redbishop

13 hours ago, .S.A.M.K.M said:

If you need to say all five oaths to get plate, does that mean the heralds never had plate?

I don't think we've seen anything that suggests they did, and there was no mention of it way back in WoK.

Although it could be argued that Nale probably does, now.  Or could.

I am utterly failing at copying in the WoB from Arcanum (Here), but he says that 3rd Ideal is usually when you get a sprenblade.

At the end of WoR, Shallan was at 4 Oaths (or one, plus three truths), as WoB tells us she is one ahead of Kaladin.  We have seen her tell two Truths, so at the beginning of the Series, she was at Two*, yet had summoned a Blade in her Youth and implied that she could summon one if needed, even before stating any Truths on-screen.

There is an argument that could be made that she had repressed/weakened her Bond with Pattern, though Kaladin 'killed' Syl and regained his standing by swearing the Third Ideal of the Windrunners, he didn't have to 'redo' anything.

* I think.  I don't have the text handy, and now I worry.

Shallan got pretty cagey in part 2 when Jasnah asked her where her armor was, if she was a full Radiant.  I suspect that she already has/had it, but is repressing it because of some thus-far-unrevealed trauma from her childhood, much as she did with the Patternblade.

This assumes that Lightweavers get their Plate earlier than other orders, as they seem to with Blades.

As an alternative...

I think you have a spelling error.  You typed "moash," when I'm pretty sure you meant "virtually everyone BUT moash!"

Flying ships are cool.  Kind of shows that Roshar has a fighting chance of reaching technological parity with 

Oathbringer Spoiler (barely):

3 minutes ago, Matt Snow said:

I'm pretty sure it wasn't since Moash is given Jezrien's Honorblade at the end of book when the Fused ask him if he still wants to serve. If this happened then it was also turned back into an Honorblade.

Well played.  This is what I get for speculating without references!  Speculation retracted, and now I feel like my first reading was pure enjoyment, and I need to re-read/listen exclusively to actually understand it and be able to speculate intelligently.

Moderate speculation:

I thought it was telling that Jezrien's Honorblade was stolen to some unknown location...  then a magic dagger that extra-killed him appeared.  Could the Honorblade have been corrupted (gold) and modified to be the only weapon capable of killing the Herald?

I like it, and wouldn't it be FANTASTIC if it were...  Unity?  Unity overlaps very nicely with the One of the Iriali, and Dalinar's commentary.  Since there are some hints that the Sleeping Third is the Sibling, and seems to be slumbering as part of Urithiru - which is a place that brings together the Oathgates, monarchs, and various Orders of KR, that could work.

I like this theory.  Have an upvote.  This is fuel for drivin' thoughts, and may spur some word and WoB searches.

Personally, the way I read that (viewing spren as Splinters and the Heralds as Cognitive Shadows, per WOB) is that the knife blade killed him, then the gemstone trapped him the same way a spren is trapped in a gem as his essence started traveling to Braize.  Assuming the gem is perfect, perhaps none of his Identity/Connection can leak out, preventing him from stopping the desolation and blocking his link to the others.

Of course, chemically, Sapphire is Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), though that is probably a coincidence since not all gems that can store Stormlight involve Aluminum.

We saw Szeth use Surges after dismissing the Blade previously.

I would expect that to be a healthy start on un-Splintering Honor, though the fact that we have all these spren could be an issue.

I'm with @Gigalemesh.  And while fabrial-based Soulcasting probably wouldn't work, we saw from Shallan's perspective in WoR that objects have Identity that they are aware of.  Hence the Stick, and the ship.  If so, a Radiant using Transformation could possibly coax the book to be itself again.  Maybe.

Using Regrowth could have some interesting effects, though.  I would expect the pulp in the paper to re-grow into a sapling, for instance, although we also saw Lift be cautioned that the (long) dead cannot be healed.

Wow, both to the chapters and the comments.

So Teravangian seems to be assessing Dalinar, probably trying to lead him to be the conqueror and/or decide if he needs to act to remove him, as per the Diagram.  Or perhaps on his "higher" days he is assessing if the Diagram's assumptions are still valid enough to act on - though that is unlikely.  I feel like Dalinar, armed with this new ability, will be able to make appropriately peaceful overtures to at least some nations.  Then Teravangian will be forced to act.

