alder24

I agree, invasions into Azir and Thaylen had to be planned by Rayse, but the one into the Shattered Plains could be made all by Taravangian. This is because there are just Fused in the invasion force - they don't need logistics, they don't need sleep, they are much faster and could be gathered and deployed quicky. Voidlight is all they need, which can be provided by Odium through song of prayers. However I highly doubt Rayse planned to use Urithiru Oathgates. The gates were all closed on the other side once the city fall was discovered. He couldn't have used them even if he wanted. And he still needed sizable force to stay in Urithiru to assure his control over it and prevent rebellions. Odium is bound by Honor, he can't directly use his powers like you are proposing - teleportation included. At best he could use his Everstorm like he did in OB, but I don't think there was Everstorm recently and he would have just transported them straight into the Shattered Plains (by providing favorable winds). Plus, unlike Roshar, Scadrial was made by Preservation and Ruin, Sazed can do much more than Odium on Roshar.

Apparently it's not just Heralds, everyone sees a bit more clearly when a Radiant touches SR. That, combined with the fact that all Heralds are Connected to Bondsmiths and Radiants, allows Heralds to reach SR as well - and there is their Spiritual Ideal of self, the perfect image of how they should be, what they are, untouched by their broken mind. When Radiant touches SR, it brings Heralds closer to their Spiritual Ideal of themselves. It doesn't cure them, it doesn't let them cope with their PTSD, it just makes them more present in SR where such things are irrelevant. That's how I view this, it's not any blockage. RoW ch 111:

Yes, you're onto something: I don't think Heralds are an example of such a blockage. They suffer because they has been alive for way too long, Fused suffer the same fate and you can see it with totally mad Fused (like Raboniel's daughters) and partially sane, spren-like Fused (like Raboniel obsessed with ending this war, or Pursuer with his pursuing obsession). I believe that their obtained nationality is the effect of 2,500 years of living in those nations and interacting with humans. A Connection slowly developed over this period of time on its own, making them just like humans. It was even noted several times that most of those Singers speak, behave and gesticulate like humans, not like real Singers. Without their own identity and nationality, they just picked up traits from humans around them, Connecting them to the land they live on.

Oh, you mean the voice during "I killed my father?" She didn't summon Testament this time, she didn't wonder to whom it belonged in the same quote, she was only confused about the voice she heard during her first Soulcasting. So you think that and the next Ideal spoken to Testament was carried over to Pattern? She bonded Pattern and was immediately at the 3rd Ideal? Because Shallan was suppressing Testament in her mind, so it took special circumstances, when she was thinking about her and was summoning her, for Shallan to swear an Ideal to Testament - which didn't fully count because she had to reswear it again in WaT with the full intent behind it. So she wasn't at the 4th Ideal when she was a kid, but she is now at the 4th Ideal with Testament, so why is Testament still a Deadeye? If one track theory is correct that would mean she was 5th Ideal Radiant as a kid (which I find unlikely). RPG spoilers: I was going to respond to all your points, but I don't think we're getting anywhere with this. I think it may be better to agree to disagree. We can't even agree which words were her Truths. I believe there is enough evidence that "I killed my mother" was Shallan's Truth, even if there was a deeper truth hidden within it by a new lie (because the point of this Truth was that she killed her mother, which destroyed her family, leading to Shallan killing her father). I'm not convinced by this theory, just confused. It doesn't work for me at all. And you still didn't explain how Testament's Oaths reconstruction and her revival works in your theory. For me, the matter is very simple - per WoB above, Shallan has to just reswear her broken Oaths. As I understand your theory, Testament should have been revived by now. I'm interested to hear what others think is happening with Shallan and her Truths. Which theory is more likely in your opinion, which words were Shallan's Truths, how reconstruction of Testament's Oaths works? Edit: No Shardblade screamed in Shallan's mind in WoR. I believe every time Shallan summoned her Shardblade in WoR was Testament, not Pattern and Lightweavers just like any other order get their blades at the 3rd Ideal - which was just confirmed in a recent chapter (which started this whole discussion). WaT ch 16: As for why Testament didn't scream in Shallan's mind, she knew the risk of bonding and was probably "content" as a Deadeye - just like Shardplate spren are. Or maybe it's because her bond wasn't fully broken as there was no full intent behind it and that was enough to prevent Testament from screaming (after all, Shallan still had some Surgebinding abilities, in RoW ch 115 she remembered that she used her powers after breaking the bond with Testament but before bonding Pattern).

