hoser

But don't you think that I know that walking on the water won't make me a miracle man? - Elvis Costello from Miracle Man

I think (and maybe Gloom also) that the heralds predate H+C's arrival on Roshar, but they weren't on Roshar before H+C. So the heralds were among the people that H+C brought with them. As spren seem to be a Roshar thing, that might mean they are not spren unless there are also spren in the Tranquilline Halls.

Steeleyes, please consider how little we know about the Heralds and the following quote from here: I consider this evidence in support of the notion that the Heralds predate Honor's arrival on Roshar. It strongly suggests to me that Heralds do not have bonding spren. It further suggests that the Heralds may inherently have some of the Radiant powersets, rather than just in conjunction with their swords.

Bwah-hah-hah! And the ultimate punishment: become a god!

Ask and you will receive. Interestingly, a search on "szeth" brought up none of these old threads. These seem relevant: Szeth and the Voidbringers Are The Shin Hiding Something? The Dark Side of Shin Szeth and Gavilar's encounter These do not: Szeth & Honor, Shin & Cultivation Dalinar has a voice in his head; and why Szeth remains truthless. The idea that he is becoming a Voidbringer or a champion of Odium has occurred before, but I haven't seen the idea that he is becoming an inverse-windrunner as a way of becoming a Voidbringer (upvote). I think that it might be a matter of doing Odiumish things to become a Voidbringer, so hating people, renouncing things that people enjoy, etc would characterize the Voidbringers. To me the irrational hatred that Szeth feels and the screams he hears are the hallmarks of his advancement as one of Odium's minions. These ideas seem compatible, so I can't wait to see the development that is coming relatively soon. I don't read the OP quote as indicating he thinks that he is a Voidbringer. To me it says that what he did to be punished (and hence his honor) was based on the existence of Voidbringers. It also says that the punishment (and by extension the punishers: the Stone Shamans) declare that Voidbringers don't exist. He is trapped by his adherence to Stone Shamanism even when he denies the existence of Voidbringers, which is a part of it. This, in turn, leads him to murder, etc. If he would just pick a different subset of Stone Shamanism to believe in, he could suffer so much less. I think this must be part of what Brandon wants to explore: how people's religious beliefs can cause them to suffer.

As far as I can tell, there is no evidence supporting the notion that Szeth's blade is shorter. It is described as long and smaller, which suggests that it is less wide, but not shorter.

What I really like about this idea is that I think it will emphasize the things that I brush past and only catch on rereading, so my first reading might be fuller. What I don't want is to have the rest of the book spoiled, so I would want to finish a chapter, then only read comments from people who hadn't read further when they made the comments. I am with Kurkistan and others, in that I doubt I would have the discipline to synchronize my reading.

There is a lot in here that I agree with, but I think we threw a baby out with the bathwater in this chain of logic. Yes, I suppose one can be devoted to a purpose or an end, but that is not the exclusive or even primary target of devotion. Most often one is devoted to an object, ideal or purpose and the target of the devotion determines one's ends. If I really wanted destruction, I would probably say I was committed to destruction before I said I was devoted to destruction. With devotion, I think there is a measure of connection to an independent other, which influences the devoted one's ends. Consider the quote below, where I interpret that Brandon's meaning for devotion is similar to love. Devotion is more about supporting the target of the devotion than accomplishing one's own ends, which is why the Seons don't really have their own goals, but help the one's they are devoted to accomplish whatever they choose.

If you find your group, I say go for it. I really like part of this idea. As-we-go annotations seems interesting. If I could read a chapter or several, then read what people got out of it and maybe contribute something before moving on, that might be an interesting way to read. We could maybe even have a subforum with a topic for each chapter or two. This assumes that I preorder and have it in hand on Day 1, which would not be a hardship.

I imagine Argent's solution is excellent and there is an alternate. If you use the site to post, there is a weird icon in the formatting. For me, it is top row, third from left, just to the left of the font selector and above the underline toggle that, when moused over says "Special BBCode". Hitting the icon provides a selector that includes "spoiler" as an option.

It may be important to think of the Radiant fabrials differently than the modern ones. I believe Navani herself says that they have no idea how the ancient fabrials work. So the Veden half-shards presumably work according to the principles shown in the notebook pages, but that does not necessarily tell us how Soulcasters, Regrowthers, Oathgates, Shardblades and Shardplate work.

I imagine Jasnah would want to be monitoring both the Shattered Plains and Elhokar's wife managing the homelands. Given the concentration of people she is strongly connected to on the Shattered Plains, she might need more monitoring to happen in Alethkar, Six years is a long time, so Brandon will devise the backstory to put the Weeper wherever fits the story he wants to tell.

I have a memory that Brandon said that a Shardblade can kill a spren. My research while checking yielded the below quotes, so I assume my memory is wrong. I assume the earlier Knights Radiant had spren and they had Shardblades, so I think Syl's antipathy is based on something that is different about Dalinar's blade. Interview: Sep 22nd, 2012 Orem Signing Report - Zas (Verbatim) and from here:

Easy to say when we already have the information or have the connections to get it quickly.

