Subvisual Haze

I like this theory There may be other explanations though. Kaladin recognizes the tune of the song. That tune could be one of the Rhythms that normally humans can't hear, but Kaladin may have heard it hummed secondhand by a Listener, or Shen, or one of the Singers he traveled with earlier in the novel.

One of the Death Rattles seems like a safe bet. They're so vaguely written that it's hard to tell if they're referring to past or future events though.

Syl's reference to a song here is in the same paragraph as her teasing Kaladin for being too literal in his interpretation of her "blood" comment. "Song" here doesn't necessarily mean a literal sound wave, Syl's probably using "song" as a reference to someone's spirit/soul/personality/etc.

I think Tien is a good match. Perhaps higher spren like Syl are also drawn to the emotions and feelings of those around their potential Radiants, as well as the Radiant themself. So she wasn't just drawn to Kaladin's drive to protect others, but also Tien's appreciation of the protection his brother gave him. It's actually rather surprising that after Tien's death instead of falling apart Kaladin dedicates himself to protecting his squad and the young/helpless soldiers that remind him of Tien. This is also when he starts being called Stormblessed the first time. This may be a sign that Syl started bonding with Kal almost exactly when Tien died, giving his spirits a subtle boost to keep going. I actually think Kaladin's first commanding officer Tukks might have been the proto-Radiant that the Skybreakers assassinated. I think the same battle that Tien dies in may have been the one where Tukks and all the rest of Kaladin's old squad are killed, because Kaladin starts the Tien flashback wandering the battlefield confused and without his squad. We've been told several times that Kaladin feels guilty for Tukks' death, but thus far we haven't received any details regarding his death. Tukks seems to have taught Kaladin almost everything he knows about leadership and being a soldier, which he later passed on to his squad in Amaram's army and Bridge 4.

You forgot the most important moniker: "Flying Bridgeman" I do think Tarah would have known him as "Kaladin Stormblessed" though. They were together during that period between Tien's death and Amaram's betrayal when Kaladin first got the Stormblessed nickname from fighting like a demon and throwing everything he had into protecting his squad. Hearing that there was a new gossiped about soldier with the same nickname might have made Tarah curious enough to investigate.

I just hope they're done. "House Sadeas", or what remains, are exiled rulers of an enemy occupied territory. They and their soldiers have been humiliated and shamed in the eyes of everyone after the Thaylen City battle. What army they did command has almost certainly been taken away from them. There's no logical reason for them to continue in the plot as important adversaries. They were Act 1 Enemies that our heroes have since outclassed. Their entire powerbase has been removed, there is no legitimacy backing up their continued claim to power. Beyond character-plot conservation tropes, they should probably just fade away. I do think it would be a cool plotline moving forward if somehow Kaladin was assigned to rehabilitate the remnants of that army though. Kind of showing the contrast between what good leadership and bad leadership can produce in a large group.

"Kaladin it's so good to see you, I always cherished our time together. By the way MY NEW HUSBAND is in trouble and needs your help."

Wit/Hoid is alerted to Shallan's presence (under an illusion) in Kholinar because he has a jar of sand. Sand specifically from Taldain which will turn from black to white in the presence of Stormlight being used. Wit's jar of sand turning white on one side alerted him not only to someone under an illusion nearby (anything "stronger" likely would have attracted the yellow spren), but also give him a hint towards what direction they were from which side of the the bottle turned white. A pretty clever low-tech trick which one can even employ without alerting Odium's yellow detection spren. WOB below confirms this theory (although in this question he was talking about Mraize's vial of sand, Hoid's jar of sand is clearly serving the same purpose).

Perhaps your list could include a couple of our Herald confirmations that some readers might have missed. Jezrien, before being assassinated by Moash, was the drunk beggar Ahu loitering outside the Kholinar palace. We saw him earlier in Oathbringer drunkenly commiserating with Dalinar during one of Dalinar's flashbacks, and met him all the way back in Gavilar's assassination as a drunk asking people "Have you seen me?". Similarly Ash was confirmed to be Baxil's mistress, Mem's washerwoman Pom, and the source of countless defaced statues all across Roshar.

A proto-Stoneward would be my guess for Herdazian General. Sometimes a Radiant's order is hidden in the icons of their chapter headings. This chapter has icons for Nale (likely just for the general dispensing of justice) and also Taln. The Taln icon could be a clue that he's a proto-Stoneward. Tension/Cohesion could explain how his manacles are never tight enough.

Oh, I got it! The second perfect hook to force Jasnah+Kaladin to spend time together and become buddies (besides him giving her pointers on leadership): they're both going to feel responsible for Gavinor.

I think Kaladin just straight up says it to Elhokar at one point: I will protect those that I can save. (Or some variant). You can't protect everyone Kal, and you need to honor their free will to make their own choices or willingly put themselves in danger.

