Before we get to the much-anticipated goodness that is Wind and Truth, book 5 of The Stormlight Archive, beta reader Paige Vest takes a look at the events of book 4, Rhythm of War. This should go without saying, but this article is something of a highlight reel and contains spoilers for the first four books of the series. If you haven’t yet read all of the books, you may want to come back to this article after you’ve caught up! And if you want more in-depth coverage of Rhythm of War, check out the full reread!
The Stormlight Archive is planned as a ten-book series composed of two five-book story arcs, and each of the books in the series thus far begin in the same way, by revealing different points of view of a key event: namely, the assassination of the Alethi king, Gavilar Kholin, and the events surrounding that fateful night. So let’s dive in to all the major character/story arcs through Rhythm of War, for those who need a quick refresher!
Prologue
Navani
The prologue features the viewpoint of Navani Kholin, Queen of Alethkar. We see her dealing with various people in the palace, who are bustling about, preparing for a feast, during which a momentous treaty will be signed with the Parshendi. She thinks about how Gavilar leaves her to do all the work, creating extra labor for her. And of course, we witness Navani’s enormous imposter syndrome (which rivals even mine! Har har.)
After soothing the wounded egos of some guests who expected to meet with the king, Navani goes looking for him. She finds him in her own study visiting with two of his “uncommon figures,” who are actually the Heralds Nalan and Kelek, though Navani doesn’t know this, of course.
Gavilar catches her listening at the door and she enters, telling him he needs to join the festivities and see to their guests. He dismisses the Heralds and Navani snatches a glowing sphere from the table, where an array of interesting spheres are spread out between Gavilar and the other men. Some of the spheres seem to have a strange, dark, violet glow and she demands to know what it is and what Gavilar is up to.
We see the complete disdain that Gavilar has for his wife, and how poorly he treats her. And our dislike for the man grows ever more vehement. He is truly nasty.
When he leaves Navani, she paints a glyphward: Death. Gift. Death. She burns it and then feels shame as she wonders if she’s really wishing for Gavilar’s death. Which, of course, soon comes to pass that very night. Navani isn’t as torn up about it as a wife might normally be and, indeed, has to feign grief a bit as she searches Gavilar’s body for those mysterious spheres. But she finds only an empty pouch.
Flashbacks
Venli/Eshonai
The flashbacks begin when the sisters are relatively young and we can see from the get-go how very jealous Venli is of Eshonai. Venli’s focus is primarily on besting her sister at something, while Eshonai desperately wants to learn about the humans.
When Venli meets the voidspren Ulim, he occupies her gemheart and does his best to turn her against her people, while making her think he’s going to bring her glory and renown.
The flashbacks cover many years, as the listeners get to know the humans, through the assassination of Gavilar, through the War of Reckoning, and up until Venli introduces stormform to the listeners.
Eshonai, of course, died during the Battle of Narak when she fell into the chasms and was caught by floodwaters from the highstorm, but at the end of the book, we see the Stormfather take her soul and she rides the storm with him, seeing all of Roshar. It’s really a beautiful scene.
Character Arcs
Kaladin
The story opens with Kal’s father, Lirin, inspecting Herdazian refugees as they file into Hearthstone. He’s awaiting the arrival of a great military leader who will be picked up by Kaladin, who is also there. Kaladin is discovered and attacked
He fights a terrifying new kind of Fused—one who can leave his body and manifest a new one over and over again. The Fused has a device which renders Kaladin’s abilities useless, but Kaladin still kills him with no Radiant powers. Though, as we know, with Fused, it’s only a matter of days before he’ll be back. Kaladin also encounters Moash, who he fails to even try to kill.
Kaladin frees Hearthstone from the singers and takes all of the townspeople, plus the refugees, back to the Shattered Plains via a flying ship, one of Navani’s miraculous inventions called the Fourth Bridge. Upon returning, Dalinar relieves Kaladin of his duties, which nearly breaks Kaladin. He finds purpose again when he joins his father to treat the inhabitants of Urithiru as a surgeon.
After Adolin and Shallan enter Shadesmar, and Dalinar and Jasnah, along with the bulk of the Radiants, depart for Emul, the Fused and singers sneak into the Tower and engage a device on the gemstone column—very like the one the Fused in Hearthstone had—that renders all of the Radiants in the Tower unconscious. All but Kaladin (and Lift! And Venli, of course.). He’s conscious but Kaladin doesn’t have access to the surge of Gravitation so he can’t fly, or fall with style, if you will. He takes an unconscious Teft to his family’s quarters as the Fused and singers take over the Tower, and stashes him in an exam room where he sees patients. Unfortunately, they’re discovered by singers looking for fallen Radiants. Rather than give up Teft, Kaladin engages the singers, killing one and fighting off the other.
After a harsh tongue-lashing from his father for killing a singer, Kaladin takes Teft and goes into hiding in the dark recesses of the Tower, assisted by none other than the Sibling of the Tower. When all seems lost and Kaladin is nearly caught and captured by his enemies, a light in a vein of garnet leads him to a secret room. Kaladin is able to open the door using Stormlight, and he and Teft are safe from their pursuers.
Eventually, he’s found by Dabbid, who was sent by the Sibling, who begins to smuggle food and supplies to Kaladin and the still-unconscious Teft. He also brings in Rlain to help.
