Cayden

I am expecting this as well to be honest, it would be wrong to be for Kaladin to suddenly pick up a sword. We have seen the textev of people consistantly saying how incredible he is with a spear, so why would he suddenly swap to a sword, something he isnt trained to fight. No I think him gaining a shardspear will be one step closer to showing that darkeyes are not beneath the lighteyes. Afterall a sword is a lighteyes weapon and darkeyed soldiers arent allowed to wield them. I expect him to gain something similar to the Ashandarei, but a lot cooler.

Im not sure how anyone could get into Dalinar's room, with him asleep there without him knowing. He is a soldier and likely a very alert one after everything that has happened. During a highstorm then yeah he is distracted enough to not notice but for someone to sneak in and write on his wall and then sneak out? Just cant see how its possible for a flesh and blood being to do it. My guess is that it is Odium or Cultivation or a spren. Personally im curious to see whether this is the first act of communication from Dalinar's spren, but it doesnt quite fit right in my mind. Thus I think it is Odium, remember Tanavast told Dalinar that he does follow certain rules. Ever wondered why the heralds are called heralds? I think part of the agreement between Odium and Honor is forewarning of a Desolation. Something alone the lines of: Heralds show up and they have say 90 days before the desolation kicks off. But as the Heralds kinda bailed then maybe Cultivation stepped in and gave a subtle warning.

Highstorm's provide water which has an abundance of minerals, it could well be that by living in a land of fertility they are actually losing out on the minerals which their altered human bodies require to grow and function at 100% Remember that the shards don't just terraform planets to make them fit for habitation, they are able to modify the population as and when required as well.

I think if anything it would be spren related, we know little about them but what we do know is that they can travel far and see much further than we do. If they can communicate with each other freely then it adds an additional layer, if they could break off a small piece of themselves without damaging themselves is another option. Think of a sentient span-reed. Myself I think it is more likely the sprens heightened senses and how far it can see, hear and sense. Think about Syl while Bridge 4 were walking away from Dalinar's forces after Sadeas' betrayal. She could see and feel it, the deaths and the pain, even though the humans could only see the outline of the battle from that distance.

The question in my mind is simple. How do the KR operated Fabrials differ from those that the modern humans use. Does it enslave the spren? or does it kill them and use the trace essence? I can imagine that being part of the reason why they are so hesitant to trust humans. But what if the KR had to fight one and another, different orders linked to different kingdoms? would the spren be forced to fight and kill each other? does a spren die when its Knight dies? I cant see the betrayal being anything to do with the Oathpact or Tanavast. The Oathpact because I doubt the Heralds were bonded to spren, so it would not effect them the same way as the Recreance would. And Tanavast well because him dying wouldnt have been a betrayal. Options to me = Recreance, Fabrials or Spren being forced to fight Spren. I think the reason why there is evidence that the former Knights Radiants left and went to Shinovar is because there are no spren there. I think that was very deliberate, they went to a place of Cultivation rather than Honor, to be away from the spren.

Judging by that, Odiums Champion will be Szeth, Dalinar, Shallan or Kaladin. Now there are strong cases for Szeth or Shallan. Szeth being that he will do what he finds distasteful for his own honor. (if the honorable thing to do would be to be Odiums champion rather than the world dying outright he would do it, but that said I think any of them would.) Shallan has a history of falsehood and murder as well, but she seems to obvious to me as well. I think it will be Kaladin or Dalinar. Most likely Kaladin because I think Odium already has his hooks set in regarding his hatred of lighteyes, but that might not be much different than a certain ear-ring that Vin wore.

I expect Shallans to be something different, likely linked to her memory or blinks, but so far we havent seen her take a memory of a gemstone. I wonder what will happen at the Shattered Plains if she takes an imprint of a Gemheart? would it be drained of stormlight?

Could they be waiting at the end for Dalinar to show up? from the Eshonai PoV's we've seen so far, she wants to talk to him, but whether they would all stay or not is another matter. But yeah I think they are going to develop another form, maybe from deathspren, if the Alethi start really destroying them.

