Crossen

I did a re-read of the Spiritual Realm chapters and have come to a re-contextualization from what I thought I read before. Especially from this quote from chapter 44: So if someone takes the place of a Herald in a spiritual realm vision then they would appear like their current day depictions since that is what the person would remember them looking like. You can see this from Dalinar's instant recognition of Rlain as Pailiah: How could he instantly recognize the "real" her if he never saw the real her anyway? Navani took her place in the only previous vision she was in. In every vision someone has taken Pailiah's place, so either we see a lightweaving of what they think she looks like or of Navani taking her place. So from this we cannot say that Aesudan is not Pailiah because they never saw the real Pailiah in the visions. After confirming this and the addition that Battar was visiting Aesudan, I am convinced now more than ever that Aesudan is Pailiah.

I think Nohadon is Adonalsium's vessel essentially, or something like it. He wanted to learn and to grow and could not do that without experiencing the lives of everyday people. I think Adonalsium essentially let himself be shattered. Nahadon seems to have too much power to be anything short of a Shard. It fits in with a lot of the religion/lore around Adonalsium/The One/ Tsa and the 3 moons and the Way of King epigraphs in this book.

I am increasingly starting to believe that Valor (and her perpendicularity) are hidden in the ocean near the origin on Roshar.

Brandon has a certain way about talking about the power of Shards. He tends to state the Shard then give in world examples of the power. For example here is when Dalinar picks up Honor: We know from the day 5 interludes that Endowment and Valor seem to be working together. It seems that Valor may have intervened, along-side Nightblood (a creation from Endowment's power), to give Taravangian the strength to kill Rayse:

Same for Aesudan. I have posted about her before being a Herald, but now I think that that is highly unlikely since Dalinar and Navani would have recognized her in the visions. I do still think that she was a part of one of the conspiracy groups, however (especially with young Gav mentioning than Battar would visit Aesudan in Kolinar).

MAJOR WHEEL OF TIME SPOILERS

Any chance that it was actually Cultivation and not Honor that became Nohadon? She is a shape shifting Dragon after all. This could also explain how the Nohadon visions are not seen by the Stormfather; because they are given to Dalinar by Cultivation. The Moon God Mishim that gets switched is also mentioned as being green, Cultivation's color. Cultivation being Nohadon also adds some sly context to the discussion between Cultivation and Taravangian in I-2 where he chides her for not doing anything to help Roshar govern better, but she actually wrote the book on it.

This excerpt from the in-world TWOK is very telling, especially the second paragraph since it echos the thought from I-2 where they can try to guide the world, but not act directly or open themselves up to attack.

I think this could fit into the conversation that Cultivation and Taravangian have in I-2 about creating systems that would lead to peace. This was pretty much Nohadon's MO. But would this be "acting directly" which is forbidden to the Shards? Maybe that opened up Tanavast to attack.

I think you are exactly right. I have been meaning to write a post that ties everything with Szeth all together: that he is the child champion and that the duel ends up in either a loss or a tie with the Stormfather either dying or becoming incapacitated due to the results of the duel (and thus no more easy access to Stormlight). I had an old post on this that I will quote below, but over my re-read I did find some more foreshadowing that would suggest that Szeth can be considered a child for the child champion theory tie in. TWOK I-3: TWOK I-6: ROW 85: My earlier post with some more info: Szeth and Kaladin may confront this Unmade when they are in Shinovar. A child is also mentioned in another deathrattle: The only three people that I think are strongly tied to their homeland are Dalinar, Szeth and the Stormfather. I think that this does not refer to the Stormfather so I will skip him (even though he does seem like a baby sometimes). Both Alethkar and Shinovar have mountains nearby, but Shinovar does have a lot more of them. Szeth is also more likely to be on top of the mountains since he can fly. Also his birthplace is the Valley of Truth, a place that sounds like it could be prone to a flood. This would lead me to believe that Szeth is the child in this deathrattle: And that they will choose to not kill him. Also an interesting bit of foreshadowing if this is true: I also think it is funny that they only thing that has been retconned in the books is the taking back that Kaladin killed Szeth in WOR and making it a psuedo-suicide instead. If my theory is correct then the pre-retcon story would not make sense because why would Kaladin be allowed to kill Szeth before in WOR but they cannot now? That question gets eliminated with the retcon. Here are the deathrattles that suggest that the Stormfather will be deadeyed as a result of them not being able to kill Szeth and will no longer be able to grant Stormlight. I was planning to write more but that is kind of off topic for this thread.

Random thought, but is it possible that Dai-Gonarthis is not actually an Unmade (they could possibly be one of the "traitor" sleepless that went on the betray Aimia I think), and we don't know who the final Unmade truly is? Hessi's Mythica really casts some doubt on Dai-Gonarthis being the 9th. Also, as it currently stands there are 15 sub-names for the Unmade (Ba-Ado-Mishram = 3, Dai-Gonarthis = 2, etc.), where I think 16 would be more appropriate. Rereading the epigraph makes me think that possibly a sleepless is involved.

Does anyone think that the mysterious voice is one of the Unmade, most likely Dai-gonarthis? This is probably one of the voices that has made the Heralds go mad, along with Dalinar and Szeth. Probably also a candidate for the Stormfaker. Note that Dai-gonarthis was said to be involved in the scouring of Aimia, which could put them close to Shinovar. Could this also be the blue/black wind/smoke in the SA5 concept art? To me their objective could be tricking someone into being Odium's champion (Szeth most likely). Here is an excerpt from Oathbringer, Chapter 88 that may be relevant:

I have read the entire cosmere, including sample chapters, so I don't mind spoilers. Note that the Iriali believe that the Spiritual Realm and the Beyond are the same thing, so they probably at least tangentially related. I think that the Spiritual Realm is somewhat like a blackhole and the Beyond is within the event horizon; an area where nothing can escape. After looking into it further it seems like the official map of the sea of souls suggests that the "sun" is in the direction of Rall Elorim. Also has the "sun" only been seen from the Rosharan and Scadrian subastrals? They are next to each other in the official cosmere constellation map. Regardless, it could be possible that it is located in the Rosharan subastral, but can be seen from anywhere.

My theory is that Kelek and co. used the oathgate in Rall Elorim to go to shadesmar and created a "rip" to the spiritual realm there and tossed Ba-Ado-Mishram inside. Possibly creating this rip was possible because Honor helped him in their last moments or that was the location he was dying which created a weakness in the fabric between realms. Could it be that the shadows in the cognitive realm act the way they do because of the "pull" to the spiritual realm? Dow we have any idea in which direction the "sun" actually is on the horizon in the cognitive realm or the location where Honor died?