Happy Reread Monday, Cosmere Chickens! We’ve got a doozy for you this week, as we reach the end of Day 3 and dive into a couple of lore-heavy interludes that are sure to set Cosmere Scholars drooling. First, we catch up with Szeth and Kaladin in the aftermath of Szeth’s victory over his first shaman, and then follow Adolin as he celebrates with his men and comes to an understanding with Azish Commandant Kushkam. In the interludes, we see the long-awaited return of Axies the Collector and get another glimpse into the mind of Taravangian.
The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content).
Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs
Chapter 42 is titled “Celebrations,” and we pick up where we left off when Szeth turned the Stoneward Honorbearer Rit to dust. Yes, his spren has finally allowed him to use Division and says he can continue to do so until told otherwise. And here Szeth touches on what happened when Taln returned from Braize—or rather what happened to his Blade. As we all remember from Words of Radiance, the Blade that Taln returned with was replaced with another. Szeth now surmises that his people must have retrieved it. He wonders how they found Taln (or Talmut, as they call him) so quickly, but we get no further insight there.
And here Szeth wonders if he must go on a full pilgrimage of Truth and visit each monastery in turn. He explains to Kaladin what this pilgrimage entailed when he was a youth, when he won Jezrien’s Blade before being exiled. Kaladin relays Ishar’s message about how he’d speak to Kaladin once Szeth’s pilgrimage was finished.
So now we expect to follow Szeth, with Kaladin and Syl in tow, as he completes the abbreviated pilgrimage of his youth and obtains all of the honorblades. Well, all but Jezrien’s, held by Moash, and Nale’s, held by the Herald himself. Kaladin balks, and I love how Szeth knows that Kaladin doesn’t like the fact that they’re being manipulated, but Szeth points out that they need to visit at least one more monastery to investigate and either the shaman would speak to him or attack him. Kaladin reluctantly agrees that it’s the best way forward, and Szeth thinks that perhaps Kaladin’s smarts are what make him so annoying. These two truly crack me up.
Next, we pop over to Azimir to check in on Adolin and the singer assault. The first day has been a good one for the Azish and the Alethi. The singers retreated and Maya wants to be a part of the celebration, so Adolin summons the Blade and passes it to his troops, allowing them the honor of holding her, beginning with the new Thaylen in his personal guard. Colot asks if Adolin is worried that someone might steal the Blade, but Adolin isn’t. He tells him that “they’re our best,” and then adds “You are our best, my friend.” Colot has a moment of remembered frustration, it seems, and says that he’s glad that someone wants him; Adolin comforts him, reassuring him that the Windrunners will regret not having him someday.
Then Adolin asks about the Thaylen man; Colot says he doesn’t speak Alethi but that he seems specifically loyal to Adolin. Of course, as will be revealed soon, we know that the man’s son was saved by Adolin during the battle in Thaylen City in Oathbringer, and the soldier, Hmask, joined Adolin’s mission out of gratitude. Adolin wants him in a Cobalt Guard uniform after seeing the way he faced off with a Heavenly One. Colot mentions that once the fighting started, Yanagawn refused to move to safety; he also thinks Kushkam is livid about how things played out, so Adolin sends Colot off to check on Maya and goes to soothe Kushkam’s ruffled feathers.
Adolin interrupts Kushkam right in the middle of the Commandant’s shameful admission that his tactics were faulty, cutting him off to express his admiration for the Azish military and their impressive ability to pivot in the midst of battle. He talks about how Kushkam adapted to meeting the Regals and Fused and held the line. A sincerityspren appears beside him as he tells Yanagawn that it’s an honor to serve with Kushkam and his troops.
That done, they go on to discuss how the singers might try to wear down the coalition forces with constant assaults. They certainly have the troop numbers to do it. He and Kushkam agree to talk about how to counter that approach but before they do…
“I’ll be camping out here on this square, near where my men are barracked. Need to be close, as the enemy will attack at night to test us. Want to do the same?”
Yanagawn blinked. “You’re… inviting me to a campout?”
“We call them bivouacs in the military,” Adolin replied with a grin.
And this is how Adolin comes to teach Yawnagan how to play towers in the coming chapters. And continue with sword lessons. And give Yanagawn some time in Shardplate, to learn how to move in it. This is one of my very favorites arcs in this book and I am excited to read through it again with you!
Noura, of course, is not a fan of this plan, but Adolin out-talks her and Yanagawn settles it by agreeing to the campout.
