Aleksiel

I was merely guessing why someone would say Honorblades are more powerful. Also, when I said 'bond a Shardblade' I meant a dead spren, so no surgebinding. Spren themselves aren't limited to Sharblades when alive, so it's incorrect in my mind to consider these two words synonyms.

I wonder if Lift will have squires like Kaladin. She felt the pain of the larkin, so I hope she'll get animals as squires. 'Hey, Lift, what are you doing?' 'Oh, just walking my chasmfiend.'

I meant you get a Blade as a result of having advanced surgebinding abilities, but you don't get surgebinding by bonding a random Blade.

Alright, so focusing on your original question, though I still need some clarifications to know if I imagine it as you meant it to be. If I was a Manipulator, I would be able to decay one thing while using it to repair other, yes? Then could I decay a wall if I was to use that energy to fix my spoiled food? I could get the money behind the wall and a nice meal. Though it might be easier to just melt the wall down... Would the Manipulator burn his/her hand if they heat something to that point or may be they don't need to touch something to manipulate it, so it's not an issue? Also, if I took someone by the hand and cut it, would I be able to change all iron is his blood to say cobalt and thus kill them? Depending on what cups and plates the people in this world use, I could sneak in someone's home and make sure they got slowly poisoned while they eat and drink oblivious to what I've done. Or kill an entire village via water poisoning. Right now I can easily imagine Manipulators as silent assassins and skilled thieves, though I don't know if that's to your liking.

This is likely because Honorblades grant surgebinding powers, whereas Shardblade doesn't.

I have a question: what is used for money is this world? Gold must be cheap as any Manipulator would be able to replicate it. Some complicated alloy? But it sounds to me some skilled Manipulators would be still able to make money out of other materials. I think you need to add some restrictions.

I suppose Ash and the Lightweavers had very pretty eyes as I'm under the impression Ash's eyes is used in the meaning of something being beautiful. May be some light red that looks pinkish. Nalan represents justice; his hand serves/brings justice. It makes sense to me at me least. Ishar's soul goes well with his attributes, I think. His soul was pure as he is pious. It probably also has to do with the meaning of the phrase, though I'm not sure what it is. Unless it's some clever trick to foreshadow he's originally from Nalthis before he became a Herald, I'd say Kalak didn't brush his teeth. He killed Voidbringers with both his Blade and breath. Or Breath.

The pre-Recreance Skybreakers wanted to be recognized by Nalan according to in-world WoR, though it's not the most credible source, but is all we have unfortunately. The highspren wanted to copy Nale's Blade, so to me he's the one who gets more saying in who's a Skybreaker since he is the role model. Though the Heralds have no Oaths, but the Oathpact, so may be you're right. However, I think of Nalan and his minions as the modern days Skybreakers. Yeah, I never quite got the first one. If you're sure, you're sure no matter what others say. If you aren't, why don't you keep your mouth shut? Hope this will be answered soon in the next book. About the other two I think Szeth was just too crazy after years of being Truthless. Suddenly learning you've lived in a lie and no longer having an excuse for all you've done can't be easy, he was in some sort of denial. Though that excuses him for believing Vargo (T did a good job hiding he was bothered I guess). Szeth had completely lost it when he attacked Dalinar. He went back for him after Kaladin was chasing him through the storm, clearly surgebinding. He needed Kal to tell him he was a Radiant as if Szeth couldn't see for himself - Szeth simply didn't want to. Too may years had passed. I think it would have been different if Gavilar had surgebinded, then Szeth wouldn't have insisted on continuing his madness, because he wasn't that crazy back then.

But... He was accepted into this Order by the original Skybreaker! How much more real can one get? You think it's better for a spren to recognize the person, but what they tried to achieve is copy Nalan.

Welcome to the forum! Lift has visited the Old magic and whatever she asked for, the Nightwatcher gave her the ability to be partly into the Cognitive realm and that's how she digests food directly into stormlight and is able to touch Wyndle. That's likely her boon (though it's not confirmed) and her curse is yet unknown. It's awesome she'll have her own book, I really want to read more about her. I've read some wild speculations all the stormlight will vanish/be taken by Voidbringers and Lift will be the only source of stormlight. I'm not sure how plausible this is, but her independence of infused spheres will surely come in handy. Darkness seems certain surgeinding brings Desolation, I'm not sure if he'll leave alone proto-Radiants now that the everstorm is already here. He is speculated to be the Herald who went back for his Honorblade. Shallan's brother Helaran went to him and his followers (the current Skybreakers) for unknown reasons before going to kill Amaram. Darkness/Nin/Nale is the one of the men Jasnah heard talking about Ash getting worse, likely referring to Shalash (who's widely considered to be Baxil's mistress, though it's not canon). He sure has a nice fashion sense. I wonder what he's been doing for the past 4500 years, hope he tells Szeth.

