Happy Monday, Sanderfans and Cosmere Chickens! And welcome back to our read-along discussion of the preview chapters of Wind and Truth. This week’s preview features chapters five and six. We really hope you’re enjoying the preview chapters so far, because we’re enjoying discussing them with you and seeing all of your thoughts and theories. Keep them coming so that we can quote you in future articles!
Remember that these read-along discussions will likely contain full Cosmere spoilers, especially as Drew deep dives into invested thoughts and theories. So beware, if you have yet to catch up on all the goings on in the Cosmere!
Let’s get to it!
Paige’s Summary and Commentary
Chapter five is titled “What Might Still Be” and the epigraph is very interesting:
As a historian, I find such nuances relevant. As a philosopher, I find them enticing.
I’ve seen a lot of speculation that either Kaladin or Szeth is writing/has written the in-world book, Knights of Wind and Truth, but neither is a historian nor a philosopher. At least, not in the present time. So perhaps the speculation will branch out to include other possible characters. At this point, I’m thinking Jasnah, as she fits that description better than anyone else in the book. Or possibly Sigzil? Once again, I should note we did not get epigraphs during the beta read so these are all new for us, too, and I’m guessing here as much as anyone else.
Moving on… we’re with Shallan again in this chapter, drawing as she sits in the open-air forum where Adolin’s trial took place. She notices that she’s absently sketched a face in her current project, a feminine singer face that she doesn’t remember drawing—something that has happened on previous occasions, namely in The Way of Kings and in Oathbringer. She flips back through her book to find that she’s done this repeatedly and thinks about how the Unmade that was in Urithiru caused her drawings to be skewed. This, of course, makes her wonder momentarily if there might be an Unmade about.
Dismissing her thoughts, she looks toward Adolin, who is with Godeke the Edgedancer as well as Shallan’s Lightweavers and their spren. They’re waiting for honorspren who are willing to bond squires and they’re disappointed when only twelve show up. TWELVE. Seems a rather paltry turnout considering how much Adolin went through in his trial.
Notum then enters and sits with Shallan. They discuss the honorspren that showed up, and Notum is more optimistic about it than Shallan, who lets Radiant take the fore (or take control of the wagon, I suppose) for their conversation. Notum states that he will join the honorspren in the Physical Realm but that he won’t bond. Other honorspren pass, but they’re not going to join the Radiants; instead, they’re leaving Lasting Integrity to make their own way. So they’re dissenters from the bulk of the honorspren in the fortress, but not so much that they’d be willing to bond a human. I, like Shallan, am disappointed. Somebody better cough up some boots for me.
After Notum leaves, Kelek arrives to break the news that he won’t be joining them to go to Urithiru. Shallan tells him he’s not safe in Lasting Integrity but he says he’ll hide, and that he needs to keep the seon, who can’t travel just yet. Shallan begins to draw him and he tells her the Heralds are broken but dismisses her when she replies that she knows how that feels. No, Kelek… she really knows how that feels! He asks if she’s really going to search for Mishram and of course, she will do just that. He says that Ishar believes that all of the Unmade should be contained, and that he’s afraid of what she’ll do if released from her prison because she hates humans.
When Shallan shows him the finished drawing, he asks if she often draws upon Fortune. She doesn’t know what he means, but he continues, theorizing that her two bonds might have something to do with it and asked how often she looks into the Spiritual Realm and manifests it in her art. He suggests that she’s been thinking a lot about Ba-Ado-Mishram… which is probably why she’s been drawing Mishram’s face over and over (so at least Shallan now knows the identity of the mysterious singer). Which is super creepy, once you think about it. It’s fascinating to know that Shallan is able to see into the Spiritual Realm sometimes while drawing and, as Kelek says, “glimpse someone’s possible selves.”
Then the Windrunners arrive to escort them back to Urithiru. Only five show up, and Shallan thinks of how Adolin might react to the fact that he’ll have to leave Gallant and his swords behind in Shadesmar when he jogs up the steps… and immediately asks how many of them it would take to fly his horse home. Oh, Adolin… you really are the best boy.
Chapter six is titled “Nobility” and has a slightly longer epigraph. I won’t quote it here because Lyndsey talks about it below, but it might have ruined my brand-new theory that Jasnah may have written the in-world book since she is a Radiant and it seems that at the writing of Knights of Wind and Truth the Heralds have disappeared! What the what? Where would they/could they have gone, and why? Perhaps the Oathpact was restored and they returned to Braize? For the sake of their already broken minds, I truly hope not!
