teknopathetic

I think we have all begun to detect a slide in his work. He has turned himself into a company and now has to produce enough to keep his company running, which means he cannot spend extra time refining his art to make it what it needs to be. I still enjoy his work, but after Oathbringer everything feels rushed and unpolished. He honestly needs an entire other round of edits. But he cant do this, or else what would happen to his staff he has working? Big fan and I could never do what he does ever as an author, but I have stopped being mega mega excited for his work post WaT; I hope he can take a step back for a while and see if he can reset somehow, but I know that he cant because he is a company now.

I wonder if an Aether would serve a Northen Scadrian. How apart are these two powers?

I suppose someone could be transporting the worms off First of the Sun or have figured out how to grow the worms using Stormlight or Cultivationlight etc. Animals that grant bonds seems right up Cultivation ally afterall and even kind of reminds me of the Purelake Fishymancers eating fish to get temporary boons. Bizzarrer Option 6: Cultivation's Pre-History Walkabout We know Cultivation left Roshar for a time and came back to Honour after doing some exploring. Perhaps she found First of the Sun and is responsible for any First of the Sun ->Roshar teleportation shenanigans.

So far, the only people we know who have been to the island before RoW are: 1.Dusk's People 2. The Irali (Unless they went here after WaT which seems unlikely given how old the tapestry piece seems to be) 3. Frost (he was at least close and seems to know the jist of what happened) 4. Possibly the Sleepless (with the Iriali, with Dusk's people, or using their own way) If the answer is one of these 4, only the Sleepless seem like a group that bounces around the cosmere enough to conduct trade between Roshar and First of the Sun. Rosharans couldn't use their spren off world in RoW, and the Dragons dont seem to be too move-aroundy while also being unable to benefit from a nahel bond. As for the Irali, it seems like they dont seem to backtrack often as far as we can tell. Perhaps we are not giving Dusk's people enough credit. Perhaps some trapper figured out a way to get off world in some other way besides the Emberdark. Perhaps someone got ahold of an Aviar that gives teleportation powers much like Sig's power in the Sunlit Man. Or perhaps the First of the Sun pool can manifest into multiple exits much like Silverlight. I did spend a lot of the book convinced this portal would have more than one exit, and perhaps it does but no one has figured out the intent. 5. Ishar's Portal? Another super weird option is that Ishar's Ashyn--> Roshar portal is somehow responsible. Ishar made a temporary portal between the two words and maybe whatever he did left something behind? Maybe whatever Ishar did with unbound Elsecalling made something that the First of the Sun Birds can go between. In Wat, we even get a little scene showing all the birds rushing through the portal and the characters noting how surprised they are by this in WaT. I realize this is far fetched, but it could be an explanation if all other explanations are ruled out. We don't know what First of the Sun's portal is, and perhaps it had the ability to connect to portals made by unbound Elsecalling. We have bird in Shinovar afterall which is exactly where the birds seem to be. A couple birds slipping though the remnants of this this portal would be interesting.

I disagree somewhat. At one point, Crysalis convinces Dusk that she knows whats going on by showing some very specific cultural competence cues: she calls the birds Aviars and also says she appreciates the "rain pose" that Dusk takes while listening to her. That rain pose thing means that she has some pretty specific information about cultural practices that would not likely be transmitted in a brief telegraph about the world. Likely, whatever communication she had, she absorbed so much information that the knowledge got down to the granular stuff such as "the people here take specific poses when showing respect or listening to person/deity. Here are a few such as the rain pose". That is VERY specific. I know we dont know information transfer works between Sleepless (maybe they incorporate another horde's memory node and take the knowledge), but it seems like Chrysalis is pretty well informed.

Does anyone else think Cusicesh is suspiciously like a non-corrupt non-anti-investiture splinter of Ambition? Cusicesh is a large spren-like being with constantly shifting and changing aspect of its body (in this case its faces)? It obviously isn’t anti-investiture and doesn’t move with a strobe effect, but it is how I might imagine a normal Ambition splinter behaving. Perhaps Ambition had at one point made a splinter being before she was destroyed, and Cusichesh lived on much like honour-based spren have? As a last idea, maybe this splinter was re-made completely somehow because of the Iriali? Alternatively, could Cusicesh be a member of the actual non-ambition Dakwara legend group? Perhaps the Iriali managed to defeat one and it agreed to be a guide for their journey off of Roshar? Dusk's people also had run into these creatures and brought the legends about them with their migration? Just some thoughts seeing as the Iriali come up here and there in this book

Near a planet I could see people thinking there’d be a “sea-floor” and thereby causing there to be one.

