| 1 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[folder:Character and plot development theories]] |
| 4 | [[WMG: Hoid's goal in all this is to free Odium for the greater good]] |
| 5 | Hoid's correspondence indicates that Odium is trapped in a cycle of EternalRecurrence on Roshar, and that while he remains so the Shardholders refuse to move on him to deal with him permanently. Hoid's plan for Roshar is to free Odium, by ANY means, to force the Shardvessels to action. And whether he does this by arranging for Odium to be banished from Roshar or for Roshar to be rendered uninhabitable to human life? I suspect he'd prefer the former but would accept the later. He did tell Jasnah their goals might not align after all. |
| 6 | * 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. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | [[WMG:All of the main characters are/will be Surgebinders who are either reborn Heralds or descendants of them, and will recreate and lead the Knights Radiant]] |
| 9 | * 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? |
| 10 | ** 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. |
| 11 | ** 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 WordOfGod to have appeared in WoK (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. |
| 12 | *** This is confirmed as of ''Oathbringer''. Baxil's Mistress is indeed Shalash, who goes around destroying art of herself. |
| 13 | ** 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. |
| 14 | *** 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. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[WMG: Ancient Parshendi were right]] |
| 17 | * 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. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[WMG:Odium will splinter himself]] |
| 20 | * 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 FateWorseThanDeath) and pull AsLongAsThereIsEvil, permanently infesting the planet with a swarm of voidspren, permeating every aspect of life and making lasting peace impossible, forever. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[WMG:Shallan runs Series/{{Torchwood}}]] |
| 23 | * 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! |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[WMG:Shallan is Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya]] |
| 26 | * This page doesn't have one yet, and I always thought she reminded me of Shallan. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[WMG:Hoid is a [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lord]]]] |
| 29 | He travels across time and space to appear in Literature/TheStormlightArchive, Literature/{{Elantris}}, Franchise/{{Mistborn}}, and Literature/{{Warbreaker}}. What other explanation is there? |
| 30 | * Jossed. WordOfGod is that Hoid used to be human (what he is now is “complicated”), and Time Lords are never even partially human. [[Creator/PaulMcGann Especially on their mothers’ sides.]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[WMG:King Gavilar's "message to his brother" was a Death Rattle.]] |
| 33 | It wasn't an actual message to Dalinar; it was just a message leaking through from wherever the rest of the Death Rattles come from. |
| 34 | ** if it was, that makes it even more important. |
| 35 | ** {{Jossed}} at a recent signing: [[http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/2955-seattle-signing/page__pid__49323]]. Gavilar came up with that message entirely by himself. |
| 36 | ** It refers to the oaths of the Radiants. The most important words depend on the order. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[WMG:Odium is not the real BigBad.]] |
| 39 | The initially introduced bad of a Sanderson book ''never'' is. Cultivation, perhaps? |
| 40 | * Or maybe Hoid? |
| 41 | * Or ''Adonalsium''? |
| 42 | ** Adonalsium is dead/shattered. |
| 43 | * Or Gavilar? His death is just an alibi. |
| 44 | ** 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 BackFromTheDead, so people like Kelsier are the exceptions that prove the rule. |
| 45 | * When I hear "''never''", I think "Meta-Twist". |
| 46 | * 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 GreaterScopeVillain. |
| 47 | * We meet him in personal avatar in 'Oathbringer'. If he's not a BigBad, it's not for a lack of trying. |
| 48 | * Jossed somewhat. From what it appears, Odium is still the BigBad of at least the first arc, but as of '’Rhythm of War'’, Taravangian is the Vessel. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | [[WMG:The Almighty's plan was for whomever received his visions to be guided to gain his power.]] |
| 51 | We know from Preservation and Ruin that when a God's consciousness is destroyed, its power remains, and can be claimed by another individual. These visions sought out the exceptionally honorable (and therefore affiliated with the Almighty, whom Sanderson has named as Honor) Dalinar Kholin, and are trying to guide to towards even more honorable acts. Of course, there's no guarantee that things will go as Almighty intended... |
| 52 | ** Jossed. Odium [[DeaderThanDead Splinters]] every Shard he kills (such as those of Devotion and Dominion) to prevent rivals to his uprising. Supported by WordOfGod [[http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=755#27 here.]] |
| 53 | *** 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; WordOfGod 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. |
| 54 | * 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. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[WMG:Elhokar IS responsible for the weakened gems in his shard plate but does not know it.]] |
| 57 | He has some kind of power similar to his sister's which uses up the power of the gems in his plate causing them to crack. During one of his paranoid rants he mentions seeing "faces in mirrors. Symbols, twisted, inhuman..." He is somehow seeing the spren that appear in Shallan's drawings but not understanding what they are is feeding his paranoia. Presumably he does not have the exact same power (soulcasting would be pretty noticeable), but something more subtle (different orders had different powers). Once Jasnah returns she may realise what is happening or maybe Elhokar will recognise the figures in Shallan's sketchbook. |
| 58 | * This could explain why Szeth notes that shardplate does not mix well with Surgebinding. |
| 59 | ** 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. |
| 60 | ** Events in Oathbringer would seem to support this theory. However, we may never know, since [[spoiler: Elhokar was apparently killed while speaking the First Ideal]]. |
| 61 | ** Entirely possible. According to WordOfGod, he would have been a Lightweaver like Shallan. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[WMG:Renarin is a NotSoHarmlessVillain.]] |
| 64 | He just doesn't get to show it because [[BloodKnight Alethi]] culture isn't kind to a man like him. He's probably some sort of budding tactical super-genius who'll manipulate everyone some day...if he's not doing it already. |
| 65 | * HiddenDepths, 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. |
| 66 | ** His fits are primarily caused by epilepsy, as discussed with Kaladin in Words of Radiance, but others are caused by [[spoiler:the screaming of the shardblades]]. |
| 67 | ** As for villain, as of ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 68 | * 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. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | [[WMG:Shallan will eventually become an ActionGirl and BadassBookworm]] |
| 71 | Because it's pretty obvious if you read closely that [[spoiler: she has a shardblade, probably taken from her father]] and it would be a real shame if she [[spoiler: never learned to use it]]. |
| 72 | * 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. |
| 73 | ** Well her shardblade is a fact. |
| 74 | ** Given what she gets up to in ''Words of Radiance'', this seems pretty accurate. |
| 75 | *** And in the later books, too. I think we can safely call this one Confirmed. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[WMG:Someone or something is hoarding Shardblades]] |
| 78 | It is implied in Dalinar’s visions that the Orders of the Knights Radiant had at least one thousand Shardblades yet he states that less than a hundred are accounted for. |
| 79 | * 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. |
| 80 | * From the epilogue of Book 2, it appears the Shin at least have most of the Honorblades. |
| 81 | * 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 [[spoiler: 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, [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: Ishar]]. The resulting concerns by Szeth and others present pertain not only to [[spoiler: 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]]. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | [[WMG: Wit's story to Kaladin is foreshadowing of Szeth's eventual suicide]] |
| 84 | * 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. |
| 85 | ** 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 SanitySlippage, culminating in him letting Kaladin kill him. Pity it [[BackFromTheDead doesn't stick]]. |
| 86 | *** Jossed. As of November 2020, Szeth has joined Team Alethkar and, while still not mentally-stable, doesn’t show signs of committing suicide. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[WMG:Kaladin is Jezerezeh]] |
| 89 | The ruler of the Heralds and the Stormfather (as worshipped in Alethkar, but not the actual Stormfather). |
| 90 | * He gets depressed when there are no Highstorms. |
| 91 | * He is able to use Surgebinding |
| 92 | * He has had a vision that he was a highstorm himself |
| 93 | * He instinctively knew the second ideal of the Knights Radiants, specifically the first suborder. |
