The One Who Connects

Twisted or not, it's a method that does work. Dalinar even notes this fact during one of his flashbacks. I actually think this is where the change in means started for Gavilar. Both men noted that you can unify people against a common threat, but Gavilar saw the potential in utilizing something else as the aforementioned threat, while Dalinar only sees how it unites others against you. Which is funny, considering that Dalinar risks this more than once in the future(the potential backlash towards refounding the KR, the gemheart proclamation, and the peace treaty).

Most of us are in agreement that the Sibling is not of Odium. But since the Stormfather is of Honor and the Nightwatcher has a similar relationship to Cultivation... the "3rd Godspren, 3rd Shard" idea gets thrown around because it fits the pattern. We have no solid proof either way beyond what we believe, so the discussion is still valid(and keeps happening). That's it.

That depends on your definition of "Members." The second statement regarding their Spren would seem to imply they were only talking about Knights.

First I've heard this. When did we learn anything about the Spren being/not being cracked?

"Collected on Kakatach 1173, 16 seconds pre-death, by the Silent Gatherers. Subject was a middle-aged potter who reported seeing strange dreams during highstorms during the previous two years." Sound familiar? I think the Stormfather was just going through anyone whom he felt was valid, and eventually Dalinar worked. I don't think the Sibling, or his relation to Gavilar, has anything to do with it.

Depends on if they get sent back to Braize like normal and shortcut back via the Everstorm, or if they get sent directly to the Everstorm when they die. Odium has to have a reason for killing the Heralds in the way he is, and this seems like as good a reason as any. It's yet another case of something that many of us believe to be true, but can't actually prove either way.

It's sorta like Surgebinding. It's all one magic system in Brandon's eyes, but Windrunners seem pretty aligned with Honor, while Edgedancers seem to work with Cultivation.

Unless Brandon majorly changes the plan, Lift is gonna be the Flashback Character for Book 6, with Jasnah/Shalash as 8/10(though he hasn't nailed down who's 8 and who's 10) That said, I'm curious who the main character for Wandersail is gonna be, and what connection to the story they'll have.

Near as I can tell, the words Oath and Ideal are synonymous in this case. The 2nd Ideal is an Oath, so to speak. The Skybreakers just spell it out more literally than others, as shown in the wiki: Kaladin swears Oaths, but the Windrunner in the Gemstone Library talks about swearing their Fourth Ideal. Ideals seem like the formal name for them, while Oaths seem like the layman's term. Edit: Ninja'd by MountainKing

Jasnah is a KR, and a proponent of ends justify the means. Hoid is a potential KR, and a proponent of ends justify the means(at the moment). Jasnah's actions don't interfere with her Nahel Bond, which means she can practice "ends justify the means" without violating "Journey before Destination." It stands to reason that Hoid can do so as well. A year ago, she was willing to execute 4 muggers/killers/rapists to protect the people on the streets of Kharbranth. Now the world has gone downhill, and she's willing to send the Heralds back to hell to stop the Desolation. How much further will the world have to spiral downwards before she'll be willing to go to extremes? The only difference between her and Hoid is that Hoid sees the scale of what's going on. He knows that the deaths of 10 people(Jasnah's Herald idea) won't stop anything in the long run. He's accepted that in this conflict of man vs Shard, the world of Roshar will spiral downwards to the point that Taravangian's deal looks like a great idea. Hoid went into this conflict knowing that unless he wins, Odium destroys the Cosmere, so he's already willing to go to any extreme to stop that. Jasnah hasn't "seen the light," so to speak, so the scale of her extremes are still minor. By the time we get to her book (8 or 10), the world could be broken enough that she might actually agree with Hoid.

Word Of Brandon. Essentially the shorthand for any tidbits we get from him from signings, reddit, twitter, etc.... anything that we learn from outside the books/annotations. The "Assortment of Handy Links" in my sig is my shortcut to get places. There are several examples where we have WoP, which are from Peter. He's a fairly reliable source, but there are some things that Brandon hasn't let him in on yet, so take them with a grain of salt. There's even a few Word of Inkthinker(Ben McSweeney), who is responsible for drawing most of the artwork in Shallan's Journal, among other things.

Is this news from OB, or a WoB I've missed?

He is, but he did "bond a spren that grants powers that fall outside the order" as you put it, so I included him to show that such a thing was possible, special case or no. Normal Spren have to stay close to their KR for them to access their powers. We only know that the Stormfather is not similarly limited, and that's due to Honor. I don't think the Nightwatcher or the Sibling have absorbed a Cognitive Shadow of a Shard, or gained the connections that such an action would give them. So yes, I think Dalinar is a special case in his ability to conjure magic anywhere.

1) Define "soon" with respect to Jan 2016. 2) Do remember that the scene is from Hoid's PoV, and what that entails. Ciridae summed that up quite well: 3) And from later in that thread(on the subject of firearms), Ardjet makes a good point:

Villains... and Jasnah. Many readers would like to thank Kaladin for coming to the Herald's defense, but in Jasnah's mind, it's not that different from the thieves in the alley situation. I've seen many readers swayed to her side in that situation over the years. Why is one instance of "ends justify the means" considered good, while others are not?

