Cayden

males you wonder if their are voidspren, and if they can bond with a parshman. However the fact that bonding a spren allows them to grow their own armor, might give credence that shardplate and shardblade can be formed if you have bonded a spren and are a surgebinder

I think Dalinar had the right idea myself Dalinar was trying to act like Nohadon the wise to unite Alethkar and it wasnt working, when he needed to be Mr Big Bad No Name who slapped everyone silly and forced them to follow his morals. Though in truth it matters little whether it was him or not, it had the needed effect on Dalinar. For all we know that could have been a common philosophical phrase that Nohadon decided to add to his book. But I think it was him because Nohadon was one of Dalinars idols, for him to realise that his idol didnt unite through peace... well that is quite the revelation for him.

Encased in Odium it might :-)

It all depends on whether the planet was bare before Cultivation found it or not. or were there lifeforms there first... If the planet was bare, then its likely all connected if not, some might be totally natural.

I find the time jumps in Frank Herberts Dune series to fit nicely, but thats because it would be impossible to cover that amount of time without having some big time outs ;-) First 3 books are pretty much back to back. except a 12 year gap between 1 and 2. then you have 3500 years for book 4, then another 1500 for book 5. If you havent read them its definately worth a shot, Dune is basically to Sci-Fi novels as LoTR was to fantasy. And if you've read WoT see if you see the connection between some of the groups in it ;-) Aiel vs Fremen, Aes Sedai vs Bene Geserit. Mat vs Duncan Idaho etc.

Pretty sure Szeth says it does at the start. Gah still waiting for my mate to finish reading my copy.

I think the biggest problem most of the great authors make is when they change their minds half way through. GRRM planned for it to be a trilogy with a time jump then changed his mind.. without working out beforehand where it was going to go and how. As for WoT that wasnt originally planned to be anywhere near so long but it got out of control and just kept getting longer without making progress. BS knows he wants it to be 10 books long and knew it from the start. If you go into it knowing exactly what you want and stick to it, then it tends to be better than changing your mind part way through which can cause a lose of direction. Personally I enjoy GRRM and RJ's WoT but there are massive sections which you can skip without it having any impact on the story.

Hmm, makes you wonder if one of the Heralds rules in Shinovar, They might see something very wrong about him being able to surgebind without a Spren and because of that damned him as Truthless? Edit: Assuming that is, that the Heralds might be able to surgebind without a spren and hate him for it as it might remind them or bad times.

I think it all depends on why Szeth is truthless. is he truthless because he can surgebind or is it seperate? If his culture is based upon that of an old KR belief then the mere fact that he can surgebind might not be a good thing to those whose ancestors abandoned the ways. Perhaps that was enough for them to brand him Truthless, because in a sense it is a weapon and he has wielded it. If he was branded as such because he can surgebind then meeting Kaladin is going to be an interesting experience for him, even more so if Kaladin can train some more of his lads to do similar. Admittedly he'd have to pull Lopen away from the ladies while they told him they'd like him to kiss him 'cause he glows.... But yeah I cannot wait for it myself and it makes me wonder whether this will be when Dalinar's abilities will reveal themselves. Afterall we only know a couple of the KR abilities, could be something quite epic.

I've been thinking about this recently, and almost everyone seems to be convinced it is something evil or dangerous. It started to make me wonder what it could be and whether it was a red-herring. At first thoughts I wondered if it was to do with the Midnight Essences, or something which can control Parshmen or awaken them. But there might be another option; Honor has been shattered, If I were Odium then I would want to make it almost impossible to reforge. But for all we know he cannot remove those pieces from Roshar, so its possible that the shards are all on Roshar and not elsewhere in the cosmere, infact I think its probable. So my real questions are; 1) Is the Black Sphere glowing from within because it holds a piece of Honor? 2) Do the Parshendi have one of these?

Its easier to keep information alive when 9 out of 10 people arent being exterminated by Desolations. Vorinism came afterwards. Probably from just after the Oathpact was broken. Could be they tried before but remember during the desolations, man was fairly primitive. Truth is we dont know how big a gap there was between each. Could be that this 4,500 gap is normal. From what we see in Dalinar's visions, mankind went from pretty much Stone/Bronze age to Early Medieval. But it could be that the reason humans on roshar didnt excel was that everytime they made progress they were all but wiped out and sent back to barebones.

The only references about the plate is from Dalinar's visions of the radiants. Where he comments about it glowing, the glyphs and the helms appearing/dissapearing at a glance. These are all oddities to him which is why they stood out so much. Im still of the mindset that the 5th Oath of the Radiants endows them with the Plate/Blade, in a similar fashion to the Heralds Oaths being tied to their Honor Blades. By Discarding their Blades they ended the Pact. The Heralds did this, as did the Radiants. So there has to be a greater meaning to it. My reasoning for this is that I dont think Shardblades are not from the physical realm. I think they are from Shadesmar, and that to an extent so is Shardplate, except that the Plate remain in the physical realm if it is not linked with someone who can surgebind to feed it Stormlight.