Kaladin meets with Dalinar. They discuss Kaladin’s mission to try to treat Ishar’s mental illness, and Dalinar announces that he’s sending Szeth to accompany Kaladin. Szeth says he’s returning to his homeland “to set right what is wrong” and to achieve the Fourth Ideal. Kaladin pushes back against this idea, arguing that Szeth isn’t stable, then realizes that Dalinar expects him to help Szeth with his mental state during their journey, as well.
Dalinar suggests they speak privately so they head to the roof of Urithiru where he speaks frankly about the contest of champions and how he doesn’t know what to expect. Neither does the fandom, who are frothing at the mouth to know what will happen and how the contest will be fought. Dalinar then asks Kaladin to fly him to a peak higher up in the mountains; he wants to see all of Urithiru.
They talk more of Szeth and Kaladin basically says he can’t help Szeth until Dalinar explains why he feels it’s important to try to help Szeth and others, rather than abandoning them. Kaladin promises that he’ll try, and mentions that Wit told him that he wouldn’t make it back before the contest, so Dalinar says they’ll send a spanreed with Szeth. He also stresses that he needs someone dealing with the situation in Shinovar who will have his back because Ishar is dangerous. Dangerous, you say, Dalinar? Whatever gave you that impression? ::side eye::
Dalinar has one more piece of business to discuss with Kaladin before they head back to the tower. Since neither of his sons is interested in ruling Urithiru once Dalinar and Navani are gone, whenever that might be… Dalinar wants Kaladin to be his heir. Kaladin is more than a little freaked out by this, and extremely reluctant about taking on such a weighty task. Dalinar asks him to please take some time to consider it and, Kaladin being Kaladin, he agrees to think it over.
So, what do you think of these chapters, Sanderfans? Do you think Shallan will somehow get into the Spiritual Realm to find Mishram? If so, how? We know precious little about the Spiritual Realm (at least I do!) but other than Dalinar uniting the realms to create Honor’s Perpendicularity, I don’t know how anyone would access it. Interesting to think about, though!
What about Kaladin? How will he and Szeth get along on their trip? What does Szeth “cleansing” Shinovar actually mean? Will Kaladin actually be able to help Szeth improve his mental state or is our assassin too far gone at this point? And… will Kaladin accept Dalinar’s offer of becoming the heir to Urithiru?
So much to discuss this week! Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Characters and Relationships
Chapter five has Shalash (Ash), Herald of Beauty and the Lightweavers, in all four spots. Her aspects are Creative/Honest, and her role is Artist.
It’s quite fitting that Ash is our Herald of this chapter, since it’s a Shallan POV and she’s doing a lot of drawing. She’s also being very honest with Kelek and Notum, and vice versa. A fitting choice.
Our herald of chapter six is Ishi (Ishar), Herald of Luck and the Bondsmiths. His aspects are Pious/Guiding and his role is Priest. This chapter mainly has to do with Dalinar sending Kaladin off to help this particular Herald, so an actual physical representation of him does make sense. However, there’s also the Guiding aspect—not only is Dalinar providing guidance for Kaladin, but he’s asking Kaladin to do the same for Szeth.
As a historian, I find such nuances relevant. As a philosopher, I find them enticing.
—From Knights of Wind and Truth, page 4
A historian and philosopher?! Well, that shoots most of my theories out of the water as to the identity of our mystery author! Kal’s many things, but historian and philosopher don’t top the list.
Regardless, the events surrounding the cleansing of Shinovar are of specific relevance, and I am doing my best to record what I can discover of the Wind’s own words regarding them. Though, now that the Wind and Heralds have vanished, I have only two sources who can speak of these events.
They are my witnesses.
—From Knights of Wind and Truth, page 5
Okay, well… that answers some questions and brings up a TON more. We can pretty safely assume that Kal and Szeth are the two sources, considering the fact that we are seeing them be sent off together to Shinovar, and Kal’s been hearing the Wind. Unless maybe the Wind has been speaking to others as well? (At least if the two sources are Kal and Szeth, that’s implicit confirmation that they survive the cleansing of Shinovar!)
But what’s this about the Wind and Heralds vanishing?
Notum
“There is nothing more for me here,” Notum said. “I have been rejected of mine, and have seen their pettiness. I should like to be of service. Though… I admit, I do not wish to bond a human. I loathe the idea. Is that petty of me, in turn?”
Lots of betrayal going on in this chapter. Notum’s dealing with his fears of betrayal based on the humans’ past actions, and wondering whether he can trust them again—and given their treatment of… well, almost everyone, who can blame him? They enslaved the parshmen. They imprisoned Mishram. They stole this world from the Indigenous people to begin with… There’s a lot of history to unpack here for the Honorspren who need to decide whether to join them. A lot of trust that needs to be earned back from the other side. Will they succeed in that?
