Cenanin

I still don't know why people say a Radiant spren was following Eshonai around, and there's no proof that Timbre is an existing Radiant spren. How will book 4 be Eshonai's PoV if she's dead, which she obviously was.

If they are splinters of Odium then how would Sja-Anat be able to disobey, Sja-Anat would also be a piece of that cake, albeit smaller. But with the same intent. Which is to be the only shard.

Knowing Brandon's personal opinions on social things like gay marriage I believe that this would be highly, highly, highly, unlikely.

While I agree it is specific. I think they are communicating in images/thoughts/experiences, and I think Venli is misunderstanding what Timbre is trying to convey to her somehow. Or it is right but when Timbre is referring to grandfather it's not what we think he means. The Spren are strange. It may seem straight out spelled out but I don't think it is. I think there is too much evidence that the Parshendi naturally carry a spren in their gemheart from birth, that spren is what I believe Timbre is. I don't believe it is Eshonai, but I believe it lived in Eshonai's gemheart her whole life.

Isn't there a contradictory WoB that says Odium won't pick up shards or splinter himself for fear of changing his intent? Which is to be the singular shard?

There's a ton of evidence. Here's some. Timbre doesn't communicate in language. It communicates in Rhythms. THEY ARE THE SPREN OF PARSHMEN LONG DEAD - Stormfather to Dalinar. I don't feel like writing a lot more. But the evidence that the Parshmen are born with a spren inside their gemheart, I call it a soulspren is a lot.Even the definition of the word Timbre points to it being a Parshendi, or at least heavily related to them. tim·bre ˈtambər/ noun the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity. (the Rhythms). I disagree that she fully understands what Timbre is saying. Because he's not saying anything. I think he is communicating with her but she's confusing what it means. Something is being lost in translation I think.

Nope. Venli says that and then Timbre pulses with "irritation." Venli doesn't understand what Timbre is trying to say, that's why Timbre was irritated.

I agree there's more to build up "around" Taravangian. But I think he's just a sociopath tool. Why does everyone think the boon is the intelligence? It's obviously not. He needs to completely ignore his intelligent self to save the world.

Lopen didn't mean it at the time of his oath either.

What wouldn't make the deal binding? He literally just said he'd sacrifice the rest of the world for JK. His family and subjects deaths and enslavement might hold him to the deal.

What's holding him to it is Odium will destroy JK if he breaks the contract. Mr T is a bad dude. A real bad dude. I don't know how anyone doesn't see that. He wants to rule the world not save it. He only thinks he wants to save it. If he wanted to save the world he'd let his compassionate side dominate and go all in on Dalinar. He asked for the acumen and compassion to save the world. He got it. But there's always a curse and it's not the compassion. "Kill those minstrel boys now!".....fascinating - 17th shard Lol what? No, he's literally Hitler.

Too bad he made a deal with a Shard. He'll be held to it. I don't think there's any extra depth here. I don't think it's misdirection. I think T fluffed his boon/curse up. I think the curse was the intelligence. The boon compassion. He failed miserably. He'll pay for it dearly.

"Unique among the Unmade" - What? Aren't they all unique? "Her admiration of the spren of our world inspires her." You don't find that a little.......odd? I'd actually like to ask Brandon that question in a more specific way. I swear he has said Odium will not take up splintered shards, because it would change his intent. Why would he splinter himself? He would change his intent that way as well.

Maybe, but I'm positive SA is going in the direction of the "bigger picture" which is going to involve a lot more than the Rosharan system. I mean it's only book 3 and it already has. The Heralds are aware of the bigger picture 100%, and I don't see any reason they wouldn't have told humanity about everything. It's just been lost to legend, the mythology and legends can be applied to the greater Cosmere, not just the Rosharan system. We've seen maybe 3 of the perfect gems? One in Secret History(maybe?), one in the Cognitive realm in Celebrant, and the Ruby drop currently holding Nergaoul? We must have hints of the others. SOmewhere that we're missing. I suspect.

