Ciridae

So much amazing stuff happened in RoW, but Eshonai's final flashback was one of the absolute highlights for me. She's always been one of my favorite characters and I remember being absolutely devastated when the last Oathbringer sample chapter was released three years ago and she was just dead at the bottom of a chasm. She's such a tragic character and I always thought she deserved better than she got. Until I was reading that last flashback chapter I had no idea how much I needed closure on Eshonai's death. I think the entire scene was beautifully written and the resolution is so bittersweet. The way she also heard the rhythm of war. The way she fought to be free in her last moments, fighting to die as herself, to be free in the end. The fact that she spoke the first ideal and that the Stormfather told her she was Radiant, even for only a few moments. And how she gets to see the world as the storm and moving on, still excited to discover more. It just made me so happy to know she had a beautiful end to her arc, and I wanted to see if other people had similar feelings.

That's really cool, I especially love the highspren. Hope to see more soon!

I hope we get to see more visions. I know Dalinar has cycled through them multiple times, but I'm pretty sure we haven't seen them all yet. I guess the storyline using them to convince monarchs to join the coalition is over, but they are still useful for instantaneous face-to-face communication, especially with people who can't just walz into Urithiru. Venli is an example. And since Odium won't want to confront Dalinar directly, they don't have to be afraid of him messing with them either. Seems like a good place to talk to some of the Iriali, or maybe even Ishar or one of the other Heralds. Who knows, maybe even someone like Leshwi. I dont know, I really love getting glimpses into what is basically pre history at this point, and I bet once book 5 comes around there will be some kind of grand reveal concerning Unite Them and Nohadon. Maybe we could get a vision in this book about Urithiru and some insights on what its supposed to look like when it's fully functional, but at this point I think we would have heard of a vision like that. Either way, the visions are a little less mysterious now, but they are still important.

It would be really great if my theory about the apothecary from WoK being one of the Lightweavers that have been mentioned ends up correct. I'm not holding out too much hope, but nothing has disproven this theory yet, so maybe. I also want to call Lazian being the first of the fused to be imprisoned in a gem. It would fit with him having been the first to be killed by a human so long ago.

After reading DS I took it to mean that only one of the four was not merged with an individual. At the time of that WoB Rysn's Dawnshard was just hanging out on a wall. I assume the other three are merged with somebody.

These are great! Pailiah looks like she is surrounded by logic spren, and the red things flying around Chana are probably flamespren. The spren on Kalak's portrait could be joyspren or maybe shamespren? But either would be odd imo. Could be a different variety that we havent seen yet. Not much to go on for Nale's either.

This is really well done! I think its a great idea that this could be something people here on the Shard could participate in Off the top of my head, I think the question of how many Heralds were killed by the end of the book would be fun to bet on. Maybe whether or not Urithiru is made fully functional again. Or to name a side character that bonds a spren. Whose food Lift steals. Anyway, great job!

I think this may have been my favorite chapter so far, I love that we get to see exactly what team Odium is planning. Exciting to hear about their plans for the Sibling, and it looks like we have a pretty great team of villians already assembled. Lezian and Raboniel are pretty scary, and I bet Vyre is going to tag along as a way to deal with Kal. Brandon is doing a great job of making the Fused scary, and making them individuals and not just random surgebinders for the Radiants to kill. I love the concept that each Fused has their own history, lore and traditions. Interesting that Raboniel was considered insane but seems to be fine now. Did she fake it? Did she get better? Those Ones of Alteration would probably be either the Transformation of Cohesion Fused, right? And I find myself liking Leshwi more and more with each chapter that features her.

I really hope the next chapter is another Venli chapter. I really want to know what has Leshwi so worried. I like how Venli's arc is looking so far. I wonder how long she's going to stay hidden working for the Fused. Seems to me like asking for the Fused approval for a non-Odium listener group is pretty naive. But then again Brandon has put a lot of effort into showing us that the Fused are not incarnations of pure evil but still people, so who knows. They did specifically say they fight this war for their descendants, and will finally rest when they have won. Maybe some of the Fused could be swayed but big O for sure would not care for it. Venli's ability to check Shadesmar for all the different types of spren and Fused is really cool. That's a fun trick for the leader of a hidden rebellion. I kind of want her to come across Sja-Anat by accident while peeking into the CR and for the Unmade to start working with her. As cool as instant communication through humming rhythms is, I'm a little disappointed that we don't get any direct dialogue from Timbre. The spren personalities are all so different and unique, it just feels like Timbre is getting sold short a bit when Venli has to translate the Rhythms to the reader. I loved the lore about Lezian the Pursuer. I hope he's a recurring villian.

I think youre absolutely right, I didnt even think of that possibility.

