RShara

Yeah I'm sure he'll leave some things hanging, since there is an overarching plot, but it won't be a cliffhanger like renewing the Oatrhpact would be. I see the first arc as the battle for Roshar the planet. The fight against the Fused and Odium's "earthly" forces. Then the second arc is going to be the battle against Odium directly, to bind him in a way where he's harmless, or eliminate him as a threat, and will involve more of the greater Roshar system, the Heralds, the Shards, and who knows what else.

Okay, I see what you mean. But I really think he says more that it's two series, than one. And what @Scion of the Mists said--it's going to be even longer between books 5 and 6, so at least 5 years, maybe 10, between the books. That's a long time to wait for a cliffhanger for a writer like Brandon to leave us in.

We're sure that the Stormfather said Odium is bound by Honor and Cultivation. I'm sure Odium could take back the investiture that makes up the Fused if he wanted to. And honestly...even if there are hundreds of Fused, that's such a tiny chunk of a Shard's power that it's not really going to hold him anywhere. Think of - Warbreaker Spoilers Yeah that's what I'm thinking of. It compares to me, like Era 1 and Era 2 of Mistborn, rather than Book 1 and Book 2 of a series.

I cited some of the instances where he said it was two series.

Yeah sorry, it was late and I was trying to squeeze my post in before bed haha. I can definitely see the appeal of OP's suggestions, and absolutely OP is entitled to their opinion. I just don't think that Brandon is going to write in that direction, and there are some plot and Realmatic problems alongside that make that specific scenario unlikely. But we've seen in the past that Brandon's not adverse to a bittersweet ending, so it's totally not going to be all sunshine and roses at the climax.

Hehehehe bug ansibles.

I can understand that, but there're differences. First, IW is a movie, which allows a lot more latitude in terms of cliffhangers. More specifically, it's a Marvel movie, and there's pretty much always a cliffhanger or hook to get you to watch the next one. Brandon doesn't need that. His books will bring readers back because of his name and his writing, not just because they need to see how the cliffhanger works out. And ending an entire series on a cliffhanger to me is a really bad idea. A book, sure, sometimes. A series? No.

That still leaves problems 1, 3 and 5 And 6, of course.

The current plan is for book 6 to be 10-15 years after book 5. Maybe a little more or a little less, but that's the ballpark. 30 years is far too long for many of our current characters to survive until then, and at least some of them will, I'm sure. Jasnah is slated to be a main character, and should she survive, she'd be getting close to 70 in our years. I'm pretty sure you don't need to die to become a Herald. And I don't think he'll be able to do that anyway. Additionally, the very concept of Honor and the Heralds requires the person to take up the mantle with Intent. I am absolutely certain that you cannot become a Herald by accident. Also, we have some idea of the conditions on Braize, which is where the Heralds go when they die. They don't go to the Tranquilline Halls, which is Ashyn. And....Hoid is NOT the person I would want to welcome me to the afterlife, even if that was where they were And as Calderis said, the physical Tranquilline Halls aren't really an afterlife. It's just Ashyn, the planet that humans destroyed and fled from, to Roshar. There's not going to be confirmation or denial of any afterlife in the Cosmere. I have no idea how anyone would reassemble Honor, but I'm fairly sure that it can't be done by regular mortals Actually, I'm positive it can't be done without a strong Connection to Honor, and lots of funky magic. Just being a surgebinder would totally not be enough. And if they were to do that, doing it off-screen would be a horrible writing practice. The second half of the Stormlight Arc isn't meant to be the grand finale of the Cosmere, so I don't think there will be any additional forces at play or any absolute Realm-affecting changes. The grand finale is planned to be Mistborn 4, the sci-fi series, which is going to be hundreds of years in the future and have Hoid as a main character. So something that really screws up the three Realms really can't happen during the Stormlight series.

