Tuhian

My thoughts exactly, people who receive visions probably have the attributes of a bondsmith (Piousness/ Guidance). I mean Gavilar having these visions from Honor to unite Alethkar and actually succeeding to do them does sounds suspiciously like the work of a bondsmith. I also see a recurring pattern which suggests that Gavilar was trying to bring back the ancient ways through the return of Parshendi’s Gods, the Heralds (with Amaram) and re-establishing the Knight Radiants (his visions). But the return of the old ways would also mean the return of desolation which would explain why the Heralds would want to stop that because after every desolation they have to go to the place of torture (or atleast one of them) to maintain the Oathpact and the Parshendi would not have wanted to be slaves to their gods again. So, yes I agree that not just the Parshendi but also the Heralds had a played a part in Gavilar’s assassination, the two groups that would benefit the most. Also one of the Heralds says “That creature carries my lord’s own Blade. We shouldn’t have let him keep it.” It clealy refers to Szeth possessing the Honor blade. And if Gavilar was a Bondsmith or even a potential knight radiant, it would make more sense why Heralds would want him dead or why he knew of the Radiant’s oaths. I mean towards his end Gavilar went through a transformation in a very short time and had also stopped wearing his shardplate, giving it to Tearim. (similar to how Kaladin never took up another Radiants’ shardplate or blade and Dalinar giving up his, before becoming Knight Radiants themselves). What bothers me is that, isn’t assassination kind of an underhanded act, something unlawful, so why did Nalan not follow his principles of Justice to kill the King.

It seems to me that Gavilar is the link between all the groups and organisations across Roshar. He possessed a certain knowledge which he ironically shared with everyone but his own family which now has kind of formed the Knight Radiants. Starting with the followers of Diagram, we see that Taravangian in his moment of reflection after he becomes the king of Jah Keved thinking about how he had followed Gavilar’s instructions to unify the world for survival and he also knew that Gavilar had visions from Honor which foretold of the Everstorm. Also, Amaram when he sneaks in to inspect Taln and steal the shardblade wonders that the heralds are real and murmurs “Gavilar, we have done it. We have finally done it” which leads me to think that Amaram and Sons of Honor’s motivations are also linked to Gavilar. Though I don’t know what exactly Gavilar has shared with them, probably something about the return of the Heralds and facing the Desolations. This could be something similar to what the Envisagers wanted maybe, where they tried to bring back Knight Radiants the Restares are trying to get back the Heralds, I mean they want the dominance of the Church and they would want their Gods back to help them survive. The Parshendi of course knew what Gavilar was planning. On the shattered plains when Adolin was facing Eshonai in his father’s shardplate, she says that Gavilar was trying to bring their gods back and that would have led to complete destruction. As their gods had once forced the forms upon them and the only way they could have freedom was by devolving to the dullform. (this makes me think that the Parshmen and Parshedi are of Odium). Even the Ghostbloods, before dying Gavilar thought Szeth was sent by Thaidakar, the man who leads the Ghostblood. And the Heralds were also involved as Nalan was there at the treaty signing party and they were discussing how their conditions are getting worse specifically mentioning Ash (shalash). Also, Nalan reveals to Lift that what she is must be stopped as it would return desolation so maybe they were there to stop Gavilar as he wanted to refound the Knight Radiants. So, it seems to me like every road leads to Gavilar. Something is happening that all these secret societies know and Gavilar was the trigger that started the chain of events by discovering the secret that led to his assassination by the Parshendi bringing the fate of Roshar together. And now everyone is either following or trying to stop Gavilar’s work by attempting to unify mankind or trying to stop the desolation.

In Dalinar's vision of the day of recreance he saw Knight Radiants fall from the sky wearing Blue shardplates. So, I dont think that the stormlight was blocked by the shardplates in those days regardless of whether it is lashing oneself or infusing stormlight in a target object or a person and then lashing them. I mean Adolin's shardplate didnot stop Szeth from lashing him to the ceiling. I think that the shardplate is malfunctioning because some essential part of it died during the recreance like the spren for a shardblade (cant be sure if it is the same for shardplates). Navani has explained that some of the half shards are made by the fabrial design but they are still missing the important piece. So, it could be that to make a full shardplate it would require the element of investiture. Well, when Kaladin and Szeth fought during the Everstorm they were fully recharged with stormlight and to keep flying at that height it would require a lot of stormlight more than what Szeth would normally use. So, honorblades may use more stormlight but still it should not be obstructed by the shardplate.

I think the shardplates are more than fabrials. Szeth mentions that the gemstones in the shardplates interfered with his lashings (surgebinding) which would have made it completely useless for the knight radiants but one of the knight radiants in Dalinar's vision performs regrowth wearing a glowing amber shardplate. So, I believe that whatever caused the recreance killed the sprens making the shardblade less functional as the dead-spren-shardblades could be recalled after 10 heartbeats and could not change forms. Similarily, after the recreance the shardplates became less effective as they interefered with the stormlight and would not glow as they did in Dalinar's vision of the Knight Radiants. Shardplates and shardblades are meant to be complementary so as a shardblade is a manifestation of a bonded spren then the shardplates must be something similar, something that cannot be created like a fabrial could be it has to be something that has to be investitured hence the name shard.