Subvisual Haze

That's a "u", not a "v" though, right? The "v" phoneme is the third on the page, right next to "b" and has a very different shape that doesn't match the first letter of "Valhav"'s well at all. Which might explain the diacretic at the start of "Valhav"? Because for the most part our diacretics are only over vowels. The exception is the double dot at the end of the words indicating a point of symmetry. "Valhav" is special here too though, as there is a bizarro otherwise unseen diacretic over the "L". Perhaps it indicates a point of imperfect symmetry? Valhav, you're the worst... Otherwise though the "~" tilda symbol above a vowel seems to indicate that the vowel is long. A single dot seems to indicate the vowel is short. And I think the marks that look like ">" or "<" indicate pauses or aspirates? If Roshar languages are inspired by semitic languages, we are sorely lacking hard aspirate "h" sounds in our words

Oh, Sela Tales isn't starting with an "s" it's a "z". Probably to mirror the later sound, English is terrible about pronouncing terminal "s" sounds as "z" sounds.

Brilliant work! Talk about conservation of vowels, there appears to be only a single base symbol for all of the front vowel sounds (a e i), with only the diacretic marks to distinguish them from one another! It reminds me of how Hebrew was originally written with only consonants and later scribes added in vowel marks to the words. Is this a sign that the Dawnchant originally lacked vowels in its written form? It would explain the difficulties in Thayley with vowels. The diacretic over the "v" in valhav may indicate that the word originally started with a vowel sound? There is some crossover between current languages having variable "v" or "w" sounds (like poor Chekov in Star Trek IV looking for Nuclear Wessels). And "w" itself is a semivowel, so perhaps the city started with more of an oo sound? The wierd tilda over the first vowel in Aimia is probably a diaresis. It indicates that the "a" and "i" at the start of Aimia are two distinct vowel sounds and should not be combined into a single diphthong sound "ai" (like in the word "aisle"). Ah-ee-mee-ah instead of Ai-mee-ah. It preserves the pronunciation symmetry, two vowel sounds at both the start and end of the word.

I like this theory a lot. It answers another question that had been bugging me. In the chapter 84 epigraph we get the line Which strongly hints that Feverstone Keep was near Rall Elorim, and thus located in Iri. If so, why didn't the nation of Iri suddenly become a superpower? Hundreds of shardblades and plates were dropped on their soil, and yet by present time they appear to possess almost none of them? And yet Alethekar became a world power and later went on an Azir conquering spree with less than a tenth of the number of blades that were left behind in Iri? I think the blades and plates that are still in the physical realm at present time belonged to knights that abandoned their oaths in unusual or isolated places. Those that dropped their weapons in a giant pile like the Windrunners and Stonewards did at Feverstone Keep likely inspired some force to come and collect the overwhelming majority of blades for safe storage in Shadesmar. Maybe the Sleepless returned them to cognitive realm and partially what caused the Scouring of Aimia? Widescale shard "theft"? Another possibility: we don't know where the Honorspren capital of Lasting Integrity is located, but Syl vaguely refers to living far to the west. Perhaps the Honorspren capital itself was located nearby Feverstone Keep, aiding in rapid recovery of the shardblades. I wouldn't be surprised if Lasting Integrity has a large deadeye spren nursing home on site.

Yeah, I think there's a couple factors at work. Stormfather was given leave to choose who to deliver Honor's visions to (and set on the path to potential Bondsmith). At the same time he kind of resented the duty (due to past events in the Recreance). I think he choose Gavilar almost out of default. Gavilar was the King of the nation that was once Radiant central. Kind of the natural choice for a Bondsmith (leader) if you're not putting much thought or effort into it. Renarin, Elhokar and Jashnah's spren were likely drawn to them partially out of association, having a family member with a proto-Radiant bond made them just that much more "noticeable" to available spren. They still had to express certain characteristics to attract specific spren and progress in their bond, but being emotionally close to another bonded individual made them that more more noticeable to spren shopping for bonding partners. Sort of like how Honorspren have started to flock to Bridge 4. I do think the functional immunity to Skybreaker justice also played an indirect part though. Like maybe it didn't directly factor into spren's decision making process, but it narrowed the field of non-Kholin candidates. When the people ahead of our Kholin's were chosen for a bond and were quickly killed off, it just narrowed the odds to better to favor the Kholins.

