LairdDuncan

Well, as long as we're doing insane unjustified theories, here's mine! 1. Brandon is lying to us about Szeth not having a spren, or is at least deceiving us. 2. The type of spren is unimportant to what Order you are in (e.g., we assume Syl is a windspren for most of the book, which would make sense since Kaladin is a Windrunner, but then we find out she's not a windspren at all). 3. It's true that we will never see Szeth with a spren, which is why Brandon feels it's okay to deceive us, because he's bonded with... a deathspren, and even Szeth doesn't realize it! Whose is more insane?

I finally found the term I was meaning for this. I was trying to reference the Unmade, not the Ten Fools. I know WoB kind of implied the Ten Fools were the opposite of the Heralds, but I've wondered if that is the "religious" opposite of the Heralds (bumbling idiots from fables used as lessons to teach kids to be obedient, etc.), whereas the Unmade were more of "historical" opposites to the Heralds (actual leaders of Odium's armies, beings of great destructive power. Described as consuming--an alternate to Honor, or at least Cultivation, creating. Even their name evokes the idea that they are the opposite of creation). From the little we know of them, they seem to fit the bill of a godlike being that should be feared. Of course, this is all just me pulling things mostly out of thin air.

I never believed it--I always took it as Brandon throwing us a red herring. It just seemed too easy and too cliche to be true for Brandon: "The guys we're already fighting... are the main bad guys!" As for spren being their gods, I can't get behind the idea. The Eshonai chapter explicitly states that they switch between war form and work form and all the other forms by bonding different spren. And we know they did this before they ever met Gavilar because they weren't in slave form (the form with no bonded spren) when they first met. It doesn't lead me to believe they would be willing to kill Gavilar over discussing bonding spren. Now... bonding a spren that turns a Parshendi into a giant, greatshell-sized Voidbringer? Who knows, maybe--maybe Jasnah's idea isn't a red herring. But then it brings up a billion more questions regarding whether or not the Voidbringers are actually "evil" or whatever. Maybe Brandon has been leading us in the wrong direction this whole time and he's going to upturn everything we thought we knew. :: shrug ::

I didn't get the impression that they were being "ordered" to kill Gavilar. Gavilar told them what his plans were, the five Parshendi realized that what he was doing was going to cause their gods to return, it freaked them out, so they made a desperate move to kill Gavilar, even though they knew that the humans would probably wipe them out in revenge. But they felt that them getting wiped out by humans was a better situation than having to deal with their own gods. I don't think they worship their gods. I think they're terrified of them. My guess, with no evidence, is that the gods of the Parshendi are voidbringers/whatever those 10 dudes are that I've guessed are like the Heralds of the voidbringers, but are sort of Lovecraft-sounding. I can't remember their name. Not gods in the sense of them being revered by the Parshendi, but gods in the sense that they were powerful, supernatural beings who ruled/dominated in the ancient history of the Parshendi. I personally don't think the Parshendi are tools of Odium. Dalinar remarks that they don't seem to fight out of rage or bloodlust, they mourn over their fallen and fight united. It's my opinion that the Alethi are the current unwitting tools of Odium, since they are the ones that have embraced the Thrill. And as others have said, yes, gem hearts for soulcasting food.

Peter: sorry, "phase" is the wrong word, and I don't think Brandon used the word phase either in his actual answer. I guess he was more meaning which moon was up, etc. Either way, his answer just seemed to indicate that you could use the moons to determine chronology. Now you'll tell Brandon and he'll know I'm an idiot for messing up his answer! waaaaaa...

I only lurk here once every month or so and didn't realize there was a forum for signings until just now, but I did attend the Pocatello signing. Man, you guys work too fast for me, I'm still reeling from all this new-to-me information about the previously unknown Orders and Surges and all that stuff. Anyway, the questions I asked are probably incredibly newbish and you'll probably get no useful information from them at all (and I kind of tailored the questions I chose to ask since I didn't really want to just be RAFO'ed) but here's how it went: Q1) You mention the phases of the moon fairly often in WoK--is this significant or something that we should be paying attention to? A) After working with the Wheel of Time community and dealing a lot with fans wanting to know when certain events happened in regards to some other event, Brandon added in the phases of the moon in order to give dedicated fans a way of determining the chronology of the events of the Stormlight Archives. Q2) Is there a pattern to Taravangian's stupid/smart cycle, or is it actually random? A) His aides are convinced that it is random, but if you plotted it out, it's really a distribution curve that is only made to look random. Q3) Dalinar, in one of his visions, sees the stars wink out one by one. Are these the stars of other shardworlds and [brandon sort of interrupted me here to answer so the rest just kind of came out as a mumble] does this imply that the final Desolation is going to affect more than just Roshar? A) "You earned yourself a RAFO card!" Anyway, I'll check the giant list of questions to ask him next time I'm at a signing.