The bond already existed in the Spiritual Realm. Other Cryptics are there to provide an anchor to the bonding spren. I don't see why it can't start forming while the spren is still in the Cognitive Realm. It's not a full bond yet, but there is enough for Shallan and Jasnah to have some powers manifested - and to speak the 2nd Ideal. Yes, I know Ivory is alone, yet due to how Inkspren interacted with Jasnah in the prologue, it looks like Inkspren behave in the same way as Cryptics - they are judging from CR. For me this was more like Ivory (assuming it was him, which I think it was) was testing Jasnah rather than seriously trying to kill her. It says Shallan didn't recognize Pattern as the voice she heard when she Soulcasted, Pattern doesn't remember it so it most likely wasn't Pattern. Add to this the WoB saying that if Shallan didn't try to summon her Shardblade, she wouldn't have been able to Soulcast. This whole part got out of hand. I was simply proposing a simple explanation for why Shallan's eyes started to glow. Yes, she inhaled Stormlight in ch 8, I said she was Lightweaving, but it didn't say she inhaled all of her light. Missed that, yes she said it in her mind a moment before. Would that count? Maybe - for Eshonai it counted but that's because she couldn't say them out loud. Or maybe she could summon Wyndle for the same reason Teft could summon some form of his Shardblade in RoW - he was at the point he could almost say the 4th Ideal. It doesn't matter - my point was that Lift didn't get any influx of power when swearing an Oath. She did, she spoke directly to voices. She knew they were the reasons she saw Shadesmar and she had enough of the intent and knowledge to say the Truth. Innocent friend? You mean a lover, a person Shallan knew destroyed her family, who tried to kill her father? Very innocent indeed. Why wouldn't she be afraid if she needed reassurance to face the darkness spreading in her family? You didn't address my problems with this. How does this one track theory explain Testament's Oaths reconstruction? How does it works Do you think Shallan is at 4th Ideal with both Testament and Pattern right now? That means she reconstructed her Ideals with Testament up to the 4th Ideal, right? How did she this while constantly repressing the knowledge of Testament? This doesn't work for me. If she's at 4th Ideal with both spren, where is her second Shardplate, or at least why her one plate isn't made out of spren belonging to both Pattern and Testament, like Nomad's was? I do believe as a child she reached the 4th Ideal, thus she should have platespren that created a plate before, yet all current spren did it for the first time. Why did you count "I'm terrified" as two separate Truths, when Shallan said "she said it before?" And what if "I killed my mother/spren" counts as a Truth, why isn't she at 5th Ideal with a fully restored Testament? There were enough big moments that she should be at 5th Ideal by now (that's why I said explaining specifically this doesn't work with steps, not as the whole). Shallan even said in OB "I killed my mother" was a Truth, it's out and she can't hide it anymore - yet she tries the hardest not to think about it. She said that Truth, she revealed it, but can't deal with it, can't accept it. The truth was the step forward (and times when she doesn't try to repress it), her trying to hide from it were steps backwards. So then she's at 5th Ideal - we're back to my previous point. She said the same about "I killed my father" - she counts is as a Truth, but she doesn't count "I'm terrified as a Truth. OB ch 8: OB ch 13: OB ch 25:

