ROSHtaFARian2.0

Potential questions: 1) Is it a coincidence that the name Zahel is so similar to Nahel, as in Nahel bonds, or was that similarity a conscious choice on Vasher's part? 2) According to your publishing plans, what's the next book we'll see a new Shard in? (Not counting Silence Divine).

Is the similarity between the names Zahel and Nahel (as in a Nahel bond) deliberate? If so, did the character Zahel choose to name himself that because of that similarity?

I have a totally crackerjack theory that Darkness is actually Yesteel, who took Nightblood from Vasher after Vasher tracked him down in the sequel to Warbreaker, and brought it to Roshar because he intends for Nightblood to be used to destroy Odium, and Vasher came to Roshar hunting him and Nightblood. What? It could happen! No but seriously, I do think the questions we should be asking about Nightblood/Zahel are WHY they're in this series, and that will reveal a lot about Darkness and Szeth. Brandon's been firm from day one that he always intended the cosmere stuff to take a backseat in whatever book he's writing, and he never wanted readers to feel they were missing out on critical information by not having read all of his other books. But recently we've learned that Vasher and Nightblood were always intended to be in this series, from the beginning, before Warbreaker was even written. It seems like a contradiction, because they're a very big element to be lifted from one world and transplanted to Roshar's books, so it suggests to me that Brandon had a very big storytelling reason to use them here, he didn't do it just for the cool factor of having Nalthis characters running around on Roshar. They're in the Stormlight Archive to do something that can't be done any other way. So. WHY Nightblood? What does this series need him for so badly that Brandon would introduce a completely foreign magic system to Roshar this early on? Nightblood's arguably the most powerful magical weapon we know of in the cosmere at this point in time, and his entire existence is predicated on 'destroying evil', and Odium is the greatest evil we know of in the cosmere at this time (or at least Nightblood would likely classify him as such). I do think some of the forces/groups orchestrating events on Roshar, including Darkness, learned of Nightblood and thought it would be the ideal weapon to fight Odium and his minions. But if so....did Vasher come to Roshar, and they learned of Nightblood then and took it from him? Or did they learn of Nightblood and either lure Vasher and Nightblood to Roshar or else go in search of Nightblood, with Vasher coming to Roshar in pursuit of it?

Yeah, the Stormfather's words don't actually contradict the idea that the Oathpact still exists in some form. After all, Adonalsium was shattered, but it still exists in the form of the Shards. Neither are what they once were or function as originally intended perhaps, but their power is still present and in use.

I don't believe the poster was being serious, given the smiley. I admit I had the thought to make the same joke as soon as I heard this info.

Tne fact that the response to Hoid's letter in WOR's epigraphs involves talking about Adonalsium as though it were a completely separate entity for one - not something you do if you're talking to Adonalsium.

Besides, the prologue of each book is the same night and events from a different perspective, so we already have an example of overlap without repetition as a device Brandon's employing in this series.

Because of the context of how Brandon usually answers questions about Hoid bearing a Shard. Such questions often go hand in hand with questions like 'If Hoid did possess a Shard, which would he be most likely to take?' where its clear from Brandon's answers and discussion of Hoid's personality, motives, etc that he's referring to the Hoid we've come to know in the published novels. And the original Hoid died before Adonalsium was shattered, him bearing a Shard was never a real possibility.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Brandon has said several times that Hoid does not possess a Shard himself.

Another interesting implication to me is that the Shard on Ashyn (the one who seeks only to hide and survive) is able to hide from Odium, despite being so close to Roshar. Being stuck in the Roshar system wouldn't prohibit Odium from visiting Ashyn if he felt he had reason to.

I wonder if that electrified world book is the Skyward YA novel he's mentioned elsewhere recently.

Despite not being on Roshar, Odium is at least partially Invested there. Is he Invested in Braize as well, or is he able to reside there without Investing? Are any of the other Shards in the Roshar system (including Honor when he was still alive) aware of the presence of a Shard on Ashyn?

