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I don't recall any of the epigraphs indicating that they're communicating via Elsecalling. Is there something I'm missing?

Radiants do appear to be able to use Towerlight without any need of conversion. I don't know whether they can use Warlight or not. If they can, then while it will be harder to get access to, Radiants and Fused can use the same source of power. I also think that Stormlight will become available in the second arc, possibly from Syl (who seemed like she may have inherited the Stormfather's role), or from one of the splinters of Honor.

I think she's there for the full ten years. Unless she goes off-world for some of that. She wouldn't want to age 70 years for 10 of Adolin's, but imagine her being on Scadrial for 5 years (which happens to be the age difference between her and Adolin) during, say, Mistborn Era 3. As for how they will manage, here's a wild idea: Adolin can already see through Maya's eyes and communicate with her telepathically while she's in Shadesmar and he's in the physical realm. How deep can the bond go? Could he effectively possess Maya with her permission? Imagine Maya having to tell Shallan whether she's Maya or Adolin, rather than Shallan having to say whether she's Radiant or Veil. (Also, the fact that Shallan is apparently bi might come into play.)

I think Taravangian’s argument was less that utilitarianism did not work, and more that Jasnah did not practice it. When it came right down to it, Jasnah took care of her own. Now hypocrisy can be defended against--failing your ideals is more about you failing than the ideals failing--but Jasnah's real problem was her pride, her belief that she had everything figured out and could and would do what was needed. And hypocrisy, while it does not attack the ideals directly, does give other people permission to say, "Well, if you aren't doing it, why should I?" It could have worked on Fen even if it didn't cause a crisis of faith in Jasnah.

The end of Oathbringer had Shallan seriously trying to decide between Adolin and Kaladin, and Syl comforting Kaladin when she chose Adolin. Which also strongly hinted at the Syl/Kaladin pairing. Honestly, I think Shallan and Adolin work. But I suppose not everyone agrees. I've seen a lot of real life couples who seemed a poorer match.

This occurred to me as well. But for two things: 1. I think we may be confusing Notum with Captain Ico, who was the one that kept his father on his ship, and 2. The story is that all the Honorspren died in the Recreance, except Syl, and the Honorspren of today are descended from the ones the Stormfather created afterwards.

Mostly. It seems that he's willing to provide for the listeners without requiring any devotion. I expect that deal might not be good for everyone. I'm not sure whether he'll just give it to singers, or only in certain places, but I'm willing to bet the Azish won't have easy access to Warlight. The Skybreakers probably will. I'm going to guess that Syl will be the Stormfather's replacement (the Stormqueen?). She had storms in her eyes and accepted Kaladin's Herald Oath. When she returns with Kaladin, maybe she will provide Stormlight.

I do wonder whether Warlight is usable by Knights Radiant. It's obviously not as freely available as Stormlight, which appeared with each Highstorm. So even if they can use it, they'll probably find it harder to get ahold of. Whether it can be used by Fabrials is also an interesting question. My guess is that Knights Radiant and Fabrials can use Warlight, in the same way that they can use Towerlight.

According to Ishar, the method of making Kaladin immortal used "powers of the Surges outside of Stormlight, Radiance, or the Honorblades. It requires an oath forged, and a bit of a god..." I take that to mean that it needed the target to belong to the Oathpact (or something like the Oathpact). Also, I figure it relied on power pulled from Honor as it was absorbed, and I'm not sure there was enough to go around. I'm also not 100% sure it did heal his body, so much as pull his soul from his body and make that immortal and whole.

Also, a couple of paragraphs later, "She could survive. She had to. Not just for herself." Aside from the Seons, Shallan and Adolin also have Maya, who can communicated telepathically with Adolin and even let him see through her eyes while in Shadesmar, as long as she's not too far from where he is. So they'll have some means of communication.

I'm going to disagree with that. I felt the Unoathed wasn't just foreshadowed, I was waiting for it to happen. We knew that Adolin and Maya had a Connection to the deadeyes gathering at the trial, both from what the Honorspren said in Rhythm of War, and from what Maya said at the beginning of Wind and Truth. I likened it to how Platespren seem to be attracted to Radiants because of their bond with their spren, and it seemed like the deadeyes were drawn to Maya's and Adolin's growing bond. I was fully expecting Adolin to summon those Shardblades from Shadesmar in order to save the day in Azimir. I'll admit that I wasn't expecting the Plate to come along as well. I was also not surprised when his Shardplate woke up--in fact, I was pretty sure that was how his duel with Abidi would resolve once we saw Abidi claim his Plate. Like I said, Platespren appear to be attracted to the bond between Radiants and their spren. While others said Adolin would have to reach the Fourth Ideal to get Plate, I thought it was clear even in Rhythm of War that his bond with Maya was stronger than the Nahel bond, not weaker. And we knew that Adolin thought that his Plate was behaving in unusual ways, when he tried to take it to Shadesmar. I had been fairly certain since Oathbringer that Adolin would end up forming a Radiant-adjacent order of reawakened Shardblades, though I wasn't expecting the deadeyes to start recovering from the Recreance independently of that. As for Szeth, we did learn that the dissenters follow different Skybreaker Oaths (Chapter 128, p. 1172 according to the Kindle App). So we already knew that his Fourth Ideal didn't necessarily have to be the same as Nale's Skybreakers. I don't think Szeth swore the Fifth Ideal, really. I think that what Nale's Skybreakers considered their Fifth Ideal was for Szeth his Fourth Ideal.

