william_wallace

I know this is off topic, but this quote about corruption and mixing of shard power makes me wonder if: Spoilers for Stormlight Archive and Warbreaker

Could we make an assumption from this quote that Nightblood could be an awakened lifeless (dead spren) shardblade?

Oh well. To be honest I didn't realise that he was referring to himself when he said "Aarik's first rule..." as its sort of strange to talk about yourself in 3rd person perspective. I assumed he was just making a joke, referring to a random deity or joker. Thanks for the clarification

On both my 1st and 2nd read of White Sand, the guy who helps Trackt Ais struck me as a main contender for Hoid. The guitar guy (mentioned in posts above) also appears in the same scene two pages before the one I show here. The two men have some similarities and some distinct differences, I wondered on first read that perhaps they were the same person. Why do I think the helper could be Hoid? (Spoilers for Stormlight Archive, and Mistborn Secret History)

One thing I have been wondering recently is that when Nightblood was made, maybe they were not actually trying to make/emulate a shard-blade, but were actually trying to create some sort of spren. If this was the case, perhaps the reason they started with a sword is that they needed something physical to work with when using awakening magic to create the system hack. While we know Nightblood does not work as well as intended (leaks black smoke and absorbs all investiture in close proximity), perhaps there was actual design intent for the spren/blade to be able to absorb and utilise/repurpose investiture. In this way he could be used as a weapon that in addition to regular sword work, would absorb, steal abilities, and defeat heavily invested objects (e.g. honour blades, entire shards etc),..... and slowly over time reform Adonalsium as a new super spren by collecting shard investiture and merging the different shard intents inside itself.

The description of the skaze reminds me of a similar glowing black ball that sucked in the light in TWOK.

My apologies is this is off topic, already postulated elsewhere, or not the right place to post, but the thread got me thinking. We often assume that the statement '3 of 16 ruled... now the broken one reigns... etc' means that the broken one is odium and he is in charge. Has it been considered that the the broken one could in fact be still be Honour, in a dead yet splintered form essentially in conflict with the fellow splinters? All the societies on Roshar seem to have their own view on honour, based on their own culture. Has their individual ideas of how to live with honour in life been distorted by an individual splinter, or an external influencer - ie odium who then just sits back and lets peoples cultural differences lead them to self destruct while off world. (I am not sure Odium is on Roshar during TWoK but believe he is in transit on the way back)? -The Shin have a clear view on honour (don't touch the rocks etc) -The Alethi seem to find honour in the contest of war or general contest -Even the Parshendi often seem to act with honour -Kaladin and Dalinar are trooping back towards what seems to be the original take on honour held by the radients. All these different views on Honour end up causing conflict between cultures and characters (just what Odium wants). Perhaps Dalinar's 'Unite them vision' refers to trying to to get much more back together than just the Alethi and people of Roshar. If you buy into the idea that the shard blades and plate are of Honour, then much of Roshar seems to be ruled by the lust to acquire shards, and shard holders do the ruling. -- Anyway, who talks to Kaladin when riding the storm? Surely Honour, would not call Kaladin Child of Honour/Tanavast if he was in fact Honour? Would he not just say "My Child"? This could be a splinter talking, but it probably more likely Cultivation, or can the shard (if not held) still talk to people? Terrible theory and diversion I know, ahh - but its late here!

Brilliant I just joined to propose this very theory!!