone of heliodor.

And she's got a Shardblade, which Bondsmiths didn't have. Heck, in the original Elsecaller post from above, Jasnah had the Edgedancer sigil instead of the Elsecaller. So it doesn't look like these posters are being put through the rigorous vetting that book artwork is. (Like, for example, several pieces he's doing to go in the leatherbound, featured on his social media and the Kickstarter campaign.)

These posters aren't tied to a specific time in-story; it's not like they're "depictions of the Radiant Orders at the start of Rhythm of War," or something like that. They can contain specific characters, and they can contain archetypal examples of Radiants, and they're out-of-universe, so it's not like Dalinar gets a new Bondsmith friend and then tells her "Let's go pose for a band photo somewhere in Urithiru." Going back to Immortal Words poster I linked above, we're not going to theorize that there was an actual banner with those words hanging somewhere with a Stonward and a Windrunner guarding it. These are all artists' depictions; no more, no less. Whoever the next Bondsmiths will be, I don't think we'll learn anything about them from examining this poster.

EDIT: And, of course, right after I post this we get a Kickstarter update from Isaac:

 

 

18 hours ago, GriffinMaze said:

Its just art y'all. its a representation of a KR, not a book character

 

3 hours ago, Child of Hodor said:

Confirmed in this interview that it is just a theoretical example of another Bondsmith not someone specific.  18:30 Mark

https://www.17thshard.com/news/features/interview-with-isaac-and-kara-stewart-r585/

 

Lets put this to bed