The recently revealed cover to Oathbringer, the third book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, promises page-shattering action, but for fans of the series a larger question looms: Just where in the world of Roshar does this scene take place?
(Spoilers ahead for The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance.)
Here’s what artist Michael Whelan was asked to paint for Oathbringer:
We’re centered on a scene where Jasnah confronts the invaders. A giant has smashed a breach in the city wall, and Jasnah is called upon to restore it.
Due to the unique nature of the world of Roshar, city walls often signify life or death for their residents. Heavily reinforced walls are the only consistent defense against “highstorms”, maniacally large hurricanes that are strong enough to scour the landscape down to the rock. On the eastern portion of the Roshar supercontinent, a city without a wall soon ceases to be a city at all.
By the end of Words of Radiance, the previous volume in The Stormlight Archive, an “Everstorm” has been unleashed to sweep over the entirety of Roshar. It is possible that the same malevolence behind the Everstorm has also sent forth a giant–or giants–to break down city walls in order to ensure complete destruction of everything in the Everstorm’s path.
So which city on Roshar could Jasnah be frantically defending?
1.) Kholinar
Throughout the current books in The Stormlight Archive the Alethi are locked in a war of attrition with the Parshendi. By the end of Words of Radiance, the Parshendi have managed an end-run around the Alethi forces by summoning the Everstorm. Busting down the walls of the Alethkar capital of Kholinar would be a devastating follow-up, forcing the Alethi to retreat to their capital and crippling the morale of those forces and the Alethkar citizenry, sealing the Parshendi’s victory.
2.) Vedenar
Vedenar is the capital of the neighboring country of Jah Keved and striking it down would be an ominous precursor to a full-scale assault on Kholinar. Since an attack on Kholinar seems like a high profile event (and thus unlikely to be on the cover in exact detail for fear of spoilers) Oathbringer‘s cover could be depicting an attack on a “lesser” capital. Just a taste of the madness to come.
3.) Kharbranth
Jasnah and her cohort Shallan spent the majority of The Way of Kings in this coastal city, eventually discovering that it’s the current center of power for the Big Bad behind all of this. Jasnah and Wit may find a key weakness residing within Kharbranth that could prompt the malevolence behind the events in The Stormlight Archive to wipe the city off the map in order to preserve its advantage. Jasnah may, in essence, be attempting to preserve Kharbranth from itself.
4.) Urithiru
This ancient nationless city is where most of the series’ characters find themselves by the end of Words of Radiance and it may be hiding access to a power that can match the malevolence behind the Everstorm.
One possible issue with this… Urithiru isn’t known to have highstorm-defraying walls!
5.) Rall Elorim
The most northwestern city on the Rosharan supercontinent doesn’t have walls built to withstand a highstorm, since highstorms never penetrate to the western portion of the Rosharan supercontinent. But it still has walls, and it’s home to Lift, who has been popping up on the edges of The Stormlight Archive in preparation for her full entry into the main series.
By the end of Words of Radiance Jasnah has been positioned as essentially the “Nick Fury” of the series: the gatherer of heroes. It’s possible that Jasnah travels to Rall Elorim to collect Lift and finds the city under assault.
Another possibility: The Everstorm is odd in that it will travel from west to east, hitting lands that have never seen a highstorm, including Rall Elorim. Being an engineer, Jasnah may spend the beginning of Oathbringer rebuilding or reinforcing the walls of these western cities in preparation for the Everstorm, stumbling across Lift and giants along the way. That’s a lot to do, of course, but Jasnah is one of the few characters who would be capable of such derring-do.
Maps of Roshar by Isaac Stewart
Awesome cover! Looking forward to Jasnah having more screentime in book 3!
I’m going with Kholinar
Wasn’t Jasnah in Shinovar at the end of WoR? I mean obviously that could change.
Urithiru and Kharbranth don’t make sense as a location. The first is at the top of a mountain so tall no one noticed the city on top of it. I don’t recall a description of any walls not would there be any field outside for a giant to stand on. Kharbranth also doesn’t have walls, as it’s tucked into a cleft of a mountain and this provides protection from highstorms. I think the most likely location would be Kholinar.
Yeah, it’s probably Kholinar. I won’t discount it being another of the possibilities mentioned (though almost certainly not Urithiru or Kharbranth, for reasons already mentioned), though, because ol’ Brandon sure does have a way of moving the story in an unexpected direction in a way that totally works. For example, I certainly wasn’t expecting Edgedancer to be more than a fun, but ultimately light and fluffy, Lift adventure, but it still featured some relatively major developments.
I think Kholinar is most likely.
also…. “By the end of Words of Radiance Jasnah has been positioned as essentially the “Nick Fury” of the series: the gatherer of heroes. It’s possible that Jasnah travels to Rall Elorim to collect Lift and finds the city under assault.”
I would say this may be true of Dalinar, but definitely not Jasnah.
and lastly….”[Kharbranth is] the current center of power for the Big Bad behind all of this”
I would say Taravangian is more like a side bad guy trying to put “destination before journey” by trying to stop the Big Bad by doing very questionable things….like starting wars….and murdering sick people….so pretty bad, but I wouldn’t say he is the Big Bad behind all of this.
Or it could just be the unnamed town that Jasnah was walking towards in the epilogue of WoR?
