hoser

For me, I would add: Dalinar's confrontation with Amaram. First, Amaram has no reason to admit to stealing Helaran's old sword and murdering Kaladin's men. He lied about the sword that came with "Taln", but that does not prove that he lied about the other sword. Second, Dalinar freeing Amaram with his Shardblade as a confessed murderer. He has the drop on Amaram and can demand that Amaram give up his Shardblade. Szeth's final assassination attempt: He has somehow gotten there in the middle of a battle with the Voidbringers. There are two huge storms that should not be happening. He should know that his Truthlessness is false before attacking Dalinar. He has to have either just flown there or have been traveling with the armies. If he was with the armies, he could not have missed the news about the Voidbringers. If he just flew there, he could not have missed the Voidbringer armies and the storms. It would be one thing if his faith had never been shaken, but he had been ready to kill Mr. T before Mr. T made up his obvious lies. I understand Brandon wanting that battle, but Szeth's behavior is really implausible to me.

There are plenty of things that suggest Taln may not be Taln. Things that seem off if Taln were Rayse: Hoid is there when maybe-Taln arrives. He knows and can likely sense investiture. He has been hiding from Odium/Rayse for fear that his soul will be scattered and/or disintegrated. He knows Rayse. He calls maybe-Taln, "my confused, unfortunate friend” and continues with what he is doing to stop Odium/Rayse. Hoid says this about Rayse: "Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met." Hoid also admits to having a grudge against Rayse: "You have accused me of arrogance in my quest. You have accused me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin. Both accusations are true." Had Rayse appeared with or without Odium, Hoid's response and subsequent actions would have been very different. There is WoB here that Odium's goal is to "destroy them (shards) all and be the only one left at his power level". Giving up his Shard and/or becoming a nearly mindless madman doesn't seem to fit the goal. Odium's Unmade continue their activities throughout the second book (including apparently controlling the stormform Parshendi leader). The Everstorm is unleashed. When the assassination attempt on Dalinar occurs, both Syl and the Stormfather seem aware of Odium's presence and/or attention. In short, Odium's efforts seem to be continuing his plans throughout. This does not seem consistent with an inactive or newly taken over Shard.

The following quotes indicate otherwise to me. I believe that Szeth's Truthlessness is a singular event and he was given the sword as part of his punishment.

With regard to C, I have questions. There is WoB that Honor was alive when the Heralds quit. How could that be when he agreed to let himself be killed at the beginning of the Oathpact? Consider also Dalinar's final vision in tWoK. Honor says, "I should have realized he'd come for me." This doesn't seem compatible with agreeing to be killed. As for E., there is the following WoB that seems incompatible to me: Edit: punctuation

This is wonderfully creative! One issue I see is that Nale would likely be refounding the Skybreakers. But the personalities of the surgebinder/incipient Knights (Lift, Ym) would not suit them for bonding highspren and becoming Skybreakers.

One issue that seems strange is characterizing the archer as an assassin. He was firing on an enemy combatant in the middle of a battle. Killing opposing officers is a standard battle tactic. While Dalinar refers to him that way, I believe that he is within the normal range of enemy combatant behavior. The archer's behavior is not really comparable to Szeth's, for example. Ardjet, please accept my apologies. The following post, if I understand it correctly, seems rather personal and negative. You can stop reading now. @maxal - Is this addressed to me? Because, if so, I take issue with a number of points: you state "Even though you don't have the arguments to make the rational between the year length on Roshar and the physical and psychological development" How do you know what arguments I have? Just because I don't choose to make them in an unrelated thread doesn't mean I don't have them. As they are not relevant to either the thread or the point I was making, it seems better not to make them in my earlier post. I don't see how you think it reasonable to conclude that they don't exist. How do you conclude that I "insist that it must be true?" I say, explicitly, "but YMMV." That is the opposite of insisting that it must be true, is it not? "thousand of facts making it implausible." "horde of implausibilities" "completely destroys the story" These phrases seem very dramatic and polarizing to me. Thousand of facts? Really? When I read this, I honestly don't want to engage except to defend myself. It seems like you are saying, there are two ways to look at this: your way and the wrong way. I don't think it's that simple and I don't think you have a straight pipeline to the truth. Your judgements may be more accurate than mine, or less. The truth may be ambiguous or somewhere in between, IMO. Divisive and nonspecific rhetoric seems unhelpful to reasonable discussion. "I'll give you a win even if it completely ruins my personal appreciation of the Stormlight Archive" Wait, what? I am saying that I see something and you may see it differently. Where does winning enter into it? Believe what you want to believe. And now, because of one sentence in a post by me, you no longer appreciate the Stormlight Archive at all? I call BS (and not Brandon Sanderson). You have written many long and impassioned posts on this subject. I don't believe that sentence that I wrote changes your feelings about the Stormlight Archive in any significant or measurable way.