Kelek
“We are broken, Shallan,” Kelek finally said. “We are not the heroes you wish us to be. Not anymore.”
This comment feels portentous. The question is, which possibile future is it foreshadowing? The fact that the Heralds are going to overcome their mental setbacks and step back up to be heroes again? Or that others will take their places, and become heroes in their steads? We’re already seeing a new generation of heroes in the Radiants. Are those Radiants going to have to fill the gap that the Heralds have left?
Mishram
“Ishar says all the Unmade should be contained, yet what we did to the singers by imprisoning her…”
If what Kelek is saying about imprisoning her in a gem for thousands of years is true, I wouldn’t blame Mishram for turning on the humans and joining the singers. Especially since she seems to have some connection (or Connection?) to them to begin with.
Shallan
There’s some beautiful commentary about the creation of art in this chapter, and how it relates to Shallan’s state of mind. It’s great to see her drawing again, and doing her “Fortune” drawings, as Kelek calls it. Her ability to see the best in others, to see the potential of who they could be, is one of the most fascinating things about her character. I think it stems from her own fragmented nature. She’s had to think and act as so many other people that she’s able to think outside of the box and understand others’ perspectives; she has a capacity for empathy which extends further than a normal person’s.
Kaladin
You asked me to be a surgeon, not a soldier. I’m game.”
A surgeon for the mind—who didn’t cut with a scalpel, but with calm words and understanding.
I’m so here for Therapist!Kal. He was already heading in this direction, of course, but it’s nice to see the momentum continue. And it’s also incredibly rare, in the grand scheme of fantasy protagonists, to see a hero go from “badass warrior wielding a spear and crazy awesome powers” to “gentle-hearted therapist trying to fix people rather than kill them.” You’d expect to see the opposite progression, so it’s nice that Sanderson subverted that expectation.
The Alethi parshmen had been enslaved too, but had taken their homeland for themselves. In other circumstances, he would have cheered their fight—he knew precisely what it was like to have your dignity stripped away, to be beaten until you lost personality and volition, becoming a thing.
This is one of the things I find most fascinating about his character, and about the totality of Stormlight. While it’s nice sometimes to have a clear Evil to root against like in Lord of the Rings, this world of morally grey choices and no clear “right” answer is more true to real life, and the choices we all have to face on a day-to-day basis.
Who was Kaladin to do this?
The only person available. Stormfather help them all.
I can think of no one better qualified—but of course Kaladin wouldn’t see himself that way.
Dalinar’s offer to make him the heir of Urithiru highlights another facet of his personality which we didn’t see too often in Rhythm of War: his hatred of the nobility, and now this is manifesting in a bit of self-loathing for Kal. Here’s another thing he needs to come to terms with in order to grow.
Szeth
To achieve the Fourth Ideal, a Skybreaker must undertake a crusade of righteous cause. Upon completing it, I will be poised for the final step, in which a man becomes the law itself.
I am so stoked to find out more about Szeth’s backstory. I’ve always been a sucker for a tortured antihero with a killer heel-face turn. Szeth is so deliciously complicated in his motivations and morals, and the prospect of learning what makes him tick—FINALLY—is practically making me salivate.
Dalinar
“We’ve been fighting the singers since our first generations on this planet […]. I want to see that cycle ended.”
I love Dalinar’s transition from hardened, heartless warlord to pacifist over the course of his life. It’s such a powerful transition, and a beautiful one, when you think about it. He’s learned the value of human (and singer) life, and doesn’t want to take it anymore. If only his brother could have learned the same lessons…
Wit/Hoid
“Best speak to Midius—your Wit—about that. A fantodic man himself, that one.”
Wait. Did we just casually get Hoid’s real name dropped on us?! (And on that fitting note, I turn this discussion over to Drew.)
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts and Theories
All right. I haven’t addressed it yet, and I know it’s been touched on briefly by Lyn and Paige above, but we have to talk about the epigraphs.
The vast majority of the Knights of Wind and Truth speculation so far has been aimed at Szeth and Kaladin—which is understandable, given the name of the in-world book. Kaladin is right there for Wind, especially given the new voice whispering in his ear, and Szeth is the Truthless on a quest to right the wrongs of his past. If anyone is going to be aligned with Truth as a title, it’ll be him, right?
But neither Kaladin nor Szeth fits the mold as a philosopher or historian. On top of that, the epigraph for chapter 6 feeds out an enticing bit of context: There are two witnesses for the author to draw information from. Szeth and Kaladin sure feel like the right choices, which would preclude both of them from being the author.
