Greetings, O Chickens and Peeps of the Cosmere Fandom! Welcome back to the Rhythm of War reread, wherein we consider darkness, light, Light, Connection, and the determination of Our Heroes to resist the occupation of their home. Kaladin and Navani are working out their plans, large and small, and figuring out what the next step is—so they can take it. Inadequacy and exhaustion are simply not sufficient cause to quit.
Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entirety of the series up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries of The Stormlight Archive (this includes Edgedancer and Dawnshard as well as the entirety of Rhythm of War), best to wait to join us until you’re done.
In this week’s discussion there’s a brief Mistborn spoiler in the “Spren and Shadesmar” section, so if you haven’t read it, watch for the tag and be prepared to skip a paragraph.
Heralds: Jezrien (Jezerezeh, Yaezir, Ahu), Herald of Kings. Windrunners. Protecting/Leading. Role: King.
Vedel (Vedeledev) Edgedancers. Loving/Healing. Role: Healer.
A: Umm… Okay, Jezrien might be here because Navani, as Queen of Urithiru, is fulfilling the King role as well as Leading; as likely, he’s representing his Windrunner. Vedel, though… There’s got to be more than the mention of Lift, right? …Or does there? The knowledge of two functional Radiants in the tower, the Edgedancer and the Windrunner, is the biggest boost to Navani’s hopes. So maybe these two Heralds really are that straightforward: representing the two Orders that each have one functional Knight.
P: I think it really is just that simple: Vedel representing Lift and Jezrien representing Kaladin. That is Navani’s big WOW moment in the chapter, as revealed by the Sibling. It fits.
Icon: Fabrial Gemstone, for a Navani chapter, though this time she shares with Kaladin.
Epigraph: From Rhythm of War, page 3
In my fevered state, I worry I’m unable to focus on what is important.
A: Welp. That could be either Raboniel or Navani, depending on the day!
P: It could be, but I’m going to go with Raboniel, if only because Navani is grounding herself.
Chapter Recap
WHO: Navani, Kaladin
WHERE: Urithiru
WHEN: 1175.4.6.5 (the day after Kaladin finds his hiding place)
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
RECAP: Navani sets her scholars to doing busywork, while she figures out how to drag her feet while looking like they’re making progress. A quiet conversation with the Sibling gives her some ideas… Meanwhile, Kaladin and Syl work their way down to the sixth floor to snatch charged gemstones from the lanterns abandoned there, and then down to the fourth floor to obtain supplies from the ardents at the sanitarium. As they return to their hiding place on the eleventh floor, Navani speaks to him by way of a garnet vein in the room. After sharing basic information, Kaladin takes the task of finding out how the Fused are powering the Oathgates and their spanreeds, while Navani returns to working out her plans to regain control of the tower.
Overall Reactions
The situation left Navani with a delicate problem. She didn’t want to give away more than was absolutely necessary. But if she failed to make progress, Raboniel would eventually notice and take action.
A: I not only appreciate Navani’s dilemma here, but I love her interim solution. Set them to doing the boring re-checks: It needs to be done, puts everyone back in “scholar” mentality, and sets Navani up to figure out ways for her people to look busy without actually making a lot of progress. Yes, they’ll have to accomplish something, but checking the numbers can always be justified.
(It actually reminds me of an organization I had the opportunity to join in college. It was called The Order of the Engineer, and the only thing I really remember about it was that you got a ring you were supposed to wear on the pinky finger of your writing hand. It was made of steel from a bridge that collapsed because the engineer failed to recheck his calculations—a very strong reminder that you should always check and double-check.)
Back to Navani:
First, she had to maintain the ground she’d already obtained. That meant making certain the Sibling’s shield remained in place.
Second, she had to get word to Dalinar and those on the outside, apprising them of what had happened.
Third, Navani needed to figure out what the enemy had done to negate Radiant powers. According to the Sibling, it involved a corruption of ancient tower protections. Navani needed to deactivate it.
Finally, she needed to turn that power upon the invaders. Barring that, she needed to use the awakened Radiants to mount a counterattack.
A: Again, I love Navani’s methodical mind. As the context shows, she knows this is an overwhelming task, and she may not be able to do any, much less all, of these steps. That’s not going to stop her: She’ll break it down, and break it down, and break it down, until she has a manageable task to work on. Do that, then… well, as Dalinar reminded us, take the next step.
P: This seems such a logical thing to do but actually doing it can be quite difficult.
Kaladin’s first goal was Stormlight.
P: Kaladin is over here breaking down his own problems into manageable chunks. First order of business, LIGHT. Which is power, but which also banishes all of that darkness we talk about down in Bruised and Broken.
Buy the Book
Rhythm of War
A: I do love the parallels in this chapter. Navani is focused on saving the tower, and Kaladin is focused on saving Teft, but they’re both determined to resist the occupation.
With these gemstones secured in a dark pouch so his pocket wouldn’t glow, the two of them set off on their next task. Supplies.
P: Since the clinic was out of the question, they went to the next logical place: the sanitarium. Where our good friend who rarely remembers to put his spectacles on his face reluctantly helps out.
“You… you’re going to return? Do this… regularly?” The man pulled his spectacles off and wiped his face again.
P: I had my issues with him earlier but he’s not so bad, not when he’s helping Kaladin in such dire circumstances.
A: So true! He was certainly hesitant to try anything new back when Kaladin and Teft first showed up, but he clearly gained some respect for Kaladin through the process of seeing him work with Noril and the rest of the men. His willingness to continue to help was a beacon of hope for me—and I think for Kaladin.
The garnet light sparkled on the floor beside him, and he brushed the crystal vein with his fingers.
A voice immediately popped into his head.
Highmarshal? Is it true? Are you awake and functioning?
Kaladin started. It was the queen’s voice.
P: I love how quickly Navani and Kaladin are communicating. No taking chapters, or Honor forbid, days for them to start talking. Nope. Right to it. Hot damn.
A: Wasn’t that delightfully unexpected? Another ray of hope.
P: Cultivation knows I adore Robert Jordan, but the lack of communication among his characters is storied.
A: Heh. I mostly could rationalize it—A doesn’t always know that B could benefit from certain information, for example—but it did get frustrating at times. The only frustration here is that on the reread, we know they’re being eavesdropped.
