#cosmere theory

[unilateraldisaster]

So I started Elantris on my Wind and Truth reread and pretty much immediately an idea latched on.

On page 76 of my copy, Raoden's narration says that becoming an Elantrian is all that's needed to access AonDor, and that there were "no incantations, no sacrifices, no special potions or ingredients" required to form the symbols. Seems pretty normal right? But Dakhor's access to the Dor requires sacrifices. And the very 420-friendly potion guy that Hrathen uses has Invested potions from whatever his country's magic system is (or potentially that's the Jesker access method).

So what if there actually IS a Selish magic that uses incantations to access it? There's so much of that world that we know nothing about.

And knowing BSandy, if anything like that does exist, there's even odds in my mind that it'll be connected to the musical magic system he said he tried to make at one point but couldn't make work. Changing according to rhythms and notes to eke out the power, maybe.

[seducemewithyourpuns]

SSP4 and Stormlight Archive spoilers/theory.

In chapter 4, Nomad says to Auxiliary "I liked you better when you were alive." To which Aux responds "and who is to blame for that?"

I also know there are some pretty solid theories that Nomad is Sigzil from The Stormlight Archive.

What if Aux is Sig's spren, who died because of whatever is going to happen in KoWaT (stormlight 5) and he's somewhat conscious again similar to how Adolin helped Maya return throughout the various books of Stormlight Archive so far?

[rohanrider3]

Cosmere Finale Musings

Look all I'm saying is that if Kelsier ends up using the powers of Breath and Biochroma to let him leave Scadriel AND empower the tatters of his mist cloak to do even MORE awesome shenanigans...that'd be awesome.

If Kaladin ALSO ends up using the powers of Breath and Biochroma to augment his Stormlight powers via the COLORS of the GEMS that hold the Stormlight....oh, AND somehow use the Iridescent Tones AND the Rhythms of Roshar to unlock powers we haven't even seen yet...that would be even MORE awesome.

And if in the end Kelsier and Kaladin wind up on opposing sides of a final conflict (ideologies aside, "lowborn" Skaa Kelsier was killed with a spear vs. "lowborn Darkeyes" but now (extremely reluctant titled Lighteyes) Kaladin, who's a master of the spear wielding arts,--symbolic coincidence I think ?not?)...it'd be terrible, but BADASS to watch them match wits and skills.

But. If there's a bigger bad (?Odium? Sorceress? currently unknown?) and both the Survivor AND Stormblessed have to combine forces to fight it, and they both get WRECKED....

...what are the odds that Kelsier decides to give Kaladin one last gift.

A last gasp.

(TLDR: If the Survivor tells Stormblessed "My life to yours, my breath to yours." AND GIVES UP HIS MAIN DRIVING FORCE IE "SURVIVE" to help save the entire Cosmere I am going to straight up lose my mind. And enjoy every rusting, storming, color-soaked MINUTE of it.)

[bucketocremlings]

Mistborn Era 2 Spoilers ahead

so ive been thinking abt the other types of allomancy and ett metal. most if them are pretty self evident: cadmium/bendalloy create time bubbles; steel/iron push/pull metal nearby; zinc/brass probably riot/sooth all emotions of those nearby; and aluminum/duralumin probably remove/boost the allomantic energy stored in the ett metal.

the problem is

what do tin, pewter, bronze, gold, and electrum do?

like can a chunk of metal see its own future or what it could be? what abt sense kinetic allomancy? how would it do that?

the only ideas i have for those five involve tin and pewter. maybe those two increase/decrease how reactive ett metal is. tin making it more reactive and pewter making it less so. this could be useful as tin infused ett metal would make a much larger explosion, especially when u add trellium in to the equation. and theoretically, if u use a lot of allomantic pewter in ett metal (and probably a lot of duralumin as well), it might be able to resist an explosion long enough for someone to burn it.

but thats just my 2 cents on the matter. if anyone has other theories abt this, id love to hear

[survivorofhathsin04]

Slightly out there theory but I've seen no one else make it and wanna throw it out there. Kaladin is going to become Honor.

It's just a very random hunch I've had the past few days but it makes so much sense to me acknowledging the right details.

Now I dont know if theres a WOB debunking it but as far as I know theres no reason Dalinar couldnt use Bondsmith powers to reforge a shard. Like Honor still exists in Splinters such as honorspren and the Stormfather, so it seems possible to reforge

But even then, why Kaladin? I think its been heavily alluded to across the past few books. Such as the Stormfather consistently calling Kaladin 'Child of Tanavast' and others as 'Child of Honor' Sanderson has said before that it is an important distinction but didnt specify why so my only conclusion is Kaladin being Tanavasts successor in becoming Honor.

