dvoraen

With respect to what we learned about Dai-Gonarthis, I don't think it's a matter of extracting a price from the Vessel of Odium, but rather Taravangian saying he will pay her price "again" ("another time" as in "this is another time I am doing this, because it's happened before"). That is, I took it to mean that deploying Dai-Gonarthis has effects that will be as detrimental as this Elsegate is useful. In other words, I think this means the Black Fisher is very destructive by default.

Hi! Have a wild piece of speculation. As I mentioned in another post, I wanted to talk about something that's been bothering me lately about some of the Silent Gatherers' collections, as well as one other little bit from Jasnah's notes. So let's begin with the major issue: Some of the descriptions presumed to be about the singers as Voidbringers are antithetical to what is seen in present-day Roshar, as well as anachronistic. Here is the first issue I have that makes matters strange to me. I think many of us presumed this to be about the singers and/or Fused, particularly those with predominantly black-and-red skin patterns. But if that's so, when many singers have a black coloring to their skin, and they purportedly "bring the darkness", how are you seeing anything unless this Death Rattle is being literal? The second issue, is that we have yet to see any singers (Fused, Regal, or otherwise) that even approaches the "aflame" motif, let alone "bring the darkness." While we haven't seen any Division Fused yet firsthand, which is a possibility since Division can cause burns (ref. Malata's engraving demonstration in Oathbringer), I remain unconvinced that they'd be setting themselves on fire. Is it possible this is a potential form of power we have not seen? Yes, but there's still the conundrum about bringing the darkness mentioned. I don't think this alludes to Voidlight, because otherwise the wording of "all you can see" wouldn't be implying the literal lack of light and visibility. So my conclusion here, is that this isn't talking about singers. This is the second problem I have. The speaker is hard to define. My first take was that this was from the perspective of a singer talking about defeating humans, but with what we know about Braize/Damnation now, that makes no sense. The only "burning" that has happened there, that we know of, is the Heralds' torture sessions. In The Sunlit Man, Nomad is explicit that Roshar's version of hell is not fiery or even warm in temperature: As such, it makes no sense that a singer would refer to "[burning], as we once did" here. However, we have what happened to Ashyn: So if we take Raboniel at face value here, humans are the only people that make sense with respect to having (literally) been burning. This excerpt from Jasnah's research into the Voidbringers is one of the major problems I have with descriptions of them. Every known Regal and Fused, and even individuals being consumed by some of the Unmade, have had red eyes, a sign of corrupted Investiture at play. Where, then, does this detail about eyes like pits of blackness originate? If the coloring is accurate, the most educated guess that we can currently make is that this is a sign of "pure" Odium Investiture at play. Given that Odium's Investiture veers strongly towards black-and-violet, as we've seen with Voidlight, I can only speculate that the "pits of blackness" are eyes glowing like Voidlight, much as Radiants' eyes have a glow that matches the Light they've taken in. This would suggest we have entities that could possibly draw upon Odium/Voidlight to use abilities attributable strictly to Odium. Whether that's Voidbinding or something else, I am unsure, but there is evidence (a WoB) directly stating that humans were dabbling in things that were very likely sourced from Odium: So putting it all together, this is my belief: Voidbringer legends have conflated multiple people (races) together. The continued mentions of fire and burning and bringing the darkness are references to Odium-aligned humans from Ashyn. And because of that: I think Voidbringers from Ashyn are coming.

So my take on the mixture of Cultivation + Odium might be a little different, but I think it would really align with what Venli and her ancestors were experiencing at the time. They were put in a difficult situation, and wanted to be free from it. One could say they "hated" the conflict, and so underwent changes to separate from it (quite literally, in the case of the singers who became the listener faction). Due to that, I think Cultivation + Odium = Adversity. Not so much the misfortune that's implied by the definition, but rather representing the emotions and changes that can be brought about by adverse situations. You can grow stronger from (lowercase) adversity, or possibly the event(s) could do a number on you and you have "negative" growth. Adversity as an Intent would also be a parallel to War, in a way.

