Oltux72

You would be refering to Talenelat'Elin? At the risk of repeating myself: The best candidate would be Nalan'Elin

He is in his 50ies. Just wait a few decades. Nakku the Judge, a.k.a. Nale He is also a Herald and also a Knight Radiant of the fifth oath. He has Plate. The duell is agreed upon by both government, so he'd fight according to a treaty. Hence killing any opponent is the law. And he still considers himself a Knight Radiant. He is the best humanoid fighter on Roshar.. It is a duell to the death. They agreed on that. The survivor wins. Hence the clearest way to a draw is a suicidal kill.

Two interpretations. Either he knows. Or he wants to widen a split between Shard and Vessel he suspects.

Spren are formed according to expectations of sapient beings on Roshar. The easiest explasnation is that Ulim was among the first spren generated as Ashynite refugees aeeived. Hence culturally he is Ashunite.

Always another secret. I need to formulate this. The expedition makes for a gripping yarn. But it makes no sense. Not if you think it through under the stated purposes. Motivation and equipment (a.k.a. overly robust techniques of motivation) Kalak and the purported Kelsier share a goal. They want to make Cognitive Shadows mobile. Kalak looks ready to do things I shall not mention to get somebody to develop such technologies. What is the Ghostbloods first action towards him? Shallan, stab him to death! Even if you have the technology to contact him in that gem, why? It lacks any sense. Methods (a.k.a. living on a prayer) You have a weapon. The only other time such a weapon was used, it did, for the purpose of capture, fail catastrophically. You have no idea whether your version actually fell into your hands undamaged or if you copied the design, whether you made an error. And then you give it to the hands of an untrained freelancer. Cost/benefit analysis (a.k.a. pointy haired middle managers) You have a weapon containg a god metal. Most likely a substance of which exist at most a few kilogramms in the whole Cosmere. You handle it in an unsecured package without guards to an untrusted trainee, who used to be the assistant of an enemy less than a year ago Target selection (a.k.a. work by Rube Goldberg) You are supposed to be put back into a living body. Like a Fused. You want to experiment with one of the rarest beings in the Cosmere whose body is created by exotic means. Somebody is trying to trick somebody. I am not sure what is what in that web of lies, but the cover story is flawed beyond repair. Who wants a Herald dead: Odium - for obvious reasons Hoid - as long as Heralds are alive, one of them may die and break, which could set Odium free again, should the current Desolation end

When? Do you expect a time skip within SA 5? The duell is scheduled for 10 days hence. It would take weeks to even walk to the edge of Roshar's substral. And what would motivate her to depart as soon as possible?

Not odder than a Horneater name. Well, it is not a version, it is an abbrevation. He may be using a title. The relation between the names is rather clear. "Tanavast" may just mean "Eldest/Leader of clan Avast" or "Husband of Avast". Like "The Took" if you want a literary example., In fact it might literally translate as "The Avast" The title may just as well be pre-ascension. In fact the speculation that people with the means to slay and butcher a god are above average in importance is not unreasonable.

This is true. But it misses many points. Rayse-Odium was a natural force of slaughter and destruction towards humans. Surrender was impractically costly. Negotiation was futile. They were standing with their backs towards a wall. Lifeboat politics ruled. A valiant last stand. It makes for great sagas to be sung around a camp fire as the descendants of the few survivors learn to smelt copper again, even if you win. For the people actually living under such circumstances it is horrible, just because living is what a great number of them will cease to do. Cultivation has concluded a plan that gives the people of Roshar a real chance. Yet it means that they have to abandon the moral clarity they have experienced. They are back to having multiple parties with clashing interests. The new world refuses to be reduced to good and evil or right and wrong. Among other things it rewards a traitor. Politics is back and in the future you will not just ask "is this good or bad", but "for whom is this good or bad". In particular we now have a conflict between those who want to sacrifice Roshar for the greater good and the Rosharans.

