Isilel

A bit of a crackpot theory - did the Ghostbloods kidnap Vasher and force him to produce anti-Light for them? Because in RoW he was suddenly gone and Sanderson said that he couldn't participate in the occupation arc for reasons. However, we saw Mraize hunting and killing another off-worlder (who refused to cooperate?) and now in WaT it was revealed that Vasher had been the original inventor of anti-Lights, the Ghostbloods have them, and he is still absent. And sure, the Ghostbloods have resources, but none of them struck me as magical engineer. And it has been only 3 days and Raboniel had sent the plates away. So even if they got the theory of it through spies, the time-frame would be a bit too tight for them to already have a working prototype, IMHO. Unless they had an expert working for them.

So, it occurred to me that in RoW when they put anti-voidlight into the dagger, it came into contact with and in fact was conducted through metallic raysium... and nothing happened! Which tells me that anti-stormlight shouldn't be able to harm Radiant spren in metallic form either. Luckily, since otherwise the already disadvantaged Coalition would have been completely SOL in the run-up to the Contest. Not that most of the Radiants aren't in terrible danger anyway, but now at least they'll be forewarned. It won't be a hideous surprise. It is also a bit odd that in TLM the Ghostbloods on Scadrial talk about Roshar being out of bounds to them, but Iyatil still being there and still a member... and something about being unable to count on Shard perpendicularities for travel. But judging from what we have seen in the current chapters, Iyatil should be able to ferry people between Shadesmar and the Physical at will? In places where it is possible, of course.

Yes, though to be fair, it kinda makes sense for the Rosharan leadership to have grown complacent, after they have been so far ahead of everyone else for so long. I can, maybe, forgive their security blunders, but them not breaking out off-world powers and weapons against Shallan makes zero sense. Also, it didn't seem to me that Mraize had faithfully reported his last conversation with Shallan and her declaration of war to Iyatil, as well as the fact that her brothers had been spirited away. Otherwise her remark about Shallan scrambling to protect her family doesn't make any sense. Honestly, I was much more disappointed by Kelsier's own incompetence on Scadrial. I mean, Ghostbloods' lack of discretion there provided impetus for formation of the Set! And then they just let them grow big and super powerful, allowed them to get control over the underworld(!) and also completely slept on them becoming an acute threat to their planet's very existence! The very planet that they have sworn to protect at all cost, but only endangered instead. And, of course, only a couple of people were available to help in the pitch, with some fun off-world magics, but no medallions, allomantic grenades or spikes, which was an incomprehensible omission on Scadrial itself, no less! Also use of Seekers, Tineyes and Smokers to protect secret locations seems to have completely gone out of style in Era 2, which makes zero sense in-world, but was required for Our Heroes to be able to infiltrate places without relevant help. Sanderson clearly wanted every important character to stay in their "lane", which is why Wayne an Marasi weren't allowed to use weight medallions like they should have been - manipulating weight being Wax's speciality. And why the Ghostbloods didn't have access to other medallions, allomantic grenades (which have been designated as Marasi's specialty) or spikes. Or why they couldn't provide more people to help, etc. It all felt extremely contrived. And to some degree the same thing is happening here. The Ghostbloods really should have had a Tin Metalborn, natural or hemalurgic, among their ranks, it being one of the abilities most suited to ferreting out secrets. But if they had, Shallan wouldn't have been able to get in, so they didn't. I could imagine them having a Seeker, maybe, and being unaware of Lightweaving being very "quiet" and difficult to detect, as per events in Kholinar in OB? Which might explain them missing Shallan's crew surge-binding as it was observing the entrance and setting up? I dunno. So far, the Ghostbloods come across as dangerous blunderers who only make things worse for Scadrial and will become the reason for the future Cold War. @CtrlAltDepressed: 2 of them do whip out deadblades? And they couldn't have arrived inconspicuously while wearing deadplate . It also takes time to put on, if there was any in the hideout. P.S. Thaidakar wanted Kalak specifically, presumably because of BAM too. As seen in the prologue. Felt also had his instructions re: finding out her whereabouts and sharing this information with Iyatil directly from him. Kelsier just may have something else for her in mind than Iyatil.