I can see where interpreting Brandon's intent wrt the Steelhunt was difficult at first. At this point, there should be no problem understanding Team Sanderson's intent. For those who want, and are geographically privileged, they can try to get a unique code. For anybody else, just ask. The contrary-to-team-Sanderson's-intent restrictions on asking for codes should be removed immediately. If the site wants to channel those requests, they should be clear about how the requests should be directed. For people who have codes, expecting people to make up clever encryptions or making up weird puzzles or other hoops for people to jump through just seems wrong to me. Team Sanderson has spoken, I have been entrusted with information that not all have. Who am I to add to the restrictions that team Sanderson has asked for? I shamelessly begged for a code early and got one. I shared it freely with people who asked for it until the forum rules forbade it. It bothers me that people are making it harder to get a code than Team Sanderson wants and than it was for me to get it. Having to be a member of a clique, or satisfy the whims of some clique to get the information that Brandon wants available for the asking seems offensive to me.

I respect Brandon wanting to control his content. I like Brandon making extra content available. The Steelhunt, as designed, was always unfair and exclusionary. People asking for what they want is a good and healthy thing. People asking for codes was completely compatible with the rules of the Steelhunt. I feel very grateful for the people and the work that developed this fantastic site. I honor the desire to protect Brandon's intent I can only imagine the difficulty of interpreting Brandon's intent wrt the site. People signing up to ask for a code is a good thing for the site. If multiple topics popping up to ask for the codes is the problem, then a solution is to ask that all requests for codes go into a single topic. TL;DR: Asking for codes openly is a good thing and fixes the main problems with the Steelhunt, forbidding the asking for codes was a bad choice of the site administration P.S. I found the above sequence more offensive than an open request would have been. Edit: add site appreciation

Darkness appears in some versions of the Jasnah prologue to WoR (not the Seattle reading 10/14/13), so you may want to add that to the OP section on Nalan for completeness. I share Natans' skepticism about the Nalan=Darkness theory. There is an alternate theory about Jezrien: that he is one of Dalinar's officers. I believe that Ishar is the "Have you seen me?" guy referenced in the Jezrien section of the OP, which fits the OP theory well. If Jezrien is currently serving the Alethi nobility, it would run counter to the theory. I believe the "may he lead in wisdom, if he ever stops drooling." is referring to the new Azish Prime.

Though it is not a major point, given the total lack of supporting evidence, I consider the "Szeth's blade is shorter" meme as a mere notion. Another issue for the Szeth is using an Honorblade theory is that he believes that if he dies, the Stone Shaman would recover it. If it were an Honorblade, it would disappear. Szeth might have become part of the Oathpact and could be tortured in damnation until the next Desolation, whereupon he might reappear with the sword. This assumes that the Oathpact sucks up whoever wields an Honorblade. Seriously, though, Szeth knows a lot about his sword and that knowledge is inconsistent with it being an Honorblade. If we don't believe that Szeth has an Honorblade, the Jasnah prologue gets much more mysterious and intriguing.

Can you share a quote? From the Prologue:

Promise #1: train to be a healer in Kharbranth. Amaram drafted Tien and Kaladin joined the army instead. Promise dead Promise #2: protect Tien. Amaram let Tien be sent to the front without any training and he was basically sacrificed as spear fodder. Promise dead I don't think it really matters a lot, but technically, IIIRC, Szeth's blade is described as long and thin, double-sided, but not short and not massive.

I dunno. Honor is long gone. I fail to see how Odium needs or even can be protected. His life: fighting, torture, then guilt and betrayal, hardly seems saved. It could be argued that Taln saved his life. If he is part of Dalinar's security detail, as some suspect, and was at the battle of the tower, then Kaladin could haved saved his life also. I would argue that any surgebinder, Szeth, Kaladin and maybe soon Dalinar could metaphorically have the storm respond. The dramatic lives that have been saved: Kaladin saved Amaram, Kaladin saved Dalinar, Dalinar saved Kaladin, Dalinar saved Sadeas, Sadeas claimed he was sparing Kaladin's life when he hung him out in the highstorm, Amaram claimed he was sparing Kaladin's life when he sold him into slavery and Dalinar saved Elhokar. If there is a big fight involving Szeth, he could experience mercy and fit the scenario. My guess is that it has Kaladin standing against Dalinar and protecting Amaram somehow, as Kaladin promised to protect Tien, and before that, to train in Kharbranth.

I looked and was duly impressed. The tabs are fun. I made a few tweaks and am happy to treat that as canon. Per your suggestion, I will hide my post with an alternate table. Upvotes all around! Edit:add screenshot file

Growth+Division=Cloning

Shardlet made a recording, which I imagine will be available soon. Checking in on the Events, Signings and Stalking section should get you there. That would be amazing, although I wonder whether the whole bonding thing has to do with honor. I find myself wondering about the face in the storm and the voice that Kaladin heard in the stormriding dream.

I apologize to all if this thread necromancy seems like a bad way to provide new information. I hate starting new redundant threads, but am willing to be educated. There is new information from the 10/14/13 Seattle signing that seems to be relevent to this thread I wonder if this has evolved. Brandon said approximately on 10/14/13 that a splinter is "a quantity of investiture that has developed independent cognition". He has recently suggested that stormlight is basically investiture and that some spren "are" splinters. I wonder if he would now say that Seons are splinters, as we have no evidence for sentience from the Aons at the heart of Seons. This seems to basically fit the information from the Seattle signing. This seems really close. Brandon explicitly said on 10/14/13 that the stormlight on Roshar is comparable to the mists. I am not sure that stormlight is really a gas though.