marianmi

I think we should wait for a decision until March

He seems old, knowledgeable, looks like a perverted just/confident person, has a different type of shardblade (like Szeth's...) and he might be the person seen by Jasnah (in her chapter) accompanied by another herald, talking about "Ash" getting worse (presumably Shallash). The other person was saying that "creature" (Szeth?) has his lord's (king?) sword (Jezrien's sword, the lord/king of the heralds).

Ok, so the "body" of a shard (the "power") is usually found in a different realm (spiritual) but can be transferred/manifested in the physical realm in different ways. In mistborn, you have: * metal that acts as gateway to the power from the spiritual realm * mists that are physical gas form of the power => fuel * lerasium that is physical solid form of the power => create mistborn * liquid form => "most potent" Now, if we look at the fabrials, the cut and type of a gem attracts a spren, then you need a pattern for the stormlight that determines the thing that the fabrial does. One question here is: does the gemstone has another role besides attracting/imprisoning a spren? We've seen that any person can be picked by spren for a bond, it does not need certain "attributes". Nohadon's comment that "not all spren are as discerning as honourspren" can then be interpreted as honourspren being the only ones "attracted" by certain attributes in a person, and that would not bond with "anyone". They are more "discerning" in the type of person they bond with. (That would make Ym's spren 100% honour, attracted by his good nature and not "assigned" to him). In any case, let's say that the human acts like the gemstone here, the "cut" and "type" of the person "attracting" one way or another a spren. Then you need a pattern for the stormlight ... these patterns being the surges glyphs? We know that the plates and blades have glyphs on them... granting their users additional "powers" probably... New theory: KR's spren "live" in the plate (not a simple plate to start with, but an invested object)... the plate would be like the gemstone in a fabrial, with patterns being the glyphs on the armour (from Navani's notebook we know they are not visible by the eye, Dalinar sees them only when stormlight is filtered through them) but the spren is not captured in the plate, it can leave whenever it wants - like when the KRs dropped their armour in the day of recreance. So without the spren, you have the plate, but it does not act like a fabrial anymore. Next, BS said that highstorms are like the mists. Highstorms, not stormlight... So then one expression of Honour's "body" in the physical realm would be a highstorm... Stormlight would be the "gateway" to the storm, and it would be like the metal in allomancy. New theory: a high storm is a physical manifestation of Honour's "body" (now, Eshonai sister's comment "I have discovered the storm form" gives me the chills...) Of course, there can be different other forms, more solid, of a shard's body. I'm thinking here... shardblades! Or maybe dawnblades? New theory: a shard(dawn?)blade is the physical solid form of a shard's "body" The theory that plates and blades are very different it's old, and I agree with it. It's obvious they are both invested. But I would go further and say that the plate is invested by Cultivation (it grows when you feed it stormlight), while the blades are invested by Honour. Even more, the blades are not only invested by Honour, they ARE Honour. They can be dismissed to the spiritual realm, where the rest of the "power" resides... So here, three new theories...

Edited.

Is Szeth's sword a hem spike?

You cannot steal stormlight from a plate, or from invested things.

Going back to the OP, did no one mentioned the prologue, where the herald was thinking of not going back, and then thinking that those are perilous, dangerous, traitorous thoughts? Obviously not going back all 9 of them were traitors...

It's not clear how they do it. On the battlefield, can they run out? Do they store it somewhere? Szeth thinks that having a plate would interfere with his lashings, at least a plate powered by gemstones. Also, we know that radiants leak stormlight, if they hold it. It looks to me a good idea to fuel the plate this way: all the stormlight "lost" would go into plate and power it... But then, how do they get the stormlight from, being inside the plate?

Bear in mind that we don't actually know exactly what stormlight is... at first look it may be the magic focus... but it may be more than that... I wonder if the black sphere contains some "odium stormlight" that is like lerasium... whoever takes it become a powerful odium warrior ... and that would mean that * we may see some Honor concentrated stormlight to turn one into a Herald * there is not enough "concentrated" Honour left, so the normal stormlight is bits of Honour power... * there is not enough "concentrated" Honour left, but normal stormlight has nothing to do with Honour * .... ? Also, was this theory discussed before? Heralds have all surges. They are like mistborn. KR were formed way later, even as a surprise to Honour. They are just mistings-like, and can access just 2 surges each.

To note is that Honor did not say anything about heralds in Dalinar's vision... just about KR "returning to men the shards they once bore". This would be more like "make men more honourable"... then "they will have honour shards" ... but why aren't the heralds specified? I see them as "tainted" in a way that may be beyond resolve... Let's not forget that BS kind of said Odium is quite invested in Roshar, and we haven't seen anything yet except the Thrill...