IMHO it is very likely that he is somehow responsible for Taln becoming the 10th Herald, instead of whoever it was supposed to be originally. But there was a WoB that while the first half of SA was going to plumb the mysteries of the Radiants, the second would do the same for the Heralds. I am unsure if it is still the plan, since it currently seems that WaT will go deeper into the events surrounding the start of the Desolations than I expected, so we'll see. Alternatively, it would be fun to see Hoid palling around with Nohadon, for example...

For me, it was the IMHO unnecessary pivot into a world-ending threat and comical incompetence of both the Ghostbloods and the the Set, so that Our Protagonists could super-hero through repetitive combat scenarios in a generic city setting, like in a video game. While at the same time, much more interesting questions like history of the Bands, South Scadrian cultures, the medallions and the general mysteries of unexplored parts of the planet have been shoved aside in a very contrived manner. In fact, I would say that TLM does a pretty poor job of setting up Era 3, by pre-empting what seems to be intended as it's major conflict and depicting people who are pegged to be important in that period as incompetent bumblers.

So, here is something interesting that I haven't seen mentioned - the masked woman whom Shallan was impersonating _also_ wasn't a native Scadrian, just someone of that descent. Iyatil said how Thaidakar wanted to protect _his_ homeland when talking to Shallan, not "your". So, it seems that there is a fairly significant SoScad ex-pat community, possibly in Silverlight, that continues the mask-wearing tradition and kept the language, but doesn't consider Scadrial their home. I wonder if when Harmony's Perpendicularity appeared, at the same time as the drastic cooling of the South started, the people who lived near it's location escaped en masse to Shadesmar and somehow made their way to Silverlight or wherever. Which is a weird feature of the Ghostbloods - Kelsier seems to mostly recruit members among the people who don't have any intrinsic reason to put protection of Scadrial over all other considerations. And now it seems like there are several different plans concerning the use that BAM should be put to. We have now heard Iyatil's, but Kelsier also wanted her for some reason. He already was trying to get his hands on Kalak specifically years ago and Felt and Ala are his people. This masked woman also seems to have a pretty low opinion of Kelsier's intelligence, which I found rather surprising and even a bit shocking. Though, In view of TLM and what we see on Roshar, I do seriously question his competence. Well, Shallan is cornered, but she has her armor and can also summon Testament as a shardblade on a moment's notice, even though it would take time for Pattern to get to her. I don't think that there is time for her to deal with loss of Pattern as well as look for BAM together with R&R, so he is safe from Mraize's anti-stormlight bolts, IMHO. But at least one of her people is toast for sure. I also really hope that we are going to finally see some Metallic Arts, harmonium grenades and other modern Scadrian gadgets that high-ranking Ghostbloods _should_ have, in action. Concerning Mraize - I wonder where his Aviar is and whether or not he has switched his allegiance to the Fused/Odium. The new recruit is Sja-Anat and her "children" who are able to spy in Urithiru have to be Glys and Tumi, since we were told that the Sibling can keep Voidish investiture out and they have no reason to make any other exceptions. I imagine that the "urging" may have taken the form of a vision of the future? It may be interesting if Glys can trigger those and direct them in some fashion. I think that this WoB fits the idea of them actively working for her: I assume that Shallan will see the connection and that's how Renarin and Rlain will become involved in the BAM business. Renarin himself may be already consciously involved on Sj-A's behest, like he was in T's Ascension. There is no reason to think that it is any easier to transport enlightened bonded spren out of Rosharan system, while keeping the powers, than it is to do the same with normal Radiant spren. The Fused and the voidspren are similarly restricted.

