Ashbringer

From what I remember, I think the original plan of the Oathpact was that the Heralds would stay on Braize forever, enduring forever and never breaking, keeping the formerly-endless Fused (who had been established previously) at bay. The fact that a Herald could "break" and agree to let the Fused return to Roshar in exchange for not being tortured any longer was a loophole in that humans can bend their words, while Investiture beings like Shards and Spren have much greater difficulty in doing so. I would note that there might not have been an Endgame, even with the Desolations. That's somewhat the point of the current Contest of Champions - it forces an end to the fighting, at least until one side finds a way to break the stalemate, but it's implied that it's not an end solution. Odium will find a way out eventually, or devise another alternative like the Everstorm, the same way the Heralds would eventually break and return a Desolation. But it buys humans the thing they need: time. I don't think so. The Heralds can break the pact as much as they wish, and the only thing damaged is the pacts they made in the Oathpact (meaning the binding of the Fused to Braize, although with the Everstorm that seems to have become a moot point, for now). But Dalinar, as Bondsmith bound to the spren holding the bulk of Honor's oaths, can act essentially as Honor in agreements - meaning Dalinar can alter aspects of Honor's agreement binding Odium to Roshar. If Dalinar breaks his oaths, that breaks the original binding and Odium's free to go. (I assume yes, that's why he agreed; potentially also it opened Odium up to claiming Dalinar as his champion in the first place, which would have been very bad if he'd succeeded. Then after he agreed in OB, he had to agree to some terms of actually holding the contest in RoW.)

Not an SA5 thing, just a Theory thing and Cosmere RPG thing: And WaT:

Hmm. Fair point, but I think I've got an answer - time dilation. Yolen is nearly inaccessible for some reason, and there have been major hints towards some planets having time dilation that would affect them majorly. And also, Starling's spent her time running around in a spaceship - that's going to enact some time dilation on her as well. It's also possible it's just not that far future. I forget when it's established that Hoid has a specific set of apprentices, but I think it was Sunlit Man, and Sunlit Man played very carefully into not giving away how long it had been since Stormlight (only mentioning a few decades). Similarly, the Set got very very close to having unInvested rocket technology within 11 years of Oathbringer. "Far Future" cosmere could be a whole lot sooner than we're expecting. I'm guessing it's a mix of those.

Szeth's a decent guess, as someone who was formerly (but also not really) Truthless. But now that I'm thinking about it... Szeth's incoming Oath is the one right before he completes his 5th, in which he "becomes the law". We might also see something similar occuring with some of our heroes, as Dalinar takes more steps towards becoming Unity, Kaladin towards becoming Protection, and Shallan towards becoming... Truth.

Technically, Oathbringer the in-world book wasn't finished until a good while after the climax of OB. But that's not quite the same as far-future authorship.

Ah. Good to know that's not a worry, I suppose I will note that there are some examples of the "magic bomb", mainly looking at what the Dawnshards did to Ashyn, and looking at Canticle in general. But those have more going on.

Several things were happening to the Sibling in quick succession - BAM's binding certainly damaged them when the Radiants were still around, I'm not contesting that. But nobody seemed to think they were fully dead, like the Fused are convinced of at the start of RoW or the Stormfather seems to be in OB. I'm positing that after that happened (and after whatever happened with Melishi in the Recreance, which I have a hunch on), the Sibling began to withdraw for multiple other reasons. One, no reason to really be around. Two, no one was worshipping/thinking of them, so their Cognitive and Physical aspects declined. Three - perhaps a bit out there - very little Stormlight or Towerlight was circulating in their systems, which I'm wondering if that's what the Sibling is. All of those somewhat became fixed when Urithiru was partially reactivated. I do think Odium's Vessel change is partially related, otherwise we'd hear the Wind by OB/RoW and not WaT. (Which we might have, just unknowingly, but that's another thing.) It's possible that Odium was actively suppressing the Wind in addition to the Wind naturally being suppressed by people being unrecognizing of her, then Odium being momentarily un-Vesseled (or Taravangian just being a stand-up guy!) let her slip through the cracks. Ooooooooh. That's a good catch. In that instance, I'd wager it's a "storm" and not a highstorm more for the second reason - it's more about the metaphorical storm than the literal one. Although, those kind of go hand in hand on Roshar. It's going to be real funny when all this extra storm theorizing (stormposting?) gets overshot by a certain Shard making a Cultivationstorm...

Oh hey, I've been looking for a thread on this. Anyway, I've been dealing with Stormlight theories a bit, so some were on my mind - the story of The Girl Who Looked Up is one of those. We know it's not about Shallan, we know it's about an actual person, and the two things we know about her is that she's got white hair and a red scarf. We also learned in these readings that Starling has been banished for disobeying something, and has white hair. I haven't seen it anywhere else, so I officially theorize The Girl Who Looked Up is Starling.

