Ashbringer

That’s part of the thing - aluminum is powerful, but it’s not a magical no-magic-around metal. It can’t be affected by Surges but it doesn’t stop their use. Some edge case we don’t know about - mainly if a full aluminum cage would stop Shallan entering the Cognitive realm and Soulcasting objects beyond it. And when it comes to Shardblades and presumably Shardplate, it’s still a fairly flimsy metal. Rosharan inhibitor fabrials can’t stop a 4th Oath Radiant, I doubt a Leecher Cube could stop Shallan from summoning her armor. And then Shardplate won’t get instantly shattered by an aluminum bullet, it would take some effort. Especially if they can’t drain her Stormlight before she manifests the armor. The best way is probably similar to what nearly happened to Dalinar - drain her Stormlight, then collapse a building or cliff and bury her. But that gets much more complicated with Radiant abilities. If we’re leading into a conflict between Scadrial and Roshar, Scadrial has to have some weaponry to punch through Shardplate. But we’re also not sure if they have harmonium capabilities. I also wonder how Shardplate interacts with a cadmium bubble…

Just going to add that the first quote on Rushu's Coppermind page is about asking how or why beards/long hair are considered masculine/feminine.

I always thought Auxiliary was a name given once he became somewhat more industrial or was partially consumed - it's a strange name, and the other named highspren is called Winnow. It's possible that Aux is Szeth's spren. (It's also possible he's Nale's spren, although honestly either losing their bonds this book in a way that Sigzil could bind them would be somewhat odd.)

I don't see Shallan's infiltration attempts going well - she would probably fool most Ghostbloods, but not Iyatil or a Tineye. But I think Iyatil would let her fool the rest for a while, for a few reasons. One, it's a bit of power over Shallan and a way to limit what info (like the fact that they know where BAM is) that Shallan gets. Two, in spite of everything that the Ghostbloods manage to get access to, I'm not actually sure what they could do to a 4th Oath Radiant suddenly manifesting Plate and Blade in the middle of them. It doesn't seem like they have many offworlders that could have abilities - one or two, minus the one they choked out, and the odds that they have Radiants seem low. Even then, dealing with a full Radiant is tough. (Although, maybe they have Dustbringers. We haven't seen Malata for a book, and RoW implied that there were other Dustbringers besides her and Ral-na, while WaT says Ral-na's the only one left in Urithiru.)

Most likely. Could be Rushu's speaking on behalf of someone else, but that's the most likely way to read it.

The original Oathpact was that the Fused would be bound to Roshar by the Heralds forever, who would have to endure torture on Braize to keep them there. The Heralds made an Oath to keep them there. What caused a Desolation was a Herald cracking and breaking their word, allowing the Fused back to Roshar, because humans can break their word unlike spren. It was intended to be permanent, as far as we know, with no Desolations. Maybe Honor knew the Heralds couldn’t actually handle it for very long. Maybe he didn’t. He’s not one of the best future sight Shards. But remember, Taln did hold back the Fused without cracking and making a Desolation for over four thousand years.

I am thinking that it's more possible, now. I don't know who else a hiding Tanavast could be, unless he supplanted a Herald somehow. My issues with it are more narrative: Lirin nearly died multiple times in RoW, which would seem like some level of chance for Tanavast to survive so long. Also part of Kaladin's character is that he wasn't born special - he just kinda became what he needed to be. The Honorblades are a seperate thing from the Oathpact, as evidenced by the Oathpact not actually breaking when the Heralds abandoned them at Aharietiam. As for the superhuman bodies, the original plan was for them to possibly endure on Braize for hundreds or thousands of years. Honor still could have forseen it, but I feel like again narratively it wouldn't be such a big Shame for Honor and the Stormfather.

First, thanks for visiting a theory of mine One thing of note in some of the Stormfather WoBs (such as this one) is that the Stormfather is always called Honor’s Cognitive Shadow, not Tanavast’s. Some of these newer WoBs really focus on the distinction between the two. Tanavast is probably dead-dead, although WoBs have become false before. But him specifically abandoning humanity by abandoning his post would probably be enough Shame, especially if the Stormfather also tried to take over Honor and failed. We also really don’t know what effect being a Sliver would have, especially one alive - we just know Kelsier immortalized himself with a lot less, and Vin or Rashek could have stuck around if she’d wanted to. I don’t think there’s anyone around who could be Tanavast, at least no odd immortals that aren’t Hoid or a Herald. There have been theories about Lirin, but personally I doubt that he’s involved. Making Kaladin be literally the Son of Tanavast would be… strange. The Stormfather may also be worried that, if someone ascends to Honor, then the parts of him that are Honor will be reclaimed and leave him just as the Storm. Not a full absorption, but a partial one.

