Mimiddle04

You're mixing Blades and Bearers like they're the same thing. Kaladin definitely hates Shardbearers. He associates Shardbearers with lighteyes and therefore has an irrational hatred toward them. Shallan doesn't hate Bearers, she loves a couple of them (Adolin and her Brother). Her feeling about Blades themselves might become that of distaste, but she still doesn't hate Shardbearers the way Kaladin does. I agree their feelings toward the Blades has yet to be determined, but I don't see Shallan or Dalinar forcing Adolin to throw his Blade away or loving him any less.

Shallan does not hate shardbearers, Dalinar does not hate Shardbearers, Jasnah and Renarin do not... Most of the "Radiants" even love a Shardbearer or two. Heck Renarin was a Radiant and a Shardbearer. Kaladin is the only Radiant who hates Shardbearers I can think of. They all can't hold Shardblades because of the screaming and they are probably a little appalled by holding a "corpse." But I don't think that any of them "passionately hate" the Shardbearers, only their weapons.

Luke gets a robotic awesome hand almost right away, and Jaime and Rand are never the swordsman they once were. So as far as champions go you wouldn't want either of the two who remained handless to be the one dueling for you. Just sayin...

In the original version it doesn't really explain what power Nale used to restore Szeth, but in this updated version he definitely has to heal his soul-less hand. I mean what use would a one handed champion be? My question then is how would Nale accomplish this with his own Blade? He should only have Gravitation and Division. We don't know a lot about Division, but I don't see it being a surge that allows him to repair severed souls. Thoughts or explanations? It's been a little while since I've read so maybe I'm just not seeing something that is obvious.

Am I remembering incorrectly or does the Stormfather actually call Kaladin "Rider of Storms" in WoK? If I am remembering it right I think this "clarification" actually confuses things a little. To me at least.

I've always thought Andonalsium was a person or person like being that was essentially a God. This being was like other beings and had hates and likes and wants to grow and wants to destroy and all the things that a being has. Then when he shattered each of these shards took a part of his desires with it. To me Andonalsium was just like a human who has differing emotions and thoughts. It didn't make him weak or in pain or constantly battling himself any more than humans battle with the want to do good against the want to help themselves. Or how you can struggle with wanting to see an ex but knowing it's bad for you. I guess I could be way off though.

People are using the book plus other sources to piece together who the Heralds are. I believe they're referring to Jezrien being the drunk at the party during the first scene of WoK that asks Szeth if "he's seen him." And I think Kalak is one of the guys Jasnah sees talking about an abomination using "their lords blade." I don't think anything outright says anything but people have theories and strong evidence those are Radiants. One of the female radiants is probably the woman going around smashing works of art. It's actually probably the reason one of the statues at Gavilar's is missing when Szeth passes by them. She breaks statues of herself. Basically everyone we have seen that we think is a Radiant has some sort of problem.

The Parshendi aren't exactly native to the shattered plains. They were more a nomadic people before the war, but moved to the shattered plains because of their ability to defend them. When you say beasts of great value that were hunted to near extinction, I am guessing buffalo? Their skins were of value, but their near extinction was contributed to by a number of factors that had nothing to do with their value. For example the railroad companies paid people to clear herds and the government paid people to clear herds so cattle would have more grazing room. Maybe whales? They were highly valued for a number of reasons, but you'd hardly have to of taken over the American Continent to hunt whales to near extinction. A lot of other countries contributed to that and the oceans aren't very comparable to the Shattered Plains. A more apt comparison between the two, in my mind, would be their general attitude of being the center of the world and how they control the majority of the world's super weapons. EDIT: But my comparison is hardly specific to America. America is the most recent country to be that way, but China, Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mongolia have all had their turns at that position in the past. So as others have pointed out Alethi are really just whatever current super power you want to point to. If I misunderstood your analogy I am sorry and welcome the opportunity to understand it better.

I was also talking about the Heralds wimping out on the Oathpact to let Taln be totured alone instead of manning up and going through it like they were supposed to. As far as Kaladin goes. He almost killed Syl already. I know you said "on purpose" in your post implying he didn't do that on purpose, but he at least had hints. She told him how she'd lose herself without him and how he could only kill to protect. He could see that she was becoming more wind spren like and less like herself. He knew what he was doing was wrong, even if he didn't know why exactly. So while he didn't say "Okay I abandon my oaths and sentence you to death." He had to have had an inkling of what he was doing, and did it anyway. Plus Kaladin is supposed to be honorable by definition of attracting an Honor spren. Shallan for instance very much has a love hate relationship with Pattern. It's true she was a child when she wished him dead, but in her head he is still the reason her father had to pretend to have killed her mother and so she will always resent him for that. Also I was partially refering to human nature in general. People like Sadeas and Amaram will always exist and wars will always come about. So with the Stormfather being eternal, maybe after thousands of years of seeing human nature he wasn't so sure they were the good guys. Even without the breaking of the bonds and Heralds not upholding their part of the pact, humans have a tendency to be destructive. To be honest I was engaging in hyperbole. But while I was exaggerating when I said humans showed their true colors, it was only an exaggeration and not completely without merit in my head.

