Greetings and a good morning to you, my Cosmere chickens! (Or a good afternoon, or a good evening… whenever you happen to be reading this!) With springtime blessedly on the horizon (not to mention the prospect of social events maybe being able to happen again soon!!!), things are looking a lot brighter here in the real world… but in Roshar, we’re in a bit of a lull, with stormheads brewing on the horizon line. In today’s chapter, Adolin and Shallan deal with some necessary logistics in regards to acquiring supplies for the continuation of their trip. We get a lot of cool information about Shadesmar and the spren who inhabit it, and one particularly important bit of information about a certain deadeye spren Adolin encounters, but for the most part we’re treading water until the craziness begins in earnest. So, without further ado, let’s jump 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 (including 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 Mistborn in the epigraph section, and a minor point from Elantris in Cosmere Connections; if you haven’t read those, you may wish to give those sections a pass.
Heralds: Shalash (Ash), Herald of Beauty. Lightweavers. Creative/Honest. Role: Artist.
A: It would seem fairly obvious that Shalash is here for Shallan, for lots of Lightweaving, for Shallan’s multi-persona conversations, and probably for the deadeye Cryptic.
Icon: Shardbearer, indicating an Adolin POV chapter.
Epigraph:
I have begun searching for a pathway out of this conundrum by seeking the ideal person to act on my behalf. Someone who embodies both Preservation and Ruin. A … sword, you might say, who can both protect and kill.
L: Well, that’s full of possibilities and speculation, isn’t it? Who could dear Sazed be considering for this? While I wish Kelsier were an option, somehow I doubt that Sazed would trust him in this role. Wax is a possibility, though… if he’s still alive at this point in the Cosmere chronology.
A: Oh, Wax is definitely a possibility. I’d even go so far as to say a probability. This letter was most likely written shortly before the events of Mistborn Era 2, since Sanderson’s latest timeline comments indicate that all of Era 2 will probably fall between the two Stormlight arcs. It seems highly plausible to me that his choice will soon fall on Wax; at least, there’s a fair amount of visible, acknowledged grooming going on from time to time in Era 2.
It’s interesting that Harmony seems to believe that an un-ascended human could represent both sides of his power better than he can, because they would be free from the level of uncertainty he himself suffers. What’s really fascinating, though, is that last phrase: “who can both protect and kill.” That’s been Kaladin’s dichotomy the entire series. Is this a Cosmere theme, or a hint that Kaladin may end up somewhere besides Roshar? (That probably belongs in tin-foil theorycrafting, come to think of it. I don’t actually believe it’s at all likely. But “both protect and kill” in Stormlight just screams Kaladin.)
Chapter Recap
WHO: Adolin, Shallan
WHERE: Shadesmar (see map below)
WHEN: 1175.4.3.4 (incidentally the same day as the departure of Dalinar, Jasnah, Taravangian, et al for the Emuli front)
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
Adolin and Shallan’s group reaches shore. Shallan goes on ahead to check and make sure there are no Fused, then returns and volunteers to keep an eye on the ship while Adolin and the others go in to trade for supplies. While alone, she contacts Mraize. On shore, Adolin encounters a mysterious Cryptic deadeye who apparently was “killed” sometime in the last ten years…
Overall Reactions
He placed his sapphire on the top of his closed sword trunk for light, then fell into a slow, careful kata meant to teach thrusting practice. Nothing flashy, no stupid twirls or spins of the blade.
L: Dear Brandon, thank you for calling out how stupid twirls and spins are in swordplay. Sincerely, the SCA, LARP, and stage combat practitioners in your fanbase.
Buy the Book
The Witness for the Dead
A: As a non-practitioner of the art, I just noticed how cool it is that there are practice routines for different scenarios. The “fighting in a hallway” routine is also applicable to the tight quarters on the barge, so Adolin has a very good reason to know a kata that he can use here and now, and I love it.
It was just him, the sword, and Maya. The relaxing repetition made his tension melt away. Katas were about more than training; they were a way to focus.
L: This has been my (admittedly limited) experience with martial arts kata as well. It’s almost… meditation.
“She remembers the times we’ve sparred together as man and Blade.”
A: I love the idea that she knows the kata from being the sword in the Physical Realm, and that’s how she can step into it so easily. And the way she steps in and matches him step for step is gorgeous. On the first read, this had me literally begging for her to pick up a sword and help Adolin sometime before the book was over…
In the Physical Realm a masterwork sword was an expensive purchase—and it often surprised people how valuable even an everyday side sword could be.