Secondly, the Death Rattle from Way of Kings, stating "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!"

This feels so overtly about Kaladin, especially with rhythm of war context. The tower is Urithiru, and Kaladin fighting back the singers and helping free them, the spear is the most obvious and could reference either his decision to join Amarams army in the first place or his decision to train Bridge Four but I think it overall represents his consistency to go back to the fight and do what he must. The fallen title, can be interpreted as Honor itself and how he must carry it on.

The crown is slightly more cryptic and nothing we can currently point to but, if Dalinar reforges the Oathpact with Kaladin as a Herald, the crown title makes sense since Jezrien, the former Windrunner herald was caller KING of the Heralds, and so he also potentially becomes the Windrunner Herald before becoming Honor itself.

And thats like... it.

Not a lot of evidence but my god this feels possible

[corvidpolyglot]

mistborn theory time again!

in The Lost Metal, Sazed claims that the Intent of his shards is shifting towards Discord rather than Harmony, which is a weird shift to happen given that we haven't seen major shifts in almost any other Shard.

So, my theory goes as follows: "Harmony" and "Discord" don't actually exist. We only have Sazed's word that they ever existed in the first place, and the words we use for the Intents are just descriptors for things that are usually a bit more ephemeral.

"Harmony" is interesting because it directly opposes Discord, and also represents a status quo compared to Discord's change; neither of those things should resolve from a Ruin/Preservation dishard, given that that's literally a major point of opposition between the Shards making it up. The more reasonable assumption, and one that explains the slow shift towards Discord, is that Harmony is just another term for Preservation and Discord is just another name for Ruin. We do know, after all, that Ruin still has a leg up over Preservation due to humanity on Scadrial still existing, so it's logical that it would slowly take over the double shard.

[sailorspren]

I'm not a cosmere theories freak but I do have one theory I'm very passionate about which is that the pure tones of Roshar sound like sine wave synths! Let me explain :) I am taking "pure" to mean "consisting of only one note (and no overtones)", which is basically the definition of a sine wave. A sine wave is the representation of a single frequency with no harmonics and is considered an acoustically pure tone. Sine waves don't occur naturally - real world sounds always have overtones, in varying quantities. We can synthesize sine waves, however, and they sound like this (I played it in different pitches so you can get an idea of the timbre):

Here's a visual representation of a sine wave:

So this is what I imagine it sounds like when Dalinar opens a perpendicularity, or when singers hear pure notes in highstorms. And because the sound of a sine wave is so unnatural, it would really stand out and feel otherworldly on a planet that doesn't have modern technology - and I feel like that fits the description.

We also know that it's possible to use tuning forks to play the three pure tones of roshar and pull the matching types of light out of gemstones. While acoustic instruments can't produce a truly pure note (aka a sine audio wave), tuning forks come pretty close. They initially produce high overtones, but those fade out quickly, and then the forks keep resonating with a pure tone. It makes sense that tuning forks are the closest Rosharan humans can get to synthesizing a sine wave!

There's also the fact that Raboniel can sing the pure notes and get the lights to respond, while Navani can't. Is it just because Raboniel's pitch is more accurate, or do singers have an physiological ability to produce notes with less overtones? This is really interesting to me...

And one more fun thing to consider. You know what other instrument comes pretty close to producing a pure tone? The flute! Hoid gave Kaladin a flute... idk if it actually has any reasoning behind it but I really hope it does 😂 imagine how cool it will be if it will be used for musical magic system stuff

[azure-sorceress]

I've seen the theory that by the end of Wind and Truth the Stormfather will die (either because Dalinar loses the contest and dies or something else that we're not expecting happens) and therefore there will be no more Highstorms meaning no more stormlight.

If that happens, it makes a lot of sense why Lift will be the focus character in Stormlight 6. Her powers don't work on stormlight, they work on lifelight, which she can make herself. It would also explain why Cultivation made her that way: "When everything else is going wrong, I want to be the same." This is what she asks for. And if all the radiants are unable to use their powers because there's no more Highstorm, Lift will be the only one who stays the same.

I also wonder if Renarin and Rlain will be able to power their surgebinding with voidlight, instead of stormlight if this happens. Considering their sprens are not only of Honor and Cultivation, but also Odium, maybe that means they can use voidlight as well as stormlight, and get it easily from the Everstorm. Again, it checks with Renarin being one of the main POVs in the second half of the series.