Then, Adolin speaks privately with Kushkam, who wants to know what he did wrong. Adolin simply points out that a few soldiers were never going to be a match for the same number of Regals and Fused. They discuss how to frame the defense going forward. The commandant apologizes to Adolin for being intimidated and Adolin apologizes to him for putting him on the spot… and Kushkam introduces himself as Zarb. They shake hands, Zarb invites Adolin to dinner, and all is well.
Except… Adolin knows how brutal the coming days will be, as they wait for the rest of the armies to arrive (which we know isn’t going to happen). Maya reaches out mentally and remarks that he feels sad, uncertain. They chat a bit and again we see that Adolin feels that, while he used to be the best, he’s no longer enough. As in, he’s not Radiant. We’ll talk more about Unoathed and promises over Oaths later, though… for now I just want to note how thoroughly I enjoy Maya and Adolin chatting like they do.
Adolin brings up the spren who departed Lasting Integrity at the same time their party was leaving, and Maya offers to go talk to them—only he’s thinking of honorspren and she’s thinking of deadeyes. Adolin decides that he doesn’t necessarily need a Blade and that he could utilize one of Azimir’s Shardhammers in battle while Maya goes to talk to the honorspren. Instead of asking her to go or asking her to stay, he says he’ll support whatever decision she makes. And of course, she decides to go.
…But the chapter’s not over yet! Back to Shinovar we go, as Kaladin wonders about the Stoneward’s immense strength, and what was powering the shaman in her battle with Szeth. As Kaladin marvels at the powers she had wielded, Nightblood perks up and insists that he could do better than Taln’s Honorblade. Little foreshadowing there, hmm? I love when Nightblood joins the conversation, especially when Syl is around!
They return to the encampment below the monastery to find thousands of people emerging from barracks, looking as if they’d just woken up, reverently thanking Szeth. He’s nearly overwhelmed by the attention until Kaladin calms him. Szeth allows the people to thank him but he doesn’t know how to respond and Kaladin tells him that the gratitude, the joy of the people, is what they fight for. Not laws, not Ideals, but the people.
Then the Wind speaks to Kaladin, assuring him that what he’s doing here is far more important than what his friends fight for. And so they head toward the Willshaper monastery, and Day Three comes to a close.
Interlude 5 follows Baxil, strolling through Azimir, wrapped head to toe in crimson cloths. He visits a tea shop and finds Axies the Collector who calls him “Crimson Memory.” We learn that he can’t physically taste tea, but with effort, and with many people around him thinking about it, he can summon up the taste, the concept of the tea. He mentions a blessing and a curse.
Axies provides a bundle of bandages, “red wraps prepared in the most special of ways, as Baxil needed.” He pays Axies with a spren in a gemstone Then Axies tells Baxil that his old employer is in Azimir—and, of course, he means Shalash. Baxil thinks about visiting her but decides not to, not in his current state. He tells Axies to get out of the city, though he knows Axies won’t leave, and he departs to continue on his quest.
Interlude 6 is a Taravagian interlude titled “The Weight of Information.” The god divided has decided to let each side rule in turn; first, we see him use intellect. He feels that he’s more balanced as a god when letting each side take turns. He reflects on how Cultivation wanted him to end the fighting early, but decides it’s not in his best interest. He knows that Odium would prefer Ba-Ado-Mishram over him and that he must be cautious, so that the power doesn’t leave him as it left Rayse. I find this extremely interesting: Why would the power of Odium prefer Mishram?
Taravangian understands that while Odium is all about passion, it’s not necessarily interested in more subtle emotions.
The passion of fiery lust, yes. But genuine love? Things such as love and contentment felt like the purview of other gods.
Odium liked anger most of all, Taravangian learns. He takes it all in and learns from it, something that the power either can’t or won’t do. His ultimate conquest is the cosmere but he can withstand being trapped on Roshar for a time. In wondering how to prepare, he realizes he needs a command staff. He thinks of El, in particular.
Then he appears at Kharbranth to speak with Dova, or Battah the Herald, the corrupt Herald who was a member of the Diagram. He asks her about the art of using crystal spikes to restore sight, and how it would allow one to see Investiture. This is something that will be used for Moash, of course. But Battah knows that Taravangian just wants to bring her into his new organization and as long as the pay is good, this corrupt Herald is in.
He tells her that he can get her a planet eventually, a small one, and promises he’ll get her off Roshar so that she can visit it. Smiling, she rises to gather her things.
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs and Maps
Ooooh, another three-herald arch for chapter 42! This week we’ve got Nale, Jezrien, and Vedeledev, patron of the Edgedancers.
