Welcome back to the Words of Radiance Reread on Tor.com! Last time, our friends began to cope with a changed world in the aftermath of the great clash. This week, secrets come creeping out: the Ghostbloods, the Sons of Honor, the Skybreakers, and Shallan’s past.
This reread will contain spoilers for The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and any other Cosmere book that becomes relevant to the discussion. The index for this reread can be found here, and more Stormlight Archive goodies are indexed here.
Click on through to join the discussion!
Chapter 88: The Man Who Owned the Winds
Point of View: Shallan, Amaram, Szeth
Setting: Urithiru, Kholin Warcamp, an unknown location
Symbology: Pattern, Shalash, Nalan
IN WHICH Shallan finds the Ghostbloods waiting for her; though she confronts them defiantly, Mraize still wants her to be part of them; she finds Adolin waiting for her, which is much more pleasant; Pattern insists that it is time to face her past; she finally acknowledges the whole truth.
… Amaram prepares a message for Restares; he cuts his way into Talnenel’s cell; Iyatil fires poison darts at Amaram, but Talenel catches them with superhuman speed; Amaram escorts Talenel to his coach.
… Szeth realizes to his dismay that he’s alive; Nalan implies that Szeth will become a Skybreaker and will confront his people; Szeth wonders how he is to face those who bear the other Honorblades; Nalan gives him a black sword in a metal sheath; the blade whispers in his mind.
Quote of the Week
“Why did she try to kill me, Pattern?” Shallan whispered.
“Mmm…”
“It started when she found out what I could do.”
She remembered it now. Her mother’s arrival, with a friend Shallan didn’t recognize, to confront her father. Her mother’s shouts, arguing with her father.
Mother calling Shallan one of them.
Her father barging in. Mother’s friend with a knife, the two struggling, the friend getting cut in the arm. Blood spilled on the carpet. The friend had won that fight, eventually holding Father down, pinned on the ground. Mother took the knife and came for Shallan.
And then…
And then a sword in Shallan’s hands.
“He let everyone believe that he’d killed her,” Shallan whispered. “That he’d murdered his wife and her lover in a rage, when I was the one who had actually killed them. He lied to protect me.”
“I know.”
“That secret destroyed him. It destroyed our entire family.”
“I know.”
This makes me sad all over again. After all these years, Shallan has to confront three things: her mother tried to kill her, her father sacrificed his reputation (and eventually his sanity) to protect her, and she killed them both: one defending herself, and the other defending what was left of the family.
The thing we still don’t know is why Lady Davar tried to kill her developing-Radiant daughter. Come to think of it, we also don’t know whether or not her father believed that Shallan was becoming a Radiant, or how he felt about the idea. We just know that he didn’t want his daughter murdered.
Also, this was the same timeframe in which Jasnah first made contact with Ivory, and Gavilar was assassinated.
Off the Wall
1173090605 1173090801 1173090901 1173091001 1173091004 1173100105 1173100205 1173100401 1173100603 1173100804
—From the Diagram, North Wall Coda, Windowsill region: paragraph 2
(This appears to be a sequence of dates, but their relevance is as yet unknown.)
This turns out, on careful examination, to be the dates of the last ten highstorms prior to the Weeping. Or prior to the Everstorm, depending on how you look at it.
Commentary
One of the things that amazes me about this book is the way the climax blows you away, and then in the aftermath you get blown away in a different kind of storm. There is so much revealed in these last few chapters, even though it seems like there’s not much happening.
For starters, of course, there’s the fact that they’re moving into the tower because there’s really nothing else to be done. While the Everstorm still has to wrap around the planet, the out-of-sequence highstorm will be arriving soon; with no way of knowing what it will be like this high in the mountains, they have to assume it will be bad. Staying out on an open field would just be stupid when there’s an empty tower to be used for shelter.
So Shallan walks the halls, to find a note addressed to her stuck on the wall where she can’t help but see it, next to a room where Mraize waits for her. (How did he know she’d come that way?) Their whole interaction is unsettling on multiple levels. He implies that her Veil disguise is somehow more true than her identity as Shallan Davar – and that he has some right, and some special insight, to know better than she does.
At that point, it’s good to remember that he doesn’t know everything; it seems he assumes that no one else knows about her Lightweaving, but only that she has a Blade that is different than the others. While it’s true that Dalinar is the only one she’s deliberately shown an Illusion, and Kaladin saw some of her Illusions in the chasms, it’s a little presumptuous of him to assume that no one knows, and that she intends to keep it that way.
I guess I just don’t trust Mraize, because I don’t know what his purposes are. He claims that Shallan is a member of the Ghostbloods, and he will help her because they look out for their own people… but he also admits the enmity between them and Jasnah, tells Shallan he has her brothers, reminds her that the Davars still owe him a Soulcaster, and implies that he knows far more about her family than she does.
Ironically, he concludes by saying, “Let Shallan Davar be a Radiant, conformist and noble. Let Veil come to us. And let her find truth.” As a bunch of worldhoppers, I’m sure they know a lot of things she doesn’t, and it might be worth learning what they know. But Radiant=conformist just kills me, given that Vorin teaching has claimed the Radiants to be traitors for hundreds of years, and people aren’t sure whether to be grateful to her for rescue, or kill her as a traitor.
So much for the Ghostbloods: they are still secretive, and have admitted only that they killed Jasnah and are holding her brothers. Let’s move on to the Sons of Honor.
Amaram gives us a whole bunch of info: First, Restares is indeed connected with, and the probable leader of, the Sons of Honor. Second, they consider themselves responsible for the return of the Voidbringers, a goal which they have been pursuing rigorously. (Whether they are actually responsible or not, I find it revolting that they are perfectly happy with being the cause of so much acknowledged suffering, as long as they can achieve their purpose of dominance.) Third, they are confident that the Heralds will necessarily return, now that the Voidbringers have shown themselves. (Considering the current mental state of the Heralds, I question the wisdom of this desire as well as the assumed success.) Finally, we learn that Amaram is planning to go to Urithiru among the armies. And that’s just what we learn from his letter.
He goes on to retrieve “the person who calls himself Talenel” by cutting his way into the back of Dalinar’s monastery and sneaking him out. (Interestingly, he considers the loss of Dalinar’s friendship to be one of the highest prices he must pay for the return of the Heralds. Not sure what to make of that.) In the process of abducting Talenel, though, Iyatil takes a couple of potshots at Amaram, which has a few remarkable implications. One, Amaram recognizes Iyatil as one of the Ghostbloods. Two, the Ghostbloods are trying to kill Amaram, though whether that’s personal or because of his involvement with the SoH we don’t know. Three, Amaram is surprised to find himself a target of the Ghostbloods, though he’s not surprised that the Herald might be.