I also find her humor and wisecracks flat. Though I blame this one on Brandon, not on Shallan, if you get what I mean. He wanted to create an extremely witty character, but he pushed it too hard and it doesn't work well (at least for me). I can understand her childhood made her into someone who tries to make a joke out of everything and I am fine with this aspect. I'm not fine with everyone in the books praise Shallan's 'clever' tongue when she seldom says anything worthy of such recognition. She was like the Mery Sue of WoR. Suddenly she could pull out anything just by thinking about it. If she wasn't presented in WoK as shy, scared and inexperienced in every possible way, it might have worked better. But she started with drawing skills then suddenly reading books and drawing the landscape made her incredibly competent in all sorts of areas. Brandon needed her to do too much in WoR without letting us see her improve before that. Her surgebinding defines who she is too much, she doesn't have enough personality without it; she'd lose even her scholar self without the ability to take a Memory, not to mention her drawing, which makes most of who she is. I have great trouble with her character representing the attribute of honesty. It doesn't work for me at all. She is not an honest person, nor does she try to be one. This is my biggest issue with her. We have plenty of other characters that are way more sincere than Shallan and yet she is the incarnation of divine’s honesty. Shallan simply isn't suited for this role. I am ok with Shallan, however I don't think Brandon did a good job with her compared to almost all other characters.

Szeth's Honorblade probably adapt to him fighting humans and that's why it shrank. Though to be fair most Shardbearers also fight other people and their Blades stay huge, but are also dead which has damaged their ability to adapt, whereas the Honorblade is the same as always. Except for the fancy ornaments that are now missing... It's interesting it changed that much, I wouldn't have expected for the inscribed glyphs and patters to disappear over time. However, I think they faded away before Szeth got it because no ornaments are mentioned in WoK prologue and he had just got it then.

So Kal's soul is blue? Poor guy, no wonder he's so depressed.

Soooo, Syl didn't have a safe hand until now, huh? I wonder about his eyes.... Is that some Windrunner thing? Neither Jasnah's nor Shallan's eyes changed color and we've seen both of them with their Blades. Or may be soulcasters are different? When Nohadon spoke to Dalinar, he used surgebinders and soulcasters separately and the latter are already different when it comes to the gems they use. But still, why would his eyes change back to brown without stormlight? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't eye color related to pigmentation like melanin and blue means no (or little), whereas brown is simply plenty of the pigment, so this would mean stormlight destroys the pigmentation in one's eyes? So his eyes go brown again when new pigment is produced by his body. Though I don't see a reason for stormlight to destroy anything natural to the body that is also part of one's mental image of himself. edit: However, this doesn't work in Szeth's case, because with him his eyes go back to their natural color immediately after he dismisses his Blade.

Don't let anyone convince you you're a fire!

It was very emotional for me, but I agree it would have been nice to have one more chapter, something more relaxing after everything that happened. I think I read something along the lines of ~1080 pages being the limit of Tor's printing press, so I suppose they just couldn't add anything else. edit: forgot the not in the last sentence

You deleted my quote? I am offend!

Lirin would make a good Truthwatcher. However, I doubt glasses are connected to the Order. Ym was a very old man, it was only natural he needed glasses, all old people do.

Dalinar didn't witness the fight between his brother and Szeth, so he had no way of knowing Gavilar almost beat him. Yes, it's poor judgement on Dalinar's part that he didn't consider the fact Szeth didn't have that much practice six years ago, but for all Dalinar knew Szeth was a trained assassin. Dalinar wouldn't have been able to save Gavilar, on that he was right. The fight ended faster than Dalinar could have went to the armory, put on his Shardplate and return to his brother. He simply didn't have that much time. Dalinar without Shardplate would have ended much like Adolin did the first time he encountered Szeth - on the ceiling, wondering how did that happen or even dead. Imagining Dalinar not only sober, but in Sharplate at the party is really unfair to him. Gavilar should have just drunk his wine and kept his mouth shut. edit: The Alethi are supposed to have the best army in the world and the most Sharbearers. Of course their Shardbearers would be the best in Roshar: they were better soldiers before getting the Shards, have strong traditions, have much more opportunities to practice. In a country where there are only two Shadbearers, it's basically impossible for either of them to improve much since they can practice only with themselves and have noone to train them. The Kholin army is the most disciplined one and their men practice regularly, so that's why their army was one of the strongest in Alethkarr. The average Kholin soldier would likely make a more skilled Shardbearer than the average soldier in any other army if that's what you meant. However that's much more because of daily practicing and good traditions rather than a natural gift. At least we haven't seen a non-Alethi who practices as much with a weaponmaster to make a comparison. Well, except Zahel, but he has centuries of practice.

