Aether

My personal theory on the glowing Shardplate is that Dalinar is a very early stage Radiant, and when he acts properly Radiant-ish he causes his Shardplate to function better and begin glowing because it recognizes him as a Radiant and unlocks special features. But it's very subdued because he hasn't properly bonded with a spren.

 

Also, it's not entirely correct to say there's been no sign of a spren hanging around. During some battles he hears a faint voice that might originate from an honorspren. If it hates the Shardblade as much as Syl, it's probably been keeping its distance. Given that the bond is pretty weak, the honorspren probably isn't particularly distinguishable from a typical spren of its apparent type at the moment, if it's even particularly visible. Plus, my current theory has Dalinar as a Stoneward, mostly because he's in the devotary of Taln and both visions with Radiants in them in TWoK had a Stoneward. We know from Shallan and Jasnah that other orders have different forms of spren, so Dalinar might have a less-visible one.

Could you provide the page numbers? I'd like to reread the chapters where he hears voices.

Random thought...

 

We know that Nohadon was having trouble figuring out how to deal with spren who were forming bonds with questionable individuals.

 

We know that spren are somewhat chaotic in nature, but can be forced into a more ordered existence when something about them is written down.  The example of this that we see is a flamespren that keeps changing size until its size is recorded.  Then it stops changing size until the record is erased.

 

What if The Way of Kings is Nohadon using item #2 to address item #1?  Namely, the mere existance of copies of The Way of Kings prevents spren from fully bonding with individuals who don't adopt the relevent lessons from the book?

 

Is that possible?  I don't know.  But it might explain why Kaladin's recitation of a phrase (i.e. the second oath) that he was already more or less living would have such a dramatic and immediate impact on the battlefield.

This. Is. Gold.

 

Not necessarily correct, though, but a VERY astute observation, and quite likely true (at least in my book). UPVOTES FOR junior PLZ!

 

I would also like to indicate more clearly what other people already have mentioned. Geranid and Ashir's experiment is very clear that random numbers  - even if it might approximately relate to a specific Spren - have no effect. It has to be the measured value of a specific Spren. Thus, by analogy, just reciting quotes from the way of Kings would in no way bind or affect any Nahel Bond related Spren. Unless the correct Words are spoken in the right type of situation by an ideal candidate matching the corresponding Ideals of his Order.

 

I love how this would also give Nohadon means of binding or at least forming the bonding Spren to certain ideals without resorting to Dawnshards or contracts with Honour (or even rediscovering lost ideals). By writing the book, and intending each of the parables to refer to specific types of "Nahel Spren", he could alter how the Nahel bond worked. I am tempted to embrace this theory right her, right now (*frantically looking for the I told you so thread*).

Sorry for posting that twice. iPhone always does it.

And so you ended up tripple-posting ! xD

I have never handed out so many upvotes before. This thread is awesome, especially since I'm already a fan of Kaladin/Jasnah or Kalasnah (prefer that do Jasnahdin or whatever). I've already suggested it in FeatherWriter's shippingthread, but I havent' been able to formulate it as well as several of you guys in this thread.

 

I support the proposed “shipping,” but I'm not so much comfortable with the supporting arguments of the OP.

 

• I don’t agree with Kaladin being an “academic,” per se. He is fairly well educated for a soldier, but he’s not even a fully trained surgeon. 
• Kal is honorable, I will give you that, but I also don’t know if he is the character who values peace the most in the Stormlight Archives; he just appears to be against senseless killing. 
• I question the speculation of 1) Jasnah being sexually abused; and 2) Kaladin disabusing her of her notions about men. 
• etc... (Argent has some good counters to the assertions of the OP, as well)

 

Having said all of that, I can see the potential coupling of Kaladin and Jasnah. 

