Kuram

The ending of 5 is definitely going to be a 'the final empire' sort of ending, in my opinion.  Personally, I think Dalinar is going to lose the contest.  However, that might put too much in Odium's corner from a narrative perspective (fused bondsmith immortal bound to both Odium and the cognitive shadow of Honor).  But I don't see how him winning will be very *interesting* from a story perspective either.  So definitely expect Brandon to do something unexpected here, I would imagine.

I don't think avatar is meant with a capital A, it could just mean a representative.  I don't think this is necessarily a point against Kelsier.

It probably depends on how you define surge.

Does it release locally at midnight (for ebook)?

On 11/6/2020 at 9:39 AM, teknopathetic said:

Meleeshi used the Dawnshard known to bind (not change) 

Whaaaaat??  Confirmed?

I'd imagine in some way he is, even if he's not doing it on purpose.  Big T's affliction was done by Cultivation after all, and we see how her meddling benefited Dalinar in the long run.  She's definitely playing the long(er) game, and I think the diagram/T dog's 'treason' is ultimately going to play into her plans.

Some people here saying the battle for the tower is going to happen in part five... am I the only one here who thinks its going to be much earlier?  Part two or three, even...

On 11/12/2020 at 5:09 AM, malendras said:

Could it be that the Highstorm made him temporarily lucid when the Stormfather saw him? Taln seemed more lucid when Dalinar opened the perpendicularity, and if a highstorm works similarly, it could have a similar effect.

Of course, it would also mean that he's at his most lucid when he's raving about ending his own life...

I think it has more to do with how close the spiritual realm was when Dalinar did his thing, rather than just investiture from stormlight.  I think they'd have noticed if Taln was better every highstorm, and it would have been mentioned.

1 hour ago, Zelly said:

Nale and Ash have both referred to Ishar as sort of their wise leader/ go to person for help, which does not sound like crazy god-king.  So have they just not visited him in centuries and haven't realized how much his madness has increased? 

Didn't Nale visit Ishar either after Edgedancer or during OB?

I think the fifth will just allow for exceptionally powerful surgebinding.  Not very imaginative, I know.

I don't think it can be Nikli (or the dawnshard) because either of those *would* spoil dawnshard, and specifically Nikli's would probably be too disconnected from Rysn to feel like a Rysn interlude like Brandon says it'll still be.

I didn't think of it before, but I think OP is correct.  After reading dawnshard, it's pretty obvious the larkin/lanceryn were a lot more intelligent than would be apparent from an animal, however if you think about the rest of Roshar, it's not really that abnormal.  For example, Ryshadium are considered a lot more intelligent than normal horses.  Even the reshi moving island greatshells (forget the name) have cognition, even in Dawnshard it provides the information to Rysn to visit aimia, indicating it is sentient and aware of abstracts.  We even see it a bit with the chasmfiend hunting kaladin and shallan, where it pulls back to wait for them to exit the crevice to ambush them, though this is actually bit of a poor example.

At any rate, the thing in common with all of these is their ability/need to bond spren to sustain their lifecycle.  The greatshells all bond spren to sustain themselves at their immense size, even ryshadium are bonded to a spren and I believe it is a factor in their intelligence, so it's just further evidence that larkin are (probably) intelligent species as well.

The synopsis referencing the 'secrets of the tower' hint to me that it will be reactivated somehow this book.  As for what the sibling is, and it's not quite a deadeye, I think it's just in hiding in Shadesmar, which is why it's disconnected from the tower.  Maybe in Lasting Integrity?  I don't think it's Restares, I don't know why a spren would have as their goal the return of the singers.  Unlike some others, I don't think the tower is the spren.  I do think many of the oddities of the tower are because they take advantage of surge fabrials and with the tower dormant they don't work... stuff like cohesion/tension for opening doorways, or gravitation surge on the open shafts (kind of a gravity elevator, so to speak).

I think Navani is on the path to figuring out how to make 'ancient' style fabrials.  Like soulcasters or the regrowth fabrial.  By the way, with the knowledge that either of those surges are possible with fabrials, I don't see why all the others wouldn't be possible too.  I foresee stuff like gravitation fabrials and so on, allowing non-windrunners to fly or regular field officers to use division on the battlefield, for example.

