Darkness

An explanation was given right in the text. I think that section needs a careful reread. "A golden light, brilliant yet terrible. Standing before it, a dark figure in black Shardplate. The figure had nine shadows, each spreading out in a different direction, and its eyes glowed a brilliant red." The figure in Shardplate is standing before the golden light, which I took to be Odium's Champion standing before Odium. Then the Stormfather straight up answers Dalinar about the shadows and light: “What was that light I saw?” he whispered. I saw no light, the Stormfather said. “It was brilliant and golden, but terrible,” Dalinar whispered. “It bathed everything in its heat.” Odium, the Stormfather rumbled. The enemy. The god who had killed the Almighty. The force behind the Desolations. “Nine shadows,” Dalinar whispered, trembling. Nine shadows? The Unmade. His minions, ancient spren." I guess since Elhokar was noted as still recovering? That part didn't feel fleshed out enough for me either tbh

Yeah I was just trying to find a place to post those too haha. The first isn't so much a typo as an inconvenient set of phrases. There probably should be a line break in there to show that Dalinar is responding, but I don't think it's mandatory by the 'rules'. Other thoughts: I personally would put that as Plate-from-Light confirmation, though it is somewhat suspicious. Still could be something completely different. About the Champion, it seems like Dalinar could have been recognizing the eyes for a few reasons. Off the top of my head: 1. It was Eshonai. 2. It was Adolin. 3. He just recognized the Thrill, but not the person Odium's color seems to be golden, of all things. Golden, brilliant, and terrible. If this is actually the case, Brandon is destroying all sorts of tropes haha. The number is 9, confirmed. Going to be keeping an eye on Adolin's wrist. I'm now expecting a few awesome Shallan/Renarin practising viewpoints. I guess we now know where the name 'blackthorn' came from So gooooood!

Let's not put spoilers in this thread, though I have to say I'm sorely tempted haha.

IT'S UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!

Hey, welcome to the Shard, @Aciilnt Stormblessed ! I'm a little late, but I hope you enjoy the community! We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions here at the shard, but lurking in dark alleys is always fun, too While lurking on the shard, don't forget to take a complementary baked good we'll be branching into pastries soon, but for now I hope you enjoy a delicious cookie!

My mind is blown In Canada they just use Eastern Standard Time - EST and apply daylight savings as per usual. To be honest, I'd never even heard of EDT until this thread. Now that I'm read up it makes more sense to me. But more relevant to this thread, yes it'll be 9am EDT. 83 minutes!!!

It'll be an hour and a half from now (93 minutes if they are right on the money)

Crackpot theory time: The voice in the rhythms was Taln. He was driven to the brink of madness and wanted out of torture, so he orchestrated the whole intricate thing to restart a desolation so he could end the tortue without completely breaking Odium's prison wide open. End crackpot theory.

Prologue excerpt that made me love Eshonai:

didn't the patriarch on Sel have ridiculous long golden hair too? Just throwing that out there. Honestly I missed the whole "4th of 7" thing, but it's really cool! My first instinct is that it's folklore that descends from the laypeople's perspective on the shattering Adonalsium. Not too hard to imagine that common people cant believe their God would get shattered without wanting to do it for some godly reason. Ambition and Curiosity are fun thoughts, but they dont really draw the same parallels textually that Adonalsium does for me. That said, I would love it if the Iriali were Ambition's last grand plan for survival. The legend of 7 planets sounds like a shard (or Adonalsium) that had considerable foresight. It also indicates to me that at least the Iriali will flee Roshar by the end of the Stormlight Archive, if not sooner. This is too juicy a prophecy not to get to by the end of the Cosmere story.

that's just the thing. Like Jasnah, Navani wasn't really mentioned in the previous prologues. She was presumably off doing her own thing. It's a completely blank creative space that could easily be used as an engaging plot element. For example, maybe Navani was in the background and retreated with the women when the night wore on, perhaps she was pulling political strings and setting plans into motion. Perhaps she spent a portion of the evening with Aesudan. I wouldn't have guessed Jasnah was meeting with Liss, so initially I would have said "what could Jasnah possibly add?"

I was hoping that Nalan would be the prologue focus for Szeth's flashback book, but I have to agree that it doesn't seem too likely Hoid could be a fun one, he'd been running around on Roshar for a while before becoming Wit. I wonder if he was even at the feast... Maybe we could get Navani's viewpoint?

