Child of Hodor

As long as there is a fragment of it left in the physical realm they are still in the physical realm and can be regrown. I don't think we've seen an instance where every single piece of a shardplate was completely destroyed, shattered into molten metal where there was nothing left. In a case like that there would be no way to repair it. As long as some of it is still around it can be regrown. The gemstones serve as a substitute bond like the gems in the blades. The shardblades are formed by gaseous Stormlight condensing into a Shardblade according to this WoB. I take this to mean the spren "bodies" are made of Stormlight which they can condense into metal. The plate are probably also condensed Stormlight. That's why they regrow with infused gems. Here is a WoB confirming that Stormlight is the gaseous form investiture. Yeah that's what I was trying to say. The Blades don't break so they don't need to be repaired. Plate breaks, it needs stormlight to repair.

Even if the Dawnshards became the Unmade I think there were 10 Dawnshards. Odium got 9 of them and turned them into the Unmade. Which is why one Dawnshard is different from all the rest.

I would say the reason Shardplate needs Stormlight is related to them breaking and blades not breaking. @Calderis At the soul level they may be bonded the same. I think lesser spren like wind spren and glory spren have less cognition even in the cognitive realm they are basically animals. They have less cognition to sacrifice when they come over and they gain less physical presence. Spren like Syl are smart like people in the cognitive realm. They have more to give in exchange for crossing into the physical realm and have a stronger presence there.

He thinks the voices are waiting for him in the red fog of the Thrill as well in the same chapter. He refuses to go in after Dalinar despite pledging to serve him and makes Lift go in by herself. He’s not a very reliable narrator.

They could have a pre-existing relationship like @Yata said. It's possible the intents Dominion and Devotion could go together, not as opposites, but in the way Brandon says Honor and Odium could go together if the Vessels were different. People can be protective and controlling of those they love be it lovers or children. Sometimes to a fault for sure, but it is a natural instinct.

The one thing people are unsure of with the lesser spren forming Shardplate similar to how radiant spren form the blades is why does Shardplate break while the Shardblades are neigh indestructible? Presumably they would form the same type of god metal. I think it is because they are lesser spren with a lesser bond to the radiant and therefore lesser connection to the physical realm making the physical form the take in the physical realm weaker. Like a lesser alloy of the same god metal, not as strong. Or the lesser spren bond to the radiant spren who is bonded to the radiant. A degree of remove results in a weaker physical presence. The writer reason is if plate was indestructible it would take away too much danger and drama.

When Fused were killed they went back to Braize automatically and the Oathpact kept them from returning to Roshar immediately even when no Heralds were on Braize at the moment. Once all the Fused were killed and back on Braize the Heralds had to go back to maintain the Oathpact and maintain the seal. If none of the Heralds returned to Braize the Oathpact would eventually be broken and a new desolation would have started.

Kelsier's trajectory in MB:SH and what little we see of him in Bands of Mourning points towards him being less villainous than he was in the past. He started before he died in Final Empire by aborting his plan to massacre all the nobles. I could see him running around murdering, but not just for the sake of it. He does seem like the type to write letters to a newspaper bragging about his crimes ala famous serial killers of the '70s and '80s Zodiac, Son of Sam and BTK. Kelsier loves to self-mythologize.

I would think Spook is unlikely just because it doesn't fit his personality even if he is still alive. He's kind of a comical character even in the HoA epilogue where he gets "spooked" by Kelsier talking to him it's played for laughs. People can change and if he's spiked himself all to hell that could influence him. Kelsier or Marsh I could easily see going around killing, then the question becomes why are they doing it? It may appear as a depraved series of killings, but maybe it's for a purpose. Maybe the serial killer won't actually be the villain in the end. I'd prefer it be someone new though.

I think there may be multiple elements at work, although both are ultimately spiritual realm connections. The voices of Szeth and Dalinar's victims are one thing. Dalinar having strange dreams of Gavilar as a child and Nohadon shopping are another. and possibly hearing Evi forgive him could be another. I think Dalinar is connected to the spiritual realm more than the average person because of his connection to the Stormfather who absorbed the Cognitive Shadow of Tanavast who was the Vessel for the Shard Honor. Shards are mostly in the spiritual realm even if the Vessels cannot directly access the spiritual realm themselves. Dalinar ---> Stormfather ----> Tanavast ----> Honor ----> Spiritual Realm. I think he hears Evi for the same reason he has the dream of Gavilar as a child in WoR and of Nohadon shopping in OB. This doesn't explain why he hears the voices of his victims before Gavilar's death and before his bond. This could be the work of the Unmade. We know the Death Rattles come from Moelach seeping into a dying person's soul at the point of death as it begins to break from the body. Other Unmade may use spirit web corpses to produce other results like the screams of people right before the point of deal. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/77448-madness-of-the-heralds/?do=findComment&comment=752399 Dai-gonarthis is referred to as holding sorrow and consuming it in this death rattle. The victim is crying out for an end, like this Unmade is prolonging their agony, their screams through an unnatural means. Perhaps chomping on their spiritweb corpse.

