Hola, Sanderfans! How’s about that cliffhanger last week? We saw Shallan making a huge, huge mistake in not realizing that the three guards at the Oathgate in Shadesmar were the three storming Ghostbloods she was looking for. Come on, girl… do we need Veil to reemerge? Just kidding… just kidding. (We don’t want that to happen—no how, no way.) Then we had Dalinar and Navani preparing to undergo Wit’s experiment of popping into the Spiritual Realm for a spell. Mraize kind of messed that up, in spectacular fashion… This week we’re moving on to chapter 33 and another freakin’ Sanderlanche. Let’s dish about it! (That means “talk about it,” for you young folks.)
Oh, and be sure to check out the social media section at the end of the article to see if we spotlighted one of your comments!
Note that this post will possibly (likely) contain full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content. And please remember, when posting or commenting about these preview chapters on social media, follow your platform’s spoiler rules. Your comments here, however, don’t need to be spoiler-tagged, so feel free to comment as you will down below!
Paige’s Summary and Commentary
Chapter 33 is titled “The Conflux of All Darkness and Shadow” and if that doesn’t sound foreboding, I don’t know what does. That feeling is only increased by the fact that the chapter arch is looking more and more cracked and unstable… and this is only Day 2!
The chapter begins with Lift, our fave little Edgedancer, who’s not so little anymore. She’s been hiding and spying on Dalinar, Navani, and Wit with… someone. She watches as Dalinar opens the perpendicularity and she sees a version of herself, if she’d stayed in Iri and grown up unafraid of changing and not caring who noticed. Then she admits to herself that she doesn’t think her mother is dead. And we knew that she’s been afraid of growing up in case her mother didn’t recognize her when she saw Lift again. She’s lamenting the short time during which her life had seemed perfect when she hears someone telling her they’re scared.
We knew that someone else was with her, as Shallan and company had glimpsed two souls lurking. It’s Gavinor, and she is surprised to see him there. He says that she told him that sometimes they needed to disobey and hey, he was just taking the lesson seriously, right? She tries to get hurry him back down the tunnel—taking a moment to notice purple cremlings, and wondering if other people suspect what they really are—and then she hears Navani shout.
Suddenly, Lift is being pulled backward toward the room, but manages to stop herself—until Gav slams into her and they both fall into the room. She loses Gavinor as they’re both pulled toward the light. She tries to increase her friction but that doesn’t help, and then someone grabs her. A man all in black whose shadow goes the wrong way? What?
Then the perpendicularity is gone and Lift slumps to the floor. Wit says they’re lucky he saved them, and they both owe him, but… when she looks around, Gavinor isn’t there. She asks Wit if he grabbed him and he says he hadn’t seen him. They look to the stone where the perpendicularity had been and Lift swears. Wit knows she’s been talking to Zahel because people on Roshar don’t say “shit.” Meanwhile, he peeks into Shadesmar to see if the Bondsmiths happened to drop in there. But no luck, he just sees a dead Malwish man in a demolished room. Wit tells her they’ll have to hope that Dalinar will find his way back in the next eight days; otherwise, the contract will likely be forfeit and Odium would be unbound, and free of Roshar.
Then Wit hears a knock at the door and realizes that they’ll have to lie about the whereabouts of the Bondsmiths because their absence would likely throw the tower into chaos. What a lovely thought.
POV shift!
Kaladin has to admit that he makes terrible stew. He apparently put ration bars in it, which might not have been the best choice, and adding more spices doesn’t help the taste. He is, to say the least, disappointed. Szeth is already eating his own ration bar, which defeats the purpose of Kaladin making stew, which is supposed to “draw people in.” He tries to engage Szeth anyway, asking if his home is nearby and if he’d like to visit it. Szeth says that there’s nothing there for him. Kaladin counters that by saying it might help but Szeth says he doesn’t need help. But he doesn’t mean that there’s nothing wrong with him; rather, he means that he deserves suffering and tells Kaladin flat out to leave him alone.
Kaladin pulls out his flute and tries to play, but he doesn’t do very well. He gets frustrated and throws the flute down and gets up and walks away. Syl follows and Kaladin tells her that he’s not useful unless he’s killing something. Which is so not true. He protects, he helps people, even when he’s not killing. He basically created therapy! That’s helped people, and will help even more people as Kaladin’s efforts are duplicated and the practice spreads to others on Roshar. He’s so not useless! Poor Kaladin. I just wanna hug him.
“This is your dark brain talking,” she said. “You weren’t killing when you rescued Bridge Four. You pulled thirty men out of the darkness and the chasms, then you forged them into something wonderful.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I forged them into killers.”
