Welcome back to the Warbreaker reread! Last week, Vivenna’s efforts to help her people led her to do more things she herself disapproves. This week, Lightsong continues his investigation of The Murder at Mercystar’s Palace.
This reread will contain spoilers for all of Warbreaker and any other Cosmere book that becomes relevant to the discussion. This is particularly likely to include Words of Radiance, due to certain crossover characters. The index for this reread can be found here.
Click on through to join the discussion!
“My sympathies, Your Grace, that you have been inconvenienced by a semblance of motivation.”
Chapter 26
Point of View: Lightsong
Setting: Various locations within the Court of Gods
Timing: The morning after Chapter 23
Take a Deep Breath
Lightsong bounces out of bed an hour early, enthused to get back to his murder investigation, but reluctantly agrees to view some artwork first. He’s surprised to find a painting which he feels he shouldn’t like quite as much as he does, but it speaks to him; he sees much more detail in the painting than Llarimar does, which the priest finds deeply troubling. Lightsong is done with viewing artwork for the day, but requests that this one painting be kept for his collection.
On the way to Mercystar’s palace, Lightsong relates the night’s dream to his priest: a storm so strong it pushed him backward and seemed to make the ground undulate, and a red panther made of glass, waiting in the storm. The guards at Mercystar’s palace are reluctant to admit him, but without a direct command from their mistress they have no authority to deny him. As he examines the corridor, one of Mercystar’s priests arrives. Like the guards, he is reluctant to allow Lightsong to ask questions or interview the servants and guards, but also has no authority to deny him.
While awaiting the arrival of the requested personnel, Lightsong reexamines the newly replaced wood in the floor, and realizes that one section is a trapdoor; he pretends not to notice it, for the benefit of the watching priest—who is clearly aware of its existence. With the arrival of the guards and servants, Lightsong divides them up into groups according to who was together during the events, sends each group to a point out of earshot of the others, and then proceeds to question them. He gets a good description of Vasher, and a fair description of what happened… except that one of the servants is obviously lying at first.
After hearing everything, Lightsong concludes that there were two intruders, one following the other, and that both left through the trapdoor. He leaves the palace, having confiscated the Lifeless squirrel for further study. On his way home, though, he reveals the thing that most confuses him about the investigation: how he, Lightsong the indolent, is so good at unraveling the mysterious invasion. Llarimar, of course, refuses to discuss Lightsong’s previous life, so he’s left wondering just what he had known and done in order for this detective work to come so naturally.
Breathtaking
Red upon red, shades so subtle that the painter must have been of the Third Heightening at least. Violent, terrible reds, clashing against one another like waves—waves that only vaguely resembled men, yet that somehow managed to convey the idea of armies fighting much better than any detailed realistic depiction could have.
Chaos. Bloody wounds upon bloody uniforms upon bloody skin. There was so much violence in red. His own color. He almost felt as if he were in the painting—felt its turmoil shaking him, disorienting him, pulling on him.
The waves of men pointed toward one figure at the center. A woman, vaguely depicted by a couple of curved brushstrokes. And yet it was obvious. She stood high, as if atop a cresting wave of crashing soldiers, caught in mid-motion, head flung back, her arm upraised.
Holding a deep black sword that darkened the red sky around it.
“The Battle of Twilight Falls,” Llarimar said quietly, standing beside him in the white hallway. “Last conflict of the Manywar.”
Lightsong nodded. He’d known that, somehow. The faces of many of the soldiers were tinged with grey. They were Lifeless. The Manywar had been the first time they had been used in large numbers on the battlefield.
That’s quite an evocative description. I’m pretty sure I didn’t recognize Nightblood the first time I read this, but it sure seems obvious now. I wonder if anyone who didn’t see the annotations picked up on the presence of Shashara. Again, it seems fairly obvious now, but my first (second, third…) time through, I’m pretty sure I didn’t.
Local Color
This chapter’s annotations were chock full of goodies. The first one touches on the difficulty of writing a character with internal conflicts; it may make them a more interesting person, but if their conflict leads to indecision and inaction, they get boring real fast. Good advice, and slightly amusing given that a fair number of people were bored with Warbreaker by this point because it seemed that no one was doing anything!
The second note has to do with Lightsong and the painting, where we learn that there really is something to the religion. Lightsong does see things in the painting that a normal person can’t, though the “proof” is awfully subtle if you don’t have the annotations at hand.
A well crafted piece of art, made by a person channeling the Tones and connected to them via Breath, can speak to a Returned.