But if the Ghostbloods had a Herald as a member, wouldn't that person have had a much better chance of getting information and cooperation out of Kalak? Why would Thaidakar have tried to use Gavilar and then Shallan in such a case? Mind, I do believe that Lady Davar had been a Ghostblood rather than Skybreaker-adjacent and that Shallan received some kind of undercover operator training as a child from them, for some reason. But I don't think that her mom was a Herald. As to BAM, she could also be used as an investiture factory, couldn't she. She produces Voidlight. So, instead of carting stormlight across the cosmere, if you could move her to a preferred location and get Voidlight out of her while still keeping her imprisoned or otherwise restricted, it would be much more convenient. As to the Ghostbloods, I dunno. They should be prepared... But honestly, they didn't seem to be as competent as they should have been, given how much they were ahead knowledge-wise. Like, their attempts to prevent anyone else from finding Urithiru, instead of watching and appropriating eventual results were counter-productive, Shallan becoming Formless and knifing Kalak, as Mraize wanted, would have been the end of her Radiance, and now again their best play should be to let Shallan do the hard work and then relieve her of the prize. Felt and Ala did well, but they report to Thaidakar directly, not Iatyl and Mraize. Though I have my issues with him as well, which would be better better discussed in the cosmere forum.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But then, Ghostbloods _on Scadrial_ didn't seem to have access to medallions or allomantic grenades in TLM. Which, honestly, struck me as the height of incompetence and extremely contrived. And yes, even basic weight-storing medallions that airship crews and passengers get would have been quite useful to their infiltration team... I very much agree - particularly since the Ghostbloods aren't averse to hemalurgy when a person "deserves" to die from their PoV or is about to expire anyway and Kelsier may have had some Inquisitor spikes to begin with. So, rarity of Tin Metalborn here or there, every significant cell of their organization should have had some to facilitate acquisition of secrets, as well as Seekers. In fact, it would make sense to have both powers on the same person. But then, again in TLM, nobody bothered to have such people on guard either, so I dunno. Couldn't disagree more. IMHO, this new approach closely mimics what happens in Rosharan nature with spren entering creatures gemhearts and staying there for periods of time. It has been mentioned that modern fabrials are far more efficient than the old ones, and as far as I can judge manifested spren are very much trapped and likely need intervention of the Sibling/a Bondsmith to return to their default form. This compromise is the future. The only thing that I find jarring is that it has only been a couple of days since Navani became aware of the problem and they already have a solution. Speaking of which, this makes Navani significantly less safe than I initially thought. And Rushu seems like her possible replacement waiting in the wings, hm...

Nohadon's youth was before the Radiant Orders were established, but after the appearance of wild Surge-binders, who had caused a lot of trouble in the run-up to the Desolation that he lived through. He referred to it in the first vision where he appeared in.

Skybreakers are used to operating secretly, without revealing their Radiance to any onlookers. So, their use of surges in general was very limited until recently - Szeth noted their squires lack of skill with Gravitation back in OB. IIRC, the only reason any training was happening at all was the Desolation. Effects of Division are impossible to conceal, which explains why we didn't see it used until now. I am also under impression that Nale and the Skybreakers are unhappy about the side that they found themselves on, so while they feel compelled to fight for the singers/Odium, they haven't been giving their all. We are likely to see some Division in WaT, I imagine.

I had another thought - in one of the earlier chapters we were shown abandoned ships of the honorspren, a group of spren leaving Lasting Integrity over disagreement with it's leadership and Captain Notum looking for a way to contribute without bonding... Can it be that the Azir invasion force is going to be attacked by a ressurected honorspren navy in Shadesmar? Navani has her own narrative importance, apart from her relationship with Dalinar! She needs to figure out an ethical way to produce powerful modern fabrials, together with the Sibling. In addition, Dalinar has already been motivated by the death of a wife, doing it the second time would leave a very bad taste in my mouth and move into a "women in a fridge" trope area. I know that people want Kaladin to become king of Urithiru, but even if he is not otherwise occupied at the end of WaT, this doesn't require Navani's death, just her stepping down. As I pointed out above, she has more important things to do and shouldn't waste her time on the issues of government yet again anyway. Personally, I don't believe that Dalinar will wholly Ascend, he is more of a Moses-type figure, but if it comes to that, he will make whatever sacrifices are required, IMHO.

