hoser

I like the theory about Szeth carrying Jezrien's Honorblade. In fact, I've even propounded it. However, there is word of Brandon to the effect that we've seen three kinds of Shardblades. I now think that the honorblades are one type, Szeth's is another and all the others we've seen are Radiantblades. :(/>

I understand that this thread is about speculation, but I think there is evidence for the Radiants having remote and telepathic communication in the Midnight Essence vision (Chapter 19) (requoted from another thread, apologies to all if that's wrong): The second quote, in particular, seems to be describing a remote communication in real-time. Does the remote communication ability come from the armor, is it an ability of all radiants or is specific to certain orders? I don't know, but the Stoneward woman doesn't seem to be using a fabrial. I think it's sort of a spren thing, similar to the way Syl communicates with Kaladin without anybody else hearing. I think he will probably start communicating w/her similarly.

I don't know about attitudes toward thread necromancy either. The shattered plains are in what was once Natanatan and are east of Roshar. Urithiru is said to be to the west of Roshar. The city in the shattered plains is presumably the former capital of Natanatan.

I love this idea!

Is this true? Sunmaker took over the Ardents and "revealed" that there were no visions. Does this mean that the Hierocracy was justifying it's control based on visions? Dalinar has visions that may be from Honor/Tanavast who doesn't seem to have qualms about looking into the future (although he doesn't seem to be great at it). Could the link between voidbinding and prediction be Sunmaker disinformation? Both Gavilar and Hoid make references to the skies in relation to concurrent events. They seem to have information that we don't about how the world works. So I believe that the state of the sky is significant and dynamic. The Highstorm(s) (do we know that there are multiple?) are somewhat regular. The Purelake drains as they approach. Is this due to a shardic relationship between the Purelake and the highstorms? Could it be tidal based on the three moons with a single Highstorm traveling with the point of lowest lunar gravitational influence? Thanks Nepene for highlighting the idea that glyphs might be different than writing for communicating to the Shards. I like it, even though I don't understand it. The Ghostbloods, Oldbloods, Stormwardens, Ardents and healers all seem to have transnational links. Taravavangian may be using the healers as a part of his network. The stormwardens could easily be another network with an agenda (the quotes with Amaram seem to indicate it). With glyphs and fabrial pens they would be able to communicate instantaneously worldwide. The Ghostbloods seem to be led by Thaidakar and have an agenda, likely related to Vorinism if we can judge by Kabsal. In general, all these organizations (except maybe the Oldbloods) seem to know something about what is coming and are angling to take over as the calamity hits.

My question is "What did Gavilar know?" On the night he was assassinated he asked Dalinar to "follow the codes." He also referred to the unusual state of the skies very similarly to the way Hoid did when warning Dalinar about Sadeas' revelation. I think it's been speculated that there were travelers from other worlds talking to Elhokar that night. He clearly was aware of much that Dalinar is not. Jasnah refers to that time as one where she felt closer to him. She could have told him about the Radiant stuff she knows.

Yes, well then. Who could find it on the front page of the site? I guess that's what they call security through obscurity. No one would ever guess that I just go straight to the forums. Seriously though, thank you, that was fantastic.

Thanks! Is there a place wherein I can hear or read a transcription of this second reading? Pretty please with a blatantly sucking up upvote?

Crazy, totally unfounded speculation: We still don't know what the chasmfiends become after they pupate. As I understand it, Brandon has also said there will be an ecological price to pay for what is being done to the chasmfiends. I don't think they become thunderclasts. Could the chasmfiends pupate to become the Parshendi gods? On another note: I have watched a reading on Youtube and read the Toronto transcript on this site. I don't remember any Gavilar information. Is there some more complete information somewhere else? Where? Please.

