honorblades

This wouldn’t surprise me terribly, I mean Awakening itself is only a couple hundred years old. It could be that Endowment didn’t create Nalthis, but she could have populated it with life.

Indeed. This, given Zahel’s nature as a scientist and scholar, makes me think he most likely got it from someone in Silverlight. Honestly I would be shocked if he wasn’t in contact with at least a few people there. I doubt he’s been to Yolen itself, but it is possible I suppose.

1. Storms, organic rhythm fabrials.. now that’s something I didn’t expect. That has a very Wheel of Time vibe. 2. So we’ve seen this before - humans can almost hear the rhythms, but not quite. Some are better than others. Some singers even notice humans unconsciously attuning the rhythms.. I wonder if they can be pushed over the edge somehow to fully hear them? 3. Hmm.. a fossil older than Hoid or the shards. It had to have come from Yolen then, right? How and why did Zahel get his hands on it?

Hello friends, I have nothing to add other than a very... interesting tidbit I somehow missed on previous readings of WoR, which pertains to this theory I think. This is the scene in which the Davar family is attending a local fair, and Hoid is meeting with Lin Davar. I’m not sure if this scene has been explained before, I apologize if so. This is the first time we see Hoid meet Shallan on screen, and in my opinion he seems entirely too surprised to see Shallan at a fair in which her entire family is also in attendance. What is it about Shallan in this moment that has Hoid, a man I would assume to be difficult to catch unawares, so absolutely floored? It is perhaps worth noting that immediately after this interaction, Hoid drinks some metals, coerces Shallan to do a little lightweaving, and then proclaims that she is battling “unnatural forces”. Overall a weird scene. I hope this helps, but I suspect I will have only inspired more questions

I responded to someone else saying essentially the same thing, but I’ll reiterate: People are taking issue with my use of the word deadeye, which is fair, but it’s basically semantics right? We agree on the main point, which is that the Sibling is slumbering, unable to be bonded, and needs to be woken up / revived / whatever by someone. The term deadeye is used for a spren who similarly is unable to be bonded. It may not be exactly right, but I would argue that term is as close as we can get to the truth right now.

I’m thinking it’s that the 4th oath grants shardplate, which would protect from the suppression field. Similarly to how shardplate would protect from lashings or allomantic pushes / pulls.

I mean sure, it’s not completely confirmed yet. But I do think that nothing we know yet or what the SF has said would be contradictory to the Sibling being a deadeye. The bondsmith spren are different enough that I can imagine even if the Radiant they bonded dies, they wouldn’t truly be a “deadeye”, like a normal spren should. Just.. sleeping, not aware, and unable to be bonded. “You hurt them enough”, what do we know that a human can do that truly hurts or kills the spren? The Radiant dying, or breaking the bond through broken oaths. Regardless of terminology, the end result is the same.

Could it be that this is the undertone for why Shallan and Adolin go to Lasting Integrity? Their reasoning to the Honorspren being, look, Urithiru is captured, we need to revive the Sibling, if you don’t help us we will all lose. I think that would make a great argument.

This chapter was crazy, it almost had a horror feel to it: I’m glad to finally get confirmation that the Sibling is a deadeye, that’s a thought I’ve had for a while. I suspect Adolin in the process of reviving Maya will be imperative to the Radiants helping the Sibling live again as well. Let’s just hope they can figure it out before it’s too late for Urithiru...

Well, Tanavast did sort of divest himself from the Shard of Honor, in a way, but that just comes from the nature of being a Vessel. It seems to be that after holding a Shard, once you die you just automatically become a Cognitive Shadow unless you specifically choose to go to the Beyond. Tanavast is said to have merged his Cognitive Shadow with the Stormfather, so in a way he is still alive, but.. I have to say, I agree with the sentiment of your argument here. Tanavast’s CS + the Stormfather doesn’t feel like a merged entity, it just feels like... the Stormfather. I would love for some craziness to happen so that the current cast could actually speak to Tanavast at some point.

Right right, I should have made this more clear in my post: Nale, Ishar, and really any other antagonistic Herald will obviously have an interesting and important role to play. Who I am referring to in my above post are the Heralds who do decide to try and help humanity and the KR. It’s really hard to guess what could be in store for Heralds like Vedel or Chana, neither of whom I don’t think we have even seen yet. At least not confirmed sightings, like we have of Taln or Shalash.

