Raevun

What about the shining thing that Dalinar plunges into the Oathgate when he runs from Jah Keved? From memory it seemed to be distinct from a shardblade in its description, at least Dalinar didn't know what it was. Could this have been a splinter Dalinar took, forcibly, from the Stormfather's possession? So beyond just his bond to the Stormfather linking him to Honor's body, it seems he might have already held a part of it. This could be where he gained enough investure to create the perpendicularity.

Just a quick thought on Rock's ability to see Spren. We know he's been taking dips in the magical waters of the Hornpeak Mountains, which seems to be the main contender for one of the shardpools on Roshar, and he also happens to have the currently largely unexplained ability to see Spren. As these are places of immense power (see: Well of Ascension, "Death Pool" on Sel), it stands to reason that simply bathing in them but not utilising them fully could have an effect on the person, dubbing them a very minute form of a sliver (though that terminology does seem inaccurate in this case). On a related note, I could easily see Hoid having a quick dip in the Well while gathering his Lerasium, having a quick (banter-filled) chat with Ruin before leaving with a peppy "Cheers for the wash, it's so dusty in here," gathering his things and going on his way. It could help to explain some of his oddness, and it's an opportunity I doubt he would pass up. Should this idea hold true, it would also mean Raoden may have some extra 'something', though honestly it's been too long since I've read Elantris to really comment on that.

It wouldn't surprise me if Kaladin's status wasn't a complete surprise for them. I mean, that a slave has elevated through the ranks to the position of a Highprince's guard captain is MASSIVE news. News of Sadeas' betrayal would have travelled beyond the shattered plains because of soldier's talking to their family etc. Obviously, they won't know about Kaladin being a KR, or that it was him who received this promotion, but they might be like "Oh it was you that did all that!" I imagine the initial reaction won't be judging him upon his eyes, or his brand, or Tien's death, but it will simply be pure jubilation that they have at least one of their sons back. No parents who have lost both of their children will be unhappy when one returns. However, the state of them is something to be considered, not their reactions. Lirin seemed to be placing all of his hopes and strength upon Kaladin becoming a surgeon and escaping the small-time, spiteful village to become a great person, possibly even marrying into a lower-dahn lighteyed family. With the destruction of that hope he will be crushed. As for Kal and Laral, it could act as justification for his vengeance upon Roshone. If Laral is mistreated - which from what we've seen from Roshone isn't a stretch of the imagination - he would be following his oaths if he were to incapactiate Roshone (with potentially anything up to death), as long as he was protecting Laral.

It's in the Houston questions

Thanks, though it was only the Wheel of Time answer I had an issue with. Cosmere stuff is fair game!

Just a thought on some aspects which I'm making possibly wrong assumptions from. So, Honor's been urging Dalinar to try to force Odium to choose a champion. This is because Odium won't make himself vulnerable, but would cause him to invest a significant amount of power in an individual on Roshar, and in killing them it would cause him to enter a period of recuperation. We know that Odium is on a mission to be the sole Shardholder. Honor is splintered, leaving Cultivation as his next target. However, since Honor's splintering Cultivation has been essentially hiding/grieving/uncaring about the situation in general on Roshar. Now, the Heralds seem to essentially be Honor's champions. In them dying and going to Damnation after each desolation, it caused them to release the power Honor had invested in them, bolstering Honor's strength meaning that he would be able to hold off getting splintered. Here is where the recreance comes in. When the 9 heralds abandoned the Oathpact, it left a significant portion of Honor's power invested outside of his personal being. This left him vulnerable and open to an assault from Odium, splintering him. As all spren derive somewhat from Honor and Cultivation, I believe the Knights Radiant to be a kind of pseudo-champion of both Honor and Cultivation. In having a nahel-bond form, it provides a link directly to one of the two, or more likely a mix, and the power that a KR gains will weaken the Shardholder on a fairly small scale. This obviously adds up when you have a few thousand Knights. With no Knights Radiant, there is not enough of Cultivation invested outside of her being to leave her vulnerable to an attack from Odium. With their reappearance, it signals to Odium that Cultivation will be getting weaker, and so invokes his attention back to Roshar, causing him to try to spur a Desolation to eventually lead to Cultivation's splintering. I believe the Knights Radiant gained some increased cosmere awareness, learning that their bonds were weakening their gods, and that was provoking the Desolations to come. And so it's simple: no more Nahel-bonds = no more provocation.

