Aleksiel

The dead are re-summoned from the Cognitive realm, so a dead spren will be somewhat alive in Shadesmar and we have the extreme case of being close to voidspren. Wasn't Eshonai more in Shadesmar than in the physic realm when it happened?

Well, Lirin basically confessed to Kaladin he stole the spheres, so he thought he committed a crime. It's possible to argue what Lirin did was only immoral without being illegal, but Lirin knows the law better than any reader and didn't argue that he didn't actually steal the spheres. If he's guilty of a crime in his mind, then I think he most likely committed it. Unlike Kal, Lirin never seemed like the type of guy who'd blame himself without a reason.

Although you're likely right, I'm not sure the brokenness is that simple. Think of Kaladin and Dalinar - they were broken and that led them to behave like members of certain Orders. The Heralds however acted the way they did from the very beginning when Tanavast first made them surgebinders, no brokenness needed (so far as we know). They were broken in the quotes you gave, but that led to breaking the Oathpact, whereas a broken potential surgebinder begins acting in a certain noble manner. The way the Heralds acted on their brokenness was the opposite of how a future KR would act on his/her brokenness.

Lirin didn't want Kaladin to go after Tien at all: I'm sure he'll rejoice when Kal shows up.

Mmm, I wouldn't say the reason spren bond is canon yet. Wouldn't the Heralds being closer to the Cognitive make them easier to bond with? Just look at the Parshendi - they seem close to Shadesmar and bond spren easily. However, I agree the Heralds probably can't bond; may be because of what Tanavast did or something else. If a Herald breaking down is what allows him/her to go back to Roshar, that can be interpreted as breaking an Oath, which would result is the spren's death, so bonding a Herald would be a suicide. After Eshonai bonded with the stormspren, there was one screaming spren, trying to get away from her. If that was her Blade's spren, and Pattern (or Syl, not sure) said they wouldn't live in a world with Odium's spren, then a reason for not bonding a Herald is the fact the Heralds went to Odium's dominion. No spren would willing do the same and a bond with a Herald would demand centuries in Damnation. Or no Honor/Cultivation-spren can survive in Damnation, so none attempted to bond a Herald.

May be the Heralds never swore any oaths or their Oathpact with Tanavst somehow prevented them from having spren. Or noone wanted to bond with them. After all, the Heralds used to spend all the time between Desolations in Damnation, I can't imagine any spren wanting to be there with them. Or may be no spren can enter Damnation. Why would any spren want to bond with a Herald anyway, what purpose would that serve? They could already surgebind and fought the Voidbringers.

I had forgotten that Roshone and Amaram were cousins all together, but Kaladin knows it: It's indeed odd and suspiciously convenient that Kal didn't make the connection then. I can't explain it in-world.

That's a reason to not mention it infront of Dalinar, but doesn't explain why Kaladin ignored it in his inner dialogue.

I disagree. Roshone's relative was the main reason he wasn't punished accordingly. Kaladin did comment bitterly on that fact, so it wasn't a small fact to him: Another proof of how lighteyes are treated better than darkeyes, Kaladin tends to note such things and comment on them. Kaladin thinks often about Amaram and Roshone, he should have made the connection easily.

Of course, some like Lopen have endless amount of cousins. However, this doesn't defeat the point - even if Amaram isn't the 'powerful lighteyed cousin, whose alliance the Kholins needed', he is still Roshone's cousin as Kaladin very well know. He could have at least asked instead of conveniently forget for the sake of Elhokar's assassination plot.

Not only Shallan denies stuff from her past, now Kal doesn't remember parts of his own flashbacks? It was too convenient. How Dalinar didn't mention whose cousin Roshone was, how Kal didn't ask and didn't make the connection... Too convenient. Only meta text reasons for that, no good ones in-world.

He served in Amaram's camp for years, surely the topic has come again even if Amaram never mentioned it again, others knew too. 'Hey, kaladin, where are you from?' 'Hearthstone' 'Oh, the town Brightlord Amaram's cousin Roshone rules? Cool.' edit: scenerio 2: 'So, Kal, why did you enlist in the army?' 'To protect my little brother Tien. My scumbag citylord Roshone send him here.' 'Brightlord Amaram's cousin? Man, that sucks.' I simply can't imagine that the subject never came up for four years. It's not like Amaram was hiding Roshone was his cousin. It's ridiculous Kal didn't make the connection, no in-world reason to miss it. At least that's what I think.

I think Lirin also mentioned Amaram was Roshone's cousin. At any rate, the only reason I know are cousins is because it was in Kal's PoV, why wouldn't Kal remember it? He served Amaram for years. Kal likely would have go Szeth style on Amaram's chull, thus killing Syl. However, the climax and third Oath wouldn't have fit in this scenario. I think Brandon conveniently made Kal forget it/not make the connection for meta text reasons, no in-world reasons come to my mind.

