Ashbringer

I think Wit points out that doing similar things like this - changing the capitals, or changing the definition of the Empire - would be breaking the Contract. Which Wit also pointed out they cannot afford to do. Maybe there's some loophole they could find, but it may not be worth the risk to test them. The highspren seemed perfectly on board with killing all the new Radiants. However, Aux seemed to be much more... not a jerk than Szeth's spren is. I do wonder if we're missing something. Maybe this is a test of the spren, to see if Szeth follows his Oaths (which are notably to Dalinar, not the Law as the highspren suggests) or gives in to outside pressure once again.

Seemingly so. But I think the Skybreakers are still in Thaylenah (or they think so). Also, if Azimir falls so does Emul. There goes the one country I thought would be fine…

I believe the Contract establishes that both sides must allow the champions to the top of Urithiru. The more obvious purpose of that statement is that the Coalition has to allow whoever Odium's champion is access to the top and not kill them along the way, and I think it would connect to not also disallow it by blowing up Urithiru. But, it does lead to some interesting conundrums. For one thing, while I think Odium couldn't give the order to break the top of Urithiru, some third party like Mraize or even some disobedient Fused or Radiant perhaps could. Then you don't even have one party at fault for the failed location. Similarly, the Coalition has to allow Odium's Champion to the top of the tower - but how much is allow? If Odium chooses some basic Fused, do they then have to turn off the Sibling's protections so that they can walk up the stairs without passing out? Similarly, is Odium allowed to try and kill Dalinar before the contest begins? These are the fun things that happen with off-the-cuff, verbal contracts

There’s a line somewhere about Blades being summoned by the deadeye better synchronizing with the bonded human - but that’s true of all deadeye Blades, not just Testament. I think drawing a stronger Connection to Testament would allow Pattern to perhaps manifest abilites before he normally could, though. I still think Shallan just re-swore her 2nd Ideal to Testament here in WaT, and everything before was Pattern. Part of the confusion is I don’t recall if Shallan actually ever swore her 1st Ideal onscreen (or at all) - but it seems like that Oath can be done unconsiously or without so much Intent. Kaladin and Eshonai are both similar. It could be that something similar happened to her that happened to Kaladin in WoR - she went back on several Truths, and rejected Testament as a spren, but never fundamentally revoked the 1st Ideal like the Recreance Radiants did.

Does Testament's Blade scream? I forget if that was established or not. I think Shallan's 4th Oath with Pattern (Terrified/Killed Father/ 'Something' in RoW, probably from Veil), then either 2nd or 3rd Oath with Testament (Terrified/Killed Mother). If Testament wasn't fully recovered at 4th Oath, then that would mean Shallan swore all 5 Oaths with Testament basically before any other Radiant even managed to make a full bond - which is possible, I suppose, but it seems unlikely.

"You must not trust yourself with me. If I have to watch this world crumble and burn to get what I need, I will do so. With tears, yes, but I would let it happen." —Hoid (as Wit) to Dalinar Seems slightly relevant...

For reference, Baxil was the thief in that TWoK interlude where we met Shalash. He had decided to go get a curse and boon. Seems he got a bit more than he asked for. Interestingly, this set seems much more like a Cultivation pair than a Nightwatcher one… hard to tell. Cultivation seems to cause the more Invested changes.

Definitiely a lie of omission, at minimum. It might be technically true, where it’s Dalinar who has the power to delve into the Spiritual Realm and not the Stormfather, thus both no visions created by Tanavast remain and there are no more that the Stormfather could show on his own. (And Dalinar might not have been capable of it at that point of OB, as a fairly inexperienced 2nd Oath Bondsmith.) Hard to tell if it’s Fey Logic or Stormfakery or something else. I do wonder if Stormfather/faker is trying to keep Honor away from Dalinar, or if this is simply another layer of secrets.

I think there is a difference. The visions seem exact, or "created", as sets of specific moments that relay the important information to the receiver. What Cultivation is suggesting is diving into the space they come from, to the Spiritual Realm, to find extra information. Honor didn't create or organize those other sights, much like Honor didn't organize the visions of Tien that Dalinar gave to Kaladin - he'd be essentially lost in a realm where space and time are matters of perception. Dangerous indeed.

I think we've only got the one Elsecaller. Jasnah's powerful, but she's also only one human. And I doubt she'll have Dalinar, as he's focusing on actually winning the Contest. The Lightweavers could help, but they're generally weaker at Soulcasting and seem to be kept busy with Mraize. Oathgates can also transfer a lot of people at once, if the greater area is used. Plus Deepest Ones or Stormform can wreck havoc on tightly packed defenses. One possible step above chasmfiends - greatshells. Being able to attack the escorted ships from below would be of great help, especially if the Sleepless could be convinced to aid.

