Fifth of Daybreak

I-6 Zahel Clearly, Zahel is a prophet of the Stick, to understand that all investiture is merely stick taking a form of power.

Is it WoB that Hoid used the allomancy on Shallan? I felt that it was her father that was acting out of character. I thought he had his anger soothed.

I took a second look at this. The smile is a lie. If you look closely, you can see the bead of sweat from frustration on her head. Her eyes are downcast and hopeful, yet full of doubt. Her hands are clasped imploring the stick to change. And then there's the smile itself. It's wavering with the doubtful optimism of someone who has run out of options. Even as she sits, Shallan is lying to herself, telling herself she's happy, that it doesn't matter that she cannot hope to budge the stick. Meanwhile, Pattern stands tall and proud, drinking in the delicious lie Shallan is obviously repeating to herself to keep calm. The artist who created this has captured Shallan, Truly captured the moment, even more so than first glance can reveal. The subtly is incredible. Well done, this is truly a masterful work.

Have you read Warbreaker?

She's smiling because she just realized something. She is a stick.

I tell people Sanderson has ruined other authors for me. A friend lent me a book a couple months ago, and instead I reread almost every Sanderson book.

Hello! So for some strange reason, I'm not longer able to format text in any way when posting. In other forums, I used to have a full text editing toolbar and whatnot, but now, I can't even utilize quick commands such as italics, and copying and pasting text that was formatted in word doesn't make much difference. I also noticed that even if I include spacing between thoughts, that when I upload the post it collapses all of the space into one paragraph. I also can no longer pull open spoilers; when I click them there is no response or expansion of the spoiler box (even on posts I made from this computer.) The problem is limited to my computer, as my phone isn't having any problems with spacing or opening up the spoiler boxes. Thanks for your help! Edit: Spacing seems to have worked on this post.

We have powerful allies on Roshar. Dalinar has great hopes for his son in the Church of the Stick. Chapter 5, Ideals, "It is what must be. If Adolin is to be the stick, I must be the feather." And of course, Shallan has been profoundly influenced by her dealings with the sticky one. Chapter 13, The Day's Masterpiece: "'You think I'm as dumb as that stick.' Stop insulting my stick. The words came to her mind, and almost to her lips, unbidden." So we can see the subtly with which the stick is influencing her. I knows a full transformation to stick would be too traumatizing, so instead it is working in smaller ways. A thought here, a quip there, until soon, Shallan will also be a stick.

When unholy fire comes to claim the world,only those who are stick shall endure.

Lopen is Stick-aware. When he's helping Kaladin train: "'Well gancho,' Lopen said. 'Can you stick me to the wall?'" "Can you stick me...?" And we're supposed to believe that at the end of the book Lopen gets access to stormlight because of Kaldin? No sir. Lopen is a stick.

Shardslayer?

The Order of the Stick and its members: the stickbinders.

So that we don't overrun the other thread, here will be the official thread for the church of the stick. I am a stick, you are a stick, we are all a stick.

The match is unholy, a stick prepared to be fire is blasphemy.

Cremation would be absolutely disallowed. I am stick, not fire.

When we finally start a Brandon Sanderson religion, it will be the church of the stick.

I disagree that she was able to leave Shadesmar at all before coming back. As concerned as she was about the events happening, it seems very unlikely that she would come back, and not bring herself up to speed on important events. With spanreed information centers springing up, it shouldn't be that difficult to learn what is happening. At the very least, it seems likely that she would learn Dalinar is attempting to refound the Knights Radiant and his appointment of Amaram. Also, WoB directly state that she is so late because of the difficulty of elsecalling. It seems like that would mean she'd be delayed even further if she was continually jumping back and forth between the physical and cognitive realms. Also, in order to find the Highspren, I would have to imagine the journey would take considerable time. Hoid also mentions that the spren are raising a ruckus because of her. He doesn't say which spren, but instead generalizes greatly. That would seem to indicate that she had a large sphere of influence inside of Shadesmar for word to have reached Hoid (unless of course, Hoid is just being an insufferable know it all.)

So I've got this crazy hunch. I'm not even going to call it a theory because I don't have any direct passages to truly support it, and it's also based off of other theories. I'm a big fan of the theory that the heralds are changing into either the ten fools or perversions of themselves. So what if Aesudan and Lhan are both heralds? Aesudan could be Palah, and her perversion is surrounding herself with Ardent who are sycophants, not promoting her learning, and by hoarding the food that spoils, instead of giving it. This also could put two more of the Heralds at Gavilar's assasination, as Elokhar's wife would be present, and she'd most likely take with her some of her favorite ardents. Lhan would then be Ishi. He's supposed to be pious and guiding, but his actions with Pai shows that he's guiding her and other ardents to reject true piety.