I believe yes. The way Cryptics bond is different from other spren. Cryptics accompany their fellow spren, observe a potential knight and help their comrade in their transition between Realms. Inkspren might do the same, because Ivory was also watching Jasnah from CR. And just like Syl said, they were already bonded even before they found each other. The voice actually was different. WoR ch 6: It's not specified. In ch 8 she was using Lightweaving, but in ch 11 it was said she was nearly out of Stormlight. I think the simplest explanation is the best - he had light in gemstones, she inhaled some in ch 8, she inhaled even more when she did substantiation and almost ran out of Stormlight. Glowing eyes aren't enough to say she got a burst of power when breathing in light from her spheres is an option. That's not her 3rd Ideal, that's just a realization. She didn't get any power from it. She swore her ideal during the confrontation with Nale on the roof. there was no sudden burst of power. Edgedancer ch 19: I did notice that too, but on the other hand the text both times said he exploded with light. There might have been enough Stormlight in the palace hallway for him to explode, but in the small gems on beards and hair of Parshendi I'm not so sure. And Brandon did confirm that Windrunners explode with powers so we can assume he got more Stormlight when he swore his Oaths. But this doesn't really work for reconstruction of her broken bond. If her Truths were counting for both, even for Testament whom she didn't know existed before RoW because she repressed her existence, she said enough of Truths to be at 5th Ideal with both Pattern and Testament and Testament would have been revived. Explaining this by those steps forward and behind doesn't really work - if she were to go back on her Oath, she has to just swear the next one to restore her bond (like Kaladin did) and she did say enough of Truths already. How could she reconstruct her Oaths with Testament when she had no intent and no knowledge of her before RoW? That's why in my opinion she had to repeat "I'm terrified" in WaT, because the one said in WoK was just "partially" sworn as she lacked the full intent behind it. She can't just swear the Truth to Pattern and have it counted to Testament, she had to say it to Testament with the right intent. Now that she knows Testament is her spren, if she's on the "one track theory" she has to reswear her Oaths said to Pattern to Testament, she has to repair her broken Oaths. She doesn't just have a double bond, she has a broken double bond. This whole list of admissions aren't her Truths. Most of this is just her repressing her memories, not admitting and saying her Truths. There are even way more moments like this in the book. Repressions are not admissions. She's been always terrified, not since she killed her mother or Testament - always. She was terrified even before she killed her mother. That's why Testament came and bonded her, to help her fight against the darkness in their house. RoW ch 93: I think I'm even more confused than before. Shallan trying to repress her memories might be her stepping backwards from saying the next Truth or from the Truth she already said (the backtracking from WoB), but eventually she does swear the next Truth and this is the step forward. I believe in the WoB Brandon described it more figuratively than literally and trying to find all those steps backward and forward is pointless. It's not like she regressed in her bond even when in OB she tried her hardest to forget again she killed her mother - she said the Truth, it was out, she wasn't able to repress it anymore even when she tried to hide herself from it. Pattern was still her Shardblade, her bond wasn't broken - the Truth wasn't broken. Her backtracking never went "below" her current ideal. This theory isn't convincing to me, just confusing.

By this I meant that if Dalinar merges both Shards, they won't create War because that's not the direction Dalinar's character is going. He can merge them into something else - Unity like you proposed. It all depends on his interpretation of those Shards when he combines them. There is no one, fixed name for merged Shards, a Vessel has a lot to say about it. I highly doubt Dalinar will just choose War after all he did to step away from war. Raboniel is wrong here. Rhythms do change - Odium's pure tone was incorporated into Roshar in recent times, it wasn't like this before Recreance. Spren do change - we see this with the Stormfather (who was changed massively by Honor and is changing through his bond), with Nightwatcher (whose entire deal is to grow organically) and with other sprens (like Highspren who chose to side with Odium or others). Roshar as the whole is ever changing. He is the most dangerous because it's so hard to control. It's not that it's impossible to control, it's just hard. Rayse chose Odium because it matched his personality and selfishness very well - he was a bad choice because he was a bad person before Ascension. There is no evidence that Rayse also had the same separation as Taravangian has. Nobody called Rayse the Broken One and one Death Rattle talking about unknown time and event is not enough proof. This Death Rattle may very likely talk about Taravangian after WaT.