We learn that the Sleepless have already made it to the planet and that they have been there long enough to provide Crystalis with detailed information about the culture. But then we have to wonder, how long have the Sleepless been there? And if they have been there a long time, are they the ones responsible for getting birds offworld? Chrysalis says she has cousins-plural on the planet, meaning that there are likely a couple hordes that have made it to the planet. These hordes could have arrived in 4 possible ways: 1. Recently on a Scadrian, Rosharan, or Unknown Ship that arrived fairly recently. 2. With the original migration to the planet with Dusk's Ancestors. 3. Sometime after the original migration (maybe learning of the place from Frost or detecting sentient life) 4. Before any humans made it to the planet (maybe the Well used to be known or perhaps the Sleepless found this place first) None of these options seem to make much sense to me. If the Sleepless were there for 100s of years, then you would assume that the Sleepless would have either remembered there being a portal on the planet or would have investigated the planet and eventually found the well. If the Sleepless arrived recently, how did they manage to sneak many different hordes onto the planet and learn so much about the culture so quickly AND tell Chrysalis about it? And if they were investigating the trapper culture, surely the Sleepless would have been watching Vathi and Dusk and overheard the location of the well. Then we have the birds. Somehow these birds have gotten off world. A Sleepless faction using the portal for 100s of years could make sense. The portal itself wasn't guarded, so getting in and out from there would be perfectly fine. As a dawnshard was on Roshar, it would make sense potentially for the Sleepless to be moving over assets that might help protect the dawnshards from discovery. If I were the Sleepless, I would consider using Aviar to help seeing as birds would not draw attention in the Eastern Roshar. It is unclear to me when Crystalis talked to her cousins on the planet. Can she talk to her cousins whenever she wants? Can she do it only when in the physical realm? Can she do in the Cognitive realm but only when her cousins are also in the cognitive realm? For some reason I got the impression her communication with her cousins was past-tense, meaning she wasn't able to make contact during the time of out story, but maybe I am wrong about this. If Crysaslis wasn't in direct contact with her cousins during the story, then it seems like she must have learned about the place some time ago and decided not to share the information. Anyone else have any thoughts? When do you think the Sleepless arrived, and do you think they are the ones responsible for moving the Aviar to other worlds? But seeing as Aviar need to have the worms ingested, this would mean the birds would need to be moved frequently OR the worms were being cultivated on Roshar as well.

I wonder if the Sleepless have moved around some of the birds. The sleepless on that planet seem to have been there long enough to master the culture and to have communicated all this information to Chrysalis, meaning these sleepless probably didn't just arrive. The sleepless are already on the planet, sp maybe they are somewhat aware of other ways into that perpendicularity. I doubt the sleepless could have hitchhiked on a Scadrian ship, and it seems like the Rosharns had barely just arrived. Maybe the Sleepless took a few birds to protect the Dawnshards or to hide the sleepless more effectively. It is also possible that this perpendicularity has more than 2 openings much like silverlight, but that no one in the story has figured out how to get the intent correct to open up the 3rd+ doorways. If this perpendicularity is a non shardi one, then it may operate by different mechanics. Maybe Adonalsium made a few in his time to move some pieces around the cosmere easily. Mraize does have trapper hunter vibes though. I wonder if acting like a trapper could attract birds that somehow got off world.

I wonder if he is the only shard to change his intent.

