junior

Also, since you can't activate the portals without a Nahal Bond (since you need a *live* spren to form a shardblade to activate the portal), the city is secure from the Voidbringers. The Voidbringers can no doubt eventually reach it, but it would require climbing across the mountains to get there.

But the lack of resistance that an illusion provides would give the game away immediately.

Fixed. Not sure why I transposed the names like that.

It appears that they can indeed hide from the storm. Shen/Rhail is not transformed by it. Presumably, he was indoors when it hit (before they were all transported to Urithiru). Though I suppose another possibility is that Parshendi, being more intelligent and willful, can resist a transformation that they don't want. Parshmen, on the other hand...

Nice, but kind of missing my point. I was pointing out that parts of the Windrunner rune spontaneously appear around Kaladin during the story.

Not really. Remember that even after Dalinar frees him, he thinks about the possibility of whether Dalinar is merely another Amaram.

With good direction, this *might* not end up as a bad thing. Szeth has, obviously, shown a fanatical ability to resist temptation. He's probably capable of keeping Nightblood's "suggestions" fully in check. The real problem is that Nalan is now the one giving Szeth directions, and Nalan appears to be even more fanatical than Szeth.

Szeth is mentally fragile. Like the people near the tower in the story that Hoid told Kaladin in the first book, he's just realized that *he* is responsible for all of the murders he committed. Nalan's conversation is designed to do two things. The first is to give Szeth a guidepoint that Szeth believes he can use to avoid screwing up again (the guidepoint being Nalan, obviously). The second is to give Szeth a task to focus on - namely, dealing with the people who declared him Truthless. The one outlandish thing that Nalan declares - i.e. that he's Nalan - is a required part of the first point. Anything outlandish beyond that threatens to quite literally blow Szeth's mind again. Szeth might be informed later on that his sword comes from a little further away than he originally believed, but for the time being his mental state needs to be kept as stable as possible.

And the general concensus is that Zahel is Vasher.

Regarding the chart... When Kaladin gains Syl's weapon form, it's mentioned that a rune appears behind him in the shape of wings. And when he arrives on the battlefield to confront Szeth, it's mentioned that a rune briefly appears in front of him in the shape of a sword. If you look carefully at the symbol that's been labeled as Windrunners, you see what could be a stylized sword rune in the middle of a stylized wings extended rune.

Hoid has the ability to show up when and where something important is about to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if an Herald had the same ability.

I'm curious how the war between Jasnah and the Ghostbloods started. Mraize claims that Jasnah killed several Ghostbloods, which is likely true. But the necessary follow-up question, which isn't asked or answered, is why she did so. Just a minor item, but I'm starting to suspect that the friend of Shallan's mother wasn't actually her lover. Rather, I suspect that was the cover story that Shallan's father concocted after Shallan killed both of them.

The Honorblade might recognize the "ownership" of the last person to grip it. So if you hold a blade, you can dismiss it and resummon it. But if someone else knocks it out of your hands and picks it up, they can now dismiss it and resummon it.

Nan appears to be running his own group. He calls them Skybreakers, but there's no evidence that they're actually bonded (one of them gets in trouble when he kills Lift's fellow thief).

While possible, it's mentioned that her eyes were "staring sightlessly". It's not impossible to fake that, but it's quite difficult (as opposed to when the individual's eyes are closed). Also, she manages to avoid flinching when stabbed a second time, which would also be quite difficult. Once again, I'm not saying that it's impossible. But it's not easy to accomplish.

The duel was pretty much something straight out of a Wuxia flick. Admittedly, films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero, typically have their combatants spend more time bouncing off of small tree branches and water instead of staying up in the sky for long periods of time. But that definitely seems to have been the inspiration.

A few items. First, the book doesn't explicitly state that she was stabbed in the heart. It merely states that she was stabbed in the chest. It's entirely possible that the men attacking her were willing to depend on a punctured lung (which would kill anyone without access to modern medicine or stormlight) as opposed to a punctured heart. Second, the more problematic item from my pov is that she is apparently unconscious when Shallan discovers the attack. Presumably any subsequent healing would have been automatic, but I'm not sure how she would have transported herself while unconscious. Third, and finally, I'm skeptical about the idea of her preparing a duplicate beforehand. Remember that in WotK, Jasnah mentions that soulcasting organic materials is difficult for her (aside from blood). Preparing a convincing duplicate of a body would have required a lot of work, and might not have even been possible.

I suspect that there are still plenty of *additional* truths that Shallan needs to own up to before she comes fully into her powers.

iirc, the incident that you're referring to is an insult directed at a specific individual. The individual in question kept accusing Pattern of being a void spren, so he essentially threw the accusation back at the individual.

I don't think that we're done with Kaladin's inner darkness, yet. Remember that he's returning to his home town. That will most likely involve a confrontation with Roshone, who's currently the nobleman ruling Kaladin's home town. And given what we've seen of Roshone both in WotK and WoR, I doubt that Roshone has left Kaladin's parents alone. I'm sure that he's pulled some additional stunts in order to get his hands on the stones that Kaladin's father was "given". It's entirely possible that what happened to Moash's parents has since happened to Kaladin's parents. Also, Kaladin was asked to visit the capitol city after he visits his home town. Given what we saw in Lahn's interlude, I suspect that Kaladin's going to become extremely angry once he finds out what triggered the riots in the capitol. Gaz - Gaz hasn't been mentioned much in the comments about the book, but I think he bears looking at. His conduct in this book seems to bear out the idea that he was more or less caught between a rock and a hard place in WotK. He didn't like his job, but he was stuck with it whether he liked it or not - due to both the war and his debt. And a particular troublemaking bridgeman wasn't helping things at all. In this book, once Shallan recruits him, he comes across as a puppy. He's *very* eager to please Shallan - seemingly more so than even the other former deserters. While I suspect that he's going to do his best to avoid the bridgemen, I don't think that will be entirely possible (given that the bridgemen are guarding Shallan's causal betrothed). I suspect that both Shallan and Adolin will do their best to keep fighting between Gaz and the bridgemen to a minimum, but sooner or later I suspect that Gaz and Kaladin are going to need to work out their differences.

As someone pointed out elsewhere, during Shallan's confrontation with Tyn, Shallan dimly remembers that she doesn't actually need ten heartbeats to summon her sword. And then she convinces herself that she actually does need that amount of time.

Kaladin when he realizes that he's now a Lighteyes.

I would find it highly ironic if Jasnah's Father and Oldest Brother, who both appear to have fervently hated each other, were both part of the same secret society... ^^;;

Airsick lowlander! Everyone likes Rock!

The recipient's worldview likely colors their understanding of the visions. Remember, Dalinar himself gets a lot of things wrong about the visions - as demonstrated so ably by Shallan when she points out that the visions probably aren't telling Dalinar to recreate the Knights Radiant. Instead, they're probably telling him to gather the Knights.