Thanks! So Kaladin doesn't beat the everstorm to Hearthstone? I didn't expect that, honestly. Will Lirin die in his arms or something? That would be horrible.

Alethkar is supposed to be a nation praising warfare, so they take weapon training seriously. I agree with maxal the average lighteyes from a certain dahn above gets plenty of sword practice. No matter how different a Blade is, it's closer to a sword than to a spear, so a practiced swordsman will master it faster than a spearman. Kaladin talks down lighteyes about being lazy and not practicing, but he really has no idea. Until the Kholins, he'd met two citylords and a girl, so none of them practiced with a weapon for obvious reasons. The only other is Amaram and he's very skilled, so he's not just sitting around all day. Kaladin has no experience with the average lighteyes and held a horrible grudge, so he's really not someone who would know how much lighteyed men practice with the sword. We don't see almost anyone practicing during the books, so it just happens off-screen. Szeth's main advantage against Shardbearers is taking them by surprise and killing them while they wonder how the heck is he walking on the wall; something that didn't seems to particularly impress or bother Gavilar, so he naturally did better, also Szeth didn't have much experience when he went after Gavilar, who was basically Szeth's first kill. Remember how Zahel said most man die on the battlefield, because they watch in awe/horror the Shardblade? Well, I think something like that happened to most men Szeth killed, also they didn't know what to expect and had no way to prepare for what he could do.

Wait, what?! There's a preview chapter already? I don't see it on Brandon's site. Link, please!

What makes you say he didn't have hospitals before the Diagram? Nalan is the one who thinks killing surgebinders will prevent Desolation. Vargo thinks a Desolation will come no matter what and wishes to ensure the survival of humanity.

He could barely stand his so-called friends and realized Dalinar was right that the other lighteyes were acting like spoiled brats. Would you care what a spoiled brat says to you? I think not. Let's not forget some of his so-called friends already tried to kill him and threatened his little brother. They should be grateful Adolin isn't Arya. Navani will soften his original reaction, I'm sure of it. I'm glad we agree she'll be on Adolin's side. Dalinar will certainly be disappointed, but that won't mean he loves Adolin any less, so wouldn't do anything to harm Adolin like exiling him or stripping him of rank and title, at least I do not see it as the likeliest outcome. Renarin's behavior that some people regard as weird is due to autism and has noting to do with how strongly and deeply he loves Adolin. He looks up to Adolin, doesn't envy him, Ren would die for his brother and has proved he isn't afraid to put himself in danger to protect his family. He wasn't himself in some episodes in WoR because of the screams of the bonded Blade, but that's behind him. I suspect Adolin and Ren might grow apart a bit in the next book but definitely not Ren standing against his brother. Adolin might shut himself trying to hide what happened, Ren might think it's because Adolin's upset Ren didn't confide in him or something, so overall some miscommunication, but nothing an open conversation can't fix. I don't know if you have a sibling. That's a person one loves beyond reason and it'd take much more to disturb such a bond. I can see a parent being too strict and chose to punish instead of understand, but your sibling is the one person is the whole world that gets you without judging you, the one who's supposed to always be by your side even when they don't agree with you. Ren and Adolin's bond is much more stronger that Adolin's crime.

That's really sweet, but I don't think it will happen. Brandon said there will be many ramifications for Adolin and certain characters will react very bad when they learn what he did. Adolin pretty much cares only about Dalinar, Renarin, Shallan, Navani, may be Kaladin since they started a bromance in WoK and I'm not sure about Elhokar, but all other characters are more or less irrelevant. Out of these characters the only ones I think might react poorly are Elhokar, Dalinar and Shallan. Probably all of them, since there will be many ramifications for Adolin. Thus, I've set my mind on 'why Shallan will react bad' and I found enough reasons. Even if she associates Adolin with Kabsal instead of her father, that still will mean she's grow colder. That's if their relationship doesn't begin to crumble before her learning Adolin murdered Sadeas and in this case she'll just let the relationship fall apart. Just think about these 'many ramifications'. What coudl they possibly be? Negative public reaction? Well, it's not like Adolin was everyone's favorite lighteyes anyway (he was completely friendless in WoR), so I don't think he'd care that much and his own men wil probably cheer what he did, so who cares about the rest Dalinar being angry and disappointed? Certainly. But whatever punishment Dalinar chooses for Adolin, it still is only one ramification. Elhokar getting angry? Well, who knows, he's so mood he might very well order his cousin's execution or reward Adolin, I totally don't get this guy. Shallan being disappointed with Adolin and their relationship crumbling? Why not, only Dalinar getting angry doesn't seem enough to fitwhat Brandon said. Renarin? No way, I don't see this happening. Navani? I suspect if the political climate was different, she'd order Sadeas assassination against Dalinar's wishes, so I'd say no. She's too fond of her nephew, hates Sadeas and doesn't care about appearance and public opinion.