wormotif

This is a great question, and I think it's still somewhat ambiguous. We see this in the text: So it sounds like the Oathpact: 1) Was unmodifiable in any significant way while Tanavast lived (presumably since he'd made the Oathpact, he couldn't touch it?) 2) Is modifiable in a lot of ways (new purpose, new Herald, new protection against torture) now that Honor has just had all oaths shattered, is in the hands of a new holder, has had several bits fragment off, and with one of the original Heralds already dead. But there's of course the two millennia between Tanavast's death at the Recreance and the present when neither was true. It's unclear what was possible then. Ishar was planning to make Szeth into a new Herald, but it's unclear if he meant that to happen as part of the original Oathpact or not as far as I could tell. Ishar is/was also insane, so who knows how well that would've actually worked. My conclusion is that probably this isn't a missed chance - modifying the Oathpact to end the torture was probably not possible - but we don't know quite for sure.

Corrupted spren is a fair point, and/or I agree that 5th Oath Skybreaker (or just exploiting his ancient status as king, as you cleverly note) could be compatible with his behavior in the present. But attracting a highspren seems to require a willingness to follow the rules, at least for a time - i.e., trust the judgement of others over your own. Everything we've seen of El suggests that that's anathema to his personal creed and always has been.

I don't think Syladin is wrong at all at this point. Syl & Kaladin are both the same "species" (being made of pure investiture instead of flesh & blood), have the same life expectancy (immortality), are at comparable points of maturity and experience, and there's not even a hint of problematic power dynamics now that Ba Ado Mishram's back and oathbreaking doesn't create deadeyes. I never saw Syl as childlike, nor was she meant to seem that way per WaT; while that doesn't override your experience of the books, I don't think it makes the relationship wrong. FWIW, I was deeply skeptical of Syladin before this book and thought it a crackpot theory because of the whole different forms of existence bit. That's no longer the case, and I'm ok with it now. As far as why I think it's inevitable (and hence why I made my peace with it and why I think you should make your peace with it sometime in the next IRL decade before Stormlight 6): Syl & Kaladin are by the far the most meaningful person in each other's lives & there's not really an alternative viable romantic candidate for either at this point at all (other than the Heralds, and that seems very unlikely to me) Syl was extremely flirty with Kaladin in WaT in a way that is absolutely intentional (the dance, heads resting on shoulders, even the discussion of the notorious chull head) A bunch of things happen in WaT that very conveniently remove all obstacles to Syladin (Kaladin becoming a Herald, Ba Ado Mishram being freed, Kaladin explicitly calling out that he's always seen Syl as an adult). This is definitely not a coincidence And yeah, as stated above, any kind of romantic relationship after the timeskip involving Lift with any adult character who knows her now would be absolutely, horrifically wrong. Given that Zahel is her teacher, that'd be worst of all.

I think Syladin is inevitable at this point, but I don't think we'll see a change in their relationship status during the timeskip; it's only months for them: And yes, I do think the extra-dilation for Kaladin, Syl, and the Heralds is mostly so we can see Kaladin/Syl happen onscreen.

This is a phenomenal theory, and not one I had before. You've mustered almost overwhelming textual evidence in support of Nohadon=Adonalsium, and that the Shattering was voluntary, and I'm convinced. That being said, I don't think we can conclude from this that Nohadon/Adonalsium could recall his powers at will - unless I missed it, I don't think the evidence you put forward suggests that. From a story perspective, Adonalsium recalling his powers and fixing everything at some point in the Cosmere would be very anticlimactic. And within story, there's a bunch of precedent to suggest that divine power always has a mortal vessel who can step down (Kelsier giving up Preservation, Dalinar giving up Honor, Wit giving up the Dawnshard Exist). But in all these cases the former vessel has no special claim on the power. Since Adonalsium isn't omnipotent (no dominion over the Beyond), it seems reasonable that Adonalsium's former vessel would follow mostly the same rules. Thoughts?

I think he's pretty clearly a Radiant. While we've learned that a deadeye blade can still be summoned without the ten heartbeat delay, provided you have enough of a bond, El has been trapped on Braize for the last 4500 years and only came to Roshar around 10 days ago. Deadeyes didn't exist until Ba Ado Mishram was imprisoned during the Recreance 2000 years ago. Nahel bond then seems heavily implied (particularly considering his name comes from the same root as 'Nahel') It also fits pretty well with his general human-phile tendencies. I don't think we've seen him use any surges, though - has anyone noticed anything that would suggest this is the case/what kind of spren he's bonded if so? In absence of other evidence, the order that seems to fit best is definitely Dustbringers. His chapter is all about his astonishing self-control and presence of mind compared to what he considers the weakness of the other Fused. None of the other orders' ideals really seem to fit, save for the Elsecallers (reaching your potential) - but if he was an Elsecaller it seems clear it would've come up in his interlude since Taravangian explicitly asks him for advice on how to move more troops to the Shattered Plains. He does abide strictly by the treaty at the Shattered Plains, but he also explicitly and intentionally flagrantly violates Fused law by killing Jezrien in his interlude. He doesn't seem at all someone to abide by the commands of others if he doesn't consider them just or right. I guess I don't think Skybreakers really fits.

