Stark

Would be fun, but if I remember correctly, Brandon has been very clear on time travel in the Cosmere. There are methods to travel forwards in time, which is one of the tools that Hoid uses. But there are no methods to travel backwards in time. No time travel paradoxes. You can go back and see what happened in visions, seeing the echoes of what happened, but you cannot change anything. Edit: I may be wrong:

What memory will Wit send them to? He has witnessed 10,000 years of history. He could be typical Wit and send them to some random BS memory. Or he could show them the Shattering, from his perspective. Or anything on Roshar that he saw during his previous visits. The Fused before they were Fused. Tanavast buying him a beer. Literally anything he has seen. What do we think he will show them? What part of Hoid's backstory will Brandon peel back the curtain for us on?

I think the issue is that spren change very, very slowly compared to the rest of the world, and even more slowly when under the direct influence of a shard. From what we see, both spren and voidspren started changing after Honor died and Odium was locked away. But they change faster when bound to humans who are catalysts for change. But if you are a immortal representation of a concept that changes so slowly as to be imperceptible as compared to the may flies buzzing around the Physical Realm for their extremely short lives, I can see how you would adopt the misconception that you are above change.

I always figured that Cultivated Hatred would be Vengeance.

Whelp. I was wrong. Would have been fun though.

Sorry I didn't see you post, but happy to have the confirmation that other people are expecting the same thing. If you share the link, I'll go give you some of my daily re to support similarly minded folks. I don't know if they were enemies. She was definitely working with Nale and his Skybreakers. Nale was working with Kelek for the Sons of Honor at the same time, to keep an eye on them and kill anyone who got close to completing the goal. We've definitely seen Heralds wearing multiple hats. And we don't know exactly when the Ghostbloods moved from passive observation to active participation in Shallan's family. In her flashbacks, where Shallan is famously unreliable as a narrator, she did mention much later that they had a sudden influx of money from new quarries, and a sudden influx of new house staff, years after her mother's death.... So Ghostbloods may have only been passive observing at that time, and not actively working. They don't seem to be enemies of the Skybreakers or Sons of Honor, just competitors for the same milestones. And the Herald's motives don't always necessarily align with the groups they are infiltrating, right?

She was just doing a quiet, peaceful drawing of some starspren, when all of a sudden BAM! Bam appears in the drawing. The sudden appearance of BAM will never not be funny to my juvenile brain. It's always accompanied by a sound effect.

This is what I have been thinking about too. Once the stalemate of the original three is broken, all options become open. I think she would grant the ability to change the nature of the bonds. Freedom for the Oathgate spren, freedom for the Soulcaster spren. Giving intelligent spren the chance to change, allowing them the option to bond singers in radiant fashion. As a bondsmith spren, I can see Sja-Anat opening options for new kinds of bonds.

Having a bit of a feeling. Things are going too well with Shallan's plan. And the standard for a novel, if this was the end of the book, something would go wrong during the execution, but they would win through. At the beginning of the novel though? A plan like this must go catastrophically wrong, setting up Shallan's plotline for the next three novels. However, this is Stormlight, so the rest of the novel is equivalent to five novels from other authors, so just the rest of the book is fine. Also, this is Sanderson, he likes to inverse tropes, so I could be wrong, and everything could go happily according to Shallan's plan, neutralizing the Ghostbloods on Roshar near the beginning of book five, freeing Shallan up for other things the rest of the book... Yeah, no. The Ghostbloods have been integral to her arc for all four other books. No way they are getting wrapped up on day two of ten in the final book of the first arc. Something more is going to happen. Especially as Mraize has always been two steps ahead of Shallan every bit of the way, even when he didn't know who she was. He is ready. He has a plan. So what is she walking into? Let's look at what Mraize has done so far: He has offered Shallan truth, laced with cliffhangers to lead her on, in exchange for services. The truth about Hellaran for spying on Amaram. Her brothers for investigating Kholinar. And in Rhythm of War, all truth for finding Kelek. The deal changed a bit once she found him, but the original deal was find access to Restares, get all truth. Which she did, but has not received the truth promised yet due to the results of the Lasting Integrity arc, but we can guess what that might be, and link it to Mraize's plan for right now. Mraize has shown himself to be capable of locating Heralds. He and his Babsk both got close to Taln. He spoke with Ash in Oathbringer and made a deal with her. He got agents in the same room as Kelek. His goal has not always been clear with them, but we have seen him be able to ID them, find them and get close. We also know that he worked with Shallan's dad. To what end, we do not know, other than his payment to Shallan's dad was access to a Soulcaster. But there is no way he would interact with that family without knowing everything about every member. Mraize does not leave his hunts to chance. A lot of people here have suspected for a while now that: If that is the case, I suspect that Shallan will infiltrate. She will find the Ghostbloods prepping to extract. But she will also find herself information that will distract her from the Ghostbloods, and send her into a memory crisis with Testament. This is my prediction:

A jury of highspren? A judgement? A puddle of rainspren. A vernissage of creationspren. Or exhibition? An elan of lifespren. Do armor spren get a distinct name when in armor form?

I also had a migraine of concentrationspren, I think. A fatigue of exhaustionspren A celebration of gloryspren. I could do this all day. Thankfully, no doublepost rules curtail and calm me a little bit,

After reading the newest chapters, I am hoping they have rules for befriending spren in the upcoming RPG system. There is now way I am going to design a character in a Stormlight setting and not have them have a pet flamespren. Or a really nervous character with their own pet anxietyspren that follows them around. I really need to be able to add this in for flavour rules.

Given how ridiculous it is for actual earth animals... Yes, yes it can. A cringe of shamespren A quiver of fearspren A rage of angerspren A famine of hungerspren An unease of anxietyspren A giggle of joyspren A mass of gravityspren Edit to avoid double post: First, big thanks @Njvodin for the rapid translation. Second, as a functional thought. Spren enlightened by Sja-Anat. Would they want different food? Would they show different response to stimuli and attempts to domesticate? Would they change the function of the fabrial?

Out of control quickly indeed. A migraine of concentrationspren...

This one will be short and brief. We've seen Sja-Anat break spren before, up to radiant spren and oathgate spren and have them still function, just differently. Renarain and Rlain are the two biggest examples of this, having bonded her changed spren. We also now have direct evidence from Spren who knew him when he was younger that the Stormfather has changed. Terrifyingly, Raboniel was trying to unmake the sibling. Given enough time, and influence, spren can change. We know Sja-Anat wants to change. I'd really like to see her break the mold and become the fourth Bondsmith Spren.

Thinking more on this, and it starts to make more sense ( not the book murder, the rest). Taravangian asked the Nightwatcher for the capacity to stop what was coming. In return he got days of absolute brilliance, lacking all value for human life, and days of pure empathy, lacking intelligence. What if Cultivation is playing the real long game here. What if the capacity he received was twofold? Not just the capacity to trap Rayse and take the power of Odium himself, using a trap from his intelligence, but also the capacity to lose the challenge on a day of pure empathy? What if that is the key, Taravangian will show up to the challenge, but have an empathetic day, throw the fight and lose? The other fun thing to consider is that we already ow that when you blend Honor and Odium, you get War. I figure if you blend Cultivation and Odium, you get Vengeance, but that is for another thread. But Honorlight and OdiumLight blended using the Rhythm of War gives you Warlight. What if Dalinar is set to Unite them, Honor and Odium to make War? And Dalinar was another personal touch from Cultivation. Cosmere:

This is an excellent refutation of my worry, and I thank you for it. Rayse did get killed off to avoid recycling a failed villain. Re-using Szeth would fall into the same trap. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, I just don't see a satisfying champion unless we already know the character already. Which so far leaves Toadium going all Thanos 'Fine, I'll do it myself!', or a bunch of other champions that have significant issues. There is that newish character teased by the mini's in the kickstarter. But even that is a newly introduced character to be the villain of the week, and would be inherently less satisfying than the champion being someone established that we are invested in. Pun intended. All that to say, hope I'm wrong. Worried I'm right. This would be satisfying, and invert the expectation of comment, and complete Dalinar's journey away from Warlord. I like it. Except using the book as a murder weapon. Treat you books better than that people.

I'm not fond of it either, and hope I'm wrong. It just feels thematically relevant. Thank you for pointing out that Kaladin can't be the other champion, thanks to the epigraphs! I'd forgotten that, and the last thing I'd want to see was a rehash of Kaladin vs Szeth. I just don't think that the champion will be a newly introduced character. It actually can't be a fused, as they can't go to Urithiru where the contest will happen. Moash would also be thematically disappointing. Szeth fits in ways that make me worried, because I don't want him to be the champion...