L: It’s true. My stage combat blades generally run me about $150-$300, and that’s for the cheaper varieties! (The better ones, like BKS swords, are more in the $1000 range.)
Music, Mechanisms, and Manifestations of Light
Jasnah had mentioned something else about these near-flawless gemstones that troubled her. She found it odd that the gemstones in circulation as spheres were always so flawed that they lost Light quickly. She said that they should vary, and more perfect ones should be found on occasion—but that wasn’t the case.
L: …huh. Well, that is interesting. So is there something about the way that gems and crystals are formed that is… inherently inefficient at holding Stormlight? You’d think that the way that they are cut might have some effect… Are the “perfect” gemstones manmade, you think? Like how there are man-made emeralds and diamonds and stuff in the real world?
A: Can you Soulcast something into a gemstone? Could you take some stone that is flawless but not one of the polestones, and Soulcast it into a perfect emerald or ruby? Or (if you were good enough) could you take a solid piece of a pure metal and Soulcast it into a gemstone? As far as I’m aware, the technology on Roshar wouldn’t allow for our methods of creating man-made gemstones, but that’s partly because their technology has developed along the lines of fabrials… and Soulcasting.
L: That’s a really good question, about the Soulcasting…
What if someone had been in the know, while everyone else thought gemstones were all basically the same? If you knew the supreme value of gemstones that could hold Stormlight over long trips through Shadesmar, you could spend years gathering them.
L: Wait. Waaaaait. So… where are all the perfect ones, then? Not in the gemstone “bank” we saw in Oathbringer, right? Wasn’t there only the one perfect gemstone in there, the one that the Fused tried to steal, and that they used to entrap the Unmade?
A: That’s the only one that was talked about, at least, and it was implied that it was unique. But we also know that the Celebrant moneychangers have “perfect gemstones that can hold the light indefinitely.” So… someone has been squirreling them away, for sure. Since the spren themselves can’t really do it, you have to assume that someone has been supplying them—or they’ve had them for a very long time.
L: Strangely, though, we get this quote a bit later in the chapter:
He’d heard they kept near-perfect gemstones in spren banks, storing vast amounts of Stormlight for future use.
L: So are the spren the ones who have been hoarding these, then?
A: Maybe? They certainly seem to be one party involved, anyway. (I wonder why he says “near-perfect gemstones” here, when in their earlier trip, Captain Ico told him they were “perfect gemstones.”) In any case, yes, the spren definitely have a large quantity of high-quality gemstones in Shadesmar. If they’re the only ones, there’s a glaring question of where they’re getting them. Back in Oathbringer, we learned that the pre-Recreance Elsecallers were “the duly appointed keepers of the perfect gems.” Did one (or several) of those Recreance-era Elsecallers take a bunch of those perfect gems to Celebrant for safekeeping prior to the big day? It would have been easy enough for them, back then.
In the thousand-plus years since, though, someone seems to have been actively filtering out any stones that held stormlight longer than they should. Again, if the spren are the sole holders of these stones, someone has to be filtering them out and taking them into Shadesmar. On the other hand, there might be—and probably are—others as well. Given the Ghostbloods’ interest in transporting stormlight, if they know about the function of high-quality gemstones—and it’s almost certain they would—I’d bet they’re doing whatever they can to collect the best ones they can find. So there may be multiple groups doing the same thing.
L: I wonder if they’re bringing them off-world.
A: Big burning question right there… On a guess, no, or Mraize wouldn’t be so fixated on it as a possibility. But someone else might have figured it out…
Oh, it’s also worth noting that the Stone of Ten Dawns was mentioned twice in Oathbringer, with Vstim relating the legend that the King’s Drop was a chunk off the Stone of Ten Dawns. If the legend is correct, there should be some other chunks, right?
L: I find it fascinating that a chunk off a stone is still perfect. Does that indicate that it’s something about the actual matter of the gem itself that makes it perfect, and not the way it’s cut (which was what I had always assumed)?
A: I was sorta wondering that… I think if the big gem itself is flawless, and the pieces are carefully cut, you could get multiple flawless smaller bits. Flaws, as I understand it, are miniscule bits of other materials intruding into the lattice. But I’m not a gemologist by any stretch of the imagination.
L: I think that’s one of the things that’s classified as flaws. But like you, not a jeweler, so…
A: Readers?
Spren and Shadesmar
So the gifts they’d brought were things Syl said would be appreciated: newly written books, puzzles made of iron that could engage the mind for hours, and some weapons.