[S]he was back in position, resting against the wall, trying to look bored.
She was anything but. She had access to a Knight Radiant, perhaps two if the Sibling could locate Lift.
A: As resources go, two Knights Radiant against an army of Fused and Regals isn’t much—but it’s so much more than she had just a few minutes ago that it’s got to feel like real hope!
So… what do we do?
“I don’t know,” Navani admitted. Dalinar would have probably told her to act strong, to pretend she had a plan when she didn’t—but she wasn’t a general. Pretending never worked with her scholars; they appreciated honesty.
A: Bluffing isn’t really a good idea when everyone depends on you, so I’m glad she didn’t try. She’s likely to get far more and better help from Kaladin based on honesty. In fact, because she was just straightforward, Kaladin was able to consider her list of tasks and find one that he could pursue, which does them both good:
[I]f you could find out how they’re using the Oathgates, or other fabrials, that would give me something to work with.”
A: So she’s going to have something to work with (if he succeeds), and he’s got, as he puts it, “a direction to work toward.” All in all, a good plan.
P: I’m not sure what good it would do her but it’s got to feel better than just rolling over.
A: You know, at this point I think just doing something is what they need most. Anything to avoid rolling over.
Surely Dalinar would withdraw from the battlefield in Azir and focus everything on discovering what was wrong with Urithiru. Unless there were aspects to this that Navani wasn’t considering.
A: Oh, my dear Navani… there are definitely aspects you aren’t considering. But that’s mostly because you have no way of knowing they even exist, so… it’s really not your fault.
P: I mean, she’s smart enough to guess that they’ll have set up communications with Dalinar, right? She and Dalinar really should have used a passcode for their spanreed conversations.
A: Hmm. Maybe… though I certainly didn’t expect them to manage a passable communication that fast. I guess it makes sense, though—especially if there was an apparently routine check-in from Dalinar. And yes, some kind of confirmation code would have been wise.
At any rate, in Kaladin she at least had a connection to the rest of the tower. A lifeline. That was one step forward in finding a way out of this mess.
P: As bleak as their outlook is with the Tower overrun by Fused and singers, it’s nice for them to both take solace in the fact that they’re not alone. They both plan on fighting as they can, and they know that the other is out there doing the same. That has to be a comfort.
Spren and Shadesmar
A: I did have to chuckle at this one, regarding the scholars working:
No creationspren or logicspren, as often attended exciting work. Hopefully the singers in the room wouldn’t realize that was odd.
A: Nah, just means the current project isn’t all that exciting… Heh.
It does remind me of the oft-asked question, though: Isn’t it frequently embarrassing to have spren showing off your emotional state? My answer (also to why it isn’t mentioned all that often) is twofold. One, if you’ve never known anything else, you wouldn’t really think about it unless you were specifically trying to hide your feelings, or if you’d just done something out of the ordinary for the situation. Two, not all the spren are super numerous, and even for the varieties that are, with all the people on Roshar, they may not always bother to show up every time anyone has the relevant emotion.
P: I would think that it would be grossly uncomfortable to have spren announcing your strong emotions for all to see. As someone who feels many, many emotions that I hide from most people, this would be incredibly inconvenient.
A: It would, if you went from Earth to Roshar—in fact, it would feel like an appalling invasion of privacy. But what if you’d always had emotion-spren around? Certainly there would be times it would be awkward, no denying that, but I can’t help thinking that you wouldn’t worry about it most of the time, and you’d learn to really control your emotions the rest of the time.
This is the first time [the shield] has been deployed. But she doesn’t seem to realize you were the one who activated it. She explained to several others that she must have triggered some unknown fail-safe left by the ancient Radiants. She thinks that I must be dead after all this time, since the tower doesn’t work.
A: Oh, storms. On a reread, this is so painful, and the more so because it was so exciting and hopeful the first time. While it’s useful for Navani to have the Sibling spying on the Fused and keeping an eye open around the tower, we now know that Raboniel was on to them the entire time. She’ll tell Navani much later that she had someone listening in on these conversations from the beginning; she never believed the Sibling was dead at all, but made sure the Sibling believed she believed it. She even went so far as to imply that Re-Shephir had told her, which would be 100% believable. (For all we know, that much might be true; the falsehood is in the implication that Raboniel believed it.)
Crafty, as befits the greatest Fused scholar—but also brutal, as befits the Lady of Pains. It felt like an absolute betrayal when this was revealed.
P: It was incredibly painful. Navani thought she had this secret weapon, this in with the Tower spren, thinking she was half a step ahead, when all along she was being spied upon.
“Other spren act like time has meaning.”
Radiant spren, yes. Radiant spren put on a show, pretending as if they are male or female, malen or femalen, when they are neither. They think like humans because they want to be like humans.
A: I found this to be an interesting comment on the Radiant spren, particularly in light of some of the Shadesmar conversations. Adolin will point out rather firmly, near the end of his trial, that the spren are just like humans in that they can be afraid, or uncertain, or even change their minds. If the Sibling is right, I guess their pretense worked.
“But I can’t plan a way to help you if I don’t know your weaknesses. You’ll be alone, subject to whatever Raboniel decides to do.”
…I hate humans, the Sibling eventually said. Humans twist what is said and always make themselves out to be right. How long until you demand that I bond a human, give up my freedom, and risk my life? I’m sure you’ll have wonderful explanations as to why I should absolutely do that.
A: And as Navani acknowledges to herself, this is 100% true. They do need the Sibling—both in the immediate moment, and for the much longer term. And it sure would be nice to find someone who’s not a politician, not an artifabrian, and generally a very truthful, honest, and gentle person. (Funny thing… After I wrote that sentence, I realized that Navani is in every way the exact opposite of this description. I love her dearly, but “truthful, honest, and gentle” she isn’t.)
P: I still feel that she was the only choice, the perfect choice to bond the Sibling. With her knowledge of fabrials and her knowledge of the Tower, there just wasn’t anyone who could take on that task, IMO.
