Timewaster's Guide Archive

Even knowing that the Parshendi had hired the assassin, he handed over the orb or whatever and said 'Don't let them get this'. I assume he is referring to someone else because he wouldn't have mentioned it at all if he were worried about the Parshendi.

I would assume that if not the Parshmen, then the people he didn't want to get the orb were the people he THOUGHT were killing him.  Off the top of my head I don't really remember them (Thaikandar or something? Sadeas was one as well, no? Also, doesn't it seem really, really odd that Gavilar names Sadeas as a potential murderer when Sadeas is the man who pretended to be Gavilar?).  Members of the Ghostblood or whatever they were, perhaps?

Not to mention that Gavilar doesn't seem to have any problem with Szeth flying around and running on walls.  He just says that he was expecting him.  Was he literally expecting Szeth, or just any old assassin?  I mean, I'd be pretty surprised if I walked out with Plate and Blade--one of the deadliest men on the planet--and some dude running around on walls killed me. Also, we know Taravangian had knowledge of him and his abilities, so maybe Gavilar did as well.

More interesting, could Gavilar have been a member of the Ghostbloods or a similar organization? That could explain why he has a wonky glowing black sphere thing that he doesn't want other people to get....

And no, like many things right now it makes no sense that he would give Szeth the black orb and say "Don't let them get this" if he meant the Parshendi... but perhaps there is an explanation that WOULD make sense.

For one, why did it choose Dalinar in particular, but no one else (as far as we know)? Almost no one would have been as receptive to the message in the way Dalinar has. He's a uniquely.. obsessive and honorable persion, who happens to be in a position of power that might be capable of 'uniting' people.

In one of the epigraphs (sorry, don't have the book on me to quote it) there is mention that one of the patients had been having visions of some sort for the past 2 years.  This was one of those collected by Taravangian.  So I'm not sure that Dalinar IS the only one receiving such visions, unless they're completely unrelated.

Either way, it seems like Dalinar is charged with the task of recreating the Knights Radiant.  I'm not sure that requires him to become a Surgebinder or even be bonded to a spren at all.  He could always be of one of the other orders, as well.

The ones that we saw.

It's possible that the Surgebinding orders didn't use plate.

Actually, I think we know for a fact that they did.  In Dalinar's vision of the Radiants giving up their plate and blade:

"...the Order of the Stonewards, my lord," the still-mounted scout was saying. "And a large number of Windrunners. All on foot."

We know that Windrunners are Surgebinders, and we know they were there to give up their Shard and Plate, so I think it's safe to say Surgebinders could use Shardplate.  Plus, the ones from Dalinar's other visions falling from the sky, those seem to be the work of the Lashings, no?  And when they hit the ground they have that "pulse" of Stormlight, just like Kaladin when he fell from tying the armor to the bridge.

That's possible.  But really, there is some sense of a great betrayal.  What could that be?

Could that simply be the Almighty dying,  or maybe the betrayal was the tainting of the Shards? (assuming they ARE tainted at all, and Kaladin and Syl's distrust of them is not just a red herring.  I mean, it's possible that Syl just inherited Kaladin's dislike of them, isn't it?).  They could have been losing their magic, or they could have discovered the same disgust at slaughtering people that Dalinar begins to feel.

There are lots of reasons for it, but I don't think that the Knights Radiant betrayed mankind before they were somehow betrayed (or led to feel betrayed) in turn.

I'm not as familiar with the cosmere stuff as the rest of you, but just from this alone...

Child of Tanavast.  Child of Honor.  Child of one long since departed.  The sudden voice shook Kaladin; he floundered in the air.
   The Oathpact was shattered.

Could Tanavast be the name of the Almighty?  Or at least one of the shards/shardholder dudes?  Or is Tanavast something in-world?

I mean, "child of one long since departed."  We know the Almighty is (likely) dead and that he made humans on Roshar, and we don't know for how long he has been departed... but considering the most recent vision we get to see from Dalinar is the day of Recreance, that would certainly be a long time ago.

So then, "Child of Tanavast" and "Child of one long since departed" could be the same? And could the Almighty be "Honor"?

Or maybe Tanavast held the shard named Honor, and that's where Kaladin's magic (and maybe the Nahel bond) comes from?

I feel like there's something big in those lines, I'm just not sure if I'm looking in the right direction.


Edit -- More likely, perhaps Tanavast is one of the Heralds?  The Herald of Honor?  That might make more sense, considering the talk of the Oathpact.

