KandraAllomancer

I doubt it. The soulcasting that @PiedPeterPiper mentioned is the key here. It's hard to justify veganism/vegetarianism on moral (nothing is killed) or religious grounds (soulcasting comes from the Almighty after all) on Roshar, so I would assume it's rather rare

My cats, Zoya and Vivianne:

There's already a link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition It goes live on July 7th, at 9am Mountain Daylight Time

No to spoil anything, but get back to your comments on Part 1 after you finish the book. You got right more than you imagine

I mean, objectively, there is nothing to argue about - the issue is just usually poorly explained, even in otherwise good math books. The "normal" mathematics - everything we use for describing the world (from counting on fingers to string theory) is based on one simple premise: we assume that the empty set exists and built further things from it (natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers etc.) using logic and set theory. As long as we do that, the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis are automatically true - they're not even axioms, simply the consequence of the fact that we built everything from scratch (I mean the empty set). But, just like we assumed the existence of an empty set, we can assume the existence of ANYTHING. You can create a new axiom that postulates the existence of very crazy sets or any other mathematical structures. You essentially create a new kind of mathematics in which the aforementioned axioms/hypotheses don't necessarily hold. It has, as long as we know, nothing to do with the real world and you'll not encounter such weird things unless you do PhD in pure mathematics. Storms, the Truthwatcher result was so correct

Exactly, although I would assume that the print run is more likely to be 1000, with first 50 copies going to Brandon, his family, friends, charity events etc. and the rest to Kickstarter

We have some clues - when Nale revives Szeth at the end of WoR he mentions that his bond to Jezrien's Honorblade ha been broken. I would assume that becoming a Herald (or Cognitive Shadow in general) is likely to break the bond with a spren; subsequent resurrections (if the bond is renewed) are probably much easier in that regard Honor probably could separate the soul from the body, replace some parts with Investiture and return it to the body in a blink of an eye - which is technically killing, but more in line of clinical death. Or at least that's how I imagine it

My personal theory on this is quite similar: there were 10 godspren (or at the very least some large splinters, probably of Honor and Cultivation) on Ashyn and two godspren corresponding to Shards on Roshar. The destruction of Ashyn and Odium corrupting the Unmade led to the current situation

I can see two possible scenarios here: A. It might be a quality shared among some but not all Shards, possibly one opposed to Passion. The plans to defeat/contain Passion-aligned Shards (Odium, Ruin) we've seen so far seem to cause anguish of truly massive proportions (the Oathpact, mists snapping people) B. If we're talking a Shard, it might represent Adonalsium's Empathy, warped into Anguish by the lack of ability to let go (Ruin) and give up pain (Odium), similarly to how divine wrath became Odium

Based on the new information I get the Willshaper vibe from (Mistborn spoilers): so maybe something akin to "creating a way for as many as possible to make their own choices" fits somewhere in their Oaths

Dibs on Truthcaller it is, then

Same situation Truthwatcher, followed closely be Elsecaller:

Same situation Truthwatcher, followed closely be Elsecaller:

Writing on the wall, better visible on page 18

Also, there seems to be a reference to the Alloy of Law on page 16 (and then 18). I wonder why this book in particular

To be fair, Odium was interested in Dalinar first, long before he met Cultivation. Cultivation is a Shard with a full power, Odium is bound on a separate planet and somehow injured (hence the Broken One). That results in a slight advantage for Slammer. Small things can likely be hidden from Odium e.g. Shallan being Lightweaver not an Elsecaller. And Cultivation had a lot of time to move lots of things in motion - Taravangian is a very probable candidate here, also Sja-anat maybe? There'll be more that we don't see for now, most likely

The kingdoms had their own royalty, I think (why would Jezrien be a Herald of Kings if there were no kings?) and given the scale of destruction after a Desolation, Urithiru was probably like a relief organization in such times. Or maybe that's just how I imagine it The Stormfather is in a lost position here, I agree. But Cultivation can probably hide her candidate from Odium. No idea about the Sibling, he's a complete wildcard here

Not wanting to participate in the war is one thing and hardcore pacifism is another Dalinar is still the de facto military leader and the face of the coalition, which, before the Last Desolation, would be Jezrien's role, I believe She's not (as far as we know) manipulated be every living Shard left on Roshar