Spoilers for all cosmere works including Words of Radiance, as well as the first couple chapters of Liar of Partinel Brandon posted years ago, with the understanding that the latter is not official canon and the eventual published version will probably bear little resemblance to it. One thing in particular jumped out at me in the epigraphs in Words of Radiance. In the dragon's response to Hoid's letter, there was this bit, paraphrased as I don't have the book in front of me at the moment: 'Haven't we caused enough destruction already? The worlds you now tread bear the mark and design of Adonalsium....' The phrasing of this struck me as extremely significant, because the arrangement of those words place the idea that the Shardworlds bear 'the design of Adonalsium' under the umbrella of destruction the dragon believes he and Hoid are responsible for. As in, the two of them are in agreement in considering Adonalsium's influence on these worlds to be a bad thing. We've speculated for a long time that Hoid was not only present at the Shattering of Adonalsium, but that he played a part in it. We also know that Adonalsium was opposed by a force or by an individual or individuals, and this opposition according to Word of Brandon is still around today. We've speculated that this opposing force might be the Great Evil spoken of on the world Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is set on. I propose that the dragon's response strongly hints that he and Hoid were actually the opposition, or at least part of it. We also know that there is a force possibly greater than Adonalsium in the cosmere (the God Beyond?), and at a recent signing Brandon said the opposition to Adonalsium once created a great weapon that is still around. Finally, let's look at the word Adonalsium. Adonai means Lord or God in Hebrew. The suffix ium can be meant to denote an element, metal or synthetic compound like barium or helium, it can signify a place like gymnasium, or it can be a derivative of personal nouns, often denoting the associated status or office. Point being, it sounds less like a name, and more like something ASSOCIATED with god or being godlike. Even though its doubtful the word Adonai has any significance in the cosmere, and its use is most likely a play on words, I think the intent behind its use is the same. So with all that said, here's what I think happened. In the few chapters Brandon posted of Liar of Partinel years ago, Yolen was depicted as a world where the gods were dead and the planet itself was in a state of slow decay, with all life being threatened by an unstoppable blight that was slowly consuming and transforming anything it came into contact with. Humanity huddled in cities built within dwindling circles of protection. Maybe the blight was a symptom of the gods being dead, maybe it was the work of the cosmere's Great Evil, maybe it was a completely natural force. Again, its possible all of this will change in the published version of Liar of Partinel when Brandon finally returns to it, but I think the basic setup there might still be similar. Picture a world whose people are faced with an evil slowly strangling the life out of their planet, with no hope of divine intervention, because all their gods are dead. So they decide to make a new one. Somehow, using some complicated bit of realmatic trickery, they harness the power of creation, tapping into the spiritual realm where it resides most fully and creating a physical manifestation of it, so it can directly manipulate the Physical Realm. They call this synthetic god Adonalsium. Maybe its a metal like atium, maybe its a place where the power can be concentrated, maybe its made up of little pieces of the world's dead gods, who knows. But like everything in the cosmere, it needs to exist across all three realms. It needs a cognitive aspect, someone to sit in the driver's seat. Someone needs to BE god. And this is where Hoid, the dragon and the rest of the opposition, including the original sixteen Shard holders come in. They're not all friends, some of them hate each other's guts, but they're all in agreement about one thing. Nuh uh, they say. No way. No one human can be trusted with the power of God. They're not going to just stand idly by while some human with delusions of grandeur ascends to godhood and remakes the whole universe according to his or her whims. They can't stop Adonalsium from being made, but they can make it less effective. They build a weapon that shatters it, splinters the power-of-creation-made-physical into sixteen Shards. Sixteen of them each become caretaker to a Shard, dedicated to keeping it safe and preventing it from falling into the wrong hands, lest anyone put Adonalsium back together again. Rayse ends up with Odium because truthfully, nobody else wants to go near that particular Shard. Hoid protests, but his concerns are ignored - it doesn't help that he'd abstained from taking a Shard, he didn't want that responsibility. With their newfound power, the Shardholders discover they aren't limited to this one little world anymore. They scatter around the cosmere, the better to keep the Shards apart from each other. Like Brandon always said, they have some choice on where they each end up, but not complete freedom as its decided that Ruin and Preservation should go somewhere together, in the hopes their opposing Shards will cancel each other out....Devotion and Dominion go somewhere together in the hopes their complementary Shards will balance each other - Devotion's presence softening Dominion's absolute tyranny even as Dominion's presence gives Devotion a slightly obsessive edge....Endowment's considered safe to be left on his or her own, and so on and so on. Time passes. They all, Hoid included, realize their mistake too late. They got their Realmatic Theory wrong. From the moment Adonalsium manifested a presence in the Physical Realm, it had a Cognitive aspect, even before bonding with a human mind. Like a spren in the Physical Realm without a Nahel bond, it didn't have full sapience, a personality of its own, but it had its own idea of what it meant to BE Adonalsium, to be God. When it was shattered, that fledgling cognitive aspect shattered too, becoming sixteen specific Intents. A spren bonded with a human mind is never going to overwhelm that human mind with its own cognitive aspect, because its too small a piece of Adonalsium. Its only a tiny splinter of a single Shard, its own identity not enough to supplant a human's idea of what it means to be him or herself. But a full Shard? No single human mind could compete. Eventually, every Shardholder's cognitive aspect warped, remolded until only the Shard's Intent remained. As the dragon said in his response, they, like Rayse, became more force than personality. And so, despite Hoid, the dragon, and the sixteen Shardholders' best intentions to prevent someone becoming God and ruling absolutely, they ended up with sixteen little gods and multiple worlds reshaped according to Adonalsium's designs, with countless billions of human lives rendered insignificant in the face of the Shards' grand power struggles and single-minded dedication to their Intents. Hoid hops from world to world desperately trying to do damage control while working towards some endgame he hopes will make things better. The dragon just wants him to butt out like he himself has so they don't make things even worse. Meanwhile, the 17th Shard, a collection of humans with knowledge of Adonalsium are convinced they know the secret 17th ingredient/Intent Adonalsium's original creators forgot to include, and if they can just put it back together again and add their extra 17th Intent (perhaps 'humanity'?) they can make everything right, but to do that they need Hoid to sit still and stop meddling. To which Hoid says 'oh you adorable little toddlers. I remember being that young and naive. Go play in the Purelake, the grownups are busy.' And that's what I think is going on.

Don't we have WoB that there are Splinters that are large enough that they have their own Intents? None that we've seen so far, but they do exist, I'm fairly certain he's confirmed....