Hey! Hey, listen! (If you want a chuckle, check out Sanderson’s latest tweet about Legend of Zelda.) Welcome back to the Oathbringer Reread, for an excursion into international politics. Will the coalition come together, or will it disintegrate into squabbling before it ever accomplishes anything? And what does your choice of seating say about you? All this and more as we join Navani in the council chamber at the top of Urithiru.
Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread – if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.
No spoilers from other Cosmere works this week. You’re safe!
Chapter Recap
WHO: Navani
WHERE: Urithiru (Lyn: In the below map, I’ve marked out the various nations represented in the meeting with simple circles to better highlight specifically where everything they’re talking about is, as well as the nations they declare lost to the Voidbringers.)
WHEN: 1174.2.4.1 (Eleven days after Dalinar remembered Evi’s death, three days after hearing that Kholinar has fallen.)
Navani conducts the first meeting of the monarchs of the (potential) coalition against the Voidbringers. There’s a lot of politicking, as well as observations on the various attendees; she finally breaks through the worst of their worries by distributing responsibilities according to strengths, sometimes in unexpected ways.
Beginnings
Title: Pieces of a Fabrial
Heralds
Palah (Paliah). Learned/Giving. Truthwatchers. Role: Scholar
AA: I have to think that the way Navani thinks and studies and directs this meeting is all in the Scholar mentality. She is also learned, a student of human nature… and in this case very giving as well, as she sets aside her own worries for her son so that she can fill in the kind of leadership that Dalinar can’t provide right now.
Icon
Fabrial Gemstone (for a Navani POV)
AA: Woot! It’s a new character icon!! We generally only get these for characters who will have multiple POVs in the book, so we can count on hearing more from Navani. I love that her icon is the gemstone in a fabrial. With her interest in fabrial technology, it’s logical; I also like to pretend that the emphasis on the gemstone rather than the entire fabrial is a reflection of the way she and Dalinar call each other “gemheart”.
Epigraph
Yelig-Nar is said to consume souls, but I can’t find a specific explanation. I’m uncertain this lore is correct.
–From Hessi’s Mythica, page 51
AA: Foreshadowing again, much? Or, I guess, an explanation of what happened to Aesudan. Either way, for all her uncertainty (real or pretend), I believe this is Sanderson telling us what happens when you try to take in Yelig-Nar. If you’re strong-willed enough, you may remain “yourself” longer, but in the end, it consumes not only your body, but your soul as well.
Relationships & Romances
Ever since he’d collapsed after visiting Azir, it seemed that something in Dalinar had snapped. This morning, he had quietly asked her to lead the meeting. She worried, deeply, for what was happening to him. And for Elhokar. And for Kholinar. …
She’d already grieved for a daughter, but then that daughter had returned to her. She had to hope the same for Elhokar—at the very least, so she could keep functioning while Dalinar mourned.
AA: I almost started this with “Poor Navani” – but I don’t think she’d appreciate the sentiment. Yes, Dalinar has almost shut down, and all she’s got is (mostly incorrect) guesses as to why. At the moment she’s telling herself that he’s mourning for his son, nephew, and city—the very things she’s distressed over, naturally.
L: And she’s not entirely wrong, I’m sure that’s a huge weight on his mind as well, just… not the biggest one.
AA: But while she may be frustrated with Dalinar, she seems to be far more focused on making sure their work thus far doesn’t fall apart, no matter what’s going on in his head. Whether it’s a matter of personal ego or the good of the world probably depends on your evaluation of her character, but either way, she is not going to let this slip away.
I do find it disturbing that after two full weeks, Dalinar still hasn’t told her what he remembered. Obviously, he’s got to work through the memory of what exactly he did, what exactly Evi did, and how the truth was twisted afterward, but… why doesn’t he talk to Navani about it? And why doesn’t she ask more questions?
L: I imagine that a big part of him not talking about it is that he’s afraid he’ll lose her if she sees the “true monster” he feels like he is. Currently she sees him much the same way as everyone else does, and taking the chance of someone you love completely changing their outlook towards you is a daunting prospect. As for Navani… if someone’s not willingly opening up about their problems, sometimes the best course of action is to wait until they’re ready to do so rather than forcing a confrontation.
