Stark

It may be his Oath that he would never be king, along with the day he won it, and most importantly, the day he gave it up to save lives.

I like how civil @Gigalemesh and @Steeldancer are being about the disagreement. I love this theory, but it does have some holes in it. Big ones. Like most of our theories. But I am chanting for it, at least until it is disproved. The idea of Nine desolations, for nine broken heroes just hits me in the feels. As for the WOB requested by @Bernem, well, I can't find one. I thought it existed. It seems I was wrong. about its existence, I am sorry. Lets watch and see what happens!

There is that. But to me, at least, Taravangian seems to be an "Ends justify the means" kinda guy. Which seems diametrically opposed to "Journey before Destination", which implies how you achieve your ends matters more than the ends themselves. Taravangian, as he currently is, is the opposite of a Radiant. He fails at the first ideal. He runs hospitals so he can more efficiently kill people for death rattles. That does not strike me as Life before Death. He chooses to turn institutions of life and healing into industrialized death machines that feed on the forgotten. He is the anti-Lift. He breaks people and divides them so he can better swoop in as the saviour. And swooping is bad! He is the anti-Dalinar. He is going straight to Damnation on a road paved with his good intentions, and hell if I care if he is crying every step of the way. He is no more Radiant than Amaram.

I am imaging, as part of the investigations, Adolin interacting with Veil unexpectedly. Like he shows up and starts talking t Shallan's guards, and they point him to Veil who cannot dodge, and needs to have a conversation with him. And then Veil, while flustered at this unplanned, unwanted interaction, accidentally lets slip about him needing to go take a break, before he shits his plate, or something, and totally blows her cover in the most hilarious way possible.

And that is the feel I have as well. Each Desolation got progressively worse, with more Unmade at each one. Could be wrong, but the first desolation having one, seductive unmade, and more with each subsequent one, as each Herald broke in turn. This is of course entirley contigent on there having been only nine desolations so far, and one Herald breaking for each in turn. Neither of which is officially confirmed.

Actually, Re-Shepir really reminded me of Pennywise. I just finished reading It before beginning my reread. And Pennywise is definitely Lovecraft-esque.

I got that impression as well. Rather than dropping veil, she dropped some of the clothes and painted a Shallan Mask over the veil. Mask on top of mask. Mask-ception. Now my mind is seeing Shallan wearing a green mask and yellow suit... Which is why her mind rebelled. Why waste more light creating a mask of your own face to go over another mask, unless you are really beginning to dissociate from yourself and can't quite figure out which is the real you. It is also worth discussing why Re-Shepir ignored her. Yes, she is a Lightweaver, like that which imprisoned and hurt her in the past. But, still. There were no midnight Shallan's in the Horde. Why not? Is it because of that fear? If so, that is a huge gimme for the good guys. "I will not imitate the one person here I actually have reason to fear." Or, is it that Shallan's personality is so much in flux, versus everyone else's relatively static personality, and contiguous appearance, theat Re-Shepir cannot make a Shallan image, especially given her weakness at producing proper images?

I had not noticed. But that feeds into the theme of hate that keeps cropping up in her chapters, and my pants-wetting fear that she will be the champion, because she hates so much, and most of that is directed inwards. And now, there is an Unmade that knows her. She is in a really, really dangerous position to take a huge fall. And not just bcause she stood on the edge of the void like stairwell and looked down.

Where did you get the theory that there is one Bondsmith for each realm? That is super intriguing, and I kinda like it, but is there a source to this. I personally was linking the Bondsmiths to the moons in my head (no source, just my brain squirrels running in circles) Edit: Unrelated thought below: The name Veil. I've been curious how Shallan chose the name Veil, other than that the persona is a veil she wears. Well, I just started my reread of the first two books this week, and have finished part one of WOK. I was floored when the reading area between the Palaneum, which costs 1000 emerald broams to enter, and the rest of the city, is called the Veil. As a lot of important formative work with Jasnah was done there, I wonder if that had any effect on her choosing the name Veil for her first persona.

Always. Just let me stable my Ryshadium named Roach.

That would be cool. The everstorm has been mentioned to have an almost malevolent, almost sentient feel to it, as if it is being directed. So maybe the unmade directs the storm, and the storm is the unmade's version of midnight essence? Yeah, I'm super excited at the idea of one unmade for each Herald. Though, I also like the idea of the new, tenth being the champion, a Radiant who was corrupted, rebonded to the nine and made un-Radiant...

Just noticed this: Eshonai could also see the spren trapped in the gemstone. Gavilar mentioned it as well. There are a number of mentions now, in this book, about seeing the spren trapped in a gem. I wonder why Dalinar is suddenly noticing it, or if he always noticed it, just never mentioned before feeling really contemplative just now...

If only you had misspelled it as the ten Geralts...

Pretty sure he is also an odd Herald...

In other news, Dalinar casually pulling a jumping pull up, while engaging in Lift like behavior. damnation Dalinar, you still lift. Good show man.

Exactly this. If all ten had to break each time, than the interval between Desolations would decrease. Once broken, if not given time to unbreak and heal, they remain broken. Which is why, for me, a different Herald breaking each time seems to fit. Add this to it, and it makes a ton of sense to me. And the 'wound' generated unmade complements the broken Herald.