Lastly, the Skybreakers. When Nalan restores Szeth to life, he makes some very interesting suggestions. One is that Szeth is qualified to be a Skybreaker; another is that Nalan has the capacity to make that happen at will. He assumes that Szeth will want to join them, and states that training begins immediately. This all falls into the category of “unreliable narrator info-dump,” so I don’t know just how much we can rely on any of it. We’ve never before seen an indication that the Heralds were ever directly involved in selecting their Knights, nor that they could command the spren to form a bond. Even if those things were true, though, why would someone in training as a Skybreaker (which Mraize also indicated was the case with Helaran) need or even want a Shardblade other than their spren? Why did Nalan give Szeth this particular blade?
Stormwatch
Day Zero… for the last time.
Sprenspotting
Other than Pattern, there aren’t really any spren to be observed in this chapter. In lieu of that, I’d like to point out a snippet of the conversation between Nalan and Szeth:
“My gods are the spirits of the stones,” Szeth whispered. “The sun and the stars. Not men.”
“Nonsense. Your people revere the spren of stone, but you do not worship them.”
This appears to indicate that the Shin (and/or the Stone Shamanate) worship the spren of stone, and the spren of the sun and the stars. Or, I suppose, it could be read to mean that they think the sun and stars are the spren of the stone.
Is it significant, that they don’t worship stone itself, but the spren of the stone? My mind is going in circles, wondering how that works. Does a Shaman have the power to observe or communicate with the actual spren of stone(s) in the Cognitive realm? As I recall, what we’ve seen so far indicates that objects appear as beads in the Cognitive realm, and the moving/active residents of that realm are the spren of emotions and processes. Does that matter? Shallan was able to communicate with the stick-bead – was that the spren of the stick? I’m so confused…
Ars Arcanum
This chapter holds the culmination of Shallan’s flashback sequence, and the deepest Lightweaving she’s ever done. After a superficial Illusion, she creates “a better lie” – a fully interactive Illusion of the room we saw in her first flashback: red carpet, once white, with a strongbox that opens and bodies that can be rolled over. Finally, we know for sure what happened, and so does Shallan.
To continue from the QOTW,
“I hate you,” she whispered, staring into her mother’s dead eyes.
“I know.” Pattern buzzed softly. “Eventually, you will kill me, and you will have your revenge.”
“I don’t want revenge. I want my family.”
I’m not quite clear, and I suspect maybe Shallan isn’t either, whether the “I hate you” is directed at Mother or Pattern. But it’s not too surprising that Pattern assumes she’s addressing him; combining that with what they know of the Recreance, it’s also not surprising that he assumes she will eventually kill him.
It’s worth noting that two chapters ago, Shallan acknowledged “A deeper truth” – that her Shardblade was different than all the rest. She admits it again earlier in this chapter, thinking that her Blade not only could appear in less than the requisite ten heartbeats, he had done so before. In this scene, she finally says it right out loud: the Shardblade her father had put in the strongbox was actually Pattern.
That leads into the acknowledgement that her mother had tried to kill her, and that she had defended herself with Pattern-as-a-Shardblade. This is the deepest of the truths she’s been hiding from herself for six years.
Does this make her a full-fledged Radiant? Has she reached the level of self-awareness, now that she’s not hiding things from herself, that completes her development? I don’t know that we can be 100% sure, but I do have to wonder. Last chapter, she asked Pattern if she was really “one of them,” and he said that she almost was, but she still had a few Words to say – truths, rather than oaths. This is, if my flaky memory is serving me at all, the fourth time she’s stated something specifically identified as “a truth.”
I’m terrified.
I’m a murderer. I killed my father.
My Shardblade is different from all the others.
My mother tried to kill me, and instead I killed her (and her friend).
Is this significant? What do you think?
Ars Mechanica
There’s a glaring question here, an artifact of The Changes. Szeth observes the man who healed him tucking something into his pocket:
“A fabrial of some sort? Glowing brightly?”
In the original version, Nalan says that Szeth could be restored “with the right fabrial,” but in the revised version, he says “with the right Surgebinding.” So did he use a fabrial, or not? Does he refuse to use the term “fabrial” because he knows it’s more accurate to say he’s using Surgebinding, or does he not want Szeth to know he has to use fabrials? Or is it a “super-fabrial” like maybe Oathgates and live-Shardblades? Or… what? Speculate, or bring WoBs to bear on the question.
Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?
This week, we finally meet an old friend. Now we know where Nightblood got to without Vasher – but not why or how! Some would say that with this evidence that Zahel is Vasher, it’s proof that he’s not a Herald. Others would say that it makes more sense that a Herald would have given or loaned it to another Herald. As I seem to say a lot these days – we just don’t know enough yet. I wants more, I does.
More questions: what is the reaction of Szeth’s stomach to the proximity of Nightblood? Someone who wouldn’t want to use Nightblood for evil purposes is supposed to feel sick, while someone with ill intent is supposed to be irresistibly drawn to it. Which is Szeth?
Heraldic Symbolism
The obvious connections in the chapter artwork are for Pattern, insisting on and assisting in Shallan’s growth; Shalash, reflecting Shallan’s progress toward becoming a true Radiant by letting go of the lies she’s told herself; and Nalan as himself. There may be more, but the obvious is… pretty obvious.
Shipping Wars
He had his wrist wrapped, and the bruises on his face were starting to purple. They made him look slightly less intoxicatingly handsome, though there was a rugged “I punched a lot of people today” quality to that, which was fetching in its own right.
This just cracked me up. It’s followed, of course, by a far more significant conversation, involving kisses and refusals to let things be awkward due to her Radianticity. The thing I love most about it is that, besides being all adorable and stuff, they display signs of actual respect for the other individual, instead of mere infatuation. Oddly enough, there may be a bit less overt respect on Shallan’s part, because she’s so very determined not to be treated like fine china. I’m amused that neither of them seem to notice – or make a big deal of – Adolin’s way of effectively caring for her without using cotton wool. He had a conversation with her spren, found the necessary room, and made sure she wouldn’t be disturbed. He also made sure she had a Stormlight lantern (because he knew she might need Stormlight??) and blankets. She sort of notes his quiet competence without quite… noting it. She appreciates it, without feeling like he’s being overprotective. I really, really do hope these two make a go of it.