She took his hand in hers, but he stiffened, then stood up. He did that whenever he felt he was growing too relaxed. It was as if he was looking for danger to face.
L: I really love how cognizant of the inner workings of his mind she is. She’s very observant. Even if she doesn’t know what’s going on with him exactly, she recognizes that something’s wrong.
AA: I just wanted to note here, without talking much more about it, how stressful this time is for everyone we care about in Urithiru. Renarin is noted as seeming “terrified that something had happened to his brother,” which is quite reasonable on a personal level, and naturally people are wondering what happened to their king and their Radiants, to say nothing of those they were attempting to rescue. Tension in Urithiru must be high.
L: The worst part of a situation like this is the not knowing. But everyone rallies and continues on, and I have a lot of respect for that.
Bruised & Broken
AA: We don’t get a lot of insight into Dalinar’s condition, other than Navani’s under-informed worry for him, but it’s pretty clear that he’s really struggling to figure out who he really is. There’s the man he thinks he is, or at least that he has grown to be, trying with all his might to keep to the Codes… and then there’s the man he now remembers that he was: the man who would take revenge for a highlord’s ambush by destroying every last one of his people, and the man who, however unintentionally, killed his own wife along with that city full of civilians.
Diagrams & Dastardly Designs
Notably, Ialai Sadeas ignored the requirement that she carry her own chair. … She met Navani’s eyes as she sat, cold and confident.
L: Ialai’s cool as ice here. She’s making her point subtly and very, very clearly—she doesn’t respect Navani’s rules and she doesn’t intend to be constrained by them.
AA: If I liked her better in the first place, I might admire this (at least, under other circumstances). As it is, she’s being deliberately disruptive at a time when literally the whole world is in danger, and that torques me off. You may not agree with the approach being taken, but there are more constructive ways to make suggestions than just being disruptive. (Also, as we see, her ideas stink.)
It seemed so long ago when Ialai and Navani had huddled together at dinners, conspiring on how to stabilize the kingdom their husbands were conquering. Now, Navani wanted to seize the woman and shake her. Can’t you stop being petty for one storming minute?
AA: They made a formidable team, back in the day. Who has changed the most since then? From the glimpses we got in the early flashbacks, I’m guessing that Ialai hasn’t changed all that much, except that she’s gotten better at subtlety when it suits her – and maybe she’s gotten more actively vicious? Navani seems a lot more sympathetic now than she did back then – like she’s matured and gotten over the “mean girl” attitude. I suspect, though, that neither of them has changed much, fundamentally; it’s just that their goals don’t align anymore.
Adrotagia sat with [Taravangian], as did his Surgebinder. She didn’t go join Bridge Four … and, curiously, Navani realized she still thought of the woman as his Surgebinder.
AA: That’s some painful foreshadowing, right there. Malata never does join forces with Our Knights Radiant. I wonder if calling her “Surgebinder” instead of “Radiant” is a subtle hint from Sanderson? Also, I wonder if she stayed away from the rest of them because she felt no kinship at all, or because she didn’t want to risk developing any kinship.
“I will send troops to your aid, Taravangian,” Dalinar said. “But one army can be construed as an invading force, and I am not intending to invade my allies, even in appearance. Can we not mortar this alliance with a show of solidarity?”
L: This is very clever of Dalinar, if a bit transparent. I feel like Navani would have been more subtle in her wording, but perhaps the direct approach was the right one in this particular moment.
AA: If nothing else, the straightforward approach is unexpected in politics, and sometimes gets the desired result just from the shock value!
As always with Taravangian, though, I’m suspicious. Does he already know that the real attack will be in Thaylenah, and he’s attempting to keep Dalinar focused elsewhere? That Diagram of his predicted a lot of events; how much of this did it predict? And how much of his apparent weakness on any given day is real, and how much is pretended for the sake of gaining sympathy? (And also, being underestimated, which is useful to him.)
Squires & Sidekicks
Many [of Bridge Four] had brought simple seats, but the Herdazian had stumbled onto the lift with a chair so grand—inlaid with embroidered blue cloth and silver—it was almost a throne.
