Jult

I like the idea of him using Oathpacts. And I think Endowment is a good target for this. We know Vasher is still on Roshar. I don't think he's likely to assist Taravangian since he likes the Kholins. But, at the same time, it seems like a fair amount has happened to him since Warbreaker that we don't know much about. He does seem pretty jaded towards the Breath system (especially the bit about sucking people's souls out just to survive as a Returned). It's possible he's developed some hatred towards Endowment that we aren't aware of yet. Or maybe Taravangian would just become aware of the Returned because of Vasher and he could find 10 other Returned willing to form an Oathpact. They just seem like a perfect weakness for Taravangian to exploit. They have strong Connections to Endowment and no particular loyalty to her.

Right. Those are definitely the weaknesses that Ishar was referring to. What I was speculating was that Ishar believes Tanavast was intentionally creating those weaknesses in Honor as part of a Leras-style long con. As if Tanavast planned for his death and wanted to make sure the Heralds were in a position to prevent Honor's next Vessel from completely undoing what Tanavast had created on Roshar (mainly the Spren). That's probably giving Tanavast too much credit though. He's no Leras. He admitted himself that he was bad at future-sight. Ishar is probably just putting too much faith in his 'god'. Or, again, I'm likely reading way too much into one sentence.

For me, currently: Oathbringer > Words of Radiance > Wind and Truth > The Way of Kings > Rhythm of War I strongly suspect this order will change when I re-read though. I predict that Rhythm of War will rise a lot. At the time, I was just so interested in the plot that all the talk of rhythms and tones and fabrial engineering felt distracting. But now I wish I had paid more attention to all of those topics.

I don't think any Shard was directly involved here. Cultivation had already fled when the Heralds made the decision to revive the Oathpact. The Heralds already had a connection to Honor and chose to bind it via their oaths. Honor's involvement in Oathpact 2.0 is the same as Odium's involvement in Oathpact 1.0. The last thing Ishar says there is pretty interesting though. "exploit the weakness he made in himself for us". I may be homing in too much on the specific word-choice here and interpreting meaning where there is none. But saying "made for us" instead of something like "exposed to us" sounds as if Ishar believes Tanavast intentionally left them this loophole. Future-sight planning?

Oh true. I forgot about those creatures. I really need to reread Era 2.. Well, now I support the idea of non-Ruin Hemalurgy even more.

Interesting idea! We do know that Hemalurgy works by manipulating the Hemalurgist's spiritweb. And it seems that Sja-anat's corruption/enlightening of Spren does something similar; especially considering that the WaT quote you referenced takes place in the Spiritual Realm. I'm not sure how altering existing spikes would work, but we have seen non-Ruin spikes before: Bleeder used a Trellium spike which would have carried Autonomy's Investiture. But it's difficult to tell if this caused her physical form or personality to shift since her physical form was already fluid and her personality wasn't very stable to begin with. The crystal spikes that Moash is using as eyes seem to me like a direct example of 'Odium-flavored' Hemalurgy spikes. In his case, I'd say his mood definitely changed, but I don't recall if he underwent any physiological changes. It'd be very interesting to see if Taravangian or Autonomy could use similar spikes to create their own brand of Koloss or Kandra. Though I feel like we would have seen Autonomy start creating her own Koloss if it were possible.

A fun tangential note, we'll find out a bit more about the blades being swapped and the Honorblade being returned to Shinovar soon-ish. The "Stonewalkers" adventure book is planned to be released alongside the official rules for the Cosmere RPG. It's "A level 1-7 adventure sending characters on a journey to Shinovar to decide the fate of Taln's Honorblade." The cover art for this book depicts what I believe is Taln holding his Honorblade. I could see it being described as both a wedge and a spike. It's a very long and thin triangle:

I'm surprised at the lack of Autonomy votes. She has so many resources at her disposal. Yes, she's run into some opposition on Scadrial. But she still has plots unfolding on Sel, First of the Sun, Obrodai, and Taldain. Even with her loss on Scadrial, she has access to an unknown number of Allomancers, Feruchemists, and Hemalurgists. If she conquers Sel, it's hard to say what she'll be able to do with the Dor. But that's essentially the (reduced?) power of two more Shards under her belt. Not to mention the Invested Arts that the Derethi bring to the table. Her goals on the First of the Sun are a bit of a mystery, but whatever she gains there (Invested parasitic worms?) will be another advantage. We know almost nothing about Obrodai. Or how many other planets is she doing this on. But even if she's just there to soak up some investiture from a rogue perpendicularity, it's a benefit that the others won't have. I don't have much to say about Taldain. I think it's more a last line of defense for her. It seems her goal is to fight anywhere but there because that's safer for her. There's also her "men of gold and red". Although, we don't know enough about them to say that they aren't redundant to the list above. They might just be Derethi or something.

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the tip!

Ooh. Controversial pick. But I think I'd have to go with Ash Spren. Because I also like to take things apart. And

Thank you! That's a tough one. I'd have to say: What about you?

Thanks! I think I'd like to meet Zahel. I've got a lot of questions for that man. And the only non-cosmere Sanderson that I've read so far is the Reckoners series. Thanks! I've been playing DnD 5e since 2015. I've sampled a few others, but we always seem to get pulled back into DnD. I think because it's just the system that everyone at the table feels familiar with. But I am so excited for the Cosmere RPG. We've already started a campaign with the beta rules and some temporary homebrew until the rest of the official rules are released. It may quickly jump to being my favorite. Thank you! Nalthis sounds like the safest to live on currently. Sel sounds like a great vacation spot just so I can see Elantris (though the trip there would be tricky).

Excited to be here. I'm new to forum posting in general, so apologies in advance if I mess up on some of the etiquette. But I've read all of the currently published Cosmere materials, and this forum felt like the best way to continue feeding my addiction. I'm very interested in people's theories on the long-term fate of the Cosmere, so I think I'll mostly be in the Spoiler Zone. It seems I've got many years-worth of WoB content to go through too. I wasn't really aware that so much of that kind of content exists until recently. I've tried avoiding most online resources until I was all caught up on the books to avoid spoilers. But now that there's nothing left for me to be spoiled on, I'm diving in headfirst! Oh, I'm also big on TTRPGs, and I've got a group of friends that are ready to play the Cosmere RPG as soon as it releases. So, I may be around those parts of the forum as well.

Wait how was it an accident? I thought he had them arrested on trumped up charges and then repeatedly delayed their trial when he realized that the trial would make him look bad. Not a very bloody murder, but it sure felt intentional. He had to know people their age wouldn't last long in a cell. Thanks for the WoB reference. I've read every book, but I've done very little reading of what I guess you'd call 'unpublished' sources (not sure if there's a better word for that). I'm just dipping into those now. Thanks! I'll do that. And wow. I don't know how I missed so many hints. I've been considering doing a re-read now that I'm a bit more 'Cosmere aware'. WoK was one of the first Sanderson books that I read, so I probably missed tons.

First post ever. So, I apologize if this has been discussed to death already. But I was thinking about how Elhokar died on the verge of bonding with Design. And I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on why Design was drawn to Elhokar in the first place. When I first read his death scene, Cryptics definitely weren't the type of Spren that I had imagined him bonding. What Truths would he have spoken to improve his bond? Would it have been something as simple as him feeling insecure about being a good king? Or maybe murdering Ana and Da and covering it up afterwards was eating at him? I guess that would add a bit of a dramatic irony to the fact that their grandson was the one who killed him. Or did I miss some clue to some other major Truth he was sitting on? I guess not everyone is repressing as many traumas as Shallan. But I'm curious to hear people's takes on this even if they're speculative.