It looks like this has changed from landmass to biology of plant life. It's true a lot of plants drown with too much water, but there are plants that live in water, not including underwater plants (which is what Brandon has said he based the Roshar plants on) there are swamp plants that grow with their base completely covered in water their entire life span. Plants on Roshar wouldn't really have that problem to deal with though. Someone on another thread pointed out that in order to drain all the Highstorm water each week the continent must have large drainage systems or basins below it to get rid of the water. Think about America when just one large hurricane hits. Think if that were a weekly occurrence. Logically there must be somewhere for all that water to go or the whole continent would flood. The weeping is weak normal rain though and produces a lot less water at once. The drainage systems that clear highstorm water could easily handle weeks of light rain without the land flooding too badly. It'd be like being able to drain an entire pool at once if need be but then only draining buckets at a time. No matter how long you poured those buckets, it'd never back up the enormous drainage system to the point of flooding. Because the land wouldn't be too saturated the plants wouldn't need to develop like swamp plants to survive. I'd see them closer to plants in Africa with wet and dry seasons (on a much, much smaller scale). They'd need to go a week or more with no water, then get as much as they could after the destruction passes, but before the water drains away.

My overall point still works. Not all spren are childish like Syl before bonding, and the leaders such as Stormfather, Nightmother, and any other large spren capable of thought without the bond probably started the bonding process to help humans fight Odium. I doubt the Stormfather was ever thinking "Wow a shiny sword, I bet I could do that if I tried." I don't think he ever had a childish manner about him. But he and other major spren probably initiated the bonds after great thought and a lot of seriousness...before humans showed their true colors and screwed everyone else over.

It sounds like you're applying Syl's personality to all Spren when you say spren saw Honorblades and though "ooh, that's cool, I wanna try." The way I see it is the Stormfather, being the default leader of Spren, saw that Honor had blessed ten humans with Honorblades to help them fight against evil. Stormfather knew Odium was evil and that he wanted Honor to win. He decided the spren should try to help humans in their battle and he began to develop a way to do so. This was the beginning of the shards My order of events might not be 100% here so I apologize beforehand if that's the case. Flash forward thousands of years and Honor is shattered. The Heralds stop honoring the Oathpact. The humans betray the Spren killing hundreds if not thousands of them. Because of the actions of man Stormfather decides never to trust them again and abandon shards all together. At least that's how I see it going in my head.

If the Knights were around before the shattering of Honor wouldn't that mean the Bondsmiths were bound to Honor himself? Doesn't the Stormfather say he is what is left of Honor or the largest piece of him left or something along those lines? I might be looking at it differently than other people but to me that means the Stormfather didn't really exist until after the Shattering. Am I looking at it wrong?

Do we know if the Knights existed before the shattering of Honor?

I don't know if it makes a difference. But that was before she was fully bonded to him. He hadn't even said the first ideal at that point. She might be able to go a longer distance after he says more, or all, of the ideals.

I mostly agree with you about this point but have a question. If each spren has to be the same type how can there be more than one Bondsmith? Isn't there only one Stormfather? Or can he bond multiple Knights? I don't disagree with the fact that a "big three" theory might fit well with Greek or Roman mythology, but other than that I'd say this is a bit of a stretch. Nightwatcher is generally associated with Cultivation, and that's almost the opposite of Hates. There is also the Cusicesh; some people worship it, but no one really interacts with it as far as we know. The Stormfather and Nightwatcher are both able to communicate, and actively do so, while Cusichesh doesn't do any more than a normal spren. It appears, goes through its faces, and disappears again. So I would say Cusichesh is a lesser spren than Nightwatcher or Stormfather. Last I'd mention that there can be more or less than 3 Bondsmiths. The quote is "they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them." To me this means their numbers changed. I guess that could mean it never exceeds 3 and could be 1 or 2. But the quote about Bondsmiths goes on to state that "Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious." This quote implies it was possible to grow the order but they wouldn't do so because it was "seditious." So there would have to be more than just 3 spren, unless each spren could bond multiple people. I know none of these things are WoB and they don't take away from the association with having a "big three" so to speak, but I think it makes it unlikely some of the more direct associations you assert are true.

