Sphinx

I honestly think this one is genuinely not a death rattle. This is appropriation of a famous literary quote is exactly the kind of thing that someone would attribute to the final words of a famous scholar. Or that said famous scholar might deliberately say on his deathbed. That not all the epigraphs, or all the death rattles, should be treated with the same weight just makes the world feel more real.

Some gameplay clarification questions If someone sends an outdated password and command, will they be told that it has been changed? Or left to assume that there was a conflict/their target was protected? How possible is it to distinguish between kill types? (is it obvious when a lifeless kills as opposed to the Pahn Kahl, or an awakened sword?)

I felt like Jasnah's "death" and resurrection worked narratively, both in terms of the arc of the book, her character arc, and the arc of the characters around her, particularly Shallan. It was also adequately foreshadowed that I did not feel like it came out of nowhere. It wasn't that I was convinced she was alive from Shallan not tripping over her, it just made it so I wouldn't be too surprised either way. I think similar things can be said about Szeth's death and resurrection in terms of it fitting his character arc and the narrative arc of the series. I feel like it's a bit unfortunate that both of these things happened right together, but at the same time, I'm not sure that there would be a good way to separate them. I would be a lot more annoyed about Szeth coming back if it hadn't been shown in this book, and while Jasnah's return could have been pushed into a later book, I think that would also have lessened the impact of her returning to just miss the Everstorm and Urithiru being found. I think it helps WoR's integrity as a complete book to have both these survivals revealed at the end, instead of having events in later books directly contradict events in this one. In order for Jasnah's survival to work in a later book, it would have needed to be more heavily foreshadowed in this one, and possibly take place later on, to give it more emotional weight. Obviously, this is just how I feel about it. It is interesting that these two resurrections (plus maybe Gaz and Syl) are making people suspect that all sorts of other people may not actually be dead. I suppose it's a reasonable reaction, but being taken to some serious extremes. (I will eat my hat if Gavilar turns out to be alive). I still believe that Brandon Sanderson is perfectly capable of killing people off, main characters or not, whenever he pleases or it fits the narrative. I was not, for example, expecting Sadeas to bite it in this book, but now that he is dead I certainly do not expect him to be showing up again unless someone is lightweaving his appearance or something.

If it's still possible to sign up, I'm interested in giving this a try. Please forgive any mistakes due to being a first timer or how long it's been since I read Warbreaker. Sipha is a young apprentice at the town's distillery.

Tyn clearly intends to present Shallan as a Horneater before the men are anywhere near close enough to identify their eye colour. Shallan is surprised to find the leader of the patrol on horseback to be a darkeyes. He's obviously trusted, and Shallan basically just plunges forward, hoping that she won't run into him again. She never thinks "oh, he's darkeyes, so even if he is important it doesn't matter" Unfair was likely too strong of a word to use, as you're right, from Kaladin's perspective it is completely fair. However, in this case, his eye colour was pretty immaterial to the outcome of the situation (except for providing one instant of extending the conversation which resulted in Shallan being "offended" again)

There is a WoB (I'm too lazy to hunt it down, sorry) that Shallan's father is being influenced by Odium, which may explain why Hoid says that the forces she's fighting are not entirely natural. The creature that sucks Lift's stormlight in her interlude, the creature that Rysn gets, and the creature encased in crystal on Elhokar's desk are all the same species (I think) Axies is the Amian in Rysn's interlude. WoB is that Baxil's mistress is the same person who destroys the statue in Shallan's vision, suggesting that she's the person Shallan drew with the chisel standing over the prone statue, which in turn implies that Shallan has some ability to sketch the past/present and that Yalb actually did survive the shipwreck.

I agree that lighteyes are terrible at apologising to darkeyes. However I also agree that Kaladin is not exactly a saint, though given the microagressions he suffers on a daily basis, it's hard to really fault him for reading them into places where they don't exist like being ignored by two people on a date when you're the escort/chaperone/bodyguard. That said, the boots scene. Had Kaladin been the lighteyed equivalent, it would probably have gone the exact same way. Shallan doesn't scam him out of his boots because she's lighteyed and he's darkeyed, she scams him out of the boots because Tyn is sitting there, egging her on and putting her in this hilariously awkward position and it's funny. It's not even important that Shallan's eyes are light for the role she's playing (I don't think Unkalaki princesses, if they even really exist, are necessarily lighteyed). So it is unfair for Kaladin to throw this in her face as an example of her behaviour towards darkeyes, because that wasn't actually really a factor. None of the characters are perfect. A great number of them still manage to be likeable and sympathetic. It's one of the things I love about these books.

