KidWayne

I had a very similar thought. It's pretty explicit in the book that Cultivation kind of played Dalinar for the good of the world with the whole memory-ectomy (let's go with "memorectomy") thing. She knew Odium saw Dalinar as a weapon, but she also figured Dalinar would become a good man without all his guilt. So she gave him his memories back at the right time so that he would own his pain instead of giving it away. Well, I think the Diagram might just be memorectomy, part 2. Taravangian is set-up in a strange way now, but we don't know where his true loyalties lie just yet. I think the man is a snake, but I wonder if we aren't looking at a professor Snape styled redemption arc for Taravangian as well. Honestly, I kind of hope not, but there is narrative value in having him recant his "ends justify the means" logic.

@WhiteLeeopard I just had a thought. Every time Odium splinters a shard, it leaves behind traces (spren, aons, ghosts/cognitive shadows, etc.). So maybe we don't want to shatter Odium anywhere near Roshar. Perhaps that was why Honor went with the Oathpact (i.e. prison) instead of execution. If Odium's spren hung around of Roshar (or even Braize) I think the desolations would continue as there wouldn't be anything to prevent the Fused from coming back again and again to start trouble. Even if you dealt with the Fused, you'd still have a lot of problems with Odious spren hanging out on Roshar. Perhaps the best option is to let Odium go, and shatter him while he is on the run (kind of like how he handled Ambition)... It might be better still to kill Rayse "Scadrial style" (as opposed to splintering him) and arrange for some other Shard - who could do so in a beneficial/benevolent way - to take up Odium. I suspect that Wisdom is one of the other Shards, that would be a good candidate for merging with Odium...

In the first sentence of the third paragraph in the Ars Arcanum, it states that there are "ten levels of Void-binding." (page 1237) Well that's all well and good but it contradicts Moash in Chapter 121 - IDEALS: Disclaimer - this may be an intentional continuity error since the Ars Arcanum is an in-world, secondary source text or just to call attention to something that will be explained later. I just thought I'd call it out as a typo if it is indeed unintentional.

I'm thinking that's why there are only 9 voidbinding orders.

The Stormfather sends visions to whomever he wants, it doesn't require a bond and Odium told Dalinar that he is the first to bond the Stormfather in his "current form" (i.e. since the Recreance / Death of Honor).

So this is the problem: The Fused and the Heralds both get sent to Braize upon their death, but without a willing/compliant Herald in place to prevent the Fused from returning killing them does not matter. So, we have to think bigger. However, there are a few obstacles... 1. The humans have no right to Roshar; the planet is the ancestral home of the parshmen/singers. 2. The humans brought Odium to Roshar. So, not even abandoning the planet would set things right (that would require freeing the natives from Odium AND abandoning the planet). 3. Roshar has been home to humans for so long now that they have some claim to it as well. 4. The Lost Radiants already kind of tried to fix this problem by stealing the singers ability to think and therefore (they believed) that they could stop the conflict by taking away their free will (and their forms - if the parshmen can't transform, then the Fused can't possess them). Now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like what Odium is wanting everybody to do - surrender their free will to him via embracing their passion. OK, well how to solve this puzzle? Dealing with obstacles 1 - 3 requires the humans to follow after Dalinar and "do better" and it requires the singers to follow after Shallan (find an identity, find happiness even after the pain inflicted on you by others). Done properly, this leads to repentance and forgiveness that allows the two races to co-exist on Roshar. Obstacle #4 has already been overcome (minus the identity part), but it's worth noting that such an effort is not a viable solution since the Everstorm would allow the Fused to keep coming back without a Herald in Damnation to stop them. Options for dealing with the problem that remains.... A. Make peace and share the planet (abbr. as MPSP) Doesn't deal with Odium, the Unmade, and the Fused Otherwise a pretty good plan Can (and probably should) be combined with any of the plans listed below B. Allow Odium to leave Roshar May or may not deal with the Unmade and the Fused Otherwise a pretty good plan... FOR ROSHAR Mistborn spoilers: C. Find some new and less violent way to bind Odium to Roshar Sounds great, but I have no idea how it would work... Dalinar ex machina? D. Defeat Odium (i.e. end the current desolation) and hope for the best Pretty sure WoB says that this would allow a new desolation to begin pretty soon E. Defeat Odium (i.e. end the current desolation) and shore up the tattered remains of the Oathpact with new heralds. I think the Everstorm makes this desolation different in that at least one Herald would need to stay in Damnation at all times to prevent the Fused from returning through the Everstorm. F. Figure out how to splinter Odium Sounds great, but I have no idea how it would work Distract Odium with the Diagram and let Cultivation get in a headshot?

