#stormlight 5 speculation

[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

[wyndlerunner]

Tossing in my WaT bingo card before the book comes out tomorrow

Descriptions of bingo spaces below, starting at the top of each column:

B Column: 1) Thaidakar jump scare 2) Fabrial of mass destruction 3) Moash redemption 4) Nightwatcher interference 5) Kaladin’s fifth ideal

I Column: 1) Normal anomalies seems weird to rosharan 2) Odium wins the duel 3) Szeth beefs with someone in Shinovar 4) Maya and Adolin bonding moment 5) Never-before-seen radiant order

N Colimn: 1) Dalinar commits a war crime 2) sassy Nazh note 3) Free Space: Hoid Story time 4) Secret Project investiture 5) Hoid gets dumped

G Column: 1) MeLaan appearance 2) Kaladin is oblivious to woman flirting with him 3) Ba-Ado-Mishram released 4) Shallan murder reveal 5) Ghostbloods meddling in the plot

O Column: 1) Radiant Spren killed 2) Gavinor vengeance arc foreshadowing 3) Renarlain is Canon 4) most of WaT happens after the duel 5) Skybreaker Sigzil

[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

[itsaboon]

Wind and Truth Spoilers

is anyone else confused as to why there's time dilation around roshar?

i mean, ik that hoid or someone said that this sort of thing happened when two shards merged, like when harmony reshaped scadrial, but that had an actual reason and cause, whereas for roshar it just kinda happened.

maybe it has to do with so much investiture being absorbed by retribution from the stormfather, because of investiture=matter and spacetime and relativity and stuff, but it's still really weird.

[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.

[drifting-knightjar]

What if Odium learns of Navani and Raboniel's discovery, and picks up the Splinters of Honor to become the Shard of War 😬

Or maybe that was part of his plan all along, and that's why he wanted Dalinar--famous warmonger--to be his champion.

Maybe Odium knows that he can't conquer the cosmere on the power of passion alone. Maybe he knows he needs the discipline and justifications of Honor to do it.

Maybe Dalinar conquering the Thrill in Oathbringer will be foreshadowing for a similar arc for Kaladin in Wind and Truth, in which Kal defeats War Itself.

[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"

[wyndlerunner]

The notoriously imperialist Alethi being the sole controllers/source of Stormlight in a Roshar suddenly devoid of high storms would also be terrifying if Dalinar kept his bond

i've been thinking many thoughts in preparation for KOWT and I am decently sure the Stormfather is either dying or that bitchass Ishar is forcibly bringing him to the Physical Realm, causing the loss of highstorms for Roshar, with the Night of Sorrows and the loss of Lights.

Knowing that Stormlight has been a core part of Roshar, plants and animals using the highstorms to sustain themselves even, the loss of Stormlight will do far more then devastate the Radiants, it might fuck over the entire planet. With The Lost Metal's Ghostbloods mentioning that even the Rosharan system isn't safe anymore, Odium's victory or a complete destabilization of the planet seems to be imminent.

[cosmerelists]

Ranking Various Cosmere Fantasy Swears

If there's one thing Brandon Sanderson likes, it's avoiding any real swear words in favor of Fantasy Swears. I am genuinely a huge fan of this technique. So here how I'd rank some of the ones I can remember! (And thanks to 17th Shard [here and here] and to Reddit for compiling some lists!).

#14: Colors (Warbreaker)

This one feels a little bit...lazy, I guess? Like yes, Warbreaker's magic is color-dependent, so colors are a big part of the world-building, so I guess it makes sense that people use it as a swear. But it feels like if, in fantasy USA, people swore by "eagles" all the time: "Eagles! I dropped my hamburger!"

#13: Moons (Tress of the Emerald Sea)

I mean same problem as with "colors"! Yes, the moons are a big aspect of the worldbuilding, but it just feels like a semi-boring swear. Although maybe that's just the swear that Tress tends to use.

#12: Shadows/Shades (Shadows for Silence/Sunlit Man)

Okay, maybe this one is a bit boring, but anything Threndy-related gets extra credit from me. So therefore I think this is one of the least boring of the "basically boring descriptors of world building elements" swears.

#11: By the Lord Ruler (Mistborn)

I mean...eh. This one is world specific, but it's basically like swearing by god only in this case the god is the Lord Ruler, right? It makes sense 'n' all but isn't as interesting as some of the later ones.