A: Oh, I agree. Her engineering background gave her the ability to recognize the function of most of the fabrials the moment she “saw” them through the bond, so that she could “turn on” the tower immediately instead of fumbling through—and the Sibling enjoyed that, too. She was the Bondsmith they needed right then. The only reason I say “it would be nice” is that, in a gentler and less stressful time, it would have been nice for the Sibling to get back into life with a more… companionable bondmate. But these are not gentle times, and a strong, determined Bondsmith is needed.
“Let’s talk about something else. How did you contact me earlier? Can you work a spanreed?”
I hate the things. But using one was necessary.
“Yes, but how? Do you have hands somewhere?”
Just helpers. There is an insane woman, locked in a monastery, who I contacted. Those isolated, those with permeable souls, respond better to spren sometimes. This one, however, only wrote down everything I said—never responding. I had Dabbid bring her a spanreed, and I communicated through her.
A: [MISTBORN SPOILER] Well, if that doesn’t sound exactly like something we’ve seen before. Between Ruin, Preservation, Harmony, and Kelsier, this is becoming a Known Thing. If you’re in the Cognitive Realm, you can “leak through” to someone who has been made vulnerable by damage—to their mind, or their body, or their soul. [END SPOILER]
A: I suppose in a way, it’s the same thing all Radiant spren do: They bond with those who have “permeable souls,” as it were. The Sibling wasn’t looking for a bond, but they did use much the same access in order to have a conduit for communication. Now I wonder… We’ve talked about the need to be “broken” to form a bond, and Sanderson has said there are other ways. I wonder if this idea of a “permeable soul” is applicable to Shallan’s initial bond.
P: I think that makes a lot of sense. At least easier to think of a child having a “permeable” soul than a “broken” soul.
A: Exactly. I think that’s why I made that connection. I like this idea a whole lot more than the kind of childhood trauma that could be assumed for her.
But here’s the real kicker regarding the Sibling:
I have… been wounded. Thousands of years ago, something happened that changed the singers. It hurt me too.
Navani covered her shock. “You’re speaking of the binding of that Unmade, which made the singers lose their forms?”
Yes. That terrible act touched the souls of all who belong to Roshar. Spren too.
“How have no spren mentioned this?”
I don’t know. But I lost the rhythm of my Light that day. The tower stopped working. My father, Honor, should have been able to help me, but he was losing his mind. And he soon died…
There was enough sorrow in the Sibling’s voice that Navani didn’t push them for answers. This changed everything.
P: But what does it change in Navani’s mind? How to deal with spren? How to make fabrials? Something about the bonds?
A: I don’t know if I can exactly answer that, but I think part of it is her realization that the Sibling was directly impacted and damaged when Ba-Ado-Mishram was bound. Along with that, while part of the reason they’ve been so unhelpful was a reluctance to trust humans, part of it is also that their Light is… not there. It’s not that the tower doesn’t work because the Sibling won’t help—it’s because they can’t. The light to make the tower function is unavailable. Navani is going to learn more about this eventually, but this is the first hint, and she’s smart enough to see that there are implications beyond what she can understand right now.
P: She is smart enough, I wish she gave herself more credit!
You should be careful though, how you ask after fabrials. Do not forget that I consider what you have done to be a high crime.
“I’ve not forgotten,” Navani said. “But surely you don’t oppose the Oathgates.”
I do not, the Sibling said, sounding reluctant. Those spren have gone willingly to their transformations.
A: I so enjoy learning little tidbits like this. The spren of the Oathgates, whatever kind of spren they are, are outside the Sibling’s objection to fabrials; they are intelligent and made a willing choice, rather than being coerced or baited, so there can be no legitimate objection.
Relationships and Romances
I do not pretend. I am not human. I do not need to care about time. I do not need to look like you. I do not need to beg for your attention.
Navani cocked an eyebrow at that, considering that the Sibling had needed to beg for her help.
P: There’s not much of a relationship between Navani and the Sibling at this point, more of a grudging cooperation on the part of the Sibling and desperation on Navani’s part, but they will develop more of a relationship, as we know, so this seems a good place for this.
The Sibling is so adamant about not liking humans and not needing them, though as Navani thinks, they did need her help to engage the shield around the gemstone heart. Of course, Navani needs the Sibling just as much, at the very least, to be her eyes in the rest of the Tower.
A: I found the development of their relationship a fascinating process, and I’m even more interested to see where they go with it. What kind of understanding will they come to over fabrial technology? I hope Book 5 isn’t so busy with other people that these two are relegated to the background again.
Bruised and Broken
Kaladin felt like he was leaving a slaver’s cage when he saw that first glimmer of sunlight in the distance, and had to keep himself from running all-out to reach it.
P: Kaladin wasn’t just lost in the darkness of the Tower during his time in that chamber, he was lost in his own darkness. He was wondering if he would ever again see the light of day again, so while Stormlight was foremost on his list of supplies to gather, he first needed to see REAL light, to see the sun, the sky, the great wide open. This single line is so moving.
A: That line… Remember when he was in prison back in Words of Radiance, and how he longed to see the sky and feel fresh air? That was with plenty of artificial light; this has to have been so much worse, even though it didn’t last as long.
His stupid brain imagined forgetting the way and leaving Teft to die, wasting away, perhaps waking at the end. Alone, trapped, terrified…
P: Our brains are stupid when they tell us these things: that we’re going to screw up, we’re going to forget something important, we’re going to let someone down, let everyone down. But I’m glad that in this moment, Kaladin realizes that his brain is stupid for imagining these horrible things.
But more than him worrying about leaving Teft to die, wasting away, alone, trapped, and terrified, Kaladin experienced those same fears himself, feared those things happening to him. But bless those wonderful spren who saved him from that fate, and from a worse fate.
They had to move inward and find a small out-of-the-way stairwell that Syl remembered. Reaching it meant entering the darkness again.
P: How hard it must have been for Kaladin to enter that darkness again. It’s bad enough that he carries darkness around inside of his mind, but to also be immersed in it physically seems so difficult for him to bear.
A: This is going to be a theme for Kaladin for the rest of the book—the darkness, and the need for light. Inner and outer darkness, inner and outer light.
