Gloom

He must have a really miserable love life. "Hi hon..(Bang)".."Oh crap, she was cute too. I hate when I do that!"

I believe that Deathpoint had some type of secondary power that was on all the time, but that was incapable of warning him of his impending death or protecting him from it. He appeared to go crazy quite quickly.

I don't think Conflux maintained a connection to the power cells after they were charged. If he continued to gift the power cells after they were charged, then why would the battery lose power as it was used?

What climate is he in during the specified time period, and what is the whether like?

Okay, I say the arrow isn't absolutely necessary, because I believe outside of the odd epic, most epics can be checkmated in various ways. Fortuity wasn't checkmated as expected. He was placed into checkmate after the plan had failed. I believe that in the case of an epic who regenerates, but doesn't have an energy field like Lime Light, really hot fire would be an effective way to put them in checkmate. Natural fire would be painful, but I wouldn't bet on it to stop someone who regenerates and has a minor elemental resistance. Dropping them in lava, covering them in napalm, or using phosphorous grenades is a better bet. If you have a good supplier, maybe a couple of phased plasma rifles, or failing that an MK 153 SMAW rocket launcher armed with XM1060 40-mm grenades. Satellite imagery of an area should still be on the table since most satellites don't require constant maintenance, and it has at worst been a little over a decade since most efforts to maintain them ended. I could see this being of use provided they could be hacked. Locating the Lord of the Hunt while on the move would be your best means of eliminating him away from a population center, but if minimizing civilian casualties is important to you, you may want to kill off his huntsmen that are maintaining control of isolated frontier towns. Once the Lord of the Hunt is dead, those animals that were left in control of his huntsmen will be free. They will lose their regeneration, but they will also be out of control and mentally unstable. Most of them have at least one mutated Kodiak, Grizzly, or Polar Bear as well as a wolf or two under their control. The animals are sterile, but they could do a lot of damage. The Lord of the Hunt generally travels with a pack of a dozen wolves and his stag steed. That leave eleven animals that need to be accounted for in population zones. He is wearing body armor, and he does wear a helm, so you're going to need to chew through that before shooting him with a silver arrow. You're going to have to kill off a dozen over sized mutated wolves that regenerate, immobilize and destroy a very large stag that also regenerates, and I highly recommend that you stay off the ground while you attempt this. Unless the Lord of the Hunt has imported and mutated a giant South American fruit bat, you should have an advantage in the air.

Some things to consider. There is more than one hospital in Kharbranth. There is nothing wrong with or suspicious about transferring patients to hospitals that specialize in a particular type of medicine, and there is nothing suspicious about transferring most of the terminally ill patients to the kings personal hospital. This means that only the ardents directly involved with one wing of his special hospital and a few accomplices need to be involved. Not everyone working in those hospitals is a member of the ardentia. Kharbranth is the center of medicine in the world of Roshar. To assume all ardents are involved in this would be to assume that all the surgeons and nurses in Kharbranth are also culpable. Every idealistic kid sent to learn medicine is indoctrinated into the macabre art of blood letting and corrupted by Vlad Taravangian.

Overkill. Okay, first The Lord of the Hunt ranges through the forests of the Northern Tier US and Canada. Tracking his location would be difficult even if you knew he existed. Then of course you have to know what his weakness is. First guess would be that silver can kill him. It does slow his regenerative abilities, but a silver arrow is the real ticket. But it isn't necessary. He can mutate any animal to twice it's normal size, and gift them with regeneration. He likes wolves, and he can make additional mutations on those animals. Things like replacing fur with scales, growing an extra head, etc. He can't give them supernatural abilities or intelligence, but he does get an empathic read on them, so if they detect you, so does he. What he would actually do is alter the jaws by making them wider, give them an extra row of teeth, and make them more muscular. Two of his huntsmen use mutated grizzly bears gifted with regeneration to keep the locals cowed. I will give you the keys. A Hind or Black Hawk equipped with thermal imaging. Napalm. A high caliber rotary gun loaded with silver bullets. His elemental resistance, and regenerative abilities would still work theoretically, but if you shoot someone with a rotary gun and drop napalm on them, you probably don't even need to know their weakness. If you wanna be real careful, you can send a couple a hard core mercs down with flame throwers to clean up. This, of course, all depends on accurate intelligence. If you can't find him, you can't kill him. Thermal imaging will make locating him easier if you know where to look though. The best time to hunt him would be in the winter when there is a lot of snow. This will minimize the hazards of an uncontrollable forest fire, and make his heat shadow stand out against the ambient background. Of course, you know I'm setting you up for failure. Good Luck!