#10: By the Survivor's Scars (Mistborn)

This one is better because it's more specific--Kelsier's scars are rich with meaning, and swearing by them does feel like it carries cultural weight.

#9: By Harmony's Armbands (Mistborn)

Putting them all in a line like this...I just like how they get ever more specific. Now we're swearing by Harmony's feruchemical armlets? Okay!

#8: God Beyond (Shadows for Silence)

I mean, Threnody is, like, haunted by a god's corpse, so I think any of their god-related swears are more interesting as a result.

#7: Nights / Nights afire (Emperor's Soul)

I like this one because I just don't know what it refers to and it seems kinda creepy. What are nights on fire for??

#6: Rust and Ruin (Mistborn)

Frankly, the alliteration gets this one extra points. And "Rust and Ruin!" just feels like a good thing to shout when you've stubbed your toe.

#5: Storms/storming/Stormfather (Stormlight Archive)

I know this one SHOULD lose points for being exactly the sort of boring descriptive swear I maligned above...but I enjoy this one simply because it's such a clear linguistic stand-in for "fuck" and that leads to such amusing translations as "Kaladin Fuckblessed" or the "Fuckfather" and that just never stops being funny to me.

#4: Herald body parts (Stormlight Archive)

I didn't notice until looking at various compiled lists of Cosmere Fantasy Swears, but Rosharans really like to swear by specific Herald body parts, huh? From here: Kelek's breadth, Kelek's tongue, Ash's eyes, Ishar's soul, Nalan's hand, Pali's mind, Talat's hand...I'm a fan of this. It's interesting and feels culturally relevant.

#3: Glories Within (Stormlight Archive)

This one is just Szeth so far, but people speculate it's probably a Shin curse. That makes it interesting to me since we don't know a whole lot about the Shin. What inner glory are they using to swear?

#2: Starving (Stormlight Archive)

This one is pretty similar to "Storming," I suppose, in being a pretty clear linguistic stand-in for "fucking." But I just like that the food-obsessed Lift has her own personal swear relating to starvation.

#1: Lowly/Highly (Yumi and the Nightmare Painter)

I'm a big fan of the lowly/highly thing from Yumi & the Nightmare Painter, where words can be linguistically marked as meant in either a high way (complimentary) or a low way (insultingly). It's fun worldbuilding and leads to some comic beats in the novel. Plus, this post tickled me greatly: https://www.tumblr.com/cabinetcreature/722030379790401536?source=share. It's so true!

[nevertheless-moving]

STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE AU MASTERLIST

List will be updated with links if/when AUs develop For my Star Wars AU Masterlist: Please See Here As always, people are more than welcome to play with any of these ideas! just please link back to me so I can see! Seriously if you want to write stuff in any form with ideas from any of these aus I will love you forever! 1 to 20: Words of Radiance AUS 21 to 30: Non Words of Radiance AUs (note: these might also be WOR AUs) 31 to 40: Post Winds and Truth Wild Speculation (that may or may not also be a WOR AU)

1 to 20 Words of Radiance AUS

2. High oath Hesina willshaper aus. This is actually many many AUs because the "Mom??" Reveal is great in all contexts. Concept, WOK Era Outline, Brief Fanfic, Art , Early WOR Outline

3. Renarin asks Kaladin for help with radiant stuff during WOR. Secret training. Everyone thinks they're fucking. Chapter 1 and Outline/Meta

4. Elhokar drunk orders kaladin to bedchambers, begs for help keeping away nighmare creatures. Kaladin nearly kills him before scary spren realization, then goes into serious radiant mode when syl gets concerned. Everyone thinks they're fucking. [Note: I might be too easily entertained by this trope]. Kaladin is deeply pained by this but also has people saving thing and really doesnt want to reveal the radiance to the whole camp. Earlier third oath. Eventual fucking optional.

5. Crack. AUs 3, 4, and 9 at same time so people just think Kaladin is the Kholin Rhysadium. Bridge 4 offers government overthrow if he's being pressured. kaladin assures them that's not it. Now people keep trying to high five him. Kaladin with head in hands while Moash snarks over his shoulder "you know when i said fuck the lighteyed i didn't —" Kaladin definitely asexual in this one.

