JustQuestin2004

Because Gavilar is an arrogant oaf? Maybe he wasn't directly shown the Herald's appearances in the Visions? I don't think Dalinar ever saw them in his own Visions.

Honestly, the more I think about Cultivation and how frustrating her actions, or inactions, have been I now am genuinely of the opinion that Cultivation, or rather her Shard, cannot actually Splinter another Shard. She had Rayse killed and replaced with Taravangian, which is in line with her intent, Odium has been cultivated to be better, even if it's for the worst. But she could have tried to kill the nascent Vessel before he gained full control and understanding over his powers but she didn't even try. Because she can't, she can only help things grow in the long term, she can't just cut things down without the act being to help it grow.

Well, considering that they think Taravangian got nommed by Nightblood, and Cultivation just doesn't seem keen on giving out that particular nugget of information, even though it would be very useful. So not anytime soon. Something that is very interesting is the 'Core' of Honor, since the Shard is Splintered but isn't completely gone. I'd have thought that the Stormfather was all that was left of the Shard, but apparently not. I guess it makes sense since the Well of Ascension was described as a 'Sliver' of Preservation's power, and yet it still held enough power to move the planet and remake it easily, yet all the Stormfather can do is limited to the Highstorm, that doesn't seem like it truly equates for a being that supposedly holds the 'majority' of Honor's power. So many interesting plotlines, it's insane we're getting it all in one book.

Baxil is one of the dudes who worked for Shalash, before she went off to find Taln. He was considering going to the Nightwatcher to ask for courage, and it seems he's gotten something very interesting, as Axies seems to consider him to be a kind of Spren.

Well, they're organic... ish. So I don't see why not. Unless they are still too Invested even while dead, which makes all this really confusing and weird. Like Spren are Splinters of pure Investiture, then Ishar did something to give them physical bodies based on their Shadesmar forms? Their bodies are made of flesh and blood so did the Investiture that is meant to comprise their very being get shunted to the Spiritual Realm to become part of their Spiritweb? Storms I can't wait for December 6th.

We've never seen an Augur control their Gold Shadows to intentionally show a specific future, but then again we've only ever seen two uses of it total. I've a feeling it would take extensive practice or maybe Savantism in the ability to show such a specific future. Gold Shadows also change depending on your current situation, so maybe if you sat around a bunch of Hemalurgic Spikes and really considered using them on yourself and then burned Gold then your Gold Shadows would start showing some of those possibilities. So I'd say it'd be possible, though probably very unpleasant. Gold Shadows always make the user uncomfortable, adding in Hemalurgy would probably make the experience torturous.

So I've been getting into some writing stuff, and I wanted to try a story on a subject that the Original Trilogy didn't delve too deeply into. Wasted Men, Skaa who ventured to the border of Scadrial's habitable zone for freedom, to a place called the Burnlands which were endless deserts that surrounded the Final Empire. Brandon also said that thanks to the Lord Ruler not being able to effectively stop them and for their own survival, they developed technology that the Final Empire didn't have due to the Lord Ruler's suppressing technological advancement. I want to know what this technology they had could have been.

So Emotional Allomancy, when strong enough, can allow someone to take control of Hemalurgic Constructs like Koloss. But one of the ways stated for this to happen is if a group of Soothers and/or Rioters working together can take control of Hemalurgic Constructs. How would this work exactly? Would they all be able to give orders to the Koloss individually? Would they need to give the Koloss the same orders at the same time?

Dalinar meets a Gravitation Fused at the top. "What is this Odium?" "First one to that mountaintop over there wins! Ready-set-go!"

So as of the latest early Chapter, the ending was of Cultivation herself coming to Urithiru to speak with Dalinar, likely about how she screwed up big time with Taravangian. So who else thinks that Lift might get a second meeting with Cultivation? To complain about how she didn't get the wish she asked for of course.

A Cremling eating contest... TO THE DEATH!

Counterpoint: part of the Contract is thus "We each send a willing champion, allowed to meet at the top of Urithiru, otherwise unharmed by either side’s forces." So if Odium has Dalinar captured by the time of the Contest while he has himself as his own Champion, then Odium is breaking the contract by not 'allowing' Dalinar to go to the top of Urithiru. Of course this only applies for the 'captured but alive' part of your theory. Not sure what would happen if Dalinar dies, would the decision of who the Champion is go to Stormfather? Navani? Either way it could go very badly. Plus there seems to be a bit of foreshadowing since the Sibling says "They wouldn't dare attack while Urithiru is active", which, granted, without the Fused or Regals as soldiers, Odium doesn't have many options of taking the Tower by force. Maybe an Unmade? Perhaps Dai-Gornathis who scoured Aimia by, allegedly, destroying their Fabrials? Perhaps Dai-Gornathis could counteract the suppressing field around Urithiru and redirect that army going to Azimir to instead use the now corrupted Oathgates to go to Urithiru? Probably not, but if Odium wants Dalinar then he'll need to get him out of Urithiru or have a way of getting him while he's in Urithiru. Maybe he'll gather up the Diagram and send Malata, the Diagram's Dustbringer, to go sneak in and assassinate Dalinar while everyone is distracted by these attacks? That's sounds more like Taravangian.

Just remember, the Contest does not necessarily need to be a fight, it just has to be to the death. An earlier preview chapter had Dalinar think about this possibility, and Taravangian wouldn't be so simple as to have his victory condition be bound to a mere fight, especially against a warrior like Dalinar. He'd absolutely do something tricksy. Could you imagine if he had the Contest be a staring contest? To the death? "The fate of Roshar rests upon Dalinar's eyelids!", so dumb but I think it's hilarious.

Well, it seems Dalinar will probably be getting a heads up about Odium's change in management, unless of course Cultivation decides to not do that for some incredibly stupid and arbitrary reason.

