a Faceless Immortal

It is a little sad. But I will say, we didn't learn nothing about it. In fact, we learnt perhaps the most important aspect of a Radiant who has managed to swear their 5th oath, and nothing exemplifies it better than Szeth. Consider the absolutely monumental shift in mindset his 5th oath required; possibly the biggest benefit of this oath is the mental stability and clarity you have to have attain to swear it which will make a person so much more effective at, well, everything. And besides, if we saw everything now, how could Kaladin have his super dramatic entrance at the end of Book 6 where he shows of his crazy new powers

I really want to see their child(ren?) and Oroden grow up together. If I have my timeline correct they will be 10 and 12 respectively by the time we get to the next book, which might make them a bit young to be plot relevant characters, but it would still be cool regardless.

Personally I lean to Exist, Change, Think, Feel, but I haven't gone through and made sure you can describe all the shards this way.

I don't think this is actually Hemalurgy. Hemalurgy is largely about stealing abilities, and I don't believe we actually know that Moash has stolen sight from someone. I think, rather, that the bind points that Hemalurgy uses are just an innate feature of any entity that has a soul, and the product of having something invested shoved through the bind points where your eyes are is a from of sight relying on investiture.

Kaladin Stormblessedesselbmrost nidalak'elin, Herald of Sad People, Herald of the Almighty. Really rolls of the tongue.

It will probably go similarly to the conversation where Nale wished he had gone instead of Helaran so that he could kill Kaladin properly. I think he understands that the heralds largely weren't themselves and immensely regret a lot of what they have done.

We were all worried about Hoid going around and collecting all the Cosmere powers, but it appears we were wrong. Nightblood is the endgame. He alone will reforge Adonalsium.

Ashyn is the name the planet is given post being set on fire, named for the ash that is now everywhere. I believe that this is mentioned in the flashback where the humans make the crossing, but I'm not exactly sure.

The main thing that came to my mind was Kal's new spear. As for the rest, I am unsure.

I'm interested to see what her plan for Lift is/was. I thought it was pretty clear that she was expecting a full new set of three with how she had arranged Dalinar, Taravangian and Lift, but perhaps not?

Well, I'm certainly glad that I wasn't simply seeing things where there was none to see. I'm also glad that the objections that other people brought up (namely, why would you want Kaladin to be tortured?) were resolved. As to what is in store for Kaladin now... I am unsure. Presumably the Heralds are going to want stay locked away until Retribution manages to find them, lest they open the spren to his will, but that hardly seems to make an engaging storyline for the next arc, and we know that Taln and Ash are both flashback PoVs in the second arc, which implies that they will be at least somewhat active (hopefully more so than Venli). Maybe the Heralds will simply be out of commission for book 6, taking the time to recuperate before returning, like Taln did at the end of WoK, to take up prominent roles in book 7 onwards? Perhaps the most impactful thing about the Heralds is that they have knowledge of binding Surges without Stormlight, which I could see being very useful in a world where Warlight is accessible exclusively through their enemy, and as stated in WaT, it is possible for them to do so if any of the Three who made the agreement are not present - and Cultivation conveniently peaced out as fast as she could. That being said, we did just read through an entire book on how terrible of an idea it would be to unleash unbound Surgebinders on Roshar. I very much hope that Kaladin can return for that drink with Shallan and Adolin, and I would find immense joy in seeing him return to Szeth, finding him in a little farmhouse with his wife and kids and some sheep too. And if the chapter arches return, will we get to see our favourite bridgeboy staring back at us?

I'm fairly certain that the plan was to show Baby Honor that Oaths are not an inherent good; throughout the ending we get little questions where Taravangian says something and the power pushes back, eg asking if the treatment of Gavinor was honourable, the power isn't fond of the spiritual Kharbranth, etc. I think it's setting up that Taravangian is going to be betrayed by the power of Honor in the future, crippling what seems now to be a dangerous threat.

I often joke that Moash deserves a redemption arc, solely so that someone can stick a spear through him at the pivotal moment. That being said, I don't want him to die for death's sake. I would prefer that he grows into an interesting anti-hero and gets some character development, because I feel that he has an interesting relationship with Kaladin, and I would like to explore the dynamic they present between selfishness/selflessness.

"Honor is dead, so I'll see what I can do." - Moash, before murdering a child, probably.

It's been a while since my last reading of the series, but the Oathpact existed to keep the Fused at bay, right? I don't see the Fused ceasing there attacks any time soon (especially since the majority of the leadership are gripped by some sort of madness), regardless of what the Parshendi want. Reforging the Oathpact in order to lock the Fused back on Braize is in my opinion the surest way to give the peoples of Roshar time to come up with a more permanent solution. The only Parshendi who would need to die are the ones currently possessed by Fused, and only the Fused who refuse to come to peaceful terms.

Do we know this is true? And even if it is, I'm fairly sure between a lucid Ishar, Hoid and the Stormfather we could work out a solution. I understand that the fused come back with every loop of the Everstorm, but if the heralds went to Braize, would they now bar the way and prevent them from coming back? That would mean that the coalition would no longer be facing and endless war against ever-returning enemies, which would be a huge win.

