Daishi5

I am in the Szeth-has-an-honorblade camp, and I think that means Brandon might be able to kill him off before redemption.  We know other holders of honorblades have come back after being killed, so if he has an honorblade, he might come back somehow.  

So you'd argue that Shardplate also robs Shardblades of the threat they represent? I'm not trying to argue that Stormlight makes you immune, mind. Just that it confers a slight resistance.

Yes.  Shardplate does rob shardblades of their threat.  That is a big part of the reason that Szeth coming to assassinate Dalinar is such an anticipated scene.  If Adolin, Dalinar, and Kaladin are present when Szeth shows up, Adolin is by far the least likely person to die because of his plate.  

From my understanding of investure, I wouldn't be surprised if you were right.  But for the story, I think shardblades are going to remain a mortal threat to anyone who doesn't have their own blade, plate, or half shard.  

I like the theory, I just don't think it is true.  

So much of the book is based on the idea that these blades are weapons of devastating power.  If Kaladin can just absorb a bunch of stormlight and become immune to the most dangerous weapons in the book, it really robs the blades of the threat they represent to the main characters.  

I think someone else mentioned this, but isn't the Ruby the gem of division, and a Ruby is what flashed when the duelist broke his bond with his shard?

I thought the lullaby highlighted how different safety is on Roshar.  With highstorms being so deadly, being in a dark chasm is the safe place to be compared to outside.  

I wonder what this means for Adolin.  He does seem a bit scary, but at the same time he is following in his father's footsteps of treating it like a war.  The quote about how every lighteyes was a raw recuit makes the scene more like some first day of bootcamp where the drill sargent lays down the law on the first recruit dumb enough to act out.  

He did not go out and dance and perform a graceful show of skill, but used brute force to smash his opponent and win.  The question is, is Adolin going to lose himself in shows of power like this, or can he hold himself back and use it for bringing the other lighteyes into line.  

Yay, support for one of my favorite theories. 

I completely missed this when I read it.

Elhokar was speaking with Darkness and another possible Herald. I suspect his secrets relate to what Darkness is doing. Which makes me very interested in Dalinar talking about reforming the Knights Radiant directly to Elhokar.

 

Dalinar's basically taken the kingdom over from Elhokar. Elhokar doesn't seem to mind - but then, Dalinar basically almost killed him, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that Elhokar is just plain terrified of Dalinar. Elhokar being buddy buddy with Darkness and knowing Dalinar wants to return the Radiants... well, I can see Dalinar dying, and it might not be by Szeth...

Woah, now I have several other ways I can see this all going.  

There was a crazy theory about Gavilar still being alive because we see that he was not the one wearing his plate during the feast before Szeth fought the man in plate.  

If that crazy theory is true, then Elhokar's secret could be that he knows his father is alive.  Of course, the crazy theory is still really crazy. 

However, I don't think being able to read is a big enough secret.  Shallan is supposedly the cause of her families problems because she killed her father.  She is concealing this from everyone, as well as concealing a shardblade that no one seems to know is even missing.  Furthermore, she is pretending to be a timid girl stepping up to save her family from the disaster no one knows she created, all the while trying to pretend the disaster is not even happening.  In many ways, Shallan is lying about pretty much her entire self with lies within lies.

I think Elhokar's secret is much bigger.  I suspect it might be a lie about why they are fighting on the shattered plains for so long or something about his plans for the kingdom.  Maybe he is looking for something his father found long ago about the time the death chants started happening?  It seems Jasnah may have been thinking about assassinating his wife, maybe he and his wife are up to something big, and having all the high princes out on the shattered plains is allowing his wife to do something back home?

On Roshar, we already have at least one example of people coming back from the dead, the Heralds.  However, we don't know how it works.  

I am a fan of Szeth carrying an Honorblade, and Honorblades are somehow related to the Heralds.  I think Szeth may die and that he could come back somehow through the blade.

If he dies, it could give us a lot more information about the Cosmere and what is going on around Roshar.  It also might allow Szeth to atone for his sins and gain perspective.  

From the WOR chapters, I think it isn't quite right to say "enter."  The cognitive realm may not be a different place, but a different view of the place.  Maybe it would be like the physical and the cognitive are like the head and tail of a coin.  They could just stop seeing the world in its physical form and see it in its cognitive form, but their physical bodies remain.  

