Naurock

I kinda felt he would be a good fit with a Cryptic because I imagined him following Shallan's path of multiple personas (which tbh, I didn't really enjoy reading). But I totally understand your perspective here. His blind faith in Aesudan was disturbing, the fact he didn't believe she was the center tipped me off he was in for a rude awakening. Especially when we had the ardent's POV in WoR we knew she was not stable. I know and accept my wife's flaws, he knew his wife's flaws and denied them. Never including a plan for if she was taken in was a major oversight, which he seems to do a lot. This is a lack of imagination, perception and highlights his poor leadership. I guess the real issue here is he's a King and that's his tragic flaw. If he wasn't king he wouldn't even be worth mentioning in the story.

Who knows, this is a fabrial unlike anything we've seen yet it seems. I think an epigraph said it protects the city somehow. It's strange, because the Stormfather has like a split consciencneness, as it's now always with Dalinar and also with the storms. Maybe these Uber spren can bond people and also run super style systems. But I'm still kinda stuck on the wording "trapped", lured in and trapped. How does it leave the gem? King T. also said it's lured to something it loves, so either it loves the stone or something else of the building attracted it?

They've already tried to transfer Stormlight and it wouldn't hold it. Renarin, Jasnah and Navani are constantly mentioning it's a fabrial. I'm curious how a spren retreats from a fabrial, because King T says you trap a spren in the gemstone. Maybe because it's not a lesser/mindless spren?

When her hair changed color, it hit me then. Which was very briefly before she outright said she's from somewhere else.

Voted, and thank you for including my choice!

I think Vasher was mostly possessive of Nightblood was because he knew he could resist the urges to kill with Nightblood and he didn't really trust anyone else with this super weapon. I wonder if Nighblood was able to consume enough Investiture if he could destroy a dead Shardblade.

@rdog2213 I guess I'd side with option 1, but mostly calling him a mini sliver like you say at the end. From what I remember of that scene there were TONS of gloryspren circling him, and the copper mind says spren are a fragment of the power of creation. So he grabbed all this free floating investiture and created a brief perpendicularity.

Brandon considers Warbreaker to be the prequel to all of the Stormlight Archives. I wish I was better at navigating the WoB database and it's been a long times since I've tried but I have read quite a few things regarding this. Also, only people born on Nalthis have a breath. Humans born there have an extra bit of Investiture from Endowment, and awakening allows them to harness this investiture. Azure/Vivenna has changes considerably from Warbreaker and we are missing a lot of information. There must have been a war on Nalthis and her and Vasher probably created another Awakened Blade (maybe more than one). She probably has a large trove of breaths, and at the 5th heightening an awakener has "agelessness". She may have more, who knows. But why is Nightblood so confusing to you? Warbreaker explained several times that he cuts on all three realms so whatever he kills is gone forever. He explained it in this book as well with Szeth. We have Shardblades, Radiants and living Sprenblades, Heralds and Honor Blades. They're all related, in a way.

I'd like to say Sadeas was a man ahead his time... But I think it's very clear he was born centuries too late. For if he had been there to assist in the training and forging of Taln, I feel it's very clear we wouldn't have this current Desolation. Taln would still be on Braize saying, "You think this is bad? Just wait till we get back to Roshar, you'll see the wrath of true anger and passion. Sadeas will surely be alive and will force you all back here alone by pure force of will! I can't go back there and endure his anger." I must admit this would be a very boring book as the next desolation would probably not be for another 4500 years, or even until the other shards finally got their act together, un-Invested from their planets to come here and defeat Odium in his weaker and Invested state, splintering him and scattering his splinters across the entire Cosmere universe.

@teknopathetic Why not guess Akinah? Amians clearly are hiding something, and supposedly held all Soul Caster fabrials.

This was the closest I came to shedding tears. Renarin and Adolin had terrible childhoods, I truly felt for them and how this was a huge turning point in Dalinar's redemption was very touching.

I thought about Shallan doing this just like Cusicesh! I wonder how this is similar.

I guess I more saw that as an issue with who spren are choosing and the malleability of perception. If you have spren holding people to their ideals how could they destroy a second planet? Or why bond people that could allow that?

I've been done with the book for almost a week now, and it still isn't hitting me hard. Humans clearly are wrong, but now they have a right to defense.

