Aleksiel

I think the new epigraphs imply the author is neither scholar, nor artist. It's true Navani isn't a philosopher, but she's an engineer and I'd hazard the author wanted to convey the idea s/he can't express themself in a scientific or creative manner - there was no point in listing all sorts of artists and scholars, just saying no philosopher or poet was enough to convey the idea at a large scale in my opinion. Yet s/he knows the term Shadesmar, which isn't common knowledge. I didn't expect we'd read more than 20 chapters and still have no confirmation who the author was. No matter who it ends up being, most epigraphs until know would remain relatively useless. Feels like a waste somehow...

Kalak's inner speech would have been different if they had a way to control thunderclasts.

You missed the color

She acts so suspiciously no secret society would want her as a member.

The rhythms are from the Spiritual realm: source Listeners predate all Shards, so I doubt they heard rhythms from Cultivation, but my be after her arrival? She has a SR aspect, too. I'm unsure how it works or if it could be heard on other shardic worlds, but it could be heard by non-parshendi on Roshar: I'm not sure how this fits in your theory, but I'm inclined to think those rhythms aren't of the present day Shards.

Yes, it makes sense. Odium seems to be the most destructive force present in the cosmere so far, so I can see how what happens on Roshar (if he's splintered or merged with another Shard eventually) will effect a lot on a much larger scale. I could even ship Mraize and Shallan in a new cosmere-focused series My fear is mainly around SA digressing and shifting focus from great characters I want to read more about to cosmere, realmatic theory and similar. I like your suggestion, that would be much better.

Yet in the Diagram we find: I thought Vargo did something to help create a truthless, but the timeline doesn't match. So he just used looked for a Truthless instead of making one as this would suggest.

I dislike the Aviar theory, because Brandon said SA will be self-sufficient and he'll keep the Cosmere at easter egg level. If a worldhopper is openly walking around with a creature from another planet, that's like Brandon has given up on even trying to do what he planned. There already are a bunch of Cosmere thing - several mentions of Adonalsium, cosmere letters (seriously, who provides postal service on interplanetary level, I wanna know), Hoid and a considerable amount of other worldhoppers. An aviar to me would indicate the series is slowly going from large epic story of Roshar focused on interesting characters to a full cosmere novella with a different focus, which wasn't supposed to happen.

Sprenbusters, obviously.

If it's Ishar, then he acknowledges a new Desolation is here. What about Taln, though? He is the one who was left with the burden of the Oathpact. I know Dalinar has a madman saying he is Taln, but there's this WoB: I haven't seen a more recent one about this. I agree the likeliest candidates for Tezim is one of the Heralds, followed by another Bondsmith (doesn't fit what Mraize said, but he could be wrong), crazy Aimian or a crazy person like the one pretending to be the God of a vegetable village, but on a bigger scale.

@specialNEDstark It split between Jasnah and the Sunmaker early on and it still is, but I think you are right, some people no longer think it's her. I'm not sure why you put Renarin, Navani and Shallan among the popular candidates, that's not my impression. Dalinar is third based on the poll, but lags behind by a large margin.

Nobody thought Taln was dead, though. People believe the heralds are in the Tranquilene Halls fighting.

I disliked that Shallan suddenly had too many successes in WoR - converting deserters, handling the alethi court, outspying spies, outscholaring scholars. She made some minor mistakes, but recovered fast and had no significant failure, which made it less believable for me. I disliked we didn't learn about her early childhood and I hope Ars Arcanum is wrong when it puts Honesty as one the Divine attributes for LW, because I do not see Shallan as representing that quality. She becomes more self aware and honest to herself, but that isn't something that works for me as acceptable interpretation of honesty in this regard. I also disliked how slow we got into the main story in WoK - there is prelude, prologue, a flashback chapter from the PoV of a dead minor character...Suddenly it's 50 pages (give or take depending on the format) and we still haven't seen any main character in present day

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you then. Well, Pattern was followed by Cryptics Shallan saw in her drawings, though that's different, they weren't in the PR as you pointed. Radiant spren are mindless in PR without a bond, which might to not be the case for voidspren.