Lopen almost died and Kaladin was there to see it happen? Will Kaldin be in Dawnshard? The Honorspren can no longer be trusted? Thats really interesting, I wonder if something happened to them and its not just them being unwilling to bond but somehow Odium or an Unmade did something to them. Sja-Anat? And who would know about that and have the means to contact Navani? For sure either a spren or someone bonded to one. Maybe a worldhopper like Azure. And what consequences could there be to trapping all those spren? And why be so vague about it? I guess the CR ecosystem might get thrown out of whack but we dont really know what roles spren animals have in the CR. Its good that were on track to finally learn more about the Ghostbloods and Thaidakar, as well as Shallan becoming Cosmere aware. I'm more and more excited about Thaidakar, we really need to meet them this book. Formless is scary, but maybe it's the real Shallan that can finally come out when she speaks her last truth. And still no Venli

Wow what Renarin did was so much like what And up until this point I really liked Moash as a character, I thought he was a cool villian. This was the first time I actually despised him. I mean I still think he's a great villian, but even him killing Elhokar didnt make me as angry and anxious as him trying to get Kaladin to kill himself. And wow I just realized Kaladin felt light and warmth coming from Renarin, just like Dalinar keeps feeling in his weird dreams! I have no idea what it could be, but I bet it's the same thing!

Wow, I'm starting to really like Leshwi. It's great that we're getting Navani's reactions to seeing Moash. Its good to remember that he hasn't only hurt Kaladin and Bridge Four, but Dalinar, Jasnah, Navani, Adolin and Renarin. I'm curious what weird things Renarin's light does. His visions seem to be out of his control, would be interesting if the light acted out on its own too.

I really liked the emphasis on the Heavenly Ones being pretty honorable too. How they have respect for the Radiants, fight them one on one. That moment when Kaladin spared the second Fused was really cool. A little disappointed we didnt get a Venli chapter this week, but there is so much going on that it makes sense.

I'm still holding out hope that Hauka, the guard in Yeddaw from Edgedancer, turns out to be one of the new Skybreakers not bound to Nale. I really liked her, and I'm sure she's got the stuff. Also all those weird allusions to her needing recharged spheres to read by makes me think she's already used Stormlight without knowing it. Even Nale was pretty suspicious of her. But yeah, I agree there should be some around.

For the new Chapters:

That fused is so cool. I wonder if an experienced Elsecaller or Willshaper could use the surge the same way? Kaladin does seem to realize it’s transportation, but it seems distinct from what he may habe seen from Jasnah. The way they form a new body everytime is not at all what I expected transportation to look like, but I love how different and new it feels. I really enjoyed reading this new Shallan, with the dialogue between the personalities. Reads much easier than OB Shallan. The Fourth Bridge was amazing too, absolutely loved that. Extremely cool to get to hear the explanation for how it works as well. I’m really happy Navani is our PoV for these parts. The Mink is awesome too, but the way he vanishes and appears without anybody noticing is super weird. Is he using transportation too? But then again his guards have never seen a radiant before and they would have noticed him glowing, right? I also loved Syl and Hessina talking, and seeing Oroden warmed my heart.

I had a theory about the yellow spren being the same as the spirits of the mountains and that they have been influencing the Shin society in secret since the last desolation. I wrote this when all we had of OB were a couple of sample chapters, but I think some of the speculation is still valid, even if I’m not sure I buy the entire theory anymore. I’ll link it here if you want to give it a read

Does anybody know if theres a place where we can see all of the art? I love what we’ve been show so far and it would be great to see all the rest of the amazing artwork.

Oathbringer was crazy full with children. We got Oroden and Gavinor which I absolutely think will be friends. We met all of Rocks children, Sah’s daughter, Taravangians grandchildren were mentioned too. And Lift and Gawx are already pretty prominent characters. Those two especially I think will be important in the second half, but I think most children from OB will be relevant characters after the gap. If someone has read A Little Hatred by Abercrombie: Obviously we already know the main povs for the back five, but I appreciate Brandon setting up other characters this early.

I think my favorite outcome for Kaladin would be Venli. I know there isnt a lot of basis for this right now, but I would really enjoy a human-singer relationship. They existed in the past and I’m sure they will again in the future. I think Kaladin is being set up to occupy a ruling position, something like highprince maybe, and Venli will probably be one of the heads of the singer resistance. I think there could easily be story arc overlap where the anti Odium singer population begrudgingly enters into diplomatic negotiations and Dalinar sends Kaladin to talk to Venli and her resistance. Out of all the humans Kaladin has had the most interaction, respect and understanding for the singer situation. I think if we see a human-singer relation it would probably be Kaladin + someone, and I wouldnt mind if it was Venli.

That was a really fun chapter, I love her talk with Dalinar at the end. Interesting what she said about Bondsmiths, a Bondsmith made the Heralds immortal? And a Bondsmith bound other surges and brought people to Roshar, presumably from Ashyn. That’s incredibly cool. So where did people get Bondsmith powers from before there were Honorblades and before they could bond one of the Siblings? Also, the implication that Dalinar can increase the strength of a Nahel bond. What would that mean for the human and spren? We know that the bond can be broken before the fifth ideal is spoken, could this do the same? Or would it skip ideals?