Alcatur

But do we have any indication that the requirements are so intricate? Promise by Odium specifically did not require any formal elements: “Should we write … a contract?” “Our word is the contract." So if just a clear communication is required - well, a conscious decision is a clear communication to yourself.

By taking over the shard the promise should became moot. His promise is now to himself, so he should be able to just decide it no longer binds him. I see no conflict here nor any chink or weakness.

Darkened Twin would fit best to the Blackthorn spren made by Retribution, as a Darkened Twin to Dalinar himself. If so what would be the meaning? No idea but it would definitely be something from the second half.

By this point we don't know what some of the already existing Unmade even do or what is the deal; some like Chemoarish didn't even appear at all. Adding more seems to be... unnecessary

I am pretty certain that the severed one is Jezrien who is (mostly) dead by this point and thus cannot by connected. Arguably Battar actions weren't that much worse that those of others, such as Nale murderous spree or Ishar everything.

That was also what I liked it. Jasnah was arguing against Taravodium, but he was playing a crooked game using his divine knowledge. Had she better knowledge of what was going around, her chances would be better. Bringing up Kharbranth fate would probably change things - but she doesn't know that, nor she does a number of things. She thought it was a debate, while it wasn't, it was campaign for PR. I felt that several times she missed her chances - precisely because she was arguing as a scholar, not politician.

Yeah, I think this is the main problem with any Moash redemption. I can buy Kaladin deciding to give him a chance (as in offering one). However I cannot see Moash taking it and I have really hard time imagining anything that would change this state of things.

Given Kalak issues I doubt he gave an order. He probably said something vague and Amaram interpreted it the way he wanted.

They seem to me no more sapient than a chatbot; a recording based on a person with some dialogue options, but nothing more.

Thank you, though he may have had some minor success. Still I see the ghostbloods as a plot tumor growing on the healthy tissue of the books. And just as a normal tumor it keeps getting worse and worse for the organism.

This is actually unsupported. Its something that a lot of people assume have happened, but actually there is no evidence in books that humans started the war or attacked the Singers. And if you look at people who lived at this time - they don't mention any human agression. Raboniel or Leshwi are silent on the matter, even though it would make sense for Raboniel to talk about human agression. Even Eila stele doesn't actually mention humans waging war on Singers first, at best talking about "minds that lust for blood. " which is rather vague. Instead direct evidence points to humans bonding spren and Singers going to Odium side because of that. Leshwi directly talks about them betraying the spren. Jezrien words seem to imply something was done to achieve this: “I used to think it wasn’t my fault. But you know, we can’t escape what we did? We let them in. We attracted them, befriended them, took them out to dance and courted them. It is our fault. You open yourself to it, and you pay the price. Same for the stele - For their betrayal extended even to our gods: to spren, Stone & wind.

Would taking Urithiru be that easy? Raboniel supressing abiity shuould be something that Navani could potentially recreate.

Normally? Most people don't recognise others that easily if the circumstances are different. Jasnah or Shallan were actively looking for them. Tough he appears not to have seen Nale - when talking about heralds appearance, Gavilar compares it to old paintings, not to his own experiences.

We do have a character named Zu who appears to be completely unrelated to the other Zu character we met, so it wouldn't be unprecendented.

Navy isn't the problem (not sure if it even is the singer navy, more Jah Kaved,). Skybreakers are. If it was just the navy, then holding Thaylen against it would be doable just by delaying them on sea. In all three cases enemy camps, supplies and wells are largely or completely irrelevant: -for Thaylen city the most dangerous force are Skybreakers. They could seize a portion of the port and just allow enemy forces to unload, no siege required. Also the enemy has supplies from navy, limited ability to hit it. Fighting off the Skybreakers is the necessary first step, but enemy likely has Dustbringers who can easily take city defences down without protracted siege. Preventing them from landing is probably the best tactics. -in Azimir, enemy has staging ground in Shadesmar, likely outside of coalition easy reach (any attacks have to be made through the gate, a nasty bottleneck) Also supplies on navy in Shadesmar, no wells. If there is a camp - it will be in Shadesmar. As the surprise attack failed, this force could just put the pressure on Azimir, locking the coalition forces there and preventing them from moving to other fronts. -Narak force is hard hitting small unit. Fused likely do not eat or drink. In attack they will likely use their own innate abilities rather than any classical siege tactics.

Its somewhere in the Heraldic epochs. Dialogue implies that desolations happen at most every several decades, so its not yet near Aharietam. Date is "three thirty seven of the Eighth Heraldic Epoch". Assuming that each Heraldic epoch lasts between one desolation to another, it would be less than halfway through epochs as far as desolations go (but probably more due to the epochs being shorter and shorter), so maybe ~5 000 years before the series. 3-37 likely doesn't mean 337 years, it would mean that Desolations still happen every several centuries - this doesn't quite work if every next epoch would be shorter, as it would take more than the entire Heraldic Epoch timeline to just reach this point. Odium could be remembered as Passions, as he is even in modern Roshar. Or it could be something derived from the three moons, we know those are important for Natanatani people (probably both).