I really don't believe that Honor was playing the sacrificial lamb. As I've stated twice. Yes, I also made a case for that eventuality, but it isn't and hasn't been a prime motivation in my opinion. I believe what this is describing is the death of other Shards, and possibly their worlds. Here's what I think happened: Honor saw what could happen in the event that Odium remained unbound, so he convinced Odium to enter an agreement with him. To form a pact. He thought he could handle Odium better than most of the others. He was Honor afterall. I think he knew that it was a risk. I don't think he entered into the Oathpact as a means of committing suicide, I think he did it as a means of containing Odium. I don't think he bound his Heralds in Damnation, I think they return to the Tranquiline Halls upon death. I don't think Honor intended to lose his Halls. I don't think he intended to be forced into retreat, and I don't think he intended to die. I do think that Tanavast would have made a hell of a lawyer. Tanavast is dead, his Shard is splintered, his Halls are lost, and yet Odium is still bound. That's an agreement to be proud of.

I think she may have been a little more passionate in her efforts to stop the Reckoners from targeting SH if he was her Father. Failing that, she would have made efforts to ensure he was aware of the plan, and taken a much larger role in derailing that plan. She may have personally killed David since he was the driving force behind taking out SH.

Divert an Aquifer into his tunnels.

Taravangian is the King of Kharbranth. He has ardents working for him in his hospital, he has Parshmen working for him in his Library, He has stormwardens working for him to predict High Storms. He also has surgeons, blacksmiths, merchants, day laborers, scholars, bureaucrats, and a variety of other people who are in his employ. Yes, he does have stormwardens. He is a king of a port city. Even the City of Bells needs stormwardens to predict High Storms. Without them, he wouldn't be able to keep his port open. Every other High Noble we've seen has both ardents and stormwardens working for them side by side. The ardents handle the spiritual requirements of a kings people, such as the devotions, and offer advice as they may. The stormwardens predict the High Storms and offer additional advice. They may be opposed institutionally, but in practice they coexist within the houses of the nobility. I don't think that the Ardentia are a unified organization. We know that their are splinter sects of Vorinism from Sigliz. Further, they are people. They may maintain some high moral values, but that won't prevent them from secondary loyalties. Kabsal spoke what I think would amount to heresy to Shallan when he praised the Knights Radiant by claiming they were the chosen Knights of the Heralds. If I'm not mistaken, the stance the church maintains in regards to the Knights Radiant is that they were a group of corrupt warriors that are better off forgotten. Additionally, the other ardents disavowed Kabsal, so he isn't the best example to use when trying to establish the goals of the Ardentia. Taravangian could be Restares, he could be Thaidakar (unless someone figured out who this is and didn't tell me), or he could be someone else altogether. I favor the Restares theory, but I lack sufficient information to make a solid basis for my opinion. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think it's pretty harsh to judge an entire organization based on a couple of members.

THAT makes sense. Up vote for you! If pressure pushes, than an absence of pressure simulates a pulling effect. Why I missed that when I clearly established that it was possible in my previous post is beyond me. My synapses are obviously misfiring today.

That's interesting. What evidence do we have to support this? I'm not doubting you, but I am curious. I always pictured a full lashing as the creation of a tiny directed gravity well. I don't know how pressure would pull something. Everything I can think of with regards pressure, it is pushing on something. Pressure underwater can crush a submarine, if I put pressure on a can it crushes, if a plane is depressurized, it evacuates that pressure. The only instance I can think of where pressure draws everything to one spot is a drain. So does that mean that friction would decrease in the direction of the lashing? Does that mean that if an object was heading on a parallel course to the full lashing that friction would partially increase on that object forcing it to turn and head towards the lashing?

I have hopes for some of the Heralds. I have little enough hope for Jezrien himself though. Jezrian was the one who gave leave to the other Heralds to abandon the Oathpact. Yes, they all walked away, except Taln, but Jezrian was the one who validated their doubts. He was their leader, and instead of doing his duty and talking them into going back one more time, he agreed with them. He told them it would be alright, that the Knights Radiant would be enough. I think Jezrien is doomed, and that he will be replaced.

Okay, so unless I'm mistaken again, that means all of Szeths powers are from one surge, gravity. If I'm understanding correctly, we don't see Szeth use pressure at all, and we don't see Kaladin use pressure until after he says the second ideal. So at this point, if we didn't have WoB on it, we wouldn't even know if Szeth was using Wind Runner powers or the powers of the associated Order.

