Child of Hodor

Odium wins but Pyrrhic victory. There will be a new stalemate between the shards for the back 5 to resolve. My pet theory is Dalinar ascends to Honor AND is made part of the Oathpact by Ishar. The Oathpact was beween Honor and the Heralds. Dalinar is now both Shard and Herald he can alter the deal to trap Odium instead of just the Fused. So long as Dalinar remains on Braize Odium is trapped there. I think this still works if Dalinar is a Fused since the Fused go back to Braize automatically which would trigger the lock. I'm assuming Ishar altered it to so that Dalinar was enough similar to how Taln by himself was enough. I don't have all the details ironed out, always another secret, but the end state is both Dalinar and Taravangian on Braize arguing endlessly a callback to RoW when Dalinar said he hoped one day they'd be able to sit and talk like they used to.

I get the feeling it will be a weird meeting like one will be a cognitive shadow, a god or a secret third thing. Or they are both on Braize as new Heralds which would really suck. Or like Adolin and Syl are dead, so they "won" the larger conflict (for now), but lost a lot. It will be bittersweet.

I'm just saying they set up basically a Jigsaw trap that encourages people to rapidly innovate or die. It's true Invention would need to get some people there, but for all we know they influenced the migration from Threnody or foresaw it. They may have wanted people from the planet where the dead sometimes become Shades to travel to Canticle and pulled some strings to get some there.

Yeah, my limited understanding of physics is that a solid sphere around a star wouldn't work it would have to be a swarm of small objects. The Sun and enclosure would drift into each other. gravity - Is Dyson Sphere a stable construction? - Physics Stack Exchange As to the original question I think it's an Invention invention. The end result is this planet has the Chorus, semi-immortal beings constantly iterating on and creating new things scientifically. It's a great environment for desperate scientific innovation that would satisfy Invention's intent (presumably creating new things scientifically).

The more Kaladin is like "10 more days I get to retire and go fishing on my boat the 'Live Happily Ever After' hope nothing happens to me before then" the more I actually think he won't die in this book contrary to what that kind of set up usually means. Classic Sanderson joke of Szeth saying he hungers for something and Nightblood says "pancakes?". That feels out of place that's a Lift, Lopen or Wayne joke. Nightblood jokes are like him trying to eat Lift and then saying "oh I would never do that" when she mentions it later.

I've heard the comparison to other authors as they write about the same amount of words a day, but Brandon keeps more of his. Which is not necessarily a knock on him. Stephen King also cranks out a prolific amount and I think he's pretty great (controversial take). Contrast that with Rothfuss endlessly reworking sentences to really punch up the prose. Back when he was writing anyways.

Yeah, it's pretty much the first paragraph of Kaladin's first chapter. He feels good today even though he knows it won't always be like this.

The "fight to take other worlds" thing in Vorinism was Odium's whole plan to use Roshar as a training ground for his troops in a "a battle of the gods" in the wider Cosmere. It is true that a 5th ideal radiant would be more invested than most beings because the bond has seeped deeper into their spiritweb. This would give them an opportunity to stick around longer than the average person, but I don't think it's enough for them to stick around indefinitely. There would need to be Shard intervention like Preservation pushing Kelsier into the well in SH, Endowment making Returned, Odium making the dead singers into Fused or Honor making the Oathpact with the Heralds.

He definitely refers to Nale as Nin-son-God in OB. He refers to Dalinar as Dalinar Kholin. To you point though, if Szeth or another Shinovar scholar were to write a book about people they would probably figure out their heritage to do the -son-___ thing. I also don't think the author will be a person we haven't met. The only other Shin besides Szeth we've met is that trader in tWoK Rysn interlude and maybe Sixteen in Lasting Integrity who looks Shin, but is probably from a different planet.

I think it has to be the top of Urithiru as they are meeting for the contest. Either Navani put the gems up there for a reason or it’s an artistic license thing. It looks smaller than I imagine it being but this doesn’t have to be one to one accurate. Definitely the everstorm overhead. Really wish we could see the back cover.

I'm increasingly with @Chaos on windrunner fight scenes. There are too many of them that go on for too long. Adolin fighting on his horse in the air was a nice touch though and the fight in the beads was cool.

Jasnah is the only major character that currently is both a historian and a philosopher. She called her "lesson" to Shallan in WoK "Philosophy in action". This makes me think the person writing this was not involved in the cleansing of Shinovar and didn't hear firsthand what the Wind said regarding them. That makes it less likely to be Kaladin or Szeth considering they will be heavily involved in what happens in Shinovar and the Wind is currently talking to Kaladin and presumably will continue to talk to him for a while. The "two sources" the author of the book is left with regarding the cleansing of Shinovar could be Kaladin and Szeth unless one of them dies and it's just Szeth and his spren or Kaladin and Syl.

I'm dying at the image of the two most deadly serious major characters in these books dancing and playing the flute together. Kaladin doing a little jig while playing the flute as Szeth literally dances up a wall and onto the ceiling.

Could just be that she is done talking to Kaladin. Their business is concluded.