| 94 | * 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. |
| 95 | ** Jossed: The Heralds aren't dead, and Jezrien is very clearly NOT Kaladin, since Jezrien dies and Kaladin is not affected. |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[WMG:Kaladin will get rid of his slave brand with some quick, painful knife-work then heal it properly with stormlight]] |
| 98 | But he'll keep the Shash (dangerous) brand to remind people he's a badass. |
| 99 | ** WordOfGod is that Stormlight healing works based on self-image. Given that it's powerful enough to [[spoiler: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. |
| 100 | ** The Shash brand finally leaves him in ''Rhythm of War''. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | [[WMG:The Lost Herald isn't dead at the end of the book.]] |
| 103 | He dropped his Blade and it didn't disappear, which is supposed to make us think he's dead. But those Blades are explicitly shown to work differently than normal ones; he still has brown eyes, for one thing, and in the DistantPrologue its mentioned that if they had died, their Blades would have disappeared. |
| 104 | * 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? |
| 105 | ** Brandon has explicitly refereed to the Heralds' Blades as Honorblades, the Dawnshards are something else. |
| 106 | * Brandon has also stated that Taln will be a POV character later in the series, so I think it's WordOfGod that he's alive. |
| 107 | ** As of ''Words of Radiance'' [[spoiler: Taln's alive. Largely catatonic, but alive]]. |
| 108 | ** As of ''Oathbringer'', he’s recovered and semi-active again. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[WMG:The sphere Gavilar gave to Szeth is the Dawnshard]] |
| 111 | I'm all for crazy ideas. |
| 112 | ** 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.]] |
| 113 | *** 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. |
| 114 | ** Jossed: Dawnshards predate the Unmade, similarity in description is just a coincidence. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[WMG:The sphere is ordinary gem, but currently is a Dawnshard]] |
| 117 | * 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). |
| 118 | ** Jossed: [[spoiler:Dawnsahrds predate Odium, in fact, they were used to split Adonalsium. And there's only 4 of them.]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[WMG:Kaladin's parents will reunite with him within a book or two]] |
| 121 | Unlike [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime other]] young heroes who love their parents, Kaladin will interact with his folks long before the 'final battle' and they will ''all'' have character development through the series. I can see Hesina joining Navani's retinue and the two of them hitting it off to the benefit of both (and the terror of all the surrounding menfolk). Lirin could serve as a useful moral grounding force and friend to Dalinar. |
| 122 | * The end of Words Radiance makes this seem likely, as [[spoiler:Kaladin is headed off to Hearthstone]]. |
| 123 | ** Confirmed. In ''Oathbringer'', he does meet up with them again. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | [[WMG:Wit/Hoid is Adolnasium]] |
| 126 | Hoid was present when Adolnasium was split into the Shards. He is also present in every one of Sanderson's works within [[TheVerse the Cosmere]]. What if Hoid is what is left when all the Shards are gone? His name is only one letter from void. |
| 127 | * Uh... No. Also, Hoid is a pseudonym, not his real name. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[WMG:"The Broken One" is Honor, not Odium.]] |
| 130 | Honor was shattered, while Odium is still, as far as we know, whole. His "reign" may be a reference to the omnipresence of the [[spoiler:Splinters of Honor]], in the form of [[spoiler:the various spren]] |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[WMG: Cultivation is the real BigBad, Honor was her ally in evil, and Odium is the good guy.]] |
| 133 | Honor mentions that he and Cultivation could see the future, and that "she is better at it than I." The vile art of Voidbinding centered around predicting the future, and is so reviled that even now anything that smacks of predicting the future, even games of chance, are taboo. |
| 134 | * 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 Name}}s. |
| 135 | * Honor seems reasonable and good in the visions, but unless he's looking for a CardCarryingVillain, he would want to be in order to dupe his pawn into carrying out his evil designs. |
| 136 | * 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. |
| 137 | ** 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 NonIndicativeName makes little sense for Shards, who are, after all, AnthropomorphicPersonifications- 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. |
| 138 | ** Given that Taravangian is a WellIntentionedExtremist who considers murdering people -- including pregnant women and [[WouldHurtAChild five-year-old children]] -- [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans an acceptable action]] and Dalinar is a WisePrince who is seeking [[TheAtoner 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. |
| 139 | * 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. |
| 140 | |
| 141 | [[WMG: Shallan will become the center of a LoveTriangle]] |
| 142 | * 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. |
| 143 | ** Semi-confirmed. [[spoiler: She's engaged to Adolin, and has genuine chemistry with him... but there's also a fair bit of ShipTease with ''Kaladin'', rather than Renarin (after she and Kaladin spend a good portion of the book [[BelligerentSexualTension 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]]. |
| 144 | ** When asked about this, Sanderson said (carefully) that he wasn't a fan of conventional love triangles, but ''was'' a fan of complicated relationships. |
| 145 | ** Averted. [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[WMG: At some point, either Odium, or some other enemy of Alethkar will use the [[http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Alethi_Codes_of_War Codes]] themselves against the entire warcamp by the Shattered Plain]] |
| 148 | * They will use the Codes of Readiness and Inspiration to pull a BavarianFireDrill to gain entry/start the ball rolling |
| 149 | * They will use the Code of Restraint as a cover to keep the agents alive long enough to do the damage |
| 150 | * 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. |
| 151 | * They will use the Code of Honor to mousetrap and destroy most of the Alethi forces while framing UsualSuspects, including Sadeas, for this "betrayal." |
| 152 | * 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 TragicDream. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | [[WMG:Dalinar's lost memories of his wife aren't his curse from the Nightwatcher]] |
| 155 | Forgetting his wife is what he asked to receive from the Nightwatcher and his curse is something else entirely. Either he is too ashamed to admit it, or he has forgotten the reason he wanted to forget in the first place and may not be aware it was his blessing and not his curse. |
| 156 | * 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. |
| 157 | ** It could be both boon and curse... If he went to the Nightwatcher for help dealing with his grief after his wife's death. |
| 158 | ** Technically confirmed ''Oathbringer'' in that [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[WMG: Szeth will be redeemed]] |
| 161 | Based on events from Words of Radiance. |
| 162 | * Yeah... I'm going to go out on a limb and go with [[spoiler: Jossed, considering how the book ends. He basically [[GoMadFromTheRevelation 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.]] |
| 163 | ** Not necessarily - He is [[spoiler: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. |
| 164 | ** Confirmed in ''Oathbringer'' [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 165 | |
| 166 | [[WMG: Eshonai is not dead]] |
| 167 | She [[DisneyVillainDeath fell in to a chasm]], they NeverFoundTheBody. Kaladin and Shallan survived falling into a chasm. True, it was during a high storm, but she was explicitly in a form that's protected from storms. I predict sometime early in the next book we'll get a POV from her, waking up in a new form, free of Odium's influence. She'll probably get a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, then spend the rest of the series trying to help fix her mistake. |
| 168 | * She'll be having flashbacks in the fourth book, so presumably confirmed. |
| 169 | ** [[spoiler: Well, they found the body. So, Jossed, unless things take a very strange turn.]] |
| 170 | *** Now confirmed by a WoB that Eshonai is definitely dead and has moved on to the Beyond. So she's not coming back. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[WMG: Taravangian misinterpreted his blessing and curse]] |
| 173 | He asked the Nightwatcher for the capacity to save the world... so she gave him immense compassion and intelligence, but cursed them to be inversely proportional. He assumes its the intelligence that's going to save people, but the compassion is what the blessing really was. The intelligence is the curse. |
| 174 | * 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. |
| 175 | * 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. |
| 176 | ** Jossed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: Taravangian asked for both compassion and intelligence, and his curse is that he can't have them both at the same time.]] |
| 177 | |
| 178 | [[WMG:Taravangian is a pawn of the Diagram]] |