If I understand the reading correctly, they were already changed to warlike form. I don't see how they could be sure that Szeth would succeed without some prophetic information, particularly given how close the assassination actually was. Thus, they might have been accepting either Gavilar's death or survival. Maybe they just wanted a war. Their only two hopes seem to be some interaction with Dalinar and figuring out how to change. I don't see how the war helps them figure out the change, so I'm guessing the war is a way to have the interaction with Dalinar. What that interaction would be is hard for me to imagine, but it seems that it must be prophetically inspired. If Gavilar had survived, they would likely have been fighting the Blackthorn as Gavilar's war leader. What could they gain out of the war? They already had an alliance with the Alethi. Presumably, Dalinar does some force unification and training before launching a major push to the Parshendi base. Whatever interaction the Parshendi are looking for will have to happen then. Wacky thought: could Szeth get involved in this mysterious interaction?

Very nice work and thoughts! I believe that the split half-inverted glyphs have been noted before, but, despite what Hoid might say, I don't think it devalues your observation. The voidbinding for Szeth idea is interesting in that the voidbinders seem to have been accompanied by screaming and he seems to have a similar audio hallucination. It is odd in that he seems to know more about voidbringers than most people in-world and seems very opposed to the voidbringers. The other possibility for Szeth is that he is getting his abilities from the sword or some other artifact. Personally, I think that Shallan, as apparent murderer, thief and liar, is being used to confuse us. I think that her actions will turn out to be fundamentally honorable. Her "murder" will end up being a defense of someone from her father's wrath and the desire to protect her family will partially negate the lying and stealing. The lying and stealing are obviously not honorable, and will need to be fixed before she advances as a Radiant. Her brother has an unexplained injury, so he is an obvious candidate for Shallan's father's victimhood. Back on topic, though, I wonder about voidbringing. With 10 base abilities, I believe that there are 45 possible ability pairs. The Radiants use 10 of them. Do voidbringers work off the same 10 base abilities? If so, do they work with the same pairings? Are the voidbringers' abilities inverted somehow? As in pressure vs. adhesion, where we know Kaladin can do adhesion and his counterpart voidbringer would be able to do repulsion. Although I think that Kaladin has really been doing repulsion also. There is talk of predicting the future being the essence of voidbringing. Is that Sunmaker nonsense imposed on Vorinism, or is it really related to Honor's and Odium's intents? In Dalinar's visions, Honor doesn't seem to have philosophical problems with looking into the future. So many questions ...

The book is composed of 40 stories plus the introduction that Dalinar quotes to Sadeas and the king. I think that the 40 sections correspond to the 2-5 oaths for the 10 Radiant orders. The introduction represents the shared first oath. Several of the 40 sections are presented in our "Way of Kings". So I think that Nohadon accepted the differences between the orders. I think the orders were all basically honorable with different emphases. Once the oaths were discovered the surgebinders who had taken the oaths were much more powerful than those who did not. I don't think they would tolerate other surgebinders doing evil things with their powers. So the Radiants would have quickly become the only surgebinders. I can't imagine that just saying the words would mean much if one were not committed at a deep level, which would be reflected by one's actions. Or maybe the spren would first have to be attracted by one's actions before the oaths would be significant.

Yes! Although the idea of having over a millenium to prepare for the next major event seems somewhat attractive.

Actually, he has been tired of it for the last 4,999 years and keeps shaving it off. He just can't resist the itchy feeling as it grows back.

I agree that the beard is a weak link. Supposedly Shalash is his daughter and they are both somewhat dark complected with black hair. The strongest evidence for me is that Brandon and Peter have said that there are four or six heralds in the book and Brandon has said that there is much more to the opening herald scene than meets the eye. I think Jezrien has been very active and we will be seeing more of him. I accept Niter provisionally only because no-one else seems even close and it would be a handy place for him to keep an eye on the Alethi royalty from. As for the eyes, I find the description of "Shalash's" eyes to match the knight's eyes in the Recreance vision too closely for it to be coincidence. I believe that she has spent a "lot" of time with Radiantblades. I basically agree with these paragraphs. I think the gems in the suit might also serve as a sort of battery/energy storage. I see the stormlight as energy from the Spiritual Realm emanating from a rift in the center of the Highstorm. My question would be whether Radiants could tap into the energy directly anytime, or whether they would charge the suits up during storms. It seems that Kaladin tapped into some energy when he oathed up the second time. Where did that energy come from?. We know that Kaladin could retain stormlight for an order of magnitude longer than Szeth before his latest power/oath up, so he would be even better now. I don't see him staying juiced constantly between highstorms.