L: Okay, this is pretty fascinating. Newly written books and puzzles are very intellectual things, but weapons seem to be the combo-breaker. You would think that highspren would be somewhat one-note in their interests, given that spren in general are manifestations of ideas/things. So it would make sense to say “Oh, sure, honorspren are all into intellectual things.” Now… a case could be made that sparring and swordplay does have an intellectual side (having to outthink your opponents, strategy, etc), but it still seems kind of odd.
A: I can’t help thinking they may have a certain inherent propensity for sword-play, given that they’re the spren of the most military-oriented Radiants. They would likely not admit it, but it seems reasonable.
Her eyes had been scratched out by the events of the Recreance, but she could still see. She’d been blinded without going blind, killed without dying.
L: This is very poetic.
A: There are a number of phrases in this chapter that warmed me with their sheer beauty. Brandon always says he’s not good at elegant prose, so he strives for transparent prose that just lets the story shine. In general, I agree, but there are times… “A ship was a cage without bars” is so incredibly evocative of life on the barge for weeks. “A song without music” is such a beautiful way to describe the flow of the kata. The part where he moves through the sequence and “…she followed—holding nothing but empty air, but moving in lockstep with him as he thrust, then reset, then turned” just melts my heart with the mental image it suggests.
A long flying spren with mustaches and a graceful body landed on the top of a building, then leaped off, ejecting an explosion of tiny crystalline shards that floated down and vanished. Was that a passionspren? He’d have to tell Shallan.
A: LOL! I don’t know; seems to me that the knowledge that these things were coming to watch you might have an… inhibiting effect on the passion. (Sort of like having Syl sitting on the headboard shouting encouragement?)
L: I expect it’d be kinda like doing it with pets in the room. ::laughs::
A: Could be, could be… (My allergies don’t allow for pets anywhere near my bed.)
This deadeye was a Cryptic who stood beside a storefront. Cryptics didn’t have eyes, but there was no mistaking that the creature had suffered Maya’s fate: the pattern had halted completely, the normally graceful lines twisted and turned in jagged directions, like broken fingers. The same odd scraping marred its center.
Maya released a kind of low whine from deep in her throat.
L: Oooooooh who do we have here!
A: Who indeed!! I went back and looked at the beta read responses, and while it was noted that “ten years ago” would be in the vicinity of the time when Shallan first formed her bond, not one of us even suggested what turns out to be the truth. Our speculations were along the lines of someone succumbing to pressure from Nale and breaking their Ideals, or an unknown Lightweaver who had bonded earlier but broke the bond when they heard about the Eila Stele, or even a listener with a secret bond who broke their bond and threw their Blade into the Sea of Spears after the broken treaty at Kholinar. (Someone asked if it was Tien’s spren, but he didn’t break his bond, so that couldn’t be.)
Oh, and someone had to point out that, being thrown in a lake, this one is obviously Excalibur…
She took his arm as he tried to walk off, which shocked him. It seemed to surprise her too, as she looked down at her hands holding his arm, then cocked her head. She held on and turned toward the deadeye Cryptic, pulling him.
A: And now we know why so much attention has been drawn to her utter passivity in Shadesmar. It’s been relatively subtle, but also pretty frequent. The only time she’s not completely passive is while doing katas with him, and she’s never taken the initiative to get Adolin to do something, or stop doing something. Which makes this as much of a shock to the attentive reader as to Adolin.
Relationships and Romances
It had been good to spend time with Shallan—and he had enjoyed even the appearances of Veil and Radiant. The latter made an excellent sparring partner, and the former knew a seemingly infinite number of card games.
L: I absolutely love this. He doesn’t resent her other personalities; far from it! He’s building friendships with them and appreciating their strengths. In this particular case, said personalities are other aspects of Shallan herself, so he’s loving all the parts of her, regardless of how they’re being presented to him at the time.
A: I, of course, got caught up on a minor triviality: Where did Veil learn all those card games, since she doesn’t actually know anything Shallan didn’t have the chance to learn? My conclusion was that most likely, Shallan learned them from the Thaylen sailors on The Wind’s Pleasure during the six months she spent trying to catch up to Jasnah back before they connected in Kharbranth.
L: With her photographic memory, I wouldn’t be surprised if even walking by and seeing them playing it would have stuck in her subconscious.
No, Radiant thought. We should suffer, as our punishment for abusing drink.
It’s not Shallan’s fault, Veil complained. She shouldn’t have to hurt because of what I did.
L: I love their dynamic so, so much.
A: This scene is fascinating, with all three personas arguing with one another about who’s to blame for the hangover. Silly girls.
“You should drink less,” Adolin said.