I do not think that the other orders of Radiant will end, though. I only think they will have to be extremely reliant on the Tower. Because through their bond, Navani and the Sibling can make Light, I bet they could make it to power the radiants, but they will never be able to stay away from Urithiru for long.

If all this does happen I expect that they'll be able to get the Highstorms again by the end of book 6 or 7 (considering what we know about Roshar from The Sunlit Man, I'm pretty sure the storm returns).

Anyway, this was just a little theory that I came up with the other day.

[renarines]

being dumb as fuck is making this chapter preview period so fun like. yes i have read over 20 books and novellas in this series. no i have no idea what is happening at any given moment. i just love when people post like "NO guys this means the dawnspren will reverse nahel splinter and kaladin will mega-ascend to reforge three shards into a invested shardshit" and i'm just like. god you're so right. keep going everyone

[youngmasterwisdomperson]

In Barbie (2023), Barbie Land is presented in such a way as to suggest that it takes up a significant portion of Earth’s cognitive realm. And indeed, the various Barbies and Kens are in many ways similar in nature to Rosharan spren and other sentient idea-based splinters, including in their need for a powerful Connection with a human in order to take on more aspects of reality and manifest properly in the physical realm. This has numerous interesting implications in terms of the Barbie Movie’s otherwise unexplained magic system, not the least of which being that the ghost of Ruth is similar in numerous ways to a Nalthian Returned. In this essay I will-

[headcanonsandmore]

Kaladin, explaining his past to Adolin: So, after working tirelessly with Bridge Four to save ourselves from the near-hopeless situation we had ended up in, I was no longer a slave. I no longer had to walk barefoot and in rags everywhere.

Adolin: *horrified* Storms, Kaladin; you've had a incredibly difficult life. I can see exactly why you disliked me when we first met; people like me had literally beaten you down for your entire life. I'm... I'm so sorry.

Kaladin: Thanks, Adolin; that means a lot to me.

Adolin: So... what happened after you had finally been released from slavery?

Kaladin: Your wife used her privilege as a light-eyes to rob me of the boots I was wearing.

Adolin: ...

Kaladin: ...

Kaladin: Yeah, now that I think about it, that explains why I didn't like her for so long-

[marvelousmagicalaura]

I have a bunch of theories about The Lost Metal and Era 3, particularly about what Sazed is planning.

Sazed has master plans

I know this may end up being an unpopular opinion. But to me the story came across as if Sazed has been operating as the Chessmaster the entire time, all part of a coordinated effort to outmaneuver Autonomy. An effort to make her withdraw her army and interest in Telsin. I think a lot of little quotes in The Lost Metal, and certain quotes in the previous books, point to Sazed subtly maneuvering everyone - Wax, Wayne, Marasi, Kelsier and his Ghostbloods, Marsh, Tobal and Maraga, Steris (?). All with very powerful, very subtle future sight to make specific outcomes come to fruition.

Since chapter 19 I suspected Sazed had a plan in motion, one that needed him to arrange “help” unaware they were mobilized to be the “help.” One that required him to play games over and over with Autonomy. This suspicion came back once Wax speculated he always intended for him to be the Sword that stops a God Metal bomb.

Chapter 71 confirmed aspects of future sight I was curious about… ever since I started analyzingthe Terris Prophecies. Sazed confirmed that he sees future possibilities, automatically analyzes something as complex as a harmonium-trellium bomb, think much faster than mortals, and can discern the probabilities of an action (i.e. 1% chance of success, 99% chance of failure). Sazed even fleshed out what Fuzz warned Kelsier - even future sight as great as Preservation’s can be wrong. Sazed also confirmed that while Shards see future possibilities and analyze probabilities, they don’t always know the “why” of a possibility. Such as “why” it is good. This eased my suspicions.

But then Kelsier’s epilogue came along. While I don’t think Sazed is acting “all is perfectly according to keikaku,” he’s acting close enough. I think he was ultimately keeping certain, ultimate future outcomes in mind. The responses to Kelsier’s frustration made alarm bells ring in my mind:

"I had it in hand."

"Luck is a different thing to a god who can see futures, I think."

"I have it in hand."

"People should discover it on their own. If they do not, there are subtle consequences."

What if Sazed always knew Trell was Autonomy? After all Autonomy created Trelagism, and we know from book 3’s epilogue that Preservation hid “gems” in Trelagism to help the Hero of Ages. What if he let Autonomy’s plans get to this stage, knowing he could efficiently arrange pieces that could stop her? Or maybe he bet it would be the perfect event to encourage the continents to advance and progress?