Nale and Jezrien could be indicative of Szeth and Kaladin (respectively), and Vedeledev for Maya, who chooses to go off to find the other deadeye spren. But if we were to attempt to dig a little deeper…
Vedel is also the Herald of loving and healing. We’re seeing some healing here in Szeth, who is experiencing gratitude from his people for the first time. We’re also seeing Adolin showing love and companionship towards his men, by allowing them to pass around Maya in celebration. Szeth and Adolin are both protecting their people (Jezrien), and Adolin is being quite confident as usual (Nale).
The Baxil interlude has three as well: Shalash times two, Chana, and Palah. Shalash tracks, as Baxil traveled with Ash for a while and is infatuated with her. I think a case could be made for Chana portraying her attribute of being of the common man here, as Baxil—while an extraordinary being—was once pretty ordinary. I can’t think of any other reason for her to be here; no one is being particularly brave or obedient, nor are either of our characters guarding anything. Well… Maybe Axies is guarding knowledge, but that’s a stretch. Palah makes perfect sense at least, as her attributes are primarily about learning. Axies is nothing if not the quintessential scholar!
Taravangian/Odium (just a reminder, here, that I like to call him Toadium and will henceforth refer to him as such) has two Heralds portrayed on his chapter arch; Battah, patron of the Elsecallers (wise/careful/the counselor) and Vedel, patron of the Edgedancers (loving/healing). This is the perfect representation of his dual nature. His constant battle of keeping the balance between emotion and intelligence is on full display in this interlude in particular. ALSO, Battah physically shows up in this chapter.
Szeth
Szeth shows a lot of growth in this chapter. We start off with him admitting to Kaladin that he was exiled at the end of his pilgrimage, then we see him reacting to his peoples’ gratitude:
Their postures were universally reverent, but his eyes began to dart from side to side. He was feeling boxed in. […] Kaladin didn’t understand the words, but he’d seen those postures before, those eyes holding back tears. He’d been there. Szeth, it appeared, never had. He took the kindness with an air of bemusement.
Poor Szeth doesn’t feel like he deserves their praise. He points out that his culture was demonizing him for so long for being “one who subtracts” that he’s completely internalized that negativity. He hates himself just as much as his people once hated him, so their gratitude and love is a foreign concept. He doesn’t know how to respond, and it makes him feel uncomfortable. By the end of the chapter, however, it does begin to affect him positively.
As he turned to Kaladin and Syl at the end, he wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. “I… I do not know how to respond. Please forgive me.”
Szeth’s healing is depicted as a very gradual process, as it should be. Decades of trauma cannot be wiped clean in a matter of a couple days. But Kaladin’s determined to keep trying, and by the end of the book, we do see Szeth beginning to accept that he can love himself.
Adolin
His father would have given a fine speech. Adolin ripped his helmet off, held it high in one hand with his Shardblade in the other, and bellowed a vibrant yell of triumph, exploding with gloryspren. His soldiers shouted their enthusiasm in a roar, raising weapons.
Yet another example of the intrinsic difference between Dalinar and his son. Neither approach is wrong, they just have different ways of inspiring the men they lead. I would say that Adolin’s method is more personable and puts him closer to the men, whereas Dalinar’s speeches elevate him and keep him distant while still inspiring. It’s the difference between leading your men into battle yourself versus directing them from a high vantage point. Neither approach is wrong; they each have their own inherent flaws and benefits. And Adolin, with all his daddy issues, is happy to be the opposite of his father in this respect. I don’t really think that he does it specifically to put himself at odds with Dalinar (because he’s always acted this way with his men even before his troubles with his dad), but did he always do it subconsciously? Most likely. And now he’s making those choices deliberately, recognizing how they set him apart.
Morale wasn’t just about official commendations or even about increased rations or pay after a victory. It was about the soldiers knowing that Adolin personally was proud of them.
I think the biggest downside to Adolin’s approach is that, should he fall, the men’s loyalty won’t necessarily transfer to the next man in command. By fostering such a close personal connection with them, he inspires their unwavering loyalty to HIM, not to the command structure as a whole. Dalinar’s approach creates a bit of distance between him and the men, inspiring their loyalty to the army and not just to the king himself.
“You were right and he was wrong.”
“And on other battlefields, I’ve been wrong,” Adolin said. “Look, Kushkam isn’t used to how Fused and Regals fight, and that got us into trouble today. But he adapted.
Another wonderful example of being a good leader here: lifting up your colleagues and helping them to succeed, in the hopes that they do the same for you. The rising tide lifts all ships. Competition can spur people to be better, but within a military context it can also breed discontent, as we saw with Sadeas.