She poked him on the shoulder. “You should stop sounding like your father.”
“Low blow, Veil,” he said with a wince. “But point taken. Watch our things.”
L: Speaking of dynamics I love…
A: Argh. I adore them, but that really was a low blow. And she should drink less.
L: He takes it with such grace, though.
A: Doesn’t he always?
L: Except with Sadeas. ::evil laughter::
A: Touché.
Come to think of it, have we seen him lose it with anyone else? Sadeas pushed him to the edge multiple times, but I can’t remember anyone else… Oh, the officer abusing the prostitute was pretty bad, but that wasn’t directed at him; he was protecting someone else.
L: Dalinar, recently.
A: Yeah…
He needed to prove he could bring the honorspren to the coalition. After failing at Kholinar, he just … he needed to do this. Not for his father. For the coalition. For the war. For his homeland.
A: He’s right in his conviction that this needs to be done for the coalition, the war, and his homeland, but he’s lying to himself about not needing to do it for his father. It doesn’t need to be done just for Dalinar, but Adolin needs to do it to prove to his father that he can. And, frankly, to prove it to himself. (See also: Oaths Spoken below. Being in Shadesmar is reminding him of the events prior to his previous journey here.)
Shallan says the other two exist to protect her or help her, and I see that. I want to understand. I don’t want to be like the others, who whisper about her being crazy and laugh.”
L: Bless you, Adolin Kholin.
A: ::hearteyes::
I don’t know if I’m doing this right. I don’t know how to be supportive.”
L: I love that he thinks he’s not. Adolin has been nothing but supportive to every single person in his life. Now, I am not saying that this is a flaw, rather the opposite. This is very true to life—we often don’t see our own virtues.
A: I wouldn’t say nothing but supportive, because he does a lot of other stuff too, but we have indeed seen a ton of examples of him being supportive. He just doesn’t realize that’s what he’s doing, because it’s such a natural part of his personality. He does it without thinking about it most of the time.
Bruised and Broken
As usual, she’d had a few more cups than Adolin. Shallan had a strange relationship with drink, one that varied based on her persona. But since she could burn off the effects using Stormlight, she theoretically could never be drunk unless she wanted to be. It baffled him why she would sometimes go to sleep like she did, risking the morning hangover.
L: This makes me worry a little for Shallan. I enjoy a good drink myself from time to time, and have absolutely been known to wake up hungover! But if this becomes a habit for her… Alcoholism is such a danger, as we’ve seen with Dalinar.
A: Heh. I’ve had precisely one hangover. It was miserable teaching a class the next morning at 8:00 a.m., and worse because it was three hours ahead of my normal time zone. I promptly learned how to enjoy my drinking without earning a hangover. So… yes, this is an odd and worrying decision on her part, when it would be so easy to simply burn it off before going to sleep. It’s almost like she wants to punish herself just for being herself.
L: It almost seems like a form of self-harm, which is also worrying.
A: Yes. That’s what was in the back of my mind that I couldn’t quite get hold of. Self-harm is always a sign of something wrong.
Oaths Spoken, Powers Awakened
…if there was a man who deserved his place in Damnation, it was the general who left his men to die.
L: I’m putting this here not because it relates to anything about the Knights Radiant or Investiture, but because the words themselves are powerful. This is a thing that the good leaders struggle with, and rightfully so.
Cosmere Connections
“I need to speak to Mraize. Um, that’s actually his title rather than his name…”
The cube’s corners began to shine from a bright light inside, as if the metal were thinner there. “I know him,” the cube said, making Veil start.
“You can talk!” she said.
L: Is it weird that I feel bad for this little seon trapped in there?
A: It’s absolutely not weird at all. Poor thing. Stuffed in a box and commanded to stay there, hauled halfway across the galaxy from its homeworld and natural Investiture—I feel really bad for it too. I suppose this isn’t really the place for this, but I looked it up anyway: Its aon means “beauty, handsomeness.” If I didn’t already loathe Mraize, the way he treated this poor seon would do it.
Geography, History and Cultures
There was no cohesive sense of architecture to the buildings. Azish influences were most common,
L: This does make sense, as they’re closest to Azir in the physical realm.