First time they formally met yes, but a lot of our spren have been having subtle effects on the future Radiants well before they are formally introduced. I think this part is significant in Jasnah's WoR flashback: I think Jasnah has had similar weird episodes like this before, likely as a child. I imagine she was honest and trusting and told someone about her experiences and they responded by declaring her crazy/possessed and throwing her in the Rosharian equivalent of a padded room. I think that sort of experience would go a long way towards explaining Jasnah's dislike of organized religion (as the Ardents would have been responsible for "treating" her madness), and her current tendency to keep her thoughts and feelings very guarded around others. She's been burned before

Maybe both? Where the Adhesion is like glue just to get the pieces temporarily stuck together and then the Tension is reinforcement to reinforce the now single object? Another possibility: it might have been just Adhension. We've always seen Kaladin use Adhesion to temporarily stick 2 different objects together. They naturally separate when the stormlight runs out. Maybe the fact Dalinar here was re-combining a single object (as the temple's spren saw itself), meant the Stormlight healed the temple permanently. Kind of like Stormlight healing/Regrowth, except working on a non-living thing. Almost like forgery.

Noooooooooo I asked you not to propagate that horrible lie. If you cool glass it just becomes colder glass. If you heat glass it turns into a liquid. What does this tell you? That glass is a solid state. Glass is an amorphous solid. Solids do not need to have an organized molecular structure to be solids. It you supercool a liquid too quickly (or apply pressure) it may not form a proper crystalline structure, but instead be an amorphous solid. Subatomic structure is less important in distinguishing a solid from a liquid than presence of freezing enthalpies/heat of fusion indicating a phase transition. Also, they were just bad at making windows in the Middle Ages. We have very old telescope lenses that still function. If glass flowed to any significant degree over time this would be impossible.

Oh god I know where this is going, just please don't start claiming that glass is a liquid because it lacks a crystalline intermolecular structure. I'm guessing Brandon's thought toward these processes has mostly been just the general idea that Tension makes flexible materials extremely hard/durable/whatever and Cohesion makes hard things flexible. I doubt he's put an excessive amount of time into researching Van der Waals forces . I think what sparked this topic originally is that one of the surges might have moved or been renamed? Tension and Cohesion are both Stoneward surges, but which one of the two was shared with the Willshapers vs. the Bondsmiths might have changed in Brandon's mind over time.

I think this WOB strongly hints at the answer (Kaladin needs a hobby) Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] So, Kaladin met Hoid a long long time ago, and Hoid gave him a very important flute that he has not learned how to play. Is he ever going to put the time in to get good at that? Or is that just something we're going to have to wait for? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] You'll have to wait for. Kaladin has a lot of things on his mind. He sure could use something to keep him from stressing out, but you're just gonna have to wait and see if Kaladin understands the reason he was given a flute, or not. source

I think the better question (which I have absolutely no clue regarding), is what in general is up with the Windspren? Spren in general are ideas given form. They are "born" in and live in the cognitive realm, but small visual reflections of them can "leak" into the physical realm. While visually present, they generally have no physical interaction with the physical realm. How did the windspren manage to become backwards? They live in the physical realm and are almost never seen in the Cognitive Realm until Kaladin draws them there. Did they all cross over at some point? Also, why can windspren rather uniquely interact with the world around them? Windspren are famous for pulling pranks on humans by making things stick together (which implies not only impacting the physical realm, but also applying an adhesion surge?). Why does a windspren appear identical to a bonded honorspren's reflection in the physical realm? This doesn't seem to be the case for other "higher" spren. They all seem to have unique and distinctive forms. Syl worries that if her bond with Kaladin is broken she will mindlessly wander on the winds, indistinguishable from a windspren. Does this imply that the reverse is true, that other windspren are capable of bonding with humans to develop intelligence? Syl cryptically says at one point (when remembering events of Kaladin's childhood before they bonded): I'm not sure what it all means, but there seems to be something extra weird about Windspren in general. They seem to break a lot of rules. Are they all growing into Honorspren as a result of Honor's death and shattering? Or are they just holding some of Honor's power until someone ascends to take up the shard again? Or could they be the Deadeye like remnants of past Honorspren who have gone stupid without their bond?

Yeah, although we still lack data to make the full picture clear. It's important to note that Shallan was able to identify the Oathgate platform as deviant to the pattern of the whole plains, but that doesn't mean it was the only deviant point. Shallan had only mapped a route direct route in from the west ending at the Oathgate (which was on the SW corner of the city). We don't actually have an accurate map of the very center (what Narak looks like) currently. We can see the pattern around it, but whether the city itself fits the symetrical pattern is still an unknown. ...and will probably remain an unknown Shallan's purpose in mapping the plains was to find the Oathgate, investigating the Plains them-self and their history has been pushed to the back-burner for now.