Or, did she just find the Tower's gemheart? And now they need to protect it while it it slumbers so no one steals it? Also, if it is locked in this chamber, with no exterior access. it never gets refueled by a passing Highstorm? So you need a radiant to store light in it to recharge it? What will happen when one of our non-Lift radiants decides to pour stormlight into the big, shiny, gem-encrusted button?

Do you have a WOB that states that all 10 Heralds needed to break? I'm pretty sure it was only one, each time. If all 10 needed to break, then Taln would have broken nine times before he was the only one left. Nine times before he was the only one tortured, the only one focused on. There is no way he would last another 4500 years, longer than any other interval between Desolations, if he had already broken nine time. That makes no sense. I don't think it is confirmed that a different herald had to break every single time, but that makes far more sense than all ten needing to break every time...

True. But it this unmade came into being when Shallash broke, and we don't know if she broke first, or ninth, and we don't know which desolation Dalinar witnessed with the midnight essence, and we don't know if it was an actual memory, or another pre-rendered cinematic from Honor... There is enough uncertainty to be potentially valid. I think we have a WOB saying that there were nine desolations, including Aharetiem.

Death rattles could be truthwatchers - Renarin was leaving cryptic messages. And the death rattles were cryptic as well, potentially laced with just enough truth and misinformation to be dangerous for someone, like say Taravangian, to listen to, or you know, have an underground death camp dedicated to recording and compiling. The thrill is more interesting. It mildly subverts the will of the combatant, making the a temporary beserker, who cares naught for friend or foe. It breaks the bonds between allies, and makes everything a competition, where there are no allies, only worthy foes. SO the anti-bondsmith, as it does nothing for unity? Or the anti Willshaper?

Yeah, it trying to sunder the Bonds and corrupt her was momentarily terrifying. Also, Re-Shepir KNOWS her now. Inside and out. Every detail. I think the next time we see Re-Shepir, the midnight essences will be far more detailed, and be all the faces of Shallan.

I thought this theory already existed in some form? That each of the nine previous desolations were caused by a different Herald breaking under torture, shifting from a Herald to a fool. An unmade per broken Herald would be an extension to that. If its not a thread yet, please make it so! If true, there may be a new, baby unmade for the breaking of Taln appearing soon...

I think there is an Unmade for each Herald that broke under torture. So this is Shallash's unmade? If I'm right?

Well damnation. damnation. You know we are getting to the end of a part 1 when things ramp up like that. Dalinar - Wait, you mean I can literally share my visions with people? DOne, I invade all the dreams! Shallan - Undercover boss has nothing on me. Shallan - Lets go kick an Unmade in the teeth, the one that creates the midnight essence to boot. Other thoughts - dead spren are still cognizant when partially revived, Oathbringer hates Dalinar slightly less. That was... unexpected, tragically sad, and heartening. Definitely makes a good case for the relationship between Adolin and his blade. Adolin, can you please ask someone's spren to tell you your blade's name? Pattern - Shallan is going to run off and do something stupid, and I won't get to watch, so hurry up! Um, the conversation between Taravangian and Dalinar has to be one of my favorite scenes. I have this victorian era image, of them sitting in the great chairs, in front of a hearth, but instead of a fire, it is an LCD screen showing a picture of the fire in front of a heatlamp, reminiscing about real fire. (Its not the same). Having grown up in a house where we heated, and still heat, by wood-burning stove in the winter, I can sympathize with the feeling that nothing is quite the same as a real fire. And then their discussion. Making the hard decisions as a leader versus not making errors. Hypocrisy versus abdicating responsibility. How do you choose. I feel like the subtext is Mr T. trying to figure out if there is enough Blackthorn left in Dalinar to get the job done, while still trying to get justification from a peer for his actions, you know, the mureder of all those people. Also, Dalinar and Lift have a lot in common. She used a throne as a stool to look in high cupboards for food. He stuck a chair to a wall to look into an air vent and see a rodent. Shallan, interesting which death Re-Shepir imitated. The intentional killing, not the accidental. Intent seems important here. Adolin meant to kill. The guy meant to hurt his wife, possibly kill her. Shallan intended to stab someone in the hand. And the law intended that the murederer die by hanging. But he did not intend to kill the guy with a bottle, that was an accident in a brawl. Intent matters while Re-Shepir studies us. Also, Odiums version of a creation spren has gotten bored over the years and is curious? Is learning? Is evolving beyond her original purpose? How exciting. Odium may come back and find that his tools aren't quite what he remembered. The depictions of the heralds and Honor and cultivation. Do you think these depictions are our Endpapers? Actually, I'm certain of it, this chamber's depictions are what we see in the endpapers. And can I see these drawings of Honor and Cultivation please? Also, Shallan, you beautiful disaster. The pain of an ideal not yet overcome. Still dealing with the truth that you killed your father and mother. And your army of light was awesome. Way to kick chull while Renarin takes names. Speaking of Renarin, I am so happy to see him fitting in with Bridge four. He is a Bridgeman now. I'm so happy he has a home. Interesting to see he is still wearing the plate. I'm curious how that affects his binding and battlefield medecine. Best surgeon for Bridge four to have. Now, I have more thoughts, but please excuse me while I read all of yours, and re-read those storming awesome chapters!

We can't confirm that yet. Seeing as we know that at least two Heralds will be perspective characters in the second five, one for the book that showcases an order other than she has led, it is possible that the heralds could attract spren and join orders rather than relying exclusively on the Honorblades. We don't know yet.