I'm pretty sure that you can download the digital audio files from iTunes.

You could always have a Windrunner/Skybreaker Aerial company sprinkle anything that would float, have a Edgedancer/Lightweaver company soulcast the floating material into oil , and then have a single Dustbringer set a whole battlefield (and its combatants) on fire. Even better if you can soulcast the stuff into greek fire or napalm or something that will burn for a while. If you did this during the weeping or after a highstorm the rainwater would spread the oil fire. You could use a similar tactic to send a swarm of cremlings across enemy lines and then turn them into combustible or explosive objects. I wonder whether windrunners can use lashings to draw water up out of the sea and send it upward/forward... That would have some interesting lashing+soulcasting potential as well as being destructive in its own right. Could they use adhesion to stick water on someone's face and drown them with a water glass (or a puddle)? If they could lash water from across a room and then stick it on someone's face they could more or less use Darth Vader's force choke (albeit in a more visible - and perhaps more terrifying - way).

I'm thinking that shardblades & shardplate are infantry augmentations belonging to the KR. My educated guess for the voidish forces' advantage is animated stone siege weapons (e.g. thunderclasts) and the like. That's why shardblades cut stone: (a) it is the Rosharan focus - gems are a type of stone after all - and (b) its the necessary answer to stone monsters.

I think Odium went after these shards because their intents could be inclined to recombine the shards. Ambition > wants to be greater than it is Devotion > devoted to Adonalsium Dominion > wants to dominate the other shards and rule over / possess their power Honor > wants to bind everything (possibly including other shards) Cultivation > probable next victim > wants to produce something, perhaps by joining some shards and pruning others Note that Odium joins forces (or is at a minimum tolerant of) Bavadin/Autonomy which would be the least likely to want to recombine the shards. -------------------- Odium = hate So, hate causes relationships to deteriorate. There's nothing like contempt to destroy relationships. Hate separates in the sense that hate between two people will cause them to either fight or flee. So hate = murder (fight) or separation due to irreconcilable differences (flee). It forces people into either conflict or avoidance. So, how would the forces of nature be affected by such an intent? My guess is that the fused are the equivalent of a battered wife. They have been cowed into submission by a hostile force. They probably access the surges in a similar manner: by dominating them.

Here's the chart.

It's the surges. They determine the way that magic is manifested on Roshar just like the 16 metals determine the expression and manifestation of magic on Scadrial. Feruchemy, allomancy, and hemalurgy... All three have different effects based on the metal used. Roshar: surgebinding / void binding... If a bond is used, the surges will dictate the expression of the magic enabled by the bond. Presumably the Old Magic isn't dependent on a bond and therefore it isn't confined to the surges.

I just noticed something else interesting about this. If you mirror the KR glyphs and turn them upside down, most of them approximate the voidish glyphs. Have a look: The primary exceptions appear to be the Edgedancer and Bondsmith glyphs. They're already weird though, because the voidish mate for those are in hexagons instead of circles. I think I figured the Edgedancer one out though: If you were to take the mirrored glyph and stuff it into the hexagon, it would probably look very similar to the voidish glyph (the "leaves" would fold over onto one another). I have trouble making the voidish Bondsmith equivalent to work. I can kind of see it, but it doesn't follow the same pattern as the others.