“A family,” Syl said. “Don’t try to distort it. I was there, Kaladin. You did it because you couldn’t stand to let them keep dying. You did it out of love.”
::sniffle::
Kaladin realizes that Syl is right and that he could drive away the bad thoughts with good. He knows that things have been good lately. Syl says that Szeth is no more stubborn than Rock was, and Kaladin looks back to the fire and sees Szeth eating his stew. He hurries back to the fire as Szeth is finishing his bowl of stew and Szeth says that he would eat it again if Kaladin made it. So Kaladin has a higher expectation of how stew should taste than Szeth does. I find this hilarious. Szeth liked Kaladin’s bad stew! I love it.
Then Szeth announces there’s something wrong, that there should be light from candles and fires at homesteads in the valley. He admits that he cares about his people and wants to help them. Kaladin says they will help them and then Szeth turns in. It wasn’t quite the chat over stew that Kaladin had been hoping for, but it seems like a small breakthrough: Szeth had opened up, if only a bit.
Kaladin tries to practice with the flute again and the Wind speaks to him. It says that Odium is made anew, which is dangerous. You think? It tells Kaladin to watch and says it will watch, too, and that together they must somehow “preserve a remnant of Honor.” Which is really interesting language to use. When Dalinar is searching for honor over in the Spiritual Realm. We assume.
Kaladin continues to practice the flute after the Wind departs, Then he looks up and finds the Herald Ishar before him. What the what?
POV shift!
Lopen is in Shadesmar with Isasik and he tells him that they found the room that way when they returned from rescuing the guards. All of the walls were broken and the wall facing the hallway was completely destroyed. All they found was the “broken” dead man and they had been kind of afraid that Shallan and the others might have been reduced to “person-mush.” A Lopen word, of course. Since there was no person-mush and they weren’t in the Physical Realm, Lopen surmises that they went through the perpendicularity. He thinks about how Navani isn’t talking and therefore, the Sibling isn’t talking.
He tells Isasik they need to go fly the Mink’s people to Herdaz, but Isasik remains concerned about Shallan. Lopen says that they can’t help the others if they’re dead. And if they escaped and don’t want to be found then it wouldn’t help to out them. Finally, if they’re in some other realm, Lopen says they couldn’t help, anyway. So they need to report back and go about their business.
He does ask his spren, Rua, where he thinks they went and Rua points at the distant sun. Lopen realized that he is indicating the place where the gods reside. He also mentions that Navani seems unconcerned, eating chouta and shrugging. So… who is playing Navani? Wit? A Lightweaver? That is a question for another day, because…
POV shift!
Ishar regards Kaladin and Syl, and says that he doesn’t know Kaladin. That he thought Kaladin was insignificant, but here he was with the Truthless and bonded to the Ancient Daughter. He wants to know Kaladin’s name and when Kaladin mentions that he’s sometimes called “Stormblessed,” Ishar says he didn’t remember blessing him…which almost made me snort laugh, Sanderfans. That right there was funny.
Kaladin says he’s there to help Ishar and asks if he ever feels overwhelmed or like he couldn’t trust his thoughts. And how do we expect Ishar to respond to that? Hmm… I’m going to guess, with disdain. Ah, yes, Ishar realizes that Dalinar had sent Kaladin and says he doesn’t need Kaladin’s help. He states that Dalinar attacked him and he lost the name Tezim but that now he can be Ishar, who Ascended to the position of the Almighty. Yeah. Disdainful and just as arrogant as he had been in Emul.
Kaladin tries appealing to the Herald, saying that they need his help. He tells Ishar that Ash and Taln are back at the tower and Ishar calls them useless. He says that he can “siphon some of their pains” onto him, all of them but Taln. That if he didn’t do so, they’d all be as “insensate” as Taln. Ishar tells Kaladin that if he wants to talk to him then they will speak only when Szeth’s pilgrimage was at an end. Then he disappears.
Syl, always leaning toward levity, says that since he didn’t vaporize them, it went well. Oh, Syl. Never change. Seriously… don’t storming change. ::stern look:: Syl reassures Kaladin that they can help Ishar, but he feels that they can’t do so in time to help Dalinar. But then he remembers Wit’s warning—that whatever he has to do in Shinovar might be more important than Dalinar’s contest.
Syl wonders what Ishar had meant by saying Szeth was his servant and Kaladin pretty much disregards that since Ishar called him a disciple and thinks he’s the Almighty. Kaladin decides to talk to Szeth about it in the morning and packs up his flute and papers. He ponders his feelings and considers his current state of mind:
The darkness was still there and wanted him to believe things would never change, but this little victory proved the opposite. Because while he might never be rid of the thoughts permanently, he was done letting them win.