Humans
We’ll have to wait a week for it, but there’s apparently going to be something odd about the humans with the caravans here. Should be interesting…
Arresting Artwork
L: Before this week’s chapter, we have another of Ben McSweeney’s lovely “Shallan sketches,” this time of ashspren! They’re soooo cool looking. It’s so cool how their skin can just… poof away into ash, then come back. Appropriately, these spren are associated with the Dustbringers (get it? Ash? Dust?), and according to the notes written in this sketch, are pretty hostile towards humans. I also like how their hair seems to be made of ash, or is at least ash-colored. So cool! Adolin remarks on their appearance in this chapter as such:
They looked like people, but their flesh would crumble off at times, exposing bone. As he passed one, she snapped her fingers, making all the ash of her hand blow away and vanish—then it quickly grew back.
A: They do seem hostile to humans, more than any of the other types of spren we’ve seen so far—though maybe contemptuous would be a better term. And yet, a few of them have bonded humans. Why? Malata, of course, is specifically connected to Taravangian and the Diagram; the others (we don’t know how many) seem disinclined to accept Dalinar’s authority. I keep expecting trouble from them.
Brilliant Buttresses
A couple of weeks on the same barge could make anyone bored of the scenery,
L: ::laughs in stuck-in-the-same-house-for-over-a-year, starts crying::
A: Lines like this always take me back to when we were doing the beta, and the lockdowns had just gotten well and truly going. It was a dark and depressing time.
L: I almost didn’t finish the beta on time, it was so bad for me. In a way, I wonder if this book in particular will always be tainted for me, in that respect.
A: I’m pretty sure that will linger for a long time. The book is fantastic and I love it, but certain scenes will always have an echo of “lockdown…” when I read them. This less than some of the ones in the Tower, thankfully.
Though, he thought, passing a tall willowy spren of a type he didn’t recognize, someone ought to tell that one what a protective cup is used for on our side.…
L: Look, Adolin, maybe he’s just wearing an Elizabethan codpiece! YOU DON’T KNOW. (In all seriousness if you’ve never seen one of these you ought to do a Google image search. It’s amazing and hilarious.
A: Worth noting, Brandon doesn’t tell us where/how the spren is wearing it, so we can use our imaginations. Not in its usual position, obviously (aside from being on the outside of the clothing instead of inside)… so… what do you think? Hat?
L: I vote on the face like Gonzo from the Muppets.
A: I’m trying hard to imagine what else someone could think to use it for, and I’m blanking.
L: Shoulder pauldrons, like the ridiculous fantasy armor in World of Warcraft! Or as shoes! Or on your elbows! The possibilities are ENDLESS!
A: Bahahahahaha! (The WoW armor is SO crazy… I keep having to visit a transmogrifier to keep from driving myself crazy with my own look.)
L: This is one of the reasons why I play FFXIV instead, to be quite honest. (Lyn Stormblessed on Famfrit, for any other Warriors of Light out there. ::wink::)
Unfortunately, this uniform’s pockets were sewn shut. The trousers looked better that way.
L: NO ADOLIN HOW DARE YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THAT BS
A: Heh. Vanity before sanity, my dear. This uniform won’t hang right with functional pockets, so the pockets must be sacrificed. LOL.
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 thirty.
Alice is having a lovely time fighting off a case of swimmer’s ear. You needed to know that, didn’t you? Also, the ‘Rona has left her home peacefully and with no particular trauma.
Lyndsey is so relieved to have gotten her first COVID vaccine shot this week, and is a fantasy author in her own right. She’s been doing weekly tie-in videos to the reread and silly cosmere cosplay vids on TikTok, or you can follow her on Facebook or Instagram.
Foreshadowing the actually-dead Cryptics in Ishar’s tent?
I originally thought otherwise, but I’m now convinced that the Seon will bond with Adolin. I mean, who could be more simpatico with Adolin than a literal incarnation of handsomeness?
One thing that comes to mind regarding the gemstones is almost the opposite of what is proposed: instead of some group hoarding better-quality stones, is it instead possible for some entity or group to be… somehow adding imperfects to the stones, whether via Soulcasting or some other means? I can think of a variety of purposes for this, from thwarting the Ghostbloods et. al. from taking Stormlight off-world, to making it more difficult for Radiants to bank up Stormlight, to preventing the capture of Unmade (and possibly other entities)…
I LOVE the Maya stuff in this chapter. Ever since she was introduced, I have been absolutely fascinated with her and what will come next. Every small glimpse of autonomy and self-awareness that Maya shows has me absolutely thrilled. I’m really hoping that this doesn’t end up with a Radiant bond but instead leads to some kind of new partnership between spren and humans.