 

First, let’s assume that Kal will be paired up with someone in the series.  I don’t see him getting back with Laral; I think that chapter of his life is closed.  I reject the pairing of Kaladin and Shallan; I think it’s too “storybook romance” for the born-poor hero and the innocent noble heroine to find each other and band together to defeat the bad guys.  I’d be shocked if Brandon did that (although he could always try to turn that trope on it’s head).  Kal could end up with someone else we haven’t been introduced to yet; that’s always possible.  But as of the end of TWoK, I think Jasnah is the best fit.

 

Second, Brandon likes to challenge convention and I think the Jasnah/Kaladin pairing would do that.  Why not have the mature/ educated/non-traditional princess who’s kind of a rebel pair with the once-naïve/hard-on-his-luck/now-empowered countryman with aspirations for doing the best for his people (the Bridgemen).

 

Also, I believe that Jasnah could find Kal intriguing.  He’s clearly not your average man.  A dark-eyes who rescued her uncle and cousin from treachery, while being a slave? Who was then elevated to Captain and is personably responsible for the safety of her uncle, cousins, brother, and likely, herself?  Plus, it is likely that he will be respectful and properly deferential, but I don’t see him being meek or timid around her.  Kaladin has shown that he will stand up to Light-eyes and not blindly follow any fool notion.  I could see someone like Jasnah respecting that.  I could also see the puzzle of an educated, former-bridgeman who is trained in surgery as somewhat fascinating to someone like Jasnah.

 

As for why Kaladin would be into Jasnah?  She's intelligent, she's confident, she's resourceful, she speaks her mind (something I'm sure he'd respect), she's pragmatic, she's capable, etc.  Assuming that WoR shows Kaladin's progression towards having-faith-in/trusting (certain) Light-eyes again, as well as showing his exposure to other Surgebinders, Jasnah would be a logical option (and yes, I know that Shallan would too, but I still reject that pairing  )

 

So it's something I would pull for in The Stormlight Archive, and would love to see the genesis of it begin in WoR.

Best arguments for a Kaladin/Jasnah relationship.

 

I don't have the book with me now but I'm pretty sure he talks about his dead people regret list, then mentions Tarah and specifically thinks that he failed her in a different way than others. I read it as he screwed up the relationship and regrets it now.

Tarah is mentioned on The Way of Kings pages 874 and 880. She is quite subtly not mentioned in the "death-list" of page 919.

 

Honestly, I don't see a romantic interest for Kaladin really.

 

Jasnah is far too mindful of her status as well as too obsessive of her studies to consider a relationship. She seems to distain romance almost as childish.

 

Plus the scandal of a princess being involved with a darkeyes!

 

That is not even to consider Kaladin's innate distrust of all lighteyes.

 

I also think Shallan would infuriate Kaladin. One of the things Kaladin hate about the lighteyes is their ability to talk in knots and use clever words to demean others. He may well see this in Shallan's quick tongue because of his prejudice.

 

I can see Shallan / Adolin / Renarin love triangle as a thing definitely.

I honestly do not see the charm of a Shallan/Adolin. Am I the only one who kind of liked Dalan and hopes Adolin stays with her? Shallan/Renarin, on the other hand, is cute.

I am surprised no one in this thread has suggested the Highstorms as a possible body of one of the Shards. It is attributed to Jezrien a.k.a. Stormfather in Vorin mythology, sure, but it's true origin (or rather Origin) might still be "Shardic".

 

 

It would fit the description of a Shardic body though:

• it has a physical representation (the Stormwinds) in the Physical Realm (or at the very least have physical consequences)
• it provides a leak from the Spiritual Realm and/or Cognitive real from which one can draw power - or in this case store it in Spheres to use at a later time - much like Mistborn/Seers could burn Atium and Vin draw upon the mists.

 

 

EDIT: I somehow completely missed that the very first post referred to the Highstorms as a possible candidate for the body of Honour. And just to follow up on that, I am not sure we need the Gemhearts to be the actual body of any one of the Shards. They are the consequence of leaks of spiritual powers, but not necessarily directly from the body of a Shard. It might just be the creatures of Roshar's way of harnessing the power of the Highstorms / harnessing the body of a Shard.