We know so little about the shards really though, for all we know it could be almost Highlander like, and that every time you defeat a shard you gain from it, even if it is only a little. Myself, I dont think raw power matters very much at all when it comes to these sort of beings and based on what ive read I think that Odiums true power is that it is Hatred and inspires Hatred. It doesnt want to conquer or bend you to its will, it just wants you dead and gone. Ruin wanted similar, but he was more interested in an "death by attrition." sort of destruction. Odium seems less bothered by anything even resembling that and more bothered with death and destruction. Its his mindset which is the danger to other shards. Harmony might be able to stop him with raw power, but it might not. Intent pays a very big part and Odium seems fond of destroying shards by using their own Intent against them. i.e Breaking Honor by making his champions sacrifice one of their own. And finally. Harmony is heavily invested in Scadrial, both Ruin and Preservation invested large parts of themselves in creating life, uniting both the shards would not boost them back up to 100%. Odium from what we know has little to no investiture anywhere, well not enough to make it count. Say that creating a world with life drops you by 40-50% power, then Harmony would be at 100-120% of power, so he might be stronger, but it wont be on a x2 basis. (Myself I think Harmony is probably 30-40% more powerful than Odium) But power alone does not make dictate victory or decide the nature of battle.

I sorta thought that the letter to an unknown entity was from Hoid to Sazed, asking him to intervene against Odium, this is quite a common theory about it at any rate but it makes sense.

I dont think your quite on the money here. Syl told Kaladin that she has helped men fight before, which strongly implied that she was once joined with a Knights Radiant. I think it likely is down to the bond though, but I think it is more of a symbiotic relationship between human and spren which allows them to create the plate and blade.

We dont really know how they were tortured, there are many ways and pain is one of the least successful if prolonged. Imagine thousands upon thousands of years of pain stimulated torture. It would most likely have diminishing returns. Odium was trying to break them and make them like himself. I imagine something more akin to Dean in Supernatural if you've watched that then you'll know what I mean. But its essentially a "torture someone else for us and we'll leave you alone." maybe they were worried that they couldnt hold out. Either way by abandoning the Oathpact then they were indeed corrupted by Odium because he broke them. Maybe this is why the people of Roshar have become as dark as they are. But that might not be the case at all. In the Nohadon flashback, he talks about a king who started loads of wars before the desolation, so maybe Odium has always had a hand in the pie. I sometimes wonder whether these were the original Heralds as well, if they arent, then it could be that Odiums lieutenants were previously heralds who were broken and twisted and if the Heralds knew they couldnt hold out much longer, and Honor could not create any new Heralds then they might have realised that they had no choice but to abandon it without dying.

Modern plate is all used by non-surgebinders, which is why they presumably have to power it using a lot of gemstones, could well be that originally the glyphs and such acted almost like a solar battery and absorbed the stormlight directly, thus giving the Radiants themselves a suit of armor which fed them with a certain amount of stormlight. It makes sense to me that the more of the words you have said, the better stormlight works for you, the more energy you get out of every bit of stormlight. But even so, the Radiants might struggle a bit to go into battle and then think... "Ooops I forgot my money bag... can someone lend me a ruby please?" No I think Plate worked completely differently before and that it was more like Shardblades, it was summoned rather than placed on and that the Radiants likely charged it up via shadesmar or from Highstorms themselves. Though it might well be that Honor empowered them directly due to their connection with it. Maybe that is part of the reason they abandoned the plate and blades? when Honor died they might have lost the natural empowerment and decided that they had been forsaken by the almighty? So much we dont know yet, but I for one am eager to find out.

“All is withdrawn for me. I stand against the one who saved my life. I protect the one who killed my promises. I raise my hand. The storm responds.” Sounds more like Shallan and Jasnah to me, it has her wording and introspectiveness about it. And it makes me think about Jasnah calling lightning on those two thugs as she raises her hand and kills them from a distance. The question is, who killed her promises? something to do with her siding against Jasnah to protect her family perhaps? thats the only thing I can think of, because they are linked to the Ghostbloods and she has promised to be loyal and faithful to Jasnah.

Im not sure if I agree that the gods are the Radiants, Heralds I could understand, same as Odium, but the Radiants? doesnt quite fit as well. But bear in mind we're pretty sure to an extent that the Heralds have been doing a certain degree of manipulating, there were several of them at the peace treaties signing. Its possible that they know that Odium would return if certain criteria were met. Im not sure if surgebinding or the Knights Radiant would be enough to spark that off, but we know so little about what was happening before the assassination. Galivar could have done so many things to spark it off. Also regarding Kaladin, I think the reason they were so amazed is that there legends likely speak of surgebinding as well as their own version of it, I think that might be what Stormform allows. It would kinda like hearing tales from the Bible all your life, then seeing someone walk on water after he's finished giving you and your army a pounding.