Wow. I wonder how that would be, not letting the dark thoughts win. Maybe someday, I’ll figure it out, too. ::shops for a flute::
POV sh—
Oh, wait… no more POV shifts! It’s the end of Day 2! And no Dalinar or Navani POV! What happened to them? Where did they go? Are they okay? Is Gavinor okay? And what is Szeth going to do in Shinovar? How is he going to cleanse a whole country? A whole people? Why do I have so many questions? Tell us all of your thoughts and theories, Sanderfans. We truly want to hear them!
Lyndsey’s Commentary
Our chapter arch icons for this week are the Joker & Ishi (Ishar), Herald of Luck, patron of the Bondsmiths. His attributes are Pious/Guiding and his role is Priest. The Joker is likely here due to Wit’s presence in the beginning, and the same goes for Ishar. Seems pretty cut and dried.
So if you’re anything like me, you might have trouble keeping all the excerpts from the beginning of the chapters in mind when reading week by week. In order to help facilitate a deeper analysis, here is the full excerpt from the in-book The Way of Kings presented in its entirety:
As I approached the first crossroads, I met a family seeking a new life. This family did not speak my language, but we could both write glyphs, which proved facilitative in our conversation. As I shared their kindly cookfire, I learned some of their story. They had left behind family and hereditary home, something many would find unconscionable. What I learned from their glyphs scribbled in dust trembled my soul: it was because of me, and the stories they’d heard of my teachings, that they had left. They’d gone to seek a land some told them was mythical. A land where the king was a holy man, and was concerned with the plight of the farmer beyond the appropriation of taxes. I let them pass with two lies. First, I dared not tell them this dusty traveler with whom they shared a meal was in fact that very king they had heard of. The second was that I did not explain that very king had abdicated his throne and walked away from his kingdom. After we parted with affection the next day, I watched their cart roll into the distance, pulled by the father with two children riding in the rear, the mother striding with a pack on her back. Dust blew with them, for dust goes where it wishes, ignoring all borders. Would that men could always do the same—if I could enshrine one law in all further legal codes, it would be this. Let people leave if they wish. The Almighty has given us the limbs to move and the minds to decide. Let no monarch take away what was divinely granted. The Heralds also taught that all should have the sacred right of freedom of movement, to escape a bad situation. Or simply to seek a brighter dawn.
Interesting. I wonder if this is meant to indicate that the only remaining option for some of our characters will be to leave Roshar? With all of the worldhoppers showing up in these later entries, I think this might be a possibility. Does this mean that Dalinar is doomed to failure, and there’s a mass exodus is in our future…? Or perhaps it will only be one or two.
I continued on my way, contemplating dust and the nature of desertion. For I, as king, had walked away from my duties, and it was different for me. Had I not renounced a throne the Almighty had granted, and in so doing, undermined my very own words? Was I abandoning that which was divinely given me? I do not have answers, and there will always be some who denounce me for this decision I made. But let me teach a truth here that is often misunderstood: sometimes, it is not weakness, but strength, to stand up and walk away.
Strength before weakness, eh? I like this subversion of the common interpretation of strength. In most cases, it’s expected that the “strong” thing to do is to stick things out no matter what. To keep trying. Nohadon, however, is presenting another option and asserting that that which is so often attributed to strength can indeed be the opposite. The decision to stand up and walk away is sometimes the right choice. Anyone who’s ever been in a toxic or abusive relationship can relate to and understand this one, I suspect.
Those who offer blanket condemnation are fools, for each situation deserves its own consideration, and rarely can you simply apply a saying—even one of mine—to a situation without serious weighing of the context. As I fear not the child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think. So think, my dear reader. As a soldier retreats from a battle he cannot win. As a woman rejects a home that shows her only violence. As a family finds hope in walking away from dying fields during a season of too much rain. As a king leaves a people with the gift of his absence, so that they may grow and solve their own problems, without his hand to always guide them. May you have the courage someday to walk away. And the wisdom to recognize that day when it arrives.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
Sanderson never includes these things needlessly and this doesn’t have any other obvious purpose I can see (for instance, I don’t see a character- or setting-related reason for its inclusion), so it must be foreshadowing of something plot-wise. What decision will someone need to walk away from? Will it be Dalinar? Kaladin? Shallan? Szeth?
All of them?
Lift
What if she’d stayed there, in Rall Elorim, instead of . . . wherever the wind put her? Would she have become that girl—that confident young woman—with gleaming hair, wearing an Iriali short shirt, her shoulders and midriff exposed? As if she didn’t care that people saw she was growing up?
This version of her didn’t seem afraid of anything.