I'd say presumably as a way to help while still being something he created before "dying" - or something that he feasibly could have created before "dying" - so it doesn't give awareness as to him being alive. If Honor somehow is alive, he's hiding it from both Odium and Cultivation. Those would be very difficult to trick.

Yeah, that's one reason why I think Odium's binding is too tame of a shame. It wouldn't cause Dalinar to reconsider his path. The Desolations were a glitch in humans breaking Oaths - I don't think the Oathpact itself is involved in this, unless Honor somehow tricked the Heralds into making it. But they all seemed fairly willing to endure that burden. A few other things I thought of: this shame might be the reason Honor suddenly seemed to switch sides from the singers to the humans (and Odium vice versa). That's been largely ignored by most characters, or waved off as being due to forms of power / Fused being able to bind to singers' gemhearts. There's likely more to that story.

I think the Stormfather's "first form" was way back as Storm (or Wind) when the highstorms were first created by Adonalsium - and that was waaaay before Ashyn. But he wasn't particularly sentient back then. (The Sibling also didn't exist, presumably.) My focus is more on the Sibling thinking the Wind became the Stormfather, when we see the Wind talking to Kaladin as still Wind and in a different voice than the Stormfather speaks. There is a Death Rattle that the Night will reign... Something is very strange, that's for sure.

As Jasnah notes, the Sibling isn't entirely accurate. The Stormfather's been around for a very long time - before we thought that the Wind was an old partially-replaced entity and the Stormfather grew from Storm, but the Sibling says the Stormfather was formed from Wind. It's also hard to interpret what the Sibling means about Night - whether the replacement is the Nightwatcher, or the Nightwatcher being formed from Night is seperate from the Night leaving and being replaced by some third thing.

To me Wrath feels too much like what Odium already is - it may be a little more "just", but most people wouldn't think about it that way. I am a fan of War, but also War as a concept is complicated (and God of War is... you know a little overdone). I don't know if this would work - mostly because I don't know if Taravangian would fall for it - but it is a point that Dalinar could swear as Honor not to do certain things, in the eventuality that he becomes Honor then loses and falls. Only issue with that is, I'm not sure how that would work. I think he'd have to swear to someone (Cultivation, most likely), and then if he breaks his word Cultivation gains power over him. But if he breaks his word to Odium, then Odium gets loosed on the greater cosmere. WoB Spoilers: Another thing I'm realizing - in earlier chapters it seems the Wind and the Stormfather were seperate entities. But here Ivory says that the Stormfather came from the Wind. Odd.

Nahel bonds specifically are symbiotic in that the person gets power and the power source gets sentience, so it could be they were bound to those early Spren and helped make them what they were. Humans were using Surges on Ashyn, though, and I don't think spren are there. Though we have no idea how that played out. I do think it's likely that it's specifically "seditious" to have non-traditional Bondsmith spren (at least after the main three were established) and not "impossible".

General WaT:

I just made a thread on this - but "Our" shame definitely is an interesting piece. I interpreted it as a shame that the Stormfather and Honor shared - perhaps being that Honor was never actually killed in the first place, and has just been hiding from essentially everyone. The Stormfather killing Honor is also a great theory, I didn't even consider that.