What if Sazed was betting on Wax fulfilling his duties after the Lessie fiasco? What if he intentionally molded Wayne into the Slider who could accomplish the partial detonation? What if he knows the history of Scadrian eugenics and discerning what could happen if he directly GIVES knowledge of future tech?

His name shall be Discord, and they shall love him for it.

It’s obvious that Sazed is becoming Discord. Or perhaps, he’s already Discord by the time of Kelsier’s epilogue.

There’s clearly something going on with Sazed’s Shard, we just don’t know what. Harmony’s Intent left him unable to act, creating a state where every action needs equilibrium between P&R’s attributes. And there was a dark shadow throughout TLM. Kelsier speculates the shadow exists because Ruin was always stronger. Marsh’s interview with Khriss implies it may be the result of Ruin being subservient to Preservation.

My theory is Discord will be a good thing. Sazed directly educated Wax and Wayne about the bomb’s mechanics AND told them how to detonate it. Dulled the wave coming over Wax. Arranged for under 10 people to foil Autonomy’s complex plans, while his future sight was BLINDED. This is the most effective he’s been yet. I think Discord will be a Shard representing Sazed’s realization that Ruin and Preservation can’t always be in exact balance. Sometimes, Preservation’s attributes are needed most. Other times, Ruin’s attributes are needed most. I believe this mindset allow him to act, to commit actions that are EITHER of Preservation or Ruin.

I think Sazed is just trying to carefully move through his web of future possibilities. Preservation seemingly foresaw Discord will be a good thing. But if Sazed makes the wrong move, I bet he could invalidate that prediction.

How to make the Bands of Mourning, Excisors, unkeyed metalminds

Unkeyed metalminds contain attributes that aren’t attached to a Feruchemist’s Identity. But without Full Feruchemists, it’s impossible for a sole Feruchemist to create an unkeyed metalmind.

My theory is the Southern Scadrians are extensively using the same method as the Set’s keep-people-alive Hemalurgy. I think to create an unkeyed metalmind, Southerners are using a Command and a very thin duralumin spike. This would rip off a piece of the Feruchemist’s Identity, making any future storing Identity-less.

I think the Excisors are nicrosil and/or duralumin spikes.

The Bands of Mourning is the really tough cookie. Kelsier is no longer an Allomancer and definitely not a Feruchemist, so he couldn’t use his own powers to create the Bands. There’s no way he used Northerners to make them. There are a lot of logistics issues. My theory is Sazed directly created the Bands of Mourning and guided Kelsier into hiding it.

It wouldn’t be the first time Sazed subtly helped the Southerners. Sazed gave them harmonium and a perpendicularity, and we’ve seen how well they’ve been used.

[onlycosmere]

Sigzil worries if the Night Brigade captures him that they will try to make a spike of his soul to use his Connection to track down the Dawnshard that he previously held.

He is also terrified of the ruthlessness of the Night Brigade and extremely reluctant to put down roots and get involved with the local people on Canticle.

The Night Brigade has somehow been tracking him with speed and effectiveness for a long time.

I’m guessing that at one point, before Sigzil decided to be the loner, Nomad, the Night Brigade made a spike out of someone Connected to him, and they’ve been using that spike to locate him across the cosmere. That’s also part of why his terror seems so visceral, and he tries to avoid caring about the locals.

[tyresw]

Just realized that I never posted this theory here

I believe that non sapient spren are fundamentally the same as their equivalent Radiant spren.

The only real difference coming in when you add Identity to the raw investiture.

And that Identity is the primary mechanic of the nahel bond, both sides share a part of themselves with the other.

Which leads me to theorize that Rushu will end up bonding Bippy, who will have become an ashspren after having been given enough Identity through the attention paid to him by Rushu.

Rushu will, along with the Reshi King, refound the Dustbringers within Urithiru

[il3x]

you can really tell that the cosmere is just magic physics by how every post about cosmere mechanics/realmatic theory starts off with "Firstly, assume that..."

[shardpencil]

Conspiracy theory time!!!

I know Odium's Champion theories are probably redundant at this point BUT i have one cooked up hot for you all. It's a long one.

Featuring Spoilers from all SA books and some minor spoilers from WaT previews..

Adolin will be TOdium's Champion!!!

Let's talk about it:

RAYSE VS TARAVANGIAN

I first want to draw attention to the differences between Rayse-Odium and Taravangian-Odium and their Champions. As the vessel of Odium has changed since Oathbringer, so must our perception of their chosen ones.

