Llarimar

Okay, I think I agree with this. It seems unlikely based on the evidence that Jasnah knows who Hoid really is. Seeing the court jester, however, sitting there waiting for her when she exits Shadesmar, would be surprising enough for her to immediately question his presence. We know from the quote that @HoidsRock cited that Jasnah knew has probably met Hoid before (as Wit). Exiting Shademsar, and recognizing the King's Wit sitting there, some people might begin the conversation with, "Aren't you Wit? What are you doing here?" but Jasnah immediately is cool and collected assumes that he is dangerous or important, and that he has possibly been sent to assassinate her. I like the idea that Jasnah suspects that Wit was a part of the Ghostbloods. Perhaps this was a suspicion that Hoid exploited, openly admitting to Jasnah that he was a member of the Ghostbloods. I know it's a bit far fetched, but what if Hoid is working with the Ghostbloods, or has some sort of correspondence with them? (Someone can probably refute that with a WoB or something, but it's an interesting idea.) If that's the case, perhaps the Ghostbloods asked Hoid to throw her off the scent, and make it seem like they no longer want to assassinate Jasnah. Hoid's comments may have gone something like, "Yes, I'm a member of the Ghostbloods, and we don't want to kill you anymore, and in fact we have valuable information that we believe may be helpful." This would allow Jasnah to immediately place Hoid within a larger context - she wouldn't be confused about who he is or why he knows so much. She would just assume that he is one of the Ghostbloods, and that would answer everything for her. It would be mutually helpful for Hoid (because he wants to tell Jasnah about the Recreance), and for the Ghostbloods (because they want to smooth out relations with Jasnah).

Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that you can easily tell the difference between characters based on real-life people and characters who are not, because that’s definitely not always true. I did know about Sarene being based on a real person, but I didn’t know about Vasher, and I never would have known unless I was told. There is a difference, for me, between basing a character on a real-life person, and naming a character after a real-life person. It doesn’t bother me when a character is based on someone real – I assume that all authors do that to some extent when they’re writing. They use the personalities of friends they know, and characteristics they have seen in real people, to add believable depth and idiosyncrasies to their characters. Borrowing personality traits from real-life people, in my opinion, is fine, but naming a character after someone bothers me a bit more, because then it seems like the author has literally pulled a person out of the real world and shoved them onto the pages of a book, which sort of disrupts the illusion for me. This is especially true when both are true – when a person is both named after someone and based on their personality traits. Another reason why this bothers me in Sanderson books in particular is that for one thing, they are fantasy books. The layers of fiction are much thicker than they would be in say, a mystery or a romance book that takes place in the real world. So when there are an abundance of characters that are named after/based on real life people in a fantasy book, I find it somewhat jarring to be pulled through that many layers of fiction and reminded of the real world (it wouldn’t bother me as much in a mystery or a romance book). Of course, this isn’t that big of a complaint – Sanderson is my favorite author and I love his books, I don’t really mind that much if some of his characters are based on real people. I do wish sometimes that he would dial back a bit on naming and basing so many characters on real people, because just between the ones I know of, it comprises a surprisingly large number of his characters.

All right, I understand now. The Heralds and Kelsier = cognitive shadows, because they have died, but Investiture keeps them around, while Kaladin and any other Shadesmar travelers would not be considered CS because they are still alive and are just "visiting."

Okay, I think I understand better, but it's a lot to process. So cognitive shadows are beings who are fully in the cognitive realm, like Kaladin and the others while they're exploring Shadesmar, and cognitive shadows manifest differently in Scadiral and on Roshar. So the fact that [SPOILER!] Kelsier is technically dead in SH is not necessarily what makes him a cognitive shadow - he is a cognitive shadow because he is fully in the Cognitive Realm, like Kaladin and friends in Shadesmar. I... still am a bit confused as to how the Heralds are cognitive shadows, since they are not fully in the Cognitive Realm. They at least seem to be firmly grounded in the Physical Realm. Perhaps they are cognitive shadows because they are whole entities that exist fully in the Cognitive Realm (like Kelsier in SH), but who are stapled to a body in the Physical Realm. Because of this, when they are killed, their "spirit" (or whatever it is), which is fully in the Cognitive Realm, just de-attaches from the body it was stapled to.

