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The bright side. Jasnah pretty much stole almost every single scene in the book. From "Child, I am an Elsecaller" in her very first appearance (which I think is an underappreciated mini-CMOA right there), to "Come on Meridas, make my day", to "I know who you are, Renarin, you are family", to the "apparently - storming Assassin in White" deadpan, to what looks like the aftermath of the first recorded use of native Plate by a Knight Radiant, to the absolutely fabulous conversation with Navani and Fen on the wall which the OP quoted in full (my favorite scene in the whole book), to her final appearance wearing a crown, she just effing rocks. The Wall scene requires a special consideration. Basically, for pages upon pages we are observing the difficulties Kaladin, Szeth, Shallan, and pretty much everyone else has with dealing with the Fused. There is quite a bit of build-up. And then, two of them decide to fly towards Jasnah. Bother. After the WoR Epilogue (yay), I wrote that Jasnah was the biggest badass on Roshar. While Dalinar has made certain serious strides in the level of badassery, and Lift may have a better badass per pound of weight ratio, and Adolin is the biggest mundane badass, I think Jasnah still holds the lead in this department. The Dark Side. I originally did not think to connect Jasnah's childhood "lunacy" with sexual abuse, but then I realized that she was 11 and not 6-7 like I originally thought during her episode. I took some flak on reddit for discussing it. There appears to be a Word of Peter suggesting that outright sexual abuse of a child is out, and there appears to be a better theory of her "lunacy". I am quite happy about that, because I do not want her story to resolve around childhood sexual abuse. I do think that her very distinct disgust with Amaram may be a result of some attempt by Amaram to force himself on to her (and not take no for an answer until thrown out) some time after Gavilar's death. This however leaves a couple of lingering questions and I want to linger. Jasnah has good relations with literally everyone in her immediate family: Navani, Dalinar, Adolin, Renarin, and Elhokar. Evi is practically a saint, so Jasnah couldn't have feuded with her. Yet, in her deliberations about assassinating Ausedan, and in her deliberations concerning Renarin, she is both very protective of her family, and thinks that the biggest threats come from inside the family. But we have just excluded Navani, Dalinar, Adolin, Renarin, Elhokar, Evi, and Gavilar (whose biography she wrote) from the list. So, who else? This really leaves just one person who is directly related to the Kholins, and who, as we find out from Oathbringer, at some point has conveniently "retired" to coastal Herdaz in a company of Alethi military guard. I no longer think that any sexual abuse was involved, but I do think that Jasnah must have caught him with something. Spying on her family? Squandering Kholin money? Something else? She has a set opinion about the need to protect her family and about the origins of the threats. This had to have been caused by something. Thoughts?

One for Stormfather, one for Nightwatcher. On Cusicesh. Brandon's note that he is a step above Nahel-bond-capable spren, and step below Stormfather/Nigthwatcher who are Cognitive Shadows of Shards has me thinking. Cusicesh looks like he is a Cognitive Shadow of something. But this something is not a person or a singular entity. It certainly looks like this something is more of an event that left some number of people (faces Cusicesh shows) dead. Who are these people? Maybe he is some sort of a Cognitive Shadow of some Knights Radiant massacre? Or one of Talanel's last stands? Or some version of Roshar Titanic? Anyone willing to ask Brandon if Cusicesh is a Cognitive Shadow of an event from the past?

Screaming in the head has largely been associated with various conditions of sprendom.

The symbol is next to a sketch that is very clearly done by Veil.

So, basically, Ghostbloods are the Cosmere version of Mitsubishi Motors?

We do find The Secret That Broke The Knights Radiant (tm). As usual in Brandon's books, it creates more questions than it answers, although parts of it are quite incredible and have not been foreseen on the fora (at least I've not seen any theories that predicted it).

(spoiler for Oathbringer)

Azure's Blade seems to be less dangerous than Nightblood. I suspect that it is of similar design - Type IV Awakened object, but (a) with less sentience, and (b) with significantly fewer powers. Based on Warbreaker and Oathbringer, Nightblood essentially has no safety catch/fuse. It is the most powerful weapon in Cosmere that does not know how to stop and cannot be stopped unless it is shoved back into the scabbard. It won't let go. So, it can do a lot, but it also requires a lot. Azure's Blade appears to have the safety catch and it will not eat her alive when drawn. But it is probably not as powerful as Nightblood. I want to say the the Command may have been "Obey the wielder" or something similar.

