Xavien

Early after the Recreance there would also be a high incentive to 'lose' shards won in battle. Anyone you grant shards to instantly becomes a potential threat to your position so there would be a natural inclination to reduce the number of these threats and keep the amount of shards in your vicinity to a manageable level. You wouldn't want to just keep them in some cache for future use either, too risky.

How high/unrealistic is 1000 broams really? Shadesmar cares about the Stormlight more than the gem itself so type of gem shouldn't matter. 1000 diamond broams is probably on par with Adolin's yearly fashion budget. So while certainly expensive for what it appears to be, I'm not sure it's prohibitively expensive. The oddest part of the exchange is that Kaladin just brushes off the price as being a Shadesmar oddity without really being curious what made the chain expensive.

Do we actually know that? Whatever Adonalsium based mechanism would no longer work, you are assuming that the post-shattering Parshendi lifecycle isn't putting honorspren in Gemhearts, just as I am assuming that it is. Honor & Cultivation have been their for a while, just because they didn't create them doesn't mean they didn't change them.

My take when reading OB was the corrupting of Parshendi is the Fused inhabiting a Parshendi's gemheart instead of a spren from Honor. Basically it's a corruption of Honor's mechanism to give Parshendi their forms.

Instead of going big, why not small? Kaladin has often found himself up close and personal with opponents but has always gone with a knife, why not claws? And does the spren have to appear in their hand? If not, go MMA style and have the weapon appear as a sharp object from knees/elbow/forehead/feet etc? When WoR came out I wondered why they even have the spren appear as a physically directed weapon instead of just a small particle that flies around the battlefield based on the Radiants directed will.

Are all early oaths superseded by later ones for the different orders? Or is this something exclusive to Skybreakers? If exclusive to Skybreakers it would be funny to me since you often see conflicting laws on the books but the most recent one takes precedent. As for the Skybreakers being not what we thought they were I agree but I wonder if what we are seeing now is what they have always been or if it is a result of the leadership of an insane Nale? I am actually looking forward to the Szeth focused book now because I can't wait to see what Brandon does with this.

The law is simply a legal code not a moral one. Nothing more, nothing less. By itself it is not justice, it is not merciful. Can those things be incorporated into the legal code? Absolutely, but it is no less the law if it doesn't have those things. In fact, the concepts of justice, morality and mercy are much more ambiguous than the concept of law which makes where the OP's argument has gone even more mind boggling. And yes, the person or group that makes the laws are the ones with the biggest stick and it's been that way since the dawn of civilization.

Don't forget the other person we know who has potentially met Cultivation: Lift. Lift tells Dalinar that he smells like 'her' which both thought meant the Nightwatcher but Dalinar's gift came directly from Cultivation.

The one aspect that keeps jumping out on me when I think of the Shin vs the rest of the humans on Roshar is the lack of epicanthic fold which is prevalent throughout the rest of the continent. In our world there is thought that the fold evolved as a form of protection for the eye but other theories discounts this. Roshar isn't our world tho, so there may be more a case of it's prevalence where highstorms are a major concern. At the very least, it shows that there hasn't been a lot of genetic interaction between Shinovar and the rest of Roshar for a really long time. Perhaps even longer than we think because the 4 depictions of the Heralds all show them with an epicanthic fold...

@eltari Congrats on the newborn! My son was born Oct 30th so I feel you, I ended up taking the late night feeding shift from my wife in order to read

Hoid is also really big on the whole secrets and lies aspect of cryptics. Even the name for that type of spren is a great adjective for him! It really is a perfect fit.

I believe it is stated in the book that there was only one Bondsmith at the time of the Recreance. The gem stories also mention only one Bondsmith when Urithuru was abandoned.

To build on what @WhiteLeeopard said, a big part of Kaladin's growth is highlighted through Dalinar: failure is a part of the journey, the most important step is the next one, etc.

It is strongly implied in one of the Listener songs from WoR that humans destroyed Natanatan creating the Shattered Plains. It could be evidence of what wielding a huge level of Stormlight is capable of and is pretty earth shattering (sorry couldn't help it ) So I wouldn't rule out what could be done with such a ridiculous amount of Investiture, especially with multiple sides in a war armed with them and influenced by Odium.

Thinking about this some more I really like #3. I wonder if Dalinar will end up with the ability to re-forge Splintered Shards, and potentially Adonalsium itself. Pure speculation but makes me think that at the end of the first half Dalinar leaves Roshar thinking Odium has been defeated, perhaps for Sel or somewhere else with Hoid. With the power he is gaining and the second half having a separate cast of primary characters something has to happen to move him into the background.

In Taravangian's first interlude he describes Renarin as a wild card According to Dalinar, Renarin's name roughly translates to "Like one who was born unto himself" (page 515). Put together with what Vargo sees when Odium expands the Diagram it sounds like Renarin can change the fate Odium foresees. I think the hug he gave Dalinar is a great example, it helped put Dalinar on the path of seeking forgiveness and to change instead of just to forget.

