Patrick Star

It's actually the prospect of receiving a jelly filled doughnut by accident.

You don't want to know. That story's more messed up than Clockwork Orange.

Yeah, it's mostly speculation right now. I do think that this would be a good question to ask Brandon at a signing - something like "is nightblood the only sword we've seen that absorbs investiture?", or "can shardblades or honorblades absorb investiture?". I'm just trying to go through what other options there are.

WoB seems to have debunked Yelig-nar (Brandon may have a strict idea of what a "connection" is), and as of yet, there are no other Odious beings that would produce this effect (that we know of). I was noting an effect that another object (nightblood) that is similar to an honorblade/shardblade produces, and could be a clue. Also, that lack of sentience could actually be the cause of the voices. Nightblood has a central conciousness. An honorblade apparently has no such thing. Instead of fueling that central mind (with how Nightblood eats breaths), the investiture absorbed by Jezrien's honorblade would just... stick around in a garbled, incoherent form. Instead of one being talking, it's a bunch of random, incoherent parts of other beings all talking at the same time.

So, we know that Szeth hears voices in his head, specifically the voices of people that he killed. However, we don't know what causes them. For quite a long time, I advocated the Yelig-nar theory, but WoB - "Hmm... Szeth has no more of a connection with Yelig-nar than anyone else does." - seems to disprove that. However, I have a super weird theory that might actually fit with what we know about the magic systems in the Cosmere. Basically, I was thinking that it might be Jezrien's Honorblade that is causing Szeth to hear the voices. It's a weird idea, definitely. To look at how that might work, consider Nightblood. Nightblood is, for all intents and purposes, a shardblade made out of endowment splinters (as opposed to Honor splinters), but is partially broken. He - and Syl, for that matter - exhibits the ability to communicate telepathically over fairly decent distances (not sure about distance for Syl in sprenblade form). We also know that when he kills somebody, he absorbs their breaths. That's key. My idea is that the damaging of the oathpact broke, or at least damaged, the 9 herald's honorblades. Szeth hears the voices of the people that he killed because Jezrien's Honorblade has been absorbing their souls, or at least parts of them. That's why Szeth hears the voices. I know that a big hole in the theory is that Szeth doesn't have the honorblade anymore. However, Nightblood can communicate over a fairly large distance, and certain spren and sprenlike creatures can communicate or exert influence over very large areas. For example, unmade have incredible radii of influence, if Nergaoul and the thrill are any indication. And bonds with honorblades are less straightforward than typical spren and shardblades, so he might still be partially tied to it, for all we know. What do you guys think?

Okay guys, here's why the Shin are so upset about people disrespecting stones. You see, rocks (and by extension, stones) were used by the radiant orders as transportation, and also made effective war machines during desolations.

I think the issue here is whether they are upset because humans will kill them, or because they have to die. The first indicates betrayal. The second indicates a mutually agreed eventuality.

Brandon said that Nightblood is more powerful than a Shardblade by an order of magnitudes, so he's got far more shardpower than a radiantspren. Also, he does progress, but it's limited. I don't have Warbreaker with me right now, but I think that nightblood's definition of evil may change over time, I'll have to find the quote, I may be wrong. His early memories are read only, so he still remembers his creator (forget the name) and all of the other returned as alive, even though Vasher's been killing them.

Right, forgot about that. Thanks for refreshing me. I think that a good (but highly improbable) plot twist for the boon (if forgetting his wife is the curse) would be for Dalinar to have asked the Nightwatcher to be more like Gavilar, or something along those lines. A sort of psychological driver pushing him in that direction, and also towards driving the Parshendi towards adopting stormform and causing the desolation, since that's something that Gavilar apparently wanted to do. Highly unlikely, as I said, but would be neat. I should take a break from HALO, the Master Chief - Iso Didact connection is starting to assimilate me like the flood.

He wouldn't have sold Kaladin into slavery. Kaladin's men would have survived. Kal wouldn't distrust lighteyes so much. Amaram may have tried to induct Kaladin into the Sons of Honor. Syl would have informed Kaladin about how it was wrong, unraveling the SoH's plans and exposing them. Shallan would be angry at Kaladin, because she's Shallan. Kaladin would have had more men to save Dalinar with. Frankly, he may have just gone and trained all of the bridgemen as he became a windrunner, rather than just Bridge 4. Moash wouldn't have joined the diagram. Kaladin wouldn't have killed Syl. He would have windran himself and Shallan out of the chasms during the highstorms. He probably would have spoken the 3rd oath sooner, as well. And more, probably.

What if it's a symptom of what he was intended to do? Honorblades (and by extension, Shardblades) were created with the specific purpose to PROTECT. Nightblood was created to DESTROY. I think it's possible.

Let's look at it this way, the other half of the Nightwatcher's effect is likely more significant than forgetting his wife, whether that's the bane or not. Also, when exactly did he go to the nightwatcher? I can't recall whether it was before or after Gavilar's assasination. If he went after, I have a weird idea for his boon that could make for a good plot twist.

With a Bang. Duh.

I already put forward my (joke) theory in this thread: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/23344-relationships-between-heralds/page-2 The Heralds were the original Kholins. Szeth is 17 generations (coincidence? No.) removed from having a Kholin father (so he's Szeth-son-son... son-Kholin). Kal's mother's family was part of the Kholins. Jasnah's mother was a Kholin. Lift is actually Dalinar's daughter. And so on. Knights Kholin.

That fits with him being a Knight Kholin.

Granted. You die OLD and with dreams unfulfilled I wish for a better bed.

Oh! So she faked being all nice and normal and stuff! Kind of like Emmet!

Here's a modern rendition of what happened (Peter is Dalinar).

You underestimate the diversity of the Spartans. Also, Mendicant Bias would be the perfect Stormfather analogue, and Cortana's as awesome as Syl (I'm not picking favorites).

Well, the Parshendi DID adopt stormform after they saw Kaladin radianting their army, so Nalan is at least partially correct.

That's it! You see, Tia is in the Assassins, from Assassin's Creed. Each year, Ubisoft kept releasing more broken versions of the next game, until Assassin's Creed: Calamity just broke everything. It was so bad that it screwed up real life, as well. Basically, Calamity is the Templar leader, and he creates epics in order to control the populace and eliminate the newly created Assassins. Don't ask how, just accept.

And I forgot, the Recreance was the firing of the HALO array.

The universe breaks its own rules all the time, depending on if it's being watched. Kind of like me.

Kaladin is Master Chief. Syl is Cortana. Kal's shardplate and shardblade are his Mjolnir Power Armor and Combat Knife. The Knights Radiant are the Spartans. The Voidbringers are the Flood, Odium is the Primordial, and the people on Yolen are the Forerunners.

HALO, actually.