Patrick Star

We don't know, but from how I read it, it's highly likely. If they wanted to capture Amaram, I feel like a different tactic would have been used. With the way it was handled, Amaram got pinned under his horse, which could have been a fatal wound with a bit of... better luck? I don't feel like Nalan is taking prisoners. And if the ghostbloods pulled off the assassination, I think they would have come up with a more creative solution. It just doesn't have a ghostblood vibe to me.

That's the crux of the plan. Under the law, it's not an assasination. It's a kill on the battlefield during an established war by an individual with no legal obligations to the party that he is fighting. Nalan couldn't do it himself because he's an alethi official (police officer equivalent), and is thus technically an employee of Amaram. That would be treason, and a crime. The Geneva Conventions consider killing an enemy combatant (under "normal" circumstances) to not be a criminal offense. I'd say that Rosharian law is similar.

So, I've put this idea out in passing on some other threads, and thought that such an important event deserved its own thread. Basically, who tried to kill Amaram on the battlefield? Who was Helaran working for? Now, the two most likely options, based off of textual evidence between WoK and WoR, are the Skybreakers and the Ghostbloods. After the assassination, Amaram mentions the Ghostbloods as the prime suspects. However, Mraize tells Shallan that Helaran had looked for the Skybreakers. Personally, my feeling is that Helaran was working for Nalan and the Skybreakers, and I will explain why. First off, the Skybreakers definitely have the resources to get a shardblade and plate, as Nalan is carrying one around with him. Even if that is actually Nalan's honorblade, which it might be, it would provide the Skybreakers with the capabilities to forcefully take another blade and plate, which Szeth could have done 10 times with Jezrien's honorblade. Second, the evidence does not suggest that the Ghostbloods want to kill Amaram. Instead, the evidence suggests that they want to capture him, and Helaran's charge does not suggest that the be the intent. The poison dart at the end of WoR was coated with a paralysis poison, not a fatal one. Now, some people may ask "Why would Nalan want to kill Amaram? He's busy killing surgebinders!". Nalan is not simply killing surgebinders, he is attempting to prevent a desolation from occurring, and surgebinding causes (or Nalan thinks it causes) desolations to occur. Not so incidentally, Amaram and the Sons of Honor are attempting to start a new desolation to cause the Heralds to return, and appeared to be attempting to drive the Parshendi to adopt stormform (perhaps Restares supplied Venli with the stormspren?). This would be more than enough reason for Nalan to arrange for a special kill. To be clear, Nalan could not have killed Amaram himself. Nalan is a constable in Azir, and likely holds similar positions in all the kingdoms and provinces of those kingdoms, meaning that Amaram would be off-limits to him, since he did not commit a crime. However, a random member of the Skybreakers with no prior affiliation to Amaram would have free reign to... say... join an army that Amaram happened to be fighting at the time, bring some shards, ride into battle, then make a beeline for Amaram and kill him. Essentially, Helaran was said Skybreaker. As for why Nalan didn't make another attempt on Amaram's life, that's easy. Amaram's leg was completely shattered. In fact, his bridge run with Sadeas was almost certainly his first combat action since the injury, so Nalan didn't have another opportunity to kill him in battle. In addition, Nalan likely did not know about Kaladin, or else he likely would have executed Amaram immediately. And for the final reason, Amaram and Sadeas were fighting together, and it would be too risky to attack multiple shardbearers and risk even more of the Skybreaker's resources. And there we go. Who agrees with my "Nalan sent Helaran to kill Amaram on the Battlefield" theory? Who disagrees? Who has any new culprits that could have pulled off the attempt? Please discuss! Edit: Oudeis suggested that Helaran's intent may not have actually been to kill Amaram. I do not believe this to be the case. Amaram's leg got pinned by Helaran. A slightly different position easily could have severed an artery and killed Amaram. For a capture mission, that would have way too large of a risk of killing him.

I've been advocating this plan for a while. How would I beat Odium? Easy, use Nightblood to eat him. That may cause some extra problems, but it has to be better than Odium... right?

I mean, it's definitely been done in other universes. Just look at the Imperial City in the Elder Scrolls. You can see clear as day from half of Cyrodiil.

Exactly. That was the crux of dalinar's plan. The parshendi couldn't flee. Only the gemhearts ruined the plan.

