<i>Wind and Truth</i> Read-Along Discussion: Prologue

Welcome, Sanderfans and Cosmere Chickens, to the read-along discussion of the preview chapters of Wind and Truth! If you haven’t already read the Preface and Prologue, we highly recommend that you do so now. We’re changing things up a bit from our usual reread article format, and beta readers Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, and Drew McCaffrey will each have their own commentary section wherein we discuss the chapters each week.

Lyn: I would like to mention one little thing about that. You may think that since we’re beta readers and hence have read the whole book, we’re going to drop hints or spoilers for things further along. Fear not, good readers. We actually go to great lengths to not do that, and may even allude to some misleading theories or red herrings in order to avoid spoiling the story. So if you see us entertaining a “what if?” and think to yourself, “ah hah!” Well… you might want to think again. We’re sneaky like that.

Paige: We are sneaky like that! ::giggles::

So let’s get to it. If you’re a bit fuzzy on the events of Rhythm of War and want to catch up before diving into the prologue here, check out Paige’s “Quick and Dirty Recap of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive to Date!”

We’ll have a new read-along article every Monday, publishing in tandem with the chapter(s) that are being released each week, so that you can read the new material and jump in here to check out our commentary and join the discussion!

Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entire Cosmere up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries in the Cosmere, especially The Stormlight Archive (including novellas), you may want to wait to join us until you’re done.

Before we dive in, allow us to introduce ourselves if you don’t already know us!

Paige: Hey, Sanderfans! I’ve been a fan of Brandon since it was announced he’d be finishing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. I picked up Elantris and Mistborn: The Final Empire because those were his only books that had been released at that time. I loved his writing immediately and haven’t looked back! (Except to work on reread articles, of course.) Peter Ahlstrom very kindly invited me to the Sanderson beta reader team in 2015 and I participated in my first beta read, Edgedancer, in 2016. My day job is working for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, namely for the State Police. I went back to school four years ago and am still working on my first BA (though I have 3 AAs and 2 Certificates!). I enjoy writing flash fiction, short stories, and novels, though I don’t have anything beyond what I’ve self-pubbed, at this time. I do have two full novels and a ton of flash fiction available at my Patreon, and I’m pretty cheap! Erm… well, you know what I mean. You can also find several anthologies with some of my flashes and shorts at Amazon.

Lyndsey: Greetings, lovely Cosmere Chickens! I’ve been a beta reader for Brandon since Words of Radiance, and even have the incredible honor of having a character named after me (Lyn of Bridge 4). In the real world, I’m a fantasy novelist myself (you can find my debut novel here in print, ebook, or audio format) as well as a professional actress, seamstress, woodworker, and a ton of other weird and creative things that together almost earn me enough to provide for my family here in rural Connecticut.

Drew: Hello there! Like Paige and Lyn, I’m a beta reader for Brandon, though not quite with the same tenure. I started in 2018, and my first Cosmere beta read was Rhythm of War. (Some of you might actually know me better from the Wheel of Time fandom, where I’ve been active in various circles for decades.) I’m a fantasy writer, with short stories available on Kindle, and reviewer with thoughts on the Inking Out Loud podcast.

Paige’s Summary and Commentary

In the Prologue of Wind and Truth, we see the night of Gavilar’s assassination from Gavilar’s own point of view. The scene takes place seven and a half years before the events of Wind and Truth. Gavilar has a series of meetings: first with Thaidakar, then Restares and Nale; Navani pops in; then a recruiting meeting for the Sons of Honor, where he meets Taravangian; and finally, Eshonai, to seal his fate. He talks with the Stormfather quite a lot in between these meetings, but then Szeth shows up and, well, we know how that goes.

Each of the prologues in The Stormlight Archive has made me dislike Gavilar more and more, and this one is no different. He’s arrogant, with his thoughts of becoming a god, the Stormfather’s champion, a Herald, immortal. Being a Highprince wasn’t enough. Being the king isn’t enough. He’s just not satisfied and wants to be a god. One thing that I do enjoy, however, is how he repeatedly tries to speak the Words he’s looking for throughout the prologue and how the Stormfather repeatedly rejects him. Thanks for that, Brandon. ::chuckles::

We see Gavilar’s thoughts and how he deceives everyone, even the Stormfather, who chats with him throughout this entire prologue. He lets the Stormfather think that he wants to become his champion when he really just wants to start a Desolation so that he can take the place of a Herald, specifically Taln. ::laughs hysterically:: Taln… of all the Heralds to replace, he thinks he’ll replace Taln. Is that because Taln was just a common man prior to the Oathpact? Little does Gavilar know that Taln was the best of all the Heralds.