I don’t know about you, dear Cosmere Chicken, but I don’t often think of Lift as afraid, because that’s not how she thinks of herself. She presents herself as being so confident that it’s hard to recognize that for what it is: a clever mask she wears to conceal her true nature from the world, and even from herself. She’s the classic case of “fake it till you make it,” but she’s going to need to come to terms with her fear eventually. You can only run from something like that for so long before it eats you away from the inside. She can’t continue pretending that she’s not growing up and changing forever.
But Lift… she couldn’t change. What if Mother returned and didn’t recognize her? What if Mother looked for her and didn’t see her, so found some other little girl to love?
Well, that explains a lot about Lift, doesn’t it? That level of denial isn’t good for anyone, though. Again, she’s going to need to come to terms with not only the fact that she’s growing up and changing, but that her mother is gone.
Unless she’s not…? What if, over the course of the back five set of books (in which Sanderson has said that Lift will be a main POV character), we find out that her mother didn’t die and she finds her again?!
She startled a strange purplish cremling as they crawled. Those things were all over in the air shafts.
Which Dysian Aimian is spying…? (I’m beginning to wonder if the different colors indicate different swarms. We’ve seen this purple variety a few times, but other colors have also been noted.) Well, Hoid saved them, whichever one it was.
Szeth
“When I say I need no help, it is because this is how I should be. I have murdered many innocents. I chose to follow the broken traditions of a people who were so scared of the Truth, they exiled me rather than face it. Because of this, I deserve suffering.
Szeth really is the quintessential emo angst-lord, isn’t he? He reminds me a bit of Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this respect. Whether the self-flagellation is warranted is debatable, but one person would certainly say it’s not, and that one person is currently trying and failing to make some nice stew over the campfire…
“I do love my people, Kaladin. My exile makes it feel like I don’t care about anything, and sometimes I tell myself I don’t deserve to care. But… the exile was—for so long—my proof that I love them. I want to help my people. That is… more important to me than the quest, though that makes me a bad Skybreaker.”
What’s this?! Szeth opening up and being honest about his emotions?! There really is something special about that stew, whether it tastes like crem or no. In all seriousness, it’s nice to see this. It’s been hard to see anything beyond Szeth’s self-hatred for the entire time we’ve known him, so this admittance of something that he loves is really enlightening.
Kaladin
“The only thing I’ve ever been good at is war. Even when I was forced on leave, I found a way to fight for the tower. I am useless unless I’m killing something.”
Ah, this old chestnut again. I’m actually glad to see this, if only because it’s proof that Kal hasn’t changed overnight. That would be completely unrealistic, in my opinion. He still has these same doubts, that same darkness. The difference is that he’s now actively working to face them and move past them. If we can take no other silver linings from Teft’s death, we can at least take this. I like to think that Teft would be happy to know that, even if he’s gone, Kaladin is starting to be able to claw his way out of depression.
“This is your dark brain talking,” she said. “You weren’t killing when you rescued Bridge Four. You pulled thirty men out of the darkness and the chasms, then you forged them into something wonderful.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I forged them into killers.”
“A family,” Syl said.
Yeah! Way to go, Syl. She’s so good for him, and she’s telling the whole truth here. Yes, Kaladin did teach them to kill. But he also taught them to protect. To heal. To care. To love. And, most importantly, to live. When you’re deep in the throes of depression (and I’m speaking from experience on this one), it can be so, so hard to see the good you put into the world. While Kaladin’s starting to be able to pull himself free, sometimes you still need that helping hand from the outside. And that’s what Syl is.
He could claim many things about himself, but he couldn’t justify the argument that he was only a killer. And life was good. He had felt it earlier.
It didn’t banish the darkness, but active thoughts, as counters to it, really did help.
I find it somewhat amusing that Kaladin’s finally using on himself the same tools and methods he’s spent the entire series teaching others. Giving Bridge Four jobs, giving them purpose, was giving them active thoughts and techniques to combat their depression. Now it’s your turn, Kal ol’ boy!
“I just don’t know what I am anymore,” Kaladin said softly, more honestly, “or who. If I’m not a soldier, what is there to me?
We saw this thought reflected a lot in the last book, too. And Syl’s response is perfect; reminding him of all the varied parts of himself that he tries so hard not to see.
The darkness was still there and wanted him to believe things would never change, but this little victory proved the opposite. Because while he might never be rid of the thoughts permanently, he was done letting them win.
YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAH Kal! I am so here for this new, actively fighting the darkness and depression Kaladin. He’s an inspiration in this regard, and I hope that he helps so many others in the real world to face and overcome their own dark thoughts. (He’s certainly helped me.)
