Rasarr

I thing your and my minds are riding a pretty similar train of thoughts on this matter, @Xaklys (though you've put it far better than I could ). For my explanation: apart from Taln himself, no-one (with exception of Amaram, but storm that guy) believes the man's Taln; therefore, "the man who calls himself Taln". And if I may nitpick, nowhere in text does Taln actually call himself Taln, only Talenel'Elin. And referring to stuff that's been mentioned further up, we have to keep in mind that Braize is not Hell in the way we imagine it here on Earth, but an actual planet that serves as Hell for Odium's purposes. There might very well be both wastelands for Taln to burn in and forests for him to get branched caught in his beard. I must say, I am admittedly less against Heraldic Demonic Possession theory than I was a day ago, but I still think this really is Taln, in his own body (reconstructed multiple times... Theseus' Ship, 'Now With Less Wood' Edition). To throw another (very weak) wrench into this discussion, Taln's been described as towering over Amaram even when stooped, and far bigger when upright. Considering Alethi are already crazy tall (weren't they on the average the tallest of all Rosharan ethnicities?), and the fact that Amaram is a pretty tall guy himself, Taln is likely a giant not otherwise found on Roshar. Granted, possession could've changed the possessed body to fit those specs - but wouldn't the people escorting him to the Shattered Plains notice that he bulked up something fierce despite doing nothing but mumbling all day? And if the man who got possessed really was that huge already, wasn't Dalinar's man trying to investigate the newcomer's origins? If so, people would likely remember a giant black-skinned man passing by the other day, and thus Bordin would've found out.

@Tariniel, I'm not sure if you'll take it as a compliment, but I find your theory really creepy. Reminds me of demonic possession. I admit I personally believe that "the man who calls himself Taln" is indeed Talanel'Elin, the Herald of War, the same guy who's been fighting all other desolations. We've seen his insanity from his point of view; he'd have to be one hell of a method actor to make himself see walls on fire and all that stuff. The reason why he's been reduced to gibberish could be because he's been repeating the same "script" over and over again so many times, he just can't keep up with it any more, kinda like you say something too many times and it just stops sounding like a word anymore to you. The "who am I?" question could very well be a sign of problems with his memory; it's not so implausible after four thousand years of torture. I'd be willing to guess that Brandon's refusal to clearly identify the man as Taln is part trolling, and part statement that he's not really Taln, because he lost too much of his identity, so to put it, throughout his time on Braize. Regarding the Blade, my personal guess is that much like Shardblades, the Honorblades break their bonds with their carrier when the latter dies. Therefore, Herald or not, Taln still has to re-bond his Honorblade after coming back from the dead.

Can you point me to the source, please? I admit I was basing my statement off the fact that cutting a rock in half would give you two "rock-souls" in Cognitive, while cutting a human in half would not give you two human souls.

There was a discussion on it and I believe someone has pointed out that with aluminium being available on Roshar through soulcasting, someone would've realized sooner or later that it can stop Shardblades. Don't the Shardblades cut through the Cognitive, though? I believe only Nightblood was said to be capable of cutting through all the three Realms.

Aaand it's over. Wow, that feels like it was a long one. For the next one, I nominate Cosmere worlds. We've got eleven of those, AFAIK, so this might be a shorter game.

Each and every single one of those made me laugh, so I dare say mission accomplished. I thing I died at "gets the bright idea to go to Hallandren anyway" part.

Same. 3. Cody--10 10. Melody--90 Are we... are wrapping this up?

Hm, maybe. It would certainly speed things up. Hurt Cody, heal Melody. 3. Cody--22 10. Melody--78

We're getting closer to the ending, maybe that's why we're posting more actively now. I'll keep healing Melody. 3. Cody--20 10. Melody--80

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--26 10. Melody--74

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--34 10. Melody--62

Interesting. I saw a suggestion that the Skybreakers secondary spren might be starspren, though I think that's mostly because stars->high->highspren. Though the words "rain" and "skybreaker" do bring to mind a Radiant doing the superhero landing, so maybe there is some connection. (that's some flawless logic on my part!) For Elsecallers, could shadowspren be their match? I'm mostly basing this on Ivory's appearance, but they'd probably be less problematic to summon than painspren.

I'd still take Melody over Cody. 3. Cody--30 10. Melody--70

Hm. I'm going out on a limb there (get your tinfoil hats out!), but could this mean something like "connection" (not in Cosmere sense, though), or "joining together". I believe the glyph translation thread managed to ascertain that the compass rose could be stylized "Urithiru", which is a place connecting/joining together all the Oathgates. Over time, this could morph into stylized "Urithiru" glyph coming to mean something connecting; for example, on the Thaylen coast map, trading routes and campsites; on the war camps map, the ten princedoms joining together; on Kharbranth image, both the ship connecting the city to the outside world and the Pallaneum "joining together" the knowledge, et cetera, et cetera. As for the Cognitive glyphs (the ones from the blue-and-purple chart, do I recall correctly?), you can also find them in the corners of the Kharbranth picture. Not sure what this denotes, though. They're the "Dustbringer" ones. I have this pet theory of mine that every Silver Kingdom has its Dawncity and its Herald, so if I'm right on that, then perhaps Kharbranth was the capital of ancient Thalath, which in turn was "Chana's Kingdom". Then the glyph could symbolize the fact that there's the "Dustbringer Oathgate" in the city, and maybe the compass rose about Pallaneum means that the Oathgate is there.

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--24 10. Melody--76

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--28 10. Melody--72

Officers? I mean, at schools teachers have separate bathrooms from students, so maybe on ships, officers have separate bathrooms from crew members...

Hurt Cody, heal Melody. 3. Cody--4010. Melody--60

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--46 10. Melody--54

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--4810. Melody--52

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--52 10. Melody--48

Oh, that's another batch of really atmospheric pieces! I love the lightning in the "Hundred spheres" ones (and your rendition of Kal's father is just superb), and those black eyes on Shallan's mother... creepy. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the chouta poster looks like a deity coming down to earth in a nimbus of light As for the last one... you know, in anime, those sound effect of shock! That's pretty much what I heard in my head when looking at this page of yours. I won't be continuing talking about Kaladin - quite frankly, I don't have anything more to say - but I'd just like to note this: I agree with this so much. I've heard a lot of people saying she has a great sense of humour and her jokes are great, so I'd just like to say it's nice there are people who don't think so.

Hurt Cody, heal Melody. 3. Cody--5610. Melody--44

Hurt Cody, heal Melody. 3. Cody--5410. Melody--46

Heal Melody, hurt Cody. 3. Cody--5610. Melody--44