Readers of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive epic got a lush visual treat for the hardcover release of Words of Radiance: vibrant endpapers depicting more characters from Sanderson’s fantasy series! For those who are wondering if that practice will continue for Oathbringer, the forthcoming third Stormlight volume, the answer is: yes!
On Friday, October 20th, the B&N book blog Twitter gave fans a sneak peek at the endpapers for Oathbringer:
Jealous of this copy of OATHBRINGER we just received? If you order now, yours will be signed by @BrandSanderson. https://t.co/3zMsZQHbmC pic.twitter.com/Bb7YgT084i
— B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy (@BNSciFi) October 19, 2017
Now that they’re out there, check out the full Dan Dos Santos illustrations hiding behind the front cover of Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer!
Who are these striking individuals? Are they individuals?
And… who might be the two characters depicted in the endpapers behind Oathbringer‘s BACK cover?
We’ll find out come November 14, 2017!
Note: The comments on this article may contain spoilers from the chapters of Oathbringer currently available to read on Tor.com. Tread as thou wilt.
This looks amazing! I am so looking forward to this book!
By the way, I wonder if the pics are of 2 of the Heralds. The lady could be Shallash and the guy could be Ishar (that appears to be the glyph of the Bondsmiths on his chest).
Well, the guy has the Bondsmiths’ symbol on his robes. Ishar, perhaps?
Brandon confirmed it. They are Ishar and Shalash. The back endpapers will have Jezrein and Vedel.
LINK
Oh, these are gorgeous! Can’t wait to have my hands on my book!
::drools uncontrollably::
If that’s Shallash, then the Vorin restriction of hiding the safehand goes back a loooooing time. Unless that’s meant to be a Vorin interpretation of Shallash, but that’s a lot more skin otherwise than it seems “Vorin” to show. Unless that’s a Shallash w’ell see in modern day Roshar showing up in book, but same note applies about not otherwise being a very Vorin dress. Maybe she originally set the trend, somehow.
It looks like Shalash Soulcast her dress into diamond.
@6. WoB is that these are “modern” artistic depictions of the heralds as painted by the Oilsworn that Shallan studied with for a time. So they probably do not depict the heralds accurately.
May I point out that the female figure has very pretty feet?…..
I recognized/suspected Shallash but didn’t recognize the runes on the first but…wow, those are gorgeous :)
Floaty Jasnah is still my fave though :)
Cant wait for the release
OMG WOW
Shame the UK version doesn’t have this art.
@3. Is there a website showing the Jezrien and Vedel endpapers?
@14 – the Vedel and Jezrien artwork hasn’t been revealed yet. I’d suggest keeping an eye on Tor, because if they show up anywhere official, it will be here. Might have to wait for the release, though.
i think Shallash was inspiredby the Star Wars Holiday Special…
@16 OMG I WILL NEVER UNSEE THAT. I am dying laughing now.
happy life day everyone
Love the colors and epicness, but disappointed in the blatant sexuality of the female image. Why do the females have to be sex symbols? The two pictures to me represent sexism at its worst–males can be normal, women have to be ultra-sexy and baring some part or other. Yuck.
Fan @19 – Keep in mind: this is presented as “in-world art” depicting some artist’s “ideal” rendering of the Heralds. This may or may not be what they actually look like, and it may or may not be how they would actually dress. (On a guess, since the Heralds all seem to be in hiding, Shalash doesn’t typically run around in transparent dresses… and besides she’s got black hair, not white.) It’s a bit like the chart in the Ars Arcanum – the attributes associated with the Heralds may or may not be actual characteristics of the person.
