bxcnch

If I were holding Preservation, then Preservation would probably become Laziness. Or Procrastination.

I absolutely agree, ambition is also a form of passion. I think you are kind of confusing her with Dominion and/or Devotion though. Ambition never was on Sel or had any real role in Elantris, unless I missed something really big. With all respect, I don't think it says that the flame consumes emotion. It says "Something so terrible that it consumed lightself. It was hot. ... Burning. Overwhelming. Power. It was the scream of soldiers on the battlefield...et cetera, et cetera." There's nothing about a flame consuming emotion. To me it seems like the flame IS the emotion. Hatred consumes, maybe. But can't other emotions consume too? The people at Kholinar were "consumed" by hedonism or ecstacy. Or look at young Dalinar. He was definitely experiencing some sort of very passionate feeling on the battlefield. I don't think it's just hatred though, I think it was ecstacy or euphoria. And when the war was over he was feeling empty and consumed, spending his time in taverns etc. I think many emotions can consume, like despair or even hope. Calm and Passion don't fit together that nicely anyway. As for Craving, Withdrawal and Agony, I don't really understand how they are more compatible with Hatred than with Passion. If I am feeling agony, I am suffering, sad and in despair - but I don't necessarily hate. The thing is, we don't know whether he was lying or not. Generally, he seemed to be very honest and friendly to Dalinar. Sure, he was trying to pull him over to his own side, but still. I don't remember him lying at any point in the book. He seemed to believe that he is showing Dalinar his true self. You are right, maybe he is lying. I personally think what Dalinar saw was Odium's true self and Rayse is just making the wrong conclusions via wishful thinking. I think - and this is just my theory or personal belief - that Odium embodies something that includes hatred, but also some other strong emotions and passions like ecstacy, hedonism, despair or sadness. Devotion and Ambition are both, I think, goal-oriented passion. When you are devoted to a person you are feeling strong emotions that are connected to another being or thing. Odium is, I think, self-centered passion that makes you break away from your ideals. Take Dalinar for example. Dalinar in OB has a choice: To do what he thinks is right by taking responsibility even though it hurts - or to forsake his ideals and responsibility because its easier to live that way. Or take Kaladin in WoR. He has the choice between following his ideals and his feeling of what is good and right or to instead refuse and allow Moash to kill Elhokar, because of his own bitterness towards him. Last but not least, Moash, who decided that his misdeeds aren't his own fault, but that society is to blame for everything he has done. In all of these cases the characters either do what they think is right even if it's not what they personally want, or they cross their self-imposed moral limits and cast away all responsibilities and duties because of their own personal desires. That is a recurring motif in the series, and since the first of these two options is obviously the choice that Honor would approve of, I think it would be fitting if Odium would embody the other option. As I said, it's just my own personal opinion that that is what Odium is. The fact that emotions like hedonism, craving, ecstatsy and agony are also associated with Odium, either through the Unmade, or through the rhythms are why I think so, apart from the fact that I would find it disappointing if Odium was as simple as being "merely" Hatred. That's just my opinion and I think there's some arguments that may support this, but of course I don't have any real proof and I never claimed to. However, I also don't think there's any real proof that Odium really just is hatred.