“I’m nothing more than a man with a sword and armor. That used to be enough.” Once, he’d been the best. Now that didn’t matter.
Here we see again poor Adolin’s inferiority complex rearing its ugly head. This is something that he and Colot share, though in slightly different contexts. Colot tried to become a Radiant and was rejected; Adolin never even made it that far.
“You are our best, my friend. You executed those maneuvers perfectly.”
“Well, I’m glad someone wants me,” he said.
“Those Windrunners will someday realize what they missed out on,” Adolin said…
I’m glad to see them bonding over this. At least they each have someone who understands and can commiserate about it. And, as we see by the end, Colot and Adolin both become something incredible in their own right—the Unoathed. In a world when the Radiants have lost their Stormlight, the Unoathed will be the superhuman ones now.
How many men had given up their Shardblade like that? […] All of the Radiants did it once, he thought. And there was one other. My father. Adolin considered that, filled with complex emotions…
Adolin doesn’t go into detail about those complex emotions, but he doesn’t need to. We know what they are. He used to respect and idolize his father for those noble ideals, and he still recognizes Dalinar’s noble actions as such. But that doesn’t change the fact that his father killed his mother (accidentally, but still). It doesn’t change the fact that Dalinar practically ignored him in an alcoholic haze for years. It doesn’t change the fact that Dalinar seems to value everyone else more than his own sons. And therein lies the complexity.
Baxil
I’m leaving all the lore-stuff to Drew on this one, but BOY is Baxil a fascinating mystery on a whole bunch of levels! It’s hard to say much about his character arc, as we didn’t see much of him the last time. He was helping Shalash to destroy artwork waaaaaay back in The Way of Kings, and had mentioned something about wanting to go to the Nightwatcher to gain confidence. It’s pretty clear that he did get to her, but did his boon give him what he wanted? No way to tell so far, and this is the last we see of him in this book.
Taravangian
The more interludes we get from Taravangian’s POV, the more fascinating I find him as a character. He’s one of the most multi-faceted villains I’ve ever come across in fantasy. In this interlude, we see him giving in to his intellectual side, while still understanding that emotion is integral to logic. When he was mortal, he had no such compunctions and allowed his intellect to override his moral compass. He is wholly devoted to his goal, which is to use this newfound power he’s acquired to save as many as possible. However…
Is he controlling the power, or is it controlling him? Drew and I will discuss this a bit more in depth in the Odium section below.
Dova/Battah
Each of these Heralds was suffering under a cloud of mind and soul, and this was how hers manifested. The wise counselor, known for her wisdom for millennia, had become corrupt.
“I can likely get you a planet eventually. A small one, at least. I’ll try to find a way to get you off Roshar to visit it.” She hesitated, her eyes widening, inspecting him to see if he was serious.
Tactics and Battlefields
A note: I’ve finally figured out a method to more easily draw on the maps (thanks, trusty new iPad!) so I won’t have to tediously draw arrows and manipulate them in Photoshop anymore! I’m also including the map of Shinovar from later chapters, with arrows to show Kaladin and Szeth’s route.
We form solid pike walls farther back, and force them to come to us—make them spread their Regals out, so they can’t pit a hundred of them against a hundred humans. They have to instead pit a hundred Regals plus nine hundred regular soldiers against a thousand of mine.”
“Exactly,” Adolin said. “Plus, you will have archer support, and the time—during their advance—to position our Shardbearers wherever the enemy sends most of their elite troops. And anything that slows their advance gives us more time to try to bring Regals down from a distance.”
“Hence the suggestion that we throw furniture in the way,” Kushkam said.”
A historical note on “pike walls.” I can’t find any extant references to pike walls, but I can find a lot of instances of pike SQUARES and SHIELD walls. Pikemen were usually situated in 10 x 10 squares, but it looks like Sanderson is combining the two tactics into one. As such, I’ll be portraying the pike walls as concentric circles within the dome.
Discussion: Odium
Though it should have been all emotions—and his predecessor had insisted that was his purview—the power did not like subtle emotions. It liked loud ones. The passion of fiery lust, yes. But genuine love? Things such as love and contentment felt like the purview of other gods. They had taken some slices of its…portfolio, so to speak, during the Shattering.
L: Interesting that Odium only represents strong emotion and not the more subtle ones. Is there one Shard in particular which controls such emotions, Drew? Or do you think those emotions are split between the other Shards?
D: It does seem like Mercy and Devotion, at least, would cover a range of other emotions. Perhaps Valor as well?
