Stoneward

Thanks to the new WoR excerpt, we now know that "Cultivation, the god worshipped in the West, is a female deity that is an embodiment of nature and nature spren." There is not much further west than Shinnovar, and this immediately made me think of the Shin culture and religion, particularly how they revere farmers. So here's my thought. If Cultivation worship heavily influenced Shin Shamanism, maybe we can garner some hints about Cultivation's personality and intent by reverse-engineering what we know about the Shin culture and religious beliefs. Relevant Quotes from tWoK (I'm sure there are others): It's difficult to know how much of what the Shin believe has been warped or twisted over the years, but that doesn't mean we can't speculate. Here are some possibilities that were either already floating around that are strengthened by this, or that I came up with on my own: Cultivation really, really likes rocks for some reason. Any guesses why? Stormlight is directly related to Cultivation's shard in some way. This may sound obvious, but Cultivation's intent is similar to that of a farmers.Cultivation on a farm is all about production. It involves both the preparing/breaking the old ground, planting, and encouraging the plants to grow and produce. This can often involve pruning dead growth and clearing weeds. Sinister! There's something going on there with the food. It's possible that all edible plants on Roshar exist due to Cultivation's investiture. This may help explain how Lift metabolizes Stormlight from food. Cultivation hates war and killing.This is interesting. If cultivating people requires the metaphorical dead growth to be cleared and the ground to be broken but isn't willing to do any killing herself, this may be why she has/had a solid working relationship with Odium. "hey, could you clear these weeds out?" "why, certainly, my dear..." Desolations: Cultivation might need them. Woah.

Absolutely possible, but wildly speculative. There's no evidence for or against. My gut says, "no." But that could just be indigestion.

I had read this previously and was thinking the same thing at first, but now I'm not convinced that this vision tells us anything about the last surge.From the WoR vision: This could be some kind of surge that facilitates long distance communication; but it tells us nothing about how that communication is accomplished. Also, you have to take a mightily leap to assume that the other, barely mentioned, non-Dustbringer radiant is a Stoneward or order 8. Thing is, we've already seen this kind of having-a-conversation-with-nobody behavior from characters much closer to home. To everyone who can't see Syl, Kaladin looks like he's talking to himself all the time. It's entirely possible that this radiant is only talking to her spren. Edit@TwistedMisting: Bondsmiths have Surface Tension and Pressure; otherwise, you're up to date.

Right, which I don't think will hold true here. In my opinion, the name "Bondsmith" doesn't stop the stone in Stoneward from coming from the solidity of the ST surge, telling us little to nothing about the unknown surge. I do think your pattern was a clever Idea, though.For the record, I'm willing to bet one hat eating that the last surge has nothing to do with rocks.

My point is not so much that the names always reflect both surges equally, but that the names reflect the cool/flashy effects that people see the radians preform. Turning things to dust is memorable. Breaking things from the sky is memorable. Sure, edge dancers heal, but they also rip along narrow ledges, balanced impossibly while going 90 miles an hour. The person who got healed May care more about that, but the balancing thing is flashy. People won't forget it. In that vein of thought, I think the stonewards were remembered for standing there, protecting you, while taking punches from thunderclasts and just shrugging it off like it was nothing.

I just found it in the Dalinar vision at Feverstone. Now I am sad, but will edit my post. And probably my name. It's done. It doesn't really change the points in my previous post; using ward as "guard or protect" actually makes it a little clearer.

How sure are we of that? The latest chart approved by Brandon and corrected by Peter has the order listed as "Stonewarden".

As the resident Stoneward, I feel like I should weigh in on this. (Sorry for the long post.) I don't think the Radiant order names exactly match one surge or another, but rather describe their abilities, which are a combination of both surges. Names are likely to come from very notable and memorable visible effects, like: Skybreakers: "Those who break the sky" or "Those who break from the sky". The Gravity surge allows you flight; division allows you to break things. Breaking things from the sky, or while crashing down from the sky, is very notable. Dustbringers: "The bringers of dust". The combination of division and friction = decimation and burning. You literally "bring dust" by creating it from your enemies. I think you see where I'm coming from. Let's break down Stoneward the same way: "Wardens of Stone". Let's get some definitions. Ward: From Merriam-Webster: "guard or protect". Stone: This is either a noun, referring to the thing the Stoneward protects, (Ie: literal rocks or a place named "Stone") or an adjective describing "Ward" describing how they protect. As an adjective, it would mean "hard, solid, difficult to move or break". Of the two, I find the adjective much more interesting. Thus "Stoneward" becomes "Solid Protector", or "Unbreakable Guardian". Not only does this give me chills, but it fits very well with the description of Talenel from the prologue. He has "a tendency to choose seemingly hopeless fights and win them." And he died holding (guarding) a passage. I image that this order filling a role much like a "tank" class in role playing video games. As such, your job is to: Prevent the Bad Things from hitting your squishy friends. Not die before the Bad Things die. ('cause then they'll hit your squishy friends.) If you're with me so far, the Stonewards' surges need to make them the best order at doing these two things, together. Brandon's description of the Surface Tension** surge (towel = shield?) is probably where the "Stone" part and the "Not Dying" part come in, but that's only half of the story. Staying alive is not doing your job if you aren't keeping yourself between the bad guys and your squishies. Speaking from a lot of experience here (WoW tank class for 6 years), staying alive was the easier job of the two. Being a good tank requires incredible awareness. To protect others, you have to know where they are, what they are going to be doing for the next 5 seconds, and be able to determine how much danger they are going to be in compared to anyone else. The best tanks have a perfect awareness of the battlefield, knowing the placement and movement of every enemy and foe. So, in conclusion to everything, I think the last surge will somehow help the Stoneward to be much more aware of the people they are protecting. A spiritual link would work for this, as Moogle suggested. Sound/waves does't feel quite right, to me, though. edit: Thanks to WeiryWriter for correcting me on my own name. Someone should probably update the chart linked here.