| 179 | Taravangian *thinks* the plan encoded in the Diagram is for him to become king of everything and save the world. The Diagram also says that the only thing that matters is saving the world, anything else can be sacrificed for that goal. What if the Diagram is setting up the world to be saved by Dalinar & friends, and Taravangian & company are just dupes working towards that goal? They'll do some necessary things along the way - kill some other bastard kings, genocide the Parshmen, generate the kind of emotional trauma you need to make Radiants - all the while thinking they're heros who will rule the world. But at the last minute, the Diagram betrays them, and they get their just comeuppance. |
| 180 | ** Sort of confirmed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: 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. |
| 181 | ** As of ''Rhythm of War'', [[spoiler: jossed. He was Cultivation's pawn in a plot to replace Rayse as the shardbearer of Odium.]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[WMG:Rysm will become a Radiant]] |
| 184 | * 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) [[spoiler:Shardblades are dead spren. He was buying a Shardblade]]. |
| 185 | ** Jossed as of ''Dawnshard''. [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[WMG:Adolin will become a Radiant by reviving the dead spren inside his Shardblade.]] |
| 188 | He talks to it, and he clearly values it more than other people do. Somehow, that spren is going to get revived, and Adolin will be on his way to Radianthood. The only thing is that Adolin isn't exactly a broken soul at the time of writing, which means that the next few books are going to be hard for him, probably starting with repercussions from [[spoiler: killing Sadeas]], having his entire family be pretty much Radiants and overshadowing him, whatever's happening between Kaladin and Shallan...etc., and going from there. |
| 189 | * [[spoiler: 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."]] |
| 190 | * Also, it's not confirmed yet, but there's certainly building evidence. [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | * 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 |
| 193 | ** Unlikely as the Honorblades are only a small fraction of Honor's power. |
| 194 | |
| 195 | [[WMG: Iyatil is one of the Parshendi.]] |
| 196 | She wears the mask to hide the most obvious features, and has a form (some sort of spyform or possibly mediationform?) that the rest of the parshendi have not discovered. As his master, she's likely the one who taught Mraize to use the blowgun, a parshendi weapon, and seems comfortable handling one. Finally, Shallan mistakes her for a man at first, something that is consistently commented on concerning parshendi, and Shallan mistakes her as being the servant/apprentice, another nod toward Parshman slaves. |
| 197 | * Jossed... by [[spoiler:BandsOfMourning of all things. She's a Hunter from the culture that survived far south of the Elendel Basin on Scadrial.]] |
| 198 | |
| 199 | [[WMG: Szeth's grandfather was named Vallano.]] |
| 200 | Going from apparent naming conventions among the Shin, a person is denoted by the name of their same-sex parent (Name-son-Father's Name or Name-daughter-Mother's Name). Szeth's father was never in the picture and is unknown for whatever reason. This is the reason why Szeth carries a shame among the Shin. |
| 201 | ** 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. |
| 202 | ** 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. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[WMG: Eshonai will be the Stormlight Archive's [[Franchise/{{Mistborn}} Marsh]].]] |
| 205 | She'll be the Dragon of the BigBad, forced to do horrible things due to mind control, while we occasionally get glimpses of her true self fighting back (and therefore get an insight into the big bad's plans). In the end, she'll have a HeroicSacrifice to save one of the heroes and therefore help stop the big bad. |
| 206 | ** {{Jossed}} as of ''Oathbringer'' |
| 207 | |
| 208 | [[WMG: Elhokar will join the Lightweavers.]]He's already drawn Cryptics, and towards the end of Words of Radiance starts talking about things being patterns. The weakened gems in his saddle were caused by him unconsciously draining Stormlight from them, the same way Jasnah's smokestone cracked when she overused it against the muggers. He might not end up as an actual Radiant, but he will join the order. |
| 209 | ** 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. |
| 210 | ** In a GenreSavvy 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, [[spoiler: Taravangian]] uses a similar phrase to describe the Knights Radiant. It's either a case of StrangeMindsThinkAlike, or some kind of foreshadowing. |
| 211 | ** Semi-confirmed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[WMG: Dalinar will wield Jezerezeh's Honorblade]] |
| 214 | * 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. |
| 215 | ** Jossed at least in the short term [[spoiler: Dalinar never considers using the Honorblade and gives it to Bridge Four to practice their Windrunning while Kaladin is absent, then it's stolen.]] |
| 216 | |
| 217 | [[WMG: Taravangian is responsible for Szeth being declared Truthless in the first place.]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | * Part of the Diagram is speculation about making a Truthless to use as a weapon. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | [[WMG: Sazed/Harmony will make an appearance.]] |
| 222 | |
| 223 | * There's no way Sanderson would drop a detail like Odium being scared of Sazed/Harmony and not follow up on it. |
| 224 | ** Sorta semi-confirmed in ''Oathbringer'' as one of the letter-epigraphs appears to be from Sazed. |
| 225 | |
| 226 | [[WMG: The Diagram is instructions for creating a {{Mole}}.]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | * Honor advised turning the battle for Roshar into CombatByChampion. 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. |
| 229 | ** As of ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', Taravangian is working for Odium, so while he may not be the Champion, this isn't completely wrong. |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[WMG: Lift's Boon]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | * 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." |
| 234 | ** Jossed. Lift's request was [[NeverGrewUp to stay the same]] while [[GrowingUpSucks the world changed around her]]. |
| 235 | ** However, Nightwatcher as per WordOfGod 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. |
| 236 | ** 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. |
| 237 | *** ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'' does indicate the Nightwatcher sometimes has trouble understanding the wishes she gets. Also WoB is that Lift asked for something weird and consequently ended up getting something weird. |
| 238 | * Just to complicate things more: her boon was given by Cultivation herself, and she was planning something. Taking it further, we learn in ''Literature/RhythmOfWar'', 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). |
| 239 | |
| 240 | [[WMG: Timbre is Eshonai]] |
| 241 | |
| 242 | * 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. |
| 243 | ** It's more likely that Timbre was planning to bond with Eshonai before Eshonai was killed, at one point in WoR 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. |
| 244 | *** Now officially {{Jossed}} by WoB. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[WMG: Kaladin will become romantically attached to Venli]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | * They are both passionate about defending others, and are both coming to see humans / parshendi as just people, who may need to be protected. |
| 250 | ** There is WordOfGod that the Horneaters are human/singer hybrids, so we know that romantic relations between the two species are at least possible. |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[WMG: Humanity did not start the Desolations, the singers did.]] |
| 253 | * 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? |
| 254 | ** Some of the passages in the Ellia Stele show strong FantasticRacism by singers against humans, implying that because we have no gemheart and hear no Rhythms, we have no feelings or souls. |
| 255 | ** 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. |
| 256 | ** 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. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | [[WMG: Odium will start forcing his Fused to suicide.]] |
| 259 | * 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. |
| 260 | ** 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. |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[WMG: Odium truly believes that his shard makes him the embodiment of "passion" rather than hatred.]] |
| 263 | * 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. |
| 264 | ** 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. |
| 265 | * He only goes by Odium because that's the name everyone else picked for him. Naturally, he hates it. |
| 266 | ** He told Dalinar he liked the name Odium he just thought it was too limiting for all he represented. |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[WMG: The Third Sibling.]] |
| 269 | * Is of Odium and is to him what the Stormfather was to Honor/the Nightwatcher is to Cultivation. His 'spren', more or less. |
| 270 | ** Jossed in Literature/RhythmOfWar, they are a product of both Honor and Cultivation. |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[WMG: Kalafin's fourth ideal]] |
| 273 | * 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. |
| 274 | * 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. |
| 275 | * 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." |
| 276 | ** Confirmed. Kaladin accepts that he cannot protect everyone. |
| 277 | |
| 278 | [[WMG: Nale is a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent]] |