There's a massive list of compiled unanswered questions on another section of the forums already. I think it's fairly up to date, though I haven't read through them all in a while! http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/383-the-ultimate-list-of-questions-for-brandon/

Haven't finished Wheel of Time yet, and didn't expect to run into a spoiler in a Words of Radiance thread.Thanks for that. For the sake of anyone else in my situation, put it in a spoiler tag please.

I'm hoping for Taln to regain his sanity and seek out his fellow heralds. It seems he's not even aware that they abandoned the Oath-pact yet. His reaction will be something interesting to see. If Jezrien's a drooling mess, and Wit has Taln's blade, my vote goes to Taln getting the blade. I doubt it'll happen, I just want to see Heralds kicking chull instead of hiding. I can dream.

Taln went to a literal hell for over 4000 years. He made it back, and is still in shape to stop blowdarts in a casual manner. I'm fairly sure he can endure anything. Szeth was on breaking point after a few years of slavery. One aspect of this slavery being that he must be the most powerful man (who was actively doing things in the plot) on the planet. Respect the Stonesinew, man. When his mind is fixed (which I'm guessing the Progression surge will have a hand in), he's going to be a big player to say the least.

They have Adhesion, not Gravity. The only two orders with Gravity are Windrunners and Skybreakers.

I'd say it's more honour than bravery or cowardice. It's certainly not justice that he follows, or not a sane justice at least. He's bound by his oaths, hence the Oathstone, and I'd say that binding is due to honour. If he followed justice he wouldn't kill innocents. If he was a coward he would have left his conflicts and became a rock collector or something, not consciously choose to increase his insanity through doing things he hates and believes are wrong. And as said above, if he was brave (or a man of justice) he would have disobeyed orders he felt were wrong. He would have stuck by his convictions of the voidbringers returning, or would have questioned his masters. Instead, he blindly followed precepts, as his honour would dictate. Regardless, Sanderson seems to want to make him a force of justice, so that is where he is headed. Misguided justice, no doubt.

Make Syl into a Shardshovel, dig a moat around his parents' house. Why? Because every house needs a moat.

Was trying to subtly make OP think about what happened to the blade

Only Honorblades grant surgebinding powers, and the one he carried wasn't one. We know this as when Dalinar becomes a Bondsmith, he hears the screaming of the spren inside the blade and instantly discards it. Honorblades weren't created with spren (or at least, they don't cause the screaming, as Kaladin handled one just fine). There's also recent word of Brandon that Honorblades cannot be 'bonded', only given to a person. Why Taln wasn't carrying his Honorblade is another matter entirely...

To give a different viewpoint, I consider myself to be pretty cosmere aware, and the vast majority of the cosmere stuff went right over my head when I was looking for it. The only reference I got by myself was Nightblood. I had Zahel pegged as a worldhopping herald (which I was pretty damnation happy with, until I read the forums), and I completely missed the perfect pitch/drinking metal parts. I find that I get caught up in the story of the book instead of focussing on cosmere stuff (unless it's slapping me in the face). The re-read is where I start to theorize and delve into the cosmere. Ultimately, you can take the book as deep as you want it to go. The cosmere references still function in the current storyline alone by adding sprinkles of mystery, but if you want to follow them through the other series then it's a bonus if you're into it. I don't think that a description of Nightblood will have to be that cosmere-heavy. Recent WoB said that magical items from one world may function in a different manner on another Shardworld, and we've yet to see how Nightblood actually behaves on Roshar. Chances are it will be similar to a Shardblade, just with a penchant for destroying evil guys.