P: As long as they’re strong emotions, I think Odium is down. When people in the books would say things about passions, I always took it to mean any emotions but it seems that Odium just likes the heavy-duty stuff.
D: Odium has been on board with lying where it suits him. This has always struck me as one area where he wants people to think he has more of a purview than he really does.
So, carefully, he fed emotion to the power. He promised it conquests in the sky, worlds to bend to their will—passion, fury, anger, and pain. All the most powerful emotions that it desired. It fed on that, simmering, while he considered his plans.
L: Who’s really controlling who here? Clearly Taravangian feels as if he’s in control, but he’s dealing with a piece of a god. I have to wonder if he’s not being misled in turn.
P: I feel that Taravangian is underestimating Odium here. He seems to be treating it too… simply, I guess. I mean, it’s a freaking Shard. And as much as Taravangian thinks he’s got the upper hand here, he is a baby god and he should use his intellect a bit more wisely.
D: Yeah, this is a pretty crazy new look at how Shards work. More to come in my section below…
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
Unfortunately, we only have one more Sleepless epigraph. And it’s fairly straightforward:
There, we will find our destiny. We cannot stop him from destroying us. It is time.
The Sleepless are exiting stage right because they know what bad things Taravangian can do to them. Fair enough, I suppose. They seem to have a finger on the pulse of the deeper workings of the Cosmere, and they certainly wouldn’t want to be a well of information for Taravangian to plumb while he’s busy roasting cremling legs.
I have a bit more to say about the Sleepless and their exodus from Roshar, but I’ll save that for a later chapter (interlude). More to come!
“How did they find him so quickly? Why leave him with a different Blade as a ruse?”
Good questions, Szeth. In fact, I’m not sure either of these got answered in a satisfactory fashion (or even at all). I suppose we can assume that Ishar directed them to Taln, via whatever Connection the Heralds share. It would make sense that he might have an even more direct Connection, as the facilitator of the Oathpact and the Bondsmith of the group, though we know he doesn’t have the Connection with Taln that he does with the others, through holding some of their torment.
But leaving the dead Shardblade in its place? That is a mystery. The simplest answer is that they just don’t want anyone going hunting for a missing Honorblade, though why they’d worry about it overmuch is beyond me. It’s not like Stone Shamanism is widespread knowledge. It almost feels to me more like a red herring that Brandon put in to make us wonder about possible culprits and not immediately think “Oh, well obviously the Stone Shamans took it,” rather than provide some real in-world thread to pick at.
You may use the power until I tell you otherwise.
The relationship between Skybreaker and highspren really is strange. I like how, the more we discover about each Order, the more we realize that there isn’t some shared “normal” for the Knights Radiant. Each Order seems to have some notable element of the bond between Knight and spren, of the progression through Ideals, that stands unique. For the Lightweavers, it’s Truths instead of Oaths. For the Bondsmiths, it’s a limited number of supercharged spren. For the Skybreakers, it’s spren who view themselves as knights and act as overt benefactors for their Radiants.
There’s already unique strangeness to Lift as an Edgedancer, and our principle Truthwatcher POV is bonded to an “Enlightened” spren. I wonder what weirdness awaits us with the Dustbringers, the Elsecallers, the Stonewards?
“Name is Hmask. He’s got skill, so I used him to plug a hole in your personal guard. He seems specifically loyal to you for some reason, but he doesn’t speak a lick of Alethi so I haven’t been able to ask.”
Back to Adolin and Azimir, we have another mystery: Hmask. Later in the book, it’s explained that Adolin saved Hmask’s son during the Battle of Thaylen Field, and he has dedicated himself to protecting Adolin as a result.
But look, who here actually buys that story on its face? This guy is suspicious, and that explanation is suspiciously simple. He’s some random Thaylen dude who also happens to be martially talented? During my first read-through of Wind and Truth, I was certain Hmask was actually a Ghostblood agent, placed close to Adolin as insurance against Shallan’s indiscretions.
And you know what? I still think that. I wonder if Hmask is the proverbial gun hanging above the mantel, long eyebrows dangling over the fireplace. Shallan killed Mraize and Iyatil before they could communicate with the Physical Realm and the rest of the Ghostbloods. The Rosharan branch is almost surely in a great deal of turmoil after losing their foremost leaders, but once they get their business back in order? Maybe Hmask gets an order to be a knife in the dark.
Or maybe he doesn’t, and the Ghostbloods simply assume that Mraize and Iyatil were lost in the Spiritual Realm. Maybe Hmask is uncovered some other way, and a new wrinkle is added to the Shallan-Ghostblood relationship.
