Oltux72

Dalinar sought an heir for Urithiru in case he dies. From the perspective of continuity of government that is obviously a necessity if the king intends to enter a duell. However, in the long run it seems problematic. The Bondsmiths are the natural leaders of the Knights Radiant. In fact if both Dalniar and Navani died, it would seem to me that the Stormfather would be required to restart the process for finding a new Bondsmith. So eventually there will be a Bondsmith. And then what? There is a king, who is not a Bondsmith. Will the new Bondsmith take orders from the king? That would seem to be a violation of the basic setup of the Knights Radiant. Will the king abdicate? Then the new Bondsmith will always be the one who overthrew Dalinar's true successor. So how was this done before the fall of Urithiru? I would speculate that the Bondsmiths had squires and a Bondsmith regularly talked with his squires and his spren about the eventuality of succession. The Stormfather, not being human, sees the current procedure as an extension of the old procedure. Why does he get it past Jasnah and Hoid? To put it bluntly, they see it as futile. If Dalinar and Navani die, it will be over. Hoid will flee and Jasnah will surrender to Odium. To be fair I should say how it ought to be done. The closest current analog of the Knights Radiant is, oddly enough, the Vatican. They use a council of officials as an interim government.

Dangerous or inflexible? Even if Taravangian-Odium believes that there should just be one Shard, it will be a win for Cultivation as long as he is flexible about the order in which he tries to achieve his goal. Hoid and Harmony seem to essentially plan to keep Odium on Roshar for as long as possible to prepare for a war against him. The other Shards are basically OK with that. That plan, however, means that Cultivation pays the price. In fact the other Shards probably see the possibility of an outcome, where Odium is easier to defeat because he will have been weakened by fighting and defeating Cultivation. I cannot imagine that she likes that plan.

That assumes that Cultivation wants to keep Odium on Roshar, as that is Hoid's goal. To put it bluntly, why would she want that? Fighting Odium has cost her enough already.

We have a WoB that says that nobody but Hoid has left Roshar with an intact Nahel Bond. That says less than you think, because to have somebody with the powers of a Skybreaker, you do not need to transport a Skybreaker and his or her spren. The spren alone would do, if you form the bond at your destination.

Exactly, but that has consequences he has to check all abilities (or at least a subset of abilities for each system) there is no point in checking a preawakened object there is also very little point in powering magic systems with alien fuels. He needs normal operations checked. We can also make some speculations. As this is a preplanned procedure, he will want to be able to run it under dangerous circumstances, as dangers are most likely to do damage he needs to test for. So I would assume that the tests are run under a copper cloud. That was what impacted the fabrials. He does not want to shine like a beacon while he's testing himself. Hence if we did not see a system during that scene either Hoid does not have it The test is invisible A test would require specialized equipment or resources (I doubt he'd lug around a human skeleton to test his bloodsealing.) Not that I am saying that it is likely that Hoid is a bloodsealer. In fact he did not demonstrate anything Selish.

In the last chapters we have learned that Shallan wants to strike at the Ghostbloods in Urithiru, thinking that she has a chance to surprise them. Given the revelation about Ala's loyalty, she is mistaken. So Mraize has been warned. How will he react? He could either run or set a trap. I would say that he does the former, but is there an alternative? Against the Sibling an attack on the Radiants within Urithiru is bound to fail. Does Mraize know about the capabilities of the Sibling? Does he have a counter? How would the Sibling react to an Aviar or a copper cloud? Or even wilder, will Mraize strike first?

I am afraid it does mean just that. Parts of what he did there were a test. Neither the Sandmastery nor the thing with the clothing, nor the shapeshifting had a defensive value. If you are running a self-test then indeed you need to use everything or at least one thing from each set. Yet he went for Allomancy before Surgebinding. It looks to me like he went for Surgebinding and Allomancy (and Feruchemy) only when the respective Shards were dead or very much distracted. Yet he seems to be on excellent terms with Valour.

