- Jossed. It’s made very clear throughout the books that he wants Odium to be stuck in the Rosharan system, so much so that he convinces Dalinar to make it a provision in the contract for the context of champions.
- There are going to be 10 main characters, and one of them will be Talenat. Some of the characters have names similar to those of the Heralds: Kalak - Kaladin, Shalash - Shallan, Ishar - Ishikk. Some of the characters have interrelated abilities just like the Radiants: Szeth/Kaladin - Windrunning, Jasnah/Shallan - Soulcasting, Jasnah/Elhokar - Seeing Symbolheads. Kaladin knows the Second Ideal. Dalinar has become obsessed with "The Way of Kings", the book from which the Ideals Knights Radiant were made. What else could it possibly mean?
- The name similarities could be a red herring. If we go by what each Herald stood for, Kaladin would be Jezrian, Dalinar would be Ishar, and Jasnah would be Nalan.
- There are also indications that the Heralds don't need to be "reborn", as they're still around- in addition to Taln, Shalash has been confirmed by Word of God to have appeared in Wo K (17th Shard seems to have her pegged as the woman destroying art in one of the interludes), and possibly others we don't know about.
- This is confirmed as of Oathbringer. Baxil's Mistress is indeed Shalash, who goes around destroying art of herself.
- The Heralds are confirmed to still be around in Words of Radiance. Nalan is fairly active, Kelek appears, and Jezrien is implied to be around but is "drooling" according to Nalan.
- Jezrien's the drunken old commoner in the prologue who says "Have you seen me?" and starts speaking in gibberish, right across the hall from a statue of himself.
- Eventually Roshar's surface will be rendered uninhabitable by Surgebinding, just like on Ashyn. Probably after they repel Odium from the system and get his parting gift of strife geas or at a later stages of war with him. Means, book 9-10 of the cycle.
- The gang will figure out a way to permanently bind him or make him a non-threat in some other way. Cornered, he will decide to deny them victory (and possibly avoid a Fate Worse than Death) and pull As Long as There Is Evil, permanently infesting the planet with a swarm of voidspren, permeating every aspect of life and making lasting peace impossible, forever.
- And that's why they're so incompetent. The missing branch isn't missing; it's on Roshar, to look for new types of jam!
- This page doesn't have one yet, and I always thought she reminded me of Shallan.
- Jossed. Word of God is that Hoid used to be human (what he is now is “complicated”), and Time Lords are never even partially human. Especially on their mothers’ sides.
- Or maybe Hoid?
- Or Adonalsium?
- Adonalsium is dead/shattered.
- Or Gavilar? His death is just an alibi.
- Nah, we saw him bleed-out, and the Prologue for Rhythm of War confirms that his corpse was very dead. He could be a Cognitive Shadow, but... I doubt it. Sanderson doesn’t like Back from the Dead, so people like Kelsier are the exceptions that prove the rule.
- When I hear "never", I think "Meta-Twist".
- Technically, we don't even actually meet him, even second hand, except through the Almighty's warnings about being murdered by him, which provide no real details about him at all. So we haven't actually been "introduced" to Odium. At the very least it looks like he will be the Greater-Scope Villain.
- We meet him in personal avatar in 'Oathbringer'. If he's not a Big Bad, it's not for a lack of trying.
- Jossed somewhat. From what it appears, Odium is still the Big Bad of at least the first arc, but as of '’Rhythm of War'’, Taravangian is the Vessel.
- Jossed. Odium Splinters every Shard he kills (such as those of Devotion and Dominion) to prevent rivals to his uprising. Supported by Word of God here.
- It may still have been Honor's plan, if he didn't know what Odium would do with him. And it may still be possible to reconstitute the shard; Word of God also says that Splintering a shard produces fragments of the original power in the same way that the original shattering of Adolnasium produced the shards, so it may be possible to reconstitute the splinters (spren?) into Honor, the way Preservation and Ruin arguably combined to become Harmony.
- Jossed. Odium Splinters every Shard he kills (such as those of Devotion and Dominion) to prevent rivals to his uprising. Supported by Word of God here.
- May be confirmed: Odium refers to Dalinar bonded with Stormfather as Honor's heir with power over the oaths made by latter. And later Dalinar manifests Honor's Perpendicularity at will. Not there yet, and possibly never the full way, but partially - definitely.
- This could explain why Szeth notes that shardplate does not mix well with Surgebinding.
- Further postulation... originally, the requisite stormlight for shadeplate is provided directly by the surgebinders themselves. As Words of radiance indicates bonding Shardplates is something created after the fact via adding gems (because the shardblades are really dead spren), perhaps the gemstones used to power shardplate are a similar adaptation in the wake of the loss of surgebinders able to power the plate without them.
- Events in Oathbringer would seem to support this theory. However, we may never know, since Elhokar was apparently killed while speaking the First Ideal.
- Entirely possible. According to Word of God, he would have been a Lightweaver like Shallan.
- Hidden Depths, confirmed. [Villain status, however, is subverted. Renarin is a Radiant- a Truthwatcher, in particular. The reason for his "fits" is that, like all Radiants, he gears the screams of the Shardblades whenever he touches them, rendering him basically useless. With his own spren and Surgebinding, he's sure to be a force to be reckoned with.
- His fits are primarily caused by epilepsy, as discussed with Kaladin in Words of Radiance, but others are caused by the screaming of the shardblades.
- As for villain, as of Oathbringer, he's bonded to a spren, but it's a corrupted spren, giving him Odium's ability to prophesy. However, he and his spren are still good and want to fight Odium. Maybe.
- Originally Renarin was going to be the one to write the Diagram https://wob.coppermind.net/events/95-general-twitter-2016/#e842 , taking at least some of Taravangian’s role.
- Heck she doesn't even need a Shardblade, she can Soulcast and Jasnah demonstrated that Soulcasting is perfectly adequate for ass kicking. Although she'll probably learn to use the sword eventually too.
- Well her shardblade is a fact.
- Given what she gets up to in Words of Radiance, this seems pretty accurate.
- And in the later books, too. I think we can safely call this one Confirmed.
- I'm gonna say the missing shardblades are all held by the Shin. They keep them hidden as mist to prevent anyone using these terrible weapons but Szeth was forced to use his at some point and it was for this crime that he was made Truthless.
- From the epilogue of Book 2, it appears the Shin at least have most of the Honorblades.
- As of Book 4, it's verified that the Shin held all but three Honorblades to the best of Szeth's knowledge, though he does not elaborate on any equivalent hoarding of Shardblades. The Blade of the Windrunners had been borne and lost by Szeth himself, passing through a variety of hands before reaching Moash. The Blade of the Skybreakers had been held by them until Nin/Nale reclaimed it long ago. The Blade of the Stonewards was the only one they were not known to have ever held, being with its original bearer Talenal until his return and its subsequent theft early on in the series. All seven remaining Honorblades were held in Shinovar. Naturally, Ishar again wielding his own Blade of the Bondsmiths, which should have been in the care of Szeth's father, deeply disturbs Szeth both in his immediate assumptions regarding the circumstances and the unhelpful corrections to these assumptions made by Ishar. The resulting concerns by Szeth and others present pertain not only to his father's death, but also the more general situation in Shinovar that they've either lost the ability to protect and/or willingly surrendered the honorblades to the mad Heralds.
