Happy Thursday, Cosmere Chickens! Are you ready for some CRAZY ODIUM ACTION? I sure hope so, because Dalinar’s clearly not, poor guy. We’ve got a LOT to cover (though not quite as much as last week thankfully), so let’s dive in, shall we?
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 we also discuss some things from various other Cosmere books in the Cosmere Connections section, so if you haven’t read it, best to give that section a pass.
Heralds: Battah (Battar). Elsecallers (Transformation, Transportation). Wise/Careful. Role: Counselor.
L: My guess for this one is that Battah’s here because Dalinar is doing his best to be wise and careful.
Icon: Kholin Glyphpair.
Epigraph:
Roshar will be united in its service of the greater war. —Musings of El, on the first of the Final Ten Days
Chapter Recap
WHO: Dalinar
WHEN: 1175.4.10.4 (Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
WHERE: Emul
RECAP: Odium meets with Dalinar, and a deal is struck…
Chapter Chat—Odium
He pushed open the door to his house, stumbled through, and entered a vast golden field.
The ground shimmered as if infused with Stormlight. Dalinar pulled to a halt and turned around. The doorway was gone, the doorknob having vanished from his hand. The sky was a deep reddish orange, like a sunset.
He was in a vision. But he hadn’t heard the highstorm hit.
P: And so it begins, the final bargaining to agree to terms for the Battle of Champions. Odium likes to do this sort of thing when his opponent is tired and possibly not in the right state of mind to be making such momentous decisions. Tricksy old god.
L: Old age and treachery beats youth and skill everyday, as my dad used to say.
He appeared different from when Dalinar had last seen him. He still resembled a wise old man with a grey beard cut to medium length. A paternal air. Sagacious, knowing, understanding. Only now his skin was glowing in places, as if it had grown thin and a light inside was seeking to escape. The god’s eyes had gone completely golden, as if they were chunks of metal set into a statue’s face.
P: Well, that’s not at all creepy, is it? ::shudder::
L: Creepy? Nah, not at all.
“Our Connection grows, Dalinar,” Odium said. “Stronger by the day. I can reach you now as if you were one of my own. You should be.”
“I will ever and always be my own,” Dalinar said.
P: You cannot have his pain, and you cannot have his soul. Well… hopefully.
L: …Or will he?
P: ::whimpers::
“You think I fear humanity?” Odium said. “Humanity is mine, Dalinar. All emotions belong to me. This land, this realm, this people. They live for me. They always have. They always will.”
P: His arrogance is astounding. And T’s is no less astounding.
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Untethered Sky
L: I do wonder about this. Even if he did bestow emotion upon humanity (a questionable claim), what of free will?
All this time, he’d been asking what a god could possibly fear, but the answer was obvious. Odium feared men who would not obey him.
He feared Dalinar.
P: Rayse may fear Dalinar, but that’s not going to do Dalinar much good in the long run, I don’t think. Because I don’t believe that Taravangian fears Dalinar.
L: Not in the slightest. Which is terrifying.
“Tell me, what do you think of a human bearing the weight of a god’s powers, but without that god’s restrictions?”
“The power will bind you eventually, as it has me,” Odium said. “You don’t understand a fraction of the things you pretend to, Dalinar.”
L: Interesting. I had assumed that Dalinar was referring to Ishar here, but Odium seems to assume he’s talking about himself…
P: I read it the exact same way, that Dalinar was talking about Ishar. Though he could have been playing with words to make it seem as if he were talking about himself.
“I cannot break my word,” Odium said, the heat increasing. “I basically am incapable of it.”
“Basically?” Dalinar pressed. “What happens, Odium, if you break your word.”
“Then the contract is void, and I am in your power. Same, but reversed, if you break the contract. You would be in my power, and the restrictions Honor placed upon me—chaining me to the Rosharan system and preventing me from using my powers on most individuals—would be void.
L: Basically?
P: Yeah, that’s not at all disconcerting, is it?
I am not going to break my word. Because if I did, it would create a hole in my soul—which would let Cultivation kill me.
L: This feels awfully “evil villain speech revealing all his weaknesses” to me.
P: Before I kill you, Mr. Bond…
A willing champion from each of us and a fight to the death. They will meet on the top of Urithiru.
L: If this doesn’t wind up being Kaladin and Moash I’ll eat one of Wayne’s hats.
P: If it does end up being them, and Kaladin wins, I will owe Brandon a big ol’ high five. But I don’t know that even Odium could convince Moash to fight Kaladin, because he thinks that Kaladin can’t be killed.
