WhiteLeeopard

I think the warmth was Odium. My supposition is based on how the first time Dalinar met Odium he felt warmth, golden light and he got to his knees on awe. Then Odium majestically stepped out to mess with Dalinar's head .

Taln is the purple unicorn, that can never be put up as a rule to follow when drawing conclusions. He is the exception to everything, not the rule .

Windrunners are also about protection, which is where the debate about Drehy and Skar potential radiancy really stems from. They may not be leaders, but they are protectors. For the OP, our view of KR is slanted, they are rare now, but before there were hundreds per order. The main pov characters will just be the first, and by extension have the hardest time and become the leaders of their order. If it helps, I suspect Windrunners will be the biggest order, which is why we see so many.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing what kind of society the Listeners could make on a large scale, since in all of Roshar they seemed to me to be the group most aligned with Honor. Honor in the good sense, not the darkness hidden under the light way of the Shin, or follow the letter of the law skybreaker way, but in the be honorable and do good in the world sort of way. Unfortunately the Listeners are gone. The parsh are a group that have been slaves all their lives with no culture or society as a base. Their leadership and new customs come from the vengeful spirits of their ancestors, who are full of rage and hatred in the best case, and insane with no minds to speak of in the worst case. What could go wrong?

I don't think anyone holding Ishar's Honorblade could make a binding pact with Odium in humanity's name. I don't even think the other 2 bondsmiths (presumably Nightwatcher's and Sibling's) could make a binding pact with Odium. I think the power for those binding agreements rested solely in the hands of the Shards, with Honor been the only one that could agree to this specific pact (of freeing Odium), since he originally made it. Cultivation seems to have helped, but we don't get the impression she was as central as Honor in imprisioning Odium. Or at least not as much in-your-face about it. The only reason why Dalinar could make the pact is that his circumstances are extremely unusual. Honor was shattered, and the biggest piece bonded Dalinar. So Dalinar earned some of the powers, priviliges and responsibilities that would normally be held solely in a Honor's hands. Tanavast made the visions, and gave the idea of entering a duel with Odium, as a hail-mary when all was lost, to the person that would be bonded to the biggest available piece of his power. Then he instructed the Stormfather to find an appropiate recipient to bond when the time came and send the visions to. The only other way I think Odium could make a binding pact with someone representing humanity, is if the Stormfather bonds someone else. Odium doesn't need a bondsmith to agree to anything, he needs Honor's bondsmith. This is all rampant speculation on my part, but it was my first thought when I finished OB .

While the Herald's appeareance is interesting I wouldn't fixate on it too much, as for all we know they could change their aspect. For example, its not beyond the realm of possibility that as Cognitive Shadows they can appear how they imagine themselves to be, and they could have with time started seeing themselves as having eyes like the rest of the humans as they adapted to Roshar.

I don't think this would add or detract more from Elhokar. Whether he did it himself or he covered for Aseduan he bears the same guilt in my opinion. Its possible that the queen was behind it, but it wouldn't change things much. It would however make things more interesting for how Kaladin almost wrecked all in WoR for nothing. And it would bring home how important thoughts and beliefs are for Nahel bonds.

I really hated the change, because it didn't make Kaladin into a protector in my eyes, but simply removed responsibility from him while achieving the same thing (zero chance of Szeth surviving without the Honorblade a thousand foot fall). So basically he condemned Szeth to die after refusing to kill him? Nevr workd for me. Until I realized the ending change didn't actually change Kaladin's position, but Szeth's position. Szeth fully gives up on life after seing he isn't Truthless, in the originaly ending it was seen, but not so clear cut, and left some room for questioning that Szeth let himself be killed out of laziness or because it was easier. The new ending shows Szeth fully giving up and killing himself over his past actions. Of course others will see it differently, but its how I see it in my mind to not hate the end change, which made Kaladin worse in my eyes, as sparing someone to then condemn them to death to go chase an Hoorblade...was not exactly honorable .

I wondered if he was spying on the Singers, but I doubt that, as it would be too dangerous and wouldn't gain much information anyways since all power is in the Fused hands. Which I guess just leaves finding the rest of the Listeners. The only possible hint that they might exist was Rlain's question on WoR that the children at the very least must not have transformed. (Actually raises the question what form do parsh children have?). I was quite unhappy Rlain didn't appear more on OB, as I always was fond of him and wanted to see him glowing. Squire or KR either was fine by me. Not happy Bridge 4 is excluding him even if just unconsciously.

Jezrien was darkeyed (brown I think), so no, eyes have nothing to do with Heralds. Its a pity Jez died, I was looking forward to the alethi losing their rust when they saw the king of Heralds walking in with dark eyes, and drunk off his head. Roshone isn't Kalak, whitespine incident, aging, having a son and marrying Laral make it impossible. Wasn't there a soft idea that Vedel was a nurse in T's death hopsital?

Venli knew perfectly well what the stormform and the Everstorm were going to bring. She simply made wrong assumptions about what else would happen afterwards. She assumed humans would be destroyed/enslaved, Listeners would be saved, and she would be worshipped as their savior and made their Queen. Unfortunately what happened was a larger scale war started, Listeners were systematically destroyed by the Fused who were meant to save them, and she was turned into a puppet and a servant. Am I okay with her taking Eshonai's place? Not really, but I guess Eshonai was too ideal a Willshaper, so we get a rougher one, less suited for the order to get a clearer view of them. Before OB I would have been deeply unhappy (angry) at the idea of Venli been the Parsh savior, because she didn't deserve to save them after destroying the Listeners, and because the parsh deserved a better leader. However I got a bit of interest in Venli during OB. Basically she achieved everything she wanted...and then she saw that getting all she wanted meant all her dreams and all that was important in her world turning to ash. That is interesting in the sense that you get a good sense of who a person is after they gain all they hoped for...to see it become the bitterest of defeats. Venli didn't crumble, or go the easy road of becoming an arche-typical villain by hurting others to feel better herself. So she gained a smidge of my respect with her actions after she was at the bottom of the chasm. Where she goes from there, we will see.

