LewsTherinTelescope

I don't disagree with this, but that's not really on the table until two books and a new ruler later (and Jasnah has to stab a guy herself when establishing authority, on top of Shallan assassinating Ialai). As everyone's favorite opinionated clown once said,

Society also doesn't work if people can blatantly commit murder and treason repeatedly and be completely beyond any kind of interference because they own a particularly shiny sword.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want him to die, I think it sounds likely to be a cheap and lazy way to pull out an emotional reaction from readers at the cost of a lot of interesting narrative potential unless he has a twist on it I can't currently imagine in store. But Brandon has a trend of doing that in... I think every single series finale he's ever written (I might be forgetting some), so that doesn't really rule out it happening.

Yeah. The Stormfather says that after she proved too small, the Radiants had to stop her before she destroyed all of Roshar: Specific theories vary, but mine has been that when she realized she wasn't strong enough she decided to seek out a Dawnshard (possibly with the aid of some of the Heralds), hence trapping her before she could use it and put everyone at risk. Perhaps the Sleepless on their side told them? They might not know about her yet, or may not feel confident they can take on the swarms.

Someone on Discord pointed out this could be support for Dawnshard theory.

I think Hoid's just such a hater he ignores it lol.

Yeah I'm kinda expecting us to get a cliche "Adolin dies and Shallan finds out she's carrying his child". I hope it doesn't go down like that, but it's where the signs seem to point right now IMO.

The Sibling mentions that people didn't really care about her:

Why make everyone think she "left" for thousands of years? And how did none of the various immensely powerful entities on the planet notice? Why follow the Scholars and not any other worldhopper? It's not impossible necessarily, but it requires a lot of leaps that in my opinion we currently don't have reason to think happened. The mechanism of her being pulled in because the Command is Ruinous also seems odd to me—if someone did an Awakening aligned with Honor or Cultivation on Roshar, would it just suck in all nearby spren?

I don't disagree that it's strange and I wouldn't be shocked if there's more, but this book so far has been full of things that make me go "that sentence should've been workshopped more", so given the connection to what Wyndle says I'm more inclined to say it's just her, personally.

It's heavily implied Odium is bound by a deal. Rayse lumps together the restrictions against harming most people and the binding to the system [RoW 112]: We recently learned the former is the result of a pact [W&T I-2]: We also know that Odium got permission to settle: As for what that is, I have some vague guesses but not sure on exact mechanics. The Heralds are apparently "similar" to champions: Which, side note, explains what Stormfather says to Gavilar [W&T prologue]: And Rayse is super salty about Honor keeping its word only in letter [OB 122]: So I think Honor got Odium to agree to some kind of contest of their forces, with restrictions on how much they can directly aid either side, but Honor managed to cheat with the Oathpact somehow to keep it going forever, thus why it's "part" of what keeps him bound but the bindings are still "greater" than it. Similar to Preservation's gambit with the prison in a sense. This might also be part of the "fiddly"ness in the last WoB you quote, if Odium somehow used the agreement (or his perception of Honor violating it) himself to justify the strike.

Wyndle mentions something similar in RoW: So I think it's just weird wording, but it's possible.

@Dofurion This is the Stormlight-only board, other books have to be spoiler tagged.

It's mentioned in RoW 24: Not sure how that fits with the Kalak line, maybe Nale just left before they hid the gem away? Not that interrogating the Fifth Ideal Radiant Herald leading the Skybreakers is a terribly easy option, much safer to just hunt Kalak.

The wording is confusing, but I don't think that's true: This only works if the Nightwatcher existed before they were asleep. My best guess at how to make the "seems" work is Cultivation just didn't explain what she was doing and so the Nightwatcher's precise nature is theory on the part of those in-world, and potentially it happened before Sibling was born so it's all hearsay to them. Edit: also, there's this from RoW 116:

There's a weird trend of Dustbringers and gender stuff lol. Chana: dressed in masculine garb in the art (only female Herald with armor and no safehand glove, and Pailiah is the only other one with her sword) Ral-na: trans man Malata: strips off her safehand glove to use her powers (under this theory) Rushu: non-binary I suppose it makes sense with the idea of breaking things apart to understand them.

He was alive, but started dying and going insane right around the False Desolation, when Mishram suddenly became super Connected to Roshar and began controlling all the singers. Perhaps she was able to hijack him, in a sense? Almost an invasive or cancerous avatar? (I have no idea if that works even a tiny bit or not.)

Forewarning: If you're looking for serious theorizing, this thread is not the place! This is definitely pretty out there lol. So since last week's chapters I've been toying with the idea that the Night was broken apart into the Unmade, in almost a mirror of the Shattering. And something in this week's chapters gave me another thought... ....what if Mishram was gunning for Honor somehow, and she's going to reassemble herself into Night and take the Roshards??

I think this is reading too much into that line personally, to me that sounds like he's just saying "all the Shards are everywhere". That said, I do think Cohesion has some thematic parallels to Autonomy the same way Division has some thematic parallels to Ruin. There's a lot of evidence through the Nightwatcher for the death aspect, at least. Kaladin references her as bringing death and lies [tWoK 14]: And as a spirit of evil fate or something [tWoK 47]: Nohadon alludes to her being in the afterlife [tWoK 58]: She's also believed to be "below" [RoW 82]: I don't know if I quite agree with this. It's a plausible reading of what the Sibling says, but imo it could just as easily refer to the way the Honorblades are the same "stuff" as spren despite not being spren themselves. Especially since the Sibling views their own nature as a "legacy" of the Stones as different from the way they're a "child" of Honor and Cultivation. Sounds decently plausible to me. For what it's worth, Nightblood isn't the sword's original name, when Vasher killed his wife he renamed it after the smoke it leaks like blood. (OP does reference this, so I assume he's seen this WoB, just not sure if you have or not.)

Plus, insanity is fun to read (as long as people don't get super defensive over it)

Bondsmith is the one that's "left out" yeah, though it's fuzzy and not quite one-to-one.

Hell, the one city of Kholinar got three.

Ooooh. I've seen a lot of theories around Skybreakers or Dustbringers entering, but I haven't seen this connection before. He used to be "He Who Quiets", the title given by Leshwi to Moash for assassination...

Stormfather was around before Honor's death, though.

Perhaps this is related to how the Wind's rhythm led Ashynites to Roshar? Maybe it's that, once the Radiants were founded, bonding the original forces rather than Bondsmith spren was seen as a Bad Thing?