This may have been discussed already in another thread, but did anyone else think Jasnah's conversation with Hoid at the end of WoR was really strange, especially considering that it was barely mentioned during OB? When Jasnah Elsecalls into Shinovar, she seems pretty untroubled (or as Brandon would say, "nonplussed") to find Hoid sitting there, waiting for her. This whole conversation is very unusual, considering that everyone else in Roshar for the most part treats Wit like a foolish court jester - no one is aware of the fact that he is intelligent and important to the larger cosmere. Jasnah, however, instead of being surprised to find him there, immediately begins interrogating him, assuming that he knows important things. A couple questions arise from this. For one thing, when does Jasnah realize that Hoid/Wit is more than just a simple court jester? Does this happen before she enters Shadesmar, or does she somehow learn more about Hoid during her journey? In addition, why does she still call him Wit? I suppose it's possible that she learned more about him in Shadesmar without discovering his real name (or, well, his main alias), but this somehow seems unlikely. She apparently knows, when she exits Shadesmar, that Hoid is important and that he knows things, and yet she still doesn't know his name. We know from OB that Hoid tells Jasnah about the reason for the Recreance (or at least, he tells her a part of the story). Is this the information that Jasnah was specifically looking for from Hoid, or does she just know that he is full of cosmere knowledge in general? Her pointed question - "Tell me what you know" makes it seem like there is something in particular that she is looking for from him. In OB, Jasnah only refers to her conversation with Hoid once when speaking with Ivory, and besides that she doesn't say anything about him, or mention him to any other character. Even here, she refers to him by Wit, which suggests that she really doesn't know his name is Hoid (or Cephandrius, or something else). However, she doesn't talk about Wit at any other point in the book, or tell another character that she realizes he is important. This makes me wonder if Jasnah is possibly working with him (or else she is just her normal enigmatic self and is paranoid about telling people anything). So here is what we know: 1. Jasnah seems to realize Hoid is important when she exits Shadesmar. It is unclear if she knew this before she entered Shadesmar. 2. When she exits Shademsar, it is implied that Hoid has been looking for her, and that she has possibly been trying to evade him ("How did you find me?"). 3. There seems to be specific information she wants to get from Hoid ("Tell me what you know."). It is unclear if she realizes that he knows about the Recreance, or if he proffers that information freely. 3. Jasnah doesn't mention Hoid to anyone throughout all of OB, and her strange encounter with him in Shinovar is not brought up. I was expecting the Jasnah-Hoid meeting to be more important in OB, because it comprised the final pages of WoR. But the fact that their meeting is barely mentioned at all is even more telling, and prolongs the mystery of their interaction. What do you guys think about the situation with Jasnah and Hoid/Wit? What does she know about him, how could she have gained that information while in Shadesmar, and how will she work with him/deal with him in future books?

Yes. About Secret History:

@red032 I think this in an interesting idea. I don't think we've heard about a Wisdom shard so far, but there are many Shards that haven't been mentioned or named, so it's definitely possible. I wouldn't think twice about this quote if it was said by someone else, but coming from Hoid it could definitely mean something, especially if he really does use a "her/she" pronouns to refer to Wisdom during his conversation with Shallan. Considering that the next two books Brandon is planning on writing (from what I understand) are The Lost Metal and Nightblood, it seems we'll have to wait some time before discovering a new planet or reading about a new shard, so anything that could potentially hint at worlds or shards we don't know anything about is definitely worth exploring. As a side note what kind of planet would the shard Wisdom rule over? It would probably be much more peaceful and civil than Roshar or any of the other planets we've encountered so far.