AA: Let’s hear it for King Lopen the First of Alethkar! What a goof.
L: Of Alethkar, or of Herdaz? ::wink::
Bridge Four had, characteristically, taken the news of their leader’s potential fall with laughter. Kaladin is tougher than a wind-tossed boulder, Brightness, Teft had told her. He survived Bridge Four, he survived the chasms, and he’ll survive this.
AA: Well, they’re not wrong, though they’re not 100% right either. I have an ongoing expectation that Kaladin will die before the end of Book 5… and now I wonder what will happen to Bridge Four if I’m right.
L: DON’T. YOU. DARE.
… the little Reshi who was currently outeating the huge Horneater bridgeman, almost as if it were a contest.
AA: Heh. It probably is a contest, knowing Lift and the bridgemen! But at least she gets a good meal without needing to burn it all off in Surgebinding, for once.
Places & Peoples
On the day of the first meeting of monarchs at Urithiru, Navani made each person—no matter how important—carry their own chair. The old Alethi tradition symbolized each chief bringing important wisdom to a gathering.
L: I really like this little touch. You can tell—as exemplified in the chapter—a lot about a person and their intent by how they choose to present themselves in the seat they choose to bring. Or don’t choose to bring, in Sebarial’s case…
AA: Sebarial loves to be the exception, doesn’t he?
The only other person of note was Au-Nak, the Natan ambassador. He represented a dead kingdom that had been reduced to a single city-state on the eastern coast of Roshar with a few other cities as protectorates.
L: We haven’t heard a lot about this place yet, right?
AA: Not a lot, no. They aren’t exactly a world power, but they sure would like to gain some influence by claiming ownership of the Oathgate that is, at best, located in lands that once belonged to them.
“Wait,” the Yezier princess said. “Shouldn’t we be concerned about Iri and Rira, who seem to have completely fallen in with the enemy?”
L: This is where Evi was from. I wonder if Dalinar has any thoughts about that during this chapter, considering his state of mind concerning her right now…
AA: I wish we knew more about them as a people. How typical was Evi of the Riran mindset, anyway? Obviously not 100%, or she and her brother wouldn’t have left. How much of their “falling in with the enemy” is just a matter of accepting whatever comes along, vs. any kind of active support? The former seems more likely, to me.
L: They did seem very pacifistic, that’s for sure.
“But Shards…” Fen said.
“Manifestations of spren,” Jasnah explained. “Not fabrial technology. Even the gemstones we discovered, containing words of ancient Radiants during the days when they left Urithiru, were crude—if used in a way we hadn’t yet explored.”
L: It’s pretty cool to realize that the technological advancements of the current “age” are actually quite more advanced than those in the times of the Radiants!
AA: I know, right? We’ve been getting hints about this, and I love that Jasnah is sorting them out. The “ancient technology” that they thought was so advanced seems to consist mostly of Shardblades, Shardplate, and Soulcasters; I keep expecting to learn that the Soulcaster fabrials are similar to the Blades and Plate. Even the hinted wonders of Urithiru are beginning to look more like the active involvement of the Sibling and other spren, rather than human invention.
L: Well, when you have magic, what need is there for technological advancement? For example, if we had the power to fly, there would have been no need to invent airplanes.
“We should be addressing where to invade to gain the best position for an extended war.”
[…]
With one targeted arrow, Ialai Sadeas proved what everyone whispered—that the Alethi were building a coalition to conquer the world, not just protect it.
L: Bloody Ialai. I know she’s pissed off about Sadeas dying and all, but sabotaging this is just… stupid. This is YOUR survival too, here, lady.
AA: So infuriating.
Tight Butts and Coconuts
Well, at least [Sebarial and Palona] hadn’t shown up bearing massage tables.
L: Probably would have made this tense meeting more relaxing, though.
Sebarial choked softly…. He’d wanted that job.
That will teach you to show up late to my meeting and make only wisecracks.