It actually makes a great deal of sense for Urithiru to have been in Aimia. You cant get to it on foot as you would need to take a boat, or an Oathgate. When the King says he walked there I think it is a pilgrimage where they literally walk a set path and then catch a boat across the sea, whilst others could use an Oathgate to transport. I think the Shattered Plains is the site of the place where the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact, the Heralds in the prologue make it seem like there was devastation far beyond what is normal for a desolation, maybe the reason the Parshendi have Herald like glyphs is because they found it and are thankful to the Heralds for stopping the Desolations.

Myself I always thought that the reason why his blade changes his eye colour was because it was an uncorrupted blade, we havent seen any Darkeyes hold another blade yet, but the darkeyed legends state that the shardblade turns them into a lighteyes. It might well mean that once long ago it truly changed the colour but they became more and more corrupted by dishonourable use. Up until I saw the new quote I had presumed that when the KR went away they hid a small quantity of shards with the Shin and kept a select few to be surgebinders. But this also brings in a new facet; Szeth became truthless around the same time as Galivar was murdered, what if Galivars activity on the Shattered plains, the ones which started the Death Speaches and the Highstorm Visions also brought out Szeths ability to surgebind and that is why he was branded as truthless? If the Shin leadership had the same view of things as the Parshendi, then they would want to put a stop to it. Could they be trying to make him do evil acts to break his honor? or to corrupt the blade?

Okay ive had the audiobook of WoK running, and a few things ive noticed on this re-read/listen. Everyone says how Galivar became very strange towards the end, and how Dalinar is going the same way. Just before and during the first Plateau run you see Dalinar go on, the one Sadeas joins him on have 2 key points which have made me think. Dalinar remembers a conversation with Galivar mere days before he was assasinated where he told Dalinar that everything has changed now. and during the assault Dalinar see's windspren and hears a fragment of "the words" So its probably safe to assume that Galivar might well have been further along the path towards being a KR than Dalinar is, My speculation: what if you are not allowed to specifically tell someone the words and that you have to find them within yourself, and that is what dictates which branch you fall into, because only the first two lines are for all Radiants? If this is the case, then Galivar might well have bound a spren and already said some of the words, from what Dalinar remembers he was excited and everyone thought he had changed, even more so just before he died. So if he could not outright state what the words were, then his message for Dalinar to find the most important words a man can say might well have been designed to lead him on the path of the radiants. Also, if he had told the Parshendi or if they had noticed, and if he told them about his plans to turn the Alethi back into the Silver Kingdoms, then they would rightly fear that Odium would resurface, Galivar was trying to stop the wars, Odium left humanity alone because they were corrupting and destroying themselves. If Galivar's plan to stop that had worked then the Parshendi whom most likely kept a far better record of the past and likely understood Odium to a far higher degree might have been right to fear his plans. And this to me seems to be the sort of thing which a King might well tell his new guests, in part to placate them. "See you dont need to fear us, im trying to turn us into the shining beacon of honor we once were..." Hours later he was murdered...

I have been wondering about this for a while and I am one of the ones who think that Tanavast died before the Recreance, I think it was centuries myself but then again I think he died when the Heralds abandoned the Oath-Pact as I think that left him open to Odium's attack because it was the agreement that kept balance between Odium and Honor as hinted by when Tanavast says Odium can be made to choose a champion and he does follow certain rules. But yes, I dont actually think that the Radiants were corrupted directly at all, or even the blades. I think it was the humans they were protecting and aiding that were being corrupted and because they were being forced into pointless wars, being forced to fight fellow Radiants, friends and people they care about, or having to kill helpless mortals. It would be enough to turn any honourable mans stomach, think about how Dalinar feels during some of the scenes when the thrill isnt overpowering his senses. I think they finally got to the point where they were sick of fighting, sick of protecting people who were abusing their protection and sick of having to dirty themselves. So they gave the people their blades and plate in the hope that they would realise what they had just been forcing the Radiants to do... I dont personally think it worked, as the people who got those shards were already tainted by Odium, because they did not have a spren to guide and assist them. And this I think is the key point, most soldiers were being tainted slowly but surely, the entire idea around Lighteyes was corrupted and without Honor alive, without Radiants to guide people then it was no longer possible for people to learn to surgebind. Until you find someone who has the natural spark inside of them and the mindset combined with perfect timing for them to attract a Spren. and Finally I think Galivar's death and the onset of the final Desolation has brought about changes to the world, the final splinters of Honor's consciousness have saved themselves to give the final bit of aid they are capable of to guide those few who are capable of it to take up the mantle. Roll on WoR!

