Autobrecciation

This makes a lot of sense. It also makes sense why the Everstorm is red, because it has been corrupted and moved.

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Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us.

I'm interpreting this as a red herring for a broken Vyre having lost Odium's light, Stormblessed dunking on him over and over, never stopping.

Seriously though, this feels dark and is likely the moment where Kaladin swears the fifth Ideal.

I think the unmade are just spren that have been affected by the surge of transformation powered by voidlight. Some unmade are more powerful spren (The ones that are intelligent), and some are more basic spren (Like the Thrill).

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You must move quickly, the Sibling repeated. The Lady of Pains has the Surge of Transformation and dangerous knowledge. She will infuse my entire heart—the pillar—in the proper order, using her Voidlight. In so doing, she would corrupt me and leave me … leave me as one of the Unmade.…

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 526). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

I'm also partial to think the unmade are ancient spren maybe of the Dawnsinger Gods, pre Honor and Cultivation.

On 12/17/2020 at 9:18 PM, starman2995 said:

There is more confirmation on this from RoW. Chapter 115 says "Some of this, Kelek said, had to do with the nature of deadeyes. Before the Recreance, they had never existed. Kelek said he thought this was why Mraize was hunting him. Something to do with the fall of the singers, and the Knights Radiant, so long ago -and the imprisoning of a specific spren". This confirms that the parshmen, deadeyes, and BAM are all related (and hints and some interesting motives for the Ghostbloods).

So we have the "We Chose!" moment, but what if the Radiants knew there was a risk to imprisoning BAM, did it anyway, which Deadeye'd their spren. They didn't kill them by breaking oaths, they deadeye'd them through the imprisoning of BAM. Sacrificed their powers and Spren to defeat an enemy, which damaged the soul of Roshar.

What are the unmade? I think we get some clues RoW, but what if BAM is like, the unmade soul of Roshar / planetspren? Planetspren has been asked about before and got RAFO'd so I'm curious if that ties in. What if the Unmade were the spren Gods of the pre-human Roshar, maybe the Singer's betrayal was offering their gods to Odium, he unmade them, in return for new forms (This was the betrayal of the spren maybe?).

On 12/18/2020 at 8:18 PM, Brgst13 said:

We also have that mysterious line from the Diagram: "One is almost certainly a traitor to the rest."  I had thought that referenced sja-anat, but I am now reconsidering this.

I have two thoughts around the broken line: 1. There is a traitor among the Heralds.  2. One of the Heralds has been so worn down by torture that they have broken beyond the ability to be fixed.  3. One of the Heralds has been able to sever their Connection to Roshar and flee.

I'm still leaning Ishar, because in the Prologue, it is Ishar who justified the abandonment of the Oathpact.

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“Ishar believes that so long as there is one of us still bound to the Oathpact, it may be enough. There is a chance we might end the cycle of Desolations.”

Also, rereading that just now it mentions Kalak putting his sword with the other 7. Is one missing or is that an old typo? EDIT: Figured it out, Jezrien puts his sword in (8) then Kalak puts his in (9).

I know there is no logical way for it to work, but I want fifth ideal to grant a Ryshadium somehow.

So, Shallan has a deadeyes spren, which I kind of thought nothing of until the livestream Thursday where Brandon said something to the effect of "Old knights radiant that broke their oaths did not make a deadeyes". This plus the "WE CHOSE" moment has implications for deadeyes. I think that in order to become a deadeyes, more than just breaking the oaths has to happen, the spren has to choose to die with the oath (Likely for some motive with the Knight Radiant involved). What the heck does that mean for Shallan? I think Testament probably chose to become a deadeyes to help Shallan conceal the Truth from even herself.

I was also confused about Heleran, and his shardblade but I've realized I'm just an idiot for believing anything Mraize had to say rather than realizing Heleran was probably working for the Ghostbloods.

