Andrew C

My theory is indeed predicated on Nalan being right. If he is wrong, the whole theory can be thrown in the bin. It's definitely possible.

I also expect book 3 to reveal that there was much more behind the 'turn ALL the things to steel' power.

Serious one: "I will place the law above all else". I would never swear that. Silly one: "I will never use Facebook at work."

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/17226-theory-to-explain-darknesss-actions/ has my thoughts on the matter. Summary: - The Oathpact transports the Heralds to Damnation between Desolations - As long as one (or maybe all) Heralds can stand the torture, Desolations cannot occur - Surgebinding on Roshar causes some form of anguish (mental or physical pain) to Heralds in Damnation - Someone convinced the Radiants to make a 'heroic sacrifice' and kill their spren in a single attack. This bought more time without Desolations as it let Taln endure longer, but it made sure that the next one will be much worse as humanity will be less able to fight back.

Obviously this is spoiler-filled, if that annoys you, your browser has a 'back' button. Summary of the new things I'm saying: I subscribe to the the widely-held theory that Darkness is the Herald Nalan. I was thinking about Darkness's words "does not dabble in arts that could return Desolations to the world" and the implications of them, and had what I feel was an epiphany about the history of Roshar and the nature of the Oathpact. - The Oathpact took the Heralds to a place of torture between Desolations. (Known) - As soon as one or maybe all (not sure) of the Heralds broke under torture, a Desolation would begin. (Widely accepted on these boards but not proven) My new theory is that while they are in the place of torture, acts of Surgebinding carried out on Roshar cause some form of spiritual or physical anguish to be inflicted to the Heralds. This explains both Darkness's absolute hatred for Lift and Ym, and his belief that surgebinding can bring desolations back. It also provides a possible explanation for the Recreance - some secret society or other actor (possibly under Odium's influence) convinced the Radiants that their spren were the enemy, and that the Radiants themselves saw the Recreance as a heroic sacrifice, not a vile act of betrayal. Furthermore, I would not be surprised at all if one of the fallen Heralds (one that isn't Taln) was responsible for the Recreance and convinced (not coerced) the Radiants to kill their spren.

I would not be surprised if this is the case, but that 'charging' the Lerasium is extremely difficult.

Mistborn spoilers

Please don't post TV Tropes links when I need to be working...

They are three different Shards of Adonalisium. But the holders of Honor (Tavanast) and Cultivation (a woman many suspect was named Reya of which nothing is known) were romantically linked before they picked up the Shards, and their Shardic Intents are at least somewhat compatible, unlike (Minor Mistborn spoiler) . So they can get along reasonably well even if they do not always agree. Odium's Shardic Intent is something along the lines of Hatred - which will often clash with the other two intents. That's not to say that Odium and Honor could not work together at time (forming something like Wrath) or Odium and Cultivation (something like Discord). But any such working together would be (probably) temporary. In short, it's not 'Honor good, Odium evil, Cultivation neutral', although this will often be the case if we view the world through our concepts of morality. At least in my personal morality and with what information I believe about Roshar, I would argue that the Oathpact was not a 'good' act but an 'evil' one (albeit one where the ends justify the 'evil' means). Still sucks for the Heralds.

Open to being proven wrong, but the centrality of oaths really pushes me to believe that this (along with the Oathpact) are examples of Honor's 'magic'.

Yep, another Hrathern fan here.

Changing a real-world profanity to storm in a real life sentance I once heard, we get: 'Some storming stormer stormed the storming stormer, storm em!' The story behind that, incidentally, involves a storm. My highschool English teacher one year had been in the British Navy in peacetime, and while on a very long, very boring patrol, disaster struck their ship - the kettle they used to make tea broke in a storm. Apparently this was a big deal for British sailors who love their tea. The first person to find out about the broken kettle uttered almost exactly that sentence above, but with a word rhyming with duck in place of each storm. I can't remember why he told us this story, I think it was to mock someone swearing in class by trying to make us think that a sentence with two-thirds of the words in it being 'f' was contemptible. We all thought it was one of the greatest sentences ever uttered and went out of our way to use it in class.

Fabrials, including those used in soulcasting (called soulcasters in world) appear to involve trapping a spren into a gem, and putting it to work. In-world, characters do not (with the exception of those with Nahel bonds) treat spren as sentient. Fabrials are seen as science, not as coercing another being into slavery. Those spren we have seen generally sit on a scale from 'mostly Honor' (Syl) through to 'mostly Cultivation' (spren associated with nature), to 'mostly Odium' (voidspren). The Nahel bond appears to me to be Honor's way of interacting with spren. You pledge an oath to the spren, and this forms a symbiotic relationship unless you betray the oath (when the spren suffers or dies depending upon the severity of the betrayal). I am going to guess that the Parshendi's bonding of spren to select forms is a thing of Cultivation. Fabrials look to me to be Odium's way of interacting with spren. You capture the spren, coerce it into doing your bidding, then discard it until it is needed again. Minor Mistborn spoilers ahead: The thoughts of what an honorspren could be forced to do, if it were locked into a fabrial, are quite worrying...

