Lightspine

This has me thinking: do we know any instances where Kandra have changed their blessings? I know TenSoon obtained the Blessing of Potency from OreSeur, but I can't remember if he ever swapped out his Blessing of Presence for those, or simply had both blessings at once. However, I'm pretty sure that Bleeder must have completely switched her original spikes out at some point, since she is using an unknown metal now and only one spike at a time. If your theory were true, wouldn't switching Blessings make them forget all the memories held in those spikes?

I agree partially with this interpretation, but I don't think Yolen is meant to be the "tranquiline halls" under that context. I didn't say this in my main post, but I believe that Vorinism is meant to be somewhat prophetic/cyclical. Currently, it describes the First Desolation—the arrival of humans on Roshar—from the perspective of the Dawnsingers. However, as you said, Roshar is Odium's training grounds for his future wars in the Cosmere. In this interpretation, wherever humans are sent to next to fight will be the "tranquiline halls" (although I guess they were never kicked out of them.. hmmm).

The first part of this theory is built on information we've had since Oathbringer, and although I haven't seen a post about it myself, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody has made a post in the same vein. For the second part, I need to credit the moderator FeatherWriter, who brought it up in one of the 17th shard podcast (Shardcast) episodes. So I don't think of this theory as very original. I'm bringing together two separate ideas that I think fit together very nicely. Part 1: Vorinism is about the Dawnsingers After Oathbringer, I got a little suspicious about he Vorin faith. I doubt I'm the first one to have these thoughts. Let's list out the core beliefs of Vorinism and see what they imply. Origin of Humans on Roshar and Central Conflict: Long ago, humans lived on the Tranquiline Halls. The Voidbringers, from Damnation, came and took over the Tranquiline Halls, forcing humanity to flee to Roshar. Desolations: The Voidbringers periodically escape Damnation and try to wipe humanity off of the face of Roshar. Eventually, at Aharietiam, humanity defeated the Voidbringers and the battle moved to the Tranquiline Halls. Present Day and Afterlife: Currently, the Heralds fight a war against the Voidbringers in the Tranquiline Halls, joined by the souls of the dead. Now lets relate these beliefs to the what we know about the history of Roshar, and interpret it the way the characters in the book do: Ashyn = Tranquiline Halls, Braize = Damnation Origin of Humans on Roshar and Central Conflict: Humans made Ashyn inhospitable, came to Roshar seeking refuge. They were the first Voidbringers, bringing Odium with them. (You may notice that this doesn't really fit what Vorinism says) Desolations: The Fused escape from Braize when the Heralds break and try to win Roshar back from the Humans. Present Day and Afterlife: ????? No clear connection This is the face-value interpretation that is given by the books. Raboniel even tells Navani that Braize is the place she would call Damnation. But there are issues with it. Let me try to resolve those by flipping some names around. The Tranquiline Halls are Roshar. Damnation is Ashyn. "Roshar" is Braize (I know this one seems weird). This is now a story about the Dawnsingers. Origin of Humans on Roshar and Central Conflict: Humans, the first Voidbringers, come from Ashyn (Damnation) and drive the Dawnsingers out of Roshar (the Tranquiline Halls) and onto Braize ("Roshar"). This now matches up much better with the story told by Vorinism. Desolations: The Heralds reside on Braize to prevent the Returns. (Okay, this is by far the weakest connection made by this version of the story). Present Day and Afterlife: The Dawnsingers now go to fight on Roshar (the Tranquiline Halls) as the Fused after their deaths. After Aharietiam, 9 out of 10 Heralds are on Roshar rather than on Braize. This aligns with the idea that the Heralds are now in the Tranquiline Halls. I know it isn't perfect, but two out of the 3 points align much more closely with the story of the Dawnsingers than with the story of the Humans. In addition, we know that the Hierocracy erased a lot of the religion of Old Vorinism. It's highly theorized that Ishar was behind this. Therefore, it is pretty possible that the creator of the current Vorin faith new about these connections. Also, notice that this interpretation of events sort of places Odium in the role of the Almighty. (Following the first desolation, at least) Part 2: Dalinar's Fate In the first Rhythm of War Reactions Shardcast episode, FeatherWriter brings up this scene from Oathbringer: Featherwriter noted that this was eerily foreboding for Dalinar becoming one of the Fused. And if we interpret this through the lens of Vorinism being about the Dawnsingers, it becomes even more damning. "After the Tranquiline Halls are won back" now refers to the Fused winning back Roshar, after which Odium will "provide for Dalinar another conquest." If you ask me, Dalinar's chances in the contest of champions aren't looking so good.