In this case, Lightsong is seeing an image, not visible to Llarimar, from the battle for which the painting is titled; it’s prophetic in that another Manywar is on the verge of breaking out, and Nightblood is active in both.
Then there are the spoiler annotations, where we learn all sorts of things we wouldn’t otherwise get to know at all: the woman Lightsong sees in the painting is Shashara (Denth’s sister, Vasher’s wife, a Returned known as Glorysinger), and this is the only time Nightblood was ever drawn in battle. The results were horrific, as you can imagine. Shashara insisted on using it in the battle, and she insisted on exposing the secret of how to make more, but Vasher was adamantly opposed to both. He ended up killing her (with Nightblood) to keep her from making more and loosing them on the world. Nightblood, we’re told, actually plays a much larger role in the larger story of this world than the almost bit-part role he has in the book. Presumably, if we ever get the sequel we’ll find out what that story and role are.
Bluefingers is, of course, in the middle of it all. We know from the annotations (Chapter 11) that he’s Denth’s real employer, and because of a vague assumption that Vasher’s goals would complement his own, he gave Vasher the information about the trapdoor. He also told Denth about Vasher’s exploration, of course, warning him not to risk exposure by attacking. Not that Denth would have cared if he had a good opportunity, but he didn’t, and with his Breath hidden, Vasher didn’t know he was following.
Finally, a note about Lightsong’s investigation. As mentioned above, he pretty much figures out what we already know, plus the bit about the second intruder. The really interesting part of the investigation is what it might indicate about who Lightsong was before he died, and his rising curiosity in that regard.
Clashing Colors
Lightsong still doesn’t quite know what to do about the war question, or how much to support Blushweaver’s machinations, but he’s starting to get involved in things that will draw him in far more deeply than he could ever have imagined. Also, I think it’s funny that Bluefingers is trying to manipulate both Denth and Vasher, while having no understanding of the depths of their animosity for one another.
In Living Color
The primary focus of this chapter is, of course, Lightsong. Up until now, we’ve seen him lazy, flirting, depressed, and reluctantly drawn in. Now, finally, we’re seeing some enthusiasm for a task he’s set for himself, and the indolence is gone. The irreverence, of course, remains. This is Lightsong.
It’s generally a forbidden subject, to ask any questions or make any mention of the former life of one of the Returned. No one is to know, or admit they know, who they were or what they did, or even how they died. Naturally, a troublemaker like Lightsong wants to know all the answers—and I’d be very surprised if most of the Returned didn’t feel the same way to some extent. Some, I’m sure, would just as soon not know, and prefer their godhood untarnished by former weaknesses. Maybe most of them feel that way, but there have to be other curious ones besides Lightsong, right?
So now I wonder: when Endowment sends people back as Returned, does she give them additional abilities to help them fulfill their purpose? Is that where Lightsong’s detective skills come from? Or were they always there in his original self, and just didn’t get used this way? This question reminds me of a certain scene on a train, with an engaged couple playing ledger-detectives, searching for three missing clips… the point being that it’s not uncommon for the same strengths to be useful in widely varying careers.
I may never know.
Vasher and Denth are only in this chapter by description and annotation, but they do make their presence known. Such a contrast in their approaches to life: Vasher often seems to dislike himself and all he’s done, but at the same time, he takes care not to abuse his gifts, in this case going so far as to risk discovery for the sake of not killing anyone. Denth, even though he has to play some weird mental games with himself to justify it, doesn’t in the least mind torturing or killing people if it will get him what he wants.
Oddly enough, this calls to mind some of the discussion from last week, with Vivenna’s religious dilemma. This isn’t the same question, quite, but it’s related. Vasher takes responsibility for his own actions as well as (perhaps too many of) the ripples caused by them, even though other people also affect those ripples. Denth has a strong tendency to avoid personal responsibility; he will do whatever he needs to do, but anything that might bother his conscience he immediately shifts to someone else’s responsibility—his employer, his victim, whoever might be handy. I wonder if he always had that abuser mentality, or if that’s something that developed after he Returned or after some of the Five Scholars shenanigans. Certainly, he blames Vasher for Shashara’s death without admitting that she was pursuing an incredibly dangerous and foolhardy science; with that “justification,” he can do almost anything to anyone as long as it helps him set up his longed-for duel with Vasher.
Don’t Hold Your Breath (Give it to me!)
That blasted squirrel just won’t go away. It makes me laugh every time I think about it. “Bite people who aren’t me.” I can’t remember what Lightsong’s people are able to learn from it, but I’ll happily wait and read it in context. I love that the squirrel just keeps going like an Energizer bunny.