Did we ever see a soulcasting change the shape of an object?  From all the examples I remember, soulcasting changed the material of the soulcasting, but not the shape.  Wood that was used for practice by soulcasting into metal was still shaped like wood, artwork would be carved in soft material then soulcast into marble or other hard stones, Jasnah's attackers and dead lighteyes were turned into statues, and I thought they built the barracks out of some easy to use material before changing it into stone.  

I thought the death quote referred to Taln as well, but "Why must I carry the madness of them all" doesn't seem to make much sense.  However, "The burdens of nine become mine" doesn't seem to make much sense for Jezrien either.  

In conclusion, I am just less certain about what that quote refers to.

As a general question to everyone who thinks Shallan stunted her spren's growth:

 

What's special about her spren compared to Syl, compared to Wyndle, compared to Ym's spren? They were all slow and stupid at the start. Why does there have to be a special explanation for Shallan's spren being stupid because she measured it?

 

It seemed to me that the spren kept trying to poke through the Cognitive Realm to the Physical, and failed until Shallan provided a gateway for it. Hence the sigh of relief. I don't think it's very easy for a spren to make it to the Physical.

I don't think people think that Shallan stunted her spren yet.  What we think is that if she makes a lot of careful measurements of her spren, she could prevent it from growing in the way Syl and Wyndle did.  Like the two Ardents who measured flame spren and locked the flame spren into that measurements margin of error, Shallan might measure and record her spren's intelligence or ability and lock it to the measurements she gets at that time.  

You could be correct, but I personally dont believe in this because the brigdeman don't have a spren to give their "honor" power.

 

In true the Vision could just mean that all are  semi-radiants Knights with the same level of power that Kaladin have,(super sayadin level 1 I mean Knight Radiant of second Ideal). But even so every odd occurence draw my attention and the Bridge 4 are a odd bunch indeed =)

I am not sure how the bonding works, but Syl seemed to go completely un-noticed until Kaladin was made a slave, and Dalinar doesn't seem to have a spren we have seen yet either.  I think the bridgecrew are like Dalinar or Kaladin before he noticed Syl.  I think the soldiers in Dalinar's vision are more like present day Kaladin, they have some power, but they are not yet full KR.  

There is no real proof that I am right though, I just like the idea that Kaladin's leadership is making them better people rather than his power is just helping those around him.  

I wonder if "path before destination" isn't a kind of trap.  Honor is probably a very nice shard, but when Honor would be faced with a choice between an honorable path that probably won't work and a dirty; dishonest; pragmatic path that will work, Honor would probably choose the path that doesn't have a good chance of working.  

Just because Honor thinks that being honorable is the best way to go doesn't mean that it is.  Honor is strongly biased in how he thinks a problem should be approached.  A story about how a "good" shard's intent actually harms his own goals could be an interesting twist.

I have a diferent idea about this.

 

I was thinking, some of the bridgemen had odd "healings" after they come in contact with Kaladin.

See Dabbid that had a would that should have killed, Teft with the arrow in the shoulder, Skar with a arrow in the foot all.

 

In on POV Teft commented that he wasn't felling as much pain as he should.

 

Maybe the radiant have some kind of area of affect power that let them share a fraction of their power with their men.

 

For what understand there are Power Levels in the Radiand order. (see Sly recent comment),maybe a full Radiant could share a little of stormlight with his men, what would explain the comment in the first book "I can't pomise a place in any order but you could be a soldier" in Dalinar vision, and would give a clear motivation to others join the "Radiant Corps", you would be able to fight better,heal fast(who could ask a better medical care plan) and if you are atunned with later become a Radiant.

 

Also the Nohadon coment about "the allure that the common folk had to the windrunners" would make sense, if one could receive this boosts would make more sense to join the radiant then the "regular" militar ranks.

I took those healing incidents in a completely different light.  Kaladin spent so long wondering why he survived when others did not, and now his soldiers are seeing the same sort of "luck" Kaladin used to have. I think the Kaladin is leading his men towards the ideals and they are becoming surgebinders as well.  Therefore I think they are going through the same process that Kaladin did, they are beginning to act in accordance with the ideals, and honor is aiding them.  It was not just Kaladin who wanted to go back and save Dalinar, he had installed the ideals in his men that they all felt that it was right to go back.  

