BlackYeti

Here's the quote regarding the shape: And regarding it being on the edge of a cliff, there's a couple of things to support that:

To be fair, this is book 3, so if you don't know anything about it, you shouldn't really be reading it. Of course that does bring into question the quality of the Way of Kings' cover... I quite like the new one (the one at the top of my last post), however the original one (the post before that one) is, in my opinion at least, rather uninspired.

Apparently windspren often are invisible, at least according to Kaladin.

Even your smaller number is a massive overestimate. So the time period from the Shattering to Mistborn Era 4 is 10,000 years. The time from Aharietiam to The Way of Kings is ~5,000 years (4,500 years * 1.1 = 4,950 years). We know that the Stormlight Archive is currently running almost concurrently with Mistborn Era 2. Mistborn Era 2 is set ~300 years after Era 1. Era 3 is an unknown, but it's a much shorter period after Era 2. Let's assume 400 years between Era 1 and Era 3, and similar separation between Era 3 and Era 4. That puts Era 4 ~500 years after The Way of Kings. Therefore the time from Aharietiam is ~5,500 years, and the time from the Shattering to Aharietiam is ~4,500 years. From the Shattering we have to allow some time for humanity to find their way to the Tranquiline Halls and get settled in, then for Honour and Cultivation to arrive on Roshar. During which time Odium is taking out Devotion, Dominion, and Ambition. Let's say this period lasts for 500 years (probably an underestimate). Then Odium shows up and drives humanity onto Roshar, and the Oathpact is formed.The Radiants have not yet been formed, so Urithiru probably doesn't exist yet, but let's say that Pailiah had a premonition that it would be needed (or something like that), and the Heralds built it right away. This would mean that Urithiru is currently, at most, 9,000 years old. And it is probably a lot younger than that. I'll grant you that still makes it unbelievably ancient, but not in the tens (and certainly not in the hundreds) of millennia as you suggest.

@The Invested Beard, there's actually a few other similar covers in circulation as well.

Well, it likely isn't anyone specific actually. According to @PeterAhlstrom, the UK covers are not meant to be a literal depiction of characters or events, rather,they are intended to set the mood of the book.

Wait, you don't like it because it's Jasnah? You do realise that it's Jasnah on the American cover as well, don't you? You said that you liked that one after all.

I assume you're referring to this section of the diagram: I assumed that this related to Dalinar's attempt to unite Alethkar and bring stability to the nation. As we saw, Dalinar did go down this route, and it did not stop the Voidbringers from returning. However, Taravangian is clearly going to have a much harder job gaining control of Alethkar now, than he would have if Dalinar had reverted to the man he was in his youth.

Remember that Vasher has demonstrated that he still has life sense. Therefore he must have a large stockpile of Breath (enough to reach one of the Heightenings), which he could use in place of Stormlight if he ever ran out.

What makes you think that Taravangian has been trying to return the Voidbringers? It seems to me like he has been assuming that the Voidbringers will return (presumably because the diagram says they will), and is trying to unite the world so that they don't destroy it. Funnily enough, that's exactly the same as Dalinar's plan, save for the methods they choose to employ in realising it.

I presume you're referring to this WoB: I had not forgotten this, I just don't think that it contracts my speculation. It does not say that the Skybreakers can use Gravitation in all of the same ways as the Windrunners, only that it will look much the same when they do use it. Indeed, we have seen the Skybreakers use basic lashings in Edgedancer, and it did appear to function the same as it would for a Windrunner. However, they have not demonstrated the ability to use a reverse lashing, and I'm predicting that they can't. Just as I predict that the Bondsmiths will get a full lashing and one other ability tied to Adhesion, but only one ability tied to Tension.

Oh, I don't disagree that it was an elegant solution, I just don't think that it's the solution that a potential Windrunner would have come up with. Of course, if Elhokar were a potential Windrunner, I doubt that he would have ended up in that position in the first place.

Perhaps they can (certainly Nale's comments implied it). If so, would that be a second ability or an extension of the first. If not then there is no issue here. I don't know either way, I've simply spotted the makings of a pattern across the Windrunner and Edgedancer Orders, and am extrapolating based off of that pattern. I could easily be completely wrong here (I did preface my comment with "I'm not sure about the Truthwatchers", rather than "It can't be the Truthwatchers" or something similar), I just think it's fun to speculate.