My mini theory on this is that one of the Sleepless is just being nice. Maybe Arclo?

The dagger might not be strictly necessary. After all, the very first anti-voidlight sphere (from Gavilar) somehow reacted and triggered an explosion without the use of such a dagger. It must have made contact with voidlight somehow anyways. I know this isn't the same as contacting the investure of a Fused, but I think knowing that it isn't necessary in one scenario at least opens the possibilities somewhat. Theoretically, all the anti-voidlight needs is contact with the investure that comprises the Fused's cognitive shadow. We know that one way to make investure leave a gemstone is by breaking it (this works with spren, I think with stormlight? But i'm not entirely sure). I think that if you crushed up a sphere containing anti-voidlight it could conceivably release it. That means throwing them at the Fused and hoping the splatter on impact or something. Other than that, I guess they'd need to steal some Raysium. The Fused bring those spears into combat, so the Radiants could probably nab them if they defeat any.

There has to be something more going on here. These fabrials are still accompanied by dormant spren in Shadesmar, and the anti-surgebinding fabrial was accompanied by a voidspren. That probably means that the spren isn't manifesting fully into the physical realm. Like, maybe only half its investure has taken physical form? Or something else to do with Intent. In addition, the Oathgate spren do seem to manifest as a very shardblade-like material.

Ah yes, here it is: I guess this implies Kaladin's grandmother was the one who provides this distant relationship. I don't know what else to conclude from this, especially since we know nothing about Aesudan's family.

This is something that might have crossed almost everybody's minds during the Hesina Interlude, but I haven't seen a post about it yet. We know from this WoB that one of Kaladin's maternal grandparents was lighteyed: In the Hesina Interlude, she remarks the following in reference to her father: I didn't catch the sword thing in my first read-through, so I'll reiterate what it means. Hesina's father would not normally be allowed to use a sword, but he has been granted an exception. Along with a comparison to a lighteyes that would otherwise make no sense, this is pretty strong evidence that he is darkeyed. This means that Kaladin's maternal grandmother must be the lighteyed one. I don't really have anything to add besides speculation. It seems like Kaladin's grandfather was a darkeyed businessman rich enough to marry somebody lighteyed. Hesina doesn't mention her mother at all in this Interlude, as far as I can tell, so we don't know anything about her. The citylord who Hesina's father bullied is almost definitely lighteyed—even small towns like Hearthstone have lighteyed citylords, and I'm pretty sure they must be lighteyed anyway—so is Hesina's mother of even higher standing? Edit: (additional speculation) the lack of mention of Hesina's mother might actually be significant. Lirin specifically only remarks about whether or not her father is alive. This may be an indication that Hesina's mother is already dead.

We also need to remember that someone told Mraize that Shallan had seen a corrupted gloryspren. That points towards Beryl, yet, as far as we know, Beryl never used the Seon nor had the opportunity—since Pattern admits to the instances of disturbing the box. I guess it's possible that Beryl had her own Seon, though they are supposed to be very rare. However, I think the better answer is Radiant. Radiant killed Ialai, so she was essentially acting as the Ghostblood "spy" in that situation. We know that Shallan sort of wanted to pin the blame on Beryl, since she was the newest Lightweaver and the one whose betrayal would hurt the least. Thus, Radiant could have told Mraize the information about the gloryspren at one point to "protect" Shallan. Let's look at what Radiant says after Mraize repeats the gloryspren information: Radiant is trying to peddle the idea that it's Beryl! This is consistent if she were the one to frame Beryl. This is far from proof though, just what I think the most reasonable conclusion is for the identity of the "spy."