This leaves the other side of the question. What does Hoid not have? What could he have and what have we not seen? More to the point, why did Hoid not use a speed bubble? If he is a feruchemist, surely that was the point where he should have tapped zinc. Did he? Where is Valour's magic or Invention's or Mercy's?

Sure, but by accepting such an offer they'd aid Odium's side. At a mimimum they'd cut the Radiant side off from trade. The war has progressed beyond the point where you cannot get back to neutrality.

Giving up without switching sides is just stupid. What are you getting? You agree to be conquered.

By the way, while we are at it, the sand floated. Does this confirm that Hoid is a Sandmaster?

It could be something akin to Tension or indeed Tension. That could be due to Hoid is bearing Taln's Honorblade This is a part of Valour's magic system Microkinesis (He is Yolish after all) It would have to be in his native language. A language that must be nearly extinct by now, given how old he is. It would be gibberish to any human Rosharan.

That is basically impossible. Too many life forms of Roshar need Stormlight. They have evolved gem hearts to store it. And they are old. They show signs of evolution. Shallan deduces the relationships among greatshells in that manner. They have left fossile evidence. The big gem stones found in mining operations come from greatshells. The high storms distributing stormlight must be a phenomenon millions of years old.

Because they are in Shadesmar and can talk to them and they are in a military emergency. Traders getting on the teleport disc is very different question. Yes, that looks like the obvious conclusion if they are short on forces. The Singers are already holding Iri. If they want access to an Oathgate, they already have it. If you do that, you can abandon all hope to get any more spren to take up bonds.

It's still a win for Odium. I wouldn't use an oathgate whose spren have been corrupted, unless I were in immediate danger of death. No telling what would happen. Nor could the Radiants make any plan that depends on such a gate.

The Fused are useless outside Roshar for now, as they cannot leave. Their loyalty to the new management is dubious. They are going insane. Why not use them now? Especially if many of them would not mind. As the Radiants will make more and more anti-Voidlight, using the Fused will get less and less useful in the future. Dalinar expects him to do something, while Taravangian wants to get out of the deal. Hence he does as expected. Taravangian wants to get out of the deal. In his mind he is not limited to bridgeheads around the Oathgates. It is an attack Dalinar has to respond to. Thus his ability to hamper whatever else Taravangian wants to do is limited. He is cutting the Radiants from help by other Shards. He has to block only Urithiru itself.

It would be blond, black and red strains. That is pretty weird. Plus, if she had the Royal Locks, she would not be horrified at the suggestion of cutting her hair off. He also carries a load of Breaths, which can work on a physical body.

In 8 days? Against a group of people who are not idiots? While the Knights Radiant still control the Oathgates, have all the magic and most of the shard blades? They'd have to switch sides. It's too late for that, once they are already occupied. Now if you really want to put Dalinar in a tight spot and get Adolin to rebel instantly, you won't pick Gavilar or a child. You'd pick Dalinar's first wife respectively Adolin's mother.

Hoid is a Lightweaver. Their second Surge is Soulcasting. Hoid has a constant supply of metals if he needs them.