Ishar
I founded the Oathpact, so I can siphon some of their pains onto myself. I bear their darkness. Each of them would be crushed by it, were it not for me. You’ve seen Taln? He is insensate, so in the thrall of the darkness?”
“Yes,” Syl said.
“That is because I do not bear his darkness as I carry the others […]”
Hmm. Interesting parallels here with Odium and Dalinar and the “you cannot have my pain” scene. By removing their pain and darkness, did Odium remove an essential part of their humanity, and hence drive them to madness? Did he actually achieve the opposite of his stated goal? Food for thought.
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
And so we come to the end of Day Two.
The stage is set. Armies are in motion. Ishar is watching Kaladin and Szeth. Eight days remain… and the Spiritual Realm awaits.
There isn’t a whole lot of new information in this one chapter, as far as the Invested Arts go, but there is still plenty to speculate about. The first place to start, I think, is with Lift.
“Lift, you’re so highly Invested I’m surprised normal people can’t feel it. You glow so brightly to my life sense that you outshine anyone nearby.”
This is pretty telling here. Hoid himself is blown away by how Invested Lift is—this isn’t like even advanced Knights Radiant like Shallan or Kaladin or Jasnah. Hoid doesn’t go around remarking about how Invested they are, or how he thinks any Joe Schmoshar should be able to sense them.
Lift has been directly touched by Cultivation, and she’s almost certainly unique in her ability to metabolize food into Lifelight. Cultivation doesn’t do things by accident—Lift is being set up for something big. She’s only of the Third Ideal, and doesn’t seem to be particularly close to the Fourth, but she had no problem overcoming the anti-Radiant measures when Raboniel took over Urithiru. Honestly, the sense I get from Hoid is that she might be on the level of Elantrians when it comes to how Invested she is. That’s Big News.
Of course, Lift’s flashbacks will have to wait until Book Six, so it stands to reason that she’s a Chekhov’s Radiant who will mostly remain on the mantel until the second half of the series. I fully expect her unique Lifelight abilities to become a huge deal (perhaps in another instance where regular Radiants are crippled or can’t access Stormlight).
Lift frowned at that until she saw the cremling from earlier fluttering away on wings that could barely hold it in the air.
As usual, there was a Sleepless keeping tabs on interesting things in high places. The way Hoid talks to the hordeling makes me wonder if this isn’t the same Ghostblood Sleepless that was keeping tabs on him in Rhythm of War (though it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Hoid is familiar with several of the Sleepless, and talks to all of them with such snark).
Lift sat bolt upright. “Gav!”
But of course there was a third person spying on Hoid, Dalinar, and Navani, and he didn’t get as lucky as Lift and our friendly neighborhood Sleepless. Gavinor is off to have his own Spiritual Realm adventure, and… well, he’s no Bondsmith. There’s probably a heap of trouble ahead of him, especially since Navani and Dalinar have no clue he was even there. We’ll have to see what lies in store for that poor kid; he’s already been through the wringer once, with Aesudan and all the Voidspren and Unmade in Kholinar.
Let’s take a quick jaunt over to Shinovar before we wrap things up.
Odium changes. His goals change. I… can speak now… when it was so hard for years…
This, from the Wind, is curious. It seems Rayse was deliberately suppressing the old gods of Roshar, the old spren of Wind, Stone, and Night. But Taravangian either doesn’t have enough knowledge of what they are, exactly, or simply doesn’t have the time to spare for them. Now, on the metaphorical eve of the contest of champions, the Wind has snuck out the back window and gets to have a fun road trip with its best buddy, Kaladin.
Together we must preserve a remnant of Honor.
This line had a neon, blinking arrow pointing at it when I first read through. There are a lot of moving pieces here, with Dalinar trying to discover the truth of Honor’s death and maybe see if he can Ascend, but the Wind doesn’t sound too certain of that being a possibility. In fact, this feels like even more of a doomsday scenario than the contest would at first imply—it’s like the Wind expects Odium to somehow do more damage to Honor than has already been done. I don’t know if a Shard can actually be destroyed, but the Wind isn’t ready to risk it.
Maybe Ishar is going to have something to do with that?
Fan Theories
Karter705 on Reddit has a compelling and believable theory:
A few weeks ago, I jokingly commented that Dalinar would lose the duel by being late and I almost did a whole crempost theory citing all the times that he’s late to appointments (even when Navani started making fabrial watches with freaking alarm bells) as obvious foreshadowing. It was going to conclude with something like “and now Wit is giving him a magic watch and telling him please don’t lose track of time”
After tonight, seriously y’all Dalinar is going to lose the battle of champions because he doesn’t show up on time.
MightyFishMaster has a good observation on Reddit here:
I like that Renarin dislikes some of Shallan’s personality traits that Adolin finds endearing.