Kabsal says "by Vedeledev's golden keys" in Chapter 7 of the Way of Kings.

Or perhaps none of the living members can surgebind at all, never could, but they are still descended from the original Skybreaker order, passing along the teachings, oaths and knowledge, but lacking in the abilities. Things might still develop that way, but it would explain the current lack of evidence of any Skybreakers actually surgebinding, while still allowing Helaran to have knowledge to pass on to Shallan.

There are precedents in fiction for "bandolier" being used to describe all sorts of across the chest belts with pouches to hold things like money, bells, potions, poisons, what have you, so I'm not sure we can speculate much from "a kind of leather bandolier" But I like that it gives an excuse to theorize worldhopping Jasnah!

I'm pretty sure that there are instances in the books of people calling Dalinar "Kholin" when they're not calling him "sir" (Kaladin), "Brightlord" (Teshav and others), "Uncle" (Elhokar) or "Highprince." Unfortunately I don't have the book with me right now to check. We're just used to thinking of him as Dalinar because that's what the third person narration calls him, as well as his close family, so we start thinking that everyone calls him that the way we do. The vast majority of Dalinar's conversations in the books are with people who are close to him or subordinates, so there aren't a lot of places for him being called Kholin to crop up. Most people talking to Elhokar call him "Your Majesty", Dalinar alternates between that, "nephew" and "Elhokar". Sadeas and Ialai do call Dalinar by his first name in private conversations, but that could partly be to distinguish who they're talking about, and partly because Torol and Dalinar were on first name terms at one point, and the familiarity is comfortable. Looking at the Chapter 9 from the excerpts, I see that Aladar also calls Dalinar by his first name, and it's left unclear whether Aladar is his first or family name. The bridgemen in that chapter, incidentally, all use "Dalinar Kholin" when talking about him. In Chapter 12 a soldier refers to "Brightlord Kholin." In Chapter 14 the duel official uses Adolin's full name when announcing the bout. Shallan seems to call Dalinar "Brightlord Kholin" a lot. So basically all that to say, Dalinar does get called Kholin. There does seem to be some inconsistency in what the other highprinces call him as opposed to calling each other, but that may be explained by his formality/pursuit of the codes and their familiarity/friendship/lack of respect for him and that the Kholin family consists of both a king and a highprince. From a narrative standpoint, calling the other highprinces by first or last names interchangeably or switching it in the third person narration would make it harder for the average reader to keep track of who was who. Plus there's the sympathy thing that's already been mentioned.

That's actually not how Jasnah's described as a child. Navani even makes a point of contrasting Jasnah's adolescent aloof maturity to her childhood openness. I don't remember the exact quote and don't have my book on me to verify it, but I remember noting it when I read it, and wondering if the change Navani had noted might have come about partly due to whatever unfortunate experience Jasnah might have had. Jasnah is poised, but I agree with Seloun that when she does show emotions, those emotions are sincere. We are given the impression that she conceals what she feels, rather than her normal demeanor being true, and the demonstrations of kindess and other emotions being false. Being controlled =/= sociopathy. Her attitude towards her brother's wife is pretty cold, but I'd argue that that's more because of her brother's wife's personality and possibly some history we don't know about than anything else.

I assumed that, since he was bonded to the blade, he could hear it screaming accusations of murder, whereas Kaladin just heard screaming. It's quite possible that Renarin hears screaming accusations of murder every time he summons his blade. (Poor Renarin) The blade could be screaming words at him. But that doesn't mean there's anything special about Relis that allows that to happen. I agree with the above posters that it's far more likely that it was the combination of proto Knight Radiant Kaladin touching the dead blade that Relis had bonded that allowed him to hear the screaming, rather than anything else. We've already established that "dead" means something different for a spren than it would for a human. We know that Surgebinders can hear the dead spren screaming. In some way, the bond between shardblades and people can happen because the gemstone and the ten heartbeats forces the spren to be a little more alive. So when someone with this "fake" bond can suddenly hear screaming when a Surgebinder touches their sword, the most likely explanation is that the Surgebinder's touch has allowed the fake bonded person to hear the screaming, and possibly in more detail than the Surgebinder. It is doubtful that Relis suddenly developped a deeper bond with a random spren. It is doubtful that it illustrates a sudden deepening of Relis's bond with his sword. Relis's behaviour prior to this moment is certainly not conducive to either of the latter cases.

I also interpreted Yelig-nar as being a bringer of disease, and that Nohadon's wordsmith's were wiped out by plague. That interpretation might suggest that he's Vedeledev's counterpart, rather than Jezerien's. I also picked up on the plage in the Purelake, and assumed that that was there as a hint to Yelig-nar's location. I'd be surprised if Yelig-nar is Moelach, however. Articulate descriptions of omens doesn't seem equivalent to wails to me, and they come from people dying in all sorts of different ways, mostly violent ones.