Yes. This is actually quite interesting. I do not know if humans came from Ashyn. I suspect, no. It seems that Odium was nowhere near the Roshar system when Honor and Cultivation settled there. In my head, this plays out roughly as follows: the Shattering of Adonalsium, everyone takes up Shards, says "Good bye, Cephandrius" and goes their way. Honor and Cultivation go to Roshar. Odium squints and things and goes after Ambition. After that, settles down somewhere. Runs the planet into ground (see below). Moves humans to Roshar. While planet-less goes to Sel, makes Dor our out Aona and Skai. Comes back to Roshar, where Honor gives him a Catch-22 deal. I am somewhat hazy on the specifics, but basically, Odium cannot off Honor without being Invested up to his ears in Roshar, and Investing in Roshar keeps him out of the rest of Cosmere. So, Honor bound him by giving him a shot at himself. somewhere in between, Honor and Cultivation "stole" the humans, humans jumped the fence and spread out of Shinovar, and Odium figured a way to keep Cognitive Shadows of singers around and dangerous. Someone should ask Brandon about connections between the Fused and whatever the heck is going on on Threondy. Odium's Investment into Roshar yielded voidspren and those acquired the ability to bond singers and give them powerforms. At this point Honor came up with the Oathpact ruse, talked ten suckers into accepting it. From that point on, it went somewhat according to the Vorin doctrine: human vs. singer, thunderclasts, Desolations, and all that. I agree with the OP that the planet humans came from was destroyed using whatever magic system Odium had set up there, and this turned into Surgebinding in retelling. I just don't think it was Ashyn. It seems to me that Odium temporarily settled outside of Roshar system. Otherwise he'd been in open conflict with Honor and Cultivation much earlier than the "expulsion from Tranquiline Halls" time. Unless the actual expulsion was in fact Honor's pre-emptive strike.

I had a theory that Letter #2 was from the Aether Shard(s), but that got squashed. Wisdom always looked like a good Intent for a Shard to me. Not necessarily the one that just wants to survive, although would not be surprised either. None of the Shards we've seen thus far have Intents that have anything to do with ... you know, intelligence, knowledge, learning, reason, thinking. Adonalsium being an overarching deity must have had some Intents inside him to deal with this. So, Wisdom and Hoid being at cross-purposes is not really that strange.

It has even bigger parallels to the story of Promethius bringing fire to humans.

"See. I am very good at fighting evil. That was a lot of evil. I am sure you will draw me more often now."

Or Skybreakers. On a somewhat more deliberative note, I don't think it would matter. There is evidence in the Stormlight Archive (I am referring to the collection of gems Renarin has discovered) of Shin Knights Radiant. It is possible that they transport from Shinovar directly to Urithiru and back, and never walk on stone (inside the tower is fine), but this would limit their work significantly. So, I think, it wouldn't matter for a Shin Surgebinder what Order they are. As for fighting against the singers... We have to be very careful in observing what sort of fights these would be. This is not a humans vs. singers war. Singers are pawns in this war. A fight to liberate singers from the influence of Odium is actually a holy fight for the Shin. or at least it should be. The differences may come much later, because the singers who break up with Odium must co-exist with humans on the same land. The Shin are the only ones who did not violate the original "settle in Shinovar" agreement. They will have a distinctly different view of this than, say, the Vorin kingdoms and the Makabaki countries. Your theory rings true to me. First, we actually see this story discussed twice in the book - so it must be important. It plays a role of foreshadowing The Secret That Broke The Knights Radiant (tm). It works well with our new understanding of the whole exile from Tranquiline Halls and arrival to Roshar business. But it is pretty clear that the Shin are the people who stayed behind and stayed true to the original treaties. It also explains somewhat why their language is a descendant of Dawnchant while most other languages are not.

Looking through Arcanum, found this: (original link) I take it, the Radiant Order would be Willshapers, but they no longer accept humans.

Coppermind says that what Dalinar did was the combination of Tension and Adhesion. The reason why I think that if there is one Surge the Fused don't have access to it would be Adhesion is precisely because the "Windrunner" Fused appear to largely use Gravitation. And the bit where Dalinar merges three Realms together? Smells like Adhesion to me.

I would, on general principles, be very happy to support the idea that each Fused accesses only one Surge, and there are no Fused who can access whatever Surge gives Dalinar his God powers (Adhesion, it looks like). However... the Voidbinding chart parallels the Surgebinding one with each Voidbinder symbol connected to two "Void-Surges".

I just made this exact point in the other Skybreaker thread. To me this means that Skybreakers may actually play a role later in separating the singers from Odium.

Ditto. She basically trolls Shallan about the Plate earlier in the book, and I would be really surprised if she'd be doing this if she did not have first-hand experience. I also think that Jasnah has said at least four Ideals of Elsecallers. In a separate thread I mentioned that for various reasons I think that the fourth Ideal of Elsecallers is something like "I will not lose empathy", and we have seen the confirmation of that in the book. This assumes that Plate level is the same for all Orders. Perhaps this does not need to be this way. Jasnah explains it herself in an earlier conversation with Shallan. She still thinks that Ghostbloods are out to get her, and she no longer wants to give them any advantage. Notice how careful she is in her first POV in Urithuru - she keeps on thinking about the ways for assassins to get to her, and so on. I think Jasnah feels that she needs the information about her Plate to be her key advantage over the would-be assassins. Alternatively, she may have said her fourth Ideal right around the time of her Renarin scene. That scene fits my exact impression of what the Fourth Ideal of Elsecallers should be (see my comment above), so it could be that she gained a level right on the spot. I think though that she came out of Shadesmar leveled up.