Ok so I've chimed into several of these discussions, and honestly I'm all over the place on this topic, generally depending on which section of Moash I've gotten last. Previously been against but think its likely he will get redemption, but now I have been thinking about what purpose can he bring to future plot lines. I've thrown a few around redemption story archetypes such as Darth Vader's Redemption, Smeagul, Padan Fain, Saul/Paul.

Remember the fifth ideal for the Skybreakers is like, "I am the Law" and transcending letters to be the embodyment of justice. What is that for "I will protect" if not something like "I will know who it is right to protect". Currently I'm leaning towards Moash needing to be saved, and Kaladin leaving him to die. Maybe Moash will have a partial redemption arc,  Kaladin will have a chance to save him, but Moashes selfishness will bite him in the rockbuds. Kaladin won't have to protect him, and maybe he will die because of his toxicity as he is beyond saving. So like, redemption fake out, with Kal giving him the finger as he falls into a volcano?

I admit this might be wrong because I thought it (redemption arc start) was going to happen in part one of RoW when Moash showed up.

On 12/16/2020 at 5:39 PM, Philomath said:

See I’m weird and don’t consider Darth Vader actually redeemed.

So...completely off topic, but did you watch the Clone Wars? I think for me, its the extra characterization he gets from that series that makes him more empathizeable - something that was incomplete with just the prequel movies. It's too the point that it makes Return of the Jedi better (Where previous to watching the clone wars, it was my least favorite of the OT).

On topic, I think you are right that it feels shallow to just let someone sacrifice themselves to save someone, and that redeems them. It really depends on the arc we are given for Moash. I'm on my reread, just finished the part where Moash kills Leshwi and is spared for being passionate. I don't really feel like Moash / Kaladin's friendship was well developed in tWoK and WoR; certainly not nearly as well as Adolin / Kaladin. In fact, Moash in tWoK is kind of the last cremling that doesn't trust Kaladin. Take that to where he goes on OB and RoW - He gives his feelings over to Odium, seems completely uncaring - I honestly don't understand how Odium likes him while he feels so uncaring / passionless. For the future, if you want to go biblical analogs, his current moment really feels a lot like Saul/Paul - including having now been struck blind. He kind of acted like a prophet of Kaladin for parts in RoW, just trying to get him killed. I have previously posted about how I think Moash is going to be Smeagul somehow, and I keep coming back to him giving up his feelings - feeling nothing is the opposite of Passion. We also now have T-Odium, who may or may not care about Moash at all.

Off the rails prediction: Moash, feeling betrayed by old Odium, now stuck with his pain as a servant to T-Odium, has an arc: escape Odium, finds Dai-Gonarthis (Not a real unmade?), who takes away his pain (As per deathrattle). Moash ends up bonding it and becoming some sort of anti-Radiant, and a more powerful bad guy (Rather than kind of pathetic).

He's got to go to the peaks to deal with his betrayal of his birth order. I'm pretty sure he was born as a warrior, but because of the death of his older brother he became a cook. Finally, we know that it was said anyone who got shards and came back would become a king. So what's going on in the peaks?

The Unmade Moelach has moved to the horneater peaks:

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Adrotagia flipped over a paper from one of her stacks. “Moelach seems to have settled in the Horneater Peaks. Joshor is on his way there now. We might again soon have access to the Death Rattles.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 1001). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

Do we know of any other characters going to the peaks, or things going on there that Brandon would want to show besides Rock 'Return of the King'ing? Joshar (Silent Gatherer) is said to be headed there for more info. So we've got two named characters in the area.

What I want to see, is more Cultivation. Like, flow blown on screen dragon transformation would be epic. I'd just settle for some more clues about her motivations and what shes trying to do, maybe mixed with T-Odium showing up somehow to meddle with the (former?) Diagram people.

I'd love to see Rock become a radiant of some kind - maybe a Stoneward for the pun. From the Stoneward article:

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Throughout the world, they were widely known for being dependable, strong and filled with resolve, but also stubborn to a fault and prone to taking on projects larger than themselves.