| 279 | * 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 BrokenPedestal for the rest of the Heralds. Of course, considering that Jezerian and Shallash are both getting flashbacks in the second half... |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[WMG: The Nightwatcher did not give Lift her boon.]] |
| 282 | * 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 [[spoiler:Dalinar]], so it lines up. |
| 283 | ** Confirmed as of ''Literature/RhythmOfWar'' |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[WMG: Taravangian wrote the Diagram on his stupidest day, not his smartest]] |
| 286 | * 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. |
| 287 | |
| 288 | [[WMG: The fifth book will end with Odium defeated, and the next five will deal with the fallout]] |
| 289 | Sanderson seems to be interested in what happens after the BigBad is defeated; a big part of ''Well of Ascension'' dealt with political fallout, and ''Wax and Wayne'' is the future after Ruin's defeat. Odium is somehow killed at the end of the fifth book, and someone takes his Shard, and someone also claims the remains of Honor as well. Then we have all the fallout from two new Shards, as well as all the political problems that come from everyone being forced to work together. |
| 290 | * As of Rhythm of War, [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 291 | |
| 292 | [[WMG:If/when Odium is killed, who claims his Shard]] |
| 293 | * Shallan. Art is a work of passion. |
| 294 | ** Jossed, at least for now. [[spoiler:Taravangian is the new Odium as of ''Rhythm of War'', but that doesn't mean he won't die and be replaced]]. |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[WMG:Nale will end up working with Venli and her group]] |
| 297 | * 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. |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[WMG: Zahel lost Nightblood by throwing him at someone with too much Stormlight]] |
| 300 | * 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. |
| 301 | ** 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). |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[WMG: Taln will bond with a spren]] |
| 304 | * It's all part of the Nahel Bond: all Radiants have cracks that spren help heal, and Taln is the most cracked of all. |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[WMG: Szeth was originally a Stoneward]] |
| 307 | * 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. |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[WMG: Cultivation's plan hasn't failed]] |
| 310 | * She planned not only for [[spoiler: 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. |
| 311 | ** 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. |
| 312 | |
| 313 | [[WMG: Adolin will revive Maya, but still won't become a Radiant]] |
| 314 | Radiants require cracks in the soul to bond. No matter how much they'd want it, they can't form a Nahel Bond. But they're fine with that, and Maya can change her shape as a sword. |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[WMG: The Ghostbloods will try to kill Radiants with Nicrosil daggers]] |
| 317 | Nicrosil used as a Hemalurgic spike steals Investiture. A stab to the heart with a Nicrosil spike will steal their Stormlight, which stops them from regenerating. Maybe it'll prevent them from drawing more Stormlight by draining more, maybe not. Alternately, aluminum bullets. |
| 318 | * Mostly jossed as of RoW 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. |
| 319 | |
| 320 | [[WMG: The insane Fused ''wasn't'' Raboniel's daughter.]] |
| 321 | Raboniel just [[ReplacementGoldfish thought she was]] due to being almost insane herself. Raboniel's actual daughter is still on Braize. |
| 322 | |
| 323 | [[WMG: Chanaranach is Shallan's mother, it was her death and breaking that led to the Desolation]] |
| 324 | Chanaranach is one of the few heralds to never appear onscreen in a way that has been confirmed. But the official description has her as a blue-eyed redhead. Shallan's mother was killed about the same time as King Gavilar's assination, and the draft prologue has a herald's death fealt by the others that same night. |
| 325 | Meaning Shallan isn't yet done dealing with her Trauma, as its indirectly her fault the Desolation came. Considering her mother seemed involved with the Ghostbloods and Skybreakers, Shallan's deepest trauma may not be killing her mother, father and first spren, but instead having very good reasons to have done so. |
| 326 | |
| 327 | [[WMG: Taravangian and the Diagram are a massive gambit by Cultivation]] |
| 328 | Honor's memory mentioned that he wasn't as good at reading the future as Odium or Cultivation, and we know she's subtly opposing him, doing things like subverting his Champion by cultivating Dalinar's wisdom and honor. ''Rhythm of War'' gives us the shocker that [[spoiler:Rayse is now dead, and replaced by Taravangian as the new Odium]]. So, here's the WMG: [[spoiler:a long sequence of chapter headers written by Sazed about Shards and their Vessels says that, though the Vessel is more independent early on, they become more and more ... corrupted? Attuned? to the nature of the Shard. Rayse, after thousands of years, is entirely given over to hatred. Taravangian, brand new and now fully unlocked in his ''capacity'', will have strengthened compassion, making it far more difficult for him to comply with the nature of his Shard, setting him up for failure and the Shard's destruction or far more thorough binding]]. |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[WMG: Taravangian's plan as Odium is to force Dalinar to break the oath they made]] |
| 331 | Rayse has already mentioned that if either party in the contract for the contest of champions breaks their agreement, the agreement is void and crucially, Odium is no longer bound to the Rosharan system. Since this is the only set up method for Odium to leave the system, we can assume that that's the plan for Taravangian. While Rayse was clear in his intention for the contest and oath to be in good faith, it's clear that Taravangian has a very different moral framework... |
| 332 | |
| 333 | [[WMG: Sja-anat was touched by the Nightwatcher or Cultivation]] |
| 334 | It's stated in the past that she wasn't able to corrupt sapient spren, but she is now, so something must have brought on the change. From her words and POV chapter, we can see that she thinks of her corruption as Transformation and the spren so touched as her children- a very Cultivation-like mindset. As to what her request and boon/curse were? Maybe her wish (and boon) was for the power to corrupt higher spren, and the curse is the change to her mindset that's driving her away from Odium. |
| 335 | * 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 [[spoiler:allowing for Renarin to enter the picture and create a blind spot for Rayse]]. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | [[WMG: Navani will be the vessel for Honor, Odium, and Cultivation at the end of the first quintilogy]] |
| 338 | She's the one who figured out how to merge stormlight and voidlight, and is also bonded to the Sibling who was made from Honor and Cultivation. I know the text is angling to Dalinar being the one to "unite them" but Navani might be a better fit. |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[WMG: Permanent solution for Odium]] |
| 341 | Eventually all the relevant parties will learn about Change Dawnshard being active again and try to corner Odium and Change his Intent into something more benign. The key word being '''try'''... |
| 342 | ------- |
| 343 | [[/folder]] |
| 344 | |
| 345 | [[folder:Roshar and magic theories]] |
| 346 | [[WMG:The Heralds' betrayal of their oaths was the cause of the fall of the Radiants]] |
| 347 | * After the betrayal, the Radiants lost their faith in the concept of honor, and that killed their spren. |
| 348 | ** Jossed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: it was the revelation that the parshmen were the original inhabitants of Roshar combined with a dying Honor saying they would destroy Roshar.]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[WMG:The Shards are pieces of the "Almighty," just as he is a Shard of Adonalsium.]] |
| 351 | There is ''no way'' the name "Shards" is unimportant, and at one point Hoid offhandedly mentions Andonalsium. The Almighty himself also says something about a woman named "Cultivation," which sounds like another Shard. |
| 352 | * One of the seventeen shards of Adonalsium shattered, hence why the meta-ArcNumber 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. |
| 353 | ** 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 |
| 354 | ** 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. |
| 355 | *** Actually the in-world organization came first, Brandon suggested the name for the fansite just before WoK came out (they were going to call it Hoid's Compendium). |
| 356 | * 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. |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[WMG:The lighteyes are all descendants of the first Shardbearers, who took up the Shards abandoned by the Knights Radiant.]] |
| 359 | Although we haven't actually seen it happen, its been mentioned several times that a darkeyes who takes up a Shardblade gains lighteyes, and his children will be lighteyes as well. |
| 360 | * 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. |
| 361 | ** Of course, those could just be the children of Radiants. |
| 362 | ** As of Words of Radiance, Shardblades actually DO change a person's eye color. |
| 363 | *** 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. |
| 364 | |
| 365 | [[WMG:All the Spren are actually not the type they are commonly known as.]] |
| 366 | They are all, like Sil, various different types of spren that are actually connected with the radiants. However, with no Radiants, the spren revert to a base nature and lose all intelligence. |
