Judsing99

I had another thought today that I've worked into a theory. We know that the cosmere will have an overarching theme throughout all of Sanderson's cosmere works. We have some confirmation from Brandon that Adonalsium once had an enemy (http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=979#85), which must still exist somewhere. This leads me to believe that there must be some conflict with that being that can only be solved through the different shards working together in some way. Unfortunately, as long as there are shards, there will also be conflict. Each holder of the shard, no matter their initial intention, will eventually become like the characteristic that the shard embodies. They only way to truly balance out the power is to unite the shards of differing natures to find a neutral ground, like Harmony has done with Ruin and Preservation. My theory is that perhaps the words whispered to Dalinar, "Unite Them", comes from a more ancient source than we realized. It could have potentially come from a remnant of Adonalsium himself, telling Dalinar to unite all of his shards together. Only then will all of the shards be neutralized and balanced by the shards of opposite natures. With a restored Adonlsium, a fight against the enemy of the cosmere would again be possible. Perhaps Brandon is sneaking this in the story as a suggestion to further set course for the cosmere as a whole. I know this is a bit of a stretch, but with Brandon, pretty much anything is possible.

Where does it state that surgebinding destroyed their previous planet? If memory serves, I thought that was something Odium alluded to? My question then lies in the fact that spren are a creation of Honor and Cultivation. I thought the humans didn't find surgebinding until they moved to Roshar? If that is the case, this might point to a different reason for fleeing the planet. Also, I'm not sure that anything Odium said can be taken at face value, as his intentions are to facilitate war at any cost.

I had a different thought while reading this. There's a point in the book where Dalinar hears "Unite Them" and he asks the Stormfather if it was him who spoke. The Stormfather claims it wasn't him and Dalinar begins to wonder if he's going crazy hearing voices in his head. This experience, along with the use of the capital A in Ascension, leads me to wonder if a shadow/remnant of Honor himself is the one telling Dalinar to Unite them. And although we suspect that 'them' refers to the people of Roshar, what if it was Honor whispering to unite the splinters of his shard. He is a bondsmith that has the power of cohesion, which hasn't been fully explored, so there's a possibility that he could use his powers of uniting to renew the shard of Honor, or as someone shared earlier, perhaps bring the splinters together to form a new shard, Unity.

Darkness did have an unusual vast knowledge of surgebinding. As Lift is sliding everywhere, he comes to the conclusion she is an Edgedancer, saying, "It appears you are an Edgedancer... I had wondered which of the two you would be. This shows he has some inside knowledge to surgebinding, knowing it comes in pairs that signify different orders. He then relates, “They were once a glorious order,” Darkness said, walking her down the hallway. Everyone ignored them, focused instead on Gawx. “Where you blunder, they were elegant things of beauty. They could ride the thinnest rope at speed, dance across rooftops, move through a battlefield like a ribbon on the wind.” Finally, it makes sense he belongs to sky breakers as justice is the only thing he cares about. He also is shown to have a shard blade here. “Why...why do you hunt me?” (Lift speaking) “In the name of justice.” “There are tons of people who do wrong things,” she said. She had to force out every word. Talking was hard. Thinking was hard. So tired. “You...you coulda hunted big crime bosses, murderers. You chose me instead. Why?” “Others may be detestable, but they do not dabble in arts that could return Desolation to this world.” His words were so cold. “What you are must be stopped.” “I saved him,” Lift said. “I did something good, didn’t I?” “Goodness is irrelevant,” Darkness said. His Shardblade dropped into his fingers.