Timewaster's Guide Archive

Hm, but the Radiants fight against the forces of odium. Also shardblades seem somewhat related to the heralds' honorblades, and the heralds are definitely not on odium's side. At least, they weren't when they still used those blades... 

Parshendi are not dozens of feet tall, and the armor is not hard as rock either, though. Remember that we still have no solid evidence that Jasnah is actually right. What is described in the quote from the Prelude above sounds like a thunderclast.

This discussion lead me to a new idea about the voidbringers: The other beings described to have rock-like skin, or shells, are the chulls! Chasmfiends, too, but chulls are also described as having rock-like shells, plus red claws and legs. This may be a little far out, but most of the prophecies could also fit chulls... Music when they kill does finger the Parshendi though.

Also, the metal has to pierce the body for it to have an effect.  It probably has to connect to blood for Ruin to get access to the mind.  Then Allomantically ingested metals would not have this effect.

Neither would an earring, though. That does pierce, but only touches skin.

That could play out really interestingly. Because it would require Dalinar to forgive him, and after what happened that would require friggin' divine levels of honour and mercy. Of course, if there's any character to display such a thing...

Ha, he'd be so crowded in Stupidityspren that he couldn't see anything and walk off the ledge of a chasm...

I just read through the Way of Kings for the second time - definitely my record for least time waited between read-throughs by far. Some observations I made, maybe you want to weigh in on this (spoilers, obviously):

- Elhokar is talking to two people whose appearances are described in detail in the prologue. Then Szeth states that they are unimportant. To him, maybe, but seriously: no, they're not! Maybe this is a red herring instead of real foreshadowing, but the murder is definitely an important event, so something may be going on there...

- Dalinar is doing something with his Shardplate during the fight with the Chasmfiend. At one point, where he is jumping up, it says his armor almost found the right direction to land on its own. This could well be Dalinar using something stormlight-related without knowing it - just like Kaladin did exceptionally well in combat and at the bridge before realizing what was going on.

- No clue what happened to Gaz, even after specifically looking out for anything about him. His viewpoint describes him as seeing something in the shadows, so maybe there is more to the theory that something surge-related is going on with him, but other than that... ?

- Hoid does grill Dalinar about whether he knows something about Adonalsium. My explanation is Hoid knows that Dalinar is getting visions from the Almighty and wants to know how much info Dalinar got.

- We know the Windrunners have access to pressure and gravity-related powers. However, the question is, are there more ways to use this than the three Lashings? Szeth seems to take it for granted that that's all there is, but he doesn't know everything...

- What shattered the shattered plains? It is described as if something heavy fell on the land there. Must have been quite the impact, but they are not a crater. I originally figured they were created by erosion, but that statement hints at something else...

- not much is known about Shadesmar in general, but I did notice on the second read-through how Jasnah gets Shallan out of there by pushing her into one of the floating flames. What are those flames? Some sort of gateway? Could they work in both directions somehow?

- The number 10 is obviously a major theme of the series. However, the appendix hints at 10 further magic systems beyond the first 10 that we are starting to learn about. So 20 in total. Also, looking at the 20 traits associated with the 10 numbers (each herald has 2 traits, which are similar in theme) gives us 20 again. Little to go on for now, though.

- as you may have noticed, I drifted far away from observation and am now firmly in the land of speculation. One question came to me towards the end: most of the 10-related things are positive: Heralds, Knights Radiant orders, etc. There are however the 10 fools mentioned several times. Who are they? And if the 10 orders of the Radiants will rise again in the series, will there be a set of 10 "evil" orders? The central question is where the number 10 comes from - is it coming from the Almighty somehow? Then it would make sense to have the "good guys" ordered in 10s while Odium's forces are less regular? Or is it something more basic - then whoever will be a more direct representation of Odium could also have 10 orders - and maybe 10 powers to complement the other 10 (see above). The Almighty did say that Odium might be moved to chose a Champion, whatever that means, so more direct interaction with some form of minions is likely coming.

- finally, what are the Tranquiline Halls? Just the Rosharian equivalent of heaven? Or is there something - as Jasnah said, I am now looking for natural explanations for supernatural beliefs... may they have some form of a (far-away) historical basis?