6. Hesina and lirin come to shattered planes, shocked/thrilled/emotional to find kaladin. Bridge 4 desperately trying to get approval of [bugs bunny meme our] parents. Lirin reluctantly adopting renarin who wants to learn about healing now for some reason. Blackthorn surgeon mutual loathing/ jealousy son swap hilarity. Lirin is having a time. 

7. Kaladin wasn’t on guard duty the night of szeth arrival. Still warned by syl about assassin, but has to dead sprint while glowing to get across camp fast enough, soft reveal to anyone outside. Only barely figures out wall running on the way over to crash in window just in time. Szeth freaks out and runs away after very short, mildly anticlimactic interaction. And now Kaladin has to deal with Everyone.

8. Kaladin further along in powers during initial szeth fight. Battle of champions degrading to slap fight when they run out of stormlight and get stuck on the plains. Concept/ Ask, Funny Severed Leg

9. Manufactured rumors about adolin/kaladin. Everyone thinks they're fucking. Effective political mudslinging for most of WOR. Shallan plays up things about her relationship with Jasnah to be a more appealing beard.

10. Kaladin has a meltdown in prison, breaks out of his cell. Just a little bit more stormlight...Shouts of alarm. Aaah glowing Assassin in white! Kaladin panics more. Adolin handles the situation like a champ. Kaladin maybe briefly kidnaps him.

11. Nale goes after kaladin instead of lift. Ohhh so many thoughts for parallels.

12. Syl immediately dive bombs pattern when kaladin and shallan meet. Really early radiant reveal but just to each other. Kaladin does not trust her but doesn't want to reveal his own status so just watches her super intensely...since she's also constantly watching him too, yes, this gets misinterpreted, but she actually picks up on and avoids that interpretation. See au 3 through 5 but more discreet. Veil is the one dragging him from the barracks for late night 'training sessions' [these are actually training sessions but veil flirts outrageously with kaladin when anyone's in earshot] so people are more focused on Veil/Kaladin.

13. Adolin, suspicious after the Assassin in White fight, was secretly following kaladin at night. Sees him step off a ledge into a chasm (I just reread the section and was like?! You glanced over your shoulder once?!). Adolin spends the whole night stewing in regret, anger, grief, guilt (I was there. I could have yelled. Should have done something. I didn't realize...I didn't know. I didn't know anything). Next morning Kaladin is on guard duty and adolin flips his shit, suddenly remembering that the whole reason he was suspicious of this guy was because he inexplicably survived a several hundred foot drop.

14. Kaladin barely manages to hold it together just long enough to out himself as radiant right after prison. Part One, Part two

15. Kaladin does NOT hold it together after getting arrested.

16. Kaladin swears third oath early. Next few weeks involve a lot of hiding glowing bridgeman squire antics and gaslighting people about kaladin's intermittently light eyes.

17. In the initial confrontation with Szeth, Kaladin pushes a bit harder about the radiants being back, Szeth spirals a bit more, crashing realization that he isn't truthless...

17a.  Earlier radiant reveal: szeth surrenders the honor blade and then immediately collapses into the ground. Kaladin drags him and the blade upstairs. Has to reveal himself now because 1) kaladin what the fuck how and 2) the assassin is mumbling about radiants. 17b. Szeth commits suicide by cop Radiant. Kaladin takes honorblade, collapses. When he wakes up hes injured, surrounded by lighteyes and a handful of his men. Intense panic attack about dooming them all by winning a shardblade, maybe a full ptsd flashback because Very Specific Shardblade Winning Trauma. Crazy two nickles moment. Downside: cries a lot in front of people he'd rather not have cried in front of. Upside: Dalinar believes him about Amaram now. Part One , Part Two , Healing Ask Public windrunner powers, but obscured Radiant reveal because glowing assassin sword is very clearly granting magic powers. Weird interactions of honorblade bond and nahel bond. Lot of interesting fallout from Dalinar having his very own Mystical Assassin now.

18. Kaladin sends Syl to spy on the 'horneater princess', one sided radiant discovery. When she sends pattern to spy on bridgeboy, he somehow notices. Shallan does not handle it well. 

19. Something something people put together all the impossible stuff Kaladin's done with all the impossible stuff the Blackthorn did as a youth, combined with one of bridge four drunkenly talking about their best theories for the Captains 'mysterious backstory,' combined with Dalinar literally calling Kaladin son and seemingly overnight the warcamps are convinced that Kaladin is Dalinar's bastard child.