| 367 | * Pain Spren have something to do with healing, and possibly with soulcasting. |
| 368 | ** 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. |
| 369 | ** They could have devolved into more than one group. Maybe the honorspen split into windspren and naturespren, for example. |
| 370 | ** 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. |
| 371 | |
| 372 | [[WMG:Aimians, like [[spoiler:the Parshmen and Parshendi]] are Voidbringers.]] |
| 373 | Chapter epigraphs constantly reference the Voidbringers' ability to change their shape, especially their skin. Axies can change his tattoos, as well as his sense of smell and pain. He also mentions a "Curse of Kind", which sounds quite suspicious. |
| 374 | ** WordOfGod indicates that the "curse of kind" is something that is unique to Axies, and is related to the Nightwatcher. On the other hand, WordOfGod has also confirmed that Aimians, like Parshmen/shendi, aren't human... |
| 375 | ** There is WordOfGod 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. |
| 376 | *** Actually Aimians are their own thing, and the people of Natan(sp?) have (Siah) Aimian blood. Dysian Aimians are...[[TheWormThatWalks considerably weirder.]] |
| 377 | |
| 378 | [[WMG:Spren are tiny shards of adonalasium]] |
| 379 | Adonalasium is split into (possibly 16) major God shards such as Ruin, Preservation, Endowment and Cultivation. These are all aspects of sentient existence combined with divine power, perhaps Spren are the same but on a much smaller scale. Whatever caused the splitting of the God Shards created Spren as a by-product just as dust is created whenever a large object is broken up. These minor shards have less defined roles and are drawn to and shaped by changes in the world. |
| 380 | Smaller Spren change their nature, adapting into different forms such as painspren or flamespren, the longer they are of one form the stronger they are. Larger Spren such as Syl have become locked into a single type slowly gaining strength of sentience. |
| 381 | (much like the small Gods of the Literature/{{Discworld}}) |
| 382 | * 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. |
| 383 | * 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. |
| 384 | ** 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. |
| 385 | ** 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. |
| 386 | |
| 387 | [[WMG:Jasnah's theories have it backward in at least one respect:]] |
| 388 | The Parshendi aren't unnaturally wild and uncontrolled Parshmen; instead, Parshmen are unnaturally docile, bound Parshendi. The culture (or at least level of sentience) of the Parshendi is the natural state of the race. When the [[spoiler:Voidbringers]] were defeated in the past, and [[spoiler:forced to become the Parshmen slaves]], some of the race were not bound. Those are the Parshendi. |
| 389 | ** 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 HiveCasteSystem 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. [[spoiler: If they ''are'' Voidbringers, I'd guess that's ''also'' an unnatural form, likely induced by Odium]]. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | [[WMG:Each order of the Knights Radiant gains its power from a Shard of Adonalsium.]] |
| 392 | There are sixteen shards. We know Scadrial was home to two, that there are two shardholders associated with Sel, and we know of one for Nalthis. We know for a fact that Ruin and Preservation each were the source of a magic system, so it stands to reason each shard can do this. It's also fairly reasonable to assume Sel and Nalthis were each home to two Shards. This leaves ten for Roshar, the same number of orders of the Knights Radiant, who each have a unique system. It's a Sanderson has mentioned that The Almighty was a shardholder for the shard Honor, and we know that Kaladin is bonded with an honorspren. |
| 393 | ** Brandon has said there are only 3 Shards on Roshar Honor, Odium, and Cultivation. |
| 394 | ** 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. |
| 395 | *** 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) |
| 396 | ** 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... |
| 397 | * 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. |
| 398 | |
| 399 | [[WMG:The Parshendi aren't Voidbringers.]] |
| 400 | It could be that the Voidbringers were controlled by an outside source. Parshmen are Voidbringers who have simply had that control transferred in order to enslave them, while the Parshendi are free, not just of the enslavement of their cousins, but from the outside control as well. It might explain why that Parshendi Shardbearer was so interested in seeking out and talking to the guy who's been experiencing visions from the Almighty. |
| 401 | * 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. |
| 402 | * Technically true, as ''Oathbringer'' reveals that [[spoiler: the original Voidbringers were Humans]]. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | [[WMG:The Shards only work properly when the wearer is bonded to a spren]] |
| 405 | Each of the Orders of the Knights Radiant were attached to a type of spren. In Dalinar's visions we see that the shardplates and blades glowed and in fact at least some Shardbearers could fly in their plate. So it might be possible that surgebinders had their own bound plate and blade (like Szeth, whose blade is much smaller than others). I think also this ties into Syl's disdain for at least Dalinar's blade. She doesn't like it because its not bonded to a human/spren. To her it might be like somebody using a person's limb as a weapon. |
| 406 | * 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. |
| 407 | * Semi-confirmed. [[spoiler: 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]]. |
| 408 | ** As of Word's of radiance, this guess is partially correct. It is in fact a [[spoiler: dead spren]] that powers the shard. So IT IS the lack of spren that makes her so upset about them. |
| 409 | |
| 410 | [[WMG:The Shardblades are ''Odium'']] |
| 411 | So, Odium is apparently called The Broken One, Shard#17 is shattered and a large number of people had some of it, the Shardblades are weapons and Odium causes war, and it is a law of things written by Creator/BrandonSanderson that the initial BigBad isn't. The theory, therefore, is that someone shattered Odium(possibly holding the shard War) into a bunch of pieces, which then became Shardblades and Shardplate, which were then used to kill Honor and Cultivation by the real BigBad. |
| 412 | * 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 BigBad, also we don't know whether Cultivation is dead or not. |
| 413 | ** Also, the person (Hoid?) who wrote the letter that tops the chapters in part 2 of WoK certainly acts like Rayse is still alive and kicking. I certainly wouldn't rule out that Odium somehow tainted the Shards, however. |
| 414 | ** This is officially Jossed as of Words of Radiance. Paraphrased from the book:[[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 415 | |
| 416 | [[WMG:Jasnah's [[spoiler: Soulcasting]] spren are honesty-spren]] |
| 417 | The spren that grant [[spoiler: soulcasting]] are honesty-spren. |
| 418 | * Jasnah is a veristitalian, one who seeks the truth. |
| 419 | * Before they [[spoiler: take her to Shadesmar]] they demand truth of Shallan. |
| 420 | ** Interesting (but I'd say truth-spren rolls off the tongue a bit better), this could explain how [[spoiler: soulcasting]] works, the stormlight gives you the power to change the truth about what an object is. |
| 421 | *** 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 |
| 422 | *** Those spren are now officially called [[spoiler: Cryptics]]. Rather amusingly, the book(Words of Radiance) went on to say [[spoiler: 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 ''lie''spren.]] |
| 423 | ** 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. |
| 424 | ** Jossed. They're Inkspren. |
| 425 | |
| 426 | [[WMG:The Purelake is the shardpool of Cultivation]] |
| 427 | In other comsere works, we have seen that shards manifest as a pool of liquid (Ruin below the final empire's palace, Devotion in the cave above elantris). |
| 428 | |
| 429 | 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. |
| 430 | Note also that there is not a single hint of hostility in the purelaker's chapter. |
| 431 | In short, the purelake seems free of influence from the other two shards [=WoG=] said were on the planet. |
| 432 | |
| 433 | 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. |
| 434 | |
| 435 | 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. |
| 436 | |
| 437 | * 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. WordOfGod 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. |
| 438 | |
| 439 | ** Jossed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: Cultivation's shardpool (or Perpendicularity as they refer to it) is a pool in the Horneater peaks.]] |
| 440 | |
| 441 | [[WMG:Neshua is the Parshendi word for Stormblessed]] |
| 442 | The Parshendi have some form of prophesy about Kaladin. When they say Neshua Kadal they are recognizing Kaladin Stormblessed. |
| 443 | * More likely it's their word for the Radiants. |
| 444 | |
| 445 | [[WMG:Having a shardblade is not the honorable thing the Alethi think it is.]] |
| 446 | Syl, [[spoiler: who is an honorspren]] likes Dalinar better after he gives up his shardblade. She was possibly attracted to Kaladin not long after he refused his, there's no clear indication of when she started following him. And, if the main protagonists to indeed turn out to be [[spoiler: the Heralds reborn]], then it's possible they will have to give up their shardblades to get their Honorblades back. This very likely includes [[spoiler: Shallan]]. |
