Welcome back to the Warbreaker reread! Last week, Siri and Susebron started on that baby-making project for reals, while Lightsong had nightmares and Vivenna got serious about learning how to Awaken (and got a lecture on theory for her pains). This week, Lightsong gets serious about his responsibilities as a god, while Siri and Seb scheme to gain him actual power in his own government.
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!
Chapter 47
Point of View: Lightsong
Setting: His balcony; the Lifeless Enclave
Timing: Indeterminate; several days after Chapter 42
Take a Deep Breath
Lightsong struggles to avoid the implications of his nightmares, focusing instead on the ways the Hallandren serve their useless gods; his thoughts turn to Calmseer, his mentor and the closest thing to an actual divine being he’d ever known. Frustrated at the position of power and responsibility for which he feels completely inadequate, he stews over what to do with the Lifeless Commands he holds. He worries about what Blushweaver might do, and he worries about Allmother’s reaction. He pushes at Llarimar again, who finally admits that the woman in Lightsong’s dreams was neither wife nor lover but was very important to him, and that she is still alive. This knowledge, and his dreams of T’Telir in flames—the lives of those who depend on him, and her life in danger—finally drives him to choose.
As he walks to the Lifeless Enclave, Lightsong considers how little he’s paid attention to his charges. He passes various workout facilities used to keep them in shape, and is surprised to remember that they are kept in the dark when not being exercised. He also remembers why he didn’t visit them—their lifelessness is deeply unnerving. He dismisses his priests, choosing to keep the new Command phrase to himself alone, unless he has a chance to pass it to the God King. He finds himself slightly disappointed to prove that Allmother had not come and changed the pass phrase, but proceeds to change the code for all of his ten thousand. When he finishes, he knows he will continue on and take control of Allmother’s ten thousand as well, holding the ultimate command of half the army, and perhaps the fate of the kingdom.
Breathtaking
Still alive, Lightsong thought.
If this city fell, then she would be in danger. Everyone who worshiped Lightsong—everyone who counted on him despite his best efforts—would be in danger.
T’Telir couldn’t fall. Even if there were war, the fighting wouldn’t come here. Hallandren was not in danger. It was the most powerful kingdom in the world.
And what of his dreams?
He had been given only one real duty in the government. That of taking command of ten thousand Lifeless. Of deciding when they should be used. And when they should not be.
Still alive…
He turned and walked toward the steps.
Oh, the agony of insufficient knowledge.
Local Color
This is one of my favorite of the annotations; it explains one of the past Returned who did her best as a god and then fulfilled her purpose, when she remembered her past life at precisely the moment she faced the choice that brought her back. Beyond that, Llarimar is written as unflappable so that when he does start yelling, it’s a shock; Lightsong drops a tiny clue about his past without knowing it (statistically valid); if he had not taken responsibility here, they’d have ended up with Manywar II, with Idris gaining the secret to Awakening swords; readers may be disappointed about the identity of the woman in Lightsong’s dreams; and keeping the Lifeless in the dark is a really bad idea, because (like Clod) they’re far more aware than people think. Also, the sequel will probably have a Lifeless as a viewpoint character.
* * *
Chapter 48
Point of View: Siri
Setting: The God King’s Bedchamber
Timing: Morning, a few days after Chapter 44
Take a Deep Breath
Siri lies in bed, comfortably waking up next to her husband, once again amazed at the turn her life has taken. Each muses privately on the trouble that may result from their intimacy, until Susebron says that he has decided to try to make himself known to his subjects and to take personal control of his kingdom. They consider various steps to begin, and Siri suggests that they run away to Idris instead. Susebron refuses this route; though his plan is dangerous, it is the best option they have. When Siri agrees that they wouldn’t be able to get him weekly Breaths anywhere else, he reminds her that he has a great store of Breath beyond the one that makes him Returned, and if needed, he could feed off those extra Breaths. He still insists that this is not an argument for leaving, as it would make him a huge target.
They agree that their best option is to reveal what has been done to him and move to take control of the kingdom; the general assembly of the court coming in a couple of days should be a good opportunity. Siri will sit with Lightsong and ask him for help, and they will try to get several gods to demand to know the truth, which Susebron will reveal; the priests will be forced to bow to the will of the gods.
Breathtaking
I want to try making myself known to the people, he wrote, and the other gods. I want to take control of my kingdom for myself.
“I thought we decided that would be too dangerous.”
It will be, he wrote. But I’m beginning to think that it is a risk we must take.
“And your objections from before?” she asked. “You can’t shout out the truth, and your guards are likely to rush you away if you try something like escaping.”
Yes, Susebron wrote, but you have far fewer guards, and you can yell.
