Arondell

I got the impression from comments made during the conversation between Jezrien and Kalak that so long as at least one is bound to the "Oathpact" then something is actually holding Odium back. Jezrien : "Ishar believes that so long as there is one of us still bound to the Oathpact, it may be enough." Kalak : "He will not remain bound by this. The enemy. He will find a way around it. You know he will." So unless the enemy referred to is someone other then Odium the phrasing strongly suggests that their is something restraining Odium's actions other then mere whim. Also I find it difficult to believe that Honor would have been so naive as to enter into an agreement with Odium without being reasonably sure that he would continue to abide by it as long as certain conditions were met.

I'll grant you it isn't spelled out that a shard without a holder automatically splinters. On the other hand of the four original shard holders who have been killed the only shard that didn't splinter, Preservation, was the one that was quickly picked up. Perhaps Mr. Sanderson can be asked to clarify this at some future Q&A.

My understanding is that if the holder of a shard is killed the shard must be picked up in a relatively short period of time or the shard shatters. I would imagine that it would be far harder to shatter a shard without killing the holder. After all as long as the holder lives the shard would be fighting back. Unless it is revealed that Odium has some unique ability that can separate the holder from most of the power of the shard. I didn't interpret "bound" in quite the way you did. I don't think it was bound in the sense of a prison so much as bound in the sense of a contract. So long as certain conditions are met Odium doesn't have free reign.

Based on her actions so far I have, tentatively, associated Jasnah with the order that corresponds to "Just / Confident". Her killing the attackers in the alley would fit with that since she knew they had already assaulted and/or killed prior victims and that the local law enforcement had probably been bribed to look the other way. Also Jasnah certainly doesn't lack for confidence. Would such a focus of intent be associated with death spren? It seems unlikely but then again how likely would a spren associated with protection/leadership be to resemble a wind spren?

The possible ignorance of other shards seemed a bit more reasonable to me once Word of Brandon revealed that shards that are settled have a hard time leaving one world for another. That forces them to establish some sort of communication through indirect means. Based on Sazed's ascension it is fairly obvious that knowledge of the affairs of shards on other worlds takes some sort of effort. At the very least it isn't automatic. Honor knowing of the shattering of Devotion and Dominion wouldn't be really hard to explain. The simplest reason might have been Odium directly telling him. I can certainly see gloating as something Odium would indulge in.

Hoid using Ati as an example of how someone who was once kind and generous could be warped by the shard he carried(Ruin) was well taken. Having Odium being carried by someone with a fundamentally matching personality who is also "crafty and dangerous" should be quite alarming. Hoid's letter also implies other shard holders may not be very well informed about events on worlds other then their own. A point I found a little surprising. Though the "17th Shard" group may be an attempt to rectify that.

Makes me think of a new game guessing what different combinations of shards would be called. I'm betting if Odium had picked up Devotion the resulting combined shard would be called "Meh".

They can? Is this a Word of Brandon piece of information?

Kaladn's vision of riding the storms seems to indicate otherwise. In the face of such a straight forward statement by the Stormfather I find it a bit of a stretch to interpret the "Broken One" as being anyone else but Odium.

This is generally what I was expecting actually. For all that Way of Kings is considerd to be about Kaladin's journey to Radiant status I felt he only made up about 40% of the book. Dalinar/Shallan made up another 50% and everyone else made up around 10%.

Actually Sadeas during one of his conversations with Dalinar asks if he still feels the Thrill. This passage implies that the Thrill is not limited to those who own shard blades. Certainly Sadeas doesn't own one at that time and his asking the question seems to indicate that he is familiar with it. I do suspect that the Thrill might be an Alethi specific characteristic.

As far as detecting Radiants goes wouldn't Rock's ability to see spren like Syl be more useful? Given that he can just see them and doesn't have to do any drawing. I'm just sayin....

Your enthusiasm not withstanding there is nothing to indicate the Radiants ever fought other Radiants. It might be very distantly possible that a radiant could be briefly deceived into attacking another but who could force them to deliberately do so? The very nature of the source of their abilities makes it highly unlikely.

So far as has been revealed there isn't any kind of separate existence for shards in the different realms. When a shard is splintered that is pretty much it. As far as splinters go so far as I know there have been no hard and fast rules stated about where or how they manifest. On second thought splinters on different worlds seem to loosely manifest based on the world involved. As for size....I've never noticed a "size" aspect as such. At least not one that seemed all that relevant in and of itself. Most splinters do seem to kind of have a singular purpose.

