WeLoveMoash

This is well put. To me, this feels fine and surprisingly balanced (not that the various Arts need to be balanced in the first place). To put it in D&D terms, MOST of the different Arts across the Cosmere are like Sorcerers - they have a relatively narrow, but easily accessible set of powers that users can use almost instinctively. The Aetherbound are kind of like Warlocks, who get powers from a "patron". Radiants are kind of like Paladins - magic powers, that are tied to a strict code of conduct. AonDor practicioners are like the Wizards of the Cosmere. If they've had the prep time, and have the right spells prepared for the situation, good luck - theyre probably amongst the most capable entities in the universe. Conversely though, they need that prep time - if they're caught out and forced to improvise, they're vastly more limited.

Feels like El is definitely a Radiant, given the Shardblade. If the scene Brandon wanted to leave us with was him showing his honor by killing the Fused who wanted to break the deal, there's a dozen ways El could have done so. But he specifically pulled a Shardblade - and Brandon isn't the kind of author who aims for huge misdirects or wants to "cheat" his readers. It seems pretty likely that bonding a Spren is what led to him being stripped of the Rhythms. If it then comes down to Orders, to me there's only really 3 main candidates. Option 1 is Dustbringers - Division, the engineering-like focus that could tie into his metal obsession and fascination with humans, and most importantly the focus on Control. Option 2 is also Willshapers - he clearly values Independence and autonomy. Option 3 is he's, somehow, a Fused Bondsmith (or Bondsmith equivalent), and Adhesion is his "special talent" that he uses to bind the metal to himself. I'm torn on what I think. He's definitely being set up to be the "Dragon" for the back-half - the #1 mortal in Odium's forces that the heroes have to contend with, something we kind of didn't have in the front half (unless you count Moash). In that sense, him being some kind of Bondsmith feels like it would fit the most to make him special and unique. But I just still don't know what his spren would be in that case. Maybe he holds the Nightwatcher, or has a bond with whatever of Stone didn't turn into the Sibling? BAM? Not sure. Its easier, lore-wise, to envision him as a Dustbringer or Willshaper, for sure.

In general, I think there's lots of good stuff here - like, some really interesting points especially about the Honor/Cultivation relationship with the Oaths. With that said, I don't think that I'm bought in on your interpretation of the progression of Oaths. More than anything, I think we still just don't have all the info we would need to make a strong guess about anything - and I think you're making some judgements that don't hold up to some of the info we do. The big issue is the 4th Ideal as "accepting limits" and 5th Ideal as connecting to the identity. I already think that you've made a big leap here, based on the info from the books. Your framework and written ideals dont even hold for what we know of the Skybreakers - who have the 4th Ideal be the Ideal of Crusade (and I'd argue their 5th Ideal is maybe being misunderstood as well). I don't know if you've seen the the recent RPG materials, but it provides at least a general sense of up to the 4th Ideal for each order, and if we take those as reliable (and to my understanding, they are Brandon-approved and canonical) these even more so cut against your idea of the 4th Oath as "accepting limits/failings/etc" - and more helpfully, give us more info to theorycraft from. I'm not sure how much you want to keep your own head-canon, and how much you want to really dig deep into the theorizing. If that sounds snarky, know that its not intended to. I just mean it genuinely - if you want to try to dig into the overall structure of Oaths and how they work, we absolutely can, but its gonna be a lot of revision to what you've put forward so far. I do think its interesting to think about the overall patterns/links across orders however. I'll put my notes in a spoiler box.

Just regarding ability to speak: it's hard to know how much is real and how much is basically headcanon due to secondary sources, but I definitely see at least some of the Aviar as having a lot in common with parrot species. For example, not an actual true souce, but the Coppermind page for Aviar uses an image of what is clearly a parrot. I had similar impressions just comparing the island chains in Sixth of Dusk to tropical islands. So if the birds actually do have anything in common with parrots, it wouldn't be that weird for them to have some degree of weird mimicry or semi-developed vocal cords, even if they aren't "talking birds" exactly.

Yeah, i tentatively think that Mr. T realized that he gave too much away to Wit in the first interaction. Wit left realizing that something was strange with "Rayse". So he went back, pruned the conversation, and then tried it again so that he could come across as simple, dumb, and straightforward. Notice how hammy and over-the-top his performance feels in the second conversation - same lines from Wit, but Odium just being full of "I will defeat you grrrr". Otherwise, I don't think memories at large were destroyed. Now that said, I do feel its fully possible that memories were viewed, and this might give Mr. T some access to unexpected knowledge. But removing any significant amount of memories from Wit feels like it would tip him off at some point in one way or another. That said, if he did, then I imagine perfect pitch could be the clue that Wit finally uses to crack the case. It's not clear if Mr. T would know or realize that breath gives Wit his pitch, and therefore might not have realized that he'd be able to tell based on the lack of it. Really interested to see where this goes.

Agreed with the above, that the loophole could be trying to force Dalinar to break his oath. Only other one that comes to mind is some multi-step process where Dalinar loses, becomes a servant of Odium, but retains his role as the envoy/representative of Honour. Odium then can make Dalinar do anything, and Dalinar speaks in Honours name, so perhaps he would be able to force Dalinar, as Honour, to then release him. Honestly unclear.

I just want to add that we've seen the full complement of a Skybreakers Oaths 1-5. 1. Life before death, journey before.... you know this one 2. The Ideal of Justice (swearing to follow the law) 3. The Ideal of Dedication (swearing to follow a code or an individual) 4. The Ideal of Crusade (A quest) 5. The Ideal of Law, in which the Skybreaker becomes the embodiment of law. It's described by Nale I believe as the point where a Skybreaker has to stop depending on codes and guidance and become able to trust to themselves to determine right and wrong. My issue with the ideal of 6+ ideals is that assuming that the general progression is similar for most other orders, it doesn't leave a ton of room to figure out where further oaths could go, given that this seems like a pretty complete journey. The only potential ideal I could really see beyond that would be one last level, something akin to transcending the limits of just your order and adopting the wisdom of other orders as well (and even THAT assumes there isnt mutual contradiction)