I could learn that, the sword said.
So yeah. Nightblood lays the first stepping stones for becoming even more terrifying. We’ll talk more later about its on-page feats when we get further into the book, but this one line has a whole lot of implication buried within it. If Nightblood can learn to grant Surges from the Honorblades—not even really sapient beings of Investiture like spren—what can it learn from actual spren? From seons? From… well, any Invested being?
Is Nightblood, like the fabled Moon Scepter in The Emperor’s Soul, another Investiture Rosetta Stone? Or is it limited to Rosharan Invested Arts, due to its inspiration? I lean toward the former; after all, it’s just like Brandon to drop a big surprise on us as a way to let our guard down, and then hit us with an even bigger surprise later.
But while we’re leaving behind our precious Sleepless epigraphs, we at least go out with a bang in the interludes before Day Four. We begin with an old friend: the criminal Baxil.
These days, people could only see Baxil if they were looking for him. And he could only touch them if they were trying to kill him.
Somebody has been to see the Nightwatcher.
This boon makes sense: Baxil was a thief and crook, so asking to be undetectable is right in line. And in return, it seems the Nightwatcher limited his ability to inflict harm while going unseen. Good trade-off. Very responsible spren, the Nightwatcher.
(Assuming these are gifts of the Nightwatcher and not Cultivation herself, though I lean toward it being the former.)
And he’s meeting another old interlude friend: Axies the Collector! I know at least one person was thrilled to see our blue-skinned buddy show up here (hey, Mark!). They have a short but fascinating interaction, with Baxil providing Axies with a new spren and Axies providing Baxil with some mysterious bandages.
Because maybe that curse isn’t the curse after all. Maybe the inflicting harm part of the arrangement is a standard side effect of the being undetectable boon, and the curse is the lack of a corporeal body, so that he needs “wraps prepared in the most special of ways” just to cling to his existence.
I expect we’ll see more of both Baxil and Axies in the future.
Her name was Ba-Ado-Mishram, and if Taravangian was not cautious, the power might leave him for her, as it had left Rayse for him.
There’s more to explore later, with Honor, but boy did Wind and Truth throw a wrench in our understanding of Shardic mechanics. We’ve seen the phenomenon on Scadrial, with Sazed struggling to interpret the combined Ruin and Preservation as Harmony rather than Discord, but there wasn’t any indication there that the Shard could just up and abandon the Vessel.
Now, Taravangian is openly musing about Odium’s agency as an emotional entity, and its ability to say “nope” and go find somebody new. It sheds new light on Ati’s actions as Ruin, too—he was, according to Hoid, “kindhearted” and took up Ruin to help rein in its potential for destruction… and we all saw how that turned out.
Was Ati perhaps still working against Ruin, even at the end, but just making concessions where necessary to keep his role as Vessel? It would make sense, in fact. We see here in Wind and Truth that Shards can cause some serious destruction in a short amount of time—heck, even in Mistborn, when Vin briefly Ascended and inadvertently ravaged large swaths of Scadrial. The slow-burn death of the world via the ashmounts could be a great stalling tactic on Ati’s part, assuaging the urges of Ruin while limiting the catastrophic fallout.
But one more note on Taravangian and Roshar before I wrap up: Dova is confirmed to be the Herald Battar (aka Battah). Her particular insanity has manifested as an intensely mercenary attitude, the need to accumulate wealth by selling her services. We don’t get to see much more of her in this book, but that’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on when we move into the Voidlight back half of the Stormlight Archive.
This Week’s Highlights:
Lyn: I haven’t seen many new theories I’d like to highlight in the last two weeks, but I did take note of this awesome copy of The Way of Kings, which has been customized by hand-painting the edges!
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 haven’t read the book yet.
See you next Monday for our discussion of chapters 43, 44, and 45!
Lyndsey and Drew were discussing whether T or Odium was successfully manipulating the other, but I have a different view.
Note 1: some of what is to follow was inspired by having recently watched Inside Out 2. It seems like a good model for understanding Adonalsium and the Shards.
Note 2: I am going to continue to refer to Odium as specifically the shard rather than the combined Taravangian/Odium entity.
So, originally all the Shards were personality aspects of Adonalsium (or Adonal, since the naming convention seems to indicate that -ium is the god metal of the person). At the Shattering, the Shard essentially became sentient newborns. By the time Taravangian has taken up Odium, it has grown a bit…instead of being an infant it is now a toddler/2 year old. Odium wants big strong emotions because that is all it can currently “taste”. Taravangian can therefore mollify it (put Odium down for its nap) by feeding it what it wants.
