junior

Alright. Wild and baseless hypothesis time. Just taking a wild guess - Voidspren are exclusively formed from corrupted spren. i.e. Odium doesn't form spren on his own. But he can take existing spren formed from Honor or Cultivation, and turn them into his own. Now having thrown that out there... Where do Voidbringers come from? It now appears that Voidbringers are Parsh-forms (new word that I just made up that includes Parshmen, Parshendi, and any other off-shoots that Sanderson later introduces) that have gained a form from Voidspren. So what happens if all of the higher order Spren suddenly go away. Well, obviously, you don't have any more Radiants. No spren means no new Nahel bonds. And that means no new Radiants. But you also might not have any more spren for Odium to corrupt, which means no new Voidbringers. Or even any kind of Parsh-form more advanced than dull form. Or possibly even lower than dull form. Like, say, Parshmen? Except, of course, the higher order Spren are unlikely to agree to such a plan. To them, hanging out with humans is almost like a drug. And if some of them get corrupted, well, no one plans for it. It's just a fact of life that you hope to avoid. So how do you get the Spren to decide that they no longer want to hang around with humanity? Well... let's say that you killed off roughly 90% of the bonded spren. Do you think that might have an effect? Do you think it might scare the higher order Spren into not coming to chat with the humans anymore? Do you think that might irrevocably scar any and all higher order Spren who lived with it? We already know the answers to the last two questions. The question is - did the old KR come up with the same idea, and then actually attempt to carry it out?

There was an article I read a month or two ago. A happily married researcher, who had a relatively good relationship with those around him, was conducting some comparative brain scans. And as he was looking over the scans, he realized that the scan he'd used as a baseline seemed to show the same sorts of brain activity that a sociopath would have. The problem? He'd used his *own* brain scans as the baseline. Fortunately, instead of going into denial over it, he talked things over with those around him. And their conclusions were that yes, he really did often show sociopathic traits. But due to influence or environment or some combination of effects while growing up, he managed to behave in such a way that his sociopathic traits didn't cripple his ability to make and maintain friendships.

No worries. One other item that I've recalled to add fuel to the fire. The "madman" in WoR recognizes Shallan's illusion as a product of one of "Ishal's Knights". That seems to imply a certain amount of knowledge regarding surges and where they come from.

? I'm not sure where that contradicts what I wrote (aside from the idea that the Herald who retrieved his blade was Nalan; if Darkness really is Nalan as he claims to be, then obviously he can't also be pretending to be Taln). What I wrote was that it's possible that the Herald who retrieved his blade is pretending to be Taln. And that said Herald's mental state is possibly now so far gone that he actually believes himself to be Taln.

lol. No worries. And Renerin was almost certainly bonded. His glasses are mentioned when he first puts on shardplate, but iirc they're never mentioned again - until Dalinar notes that he hasn't been wearing them and realizes that stormlight has healed Renarin's eyes.

I suggested a couple of possibilities in another thread that would account for both the Honorblade, and the madman in WoR not actually being Taln. The first possibility I suggested was that "Taln" is, in fact, the Herald who went back and retrieved his (it has to be a "he" for this hypothesis to work) Honorblade. We know that one of the Heralds did so, although it hasn't yet been clarified which one it was. This particular Herald has realized that another Desolation is coming, and his already strained mind finally broke. As a result, he now believes that he's Taln, and he's acting as the Herald who warns everyone. We still have the question of what happened to his Honorblade, and how he ended up with a Shardblade. The second possibility I suggested was that the guy at the end of WotK is in fact Taln. But the madman who got sent to Dalinar is someone else. That leaves the question of who performed the swap, and why. And also, where the Shardblade came from (since it's explicitly stated that the blade is unknown, despite the fact that such things are *very* carefully tracked).

Something that might be worth noting - In WotK, Navani (in private with Dalinar) despairs of Elhokar ever amounting to anything useful. Dalinar, on the other hand, has much stronger faith in Elohkar's abilities.

Hmm... There are two possibilities here that fit with "that's an Honorblade at the end of WotK, but that's not Taln in WoR"... The first is that it's not Taln. Instead, it's the herald who came back and collected his (in this theory, it's obviously "he") blade. He's mentally cracked from his betrayal millenia ago, realizes that the Desolation is incoming, and has decided that he's Taln. However, we still have the question regarding what happened to his Honorblade. The second is that the guy who turned up at the end of WotK is indeed Taln. But the madman in WoR isn't. Someone swapped them for some reason. Though that leaves even more questions. Namely, where's Taln now, where did whomever performed the swap get the madman from, where did the Shardblade come from (it's explicitly noted that the blade is an unknown one, and shardblades are *very* carefully tracked), and most importantly, why go to all the trouble?

Not necessarily. The word "darkness" by Elhokar is certainly suggestive. But it's been indicated that Honorspren and Cryptics don't get along. It's possible that Elhokar is being "stalked" by a cryptic looking for a bond (or that has already bonded), and that it leaves when Syl shows up because it doesn't like being around her (or doesn't want her to realize it's in the area).

Did you just repost your post from an hour ago verbatim?