I think this is going to make Shallan's multiple identity crisis explode. I think that the 'Shallan' character will cleave to Jasnah, 'Veil' will stick with Mraize, and 'Radiant' will stick with Dalinar. Circumstances will have to force her out of taking this path.

Yeah, it shifts the axis of symmetry from vertical (i.e. 90°) & symmetrical to mirrored symmetry at an approximately 30° slant. ← where the red line is the former axis of symmetry and the black line is the new axis of symmetry Edit: After pulling out my protractor and checking it, it appears to be a 35° angle... whoops.

So, as I read Chapter 31 and met the "Flying Fused" (trademark pending) - the voidbringers who chased Kaladin into the air - I had to remind myself which two surges Windrunners had again. Well I keep a folder on my PC with all kinds of pics, charts, and the like related to Cosmere novels. When I went digging for a surgebinding chart, I also came across something I downloaded in 2014 named "Voidbinder Chart." Then I realized that the symbols on that chart matched one that I had misnamed as "Surgebinding Chart." So I realized that it was actually a VOIDBINDING CHART! I have attached both files for your viewing pleasure. ← Voidbinder Forms ← Surgebinder Types / KR Orders Kaladin's exploits in Chapter 31 show us that there is a voidbinder analog to windrunners (or Skybreakers). You'll notice that the surge glyphs on the voidbinding chart corrupt the symmetry of the surge glyphs on the surgebinding chart by bisecting them along the vertical axis, rotating the left side along the horizontal axis, and putting them back together. For example... The idea being that there is a relationship between voidbinding and surgebinding. I'm suggesting that the relationship is that each of the magic systems operate along similar pathways resulting in a similar expression of the magic. The difference is what is powering the magic, or in more precise terms, whose investiture is powering the magic. However, no matter where it comes from something about Roshar is going to force the investiture to follow along a predetermined pathway. I imagine this is similar to how some appliances can accept batteries or power via an AD/DC adapter, no matter how the electrons are supplied, they will be sent through the circuitry to achieve the same result (of course there's no alternative to electrons when powering electrical appliances, whereas there are 16 different sources of investiture in the Cosmere). So, maybe a Mistborn example would be better... Highlight for Mistborn spoiler: Ruin's investiture (via hemalurgy) affected metal in ways that were in line with the powers granted by Preservation's investiture (via allomancy) on Scadrial; that is, you have to use a steel spike to steal a coinshot's abilities and you have to use a copper spike to steal memories. There are some oddities, but you get my point. There's also a blending of the two shards' investiture that resulted in a balanced blend of both powers (i.e. Feruchemy). So, similar to the Mistborn magics, the Rosharan magics operate along similar lines no matter which Shard's investiture is powering the magic. Obviously there will be important differences between the magic powered by the blended investiture of Honor & Cultivation (i.e. surgebinding) and that powered by Odium's investiture (voidbinding). I suspect that voidbinding is the literal opposite of surgbinding (it accomplishes the same effect in a opposite manner - if surgebinding pushes, then voidbinding pulls and vice versa - but that's a different post. The question is whether voidbinding is the analog of Feruchemy (a mix of all three shards' investiture) - a result that works well assuming that the voidspren are corrupted or fallen radiant spren - or whether voidbinding is the analog of Hemalurgy (the magic that comes from only/mostly Odium's investiture). Regardless, I think I've proved a solid connection between voidbinding and surgebinding and that it should result in voidbinders resembling surgebinders. Again, the flying voidbringers in chapter 31 strongly support that conclusion. However, that leaves two "problems"... One is the yellow spren and the other is which surgebinders resemble StormForm. I don't think the yellow spren is a problem so much as it supports my theory. Let's put the questions about her to bed... That leaves the question of which order of the KR is analogous to StormForm. Well, my best guess is that StormForm is likely to match the powers of the Dustbringers/Releasers. StormForm released the Everstorm. Lightning isn't that different from fire and the essence associated with Chach is spark. However, I'm not completely sure that I'm right because we haven't seen much from Malata yet. Here are my best guesses: 1. Windrunners → ??? 2. Skybreakers → Smokeform - Kaladin's pursuers in Ch. 31 3. Dustbringers → Stormform * 4. Edgedancers → ??? 5. Truthwatchers → Nightform 6. Lightweavers → Mediationform 7. Elsecallers → Scholarform (?) This may or may not be a form of power. 8. Willshapers → ??? 9. Stonewards → Decayform * 10. Bondsmiths → ??? * Stormform could very easily be the Bondsmith analog with the storms and stuff; they also seem to be guiding/leading the non-Fused parshmen in Ch. 31 * I'm really not sure who matches up with Decayform since the details about them are so vague in the song about them from WoR. I based by guess on this line: "Watch where you walk, your toes to tread. O'er hill or rocky riverbed" It just sounds like stone/walking on stone is involved here. That's it. Let me know what you think!

