dionysus

I believe many of these are similar to Dalinar's dreams in that we have someone experiencing the historical perspective of someone else. With that I have a few wild speculations. "Ten orders. We were loved, once. Why have you forsaken us, Almighty! Shard of my soul, where have you gone?" - From the perspective of a KR. Implies also that Honor perhaps created the humans or has given a part of himself to humans. "Shard of my soul..." I don't think that is just a turn of phrase. "Victory! We stand atop the mount! We scatter them before us! Their homes become our dens, their lands are now our farms! And they shall burn, as we once did, in a place that is hollow and forlorn." One of the fallen Herald's perhaps. They have sent a vanquished enemy to their place of torment. Absolutely wild speculation follows: The parshmen appear to be soulless automatons. Could their souls have been sent to Damnation when the 9 Herald's violated the oathpact. This would fit with Jasnah's theory on the parshmen. "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broekn One reigns" - The default assumption is that the Broken one is Odium but to me that doesn't fit. Could the splinters of Honor be the broken one, and in its splintered state we have a perversion of honor. This goes along with the metaphor of the Wandersail. Where the dead king's edicts are carried out in a perverse manner with no understanding. "A woman sits and scratches out her own eyes. Daughter of kings and winds, the vandal." Believe this is referring to that Herald that desecrates her own statues. Forget the name. "Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us." I think this is Honor himself speaking "The death is my life, the strength becomes my weakness, the journey has ended." Either Tanavast/Honor or the Way of Kings writer. "All is withdrawn from me. I stand against the one who saved my life. I protect the one who killed my promises. I raise my hand. The storm responds." Wild speculation that this is Odium Anyone else confused about who the Stormfather is?

There is a meta story that spans most of Sanderson's works including the Mistborn trilogy, Elantris, Warbreaker, and Allow of Law. There is also a metaphysical understanding of the magic systems/way the worlds work that is common to all his books. For more information, go to http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/491-cosmere-101/

I'll try to clarify and slightly change my previous post "shooting" down the theory. I think it is quite possible that splinters of Honor are interacting with the Parshendi. They are quite honorable in a lot of ways. It's purely speculative how this interaction would occur at this point. But I don't find it far fetched to think that the Parshendi are parshmen with splinters of honor though still also subject to the influence of Cultivation and Odium. What I can't agree with is that Honor is behind the assassination and war. That specific act is dishonorable, and in Honor's morality the ends never justify the means.

I can't accept that the Parshendi are splinters of Honor. "Journey before Destination" is a core tenant of Honor. The ends never justify the means in the morality system of Honor. Expediency is anathema to honor. Sadeas is the prime example of this. Good intentions, horrible methods. The way they assassinated Gavilor is to me quite clearly a hugely dishonorable act. They want Shen to kill innocents, and they do it right after signing some peace agreement with Gavilar. Breaking their word, killing innocents, unprovoked murder, these are not actions of honor. Like I said before, the nature of Honor forbids saving the world through any means necessary. Everything on Roshar is influenced by Honor, just as surely as Cultivation and Odium have their hands in things. I agree the Parshendi are probably not tools of Odium or evil, but I also can't see them as agents of Honor because the most signficant thing they do so far in Stormlight Archive is the most dishonorable thing in the book, with the exception of Taravingian and his murder of the sick and poor under the guise of benevolence. Even if Gavilar was doing something really bad unwittingly, say with that black stone, the Honorable thing to do would be to confront him and demand change.

Guess I missed that. Is this during the flashback to him and that lighteyes chick that has a crush on him when they are adolescents?

I guess I am inferring it. We know that holding a shardblade makes you have light eyes. We know that this is the only way a dark eyes can achieve the ranks Lighteyes can hold in Alethi society. We know that there are many (a majority?) Lighteyes who are of low Lighteyes rank, who have never held a shardblade and probably their recent ancestors haven't either. Think the Lighteyes in charge of the bridge crews, or the various scribes, accountants, etc. that Dalinar has around him. I don't recall a specific mention in the text that states that lighteyes will always have lighteyed children, or if there is a difference between shardbearer ligheyes and non-shardbearer lighteyes. My question is, what makes you think the source of lighteyes isn't shardbearer lineage?

Perhaps the humans are the voidbringers brought to Roshar by Odium. Like you say, humans seem to be the only thing not adapted to the environment.

Sadeas is a lighteyes so one of his ancestors has held a shardblade. If shardblades make all your descendant's in perpetuity have lighteyes, I don't see why it can't also subject your descendants to a a shard-linked Thrill. I lean towards the Thrill being more than just normal battlelust and adrenaline, and being something specific to the magic system on Roshar simply because Brandon has chosen to capitalize it and discuss it so much.

Are the rocks responsible or just the memories of Tien's innocence responsible for the change in mood? I am inclined to believe the latter more mundane explanation. The rocks remind Kaladin of Tien. Not saying your theory isn't possible.

Lots of wild theories here but I think there is good reason to speculate about the Sunmaker and the Ardents. I don't think it is just an interesting bit of backstory used to flesh out a novel's world, I think the history here is going to turn out to be key with plenty of room for twists. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if the Sunmaker was a tool of Odium, either well-intentioned or malicious.

I am on board with the eyes being more significant than we realize, but not necessarily the hue. For example, Kaladin's eyes have not changed and we have seen him from sprenless all the way through the 2nd "rank" of windrunner. Light eyes, in Humans at least, mean someone in your ancestry has held a shard blade. More interesting to me is how the lighteyes effect is inherited. To use modern terms, holding a shardblade is affecting people on the genetic level such that the changes are passed on in perpetuity. Then again, it might be a fallacy to think of the Cosmere in terms of earthly science. (Always a fine line in fantasy novels, as author's pick and choose what parts of reality they keep and what parts they discard.) It is clear to me though that holding a shardblade somehow fundamentally changes a person, such that the change is inherited. It is also clear that this change is not necessarily a good thing, as I look at Syl as being an excellent moral compass so far in understanding the morality of the Stormlight Archives. If she doesn't like something it is safe to say it is not inherently good.(Though it would not be suprising for Syl to be a flawed moral compass though, but for now there is no evidence to the contrary. Honor is not intrinsically linked to goodness either.) Now how do the shardblades change the person for all generations? Perhaps we see this in the Thrill. Perhaps the shardblades initiate a link to whichever Shard is responsible for the thrill? Has any darkeyes so far talked about the Thrill? I don't recall, but almost all the protagonists are light eyes so that is not statistically signficant.