May be Malata was just overly pleased with her newfound position.

It's interesting the yellow spren is sentient without being bonded to anyone from what we know so far. Both Pattern and Wyndle had help, Ivory and Syl came on their own.

@The One Who Connects Nightblood isn't a radiant spren, why would he grant surges? If he does, I'd expect to be different than the typical skybreaker spren since he isn't one.

I didn't expect a Dustbringer with Vargo and I had hoped Redin would be DB. Not that we can't have multiple, I just sincerely didn't expect one to appear from nowhere. It's also interesting the spren knew about the Dustbringer/Releaser name conflict, does that mean it's reasonable to expect it one of the old radiant spren that survived Recreanse?

So the author emphasizes they aren't a philosopher or a poet, I think we can scratch scholars and artists in general.

Welcome to the forum! Reputation titles change based on the total number of upvotes one has. Jasnah is a popular pick. Here's one thread about it. In short, Jasnah says she is a heretic, whereas OB author states others consider them a heretic, little details like that make her unlikely candidate in my eyes.

@Subvisual Haze Listeners are one possibility, though I would have expected to have a few hints in their old songs for the purpose of foreshadowing if there was a war between them and KR. We don't know when parshendi were made into what they were prior to the everstorm and if it was willingly. I know it sounds bizarre to give up your mind, but KR, especially WR, killing their spren and leaving their corpses is also bizarre. May be the intention was to remove the danger of bonding voidspren and the loss of self was unexpected side effect. We don't know how the Listeners managed to escape everybody, may be they are descendants of those who rejected the plan and hid. But I digress... Another possibility are aimians - we know Aimia was scoured and during that the majority of larkins went extinct - those little flying cremling creatures that can suck stormlight out of surgebinders from what we've seen. Aimians are interested in KR and appear to be aware of the sham the Heralds pulled or at least aren't surprised by the Desolation, so it could be related. Aimians could have convinced the KR of something similar to how Nale thought using surges will return Desolation.

Windrunners' ideal so far are about protecting. We know only the first specific Skybreaker ideal: 'I will put the law above all else.' source WR are about what's right according to personal standard and SB rely on the law, which has a potential to cause a serious conflict between those Orders and is possible it already happened in the past. One theory suggests SB are the Order that didn't abandon their oaths.

On one hand there hasn't been an everstorm before, so that makes its existence significant. Its direction is, too, because cities are built for highstorms coming from one direction, thus it's devastating to be hit by a storm from another.

I don't have a degree in all things Sanderson (I'd sign for any university that has this ), but here are my two spheres: Dalinar will get more information, he can learn something different each time, although not necessarily always useful. I think Honor was more focused on showing events rather than giving a lecture, otherwise he would have used a different format. Dalinar isn't being teleported to the past, so there's no point in trying to persuade anyone he is from the future. However, the visions are insufferably ambiguous and lacking important pieces of information, so I think there's more to gain by figuring out why Honor showed those things while not even mentioning others.

@Subvisual Haze at the time the quote refers to Ishar had his Blade and there isn't any evidence he communicated with the KR after the Heralds told humanity the ultimate victory was achieved. Even if I was to accept Ishar was responsible for KR fall (which I don't), it still doesn't make him capable of altering visions set by a Shard. Pattern said all Cryptics of old died, entire spren species were wiped out or left with very few members. Present day radiant spren don't know why Recreance happened except the SF, who isn't the sharing type. The Heralds were mentioned in the quote I posted, just not in the context of being on Roshar. The visions are long after they abandoned their duty, so Honor likely didn't count on them anymore. I consider the visions insufferably ambiguous, but I don't see them as altered - at the very least I do not see proof they were and that the SF wouldn't notice interference. May be Honor's intent/oath prevented him from sharing more, they certainly have less information than I would expect from a Shard. Still, I don't agree Tanavast was referring to Listeners and humans when he said unite them, it's definitely not the case in the part I referred, I'd argue it's straightforwardly talking about surgebinders. Your theory is interesting, but it involves much speculation with very little textual evidence.