Actually, along those lines… we know that the Bondsmiths (or, at least, the powers of Honor and Cultivation) are involved in “permitting” Radiant bonds in some way. Since this book speaks a lot (not in this chapter, obviously) about Dalinar exploring his Bondsmith powers, I wonder if it’s possible in some way for a Bondsmith to facilitate (or force) a Connection to a deadeye, for example. Obviously this brings up a whole web of consent issues, but I wonder what would happen if a deadeye were Connected to a living human… I don’t know, maybe this is too tinfoil-hat theory. Just some musings.
The only time I have ever predicted something right was here; Maya’s insistence combined with the shopkeeper’s story made me think that Shallan must have killed this spren. It just made so much make sense, and this seemed too important to be a throwaway instance. I REALLY hope that she can be revived in the next book. Has a Radiant ever had 2 spren bonds before?
Adolin and Maya are so sweet, and I love how Adolin is winning Veil over.
Just a speculation here, but I was thinking that since Shallan has two bonded spren, that pattern will be killed (permanently) and she will have to revive her deadeye in order to get to her fifth ideal.
Didn’t realize it here that the deadeye was Shallan’s, but it clicked later in the book when Pattern didn’t remember something from the past.
Yeah, I find it mildly amusing that in the beta, we noted that this Cryptic disappeared around the time Shallan would have formed her initial bond, but if anyone guessed it was actually her Cryptic and she killed it, they didn’t say so. Some people did start guessing before it became obvious, but not this early.
Chubby Moneky @5 – NO NO NO! … I would be very sad if Pattern was perma-killed. I mean, I want Shallan to reawaken Testament, for sure, and from what Brandon has said in WoBs it should be possible for her to do so. I just would love to see her with both of them living.
To me, it’s interesting to speculate … would having two Nahel Bonds make Shallan a super-Radiant? She wouldn’t gain new powers (like someone who had bonds to both an Honorspren and an Inkspren or something), but would her powers be deepened or strengthened?
Cosmere lore here: would it make her a Lightweaving Savant, like someone who spends too much time burning pewter?
With how Connection works, would the two spren be Connected to each other (even more than just by being two Cryptics)?
My theory as to why the Honorspren want swords is that after the Recreance, they have developed a fear of humans. They fear that humans may someday enter Shadesmar in mass and seek them out. They know that humans can die and the sword is a way to protect them. Or it could be something similar to what Alice said. As younger spren, they saw that the other Highspren were associated with humans who would use the spren to take the forms of swords. They saw such swords as a part of themselves. Ugh. Who am I kidding? I have no storming idea.
Lyndsey. Speaking from experience, pets should not be allowed in the bedroom when humans are engaging in such activities.
Alice & Lyndsey. During Adolin’s trial, Adolin will loose his temper when Sekeir is “testifying” on behalf of Maya. Once again, Adolin looses his anger because someone is mistreating someone he cares for. Actually, I think that is what I think is a huge underlying reason why Adolin hated Sadeas so much. First, Adolin saw Sadeas trying to ruin Dalinar (pre WoK and during WoK). Eventually, Sadeas would betray Dalinar on the battlefield. As a result, Dalinar and Adolin almost died. Adolin witnessed the death of many of his fellow soldiers; some of whom were his mentors and/or friends. When that did not work, Sadeas tried to humiliate Dalinar. Finally, Sadeas (through his wife) had an assassin try to kill Dalinar. When Sadeas admitted that he would try to steal Urithiru from Dalinar, Adolin did what he felt he had to to protect someone he cared for: in this case, Dalinar.
The two full-body Ashpren look like they are sitting at a bar listening to a 90’s grunge band.
Evelina @@.-@. Is Adolin winning Veil over or is Veil winning Adolin over? I suspect some of both.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
What’s really fascinating, though, is that last phrase: “who can both protect and kill.” That’s been Kaladin’s dichotomy the entire series………. But “both protect and kill” in Stormlight just screams Kaladin.)
Oh Alice, this is exactly what I thought before I read the Mistborn series. For once, an epigraph relating to a shard made sense to me, even though I didn’t know what or who Preservation or Ruin were. I thought someone was planning greater things for Kaladin than just being a Knight Radiant.
Wonder what brought Testament to the place called “Nameless” where Adolin and Maya first encounter her? And is Shallan still bonded to her?
Perfect gemstone tin foil hat theories:
1. They were essense of Honor like Atium was of Ati. Since Honor is gone and the rest are hoarded elsewhere, no more in circulation.
2. Some Elsecallers/ Lightweavers of old were able to create them by soulcasting. Shallan can make transparent crystals, may graduate to perfect gemstones in the future.
3. If they are not going offworld, maybe they are being hoarded by Skybreakers (for their own use) or by Envisagers/ Sons of Honor for Radiants/Heralds to use.
