Oltux72

Still, whom does a Herald call in the expaction to get somebody better equipped to handle suc a situation. And who would attack a Herald's daughter in her presence?

If a Herald dies all indications are that her Honorblade disappears while they are on Braize. The very first prologue shows that. Unless she had for some reason gotten a conventional dead blade in addition. But this raises a question. Why does a Herald or a Shardbearer go for help to deal with a child bonding a Spren? Why does she not just tell the Spren to leave and is obeyed?

No honor, no problems with him telling people anything. This assumes that Cultivation does not exist and that the shards would have known what would happen and disapproved. So because there is too much power in the hands of a human being who can be killed, if worst comes to worst, you would give divine powers that come with an influence that warps the mind to another human being? Do I need to point out that the original Honor approved a plan that got 90% of Roshar's population killed over and over? How is this in the interest of the people of Roshar? Why would they rekindle the cycle of Desolations to do that? The Almighty is their god. A human being elevated to divine powers with the help of other human beings who needed to put back together an object to do so is not the god of Vorinism. If anything that is a sacriledge. The very point of the contest of champions is to remove that aid. And then? You restart the desolations. That is not desirable. I am sorry, but somebody has to say it: The rational long term strategy for the humans on Roshar is to negotiate a settlement with Odium that will let him depart in exchange for leaving Roshar alone and unharmed. The Honor we know got his original Singer followers basically wiped out got Roshar plunged into a cycle of Desolations Honor is a continued failure. They should be glad that he is dead and splintered.

Now I am wondering whether we read the same books. Roshar lost 90% of its population multiple times while Honor was alive. The horrible catastrophes are the result of intact shards acting against each other. Splintering them is the best thing you can do in terms of your own survival.

It seems we are talking past each other. What mess? Honor was splintered thousands of years ago. No major ill effects from that are observable. There is no mess. Hence a very simple question: Does anybody have a practical reason to restore Honor?

Again, at the risk of repeating myself: Why would they want to? Stating that a Bondsmith could potentially do this, if he or she had all the pieces, which is not the case, does not answer the question. For what reason would they want to reassemble Honor? They spent thousands of years without it. It does not look like a vital task. Yet it would involve handling the power of a god to some unchecked person. Why would you do that? If it helps people. Honor is splintered. Reassembling it is no more an act of altruism than repairing a piece of funiture smashed to pieces, that nobody wants, would be. Then why only now?

Yes, but Honor is splintered. There is no shard to pick up. They'd have to develop a new procedure to do something that has never been done during or in the aftermath of a serious crisis for no gain to themselves. That just makes no sense. Nor does it make sense for Cultivation to want to do this. Why do a lot of work to give to somebody what her husband once held for no benefit to herself? In fact you'd have Jasnah Kholin, a famous atheist, who is working to limit the personal power of royalty, work to create a god. That absolutely makes no sense. That makes sense and she'd need a replacement vessel. (Sel, Threnody) Yes, but the Stormfather told us that Ishar needed to use threats to make the Radiants and Spren accept the need for oaths. They needed to accept it. I would quite confidently state that the current coalition would for sure fracture if a Kholin tried to impose that now.

I am sorry, but where is the sense in that? Why would Cultivation wait for a desolation to retire? Why would reforming Honor be necessary for her retirement? I am afraid I need to point out that the Oathpact predates the rise of Surgebinders on Roshar by several desolations.

Why? I know people keep saying this, but nobody ever gives a reason why anybody would attempt that. This is certainly not easy and likely not entirely safe. For what reason would people make the effort? Again, what issue does this solve? They went to great lengths to get a treaty that would replace the Oathpact, but then people keep suggesting that for no good reason people try to put themselves into a position that got their predecessors tortured for centuries, which worked as long as it worked only due to circumstances unlikely to repeat themselves and ultimately failed. Why would anybody try to repeat it?

That suggests that Highmarshal is a political role, like viceroy, who not just commands armed forces but is also a government official.

Now that SA#5 is basically written, yet not published, it is time to think about the back half. It will need a basic conflict. What will it be? I can give some scenarios Odium is set loose and has started a war to conquer the Cosmere. They are a series of war novels Ba-Ado-Mishram needs to be restored Cultivation's master plan comes to fruition Odium is facing an uprising of his Fused and Unmade Somebody does something drastic with a Dawnshard in SA#5 and the second half is about the aftermath Strictly speaking these options are not mutually exclusive. What do you think?

Well, no, I am sorry but that contradicts the reporting they already have done. They now have a Seon. Unless Hoid is absolutely uncooperative Dalinar already knows how their mission went. Moreover, additional Windrunners have become a moot point, if the duell is to start in just ten days. Adolin and Shallan are aware of that, unless Hoid is really mean.

Embrace your dark passions! Let Roshar burn to admire the sparks! But on a more general note, what goes wrong for the Radiant side in Wind and Truth? There is supposed to be a second pentology. The next book cannot resolve all questions. (Scadrial) The idea that Odium will be set free in the next book makes sense. Or the Blackthorn will be on a roaring rampage as a fusion of Attilla the Hun and Genghis Khan. A conflict is necessary for the second half. Yes, but they are not stupid. They are absolutely ready to walk over mountains of corpses to get what they want. But they don't do recreational mountaineering on heaps of corpses. What is in it for them? That is the next thing I do absolutely not understand. Why does everybody assume that they'll want to return quickly? They are in contact with Restares. They finally have opened up communication with the Spren that matter. They have a line of real-time communication with their home base. They are in communication with interstellar visitors. On the other hand, one more fighter and one surgebinder is not going to be of any use in Urithiru. If I were Dalinar, I would order them to stay right where they are. In fact I might send them a supply mission. Them returning quickly must mean that something utterly unforseen will have happened. Something on the order of Innovation's fleet of war airships pulled by drakes arriving for support. Or they have found Ba-Ado-Mishram. Something.

Provided of course that Yelig-Nar is operational again. We do not know how long he needs to recover between losing hosts. And provided that Taravangian-Odium wants to win. Otherwise the question may be moot or wrong. It is not certain that he wants the contest to take place. In an ideal world, from his view point the Knights Radiant would break the contract. However, the risk to him is that this is in last consequence not under his control. So he may prefer to avert the contest altogether. Let me ask a simple question: Why? What possible gain is large enough to justify the risk to the Ghostbloods?

It seems to me that you are thinking too minimalist in that regard. You are asking how to build spaceships with a set of technologies. But that makes relatively little sense. The Rosharans do not want to build space ships. They want to get to other planets. Why build a ship if you can build better oath gates? Why cure diseases if you can conjure a new body and transfer the soul? And so on.