Plus this would give us a fantastic Stoneward POV character.

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Kaladin didn’t have many squires left—none, unless you counted Dabbid and Rlain. Rock didn’t have a spren either, but he … had moved on to something else. Kaladin wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t call himself a squire.

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 162). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

EDIT Adding stuff:

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Rock held out his arms for an embrace. “Come. Give me farewell.”

Feeling like he was in a trance, Kaladin stood. “Will you return? If you can, after?” Rock shook his head.

“This thing I have done here with all of you, he is the end. When we meet again, I suspect it shall not be in this world. This life.”

Kaladin embraced his friend. One final, crushing Horneater hug. When they pulled apart, Rock was crying, but smiling. “You gave me back my life,” he said. “Thank you for that, Kaladin, bridgeleader. Do not be sad that now I choose to live that life.” “You go to imprisonment or worse.” “I go to the gods,” Rock said. He held up his finger. “There is one who lives here. One afah’liki. He is powerful god, but tricky. You should not have lost his flute.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 177). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

I really REALLY hope this isn't foreshadowing, but I'm tempted to think that Kaladin will die in the next book, and maybe meet rock in the Cog Realm before he fades. Some folks said this might be a language issue, that Rock might have to live on the other side of the Perpendicularity but we will see, and I hope it is just that and not either of them dying.

I was super anti Moash redemption arc before RoW, and while I don't want him to get like, a Venli level backstory and redemption, I really feel like he could have a Darth Vader moment with Kaladin right as he dies, despite him having killed Teft. I know Brandon could do it. And it would really fit thematically with the series, that no one is so far gone they can't be forgiven.

It could also go the other way and give us some vengeance against him too and I cheer for that, but I know if Moash somehow died saving Kaladin, I'd probably cry still.

Hey all, just finished my first WoK reread post RoW just trying to pick up on new details in a Dawnshard / RoW world. One thing that stood out for me was all the mentions of Voidbringers with fire! This was such good red herring foreshadowing of Humans being the Voidbringers, because it first pushed us to this pre thought of the Singers / Parsh being the voidbringers, but with Rabonial's Grandmother, we know that its about the humans arrival on Roshar after escaping from Ashyn.

Ok so some quote!

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They are aflame. They burn. They bring the darkness when they come, and so all you can see is that their skin is aflame. Burn, burn, burn ...

–Collected on Palahishev, 1172, 21 seconds pre-death. Subject was a baker’s apprentice.

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"Victory! We stand atop the mount! We scatter them before us! Their homes become our dens, their lands are now our farms! And they shall burn, as we once did, in a place that is hollow and forlorn."

–Collected on ishashan, 1172, 18 seconds pre-death subject was a spinster of the eigth dahn.

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"The ones of ash and fire, who killed like a swarm, relentless before the heralds..." Noted in Masly, page 337. Corroborated by Coldwin and Hasavah.

"They take away the light, wherever they lurk. Skin that is burned." Cormshen, page 104.

This feels like it's specifically about surgebinders - they take away stormlight (To power their surges). We see this with Shallan and Kaladin both just instinctively consuming stormlight before they consciously control it.

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“I wasn’t there when your kind came to our world. My grandmother, however, always mentioned the smoke. At first she thought you had strange skin patterns—but that was because so many human faces had been burned or marked by soot from the destruction of the world they left behind.

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 870). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

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“She talked about the way your livestock moaned and cried from their burns. The result of humans Surgebinding without oaths, without checks. Of course, that was before any of us understood the Surges. Before the spren left us for you, before the war started.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 870). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

This one is something Shallan said... maybe something I'm reading a bit into. What if what caused the fall of Ashyn was trying to somehow reach the Spiritual realm with physical body?

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on How she would react to seeing the Almighty:

"I suspect screams of pain," she said, letting her thought slip out too easily. " As it is written that the Almighty's glory is such that any who look upon him would immediately be burned to ash."