Maybe they can't? Fused use of Surges is different and much more limited than that of Radiants. As for now I think we've seen them Soulcasting only stone (the Nine) and smoke (Rabonile in the Tower). You do realize that Alethkar alone is the size of Australia? You want people to find a needle in a haystack and carry it for weeks into a big city? Not to mention that the storm can carry those materials across half of the continent, you will never find it. That would never work. They still are fighters, they are also spies, they have other, more important duties to perform, not wasting time and resources on Soulcasting useless materials in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention that you would also need Windrunners with them. That's just unnecessary wasteful. There are only 50 Windrunners currently and just 20 Lightweavers in total (all, Radaints and squires). They are far more valuable everywhere else than creating material nobody needs. There is plenty of metal from Soulcasting already. It's not material that you lack, it's skill and technology. Creating a full plate armor, even via Soulcasting would be a very hard and complicated process. This armor requires precision due to the amount of moving parts. Soulcasters would struggle to create a full plate armor and there aren't enough skillful workers to create them fast enough. Breastplates generally cover the stomach as well. And screw spanreed communication and every Radiant trying to heal or use their powers on those soldiers? Aluminum is bad for armor and coating armor in aluminum is a complicated process that adds weight. Most soldiers will never meet any Fused in battle, they just aren't that common, they will fight mostly against common foot soldiers. It’s a waste of time, Radiants are there to fight with Fused. Regular person stands no chance against Fused, no matter how much aluminum you gave them. Aluminum is still a fairly unknown material with unknown properties, they've just begun to use it in fabrials. Your proposition right now requires even more workforce because you want people to go around an entire country, trying to find Soulcasted materials scattered by a Highstorm and haul them back to some city. Not every person is fitted for war, not everyone should be a soldier - age of recruits matters too. You still need to train them and have a command structure for this massive influx of new soldiers - you can't Soulcast officers and generals out of thin air. Quantity over quality. And you still need enough civilians having kids to make sure your birth rates are high. By drafting every able man into an army, you destroy your future generation. Of course it's useful. Yes, building fortifications via Soulcasting is a great idea - and it's already being done. But you still don't have enough Radiants for any of this. Building forts with no ground-level entrances is utterly useless when you have only 50 Windrunners. Not to mention that a garrison of such a fortification can't be quickly deployed because they all need to wait for their turn to be Lashed, instead of just walking through the gates. Sure, those are cool ideas, but they were already done on Shattered Plains, or can't be done because there aren't enough Radiants. You also can't just drop a giant rock on the enemy camp - Highstorm winds would carry it unpredictably off course. You’re still in the middle of Highstorn, with winds blowing twice as fast as the most intense hurricane on Earth. A hurricane on Earth can easily level a city, you want to construct buildings and create materials inside a storm twice as powerful? That’s just insane. Yeah, there were no issues because they flew above the storm. You underestimate how dangerous Highstorms can be. Even Kaladin recognizes storms don't belong to him and knew trying to travel with people ahead of a Highstorm, like he did when fighting Szeth, was way too dangerous. Radiants or not, a random rock hitting you in the head will knock you unconscious, if not decapitate you on the spot. It's way too dangerous to create more debris inside a Highstorm when you only have 20 Lightweavers to spare. They are ridiculously powerful, far more powerful than any hurricane on Earth. Those wagons are chained to the ground and large stones to prevent them from being carried out by winds.

Ars Arcanum of TLM did mention that the idea of Marsh as the impersonation of death is spreading throughout Cosmere, asking if this is something supernatural. I personally think this is a combination of those two factors - Worldhoppers do spread the news about Marsh, but due to Scadrian perception of Death as Marsh, other words might subconsciously also perceive death as looking like Marsh (due to the Spiritual Ideal of Death shifting to match that of Scadrians).

And? What do you want to say by this? The fact that the Stormfather accepted her 2nd Ideal means her 1st Ideal had to be accepted some time in the past, yet we didn't see her say those words. That's the second Ideal, not the first one, sworn when she revived Gawx, not earlier. Again, that was my point, she didn't say the First Ideal on pages, yet she was able to say the Second one. Edgedancer ch 5: Living by those words. Accepting them, embracing them, but most importantly probably the right intent. Intention to restore broken Oath, intention of accepting another bond. If embracing the First Ideal is enough to have it accepted, then if there is a second spren willing to bond you (which is the hardest part of having the double bond), that should be enough to have this Ideal accepted. Or maybe, because Shallan didn't fully break her bond, she carried the First Ideal with her, so she didn't have to rewear it. You raised a good point and I don't have a compelling answer for you. Cosmere RPG spoilers: I don't agree. The bond was already being formed in WoK, if not even earlier - Pattern was observing her this entire time from CR. She definitely said "I killed my father" to Pattern. Saying again the First Ideal isn't the problem as I believe you don't have to say it, just living by it is enough. Yes, she probably got more light from spheres in her pouch. Brandon specifically called Kaladin exploding with light a function of Windrunners. This isn't something that happens to other Orders - Lift, Szeth or Venli never exploded with light: How does "one track" theory function with reconstructing Oaths? She said all 5 Oaths to Pattern and she repeated "I'm terrified" in WaT as a reconstruction of her broken Oath, right? So by what words would she now reconstruct another Oath? Won't she need to repeat "I killed my father" now? Then "I killed my mother?" If she does this in WaT, then it's settled, but if she says a totally new truth, then the "two track" theory is correct. Edit: If he was Teft's squire and lost his bond due to his and Phendorana death, then Adolin would not have known that Colot left Windrunners - Teft died a day or two before, when Adolin was still in Lasting Integrity. Colot must have decided to leave Windrunners before Adolin went on his diplomatic mission.

