Karger

I don't care.

It is true for me because I said so. I don't care what you do(although I would find it ideal if you could refrain from harming others or yourself).

It is my truth. If you don't like it find your own.

I can think of several possibilities. One is that they used to be spren. Roshar has a number of important and intelligent spren with given specialties that could be consulted by an intelligent people. We know of nine that have changed. I have a mental picture of a singer(the tenth) elected by their fellows to run the ruling council of spren. Imprisoning them in gemstone keeps them in place and insures that they are working for you rather then wandering off. Another is that this is a demonstration of power. Perhaps the original leaders of the singers used thrones but the fused did this in the old days to remind the normies how powerful and fanatical they were and now it has stuck.

A subjective conceit made up by humans so that they can justify their overinflated egos.

Shallan will choose to trust Azure to handle the GBs after turning tables on them rather then further involving herself with a seductive and toxic organization. Does this not count?

Firstly this is not a ship as much as I would enjoy our princess finding someone. This is really about Shallan but I needed a spoiler free title. Sorry. That out of the way I want to discuss Shallan's character development along with a few tidbits that have been troubling me. Allow me to review the following. A Lightweaver's growth is fueled by making choices pertaining to who and what they are. The Lightweaver then vocalizes these truths as an oath. So far Shallan has said the following. I am terrified. I am a murderer. I destroyed my family. I deserve to be happy(the last two are paraphrased) Keep this in mind when reviewing some of the things members of the GBs and Shallan say to each other. “I seek the truth,” Shallan said. “Wherever it may be, whoever may hold it. That’s who I am. Let Shallan Davar be a Radiant, conformist and noble. Let Veil come to us. ... And let her find truth. Mraize is not just making Shallan an offer here. He is defining Shallan's alters and setting them at odds with each other. He is specifically tempting the one he finds most tractable to adopt a different worldview then the rest. “ You always make me want to do the things you ask,” Shallan said. “You tempt me not just with rewards, but with the secrets—or the dangers—themselves... ...You become a hunter in truth. I have known from the beginning your potential.” Mraize is pleased by this because she is declaring herself to be the person he wants her to. Someone who can be tempted and who views resisting him as difficult but is nevertheless committed, intelligent, independent and resourceful. What this means for Shallan. Shallan's most annoying quality in the view of many readers is her paranoia. She does not talk with people who would almost certainly support, aid, and educate her. She continues to avoid asking for help or telling what she knows. She avoids any form of confrontation and only trusts at the minimal level necessary to work with other human beings. In the context of how she sees herself this makes a lot of sense though. She is a terrified murderer on the run for crimes that weigh down her soul and that she feels the people most important to her could not possibly forgive her for. She now acknowledges that she has the right to be happy but that does not make trusting easier just more nessesary. Switching into Azure(Vivenna). Azure's inclusion made me very happy. The cosmere exists! People do travel an adventures! Also in terms of rugged aventurering. The student has indeed become the master! However including her also gives us some problems. Yes we know from chapter 13 that cosmere background stuff will be important in SA. However having Azure just show up say cryptic things(not a pun) do cool and useful things and then leave strays a bit close to a deus ex machina for my tastes. There is also some other stuff that I think should be noted. The following contains most of the info me have about the 17th shard(not us or at least not all of us). Spoiler for length highlighted important sections. I think Azure is at least unofficially acting in concert with the 17th. I don't think she is an official member. I think her mission is more of an off the books/indirect move they are making in an attempt to keep the shards apart. I think their goal(through her) is keeping NB (and whoever carried it) from interfering in the competition between teams Odium and Honor. In the view of the 17th if it causes Odium a lot of pain and he gets free he might go directly for Endowment and cause a lot of damage. Arranging for an experienced, intelligent, and awesome person to receive a bounty for getting it and then bringing it somewhere safe would solve a lot of problems. What this means. I don't think Azure is going to be successful in getting NB any time soon. Doing so would make including NB relatively pointless. Besides I don't want NB and Szeth to be separated before Szeth does his entire arc in book five. I do think however that Shallan will eventually have the chance to turn tables on the GBs. When she does she will have to make a choice about what she wants to do to them. Join their numbers? Work her way up their ladder? Take out all of her issues on them? Or does she choose to move passed her paranoia and let someone else chase this thread. The GB higher ups are almost certainly not liked by the 17th. Letting a good person do this particular job without her own oversight would be a healthy thing for Shallan. Thanks to whoever actually read all that. I wanted to get this out before chapter 15 crushes my so carefully crafted theory. If you can comment before then it would be great.