Kaladin is able to speak with Navani through the Sibling’s garnet veins in the walls, and he is recruited to help save the nodes in the Tower that power the gemstone column that the Fused are trying to corrupt with voidlight. Unfortunately, when he goes to find each of the nodes to protect them, he encounters the Pursuer, which is the nickname of none other than Lezian, the Fused that Kaladin killed in Hearthstone. He’s back with a new singer body and, true to his nickname, will pursue Kaladin until he kills him. (That’s kind of his jam, to hunt and kill anyone who kills the body he’s inhabiting. Not a lot of brainpower, this one.)
Kaladin barely escapes each time and is unable to protect any of the nodes. Once all four nodes fail, the Fused will be able to corrupt the gemstone column.
The last time he attempts to protect a node, he ends up outside the Tower during a highstorm. He attempts to climb the Tower with the surge of Adhesion, but is so exhausted and battered that he falls. Fortunately for him, Dalinar is riding the storm with the Stormfather and he “catches” Kaladin, saving him from certain death.
As Kaladin lies comatose in the hidden chamber, he has a terrible dream sent to him by Odium. He’s actually had a few of them, but in this particular dream, he is on the verge of hopelessness when he finds Hoid, who gives him a brief respite from the dream—you’ll remember this as the eating stew scene, with the touching “you will be warm again” quote.
Lift is brought in to heal Kaladin and he wakes up. Then Lift wakes Teft up, too, for giggles. A plan is made to use Lift to wake up all of the fallen Radiants so they can somehow escape the tower while Kaladin faces Lezian.
Their final showdown comes as part of the Sanderlanche as we’re kind of skipping about from person to person. There are so many things happening: Teft and Lift are infiltrating the infirmary where Lift is to wake the Radiants there, and Moash shows up. He injures Lift and kills Teft’s spren before killing Teft. He dumps Teft’s body in front of Kaladin, instantly shutting down our brooding Radiant. Until… despite Moash ordering Lezian not to engage Kaladin, he does that very thing and awakens Kaladin’s rage. After Lezian abandons his body twice, he’s on his final body, which Kaladin lashes to the window in the atrium. He then lashes Lezian’s head to the floor and Lezian is decapitated.
Kaladin goes after a Heavenly One, who has Lirin, and who flees to the top of the tower, where she tosses Lirin over the edge. Kaladin follows.
On the way down, still without Gravitation, Kaladin enters a vision, courtesy of Dalinar and the Stormfather. He sees his long-dead brother Tien, who basically tells Kaladin not to blame himself for everything. Kaladin then speaks his Fourth Ideal: “I accept that there will be those I cannot protect!” Dalinar accepts his words and Kaladin levels up, finally gaining Plate.
He saves his father, of course, and returns to the tower to defend the people being attacked by some singers and Fused.
Dalinar
After relieving Kaladin of his duties due to his battle shock, and an awkward goodbye to Adolin, who is heading into Shadesmar with Shallan and company, Dalinar sets out for Emul with the majority of their troops and all of the Radiants except for a handful, who stay in Urithiru. He takes Gavinor with him and tries to spend time with the boy each day.
He places Taravangian under guard after the betrayal of the Jah Kaved troops, which was expected, but still a blow.
When he loses contact with Navani and the tower, he spies remotely using the Stormfather and realizes that the tower has been infiltrated and occupied by the Fused and singers. He decides to seek out the Herald Ishar, and when scouts find Ishar’s encampment, Dalinar visits with Szeth, disguised as an Alethi guard, and five Windrunners.
Ishar is obviously bonkers and calls Dalinar Odium’s Champion, though Dalinar denies this. When Dalinar opens Honor’s Perpendicularity, Ishar is stunned but then tries to take Dalinar’s bond to the Stormfather. Then Szeth jumps in because Ishar has his honorblade, which Szeth’s father used to carry. Ishar tells Szeth that his father is dead and they cross swords. When Nightblood leaves a chip in Ishar’s honorblade, he backs off and tells Dalinar to meet him in Shinovar, and they can reset the Oathpact.
Shallan
Mraize, Shallan’s superior within the Ghostbloods, sends her on a mission to the Honorspren stronghold, Lasting Integrity in Shadesmar, to kill a human that is there. She volunteers to go to Shadesmar to try to get the honorspren to bond humans for Windrunner Radiants, and Dalinar agrees. Adolin goes with her, along with soldiers and some other Radiants.
The trip is largely uneventful but there is one great fight scene with Adolin and Mayalaran, the spren of his sword. (Read on to Adolin’s section for more on that!) Shallan senses that Mraize has planted a spy in her party and she spends way too much time on this little subplot during their journey. She initially thinks it’s one of her Lightweavers, but that turns out not to be the case…
At Lasting Integrity, Shallan searches for the human Mraize has sent her to kill and Adolin works on his defense with an Inkspren who had volunteered to help him. The honorspren said they’d try him when “the judge” returned. Shallan isn’t able to find the man she was sent to kill until the judge returns… and is revealed to be the Herald Kelek.
