Green chicken

If Dalinar breaks his oaths, he kills the Stormfather.

If Dalinar doesn't follow his ideals, he loses his bond. His third ideal would prevent him from being a good fused, since he would constantly have to "take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man."

Spren can break nahel bonds, the stormfather will almost certianly break the bond with Dalinar if he becomes a fused. Here's a wob that supports this: Aradanftw If you were to use Hemalurgy on a Surgebinder, would it steal the Surge or the actual spren bond? Brandon Sanderson It's going to steal the spren bond, but you've got to remember the spren has power over that bond. So what you're doing is (1) incredibly evil, even more evil, but (2) you may not end up with what you want, because that spren has free will in most cases. You may go through all this trouble and then they may break the bond, and you would be left without it. So you would need something else to force them to be unable to break the bond, which would be even more evil, but it is possible in Hemalurgy.

Some random 70 year old man who can't walk, without a wheelchair.

It's the end of a arc, all the main plots have to come together, that's why it can't be a "normal" contest, BAM has to fit into the plot. The child is a metaphor, it's not an actual child.

That Taravangian has nothing to gain from the contest, and that he has a lot to lose. It will also be very difficult for Brandon to add tension to story with such low stakes. If there is no loophole, then there is no need for book 5, all Brandon would have had to do is to add an additional 30 chapters to Row, and call it a day.

The coalition didn't make the deal, Dalinar made the deal. Dalinar must uphold the deal, the coalition doesn't need to up hold the deal. The windrunners, can and almost certainly will help the Vedens. The Vedens probably will join the coalition before the contest in order to avoid the possibility of the singers migrating to Jah Keved.

The Vedens could defect and join the radiants, Taravangian promised them that odium will reward them if they support odium, it won't take long for the Vedens to realize that odium is screwing them over. They can go to the radiants for protection, their betrayal was very minor, the coalition would be happy if they regained control of Jah Keved.

The singers HATE humans, there not just going to allow themselves to be ruled by the Alethi. Plus were will the Singers go? The Vedens and Iriali probably didn't join odium so that they would have to accept Singer refugees. The with draw from Alethkar and Herdaz will leave a power vacuum that the vedens will be all to happy to exploit. The hardest part would be reconquering Alethkar, the local "lords" won't give up their power without a fight.

I honestly doubt that he can do that. Even if he can, the normal singers aren't giving up Alethkar and Herdaz without a fight. Also the Vedens and Iriali joined odium for power, there not going to accept an end to the war either. While losing the fused will be a blow, the skybreakers would still support the singers, and there is no way that the Vedens and Iriali will accept singers from Alethkar.

If that were the case, they could of just released Ba-Ado-Mishram. Plus, at least some one out of the several thousand radians must have decided to not break their bonds, plenty of people still deny that global warming is caused by humans, which means that it must been something very serious in order to cause EVERYONE to break their oaths. All it would take is one conspiracy nut to deny that humans are invaders, for the secret to leak out.

The scene is going to ruined either way, Taravangian is trying to win, the contest for him doesn't change his situation, most fused won't obey him, due to the fact that he is a human, and because they want to destroy humanity. If he loses, they are definitely not going to give up Alethkar and Herdaz without a fight. Some of the fused might stop fighting if Taravangian wins, however a significant portion will continue to fight anyway so that they could exterminate the humans. The only thing that would change, would that Taravangian will lose control of his forces. The contract will guarantee a loss for Taravangian either way. His only way to win is to find a loophole that frees him from the contract. The contest is not going to be some sort of epic fight, Taravangian is going to use a some sort of loophole to break free of the contest. I will be very disappointed if the climax of the entire arc, is some meaningless fight between two people that only decides the fate of two countries and Dalinars soul. Without some sort of loophole, book 5 will have the lowest stakes of every stormlight book, except for Twok. In Wor, we had a upcoming desolation to worry about, In Oathbringer we had to worry about a desolation, in Row we had to worry about the unmaking of the Sibling, and in Kow(t) we will have to worry about(assuming that there won't a loophole) whether or not Alethkar and Herdaz will be liberated.