I agree with Ixthos on this. To me, Odium, in short, is the Id, while Honour is the Super-Ego. That is not quite the same as "Passion", but it definitely is a very strong part of that and similiar enough that Odium himself and many others could argue that he is Passion. Yes, but I am not sure if Syl, Hoid and the Stormfather really are the most objective sources on Odium's intent. They hate Odium. Their opinions of him are so low, that for them it is probably just as difficult to be objective about this as it is for Odium himself. Let's just pretend for a second that Ruin, for example, actually is the Shard of Change. I know he isn't, but if he had been, and still had done what he did, I think Vin and the others still would have thought of him just as "Ruin", or "Destruction". When your enemy, the being who caused all your pain tells you that he is the embodiment of destruction, you'd probably believe him. When he claims to be "all emotion", you probably wouldn't believe him. Except, not really. Sure, there's been a lot of hatred, because Odium's intent very much includes hatred, but as Ixthos pointed out, Dalinar got to see Odium's "true self" - which included things like joy, sadness and lust. Usually, the shards we know can accurately be judged by their associated investiture. Odium's investiture involves nine Slivers, only one of which, Nergaoul, is based on hatred. There also is one based on hedonism and lust, emotions that Dalinar experienced when he saw Odium's "true form". And the way the elites in Kholinar were running around when Shallan was there also seemed very unemotional and "void-like" to me, like sleepwalkers. So, no, I definitely wouldn't say that "all of Odium's manifestations so far involved hatred". Well, they don't feel hateful either. But the real point is, Odium's magic system requires someone to be passionate. Maybe it doesn't create passion, but Radiant-ism doesn't create honour either. After all, Kaladin didn't become honourable as a result of his magic, but the magic was a result of his being honourable. The same is true with Odium. Passion and/or hatred is the requirement and the magic is the result. Not the other way around. The WoB says that Odium is not really Passion, I agree. But that doesn't mean that he's Hatred either. BS says that the intents are "intrinsic things that the sixteen all knew". So, Odium was given his name because "Odium" apparently is just the word that best sums up what he, at his core, is. The problem with that is, that we also know that, out-of-universe, the shards' names were picked, among other things, according to how good they sound. Honor for example, sounds better, than "Self-Discipline" or "Responsibility". And I think that lessens our ability to really make conclusions about the intents based on names. Just look at "Honor". As I said, a name that sounds good. But it's also a little misleading, because the word "honour" has no real meaning when you take it outside of context. Depending on culture, society and time, the word "honour" could mean pretty much everything. Let's take the Shin - for whom, I think, protecting others via fighting, would be a dishonourable thing to do, seeing how they abhor violence. And yet that is what the Windrunners, who even bond Honorspren, do all the time. So, really, what does Honor even mean in the Cosmere? According to Wikipedia, Honour is "the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct (...) an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or institution such as a family, school, regiment or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honour, and the moral code of the society at large." So, honour, as I said, is defined in large parts based on what society you are in. But judging by the magic system on Roshar, the Windrunners are the most honourable order of Radiants and they are defined by their willingness to break the law to protect people. This value of "protecting even those that I hate" is apparently the same for all Windrunners, even in societies like the Alethi, where it is seen as morally acceptable to sacrifice dozens of Bridgemen's lives trying to get some gemhearts. So, apparently, the shard Honor believes in something like "basic values" that are universally correct. Protecting the weak is, apparently, always the right thing to do, even when the "moral code of the society at large", disagrees. Which means that Honor isn't really just about "being honourable", at least not the way I (and Wikipedia) would define that word. The shard Honor is, definitely, about morality. His magic system encourages people to follow a specific Ideal or ideology that they personally relate to. These ideals range from protectiveness and obedience to things like truth, rationality or unity. But as the Skybreakers and Windrunners demonstrate, there can be such things as mutually exclusive orders. Windrunners and Skybreakers have vastly different ideas about what is right and what isn't. And yet Honor encourages both of them to follow their own personal moral code, instead of a specific culture's moral code, or even a singular, universal code. My conclusion would be that Honor's intent is to encourage humanity to pledge itself to a code of persoanl principles and ideals and to try to get as close to these ideals as possible. You might call that Honor, but there are much more clear and concise words for what he embodies, like Idealism, Responsibility, Dedication and others. And yet, the name Honor was chosen instead. The WoB says that the names are intrinsic to them and represent what the shards are. But I think that doesn't mean that they are the best or the only words. Another example for that would be Preservation. When all of the shards agree that "Preservation" is just what that shard IS, then why don't they call it just "Stagnation"? Isn't that equally correct? I think there's even a WoB or an annotation somewhere that says that both Preservation and Ruin are "charged" terms for things changing or not changing. I assume that the shards' names are just approximations - if you really could give them "perfect" names, they'd sound a lot more like "Things-not-changing". Honor would be called "People-trying-to-be-the-way-they-think-they-should-be". Odium I think, is similiar. The name Odium is just as abstract, as is Passion. I mean, really, what is Passion? Isn't Passion just the same as emotion? Also, what exactly is the difference between passion and devotion? If Odium was passion, then why would there be two shards with pretty much the same intent? The only possible conclusion is that Odium is not passion, but something way different than "devotion" - not necessarily hatred though. We do know that Odium's intent includes joy and sadness, because that's what Dalinar saw. So what is the difference between the emotions that Devotion contains and the emotions that Odium contains. My guess is that, unlike what Ixthos said, it really is about the direction that you take your emotions and/or passion. Let's first look at devotion. Devotion is a strong emotion connected to something else. For example, you can be devoted to a religion or to a goal. Devotion then is something like dedication. However, IIRC, WoB has also said that Devotion could be called "Love" or "Compassion" as well, which is a little different. Anyway, Devotion includes passion, which is why Odium cannot be just passion. Devotion's intent, from what we know, is all about emotions that are connected to something else and that are centered around another being/object. Someone who is devoted to bringing justice would feel hateful towards criminals, but it would be different from Odium's kind of hatred. Odium's agents have also felt strong emotions in their appearances. Moash hated the Alethi culture for what they had done to him. Dalinar was ecstatic about killing people. Amaram was feeling guilty and disappointed about his role in the world. Moash, Dalinar and Amaram are all driven by various very different passions and feelings, not all of which are simply "Hatred". Dalinar didn't really hate most of the soldiers he killed when he was under the effects of the thrill. He was ecstatic. So what is the common denominator of all these passions and emotions compared to those associated with Devotion? Well, Devotion is emotion regarding other things or beings. Odium, I guess, is "selfish" emotion. Dalinar doesn't care about anything in the world when he is on the battlefield, there is no compassion at all. It's his personal pleasure. In WoR Kaladin hates Amaram for what he has done, and hatred of injustice is something very windrunner-ish. But it is not honourable because Kaladin's grudge is purely selfish, there would be no moral justification for killing Amaram or Elhokar; he only cares about his own revenge. Moash has the same, he declares that all of Alethi culture is at fault for his own life's problems despite the fact that he himself is mostly responsible with his bad decisions. Even his hatred is always hatred based on what has been done to him. Odium and Honor are basically the opposites that the humans on Roshar have to choose between. Odium is always about the individual person, their feelings, their personal opinions and desires, unconnected to morality, duty or oaths. Honor is about unity, ideals and personal sacrifice and responsibility, he's about deciding to follow your beliefs when you could instead forsake them in favour of fullfilling your personal desires. Odium is the id and Honor the Super-Ego. At least that's my opinion.

