Aleksiel

According to Dalinar, the alethi first tried to talk to the Parshendi after the assassination, but their messengers throught the years before WoK were killed (or refused, not completely sure). So there were attempts of peace pre-WoK and the Listeners didn't consider them. What exactly did they think would happen? It should have been obvious enough after a few years that the alethi won't just leave them alone. Besides, they could have came up with a reason for Gavilar's assassination or blame it on the already executed leaders or whatever instead of declaring 'we did it!!!' and fleeing to the Shattered Plains, hoping the alethi won't bother them for long. They had years to come up with a believable explanation, the fact that they didn't even try is incredibly stupid and unexplainable to me.

Yes, it was implied and I agree manipulating Eshonai to take stormform made it easier to convince others to take it as well, but there were many ways to persuade her and her involvement in my opinion sped up the plot, but it would have worked even if she initially didn't volunteer to try it first. My main point is surgebinders were the occasion Venli used to pursuade the Parshendi to turn to stormform, but mainly the fear of the approaching armies and the threat to the Listeners. It's very ironic they killed Gavilar to prevent the return of their gods only to summon them themselves a few years later. It doesn't make much sense to me, they must have known the alethi would go to war once Gavilar was assassinated and the Parshendi refused to give any explanation or negotiate peace according to Dalinar. I have no idea what else they expected to happen.

Nale probably haven't seen an everstorm since it's a new thing and Desolations typically didn't start that way, so he likely wasn't focused on anything of the sort. Why would Eshonai's support be crucial? Venli would have done it herself if Eshonai didn't insist she take stormform first. It's not like Eshonai was their queen or had the last say.

Venli was likely already under Odium's influence and would have found a way to convince others to take stormform even without the surgebinder argument.

It doesn't look like 'feeling' is one of his strengths. Do you think him a serial killer? He deserves the benefit of doubt -perhaps there was a good reason to consider surgebinders potential threat; after all he is one of the Heralds and knows more than anyone else on-screen about Desolations. And it was the alethi armies marching on the Plains who forced the Parshendi to summon the everstorm; it can't be blamed on surgebinders.

Nale was killing surgebinders because (in his own words) he believed that way he'd be able to prevent another Desolation from happening. But now it's too late for that, isn't it? He has no reason to keep hunting surgebinders.

Shai in that unforgable prison?

It was most likely Renarin - he started writing right before the everstorm hit and he said he's been seeing the future, he had access to every place where they found writings and he knows glyphs, so there.

Kaladin's birthday (according to him) was when he was a bridgemen, so he starts WoK as 19 years old. There are birth years on coppermind, which I guess are canon. Though it would be nice to have someone confirm it, because I haven't seen any WoB on this.

Then Elhokar is a lot younger than I originally thought. He's 3 years senior to Adolin according to coppermind, which makes him 26 in WoK and Jasnah is 34. May be Gavilar and Navani weren't getting along. She said several timer they had problems. Plus there are ways to prevent pregnancy, they (or one of them) may not have wanted a child for a while after Jasnah; Gavilar could have been away fighting. Not for 7 years, but the reason is probably a combination of all those.

Days are shorter on Roshar, thus the canon is one Rosharian year=1.1 Earth years. What you posted aren't the correct starting ages of the characters at the beginning of WoK. Shallan is 17, Kaladin was still 19 (year older/younger than Renarin, I can't remember which right now), Adolin is 23. I don't remember if Elhokar's age was ever stated, but he should be in his 30s like Jasnah. So in our years Shallan is almost 19, Adolin is 25, Kal is 22 and so on

Hey, a fan can hope! I consider saying an Oath in the right circumstances to be what revives the Blade, but that may not be the case. However, Kaladin and Shallan revived their spren with a new Oath, so it makes sense for Adolin to have to say the words (and some other unknown stuff) for his Blade to be revived, which is when we'll get its name. I do not think we can learn its name before the spren has conscious again and for that it need to be revived.

