Colby Jack

This just reminded of Stargate. In that show, there was a race called the Wraiths. They mainly feed on the lifeforce of humans, sometimes to the extinction of whole worlds. But see, there are too many Wraiths around but too little of the humans to actually satisfy them all in any permanent way. So in order to prevent the actual extinction of the humans, their whole race force themselves into a self-induced coma. They hibernate for hundreds/thousands/millions of years and allow their prey to replenish their numbers in that time. The Wraiths don't just do this once or twice. To them, it's a cycle too. Once they awakens and find all those juicy humans spread out across the universe, with a particularly tasty Earth and its seven billion population, they wet themselves with joy and begin their harvest. Now, I doubt Odium rely on the humans for feed or what not, but achieving feats of technological wonders or reaching a certain level of world population may be the key to the Desolations.

It's a sad month for me. So many books are going to be released this year, but none in January. So, I think I'm just going to waste my time in Hearthstone.

Sprens + Bond = Knight Radiants Powers Herald + Bond = Herald Powers I guess the two are similar enough to mirror each other, like Honor had claimed. EDIT: Sorry for the typo. I was really sleepy, I think.

Darn, they ended at a cliffhanger... I ALREADY PRE-ORDERED! SHOW ME THE CONFRONTATION!

Kaladin can beat him up, like he'd always dreamed!

Until now, we've only had rumors and speculations to go on, but my latest source have just confirmed the inevitable truth: Brightlord Adolin Kholin and Brightness Danlan Morakotha are no longer in an item! And they did not part on good terms! That's right! It seems that our happy couple is no more! The exact reason for this break-up is vague, but Brightlord Adolin himself helpfully informed us that "this one was not his fault" and "things she'd said to her friends...", but refused to elaborate further. On Brightness Danlan's end, all I got was stoney silence and fierce glares. However, by this exchange alone, we can kind of form an idea of what happened. So, someone blabbered too much in the relationship, eh? Well, these things happen. As a highprince's heir, Brightlord Adolin is indeed privy to some important family secrets, but since Brightness Danlan still serve in the Kholin household as one of their primary scribes, it's unlikely that it was anything official. But if it's not official, then does that mean it's... personal? Now what juicy stuff have she told others that Adolin wanted so desperately to keep a secret? It must be huge! Enough to end a whole meaningful relationship over! What is it? Is it embarrassing? I must know! It must have been awkward! ...But probably not as awkward as being face-to-face on a daily basis with your ex. By and by, great job there, pretty boy! To find out, I've talked to some of her friends, but they all shut me down with the usual "read and find out" so they were no help at all. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we'll know more until March. This is a sad hour indeed. As we all know, Brightlord Adolin is not exactly the most loyal lover, but when Brightness Danlan first came into the scene, we all thought thought, "here is a clever and firm woman who can finally tame our favorite womanizer", but apparently, even she has folded like so many others before her. Alas, Brightness Danlan, we had such high hopes for you. Perhaps you'll make a comeback one day, but the odds are not in your favor... Sayonara señorita, we'll miss you! But don't celebrate yet, ladies. It seems our most eligible bachelor just can't stay still for long. There are already rumors abound that he has since engaged himself to another woman, a foreign lady of high birth. Out of the furnace and into the fire, huh? Tune in next time when we speculate about this other woman, what role she played in this break-up, and how much we hate her guts! Also, I'll show you how to turn all those excess cat hair into a home-knit sweater!

No; he will wake up in Dominations amidst pain and fire.

The highprinces provide levies and serve as commanders in the war. Other than that, I don't think they serve any other role until Sadeas' power play. Not to knock the Alehti, but their men tends to be very single-minded. They leave all the smarts to their women while they go die in a war. It's wiser to entrust all the logistic and such to more talented individuals, like his councilors or what not. Not to mention that if the highprince are put in charge of, say justice and trials, he will certainly abuse his power. It's also way too risky to trust the highprince with more power than they have already. Honestly, I'm surprised the Kholin House lasted as long as it did when all of the realm's powers are so divided. If Gavilar had died in any way, that cloak and dagger mindset that dominated Alethi politics would have seen Elhokar and the entire royal bloodline dead within the week.