Yes, I agree that sometimes animal-rights activists can become a little self-righteous and ingratiating, even though I likewise agree with their causes most of the time. However, the difference between endangering animals and imprisoning spren is that some spren are much more highly sentient than animals. If what Taravangian says in true, and they really did find a way to imprison a "Knight Radiant spren", then they have imprisoned something with at least the intellectual capacity of a human, if not greater. If this becomes a serious problem - humans luring and imprisoning higher spren in order to create powerful fabrials - then I can see the spren getting involved as well (which is something that animals can never do). This could be the cause of a serious rift, and maybe even a full-out war between the Cognitive Realm and the Physical Realm. The reason the higher spren don't seem to have made a big deal out of it so far is possibly because the Jah Keved fabrial scientists only imprisoned a small number of higher spren - so few that the other spren haven't really noticed yet. The progress of fabrial technology and our understanding of spren has been slowly expanded and teased throughout all three of the Stormlight books, such as in the the Interlude with the ardents, somewhere in the Reshi Isles I believe, who are studying the flamespren, as well as the Interlude with Axies the Collector. The nature of spren, their relationship to the Physical Realm, and the construction of fabrials will probably be something that becomes a more integral part of the story.

I am also reminded of this scene: This is the only example I can think of where we see someone kill a cognitive shadow. I am not sure what the relevance of this scene is to this particular discussion, or to Hoid's potential ability to kill a cognitive shadow. But I think it's interesting that both Kaladin and Syl seemed surprised that they are able to kill a spren. Perhaps it is something that can only happen impulsively, like sucking in Stormlight for the first time. If Knights Radiant can kill cognitive shadows, and Heralds are cognitive shadows (whatever that means), then they might be able to kill Heralds too - but kill them permanently, like Moash did, without sending them back to Damnation like Jasnah wants. If Hoid does set out on a mission to kill the Heralds, he may try to enlist the help of some of the Knights Radiant, since they can apparently kill cognitive shadows as well.

I'm also not very practiced with finding WoBs (I've... actually never tried it before), but I feel like someone should fish around to find this one, just because of its relevance to this thread. I would like to see the exact wording that Brandon used when he said that the Heralds are cognitive shadows. This concept is confusing to me, because the Heralds are people with flesh and substance, and from what I understand about cognitive shadows, they are more like spirits - transitory and intangible. I have a hard time understanding how the Heralds could be cognitive spirits any more than normal humans could. If a cognitive shadow is the part of a person that exists in the Cognitive Realm, then how are the Heralds "cognitive shadows?" Yes, they have a representation in the Cognitive Realm, but so do normal humans, and they are not considered cognitive shadows. Maybe what Brandon means is that the Heralds are more closely tied to the Cognitive Realm than normal humans for some reason, making them more "cognitive shadow-y." The little flame in the Cognitive Realm that appears to represent a human cannot be altered or wounded from the Cognitive Realm, from what we understand - it is just a shadow of the person residing in the Physical Realm. If the person is killed in the Physical Realm, then the little fire will blink out. Perhaps the Heralds are cognitive shadows because they have a strong presence in both Realms, so that their little flame in the Cognitive Realm isn't just a reflection of their physical form, but a tangible entity that can be killed or interacted with.

I actually think that this is going to be an important issue moving forward. There will likely be a conflict between the advancements in fabrial technology and a rishing pushback against enslaving spren (perhaps led by a few of the Knights Radiant, like Shallan, who consider it cruel). Maybe the Cult of Moments in Kholinar (or whatever is left of them) will become spren activists, trying to stop the fabrial scientists like Navani from attracting and imprisoning spren. As a side note, perhaps this could be a conflict with Navani if she begins bonding the Sibling. The Stormfather already seems angry about sprens being imprisoned for the use of fabrials. There is one scene where Taravangian tells Dalinar that the "partial-Shardplate" shields (don't remember their exact name) are created by imprisoning a spren that could potentially bond a Knight Radiant. What does that mean? Are they somehow trapping and imprisoning higher spren to create Shardplate technology? This comment by T is sort of brushed over in the moment because Dalinar is being overwhelmed by the Thrill, but I think it will come up again at some point.