I suspect that the Nightwatcher's Bondsmith probably uses Lifelight.

Thanks, Alder. That's a lot of WoBs I didn't know about. It doesn't really settle things, as I still come to the conclusion that Bondsmithing was once possible without the Nahel bond or an Honorblade, though due to the restrictions of Honor, he might have prevented it from developing any other way. And with Honor dead, such restrictions may be loosening, but it's not clear how they would develop now.

Of course, this isn't incompatible with the original theory on this thread. We've already seen that the Sibling's Bondsmith uses a different kind of light than the Stormfather's, so a Bondsmith can use a different light than Stormlight. We also know who the remaining Bondsmith spren is. One thing I like about this theory is that a lot of what we've seen Adolin do can be understood as forging and altering bonds. Creating a bond with Gallant, even though Ryshadium only bond to one rider. Altering his bond with Maya. Even his personality, the ease with which he makes connections--Connections-- with others. But ultimately it's a theory, more speculation than something I can really support.

I like this theory, though I've been playing with the idea that Adolin is a latent Bondsmith. The idea being that Bondsmiths existed before the Nahel bond. In RoW Syl explained that a Bondsmith bound the surges and brought humans to Roshar before the Nahel bond existed. Honor limited this power in some ways, but with his death those limits are loosening. Could there be Bondsmiths without the Nahel bond? Could this be the reason that the Stormfather tried again with the Kholins after telling Gavilar he wouldn't, that they have some inherited ability with Bondsmith powers that make them prime candidates? I know that in general, powers in Roshar aren't inherited, but that's not true everywhere in the Cosmere.

It's much easier if you kill them in Shadesmar.

Does that mean surgebinding belongs to another shard, or does it mean that spren and singers do? I think voidspren were definitely stolen and corrupted. However, I think that, given the evidence I've cited, surgebinding was developed by the humans under Odium's rule. There's just not much evidence it comes from Honor. Eyewitness testimony says otherwise.

Because humans didn't follow Honor until after they came to Roshar. They brought Surgebinding to Roshar along with Odium. As Syl told Kaladin: And as the Stormfather told Dalinar: And Raboniel recalled that the humans were fleeing from the results of Surgebinding: So if humans destroyed their former world with Surgebinding, they didn't get that power from Honor. And apparently the singers didn't have Surgebinding before then. Surgebinding came to Roshar with the humans. Honor added control to Surgebinding, not the power. Now, it's possible it didn't come directly from Odium. There's some hint that Ishar was experimenting with Surgebinding, and that he was a Bondsmith before the Oathpact, according to Syl:

Didn't humans destroy their original planet with surgebinding? That would suggest that it's more of Odium than Honor. That's why Adhesion is considered not to be a true surge by the Fused, because it wasn't one of the original ones. That said, in general I like the theory that Adolin's bond with Maya is something different. In some ways it seems like what Syl was asking Dalinar to make her bond like, as Adolin seems to be able to feel what Maya feels.

From what we can guess, things happened in this order: 1. Bo-Ado-Mishram was imprisoned 2. The singers became dull parshmen 3. The Radiants discovered the truth about where humans came from 4. Honor was pretty crazy at this point, and couldn't talk them down 5. Recreance 6. Deadeyes You can see why the first four might have led to the fifth, and that's what the Radiants conclude at the end of Oathbringer, but there was something else. Deadeyes did not exist before BAM's imprisonment, suggesting that she altered the bond, corrupting it in some way. My theory is that the old Radiants and their spren destroyed their bonds because they feared BAM's corruption of them. That also explains why their response was to destroy their bonds rather than release BAM, which seems like the obvious solution to guilt over lobotomizing the singers. But if the drive to destroy their bonds is their fear of BAM, then releasing BAM is the opposite of a solution. This leads me to wonder whether Maya would be on board with releasing BAM, like Kalak wants.

I'm wondering if the real battle in Book 5 will take place in Shadesmar. The contest of champions doesn't cover Shadesmar at all, and Odium now has the means to kill spren, and there are already lots of fused in Shadesmar.

I've seen Syl x Kaladin on this thread, but I consider that less of a weird ship than an OTP. We've already established that she can become more solid in the physical realm as Kaladin progresses in his Ideals, and if that's not enough, there's always Shadesmar. Also, I have a suspicion that it has happened before, and that's the true reason that the Natan people have bluish skin.