- Szeth is already losing some of his faith in what's holy and profane, but as his contracts get more horrific, he clings to the idea that it's someone else's fault - his master or even the victims. Eventually, he'll come to realise that he is responsible for his own actions, and that his faith was blinding him. When that happens, he won't be bound anymore by the oath not to kill himself, and will take his own life.
- Strongly supported by Words of Radiance. He learns that he was right to warn his people that the Voidbringers are returning, suggesting that he was cast out as Truthless under false pretenses. So, as in the story, the crimes he committed in obedience to the holder of his Oathstone were nobody's fault but his own. This realization causes him some serious Sanity Slippage, culminating in him letting Kaladin kill him. Pity it doesn't stick.
- Jossed. As of November 2020, Szeth has joined Team Alethkar and, while still not mentally-stable, doesn’t show signs of committing suicide.
- Strongly supported by Words of Radiance. He learns that he was right to warn his people that the Voidbringers are returning, suggesting that he was cast out as Truthless under false pretenses. So, as in the story, the crimes he committed in obedience to the holder of his Oathstone were nobody's fault but his own. This realization causes him some serious Sanity Slippage, culminating in him letting Kaladin kill him. Pity it doesn't stick.
- He gets depressed when there are no Highstorms.
- He is able to use Surgebinding
- He has had a vision that he was a highstorm himself
- He instinctively knew the second ideal of the Knights Radiants, specifically the first suborder.
- The appendix lists the 10 essences and there associations. The first essence, Jes (Jezerezeh) has the divine attributes of Protecting and Leading. Kaladin excels at both.
- Jossed: The Heralds aren't dead, and Jezrien is very clearly NOT Kaladin, since Jezrien dies and Kaladin is not affected.
- Word of God is that Stormlight healing works based on self-image. Given that it's powerful enough to regrow an arm, it's almost certainly enough to heal the brands. The reason they haven't healed is likely that Kaladin hasn't moved past the betrayal and how it affected him psychologically.
- The Shash brand finally leaves him in Rhythm of War.
- Could it be a Dawnshard? Teft thinks Kaladin is one of the Radiants or Heralds reborn. Syl and Kaladin both feel a revulsion for the shardblades, but the Lost Herald has some sort of blade that is magical. Did the Heralds use Dawnshards rather than shardblades?
- Brandon has explicitly refereed to the Heralds' Blades as Honorblades, the Dawnshards are something else.
- Brandon has also stated that Taln will be a POV character later in the series, so I think it's Word of God that he's alive.
- As of Words of Radiance Taln's alive. Largely catatonic, but alive.
- As of Oathbringer, he’s recovered and semi-active again.
- Jossed as of Oathbringer, it contains one of the Unmade. The "perfect" gems capable of trapping them are fairly mundane in the Cognitive realm, so it's highly unlikely they're Dawnshards.]]
- Counterpoint: one Dawnshard is said to be "known to bind any creature voidish or mortal," which sounds a lot like the affect of Yelig-nar, the Unmade that allows its holder, whether Singer or Human, access to all 10 Surges.
- Jossed: Dawnshards predate the Unmade, similarity in description is just a coincidence.
- Jossed as of Oathbringer, it contains one of the Unmade. The "perfect" gems capable of trapping them are fairly mundane in the Cognitive realm, so it's highly unlikely they're Dawnshards.]]
- Meaning the Dawnshards were actually Unmade, bound in perfect gems, and any gem of sufficient quality will do. People of Ashyn knew a way to harvest their powers without releasing them. Adding to that, the Unmade were provided willingly by Odium, who at the moment was a patron of Ashyans, until they turned their backs on him, and they were "unmade" (they mentioned some sort of traumatic change, after which they're currently named) during or just before this binding (posibly by Odium himself, just for kicks).
- Jossed: Dawnsahrds predate Odium, in fact, they were used to split Adonalsium. And there's only 4 of them.
- The end of Words Radiance makes this seem likely, as Kaladin is headed off to Hearthstone.
- Confirmed. In Oathbringer, he does meet up with them again.
- Uh... No. Also, Hoid is a pseudonym, not his real name.
- Nobody ever actually says that Odium is the source of the Voidbringers and Voidbinding. Maybe he's the heroic defender, and the other two are the ones trying to ruin everything, perhaps writing off Roshar as a failed experiment. In that case, the shattering of Honor would actually be a triumph of light. Sure, the name "Odium" doesn't scream hero, but Roshar might be the world of shards with Non Indicative Names.
- Honor seems reasonable and good in the visions, but unless he's looking for a Card-Carrying Villain, he would want to be in order to dupe his pawn into carrying out his evil designs.
- Taravangian mentioned that he's trying to strengthen the world in order to resist doomsday. Dalinar is trying to serve Honor, and as soon as he started making progress, Taravangian immediately added him to his hit list.
- Honor and Cultivation not being so nice would actually fit with some things Sanderson has done elsewhere (particularly Literature/Warbreaker) where characters who initially appear benevolent are actually villains. However, the odds of Odium being heroic are pretty much nil; Sanderson has talked about him in interviews and made it pretty clear the guy wants to wipe out all the other Shards for no other reason than so he can be the only being on his power level, which is a pretty evil thing to want to do. Not to mention that a Non-Indicative Name makes little sense for Shards, who are, after all, Anthropomorphic Personifications- Ruin's real name was Ati, for example, but he went by Ruin because that was what his Shard did, and all others appear to follow this same general pattern.
- Given that Taravangian is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who considers murdering people — including pregnant women and five-year-old children — an acceptable action and Dalinar is a Wise Prince who is seeking to make up for his warmongering in the past, I wouldn't consider Dalinar ending up on Taranvangian's hit list a sign that Honor was a bad guy.
- As of Oathbringer Odium is definitely a bad guy, though he can be not the only one, and is the source of Voidbringers and Voidbinding.
- Jasnah sets her up with Adolin, but she'll fall for Renarin instead. She'll spend most of the book angsting about it, until she talks to Navani who convinces her to go with her heart, and choose Renarin.
- Semi-confirmed. She's engaged to Adolin, and has genuine chemistry with him... but there's also a fair bit of Ship Tease with Kaladin, rather than Renarin (after she and Kaladin spend a good portion of the book hating each other, admittedly). At this point, though, she's still definitely with Adolin, she and Kaladin haven't come close to acting on anything, and no advice from Navani has figured in either.
- When asked about this, Sanderson said (carefully) that he wasn't a fan of conventional love triangles, but was a fan of complicated relationships.
- Averted. Shallan and Kaladin do spend a large chunk of Oathbringer trying to decide how they feel about each other, but Shallan chooses Adolin in the end, and Kaladin has no problem with it.
- They will use the Codes of Readiness and Inspiration to pull a Bavarian Fire Drill to gain entry/start the ball rolling
- They will use the Code of Restraint as a cover to keep the agents alive long enough to do the damage
- They will use the Code of Leadership to force Brightlords and Highprinces to somehow try to be in two places at once, or risk mutiny by troopes.
- They will use the Code of Honor to mousetrap and destroy most of the Alethi forces while framing Usual Suspects, including Sadeas, for this "betrayal."
- While the ultimate goal of this exercise is to destroy Alethkar as a nation, Odium/some other enemy will chalk it up as a victory if it gets Adolin to "realize" that he was right after all despite the ending of Book One, the Codes were created solely to quash dissent in Old Alethela, and his father's goal to refound the Knights Radiant is simply a delusional Tragic Dream.