Lastly, tchales7 on Reddit has this speculation:
I am convinced we’re going to see Shallan do some amazing things as she powers up in this book. Her breakdown at the start as she talks about the “height to which creations could rise” coupled with how she creates Radiant in the Cognitive Realm is surely teasing something pretty immense.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who choose to wait for the full release. See you next Monday with our last preview discussion article before Wind and Truth arrives, as we dig into Interludes 3 and 4!
On the note of Lift always cursing in interesting ways (by Rosharan standards at least), of all the potential interactions that I would love to see in some alternate universe where the Cosmere and Wheel of Time crossover, Lift and Elayne exchanging curses they’ve learned would probably be hilarious.
Well, I sensed it coming. Thought Lift was going to get stuck in the spiritual realm, but now we have:
Dallinar and Navani
Shallan, Renarin, Rlain, and did she have any of the unseen court with her?
Mraize and Iyatil,
and now poor Gav.
Shallan was always going to go to the spiritual realm considering that was her quest… but now?
I also wonder what the sibling is going to think about what just happened with Navani…
Are Dalinar and Navani still connected to the Stormfather/Sibling in the Spiritual Realm, and if they can relay messages to people in Urithiru and / or use them as some form of anchor to get back? What I am really interested in seeing is where all these people end up – together, each alone, or as several smaller groups? Spread out into different locations / parts? Perhaps in unconventional groups, forcing enemies to work together?
Why do I feel poor Gav is going to be lost alone, no one realizing he is there? Alternatively, I think it might be interesting if he finds himself with the Ghostbloods, who start to train him/take him under their wing.
Also, Testament, Pattern, Tumi, Glys, and Mraize and Iyatil spren. I’m not usually the dude that always needs to point out spren are characters too, but those ones specifically will be important here I think
@Brian Howard!
Yes, Thank you! Absolutely spren are mc, this is Roshar afterall!
That is sad. Now we know why Lift did not want to physically change. She hoped that her mother would return. But Lift was afraid that if her mother returned and Lift grew physically, her mother would no longer recognize Lift.
I take it that Wit or Design was the “Navani” that Lopen saw. What happened to Shallan, Renarin and Rlain? And Mraize and Iyatil? Did those 5 (plus Gav) also get stuck in the Spiritual Realm?
Eating the Chouta made me think that Lift is masquerading as Navani and I assume Wit will be Dalinar
good point about Lift and eating. I did not think that Wit would put a Lightweaving on Lift. Your theory that Lift will masquerade as Navani and Wit will masquerade as Dalinar makes more sense that just Wit and Design.
Who else gets the feeling that Gavinor is going to pop back out as a fully grown adult?
I suspect Brandon has a heartwarming moment planned in the Spiritual realm where Gav gets some closure with Elhokar, similar to Kaladin / Tien in RoW.
Not only will Gavinor return to the Physical Realm as a fully grown adult, he will encounter a Shadow (not sure if Shadow is a Cosmere term) or Splinter of Gavilar in the Physical Realm. The Splinter of Gavilar will take over the body of Gavinor (in the same way a Fused takes over the body it enter; the only difference is that I think if one is able to eject Gavilar’s Splinter, Gavinor could get control of his body/mind. It will be this Splinter of Gavilar in Gavinor’s fully grown body that will be Odium’s champion and fight Dalinar. Dalinar will be able to fight Gavilar as Dalinar will have seen Gavilar’s true intentions in the Spiritual Realm and will have the willpower to fight Gavinor.
MY GOODNESS. Yes I want this outcome so badly. goodness, that would be *story*.
Yup! 100%.
Can’t someone else be Dalinar’s Champion? It’s not specified that it has to be Dalinar, just assumed. I feel like *anyone* showing up would be better than defaulting.
Yeah, this is what I was thinking before. At first it could be Adolin. But then I feel like it could be Gavinor all grown up and wise. But we haven’t spent so much time with little Gav to find it as satisfying I think. So, I’m just guessing, maybe Dalinar does show up himself, older and wiser, and he wins in the most unexpected way. Like, I think we’re all assuming it’s going to be a big bloody fight. Maybe it will start out as one and then evolve into something more.
I want to see the look on Todium’s face when The Lopen shows up as Champion and announces that the Contest will take the form of a chouta-cooking competition.
The agreement was “We each send a willing champion“.
Arguably, if someone else rocks up the spirit of the agreement is met (which is important) but not the letter unless Dalinar is able to make contact somehow and specifically nominate someone to fight as champion.
Could this be how Kaladin gets roped in? Since Dalinar specifically asked him to be his successor at Urithiru, could that be interpreted as “Backup Champion”?