AA: Heh. He’d probably do a decent job of overseeing trade (and getting a good profit from it, naturally), but it’s a lot more useful to have Fen in charge of that. She’s got the entire infrastructure to do it, and it gives her ownership. But I have to admit … even if it weren’t politically advantageous, just watching Sebarial’s reaction would have been worth this gambit!
“By every Kadasix that has ever been holy!”
AA: I like that one… and the variation across cultures of what people swear by.
Weighty Words
“I understand your concern, but surely you have read our reports of the oaths these Radiants follow. Protection. Remembering the fallen. Those oaths are proof that our cause is just, our Radiants trustworthy. The powers are in safe hands, Your Majesty.”
L: I mostly agree with her, but I’m still on the fence about most of the Skybreakers, and Taravangian’s Radiant. It seems as though the way you interpret them is still of vast importance, and let’s face it—it’s pretty rare that people think that their actions are evil. Taravangian’s a prime example of this.
AA: She’s extrapolating from the few she knows and trusts, as are we. I’m afraid that from here on out, “Radiants” as a group are not going to be the Trusty Heroes we were expecting them to be. Individuals will still be trustworthy—or not—but the spren seem to have changed their selection criteria, and we can’t count on them choosing people who are on the same side any more.
Next week we’ll be rejoining Kaladin and company as they seek out passage across Shadesmar in chapter Ninety-Seven.
Alice is delighted to report that her favorite volleyball team (her daughter’s high school team) won their first match, 3-1, in tense and high-scoring sets. Aren’t y’all thrilled to know that? Yeah… we’ll try to keep the v-ball chatter to a minimum, at least until post-season excitement ramps up.
Lyndsey is hard at work bringing law and order to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire as Constable Affable, along with her trusty dog, Deputee Bork. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or Instagram.
I really like the bring your own chair thing. The comedy it allowed was fun, but it also gave Navani useful information. Maybe the U.N. should start doing that.
“it’s pretty rare that people think that their actions are evil. Taravangian’s a prime example of this.”
In his defense, I’m pretty sure he thinks his actions are evil (depending on the day), he just believes them to be a necessary evil.
On my first reads through Oathbringer, I didn’t take time to notice the character symbols. Thanks for calling attention to that. I agree a fabrial fits Navani perfectly.
Excellent work with the map once again. Really brings to fore the changing world climate, and the growing hostilities.
Is there a spiritual connection between Renarin and Adolin that lets him realize that the latter has left the plane? Or, possibly more disturbing, could Glys have been told something by Sja-Anat, who then passed the info on to Renarin?
That was one of the noted reason for the Aharietiam, wasn’t it? At least it is one of the things Taln notes later when he starts regaining sanity.
This chapter right here is why I don’t believe the Surgebindings aren’t actually rewards While we think of superpowers like flying, magic, changing realty very cool, we got to remember that the powers are more on how people use them, and we have antagonists in this very chapter that will use these powers for not so good deeds.
Also, I wonder, now that we know that Amaran was listening to Odium, is Ialai? there’s being petty, than there’s activately trying to sabotage your enemies. I also like the reminder here that Navani was not always a good person either in the past, that she helped Galivar and Dalniar and Sadeas just as much, that the killing was not the only thing that occurred during the war.
Interesting that this chapter’s Herald is quadruple Pailiah, because when I first read it, it made me think that Navani is another budding Bondsmith. “Order out of chaos” seems close enough to “I will unite…”, etc., and she definitely does a lot of guiding here. The fabrial icon seems to hint in this direction too, since Urithiru is one giant fabrial almost certainly powered by the Sibling. My only objection to it is that having the Alethi power-couple as 2 of the 3 Bondsmiths seems a bit too unbalanced. My back-up thought is that Navani may be an untraditional Stoneward, because “dependable, resourceful”, she definitely is and these attributes are very much on display here too.
Yelig-Nar – urgh. I wonder if it is similar to Nightblood, though, in that it feeds on your soul, but you can give it investiture instead and survive, if you are careful. I very much suspect that Odium’s Champion is going to be bonded to it and will have survived long enough to become proficient with all the surges it offers. This might make Moash, for example, a genuine threat. And Nale seemingly unstoppable, but I kinda doubt that it would work with him, due to his special status and his spren.