I think the best chance the Coalition has is to focus on saving Thaylenah, try and use a small force with anti-Voidlight on the Shattered Plains, and then just destroy the Azimir Oathgate. That's a heavy blow, but not as heavy as losing the entire kingdom.

As of 1 day before the end of RoW, we had a single First Oath Willshaper. Now we’ve got at least two, one with Second Oath. But Venli could use both Surges with only her First. (We also had 1 total Fourth Oath Radiant, and now we have four. Things are moving pretty quick.) That and the Lightspren seem eager to help, they just don’t like humans - but there’s a huge group of listeners in the Shattered Plains. I think it’s highly likely they’d be impactful enough to help.

Nale isn't sane, Nale is functional. Nale/Ishar both are lucid but completely out of their mind, which makes them entirely more dangerous because they can seek power to further their own insane efforts. Kalak is only partially capable. Jezrien and Taln both were/are mostly non-functional. I'd probably say the "sanest" Herald is Shalash, since she seems mostly normal when she isn't faced with her own likeness. But even that's pushing it. A lot. If anything, the Heralds are more like spren themselves - maybe the Nahel bond could heal them, but with the Heralds giving powers in exchange for mental stability in place of the opposite.

In addition to Alder's points, Odium also agreed to hold a contest of champions with Dalinar back in Oathbringer - he just thought that he'd win by pulling Dalinar over as his champion. When Dalinar refused, Odium was forced to regroup - but he'd already agreed to some form of contest. If he didn't hold one then he'd be breaking his word and Cultivation would probably kill him. We don't have a lot of Willshapers at the moment, but that will likely change as more lightspren meet the listeners. I wouldn't write them off so hastily. For one thing, they can do a good deal of the fortifications that Stonewards can do. For another, they're probably the best anti-infiltration the Radiants have, being able to spot incoming Masked Ones or other cognitive spren and to duel burrowing Deepest Ones.

Ah. Fair. It still somewhat functions as a literary nod to Renarin in the epigraph, as a hint pre-Thaylen Field that Truthwatchers aren’t supposed to see the future. But in-world it would need to mean something else. Unless Renarin himself somehow stuck that gem in there.

Pretty much that timeframe. Around the time of the Recreance, the Radiants were starting to have questions unrelated to the Sibling and Mishram - the fact they learned that humans weren't native to Roshar, and possibly some other things about Nahel bonds or Kalak or Old Magic or many other things. We don't have a timeframe for that, just that it was around the same time. But we also don't know how the gems were sorted - for example, the in-world Words of Radiance has 7 chapters in-between Melishi deciding to bind Mishram and the actual Recreance, seemingly filled with other Radiant activities. My theory's that most of them are post-Mishram. All the ones that reference the Sibling withdrawing, at least. There's also the "I foresaw this" record - which is probably another nod to the Enlightening of Truthwatcher spren, but it's also a question of what was foreseen? That Mishram would be bound, or some aftereffects? I'd imagine they would have made a record like that only after seeing their prediction come true. There's no evidence I can see of an earlier non-Light problem? The Sibling only mentions a Light problem (which is really a Tone problem) in relation to Mishram. Navani bonds the Sibling, then the Towerlight returns and all of the things that the Gem Archive said were failing - the protections, the temperature - come back to normal. A few ways. One, Nergaoul isn't sapient and couldn't really fight back - Mishram probably could in some capacity. Two, even if the binding went as expected, Melishi then managed to stuff a physical object holding a very Invested entity into the Spiritual Realm, which seems fairly dangerous. Three, it might not have a physical ramification - Melishi could have realized just how much damage he did with his actions and just not been able to take it.

Right, and I’m saying there’s options where it was only the imprisonment of Mishram that damaged things and caused the tower to fail. The Sibling didn’t say “yeah I was having problems with my Light for a while”, they said that they had their Light and then lost it the exact same day Mishram was bound. And I think their word would be more accurate than the Honorspren’s and assuming the gem archive has to be an all-at-once thing. There’s also other ways that a bond can break without the Oaths breaking and leaving a deadeye. That’s why I think Melishi died, either as a consequence of binding Mishram or very soon after. If Melishi was still around, the other Radiants could just ask him what happened to the Sibling and we’d probably have a lot more answers. Or he could have just left the tower (to go bind Mishram or to exile) and let the bond naturally fade. There’s also a WoB that the spren can originate a severing of the bond “safely”, which could have been post-Mishram but pre-Recreance and severed the bond with some damage but not as much as a deadeye. (Also the Sibling’s a they, iirc.)

It doesn't seem like Lift's actually stopped growing, more that she strongly thinks she shouldn't. That perception has some power in the cosmere, but it's not everything.

