Gloom

I believe that were all getting close. My theory is that spren are attracted to their attribute, and reinforce it. So when Kaladin was dying, Syl fought the death spren because they were reinforcing the likelyhood of his death. Fight off the Death Spren, and Kaladins death becomes less certain. It doesn't mean Kaladin couldn't have still died, but it made his death less of a certainty. The same would be true of Creation Spren. The more you gather, the more creative your endevor becomes, because they reinforce your creativity. The more flame spren that appear, the stronger a fire becomes. Honor Spren. Honor Spren behave differently than other spren. I have two theories for this. Either they are extremely rare, or they merge. By this I mean that instead of Kaladin getting swarmed by Honor Spren, the Honor Spren merge with Syl as the strength of her bond with Kaladin grows. This makes Syl stronger and more powerful. It culminates when Kaladin becomes a full Knight Radiant, at which point Syl is saturated with Honor Spren. The Spren affect would persist of course. Syl reinforces Kaladins honor.

I'm in favor of this theory based on Dalamars dreams in regards to the loss of the Knights Radiant. If there was ever a time that Knights Radiant would go ronin, this was it. Instead, all the Knights Radiant acted as one and disbanded as a whole. What isn't clear from the dream is if they lost their surgebinding ability, but I'm leaning towards the idea that they gave up everything. Once the Knights Radiant abandoned the people, or were abandoned by the people depending on your POV, no one wanted to pursue their ideaology.

How do you get put on a Bridge Crew? You are brought in as a slave, or you piss off a light-eyes soldier, he was in Sadeas camp, so he was bound to end up in trouble. There were soldiers put on the crews as a form of corporal punishment. I figure Kaladin would either try to administer aid to the bridge crew survivors, or try to help them escape. Either way he would be right back where he ended up anyway. little wilson got it on one. Without Kaladins experiences as a slave, and the time spent on introspection and self analysis, I don't believe that Kaladin would have had progressed nearly as quickly on the path to becoming a Knight Radiant as he did. He was at the cusp before he was assigned as a bridge runner, so if he was any further behind the curve, he'd have been a pin cushion like all the other bridgemen.

Thank you for the welcome This is my evidence of physiological change brought about by claiming a Shardblade. It hasn't happened yet that I remember, outside of Szeths temporary eye color change, but it seemed like common wisdom amongst the dark-eyes. It was repeated by a bridge runner later in the book, and Kaladin said it would never happen, because the light-eyes would steal the blade before a dark-eye would have a chance at claiming it. Kaladin isn't a Shardbearer, so if he feels the Thrill, and I don't believe he does, then what is the connection between him and Dalimar, Sadeas, and Adolin? The later three aren't surgebinders, and Kaladin isn't a Shardbearer. This leaves the fact that they are all Alethi. As I said, Shards were created to be wielded by surgebinders (Radiants). My theory is that the Thrill is a side affect of wielding a Shard without this ability. This would also explain why Szeth, a Shardbearer and surgebinder, doesn't feel the Thrill. If this is incorrect, were left with genetics again because I don't see what other common denominator Kaladin has with others who have been reported to have the Thrill. I'm not saying I'm right, or that you're wrong, I'm just looking for additional evidence either way.

Kaladin would have ended up on a bridge crew eventually anyway, but he wouldn't have had the life experience to become the man he does. Either that or he would have joined the medics and avoided combat entirely.

Hmmm, I always linked the thrill to shards. Shardblades and shardplate weren't designed for those unbound by spren. We know that physiological changes can occur when a shardbearer first takes possession of their shards, we know that shards alter the mind and body by allowing increased speed, reflexes, and strength, at least in the case of shardplate. Dark eyes can become light eyes. Szeth being the only known exception. I don't believe that Kaladin feels the thrill, because Kaladin has never held a shard. If feeling the thrill is a surgebinder trait, then why aren't there any shardbearers other than Szeth that can surgebind. A better question might be why doesn't Szeth appear to feel the thrill? I would attribute this to the fact that he is insulated from it through surge binding. Equally important would be why Kaladin refuses to touch a shard? Dalinar is under a great deal of influence from outside forces. He is being conditioned through his dreams and his study of The Way of Kings to become an acceptable candidate to a symbiotic spren type. Dalinar is not yet, nor are any other shardbearers other than Szeth, a surgebinder. Whatever force makes Dalinar feel the thrill, was in direct conflict with his core beliefs, hense he felt ill until those beliefs and the thrill were in alignment. In my opinion, to argue that both Dalinar and Kaladin feel the thrill is an argument that the thrill is a natural human reaction, possibly augmented by shards and surgebinding. Possibly genetically linked to Alethila.

In regards to the Parshmen, I think the evidence is pointing towards them as a new developement in the scheme of things. Before this they were all Parshendi. I do have a question about the Knights Radiant though. What evidence do we have that every order of the Knights Radiant relied on Honor Spren? We know that there are a large variety of spren. If all the orders use the same spren type, why the different colors? I inferred that they would each have their own oaths, and that Kaladin spoke the oath for his order. The blue KR seemed pretty certain that Dalinar would be accepted into an order due to his skills and his actions, but Dalinar never attracted honor spren, so maybe, he would have been inducted into a different order. Honor is certainly a noble attribute, but it isn't the only one. What about orders that value other attributes, like truth, justice, duty, loyalty, etc? Wouldn't it be likely that more than one type of spren could create a knight radient?