Something does seem to be missing, yeah. Depends how much the Wind and Storm were separate entities - they seem to be separate entities in actuality, but in the minds of men (especially before the Stormfather was altered by Honor), people might consider the Wind and Storm simply slightly different aspects of the same highstorm. There's also the weird phrasing: "to reconsider that the wind is not their enemy". That could be read two ways - that they're considering the possibility that the Wind isn't an enemy, or that they're considering that Wind now is their enemy. The first is the one that makes sense, but it could be either. As for the Everstorm, I doubt it's shown all its tricks yet. Somehow the stormform sung it into the Physical Realm, somehow it gave back Connection and Identity to the singers, and somehow it's keeping the Fused in place so they can be reborn instead of sending them back to Braize. It's easy to think "oh that's normal" because it's what we've seen, but it's in pretty drastic violation of the Oathpact. (Unrelated, but I wonder if / for how long people in Shadesmar pre-WoR were seeing this giant Everstorm circling around waiting to enter the Physical...) From what we learn in this week's readings - that Lost Shardblades eventually vanish from the Physical Realm because nobody thinks about them - I wonder if the same principle applies to the Wind. It is a matter of people worshipping the Storm, but it's more a matter of them not worshipping the Wind, because suddenly the Storm is giving them protection from Odium and Radiants and Stormlight and all these cool things. If people aren't thinking about the Wind, then the Wind loses bits of her Physical or Cognitive presence, and is thus limited in her capabilities. That would explain why she initially faded, and why perhaps the ancient Spren of Stone that Venli talks to hasn't faded (because the Shin still worship Stone). It wouldn't really explain why the Wind's come back, unless the revival of the Windrunners (without sufficient worship of Honor, as he's dead) is what actually kickstarted this. It would also have a neat side effect - it explains why the Sibling went dormant until the Radiants returned to Urithiru. I've got a few bundles of theories on that, although it's a bit off topic from Fleet and the Wind. A few other things: One possible explanation for this is that the original story of Fleet - before Hoid's adaptions to make it fit Roshar's mythos or Kaladin's upcoming battles - might not have actually taken place on Roshar. The Storm works as a convenient metaphor for an impossible struggle, and that's what the story is actually about, rather than depending on the dangers of the highstorm itself. I think this is less likely to be the case than, say, The Girl Who Looked Up (which we actually got a major clue on, I think, but that's technically revealed spoilers for another upcoming thing), because Fleet's story is much more entwined with Roshar's geography and the Storm itself, but it is a reason. I wonder, if this theory is right, then this is another option - Kaladin dying, but instead of picking up the power of Honor, picking up the power of Wind. We've seen Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow (allegedly) fuse with the Stormfather - why not Kaladin with Wind? I'm in team Honor going to someone else, mostly because I want to see the Shard of War

Solids tend to be denser than gases, yes But yeah. We’ve gotten a few things (like in TLM or Sunlit Man) about how Invested materials have weird phyiscal properties. And gases compress, whereas I don’t think Lights necessarily do. True, I spotted that on the Coppermind afterwards. But we also don’t know if that’s true of the method entirely or just Wax’s method. Wax tried it once, while the Set had several years preparing; also the Set were specifically trying to make a bomb while Wax was trying to make lerasium. There’s a quote somewhere in TLM about them being unsure if the bomb would ignite Scadrial’s atmosphere - that’s mostly playing on similar fears from around real life atomic bomb testing, but if the Set’s method was efficient enough it maybe could have.

Just realized something responding to another post - I think I agree Chemoarish would be in Shinovar, thanks to one specific Death Rattle: I think this has been theorized to be one of the things shown in Dalinar's visions, with Alethkar fading away. But I wonder if it instead means Szeth watching what has happened to Shinovar. Alethkar doesn't have much in the way of ocean access (near where people are, like Kholinar) - Shinovar has a bit more. And "Dust" could correspond to, instead of outright destruction, the Dustmother.

It will be interesting to see how much of this comes true! I like the theory a lot. Fleet's story works great as an inspirational story for Kaladin, but as we've seen with some of Hoid's other stories there's always more present. Just to add a few things: I believe the "new storm" is the Everstorm. That's the one that makes the most sense, and would drive people to see the highstorms (and by extension the Wind?) as less of an enemy, because now there's this clearly-evil storm. As for the capital-S Storm, I had interpreted that to be the Stormfather or perhaps Honor. We know from some WoBs that the highstorms (and thus likely the Stormfather) predated the Shattering of Adonalsium, but then after Honor's arrival (and several other events) he became what he is now. We also know that humans moved to worshipping Honor soon after arriving on Roshar, but that also the religions of the singers changed. That's not entirely set in stone - stormspren are Voidspren, after all - but that's what I think it means. Also, what's a good theory addition without throwing in a Death Rattle? The second just might be a reference to Szeth - especially if "dust" indicates Cheomarish' presence. But the first I think has some relevance to this. The storm isn't planning on stopping this time.

Conveniently, Shallan just re-swore her Second Oath... Shallan's Oaths are weird, because she seems to keep saying "truths" that don't qualify as Ideals, and we've got no idea where she stopped with Testament besides 3rd or above.