| 447 | * Sort of confirmed. Most of the shardblades and plates are the former weapons and armor of fallen Radiants, and as such [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:living spren]]. |
| 448 | |
| 449 | [[WMG: The Knights Radiant were created at Roshar's equivalent of the Well of Ascension]] |
| 450 | One of the epigraphs mentions a person known as the "Announcer" who will announce the birthplace/home of the Knights Radiant. Looking back over the ''Mistborn'' books, there is a specific person mentioned in the Terris religion known as an Announcer, who would herald the arrival of the Hero of Ages who would take the power of Preservation. I don't think that this is a coincidence (especially as the title of Announcer was in Kwaan's metal-scribed notes and couldn't be altered by Ruin). We're dealing with a lot of parallels between Mistborn and Stormlight, particularly surrounding powerful people of prophecy (i.e. Hero of Ages/Knights Radiant, Vin/Kaladin, etc) so the Announcer is likely someone connected to the Well-equivalents we've seen elsewhere in the Cosmere (i.e. the Well of Ascension, and the well outside of Elantris) which would mean that the Announcer mentioned in the poem in question would be connected to the "birthplace of the Radiants" - in other words, another Well, either of Honor or Cultivation's power. Either way, this offers the heroes of this particular setting a means to fight Odium and/or the Desolation, by accessing another Shard's power. |
| 451 | ** 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. |
| 452 | |
| 453 | [[WMG:The Parshmen/shendi are not the Voidbringers]] |
| 454 | This is a Creator/BrandonSanderson work, and we've already seen what happens when people trust any written record as the truth in ''Mistborn''. The records that hint that the Parshmen/shendi are Voidbringers have been altered by Odium to obscure the real threat. |
| 455 | * Kind of. [[spoiler: 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]]. |
| 456 | ** Actually, as of Oathbringer, this is [[spoiler: 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]] |
| 457 | |
| 458 | [[WMG:Roshar has seven magic systems.]] |
| 459 | We've seen from previous books that one Shard produces one magic system (Elantris). We've also seen that two shards produce three magic systems (Scadrial), one from each Shard and one from the interaction of the two. What, then, happens when you have three Shards? Honor, Odium, and Cultivation? Well, mathematically, combining those gives eight possibilities: None, H, O, C, HO, OC, CH, HOC. But "None" isn't anything, and so wouldn't be a magic system (probably). But each Shard, and each combination thereof, would give one magic system, leading to seven magic systems in Roshar. |
| 460 | * 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. |
| 461 | * If this math holds, and all 16 Shards interact at some point, we would have 2^16-1 = 65535 different magic systems. |
| 462 | ** Since Creator/BrandonSanderson has stated that he has over a hundred different magic systems designed (I think this was in one of the TheAlloyOfLaw 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. |
| 463 | |
| 464 | [[WMG:Parshendi are evolved [[Franchise/MassEffect Rachni]].]] |
| 465 | They have a hive caste system of various forms and their thoughts are tuned to varioius different 'songs' and if they are incapable of hearing their songs they cannot function properly (Parshmen/Noverian Rachni). While potentially quite dangerous they usually choose to be live peacefully but in the past their songs were 'soured' by some malignant exterior force (Odium/Reapers) causing them go mad and declare war on all other sentient life to catastrophic effect and leaving them with a feared reputation (but fortunately also believed extinct.) |
| 466 | |
| 467 | [[WMG:Roshar is [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} Pandora]] in the distant past.]] |
| 468 | Dog-sized creatures with hard skin and mandibles? Sounds perfectly like a description of Skags. The Chasm Fiends, with their crustacean bodies, huge size and 4 snapping pincers? Tell me that you can read the parts where they fight it and not think "Crawmerax." |
| 469 | |
| 470 | [[WMG: The spren are [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/Mushishi mushi]] ]] |
| 471 | Various sized nature spirits that take a variety of forms and are associated with different states or concepts. The connection is obvious. |
| 472 | |
| 473 | [[WMG: Shardblades are of Odium, Shardplates are of Cultivation, Honorblades are of Honor.]] |
| 474 | * 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. |
| 475 | ** Jossed |
| 476 | * 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. |
| 477 | * 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. |
| 478 | |
| 479 | [[WMG: Urithiru + ColonyDrop = The Shattered Plains]] |
| 480 | * 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. |
| 481 | ** Jossed: Something major obviously ''did'' shatter those plains, but it wasn't Urithiru, [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 482 | |
| 483 | [[WMG: Cultivation is the Nightwatcher]] |
| 484 | Words of Radiance sort of implies that ever since Honor died the Nightwatcher has stopped caring about that whole gift/curse thing she had going, and we do already know that Honor and Cultivation were close. The fact that the Nightwatcher is also clearly identified as a powerful ''female'' supernatural entity is a weaker, yet still valid support for the argument. |
| 485 | * {{Jossed}} by WordOfGod, but he added that a theory about Nightwatcher being a remnant of Cultivation, like [[spoiler:Stormfather is a remnant of Honor]], was "on the right track." In ''Oathbringer'' [[spoiler: Cultivation and the Nightwatcher appear together and Cultivation refers to her as a separate entity.]] |
| 486 | |
| 487 | [[WMG: Windrunners have powers related to the Highstorms]] |
| 488 | This is heavily implied by the name, and has already been foreshadowed with Kaladin's survival of the Highstorm in TWoK. As is, Soulcasters are far and away the most powerful order of Knights Radiant, so it stands to reason that the other orders will get something better than "I can stick objects together". It seems unreasonable for a Windrunner to have the surge of pressure and use it for nothing other than effectively making vacuums between objects. There may be similar abilities for other Orders, such as Shallan's art since her order also does stuff with light. |
| 489 | ** Yes and no. In ''Words of Radiance'', the Highstorm provides an ongoing source of Stormlight for [[spoiler:Kaladin's and Szeth's HighAltitudeBattle]], and Windrunners' gravity manipulation and flight give them an edge during the Highstorms. |
| 490 | |
| 491 | [[WMG: 'The Thrill' is a product of Odium]] |
| 492 | * 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... |
| 493 | ** Semi-confirmed. [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 494 | * Confirmed in ''Oathbringer''. [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 495 | |
| 496 | [[WMG: The Bridgemen weren't glowing because they gained Radiant powers.]] |
| 497 | They were glowing because ''Dalinar'' did. What better power for a leader to have than the ability to enhance his troops? They won't be able to Soulcast or use Lashings or anything, just the standard package of speed, strength, stamina, and healing. We get a look at Lopen doing it to show that there's no real limit to the range of the power, as long as the troops are loyal and honorable. |
| 498 | ** Jossed in ''Oathbringer'' [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 499 | |
| 500 | [[WMG: The Releasers/Dustbringers use dust explosions offensively.]] |
| 501 | * 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 PersonOfMassDestruction abilities hinted at in the prologue of the first book. |
| 502 | ** Knowing how much Sanderson enjoys toying with semantics and applications of superpowers, they would use explosions ''defensively'', just for him to show off. |
| 503 | |
| 504 | [[WMG: The safehand is somehow involved in the Old Magic]] |
| 505 | * 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. |
| 506 | ** The safehand thing was a power grab to stop women from using Shardblades. |
| 507 | |
| 508 | [[WMG: The Nightwatcher's boons and curses are all part of a massive gambit]] |
| 509 | * 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. |
| 510 | ** 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. |
| 511 | ** Hinted at in ''Rhythm of War''. [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 512 | *** [[spoiler:''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.]] |
| 513 | |
| 514 | [[WMG: The Shardplates are spren]] |
| 515 | * Based on [[http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=windspren+shardplate this]] question and Sanderson's answer. If the Shardblades [[spoiler:are dead "mindspren", like honorspren or liespren, then the Shard''plates'' 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.]] |
| 516 | ** Confirmed |
| 517 | |
| 518 | [[WMG: Ideals of the Knights Radiant]] |
| 519 | * 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. |
| 520 | ** 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. |
| 521 | ** Confirmed [[spoiler:Kaladin's fourth ideal is "I accept that there will be those I cannot protect".]] |
| 522 | * 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. |
| 523 | * 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. |
| 524 | ** 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. |
| 525 | * One poster on the Seventeenth Shard guessed: [[https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/62363-ob-fourth-windrunner-ideal/?page=6#comment-655996 “No one can be strong all the time. I will accept the protection of my allies when I cannot protect myself.”]] |
| 526 | * 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). |