My favourite "normal" villains are probably Paalm and Bluefingers, just because of how smart they were. Odium, Sadeas and Taravangian didn't really impress me a lot in terms of villainous scheming, but Paalm and Bluefingers were pretty much unstoppable. Besides, Paalm was probably the most unpredictable villain so far. I never knew when Paalm was going to appear next. I also liked the Serial-killer-ish aspect to her, which was not what I expected from the novel at all. Among the Shards, Ruin is easily my favourite, second only to Harmony. Ruin always was so strangely... friendly. At least that's how it seemed to me at first. Now, after a re-read, I was surprised how antagonistic he actually was, because I completely forgot about some of his mocking and evil laughing. I remembered him a lot nicer. But I still kind of see where I actually got that impression from. Like how he stopped to explain that he isn't just being malicious or spiteful, but that he just thinks of destruction as something legitimately good. Or how he always spends time talking to Vin. Normally, the "villainous monologuing" would be boring, but knowing that this god spent a few millenia imprisoned, unable to talk to anyone besides Rashek and Zane... it's ridiculous really, but I kind of got the impression that Ruin was maybe just a tiny little bit, well, lonely after all this time. In the scene where she ascends he doesn't even seem to bother that much. He actually even gives her an "introduction into godhood", in a way. I think, some time before he even told her something like "I thought that you of all people would underdtand me". And he's kind of right, it's difficult to understand or sympathise with someone who wants to destroy existence. It's not like I feel sorry for him, but it's still a surprisingly humane trait.

