Honorless

We know they're storing and tapping Fortune... whatever that means. We don't really understand the deal with Fortune all that well. So far, Fortune has only been seen onscreen for futuresight. Hoid's use of Fortune, which we haven't technically seen in action but have WoBs on, seems to be the closest analogue to Feruchemical chromium. He knows when & where important things are about to happen. So, it's probably not quite luck that they're using but probabilities, they probably get some innate sense of where & when important or good or bad things are about to happen to them. That would make them lucky while tapping, but I have no idea why that would make them unlucky while storing. Feruchemy is weird with what it considers balanced and equivalent exchange.

Probably? Because super speed is a very complicated thing, so I don't know how I'll feel if Brandon says it's supposed to just be physical speed. What we saw looked very much like a temporal power. Or maybe Feruchemy just doesn't fit into quadrants at all.

He seems to have the same authority as a high ranking Fused, with his title of Vyre or 'He Who Quiets', about the same as Lezian the Pursuer. He isn't any rank in the Alethi Vorin society due to the collapse of Alethkar and his fugitive status with the Alethis (and the Coalition at large) at the Shattered Plains & Urithiru. The new Singer society under the Fused does not care about Lighteyes Darkeyes.

Agreed on those three things The Venli / Eshonai backstory didn't add much to the story and I was really looking forward to it, how exactly Venli discovered the things she did but she turned out to have been completely led along. Still, it added some depth to her character and the final Eshonai chapter was a complete tear jerker Kaladin nightmare thing that Odium and Moash planned. His PoVs in the first part, especially the short ones after his forced retirement were absolute gold. The nightmare sequences were pretty exhausting to read and probably should've been glossed over, with the readers only seeing the effects on Kaladin, thankfully that wasn't stretched out like I was dreading after reading the Odium Moash meeting. The Jasnah & Hoid putting down the Highprince scene did seem pretty meh. Hoid seems more... human in this book, it's easier to see how fallible and smug he is. The Jasnah chapters were good in this book. I liked that she tried to get into the thick of a war rather than commanding from a distance. It wasn't a masterpiece scene but the intent behind it was quite nice. The contrast between Jasnah: the myth and the woman was another good bit. We saw how even her family saw her as this monolith, and we saw human Jasnah trying to get there. Sanderson seems to like demystification as a theme, it's more apparent with how he wrote Elantris and Dawnshard. I like mystery a lot but I don't dislike this approach either, and I definitely like demystified characters more than demystified locations, so no complaints on that front from me.

For Preservation and Ruin, close to each other's anti-Rhythms is how I see them. Their Investiture did repel and harm one another upon contact. They have been described as opposites, more than most Shard pairings, a bunch of times by Brandon. Probably why Harmony is having so much trouble... harmonizing them. A correction: in era 2, the Mists didn't withdraw from Hemalurgy iirc, but Hemalurgy using Trellium spikes Huh, Mercy does sound like if could be an opposite of Odium, like Devotion. I suppose that's a bit more support on her fighting Odium than fighting with Odium in the Threnodite System. The Skaze do seem like they resemble anti-Investiture a great deal. I don't think just being Dominion's Splinters would make them anti-Investiture somehow. Seons and Skaze were both created when their Shards, Devotion and Dominion were Splintered, so they're not artificially created by humans using magic. Why would Dominion's Splintering create anti-Investiture? Well, Odium killing other Shards using their anti-Investiture could be interesting, I guess. Was Khriss alive or Worldhopping during D&D's Splintering? I don't think so, this was way earlier in the timeline and they were Odium's first victims. Lots of guesswork. But yeah, that similarity in appearances between anti-Lights and the Skaze could definitely lead to something substantial.

We were told 'Ado', in the case of Roshar, meant 'light' (and 'Lin' means 'born unto'). Given that Ba-Ado-Mishram was apparently integral to all Roshar and its spren, since her imprisonment is suspected to have played a part in the Recreance spren to turn into Deadeyes and possibly also affected the Singers' ability to hear the Rhythms and the Sibling's ability to create Towerlight. She was a spren of Roshar before Odium Corrupted her, and Roshar was created by Adonalsium, so I don't think she was his enemy. Adonalsium does sound like a godmetal name but it seems to refer to the individual and his godmetal appears to have been called 'Dragonsteel'.

We think that the Voidspren, like the Unmade, are spren that Odium Corrupted, not created. Shards can definitively create spren, we got confirmation in RoW that Cultivation created the Nightwatcher, and created her to be separate so she learns about the world on her own and not via perception & Connection.

We don't know the exact terms of the Oathpact but we do have confirmation of this. It couldn't be that they just didn't think of the terms to their logical conclusion... that's just... Anyway, thankfully we know that this idea wouldn't work anymore. As per Odium and Dalinar's meeting over the terms in RoW, the Oathpact is broken, the Fused can be reborn in the Everstorm.