Thus is really just semantics though. The fact is that before this chapter, Elhokar was subject to no-one, answerable to no-one (at least in principle, if not in practice). He has now sought to change this by swearing to obey Dalinar, and we all know how important oaths are to the spren. His position is irrevocably altered now, even if his title remains the same. You do, however, raise a good point in that he may actually end up leading more as a result of this. If nothing else, he could potentially learn from that, and maybe come back from this at a later point. I do however feel that he would be better suited for a different Order, if indeed he is suited for any.

Kaladin's never actually given up his position in favour of someone else though. He's only ever worked his way upward. Elhokar seems to be going in the opposite trajectory. I'll also point out that Jezrien was king of the Heralds, not Ishar. I suspect that Dalinar may be misinterpreting the role that he is meant to fulfill. He was told to "unite them", not to lead them, and the Bondsmiths' Divine Attribute, guiding, is not the same as leading. As such, I suspect that Kaladin's relationship with Dalinar will not remain the way it currently is indefinitely: it will need to change in order for both of them to progress.

And yet, he's giving away his authority to Dalinar. The Windrunners' secondary Divine Attribute is leadership, is it not? Would this action not be in conflict with that?

poopspren awkwardsilencespren gibletishspren batmanspren I hope that these aren't too silly for you.

I agree with @Calderis here. At the very least the Sadeas princedom would declare war on the Kholin princedom. The only reason that Dalinar did not do that following the Tower was that he was concerned for Alethkar's stability. Sadeas, on the other hand, did not care for it in the slightest; in fact he was actively working against it. Therefore we can assume that his successor probably won't be similarly inhibited. Adolin could easily be put into a position where he had to accept judgement in order to preserve the peace.

This does actually make sense. We know that each of the Silver Kingdoms had one Oathgate, and each of those locations corresponds to one of the Silver Kingdoms as demonstrated on the map below. It may look a bit like the Oathgate in Kurth is part of Iri there, however, the colouring of the map would indicate that the island in question (as well as all of the Reshi Isles) was, in fact, part of Rishir. So, as it stands, I don't see any major issue with the proposed placings of the Oathgates.

@Dlyol, I really like this idea, it makes a great deal of sense. Also, welcome to the Shard! Don't worry about the length of the post, many people here (including me on occasion) write far longer posts. I'm not sure about the Truthwatchers, to be honest. I've got a feeling, based of off the fact that the Windrunners and the Edgedancers have both got two abilities tied to one Surge but only one ability tied to the other, that this pattern might be repeated across all of the Orders. If so, then the fact that the Truthwatchers have already demonstrated the ability of Regrowth would mean that they wouldn't get the Growth ability of the Progression surge.

We've already had Taln's viewpoint: he had an Interlude in Words of Radiance.

Then feel free to substitute the word "nation" for "tribe", that ultimately boils down to semantics. The fact is that Parshendi is the Alethi name for that group of listeners. This is indisputable, the Alethi made a treaty with the Parshendi, thus it is clearly defined as a specific group. On your point about "listener forms", yes they're the only group we've seen to have forms, but, based off of Nale's comments in Edgedancer, they can't be the only such group. Therefore I'd argue that the term "listener forms" actually doesn't make sense if the name "listener" is only applied to that one group. He also refers to members of their species who are clearly not part of that group as listeners, so Nale clearly doesn't think that the word refers to that one tribe either.

Brandon frequently corrects people, so I find the argument that he's simply regurgitating the questioner's incorrect terminology entirely unconvincing. Brandon specifically calls the Parshendi a nation in that WoB, and it's not the only WoB in which he does this: He also refers to slaveform (parshmen) as listeners here: I don't see why you think that the initial answer does not make sense if listeners is the name of the species. No, they don't call themselves Parshendi because that is a human name. Why do you think that they must have an exact equivalent?

That WoB does not support your claim. Yes, the Parshendi is a human name for the nation of listeners on the Shattered Plains (and I did not claim otherwise). But it says nowhere that the listeners is an alternative name for that nation. The name "listener" is consistently left uncapitalised throughout Words of Radiance which implies that it is not the name of the nation. For example:

I believe that male/malen listeners swap between those genders as they change form (likewise with female/femalen listeners). Warform is an asexual form, so all warform listeners are either malen or femalen. And likewise, all mateform listeners are either male or female. Possibly there are outliers that we haven't heard about, but certainly, this is true for the overwhelming majority. Presumably, dullform is sexual to some extent at least, since there was a time when the listeners knew of no other forms, and they still had to reproduce. And the same must apply to the parshmen as well by the same reasoning.