GudThymes

I think it would be weird to introduce a new shard at this stage in the story. From chapter 1 & 2 it seems that the voice can hear him talk and speak with him. I find it more likely to be one of the unmade hijacking connection to communicate with him as they have already been hugely present in the storyline and we know there is one in Shinovar, where Kal seems to be headed.

I understand your thinking but I personally strongly dislike this theory. I feel like it is a very reductionist view on their relationship to move it from the nahel bond to be some kind of romantic relationship. The two rely on each other in so many ways and I think Syl is just comforting her radiant who has depression. She tries to make him laugh, keep his mind from the dark place, and reminds him of the good days. That is fully healthy and good in platonic relationships. I feel that it is a disservice to Kaladin and Syl's story to reduce the complexity and nuance of their relationship to be explained as "they have feelings for each other".

I love this idea, but who says that all people must be kept around. Not sure exactly how that might happen to hold people in the SR instead of letting them pass to the great beyond. Could be that when Tanavast died he set up some bubble in the SR to capture specific people. If he was seeing the future then maybe he fished out people who died with strong Connections to our knights?

Yes and no, in the prologue Gavilar refers to him as: What extent of his history Gavilar knows is up for debate, but definitely enough to utilize his skills. I loved the depiction of depression on a good day. I am concerned for Kaladin and what this book is going to do to him.

So I recall feeling from the original prologue that there was something significant in the way that the stormfather talks to Gavilar, how it is almost always in italics rather than the all caps font. Re-reading it now with the changes I feel more strongly about the stormfaker theory and want to put forward (if others haven't already) that the faker is Ash. We already know that she was in the palace that evening and I feel that everything Gavilar experiences while awake could be attributed to a light weaving. When Dalinar spoke in his visions it was a language that contemporary Rosharans didn't know but Ash would be able to and then be able to respond directly to Gavilar. There's also a point in the prologue where the stormfather directly criticizes Tanavast without being reverent to him.

Because it tells us he would at the start when he becomes Sunlit. His healing is no match for the interaction between the sun and the core. I didn't fully explain my thinking, but wouldn't every sun be invested? In our world a star converts a small amount of mass into energy via fusion, so I don't think it's a stretch to say that fusion in the Cosmere would create investiture. I pointed out that section because to me it is showing us that the thing to look at is the planet's core not the star.

I don't think it makes sense at all that a shard or Ado would've invested the sun. There's something going on with the planet not the sun itself, otherwise he would've been burned up on top of the mountain. My thought is that any old star could take the place of Canticle's star.

Is that the case though? Wasn't the whole point of Nomad's experiments with the sunhearts and Elegy to test siphoning off his connection to the Dawnshard and putting it in a container so that he doesn't have the Torment? I would have to look again at the exact phrasing but I thought it explicitly stated that the torment was "damage" from it going into him not out. Just like how Elegy lost her memories when the cinderheart went in.

Unlikely but not impossible. I just looked at the Kickstarter and it just looks like shardplate.

I would assume so, but since it is an assumption I didn't want to claim as such. Though, there is also the weird situation with Rebeke's brother - unconfirmed but if we believe her then his shade somehow made it from the battlefield at the beginning into the Reliquary. So they likely wouldn't be destroyed by the sun until the Reliquaries fail.

I don't think so. Since they've needed the sunhearts as power sources they've needed to sacrifice people to continuously renew their flight from the "sun". I think recharging just removes that necessity and they can still find a solution for the shades if they start overwhelming the Reliquaries.

I love your religion connections, I hadn't heard of the Jewish explanation before but I love it and want to know more about that philosophy. For 6 Wax took the duraluminum granting spike from Not-Wax in order to get to the ship to stop the bomb. (Wayne I think took a steel granting spike to become a coinshot). 7, we are still unsure but I think the consensus is leaning that way. If he created Lerasium like is stated then he should be a mistborn (likely not nearly as strong as Elend or spook when they took full beads). Alternatively, he created something new in his experiment or just straight up tried to eat harmonium and become something new. Maybe some mix of allomantic and hemalurgic powers that isn't ferruchemy. Harmony's magic system on scadrial doesn't seem to be known yet. My reasoning for not seeing Hoid's spren is that he hasn't fully figured out to keep the connection active yet and the spren is in some form of stasis either as a deadeye or using some other method. Or the timeline will get adjusted so that era 2 is pre stormlight.

I like the train of thought of you have @HSuperLee. I reread the couple chapters around the experiment and one thing that is different about the 2nd explosion is the mention of acids, they mention both hyperchlorous and hydrochloric were present before Wax started is harmonium bavadinium experiment. When the second explosion happens wax is scraping the hot harmonium off the sides of the box where presumably there may be leftover chlorine acids or chlorine gas. I think the chlorine interacting with harmonium is what actually stabilized the Lerasium. Since harmonium interacts with water in the same way as alkaline metals I assume that it would interact with chlorine in a similar way as an alkaline would and instead stabilize as a salt compound and leave leftover atium. An aside, why are kandra so afraid of acids? Would it have something to do with hemalurgy?

