#stormlight 5 speculation

[knight-of-skyloft]

Alright, I'm getting my big Stormlight 5 predictions down now.

Contest of champions

Dalinar (Honor) vs. Renarin (Odium) fakeout. The actual contest will be Adolin (Honor) vs. Taln (Odium). I don't know who's gonna win but honestly I don't think it's gonna matter, there's definitely going to be some kind of crazy twist that changes everything.

Radiant Oaths

4th Bondsmith ideal will be something about letting go of power. Dalinar will fail to swear it at a crucial moment and die.

An Enlightened Truthwatcher ideal will be something like "I will not hide the truth of who I am, I will not make myself small to please others" and it's going to be about Glys living outside Renarin's chest.

5th Windrunner ideal will be "I will protect myself" and Kaladin is gonna swear it and I'm gonna cry like a baby.

4th ideal Szeth pls and thank you.

Character deaths

Dalinar (we all know it), Moash (I'm sorry everyone I don't want him to die I just think he's gonna). If Adolin and Kaladin don't live through this one I will eat my socks.

Misc. other stuff

-The Stormfather's next Bondsmith is going to be a singer but I don't think that will necessarily happen in book 5.

-Adolin and Maya do a reverse Radiant bond. Adolin and Shallan move to Shadesmar, setting the stage for worldhopper Shallan in later books. Renarin becomes Kholin highprince. (This is what the "he must pick it up, the fallen title" death rattle is predicting.)

-I flip-flop between two death rattles for Kaladin's fifth ideal ("I stand over the body of a brother", "He has won. Oh, he has beaten us") but right now I'm feeling like it's the first one.

-Renarin and Rlain are going to start researching fabrials that don't trap spren, based off of the Listener method for growing crops

[koravelliumavast]

Ok this is my KOWT theory of the day. This Death Rattle is about Szeth.

[duckngk]

thinking about how alethi doorframes and stuff are made for taller people since theyre just a taller race generally.. but shinovar is a different story i need kaladin to be hitting his head on EVERYTHING in stormlight 5

[turttastic]

This is so real, I'm literally so worried about this like I can just FEEL that Adolin is gonna die. Dalinar too. Because no other deaths are going to have the same AOE on the majority of the POV characters. Think about it. Adolin dies? Renarin, Shallan, Kaladin and Dalinar (if he somehow lives) are going to be fucking BROKEN. Dalinar dies? Kaladin, Adolin (if he somehow lives), Szeth, Renarin and Navani are going the be a mess. Technically speaking, Kaladin's death would probably cause more mourning per capita BUT the deepest mourners other than Adolin and Shallan would mostly be Bridge Four folks, few of whom are regular POV characters and I think Sanderson wants to maximize POV character suffering above all else.

dalinar stans, adolin stans, let's not discourse with each other about which one of the two of them was right in their father-son beef. let us instead join forces in premeditated mourning because our faves are almost certainly dying next book

[taravangians-storming-balls]

Current theory is that "Knights of Wind and Truth" is the book Kaladin and Szeth write while bored out of their minds on the Shinovar trip. That title has all the vibes of a group project with horrible compromises

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

Wind and Truth Theory: Szeth's unnammed Highspren is Auxiliary

Some evidence:

They have never appeared on page in the Stormlight Archive (Nightblood takes on the usual spren/shardblade role) but we know they exist because Szeth is a full Skybreaker and not a squire

Szeth's highspren chose to bond with the weird outsider whose goals don't align with the rest of the Skybreakers

Szeth (and his spren by extension) is allied with the Windrunners

Auxiliary is a highspren who bonded with the former leader of the Windrunners

Szeth gets into some weird situations

Szeth's spren is so conspicuously absent it feels like it has to be on purpose at this point

No proof that he isn't

[valerieofavonlea]

Alright who's ready to overanalyze how povs are broken up from a Stormlight 5 update from over a year ago? Spoilers for the entire series, including preview chapters for KoWT

So our POV blocks are as such: Szeth and Kaladin, Dalinar and Shallan with Renarin and Navani, and then Navani, Adolin, and Venli with their own things going on.

Let's dive in. Szeth and Kaladin is easy: Shinovar field trip.

