alder24

That's good idea. We've never seen sprens interacting with multiple radiants of their own, so it could be a possibility. I've checked that out, posted it in "The Stormfaker isn't a Cracktheory" and Ishar couldn't have had the Honorblade when Gavilar was alive. Here it is: Overall I think that lying Stormfather keeping secrets from Dalinar about his brother would be much bigger deal to Dalinar and be an interesting twist to their relations than any twist with Ishar or other Stormfaker.

Yup, there is something weird going on with that Stormfather, and good job on catching that. To be fair, Stormfather show himself to Dalinar in form of shimmering in the air few times as well, iirc one of that was in the Aharietiam vision with Navani. As mentioned earlier, the most prominent and well made theory is that it is Ishar manipulating Gavilar, but other names are also appearing as valid Stormfakers candidates like Tanavast Cognitive Shadow, Odium, Cultivation, spren of Everstorm or Unmades etc. But also there is a socond camp, to which I also belong, that there is no Stormfaker, and all discrepancies can be the result of Stormfather lying to Gavilar and Dalinar, his trust issues after failure with Gavilar, Stormfather changing over time, or even his hidden agendas. If you want to know more about this, I highly encourage you to check out these two forum topics in Cosmere Discussion, possible spoilers to all Cosmere books.

I also think that Cultivation does not gives curses, as all known affected by her wished for someting more than physical, something more spiritual. It may at first appear to be typical boon and curse but it isn't and it masks her involvement. Sometimes you need to cut sides of the bush to make it grow in the right direction. Dalinar would not only never had his wish granted if he retained memory of Evi but he would also never grew to be a better person. The same goes for Taravangian, he would never ascended if he had both intelligence and compassion at the same time. For Lift I think that Cultivation made her a little like a Returned. She connected her own self-perception to the way how she looks like, and gives her ability to create Life Light so she can heal and change her body to that image, what as a side effect gives her more presence in CR. As long as Lift perceives herself as 10 year old girl, she would remain that 10 year old girl. But as she journeys through the life and experiences more and more, her self-perception matures, so she matures as well.

I just love reading about your first Journey through Stormlight Archive. I was there, we all were there. Glad to see you enjoying this as much as I did. When I read it for the first time I also was much more invested i Kaladin story, then Dalinar/Adolin and poor Shallan was way behind. But on my first re-read I began to notice many interesting things hidden in between lines, as there is a lot of things happening there, some are important, that may seem boring at first adn easy to miss. On my second re-read I was more invested in Shallan's chapters than Kaladin's. So don't give up on Shallan so fast, you're in for a lot of surprises

Just because Helsina is married to surgeon doen't mean that she has some connection to Vedel, there is a lot of surgeons and doctors all around Roshar, many that Kaladin met, non of them have nothing in common with Vedel except for profession. Helsina herself is just an assistant and seams to not have enough knowledge to perform tasks of an surgeon alone. The Heralds don't have to do anything special or influential, Jezrien is best examle as he is rotting away in alcohol. Only Nale, Kalak and Ishar seams to be doing something with plan in mind. And none of the Heralds except Nale ever bonded spren and become Radiant. They are done with being Heralds, they abandoned humanity and this war is not their war anymore. Helsina has one of her parent as a lighteye (WoB you provided). That explains everything, why her parents don't like Lirin, as she abandon her position in favour of some darkeye, how well educated and religious she is, why she "fallen in social standing since her childhood", why even she named Kaladin with such lighteye fiting name, and insisted on him marrying Laral so at least his children would have chance of becoming lighteyes. Maybe she is related to someone like Amaram or Sadeas which would not be positively received by Kaladin, but I doubt that there is something more to it. Brandon also might just try to cover her true identity as Liss for time being, like he did with Taln "a man who claims to be a Herald" as he'd RAFO anything related to her (there isn't many WoBs on her). Or maybe Vedel is hidden somewhere among Kharbrant's hospitals where she drained blood from her patients - was it mentioned somewhere about some important doctor or "leader" of that operation?

Only Veil disappear as Shallan embraced her past of killing Testament but Radiant is still with her, probably holding the last repressed memories (Shallan's early childhood?)

That's even better motivation, and there is nothing more to add, it answers first question. Nightwatcher would always grant her visitors wishes, this time it was above her abilities, so Cultivations got involved (with whatever end goal she had in mind). But Lift's wish was against Cultivations intent, as its all about changing and growing (there was WoB about it), so Cultivation messed up with her spiritual web - probably gave Lift ability to heal herself according to her self perception (similarto Returned). And about boon and curse it's not always so easly distinguishable, Taravangian needed both intelligence and compassion to have his wish granted, with Lift it maybe similar.

