LuckyJim

The discussion on personality and mental illness could easily become a tangent that overwhelms the thread, so I'd recommend we cut it off here. Mental illness is a very complicated topic, and it's difficult to discuss in a healthy, non-stigmatizing way. We could talk for hours about this, and it would probably be worthwhile since there could be a lot to learn here, but it would probably be best to leave it out of this particular thread so we don't derail the original topic.

Those aren't the result of having radiant abilities, Kaladin's depression and Shallan's DID are just part of their personalities. It would be an issue regardless of whether or not they bonded spren.

I've said this before, but fitting the description well doesn't necessarily mean that a character will be a member of a particular order. The descriptions in the blog post are very general, and meant to give a basic idea of the ideals, duties and attitudes of the different orders, but in no way represent every member of any particular order. At the same time any one person could fit well into several orders, because people can't be neatly fit into different boxes. Take Sigzil for example, as a Worldsinger he explored and learned from various cultures across Roshar, although he can handle a spear his true talents lie in his mental and organizational skills, which is why he served as Bridge 4's clerk. He'd probably make a decent Willshaper or Truthwatcher, but he became a Windrunner due to his proximity to honorspren as a squire of Kaladin. In the end the order someone joins is more due to whichever spren finds them first rather than which is the "best fit", and spren can find people for seemingly any reason. Adolin will most likely be an Edgedancer because he's already mostly bonded to Maya, and we already know she likes him to some degree. We don't even know if there are any peakspren willing to bond humans at this point in time.

This could also explain the process through which the Nine are built into the structure. I had assumed the stone was molded around them, but with Progression they could just literally be grown into the structure itself, as a living part of whatever makes up the structure.

They have plenty of stone, the entire Kholinar palace that the slaves were tearing down at the end of Oathbringer. Plus, to soulcast you'd still need other materials, you can't just soulcast something out of nothing.

This is kinda why I have a hard time finding Leshwi, or any Fused really, as sympathetic. Their existence hinges on killing other singers, often by convincing them that they're dying for some higher purpose.

Reading this chapter, I think Leshwi genuinely does want to kill Kaladin. People who have given themselves to Odium don't think in the way we recognize as normal, as we've seen with Moash and I don't think Leshwi is any different, despite seeming so on face value. Venli states as much this chapter, that one of the best ways to earn Leshwi's respect is to kill her and I think it's going to turn out that since Leshwi respects Kaladin (and he's not on the same side as her like Moash) the best way she can think to return that respect is to personally kill him in honorable combat.

Storing pewter makes you smaller as well as weaker, so that might have some advantages.

But he wouldn't necessarily say yes in the first place. In order to convince him to do so, they'd need to be open enough about their intentions to get him to trust them, and if their interests mainly serve themselves I don't think Sazed would be happy to support them. At best it would complicate things, and at worst they'd have a god against them. Securing access to Roshar's Investiture may be more difficult in the short term, but simplifies things in the long term.

I've actually been thinking about this topic recently, and I was thinking that Spook may have given Kelsier his body when he was about to die. We already know that Spook was in favor of the idea of using sick and elderly people who were about to die anyway as sacrifices for hemalurgic resources, and I'd like to think that Spook isn't so much of a hypocrite that he'd object to putting himself to that process as well. In addition, the strong Connection shared by Spook and Kelsier might even facilitate the process of grafting Kelsier's cognitive shadow/identity into Spook's body. Although Spook would be almost 100 years old at the time, through the process of feruchemical atium and gold (which Kelsier could easily have access too, either through hemalurgy or unkeyed medallions) he could restore it to a better state.

Highstorms are regular occurances, meanwhile Sazed has total control over where and when the mists show up. Stormlight would be more accessible and plentiful source of pure Investiture.

Maybe he's a Sleepless, and the one who wrote the epigraph for the Way of Kings (one of them will destroy us). Either that or he's a spren or something, I just really doubt he's human. I might just be missing something important, but it seems really weird to me that a human managed to get into Lasting Integrity and convince the honorspren to let him stay.

I wouldn't mind this sort of publication model actually, but only if there was more than one chapter published a week.

To add to this, swearing the original oaths only works if it's the Radiant who broke their bond in the first place. Kaladin reviving Syl is a simple matter, because he's repairing their bond, but the Radiant who bonded Maya is dead, so it wouldn't work the same way. Brandon has suggested it could be possible, but it would require something extra.

I wouldn't say "as good as dead", I think for that to apply, someone would have to be making some very disastrous decisions that were likely to lead to them getting killed, and that doesn't really apply to Adolin. I think there's more for his character to do, but the same could also be said about Elhokar or Eshonai. Most of all, I think I just resent the idea that Adolin is going to die out of process of elimination, someone has to die and he's the most disposable, I don't know, it just seems very cynical. If someone's going to die, I'd rather it make sense for the story than just done out of some obligation. And yeah, Adolin is also my favorite character, I'm not immune to bias.