Dun-dun-dunnnn…
Shallan plans to kill Kelek and imitate him with Lightweaving in order to pardon Adolin. She decides against this plan at the last second, and her Veil persona is absorbed back into her. Turns out that the knife Mraize gave her to assassinate Kelek was the same kind of blade that “killed” Jezrien, which really just captured his soul. Kelek is grateful that she didn’t kill him and explains how he was trying to get offworld, get away from Roshar.
During the whole trip, as mentioned above, Shallan suspected that there was a spy among them and while in Lasting Integrity, she came to believe that it was Pattern, who was using the Elantrian seon that Mraize gave Shallan in order to talk to Wit. Then Pattern found a “dead” Cryptic, and Shallan realized that she had had a spren as a child, and after she killed her mother using that spren as a Shardblade, she abandoned her oaths and “killed” the spren. She takes her in and names her Testament.
Adolin
Adolin and company encounter Notum in Shadesmar. Notom was, of course, the former captain of the ship that had carried them in Oathbringer. He had been decommissioned for helping the humans and he is quite bitter. They go their separate ways until Adolin notices a band of humans who were following his group suddenly veer away, going after Notum’s group.
Adolin takes off on Gallant, Maya behind him, and gallops to save Notum. When he arrives, men are cutting Notum with swords and his light is fading. Adolin charges in, with a regular sword and no Plate, and fights something like a dozen men. It’s brutal and so, so intense. Things are getting hairy when Maya joins him, sword in hand. She can’t really fight but Adolin starts going through a kata with her, and she swings the sword around, basically scaring the men and giving Adolin the advantage. Though he takes a spear to his side, he wins the fight. It is a fantastic scene.
When they get to Lasting Integrity, the honorspren don’t want to let them in. They blame Adolin, as a human, for the Recreance, when Radiants abandoned their oaths and their Shardblades, “killing” their spren. Adolin demands a trial, asking for them to judge him for what the Radiants had done, and thinks he’ll definitely win. The honorspren agree to the trial and let him, Shallan, and their spren into the fortress. They also let Notum in to replenish his Stormlight so he can heal.
Adolin’s trial commences and it is pretty much rigged against him, though Notum actually testifies on his behalf. The last witness is Maya and the honorspren user her to taunt Adolin until she finally screams out, “We chose!” She is able to tell them that the spren agreed with the Radiants about abandoning their oaths, revealing that they weren’t outright murdered by the humans.
Adolin goes free.
Renarin
In Hearthstone, Renarin intervenes as Moash is taunting Kaladin after Moash murders Roshone. Renarin scares Moash away and helps Kaladin back to the Fourth Bridge.
Then in Emul, he heals Highprince Ruthar when Jasnah cuts his throat. Later, Dalinar joins Bridge Four for stew and he and Renarin go on a walk to talk. Renarin uses his surge of Progression, though Dalinar cannot see what Renarin sees. He tells Dalinar he can see him in the vision he summoned, and that Dalinar is in a lot of his visions. In this one, it appears as if Dalinar is fighting distractions, because “why would the enemy agree to a contest that he can theoretically lose?”
Renarin tells Dalinar of a blackness in the vision, which obscures part of the future and tells Dalinar that it’s Renarin himself, that he somehow interferes with Odium’s ability and that anyone close to him is difficult for Odium to read.
Before they part, Renarin tells Dalinar that Sja-anat has other spren that she’s changed who are looking for people to bond. Dalinar is unsure, but Renarin tells Glys he can think of someone who would make a good bond.
Navani
Navani goes with Dalinar, Kaladin, and the Fourth Bridge to Hearthstone. On the way back, she’s in a structure that the Windrunners can lash so that she can ride comfortably, rather than “fly” unprotected as Dalinar does. While she’s traveling back to Urithiru, she gets a spanreed message from someone she doesn’t know chastising her for using spren to make fabrials. She spends some time trying to figure out who the writer is and finally realizes that it’s the Sibling, spren of the tower.
Navani surrenders to the Fused Raboniel when she and her singer and Fused forces take the tower of Urithiru. She finds herself facing off with Raboniel, a scholar, whose intent is to corrupt the gemstone column with Voidlight and unmake the Sibling. The Sibling had reached out to Navani at the onset of the infiltration of the Tower, explaining that infused gems will create a shield around the column, which will keep Raboniel from infusing it with Voidlight. Navani now knows that there are four nodes around the tower which need to stay intact in order for the shield to remain strong. If all four nodes are destroyed, the shield will fall.
In the meantime, Navani is able to touch a ruby vein in the wall and talk to the Sibling. They chat quite a lot and the Sibling allows Navani and Kaladin to talk to each other, as well. The three of them communicate about the nodes and where they are, so that Kaladin can go protect them.
Navani spends much of the book experimenting with light and sound. She practices humming Honor’s rhythm with Raboniel, and eventually, with Raboniel humming Odium’s rhythm, they find the Rhythm of War in the two rhythms joined. This is what they name the journal they’re both keeping about Navani’s studies.
Navani figures out how to create a sphere with anti-Voidlinght, like the ones she had seen with Gavilar the night he died. She tries to hide the knowledge from Raboniel but is unsuccessful. Raboniel reveals that the light can be used to kill both spren and Fused permanently. Raboniel uses an anti-Voidlight sphere attached to a special dagger to permanently kill her daughter, whose mind is gone. This shocks Navani at first but then she realizes the depth of love Raboniel had for her daughter and how she was trying to spare her any more suffering.
