udbw834

Why does he need a blade? He's pretty much acknowledged that his days as a warrior are over. The Stormfather said "YOU WILL BE A RADIANT WITH NO SHARDS" and I don't see any reason not to believe a literal reading of that. I think he meant exactly what he said and that Dalinar getting around that with an honorblade would be a betrayal of his deal with the Stormfather. In Chapter 3 Jasnah said to Shallan: I think Dalinar will be one of those. His days as the Blackthorn are over and now his path is to unite Roshar and coordinate the defense against the Voidbringers. Over the next several books he will become too important to be risked on the battlefield.

Urithiru is by far the best place to base and coordinate against the Voidbringers. It's been implied that it's always the base of operations during a desolation. Once the rest of the Oathgates are restored it is literally the most connected place in all of Roshar. They will be able to travel all over the planet to battle the Voidbringers. It's quite possible that it will actually be faster to get to Kholinar / Alethkar from Urithiru than it would have been to march from the Shattered Plains. Especially with two sets of storms to deal with. The city also likely holds a huge amount of information about both the Knights Radiant and fighting voidbringers. It's also mentioned in chapter 6 that legend claimed the city to be protected from Voidbringers. They moved at the end of the book because they knew that the Desolation had come, the Everstorm was coming back (towards the 'leeward' side that's less protected), multiple highprinces were dead and the army needed to recover from their climactic battle. If all that wasn't enough, the Alethi no longer had a reason to be on the Shattered Plains - the Parshendi had been defeated with survivors scattered. The Vengence Pact had been fulfilled and it was time for the kingdom to move on. Dalinar had also been trying to unite the highprinces and end the near complete separation of warcamps. Uritithiru gives him a chance to do that.

In Dalinar's purelake vision Sja-Anat is mentioned by name as corrupting spren in the area.

In the epilogue I didn't get the impression that she'd faked her own death. I thought she'd returned as soon as she could, to wherever she could get to. Based on the description it doesn't sound like she's been off on a pleasure trip or even deep in study. It's quite possible this is the first time she's really used her Transportation surge. We know she's travelled to Shadesmar before but each time we know about it returned her exactly where she left. Remember from Pattern and Syl we know that they can't teach Surgebinders how to use their powers they have to figure them out for themselves. My theory: When she was stabbed and dying she used her second surge to really Transport herself to Shadesmar. It took her a while to travel through Shadesmar to somewhere she could emerge again on Roshar. She talked about things she learned on the other side so it's possible she took some side trips as well. But fundamentally I think she is simply not very good at teleporting yet.

Based on Mraize's comment about getting the stolen information to Master Thaidakar I'm fairly certain he's the head of the Ghostbloods. I don't think Gavilar was involved with the Ghostbloods. He thought Szeth was sent by Thaidakar who is part of, if not the leader of, the Ghostbloods. I do think that Gavilar was involved with the Sons of Honor. Gavilar's death wasn't that long after he started getting the visions. I get the distinct impression that the Ghostbloods have been around for a lot longer than that. It's also not totally clear if Taravangian went to the Nightwatcher or drew the Diagram before or after Gavilar's death. He had already started to notice the Death Rattles by that time. It wasn't until the night of Gavilar's death that Taravangian knew about the visions.

Do we actually know he was working for the Ghostbloods? I'm starting to suspect he wasn't. His father was a member of the Ghostbloods and he and Helaran were probably not working towards the same goals. I know that Brightlord Davar joined up with the Ghostbloods well after Helaran left but they were still in very significant conflict and disagreement about pretty much everything. The only reason we think Helaran is a Ghostblood is because Amaram speculated that the Ghostbloods sent a Shardbearer after him. Just like Gavilar assumed the Ghostbloods sent Szeth after him. I think they were both wrong. I think Helaran was either working with the non-Radiant 'Skybreakers' or another group.

In chapter 88 Amaram is scribbling a note to Restares where he refers to "our burden as the Sons Of Honor". That suggests both Restares and Amaram are members of the Sons of Honor. In chapter 54 Mraise refers to 'Master Thaidakar' and "Restares' cronies". Based on that and I'm pretty sure that Restares is the head of the Sons of Honor and Thaidakar is the head of the Ghostbloods. The two societies know about each other an have been engaged in a secret battle behind the scenes. I also think Gavilar was a Son of Honor. I base that on what he said to Szeth in the prologue to WoK about Thaidakar and Amaram's thought that "Gavilar would be pleased."