Seerow

What was it that Adolin said? "I think I know what some of those words mean"

He states the second Oath. His first Oath was the same one all Radiants take "Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination" His second Oath was "I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together"

There's another post on this topic a little ways down the page here

I didn't say that Syl was bonded during the Recreance itself. Just that she had bonded others. In WoK she says something like "I helped men kill in the past..." sounds a lot like having had previous bondings to me.

Yeah. Syl mentions in WoK that in the past she had bonded with others. Assuming breaking the bond intentionally kills her, the only other option I can think of to let that be possible is the Radiant dying while upholding their oaths.

See, I had the exact opposite reaction. The first half of the books the Flashbacks were very sparse, with almost no information in them (and even less that was new). When we finally did get new information (she had been bonded all along), it came in her normal chapter and not a flashback chapter at all. Finding out she killed her father with her own hands and not the shardblade was a nice twist, but the majority of her chapters seemed to be just hammering in what we'd already known: Shallan's family was abused heavily by her father, who tried to avoid hurting her. I felt like we could have lost 3/4ths of the Flashbacks from Shallan and not missed much of anything. And given they were so far apart to begin with, I'm really not sure why we needed them in the first place. On the other hand, outside of her flashbacks, her story took an interesting direction I honestly hadn't anticipated. Who she became in WoR is such a big shift from what we saw in WoK that it was impossible to see coming, yet it all felt natural and well developed. You say "all" she did was manipulate some people. That's like saying "all" Kaladin did in WoK was help some people survive. Yes, that was what she was doing, but the way she went about it, and why, made for a great read, and dramatically improved my perception of her.

Judging by this, my guess is Truthwatchers are the Unknown order on the right side (between Stonewardens and Elsecallers). Which gives him the Transportation Surge, and one that is yet unknown (likely to do with seeing the future). The only other possibility is Illumination+Growth, which doesn't seem to fit at all.

I have a theory: The Radiants made a treaty with the Parshendi, giving up their Surgebindings in exchange for the Parshendi destroying knowledge of the Voidforms. Where it fits: -We've had a much longer period of time between Desolations than usual. (seems to be normally measured in centuries, but I seem to remember the prologue being 5000 years in the past. That's a pretty big gap) -The Parshendi are particularly offended when they discover Kaladin, saying they need to seek out stronger forms because the humans have surgebinders now. -Darkness is actively hunting down all surgebinders and killing them, with the claim he is trying to stop a desolation from happening. -See: Various secret societies all based around the idea of bringing back either the Radiants or the Voidbringers. The two are clearly connected in some way, yet in the past that didn't seem to be the case. In Dalinar's visions there were Radiants even before the true desolation came. Issues: -Why did the spren sense an oncoming desolation and start coming back, if them coming back is the trigger of the desolation? --This could be explained as the war against the Parshendi pushing the Parshendi to desperation and seeking out the stronger forms regardless of whether there are surgebinders or not. Kaladin's existence was merely a catalyst to push it a bit faster. -Why was Gavilar murdered? I expect this will be a major mystery for another book or two, but believe the answer to this question will be the key to everything. He said something to the Parshendi that made them decide killing him and going to war was worth it. What they didn't expect was the Alethi's tenacity and their eventual brush with extinction. -Related to the above: Gavilar was apparently receiving the same visions then that Dalinar is now. If those visions come to prepare for the desolation, what triggered him receiving the visions? Whatever he saw is what pushed the Parshendi to kill him, and them killing him caused the rest. What was the trigger for the visions? Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Did something else change in the world? Had the Parshendi gone into hibernation/hiding, and merely interacting with them put Gavilar in the position to start getting visions? This and the above point are the hardest to answer.

I doubt Yalb is a herald, but I hope he did survive miraculously somehow. He was a lot of fun, and seeing Shallan react to him after her growth in WoR would be something.

I'm curious about the reference saying that an Honor Blade can't be bonded. If it can't be bonded, what happened with Szeth? Even if it was given to him, there had to be some sort of bond there for him to be able to summon and dismiss it, doesn't there?

Way of Kings prime as in an initial draft of it, before it was published. Probably only a handful of people got to read that version.

edit: nevermind

I really doubt that the Plate is a Fabrial (In Dalinar's visions there were basically no fabrials. He confirms this to Navani in WoK), and I'm still holding to the belief that it comes with the 4th Oath (which thus far nobody has spoken that we've seen, right?). The simplest answer is often correct, and in this case getting your weapon with one oath and armor with the next is a lot simpler than getting a weapon with one oath and your armor from another order growing special copies of plate.

I thought this was foreshadowing of the bridge having been tampered with before it collapsed. Did I read that section wrong? Please, no. Half of Lopens best lines have been about wanting to impress herdazian women, him turning out to be gay would be really dumb. All about giving Drehy a boyfriend, but at least keep away from characters pretty firmly established as straight.

I'm a newly minted Sanderson fan, so any of these prizes would be awesome new material to me.

I'm a newly minted Sanderson fan, so any of these prizes would be awesome new material to me.