I actually think Gavinor needs to return as a baby and relive his childhood without unmade terrorizing him. Maybe Dalinar and Navani as parents, maybe Adolin and Shallan or even Jasnah as single parent! That kid deserves better. And Lift can ruin his royal upbringing all over again.
I agree that would be best case scenario for Gav but I think it is unlikely. I think he’s coming out older and angrier. I think his vengeance against Moash is gonna be a big part of who he is
Some part in me hopes Gav doesn’t grow up. And later, he somehow gets buddied with Moash during his redemption arc. And, much later, when we think there’s going to be some reconciliation, we just might hear the first F bomb dropped in the entire Cosmere: Fuck Moash, then sentences him to death or some torture.
Is there a specific place fixed for the contest of champions? If not, why does it have to be on Roshar? It could be in the spiritual realm.
Good point, I had thought of that as well, but I believe they agreed/expected it to be at the top of Urithiru.
Not sure if that is locked int he contract or not.
Didn’t someone, probably Wit, say something about how you could lose track of time in the Spiritual Realm and years could pass for you but only moments or days pass on Roshar? If so, then I can see Gav definitely experiencing years passing and becoming Odium’s champion when he finally gets out, being in his teens or maybe even older. I was never on the Gav as Champion theory team, but I really do think that’s going to happen now.
Who’s body was it at the explosion site? Also can *top* of urithiru potentiually mean spiritual realm? Is there wiggle room there without a realm explicitly mentioned?
The body is the Malwish guy. The third fake guard with Mraize and Iyatil
Third redshirt Ghostblood from Scadrial that was with Mraize and other Ghostblood Izail(sp?)
Drew:
Given what we now know about Ala the Seon, does a Ghostblood Sleepless even exist? There is this WoB that Ghostbloods wouldn’t recruit a Sleepless:
https://wob.coppermind.net/events/387/#e12657
and Hoid certainly seems far too cordial and helpful towards the Sleepless in this scene, as well as completely unbothered by their spying.
But I have to say that I find it a bit annoying, that after all his security concerns, Wit didn’t bother to monitor Shadesmar during the already dangerous attempt to visit Spiritual Realm.
Hoid discovered a sleepless masquerading as one of his pens in RoW, and that was the true traitor in the Shadesmar arc. That sleepless was working for the Ghostbloods
Yes, there was a Sleepless spying on Hoid. And we thought that they were a Ghostblood spy, because Mraize appeared to know information from private Seon-enabled conversations between Wit and Shallan. But now we know that no middleman was needed for that leak, because Ala themself was the spy.
Additionally the WoB that I linked in my previous post pretty definitely states that the Ghostbloods wouldn’t recruit a Sleepless.
I wonder if Dalinar and Navani are going to have issues with their bondsmith powers, given that they are the only radiants who will be in the Spiritual Realm without their spren there too. Everyone else who was just sucked in took their spren with them. Not sure how much help Pattern is gonna be, tbh.
I was actually wondering whether the Tower might be in trouble – wasn’t there something about how Navani can’t be too far from the Sibling, otherwise their bond breaks? Could being in the Spiritual Realm count as “too far”? I guess from Lopen’s perspective the Tower seemed fine, so maybe not xD
Two things I’m wondering about:
The Stones spoke to Venli in RoW when she was trying to use her powers on the prison cell
I’m surprised no one named Lift as the Navani imposter. I expect this to have Consequences.
It would be hilarious if that title art of Dalinar on the top of Urithiru is actually Wit with a Lightweaving
Only Lift would knowingly try to snack on a hordeling
Dalinar opening up the perpendicularity described as pulling things in, is almost like the shadesmar chapter picture
I totally assumed that Lift was the one playing as Navani; the narrative focused on her eating chouta.
Paige, I loved your break down of Kaladin’s part!
So far we’ve had two interludes after day one and we will be receiving two interludes after day two. what if the interlude through line for wind and truth is one interlude for each one of the living Herald? As we will most likely get 9 sets of interludes one set after each day except for the 10 day where we are likely to have a joker (wit) epilogue
I suspect that the Interludes next week are going to be the 2 that Sanderson read at events earlier this year. Neither of which directly features a Herald, sadly.
Curious, how the visions Lift experienced are similar to those a Gold Misting would have.
it is also how Renarin’s power works when he heals someone, showing them what could have been or what could be. I wonder if that’s a clue.
Can you confirm how much of the book has been released in these preview chapters? With 2 parts of 10 complete, I imagine we are about 20% of the way through the book. Is that about right?