First of all Taravangian doesn't want to win the contest of the champions, the contest is horrible for Taravangian, Rayse was tricked into accepting the contest. Even winning the contest is worse than letting the war continue, all that Taravangian can gain is Dalinar, at the cost of potentially losing Alethkar and Herdaz. Second of all, Taravangian considers the contest to be a horrible deal. Finally, all loopholes break the sprit of the contract because the definition of a loophole is: an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the INTENT of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded. Highlight to show spoilers Not only that, but in hero of ages harmony wrote: By sacrificing most of his consciousness, Preservation created Ruin's prison, breaking their deal and trying to keep Ruin from destroying what they had created. This event left their powers again nearly balanced—Ruin imprisoned, only a trace of himself capable of leaking out. Preservation reduced to a mere wisp of what he once was, barely capable of thought and action. These two minds were, of course, independent of the raw force of their powers. Actually, I am uncertain of how thoughts and personalities came to be attached to the powers in the first place—but I believe they were not there originally. For both powers could be detached from the minds that ruled them.

Tell that to Hoid, stealing his short term memories was a spiritual violation of the contract, but not a technical violation. As I already said several times, Taravangian doesn't care about the spirit of the contract. Rayse was the only one who cared about the spirit of the contract, Leras broke the spirit of the contract, and it took over 10000 years for Ati to kill him. If breaking the spirit of the contract was such a big deal, then Ati would have killed Leras much faster. Not only that, Odium is less invested than Cultivation, and therefore stronger. It took a a strength difference for Ati to kill Leras. If they were equal, then Ati wouldn't have been able to kill Leras.

Taravangian doesn't care about the "spirit of the contract", if the the child says yes, then to him it's fair game. The contract never specifies that coercion is not allowed, therefore it is allowed. Legally, if you are manipulated into entering a contract, then the contract is binding. For example, parents threatening to disown their children if they don't enter a contract, is not illegal.

Not necessarily, if Taravangian grabs a random child, starts torturing the child, temporarily stops torturing the child, and tells the child that if he doesn't want to be tortured he will have to be his champion, the child would be innocent. Plus, the child might not be aware of the fact that the fight is to the death, for example Taravangian could tell them that it is a wrestling match. If you look at the epilogue, you can clearly see that Taravangian doesn't care about the "spirit of the contract", Taravangian's only goal is to "save them all", which is hell of a lot harder to do when you're trapped in the Rosharan system.

The specific quote from wor in chapter 89 is: "Beyond that, there were sudden and unexpected reports, coming via spanreed, of Kholinar rioting. No straight answers there yet, either. And what was this he heard of a plague in the Purelake? Storms what a mess this all had become."

The plague was mention at the end of wor.

A while back when I was rereading WOR, I realized that the death rattle "So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life..." likely refers to the Night of Sorrows. This didn't mean much to me, until I noticed this quote from Dawnshard: "I like the Bondsmith, for example, though I know he will destroy us. He will not, Zyadril sent. Its buzz was punctuated and sharp. He has made the decision of honor. That is why he will destroy us, Yelamaiszin replied. He is more dangerous now, not less." Combined with the death rattle "I hold the suckling child in my hands, a knife at his throat, and know that all who live wish me to let the blade slip. Spill its blood upon the ground, over my hands, and with it gain us further breath to draw." It seems plausible that Odium will choose a "suckling child" as his champion, and Dalinar will refuse to kill the "suckling child" which would prevent the end of the war. Since the Coalitions would be expecting the war to end, they wouldn't be able to effectivly fight back, and could potentially suffer large losses. I don't think that the "suckling child" will be an actual child. Instead, I think that "suckling child" is a metaphor for someone who can't fight back. For example, someone like Rysn would be a "suckling child".

If you were to conjoin two rubies, the rubies would be able transfer sound waves as long as there isn't any aluminium in the way. Using the principales of a Tin can telephone you would be able to transfer sound waves into the ruby through a wire, and transfer the sound waves out of the other ruby using a different wire. Using two such devices, you would be able to make a fully functioning telephone.