yulyulk

Hmm, but voidlight is harder to acquire because the Everstorm doesn't automatically refill gemstones like the Highstorm does. Venli says she needs to sing the Song of Prayers to get voidlight but it would draw Odium's attention. Not sure Odium would be willing to give Voidlight to a bunch of defectors. (Well, Rayse wouldn't. Unsure about the new guy.)

Adonalsium knew he (?) (just realized idk if adonalsium even has a gender) would be shattered, then? And so *puts my tinfoil hat on* Roshar was designed to unite the Shards back together

If Kalak's goal was to free himself from the Rosharan system...well, I'm not sure what Nale's goal is (besides preventing a Desolation), but I could see Gavilar wanting to become a Herald-type entity (and also needing a way to free himself from Roshar). Each prologue chapter is titled "To _____"; Szeth is "To Kill", Jasnah is "To Question", Eshonai is "To Weep", and Navani is "To Pretend". What if the 5th book prologue is called "To Survive" or "To Ascend" lol (or it could just be "To Die" buuuut yknow.)

Jochi is actually the Herald Vedel disguised as a male Thaylen pastry chef disguised as a female philosopher! (just kidding.)

He literally tells Venli how to kill Gavilar. And I think this takes place after Nale & Kalak meet with the king, too. RoW ch. 77: I'm unsure what exactly turned Nale against Gavilar, because Venli was just stabbing in the dark when she said that voidspren returned to Roshar because of Nale's failure. Nale says (again ch 77): In Navani's prologue, she overhears Gavilar and the two Heralds discuss transporting items (Voidlight spheres?) back and forth from Braize. Does Nale perhaps assume Gavilar was transporting voidspren as well?

Could the presence of a particular shard change the coloring of the moon, I wonder. Because otherwise everything matches up TOO well

Gavilar reminds me of Amaram, actually. He projects an honorable, powerful, etc image while being a slimy little cremling in private. See Navani's prologue: Gavilar thinks poorly of his family who admires and loves him, which in turn speaks quite poorly of his character, I think. Does that make him evil evil? Ehh. Dalinar was an alcoholic war criminal, Venli manipulated and betrayed her people. Both of them are now trying to do better/make up for their past mistakes. And both of them, I should note, were under some level of Odium's influence, but neither has used that fact to dodge culpability (Dalinar famously so in the "you cannot have my pain" scene, Venli more quietly in her conversations with Timbre). Even if Gavilar was corrupted by an Unmade or something, that makes his treatment of Navani pretty sh*tty. I think this is partially because it's easier to idolize people when they're gone. We hear of Gavilar mostly from Dalinar's POV in TWoK. Dalinar ruminates on his personal failings throughout that book, and so he perceives Gavilar as someone better/more capable than he is. It seems (as of now...) that Gavilar was excited by transporting...things...from Braize, which is not the glorious and honorable secret that Dalinar fantasizes about.

Your guess is as good as mine, considering how storming mysterious Shinovar is. In RoW ch. 17, Ash says "[The Shin] had legends...prophecies about the coming of this Return", yet they inflict the harshest punishment possible on Szeth for saying that the Voidbringers are coming back. Maybe they reacted so poorly because some Unmade was already influencing them. (Well, or Szeth's warning somehow contradicted the Shin prophecies.)

I don't think Leshwi wants to fight for either side anymore, considering she went to the Shattered Plains where the listeners are.

Words of Radiance, ch. 45 [young Shallan is talking with a Thaylen trader who owns a special chicken] Rhythm of War, ch. 111 [Ishar talking to Szeth and Dalinar] The merchant's words came true! There's also a Szeth quote somewhere about how the words of the dying are sometimes prophetic in his homeland, but he doesn't seem to attribute it to a malignant influence lol. (And Szeth hasn't been to Shinovar in a while, and Moelach clearly drifted to eastern Roshar in his absence.)

That's a tantalizing WoB. I'm curious if his highspren came along when the Heralds activated the lock on Braize in the past, maybe that somehow impacted the spren?

When Dalinar touches Nale, we get glimpses of his past, presumably in reverse chronological order: starting with him walking away from a blade (Aharietiam) and ending with Jezrien inviting him to the oathpact. In between, we also see Nale kneeling to a highspren. Could this be the moment that he becomes a Skybreaker? (The kneeling could indicate him accepting to be the patron of the order as well, but that feels less likely to me. Wouldn't he be in front of a group of actual Skybreakers for this?) If the flashbacks are in reverse order, Nale became a Radiant before Aharietiam. For some reason, I was under the impression that he only joined around the Recreance... In this case, did the Skybreakers know the truth about the "final" desolation before everybody else? Also, I know highspren are weird but shouldn't they have noticed Nale's increasing...insanity...over the years. [And if Nale became a Radiant after Aharietiam, I wonder if swearing his own ideals would help him gain temporary sanity again.]

You know, Shallan in WoR and OB actually seemed fairly close-minded to me at some points. When Tyn tells her about the eye drops to change light eyes to dark, Shallan considers a darkeyes masquerading as a lighteyes and is disturbed. She's also pretty repulsed by Renarin's tendency to mumble to himself, and frightened by predicting the future. This is uncharitable, perhaps, but the main lesson she seems to have learned from Jasnah is that if you're an upper class lady and you boss other people around, they usually don't object (at least not outwardly). To some extent, I liked that RoW took place mostly in Urithiru because all of the characters in there interest me greatly. But they're also quite isolated from the real world, and we got less of the cultural richness of Roshar than in previous books. But I'm also hoping that will change in the future, especially as we are going to Shinovar (!!!!!!!) next. But in world, it was only 2-3 years ago. I'm not sure I understand your point.

