Realmatic Shadow

This is now the only way I can picture that scene, thank you

I'm going to reply to these two points at once, because they're sort of the same question in my mind. My belief of the timeline right before Taln returning to Roshar is that, in between his torture he was able to see that Voidspren had made their way to the Physical Realm on Roshar despite his role in the Oathpact to hold them back. Seeing this, in a moment of lucidity, he "breaks" and releases the Fused as a whole, and wishes to prepare the human nations for the incoming attack. When he lands in Roshar, we find him too far gone to be able to communicate properly with those who he meets, until he is near a Radiant swearing an Oath, which we've since heard brings them closer to the Spiritual Realm, and allows the Heralds to see more clearly past their madnesses. This allows Taln to have never truly broken, and the Return to have still begun. Taln never truly gave in to the torture, he simply saw that his efforts were not going to hold them back much longer, and he was needed more with the humans, helping them prepare (though this didn't go as planned). If this is truly how it occurred, then it depends on whether you see the Return of the Fused as inevitable once Voidspren were brought from Braize to Roshar, or if you believe that Taln holding even longer could've delayed it further. If you see it as inevitable, then Gavilar/Axindweth's plotting would the cause, if you think that Taln could've held them back for longer, giving humans a better footing before the Fused return, then Taln is the cause. I think my entire line of reasoning is tempered by really wanting Taln to still be the strong, dependable person he is cited as having been when the Oathpact was first formed, but given the insanity of the other Heralds who got out of the torture thousands of years earlier than him, it isn't very likely he is still that same person, when not brought closer to the Spiritual Realm.

Only if it's a poly group with Shallan in there as well

hey, at least the magic sword can talk! I've not read anything about his magic rock speaking to him Luckily, 'Stormdaddy' stops being such a stuck up idiot and actually talks to Dalinar properly by the end of the book. Also TIL ornery is a word, and thus my vocabulary expands by another word. All on the path to total understanding of all English!

"especially the divine ones"

I hate to be a pedant on this point, but I find it important to mention. The Sibling is a non-binary spren, and therefore using they/them pronouns for them would be more accurate than masculine ones (he/him). I have somewhat of a personal stake in non-binary representation, so get overly pedantic over stuff like this, and I really don't mean to come off as rude, though I probably do.

This line is what scares me most in this entire exchange. Even when held at the tip of Jasnah's Ivoryblade he was not scared, but with Tod having found he could fiddle with those memories and Breaths, he was truly terrified. This could be part of his act, so that even if Odium could see into his mind he'd see the terror there, but I don't think that is likely here. Throughout reading the Cosmere up to this point, I've always felt that Hoid was a character that was constantly in control of his situation, and was always able to get out unscathed. This interaction has shaken this belief firmly, and for me shown just how big a threat Tod poses to all our characters. I feel that this specific interaction might also have been a way for Brandon to show to those of us much more knowledgeable about the Cosmere just how worrisome Odium was, because a lot of us had underestimated the threat he poses. By showing that even one of the most knowledgeable characters in the entire Cosmere, who had lived for longer than any other character we have a viewpoint from and has seen events we still don't fully understand (namely, the Shattering), was seriously scared when confronting this new Vessel, and has been left somewhat for the worse after their interaction.

Not the image I was expecting to have for the end of the war, but now all I can see is Navani using Urithiru as a massive speaker to broadcast the anti-Voidlight tone and take out all of the Fused at once

I wouldn't put it past Brandon to hear that there was interest in those events, and deliberately make sure that if there was any chance where it could happen, we would see it. Though a lot of the ending of this book raise so many more questions than were answered, and I am so excited for the next few years of furious theorising that come from this!

You apologise for a pun, with another pun? Both are storming good, even if it took me a couple tries to see. I feel that, if there was to be a Sleepless interlude in the book, it wouldn't be counted as Rysn's, but instead its own independent interlude. I'm firmly of the opinion that it will be Chiri-Chiri, and I would love to see more about her kind, but I am open to other opinions. It could be what would at first seem a third person interlude, but really be from a hordeling that is watching over her...

As much as I would love to see Moash redeemed as a way of showing that, even if you go down the wrong path and are massively on the wrong side of the narrative, you always have a chance to be redeemed, I don't think it will happen. The part Moash has played until now has been a foil for Kaladin, kind of a way of showing what would've happened had he not fallen into his Radiant Oaths as much as he did, not opened his mind to different worldviews, and I think that that is a very important view to have now and into the future. I would be curious if there are ways you can look into Vyre's character progression now to see hints of what might occur for Kaladin, or if the role as a direct foil has been lost and he is just a human POV that is on Odium's side.

Or until you discover that you are sort of an Amaram, and that you get a similar end to what he does in Oathbringer. I would rather just be nameless extra number 4 at that point

I know we've seen Allomancy used in one of Shallan's flashbacks, and possibly by Hoid in some other context, but I would love to see it used in an up-front manner, where we can see the main characters react to it If someone managed to get Hoid to give them a straight answer on that question, we could learn quite a lot. Or he could just laugh, point at a random part of the sky, and make sure to change which part he points at each time they ask for clarification. I feel that there isn't much chance that Brandon will show more of those before they have been shown more in their respective books. Would be very curious to see what Aethers look like in canon Cosmere though...

That would be worth much more than its weight in gold, not just because it is Aluminium, but also due to it being pressed into such a thin foil. Then they would get to the marvel that is the box you have brought it in, which if it is still the same cardboard box they come in, would be a marvelous material most planets had never seen, with printed patterns that appear impossible to make. Scadrial would accept a roll of tin foil the best, but Roshar and especially less developed worlds would find it to be a wonder of engineering, if they are knowledgeable enough to see it for what it is. I would love to bring some plastics with me, and let their minds be blown about it and what is made of, what it can withstand, and some of the interesting properties of the different plastics I can even find around my room right now. But what would they think of me bringing some books from the Stormlight Archive onto Roshar before their events occur... Seeing the future is of the Voidbringers supposedly, and I would probably accidentally let slip that I know what is coming.

Ambition would very well match what I would end up doing in the Cosmere, in that I will be interested in those who have the greatest ambitions (cough cough Hoid and his mysterious goal) Failing that, Cultivation seems a rather popular choice, but I'd actually prefer Honor out of the Rosharan Shards. Is the sort of thing I find important in people As a somewhat made up Shard to take, I would go for the Shard associated with knowledge, because I love knowing stuff. I think a fan name for it is Knowledge, though I've also heard a similar one in Wisdom or Ingenuity, though I think the latter is more of a separate Shard than an alternate to it.

From what I've understood of how the Realms work, the object itself, when fully manifested in the Cognitive, would be the bead of it, so to speak. As a general rule, the beads you see in Shadesmar are simply a representation of the Cognitive aspect of the object, and when an object is drawn into the Cognitive Realm fully, this representation is no longer needed and instead the Cognitive aspect would simply be the object itself at that point

We have precedent of having POV chapters from Zahel, so I'd find it quite interesting if we got him as an interlude, where he walks past Szeth's cell and can hear Nightblood calling out to him and trying to have a conversation. Would give more little tidbits for us to drool over, while not really requiring someone to have read Warbreaker to get what is occuring there. If we get a Kelsier interlude I would pass out from excitement, then wonder how in the Cosmere Brandon expects someone who hasn't read any Mistborn books to understand what is occuring, especially if it is after he has the spiked eye... "Your Ambition is worthy, young one, but I have already killed them, sent them Shattered across the Cosmere. The only god you need worry about now is me." While not a line that is likely to be said, I would absolutely flip over it. Some of the ones I'm hoping for: - Khriss and Nazh appearing 'on screen' and having some discussion with our main characters, maybe even speaking to Jasnah! - Some interesting stuff from Sleepless, and maybe some more on Siah Aimians... - We've already seen a fight that involves someone using Awakening, what about seeing some Allomancy or AonDor being used... AonDor might be harder to explain away though... - What happens when you try to Lash Zahel? Would he be noticeably harder to infuse with Stormlight, or would the characters power through without realising...

I have to agree there, and maybe this is directly related to the mysterious writer that Navani 'spoke' with through the well placed gemstone on her way back to Urithiru, and what they were saying?

Well what else are we to do in the wait for RoW to release? We must theorise until we have made theories about our theories that prove the Shattering was a hoax and Adonalsium was just Hoid all along!

This is both really good and really bad at the same time. Storm you! Look, as long as everyone can agree on how to refer to them, it is alright, but we really should follow the convention Brandon sets before any we try and make.

Anyway, just wanted to put this out there because it seems like a significant number of similarities. Bearers of the final metal. Bearer of the First Gem. See something there? The latter is a title attributed to Hoid, who has been confirmed to have held a Dawnshard at some point, so what would be the obvious line to draw with 'Bearers of the final metal'? Storms, it seems the line from Kelsier "There's always another secret" just keeps being proven...

This would make the “we killed you!” line make a lot more sense to me. Adonalsium is dead, but Odium sees its/his Command being expressed in Dalinar. of course, I feel like Odium should have known about Dawnshards, but I still like the idea This line in a WOB really hits different, when considering what we know about Dawnshards now (highlighted to show referened line) At first I thought it was something that was related to Shards and him possibly picking up a Splinter of Honor, because we are obviously more knowledgeable about stuff than the average observer, who is knowledgeable about Surges, is. But then, what if this isn't specifically Rosharan Surges Brandon is referencing here, but he was instead using it as a stand-in for all magic systems? We've had him confirm that 'Surges' can be used as such in another, very recent WOB as well: I feel like, using some of the new facts we discover such as this, we can find more meaning in statements previously made that we maybe couldn't fully interpret. At the time of the Stormfather and Odium seeing more than the average bystander with decent knowledge of Surges, we might have been those average observers he was referencing, which then raises the question of: what does the Stormfather know about the Dawnshards?

He also punched them, don't forget that

Conservation of mass is basically just applying conservation of energy in a system where matter isn't transformed into energy, and I think a similar line can be drawn with conservation of Investiture. Given how Stormlight is describes as gaseous, with many analogies drawn in the text, I'm quite surprised no one drew this connection earlier, and that I couldn't either (am studying stuff to do with gases and pressure currently, so should really be on the forefront of my mind). Does the Stormlight stop transferring between the smaller and larger gemstone in a consistent manner, relative to their sizes and cuts, that can be used to determine more about the exact 'vacuum' in the larger gemstone that draws in Light from the smaller?

Maybe under 'Surge Fabrials' have a brief pice on Regrowth and Transformation fabrials (The Regrowth fabrial that Nale uses on Szeth, and seen in one of Dalinar's visions. Transformation fabrials are more commonly known as Soulcasters) and how they have appeared on screen, with a small comment on Soulcasters and the extra restrictions they have compared to a Radiant using Transformation? Excellent work you've done here, I've found it really helpful to just be able to read over all that we know or have seen that relates to RoW so far, and be able to see different ways it can be put together to create different theories!