Gavilar wouldn’t allow himself to be tortured on Braize between Desolations, however. Oh, no, not our very-full-of-himself king of Alethkar. Gavilar would give in immediately, again and again, and come back to rule Roshar as an immortal. The Stormfather is appalled by this idea and says that it would mean eternal war, but Gavilar, it turns out, is A-okay with eternal war!

The Stormfather isn’t pleased with Gavilar and regrets choosing him, which frankly shows some smarts on the Stormfather’s part! Suddenly the Stormfather cries out in agony and says that a Herald has died and that he’s not ready. I know that many people have a theory on who this Herald is, so tell us what your thoughts are in the comments!

The Stormfather then goes from chatting in italics to ALL CAPS (I don’t know why this is, but it’s ominous). He bids farewell to Gavilar, telling him that he won’t stop what’s coming. Of course, what’s coming is the assassin in white and it’s interesting to think that the Stormfather might have been able to stop it, had he wanted to.

The part of this prologue that struck me the most, I think, is knowing that the Stormfather can lie. Despite this betrayal, as he is dying, Gavilar tries to give the Stormfather a Voidlight sphere to give to Dalinar (though Szeth believes Gavilar is talking to him, and he takes the sphere and writes that Dalinar must find the most important words a man can say). Of course, the Stormfather is like, there’s no way I am picking anyone from your family again, you bunch of nutters! Though, of course, he eventually changes his mind. I wonder why he chose Dalinar after all? What do you think, Sanderfans?

There are other conversations that Gavilar has that night, prior to Szeth’s arrival, which are also worthy of discussion. The prologue skims over Gavilar’s chats with Navani and Eshonai, which we’ve seen already but which also would have been interesting to revisit from Gavilar’s point of view. He’s his usual arrogant self during both of them. Though he does think about how beautiful Navani is, especially when she’s angry, he doesn’t let that interfere with his plans for grandeur. Then, with Eshonai, he sends her on her way with a Voidlight gemstone thinking he’s manipulated her and, by extension, all of the Parshendi, but when she goes straight to the Five, they decide to kill him ASAP. Certainly not his smartest move.

But I like his interaction with Thaidakar, “The Lord of Scars.” ::nudge:: He wants Gavilar to deliver Restares to him and we learn that it’s because Restares knows where Ba-Ado-Mishram has been secreted away in her gemstone prison. The Stormfather reveals that her capture essentially created the parshmen, but what would Thaidakar want with Mishram? What’s also cool about this interaction is that Thaidakar is talking to Gavilar through a seon. Of course, we saw a seon in Rhythm of War… Mraize gave one to Shallan so she could offer updates on her search for Restares/Kelek at Lasting Integrity. Might be the same saucy little seon. But what I find cool is that Thaidakar is likely not on Roshar and is communicating via seon from Scadrial. Seons are seriously awesome, y’all!

Aside from Thaidakar, Gavilar meets with a couple of Heralds, though he doesn’t believe them to be Heralds until the Stormfather confirms that Restares is a Herald. He doesn’t tell Gavilar which one, though. We know Restares is actually Kelek, and he’s with Nale, who he names in front of Gavilar. Kelek also tells Gavilar that another of them is in the palace, though he doesn’t name Shalash. We already knew that, of course. She’s out there destroying her likenesses, as Ash is wont to do.

Nale doesn’t seem to care for Gavilar but then, does Nale care for anyone? Of course, he’s all about the law and, as Gavilar is king of Alethkar, he’s essentially the law in Alethkar, so Nale doesn’t give him grief about wanting to bring back the Voidbringers. Though Kelek does say something I find redeeming for him: He says that he “wanted the honor of men to return” and that he wanted “to explore what made those Radiants so grand.” He then says that he personally made things go wrong. Hmm… Primarily, poor Kelek is just desperate to get off Roshar, and we know that he’s still trying to attain that goal years later when Shallan and Adolin find him in Lasting Integrity.