I doubt Nightwatcher can make an Aetherbound. An Aether is a sapient entity which has to agree and grant a bud of an Aether to its new servant. You can't have an Aetherbound Connected to nothing. And why would any Aether agree to Nightwacher's request? Moreover an Aehterbound still has a human body, just with buds and veins of Aether on their skin. They aren't replaced by an Aether. TLM ch 39: TLM ch 42:

But the Shard's name, its intent isn't Void. Just like Honor isn't Storm. That's what I meant. Void is of Odium, storms are of Honor, but that's not what the intent behind those Shards is all about.

Stormlight RPG spoilers: So did Eshonai? We've never seen her said the First Ideal on pages, yet the Stormfather accepted her Second Ideal. Kaladin said it for the first time in WoK ch 59 - a looong time after he started to bond with Syl. Lift also never said those words on pages. I think living by the First Ideal is enough, you don't have to say it out loud, you need to embrace them. Or maybe she did say them some time before WoK started, we just didn't see this happening on pages (I prefer the former). I wouldn't call it a burst of light, rather just light from her glowing eyes being reflected by beads - glowing eyes are normal when you hold a lot of Stormlight in your body. No burst of power, no glyph and frost appeared - the same is true for other Radiants when they swear their Oaths, like Lift or Venli (except Windrunners). None of them get a burst of power or Stormlight after swearing a new Ideal. Even when Dalinar spoke the First and Second Ideal nothing happened. Shallan however did a powerful Lightweaving afterwards, I wouldn't be surprised if she just inhaled all Stormlight she had with her - hence glowing eyes. Actually, she used so much Stormlight that she ran out in her next chapter. Looks like substantiation requires a lot of Stormlight. WaT ch 9: WaT ch 11: This wasn't a formal Oath, which does allow Taravangian to argue he's not breaking it or maybe that he's not bound by it. The wording of this promise is vague anyway, RoW ch 112: He was mentioned for the first time in OB ch 9: I think he just felt useless waiting for a spren to bond, when he could serve Dalinar in a different role instead. He looks like a man of action. You don't get to be a Radiant because of cool powers, you do it because you want to help - and if Colot was unable to become a full Radiant, maybe he chose to help in a different way. But this does raise an eyebrow.

I strongly object to the notion that the combined Honor and Odium will be called War. Just because their combined light is called Warlight, doesn't mean their combined Shards will be called War. Will merged Honor and Cultivation be called Tower? No, that's ridiculous. Honor isn't called Storm, Odium isn't Void, those are just names for their lights, just like War is. A person Ascending to both Shard can choose the name most fitting to it - if Dalinar Ascend to War, then it will nullify all of his character development that happened in all five books, which was him learning to unite without a fight, to find a peaceful solution to conflict, stepping away from combat, not indulging in war (that was Blackthorn's thing). I don't think that's very Cultivation-like, that would be devolution, a regress, not progress and evolution. She certainly wants to get rid of the problem which is aggressive and hostile Odium. Disagree, Rayse seems very not scared of her. He's even irritated that she hides from him - he wants to kill her, he can't because he's bound. OB ch 47: She did. It can grant Dalinar better understanding of what Honor is really about, which is vital for Ascension. If that was her goal, she did it in a very twisted and opposite way - trying to convince Taravangian not to be like Rayse who wanted to kill all other Shards and become the only Shard. She even tried to convince him to end the war right now. I don't see this in her actions. WaT I-2: I don't think this is something to be healed, I think this is specifically because Taravangian doesn't view himself as Odium and separates himself from the power - that's what years of Cultivation's gift prepared him for, separating emotions from logic is the key to control Odium. No, I think the virtues that give it context are all other 15 Shards. Without them, Odium is just hatred. That's VERY not like Cultivation. Cultivation prunes, not destroyed totally. Recreating Cosmere isn't a Cultivation thing, Cultivation wants to see growth of things that already exist. But in the end, I do think Dalinar is a part of Cultivation's plan to fight against Odium and maybe in the long term she wants to combine Honor and Odium together. That wasn't her Cognitive aspect or Shadow, that's either Dalinar Connecting to her Spiritual corpse, or maybe he was reaching directly to her in the Beyond .