4. As @3 brandonw says, to prevent capturing higher spren. Maybe one or more Heralds did this before they went insane or are currently doing it.
5. The Diagram called for it and Taravangian is responsible.
First, everyone keeps talking about Shallan having two bonds. Even she, at the end of the book, comments on how she has two shardblades. But does she really?
When she broke her bond after killing her mother, her father put the sword into the lockbox. Shallan in WoR thinks about how that was stupid because Pattern would’ve just faded to mist. But we now know that wasn’t Pattern. That was Testament, an UNBONDED shardblade. There was no ruby on the pommel because it was a newly created deadeye. I highly doubt Shallan would be able to carry around for 5 days, and bond, a shardblade she wished didn’t exist and reminded her of how she killed her mother. That does raise the question, who has the shardblade? My bet is the Ghost bloods retrieved it when they saved her brothers. Also, if you think Shallan used Testament to kill Tyn, we know that she could summon Pattern as a blade at that point because she summons him in the chasms with Kaladin (the blade glowed, didn’t scream to Kaladin’s touch and changed size so it was Pattern) and she doesn’t say any truths between killing Tyn and the Chasms.
And we know deadeyes can go anywhere in Shadesmar even if their owners are elsewhere. Captain Ico had his grandfather (maybe great grandfather), who is a deadeye, locked in the ship. Who knows where the owner of that blade is, but the deadeye didn’t try escaping the ship to seek them out. So just because Testament is with Shallan at Lasting Integrity doesn’t mean they’re bonded. In fact, Testament probably showed up with the other hundreds of deadeyes that gathered just outside and the Honor spren took the opportunity to use her in their trial.
P.S. I refer to Testament as a she, but I’m not actually sure if we get a gender for Testament. Anyone know?
Re: killing to protect. Mistborn Well of Ascension spoilers:
The whole killing to protect isn’t just a Kaladin theme. It’s a major part of Vin’s are in WoA. After killing so many of Cett’s soldiers in an attack that wasn’t necessary to protect Elend she felt horrible. It isn’t until the end of the book when she returns to Luthadel and is killing Koloss that she realizes she could kill, would kill, if it meant protecting the people she loves.
This actually gets mentioned in TWoK (c38, I believe). As far as anyone on Roshar knows, you can’t create true polestones with a Soulcaster. You can soulcast things into lesser crystals like glass and quartz, but those won’t hold Stormlight.
On the issue of the swords, I feel like a lot of people are way overthinking it. We see that the honorspren are a highly militaristic society, they seem to have other spren under their rule and an expansive military, and they don’t seem able to form weapons from their essence as inkspren do. So they want the swords for the same reason Alethi or Vedens or the listeners back in Eshonai’s early flashbacks wanted swords: because they are weapons better than anything the spren could produce on their own (since they never time out as manifested weapons would) that can be used against humans or other spren or singers or anything else the honorspren might decide they need to fight.
@11 – Except that Shallan had an honorblade since tWoK (it was hinted at in the book but not revealed until WoR). There was no way she was unknowingly that far along in her bond with Pattern to have a blade. Though, admittedly, the timeline is very confusing.
AndrewHB @9 – That sounds like a story… but quite possibly NSFW! lol
dee @10 – Those are some good possibilities about gemstones. I have to assume that since it’s come up in the book, there’s some reason for it that we’ll learn eventually.
StormLord @11 – Yes, Testament is always referred to as “she” when Shallan thinks or talks about her. I’ll have to think about the rest of your comment, though, because that’s a lot of good questions. It would be truly bizarre if, say, Mraize had bonded Testament as a dead-spren Shardblade. I’m not sure the Blade would have remained in the safe, though; Shallan didn’t (apparently) break her bond until later, when she was out in the garden, and there’s no indication that Testament was in Blade form at the time. So it’s possible she has no physically-manifested form at all.
Austin @13 – Shardblade, not Honorblade…
@14 – D’oh! I meant shardblade, of course.
@11 Stormlord
Not only Shallan and Adolin consider Testament a “her”, but also the Honorspren at Adolin’s trial and Testament’s former Inkspren business partner & friend.
Shallan also thinks that between killing Testament and bonding Pattern, her power still worked in some ways. Kelek thinks it is something to do with the nature of dead eyes (RoW chapter 115). Unlike all the current dead eyes we know of, Testament is the only dead eye whose Radiant is still alive. The rules of other deadeyes may not apply to her.
So even though I don’t know what is the bond/ Connection between them at present, it is unlikely someone else has bonded Testament or is using her (at least in the past year where she has been under the care of her Inkspren friend).
