Child of Hodor

That's my guess too. They could see things happening elsewhere mostly present or past, otherwise it's not Truth. I think some occasionally saw the future, which is why they were so secretive about what they could do. The alternate explanation is Sja-Anat could have corrupted the radiant spren, but I don't think she could back when Honor was still alive and Mishram was free. No support for this just my guess. I think Radiants were afraid of her back in the day because she could corrupt the secondary armor spren.

I think you are correct, he sets it up as someone becomes a Dawnshard in the novella and if he's being careful with his wording like he says then Sigzil holding the Dawnshard means he wasn't a Dawnshard like Hoid was and Rysn is. It would be funny if he literally picked Hoid up when he was a Dawnshard or they hugged and that's what counts as "held". At one time Brandon said a person becomes a Shard and it's still used in the books somewhat. The Vessel's go by their Shard names in most cases, but he did introduce Vessel as a distinction between the Shard and the person who picked it up. We'll see if he stays consistent with Dawnshard.

I think there is separate category of a Shard using their Power. Something like "Committing Investiture": Endowment creating Returned & giving Breath, Autonomy making Avatars, Odium making the Fused & Unmade. The Shards give up some control over this investiture by committing it to beings with separate minds in the physical and or cognitive realm. For instance, Sja-Anat betrayed Odium or at least the Vessel that "unmade" her. But on some level (Spiritual I think) it's all part of the same whole. We know almost nothing about Splintering, especially not how it is done, but it seems to sever the Shard in all three realms, or sever it in the physical and cognitive the cut those pieces off from the parts in the spiritual. That way if someone gains control or "ascends" to a piece of it they don't get the benefit of ascending to all of it. Unless a magic user that specializes in connecting things together at the spiritual level is bonded to a Spren that merged with Cognitive Shadow of the prior Vessel which gives the magic user Connection to all the splintered pieces of the Shard. Then that magic user can briefly ascend to the Shard by clapping their hands.

That could be funny or that could land with a thud like in Game of Thrones when someone reveals they are writing:

Early in RioW, Leshwi mentioned that the Heralds modified the Oathpact so that it relied on one Herald instead of all of them. When Nale and Dalinar fight, Dalinar sees a bunch of weak thin lines coming from Nale and one much larger line extending out, probably to Taln. I think they Heralds made it so the Fused would have to break Taln, the others don’t matter as much. They couldn’t get out of the Oathpact entirely, but they made Taln the “key”.

Stormfather: Always on the move yet a huge stick in the mud. He was formerly a sort of magical spirit animal for a god, but now he’s also that God’s ghost at the same time. He can manipulate storms, but he usually just let’s them do whatever. Szeth: Can’t seem to face up to the facts. Tense and nervous. Can’t relax. Can’t sleep, Ashyn’s on fire. Don’t touch him he’s a real live wire. Psycho Killer, qu’est-ce que c’est? Better lash, lash, lash, lash away

I think it’s something to do with taking the stone the other guy was carrying. “Give me your burden.” ”I will bear this burden that needs bearing” something like that.

Has to be Kelsier. It would be a twist for no reason if the Terriswoman wasn't associated with Kelsier's group. ****** On the Stormfather's behavior I keep going back and forth, but I'm now leaning toward it's the Stormfather, but we're seeing more of the Cognitive Shadow of Tanavast come out. Stormfather was a separate Spren before Tanavast, the Vessel for Honor, died. Tanavast altered the Stormfather, made the Visions, commanded Stormfather to show the Visions and to Bondsmith candidates (as far as we know). Then Tanavast died and his Cognitive Shadow (mind ghost) was absorbed by the Stormfather. The Stormfather being a Cognitive Realm entity the transfer of Tanavast's cognitive shadow didn't go as well as it would if he was "stapled" to something in the Physical realm like Kelsier seems to have been and like the Fused and Heralds are. All that is to say at least some of Tanavast is in there somewhere, but to what extent we don't know. When Stormfather says he "decided" and later confirms that he was commanded, both are true because he is now both the ghost of the guy who decided to give the command and the spren who received the command. Some WoBs to support all that: Brandon says Stormfather reminds Cultivation of someone she knew and she feels the same way about Stormfather as she did this certain someone. Assuming he means Tanavast, this is saying Stormfather and Tanavast are similar in Cultivation's eyes. Support for some of Tanavast lingering in there. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/216/#e6436 Stormfather "absorbed", "is basically" Honor's cognitive shadow. I interpret that to mean Tanavast's CS as he's the one that died, the Shard Honor was only splintered (and still lives in the hearts of men anyways ) https://wob.coppermind.net/events/73/#e4268

My take on some of these is: The storm without end is the Everstorm (as in a forever storm). AKA the “barrier storm” in the cognitive realm on Braize that Odium’s forces moved a piece of to Roshar and summoned to the physical realm. Dying storms - illuminate the Silence Above. In WoK Dalinar gets the Visions only during Highstorms. The final Vision reveals that the god they worship has been dead a long time: the silence above.