Hi! I wanted to put this on record now that some copies have apparently escaped into the wild. Nothing I say here is based on personal knowledge of the rest of the book, so any actual accuracy here is completely coincidental (and also my grounds for trying to get a Voidbinder Emeritus rank from 17S staff, because successful precognition). The Shards, the Contest, and the Aftermath Taravangian's goal is to get Dalinar to break his word. As Rayse said in Oathbringer, this would put Dalinar in Odium's power, and Honor's restrictions would be null and void (i.e., Odium is no longer chained to the Rosharan system). "So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life." Cultivation's goal is to control Odium and Honor indirectly. She doesn't want the Shards for herself; she wants the Vessels to be "changeable" to suit her needs, and Dalinar and Taravangian have both been touched by (Connected to?) her. I suspect Cultivation basically implanted a Trojan horse in both of them. As Sja-anat put it to Taravangian, "she sows many seeds." I strongly suspect Cultivation and Sja-anat have been in contact. I just cannot fathom how Sja-anat even knows about Lift being touched by Cultivation without being told, as it seems unlikely Sja-anat had the opportunity to directly observe Lift. Day 10 is the start of the Sanderlanche, not the climax of it. Puuli's interlude, and several Death Rattles, strongly imply there's worse to come. It's my belief that the events collectively referred to as the Night of Sorrows is "what is coming" that Taravangian asked for the capacity to stop, and Sja-anat implicitly corroborated that something worse is brewing during her conversation with Taravangian. The Night of Sorrows Puuli's Interlude: "They'll arrive when the night is darkest." Death Rattles You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die! "I'm cold. Mother, I'm cold. Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop?" "Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us." "The day was ours, but they took it. Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather!" The Destruction of Roshar "And all the world was shattered! The rocks trembled with their steps, and the stones reached toward the heavens. We die! We die!" "They break the land itself! They want it, but in their rage they will destroy it. Like the jealous man burns his rich things rather than let them be taken by his enemies! They come!" The Unmade We'll see the last of the Unmade we haven't seen yet, but it's hard to say how much we'll see. I very much want to know what all nine are truly capable of, because up to this point I feel like we've still only gotten teasers, and that the Unmade have been very pacific in nature. (Where is the rampaging they reputedly did? Why isn't Re-Shephir actively depopulating areas after fleeing Urithiru? And so on.) Sja-anat is going to lose her temper, because at least one of her Enlightened spren will be killed with anti-Investiture. I suspect this is what's going to happen with Shallan's arc against the Ghostbloods, and oh boy do I think Sja-anat is going to show off why she was "most feared by the Radiants." Ba-Ado-Mishram is going to be released, and likewise, she mad. I also think we're going to find either she came into contact with the Dawnshard "known to bind any creature, voidish or mortal", or she's somehow managed to make use of her reputedly high intellect to extrapolate on Voidbinding to allow her to emulate a spren bond with the singers' gemhearts. I suspect part of why the Recreance happened (the decision for spren and human to stop their bonds) was because Ba-Ado-Mishram found a way to exploit or control the Nahel bond as well. I'm suspicious that she discovered that she can take control of a Radiant in the right circumstances, similar to what we've seen of Yelig-nar so far. I'm hoping that there are 2+ Unmade in Shinovar. The Diagram suggested this was possible ("one or more of the Unmade had set up in Shinovar"). I'm hoping we'll see Kaladin and/or Szeth face off against Yelig-nar in a much more scary confrontation. I still hold that Yelig-nar isn't limited to one host at a time. I got the impression that Yelig-nar was merely observing while consuming Aesudan and Amaram, and possibly gaining strength by devouring them. Voidbinding I suspect we're going to get hints at most. It's possible we'll get teaser epigraphs, which is my Big Hope(tm) for this book, but my guess is that it will be from Jasnah's research on Renarin's capabilities. Voidbinding was originally used on Ashyn and is how they got access to Surgebinding, originally (think precursor to Yelig-nar). Big Shocker We may see (Odium-aligned) beings from Ashyn come along. The "true" Voidbringers. More on this in another post, because something's bothering me about someepigraphs, two of which are Death Rattles that don't... align with what we've seen firsthand. Some of the descriptions are antithetical to what we've learned about certain events and places.