We do know that Honor and Cultivation were on Roshar before humanity and that humanity arrived about the same time as Odium did. So we have a species that migrates onto an alien planet and finds out that this planet is ruled by two literal gods, something that Ashyn, as far as we know, didn't have. I am sure that this sparked at least some curiosity in many humans. We also know that the humans of Ashyn did have enough realmatic knowledge and technology to somehow travel from Ashyn to Roshar, and while what BS has said about the Ashyn Exodus sounds like they weren't quite using the same tricks that the worldhoppers we know use, it still suggest that the humans of Ashyn had at least a little more cosmere-awareness than they do now. I think it's very possible that they either knew of Adonalsium already, or had the ressources and connections to figure out about him. Besides, we haven't seen that many shardworlds yet, so we cannot really tell how common knowledge of Adonalsium is - or at least was. Roshar and Scadrial both had hugely devastating events that resulted in, among others, a loss of knowledge, and the other worlds have barely had any real shardic activity in the last centuries. Also, many religions we have seen so far do worship shards, for example, Austrism almost certainly is connected either to Endowment or to Adonalsium, the Passions in Thaylenah are based on Odium and his unmade and Vorinism is based on Honor. And yet Vorinism draws little to no distinction between Jezrien, the Stormfather and the Almighty - something that probably was not true when the Radiants were still around. Over the centuries, the culture and knowledge on Roshar has changed so much that they today think of them as the same being. What humanity used to believe and know has grown very corrupted and stylised over the centuries - but the Heralds lived before all of that. It's possible that when the Ashyn Exodus took place, everybody knew about Adonalsium.

I just thought of another question: When the Stormfather is talking of Syl as his daughter, is that the Spren-part talking or the Honor/Tanavast-Part? (Syl claims that she is a part of Honor, so I guess you could see Honor as her "father", in a way)

Wait, Ruin had other reasons than "being Ruin"?

I didn't say that it was a protective mechanism. I meant that Sel's landscape is Invested as a part of the magic system(s) of Sel, which is why the form and shape of the countries and the ethnicity of its inhabitants or realms impact the way that the magic works. I thought that's what the Invested landscape referred to. I thought that as a side-effect of that, Sel would not be as easily affected.

But is the cognitive shadow that of Tanavast, the human(oid) being himself, or is it that of Tanavast, vessel of Honor? Like Ati was apparently different than Ati holding the shard of Ruin, at least in terms of personality. Does the CS still have the intent of Honour to some extent?

So there's a Cognitive Shadow that is "inside" or "fused to" the Stormfather, and that Cognitive Shadow, according to Coppermind, belongs to the Almighty. So... is it Honor's CS? The Shard Honor's CS (if that is even possible)? Or just Tanavast's CS?

It has also been stated somewhere that Sel's landscape and geography itself is Invested to some degree - and therefore more difficult to change with Investiture, shardic or not.

The way I understand Autonomy's intent I'd suggest Anarchy instead. In Anarchy, everybody is governing only themselves.

Harmony. He just seems like the kind of person who you could have a very nice and interesting discussion with. And he probably knows way more about how allomancy and feruchemy can be used in a Sci-Fi-ish context, unlike Khriss and other Cosmere Scholars.