Nale is currently the only herald to have joined his own order, and he's the only Skybreaker currently who has reached the fifth ideal (though part of this is due to his flawed teachings). Neither one of these suggests that Taln will be unable to bond a spren of his own and become a Stoneward as well, even though he's not currently.

Worldsinger - A novella detailing Sigzil's early life in training with Hoid, and the events leading up to him being made into a bridgeman. I'm not entirely sure about this, on one hand Sigzil isn't that major of a character, but on the other hand he was oddly cryptic about what it was he did that led him to become a brigeman in the first place, which makes me thing there must be something in there that's important enough to see at some point. Also, Lightweaver - A novella from the perspective of Shallan's squires, covering their path to Radiance while tracking down Ialai and the Sons of Honor.

Perhaps the third group is Jasnah and Taravangian. Both characters are major leaders, and probably have to deal with more internal political struggles. At the same time, they both have a greater understanding of the larger conflict, Taravangian through his new alliegiance with Odium, dealings with Cultivation and the Diagram as a whole, while Jasnah also has knowledge of her own through her dealings with Taln and Ash, Hoid and he travels in Shadesmar. This would make for a sort of background story, while the more important dealings of the actual war, fabrial advances and the listener movement take the foreground. The first group would likely then be Kaladin, Dalinar, Navani, Venli and perhaps Szeth through minor contributions and interludes, or if not him, Renarin.

Personally, I don't think he's a Radiant yet. Most predictions that he's a Dustbringer, Stoneward or Willshaper are all orders with spren that are very opposed to forming oaths with humans again. Also, I think it would be a lot more interesting if he's just a talented escape artist, no magic necessary, people are capable of some very impressive feats just with their own abilities.

I think if you have to argue technicalities in regards to age, that's a pretty bad sign by itself.

From reading Brandon's annotations, it sounds like this was something he got from reading Wheel of Time, where characters that had a minor role interacting with the main characters at one point, would often show up again and meet different main characters. I think he uses this sort of writing well, and it makes the world of Roshar feel a bit more holistic, though if I weren't following fan forums, I'd probably never recognize most of these characters.

YES! My theory of a third faction of listeners was right! It's cool to see Venli building her own pseudo-rebellion, I like that the listeners are able to maintain agency in obtaining freedom instead of being forced to rely on humans, she's becoming a proper Willshaper. I'm also just really excited to see more chapters focusing on the singers/listeners as well, and hopefully maybe some more Radiants from this as well.

I don't think the Kaladin/Leshwi ship makes sense, she's Fused, a being corrupted by Odium and cycles of rebirth that only desires the eradication of mankind. She and the other Heavenly Ones are nice about it, with the whole "honorable duel" thing, but their motivations are still basically the same. Venli and Kaladin kinda works, but they haven't actually met, and it seems people are more interested in the idea of Kaladin being romantically paired with a singer than the actual relationship itself.

What if group 3 is meant to be Venli and Moash/Vyre? My main assumption in this is that Venli is still with the Voidbringer army, she's a Knight Radiant now, but the singers are still her people, and I would assume her allegiance is to them first. Even if she knows that Odium is bad for the future of her people and Dalinar seems cool, she can't trust humanity as a whole to have their best interests in mind. We also know that she's going to have a smaller role in comparison to other flashback characters in the past. On the other hand we have Moash, another major character still in the Voidbringer army. He had a lot of build up in Oathbringer, both in developing his character and motivations, and becoming a highly respected figure in the Voidbringer army, to the point that he's basically an honorary member of the Heavenly Ones. I think its safe to say that we can expect more from Moash than for him to just be a antagonist to hate and then get unceremoniously killed off, I think there's going to be some good development for him in the future. There's some decent room to have these characters and their current headspaces bounce off of each other, they both have highly respected positions in the army, but have very different reactions. Venli is dealing with her guilt of unleashing the apocalypse and is trying to move forward and help her people, she's currently part of the Radiant order that valued freedom, fought oppression and built new social structures. Meanwhile Moash is also dealing with his guilt of betraying his friends, and disillusionment of his people as a whole after fully recognizing just how corrupt they've become, but does this by just giving up on life, and completely submitting to Odium's will. Maybe Moash would be an antagonist for Venli to overcome, he has respect and sway over the singers so she has to convince them to follow her instead, or maybe she can help Moash break Odium's influence and help him become a force for positive change instead of accepting destruction. I could be completely wrong I just really like both of these characters, and I'm excited to see the directions they go.

Any Windrunner with a bonded spren of the third ideal is capable of taking squires, the Windrunners may have been entirely dependent on Kaladin in Oathbringer, but at this point there's plenty that are at the same level as him. It's entirely possible that any squires dependent on Kaladin just moved to the command of a different Windrunner.