I thought about it, but the Heralds probably focused more on mortal realms and education rather than the Radiants. Its clear from Taln rant - with at least Kalak, Vedel, Jezrien and Taln teaching people (its also clear from various examples of "Wisdom of the Heralds" that they felt how passing the knowledge was most important). With this they probably had limited ability and time to actually command the Radiants. Various elements, such as the way Taln talks about Radiants, the fact that no Herald beside Nale joined their order, also implies some distance. I don't think that Heralds were directly involved with commanding Radiants, though probably Jezrien did estabilish some overall command structure to confront the Desolation.

They do have aerial support from the Skybreakers though. This does limit what the Windrunners can do. Of the three targets: Azimir is perhaps the easiest to defend in theory. However enemy attack here effectively blocks it from sending or receiving reinforcements. A protracted attack wave by wave could isolate armies here from helping others. As Coalition armies are still in the south this probably means there are many soldiers present there. Thaylen is very important strategically and quite vulnerable. It also grants control of crucial location. Narak is int he middle. Its an imoportant location and only link to many holdings (I think that the coalition still holds elements of southern Alethkar) but it could be defended easily. So, I think that an idea could be: If there are enough Windrunners available, send them against Azimir force. If it can be routed and overwhelmed quickly in the Cognitive Realm, then it would free forces from Azimir theatre and its Oathgate. OTOH here there is very limited support for Windrunners as the force requires ships. Hmm, Reshi are in the Coalition, yes? Maybe their ships could be used, but how to transport them to Cognitive realm? Time is limited. Narak force could be likely stalled by Stonewards and similar forces, maybe Edgerunners. Plateaus give considerable defensive defensive edge. Maybe Venli listeners would be willing to hit the fused from behind? I am fairly certain they are not a force Odium knows of. And they probably want Odium to win even less (humans can expect to live under Odium, while Listneres would likely be hunted down and used for rebirth). When Azimir is free, send those forces to aid Thaylen. If there aren't enough forces to hit fused in the cognitive realm, focus on the Narak Force first. I don't think that Narak Spren are corrupted.

Its perfectly possible that old Radiants weren't exactly a monarchy but were instead governed by some sort of council. Maybe the Bondsmiths were joint leaders like Spartan Kings with divided responsibilities (it makes sense with Sibling Bondsmiths apparetly having limited ability to leave the Tower). Probably some sort of body representing the Orders existed. During the times of Desolations the Heralds were probably in place as well in leadership roles. Dalinar very inflexible approach to the models of ruling has been noted in books, but it doesn't look like it had to be how it always was. I imagine that Kaladin would be a more symbolic leader and probably could abdicate moving the Orders towards a different model.

No, its not even that. He doesn't claim it is in the name of Parshendi (btw the common assumption that humans stole land from Singers and attacked them first is actually not well founded). His reasoning is "law of conquest". King must answer to god - Odium won between gods by right of conquest, that makes him and his forces the rightful owners of this land. Justice, or restoration of Singers as a right thing is absent of his reasoning. Its not "sins of the fathers" its literal - I dunno, hard to even explain.

He does have limited means of doing so. Stormfather - or Stormfaker - clearly didn't know Gavilar thoughts (such as making Dalinar remember Evi death on purpose). Most damning was "Dalinar is a big, dumb, blunt instrument you apply to problems until they break" - but Dalinar probably wouldn't disagree. Thats what he really was. He had potential, but didn't realize it back then. Frankly the tragic part in Gavilar -Dalinar relationship is that Gavilar clearly is scared of Dalinar under thrill - and rightfully so. Dalinar did want to kill him. Sure, he got this under control, but Gavilar reasons for being scared of Dalinar are good and if Dalinar learned of this - well, again he would agree.

He was "binder of gods" before he became a Herald. Herald madness is a little too specific to be just a normal consequence of living too long: Shalash, herald of beauty, obsessed with destruction of artwork Nale herald of justice, obsessed with merciless application of law Jezerezeh, the king of heralds, reduced to a lowliest, alcoholic bum Kelek, renowned for his leadership skills, unable to commit and to make a decision. All four of them seem to have an affliction which is opposite of their main strength. That is very peculiar and implies that something more is afoot. It could apply to Taln as well - he is overcame by fear, unable to act - but when we saw him at Kholinar, he seemed to be functional, if terribly worn down.

Partially related to this: - Ishar was known as "Binder of gods" before he was known as Herald. Could he have something to do with the disappearance of older gods? Note that Leshwi talks about Spren forgiving the Singers and . Raboniel is more clinical when she talks about spren choosing humans. "Betrayal" may have been subjective, just not siding with the Singers. SOme would probably consider WInd simply talking to humans as "betrayal"

Eila stele seems to confirm it: For their betrayal extended even to our gods: to spren, stone, and wind. Spren we have seen, wind we hear of. So stone is left and its rather clear that it is equal to wind.

I don't think that Sigzil age is ever mentioned (and well, sometimes telling the age of a person from ethnicity you are not familiar with can be very tricky). He is likely older that Kaladin; we know that he tried to attend the Azir exam and it took him a while to do so, failed, got into legal problems, and then got apprenticed to Hoid and then traveled with him all around. Hoid seems to have been travelling around Roshar for quite a few years (he met Shallan three years prior to canon, and Rock prior to that). Its not clear how long his travels took, but it could have been also few years. Then Sigzil became a slave also for at least a while (I don't think he was sent to Bridge crews immediatly). He could be around 30, though it does seem like the higher end.