Thanks I think the distinction here is that the Shattered Plains themselves may not have been directly formed by Cymatics. I'm propsing they were symbolically struck by a hammerhead that was already in a Cymatic shape (Stormseat), the result of which generated a Cymatic derived blast pattern?

Ooooh, I just figured out the best crazy awesome theory! What Shattered the Plains? Stormseat itself! For you see Stormseat was actually a floating city! Just like Navani's fabrials that make platforms float and Urithiru's magical elevators, the fine people of Natanatan realized that the best way to avoid the damage of a highstorm is to just float your city over the top of the stormwall. "Stormseat" indeed! I bet there was a fabrial linked platform at Urithiru which would sink or rise to produce the opposite effect on Stormseat. When everything went crazy (Honor dying, the Sibling withdrawing, Urithiru's magical systems progressively failing) the magical gravity fabrial that kept the city floating in the clouds suddenly suffered a catastrophic failure. Down went the city, crashing right into the middle of the plains and creating the shattered pattern of today.

This may be a clever case of realism on Brandon's part. Mythology to justify ruling dynasties can have an a very loose relationship with the real world. The symbolism is the important thing. Take the classic famous example: the 12 Tribes of Israel. Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons, and those 12 sons were the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel. Simple right? Nope! Read your Bible closely and the exact identity of the 12 Tribes subtly changes depending on where you're reading. The Tribe of Levi was one of the original 12, but then was set apart as a priestly tribe with no land of their own and Joseph's tribe was split into two different tribes based on his 2 sons (which kind of wrecks the earlier simplicity of 12 brothers model). The books of Ezekiel and Revelation add even more confusion to the precise identity of the 12. Ezekiel counts Joseph as one of the 12 in one spot, then splits it in 2 in a different spot. Revelation seemingly at random kicks out one of the undisputed tribes. In the end the fact that there are 12 tribes and they are descended from 12 original "brothers" is more important from a symbolic standpoint than the actual division of said tribes. I imagine there is a similar situation at work with the Alethi. There should be 10 Highprinces, who exactly they are or which son of Sunmaker they claim to descend from is of secondary importance.

Are you perchance a writer for every cheesy science fiction television show ever made? What if we had an episode where all the good characters are bad, and all the bad characters are good? Wouldn't that be craaazy? Also everyone has a goatee.

I found another tidbit reinforcing our original guesses of Salas' rising and setting. When Kaladin and Shallan are tromping through the bottom of the Shattered Plains, they discuss the timing of the next Highstorm: The next day Kaladin notes: It's 5 Roshar hours from noon to sunset. So this seems to reinforce that Salas does actually set by 2nd night hour (or shortly after). Maybe there is in fact nearly an hour between Salas setting at 2nd night bell and Nomon rising around the 3rd.

We might be taking the concept of the "hateful hour" too literally. I think it's a symbolic term more than anything, we probably shouldn't interpret it as needing to last a full hour, the actual time between Salas setting and Nomon rising could potentially be quite small. There also might be important east-west variance. The actual references pulled to this time frame are pretty sparse. Kaladin mentions it once without giving a timeframe, and only Szeth names it. Perhaps the time is quite short in the east, but closer to an actual hour out west in Shinovar? Either way, I think reducing this "hour" would help a lot in making our moon schedule fit. Salas also seems to have a very eccentric orbit (just from eyeballing the Solar System map). It's closest point (perigee) is near the horizon on one side of the planet, thus we would expect it to move fastest near this point, and slower on the other side when further from the planet. Net result: Salas' rise and fall in the night sky would not be uniform in speed, one would be faster than the other. I think to make our moon times "fit", Salas rises to its peak rather slowly, then sets much quicker. Kaladin even makes a reference to Salas seeming "hesitant" when first rising - "Violet Salas peeked over the horizon to the east, seeming hesitant at first, as if making sure the sun had vanished". Add together a shorter hateful hour and a quicker setting of Salas after peak and I think we can make our data fit the clock. Regarding the eccentricity of the moon orbits: Nomon alone seems to have a very symmetrical elliptical orbit in the Solar System map. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's calibrated to peak over Urithiru at local midnight perigee and noon apogee (normally not visible during the day, but maybe alluded to in the beautiful endpaper artwork of Ishi standing under a solar eclipse). Salas and Mishim both seem to have eccentric orbits with perigees occurring near the opposite horizons of Roshar. I would guess Salas' perigee is near the dawn/sunrise horizon, while Mishim's is near the dusk/sunset horizon. edit: better add that solar map or this post doesn't make any sense. Also: these moon positions are occurring at/near (Urithiru?) dawn! Salas and Nomon are already on the day-side of Roshar, and Mishim (3rd moon) is on the horizon. The lunar orbits are clockwise in this picture.