This read like YA, but not as good as his actual Young Adult Fiction

I think we are supposed to get the impression that the Reshi Isles are a free state that might have been ignored by the final land grabs during the contest of champions. The Reshi isles were vaguely aligned with Dalinar, but they were never conquered by Odium. So, in theory, the Reshi isles are protected by the deal. I think this will pay off in a huge way. Dalinar let the Mink go, which perhaps meant Dalinar lost some ground he otherwise wouldn't have. But now the Mink is able to command a guerilla warfare mobile island force, which is pretty interesting. The Reshi Isles seem to either have been operating on fortune and grabbed The Mink, or perhaps are somehow agents of Cultivation finishing up some final steps of her plan (I am a believer that Cultivation got everything she wanted out of Taravangian and that she is secretly very happy with how things stand). There is also a legend mentioned in some interludes about soldiers coming from the water and bringing light. I think these light bringers are people riding the Reshi Isles.

And i would argue that an atheist is unelectable in America.

I think Abdi would have worked better as crazed insane loser if we could have seen him in the Spiritual Realm and learned some of what had caused him to be how he is to make us feel bad he's this insane. Or have someone close to him try to calm him down and be upset at how insane he appears to be now. Or have him lose someone close to him via anti-light and have Abdi get more insane. There was just no pathos there at all with Abdi which makes him pretty ridiculous. And that's a real shame since the book could have maybe made us conflicted here and feel for the former King Abdi in some way. Hell, we could even justify his increased vigilance because of what he saw Shallan do with forbidden double bond dangers. I mean ... just anything.... But I guess the book suffers from trying to split between so many human narratives and forgetting to give us perspectives and motivations from the Singer side of things. The book seems to have given up on the Oathbringer "Kal learns the singers are not cartoon villains" plotline. We have completely reverted to "Singer and fused crazy bad crazy town banana pants" with this blood drinking stuff.

I think back to the joy of Books 1 and 2 then become just sad thinking about the after school special that is book 5. Szeth's flashbacks are the worst for me. I seriously just dont believe thats what could have happened. Mix that with Final Fantasy style "beat the next temple and gain a new power" plot was very cringe. The Stormfather being sneaky, but also maybe literally a moron with no consistent plan, was also really a huge let down. He was behind some stuff that never worked out and led nowhere? Cool. Wow. Jansah should have never agreed to the debate. She should have been smart enough to know you cant out debate a god with futuresight. Its not possible. She should have also "flipped the board" as more foreshadowing to Dalinar. I also was wondering the whole time if her depression and hiding for the rest of the book was actually her shame that she took Odium's deal. I thought that was going to be the huge twist at the end, but her very last scene makes that unlikely. EDIT: And i hate being this person that has soured on the series. But my leatherbound Words of Radiance came today, and i just didn't care. I know I am likely going to stop ordering those.

My cracktheory is that Nightblood's creation involved The Night in some way. Perhaps that connection to "night essence" allows the mimicking. Or perhaps the Night is sufficiently connected to Roshar to allow surges to be used.

Seeing as Notum can be an unothed, it seems possible for a spren to possibly become radiant. It might require some very effortful and willful intent, but seems to be possible if Brandon decides he wants it to happen. Possibly deadeyes might be able to become radiant since deadeyes are a different type of entity now. Ishar's spren physical realm thing might be a part of it. If Notum was fully pulled into the physical in a way that didn't kill him, maybe then it would be a lot easier. It also may be that Deadeyes do better when force-pulled into the physical realm.