Housekeeping: I’m not quite sure whether or not there will be a post next week. I’d really like to, because I want to keep going, but I’m on vacation with my family and not sure I’ll have the time to focus properly. This week has been a bit dodgy, what with only sporadic internet access and lots happening, and next week is more of the same. I’ll let you know as soon as I know, okay? Sorry…
Also, we are moving forward with the plan to do a Warbreaker reread! I’ll spend some time in August sketching it out, and will begin sometime in September. So there’s that.
Alice Arneson is a long-time Tor.com commenter and Sanderson beta-reader. She can currently be found on the prairies between Montana and Minnesota, wandering around national parks and monuments, and generally going unplugged. Except for this, because she misses this bunch of folks.
In one of Dalinar’s visions, he’s healed (or maybe he sees someone healed, i don’t recall exactly) by a Knight Radiant who uses a fabrial and calls it Regrowth. Could be what Nin is using here.
I read the “whether the “I hate you” is directed at Mother or Pattern” bit as hating Pattern, for causing the Radianticity which caused Shallan’s mother to think that she was “one of them”, thereby inspiring the whole red-carpet-once-white plot.
Alice, first and foremost — I am glad your cousins are doing better.
Second – I believe Shallan was referring to her mother when she said ““I hate you.” As the text says, Shallan was still reliving the night of her mother’s death. Shallan was steering at her mother’s eyes.
Alice, I took Nalan’s statement that he could make Szeth a Skybreaker differently than you. I think Nalan was not referring to the use of spren and the Nahel bond. Rather, Nalan would train/further Szeth’s character to mesh with the ideals of the Skybreakers: law is king, law above all else. To give Szeth the necessary skills (i.e. to compensate for Szeth not forming a Nahel bond with a Highspren), Nalan gives Szeth Nightblood.
I do not think the Sons of Honor realize that the Heralds (sans Talenel) broke the Oathpact. The Sons of Honor think that if Roshar is on the brink of disaster, the Heralds will “return to Roshar to save Roshar-kind at Roshar-kind’s darkest hour.” The Sons of Honor think that what could be darker than bringing back the Voidbringers. (On that one count — that the presence of Voidbringers would surely be Roshar’s darkest hour, they might be right). As far as I know, the Sons of Honor do not know about the Oathpact — that after a Desolation, the Heralds go to wherever it is they go to and are tortured over and over again. So long as at least one of the Heralds continues to be tortured, Roshar is saved from Desolation. The Sons of Honor believe that the Heralds are Roshar’s saviors (“heralding” Roshar’s salvation). In actuality, the Heralds’s presence is the cause of the Desolation. If they do not appear on Roshar, it means they are still being tortured and that Roshar is safe from the Desolation. The Heralds are “heralding” Roshar’s imminent destruction.
IMO, the Heralds do not fight against the Voidbringers to help Roshar: rather they fight as part of a form of punishment. The Heralds’ failure to continued to be tortured is what causes the Desolation. Thus, they fight as a means of to redress their failure. IMO, the bargain is that in lieu of no Voidbringers on Roshar (and by extension, no Odioum), the agree to be tortured. The Heralds were at one time honorable men and women who felt obligated to help Roshar fight against the Voidbringers because they could not perpetually accept the torture. Eventually, the endless cycles got to them and 9 out of 10 Heralds broke the Oathpact.
I hope we eventually meet Restares in the flesh. I wonder where is his base of operations. I wonder if the Sons of Honor and the Ghostbloods originally had the same goals (and where part of the same organization). At some point, some of the members of the original organization split and formed a new organization. Only time will tell.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
If Vasher was a herald then when all the creation of heralds and honorblades was going down he could have just upgraded night blood to an honorblade and Szeth will think he is radiant but it’s just another honorblade thing with nightblood powers on top of it
I found the last Shallan flashback very anti-climatic and disappointing. I had already concluded that Shallan had killed her mother with Pattern as a shardblade, so I learned nothing new in the flashback. I thought we would at least get a more detailed account of exactly how it happened and the motivation of her mother and father, but we get nothing … very disappointing.
Thanks Alice!
I still think that Shallan’s mother was a member of the Skybreakers. Though the boring more probable answer is that she was a devout Vorinist. It might help explain why Heleran sought them out.
I agree with AndrewHB that Nalan gave Szeth Nightblood because he knows its difficult to bond spren and Naln has a job for him. Tangent: I wonder what the Stormlight to Breaths ratio is. 1 Mark:1 Breath?
I think Shallan is a full Radiant now. She just needs to start practicing so she can be a competent Radiant.
I’m with Alice, not sure if Shallan is talking to Pattern or Mother. I’m leaning towards Mother.
But, … agh.. one more time when we get answers, but still have so many questions! Fingers crossed for more backstory in Book 3.
And I never realized Ivory and the first assassination happened at the same time. Wow.
Anyone know if a dedicated fan is keeping a “Calendar of events” for the SA? I know there was one for the Wheel of Time.
Nightblood: I’ve listened to the Audio book for WoR (Michael Kramer) the old audio version of Warbreaker. The one thing the old narrator did better was Nightblood’s voice. It was more cheerful and almost childish. 95% of the time I prefer Kramer’s voice for just about everything. But not how he voiced Nightblood.
I’ve not listened to the new Warbreaker read by Alyssa Brenahan, but heard good things about her reading. The old narrator made Lightsong sound like a surfer dude.
I <3 Nightblood.
With the end of the reread coming up, I suppose I should stop lurking… I’ve been following this reread for since the end of part three, and I absolutely admire the effort you put into this, Alice – and the thoughts of all the commenters.
As for Shallan, I think she didn’t know herself whether the “I hate you” line was directed at Pattern or her Mother. Maybe both.
@7 – there’s a super-detailed timeline of Words of Radiance’s events here, and a significantly-less detailed timeline of WoK events here. There’s also some chronology here.
Maybe I missed something here, but what did it mean for Shallan to be “one of them?”
Restares – what is that, like an aggressive double-take?
I’m not sure if I asked this a long time ago, or if I got an answer… but star spren don’t make sense to me. Spren tend to manifest near the thing they are attracted to, but stars are nowhere near the planet… have they just been named wrong and they’re really something else? I’ll admit that I don’t yet have a good grasp on what exactly spren are, I feel like everyone else understands them more than I do.
I believe that Mraize assumes that Shallan is too emotionally damaged to display her ‘real’ persona; she can only function by using created ones (masks) He believes that the persona of Veil is the closest to what Shallan would become if she were healed. It also appears that Mraize doesn’t have a high opinion of Radiants, although there is no obvious animus as in the case of Nalan. What is clear is that the Ghostbloods, in the form of Mraize and Iyatil, hate Amaram and the Sons of Honor. The Sons of Honor, in turn, revere the Heralds and are willing to use extreme measures to return them – including returning the Voidbringers. The latter objective is what, presumably, occasions their hatred by the Ghostbloods. Their attitude towards (proto)Radiants is as yet unclear. Amararm may or may not know that the Oathgate to Uritiiru can be opened by a Radiant using a spren-blade (as well as a Herald with his Honorblade).
