RShara

Wit didn't seek out Shallan. He ran across her by accident. Also, remember that while Shallan was young, it was only 3.5 years ago (from Words of Radiance). Jasnah would have been well bonded by then. He's been in Kholinar as the King's Wit for a while now. I'm sure they've interacted numerous times to her annoyance, just like nearly everyone else who's interacted with him. Anyway, this is off topic and it's late, so I'll bow out of the discussion at this point.

I think people would have noticed if Wit had been around so long that he knew Jasnah as a kid, without aging. Yes, he could have disguised himself, but he seems to only have dyed his hair for his current incarnation. And again, I don't see Wit hugging Jasnah. She was brilliant even as a child and I don't see the two of them exchanging affections. Her adult attitude could be explained by the fact that she just knows him as Wit, and is highly suspicious of him being right where she managed to transition to the Physical. Hoid is very old, has lots of different types of investiture, and enough Breath at least to reach the Second Heightening, which means he's resistant to diseases. He can also Heal just about anything, including Shardblade wounds. Healing or preventing illnesses should be easy.

Ashyn hasn't been completely worked out, but according to the reading, it only lasts during the disease. I can't imagine a scenario where Hoid would hug Jasnah....lol. We've also had several scenes from Jasnah's point of view, and she's never mentioned another spren.

I believe this to be an Ashyn disease, possibly one that made people treat her strangely for a while, then forget they had done so. Most of those were probably eradicated by the Heralds' sanitary advice, but I think that disease is what granted her more than her fair share of surges. This could be explained with her having a huge amount of stormlight, so she's stronger, and practiced with her abilities. She soulcasts a lot of things during the battle, including stone and air. And the three Essences she chose to have her "fake soulcaster" appear attuned to were smoke, fire, and crystal, rather than metal or bronze. An Ashyn disease only gives you power while you're infected. It doesn't last any longer than that. We don't know that she was sick, just that she was locked away. Rosharans generally don't get contagious diseases because the extra investiture keeps them healthy.

Yeah I got the same as you. Not that he looks like Marsh but that the spiked sockets mirror each other.

Here is a very technical thread about the moon orbits Also, I think the moons are far too small to affect Roshar that way. They're about the size of Mars' moons, rather than ours.

That reminds me, Brandon actually went a bit about Color being an important mechanic in the cosmere. I thought you'd like to see it.

That's true. But at least some of them are going to be alive so I'm not completely nuts.

Fun fact: It's a King Penguin. It's often confused with the Emperor penguin, but it's a bit smaller and lives in a different region. You can tell the difference because on the King Penguin, the black/white plumage extends in a kind of tie all the way around the head/under the chin. An Emperor Penguin is white up the front and sides until the head.

4 I saw it as echoing Dalinar, Gavilar, and Navani

Brandon has said that the ones who've survived will take a step back. So they might be...not interludes, but fewer chapters. I mean, Jasnah and Renarin are slated to be main characters, and they won't be exactly young (Jasnah especially). AndAsh and Taln are some of the oldest beings around the cosmere And I don't think they'll need much mentoring Dalinar's going to be 80 or so at that point, so staying at home running things sounds like it'd be a good idea for him.

Wax did re-check the belt after everything happened.

Okay, but again, the Oathpact doesn't bind Odium in the first place. It bound the Fused. And again, putting a pause on the desolation feels like a stop-gap, not a satisfactory conclusion to series 1. Yes, of course it feels like they're failing right now. It's book 3/5. We won't get the arc climax and resolution until book 5. I don't expect book 5 to end with defeating Odium. But ending the threat of the Fused once and for all, uniting Roshar, and solving the dilemma of the Shin and the Listeners is reasonable, and would be a much better ending.

I'm sure he lied to himself for most of his life. That he was a good king, that he was doing the right thing. That Sadeas was a good person. The whole saddle strap business. Lots of potential for a Cryptic to find fascinating.

Everything that doesn't have a permanent-physical-body-that-dies is basically a spren yeah. Just like everything with feathers is a chicken and all bugs are cremlings. Rosharans are big on generalities.

Eventually yes, but not in SA. MB era 4, iirc. I think the main plot of the Singers, Fused, the coalition, and Dalinar, Kaladin, and Shallan’s main and some secondary plot lines will be resolved.

Here're a couple WoBs about how book 5 is an ending, and 6-10 are kind of a sequel or another series. Considering how Kaladin is, I don't see him breaking after 10-20 years. The Heralds lasted centuries at first. And I'll just keep saying it doesn't sound like a satisfactory ending to the arc.

Yeah any begger or informant or bard or anyone who says or does strange things/has more knowledge than they should, could possibly be Hoid. We can then ask Brandon, hey was that Hoid?

He almost always refers to himself by the name "Hoid" at least once. His other pseudonyms that we know of are Dust, Topaz, Cephandrius Maxtori, and Midius. Unless disguised, he has sharp features, an arrow like face, and white hair. So it's largely just contextual clues, names, and descriptions that help people pick up that it's Hoid. No easy and fast way, alas!

I don't like that because renewing the Oathpact is a stopgap, and admitting they're failing, which seems a bad way to end an arc. In addition, remember that the Oathpact binds the Fused, not Odium. Also, I think that our current Radiants would last longer than 10-20 years (the original Heralds lasted centuries at first). So unless they're still being tortured throughout arc 2, it doesn't really seem likely to me.

Here you go. The annotations also have a lot of info.

I feel like any "Odium escaping" or stopgap maneuver at the end of book 5 would run counter to how it's supposed to be the end of the first "series" of the Stormlight Archive. Like, ending an arc on a cliffhanger or failure doesn't seem to be a good ending. Does that make sense? Also, the series is still meant to be self contained. Brandon doesn't want people to need to read another series to understand what's going on in book 6-10, so it's unlikely that it'll take place outside the Rosharan system.

Can't be Spook. Spook was the Lord Mistborn for something close to a century, and Kelsier was on the S continent about 12 years after the Catacendre.

Brandon just likes puns.

Not yet, that we know for sure.