Oaths Spoken, Powers Awakened
But we might not need to wake up any Radiants. There are two in the tower who are still awake. … One makes sense to me, the Sibling said. She is awake because she was created oddly, to use Light differently from others. She was made by my mother for this purpose. But I have lost track of her, and I do not know where she is. A young woman. Edgedancer.
A: Is this the first time we’ve specifically been told that Lift uses Light differently (other than that she metabolizes food into Light)? I’ve reread too much, and can’t remember the order we learned things anymore. But it’s fascinating that the Sibling just talks about Light, not Stormlight. Even Wyndle doesn’t seem to have realized that the Light Lift uses is not actually Stormlight, but the Sibling seems to recognize it. Of course, that’s because the Sibling understands Light in a whole different way than the humans.
P: I loved seeing this mention of the way that Lift uses Light, Just tossed out there as a side note. Oh, by the way… *drops bomb*
“Lift,” Navani said. That one always had been strange. “You can’t see her anymore?”
No. I think one reason I can see parts of the tower has to do with Radiants, who are Connected to me. I caught glimmers of this Edgedancer girl for a while, but she vanished yesterday. She was in a cage, and I suspect they surrounded her with ralkalest.
A: Two things. The easy one first: They’ve put Lift in a cage with some form of aluminum all around her, presumably to keep her from getting access to Stormlight or being able to use her Radiant powers. (Heh. They know nothing!) The other is a question: Why are all Radiants Connected (capital C!) to the Sibling? I have a feeling that’s one of those “It’s a Bondsmith Thing” answers that only makes sense if you don’t look straight at it.
P: I love that the precaution they’re taking with Lift in regards to the aluminum is utterly useless. And I hope we learn more about why the Radiants are Connected to the Sibling! How long until book 5?
A: Too. Long.
But there is one other. A man. He must be of the Fourth Ideal, but he has no armor. So… maybe of the Third, but close to the Fourth? Perhaps it is something about his closeness to my father—and his closeness to the Surge of Adhesion—that keeps him conscious. His power is that of bonds. This man is a Windrunner, but no longer wears a uniform.
P: Navani likely knew who the Sibling was referring to before they mentioned that it was a Windrunner who no longer wore a uniform, but this was a great description of our favorite (okay, MY favorite) Radiant. Even though we know that Kaladin has GOT to be close to his Fourth Ideal, it’s nice to have it spelled out for us by one such as the Sibling.
A: It really was a fantastic confirmation. If you think about it, he’s known the words for a long time—which probably implies that he’s been right at the brink of leveling up, but he won’t until he can accept the implications. So… yeah. The confirmation of this idea was really cool.
“Try making the glass attract the latch,” Syl said, gesturing. “If you can get the latch to move toward you, it will pop out and unlock.”
He touched the side of the lantern housing. During the last year, he’d practiced his Lashings. Sigzil had monitored, making him do experiments, as usual. They’d found that a Reverse Lashing required a command—or at least a visualization of what you wanted. As he infused the glass, he tried to imagine the Stormlight attracting things.
No, not things. The latch specifically.
P: I legit cheered during the beta read when Kaladin opened that latch. It was such a small thing, such a simple solution for our mighty Windrunner to open that lantern, but in the moment, it was huge. High five, Syl.
A: It was huge—in multiple ways—and it’s so fun that Syl was the one to figure out how to use the Lashing he could access, instead of worrying about the ones he couldn’t. I like the combination of this little tiny movement providing an enormous relief to him by letting him grab all the big amethysts. And Light.
He drew in a little Stormlight. He would need it to help him carry all this, and seeing the glow gave the ardent an obvious boost of confidence.
“Life before death,” Kaladin said to him.
“Life before death, Radiant,” Kuno said.
P: Nothing like flexing your Radiant muscles in order to wow someone and ensure their cooperation.
Finally she darted back and made a swirl in the air, the signal that she hadn’t seen anything suspicious.
A: I included this only because it confuses me. Why the signals? Why not just say it? Or are they practicing using their own unique sign language for the times there might be someone within earshot? I’m not sure anyone else can hear Syl unless she wants them too… but I suppose with all the Voidspren and stuff, she’s not sure they can’t hear her. If that’s the case, I can see her wanting to have a silent means of communication.
P: There has been a lot of mention of them having signals and such. Like how Syl will take the form of a glyph to acknowledge an order. I think it’s just a habit for them, perhaps from their time spent in battle.
Geography, History, and Cultures
It is an aspect of Ur, the Tower,
P: Is this the first we see the Tower referenced as Ur?
A: Yes, it is, and if I recall correctly, my first reaction to this was on the order of “wait wut.” The Sibling calls it Ur, as opposed to Urithiru, and I’d like to know how and why that name morphed. Later mentions seem to imply that the mountain was long ago called Ur, and at some point the mountain was reshaped and molded into the tower that now stands, known in these days as Urithiru. I wonder, now, if the Sibling prefers the name of the mountain they once knew, rather than the (somewhat ostentatious) Vorin name Urithiru.
Singers/Fused
Only one Fused—other than Raboniel—stayed near the scholars … a Fused of Raboniel’s same type, a tall Fused with a topknot and a long face marbled white and red. The femalen sat on the floor, watching them, her eyes glazed over. … Why would Raboniel put this one here to watch them? Were there possibly so few sane Fused left that there was no other choice?
A: It’s a good question—and one to which the answer is a surprise, when we eventually learn it. This is Raboniel’s daughter Essu, and a relationship which puts a whole different light on Raboniel’s intentions.
P: I did find it odd that Navani thought this Fused was watching her after thinking that she must be unhinged, one of the insane Fused. What good would it do to set someone insane to watch her?
A: I think it’s just that Navani doesn’t have any frame of reference for keeping a Fused in a particular location other than to watch and report on them. There are a bunch of Regals, and from what she knows, the Fused rule the Regals. She has no reason to know that the actual purpose is just to keep Essu in a relatively safe place, out of the way but near to her mother.
“They’re making the outside of the tower look like nothing has happened. … “They know Dalinar will send Windrunners to scout the tower once communication fails, so the enemy is trying to pretend the place hasn’t been conquered. Those are either Fused illusions, or human sympathizers—perhaps the remnants of Amaram’s army—wearing stolen uniforms.”