From a military view point you were right. Debatable. You can negotiate reasonably with Taravangian. A man quietly preparing for execution, forbidding any attempts to rescue him after having rescued his home town is selfish? That looks like an indefensible statement to me. No, he doesn't. He pretends to be loyal, nothing else.He is about as clear to Navani and Dalinar about his attitude as a man can be, Dalinar's failure. He hasn't sworn that oath. He is saving his home town and - in his belief - mankind as such. And if Odium had won?

That is a given for any number of reasons. Life in preindustrial times was hard. Many of the people are even slaves or serfs. People there do not care that much about happiness. Survival is the issue. Rosharans usually do not have relationships. They have marriages. Yes, they do have love. But Laral is instructive for how their marriages function. Shallan is an aristocrat marrying an heir of a princely family. She understands her duty. Looking at this from a modern western perspective is uselessly anachronistic.

Right. But Azure and her Blade have been confirmed. And she has admitted that she can make more. Well, we expect more Ghostbloody stuff. Their leader? I must yield to the majority attitude here. Shallan, no - she is trapped as a Radiant. Adolin - yes. Though that may also be an issue.

Right there is an issue. If you just want information, why not simply ask? Kalak wants this problem to be solved. If you need a guinea pig, do you really use an untested sampling method? Indeed. Then why didn't he just keep ruling in the South? Exactly. All information implicating Kelsier is coming from Hoid. We learn that Thaidakar is a Cognitive Shadow via a Seon. Who has been to Sel and can look however he wants?

This is true, but turns the Ghostbloods into foolish morons. Kalak wants to get away. He would be overjoyed to cooperate. You send him a Seon and he would know that you are not talking crap. But no, you want an irreplacable asset to ram a dagger into his back. What is wrong with you? If you were Iyatil and Mraize suggested that to you, you'd ask him to explain and then most likely slit his throat. And then resign. You'd know that you have lost it. That is wildly inconsistent with the level of competence the Ghostbloods have been displaying. We must rule that out. The raw Investiture may still be there. The pattern that was Jezrien is gone. Do you build a nuclear reactor just to heat your swimming pool? It would work. Every Regal can produce voidlight. You have Connector ferings, if you are from Scadrial. Even compounders. Right, that would be a monumental blunder. But not just from Mraize. This operation needed: a Seon Shallan a god metal a strange kind of fabrial a weapons test And here the demands get outrageous. You cannot just send this thing and hope and pray (to whom?) that it work. Even if you have traded or captured this dagger from Odium's forces you cannot know whether you have been duped or acquired damaged goods or are lacking the proper operating procedures. You have to test. Just imagine you got Shallan into Lasting Integrity, she stabbed him and he just screamed: Ouch!. Stop this, you stupid girl. Guards! - or, worse by far - just died and went to Damnation And it gets worse. Whom do you test on? Kelsier, a Returned or a Fused. No of these options is good. If Mraize can just sign off on them, the Ghostbloods need to change their operating procedures quickly. Something is fishy here. That goes higher up tthan just Mraize. There is some deep deception going on here. If I am paranoid enough, I would go and check the god metal in that dagger extremely thoroughly. Want to bet that it is Cultivationium? We are maybe two layers of secrets away from understanding.

OK. She cannot. Mraize also explains that Shallan is trapped in the Rosharan system. Radiant says that a prison of three planets is large enough. So the plot is tight. I must admit that I thought that we were talking plot issues here, though you never stated it. Are we discussing strictly plot, or more literary issues of pacing and meeting expectrations? Well, this book has dropped names without end. And that is where I find myself out of objectivity. I know who Kelsier is. And I cannot switch that off. The sheer number of names and concepts dropped on a reader is huge. And I find myself unable to say whether to a reader limited to the Stormlight Archive it would be more urgent to get to see who is this Thaidakar guy lets find this Nalthis place where they can make Shard Blades that we keep hearing from since Oathbringer an alien Spren! - they must have alien Surges! Priority A1+ measuring sand - a world of advanced Investiture technologies. We can finally understand what we are doing, We have learned that obscuring Odium's future sight is even more imporrtant than we thought. We need to capture this Riino fellow and duplicate his device.