This new Shard is the last one of the original 16 whose name we don't know. The WoB simply states that we will learn it in WaT, not that they will be significantly involved in the plot, or appear personally on Roshar - just like we learned names of Mercy, Valor, Invention and Whimsy from RoW letters. The name of this Shard has been theorized for at least 5 years now, WoBs: Edit: Ishar doesn't have this problem, he has a fully functional body which is his. He has a strong tie to the Physical Realm through his body (that's why capturing Jezrien in a gemstone ended up with his soul fading, because he lost that connection to his body and to PR). This certain someone was separated from his body by death, Heralds seem to recreate their bodies out of raw investiture (this is most likely Oathpact related).

I agree, but I think nobody will fully Ascend to Honor, rather we might get another temporary Ascension, similar to the one from OB. There is also a possibility that Taravangian will Ascend and merge Honor with Odium. Full Ascension to Honor in WaT seems very likely, but right now is too predictable, so I am expecting some twist added to it, even if Dalinar Ascends I doubt everything would be great afterwards. Dangerous for Ghostbloods to go there. This could be explained by Shallan winning and hunting Ghostbloods, or Mraize going rogue and acting against Ghostbloods or some other explanation that doesn't involve Shards.

I'm quite sure this is a “what if she revealed her Radiant powers in the past” question. She is wondering if she did this, would she be in Dalinar's place now - not just as a champion, but as a leader. She wanted to make that final decision, that final deal to bind Odium herself, she is uneasy thinking that it's someone else's duty now, despite all of the years she spent on preparing for this moment. It's not just this paragraph that makes this obvious, it's the surrounding ones that are needed to understand this whole context. She started by imagining where she might be if she had gone public from the very beginning, then she reminded herself how people treat her and that is just wishful thinking - she knows she wouldn't have been in the position to make this final decision, simply because people hate her. This is something that happened way before she bonded Ivory and something done to her by those she loved the most - most likely Gavilar. She is not terrified by the prospect of losing her mind, like she did back then. However I doubt this gave her hidden powers of some sort. OB ch 47: Nobody really knows what an Elsecaller can do, because only Jasnah is an Elsecaller. Except for the Stormfather himself, who might notice something is off (which is unlikely because he failed to see that Glys was Enlightened), nobody would ask any questions regarding Jasnah powers and they would all accept that it is a regular Elsecalling - unless it's something very flashy and obvious of course. Jasnah is the first Elsecaller in 2,500 years, nobody really knows what Radiants in general can do after such a long time and they have nobody to compare her to. Jasnah knows the truth about Recreance from Wit. She wanted to tell what happened, but Ivory persuaded her not to. OB ch 47: And we've seen Ivory multiple times, he looks normal and if he was corrupted, they would not want to kill Renarin in OB. They don't have access to microkinesis-like powers - that's Cohesion, that's Stoneshaping, that's Willshapers and Stonewards. RoW Ars Arcanum: It's possible that Jasnah could be influenced by an Unmade during her insanity period, but I doubt that would give her some powers, unless she was constantly under this Unmade's influence - which now with a fully working Urithiru would be impossible. Renarin has access to future sight because of his Enlightened bond, Yelig-nar grants Surges because he bonds and consumes a soul of its host, Nergaoul gave Dalinar furious battle rage because he was targeted by him specifically. For Jasnah to gain powers from an Unmade, she would have to be bonded or Connected to one of them - which I find highly unlikely. Sja-Anat is already walking on eggshells when she collaborates with Honor's side, another Unmade working with Jasnah, a person who sacrificed most of her life to fight against Odium, would definitely draw Odium's attention. And if that's all Odium's plan, then Jasnah would probably be searching for a way to free herself of this curse, not wondering what if she revealed those powers to the world - she almost killed Renarin because his spren was corrupted, she would rather kill herself than allow Odium to use her against those she love. If she was bonded with an Unmade, she wouldn't have tried to kill Renarin in the first place, because she would know that those touched by Odium can be good and fight against him, like she was.

