Diomedes

Yep, I`have suspected for a long time this book would be the darkest book Brandon has written to date. Nothing is off the table, That war is probably going in a direction like Dalinar`s flashback sequences leading up to Rathalas. Guys, it`s gonna be a tragedy, prepare yourselves emotionally. I am both scared and excited.

Shallan looks uneasy or disturbed. This could point towards her character arc in RoW. She also holds up a (black?) sphere. I don`t know what to do with this.

He throws him with all the strenghth of a Shardbearer. According to Zahel this could have killed Kaladin, which I would indeed define as "mauling". I saw a definite arc in WoR of Adolin often reacting with violence to problems which resulted in him murdering Sadeas. But this topic is about Shallan. On Sadeas murder there was this topic, in which I argued unsucessfully against the mainstream on Adolin`s anger management issues.

You are forgetting his anger management issues. He mauled Kal in WoR in plate to a degree he could have died according to Zahel. He snapped and murdered Sadeas, what Shallan calls "honest passion". Sadeas murder not having consequences for Adolin personally was frankly weird in OB. In these first chapters Adolin attacks the cultist therby foiling Shallans plan. At some point this is gonna have consequences, probably in this book.

I am excited how that relationship played out as well, what do you mean? Judging from Shallan`s mental state, her relationship seems not to have had a postive effect on it.

I smell something fishy here. Aren`t the Fused under Odium`s direct command? They wouldn`t do this, if Odium had not demanded it. Surely he is planning something.

He was . He wanted to restore the classical strength of the Vorin church.

I guess they go over to Odium by bastardizing their own faith in service of Odium much like the Sons of "Honor". Jasnah the Heretic is Queen, Dalinar (likewise a heretic) is commanding the Raiants with "false" spren as the SoH call them. I guess Restares is an Ardent high up in the church who will lead the majority of the faith to Odium.

I love that you guys quote pop culture for something being a common tactic . That being said I think that would be a bit too cheezy. There should be a trial for Moash considering he murdered Elokhar. Regicide should be punishable by death. A court martial scene were all the members of Bridge Four accuse Moash would be awsome. Maybe Odium wants to weeken Dalinars and Jasnahs position by having Moash revealing secrets in this public kingkiller trial.

Yes, he can, should have thought about that

He can move his jaw though that should be enough. Gotta second that.

I am sure Syl would quickly find a form to pull out the knife, a rope attached to the knife and to Kaladin`s mouth should do the trick.

Kaladin could pull out the knife himself, if the Fused left it there. The Fused would be deprived of his knife.

Yes you are correct, I misred that. Kal did fight half a dozen or so of them at once in OB though. yes, we`ll see. There was also that theory going around that those Windspren helping Kal would form his Shardplate.

The wind "helping" Kaladin is down to the Windspren, who are closely connected to Honor. We have seen this a couple of times. There isn`t necessariliy something special with Kaladin going on here. The more interesting question, why is Kaladin so strong, he can take out several Fused without surges? Remember these guys are ancient beeings who fought for hundreds of years. I think this is due to Stormlight derived from Honor simply beeing stronger than Voidlight which is a corruption of some sorts of Honor`s power.

Is it just me or did Brandon step up his game yet again? These chapters are so so well written and dense! I got the feeling this is gonna be his best book yet. Shallan does not seem do do well, bleeding from one persona to the next does not seem healthy. Kaladin has also not gotten any better. Lirin will see be impressed by Dalinar soon enough, just as Dalinar was.

Heretic Queen Jasnah dealing with the Vorin church Learning more about the Shin Seeing Adolin deal with the Sadeas murder and his anger management issues Learning about Plate The KR hitting rock bottom and still managing to pull through somehow (or not) TBH this book is gonna be a tragedy... I like reading those

There is some secret hidden in Urithiru we don`t know about but Odium does.

What about Urithiru in the picture? It could have been important for that migration. Perhaps it was created to facilitate the migration of millions of humans. It could be used as resting place and place to feed all those on the road between Shinovar and Ashyn. It should have taken a couple of weeks if not months before all the people are dispersed in Shinovar.

That`s my suspicion. Next book is going to feature the Alethi going over to Odium in large numbers. They have large experienced armies, a martial culture, lots of blades, everything Odium needs. This is somehow part of his plan.