I am afraid this is a difficult matter, so this will be long. Reasonable. Right. But we would eventually learn it, wouldn't we? Thaidakar really hasn't done anything except order Kalak to be knifed. The basic order of TLM and SA5 has not been changed. You are merely saying that Brandon switched from TLM -> RoW -> SA 5 to RoW -> TLM -> Sa 5, right? Well, no. That would suck the same, only later. TLM and SA 5 have to be consistent, no matter what order books are written. Shallan has broken up with the Ghostbloods, yes. So the Ghostbloods will retaliate. He won't. He cannot. We are told that he cannot leave home. Shallan is told that. She will expect revenge and so will the readers, but not immediately in person. I'd expect him to send assassins. I know that he cannot come. I also know that he is on another planet. Travel between planets is done at a speed determined by pack animals or walking speed. Unless you wanted another time jump, I should not expect anybody from any place outside the Rosharan system, not for months. Are you saying that an average reader will not notice those clues needed to do the calculations? After being told that he cannot leave home and that being the reason for Shallan's mission in the first place?

While that is vertainly true, why is it new and conditional on Rhythm of War? Or are you saying that Brandon decided only when writing Rhythm of War who Thaidakar is?

It does not end there. The memory alteration may not be the true attack. Taravangian may place a memory bomb to hide that he needed to copy the memories. And he may genuinely care for the answer to the question whom the coaltion expect him to send and he had to ask the question to be sure that Hoid considered the question and remembered the answer.

Well, Brandon and the people at Dragonsteel are hardly idiots. The conclusion that time would be short if the duell is supposed to be at the end of SA 5 is blindingly obvious. And changing the ten into a 50 or 81 and give some numerological hint about 9 * 9 would have been simple and without consequences. If you have to prepare for combat the fate of a planet hinges upon even a hundred days would feel short. In fact the obvious problem may exist. He has spoiled that SA 5 won't end with the duell. But why would that bother Karen? So I doubt it is that. It has to be something either hard to do without or something seemingly inconsequential. For example killing Teft. If he had plans for him in SA 5, well, that's it. But somebody had to die. Yes. But that plot twist must be old. In fact it most likely ancient. We now know why Nightblood has been on Roshar. We know why Cultivation changed Taravangian.. This feels like a very basic plot point. No. They can. They do not need to. They now have a multitude of options. They just do not know that.

I am afraid I will have to point out that the definition of family is highly a variable cultural feature. Adolin is a member of a preindustrial warrior culture. They happen to be monogamous. But that they see a family without children as complete is quite unlikely. And his views are relevant discussing his needs.

But the arrow of causalty can run the other way. Vorinism bans foretelling the future bevause the Heralds hate it.

I doubt it will last. As you said, she is the Alethi Queen. Hoid, however, is the bearer of the First Gem and so on. Both of them are guided ultimately by duty over personal interests. Jasnah likely even more than Hoid. If Roshar and her family clash with Hoid's plans, she will pick the former.

For one thing, a few thousand years of experience and a body magically designed to be a fighting machine helps. We can speculate that you, if you strengthen your bonds to somebody else hard enough, you will learn something from them. Using Fortune would seem to be as un-Vorin as you can get.

True. Unless you needed a trigger for Kaladin's little decapitation trip. Which was cool. But there is the mystery of his eyes. We may just have seen preparation for book#5. We will have to see. Rhythm of War cannot be fully understood as an independent book.

Indeed. But if she can manipulate Connection, you cannot draw conclusions from her relation to Gavilar. She can cause him to like and trust her by Feruchemy.

(Scadrial) No, I am sorry, but you cannot reduce the Stormlight Archive, very few things in the Cosmere indeed, into a simple good versus evil. People do not worldhop just to be evil. They need to have a motivation. She doesn't even have a mustache to twirl and adore her own eviltude.