So I want to get into the mechanics of why I'm in the camp of "the perpendicularity collapse sucked people in." The primary argument has to do with Navani's lecture and her RoW POVs that involve fabrial mechanics, specifically the interaction between Investiture and the gemstones. Emphasis mine. Here, we have a perpendicularity where some of the Investiture is "withdrawn" suddenly (to say nothing of the explosive reaction). In this case, a small(?) amount of anti-Stormlight came into contact with it, generating a reaction that effectively destroys ("removes") some of the Investiture involved, "suddenly". So I figure that what we have here is the "Investiture differential" used in creating modern Rosharan fabrials. But also, consider this from Navani's experiments as further evidence: The key point is that some of the Voidlight remained in the diamond (Navani was trying to combine the two lights, remember) yet an active pressure differential theoretically existed on account of an amount of it transferring out. In other words, it theoretically doesn't require the complete removal of the Investiture to cause the effect. And this is why a little anti-Light eradicating a portion of the Investiture within the "gemstone"/perpendicularity is going to cause people to get sucked into the Spiritual Realm, as Dalinar and Navani's Intent effectively set the destination.

Am I crazy, or did the drawing for Urithiru on ReactorMag's site get updated, so that it looks like the Oathgates are no longer in an Enlightened state? Also, wasn't there a "This pair seems familiar." comment on the fifth from the right?

This is certainly plausible, but given that Shallan got the message about the spren (Tumi) being sent to the tower at roughly the same time Sja-anat was in Kholinar, I can only assume that it was long distance communication, and the best way I can see this happening without being caught out (especially by Odium) is that Glys can sometimes act as a direct line to her, as we saw with the Enlightened gloryspren in Oathbringer. This isn't to discount what you're saying in general, just that some of the timing seemed off on the communication line with regards to brokering the deal that led to Tumi's bond. Her interlude suggests she hadn't been to the tower for a long time (since we know multiple Unmade have gone there before for unknown reasons, in the past). I certainly think she and Renarin have been in direct contact when possible, and the entire Emul sequence certainly suggests Renarin and Sja-anat had direct contact, but in general I think with Rayse-Odium watching her, she didn't make unsanctioned movements. I'd be really curious if Renarin's proximity blocked Odium from seeing what Sja-anat was planning.