20. (COLLABORATIVE with @gnecrognomicon) Instead of being thrown in prison, Elhokar orders Kaladin be strung up for the Stormfather's judgement. Part One, Part Two

21 to 30 Non Words of Radiance AUs

22. Way of kings au where the beggars of alethkar are rounded up for the war effort. Jezrian, of course, ends up on bridge four.

23. Kaladin time travel au to way of kings only the transition is a bit like a spren going from the cognitive to material realm, so he's not all there. Heartwarming bridge four bonding slightly to the left - sure the mans crazy but he looks so disappointed when we don't help with the injured, and he shares his food like an idiot. How does someone seven foot tall and stronger than a chull make axehound pup eyes. We're not following him though. He's not our lead - holy heralds balls is he glowing??  Bit more of a symbol than a friend, but a symbol that you take turns holding at night because he has really bad nightmares and also hes clingy.  Eventual 'oh shit he's a messed up herald' conclusion.

24. COLLABORATIVE / stone soup with @sweetteaanddragons : adolin and kaladin time travel to way of kings. Kaldin brooding about how to escape AND save all his men AND the world until adolin barges in and buys everyone. 

'Thank the almighty,' Kaladin thought with almost painful relief, watching Adolin argue haughtily with a growing swarm of Thadeus's lighteyes. 'I never thought I'd actually appreciate having a rich friend.' He would, of course, rather die than admit this. "I had it handled," he growled, when the two finally managed to speak inconspicuously, each weaving amongst a thousand confused former bridgeman, speaking quietly with several, until they were able to meet in the middle with reasonable subtlety, all things considered. "That's great, Kal," Adolin said cheerfully, clearly not buying a word. "Say, how would you feel about doing some, you know..." He waved a hand, earning a raised eyebrow from Kaladin. "Glowy stuff for my Father," his voice dropped from a subtle hush to a slightly conspicuous whisper. "So he doesn't disinherit me. I did not have permission for this."  Both pairs of eyes flicked to the side, the Blackthorn's towering figure approaching like a Stormwall. "Uh. Sooner rather than later perhaps."

26. Oathbringer/row au. Adolin doesn’t kill sadeus. Mostly just excuse to dunk on Sadeus for trading one (1) shardblade for mythical warrior who can make his own shardblade. oh look more of your former slaves are glowing now. and THEY make shardblades too!

27A. Elhokar and Kaladin time travel from Elhokar's death in oathbringer to way of kings. Part one, Part Two

27B. Elhokar solo time travels back from Oathbringer death to Way of Kings

28. Moash tells kaladin about beef with elokhar early. This derails the entire plot of the series.

31 to 40 Post Winds and Truth Wild Speculation

31. Szeth kaladin crack pity fuck time travel au words of radiance. Bridge four roasts the shit out of kaladin. Kaladin is doing everything in his power to avoid implying "knowledge of future" which makes the timeline of their relationship deeply confusing. (Part One) (Part Two)

32. Szeth kaladin time travel au post book 5, they get their memories back in the high storm right before canon first meeting. It's a whole thing.

33. Kaladin time travel back to wor, book 5 gone wrong. Deeply terrifying from outsider pov. Captain of the Kholin guard, bridgefour leader, is suddenly Full fourth oath windrunner talking about how humans are the voidbringers, they actually need to support the parshendi in bringing one last controlled desolation, and then kill the heralds and also god. Don't worry not our god. Different god. Our god is already dead. If someone else travels back with him then it swings around to a lil bit funny. *

34. Post winds and truth, pre sunlit man, crossover with the twilight of mistborn era 2 (i think the cosmere timeline could make sense but if not, oh well). Kaladin gets a boon from his god(s). Requests to learn more about mental health. Has to go to another planet to do so, because mental health research on Roshar sucks. Scadrial's god seems (relatively) friendly and their planet has developed antidepressants AND wellness seminars. Shenanigans with Very Old Wax and the gang. *

35. Jasnah, Dalinar, and Renarin (surviving Kholin Radiants) travel from End of World to right after Gavilar's death. Crack. Outline *

All of the above (plus other fandoms if you keep scrolling back) will be tagged with 'my au' The above, plus my canon stormlight and other cosmere meta, technically canon compliant fanfic drabbles, or other things that i've written but don't fit in an au will be tagged 'nevertheless cosmere' * Written Before Wind And Truth Release