He says that the Unmade "count" as spren. He's said Nightblood "counts" as a spren if I'm not mistaken. That doesn't mean the unmade are spren from Roshar. IMO spren is a term for an idea or value or intent given sapient/sentient form in the cognitive realm as a direct result of investiture. He also says "Spren" is a term for things on Roshar, that seems to imply at least to me that what Rosharans call Spren, Threnodians call something else, and Elantrians call Seons but if they show up on Roshar, they would be Spren.

The perfect gemstones. There's one for each unmade, the ones that we haven't seen are probably trapped in them. They could be hidden anywhere in the Cosmere. Why wouldn't the elsecallers take them offworld? The Heralds knew Midius(Wit on Yolen), or at least knew of him, and the whole Cosmere picture. It's likely a lot of the Roshar mythology relates to the big picture and not the Rosharan system. Are there any references to gemstones elsewhere in the Cosmere?

I think you're spot on here. It all lines up. I want to add that I seem to remember another of the "ten perfect teardrop gems" or something like that, I can't remember the one that captured Nergaoul's name. But I seem to remember one of the perfect gems(there's some dialogue of all of them being part of one super perfect gem maybe?) was thought to reside in Kholinar, and if your theory is right, which I think it very well could be, then that's probably Bado's prison.

Right, and I agree with you up to the point that Glys is probably a KR spren corrupted(but how?) Why wouldn't Odium just corrupt them all if he can corrupt one? They probably had to willfully accept his influence. Which is troubling. What the parshendi are calling "voidspren" do not grant surges. But the Fused do. Maybe the fused are just dead voidspren that eventually learn to use surges. Who knows? If they are spirits of the parshendi that is evidence to the fact that parshendi gemhearts contain a "soul-spren" their entire life, that sings rhythms, and screams when sharing the gemheart with voidspren. Venli can see the cognitive realm, and perhaps that's why she sees Timbre. A son of Sja-Anat could be anyone, maybe not even a spren, we don't know if the unmade are related to the spren for sure, they could be from somewhere else, Sel. If it was simply Glys I don't think Brandon would leave it up to such a mystery, there's no reason Sja-Anat couldn't just say "Ask my son, Glys." It's typical Sanderson, misdirection and deceptive dialogue, Like Sazed, I didn't see that coming but in hindsight it was obvious. There are going to be "10" "Ten" books in the SA and there is a metric ..... ton of secrets and lies that have not been revealed to us. Odium has interacted with more of the other shards than any other shard after leaving Yolen(we seem to know the shardbearers agreed to split up and not settle two or more to a planet, but some broke the agreement). Odium went to Sel splintered presumably Devotion and Dominion, Threnody(no shard right? Or was it confirmed there is in a WoB? Ambition splintered?), Braize and trapped in the Rosharan system presumably by honor. The unmade could literally be from anywhere, maybe they are corrupted Devotion and Dominion(the Thrill? would that line up with Dominions intent?) splinters, who knows what Odium brought with him.

I would say that there "might" be quite a difference. I read and I might be missing something(probably am) nothing about Glys having anything to do with Sja-Anat. That whole sequence with Sja-Anat is confusing and there's really not enough information to know what's going on. We don't even know what the unmade really are. You're right though, Glys doesn't seem obedient to Odium. But Odium isn't omnipotent(or is it omniscient?), can't just mind control his followers all at once, and doesn't even suspect Venli. Can he lay the mind control down on Glys when it suits him or what? Glys is definitely co-opted by Odium. How far does that go? Learn me, how do we know voidspren aren't just corrupted spren?