Anyway I think that last bit is a bit of a crackpot theory. I'll keep on highlighting stuff I see in Words of Radiance (And Oathbringer) as I go through the reread, just wanted to put this together see if anyone was interested in discussion.

10 hours ago, Mulk said:

I don't think Adonalsium suffered the same restrictions Sazed does.  If it had been the same, he/she/it/they'd not have been able to create as widely and wildly as we can infer happened.

I think they could create and urge things into motion, but were powerless to directly interfere with anything especially if it was at odds with any of his metashards intents. Could not save a single life because Ruin was pushing against his need to preserve. Could not prune a civilization so that it could thrive (ALA Cultivation) because Preservation stopped him. This feels again, like it clues into the meta theme of the cosmere - reflecting on the question of what good is a God is that is omnipotent, omniscient, but will not interfere to save a child from coyotes. In Adonalsium's case, they aren't just the god of people, but the coyotes, and of nature as well.

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I've thought about it a fair bit over the last few years, and I rather doubt we'll ever get an Adonalsium point of view to explain the thoughts behind why the severing was allowed, but I don't think there can be any doubt it was allowed. Maybe we'll get a few audible words during the actual encounter, but I don't expect we'll get more than that.

Has BS mentioned anything about ever showing this on screen? I hope we do see something, I agree it's not likely we will get POV from Ado.

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Ok I'm very confused I read first of the dusk and i definitely didn't remember that happening.

From the Rhythm of War Release Event, the reading he did from the sequel to First of Dusk (Untitled).

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I cannot follow your logic. Rayse-Odium wanted to settle on a long confinement to the Rosharan system. The point in the change is that Taravangian-Odium does not want to take the deal.

I mean, we know T-Odium wants to get off world, but do we know he wants to destroy all other shards so he can be the last god standing? I think that is what Hoid wants to prevent on Roshar, and I assume his personal (Former?) friendship with Rayse is also involved. So the question is whether Taravangian's goal is becoming the last god, which I'm leaning towards not... at this point in time.

Hoid's over-arching goal (or one of them) is "indicated as" the re-unification of Adonalsium, though I'm sure its much more involved and complicated than just that, plus I think he has other goals.

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Questioner

So, Hoid was there during the Shattering of Adonalsium. Odium is going around, like, destroying other Shards. We know that Hoid is collecting and has pieces of some of the other Shards.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Since Hoid was there at the original Shattering of Adonalsium. Is there an echo image of the original Adonalsium in Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, that's a RAFO. Here's your card. But it is a valid theory.

Questioner

I have a two-parter on that.

Brandon Sanderson

You can ask me the next part, but it is a RAFO.

Questioner

Is his end goal trying to join as many pieces of Adonalsium together to *inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Um, that, I will give a "that's a very good guess." And that is what the books seem to indicate is happening.

Salt Lake City ComicCon 2017 (Sept. 21, 2017)

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This is incorrect. It is in the interest of the rest of the Cosmere as being represented by Hoid. If the Rosharans want to make peace or a truce Hoid turns into an enemy.

This is true if T-Odium wants the same thing Rayse wanted. This is a big if, because if I'm understanding correct, the shard Odium doesn't want anything other than the intent its limited to - in this case, God's Wrath / Passion. Taravangian could be convinced by the shards intent to go through with it, if it aligns with his goals, and at this point the only thing we have seen of his goals was that he was going to "save them all". I keep falling into the trap that T-Odium will be evil, but he might just be vindictive, like Old Testament God, turning people who fight against him into pillars of salt, that sort of thing.

We also have no idea what Hoid's goal is - in the Rosharan system its to fight Odium because Odium is trying to become king of the hill, but what if T-Odium doesn't want that?

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I think the things we thought were extremely important aren't anymore.  Rayse dying completely reshuffled the deck.  The contest of champions is practically a sideshow.  The eternal war is going to end because it's in nobody's interest for it to continue.