We know Lift was in Rall Elorim for some time, and that's in Iri, and they know about Old Magic (Evi). That quote about her mother tells me that she looked after Lift, but when she felt ill, Lift did not do the same, as a selfish kid she ran away from responsibility, and maybe instead of facing grimm truth, she decided to be kid forever so noone would ever blame her for what's happened to her mother as "she is just a kid who don't know better". Also her mother "wasted away" so she was probably dying for prolonged time of some illness tying her to bed and as Returned are immune to ilnesses, Heralds would be too. But as this is quite literally the only thing we know about her past, that may be the possibility. But if her mother doesn't fit as a Herald, there is zero information about her father soo I'm betting on Nale!

I highly doubt that Hesina is Vedel, she is mentaly stable without any kind of insane behaviour. Also as you point out her parents are alive so that most likely exclude them as Heralds. However they might be of Herald's descendants as we don't have much information about their ancestors. I personaly don't like the idea of everyone being suddenly offsprings Heralds as its difficult for CS to have kids, Chana is enough, and adding more is unnecessary. If I remember correctly there was a WoB saing that sprens are attracted to bonds being formed so they will try form more bonds with people around - Bridge 4 is good example as they aren't related yet all are now knights. If I were to find Herald's kids I would be looking into someone with very troublesome and traumatic childhood as having insane thousands year old parent would not be perfect for child growing up. I'm much more in support of theory of Liss the assassin being Herald Vedel as it fits perfectly to her insanity - for a healer to the killer - and it place another Herald in Kholinar's palace during Gavilar's assassination. EDIT: I think Taravangian would be a great Bondsmith material, if only he had more hope in saving all of Roshar. Having 2 Heralds on Braize would be catastrophic, as only Taln is able to withstand torture when others broke after less then a year - with herald's current mental state it could last even less. Lift mysterious past (did't she mention something about her mother, or she did not want to remember her?) and her trauma fits well for a candidate of being child of Herald

I belive that Sizgil did not break his oaths, they were removed when he picked up Downshard. Downshard extended his soul so much that oaths were removed or changed by this. That would mess up not only him but his spren Aux as well. As Lift's spiritual web was changed by Cultivation it messed up a little with her bond with Wyndle (she can touch him), becoming a Downshard while being bond to spren would completely messed up all of Sizgil's connections and his spren, who is part of Sizgil's spiritual web, would be highly affected as well, possibly turning him into "dead" like state. I like the idea of Sig fulfilling role of the "spren" and Aux of the knight capable of accessing surges in their new bond. Rysn was forbidden to bond with spren probably not only because it would gave her access to surges but also Downshard would messed up with the bond and the spren - WOB: If he would have broken his oaths then he would know they cannot affect him now: And he still was able to summon Aux as Shardblade when he wanted to pretect those who cannot protect themselves I couldn't also find if he ever specifically said that he had broken his oaths: I don't find it convincing enough that Aux is some CS or different spren that bonded with Sig after picking up Downshard or that he killed his spren before. Downshard messed them up and left behind more than the Torment, they became something that Sig never wanted them to became "destinations really are important".

Stormfather is not only spren but he also holds the bigest remains of Honor, he's probably the most invested being beyond Shards, so I believe stabbing him with Nighblood would look really similar to stabbing Odium - it could seriously damage or even destroy the identity of the spren but not fully consume all of its Investiture. What would remain would be injured Stormfather or Investiture without a Vessel, which would probably reform and manifest itself as new spren. You could probably stab Stormfather in that vision during Highstorm as it looks almost the same as Odium's visions that Taravangian was pulled into. But other Godsprens and Unmade would probably be fully consumed by Nightblood.

The problem with Kaladin as the Sword of Harmony is that Harmony needs someone to act on his behalf as he is useless even on the world he's most (and only as far as we know) invested in. Kaladin being that sword would be equally as useless as Harmony is right now as both of them cannot act on Scadrial where they're both most needed. Wax on the other hand is on Scadrial, is watched by Harmony and his Kandra from early on, performs multiple tasks on behalf of Harmony, talks with him on multiple ocasions, his story takes place after this letter is written, and he even said he's a Sword of Harmony. I don't know why there is such confusion about who is Sword of Harmony. Kaladin is Son of Honor not Sword of Harmony.