Tanavast later notes a similar lack of nuance in Honor. However, by the end of the book, Honor has been forced to grow up a bit more because it had no host. It is learning to question. Call it maybe at Kindergarten or first grade. It will be learning how to play nicely with other Shards while also discovering who/what it really wants to be.
Sazed’s problem is that he has twin 2 year olds who both want all the attention. They fight over toys. They fight over who gets fed first. They don’t want to share. There is Discord where Sazed wants to instill Harmony.
I’m expecting, or at least hoping, that in the second half we will see Retribution slowly become Righteousness as both Honor and Odium learn to work together. The fact that Honor is more mature (big brother for Odium to try and emulate) gives me hope this will come to pass.
The remarks about “preserving some small part of Honor” made me assume that we were expecting to extract a new-and-improved Honor from Retribution in the second arc, seeding it with the spren and/or the Heralds/Honorblades, perhaps with Adolin Ascending to hold it. But it would be interesting to see your Righteousness theory come to pass, too, as it is perhaps a bit boring to have Odium or Odium-on-Steroids be the big bad for the whole series.
Lyndsey. I have a different take than you as to why Chana was on the arches in Interlude 5. I had initially thought that Chana’s personality that would be affected due to the breaking of the Oathpact was her element of bravery. I thought that modern day Chana would be cowardice. Instead, Brandon went with the other aspect of her personality. Instead of being a warrior first and foremost (a shield for Jezrien), she became a homemaker.
I wonder if Battar will still be loyal to Retribution and try to betray the other Heralds sometime in Books 6-10. I hope her being cleansed of the effects of Odium’s influence (from Ishar’s connection to Odium when he accessed the power in Odium’s Well), will cause her to reevaluate her prior allegiances to Retribution.
Concerning pike walls: Actually they are very old, the Grreek phalanx in nothing else than a pike wall, at least when they had long spears in the back rows. We see later that the first Azish line consists of a spear and shield. The Scottish shiltron too should be seen as a pike wall. Pike squares came later to give the infantery ordered mobility against knights and each other.
I wish we had more information on what the Honorblades and Nightblood actually are. I know Nightblood’s creation was inspired by shardblades and Brandon has said it is closer to a spren. Does that mean Nightblood will learn how to change his shape/appear human? What sort of sentience do Honorblades have? Obviously there is something there if Nightblood can talk to them and learn skills from them. Since they were created by/from Honor, are they also spren and the honorblade itself is a type of fabrial?
This book raises WAY too many questions that won’t be answered ever or at least for quite a long time.
Yeah, if we’re claiming that a high concentration of Investiture left to itself will become sentient, I think the Honorblades have got to be up there on the list. Also when we note that they have “rejected” the Heralds. I don’t think they are a fabrial, though — they were created wholesale from Honor’s Invesititure and didn’t have a chance for a spren to become part of a fabrial construction.
It seems to me that one of the ways in which Nightblood is particularly interesting is how its conscience permeates at least the Physical and Cognitive Realms, and my money would assume the Spiritual Realm as well. This is not something that most spren can do (IIRC it was noteworthy that Maya could do so, and in that case it seems related to her status as a deadeye).
Regarding Dovah/Battah – at the end, she’s off Oathpact’ing with Kal and the gang, right? But is she still a Retribution double-agent at that point? I need book 6 like, tomorrow. LOL
Since her becoming a double agent was ultimately due to Ishar’s Odium infection, I don’t think we can assume she is still a double agent. At least, not until we know how the PTSD and guilt therapy with Kaladin goes.
“…but there wasn’t any indication there that the Shard could just up and abandon the Vessel.”
I believe that’s what we saw in Mistborn with Vin. When she her power in a very un-Preservation manner, it left her and she died.
Is that what happened? Maybe I need to reread, but I came away with the impression that it was more of a “mutually assured destruction” sort of thing where the power of the Shard was wholly directed at the other, resulting in Ati’s death but at the cost of her own death.
“Why would the power of Odium prefer Mishram?”
Odium created Mishram so it knows her intimately, and she currently HATES with more passion than Taravangian has ever felt in his life.
Yeah, Battar worries me a lot. While its always possible that the restoration of the Oathpact and cleaning up Ishar will put all the heralds back together, but I think she’s a prime candite to cause trouble in the future by betraying everyone to Todium.
