Callsign Radiant

I think it would be kind of disappointing if this theory was true. I think it would take away from a character's sense of progress in a way if instead of them gaining the ability to summon their own plate after swearing the fourth ideal, they were just given a set of plate by a random Willshaper, even if the plate is made of spren attracted by the radiant themselves. Also I'm really not sure that the Willshapers would be happy spending so much time making armour for everyone rather than discovering new things. The non-willshaper radiants most likely outnumbered the willshapers by quite a bit and even if not many of those reached the fourth ideal it would probably still have been quite a few people who needed plate right? Well maybe that secinnd point isn't that great, but I stand by the first one.

That's an interesting point. She will likely have some kind of arc and progress in some way, both with respect to her research and hopefully also personally. But I wonder if we'll get the same depth without any flashbacks from the main character. Also I agree that there seems to be more of a natural lead into a personal arc from Adolin from the end of Ob and I hope we will get that in ROW whoever the main character is. But I think there's likely more to Navani. If she was originally going to have flashbacks then there must be something in her past that Brandon thought worth digging into, and despite his changing his mind, she probably still has these things in her past that she needs to deal with, so she should still get a good arc in the present. It could just be that Brandon realised that having Eshonai/Venli flashbacks was more important or that it was possible to tell Navani's story without a full flashback sequence. Though of course you could still be right. We can't really know until we get the book. Or if there are more sample chapters in the future maybe that would clarify things earlier. It's kind of strange not knowing who the main character of a book will be, especially Stormlight. Usually everyone who's been following WOBs and updates know because Brandon just says who's book it is.

There's much more to it than just that. As @ChickenLiberty has demonstrated, we didn't come to this conclusion after so many posts in the thread just based on one wob. I believe we did discuss the likelyhood of Navani leaving Urithiru earlier in the thread. I also thought that she would probably stay in Urithiru and that it would be strange for her to be the main focus of the book, but then I was reminded that the summary mentions an arms race and technology which seems like something Navani would help with. While that doesn't in itself mean that she should leave Urithiru, I think with all the evidence it wouldn't make sense to dismiss her as the main character just because of that. I do think that Moash will probably be a pov character because of his involvement in the war and the fact that he's a good contrast to other characters. I could be wrong about this but I feel like because he's meant to contrast with other characters (mainly Kaladin, Dalinar and Venli but maybe others) he wouldn't make a good main character. In the past at least the main character has had a positive arc where they progress in some way despite their struggles. Moash on the other hand has so far done the complete opposite, and if he is going to continue to be a foil then he will likely continue on the same path. While I admit it doesn't rule him out, I think it would be a strange departure from the usually inspiring and moving main character arcs that we've seen in Stormlight. @ChickenLiberty thanks for summarising all the evidence.

That sounds right. Do we have any ideas of what Shallan and Adolin will actually be doing? That might help. Shallan could have ghostblood things to deal with and Adolin could be looking into reviving Maya I suppose. It would make more sense to have a single/joint arc though since group 2 is meant to be narrowly focused. I know they're married but I assume they will be doing something and not just getting used to married life, especially since there's been a timeskip. Oh or the character could have just been moved to allow more focus on the Shallan/Adolin relationship potentially.

I'm not sure that the words necessarily come from nowhere. Just because the Stormfather doesn't say anything about Dalinar knowing the words, doesn't mean he doesn't or that there aren't particular words or sentiments that are needed. It just means that the Stormfather didn't mention it. Spren all have different personalities and interact differently with their radiant. The Stormfather is very different from Syl. About the ideals being more varied? It's certainly possible considering how different Honor and Cultivation are. On the other hand, from what I remember, bondsmiths are always the leaders of the radiants. They also have the same surges. I think it is also possible that the theme of the ideals is the same for all bondsmiths but as with other orders there is variation in the wording. Lightweavers probably still have the most varied ideals.

Ok, so Jasnah and Renarin definitely could both fit in with Shallan and Adolin. There's the obvious family connection with both of them. Then with Renarin there's an opportunity to get more from his POV after the Glys reveal, but also Shallan did have that conversation with Sja-anat in OB so I can see that there could be a link there. With Jasnah, she obviously already has a connection with Shallan and at the end of OB I think Shallan said something along the lines of her being ready to be Jasnah's ward again. I only have the audiobook so I can't find exactly what she said but I'm pretty sure something like that was mentioned. I don't know exactly how the wardship would work with Jasnah being queen and the war going on but it could still be a factor. I suppose the thing is that the character would need to fit in group 2, but not perfectly because they were moved to group 1. So maybe looking for too many connections between this character and Shallan and Adolin is misleading? I don't know, hopefully all that made sense. I'm just wondering if you have any evidence or reasoning to think that these characters would fit? Really anyone is possible, but this seems to just be a guess. More of the heralds would be cool though.

Actually most evidence seems to point to Navani. I don't think Moash would be the main character. He will likely have pov chapters considering the singer focus of the book and his actions in OB, but I'd be surprised if he turned out to be the main character. Also I'm hoping it's not him. I haven't been a fan of his chapters in the past. So maybe I'm biased, I do understand the reasoning for Moash being included more in this book, but so far is really does seem to be quite a bit of evidence for Navani.

I feel that Moash and Rlain are particularly strong candidates for this book considering the singer focus. I can see Moash contrasting with Venli well, a human siding with the fused and a singer siding with the humans (assuming she does join them this book which seems likely). But Rlain could find the missing listeners and also show a different facet of the human/singer dynamic.