Hi! Let's talk about the title of this post: Sja-anat. This is a topic I have spent way too much time thinking about, ever since the epigraphs of Mythica in Oathbringer. I read a comment on reddit saying that we'll see why she's so scary in book five that finally made me want to write this all out and explain. The Core of Sja-anat's Ability While I'm not going to go into this part too much, I want to talk just a little bit about her ability to Enlighten spren from the perspective of what the Unmade, as a collective, seem to do. The root word "consume" has been used with a significant number of them; Yelig-nar, Nergaoul, Re-Shephir, Dai-Gonarthis, and Ashertmarn have all had that exact word or variations of it attributed to them. One or two of the Unmade might be a coincidence, but we have at least five, which heavily implies a pattern. Given that, I think it's safe to say that the term applies to all nine, in their own way, including Sja-anat. This will be relevant later. At the moment, I liken Sja-anat's ability as something seen in virology, as viruses propagate by taking over cells and reprogramming them to fabricate more viral material. This is "kind of" seen in Day One of Wind and Truth, where the Azimir Oathgate spren seems to be only partly changed, rather than fully altered into the "blood red" color Shallan observes staining the darker-hued spren (and the other was not the red color that the Kholinar Oathgate spren had become). This suggested to me that Enlightening is not necessarily an instantaneous process, at least with sapient spren, leading me to believe Sja-anat simply began the process with the Azimir Oathgate and is letting the change take hold over time. So in essence, I think what Sja-anat's Enlightening is, is the Investiture equivalent of a mutagenic virus, consuming the existing power to fuel the propagation of Odium's Investiture. The Overlap with Fabrial Science We saw in Oathbringer one very explicit scene where Sja-anat made contact with Shallan after the group had been forcibly transferred into Shadesmar. An Enlightened gloryspren flew in their direction and landed upon Shallan's arm, and as soon as it made contact with her, she heard Sja-anat speaking to her in her head. This tells us two important things about Sja-anat: She can control Enlightened spren to an extent. (We don't know the details here, but I would wager that "lesser" spren are a certainty for her ability to control them.) She can communicate via Enlightened spren.* So what does this have to do with fabrial science? The important point here is that spren used in fabrial science react to a stimulus, which is currently understood to be primarily metal touching the gemstone, and the gemstone containing the spren must also be Invested in order to power the effect. We were also shown that Enlightened spren can be used in fabrials running off of Voidlight. This is very relevant. Now consider the following: if Sja-anat can control her children, is it not feasible that, if she has complete control of lesser spren she Enlightens, that she could forcibly induce them to react as if they were a fabrial spren having one or more metals touching the gemstone? (I imagine this could be done using something like a Rhythm, as we saw with the "agricultural trick" involving lifespren and growing plants with Stormlight.) Additionally, we know that at least one of the Unmade can provide Voidlight**. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Sja-anat could theoretically do the same. When Nergaoul was captured, the description of the ruby he was placed in made it seem like it was heavily Invested with Voidlight. (We know for a fact the Fused are using Voidlight.) So, with those two points in mind, imagine this: Sja-anat Invests an Enlightened flamespren with Voidlight and controls that flamespren to act as it would as if it were being stimulated by contact with pewter, emitting extreme temperatures of heat until its Voidlight runs out. Now multiply the number of flamespren. Fireball salvo, anyone? And that's just one example of one type of spren. The Thing Most Feared If the previous idea didn't seem frightening, let's get to the meat and potatoes. I think the biggest thing about Sja-anat is that Invested Arts may be useless near her if she wants them to be. While we don't know exactly how one might defeat an Unmade with magic, I think there are multiple hints that strongly suggest that Sja-anat can consume and repurpose Investiture.*** And if she can indeed use her lesser spren to "express their attributes as force" as a pewter cage would in a fabrial, then yeah. I'd be pretty scared of that too. Especially if the idea of her consumption of Investiture applies to other powers used in her vicinity. Like Regrowth. Or escaping. Being unable to use those (because it would get devoured by the Unmade) seems like a bad time. So yeah. I think someone's been keeping her cards pretty close. Nothing to See Here >.> * Any takers on this being how Renarin can get into contact with her? Once Renarin revealed in Rhythm of War that he had been in contact with Sja-anat, it seemed relatively clear to me that Glys was how this was accomplished. I imagine Renarin's contact with Sja-anat was how Shallan brokered that deal with her that led to Tumi's arrival at the tower. ** A scene in Words of Radiance and in Oathbringer both lead me to think that Dalinar might have been getting Voidlight from Nergaoul over the years in tiny amounts. I would have to go looking for the exact passages, but it's a bit of a tangent as it is. *** I do think this is a Voidbinding ability.

One other point I want to raise is the following WoB that "kind of" supports the idea that Adolin is supplying Investiture directly from himself: I'm presuming that what Brandon means by what Lift "does" is metabolize food into Lifelight. I'm kind of suspicious that Cultivation's magic leans along the lines of conversion. Changing an attribute into Investiture and/or an ability, like you're metabolizing it into the power after a fashion. Adolin offered Maya some of his "strength", and she regained the ability to speak. Could this have been a form of Cognitive Progression, i.e. Surgebinding? It's possible, but I'll note that Surgebinding is not the sole way one can heal in the cosmere, amongst other abilities such as illusions and transformation (soulstamps are an example). What makes me think it's not Surgebinding is the fact that not only were they not in direct contact with each other, as we've seen with every use of Progression so far, but that it would have had to have been powered by Stormlight, which was not available to Adolin at the moment this happened. So given the circumstances, this is why I'm inclined to think he converted some of his strength into Lifelight, which was used as a form of Progression. (I'll also note that this WoB is from 2018, which is before Rhythm of War came out.)