I'm going to quote myself here...

Magic, when used in excess, won't be cool. It'll be completely ordinary. High fantasies like the Stormlight Archive can occasionally get away with it, but I still don't know where I stand here. On one hand, it boggles the mind that there are so many surgebinders in one spot or that one of the ten orders allowed the uninitiated to hunt with the full KR on a dangerous mission. On the other, I feel turned off by the idea that one KR can suddenly create a small army of surgebinders out of common soldiers all by her lonesome self. Well, if either theory is right, I suppose I'll just hold back my final judgement until I get to see how Sanderson handles it. I've already read stories that dealt with necromancers and mind-control so the "I am one, I am legion" idea isn't exactly new, only in this case, it's "I have legion, now I have an even BETTER legion".

Or it could be an enhancement provided to them by their armor/weapon. I have my own problems with this theory too. If any plain vanilla person can use stormlight with enough talent and knowledge, then it'll be really unlikely for that ability to die out as it did and become solely attributed to the Knight Radiants and their order. But it's not impossible, so upvote for you!

Indeed, Natans. People have such high expectations of her in here. If Shallan herself knew, I wouldn't be surprised if the girl cracks under pressure and decides she'll much rather marry early and settle down after pumping out half a dozen kids.

It's the lesser evil of the two options, a half-measure that'll never solve anything.

It's been done in another franchise. The Orcs are now overrunning Kalimdor. Unless the Parshmen and the Parsendi could break free from Odium, I wouldn't recommend it.

Uh, that they're totally awesome people with a very big heart.

Genocide may be a distasteful idea, but honestly, in a battle of us versus them, it will always be us. Our own ancestors have done much worse for far less reason. I'll ignore any parallels that involved man and man for obvious reasons, but if you would accept an animal example, then we don't need to look any further than the extinction of the wolf population in the British Isles. Wolves threatened our sheeps, we wiped them out. If the Parshmen or the Parsendi threatens to drive humanity to extinction, I don't have a problem if mankind choose to use genocide. If Jasnah is completely right, and Parshmen/Parsendi are the true and only voidbringers, then mankind should definitely wipe them out. After all, how many Desolations have there been? How many people have died so far? How much have those Desolations set mankind back and keep them in a state of stagnation? At least three thousand years have passed, and they're still in the Middle Ages. Destroy the Parshmen/Parsendi and you rob Odium of an extremely valuable tool, as well as potentially saving millions of lives in the next few Desolations or force him to invest MORE of his powers to create other creatures to replace them. It sure ain't moral, but I feel that it's right thing to do. But, I'll have to take into the equation that the ancients who won the last few Desolations have also took in this logic and discarded the idea for a very good reason, like if mankind gave into their hate, Odium will win or something. Also, Jasnah is hardly infallible. She is so cynical that she refuse to even entertain the idea of a God and tried to pass off Cultivation and Honor as sprens. She could just as easily be wrong in this forum too.

Good catch, Marian! Ship confirmed! All you losers who ship Adolin/Renarin and Shallan, looks like our boy Kal is about to steal a third and take home! Also, I really like how Kaladin is done here. Now, I know some of you may say different, but I don't think he's handsome. However, those hazel eyes of his are real pretty. Lighteyes be damnation, those are the very definition of a puppy dog gaze. This man can attract a lot of ladies with the right look.