Raboniel eventually reveals to Navani that she’s listened in on all of Navani’s talks with the Sibling, and so the Sibling will no longer talk to Navani, who is then confined to the room where she’s been experimenting.
On the evening of Kaladin’s final bout with Lezian the Pursuer, Moash shows up to kill Navani but Raboniel sends him after Kaladin first. Of course, Moash doesn’t go after Kaladin but kills Teft. Then he goes back for Navani, who has disabled Raboniel with a painrial. He throws a knife at her, stabbing her near her right breast, and she hurries to the gemstone column.
As she starts speaking the first Ideal and begging the Sibling to bond with her, Raboniel tries to stop Moash from getting to Navani. He uses the honor blade on her but doesn’t kill her, just immobilizes much of her body. Navani sings Honor’s song for the Sibling, who then sings Cultivation’s song. They harmonize and the Sibling accepts Navani’s words. She’s infused with power and speaks the last part of the first Ideal to Moash as he’s about to strike her down: “Journey before destination, you bastard.”
As we all hoped would happen, the tower awakens. After experimenting with the tower for a bit, Navani finds that Raboniel is still alive, if barely. She asks Navani to kill her with a dagger using Anti-Voidlight so that her soul will be destroyed and she won’t return again. Navani does so.
Jasnah
We see Jasnah fight in a battle for the first time in full Plate. Of course, she used Plate during the Battle of Thaylen Field, but we didn’t really see it like we do in Rhythm of War. She’s brutal. No less so when she’s out of her Plate. While discussing maps and battle plans, Jasnah has Wit taunt Highprince Ruthar, one of the last holdouts from Sadeas’ inner circle. She keeps urging Wit to be harsher until finally, Ruthar draws his blade. Wit agrees to a duel but chooses Jasnah to be his champion. She takes his blade and when Ruthar refuses to fight her, she stabs him in the throat. She immediately has Renarin heal him, however, and proceeds to strip Ruthar of his title, passing it onto his son.
It’s revealed that Jasnah and Wit are in some type of relationship, though he seems more taken with her than she is with him. They discuss Odium and Dalinar, and Wit offers a contract to propose to Dalinar.
Szeth
Szeth goes along with Dalinar to Emul, disguised with a Lightweaving as an Alethi soldier. He hovers around, creepily ominous. We finally hear from his highspren, who seem a bit full of himself, if you ask me. He won’t even tell Szeth his name.
Szeth, baited by Taravangian, goes to confront him on Taravangian’s stupidest, most emotional day, and the unthinkable happens. Odium shows up and Taravangian takes Nightblood from Szeth, who stabbed him with a knife. Taravangian kills Rayse, and takes up the shard of Odium. Szeth, none the wiser, thinks that Nightblood killed Taravangian when the body left behind was Rayse, who held Odium’s shard before.
Venli
Venli is the Voice of Leshwi, the Heavenly One who recruited Moash and named him Vyre. She’s got a plan to leave the Fused and the singers, and strike out on her own with a few friends who are amenable.
When Raboniel, the Lady of Pains, shows up, Leshwi is afraid of her but offers Venli to serve her, and bids Venli to spy on Raboniel. When Raboniel leads a force of Fused and singers to Urithiru, Venli accompanies her.
Venli finds Rlain a captive of the Fused and goes to Raboniel to request his release. Before she leaves, Mraize shows up with Lift in a cage. Afterward, Venli attempts to speak the second Ideal, I will seek freedom for those in bondage, but Cultivation refuses her. She thinks that freeing Lift might do the trick.
She actually goes to Leshwi to ask her to protect Kaladin’s family when she learns that he’s alive and free, and Leswhi gets Lirin and Hesina to watch over and care for the fallen Radiants, who have been gathered in the room with the model of Urithiru.
She visits them with Rlain and Dabbid comes to tell them that Kaladin won’t wake up. Lirin argues that they should bring him to the infirmary but Venli decides to free Lift so she can heal Kaladin. She uses her surge of Cohesion to cut a hole in the back of Lift’s cell to free her.
At one point, she discusses the listeners with Raboniel, who reveals a map with the location of a camp of listeners on the Shattered Plains. Venli realizes that they must be the same listeners who had refused stormform and who had escaped into the chasms before the Battle of Narak. She wonders if her mother might still be alive.
When she decides to take her crew and leave the tower, she’s stalled because Moash, who was working the Oathgate, had gone to the tower. Venli returns, planning on smuggling out Kaladin and his family, but finds him fighting Lezian the Pursuer. At Timbre’s urging, she reveals her Radiant nature to Leshwi, who is awed.
After all the dust settles, Leshwi and some other Heavenly Ones who had defended the humans and fallen Radiants against the other Fused and singers go with Venli and her crew to the Shattered Plains to search for the listeners. They find them, and Venli’s mother Jaxlim is still alive, but lost. A spren enters her but she does not consume stormlight. Then a chasmfiend appears from the chasm and Thude confirms that the chasmfiends helped them through the chasms when they’d fled Eshonai and the stormforms.
Then Jaxlim calls to Venli. She has been restored, and Venli’s words are finally accepted by Cultivation.