Traditional maybe? He fights in a stylized manner, Vin fights any way she can. I think you're over estimating Szeth's "honor" though. He has shown time and again if he wants to win a fight he will use tricks and any advantage he has even though the other person isn't capable of the same. When he fought Gavilar he was in danger of losing at one point so instead of fighting he lashed the balcony down a number of times until it broke and Gavilar fell. This to me is somewhat of a "dirty" tactic, the kind that someone like Vin would use. So if he found out he could use his abilities to beat her in a sneaky way I strongly believe he'd do it that way.

Q: Does Nightblood rip souls out of bodies, by chance? A: Nightblood consumes Investiture, including the spark of life. Q: If someone--Vasher says that Nightblood would kill him, is that just because he has this big deific Breath? Would it kill an ordinary person, like a drab? A: It would suck the Breath from anybody, and if they were unable to feed it he would feed on their soul. Q: So they would die. A: Yes. Anybody wielding Nightblood, he will suck their soul. For too long, he will eventually, if you draw him, he will suck your soul. I'm not sure if Vin has any shards during the scenario the OP posted, but even if she did and she wielded Nightblood long enough he'd eat her soul and kill her.

It would eat her investiture and kill her unless she found a way to hold breath or stormlight. The mists aren't very strong/potent compared to those two and the metals themselves aren't actually investiture so Nightblood would go through her investiture very quickly I think.

I'd have to agree with Moogle. There is no reason to believe spren/Knight Orders would have many qualms with killing other Knights if they thought those Radiants were going against what the killers thought of as honorable. Syl seems to strongly dislike killing unless it's to protect. But if Shallan were trying to kill a weaker person I think Syl would support her death. As far as Pattern goes, he seems to have nothing against killing almost anyone for whatever reason Shallan feels is appropriate (but we also have no confirmation he supports killing, he hasn't been used much except to protect Shallan). And Jasnah's spren was going to let her die just to prove she was worthy, which to me indicates he didn't mind Knights dying. Again, like with Pattern, this doesn't really mean he approves of Knights battling each other but more shows he doesn't have the same affliction to killing Syl has. I think it's most likely that he is Nalan and he is hunting down those he feels deserve to be hunted most. People all over the world break laws and commit crimes. He'd have to have a way to determine who deserved his wrath. To him Lift and Ym and anyone like them deserve punishment the most. I can see two reasons he'd think this: 1. They are potential Radiants and are using their powers (or used to in Ym's case) to commit crimes. Which in his eyes is itself the worst kind of crime. 2. He is a little crazy and is punishing these new Radiants for the crimes of the old Radiants who abandoned the Spren bonded to them and almost killed an entire sentient species. The first one is the one I'd lean to, the second one is just something I feel could be possible in his mind. EDIT: Thought of a 3rd option I think is a good possibility. The people he hunts have powers others cannot compete with so he leaves regular criminals to regular authorities but goes after Criminal-Radiants like Lift because he has the ability to stop them and normal authorities don't.

This link is to a thread about the map. It was started back in March and is very long, but he OP on the first page has a couple of posts explaining the shape of Roshar. I couldn't find the original posts so I'm sorry I couldn't link you to them, but the long and short of it is the map is a Julia Set. A Julia Set is something in math that is way beyond my skills in the subject but you can look into how they work if you'd like. That link has other theories and discussions on the map as well if you're interested. There is also a reddit thread here that focuses more on just the shape of the map rather than all the other stuff that first link gets into.

I mentioned this in a different post, how is Szeth a better match when Kaladin beat Szeth in a fight? You're right, I apologize I completely missed the open plains part in my first read of this post. I shift my response from above to the OP. An open field greatly favors Szeth, he doesn't need metal anchors like Vin does. I still think some sort of dueling arena to give each of them use of their abilities would make for the best fight.

True. I guess very quickly might not be so accurate if she was content to just keep running away. But that's not really a fight as much as a game of hide and seek. She'd have to act extremely quickly though as any barrier she threw up wouldn't last long. Maybe if she could make it tight enough that he couldn't move she cold suffocate him or something. There are ways she could win depending on what all is possible with soulcasting.

I don't think you can, but it's sort of ambiguous from what we know. There is a WoB that states invested objects can't be soulcast, but that doesn't mean a person holding some investiture can't be soulcast because everyone has innate investiture and Jasnah soulcasted those thugs. So at some point investiture prevents souldcasting but we're not sure at what point that is.

He meant spheres. Also he specified pre-death and resurrection so no yelling at Nightblood quite yet. Just Windrunner against Elsecaller...if I'm remembering Jasnah's order correctly. I don't know if she could soulcast him the way she did the men in the streets but I think that'd be her only shot of not dying very quickly. EDIT: I realize you might have been using sarcasm with the spear comment, but it'd still be a pre Nightblood fight.