I think that the scene with the KR in the purelake is kind of foreshadowing of what we will see with Kaladin.  A full KR leading a squad of surgebinders who are on the path to being KR on their own.  

My current theory is based on these facts and assumptions:  

A.  Jasnah was right, the parshmen are the voidbringers in some form.  

B.  We know the Parshendi change forms through spren.  

C.  Spren are from the cognitive realm.  

D.  Most spren appear mindless on Roshar, and bonding spren take a while to recover their mental faculties (Wyndle had help to protect him from the worst of this).  

E.  Odium appears to be able to corrupt spren or there are just plain evil spren.

I think the KR somehow blocked Spren's minds from crossing over into the physical realm and severed almost all spren bonds.  The KR may have been seeking some way to stop future desolations and realized that they could sever all the parshendi bonds, but they would also loose their bonds.  By severing all bonds, the KR were betraying their own spren, but they did it to save all of humanity from Desolations. 

When it comes to glowing soldiers, remember that Kaladin seemed to glow while he was in Amaram's army saving Cenn, and Dalinar seemed to glow during the chasmfiend fight.  Kaladin also glows at the end of the Way of Kings, and he has only found two ideals and he is not a KR yet.  Kaladin also stated that Syl refused to tell him the other oaths, and that if he didn't find them, he would not progress any further.

We have plenty of examples of soldiers who are on the path to being radiants glowing and it seems to be possible that at least some people only make it part-way, with those farther on the path glowing more.  

With all the evidence that we have for proto-radiants glowing, I would expect that the soldiers with a KR would be those most likely to become KR themselves. Therefore I don't think the soldiers needed the KR to do anything for them.  

I don't think Dalinar plans on getting all the shards.  Once Adolin wins one or two shards, people are going to be much less willing to duel him.  

I wonder if Dalinar and the King will do the same thing Gavilar did, give a set of shards to the King's primary bodyguard 

I thought we had just assumed it was cutting the spiritual?

I have been mulling over how shardblades behave recently.  The basic issue was that Honorspren bind things while Shardblades separate things.  It struck me as weird that the weapons of the followers of Honor seemed to be so different from the behavior of that Honor seems to encourage.

The other thing that struck me is that sharblades don't really cut.  When you cut something, you are really forcing a wedge into the object and using the wedge to force the two pieces apart.  On a slight tangent, this is why a sword is never sharp enough to cut through a tank, in order to cut through something large like a tank with a sword, you need use enough force that the wedge can lift the upper part of the object you are cutting. In contrast a shardblade effortlessly passes through things, and where it passes, the object is no longer connected.  The effortless part is important, because it shows that the blade is not lifting the things it cuts to make room for the blade to pass through.  If it passes through person, that persons (mind or soul, unclear which) is no longer connected to the body.  If it just hits a limb, that limb no longer functions as part of the body.

My theory is that shardblades exist in the cognitive realm, and when they cut things, they cut the actual cognitive aspect of things.  Whatever a shardblade passes through, that object no longer sees itself as a singular thing, its cognitive aspect is split and the two new objects don't see themselves as connected, so they are no longer connected.

If I am right, that means that blades can probably kill spren.  I am not sure exactly what my theory would mean for where blades are stored when they are not in the owners hand.  This also might mean that in the past spren gave the KR blades and plate.  

This also gave me a wild idea about the recreance.

Unfortunately, I don't think Kaladin ever shattered spheres when he was doing anything, so I would be surprised if he made the connection.  Jasnah making the connection seems much more likely because she has shattered many spheres while soulcasting.  

I am glad that Kaladin already knows Dalinar's plans and even seems like he might reveal some secrets to him.  

I think the phrase "keep your blade as mist" means don't summon your blade.  He was telling Adolin not to summon his blade when Dalinar summoned his because Dalinar was already planning to offer his blade as a trade.  

Do we know of anything else that was going on while Gavilar was exploring the shattered plains?  It says the rattles started when Gavilar was exploring the plains, but we are all making a jump to the conclusion that Gavilar started everything.  

Maybe that was around the same time as Szeth becoming truthless, or perhaps something else we might know about?