Actually I was thinking something more like for the Windrunners and Stonewarders to participate in this abandonment they would have to renounce their oaths and by extension their powers. After all in the Windrunners case "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves" pretty much leaves abandonment as a non-option. Though leaving their shards for others to use may also be along the same lines.

There are a couple of points about Dalinar's Day of Recreance vision that have stuck with me. The first is that Dalinar only witnesses two orders giving up their shards. The Windrunners and the Stonewarders. He also sees a bunch of other soldiers off in the distance that may or may not be the rest of the Radiants. I'm personally kind of skeptical about the corruption thing. I can see some Radiant's becoming corrupted but all of them? I have a kind of half formed hypothesis at the moment on the issue. I'll not dignify it with the term "theory" since it still has big gaping holes. What if the Radiants became aware of something that required that they withdraw from humanity. Something so important that honor demanded it despite that they would effectively be abandoning humanity by doing so. This would explain why all the Radiants would participate. Now why would just the Windrunners and Stonewarders be the only ones to make a public show of abandoning their shards and one would assume also their powers. Well we know that all the oaths after the first is different for each order. The Stonewarder oaths are still unknown but we know the second oath for WIndrunners is "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." I suspect that whatever reason caused the Radiants as a whole to abandon humanity such abandonment specifically went against the oaths of the Windrunners and Stonewarders. In essence putting those two orders in a bit of a catch-22 situation. The only solution being to renounce their order specific oaths. I feel like were trying to figure out a hundred piece puzzle and we only have ten pieces.

This sounds much like what Kaladin is thinking about after the battle just before he has his meeting with Dalinar.

I think it is only confusing if your working with the premise that Honor and Cultivation actually merged at some point. I guess I just don't see what merging would be able to do that simple cooperation could not. Especially since it is well established that even diametrically opposed shards are perfectly capable of working together without merging. e.g. Ferochemy is a complete magic system combining traits of both Preservation and Ruin. My take on it from an "Occam's Razor" perspective.

In Dalinar's vision of Nohodon honorspren are specifically mentioned. So they existed before the Radiants were around. During Dalinar's last vision Tanavast spoke of Cultivation as a separate entity. "I cannot see the future completely. Cultivation, she is better at it then I." So up until that point, which was long after the creation of the Radiants, there had been no merging between the two shards. Also it is safe to assume that Honor was shatterd shortly after he finished making his vision so I can't see Cultivation wanting to merge then either. Since it is reasonable to conclude that most if not all the symbols of the Radiants were made between those two points whatever they represent it isn't a merging of shards. I just figured Honor and Cultivation had some mutual goals that cooperating helped them achieve. Heck even Preservation and Ruin were able to work together early in their relationship.

I have a vague recollection of Mr. Sanderson remarking about the number of intelligent races on Roshar other then humans. I can't recall the exact quote but the remark included something to the effect that Ryshadium could arguably be considered an intelligent race. Unfortunately I can't recall precisely where I read it so can't provide a link.

Normally I tend to think this kind of thing is something Apple or some other large company would try to do. Also you would think the people at Games Workshop would have enough background knowledge and sense to know how ridiculous it is to propose they have a trademark claim on "space marines". http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/07/games_workshop_in_spurious_space_marines_claim/

As I recall Alethi prefer to have the bodies soulcast to stone if they can afford it. This is referenced once in relation to Roshone's son and once when Bridge 4 is searching the chasms and they come across a lighteyes body. "Sometimes the bodies of fallen lighteyes would be recovered from the chasms by special teams so the corpse could be Soulcast into a statue. Darkeyes, unless they were very wealthy, were burned." Chapter 17 "Chasm Duty"

I would add that while the chivalry in Europe could be oppressive and often represented an ideal that was often not lived up to it was still better then not having such a code. If nothing else it got the idea across that women not of your own family had some value and should be treated well. Just look at how women are treated in some cultures that didn't have a similar code of conduct in their history. Yeah I'm looking at you Middle East.

I must admit as soon as I heard that Dominion was confirmed as the other shard on Sel I always associated it more with nation building and/or governing rather then dominating. Since a "dominion" is usually an area controlled by a sovereign authority of some sort. A potentially very powerful unifying force which if it was willing to work cooperatively with Devotion would have been a formidable opponent from Odium's perspective. Incidentally putting a big red target on them early on. I'll grant you there can be a fine line between "nation building" and "dominating" however you define them.