If it is an Unmade BAM would make a lot of sense except for being imprisoned in the spiritual realm which should rule BAM out. Unless being in a place where all times and spaces exist allows her to still communicate except Rayse was blocking this because BAM tried to usurp Odium during the False Desolation and he, unlike the Shard, doesn't like being challenged. Longshot, but Yelig-nar is known as Blightwind and those "Those he possesses have red eyes, grow crystals from their bodies, and appear to be wreathed in a black wind.[37] " The problem is Yelig-nar is referred to as a "he" in the histories. They are supposed to be able to talk "like a man", but we've never heard them speak as far as I know which would line up with them being blocked from doing so by Rayse. Another issue is they seem to be a humanoid-shaped smokey creature that probably can't be everywhere the wind is. Dai-Gonarthis is said to be an intelligent unmade and we know very little about them. There is some debate whether they are even an Unmade. This could fit with them being associated with Odium enough for Odium to block them from speaking somehow, but not necessarily be an enemy. They are in between somehow.

The way I read this is the Wind is another powerful ancient spren like the Nightwatcher. One that neither Honor or Cultivation adopted. A change in Odium's vessel allowed it to speak again which makes me think it is an unmade, but I don't know.

I suspect it is Tanavast maybe we'll be getting more about the "Child of Tanavast" thing the Stormfather said to Kaladin in WoK in the chapter of the same name. Stormfather has talked to Kaladin multiple times so Kaladin should recognize that voice. This must be a different one. This reminds me of the end of OB when Dalinar hears "unite them" in his head and goes "what did you say?" to Stormfather who says he didn't say anything. Could be the same voice that is now speaking to Kaladin.

Old Theory: I guessed that the "we" in "we killed you" in OB meant the Shard and the Vessel because they aren't on the same page. Which was basically confirmed in RoW with Rayse and Odium having different reactions to Sja-Anat's disagreeing with them in her interlude, Rayse having a golden light trying to break out of him during RoW as well as the Shard "speaking" to Taravangian after Rayse was killed. Plus, Sazed's comments on the Shard not being controlled well and Cultivation telling Taravangian she hoped to develop someone who could control the Shard better. Current Theory 1: The current Stormfather contains both the old spren and the ghost (cognitive shadow) of Tanavast which is the source of the different tone in the SA5 prologue. The current entity is the merger of two other entities the mind of the Vessel that gave the command and the spren that received the command. That's why feels he needs a champion and that he was ordered to seek one. Looking into the eyes of the entity Gavilar sees Roshar from outer space. A view the spren formerly known as the rider of storms would not have seen, but Tanavast would have. This is very similar to the view Dalinar when he "sees" Odium in OB. Dalinar is standing on a little speck that is Roshar and looking out into the Cosmere. Current Theory 2: Dalinar will have a conversation with Gavilar in book 5. Kaladin got to speak to his dead brother in RoW why not Dalinar?

I think Taln has the honorblade. Wit got him to dismiss it and gave him a different one. Wit knows that people would try to steal the blade and not wanting the honorblade to be stolen he gave Taln a shardblade and somehow coaxed Taln into dismissing his honorblade. It's also the most Brandon thing to do. Who stole the honorblade? No one.

I just want to commend everyone who contributed to the interactive map. It's so cool!! Very thorough and clear and all the art for the various events and characters is great.

1/3rd of the book per Brandon’s video! That’s insane. I was expecting about 1/5th like with OB and RoW.

They started either on Yolen or Taldain is my guess as well. I could see them having been on both. It just makes sense from a Cosmere meta narrative standpoint for Yolen to be the first and the one they return to at the end. Since it feels like that's how the Cosmere is going. Yolen is where it started and people like Khriss say they can't find it so currently in the middle portion of the Cosmere we aren't getting stories set on it (except for tidbits here or there). A god being split to pieces fits both Adonalsium and Autonomy. Autonomy fits slightly more because she's doing it on purpose and Adonalsium didn't really want to be torn apart as far as we can tell. But it could be a slight conflation of the two or a misunderstanding. Or an after the fact justification *watches God torn to pieces* "oh, no, you see the thing is he meant to do that." My favorite idea for the Iriali is that they spent time on Sel and they were the OG Elantrians. The modern Elantrians discovered the city fully built but completely unoccupied. Like everybody up and left. Empty Elantris and the Iriali - Cosmere Discussion - 17th Shard, the Official Brandon Sanderson Fansite

Szeth freaking out in a climactic moment?! When has he ever ... oh in books 2, 3 & 4. Yeah, good call. Szeth is the best fighter of the radiants, he's more experienced with magic blades and killing people with them than Kaladin. He could be selected as champion probably won't be because of the reliability issue. Szeth would be interesting dramatically if TOdium appoints a child champion. He's the one character that might actually kill the child. OK, Jasnah would but she won't be chosen.

Rock because he doesn't practice with it anymore and he is still an excellent shot.

Brandon should write more one off books instead of making everything a trilogy or quintet. Especially for things that aren't core Cosmere. Like this cyberpunk Mistborn trilogy that can't be that essentially if it wasn't on his schedule of Cosmere books as recently as December. He'd be able to explore more of these stray cool ideas, like Tress, if so many of them weren't 3+ book 1M word arcs.