Subvisual Haze

I wonder why Taravangian chose to meet Dalinar on a day where his intelligence is below average? You'd think he find an excuse to stall for a day when his morning IQ tests came back poorly. I definitely don't think he's faking it either. His adviser is repeatedly poking him to tell him to stop talking, and he clearly feels regret for many of the actions that he has committed (his intelligence and empathy are inversely related in his condition). Maybe he wanted to meet Dalinar on a "high empathy" day to reconsider some of the actions that he has taken?

I really enjoyed how Dalinar immediately considered the possibility that the Dustbringer might be wielding a Honorblade instead of being a Radiant. It's nice having main characters with critical thinking abilities!

This week's additions are incredibly modest regarding the writer's intelligence. There goes Jasnah as a possibility

When I was re-reading Dalinar's vision of Feverstone Keep/The Day of Recreance something struck me a bit. Leeward side would be on the western side of a mountain range, as weather blows east to west on Roshar. So this fortress sat on the eastern edge of an enormous plain. The description of the Feverstone Keep sitting at the edge of a very large plain, combined with the unusually cold climate (perhaps located in or nearby the conveniently named Frostlands) strongly implies to me that Feverstone Keep was located on the (south?)-eastern edge of the present day Shattered Plains. So it appears the Stonewards and Windrunners up until this point were frontline soldiers in a non-desolation war (technology is slowly progressing in this vision, Dalinar has a steel weapon) against "devils". It's not a stretch to assume the "devils" referred to here are The Listeners. It makes sense that the Stonewards and the Windrunners would be the most militarized of the KR orders, many others focused on healing, building, scholarship etc. If they were at the front lines of the conflict, and witnessed an "act of great eminence", it makes sense that their orders would be the first to respond to this moral outrage by quitting en masse. Again, I can't guess how all the pieces fit together, but the location seems right for The Recreance being a reaction to an immoral event occurring on the notyet-Shattered Plains leading to the mental and physical enslavement of The Listeners (barring The Lost Legion, who chose to preemptively embrace Dullform to escape the magical cataclysm).

If you could find any WOBs on this that would be great. I had a seperate theory The Recreance might have been caused by the Nahel bond having undisclosed side effects (stormlight being inherently addictive, or the heavy use of stormlight changing the KR's soul to be more "spren-like" and less individualistic over time, or the popular theory elsewhere that it might somehow damnation KRs into a torture similar to what Odium inflicts on Heralds between desolations). If there was a WOB that an advanced Nahel bond could be peacefully withdrawn from with minimal side effects that would blow up a lot of Recreance theories.

After the visions start repeating themselves for the 4th or 5th time I'm hopeful Dalinar will start taking his clothes off and throwing rocks at the other soliders just to see how they react. Maybe try to make out with a knight radiant or repeatedly practice wrestling moves on Honor's avatar when it appears. The possibilities are endless.

Knight Radiant NPC: "[Player] please patrol and look for voidbringers" Dalinar: "I would like to ask you questions about the year, our current location, the state of the world, and the nature of the inter-order Radiant strife." Knight Radiant NPC: "[Player] please patrol and look for voidbringers"

This line to me severely limits the chances of almost any modern day author. The blurb about those who can see further than the author implies that this event occurred during a time when others were actively trying to glimpse into the future via the non-physical realms. As Sunmaker was responsible for the downfall of the Hierocracy, I think he is the strongest candidate. He doesn't ask to be forgiven (for causing a great war), and acknowledges that many will see him as a heretic (not surprising for bringing down a theocratic government). Referring to women reading his book is a deliberate insult to Vorinist enforced gender roles. It's possible Oathbringer itself is a secret and highly suppressed biography writing by the Sunmaker regarding the true failures of the Hierocracy (which are currently incredibly vague when described by in universe characters). Perhaps it holds "the secret" that can destroy the Knights Radiant and Taravangian is planning to personally deliver it to Dalinar.

Desperate in the sense that he didn't know if his message would even be received. Which hints at some level of interference. The Heralds have great and mysterious powers which Brandon has purposefully kept us in the dark regarding. I suspect to some degree the powers of the Heralds will likely include an ability to control higher spren or the KR. This is still just a guesswork theory, but one possible explanation: "Precepts and laws" could be as simple as inserting a loyalty oath into all of the KR Orders along the lines of "I will follow/obey Honor and his Heralds". If a fallen Herald started issuing dishonorable commands, he could force the existing Knights Radiant into a mutually-conflicting oath situation like Kaladin previously experienced. Torn between oaths to do what was right or following orders would force the death of the radiant's spren. The Skybreakers would be the exception as for them doing right and following orders seem to be one and the same. The absolute silence from the spren regarding the Recreance implies to me that there is some form of magical compulsion at work from the Heralds. The simultaneous lack of any mention regarding the Heralds in honor's vision or from Stormfather himself to Dalinar is an enormous glaring omission. Something devious is at work here.