I would agree that, from the get-go, Moash appears to have some dark secret in his past (...but then, don't all of the Bridgemen?  ).  I don't see your theory as impossible or even improbable; I just don't know if we have enough information at this point to really back it.

 

I will say that in my multiple readings of WoK, I am consistently finding myself not trusting Moash's dedication to Kaladin's goals as much as the other Bridgemen's dedication.  Moash seems to support Kaladin because of what Kaladin can teach and do for him (first he wants to learn the spear, then he is the first to ask to Kaladin to teach him how to Surgebind).  I still am not convinced that Moash is as loyal to Kaladin and his goals; moreso that Moash sees Kaladin as a means-to-an-end; and as long as Kaladin's efforts positively impact Moash, Moash will go along with them.  

 

The Chapter 2 reading shows us that Moash still holds himself separate from the group (the tattoo) and also shows him trying to maximize the benefits of Kaladin's actions and new-found position for all of the Bridgemen as much as he can (his request to learn the sword).

 

I just think we should pay more attention to what Moash wants and his actions in WoR...

I sincerely hope not. I liked the character development of Moash; he has become one of my favourites.

 

And while I am already not inclined to believe this, I also find it rather unlikely. Moash repeatedly volunteers to life-threatening missions (such as playing the Parshendi-bones decoy, following Kaladin at the battle of the Tower etc.), which would be highly uncharacteristic if he was primarily self-serving. I do believe he has double motives for what he is doing, but his (apparent) fierce loyalty to Kaladin seems sincere.

 

Also, I wouldn't put to much into what you've read from the WoR chapter. First of all, he never had a slave-brand (which most - if not all - of the others had), so it isn't too strange that he didn't want it to have the "Freedom" glyph on his face, which would suggest he was once a slave. Secondly, if Moash think the Lighteyes position in society to be highly unfair and/or unjustified, then him wanting to learn how to use a sword isn't too much of a stretch either. He wants to elevate his position, no doubt about that (he's pretty much said so already), but not necessarily through nefarious means (at least not to Kaladin)

I think it's high time for me to poke a few holes in my own theory:

 

First of all, it is based on a partially wrong premise. Whereas I described Dalinar's armour glowing in "a burst of brilliant white light", turns out the actual quote is much more subtle:

 

Dalinar held back the claw and matched it's strength, a figure in dark, silvery metal that almost seemed to glow.

 - The way of Kings, p. 209 (my bold lettering).

It is, in other words, a lot less dramatic then I previously indicated.

 

Secondly, this is not the only time a similar thing happens to Dalinar later in the book, when he rescues Kaladin's squad right after the latter used his Parshendi-amour dance-diversion. This time he is far away from any other potential surgebinder:

 

       Parshendi fell before the sweeping Blade of the Shardbearer, some topling into the chasm, others scrambling back. The rest died with burned out eyes. In seconds, the squad of fifty archers had been reduced to corpses.

       The Shardbearer's honor guard caught up with him. He turned, armor seeming to glow as he raised his Blade in a salute of respect toward the bridgemen. Then he charged off in another direction.

- The Way of Kings, p. 876 (my bold lettering)

It thus seems unlikely that Elokhar would have had anything to do with the glow of Dalinar's armour, since the latter reproduces it at a later time without him.

 

It could be argued that the King could have done it in the first instance, and his uncle reproducing it by himself at this much later event, by this time having advanced enough in "honour" to attract a spren and thus becoming able to Surgebind on his own. While certainly plausible, it would be improbable, as Dalinar's PoV chapters have shown no signs of any Spren lurking around him, and Occam's Razor would otherwise reject this theory anyway.

 

The other possible explanation is, of course, that Dalinar himself was the origin of the effect in both cases, which again would suggest a more mundane source of the rather extraordinary effects. He is after all a Master of the Shardplate, far outstripping any other known Shardbearer in skill.

 

While I find that my original theory doesn't hold water after all, I do believe there is something to these two events. Knowing Sanderson's chronic tendency of subtle forshadowing, I refuse to believe this isn't going to become important to some degree later in the story.

