CtrlAltDepressed

yes wob (emphasis mine):

I was considering this possibility, and then I thought, wouldn't the excess of Towerlight and Stormlight heal them extremely quickly?

Seemed more a spite move / cutting losses to me. They need a Bondsmith to get them to SR just as much as anyone else. Mraize may have shot himself in the foot with this move

Wow wow wow. So so much. Hoid uses perpendicularity's to access visions of the future. Of course he does. Thats really cool to get confirmation on this. Confirmation that Mraize and Iyatil have corrupted Cryptics. I REALLY thought we were going to get a glimpse of the Ashyn migration but OH NO HERE COMES MRAIZE LIKE THE KOOL AID MAN. This really sucks for Navani and Dalinar. I figured something would go wrong with the Spiritual Realm investigation, but didnt expect it with the experiment! Yikes. I dont even begin to understand how they are going to get back. Both bondsmiths are now MIA for an unforseen amount of time. Is this going to weaken Navanis bond to the sibling while shes in there? I think Hoid is the only person capable of helping them get out. Will he be willing? Is that even a possibility? I suppose Sja-Anat could help them too. Im wary of this entrapment of Dalinar and Navani. I feel teased by these promises of seeing past events and if we lost that because of the imprisonment i will be kind of disappointed. I think we still have to see the stuff about Honor, but I was really believing we would get more.

My best guess is that he would be in conflict with himself, since he would be unable to adhere to both sides of the contract. This would create a vulnerability that Cultivation could exploit if she so chose.

I have not seen this theory posted before, very clever.

I have a suspicion (hope) that Brandon has played one over on US. He knows how deep in this we are, and that everyone expected Shallan to fail her mission. He subverted our expectations by having it go way smoother than it had any right to. Which, of course, was the plan of Mraize and Iyatil the entire time. They knew they had an out, and the people / things left in the hideout really arent that important. Seems like this could be the perfect set up for Shallan (and us) to be blindsided by what the Ghostbloods are doing. Could very well be just as disappointing as it appears, but I am holding out hope this is part of a bigger scheme. There's always another secret! I still feel like Gavinor is way too young to really be pulled into all of this. Maybe this festers for a few years and he ends up on Odiums side in the back half but I just feel really icky about this theory, for a lot of reasons. Stormfaker was a good theory!

Loved the stuff about Corrupted Truthwatching. That was super interesting. Just off the top of my head, seems like it is fortelling that Renarin is going to become more intwined with Listener culture. The part about Shinovar was really interesting. He got a sense of peace from it, and clearly the Heralds were there. I guess that is implying Kaladin will be at least partially successful in his therapy attempts. Who is the blue skinned woman? That was weird. Brandon just had to mention Vasher. I really hope we see some of him soon. BAM is really really upset. It might be better for everyone if she just didnt come back. I dont know if you can fix the deadeyes without her, but if you can, do that instead

This is exactly it. They saw NONE of this coming. Shallan is by far the biggest threat to their organization and plans, and they just let her walk in. They are somehow able to spy on Hoid / Jasnah / Dalinar / Sibling and Navani while inside the tower but are unable to figure out that Shallan is coming for them. Really? Thats silly. The Ghostbloods have basically trapped themselves in this house....with no defenses. As a spy organization, I feel like you should have more precautions then simply setting some white sand at the doorway. Ghostbloods have infiltrated every aspect of Roshar. They had people whispering to Gavilar for years. Getting a dead blade is not THAT difficult, especially for a group that can surprise the holder with magic they have never seen before. (Felt trapping Kalak). They just need to kill a blade holder. Easy. They are allied with Sja-Anat. One of the most powerful entities on the planet. In addition, Sja-Anat has gifted them spren to bond. In all these years, getting an unmade to gift you surges is easier than a dead blade? She also learned that they are going to be present for Dalinars SR stuff, that they know where BAM is, that Felt is a spy, and that getting BAM is Iyatils plan, not Thaidakars. In addition she learned about the divide between Mraize and Iyatil, as well as several new members she was not aware existed.