Honor himself notes his visions are a desperate ploy on his part. He doesn't know if anyone will see them or how. Some of his message was likely lost, other parts may have been "modified" (DUN DUN DUN!) by a certain malevolent shard or crazy Herald.

Sticking with my sub-theory of "Ishar is a very bad man", it occurs to me that his plans were likely a driving force behind the Hierocracy. Their efforts to suppress or modify historical records, paint the Knights Radiant as awful traitors, and present the Heralds as still worthy of reverence neatly matches with his goals. Something really fishy is going on with Vorinism's arguments against the KR. If they're teaching that the previous desolation was the last, for what purpose would the KR need to continue to exist? Knights Radiant abandoning their oaths and power doesn't make much sense as being seen as an act of betrayal against humanity like is being currently taught. As Sunmaker was the ruler who essentially overthrew the Hierocracy, perhaps the (in world book) Oathbringer will have insight into the Hierocracy's machinations and purposes.

A simple set of directions, given to Dalinar by Honor in mystical visions. Dalinar interprets this command of Honor as instructions to unite the Alethi princes, or possibly the monarchs of the world. From the Oathbringer chapters we've read so far, this plan is not working very well for Dalinar. Our first impulse would be to assume that Dalinar is overly concerned about leaders of the world instead of uniting the human populations of Roshar. But the deeper truth hiding in plain sight is that Honor's commands are not human-race specific. What Honor truly desires to be accomplished on Roshar is an end of the cycle of hate between humanity and The Listeners. When Honor says "unite them", he is referring to all sentient life on Roshar. Thus my sort of long-winded theory, which I do think has the benefit of explaining several mysteries on Roshar: The Recreance and the death of Honor were a direct result of the cruel physical and mental enslavement of the Listener people. Just as not all humans became or served with the Knights Radiant, so too did individual Listeners have the capacity to choose to embrace the powerful and dark forms offered by Odium or to remain in more conventional non-war forms. Individual Listeners with reason to loathe humanity, or feeling desperation/hatred from human attacks may join the armies of the desolation, but my thought is that these were probably a minority. The majority of Listeners likely cared only about trying to survive the desolations, and while no Listener has become a KR, it is possible individuals may have offered their assistance as squires or general soldiers/support. A lingering animosity likely existed between the human and listener races, but the nature of the desolations was not a conflict fundamentally between humans and listeners, but rather between Odium and life itself. Following the Final Desolation, the 9 Heralds abandoned the Oathpact. Not all of them appear to have abandoned their positions of authority over the Knights Radiant though. Nale currently operates as direct patron to the Skybreakers, but he himself seems to justify his actions according to the visions and plans of Ishar. Ishar and his madness (and possible outright traitorous nature) are the likely source of the current great conflicts on Roshar. In an effort to break the Oathpact and prevent future desolations Ishar had a 2-part solution. First he worked with the Bondsmiths and through some great magical calamity locked the Listener people into near-mindless slaveform and allowed their mass-enslavement by humanity. Perhaps this event was the "wicked thing of eminence", and may also be somehow linked to the magical destruction of The Shattered Plains. The results of this action were morally horrifying: the collective enslavement physically and mentally of nearly the entire Listener species. Faced with the mass enslavement of the Listeners being carried out by the human kingdoms, the Knights Radiant found that they could not condone such actions, and abandoned their orders and oaths in what became known as the recreance. The "death" of so many KR bonded spren, along with the shock of Honor's Herald granted powers being used for such dishonorable ends weakened Honor to the point that Odium was able to kill him. Following these events Ishar instructed Nale and the hidden Skybreakers to hunt down other surgebinders both to prevent a new desolation as well as fearing that they might disrupt the Listener-enslavement status quo. At the present time Odium has played his hand perfectly. Dalinar was incorrectly convinced that the Everstorm would turn the Parshmen en masse into Voidbringers, and by communicating his message around the world has likely convinced many of Roshar's rulers that the newly mentally liberated parshmen need to be violently suppressed and re-enslaved. Doing so merely feeds into the cycle of hatred between humans and listeners though, which benefits Odium in the end. What is truly necessary to survive the desolation is to find a way to break the cycle of hatred, and unite the humans and listeners in the cause of mutual survival in the face of the Everstorm. This theory also offers insight into what Gavilar was attempting to accomplish (and very poorly conveying to Eshonai) in our new prologue: Although Gavilar is missing the mark here regarding the return of the Heralds (in a tragically ironic fashion - not realizing that they both haven't left and are the source of the problem he is trying to correct), he does seem to understand that enslavement of the parshmen is a thing needing to be reversed. Kaladin currently seems well on the way to understanding that the Listeners are not a group of irredeemable monster shock troops in Odium's army, but are individuals that his own oaths of protection oblige him to try to help. How he will balance this with the demands of the Alethi who just recently revered him as a hero and likely want the return of their slaves will be another moral tribulation for poor Kaladin. It is a positive sign though that so far Syl has not voiced any moral objections to Kaladin's path thus far, indicating that his intentions are not off base with those of an honorspren. Hopefully Dalinar reaches a similar conclusion about the nature of this war very quickly, before the human-listener infighting becomes even worse. Ultimately I also like this theory because it tackles a common problem in Fantasy: the irredeemably evil orc-like race that our heroes can murder en masse with no moral qualms. I have faith that the listeners/parshmen are not going to be portrayed in that way. There is a solution to this conflict beyond enslaving or killing their entire race.