I think what we saw with the Azimir Oathgate spren was the early stages of being Enlightened, since only *part* of the darker-colored spren had changed, when we saw with the Kholinar Oathgate that the white one had fully turned red. Combined with the darker one saying that their companion also agreed to the change suggests it'll take on the red trait as well. The part that confuses me was the Oathgate spren saying "There was no warning to give." I can't help but think that Sja-anat either Enlightened the Azimir Oathgate from Urithiru's side*, or she can deliver her touch through her children, which is a possibility from Oathbringer when we saw her able to communicate with Shallan through the Enlightened gloryspren. The latter feels the more likely, because an Enlightened spren would be much easier to slip by sentries watching the Oathgates from Shadesmar, versus Sja-anat herself showing up (presumably, a number of the Unmade are massive in the Cognitive Realm and Brandon himself has said it's hard to hide an Unmade in the Cognitive Realm). I'd very much like to know Sja-anat's activity after she left Emul, because if my interpretation of Shallan's drawing of the seven Oathgates being Enlightened is correct, Sja-anat has been booking it across Roshar and/or has been using her children to long-distance extend her influence as mentioned above (the influence increase is corroborated by Wit in the Rhythm of War epilogue). * I've been wondering if the Oathgate spren are in a kind of quantum entanglement state, where they're in two places simultaneously so as to faciliate the transfer from both ends. This is a possibility due to the "familiar" Oathgate pair in the drawing, which corresponds to Thaylen City. And so if they were talked into being Enlightened from the other side, it causes both sides to change.

https://reactormag.com/read-wind-and-truth-by-brandon-sanderson-chapters-12-and-13/ Discuss! One thing I noticed: Sja-anat has been a busy bee. If you look at the Urithiru drawing at the end of Chapter 13, it looks like seven of the Oathgates have been Enlightened. They were introduced as a white-and-black pair (one of each color), and the drawing clearly shows seven pairs that are black and not white.

The Oddity I'd like to talk about Adolin a little bit, because something suddenly jumped out at me from Rhythm of War that I'd like to go into, something that made my mouth drop. That being, "what happened with Maya and Adolin at the honorspren trial?" I may have a partial answer to that. The exact nature of how it happened is a mystery to be revealed, but I think there was an explicit hint dropped right in front of our faces, and we all missed it, despite some posts voicing the possibility. (But not presenting evidence as to why they say so, so far as I can tell.) Let's begin with the key passage from Adolin's point of view, which I imagine we're all very well acquainted with. As a side note, all of the bolded segments in this post's quotes are "emphasis mine", to highlight the relevant points. This warmth has always been the curious part, to me. It's not described as the ready-for-action nature induced by Stormlight, or the enflamed emotional state of Voidlight, but a different sensation altogether. We now also know that it's not the sensation that comes with holding Towerlight, from the Wind and Truth excerpts. Kaladin describes it as a calming influence on him, and explicitly notes that the be-active sensation of Stormlight is absent. At first I thought it was some aspect of Honor, the whole "He lives inside the hearts of his children", much as with Navani's section when the Sibling's Rhythm is regained, but I reread another part of Rhythm of War, and suddenly something jumped out at me. We know now that Lift is not using Stormlight for her powers, but rather Lifelight. Mraize and the Sibling have both corroborated this, and Navani has also seemed to have put two and two together, when Raboniel sends her the Lifelight diamond. Of particular note is that Lift Investing Teft with Lifelight, presumably through Progression, makes him feel a little warmer. The exact same sensation that Adolin describes experiencing at the exact moment when Maya regains some of her cognition. It's my belief that, somehow, Adolin is a nascent "Lifebinder"*, in the extremely early stages of it where not only does no one know what's going on, but we're still at step one: unexpectedly using the powers, as Kaladin used Gravitation + Adhesion to deflect arrows into the bridge runs without conscious knowledge. I realize that Brandon has said we have not seen anyone on screen use Cultivation's magic directly, but the evidence is suggesting we might actually be seeing the start of something to that effect. Additionally, we have the exchange between Adolin and Blended right after Maya's testimony, which also corroborates that what's happening between Adolin and Maya is not the formation of a Nahel bond between human and spren that traditionally leads to Surgebinding powers. I don't think any of the Radiant spren would be mistaken about this matter. They not only seem to have an intrinsic knowledge of the Nahel bond as far as Radiants are concerned, since they can begin and end the bond to an extent as well as sense their Radiant's progress with the Ideals, but we've seen instances where spren have been able to sense that bonds are forming between others. One example of this is Timbre telling Venli that Rlain "is spoken for," right before Tumi first speaks to Rlain and Rlain presumably speaks his first "Enlightened" Words. Because of this, I don't think we can say that Blended is mistaken about the fact that this is not the Nahel bond as we know it. (And for the record, I don't think it's a Luhel bond either, since water seems to heavily factor into that, and we've seen zero evidence of Adolin needing to hydrate more.) Another Piece of Evidence We curiously don't have this from Adolin's point of view, and I would very much like to know if he felt the same warming sensation when speaking with Testamant that he did when he willed his strength to Maya that led to her speaking for the first time in centuries. The point I am trying to make, however, is that Shallan's first spren seemed to improve solely through contact with Adolin, and without Adolin having a bond to her. How could Adolin do that without a source of Investiture? We know that Shallan and Adolin's expedition to Lasting Integrity was not losing Stormlight at an unexplained rate, and they had run out by the time they reached Lasting Integrity. The only possible explanation is that Adolin provided it somehow, from himself. Conclusion So to wrap up, what do I think is happening? I'm going to answer that as a pseudo timeline: Adolin forms a bond with Mayalaran in her Blade form, through the use of Stormlight/Honor's Investiture to form the actual bond. The bond sources from the human, rather than the spren, which is why it breaks the Radiant rules and doesn't seem the same to another Radiant spren. Discovering that Maya is without a doubt a spren during the journey through the Cognitive Realm in Oathbringer led to Adolin gradually developing the Intent to truly start repairing her mind. We saw this begin in Oathbringer when he learned her name, and when she formed in his hands faster than the ten heartbeats. I don't think this will lead to "moments of Radiance" with the Words so much as increasing the Connection they have with each other over time. The bond is "growing" stronger through "nurturing", and yes I'm alluding to Cultivation's Intent. Adolin jumpstarted the bond's growth at the honorspren trial with his Intentional "take some of my strength." This led to a momentary use of an ability that is not canonically understood (i.e., explicitly explained in the books). With further development in the bond, we're going to see some very interesting things from Adolin Kholin and Mayalaran both. One final point, and I will be done. I'd very much like to know if what's happening with Adolin and Maya would have been the same had Maya been a different type of Radiant spren. In other words, does it matter that she is a cultivationspren for what's happening, or could the same things have happened had she been an ashspren, honorspren, etc.? * I really liked that questioner's name of Lifebinding for Cultivation's magic, so I wanted to give it props here.