So, Chapter 22 mostly puts aside the Stormfaker theory. Something's still strange there, and I think there's a few explanations to why, but it ties into what the Stormfather has been trying to hide from Dalinar. "Our Shame". I wanted to throw out a few theories on what that is. I feel like the most likely option is something we likely couldn't anticipate, but I want to try anyway. Most of these involve both Tanavast and the Stormfather, if they are not now one and the same, because the Stormfather does specifically say "our", along with seemingly getting confused on whether he's Honor or the Stormfather. We know they're somewhat intermixed, but to what degree we have yet to find out. Shame One: The Binding of Odium and Dishonor. One thing bugs me in RoW, when Dalinar and Rayse are creating terms. Rayse specifically says that "I am no spren of Honor" that would manipulate the letter and loopholes in an agreement, and that he would instead uphold the spirit. Obviously this is both meant as a slight dig at Honor and now clearly means little to Taravangian, but it is an interesting thing to add, especially since Odium shouldn't be able to outright lie to Dalinar. So the first Shame goes all the way back - to when Odium first came to Roshar. We know from one WoB that it's implied he got permission to be there. What we don't know is how. This shame is pretty simple - Honor tricked Odium. Perhaps the contract read something like "Odium is allowed to join Cultivation and Honor on Roshar, as long as he always only watches the people of Roshar and never interferes with their lives" and so on - and then some word like 'always' is serving to trap Odium on Roshar indefinitely. Why's this a shame? Admittedly it's one of the tamer options, as Dalinar probably mostly agrees with Odium's binding. But it's a shame of Honor because it would be dishonorable. Creating and twisting an Oath in order to get Odium in a position he doesn't want to be isn't exactly an honorable act, although Honor's definitions of honor may be different. It also proves to the characters something we already mostly knew - it was Honor's fault that Odium came to and stayed on Roshar. Shame Two: The Recreance and the Power Handoff We're learning a lot about the Recreance in this book, hopefully. We know Honor died soon after this. But we don't know how, as Wit points out. We also know that as Honor was dying, he gave many of his responsibilities to the Stormfather. Perhaps the Recreance wasn't solely caused by Ba-Ado-Mishram's binding. Perhaps something was lost when Honor transferred capabilities to the Stormfather, some piece that would have allowed the spren to keep their minds. Or perhaps it was more Honor convincing the Recreance Radiants to abandon their oaths - we don't know how that entire process played out, but perhaps the Stormfather's shame is his own hand in it. Shame Three: The Hearts of Men... This is the big one. The Stormfaker theory is derived from the Stormfather acting very strange to Gavilar. While it seems as if it's not a replacement of the Stormfather, we see the Stormfather acting similarly strange here to Dalinar, calling his own plans those of Honor's. Something's still up. The Stormfather is also very opposed to Dalinar ascending. There's a few good reasons for this - Dalinar becoming Honor and then having his soul fall to Odium would be very very bad, and the Stormfather's seemingly made the same mistake with Gavilar before. But we also learned that the Stormfather (or faker) can lie. What if the Shame is that Honor's still alive? And that he's just been hiding, terrified, this whole time?

One thing I’m not certain of, is it seems like singers being taken over by Fused is a process. One that I’m not entirely sure of if it could happen in the heat of battle. But if the Azimir singers get a foothold… wow. Yeah that could quickly become a problem.

Wasn't Adolin supposed to die early in Stormlight original drafts? In WoK or WoR?

It's possible, I imagine. But Nomad's lockdown seems like the opposite of Change to me. Though we still don't know the exact Command of Rysn's or Nomad's - Rysn's is probably Change, while Nomad's is... Life? Remain? Idk.

White Sand seems to mostly only come up with a few easter eggs and the actual white sand itself, which you may notice from time to time. Emperor's Soul is quite relevant to a certain other recent Cosmere book, and I haven't read it myself, but it's a good read I've heard. Sunlit Man is the big one. Also, be careful here without keeping watch on the preview chapters.

Nomad repeatedly describes his Dawnshard as a weapon that could end worlds - while it may be used as so, a way to pacify a force before conquering them - I wouldn’t be surprised if it could be used in more directly dangerous ways.

I like this theory a lot! I think Odium's final Oath to Taravangian didn't include the 2 generations - only people who live there, who were born there, or their spouses. I think there's a WoB that that doesn't include some individuals within 2 generations of Taravangian himself. If Evi was somehow born in Kharbranth, maybe... but that seems unlikely. I think Rayse was planning to corrupt Dalinar after he had accepted the Contest, but before he'd actually written out the terms - with Dalinar in his pocket, he could essentially make the terms say whatever he wanted. I think the Contests can take a variety of forms, but Odium's RoW contract notably didn't establish a form. Taravangain may also make the calculation that if he died, Dalinar would be then forced to become Odium.

Dawnshards were used to break Ashyn, and we know Ishar was involved in that, as was Odium. I don't think we know explicitly that Ishar was a Dawnshard in the past, but putting two and two together... Regardless, my point is more that it seems Odium manipulated Ishar or other Ashynites to destroy their planet using Dawnshards, then Dawnshards were also used at some point on Roshar as well. But neither time did Odium or Honor seek to take them themselves and obliterate their foe, which is what Dawnshard+Shard would seem to result in. (All Investiture needs Intent and a Command, and Shards are Intents while Dawnshards are Commands... hmmm...) It also seems likely that the Shards would make some rules over the weapon they just used to kill God that they also knew could most likely kill them, so that too.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were specific rules concerning the Dawnshards. It seems like from WoBs that they're capable of using them, but it also seems like the Shards need to use them indirectly (through Ishar, for instance) and not directly being both a Shard and Dawnshard.