Master Silver

That makes sense, and raises an idea. So humans/team honor wins. Remaining fuse lay the ground work for the next desolation. Assassinate key leaders and scholars. Spend the last of their strength to destroy as much knowledge as they can so it can't be passed on. Then in a generation or two, everyone the heralds taught will be dead, leaving the humans with less knowledge. Hence a regression. Thanks for helping me think through it :-)

What I found interesting is that this made it seem like the Heralds return and prepare the humans. Teaching them, giving them technology. This technology you wouldn't expect to be lost when the heralds are there. So why is it, that there is a regression after the war is won? I know lots of people die. But if the heralds teach and advance technology. Shouldn't they still have it after the war is won? But then, when the heralds return, they find the people using stone tools again. So what happens in between the desolations. Do the humans just kill each other? Or do the humans and singer keep fighting? Is it the unmade that continue to destroy civilization between desolations? Does anyone see the point I'm trying to make?

Losing Urithiru is like the Allies losing England during WWII. Would victory have been still technically possible? Maybe, but it would become exponentially higher. Drama and a good and all, but the Radiants are already facing an up hill battle. They started off with all the land, vs ex-slaves, and the Listeners (a people on the verge of surrender). They went from that to losing many countries, fighting against the Fused, the ex-slaves becoming Soldiers, and a people with civilization, losing plate and shards, having a king turn traitor, and the most powerful fused waking up. And during all of this it is humanity vs Odium, so it has always been a lopsided fight. Losing Urithiru would shatter the Aletheis and Radiants ability to effectively wage war. It is unrealistic to think guerrilla tactics can beat a Odium

Haven't read the comments. Sorry, just a little pressed for time. My hope/prediction, is Kaladin's dad helps him get over his battle shock, and then Kaladin ends up saving Urathiru. I'm sure Taravangian's spies will say that Kaladin is broken, so the fused won't make a plan for him, even though Moash says they should. And perhaps this total extermination plan is so horrible that it leads Moash to repent. If Odium can take someone's pain, can Cultivation block that process? Also, the way Leshwi protects Kaladin, and the information about being able to abandon bodies, I wouldn't doubt that she switches bodies again before the assault on Urathiru. Knowing that is going to be one of the climactic battles and having to wait another month plus 1000 pages is going to be hard. And then..... the drought hahaha. I must learn to savor it more. A very enjoyable chapter. Side note, I hope Jasinah burns out Taravangian's eyes. :-)

Don't think less of us for only talking about the intricacies of waging war against Odium. Were we the people of Roshar, I'm sure we would feel differently. We speak as generals during a warfighter exercise.

Exactly! Remember how someone said that after the fifth ideal the spren die if the bond is broken? I can't remember if it was the Storm Father who said that or not. I imagine if a Radiant of the fifth ideal dies, while keeping their oath, they return whatever they took from the spren. This would have to be the case. Only way out of that would be for the fifth ideal to grant immortality (which was a theory I had that was shot down, because of the Skybreakers not having any knights of the fifth ideal. I did say maybe Nale kills them, but no one, not even myself was buying that). So there must be a way to get to them and reclaim it. Surely the big three spren would make it happen if it could. Also think of how many Knights Radiants there have been throughout the thousands and thousands of years. Surely there were dead eyes in the past, after all the fighting, unless there was a way for Bondsmiths and maybe Honor or Cultivation to undo becoming a dead eye.

I know Gavilar was seeking immortality, would killing the heralds and truly claiming their blades grant immortality? As was stated so well, they are broken and insane. Their spirit webs have been smashed repeatedly. The spren bond seems to help with that, but even Nale is insane or highly unstable. So would hearalds with radiant spren bonds hold up better? But regardless of any of that, you seemingly need a shard to kill a shard.

Given all of that, I suppose a good question is how invested are Radiants of the Fifth ideal? *Spoilers* follow

Imagine what a boon and advantage it would be to the radiants, if they even were able to heal 20 deadeye spren (assuming the spren, being bits of power are sane, and retain their memories). In some ways, Syl might be the patter of what happens. She still hasn't fully recovered all of her memories, but with each oath she seems to remember more.

Is it possible since......OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH here comes a new thoguht.... Navani is starting to develop some sort of bond we think, and she could sorta see what Dalinar was doing when he connects the realms, physical, cognitive, and spiritual, is it possible that Navani (if she bonds the sibling)+ Dalinar would be able to draw that part of the spren's spirit web back from the spiritual realm from the knight?

So even though, this was definitely a low point with Kaladin, I think he displayed with Rock in this chapter ultimately what he needs to do to swear the fourth ideal. In fact part of me, thought he was going to hung Rock and speak the fourth ideal as Rock was leaving. Then still go join the surgeons and continue to heal. A long road ahead for Kaladin.

Kaladin needs/want to protect, but even Syl realizes for him it is an all consuming desire which is not good. I really wish Brandon had used the term "the wretch" as a throwback to Way of Kings. Kaladin has found that by protecting and having a goal of saving he is able to keep the wretch at bay. But what he fails to see is that their is other medicine that he needs to use two, flying in the sun for the sake of flying. Laughing, eating and drinking ale with friends. Maybe someday a wife and children. Teaching his little brother anything and everything. I would love for him to swear both 4 and 5, but their seems to be a danger of biting off more than you can chew. Kaladin told Teft, the more he learns about the words the harder it is.... Kaladin probably should have thrown pancakes into his oath. Maybe next time lol

2020 is a rough year to read about one of your favorite characters being depressed. I do hope we get something more cheery. I certainly could use it

If shard plate is anything like swords, it could be sleek and fashioned as leather or something more flexible. The shard blades all the form of swords when the Radiants broke their oaths, but Syl is a spear far more often. Perhaps plate is the same way, and fit the Radiants desire, but upon death the plate reverts to what humanity thinks shard plate should look like. Also I think it would be great if Kaladin got his plate while in the operating room with his dad.It would completely break the mold of "power ups" on the battle field.

The only upside to the headjack analogy is that it might mean the head jack/part of the brain or memory of the spren is lying around somewhere. So you would need to find it and have a brain surgeon/software engineer or programmer plug it back in

Question: If the Sibling collectively is all the Fabrials, with let's say the Queen Bee (for lack of a better term) being at Urithiru, and the Sibling is sleeping, what would the Fabrials do if they were awake?? Is this the tech boom that happens in Rhythms of War? Not to double post, but just had a (in my mind) brilliant theory. What if upon swearing the fifth idea the Radiant Spren gains a little sibling (almost in the same way that Radiants gain Squires) which manifests in the physical realm as a Soulcaster. Bear with me. This companion spren, learns from the main Radiant spren, who is rightly considered a master for guiding their human to the fifth ideal. When their human dies, which is still likely traumatic, the sibling (or squire radiant spren) can then go and form their own bond with a human, having learned from a master Radiant spren. Somehow, what we call the Sibling makes this bond possible and along with the main or master radiant spren helps guide the young/child spren

Just had another thought on this, and perhaps the Heralds can help. Nale uses a healing fabrial on Seth at the end of Words of Radiants, essential resurrecting him from the dead before his soul completely detaches, thus restoring him. Can the same type of Fabrial be used on a shardblade in conjunction with an open perpendicularity? My thought is that time is not relevant to spren the same way it is to humans. The dead eye spren/shardblades have been locked in that form since their Knights betrayed them and thus time lost its relevance, so whether 30 seconds or 4,000 years have passed doesn't really matter to them. These dead eyes could be much like Seth after Kaladin killed him. They just need to be brought back to a state right before the breaking of the oaths.

So what we know from the conversation, is that this correspondent has some (maybe even a great deal) of knowledge about Navani's work. Which means they likely have access to the Tower. We also know that this correspondent is likely ancient and has access to Shadesmar. I say this because they say the Honor Spren can no longer be trusted. What did the Honor Spren do to lose that trust? The Recreance? Trying to conquer Shadesmar? Also, somehow they knew where Navani would be, and managed to get a gemstone in there so they could converse. For these reasons, I think it is the sibling. The sibling is showing Navani the same hostility that the Stormfather showed Dalinar. We know the Sibling and many spren were hurt by the betrayal of the Radiants and wanting to avoid the bond to protect one' self and fellow spren seems natural. Besides, the Sibling has to be introduced somehow, and healing/fixing the Tower for a year may have awoken the Sibling. Now Navani is very close to figuring out how to infuse the Tower with Stormlight and this will me a lot more trapped spren very likely.

Not that Shallan is an old crone, but that after her initial trama, and attracting Pattern, she literally became whoever she needed to not experience trauma, and maybe her family took advantage of this. The mom seems to have known something of Radiants, perhaps so did her dad. But the way Maraze calls her "little knife" makes me wonder if her dad used her as his little knife while she held the Formless personality. Her parents could have even made her think it was some twisted game. Make them sleep little knife. Somewhere, someone talks about the dangers of Cryptics (it might be Jasnah), but the way whoever it is talks about the humming of Cryptics I found extremely disturbing.

Whatever Shallan's "Formless" persona is, I think it might be terrifying. Whatever trauma shattered her as a child, that then attracted Pattern, Formless might have been her perfect way of becoming whatever she needed in any situation. Whoever she was previously was shattered, and so she changed to perfectly fit any and all situations, and if that included executioner, Formless was a full Knight Radiant that would leave a pile of bodies in her wake. Just had a thought, what if Shallan was created by swearing the 5th ideal (who you would choose to be). I would love if this gets resolved during this book for Shallan. I also would love to see Kaladin have a lasting win for a change.

Is that true of all Bondsmith spren or just the StormFather. I feel like Bond Smiths break a lot of rules. And I say transportation because it sort seems to me like the gem just appeared there (and magic right?). Someone said the Sibling was asleep, but it seems to have woken up. Maybe Radiants being more a tuned to rhythms is an indication of this (or maybe they are just encountering more Singers and Fused).

Only read the first page of comments, by my theory is Navani's mysterious communicator is the Sibling. In many ways it is similar to what happens to Dalinar with the StromFather. Remember how skewed the StormFather's point of view was before the bond. He tried to wipe out the Alethi. Without the bond the Sibling views fabrial technology as an assault on all spren, whom he considers his kin and family. I guess the sibling can use transportation to communicate with Navani. The way she has already become more of a fabrial scholar and made leaps and bounds in a year indicates the possibility that a bond is already forming. Also how she can see more when Dalinar creates a perpendicularity than others can see is also an indication that a bond may be forming. Going out on a limb but perhaps reviving dead eyes (dead sharde blades) is how she can prove herself to the Sibling and for goodness sake get Dalinar a blade.... cough* Oathbringer. Sorry if someone has said this on the other pages.

So, that is true. Dismissin and summoning the blade is not dependent on the type of gem. But would havign the proper gem be of any help? Much like the argument could be made, it doesn't matter who wields a dead shard blade, but we see with Dalinar and Adohlin that the blades somehow remember them and hate them less. Would the right gem, be another step to healing. Help the dead eye spren in some way (would having stormlight in the gem help? Good memory by the way on the gem in Oathbringer. I'd love a chapter recounting everything Adohlin has tried to help Maya

So for dead shard blades, there is a gem in the pommel of the blade that allows the blade to be dismissed and summoned again. What if you were able to find out what type of spren the dead blade was and somehow capture the cousin spren (that make up the plate for that particular order) in the gem? Also using the proper tyoe of gem would help. Maybe then, the dead spren would be able to somehow fuse with the companion spren and recover (not sure if oaths would still be needed or not). So if the dead blade were an honor spren, the blade would need a sapphire with a wind spren trapped inside. Maybe then you would need to take the blade to Dalinar, who does some fancy Bondsmith thing, that fuses the wind spren and the dead honor spren, using a large amount of stormlight, to revive the dead spren into a living spren. I have no idea what the side effects would be. Perhaps you end up with surge binders, but not Radiants (so no oaths).

Would it be possible that Shallan was actually the Fabriel and she was responsible for the wealth her family accumulated? That mental block could also be why it is so hard for her to soul cast.