twelfthrootoftwo

Wrapping around to the back cover, we see the Everstorm about to hit - or passing over - Shinovar.

Would it be possible to link the Silver Kingoms in with eye colour? I remember Dunny claiming Veden heritage because his eyes were purplish. It's an example of unusual eye colours with no Shardblade/Spren involved. Szeth has green eyes, and Iriali eyes are pale yellow. The two reds could be taken as brown in a darker shade. I can't think of any instances of natural blue eyes, though, or how diamond would look.

I agree Kaladin will end up as Odium's champion. It might not even be tied to Amaram - my broad idea was that he realises he can't live up to his own expectations of lighteyes, and loses faith in himself/humanity that way. I'm not so sure about your interpretation of the death rattle, mostly because they tend to translate fairly literally, so it would require a very quick transition from killing Amaram to champion of Odium. I actually think "the one who killed my promises" would refer to himself, after breaking his commitments to his men, Dalinar, et al. and the KR oaths. This would demonstrate the self-loathing I imagine he would be feeling at that point. I'd also point out that - if I'm interpreting correctly - Kaladin has Jezrien's Honorblade, so he even gets to keep the surges he's used to if he kills Syl again.

What resource do the Parshendi use to summon the storm? Szeth thinks in TWoK that Voidbringers could hold Stormlight, and if that's true, then we should expect Voidbinding to use it. But the Parshendi army doesn't have any: "Parshendi beards often bore bits of gemstone woven into them in patterns, but today those didn't glow." WoR ch81 "The Last Day", p969 That means the lightning and storm come from something else. *If* Szeth is correct, then stormform aren't Voidbringers. I doubt the source of that power is as simple as singing the right song in the right form.

Something will happen at the Purelake - call it gut feeling, but I think it's an important location. The Everstorm coming from the wrong direction seems exactly the kind of thing that would trigger it to do something strange. Maybe it will flood wherever the water normally retreats to? Maybe it will form a tsunami and swamp Tu Bayla? Also, according to the colour map Shinovar does have a western range of mountains, so it might be *slightly* more sheltered than suggested. Aimia, on the other hand...

On closer inspection,I see what you mean about Ym's spren - he describes it growing plantlike tendrils when stationary. Is there a definitive confirmation of his order that I've missed? I'm not so sure about Wyndle, though. I don't get the feeling of 'sliding' the way he's described, rather that he grows in one direction and leaves bits behind which decay. It could be the inverse - friction has him fixed more firmly to the surface - which is basically what you would expect of a plant with roots. I can't find a reference to Ivory teleporting himself around. He walks and moves like a person in the Prologue, and when Shallan sees him, he just disappears. Can you point me towards what you're talking about? (Also, Syl changes shape all the time.) Pattern still seems odd to me. To give the full chandelier quote: "He looked something like the pattern of splintered light thrown on the wall by a crystal chandelier - except he was made of something black instead of light, and he was three-dimensional." It's the "something black" part that bothers me, because that makes him sound like an absence of light, not its presence. Although it does sound like he glowed when she was a child: "A silvery sword. A pattern of light." - WoR ch3 "Pattern", p69 --------------------------------------------- So did Lift, and Ym used the surge I'm arguing he's not connected to. Point being, KR can access both surges from one spren.

Hello people of 17th Shard! Long time lurker, first time posting here. After reading Words of Radiance, it occurred to me that four of the six bonded spren we see strongly resemble one of the essences. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and come up with this theory. The basic idea is that the types of bonded spren don’t correspond to the orders, but instead to surges, and take their forms from one of the connected essences. I’ll start by demonstrating what I mean about the appearance of the spren. (Note this theory assumes the map of orders and surges from http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6584-seattle-signing-orders-and-surges-confirmed-d/ is correct. Spoiler tags are used for formatting purposes, and contain quote collections or lists. Page numbers refer to the US hardback, and aren't provided for TWoK as I think my Australian paperback is out.) Syl This should be fairly clear - Kaladin mistakes her for a windspren at first. The Windrunners were associated with the essence Zephyr (air/wind). Ivory Jasnah performs Soulcasting and Elsecalling, which puts her under order 7. The corresponding essence is Tallow (oil). The two quotes from Jasnah’s POV in the prologue clearly tie the appearance of the spren to oil. The third, from Shallan, is not as conclusive, but at the same time she only has a glimpse of the spren. Ym’s Spren Ym uses Growth/Regrowth, which indicates orders 4 or 5. The essence of order 4 – Vev – is Lucentia, which seems a natural match, given the imagery of light through a prism. Wyndle We see Lift use Abrasion and Progression, and both Wyndle and Darkness/Nalan refer to her as an Edgedancer. This puts her in order number 4, corresponding to Vev and Lucentia. I’d like to note that Wyndle’s form shows aspects of essences 4 and 5, with the crystals and vines respectively. The Stormfather There is clearly something of a parent-child relationship between Syl and the Stormfather. This might be common to the bonding spren, or even to all spren. However, I suspect this is because she is an honorspren. Dalinar bonds with the Stormfather. The rear cover of the book strongly implies that he is a Bondsmith – order 10 – and this is supported by Ishi’s face in the heading of chapter 89, The Four (p1065). Pattern Shallan’s descriptions make me picture a fractal, either on a flat surface or a sphere. Pattern is unusual in that this form does not give any suggestion of one of the essences. To determine which order Ym belongs to, I will consider the pattern of chapter faces when we definitively see each character use Surgebinding: In each case where the order is known, we see at least a pair of the corresponding Herald’s face. There are three instances of faces not accounted in this way: Kaladin – “Envisager” Vedeledev (he’s healing with Stormlight) Lift – “Lift” Nalan (Nalan shows up as a character) Shallan – “Shadesmar” Palah (No idea for this one) My argument from this is that we can use the faces to indicate order. What does this indicate for Ym? He gets four Vedeledev faces, even with Nalan’s presence. Using the Progression surge would account for two, but not all four. Conclusion: Ym is an Edgedancer. This gives two very different spren bonded to members of the same order. How is this possible? I’ve argued previously that Ym’s spren resembles the essence corresponding to the Edgedancers. Wyndle, however, takes after essence number 5, corresponding to the Truthwatchers. These two orders share the Progression surge, and I propose that this is what Wyndle is tied to. Ym’s spren would then correspond to Abrasion. Wyndle identifies himself as a gardener, growing crystals, which further supports this idea: “I was a gardener. A wonderful gardener!” – Lift, p701 The pattern is that the spren take the appearance of the second order of the cycle they connect to. This is supported by the Stormfather and Syl, who bond with orders 10 and 1 respectively. They share the surge Adhesion, which would resemble essence 1 – Zephyr. What’s more, we have this quote from Syl: “I bind things, Kaladin.” – TwoK ch67 “Words” Following this pattern, we would expect Ivory to correspond with Transformation. This would mean Pattern should tie to Illumination. However – unless there’s some sort of –flowing-fractal-lines-as-liquid thing here, he doesn’t bear any resemblance to the essence of Blood. This could indicate my theory is completely incorrect, or it could mean there is something different about Pattern and his bond with Shallan. (As an aside, this theory lends some credence to the idea I’ve seen recently about the KR bonding to two spren.) Finally, for the sake of argument, I’ll list all the assumptions, consequences and problems with my theory that I can currently think of.