Reading about Skybreakers was interesting. Probably some of my favorite chapters in the book. Nale went from villainous to tragic, which from the point of view of character development is good - makes him more interesting. Nale's decision is not unexpected, although I do not believe it to be inevitable. We still do not know much about the time of the Oathpact - and Nale was there and clearly knew what he was doing back then, so it's not like The Secret That Broke The Knights Radiant is a big deal for him. Yet, only after the Last Desolation is he contemplating the question of whose law reigns supreme. He also is discounting the fact that the REAL LAW should be the Dawnsinger Law prior to Odium's appearance on Roshar, and the law he will be following now is not that. Short term, Skybreakers appear to be set to become some sort of polizei force on the occupied territories, which is a bit disturbing to me (and I think Brandon wants to to be disturbing). Long term, I think that Skybreakers must be bendable to an argument that they should serve those singers who break with Odium the way the Listeners did around the time of the Last Desolation. I see complications, but because I also fully expect that the resolution of the conflict will involve humans helping a large chunk of singers break with Odium for good, I can see how Skybreakers will come home later. Or at least some of them. Some may actually swear to Odium, and those will be lost.

What specific assumptions about Ishar are you making?

I am with you on this one. The Shin are the group/tribe of humans who chose to stay on the territory allotted to them and not expand into the rest of Roshar. This later turned into the religious prohibition of walking on stone - stone is the territory of Dawnsingers, walking on it is forbidden by the original treaty. The reason why they do not use metal that was mined is the same - to them this is robbing the resources that belong to Dawnsingers.

The spren for Stonewards is ... .drumroll... stonepren. We saw them in Shadesmar. Also, can we have a list of Oaths/Ideals for each Order? @IndigoAjah: there is a lot of interesting things in what you are saying, which I believe work on three levels: 1. Ability with Surges. Everyone seems to be doing much better with one of the Surges than with their other. Lift slides, but does not heal as much. Renarin (albeit he is a special case) Heals, but barely Illuminates. Shallan Lightweaves, but doesn't Soulcast. Jasnah Soucasts, but barely Transports. 2. Attributes. Just as you are saying. 3. Oaths. My new theory is that for most Orders of the Knights Radiant, their Oaths/Ideals are structured according to the following template: Ideal #1: Journey before Destination. Ideal #2: proclamation of a core value of the Order. "I will protect", "I will unite", "I will remember", "I will serve the law", "I will stand" etc. This is the core principle of the Order. Ideal #3: kicks it up a notch. Picks a great fear and turns it into strength. This is seen in the cases of Bondsmiths ("I will fail") and Windrunners ("I will protect those I hate") Ideal #4: Acknowledges a key limitation. We've not seen the fourth Ideal of anyone except for Skybreakers (and they are one of the two exceptions to me), but it is suspected that Kaladin was not willing to say the Fourth Ideal of Windrunners because it is about acknowledging that he can fail to protect some, and needs to move on to protecting those who still need it. I also suspect that the Fourth Ideal of Elsecallers is something like "I will not lose my empathy". (see below) Ideal #5: something ultimate for each order. Not certain how else to say it. In other words: #2 - first Attribute. #3: escalation of first Attribute. #4: second Attribute. Caveats. Lightweavers have their own thing, and Skybreakers have ideals that kinda sorta fit the idea behind my #3 and #4, but I'd have to think more about it. Thoughts on Elsecallers. I used to think that their second Ideal is "I will go where no one will". However, now I think that this is the Second Ideal of Willshapers. For Elsecallers, I see something like #2: "I will be the voice of reason"., #3 (escalating) "I will not abandon reason even if everyone else has" (or something similar), and #4 "I will not lose my empathy". I do not have strong reasons to believe all this. Primarily, I am reading what Elsecallers wrote on the gems, observing Jasnah's role in the proceedings (voice of reason to Kal's voice of passion), and am thinking about how intellect without empathy and empathy w/o intellect are disfunctional on the example of Taravangian. Elsecallers cannot fall into the same trap, so they must preserve their ability to empathize. Jasnah certainly has, and this is a major plot point in the book and the one clear sign of her character development. [Edit]: looking at Stonewards. Their second Attribute is "Resourceful". We seem to know that "I will stand when others fall" is their Second Ideal. I suspect that their third Ideal escalates that, but their fourth Ideal is essentially to the tune of "you don't have to sacrifice yourselves all the time, there are better ways to achieve the same goals".

Teft is not the only person caught moping in the book. Our trio of main characters had so much of it that at some point I was really-really craving Adolin's POVs.

I have a feeling that Brandon has made a conscious decision to give Hoid a "pet the dog" moment to give us some peace of mind about who he is.

There have been a number of excellent Crowning Moments of Awesome involving many characters. Of the ones I saw mentioned, Lift stepping up to Dalinar at the exact moment he is doing his "alone...all alone" thing, was beautiful, as was her decision to feed Nightblood. Of the things not mentioned, Jasnah pretty much stole almost every scene she was in. This one, however, is probably my favorite: After pages upon pages upon pages of difficult and often futile fights with the Fused, this?