Ansalem

Not a theory, but one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is learning about the surge of Tension. It's one of the only two we know absolutely nothing about (the other being Cohesion), and Dalinar has it now.

The quote people are saying points to Jasnah because she's a heretic is exactly the quote that I believe rules her out completely. Jasnah proclaims herself as a heretic. Proudly. No one needs "further proof" that she is a heretic (she'll claim it herself to your face if you ask), and she does not care that they think of her that way regardless. There's no way Jasnah wrote that line. Also, it could easily be Dalinar or Renarin, too. Both of them could fit if it's written after future events. Dalinar claims God is dead, a heresy. Renarin can see the future, another heresy. Plus, men can write books, too. Gavilar basically wrote his accounts of meeting the Parshendi. They simply do it by dictating to a scribe instead of writing it by their own hand. We can't rule out male authors. Considering this is Dalinar's book, he is the most obvious author in my mind and Jasnah is not even a possibility.

It's feasible at least. I'm not sure I'm sold on the idea myself, just wanted to point out that in terms of definitions, all rot is decay but not all decay is rot.

No, rot is a sub-category of decay. Decay can happen to anything, think stone crumbling over time or metal rusting away. Rot can only happen to organic matter. Food rots, metal does not rot, but they both decay.

Well, I would wager that it's because the Everstorm is messing up the normal weather pattern, too. I read it as the rain stopping and starting again. That could happen because the Everstorm is pushing the clouds away ahead of it as it passes then it starts back up again afterward. But just based off the one mention of it, I couldn't say for sure. Regular weather is complicated enough, it's pretty hard to guess what's happening when normal weather mixes with magical weather.

The sapient spren name themselves. Humans may call them something different, though. See Cryptics not liking the name liespren. There's no real reason they need to represent some human-centric concept. Cultivationspren are called that because they name themselves that. Humans may not choose that name for them, they could just as easily name them something like growthspren or vinespren or something less human-centric like that. That being the case, I suspect humans would probably call the Truthwatcher spren lightspren. That's what I would call them if I saw one. But they may call themselves something else, such as truthspren. Appearing as light due to the concept of truth being a light cast upon the darkness of ignorance. Plus the obvious connection to the surge of Illumination, the name Truthwatcher, and Renarin claiming that he "sees" all having some connection to either truth or light (or both). Not sure how the surge of Progression ties into that, but then I'm not sure how Wyndle represents Abrasion, either. So my bet for the Truthwatcher spren's name is either truthspren or lightspren. Also, I agree with @Calderis that inkspren are tied to scholarship and their subspren would be logicspren.

I'm pretty sure it's still the Weeping. We still don't know for certain the reason the Weeping exists or the reason for the Light Years either for that matter. If you remember, the storm sent at the end of WoR was sent when there wasn't supposed to be one. Given the nature of Investiture, I think the fact that the Stormfather sent that extra storm may have messed up the pattern as well. Most likely the Investiture needs to build back up again before a new storm can be sent which is the reason for Weepings, so I expect the Stormfather can't actually send any storms now. He doesn't have an unlimited amount of Investiture that he can spend on storms. The extra one he sent at the end of WoR was probably all he could do at the time, so now he has to go back to waiting on the Investiture to refill before he can get back to his normal pattern. And if I'm right, the pattern may be off from now on. Storms and Weepings may come a bit later than they have before, although the pattern itself should still be the same once it starts again, just delayed. So they may be without Stormlight for longer than expected. Of course I could be wrong about all of that.

The ending itself was super satisfying, and the family reunion is really nice to see (so glad momma & daddy Stormblessed are alive). But the overall chapter leaves more questions open than it answered to me. If I had the whole book in front of me I'd consider that a great thing, but since I have to wait another week to maybe get back to Hearthstone... pretty unsatisfying. If I were in Roshar right now, the anticipationspren would fill the room.