A: Do we ever find out which it was? I don’t remember. In any case, he’s realized something important: that the Fused have anticipated Dalinar’s attempts to find out what’s happening, and they’re doing some fairly clever things to postpone him learning the truth.
We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments, so have fun and remember to be respectful of the opinions of others! Next week, we’ll be back with chapter 50, in which Jasnah demonstrates just what kind of queen she is, and how far she’ll go to prove it.
Alice is a Sanderson beta reader and administrator of two fandom Facebook groups. The Storm Cellar is specifically oriented to the people who reread here on Tor, though it’s not limited to them, and allows discussion of all Sanderson works. The Stormlight Archive group is, as you might guess, all about The Stormlight Archive, so discussion of other books has to be hidden behind spoiler tags. Alice lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids.
Paige resides in New Mexico, of course. She works full-time, goes to school full-time, beta reads part-time, mods/admins 3 Stormlight-themed Facebook groups part-time, and writes part-time. She wishes sleep wasn’t necessary because there’s just too storming much to do! Links to her other writing are available in her profile.
The fact that the Sibling specifies “those isolated” are among people she can influence makes me wonder if the Ardents’ practice of locking up the mentally ill alone in the dark might stem from old knowledge that this could make them useful to beings like the Sibling…
This chapter started the whole up and down roller coaster for me. Nanvani just ALMOST getting ahead and then Raboniel smacking her down. It was hard to even read for me.
This got me thinking again about BAM and being “unmade”. I wonder if what she was before Odium also affected the natives of Roshar, and if so, what. I still get twisted around the concept of the unmade and what they were unmade from. Clearly some of them function at a high level and others are just like avatars of some emotion. Maybe it’s just a function of what kind of spren was unmade.
I want to know more about the Sibling saying of Kaladin being awake, “perhaps it is his closeness to my father.”
There appears to be an error. Navani tells Kaladdin that she does not know how the Fused got the Oathgates to work. Yet in Chapter 42, the Sibling tells Navani that a human with a human with an Honorblade activated the Oathgates. Navani knows that this is Moash.
Alice and Paige. I think the inclusion of Vedel represents Kaladin’s goal of saving and caring for Teft.
I also think it reflects the ardents at the sanitarium. They are trying to help those who in our world may be deemed mentally ill. Granted, the help is not very effective (if at all). But I do not think the ardents inability to help the patients is not because they are mean. Rather, they had no incentive to undertake different methods of healing for these individuals. They are more concerned with helping the patients spiritually (so they can fight the big fight in Vorin version of the afterlife) rather than helping them navigate their current mental anguish in the physical realm. Kaladin, on the other hand, sees the benefit of helping the patients’ mental anguish in the here and now.
Alice. The way Navani laid out the tasks she needed to accomplish was why I thought she had the characteristics of a Dustbringer. Someone who takes things apart and see how they work. In order to accomplish huge tasks, sometimes you have to break them into many smaller sub-tasks. Navani excels at this way of thinking. Her engineering mindset fits this part of the Dustbringer persona nicely. Brandon, however, went a different direction. Nevertheless, it is fun to read the journey to get where Navani ends up (journey before destination).
Alice and Paige. I disagree with you. Navani was not the only one who could optimize the bond with the Sibling. I think had the Sibling been able to bond with Rlain, the both of them would have been able to figure out how to activate the Tower and flush out the Voidlight. However, as written, Navani became the only one as time was of the essence. Rlain was not close enough and had Sibling not bonded Navani when they did, I think the Sibling would have “died” (or at least turned in such a way that the Sibling would be in effect no longer the Sibling).
Thanks for reading my musings.
aka the musespren
Compare to Szeth in prison, with his only request being that he was constantly surrounded by charged gemstones, so there were no shadows.
There’s a WoB somewhere that the Windrunners are the order closest to the Bondsmiths. Kaladin can talk to the Stormfather directly across enormous distances (which even Syl never seems to do). He’s nearly a Bondsmith.
@5 Carl,
I think the “closeness to my father” is a wink to the possibility that Kal is a “son of Tanavest”, i.e., a human descendant of the person who was the shard of honour.
“For Kaladin, sunlight was as vital as food or water.” That, and the rest of the text about sunlight, served to remind me about Kaladin’s lifelong Seasonal Affective Disorder. He’s been spared from the Weeping while in Urithiru above the clouds, but prolonged lack of sunlight still has an especially heavy impact on him. Another trait I find relatable. (I think I’ve seen speculation somewhere that the lack of Stormlight during the Weeping may have also impacted his health even before he began to consciously absorb it, and now that’s also especially scarce.)
I appreciated this chapter’s reminder rundown of how the different Lashings work, in the context of what Kaladin currently can and can’t do.
Kaladin’s efforts to keep Teft alive are harder to watch on a reread, knowing Teft won’t live long past his recovery. But I think Teft is also helping to keep Kaladin alive here, giving him a focus and a reason to keep moving and striving in the face of danger and despair after the collapse of the home and life he had been building.
I wonder if this holds true for soulcasters as well…both in terms of the spren being willingly bound and the Sibling accepting that.
I don’t know why I never realized (or it didn’t sink in), but the Sibling is half-dragon (or wholly a dragon if Honor was one), and can presumably choose whatever appearance it wants.
I’m guessing the answer also has to do with why Urithiru was the capital (for want of a better word) of the Knights. I would also guess it has to do with the Sibling being of both Honor and Cultivation.
This makes me wonder what the suffix “ithiru” means or implies. I also very much want to know what the Sibling calls the Wind Blades at Kholinar (since they have the same sort of veining in the rocks).
Was it ever explained how the Fused were eavesdropping on Navani and the Sibling? I am not sure they are doing it until Navani was isolated into the other room.
@9 nightheron
My understanding was that the garnet vein ran through other rooms and could be accessed by anyone who was touching it at the time.
Navani’s bonding of the Sibling fell a little flat with me (I was also hoping for Rlain) but I’ll have to see on re-read how I feel about it.
@7 – ah, I totally forgot about the SAD connection!
My thoughts this week are a little all over the place, so apologies in advance. I basically just wrote them down as they occurred to me while reading; here goes.