I second everything maxal said. My headcanon is Adolin becoming an ED via reviving his Blade. We know from a WoB it's possible, but extremely difficult. Who's better than Adolin to revive a Blade? There is foreshadowing for that. Chekov's gun basically demands someone to revive a Blade - it has been talked about in WoR and we know it can happen, although I do not think we'll see it more than once in the series. We know the Second ED Oath (the first specific to them) is about remembering the forgotten. A nice parallel, thought not really a proof - Adolin constantly reminds himself of his mother, who Dalinar forgot completely. Adolin hasn't named his Blade because he feels he should not give the Blade a name that wasn't his/hers. How awesome would it be for him to learn the real name? He's not enforcing a name on his Blade, which should mean something. He speaks a lot to his Blade, explaining himself, what he's doing, what's happeneing, which could help the Blade regain a little of his consciousness. Adolin has a ED personality - refined (he even used this exact word to describe himself), easy-going, deadly warrior, who cares about people most lighteyes don't look at twice. Not focused on the big picture and strategy like Dalinar or Jasnah, but more into little things that matter. So I expect him to break next book, creating an opening for a Nahel-bond and may be even say on Oath in the next book. I thought he's perfect for ED even before we got the confirmation his Blade is ED spren, which made it even better because before that I wasn't able to make up my mind on what would be better - him reviving the Blade or being an ED, but now he can have both in canon. One of the common arguments against it is that Lift is our ED. There will be more than one Radiant from some Orders and she's be a main character in the second half, so it can work perfectly fine. Another common argument is then we would not have a candidate for a DB, but I think Redin would be good one - the bastard heterochromatic son of the now dead king of Jah Keved, who obeyed his father in everything.

While that's what Av said, the whole quote goes like this: So the suggestion T needs to find a way to balance/make work together his high compassion and high intelligence would be tricking him/ twisting his words. If you believe the latter part of the quote, you should also consider the former credible as well. And how would he did that since he's a drooling moron when he's very compassionate? On a day when his intelligence is high enough to consider the Diagram, he's neither intelligent enough to fix it, not (probably) compassionate enough to want to fix it. If the whole intelligence/compassion system work as a boon, what is the curse and how come he never noticed he has a different curse going on? I don't agree with that theory, but it's an interesting one. It's always fun to discuss how things might work out

I'm not a fan of this theory, because it undermines the boon. If that was the case and he couldn't make both sides of him work together, then he would not have the capacity to save the world. But the Nightwatcher always gives you what you ask for, so there shouldn't be any twist like the one you suggest.

Vargo went to the Nightwatcher after Gavilar told him about his visions on the feast Szeth killed him, which is around the same time Shallan's mother was killed. Thus the Diagram is afterwards and Shallan's mother couldn't be part of it.

I really don't see how exactly it's clear Shallan's mother knew about Gavilar. First, there's no reason to believe they've ever met, no textual evidence for that. There are plenty of secret organizations with knowledge about the Radiants. Second, we don't know what Gavilar wanted, only what Amaram said, which isn't fully reliable. Also, just because Gavilar and Shallan's mother were killed in the same year doesn't mean they were connected. There was no way to predict Shallan would kill her mother and the Parshendi have no connection with Jah Keved whatsoever so far as we know. How they came across Szeth is a huge question mark, but there's nothing to my knowledge that connects him with any group in Jah Keved. If Nalan is right and surgebinders bring Desolation, then Shallan's mother would have been part of a group that works against the Sons of honor - if not intentionally (since SoH probably weren't found yet), then by having opposite goals. Off topic and sort of nit-picking, but could you please change the title to ShallAn? You misspell her name in all your posts I've seen and it's bugging me. May be you've only listened to the audiobook and don't know the correct spelling.

Isn't it already canon that Desolations start when Heralds leave Damnation/stay too long on Roshar or am I missing something?

The Lord Ruler?

Nin?

Jesus looking into the photo OK, this guess is really weird I admit

Welcome to the forum! We know some things that aren't in the books, some info is based on what Brandon has said during singings for example. Check the sources used in those wiki articles, there likely isn't anything wrong with your books. You can also check online all epigraphs if you like to compare them to what's in your edition. As Blaze said, the Letters aren't called that in the books, it's the term widely used for those epigraphs in the fandom. There are other things that we've figured out and were confirmed by Brandon without being explicitly stated in the books like the sword Nale gave to Szeth and who Zahel is. So I'd say your books are as they should be, you'll catch up with the rest. Unfortunately, while we do have Cosmere 101 thread, there isn't an Stormlight Archive 101. Theoryland is where the majority of Word of Brandon (WoB) are, with different tags depending on what you're interested in reading about.

Blade, no doubt about it. It'll be always with me, just ten heartbeats away. I wouldn't even need to be very good with it and along with no blood when killing, those are enough pros for me. (Yeah, I don't deal with blood very well ) Besides, it's possible to revive a Blade, if we're going as far as imaging winning Shards, why not take the next step? edit: It's never too late to improve you spelling

Burning prayers? The Oathpact? Taln in Damnation? Nale reviving Szeth (well, he's not technically a god, but Szeth worships him as god, so it sort of counts)? The Stormfather sending the highstorm at the end of WoR or him preventing spren from bodning with men again? Surgebinding? Vasher saving Vivenna? Lightsong curing the God king? The mists assisting Vin? Preservation trying to show the texts are altered? TLR creating the ashes (since the world is too close to the sun and they serve to protect the life on the planet)? (Is there a limit to the amount of suggestions I get to make in one post )

The Returned?