Shallan and Dalinar aren't as intertwined, but seem to go together. Dalinar will be prepping for the contest of champions, and it seems Shallan is going after Ba Ado Mishram to find her before the Ghostbloods do. Navani I would expect to be helping Dalinar. Renarin is also in here so I wonder if he (+bridge 4) might be going with Shallan. That'd be an interesting group.

Jasnah is off on her own again. Not terribly surprising. Wit seems to be heading out to find an old friend (Cultivation?) for help, and I want Jasnah to go with him. Imagine how much we could learn about the greater cosmere

Venli is with the singers and will have her own plot again. I'd also expect her to meet up with the rest of the main cast towards the end for any big climax

And then, hey Adolin, whatcha doing by yourself over there? I think it's quite interesting that he's been separated from the main plots. Most of the theorizing for the last few years puts him with Shallan for the BAM plot, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case here. If you've ever been privy to any of less hinged Stormlight theorizing then you know he's my #1 pick for Odium's Champion, and imo separating him from the rest of the cast is a good step towards that end. In any case I think this is the first time he hasn't been playing support to Kaladin/Shallan/Dalinar's plots. Make of that what you will. I can see Dalinar sending him off on his own little mission

Anyway here's my two cents. Feel free to add

[comiclysmic]

⚠️ Art inspired by KOWT / Stormlight 5 teaser chapters

Young Szeth and Impending Nightblood

✒️ Made in ClipStudio Paint

[cloudkohv]

I feel like there’s a missed opportunity for szeth to have a fanclub. I can easily picture randos around the world being like “omg! The assassin-hero’s at it again! He’s so cool! He killed the king of the invading land!!” (except i don’t remember if he was supposed to yoink every single world leader. Probably. idk)

I predict on his road trip with kaladin that they’re going to stop somewhere where everyone’s like omg! The shin hero! Dude! Ur so cool!! And they’re both confused.

[epicmilly]

I see there's a little confusion on whether the person on the wat cover is Adolin or dalinar? i'm prettyyyy sure there was some wob or something official that said it was dalinar but i can't be sure. personally I think that it's dalinar and the golden sunrise/sunset is making his gray hair glow gold.

and also, I think Adolin was on the rhythm of war cover! I looked into this a couple days ago because there was some silver haired guy on the back, and that's michael whelan's interpretation of him

my boy ado <3

and then there's dalinar. his hair looks grayish if you ignore the way the sun lights him up! another thing that makes me think dalinar is the fact that he has a book (presumably twok... or maybe even oathbringer or wind and truth lol) and brought it to what could be thought of as the end of the world, reminding me of that scene in oathbringer where dalinar is like "where's your weapon" to lift and she notes that he has a book and responds like "oh, i can't read." (paraphrased)

anyways is that too much yapping lol

also TYSM FOR ALL THE NOTES YALL ARE AWESOME <3

(messages was also at one but i already read it lol)

[thestormlightnetwork]

RHYTHM OF WAR SPOILERS!!

Who Will Be Odium's Champion?

short answer: Adolin.

Long Answer: Adolin because of what happened in twok prime.

So, in case some of you have forgotten, in the end of Rhythm of War Dalinar and Odium make a deal to have a contest of champions, with what i think are very bad conditions. Since then, people are constantly speculating who will be Odium's champion, and I think the answer is hiding in plain sight.

Adolin will be Odium's champion, and I

Edit: I don't have so much good cause to think it will happen other than "he killed him in twok prime so he'll kill him again"

[wafflelovingbatgirl]

He can’t help himself huh. Branderson what the fuck.

At this rate he’ll either learn to rein himself in or Stormlight Ten will be printed on phone book paper and font. The UK editions already divide the books into two volumes.

[koravelliumavast]

yeah! drop the stormlight 5 theory

just a fair warning. its messy and not at ALL cohesive but some of it makes sense (because i stole info from the coppermind)

Ok so there’s an in universe 15 year break between stormlight 5&6 right? Well I think dalinars gonna LOSE the contest of champions and go to like braize or something (idk if that’s what will happen but I don’t feel like coppermind searching right now) anyway like 15ish years later he finds a way out like Taln did maybe with the help of one of the dead heralds (because Chana is shallans mom theory is such a good theory. Why haven’t we seen her when we’ve seen all the other heralds) but we have to emphasize that neither broke. and the prologue for the next 5 books are dalinars return in different characters perspectives because it’s a big moment.