As someone who is already not a fan of Szeth, I think the worst possible thing that could happen to his character arc would be a Nightblood Litmus Test for good/evil. He's already spent years doing whatever the person holding his stone told him to do so now that he no longer has the stone he'll willingly let a sword tell him what is good/evil? Despite that, upvote for the OP as it's an interesting theory. I'm hoping for more along the lines of a moral dialogue between the two on the distinctions of good vs evil and law vs justice.

One thing I am curious about is: how common is this issue for Lightweavers of her rank? To be a Radiant you have to be broken in the first place, then as a Lightweaver you are forced to confront self truths in order to advance. Add on top of that the proclivity of Lightweavers to be artistic, a photographic memory and, oh yeah, the ability to create life like illusions. I would be surprised if this sort of coping mechanism was not common in the past. One thing to notice in all of her roles is that they already incorporate traits that Shallan possesses even if she doesn't recognize it. Shallan showed more self confidence when she confronted Jasnah Freakin' Kholin, went before all the Alethi high princes and hoodwinked one of them into making her their ward then we've seen out of Brightness Radiant or Veil so far. We've also seen her confront a chasmfiend and kill Tyn both without the need for role playing. She doesn't truly need the roles, she only thinks she does as a result of her trauma and I think that's where we'll see her arc go. She'll create more and more roles out of aspects of herself until she has to face something without them and will have to confront the truth that they are all her & boom, level up. Or she won't, which is what Pattern is afraid of. Also, many thanks to @aemetha @Aminar & others for providing their insights on various disorders. The thread may have side tracked, but it was a very interesting side track!

Yeah I always thought it referenced WoK as well until I was reading up on some other parts and came across that line from Honor and remembered the new synopsis. On the one hand it would make sense that the Stormfather would hone in on people reading the book that Honor wants them to read but on the other it feels odd to tell someone to read a book they would already be reading, particularly since one of the visions involves Nohadon and Honor didn't make an appearance. It would have been a great time for him to jump in and say "This man, he wrote a book. You really, really need to read it."

Has it been confirmed that the book Honor is referring to is The Way of Kings? If not, could it be Oathbringer that he is suppose to read? A pretty great way to learn about the past is by reading a book, particularly a book that could potentially explain what happened to the Knights Radiant, the Nahel bond, Oathpact, etc.

Surprised I haven't seen Melishi mentioned as the author unless I missed it. Based on the theory that he bound the Listener gods and helped turn them into slaves then Oathbringer is about the enslavement of the Parshendi and the secret cause of the Recreance. That would certainly make regular people hate him/consider him a heretic and many other Radiants may have found him to be a monster. The murders could be those of the spren bound to the Radiants as well as the 'person who loved him dearly'. The line about Kazilah could also fit since the crime was potentially empathizing with the enslaved Parshendi and there was debate about the punishment of execution.

The belt also matches the painting behind Vedeledev down to the colors and moons/planets.

I think that when teaching Tia he was trying fully and failed to stop something she was doing. Tia herself said it was an accident so they were probably testing what all he could do and he failed. Kind of like with Abraham playing with the mercury when David dropped the slab on his head. Same thing goes with the fight with Tavi. He was fully engaged in the fight and wasn't pulling his punches, every time she got through his defenses was a mini failure so he couldn't heal those but he never failed completely. The fact that both cases involved his same power set is a red herring, they are simply such a great counter that Prof would occasionally fail to stop them and they are so powerful that if he doesn't fight back to his fullest he'd get wrecked. Perception is still a very important part of his weakness IMO, how do you know when you have failed? So much about his actions was rationalization that he hadn't failed because he hadn't really tried. In the end it simply took countering those rationalizations and convincing him that he had failed.

Obliteration hints at wanting to destroy all Epics, himself included. From his conversation with Newton (~pg 158) "I am the cleansing fire." and "Corrupt," Obliteration whispered. "All men are corrupt. The seed of the Epic is inside each one. And so, all must die. Mortal and immortal. All are --" I don't think we have seen the last of him and that he could very well be on David's side in the next book.

Interesting take, expanding on it what if the "type" of spren that Bondsmith spren are are the type that can create/strengthen Nahel bonds? In WoR when Kaladin says the second ideal the Stormfather says "THE WORDS ARE ACCEPTED" and Syl turns into a shardblade for the first time. Later when Dalinar speaks the second oath the Stormfather again says the words are accepted. It feels a lot like the Stormfather's approval is required for that bond to advance. Or that he seals the bond. So what if that is the purpose of the Bondsmith spren? To accept and seal the oaths between man and spren? Do we know where the term "Nahel" came from? Maybe Nahel is the type of spren. This could still mean there are 3 Bondsmith spren to accept the oaths depending on if the spren belong more to honor or cultivation or a mix. Or the Stormfathers original name was Nahel with the bonds themselves being named after him and all the Bondsmiths bond with just him.