TomR

Wayne's ability to put himself in other people's shoes and imitate them seems a likely candidate. The combination is meant to provide more subtle abilities.

It references "the times of Madasa," so at that point it's definitely making a historical reference. When looking at all the quotes, each seems to have a context of a certain time. You're right, though, it doesn't mean there weren't two more out in the world away from Urithiru, but there may have only been one total, or there may have been four. I like the three spren theory, and I'm as guilty of the assumption as anyone, but we've only got one paragraph where we've conflated three Bondsmiths being "not uncommon" with three being a fixed number and "nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds" with "never increased this number." I'm not completely ready to throw out the three spren theory, but this did make me think there could be other possibilities.

I think you may be right about the limit. Words of Radiance is often presented as a history, so the "numbers only three" could very well be referring to a time period rather than an actual upper bound; the fact that it immediately follows that by referencing a time when there was only one Bondsmith makes me think you're on to something. I'm less certain that "spren was" refers to a singular spren rather than a class of spren (I was thinking that there might be more than one of what Eshonai called a "Rider" since she talks about the Stormfather as "this Rider" and that the Bondsmiths were linking to them), but I can see the argument. Upvote.

I thought he was worldhopping through the Cognitive Realm, which he's entering and leaving through Shardpools. The Cognitive Realm's defined by thinking creatures, so the void of space where nothing thinking exists effectively becomes zero, or near zero, distance, so any changing distance doesn't matter so much.

I don't know. I suspect they will stick to their convictions.

The assumption would be that all spren are a mixture of Honor and Cultivation, with even the most Cultivationy still having some Honor and the most Honory still having some Cultivation, so Surgebinding would comes from this Honor side. That's still basically my opinion. Given: Honorblades give access to the full range of Surgebinding. Assumption: Honorblades are purely of Honor. Conclusion: Cultivation is not needed to access the Surges. Surgebinding is Honor's. So that at least is my chain of logic, even though I can see ways people may disagree. Regardless, the overall theory has a few more issues now that I've read WOR and a few of the more recent signing reports. I'm sure I'll be rethinking it many times until we get all the answers.

I said "didn't have them," not "couldn't have them." We know some orders were individualistic, they didn't act as teams. So it's not a big stretch to assume some orders, as orders, weren't running around with squires. Again, I'm not wondering about who had the ability, I'm speculating who used the ability. The Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers, given the descriptions we have of them in the other epigraphs, seem to me to be more likely to be individualistic orders. For size mattering, it's not about any order's current size, but their size when the Radiants were at full strength. If Teft's right when he says, "From what I can guess, it seems that the orders of the Knights Radiant were made up of more than just the knights themselves” (WOR 1047)," then the squires appear to be counted in the order. I don't know, though, maybe one or two of the three members of the Bondsmiths were squires, or it could be that the Bondsmiths numbered only three plus their fifty squires.

So Windrunners had squires, and Dustbringers seem like a safe bet. Of the other orders, I'll guess that Truthwatchers and Bondsmiths didn't have them. Truthwatchers since they were isolated by their secrecy, Bondsmiths since they were such a small order. Hard to guess how the others broke down, though it does look like Shallan has a proto-squire group in her soldiers.

I understand what you're saying, and I get that you're not trying to marginalize any voices. This is starting to feel pretty close to a touchy topic, so I'll leave the real life stuff at that. Not exactly. I do get where you're coming from, but... First, take the examples. I think it's safe to assume Nightblood can use Stormlight instead of Breath or it's pretty much worthless. Hoid is manipulating characters and events to turn Roshar into a bullet aimed at Rayse, which is significant but probably not very important until we get to the second five books. Until then, Hoid is just playing the part of Trickster-as-Spiritual-Guide without being central to anything himself. Within the first five books, however, I believe "who Shallan's crushing on harder" will have greater importance than either of those two questions. Love triangles are used so often for a reason. Shallan developing feelings for both Adolin and Kaladin could divide Shallan, Kaladin, and the Kholins. Shallan/Kaladin as Guinevere/Lancelot: even if a split doesn't go as far as the fall of Camelot, it's still a big deal. Second, again, talking about one thing (e.g. relationships) doesn't actually prevent talking about others (e.g. Hoid and Nighblood). The forums cover all sorts of topics, and if someone feels that a point has been missed, they can add a post or start a new topic and feel confident that someone will see it and respond. Even if some topics get more traffic, others still get plenty of attention. Finally, when you get down to it, none of this is exactly imperative. Speculating's fun-- well, at least I enjoy it. The forums are a great resource and a place where people passionate about a shared interest can exchange thoughts and ideas. But eventually all the books will come out, and we'll have all the answers. Given that, I don't think ranking importance is all that important