I have to admit, this is fun speculation for me. As Paige said, we didn’t get the epigraphs in the beta draft. I’m totally in the dark here, and it’s opening up a new reading experience as I go through Wind and Truth in its final form right alongside all of you.
For the record, I think there are some fascinating options for the author of Knights of Wind and Truth, given these new epigraphs. Jasnah certainly fits, and this reminds me of the preview chapters for Oathbringer. There was a great deal of speculation that she was the voice behind that in-world book, before Dalinar’s backstory came to light. It would be both funny and totally on-brand for Brandon to hit us with a Jasnah-authored book after so much of the fandom spent energy guessing that she wrote Oathbringer.
The other possibility I find most engaging is Renarin. He’s a Knight Radiant himself, but of a very different sort. He’s still hanging around Kaladin and the Windrunners, though, thanks to his connection to Bridge Four. I could see him having a sort of removed focus—perhaps even envy—on the Windrunners. It would make sense for him to have the interest necessary to follow in his father’s footsteps and create a record of Kaladin and Szeth heading off to Shinovar.
But before I get too far into the weeds on the epigraphs, I want to bring up one of the more obscure—in a couple different ways—elements of The Stormlight Archive. Way back in The Way of Kings, we got a typically enigmatic Death Rattle:
He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!
And what do we see at the very start of chapter six? Kaladin approaches Dalinar, noting his “Kholin blue uniform with his glyphs on the back: the tower and the crown.”
So the Tower and the Crown are obvious signifiers for House Kholin and Dalinar in particular, but in this chapter we’ve been given a straight connection to Kaladin as well, as the potential heir to Urithiru. And if any character in the series can be symbolized by a spear, it’s Kaladin.
However, Kaladin steps right up to the moment and rejects Dalinar’s request. He’s persuaded to reconsider his definitive negative answer, promising to think more about it, but he’s also going to have a great deal more on his mind in just a couple hours, as he catches a highstorm and jets off to Shinovar to try inventing therapy with Szeth.
This feels like a classic Brandon foreshadowing moment, but the further we get into the Cosmere, the more we have to wonder about the layers spread before us.
Fan Theories
We love hearing your thoughts and theories as these preview chapters are being released and the discussions continue. Here are some notable comments on the Wind from last week’s chapters:
From the preview of Chapters 3 and 4, Forgetable said, “Is the Wind mishram? It’s a direct spawn of adonalsium but I forget the unmade lore, haven’t done my reread yet.” And their speculation that the Wind is Mishram isn’t the only such speculation I’ve seen. Our own Drew McCaffrey has wondered the very same thing, as has kevbot68 on Reactor, who commented, “Yeah, the wind is definitely Mishram.”
Over on Reddit, sent_16 writes “my personal theory (it probably doesn’t make sense) is that kaladin is the wind, he ascends then gets trapped in the spiritual realm somehow, and talks to himself in the past.” But sacae- says, “If the Wind is part of what Old Magic may have been before being more associated with Nightwatcher and Cultivation… I do wonder if there’s some link still. More so because the Wind could finally talk after Tav ascended with vessel change. What if her plan in having him take the vessel was more to free the Wind more than replacing Odium?” Moist-Exchange2890 chimed in with: “Okay, I’m almost positive the wind will become a bondsmith Spren and Kal will bond it.“
Back in the Reactor comments, CremlingCrimes quoted Wit saying, “I don’t know what to do or who to pray to, since the only true God I’ve known is the one we rejected and killed. So I’m sending you off, Kaladin. Hoping that if the Wind spoke to you, then some piece of that ancient deity is watching.” and then went on to comment, “So is the Wind a part of this true God? Also interesting that when Hoid refers to the Wind it’s capitalized but when Kaladin speaks of it it’s without capitalization.” Bao seems to agree, saying, “The wind sounds like a deity that isn’t one of the 16 shards, maybe a spren of Adonalsium or something like that.” Could the Wind be a part of (a spren of?) Adonalsium, Sanderfans? What do you think about that? And while we did notice that Kaladin calls it the “wind” while Wit calls it the “Wind,” we don’t know at this point whether that’s significant.
On the 17th Shard Discord, discussion of the contest of champions has been rampant. Toby says “My guess is they’ll somehow rebuild Honor.” Toby focused on the information we know from Sel and the Dor, adding “We know that Investiture tries to be sapient.”
But Timo worries about that possibility, saying “I kinda hope we aren’t getting another ending where someone picks up a Shard and becomes a god. It was cool in Mistborn, but a 2nd time would kinda lose impact.”
Dalinar’s worries over his role as arbiter seem to reflect that possibility. What would happen if Dalinar did end up rebuilding Honor and using that power to defeat Odium (even temporarily)?
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 chapters seven through nine!