No clear evidence on the protection, but it looks it covers everything he was planning to absorb: And we do know what spren he was planning to absorb - it's all spren that have at least some Honor & Odium in them, but it doesn't include the Unmade, I think: Emphasis mine in both cases. So it's quite clear that he's planning to grab all of the spren that he can. It seems that the Unmade (despite being spren) aren't included in this since he's planning to make more. He could be planning to absorb the existing, unreliable ones and make an all new cast, but it's not clear if he actually has that power - if he did, why not re-absorb Ba-Ado-Mishram earlier to prevent her from being a viable candidate for Odium? There could be other reasons (maybe the imprisonment prevented him from doing so). I think that's an open question. But it does seem clear that Voidspren are also protected by the new Oathpact.

This is an excellent point, but I think that it's worth remembering the Heralds are really, really old. Each of them ending up proving to be someone exceptional during the millennia of fighting desolations, and they all demonstrated some substantial measure of selflessness in holding on as long as they did (2500 years) until Aharietiam. Then they've been around for another 4500 years, largely broken and experiencing supernaturally afflicted madness. So all that to say, I suspect Battar could be a good person, and that Battar's done a lot of good things (and evil things as well - Tanavast specifically mentions her cruelty in one of his flashbacks). But Battar might well side with Retribution, and I agree with everyone who's said this will be a significant plot point in the second half

Agreed. Trying to get hold of investiture for the Radiants in Azir (and for those in Urithriu, should they find a way out of the tower) should be an interesting plot point.

I'm pretty sure any Radiant can run on Warlight. Radiants can run on Towerlight just fine, so we know non-Stormlight can work. And we actually see Venli using Warlight to fuel her Willshaper powers in the end of WaT: While Venli is a Singer, there's no particular indication to my knowledge that that should make a difference. She's got a perfectly normal Nahel bond with a lightspren. And, story-wise, Retribution has a bunch of loyal Skybreakers & Dustbringers that he might as well hang onto given that he can't absorb their spren. He's also got a lot of human kingdoms that may continue to produce Radiants as well (a PoV new Radiant from a Retribution-ruled human kingdom would be a really interesting way to explore the new Roshar under Retribution in the second half!). If these have no access to their surges, they're not that useful, so presumably they'll be able to use warlight.

Dalinar's definitely permanently dead, in my view, based on the same evidence others have given. I'm pretty sure who claimed him will indefinitely be left ambiguous. I think it's clearly intended by Sanderson to be a reference to the God Beyond - i.e., real capital-G God. Dalinar's basically the only person we've seen die who actually outright worships the God Beyond. As with all Beyond-topics, Sanderson has committed to leaving it ambiguous (see here) so that it's not in conflict with anyone's beliefs, even as his writing is naturally influenced by his own religious views.

Wind and Truth gave us a revelation I haven't seen other discussion of: when the Oathpact was formed by the Heralds and Honor, no one seemed to think they were signing up for an eternity of torture. I don't think this was previously known. Emphasis mine. Dalinar - taking the place here of Kalak - knows what's coming; the Heralds do not. Honor, at worst, seems to think that the Heralds might be stuck on Braize, but doesn't seem to have made the connection that this will put them at the mercy of the Fused. And Honor isn't apparently being deceptive here either - here's Tanavast's POV of the same events later in the book: Tanavast is mostly thinking of this as a way to give humans Surges within the confines of the agreement with Rayse. Ishar's the one who comes up with the plan, which Tanavast thinks is a good one; presumably, had he known this would result in torture and the placing of a great deal of his Shard's power in the hands of deeply broken people, he would've been more dubious. Why didn't they know? Unclear; it seems like Honor, at least, should have realized thanks to the foresight granted to Shards. I suspect we'll learn more about when the Heralds were first caught and tortured in Braize in Ash's and Taln's flashbacks in the back half. ---- What does this mean? It shouldn't be surprising that the new Oathpact doesn't require torture. This wasn't an intrinsic requirement of the bonding, it was just a side effect of being stuck on Braize. Presumably, had the Heralds and Honor known about the torture before the first Oathpact, they could have found a workaround like Ishar did for the new Oathpact. We should think of the Heralds with more pity. They didn't go into this eyes wide open; they didn't really know what they were doing when they agreed to the Oathpact. When something they knew would be hard turned into hell, they nonetheless upheld their oaths for 2500 years (!) before being wholly broken. That they were not Taln - who somehow continued for another 4500 years and was ready to do it indefinitely - cannot reasonably be held against them.