Regarding the Sibling’s assertion that Radiant spren are just “putting on a show”, I’m not sure I buy that. I think that may have been the case early in Roshar’s history as we’ve seen that spren do like to imitate things (see Surgebinding). However, we’ve also seen with Syl, the Stormfather, Pattern, and others that bonding with humans changes the spren as well as the human. Maybe they were just imitating humans and Singers at first, but after bonding with humans for millennia I feel like concepts such as gender would take on real meaning for them and be more than just putting on a show. Then again, the Sibling was not yet bonded when they made that statement and we’ve seen how much the mental capacities of Syl and the Stormfather have grown since their bonds, so perhaps we’re meant to take that statement with a grain or two of salt. Maybe we’ll get more clarification on this once the Sibling’s bond with Navani starts growing.
On that subject, I am very interested to see where the Sibling and Navani’s bond takes fabrial science. It seems like the Sibling doesn’t have a problem with fabrials so much as they do with trapping spren to power them. Their comments about the Oathgate spren being willing point to some intriguing possibilities. Could the Sibling teach Navani how to make fabrials with willing partner spren instead of trapped ones? Or is it possible the Sibling’s views on trapped spren in fabrials will evolve as their bond with Navani grows? The Stormfather had some pretty strict ideas about Honor when he first bonded Dalinar (about as willingly as the Sibling bonded Navani), but we’ve seen those evolve as their bond grew. Maybe the same thing will happen here.
With regard to the Sibling and how/why they are connected with the Radiants: I figured this was just because the Sibling is a child of both Honor and Cultivation and runs off of a combination of their two Lights (Light in this case being interchangeable with Investiture). Since Radiants use Stormlight, which is half of what makes up the Sibling, I figured that was the basis the Connection they are referring to. It’s probably why the Sibling is also still able to connect with Lift as she runs off of the other half of what makes up their Light, Lifelight. I could be totally off base here, but that’s how I interpreted it when I read it.
@8 RogerPavelle – that’s an interesting thought about the Sibling being half dragon, and I’d never thought of it before. I’m not sure how fully it tracks, because spren are sapient manifestations of Investiture and we don’t really know how or if Physical/mortal genetics and inheritance would play into that. That being said, spren are also Cognitive entities so I definitely could see how the differences in how her (formerly?) human parent and her (formerly?) dragon parent think and perceive things playing into the Sibling’s character and how they view the world.
Last thought: A couple of weeks ago during a flashback chapter I commented how Venli acted as a “dark mirror” for Navani. As I was thinking that Venli’s role as counterpart has been replaced by Raboniel, something hit me that I should have seen a lot sooner. There’s been a lot of commentary about Character A being a foil/counterpart/mirror/etc of Character B, and while that terminology is fine in most cases I think it has distracted us from what Sanderson, diabolical genius that he is, has been doing. Everything on Roshar is based around the idea of symmetry. With that in mind, all of our characters on Team Honor should have a symmetrical opposite on Team Odium. Sometimes those symmetrical opposites will act as foils for each other, as with Navani and Raboniel, but not always. Dalinar/Ishar, Navani/Raboniel, Kaladin/Moash (although I’ll be making a case to change this below), etc. With that in mind, I’m curious to see who everyone thinks the symmetrical pairings should for the other characters. The ones I’ve come up with so far are:
Adolin/Eshonai (older siblings, leaders, all around good people)
Rlain/Renarin (Truthwatchers, don’t feel like they fit in, both bonded to an altered spren)
I haven’t been able to find a good symmetrical opposite for Jasnah (although I could almost see Raboniel working better for Jasnah’s opposite than Navani) or Shallan yet. Based on the characters’ evolutions through the series, I think there’s an argument to be made for Venli and Moash being a symmetrical pairing. Both started off as more proud/aggressive members of their side (compared to Eshonai or Kaladin, respectively), both are directly responsible for the death of those close to them, both have flipped teams and are moving farther away from their original allegiances, both are despised and irredeemable to some readers and totally redeemable by others. If Moash and Venli are symmetrically paired that would allow for Kaladin’s opposite on Team Odium to be Leshwi, which I think works really well. Both use the Surge of Gravitation, both are examples of honor among their peoples, both respect the abilities of the other (and are chastised for it by their leaders), and by the end of the book both are even willing to work with the other side. Just my thoughts, of course – I’d be interested in what others have to say.
Lance @12. I like your theory. If Brandon did not plan such dischotmay between characters from the beginning (meaning this was part of his outlines from the initial planning stages), I think his mind unconsciuosly directed him to draft the story to reasch this result. I am not sure I am expressing myself coherently. What I am trying to say is that each step that Brandon made lead to another step and ultimately he achieved such a dichotmy that you suggested.
I think Shallan’s “reverse mirror image” is Mraize. Depending upon where Brandon takes El in Book 5, El can be the one who is paired with Mraize.
Where I disagree is that Ishar is on Team Odium. Ishar is on his own team. Despite Ishar not being on Team Odium, I agree with your pairing him with Dalinar.
Thanks for reading my musings.
aka the musespren
It might be worth mentioning that Brandon is a huge science nerd. (He was briefly a chemistry major.)
So … one of the key concepts of modern physics (and chemistry) is symmetry breaking. The universe was, at the time of the Big Bang, extremely symmetrical and simple–all quantum entities were at similar energy states and had similar behavior. In the current model, the three quantized forces — the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces — were the same and acted in the same way. As the energy density dropped (because the mass/energy of the universe spread out over a fantastically larger volume) the symmetry broke, and the strong force split from the other two, and then the weak and electromagnetic forces also split. The distribution of quanta in the universe also began to be less symmetrical, as matter clumped together to form proto-galaxies and the first stars and planets and whatnot.
My point is, I can see Brandon making Roshar, as Lance says, all about symmetry, and then using that thesis to show that asymmetry is creative and important and not negative at all.
BTW, David Goldfarb said last week that the reason cut gemstones hold Stormlight better … how about because they’re more symmetrical?
@13 AndrewHB
I am in 100% agreement with you on the Dalinar/Ishar pairing. Technically Ishar isn’t on Team Odium, but something about that pairing just felt right to me so I put them together even though I couldn’t articulate why lol.