- My theory is that his wish was to forget his wife's name and his curse was to forget why he wanted to forget it in the fist place. Seems like the ironic thing the Nightwatcher apperently likes to do.
- It could be both boon and curse... If he went to the Nightwatcher for help dealing with his grief after his wife's death.
- Technically confirmed Oathbringer in that he never received anything from the Nightwatcher, but from Cultivation herself, but also that losing memory of her was part of the boon, with the curse being that the memories would return.
- Yeah... I'm going to go out on a limb and go with Jossed, considering how the book ends. He basically loses his mind when he figures out that Kaladin is a Radiant, gets killed, revived, and then outfitted with Nightblood, of all things. I'm pretty sure Szeth is not headed towards redemption anytime soon.
- Not necessarily - He is going to be the focal character of the fifth book, so that implies some sort of character growth. He's got a damn long way to go, though, and his new mentor probably won't help.
- Confirmed in Oathbringer he becomes a Knight Radiant and Dalinar's bodyguard, going against the rest of the Skybreakers who do side with Odium. Obviously he doesn't consider himself redeemed.
- She'll be having flashbacks in the fourth book, so presumably confirmed.
- Well, they found the body. So, Jossed, unless things take a very strange turn.
- Now confirmed by a Wo B that Eshonai is definitely dead and has moved on to the Beyond. So she's not coming back.
- Well, they found the body. So, Jossed, unless things take a very strange turn.
- It could also be that the "capacity" is a balance of intelligence and compassion. He spends much of his time with the two in balance; the trouble comes when he gets too smart or too empathetic for his own good.
- Like the above I suspect that the curse is that his compassion us proportional to his intelligence. After all, in real life compassion and intelligence aren't exclusive. But I think that the compassion really is the blessing, for one simple reason. They are ultimately up against Odium, the embodiment of divine hatred. Tarvangian will eventually have a time of ultimate compassion much like his time of ultimate intelligence that will be instrumental to breaking Odium's power.
- Jossed in Oathbringer, Taravangian asked for both compassion and intelligence, and his curse is that he can't have them both at the same time.
- Sort of confirmed in Oathbringer, what he thinks is the Diagram's plan utterly fails, but it appears the Diagram predicted this and had a much more modest backup plan. The story's not concluded though.
- As of Rhythm of War, jossed. He was Cultivation's pawn in a plot to replace Rayse as the shardbearer of Odium.
- In Rysm's interlude, she is sent to negotiate a deal for her sick babsk. After she impresses the god of the island with her boldness, she wakes up to find that she has been given a larkin. Larkin are referred to as living creatures in the same vein as axehounds and whatnot, but the sequence sounds a lot like the process of bonding with a spren. Furthermore, Vstim mentions that the thing he was buying was a corpse of one of the creatures, while hers is the living thing. "The thing we trade for, a treasure that very few know still exists. They were supposed to have died with Aimia, you see. I came here with all these goods in tow because Talik sent to me to say they had the corpse of one to trade. Kings pay fortunes for them." (emphasis added) Shardblades are dead spren. He was buying a Shardblade.
- Jossed as of Dawnshard. As part of her deal with the Sleepless about not killing her and extracting the Dawnshard from her corpse, she has sworn to never bond with a spren...though she does appear to have a similar relationship with Chiri-Chiri, her larkin. The thing Vstim was trading for was a larkin corpse, as they were one of the species that inhabited ancient Aimia and were the original protectors of the Dawnshard before the Sleepless assumed the role.
- Mayalaran, his blade, is a deadeye Cultivationspren, and if he restores her by bonding with her, he will become an Edgedancer in the process. Which is rather appropriate, considering the Second Ideal of that order is "I will remember those who have been forgotten."
- Also, it's not confirmed yet, but there's certainly building evidence. Deadeye spren usually just kind of wander around aimlessly in Shadesmar near the equivalent location to their corpse in the real world. Mayalaran defended Adolin in a fight in Shadesmar, and later he managed to not just hear her name, but summon her in less than ten heartbeats.
- If Adolin can restore Mayalaran from the dead through devotion to her, it is possible that the Radiants can restore Honor the same way, from the Honor blades
- Unlikely as the Honorblades are only a small fraction of Honor's power.
- Jossed... by Bands Of Mourning of all things. She's a Hunter from the culture that survived far south of the Elendel Basin on Scadrial.
- I'm pretty sure that Szeth's dad's name was given at one point in the Way of Kings, I think he uses his grandfather's name to avoid disgracing his father by association with him. Presumably his grandfather is dead.
- Szeth's father's name is Neturo. As said above, it was first mentioned in Way of Kings. After he discovers he's not Truthless at the end of Words of Radience, he goes back to calling himself Szeth-son-Neturo.
- Jossed as of Oathbringer
- If this is the case, it's brilliant - the leveling requirement for Lightweavers is to be brutally honest with yourself, which seems like an excellent trait for a king.
- In a Genre Savvy moment, Elhokar says that Kaladin surviving multiple times when he should have died is a significant "pattern," an usual choice of words, given that we know of a Cryptic by that name. In the Diagram, Taravangian uses a similar phrase to describe the Knights Radiant. It's either a case of Strange Minds Think Alike, or some kind of foreshadowing.
- Semi-confirmed in Oathbringer, Elhokar is killed while swearing the First Ideal and Hoid then finds a Cryptic hiding in the ruins of the palace, presumably the spren he was bonding with.
- The Stormfather has refused to form a Shardblade for Dalinar, but it just so happens that Kaladin has on hand one of the ten Honorblades, which contain no dead spren and hence can be used by a Radiant. It won't be quite as good as a living Shardblade, since it consumes large amounts of the wielder's Light to function, but it could still be essential against Shardbearer enemies or some of the more resilient abominations, such as the thunderclasts. No clue whether Dalinar will use the secondhand Windrunning powers the blade grants.
- Jossed at least in the short term Dalinar never considers using the Honorblade and gives it to Bridge Four to practice their Windrunning while Kaladin is absent, then it's stolen.
- Part of the Diagram is speculation about making a Truthless to use as a weapon.
- There's no way Sanderson would drop a detail like Odium being scared of Sazed/Harmony and not follow up on it.
- Sorta semi-confirmed in Oathbringer as one of the letter-epigraphs appears to be from Sazed.
- Honor advised turning the battle for Roshar into Combat by Champion. The day Taravangian created the Diagram, he was smart enough to deduce not just that, but also determine how to predict his own fluctuating intelligence. Creating so much chaos by following the Diagram makes Odium take the bait and claim Taravangian as his champion. But the day of the challenge will also be the day Taravangian has a day of supreme compassion to match his day of supreme intelligence, causing Odium to lose by default.
- As of Oathbringer, Taravangian is working for Odium, so while he may not be the Champion, this isn't completely wrong.
- Lift decided to go seek the Old Magic just for the hell of it, and when asked what boon she wanted, she replied with just, "I want awesomeness."
- Jossed. Lift's request was to stay the same while the world changed around her.
- However, Nightwatcher as per Word of God has explicit links to Cultivation. Cultivation is by definition all about growth, change and adapting to the environment. Perhaps, from the perspective of Nightwatcher, Lift came asking for a curse and was therefore given an appropriate blessing to go with it.