There's a common theory that Kaladin or some of our current Radiants will take the place of some of the Heralds, and I wanted to share my thoughts on why I am very much against this idea, and I really hope that Brandon goes a different path. 1. The Oathpact simply bound the Fused to Braize, and didn't have any real affect on Odium, except maybe tangentially (his army and some of his investiture being imprisoned on a different world). Odium is bound by Honor and Cultivation. So at the most, reforming the Oathpact would imprison the Fused on Braize again. Additionally, Brandon says that what binds Odium is greater than the Oathpact in the first one. In the second, he says that only the Heralds and Honor were part of the Oathpact, not Odium. In the third, the Oathpact is not a direct result of Odium not being able to leave the system. But it's a little part of it. Because the Fused Do take some of his investiture, and he wouldn't want to leave that behind. And as long as they are bound to Braize, the Fused can't fulfill the purpose that he made them for. So he's hindered in his goals. 2. Even if this were a solution, it's not an effective one. The Oathpact is a failure. The Heralds can break. Relying on a broken system to work, or rather, attempting the same thing over again with the expectation of a different result is the definition of insanity. Renewing the Oathpact would only restart the cycle of Desolations, which, at their peak, caused the deaths of 90% of the population or more. 3. Per the Stormfather, the Fused no longer return to Braize, but float around in the Everstorm waiting to be reborn. A new Oathpact wouldn't bind them to Braize if they never return there in the first place. 4. Renewing the Oathpact would not only merely restart the cycle of Desolations, but (assuming the current crop of Radiants start out fresh and strong), the people of Roshar would simply forget about Odium and the Heralds again. So when someone does break, they'll be back in the same situation. And the Radiants' sacrifice would be for nothing. 5. With Honor dead, and Jezrien dead, we don't know if the Oathpact even could be renewed, even if it were a good idea. 6. I really don't like the idea of the first uber-arc ending in failure. It's a bad way to end the series, a very big cliffhanger. I don't think Brandon would do that, since it's going to be extra-long between books 5 and 6. Brandon has said that the two series will have their own distinct arcs, that will tie in to the bigger story, and has called Arc 2 a sequel to Arc 1. Ending an arc on a cliffhanger is just a bad idea to me. Having to renew the Oathpact (somehow) means that the humans are desperate and losing, and need some way of recovering. In my opinion, the first arc is the battle for Roshar the planet. The fight against the Fused and Odium's "earthly" forces. Then the second arc is going to be the battle against Odium directly, to bind him in a way where he's harmless, or eliminate him as a threat, or something (I don't know lol, sorry) and will involve more of the greater Roshar system, the Heralds, the Shards, and who knows what else. Space for more thoughts as needed

The same reason there were gloryspren around Dalinar when he made his 3rd Oath, but there weren't any when he came close to manifesting Plate. They're separate things Swearing an Oath or Truth, or thinking about it/getting close to it, brings you closer to your spren/attracts the subspren.

But that's after he says the Third Ideal. He wasn't able to recharge spheres before then. Cal didn't say that there weren't lesser spren associated with each Radiant order, just that they're not what Shardplate is composed of. The actions of a Radiant certainly do attract spren.

When Dalinar is in the vision with Venli there's not a whole lot of stormlight around then, though.

I've always really liked the lesser spren idea, but there are large problems with it, like you've pointed out. Until those problems are resolved or explained, I'll keep sitting on this here fence.

The Passions are just a religion. And Odium isn't Passion, darn it.

Lots of people imagine the Alethi as Caucasian and Szeth as Asian, when the Alethi actually look Asian/Arabic/Polynesian, and Szeth is Caucasian

Hey can you put that behind spoiler tags? This post isn't marked for OB.

From the Liar chapters (that alas, aren't currently available--website issues?) Yolen had two competing ecologies. A standard Earth-type one, and a fain-life one. And fainlife was trying to take over the other one. Not much more beyond that, alas.

Yes, Frost is able to change from dragon to human and back again. We see this in several unpublished scenes. Yolen had/has three sapient races on it--humans, dragons and sho del, who are fainlife. So...yes? But it seemed like dragons were fairly rare. They're all "native" to the planet, I believe, but we won't know for sure until Dragonsteel is released.

Did you ever get that back and can you take a pic of it?

Horneaters and Herdazians are the two races we're aware of that have parsh blood. Horneaters have extra teeth and I think stronger teeth. Herdazians have the rocklike fingernails.

Kaza was lying on the stone of the island, and decided to choose her own way of going. So she soulcast the stone into smoke and let her body become smoke with it. She was on Aimia, which is apparently interdicted, because it holds secrets that could "destroy worlds." What those are, no one knows yet. The person protecting it was a Dysian Aimian. Dysians are basically a bug hivemind that can impersonal people to a degree. He was posing as the cook on the ship, and poisoned everyone before they got to the island.

I always wondered. Tanavast knew he was dying. Maybe when Melishi broke his oath and injured the SF, Tanavast sacrificed himself so that he could save the SF, by becoming a Cognitive Shadow and merging with him?

They really weren't "of" Odium. I think that Odium went there and meddled with them, possibly enpowered some of them, and that led to them destroying their world, but the humans in general didn't worship him. Have you read the text of the Silence Divine reading? It takes place on Ashyn sometime after the cataclysm. You can find it in the Unpublished forum.