I completely agree on this. I know Shallan has been increasing her spy skills for a couple of years now, but this was still a letdown. Mraize and Iyatil should have, if not a magical object from another world, at least the common sense to avoid this. Shallan is the biggest threat to the Ghostbloods on Roshar, and they dont have someone tailing her? They havent gotten to ANY of the Unseen Court? Really? I just find that a very stupid mistake to make for someone like Mraize. It seems like Brandon is seriously hindered by his effort to keep cross references as minimal as possible. While I respect the intention there, it seems obvious to me the plot of this book is suffering from it. They have at least 1 trophy case of objects from other worlds. Why would they not use them? Where is Mraizes' aviar? Having an aviar with seeker abilities would have been fantastic here. "Just like your bond with Pattern gives abilities, mine with *bird name* does the same" There are clearly malwish involved, where are the medallions? Where is the hemalurgy? Mraize and Iyatil have been on Roshar a while and have a lot of resources. Where is their plate and blade? Why would they not have at least a dead blade? I know we got a hint of hemalurgy happening in a previous book, but it wasnt really a plot point and hasnt come up since. I dont know. Im really intrigued by the interactions between these systems and so far Brandon is completely avoiding that. I know that going deep into Mistborn stuff would detract from the Stormlight only peoples experience, but I think Brandon could get around that. "by shoving this spike through their soul, i have stolen their *insert ability or attribute here*" "I can store my strength in this ring for later" "this medallion sucks out investiture like a larkin" I dont know where exactly this could have been applied but I feel like there are a million ways that Mraize and Iyatil could have fought back, or seen this coming, and instead they just TP away. Sad.

If any group found an alternative to Raysium, it would be the Scadrians!

Could very well be the case, but I don't think this is confirmed. Raysium seems really rare to be strapping it to crossbow bolts.

hmmmm, the antilight section was interesting. Plate and shield should be fine against a bolt with light. The bolts are not made from godmetal, so they should just bounce off of shardplate and shardshield before transferring the light. Only if they are using Raysium points should the plate or shield be in danger. Feels like Shallan didnt need to do that.

Not to disagree with you, but just want to point out that Cultivation is a Dragon. Not really any better, but they aren't all humans

He didnt have a choice in this as I remember. He was not well suited for the shard and thus it ultimately rejected him. Is that not the case?

He was talking about Vin Thoughts: Is Hoid the spy for the ghostbloods? Either he is the spy or The Mink is. They were the only two people who knew about Dalinar going to the SR. I was surprised Shallan made it that long, but Im glad she did. Of course Mraize is a Radiant now! Why wouldnt he get a spren from Sja-anat? I should have thought of that. It seems like Iyatil going after BAM is where she is going off the rails as that is not Kelsier's plan. The trophies are hers. Lots of interesting tidbits in there. A silvery horn or claw from some great beast. A chunk of light red crystal, like pink salt—though of a deeper, more vibrant color. A violet stone egg, partly crystalline, with silver swirling around its shell. A fat, succulent leaf that pulsed red and seemed to radiate heat. The silvery horn has to be dragonsteel. Not sure what any of the others are. An egg? A warm leaf? I need this magic systems brandon! Im super excited to relive moments from Hoids life. Thats going to be really interesting.

This makes sense to me. They would start with the people sized ones but as the Returned start commissioning them it gets more grand each time. Thanks @Treamayne and @alder24!

Hello all! Got a quick question about Kalad's Phantoms. When I read Warbreaker, and ever since, I have imagined the phantoms as vaguely human sized. They are bigger than a normal person, but not by much. I imagined them as basically 7 ish feet tall and just a bit thicker than your most buff dude. However, when looking at the Warbreaker leatherbound, it shows an image of statues. These statues are presumably the phantoms, and they are HUGE. (image below) I feel like Brandon wouldn't let an image that misrepresents the Phantoms into the most expensive copy of that book. However, I also feel like if they were that big it would have been mentioned. I checked the book and it mentions that they are 'oversized' but gives no indication they are 20+ feet tall. Thoughts? Are these different statues?

What has defined Adolin recently? Passion. It was passion that pushed him to kill Sadeas, and it is his passion that prevents him from moving past the revelation of his mothers death. It is his passion that allowed him to break through Kaladin and Shallans walls. It is his passion for his brother that has allowed that relationship to stay healthy and constructive. I think Brandon is introducing us to voidbinders. It seems likely to me that if anyone was going to attract and bond a voidspren it would be Adolin. I had this theory too!