More quotes from the epilogue: It's definitely a Shardblade, and presumably Taleniel's Honorblade. His eyes are dark brown while he carries it. I think the "beyond even Shardblades" is like a Porsche enthusiast might describe a Porsche as "no mere car, but a work of art". Consider Niter, the only candidate I know of for Jezrien, from chapter 28 and Zas' post in this thread: A lighteyes, and presumably not from his Honorblade. Let us also consider our candidate for Shalash, Baxil's Mistress from Interlude 7: So if we think these are heralds, and a herald's eyes are not lightened by bearing a Radiantblade, why are their eyes light?

Having previously committed myself to the idea that Szeth was bearing an Honorblade, in the wake of Brandon's pronouncement that we have seen three types of Shardblades, I now recant. It now seems to me that the three types are: Honorblades, Radiantblades Shinblades or Szethblades (Szeth's being the only one we have seen like that). The main supporting arguments I have to offer are that: I think the source of Shallan's and Amaram's are the same and there was no discussion of Amaram's being unusual. Dalinar had taken Shardblades from the Parshendi before and they didn't seem remarkable. The size and the temporary eye color change (which is not compatible with the Alethi understanding). Too many words to say that I agree with Cheese Ninja and some other posters here (and upvotes). Speculation beyond that goes to: Someone besides the Radiants is making and bestowing Shinblades. Could it be the Shin? Since Szeth doesn't seem to have a Nahel bond with a spren, is there a spren trapped in his blade? If there is a spren, is it a windspren, an honorspren like Syl or something else? If Szeth's temporary access to Windrunner abilities turns his eyes blue (or his eyes become a conduit to blue abilities), then what does the permanent and intergenerational eye color change associated with using a radiantblade mean? Is the general permanent lightening of the eyes associated with a permanent grant of a wider range of abilities (as clear light is the combination of light of many colors? Could those abilities be latent in the absence of a commitment to the Radiant Oaths? If the lighteyes are granted certain abilities that activate in the presence of the Oaths, then it will be interesting to see what happens when/if Kaladin picks a Shardblade up. As for the Herald who might be collecting Shardblades, we know that Taln has dark eyes and the people believed to be Shalash and Jezrien have light eyes (iirc). This implies to me that Honorblades do not change eye color and that a herald who picks up a Radiantblade has his eye color changed (although the eye color could be reset during the torture/resurrection process). We can then deduce that these heralds have borne Radiantblades. Another thing to consider when calculating Radiant numbers: According to the Midnight Essence vision, the Radiants recruit in the runup to a desolation. This implies to me that they deliberately let their numbers diminish between desolations. Does this mean a peacetime number of Radiants and a Desolation number of Radiants? Apparently the Heralds participated in quelling the most recent previous desolation. The Radiants continued on until the Recreance. The Recreance vision that Dalinar experienced had front lines and fighting. Who were the Radiants fighting? Was the 150/order the peacetime number or the desolation-time roster size? Please accept my apologies for any inadvertent repetition of ideas stated elsewhere. I hope this helps.

It's all dissonance to me .

Yes! And the visions occur during highstorms. And given that he is the stormfather, Dalinar receiving them may not be coincidence. And, as the head of the Cobalt Guard, could he have communicated with Gavilar before he died?

Aaaand for more wild speculation on this subject you can look here and here .

