Rainier

This is the key piece of this triangle that I think it all hinges on. Shallan only ever shows Adolin what he's expecting and wanting to see: a lovely Brightness ready and suitable to be his wife and object of his desire. Kaladin, on the other hand, actually sees who Shallan really is in the chasm scene, which is what makes all of these developments so jarring. I don't think Shallan can stay with Adolin, because she's still lying to herself. Didn't she go catatonic right before the wedding? I should go through and record all the times when she starts staring off into space, because those are the times when she's breaking her bond to Pattern. Those are the times when she's lying to herself so deeply and suppressing the truth so fiercely that her consciousness breaks and she loses time and memory. This is hugely significant, completely unresolved, and central to the character. I'm going to be looking for more of these lapses in book 4, because I suspect they're foreshadowing a similar confrontation with her spren, like Kal had with Syl.

Hoid warns people because he knows that his interests do not align with the interests of the characters that he's interacting with. He knows that he'll sell them all out to die, as he ha before over his countless lifetimes. He probably sees the pattern of strong and noble people being attracted to him somehow, before he betrays them for his own purposes, like he always has done and always will do. Obviously, while we've been given so much about Hoid in this most recent book, we still know barely anything about him.

Did they really? Odium himself says he's been working towards this for decades. Against such a force, what chance does the will of men stand?

+1 to thinking what happened to Natanatan is what happened to the Traquilline Halls or the Humans' previous homeworld. Given what we see when Dalinar becomes the perpendicularity, I could easily see that much destruction or more wrought in an instant. Note I said previous homeworld, not original homeworld. I think it's pretty clear by now that Humans are worldhoppers, so their presence should not be assumed to be natural on any Shardworld.

To be fair, he's getting exactly what he needed at the beginning of book 1: a wife who can stand him. Adolin's relationship goals have never been high. I think he's just pleased that she's a hottie and that she's willing to put up with him, as those have been the only two criteria we've seen from him. Sure, it seems that he's grown to care for her, but let's not pretend that Adolin was ever out looking for a soulmate or the love of his life.

Before Oathbringer came out, I was expecting the dissonance between Shallan and Veil to kill (or threaten) Pattern, and while we got some of that, Pattern himself was never really threatened. If True Shallan can't continue on her progression of self-awareness, everyone's favorite chaperone will be dead-eyed before you know it. I was expecting it to be when she couldn't keep juggling the Ghostbloods and the Kholins, which as we've seen has yet to happen. However, I expect it to happen in an upcoming book, and when it comes to pass, either Pattern or the marriage is going to survive, but not both. My alternate theory is the Shallan/Adolin is set in stone for the first 5 books, but either Adolin doesn't make it to the back 5, or Kaladin and Shallan take on a Taln/Ash bond after they both go to Damnation between books 5 and 6.

I had an inkling of an idea that Teft was somehow Jezrien in the process of becoming a Windrunner, like Nale became a Skybreaker. I'm not sure exactly why, but there was something in his first POV where he mentioned the Desolations, and I stuck to it after that. I think Jezrien's death definitely hit me the hardest. Elhokar was tragic, but not surprising, all things considered. One of the Heralds being killed permanently by some kind of invested Nightblood-esque blade is definitely ratcheting up the stakes. I can't wait to see how many other Heralds bite the dust in book 4.

Shallan will either stay with Adolin or kill Pattern. I don't see how she can have both. She's lying to herself, still, even after the consolidation into three avatars. The longer she keeps lying, the worse Pattern's chances are of survival. These are the stakes, whether she realizes them (and suppresses it) or not. But hey, if there's a new Oathpact at the end of book 5 and the Kaladin and Shallan are Heralds, then I could see Adolin and Shallan staying together until then (Adolin rebuilding), and the next Desolation coming far enough in the future that their relationship cannot continue. Then, finally, after having faced Damnation itself for years of torture, I can finally get my Shalladin. Let it be.

