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Suppose you start with a normal, human mind. Then a bunch of ants find a way to break up that "mind" into 16 pieces representing different aspects of it, and graft it onto themselves. So one Shard of that mind represents a human's drive to love, one captures their capacity for growth, one represents their sense of fairness, etc. The ants, having weak ant minds, are pretty quickly influenced by the Shard they hold, and soon become single-mindedly driven by their Shard's intent. And then the ants wonder - how could the original mind have even functioned, pulled in 16 separate directions by these 16 powerful Intents? Or would they have combined into one overarching intent? ...the answer, of course, is that when you had all the parts together, you had a normal, functioning mind, which balanced all of those at the same time, and it wasn't even particularly hard. It just worked. People have competing drives all the time, and part of normal day-to-day consciousness is realizing "hey I want this and that and I feel this and that, but THIS is the one of those feelings/desires that takes priority/is important right now, and this is one that I shouldn't act on at all". (Though god, on some days, it sure is hard to balance the part of my mind that needs to Work with the part of my mind that wants to play Videogames!) That's how I think of the relation between Adonalsium and the Shards/Shardholders. With humans as the ants in the above analogy, and Adonasium as the one mind. When all the shards were together, they formed one mind - and yes, that mind would incorporate some hatred (Odium) and some drive for destruction (Ruin), but also a drive for fairness (Honor) and growth and change (Cultivation) and so on and so forth. It's the breaking up of that mind into individual Shards which was unnatural, and created these strange single-minded "intents".

Oof. These are super interesting questions. I think you're onto something, but i just don't know what. Really gets at the question of what was kelsier doing. We know he wanted to survive and make himself a body - he did that. We know that he went and helped the southern scadrians survive - maybe out of the goodness of his heart, or maybe because he wanted to lead a religion for some purpose of his. But what could he want? I like the theory that the "fake" bands were also significant, as are the various other bits of metal around the temple.

I'd go with c, here. We've seen in other books that metals are special. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell : Warbreaker: Stormlight Archive books 1-3: And theres even some common themes - Aluminum "resisting" investiture in some form or another keeps coming up. So I think it's (c). What aluminum does when burned is related to what it is, and those properties are more fundamental than Preservation's meddling with the design of Allomancy.

It's confusing because Brandon's gone back and forth on it. The possible explanations are resonance (in which case only someone with the same pair of powers could do it), savantism (in which case any coinshot could do it but at some cost) and just skill (in which case any coinshot could do it). Brandon has gone back and forth on how much "savantism" can contribute here and isn't quite happy with how it turned out, which is why the WoBs are inconclusive and the text is too.

I think at the very least we'll learn what a dawnshard is. Right now... it might be a sword, it might be a spren, it might be a fabrial, who even knows. All we know is that they're powerful.

Probably because the ship was ready to leave, as he said, but Kaladin hadn't returned yet. Pretty simple inference that something was keeping him. He walked! The ship was in Hearthstone, he didn't need to go far.

Huh. I actually don't think that this ending will be particularly more defeatist than the others. Brandon typically ends things with "Victory... ...and now you have to deal with the consequences." or "Victory... ...but turns out that was just the easy part." Spoilers for Mistborn And of course here in Stormlight Archive, every book the "heroes" win but seem to be worse off every time, because the stakes get raised. TWoK: Kaladin successfully got out of the bridge crews and saved Dalinar, who now realizes Sadeas is his enemy and Kal is a good ally. Shallan has actually figured things out with Jasnah. ...but all these bits of interpersonal progress seem insignificant compared to the fact the Parshendi are still out there, oh and they're the voidbringers, oh and Dalinar's lost a big fraction of his army. Both Kaladin and Shallan "won", but they've got bigger tasks facing them. WoR: They find Urithiru. Beat the Assassin in white, and "win" the battle against the Parshendi. The Everstorm appears and the Desolation actually starts. Good guys "won" but are somehow in more danger than ever before. Oathbringer - the big "victory" was saving Thaylen City. Alethkar's overrun, half of Roshar (including human kingdoms, and the one order of radiants that actually has a bunch of members) is with Odium, but sure, Thaylen City's not taken (though it's mostly destroyed anyway.) Same deal as before - they "won" but Odium's guys won more. So I kind of expect a similar thing here. I don't think it'll be an actual "downer" ending, I think it'll end on a big "Hell yeah" moment - but I do expect that somehow at the end of it, the challenges in front of our heroes are going to be even bigger than they are right now.