| 527 | |
| 528 | [[WMG: The 'Tranquil halls' are Braize]] |
| 529 | * 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. |
| 530 | * According to WordOfGod, it's actually Ashyn. Some people still live there but they live in floating cities. |
| 531 | |
| 532 | |
| 533 | [[WMG: The Singers used to be human]] |
| 534 | * 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. |
| 535 | ** Word of God has said that the singers are native to Roshar and were placed there by Adonalsium. |
| 536 | |
| 537 | [[WMG: There's another god on Roshar]] |
| 538 | * 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. |
| 539 | ** Jossed. [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 540 | |
| 541 | [[WMG: The structure of the names of the Unmade is important.]] |
| 542 | Specifically, indicating how intelligent/independently minded they are. The three one-word Unmade we've met (Nergaoul, Moelach, and Ashertmarn) all seem to be more instinctual than intelligent, mostly existing to inspire or manifest whatever their particular concept is. The three two-word Unmade we've met all seem to be more intelligent and have more defined personalities, but are still limited - Re-Shephir can only learn by mimicking other beings, Yelig-Nar seems to have to possess people in order to act (and, as seen with Amaram and Aesudan, his host's personality maintains at least some control) and Sja-Anat seems to be the most intelligent of the three but still implies in her conversations with Shallan that she's constrained in some way. Then we have the only three-word Unmade, Ba-Ado-Mishram, who from her description in ''Mythica'' seems to be fully sapient and self-willed, even capable of filling in for Odium as overall commander of the Voidbringer forces if necessary. Of course, to see whether this holds up we'll have to wait to be properly introduced to Chemoarish and Dai-Gonarthis and see if they follow similar patterns in behavior to the other Unmade who share their naming conventions. |
| 543 | |
| 544 | [[WMG: The horses signify that there's been more than one major migration between worlds]] |
| 545 | Horses aren't native to Roshar; they came from a different world during some ancient migration. It's not the first migration [[spoiler:that brought humans to Roshar in the first place]]; the female stablehand who teaches Kaladin how to ride says that the job of stablehand wasn't around when ''Arts and Majesty'' (the book that split everything along gender lines) was written, which means that there weren't horses back then. The book was fairly obscure until the Recreance, when it was used to keep women from using Shardblades, and it probably wasn't written more than a couple hundred years before then, or else it would have been lost. The first migration took place long before the Recreance, so there was at least another migration in between. |
| 546 | |
| 547 | [[WMG: The Oaths were once different]] |
| 548 | The in-universe book ''The Way of Kings'' was written when Urithiru was still functional. If Nohadon came up with the First Ideal, there was something else before it. |
| 549 | |
| 550 | [[WMG: The knife Vyre used to kill Jezrien is now a Hemalurgic spike]] |
| 551 | Kalak says in his journal that the knife was supposed to imprison Jezrien in the gemstone, but instead stole the bond that keeps him in the world of the living. Hemalurgy has been confirmed to be able to steal a bond with a spren (although the spren can break it off), so someone could volunteer to replace Jezrien as part of the Oathpact. There might be a problem with whether the bond will remain when the user dies, though. |
| 552 | |
| 553 | [[WMG: Honor was splintered relatively recently]] |
| 554 | We don't know specifically when Honor was killed, only that he was alive during the Recreance (albeit barely lucid), and Odium killed him at some point before Dalinar's visions began. I think that Honor was killed not long before Dalinar's visions began, because it would explain why the Stormfather chose him then and not before. |
| 555 | * Wasn't there a long line of chosen before Dalinar, with everyone becoming mad and dying, like he almost did? |
| 556 | |
| 557 | [[WMG: Gavilar's goal was to Ascend as Honor by making Odium kill Honor]] |
| 558 | Unlike the rest of the Sons of Honor, Gavilar knew that Restares was a Herald, and so his goal wasn't to bring back the Heralds. He wanted to become a god. Or, he wanted to bring back the Radiants, and becoming Honor would make the process easier because he's the one who accepts the Ideals (since the Stormfather does it in the present). If Honor was only recently killed, as above, Gavilar initiated it by trying to bring back Odium, the only being powerful and willing to destroy Honor. Gavilar told Szeth that he was too late because he could still Ascend dead, and he set up a way to Invest his soul long enough to claim Honor, possibly with the Voidlight black spheres. |
| 559 | ** ''Rhytm of War'' implies that he was planning to [[spoiler:kill Odium, which would lead to him usurping the Shard, like Taravangian. So, correct goal, wrong god.]] |
| 560 | |
| 561 | [[WMG: Surgebinders were different on Braize]] |
| 562 | Odium has access to only nine Surges, with Adhesion being a creation of Honor. This means that there probably weren't ten types of Surgebinder on Braize. Here's three theories for how they might have worked instead: |
| 563 | * There were nine types of Surgebinder. Instead of Bondsmiths and Windrunners, there was a different type that used Tension and Gravitation. |
| 564 | * Surgebinders on Braize were more like Mistborn, and potentially could use all nine Surges. |
| 565 | * 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. |
| 566 | |
| 567 | [[WMG: Lightweaver's powers are more expansive than they appear]] |
| 568 | Lightweavers have power over waveforms, including light. As soon as they realize it is possible they will have power over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, such as radio and microwaves. Not to mention x-ray or gamma lasers and similar cheese. |
| 569 | * Additionally, after the revelations in Rhythm of War, [[spoiler: they will have unparalleled skill at investiture manipulation.]] |
| 570 | |
| 571 | [[WMG: One of Dalinar's abilities as a Bondsmith is Necromancy]] |
| 572 | And actual necromancy, like using divination to gain info from the dead, not raising the dead making zombies and what not. This is achieved by combining the many aspects of his powers that he's already shown: |
| 573 | * Stormfather's Visions |
| 574 | * Control over Connection |
| 575 | * Uniting the Realms |
| 576 | As such, he probably uses a person's (whom I'll refer to as the "host") Connection to the dead individual as a foundation to then temporarily construct a psuedo [[LivingMemory cognitive-shadow]] using the timeless nature of the Spirit Realm to fill in some gaps and draw upon the individuals actual imprint on the world, and then manifesting them within the visions. I predict they can only share information they already knew in life. As they're not the actual ''soul'' of the person, they're unable to pass on information of the Beyond nor can they carry information over between sessions--unless the original host is involved, I guess, but that would most likely be built off of their own memory of the previous interaction rather than that of the shadow itself. Brandon has admitted through {{Word of God}} that he deliberately leaves the afterlife vague to allow readers to speculate and draw conclusions based on their own personal philosophy. |
| 577 | Now, we have seen two examples of this power in use so far within the books, in: |
| 578 | * Oathbringer [[spoiler: 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 ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul'']] |
| 579 | * Rhythm of War [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 580 | What separates these moments from similar events isn't just the vivid lucidity akin to visions are that those manifested reveal information that not only the host didn't know about, but runs counter to their assumptions. |
| 581 | * Oathbringer [[spoiler: Nohadon corrects that he ''actually'' walked to Urithiru, and didn't use Oathgates like Dalinar initially assumed.]] |
| 582 | * Rhythm of War [[spoiler: 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.]] |
| 583 | |
| 584 | [[WMG:The whole Voidbringers business is a massive scam by Odium]] |
| 585 | Basically, he was the only true Void and brought himself, and everyone else is a sucker in his schemes. |
| 586 | * He instigated apocalypse on Ashyn so that his people would seek asylum on Roshar and bring him along, circumventing non-interference pact. |
| 587 | * When humans were granted Shinovar, he intentionally instigated tensions between singers and humans behind Honor back, while Cultivation was plotting along. |
| 588 | * 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. |
| 589 | * 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. |
| 590 | * 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. |
| 591 | Basically, Odium is a god of WarForFunAndProfit, and he simply makes conflict out of everything without taking any sides. It could also be a (unsuccessfull) scheme to start a war with Honor and Splinter him to be undound again, but that depends on when he was bound. |
| 592 | |
| 593 | [[WMG:Sentient spren are not native to Roshar]] |
| 594 | Apparently, the planet and the whole ecosystem was designed by Adonalsium itself, with a notable aspect of interdependence of physical and cognitive forms of life on each other. But sentient spren stick out like a sore thumb (even Stormfather was mostly mindless initially). That's because they didn't exist on the planet initially - they were created by the Shards, by Investing some of already existing species of spren with additional aspects. We can even trace precise origins of each - each Radiant Order has different species forming their Blades and their Plates, with platespren being the mindless progenitors of bladespren (honorspren are repeatedly noted for their affinity to wind, for instance). The main question is "Why would the Shards do that?", but that will be one of the big reveals of Book 5. |