May be he wasn't as good as Dalinar thought he was. Wouldn't be the first time... I'm ashamed to admit that I forgot something very important in my previous post. Dalinar said they let Roshone go, because he was cousin to powerful lighteyes and they needed the alliance. Whose cousin was Roshone? Amaram's. Honestly, I can't believe Kaladin didn't thought of that and just go kill him himself, but instead he decided against Elhokar. Hello, the man who made you a slave and murdered your friends is the same one who ensured Roshone escaped justice and instead came to harass your family; so he's twice to blame for Tien's death. I really can't believe Kaladin ignored the connection. What a different book WoR could have been.... Any explanation as to why Kal didn't think any of it?

Why blame Dalinar, but not Gavilar and Elhokar? The three of them send Roshone somewhere else. And Sadeas also has a fault since he didn't care what kind of person he put in charge of one of his towns. You can't blame one without the others.

You expect the Blackthorn to had done something Dalinar the Bondsmith would do, which I believe is unreasonable. The Blackthorn checking on Roshone would have been completely out of character and would also undermine the story of Dalinar's progress since Gavilar's death. The Blackthorn didn't care much about people, politics or anything that didn't include wine and fighting. The contrast between how Dalinar handled Amaram's case now and Roshone's affair in the past, shows Dalinar's growth as a character; that he has indeed become a better person and a politician.

How would Pattern know?

It doesn't say it would be done on daily/monthly basis either. The wording is for a one-time event, so far as I understand it. Continuously having half of Kharbranth citizens to commit suicide would lead to T having noone to rule over soon enough. He may have lacked the empathy to get what was wrong with his law, but he wasn't an idiot.

He wouldn't have need to make an exception, because he was above average intelligence when he thought of that. The law would have made all people on that day below average IQ to commit suicide and it would've been a one-time thing.

Dalinar, who let Roshone walk away, isn't the Dalinar we see in WoK. Pre-Gavilar's death Dalinar didn't follow a strong moral code, nor did he care about being anything but a warlord. Today's Dalinar is a different person than he was 7 years ago. The Roshone affair is one example of how Dalinar became a better person - pre-Code following Dalinar let go a proven criminal without thinking much about it, WoR Dalinar set a trap for one of his best friends on the sole word of one of his guards. if Dalinar had acted 7 years ago (while Gavilar was still alive) the way we expect him to handle the same thing now, then Dalinar wouldn't have changed in the slightest, which would be immensely odd since everyone claim how much Dalinar changed after Gavilar died. How Dalinar handled Amaram's affair compared to Roshone's is showing how different a person he has become for good.

What is more, I don't see spying on Roshone as doable. Hearthstone is a remote and small town without many traveling merchants passing by, let alone travelers. Any outsider would have been noticed and likely remembered; regular visits would have been immediately suspicious. I agree with you and what you said was the point I wanted to make. Dalinar wasn't completely unreasonable to think things would be ok. Roshone didn't break the law again and despite his personal conflict with Lirin, he ruled Hearthstone acceptably. I can't really say Kaladin's family were blameless victims up until Tien. Roshone didn't torment everyone or random people, he was focused on Lirin, who was indeed a criminal; no reason for anyone to petition the highprince to intervene. And even if Dalinar was somehow successfully spying, he wouldn't have found out anything incriminating on Roshone. What is more, Roshone's disputable actions were after Gavilar's death when Dalinara and Sadeas were no longer in good relations and Dalinar couldn't have done a thing anyway. edit: spelling

Roshone made people stop donating to Kal's family a year after he became a citylord. Nothing else of bad significance was pointed in Kal's flashbacks to that point, thus Roshone wasn't really terrorizing the town. Roshone son's died five and a half years prior Kal's stay with the bridgecrews, which was almost six years after Gavilar's assassination. That was the that made him a truly terrible and bitter person and it happened after Gavilar's death. While it's said in Kal's flashback that people were afraid to openly help Kaladin's family and oppose their citylord, there's no sign of Roshone tormenting anyone else.

Even if Dalinar had checked on Roshone , how was Dalinar supposed to do anything about him? Roshone didn't really do anything illegal.

Gavilar was alive when Roshone was exiled from Kholinar, but my impression was the war had started before he became a citylord.* Dalinar became a better person after Gavilar's death. I think the moment Roshone was exiled from Kholinar and Sadeas took him, Dalinar was no longer responsible for Roshone. edit: Roshone became a citylord 7 years before WoK according to Kal's flashbacks, so that was wrong.

Dalinar wasn't in good relations with Sadeas after Gavilar's death and even if he knew what Roshone was doing, the latter was out of Dalinar's reach. I think you put too much responsibility on Dalinar. Yes, he didn't see Roshone properly punished, but neither did Elhokar or Gavilar. Sadeas knew what Roshone had done and never bothered to check on him. The crimes Sadeas's citylords commit on his territory are for him to investigate. It was Sadeas's duty to ensure the town was properly governed.