LewsTherinTelescope

Ba-Ado-Mishram? The Ghostbloods? Testament? She has plenty to do. This is what I'm hoping for, though unfortunately Szeth's stability appears to have collapsed drastically in RoW from how it was in OB, so where previously, I would not even have considered Szeth for Odium, with Szeth's instability and Szeth's old manipulator in the Odium spot.... But I do hope for Szeth for Dalinar's champion, hopefully wielding as many Honorblades as he can get his hands on since he's trained with all ten Surges and they're now heading to Shinovar. Imagine Szeth with all ten orders (nine Honorblades plus his highspren) fighting against Nale with Yelig-nar..... this would be hands-down the most epic and terrifying fight we've seen. A fight between two people with all ten Surges who (unlike Amaram) actually know how to use them to great effect.... And of course has the benefit of the ideological battle for the Skybreakers. If Szeth swears his Fifth to become his own law, we could have a good ol' letter of the law vs spirit of the law fight. Though, on the other hand, I sort of hope it's someone else, because I semi-like the idea of Dalinar's champion losing and Dalinar becoming a Fused, and Szeth, refusing to be taken advantage of by Taravangian ever. again., even indirectly through Dalinar, swearing his Fifth Ideal and becoming independent, and maybe (though this might not fit for thematic reasons so I'm torn on it) killing Dalinar permanently with Nightblood because the Blackthorn serving Odium completely and even more powerfully is a horrifying thought. Honestly I have no idea what would even work well as an ending for Moash now. Kaladin swore his Fourth already, which was where a lot of people expected Moash to die, but that didn't happen and it'd feel belated now He pretty firmly rejected the concept of redemption at the end of RoW He's already had his "realizing how pathetic he is" moment, so his facade has already been broken for the reader and it's going to be harder to push him as a major threat Additionally, this would make killing him now weird, because it'd feel like a "putting the pitiful wretch out of his misery" thing, and that is antithetical to the themes of The Stormlight Archive. The idea I've seen suggested of offering him up to Gavinor to entice him over just feels like such an anticlimactic and wasted end So I agree, I have no idea where he's going, but the champion contest feels like the wrong way.

RoW 76: HoA 76:

I feel like there's kind of a very important distinction there. That is.... kind of a very massive mistake to make, especially considering there are a lot of spren around who were alive back then to correct them.

RoW 87:

I've actually been very curious on this point. With what Jasnah said about how she "had been preparing for nearly two decades for these exact events" ("these exact events" being making a contract with a motherhecking god), the fact she was so surprised that Gavilar did not trust her, and the fact he kept trying to pair her and Amaram, I've started to wonder if perhaps she was involved with the Sons of Honor at one point in her past.

A relevant WoB: I've got my variant on the likelihood of how Shards relate to Change done, I think, but didn't have time to get to any other potential Dawnshards, and didn't look over my Change chart as thoroughly as I'd like to. Here's my current version, but it's greatly subject to, well, change, as I flesh things out with the other ones. Dark green means likely (imo), light green means maybe, light red means I don't think so, and dark red means I really doubt it. Shard Strong For Weak For Neutral Weak Against Strong Against Reasoning Devotion Supports watching change and growth but also lasting interpersonal connection Dominion Will change when necessary to dominate, but also will make the new structure last Ruin Does this need elaboration? Preservation Does this need elaboration? Endowment Sort of focused on change, but also heavily on others doing as they choose Honor SL has that drive to act thing, but also likes oaths being kept rather than changing Cultivation Does this need elaboration? Odium Force of passion and dynamism and fleeting but powerful moments Autonomy Will support both change and not-change depending on if it suits the goal, but goal leans not Ambition Force of change and growth and achievement Invention Definitely change-y Whimsy Change without regard for much else Mercy Will support both change and not-change depending on if it suits the goal, but goal leans not Valor Feels very drive-to-accomplish-y [Wisdom] Depends heavily on exact name, but "Wisdom" to me has a more go-with-the-flow vibe [?] I've tried to provide explanations, but they're pretty brief and on-the-spot. Will likely edit those a lot when I do a more polished version.

Eh, I don't think he was behind the False Desolation at all. From what Ulim says, it sounded like the Unmade launched it on their own.