Stick-To stick

Not necessarily, she could soulcast the objects while still in the cognitive realm and brought them through somehow. We don't know enough about soulcasting yet to know for certain.

"I am a stick." "You will be fire or you'll be many sticks." "I am a stick!" *Breaks stick." "We are a stick!" "We are a stick!" *Breaks both sticks* "We are a stick!" "We are a stick!" "We are a stick!' "We are a stick!" ...Kelek's Breath...

Oh now that's interesting. Personally, I felt like Jasnah being gone was the best thing that could have happened to Shallan, but she is EXACTLY what Kaladin needed. I feel like five minutes in a room with Jasnah would've destroyed Kaladin's whiny attitude with her pragmatism. "Oh, the lighteyes are mistreating you? Alienating all of them who could possibly help you change that is very constructive."

Personally, I don't think it's possible for her to have a drinking problem. I suspect she could only get drunk if she wasn't holding stormlight. Pewter had a similar effect on Spook during HoA. Also, Stormlight would heal any liver problems she might have. It definitely would cure any withdrawls symptoms, though I'm not sure if Stormlight could "heal" addictions, since it doesn't seem to have much sway over mental problems. Then again, if Shallan views herself as an alcoholic, that might nullify the healing effect, as with Kaladin and his scars.

Sorry if this had been discussed already, but I didn't find threads on a cursory look through the forums. What do you suppose she was asking the Highspren about? Obviously it mentions that she learned a few things about previous desolations: Yes, it's heavily implied that she is merely pumping them for information about the desolations, but at the same time, she was gone for quite some time. I know there have been WoB implying that was due to the inaccuracies of elsecalling and her inexperience with it, but this seems too simplistic for me. It's also heavily implied that she had to leave in a hurry, and that she was in some sort of battle . So here are my theories. My first is based more on instinct, that the Highspren warned her about Nalan, and that's what monopolized some of her time. But that was just a hunch based on another theory I have about the skybreakers that I only wish to be true. Then I started looking at that excerpt; A utilitarian braid. She wants her hair manageable and out of the way. Usually any time before this Jasnah looks perfect, a part of her presentation to the world. Right now she wants function over fashion. Hemmed at the knees. Again, this a convenience factor. She can move more quickly and the dress won't trip her up. Jasnah is not normally one to rush. She sewed herself a glove out of something improvised. Right here. This is major to me. Jasnah would break from this tradition only if absolutely necessary. She already had enough a reputation with the heresy, so she wouldn't want to distance herself anymore by having people see her as indecent. She thinks it's even more important to have use of her safehand than it is to follow social conventions. I know Navani breaks it, but Navani has more social freedom than Jasnah does. She had a bandolier and a backpack that she didn't before. Kind of simple deduction here, she wanted those for simple utility. Burns on her face. She presumably just came back from the cognitive realm. Injured. Ok, so we see a much different Jasnah than we had before she left. Jasnah left a scholar, and yet she emerges as a warrior. In fact, without a second thought she levels a shardblade at Hoid. Fledgling battle instincts? Then there is this snippet: So now I was thinking she's referencing her escape from the assassins, but that makes no sense. That was months ago, and she has entirely different wounds than she would have from that encounter. She was involved in some sort of battle while she was off of Roshar. The only spren we know she definitely is interacting with are the highspren, who's order of Radiant is currently taking out other bonded pairs. We know the Stormfather has forbidden honorspren from bonding, maybe other spren had similar edicts. This could be interpreted as a law, which the highspren are focused on upholding. Here is the picture I'm trying to paint. Jasnah makes contact with the highspren, no knowing anything about the current state of the skybreakers, which are presumably hunting bonded to prevent deslolations, and due to broken laws. Maybe the Highspren are endorsing the deaths because the spren disobeyed and came to the physical realm. So after making initial contact, the Highspren give her the information she was asking as a way to distract her, while they summoned the skybreakers, trying to continue their quest to kill bonded. A large fight enues, and Jasnah once again has to elsecall in order to survive, and so she lands WAY outside of where she would like to be, battle hardened, and laden with fresh information, both about the desolations, and about the new threat to surgebinders.

Kelek's Tongue was Aladar, sorry for the omission in my previous post.