I love how in chapter 8,

Yep, that's exactly what happened, brass/zinc/aluminum effects of fabrials make so much sense.

Inability to push on metals in somebody is a matter of strength that got misinterpreted into a categorical statement by early allomancers. It's HARDER to push on something already invested, or on something within another person. The relative level of difficulty is high enough that, like piercing copperclouds, it was assumed to be impossible. It never was, though. The only thing needed to pierce a regular mistborn's coppercloud was a hemalurgic spike on a mistborn. Duralumin would have also done the job. Same with pushes. You also see that in Vin's battle with The Lord Ruler in TFE. Vin feels like TLR is pushing on the metals inside her body, and that's because he actually is. So a powerful mistborn like Vin, burning all she's got with Duralumin, was enough to push on metals inside the inquisitors. Yes, a sufficiently powerful mistborn (Lerasium mistborn, powered up by hemalurgic spikes, and burning duralumin) might be able to just kill someone by ripping apart the metals in their body. I don't know how much power that would take (or maybe it would take enough strength that it's still impossible, there's nobody that could!) but in principle it's possible, just takes a LOT of power.

Yeah, I think in future books we'll encounter more of Kelsier and his legacy in the south, and we'll find out more about what he was up to. Then Hoid's (and Kelsier's) actions might make more sense.

This would make a lot of sense. If Adolin and Shallan survive book 5, definitely expect their kids to play a part in the back 5.

I think we can definitely expect Hoid to show up in the ending. I think we should expect *some* of the characters we know and/or love to find either immortality or time-dilation and end up in the ending, but not all. Right now we've got a mix of major and minor characters from various series that fit the bill, but there's still plenty of time for either more to come around or for those to die.

I think I agree with the OP - but not because I think the fused dueling is necessarily a trick or tactically advantageous for them. I just don't think that "dueling" instead of "fighting" is necessarily more honorable. This is a war, not a game. The Fused are still trying to kill radiants and win this war. They seem to prefer fighting 1v1, and because at the moment the radiants believe that's tactically advantageous for them, they accept. But that only is more "honorable" if you accept the terms that the goal here is to have a fair contest of skill, instead of a fight for survival. It could be honorable if they really were just duels. No war, fused and radiants get to challenge each other for stakes of their choosing. Sure, then it would be "honorable" to have a fair 1v1 fight and "dishonorable" to do otherwise. But as it stands right now, here's nothing "honorable" about an immortal reincarnating fused having duels to the death with very mortal radiants, with the threat of destroying everyone the radiants know and love if they don't accept those terms.

He could also do better once he has Plate, which seems to augment strength/agility.

Well, at one point Brandon did refer to "Fabrials" as a "magic system" (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/4/#e5153), on par with surgebinding and voidbinding. So based on this, it's certainly possible that "fabrials" in general could have as much power and variety as all the orders of the knights radiant combined. It's just that it's a magic system that requires precise construction and knowledge rather than swearing oaths and bonding spren. And it's a magic system that, so far has been very little explored - we knew of "Spanreeds" and "Soulcasters" but now we're starting to get deeper into the weeds and seeing some of the depth of the magic system that we haven't before.

I think right now, both will want to win the war and stop the Desolation more than they'll want an heir.