The only reason I'm not behind this now is Spoilers Release Event Reading from sequel to First of Dusk:

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I think that this is the same that T will find. Saying “I want to save them all” is not at all aligned with the power, it seems? So how will that play out?

Depends on his intent, and the way he  goes through with his plan, especially if he is passion and not just wrath. Like, him doing something like following the Diagram feels cold and analytical, but the shear amount of work put into it, that was what illustrated the passion.

I keep thinking back to that convo between Dalinar and King T about the murderer among the Shepherds. If T is overthinking it, I think it shows his personal passion, and can be folded into his shards alignment.

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Dalinar lowered the Honorblade, looking eastward toward the Origin. Even through the stone walls, he knew that was where to find the Stormfather. “Do you know where they are?”

I have told you. I do not see all. Only glimpses in the storms.

“Do you know where they are?”

Only one, he said with a rumble. I … have seen Ishar. He curses me at night, even as he names himself a god. He seeks death. His own. Perhaps that of every man.

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 638). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

Saw this quote in another thread, and it made me think about how T-Odium said he was going to "Save them all"... could be another way that he will do this. Essentially, Odium and Dalinar's fight is over with the death of Rayse. Continuing on with the contest of champions seems like an interesting backdrop to trap the shard Odium in the Rosharan system, but what if with the new vessel, Taravangian isn't going to follow Rayse's plan of becoming the king of the hill?

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I hope he puts on a black headband and wears flowing desert robes and becomes a mad prophet of regret.  His physical eyes have been blinded, but his third eye is finally opened.

Dune:

I don't know what will happen in the future, but I think Moash/Vyre follows the Saul/Paul archetype story arc. I'm not sure if we've seen his lowest, most vile point, but I'm still on the future redemption arc team. I mean at this point I absolutely hate him, but if there is anything people like, its redemption.

MIght end up more like Smeagol though.

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“Then what does anger you? What is your passionate fury, Moash, the man with an ancient singer’s name?”

“Vengeance,” he whispered.

“Yes, I understand.” Lady Leshwi looked at him, smiling in what seemed to him a distinctly sinister way. “Do you know why we fight? Let me tell you. . . .”

Moash is going to be the Gollum/Smeagal of this series. Maybe he takes up Honor and Odium and becomes a different combination: Vengeance. Maybe he realizes Odium has betrayed him in the last moment, prevents Dalinar from grabbing Odium before the shard is splintered. I just hope its better than Spoiler WoT:

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Questioner

How do the Heralds come back? As Cognitive Shadows, how do they a physical body?

Brandon Sanderson

That system will be explained in the coming books, so that is a RAFO. I'm gonna dig into it pretty deeply. It's relevant for multiple reasons...

In the original version, Taln ended up in someone else, like they would get a body from someone else, which was part of fueling the "Is he crazy, is he not," because people were like, "I recognize this guy!" I don't use that system anymore.

Questioner

That's what I was wondering, because the Fused--

Brandon Sanderson

They use something kind of more like the Fused in the original draft, it's not that process anymore.

Questioner

Is that gonna give us lead-ins to how it worked with Kelsier?

Brandon Sanderson

Maybe. Maybe. You shall see.

Skyward Chicago signing (Nov. 16, 2018)

I thought there was a wob that said they got new bodies each time they got sent back... but I can't find it. This is the one I could find.

I was thinking the same thing when I read that passage. I can think of nothing more fitting of an exploration of the "Horrors and progress and Science" than the nuclear bomb. I am continually flip-flopping on the implications of real world nuclear power, so it is a great candidate for something I want to explore both sides of.

Spoilers Silence Divine:

We have two characters that are continually brought up in the context of dueling - Taln and Adolin. Taln, being a herald and the last and maybe only that is still actively a part of the oathpact, has no reason to betray Dalinar, although he might be too lost to hold to it again, even if Dalinar somehow reforges the oathpact. I think we will see an arc where Dalinar convinces Taln to act as his champion, but Taln somehow becomes worse (Maybe following the death of another herald) and cannot function as the champion. I think this means that Adolin will try to step in.