Oh. Sorry about the misunderstanding. I do think the logic still applies, however. You have a rationalization for deciding that it doesn't matter that a Rosharian year is 1.1 earth years. That model is based on assumptions about Brandon's modeling. There is no guarantee that those assumptions are correct. Someone else could have a different model that, as far as I can tell, is just as likely to be correct. So your claiming that it doesn't matter based on your model just looks intolerant to me. If the "humans" on roshar mature chronologically similarly to earth humans and they are developmentally comparable to earth people with a numerical age x1.1, then your model is incorrect and people who factor in the relative ages are more correct. So your rationalization is based on two assumptions "what helps me is knowing their age in their own universe, not knowing their age in an alternate universe" "his age wouldn't be the only difference" implies that the other differences are more significant. Without WoB, I don't know that either of these is true. My observations of the characters leads me to believe that they are more mature than the numerical age on Roshar, but YMMV. So let's argue based on data and tolerance of dissenting opinions.

Can we just agree to disagree? Brandon's worldbuilding is deep, well researched and consistent. Sure, you don't care. All the characters are older in earth years and, for those who care, it can be relevant. In the words of the great peacemaker Rodney King, "Can we all get along?."

Re "being cheeky. Not serious": "You are a work of art... a god."

Going back to the quotes so nicely presented in the OP, the person in question seems completely different from Nalan. Consider the following cut and paste from the OP. This person is concerned with glory, art, godliness, killing because one is skilled. "Are you satisfied with this... are you satisfied with trivial crimes?" "What a waste... You are squandered." "You are a work of art... a god." “But do you not rebel against this frivolous use of your skills? Were you not meant for greatness?” "It's time you stop wasting your talent." Contrast that with Nalan's concerns from the Lift interlude and at the end of WoR. He is driven by duty and adherence to a code. "You follow the laws of your society to perfection. ... I worry that emotion has clouded your ability to discern. Your ability to ... judge." "Unbecoming of one who would study beneath me." "I watched you destroy yourself in the name of order, watched you obey your personal code when others would have fled or crumbled. ... I watched you keep your word with perfection. it is the only genuine beauty in the world. " The man in question and Nalan seem to have very different concerns, but express them so forthrightly that I cannot see them as being the same person. Further, Nalan understands Szeth, where this other person thinks that the things he speaks of would be interesting to Szeth. He clearly does not understand Szeth well, if at all. Now you could argue that Nalan could pretend to be interested in glory, etc., but that does not seem like the Nalan we see. The Nalan we see does not seem interested in making an impression or changing how he presents his ideas to appeal to his listeners.

I would say that Mr. T obviously does have access to at least one Soulcaster, despite the common knowledge. I think the whole scenario with Jasnah destroying the boulder was contrived to verify that she was not using a Soulcaster. This may be where they confirmed that she was a Surgebinder. They may have used a Soulcaster or Shardblade to cause the boulder to be there in the first place. Another interesting thing about the person who gave Szeth the list is that there was no need for him to use the Soulcaster. He was already there. He could just have left the way he came. Soulcasting the wall away was unnecessary. Why did he do that? To show Szeth that he had a Soulcaster? To hide the way that he had entered? Some other reason?

In my headcannon, the Unmade are no longer corporeal (explaining the name). After all, Taravangian refers to them as spren (I think). But there is very little evidence to support this, so these monsters being Unmade seems like a possibility. With many legs and sleek appearance, I still think they could be some kind of greatshell. The Alethi didn't know about the Chasmfiends until recently, so there could be other unknown creatures around.

Here is where I discuss my wacky theory that they are Chasmfiend Larvae. The way I read the quote, both creatures could be the same type: each satisfyiing the criteria "glowing, inhuman, alien and sleek"

Welcome! Technically, I think you are referring to the Heralds and not the Radiants. I recommend you change the title of the thread to reflect that, as others may be similarly confused before entering the thread. It is widely surmised that Kelek is the person who appears with Nalan in the beginning of WoR and tWoK. The "drunk" who asks Szeth "Have you seen me?" at the beginning of tWoK is variously thought to be either Ishar or Jezrien.