I dont think the plate is really that specific. The puffs of stormlight coming from the plate is most likely, the plate abosorbing the impact of the drop and repairing/strengthening it to make sure there is no lingering damage. Windrunning/Lashing's alter the gravity itself, the plate absorbs the impact which would shatter the legs of a normal man. The Plate gives greater strength, speed and suprisingly good dexterity for what is in all intensive purposes a battlesuit which ways 100 stone weights. Probably as much as if you were wearing nothing at all. Assuming however that it is not damaged too far. I think that the main problems with Surgebinding and wearing plate is that no one has grown their own set of plate since the Radiants abdicated. I am pretty sure that someone else's plate cannot work as well as one that is the byproduct of the union between surgebinder and spren. My reasons for thinking this come from Dalinar's visions. The Radiants in those can remove their helms with a thought and replace them the same way.. Just like Shardblades, but unlike Shardblades, Plate requires Stormlight to function so that the current variants around use infused gemstones places inside the chest piece, and because of this it is not attached to its wielder and cannot allow surgebinding through it.

I've seen a few people speculate that the Highstorms are of Honor or Odium. But I dont see how this fits for several reasons. Rainwater which comes from a Highstorm is more nutritious than normal water. And then theres Stormlight which comes from Highstorms. To me this reaks of Cultivation more than Honor or Odium. From everything we've seen so far is that the Highstorms have been becoming more and more powerful and destructive, which is most likely Odium's influence on the Highstorms, but that still does not stop the Cultivational aspect of the Highstorms, But could it be this which aids in triggering not only the Near Death visions, but the Highstorm Visions, and could very well have a great deal to do with the upsurge of spren consciousness and surgebinding. I wonder how long ago Jasnah began to soulcast, or Elohkar started getting so paronoid about the symbol headed and twisted creatures, could it be at the same time which Syl started following Kaladin? The first hint about Syl I could see in Kaladins past was just as he prepared for the battle inwhich he was about to face the enemy shardbearer. a Spren stuck something to him, cant remember exactly what as my book is currently on loan. But if thats the case it shows the gradual progression inwchich the spren gains in consciousness.

My take on it is that Shardblade and Plate are an endowment of the bond between Surgebinder and Spren. That they have to be earned to function properly, and they have to be used with Honor or they can be corrupted by Odium. If this is the case then Syl would not like anyone having a Shardblade who has not earnt it, who hasnt said all of the oaths, but more importantly they are meant to be used to defend humanity and no to our knowledge Shardblade currently in existence is pure. They have all been used by men to kill other men. I am curious to see when Kaladin says the fifth Oath whether he is endowed with plate and Blade of his own. The real question is whether he gets a Sword. or whether he gets something similar to Mat(WoT)'s Ashandarei. Namedly a Staff with a blade on the tip.

I think the Parshendi have been modified somehow, most likely by a Herald or two. They apparently embellish some of their weapons with figures in plate, which is likely a Herald. So yes I think they are of honor to a degree, perhaps to the same degree as the Alethi. To me there are many reasons why they would want to kill Galivar, I think there are some deep dark secrets about that man which have not been uncovered. But more than that, by The Parshendi sparking off a war they show in a way that Parshmen can be dangerous. You would really think that people other than Jasnah have seen the relationship. It doesnt matter if the Parshmen are the Voidbringers or not, the fact that one group is capable of violence should show that Parshmen are as well. I think the Parshmen are the creations of Cultivation, and because of that, they can be cultivated further, whether by Honor or Odium. When Honor and Cultivation merge in them you get the Parshendi... When Cultivation and Odium merge.. you get Odiums foot soldiers known as the Voidbringers. Perfect Warriors who allow Hatred to fill them completely.

Could the deeper meaning of what Tanavast is telling whomever is listening to Unite the shards of Honor? My reasoning for this is simple really, uniting the Alethi or the Knights Radient, or all of humankind on Roshar, would not be enough to beat Odium, I would be surprised if it would be enough to hold him at bay for long. But if Honor could be reforged then there would be a hope.

Hmm That is possible, I think it was Kabsal who said that the Dawnshards were a kind of spren which helped mankind when they were first exiled from the Tranquilline Halls, It could be possible that they didnt fade until Tanavast died or that they are still around just choosing not to show themselves. Im not so sure whether Surgebinders are limited as much as the power that created them is on the bench waiting for the Desolation or a Coach to teach them. From everything we have seen, Surgebinding ceased when the Knights Radiant abdicated. So they no longer trained others in how to do it, so it died away, and with Odium sitting on the bench watching the grass on the pitch grow, there was no need for surgebinding to get off its own bench and ruin the grass.

I think that it has something to do with the symbiotic relationship between a surgebinder and his/her Spren. The tighter the bond between them, the greater the effect of said surgebinding. Take Shallan and the Truthspren... The greater the secret the stronger the bond. So maybe honorspren are similar, the stronger the oath the stronger the bond. And the Bond's strength gives a greater ability to surgebind. As for Szeth, I think his powers are somehow due to Cultivation and Shinovar.