Okay, here's my latest crack theory. I've always assumed that the Knight Radiant built Urithiru in a place that is inaccessible to normal people, like another dimension such as Shadesmar. I am still convinced that the first part is true, but not the second. In the past, Urithiru served two purposes that I know of. It was the home of the Knight Radiants and it was the capital of the Silver Kingdoms. If the latter was not true, then Shadesmar would be completely right, but why would the Knight Radiant choose to build what is essentially the capital of mankind in what is believed to be the domain of the sprens? The Knight Radiants were spiritually connected to the sprens, but people? Not so much. So instead, could it have been been build in Roshar and remained there to this day? After all, Urithiru is considered one of mankind's legendary city, on par with our Atlantis or Babylon. Maybe the reason why no one found Urithiru is because it is build somewhere in Roshar that no man can reach, a place where man has no domain... Yup, title-readers, the sky. Babylon was cast back down into ruins and Atlantis consumed by the waves, but perhaps Urithiru once lived in the clouds and still do. The Knight Radiants were a legendary order. Word of God says their powers can be replicated with the right sprens, which is how frabricals are created. With all Ten Orders of the Knight Radiants united, in one of the greatest age in Roshar's history, is it that hard to imagine that perhaps they had both the power and capability to build a city in the heavens itself? A city in the sky would be majestic and amazing even if it looks completely ordinary. And if their shards are any of an indication, the Knight Radiants were probably very fashionable. Now it could just be a city that floats, but let's take it one step further. I imagine Urithiru as a hybrid of a city and a space-station that can be controlled. Say when the Knight Radiants disappeared, they could kick everyone out and just moved it as high up as they safely could and just abandoned it there. This function would open up a lot of options for our heroes when it's found, perhaps escalate events quite nicely to suit the series. In the lastest chapters, Jasnah said that the Brightlords and the other leaders in the world needs to be convinced that the Last Desolation is coming, but that would only happen if they somehow found Urithiru and showed everyone proof. It's also their only hope to fully and truly restore the Knight Radiant, so it must happen one day. Wouldn't it blow everyone's mind if they found Urithiru, flew it right over the camps, and leave it hover there for a few weeks while they make their plans? Forget betrayals and back-stabbings, the Brightlords won't be able to piss without being reminded of the Knight Radiant and the coming of the True Desolation. And that's about it. There really isn't any basis for this theory, other than the fact that I feel Urithiru should be in Roshar and the idea sounds really awesome. Hence, the crack part. It could just as likely be a submerged city or one that is hidden deep in the Earth, but I doubt the last one since people those days apparently didn't believe in caves and caverns. Any thoughts?

Traditionally, the Stormfather is always Jezrien. If he's at the helm of their leadership, then it make some sense why the honorsprens have decided to sit at the sidelines. Most of the Heralds are very anti-KR.

Okay, more seriously, Syl also said she was the only Honorspren who came back. Szeth aside, this makes Kaladin the only true Windrunner in Roshar for a while. Does that mean their abilities are significant in ways other than the battlefield?

...Chapter 8. Man, if there were any more chapters like this, I'd have to start shipping Syl and Kaladin. Forget Tara, Shallan can have Renarin or whatever, and I don't even care about Laral anymore; SylxKaladin is where it's at! I just gagged a little in my mouth but I DON'T CARE!

It's a nice theory. It makes a lot of sense. After all, if you're about to lose a city, you should leave it infested with loyal spies to provide you with valuable intel and even sabotage. If you're about to lose a world, leave it with an army loyal to you, even if they don't yet know it. I can hardly wait until the second book finally comes out and we see how Brandon Sanderson runs with this sub-plot.

Wait what? A man bossed around by women? Pfft! That'll never happen! More seriously, I don't think Jasnah and Shallan will find out about his powers too early. Of course, I also didn't think Kaladin would just reveal his powers in front of everyone like he did and even provide them with a neat explanation afterward... So with luck like mine, the revelation will probably happen the moment they arrive in the Shattered Plains. I can see some serious hijinks happen if that were the case. If Kaladin and Shallan doesn't happen, I would still expect people shipping Sigzil and Jasnah within the day.

Aye, Aye. Elhokar is ridicule so often, by people in his universe and ours, that it'll be so cool if he turns out to be a dark horse and blow everyone's mind with some awesomeness.

Reading posts like these, I'm going to laugh really hard if Elhokar turns out to be some sort of chessmaster character. I mean, Jasnah couldn't have inherited all the brains of the family, right? Maybe Elhokar actually does have allies of his own that no one knows about... Hey, maybe it's Highprince Hatham! Maybe he just wanted to play the two biggest claimants to his throne against each other while he slowly and secretly accumulate power in the background. A man can dream, right?