Okay, Szeth is not a physicist. I'm not either, but this is how I think Wind Running works. When Szeth lashes the balcony, I don't think he's increasing gravity. Brandon likes scientific magic, so I don't think he's going to break the laws of physics without having a means of justifying it. What I think Szeth did on the balcony was put an incredible amount of pressure on it causing it to collapse. The Wind Runner in the flashback fell out of the sky, so I think that is a combination of pressure and gravity. Decreasing gravity to fly, and increasing the pressure below him as he falls to slow his decent to a point where his Shardplate can handle the impact. Lashing yourself to the wall is almost certainly gravity. Kaladins released a pressure wave after his jump across the chasm. I believe Kaladin will be able to leap chasms without a bridge in WoR through gravity manipulation. I don't think Szeth can do this because he hasn't spoken the words. I believe a full lashing is a combination of pressure and gravity. Either one on it's own seems unlikely to draw all objects to a specific location. I could be wrong, they could be creating a miniature gravity well. Szeth knows what he's doing with the limited power set he has available to him, whoever trained him knew what they were talking about. It's just the science behind it that he's clueless about. I would say lashings, are all one power. It's just a versatile power. Storm Riding would be another power. Creating pressure waves may be a third power.

I would mostly agree with this, but would amend it slightly to 'just not the ones that were stabilizing society'. FF was from the Portland area, and that area was decimated by epics. She may have felt that those epics that kept society stable, even if it wasn't good, were a necessary evil. The targets the Reckoners looked for prior to David joining them were those that were nasty but had little impact on the stability of society.

I believe that FF actually believed in what the Reckoners were doing. She was from Portland and epics had completely destroyed everything she knew prior to finding her way to Newcago. I'm of the opinion that FF saw the type of epics that the Reconers were targeting and decided that she could act as both a mole in the organization and kill some of the really despicable scum off the top of the epic gene-pool. She wasn't interested in killing SH, because she saw his rule as a stabilizing force in the area. She wants to kill those epics that the Reckoners had previously targeted. David changed the Reckoners direction, and she resented him for that. Before David arrived, things were going as planned. The Reckoners were targeting the most destructive and destabilizing of the epics that had little or no control of the infrastructure and thus had no real impact on the quality of life that people lived. Killing Fortuity didn't change anything in Newcago. It made the city a little safer, and removed a cancer from the city, but life carried on as usual after he was dead. Killing SH could potentially throw Newcago into chaos and forever change the lives of it's people.

Would it make sense that Jezrien was the founder of Vorinism? I mean, how many times when Vorinism is brought up do we hear about Jezrien? It's Jezrian this, and Jezrian that. Very few other Heralds are invoked. Yes, the Almighty holds a place of prominence in Vorinism, but it almost seems like Jezrian is the equal of the Almighty the way they speak of him. What if the Day of Recreance was the direct result of the Knights Radiant discovering that the Heralds had abandoned their own oaths when they discovered that Jezrien was the hand that controlled the church? What if they not only discovered that the Heralds had abandoned their oaths, but that Jezrien himself was acting against them personally. If Jezrian was the founder of Vorinism, would it be all that far fetched that the Sunmaker was another Herald who felt that Jezrian was taking too much temporal power upon himself, or felt that he was trying to supplant the Almighty? Or even a Herald that was just plain pissed about the Day of Recreance and had decided that it was time for Jezrien to stop playing god. I know, this is all just conjecture, but what better way to influence the world than through a religion of your own making? What better place to hide in plain sight than as the head of the church?

I also believe that the Knights Radiant existed through quite a few Desolations based on the information Hoser supplied, and my own personal beliefs. I also believe that the Knights Radiant did generally defer to the Heralds leadership in regards to fighting their common enemy. The Heralds had faced this enemy many times before personally, while the Knights Radiant generally would have second hand knowledge of what they were about to face. I believe that a Herald is more powerful than a Knight Radiant. If forced to contest of arms, the Herald would be likely to be victorious. An Honorblade is more powerful than a Shardblade, and a Herald has centuries worth of fighting experience to draw upon. Your supposition that the existence of the Knights Radiant made the decision the Heralds made more palatable to the majority of Heralds still holds true regardless of how many times they fought together. In fact the longer the Knights Radiant existed, the easier their defection would have been to justify. This wasn't a fluke occurrence, this was a solid group of warriors dedicated to maintaining their readiness through the centuries of peace until they were called upon once more to face the darkness. The more Desolations that the Knights Radiant were waiting for the Heralds arrival, the more permanent a fixture they would become, and the more comfortable the heralds would be that when the next Desolation arrived, the Knights Radiant would be ready.