It is impossible to get onto a plateau that's higher than your current one. When they're crossing, they pick a spot that's lower on the other side. The bridges are somewhat over 40' long.

I guess the only problem with that would be that they would have to get back onto the higher levels on the way back.

I mean, they could just find an even lower plateau and go from there, but that seems really convenient that there's a path "downhill" there and a path "downhill" back...

Either way, I didn't have a problem with that at all.  I just took it for granted that it worked and didn't question the hows or whys of it.

On when they run after Kaladin's lashing, it's possible they freak out because they pass down stories or legends about the radiants.

I agree.  But the question is, do they act from fear, honor, reverence?  At first they try to fight him, but then they just leave him be.  Out of respect for his skills?  Maybe.  But what's with the chant then?

If they were voidbringers and evil beings, why wouldn't they try and kill him right then and there?

The talking before death thing is because the Everdesolation or whatever (you know what I'm talking about, I hope) is about to come.

Yes.  But Taravangian (and likely Jasnah) will link the coming of these occurrences with the meeting with the Parshendi.  And likely they are linked... but in what way?  Does the meeting signify that a war will come, or is the clashing of the two cultures a form of weakening the people that would stand against the voidbringers, or is it because Gavilar found that stone (perhaps he stole it from them?), or is it just coincidence?

The fact that there is overwhelming evidence for the Parshendi/Parshmen being the voidbringers, and the fact that the meeting of the two coincide with the onset of the Everstorm... it just seems fishy.  Either there's some sort of major twist coming, or the Parshendi aren't the true threat of the voidbringers.  I mean, all that evidence in book one feels way too convenient to me.

what happened to parshendi surge binders?
wait how would parshendi surge binders even work, without the radiant ideals, did they also bind with spren?

Well, we don't really know what's going on with that. And again, that's assuming that the Parshendi are the voidbringers. Assuming that's correct (as it seems to be), then that would require the spren bonding with the Parshendi. I don't see that happening.  It's more likely that the abilities can manifest themselves without the spren, and the spren are necessary to either (a) enhance the powers or (b) bond the surgebinders to a cause.

It seemed like Parshendi were just Parshmen after they got set off.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

assassinating Gavilar didn't help the unification effort at all
-if anything, they are acting perfectly to prevent unification, because if the highprinces were at home then Dalinar could be conquering and Elhokar could be taking over, versus on the plains they stayed in the state of disarray for 6 years.

Maybe.  But consider that Gavilar was the only one who believed in the Codes at the time.  He would not have lasted long as king (and he didn't, now did he?).  And Dalinar at the time thought that unity could come from conquering.  I could go on, but for now let me just say that no, I don't think there's really any chance that there would have been unity with Gavilar on the throne.  However, killing the new king and thus FORCING all the highprinces to go to war? Hm.

I'm not saying it makes much sense, I'm just trying to find a way to make the oddities of the Parshendi make some sort of sense.  They're definitely not what they seem, and it just feels too easy to label them as voidbringers.  I mean, the evidence is overwhelming, and I can't see how it's wrong at this point, but... I don't know. Sanderson is a tricky guy, and this smacks of trickery to me.

  -this was why I was thinking they could be acting from Odium's commands, intended to prevent the unification that might enable the Alethi to stand against the Everstorm. Of course, the honor thing still doesn't make sense.     

-why didn't the parshendi have Szeth come back to them after killing Gavilar? They just gave him up?

Neither of those actions make sense at all.  The honor makes no sense.  The Shardbearer raising his blade to Dalinar makes no sense.  Letting Szeth go makes no sense.  Killing Gavilar makes no sense.  Being so reverent of their dead when nothing else drives them to passion makes no sense.... What the heck, man?

we don't actually know what the parshendi shard bearer would have done with dalinar, having been interrupted, he might have been planning to question him, beat him up, etc. and then kill him.

Absolutely true.  But the way he speaks to Dalinar indicates that he was searching for him.  Why?  Just to kill him? To get some answers makes more sense.  But HOW would he know to look for Dalinar, and why?

Perhaps they know something of the message Szeth left, and needed Dalinar dead along with Gavilar.  Or perhaps it had something to do with his visions. 

the one thing that really doesn't seem to add up, though, is still the conflict between the Parshendi being honorable versus fighting on the side of the thunderclasts and the Almighty stepping in on the side of alethkar

It's all quite wonky, isn't it?  I don't buy the excuse that "Odium is bound by honor" or what-have-you.  If he just killed the Almighty, how the heck can he be bound by honor?