Mishram's actions and binding seems to be what the Sibling themself thinks is the issue, in RoW 49. They say they lost Honor's tone when BAM was bound, and that Honor could have helped but was too mad (and soon after too dead) to do so. Not before. Dalinar almost certainly had the necessary Connection to Nergaoul just based on being affected by the Thrill so much, but it's highly unlikely he understood Nale in the same way when he Connected to him. Dalinar also clearly isn't very skilled at his Bondsmithing abilities compared to Ishar - which is a little unfair, but I think it's likely Melishi was far more skilled than Dalinar was. There's also a line at the end of RoW when Dalinar Connects Kaladin to Tien - Connection must have a reason/meaning, but Dalinar's able to find something that means something to Kaladin despite not knowing really any details about it himself. We also have no reason to believe that Melishi had any specific natural Connection to Mishram, but that's more because we don't know much about them - but we do know Mishram is a whole lot more self-aware about not just letting herself be bound than Nergaoul was. Maybe, but does that translate to other spren looking for the Sibling and finding/not finding them? Re-Shephir spent a few thousand years looking and thought the Sibling was gone for good. Somewhat unrelated to that idea, but since I'm rereading anyway - it's actually not the Sibling who notes Rlain is taken, as the Sibling still wants to try and find/bond Rlain up until Navani makes a bond. It's Timbre who notes it (basically immediately before Rlain bonds Tumi). Not sure what that means. My point is more that they don't know how or why - I don't see how they'd know what, either. The honorspren does call why the Sibling broke their bond a "matter of dispute", and the Radiants in the Gem Archive clearly have no idea what's happening to them. I think it's more possible the Sibling broke the bond, now that I see a little more, but I also think something happened to Melishi. If he'd been still alive he'd probably have been able to give more answers. But I imagine we'll find out in Wind and Truth.

Mishram can also generate Voidlight, and the Ghostbloods seem interested in condensed and accessible Investiture. It could be as simple as that.

Then why did the Sibling withdraw? The three main things thag were happening at that time were BAM being being bound, the Recreance, and Honor fully dying - in that order. If all the gems are pre-Binding, then the Sibling would have to be withdrawing for some other reason. In RoW, the Sibling also specifically calls out that they lost the Tone of Honor on the same day BAM was bound. Also Navani bonding the Sibling patched over the problem - if these happened before, Melishi’s bond should have had the same effect. I’m pretty sure what you need is a strong Connection to the Unmade - which non-Bondsmiths can make over time, but Bondsmiths can much more easily produce. Plus the archive specifically calls out they need Melishi. Ah, fair. Misremembered that one. But I still do think the timing is mixed up. I highly doubt that’s a hard and fast rule, otherwise Ivory would have called out Pattern to Jasnah in WoK / Pattern called out Syl to Shallan in WoR (or as a deeper cut, known Syl had survived the Recreance). The Sibling’s more aware of what goes on in their tower. If they’d really known how, I’d imagine they’d also really known why as well. The whole “we chose” thing seemed a surprise to everyone involved.

Two things: I’m pretty sure the Sibling makes a comment that they used to choose their bonds very carefully. I’d imagine that implies there were definitely times without a Sibling Bondsmith. Also, the gem archive wasn’t necessarily created all at once - one gem comments on the singer’s push towards Feverstone Keep, which would be pre-BAM binding, while another comments on the effects it seemingly had, which would be after. It’s the Honorspren who say that it was the Sibling that ended the bond, and they wouldn’t actually know what happened. My guess for what actually happened is Melishi died before they could break their Oath, either as a consequence of binding BAM in the Spiritual Realm or of something else. But Melishi exiling themselves from Urithiru, then living until they died of natural causes, would probably have a similar effect.

I think Khriss is a likely call. It seems fairly strange that she's seemingly not around, despite everyone else seeming to want to party on Roshar. I do think there's two or three other possibilities - one is pretty simple that instead of it being Khriss, it's Nazh, specifically because we know Nazh is on Roshar and we don't know Khriss. Another possibility is we finally meet that pesky Rosharan Kandra that's been WoBed about a few times - I think this one's more unlikely, but any kandra that's been around for a while in the Final Empire would certainly be an expert on Contracts. It's also possible that it is Frost. Frost is non-intervention focused, but even he seems glad that Odium is bound to Roshar - he might have a few words of wisdom if he finds a gaping loophole in the contest rules.

Thanks! I do think some of the Unmade might be similar - not quite the AI of the Sibling, but the less aware Unmade like Nergaoul and Moelach may have gained their awareness unintentionally. I still think Ba-Ado-Mishram being a corrupted "god of spren" would make sense as a reason why her binding would disrupt Nahel bonds so much, same with Sja-Anat potentially. Dai-Gonarthis is too much of a wild card.

The anti-Voidlight tone might have an effect on their corruption, but anti-Investiture is still anti-Investiture. They'd likely be destroyed. And Alethkar, and Riri, and Jah Keved, and probably Babatharnam and Shinovar... the singers have most of the Oathgates. They just can't do much with them because they've been locked from Urithiru's side (which can be undone, as Malata/Moash did, but they'd need to already be in Urithiru which seems like a problem for them).