- Alternately, it's possible that the Nightwatcher misunderstood what Lift was asking for. Perhaps Lift said something along the lines of "I want to stay the same forever, like you," and the Nightwatcher fixed on the "like you" part and caused Lift to exist partially in the Cognitive and partially in the Physical, like spren do.
- Oathbringer does indicate the Nightwatcher sometimes has trouble understanding the wishes she gets. Also Wo B is that Lift asked for something weird and consequently ended up getting something weird.
- Just to complicate things more: her boon was given by Cultivation herself, and she was planning something. Taking it further, we learn in Rhythm of War, her "awesomeness" is that, in addition to being able to use Stormlight, she can metablise food to create Lifelight (which comes from Cultivation, whereas Stormlight is of Honor and Voidlight is of Odium).
- The ancient Parsh become spren after their physical bodies die, so why wouldn't that happen with the modern version? The spren appears near Eshonai's body, is attached to Venli, and communicates though the old, non-Odium rhythms. After Kholinar falls (and a lot of Parshmen die in the battle), the Fused are specifically on the lookout for spren matching Timbre's description - more evidence for Timbre being a dead Parsh.
- It's more likely that Timbre was planning to bond with Eshonai before Eshonai was killed, at one point in Wo R Eshonai notices a spren following her around that fits Timbre's description. Also Timbre may be Captain Ico's daughter, who was said to have run off "chasing stupid dreams" and she mentions that her grandfather is a deadeye.
- They are both passionate about defending others, and are both coming to see humans / parshendi as just people, who may need to be protected.
- There is Word of God that the Horneaters are human/singer hybrids, so we know that romantic relations between the two species are at least possible.
- We know that the humans of Roshar are, or rather were, refugees from Braize. We know that they were given Shinovar as a place to settle, but that there were wars between humans and singers, and it ended with humanity winning. But we don't actually know who started the war. Everyone assumes that it was the humans who started the war, wanting to conquer lands for themselves outside of Shinovar, but what if it was singers who started the fighting, trying to drive the humans out of Shinovar?
- Some of the passages in the Ellia Stele show strong Fantastic Racism by singers against humans, implying that because we have no gemheart and hear no Rhythms, we have no feelings or souls.
- If even a small fraction of the singers were seduced by Odium, their anger at losing part of their lands fanned to a flame, that could have been enough to touch the whole thing off. And once it was going, it would keep reinforcing itself.
- This would explain why, during the Desolations, Odium seems to have been on the side of the singers and Honor on the side of the humans. If the humans started the wars by breaking a treaty, you'd expect Honor to have been on the side of the singers.
- Fused can be "reincarnated" by the Everstorm. So, whenever Odium has an army of Parshendi that isn't where he wants it to be, he'll force the Fused to kill themselves, so they can take new bodies somewhere more helpful, like right next to Dalinar's army.
- Odium doesn't need the Oathgates to move his armies around—not the way he treats the Parshendi as expendable. Plus, many of the Fused are already mad: it's not like one more death can hurt.
- Which is not to say he's right, or that he's not an abomination. It's just that the shard has been gradually making him feel deeper hatred...which is also the only passion he felt as Rayse, before taking up the shard. Since it makes his only kind of passion stronger, he thinks that the shard applies to all passions. Essentially, he legitimately confuses passion and hatred, because for him they are one and the same.
- Note that, when he takes someone's "passion" (or tries to), it's always some form of hatred. For Dalinar and Moash, it just happened to be self-hatred.
- He only goes by Odium because that's the name everyone else picked for him. Naturally, he hates it.
- He told Dalinar he liked the name Odium he just thought it was too limiting for all he represented.
- Is of Odium and is to him what the Stormfather was to Honor/the Nightwatcher is to Cultivation. His 'spren', more or less.
- Jossed in Rhythm of War, they are a product of both Honor and Cultivation.
- Kaladin's fourth ideal will be about accepting losses, Not just past losses, but future ones too. It will be his hardest emotional challenge, because Kaladin will have to accept that he can't save everyone.
- We know that the forth ideal is something he thinks he can't face, and he's always had trouble accepting losses. As a trainee surgeon, his father tried to teach him to protect himself from the pain of losing a patient, but he couldn't come to terms with it. As a bridgeman, he swore that he wouldn't let one more man of Bridge Four die, which was utterly unrealistic. When the whole Bridge Crew started becoming radiant squires, he though it would finally be true, that he wouldn't lose any more friends, and the people around him could see how irrational that was. It's a blindspot that's been highlighted a few times, and in Kholinar, his desire to save everyone paralysed him; it made things turn out worse.
- He's been on the other end of the scale too. As a runaway slave, he started to believe that he could never save anyone, and so he gave up even trying. He's believed he can't save anyone, and he's believed he'll save everyone. But he's never been able to face the middle ground. His fourth ideal will require him to finally face it, It'll be something like "I will accept… that I cannot save everyone. And by accepting that, I will save the ones I can."
- Confirmed. Kaladin accepts that he cannot protect everyone.
- It would explain why he had chosen to side with Odium, but still stear Szeth to swear to follow Dalinar's will. He wants the new Radiants to defeat the Skybreakers so that Szeth can refound them as a completely new Order without all the history and weight of precedent of their Silver Kingdoms and especially Post-Recreance era, just like the rest of the refounded Orders. This also means that he is deliberately trying to be a Broken Pedestal for the rest of the Heralds. Of course, considering that Jezerian and Shallash are both getting flashbacks in the second half...
- The boon Lift asked for was too much for the Nightwatcher's power or too outside her understanding. It was her mother Cultivation that made Lift partially of the Cognitive Realm and gave her the power to metabolize stormlight in one of her greater schemes. All of this happened before with Dalinar, so it lines up.
- Confirmed as of Rhythm of War
- We've seen there are spren and Shards capable of influencing or controlling human minds, if that human is in a mental state agreeable to their purpose. So maybe Tarvangian, on his day of lowest intelligence, presented the perfect vessel for a Cognitive/Spiritual being to take control of: not a single thought of his own in his head, but an unbelievably heightened sense of empathy making him open to another's psychic influence. It'd explain why Taravangain can't remember anything from that day: his intelligence was too low to form conscious thoughts or memories, and the Diagram was the result of an external entity using his body as a puppet.
- As of Rhythm of War, Rayse was killed and replaced as the shardholder of Odium by Taravangian. But it's still possible that the new Odium will be killed during the events of the Final Ten Days.
- Shallan. Art is a work of passion.
- Jossed, at least for now. Taravangian is the new Odium as of Rhythm of War, but that doesn't mean he won't die and be replaced.
- He feels bound to support singers as the original inhabitants of Roshar, working with Venli's group will allow him to do that without being involved with Odium.
- Vasher gets around Nightblood's life draining effects by throwing him into a pack of people who might be evil, letting the 'evil' person kill everyone and then themselves. This backfired when he found a group that wasn't evil as Nightblood would define; we know that the Nightwatcher had him when she offered a sword to Dalinar, and then Nale gave him to Szeth.
- Most worldhoppers need a Perpendicularity to get from Shadesmar to Roshar. Honor's is unstable and wandering, Odium's comes attached to Odium, and you wouldn't want to pass that, and Cultivation's located near Nightwatcher's lair. So most likely that Cultivation simply met him when he emerged again and they had a chat, after which he either gave the sword away on his own, was politely persuaded to participate in her schemes, or simply threatened by a smiling Shard to give away the toy then go away himself. Then she brought it to Nightwatcher, and then it eventually came to Nale (he could visit them to ask for a boon too).