My thoughts on this are that Shallan's drawing upon Fortune did two things: She came across (Connected to?) the scenario of Ba-Ado-Mishram's release and the Unmade being Quite Upset about it. In doing so, she began to experience certain effects (the increasing darkness of her vision) that would have originated with the Unmade. In essence, experiencing that potential scenario as if she were there, and it kind of bled out from her. I've been rather suspicious that Ba-Ado-Mishram is able to Connect to Radiants, much as she can singers, which would explain a lot I think.

I took it as a metaphor for Kaladin needing to realize he has limits, and it's okay to be exactly who he is and not constantly try to one-up himself. He can learn to do incredible things without fundamentally changing who he is.

Regarding the Grand Knell: the fabrial detecting it was from the ancient Radiants, courtesy of the Sibling, and it seems really unlikely to me that they had a means of attuning it to a source of Investiture that was not integrated with Roshar (i.e., any Shard that wasn't Honor/Odium/Cultivation). So given that, I think it's most likely that it's the site of Honor's Splintering. Plus, an epigraph talks about Urithiru being built in the place "closest to Honor" which is... nearbyish? About the fleet, that's clearly a Rayse thing. The sequence of events with Cultivation's perpendicularity, the Voidspren increasing their control of the Shadesmar seas, all predate Taravangian's Ascension. That said, I'm sure Taravangian has modified that scheme or expanded it, since it's still in motion. Lastly, I'd also say it's very likely that Sja-anat is going to be ordered to the Azimir Oathgate to do what she did to the Kholinar Oathgate. I VERY MUCH want to see an exchange between Sja-anat and T-Odium.