Exactly. So, forcing him to stay on Roshar may well have been a violation of that agreement.

This thread got me thinking about this: I have a theory to propose. Those of you who are good with timelines and such, please shoot as many holes in this as possible. We know that Ishar went to Honor to create the Oathpact. We know that Ishar held a dawnshard and destroyed Ashyn. We also know that Honor bound Odium to Roshar. We also know that these are tangentially related: My theory is how they all connect. In my head it goes like this: -Ishar has a Dawnshard on Ashyn and destroys the planet with it because of Odiums influence -Ishar uses the Dawnshard and his surgebinding to migrate humans to Roshar. -Odium begins causing trouble on Roshar -Ishar goes to Honor for help -Ishar offers the Dawnshard he holds in exchange for the Oathpact / Honorblades -Honor uses this Dawnshard to chain Odium to the Rosharan system -This all works especially well when going off the theory linked about that the dawnshard he held is 'Bind' or 'Connect' or something similar This could also explain how Honor was killed. Source: By forcing Odium to remain on Roshar, Honor was breaking the oath he made to the other shards to not settle. Yes, that oath was not official or whatever, but Honor is the shard of Oaths. In addition, he was forcing Odium to break his side of that agreement. I could totally see this being enough to kill Honor. Thoughts? Problems? Additions?

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I think this works, actually. All of the midnight essence we have seen (Father Machine, Nightblood, Midnight Sea, Midnight Mother) all have some things in common. They are all lacking Identity. (some of this is theory so please forgive me) The midnight creatures in Tress immediately take on the Identity of the person they are bonded with. Nightblood consumes Identity from the investiture he takes in. The Father Machine consumed the Identities of the Komashi residents. So its clear that black investiture / midnight essence, is Investiture that has either a destroyed or corrupted Identity. It makes sense to me that a collection of that type of Investiture would develop its own identity faster than normal investiture. Its sort of like radiation. Elements have too many particles, so they shoot them off until they are stable. In a similar way, the midnight essence is missing Identity, so it rapidly develops one. Whereas normal investiture already has that, so the shift to a new Identity will take much much longer. Normal invesiture has Identity residue from whoever used it last, or even Adonalsium. Black investiture does not. It needs an Identity to be stable, so it starts to create one.

I agree with you here, but I would like to point out that Brandon has never explicitly said that Hoid isn't Adonalsium. He has said that Hoid was present at the shattering which Ado was also present for, and we've never seen hoid and Ado in the same room.... Mostly joking. The comments from Hoid in Tress indicate pretty thoroughly that Hoid is not Ado, and participated in Ado death. But there is always the possibility for Brandon to tweak the details so both things are true. Complete Hypothetical: Ado makes a copy of himself that is Hoid. He is raising Hoid as a sort of son. Hoid turns against Ado and helps kill him. He has had thousands of years to mature and see the effects of his decisions and has matured to closer to what Ado was. In this scenario, Hoid is not Ado, but he kind of is? Vasher believes that Cognitive Shadows are copies, and not the actual person, and this could be something very similar.

This would be a wild twist considering their racism

I agree the contest is not the most important. The most recent chapters are starting to touch on this. Dalinar is very powerful but he is just a man. The humans are very powerful (collectively), but they dont respawn when they die. This is what Tanavast meant by time being the most important thing humans could get. It is my belief he had no idea how to shatter Odium. Theoretically he would know how, but having an actual opportunity is different. This is evidenced by Cultivation still existing. Odium told us multiple times he wants to kill Cultivation, but he hasnt yet. Why? Well, he cant. She hasnt made herself vulnerable. In the same way, Odium has been playing a very careful game. He only invests when he absolutely has to and has done everything to not reveal a weakness. The moment that he was weak, Cultivation orchestrated his downfall. I think both Cultivation and Honor know that the Odium problem is not one that is easily dealt with. I dont think either one of them was super excited about the idea of absorbing Odium for multiple reasons. Once you have had a certain intent for thousands of years, the idea of becoming something different would be terrifying. Not to mention that its totally possible a C + O combo shard, O + H combo, or C + H + O combo would still want to shatter all the others. Tanavast gave them time so that someone else could figure out the problem / someone would show up who is suited to control these intents and keep Roshar from being destroyed over and over again.