The voidbinding chart is one. It’s been sorta related to Renarin, but not in a clear sense. It foreshadowed the King’s Drop, but aside from that it’s not been relevant yet. I expect it to matter a lot more in the back 5

Ash can feel Jezrien die in OB. Jezrien died for good while Chana presumably did not. It may be an exception. Ishar is the “founder of the Oathpact” he might be special in his relation to other Jeralds and can sense it. We don’t get any indication that the Stormfather noticed Jezrien die or would know when a Herald dies in general. Stormfather says doesn’t know where any of them are in OB, except Ishar because Ishar yells at him. He could just be withholding information though. I think the actual Stormfather must involved here and If Ishar is involved he’s piggybacking or working in concert with SF. We saw him almost take the Stormfather bond from Dalinar in RoW. Who knows what else he can do. I’m leaning toward it just being the SF who we don’t actually understand, but it just sooo different from how he is to Dalinar, Syl and Kaladin. Also, he swears off the Kholin family, but resorts to Dalinar pretty quickly. Dalinar gets a Vision in a storm wagon outside the Valley like 5 months after Gavilar died. OB Ch 114 The Cost. We don’t know exactly what vision or who gave it to him I guess.

On evidence it is Ishar I would add that the last time we saw Ishar in RoW he told Dalinar he can alter the Oathpact but he needs to be close to a Bondsmith swearing an ideal to help him. This was right before he teleports away, presumably right after Navani bonded the Sibling which seemed to snap him out of his megalomania briefly. Not sure if he needs the mental clarity or a boost in power from a Bondsmith Oath. So this “Stormfather” is also trying to alter the Oathpact and is trying to get Gavilar to swear something. One other possible hint is that Gavilar calls the Heralds the 10 fools for enduring the torture. Moments later when Gavilar figures out he was lied and asks who are you the entity says it’s “the biggest fool of them all.” Calling back to Gavilar equating the Heralds with fools. I could see it being the remnant of Tanavast within the Stormfather that was more dominant at the time. When Gavilar looks into it’s eyes it gets a similar view of Roshar that Gavilar saw in the Vision with Odium. A tiny blue speck of a planet, except this view is more storm focused.

This is too clever a way of speaking for the Stormfather. There is also a hint of amusement and mockery. Stormfather does not have much of a sense of humor. We don’t see what Dalinar is doing when Jezrien died, but he never mentions the Stormfather freaking out and informing him a Jerald died. We do see another Herald, Ash, feel it when Jezrien died. It could be Ishar as I mentioned in a prior post. OK, this is very consistent with the Stormfather we know. The scariest possibility is this really is the Stormfather and he’s just playing Dalinar differently.

The Stormfaker seems like Ishar. I think he wants someone to swap with so he can avoid going back to Braize. It just seems like something Ishar would do. How? I dunno he’s a Bondsmith “Unchained” assuming he got his blade back. When this guy panics and doesn’t want “the others” to find out a herald died, recall that Ishar has been lying to Nale, Ash and Kalak about a bunch of stuff including denying that a new desolation has come.

I always assumed it was the Visions that Tanavast (Honor) made. Dalinar even calls them "a book you left behind, except I don't read it, I see it." (tWoK Ch. 75) Stormlight is a form of Honor's investiture the Visions were probably made from Honor's investiture. They are an archive in the sense they are mostly a record of past events.

Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow is in there with the Stormfather and is probably the shimmering man Gavilar is talking to. I think the Stormfather is still somewhat distinct from Tanavast. Stormfather is too surprised by things that Tanavast would know. Then again maybe a CS "stapled" to a Spren instead of a physical realm entity meant a lot of Tanavast was lost. I think Tanavast is the one that says "Unite Them" to Dalinar on occasion and the Stormfather is always like "I didn't say anything". I think that because Tanavast is always saying "Unite Them" in the visions. The whole Unity thing is his idea originally. He doesn't take as active a role because he swore off the Kholin's (while the Stormfather didn't). That's why we never see the shimmering man talk to Dalinar.