In a more comical note, was I the only one that, following the last scene, imagined Teravangian having corrupted Dalinar, and set up a scenario where they were going to execute Adolin - ostensibly for the murder of Sadeas, but really because Adolin was the beacon of light that kept Dalinar striving to be a better person?  Just as the final blow - perhaps from Teravangian, even - Dalinar shakes off the influence and throws Teravngian into that chamber with the gemstone power column?

Jest aside, I like the idea that the Midnight Mother was feeding off the Stormlight that should have been conducted by the pillar - trying to use it as Radiants have been seen doing.

2 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

Or does it take more to Aimia, due to distance?

You are implying the possible existance of "Cognitive drag," I suppose.  Not having a copy handy, do we have a feel for whether Oathgates are instant, a fixed-duration or a variable-time?  Though right now we only have 3 unlocked (and no Sigzil to drive evidence-based experimentation), and to my knowledge we haven't seen a character travel to different locations.

That's difficult to say, since we don't really know the mechanism of Oathgates - do they function as teleporters, and the Stormlight breaks down the entities and reassembles them?  Do the Oathgate platforms somehow move through the spiritual realm, and the Stormlight acts as a lubricant and motive force?  Does it take more Stormlight to move to Urithiru than it does to Aimia, due to altitude?

3 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

Atomic decay releases quite a bit of energy compared to anything involving molecular bonds, though. Atoms pack a lot more energy than molecules.

Oh, and ammonia isn't really common, it's just that it's super important for humanity and so we're making it in absolutely crazy amounts ever since we figured out it was possible a hundred years ago.

Fair enough, on both counts.  I just glanced at my handy-dandy Chart of the Nuclides, and saw that "M" in front of the "ev/disintegration."  Now I am daydreaming about how much Stormlight would be required to induce a chain-reaction in non-fissile materials.  This may be my dorkiest line of thought yet.

I mean, that makes sense.  Although even atomic decay only releases a little energy...  per nucleus.  It just scales linearly, and there are an awful lot of atoms available.

This kind of makes me wonder if dustbringers carried around bottles of ammonia or sugar or other common, high-bond-energy substances to use as grenades.

1 minute ago, The Invested Beard said:

So maybe a resonance between Releaser and Skybreaker? That would be something eh?

Maybe!  Although this line of thought shines a fascinating new light on the naming.  Division and Abrasion may very well function by breaking molecular (or even atomic?) bonds - releasing the binding energy.  The Releasers see themselves as setting it free, while others see the Dustbringers setting the world aflame.

1 minute ago, What's a Seawolf? said:

I like it.  Renarin already has a history of 'leaving creepy sketches behind for others to find.'

Granted in WoR they weren't really sketches, but same difference.  The little we know of Truthwatchers, I believe they were not prone to sharing much information.  Maybe hints and sketches is what they do, for whatever reason.

Maybe that is there standard MO.  It would be interesting to learn if they plant 'discoveries' for others to uncover, and often have their efforts attributed to divine benevolence.  This could be a safety measure, as their ability to foretell could be far more potent/useful in this way.

A singularity needs gravitation.  I would say that sounds more like a Skybreaker power.

Division and abrasion sounds more like fission to me.  Which, interestingly, involves the release of the balance of the mass from binding energy.

Is there any chance that it was Renarin, leaving a message for Shallan that she would conclude she had done herself, similar to the numbers he inscribed  Dainar eventually blamed himself for?

The drawings are weird, but Pattern seems surprised by them too.

Percussion is a class of musical instruments, and horse gaits all have a rhythm of their own.  A herd of Ryshadium, being intelligent, may stagger their gaits to make a musical sound.  Perhaps the song is even used to keep time, similar to marching cadences.

As a father of two young boys, I think this sounds like toddlers.  Toddlerspren.

Scientist, inventor, engineer.  Possibly the ancient origin of natural science in Roshar.

Oh, and also, the spanreeds going dark only makes sense if they are wiping people out or somehow breaking the entanglement between spanreeds.  I'm betting on the latter.