Baxil in WoK wanted to go and ask Nightwatcher for courage and it looks like she made him immaterial so he can go everywhere without worrying of being detected. I said it in the Stormlight-only section thread, his current state looks a lot like Yumi and Nikaro's situation and even Kel's in SH. None could see them beside highly invested entities, they couldn't interact with regular matter etc. Baxil can do something more than that, people who look out for him can see him, but it's still very similar. Is his physical body still attached to him, or did something happen to it like in Yumi? Is he a kind of Cognitive Shadow because he feels like he's a step away from dissipating, or it's just something totally different?

I'm gonna read that later, thanks. If Kaladin were to bond another Honorspren, he would be able to say all 4 Ideals at once, because he already is living by them (there was a WoB about it, that it's possible to bond and be ready to swear all the way up to 5th Ideal, can't find it now). Shallan however doesn't just bond another Cryptic, she's bonded with a Deadeye - she has to re-swear her broken Oaths to revive Testament. Shallan's situation is just vastly different than if someone were to try to bond another living spren. She broke her bond, she broke her Oaths and Truths. Just like Kaladin, Dalinar, Eshonai and maybe even Lift - they never said the First Ideal before they were able to use Stormlight. Dalinar remembered using Stormlight before swearing his Oaths, Kaladin was obviously using Stormlight and Reverse Lashing before Teft told him about the First Ideal, Eshonai never said the First and Second Ideal - she couldn't say the Second Ideal because he was underwater, she said it in her mind and most importantly she died embodying it. We've never seen any of them saying the First Ideal before using their powers for the first time.

What stops a Shard from brute forcing Connection to a new Shard, creating their own Connection Orb? Or maybe their shared Connection to Adonalsium is enough to allow them to pick up other Shards? It wasn't the only WoB in which Brandon talks about Odium and Rayse's unwillingness to pick up a Shard, so I think Shards can do it, Rayse just didn't want to because it would change him. Ruin and Preservation were a very unique case where powers were in conflict for so long that they polarized. By the WoB further below, it's specifically Rayse who made Odium afraid of being changed, I think Taravangian is different enough to accept Odium changing into something else, thus combining it with other Shards will be his goal. Taravangian already separates himself from the power, so for him it doesn't really matter if the power will change, because he won't be affected by it that much. I think you're onto something, but it's not a desire to destroy other Shards, it's selfishness - Odium is by nature selfish so it will always push their Vessel to become the only god.

The reason Nightblood works so terrifyingly good is because he's a sword. It wouldn't work the same if you Awaken a shield or a corpse in the exact same way as Nightblood was Awakened. However, you can Awaken a Soulcasted corpse into sentience, that's a regular type 4 BioChromatic entity - like Vivenna's blade. You most likely won't bring back that person, it would assume its own identity and personality. Additionally a human body won't work like a Shardblade, for the same reasons a shield won't be like Nightblood. WoBs: This one below is about Lifeless, but it should more or less work the same with a type 4:

They can:

Maybe, but I don't think so. Hoid's Tamu Kek is described as a bone, not a skull.

No, the terms say that neither side can harm a chosen champion before the contest. The loophole might be not about a champion that is already harmed, but a champion that will be harmed when trying to reach the top of Urithiru, like choosing Moash - Navani, Gavinor and all of the Bridge Four would love to kill him. But I also think if Odium's champion were to intentionally provoke Dalinar's side to harm him, it would count as Odium breaking the terms. RoW ch 112:

Sorry, I didn't make it clear but I agree with you and I was just expanding upon your statement. If the Stormfather wanted to be honest, he should have said what I proposed. And while he might be telling true statements, he is still lying by omission - which is clearly visible in quotes from ch 64 and 65 when he tried to hide behind true but unhelpful words. He was technically correct in those quotes (which is the best kind of correct), but he was omitting the truth from Dalinar, avoiding answering questions and was intentionally misleading him, and Dalinar caught him in ch 64/65. But being technically correct is the best way of hiding important information. Edit: If the Stormfather is the Stormfaker, then he directly lied to Dalinar in OB ch 38 by telling him that no Herald has died since Aharietiam.