Aoibheann

Shallan assumes the assassins took Jasnah's body & trunk above. When the trunk shows up unharmed on land, Shallan still doesn't revise her assumption about Jasnah.

I like the anagram part of the theory!

There's something odd about the couple, but I'm not willing to put money on any of the theories I've seen. Mraize & Iyatil? Nazh and Khriss? Demoux and nameless Terris woman?

At the end of WoR, Pattern strongly hints that Shallan will need to stop with the Veil front if she is to truly become a Radiant.

Pattern is really attracted to the abstract thought humans produce linking otherwise disparate ideas. Shallan's synthesis of the Urithiru location is a perfect example of this. Pattern assumes each map is drawn to scale, but many of the older maps are really vague drawings.

Pattern knows there is no Truth, but he can't find the truths Shallan can. Shallan believes she is searching for Truth, finding many truths along the way.

from tWoK page 370, kindle edition:

Teleb is the officer who recommends looking into a combination of man carried bridges and the siege bridges. He is still alive at the end of tWoK. During WoR Dalinar/Adolin give him Shards. During the final battle of WoR Teleb is slain, his shardblade is recovered by Captain Khal.  

 

Just last week I found the quote discussing Oldbloods being descended from the last rulers of a united Alethkar... but I can't find it today. Argh!

 - Found it! WoR page 595, kindle edition.

Teleb - wearing the Plate that Adolin had won from his duel with Eranniv - watched from the side of the room, Shardhammer on his back, faceplate up.  His people had once ruled Alethkar.  What did he think of all this? The man usually kept his opinions to himself.

 

Re: Skybreakers.  I keep coming back to Shallan's comment about Heleran (WoR, page 423, kindle ed):

A sense of rightness that she could not describe, but which she drew from her brother Helaran, the best person she'd ever known.

 

Shallan thinks this about her brother who joined the Skybreakers.  I can't imagine him being involved in an organization only aimed at killing surgebinders.  I think the Skybreakers are trying to do good in the world, (as are most of the secret organizations) they are just misguided.  They no longer have the "checks a spren requires." 

The assistant, Ivis, who Zahel sends to help with Kaladin and the other bridgemen is female. Zahel finds the Alethi sexism rather silly,

As for Adolin... There are many options for him.  

I have a feeling Szeth may be sent after him in the next book.  It will be interesting to see how Nightblood reacts.

Sadeas admits he's been lying to himself:

Isn't this what you wanted?  Sadeas thought. To reawaken him?

No. The deeper truth was that Sadeas didn't want Dalinar back.  He wanted his old friend out of the way, and it had been such for months now, no matter what he wanted to tell himself.

He originally wanted Dalinar out of the way, so he could influence Elhokar, but that didn't work.  Now he wants them both out of the way. 

He also took a major step toward embracing Odium when he deserted Dalinar at the Tower.  Even pretending to be honorable influences people toward Honor.  With the abandonment of allies on the field, Sadeas stopped pretending to be honorable.  

Main theory - solid - it could be Ishar. 

Crazy end theory - I don't follow. How did the Shin manipulate Nalan?  We don't see anything  of that.

Also (and this doesn't really impact your theory, but you mention it): We don't know Gavilar was actively involved in the Sons of Honor.  We know Amaram (and Taravangian) were influenced by Gavilar.  We know they want to claim Gavilar as theirs, but we don't know Gavilar's actual allegiances.  

On the "extra shardblade" - It looks to me like Captain Khal started off with only plate, but ends up with Teleb's shardblade after Teleb is killed during the battle. 

from tWoK page 370, kindle edition:

Teleb was a straight-backed man with light green eyes.  He kept his long hair in a braid and had a blue tattoo on his cheek, marking him as an Oldblood.  At the side of the room, his wife, Kalami, sat behind a long-legged desk on a high stool.  She wore her dark hair with only two small side braids pinned up, the rest hanging down the back of her violet dress to brush the top of the stool.  She was a historian of note, and had requested permission to record meetings like this one; she planned to scribe a history of the war.

Teleb is the officer who recommends looking into a combination of man carried bridges and the siege bridges. He is still alive at the end of tWoK. During WoR Dalinar/Adolin give him Shards. During the final battle of WoR Teleb is slain, his shardblade is recovered by Captain Khal.  

Just last week I found the quote discussing Oldbloods being descended from the last rulers of a united Alethkar... but I can't find it today. Argh!

Shallan does have ideals, they are a more liberal interpretation of ideals.  Shallan must achieve a level of enlightenment or self-awareness.  She gets there by speaking or acknowledging truths about herself.

WoB (thanks RShara!) says Shallan at the end of WoR is one "level" above Kaladin.  I understand Kaladin is at Level 3 based on the ideals he has sworn.  I believe each order has 4 ideals beyond the first "universal" ideal. 

Kaladin has 2 more levels/ideals to go, Shallan has 1 more.  Presumably the last ideal potentially allows Shardplate. 

@Argent, Thanks for clarifying what I meant re: larkin.  (I've considered changing my name... but I haven't found the right one just yet.  Coincidentally I used to have ARGENT as a license plate.  I'm not coveting your name though... really.

Imagine you need an infused emerald for soulcasting.  You need a huge, infused emerald; large enough you can't get one from the money exchanger.  You have an emerald, but it has no stormlight in it, or not enough to perform the task.  It would be nice to be able to transfer the stormlight from some broams to your giant gem and finish your task.  

This sort of convenience, short of being a surgebinder, would not come cheaply.   The only people with that requirement would have access to abnormally large gems and the technology powered by those gems. 