That's being unreasonable. The plateaus had multiple levels, and there were definitely uneven structures, such as the tower. It looks mostly accurate to me.

I hope so! Should make book 5 quite an... explosive finale. It'll be a bombardment of revelations, with megatons of new information being dropped for the second arc. Hopefully we won't have to sulfur through periods with no action. I can drop these puns all day

I have a better idea for the destruction aspect of the surge (sadly, I don't think this'll be what actually happens):

I'm more referring to the "decay" aspect of the division surge. It also covers destruction, which DEFINITELY sounds like breaking things apart. I was thinking about how the surge could cause objects to decay, and this clip reminded me of that. And yes, the actual decay would come from increasing entropy brought on by the rapid passage of time.

I actually have a REALLY bad feeling about him killing the stone shamans. If you remember wandersail, it was an allegory of Szeth's journey, where the people murdered others, found out that they were living a lie, and then committed even greater atrocities after discovering the lie. Well, Szeeth committed murders because of a lie (him being truthless) and found out about the lie (Kaladin confirming the existence of the radiants). However, he has not yet taken the next step in committing an even greater atrocity. I have a sinking feeling that him killing the stone shamans is said atrocity.

So, I had an idea for a possible mechanic for the division surge. According to the Ars Arcaneum, the division surge governs destruction and decay. I'm thinking that a possible application of the surge is to rapidly accelerate time for the infused object, which would cause it to decay. Basically, it would be like that scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the holy grail. Now, there may be a second application related to destruction (like how windrunners have multiple lashings), but I think that the decay aspect may be governed by this manipulation of time.

Confirmed: Dalinar's wife was named Xena

I don't know, Arondell. He seems to be pretty messed up in there. At least on life support. His reasoning skills don't seem to... exist. At all.

I believe that Brandon said that Cohesion governed weak interaxial forces and Tension governed strong interaxial forces. Division governs "Destruction and Decay", according to the coppermind. IMO, Willshapers (Transportation + Cohesion) will basically be like earthbenders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm hoping that Stonewards (Cohesion + Tension) will be able to perform acts of technomancy, as weak interaxial forces + strong interaxial forces = all interaxial forces. I posted about it here, if you want to read it. Not trying to plug my own thread, but I'm too lazy to write it all over again: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/34923-stoneward-surge-potential/ Anyways, Division sounds like an odd surge. I've done some thinking about it, and I think it may involve an aging mechanic, mainly because of the "decay" part of its description. If anyone has ever seen Ben 10 Alien force, I think that Division may have a similar effect to the lab assistant from the Ben 10 Alien Force episode "Paradox" http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Paradox_(Episode) I can't find a video link, but I think that Division rapidly accelerates time for the infused object, which would either cause it to decay or become inert, thanks to entropy.

I'm a giant fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, so I'll move to Dallas and start rooting for the Cowboys. There's no way it can backfire!

Chuck Norris

Don't forget Hoid's story to Kaladin in the jail. That wasn't so much foreshadowing as Brandon saying "Hey! Kaladin's going to die!" Hopefully, Kal learns from that story and changes his course of action so that he survives, but I'm not sure if that will happen.

Maybe? He definitely has enough of a presence. He's got far more investiture than a radiantspren. However, I'm not sure if the Nahel Bond is a mechanic exclusive to radiantspren.

Also, Ben Kingsley would have to play Edmund/Conflux. Just watch Iron Man 3, if you have any reservations.

My bad, I was looking at the thread on my phone. Didn't see that.

I mean, the chapter in which Elhokar locks Kaladin up in prison is called "The one who killed promises". So yeah, the commonly accepted view is pretty much definitely correct.

Yes, yes you are. Dalinar would probably want a Nissan GTR. Kal would love a Ferrari, while Navani would drive a Tesla.

They go to Kholinar, where the riots are going on. In order to catch everybody's attention, Kaladin flies to the shattered plains and rides a chasmfiend back, which silences the crowd. Hey! I can dream!

I'm more interested to see Kaladin's reaction to fighter jets, like the F-22. Or maybe the SR-71 Blackbird. And a Harrier jet, as well. They're faster than him and have machine guns and missiles. Or how about Shallan's reaction to TV's and video games? Or Dalinar's reaction to cars? So much fun stuff