The Stick

I feel like it is more plausible that the soldiers ate or slept as opposed to a cultivated field stamp. Assuming an army is always on the move with supply trains, I would say it is not very plausible for them to have planted fields. I would argue, assuming you have enough forgers, this would be an excellent supplement to regular logistics. I am obviously not suggesting that this replaces normal logistics. However, accounts of Hannibal and many generals of history say well supplied troops do well in battle. It wouldn't be a constant state, just a last minute addition before battles.

Another thing I was considering was the use of stamps for logistics. History shows well fed and rested armies typically do well. I wonder if you could stamp the soldiers with a stamp saying they had a full meal and had a night of good sleep before a battle.

I would say definitely the breaths. The resistance to diseases and lifespan are both great. Sure, we have modern medicine, but common ailments are still very annoying, especially if you don't go to a doctor for them. The color and music talents would both be much appreciated by me, since I am not amazing at either. I just think breaths are the most useful in practical life.

Keep in mind that TLR can easily tap his metal minds for investiture, which will probably invest him far too much to be soul cast. Another thing to consider is whether a full metal mind is capable of blocking about from Nightblood. I personally think that TLR would easily win assuming he just taps insane amounts of zinc, steel, pewter, and burns atium and chromium. In theory, he could shred lift in less than a second. I am also seeing an instance where he used huge amounts of gold and brass to turn into a miniature star and set the battlefield on fire. Of course, this is contingent on the above mentions that Rashek is an incredibly jaded and arrogant man. For example, he let Kelsier stab him just for the laughs and to show off his power to the skaa.

Maybe Mercy's involvement in the clash had something to do with the anti-light splinters?

I have found myself summoned. Moash has no resistance to my arguments. I am a stick.

Justice for Raoden and Hrathen! How did Dilaf make the list, but neither of those two did?

I actually think that Dominion would be the one I would be most skillful at holding without the Intent rejecting me. Dominion is ultimately a Shard of stability. It is content with managing its own domain, and growing it. I do think my favorite grouping of Shards would be a combination of Honor, Preservation, Dominion, and either Devotion of Reason. I think this would be something like the Shard of Law, which I would like. Whimsy and Ambition would both be really fun, but would probably try to drop me pretty quick. I think I would be astoundingly bad at holding Virtuosity.

There is a specific WoB which says that powers of Honor and Odium actually attract each other, which implies some shards naturally attract and repel each other. I think, as stated above, it would be almost impossible to merge Autonomy. I would say that in theory, Dominion would be very attracted to Honor, but that is not really possible, since it is in the Dor. I would say that a Valor-Harmony merge is my favorite.

In response to this, in the real world, sure. But it seems very clear from the way Sanderson parallels them in book five, they are supposed to be two very unique things when regarded in the Stormlight sense.

Something else to note in this case is the deleted interlude The Traveler when Hoid and Frost meet on Yolen immediately post Hero of Ages. The two of them have a big fight, and it ends with Frost telling Hoid he cannot restore the lost to what they once were, and cannot bring back the dead. In addition, Frost asks why Hoid now sees the power he once denied. It is from this, I do not think Hoid wants to pick up Adonalsium. Rather, I think he want to go to the aforementioned place of the dead, pick up Adonalsium's soul or whatever, then reforge it back to how things were before the Shattering. Just keep in mind this is all from a deleted scene that is not canon.

I do find this a little unreasonable, because Dalinar is the focus of the whole contest, and I believe Taravangian would have total attention on him. However, I do see your distraction theory working if this was like getting a lot of Breaths. The sudden overload of power probably sent Taravangian into a total ecstasy power-high.

I do ultimately hope Dalinar went to the beyond. I feel like the book was trying to make it clear he really did die. If he comes back, I think it would ruin the impact of his corpse on the tower. I do think that a spiritual version of Dalinar like Nohadon would be fine though. However, of the characters who may have claimed him, my money would be on Valor or Cultivation. Cultivation is playing 5d chess, and was connected enough to him to claim him. Valor probably has stuff going on in Roshar, and Dalinar did really exemplify Valor is protecting Gavinor.