Yes, Shardholder. Tanavast had some ability to see the future. He isn't as good at it as some Shards, but he knew what Odium was up to. He most likely saw that he could die as a result of making the Oathpact, but I think that was one of the less certain futures. Leaving Odium unchecked would have resulted in the vision that he showed to Dalinar. A vision of the future where Odium splinters all other shards. On the other hand, he may have known that he would die, but if this is the case, he probably realized that if Odium was left unchecked, that he, Tanavast, was going to die regardless. In this case I think he saw a chance that Cultivation would survive provided that the Oathpact was created. That his people would survive, and perhaps even that his Shard would be reconstituted. I think the ultimate goal of the Oathpact was to force Odium to invest himself in a planet and eventually be driven from that planet. This would ultimately reduce Odiums' power and make him less of a threat to the other Shards. As far as the Desolations/Voidbringers go, I believe that these were a result of Odiums' investiture in the planet. I believe his investiture in the planet, or at least in a planet, seeing as the Roshar system has three habitable planets, was a part of the Oathpact. I believe that Odium cheated by creating a race that he could, through the use of the magic system, completely dominate. I also think he invested either the minimum or maximum amount of power that was allowed in order to fulfill the Oathpact. Any Shard that invests their power in a planet has to remain on that planet or the power invested is forfeited by them. Odium might invest the minimum amount of power if he sought to personally splinter Honor. He might invest the maximum amount of power if he intended to use the Oathpact as a weapon to splinter Honor. No matter how much or how little he invested, he has no intention of leaving before he reclaims it.

My current theory doesn't include a sacrificial lamb, but it does require that Honor stepped forward to try to protect his fellow Shards. Before Odium came to the Roshar system, he was killing Shardbearers and splintering Shards. Odium wasn't invested in anything. He had all of his power at his disposal. He used that power to good effect. If Odium remained uninvested, he could have continued picking off Shards until there were only a few left, then went back for the harder ones. By that time, Odium would have been really good at Shardslaying. I believe that Honor tempted Odium into the Oathpact. I think Honor felt it would be a fair fight. Whatever the case may be, Honor found a way to get Odium to invest himself in a planet. We have WoB that Odium is invested in Roshar. Yes, it's true. I believe that Honor felt that if Odium was invested in a planet, it would even out the playing field, or perhaps he even hoped to have a home field advantage. I don't think Tanavast was expecting to lose. I'm not even certain he was expecting a fight, but I am pretty sure that provisions were made in the Oathpact regarding challenges. I actually don't put a lot of weight in the spirit world for these books. Shards don't appear to be gods, they are men who have ascended as a result of picking up a funny looking rock. I'm of the opinion that Damnation is actually just the planet that Odium used to create his Voidbringers before throwing them into the fight against Honor. It may be a known location because war may have been waged against Damnation prior to the fall of the Tranquilne Halls. I believe the first five books will be the fight to save Roshar, and the next five will be the reclaiming of the Tranquiline Halls... Okay fine, that's more of a hope than a belief

It appears to be listed as Shallans Flashback in the OP.

I feel it's time for me to weigh in on this subject. I know, I know, you've all been waiting with baited breath. Okay, these are my feelings and insights on this little flashback. I agree with the OP. I think Shallan witnessed her father using what appeared to be a Shardblade to kill. We have reasons to believe that Shallans father was a Ghostblood, or at least Shallan has reason to believe this. It's possible that the bodies were members of an opposing group that tried to assassinate Shallans' father. It's also possible that Shallans' mother was involved in that assassination attempt, which is why she was killed. Not only killed, but killed in a manner that made looking at the eyes horrible. This may also be the origin of the fabrial. If the faction that wanted Shallans' father assassinated were aware he had what appeared to be a Shardblade, then a means to combat that advantage would have been required. He would have then advised his fellow conspirators of the captured fabrial, and at some point taken Luesh into his service to operate the device. So what about the blood? I have two theories here. Either Shallans father didn't fight alone (ie: his house guard assisted him), or one or more people were soulcast into blood. Now you may be asking yourselves why I'm not straight out calling the weapon a Shardblade. I have a good reason for this. A Shardblade can be called and dismissed by its owner. This could be a fabrial, but I tend to doubt it. We've seen fabrials that weren't active. They don't go all glowy. Shardblades don't really do that either, they may glow a little when they appear, I forget, but they don't stay glowing. So what else might glow? What might be locked in the safe? Could it be that this is not a Shardblade, but an Honorblade? A blade that refused to bond with Shallan's father, but later bonded with her instead? I think the end of the prelude was significant. Why would Brandon take the time to make that little note at the end if it wasn't a significant hint? Yes, I know the Honorblades weren't glowing in the prelude to TWoKs, but we don't know a lot about them, they may glow during and briefly after being used. I know that there are holes all over this, but I thought it was worth posting despite its holiness.