 

 

 

EDIT: 

But the key aspect there is that he noticed the surge of power.  Whereas, there doesn't appear to be any cognizence of any sort of power surge from any of Dalinar, Elhokar, or Adolin.  This is especially poignant when you consider the quantity of stormlight held in Elhokar's plate gems as compared to the palty amount that Kaladin carried at any given time.

I didn't make myself clear enough, I apologise for that. What I mean to say is that, even though such an enormous surge of power would surely have been noticed, it could have passed quickly enough for them not to realise what was happening at all. Given that they were in a rather dire situation, it could easily be overshadowed  by panic, and/or adrenaline. Maybe even the Thrill. If this was a one-off event, it could likely have been forgotten afterwards, since it probably wouldn't have been an event that Elokhar/Dalinar could reproduce.

I don't think Dalinar could have use Elohkar's spheres, Shard plate would have by necessity a blocking ability to prevent storm light from being drained from the spheres. Other wise Radiants would be way to easy to take down, just drain the sphere and bam they can't move.

 

I don't think Elohkar could have taken in the storm light and not noticed. The gems to power a suit are larger bigger even then probably all of the ones Kalladin had at any given time. I suppose it is possible that he immediately breathed it out. I wonder if the other groups of Radiants are even able to take in storm light like Kalladin and lift.

Well, there is the theory that Shardplates might not originally have been powered by Spheres, but by the KR wearing it. The Sphere slots themselves (if there indeed were any in the Plate in it's original form) could have been to house spare Spheres.

 

Also, I think it plausible that whomever used the Stormlight could have done so without noticing. Whatever one of them did would have had to happen so suddenly and forcefully that they might not have had enough time to notice - or at least realise - what they were doing. Kalladin had several instances where he got a sudden surge of power without knowing whence it came, or even that it was happening in the first place.

I like the theory but I think we need just a little more information to either confirm or refute it.

Umm...it's a stretch, but maybe Illumination can...bequeath Stormlight? Like Dalinar catches the claw and, rather then being serial crushed by a huge friggin' claw and having his armor and body exploded, Elhokar infuses his Stormlight into Dalinar's Plate. Think of it like your bank automatically transferring some money into your Checking account from your Savings account to prevent you from overdrawing.

Nice thought. I was playing around with the idea of creating a flash of light and then Soulcasting that. Somehow. ... ... ... Needless to say, I discarded that idea.

 

There has been discussion of Elhokar unwittingly using the stormilight from him plate gems and talk of Dalinar unwittingly using it.  Nothing very conclusive.  I don't see anything in the known (or suspected) Lightweaver skillset that would account for such a use of surgebinding.  Basically, I don't see how an illusion or soulcasting would have done anything there.  Alaxel's idea of a donation of light to Dalinar makes more sense, but without further info...

O_o, it didn't even occur to me that Dalinar might have been the one using the gems. Even so, I find it highly doubtful, as either of the plates might have interfered with it (as per Szeth's quote) plus the assumed fact that he didn't have a Spren at that point. Elokhar had at the very least attracted them.

Plate interferes in Szeth's Lashings; I personally assume that's to protect the bearer from hostile Investiture and works in both directions. I'm on record as saying Radiants can attune to the armor so it allows their own Surgebinding through, but I'm less than sure an entry-level Radiant would be able to do it. Also, Dalinar's Shardplate glows during that fight and on occasions where Elhokar is not present. 

 

Still, the suspiciously cracked gems could indicate he drained them unconsciously. I don't think his Plate took enough abuse to actually empty and thus crack the gems unless they were barely charged to begin with, and that would be noticeable when donning the armor. I think he only absorbed Stormlight like Kaladin does, though. Or he subconsciously tried to transform something, the Plate interfered, the Stormlight was wasted, and the gems got overstressed both powering and countering a surge.