In other news, I had completely forgotten most of the annotations concerning Nightblood in this chapter. I forgot that he was actually used in battle, and that seeing him in the picture was something only a Returned (or perhaps only Lightsong) could do. One thing I didn’t forget, though, is that the creation of Nightblood caused the rift between Vasher and Shashara, and he killed her to prevent her spreading the knowledge of how to Awaken steel.
In recent years, we have learned more about Nightblood, most particularly that he was created in an attempt to emulate the Shardblades of Roshar… but created the wrong way, on the wrong planet, using the wrong magic system, and the result was not good. While I don’t know this for certain, I suspect that whoever observed the Shardblades didn’t understand what they actually were—that a sapient entity whose origin is in the Cognitive Realm had taken on the physical form of a metal blade, and that a broken oath locked it in that form. Not realizing the origin, Vasher and Shashara tried to go the other way with it—taking a physical object and giving it some level of cognition. Turns out it was a bad idea.
Background Color
The Manywar forms a backdrop for this chapter in several ways, mostly as mentioned in the annotations. The painting Lightsong views is titled “The Battle of Twilight Falls,” which is known as the last battle in the Manywar.
He stared at the sharp smears of paint, each figure just a couple of triangular strokes. It was beautiful. Could war be beautiful? How could he find beauty in those grey faces confronting flesh, the Lifeless killing men? This battle hadn’t even meant anything. It hadn’t decided the outcome of the war, even though the leader of the Pahn Unity—the kingdoms united against Hallandren—had been killed in the battle. Diplomacy had finally ended the Manywar, not bloodshed.
I’d say Lightsong is probably wrong in thinking that this battle didn’t mean anything. He’s seeing the Lifeless, Shashara, and Nightblood—all of which were major factors in ending the war, if only because they gave Vasher the incentive to take the final measures which ended it. (There were other effects, I’m sure!) And somehow, I’m pretty sure the death of the leader of the forces against Hallandren had more of an effect than history credits.
The talk of another war doesn’t seem to be that similar to the Manywar; it’s only supposed to be Hallandren subjugating Idris and wiping out the royal family, right? But of course, the reader—or at least the rereader!—is by now aware that there is more to it, with the initial conflict intended to drastically weaken both nations so that others can make their bids for sovereignty.
Exhale
One thing that seems to have taken a back seat, but must be important since it was included… Lightsong’s dream. I can’t at all remember if he ever figures out a meaning for it, but it has to mean something, right? He dreams of a tremendous storm, raining and blowing so hard that it forced him backward and even made the ground seem to move. Llarimar seems to be interpreting this as more signs of war—or at least, Lightsong interprets Llarimar’s reaction that way. But then there’s a really odd bit—so odd that Llarimar has to confirm that Lightsong isn’t just inventing things to annoy him—when he reveals that he saw
“A red panther. It seemed to shine, reflective, like it was made of glass or something like that. It was waiting in the storm.”
Okay, I’ll admit it… I cheated and looked it up on the Coppermind, but I’m not telling. All things considered, though, Llarimar’s reaction seems way understated.
I’ve very much enjoyed the discussions, short though they’ve been, on the recent posts. I do apologize for not responding; for some reason, I couldn’t get comments to post either from my laptop or my phone. Now I seem to at least be able to post from my phone, so…we’ll see what transpires. Keep up the good work, and hopefully the developers will continue to chase down and squash the bugs so we can have a little more discussion and a little less frustration. Also, as you may have noticed, I didn’t manage a second chapter this week either. Well, I’ll just have to keep trying!
That’s it for the blog—now it’s time for the comments! Join us again next week, when we will cover Chapter 27, in which Siri continues her search for information that doesn’t get filtered through the priests. Who knows, maybe next week will be the charm for speeding up!
Alice Arneson is a SAHM, blogger, beta reader, and literature fan. For those following the Oathbringer developments, you may have noticed that the fourth draft is now at 23%. This is the one where he’s incorporating the beta comments and slashing any overblown language; rumor has it that the word count might get down in the same general vicinity as Words of Radiance.
So, since this is a reread, spoilers about Lightsong’s dreams are all good, right? I don’t quite get playing coy on a reread, but I’ll respect the spirit of it all if so.
@Alice
“In recent years, we have learned more about Nightblood, most particularly that he was created in an attempt to emulate the Shardblades of Roshar… but created the wrong way, on the wrong planet, using the wrong magic system, and the result was not good.”