The seon would have to stay with the Radiants anyway. It serves as a neigh perfect spy, who inadvertedly also makes - ahem - home movies. Hence if the Raysium dagger she was given is fake, what do they lose? Shallan herself. An agent who is not exactly stable and known to be involved with the Ghostbloods. Do you really think they would dare depend on her? She would be useful as a spy, but with Ala inserted that benefit becomes largely moot. If the dagger is fake, there are three possibilities She fails. That means: - the relations between Spren and Radiants are sabotaged - Kalak is scared, perhaps up to the point of running away or making a deal - Ala is still inserted as a spy She conventionally kills Kalak. He returns from Braize: - Kalak is scared, perhaps up to the point of running away or making a deal - Ala is still inserted as a spy - the relations between Spren and Radiants are sabotaged - Kalak is now somewhere on Roshar without Honorspren guarding him She refuses - Ala is still inserted as a spy - They know she is unreliable It seems to me that they in fact hoped that Shallan would die. Kalak still is a Herald guarded by Honorspren. Shallan has no Shardblade in Shadesmar. They knew she would have run out of Stormlight by then. All she has in her favor is surprise. In combat between her and Kalak I would bet on Kalak. If the relations between spren and men are shattered, either side will need new allies. The leadership of the Radiant's would also be shaken. And so on. Any outcome is an advantage to the Ghostbloods, unless they discover that Ala is a double agent. I am making two assumptions The Ghostbloods know what happens if you store a Herald in a gem If you risk a Seon, Kelsier has to approve it I think neither assumption is unreasonable. Seons talk to Kelsier anyway. The Ghostbloods have good arcanists and have a source of Connection to study. I doubt Kelsier would assume that they can subvert a human who is stationed permanently with Hoid and Jasnah. Too risky. They are going to investigate sooner or later how exactly Shallan came into contact with the Ghostbloods. In fact they may already have done so and sending Shallan away has had multiple reasons. Mraize is telling the truth as far as he knows. That plan comes from Kelsier.

Under these assumptions we have to believe A paranoid Herald left the only weapon that could kill him, as far as he knows, unsecured, so that Felt could find it Felt happens to find the weapon in somebody else's house. In fact, why does he even look for it there? Felt dares enter a Herald's house without knowing for sure where the weapon that could kill the Herald, if that should become necessary, is Didn't they? The Ghostbloods have advanced technology and science. In hindsight I have a big problem with believing that the ghostbloods ever gave Shallan a real dagger. I see the following issue They did not tell her how this thing works. She would believe that she really killed her victim. She would have learned at some point that she had assassinated a Herald. Very high up among the blasphemous crimes you can commit on Roshar. The gem stone would be charged. It would be quite bright and hard to conceal. Shallan has known issues of mental health and is traumatized by killing somebody. There is no telling what she'd do after a murder, even less when she learns that she's killed a Herald. The Honorspren are not very likely to let the humans just leave after a Herald has been murdered They are even less likely to let them go without thoroughly searching them If you had done the most heinous crime practical on Roshar and must expect to be searched, would you keep the murder weapon, which, as far as you know is expensive, but useless to you? I for sure wouldn't. This is no viable plan for retrieving the gem on the dagger, even if Shallan should actually execute the plan.

Sorry for being unclear. I meant the dagger. Do we have any indication that Shallan had a real Raysium dagger? In fact are we sure Felt has the real thing now? That sentence is ambiguous. Who explains what to whom? A Herald is really important. I would suggest that this is an operation that is simply above Iyatil's rank.

You are raising a point. Did they give Shallan the real thing at all? On second thought, what good is a dead Kalak to the Ghostbloods? Wouldn't they know what happened to Jezrien? Withholding information from somebody who comes from Kelsier's home world and has a Seon to communicate with Kelsier? It seems to me that Kelsier did not expect Adolin and Shallan to be abruptly recalled. In fact that was before the contest was agreed to. Plausible, but not conclusive. Sure, Felt could have eliminated Shallan and Adolin. But that would have spooked Kalak. He would have sunk his primary mission.

If you cultivate crops, you will have to weed out weeds. In Rhythm of War Kaladin showed additional power and to a degree the red of using a source of power to power another arcane power. In fact, as far as we know you either pick up a Shard or you do not not. Temporarly pulling some power from it is not possible. Hence it looks like Kaladin was forming some kind of protobond or temporary bond, which we have precedent for. Rock did so. What power would Wind grant if properly bonded? Well, the big set of powers whose origin we lack are the Regals. They cannot be Voidbinders. In that case their eyes would not be red. If you force me to speculate then going purely by the name by bonding Wind, Kaladin would become the human equivalent of Stormform. That ship we knew to have sailed when we saw that he had hired TwinSoul.

No. The assumption here is that only the Ghostbloods would spy on Hoid. That is a tad optimistic. Given the title of the book, Wind looks like a likelier candidate.