I think it would refer to light still, but that said word for light might still trace back to Adonalsium

Oh man, it gets even better. Shared the theory on the Discord server to get more thoughts, and someone (after some grumbling that the connection completely passed them by) said that, if they remember right, then when used as a subject in a sentence, the stem "mishra" would actually be "mishram". ("Singular nominative/accusative case" was what they said, but I had to google that, so I just put what a search said it means instead, lol.)

Now that is very interesting.... And according to Wiktionary, it was borrowed into English as the last name.... Mishra. Hm. Well then apparently I did see this before and just forgot that part, my bad, lol That is.... very very interesting. Great catch! Edit: @mdross81 Brandon's confirmed that some Alethi names are based on Sanskrit, and it's usually intended to indicate a connection to the Dawnchant. The plot thickens....

Note that we're explicitly told all the honorspren were killed in one single day. So yeah, it was fast.

I don't see why she'd need to convert Light. We've already seen 2-3 big spren produce Light of their respective Shards (the Stormfather, the Sibling, and maybe the Nightwatcher but that's a weird one because the WoB confirming the presence of Lifelight in the Valley refers to a nonexistent green mist, so it's hard to know). And whatever her origins, Ba-Ado-Mishram is presumably mostly of Odium by now, so it makes sense she'd make Voidlight were she to learn the trick to producing it. I'm also not sure how converting it would help get it offworld? I agree they're likely after her powers as part of this scheme one way or another, though. Interesting, I can't find anything on this anywhere. Do you have more info?

(I mean, he actually has, so it's a moot point :P) My main holdups with Ruin being inherently passionate instead of just Ati: Sazed seeing it less as an angry force of destruction and more a necessary force of change (heck, Sazed still doesn't even like Ruin, even if he views it as important) The main emotion in the description of Ruin's Intent is seemingly more just Ati mad about being betrayed and locked up for thousands of years: The fact that emotion weakens Ruin's hold on things, when you would expect it to strengthen it if it were a very emotional Shard Yeah, fair You too!

I think that mostly seems reasonable, though unfortunately I only got to this when it was late for me, so I'll have to wait to take a better look at it as well Tomorrow I'll try and draft up my own version of such a chart to discuss any differences we might have in how we put them.

Oh interesting, thanks! Must've missed that. A person probably perceives themselves as themselves, but considering how air, spires of rock, etc are all separate things, I think that how absolutely massive a planet is means it tends to be perceived in smaller chunks that minds can handle better.

Why should that affect how they view changing things, if they're all opposed to Change? In my opinion, it makes much more sense if they're instead neutral on Change, changing things where it's beneficial to their Commands and opposing it where it's detrimental.

Wait, I thought they only stored their own weight? I could be wrong tho. You assume all of those things are seen as one object. And I highly doubt Identity is the only relevant concept there. Otherwise the entire rest of the spiritweb is a bit redundant, no?

Then essentially every single NOT-Change Shard will be identical, because none of them can do any form of change.

Lol, is this the Stormlight version of "Cleopatra is closer to the invention of the iPhone than the building of the Great Pyramid"?

I don't see why a Ferring would be able to change the Identity of anything outside themselves, let alone a whole planet. And Connection, and likely would require changing individual things on the planet as well, if plants and animals exist, and this is assuming the planet would include everything in the correct manner (for example, destroying the Cogntive aspect of a castle wouldn't change other things in the castle; now think about how many things are on a whole planet).

I've never really liked the idea of Shards being associated with NOT-Dawnshards, because it just kinda doesn't make sense to me. The Dawnshards are Commands, why would giving something a Command to Change result in a Shard associated with NOT-Change? So my theories have tended towards them more being neutral on Commands they aren't associated with, instead of anti-them.

Not just pre-TLR, it'd be around three and a half millennia before TLR was born, at the latest (Aharietiam). Way early. By our current understanding of the timeline, they'd've been born around 3k Rosharan years post-Shattering, yeah.

Been in use in various forms since at least 1375, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Feels weird for him to say people don't have access to the Dawnshards, if so.

Aren't fabrials like that relatively new? Raboniel mentions that the Fused didn't even know spren could be caught in gems until it happened to Ba-Ado-Mishram (though humans clearly discovered it at some point prior, since the revelation to them was that Unmade could be caught like ordinary spren, not that ordinary spren could — but this might be a new development since Aharietiam still).