I was against it when you posited this a while ago, but with the new prologue I am pretty convinced. Mostly how she was singled out by Gavilar and the red hair was stressed and then a Herald died the same night Gavilar did. We already knew she had red hair and that Shallan's mother presumably did, but for Brandon to call it out here seems like it's for a purpose. She must be the one who died during the prologue. The timeline lines up for Shallan's mom to die in the same month of the same year as Gavilar: Tanat 1167. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Shallan's_mother https://coppermind.net/wiki/Gavilar_Kholin I could buy that Chanarash's soul went into Shallan instead of back to Braize and is part of her identity issues. Something about a Herald being killed with a Shardblade that severs the soul could make it possible. I don't how exactly, I'm just throwing that out there. I think when the Herald's return from Braize they usually come back with a rebirthed copy of the same bodies they had when they first became Heralds so I don't think she'd show up as a kid.

He probably was, slight chance he was Sho-del, but I doubt it. Nightblood ate up most of his corpse, but he was humanoid and probably human. Before he died he was the Vessel whose appearance I most questioned because he appeared as a Singer on the battlefield at the end of OB. He showed he was happy to change form to suit his audience. Side note, it would be very funny if he was a dragon and the little cabin he was in exploded out as his dragon skeleton expanded from where he died. Szeth thinking "Taravangian was a dragon this whole time?!?!?" as he is thrown 30 feet through the air by the skeleton. Yeah, I think the body that drops is their real body as it was when they ascended. This could mean a dragon in human form at the moment of ascension would would drop as a human, but I would think their real body would drop. I assume Tanavast was human because Cultivation liked being in human form and hanging with humans so she fell in love with a human. Would be funny if they were both secretly dragons who like being in human form, they fall in love in human form. Cultivation reveals "Hey I have one little secret, I'm a dragon." "OMG SAME!" Another thought on Yolen dragons that popped in my head back when I read the Dragonsteel prime sample chapters. Not much is known about Dragons on Yolen or at least by the POVs. It's possible that dragons are not naturally occurring and they are actually originally human or sho-del and some crazy Yolen magic occurrence can change some select few to dragons. Like after transformation they're true form is Dragon a different species, but they were human or Sho-del. No real support for this just a thought.

Yeah, I'm not saying the Ire have any real connection to the Iriali just that they are both from Sel and share a common root language which is why their names are similar. They both came from the same planet at some point that's all

I really want to know more about the Iriali as well. I don't know what step on the Trail this emerald sea was but I think Sel came before it. I think they were on Sel early in the trail and they were the people that built Elantris originally (the modern Elantris was found fully built and empty as if the founders vanished overnight ...) Plus a different group of worldhoppers, the Ire, are from Sel. The Iriali country on Roshar is Iri, similar to Ire like they share a common root language with that group. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Elantris_(city)#Discovery

When you dream that as part of the new kickstarter you got to meet Brandon and ask him questions. This being a dream you don't actually have any coherent questions and you panic. You just said "Dawnshards" and Brandon silently slide a card across the table then you're was whisked away by his assistants. You got dream RAFO'd.

Nazh is also my best guess for the 4th one. He's bald, he's a scholar who works with Khriss and is probably long-lived like Khriss. This could be set a new Cosmere world in the future (relative to when SA 1-5 and MB Era 2). Or just set on another planet that is more technologically advanced. It could be Galladon. He's bald and in a worldhopper organization he could be anywhere assuming he didn't decide to retire to the Purelake. I agree with the podcast in that I don't think it can be Hoid. He's slated to be the main character of MB era 4 that wraps up the entire Cosmere and Dragonsteel should serve as an origin story for him and the 16 Vessels. Giving him a full book here would undercut some of that. Though it would be hilarious if it was a full book of Hoid's letters and responses a la the Stormlight epigraphs. Just page after page of insults back and forth.

At this rate he’s going to have enough to buy an island and move Dragonsteel there. Sanderland

THREE Cosmere novels set on world's we haven't seen yet! 2023 will be the Cosmere year with this and maybe SA 5. The anti-2021 :). They met the ksickstarter goal in like 30 minutes lol. For a kicstarter that no one was expecting that's pretty great.