This theme of masks used by Shallan reminds me of a striking scene at the end of the Batman Begins film by Chris Nolan. Bruce Wayne’s former girlfriend, Rachel, now knows his other identity as Batman. They are walking hand in hand when she turns to him and says “I had hoped that we could resume our relationship, but then I became aware of the mask”. He protests, that the Batman mask is only a theatrical prop to confront criminals. No, she replies, “The face that they see is your true face. This, (she caresses his face) is the mask.” In other words, Rachel perceives that Bruce is too emotionally damaged by his guilt since childhood in innocently precipitating the killing of his parents that he can only function via masks, and the Batman mask is more revealing than his uncostumed self. Shades of Mraize and the Veil persona.
Braid_Tug @@@@@ 7 – There is a new audiobook for Warbreaker? Hmm. The one I have is by James Yaegashi (sp?). Is the new one better?
@6 Airsicklowlander, I am also inclining towards your conjectured Skybreaker affiliation of Shallan’s mother for the reason that your gave. It would be far easier for her son, Helaran, to be accepted by them if his mother had been a member.
Put me in the camp of those who assume that Shallan was really addressing Pattern when she exclaimed “I hate you”. The question that I have is the subject – not object, of her hatred Is it having ben bonded to a Lightweaver spren that precipitated her mother’s panicked hatred? Or is it primarily Pattern’s insistence on recreating that highly traumatic scene where she views the results of having used the Pattern-blade to defend herself? She knew that her mother’s body was just a vision. Moreover, she had been long suffering from the guilt of having killed her own mother – even if in self-defense. Why should she express hatred to her rather than regret and guilt? Finally, when Pattern acknowledges her hatred and remarks about her ultimately getting revenge, she doesn’t say “I didn’t mean you; I meant her”. Instead, she tearfully protests that she doesn’t wish to avenge herself on Pattern but only to recover her destroyed family.
I agree with others here that Szeth is not being offered a Radiant Spren bond. It seems that Nalan/Darkness/Nin is running an organization that he believes are the ‘Skybreakers’, he certainly has minions, but he has lost his understanding of how it is supposed to work. All the Heralds seem to have gone nuts in individual ways and his manifestation seems to be in an extreme interpretation of adherence to the Law (this is also why I doubt Zahel/Vasher could be a Herald, he seems perfectly sane [by his grouchy standards]). Perhaps there is a rational reason for him to be trying to kill proto-Radiants, but he’s still a crazy dude with a band of minions with Shardblades and probably his own honorblade.
Shallan needs to point out to the Ghostbloods that she does not owe them a soulcaster anymore because it was their actions that sunk their own to the bottom of the sea. Secondly that the difference between Jasnah’s actions and their actions is that they will kill any innocents in their way (crew of the Wind’s Pleasure, ‘Veil’s’ coachmen, etc) and that Jasnah only killed their members.
Also of note in this chapter is Amaram chiding himself for assuming that the ‘Herald’ would look Alethi but insisting that his dark eyes are some sort of disguise. As someone on TV Tropes put it – He is able to get over his fantastic racism but not his fantastic classism.
@@@@@ Alice
Thanks for the summary of Shallan’s probable truths. I’ve picked up on other possibilities along the way, but they weren’t specifically identified as truths. One of them is in Shallan’s POV in this chapter. It starts out something like “I am no longer a child…”. It’s a little weak comparatively though. So, where do the 4 you’ve identified leave us? IIRC, WOB is that Shallan is not a full KR by the end of WoR (please let me know if that’s not correct), which she would be with 4 truths and the first ideal. We are missing something here. Do we have evidence that she actually said the first ideal or a reasonable variation? Seems like it should really be Step 1, before the truths, but I could be wrong about that. Could it be what’s missing? Or are we misidentifying one of her truths?
AndrewHB @@@@@3
I believe you are on target about Nale making Szeth into a pseudo-Radiant sans Nahel bond. However, I’m not convinced of your supposition that the entire population of Roshar does not know the Heralds broke the Oathpact.
Yep, let’s bring back the crazy Heralds to save the world. Uh, huh…good plan. I feel much empathy for the Heralds. They’re trapped between Hell and High Water, and I hope they find a workable solution to that problem.
iguacufalls @@@@@10
“one of them” = surgebinder/KR (ETA: Presumably, no hard evidence)
Eyeless621 @@@@@11
Agree with you about Starspren not making sense, they must be something else, but I don’t have any idea what at this point.
And…
Yeah, Amaram assuming the Heralds have light eyes and look Alethi. Heh. Can you say ‘stereotype’?
I don’t believe Vasher/Zahel is a Herald for exactly the reasons ChocolateRob mentioned.
STBLST @14
Do we know Honorblades can open Oathgates? It makes sense, but…
I believe there’s a WoB that Shallan’s Truths so far are only “I am afraid”, “I killed my father” and “I killed my mother”, and that “My Shardblade is different from the others” is not a Truth – at least that’s what people on the Shard are saying. Therefore Shallan should have one more Truth to go.
ChocolateRob, well spotted with Amaram. I am waiting for his realization that this isn’t so with considerable schadenfreude.
While I’m on topic of Amaram, how does he hope to hide Taln – and himself, as I suspect he’s not so eager to announce his arrival – in Urithiru? Granted, the tower is a hundred floors tall (fun fact: it’s about 370 metres by a conservative estimate), but it’s crammed up to brim with some hundred thousand people, if not more. Add to that the fact that a tower has a limited number of entrances and I have my doubts whether Amaram is able to sneak Taln past Dalinar’s men.
@16 – Ways – Were people even talking about proto-Radiants back then? I had the impression that this whole concept was a surprise to everyone on Roshar even in the current timeline.
i don’t think the eye thing is racism. Don’t all the radiants/shardbearers have their eyes turn light? It would be logical to expect the heralds to have light eyes from their honor blades even if they were born dark eyes.
iguacufalls @19
The ‘one of them’ thing was from the last chapter when Shallan is talking to Pattern–real time.
Even so, the various secret societies operating at the time when Shallan’s mother was killed were aware of the possibilities. Shallan’s mother appears to have had contact with one of them. Skybreakers and Ghostbloods come to mind, although the Ghostblood relation with the Davar family may have developed after her death. So, guilt by association at a minimum.
john @20
Agreed, but that doesn’t explain why Amaram expected Taln’s skin to be a different color.