@DracostarA seems to have suggested Voice of Lights first, actually!

Wow, this is a really good observation but also quite puzzling. Does this mean that the cognitive shadows of the Fused are somehow in the "voidlight" state? And that spren like Phendorana are somehow in a "stormlight" state? Otherwise, anti-voidlight or anti-stormlight wouldn't work on them. I think a better answer might be surface area and rate of reactivity. If anti-voidlight and voidlight/Odium's investure need to physically contact in order to react, then their ability to mix is very important. For example, if you're trying to make a really big, fantastic explosion with hydrogen gas, you want it to be mixed well with oxygen first. A piece of wood contains a lot of energy to be released in burning, but it takes several minutes to burn fully because only the surface can react with oxygen. If you had a gas or liquid that held that amount of energy, or a solid that contained its own oxidizer (like most high explosives do) then it would react nearly instantly and cause an explosion instead of a long-lasting fire. (Minute physics actually has a new video that pretty much covers this exact topic, except they compare TNT and marshmallows). That means that, if we think of this in terms of typical chemical reactivity, it makes sense that a solid would react much slower than a liquid or gas (I actually think "Light" is a supercritical fluid from Navani's description, which is a state that has properties of both liquids and gasses, but that's not really important for the topic at hand). Therefore, it's possible that the Raysium dagger was being corroded (and releasing some heat) while in contact with the anti-voidlight, and Navani didn't notice. However, this explanation only works if the Raysium is conducting the anti-voidlight along its surface. If, somehow the anti-voidlight were inside the Raysium then... well I don't really have an analogous situation in real life for that, but it sounds like that should be a condition that allows for fast—and explosive—reaction. Therefore, you would be correct that they anti-voidlight can only react with Odium's investure in the "voidlight" form.

Wait, really? HOPE LIVES! Now that you mention it, Kelsier became a shadow after letting go of a shard's power, so I see where you're coming from. But I don't think I know enough to say for sure if this applies entirely to Teft. I really hope it does, if it means Teft passed on knowing that Kaladin was doing alright.

This is a detail that made me hate Moash even more: While Kaladin was swearing the his 4th Ideal, he hears a voice that isn't identified by the narrator: Since this person refers to Kaladin as "lad", it's clearly meant to be Teft. The easiest conclusion to make is that this is a Spiritual echo, much like Tien or Evi. However, after I read the final Eshonai flashback I had a bit of hope. What if it was Teft's cognitive shadow? This scene did take place within minutes of Teft's death, so it seems possible. Teft was Radiant, so he died with enough investure... except he didn't. Because Moash killed Phendorana first. Teft did not die Radiant. I'm not saying that Phendorana's death wasn't already tragic. But Teft's death had overshadowed it until I realized this. Teft should have been there to see Kaladin swear his Ideal. He deserved it. Perhaps he would have also been granted a final mercy by the Stormfather, and been allowed to fly with the storm. One last time. But Storming Moash couldn't even let him have that.

My assumption from what we heard of his discussion with Gavilar in the prologue, and what he tells Shallan later, is that he and Gavilar were working on a way to transport him offworld—he mentions wanting to escape Roshar, and merely being able to go to Braize is definitely not enough. I know that's not the same goal that the Sons of Honor have as a whole, and there also has to be some reason why Kalak continued advising them even after Gavilar died. (also, this is something I just remembered but Kalak must have advised Amaram to kill Kaladin's squad and take the shards... I feel like we might see the consequences of this)