No official date. Probably the same time as RoW.

I am aware. I wrote that badly.

Mraize speaks of several people. Taravangian is the old fool. The reference is in the quote is to that one in Tukar. The context implies that Mraize does not at the time know who he is(the stormfather says Ishar).

Given that Kaladin has killed Leshwi I do not think shardblades can kill fused easily if at all. Given how much of a problem the fused are and the prevalence of the radiants in the old days this seems improbable.

For this to work Formless would also have to have prepared to kill Ialai and been able to take control of her for long enough to get the murder weapon and hide it where Shallan can't find it but have access to it at the time. Leaving aside all my other arguments Formless's very name implies that she does not have much sense of self yet.

No problem. Fortune is not luck though Also good and bad are really relative concepts. I think for good reason there is no shard of good.

Shallan's fourth alter.

So Hoid does sometimes not get to a place worthy of his presence and just leaves but in general he has absolutely no idea why he is where he ends up. That actually makes some sense.

I suggested this but someone on discord shot it down with the quote

No problem. Glad I am not completely crazy.

A lively debate has been going on about the fannahn-im. Although their name, those ones of alteration, sounds like they soulcast they are known as builders and their order produces scholars some of whom work on biological warfare and others who study surges? Quite a dilemma. The obvious Radiant parallel to these people are truthwatchers but how could a illumination or progression fused make a building? An answer eventually struck me while walking today. That is when it hit me. Remember this passage from chapter 14? and now check out this WoB spoiler for length. and then remember (if you can a lot was happening during the sanderlanche) Kaladin fights a fused that looks like and does this The fannahn-im use progression. In battle they sculpt their carapace to use as weapons and armor. This allows them to alter their physical form considerably hence the name. This also explains why Raboniel is a member of that order and how it helped her manufacture the plague. The ability to rapidly cultivate her cultures of pathogens makes bio-warfare scarily easy. As to how they build those structures it is quite simple. Rather then soulcasting(a highly inefficient use of limited voidlight reserves that are a problem for all fused) or even using cohesion they grow them. Roshar has a verity of plants that incorporate the rock and crem of the world into their structure. The fannahn-im use these plants to construct large structures and then allow the plants to fossilize.

That would only work with no other Herlads died during the final desolation which Taln had no way of knowing. The Heralds don't stick around forever but at least some of the fused survive not to mention embittered parsh. Finally the Heralds don't exactly teach advanced technology. They most likely teach simple things that work(sanitation, crop rotation, ignoring soothsayers, having a good legal code). If too few of your people are educated on an advanced topic(theoretical physics) and are having to deal with the aftermath of a war(few young people to do labor) they will not perpetuate that knowledge.

Basically. Although your destiny is not set in stone. It is just the most likely course heading based on your current trajectory. Hoid knows where to go but not why. It happens.

We don't know if that was written by singers. It could be a transcription made by humans although that is a good point. That is actually quite a good theory. Kudos.

So fortune from what we can tell is a spiritual property like identity or connection. We both have some understanding of what those are but they are still difficult to understand. Basically if you were to push a type of fortune into an object you would alter the probable course of that object's future. Imagine putting every bit of Ruin's fortune you could get your hands on into a speck of dust. That speck of dust would probably cause an enormous machine to brake down. But he would still know where the ball was going. He does not. But how can it also be contagious? Axies doesn't stay in one place because other people around him become unlucky if he is there too long.

Welcome to the shard. This brings up an interesting point. With the exception of the Listeners who copied from humans we have no knowledge of any singer texts whatsoever. Perhaps they never needed to record that way(IE scholarform gives total recall) or perhaps they never got to a technological point where writing was necessary(bronze age ish) and afterward the fused did all remembering required.

Apparently the nature of immortality and fused culture are going to be a huge deal in this one. (Brandon mentioned it in his annotation that I completely missed).

That would be kind of cool. I don't think it happened but it is possible.