Lift
Our favorite little Edgedancer was the only other Radiant (aside from Kaladin) that did not lose consciousness when Raboniel corrupted the node on the gemstone column that rendered almost all the Radiants in the Tower unconscious. She was okay for some time, hiding herself away as only Lift can. But despite her wish to not change, she is growing and squeezing herself through air ducts isn’t as easy as she would like it to be. At one point, she finds a red chicken, which is actually an Aviar, wounded by Mraize’s green chicken. She adopts it until she’s captured, caged by Mraize, and gifts to Raboniel.
She’s then imprisoned until Venli frees her. Lift takes up with Dabbid and Rlain and heals Kaladin, bringing him out of his coma following his jaunt into the highstorm.
She’s part of the plan to wake the fallen Radiants and escape the Tower with them, but the plan is foiled by none other than Moash, the traitor. He actually strikes Lift with Jezrien’s honorblade, deadening her legs, yet she still drags herself about trying to waken Radiants until Moash knocks her unconscious and ties her up.
We don’t see her after that but we learn that she’s okay, that she’s healed, and that she finds the flute that Wit had given Kaladin, which awes Kaladin. He then tracks down the merchant shop where Dalinar said Lift found the flute and, miraculously, he finds the wooden horse that Tien had carved for him, which was taken from him in Alethkar, when he was made a slave.
Taravangian
Dalinar takes Taravangian to Emul and puts him up in a small, guarded house after the army from Jah Kaved betray’s Dalinar’s troops. The old traitor is mostly senseless as time passes, and finds himself weeping often. He had burned the original Diagram but kept a few pages that he’d written more recently, on an intelligent day. In that excerpt, he’d asked a question about why the Diagram couldn’t see Renarin Kholin, and he realizes that Odium can’t see Renarin’s future.
Taravangian is visited by Renarin, who tells him that his future is dark but for one bit of light. Szeth speaks to him afterward and tells him he won’t be manipulated by him. Taravangian tries to tell Szeth that he can kill Odium with Nightblood if he’s in a vision but Szeth won’t listen to him.
Sja-anat visits him in a mirror and tells him that she’ll arrange to have her children brought to him in gemstones, which will bring Odium to him if he releases them. He thinks that if he can get Odium and Szeth or Dalinar in one place, then one of them can use the sword to kill Odium.
When Szeth visits, he sees the gemstones and throws them against the wall, thus summoning Odium. Taravangian takes Nightblood and strikes down Odium, releasing the shard from the body of Rayse, which held it. Taravangian takes up the shard himself, becoming Odium. Rayse’s body is left behind in Taravangian’s house and Szeth believes it to be Taravangian, killed by Nightblood.
Taravangian is visited by Cultivation, who tells him she’ll teach him about his power so he can do better than Rayse did. Taravangian, however, feels exultant as he realizes how he can beat Dalinar. And save them all.
The Ghostbloods
Mraize, as mentioned above, gives Shallan orders to find Restares, who is holed up in Lasting Integrity, city of honorspren in Shadesmar. He gives her a dagger, twin to the one we saw at the end of Oathbringer, wielded by a certain traitor when he killed a Herald.
He also gives her the seon, locked in a box, so they can communicate. She gives him regular reports, but after the events on the final day of Adolin’s trial, Shallan utterly rejects Mraize and the Ghostbloods. I can’t imagine he took that well…
The Sons of Honor
At the beginning of the book, Shallan goes after Ialai Sadeas and when she finds her, Ialai ends up dead from a poison dart. Shallan suspects the Ghostbloods, as they’re quite fond of using poison darts to off their enemies. And that’s pretty much the end of this secret society! Shallan does find an interesting book, however. A book that talks about the greater cosmere…
The Diagram
Since Taravangian is headed to Emul as Dalinar’s prisoner, he dismisses his staff and bids them return to Karbranth. He declares the Diagram’s purpose to be fulfilled.
Epilogue: Hoid
The epilogues of the Stormlight books always feature Hoid as Wit, and this one is no different. We find Hoid in Elhokar’s old palace on the Shattered Plains, talking about storytelling and illusions and doing tricks with a coin. Design pesters him until he tells her to go find someone else to bother.
Then Odium arrives and Hoid thinks there’s something off about him when Odium asks who Hoid would choose were he in “Odium’s” place. As he walks away, he wonders why Odium seems changed and then he realizes, but he’s hit with power and feels terror. Odium sees how Hoid stores his memories and then…
Hoid is walking the halls in Elhokar’s old palace on the Shattered Plains, talking about storytelling. He wonders where Design has gotten off to and feels disoriented. He knows something is wrong but can’t pin it down.
After a chat with Odium about the contract with Dalinar, he tries to whistle a tune but it sounds wrong, as if his perfect pitch is off. He thinks for a moment that something might be wrong… but then dismisses it and goes on his way.
The Journey Continues…
This recap is by no means comprehensive… a lot has fuzzed over in my brain since my last reading, so let me know in the comments if I’ve I missed any major points, and we can discuss! And yes, Kaladin’s section was crazy long, it’s what I remember most clearly about the book and well, he’s Kaladin, he gets a special dispensation.