I think the first 5 books will end with a new Oathpact, with the 10 background characters as the 10 new heralds. The gaps between books 5 and 6 will be the time it takes for the Desolations to come back, where we pick up with our 10 characters (hello, Taln and Ash, welcome to the club) as Heralds. This would require Ash, I think, to become a Radiant in a different order than her Honorblade powers, likely Dustbringer. I mean, it's right there in her name. Venli, not Eshonai, is the willshaper, Ash the Dustbringer, and all 10 on a trip to Damnation at the end of book 5.

I'll chime in to agree, this was my take from that scene as well. Cultivation gave him just enough capacity to do what he needed to do, but never showed him the end result, just what would lead there. I'm expecting a double-cross from Taravangian that he doesn't see coming. He'll think he's following the Diagram to save Kharbranth, but his actions will lead to what needs to happen, just like they did this book, and last book.

@TheCremling Short answer is that the gap between books 5 and 6 is the gap between Desolations, and that the 10 Heralds going to Braize are our 10 founding Radiants aka all of our main characters. It came to me in an aha moment when we learned that Ishar was the founder of the original Oathpact. However, if I could find it, others surely have, so I'm not claiming originality. Dalinar founds the next Oathpact, you heard it here first (I hope).

Thought I'd make a token post here and talk a little bit about what brought me here and my history reading Cosmere books. I, like many others, Brandon included, cut my teeth on the Wheel of Time series. I devoured them once I got through the first book, and actually got detention for reading in class more than once. My 9th grade Language Arts teacher actually recommended I check out a guy called George RR Martin when I came to her class after school to reclaim my confiscated Wheel of Time book c.2002. I started reading Sanderson after Jordan died, and I sought out Mistborn, reading Final Empire and then The Well of Ascension. No joke, I literally threw the book (The Well of Ascension) across the room when I finished it because I hated the ending so much. I dropped the series after that. It wasn't until sometime after the 12th Wheel of Time book was published that I gave Brandon's original works another chance, reading The Way of Kings, and boy did I love it. I went back and finished the Mistborn trilogy (the third book helped so much), then consumed the other ones. My particular favorite is Warbreaker, even though I don't think it's as good a novel as some of his others. Since I first read The Way of Kings, I've been a huge fan, and since Pterry's death, Brandon has become my favorite living author. It's taken me long enough to sign up on this board, but with all the Cosmere-relevant reveals, and the overall quality and quantity of timely discussion on this site, I decided I couldn't stand on the sidelines any longer. Now let me tell you what I think about the Heralds and the Oathpact...

I'm chiming in because I was also posting in that reddit thread linked in the OP, and I'm here to continue my proselytization of the realmatic structure of the Orders of Knight Radiant. To quickly sum, the chart of the Surges and Orders is split two ways: by Shard and by Realm. The top half is Honor and the bottom half is Cultivation. The right side is Physical, the left side is Cognitive, and the middle two are Spiritual. So the orders break down like this Windrunners - Honor - Physical Skybreakers - Honor - Physical Dustbringers - Cultivation - Physical Edgedancers - Cultivation - Physical Truthwatchers - Cultivation - Spiritual Lightweavers - Cultivation - Cognitive Elsecallers - Cultivation - Cognitive Willshapers - Honor - Cognitive Stonewards - Honor - Cognitive Bondsmiths - Honor - Spiritual This is the pattern that I'm using to evaluate the uses of the surges and their manifestations and resonances. It seems pretty clear the Honor/Cultivation dichotomy exists, as we know Edgedancers are aligned with Cultivation and Windrunners aligned with Honor. Similarly, it's pretty clear that Skybreakers and Bondsmiths are aligned with Honor, and Truthwatchers aligned with Cultivation (foresight). I don't know what the end point of all this is, but I would expect that the combination of Realm with Surge will produce unique abilities. The other thing that interests me are the vertical lines connecting Stonewards with Lightweavers and the Windrunners with Elsecallers. Those four Orders are the only ones with four connections between Orders, not three like all the rest. Each Order is connected to the adjacent Order on either side, and the opposite Order across the chart, for three connections. Somehow there are two additional connections and I don't know what they mean.