Judging by Shallan's reactions, I think it's probable that this was her father's death. In addition to his stab wound from Nan Balat, there may also have been her step-mother's blood and Nan Balat's bloody mangled leg contributing to the "pool." I think it may be worth noting that the surge that allows regrowth is called "Progression" which does seem to have connotations for the future, and you seem to be conflating "Lightweaving" the Order, with "Illumination" the surge Lightweavers and Truthwatchers share. This may seem nitpicky, but I actually think it's important to distinguish between the surges and the orders, because there's some suggestion that compounding surges is very significant to what the order can actually do. My guess would be that Renarin's ability to see/predict the future (Truthwatching) is in fact a combination of both Progression and Illumination, similar to how Shallan's ability to influence people (Lightweaving) is a power of both"Transformation" and "Illumination." The "Illumintation" part in particular may allow her to inadvertently shed light on, or see, things that are happening in the present/past, while Progression would push this abillity into the future as well. Edited to add: I just saw the following quote in the Word of Brandon thread from the Lexington Signing: It seems likely that Shallan's vision of the mistress = Shallan's drawing of the woman with the chisel, as I can't think of anything else it would be, so this WoB would seem to confirm the question in the title (assuming you subscribe to mistress = Shalash)

We see Jasnah's body, but we also see Jasnah's body go missing. It's not where Shallan expects to trip over it. There's nothing to indicate that something similar happened to Gavilar, and enough people were thinking/regretting the aftermath of his death that something along the lines of "they hadn't even been able to prevent his corpse from being stolen" or "worse still, they had failed to give his body the proper rite of crystalcasting as he deserved as King" would probably have popped up. It is, admittedly, an argument from silence, but I find it fairly convincing, particularly given the way Jasnah's return is foreshadowed.

I think it would have come up if Gavilar's body had gone missing and hadn't been soulcast into crystal. Nalan deems Szeth worthy of resurrection because of Szeth's fanatical obedience to the laws of his people, in spite of their injustice. I don't see Nalan bothering to resurrect people he's executed himself because of their lawbreaking. I think, if anything, we can view Nalan's treatment of Szeth as the complete opposite of his treatment of Ym and the like. Szeth does not have a bonded spren, Ym did. Szeth was killed by Kaladin while attempting to follow the orders the laws of his people imposed on him; Ym was executed by Nalan for breaking the law. Szeth was resurrected for being worthy and given a chance at rebirth. There's nothing to indicate Ym would be given the same chance. At one point in WoK, Syl mentions that if Kaladin dies, she goes stupid again. Assuming she's correct, spren simply lose the benefit of the bond when a Radiant dies, and may need to begin the process all over again.

Graves's stated patriotic goal is to kill Elhokar so that Dalinar will take his place. Dalinar becoming king of the Alethi seems to run explicitly counter to the Diagram's aims. Either: 1. He is lying in order to get support for a Diagram-backed plot to kill Elhokar. 2. He is trying to kill Elhokar for the Diagram, and doesn't know about the Diagram's intention to kill Dalinar. 3. He is one of the agents that the Diagram recalls, and is genuinely telling the truth about pursuing his own agenda until he is activated. Personally, I'm far more inclined to believe that 3 is correct in this particular case given the consistency of Graves's actions, and his close relationship with his various allies.

I've read on these forums that stormlight heals to where you believe yourself to be. Unfortunately I don't know where that statement comes from, but I find it believable. While Kaladin is still making progress on his issues, his reactions to Bridge 4 wanting to stay Bridge 4 with the tattooing, and his vehement disbelief of the idea that he is now a lighteyes, suggest that his mentality is still conflicted over his own identity as a slave. His stormlight heals the tattoo of freedom, rather than the scars of his slavery. The shash brand of violence still seems very much part of his identity, with his constant focus on using violence to protect. I'm actually more surprised that Renarin healed his eyesight, than that Kaladin hasn't healed his scars. I wish we'd gotten some Renarin viewpoint, as he also seems to be struggling with identity issues and trying to be the revered and admired warrior while he fears his own insanity. Healing his eyesight seems to indicate a trust in his vision and identity as a clear-sighted warrior that I wouldn't have expected from his other actions. Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into it.

Another question regarding the secret societies is how many of them was Gavilar involved with? Both the Diagram and the Sons of Honour reference Gavilar, and Gavilar's visions. Which I'm amazed not to see a thread about on the forums, unless I missed it? And clearly Gavilar knew about the Ghostbloods as well.