For me, this presents a paradox. If they lack purpose and focus, then why would they quit in a purposeful and focused way? Why would they give up their power? It is the spren who choose the Knights. How would a living idea, the definition of monomania, lose purpose and focus?

Thanks. I guess I misunderstood. So you are saying that Nohadon made 2 journeys on the foillowing timeline? Dalinar vision tour of conquest build Urithiru late in life, walk a tour of all the kingdoms before getting to Urithiru Sure. I guess. I don't see how that fits your previous post in this thread, as you said: I read that as referring to a single journey, when he took up the sword and conquered to unify. I don't really see the point of fictionalizing the journey, as you could make a more amazing story from a walking tour of all the countries. The story as Dalinar tells it refers specifically to weeks and hundreds of miles (IIRC), which is not compatible with traveling all the Silver Kingdoms. It apparently takes weeks to just get to the Shattered Plains from Alethkar. What I get from your posts is that the story may be fictionalized. If that is the case, we might as well just totally ignore it, as any aspect could be fictional. I choose to treat it as somewhat literal, as I want to understand the world and throwing out what little information we have doesn't help. Unless we have informational that is outright contradictory, I would rather not discount it. Please correct and forgive me if I have misunderstood your posts.

I really like this thought! Abamabar to Urithiru could be a metaphorical journey through the capitals starting with the alphabetical first to alphabetical last. The issue I have with this theory is that it doesn't seem a slight fictionalization. So much of the story would have to be pure fiction that it seems like a different story. Consider the following quotes. For me, the story would be too different. Taking an army on a campaign of conquest seems nothing like traveling as a day laborer and minstrel. Building a fortress at the end of a campaign varies immensely from being met by people who have been somewhere for weeks.

We have two apparently contradictory stories: Syl is some level of dead and Kaladin's figuring out the third oath revives her. The Stormfather tries to intervene, but Kaladin actually saying the oath makes his intervention impossible. Kaladin's honorable behavior inspires Syl to disobey, and the Stormfather tries to intervene. The implication being that Syl has been obeying the Stormfather and voluntarily staying away and is not dead. This would mean that the Stormfather lied to Kaladin when he said that Kaladin had killed her. This also seems to be contradicted by the WoB quoted above. There may be a way to reconcile them. Syl being with Kaladin has always been forbidden by the Stormfather. The near-death separated them. With Kaladin's renewed Honorable behavior, she revives and tries to return to him. The Stormfather sees her disobeying again and makes the comment about the daughter disobeying before story 1. plays out.

IIRC, Kaladin perceived screaming when he was trying to reach Syl, so I think her cognitive functioning was impaired similarly to spren death. If the Stormfather had "saved" her, then Kaladin wouldn't have perceived the screaming, would he?

Welcome! Just forum protocol: Theory threads in book forums are immune to necrosis. This theory thread still seems relevant. (just my opinion) There is an edit function that is preferred for adding to posts without double-posting.

Urithiru had thrones for the kings of the Silver Kingdoms. The following quote has it being built during somewhat historical times. Who or what did it is interesting, though, as it is said to have been crafted by the hands of no man. I believe it was built during Nohadon's lifetime.

This WoB?

And so he, writing fan fiction at 13 years old, makes a contribution that is perfectly in line with forum policy. And you, with your 4 digit approval, can't find anything positive to say. In fact, you can only criticize him for ... something that is totally in line with forum policy. Color me unimpressed.

I still don't know exactly what Szeth did. So the thread still seems relevant to me. I found the post borderline informative, particularly since Honorblades are a type of Shardblade. I also appreciate that your initial response showed sensitivity. However, neither of the posts about necroing added anything relevant, IMO. The necroing post seemed like honest engagement to me.

As a post in a theory thread in a book forum, this is perfectly acceptable. From here: Because that is the forum policy. In general, I find thread-necroing is generally harmless and well-meaning, done by inexperienced participants that I would like to see welcomed appreciatively. I experience complaints about thread-necroing to be snarky, impatient and devoid of content from more experienced forum members. They seem like borderline bullying to me.