So, Taln and Ash have been forgotten in Azir, which is about to be the scene of a heroic last stand... I expect them to become involved. It also seems a bit contrived to me that they were left behind like this, but oh, well. Will they die final deaths? While their flashbacks in the second half don't require them to be alive, I feel that given the planned RL time gap between the 2 halves of SA, it would make more sense for all the flashback characters to be alive at the start of it. Also, we are supposed to learn more about the Heralds in the second arc, which would seem redundant if none of them are active participants in it. Against that, of course, there is an epigraph stating that the Heralds had vanished, but we don't know when it was written. Could be after the end of SA? Or their re-appearance will kick off Book 6?

Or so the lore claims. Yet Ishar was behind all the most important decisions made by the Heralds. Chapter 111 of RoW specifically goes into how Ishar's depiction, given by Shalash, differed from Dalinar's expectations: Sounds very much like a leader to me! Rather similar to Dalinar, in fact. I would say that what we know about the history of bitter disagreements between the Windrunners and the Skybreakers (and some other Orders, IIRC), makes it pretty certain that Windrunners weren't overall leaders of the Radiants in the past. It is different in WaT, with the different make-up of the anti-Odium Radiants. Kaladin may indeed become such a leader, though I have my doubts that this will come to pass. It is also far from certain that he will be (only) a Windrunner if this happens, rather than a Bondsmith or dual-bonded.

I very much disagree. IMHO, the gem archive demonstrates that the Windrunners, who do have the "Leading" attribute, could have never been the leaders of all the Radiants in the old days, because a number of Orders bitterly disagreed with them. It took the Bondsmiths to point the Radiants in mostly the same direction, and ideally more than one of them.

It makes a lot of sense for them to try again, though. Isn't Todium's goal to set things up so that all outcomes are satisfactory for him? So, he'll be doing a number of things and some of them will succeed. Personally, I hope that someone stalls Nale by engaging him in a legal battle, until whatever happens with the Wind and/or BAM that will hopefully restore Heraldic sanity and lead to their disappearance. Which would free the Skybreakers to decide for themselves. Another thing that bugs me is why nobody proposes to dismantle the physical structure of the Azish Oathgate, like the Fused wanted to do in Thaylenah in OB. Shouldn't the Sibling - and Hoid, know about such possibility, if the Fused do? I am worried about Adolin, though his behaviour is perfectly understandable. Dalinar is an idiot. How much of a. mistake is Shallan's attack on the Ghostbloods going to be? On the one hand, the Ghostbloods had already collaborated with the Fused, so they come across as a possible Fifth Column. On the other, this may not be the time for such s distraction, even apart from the whole them likely leading her and hers into a trap...

Venli can fuel her surges with Voidlight, though, and has been doing so as much as she could during RoW, to avoid detection. It is something that her combination of a voidspren and a Radiant spren in her gemheart allows her to do. Though, I agree that in this scene something else was going on.

He may have had help from Autonomy? Also, he went after Ambition, who _was_ alone as per agreement/suggestion, so his justifications don't hold water either way. Ruin's and Preservation's deaths have nothing to do with Odium, but are the result of their attempt to bind their dangerous powers. Certainly, Ruin freely rampaging through the cosmere would have been much worse - even from Odium's PoV, I imagine. Anyway, about something completely different - I had a thought about Shallan and Co. being about to tap into an obvious Ghostblood trap - maybe Renarin/Rlain would foresee the outcome and stop them in the nick of time? Or otherwise help them to survive it without too much damage?

Colot, a former captain of archers, was one of the earliest Windrunner squire hopefuls who hadn't been Bridgemen. But IIRC we never saw him successfully inhale stormlight, so maybe he just failed to truly become a squire and gave up. Which is why he needed some other position. Or maybe he had been one of Teft's and didn't want to switch to another knight?

Another thing - Renarin should be in position to deduce that Taravangian is the new Odium. He provided the enlightened spren to attract Rodium's attention and his note suggested that he had some vague idea about what T was attempting.