We see a female Stoneward in one of Dalinar's visions in book 1. Though if Taln doesn't get his Honorblade back, it would be funny if he got a spren and become a Stoneward People who might feel that their voices have been marginalized in society care about positive representations of their own viewpoints. However, respectfully, I don't see how discussions about sexuality mean anyone's going to overlook "more important stuff." That's a false choice-- it's not like speculating about one thing renders you unable to speculate about any others. It's just one more thing about the books that some people enjoy talking about. When I saw discussion of the ten thrones in Urithiru, I did wonder if they were for ten Radiants on a council overseeing the city or if they were a meeting place for the kings of the ten Silver Kingdoms. Some orders I could see with a Head Radiant (we know Windrunners had a hierarchy), but I'm not sure if all of them would, or whether in some cases it wouldn't be more than nominal if they did.

I've seen it spelled both as sopaipilla or sopapilla (Spanish double-L, pronounced like a consonantal Y). In the US, it's pretty common in the southwest, Texas and the four corners in particular. Kind of a pastry, fried dough with stuff in the middle. With honey, they were kind of a dessert when I was a kid living in Albuquerque.

I don't think I said there was one, just that for Orders with access to those Surges I only see one big advantage to a riding animal (saving Stormlight during non-emergency travel). Now that I think about it, though, I guess whether you could Lash or Transport them depends on if Ryshadiums' Investiture interferes with Surgebinding. I have no idea if they can contribute Stormlight or increase efficiency -- IMO that might make them a little too Companion-esque. Sidenote: I wonder if the "shad" in Ryshadium has any etymological link to the "shad" in Shadesmar.

You probably wouldn't for the most part. I would imagine that most Knights with the Gravitation or Transportation Surges generally would use those instead of a horse. It's possibly the Stonewards had access to something that let them travel faster than normal, too, since at Feverstone Keep they were about able to keep up with the Windrunners, something tied to Cohesion or Tension or a mixture of the two. However, that still leaves half the orders without those abilities, so Ryshadium would be useful. The other advantage of Ryshadium is that they don't use Stormlight. If a Windrunner needs to go somewhere when it isn't an emergency, they could take a Ryshadium and keep their infused gemstones for later. I would think that would be especially important during a Weeping.

I don't think it's just that Vasher's Returned. Every time someone holds Nightblood, they seem to end up shoving Nightblood through their own chest.

Not really of Honor, according to Syl: Honor does say he has some limited capacity for precognition at the end of book 1, but based on that quote I think it's safe to assume he doesn't provide the ability to others. Cultivation, though, yes.

WOR Shardblades spoiler:

Not what I meant. Syl often turns into a group of windswept leave, as in this passage: She's plural there. I'm not sure if that means she can Shardplate and Shardblade at the same time not, I can see an argument for the group of leaves being one thing. However, it's why I don't rule out the spren theory completely.

I actually meant to include this, but Syl becoming a group of windswept leaves may mean that splitting herself isn't necessarily a problem. And Physicalness may increase as more oaths are said. That's why I'm not discounting the spren theory.

I don't think Shardplate is created. First, just taking the name. Shardblades and Shardplate I have never thought are fabrials; due to their name, you'd expect a relation to the Shards from the old, more cosmere-aware Radiants. Shardblades obviously are made from spren who are Splinters of a Shard, so they're explained. But why call it Shardplate? Second, there's Dalinar's question from the first book: why aren't Shards shared? Why do only Radiants get them? Well, Blades are obvious now; they're the spren whom a Surgebinder is bonded to, so they can't be shared. How about Plate, though? It's not shared, either. Plate and Blade always seem to be paired in a Knight Radiant. Why do they only go together? Even if we assume that it was too hard to mass produce and distribute, that all the Plate they make is needed for the battle with the Voidbringers, we've seen Radiants with squires. They have to risk themselves against Thunderclasts, too, and probably Voidbringers. Why don't they get Plate? They're risking their lives, they should get as much protection as possible. So is it a spren? We now have WOB that spren can get up to human size, and we've seen Syl become a full-sized woman twice. However, I see a few problems with the idea. The first is the division mentioned above. Shardblades and Shardplate appear to be distinct items, and over the past centuries they've been separated further. Can the spren divide like this? The second problem has also been mentioned, the lack of screams. Why would Surgebinders and nahel spren have such a strong aversion to Shardblades based on their being dead spren but not mention a similar problem with plate? Finally, Plate just seems more Physical than Blades. The spren are Spiritual and Cognitive, Shardblades cut Spiritually and are lighter than they should be since they don't exist wholly on this plane. Plate, however, is very Physical. It weighs just as much as you expect. Plus, when you fuel it with Stormlight, the effects are Physical, reacting the same way Surgebinders do when holding Stormlight: the armor can Regrow itself, and it provides an increase to speed and strength. So my own theory is that Plate is akin to gemhearts. Gemhearts, like Atium, are grown as a side effect of the spiritual leakage. Stormlight is most likely the gaseous form of a Shard, which supposedly represents the Shard's Spiritual power. And it is constantly leaking from Surgebinders in the Physical Realm. Beyond that, we have a couple examples of Plate growing. First, there's the way it resizes itself. Second, there's the way it heals itself: Adolin even calls pieces of the armor a seed, which at least for me brings the Growth surge to mind, "Regrowing the armor will go faster if we’ve got a seed (WOR 1012)." As the Spiritual bond between Surgebinder and spren progresses, I expect to see Shardplate grow (the fact that the Heralds didn't have it and the way it grows makes me think it's tied to the Cultivation side of the spren). Being linked to the Surgebinder in such a way would be why its Investiture doesn't interfere with their own abilities. If I'm wrong about that, then I'm with those who think it's a spren. The name, that it apparently comes paired with Blades, that it isn't shared, and that it doesn't interfere with Radiants' Surgebinding makes me think it isn't something created.