Its all tied to this principle of "it is better that one man must suffer than ten.." similar thoughts are quoted repeatedly by Kaladins father, ill have to re-read and find the exact ones at some point but I think it is something significant and tied to Honor. As for why? I think that the Oathpact was a way for Odium to use their own sense of Honor against them to break them. "I will leave the world alone between desolations, but you must be tormented during the times between, do you believe in protecting people enough to suffer for them?" I also think it also bound Odiums power in some way to stop him from using the full extent of his power.

You could well be right, ive been wondering about the day of recreance myself and trying to puzzle out whether Honor died around that time or not, events wise it would make most sense for Honor to die on the day that the Oathpact ended or the day or Recreance, however thats assuming that we arent over-thinking things. The Shards themselves might not have been corrupted while in the KR's hands, but while they served mortal man all Odium would need to do would be to corrupt the High Princes, which would lead to KR being pitted against Man or other KR... and with the failure of the Knights Radiant then the last developed remnant of Honor on Roshar died, add centuries of those weapons being used for evil purposes and they could well be tainted. Remember though that The Kadra, Koloss and Inquisitors were created using Hemalurgy which was the power of Ruin, I doubt Honor would make the same mistake in creating weapons for the Knights Radiant out of Odiums power. Unless that was part of the pact between Odium and Honor.

I think that if Odium were to create a Blade then it would be those ones which are being created by those secret orders. i.e the Ghostbloods. I cant see him wanting to invest any of his power into something if he can get humans to do it of their own free will. Its probably likely that these are ones which enslave spren or sacrifice them in some ways to create the blade, therefore using Spren which I think are a creation of Honor/Cultivation to give the blades their juice. With Honorblades and standard Shardblades as the other two, Honorblades being highly invested pieces of equipment whilst normal Shardblades are somehow linked towards the old Nahel bond. It wouldnt surprise me if a fully bonded Human-Spren could somehow draw forth a full suit of plate and a blade via some advanced form of soulcasting. I think that each of them were originally created unique and that when the KT ended their service that those shardplate/blades were then left in limbo because no one was left to soulcast them and their wielders into another form. Even though Spren dont remember things there has to be some lingering memories of things which they hate. Odiums name, shardblades and such, things which to them are abominations. Thats assuming that Shardblades are not being twisted by Odium into being some sort of Frostmourne style weapons which steal the essence of the soul as it destroys it, with every soul it kills increasing the blood lust of the wielder. (The Thrill)

When did Syl first link up with Kaladin? would it happen that she was the spren in this part of the novel? This was when he was still part of Amarams army shortly before the battle where he killed the Shardbearer.

Could well be, or perhaps there is something genetic about surgebinding, but that most of the people who did it went to Shinovar. Though im pretty sure we are missing something about surgebinding. Do you have to have a spren to use it at all? or do you just need one to be able to unlock it fully? Unless people are correct and he really does hold an Honorblade, if thats the case simply being bound to one of them should be enough to empower a person..

I have thinking about why Szeth became Truthless, why he believes that the Voidbringers are real and why that would be such a terrible thing for a shin and I think that I might have found a reason for that. Shinovar is as far as we know the only area of Roshar which is teraformed to be earth-like, which makes it very likely that it is the one place on Roshar most directly linked to Cultivation. It would make sense therefore for them to see Cultivation or an aspect of Cultivation as their God. When the Knights Radiants abandoned their shards they all left, in a sense they forsook any ties to Honor and I think that they went to Shinovar because of its link to Cultivation and because it is a far more pacifistic society. They had realised that if they followed the course of Honor without a great enemy then their honor would eventually be corrupted because the only opponent left for them would be man. I think that they convinced themselves that the Voidbringers would never return and that some of them began to believe they never existed in the first place and that over the generations it became anathema to believe in Honor, because if you followed Honor then you believed in the Voidbringers and by doing that you are essentially pointing out to the rest of Shin culture that you think their ancestors abandoned humanity against its great enemy. If this is all true then it actually makes a great deal of sense how Szeth is treated. Truthless would essentially mean that he lacks the Truths that their fore-fathers founded millennia before and the reason they gave him the Blade and trained him in Surgebinding is so that he will know how the KR felt when they were forced to kill humans because they followed Honor. Szeth follows Honor to the extent that he is allowing himself to be used as a tool of slaughter just as the Knights Radients were. They are trying to make him forsake it so that they can parade around a perfect example of why they are right and so they can reinforce their peoples beliefs in their ancestors decision. I am beginning to wonder if there will be some sort of parallel between Szeth and TenSoon or whether Szeth will eventually be corrupted by Odium because he follows his course of Honor to the bitter end.