Dalinar: Always liked him in WoK (he was only one of four PoVs, Shallan is was too boring and Adolin too classist). Then he bonded the Stormfather and became the reasonable kind-of-king Roshar needed. And after OB he has got first spot. Pattern: Before he was around I really disliked Shallan's chapters. Now that he's around she's actually interesting. For me, Pattern saved WoR. Harmony/Sazed: ...because there just isn't anything unlikable about him. Nothing at all. Even his lack of unlikable-ness isn't unlikable. That is something that only side-characters have usually. Vasher and/or TenSoon. Can't decide right now Lift: I never found her annoying, actually. I do find Lopen annoying, but never Lift. For a lot of people it seems to be the other way around...? Nale: I really didn't expect an insane herald to be so sane. I really liked how Szeth basically declared war on his order and Nale just said: "Sure, you can do that. Good luck." For a "villain" that was strangely friendly. Bleeder: I think she's still the most effective and smart cosmere villain we have seen so far. Ruin: I don't know why I like him so much. Maybe I just like the evil characters? Steris: One of the funniest characters in the Cosmere without being one-dimensional.

I am actually impressed with how OB turned characters I hated into characters I like. If you had asked me what my least favourite characters are, a few years ago I would have said Nale and Szeth, both of which I actually like now. Szeth in particular has lost the annoying and unjustified self-pity that made me hate him in WoR. Elhokar I liked even in WoR and he only became better in OB. I never really liked Jasnah, but even her few scenes in OB made me like her a bit more. Dalinar stopped being "kind of boring" and became probably my favourite character. Shallan was probably the worst character in OB, but overall I still like her a lot. I am a little annoyed that Pattern didn't really get a lot of "screen time", because I thought that he was a major factor in making Shallan interesting. Also her Ghostblood-arc, her Hellaran-Kaladin-arc and so on all remained stuck in narrative limbo. Apart from her, Odium was a little disappointing because of his sheer ineffectiveness. And because in terms of personality, he is just a dishonest, condescending psychopath. Ruin at least had unique motivations and in some way he sometimes even seemed to be honestly friendly to Vin. I always wanted to see him fail and I guess he wasn't a very complex character, but as a villain, I almost kind of liked Ruin. Odium, however, is just... evil. Period. After all the hype that was a little unsatisfying.

Just to be entirely sure...the splintered one mentioned in the WoB that we haven't really seen yet is Ambition, right?

IIRC, when Susebron interrupts Bluefinger when he's about to kill Siri, he says "stop" and Bluefinger does. And he explicitly does before he is hit with an awakened object. Sounds like Type VI to me. Sentient entities made of investiture (breath) that follow a specific semantic task or purpose (command)? A purpose like "be honorable"? Or "Find lies"? "Follow the law"? "Make big storms"? ...Where have I seen that before?

We only know that red is a result of a shard corrupting another shard's magic. The Stormfather might pre-date Honor, but he didn't belong to another shard. Besides, IIRC, there are WoBssuggesting that the Shard-Color-association is not really as important as we think. For example, Scadrians aren't red either, despite being a Ruin-Preservation-mix.

...Is Szift actually a thing? Isn't she about 13 in OB? Ew... (Also I am both weirdly disappointed and hugely relieved that nobody seems to have thought of Szord-Nimi yet)

I do agree that Renarin vs. Dalinar might feel to forced now, but then again, we never had a longer PoV from Renarin's perspective (we had a few short ones in OB but I don't feel like they had a lot of effect on his characterisation). His whole life is already pretty unsatisfying and that is before you remember that he's about to,find out how his mother really died. That leaves a lot of room for character development. There's still 2 more books which may flesh him out a little bit more. Until now he has always been a secondary character at best. He was irrelevant in WoK, only interesting in WoR when he turned out to be a KR and now he's finally a major plot point because of the reveal at the end of OB. For 3 books he's had only a few mentions and was always more of a background character - but now we finally reached the point where it is almost impossible for Brandon to ignore him. Renarin is still pretty much a secondary character and most of his personality comes from what others say about him. He's not a "flat" character, but... I feel like we didn't actually get much information on Renarin yet. So, yes - Renarin becoming evil sounds unlikely and forced in the moment, but I feel like we cannot really say where his character arc is going before we get to know him a little better. Him having a major PoV in the back 5 is not necessarily a way to rule him out - either he is getting flashbacks Eshonai-style, or he just survives the duel - I don't know how that would work but I think Brandon is creative enough to find a loophole in the rules he made up. Kaladin vs Moash is something that I personally just don't want to be the final showdown, because 1.) it's still too predictable, 2.) the way I view Kaladin I think it will need a big punch for him to swear a new oath in SA4 and I feel like Moash can deliver that one, 3.)I feel like it is kind of a waste if the final battle of the series is two people with the same powerset fighting esch other, especially if it is the powers that we have known from the very beginning of the books - I feel like after exploring so much of the magic system, the final battle should have more to it than just the Windrunner-lashings again, 4.) I like Kaladin, I really like him and his chapters in WoK were something I always looked forward to after the relative bore that is Shallan before Pattern, but... I feel like he shouldn't be the main character of the series. A lot of people seem to think of Kaladin as the main character of the series because he got the first book, but in OB I feel like he was a lot less important already, and in general he feels so ..."heroic" - in a slightly stereotypical way - that doesn't mean that SA has to be completely twist-y and unpredictable, maybe Kaladin really just is the hero that will save the world. It's possible and it would probably still make for a great story. But after all the unique and unconventional characters that we were introduced to - Lift, Shallan, Dalinar, Szeth - Kaladin being the true hero in the end would feel a little... I don't know, just a tiny little bit of a letdown.