- It's all part of the Nahel Bond: all Radiants have cracks that spren help heal, and Taln is the most cracked of all.
- Szeth mentions to Nightblood that he used to have a spren. Since the Shin are forbidden from harming stone, a Surgebinder who can shape stone would appear doubly ominous.
- She planned not only for Taravangian to usurp Odium, but for their current motives as well. After all, Cultivation as the intent is one of the most long-planning ones by its nature, possibly surpassing Preservation by a wide margin. As to what ends - who knows? It's only a 4th book out of 10.
- Also possible that Honor knew her well enough personally to predict this in a mundane way and snuck in his own surprise to keep her in check.
- Mostly jossed as of Ro W but still close: Instead, the Fused develop daggers made of Raysium to drain stormlight and even to suck out the soul of a Cognitive Shadow (such as a Herald or Fused). They they combine these with a way to inject anti-stormlight into a wound, killing spren permanently. It is not clear how closely related this is to Hemalurgy.
- The whole Old Magic with "curse equal to boon" is likely a shell game on Cultivation's part - it's implied she herself is not bound by this system at all. Nightwatcher is a spren of the same tier as Sja-anat, so it must've been Cultivation herself. Wording in some places implies Sja-anat always saw this an enlightenment, noy corruption. And lastly, if there was a curse, and not just Cultivation making changes however she saw fit, changes to mindset sound more like part of a boon, with curse being inability to control the change in the enlightened spren - thus allowing for Renarin to enter the picture and create a blind spot for Rayse.
- After the betrayal, the Radiants lost their faith in the concept of honor, and that killed their spren.
- Jossed in Oathbringer, it was the revelation that the parshmen were the original inhabitants of Roshar combined with a dying Honor saying they would destroy Roshar.
- One of the seventeen shards of Adonalsium shattered, hence why the meta-Arc Number is 16. It's quite likely the shardblades and plate are made from that one; one of the chapter breaks even mentions sending the holders of the fragments after the writer.
- There were only 16 Shards of Adonalsium. I think that the Shardblades may be Splinters of Honor, like how the breath of a Returned in Warbreaker is a Splinter of Endowment
- Wait, what? The 17th shard is a name of an organization, possibly in tribute to the 17th shard fansite. There are only 16 shards. Adonalsium shattered into 16 shards, of which we know of less than half by my count. Ruin and Preservation were on Scadrial (the world of Mistborn), while Honor, Odium, and Cultivation were on Roshar (the world of the Stormlight Archive). These 16 shards can further be shattered/scattered, but Adonalsium was never a shard- it was the whole which split into the 16 shards. The Metaplot (to be someday written in Dragonsteel, if Sanderson ever gets that far) is probably going to be about the 16 shards reuniting - we've already seen Preservation and Ruin (re)uniting into Harmony.
- Actually the in-world organization came first, Brandon suggested the name for the fansite just before Wo K came out (they were going to call it Hoid's Compendium).
- Confirmed. Shardblades are "dead" spren killed by the breaking of oaths by Radiants, and cognitive spren are tiny pieces of the Almighty. Though many Nahel spren are also partially or completely made of Cultivation's power.
- Some of them might be, but clearly not all of them are, as there were lighteyes before the Radiants' fall, though they were not considered superior to Darkeyes back then.
- Of course, those could just be the children of Radiants.
- As of Words of Radiance, Shardblades actually DO change a person's eye color.
- It's likely to be a mix, with some descended from the Radiants and some from those who took up Shardblades after the Radiants walked out.
- Pain Spren have something to do with healing, and possibly with soulcasting.
- Brandon Sanderson said in his latest interview that there are only 10 types of spren associated with the Radiants, we've seen more then 10 types, therefore they can't all be Radiant-associated.
- They could have devolved into more than one group. Maybe the honorspen split into windspren and naturespren, for example.
- Some spren are the spren they seem, others simply lack something to make them more. Kaladin is Syl's more. As Per Words of Radiance.
- Word of God indicates that the "curse of kind" is something that is unique to Axies, and is related to the Nightwatcher. On the other hand, Word of God has also confirmed that Aimians, like Parshmen/shendi, aren't human...
- There is Word of God that Horneaters are a mix of human and parshendi (which gives them their ability to see spren). Aimians could be another similar mix with a different ability.
- Actually Aimians are their own thing, and the people of Natan(sp?) have (Siah) Aimian blood. Dysian Aimians are...considerably weirder.
- I think the spren are Splnters of the Almighty's Shard (Honor), the superspren, the ones that can form bonds were deliberately created, the others are the pieces the Shard got broken into when Odium killed the Almighty.
- Note that in Dalinar's vision, which shows him a time before Honor was shattered (presumably), there is not a single mention of sprens, even though fear- and painspren should have been there, given the amount of fighting.
- Nope. Words of Radiance has a vision where Radiants are definitely talking with spren, a voidspren appears that creates a thunderclast, and the Blades themselves are the remains of spren bonded to the Radiants.
- Prior to the shattering of Adolnalsium there was Investiture from Adolnalsium scattered around the Cosmere. When Adolnalsium was shattered that Investiture became associated with one or more of the Shards. Spren are associated with Honor, Cultivation, or a mix of the two. So spren did exist even before Honor died, but there are a lot more of them now that Honor has been Splintered.
- Thanks to a reading from Book 2, we now have a bit of insight into this. The Parhsendi can take on various "forms" for different purposes, like a Hive Caste System where caste can be changed; the Parshendi we see in the first book are in warrior-form. The Parshmen, on the other hand, are said to be the absence of form, so it probably is something unnatural the ancient humans forced on them to make them docile. If they are Voidbringers, I'd guess that's also an unnatural form, likely induced by Odium.
- Brandon has said there are only 3 Shards on Roshar Honor, Odium, and Cultivation.
- Hardback edition, page 157, the line from the dying person. If more people had caught that sooner, he wouldn't have needed to confirm it. It says, "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns." I only caught it on my third read through.
- Could be misdirection, it does not say that Odium was one of the three. It could have been Honor, Cultivation and one other but now that Odium has killed Honor there are still three; Odium, Cultivation and the other (possibly whatever the Nightwatcher is)
- There doesn't need to be a Shard per magic system. The interaction between Shards cause magic systems as well as on Scadrial, two Shards but three systems. Fairly sure Sanderson mentioned that somewhere unless this troper is completely wrong...
- As of Words of Radiance each order of Radiants appears to get their power from a different type of spren, rather than a different Shard.
- Semi-confirmed. Only certain Parshendi forms appear to be Voidbringers in the strictest sense, and the transformation requires possession by a certain kind of spren. Eshonai's personality changes markedly when she goes stormform, with the implication that an outside force has taken over her body.
- Technically true, as Oathbringer reveals that the original Voidbringers were Humans.
- Alternately each of the orders had their own type of Shardblade. Syl didn’t like it because it doesn’t match her and she thinks Dalinar is better without it as he very much belongs to the Order, and associated spren, of Honor.