Wait, WHAT? Who was worldhopping from Roshar that showed Vasher/Denth/Shashara a shardblade? When did Brandon reveal this? Does this mean that we know how Vasher and Nightblood ended up on Roshar? So many questions with that drop of knowledge right there.
The way the investigation into things we already know slipped casually into the reveal of new information worked really well for me. One of many reasons why I like what BWS did with Lightsong’s sections.
@1 I can’t personally vouch for the authenticity of the Nightblood information, but in the Words of Radiance comments some regular commenters shared word of Brandon quotes to that effect from signings.
How do the Returned show up? Where they died? Not likely since Lightsong died at sea. Where they lived? On special, sparkly dais in the court of the gods? Some random place where the powers that be can find them easily? It has to be close enough to where they lived to have, for instance, Hallendren Returned not showing up in Idris.
My understanding was that the issue of where Lightsong’s ‘detective’ skills came from was cleared up when his past life was finally revealed. It was intimated that the situation is exactly what Alice described- “it’s not uncommon for the same strengths to be useful in widely varying careers”- and that he developed these skills in his previous profession.
@1 – sorry about the confusion. Yes, spoilers for the full book are fine, especially in the comments. Sometimes, like this, I just choose not to delve into an answer that will come later, either because I prefer to deal with it in context or because I just don’t want to rabbit-trail myself with it. That doesn’t mean I, or anyone else, needs to avoid it in the discussion here!
About the WoB, that was pretty much my initial reaction too! Y’all can find the links on the Coppermind to get exact quotations. My best guess is that Vasher and/or Shashara world hopped to Roshar early in their Five Scholars days, before the Manywar. Since the Rosharans didn’t know the truth of the Blades, the information picked up by V & S would likewise be in error. Thinking that they were fabrials created by shoving Investiture into a sword, why shouldn’t the same thing work on Nalthis, using Breath? Of course, they got it backwards and inside out, so they created a right mess instead.
If someone turns the “I am a stick” into a sentient weapon, would the result be better?
@@@@@ 4 – That matches my interpretation, which is that Lightsong was basically a forensic accountant.
@@@@@ 3 – Didn’t they get his body back onto the Red Panther and he Returned there, which is how Llarimar got back his faith in the Iridescent Tones?
7. I was under the impression that yes, Lightsong (or Stennimar, since we’re talking pre-Return) was indeed a forensic accountant, but that his body washed up on shore and that’s when he Returned. Llarimar doesn’t go into detail about it: “When we found you dead, I lost hope…I knelt above your body, weeping. And then, the Colors began to glow. You lifted your head, body changing, getting larger, muscles getting stronger.” That scene could easily have taken place on the shore as it could have on the boat.
@3 You can count me as another vote for “the actual corpse comes back to life where the corpse physically wound up.”
Here’s the link to what Brandon was talking about regarding Nightblood. It is a super tease, so not much more info than what Alice said.
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/ct6ccoe/?context=3
And… if you really want to fall into a black hole for the rest of the day, search for “Nightblood” in the theoryland interview database. All sorts of stuff in there! Including a bunch of things that confirm my guesses, and which prove I really should have researched before posting. :D
Please correct me if I am wrong on this line of thought:
There are 5 scholars and all of them are Returned.
Denth and Shashara are siblings – question – how can two siblings be Returned and know that they are siblings.
Vasher and Shashara are married – so, two Returneds can get married. Question – can they have children? Are Vasher and Shashara the ancestors of Siri and Vivenna?
@sheiglagh(#12), I’m pretty sure we don’t know the answer to the “how do they know they’re siblings?” question. It could be anything from “They just consider themselves siblings because they Returned at the same time” to “They returned before the Cult of the Returned started, and so the various mortals who saw them Return told them, ‘Before you died you were siblings and you Returned at the same time because of the same incident.'”
For that matter, super-skilled Returned like Denth and Vasher might just be able to remember their mortal lives better than relatively young and untutored ones like Lightsong. Both have at least one skill he doesn’t, the ability to suppress their Returned Breath.
Mr. Sanderson is being deliberately mysterious about Returned reproducing. I expect there’s something going on there we won’t get told about until the sequel, if then–or maybe later in the Stormlight Archive. If Vasher is Vivenna’s ancestor it would, of course, make their romantic relationship somewhat creepier to the modern reader.
Now Returned aren’t told who they were, but in the time of the Scholars it might have been different.
@13. I wasn’t aware that Vasher and Vivenna had any kind of romantic feelings towards each other.
Re Lightsongs dream: I am going to have to look the interpretation up myself, Alice’s hints are tooo tempting to ignore.