Yes, Dalinar nearly killed him in Oathbringer by forcing him into becoming a Pseudo-Shardblade. Plus Odium could kill Stormfather anytime, it's just that Cultivation might kill him while he does that. Sent to the Beyond, or maybe in Nightblood's 'stomach'. Either way he's no longer around. Ashyn was destroyed with mixing Dawnshards with Surgebinding, so Surgebinding can't destroy the planet on its own, as far as we know. Probably? Though it might not have properly formed yet. Or it could even just be a part of Odium, since he's been able to stop it, direct its lightning and even use it to communicate with others.

Someone with just a Dead Shardblade and Plate against a Steel Inquisitor, presuming they have the standard set of powers (Physical and Mental Allomancy, Feruchemical Gold along with maybe Allomantic Atium). Shardplate renders most of the Mental Allomantic powers useless, their helmet would block emotional allomancy and a coppercloud wouldn't be of any use. Bronze could be somewhat helpful to keep track of them without needing to see them. Allomantic pewter wouldn't grant the same level of strength as Plate and while Feruchemical Gold can heal a wound from a Shardblade it would take a lot of healing, likely most of whatever they'd have stored up just for one or two wounds, and if they got hit in the spine they would probably just be dead. Considering all of that I'd personally say no, a Steel Inquisitor would not be so easily destroyed. If they did the foolish thing and try to go for close quarters then yes, they'd absolutely get destroyed, but since Steel Inquisitors aren't usually idiots they wouldn't do that. Who would ever try to square up with a hulking mass of metal with a blade as large as you are tall that can cut you to the soul? No, they have ranged options, so they'd use their enhanced mobility granted by Steelpushing to keep off the ground, away from the non-flying Shardbearer while trying to pelt them with coins. Though each coin would do little damage it would eventually add up and start to crack the Plate, which would turn the fight into a battle of attrition, who runs out of their resource first? If the Inquisitor runs out of steel then they are dead, no question, they wouldn't have the mobility to keep out of range and deal damage from afar. If the Shardplate runs out of Stormlight then it'll freeze up and leave the bearer completely helpless. If the Inquisitor has some Atium to burn that could let them land some much-needed hits in close quarters combat with their axes without risking themselves. Either way, it would be a suspenseful fight from beginning to end.

Or maybe Herald madness is in the blood.

Well he's looped back at least once. Actually, I just had a thought. Kalak said in the Prologue that he felt 'worse', and eventually even Nale admitted his madness had gotten worse as well, so what if Ishar has been holding back less and less of the madness as the True Desolation approached?

The recent Interlude released has shed some light on what has been going on with Taravangian after he Ascended. He's not been having the best time, it seems. But something that caught my eye was how he was 'Divided', between logic and passion, similar to how he was before, except instead of having one or the other with no control he now has both, but he still sees them as separate. Not only that but he's been trying to keep his own mind separate from Odium. With all this in mind I can't help but think about two very interesting WOBs about Shards. Specifically these two: I think, for TOdium to get out of the bindings, he needs to not be Odium. I think that in order to continue his plan to save the Cosmere, Odium will eventually be split into two Shards. One for Logic and one for Passion. So then he would not be the being known as 'Odium' and the pacts that bound Rayse might not continue to work on him. Though that's probably a long shot.

That would explain a few things, though then why do other Heralds claim that Ishar is the sanest? I have to disagree, I think that it references Threnody. There's no conflict there due to the Shades, you can't spill blood or kindle flame without setting them off, and their technology took a huge backslide when they escaped to the Forests of Hell, even gunpowder has been reduced to stories and no one can actually use it due to it counting as flame. That would certainly be worrisome, just brainwashing everyone into never harming anyone else. Sounds even more terrifying then just 'Mercy-killing' everyone.

Yeah, a little bit. I think that we shouldn't go too overboard with this kind of thing, otherwise eventually someone's going to say that the entirety of the Stormlight Archives is just Shallan on a treadmill.

So how would he have Unkeyed so many spikes? There are hundreds of Kandra, each one having two spikes. Rashek would never have made something like Unsealed Metalminds that store Identity for this, the very existence of such a thing would threaten his power. It's impractical for him to have forced Feruchemists to store their Identity and spike them, since he would have just spiked F-Gold out of them for his Inquisitors. I like your theory, but I don't think that Blessings are Unkeyed Spikes, there just isn't a conceivable way for them to be made on such a scale, not back in Era 1 at least.

If we're talking about Copper Spikes I've got an idea to pitch. The Brimer, based on the Jotunn name Brimir, which are Hemalurgic Constructs given two Iron and two Copper spikes. The different spikes would balance each other out, so you'd have someone with half the strength of a Koloss and no loss in intelligence whatsoever. The perfect combination of brawns and brains and they make for much better soldiers than the more simpler and vicious Koloss, since they can actually follow orders and use tactics.

Thanks. Edit: Just been checking it out and wow, I cannot believe how convenient this thing is. The designers really thought it through.

Alright, so I'm not a hundred percent sure whether this is the right place for this but I'm doing this anyway. I'm planning a story, specifically an ISOT (Island Lost in the Sea of Time) fanfic for a Stormlight crossover. The basis is that a city from a version of earth gets sent to Roshar and I'd like a bit of help with scaling on a map just for my own sanity since geography isn't something I excel at. I'm not gonna say what the crossover is because I'd rather not spoil and it's not too important to this question. What I want to know is the rough distance between the southern most cities of Alethkar. The port city of Dumadari and the river city of Karanak. The size of Alethkar is known on the Coppermind, but I'm not great at understanding it in terms of how far things in Alethkar are to each other. I'd really appreciate some help in this regard.