Old Alethi had some useful customs.
Did Dalinar tell Navani the truth of Second Rathalas and Evi’s death by the end of OB, or will he confess to his assembled family on-page in Book 4? I hope for the latter, though it may also be framed as a mini-flashback. I very much understand his fear of her reaction, though. All the other stuff, she was at least somewhat aware of, at the time it was happening. Well, except for his almost killing Gavilar that once. Which he also didn’t share with her, IIRC.
Ialai might well think that she could make a deal with the voidbringers, like Iri and Rira did or she just doesn’t care and wants to see the world burn.
Re: ancient fabrials, there are also the healing ones. Though, I agree that they, like soulcasters, are fundamentally different from modern fabrials, which is why they are also super-rare.
I completely disagree with Lyndsey about this, though:
“Well, when you have magic, what need is there for technological advancement?”
Because magic was only ever available to a few thousands people on the whole world. And even if magic had been availble to everybody, as long as it didn’t fulfill all people’s needs and desires, there’d still have been need for technology. Anyway, civilzation being comprehensively smashed every few centuries very well explains the lack of technological progress, that wasn’t limited to fabrial science, IMHO. It took a long time to crawl back from being reduced to effectively stone age by the time of Aharietam.
The justaposition of magic and technology in SF is rooted in identification of childhood of people and civilzations with “magical thinking” and adulthood/modern age with rationality and technology. But the genre has thankfully evolved past the need to put magic in ostensible RL past or to use it as an allegory.
Trustworthiness of the Radiants – frankly, that’s my greatest worry for books 4 and 5. The Radiants are already on the very thin ice, due to legends and theology claiming that they betrayed humankind. Between upcoming revelations of the reasons for the Recreance, the Skybreakers and Malata, I just don’t see how they can gain enough of public trust to mount unified opposition to Odium and the Fused. Now, of course we know that Our Heroes will somehow succeed, since Sanderson is not a grimdark writer, I am just concerned about it happening in a believeable, rather than contrived manner.
Heck, Nalan’s public defection should be a complete disaster, inciting all manner of disagreement and in-fighting in the territories where the Heralds are worshipped. Though, at least now that there are Radiants around and he is not directly connected to Honor, it might be difficult for him to prove his identity.
Oh, and I somehow think that if Malata and a lot of other Diagrammists ever learn the terms of Taravangian’s bargain with Odium, they’ll flip. And she is in a good position to find out – her spren can spy on him as easily as it spied on Dalinar and Navani.
The epigraph for this chapter is an example of why I don’t think Hessi is a Herald. Unless she’s intentionally hiding her knowledge, why would she claim to doubt the stories of Yelig-nar consuming souls?
The Zelda tweet/thread cracked me up. I had an older cousin that I used to incessantly annoy by saying “Excuuuuuse MEEEEEE, Princess!” – I loved that show :)
Good thoughts, otherwise :) Malata definitely is going to prove to be an exception to the trustworthiness assumption although I’m also interested in learning more about her and her abilities, and the spren culture her spren follows. As that, and Shadesmar, shows, the spren have their own different agendas.
Has Dalinar resumed drinking after his memories of what happened at the Rift came back? Or is Dalinar just in a super depressed fugue.
Lyndsey. I agree with your statement that when you have magic, technological advancement is not as important. The Harry Potter universe uses this idea. I suspect that very few Wizards and Witches who live only in the Wizarding world) do not learn to drive.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
My thought was that Yelig-nar’s soul eating wasn’t (directly) a reference to the fate of its hosts, but rather a reference to whatever ability Aesudan used to control the Palace Guard. Like, if groups of people loyal to Yelig-Nar’s hosts regularly lost all emotion and became unquestioningly loyal, that could easily be mythologized as Yelig-nar consuming souls, but Hessi’s uncertainly would be warranted, because that’s not exactly what’s really going on.
And, indeed, I feel like it would be phrased differently if it was a reference to host’s ultimate fate; ‘It will rend and devour the soul of anyone foolish enough to seek its power’ sounds like the sort of thing that would be passed into mythology pretty directly, but Hessi’s reference is a lot more vague than that.