We don`t know that. She does not kill a single soldier of Adolin`s crew. Her purpose seems to be to induce fear not fighting per se. Besides the attack on Urithiru was never meant to take the city. It was a diversion to draw troops and attention away from Thaylen. Keep in mind that most of the Alethi armies are stationed there. Dozens if not hundreds of shardbearers. Odium and the Ghostbloods are not omniscient. They are not aware of everything and they do make mistakes. Not really. She is still married to Adolin and almost would have been Queen of Alethkar if Adolin had accepted the crown. She is in a position of confidence to Jasnah, Dalinar, Kaladin Adolin. Likewise, they are not omnipotent. They can`t kill Jasnah, who operates agents of her own and who has powers of a KR unlike them. Besides you are referring to Kabsal? He is not exactly a skilled agent. He is some desperate guy they tasked with killing Jasnah. Just some cannon fodder they are willing to throw away. They are also keen on keeping a low profile. Torching a big library is a huge risk.

Shallan chased her off. Nothing detrimental to Odium`s cause happened or could ever have happened. This worked very well convincing Shallan and us that they are not on the side of Odium. Besides maybe they wanted Re-Sephir somewhere else. Because she is blackmailed with her familiy? Because she undergoes a significant change of character in the next book under the influence of the Ghostbloods? I could imagine so many reasons. Besides she does not need to kill her. Being an asset in the vicinity of Jasnah is enough. He said in a way that made it very possibly a forshadowing of future events ominously in the very last Shallan chapter of WoR. Could be nothing of course, but I doubt it. We do not know that much about Ash at this point what role she is going to play in the upcoming events. The heralds seem to have abandoned their original purpose. Nale is the best example for this. They wanted to know what kind of knowledge Jasnah had up to that point. Besides they wanted to make sure nobody else was having access to that knowledge. According to my theory have been controlling knowledge on Roshar for the last millenia. This fits rather well in that pattern.

Well, Odium noticed Sja-Anat wanted to change sides and ordered the Ghostbloods to bring her back. That would indeed spoil my theory, if they indeed knew. I am going to reread that passage. This could also come down to a communication error between Odium and the Ghostbloods for instance Jasnah has some double agent inside the Ghostbloods who gave Odium false info or whatever else. I am not yet persuaded to let go of my theory yet! @Karger Did they truly help Shallan at the expense of Odium? Seems like they want to recruit Shallan and draw her to Odium`s side as a Radiant and as someone very close to Jasnah who could actually kill her. Pattern said multiple times she would kill him.

I am farely confident I discovered the purpose of the Ghostbloods: They are Odium`s secret service a bit like the Kandra are the agents of Harmony. Let`s recap what we know about them They hate Jasnah and want to assassinate her by any means possible They are very powerful ( when Shallan shows off the Ghostblood insignia that lady was scared to death; they can seriously threaten Jasnah Kholin who is operating a network of assassins herself, but they are not powerful enough to silence her) They are worldhoppers They do not care about individual lives even in regards to their own agents ( Kabsals rather desperate attempt to kill Jasnah) They are very good at what they are doing (they keep a low profile and are able to maintain it, even though they are infamous in certain circles; they skillfully draw Shallan in to their ranks) They are interested in politics (they recruited Shallan`s father to gain influence in Jah Keved) They have a higher purpose (Mraize says so) They have a tatoo showing three diamonds overlapping each other A gigantic diamond is at the center of the voidbinding chart presumably signifying Odium, The three diamonds mean Odium`s domination over the other shards on Roshar Odium was trapped on Braize for the past four millenia. It is not possible for him personally to go to Roshar. He has a very high interest in influencing events on Roshar and setting the stage for the final Desolation. Ulim, the voidspren who was influencing Venli found a way to Roshar. If he managed to do it, people can hop on and hoff from Braize to Roshar especially if they happen to have millenia of expertise doing it and are operating in Odium`s interest. That`s where the Ghostbloods come in. They were recruited way back in ancient times to advance Odium`s interest in the entire cosmere. When the Knights Radiants ruled Roshar, they fled to other planets and built up support for Odium there. When the Recreance happened they immdiately came back to Roshar. They have been influencing events since then. Most importantly they keep Odium informed on what is going on on Roshar and give the Unmade instructions where to go and what to do. The Unmade are responsible for influencing events on a macro scale, inflating wars etc. The Ghostbloods are responsible for micro management: assassinating certain individuals, spilling secrets etc. They have been very careful to distort and control how history is being written. That is what got them on track with Jasnah. She was hunting down information and pulling threads together that the Ghostbloods where not able to destroy over millenia. Odium did not want people to know that the Singers used to be the Voidbringers. Likewise they have been keeping the location of Urithiru a secret. I imagine across the millenia somebody would have discovered a gigantic tower in a mountain range in the middle of Roshar. They have been silencing these people and influencing the closest villages. The same goes for the Listeners on the Shattered Plains who do not live that far away from Alethkar. Odium has a plan and he has been working on it for millenia carefully setting everything up for the perfect storm.

Can`t help but think that those invasions had some higher supernatural purpose that is going to be important in the next books. That one-off does not really break the pattern.