According to Hoid, Rayse was an awful person. He was cunning, ambitious, and often had selfish motives for wanting to obtain power and conquer the Cosmere. "Blackthorn" Dalinar made sense as Rayse's Champion, because as a young man, Dalinar's "passions" were selfishly motivated as well. Yes, he was helping his brother, but Dalinar did enjoy the wanton killing and longed for the feeling of the Thrill.

Taravangian carries himself differently as Odium. He has always been motivated by noble causes, such as saving his home city of Karbranth, knowing that he might have to do evil things to reach his end-goal. Even after he ascended, Taravangian holds on desperately to this notion that he alone has the power and willingness to reach the greater good in the end. I firmly believe that his pick for Champion must represent this very same philosophy.

BOOK EVIDENCE POINTING TO ADOLIN:

This first passage comes from WoR. Sadeas is talking about Adolin as he watches him duel:

We learn a few things from this

Sadeas thinks Adolin can be goaded into anger and is capable of making rash, impulsive decisions.

Adolin has less control of his "passion" than Dalinar. Plainly this means he has less self-control than his father. I also note the careful use of the word "passion", as it is used often in OB in association with Odium.

Now Sadeas is comparing Adolin to Dalinar--and not just Dalinar, but the Blackthorn.

What do you know? Sadeas proves himself correct by goading Adolin, threatening his family, and causing him to get angry and lash out. As Readers, we now know that Adolin is capable of extreme, impulsive actions--including murder--if the end goal is to protect his family.

I also think Adolin's wording here is very ominous "My father thinks I'm a better man than he is...he's wrong" Knowing what we now know about the kind of person Dalinar actually was in the past, the wording of this passage, in retrospect, reads eerily.

Then in Oathbringer,

He clearly has complex feelings around what he did. It's a little worrying that there was a part of him that actually enjoyed the physical sensation of killing Sadeas, but he at least has some shame about the act itself.

Interesting that he thinks of the sensation of stabbing right after thinking of his father, too.

Now we learnt hat Adolin doesn't feel sorry about what he did and says that he'd do "it again right now" (directly to Dalinar, no less). I think it's important to note here that he did it because "it needed to be done". He did it because specifically he thinks Dalinar never would, because he knows his line of thinking does not agree with his father's. In Adolin's mind, the destination was more important than the journey.

There was a part of him that was ashamed that he murdered someone, but that doesn't really matter--because he easily dismissed the whole act because it allowed him to achieve the optimal outcome.

Next, lets flash forward to RoW...

The passage above is from the last conversation between Dalinar and Adolin before Adolin leaves for Shadesmar.

This is where we start getting the hint that Dalinar sees something..off within his son. He says he's not disappointed in him, however, Dalinar's wording here implies that Adolin is not quite living up to his own expectations, morally (aka he's disappointed). This passage also reflects Adolin's words as he's killing Sadeas, when Dalinar says something along the lines of, "I want you to be...a better man than I was at your age." So many uses of the phrase "better man" are being thrown around specifically with Adolin and Dalinar.

This next passage I think is the most condemning. Here, Dalinar is placing Adolin and Taravangian in the same bucket, ideologically. Funny, since Taravangian literally becomes Odium later in the same book.

Shortly after this line Adolin does insist that he isn't like Taravangian and wants to carve his own path, however, his previous actions speak louder than his words and he certainly does not regret those actions.

I also think the highlighted line above foreshadows something darker in store for Adolin...in general. The consequences of this conversation did not come to pass in RoW, so we can only assume that it's going to go down in WaT.

Since the end of Oathbringer, anger has been building within Adolin, directed at his father.

Adolin recognizes that his own anger is volatile. He "doesn't trust it".

In the latest passages of WaT, Adolin reported that he assumed that his negative feelings would eventually wane, but he has instead become even more angry. I was a little surprised reading this, since it feels a little too intentional, too deliberate. Brandon is building up to something, but its not clear what that is.

What I'm thinking is that , this pain/anger will lead to an impulsive action on Adolin's part that he may regret making. He's already done it once before (though he had no regrets about that lol).

So Adolin has all this built up anger directed at Dalinar, and one of these days he's just going to snap, just like with Sadeas. I sincerely doubt Adolin would just straight up kill his father like he did with Sadeas, but I do think Adolin is capable of making some sort of stupid decision directly in opposition to Dalinar, in affirmation of his Consequentialist beliefs. Whatever this is, will likely be Adolin's downfall.