Fullborn is just so ridiculously overpowered that it's just uncomperable. He can think extremely fast, move like lightning, heal almost any wound even decapitation, push metals inside body even invested ones, not to mention Atium. Even Ishar would be nailed to the ground with metals within his own body before he would be even able to touch a fullborn to manipulate his conections and that just steel push. You should maybe split it into mistborn and full feruchemist. As much as I would like to vote fo God-king cause he can just Awaken clothes of his opponent to suffocate him and I just love the potential of Awakening, fullborn is one true god in this fight.

The relationships in this part are like in soap opera - no idea who is who. And that's definitely THE Kaladin, thinking about cutting himself and dreaming about descending from the bridge. i love this journey we went through, sad to see it ending.

Oh Stormfather, what a reveal! Navani is not only Gavilar's daughter, but a sorceress and a chosen one! Wow, that's a lot. Moreover she's not willing to jump into a bed with her own father, who killed Elhokar. Wow, that's a lot. "You would be the Empress of I'dw tr ybeir" that's a great name, it's a hidden Gemheart!

No, even Diagram knew it was inevitable It's purpose was to establish Taravangian as a ruler/representative of Roshar so he could made deal with Odium saving parts of it - at least in Taravangian's mind, Diagram real goal was to guide him into ascension. The Diagram also mention how to find and destroy Radients, probably seeing them as opposition to Taravangian's efforts to unite Roshar. Naming them as a danger. That's why I thing that quote below refers to Radients, as coming of Desolation is nesesery for Taravangian's plans, Radients appearing among Parshendi would prevent Everstorm from coming - which ironically he needs to become "king of everything" and save them. The "missing piece" could probably refer to the Willshapers, as they were nowhere to be found among humans.

Yup, these cursed by Storms pointy hats! I'm with Adolin on this one, holy war is nesesery! "We march on Taravangian" - if only this happens in OB, naaah joking "The gate-beings who'd been hersing threats at her. Here was a blighted planet, but a lot of the planet was gray as well. The way the air hung in the islands and in the hills, dark and dull. This was the kind of thing Eshonai had come to hate." - surprisingly this all fits Eshonai well, I will even suggest that Eshonai planet explorer is much better. This bot getting better and better. The story is more coherent but still cut mid-sentence. I guess it's its writing style. The Bot deserve Aether for this one.

Not to Rlain, but i think it's about Eshonai, she is the only one that matters cause she begins to bond spren before taking Stormform. If she did become a Radient, Listeners would turn away from Venli and Odium and embrace Honor's way, preventing Everstorm from coming that time. "Push for the Alethi to destroy them outright before this one obtains their power. It will form a bridge." Destroying Parshendi did form a bridge for Odium.

He's insane, sometimes there just isn't any reason for madman actions. However in this case it's much simpler - if he truly believed that Radiants return could cause Desolation, then rediscovering and settling down their abandoned and ancient city could quicken that as well. That's just bad idea when you try prevent Desolation in your wicked way. And why would Nale even open gates for him?

There would be definitely very few Radients of 5th and 4th Ideal, we can take Skybreakers as an example, few lucky one were able to swear 4th Ideal and none 5th since ages, except for Nale. But with 3rd Ideal that's different - it's the point when they become full Radient in most Orders. Majority of Windrunners bonded with Sprens in RoW are already at that Ideal. So assuming that 50% of all Radients during Recreance was at 3rd Ideal is not that big of a stretch - that's 1000 of Honorsprens alone. It is possible that lots of Shardblades were lost in storms, but to make them responsible for missing hundreds or thousands of Shardblades is in my opinion too much. As proven time and time again in books it, the knowledge of next Highstorm is common even among the poorest one. Moreover there are shelters natural or man-made placed densely, in every village, in every town, near them and on paths all across country. Even if a Shardbearer was to catch by sudden Highstorm, he could easily made himself a hole with Shardblade - like Kaladin in OB did, Shallan in WoR, or like one that scouts on Shattered Plains were using. Even desperate Eshonai attempt after battle of Narak would be much easier to survive in other places as it would eliminate risk of drowning - just hide behind heavy rock or hill for protection against debries and you could survive. Moreover as Laral said in OB it's not to difficult to put your spheres outside when wind appears, so it's possibly not that difficult to predict incoming Highstorm and find place to hide. As Roshar was tormented by Highstorms even before shattering of Adonalsium (i think so?), these methods used today, would be also commonly used 1500 years before as they don't require technological advancement at all - just a little bit of thinking. So it's hard for me to imagine that majority of the Shardblades were lost in the storms. And than how much cream accumulate on the ground? I don't remember that books describe it often. Cream on the buildings was mention multiple times, but ground was described as solid rock with cracks, stones and plants on it - the only description of cream accumulating on ground was on Shattered Plains in context of buildings as ground level was on the level of second floor of the buildings (Adolin's POV, Battle of Narak). Let's remember that Shattered Plains were shattered befere Last Desolation, so more than 4500 years - assuming that the height of the floor is 3 meters, it gives you roughly 0.67 mm of cream a year, starting from Last Desolation! Crazy low value of yearly accumulation of cream, definitely not enough to indistinguishably cover laying Shardblade not to mention one sticked into the ground. And that's after a year! Let's go even further - assuming that every week (5 days) Highstorm appears, that's gives us 100 Hightstorms a year (year has 500 days) and 0.0067 mm of cream each Highstorm. To comparison, width of the hair is 0.06 - 0.1 mm so you would need 9 Hightstorm for cream to be as thick as the thinnest hair. Good luck covering something with that. The only way for Shardblade to went missing in the storm is to be carried by winds in it, but the farther east the winds weaken, blade would eventually struck the ground - depending on the angle it could be buried deep in the rock, as seen in OB, but it is as likely to strike the ground with its the handle, flat side or blunt edge such as with its tip or sharp edge. I'm also thinking is it relevant to the story? Will finding all those missing Shardblades change anything? It's easy to predict that BAM will be released and that will fixed everything, Deadeyes become alive again etc. Well I think that is just boring! Can BAM reestablish its connection to everything and Roshar just like that, fixing it with ease? The Sprens spiritual web was cracked due to her imprisonment similar to how Radient's web is damage which allows Sprens to form Nahel Bond. It would be much more interesting if the damage was irreversible and to fix Deadeyes reverse Nahel Bond must be made - something like Adolin is doing - that creates so many new possibilities. But that's just my speculation, or rather hopes.