Jasnah probably already has. We haven't seen any of her oaths on-screen. One day we'll learn that she's already sworn five and we'll go "huh, when???" I think Shallan definitely will. In her first viewpoint we're already getting hints that there's one more bigger truth for her to say, so I'm assuming that plot will be resolved in one book, so she'll say her last oath and get her Plate. I'd have to say I'm the most confident about this one. Kaladin... I'd say 75-25. He's clearly butted up against that fourth oath in Oathbringer and couldn't do it. One way for his character to grow is for him to work through his issues and say that fourth oath - maybe via the storyline with him and his father. This would be a pretty natural way forward for the plot and for Kal. But another way forward would be for him to realize he can't say that Oath, that he could never live by it, and either accepting that or at least working with it for now. That would be a way for Brandon to emphasize that these oaths are a big deal, people can't just read off a script, one oath two oath three oath yehaaw more power, they have to actually be able to willing by some pretty restrictive principles and not everybody's cut out for all of them. And that Kaladin could still be awesome even without as many oaths. Both those paths could be developed into amazing plots for Kal and I'm looking forward to which way they go. I think if Kaladin does not say the oath, then some other Windrunner will, and Teft would be a good candidate there. (Alternatively, there could be a plot where Teft gets his plate *first*, and that's part of what helps Kaladin get over the line.) Dalinar is hard for me to judge anything about because of how his plotlines came to a conclusion in Oathbringer. Stuff's pretty neatly wrapped up. We don't know what his next Oath is about or if he's struggling with it. However, I think it's a good guess that by the end of Book 5, Dalinar will have sworn two more oaths. We know he'll have some big moments in book 5. So what's more likely - that he swears two oaths in book 5, or that he swears one in book 4 and one in book 5? I'm going to guess that he swears two in book 5, and none in book 4. Szeth almost certainly won't. His next oath requires him to complete his Quest, which is to cleanse the false leadership of Shinovar. This would be an awesome plot for a Szeth-focused book (like book 5!) but a poor fit for a book where Szeth is mostly in the background and has very few viewpoints (like this one is supposed to be.) I can't imagine him dealing with Shinovar being a quick 1-2 chapter thing. ...hmm, putting those all together - I think Shallan being the only one of the main viewpoint characters to get Plate would be strange, so going down that list I think Kaladin would get it too.

I think it would be fascinating to get an actual pacifist radiant. It should be possible. Nothing in the Radiant oaths requires them to go around stabbing people with swords. But they're so good at swording people that all the radiants that we've seen HAVE, from time to time, resorted to violence (As well they should, they're in a Desolation!) Lirin might be the person who, in the middle of a Desolation, would be able to play the part of a pacifist Radiant who refuses to hurt anyone, even Singers. Would be interesting for sure. (Aside from the danger of making everyone and their brother into budding Radiants.)

I think there's a logical straightforward way of trying to do this. They need to get in and out of Shadesmar. To get in, use Jasnah - as an Elsecaller she can send them in, though she's too valuable to send through and might not be able to get them back. Dalinar with his big Unity thing can retrieve them - it might be a huge beacon, but it won't matter for the return journely. Safe space to start the journey - an Oathgate, which is a platform. Or a riverbank. Pick whichever one of those is in Radiant-controlled territory, or even take Navani's flying ship a little bit into Singer territory to start the journey in the best place. Bring food, supplies, and infused gemstones to trade for more. Seems straightforward! Takes time, stormlight, and expense, but easy peasy, just do it offscreen! ....zero, absolutely zero chance of it ACTUALLY turning out that easy. But there's certainly a plausible route to overcoming each of the individual objections, enough that the characters might believe it's doable. (Of course, then everything goes wrong, and we get an awesome plotline out of it.)