I noticed when Navani mentioned that the Lights seemed to be between those two states—I think it means they might be supercritical fluids. For those who don't know, past a certain pressure liquids will form a supercritical fluid instead of a gas when temperature is increased. This fluid has density comparable to that of a liquid but it completely fills its container, just as a gas would. The easiest one to create is supercritical CO2, you should be able to find videos of that all over. This would mean that the Light fills the gem instead of just settling as a pool on the bottom, even if the gem is only partially infused, which I think is consistent with observations from the books. However, I didn't immediately make the connection that perhaps investure from all shards would take the form of "Light" when it is in the state of a supercritical fluid. Such a state requires high pressure, so it would only appear when it is contained in a small space (exactly like a gemstone)!

I agree with the first half of what you said completely. However, it is shown in Szeth's duel with Kaladin at the end of WoR that he can heal from Shardblade injuries. It appears to have been a misconception of his since it is more difficult than for a Radiant. So, I think the spiritual/cognitive explanation is by far the best. In addition, eyes have a very large symbolic or thematic role on Roshar. When someone dies by a Shardblade, their eyes burn out. Dead spren have their eyes scratched out. Radiants and Voidbringers (Singers with forms of power, to be specific) undergo changes in eye color. Not to mention the whole lighteyes/darkeyes division which probably stems from the Radiants. Moash losing his eyes is a parallel of either someone who has been killed by a shardblade (since the quote is "his vision had been burned away" it matches pretty well) or deadeyed spren. Even though the description of vision "burned away" matches shardblade deaths better, I find the deadeye connection to be more meaningful here. It's as if part of Moash's soul has been ripped away. Is it possible that, when the Towerlight severed his Connection with Odium, this worked a little like the breaking of a Nahel bond? Did it damage Moash's spiritweb in the same manner as the breaking of oaths damaged spren?

Woah, that's a really cool connection, especially since some of the Unmade's names have Canaanite origins. That's a possibility! Another idea I now have is that El used to be an important Dawnsinger who served Honor, and that was when he held the Elithanathile "He Who Transforms" title. Somehow, this name was preserved as that of an important figure and eventually got mixed up with Honor themselves.

I don't think it was sand since it clinked: Because of the clinking, I think it was probably something metallic or glass. Straight-up money (coins, spheres) doesn't really seem sufficient, obviously. I also don't know if Raboniel's voice being devoid of the rhythms is relevant to some property of the payment or is just a result of her emotions. I have a wild guess: atium? We now know that Thaidakar is probably Kelsier, so something Scadrian would make sense. In addition, atium is impossible to obtain by any methods we currently know of, yet there are stories and myths about finding it in Mistborn Era 2 that a lot of people take as foreshadowing that it'll appear again. The difficulty in obtaining it makes this seem less likely but we also know the payment couldn't be something easy to find either. I don't know what use the Fused would have for atium though. They can't burn it. Perhaps it has some really interesting properties in fabrials? There's also lerasium, which is just equally impossible to obtain and also probably more useful since it'll turn anybody Mistborn.

I think Voice of Lights is the most likely. However, I also have a crackpot theory, which makes slightly less sense but I think should be considered. The first thing I thought of when I read "El" was Elithanathile, "He who Transforms," the title of the Almighty. Now, I know this is wild but "He who Transforms" has the proper format to be a Fused title. In addition, if El is the same Brand of Fused as Raboniel, then he has the surge of Transformation so it could fit his abilities. There's a few hurdles to this though, the largest of which is that we're told El's title was given to a "human." Would they call Tanavast a human?? I'm not sure. The Honorspren don't even consider Kalak to be human anymore, so from that perspective I doubt Tanavast would be considered human. But the Fused may have different standards for "human" than the spren do. I also have no idea what this implies about Vorinism if it is true.

I don't think you're being rude or overly pedantic! I made a mistake and you rightfully pointed it out. I've been trying to use they/them pronouns when referring to the Sibling but it appears that I slip to thinking of them as "him" sometimes. I've noticed that I often need to consciously remind myself to use they/them pronouns for people in real life as well. It might be because I didn't really meet any non-binary people earlier in my life. This is something that I need to work on. Thank you for calling me out on this! I will keep trying to improve!