Yeah, that quote made me say "so not Jasnah, then" when I read it. There's no way that's her writing that. Unless it gets revised in the final print, which could happen I suppose. But as it's written it's 100% not Jasnah. In order of who I think is most likely: Renarin, Dalinar, Navani, Shallan, anyone else we know, someone we haven't met yet..............Jasnah.

Well, the Diagram did say "you must become king. Of everything."

The Graphic Audio is really good. Not only are they my favorite books, I think they're GA's best work so far (that I've heard at least). To add to the topic, my favorite scenes have already been mentioned (Honor is dead, duel), so I'll add my second favorite to the list. Syl standing against the storm trying to shield Kaladin, and then fighting off the deathspren are tied. Makes me choke up every time.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the WoB is that no Parshendi has been a KR before but it is possible (not sure how/where to search those though so someone else will have to tell me if I remember that right, sorry).

I actually think if Adolin becomes a squire it will be under Kaladin. I don't really think he will become a squire at all, but I think Kaladin is a better fit than anyone else. The Windrunners seem to be one of the military wings of the KR and Adolin is a military man. He isn't Bondsmith or Truthwatcher material, I think. Bondsmith looks like more of a leadership role (as in social leadership) and Truthwatcher will probably be more of an advisory/support role I expect. Plus he wants to protect people, although maybe in a bit of a different way than Kaladin, and he believes in doing what is right above what is legal or acceptable to society the same as Syl. Now, nobody forget to heap praise upon me when Adolin becomes Kaladin's squire.

I've read/listened to it 4 or 5 times now and I only realized Renarin was the one writing the countdown a few days ago when I read a post about it on here. Now it seems so obvious but apparently it isn't. I think it's because there's so much happening at that point. I thought it was odd but I didn't actually think about it beyond that because of everything else that's going on. I didn't actually think about it being one of those carvings, I just thought Renarin went insane for a second or something.

There was one time, I think from Adolin's PoV, when Elhokar looked like he was suspicious of him and Dalinar. Adolin started to mention it to Dalinar afterward and Dalinar cut him off saying he would speak to Elhokar about it. Then another time from Dalinar's PoV when he was talking to Elhokar, the King flashed another suspicious look at Dalinar and Dalinar thought that the King was getting worse. I can't remember specifically where those two things happened. I'm pretty sure the first time was right after the chasmfiend hunt when Elhokar was asking about the strap or it might have been when they were reporting back about the strap a little later. The second one I'm not sure about. The scene sticks out pretty clearly in my mind but I can't place what larger scene it was a part of. I do think the King and Dalinar were alone then, though. But it did definitely happen at least twice.

There are too many Radiants in one family. What makes the Kholins so special? There are already 3, there's potential for 2 more, plus Gavilar was on his way before he died. Don't get me wrong, I like the Kholins.

I would say we have evidence of it with Kaladin as well, although maybe not as strong. But Syl tells him that she was looking for him when he was in Hearthstone and that was before Roshone had even arrived so none of the things that eventually led to his breaking had happened yet. (When he asked her if she was with him when he first picked up the quarterstaff) Of course it might be that she wasn't looking for Kaladin specifically but just looking for anyone to fit the requirements.

lol It's fine. Probably my fault for being too lazy to crop my normal avatar.

Well, I'm not the one who said those things, so...