Theory: I think in the back half, the two spiritual pocket-realms of "Herald-Elysium" and "Bubble-Karbradth" are going to make contact. This contact will greatly thwart Taravangian as he does not want his people knowing they have already died and he does not want the Cosmere knowing that he indeed has human connections/motivations. This also might motivate the heralds to do a return. Having learned some things from Karbrath, the heralds return to use it against Taravangian. Or, in a more juicy turn, Battar makes contact with Karbradth and breaks the Oathpact in favour of following Retribution. Mechanics: 1. In WaT, we see that while Chana was on Braize the second time, she was able to be enter into Shallan's spiritual realm memory of the wedding. She did not need to be told of this vision, but was able to sense it and allow herself to enter of her own accord. So, hypothetically, the semi-dead heralds may be able to enter other Spiritual Realm universes in their cognitive-aliveness-state. Chana has done it once, so we know this is a possibility. The Braize-pull did not stop Chana from doing this, so in theory a slide into another pocket-realm is possible. It may require a bit of connection such as the connection Battar/Dova has to the city. However, we don't know that. Perhaps heralds and/or shadows and/or Herald-attached spren like Syl have an intrinsically enhanced ability to go on Spiritual Realm pocket-universe vacations. The heralds are tremendously old and have many connections to may people and places. Something as large as Bubble-Karbradth may make enough noise for a herald to sense (especially Battar). 2. Also, we know that one does not need to fully enter another Spiritual realm bubble. In WaT, many characters are able to peek into other pocket dimensions while remaining fully in their own dimensions. Contact could occur without a full transition into other bubble. Enlightened spren seem to be better at this, but who knows what oathpact-spren might be able to achieve in this state or what special rules may apply to what Taravangian is doing to sustain Karbradth. Plot: 1. This gives Battar a very interesting arc. Does she turn on Odium for doing this to Karbradth? Does she want to support Retribution? Does she have connections to those in Karbradth that matter to her if/when she begins to heal? Is she interested in ruling Bubble-Karbradth? Has she made any oaths to Odium that compromise her agency? Is she salvageable? Is it wrong to support Retribution? There is so much to do with Battar in this situation. 2. Gav claims to be a child of the spiritual realm. Maybe there is something to this moving forward. 3. Perhaps a new character in Karbradth will somehow realize they are trapped. Perhaos praying to the heralds will form some sort of connection. Problems: We simply don't know what Herald-Elysium is or does. Brandon may decide: 1. It is a completely impermeable wall in either direction. That is until someone "breaks in the new way" and return begins. 2. Heralds are the only beings that can pass between their own wall of protection. It is possible to do spiritual walkabouts. 3. Heralds and Spren can peek into other pocket realms, just like Shallan and Co did in WaT. 4. Any spiritual realm being can pass in and out of this realm easily or with some meaningful effort/connection. 5. Spren in this pocket realm are able to traverse the Spiritual Realm and make contact. Syl and 121 may become curious about Karbradth. 6. Surges used in the spiritual realm may allow for pocket-realm movement in some way. 7. Something we haven't considered. Thoughts: It is in Brandon's hands regarding how he wants this thing to work. My point is however that this is a possibility with precedent re:Chana. But seeing as we have a whole book basically exploring how pocket-dimensions work in the spiritual realm, I think we are going to get more exploration of this interaction between the two new pocket dimensions we have going forward.

Nightblood was created only in the past few 100 years most likely. Maybe The Night fled to Nalthis? Seems like the closest place to go after they left Roshar. It would be interesting to see The Night show up in a future book there. We also have the Nightwatcher, Night Form, and the Midnight Mother. Possibly one of them assisted in some way or their power was used somehow? Unlikely, but maybe.

I’m also curious if Chana was completely wrong about Shallan taking her place. Maybe Shallan had to die first in order for the plan to work? But the way Brandon wrote it, Chana did nothing and assumed it would work somehow? It almost felt lazy of Brandon to me to have no truth behind her plan at all… And you are right in that it is odd the family is still influenced after Chana’s death. We know it is difficult for Heralds to have children, so maybe the kids are in some meaningful way part herald. Not enough to take the place of a herald, but almost the way a child of a returned might have some powers.

They say Honour’s well moves, making me think it’s connected to the moons somehow. I wonder if Taravangian is allowed to use his Odium well. It’s owned by the singers now, so no? and if that is the case, I wonder if Honour’s well is allowed to merge with Odium’s. I’d guess no since the power has agreed to not interfere with land it doesn’t own. So, my guess is Honour’s well is still around too.

I was thinking they might be the Reshi Isles. The Reshi Isles aren’t under the 4everstorm, so anywhere they go brings light.

Battar seemed to revel in her post-pathpact lifestyle. I get that all the heralds were tainted, but that doesn’t mean the heralds will snap back to who they were at the beginning of the war. It seems completely possible that Battar ends up realizing she actually likes who she became and decides to return to her life with Taravangian. At least some of the heralds should find themselves changed for the worse even without the blight from Ishar.

Maybe Battar will get bored in this land without bribes and will decide to break.

I think Endowment will be forced to team up with Harmony. Nalthis seems to be very close to Roshar in Shadesmaar, so she will might see her world as next in line for war.