One of my favorite creative decisions in Oathbringer is that Shallan finding out Kaladin was responsible for killing her brother isn't a big thing like almost everyone expected it would be. Instead of screaming, or hating him without telling him, or suddenly physically attacking him as an enemy like you would expect in a shlocky piece of fiction, she just takes it in with a dulled sense of sadness. Like an adult. Not every potential point of contention between characters needs to be dragged into the spotlight at the most contrived moment to generate stilted DRAMA which usually contributes nothing more than Character X distrusts Character Y for an arbitrary period of time. Also, even if correct, Dalinar would look like the most gigantic hypocritical tool ever if he suddenly started doubting the motives of a man who has single handedly saved the lives of himself 3 times (Tower battle, twice from Szeth), his eldest son 4 times (Tower, arena, Szeth twice) and his youngest son (arena) over the course of just a couple weeks.

I just kind of hummed the old Sportscenter theme to myself when I saw the name. D'naa (na)! D'naa (na)!

If you only read one other work of Brandon's I can't recommend The Emperor's Soul enough. It does give you a little understanding of the "3 realms" underlying the magic of the cosmere, but mostly it's just a perfectly succinct and emotionally moving short story. It's short, fast paced, exciting, has two wonderful main characters who banter brilliantly with one another and made me want to tear up at multiple points. Mistborn series is great and epic in scope like the Stormlight Archives and will help you understand the "bigger picture" of the cosmere and shards. It also has an amazingly fun and intuitive magic system that kind of puts Roshar's to shame. Mistborn Era 2 is a light hearted comedic romp followup that is pure enjoyment to read. Warbreaker gives you background on a couple characters that appear in Stormlight Archive. Mostly it's a self contained story featuring a surprisingly sweet love story. Elantris...is a little rough. Not a bad book by any means, but as his first published book it really shows (to me) how much Brandon has improved as writer. Still has the suitable epic avalanche ending you love in a Sanderson book, just more rocky to reach that point.

Because it probably would have been a boring scene where nobody learned anything. Armageddon just began, a hurricane is blowing the wrong way around the planet, the parshmen proletariat is in uprising, communication is lost with the capital city, the greatest lost city in the world was just found, and magical powers assumed dead for thousands of years are suddenly back. Cats and dogs living together! A missing dude with a shardlbade is likely not even in the top ten list of anyone's immediate priorities. Add in that they just exited a cataclysmic battle with a huge number of allied soldiers likely presumed dead or missing, and people are likely very confused and not particularly surprised by absence of specific soldiers. The only two coalition characters who have any idea of what occured with Moash are Kaladin and Elhokar, and both of them would be pleased as punch to not discuss the matter any more. Kaladin would have been ashamed by his previous actions and Elhokar wouldn't exactly want to advertise that he got blackout drunk out of self-pity over his own failures as a ruler and had to have his life saved by Kaladin. Add in the fact that Kaladin doesn't really fit into the command structure and regards orders as akin to friendly suggestions, and can literally fly and you'd probably get a scene like this: [Adolin] "Hey Bridgeboy, what happened to that darkeyed bridgeman you gave your shards to? The one who looked especially angry and scowled even more than you! [Kaladin] /broods "Moash has left the fellowship..." /scowls /gazes thoughtfully into the distance while his clothes ripple dramatically in the wind and random passersby stop to stare at him in wonderment [Adolin] "What does that...?" [Kaladin] "MY PEOPLE HEARTHSTONE NEEDS ME" /exit stage up

Kaladin is a moody and introspective person, trying to mine him for personal information that he doesn't want to share likely wouldn't have accomplished anything and just made him more hostile. I say this as a self-admitted moody and introspective person Also Dalinar and Adolin are soldiers. They've almost certainly seen plenty of rust that they don't want to talk about either. Unless they had an immediate reason to doubt Kaladin, I don't imagine they would pry.