Kaladin 4th oath, obviously.  He was close at the end of OB, and the feeling I get from his current arc so far in the pre-release chapters is that it's completely aiming towards this resolution.  I've always held the impression that adhesion is a particularly weak and useless surge, so I am interested to see if his power-up or his introspection is going to lead towards more creative or useful applications of the surge...  I can imagine, at least with surgery, adhesion might be useful... for example to clamp an artery shut or something, but I am interested to really see that surge explored more.

I think Cultivation giving Mr. T the intelligence/compassion curse is going to end up benefiting the radiant team in the long run, similar to how Dalinar's curse eventually led to his growth and ability to resist the thrill and Odium.  I think Cultivation is living up to her name here, and we just can't see it yet.

7 hours ago, Shuffel said:

I disagree on this, the spren who were killed went through the same thought process that the Radiants did. Maybe some of them are pissed, but I believe a lot of them were on board for it.

Based on what, exactly?  

There's no reason to believe the spren weren't aware of the truth beforehand.  The desolations lasted so long.

Those dead spren coming back are going to be feeling mighty pissed though.  Maya might be fine with Adolin, but I doubt most of the rest will be content with their lot.

Presumably the dawnshard came from Ashyn as Honor in his death throes raved about dawnshards destroying Ashyn...

And it's typically believed that Odium instigated that or led to that collapse, and came with the humans from Ashyn to Roshar...

So if Odium had that much power and influence over their population, why did he not also hold the Dawnshard, and if he did, why didn't he keep it?

Certainly having such a powerful weapon in the hands of a Shard intent on using it to take apart the others would have been an incredible advantage.

Though at least he probably did have one in the past, it's the only way I can explain one shard took on two and won without apparent damage.

As for nightblood, I doubt he's a dawnshard.  Vasher wouldn't have been so scared of Shashara sharing the secret if the catalyst required was so rare and well hidden/protected.

Warbreaker: 

2 hours ago, Lightspine said:

And that fact made me terrified about the combat potential of the Sleepless.

I mean, Nale knows not to mess with them, so that was a pretty good hint too back in Edgedancer.

They've selectively bred larkin-lite hordelings too, so they have the ability to suck out investiture from radiants and fused.  It seems like it would be hard to beat them.

15 minutes ago, Innovation said:

Could this be the result of a Dawnshard dividing them?

I think not.  In one of the annotations on reddit he mentions that it would be difficult for a sleepless to independently control two "bodies" and that it would run the risk of creating a  new swarm instead.  Based on that, I believe that a sleepless can apply themselves and separate a part of his swarm into a new sleepless entity.

What's the GB?

Why sleep when there's stormlight to be had!

Peter made a comment on reddit;

Quote

Unfortunately, it’s definitely not coming before Wednesday, maybe Thursday. The nice thing about releasing it ourselves though is that we can put it out as soon as it’s done.

I was really hoping Monday morning   The closer it gets the more restless I get!

On 10/30/2020 at 7:35 AM, Isilel said:

And how could team Sanderson have allowed her a naked safehand

Safehand is a modern invention, it happened way after the last desolation

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but:

Quote

“They are… unpredictable,” the Herald said. “I eventually left them behind. They tried to kill me, but that I could take. It was when they started to worship me…” Ash crossed her arms, pulling them tight. “They had legends… prophecies about the coming of this Return. I didn’t believe it would ever happen. Didn’t want to believe.”

So this is confirmation that the Shin leaders knew Szeth was correct, and they made him truthless anyway?

On 10/19/2020 at 1:30 AM, ftl said:

Sanderson never keeps his big bads around for a long time, though! In Mistborn

That's true, and I was thinking of Mistborn when I made my comment.  Basically, we know of nothing more powerful than a shard of adonalsium.

There's no bigger bad than Odium on Roshar, so I don't really think he gets offed in book 5.  my 2cents...

In context, number 3 makes the most sense.  Maybe #4 for some countries.  Jasnah's information was not definitive and relied on a lot of supposition, if you place yourself in the shoes of a ruler in Roshar it would be hard to consider the amount of upheaval required for such a change with such spotty information.