SpinningSky

Incredible theory, just read through the topic and I had a blast, congratulations OP and everyone who participated. There are many ifs, but I have few doubts that Chana is Shalan's mother, or "creator" I guess, or least I like to believe it I'm not sure about the relationship of Shalan's mother death and the desolations, though it would make sense for it to be connected, as it makes so much sense in her progression to admit to have caused something that catastrophic, but then again it does seem like the scheme was long going before her. Here's my take: She admits to being responsable for the last desolation, thinks it's her 5th, but it doesn't work (failed oath Kaladin style in OB makes a great story beat), the story progresses, until she eventually admits the hardest of truths: It wasn't actually her fault, none of it I think this would work in the logic of progression that oaths seem to have, besides, while a bit corny, I find it to be a very sweet character arc. And it would explain why, while you can be lead to believe they were connected, logic dictated the last desolation was being planned way before her time. I agree with many that the glowing thing that was put back into the safe is important and not just an hallucination, and honestly it doesn't make much sense to me for Shalan's father to put the blade in the safe, why would that be the reaction? Besides, if Shallan is a terrified child, wouldn't she dismiss the blade immediatly? (I might be forgetting something here) I really like this. I can totally see an herald being so terrified of accidentally dying that they carry around a failsafe, a gemstone to trap their soul rather than going back to be tortured. It's not unlikely to think that the Ghostbloods had some trick up their sleeve to bring her back from the gemstone she gets trapped in. The father would be instructed, in case it happend, to immediatly put the gemstone to safety. Finally, 2 cents on Taln, but this is pure speculation cause I think it'd be cool: He was driven to madness and kept in Braize voluntarily waiting for the right moment fora long time, and released when he was supposed to, cause he still has a part to play in Odium's plan.

You guys should be aware that the Atium found in era 1 isn't actually a pure god metal, it was a I believe a bit of a mistake, as god metals are supposed to have effects regardless of one's allomantic ability, which isn't how Atium in mistborn era 1 works. this was retconned in WOBs, though I believe it's still to be put in-universe in a book. Here's the relevant WOB: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/482/#e15299

To get into crazy theories and whatnot, I like to think that we will keep hearing the "Unite Them" sentence as it evolves, from uniting the Pricedoms, to uniting the realms, up to a point in the very distant future where it will be the shards of Adonalsium to be reunited thanks to a Bondsmith, the ultimate "Unite Them" EDIT: Thinking about it, would it be ridiculous for Dalinar to put Honor's shard back together at the end of book 5? It would make sense, and justify the drastic change in the world expected in the second half of the series

To me, of course each new book will be more interesting, if only because I'm (probably we are) so passionate about the magic system and the characters that it just gets more and more interesting the further we go. Having said that this is no MCU, which starts with a pretty cool iron man and ends in Endgame, Way of Kings is a Masterpiece of a book which does such an incredible job getting you in this world of rockbuds and misterious shattered planes and "Szeth-son-son-vallano, Truthless of Shinovar". Yes I just finished re-reading it I voted WoK, but yeah I can stand behind each of the options

To be honest I'm pretty sure Dalinar is still quite confused as well so it's a fair question

This got me thinking of a slightly diffrent take, though of course this is pure philosofical speculation, 1) if Honor was to modify the Herald's spirit webs to give them surges, it might make them "too much of Honor", thus possibly breaking the rules that bind the shards. 2) I think that the power of an oath stems intrisically from the possibility to break said oath. The very fact that the heralds could drop the sword at any moment is what made the Oathpact as powerful as it was in the first place. To bring this to an extreme and clearly impossible example, could an Oathpact work if it was made between Honorspren and Honor itself? I think not, there is a connection, but it's not an oath.

I believe that for Windrunners the ideals will be pretty much the same, though everyone might have a slightly different take on it, especially as Windrunners inheritly work as a cohesive team, I'd be surprised if they had the 'individuality' in oaths that skybreakers and lightweavers get.

Well yeah it makes much more sense that they're somehow connected but not physically a cut out one from the other Didn't realize we had a size for the palanaeum It being a Fabrial makes a lot of sense, why do you say diamond base? This idea really intrigues me a lot, with the importance sound waves will have, though as you said it feel a bit far fetched as well, with the wave being so uneven. But there might be some overall simmetry we're missing. I guess what I'm wondering now is, what do you think the palaneum looks like in shardesmar?

Greetings friends! This is my very first post in here, matter of fact I registered to get some opinions on this idea I got while re-reading WoK. It's quite simple, though maybe a bit ridiculus, it feels to me like the Palaneum could be the hole created by the rock that was then moved to become Urithiru. Which isn't much, but goes some way in explaining the origin of the two locations. it makes sense because: they're both gigantic mystical creations with misterious ancient origins one is a huge pyramid-like hole, one is a huge tower, which I guess you could carve from a pyramid the cities are fairily close Brandon did go out of his way to describe the library as "a giant staircase pointing toward the center of Roshar. ", with elevators to go up and down, which feels to me like an upside down Urithiru It does not make sense because: I always imagined the palaneum to be far smaller, but looking around I have found no actual details about it, and we never did explore it fully It's more than a bit ridiculous I found very few WOBs relating to the Palanaeum, but I do expect the library to be hugely important in the history of Roshar, I mean 'Stormlight Archive' right? But please, tell me what silly thing I forgot that makes me inesorably wrong, cause I must be missing something! Also sorry if this was already discussed, I looked around and don't believe it was