thejopen27

I think Restares is either Ishar or a high ranking member of the Vorin church, who excommunicated Dalinar. I think this will come up again. My money is on Ishar, who I think is serving Odium.

IS he though? He is holding Nightblood. Nightblood is communicating with him, but I don't think part of nightblood is bonded to Szeth.

But Odium doesn't want a permanent desolation, he wants to break humanity to force them to release him, or otherwise break the Oathpact. He wants to escape Roshar (after dealing with Cultivation.)

We'll probably get that in Renarin's flash-back book. Book 6 or 7

Unite Humans and Singers to defeat their common enemy, Odium

Cultivating Honor would be to create Unity. Cultivation plays the long game. Maybe she wasn't just preparing Dalinar to reject Odium, but also to unite the shards after Odium kills her.

Vivenna must be carrying some breath in her then because her cloak acts strange and she has the crew of Honor's Path prepare golems for her.

Throw in Cultivation and then that makes Unity

Moash serves as the reverse Dalinar, Dalinar refuses to let Odium take his actions away from him, while Moash leans into it.

Finished on Sunday evening, after a couple days to reflect: Dalinar meeting Odium in the vision, Dalinar meeting Cultivation in the Flash-back. I loved the Cultivation scene. I thought the flashbacks weren't quite as powerful as WoK or WoR but the Cultivation/Nightmother scene where he asks for forgiveness is really powerful. Kaladin meets his family, brother, Kaladin arguing with Jasnah, the memory (not flashback) scenes, I did not like his end fight with Super-Amaram. I thought it was a bit too much. I liked all his interactions with Azure Azure! All the Kholinar stuff was great, including the Hoid story of the Girl with the Scarves. I loved how he turned it around from Shallan's negative telling. It seems to tell of Humanity trapped in Shinovar outside of the Stormlight and going out into the rest of Roshar. Shallan was tough to read, in a good way, like how Kaladin was tough to read in WoR. I didn't like the split personality thing, but it works to get her to her end. I did like when she fought the Midnight Mother. I loved the Jasnah-Renarin confrontation, I loved Szeth and Lift and Nightblood, I loved the Ash-Taln scenes, I loved the Brandon-Avalanche, Unity! also Unity? I called the Dawnsingers=Listerners/Parsh, and that they were native and at first welcomed humanity before being corrupted by Odium. The humans probably started the war though. I thought the secret behind the recreance was underwhelming (maybe because I guessed it separately, not that that was THE secret though) Tanavast seems to have been fading into Honor by the end. Rayse seems very much still in control. Those letters from Shards to Hoid were fun. I don't know the first, but the others must have been Autonomy and Harmony. I loved all of Venli's stuff, I was shocked Eshonai was really dead, but I think it's better because it's Venli. I think Brandon may have intended it to be Eshonai but changed his mind. It's clear Odium doesn't care about the Singers but is just using them as means to an end. The Singers are the true owners of Roshar, but Odium still needs to be stopped and I anticipate the future books involve Dalinar and Venli seeing common ground. Venli is a Willshaper and her spren I would guess is a Lightspren/Reacher. (Exploration, Adventure, Resolve, and building relationships). I did not like reading Moash chapters but I understand why they're there and we got interesting insights into the Fused. Jesrien! (called it, oh and also Tezim=Ishar [who is up to no good and I think is working for Odium] and that Dova is a herald!) Is Moash going to be the new Champion of Odium? It feels like it. I'm not 100% sure what's going on with Malata. I was wrong about the Skybreakers. The Stone Shamanate and the disease on the Purelake got put on the back burner. Some light set-up for future Jasnah book (a mysterious illness, a lonely child-hood) Szeth went Ice-skating, I thought Szeth would reject the Skybreakers and become a different order. Nale is still crazy and broken, just differently. I think Shallash will become a Radiant of a different order (Dustbringer? Malata doesn't seem like a central character), still wondering what's up with Rysn, I still think she becomes a Radiant. I did not realize at first the consequences of the end. Odium has chosen the contest of Champions and his trick of turning Dalinar failed. I would guess book 5 ends with the contest of Champions and Odium is rebound.