I wondered while reading the book if May was a fan-insert as well, because of her name. I know it's a kind of nit-picky thing to get annoyed with, but one of my main problems with including real-life names in a fictional story is that you create inconsistencies with the linguistic system. Of course, fantasy authors can do whatever they want, and they don't have to create believable, foreign-sounding names for their characters. Patrick Rothfuss does this constantly with the Kingkiller Chronicle books - characters with names like Jake and Cob pop up all the time. However, I feel like Brandon is so thorough with his worldbuilding, and in particular with the naming systems he creates for his cultures, that he can't get away with this type of thing as easily. Alethi people have certain types of names - their names are frequently palindromes or near-palindromes (Ialai, almost Shallan), and there are few sounds that appear frequently, such as "kh" (Kholin, Kharbranth, the glyph khakh). So when a name like May or Lyn pops up in the story, it really sticks out and immediately makes you wonder if the character is named after a real-life person. I like it more when authors do not name characters after real-life people, but instead just base their appearance and personality traits on real-life people, while giving them a more unique name. I would honestly be much less bothered by characters like Lyn and Leyten if I knew the people they were based on had different names.

This reminds me of something else from WoR that reinforces the discussion - when Eshonai first takes Stormform, she can hear a screaming in the back of her head. At the time I thought this was just the metaphorical screaming of her sane self rebelling against the dark form of power, but it may have been Timbre, in the same way that dead spren scream when they are summoned as Shardblades. As a side note, this seems like the most unexpected tangent imaginable for this thread to have taken (from Roshone to the nature of Venli's spren...?).

Yes, I was a bit hesitant to include them on the list. The point I was trying to make with them specifically though, is the fact that for one thing they were just another arranged marriage I could think of in which the participants eventually grew to sort of like each other, unlike the typical depiction of arranged marriages. In addition, their relationship ended in tragedy, but not necessarily because they "broke up," which is the same thing I can see happening to Shallan and Adolin. Dalinar still loved Navani even while he was married to Evi, and so in that respect their marriage wasn't nearly as "happily-ever-after" as the other arranged marriages, but it still presents an example of Sanderson characters striving to make their marriage work, even in less-than-ideal circumstances.

I actually agree - it kind of bothers me that Lyn and some of the Bridge Four people are based on (or at least are named after) real people. Having a reminder of the real world like that can pull you out of the story. I had originally thought that Leyten was a cool character name, but once I found out he was named after a real person I realized that Leyten could actually be a regular name for a normal guy, and it just sort of ruined it for me - if I met someone named Leyten, I might think "Ok, that's a little different," but I wouldn't think that the name was pulled out of a fictional world. So whenever I read the name Leyten now, all I can imagine is some friend of Brandon Sanderson with glasses and a button-up shirt, asking to be included in his book. I think the reason why people talk a lot about Lyn (I've noticed her mentioned surprisingly often) is the fact that there are much fewer female characters in Stormlight than there are male characters, and in particular with regards to Kaladin's storyline and Bridge Four, there are almost no female characters. Lyn is literally the only female character to have a close connection with Bridge Four. So people talk about her and wonder if she's going to become romantic with Kaladin and wonder if Brandon has big plans for her, but I think that really, she's just a very minor character and probably will stay that way. You can easily tell the difference, for example, between someone like Lyn and someone like Rysn, just in the way that they are characterized and written. They are in the book about the same amount, but for some reason you can just tell that Rysn is more "real" - more important to the story, more well fleshed-out, more genuine. I can easily see Rysn becoming very important moving forward, whereas it would seem very strange if Lyn became significantly important to the story. If I didn't know that Lyn was based on a real person, and I had to guess between Lyn and someone like Rysn which one was, I would immediately guess Lyn. The same goes for other minor female characters like Isnah or Aesudan. (Although... just watch - Brandon's going to announce that Rysn is actually named after a friend of his, and my whole theory will crumble).