First and foremost, what is the original purpose of the Heralds? With Honor’s blessing, the Heralds established the Oathpact with the intention of locking the Fused on Braize. They returned each Desolation to assist humanity in rebuilding, and to serve as the main fighting force. They succeeded for a few thousand years, with a marked decrease in success leading up to Aharietam. During the early Desolations, the Heralds existed with their minds largely intact. With the rise of the Knight Radiant Orders, the Heralds presumably took on additional duties: assisting the Radiants with the reconstruction of society, and teaching the Radiant Orders advanced use of the Surges. Each Herald became the patron of their corresponding Order, and could have led them in a philosophical manner as well. The Current Situation However, with Jezrien dead and and advent of the Everstorm, the Oathpact is either crippled or worthless for its original purpose. The Fused aren’t going back to Braize, so even if one or more of the Heralds went back, it is doubtful any Fused would be trapped as they were before. Due to Taln’s supreme sacrifice & the betrayal of the other Heralds, humanity was given an enormous amount of time to recover. Although society has become more fragmented and no longer as cooperative than during the Heraldic Epochs (an assumption, given we know so little about them), technology progression has been astounding. Fabrial technology in particular is hugely more advanced than during the time of the Heralds. Humanity no longer has a need to relearn casting bronze, basic medical procedure, or many of the other duties the Heralds performed during their usual return for a Desolation. Furthermore, Brandon has explicitly stated that all their Heralds are insane. “Do not trust anything any Herald says. Ever.” So this takes away from the Herald’s other main reason for being in the story - their massive wealth of knowledge. Many of them have of course, been alive since Ashyn fell, have thousands of years of combat experience, and have a higher than average (for current Roshar) levels of Cosmere knowledge. What Comes Next So, the Heralds cannot perform their original duty of upholding the Oathpact. They cannot be trusted fully to provide information or even opinion. They are too valuable to risk being used heavily - if at all - for fighting on the front lines. Clearly they are still somewhat of a danger, as the Fused want them dead, but seemed afraid of killing Jezrien themselves. So what else are they good for? Narratively, I think the answer to this question will be that the Heralds are valuable because of their flashback sequences. Looking back to the exodus from Ashyn, the time of the Dawnsingers and the First Desolation, this will be excellent exposition that would otherwise be impossible to attain (except for a Fused POV, I suppose). Practically speaking, I am having a hard time coming up with a good explanation for what the Heralds will be doing in Stormlight 4 and 5. I look forward to anyone’s prediction or analysis on this topic. I debated placing this in the Stormlight forum, but decided RoW would be safer. We don’t have much new info on the Heralds yet, but if we do get some, I’d like to discuss it. As always, thank you for reading.

I don’t necessarily want this to be the case because it feels a little.. cheap? easy to predict? but it seems as though seeing Restares will trigger a memory from Shallan’s youth, something that happened between Shallan and Restares. Something that would make Shallan want to kill him. Personally I’m hoping it’s more complicated than that.

Luckily, we do have two worldhoppers on Roshar that would know how to get atium, one of whom can also use it... This may be more likely than it at first seems

Brandon said this in his Chapter 13 annotation: What does everyone think “going further” will entail? Another chapter featuring Mraize? Or perhaps someone else? Personally, I am really hoping we get a new worldhopper introduced in this book. Here is the reddit link for anyone who wants to read the full annotation.

If nothing else, it would help my sleep schedule... with RoW and Cyberpunk 2077 releasing in a single week, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping for maybe 8 days straight

I am not trying to discount your entire theory, but this piece in particularly is not as important as people are thinking imo. The Ghostblood’s ultimate goal is knowledge and power, getting rich off of Stormlight sales is just a means to an end. That being said, Sebarial could still be involved with them. Perhaps as a client, not a full member?

Well, as Mraize says, the Investiture truly belongs to the various gods, does it not? Why would stormlight be Connected to the Stormfather, but Divine Breath isn’t Connected to Endowment? Or at least not enough to limit travel? What I am saying is the rules don’t seem to apply evenly. There is something we are missing here.

I wonder, Mraize says that the Investiture ties people to a planet through Connection, but it seems like it isn’t that simple. Kelsier as a cognitive shadow couldn’t leave Scadrial, but Felt the misting could. Vasher, a Returned, has been to Roshar, back to Nalthis, and then to Roshar again with varying levels of Breath. Apparently with no big issue. The Elantrians don’t seem to have a problem moving around. So certain powers tie you more strongly to the planet? Radiants have a spren bond which certainly makes a difference, but Mraize says you can’t even take stormlight in a gem very far.. Weird.

This one .... it’s so good. November can’t come soon enough, we need more info!!!

I still think the real treasure here is getting Radiants off-world. The stormlight will be useful, and certainly very profitable, but the knowledge of how to get a full Radiant with powers intact to somewhere like Scadrial - or beyond - is invaluable

Mraize’s chicken is certainly an Aviar, although I’m starting to doubt that it is a parrot like the ones we see from Sixth of the Dusk. Parrots don’t typically eat small mammals, and their beaks aren’t usually described as “hooked”. Could it be some sort of hawk? Regardless, I think this implies that Mraize’s aviar has different powers than the ones we have seen so far. If Mraize has figured how to manipulate Connection to get Stormlight far off-world, I think that means he knows how to get spren and Radiants off world as well. Powerful knowledge. I think we will find out how Hoid got back to Roshar in time for Era 2 in this book. We may even see current era Radiants leave the Rosharan system.

So it seems clear that this person is a feruchemist, full or not. It also seems likely that they are an agent of Harmony, someone from Silverlight is possible but seems less likely to me. Also unlikely is that they are a rogue agent feruchemist. The question is, I think, if this person is working for Harmony, why didn’t he send a Kandra instead? What work could they be doing that requires a feruchemist, especially if this person is a full feruchemist?

My initial thought when reading this chapter was that Gavilar had enough Breath to have Lifesense. Where he would have gotten that though... anyone's guess.

Honestly all your ideas were good, but this one. . . I want it so bad. I hope we will get some glimpses from this time period, maybe when Ash or Taln are POV characters in the Back 5? Personally, I would love to see a novella set on Ashyn after the planet was destroyed. We have a sample of this already, but I think Brandon shelved that book idea. Probably not going to see that again, unfortunately.