That's interesting. I'm sure I remember Brandon saying early on that Navani was going to be one of the flashback characters, but knowing that book 4 in particular was going to be her book does indicate that she was going to be relevant to the present plot. Of course a lot of things have changed since then and the original plot for this book could have changed a lot, but it's definitely possible that Brandon ended up using the same present plot but thought that we didn't need/shdn't have Navani's flashbacks to go with it.

Yeah that's what I was thinking, it's an interesting thing to keep in mind and could be a factor and it's not solid.

It's in one of the very long list of wobs in the first post. Even knowing that it doesn't prove anything for sure as I explained but I thought I'd mention the possibility anyway.

This isn't really strong evidence, but if we know that Jasnah and Wit will interact, and we know that Wit will be telling someone a story, those two things could be the same scene. Like I said it's not great evidence because Wit can obviously interact with multiple people, but if these two things are the same scene then that would put Jasnah in group 1. That would also follow the pattern of Jasnah having very few pov chapters.

Ok fair enough, I can see that. Maybe seeing her flashbacks, especially compared to Eshonai in her flashbacks, will clarify this a bit. Either way it should be an interesting dynamic with Eshonai, Venli, and Navani if she does turn out to be a willshaper.

Yeah this seems likely considering what we know about Kaladin and Shallan at this point. So all the characters start off together right? Is it reasonable to assume that they're all in Alethkar at first then since we know Kaladin and Venli are there? If that's the case then it's possible that the Adolin pov with Shallan could happen in this part of the book and they're not actually in the same group.

And then of course there are the Eshonai flashbacks showing a very obvious willshaper if that makes sense. that could be an interesting comparison. How much of a natural willshaper would you say Venli is?

That seems like a reasonable theory. It makes more sense that she would be in Alethkar when you put it that way. I think it's still possible she won't be but both are interesting possibilities. I think that setup leads to some interesting character interactions. You have Shallan and Adolin, Shallan and Jasnah, Jasnah and Navani, Lift with everyone and the other two groups have some obvious conflict/progress to make.

Oh I see you already had Navani as a main pov in group 1 so that still works. But are you thinking that Navani will be in Alethkar where Kaladin and Venli are? I thought the idea was that she would be working on activating Urithiru. Wouldn't that put her in the same location as Jasnah and Dalinar? Sorry if I've missed something. Yeah about the Wit story, Szeth and Renarin both seem like good candidates who could really get some good advice from talking to Wit.

Yeah someone mentioned the wob about Brandon writing Navani in an earlier post and I thought it was a good piece of evidence. I thought Navani was originally going to be a flashback character but I wasn't sure. That's an interesting point about pairing these characters with the characters they were replaced by. I'm not sure about the Navani willshaper thing, but pairing Adolin with Lift makes sense and Taravangian feels like a better fit for Renarin's book (what with the diagram vs seeing the future stuff) so I guess that works too.

Seems like a strong case for Navani then. There's this, the fact that Brandon said he was enjoying writing Navani and also 'the main character', the fact that we're expecting Urithiru to be activated soon. I don't think any of this means that it's definitely her but it does make her more likely. Does this change any predictions for the three character groups?

Oh completely agree. I love finding out things before the release, but honestly with most other authors I don't think we get as much information and I'm happy to just start reading with no real knowledge other than what happened previously in the series. Expectations can seriously affect your perceptions of things and can sometimes ruin something which is actually really good. But I still love getting for information about stormlight releases regardless honestly. No, I actually hadn't considered him at all. I can't remember, was the rock novella supposed to fit into a specific place in the series? Like was it meant to come between OB and ROW or between ROW and SA5? If the latter then maybe Rock is more likely to play a role in SA5.

At least I suppose it's better to know now than find out while reading the book. I think it would have been more disconcerting (and possibly disappointing) if you went into the book expecting mostly Venli. Brandon said it was something that happened naturally and worked well so I don't think he set out to write the book this way. I think this character must just really work with the plot/themes of the book. Though it seems likely there will still be a greater focus on singers than we've had before. I believe we're also getting Venli flashbacks? I agree with your point that there will still be more singer pov chapters. Depending on who the third character is, we could also see singers in their chapters even if it's not Rlain.

Yeah I've just checked and he specifically says that the book is about three characters, Eshonai and Venli as the flashback characters and this other character. So he definitely doesn't mean that Venli is the main character.

Yeah that makes sense but I'm sure we'll still be getting chapters from Kaladin and Shallan with the usual scattering of Jasnah, and even though Dalinar's stepping back, that might not mean that he has no pov chapters at all. I would be happy to see more of Adolin and Renarin though, especially to find out more about Maya and Glys. I don't know... I still haven't got round to re-listening to Brandon's answer to clarify the wording, but there was something he said that definitely made me think that's not what he meant. He said something about it being a surprise I think and Venli being the main character would be expected and not at all surprising. I'm not sure but I think he also might have said something about three characters, meaning Eshonai, Venli and this other character. Like I said though I don't remember exactly and I've been pretty distracted today so I haven't had time to check the details. I could be misremembering or misinterpreting.

Ah ok I get you now. I heard the reading but didn't realise that he'd spoken about Navani in signings. It is possible that we'll be seeing Dalinar and Jasnah and a lot of the Urithiru stuff from Navani's pov while she's working on activating the functions of the tower. That would fit with her fabrial expertise and with Dalinar stepping back.

Oh really? Navani did briefly occur to me as an interesting character who isn't (but I think was going to/cd have?) have a flashback sequence, but I don't know, I didn't pick up on anything that seemed to imply it was her. What did you notice that makes you think that?