Subvisual Haze

At the very least I think Syl is trying to get more attention from Kaladin and acting like they are already a couple. Whether that leads to anything else is a very open question.

Kaladin checking out Syl's breathing motions.

Another possibility is that Jasnah is writing the book and quoting her two witnesses of the events (most likely Szeth and Kaladin). Hence the difficulty in reconciling the details to one voice.

Yep, and tossed her in a dark cell presumably sparking her dislike of Vorinism. Speaking of Jasnah and The Wind, at the end of Oathbringer when she was about to unalive Renarin a gust of wind and a couple gloryspren fly by.

Jasnah seems the obvious choice. Interesting that she heard the wind as a child. I guess that explains her previously referenced "madness".

If The Wind is of a similar god-spren caliber it implies that she is capable of being a Bondsmith spren. This line draws me: Was The Wind actually one of the previous 3 Bondsmith spren and Stormfather took her place? I'm struggling to remember if the Stormfather has specifically confirmed bonding a human before Dalinar.

Even the old Rayse was offering to leave the system if Dalinar released Honor's bonds holding him in system (until the power raged out and said it'd come back to destroy Cultivation anyways). T hasn't lost control to the shard yet like Rayse did and personally has no interest in trashing Roshar. It's the ideal time for peace really.

I think the singer rhythms as expressed in the WoR epigraphs might be useful here. The original rhythms might be tied to the old magic spren of Roshar in their original pre-unmade states? Like before Ashertmarn became an unmade of hedonic pleasure it might have been associated with mateform?

Odium wins, Dalinar leads his foreign legion but life on Roshar is surprisingly chill once the active fighting stops.

Yeah, or that a lot of the old magic spren got somewhat chaotically re-categorized and-reclaimed as Honor/Odium/Cultivation aligned post shattering. Windspren are of The Wind, and honorspren are windspren enlightened by Honor? Sort of like what Sja Anat is doing?

The Wind is female and used to talk to people more. Guessing the Wind is who talked to Nohadon at the very start of the (in world) Way of Kings. From the Flashback of Gavilar's funeral where Dalinar overhears Jasnah reading the book out loud.

"I will do the needful"

My guess would be that Stormfather the spren is the one who chooses who gets the visions. And for his own reasons chose Gavilar and then Dalinar. The shadow of honor/Tanavast is pretty limited in its ability to directly impact the greater world (kind of like Kelsier in Secret History), but has more influence over those who get visions just because of connection to the power. With Gavilar the shadow took a very active role (to groom him to be a herald/champion/whatever), but then realized it was a mistake. Kaladin seems to be the new person the shadow has its eyes on for that special role, but it also isn't completely adverse to giving subtle hints to nudge Dalinar along on the Bondsmith path.

I thought it was interesting how often the wind-voice says it is sorry. This subtly implies to me that it's the shadow of honor/tanavast. If you accept the theory that there are 2 independent minds inside the Stormfather (shadow of honor vs. spren of highstorms) the interaction of Dalinar with Stormfather during the big battle in WoR becomes more clear. Dalinar starts out the interaction speaking with the shadow of honor (apologetic that he can't help, speaks in normal text here, describes himself as the remnant of God), then in the middle of the conversation Stormfather the spren takes over (large caps, confrontational, claims he is humanity's God, unhelpfully sends a storm, rushes off to try to prevent Syl from re-bonding Kaladin). and finally the switch between "Stormfathers" conveniently noted in change in caps. Honor's shadow is regretful that he can't do more to help, Stormfather the spren doesn't care about humanity at this point. Clear differences in tone. Stormfather seems to see Honor's Shadow as part of himself, but Honor's shadow seems to act independently though from time to time. Also Tanavast himself in his final vision to Dalinar has a similar apologetic tone that he can't do more to help humanity. So our wind-voice seems to be the shadow of honor. What's more I think it has actually interacted with Kaladin before. Just like Kaladin isn't certain in the new chapter if the voice in his head's is Syl's, there's also intentional ambiguity way back in tWoK before Kal says his 2nd oath. I think this was Honor's Shadow encouraging Kaladin along. This was also notably after Kaladin had his first flashback to Tien's death which was described as having a time dilation effect (very little time passed in the outside world while he was having the flashback), which could be a similar thing as he had in RoW's updated Tien vision.

Maybe Gavilar was onto something and Heralds are sort of the same thing as Honor's designated Champions. And since Taln alone never gave up his Herald status, Odium can claim Taln must stand as Honor's champion? Which in his current state would be less than ideal for Team Honor.