I had exactly the same feeling about Taravangian. Both Amaram and Taravangian justify the killing of innocents now "for the greater good", later. I know there are different ways of looking at this, but I tend to agree with Teft: "Journey before destination. There are always several ways to achieve a goal. Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one. In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished." I don't think Amaram will have a full redemption. I don't know what his goals are, but he did not need to kill innocents for shards. I'm honestly not sure there can be a full redemption after what he did. That being said, it would surprise me very much if Amaram died in WoR. I fully expect that Kaladin will need to work with him; it would really push Kaladin's character development. So... Predictions: Kaladin will have opportunity to kill Amaram in WoR, but will choose not to. When Amaram dies, (I'm betting book 4 or 5) it will not be by Kaladin's hand. Amaram will not die as a hero. We will probably sympathize with him in "I understand why he did that" kind of way, but not in a "he did the right thing" kind of way.

Interestingly enough, the Cover Flap also mentions 5 people. Compare the back to the cover flap and it seems pretty straight-forward. (spoilers for length) The Windrunner, lost in a shattered land, balanced upon the boundary between vengeance and honor. The Lightweaver, slowly being consumed by her past, searching for the lie that she must become. The Bondsmith, born in blood and death, striving to rebuild what was destroyed. The Explorer, straddling the fates of two peoples, forced to choose between slow death and a terrible betrayal of all she believes. And the Assassin has arrived. To me, this pretty much seals the Eshonai = Explorer and Dalinar = Bondsmith questions.

More Radient Ideals being spoken. I got massive chills from both scenes (Kaladin and Lift) where this has happened already. Kaladin's words, in particular, struck a deep chord with me. Confrontations: Szeth vrs Kaladin, Kaladin vrs Amaram, Hoid vrs Anyone. Be they physical, verbal, or otherwise. Bring it. Stonewardens! (obviously.) Trust me, these guys are going to be epic! Renarin's spren. Really, anything more about Renarin in general. Renarin is one of those quiet characters who is getting set up to really step up and become something beyond what anyone thought he was capable of. Shallan's character growth. Shallen has potential to become a very deep character, and I'm very excited to see where she's headed. The epilogue. Brandon said this should excite anyone who's interested in crossovers. Yes, please. More clues to whatever-the-heck Galivar and Amaram were up to. Seriously. Forgot one: The look on Sadeas' face when Dalinar is publicly announced as Highprince of War.

Consider me on board, then. I like this theory.

This mostly just speculation, but has there been much discussion as to the identity of the woman on this chart? Compared to the surgebinding chart, she takes the place of all heralds, so she must be important. I think it's likely that the image is a Vorin interpretation of Cultivation. We don't have any idea what she looks like, at this point, but it doesn't seem to be anyone else we've met so far. Jasnah and Shallan both have the wrong hair color. Jasnah has black (onyx) hair, and Shallan has red. Also, being contemporary to the book, they are very unlikely to be found on an old, stained glass window. We can probably rule out anyone born in the last hundred years or so. We don't have many descriptions of the heralds, but I suppose it could be one of them. Assuming that the defining characteristics of the heralds are fairly standard between the stone carvings (chapter heading images) and the chart: Woman Flowing Hair Large Gem on the Forhead The closest match would be Shallash, and Baxil's mistress is described as having dark skin and long, beautiful black hair. (Of course, you can't really trust the looks of anyone with the Illumination surge and a motive to hide their identity.) I also find it interesting that the woman is pictured with her safehand covered. The artist may have included that detail because they were Vorin, and incorporated their religious views into the image, but it's also possible that this person (possibly Cultivation) is the reason behind covering safehands in the first place. Thoughts?

I was actually just theorizing about the surge chart the other day and came up with a similar conclusion. I think that all surges and orders on the left side of the chart interact with the cognitive realm in some way. Friction, (nuclear?) division, and gravity all seem to be physical properties, so I was guessing that the right side was influencing the physical realm, which would leave the center surges and orders for the spiritual realm. If we do know for sure that gravity is spiritual, it would throw a hole in the idea. We do, however, have WoB stating that shardblade wounds, which cause damage in the spiritual realm, can be healed by some of the Radient orders. If the Growth surge affects the spiritual realm, that strengthens the theory. Upvote to the OP for thinking like me.

Hello, 17th Sharders! After getting promoted from Intern Lurker to Full Lurker, with all of the rights that implies, I decided that it might finally be time to break the "0 Posts" barrier. I've been a long time Sanderson fan, but only found these forums a month or two ago. Since that time, you've all given me much to read and even more to think about. I hope I can add to the great community that already exists here; I feel like I know some of you already. Now, there's no need to throw me a parade or anything, but feel free to stop by and say "hi", if you feel so inclined. See you around!