Ialai seems like a let the world burn kinda gal. The only person who has ever loved her (presumably) gets knifed in a hallway and she has nobody to punish. She strongly suspects his good frienemy Dalinar is the culprit and she’s not really looking for a new suspect. So whatever he’s working on she wants to hinder at least, destroy if possible, even to the end of the world.
@RogerPavelle:
A much simpler explanation exists: Renarin’s visions can easily let him know what’s going on, even without special bindings between two humans, or the intervention of one of the Unmade.
I enjoyed this chapter. I’m generally uninterested in politics, but can get interested if I care enough about the people and places involved (but not enough that I can’t view them with detachment). But I’d have liked to know more about Lift and Rock’s possibly-competitive eating, though Navani’s lack of attention to it makes sense.
I like that the chair-bearing rule explicitly exempts people for whom that’s physically unfeasible.
Interesting to think Rock and Lift might become friends. Both care a lot about food, both try to avoid violence, but different in other ways. (One is a King’s son, one is a street kid … though come to think of it, she’s a friend of the Prime, isn’t she?)
Huh … both Lift and Shallan encounter a situation where the poor of a city are literally going hungry because of Voidbringer action. Both of them react by stealing food for them. Lift actually helps the poor, Shallan makes things worse. Sorry, I know neither of those happen in this chapter (and one not in this book), but it just occurred to me.
@@.-@,12 Keep in mind that in the timeline of future events Renarin believed would come to pass, Renarin was killed, Dalinar became a bad guy (and therefore didn’t form the perpendicularity) which leaves Adolin in Shadesmar seriously wounded about to get killed if the events hadn’t changed.
@15: That’s not quite how I read the alternate timeline. Remember, Dalinar summoned the Perpendicularity not long after Jasnah confronted Renarin, so he wouldn’t have known that Renarin was dead at that point. However, Adolin would still have been dying, and Renarin wouldn’t have been there to save him, and so Dalinar would have lost both his sons in quick succession, shortly after recovering the memories of him losing his wife, which would be enough to push anyone over the edge, imho.
Forgot to comment on Au-Nak the Natanatan ambassador – is he the same guy who had a mysterious exchange with Highprince Hatham and his very odd, totally a worldhopper and likely a Ghostblood ardent back in WoK? I am really curious what it was all about. IIRC, Hatham’s wife is a noted historian and he managed to attract a Ryshadium. I hope that we’ll see more of all the interesting bit characters that made their appearances in the previous books, prologues and so on.
Marethyu316 @7:
I am open to the notion that the author is a long-lived worldhopper, who had access to sources back in the day that no longer exist or sit in the private collections of people like them. Frankly, I am slightly annoyed by all the worldhoppers puttering around in the background and not having the effects that they should have had. Like, if they are traders, why did we never hear about their wonderous mechanical contraptions (if they hail from Scadrial) or dyes if they are from Nalthis? Why didn’t they manage to leverage their advanced technological knowledge into becoming fabulously rich? Why didn’t any of them do anything to help during the centuries leading to the series and the series itself? It is not like they are Starfleet and have the Prime Directive. So maybe Hessi is a worldhopper finally doing something constructive instead of mysteriously milling in the background. I’d like that too.
But whether Hessi is a worldhopper or a Herald, they’d have to pretend more uncertainty and ignorance than they really have, for the sake of versimilitude. And it is entirely possible that Yelig-Nar doesn’t kill you, if you can feed it enough investiture or manage to dominate it somehow.
Gilphon @10:
Hm… a very interesting idea. I thought that Aesudan only just swallowed Yelig-Nar’s housing in her scene in OB, but now I am not sure if there were any hints towards it. And she did use _something_ unnatural to control the Palace Guard. Ashertmarn may have made them susceptible, but I don’t see how it’s nature would lend itself to something like this.