Why is it necessary to make a parallel to Earth? It's impossible to expect equal progression in technology on a world where magic is existent. With the antiseptic, they can physically see infection with rotspren. It's much easier to come to the conclusion that antiseptic is needed when you can see rotspren causing an infection compared to Earth, where the causes of infection are on an invisible-to-the-eye scale. Having a substance that wards it off is instantly recognisable as beneficial. As for military development, there is little reason to develop new weaponry when you have Shardblades in the world. The destructive potential of one is unparalleled to anything that they would be capable of making in reasonable technological leaps from what they already have. The main branch of military scientific development, that of fabrials, has, arguably, been more focussed on the replication of Shardblades instead of trying to create something to rival their destructive power. Add in to the mix the desolations wiping out civilisations, causing humanity to rebuild again and again. There are also several different humanoid races with very different physiologies, meaning that discoveries of one nation may be inapplicable to another (so there can be no true global collaboration/arms races). And then there's also people arriving on Roshar from other planets entirely, from different eras, potentially giving advice in some areas and not in others. The heralds are also still around, and have witnessed many development/desolation cycles, and have given advice on how humanity can progress. In short, of course the technology is wildly varied. There's magic.

It functions differently this time around. As more codes get entered, content gets unlocked for everyone. The only bonus of having a code is that you get to write a message on the shardhunt page, as far as I'm aware.

My lord, Lopen with an army of squires, all being his Herdazian cousins.

I'm mainly happy that the world has opened up somewhat. Book 1 was very clearly just the Shattered Plains, and while a limited scope was needed to set up the core characters and base magic systems, I'm oh so happy that the stage has widened. With the Ghostbloods fleshed out, the introduction of the Sons of Honor, Taravangian's Diagram posse and the Skybreakers, there are some serious plotlines to go down now. Add on to that we still have the Unmade to learn about (which as far as I can gather are almost like tectonic plate sized weird spren), there is so much more to be excited about in the series than before. Before this book, the main mysteries were 'where is Urithuru?', 'Does Szeth have an honorblade?' and specific things to do with the Radiants, such as what are the oaths, what are the orders themselves etc. Now, a lot of that has been answered directly, and the main things to wonder about is just how the plot is going to develop, rather than more finicky points. The wait for the next book is going to be even more dire for me than the last time. As for more specific moments of this book which I love/intrigued me: -Elhokar being Dalinar's Tien slapped me in the face, I loved that line. -Lopen. Every scene. Also Rock, him too. storm it, all of the bridgemen. -The bridgemen were glowing when Kaladin arrived? -Where are the Listeners who escaped? Are they now Stormform? (Which seems a bit unlikely, given their set-up). Also, how are they going to keep Shen from turning Stormform? -Taravangian and his situation is one of the most well designed characters in my opinion. -Nightblood. Means heralds have been world-hopping. Now I'm going to be eyeing Sanderson's other books for storming Heralds on top of everyone else. I love it. -Who is Nazh? -I middle fingered Sadeas as his brain got skewered. It felt great. -Kaladin eating the Chouta and liking it. -Rock witnessing Hoid's arrival to the world. Are the mountaintop lakes some form of shardpool? Dislikes: -The potential seeds of a love-triangle between Adolin/Shallan/Kaladin. -Neither of the people you killed stayed dead? Really? No side-effects of their deaths either, apparently. -Too much "Oh it's him I'm so angry I'm finding it hard to contain everything", from seemingly every character.

My guess was Skybreakers, for a much simpler reason; Nin (Herald of Justice, head of the Skybreakers), welcomed Szeth to the order at the end of the book.

Judging from the Truthwatcher excerpt, his oddness is entirely intentional and not an oversight. I don't think we're going to be getting much sense from Renarin for a while.

With the discovery of Parshendi spies amongst the warcamps, the reactions to Shen could very well spur the third ideal. Once the spies are discovered, a systematic purge of the camps seems to be the most likely thing to happen, which puts Shen in considerable danger. Kaladin has stuck with him from the outset and assuming that Shen is not actually a spy, it follows character that Kaladin will protect him with all that he has, whether it's from bridgeman, soldier or highlord. Though, I personally agree with that it will occur from dealing with Amaram, or how he stops his men seeking vengeance on his behalf. It won't surprise me if he lets it slip to one of his men his backstory with Amaram, and they'll seek vengeance with zeal. Steering them away from that will take extreme leadership skills to say the least, considering how devoted Bridge Four are to Kaladin.

There is some support for this in Dalinar's vision where he fights the Midnight Essence. Initially I just assumed they were windrunners, and when they detected the Midnight Essence they just lashed themselves to the sky in the direction of the village. Though a base in the sky would also fit; loading Radiants into catapults, pointing them at problems and flinging them away to save the day or what have you.