The double eye of Vorinism diagram has the 10 essences and 10 surges laid out on it. I think the Heralds were originally granted special control/power over a specific essence and 2 surges. Jezrien for example was associated with the essence of Zephyr (wind), and had the surges of adhesion and gravity. We haven't really seen evidence of how exactly, but the Heralds almost certainly have powers well beyond those of their associated radiant orders, as their powers were gifted straight from Honor himself. If I had to guess, Jezrien had some level of direct control and manipulation of the essence of wind, and windspren as a result. Later on the "higher spren" which had developed a sentient mind decided to copy the powers Honor gave to the Heralds, and the result were Radiants. So I think the windspren are drawn to Kaladin as a Windrunner because his powers are an echo of Jezrien, their previous master.

I think he was drawing close to the spiritual realm as he came very close to speaking the 4th oath. He is also able to hear Syl's thoughts directly in his mind. That kind of connection independent of physical location (both Syl speaking directly into his thoughts and the windspren being drawn into the cognitive realm) seems to be a theme of the spiritual realm.

Good summary, but I think there's a lot of wiggle room with regards to Honor/Tanavast's madness and death. We're not entirely sure if Tanavast died all at once (maybe as direct consequence of the Heralds breaking their oath) or if he was slowly killed and progressively lost his mental capabilities. Also the personalities of the humans who hold shards seem to distort over time to more closely match the influence of their shard and become less "human". Ati, the human who held the Ruin shard was apparently at one point a very kind person, but millennia of holding that shard drove him crazy. Something similar may have occured with Honor. Odium is a big fat liar, but he may have been partially correct when he said: Perhaps pre-Aharietiam some of the broken Heralds asked Honor to release them from the Honorpact and its eternal tortures, and he refused as his focus on oaths had become so absolute?

The romance love triangle doesn't interest me a lot, but oddly I don't feel like the discussion of it has been intrusive or at all annoying on this forum. More than just about any other topic, it has shown an impressive ability to confine itself into one very active thread which people can choose to jump into or easily ignore. Which is a win-win for everyone Personally I get annoyed by "Kaladin/Adolin are going to become Odium's Champion because they were angry one time".

Lopen might just be an inherently loopy person. It's a somewhat common theme in literature, those with a natural affinity to magic/otherworldly powers seem a little strange to those around them and less "grounded in reality". Lopen just might have one of those personalities, a convivial and highly functioning kind of strangeness. When you think about it his constant cheerfulness from the moment he was assigned to Bridge 4 isn't really a "normal" reaction. I'm not saying it's bad by any means to remain constantly upbeat, but his personality and thought process seem a bit "off" from the typical human norm. There's also the possibility that his Herdazian blood has something to do with it? Herdazians are a mix of both humans and Singers (shown by their hard crystalline fingernails), and Singers have a natural affinity to bonding spren. Perhaps his small amount of Singer heritage makes his soulweb able to bond a spren without necessitating a traumatic event?

It might be important to consider the full implications if you wish to re-create a shattered shard. Theoretically fully recreating Honor as a 100% restored shard would necessitate the death of many currently sentient spren.

A lot of this probably has to do with the spren as much as humans, they're probably just as confused and inexperienced with the whole nahel-bonding process. I think pre-Recreance the higher spren spent the large majority of their time either bonded to a radiant or actively searching for a new Radiant to bond. In the current batch of higher spren though, they've spent thousands of years unbonded to anyone, and they likely don't even know how to go about seeking out and forming a bond. Once Kal and Syl did bond though, and the Desolation has clearly returned, suddenly a lot of Honorspren likely wanted to form a bond but have no real idea how to find an ideal human to bond. I imagine a lot of Honorspren were drawn to Bridge 4 almost of out default, like moths to a flame. Or another possibility is that the Windrunners of past were organizationally structured almost like an army, and Honorspren naturally gravitated towards choosing those that existing Windrunners were close to and had made squires of. Not all squires make Windrunner, but just being a squire makes you much more noticeable to other unbonded honorspren. Like a letter of recommendation. This would make Syl the dramatic exception, but one that was necessary since no Windrunner hierarchy existed currently.

