Captain Kaladin

I always thought it was actually Sadeas and Gavilar together trying to find a way to kill off Dalinar. Gavilar was worried about his long term legacy. The world was becoming more afraid of Dalinar than of Gavilar after so many years of destroying the Herdazians and Vedens so that Dalinar was overshadowing Gavilar on the world stage and definitely would have overshadowed Elhokar. Gavilar and Sadeas and Ialai apparently spent a lot of time coming up with schemes for getting rid of problematic allies in battle. In the years before he sent Dalinar out to fight it was obvious to Gavilar and Sadeas that Dalinar was bloodthirsty and I think they worried he would turn on Gavilar just like he almost did. Not sure which thread this is so I won’t mention it but something in the book 5 prologue also makes me think this was Gavilars attitude and the only reason they didn’t try again was Dalinar was incapacitated by his grief anyway so no longer a threat.

Did Hoid have any contact with Drewton? Wax assumes that Drewton found the coin at the end of BOM but I wonder if Hoid either influenced Drewton after Wax left New Seran to make sure the coin would get to Wax or more interestingly is it possible that Hoid is Drewton? We know that he has no trouble playing a role for a while and I think he already has full lightweaving by the time we see him in Era 2 right? It doesn’t seem like he would enjoy playing a character like Drewton but it just seemed weird to me that the coin ended up with Wax again at the end so it seemed like Hoid probably made extra sure to get it to him.

I believe that in the earlier vision of Nohadon at the end of the desolation (this is one of the original storm father visions) Nohadon says to his advisor (Dalinar is in the advisor's body) that it's too bad not all spren are as discerning as honor spren. Apparently this is a bit of a hot take since he is surprised that Dalinar doesn't argue with him. This comment makes me think that Nohadon is a windrunner but it's not explicitly stated. He could still have a boon from the Nightwatcher or even cultivation or honor without being a bond smith though and he does seem special beyond being a king and a radiant.

Maybe I'm a little jumpy about how important random characters are in stormlight (not without reason) and also, I think Brandon has already confirmed all the Heralds we've seen so far, but while listening to the Axies the Collector interlude in WoK I was thinking about the beggar and how he has a strange god complex. Is it possible that this is one of the heralds with their own special kind of insanity stemming from being treated as a god both by people in the desolations and by the people of modern Roshar?

Not to reign on the parade but that might not be a great way to make money. Wayne calls cadmium a “rare and expensive metal” in their economy. So the money gained by interest would have to be more than the money lost from burning which means you’d need to have a fairly large principal (fortune) already for burning cadmium to help you make more money.

Maybe I'm missing something but my understanding was that they would have spent that time: 1. Fighting the Unmade who don't seem to be sent back to Braize like the fused. In one of Dalinar's visions they fight the midnight essence between desolations. So, during this period that was basically a long in-between period they fought the unmade just like before. So, in my mind this would be the period when they trapped ReShephir (spelling?) in the tower, and possibly other unmade were similarly trapped or defeated. 2. Fighting the leftovers of the parshendi and the men who followed Odium, we know for sure that some of the parshendi/listeners did survive and others were enslaved, perhaps it was partially the realization that the parshendi were people and didn't deserve to be fought/hunted that (combined with the realization that they were the original inhabitants of Roshar) made the knights abandon their oaths.

I've definitely thought all along that the god beyond is the consciousness of Adonalsium. Especially the idea that the homesteaders in Shadows for Silence left their homeworld after one of the shards was broken (by Odium) but their faith wasn't shaken by it because they worshipped an even higher deity in the first place.