WHAT MAKES THE IDEAL CHAMPION FOR ODIUM

I fully think the optimal opponent to Dalinar has to have a few things:

Significance to Dalinar that forces him to NOT want to kill the champion and challenges his Idealism (this is the most important one IMO--this is the real "heart and soul" of the contest)

The capability to actually beat Dalinar in a fight

Significance to the audience (aka us, the Readers)

SO NOW ON TO THE CANDIDATES

A Fused

OC being a random Fused would make sense somewhat, however, this choice would be awful since they wouldn't have any meaning to Dalinar or us the audience. I think a Fused as champion would be such a letdown personally.

2. A Herald

Again, this might make some sense and would be a very formidable foe, but it just doesn't provide the emotional stakes for Dalinar or the Reader. A Herald as OC would likely not challenge Dalinar's existing ideology as strongly as some of the other candidates here.

3. Gavilar

This would be interesting. Brother vs brother would definitely satisfy condition #1, and potentially #2 and #3 depending on how invested he is. Overall, this pick just isn't giving enough of anything for me to support it. I just think we haven't gotten any evidence for this other than a faint ambition of Gavilar to become immortal and just being an absolutely shitty human being.

I think its theorized that hes somehow still alive, but IDK, there's just not enough evidence presently...and Gavilar just coming out swinging from the spiritual realm would be so bizarre. I love the stakes it creates between Dalinar and his brother though!

4. Moash

Yes, Moash has done some shit and works for Odium, but I think the only way he makes sense as Odium's Champion is if Kaladin somehow becomes Honor's Champion.

5. Gavinor

Probaby one of the more popular OC theories presently, because of that one quote from the WoK epigraphs.

“I hold the suckling child in my hands, a knife at his throat, and know that all who live wish me to let the blade slip. Spill its blood upon the ground, over my hands, and with it gain us further breath to draw. ”

This quote is often attributed to the Gavinor theory because it mentions killing a child. However, Gavinor is not "a suckling child"--he's older than that.

I think Gavinor as OC perfectly satisfies the conflict between Taravangian and Dalinar. Killing Gavinor would challenge Dalinar's personal worldview and force him to submit to Taravangian's. There's no way Dalinar will kill a kid, simply because killing an innocent child is wrong and there's no way around that within the confines of Dalinar's Idealism. Gavinor would also be easy to trick into making some agreement with Odium.

The only problem is, Gavinor is a CHILD. Dalinar could easily kill him if he wanted, and I'm not sure if T would take that chance, even if it means having Dalinar submit in ideology. I feel like each Champion must have at least some understanding of the philosophies they represent... Dalinar for Idealism, and OC for Consequentialism. Gavinor would not understand his role and the stakes involved and thus, I believe it would cheapen the whole experience.

As Readers, we are somewhat familiar with Ganivor, but whether he lives or dies to us is more of a question for Dalinar and the plot, leaving us to feel indifferent. We don't know who this kid is, and we haven't spent enough time with him to be truly emotionally invested in his fate.

6. Adolin

Adolin perfectly satisfies point #1. There is no way Dalinar is going to be comfortable with the prospect of killing his very own child. He may flat-out refuse to fight him, which would consequently void the contract and release Odium into the Cosmere.

(Probably inconsequential but, vaguely, I think the "suckling child" epigraph could fit Adolin. He isn't a child, but he is Dalinar's own child, and we even got a flashback chapter in OB where Adolin was literally a suckling child...anyway.)

Based on Adolin's recent developments , I believe he could champion Consequentialism (he's already teetered on the edge of it before in conversation with Dalinar). To reiterate, he is clearly the type of person to do anything, including murder, to protect those he loves. I could see Adolin and Dalinar's present argument turning into some big philosophical conflict that they'd have to work out on the top of Urithiru. The point here is that Adolin would actually be representing Taravangian's philosophy as his Champion, as well as challenging Dalinar simply for being what he is.

#2 Adolin is the best duelist in the world, and according to Brandon, one of the best swordsmen he has written (excluding Lan and immortals who have unfair experience). Unlike Dalinar, Adolin is a "regular person" and doesn't use any form of outright investiture. Dalinar on the other hand, does not wield a shardblade, and only has his Bondsmith powers. The match-up would be interesting to say the least: all magic vs all "physical". Opposing in fighting style as well as opposing in philosophy. I also think Dalinar would have a hard time winning if Adolin decided to go all-out for whatever reason.

Odium is going to want to make sure that if the plan to ensure Dalinar refuses to kill his champion falls through, that OC will not be easy to kill. This way, there is no possible way that Dalinar can actually win the contest. Adolin is the only opponent to Dalinar that can truly create this no-win scenario, making him the ideal pick over all of the others.

