Top 10 Unanswered Stormlight Archive Questions (feat. Bookborn)

In this one, Bookborn and I explore the top 10 unanswered questions in the Stormlight Archive before Book 5 - Winds & Truth - comes out this December.
Things get unhinged quite quickly.

00:00 - Intro
02:18 - #1 | Champions
09:35 - #2 | Szeth
13:35 - #3 | Ba-Ado-Mishram
17:15 - #4 | Ishar
20:51 - #5 | Taln
25:26 - #6 | Honor
30:34 - #7 | Odium
35:38 - #8 | Cultivation
40:32 - #9 | Ghostbloods
44:56 - #10 | Dawnshards

[Slater]

I thought it was pretty clear that Szeth is truthless because he tried to tell his people that Radiant powers were returning and they didn't believe him and sentenced him Truthless as a result.

[samroth]

The only way Moash could redeem himself is he is accepts being Odiums champion, then promptly unalives himself.

[BrettSheeran]

I'm a bit late to the party, but in Oathbringer (page 867) Szeth talks with Nightblood and says:
"I knew a voice like yours once, sword-nimi." The whispers? " No. A single one, in my mind, when i was young." (...) "I hope it goes better this time".
Maybe Szeth was in the process of bonding a spren and talking to it, which would explain why he "knew" that the Radiants were forming again & the voidbringers would return which led to him being truthless in the eyes of the shin?

[samroth]

Question 3b "what was Ba-Ado-Mishram" before she was unmade is, in my opinion, the most important question.

[andrewberenson]

I think the Ishar problem will be a major issue for Books 6-10. I think Ishar will be the main antagonist in books 6-10. This will allow us to see flashbacks of some Heralds and how they formed the Oathpact.

[LlM]

10:23 Szeth was deemed Truthless because he said the radiants were returning and his people exiled him for it basically.

[ireallyhatemakingupnamesfo]

I think new information from Yumi and the nightmare painter really supports the idea that the Spren that Ishar experimented with are being bonded in some way to previously human bodies.
When Yumi and painter transfer, yumi’s innate investiture allows her to “heal” her body to match her perception and spiritual aspect. This results in painter’s body transforming to look like Yumi. Spren might have enough investiture to do something similar, but they “heal” into an impossible form because their body has no understanding of internal organs or anything like that.

[CleverPsuedonym]

Knowing Taravangian, becoming Odium, gaining a shard and tasting its power, probably means if anyone can reforge Honor, he thinks it ought to be him. He’s probably becoming aware of the external threats to Roshar from other worlds and wants to be the one who protects Roshar from that because of his pride. He and Dalinar have this shared theme of desiring power, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

[MrJethroha]

Cultivation didn't foresee Taravangian ascending to the Shard of Odium, she made it happen. She gave him intelligent days to help him plan ahead, and she gave him emotional days to draw Rayse in to make a deal and to allow Taravangian to bond Odium. Renarins future seeing abilities shrouded Szeth and Nightblood from Odiums notice, but somehow Cultivation knew when to send Taravangian his "stupidest" day... because she has been coordinating with Sja-Anat the whole time. Sja-Anat sent Renarin his spren in the first place and conspired with Taravangian to draw in Odium on the day he died. I wouldn't be surprised if Cultivation didn't conspire to bring Nightblood to Roshar in the first place. She committed from the beginning to give Taravangian what he asked for "the capacity to save humankind" and she still has a hook in him. The vacillation between intelligent and emotional was an essential part of the boon, so what, then, is the real curse?

[rustygray]

I'm fairly confident that the "bad guys" win in book 5. Here's a few reasons why.

1. Something happened to all of the Windrunners that Sigzil's new, skybreaker spren says "isn't all his fault."
2. Sigzil seems pretty certain that Kaladin is dead.
3. Several of the most powerful agents in the Cosmere, notably Hoid, seem to want to combine all of the shards back into Adonalsium Jr.
4. Brandon has said on Intentionally Blank that a win for the home team is not guaranteed in each era of a multi-era series.

I think that by the end of book 5, we see either Taravangian or Dalinar holding all 3 Rosharan shards.

[Hopuxx]

What a great video!!! The hard work that's gone into it is more than evident! So many good questions, I am counting down the days until I have Wind and Truth in my hands

[masonandreasen]

Taln's honorblade will actually be a major plot point in the Stonewalkers Adventure Path coming out next year for the Cosmere (Stormlight RPG). We dont have the specifics yet as it hasnt been released, but we've been told that one of the quests the player characters will have will be finding Taln's Honorblade. From what ive seen from Brotherwise games and Brandon, the sword questions will be primarily be answered in the RPG, probably only referenced in WaT

[zyrain]

Andolin will be Dalinar's champion. He's literally been set up as the best 1 on 1 duelist the entire series.
Also, the setup for a Herald being Odium's champion is strong. Why else would we have the setup of seeing Ishar fighting off 5 radiants at once, being 'average'? It's possible that Nale will be this Herald.
Andolin will lose, but probably not die completely, per the precedent Jasnah established on duels of honor).
This thus explains the specificity of Dalinar's punishment, abd this will allow T to have his friend back, forever. (Plus we keep them both for future books)

[niknikzoom]

Sunlit man adds more context to the dawnshards

[barrydias]

Dalinar is unity, he can unite the shards of honor into the vessel

[peaceofcrap]

Lore your music always bangs so frickin hard dude. Glad to see you posting again.

[nickbrown]

great video; love the chain web for BAM!

Edit: all the graphics are awesome

[lolJonezy]

this is a high-fidelity video with all the 3d models, great analysis too!

[someweeb]

Sucked in for 20 minutes at 1 AM before realizing this is 50 minutes long… Sleep can wait. Awesome video so far!!

[anmingtou]

There is a cool Dawnshard theory on reddit that the 4 Dawnshard commands are Live, Grow, Fall and Change. They are based off of something Nomad says in Sunlit Man.