I think Honor was good, when he was controlled by Tanavast, but as the intent of the Shard slowly overwhelmed Tanavast he became more and more literal. By the end I don't think he was insane, I think he was becoming a force instead of a person. When Kaladin is having the confrontational meal with Azure and he describes her sword and she says something about Crimson and something, and I thought about her weird name, and I said, "huh, that's Vivenna." I'm glad i recognized her before her hair changed and before she did the Zahel kata. I think Kaladin's 4th oath is something about letting others risk themselves, or letting others make their own decisions, or not blaming himself for failures.

I think it's completely the opposite. The Hierocracy was likely a theocratic government that evolved from the structures left over by the receding Radiants. I think it evolved naturally over the years from the stewards, servants, scholars, bureaucrats, and soldiers that must have helped the Radiants rule Roshar (and perhaps some former Radiants as well who tried to help keep order). I think they were probably no better or worse than another government, but the local land-owners and warlords (especially in the east) were tired of bowing to priest and one, the Sunmaker, decided to get some other nobles together and overthrow the priests and place themselves in control. The rest was a justification. It's possible that Azir's government resembles how the pre-Sunmaker Vorin church operated.

I think the Everstorm will be more sustained, slow, consistent. Like a distance runner to the Highstorms sprint.

he knows what knows, and he knows a lot.

this

The biggest sign that Nale was mad is that he was bending the law to suit his goals. Someone as rigid as Nale, probably, would strictly follow the law no matter what. A. What has the Shamanate truly done wrong, other than not believe the desolation was real. I would argue their Truthless law is a bad law, but it is their law. B. I don't think the KR returning actually caused the desolation. All the spren decided to start returning in the same period for some reason. The Spren knew something was coming and chose to risk restarting the Radiants for some reason. The desolation can and will sit where it wants, it needs no usher. C. I don't think Nalan, the Herald of Law and Justice, makes up his own laws or considers himself above the law, or superseding the law. In Nale's eyes Szeth wasn't committing those crimes, he was following the dictates of the law he follows and allowing himself to be punished by his country's legal code. The people who ordered Szeth to do those things are the guilty ones to Nale. I'm interested to see if Nale goes after Taravangian at some point.

I thought I remembered another blade being described like Shallan's, with geometric patterns running along it.

Either way, it wasn't cited and is from an unofficially released book.

It's surprising that none seem to be obviously Windrunner (possibly Oathbringer) or Stoneward (possibly Sunraiser) blades, since we know those are two orders that for sure gave up their blades. Alethkar seems to have several Dustbringer and Edgedancer blades.

Yeddaw doesn't have buildings, it has Rooms carved into the plateaus that make up the city. It's an artificial shattered plain where the plateaus are the buildings and the chasms are the streets. When Lift and Nalan are on the roof at the end of the book, they are fully exposed to the storm, on an open plain. The only building that is different is the Grand Indicium in the center. Which is a smooth mound.

Most of it seems to be scattered around the books. I try not to use the questions people ask Brandon at signings and Q&As because I think that Brandon isn't always as open as people think he is and he misunderstands questions, and people assume his words mean more than I think he meant, but some if from Brandon's sayings. We know the Shin have the Honor Blades and that the Stone Shamanate guard them (we don't really know what the Stone Shamans are, but they seem to be some kind of warrior monks, possibly descended from one of the orders of Knights Radiant after the Recreance) I think that Szeth was a member of the Stone Shamanate It seems that Szeth was banished and made Truthless for suggesting that the Voidbringers were returning at least six years before the main events of the books. Shinovar seems more earth-like than the rest of Roshar, it has soil, non-reactive plants, no Spren, horses, birds, and maybe other traditional animals, it is protected from Highstorms from massive mountains and possibly some magical protection from Cultivation.

I doubt there is one big cash. I would guess they are scattered across Roshar and Taravangian wouldn't need to find them all, just a cache of several.

I wouldn't put it past Uber-Taravangian to have deduced where some blades are and to have recovered them. Graves, a member who is unimportant enough to not be given direct orders, has been given a shardblade and plate to lead operations in Alethkar.

The chasms are like 10-20 feet or even less where they span them. Short enough that the Parshendi only have to be a little bit better jumpers than humans to jump them, and a man with a pole can vauilt them. I'm sure at some places it's much wider, while all chasms are much wider at the bottom, like a vase.