As we look forward to book 5, one of our biggest questions revolves around what’s going to happen in the CONTEST… OF… CHAMPIONS… CHAMPIONS… AMPIONS… PIONS…
Who will be Odium’s champion? Will Dalinar win? If not, will he become Dark Dalinar and help Odium conquer the Cosmere? Will Ishar come around and forge a new Oathpact? Will Taln ever snap out of his fugue? Will Moash get what’s coming to him? Please, Brandon?! Will Paige stop wishing for bad things to happen to Moash?
(No… no, she won’t.)
For the answers to these and other questions, you’ll have to Read and Find Out! Be sure to follow along with our discussion as the preview chapters of Wind and Truth are released, beginning this Monday, July 29th!
Buy the Book
Wind and Truth
“At the end, it turns out that the actual spy was…”
Huh? The rest of this paragraph wasn’t in the version of Rhythm of War I read.
My deepest apologies… that was overlooked by me and my proofreaders. You’ll see something interesting soon in the preview chapters!
Yes–apologies, it seems that accidentally slipped in (the dangers of being a beta reader!), so we’ve removed that snippet (and unpublished the second comment directly quoting this section, so as not to repeat a potential spoiler). Thanks for catching!
Thanks. I almost quoted the whole thing too, but thought better of it in case it was a spoiler. Sounds like the preview’s going to be interesting.
What a great recap! Sadly, I won’t have to do a reread. Ha! Thanks for refresher!
No worries! I really enjoy these articles! Glad you enjoyed it!
Spectacular recap! Here are a few more major moments I took note of:
Yeah, I didn’t mention Rock or Formless, but I really should have mentioned Rlain. I think I brought up Renarin thinking he knew someone fit for one of Sja-anat’s spren, but I didn’t elaborate. Tsk.
Warning. What follows is a wall of text. Below is my theories/guesses as to what will happen in W&T. None of my below theories account for any portions of W&T that have been released. IMO, the bits that I have read would not change my theories anyways. I will have to break this up into parts.
Part I
The other SA books have had three central arcs that run throughout the book. I will assume that this will be the case for Book 5. A plot arc can have multiple character story lines. In RoW, I feel we had 3 plot arcs: a) Tower occupation; b) mission to Shadesmar; and c) war in Emul. Within these arcs, we had multiple character storylines. In the Tower occupation, we had Navani’s, Kaladin’s, Venli’s and Rlain’s character storylines. The Shadesmar mission focused on Shallan and Adolin’s storylines; each had their separate storyline. Finally, we had Dalinar and Jasnah’s storyline in Emul (Although it might be fair to say that for Dalinar and Jasnah it was more character development than a complete storyline with a beginning, middle and end; but whether a storyline or character development, my underlying point remains the same: a plot arc can address scenes that are not 100% dependent upon what other characters in that plot arc do).
Let’s take a look at what Brandon previously said and what occurred at the end of RoW. Brandon has said that Book 5 will focus on Szeth’s flashbacks. It is fair assume the flashbacks will address Szeth’s life before he trained with the Stone Shaman’s, his training with the Honorblades and what caused Szeth the become Truthless. Likewise, it if fair to assume that one of the arcs will focus on Szeth’s story in the present time line. I believe this arc will revolve him taking his 4th Ideal crusade in Shinovar. Moreover, Szeth told Dalinar that he must go alone
IIRC, Brandon has said Book 5 will be Dalinar heavy. If that is the case, one of the three plot arcs will involve Dalinar’s story. Below I will discuss two potential plot Dalinar arcs and which one I hope is included in Book 5.
The end of RoW provided us with 2 possible “missions” (for lack of a better word) for two main characters. First, Shallan threw down the proverbial gauntlet at the feet of the Ghostbloods and the race is on to find the gemstone containing Ba-Ado-Mishram. Second, Dalinar asked Kaladin to travel to Shinovar “in somewhat odd company.”
The above leads me to conclude the following plot arcs: 1) Dalinar’s arc (further below I will discuss potential antagonists in this arc and which I would prefer), which I think will be the most important and the most pages; 2) the Shinovar arc, which, includeds the Szeth flashback chapters; and 3) Shallan vs. the Ghostbloods in an attempt to find the gemstone containing Ba-Ado-Mishram. Below, I will discuss which characters may be involved with which plot arcs. It will not be my thoughts of what will actually happen; rather a broad outline of some of the major players.
Part II of my book 5 plot theory
Shallan vs. Ghostbloods. I feel this has to be one of the arcs. I do not believe that Shallan will destroy the Ghostbloods completely. IIRC, there is a WoB that the Ghostbloods will be explored further in another series. This could be Mistborn Era 3, SA Books 6-10, Mistborn Era 4, Dragonsteel and/or some other Cosmere series. If the Ghostbloods search for Ba-Ado-Mishram is left for Books 6-10, then Brandon will have to address why Ghostbloods waited 15 years to act on that hunt. Brandon has said their will be a 15-year gap in-world between the end of Book 5 and start of Book 6 (i.e., 15 years of time on Roshar will pass between the end of Book 5 and the start of Book 6). To me, I cannot imagine the Ghostbloods would spin their heels for 15 years. True, they may have other logs in fires in other areas of the Cosmere. However, if we read between the lines, it is the power that Ba-Ado-Mishram that would allow for the Ghostbloods to transfer Stormlight beyond the Shadesmar realm of Roshar; thus, transporting Stormlight to worlds outside the Rosharian sytem. If we are to believe Mraize, this is an important venture for the Ghostbloods. Mraize implies that continued interference in Mraize’s Roshar plans will cause Thaidakar to become more involved. To me, this seems too much of a potential plot to carry over to the second 5 books.