What do you mean why? Because that would mean he's sending Kaladin to get tortured! Knowingly, because he knows what happened to the Heralds between Desolations! If he guilt-trips him "for the greater good" or... orders him... I'd want Dalinar dead. Preferably in a drawn out fashion but I'll settle for a quick shanking.

In the middle of a war? With so many personal issues plaguing her mind? I don't think they're ready for that and I can't recall either of them talking about wanting kids yet. She's a strategic asset too, as a Knight Radiant and the most skilled at Lightweaving, taking her out of the action for nearly a year during the True Desolation... I don't think she and Adolin would be pressured to produce an heir either. Some other characters in some other fantasy novel would look at the situation and say, this is exactly the time where they need assurance of having fall-back heirs but I don't think that's what Brandon would focus on, nor do I see Dalinar, Navani or Jasnah pressuring them. Plot-wise, she's got a lot on her plate already, so I don't see a surprise pregnancy trope coming either. So, definitely not in book 5. But! There's 5 more books at the back half, with a significant time-jump. Shallan and Adolin are more likely to have kids then not now. Assuming either or both don't bite the dust.

If Dalinar does do that, I'll start rooting for Vyre to shank Dalinar next

Yup, someone noticed the difference between Patternblade and Testamentblade. Also Shallan commenting on several oddities with her power:

I imagine the metalminds are immune to damage caused by the effects that they're meant to store and tap

If Taravangian still has his Boon/Bane he might be, sort of, Corrupted... though the terminology might be different. This part, in particular, might suggest that he still has the Boon/Bane: Possibly Cultivation's plans run longer still or it might be a failsafe

Okay, first of all, please be nicer Theorizing means you'll have to put forward some credible claim that other people can examine. By all means, base your theories on whatever you want, proving it otherwise is... exactly how the process works.

A safe haven for people who need it, I don't have high hopes that the Nightwatcher could provide something like that

It could be, I feel like the weight's at the last line in that ketek. Another Death Rattle potentially bringing dark tidings for the Stormfather

Could go either way. Sja-Anat might or might not have been free during the False Desolation, Ba-Ado-Mishram apparently was. Could she really have made that many Enlightened Mistspren under Odium's nose? She might've been hiding & acting to gain some trust with the spren and/or experiment for a while before going forwards with it. It's also possible that the Truthwatcher was using some other means of futuresight, it was a very disliked bit of magic (seriously, there's gotta be more to Moelach to breed this much distrust).

A lot of the stuff you're talking about is a bit out of date, we now know that the Tranquiline Halls and Damnation refer to other planets. As for the screams, they are related to the Spiritual Realm. When a person in the Cosmere dies, their Physical body decomposes, their Cognitive self goes to the Beyond (afterlife? non existence? Who knows), their Spiritweb lingers for a while before dissolving. These lingering Spiritwebs are what Dalinar & Szeth hear, via their Connections to their victims. The afterlife of some other planets, like Threnody and potentially Sel, are messed up. We don't have any indication of the same for Roshar. Well, barring certain groups of Cognitive Shadows, like the Fused and the Heralds. Also possibly the Unmade Moelach might do something to the newly dead to get the Death Rattles. The chances of Cusicesh consuming Cognitive Shadows is... as likely as anything else really, we know nothing about the entity aside from what we saw with Axies and the little we heard from Shallan

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing a story or two about a fully grown character handling things. Those are fun too. And it's not like people become monolithic at some point, where no further development is possible. It could also be about guiding others. Or perhaps a subversion of the expectation of escalation in stories in general and fantasy stories in particular. Plus, it's Shai. More Shai is good. Shai navigating the world beyond the Rose Empire or even Sel, after becoming a Worldhopper would be cool to see. Her finding the Imperial Fool would be awesome. Brandon himself has been a bit doubtful of whether or not to do an Emperor's Soul sequel: then he had an idea Either way, we'll get more Shai there are multiple WoBs confirming that Brandon intends to write Shai again That's a lot of Cosmere books & novellas he wants to find time for

Wax & Wayne Book 4 - 30% Skyward 3 (tentative title Nowhere) copyedit review - 100% Sunreach (Skyward novella) final draft - 100% ReDawn (Skyward novella) draft 1 - 35%

Congrats on your marriage, Chaos, LL! I hope the Moash Taravangian interaction potential is used and TOdium doesn't just continue to hide it. Would also love to see Fused reactions. Moash's blindness... I'll feel a bit iffy if it's just magically healed or he's killed off, potentially a bit disrespectful to blind people. I don't think he'll remain blind though. We missed out on Leshwi Moash interactions after that, as Moash became dead inside. It was nice to see him interacting with the surviving Singer refugees for a little while. It was Hnanan who gave Moash the knife, not Leshwi. I think she was the one who gave him the title though.

Brandon's never gonna confirm anything about the Beyond, including its existence. He's talked about this multiple times: