Darkness

Sure, but she also prods Shallan into delving deeper and thinking about things critically. She speaks disparagingly about scholars over-presenting or wilfully misrepresenting cases, but she seems to value well-formed opinions based on objective truth.

These are all the epigraphs as released so far, spoilers for length. It reads like a book of its own, so I figured it would be handy to have them all parsed together. I organised them into tentative paragraphs where breaks made sense to me. The points that seem certain to me are: 1. The book was written by someone familiar with post-Recreance Alethi culture and directed at the same culture, referencing women reading and others perhaps listening to the words. 2. The author is seen as a Godless heretic, which they postulate may extend back as far as childhood. 3. The author has seen Shadesmar - and beyond. Whatever that means. They believed they were dead, but turns out it was something worse. 4. The author refers to experience as a she, which is interesting but not exactly telling. The example they use is a spice, which is fun considering men are the ones that traditional are familiar with spicy foods, but women are the intended audience for this book and would perhaps relate to the analogy of trying a spice better (point in favour of a female author?) 5. The author is no storyteller, philosopher, or poet, and believes the reader will be smarter than they themselves are. 6. The author killed someone that loved them 7. The author is in a position where ardents are comfortable presenting their demands. My best guess? The author is a contemporary Alethi female who is likely a proto-Radiant or full Radiant, has almost died, and is somewhat ostracized due to her heretical ideas, but does not back down from them. She values people drawing their own conclusions from presented facts. She is humble (or has been made humble, perhaps by experience) - or is being sarcastic with the 'smarter than I am' comment. She believes she killed someone that loved her. I am not entirely convinced, but I think it's Jasnah (I have literally no idea as of 28-30. Current Jasnah would never call herself a fool). 31-32 restored my belief that it's Jasnah... I give up haha. It's possible she believes she killed her father because she distracted him at a crucial moment when he was fighting Szeth. That or the killing hasn't happened or been explained yet. The main line that doesn't fit is the 'smarter than I am' line, and she could have been humbled. Anyway, that's all we get for now. I'll edit in future epigraphs as I get ahold of them. Stay Stormbright my Shardfriends

Well... They both believe that they are taking the best way to save the most people they can. In the process, they are both willing - though not pleased - to sacrifice a number of people both close to them and unknown. Amaram feels some small guilt, but excuses himself in the name of the greater good, allowing his sense of purpose to outweigh the continual moral dilemmas. Taravangian - depending on the day - seems to feel true remorse and wish he didn't have to be the one causing so much pain. To me, they are quite comparable, but I would give my sympathy vote to compassionate-Taravangian > Amaram > intellectual-Taravangian.

Welcome out from the shadowlands Unfortunately, I have to mention that Elhokar has made Dalinar the de facto King of Urithiru under the High King Elhokar, so he is on the path to becoming a king. But of course if the Nightwatcher meant only 'never King of Alethkar' then that is still viable. Remember though, for all we know the Nightwatcher gives what she sees fit, not necessarily what is requested by the petitioner.

I like Curiosityspren, but as I was reading this thread, I wondered if the name 'Releasers' might have some connection to the name of the spren-type, which would explain why they are prickly about it (the spren's natures might be altered over time if enough people's misconceptions about 'dustbringer spren' are proliferated). So how about it? Something like Releasers... Liberationspren? Freedomspren? From a different paradigm - Clarityspren?

I retract my statement and add it to my list of common misconceptions in the Cosmere However, while there is no explicit confirmation, I do find the Heralds extremely suspect with their super-Rosharan physical abilities, unorthodox appearances, and general sense of 'otherworldliness'.

wasn't there a part in WoR when Navani told Dalinar that he had really seemed to love Shshshsh? I think I'm correctly remembering something like that.

I think the boon may have been more like, "remove the pain of losing Evi". That addresses the issues decently well. 1. I don't see any evidence suggesting Navani is involved, so I took out the 'my wife' wording. 2. He is slowly remembering Evi, which could be a result of 4 things I came up with off the top of my head: They all preserve the active state of the boon. The loss happened long enough ago that he can remember some details without pain coming back, but too much restoration at once would cause him pain. Marrying Navani has helped my first point, filling the hole in his heart enough that he can remember Evi without pain. The pain fabrial is preventing the pain associated with his memories (that would mean he would forget at least a little bit if the fabrial is removed) Advancing a Radiancy level has caused the honor investiture in him to interfere with the Cultivation influence ("I accept the authority of the heralds" is the most likely oath in my mind). 3. In tWoK and WoR I don't recall him describing Evi's loss as 'painful'. In fact, I seem to remember him remarking that it was odd that he felt no pain when he heard people talk about her.

They also aren't originally from Roshar the planet, so 'not of the local variety' totally applies.

on that note, I'll be watching him closely to see if he does something to test if the other condition (non-Evi curse/boon) is still in effect or not. If he does something out of character, and then looks surprised or affirmed it may give a clue as to the nature of his curse/boon.

So Shallan still isn't allowed to play chess OR divide by zero I just can't relate to her haha. I wonder how much (if at all) the Stormlight shortage has affected Zahel, and how exactly he dealt with it.

I've seen dozens of topics on 'when' the Recreance happened, 'what' the secret is that broke the KR, 'why' they abandoned their shards en masse, and 'who' may or may not have taken part in the Recreance. This is not one of those topics. Right now I want to discuss 'how'. @The One Who Connects recently reminded me that abandoning oaths leads to a slower spren death/regression, while breaking oaths can straight up kill them. It seems that the Recreance happened rather suddenly, and we're told that multiple orders took part all at once. That, to me, screams of purposefully breaking an oath. It's possible that each order chose a different ideal to break, but more likely... which oath could all the Radiants break at once? Only the first. Life before death. Obviously the Radiants betrayed this oath when they killed so many sprenblades, but how do you break this oath to bring that about in the first place? I don't think this is a likely candidate for the broken oath. It felt more like the Radiants had a collective (probably very convincing) reason to abandon their posts, and I doubt they just did it in order to give up and die... at least they wouldn't have chosen to do that all at once. Strength before weakness. Similarly, if their weaknesses caused them to perform the Recreance, I feel like it would be more gradual, with only a few Radiants falling at a time. Again, I feel that - if they had a good reason for the Recreance - seeing it through and betraying their spren would take massive strength. Journey before destination. This seems most likely to me. If the Radiants discovered a 'secret' that broke them, it could be any one of the things that numerous other threads have discussed (again, don't derail my thread!) Regardless, I think it's safe to say that if the Radiants decided the Recreance was the only way to save humanity (or really any other very convincing end goal), then they would heroically go through with it despite the cost. While noble in theory, that attitude is wilfully putting destination before journey. I think making that choice is what allowed the Radiants to leave their shards as they did. I obviously have a lot of assumptions here Anyone have another idea on 'how' the Radiants were able to perform the Recreance as they did?

Agreed on the importance of distinguishing between types of addiction. Also agreed on Stormlight healing largely through Connection. However, if Stormlight can heal things like memory loss/blockage (Dalinar and Shallan), life-long poor vision (Renarin), and depression (I am indeed arguing that Stormlight healing has helped with Kaladin's SAD... I should probably ask Brandon about that sometime), I think addiction is well within its scope. Conversely, it can't even heal scars if the person doesn't want them gone, so I guess it would be harder for an addicted person to be healed (since addiction can do funny things to your willpower/desires) than someone who took an arrow to the knee. When asking if a Surgebinder can be addicted to something, the question is mostly about what they're addicted to, and if the healing factor would overcome it. We've seen that people can get addicted to Investiture. (Mistborn spoilers) Also, if the Thrill involves Odium Investiture - which I think it does (ignore pain, heightened strength) - then Dalinar definitely formed an addiction to that. But I don't think that we've seen someone get addicted to something other than Investiture while Invested. In fact, I'd argue the opposite: The closest thing in my opinion to Stormlight is Breath. Lightsong in particular was highly invested, drank a lot, never got drunk, and didn't seem to get addicted (interesting side note: Breath in large amounts cures disease, but not poisons. However, it does cure drunkenness... figure that one out). If I had to take a side, I'd say that you can't form an addiction to something while being Invested. Pre-formed addictions could remain if you considered them to be part of your identity. However, there is more than enough wiggle room and lack of evidence for Brandon to take it either way. Bonus: To address your final question, I vote Veil would be addicted and Shallan wouldn't be. Because she would grow to perceive Veil as addicted and fabricate it into her character, but Shallan would remain separate (for now).

Chapter 16 Shardplate... "related, but different". Ok, I'm taking that as a very ironic statement hinting that Shardplate is from the truespren's lesser cousin spren. I REALLY wanted Dalinar to remember his conversation in TWoK when Hoid asked him if he knew the word Adonalsium. So even if they get Odium to pick a champion and they win, all it buys is some time and Odium loses nothing? Ouch. Ooooo a tidereader! More Iriali history, please So Kadash is suggesting the visions could be the product of the princes of the Voidbringers... fair enough, the Unmade could very well do something like that. But is Kadash then suggesting that the Stormfather is one of those princes? Because that wouldn't go down well. There are a couple things I can think of for why Dalinar can now remember Evi. First, actively using Stormlight is new. He's held it before, but I don't think he's used a surge before (I believe the thing with Shallan was his resonance, not a surge). Second, and in my opinion more likely, he just spoke his next oath and the Honor investiture level is now high enough to interfere with Cultivation's influence over his mind: I don't think it happened before the line, "At the same time, Dalinar felt he’d needed this. He couldn’t explain why." But it did happen by the time he remembered Evi. The only thing that might constitute an oath? It would have to be something that could be said even in the first days of the Radiants. Ishar may have had a hand in crafting them, and he was the Bondsmith patron, so... "yes, I accept the authority of the Heralds." That's my best guess. Chapter 17 Children... huh. Good call! That card game sounds like an awesome mix of Chess and Magic. I shall call it "Mess". Harsh insight into Parshman life before the storm. Syl is so SMART! Wow that's ingenious! Hiding in plain sight from a Voidspren Chapter 18 Ok... if this whole thing becomes 'Shallan Lightweaves to better understand their enemy, but loses herself and becomes the champion, only to face off against Honor's champion and her betrothed, Adolin. Whoever wins the fight, they both lose, and Odium reigns. But wait! Odium doesn't understand love, and Adolin reaches Shallan and pulls her back into the light! Honor wins!' I quit. Shallan has tasted lye before? Oh my... wondering if she killed her brothers... I mean, I certainly don't trust Mraize, but that's a tangent, and... oh Shallan. "Can't you tell?" Haha, she may be able to heal her safehand, but she's going to need a new glove! I'm just throwing my lot in with the bloke that said the copy-murder thing was the influence of an Unmade. I no longer think anyone specifically watched and reproduced Adolin and Ned's actions. I'm guessing it's one of the less sapient Unmade. Man that segment was a rush! Looking forward to reading all your thoughts!

