Arkboy

That's because English spelling is better

This was brought up with the Prose version too. There's a lot of back-and-forth about whether they are tied or a coincidence. Personally I tend to think that Brandon being Brandon, things like that are never a coincidence. He wouldn't just HAPPEN to use the name twice.

Completely unrelated to any actual theorising, but I'm now imagining Adolin using all his duelling skills, but now ALSO being able to move around like an Edgedancer while doing it. That'd be NUTS.

The book sorta glosses over it a bit, but it does actually say at the end of oathbringer that Dalinar recharges all the spheres again so that Kaladin can go rescue the bridgemen who escaped Kolinar. The ability for Dalinar to draw forth Stormlight is directly connected to the whole Unity thing, that isn't a normal Bondsmith ability (hence the Stormfather being so surprised). To do that he has to be drawing power directly from the Spiritual Realm. So I'd say that actually he seems to have kept his abilities at the end of the book. (There's also the whole line about 'seeing a second light somewhere in the distance', which I personally think is tied to either Adononalsium directly, or at least is to do with the fact that he is now connected to the Spiritual Realm)

Crack-Pot theory: we here at the 17th Shard are ACTUALLY the 17th Shard. The Shards have been secretly members of the forum this whole time in order to keep tabs on what we know, and so Hoid didn't send physical letters... he just made himself an account and DM'd the Shards on the forum. I r a jenius!

I'm actually pretty sure he mentions toward the end of OB that the voice isn't one he recognises (don't have my copy to hand), so it wouldn't be Honour / Tanavast saying to unite them.

That's a really interesting idea. I don't know that a bunch of Nicrosil mistings could ever produce that amount of power though? A perpendicularity is literally a hole / tunnel being forced through all 3 realms. It takes a tonne of investiture from a shard to create one, and they are beyond any other invested being we know of. Oathbringer spoiler: Brandon has described the Cosmere as a Dwarf Galaxy though, so maybe it isn't as extreme distances to travel between systems anyway.

Well there is already a pretty clear indication of how this type of travel would occur (spoilers for Bands of Mourning)

Definitely! Although I suspect we'd get a RAFO on that one haha

I doubt I can add anything new to this discussion. But while I know it is the crazier option, ever since finishing OB I've been suspecting something more like Option 3. I don't feel that he is becoming a new Adonalsium, but I have a personal theory that he is being influenced by some sort of remnant of it for a greater purpose. The references by Odium 'we killed you' his talking about being Unity, merging 3 realms etc. He hears the voice saying 'Unite them', which forgive me I don't have the evidence this second, but I'm sure Dalinar says he doesn't recognise it. He has heard Tanavast speak in visions, so if it were part of Honour I think he'd recognise. The other big thing for me was at the end, saying to Navani that he can see a 'second light' which is far away. I think that some part of Adonalsium still remains in the spiritual realm and is influencing Dalinar. This is the voice and the light he hears/sees. Possibly this power is still manifesting through shared investiture from the 3 shards, as other ideas have stated, but I think the major influence / drive is coming from this remnant of Adonalsium. We know very little about the Spiritual Realm, and Adonalsium. But given how powerful it would have been pre-shattering, and the inherent knowledge it would have had, I wonder if some part of it would have managed to remain. That it was so strong that it could never be truly destroyed, like it's power could only be shattered, and its greater being or mind remains in the spiritual realm. All speculation, I know, but that's where my mind has been going since the end of OB.

Ah Hahaha, I regret nothing.

Thanks guys! I love cookies

Hi everybody! Long time lurker, finally decided to sign up. Back when I first started reading the Cosmere books and realising that they were all connected (I was going in blind haha), this was the first place I found looking for answers, and it has been a favourite place of mine since. It is a fascinating place for information and piecing together Mr. Sanderson's epic world, and I'm looking forward to more!