I like this idea! Creating crazy theories out of nearly nothing... If one accepts that Jezrien=Niter, as suggested by zas678 in this thread, then a possibility emerges. Niter is seen in two places. The first sighting is in chapter 28 and I don't find anything useful there except that he is head of the Cobalt Guard. The second sighting is in chapter 64, before the fateful Tower battle. If Niter (Jezrien?) was in the Tower battle, he would presumably have been guarding Dalinar. We don't know what happened to the contingent of the Cobalt Guard that was guarding Dalinar, but if he survived, Kaladin definitely saved his life. Interestingly, Kaladin is now maybe going to lead the reformed Cobalt Guard.

I assume "they" are the Voidbringers. Parshendi would not show up in darkness, so this suggests that the Voidbringers glow with infused stormlight, which we can infer also from Szeth's viewpoint. To me this tends to negate Jasnah's conclusion about Voidbringers=Parshendi. Parshendi could start infusing, bringing darkness and doing whatever it is those Voidbringers do, but so could anybody else. This one is quite intriguing. What lives in dens? Could this be the expulsion from the Tranquilline halls from the anti-Honor side?

In the Feverstone Keep/Recreance vision, I think Dalinar is surprised to see an officer of the non-KR garrison that is darkeyed. Could that be what you're thinking of? I think the point is that before the Recreance, the KR are the only lighteyes.

Good catch on the stone thing. It seems like a possible hint, even though I don't know what to make of it yet. I do have some little quibbles about the above statements. I believe that Navani's notebooks only refer to the modern style fabrials. I think she says somewhere that the ancient style of fabrials are a complete mystery to modern artifabrians. Soulcasters, shardplate, shardblades, the possible Regrowth Healing fabrial that the Radiant uses in Dalinar's Midnight Essence vision and the rumored Oathgates are ancient fabrials that Navani doesn't understand. So, the Soulcasters may work due to internal spren, but Navani's notes don't prove it. Consider that the modern fabrials and the specific cuts are a recent discovery, but Soulcasters have been in use for millenia, with routine replacement of cracked gems and no knowledge of the special spren-trapping cuts. I am confused about what you are saying. In one paragraph, Shardblades don't have spren, but in the other, the spren inside Shardblades set Syl off. I must be missing something. The conclusion that it is the spren inside shardblades that cause Syl's antipathy may be true, but seems unsupported. The impoverished bridgemen have no fabrials, so we have no evidence about her reactions to any fabrials besides shardblades and shardplate. Both Shardblades and Shardplate are ancient style fabrials, that may or may not have trapped spren. Syl could be upset by some physical element of the shardblade, it's possession by someone not constrained by five Radiant oaths or its recent use. Syl is also upset by Hoid, the soldiers who beat Kaladin and the carnage of the climactic Tower fight. I apologize if this comment seems negative (and upvote you to prove my lack of negative intent!), because I am really interested in your thoughts and observations.

I really like this idea! Please permit me to suggest this thread for background speculation about Urithiru. You may find it interesting. I think Urithiru will turn out to be somewhere more central to the "Silver Kingdoms" than Shinovar. With the magic system of Honor powered by stormlight, it seems unlikely that Urithiru would be located in the only place that doesn't get any. In the same thread, the idea is developed that there are oathgates linking Urithiru to the various kingdoms. If these oathgates are powered by stormlight also, Shinovar doesn't seem like a likely location to me. In addition, some interpret Szeth's comments about his punishment and the existence of voidbringers (discussed in this thread) to mean that the Stone Shamans (Shamen?) denied the existence of voidbringers. This seems to imply that voidbringers didn't strike there, possibly because of the lack of stormlight. But it also makes it seem unlikely to be Urithiru to me. Yes, absolutely. If you accept Dalinar's visions and think about it, an incredible amount happened during Nohadon's lifetime (and apparently without Heraldic intervention, as it is immediately following a desolation). This thread goes over it in more detail. I don't entirely buy the central theory, but you may enjoy the discussion. Anyway, it seems like there must have been some interesting communication about or with Honor during that time. I hope these references to old threads seem helpful, interesting and not overwhelming. I am curious about your thoughts after reviewing (if you choose to).