I really enjoyed this book! Some of the character arcs bothered me though. I didn't like Kaladin's childness towards a battle with the Parshendi. For a guy that was in an army as a spear men for years and then a bridge men he was overly sensitive to seeing death again. Shallan and he personality disorder was pretty annoying to read too. Dalinar meeting Odium blew my mind the first time, I wasn't ready to meet him. The letters to Hoid in the chapter preludes were so cool! While in Shadesmar someone mentioned there's dead eyes spren there, I wonder if there's a hoard of them hiding from humans or if those are ones that humans are holding and waiting to be summoned. There does seem to be a whole lot of missing shard blades out there considering the Recreance. The secret that caused the Recreance seemed a little underwhelming. Maybe it's because he's kinda teased this a few times while talking about horses and chickens are different than normal life on Roshar which abstractly points to humans as well. Final battle, OMG! Whole Alethi army turns on Theylens & Dalinar! Amaram and Kaladin battle! You find out Rock was a soldier and lost his brothers making him a cook, he gets his family again and then fights! Sorry, those final chapters really got me fanboying. I was just so disappointed about Kaladin's arc, and I'm upset he didn't swear the next Ideal. I wanted to see Radiant Shardplate in action, that isn't in a vision. He's been a favorite of mine, but seeing Jasnah put him down and she was very right in her deduction of his actions. Also, Jasnah is back! I thoroughly enjoy her stone cold look at the world, and seeing her in battle (again, kinda) where she Soul Casts AIR! She was a Soul Casting machine, and I thought that was so interesting to read. I had never truly thought of battle implications of Soul Casting but that was super fascinating to me!

Huh, I missed that one. I like this!

In their defense, they all seemed to be fighting not to go back to Braize. I'd be a pretty defensive fighter too if I knew what was waiting for me when I died.

Kinda like the all black sphere Gavilar had in WoK? o.O

That not exactly how that scene read. Also, I just reread Envisagers chapter and on. Teft put 3 more chips in Kaladin's hand to help him heal, but he still was out for 10 days. And he describes being surrounded by death spren because of the lacerations, hypothermia, broken bones, layers of skin missing, head trauma and the list goes on.

You do point out amazing feats of healing, but in both Shallan's and Jasnah's case they healed around the weapon until it was removed. Kaladin was pretty much dead and one tiny sphere brought him back, but if I remember correctly he slept for several days afterwards and had death spren circling him. For a second there with Shallan I was legitimately worried a crossbow bolt to the head would possibly kill her, but as I kept reading my doubts were unfounded. You're right that Adolin doesn't exactly have a great baseline for watching healing, but in the duel for shards Kaladin broke his legs and still needed time before he could stand. Against Amaram he needed time to heal he ankles. As @Ookla the Feathered And @Ookla, the Incalculable it is probably just because of Progression but I have trouble letting it go that his spren is different and Brandon is sneaky and likes to drop hidden descriptions like this to expand on later.

@RShara no, I was referring to his battle with the Thunderclast. He got crushed and he shrugged it off like a toddler hit him with a feather. Adolin even said he seemed to heal faster than anyone else. I'm throwing stuff out there because Brandon doesn't say add stuff like that flippantly. He always has a reason.

Maybe so, or maybe the Squires try to help Kaladin and they keep getting hit by the giant carapace Fused. They're not battle tested with their lashes, and maybe they eat up too much Stormlight near Kaladin trying to help and need too much healing. I know Shallan used a large amount of the Stormlight on the illusions, and I don't disagree with you, I'm just kinda posting a think about it. Maybe that's why Dalinar only saw two Radiants in his vision with the shadow creatures.

Has anyone commented on Renarin's extraordinary healing abilities yet? Is this a perk of his Order? Or something to do with his corrupted spren? Maybe he was somehow drawing Voidlight and Stormlight at the same time?

Maybe Singers are able to hold much more Stormlight/Voidlight than humans. Also, it's been stated many times humans are "bad vessels" and leak easily. This could be a comparison to the Singers and their ability to hold Stormlight/Voidlight much longer. Do you think the Radiants would have fared better with Kaladin's squires, or with Nale's crew of Dustbringers? Maybe with the ability to fight on more fronts they deal with the battle better. Or maybe they run through the Stormlight quicker and someone doesn't survive like Renarin or Kaladin who each took a huge beating.

I guess I didn't really think of it in a way of the 3 realms (which almost everything about shards and magic systems should be kept in the forefront of your mind when his books). Thanks for reminding me of it. Even with this new perspective I'm still left wanting more. Near unstoppable force destroyed by something a foolish Dari that bonded Night could have done accidentally or out of curiosity. I guess I wanted either a quick but kinda epic battle or some battle of wits or wills shown on the Spiritual realm between the brothers. The armies final battle had a near whole chapter, and it ends up being pointless because as Pagerunner points out with his flaws that the army regenerates anyway.