Wow, reading the other longer thread about the changes really drives home how messed up the change was. We went from Kaladin: Kills Szeth in combat because Szeth unexpectedly did not block the blow. Szeth is dead, Kaladin retrieves the honorblade. to Diverts attacks to disarm Szeth. Now disarmed and unbonded to the honorblade, Szeth is utterly helpless in the highstorm. Kaladin chooses to let the highstorm take Szeth (still alive), and retrieves the honorblade. Wow...the change actually made Kaladin more of murderer! Once Szeth was no longer bonded to the blade, he was completely helpless to save his own life, but Kaladin did have the clear capability to save him. He purposefully chose to let Szeth fall to his death and focus instead on retrieving a cool item. That's...awful!

Curses, only 3 years late coming up with that pun!

Thank you for the reponses everyone! I think narratively, the main function this would serve would be to drive home the tragic nature of Moash's path. He threw away all the good things in his life for a chance at revenge that he ultimately found emotionally hollow. How much more tragic for Moash if he learns that his revenge wasn't even correctly targeted, and he threw everything away for truly nothing? It gets back to the theme of choosing to forgive your enemies instead of perpetuating the cycle of vengeance (or as Lirin said to Kaladin, "Someone has to start"). Moash gave in to his anger and took violent revenge on Elhokar, is the correct response to that someone killing Moash to take further revenge? If Moash does eventually "come back to the light", how would he seek out atonement for what he has done? I think that would be a pretty interesting path for the story to take. Also, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Moash decides to "pay a visit" to Roshone in the near future. If my guess is true, this would be the point where we would see the first strong hints of this in story.

The interesting thing about the retcon is that taken in isolation, it's not even a bad scene. It's not incredible, but taken in isolation it's a perfectly inoffensive conclusion to the battle. It's only the fact that I know it was originally something different, and that purposefully changing it was apparently very important to the author that it draws my attention for fine-tuned analysis. I think it's a case of myself the reader seeing behind the curtain and losing my willful suspension of disbelief. I'm no longer viewing the scene as simply an event that occured in-story (which I would normally accept out of hand as part of the story experience process), but now the scene is something more mechanical and meta. Weird!

Yep that's a good point Sometimes the spren are kind of paradoxical though. Like an honorspren is rather ethically inflexible when it comes to what they perceive as honorable, but their element is the most carefree and unrestricted element: wind. Cryptics are shaped like rational mathematical formulas, yet they're drawn to art and lies. This could be one of those radical contrast situations. In the cognitive realm the highspren is opaque, you can't see through it at all. In the physical realm, it's the opposite, they're so transparent that you can see a slit-view of the starts above.

"And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunderOne of the four beasts saying,'Come and see.' and I saw, and behold a white horse" - Subject was a darkeyed bard in black costume in his 7th decade. Sample is of particular note for being pretty awesome.

I'm not sure I'm 100% convinced Death Rattles are always visions of the future. They allow glimpses into the spiritual realm (when the soul is disintegrating at death), and the spiritual realm is usually the realm used to predict the future due to its timeless nature. Said timeless nature of the spiritual realm could also make some of the Death Rattles references to the past or present rather than the future though? For example, I think some of the Death Rattles related to natural destruction ("They break the land itself!"), which we have been assuming are future glimpses of the Everstorm, may in fact be past recollections of the surgebinding driven apocalyptic event on Ashyn.

Renarin's vision's are incredibly bizarre. I missed this my first time through: Not only is Renarin seeing pictures of future events, but some of those pictures have annotations and dates under them! What in the world? Is Sja-Anat adding notes for him?