I think there's also a distinct possibility this isn't Odium's play. Taravangian's trying to be subtle, and him brute force murdering Shallan or Adolin is... kind of the opposite of that. A few possibilities: one, this is Taravangian making a play to hurt Dalinar by killing his son. Two, these Fused are actually sent by Mraize to go kill Shallan, just to send a message. Three, these Fused are actually doing something unrelated - there was still the mention of Shallan being sucked down into the spheres, which seems to be... strange, and maybe Unmade related.

From what I've seen, Cultivation is playing very carefully and very purposefully. Honor's the one that Odium wanted to kill, and seems to have taken the fall for binding Odium to the planet. We know that's she's interfering with some individuals (Dalinar, Lift, Taravangian), we know that she's spreading her Investiture across Roshar in a few specific (and unspecified) ways, and we know that Odium has been very careful with dealing with her. And we also know that, while Dalinar is the one creating the contest of champions, Cultivation is enforcing it - Rayse mentions somewhere that if he breaks his agreement, Cultivation would kill him. From my own interpretation - the original agreement / binding was between Honor and Odium alone. Odium was bound to Roshar and perhaps to other agreements (the Oathpact?), Honor was weakened enough that Odium was able to (perhaps mostly) kill him without major damage like he sustained versus Ambition. That left Cultivation unbound and unagreed, and with a power imbalance above or equal to that of Odium, and basically waiting with a sniper bead on Odium waiting for him to make a wrong move. Also remember, Cultivation had a major hand in getting Taravangian to kill off Rayse and Ascend to Odium at the end of RoW, and in preventing Dalinar from falling to Odium at the end of OB. I'd imagine she's quite pleased with those plans paying off.

I doubt he'll get cured, but I wouldn't be surprised if he, Taravangian, El, or someone manage to pull some shenanigans, such as leveraging Connection to get him able to see Kaladin (and only Kaladin). Could definitely see him being non-combatant. Or him arriving to be a counter-influence on Ishar; I wouldn't be surprised if Ishar manages to think he's Jezrien. But I think Kaladin's faced enough of what Vyre can throw at him.

Nightblood eating an Unmade would be nice to see. I also wouldn’t be too surprised if El or Dai-Gonarthis become back half opponents where we don’t see much of them in WaT, but we’ve really got no idea what the back half is going to be. I’d also note that Yelig-Nar would be good to send to fight off trained individuals who might have multiple Honorblades. Although I wonder if Vyre will also show up…

I did have a thought, invoked in part by this. Spren are supposed to be rarer in Shinovar. So perhaps this book is written by Szeth, and instead of documenting some cataclysm, it's a document of their journey. But that would depend on Szeth becoming aware of Taravangian's Ascension, which would be... an interesting reaction. I'm pretty sure this is just one of the Heavenly Ones who's been revived one, two, twelve too many times. Nearly all the Fused have titles, I don't think him having a royal one makes too much of a difference. (I think we'll know El when we see him. And Dalinar's used to war, I don't think Taravangian can kill his way out of this so easily.) Also I think if Abidi was a Monarch, he might have to Abidi-cate, because Radiant just killed him again.

Just tossing in something that's come up in similar discussions - the old Singer gods from before the First Desolation were said to be "of spren, stone, and wind". I think a Stone (and Spren) are relatively likely. They may end up being not in its original form (either Unmade or the Nightwatcher), but they seem to have existed. Maybe even multiple. I had always thought the Shin's stone worship was more an attempt by the singers at getting those pesky humans to stay off the rest of Roshar, but that obviously didn't go well. Another piece of food for thought - Cultivation and the highstorms seem to have spent the last few thousand years slowly burying most of the true Stone of Roshar in crem. Whether crem counts as stone could be debatable, but... it's interesting.

Seems like today confirms the answer's Not Kaladin, mostly.

Memes! This game was fun! Inactivity (my own and others') besides. I do think it was perhaps not the most balanced game - giving the Elims an Unbound Rioter is always a major power boost, especially when the Village can't really muster thread control. But I might leave more thoughts for later. And I am still curious if people know my rule. Edit: ... oh it's in the dead doc. Well. Still kinda curious

Alright, who thought I was a golem and what is my Rule? I had thought it would be a bit obvious

Anti-Investiture is still likely the only way to destroy something like Nightblood, unless someone with a Shard/Dawnshard directly interferes or something. I think it’s still a possible goal. Does Vasher want the sword destroyed, that’s a question. (His goal could have been getting equipped to access Stormlight to live, although I’d think he wouldn’t need help with that.) As for TLM, that was an actual mass-to-energy conversion rather than only Investiture-to-energy. Although now that I’m rechecking, Wax’s method couldn’t have been very efficient or that would have also been a nuke, because he stuck half a gram in that safe. Annihilation’s no joke.

Hmm. Araris. Up to Lego now, I suppose.

Update to this: there's apparently now a Spoiler-Heavy update on the contents of the Stonewalkers campaign up on the kickstarter. I'm probably not going to look at it myself, because I'm more interested in maybe actually playing it - but that might have the answers that we seek.