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This sounds great and would be a nice way for it to go - I fear it could be too neat/too easy and Brandon rarely does neat/easy.

Advantages of Navani's system: Does not require a radiant -> free up the radiant(s) for other duties whilst the ship keeps moving Power requirements - this ship is ENORMOUS - the amount of Stormlight needed to do it only with lashings would be immense -> possibly would only work in front of a Highstorm.

My concern is that the trip to the Herdazians will be lengthy, maybe multiple days. So how are they going to do that whilst being pursued?

Flying before a storm wall would be great if one is forthcoming. BUT when and how do they pick up the herdazians?

Having to keep communicating with Urithiru seems awkward - building on ftl's ideas above could they have the engine onboard? If all you need is gems being moved with great power over tiny distances - round oval shaped courses with aluminium blocking the wrong angles etc - do it with conveyor belts powered by a steam engine, scale it down and put it inside the ship - though you will need need a source of water for the steam - could maybe soul cast it.

Doesn't have to be off screen - in Part 1 the journey into shadesmar hasn't started yet.

Navani is more than just a project manager, a project manager takes an assigned task and tracks progress on it/ensures everyone involved knows what they're doing. Navani is an innovator and an integrator. She dreams up new ideas people haven't thought of or haven't taken seriously THEN she finds the various experts needed for them and brings them together.

The airship landed in chapter 3 for people to get on - I doubt it will take off again until they're done unless they need to run. Also in ch7 Kal told Lift to take the fabrial to Navani implying that she's on the ground at the moment i.e. the air ship is still there. As an extra point to consider Brandon said the below on reddit which IMO implies that we should expect these early events to happen rapidly and conclude BUT to involve more of other characters - minimally expecting some more Shallan action to be interspersed:

Broad thoughts I really want most of the townsfolk to get away safely - the presence of Moash is a massive spanner in that though. BUT team radiant has brought the A team here there have been 38 radiants mentioned (Dalinar, Lift and 11 other edgedancers, Kaladin and 24 other wind runners). If this crew can get wrecked by anything team Odium can scramble in half a day then team Radiant is in big do-do. Specifics for Chapters 4 and 5 We know where they are in ch7 - still here, same day - BUT fused have arrived and been fought. Also there's no hint of panic in the ch7 part - so no big disaster before that. So what's going to happen in between enemies can arrive and a battle can ensue, from the fact that Kaladin was in the air and another edgedancer had been captured clearly there's been a melee of some kind. For Roshone to be checking the cellar not a radiant I'm going to guess he went to do that before the fighting started so all the action has then been very swift. I think we're going to have more Shallan action to get us through the chapters without completing the hearthstone arc. I'm hoping for some more Lirin POV I want him to have a positive thought of some kind.

I don't think this would work, as best as I understood it the motion happens by literally moving the paired gemstone - they walk it across a plateau. It's not the act of walking that pushes the ship BUT the act of moving the gem across the plateau. If you were going to use a conveyor belt you'd have to actually move along it - what you could do as an enhancement is have waterwheels powering a conveyor belt or something like that to use waterpower instead of chull power.

In my mind I'm seeing this whole plot thread as an opening hook (akin to Kaladin's journey with the new Singers in OB) and hence hoping it doesn't drag out. Conversely Brandon may be planning this as a major hiccup that sets up the rest of the book - which would make the logic of it very different.

Looking at the maps the Vedenar oathgate may be nearer to where they want to get to in shadesmar than the Urithiru oathgate so if Dalinar can unlock an oathgate that one may be a better choice purely for this purpose. For supplies - take loads of stuff with them, the only reason supplies were a nightmare in Oathbringer is that they hadn't prepped for the trip because they weren't meant to end up there. Also, pet theory, the reason Adolin is going is because he's revived Maya and this is their key argument.

So, I was right on Dalinar and Navani being nearby with a flying ship though I wasn't 100% on the reason, I hadn't guessed that they'd planned on evacuating the whole town from the start. Going to be interesting to see how this plays out, whether they get into the ship quickly and get away smoothly and what exactly Moash does - I hope whatever it is it gets resolved fast - I don't enjoy drawn out traitor plots - Mr T is annoying enough....

Hopefully it will be a quick evac operation without complications and all over half way through part 1....

SO a few thoughts, firstly fun: I called the flying ship being there I also called Dalinar and Navani being there (based on ch7 references) Secondly more major stuff: From 1 Edgedancer in total (in Oathbringer) to having a dozen on one mission a year later - recruitment seems to be going well The Sibling as the power source of Uritiru AND having died in the recreance, probably as Melishi's spren - long running theory seems to have been confirmed

This prologue has pushed me into the "he may come back- but I really hope he doesn't" camp.

They don't - BUT - they may need it to take the whole town AND/OR to bring a load of extra troops in case things go wrong. Alternatively they may be testing it out, this could be it's first long trip.

This is a really good point, and I don't know - unless they can't think of a good spot not covered by Singer patrols? OR any such good spots they know of they don't want to reveal in a communication that could be intercepted? OR Brandon just wanted to do it at Hearthstone and decided to do it that way without handling alternatives.

I think that plan A was to simply smuggle the Mink out BUT it went wrong - now they may have been prepared for it to go wrong and had a backup ready - not certain. Also, my pet theory (not that confident but hoping) is that they've built the flying ship from Navani's sketchpad and it's flying high above Hearthstone full of backup.

The only publicly released full chapters are Prologue and Chapter 1 - chapters 2 & 3 should be coming about an hour from now. The video starts by saying that they've released more BUT it was pre-recorded and the plan changed so it's wrong.

I know which is why it seems very weird to me BUT it also seems like the most obvious reading of the situation. Looking forward to seeing a bit of light shed on it - also want to know how they shifted from ch1 having a covert extraction mission go wrong to ch7 having a larger scale battle - how did they bring reinforcements quickly etc, hoping we'll find out in tomorrow's chapters.

I guess that's possible; my conclusion that BOTH Navani and Dalinar are on site/in close proximity seems simpler IMO. (Even though it raises massive questions of why and how etc.)

For 1. this is possible BUT specifically implies that Lift's means of getting back to Navani (at Urithiru?) is not a Kaladin air lift, what's the transport method - another windrunner currently off screen? For 2. in the middle of an active battle, in a tactical situation there's been time for Roshone to give an update to Dalinar in a different location AND that to get back to Kaladin? That seems unlikely to me.

What I want to know is how this whole team got there AND where they're staging from. Kaladin tells Lift to give the fabrial to Navani - implying that Navani is somewhere Lift can get to without Kaladin's help so they're not flying back to Urithiru to see here Kaladin says that Roshone had told Dalinar he was going into the cellar - implying that Dalinar is nearby. If this stems from the situation going south in ch1 (as Brandon says it does) then why/how did Dalinar and Navani end up here? (Lift and the other Edgedancer too)? DO they have some kind of mobile command base? Did they portal in directly with transportation? Arrive in a flying ship? What? Any thoughts?

Are we aware of any elsecallers other than Jasnah at the moment?