Could we figure out which Unmade was corrupting the Davar household I wonder? BAM was captured, Re-Shephir was in Urithiru, Nergaoul was presumably in Alethkar, Sja-Anat says she slumbered until the Everstorm came. Remaining options: Yelig-nar: I don't know if he has any influence before you swallow the gemstone containing him Ashertman: eventually ends up in Kholinar, maybe moved thru Jah Keved while going East Moelach: only seems to affect Death Rattles, so shouldn't have impacted the living Dai-gonarthis and Chemoarish: likely candidates because we truly don't know anything about them

I reread their early RoW fighting scenes yesterday and ngl I kind of found myself shipping them too. They seem to respect and understand each other without even talking and they seem to have a similar moral code, Kaladin/Jasnah cannot relate. (Hm but does Kaladin know that Leshwi sponsored Moash tho )

I was joking :0 it just seemed funny that B-A-M is agreed upon to be the most intelligent/capable Unmade, while Nergaoul, Moelach et al have no sentience and no dashes in their name

I remain forever curious about Shinovar. Liafor sticks out in my mind as "strategically unimportant country that we have heard a lot about" because it's the center of fashion (the Rosharan equivalent of Paris fashion week...?). And Kaza the soulcaster is from Liafor too. She was a princess, because they wanted to keep the soulcasters within the royal family, tho of course with her expedition to Aimia, Liafor now has one less soulcaster than before. Also, despite Shallan being from there, I feel like we don't know much about Jah Keved.

Agreed! I think Navani and Raboniel's interactions were one of the strongest parts of the book, which is good, because their interactions also functioned as scientific infodumps. Their complex manipulation, cooperation, and betrayals added a very raw emotional dimension to what would otherwise be the Rosharan Wikipedia page of sound waves. Their understanding of each other as scientists, and mothers who have experienced loss; their unequal standing as captor and captive, mortal human and ancient singer—it was just so good! I love complicated enemy relationships in general, and I think Sanderson really outdid himself with these two. I also really appreciated Raboniel (and Leshwi to an extent) providing different perspectives on this eternal war. Raboniel killing & freeing her own daughter from reincarnation and Leshwi's joy at finding out that Venli has become a Radiant were some of the most heart wrenching moments in the book for me. Both Fused are looking for a way out, really. Raboniel no longer gives a f*ck, so she's chaotic, willing to do whatever to end the war once and for all. Meanwhile Leshwi is less...shall we say, creative, and is resigned to fighting as she always does. But suddenly Venli shows that there's a new path that they could take, something that has never been explored in history. And Leshwi is so, so happy. (And it made me so happy too.)

I like the idea that the Fused had proto-Nahel bonds with true spren, but in OB (ch. 38) the Stormfather indicates that the Fused did not always have access to Surges: After the Desolations began, there was just a time when the Fused were reincarnating, without any particular Surges. Then Odium granted them Surges, perhaps to match the Heralds. And he excluded Adhesion for some reason. [But also, the envoyform voidspren grants language abilities similar to Bondsmith spiritual Adhesion... maybe it doesn't count as a "surge" if it's just a form of power. I don't really understand how forms of power work tbh.] Anyway, a potential timeline: before the Desolations: proto-Nahel bonds between true spren and singers, may grant some type of Surge spren turn away from the singers/the singers turn to Odium/idk it's all very unclear as of now Desolations begin, Odium creates the reincarnating Fused, they have no Surges humans are losing, the Oathpact is made, Honorblades now exist Odium grants Surges to the Fused humans & spren invent Nahel bonds to copy the Honorblades

I thought that toy was just a Rosharan fidget spinner tbh. Or like, a Rubik's cube

If Chanarach was killed by a shardblade, would she return to Braize?

I almost agreed with you, but narratively speaking, Mr T has been built up as a worthy antagonist across 4 books. He's bound to have more than 15 minutes of cosmere fame. And who's gonna pick up the shard again? Ms Koravellium Avast

I personally hope that Lirin does not become a radiant—but he would probably like to have access to Regrowth, so he might disagree. Tbh, when rereading TWoK, I felt that there was some parallel between Lirin (in Kaladin's flashbacks) and Szeth in present day. Lirin refused to waver from his principles even as Roshone was turning the town against him, accepting no payment and still trying to heal everybody...to the detriment of him and his family's wellbeing. In Szeth's interludes, he follows the rules of the Oathstone even though it causes him intense anguish. So I did wonder if Lirin has some Skybreaker tendencies in him. Since Skybreakers and Windrunners are supposed to get along quite poorly, it would also add an extra dimension to Lirin and Kaladin's conflict. But all that being said, when we look at Lirin's actions as a healer, I also see parallels to the Windrunner oaths. Healing without payment—is that not a way of "protecting those that cannot protect themselves"? Saving Roshone's life—protecting someone you hate. The whole concept of triage, understanding that you can't save every patient is accepting that there will be those that you cannot protect.

I still feel like there's so much we don't understand about the mechanism of the desolations...I believe RoW was the first time we were told that the Heralds chose to return to Braize when they felt that humans could succeed on their own? But even so, we are told that humanity gets absolutely shattered in the aftermath of a desolation. So why wouldn't the Heralds stick around for longer?

@mathiau wow thanks! I never noticed that. Love that Rayse persists with his gold color scheme even when changing his appearance. (Nice try seeming grandiose instead of evil, old man)