- Semi-confirmed. Sharblades are spren, but they only seem to work properly when bonded to someone who is living according to the Ideals. When the original Radiants broke their vows, this "killed" their associated spren, leaving behind Blades that are a sort of echo of the original living spirit. Syl doesn't like the Blades because they are, effectively, the remains of dead spren, but she doesn't have a problem acting as Kaladin's blade, and in this state she shift the weapon around to fit Kaladin's current needs and retake her spren form when the Blade isn't in use.
- As of Word's of radiance, this guess is partially correct. It is in fact a dead spren that powers the shard. So IT IS the lack of spren that makes her so upset about them.
- Odium is the name of the Shard in question, the holder is Rayse and given the fact that Honor (aka the Almighty) tells Dalinar in his last vision that Odium killed him, I think we can be fairly sure that Odium killed Honor (or more accurately the holder of Honor, and is still the most likely Big Bad, also we don't know whether Cultivation is dead or not.
- Also, the person (Hoid?) who wrote the letter that tops the chapters in part 2 of Wo K certainly acts like Rayse is still alive and kicking. I certainly wouldn't rule out that Odium somehow tainted the Shards, however.
- This is officially Jossed as of Words of Radiance. Paraphrased from the book: The Shards are actually spren, bonded to a human in and in the form of a weapon. Also, apparently the only reason that it takes 10 heartbeats to summon a shardblade is because the spren composing it is actually dead(because the origianal Radiant it was bonded to broke their oaths during the Recreance), and those few heartbeats sort of almost partially bring it back to life.
- Jasnah is a veristitalian, one who seeks the truth.
- Before they take her to Shadesmar they demand truth of Shallan.
- Interesting (but I'd say truth-spren rolls off the tongue a bit better), this could explain how soulcasting works, the stormlight gives you the power to change the truth about what an object is.
- people have been calling them truthspren, and Brandon has said it's as good a name as any but he doesn't want to canonize it quite yet
- Those spren are now officially called Cryptics. Rather amusingly, the book(Words of Radiance) went on to say that if we were to assign a name to them in the way that the other spren are named(flamespren, gloryspren, etc) they would actually be liespren.
- Actually, Jasnah does not have a bond with the Cryptics, Shallan does. Shallan and Jasnah are different orders, and thus have bonded different sorts of spren.
- Jossed. They're Inkspren.
- Interesting (but I'd say truth-spren rolls off the tongue a bit better), this could explain how soulcasting works, the stormlight gives you the power to change the truth about what an object is.
The purelake is said to be made of really pure water, which is ridiculous on a planet where highstorms come every week or so and rain crem (clay) on everything.Note also that there is not a single hint of hostility in the purelaker's chapter.In short, the purelake seems free of influence from the other two shards WoG said were on the planet.
There are also hints that the fish in it are really, really useful (medicinal fishes, pathfinding fishes) and the people of the purelake seem to go out of their way to stay in contact with its waters at all time, going so far as to flood their homes permanently.
I think Cultivation made her own essence into a human-friendly environment so as to... cultivate, shall we say, humanity, offering a safe place so as to ensure that odium's wars never totally wipe humanity out.
- It's an interesting idea, but since Odium probably killed or drove away Cultivation there's likely more to it than that. Especially since the Purelake is a huge inland sea. It actually reminds me of the pool on the main island in Sixth of Dusk. Word of God is that there isn't an active shard on that world. But those islands are still the central to the psychic weirdness and bizarre biology of that planet, no cognitive magic functions in the pool, and it's right by where the birds acquire their power-granting parasites. So basically, its probably some kind of locus of Cultivations power but what it actually does is unclear.
- Jossed in Oathbringer, Cultivation's shardpool (or Perpendicularity as they refer to it) is a pool in the Horneater peaks.
- More likely it's their word for the Radiants.
- Sort of confirmed. Most of the shardblades and plates are the former weapons and armor of fallen Radiants, and as such are the corpses of spren in weapon/armor form, which is why spren don't like them. Radiants actually find being in the presence of these shards to be highly unpleasant. The shards wielded by those Radiants who have sworn a sufficient number of their Order's Vows are living spren.
- I believe Sanderson has confirmed that "the Announcer" was a figment of an earlier alteration Ruin made to the Hero of Ages prophecy that had already been accepted as canon by Kwaan's time; note that in Hero of Ages, no-one really seems to fit, and that's because there wasn't an Announcer.
- Kind of. The Parshendi (or listeners, to use their own term for themselves) aren't always Voidbringers. However, some of their forms are apparently the creatures humans called Voidbringers.
- Actually, as of Oathbringer, this is confirmed, as the term Voidbringer was originally used by the Parshendi to refer to the human refugees that came to Roshar and brought Odium - the void - with them
- I'm pretty sure we've already seen (or heard of) at least three: Surgebinding, Voidbinding, and the Old Magic. We may have seen effects from other systems, but we've definitely seen at least these three.
- If this math holds, and all 16 Shards interact at some point, we would have 2^16-1 = 65535 different magic systems.
- Since Brandon Sanderson has stated that he has over a hundred different magic systems designed (I think this was in one of the The Alloy Of Law Q&A sessions) and he basically pics what fits a new book from them (and I assume he keeps adding new ideas constantly) I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case.
- Shardblades are designed to make killing incredibly easy - they're weightless and thus usable by nearly anyone and they extinguish the soul with a single swipe (and ominous black smoke) - that doesn't sound very Honor-ish, and even less like Cultivation. Not to mention that the Honorspren gets a bad feeling from them.
- Jossed
- Meanwhile, Shardplate exhibits many properties of a living thing - it heals itself and can regrow lost parts when tended properly and "fed" Stormlight. You can even grow an entire suit of armor from a single gauntlet like a new plant from a cutting. Plus their entire purpose is to protect the wearer and enhance his or her natural strength, agility, etc. They're pure Cultivation.
- Finally, Honorblades being of Honor is kind of obvious. while it's easy to assume that they're just souped-up Shardblades, when we see a Herald carrying his around, he's dragging it "as if it weighed a great deal," when a Shardblade weighs nothing. The implication being that Honorblades and Shardblades aren't cut from the same cloth after all.
- In universe, the characters are unsure of the location of the fabled lost city, Urithiru. It is implied that most people could not (or would not) access Urithiru on foot, although one historical character claims to have done so. Some fans have speculated that Urithiru was located in the scattered plains, but that does not seem consistent with its historical location. However, it is possible that Urithiru was hoovering in the air, somehow suspended by magic. When the magic began to fail, the city floated above the present location of the shattered plains and then crashed into the planet. The impact resulted in the creation of the shattered plains.
- Jossed: Something major obviously did shatter those plains, but it wasn't Urithiru, which still exists, and which Dalinar, Shallan, Kaladin and friends manage to successfully reach at the end of Words of Radiance. They believe it's located in the mountain ranges near the center of Roshar based on the height of their location, so it's not a floating city either.
- Jossed by Word of God, but he added that a theory about Nightwatcher being a remnant of Cultivation, like Stormfather is a remnant of Honor, was "on the right track." In Oathbringer Cultivation and the Nightwatcher appear together and Cultivation refers to her as a separate entity.
- Yes and no. In Words of Radiance, the Highstorm provides an ongoing source of Stormlight for Kaladin's and Szeth's High-Altitude Battle, and Windrunners' gravity manipulation and flight give them an edge during the Highstorms.