And #3... Adolin means EVERYTHING to us, he has been so many characters' rock, and he's been so important to us as the Readers. He's made us laugh and cheer and cry. Being in such a difficult position would hit so many emotional levels. This duel between champions is the one event these first five novels have been building to...I think that it has to pack one of the biggest punches Brandon has ever delivered.

OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE ME SUSPECT

Adolin isn't a Radiant. He's free real estate

He has death flags all over the place. Adolin is the type of character who means everything to everyone around him--his death or corruption would be the perfect plot device to ruin everyone's day and all their days to follow. Whether or not he becomes OC, i sincerely doubt he will make it through WaT alive.

I forget where exactly this is mentioned, but in the text Adolin says he was born "under the sign of nine". The number nine is associated with Odium and the Unmade.

Adolin seems to be associated with an Unmade, Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM), in some way. Shallan, Renarin and Rlain will be looking for BAM during WaT, which makes sense because they can see into the Spiritual Realm, where BAM resides. However, Shallan reported seeing BAM in Adolin's shadow, which felt like a very intentional detail from Brandon. Odium's Champion has been known to have nine shadows...and there are nine Unmade. The Unmade seem to have a connection with OC as well, such as the Thrill and Dalinar. Adolin has slowly been "reviving" his deadeye Maya, and BAM had some involvement with the ancient Knights Radiant killing their spren and the deadeyes. There's definitely going to be some connection there. We also know that Odium's Champion can be seen from the Spiritual Realm, where Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain are looking for BAM and Adolin will have some involvement. Lots of suspicious pieces of evidence surround this plotline that I haven't quite pieced together, but they're there.

I would also like to point out that ADOLIN IS THE ONLY MAIN CHARACTER WHO IS A DUELIST. I personally see it criminal that he wouldn't be involved in this "contest" in some way.

SO HOW WOULD IT EVEN HAPPEN

He could get into an argument with Dalinar and volunteer to prove a point.

Similar to the first one: Adolin could volunteer...with the intent of killing himself or letting Dalinar kill him. I personally think this is the most interesting of all these scenarios

All of Adolin's built-up anger towards Dalinar could simply make him more malleable/easily tricked

Odium forces him into making a deal by threatening his loved ones.

Odium or BAM convinces Adolin that serving the side of Honor will bring the downfall of civilization and his loved ones. I'm kinda thinking in a similar way that the ancient Radiants and their spren abandoned their oaths and rejected Honor...but the full story has yet to be revealed here (which may happen in WaT)

I do not think Adolin will suddenly just "turn bad". If he does become OC, it will be because he is trying to be heroic, to do what he sees is the "right thing" and put the end-goal above the means to get there. Adolin has had disagreements with his father but he still loves him. And I definitely think Adolin is the type to be self-sacrificial, to put himself in harms way to let his father, brother, wife, friends, and the world live in peace.

Whatever ends up happening or not happening, there needs to be a lot of character work going on with Adolin to actually get to any of these points!

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Obviously the problem with this whole theory is that it seems like Adolin is being set up to revive his shardblade, Maya, and become an Edgedancer. Personally, I think there's no room for Adolin to both become and Edgedancer and become OC. It feels like he's gotta go one way or the other.

So I'll just throw out some reasons why Adolin can't/shouldn't become a Radiant:

Every member of his family is a radiant--it's too redundant within the narrative.

Lift is our Edgedancer POV character, we don't really need another one.

Adolin works really well as a non-radiant

Even if Adolin revives Maya, does it necessarily mean that Maya will bond him and make him an Edgedancer?

Adolin is pretty expendable at the moment. What point is there to have him revive Maya with an unusual type of bond...just to die immediately?

To say the least, Adolin isn't a "journey before destination" kind-of person. He likely couldn't speak one of the most basic Radiant oaths.

Right now, Adolin-Edgedancer seems like a waaay more obvious path, which is why I'll say I am skeptical that it will actually happen the way we all think, especially since Adolin has this darkness within him that he still needs to address.

But, Adolin's train of thought does have a LOT of similarities to an Edgedancer's. He remembers those who have been forgotten--especially his mother and Maya. But you know who else "remembers the forgotten"? Yep, it's TOdium:

Lets look at the WaT interludes. Here, Taravangian-Odium is literally remembering the the children who died in some forgotten country. He also refuses to forget his old self, Taravangian, and let the shard of Odium consume him.