One very interesting revelation—a tidbit that made my eyebrows shoot up during the beta read last year—was that Vasher is working with Gavilar to make Voidlight. Gavilar gloats while thinking about how he has a “secret scholar”: “A master of all things scientific. A man who was neither Ghostblood nor Son of Honor. A man from another world.” This lowers Vasher in my estimation a bit, if I’m being honest. ::sniff::

Gavilar also meets with Amaram and several Sons of Honor recruits, one of whom is none other than Taravangian, who it seems was shopping around for a Secret Society before he created his own. I was surprised that Gavilar kind of opened up to Taravangian and told him about the Everstorm and the “Night of Sorrows.” And we discover why Taravangian started his death rattle collections in Kharbranth… because his mother spoke Gavilar’s words in a death rattle ten years prior to that night. One fun thing about this meeting is that Amaram says his efforts with Jasnah didn’t go well, and it made me laugh, thinking of the way she scathingly dressed him down in Oathbringer. ::giggles::

So… questions and speculation time. Probably more questions than speculation, knowing me!

• What other lies might the Stormfather have told Gavilar? And has he also lied to Dalinar? What do you think he might have lied to Dalinar about, Sanderfans?

• What does Kelsier want with Mishram? Maybe he thinks she can bestow power on him… that would be interesting. The Ghostbloods are a far-reaching society with their fingers in a lot of pies, so there could be any number of reasons why Kelsier wants Mishram, I suppose.

• How exactly did Kelek make things go wrong? I don’t know if he did something personally to cause the Recreance or if he just thinks he did, but he definitely feels responsible.

• What is the Night of Sorrows? I wonder if it refers to the contest of champions between Odium and Dalinar. It’s always spoken of along with the Everstorm and the True Desolation, but there’s no definitive answer. I honestly don’t know if we have a word of Brandon about it, I couldn’t find one. Does anybody know?

• How did Vasher come to be creating Voidlight for Gavilar? He was obviously already Zahel, the expert warrior, training the princes in combat. Why would he tell Gavilar his real name and why/how is he making Voidlight?

What do you find interesting about this prologue, Sanderfans? Tell us in the comments and we can keep the discussion going!

Lyndsey’s Commentary: Characters and Relationships

I have to admit, when I saw that the prologue was from Gavilar’s POV my first reaction was “ugh.” It makes sense from a story standpoint, of course. All of the previous ones were different perspectives on the same event and Gavilar is the main player in that event, so it does make sense that we’d finally see through his eyes for this, the final book in the first five-book arc. I have to imagine that the prologue chapters of the back half of the Stormlight Archive will center on a different event, and I’m deathly curious to see what that event winds up being. I doubt it will be anything we can guess at this point, unless maybe it’s something big that happens at the conclusion of this book.

Also interesting to note is that the previous POV characters (with the possible exception of Szeth) all had some sort of character arc in that specific book, so we could use the prologue to draw some conclusions about the starting points of their narratives. However… we know that Gavilar’s not going anywhere after this. His POV is being used more as a lens to show us the different Big Players in the Cosmere, and open up our minds to what’s really been going on behind the scenes. As such, I think it’s safe to say that we can expect this book to be incredibly lore-heavy.

Let’s delve a little into the different characters introduced in this chapter, and what their relationships/arcs may tell us…

Gavilar

Gavilar is SUCH an unlikable character. Not only does he mistreat his wife (as we’ve seen in the prologue of Rhythm of War) and his daughter (there’s some evidence in her POV sections of being imprisoned as a child, not to mention him trying to marry her off to that snake Amaram), he’s trying to mislead a magical being that shares his thoughts to some degree. So he’s opportunistic, manipulative, AND stupid.

His thoughts about his brother Dalinar really highlight his arrogance. The only positives he comes up with are things that he can use to further his own ambitions. He discounts everything about Dalinar except for Dalinar’s talent at war, and rather than try to help him with his alcoholism, he facilitates it.

His relationship with Navani isn’t much better. While we do see some snippets of humanity in his thoughts about her, he quickly squashes them, as he believes that he needs to distance himself from “mortal feelings.” Whether this would be an effective strategy for warding off the insanity inherent in immortality, we’ll never know, as he doesn’t live to see his plan put into motion.

I’m not sure if we can categorize Gavilar’s relationship with Taravangian as anything more than an acquaintance; and catastrophically poor judgment of character, on Gavilar’s part. That’s a running theme with him: He’s incapable of recognizing the parts of other people that are worthy of praise and therefore, he’s unable to tap into or foster those strengths into something more. And that’s his biggest failure, ultimately.

Dalinar

A reminder of the fact that at this point in the story, Dalinar is still deep in the throes of alcoholism, PTSD, and depression. He’s murdered his own wife, is keeping that fact from his sons, and isn’t treating them particularly well, either. He’s a broken man, through and through, and hasn’t yet made his journey to the Nightwatcher to remove his traumatic memories. It’s hard to see glimmers of the noble man we come to know in The Way of Kings in this broken husk.