L: I wouldn’t put it past Kaladin to find some way around Dalinar’s “I must be champion” thing. That sort of self-sacrificing heroism is what he LIVES for.
The Fused must go with you, locked away again, as well as the spren that make Regals. No more forms of power. No more Voidspren.” The light pulsed inside Odium and he turned his eyes back toward the horizon.
“I … cannot agree to this.”
… Singers can adopt Regal forms powered by the Everstorm. The Fused are free now; they can be reborn without my intervention. The Oathpact could have imprisoned them, but it is now defunct. I am literally unable to do as you ask, not without destroying myself in the process.”
P: Methinks that Odium doesn’t like talking about things he cannot do.
L: Awwwww poor baby.
“In exchange for you giving up one thing you wanted, I will give up one in turn. If I win, I will give up my grand plans for Roshar. I will leave this planet for a thousand years, and abandon all I’ve worked for here. I give you and the singers freedom to make your own peace. Freedom for you, and freedom for me.
L: This seems to be way, way too good of a deal. I don’t trust it. Thankfully, neither does Dalinar.
P: It’s definitely a trap. I just hope that we can pull out a winl despite Odium’s crem bargaining.
Besides, if Honor had died to trap this god here on Roshar, Dalinar had to believe the Almighty had done so for good reason.
L: If Odium gets free run of the cosmere, you just know that eventually he’ll be back. And even if he isn’t… Dalinar’s not the type to let millions of unseen and unknown innocents on other planets die just to save his own people. He’s the type to always look for another way.
P: He’s definitely no Taravangian, to sacrifice the many for the good of the few.
“Why delay?” Odium asked. “I know my champion. Do you know yours?”
“I do,” Dalinar said.
L: The tension builds.
P: I just hope Dalinar did the right thing in agreeing. I’m sick, thinking of things going wrong. I’m so bummed that we don’t have the beta yet!
Odium, I intend to be my own champion. I’ll have died if you win.”
L: ::sigh:: Of course. Dalinar never would ask someone else to fight in his stead if he could help it. It’s just so… him.
P: And he showed his hand. Perfect gif, BTW.
Oaths Spoken, Powers Awakened
“You are a god. You hold vast powers, yet they bind you as much as they free you.”
L: I find it very interesting that he’s directly calling out Sanderson’s second law of magic: “Weaknesses, limits and costs are more interesting than powers.”
Cosmere Connections
“Cephandrius,” Odium spat. “Ever the rat. No matter where I go, there he is, scratching in the wall. Burrowing into my strongholds. He could have been a god, yet he insists on living in the dirt.”
L: Reminder (in case you needed it) that this is Hoid/Wit’s true name. (At least, we think it is. Who knows with him.)
P: That’s the truth. Never know if anything Hoid says is the truth. Yet I still adore him.
“I need soldiers. For the true battle that is coming, not for one people or one miserable windswept continent. A battle of the gods. A battle for everything. “Roshar is a training ground. The time will come that I unleash you upon the others who are not nearly as well trained. Not nearly as hardened as I have made you.”
L: This is why I think the eventual fusion of him and Taravangian makes so much sense. Their thinking is shockingly similar. The needs of the many…
P: And he almost makes sense, which makes him all the more terrifying.
“The other foolish kingdoms of men can keep fighting if they wish, but your people and mine will begin preparing for the true war: the one that will begin when the gods of other worlds discover the strength of Surgebinding.”
L: I’m imagining how the powers of Scadrial and Roshar would mix and it’s terrifying me. Twinborn are already scary enough!
P: Seriously. We don’t need an all-powerful villain.
“And you will give your soul to me. You, Dalinar, will join the Fused. You will become immortal, and will personally serve me. Bound by your oaths. You will be the one I send to the stars to serve my interests in the cosmere.”
L: …okay, not gonna lie, I kind of want him to lose because I really want to see Dalinar serving as a Cosmere diplomatic envoy. Can you imagine him having to deal with Kelsier?
P: While I think he’d be awesome at it, considering the way he united the nations, I couldn’t bear to see him under Odium’s thumb.
We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments, and hope to join you there! Next week, we’ll be back with chapter one hundred thirteen, in which Taravangian meets an old “friend.”
Paige resides in New Mexico, of course. She very much misses baseball and is super excited to go see a Spring Training game in Phoenix this weekend! Links to her other writing are available in her profile.
Lyndsey lives in Connecticut and makes magic wands for a living, as well as working as the costumer for two of her local Renaissance Faires. If you enjoy queer protagonists, snarky humor, and don’t mind some salty language, check out book 1 of her fantasy series. Follow her on Facebook or TikTok!