So, my take on Shallan's Words and such are basically this: She repaired part of her bond to Testament. The imperative from Radiant pretty heavily implies this: "Say them again." (emphasis mine) Shallan's already said them, in The Way of Kings, and so far as we know she did not have a bond to Pattern then. Then she swears (to who?) about being a murderer and killing her father, which could have put her at the Fourth Ideal but in a damaged way. This particular moment is the tricky one, because it could suggest one of a number of things: Her repressed memories of Testament and their damaged bond meant swearing a truth/Ideal doesn't work the same as it would for other Radiants. So she might have the Intent behind the words, but the full benefits aren't being realized due to the Connections no longer being there to allow access to them. This would explain why she's "a step beyond Kaladin" as of the end of Words of Radiance and getting some oddities with creationspren constantly lurking around her (but not seeming to Connect to her as fully realized Plate); they're waiting for her to experience the full effect of the Fourth Ideal so they can Connect to her. It wasn't a Cryptic at all, but one of the Unmade. This seems unlikely to me, because if a seemingly sapient Unmade was near Kharbranth at the time, I figure there would be signs of this. Something else entirely. We still don't really know anything about the "great ones of the spren," which always made me think there were spren somewhere between Radiant spren and the Bondsmith spren that we simply know nothing about. Additionally, we don't know which spren are really administrating each Order. There's a hint that the Nightwatcher might be adjudicating Venli's oaths, and the Stormfather (and Dalinar) the Windrunners, but if a spren of some sort is accepting the Words, how is this working for Skybreakers and highspren, for example?

Guys, I think Ba-Ado-Mishram has been taking lessons from the Vessel on being angry. (Though really, after 2000 years, I'd be a bit upset.) What I don't understand is how she can seemingly communicate if she's stuck in a gemstone. I hope Brandon will explain the Spiritual Realm mechanics for this, because it seems like the entire point was to prevent the Unmade from making Connections, yet we clearly see one between Shallan and her, unless this is a product of Shallan's obvious use of Fortune.

When it comes to the activity of the Unmade, I've been scratching my head because they've seemed largely pacific since Oathbringer (of those we've seen). I would have thought that we'd have heard reports of their activity, if the Everstorm had "revitalized" them, as Sja-anat's interlude strongly implies was the case for the active Unmade. That said, the Diagram stated that it was likely "one or more" of the Unmade had gone to Shinovar, and given that the country seems to have gone silent (to say nothing of Ishar's crazy ramblings about them there), it seems likely they're not only still there, but they're actively working to destabilize the country, much as three of the Unmade were at Kholinar, and two at Thaylen City, all for the purpose of Odium eventually gaining control of those nations. For myself, I'm a bit suspicious that we'll see these two there, at the minimum: - Dai-Gonarthis -- reasoning: if the Black Fisher tends to evoke states of anguish in people for consumption, Kaladin seems like he'd be very vulnerable to this, much as Shallan seemed to be rather vulnerable to Ashertmarn's influence in Oathbringer. Alternatively, Kaladin's depression and states of gloom might mean he has the most understanding for this particular Unmade, as Dalinar did with Nergaoul. - Yelig-nar -- reasoning: Kaladin seemed to have a small affinity, detecting Yelig-nar's presence when he was consuming both Aesudan and Amaram. Additionally, Szeth has presumably trained with all of the Surges via the Honorblades, so he might actually be the one who understands Yelig-nar the most, or quite possibly might be forced to ingest a gemstone and have to fight the Unmade from consuming him (or draws Nightblood while this is happening lol).

So about Shallan's cute Identity trick, I just have one question for everyone: Why can't it simply be a product of Spiritual Transformation? Using Investiture to change her Identity for a brief moment? It's very likely she's Connected to Drehy from association over time, so it's not a stretch to say she could potentially access that attribute on account of having that Connection to him.

This is according to Ishar in what one presumes is a lucid moment of his, but the topic of this thread is about Renarin. It seems increasingly certain that Renarin can touch the Spiritual Realm. We see an example of this in his healing of Adolin in Oathbringer, Chapter 10: And also in Chapter 8 of Rhythm of War: Given that, and his precognition (which is -- you know -- a pretty big sign), I pose the following question: Can Renarin render the Heralds lucid by using his abilities near or on them?

