Wrath

I like how a nice time for the Heralds is living on Roshar of all places.

Kryptonians have the ability to absorb certain types of light and turn it into superpowers. That definitely doesn't seem like a coincidence.

I don't think it's "need." In fact I'm not convinced that it's specifically a special power of Windrunners to have more Squires than the other orders. What I think is that the two attributes of a Windrunner are Protecting and Leading, and that these lead to them forming strong bonds with larger groups than other Knights Radiant. Enhanced charisma as the supernatural skill, that is. More Squires because they lead larger groups, stronger Squires because the bonds are stronger and more power can be transferred.

It turns out that the whole point of the Highstorms is to rearrange the geography of Roshar into a planet-sized Aon.

Well no humans are native to Roshar.

I think that's deliberate. Sadeas lost, and he lost big. In fact he didn't just lose the game, he turned out to not even be playing the same game as Dalinar. He didn't have the dignity to give in, so he had to force himself to espouse what he knew were lies. I felt sorry for him, to be honest.

Don't have the quote to hand, but one I like is Teft in TWoK when he sees Kaladin fight at the end of the book and says that Stormlight doesn't grant abilities but perfects them. Kaladin, an excellent fighter, becomes a force of nature. So anyone's special physical skills will become exceptional. The example I used in a different thread was Rock's stew archery becoming amazing.

Syl left when he was fighting the Parshendi, which suggests that he might have crossed some sort of Windrunner line from protecting to unnecessary killing, but I don't know..

Also a possibility. My reasoning above is based on things we know, but it's easy to forget that there are lots of things we still don't know that could also explain it. Unmade and Ten Deaths and all sorts.

Well Szeth was declared a Truthless for an unknown reason, but when he encounters Kaladin he begins to believe that he didn't deserve that punishment. He couldn't be Truthless for being a Surgebinder because his Windrunner powers came from the Honourblade, so either he took the Honourblade or he somehow learnt that a Desolation was coming. Assuming that he didn't just take the Honourblade (which I'm not ruling out, but it seems like the less interesting option) or that taking an Honourblade doesn't work, as per the WoB that says you can only be given one, then the question becomes the source of the Desolation prediction, and the number of sources for that information is pretty limited. A god, a worldhopper or a Herald, pretty much. And who better than a Herald to give a warning about the True Desolation? Besides, in the prologue we have two people arguing about Szeth who are most likely Heralds, saying that they did something to him. Which might rule out it being Jezrien but it does suggest that Szeth has crossed paths with Heralds in the past.

This exactly. Kaladin went to protect Elhokar knowing that he would most likely die. He had no thoughts of rewards of any sort.

They almost certainly each saved themselves, but since neither thought that the other was a Surgebinder at the time they both came to the (reasonable) conclusion that they must have saved the other as well. Kaladin likely took longer to recover because he only had a tiny bit of Stormlight compared to Shallan.

Theory I just came up with now: Jezrien gave his Honourblade to Szeth and warned him that a Desolation was coming. There's a WoB about how you can't bond an Honourblade, just be given one, and yet Szeth was bonded to his by every definition we have. And Szeth believing that he has met a Herald and been given a warning sounds like a good reason for the stone shamans to (falsely) declare him Truthless.

Sadeas's wife seems like a bad influence, too.

I just thought that Dalinar was, you know, wrong about him.

Maybe the Thrill was just an Unmade's hobby while killing time waiting for the next Desolation.

Perhaps the lines have to do with how the Orders interacted with each other? After all we know that disputes between Orders happened, but we don't know how they were actually resolved. The opposite Orders could have had some sort of right of judgement. Almost certainly not the case, but who knows?

That's interesting. On Roshar even very slight differences in the composition of gems can result in them having vastly different powers - such as between sapphires and rubies. That makes me think that their garnets only come in the one shade.

I don't see why that has to be the case. And it seems like being soulless would be a big advantage for a wielder of Nightblood.

Technically a Twinawesome would be someone who can metabolise food into two different types of Investiture.

You might be right, but Szeth was healed by an external force rather than an internal one. And dying that way specifically cut off his spiritual connection to his Honourblade, and might mean that he doesn't even have a soul any more for all we know.

I like the idea that the boon and curse vary depending on the selfishness of the request. It actually makes sense when you consider that the Nightwatcher is a spren and some spren care a lot about a person's intent. If we assume for a second that this is true, then it raises questions about how selfless Taravangian's request was. After all he wished for the capacity to save the world, not that the world be saved, which could mean that him being the one to save the world was more important than the world actually being saved. Perhaps Lift's request was completely selfless, which is why the Nightwatcher showed her such favour. That would make sense too, given how she goes back to use Regrowth on Gawx even though she's running for her life.

Definitely Hoid/Wit. After all Sigzil recognised him from the description.

Perhaps the Oathpact would really have held properly if Taln had died the way he was supposed to?

Seems extremely plausible. Perhaps this is even related to why they're apparently being corrupted. Not just forsaking their duty but actually betraying one of their own.