I treat her as a person who could unite and inspire people based on some grand idea. I don't deny that she does have many features of other Orders (especially Stonewards) and I don't claim much knowledge on historical authenticity here, but that's how she came to be remembered He did have some great ones, but than again there were things like this message to the British people in 1940 (based on Wikipedia): He was excellent at inspiring people and uniting them around a common cause, but actually running a country with that attitude? Big no. When it came to military issues, Gandhi was quickly sidelined, as far as I can understand The best quote I could find is this (WoR, chapter 2): He was a charismatic leader with the Big Idea. He convinced other Heralds to form the Oathpact. Then he realized the necessity of organizing the KR. That's what he provided - the initial idea, charismatic leadership and enough followers to back this up with force. As for actually creating the laws, organizing stuff etc. I would assume that was more Jezrien and Nale. I admit though that it's just my interpretation of Ishar, and it might not end up being true The best candidate of the ones mentioned in this thread seems to be Queen Fen, but I'm not sure if she's broken enough to be Radiant in the first place

@Karger We don't really know all the details about Urithiru's power structure so we can't find definite answers at this moments. Hopefully we'll get some useful information soon, maybe even in RoW Just to clarify my position, here's what I believe about Bondsmiths and Urithiru: The thrones, as in positions of authority, probably belonged to the Heralds. The phrase "Urithiru and its thrones" might simply signify the closer link to divinity they shared with the Bondsmiths. Before Aharietiam, Heralds were the ones guiding humanity, they had millenia of experience. The KR helped them according to their own order: as military leaders/protectors (Windrunners), ambassadors to the spren (Elsecallers) etc. I believe that Bondsmiths' purpose was to provide unity and hope to people in the times that required great sacrifice, not necessarily make good policies (hence the real life equivalents would be Joan of Arc, Gandhi etc.). Their Oaths clearly show us what decisions would lead to killing the gospren - intentionally dividing people and failing to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes. Dalinar fails at many decisions and goals: he fails to unite the highprinces, prevent the Everstorm and keep the coalition whole. But he still keeps going, which is exactly what allows him to progress with his Oaths. At the end of OB he can write and that's what I believe could be the Bondsmiths' credo There are two caveats about Dalinar though: A. He's not just a Bondsmith now - as a leader of the human coalition he's doing the job that historically belonged to Jezrien (some parallel with the Stormfather who besides being a godspren has also a special affinity for Windrunners and honorspren) B. Dalinar, in my opinion, has all the qualities of a good Bondsmith, but he's far from being a safe choice. He's still very connected to Odium and his Bondsmith-like attitude stemmed from magical amnesia. His bond with the Stormfather is not what's logical - it's what best for the narrative of the Stormlight books

Pious + guiding + uniting people sounds, at least in principle, very Bondsmith-like. I don't think we have any evidence that every Bondsmith was actually included in policy making. I think that "one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones." simply refers to the Sibling Bondsmith and their involvement in maintaning Urithiru functionality To be more precise: failed miserably soon after Honor died and Cultivaton turned away from the world Why assume they're not ready? Determining if somebody is ready for the bond and will respond well to mentioned guidance is relatively easy when you have futuresight Typical modern fabrials (painrial etc.) use non-sapient spren, so there's no moral problem as far as I can tell. Ancient fabrials are a mystery. Half-shards, on the other hand, are relatively new and (assuming the truth of Taravangian's words) offer a unique moral conundrum

Historical counterexample: Joan of Arc. Teenager. Illiterate But seriously: with Cultivation taking active part in guiding humans and the KR being an established organization with long history, the matters looked differently. The most suitable replacement candidate was probably known in advance before any given Bondsmith died. And, in the end, the Radiants failed miserably. Honor is dead. In such circumstances it's possible (though by no means proven) that Cultivation and the godspren may want to take another route Shaping a person to be the best version of themselves seems like the very definition of Cultivation We don't know how the ancient fabrials were created; given that the magic system is of Honor and Cultivation I highly doubt that the spren were forced. The Oathgate spren in OB certainly didn't seem angry at their fate. What Navani does seems to be different. The Recreance is obviously a valid point as well

That's perfectly fine reasoning, but it's based on an implicit assumption that the godspren want to provide an immediate advantage for humanity. Unlike the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher has a living parent with supposedly great futuresight and might be persuaded by Cultivation to bond with a candidate whose qualifications will bloom and become useful only in Arc 2. As for the Sibling, I can definitely imagine them being angry at Navani and humankind in general (if Taravangian's revelation that half-shard spren are sapient and trapped against their will turns out to be true) and turn to Singers instead

That's technically the attribute of Windrunners, for Bondsmiths we have Pious/ Guiding. Also, I'm not sure if spren look for experience or potential more. What experience did Tien have, for example, to potentially become a Lightweaver?