All right... that all makes sense . I guess I need to pay a little more attention to my theories before I develop them. I probably just assumed that lightspren were Truthwatcher spren because the Truthwatcher spren are described as "light shining through a glass."

I don't think they're going to separate. Sanderson usually has a pretty idealized depiction of marriage in his books. Especially when main characters get married, it is depicted as their happily ever after - even if they experience struggles afterwards, their marriage generally remains strong. For example (Cosmere spoilers): I can think of some examples of bad marriages in his books, such as between Shallan's parents, but generally married people are strong power couples - Ialai and Sadeas, for example. Infidelity almost never plays a role in his books. In addition, I have constantly noticed that Sanderson has a surprisingly sympathetic view of arranged marriages in his books - the parties in arranged marriages genuinely seem to like each other and they actually fall in love, unlike the sour, unsavory depiction of arranged marriages typically seen in Western culture, where romance and courtship are so important. In the spoiler examples given above, four of the six marriages listed were arranged marriages, and they turned out just as as well as the non-arranged ones. Even arranged marriages like Roshone and Laral seem to work out pretty well for everyone involved. I think it is possible that Shallan and Adolin's storyline will end in tragedy, but not because their marriage crumbles or because they decide to leave each other. Perhaps one of them will die, or Shallan will become consumed by her demons and will lose her mind or something like that, but I don't see them breaking up. I think that Shallan will definitely not get together with Kaladin at this point, and that Adolin will probably not cheat on Shallan (I just can't imagine Sanderson writing a plotline like that).

I had the impression during OB that the spren Venli saw drifting away from Eshonai was possibly the spren of Eshonai herself, in the same way that the Fused are reborn and become red lightning spren when they are killed. I thought this mainly because TImbre acted so different from other spren we have met, and seemed to have a connection to Eshonai, and because I thought that the process for a parshman bonding a higher spren might somehow be different than a human (I was reluctant to believe that Venli was just "finding her spren" like Kaladin and Shallan and all the other Radiants - I thought something deeper might be going on). I wondered several times during OB if at some point, perhaps in the next book, Venli will allow the spren of Eshonai to become reincarnated inside her gemheart, to bring Eshonai back to life, in the same way that the Fused use normal parshmen to come back to life - Venli frequently regrets that Eshonai is dead while she is alive, saying things like "The wrong sister died, the wrong sister lived." I can see her sacrificing herself to reincarnate her sister. I have also seen people say on forums that Venli is probably a Willshaper, and so I wondered if perhaps bonding the spren of Eshonai herself would somehow make Venli into a Willshaper. It makes sense, however, that Timbre is just simply a Willshaper spren, and doesn't have a closer connection to Eshonai. However, I don't think Timbre is Ico's daughter, since I think Ico was a lightspren, which are the spren of the Truthwatchers. I thought it was possible that Ico's daughter was Glys, Renarin's spren, which would make it extra sad for him since she is now corrupted. The only reason why I am suspicious about Venli's spren, really, is because we know so little about the Willshapers and what it would mean for a parshman to become one. I think that there may be something more to the Venli-Timbre-Eshonai situation than we realize, and that Brandon is possibly going to make the Willshapers, and Venli's bond with Timbre, fundamentally different from the other Orders and the other spren-Radiant bonds.

I actually really like Ialai - I think that she's funny and entertaining, and I find her shameless manipulation a bit refreshing, when so many of the female characters have so much more eloquence and finesse. I was a little disappointed she didn't have a more important role in OB, after the murder of Sadeas. Instead of Ialai, Sadeas was sort of replaced with Amaram as the leader of the anti-Dalinar coalition. Also, about this - I know this isn't a Mistborn discussion thread, but Straff's name was mentioned in the survey so might as well talk about him. For me a "good" antagonist is not someone who is "good" - that defeats the purpose of being an antagonist. I like Straff as an antagonist because he is evil, dark and unapologetic - he is a well-crafted villain. Even if I would hate him in real life, I still recognize that he's a good villain for the purposes of the story. Several people have said they don't like Straff, whereas for me I dislike antagonists like Moash (who I voted for). Moash at this point doesn't have a strong motivation for being a villain - he is sort of depressed and sulky and he doesn't have very clear goals. Someone like Straff is a strong villain because they are definitive, focused and they know exactly what they want - Moash is sort of teetering on the edge of depression and totally black evil, and it's not very entertaining to explore that transition as a reader. We want villains who are complex, well-fleshed out and fully formed, not characters who are just "thinking about being evil" but might have a change of heart in the next few chapters.

This is actually where Amaram's storyline started going wrong for me. I liked him as a character through much of WoK and WoR - he was involved with so many well-planned plot twists - the murder of Kaladin's men, the death of Shallan's brother, being a member of the Sons of Honor and a close friend of Gavilar. All of those things were very surprising, and crafted him into a unique, unexpected, third-party - someone who didn't closely align with anyone else. I also thought from the beginning that Kaladin was overly harsh with Amaram - yes, it was brutal to murder Kaladin's men, but it wasn't the worst thing someone has done in the books and Amaram had pretty justified reasons for doing it (in his mind). I was expecting more sympathy for Amaram moving forward - perhaps not a redemption storyline, but definitely further development and new plot threads for his character, and a greater understanding of his motives and goals. However, when he aligned himself with Odium, Amaram just really became flat and uninteresting to me - a paranoid, comic book villain, especially after he swallowed the gemstone and became a raging monster. This was one of my main problems with OB - many of the character threads were underused and disappointing. The plotlines in OB for Adolin's murder of Sadeas, Shallan's multiple personalities, the Kaladin-Shallan romance and the storyline for Amaram were almost counterproductive, I thought, because of how much they detracted from the momentum without really going anywhere. For some reason I relate Amaram with Moash, because both of them betrayed Kaladin, and both have "fallen from grace" over the course of the books. When Amaram aligned with Odium, he seemed to meld with Moash even more in my mind, because I think Moash is going to eventually become a major antagonist and a servant of Odium - which is what happened to Amaram at the end of OB before he abruptly died. I can almost see Brandon saying, "Well, we've got two Kaladin-enemies who have joined Odium... so might as well get rid of one of them," instead of further developing Amaram as a unique and separate character. I think it's very possible that Amaram will still be important moving forward as a posthumous character - someone that gradually becomes less of a villain and more understandable as they learn more about him (like the Lord Ruler in Mistborn).

I would rather the next book focus on Eshonai/Venli. I came away from OB wanting to learn more about Venli than Szeth, mainly because Szeth at the very end seemed to assimilate in with the other Radiants - he is part of the Dalinar-Kaladin-Shallan group now, instead of a different and mysterious entity like he's always been. Venli, however, has a very unique position in the story at the moment, as separated from the other main characters and part of Odium's entourage, and I feel like we will learn much more from her point of view about Roshar and Odium and the Desolations than we would from Szeth. Szeth's mission to purge Shinovar would be a very interesting plot thread to follow, but I think at the moment that Venli is more central to the momentum of the story - it makes mores sense from a storyline perspective to focus on her character than it does to focus on Szeth. And I also want to learn more about the Listeners and the Dawnshards and the Heralds and the Unmade and the Odium-Fused Honor-Radiants situation - my main questions about the series at this point all center on the ancient history of Roshar, and those would be addressed much more in a Venli storyline than one about Szeth.

I like the idea of Roshone being a Herald, and I also had the impression after reading Oathbringer that he might have a more important role moving forward. But I feel like it's an unlikely possibility, since the Willshapers are at this point the Order that we seem to know the least about (is Venli's spren a Willshaper spren or is it just Eshonai's spren, or what's the difference...?). I feel like Brandon is saving information about the Willshapers for Eshonai/Venli's book, and might be planning a more unique and unexpected role for their Herald - perhaps a big reveal where he is introduced as a new character. All that being said though, it's still an interesting idea. Maybe Roshone isn't a Herald, but it would definitely be interesting if he had some other important role moving forward.