I think you're kind of missing the point of the greater conflict. Odium is hatred. The world has taught itself to view the conflict as one between humans and parshmen, when really that's just serving to strengthen Odium's position. A never-ending battle and generations of ingrained hatred is exactly what Odium would want. War, hatred, atrocities, and slavery just breed more of the same. When Honor's vision was telling Dalinar to unite "them", he likely wasn't just referring to humanity, but all sentient life on Roshar, Parshendi included. The only way to defeat Odium is to break the cycle of hate between humans and Parshendi. And right now Kaladin may be the only person to grasp that his oaths to protect don't stop with the human race. In this sense you're right, Kaladin may indeed become the betrayer of his side on the surface-level conflict, but doing so is the opposite of becoming Odium's champion. He will be truly embodying the principles of honor and opposing the machinations of Odium, perhaps for the first time since the Recreance. Actually, now I'm starting to become convinced that this is the true cause of the Recreance. Ishi and the Heralds thought they saw a way to break the cycle of Desolations, and used the power of the Bondsmiths (perhaps not telling them the full details of what they were doing) to brutalize the souls of Parshendi everywhere. Witnessing the results of their actions: the enslavement and lobotomizing of nearly the entire Parshendi race, was too morally repulsive to support and the old Radiants abandoned their orders. The Radiants were probably remembered as traitors by humanity for just this reason, they didn't go along with the mass-enslavement of the Parshendi.

She may not realize Mraize's significance. This could be another play by Mraize to demonstrate his usefulness to Shallan and try to convince her to work with the Ghostbloods.

Young Dalinar is a delightful meathead murder machine. I'm not surprised Sadeas felt disapointed in the loss of Dalinar's Brock Samson persona.

9 of the Heralds have essentially abandoned their purpose and the last one is broken to the point of insanity. I think even when the current desolation "ends", another will shortly follow it because no Herald is capable of fulfilling their mysterious duties and bearing the torture. Perhaps this will be the "gap" between the first 5 and last 5 books? A very brief calm before the desolation starts all over again.

This coincides with how I read the scenario. It always struck me as really weird that a spren would bond a child as young as Shallan, but what if that was intentional planning by the Cryptics? Nale and his Skybreakers seem to operate by finding Surgebinders, then retroactively figuring out a crime the surgebinder committed to justify executing them. Perhaps Pattern bonded with Shallan as a small child with the assumption that Nale would not have legal justification to kill a surgebinding child, and the bond would have at least some time to develop in relative peace. My best guess is that the entire Davar family was associated with the Skybreakers (which is more than just the knight order, but like any good secret society has a lot of auxillary agents and informants in various countries). When Shallan started to demonstrate surgebinding ability, her mother called in a (Skybreaker) friend, as she believed in Nale's vision that Surgebinders needed to be suppressed at all costs to avoid Desolations. After the confrontation Shallan's bond receded and the Skybreakers lost interest in her, however Helaran followed in his mother's footsteps and sought out the Skybreakers. Shallan's father ended up associating with the Ghostbloods out of shear enemy-of-my-enemy necessity.