I think "they" are the personification of the moons or a moon and don't have a set gender because either they represent multiple moons and people ascribe different genders to the different moons or because moons aren't living things (as far as we know!) and don't have a gender. This is similar, but not the same as the painting of the Bondsmith Herald Ishar. It may be showing the Sibling. Ishar and the moon Mishim have variations of the same glyph Ishi in them. There are hints at a connection between the Bondsmiths and the moons. There was also the story Hoid told in OB of how the moon Nomon (the blue one) had a child. EDIT: BEHOLD THE SIBLING!

He mulches the investiture. I imagine all the investiture he consumes as being run through a wood chipper or a blender. It’s shredded and all mixed together. Corrupted as mixed, not purely one type. I don’t know about self-awakening though. I don’t think it can give itself breaths or investiture it already has, even if its investiture wasn’t a mess. Even if it could give breaths to other items it could only take the breath back. It couldn’t command itself while taking breaths back.

I was walking around listening to music and thinking about the Stormlight Archive a thought struck me that I can't get out of my head. In OB Ch. 57 when Dalinar meets Odium and he says he's not afraid of him and Odium shows him all the fires that represent Passion and the core violet flame that is Hatred. When Dalinar comes to he still sees the violet fire in Odium's eyes. I can't help, but score this scene to "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel. The song compares romantic passion in another's eyes to religion and I think of how Dalinar mistook Odium for Tanavast/The Almight when he first met Odium (even though he already met Tanavast who introduced himself as The Almighty in a vision Dalinar experienced ... 3 times, pay attention Dalinar!) Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart All my instincts, they return And the grand facade, so soon will burn In your eyesThe light the heatIn your eyesI am completeIn your eyesI see the doorway to a thousand churchesIn your eyesThe resolution of all the fruitless searchesIn your eyesI see the light and the heatIn your eyesOh, I want to be that completeI want to touch the lightThe heat I see in your eyes

That's a good one. We've been told that humans shattered the Shattered Plains. We know the surface of Ashyn was mostly wrecked by something humans did that relates to the surges. My guess is Division could wreck the surface. "Using the Surge of Division, the Surgebinder can touch an object and cause it to burn, turn to dust, or decay in other ways." https://coppermind.net/wiki/Surgebinding#Division What the epigraph describes and what Dalinar's final vision where the ground collapses around him, remind me of what happens when a nuke is set off underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCPhJpUrvak I know people have talked about this being about the humans driving out the singers, but these are supposed to be of the future. This sounds like Urithiru being taken over by the Singers. I would think this happens in book 4 and maybe the radiants find the Sibling and take the tower back. I suppose it could be about Kholinar being captured, the palace was on a big hill and that's where the last of Alethi resistance was. place hollow and forlorn could be Shadesmar.

From these two WoBs it seems Brandon has foreshadowed what is going to happen at the end of Book 5 in the first two books. I started looking for these foreshadowing elements. I'll share one, but please share any you have noticed. The one I've zeroed in on is Honor + Odium = Justice Shard with Dalinar holding it. Justice stresses the importance of following a code of conduct or laws and punishes those that violate the codes. Mistborn Spoiler Some passages that hint at that: WoK Chapter 4 The Shattered Plains Kaladin and the slaves find out their destination is the warcamps at the Shattered Plains "Perhaps we'll find justice there" pg. 188 of iBooks. "The other slaves kept talking about the king's army, and about justice. Justice?" pg. 190 of iBooks. "I'm not convinced there is such a thing as justice." pg. 190 of iBook. Kaladin ultimately meets Dalinar on the Shattered plains. WoK Chapter 69 Justice Navani hears that Dalinar may be dead. She draws a giant glyph on the ground prays. "She bowed her head before the prayer. It was only a single character, but a complex one. Thath. Justice." pg. 2395 in iBooks Dalinar confronts Sadeas who is standing on the giant glyph of Justice. "Justice. There was something magnificently appropriate about Sadeas standing there, treading upon justice." pg. 2407 in iBooks Dalinar talks to Elhokar in the king's chamber "We're going to win this war, and we're going to turn Alethkar into a place that men will envy again. Not because of our military prowess, but because people here are safe and because justice reigns." pg. 2432 of iBooks. Navani prays about Justice and Dalinar shows up. Dalinar stresses the importance of justice. I should note Kaladin is present for all of these mentions except the last one with the Elhokar. It could be Kaladin, but I feel this is hinting at Dalinar. There is also this WoB