Siri paused. “Yes,” she said. “But would anyone believe me? What would they think if I just started screaming about how the God King is being held prisoner by his own priests?”
Susebron cocked his head.
“Trust me,” she said. “They’d think that I was crazy.”
I love this for its combination of Major Turning Point and snarky humor. It’s a momentous decision for Susebron, for Siri, for Hallandren, for Idris, and certainly for the status quo. At the same time, Siri’s image of herself screaming about the God King being held prisoner by his own priests is funny in its own right, and funnier for Susebron’s not realizing just how crazy it would look.
Local Color
The annotation for this chapter mostly concerns the quality of the romantic storyline and its great improvement over the earlier version, after noting that the two character arcs, individually and together, have gone about as far as they can go with their current restrictions. Also, just because it’s hilarious, I have to quote the last bit:
I was finally able to tell this story and bring it to a conclusion, something I’d been waiting for years to do. I’m glad I finally found the time, even if writing stand-alone novels isn’t the fastest way to bestsellerdom in fantasy.
* * *
Snow White and Rose Red
Siri’s musing on the changes in her life is delightful, actually. From the terrified girl sent to be married to a monster, to the beloved wife of the most important religious and secular figure in this part of the world; an imperfect girl, yet the one who could bring to the God King the spark he needed to grow beyond a mere figurehead. She’s still fearful of the massive government/theocracy around her, still longing to just escape to the hills, but she’s grown enough to realize that it really won’t work. She’s also grown, and they’ve grown together, to the point where she recognizes his need to take responsibility for the position he’s been holding in name only.
I rather love the progression of her view of him. First he was a terrifying monster, then an arrogant bully, then a frightened child, then an innocent youth, then a desirable man; now the responsible leader is emerging, and she’s adjusting her attitude yet again. Flexible girl, our Siri.
Clashing Colors
Siri has now successfully gotten all her loyal Hallandren servants replaced by Pahn Kahl agents. Nice move, that.
It’s worth noting that just as Siri and Susebron consider the uselessness of the various places they could run to in Chapter 48, the annotations to Chapter 47 talk about Yesteel’s location and current schemes in some of those same places. What a mess they could have made by running to someplace that would put them in his sphere of influence!
In Living Color
The tone of the book has been shifting for a while now, but these two chapters together struck me with the parallels between Lightsong and Susebron, as each one decides that it’s time he stepped up to the responsibilities of his position. They’ve each been in their role for a while: Susebron for fifty years, since he was a baby; Lightsong for about five years—but all the life he can remember. Whatever internal debates they’ve had with themselves over this time are mostly left unexplored, but Siri’s presence and the imminence of war seems to stir them to take the duties of their stations more seriously than they ever have before.
Of the two, I find Susebron a little harder to understand (possibly because we’re never actually in his head), because he’s fifty years old with all the naiveté of a six-year-old. What has he thought about for the last forty years or so? Does life pass so quickly as to be unnoticed, when you reach the Tenth Heightening? Is it just an incredibly easy-going temperament that allowed him to be held in such restricted ignorance for all these years, without driving him insane?
Don’t Hold Your Breath (Give it to me!)
Okay, so I already mentioned—twice—the terrifying notion of Yesteel deciding to just start spreading the knowledge of how to Awaken “Type Four BioChromatic entities,” but really? Dude, have you seen Nightblood lately? That thing is seriously dangerous…
Also, we have more hints about that sequel that may or may not ever get written: The Lifeless are far more aware of their surroundings than people generally assume, and keeping them in the dark is a bad plan. But… why? And what’s going to happen with them? Does the continual darkness make them easier to break? Sadly, the sequel is still in “Tertiary” status in Sanderson’s planning.
Exhale
We’re not quite into Sanderson Avalanche territory yet, but you can see the signs. Things are starting to come together. A Major Thing is planned for the general assembly only a couple days away: will it happen as planned, or will it all blow up in their faces just before they can execute their plan? Stay tuned…
Next week we’ll cover chapters 49 and 50, in which Vivenna practices, thinks, and helps in a rescue, and the gods begin to assemble. Meanwhile, join us in the comments!
Alice Arneson is a SAHM, blogger, beta reader, and literature fan. In Oathbringer news, you’ve probably noticed the recent publication of the behind-the-scenes beta-reading story. The progress bar for copyedit review is at 100%, the gamma readers have received a preliminary copy of the final text—so as to be able to read & enjoy the final form before they try to scrutinize it—and gamma reading is expected to commence sometime in the next two weeks.
I must have missed that annotation about Yesteel knowing how to awaken metal last time. That’s pretty terrifying. Waiting for Warbreaker 2 gets harder all the time.