This feels a little weird. I think it's an unspoken term that the Champion must agree to represent Odum or Dalinar. Otherwise, Rayse would have never had to try and turn Dalinar in the first place.

You're correct about the timeline, since the Oathbringer epigraphs (from the gem archive) include: (I'm taking these from Coppermind btw) along with their planning to capture BAM: Since the gem archive has no mention of what proceeds after capturing BAM, I think you're correct in concluding that the Sibling began withdrawal before the event, and that BAM's imprisonment was not the sole factor in this. The Sibling mentions his loss of Towerlight was specifically on the same day as BAM's capture, so it seems to have been the final straw. Interestingly, the gem archive also talks about Melishi, who seems to be the Sibling's bondsmith and how was definitely directly involved in creating that defensive shield. I seem to remember somewhere in RoW they mention the Sibling cut off his bond with Melishi right before the Recreance? I forgot where that quote was though (please help if you remember!).

I think there's one other thing you left out; BAM's capture also seems to coincide with the Sibling losing their ability to create Towerlight and falling asleep: I'm not sure how that is connected with the rest, but I do have an idea about BAM that covers both the deadeyes and the Singers. Sja-anat calls the Bondsmith spren her "cousins." We also know that that the Sibling would have become one of the Unmade had Raboniel succeeded. This makes it almost definitive that the Unmade were once ancient spren and a part of Roshar's ecosystem. Of equal or similar level to the Stormfather himself to the operations of the planet. I think Ba-Ado-Mishram's role was—and continued to be after her Unmaking (for lack of a better word)—some sort of spiritual healing. It's the common thread that the Parshmen and the Deadeyes share. Part of their spiritweb was ripped out, and never healed. As for the Sibling, when Navani is bonding them at the end of the book, this happens: There's two interpretations of this. The first I find boring and downright weird; that when the Sibling "lost the rhythm of [their] light" upon BAM's capture they actually only lost Honor's Rhythm, but remembered Cultivation's. Navani just needed to provide Honor's. The second interpretation is that the Sibling lost the emulsifier. I like this idea better. It's more cohesive than BAM, a spren of Odium, somehow being necessary to provide Honor's Rhythm to the Sibling. So, combining these separate ideas together, I think BAM was needed for healing of the spiritweb on Roshar, and also related to the "emulsification" or the bridging of Humans and Spren (and Singers too I guess?). Looking at this from the angle of Connection, I think I have the answer; BAM Connected the (native?) inhabitants of Roshar with something that they all shared. Part of my first quote from the Sibling was: Whatever it was that they shared, it was something that allowed them to heal their spiritwebs. This also explains how BAM Connected with all of the Singers in the fist place—by strengthening the Connection she already had. Connections are also somewhat transitive—if two spiritwebs are Connected to the same thing, that provides some Connection between the two spiritwebs (evidence: Dalinar Connects with an Azish person, whose Connection with their language allows Dalinar to speak that language). This means that by Connecting humans and spren to the same source, this may have provided some sort of emulsifier.