Larkin seem to be able to suck in stormlight.  The larkin may have no choice about it.  We don't know what happens to the stormlight the larkin ingests.  If it is later transferable, this ability may continue after death.  

The Reshi seem to tend and care for the larkins.  The above, along with Nalan's treatment of his larkin make me think the Reshi have very good reasons for to care who has access to the corpses of their larkin friends.  

In the Rysn interlude she mentions dead larkin are very valuable.  

Could this be a way of storing/infusing stormlight into a "sphere" outside normal highstorm infusion?

I think a Windrunner would feel duty bound to protect Ym or Lift.  Nalan seems to believe 1) there is no statute of limitations and 2) everything is a capital crime (when it comes to surgebinders).  

Do I think Nalan is following the Skybreaker ideals? I don't know.  He (likely) has no spren. His emphasis on death before life seems to indicate he's lost his way (to say the least).  But it's possible the Skybreakers would see no problem with going after decades old crimes, despite living a clean life for years...

In fact, perhaps that's the dilemma (real) Skybreakers need to deal with, recognizing it's important to temper Justice with mercy, recognition of extenuating circumstances, etc.; as Windrunners need to protect even those they dislike/hate. 

On my last read-through WoR I tried to catch the Heralds' names.  Not all are in swears.  I've tried to leave off the ones already mentioned in the thread. 

Battah (Navani discussing Jasnah's disappearance pg 221)

Vedel (Taln's monologue, pg 401)

Chana (Kaladin thinking about Navani, pg 886)

Chanaranach (stormseat temple pg 941)

There's also this quote after Shallan's decision to deal with her Father: 

 

This had been coming.  She'd known this had been coming.  They tried to hide, they tried to flee.  Of course that wouldn't work. 

It hadn't worked with Mother either.

To me this implies Shallan had tried to hide and/or flee from her Mother.  Maybe this is why Shallan spent so much time in the gardens? Even before her Mother's death? 

I've been thinking about Valam's death rattle and the suckling child rattle coming up with a slightly different interpretation.  Every time someone is killed unnecessarily it advances Odium's cause, for the choice of Honor is life.  Life before death, etc.  

Examples: Redin killing Valam, Taravangian sowing chaos, Amaram killing Kaladin's men, etc. 

Taravangian using the sick and unnoticed to ferret out the death rattles is a perfect example of choosing death before life.  Odium makes this so tempting via the Unmade (Moelach specifically). 

@Argent - there are 7 references in WoR.  They all talk about green specks or green motes.  Ym's spren is referred to as a shimmer of light.

I can't think of any other examples of spren that jump out as being different between the Listeners and the humans. 

Liss also has a shardblade.  Not impossible to come by, but not common either. 

Which world are you positing she's from? 

Weiry, 

I'm going to disagree about the locking only working on flamespren.  I think it only works on flamespren, so far.  Even Rushu comments on how interesting it is as a beginning.

I think Shallan did pull Pattern much more into the physical world with her drawing.  I think her bond had weakened (ala Kaladin) causing the child-like behavior he exhibited in the first few chapters of WoR.  

Do you think there are other voidspren hanging about the Parshmen and Listeners waiting for the right moment to bond? spren they assume are normal emotion spren? 

I agree there's something up with Sebarial.  (Just did the search, no, he's not in TWoK).  I saw the WoB in one of RShara's threads of compiled WoB from the WoR tour (how's that for acronynms?)

I keep latching on to a quote, "Everyone knows I like to set things on fire and watch them burn."  I was also rather surprised at how easily Shallan could come and go without notice.  

I was also confused by the introduction of Ivory.  It sounds like Ivory is also much more antagonistic to Jasnah, even now, than Pattern or Syl.  

The Stormfather also didn't really encourage Dalinar; despite the fact that a bond was beginning to form in TWoK. 

If my sister had given me a spren to bond with and it turned out to be an angerspren, I'd be questioning it, too!

They're notable for their newness to humans & Honor/Cultivation spren (Syl and Pattern comment about it).

 In both cases Eshonai refers to them as angerspren.  

Brandon gives us plenty of spren descriptions, but the description of Angerspren seem to differ from place to place in the books.
 
Humans get pools of bubbling blood.  (that makes my blood boil)

Vamah was watching them stand there, and his expression was as thunderous as a highstorm, angerspren boiling up from the ground around him like small pools of bubbling blood.

“You going to fight me or not?” Angerspren began to appear in small pools at his feet, bright red.

Angerspren boiled up around [Moash], like pools of blood in the sand.

Adolin stood up behind his father, face red, angerspren bubbling at his feet like pools of blood.

He looked up, and then noticed that angerspren were pooling underneath Balat’s feet.

Parshendi get red lightning storms.

[Eshonai] spoke to Reprimand to the mateforms, her words so passionate that she actually attracted angerspren. She saw them coming from a ways off, drawn by her emotion, moving with an incredible speed – like lightning dancing toward her across the distant stone. The lightning pooled at her feet, turning the stones red.

That put the fear of the gods into the mateforms, and they ran off to report to the Hall of Art.

The spren escaped from its prison and spun around her, giving off a strange red light. Splinters of lightning sprang from it. Angerspren?

It seems like there are two different types of spren called angerspren; angerspren and stormspren.  Eshonai is not surprised in the first quote by the form of the spren, only that they appeared at her reprimand.  

Pattern confirms that stormspren are a type of voidspren.

The stormspren seem to be hanging around the Listeners, just waiting to bond for stormform.