Oh wow. These are all super interesting views. Based on this, I agree that all three personalities right now - Veil, "Shallan", Radiant - are in a sense fake. The "Shallan" personality is the one she made to "be the perfect daughter", a long long time ago. It was a defense mechanism, a coping strategy - she just couldn't keep on moving forward in life, couldn't deal with the trauma, so pretended to be someone other than who she was. As that personality became insufficient, she expanded to Veil and Radiant to help her do other things. Radiant to be a confident leader. Veil to be con-woman, smooth and breaking rules. None are the full, underlying Shallan personality. All are reflections of it, because of course they're all actually one person, but all are that one person playing a part. Throughout the first books, we've been led to believe that "Shallan" was the real personality, and then we got Veil and Radiant as "fake" personalities - but the reveal is going to be that the "Shallan" we've seen is just as fake as those two. "Shallan" is what happens when a young girl tries to pretend to be the kind of person who can keep a household together all on her own. I also think it's worth noting - we've NEVER seen Shallan in a situation where she feels safe enough to let down her guard and have no reason to pretend. She started WoK on a mission to steal a soulcaster (gotta put on her best game face for that!) and then got thrust into travel to the Shattered Plains with unscrupulous types, then navigating the Shattered Plains when she's a nobody and is relying on the goodwill of others, then there's a storming Desolation going on and every moment is precious and she has to stay strong. Most of her flashbacks are post-trauma. So I think it makes sense that the personality we've seen as "Shallan" is also a "game face" she's put on to help her keep coping. My guess is that when we get that last Truth out of Shallan - whatever went on even further back to set the Davar household on this path, or her part in it - we'll get a fourth personality. It'll be named something like "young girl" or maybe will be some nickname that her mother or father used to call her by, back then when they could still have fond nicknames for each other. It'll be a personality that she's always had but rarely or never showed on screen, but it'll be the oldest one. One that can cry on someone's shoulder for comfort, or make dumb jokes that aren't trying to be clever at all, who can make some storming friends for once that aren't just people whose help she needs or who need her help. There's going to be some sort of scene where that new personality brings them all together - some sort of admission that OK, all three of these personalities are a front, and the "real Shallan" is all of them at once and more. I don't think that afterwards, Shallan will go back to having a mono-personality. Mental illnesses don't usually work that way, with the patient having a sudden realization and then being healed, and Brandon seems to want to treat DID more realistically now, so I don't think we'll get a magic healing moment. But we might get a person who's more in tune with herself.

I think it's definitely a possibility. We've got a few Radiants that can operate without regular infusions of Stormlight. Dalinar can make his own. Lift can eat food. And Renarin has a corrupted Spren - maybe it could potentially use voidlight? That's at least two and maybe three main character Radiants that can, in a pinch, do Radianty things without needing Stormlight. I definitely see a chance for a plot where they have to make do when all the rest of the radiants are left lightless.

The core technology is already there - the ability to disconnect from one moving fabrial and reconnect to another, like what they do with the chulls on the shattered plains when they need to turn them around! That's the key to making this a fully fledged airplane. Instead of having the chulls walk the whole length of a course, then disconnecting from the chull team and reconnecting after turning chulls around, make the disconnection/reconnection happen mechanically. Then you can make the whole thing be basically a small conveyor belt. Put two fabrials moving back and forth, over a much smaller distance, doing the disconnect/reconnect automatically at the end of the short course. Then you can do the same thing with vertical movement, you don't need to lift a platform all the way up and down urithiru. You need some power for this engine - to run the conveyor belts, and to do the mechanical connection/disconnection of the paired fabrials, however that would work. You could at this point power it any way you want - put it at a waterwheel on a river or something, like a mill. ...but, we've already heard of heating fabrials. You've got a heating fabrial - just make it hot enough, and you've got the power for a steam engine. After all, heat -> steam -> turning wheel -> moving conveyor belt -> moving ship. And the last bit of innovation - once the whole thing is self-contained enough, you can put the whole thing directly on the ship that it's powering. It gets a little confusing because you've got the relative motion of the ship and of the fabrial which have to be in opposite directions - but again, "connecting" and "disconnecting" the fabrial and ship let you get forward motion out of this.

I'd say Kmaki is right, because he's not really trying to predict the specifics of how warfare will be, just recognizing that it will never be the same. He's forward-thinking; he can see the potential for the new technology. Troop transports allowing logistics as never before. Mobile archery platforms can transform skirmishes. Seamless transition between land and sea travel. Even the very first prototype is able to go twice the speed of a forced march; he might well be thinking ahead to what will happen after another 5-10 years of innovation. Maybe the next generation of airships will move at the speed of galloping horses and not chulls. So even if aircraft carriers are possible and useful, naval warfare will still be unrecognizable. A navy built out of a small number of very large ships, transporting the machinery that enables flying machines to range out from them - that's nothing like what the navy is for him today. Maybe then there'll be a new ship class - submarines, also propelled by fabrials, to hunt down the aircraft carriers without ever surfacing to be hunted down by airships. Who knows! It'll be incredible stuff to read about. But I can see why Kmaki is thinking about how obsolete he is becoming.

Just for imperial reasons, I would expect that the Lord Ruler would never have allowed the creation of a Mistborn that could overpower him. So I would guess that a Lerasium Mistborn with Duralumin would still be weaker than TLR. On the other hand, given the strengths we've seen... well, not MUCH weaker than that limit, if at all.