Argent

Bask in His glory.

Disheveled, definitely. But she also reminds me of... I can't, I don't know what - I must've seen some anime screenshot or something, where a demon-thingy had similar facial expression, and the image stuck with me.

Brandon said that people can't bond with Honorblades, yet Szeth's ability to summon and dismiss his (Jezrien's) obviously suggested some kind of bond. I think a couple of people asked for clarification on this, but I don't remember the exact explanation...

Meh, I guess I'll settle for quantity, not quality...

Awww yusss! But I don't think Hoid actually orchestrated the entire situation around Shai's escape. My guess is that he nudged - Allomantically, perhaps - here and there, to make the Arbiters more likely to seek Shai's help.

Curse you, ambiguous spelling! Are the Radiants in Dalinar's visions wearing something else, or is this just a nod to the fact that none of the four Surgebinders / Radiants-in-training we have in the end of Words of Radiance have worn Plate? Wait. Renarin wears Plate. Damnit, I bet all Brandon is saying is that all those people we go around calling Radiants are not full Radiants yet... Finally. Hoid? I don't think Renarin has been playing with illusions much.

Here is what I consider a much clearer wording: Because when Kaladin was there and they were touching [the Blade], they actually heard the spren that was inside of it. It was the sword's spren that Kaladin was touching it. When the Knight Radiant touches [that spren] - you can see [the same thing happen] when other Knight Radiant pick up [shardblades] - they can hear the screaming.

I don't think so, it's described differently. The gem holding Eshonai's stormspren is described as "smoky" while Gavilar's sphere is black, glowing with dark light.

Pretty sure we have a WoB that each Order bonds with a different type of spren. And also one that (implies that) spren are either of Honor, of Cultivation, or mixed - spren from Odium or Adonalsium (presumably being much rarer) notwithstanding.

Those are positively wonderful! Syl is very appropriately... well, Syl. I am not quite sure why Shallan looks like an excited demon, but Pattern is damnation near perfect. And Stick is, as always, the epitome of perfection.

It's possible, I guess, but we don't know enough for me to be convinced. First, we don't know if all of Roshar uses spheres as currency. Second, I don't know if Rosharans associate power with the spheres - considering how surprised everyone is when Szeth breathes Stormlight in, I imagine everyone's forgotten that some people can use Light to bend the natural forces; no, if anything spheres are associated with light (and they are frequently used for it). And finally, the cognitive realm has nothing to do with power, not natively - it's a realm of minds, not a realm of power. So I guess the spheres are, well, spheres because of how fluid cognition is (versus, for example, a cognitive realm made of cubes, or even irregular objects - that would hardly make for a "sea").

I actually thought the exactly same thing a few days ago, and I liked it, but things didn't add up for me. Szeth moved the sphere to Jah Kaved about 6 years ago, while the Alethi started experiencing a weakening in the Thrill on in the last year or so. And even that is a flimsy guess, as we've only really seen Dalinar and Adolin lose it, which is something we could attribute to the formation of a Nahel bond. Plus, about half of Jah Kaved isn't that much farther away from the Shattered Plains than Kholinar is. If Gavilar's voidsphere* is, indeed, Neorgaul's prison, then I would've expected other nations to experience the Thrill as well - Herdaz is closer to most of Alethkar than the Shattered Plains are to Jah Kaved, but you never hear about an army of angry Herdazians going apestorm. * Forum members familiar with my writing will notice that I am really partial to prepending the word "void" to everything even remotely bad (voids, voidorders, voidforms, voidspren, voidsphere). This is me admitting I have a problem and need to seek professional help...

Taln's Identity is the thread we've been discussing this at length.

I too was not surprised by her resurrection. Though I have to admit, I never quite rationalized it in a way that included Stormlight-aided healing and Elsecalling, For a few chapters I thought that Brandon might be doing his own thing with the genre again, playing the tropes - engineering Jasnah's assassination to be very unfulfilling, so that his readers can not feel the pain and fail to believe that the assassination succeeded... only to have her actually die. But ultimately, the "no body, no death" prevailed - which is one of the reasons I am convinced Eshonai is still around and kicking. Actually, now that I think about it, Brandon might be getting a tad predictable in this - a number of his characters, presumed dead, tend to come back, as long as we've seen no body. @1empyrean, I'll play the devil's advocate here, and claim that it's very likely that Jasnah didn't get a chance to fight back. If the attack surprised her (and it very well could have, we saw her very tired not too long ago), then she was probably still half-asleep when she realized she had been impaled. We have a WoB that Jasnah's "last thoughts" were of escaping, so I find it very likely that she instinctively drew what Stormlight was nearby and Elsecalled - the same way Kaladin would occasionally Surgebind without thinking the process through, or how Shallan's first successful attempts at Lightweaving were essentially her just wishing the illusion to happen. So Jasnah wanted to be away, and Ivory obliged.

Once again the valiant Shardhunters' efforts (in the form of 375 unlock codes) have brought us a delicious piece of Brandon's mind - a deleted prologue from The Emperor's Soul, featuring the one and only Imperial Fool.

950 is Highprince, just hit that.

I can't believe I couldn't think of Pattern's... roguish skills.

I wouldn't say it hints at that - it's in line with it, but the answer itself only suggests that there is something weird about the situation, they are not true spren.

In all likelihood. We've seen about 10 Shards, give or take, and what, 6 worlds?

I figured his name was a tribute to Dan dos Santos, who has done quite some art for (not only) Brandon. The Coppermind agrees with me.

Honestly, I am most amazed by how well he ranks the different entities in the cosmere in terms of their Investiture. Shardblade & Plate, he's probably had to confirmed that they are pretty Invested, and the God King is also pretty full, but a soulstamp? A spike? A drab and a lifeless? Every so often I decide that I've reached my upper limit of amazement, and then Brandon just completely shatters it with something like this.

I am not sure I would call this a theory - it's pretty much the exact explanation given in the book itself.

Looked like a sun to me too.

We don't know. Some suspect the Skybreakers, seeing how there exists an organization today that bears the same name and patron. The Stonewards are also a candidate, though they don't exactly strike me as an order to even get close to the phrase "great subterfuge at the expense of the others."

There is a difference though. Maybe you can attract a spren by having a profound positive experience, but the uplifting and inspiring moments both Kaladin and Shallan have are no different from the uplifting and inspiring moments every one of us has. They change them, motivate them, but don't affect their magic directly.