I agree, though I've been a bit nervous to say it because of all the rancor expressed towards him. I really like Taravangian as a character, and he fascinates me. I constantly find myself rooting for Taravangian, and wanting more viewpoint chapters from him. I have been a bit surprised by all the posts I've seen in various threads about Taravangian, calling him demented and irredeemably evil. People seem to hate Taravangian, and see him as one of the worst villains in the book. He is called the worst character in the series, and is used as a standard of evil by which to judge other characters. I, however, have never been able to see Taravangian as anything but a genuinely well-meaning, earnest old man who honestly believes his intentions are good. When it was first revealed at the end of WoK that Taravangian was the one ordering around Szeth, and that he had been killing people in his hospitals, rather than being disgusted by him I was fascinated. I didn't think for a moment that he was actually "evil," but rather thought right away that there was simply more to him than was previously thought. He is complex, multilayered character, and despite his brutal actions, he is consistently characterized as moral and well-meaning, which colors him with a sort of transfixing dichotomy. I think it's important to remember that Dalinar is a brutal, merciless warlord at times - especially in his flashbacks. He even candidly asks Hoid in WoK, "am I a tyrant?" to which Hoid replies, "Yes, but you're what this world needs right now" (paraphrasing). Everyone can accept that despite his brutal methods, Dalinar is categorically a good guy, and that he is exactly what Roshar needs. He might not have a spotless record, but he has good intentions, and his darker sides are what give him the wisdom and experience. I see Taravangian in exactly the same way. He may do terrible things at times, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I think it's quite possible that as the Stormlight series accelerates, the actions of Taravangian will prove to be exactly what is needed to topple Odium from a direction he least expects it. I would be quite surprised if Taravangian unceremoniously dies or if nothing productive is accomplished by the Diagram - I think Taravangian is a key player for the future of the series (depending on how long he lives), who will have a satisfying story arc and a noble, perhaps even heroic death.

Okay, this makes a lot of sense. I thought that Cultivation was just tricking and deluding T, but that is exactly the point - the Diagram is meant to trick everyone, including T and even Odium. I am still a bit confused, however, as to whether T cognitively knows that he is tricking Odium, or if he genuinely believes that he is only working to save Kharbranth and that the rest of Roshar will be sacrificed. At what level is T manipulating Odium, and at what level is T being manipulated? Does he realize that the whole Kharbranth cover is just a ploy, that he is actually tricking Odium while he works to save all of Roshar behind his back? This was not imminently clear to me when I read the Taravangian chapter at the end of OB.

This is something that has confused me about the Lightweavers. Can they just blurt out five truths and then consider themselves full-blown Knights Radiant? I am sure that Hoid has at least 5 truths stored up, that he can say to the Cryptic in quick succession and cross them off the list. I think that the truths need to be said when the Lightweaver is "ready." With Shallan this makes sense, as she has a lot of growth that is necessary before she is ready to accept another truth and advance in her Surgebinding abilities. However, Hoid is ancient and vastly intelligent, and extremely practiced with many forms of Investiture. I have a hard time imagining that he has a lot of necessary character growth left at this point - he is extremely self-aware and has already figured out who he is and what his goals are. All of the spren-Knight relationships we've seen so far have grown on a mutual level. Kaladin and Syl slowly grew to understand their powers together, at the same rate, and the same is true for Shallan and Pattern, and even to a lesser extent Dalinar and the Stormfather. However, Hoid is extremely intelligent and aware of the powers that are entailed with being a Lightweaver (in fact, he already can Lightweave). I imagine him bossing around his little spren, hurriedly rushing through the Oaths and dragging it behind him at the end of a string, because unlike the other Knights Radiant we've seen he is far more cognizant and informed concerning Surgebinding than the spren he is bonding. For these reasons I see the Hoid-Cryptic relationship being very different from the other Knights Radiant bonds we've seen so far, and possibly not even working. Hoid can't through the same gradual, step-by-step path as Shallan, since he already is at the top of the staircase and his just waiting for his spren to catch up.