Killing kindly, feeble, simple-seeming old Taravangian wouldn't win Dalinar any allies. Taravangian is the leader of perhaps the largest ground army the coalition has, especially now that the Alethi lost a bunch of Sadeas forces in the battle. They need him. Szeth could testify, but he's a mass murderer who talks to his creepy, kill-crazy sword and hears the voices of his victims in his head. He is a member of the Skybreakers and large portion of them just went over to the enemy. There is also the issue of him becoming a mass murderer because the Shin declared him "Truthless". He's not a credible witness. I was thinking a chunk of Oathbringer would be Law & Order: Urithiru. There was Sadeas' murder and Dalinar promised Kaladin that Amaram would be put on trial. We saw a fun investigation into other murders, but no trials. I don't think we'll see many court proceedings in these books aside from maybe Szeth being named Truthless in flashbacks.

Honor and Cultivation chose to come to Roshar together. Honor chose to takeover the Highstorms. My theory is Cultivation chose to take over the gemhearts. Their relationship matters because they could have gone to Ashyn or any other shard-less planets in the Cosmere, but they came to Roshar and adopted these roles where the father is providing the seed and the mother provides the womb.

Great catch! For Ishi we know it refers to the 10th essence and is associated with Bondsmiths and Ishar the Bondsmith Herald. Something ~bond. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Glyphs BAM bonds to Singers spiritwebs which is why it's imprisonment had the spiritual lobotomy effect that it did. Mishim is one of the moons and the moons are associated with Ishar in the endpage painting. There are three moons and can only ever be three bondsmiths because of the three superspren they can bond. Is this coincidence or something else? Why does their Herald have a similar name to one of the moons, did they rename a moon to include "ishi" or was he named for the moon? I'm with Ishar in this picture, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Good point. That might be what he meant in the WoB, and it is cleaner than her being able to pump Stormlight in directly.

She may have pushed some of herself through since it was an emergency. It doesn't seem like she has ready access to other Stormlight. When they were in Shadesmar in OB Syl and Pattern couldn't help with the lack of Stormlight issue. Yeah, it's tricky with Roshar since Adonalsium made the planet and the highstorms, Singers etc. What was it like before and what did the Shards change? We don't really know what the Singers were like before Honor & Cultivation got there. I assume they had gemhearts, but I don't know. I think she is providing them now though. It's possible they were "of her" investiture by default post-shattering even before she came to planet. Gemhearts play a major role in how big creatures can grow afterall.

That's true, we've seen him get stormlight from other sources. He gets a huge dose of stormlight when he says the oath at the end of WoR. Also, Syl forces stormlight into him when he falls off the bridge in WoR and it nearly severs their bond. The first time he gets stormlight in a storm is when he strung up and that's because he is holding a gemstone that Teft gave him.

I've thought about it more and think her contribution may be, at least in part, the gemstones and gemhearts. She is the "Mother" of the magic systems and provides the "womb" that holds Honor's "seed" the Stormlight. Radiants need both because they need gems to collect the Stormlight before they can breath it in (except for Lift).

The recent Culivationlight Shardcast got me thinking about what Cultivation is doing with her investiture. http://www.17thshard.com/news/shardcast/shardcast-cultivationlight-fanx-words-of-brandon-p1-r434/ I think she is providing the gemhearts which leak into the physical realm in a similar way to how (mistborn spoiler) To put it in terms of human anatomy Cultivation and Honor were lovers, their spren refer to them as Mother and (Storm)Father, Stormlight = Sperm Gemheart = Womb Spren = Child I realize Spren are tiny splinters and they aren't conceived via stormlight going into gemhearts, but I think the metaphor works for what powers 2/3rds of the magic on Roshar. I say they power the systems together because, with the exception of beings like Lift and Larkins (Chiri-Chiri ) , surgebinders can't just take in Stormlight directly from a source like the Highstorms. They need to capture stormlight in a gem first. Fabrials also need stormlight in a gem and often a spren. A main difference between Surgbinding and Fabrials is where the Spren is bound. In surgebinding it is bound to the users soul with fabrials it is bound in a gem. But all three components seem to be important.

Her name is Crem. It's ... really unfortunate.

"You are correct sword-nimi, I am not very good at being a person." In response to Lift "This is very wise" In response to Lift "This is ... less wise"