I wish book 4 were Szeth, but its 90% sure going to be Eshonai. Brandon could always change his mind on what flashbacks fit best, but its unlikely. While Listeners are interesting, Szeth and the Shin are on the top 5 of mysterious Rosharan things I want to know more about. Maybe even top 3 after Heralds and the 3 Shards.

Considering how wonderfully picking an enemy of the Kholins went last time you'd think the Brightlords would slowly learn their lesson. Thanks to their policy of "fight house Kholin" they are now the smallest and most disgraced house in Alethkar. I'd like to believe someone would have enough brains to see if they want to save their house in any semblance they need to change their tune or be extinct within the year. Although Sadeas' men are chaotic, I wouldn't like to see black and white with the fully "evil" house. Apparently the only thing that is needed to become a highlord is to be chosen by the other brightlords as highlord.

Ah yes, there are so many new/updated theories around I often forget some parts.

Welcome, and be careful of that cookie, its not as innocent as it looks. The most relevant part of Honor's perpendicularity is it refills massive stormlight, and makes the Elsecaller and maybe Lightweaver and Willshaper surges massively powerful. The other relevant part at an individual level is it hints Dalinar just gained a lot of power, maybe even more than he would have normally gained from that third oath.

Realistically, while using his Skybreaker Shardblade would be more useful for most situations, there may be the added curveball of Nightblood been jaleous. Nightblood is often nice, happy, and generally likes his partners. And he still nearly kills them when they wield him. Does anyone really want to know what would happen if Nightblood is pissed at you while wielding it? So maybe Szeth needs to introduce Nightblood and his spren and let all 3 be friendly with each other before trying to wield the spren that will not kill you. Its really not fair for the poor spren to make something that will make the weird, powerful spren that can kill the poor average spren angry/jaleaus of them. As an aside, i'd love to see Szeth and a group of KR travel to the cognitive realm, and their reactions to whatever Nightblood looks like .

Gavilar was upset that his brother was doing unseemly things with darkeyed, low nahn trash! Giving up on his brother he returned to his scheming Unknowing that his drunk brother

In my defense when I wrote my post that WoB hadn't been published yet . In any case I'm taking it with a grain of salt, as there are at least 3 other WoBs across the years stating the opposite. So either it was a slight mistake, or something unsual is going on in Roshar, or updated cannon.

It would indeed be easier and better to use his Skybreaker blade most of the time, and just whip out Nightblood when the chull dung hits the peak of the mountain. At anything less than a crisis using Nightblood is dangerous, wasteful and overkill: Szeth chances death whenever he uses it, the sword takes a ton of stormlight, and most things don't need to be killed on all three realms to die. But say...for killing Unmade, Nightblood could be handy .

Is this the antagonist you hate the most? Or the antagonist you least like to read? Voted Moash in any case, he started down that path the moment he betrayed Kaladin. He wins most hated spot hands down. And his chapters were also the most boring part to read, will likely skip them on the rereads.

Venli may have the character arc of villan turned hero. She tried to save her people, out of glory, by bringing back the old gods. She suceeded. Then she watched as the old gods methodically destroyed all the Listeners for two reasons. They were afraid of them since they had turned their backs on the Fused once, what was preventing them from doing it again? Secondly, the Listeners represented an alternative culture to what the Fused and Odium offered. So, Venli wanted power, she wrought destruction, she watched her people be destroyed, and now is left with the responsibility to bring the Singers out of the soft enslavement they are currently in. For it is not as if they have any choice on what to do with their lifes under the Fused. Therefore I'd put Venli into the character arc of redemption. Her exact character was once scholar, but I somehow doubt thats what she will do. On Shallan neurology I'd be tempted to add insanity if you are counting that... Szeth a dash of insanity too . His character will probably be from the top of a society to the bottom. Lift is probably urchin character, but annoying works too . Really good table.

Nevertheless, having an order which has a focus on upholding the law doesn't seem wrong. What would our world be like without laws, judges, juries, policemen? The problem of the Skybreakers is they are currently driving their car in a dark path which is not exactly the law, as it is "applying the law when and where they feel like it". I also bet any order that had not been disbanded and had followed their insane herald for 4500 years would be in bad shape regardless of which order you pick.

That is not so clear. Odium can't go back on his word to have a duel of champions, That the Blackthorn must be his champion is not such a clear cut decision, specially when Dalinar has shaken down Odium's effects. T made it clear if Odium meets Dalinar after having agreed to the duel, Odium would be in trouble. However, what does troubles are were not so clear to me, it could simply be that Odium had lost his perfect champion and was left with worse options while Honor's side had some big picks. Or it could be like you say that Odium can't choose another champion.

-And then Odium shattered Roshar- Hoid standing on the door to the shardpool from the Cognitive Realm: Oops, that got a little out of hand Honestly my impression after Odium lost his shot at having the Blackthorn as his champion and was left with possible runner up Moash was poor Odium. He went from a champion that could destroy whole armies with a normal sword and no Plate, who conquered a third of Roshar through his brutality and who is on the list of most bloodthirsty warlords in the history of Roshar (as if there were few)...to whiny Moash. Its like daaaamn, serious downgrade.