AndrewHB @9:
Harry Potter’s worldbuilding is an inconsistent mess that isn’t plausible or cohesive in any way. Rowling just included whatever funny, whimsical and imaginative ideas came to her – which worked fine for her purposes. But if you look at it objectively, the wizarding “world” – which is more like a village, is very parochial, inconvenient to live in and boring. I don’t see why anybody would want to live in it exclusively. Straddling both worlds could have been awesome, though. Anyway, it still has technology. Somebody is mass-producing the brooms, printing books, etc.
Thankfully, Sanderson takes his worldbuilding more seriously, and there is really no reason why a few hundreds or thousands people in the whole world having magic would prevent technological progress. In fact, you’ll notice that even at the time of Old Radiants they still had normal agriculture, despite surges of Soulcasting and Regrowth existing. And they wanted to make magi-tech available to non-Radiants or Radiants lacking specific surges, therefore Soulcasters, healing fabrials and Oathgates all existed. But people still needed to bring their goods to Oathgates, for instance, so demand for overland transport technology that the Radiants couldn’t fulfill was there. But the Desolations regularly nullified any progress and threw them further and further back.
Carl @14:
Well, situation in Tashikk wasn’t nearly that desperate and local authorities were both somewhat competent and somewhat well-meaning. But yes, Lift actually being intimately familiar with how poor people live certainly helped.
@17 Well, all of the world hoppers we have seen seem to want to be secretive. Azure and Zahel are trying to find someone who took a very dangerous weapon, it would be foolish to openly identify yourself to your target. Gruff blunt and thinker are all hunting Hoid, so they would be secretive too. Khriss is a researcher, and every good researcher knows it is not wise to reveal your true motives when you are studying something, as that will ruin the research. Hoid….is Hoid. Even Felt, a scout, seems to be just world hopping for a sake of a job. None of the world hoppers will want to be revealed.
From the small bits left in the gems I had the feeling that the “old” Radients weren’t all on the same level of idealism about their job/task/life work. They were still on the same team but disagreements and some sniping at each other already seemed to be there. I agree that the new Spren attitude is going to cause much more of this discord.
I suppose what we see here between Navani and Ialai shows they have the same growth pattern as Dalinar and Sadeus. Navani learned and changed her thinking while Ialai never left the past.
@Isilel: Some Worldhoppers do take a literal oath of non-interference, maybe. Frost asks Hoid to join “our” oath, doesn’t he? Frost himself doesn’t worldhop, but other oath-takers might. in fact, aren’t the three people who caused the Purelake plague working for Frost?
In general I think Brandon introduced way more worldhoppers in this series than I expected. He had previously said that interplanetary stuff wouldn’t be a big deal until (what I interpreted as) much later in the Cosmere storyline. Now, as we see in these comment threads, anyone who isn’t a viewpoint character is treated as a probable Easter egg.
I believe she also had to, whether she entirely believed or not, try to inspire confidence in the Radiants. They had, for years, had the reputation of traitors and deserters. And, now that they’re back, and Dalinar is trying to lead them, she has try to unite them with the people again. I know she wouldn’t follow or believe blindly.
“I have an ongoing expectation that Kaladin will die before the end of Book 5… and now I wonder what will happen to Bridge Four if I’m right.
L: DON’T. YOU. DARE.”
I’m calling it now: Moash will kill Kaladin late in the last book of the first sequence, which will be when he hits absolute bottom. From there, where else can he go but up? He’ll end up being the hero who eventually saves the Cosmere, and then he’ll go on to live a greatly extended life of peace and contentment.
But why should anything happen to Bridge Four if Kaladin does die? Which is unlikely, IMHO. Many of the members will be Radiants in their own right, the rest can be their squires or even find something that calls to them more, if the circumstances allow. Hopefully what Kaladin gave and taught them, it can endure beyond his mere physical presence. Otherwise, what was the point?
One thing that occurred to my on my latest re-read: Could Ialai have gone full Voidbringer by this point? Because Navani’s right, that comment from her could not have been more destructive to the attempts to build a coalition if it had been deliberate. So what if it was deliberate? What if she’s reached the point already where she is consciously working for Odium, and actively attempting to sabotage humanity’s efforts to defend against him? Vengeance for her husband would certainly be an understandable motive, but Odium could have also offered her rulership under him after he conquers the world.