(Apologies if this theory has already been put forward and I never found it) Rhythm of War answered a LOT of questions. But there's still one that's been hanging over the series (for me, at least) since the beginning. The first major setting of the story: The Shattered Plains. They're a big mystery in the first two books. So are the chasmfiends, whose lifecycle is still unexplained. During Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, I began to forget about this. As the story has moved beyond them, and we found ourselves there less and less, I started to forget how very weird they were. When I read Venli's final chapter in Rhythm of War, it clicked. They've always described the Eastern edges of the Plains as dangerous. Wild. Teaming with Chasmfiends and other predators. To quote Rlain: Myths on Roshar, and Tanavast himself, refer to Dawnshards. Plural. The only one we know of was kept secret in Aimia, and used to be guarded by enormous beasts. If there are others on Roshar, we should be looking for similar places, right? Chasmfiends have some similarities to the Laceryn. Chiri-chiri is described as "trumping" much like one of the chasmfiends. Besides the wings, they are described with a similar anatomy. They've always been described as somewhat intelligent, and now we know that they can form bonds with people (or the Listeners, at least). This may not be evidence of the sapience that Chiri-chiri has, but it's something. Among other oddities, Adolin says that the chasmfiend chrysalis looks most similar to that of an aquatic greatshell from Shallan's drawings. There's a decent chance the Laceryn were at least partially aquatic. What pulled me the most towards this theory, however, was the shape of the plains. Take a look at that map: it has four-fold symmetry! FOUR FOLD. I think the comparison to the mural writes itself here. Now, I'm not saying that the entire Shattered Plains is holding on to the Dawnshard like that mural was. I think the Dawnshard is somewhere along the eastern edge of the Plains. The shape of the plains comes from how it was shattered—by a Dawnshard. I'm pretty sure the theory that a Dawnshard was used to shatter the Plains isn't a new one, and it's probably had plenty of variations. Personally, I've always believed that the Plains were shattered by a massive example of the same power the Dawnsingers used to create their cities. (Kabsal's sand-on-a-plate being the reason). That is in no way contradictory with the idea that a Dawnshard was involved. Dawnshards are Commands, and they can't do anything on their own. It's pretty widespread belief on this thread that the reason Rysn isn't allowed to bond a spren is that any form of Investure would become an outlet for wielding the Dawnshard. We know from Venli's experience with the stones that her people, the Dawnsingers, used to shape rock, often in tune with Rhythms. If one of them—or a group of them, singing together, since Nikli says something about single minds being incapable—held a Dawnshard, what could they do? What scale of things would the Command to their will? If they can shatter Adonalsium, if they can shatter worlds, and if they do so with four-fold symmetry, then they could have totally shattered these Plains. So... here's hoping Venli finds a Dawnshard in Book 5?

Perhaps, but I'm not sure what the implications of the glyphs are. Like, there's glyphs behind Kaladin when he swears his third Oath and on Ishar's Honorblade, so it seems like there might be something fundamental to them like the Aons are on Sel? My best guess would be that they have to do with vibrations—sand on a plate. If you use the pure tones of each of the three gods, maybe you wind up with something that looks like their glyphs? But in that case, would the glyph change? I think it would be a little whack if all of a sudden Navani had to rediscover the tone for voidlight. She'd probably be able to do it though, and it would be a good way to tip off to the Radiants that something about Odium has changed. On the other hand, the tone could be fundamental to the shard and thus not change at all. So if the glyphs are tied to the tones, then they wouldn't change either. I think this is fine because the phonetics of the glyphs might not need to be important. Like, the shape of the glyph is fundamental but people might have been the ones who took that and turned it into their words/language. So the old glyph phonetically says "Rasan's light" because that's how they constructed their language, not because Rayse being the Vessel physically impacted the glyphs shape. That's my best guess, anyway. Also, the most important thing I took away from these diagrams is HOLY CHULL IS KORAVELLIUM AVAST THE NAME OF CULTIVATION. ALSO IS CULTIVATION A DRAGON?? Edit: So I noticed that the Roshar glyph looks a LOT like the symbol of the Knights Radiant: This is pretty unsurprising, I guess. But wait! the blue lines that @ScavellTane drew on their post also correspond to the double eye at the center! So why on Roshar are the dots creating the double eye made from the glyphs of Cultivation and Odium? Seven of the dots are from Cultivation's glyph, 3 from Odium's. Odium's three are the Bondsmiths, Lightweavers, and Edgedancers. It defies all sense. Even if some of the orders are somehow tied to Odium, the Bondsmiths being one is inexplicable. And the Edgedancers are just so... Cultivationy. What's going on??????