From Dalinar's point of view, he wouldn't be doing anything wrong. 1.) The blade isn't bonded to the "madman", or Dalinar wouldn't have been able to bind it to himself. 2.) Dalinar's probably convinced that the "madman" gained the blade in an inappropriate fashion. Meaning that it doesn't really belong to the "madman" anyway. 3.) Letting crazy people have weapons isn't a very good idea - particularly when the weapon in question is a shardblade. 4.) If the "madman" suddenly comes to his senses and gives a reasonable answer regarding where the blade came from, Dalinar can always give it back. And in the meantime, no one else can steal the blade (which is a definite concern if it's just left laying around).

We know that something's going on with Elhokar. There's one more item that you seem to have missed, and that's a comment by Elhokar to Kaladin. Elhokar tells Kaladin that the presence of the latter makes the dark things around him go away. It's almost certain that he has a spren of some sort watching him. What kind of spren, however, is anyone's guess. And while another Pattern seems like a definite possibility, there's also the possibility that he's attracted a different kind of cryptic that we're as yet unaware of. Or he might have *shudder* attracted a Voidspren of some sort.

True. But foreknowledge due to having already been to the future (and back) would explain why Bloody Tan knew when Wax was going to fire. It could also explain why... (Shadows of Self Steelhunt Spoiler) -

Menace? Menace!? Nightblood is only a menace to evil! Because he kills it! Dead! ... Wait... Are you evil!?

There's a WoB that I saw yesterday, I think, that mentions that we've seen time travel in Alloy of Law. Specifically, we saw someone traveling forward in time. Bloody Tan is the person who immediately came to mind. Edit - Here's the relevant quote - It can be found at the bottom of the Scottsdale section here - http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6605-words-of-brandon-compiled/

It's been interesting seeing Gaz acting more or less like a puppy. I suspect that something is going to need to be done about the leader of the deserters, though.

I think that in the past, the Desolations came much more frequently. As a result, humanity didn't really have a chance to progress between assaults by the voidbringers. Bronze weapons would be a big deal for these people. Dalinar touches on this a bit when describing the visions to Navani in WotK. Ergo, the likely conclusion to be drawn is that Talan's mental instability is causing him to fall back on what he repeated frequently in the past without regard to how appropriate such comments are for the current situation. Also, sending a fake, insane Taln to the Alethi seems rather pointless. If you're going to do something like that, it would seem to make more sense to send a lucid fake. While I don't doubt that there's a trick going on here, I'm pretty confident that Taln himself is exactly what he appears to be.

Adolin isn't bonded to the blades that he hands to Renarin. Relis is bonded to the blade that Kaladin catches. I think that's what you overlooked.

Don't forget that Dalinar finds something "wrong" with the blade even before his end of the book chat with the Stormfather. It's noted the first time that he uses it - i.e. during the three-way conversation between himself, Amaram, and Kaladin.

Vengeance is a form of justice. So it's not out of the question that he might see it as a useful avenue. Additionally, all of his actions that we see in WoR are directed explicitly against people with a Nahel bond. If the belief about the Shin elders still maintaining the bond is correct, then it makes sense that he'd want to go after them. And using Szeth, the not-as-truthless-as-claimed against them is a darkly fitting punishment for them. Finally, keeping everyone's favorite evil-destroying sword under control is tricky. In Warbreaker, the sword constantly "suggests" that people near the wielder might be "evil". The wielder needs to be someone who can keep the sword's... enthusiasm... in check. And Szeth's blind devotion to a job that he loathed shows that he has the capability to do so. Of course, just because Szeth has the capability doesn't mean that he won't screw it up regardless. But the potential is there.

The beliefs of Vorinism include a belief that humans originally came from elsewhere. It's unclear whether this belief is due to humanity being refugees, or whether it's more of a "cast out of the Garden of Eden" sort of thing. Getting back to the OP, wasn't a certain character in Alloy of Law Sanderson's first character with same sex attraction? If true, that would indicate that Jasnah wasn't created with that in mind (though nothing would stop Sanderson from adding it to Jasnah's personality later on).

Agreed. Taln is mentioned as the herald who typically picks the hopeless situations. And then usually dies. But still wins. Resisting Odium's torments a ridiculously long amount of time just seems to be perfectly in character with what little we know about him.

I suspect that sooner or later Joel's curiosity is going to get the better of him, and he's going to ask Melody about the Shadowblaze. At that point she'll realize that something very strange (possibly even TRAGIC!) happened. Though whether she'll be able to immediately tell Joel anything about it is anyone's guess.

Dalinar's oaths as a KR revolve around bringing people together. I strongly suspect that going after Sadeas just for vengeance (which is what it would have more or less amounted to) would be a revocation of the oaths of his KR order due to the dissension and chaos it would cause among the Alethi. That's not to say that there wouldn't be a just cause for doing so. But Dalinar going after Sadeas solely for Dalinar's benefit would probably not fit with the oaths.

I have to disagree. They're both scholars and quite intelligent. Jasnah's abilities in this area are obvious. But Kaladin also has a very extensive medical background due to the training from his father. And if things ever calm down somewhat so that at least a week goes by when no one's trying to kill him ( ), I could see him starting to revert back toward increasing his knowledge. Having said that, you'd need to stick the two of them together for a while to see how exactly they got along. And on that note, I had an odd thought after finishing WoR. Hoid mentions that he and Jasnah are roughly a week away from civilization. But he never mentions what civilization they're a week out from. I'll laugh if the nearest settlement turns out to be a certain community where a disgraced light-eyes is living out his political exile from the Alethi court.