ETA – I wouldn’t go so far as to say racism, just stereotyping, but I can see where they might be considered equivalent.
Ways @21 – I was referring to this week’s QOTW,
Nevertheless, your point is taken regarding others that might have had suspicions, even 6 years prior. Thanks!
What I really want to know is this: Spren bond to those that already have cracks in their soul. Tien’s death created a crack for Kaladin. Everybody’s assuming that Shallan’s killing of her mother created a crack for Pattern. BUT, he was able to manifest already as a Shardblade. So, by the age of eleven, Shallan should already have spoken the first ideal and several truths. Pattern also said that he was attracted to her lies. Regarding the current Shallan, I can understand this, he was attracted to her complete denial of her past. BUT what was he attracted to initially? What lies did Shallan have before she was eleven? What caused her to have cracks in her soul before she was eleven? What truths did she use then?
Star Spren – I don’t think there is a Sly or wind spren equal for stars. WoB was that “spren” is the word they have for that concept. So people use it, even if we would call the two things by different names.
Like when Peter said the “wine” colors are not all what we Earthlings would call wine. We would call the different wine colors by different names.
@13: yes, there is a new reader. I started listening to her tonight. I haven’t heard all her voices yet, so I’m holding judgement.
Just jumping in to say: I liked the book entirely, pretty much, but this was the chapter where I exclaimed aloud.
“Nightblood? That’s badwording Nightblood!”
Yeah, Shallan’s background is darn mysterious. Amnesia has to be really convenient when plotting mysterious characters: even Shallan (on her surface level) doesn’t know the answers.
My thoughts:
1. Why does the revision still make it sound like Szeth’s soul was severed?
2. I think it would be appropriate to note under Sprenspotting that Pattern must have talked to Adolin. I imagine that was a strange experience for Adolin. Also, pattern might have asked him to leave the stormlight lantern though she probably still had stormlight left from plunging the hallway into darkness after finding the note from the Ghostbloods.
On another topic, I finished rereading The Alloy of Law so now I can justify buying Shadows of Self : D
Yulerule @@@@@ 23 – Pattern’s definition of a lie is more often than not, very different from how we (humans or Rosharians) define a lie. I forgot exact examples but our metaphors or exaggerations are lies to Pattern. Which of course, they are not because they are figures of speech.
Going back to Shallan as a child and Pattern being attracted to her because of her lies, it can be Shallan’s artistic ability or even her imagination. Since there are no in-book example, I can only use RL examples. Case in point, a child believes in fairy tales. Like Cinderella, or Snow White or even The Wizard of Oz, or Frozen. To us, they are stories and we know that these princesses do not exist in real life. We know that those are just stories and to use a term here in Texas – they are yarns. Coincidentally, yarn is also a synonym for lie if used in a certain context. So, if Pattern ever visits us here on Earth and watch all the Disney movies, he will love it because he has a whole company who has built a business on lies. LOL
Anyway, that’s how I see Pattern being attracted to a child like Shallan who has a great imagination.
Oh, star spren, that’s the other thing I wanted to comment on. Spren are only on Roshar, right? Its not like they can go out in outer space to go visit the stars. I Would guess they just get as close as they can which isn’t very close.
I’ll edit to add another thought instead of another post:
Why is this chapter called The Man Who Owned the Winds?
23. yulerule – I have the same thoughts about Shallan. After her book and her flashbacks, we still do not know about her early childhood and why/how Pattern was attracted to her in the first place. I find this to be one of the most unsatisfying things about WoR and Shallan as a character. I am not sure that Sanderson will go back and explore this part of her life in detail. I have a feeling it will always be a mystery or just be touched on in more of a summary format. It seems that Shallan has become a Radiant and relearned her powers and will not need to revisit that part of her life.
I still headcannon that Shallan’s mother was abusive toward her whole family which lead to the cracks in Shallan’s soul that Pattern filled. Before the incident, her father Lin Davar was the stable influence that protected the family while her mother was the ever-present threat. There is only a few hints toward this but it doesn’t seem to be ruled out anywhere. Shallan states that her father was much nicer before her mother’s death. The only characterization we have on her mother is that she was willing to kill Shallan without any reservations. There’s also a possible clue in chapter 45 where Shallan tells Hoid her version of “Beauty”. Shallan describes a world where everything is happy. I believe that everything she mentions in this world is a lie.
“Mother still lives.” “She is speaking to my father, and he is laughing. Laughing and holding her.” I believe when both parents were alive there was no talking or laughing, instead shouting and fighting.
“The people my mother knew… Dreder… never came to our home.” Shallan’s mother invited people into their house that Shallan found wrong.
“Mother loves me. She teaches me philosophy, and she shows me how to draw.” Shallan told Jasnah that she learned all her art from books and all her other teachings came from a succession of ardents. I assume too then that Shallan’s mother never showed any love toward her only daughter.
There is still an unspoken truth hiding in Shallan’s past. Remember that before regressing, she was able to create full illusions that could move and even reproduce sounds. I’ll never forget the illusion Shallan creates showing what she believes to be her true self, huddled and crying in a corner. The only illusion she doesn’t need to draw first since it’s always present to her. I can only guess that the life before her mother’s death was as bad if not worse than what she had to deal with later.
One thing that confused me was how the Heralds could be the leaders who saved the world in battle after battle, and yet due to the honorblades’ limitations, the Heralds would have less raw power at their disposal than the average full Radiant. Remember, Kaladin was outperforming Szeth at stormlight retention even at one Oath and the Honorblades cannot shapeshift. This is leaving aside the question of whether the Heralds got shardplate. So why are they so impressive? The brief scene with Taln might provide an answer: even if they are not more magical, the heralds are simply that badass.
Probably the idea of needing to be broken to form a bond with a spren is true in the adults where the brain is in a more fixed form.
However I don’t necessarily think that this is the case for children (like when Shallan first bonded Pattern). I think that in children, the brain still in development may be much more accessible, malleable for the sprens without needing it to be cracking.
With this in mind, I don’t think that Shallan’s family was dysfunctional or that unhappy at the beginning. However I can easily imagine that Shallan’s mother when she saw what Shallan could do would think she was a voidbringer and would panic and try to kill her, especially if she really believed the crap that vorinism was teaching and even more so if she was indeed involved in a secret organization.
(please note that I absolutely do not think she was right to act that way!)