Right, this is how I would have worded it and actually thought today that the gem was the reason she appeared to Adolin. But then I thought about the Reacher's deadeye father and realized no I don't think the gem traps them. I think it tethers them to the physical realm and stops them from actually doing self-exploration, I also thought that the reason Maya is definitely reviving is because Adolin came to her realm and gave her some conscious juice which will slowly but surely start to revive her. Which likely hasn't happened a lot before. Not many people are crossing into Shadesmar, and those that do know what the blades are and most probably avoid them. I "think" that without the gem the spren might be able to do it on their own and fully form back into the cognitive realm. I think this is what happened to the shardblades. The plate....maybe without the gems the plate just turned back into windspren and such after so long a time. Like I said, I think we can't take anything we know as 100% accurate. I think there is a ton of unreliable narration and outright deception from characters going on and that we're being misled completely. Especially from the spren, and Jasnah especially. The more I think of Jasnah, the more I think she's a Diagram member. That note that was given to her about Renarin being the traitor is really really bugging me, because Mr.T goes onto make importance of Renarin when talking to Odium. She was around Mr.T for awhile.

I'm not saying this is the case. I'm saying that there is a lot of evidence for something else in the parshendi gemhearts. Lots of little hints. Phrases like "Venli heard the rhythms, etc." Those rhythms are coming from somewhere, and it's odd a strange spren shows up and starts pulsing the rhythms out. I don't think this is oversight by Brandon, and what I find even more strange is that Venli speaks and communicates through language. Timbre doesn't. I would assume that the spren just adopt or know the bondee's language, and it's not like Venli or any of the parshendi go around just humming and communicating like that. It seems like the spren communicate in the most direct way possible, and it seems to me that for Venli, it's through the spoken tongue. Not the rhythms, but I could be wrong.

What's the difference? They're all spren, the one Renarin bonded is literally corrupt. It's red. The voidspren are red, It's corrupted by Odium's magic. It's said to have never happened before.

The fused wouldn't do it Moash said. I don't think they could. I think it HAD to be done by a human by intent. Odium probably had these daggers for a long time waiting for a human to use. Why have Moash do it? Why couldn't/wouldn't a fused do it? They know Jez was completely insane. Anyone could have done it, why did it have to be Moash? Could it be he still has some kind of a link to Kaladin, and it had to be a windrunner or at least a windrunner squire to kill Jez? Was it all the knife? I don't think it was "just the knife." In fact the more I think about it, the more I find that less plausible.

If Cultivation gave him the boon/curse like she did Dalinar, I think he really messed up if his intent is actually to save the world. She told Dalinar what she was going to do was very dangerous and could be disastrous but ultimately would be up to him. Dalinar chose correctly. Taravangian chose poorly. His compassion is his boon and his curse is the intelligence. It's all about symmetry. Dalinar/Taravangian, Szeth/Kaladin, Honor/Odium.

I think Taravangian is going to suffer a very, very bad demise. Along with Kharbranth. Thing is he isn't an ultimate utilitarian. He's ultimate evil. When he's stupid enough to be compassionate he doesn't hold his cold intelligent self back. When he's cold and intelligent he commits Hitler level atrocities. He doesn't hope for his idiot compassionate self because it brings him pain but it doesn't over rule his ambition, it's all about Mr.T to Mr.T. He made a deal with Odium to save "his people", after he saw Odium defeated, and after Odium told him he wouldn't spare the world if they were under T's rule. IMO Mr.T is the most evil of any of the characters. He has the capacity and ability to save the world. Which is exactly what he asked for. But he isn't using it to save the world, he's using it to rule the world because he is a selfish old see you next tuesday. He has placed all his faith in the "diagram" when all he needs to do is help Dalinar to save the world. Which was demonstrated for him hours before he made a deal with the devil. He's selfish, evil, arrogant, power-mongering, and has killed at least hundreds of thousands on a quest for power(to rule the world). He thinks that the boon is his curse, and his curse is his boon. The boon is he was given the compassion to save the world. The curse was he was given the intelligence to save the world(in his image). He's also super shortsighted and can't even figure the diagram out. The only thing he has figured out for sure is his compassionate self, which he loathes. Also: Jasnah. Could she be a member of the Diagram? Her ends justify the means attitude seems to complement Mr.T remarkably, and I remember her spending a ton and ton of time around Taravangian in WoK.