I must agree with some of the excellent points proposed above. The radiant oaths of all the orders are very different. They do sometimes contradict. They all have different interpretations of what is right. The issue is, there is no absolute moral standard in the Cosmere. This does mean the whole point of Honor, the whole point of oaths is to live by a set of codes that best approximate what is right, what is moral. I suppose the reason I like the Skybreaker interpretation is that would require several people at least to agree on a moral or immoral thing, rather than sole radiants being able to go totally rogue inside their orders. I do want it to be understood I notice the nuance in the books and I do like a lot of it. I do know the series shows the issues with the nature of some of the oaths. I think this opens some fascinating philosophical debates or the nature of morality and Honor itself. And yes, I certainly agree that oaths do not intrinsically make an action moral, as pointed out by the citation from Knuti. My point is that the characters in the books do not seem to have an absolute moral order. Thus, if you swear good, noble oaths, it guides you towards the most righteous choice. I concede many oaths can be evil. I simply would claim though that keeping oaths is innately honorable and binds you to higher moral ideals. An oath should be made for the right reason, or never made at all.

I do tend to agree with Aliroz on this perspective of the book. My real issue with it was not necessarily any of the Szeth stuff discussed at length, although I would still tend to side with Aliroz. Rather, my issue is with this book's definitions of oaths and Honor. To be clear, I liked the book, but I did not like the portrayal of oaths. Throughout the entire series, oaths are built up as honorable and noble. The entire point of the radiant orders is to live by oaths. They are of monolithic importance to the series. Yet, this book, it feels like there was a 180 and suddenly oaths were being undercut totally. I think we most clearly see this with Adolin and his promise worldview, which I dislike. The whole point of an oath is that you keep it to your dying breath. It is not easy, it will hurt, you may regret it, but you keep it regardless, holding yourself to a code of iron. Oaths are not meant to be easy. Who better exemplifies this than Taln. Yet, Adolin's whole promise thing is too weak, too loose. What binds you to a promise. What keeps you following it unto death of dishonor. Breaking a promise when it gets hard is a pointless promise. Sigzil: I think, ultimately in the circumstances, this one has the best chance at a pass. Sigzil did not reject the oaths themselves, but rejected them only to save his spren. I think that this can be understood as mostly acceptable. Fen: I very much have two minds on Fen. I do believe that from a strategic perspective, surrender to Odium was her best choice. It helped her people a most. Yet, she betrayed her allies. She was a traitor, a backstabber, she ruined their trust, she did break. There is no Honor in what she did, no nobility. There is a reason Dante puts traitors in the 9th circle. The negative portrayal of skybreakers: I echo the question above, of why can the skybreakers never be right, and wind runners never wrong. Besides Nale manipulating the law by bullying rulers into making new laws to let him have his way, the current Skybreaker oaths are fine. They abide to an exacting code of honor and oaths, and do not bend. They do not tolerate failure, they obey oaths perfectly. The issue with Windrunners if that they are too flexible. Many of the worst people in history could have been wind runners if they interpreted their evil deeds as protecting people. Heck, even Taravangian could be a Windrunner in theory. Skybreakers cannot bend so easily. FYI: I am a Skybreaker on the radiant quiz. The whole mess with Honor being portrayed semi-negatively: This book seems to really put nuance on Honor, and portray him semi-negatively. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I fully support Tanavast having Mishram captured to fulfill his oath to Odium. Mishram never could have feasibly ended the war anyway unless she usurped Odium, which I kind of doubt would have happened. I think Tanavast made the best choice. Then, there is the whole thing with Dalinar, being the pinnacle of Honor and oaths the whole series, walking away from it at the end, and not liking oaths anymore, which I feel kind of betrays his arc. Plus, Honor being portrayed kind of badly, then Dalinar's hope of it becoming more like Adolin's perception seems like it would lose what Honor truly is, which is holding to a code of steel simply because of the oath itself. If anyone has any good counter-arguments to my points, I would enjoy engaging with them.