I have a head canon on this: Basically, the orders were formed as spren learned to do for men what the honorblades do for heralds. The surgebinders then sought out the patronage of the heralds that had powers correlating to their own. The heralds adopted the orders over time, some weren't as enamored by the idea of underlings as others: "And thus were the disturbances in the Revv toparchy quieted, when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, Nalan’Elin betook himself to finally accept the Skybreakers who had named him their master, when initially he had spurned their advances and, in his own interests, refused to countenance that which he deemed a pursuit of vanity and annoyance; this was the last of the Heralds to admit to such patronage." It seems to me that Nalan only took in the Skybreakers in order to enforce the law upon the Revv toparchy. Regardless, the orders petitioned the heralds, and the heralds eventually accepted them. However, this means that there was a time when the orders existed before having patrons: the spren chose what type of surgebinders to bond to (determining a general set of character traits for the members of each order) and the patrons were chosen based on their powers, not their personalities, which may or may not have been similar to the spren ideals of the given order. The heraldic structure doesn't necessarily correlate to the hierarchy of the orders either. Jezrien was the leader of the heralds, while bondsmiths were leaders of the Radiants, and were led by Ishar. Again, that was determined by the correspondence of their surges, not personalities. -- end head canon -- On an unrelated note, my gut feeling is that the blade with all 10 orders engraved was simply decorated as a political / idealogical statement, and isn't an honorblade or special in any other way.

I like that idea, but wouldn't we need a site admin to make such a subsection? Also, the math I was referring to is the following hypothetical schedule: Aug 22: Prologue Aug 29: 1-3 Sept 5: 4-6 Sept 12: 7-9 Sept 19: 10-12 Sep 26: 13-15 Oct 3: 16-18 Oct 10: 19-21 Oct 17: 22-24 Oct 24: 25-27 Oct 31: 28-30 -->Nov 7: 31-32<--

This probably wont work simply because there will be people on the shard creating threads that haven't seen this one. We can definitely have "Chapter 1-3 thread" etc in the mix, but it wont be an exclusive board. on another note... Does the math mean we only get chapters 31-32 on the last week?! I'm outraged! The injustice! I demand... Nothing actually... I am grateful, and I demand nothing

wasn't there also a sequence in the books discussing certain brightlords 'breeding' parshmen?

This is unique! But I could have written your comment word for word if I put in Australia instead of South Africa and mid-exam instead of finals

Just popping by to add that even Navani believes he's a horrible king. Good person, yes, but bad king. Once she broaches the subject Dalinar can see it too. I would tend to trust to her assessment of Elhokar rather than Kaladin's or Dalinar's (who are both biased in opposite directions). Navani is biased because she is his mother, but I subjectively feel that she is capable of seeing Elhokar more objectively lol. Also, for my personal stance, I think he is a sincere person in his desire to be good, which goes a long way with me. He is even willing, against all societal proprieties, to ask for help and listen to a darkeyes. Yes he is prejudiced, yes he is paranoid, yes he is deeply flawed in many other ways, but he has my sympathy. If he were a real person, he would have my loyalty if he demonstrated to me that he could humbly accept advice, apologize when he is wrong, and learn from his mistakes. All 3 of those are shaky, but they have been demonstrated a little bit. I'm right on the edge of love/hate for him depending on his future decisions and growth.

if that's the only WoB on the matter, I have to say I'm not convinced in the reasoning that he deems himself unworthy. People can be bad at relationships and unconsciously sabotage themselves for many reasons, not just feelings of inadequacy. Although, if he really goes all out to sabotage his relationship with Shallan now that she's a proven radiant, that goes a long way toward proof for me. He hasn't shown any signs of sabotage with Shallan, but it could be interesting if he does start backing off once he sees just how opposite of inadequate/unworthy she is. I definitely want some insight into Adolin's motive, but please please please stick to WoB or textual examples for me. I tend to subconsciously rebel when subjective opinion and loose interpretation is presented as fact Eager to see what comes out of this thread!

I get the joke, but it's actually a really good question, and I'm fairly convinced it's Taravangian

The order of Pagerunners to the rescue again

When the heralds are alive and on Roshar, do they have to consume/use stormlight to maintain their functional immortality?

I do think that being a Knight Radiant could extend your age limit, but I dont think we should compare stormlight to breath as far as age extension goes. Breath is constitutive; it is more or less permanently active for as long as you hold it and dont awaken things or give it away, the passive benefits even apply while sleeping. Stormlight seems a lot more transient; as in, it might stop the aging process, but only while the Radiant is holding a large amount of it, which I would generally see as seconds to minutes at a time in most scenarios. Dalinar hasn't had the opportunity to hold massive amounts of stormlight, so while his body may be healthy and in great conditions, I doubt his age has been functionally extended thus far. Still, as has been mentioned, he isn't really all that old yet. Not enough to be expected to die of old age by book 10 for me. I personally think that he'll either die in an inspirational moment in the first 5, or end up being a sage-type in the back 5 who stays away from the battlefield, provides wisdom, and dedicates himself to recording as much knowledge as he can for those who survive the desolation.

I dont agree with 5 or 6, but I love the rest of them!

your name is just too good! Actually I did that completely subconsciously... Just picking a word that was like 'speedreaders' haha