Okay, lets look at these Halls and see what we can discover then. Below is all the information listed in regards to the Tranquiline Halls of any relevance in TWoKs. I did omit a few quotes where bridgemen swore by the Halls, as they lacked any pertinent information. This doesn't appear to happen. The Heralds go to a place that may be Damnation where they are tortured between Desolations. We have no information about the disposition of the souls of the dead, but if they are fighting to reclaim the Tranquiline Halls, they are doing it alone. I have a feeling that Vorinism was created after the Heralds abandoned the Oath Pact, possibly by Jezrien, in an attempt to assuage his own guilt over abandoning man by organizing a religion that would keep humanity prepared in the event of another Desolation. I have no proof of this. I believe this is a Vorin tenant. This leads me to believe that the Tranquiline Halls were a place that could be walked in physical form. Both the Voidbringers and the Heralds manifest in the physical. It would be the height of irony if the Parshendi are the Voidbringers during Desolations, and the Dawnsingers following Desolations. I think the quote of ninety and nine times that follows is more likely seeing as that would be the fulfillment of ten tens. I did find this quote amusing. A self proclaimed ardent claiming that the Knights Radiant were the chosen knights of the Heralds. I believe that the Tranquiline Halls are of importance to the Oath pact. This was the earliest point in Roshars' history that the war was recorded that we've been shown. This doesn't mean that it started here though. I believe that the Tranquiline Halls were a bridge between two worlds. One of those worlds was Roshar, the other is the world in which man was meant to live (I believe both of these worlds were in the same solar system). They were the home of Honor and Cultivation. For Odium to conquer this place, it is almost certain that he would have had to conquer the other side of this bridge first. So the war wouldn't have begun in the Tranquiline Halls, but on the the world that Honor had chosen as his own. When Honor had chosen his Heralds, the Tranquiline Halls would have been a haven. A place of peace and safety away from the war. A place where the Heralds could recover before resuming battle. After they had been pushed from the Halls, things changed... Once the Halls were taken, I believe Odium made sure that the reception that the Heralds received upon their return was more in line with what he considered a proper reward for their efforts. I believe Honor and Cultivation were driven from the Halls and forced to retreat to Roshar. Honor brought as many of his people and enough of what they would require for survival with them, and a place was made for them in what is now known as Shinovar. I am not certain of various aspects of this theory. I don't know if Honor was forced to abandon part of his power on the world he had chosen. He may have remained close enough to it for it not to be an issue. Where they went after being forced from the Tranquiline Halls is also something I have no information on, though I still believe that Cultivation may be the Night Watcher, or at least have pooled a portion of her power with the Night Watcher. What agreements are within the Oath pact is beyond our ability to determine at this point because so little has been said about it, but I believe that it was agreed upon by Honor as a way to cage Odium, and agreed upon by Odium as a way to force Honor to fight by the rules set forth in the agreement. It was two Shards against one, so if the Oath Pact limited interference from Cultivation while Odium fought Honor, then it would have been seen as a victory by Odium. If Odium was forced to invest his power in a planet, it would have been seen as a victory by Honor. I think Odium cheated. He created a race that was self determining, but could be forced into mindless servitude. Honors people were humans. They fought against Odiums forces, but they maintained their own sense of self, they still sought to better their position in life, and as always, there were some who felt that they would be better served either not fighting, or fighting against Honor. Odium had complete control over his people during the wars, his people were more versatile than men, and stronger than men. He also used his power to corrupt the creations of Honor and Cultivation to create new tools to fight for him as well. In response to this, spren began forming Nahel Bonds with men. They created an army for the Heralds to lead through the Desolations. Ninety and nine times the Desolations came. Nine of the ten Heralds forswore their oaths. Now comes the last Desolation. It makes a pretty story. It may be completely wrong, but hey, this is the place for somewhat baseless Oath Pact theories after all.