| 595 | |
| 596 | -------- |
| 597 | [[/folder]] |
| 598 | |
| 599 | [[folder:Cosmere and meta theories]] |
| 600 | [[WMG:The Stormlight Archive will turn into a massive Crisis Crossover with the other Sanderson worlds.]] |
| 601 | Ten books is a really long time for Brandon Sanderson to send on saving one world from one god (Mistborn dealt with three gods in just three books!), and when The Almighty is describing the threat posed by Odium, he points at the stars and says they're all in danger, too. What better time to finally begin paying of this whole "Shards of Andonalsium" metaplot that has so far been advanced only by his blog? Getting to actually compare power between, say, Marsh and Susebron would be a side benefit. |
| 602 | ** 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. |
| 603 | ** 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 SpaceOpera) 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"). |
| 604 | |
| 605 | [[WMG:A Shard of Knowledge, Intellect, or some such resides on Earth.]] |
| 606 | Specifically in the Free Kingdoms from the Alcatraz books. |
| 607 | * Alcatraz is specifically not part of Sanderson's greater Cosmere. (like Mistborn, Elantris, TLA etc.) [[http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=7878.0 Read more here]] |
| 608 | |
| 609 | [[WMG: The shard on earth is called "Articulation".]] |
| 610 | And its presence resulted in the magic system and world of Franchise/HarryPotter. |
| 611 | * Jossed. Earth is not part of the Cosmere. (Otherwise, ''TheReckoners'', ''AlcatrazSmedry'', and ''TheRithmatist'' would be part of the cosmere, and they are not) |
| 612 | |
| 613 | [[WMG:The setting will be revealed to be EarthAllAlong.]] |
| 614 | Evidence for this is the fact that there is still one place where earth life exists. It seems weird for a constructed world to have one small earth like place when the rest of the world has nothing in common with earth. |
| 615 | * PS. I do not know how to link to the tropes I mentioned could someone please help me with that. |
| 616 | ** WordOfGod 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. |
| 617 | *** 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. |
| 618 | ** Jossed in ''Oathbringer'', [[spoiler: the alternte theory above that humans aren't native and their animals could only thrive in Shinovar is entirely correct.]] |
| 619 | |
| 620 | [[WMG: Each book in the two five-book arcs is continuous.]] |
| 621 | * It's moderately well-known by now that Brandon has described the Stormlight Archive as consisting of two five-book sub-arcs. Furthermore, ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' starts within a few days of the end of ''Literature/WayOfKings'', and previews of the third book reveal that it starts within a day or two of the end of ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance''. 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. |
| 622 | |
| 623 | [[WMG: This series has given us the way Ruin managed to control Vin's mother and spike Zane]] |
| 624 | * 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. |
| 625 | ** We are told that Ruin could also influence the mentally ill. |
| 626 | *** 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. |
| 627 | |
| 628 | [[WMG: Some Ryshadium are disguised kandra]] |
| 629 | It would explain why they're strong and intelligent: kandra are already sentient, and they can make them as strong as they wish. And it doesn't matter if they can't leave to report back, when they have a telepathic bond with their Shard. While they won't be able to spy on everything, there's a lot of things that nobody's going to bother hiding from them, because they're horses. |
| 630 | |
| 631 | [[WMG: Guns will be imported from Scadrial, and Adhesion will become important again]] |
| 632 | ''Way of Kings'' takes place around five years before ''Wax and Wayne'', meaning guns have existed on Scadrial for quite some time. [[RecoiledAcrossTheRoom If recoil becomes an issue]], anchoring a gun to a wall or the floor with Adhesion would temporarily solve recoil. |
| 633 | |
| 634 | [[WMG: Humans emigrated from Ashyn due to plague]] |
| 635 | According to Oathbringer, humans came to Roshar after destroying their own world with spren and Surges, and Honor and Cultivation ordered the Listeners to take them in. The thing is about Ashyn is that their magic comes from disease; if you have a virus, you have one power. What if the human Surges were dangerous not because of their destructive potential, but because it came from diseases? And Ashyn destroyed itself because they discovered a useful magic power attached to a disease, allowing it to spread, and then it turned into a deadly plague. The Listeners gave the humans what would later be called Shinovar and forbade them from leaving, because it was a quarantine zone. |
| 636 | * 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). |
| 637 | * 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. |
| 638 | |
| 639 | [[WMG: Thaidakar is Kelsier]] |
| 640 | ''Rhythm of War'' reveals that Thaidakar is known as the Lord of Scars, is from another world, is someone that Hoid has "slapped around", and suffers from a similar condition to the Heralds. Kelsier has heavily scarred arms, is from another world, has been defeated by Hoid in physical combat (which is especially notable since Hoid cannot harm the living), is ruthless to his enemies, and loves rooting out the secrets of the Cosmere. Both the Heralds and Kelsier are cognitive shadows: it is possible that Kelsier is worried that his immortality might lead to madness like it did the Heralds and wants to confer with Kalak to find a way to avoid this.\ |
| 641 | \ |
| 642 | Also, Brandon has commented that if Kelsier joined the Ghostbloods, he would find a way to become their leader in a year. |
| 643 | * 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 ''Literature/TheBandsOfMourning'') [[spoiler: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 DeathCourse 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]]. |
| 644 | * [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 645 | |
| 646 | [[WMG: If Thaidakar is Kelsier, he makes avatars with Hemalurgic spikes]] |
| 647 | Kelsier [[spoiler:created the Bands of Mourning]], so he can use all Feruchemical powers, including storing Identity in aluminum. He might not be able to leave Scadrial, but a Ghostblood volunteer could spike themselves, store their Identity into one metalmind, and tap another filled with Kelsier's. If necessary, they could include memories. The avatar might have to travel back and forth, and consult with him regularly, since he might not have memories or experience. Constantly losing his Identity and memories might be straining Kelsier's sanity, especially since memories degrade when constantly stored and retrieved. |
| 648 | |
| 649 | [[WMG: The palace steward and Axindweth are the same person, a kandra in disguise]] |
| 650 | Both are described as having rings all over their fingers despite being impractical, and Axindweth sounds vaguely Terris. When she's unavailable to meet with Venli, Ulim says that she left the planet and is a servant of someone else. |
| 651 | |
| 652 | [[WMG: Sixteen is from Scadrial]] |
| 653 | Sixteen might be a special number for the cosmere as a whole, but it's also important to Preservation. |
| 654 | |
| 655 | [[WMG: Wit will give Jasnah some texts on a democratic government from other parts of the Cosmere]] |
| 656 | * 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. |
| 657 | |
| 658 | [[WMG: Odium is Soothing and Rioting]] |
| 659 | * 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. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | [[WMG: If Shallan and Thaidakar get into a fight, she'll use both her Surges]] |
| 662 | Going off the theory that Thaidakar is Kelsier, Lightweavers are his natural enemy. Not only can she mess with his normal eyesight with illusions, she can Soulcast sand into metal and throw it at him. |
| 663 | |
| 664 | [[WMG: The magic system of Invention is the Spark from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'']] |
| 665 | The reason why the spark manifests in mad scientists it's because they were mad before getting it, and the cracks in their spiritwebs it's what allows the investiture to get in. |
| 666 | |
| 667 | [[WMG: Odium is going to import Hemalurgy, and things will get messy]] |
| 668 | Because it's basically the only thing that could make his forces even more demonic. It's hinted at with El fusing his carapace with metal. Most likely through hemalurgically charged metal being able to resist shardblades, various mutations and alternate forms, and particularly through enhanced and controlled Greatshells. |
| 669 | |
| 670 | [[WMG: Shinovar is artificial]] |
| 671 | It has an ecology friendly for humans and soil because it was made to have both by the Shards. Humans were granted the land and prohibited to leave it, and even imposed several cultural practices to make it stick (like making walking on the stone taboo and the whole Listener fairytale). But it wasn't meant to contain humans - it was a LuxurySuitPrison for Odium, to limit his corrupting influence to humans already worshipping him. Still he somehow got around the restrictions and instigated the conflict that led to the first Desolation. |
| 672 | [[/folder]] |
| 673 |
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