To note that "king of heralds" may be technically incorrect... I don't think Jezrien was actually the other herald's king, but I think that before being a herald, Jezrien was a king -- so the title "stuck" after becoming herald. He may have been their king before being herald, and their leader afterwards, but not king. Edit: king requires a kingdom.

Who thinks aimians are of Ado?

That would be something.... poor Syl... The ting is, if Kaladin dies, Syl will be gone too... that's too many "main" characters So an unbounded Dalinar would make more sense... of course, after he translates all the visions to Navani (poor Navani). No matter how you look at it, the Szeth - Kaladin encounter will be damaging. Of course, unless they are interrupted by a voidbringer

Obedience is when you follow something even if you don't believe it. You obey. BS reordered the books (dalinar's was supposed to be book 2, now is book 5) and said that even if dalinar's book is 5, it does not mean that he will survive until then, similar for szeth, his book being #3. Since his book was actually pushed to #3 instead if #4, I think that it's dalinar the one to die. Probably in book 3, szeth's.

Well, I did not vote because we don't know exactly what a bondsmith is But I do think he is going to be order #10, if he is to become a KR. Let's not forget that he might be the one dead before his book, and it would be easier to die if he was not a KR. The fact that he is following the codes does not make him obedient since he will make everyone follow the codes, then they will all be in the same order because they are obedient? ) While he does exhibit many attributes - including just and confident - I see him having conflict both with pious - because of the visions - and guiding - because he wants to relinquish leadership. From others orders, he has conflict with one or none. While it might be that the reason he has not been bonded was the shard blade and not the lack of attributes, it would make a lot of sense to me to be #10. You can pick any soldier to be brave and obedient. Who can you think of being pious and guiding? PS - if an unbonded person thinks earthquake when the earth shakes because of a giant animal, it does not mean he will be a stonewarden.

Obedient? ) Maybe Renarin or Adolin, but not Dalinar. Renarin, would be fun if his weakness has something to do with a spren.

Meg, great post. Thanks. Most of what you are saying make sense. Then, there is something spren have and heralds have, the splinter, since then spren themselves are not splinters. The bond? Who is actually bonded? A human and a spren. Are all spren splinters? I think not. So the bond is with the splinter, not the spren. So the heralds have a different kind of bond with a different kind of splinter. Since splinter spren unbounded lose their wits, is it possible to somehow hamper the heralds bond? Is the splinter spren voluntary or not? I think seons were not voluntary.

Skybreaker? That's even more crazy than wind runner Do you see dalinar lashing and flying?

I don't see as you the nature of their conflict. I see kaladin thinking that protecting means taking care of his own. Then he accepts that protecting is not just about his team, and is ok if they die for a greater good. So in effect, initially he had a wrong idea about protecting/leading. Similarly, Dalinar had a wrong idea about guiding. Guiding is not just trying to convince the other you are right.

Hmmm... Shallan carries a blade and attracted a spren, though it's true she is not using it actively

There is also a different way of investing returned / heralds / sprens / seons ... and each particular way of doing it has its own sides effects. Semantics aside, the idea is that heralds are splinters

Since the shards are invested objects, it would make sense to start like normal objects. So you get a normal set of blade and armour, and start investing them (yourself). Since Kaladin gets better at investing objects after speaking the first ideal (stormlight works better for him), I would say you would need to be at a certain "level" (maybe after last ideal) in order to be capable of investing the shards. This makes a lot of sense to me. I find the gems = batteries idea pretty good. But I can't figure out where the plated KR get their stormlight from. I see them having access to a LOT of stormlight, and leaking it into the plate, which then is powered to do the awesomeness. * But where do they get it from? * And why do the KR plate has glyphs? * And how is the sword "powered" (since it was also glowing)? * And why does the sword need to be powered? What can it do that we haven't seen? A theory is that, using the KR's spren and the glyphs, the plate actually is the one that has a permanent connection to the power source (power from another realm). Then the KR draws stormlight from the plate, and not the other way around.

His arm was in armour, thus immune to surges.

I think the Return is the splinter, divine breath being the shard "power" he's invested with. But he might have referred several times the splinter's "power" and the splinter with the same word. So you might end up saying that heralds are splinters or "contain" splinters ... and mean the same thing. I don't know if anyone talked about the similarities between Nightblood and shards - Nighblood can destroy stone (turn it to smoke), and a scratch will kill the person.

"As the Radiant charges to attack the Thunderclast Dalinar turns and helps a man up to back away from the beast, the man then talks in a voice he recognizes from his vision saying that the radiants were a surprise to him that the spren had formed in a way similar to the way he himself, (the Almighty,) had formed the Heralds. He then continues and tells Dalinar that it is to reform the Radiants that the Almighty has been showing him these visions."