sm1550law

I think I understand what you are saying, but I think we've been told pretty clearly the opposite. The spren are tiny splinters of the Shards. I don't remember an explicit WoB on that (just Syl calling herself a piece of a god) and the WoB stating that the Orders of Radiants all gain powers from spren that are some portion Honor and some portion Cultivation. Some are more Honor than Cultivation, but they are all some combination of the two. How is it that a connection to the Shards is unnecessary when in fact a connection to a spren is necessary? There are no surgebinders without spren, except for people using Honorblades. It looks like that follows pretty clearly.

So with it known that the spren which allow for the creation of the Radiants are some combination of Cultivation and Honor, wouldn't Cultivation have had to intentionally collaborated with Honor to create the Honorblades? While the spren appear to have acted without explicit orders from the Shards to create the Radiants, the Honorblades are intentional constructs given by Honor to the Heralds. As the powers granted by the spren bonds mimic what was granted to the Heralds, wouldn't it stand to reason that Honor would have required Cultivation to assist in creating the Honorblades since he is not the sole source of the granted powers?

First: "Taln" is actually Jezrien. As described by Nale, "Praise Yaezir, Herald of Kings. May he lead in wisdom. If he ever stops drooling." The drooling might be Nale saying that Gawx is a drooling idiot, or that Jezrien is a drooling idiot. From other references, it seems pretty clear he is talking about Jezrien. The two people most fitting of that insult are the beggar from WoK and "Taln". From Kalak's first description of Jezrien, "He seemed so cold. Like a shadow caused by heat and light falling on someone honourable and true, casting this black imitation behind." I see the words "black imitation" as referring to either his skin color or the shadow cast on his soul and purpose. I tend to believe it means both things in this instance. From Teft, the Makabaki "worship Jezrien, though they don't accept him as a figure from the Vorin religion. They name him the only god." So we know that the "Taln" Dalinar had with the ardents looks Makabaki. Somehow I don't see a group of people picking someone that looks nothing like themselves to be their one and only god. Brandon is pretty solid in structuring his in world mythologies to mimic the way real world mythologies are built, and this is one standard practice. Gods resemble the people that worship them (if they resemble people at all). So basically, Taln is Jezrien and when reunited with the Honorblade that Kaladin recovered from Szeth, he will at least recover enough to remember who he is. Second: Adolin will become the second Edgedancer we see. His murder of Sadeas has created those cracks in his soul that need to be there for a spren to fill in the empty spaces. Adolin doesn't look to be a primary character, so I don't expect him to be the first of any of the Radiant Orders. Making him the second one of an Order keeps with the "secondary, but still noteworthy" motif Brandon seems to be running with for his character. Brandon confirmed that Adolin's shardblade used to belong to an Edgedancer, but something more would need to happen than for Adolin to merely speak the oaths of the Edgedancers. Adolin already respects his sword as if it is alive, refusing to name it since he thinks it already has one. Maybe he gets sent out (full out exile, diplomatic exile for murdering Sadeas, or while the investigation is pending). He ends up in Azir because that is one of the few kingdoms that didn't just completely ignore Dalinar's warnings so he sent his son to help them or establish stronger ties. Lift does something with Regrowth in order to try to heal something wrong with Adolin, but the Regrowth affects both Adolin and his shardblade, healing the "break" in both Adolin and the spren by joining them together, filling the in cracks in both. Right now we really don't have any grasp on the limits of Regrowth or whether it can affect both spren and people, or just people. While Adolin may not seem like the ideal fit, based upon what we see from Lift, they have been described as "the most articulate and refined of the Radiants. They were considered elegant things of beauty. But also would ignore things of great import in favor of smaller things, as some would see it." and "although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned; also, they were the most articulate and refined of the Radiants." Adolin might not be the smartest light bulb in the box, but he's not an idiot, and pretty much all of that description of the Edgedancers fits him pretty solid.