Iyatil's mask is grown into her face, since she is a descendant of people who never remove them.... of course if she has Gold Feruchemy that wouldn't be a problem and actually provide a wonderful disguise when needed. It never made sense to me that someone with such outlandish appearance could have become a successful out-world agent. The 2 new reinforcements wear normal SoScad masks, which can be discarded at will, as far as I understand. Yea, there is no way that they could have come to Roshar in response to Shallan's challenge. They must have been scattered on the planet already and just called in.

Yes, particularly since loophole or no, not freezing the borders was dumb and guaranteed to result in unnecessary bloodshed. IMHO not explicitly including the spren of Honor and Cultivation in the deal was another mistake that will come back to bite them. I am disappointed in Dalinar and particularly in Hoid for missing this. Hoid generally seems to be dropping balls right and left - he didn't even suspect Felt?! He didn't know that Seons can be duplicitous? He didn't explain Scadrian and other cosmeric powers that the Ghostbloods might have to Shallan, when he encouraged her to throw down the gauntlet?! Not only are Lightweavers unlikely to surprise their opponents, but they are probably in a very real danger. Is Shallan on the verge of remembering Mraize from her childhood? I am pretty sure that one of the unnamed Highprinces at the conference is Hatham and his clearly-a-worldhopper and probably a Ghostblood ardent from WoK is with him. What is Colot's deal? Did he fail to become a Windrunner squire? Did he replace Felt as a Ghostblood spy assigned to Dalinar? Oh, and I thought that Sanderson previously said that the first arc of SA would be about the Radiants, while the second one would tell us about the Heralds. I am surprised that Dalinar will have to dive into the latter so soon... Skybreakers are totally attacking Urithiru during the remaining days, right? Sibling saying how safe it was in the earlier chapters practically sealed the deal. I hope that they can be talked down with legal arguments, since the area seems to have been uninhabited before arrival of humans.

Let's not forget that BAM can produce Voidlight. If transported off Roshar, she can provide a steady source of Investiture that doesn't have to be hauled through Shadesmar in gems. Bringing a human-hating spren of Odium into your neighborhood doesn't seem like the safest choice, but Kelsier was always prepared to take risks...

No need - if you want to make an Oathgate inoperable, it is sufficient to dismantle it's physical structure in the Physical. That's what the Fused intended to do with the one in Thaylenah in OB, once they saw that the battle was lost, only they didn't get enough time to do it.

I don't think that we can, since the Ghostbloods were forewarned about the move and could have had them and Hoid under observation. In fact, her brothers are the most logical target, because there are enough of them to both demonstrate that Mraize is serious and still leave a lot of room for escalation, to blackmail her. I mean, his best play is to let Shallan do the hard work of getting the gem from Spiritual Realm and then take BAM off her hands. As an aside - shouldn't Hoid have known that Seons can be deceptive? As to the Lightweavers, I don't think that anyone in Urithiru could be killed without the Sibling becoming aware. I am pretty sure that the wonderful steward with all the bath scents is a Ghostblood agent, though. We also know from WaT publisher book description that Adolin is not yet in immediate danger from the Ghostbloods in Urithiru and from TLM that Shallan won't be able to deal with Iyatil, though she might indeed kill Mraize.

Oh, there absolutely were theories that he might be a Ghostblood. I mean, he conveniently had been a scout while Ghostbloods were looking for Urithiru and trying to prevent anyone else from finding it, then he was suddenly part of the expedition to Shadesmar? And we knew that he had first appeared in MB1? I myself have written at some point that if there wasn't a Ghostblood standing ready for a hand-over once Shallan trapped Kelek, or to take over if she failed, then this whole operation had been unbelievably incompetently planned. And I named Felt as one of the possibilities, IIRC. But as has already been pointed out, there was this WoB that seemed to preclude it. However bizarre the idea of an over 3 centuries old worldhopper deciding to live as a soldier on Roshar without some ulterior motive seemed. No, what all of us have truly missed was the notion that a Seon might be deceptive. I thought that Shallan and Co. leaving Ala behind "because return to PR wouldn't be good for it" was rather contrived, but I now assume that Ala itself convinced them of this. But leaving the dagger behind as well still makes no sense to me... Wouldn't they have wanted to show it to Navani? Unless Felt was just given a second one?