Well, considering he took out Szeth, someone who had taken out multiple Shardbearers and a squad of bodyguards in a matter of seconds, I would say Kaladin is very likely the greatest warrior on Roshar at the moment. Unless you count some of the Heralds which I'm not sure if we can just now since we don't actually know their capabilities in the present and without their Blades. Anyway this is basically what I meant when I said that Oudeis was playing loose with definitions. It's blatantly obvious that Stormlight enhances abilities far beyond normal. Oudeis is saying that this means there is some supernatural addition on top of innate abilities. Personally I don't see what difference there is between that and simply having a more powerful weapon at your disposal. A person with Stormlight is inherently more powerful than an ordinary person of the same skill in the same way that a person with an assault rifle is more powerful than someone with a BB gun. Are the skills supernaturally enhanced or are the innate skills being applied to a supernatural weapon? And what difference is there either way? The line seems pretty blurry to me. And regardless of which it is, Kaladin is still a master spearman all by himself. As a side note, I didn't say Kaladin could dodge like that without Stormlight. My point is that his ability to dodge at all comes from his honed instincts and the Stormlight enhances his speed and focus. If he didn't have those instincts the Stormlight wouldn't have made him able to dodge any better than an ordinary person in that situation. But because he does have those instincts the Stormlight enhances that skill beyond normal. Stormlight by itself gives him nothing resembling skill.

I feel like you're playing pretty loose with definitions. You're saying that Teft is wrong to say that Kaladin's skill improves by the Bond because some of Kaladin's skill comes from the Bond. Teft and you are both right. Actually I would say that Teft is more right than you are. If you are right that some portion of Kaladin's skill is directly from the Bond rather than the Bond improving his natural talents then that would mean any non-warrior who has a Bond should automatically be a more skilled fighter than average. This is clearly not the case. Renarin is still clumsy despite training by a sword master. The way Syl describes it is perfectly apt. Having a Bond might make you predisposed to achieving a higher level of skill but you still have to put in the actual work. Kaladin's skill is all Kaladin, anything he does beyond that is adaptation to a new tool. He killed the chasmfiend without the Bond, something a trained full Shardbearer would have difficulty doing. When he dances with the wind it's nothing more than years of trained instinct guided by heightened senses in the moment. I know he says he feels like he could dodge with his eyes closed, but notice that he doesn't actually close his eyes. Also, nowhere does it show that the first time he picked up that quarterstaff that there was anything supernatural about his skill. He got beat pretty soundly. Just because it felt right to hold doesn't mean anything. Some people are just naturally more inclined to certain activities than others. When a child musical prodigy with synesthesia sits down at a piano and plays a melody the first time, you don't equate it with supernatural aid. Which is exactly what Syl meant. She said herself that she wasn't there, she was still searching for him at the time. If you are familiar with skill floors and skill ceilings, the Bond raises the skill ceiling but not the skill floor.

No, he didn't. Whatever information he had before that day was all the information he had on that day. He didn't magically gain knowledge he didn't already have, he just became superhumanly intelligent, so he made connections he otherwise wouldn't have been able to make. Or at least, that's what Taravangian himself believes. Whether or not that's actually the case is yet to be shown. I don't think he's a Sliver, though, because that isn't a one time thing. Besides, why would Cultivation give her Shard to Taravangian for even a brief moment if she intended to pick it back up again? That's insanely risky, he could easily have just kept it.

All true, but if he is somehow a full Radiant and not just a squire, him thinking he can stick someone to a wall doesn't mean he actually could. He might be from a different Order and not know it yet. The only Surgebinding powers he knows about are Kaladin's so of course he would just assume he would have the same ones. People in this world know basically nothing about the Knights Radiant and Surges. He is probably a squire, though.

As should everyone else. People almost always mean sapient when they say sentient. Sentient means aware of your environment, or able to feel or perceive things. Anything with even a rudimentary brain is sentient. Gnats are sentient. Worms are sentient. Technically, your PC might be sentient depending on how strictly you want to define it. Sapient means of at least human level intelligence. Although you could probably argue it out to be a bit broader than that. Some apes might be sapient, for example, because they are capable of some level of abstract thought. Humans are just a convenient mile marker more than a strict threshold. Intelligence is awfully fuzzy. Note that neither one of these words actually means self-aware. Theoretically a sapient being could be non-sentient or not self-aware, though that seems incredibly unlikely in actuality. The three concepts are separate and could exist independently, though.

Well, provoking hatred from others doesn't necessarily mean provoking their hatred toward you. It could just as easily mean that Odium inspires others to hate each other instead.