@12 Aeshdan
They couldn’t create actual gemstones with a Soulcaster—that was said to be impossible (Shallan thinking this in TWoK, chapter 33).
Soulcasting devices are SAID to be unable to synthesize gemstones, but we don’t know if Radiant soulcasting by Elsecallers or Lightweavers also can’t. Or atleast modify imperfect ones into perfect ones. One can always hope!!!! Some absolutes keep changing and, what we thought impossible seems to have happened :) I am thinking about spren getting permanently getting killed in this book when so far they were supposed to be eternal.
So, not because I fully agree with Stormlord @11 (but he does bring up important points that should cast doubt on our assumptions about Shallan’s blade(s)), but @13 Austin – IIRC (I admit I could be wrong, I reread it recently, but haven’t gone back and checked again) all of the hints in WoK for Shallan’s Blade are in her own thoughts. Given the nature of unreliable narrators (Shallan also “sees” the halo of light from the safe which is objectively not there, right?), this can at most be taken to mean that she thinks she has a blade. Given the fact that she immediately quashes all of those thoughts as bound up with her mental anguish over her mother’s death, I would guess she never summoned the blade after that incident and her subsequent rejection of Testament (she also thinks the blade is in the safe for years after).
@9 Re: the ashspren. And Shallan caught them between cigarettes. Change my mind.
@austin, 13: Shallan killed her mother with a Shardblade before she ever met Pattern, in fact, years before WoK. And also, if Testament was a deadeye bound to someone else, she would instinctively try to walk to somewhere in the Cognitive Realm that corresponds to her Physical Realm manifestation. She isn’t.
Harmony’s Sword is (will be) Wax in the Second Era Mistborn Trilogy – he himself says as much in the climactic moment of “Shadows of Self”. I do wonder why Harmony can’t use his excess Ruin to fend off his opponents, though. You’d think that having the imbalance would give him that flexibility – and he does need to manage the extra Ruin somehow anyway, so directing it outward should have been a win-win. There is probably something we don’t yet know about his predicament.
Concerning Testament – if it had become a deadblade in the physical realm, surely Lin would have fitted it with a gem and bonded it? I mean, becoming a shardbearer should have greatly improved his situation, no? He could have concoted some story to cover up for how he got it – it may even have made it easier to conceal the truth about his wife’s death! Just claim that her “friend” had been a secret shardbearer and had been the one who murdered her before Lin was able to put him down by a lucky fluke.
As to the gems – I am pretty sure that they can’t be produced via soulcasting. I think that I saw a WoB to that effect once, though I couldn’t find it with a cursory search just now. But more than that, supply of gems that can hold stormlight is _the_ limit on the power of Radiants, and Sanderson’s magical systems are all about logical boundaries. Maybe the Radiants of old could remove imperfections from gems via application of Adhesion (pressure)/Division (heat) somehow? And, of course cutting gems perfectly would have been much easier before the Recreance, with bonded Nahel spren turning into incomparable cutting tools when necessary. I do think that the worldhoppers and the Horneaters would have been very motivated to find perfect gems on Roshar and trade them to spren. And, of course, the Heralds and now the Ghostbloods likely have hoarded some too.
Trading weapons to intelligent spren – of course the spren would want some, to fend off the voidspren, the Fused and dangerous animal spren! As seen in OB in Celebrant, they don’t have a good selection and manifested things tend to dematerialize eventually.
While I think both Kaladin and Wax are the most likely candidates, I also can’t help but wonder if the use of ‘sword’ is significant and think of our favorite sentient evil-destroying sword. Although I don’t know that Nightblood really ‘protects’.
My theory on perfect gemstones is that they are ones formed by mineral processes akin to earth gemstones, and that the gemstones in spheres on Roshar all ultimately come from gemharts. That is, perfect gemstones are easiest to come by via offworld trade. A living gemhart will grow with the creature it is within, and not have a perfect crystal structure. But one formed in a planet mantle under pressure as atoms are slowly deposited onto the crystal lattice can have a perfect crystal structure and be capable of holding stormlight indefinitely. That would have a music/light analogue as having the wave form of the light be in resonance with the crystal, and no imperfections or “friction” that would lead to gradual decay.
The “perfect crystal structure” theory has a weakness, though, in that the different gemstones are colored by minute chemical impurities, and in a certain sense that makes the crystal no longer “perfect”. But it is possible to have impurities and still have the entire body of the gemstone be a single regular lattice with no gaps or shear domains.