 

On the other hand, there is additional evidence that an actual assassination attempt happened. The Chasmfiend moved unexpectedly and attacked the plateau instead of emerging onto the far plateau to go after the bait team. I'm not sure how you'd arrange either that or the cracked gems, but it was suspiciously conveniently timed. With an unexpected attack by a Chasmfiend that large and sabatoged Plate, Elhokar was at significant risk of death even without the cut strap. I guess you could get it to happen by using a set of gems a lot and then sticking them into the Plate; usually they'd be in a rotation because the oldest ones crack and are replaced by fresh ones. Also, even if he did use them for Surgebinding, it's still suspicious so many cracked. Jasnah Soulcasts a lot, but only transforming two humans at a distance shattered her gems.

When does Dalinar's plate glow other that when defending Elokhar (presumably literally standing over him, within touching range)?

 

If Jasnah's kill spree cracked two gems, then imagine what STOPPING A GIANT CHASMFIEND CLAW might do to the Spheres. I believe that it is well within the realm of plausibility that Surgebinding on that magnitude - whether on the part of Dalinar or Elokhar - might more or less deplete and/or crack eight fully Infused Spheres.

 

 

Also: another thought, if we allow the possibility that Dalinar's latent powers might have been what saved them, then I think we need for him only to absorb and hold the Stormlight - just like Kalladin does for the fight with the Parshendi - for it to produce that effect. It would have made him a lot stronger, and the expenditure of that amount of Stormlight in a blink of a second would have produced the burst of light.

 

 

EDIT:

 

 

I've long been a proponent of the theory that the drained gems were a result of Elhokar unknowingly draining them himself. Note, though, that he doesn't have to actually do anything useful with that stormlight though, in order to drain the gems. He probably simply held the stormlight for a short time and let it drain out without using it for much. At his stage of development, he can probably hold it for only a few seconds, much like Szeth. 

 

And regarding the Cryptics - we have no confirmation at this point that they are the spren exclusive to the Lightweavers. In fact, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to the contrary, in my opinion. Every other Radiant order we've seen so far (which is 3; the Windrunners, the Edgedancers, and order 5) bonds with a spren that resembles a "regular" spren, but has awareness and directly communicates with the Radiant. The Cryptics are markedly different on several fronts; they travel in a group rather than singly; they have no resemblance to "regular" spren types; and at least for Shallan, they seem to require an "exchange" in order to produce a surgebinding effect. Also, Elhokar and Shallan perceive them very differently; she sees them subconsiously in her drawings while he sees them in mirrors. Now, it's possible that this all has to do with the somewhat unique nature of the Soulcasting surge. But it's also possible that the Cryptics are an entirely different class from Honorspren, and may represent a separate way of becoming a surgebinder. My point here is that just because Elhokar sees Cryptics doesn't mean he's going to be a Lightweaver. 

 

Good point. Upvote for you.

That Elokhar is a Surgebinder is nothing new. He sees the same type of Spren as Shallan and is thus most likely a Lightweaver. But I think he might be further down the rabbit hole than we previously realized, as I believe he might have started Surgebinding already at the beginning of The Way of Kings.

 

 

Think back on the Greatshell hunt and the apparent assassination attempt. The cut saddle was

, but they all seemed convinced that the almost empty Spheres powering Elokhar's Shardplate was a sign of an actual assassination attempt. But since he has already been seeing the "Truthsprens" for some time by this point (as manifested by his accruing paranoia), it would be much of a stretch to assume that he might inadvertently have depleted those Spheres himself during the assault on the Chasmfiend itself or prior to its appearance.

 

 

 

 

Now, I haven't the book with me right now - I shall have to look it up at a later time - but if this is indeed the case, then there might be room to reinterpret the events of the fight with the Greatshell altogether. Elokhar almost got crushed by the claw of the Chasmfiend, but Dalinar was able to save him by taking the blow upfront  and holding its claw back. This produced a burst of brilliant white light just as he caught the claw, just before the beast itself fell and was subsequently killed. While some think that the burst of light from Dalinar might have been either himself using latent Surgebinding abilities (which doubt, as he had probably not attracted a spren at this point) or just an effect of his whole Shardpate cracking (thus leaking Stormlight all over), I propose that this might actually have been Elokhar unwittingly using his Nahal Bond to Surgebind and save himself and his uncle - and thus depleting the Spheres in his armour and producing the flash of Stormlight.

