Lord Of Nothing

So... Did anyone reading this wonder if the Thaylen Queen might be a proto-radiant herself? Not a lot of supporting evidence, just that what little we've seen of her personality matches the Stonewards, to me, and we don't have one yet, plus it's the section dealing with the radiants that made her suddenly go very distant and withdrawn. It seems to me to fit with her concealing something throughout the whole conversation, as well. Just a thought.

Hmm. Interesting, thank you. That does all seem to make sense about the shardblade. Now to find something else to muse about...

Question first: Do we know what Gavilar's 'most important words a man can say' actually are? Musing: (Stop me if I'm babbling nonsense) Something has been bothering me about Dalinar's visions- specifically, his shardblade. If a shardblade can be stolen with hemalurgy, and hemalurgy affects the spiritweb, then that seems to me to imply that the ability to summon a shardblade is wholly based on the spiritweb. Which then raises a question: Why doesn't the shardblade come in his visions? Whichever way I try to explain it to myself, it doesn't sound right. If the spiritweb changes during the visions, that seems very odd. If the shardblade is somehow left behind, that seems very odd. And if the shardblade summoning is an aspect of a magic system that's present in the world, then it not working seems very odd as well. ?

Hmm. I wonder what size Shallan's is?

Actually, that's not quite right- prolouge, bottom of pg 29 in my copy "...his lashings interfered with the gemstones that powered shardplate..."

I suppose something along the lines of: Atium steals everything. Atium alloyed with one of the allomantic metals can steal any power from a specific shard, but you need less atium to make a spike of given capacity, which is why it's worth not just using atium for everything.

I wonder if that would be the haemalurgic power of atium alloys in some way... No real reason, but...

@Wispsy A good point. I have to admit I had "Westward, in the place closest to honour" remembered as eastward, for some reason. I'll have to edit that off the initial post... Edited due to mistake.

Just a little theory about the parshendi- Thoughts? -The parshendi once served the Knights Radiant, just as parshmen still serve across the rest of Roshar. Evidence: Directly from book: • They seem reluctant to fight those who may be Knights Radiant- See mainly the tower battle, where on three occasions, (After Kaladin pulls in the arrows, after he jumps the chasm, and when he saves Dalinar,) - the most obvious displays of power- the parshendi leave on the first, most leave on the second, and none attack him despite his dishonourable conduct on the third. The reluctance of the parshendi shardbearers to attack may also be linked in some way, particularly his words to Dalinar on the tower. • The honourable battlefield ethic mentioned by Kaladin, and observed by Dalinar, throughout the book. • This is a possible explanation for where they got the ornate weapons, shards and soulcasters they posses. • The area (Natanatan) of Roshar that they live in has associations with Urithiru, the home of the Knights Radiant. wrong. • A weak point, but this may lead to a reason for the assassination (Assuming for the moment that they were responsible) - they wanted to put Elhokar (Or possibly Dalinar) on the throne- both seem extremely likely to be potential Knights Radiant. • EDIT 25/04/2012 - The battlefield ethic again- maybe they picked the majority of it up from watching the Knights practicing- I'm guessing that would have leaned towards small group/pair tactics, due to the Knight's small numbers? Fits with other theories/ Q&A answers: • Another weak point, but the reason they treated Szeth as tool to be used and discarded- it has been stated (I believe) that his powers are from some source other than being a Knight, and so they might view that negatively. Note that this does not exclude them, along with the rest of the parshmen from being the voidbringers- 4,500 years is a long time- they may only have served the Knights radiant since the last desolation, or possibly between desolations. This is a point that I find hard to reconcile, however.