@7 The old Warbreaker audio book was my first exposure to Lightsong, so to me he’ll always sound like a surfer dude :)
@15 “Shallan needs to point out to the Ghostbloods that she does not owe them a soulcaster anymore because it was their actions that sunk their own to the bottom of the sea.” I’ve always thought exactly this, but you beat me to posting it :)
When I first read this chapter, I’d read the “I have your brothers … and am bringing them here” as “Since I know you’re one of the most powerful people on the planet, I’m doing you a ‘favor’ so that you’ll stick with us,” but it’s pretty obvious that’s just not possible: he’s only known about her Radiancy for a few hours, yet the “rescue” must have taken place some time in the past. Why did he “rescue” them? Because the Davars had a “long history of involvement in these events?” Because he wanted to extract the “debt” from them?
Re: Shallan’s early childhood
I like Iamjoseph’s analysis @30. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking because I really want to know what was up with the Davar family, particularly Shallan, at the time. Even so, the “unspoken truth hiding in Shallan’s past” might just be the one she needs to say to attain full Radiancy. There’s no doubt that we will pester Brandon mercilessly until he reveals Shallan’s early childhood.
iguacufalls @22
That was confusing, but we got there. YW.
Bellaberry @various
Good questions. I had meant to bring up the chapter title, but forgot. Could it be a reference to Szeth (note past tense: owned)?
I hope you are engaged enough to read Bands of Mourning and Secret Histories after Shadows of Self. They are excellent, IMHO, with much Cosmere-related activity. And then there’s White Sand (OK, I’m a huge Khrissalla fan, her scholarship and attitude remind me of Shallan).
Necarion @31
I want to believe it’s simply because the Heralds were/are just that badass. But don’t forget that Szeth only had the Honorblade and nothing else that went along with being a Herald (training, moral event horizon, relationship with Tanavast, whatever). Could it be that the Heralds got more out of their blades than Szeth ever could (Coppermind alludes to this also, FWIW)? Why is it that Szeth had to hold dangerous amounts of Stormlight to use the blade (according to Syl)? It seems counter-intuitive that Nahel Shardblades would be so much more efficient than Honorblades originating with Tanavast. And if they were, b/c the spren were just that good, why isn’t there an Honorblade v.2? I think there’s more to Honorblades than we know at this point.
I agree with @15 ChocholateRob: The idea of Nalan is actually leading true Skybreakers has always struck me as absurd. The man has made it his personal and eternal mission to delay the next Desolation by destroying anyone developing a Nahel bond. For him to have an order of people supporting him with the Nahel bond is, at best, inconsistent.
An alternative version that makes more sense to me is that Nalan has established his own secret society that he has called “Skybreakers”. We know that Shallan’s eldest brother was a Skybreaker. We also know that he had the standard “dead” Shardblade and Shardplate, which he used in his fatal fight with Kaladin. We also know that he didn’t use any form of Surgebinding in that fight. Ergo, he wasn’t a REAL Skybreaker.
We see this when Nalan and his goons go after Lift. Couple of Shards, no Surgebinding, outside of Nalan himself.
Then when Nalan recruites Szeth, he gives him a “Shard” which we all know is actually Nightblood.
Ways @34 Oh, of course. I’m quite committed to reading all of Brandon’s books. I’m just taking my time, and do reread a for better understanding and trying not to binge buy. I read far more when I have nursing child which is why I’m getting back into it now. I’m currently reading the Alcatraz books to my kids and they’re hilarious.
I love Mraize’s line: “Your family, however, does owe me a debt. One Soulcaster. Broken. How convenient that, by my estimations, you are one, little knife.” It’s chilling – a nice twist on words, and the way it…objectifies Shallan, I guess, heightens the sense that Mraize is using her.
The whole conversation makes me wonder – why really does Mraize want so much for Shallan to be a part of them and trust them? He tries to act like he cares about her identity and her discovering truth – is there some particular truth he wants her to find out? Does he just want a mole among the Radiants? Some power or influence with them? Is he primarily interested in Shallan’s powers? At any rate, this could present a fine opportunity for Shallan to turn to the dark side.
It is striking that we really don’t know yet what the Ghostbloods are trying to do. We find out the general goals of the Sons of Honor, but the ultimate aims of the Ghostbloods are still completely mysterious. There’s something deeper going on.
Also, I’m glad that Shallan’s brothers are coming to Urithiru, as it means that we’ll probably get to see more of them! And I wonder how Adolin will react when he meets her family and gets some bigger hints that there’s something wrong with them.
Finally, Shallan’s words “I don’t want revenge. I want my family” break my heart. It also neatly highlights how purposeless killing Pattern and having “revenge” against him would be – she still wouldn’t have her family back.
Amaram: It’s strange to see a man writing! His pronouncements that he doesn’t exult in the success, it’s a great burden to have to sacrifice so many lives, &c sound rather…deliberate and stiff. The way he talks about their “burden” comes off as rather arrogant and patronizing rather than actually pained about the loss of life.
Szeth and Nalan: One thing I thought was very interesting is how Nalan thinks that because of the Honorblades his people hold, Szeth would have already seen Regrowth being used. So are the Shin actually using the Honorblades, not just keeping them safe somewhere?
Let me take a shot at answering Alice’s question about spren vs. beads in the Cognitive realm vs. the “spren” of stones and so on. Kaladin’s mother explains to him that everything has a spren, and we know that everything has a representation in the Cognitive Realm. So perhaps Rosharans are calling anything Cognitive “spren”, as the only Cognitive entities they usually see are the type that cross the boundaries and appear in the Physical Realm – what we would define as spren. So maybe a Rosharan might consider the stick-bead a “spren” simply because it’s a Cognitive entity that represents that object (even though they’re used to see such Cognitive entities in the Physical Realm).
Maybe I could put it this way. There’s one general category of Cognitive entities. Spren – transformative Cognitive entities that cross into the Physical Realm – are one subtype. The bead thingies are another subtype. However, Rosharans generally only run across the transformative Cognitive entities. So they might apply their word for them – “spren” – to all Cognitive entities.
However, I’m assuming that the idea of there being a spren for everything is connected to the actual representation of everything in the Cognitive Realm. It makes sense that the experience of Radiants and perhaps other magic users with the Cognitive Realm could have trickled down to the general population and been the source of this idea of spren inhabiting everything. (And it’s a classic Sanderson move to have real magical phenomena be the basis for religious/cultural traditions.) But there might be something else going on.
Re: this chapter’s title: I had thought the title referred to Kaladin, but that doesn’t make sense as this is a rare chapter not about Kaladin. So yeah, maybe Szeth.