Kelsier

If you didn’t know before now that Thaidakar was our old friend Kel from Mistborn… well… surprise! There’s always another secret.

Kel would know this better than most, given his failed revolt against the Lord Ruler. In a way, it’s almost nice to see him voicing this. Growth, much? (But if he’s not fighting against the tide, what is he doing?)

We know that he was chilling out in the Cognitive Realm for a while before finding a physical body to inhabit on Scadrial, but we’re still pretty hazy on what his goals are, and how his character has changed. Without inner POV chapters from him, all we have are our best guesses.

The big question is… what does Kel want with Restares? He IS a noble, but Kel’s grown past that at this point. He has bigger plans than just overthrowing a ruling class. Or at least, we can assume he does… It must have something to do with the fact that Restares is actually a Herald, but… what?

Nale

Not much more to say about him than that, eh? Sums him up quite nicely. Nale has never been one to see the grey in a situation; it’s always either black or white, crime or law. We know that Nale is hell-bent against another Desolation happening and is willing to do pretty much anything to avoid it. Will we see some growth in him over the course of this book? Or is he destined to die? Will he just remain the same, unchanging forever? Time will tell…

Restares (aka Kelek)

Another instance of a Herald gone insane? Or is there more to this quote? We do know that after this point in the story, he heads off to Lasting Integrity and remains there until Adolin’s trial in Rhythm of War.

Stormfather

What reason does he have to lie? There’s a lot of really interesting information in here that can be read between the lines in their conversation.

Vasher

More importantly, why the heck is VASHER helping Gavilar? What possible motivation could he have had? We currently don’t know much about Vasher post-Warbreaker, or why he showed up here on Roshar in the first place.

Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts and Theories

This prologue has sure been a long time in coming, hasn’t it? Ever since the early days of The Stormlight Archive, theories have been flying hot and fast about what actually happened on the night of Gavilar’s assassination—and now we finally know the whole story. (Well, maybe.) (Mostly.)

One of the biggest and longest-running theories out there is that Gavilar didn’t actually die, but rather became a Cognitive Shadow (like a Herald). And lo and behold, here he is trying to do exactly that… until he doesn’t. He dies with the Stormfather looming over him, telling him that he messed up, that he didn’t understand the assignment.

So that sure feels like a nail in the coffin for the Gavilar-Will-Be-Odium’s-Champion theory, doesn’t it?

But don’t you worry, merry theorists and Arcanists, because while this may have put an end to one big theory, the prologue opened up a few entirely new cans of worms: What’s going on with the Stormfather here? Is it even the Stormfather at all? And what’s the deal with a Herald dying on the night of the feast?

This sequence makes it clear that this entity calling itself the Stormfather is perfectly capable of lying to Gavilar, and in fact seems happy to do so for its own reasons. If it is the real Stormfather… whoo boy, that opens up whole worlds of potential complications, given his bond and relationship with Dalinar.

The final interchange between Gavilar and the Stormfather is particularly fascinating here, since the Stormfather seems to tell Gavilar that he’s done with the Kholin family. Is this another lie, or did he change his mind? If it’s not the Stormfather at all, who is it? Some common opinions include Ishar, the mad Herald, or possibly one of the Unmade, here to cause chaos and get the Desolations up and running again.

If there’s one theory that’s taken the Cosmere fandom by storm in the last year or so, it’s that Shallan’s mother is the Herald Chanarach. Though we don’t know if the exact dates line up, we do know that Shallan killed her mother around the time of Gavilar’s feast. The red hair, the infamous “The world ended, and Shallan was to blame” line, the Word of Brandon that Taln never broke… there is a bunch of steam picking up around this one.

But this is Brandon Sanderson we’re talking about here. The obvious answer isn’t always the right one, and there’s still so much we don’t know about the Heralds. And this is far from the only point of interest in this prologue when it comes to the magic of the Cosmere.

There was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to the identity of Thaidakar at the end of Rhythm of War, but here we see it in full glory: Thaidakar is none other than Kelsier himself, back from the dead after the events of Mistborn Era 1, and getting his fingers in all sorts of pies outside of Scadrial.

Given how this book is coming right out with such a major Cosmere crossover as Kelsier—even if just in magic hologram form—and showing other interplanetary developments like the Seon and the movement of Investiture between worlds, I think we all need to buckle up. Brandon said “the gloves are coming off” with The Lost Metal, and now we’re heading into his biggest book yet.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections here on the site and on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who choose to wait for the full release. See you next Monday with chapters one and two!