Mulk

Dourspren variants are highly sought after...

It's mostly ideas on a black/whiteboard at this point, but basically all beards have a basic amount of magic capabilities which can then be called forth based on the thickness, length and shape. It has an unfortunate side effect of having generated an industry in beard protection as (like with Samson) if it is chopped off or mutilated in some way its powers are muted, distorted or outright destroyed depending on what exactly was done to it. Other forms of magic exist of course. But the flamboyant Beards are currently the best known and explored. I dunno, the whole thing makes me laugh so much that I keep poking at it. and I have a beard!

That was my thought as well. I also wanted you to know that I have off the wall ideas revolving around a magic system based in the growing of beards. Because this is a Sanderson forum, I may call it Beardvestiture...

I see this and raise you this:

Feels like Brandon's been paying attention a lot to interracial relations lately. Conversations between Sah and Kaladin could have been lifted out of today's real life in America. I'm feeling sympathy for the parshmen and wishing they don't turn evil. Brandon really is an evil genius some days. Dalinar...just...damnation man. He's a walking thunderstorm of contradiction, raw stubbornness and crackling willpower. Really wondering how he changed from all of that to who he is now. Shallan and Adolin are a hilarious couple together. I can't say at all that I'm surprised Mraize shows up for that meeting though I'd really hoped not. I already thought this was going to be messy. This sort of confirms it...

Granted. However, whenever you aren't actively reading it, you can remember none of it, even if it is open in front of you. doom metal bands take its place in your mind whenever you try to think of Oathbringer while not actively reading it. I wish to be able to travel as a Windrunner without a blade or a spren to assist me.

as I recall it, Shallan had Renarin cut a hole into the crem covered dome at Stormseat to get inside where the mechanism was, and that the working of the mechanism moved the doorway so it was in a different spot so Adolin cut his way out of it again. As there seems to be little to no crem up in Urithiru as it appears to be above the storms, I'd say the crem-covered dome was indeed transported.

My guess, and I'm sure it's the guess of others around here, is that the Oathgate performs an exact swap from one spot to the other, so whatever of the Kholinar palace is currently part of the Oathgate would get swapped over to Urithiru and the open platform in Urithiru would get swapped into its place. Thus there is no possibility of transporting you into a wall

For my part, I don't think anything was locked in Urithiru either. I just think they're locked from the other side. I also think Jasnah probably didn't recognize in Kholinar what the slot for operating it was, or if she did, didn't want to risk summoning her spren as a sword where people might see her doing it or without having an idea of what would happen if she opened the gate.

I don't know, but there are things that happen in Roshar that cannot happen here and apparently vice versa since they don't seem to have plate tectonics as we do. Whatever it was (and I'd guess Brandon would RAFO it if he was or would be asked) it did destroy the plains without fully destroying the city, but I think the city itself probably suffered a lot of damage. Supposing Navani was correct and Natanatan/Stormseat died in the last Desolation, most of the population was probably already dead anyway. Or, the shattering of the Plains may have cut them off from food supplies and they starved. Even if I am wrong and they lived, the trouble of getting supplies and repair people into the place may have been so much trouble they decided to move and not try to rebuild. Or the shattering itself may have attracted the chasmfiends in the first place and that made it seem too dangerous. I don't know, but there's any number of logical reasons to abandon a city in those circumstances.

If the city was inhabited whenever it was destroyed, probably just about everyone died. We have seen how difficult it is to get out to old Natanatan, how isolated it is from everywhere, and how immensely dangerous it is to get caught out there in highstorms and with pupating chasmfiends (I'd guess these have migrated their pupation range to the Plains after they were shattered), my working theory is that anyone with a tie to the old city either relocated and built New Natanan on the coast, or they moved into Alethela/Alethkar rather than deal with the issues.

WhiteLeeopard, there is the remains of a city on the Shattered Plains - it's just so covered in crem it's unrecognizable as such unless you know what you are seeking. It's where the Parshendi were based right up until the end of WoR. There's been all kinds of speculation on why that one was unlocked and it may be as simple as no one goes there anymore, no need to worry about it.

with respect to your first question, you have to look closely, but one of the two gates you are taking to be Iri is actually on the Reshi color - so even though it's closer to Iri than the bulk of Reshi is, it is still on Reshi land. With respect to the rest, I tend to agree with you. I'm not sure if there has been a Word of Brandon or Peter on this issue specifically, but it's hard to put something fully mobile onto a map so I always took them to be regular islands. edit: credit to @BlackYeti for pointing this out earlier

Molina's been f'ing incredible in whatever I've seen him in. I can easily see him as Suit. Or as Odium/Rayse or Ruin/Ati. Man, Ruin...that might really work. I'm not saying your choice is bad! Just saying who I'd get if it was me!

he doesn't look terribly old - particularly if he's not wearing a beard. It's his voice and personality, he can be silky smooth evil like Mraize at his diabolical worst. Plus, I think he's an AMAZING character actor.

well, without Harmony/Sazed reworking how Allomancy works again, I'd say the answer is the same thing that happened when Kelsier ate the bolt in SH...

I'd prefer Albert Molina, personally

People who cultivate generally target specific areas for specific intents and purposes. The reason I say it's not generally in Cultivation's Intent to do such things is that someone who plants a garden or organizes a ranch or whatever tends not to care what goes on outside of their bounds as long as it doesn't spill over into what they are doing. As Alethela/Alethkar and Honor appear to have born the brunt of the fighting and all, I think Cultivation has been content to sit in the west of the world until Odium actually comes for her. You (all of you who think otherwise) may well be right on your interpretation of her intent. The idea she is behind the Diagram, I think that's an amazing possibility and I won't be surprised if that winds up being true. I just believe I'm not entirely wrong, as if revenge was within the normal range of her Intent, Cultivation would have come out swinging when Honor died.