Well, according to Ruin, Preservation should just let him do his job, because when Scadrial is destroyed there won't be anything left that could change - once Ruin's done, nothing is happening, nothing is changing, there's only a big pile of nothing. Everything is going to remain the way it is. And that would be something Preservation would really like - complete stagnation, lack of change. Ruin thinks, that there definitely is an outcome both he and Preservation would like - the end of the world. Of course that is Ruin, the most untrustworthy being in the universe, basically Scadrial's version of Satan, the lieral personification of change trying to comprehend the psychology of its complete opposite, Preservation, so... that doesn't really mean a lot, even IF he was telling the truth. But still...

I kind of disagree with the idea that Moash is a very righteous or law-abiding person. I think Moash cares nothing for laws and this kind of justice. His entire character arc since WoK has always been about self-deception. He has severe trust issues at first before eventually joining Kaladin. When he's in the battle camps he wants to kill Elhokar and pretends that it's "because it's the best for Alethkar" and that "Dalinar would make for a better king anyway". But we all know that Moash hates Alethkar because of its elitism and slavery, to the point that he even joins the Singers in OB. His faith in Dalinar also comes out of nowhere - especially considering Moash's severe trust issues and his contempt for lighteyes. Later he joins the Singers' for almost no reason at all - except that he hates Alethkar and might get a chance at revenge. And suddenly he is convinced of the Singers' righteous ownership of the land. Also there's his "I am what society has made me"-justification - that's an excuse you'd expect to hear from a serial killer - not the "fighter for justice" Moash pretends to be. In short:: Moash is and has always been about nothing but finding poor excuses for horrible acts that he commits out of selfish reasons. He went from "It's the best for Alethkar" to "Let's bring death and destruction to the human opressors" in a week or two. I don't think Moash is capable of swearing allegiance to an external cause because he'll abandon it in the moment it cannot justify his actions anymore. In fact I think Moash will have major problems with a certain Skybreaker. The Moash-Szeth-relation will, in my opinion, be just as important as Moash-Kaladin. Think about it:: 1.)Szeth is a magic assassin with Jezrien's Honorblade, working against Dalinar. He obeys all commands of his master without showing emotion. The main enemy he faces are Dalinar and his knights. 2.) Then - after a fight with Kaladin - his life changes forever. He meets a Heralt, gains a magic blade and is renamed (Son-Son-Vallano -> Son-Neturo). 3.) Now he fights for his former enemy, the (de-facto)leader of Mankind and starts a "crusade" to take revenge on the Shin. 1.)Moash is a former bridgeman and shardbearer working for Dalinar. He is on a "crusade" to take revenge on Elhokar. 2.)Then - after a fight with Kaladin, his life changes forever. He meets a Herald, gains a magic blade and is renamed. 3.)Now he's a magic assassin with Jezrien's Honorblade working against Dalinar. He obeys all commands of his master without any emotion. His new main enemy are the Knights Radiant. Forget the "Dark-Kaladin"-thing. Moash isn't "dark Kaladin". He's "Dark Szeth". Their biography's read after another are basically a Ketek - Honorblade/Villain/fights Kaladin/Hero//Hero/fights Kaladin/Villain/Honorblade. There's no way that's a coincidence. I am also convinced that this won't be lost on Szeth - he will fight with Kaladin because Kaladin wants to save Moash while Szeth will try to bring his "successor" to justice - maybe as some sort of atonement. At least that's my theory. Szeth's backstory in Shinovar will only come in SA5, so he probably won't have mucht to do in SA4 and I feel like Moash is perfect for bringing in the Honor-Law-conflict between Skybreakers and Windrunners that has only been hinted at so far. Also Szeth vs Kaladin would add symmetry to the series (SA2 and SA4) and symmetry is obviously an important motif in the series.