Noted and agreed. I have fixed it. I like your points!

For Odium. Hear me out. Odium's champion will need to be someone who Taravangian can lay claim to through Odium's influence. We saw Rayse try to be tricky with this by trying to corrupt Dalinar, and then Kaladin. He could use someone obvious, like blind Moash or the Fused of the week to be introduced in this book, but both those options would be slightly disappointing. They also would be enemies that our heroes could be planning for. Toadium is going to go for a rug pull. Its how he has operated from the start. Taravangian is now Odium, and has been seen to be exploiting loopholes in the contract. Before his death, Szeth's final master was Taravangian, the last bearer of his Oathstone. As far as we know, Szeth's death released him from any obligation to the stone, but I doubt that the law had any contingencies for returning to life after death. That may be enough to create a loophole to claim him as his former master. So Taravangian has a foothold, but what about the shard Odium? All while Szeth was murdering world leaders at Vargo's behest, he came to loathe his victims. He hated them for not being strong enough to kill him. If anyone was to be said to have let hatred take root in their soul, Szeth is a viable candidate. Also worth noting, in the recent Szeth chapter, he still balks at making his own decisions. He relies on his Master to determine the path forward for him, his current Masters being his Highspren and Dalinar. Given that methodology, if Toadium can lay claim, as part of a legal contract, his own Highspren may then enforce the contract. It's the law. But what would be the crisis used to tip Szeth into being open to Odium's full influence? Finding out Taravangian survived. He wanted him dead. It would have been justice. But Dalinar showed mercy. And that mercy allowed Taravangian to not only survive, but ascend to virtual immortality. Finding that out could push Szeth into a hatred crisis targeted at Dalinar. Finally, Szeth being the champion of Odium would make for an excellent palindrome. He started the first book killing a Kholin king who was proto-bonding the Stormfather. Ending the fifth book being sent to kill another Kholin king bound to the Stormfather would be a very fun element of symmetry. So yeah, I can think of a ton of reasons why Szeth would be the chosen champion of Odium for thematic, legal, dramatic and painful reasons. I hope that Szeth has a kinder fate awaiting him, but I currently see this ending as a clash between the Knight of Stone and Dalinar's champion. What do you all think. Side note.

Excellent find, thanks. That all but confirms it. I'd be willing to bet there is a water as well, but that the continental nature of most of the people leaves them as not having access to water. I am re-reading the whole series in advance of the release. In Words of Radiance, when Rock is telling the story of the Horneater Oceans, he mentions how they had gone to the forests, then the oceans before going to the mountains, where they received help from the water, forest and mountains. So Spren, Stone, Wind and Water? Possibly something with Life?

I had totally forgotten that. Thanks!

Just musing here. We are seeing the existence of a pre-shattering force in the revelation of the Wind. Something created, either with intent or by accident due to proximity when Andonalsium built the planet. We do not know the Wind's purpose, it's intent or goals. I don't think it is something malicious like Ruin was, whispering to Kal to free it. That said, why would it be the only pre-shattering force still on Roshar. The Wind moves and changes pretty fast, so I could see it be the first to wake, or the one most adapted to communication with humans and singers. But on the other side, we have the Shin. Who are very serious about staying in their valley with earth and grass, protected from the highstorms. Who refer to outsiders as stonewalkers. We have Szeth, in the very first prologue talking about the horror of walking on bare stone. If I remember correctly, one of the original working titles for the Szeth book was Stones Unhallowed. We have Windrunners, who maybe can interact with the Wind. And on the Knight Radiant chart, they bracket the Bondsmiths, the most powerful and smallest group. The other bracket is Stonewards. Wind and Stone bracketing Bondsmiths. Wind is talking. So again, just musing some garbled thoughts, but if Wind is a thing, why on rocky Roshar would Stone not be a thing too?

I was not aware of that, and it is an excellent point. I would counter by saying that not having designs outside her own planet does not preclude making sure the biggest external threat to her planet is taken off the board. Rayse would have eventually come to Nalthis to stir up trouble. Having a plan to make sure he doesn't so that she can maintain her sandbox and plans for it is definitely possible.