Another possibility I've been toying with is that T-Odium could argue for Adolin to represent him - the murder of Sadeas, the resentment for Dalinar, maybe Maya wakes up to him and tells him that what the Knights Radiant are doing is wrong. Adolin becomes Odiums Champion - maybe for a different type of contest, and Dalinar wins him back. Kind of like Star Wars on its head.

Anyway thats all speculation, but what I'm curous is what the back 5 will focus on. We know that there will be a greater focus on the Heralds, and I think that means we will see the fall of Ashyn. I also think we will get a pivot for the villain, who Dalinar and potentially T-Odium will be working together to defeat:

Ishar. Looking at the conflict, we see mirrors of events - the binding of the Thrill, the death of Jezrien. We see that Ba-Ado-Mishram having been locked away has fundamentally changed the previous singers. What have we not seen? Whatever the heck happened on Ashyn. We know that Ishar was there:

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The powers of a Bondsmith are the powers of creation, the Stormfather said. The powers of gods, including the ability to link souls. Always before, Honor was here to guard this power, to limit it. It seems that Ishar knows how to make full use of his new freedom. The Stormfather paused, then rumbled more softly. I never liked him. Though I was only a wind then—and not completely conscious—I remember him. Ishar was ambitious even before madness took him. He cannot bear sole blame for the destruction of Ashyn, humankind’s first home, but he was the one Odium first tricked into experimenting with the Surges.

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 1163). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

What broke Ashyn? The powers of the Bondsmith:

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The Stormfather rumbled in the back of his mind. I was not certain it could be done, he said. The power of Bondsmiths was tempered by Honor, for the good of all. Ever since the destruction of Ashyn.

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 768). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

Bondsmith's unchained wrecked Ashyn. We get some clues from Rabonial as to what that entailed for the people there:

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“I wasn’t there when your kind came to our world. My grandmother, however, always mentioned the smoke. At first she thought you had strange skin patterns—but that was because so many human faces had been burned or marked by soot from the destruction of the world they left behind. She talked about the way your livestock moaned and cried from their burns. The result of humans Surgebinding without oaths, without checks. Of course, that was before any of us understood the Surges. Before the spren left us for you, before the war started.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 870). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

So what happened on Ashyn? I think it has to do with the Unmade, who were made then unmade similar to what was happening to the Sibling in this book. Again, I think this was done by Ishar:

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"Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all."

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“Your abilities are what made the original Oathpact,” she said. “And they existed—and were named—long before the Knights Radiant were founded. A Bondsmith Connected the Heralds to Braize, made them immortal, and locked our enemies away. A Bondsmith bound other Surges and brought humans to Roshar, fleeing their dying world. A Bondsmith created—or at least discovered—the Nahel bond: the ability of spren and humans to join together into something better. You Connect things, Dalinar. Realms. Ideas. People.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 284). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

I'm going to get into some Dawnshard spoilers here, so tagging up but I'll get out of there soon:

Of all the Heralds, Ishar knew first hand the consequences of breaking oaths - for he was a connection sorcerer who had caused the floating cities of Ashyn to fall. He was the architect of the Oathpact - but also the architect of its deterioration:

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"A…a decision has been made. It is time for the Oathpact to end.”

Kalak felt a sharp stab of horror. “What will that do?”

“Ishar believes that so long as there is one of us still bound to the Oathpact, it may be enough. There is a chance we might end the cycle of Desolations.”