- Dalinar repeatedly experiences an addictive sense of pleasure from causing death on the battlefield, implied to be something a bit more than just an adrenaline rush - Dalinar remembers a time when the Thrill was still so strong after a battle he almost turned his sword on his brother, out of jealousy and an urge to keep on fighting - and it's stated that this isn't something that's specific to him but something common to warriors in Roshar (albeit talking about it seems to be a bit of a taboo). When Kaladin asks 'Why is there so much war? Must we always fight?' during his dream/vision of flying with the storm, the answer he gets is 'ODIUM REIGNS'. Making war literally addictive does sound like something you could credit Odium with...
- Semi-confirmed. Taravangian's interlude makes it clear that The Thrill is a product of something called Nergaoul, which seems like a powerful voidspren. It seems similar to Moelach, the thing that causes the Death Rattles, also mentioned in that chapter. Specifically both are Unmade, some of Odium's most powerful servants.
- Confirmed in Oathbringer. Nergaoul is one of the Unmade and the Thrill is Odium making war addictive so that he can enslave the Alethi and turn Dalinar in to his Champion.
- Jossed in Oathbringer they're Kaladin's "squires", and lose their powers if he's absent. It's implied that all the Radiant orders (perhaps except the Bondsmiths, who don't really add to their numbers create these, as Shallan gains Vathah as a squire too.
- Not really story-based, just a theory I've been running after seeing what each Order's Surges were. Releasers use the Surges of Division and Abrasion. Division, as in erosion, which the Releasers would presumably use to pulverize rock or other materials into dust. Even stone, metal, and brick can be flammable in a fine-enough dust consistency. Their other Surge, Abrasion, alters the friction of an object. Friction, of course, being one of the most common causes of dust explosions. That's how they get the Person of Mass Destruction abilities hinted at in the prologue of the first book.
- Knowing how much Sanderson enjoys toying with semantics and applications of superpowers, they would use explosions defensively, just for him to show off.
- Presumably the Vorin taboo about exposing women's left hands got started from something, and hands don't appear to have any significance to Surgebinding or Voidbinding.
- The safehand thing was a power grab to stop women from using Shardblades.
- It's common fan theory that Old Magic, and thus the Nightwatcher, are connected to Cultivation. One of the few things we know about Cultivation is she is much better at seeing the future than than Honor was. Now, imagine what a really good precognitive could do with the ability to alter people who come and ask for a boon. They could, for example, remove a highprince's memories of his dead wife, leading to him starting a relationship with his brother's widow he would never have considered otherwise, giving him a brilliant artificer ally. Or, they could grant a minor king variable intelligence, a boon already having a major impact on Roshar. The Nightwatcher's boons and curses are Cultivation's seeds.
- Considering what the other Shards known to be really good at seeing the future (Preservation, Harmony) get up to, the question isn't if Cultivation has a long game, it's what that game is, who is in on it, and what Odium's countermeasures are.
- Hinted at in Rhythm of War. It's more or less stated that Cultivation used the Nightwatcher as a distraction to keep Odium from realizing that she personally blessed three people on Roshar: Dalinar, Lift, and Taravangian.
- At least three people. She's been gardening for millenia, who knows how many seeds are still hidden to germinate later? For instance, Nale somehow got the Nightblood, which was kept by the Nightwatcher before.
- Based on this question and Sanderson's answer. If the Shardblades are dead "mindspren", like honorspren or liespren, then the Shardplates are created of mindspren's "naturespren" cousin - for example, a Windrunner would have a honorspren Blade and windspren Plate. What is used now is as dead as the Shardblade spren, which is why it requires Stormlight to function.
- Confirmed
- The fourth ideal of the Windrunners: "I cannot save them all, but all I can save, I will." Kaladin had trouble with the "cannot save them all" part.
- Something along the lines of "I will accept that I cannot save everyone," does seem likely, based on the predicament he was in at the time that Syl wanted him to say it.
- Confirmed Kaladin's fourth ideal is "I accept that there will be those I cannot protect".
- Alternatively, the fourth ideal of the Windrunners is something like, "I will protect the living, not the dead," requiring Windrunners to let go of the memory of those they failed to protect (since those memories, and the guilt associated with them, will distract a Windrunner from saving those who can still be saved). Kaladin can't bring himself to swear by it in Oathbringer since he isn't ready to stop mourning Tien yet.
- The fifth ideal of the Windrunners: "I will not protect others from the trials they need to grow strong". It would fit as the kind of capstone of what it means to be a Windrunner, not only protecting others when they need protection, but knowing when protecting them would, in the long run, only hurt.
- One of the crystal records found in Urithiru mentions a Windrunner being confused by hints from his spren that there are circumstances under which he should not protect others.
- One poster on the Seventeenth Shard guessed: “No one can be strong all the time. I will accept the protection of my allies when I cannot protect myself.”
- The fourth ideal of the Edgedancers: "I will speak for those who have been silenced". It would form a logical progression with the other Edgedancer Ideals: from remembering (retaining what you do take in) to listening (opening yourself to the outcasts) to speaking (taking action rather than remaining passive).
- The Tranquil Halls is how humans on Roshar refer to their original home world, which was destroyed by Surge-binding, turning it into 'Damnation'. It also explains why Odium is bound there: As long as any Braize-ians still live, he can't leave.
- According to Word of God, it's actually Ashyn. Some people still live there but they live in floating cities.
- After all, they can breed with other humans. They evolved to survive on Roshar, and now the later batch of humans are doing the same. This is the reason for things like Rlain noticing them reacting to the rhythms of Roshar, or characters feeling like they could almost hear a beat.
- Word of God has said that the singers are native to Roshar and were placed there by Adonalsium.
- There are three Bondsmiths. What's the source of the third great spren they bond, the one apparently so deeply harmed by humans? It seems unlikely bonding one of Odium would be useful, and voidspren bonding humans was a new development. A death rattle claimed "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns." That doesn't necessarily mean the Broken One is one of those three, and he's not the type to share authority. Sanderson has said that there are three shards on Roshar...but Honor is dead. He's not on Roshar. When Dalinar ascends, Odium screams "We killed you!" Who's "we"? Surely he wouldn't bother giving credit to his own Fused or spren. Perhaps the hidden shard worked with Odium to kill Honor.
- Jossed. The Siblins is a product from both Honor and Cultivation. However the "we" might have been referring to Odium and Cultivation, who has plans that seem to involve a partnership with Odium.
- Wasn't there a long line of chosen before Dalinar, with everyone becoming mad and dying, like he almost did?
- Rhytm of War implies that he was planning to kill Odium, which would lead to him usurping the Shard, like Taravangian. So, correct goal, wrong god.
- There were nine types of Surgebinder. Instead of Bondsmiths and Windrunners, there was a different type that used Tension and Gravitation.
- Surgebinders on Braize were more like Mistborn, and potentially could use all nine Surges.
- Surgebinders on Braize could only use one type of Surge. Since that is how the Fused seem to operate, this would appear to be the most likely theory.
- Additionally, after the revelations in Rhythm of War, they will have unparalleled skill at investiture manipulation.