Oh, sorry. I think I misunderstood what you wrote before. So...the theory is that Unity will unite all the shards eventually, but not directly after his ascension? Because that's the impression I got from the original post. Okay, this way I can kind of agree to your theory. I still don't really like the idea of yet another Shard-Fusion but it does make sense this way. My point before was that the Cosmere doesn't really feel very interconnected yet. If you took the Mistborn series for itself and only read that, there would be nothing implying a larger cosmology - even if you also read the other books, you'd probably miss a lot. If Dalinar (as Unity) would show up in Era 2 now and demand that Harmony swear an oath to him, then that would kind of be very hard to understand to the casual reader. But if the Unity-theory is taking place at the end of the "Cosmere Saga" as a whole, then I think that might work, yes.

Okay, so, the criteria for Odium's champion as far as I can tell (I'm just going to presume that the contest of champions is the climax of book 5): Must already be on Odium's side, or must be easily convinced to switch on Odium's side. Most likely has voidbinding powers, though he/she may gain the powers by switching sides. Must have a lot of (repressed, unresolved) pain that Odium can take away. Is most likely not Kaladin, Dalinar, Shallan or Venli - their story arcs involve coming closer to self-acceptance and, well, sanity. Shallan's oaths involve coming out of denial and living with her pain, Kaladin's oaths seem to be about accepting that you cannot save everyone. Dalinar has found forgiveness. Venli will probably be the same in the next book. Since the finale is Szeth's book he may or may not have reached that point of character development by that point. Nevertheless probably is either a good guy or a former good guy, because:... The fight must have emotional impact (it's the finale after all) Odium must be confident that he'll win. That might mean that Odium's champion is very powerful, OR Odium's champion will be someone that Humanity's champion cannot kill for another reason. Last but not least: Tragedy. It may be someone we don't want to die - Sanderson likes to hurt us after all. The Champion of Humanity will meanwhile be a powerful Radiant, probably one with "cool" abilities (Jasnah and Shallan's powers are very difficult to imagine in a "fight over the fate of the world" - they are not "visually appealing" enough. Maybe that sounds mean, but, well, this is a story after all). Even more important that the character has some sort of emotional connection to the champion of Odium (a final battle between, for example, Nale and Shallan wouldn't be as interesting as e.g. Moah vs. Kaladin) . So, I think it's probably one of the following: Moash vs. Kaladin: Obviously. Moash has been played up a lot as the Anti-Kaladin, their powers are very impressive, Kaladin does not want to kill Moash and it seems like Odium already has great plans for Moash.Moash already is the exact opposite of Kaladin and the battle would definitely have a strong impact on both of them. On the other hand, it is a very obvious idea. Also I think Moash will play an important role in Kaladin realising that he cannot save everyone - which I hope is going to be earlier than SA 5. And also Kaladin is the most "classic" Fantasy Protagonists - him being the Champion is almost too predictable. Szeth vs. Nale: Also possible - Szeth is very loyal to Dalinar and an obvious choice because SA 5 is his book. Nale is some sort of Mentor-ish figure to him, at least in theory, and both Nale and Szeth seem to understand and respect the other's interpretation of the Oaths. However, Szeth and Nale don't really have that much emotional impact as a fight and while Nale does in a certain way represent a counterpart to Szeth, I think it's not as interesting as some others. Kaladin vs Shallan: VERY unlikely, but possible. To be fair, it would clearly be a very emotional fight. Shallan has a lot of unresolved pain that she still somehow is in denial about. And she still has not adressed the fact that Kaladin killed her brother. So, yes, they do have the potential to fight and Shallan could theoretically maybe become Odium's champion. But - still, not very likely. It would also be a very, very bad end for both for their character arcs IMO. Dalinar vs. Some Random Voidbinder: To be honest, I think Dalinar is most likely to be the Champion of Humanity. He is one of Sanderson's favourite characters, he is the true main protagonist of SA (which originally revolved around him and Elhokar), and in my opinion has in a certain way taken over Honor's role, maybe not (yet) as a shard, but as a symbol of Honor and as the leader of Roshar's civilisations. He is also extremely powerful and the only main character (Venli aside) to have personally confronted Odium. Dalinar may face a Voidbinder controlled by Odium, while the real fight is one between him and Odium on a more philosophical level. Like he is fighting, while Odium is remembering him of his failures et cetera. But there's one possible champion of Odium who I think is more likely than all the ones above, simply because it his a character who I actually think is very probable to switch sides, and, because it's a fight where it actually seems like Odium would win. All of the above are pretty even fights, they don't necessarily have that situation in which you think "Oh no. How is he going to win THAT battle?" And, to be honest, I think the following scenario is also the most probable because it simply is the most tragic of all the possible fights:

I think Shards do apply their intent to themselves unless it's against their intent. I can very well imagine that Ruin would definitely splinter himself - but when you want to kill everybody, then you really shouldn't start with yourself. We never got to see what Ruin would have done after destroying Scadrial. I think it's possible that Ruin would eventually destroy himself. And Preservation only sacrificed himself because in that specific situation, preserving himself would have meant the destruction of everything else - which is even more against his intent. Or is there a WoB stating that shardic intents don't affect themselves? I really hate spoiling all the fun by introducing "doylist" arguments here, but I really cannot imagine Dalinar/Unity flying through space from one planet to another to "unite all the shards". Everything involving Adonalsium and the vessels is more of a "Behind-the-scenes" hidden storyline and you are supposed to be able to read and enjoy the books even if you don't know of the Cosmere. After all, words like Adonalsium or Investiture barely show up in the stories at all, even the word "shard" has, I think, only been mentioned once or twice. It would be strange and out-of-place from a narrative standpoint to have a chapter devoted to Dalinar visiting worlds from other books, meeting Sazed for example, and then urging him to make an oath, before then traveling to Taldain to somehow convince Autonomy of all people to swear an oath as well - before then introduce all six of the mysterious unknown shards on worlds we have never even seen before in a single chapter. Unless you think that the "Unity"-thing will appear in the other books and not in SA. But I also don't see Harmony off-handedly mention that he has sworn an oath to a mysterious foreign god that just came by one day. Imagine you are watching Star-Wars and suddenly one of the Jedi says: "By the way, there's not only the Dark and the Light Side, there's also a red side, a green side, a blue and a purple side - each of which works in a different way - but these sides are not as important." And then it's never brought up again. You'd be terribly confused. That's how large-scale interactions between the shards and planets look for the more casual readers. I know that I'd have a lot of questions if I was unaware of the Cosmere and suddenly shards and foreign magic appear in a story I'm readinh. "What? There's more of these god-things? How is that even possible? Why didn't I know about that already? Where were they? Why didn't they try to stop Odium/Ruin/...? Are they evil?" I think Dalinar becoming the "King of Shards" or "Neo-Adonalsium" would have to much impact on the entire Cosmere - and you shouldn't need to read SA to understand the rest of the Cosmere. Besides... (Spoiler for Wax and Wayne)