@10 igacufalls: I wondered that too. The implication is that “one of them” meant Shallan was a Surgebinder/Radiant, but we don’t really know.
@36 Bellaberry: YEEEEEEEES SOMEONE IS READING ALCATRAZ
Re: the chapter title – I assume it reflects Szeth’s mention of Kaladin, which used those exact words. Why it’s used as the title for a chapter which only refers to Kaladin in passing, I have no idea!
I too like Iamjoseph’s analysis @30.
I wonder what Shallan was doing, that tipped her mother off that she was Surgebinding. IMO it wouldn’t have been using a Shardblade – it sounded like they were all surprised when Pattern took that form, and Shallan’s instinct to defend herself led to the killings. I don’t think her spren was attracted to her because of a childish belief in fairy tales, though I’m sure that’s related to how her powers were manifesting – I think something(s) happened to put cracks in her tiny soul. So sad.
Here’s another thing that occurred to me: What if Helaran sought out the Skybreakers not to join them, but to fight them or to ask for justice? What if Mrs. Davar was actually a member of the Skybreakers, not the Ghostbloods? That would be another reason for her to attack her daughter: like Nalan, she would have been hunting and killing proto-Radiants. If this were true, Helaran might have seen that involvement as the ultimate cause for his mother’s death, or maybe he just wanted to know what she was doing in / for their secret society. IIRC, nothing in the book specifically connects Mrs. Davar with the Ghostbloods – we’ve just been assuming it based on Mraize’s comment that the “family” has a history with the group.
So many questions unanswered!
Pattern says that Shallan once could make moving illusions with sound. That is probably what she did as a child.
Lin was involved with the Ghostbloods and got the soulcaster from them. We do not know what group Shallan’s mother belonged to.
When it comes to the title, while it’s odd that it doesn’t really involve Shallan in the chapter where she has her last “flashback,”* of the three characters it could be construed as referencing 2 out of the 3. Szeth, of course, lost his Windrunner abilities with the Honorblade, so it could refer to him as the past tense, noted earlier by at least @Ways (although Kaladin asserts they’ve always belonged to him, I doubt that would change the validity of Szeth thinking of himself once that way). In a more metaphorical sense one could also say Amaram once owned the winds due to his relationship with Kaladin.
I’d say it’s meant to draw our attention to Szeth’s part. Either on how different he is, now that he’s been grounded so to speak, or on his thoughts related to Kaladin (who the title could also be referring to after all). Szeth went from one bad master to another bad master, after all, but maybe this time he’ll finally break free from his reliance on solving difficult problems by passing off responsibility to another party. And it can be a bit easy to lose the character stuff in Szeth’s part when it’s filled with multiple revelations about Szeth surviving, Nalan, and then a talking sentient sword (that a lot of us recognized!)
*As an aside, I appreciate that similar to book 1, Sanderson broke how he was doing the flashbacks again for the most pivotal scene. As Carl pointed back in TWoK reread, it’s a very powerful method to create a method of doing a thing and then to break it for the last part – the scene then stands out that much more.
>.> Shallan better not kill Pattern though, I would cry.
@23 I also noticed that it seemed too big to be a coincidence that Post-Death-Kelsier (Mistborn: Secret History) can only talk to people with signs of madness, which he also refers to as having cracks in their soul. Is this The only way that beings in the Cognitive Realm can communicate with those in the Physical Realm?
Totally off topic:
For anyone interested, there’s an article in the Seattle Times about my cousin’s children and how they’re using Pokemon Go as part of their therapy. :) http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/harborview-uses-pokmon-go-in-patient-recovery/?utm_source=The+Seattle+Times&utm_campaign=642b661763-Morning_Brief_7_19_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5beb38b61e-642b661763-120448481
As a quick background, since I’ve been reminded that y’all don’t necessarily know… I grew up in western Montana as part of a large extended family, and many of my relatives still live within 50 or so miles of where I grew up. (The rest of them are scattered around the world, with smaller concentrations in Kansas and Saskatchewan.) Anyway… this particular cousin lives in the area where we both grew up, and they have a family tradition of camping at Swan Lake, which is where the boating accident took place. While there are good local hospitals, and most of those injured were treated there, these three had such severe burns that they were airlifted to the trauma center at Harborview in Seattle… which just happens to be about 20 miles from where I now live.
I truly appreciate all your good wishes for their recovery, and it is amazing to see how well they’re doing!
Alice @@@@@ 43 – Thank you for sharing that story Alice. And I’m glad that everyone will have full recovery. :-) Beautiful girls BTW.
All – With my deepest apologies, there will be no post on July 21. I really thought I could pull it off, but the truth is that I simply can’t do justice to the final chapter of Words of Radiance if I try to force it through tonight. Rather than give you an incoherent mess, I’m going to hold off on Chapter 89, try to do it right when I’m properly awake, and post it next week.
I’m sorry for the last-minute notice, though. :(
NOOOOOOOOOOOoooo….
Sorry Alice. Looking forward to seeing what you write once your brain is engaged again.
Early speculation for the rest of us…
With both books ending from Hoid’s POV – Do you think this will continue for the rest of the series?
I can almost see him doing a strange Hamlet like soliloquy with a skull at the end of book 5. Some type of lingering questions about what will happen next.
A hint for the next set of books, but not a cliffhanger.
But if he’s still there at the end of Book 10, is a whole other question. Brandon wants the SA to be able to stand on it’s own – so you don’t have to read the whole Cosmere books to enjoy it – if you don’t want to. This makes me think book 10 will not end with a question or a reflection on the wider universe. Rather it will remained focused on Roshar. The aspect of Roshar the end talks about? Far to early for any type of educated guess.
Wild, Looney theory speculation however – so much fun.
Speaking of endings, does anyone else recall a WoB saying that the final scene of the SA has already been seen in these first two books? I remember it, but so far I can’t find it.
One more thing that I think would be interesting, but I haven’t found time to do yet: scrub through the list of death rattles to see what can be identified as having happened already. Someone pointed out the one about Shallan and Kaladin emerging from the chasm, and of course we saw the Everstorm come… but have there been others? It might be a fun way to spend a few hours this week, if anyone needs something to do. :)
Also: I’m really, really sorry about the lack of post today. I managed to do one while on vacation, but I couldn’t focus enough to finish the second. By the time we got back yesterday, unloaded the car, etc., it just wasn’t enough – or clear-headed enough – time. I could have kept on until 3:00 a.m. or so, but the result would have been pretty lame. The chapter deserves better.
@48 – I’d never heard that, but I poked around for a bit and found this: http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1069#24
Intriguing!