- Stormfather's Visions
- Control over Connection
- Uniting the Realms
- Oathbringer Passed out in a drunken stuppor from facing the reality of his past, Dalinar encounters Nohadon in his later years. As they interact, Dalinar is provided information and advice from Nohadon to help him from that point forward. The Stormfather outright admits that he had nothing to do with the vision and didn't even realize it was happening. Now unless Dalinar was really that big of a fan of Nohadon and his work with The Way of Kings, the Connection most likely wouldn't be strong enough to manifest a psuedo cognitive-shadow. However, Dalinar has more or less interacted with approximations of Nohadon's shadow within the Stormfather's visions, and so the knowledge and perspective gained would strengthen the Connection to create a psuedo cognitive-shadow. This would be in a similar manner as Shai, who never met the man, being able to accurately reconstruct The Emperor's Soul
- Rhythm of War In the climax of the novel, Kaladin experiences a vision of his younger brother—someone long since dead at the time of the novel—who then tries to reignite Kaladin's motivation to save their father. Unlike Dalinar's example, Kaladin has a very strong Connection to Tien, not just cause they're brothers, but also were the best of friends, with Tien very much being one of the only people to effectively help Kaladin with his depression, according to Kaladin himself.
- Oathbringer Nohadon corrects that he actually walked to Urithiru, and didn't use Oathgates like Dalinar initially assumed.
- Rhythm of War Tien states that he willingly joined the spear squad as Cannon Fodder as an attempt at invoking Kaladin to protect others unlike Kaladin's assumption that he was forced into the role.
- He instigated apocalypse on Ashyn so that his people would seek asylum on Roshar and bring him along, circumventing non-interference pact.
- When humans were granted Shinovar, he intentionally instigated tensions between singers and humans behind Honor back, while Cultivation was plotting along.
- No matter who started the conflict - whether it was humans that wanted the whole planet or disgruntled singers - he secretly came to singers and offered his power to help in the war.
- That pissed off the true spren, so they abandoned the singers. He also could be complicit in this conflict too, to make singers dependent on him alone.
- He also ditched humans, as singers at that point showed greater potential, and he wanted an army. That led to Honor taking humans under his wing.
- Brandon has said he intends to write a series dealing with the metaplot, but that TSA is not that series, the series he intends to write is called Dragonsteel.
- Based on current understanding, it looks more like Dragonsteel will be a prequel series of sorts, dealing with the origins of the Shards. The third Mistborn trilogy (confirmed as Space Opera) seems the most likely to be a straightforward crossover. However, Stormlight will be one of the three "core" Cosmere series, along with Dragonsteel (seven books) and Mistborn(a "trilogy of trilogies").
- Alcatraz is specifically not part of Sanderson's greater Cosmere. (like Mistborn, Elantris, TLA etc.) Read more here
- Jossed. Earth is not part of the Cosmere. (Otherwise, The Reckoners, Alcatraz Smedry, and The Rithmatist would be part of the cosmere, and they are not)
- PS. I do not know how to link to the tropes I mentioned could someone please help me with that.
- Word of God is that there is no version of Earth in the Cosmere (the cosmology that all of Sanderson's major works share) so this one is almost certainly not true. However, I certainly wouldn't rule out a reveal that Roshar was once much more Earth-like at some point in its very distant past.
- I doubt that. Roshar's native ecology seems far too alien to have been derived from anything earthlike, and far too diverse and well established to be some kind of recent (evolutionary speaking) phenomena. A simpler explanation is that humans and earth fauna and flora aren't native to Roshar. Shinovar has an earth like ecology cause it's the one place protected by highstorms, where earth organisms could out compete the ones on Roshar.
- Jossed in Oathbringer, the alternte theory above that humans aren't native and their animals could only thrive in Shinovar is entirely correct.
- Word of God is that there is no version of Earth in the Cosmere (the cosmology that all of Sanderson's major works share) so this one is almost certainly not true. However, I certainly wouldn't rule out a reveal that Roshar was once much more Earth-like at some point in its very distant past.
- It's moderately well-known by now that Brandon has described the Stormlight Archive as consisting of two five-book sub-arcs. Furthermore, Words of Radiance starts within a few days of the end of Way Of Kings, and previews of the third book reveal that it starts within a day or two of the end of Words of Radiance. My theory is that each book in the first arc will start almost immediately after the end of the one before it, with only a few days of skippage at the most. Then there will be a major time-skip between books five and six (possibly jumping to the next generation), and then each book in the second arc will come almost immediately after its predecessor.
- Here because Mistborn original trilogy doesn't have it's own WMG page. In Mistborn, Ruin was able to influence or control anyone whose soul had been damaged by Hemalurgy. This was the only revealed mechanism to allow his influence in...which led to an apparent plot whole when there should have been no means for Ruin to give Zane a hemalurgic Spike or drive Vin's mother mad (leading her to spiking Vin). It's a chicken and egg sort of problem. BUT, in this series we have another form of spiritual connection whose prerequisite is a damaged soul: bonding to Spren! We are told that an intact soul doesn't have space for them. Since this series also reveals that souls can be damaged by emotional trauma, we now know how Ruin managed to influence his first followers. Which is somewhat hilarious, since it means that there is now a good reason throughout the Cosmere for genuine prophets to be either insane or traumatized.
- We are told that Ruin could also influence the mentally ill.
- Right, and now we have the mechanism. Mental illness manifests as soul damage, which lets Shardholders influence them. Presumably it's also an access route for powerful enough emotional allomancy, and would let a spren bond with them if the local spren knew how to do that trick.
- We are told that Ruin could also influence the mentally ill.
- Also, disease isn't as much of a problem on Roshar compared to other worlds becuase of all the Stormlight falling from the sky strengthening immune systems, according to the Word of Brandon regarding the Purelake 'plague' (common cold).
- Jossed: Raboniel mentions her grandmother's account of humans arriving: all were either blackened with soot and smog and/or heavily burned. Considering that it was Ishar, the first bondmaker, who messed with the Dawnshard and surges, the most likely scenario is that he accidentally unleashed a nuclear explosion. The whole thing with magical infections is apparently a later invention by people who wanted to live there.
Also, Brandon has commented that if Kelsier joined the Ghostbloods, he would find a way to become their leader in a year.
- Going off of this, it seems like Kelsier is making precautions for going insane or losing his powers and memories. He not only made caches storing his power, he attached legends that are detailed enough so that he wouldn't need to remember where he left them, while also being far-fetched enough so that most people would dismiss them as rumors. The Survivor's Treasure (assuming that it's his) consists of Hemalurgic spikes, and a twit like Allomancer Jak found them. Besides that, (spoilers for The Bands of Mourning) the Bands of Mourning are stored in a highly visible temple in a location spread by word of mouth in the South, and are hidden in such a way that you don't need to remember how to walk through the Death Course or solve the door puzzle, just think like him. Hoid also found a coppermind containing some of his memories, which might be there in case he loses more memories.
- Assuming the Stormlight 5 preview doesn't become more cagey about it with revision, Confirmed. Thaidakar appears to Gavilar as a projection of himself, as a young man in what matches the description of a mistcloak, with scars all over his arms and, most importantly when combined with all the evidence here, a spike through one eye.
- In particular, he will give her Elend's treatises on government, because while some systems might be more fair and democratic, Elend had to transition from absolute monarchy to democracy. Wit might even give some quip about Elend, possibly something like how he died leading a charge into a horde of Koloss, or how his father-in-law stabbed him.
- Giving up your pain sounds like Soothing, and Moash feels dead inside when Odium takes his pain. The Thrill is like Rioting bloodlust and joy of battle.