Xabben

[WARNING, SPOILERS OF RoW]

At the end of RoW, Taravangian uses Nightblood to kill Odium. However, there is something a little bit strange in how Nightblood appears in Odium's vision. Some people say that Nightblood can appear in the vision due to the high amount of Investidure it contains. However, in that particular moment, the sword was inside its aluminum sheath, which should have "blocked" the effect of the Investidure. Am I missing something?

2 hours ago, alder24 said:

Yes, but that was after he killed those riders and it was far enough from Kholinar that he could stand next to the road for quite some time before someone took notice of him. No more soldiers were sent after them and no patrol crossed his path. 

What's more, Parshendi had several Shardblades, it's very likely that were a few Shardbeares with them and it would make a lot of sense to send them with a diplomatic mission just in case. Even without Szeth, Shardbearers would have dealt with cavalry with ease, as no Alethi Shardbearer was sent in pursuit.  

Okay, that makes sense. However, there are other parts of that night that are still a little bit strange. The parshendi (with the exception of Venli, which wanted to cause a war) only wanted to kill Gavilar to prevent him from causing a new Desolation. However, they gave oddly specific instructions to Szeth, indicating that he had to "kill, destroy, but leave witnesses. Wounded, but alive". I don't really understand why they would do such a thing, as they would only make Alethi angrier without a real reason...

2 hours ago, alder24 said:

Parshendi escaped the palace and the city at the same time Szeth was on the rampage. Only after Gavilar was killed did Parshendi leaders reveal themselves as the perpetrators, but due to overall chaos it still took Alethi hours before they realized that the rest of the Parshendi had fled the city. They sent 100 horsemen after them, but they all were killed by Szeth who was still with Parshendi. Alethi never stood a chance in capturing them.

I think it is implied somewhere that Szeth was abandoned as soon as they left Kholinar. Therefore, who kill these 100 horsemen? Surely not a small group of (mostly diplomats) parshendi... I suppose that it is a very minor detail, but it still bugs me.

One of the most unbelievable parts of the entire Stormlight Archive, for me, is the escape of the Parshendi from Kholinar's palace after killing king Gavilar. Even if the group of parshendi left a couple of hours before the assassination, the parshendi needed to navigate through a completely unknown territory for weeks before reaching the shattered plains. Moreover, we know by chapter 81 of RoW that they did not transform into war form until they reached their homeland, which means that they travelled using other, much slower forms such as the work form. Is it really believable that humans, with access to much faster travelling methods such as horses, wouldn't have found these parshendi just outside the capital city?

PD: Recall that the assassination was planned the same day that happened, which means that they didn't have much time to prepare for the escape.

In RoW, when a group of deadeyes begins gathering near Lasting Integrity, everyone seems to assume that all deadeyes correspond to Shardblades in the physical realm. However, is it possible that some deadeyes are not associated with a Shardblade at all? For example, could deadeyes be created by Radiants who had only sworn the First or Second Ideal? I've read some WoBs about the topic, and it seems that Brandon always assumes that deadeye = shardblade...

In chapter 71 of RoW, the Stormfather mentions that the stormlight of a Radiant gets recharged after the "centerbeat" of the highstorm. However, we have seen Windrunners constantly charging their stormlight by just flying near the stormwall... Am I misunderstanding something?

6 minutes ago, PanLin said:

Windrunners are their best scouts, and Dalinar only suspects that something's wrong; he doesn't know that Stormlight and Radiant abilities are being blocked.

I mean, he knows that radiant powers are being suppressed, as some of the Windrunners that he sent to Urithiru fainted after getting too close to the tower. Moreover, I think that "Navani" told him that, in order to contact him by spanreed, she had to sent someone to the mountains so that the fabrial could work... So, in my opinion, he should be much more worried about the situation.

Right now, I'm in chapter 65 of RoW, and there is something that it's bugging me A LOT. Let's briefly describe the situation:

A- The fused have conquered Urithiru. By doing so, they have incapacitated most of the radiants and fabrials.

B- Dalinar suspects that something goes wrong in Urithiru, so he sends some Windrunners to watch the tower. Obviously, these Windrunners cannot get close to the tower without getting affected by the tower's defenses, so they cannot physically enter the tower to check if everything is okay.

So, given A and B, wouldn't the most logical solution be to bring some non-radiant person with the Windrunners, leave him/her near Urithiru, and then make him/her go to physically check if everything is okay by foot?

I would say that Shallan is, at the same time, one of my favourites and less favourite characters. I like Shallan from WoK, but I really hate her multiple personalities in later books (I'm still in the middle of RoW, so no spoilers please!). I mean, I get it, I like the story behind Shallan's traumas, but I really miss her old personality.

13 hours ago, Euridrius said:

I would guess they'd work just fine communicating between two points both within Shadesmar, if that's what you mean, just like they can communicate between two points within the Physical Realm - they just don't allow transfer of information between different Realms. 

If that is the case, why not leave a spanreed near the Oathgates of Urithiru in the cognitive realm to communicate with Adolin, Shallan etc. during their trip to Lasting Integrity?

Do spanreeds work in shadesmar? I suppose that the answer is no, but I haven't found any explicit mention to this issue in the books...

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

The horneaters don't stop off worlders from going through, they might charge tolls, but travel is allowed.

Maybe I'm a little bit biased by Rock, which is a true cinnamon roll, but I don't see Horneaters making business with what they consider to be a sacred place. But, again, I suppose that there are selfish and greedy people between them too... I would love to learn more about the Horneater culture.

I'm reading RoW, and man, I have SO MANY questions about shadesmar.

- Sprens seem to have plenty of food to sell to travelers. However, how do they get that food? Do they buy it from other human travelers? Do they manifest it? Does manifested food actually nourish?

- Many sprens seem to know modern Rosharian languages. How is this possible if humans from roshar haven't been to shadesmar for thousands of years?

- Is "manifesting" a different thing from what Shallan and Jasnah do when they rearrange beads to form objects?

- The only stable entrance to shadesmar is cultivation's perpendicularity. However, it seems to be heavily guarded by Horneaters. How do worldhoppers enter/exit Roshar then? Wouldn't they be stopped by Horneaters?

I know that they are too many questions at once, but man, I don't get shadesmar at all. It's the only part of Stormlight Archive that doesn't seem to be really detailed.