I don't think that's true, Fused still needed to travel from Braize to Everstorm for the first time, and there was Taln preventing any movement from Braize. But, as it was stated multiple times, connection/bridge created by Everstorm might be enough to bypass Taln, as voidsprens were present on Roshar before Taln returned.

I'm confused about it. I would like to be it more as a relationship focused on scheming and plotting, exchanging knowledge and being on equal intellectual level without romantic interest on both side - but then maybe developed with their interactions. But this is all skipped and it's just weird for me to be suddenly as romantic serious relationship. They could make it work, as I don't look that much on age gap, and Jasnah could become ageless as there are many and options for it, one commonly used across cosmere. They goals are aligned, but methods definitely different, so there is a potential for conflict but also for development. But without that beginning it's just confusing for me. And to add up, it's taking a lot form mysterious side of Hoid, humanising him a bit too much a bit too early.

Most powerful? Shards - do they count? But seriously Hemalurgy is probably the strongest one - with it you can become user of every other magic system, and the only thing you need is simple knowledge how to do it.

Wait, where is the rest of it? Did Bot learned when to apply cliffhanger to boost sales? It ended in the most intense moment, I need to know what happened next! Did Kaladin saved her as always? Did Jasnah balcony survived? What happened with all those Sprens? I love Radient description, and Jasnah "not the stone, but a woman!". Dalinar is exactly like Dalinar should be 10/10 and even have ShardWalkingStick or is it The Stick™ Shallan's nemesis? And are the archers fighting the wind, the storm, the Windstormsprens or what? And then this piece of Raysium came "The dead girl's spine showed at the bottom of the pile of debris, her face a bloody smear." - so dark, so brutal, so good, Ati would be proud! Can't wait for Edgedancer and Oathbringer, and you know, Words of Radiance part 2

Yes, I think I wrote about that Ishar and Stormfather connection shenanigans as the SF sees the world mostly through the Hightstorm - I'm well aware how weak this argument is but it was never my main point. Don't get me wrong, I've noticed that SF in Prologue is a little different, something is not fitting, I like Ishar the Stormfaker theory, which is greatly argumented and well-written. But some points just don't seem right. For me it's choosing between ignoring already well-established fact in Prelude that Heralds can't feel each other regular death or that SF somehow can feel it as we quite literally have no information about it from books - which leaves open doors for speculations. This one singular argument was always the theory breaking point for me. But I will gladly be wrong, just need some more definite "prove" (not full confirmation). Right now it's just much more believable in my opinion that it's The Stormfather the whole time, who is lying a little bit or just fully manipulating Gavilar, both are twists on their own. And It's just fun to speculate and discuss it That's a very good explanation. Makes a lot of sense. I was wondering if when cognitive shadows like Heralds are dieing, are their souls remaining the same, or are their souls infused with investiture and copied into new soul, when old goes Beyond. Most likely the fist one, but I don't think we fully know what is exactly happening to Heralds and Fused souls when they are dieing except for being damaged.