Chlehrma

A creature that absorbs stormlight. Certainly possible. My vote is for a very small herald.

If I were Hoid, my base would be in the middle of the forest in the Silence short story. It would certainly cut down on visitors.

I missed that in my earlier reads. Good catch.

So in the WoR chapter posted for Adolin, it shows that when a bearer severs his bond to a shard blade the gem at the base flashes. We saw the same thing in WoK when Amaram takes up a blade and bonds it, the same flash from the pommel stone. When Dalinar gives up his blade to Sadeas we do not see the gemstone on the hilt flash. When Sadeas picks up the shard blade we also do not see the gem on the hilt flash. Syl's words at the end of WoK seems to indicate that Dalinar no longer carries the blade, but is this the same as no longer being bound to it? In one of the other WoR preview chapters Dalinar speaks of how when a person loans their blade to another, there has to be trust because the blade can be summoned back to the owner at will. So...Did Dalinar really give Sadeas his blade? Did he sever his bond to it leaving Sadeas free to bond it? Or did he just loan the bond to Sadeas like a king might loan his blade to his champion?

From those quotes, I would guess that the storm father and night watcher (I forget which night ___ is the one who gives boons so maybe it is night mother) are spren formed by Adonalsium.

Maybe he keeps the same things a wealthy person would, cash. Or in this case, a bunch of fully infused spheres.

It would be really funny if her name actually was Sshhhhhhh

The flashbacks are very necessary to fully fleshing out a character. Imagine if the only thing we knew about Kaladin was that he liked to fight, protected people, and killed a shard bearer...pretty flat character topography. Add in bits and pieces of his childhood as he grew up and the character gains a semblance of depth similar to a real person. Break this history up and intersperse it within a narrative to create troughs in the progression of a story and you build anticipation...kind of like putting out a few chapters on Tor's site, then reducing the flow to a trickle before releasing the book. I did not like Shallan very much in WoK. She was just not very compelling--though I was still curious about her backstory--however, the first few chapters of the new book make her considerably more compelling. We get to see more of her flaws and an explanation for the flaws. It is the flaws in a personality that makes a character compelling. I am very much looking forward to the flashbacks in the new book. I am hoping that future books will contain flashbacks for Amaram, Gaz, Renarin, and Galivar--dead or not, they might be interesting.

I always thought the death quote about the "shard of my heart" was a radiant referring to e death of Tanavast. Which might have meant the recreance was because the knights radiant had lost their powers and thought they had been abandon owned by the almighty.

I think book 5 will end with them overcoming the desolation/odium and the second arc will deal with retaking the tranquiline halls, perhaps with cross over characters from other series.

So at the end of WoK we are introduced to Taln...there are some things that stand out as off. 1. Most importantly, Hoid refers to him as "confused." 2. Taln is wearing a sacklike cloth as a wrap. 3. He is dark skinned, dark eyed and has long tangled hair. 4. Slaves wear sacklike clothing. 5. Kaladin saves a dark skinned slave with long, tied-back hair in chapter 53. 6. The man Kaladin saved and the man claiming to be Taln both have no accent. So I guess my question/theory is that the man is a Herald, but is not actually Taln or Taln respawned on the shattered plains were he had died and then, for some unknown reason, went all the way to Kholinar to announce the Desolation. Tear it apart please :-)

I think we will eventually get a spren PoV if only to correct our current understanding of Shadesmar and spren.

Or maybe he was in shackles and now that Sadeas has lost all of his bridgemen, he will put Gaz into the bridge crews...you have to start somewhere...

Navani's foreshadowing seems to indicate that the countdown was actually for the parshendi assault and not the desolation.

I am hoping he starts seeing death spren...Kaladin is the only one who has seen them and lived.

Up vote for the name+pic

Every time I see one of those ice cream parlors, my brain rearranges the name to be StoneCold Creamery.

We have WoB that shards can have forms other than a sword. He did not specify what type of form.

For that matter she can drop him in Shadesmar and call it a day.

Gaz is alive. I saw him at the local Italian eatery splitting a pizza with Galivar.

The problem is reconciling Rock being magic with his reaction to Kaladin taking the death point. Rock thinks he would have died if Kaladin had not done this, so if he has magic, it is likely not surgebinding or anything that is combat related. He is probably a priest in his culture and is not bound by the same rules as if he were family within someone's house. The reason I say priest is that he talks of building Syl a shrine and if his people worship spren, then it would fit with why he can see them. Anyone that became a priest in Rocks culture would likely have done so because of this ability. Fairly circular argument, but a fun theory to throw out till we get a Rock PoV.

I think we will see multiple oaths in this book. Certainly Shallan who will give her oath after confronting her past (possibly ideal 1&2 for her order). Probably Dalinar when Kaladin tells him the most important words a man can say (first ideal). And Kaladin will definitely speak the words of the next ideal after his conflict with Amaram comes to a head. So, in order: Shallan, Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar. We may even see Szeth taking the path at the end of the book as a precursor to stones unhallowed.

What I want to see is an Amaram PoV that shows the hours long debate between him and his advisors (Especially, Restares who has his own agenda and was one of the two people Galivar thought would try to kill him) regarding taking the shards. I do not think Amaram was going to take the shards prior to this. A great many readers condemned him for his actions--and yes, they are deplorable--but I want to see what got him to that point and I want to know why obtaining the shards was so important that he take the steps he did. He seemed like a fairly honorable person, was a friend of Galivar, and is a friend of Dalinar--both which speak well of him though I will admit Dalinar is not the most discerning person when it comes to picking out his friends as Sadeas proved. I do not think he took the shards just because of their value. I want to see him redeemed...though it would be funny if he redeems himself with Kaladin, then Moash kills him for revenge.

I can not remember where I read it, but I believe brandon said something along the lines of spren being of Honor or cultivation or a blend of both. If I am not misremembering, then this means some are emotion-based (honor), some are natural forces (cultivation), and some are a combination of emotion and nature (cultivation and honor blending their essences of something.)

If the only people who had shard blades prior to the recreance were radiants, then why would they ever worry about defending against them? They all took their oaths seriously and did not engage in infighting. It is only millennia later that it has become an issue primarily because people of lesser moral caliber now have them.