Hmm, I wonder if there is any significance to the fact that there are 16 shards of crystal/glass in Shallash’s picture…
The transparent safehand sleeve would make this particularly racy, I think…
@19, 20, and 22 – So, what I’m getting out of this discuss is that Dan Dos Santos was commissioned and/or chose (and was allowed) to illustrate this as essentially Rosharan soft-core P-nog. Or at the very least a religiously subversive lingerie magazine (a la Adolin’s fashion folios) hell bent on scandalizing the Vorin hierarchy by sexualizing one of the Heralds. Meaning, when it is explained in the book that euphemistic “women of the night” might cut off the tips or whole fingers of their safe-gloves in order to titillate, how else are we to understand an in-world image with a diaphanous safe-sleeve that leaves nothing to the imagination? (much less the rest of the dress…)
I really don’t know what to think about that beyond saying: well… alright then (and maybe wondering where and who would be so daring to do such a thing – we haven’t seen too many people who are willing to buck the establishment this blatantly) Even while recognizing that Brandon is in some way skewering RL social gender norms regarding clothing and socially constructed needs to cover (alleged) “erogenous” zones. However, I am slightly surprised that there hasn’t been more discussion of the potential issue and impact doing an illustration(s) like this may have in reinforcing certain RL tendencies and norms, especially since the depiction of Jasnah on the cover was praised so highly for being so sensible and non-eroticized.
So first of all, these wouldn’t necessarily reflect the current mindset of … well, anyone on Roshar, but particularly the Alethi or other Vorin believers. Second, we don’t know what country Dandos Heraldin was from, or how they viewed the Heralds. If he were from Iri or someplace like that, the sheer gown might be perfectly normal, accepted artwork. Also, if he were from Iri, he wouldn’t have the kind of reverence for the Heralds that the Alethi or Vedens do.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the sheer gown thing, but the other imagery is pretty amazing – all the masks, the crystalline shards that make up everything but her body and the ground, the “shattered plains” look of the ground she stands on, the hint of a large reddish moon or planet in the background…
Good and important considerations about the unknown nature of where and when it was created in universe. Is there any indication that this was actually done by Dandos Heraldin? The connection is certainly there with Dan Dos Santos, but I don’t think we should assume that since it was done by the RL artist it was correspondingly created by the artist whose name references his in Roshar, especially since Dandos is noted as a master of the pencil and this painting is not a pencil drawing (I also assume Oilsworn means one who swore off oils in this context). The name just seems like a little wink from Brandon to his audience.
It is certainly a stunning piece of art, and would be in the context of Roshar certainly. But I think it also goes without saying that it would be controversial at least in certain circles.
From Brandon on reddit a few days ago:
ETA: this definitely means that the pictures are at least 3 centuries old, though we still don’t know where Dandos was from (or at least, not that I know of).
I included the whole thing so I could be sure to remind everyone here to go look at the Part One artwork even if they’ve been reading the early release chapters. I only saw preliminary art, and it was awesome. Can’t wait to see the real thing!
Cool. Hadn’t seen the Brandon stuff on Reddit. Thanks!
Wow… I wonder if my copy will have that art. I did pre order through Book depository, which tends to ship from UK.
Definitely disadvantaged here, downunder… no signatures. And hit and miss on what kind of books you’ll get from where xD … ah well… at least I’ll still get the words.
Wow these are interesting/ Have we actually seen representations of ANY deities/divinities/spiritual beings before, in ANY of Sanderson’s works? We easily could have, cuz I haven’t yet read all his stuff (just recently discovered in in fact which is crazy) but I just found this interesting. And while I definitely dont PERSONALLY prefer the sheerness of her garb, I definitely think we don’t want to jump to conclusions as to what it is meant to represent about the world/the artist. It could be a deliberately misleading or misguided sketch from any number of people with any number of motives. Or it could just be Shalash adopting an idealized appearance for whatever reason.
Anyway, again I’m fairly new to Sanderson’s world but was anyone else surprised by her facial structure? I was expecting the heralds to display more the “Asian” features that have been associated with Alethi. The Epicanthic fold and such. . . . I forget, what are all the Vorin kingdoms again?
Is the on Roshar or could this be another (admittedly different) depiction of Shadesmar?
@29 – I never assumed that the Heralds would resemble Alethi. Not all of them, anyway. What made you assume that?
@29 just ignorance I suppose. I guess I associated the religion as stemming from primarily Alethi culture/history, which it probably isn’t, eh?
Jessetate don’t be so down on yourself, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it gnorance. It always seemed to me that the Heralds, whose job it was to protect mankind, would also be representative of all the people on Roshar… Not just it’s largest kingdom.
Did no one else notice all the masks? And she appears either be taking one off or putting one on? Add that with the fact shallash had black hair, and I’m starting to doubt that it’s really shallash, could it instead be shallon’s alter ego Radiant?