Another book has come and gone, so let's check in on what we know! The Diagram, and Ishar, both state that Shinovar is playing host to one or more of the Unmade now. We can thus treat Ishar's words with a small degree of trust on this specific subject, since another source is willing to corroborate it. WIth that said, we can deduce that at least three of them are likely there at this time. I'm going to go through all nine, sorted by least likely to most likely to be there. Least Likely * Ba-Ado-Mishram - So far as we know, she's still trapped inside her gemstone. It's a safe bet she's not active in Shinovar. * Nergaoul - Similarly, Nergaoul is enjoying a spa treatment in the ocean. It's a safe bet he's nowhere near Shinovar. * Sja-anat - We can trace Sja-anat's movements from Kholinar (her interlude) to Emul (Odium's orders). As she talked to Taravangian directly in an interlude late in the book, we can safely say she also is not anywhere in Shinovar. This is likely to change for the fifth book, but by no means a certainty. * Moelach - Moelach settled in the Horneater Peaks during Oathbringer, according to Taravangian's interlude. So far as we know, nothing has changed here, and while it's possible that he moved, I think it unlikely that this Unmade was suddenly ordered away from guarding Cultivation's Perpendicularity. Inconclusive * Re-Shephir - Re-Shephir somehow found time to inform Raboniel about the Sibling (how is a subject for another day), which would suggest she travelled east toward Kholinar in order to do so, as that is where we were first introduced to Raboniel, who had this knowledge of the Sibling during that meeting in Chapter 14. As Raboniel is confirmed to have Transformation, she would have had help to get to Kholinar, or simply awakened in a body in Kholinar in the first place. Either way, she somehow encountered Re-Shephir before Chapter 14, which means the Midnight Mother did not travel west to Shinovar. We can't nail down a timeline of Re-Shephir's movements, however, and thus I put her as inconclusive as to where she is. * Chemoarish - It's unclear if the Dustmother is trapped in a gemstone. Given Hessi's Mythica, lore has generated about her sufficient enough to suggest activity in modern Roshar. However, it's also possible that she has been dormant like Sja-anat apparently was for the past few thousand years. Either way, it's hard to confirm her activity level and thus I put her at inconclusive. Most Likely * Ashertmarn - This Unmade fled the Kholinar region, heading to unknown whereabouts. We saw first hand in Oathbringer how severe his influence can be on humans, so his activity is not in question. He has had plenty of time to cross the continent to get to Shinovar. * Yelig-nar - Like Ashertmarn, Yelig-nar is active in the present-day world and we have seen him on screen. It therefore is not unreasonable to assume that this presumed-sapient Unmade is one of those that has begun influencing Shinovar within the course of the past year. Secondly, he is presumed sapient, and if the Shinovar really are worshipping the Unmade, it would likely require a sapient Unmade to fully facilitate this relationship. * Dai-Gonarthis - With the scouring of Aimia possibly being attributed to Dai-Gonarthis's activity, per Mythica, we can at least state that this Unmade has shown some activity in the world within the past few centuries. I say this as a definitive because we the readers have evidence supporting this Unmade's existence (the WoK Death Rattle we saw in the epigraphs). As they are presumed capable of causing an entire country to be scoured of life -- Akinah even has a nickname of "The Void's Playground", per Kaza's interlude -- it seems appropriate that this Unmade would be one of those involved in causing Shinovar to become shut down. They have also not been seen on screen, so of all the presumed active Unmade, Dai-Gonarthis has had the most time to go to Shinovar and begin influencing it. I suspect Dai-Gonarthis is also sapient, due to the orchestration of events of Aimia, so I use my point about needing a sapient Unmade to facilitate a worship relationship here as well.

This is something I think should be asked to Brandon when we get to an AMA or other question-asking event that allows book spoilers.

Garnets were also what are used in the suppression devices, so there's that angle to consider as well.

It's been pretty clear that Sja-anat can control at least lesser spren that she's corrupted. We saw this in Oathbringer. What disturbs me most is the implication that she has agents in the Physical Realm doing things for her, or even worse: she can get inside people's heads and directly control them. "Taker of Secrets" does kind of suggest she may have the power to manipulate the mind, but we simply just don't know everything she (and the other Unmade) can do. I do like the idea that Sja-anat is Navani's opponent for this book, though. We haven't really seen the Unmade "rampaging" yet, only gotten hints, and that exchange with Navani was pretty hostile.

Using Voidbinding to generate Voidlight which they use as fuel source for evoking said spren-nature, yes.