@49: Thanks for the link! I also like question 11. I think someone was asking a few weeks ago.
Question 11:
If a non Windrunner picked up Jezrien’s honorblade would they gain Windrunner powers as well?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Question
If a Windrunner picked up that blade, would their abilities be enhanced?
Brandon Sanderson
There would be some compounding but strength is not as much an issue with surgebinding as is the strength of the spren bond and how much Stormlight you are using
zad-man @49 – THANK YOU!! I knew I’d seen that, but I couldn’t remember enough detail to find it in a search. At least… not at midnight. Which is about when I gave up last night.
@7- There is a new recording. The old one is no longer available for purchase, but if you bought it before you can still access (at least on Audible.) I bought the new version for a re-listen, because people were saying it was so much better, but I actually decided a couple of hours in that it wasn’t worth it, and returned it. I didn’t have any major problems with the original version, and didn’t really mind Lightsong’s surfer voice. I agree with you that I’ll miss the voice of Nightblood, even though I love Michael Kramer.
@48&49 Okay, that just blew my mind. I looked back at the beginning of Mistborn and do know remember noticing that on a re-read. However, it didn’t give too much away, because I assumed on a first reading that it was the Lord Ruler. I am curious where the chapter is hidden in the SA, but I’m hesitant to actually find it, because I’d worry that it might spoil the ending. I’m guessing that he knows what he’s doing though, and that it won’t really spoil anything, because it will be ambiguous, until everything is revealed. I guess it’s kind of similar to J.K. Rowling saying that for a long time the last word of the HP series was “scar”. You could speculate, but it didn’t really give too much away.
@15 – I’m not following you about the soulcaster being sunk at the bottom of the sea. First off, Shallan actually sunk the ship, so I’m not sure that would hold up as an excuse. Second, and pardon me if I’m forgetting something, wasn’t the soulcaster that the Davar family owed the one that Shallan’s father was using to create those underground mineral deposits? I’m pretty sure that it was damaged by Balat when he tried to stab Lin. That’s what sent Shallan off to steal Jasnah’s soulcaster.
Was there a soulcaster on the ship that I’m not remembering? Jasnah’s was a fake, and she certainly wasn’t going to work as a human soulcaster, as Mraize expects Shallan to do, since she and the Ghostbloods were sending assassins after each other (assuming Mraize is telling the truth.)
Marethyu316 @54: Shallan had the broken one with her to exchange with Jasnah’s. They were taking it to Navani to be repaired.
Also, remember that the Ghostbloods don’t know A) that the Soulcaster was broken (unless one of Shallan’s brothers spilled the tallew), B) that Shallan was the one who sank the ship, C) that Jasnah’s was a fake. All they know is that Shallan had it with her, and the ship sank during their attack on Jasnah and the ship’s crew. So Rob’s point @15 is valid – the Soulcaster belonging to the Ghostbloods sank with the ship they attacked, and she doesn’t owe them anything in that regard. It’s a pretty good argument, anyway, and she should make it.
The discussion about the ending of the SA series being prefigured in a chapter of the 2 published books brings to mind an earlier conjecture. I would have guessed that the chapter involving the character Fleet is involved. Although created largely by Hoid, the story had taken hold of Kaladin who referred to it as he appeared to be dying in defense of the king. The sense that I have is that Hoid was projecting Kaladin’s fate with the Fleet story. Like Fleet, Kaladin will face seemingly impossible odds, but will succeed – at the cost of his life. As I saw it, he will be the champion facing that of Odium.
Perhaps, though, Sanderson is misdirecting our attention and that the proper prefiguration of the ending of the series is in the last chapter in WOK. There the exhausted Taln reaches the royal Alethi city of Kholinar to prepare them for the coming Desolation. He is both exhausted and mentally disturbed by his ordeal, and is told by Hoid that he is too late. I foresee that a revived Taln may well be Honor’s champion against Odium. He will succeed in this scenario at the cost of his life – as has happened many times in earlier Desolations.
Oooh!! I like the theory of Taln being Honor’s champion, or if not the champion, then maybe he could help train the eventual champion for the fight against Odium.
Also I have a theory for the next book regarding Szeth. I think Nalan is going to send him back to Shinovar to confront the Elders? Stone Shamans? Whoever made him Truthless and that it will not end well, as in I fully expect Nightblood to go beserk and kill everyone. Then I think Nalan will ask for Szeth to bring him the remaining Honor Blades, which Nalan will either keep hidden, or dole out to his folowers as they seek ” justice” and killing potential Radiants. It seems to me that Kaladin, Shallan etc coming out into the open, while we may think its a good idea, it could have the potential consequences of putting Big Targets on their backs for assassination.
What do y’all think?
@56 Luesh, the Devar steward, was the Ghostblood who brought them the Soulcaster and was trained in its use. He didn’t die until Shallan had already found Jasnah, so he would have had plenty of opportunity to let them know that the Soulcaster had been broken.
Yes, but did he? Reading back through what little was given in TWoK, there’s no indication that Luesh had told the Ghostbloods that the Soulcaster was broken. Quite possibly, he figured he’d be held responsible for it. He certainly seemed to be supportive of the quest to replace the broken one with a working model, and the men who came to pressure the Davar boys for the return of their Soulcaster didn’t seem to have any notion that it was broken. So while it’s possible that the Ghostbloods learned of the damage from Luesh, it’s also quite possible that they didn’t. We don’t know.
Ouch. It’s another LONG one tomorrow. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
(Right now, it’s looking like at least 3500 words. Brevity and I are not currently on speaking terms.)
@61Wetlandernw – Well, Brevity has, after all, been a person of few words ;) Let’s not worry too much over that. Besides, it wouldn’t be a proper week without your excellent re-read and analysis – I for one am really looking forward to getting into it.
Yay! Long ones are the best! I hope you don’t get in trouble with TPTB
But given this will be the last post for this reread (?) the longer the better I say!
We still have the epilogue and the Ars Arcanum to cover, though I’m still not sure whether that will be one or two posts. But we really are almost done! After that I’m going to take a break, then dive into Warbreaker.
@63 We’ve still got the Epilogue! Can’t forget Hoid! Not to mention the Ars Arcanum and Khriss.
Forgive me if this has been discussed or asked previously- but
Sons of Honor- anyone else find this name intriguing? Son of Honor is what the storm father calls Dalinar and Kaladin. Does this tell us that Gavilar had the visions that Dalinar now has, was he calling Gavilar “son of Honor”, did Gavilar start down this path to bring back the listener’s gods because of the visions he was getting?
Also, didn’t Mraize mention that Helaran was trying to find the Skybreakers?