They are actually covered by the dust jacket; you can just see the bottoms of the circle peeking out on one side

That is evil. So evil.

Yes

@kari-no-sugata I don't think it's right to hold out Kaladin as a counter-example when you consider how close he came to choosing vengeance over protection. Most people who go through what he did would do so. Kaladin has to give up the right to enforce or seek justice on his own behalf and that includes the necessity to protect even those who have wronged him, regardless of whether they have tried to make it right. Almost no one does that. Even though we have a whole religion in our world in Christianity that has its leader command (not suggest) that his followers should love their enemies, almost no one does that. I think you're also discounting the number of times Kaladin thought of killing himself...how he was literally one step away from jumping at one point. With Syl's help, he comes back around and channels his energies into helping others not make that choice and into converting the worst most hellish place in the warcamps into a place of light and hope. The fact he succeeded doesn't make it easy. And he as yet has a couple more steps to go. Lift has to give up the right to forget the lowly and to not act in their defense. If you know of someone who is of the forgotten and refuse to act or you try to forget them, you dishonor your Words and break your oath. Everyone in the whole world does this. Dalinar not only has to give up the right to be intentionally divisive, but the right to force others to agree with him AND the right to write others off from ever being in unity. Good luck finding anyone who will do that willingly either. As to Shallan herself - Shallan has to give up the right to lie to herself. Yes this hurts. But her core problem is she lies to herself and causes herself harm by doing so. Lightweavers therefore must be honest as to who and what they are to proceed. Those who create illusions must not harbor any about themselves, put another way. Probably because the creation of illusion provides an easy out to dealing with our self issues, so instead of dealing with them we cripple ourselves further. This then is the temptation Shallan must face to move on, as Kaladin had to face the temptation to let his desire for justice and vengeance impede his right and responsibility to protect. I don't think it will be any easier or harder (if that can be measured) than it was for Kaladin, given all the wrongs, pain and hatred he had accumulated - he undoubtedly had advantages she did not have, but also hindrances as well. She may yet trip and revert or cast off her words and truths. It's one reason I hope Jasnah returns to her quickly - she needs the input of someone with such a strong sense of self to help work through it. And because she is one step beyond Kaladin (or at least, so it seems) it makes a certain sense she is struggling more than he is right now. In the end, I think most of the Knights orders and problems align to whatever it is that broke them in the first place - meaning that each Knight will find it uniquely and personally difficult and challenging in a way no other ever would to move on. Those who struggle with mental things as Shallan does (or have a particular compassion for those who do) will necessarily find that more difficult and more compelling. Those who have suffered great injustice particularly at the hands of the current system (or, again, those with compassion toward the ones who have), they will likely struggle as Kaladin does. We don't really know enough of Dalinar's backstory yet or Lift's to make true judgments on their ways forward though I have a couple of thoughts. Dalinar I suspect has done a lot of his pain already in changing from the raging warrior he was to who he is now but remembering his wife might throw a wrench in that; and in any case he is now finding the frustration of trying to get others to unite without the force of war to make them do so. Lift...well, I hope we learn more about what drove her to seek the Nightwatcher at such a young age. I suspect that will inform a lot of who she is and how she is broken. I work at an agency that primarily does foster care. Most of those kids have huge issues. They were, all of them, taken from their parents. The vast majority of them for very good reason - mom and/or dad committed crimes against them and harmed them, even though they aren't always old enough to understand why or how. I think of Shallan as one of them - mom tried to kill her, dad committed abuse in her name and there was no CPS to step in and stop it and give her and her brothers to a home more willing to give and show love. If it is more difficult for her, it is likely because of this environment that she grew up in, not necessarily because of the nature of her progression.

I'm with Calderis in this - people disbelieve reality if it's not what they want it to be all the time. I think we're going to have a religious battle (even if it's "only" words and not actual fighting) and it will get ugly. I'm also with Salkara - what will probably help Dalinar in the whole is this guy (or these people if Nale winds up bringing Ishar, Jezrien, Ash and all along for the ride) a Herald or no is all of the knowledge he/they will have of times before, of tech they don't likely currently have along with specifics on Surgebinding skills that have been lost to time. But in reality, some will refuse to believe in spite of proof. That's life. I mean really, people still smoke, drink excessively, drive while texting and a whole slew of other bad habits in spite of all of the deaths these things have caused. I expect it to be nasty between Dalinar and the ardents and that it won't be fully resolved within this book or possibly the whole Stormlight Archive.

Fair enough! I work for a nonprofit that mostly does foster care, RTCs and the like so they should be fairly trustworthy as well..it's just the principle of the thing.

I would guess it would have to do with the following: Honor and his Heralds made the Oathpact, not Cultivation as best we can tell The Honorblades are segments or slivers (I'm forgetting the proper term) of Honor's power The spren saw what Honor did with the Blades and found out how to mimic that ability through bonding with a human I would theorize therefore that Culvitation, while she inhabits the world, did not take an active role in its defense once Odium appeared, either because of her Intent or because Honor sought to deflect Odium's attention from her to himself. She was more behind the scenes in some fashion. Really hope we get to see her on screen at some point...