Shallan and Mraize being a symmetrical pairing is an interesting thought I hadn’t really considered. To be honest I hadn’t really factored any of the secret societies into my theory, I think mostly because they’re too full of extra-Rosharan characters to really fit into the native pattern of symmetry on Roshar. The visual I had in my head when I thought of this is sort of like a chess board – you have all of the characters on Team Honor on one side, and if my idea holds up they should each have a corresponding opponent character on the other side of the board (maybe “Team Opposition” would be a better phrasing than Team Odium). The various secret societies are so full of worldhoppers trying to achieve their own ends that I see them more as an assortment of extra pieces sitting on the sides of the board; technically able to get in the game but not really following the rules of it and also occasionally wandering off to meddle in the game of checkers on the next table over.
I think there are aspects of a Shallan/Mraize symmetrical pairing that work – both are members of a secret society, both keep secrets from everyone around them, both act in their own interests a lot of the time. Overall, though, I’m not certain about that pairing. I don’t know that the Ghostbloods really count as Team Opposition since their goals and objectives really don’t have anything to do with the main conflict on Roshar. Shallan and Mraize may both be members of a secret society, but they’re members of the same secret society with one of them set above the other rather than as corresponding pieces on opposite sides of the board. That being said, your suggestion did give me an alternative pairing I think may work. If we’re looking for members of a secret society with a distinct employee-supervisor type of relationship on Team Opposition, I propose the symmetrical opposite of Shallan-Mraize would be Ialai-Whoever in the Sons of Honor Ialai worked for. Both Ialai and Shallan prefer to work from the shadows, both are heads of spy networks (or were, in Ialai’s case), both work(ed) for secret societies whose goals involved finding a way to get Investiture able to leave the Rosharan system (Stormlight for the GBs, Invested beings/Cognitive shadows for the SoH). I can definitely see the Sons of Honor as a group being the symmetrical pairing for the Ghostbloods. Maybe that’s why Shallan was hard to find a symmetrical pairing for; her opposite character got killed off at the beginning of the book.
@14 Carl
Thank you for that info – physics and especially quantum physics has always fascinated me, even if I’m rarely able to fully wrap my head around it! And I think you are absolutely onto something about cut gems holding Stormlight better because of symmetry. It’s not something I’d even thought of, but of course any gem cutter on Roshar is going to cut them symmetrically.
It does beg the question, though, of if symmetry is such a foundational element of Roshar why gemhearts don’t grow that way to begin with. The only thing I can think of is that they probably do grow roughly symmetrically, in the same way that the bodies of humans, Singers, and most other life forms are roughly symmetrical. Cutting them allows them to be made more perfectly symmetrical, which would be more perfectly in tune with the nature of Roshar and therefore able to hold more Light for longer periods of time; I think you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head there!
On an unrelated note regarding symmetry, has anyone else noticed how perfectly placed Urithiru is? Looking at the map, if you were to stick a pin in the location of the Tower it would be the axis around which the entire landmass would rotate.
Rosharan names also use symmetry breaking to avoid perfect symmetry.
I like this theory, where does Taravangian fit?
@17 Marbelcal
Ooh that’s a good question. Up until the end of this book I would have said Taravangian’s symmetrical opposite is Dalinar. Now that he’s Ascended, though, I think that takes him off the board. Perhaps he will get a new opposite in one of the other Shards.
Giving things more thought, I’m also going to revise my previous pairing of Navani and Raboniel. The more I think about it, the more they just don’t seem like a good fit. Jasnah and Raboniel are a much stronger symmetrically opposite pairing. They are both well-respected scholars and leaders of their people, can be absolutely ruthless when they deem it necessary, and are willing to make short-term sacrifices in the interest of the bigger picture. I think they fit much better than Navani/Raboniel.
Of course, this now begs the question of who Navani’s opposite should be. Break out your foil hats here and tell me what you think: Navani and Ba-Ado-Mishram. We already have Dalinar and Ishar as a symmetrical pairing, bondsmith and bondsmith, so I think Navani’s opposite should be on an equal level with her as a bondsmith. It’s a pretty safe assumption that BAM is going to have to be released at some point, if only to heal the damage to Roshar. Given how BAM was able to manipulate Connection and give forms to Singers I think it’s also a safe assumption that she is a bondsmith-level spren, which would make her a fitting opposite for Navani.
Thought I just had while typing – what if Moash has been being set up to bond with BAM and become Odium’s bondsmith? As a human he could bond with an Unmade and become an anti-Radiant, right? Or perhaps – and this is really going into tin-foil hat territory – BAM will bond with El and become the first Bondform. We’ve never seen any examples of this, but I can easily see Rayse not allowing a Singer to attempt a bond with BAM. Having been bound to the Rosharan system by a bondsmith, he feared the threat they might pose to him. I can also see Taravangian feeling that having a bondsmith of his own could be a pretty powerful advantage. (Then again, he’s going to trounce Dalinar in the contest and get a bondsmith anyway, so this theory could be totally bunk.)
@lance:
Dalinar Ascended in Oathbringer. Rayse says so himself.
@carl
NOTE: Mistborn spoilers in response
As I understand it, that hasn’t been confirmed and Brandon has been RAFOing questions about it. The best WoB I’ve been able to find is a couple of years old, but he said “whether that deserves to be a capital ‘A’ or not is a matter of argument. It can be disputed” (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/377/#e12295). All of the other instances I’ve found of someone asking about Dalinar Ascending have gotten a quick RAFO. What happened at the Battle of Thaylen Field doesn’t quite line up with what we’ve seen in other instances of Ascension such as with Vin, Sazed, and Taravangian. Dalinar’s physical body was not absorbed, which Brandon has confirmed happens during Ascension (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/444/#e14320). Dalinar still exists in the Physical rather than the Spiritual Realm afterward, and he does not have the expanded mind and power of a Shardholder.