It's actually a thought of Shallan's after she reads the in-book Words of Radiance: "For example, each order had different Ideals, or standards, to determine advancement. Some were specific, others left to the interpretation of the spren." - WOR 938

Speaking for myself, Nightblood took me a second, and Zahel I missed completely. At first I thought Nightblood was just a new type of Shardblade. Zahel's described as looking too young for his eyes, and he's an impious ardent who is reluctant to give instruction, so my first thought was Ishar with corrupted attributes. I did manage to figure out Nightblood on my own, but I didn't realize who Zahel was until I came to the forums. Given my first reaction, I don't think the cosmere-unaware will necessarily be confused. Hoid I can maybe see the objection. He's a mysterious person who keeps on showing up to influence a good portion of the main cast, and he's doing so more obviously than in other Cosmere novels, so questions might come up regarding who he is. I have seen a post on another forum where someone was trying to figure out who Hoid is before someone else informed them that he's a recurring character. However, I think "Horneater trickster god" may suffice for those people if we get a couple more hints in the future, which may be what Brandon's planning by dropping in the Rock references earlier.

I voted what I want to see happen (Shadolin). However, it's not like I don't see the ten billion* hints for Kaladin/Shallan. Which, now that I think about it, may be a pattern: I tend to root against whatever the obvious ship in a book is. Although, I usually don't mind too much when it actually happens. *Because if I'm going to exaggerate about The Stormlight Archive, 10^10 seems like a good number

I was looking at the Knights Radiant chart and thinking about the two pupils. They represent orders 5 and 10 of the Knights Radiant. I started wondering about why they might be offset the way they are. If the Surges are shared between the Orders circularly, why not just use a circle? My thought was that the spren used by Order 10 had the most Honor while the spren used by Order 5 had the most Cultivation. We know that all spren are composed of some mixture of the two. However, assuming that 5=Renarin=Truthwatcher and 10=Dalinar=Bondsmith, we now potentially have some clues about the orders themseves. Dalinar is bound to a spren who is literally the spren of the Almighty, Honor. Renarin, besides the fact he'd have access to the very Cultivation-like Growth Surge, can to at least some extent see the future, not a talent of Honor: If the theory is correct, a spren would have more or less of one Shard depending on how close their order is to the pupil; Windrunners and Stonewards would be the next nearest to Honor, Lightweavers and Edgedancers the next nearest to Cultivation, and the last four Orders would be more balanced, leaning a little one way or the other. I could be looking too hard at a symbol -- the KR may have appropriated it from existing imagery or may have just created an abstract symbol themselves -- but I don't think so. I tend to feel that symbolism comes from somewhere.

Before Renarin revealed what he was, I was also thinking of Ym, primarily based on divine attributes. Lirin's learned (trained as a surgeon) and generous (doesn't charge for healing). I've said before that I don't know how far we can trust divine attributes, but Ym exemplified both, as well. Now I'm not so sure, though. If there were multiple spren running around, I'd say yes, but since only some of them have come over, who knows.

It wouldn't be acceptable to Windrunners. However, Shallan poisoned her father, and as The Silver Queen said, Jasnah hired assassins. Even within the theme of journey before destination, I expect we'll see a wide range of ideas about ethical action. When it comes to the spren, well, not all spren are honorspren.