From the Prelude of The Way of Kings

All of the other heralds we have seen basically state that Ishar is still sane, but we know that he is not from his own words

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“I can see clearly,” the voice said from within the perpendicularity. “I do not know why. Has a Bondsmith been sworn? We have a Connection, all of us.… Nevertheless, I feel my sanity slipping. My mind is broken, I do not know if it can be healed. Perhaps you can restore me for a short time after an Ideal is spoken near me. Everyone sees a little more clearly when a Radiant touches the Spiritual Realm. For now, listen well. I have the answer, a way to fix the problems that beset us. Come to me in Shinovar. I can reset the Oathpact, though I must be sane to do it. I must … have help … to…”

Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 1161). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

We should not believe his words, even when he appears sane.

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Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing (Dec. 3, 2016)

Q: I just read Edgedancer. I was just wondering... Did Ishar deceive Nalan on purpose or was he just wrong-- he had wrong information?

BS: All the Heralds are insane. It manifests in different ways. Do not trust anything any Herald says. Ever. Nale trusts Ishar too much. Um... So "on purpose" is a difficult thing when you're referring to someone with the psychology that Ishar has. *sighs* Alright, I'll RAFO that until I get to him, but the answer is kind of a yes and a no. Okay? So there is part of him that knows and there is part of him that doesn't want to believe it. And yet the things he's been doing lately in Roshar are done because he knows what's coming.

I think Ishar was somehow connected to the bringing back of the voidspren too:

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“Shadesmar has been changing these last months,” Pattern explained. “Voidspren have arrived mysteriously just west of the Nexus of Imagination. Near Marat or Tukar on your side.

We also know that he had been collecting spren, bringing them into the physical world for his sick experiments.

So to wrap it up, I think Ishar is Mad. I think his madness was before his herald madness - that he's a mad scientist archetype, and that he will be the villain for the back 5. I also think there will still be a Taravang-ium redemption / de-escalation / needing to work with the Archetype of "God's Wrath", in the back 5 in order to protect the cosmere from whatever Ishar is doing.

As a remote sensing scientist I like to think about color and visualizations. In case you didn't know, all the stuff around us reflects different wavelengths of light differently based on the materials its made of. This extends outside the normal visible spectrum of light! For example, most plants are green because they reflect green light, but if the human eye could see into the near infrared, plants would be that color, because they reflect several times as much of that radiation as they do green.

Something cool we can think about now that we know investiture that is associated with a specific shard has a specific wavelength / color is how to visualize things powered by that light. Mixing two colors/lights to get something new is actually super interesting, and using any three colors / unique investiture flavors, we could have a full color image! On Roshar, we'd have blue from Honor, Green from Cultivation, and purple/void? from Odium. If we wanted to visualize it for our eyes we could shift the colors to the three we use most, RGB -> Cultivation to red, Honor ->green, Odium -> blue, and make some cool false color composite images. In real life this lets us know something about the structure, because it tells us what is absorbed and what is reflected. Many bugs and flowers are reflective to UV radiation in unique and beautiful ways, for them to attract different mates. Same with platypuses (Not for attracting mates (That we know yet), just cool colors!).

I think it was mentioned that voidlight and Odium have been part of the Rosharan system so long that it has become incorporated into the ecology there. Likely this is referring to Roshar becoming invested by Odium, maybe Odium has a perpendicularity now or something.

Anyway I thought this was kind of neat.

So I wasn't really expecting this, but I did post this on my introduce yourself thread:

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The Storming Stormfather: Welcome to the Shard, Autobrecciation! Which character (non-Mistborn series) do you think would have the best chance to take down the Lord Ruler?

Me: Just take him out? Chiri-Chiri. Bring down / co-opt his church and raise himself to God-Emperor status? Taravangian.

So I guess I'd say I wasn't surprised at all when Taravangian killed a God and co-opted his religion in a move to ascend to God-Emperor status.

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All we know is that the rhythm that is produced by the fusion of their two energies is identified by a Singer's inherent rhythm-identification-sense power as "the rhythm of war." 

Was it on the shard or reddit someone posted the tinfoil theory about Dalinar seizing Odium and Honor and becoming "Conquest"? That would have been sick. Also, still not out of the question if somehow Dalinar gets Honor's shard but becomes T-Odiums slave.