I thought I understood what was happening in Warbreaker before I started this reread, but it seems there is a lot that I missed, particularly extratextual info that has been revealed by fan questions.
I was never so frustrated by Lightsong’s inaction, but this turning point in his story was certainly energizing!
@@@@@ Nightblood and Shardblades
Like Alice, I had always taken it that someone from Nalthis–likely Vasher or Vasher and Shashara–worldhopped to Roshar back in the day and twigged to Shardblades.
Why? Hmmm, good question. Possibly because the speculative Cosmere time line seemed to place a visit into the time frame after the Recreance when Roshar was recovering from a major upheaval and in a state of disarray. It further seemed possible that knowledge of Realmatic Theory and Worldhopping would be at a low ebb on Roshar during this time frame. OTOH, Vasher and the rest of the Scholars may have had a very good understanding of Cosmereology, and plenty of time for trekking around the Cosmere, before the Manywar kicked into full swing.
The deal-sealer (for me) came when BWS stated in no uncertain terms (JordanCon RAFOlympics in 2016) that Vasher had been to Roshar before he created Nightblood.
Of course it’s all just some pretty decent circumstantial evidence.
Though it doesn’t play a large role in either the chapter or the reread, it’s worth noting that the “Pahn Unity” is definitely connected to the Pahn Kahl. Hallendran seems to be the Evil Empire in this story, conquering other nations and subjugating their people to a foreign theocracy. Maybe Bluefingers has a point.
@dptullos, Sanderson doesn’t do one-dimensional villains. Bluefingers is surely a villain of this piece, but he does have a point. His people are really being oppressed by foreign conquerors who want to absorb them. It’s just that he’s doing something arguably worse to get rid of them.
Compare to the Lord Ruler (Mistborn spoilers ahoy!), whose motivation is literally to protect the world from destruction (or Ruin!), but whose methods include tyranny, enslavement, torture, mass murder, and genocide. He’s a villain, but at the same time, he actually did save the world.
Look at the other villain of this piece, Denth. Also does atrocious things (like condoning and hiding the acts of a serial murderer) but he also has totally understandable motivations for these actions–like seeking justice for Vasher’s murder of Denth’s sister. Vasher is presented as a hero, but he’s undoubtedly a murderer whose inventions caused the deaths of thousands or tens of thousands in the Manywar. Not simple is Sanderson’s motto, I think. There the difference is that Vasher realizes he did wrong and does his best to improve, where Denth is seemingly descending. Note that by the Stormlight Archive Vasher has found a way to stop consuming Breath, even. He’s trying to improve.
@19 Another thing about Denth. He thinks he is BEYOND redemption. I forget what chapter it is in but there is a scene where he and Vasher are talking and Vasher offers him a chance and redemption and after thinking about it he says. “Nope. I’m too far gone, and so are you.”
@19 carlf
Yes. With a handful of exceptions (Elend’s father is just straight evil), Sanderson’s villains have more complicated motivations than cackling and twirling their mustaches.
I asked myself what I would do in Bluefingers’s position. If my country was being occupied by a foreign theocracy, and I had no chance of winning an open rebellion, what would I be willing to sacrifice for freedom? I suspect that most Americans would be glad to kick off a Russian civil war, no matter how horrible it was, so that we could escape from occupation.
One of my longstanding disagreements with Sanderson is the value of peace vs freedom. Of course, I live in a society where I get to have both. If I was a peasant living hand to mouth, or a merchant in a city surrounded by an enemy army, I might be willing to sacrifice freedom for the security of a strong ruler. But I feel that Elend made the wrong choice in cutting a deal with the leading figures of the Lord Ruler’s regime; once you decide that order and safety are more important than human rights, you’ve traded the temporary chaos and destruction of conflict for the longer-lasting, more subtle harm of unending oppression.
Denth is an interesting example. He has good reason to seek revenge against Vasher, but he’s working to start a major war without any interest in the freedom of the Pahn Kahl people. Denth committed terrible sins, and so he decided to just give up, to let other people make choices while he retreated into the safety of a mercenary’s professional indifference. Having seen where all the great discoveries and brilliant plans led, he just wants to do his job and avenge his sister.
@20 BenW
I sympathize with Denth’s perspective even as I disagree. Vasher was one of the worst villains of the Manywar, but he decided to keep going, to accept that he could not change the past and to focus on the future. Denth may be right to say that neither of them deserve a second chance, but both of them have one, and Vasher is determined to make the most of it.
@21 I am not saying I agree with Denth I am simply laying out his perspective.