Argent

I suppose that's possible, @Willow. Eshonai did die during a highstorm, and those are a little wonky. If nothing else, I wouldn't be surprised if she has stuck around as a Cognitive Shadow - she may have been able to use the storm's Investiture to keep herself around. I still don't believe in the theory, but with the highstorm craziness, who knows what's possible?

I suppose. Though if I were asking this (and I have a... particular question style), I would break the question down into more answerable bits and ask them in order, starting with the least RAFOable. I prefer asking a few less important questions and getting a few less important answers, than asking one big one and getting an outright RAFO.

Oathbringer spoilers

This was kind of my theory prior to the release of Oathbringer. I thought that the way stormform - and all forms of power - worked was by something similar to possession, where a voidspren would come into the listener and displace a piece of their mind or soul, which would then turn into a spren-like entity. That's how I was explaining the comet-like spren Eshonai started seeing after she assumed stormform. With all of Oathbringer out, I no longer think this is the case. With Venli almost certainly a Willshaper, the WoB that "the comet-like spren is important to one of the Orders", and with the vague hints that Timbre might be Captain Ico's daughter... I think the evidence for Timbre being a lightspren is, if not overwhelming, then at least very compelling.

Welcome! OB is kind of the best time (lots of activity) but also the worst time (lots of activity) to join - hope you enjoy yourself.

Huh, that broke strangely. @Mestiv do you see anything weird about the entry @Steeldancer linked above? From my end of things it looks incorrectly inputted, but that's just weird...

Let's use the existing Timbre thread for this discussion.

I am very much a believer that Timbre is a Willshaper spren - and that Willshaper spren are lightspren. I think I want to gather my thoughts a little better in a separate topic though.

Can you either repost this in the appropriate forum thread, or upload your audio directly to Arcanum?

This is also questionable. As I read it, he simply became Invested, did nothing, and the thunderclast died for whatever reason. Less clean that way, but it's how it read to me.

Some believe it's an accident, leftover from The Way of Kings Prime, where Taln had a different story arc (in which he wasn't sure who he is, if I recall correctly).

Oh, right, got confused for a moment there. I did mean that Glys is a regular Truthwatcher spren. Them appearing as spots of light made me mix them up with the lightspren. I do happen to agree that lightspren are the Willshaper spren, yes.

In which Nazh addresses all of us...

My only issue with this right now is that I am not sold on Renarin actually being able to use Illumination. The only scene where he arguable uses this Surge is in Chapter 10 where he heals Adolin, and I find that a very questionable scene: Adolin sees "himself perfected" in the same moment Renarin performs Regrowth on him. To me, it doesn't sound like he sees an illusion, like the ones Shallan creates with Lightweaving - he sees himself in his mind's eye. This being said, this is still a little weird - nobody has else has reported seeing anything like that when healed with Regrowth (though the only one I can think of off the top of my head who was also a viewpoint character at the time is Dalinar in his first Heb vision, and there was a fabrial involved there). Still, not sold. I think Renarin will have access only to the Surge of Progression, though maybe he can access it through both "filters" - as (Re)Growth through his Surgebinding, and as futuresight through his Voidbinding. On a different note though, I do think Glys is a corrupted lightspren - the standard Truthwatcher spren. His description: could match what we have seen from Sja-anat's corruption before. Lightspren normally appear like so: and the descriptions of all the Sja-anat spren suggest that the spren retains a lot of its regular appearance, only... slightly twisted. Sharper. And redder. So that part, at least, I not only agree with, but support with a little bit extra.

I would rather see more focused topics - talking about all of the interludes in one thread is bound to get messy and disorganized. So, you haven't done anything wrong, but I'll lock this in an attempt to keep conversation a little more focused, and forum threads - a little easier for new people to jump into.

