Icy

You make really interesting points, the only thing I want to touch on is hemalurgy, which you say is ludicrously unlikely; is it? Brandon confirmed that there are people with hemalurgy who have been to Roshar, and he's pretty sure they've been on-screen as of Oathbringer. I'm not saying it's likely that this is the case, and I personally don't think she's got a hemalurgic spike, but given the Scadrians and other Cosmere-aware people Gavilar had been dealing with, I wouldn't rule it out as impossible. Just my 2 cents, good thread, I like the way you're thinking. My assumption is that she's maybe reached the 5th ideal already, as she has been routinely hiding her power level.

We don't know the gritty details of the torture that heralds go through on Braize, do we? I was randomly wondering about that and thought that perhaps years of torture would have a two-fold benefit for odium. Not only does it make heralds break to start another desolation, but can we also think of it as advanced "training" for Roshar's most powerful super soldiers? We know Odium is preparing for a greater war. Perhaps he hopes to use the heralds to fight somehow. I could be way off base here but I'm coming from a POV of trying to understand Odium's great plan. I don't think he is necessarily evil, or if he is, evil for the sake of being evil - I believe he is simply trying to prepare for a conflict so great that he considers much of roshar and its people to be disposable in order to fulfill a greater plan. This could be why Taravangian thought that surrendering to odium was his best hope. Perhaps he saw that Roshar was potentially doomed, argued to save just his own city, and realized that everybody else would be screwed because of an impending war. I think this could add depth to Odium's character/intent. Perhaps there is a good reason an extreme utilitarian took up the shard: maybe odium truly thinks that, in contrast to "journey before destination," the best outcome requires immense sacrifice to have an army capable of handling what is yet to come. Of course, we know his other goal is to be the only shard remaining, so I'm not sure how to reconcile that. Maybe he fears an assault from other shards on roshar / his forces that, if successful, could take him down. Perhaps Rayse simply intended to protect himself at all costs, and Taravangian simply saved what he could. Perhaps this is another reason why Hoid wants Odium bound to Roshar. What if an invasion force came to try and destroy him or the planet to avoid his further conquering? I could see that uniting the people's of Roshar, humans, singers, heralds, and fused alike. Thoughts? Ik I'm all over the place but I always like to read what people think, especially if they can easily debunk me, or spawn their own theories instead

I've always been interested in how the palanaeum is completely smooth, has strata similar to urithiru (though I guess that's just how rocks are), is shaped like a V, was cut directly into the stone, and holds a treasure trove of important information. I wonder if, similar to the plains, it follows some pattern. Could it have been made by some sort of sound wave? I.e. -----^---v---- I guess this would seem silly, because if so, where is the peak of that wave? But ultimately I'm wondering if it were man made / singer made with soulcasters/surgebinding, or if it was made by something... else, similar to the shattering of the plains. Was it put there on purpose long ago, perhaps, by a God intentionally shaping it that way? There was a theory going around about kharbranth being a safe haven, the bells possibly repelling specific tones - could this add credence to that theory? A wealth of information in the form of a library is something I would want in a secure spot, that's for sure. All that is to say that I do think you're onto something / theorizing in a good direction with the palanaeum. At least I think so - seems like there's always been more to it. But I agree based on the above post that it seems unlikely to be the cutout for urithiru

Wouldn't nightblood be satiated very quickly in a highstorm and there would be basically no effect on the storm(father)?

Very smart, I like that line of thinking.

It is speculation but I do agree that I think it could hint at the heroes messing it up. I wouldn't be surprised if Dalinar tried something risky with his bondsmith powers and screwed things up (kill the stormfather? ).

I can't believe I've just done this, but I went ahead and transcribed it. I bolded the parts that I think are relevant and left out parts where they went off-topic or on tangents. If you want to watch yourself, I started from 14:05 when Brandon started talking about his DND campaigns and went until the discussion of the DND campaign ended at 21:35. Marked for spoilers because of the size:

I don't know if there's a lot to comb through there, but Dan had mentioned he used a powerful spell and accidentally revived a sack of dead heads and it ruined everything. Possibly revived some dark lord even more dangerous than the final boss? I'd have to go back and check. I do know that Brandon said his players messed up his awesome ending somehow, but I dont know much about DnD so that part is really hard for me to speculate about. I'm worried that freeing Ba Ado Mishram will have consequences that are bad for the humans, but good for other sides of the conflict. For example, Reatares is pro freeing BAM, but he also had Amaram slaughter Kaladin's team and keep the blade. He's also insane, like the other 9 heralds who just want out. I'm convinced that they will do anything to get out of the oathpact, to avoid being sent back to Braize, or to straight up end the war. Maybe they're willing to let the other side win, somehow, if it meant the end. Either way, it concerns me that Restares is leading Shallan and Adolin towards that route, merely because I don't really trust the heralds. If not that, then I'd guess the protagonists do something else that everyone calculates as their best odds of winning and it blows up in their faces because of unintended consequences. Maybe we'll even see Vasher use his breaths to save someone and have that backfire. Or maybe we'll accidentally kill the stormfather. (I personally 100% believe the storms will die in some capacity, and the Era of freely renewable stormlight ends) So many juicy possibilities. Can't wait to see what Brandon actually does with book 5.