Note the similarity between the above passage and then the one below:

Both Taravangian and Adolin say that they feel like they are the only ones willing and capable of making "hard decisions" in order to stop the danger. This is the "dark side" that an Edgedancer, or any Knight Radiant for that matter, could never have.

Let's also explore the possibility that if Adolin does revive Maya completely and finishes that arc, that she will actually side against the current Knights Radiant...

"We chose!" were Maya's infamous words during the trial at Lasting Integrity. This confirmed that the Radiants and their bonded spren at the Recreance both willingly chose to abandon their oaths. The full reasons why they abandoned their oaths are still somewhat unclear. The Stormfather once reflected that it was because the ancient Radiants and their spren thought that by forsaking their oaths they would be saving the world.

There's no reason to believe that a revived deadeye spren such as Maya would actually want to reinstate those oaths upon revival or support the current Radiants in their fight. Maybe they would even side with Odium? If Honor committed some serious enough offense to have the bonded spren collectively on-board for suicide, it's fair to guess that they still wouldn't have a good opinion of him to this day.

ADDENDUM

I wrote the majority of this post before WaT chapters 16-17-18, so I'd like to add some additional evidence stemming from recent developments.

Let's start with some further conflict build-up:

Adolin takes this upon himself to fix this. Guess who also took it upon himself to save Kharbranth, who--only chapters ago--accepts the burden of saving everyone and fixing things?

This particular paragraph feels...unusually vicious for Adolin? Also, notice how similar what Adolin describes Dalinar doing is to what he himself did. Hear how this sounds when we replace one word, and it sounds like it could be an angry Dalinar talking down to Adolin:

"You always barrel forward. Doing whatever you want. Consequences be storming damned. Like you did years ago, killing Sadeas. And you never bothered to tell me."

One point Dalinar was particularly angry with son about was the fact that Adolin did not tell him that he killed Sadeas.

Adolin is so, so much like his father..and the version of him described here that Brandon is drawing attention to is, worryingly, the Blackthorn--the previous champion of Odium. Father and son are both hypocrites, but how can we be certain that Adolin will become the better man in the end, like Dalinar?

Interestingly, Adolin does recognize that perhaps his anger has gone too far. With the sheer amount of negative remarks out of Adolin this chapter, this felt like a welcome way of reeling in all of that. Yes he's mad, but he's not about to do something stupid...at least not now.

What I think Brandon is doing here is placing Adolin on this edge, where, to us, the character could swing one way or another--either Adolin gives in to his passion, or he learns to forgive his father. Teetering upon this edge, all Adolin needs is a push in the wrong direction (as Sadeas literally stated in WoR), and he can be brought to taking an extreme action. Again, this action doesn't need to be physically violent, but it will almost certainly be directed against Dalinar

WHY THOUGH?

Journey vs Destination is the heart of the first five books of the Stormlight Archive, and everything up until now has been leading to the infamous Contest of Champions. This duel doesn't need to be fought in a traditional sense with swords and sorcery, but what is important is that Dalinar and Taravangian's ideologies clash.

We understand Dalinar's side. Dalinar has a whole book about accepting the journey, growing to be a better person, and living his ideals.

We also understand Adolin's side. We probably cheered when Adolin "took out the trash" and killed Sadeas for the sake of protecting his family.

The point is that an Adolin vs Dalinar match-up will not just put the characters in conflict within the story, but it will also make the Reader stop and think about what they personally believe. With the contest painted in this way, both sides have perfectly valid points.

TO SUMMARIZE

Adolin is a Consequentialist, like TOdium

Adolin resembles an Edgedancer, but so does TOdium, so it could really swing either way. Plus maybe a revived Maya would side against Honor?

Adolin is pissed at his father, the alleged "Champion of Honor"

Adolin has a history of making rash decisions out when his anger reaches a breaking point

Adolin would be an ideal pick to challenge Dalinar's personal philosophy, he can hold his own in battle, and we care deeply about him...creating the perfect tragedy!

IN CONCLUSION

Adolin will be Odium's Champion, you heard it here!

THE AFTERMATH

So what happens next? I've been thinking about this a bit. What can be done with Adolin's character in the back five books if he does survive but has to live with the consequences of his shitty choices?

Adolin's present conflict with his father seems to be rooted from Dalinar killing his mother, which Adolin says he can never forgive.

In the next five books, Adolin is placed in Dalinar's shoes. Maybe at this point he regrets his decision, has to repair the damage he caused, and learns to forgive himself in the same way his father did (also--finally--forgiving his father in the process).

I really hope Adolin lives and gets to have his drink with Kaladin in Shallan. Maybe in Stormlight 10, they do get that ending :)