That being said, I 100% agree with you that there was definitely something unique going on with Dalinar at that moment. We just don’t really know what it was and I don’t think whatever it was puts him on enough of an equal level with Todium to make a good symmetrically opposite pairing. (The image that keeps running through my head is Taravangian’s piece Ascending off the chessboard altogether and Ishar’s piece sliding into its place.) I am really looking forward to finding out exactly what was going on with Dalinar’s “I am UNITY!” moment, though. Someone at the same signing as the first WoB I linked asked “Is Dalinar Unity because he’s the combination of all three Shards, through the Thrill, the boon and curse, and the Stormfather?”, to which Brandon replied “RAFO…but that’s a very good theory”. Which, of course, means next to nothing in Brandon-speak, but it was a very interesting question nonetheless. Maybe Dalinar didn’t Ascend to the level of a Shardholder/Vessel, but perhaps he achieved some kind of lesser Ascension we’ve not seen before? Something like being able to open a perpendicularity for all three Shards he’s Connected to? So many questions, and there’s always another secret….
@lance,
“Ascend” doesn’t mean “Become a Shard’s Vessel.” The Lord Ruler is also said to have Ascended, after all.
@carl,
That’s a good point. I took myself on a trip down the WoB/17th Shard/Reddit rabbit hole to try and figure out what the difference was between what the Lord Ruler did and what Taravangian or Sazed did. I was looking for something to explain the distinction since the term capital-A “Ascend” was used to describe both kinds of event. Based on what I found, it appears that Ascending refers to holding a significant portion of a Shard’s power. Under the right set of circumstances, like if a Shard does not currently have a Vessel and is not Splintered, it is possible to fully Ascend and become the Shard. In the Lord Ruler’s case, the power in the Well was only a portion of Preservation’s power and Leras was also still alive. He held enough of Preservation’s power, though, to become a Splinter of the shard.
Applying that to Dalinar’s situation, I think when Rayse and Taravangian mentioned him Ascending they were talking about him becoming a Splinter. (Although I did read an interesting theory that, since both Rayse and Taravangian have at least some future knowledge, when they said “Dalinar was not supposed to Ascend” they could have been referring to a future event they predicted and had been trying to prevent but failed.) I think it’s probable that Dalinar’s bond to Honor’s Cognitive shadow, combined with opening Honor’s perpendicularity for the first time, resulted in him becoming a Splinter. That’s probably why even the Stormfather was surprised by what happened. He’d not bonded anyone since Honor’s death and had no way to anticipate what would happen.
@22 Lance
I have an alternate theory for you. What if it was the Stormfather who Ascended? It is Dalinar’s determination that lets him pull more from the Stormfather than either knew was possible, but it is the SF who is providing that power.
ETA: To clarify this a bit more, my understanding is that Honor invested more of his power into the Stormfather as he was dying, turning him into a Splinter. We also know that being bonded to humans helps expand a spren’s consciousness (or makes their understanding of the world become human-like for want of a better term). So, it is the combination of these changes to the Stormfather since the last time he was bonded that have allowed him/Dalinar to do things that weren’t possible for previous hosts (open the perpendicularity, stop in one place, etc.). Since the SF is essentially the source of Dalinar’s Bondsmith abilities, it seems reasonable to me that any Ascention would be linked to him as well, rather than Dalinar. It also poses some very interesting implications/complications if Dalinar loses the challenge to Mr. TO.
@23 RoverPavelle
That’s an interesting theory, particularly because we’ve never seen someone bonded to a spren Ascend before so we don’t really know how such an event would play out. However, I don’t think that’s what happened. Ascension (at least the kind experienced by the Lord Ruler) happens when someone holds a large amount of a shard’s Investiture, so much that after releasing it the Investiture leaves a residue in them. This is what makes them a Sliver of that shard (or at least that’s how the Sliver page on the Coppermind describes it, although it doesn’t specifically use the term Ascension). Since spren are already made of Investiture, that really wouldn’t work. Someone at a signing asked Brandon a very similar question to what you proposed – what would happen if a spren picked up a Shard – and he said that was like “asking if electricity can gain a charge of electricity and get electrified” (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/6/#e310).
I think Dalinar becoming a Sliver of Honor and being bonded to the Stormfather is going to have some big ramifications going forward, especially in regard to the contest of Champions and my theory for how that will play out. The Stormfather had so much of Honor’s Investiture poured into him when Honor died that he’s now considered a Sliver of Honor and he’s bonded to (we presume) another Sliver of Honor, which puts a sizeable chunk of Honor in one spot. Factor in that Dalinar can also open Honor’s Perpendicularity, basically pulling enough of Honor’s Investiture out of the Spiritual Realm to unite all three Realms temporarily, and I think you’ve got a solid foundation for a Shard reassembly. I think it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Taravangian is going to beat Dalinar in the contest. Dalinar probably stood a chance against Rayse, but Taravangian is too clever and knows Dalinar too well to lose. When Taravangian wins and gets control of Dalinar, that will give him control of two Slivers of Honor plus access to Honor’s Perpendicularity. I think he will use that to reassemble the shard and take it himself. Rayse avoided taking up other shards to prevent changing his Intent, but we haven’t seen any such compunction from Taravangian. Since Sanderson spent so much time showing us how Stormlight + Voidlight = Warlight, I think book 5 will end with the Shard of War being unleashed on the Cosmere. That would give us the new “bigger bad” many of us have suspected the back five will have to deal with as well as laying the foundation for the greater war in the Cosmere at large.
Terminology thing here: “splinter” refers to all fragments of a Shard’s investiture. The Stormfather, like all spren, is a splinter and was from the moment of his creation.
Taravangian will be a Vessel for about one long book. Brandon even said so, if you read closely.
I might be wrong, but since Taravangian is a boring, repetitive character, I’m sure hoping so.
@25 Carl
Re: terminology – As a rule, yes. Sapient/sentient Investiture is called a Splinter (i.e. spren, seons, skaze, etc.) while someone who has Ascended is at least a Sliver. The Stormfather is a special case though, because he is fused with Honor’s cognitive shadow. The Coppermind entry on Slivers confirms the Stormfather is one, and there’s also a WoB in which he states the Stormfather is different because he’s a Sliver (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e9207).
A minor point given the major theorizing on this thread, but I think the reason Syl is using signals was to do her best windspren impression for any Voidspren that may be lurking. In other words, she’s trying to deceive anyone that may be watching by staying away from Kaladin. I thought it was referenced earlier but maybe I’m mistaken there.