What follows is not what I believe will happen in Wind & Truth, here I intend to outline what I believe to be the most likely worst case scenario. The Empire Strikes Back ending for Wind and Truth. Pooling all my knowledge about The Cosmere and throwing a massive wrench in the works, applying Murphy's Law to Roshar.
I have not read any preview chapters because I'm a big brain Stoneward and have no need to provide a basis for my theories.
Let's start with Odiums loophole.
The terms that I believe are important are laid out as follows:
* Two willing champions selected
* They meet atop Urithuru
* Fight to the death
* Should Dalinars champion win, all Odium-motivated hostility ceases between Singers and Humans, Alethkar and Herdaz are returned to the coalition of Urithiru, and Odium remains bound to Roshar
* Should Odiums' champion win, hostilities still cease, Odium retains his territory, and Dalinar becomes a fused for Odium
A lot of people seem to believe Odiums loophole involves stopping the fight by putting in a champion that the opponent will refuse to kill, or putting an immortal in the ring. I will not argue that this is nog compelling, however it's not Darkest Timeline. In my Darkest Timeline, Odiums loophole is to win and then force Fused Dalinar through such a heinous order that he refuses to do it, violating the contract and thus negating the clause binding him to the Rosharan system.
It is for this reason I believe Odiums champion will be El, an El who swallowed the stone containing Yelig Nar.
Now as for Dalinars champion? I believe it will be Szeth. I believe Dalinar already admits this will not be a simple duel, surges will be important. I believe Szeth will bond four honorblades in Shinovar, then upon opening the Shin oathgate and returning to Urithiru will say he only needs a blade with Tension to have all surges. He will either get Talns blade from wherever Hoid stashed it, or Ishars because Dalinar thinks it would possibly maybe perhaps be wise to disarm an active beligerent with mental health issues but not so unwise to arm an active ally with mental health issues.
And Szeth-Son-Neturo will wear a farmers robe on the day he is to kill a champion because I'm catching a lot of coat of many colours symbolism from Szeth. He will still die, though.
Now, Darkest Timeline for other characters.
Shallan is pretty clearly foreshadowed as a worldhopper. I believe at some point Adolin will die, along with her brothers, probably a Ghostblood attack. This will free her from any kind of responsibility she feels on Roshar and maybe induce a desire to get away from the planet where everything she ever cared about died and find where these Ghostbloods are at. Then she's gonna go hunting. The Cosmere will be a lot more empty when Shallan is done. She'll at least be a problem the Ghostbloods feel a deep need to solve.
Kaladin. Well, what's the most realistic Darkest Timeline for him? He dies? No. Moash will attack Kaladin and Szeth in Shinovar, during this attack Kaladin will swear his final ideal. "I accept that I need to be protected." Moash swings for him with the anti-stormlight dagger, and Syl dives in front of it. She is killed, and Kaladin is proved right that a lighteyes would take his power from him. Szeth manages to kill Moash and then they have a Batman/Superman conversation about how "Wow if my life had been different I would have turned out just like you." This conversation is what inspires Szeth to get all surges from the Hoborblades and volunteer as champion. Kaladin instead serves the Windrunners as a battlefield medic, only feeling useful when his friends are low on stormlight, and has to watch in agony as everyone from Bridge Four takes to the skies without him. Another honorspren will attempt to bond him and he will firmly but politely ask it to leave.
Jasnah doesn't have a lot of personal stakes for the Darkest Timeline. She breaks up with Hoid, I guess. She's already a queen in exile, it can't get much worse for her outside of that.
Renarin, separated from Rlain as he's with the New Listeners. Adolin dead. Dalinar as a Fused. He's left to lead the Kholin Highprincedom, and he's storming awful at it. Boy's not cut out for Alethi politics, he's gentle, his mind tends to wander, and his fashion sense is whack.
The New Listeners and Willshapers, actually kind of looking to them as a little immune to a lot of my Darkest Timeline nonsense. The worst "real" scenario I can see for them is being discovered by one side or another and culturally enriched (read: forcibly assimilated.)
Hoid: Everything is stormed. Just as planned.
And the Darkest Timine for Dalinar.
Upon losing the Contest of Champions, Odium takes him as a Fused. This makes the Stormfather a deadeye, Odiums last "Storm you" to Honour. The consequence of this will be the Highstorm stops moving. Roshar will have an ever-stationary storm like Jupiter. It will be in a place that's near impossible to reach, therefore the Tower will be the only source of Stormlight.
Cultivation will have one of two moods in response to this. "Oh rust." Or "Just as planned." Possibly both.
Odium eventually breaks Dalinar by forcing him to do something. Massacring innocents. Dalinar refuses and Odiums imprisonment on Roshar is broken. He's now free to save the whole cosmere, whether they need it or not. And he'll do this by eliminating all other Shards.
I will now wait patiently for Wind and Truth, to see how Dark the Rimeline is and hope that my Timeline is the Darkest Timeline that conforms to realistically where the series is going