I'm almost certain at this point that Kaladin is going to replace Jezrien in a new, reforged Oathpact. Why do I think this? 1. In the latest chapter, The Wind is talking about how Kaladin must "preserve a remnant of Honor." I believe that the Oathpact is a large part of Honor's investiture (like the Mists on Scadrial), and to preserve it would require a new member to take Jez's place 2. In one of the previous chapters, Renarin sees a vision that is 12 figures in a field, and goes on to describe the rough races that comprise the heralds, plus a blue woman. These 12 are probably the heralds, Kaladin, Szeth and Syl. 3. Even further back, Dalinar offers to make Kaladin next in line in for the throne in Urithiru, making him King of the Radiants, a position previously held by Jezrien, Herald of Kings. 4. Kaladin is all about protecting. What better way to protect people than to stave off the invasion of Roshar by the Fused? It makes sense to me as the conclusion to his arc. With Kaladin among them to provide mental support, the new Oathpact will hopefully be more resilient than before. Any thoughts/pushback on this? Forgive me if this isn't exactly original, but I couldn't find any recent mention of it, and was compelled to write this out after reading the latest chapter

Personally, I don't think it's going to be any of the immediate suspects. Dalinar is contemplating it too early in the book for it to happen (never mind the fact that main thing left in his arc is letting go of power), and Kaladin is getting maybe slightly too much foreshadowing about not making it back. Honestly, (and sorry, this is kind of a rant) my personal preference would be something other than a scenario that parallels what happened in era one of Mistborn. Let the power of Honor be dispersed among the Souls of all of the inhabitants of Roshar so that it may truly live on in the hearts of men, or let it be dispersed among the Spren to grant them greater permanence in the Physical realm, or let it be dispersed into the very planet itself to turn Roshar itself into a giant Spren, or ... anything else, really. No hate to the plot of Mistborn era one; I loved it when it happened. I just also foresee it getting stale quickly if we are constantly playing a game of 'which one of our beloved characters will we see assume the power of a god and then enjoy seeing them be twisted by the powers they hold' every time we are introduced to a new cast of characters. I hope that the explicit build-up to an ascension is an intentional setup for a rug-pull, knowing that the fandom has pre-existing expectations from Mistborn. rant over.

My interpretation of the 4-pieces is that using the four Dawnshards splits a single thing into four things, and so Adonalsium was initially split into four pieces, and then each piece was split again to make 16 total. This does seem to align with the WoB and does imply that there were at some point 4 'super shard,' and I imagine each were somewhat aligned with a Dawnshard's purpose, ie. one of those shards was probably 'Change' and would go on to encompass shards like Ruin and Cultivation, and maybe more abstractly Ambition and Invention. The group that the WoB has as Honor, Valor, Mercy and (since we know Wisdom is not a shard) Virtuosity probably was something like 'Help' or some other imperative that fits all four of them. Certainly is interesting.

The secret projects were both quite fun reads, but they are very much insights into the future of the cosmere. They tell us quite a bit about where the technology is progressing to, and give hints to some of the broad future conflicts that we will see taking place in later eras of Mistborn and Stormlight. I can see an argument for saving them for later, when they are more 'current' in the timeline, but I would't have the self restraint to save them for reading in chronological order . A Stormlight re-read is probably the best option right now though, considering W&T is coming out fairly soon and the Secret Projects don't offer much immediately relevant insight.

Welcome to the Shard! I personally love the idea that she went with a really simple command, given that Nightblood has a really dramatic command and she doesn't want another Nightblood. Something like 'Cut Things Well' seems like it would be the somewhat obvious choice, although it's been a while since I read Warbreaker so it could be a non-viable command (I remember them being finicky as to what works and how much breath it consumes). At first glance I don't think a simple command would necessarily make it steal investiture from people like we see it do, but upon further reflection (Yumi spoilers): Regardless, I certainly hope Azure and Zahel show up a bit more in Stormlight 5, like how we had the big cosmere reveals in The Lost Metal.

We know that Lirin isn't a Worldhopper, which would suggest to me that he isn't a Shard, although I guess perhaps you could argue that he is no longer able to Worldhop and hence could still be Honor, but that seems unlikely to have been Brandon's intention. There certainly is something funky going on with Kaladin though, we just I simply don't know how or what. Maybe when Honor was splintered the person bearing the shard (Tanavast) was ejected with some kind of amnesia and became Lirin? If they are the same physical person but realistically two very different people, then perhaps Lirin as we know him is not a Worldhopper. That being said, as far as I can tell, their descriptions don't line up, with Tanavast in Dalinar's vision being tall, and Lirin being short. Perhaps his height in Dalinar's vision is related to his perception of himself? If he is tall by Yolish standards he may appear tall in visions, but be short by Alethi standards in the physical realm. There's definitely a lot to think on. EDIT: Tanavast is probably dead, unless Brandon is deflecting here. Oh well, so long theory. You were good for all of 6 minutes.

Perhaps, although I believe with death rattles the person who is experiencing the vision is fairly unreliable because they doesn't necessarily gain outside context to what they are seeing; the 'Voidbringer' Singers are described as having skin of fire after all. The person experiencing this particular vision knows that they have been betrayed and left in seemingly unbearable agony, and as such cry out to the Almighty for relief, but we know for certain that unlike whoever is experiencing the vision, Taln himself isn't particularly dismayed at being betrayed because it has afforded the world an excellent chance at recovery. I don't think that we know for sure that Dalinar is the champion of the Coalition. Although, I don't particularly have any other options to offer. That being said, the idea of bonding the champion for their own protection is pretty cool. I believe we even have a spare Bondsmith slot, unless someone bonded the Nightwatcher while I wasn't watching. Has anyone discussed bonding an Unmade before? I'll have to look into it.

I'd always assumed that this particular rattle was from the perspective of Taln holding the oathpact in place of the other 9 Heralds that used to help him out, but there definitely is precedent for nine shadows referring to the nine Unmade. The idea of someone becoming a Void Bondsmith is definitely intriguing though. I don't know how feasible it is without having access to the surge of Adhesion, but I guess between a few of the Unmade we have pretty good examples of them manipulating Connection without the use of Adhesion so said Voidsmith could probably perform a similar role without it. Very interesting proposition!

Well, considering the Skybreaker 5th ideal is essentially "I am the Law!". . .