If he got imprisoned on braize it would be bad. The Stormfather would possibly become a deadeyes? If he became deadeyes would it stop highstorms so than the everstorm is the storm? I don’t know. Im kinda spitballing all of this.

Anyways they need to release Ba-Ado-Mishram according to Kalak (the herald who wrote it in his journal that its something that needs to happen for not only Ba-Ado-Mishram but also Roshar as a whole) who was one of the unmade and was involved with the false desolation somehow and turned singers into fused but then she got imprisoned and her imprisonment like got rid of the singers connection and identity and they were the parshmen and it’s also the reason that there is deadeyed spren (thank you coppermind because this is something I didn’t know really).

Also the ghostbloods are looking for her gemstone to set her free maybe as a way to get the investure off roshar as that is kind of their main motive (or at least of their rosharian actions)

So basically maybe Ba-Ado-Mishram is somewhere on Braize and Dalinar finds a way to set her free and with that he comes back to Roshar. (i just looked at the coppermind and it said something about that if dalinar won odium would return alekthar and herdaz to them and if odium won dalinar would serve his interests in the cosmere as a fused whatever tf that means i dont know.)

things that if they happened in stormlight 5 id cry: dalinar is his champion, adolin goes no i cant let you do that and he takes over, its a fight to the death after all but adolin is the best non-magically enhanced swordsman in roshar. During the events of the fight adolin loses and dies. OR OR OR he seems to be losing and then he goes like maya i could really use some help here and then he gets the part of the radiant bond thats like fighting enhancement and also quick shardblade summoning but not the edgedancer slipperyness or healing of others. He wins the fight (yay!) but something happens, dalinar gets sent to braize or something im not sure.

All i know is this book is not going to solidly take place in the 10 days that the contest of champions allots for its statisitically impossible as there is so much stuff that has to happen that we're certain about will happen. Plus shallan and adolin are still in shadesmar.

Additional things: we don’t know who the interlude chapters person is. What if it’s Moash and his journey to become a dustbringer because dustbringer Moash is such a freaking beautiful thing and it would also make the Reddit fans so mad lmao

Another additional thing: where does kelsier fit into this? He was in the prologue blah blah blah. He finds a way to get off scadriels cognitive realm (something something in tlm) and he’s now in Shadesmar and idk maybe he’s fighting against odium in some way. Harmony may be aware of his actions. He may not idk but Marsh is and Marsh also relays stuff to Harmony so yeah. Kelsier knows that Odium is bad and he wants to punch a god. So he punches odium at some point. That’s kind of it there I don’t have anything to go with that. It just feels right.

Now with the road trip: Szeth realizes how fucked up shinovar is, its destroyed from the everstorm, theres chaos everywhere blah blah blah, he finds the honorblades, he does what he wanted to do. i dont know WHAT exactly he did want to do but it was something. him and kaladin trauma bond. its not a great time. Szeth cries. His sister is dead i dont care what anyone says his sister gave off im gonna die by szeths hands with the honorblade and thats one of the reasons he gets kicked out of shinovar. she gives me dead vibes in that chapter. We also learn why hes truthless, maybe he had a honorspren who was kind of following him idk. The death rattle of "a man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. the waters surged beneath, so far beneath. and he heard a child crying. they were his own tears." is true somehow.

Brandon said more lgbt characters are canonized in this book: aroace kal canonization or bi adolin BOOK canonization perhaps maybe? i know renarin will which means he will also have more povs. and more povs=more visions=more people out of odiums sight?

[wyndlerunner]

The door swung open, revealing MeLaan wearing stylish blue trousers and a buttoned shirt. She’d been going for an androgynous look these days, with very short blonde hair and almost no hint of breasts. For her friends, she often maintained relatively similar features. This face, for example, looked like her — just thinner, less overtly feminine.

As usual she had picked a tall, limber body — this one was at least six foot four.

Storing this description away to look for her in Kowt future stormlight books

[kainekron]

mom help a new chapter is out and wit is being omnous and i feel like my boy kal's gonna have his shit kicked in

(just don't become a herald)