I believe I just heard it was going to be 23% roughly
There is something that I have been wondering about with respect to this line from the Wind:
There are technically two ways to interpret “a remnant of Honor” here:
The first interpretation seems to be the most common, but what if Sanderson actually means the second one – that there is a piece of Honor somewhere in Shinovar that is in danger of being lost? My first thought was that it might be in Ishar somehow, seeing as he was using the same “capslock” talking that the Stormfather and later Dalinar do (as someone else pointed out in the comments). I’m not sure I love it being Ishar though; it feels a little too convenient.
I’d love to hear more ideas about who/what/where else it could be!
Given that the Wind is supposed to be a spren of Adonalsium, i.e., predating Honor’s presence on Roshar, I would say that we need to struggle to come up with any explanation for why it would want to preserve a part of Honor. So I would be inclined to think that it’s a specific piece, perhaps one that is attached to something vs just being a latent body of power. Ishar sounds pretty plausible, for the reason you propose and also since he seems to think that he is somehow the storm that would have granted a blessing to create a Stormblessed.
I’m not sure if this is a super common theory already, but I’ve been pretty convinced for a while now that Dalinar is going to have to reforge the Oathpact and elevate 10 of our favorite characters to become New Heralds. I’m not sure if he will do this as a Bondsmith and one of the new Heralds, or perhaps even as Honor himself, but I feel like it’s been heading this direction for ages.
Something suddenly occurred to me – did Ishar bond all the remaining Honorblades? Or, at least, enough of them to use all the _9_ surges currently available, with both Gravitation blades taken? Because his sudden appearance and disappearance very much suggest Transportation. And some of his “deific” display could be Lighweaving.
Another thought – Wit and Lift are playing Dalinar and Navani, but shouldn’t someone impersonate Gav, too? Because he is important enough for his absence to raise hie and cry? Or will they just say that they’ll keep Gav with them and Hoid will create a Lighweaving to mimic him? Also, they’d need to keep the Lighweavers away from Urithiru, in case one of them idly looks into the Cognitive. And probably discreetly inform Jasnah?
It’s possible he has other blades, but I think we can assume he’s opening a perpendicularity the way he did to get away from Dalinar in RoW just by using the bondsmith blade. Also, I think opening a perpendicularity as a bondsmith and doing bondsmithy things must be how he brought Spren physically to the physical realm. Storm father says he is a bondsmith unbound with the blade, I think that just means he gets to break all the rules. I would say he would be relatively unpracticed with the other abilities but he could probably use bondsmith powers to do connection hacks and connect to any blade in a way that makes him skilled at using any of the surges. So it could go either way as far as I see it.
Opening a perpendicularity is pretty obvious, though. None of the Bondsmith abilities could account for Ishar’s display here… unless he was a vision/sending maybe?
Ishar as stormfaker is like 99% confirmed..I didn’t bless you, the all caps text, all the details that didn’t line up with SF in the prologue..seeing indoors/sensing herald Chanas death, but to what end? SF is definitely also acting suspicious and has secrets, they aren’t mutually exclusive
Ishar can’t sense normal deaths of the other Heralds. In the Prelude to WoK it was explicitly mentioned that he hadn’t known whether Kalak was alive or dead when making the decision to abandon the Oathpact. Which, of course also suggests that at that point Kalak or any of the other 9, could no longer cause a Desolation by giving in. The Oathpact was already all on Taln.
I doubt Hoid would have rescued the sleepless if it was the GB one haha..we know from Yumi he’s on friendly terms with a lot of them, & they’re a big part of the era 4 space age, so pretty sure he’s cool with this one.
I am certain the person impersonating Navani is Lift, having been „lightweaved“ by Wit. After all she is busy eating chouta. So, is Wit doing Dalinar or just himself?
Also, the information about Lift‘s mother raised my suspicions about her maybe-not-being-quite-dead. Or was it just in there to explain Lift‘s unwillingness to change? And why is Lift so invested? Will she become Cultivation‘s successor?
The part about the strength it takes to leave an assignment… I thought it would be about Dalinar. But maybe it is about Sigzil as leader of the Windrunners? We know he is unhappy now and we know … thibgs from Sunlit.
Edit: forgot something. Is the Sibling quiet because Navani‘s not there or has something happened to them? Is it also in the Spritual Realm? This broken chamber sounds like it could have hurt.
Yeah, the Sibling being quiet seems noteworthy. I think if they had been pulled into the spiritual realm a lot of the tower would have shut down in a very obvious way, though, so my best guess is that Wit had a quiet word with them and they are (for now, at least) playing along.
While I’m happy to see Lyndsey’s discussion of Kal’s progression against depression and how realistic it is to have the self-doubt lingering, I feel like we should also consider the possibility of some malign influence … could dark Kaladin be because of the Unmade influencing Shinovar?