Also, I can only agree with Stormbrother @6 that Jasnah hasn’t been assembling other Radiants on purpose so far – Shallan more or less randomly fell into her lap. Dalinar was the one actively looking for and trying to recruit the Radiants.
This article is missing the most important part of this illustration.
Jasnah is not whitewashed.
Yeah Micheal!
If we are worried about the wall protecting the city from the Everstorm, we would also have to rule out any cities what just have the wall built “storm side” since the Everstorm is running the opposite direction. I
I instantly recognized KRadiant Princess Jasnah Kholin [from her Alethi description]. Thank you restoring a “real” likeness to Alethi character, (compared to the previous “other”). I, for one, am truly grateful for the dumping the pancake/flour rendition. After all, Jasnah is describes for her “beauty”, and as a “characteristic” Alethi woman in all her glory.
Thank you (for small miracles). It must be her investiture!!!
Joshua @3 – Just curious: why do you say that Jasnah is in Shinovar at the end of WoR?
This speculation is missing one of the most important parts of the illustration – Jasnah isn’t wearing a havah, the traditional Vorin dress. The havah has buttons up the side, a full skirt (no slits), and a detachable decorative hem, and if I recall correctly there’s no mention of trousers worn underneath. Ergo: Jasnah is probably not in a Vorin nation, which rules out Kholinar and Vedenar as possibilities. (Urithiru is also out, I think – it’s just not described like this.)
Also, re: previous comments 3 and 11 – I don’t think Jasnah is in Shinovar proper, but before she appears Wit mentions a ‘true forest’ to the west of where he’s waiting, so she’s close.
I realize this might not be the best place for this comment, since it’s completely off topic, but it’s the most recent thread discussing Roshar, so I’ll go on with it anyway.
I just had the weirdest parallel today. I went to the car wash and as I was sitting in my car watching the machines do what they do, I found myself thinking: “Wow! This is just like a highstorm! At first it drizzles, then water beats and pounds you from every side (including the brushes which made me think of flying debris) and then it is the end drizzles again …” I know, I’m weird, but I haven’t managed to get this comparison out of my head.
@12 I like the dress analysis, but at the same time, she’s in a battle. Is she really going to be wearing a tight-busted full-skirt dress? I just want to see them all in Shardplate.
Kholinar seems possible. In the end of WoR Dalinar gets news that there are riots in Kholinar, which might mean we’ll see the capital pretty early on in the book, but you never know. I feel like this could just as easily be a lesser city somewhere, not one of the capitals. The Everstorm is causing the transformation all throughout the world, so the invading army could have materialized anywhere.
Well, maybe not everywhere. Is my memory faulty or do the Shin not have parshmen?
To add wallpaper 1680×1050.
@14 I am pretty sure that you are correct about the Shin not having parshmen, but I don’t know if it has ever been stated outright. It just seems likely because of their culture, I suppose, so really, that might be all conjecture.
Wait! Is that her HAND!!! Scandalous!
@17 She’s wearing a glove! Her mother got away with doing while working on fabrials. I’m sure that Jasnah will get a pass, since she’s fighting freaking thunderclasts.
@18 Ah, I see it now, partially hidden behind the crossbar. I should have known better, Mr. Whelan would never have anything as indecent as an uncovered safe hand in his artwork.
@14: It’s not so much a matter of practicality as it is a matter of availability. Vorin gender and modesty norms are strong, and from what we’ve seen are compromised only by working-class women. The fabrics Jasnah is wearing are clearly fine, so she’s not wearing working-class attire; it therefore follows that her clothing didn’t come from a Vorin source. Given that she’s an Elsecaller she could have gotten the outfit somewhere else and then traveled to Kholinar/Vedenar, but we don’t know enough about the mechanics of the surge of Transportation to know if that’s possible within a short timeframe (and Jasnah may not, either – I doubt reappearing months later and a continent away from the Shattered Plains would have been her first choice).
…it may be worth mentioning now that one of my friends is beta-reading Oathbringer, and when I mentioned the lack of havah to her she got very cagey and all she would say is ‘it’s a very accurate representation of the scene’. That’s bolstering my suspicions somewhat.
I suspect that the riots in Kholinar will be important in other ways – for one thing, that might force Elhokar to commit to kingship more firmly; for another, it’ll provide an internal conflict for Dalinar, since that’s his home and his duties to the Radiants may prevent him from doing anything to help.
Agree that it could totally be anywhere, though. I’d actually be really excited if it was in one of the nations we haven’t seen yet – one of the smaller former Makabaki states, for instance.
I’ll go with Rall,at the end of Lifts novella wasn’t the city under attack or the Everstorm was arriving?
I would imagine (and hope) it’s in a lesser city–it seems like a good time to expand action across all of Roshar.
People are missing two main things in this picture. The first is that there is a Highstorm meeting the Everstorm. This means that this is occurring in a place that experiences Highstorms. The second is the spears and banners outside the wall. This implies that there is an army outside, most likely fighting that Thunderclast. I would say the most likely location for this is Kholinar. These two criteria eliminate Kharbranth, Urithiru, and Rall Elorim.
Well hindsight being 20/20 looks like all the guesses were wrong, both in the article and the comments. But that was quite the twist wasn’t it? Since this book is still relatively new I’ll not mention what city it was here