Further, Brandon has said that Books 6-10 will not contain the same major protagonists as were in Books 1-5. As a result, Books 6-10 will not focus on Shallan. Including the Shallan/Ghostblood plot arc will allow Brandon to resolve her overall character journey she has been on since WoK. In RoW, Shallan found the path that allowed her to absorb Veil. But Shallan still feels she needs Radiant to be a separate personality. Having Shallan go up against the Ghostbloods provides her with an opportunity to further journey down her personal path.
I think that the Shallan/Ghostblood arc will end with Shallan accepting herself enough to no longer need Radiant as a seperate persona and Shallan will find/recover the gemstone containing Ba-Ado-Mishram. This will result in the disgrace of Mraize. So much so that the Ghostbloods will kill Mraize. If we do see the Ghostbloods in Books 6-10, we will see a new main Ghostblood operative working on Roshar with a different goal. Alternatively, the Ghostbloods will not be involved at all in Books 6-10. I also think we will see Adolin and some of the other Lightweeavers in the Unseen Court will assist Shallan.
As an aside, I think Shallan’s finding the Ba-Ado-Mishram gemstone will tie into a series of Navani interludes. As with the multiple Eshonai Interludes in WoR, Book 5 will have multiple Navani Interludes where she works with the Sibling to counter any lasting effects of cutting off Ba-Ado-Mishram’s Connection to the Singers and Navani and the Sibling’s efforts to properly use sprens in fabrials.
· The connection is the severing of Ba-Ado-Mishram impacted sapient spren who had their Nahel bond broken. It did not affect the Highspren as the Skybreakers did not break their Oaths during the Recreance. I theorized that Navani’s work with the Sibling (trying to better human/spren interaction) will intersect with Shallan’s search for the gemstone. But I did not have a reason as to what the benefit of finding that gemstone (other than keeping it away from the Ghostbloods). Releasing Ba-Ado-Mishram can reverse the effect of the Recreance on the Deadeyes. Perhaps the way to do that is to change Ba-Ado-Mishram. Remake her with Rhythm of Tower that will cleanse the effect of Voidlight from her. A sort of unmaking of the Unmade. I do not think you want to inject anti-Voidlight as that might kill the Unamde rather than change her.
· Kelek tells Shallan (through the note in Epigraphs in Part IV of RoW) that keeping Ba-Ado-Mishram trapped in the gemstone causes greater harm to Roshar than releasing her. Releasing her could be the key to restoring the Deadeye spren. Releasing her may further benefit the Sibling. I am sure their bond with Navani would be strengthened further than it already it. Perhaps the Sibling would be able to generate Towerlight without the need for Navani to supply the sound of Stormlight.
· The language highlighted in yellow came from a theory from tor.com user el_cochino (Comment # 59) on the Spoiler discussion on RoW posted on tor.com.
The second arc will be the Shinovar arc. This arc will primarily follow two characters’ storylines. First, Szeth and his 4th Ideal Crusade. I do not have a guess as to what will happen with Szeth’s storyline. Second, Kaladin, while traveling with Szeth, will try to convince Ishar to come to Urithiru and/or help him with his madness. I believe Kaladin will fail (as I will discuss in my analysis of Dalinar’s arc). It would not surprise me if Ash travels with Kaladin and Szeth. Ash might be able to help Ishar regain some sanity. The other option could have been Taln. However, Taln is at this point so comatose that he needs help with walking; at least Ash can physically function.
Part III of my book 5 plot theory
The third arc will be Dalinar. I can see it going two ways. The first, and more obvious, is Dalinar leading up to and having a confrontation with Odium and Odium’s champion. A second, outside the box, arc would be Dalinar confronting Ishar. In this scenario, he defeats Odium’s champion in Part I. Ishar is then the remaining bad guy during the rest of Dalinar’s arc.
I hope Brandon elects to write the first option. I would like to read Dalinar’s reaction to learning that Taravangian is the new Odium. I also believe that Taravangian would choose Szeth as his champion. Part of Szeth’s arc would have him coming grips with whether Szeth continuing to progress as a Skybreaker will allow him to follow Dalinar or does he need to grow by following Taravangian. A Szeth- as-Odium champion would be a call back to the back of WoK book where one of Shallan, Kaladin, Dalinar or Szeth will destroy us (query whether us is Roshar or the Sleepless).
A few other choices for Odium/Taravangian’s champion: Taln (if Odium uses his powers to “remove” Taln’s madness – but ultimately a doubtful champion), Adolin (I hope not); or Nale (I could see Odium coming to Nale disguised as Ishar saying that Dalinar wants to do something that will reinstate the Oathpact and force Nale back to Damnation/Braize to be tortured again.). Focusing on the Dalinar/Odium challenge will allow us to have some chapters where Dalinar tries to work with other Radiants, including Navani, to grow his Bondsmith powers and to try to counter any final Singer advance before the contest of champions. If Odium loses the contest, we can see the effects of Hoid’s unwise challenge/confrontation of Odium in the RoW epilogue. I think Hoid did something that let Odium do something in turn that will have unforeseen consequences that will be a major plot in Books 6-10.
