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The Parshendi apparently do need the Gemhearts for food. The original plan, apparently, was to hold back on the edge of the plains and kill the Parshendi when they came to seize Gemhearts because Highstorms and internal politics made attacking their camp untenable. Seven years later, it's clear this plan isn't getting them noticeably closer to winning.

For Szeth vs. Kaladin, you've got two warriors wielding ancient powers and weapons that can cut through anything except each other, and it's a climactic duel between someone who fights in order to protect and someone whose mind is clouded by rage. There's really only one choice

Kaladin is certainly fairly mentally tough, but he's not anywhere near on the same level as Taln. Even before he wound up spending four and a half millennia getting tortured, he agreed to the Oathpact in the first place and was notable among the Heralds for his tendency to go directly into the worst part of the fighting, with death being non-permanent but fairly agonizing and cutting his torture break short. Now, his will apparently did break, but it took an order of magnitude longer than it had for the other Heralds, and while they've fallen pretty far they were great heroes in their own right once. Which, again, is why Vorinism has enshrined him as a god with the aspect of determination.

My go-to awesome stuff is happening music also turns out to be pretty perfect for the Everstorm.

Can anyone identify the inspiration for #6? It looks to me like it's during or immediately after a lunge, but the sword is wildly out of position for that. #10 seems pretty clearly intended for a massive sweeping arc to send the Shardblade through a rank of spearmen.

Admittedly, the water hiding underground could potentially be a weird pressure-related phenomenon. There must be a pretty substantial pressure change from the Highstorm, so if there's an underground connection to another body of water at a different elevation it could change depth like a barometer. Of course, that doesn't make it any less weird.

#4 looks like a pretty good fit for ironstance. It puts the blade up beside the head and in a reasonable position for fast but powerful chops. I'm not too happy with assigning #1 to any of the stances so far; it looks like a position for a strong downward chop to smash straight through Shardplate, but not exceptionally fast or well-positioned for parrying, so not a good fit for ironstance. Maybe it's a utilitarian stance in kendo, but even with their relative lightness and plate-enhanced strength shardblades are pretty clumsy. I'd put #2 in for Windstance, it's got the sword pointing back, the hands forwards, slightly turned, and reasonably well positioned for sweeping instead of a downwards chop. Stonestance, Flamestance, and Vinestance all look good as they are, though.

At the start of the book, Vasher is at the First Heightening. Since a Divine Breath grants automatic Fifth Heightening, he obviously doesn't still have his. The others also don't seem to have theirs, although it is quite possible they stored them in a manner that allows retrieval.

I'm pretty sure he did the shirt trick. So far as I can tell, Returned need to be in possession of at least one breath in order to survive and consume one a week, but their Divine Breath acts like a single very large breath. The Five Scholars all got rid of their original Divine Breaths at some point, but are perfectly fine getting by on ordinary breaths as long as they can keep up their supply. Also, Returned have some unclear level of control over their physical appearances, but this is definitely not tied to the Divine Breath because the Royal Locks are the same sort of thing. Vasher looks unremarkable because his self-image is unremarkable.

You at least apparently can't hide breaths you actually have. However, ordinary Awakened objects don't seem to have the same BioChroma effects. So you can stash two thousand breaths in your shirt and hide them that way. Also, come to think of it, Hoid has Lightweaving, so he's got more options for concealment than normal.

I'm guessing he's not much higher than 2nd. Fifth and up are really, really obvious to bystanders, although I wouldn't put it past him to have enough breath stashed away to exceed fifth.

The stormform Parshendi routed and jumped chasms. Of course, they were running directly into a Highstorm that was just about to crash into the Everstorm, so I can't imagine it was a fun trip, but probably most of the ones who ran survived. It's worth noting that Eshonai fell into the chasm a good bit before the Everstorm was completed or the Highstorm arrived. Add to that that stormform is strong enough to jump chasms and has armored carapace, she's tough as nails, and that if she weren't able to shelter in the immediate area she'd most likely get washed directly into the storm her patron Shard designed to provide investiture and therefore could work like when Kaladin and Szeth went into the Highstorm, and her odds are looking pretty decent.

I'm pretty sure Shardpools are smaller than that. However, the locals do make a point of steering people away from the center, so it could be in the Purelake

But seriously, a stormform in full Shardplate falling a couple hundred feet? Highly unlikely to be fatal. Now, the storm itself was pretty dangerous, but I have great faith in her problem-solving abilities.

It's been confirmed that time is linear for Hoid.

Yeah, it can be Soulcast. Though it is possible that every system does have some "exempt" material. There's aluminum, Ralkast the unforgettable metal, and now a Shardblade-proof Oathgate casing.

Actually, Syl was as dead as spren get. See, spren are essentially entities created by humans ascribing personalities to forces or phenomenons. Syl is honorspren, so she can't really die unless the very concept of honor is utterly destroyed. When Kaladin broke his oaths, it "killed" her, but that's not quite the same as killing a human. One of the spren says that breaking a spren is like breaking a rock; it's in smaller pieces but not really different.

Actually, Taravangian didn't exactly dismiss them. He said he had no idea what they could do if they did find one. Also, I feel like the epigraph is using Unmade to refer to voidspren in general, instead of Yelignar and company. It just feels like it's talking about a very large group. As for the main theory, sounds pretty good. However, I don't think you're right about smoke being associated with Odium specifically. It's one of the ten essences, so i'd expect to see it in surgebinding too. Odium seems to have red as his primary calling card.

Also, Urithiru seems like the sort of place where you could find a book about it.

He wouldn't be moving towards the Everstorm, since the battle where the Thrill was absent was very, very close to the Everstorm. However, he could easily be moving towards Shinovar. Though, even if he does end up in Shinovar, it might not be as bad as all that. People only feel the Thrill in battle, so it's unlikely very many of them will trigger the Thrill.

From the scene where Dalinar smashed Elhokar's chestplate, I'm pretty sure that the gemstones are all in the chestplate because the other components become inactive when it's smashed. I think Shardplate is the same sort of thing as Honorblades. Firstly, as mentioned it doesn't come with screaming spren. Secondly, it works just fine for modern Radiants. And much like Szeth's Honorblade, it can drain away the user's stormlight very quickly. Also, it can't be the same as modern fabrials, because the gems are interchangeable.

The artifabrians at least claim to not know how to make new ones. However, they apparently can repair them even if they've been entirely cut through. I would guess there's a "black box" that may be exclusively spiritual or cognitive that provides the transformation, and the physical structure and gemstones power, trigger, and control that transformation. The artifabrians cannot replicate the central component, but they can create new control housings. The visible portion of the Soulcaster doesn't seem to be that complicated, but apparently requires very high precision. The material is apparently pretty unremarkable silver, because someone without any expertise in the matter managed to get Shallan's fixed enough to look right. However, even if the material isn't special, it might very well be specific. For instance, if you substituted iron it might not work even if you got the dimensions correct.

@bramble thorn 1. Probably, since Honor was alive during the events of every vision except the destruction of Kholinar and the stormfather apparently witnessed the Recreance. 2. Plausible. 3. From Kasbal's big rant, I think they're trying to destroy the Voidbringers and restore the church to power. But they might have multiple agendas. 8. There had been some other method of transforming. Stormform wasn't used to create the Everstorm before, but it's been in the planning stage for quite some time.

It's been suggested. but I personally somewhat doubt it. Having the curse outright invalidate the boon would seem to rather go against the spirit of the thing.

I thought Jah Kaved and Alethkar were arch-enemies of each other.