 

I find this to sound quite plausible, though I have to admit that the audacity of this foreshadowing borders on the insane - and even so managed to escape detection for a long time, at least by me.

 

 

 

EDIT: A weak point to the theory though is that - assuming he is indeed a Lightweaver - his particular Surges wouldn't seem to (at least not intuitively) produce the effects of this particular scenario. The Soulcasting Surge of Transformation wouldn't have been able to help Dalinar hold back the Claw as nothing seems to have been Soulcast, and the Illumination Surge - while certainly able to produce a bright flash of light - would probably not be able to produce this kind of effect. 

 

On the other hand, the limits of either Surge are not well defined at this point, so even though neither seem to have an intuitive application that could have stopped the Chasmfiend claw, there might still be and *cough* unintuitive one.

A handful of people have discovered that if they spout off a number of empty platitudes about Renarin, or mention how unbelievably awesome he is, then ship him with Lift or something, then they get upvoted for a post with very little substance. This is the very first thread I have been in where people are flat out jockying for upvotes, and getting them.

Here! Have an upvote!

They also asked after Shallan specifically, so if they are looking for the Shardblade then they probably have an idea that she has it. Although that raises the question of why they don't just get Kabsal to kill her -- he could have done so easily. 

Well, if killing the entire Davar family would look suspicious, killing the ward of the Alethi King's sister wouldn't look strange at all. Besides, Kabsal was using her to get to Jasnah. Wouldn't make much sense to kill her before they could do that.

I can't believe http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4516-new-info-renarins-spren/page-7#entry72669 did not get me any votes... i gave you the spoiler for the entire book, ppl!

Here. Have one from me. This type of nonsensical and radical theorycrafting deserves an upvote at the very least for the effort!

Erm, if they would want teh shardblade they would kill everyone there. The blade would have to appear

Well, they could, but that wouldn't look suspicious at all. They might not be an important family, but every family member murdered might get them unwanted attention.

As for the rest of you, I would implore you to avoid saying bad things about Renarin, FeatherWriter here becomes a dangerous person when provoked in that manner

IS there really anything bad to say about Renarin? He seems like the most gentle person ever. I just hope I get to read about him blowing stuff up.

I know it's not the most likely Order, if Renarin indeed becomes a KR, but I SO want to see him as a Dustbringer! Imagine how cool it would be, to give the kind and gentle character of Renarin - almost to the point of passivity - being given the power to blow s**t up!

Ten of thousands of Blades and Plates are just as likely to be missing as a thousand. (Man that sounds weird to say). These artifacts are the RL equivalent of Nukes. Losing a thousand nukes is unlikely. Losing 10 thousand is also unlikely. But if someone/ group had the time, money, and ability to steal a thousand nukes from America, it's not so far fetched they can take 10x that number.

Edit: alright it is more unlikely, but is it prohibitively more unlikely?

Well, the likelihood of such a group in the first place s rather slim (I mean, stealing that many nukes without getting caught? That would employ way to many people to keep it secret (unless they just bribed the guys at the airport security ("Yeah, I GUESS that bulge in your pants it's just your way of showing your happy to see me"))).

 

But yeah, if you really push it, I guess it could be said to be possible (in the strictest sense of the word) that there are tens of thousands of blades lost, though highly unlikely. But then the chance of people just randomly finding Shards while exploring or maybe even just farming the land would skyrocket, but there is no in-world information of this ever happening. Shards are earned by killing a Shardbearer, not by (re-)discovering them.

I share the belief that the Shards were tied directly to their bearers, and to their bond. I believe what happened at the Recreance was that those we saw broke their spren bonds and as the spren bonds were broken their bonds to their shards were also broken.