The main reason why I do not want Ishar to be the main antagonist in Book 5 (akin to how, IMO, Raboniel was the main antagonist in RoW), is then Books 6-10 can focus on the fight against Ishar. The mad Ishar has the unfettered power of a Bondsmith (via his Honorblade), which is almost Shard-like without any of the restrictions that the Intent of a Shard has on the holder of the Shard. We know that Nightblood can damage, if not defeat, an Honorblade. Dalinar and the Knight Radiant’s would have to try to deal with Ishar intent on ruling the world. As a result of the terms of the contest, the Fused/Regals and other Singers will enter into a Cold War type truce with the forces of Honor. Yet some of them (Jasnah, Hoid and some other allies, including Ash and Taln) can fight Odium’s efforts to interfere in the other Cosmere systems.
Another reason why I think it makes more sense that Ishar is the big bad in Books 6-10 is that IIRC Brandon has said that Books 6-10 will develop the Heralds further as characters. We know that Ash and Taln are supposed to get their own flashbacks. A Herald as a main series antagonist will give more meaning to telling the story behind the Oathpact and developing the Heralds as characters. If the Heralds are the focus of Books 6-10, I think the prologues in Books 6-10 will be the formation of the Oathpact from different Heralds’ PoVs.
My potential Book 5 arc do not address the ramifications of anti-Stormlight & anti-Voidlight. I wonder how Brandon will chose to address this. I do not think he will let this sit on the shelf (as a Chekov gun) until Books 6-10. It seems like to big a plot point not to address in Book 5. I could not figure a way to incorporate this plot into my proposed arc. I have confidence that Brandon will and do a great job.
I look forward to any comments or critiques on my Book 5 plot arc theories.
Odium’s champion is probably the Fused who killed the Pursuer.
Below is my theory for the end of Book 5
Dalinar reforms Honor, kills Taravangian and combines the newly formed Shard of Honor with Odium resulting in a combined Shard of Order.
· When Sazed took up both Ruin and Preservation, it created the combined Shard of Harmony. Ruin by itself would seek to destroy. Preservation would seek to maintain (without growth). Combining them results in Harmony. This reflects the positive nature of Sazed. He is a good person rather than an evil person like Rayse. Had someone like Rayse held the combined Shards of Ruin and Preservation, it is likely that Instability would have resulted
· In RoW (Chapter 76), Raboniel tells Navani that Honor’s rhythm is stately, whereas Odium’s rhythm is chaotic, but with an underlying logic to the chaos. The stately and chaotic rhythms of each respective shard is an element of the Shard’s Intent: Honor evokes a stately image and Odium evokes the image of chaos.
· Combining the Shard of Honor and Odium would result in one of two Shards, depending upon the characteristic and belief system that the initial holder would have.
o Option 1 would be War. War is after all the rhythm Raboniel called the combined rhythm/light of Honor and Odium. War has the hatred/violent nature of Odium. However, War needs an element of stateliness. War is more than chaos. It is an organized, systematic manner to defeat your enemy. When conducting a war, one needs a defined goal and a type of order to achieve it. An army is not an uncontrollable mob bent on killing. The army has a command structure that runs from the top all the way down to the lowest ranks. For an army to properly conduct a war, it must have this order to it. This is the stately element of of the combined Shard. When Jasnah is on the front lines, we see the ranks marching in unison. To do otherwise would invite an element of chaos that would defeat the battle plans. In a way, there is a type of honor to conducting war. Yet at its core, War inevitably requires the defeat of one’s enemy. Such a defeat is almost impossible without killing. This would be the shard if Dalinar is a warlord – the old Dalinar. A Dalinar influenced by the Thrill and not trying to adhere to the tenants of the Knights Radiant.
o Option 2 would be order. I think the other side of the coin of war is order. You have the need for the military or police force to be present. If harnessed wrong, this can be the Hatred. Alternatively, this can be the Passion side of Rayse believing his Shard is more passion than pure hatred/odium. Yet you have the Honor element. The need to use this military might in a way to defend the populace. A means of protection. The current Dalinar is a man of honor (pun intended). His moral character is now such that he wants peace. He would see the power of the Knights Radiant and other coalition forces as a deterrent. Similar to the belief during the Cold War that a strong US military deployed throughout the world word serve as a deterrent against the military inclination of communism. Thus, the combined Shard is Order.
· An element of Books 6-10 could show the reader the strain of Dalinar fighting the combined Shard to be stay to the positive nature of Order. If Order were taken to far, it could result in an authoritarian tyranny whose goal is to conquer, rather than deter. Thus, change to War.
Thanks a lot for this.
Reading this, I realise I might just have to read the books from the beginning again.
There is a recap article for the first 3 books, as well, if that would help.
https://reactormag.com/before-rhythm-of-war-a-quick-and-dirty-recap-of-brandon-sandersons-stormlight-archive/
Dear Paige, thank you for the recap. I came to Tor in preparation for the upcoming Release, and you delivered :)
Undortunately – based on this, the book was so komplex an Kaladins Journey so difficult to ready, that I’m Not yet hooked to Dive into book 5. Maybe i need to reread the book First myself.