Kaladin as the Knight of Wind, Szeth as the Knight of Truth seems a good guess. The quote about dreams sounds more Szeth-like.

An Unmade seems unlikely. Urithiru in its restored functionality should keep unmade influence out. I'm guessing the reason Kaladin can hear this voice now is due to Dalinar creating a connection between Kaladin and the warm place where he has visions (leading to Kal's vision with Tien). Just like Dalinar previously would hear whispers of "unite them" and have the occasional weird Nohadon vision apart from Stormfather, now a voice from the same place is reaching out to Kaladin. "Bondsmith" might refer to Dalinar, but I think Ishar is also a strong possibility. The shadow/remnant of Honor maybe needs Ishar to do something.

Cognitive shadow of Honor/Tanavast seems the most likely. Most likely the same "Stormfather" we saw talking to Gavilar in the Prologue. compare with

It does seem like a pointless thing to lie about by that point. I guess the explanation that seems most likely to me is that there's two minds within "Stormfather" that don't always share information. Stormfather the spren of the highstorm vs. the cognitive shadow of Honor/Tanavast. At the very end of the prologue the entity that is speaking is Honor's shadow (as demonstrated by Gav seeing the universe in its eyes). Being of Honor's shard it can sense when the Oathpact is effected. Thus Stormfather the spren in OB may not be lying because it may not be aware that a Herald died. Still not clear why Honor's shadow would keep that info private from Stormfather the spren.

"She fell...it all came crashing down" - an analogy in poor taste to the formation of the Shattered Plains?

I am still curious about Before I had been onboard the Stormfaker idea and assumed this was Ishar wanting to hide events from the other Heralds. That seems less likely as Stormfather now seems much more of one mind and relatively straightforward in his intentions. Who would Stormfather want to conceal the truth of a Herald dying from and to what ends? The (honor)spren maybe? I know he doesn't like spren risking death to bond humans. Maybe his original gambit was to be the only spren to bond a human, then use Gavilar as the champion in the contest.

Vasher and Nightblood both seem like tools being used by Endowment+Cultivation in their long term anti-Rayse gambit. I like the little changes in tone from the original. Gavilar comes across as more of a conflicted ambitious character rather than pure jerk. Stormfather now reads as being misinterpreted by Gavilar regarding Herald vs. Champion instead of previously sounding like a manipulative liar intentionally leading Gav to false conclusions and stringing him along.

"I will lead them" or some variant. Kaladin's character arc is to become King. The people want to follow him and if given the opportunity would happily swear allegiance to him. Windrunners have a natural leadership aura from spiritual adhesion. Their patron Jezrien was the King of the Heralds and his two divine attributes were listed as: Leading and Protecting. Windrunner oaths have mostly focused on protecting so far but I suspect they'll end with an oath to take on the burden of leadership.

I would guess because the acid could physically damage the little spikes that grant them sentience. Or dissolve the connecting tissue around the spike so that the spike is no longer "connected" to the body.

I think he's playing up the extent to which he is truly helpless to encourage humanity to look after themselves. He expressed to Wax in an earlier book that he's been over-coddling humanity and as a result they haven't developed quite as fast technologically as they should have. That, plus some of Autonomy's powers investing on his planet has possibly made him slightly more Autonomy-like. I think he's playing a more sneaky Cultivation-like game. Instead of allowing humanity to assume Harmony or his agents will solve the really big problems (both the kandra and Marsh present themselves as practically useless to our heroes this time around), he subtly maneuvers his agents into place and allows them to preform well or choose to heroically sacrifice themselves. Now that we know Harmony clearly can and does lie (to Kel about lerasium, and then again promising that he never tells a lie), I think the really big question this book was who was he lying to about how well the situation was under control? Was he lying to Kel by implying he had things under control? Or was he lying to Wax/Wayne to maneuver them into position to do what needed to be done (knowing that a sacrifice would be required)? e: If you want to get really conspiratorial (not sure if I believe these but maybe) all of Harmony's actions could be viewed a harsher "ends justify the means" light. Maybe he was the hidden hands that moved Blood Tam. Maybe Lessie was justified in being outraged at Harmony's manipulation of Wax. Maybe he similarly "encouraged" Melaan to dump Wayne and go on a distant mission, knowing that the cut emotional ties would make Wayne more willing to sacrifice himself.