So, once again Brandon drops a few hundred thousand words of a monster in our laps, and it was a monster full of lore. So, while we all struggle to put our thoughts together and figure out what we want to talk about, I wanted to revisit the Death Rattles and see if we got any new resolutions out of them. This could actually be a reference to humans originally worshipping Odium. It's a bit tenuous, though. I thought I remembered a line where Ash uses the phrase "shard of my soul", but I can't find it now... The seems like it could refer to the humans' first arrival on Roshar. They take the parsh's homes and send their souls to Braize. Still not quite clear on how that last part works out, but I think it fits. I think this might refer to the arrival of the Fused. While we've known - or at least strongly suspected - that this is Taln, we know understand the implications a little better. The burden of the other nine Heralds, the responsibility of holding back the Desolations, it's all his now. There is nobody else to share the pain with him. I've been thinking about this one for a little bit. I've gone back and forth a couple of times on this, but I think Dai-gonarthis is the Black Fisher, the final Unmade, the only one Mythica is uncertain about. I agreed with @Pagerunner's assessment in another thread that Dai-gonarthis and Kai-ganis' names follow a similar naming scheme and therefore since the latter is not an Unmade, then the former wouldn't be either... but I no longer think that. First, the Death Rattle is very much in line with some of the other Unmade's theme of consuming emotions - something they share with Odium, naturally. Not only that, but the Black Fisher is also mentioned in Oathbringer, by Jezrien no less: Right up there with a few other Unmade. I don't know if we've decided who the Faceless is (or if that's just another name for Re-shephir, the Spawning Mother), but the Black Fisher certainly fits there. Now, the only wrench in this is that the Death Rattle can be interpreted differently - that the speaker is calling to Dai-gonarthis (much like an Alethi might call to the Stormfather), and then simply makes a statement about the Black Fisher holding their sorrow and consuming it. I don't like that interpretation too much, but it's a valid one. And other than these, I don't actually think any of the other Rattles need much of a second look.

Yeah, it looks like he's had two spheres. If the theory about Bo-Ado-Mishram being trapped in Kholinar is correct, then it may be that Gavilar could just go to her perfect gem prison and drain a little bit of Voidlight whenever he wanted.

Yeah, Autonomy and Harmony are good candidates for the second two letters. The only safe bet I can make about the first is that we won't find another Shard on their world. I am also getting a feminine vibe with the "Dearest Cephandrius", but that's far less certain.

My top theory here has been that Tanavast was simply becoming overcome with Honor's intent. We know that Shards can, over time, strongly influence their Vessels, and I figured that's what was happening there.

I missed the White Sand bit, @Pagerunner (though I did make a note of it, intending to come back and think about it). Good call. I am also not sure that the Nightwatcher had Nightblood. My impression was that she could... procure it for him. Arrange things so that it lands in Dalinar's possession. Though now that I think about it, this idea seems a little less likely...

Yo, get off my turf, I've been a Taln fanboy since this epigraph exactly:

Good theory, I like it. If I may, I think I can add a little bit of extra evidence towards it, though it's minor and speculative. Chapter 83: Crimson to Break's epigraph reads the following: Later, Dalinar imprisons Nergaoul inside the King's Drop, a large ruby that hasn't leaked Stormlight in over 2,000 thousand years - a pretty good candidate for a perfect gem, and a pretty good candidate for Honor's Drop (whose name got lost in time). I find it likely that another perfect gemstone was used to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram. And if they are as rare and precious to warrant storage in Thaylen City's reserve, then it's entirely possible that Kholinar's own reserve has had another one. Probably not an emerald though, as there were no mentions of anything weird in the emerald reserve Kaladin & co. were lugging around.

The connection between Kai-garnis and Dai-gonarthis is one of the things I've been meaning to think about, and this is a good reasoning. I just wonder if it was a thunderclast, or some other incarnation of Kai-garnis.

I also thought it would need to be something related to not shouldering all of the burden himself. Focusing on the exact words is probably not a good idea, as the wording of the Immortal Words seems flexible, but I imagine something about allowing others to protect themselves? Or, alternatively, letting himself be protected.

No wonder I've been super hyped all day...