Nice call on that one

Forklift. *fades back into obscurity* Edit 1: Axies would be thrilled! The ever-elusive alespren, perhaps? Edit 2: It probably won't happen since Zahel has no reason to draw attention to himself, but I feel like Zahel would have some very good advice for Shallan regarding mental gymnastics/self-control. He has enough practise doing it without losing himself.

Yes, but times infinity

I know that Gawx was more assertive than the viziers had thought he would be, but it's still completely possible that the viziers have basically taken over Azir. The response Dalinar got from Yanagawn sounded way too bureaucratic to be Gawx by himself. I'm thinking the viziers are currently obfuscating the political climate and Gawx has very little real power. Re: @BlackYeti I agree with this, but even if I didn't... Adolin seems like the type of guy (read: honorable) that would hold himself up to a certain standard. Yes, he is certainly freaked out by his killing of Sadeas and the potential fallout, so he isn't bringing it into the light anytime soon. However, I think if 'they' (in the vague sense) found him out, and Elhokar decided to put Adolin on trial, then Adolin is the type of guy that would accept the consequences of his actions. If Elhokar demoted him and took away his Shards or exiled him, Adolin might ask for a formal duel to have the Almighty prove his side, but short of that I think Adolin will accept Elhokar's judgement because that's just the kind of guy he is. Disclaimer: The above is just my opinion, and may or may not have any basis in fact or bearing on reality.

I don't really think there is a precedent for removing dead Shardblades. If my suspicions are true, then Shardblades only die when the radiant sufficiently betrays their oaths. This was done en masse during the Recreance, but I suspect it was an extremely rare event during the Golden Era of the Radiants. Now that I think about it more, what I would personally do is burn the Radiant's body (the betrayer), and lay the spren (the betrayed) to rest in their native land (Shadesmar). It's possible there are a bunch of dead Shardblades hanging out in the Cognitive Realm. But again, I get the feeling it was a very rare event up until suddenly it all happened at once. Generally when a Radiant died of natural causes or trauma, I don't believe the spren would die alongside them. More likely they lost their ties to the Physical Realm and returned to Shadesmar, recovered with time, and eventually chose a new person to bond. So by the time there actually were a bunch of dead Shardblades to worry about, there were suddenly no Radiants or living Shardblades to do the worrying. It isn't my working theory, but it would actually make a good deal of sense if the order that remained had at least partial access to Shadesmar (explains why there aren't more blades).

My first thought was that Taravangian's "Radiant" was actually Palah. Possibly he figured out who she was awhile ago, possibly she just decided to surface. Either way he is definitely playing a deadly game.

Taking away the Thrill of contest mods? That's not very fun :'( haha

no luck so far, but I'm not giving up!

I've seen a few comments from people that seem to be thinking there's something funky (reads: magical) going on with either Shallan or Urithiru that makes her unable to draw it. I have to side with Shallan herself on this one, guys. 'She couldn’t get an angle from which to view the entire tower'... and, '"I’ve been trying to draw the tower,” Shallan said, “but I can’t get it from the right angle.” Maybe when Brightlord Brooding-Eyes returned, he could fly her to another peak along the mountain chain."' I think her unease is an understandable, non-magical response to her being unable to fathom something that is so alien to her. It's just a really, REALLY tall building that has 10 levels, each one tall in itself and much wider than the one above. Makes sense that the rims of the lower tiers would cut off the view of the tiers above them from a person standing on the ground. That's my reading of it anyway. Would be cool if Urithiru was made of super-special 'unhallowed stones' that somehow resisted magic and was messing with Shallan's ability, but I kind of doubt it in this case.

Upvoted. Thanks for going through and collecting all that I was wondering about him. Too little info for me to comment on him though I think for now.