 

 

I believe that this was why the Shards remained. This is why they didn't crumble away when the Radiant they were bonded to died. I believe this is why even now, as crippled as they are, the blades still cause their wielders to feel possessive of them. This is why Sylphrena was lost in the physical drifting upon the winds until she found Kaladin. This is why she loathes those blades. They are a reminder of what was lost. They are a reminder of honorable men turning their backs on what is right and good.

 

You want a third type of Shardblade, this is your third type. To say that a Radiant Blade is the same as a modern Shardblade is to say that a corpse is the same a living person.

You really have a nice poetic way of putting it. And it ties in with what I believe to be the three types of Shardblades: Honourblades, "Radiantblades" and post-recreance Radiantblades.

Well, it doesn't seem that unlikely that Jasnah at least becomes curious of Kaladin, if what he can do with Stormlight ever becomes known to the Kholins (which is rather likely, considering he's now become leader of Dalinar's Honourguard). Purely in a scholarly way, of course, at least in the beginning, but as she discovers more about his background, his medicinal talents - and not in the least his rather unusual knowledge of Glyphs - that interest might turn into something more., especially considering that he has many of the qualities that she can respect.

 

I suppose the reverse - Kaladin taking interest in Jasnah - might be more difficult to believe, but she is one of the more honourable Lighteyes (at least in her own way). She's also very strong of character, and not in need of protection - both of which I believe that Kaladin would appreciate and need in a woman.

 

 

EDIT: @WeiryWriter: Jaladin xD. Personally, I prefer Kalasnah.

 

 

EDIT 2.0: @Gloom: And how the hell are you everywhere on this forum! I mean, kudos for your prolificacy!

I hesitate to dip my toes into this, but am I the only one finding a Jasnah/Kaladin match up to be potentially far more interesting than "Shallarin" or "Kalarin"?

Edit: I would much like a link to where I can see this quote form Brandon about all surges or orders having three lashings each.

I've asked for it myself somewhere, but so far, no one has been able to produce it.

There are several references in TWoK to suggest that shards are highly personal items:

 

1/ They are all unique - works of art even. I think probably tailor made for each individual.

 

2/ Dalinar says on numerous occasions that someone else weilding his blade feels wrong.

 

Not conslusive I grant you, but I am more incluned to believe that there was a way to destroy the blades rather than hand them down.

I am not inclined to believe there are tens of thousands of blades lying around, but your last suggestion seems reasonable. Plus, it has a nice way of avoiding ridiculous amounts of blades as well as making them remain highly personal.

I think there is an even bigger question here:

 

The 300 left in the Recreance vision are 2 orders of the last generation of knights only. But we know that the Radiants existed for several hundred years at least, maybe more.

 

If we assume that there were say 1000 sets of shards (plate and blade) in the hands of the KR at the time of the Recreance vision.

 

If we assume that ther orders we in existance for 500 years, that is ~10 generations so we could be looking at 10,000 sets in total unaccounted for. 

 

Unless they were handed down (I think this very unlikely) or unless there is a way to destroy the plate and blades, that is a lot of shards unaccounted for.

Why would it be unlikely for them to be handed down? These are highly powerful weapons, and it seems irresponsible and unlikely for them to make them in the tens of thousands.

Forgot about that WoB (Tanavast dead). Thx, Shardlet.

 

Now:

 

* honorspren existed before Honor was splintered (and Tanavast killed)

* honorblades (heavily invested object by honor) existed before Honor was splintered 

 

=> where are the splinters formed when Tanavast was killed? Corresponding to a huge amount of investiture... ?

I don't think Roshar become honorspren land overnight. Also, with so many honorspren around, KR ranks would have been seriously inflated. Surgebinding would not have been "forgotten".

There are WoB suggesting that there is now much more spren around than there used to be. Presumably, the general Spren population was inflated, but mostly by hundreds upon thousands (or something) of lesser spren with too little investiture to gain sentience.