Since a hammer did the job and this is supposed to be painted on a wall, isn't this more likely?

I still think this is the most valid version of this theory. It isn't the herald's or the KR it's the desolations and Odium upping the ante with a new unmade.

@Chaos I'm not going to throw a fit or anything, but it seems like I've been down-voted a lot lately for reasons I can't fathom. I could understand if I were being offensive, but I'm not. I'm not looking for you to do anything other than consider doing a shoutout about what down votes are for. My philosophy on posting is that I only speak when I have something to say. So, even though I've been around for two years, my post count is relatively low. It's depressing to get a bunch of notifications and then find that only 2 out of 3 up-votes for which you were notified counted; however, I don't get my self-worth from what people think about me on the internet. It just seems like something has changed within the community to where down-votes were reserved for calling out offensive posts to one in which they are now being used to signal disagreement with a post. So, I'm asking you to clarify that if you are inclined to do so.

So, you're defending his ignorance. I agree with your assessment of Amaram, but he is deceived. He has put his faith in a lie; a lie which leads him to perform terrible deeds. Look at a real world religious example: Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them" in reference to good people vs. evil people and false teachers vs. teachers of the truth. The secular adage "the proof is in the pudding" is another way of expressing the same sentiment. To put it another way, what you believe is important, but it's nothing in comparison to what you do. So, the 'Amaram is innocent by virtue of ignorance / mistake of fact / invalid belief' argument doesn't move me to be all that merciful to him.

My bet is an appearance by (or evidence of) Yesteel. In his annotations on Warbreaker, Brandon indicates that Yesteel knows the process Vasher and Shashara used to Awaken metal. That seems like it could be relevant to The Stormlight Archive to me. Of course, I also expect to see or hear from Vivenna.

This is a persuasive idea. So much of the Cosmere finds reflections in the author's Mormon faith. This definitely fits. See this: http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/mormons-and-native-americans-historical-overview

What if the Ghostbloods - nastiest and most conniving of the secret societies - is grooming their Chosen One to be Odium's Champion? Perhaps Odium is taking a page out of Bavadin's playbook and using the Ghostbloods to set Mraize up to be the next Trell?

Does this make anyone else think of the IRE base from Mistborn: Secret History? So maybe Urithiru is basically a physical realm version of the IRE residence, except it's not "plugged in" right now. Without being infused with Stormlight, the ability to keep voidbringers out doesn't work (like how an electromagnet doesn't attract metal without electricity). Perhaps that's why the Unmade are in it and it feels wrong to Shallan.

@Michael Portz I did that to show the inconsistency about the storms at the beginning of the story when compared to the end. I figured that it couldn't hurt to have the source material in a thread devoted to it, especially when that source material can be presented in 735 words. It's also why I put the source material in quotes that can be collapsed. I'm a details guy. I never could summarize anything to save my life...