Do other countries have sufficient stockpiles of breath so as to be able to make many type 4s though? I get the impression that Hallandren is the only country that has such massive stockpiles of harvested breath as well as a massive population that can increase it with their own individual breaths.
The Idrians wouldn’t have breath stockpiled because it’s against their cultural norms, but in a pinch they could make a whole load of drabs. A country that lacked both the Idrian taboo and the Hallandran worship of returned might have an enormous stockpile because they wouldn’t be eating a few dozen breaths per week or letting breath die with its holders.
It really would be interesting to learn about the economics of Breath in other countries on Nalthis. As you say – Idris won’t trade in it at all (though there may be a black market) and Hallandren buys and sells, but a good chunk of it goes to keeping the gods alive. We really have no idea (unless it’s in the annotations we haven’t gotten to yet) how the rest of the world deals with it, but I’d bet there’s a whole economic sector built up around it somehow.
Still, it’s a good point that Awakening steel takes a LOT of Breath, so having Yesteel out there trying to mass manufacture living swords isn’t really likely.
@@.-@: Is it possible that Yesteel has his own massive store of breaths that he could use to make more Nightbloods? Then he could give them to the Idrians to destroy those in Hallandren without telling them (the Idrians) how the swords were made.
@1 – yes! when did we hear about Yesteel? I’ve read the book twice and following along with the reread and it passed me by as well. Now I’m really curious, it would be great to see the sequel written to this story.
Also, Brandon was finally able to bring the story of Siri and Seb to a conclusion not only because he grew as a writer, but he also got married and now has personal experience of what it is like to be husband and wife, and the little nuances of living together and going through the honeymoon stage.
Maybe it’s me, but I have to wonder if the problem with Nightblood is the command he was given. After all the problem with a command like “Destroy Evil” is Evil is a subjective term. Philospher have debated on the nature of evil for generations. In short, it was a poor command to give in the first place. No what if the command given was “Sunder blades.” This could be useful it would break a lot of enemy weapons making them harmless while at the same time being unable to harm a living being. Obviously Type IV Awakening is a type of technology that one needs to be VERY CAREFUL with how it used but at the same time it seems a bit extreme to reject it completely. Maybe instead there should be treaties for how it is used similar to nuclear technology in the real world.
@6- I’m right there with you. Utterly perplexed as to who Yesteel is, his backstory, and how he fits into the narrative. Mind you’ve I’ve only read the book once, but until this reread, I never would have surmised that he’s out there attempting to create the second Manywar (and for that matter WHY is he attempting such a thing?)
@8- giving such commands seems a lot like those “monkey paw” wishes, or making requests of the Nightwatcher: you’d better phrase especially careful, with little to no room for outside interpretation, but even then you’re like to still leave wiggle room. Huh, also makes me think of Mat Cauthon forgetting to safeguard himself against the Snake folk in Towers of Midnight…
Do we know why they originally started putting the Lifeless in the dark, and for how long it’s lasted? It has an iRobot quality to it (last outside reference, I promise lol), and I wonder if turns their “minds” to madness and/or dark intent, which in turn would cause them to seek to cause harm to non-lifeless individuals…
Reading the annotations reminded me that Brandon’s use of the term “statistically valid” kicked me out of the story for a few seconds.
The Avalanche is firing up enough now that I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it.
For me the whole statistical stuck out like a sore thumb on a re-read. Accountants don’t do statistics (I do work in the financial sector and unless it’s vastly different in the US, this just hits my personal buttons) – so I just substitute the word actuary for accountant and it makes more sense.
Count me as one who (unless I hadn’t done my own research on the wikis) had no idea what Yesteel was ostensibly up to. I hope we do get that sequel :) Although actually, I might want the teased at Bastille book more ;)
The statistically valid bit might make more sense for a forensic accountant like he was, I’m not sure. Still, I could see the old Lightsong learning various kinds of math for fun. He seems like the type who enjoys knowing stuff honestly.
As for the secret of awakening metal, while I grant that more Nightbloods would be really bad, it suddenly hit me that you could awaken a suit of armor or a metal statue. Something like Nightblood that could move under its own power, doing whatever it wanted would be infinitely worse than just having more swords full of black investiture.
According to the annotations Calmseer came back to save her daughter from dying of the same disease that had killed her, when she saw her daughter in the line of petitioners she remembered everything and accomplished her purpose. Possibly Lightsong is being too hard on his fellow divinities. They are all still waiting for that moment of enlightenment and fulfillment. The religious system of Hallandren seems geared to frustrate and corrupt the Returned rather than help them do what they came back for. Imprisoning them in a gilded cage suggests a desire to control rather than support the ‘gods’.