Shadowmancer

That bit about Taravangian makes so much more sense. I had kind of chalked it up to his up and down intelligence, but this connects the dots and matches his character so much better. Great "Ah-hah!" moment!

Just search "meme generator" and you'll get a couple different websites. I personally like https://imgflip.com/memegenerator but there are others you can use.

Haha, no worries. Maybe some resident experts can conjure up a WOB for us

Ah ok @Fifth of Daybreak, I can see the quote you're using for this parallel. I can see that being considered wearing it. I don't see him being named for it in this instance, but then we certainly haven't seen even the smallest fraction of Hoid's story.

That doesn't sound like MBSH

Aren't we all forgetting Rock? His name is a poem about a special rock his father found [WoK, Ch. 27]. And then Wit says that he was once named for a beautiful stone that became useless for his wearing it [citation needed]. Maybe Brandon just likes rocks? Or rocks are like metal in that they have more significance in the Cosmere than we've noticed before.

I was just theorizing this myself.

So the question I'm still ruminating over is this -- why did they intentionally kill their spren? The Stormfather doesn't say "the man who broke his oath AND killed it," he says "the man who broke his oath TO kill it." They weren't just breaking their oaths for the sake of breaking the bond, they were breaking their oaths TO KILL THEIR SPREN. That's ... huge. Killing your closest friend and source of power? And everyone doing it all at once? The Recreance is taking on more significance to me.

Firstly, if indeed a dead spren/shardblade can be resurrected, it will be an entirely new thing. However, we know already that it is technically possible to do. Syl came back, but it was Kaladin who returned to his Oaths. The Radiant is dead and cannot do so now. So how would this happen? The Stormfather is not exactly a flexible being, and Tanavast was never much good at seeing into the future. Thoughts/theories that He wouldn't have thought of yet? Second, the man "broke his oath to kill it." This implies an action taken with a specific intent. I know we're all kings of reading too much into things, but this seems ... intentional. As for the reason why he wanted to kill it, you can see my signature for my personal theory, but the intent to kill was obviously there. Lastly, the spren is still there. It exists, and learns, though not quite the same as before. Could Dalinar possibly re-bond Oathbringer if it comes back to life? I feel like this is more than an informative exchange. I think we're going to see Oathbringer again. I mean, it's the name of the book. And I really think we're going to see it in regards to Dalinar. Maybe Amaram will try to kill him with Oathbringer and it will refuse to hurt him? Amaram brings it back to life and suddenly becomes a contender to Dalinar's authority? What are your ideas?

I've always wanted to ask Brandon if this tradition is more than just a strange form of modesty, if there is some functionality attached to it. All scientifically recorded modes of modesty spring from some sort of semi-logical basis. This is the first evidence I've seen that this Alethi tradition has more meat to it than just a strange quirk that Brandon thought up.

Now THIS is a Shard I can get behind

I liked the idea, but I find the screenwriters are so ... cliche. That and they don't seem to follow any consistent sort of rules. There are arbitrary limits to what the Doctor can and can't do, and they're broken all the time. Warning, unpopular opinion incoming...

I love love LOVE Hans Zimmer, anything I can get my hands on. On a strange note, one very important aspect of my story came to me by listening to a Starset song, Let It Die.

Why are we running out of one-armed Herdazian jokes? It's not like all the good ones are "gon."

@OrangeJedi You mean sequel to White Sand, right?

I like Shades, and I use Storms all the time in my head.

This with the quote about Wax and Wayne being his next non-YA makes me think it isn't Dark One (though I realize Dark One is YA). I like the idea of him starting something spontaneously because he was suddenly in the mood, though. I hope it's Cosmere, so we have something to tide us over for a while after Oathbringer.

So the TL;DR is that the Knights have the power (or burden) of becoming Cognitive Shadows after they die. Throw in the idea that Odium can corrupt spren, this makes me wonder what, then, it means for the Desolations. If becoming a CS means the Desolations could return, then why? Of course while it would be interesting and informative as to how it happened in the past, it doesn't matter at this point because as Jasnah and Hoid explained, things are different this time around. The Everstorm came and royally cremmed things up in a brand new way.

Why are one-armed Herdazians so entertaining? They're always making off-hand comments.

The pre-NaNo panic hit me pretty hard today. I feel completely unqualified to be tackling this writing project. I've never done a mystery before, and I know so little...

I took this though process a step further

This, actually, is the best idea I've seen for the true reason why the Recreance and the Absolution of the Oathpact occurred. Imagine you've made the Oaths, lead the life you have, and fought back monsters and terrors, all on the assumption that what you were doing was making the world safer. You thought your bond with your spren would make things right in the world, end the conflict that was tearing the world apart cycle after cycle. Now imagine you learned that all along Honor's plan was this: use Roshar as a sacrifice to keep Odium sated, culturing hatred however he pleased, while the rest of the Cosmere was left in relative peace. Humans and Parshmen, even the Sleepless, were pitted against each other for the entrapment of divine wrath. Your enemies are merely mutual pawns in the game Odium plays. None of you are of Honor, after all. And your spren, the one who knows you closest of any being in the universe, is a willing participant in this, allowing your species, your culture, your souls, to be used as fodder for Odium's appeasement. Every battle you have fought you have lost, because the fight always serves Odium. Every evil you have destroyed was merely a cog in the works that kept Odium bound and Roshar under his gaze. You were betrayed on a cosmic scale, by your closest friend and by your god. Breaking your Oaths and leaving the world to fend for itself might seem like the only option left. As long as Odium is bound to Roshar by the Oathpact, and as long as he has pawns to play with, he will continue to spread destruction and hatred across the world. Setting Odium free might have seemed the best plan to everyone at that point.

Does this sound similar to kandra, or ... something like a kandra?

This made my day.