Leyrann

Sounds to me like "scientist". Do we know wheter Roshar will become (more) cosmere aware by the time it's all over? Because if so I guess Dustbringers might be key.

Skybreaker is the highest with 47%, though still pretty low. Actually pretty surprised, because in the classic "to be good or lawful" dilemma I would choose good 10 out of 10 times. Bondsmith, with 44%, is a close second, which I think would fit better. Elsecallers and Windrunners come a while after at 24%, followed very shortly by Stonewards and Truthwatchers at 22%. I think those last two would actually be the most accurate. All said though, I do have a 'strong sense of justice', I just don't like the rigidness of laws and consider every case to be unique.

"Kaladin looked up and noted an unusual spren whipping about. Long, grey, like a tattered streamer of cloth in the wind. It wound around him, fluttering. He’d seen its like only once or twice before." Kaladin has seen them before, so they existed before the Everstorm as well. That said, they can still be related to Odium, as they aren't introduced in the first two books (so we as readers haven't seen them before), and that might very well be why they are rare and hunted by other spren.

Jasnah never died.

I have to say I really like this idea, also because Brandon sure does like his twists. Indeed, Odium doesn't have much to do with 'ceasing of existence', so to say; after all, if there's no sentience, there's no hatred (literally: "The Shard's intent, Odium, means two things: the feeling of strong hatred, and that which provokes hatred from others." (from coppermind)). He cannot provoke hatred from others without there being people around, and he cannot hate anything either; it gets kinda boring to hate giant rocks or balls of heated gas, after all. Additionally, just look at Sel; the Shards are splintered (though, again, not wholly gone, with seons and whatnot), but the world still exists. "Void" in regards to Adonalsium, however, would actually make quite a bit of sense; after all, with Adonalsium shattered, is there not a void left behind in the 'place' he occupied?

The Stormfather literally says this in reply to Dalinar asking why he would attempt to destroy them (by summoning the highstorm) after sending the visions: He would not say that if the Everstorm had come before, because then he would know that it was not over yet. Additionally, as other people also pointed out, Tanavast, nightform, the Diagram etc all predict it, which can all be considered reliable sources to predict the future, meaning we can have several sources without requiring the Everstorm to have been there in the past. Odium can simply have designed it long ago, but not been able to get the Listeners to make it happen until now.

I also asked this question over at the Q&A board, but where do we know from that the highstorms regard the arrival on Roshar? I haven't been able to find a WoB on it, though I have to admit that I'm not experienced at searching.

Simple question - Has Brandon Sanderson ever told us how old highstorms are? I was looking around a bit because I had a theory, and I found two different questions that both implied they were there before the Shards arrived (one straight up said that there was WoB on it), but I could not find where Brandon had actually said that. EDIT: Got answered here.

Not that I think it likely, but what would those hints be?

Isn't it that his cognitive shadow is the Stormfather? To me it felt like the highstorms haven't always been there, but only came 'after' the shards arrived, maybe as something to counter the Desolations? I don't have anything to back it up though. Coppermind isn't really helpful on highstorms either, but we do have confirmation that they are Invested. Maybe they were made to provide the stormlight? Or to prepare for the Everstorm? Just imagine what would happen if an Everstorm would hit a planet not used to powerful storms every few days... There'd not be a single building left standing. Roshar did much better, even though the storm came from the wrong way.

Odium doesn't want to pick up any power of the other shards, however, as he knows that would change the way he himself would be, and he does not want that. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=675#12 I'm curious, by the way, where the connection of Odium with stone comes from. I haven't seen anything that points one way or the other, but many people here seem to think it quite likely, so I was wondering if someone could point me towards some theories or something.

While I agree that there's enough other stuff to talk about, I do think that there's no reason to stop thinking about this subject. I mean, we're here to figure things out before they're revealed, right? Does it then matter if they're important for the story, or only if we managed to get the answer earlier than Brandon intended? I would argue the second.

That is a typo. It was supposed to be "most likely not Jasnah".

I wouldn't want to say that. If she were to find her way to Urithiru sometime in this book, she would most likely explain a lot to Shallan and Navani, and we'd probably get to see that explaining too.

That... is actually a very troubling idea. I doubt that it will happen, however, even if only for the very simple fact that Navani is still alive. There's no way that Dalinar isn't going to realize it if she were to slap him in the face, for example.

The new chapters say "I am no philosopher, to intrigue you with piercing questions. I am no poet, to delight you with clever allusions. I have no doubt that you are smarter than I am. I can only relate what happened, what I have done, and then let you draw conclusions." The third part mostly, to me, indeed says that it is most likely not Jasnah. Though she's probably not going to walk around like "I'm smarter than you", she does know that it is typically the case. I have no idea who it then can be, though.

I very much agree here. An evil race is indeed not a Sanderson-thing to do, as he tends to create much more three-dimensional worlds. Of course, there are (original Mistborn trilogy spoiler) while the Listeners, I am pretty sure, have not been created by Odium. I cannot actually find a source for that, but it is both logical (they're clearly sentient, and Odium would most likely not give up power for that) and I do believe I've read Sanderson confirming it just this week (though in an older interview). This is also an idea that I really like. According to the coppermind page, spren are "powers of creation" (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Spren), which gained sentience due to human intervention. This would imply that they are not directly created by Honor and Cultivation, and have merely gained their characteristics over time because Honor and Cultivation were around. Odium, however, has also been around - so maybe, we should not be looking at a line, but instead a triangle, where sprens can be at a corner (100% influenced by one Shard), a line (influenced by only two Shards) or somewhere on the inside (influenced by all three shards). Hope that makes sense to everyone, but otherwise I'm happy to clarify. EDIT: To expand upon this, I came across a question asked to Brandon before the release of WoR (http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=747#5), which says that all the spren we are running into (but only in the first and maybe second book) are of Honor and Cultivation. I'm not sure wheter this is intentional or not, but Brandon is excluding later spren, which might include spren that are part Odium and part Honor/Cultivation.

As I only finished the Stormlight Archive (including Oathbringer chapters) just this week, why is Jasnah considered an unlikely author of the preface? (by the way, totally unrelated, but I'm fascinated by the member reputation titles. What decides the title someone has?)