I think most of us can agree that Sazed lied about the Lerasium to Kelsier in the epilogue. But in what way? A. Blatantly.Straight forward, the kandra experiments made Lerasium and Sazed lied to Kelsier. B. Omission. The kandra experiments actually didn't make Lerasium but Sazed knows how to do so using Wax's method. I vote B, I think that the kandra didn't make Lerasium for the reasons Sazed said, their intent was to detonate the Harmonium with bavadinium. Whereas when wax created the Lerasium he was trying to split the harmonium using magnetism and it worked (albeit not at 100% efficacy) and most was lost/expended in the resultant explosion.

I agree that Harmony didn't lie. I want to pick out Hamrony's choice of words. He says "detonate" as the intent of the kandra experiments. But correct my if I'm wrong but Wax didn't intend to detonate the Harmonium, he was trying to split it back into it's "components". I believe this is why you don't end up with any Lerasium. Additional backing from ROW spoilers: I think that it is possible to use Bavadinium to split Harmonium into Lerasium and Atium but I don't think either the kandra or Harmony actually know the missing piece needed.

I agree with you that it is most likely a stormfaker throughout this prologue, although I think the actual stormfather makes 1 appearance. But why is 'entity can feel Herald being killed' a point in favor of it being Ishar? Shouldn't it be against? This is from the WoK prelude when Kalak finishes the battle and heads towards the meetup point: It goes on to also talk about how if they survive then they have to choose to go back to Braize and then they "end" the Oathpact (we know it didn't actually end the entire Oathpact though). I interpret this to suggest that the Heralds are not able to sense when other heralds die and return to Braize. Although, I can think of some counterarguments: 1. continuity issue 2. there was an intense battle and Kalak didn't notice who did/didn't die 3. Ishar has a stronger connection to the Oathpact and is able to sense when others die and return to Braize. I included the Blades reference to help confirm which herald it was that died through other means (Although I agree that it is almost definitely Chanarach). Brandon also included a description of her blade in the prologue as well. I haven't dug into references yet, does anyone know if anyone has already compiled all references to Honorblades somewhere?

I'm not sure, and I wonder if it is just an early version thing? I just went back and checked, every italicized line before the one I quoted is "spoken" by the SF. Either way, Gavilar is definitely a trash human.

This, 100% this. I think it's because we are being given a character that had immense power and was on the verge of doing incredible good (bringing back the Radiants), but the more we learn about him is that 1) he was doing it for selfish reasons and 2) he's not considering his current and future impact on everyone else. I've read some comments about this prologue somewhat "redeeming" Gavliar in their eyes after RoW and I can't disagree more. We finally see his motivation for why he's treating people around him horribly, which to be fair he acknowledges and that's good, but it's because he honestly believes that he will become immortal and will outlive them so why should he care: Separate thought: I remember when the RoW prologue came out people were trying to explain some of Gavilar's behavior as being under the influence of one of the Unmade. I wonder if we should revisit that idea, the line in italics there doesn't seem very Stormfather. I wonder if one of the Unmade has the ability to give the same visions as the Stormfather and is influencing Gavilar? I am going to do some more thinking now.

I love the idea that Chana is Shallan's mother a lot, and think most of the ideas are very plausible. I've seen talk about honorblades a few different times lately (i.e. what has been up with Taln's switching, and this Chana honorblade idea) and checked the very beginning of WoK and found this when Kalak meets with Jezrien: Now, they also talk about that it's "Time for the Oatchpact to end" a little bit further on and we know that it wasn't until Jezrien's murder that the Oathpact truly ended – but I would assume that the Heralds have died and gone back to Braize enough times for us to implicitly trust the statement about the blades.

Am I being the obtuse one or are we all taking this too literally? I haven't seen much theorizing about this contest as anything other than a duel. It was explicitly called a "contest of champions" in world, right? Could that be how big tOdium wiggles out? Uses a different kind of contest against Dalinar? I don't know where I'm going with it per se but theoretically it could be like 'first to kill Cultivation'? Or something way out of left field?

I don't think there was any reference to that in the draft we saw Wit and Jasnah create. However, I would assume that would be like forfeiting and would be considered as losing the contest by all parties. Are you thinking that if Gavinor is big tOdium's champion then Dalinar would just back down?

I don't have a direct quote on hand but it must be a willing champion. So they can likely be tricked or coerced in some way. Like with some theories in the thread above. But the champion definitely needs to knowingly decide to be either side's champion

Felt was already on the expedition into Shadesmar. He was brought along by Adolin.

Hahaha agreed. I feel like if Ado is still around as a CS then chilling in the Shadesmar of Roshar is the most likely place so far.

What should we call the new vessel/shard combo?