I would not have guessed Urithiru was right next to The Valley. Makes sense, being positioned at the center of the map.

Because the willingness to seek out and attack another person is of Ruin. It was a Catch 22, how do you destroy something without being a destructive individual (and thus limiting your ability to wield the power). Vin was a one in a million freak case of prophecy (and possibly intervention of multiple shards based on the cut ending from Well of Ascension) who was in the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect set of circumstances to enable her to attune to preservation and destroy as a service of preservation. Most other shard holders get attuned to their shards over time, and the overwhelming power of the shard warps their personality slowly over time to match the shard. Ati was a kind person who was changed to a crazy destruction lover, Sazed is already finding it difficult to directly intervene in affairs of man without disrupting the balance of harmony. Cultivation can make great plans sure, for the protection of humanity. She has been holding her shard for a very long time now, and actually engineering the destruction of Odium (who is on another planet entirely) is likely an impossible task. Even The Diagram, which I agree seems very Cultivation-y is focused not on destroying Odium, but on the mere preservation of the human species on Roshar. You also have to consider priorities. Cultivation likely has invested a great deal of her power into the land and life of Roshar, that energy then isn't freely available for her to throw headlong into a battle with another shard. Odium, even a reduced Odium, can still focus his power fully towards the destruction of others.

I think he is weakened and stuck in the system against his will, probably as a result of Honor/The Oathpact. This doesn't make him weak by any means though. You can't just have Vegeta look through his scouter and determine which shard can beat up which other shard. Odium is dangerous because the shard's purpose makes it dangerous. Think of when Kelsier tried to use Preservation's power to attack Ruin and failed, because the Shard inherently doesn't work as well when used against its purpose. Odium, even a diminished Odium, is still a shard that can be wielded aggressively. Sure Cultivation may be more "intact", but Cultivation's power isn't the type of power that easily translates into "Let's go kill Odium!", it's more "Let's make a garden and think deep thoughts".

You could read this part of The Diagram as Mr. T foreseeing a Parshendi becoming a Radiant and orchestrating a lot of events to try to prevent it. No idea why though.

Wow, these quotes are huge to process. Based on process of elimination Ash would probably be a Dustbringer and Eshonai a Willshaper?

He wouldn't need to slaughter anyone. When somebody "fails" the Nightblood test they stick Nightblood through their own chest.

I agree. I think Stormfather being a shadow of Honor is a bit of misdirection. Almost everyone saw the chapter blurb about Bondsmiths being limited to 3 members and made a quick connection to the 3 shards in the system and tried to shoehorn in Nightwatcher as a Cultivation equivalent and a mysterious 3rd spren as some sort of Odium analogue. I think Stormfather is the exception though owing to his complex nature. Stormfather existed as a unique and powerful "super spren" personifying the Highstorm before Honor mixed his investiture into the highstorm and before Stormfather took on a secondary role as the shadow of Honor. Originally Stormfather was just a giant spren representing the storm, and I think other 2 Bondsmith spren will follow a similar pattern. So rather than the most common theory that the 3 Bondsmith spren will be related to the 3 shards (which is kind of silly, Odium doesn't fit here at all), I propose the 3 Bondsmith spren are of a more elemental nature and remnants of Adonalsium's creation of Roshar pre-Honor+Cultivation's arrival. Stormfather personifies the highstorms and the air. Nightwatcher likely personifies the land/earth of Roshar. A 3rd giant spren would probably best fit as a personification of water/oceans. What has got me thinking of the Nightwatcher in this way was simply looking at a map of Roshar. The Nightwatcher can be found in "The Valley". "The Valley" occupies a spot right at the center of all the maps we have of Roshar, the perfect location to find a spren representing the land of Roshar. There's also an odd quote from the (in universe) Way of Kings "all save the Heralds themselves must dine with the Nightwatcher", which might make more sense if we view the Nightwatcher as a representation of the Earth/land. When you die your physical body returns to the Earth, so "dining with the Nightwatcher" could be the Roshar equivalent to "ashes to ashes".

Much like how in an RPG a random NPC having an actual name lets you know that this person must be important, Brandon loves to use language quirks as red flags that someone has more going on than meets the eye. Conversely, a new character unexpectedly speaking with a perfect local accent despite foreign looking features is also a clue that there are magical shenanigans at work.