Wandering Investor

"I will take responsibility for what I have done" is the 3rd oath, while "If I must fall, I will rise again, each time a better man" seems to be Dalinar expanding on it (or maybe the other way around). "I am Unity" is a statement, not an oath, and is already stated by the second oath of bringing men together instead of dividing. WOB

As pointed out, aluminum has a canceling effect on most/all forms of investiture, not just sensing powers. And in the part where Hoid brought the aluminum, I think he brought it in sheets. They just covered the room, and as long as the aluminum is thin, it won't take too much.

The darkness could be due to a presence of an unmade, any unmade, not just a specific one. Although if it is a specific unmade, I would guess Ashertmarn due to his area of influence, while the other two seem more specific in their powers. I do wonder if Sja-Anat's tampering with spren had any impact. I think spren are attracted to things and don't cause them. But if this idea is wrong and it is the other way around, Sja-Anat's corruption of the decayspren may be preventing food from decaying. But I find this unlikely, as it would mean food not decaying throughout the city due to the spread of the spren, and other corrupted spren would no longer be doing their Intents, which would cause other oddities.

Whoop

The characters made reference to the Revel calling them, but I don't remember if they specifically named it the Call of the Revel. The perception of time would have been affected by a person's level of influence from the Revel. To explain, the guards/prisoners would be able to act "normally", but wouldn't necessarily recall how long they'd be there, when they last ate, etc. Basically a magical high of some kind. Shallan, on the other hand, wasn't under the influence of the Revel by this point, so she would have been able to act normally, remember how long she'd been there, and still wouldn't have been able to notice the guards' perception of time. Then again, the guards aren't really reveling, so I don't' know what their deal is. Ashertmarn could still be preventing them from decaying, but wouldn't explain their behavior. There's a lot of questionable stuff happening at the palace.

@The One Who Connects ooo I haven't seen that before, that's interesting. Also explains the Tower's protection. But it also isn't relevant to the time-bending point. Time manipulation in the cosmere has been shown to occur in a bubble. Shallan would still have been subject to the bubble and noticed getting out later than expected if that were the case. On the other hand, if the Revel influences time from person to person, the guards would have been experiencing time differently than Shallan would have, and that would likely have been noticed. Instead, I think Ashertmarn is preventing the palace, and people/food/(maybe goods?) in it, from decaying. Additionally, the call of the Revel is likely influencing people's perception of time, instead of the timeline itself. An additional note I just realized, the guard has a full beard. This conflicts with time manipulation and supports the Revel affecting the guards' perception of time. Unless he had it before, but why would the book draw attention to the beard then?

Note on Jasnah's ability, I think her overpoweredness (because ya, she was way too strong), was due to Dalinar's blurring the lines between the realms. As for the power creep, I feel like there has been enough foreshadowing showing that the knights radiants used to throw around power like crazy, that its more like our current knights are regaining lost power instead of constantly growing. Which diminished the impact of the power creep, at least for me. Edit: Jasnah's ability may also have been due to Sadeas' men being bonded to voidspren? Creating unstable souls. Maybe also extreme influence of the Thrill on the men?

Nice catch, I forgot about that. This shows some form of distortion in the palace related to.... decaying? Preventing the food, the prisoners, and the revelers from decaying. Could this mean Ashertmarn is a corrupted decay spren, or something along those lines, similar to how the Midnight Mother is a weird creation spren? Another point against the time-bending that I thought of is, Shallan enters the palace and oathgate area and doesn't notice coming out later than would be expected. If the time-bending was enough to keep the prisoners alive for weeks, then Shallan likely would have noticed something.

I feel like time bending would be significant enough to be mentioned before. Totally possible it was a secret, or simply lost to time, but I find that slightly unlikely. Also, why would Odium's force expend the effort of bending time for prisoners? Instead, I think it has to deal with the Heart of Revel. The inner circle of members seemed pretty content to due their crawl, and not something they would stop doing, even to eat. Additionally, consider the number of Revel members and palace guards. That's a lot of people to feed, without any obvious sources of food. I propose that Ashertmarn (the Heart of Revel), is capable of sustaining those under its influence. The other possibly being the Palace had large reserves saved up, and the soldiers resisted enough to not join the revel, but not enough to note the passing of time or remember how much they ate. But again, why would the guards bother feeding the prisoners, if that were the case? In any case, something really weird seems to be going on there. EDIT: Theory evolved to be Ashertmarn prevents people from decaying, as well as food, as shown by people living for weeks while only eating a few meals, and food that doesn't seem to be decaying. Ashertnmarn also produces the Call of the Revel which influences people's minds. The more under the influence you are, the greater the effects. Effects include an intense desire to join the Revel by engaging in various forms of overindulgence and by altering one's perception of time, as shown by the guards-turned-prisoners, and their thinking days had pasted when in reality it was weeks. The Call of the Revel and Ashertmarn's anti-decay field may be two separate effects. To test, one would have to be near Ashertmarn for an extended period of time and resist the Call of the Revel. Goodluck with that...

I actually thought it a little later, it does likely mean safe use of the visions again. Odium can still visit parsh and humans inside the storm, and can personally lead whenever Dalinar isn't present, so I would expect him to continue his involvement.

Odium had to flee because Dalinar can force a contest if he sees Odium again, shown by the diagram at the end of OB. I don't think the oathpact involves Odium at all. Instead, Odium is bound by the powers of Honor and Cultivation, and also the fear of a strike from Cultivation.

We have a WoB that says taking a spren off world is difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. So it raises the question of how far can the spren and its bonded partner be apart from each other without consequences, or can Hoid find a way to get the spren off-world.

Indeed, Hoid's hair is white, at least some of the time. Rock once tells a story where he met the god of mischief, aka Hoid, and that he had white hair. I think there are a few other examples and quotes out there backing it up.

I agree with you by the way ^^

I think its likely she was referring to Glys in this instance. That said, the idea of the Unmade being the parents of the higher spren, prior to be unmade, is an interesting idea. I think its unlikely, but interesting.

The Radiant gem also mentions that he didn't know why the enemy pushed so hard there. If Honor's perpendicularity was there, that would have been an obvious reason. Also, Honor was alive during the recreance. Additionally, the memory Dalinar experiences show the knight's landing, armor stops glowing and then falls off. Seems intentional and caused by the radiants, not another force.

I like this theory. It is also flexible enough to allow something other than Nohadon to be the external voice. There's enough evidence that something is influencing Dalinar. I think Nohadon is a good pick, although not certain.

I suspect it would add to, not replace. But investiture seems to run on a lot of rules we don't know about, so hard to be sure.

The higher spren don't have a physical link, which may be the cause of their problems. The fused on the other hand seem to be going insane from the repeated deaths, and the power that is warping their souls.

I wouldn't read to much into the Unity part. Dalinar sees himself as Unity, because he's supposed to bring people together, not because he's ascended to a new Unity shard.

Bavadin holds the shard Autonomy. Brandon has stated that entire pantheons worshipped through the cosmere are made up of Autonomy, and it is theorized that each aspect is made to be autonomous. Still answering to the whole, hence "we", but still able to think for themselves, have their own personality, etc.

I seem to recall seeing somewhere that Shallan's household was under the influence of Odium, or at least her father was. Likely caused by one of the Unmade.

Shardblade users can mentally command their blades to stay when they let go. Then they can summon them back whenever they want.

Based on several quotes from Hoid, he doesn't always know why he needs to do things. He's likely using Fortune to guide him, so we can't say saving the spren is a Hoid level event because Hoid doesn't pick and choose what he does.