1. He was re-imprisoned, but where in the Age of Legends he was weakly imprisoned using saidin, this time, he was imprisoned with saidir, saidin and the True Power. He isn't coming back in three thousand years this time. 2. The intervention of Alivia. Min's viewing 'she will help you die'. 3. I don't think he ever wanted to be the center of the world, and he would be the center of political authority in the Fourth Age. He wants to disappear with his millions of dollars worth of gold and live his own life. 4. Not sure. Presumably burned out. 5. This is open to interpretation. My view is that Rand has influence over the real world the way that others have influence over Tel'aran'rhiod - specifically, the ability to project his will onto his local reality. He now treats the real world as others treat Tel'aran'rhiod - because he has 'woken from the dream', as the Aiel would put it.

I could see Adolin being compelled into attempting to invoke the contract somehow, and then some resolution being reached in which Adolin is defeated and found not to be responsible. A lot depends upon how well (if at all) Odium can compel people to act.

Do we know much on this front? We have seen Dalinar's curse (not remembering his wife), Taravangian's curse (depending upon your interpretation, either his boon is his intellect and curse is his inverse relationship of intellect and compassion, or alternately it is his compassion that is his boon, we do not know) and Lift we could guess it is not being able to count past 10, but that is far from certain.

Harm Ati, heal Vin Raoden 8 Vin 11 Wax 10 Kaladin 9 Shallan 10 Shai 6 Sarene 8 Vasher 10 Hoid 10 Nightblood 13 Galladon 10 Demoux 6 Ati 0 (good night) Leras 10 Rayse 8 Tanavast 9 Cultivation 10 Dominion 9 Devotion 10 Endowment 12 Bavadin 8

7 is also a strong book, but it's a step down from 6, and then you will hit the winter of the series (8, 9 and 10). For 10, it's perfectly reasonable to just skip the book and read a spoiler somewhere.

It's really all speculation as to what they'd become. Wrath seems the most obvious one and is somewhat hinted at in the second Letter (something like 'Rayse has taken on God's wrath without the attributes that give it context'), and it is definitely a mixture of honor and hatred. Symbiosis was the hardest to think of anything for. It somewhat does fit, but is far from perfect. Interestingly, Symbiosis and Odium together would become Parasitism, which is a not something you'd get from combining Wrath and Cultivation (which might be Justice). In the event that this was how the series is resolved, many pairings and/or triplings are possible.

I'm not sure how swearing Oaths works on Roshar, only that they can be genuinely binding on other beings. The Oathpact appears to prevent Odium using the full extent of his power or even supernatural forces he has controlled before, and the consequences for Syl of Kaladin failing to live up to his Oaths are real. The key question in my mind is - did the Recreance-era Radiants know Tavanast was dead (or was he even dead at the time). A mutual disarmament may have been seen as an acceptable last resort if Tavanast was believed to be dying and would explain the Heirocracy too as the Vorin church tried to suppress the knowledge that their god was dead.

Self-fulfilling prophecies strike me as Odium through and through. Remember, Honor was always bad at seeing the future, while Odium is much better at it. As for Dalinar's visions: Tavanast told the Stormfather to deliver these visions but designed them before his death. We do not know when he died, it may have been (and likely was) before the Heirocracy, in which case he may have assumed the Parshendi being Voidbringers was public knowledge. For Eshonai - I think she underestimated the amount stormform would change her mind. I believe she had too much faith in her ability to make the right decision after trying Stormform. As for Gavilar - we do not know what constraints Odium and his spren were under prior to Gavilar falling under the influence of The Way of Kings. I believe Eshonai was right that Gavilar's actions would have brought back Odium's spren, but I do not believe Gavilar knew or believed this.

I'm of the belief that the "One" referred to in the Ym interlude is Adonalsium, and that we will see shards reunite in some fashion, or at least that it was Adonalsium's initial plan that the shards would return together in time.

Responding to these: 1) I feel that the shardic intent of Honor may create some way by which the Radiants could coerce the Voidbringers into accepting this deal. Akin to the Oathpact (which I believe Odium was coerced into, although he may have seen it as an opportunity to corrupt the Heralds in the very long term). 2) (Minor spoiler for Wheel of Time books 11/12) It may be the case that the Radiants were able to swear some sort of non-aggression, mutual disarmament pact that was not immediately a violation of the "Strength before Weakness" oath but trapped them into a situation where the two oaths became counterposed, like in the WoT example.

Evidence for this comes mostly from timing. From Eshonai's PoV in I-4, the Lost Legion escaped the control of their gods 'centuries ago'. This is the right timing to sync with the Recreance. Secondly, this seems like a great way for Odium to harm Honor. A mutual disarmament seems like an honorable thing and so the KR might agree - only to discover that this 'truce' kills their spren. KR are forbidden from putting weakness above strength - presumably Odium's forces do not draw strength from oaths.

Warning: This might contain (heavily masked) spoilers for a different Cosmere book and/or series (which will not be named) as it deals with the prospect of Shards transforming. I was thinking recently about how the first five books and second five will tell separate stories, and came up with one possibility. This isn't really supported by anything in SA but does have some similiarities to another Cosmere work. The end of the first series will likely see two of the shards merge (forming Wrath if it is Honor and Odium; Discord if it is Odium and Cultivation; or Symbiosis if it is Honor and Cultivation), but with Odium held at bay temporarily, but somehow the most powerful of the three. Honor is splintered at the moment but we don't really know much about what that means in practice. The second series will then show the devastated Roshar dealing with the new Shard situation and a final conclusion that possibly sees all three merge somehow or sees Odium's influence kept within limits.