Ask Renarin. Or the minor spren and the Seons. Or Kelsier, for that matter. There are things we just don't know enough about yet, and the limits of the bond is one of them. That said, I agree with you that the Sibling being of Odium is unlikely, but it's not something we can wholly dismiss yet. So I had a thought while reading this paragraph. One of the Bondsmiths was in perpetual residence at Urithiru. At first, I'd thought it was simply to keep the peace at home, but that was before the Fabrial revelation. If the 3rd Sibling was both a Bondsmith Spren and ran the Urithiru Fabrial, then it'd make sense for their bondmate to always be nearby, yes? We imagine that Melishi left Urithiru with the strike team, heading to the Shattered Plains to capture Bo-Ado-Mishram. KR are limited by distance from their Spren in order to use their powers. (We know Dalinar isn't, but I don't think that's a standard Bondsmith Perk.) If this is the case, then we have two options: 1) Melishi was not Bonded to the 3rd Sibling, or 2) The 3rd Sibling is not the Spren tied to the Urithiru Fabrial, and thus not limited in where it can go. Also, the Sibling is noted to have "withdrawn from men"(Zircon 1). If a Nahel Bonded Spren had withdrawn from men, I'd think that would involve breaking the bond, something that can be done. It is also noted shortly after(Zircon 3) that "our (the KR) perceived worthiness is a separate issue." This makes me think it's not related to the Spren Bond, but the "withdrawn" logic still holds. Both of these would lead us to the same two options as above, since Melishi needs to have a Bond to be a Bondsmith. The follow-up to Option 1 is simple, and Melishi was bonded to either the Nightwatcher or the Stormfather. The follow-up to Option 2 though, would mean that either the Stormfather was bonded to Urithiru, or it was a 4th Spren(both of which are unlikely.)

Make of this how you will.

Almost certainly. (2013) Per Phantom Monstrosity: (2014) Per Oudeis: (2015) Per WieryWriter: (Early 2017) Per Pagerunner: (Mid 2017) Per Oversleep:

In his defense, MB Era 1 and SA characters have "saving the world" to distract them. I know there are people who can just ignore the calamity and keep living life, but those aren't the characters Brandon writes about.

The Sibling would then be tied to Melishi, and there's a possible issue, which Calderis summed up quite well: I side with Calderis here in thinking that the Stormfather was bonded during the Recreance. If this is true, then this accusation by the Stormfather would be directed at humans in general, which leads to some interesting possibilities.

it's unlikely to be the Nightwatcher, simply because she is named, and the sibling is referred to as only that. We actually have confirmation of that one. It's not her.

It's an interesting parallel(to something that I haven't heard of, so I get to learn too ), but I don't think Brandon made those parallels on purpose. He's primarily mentioned pulling from Plato and the Shinto. Of the few entries on Arcanum containing the word "Islam," there is this: Not sure how related Vorinism is to Spren and Shadesmar, but there is a little bit of Islamic influence in his writings of Roshar.

Logically, there should be various types of Spren that have ties to any/all of the Shards. I(and probably Rshara too, but I don't want to assume) are arguing from an out-of-story literary perspective. Cusicesh seems important in some way, and having him be related to an entirely different Shard makes it a lot harder for Brandon to explore some of the whys/hows of why he is how he is. Having some of the minor Spren types be tied to another Shard doesn't really affect the story, but the big spren(Sibling, Cusicesh, the Unmade, etc..) are more involved in the narrative, and exploring their natures and pasts is a lot easier when they can be linked to something in this story, like the Stormfather and Honor. Not all readers are avid WoB hunters, and not all readers have read his other works. He's got to tie up loose ends to make a solid story, and it's better to have them be tied off in their own respective worlds so the average reader isn't confused.

Regarding the Unmade specifically(what I was replying to), there is every reason to assume they are of one of those 3. It's the same concept as Rshara's reasoning for why Cusicesh is of one of those three. The Unmade are important to the story. I don't feel like Brandon is gonna have the Unmade's nature be related to another Shard. Minor Spren of such and such emotion/concept, sure. But the bigger players? It'd hurt the self-contained aspect that Brandon is trying to keep if we can only explain why say.. Nergaoul it the way he is because he's originally related to Dominion, or something like that. For as many out-of-story WoBs as we have, Brandon still wants the important details to be in the story, for the less obsessed reader-base. Thanks for the WoB, but as I mentioned above, my reasons are literary in nature, rather than from in-story logic/evidence perspective. Logically, the various types of Spren should have ties to all of the Shards, and I see no problem with that. If it turned out that lovespren(passionspren) were related to Devotion, that'd make sense(or your rotspren and Ruin example). Brandon revealing that info to us is not a big deal by any stretch, and it doesn't affect the story at all. But it seems like the story is going in a direction where the explanation for "made, then unmade" is gonna be important later on. And from a literary perspective, I don't think Brandon is gonna have something important like that be linked to a distant Shard. My train of thought was this, and only this: You made a supposition that maybe only a preexisting Unmade that was corrupted by Odium could influence positive emotions. (What I quoted) I asked if the Thrill counted as a "positive" emotion, as Nergaoul is the only example we currently have that might be corrupted. (What I said) Maybe I should've said "our only possibly confirmed example" in my original post, but I didn't intend to imply what you seemed to think I was implying. Your thoughts on red being an indicator, but not one that always shows up is interesting. Not sure I'm on board yet, but it's an intrigued possibility. I don't like your "non-sentient because my patron shard isn't residing here" idea. I'm not sure how to properly explain why, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

I forget that we have an "Elantris Sequel" tag. Yea, that's the one