A couple minor notes on the commentary: Paige said that for Szeth’s pilgrimage he would be expected to fight against all the Honorblades, except Jezrien’s and Nale’s. But we know that Szeth+Kaladin did have to fight Nale as part of the pilgrimage. And Lyndsey pulled on the thread comparing Colot and Adolin having been rejected for Radiant status. My sense was that Adolin had actively tried to avoid attracting a radiant spren, including by defiantly continuing to hold his bond to Maya despite knowing that radiant spren preferred to avoid such shardholders.
In the Baxil Interlude, I noted that his crimson cloths “sometimes escaped his cloak and waved in the wind of an unknown Current” with majuscule ‘C’. This calls to mind the compass Drehy was using in Shadesmar on day one, which points to “the Grand Knell, source of the Current, the death of a god”. I thus infer that the special preparation for the red wraps involves getting them to interact with Shadesmar (and perhaps that Baxil himself is largely there and the wraps help anchor him to the Physical realm). Note also the line about how he “always felt he waas one calm breeze away from dissipating”.
And where did Baxil learn to capture spren? I am not sure that that would have been part of his boon/curse from the Old Magic; I guess he sought out such knowledge after doing so?
TOdium has “decades of plans” for El, who’s (not) excited about that?
Why would TOdium think “what value would it be to have a Herald serving him, especially if she returned and went among them?” as such an unknown? Doesn’t holding a Shard give immense access to Fortune? What could be clouding his sight here to leave such uncertainty? I am not sure that the lingering influence of Honor would have such an effect given the lack of Vessel.
I think the outcome of the Contest would be clouding his sight, especially when you think about all that happened after it.
“He’s one of the most multi-faceted villains I’ve ever come across in fantasy”- rather literally
Starting to pull together some of my bigger thoughts on the very content-ful Chapter 42 (might be too much for a single post)…
Szeth reminds us that Ishu warned Szeth that the Shin had accepted the Unmade. It’s pretty hard to swallow that Ishar refers to himself as an Unmade there, so … what does that mean? Even if Ishar is confused and believes that he saved the Shin from the Unmade, there still should have been *something* going on that influenced the Shin in order to inspire that mention of the Unmade, right? I don’t think we saw any such from Szeth’s flashbacks throughout the book, so I am still wondering.
The conversation between Zarb and Adolin mentioned that the Soulcaster had been taken, and they were only talking about the person. But surely the fabrial was taken as well, right? So it’s a really big strategic loss to no longer be able to make all the bronze things.
We’ve talked a lot already about the Maya/Adolin bond and how they’re doing so many new things. But I wanted to call out that the blade, in May Aladar’s hands, “vanished of its own accord” and then “he felt Maya immediately begin to grow distant”. That is a lot of agency for her, very quickly! (And, of course, some lingering risk for the Unoathed if their blade can just up and decide to leave at a critical moment.)
I continue to root for big Adolin growth in the second half, e.g., Ascending to a reconstituted Honor. And the line about “confident that he’d made the right choice–because it was the decision his heart demanded” seems to telegraph a lot about what the Intent of that reconstituted Honor would be.
In a similar vein of looking forward to the second half and pondering a reconstituted Honor, I think there’s a lot of meaning in what Kal tells Szeth about the why of why they fight: Ideals are dead things, unless they have people behind them. Laws exist not for themselves, but for those they serve.” That seems like a nice angle on the Intent of Honor to take in the second half (or even for RogerPavelle’s Righteousness). Kal, as the Jezrien-replacement Herald, is pretty well placed to be speaking to the Intent of a proposed new Honor. And thinking about the Intent here also calls to mind his remarks as he swears his oath to become a Herald: “the important part is not the Words themselves…it is, again, the heart. Thousands of years, and I’d think you would know this”. I think Kaladin is helping to shape the Intent of what will be a new Shard in the second half, maybe a reforged Honor or maybe something a bit different. But I’m not entirely sure that I see him taking up that Shard, since Adolin is also getting pretty well aligned to the Intent of a next-Honor Shard.
I’m not sure if there needs to be a new Shard or Shardholder. Taravangian’s biggest flaw is that he acts from expediency rather than from a sense of Honor. Holding that Shard will change him, hopefully making him think about whether he SHOULD do something rather than whether he CAN.
Since we don’t know how the Unmade were actually created, I wonder how closely that process was mirrored when Ishar created his Honorbearers. Did he “unmake” the people?
I suppose you’re probably right that holding the Shard will change Taravangian. But I feel like the “preserve some remnant of Honor” has been so heavily telegraphed that it will be really important to have some Retribution-free Honor sitting around for some purpose, and unless there’s some magic that can only run on Stormlight, or some use case that needs pure Tanavastium (Dalinarium?), you only need a chunk of pure Honor if you’re using it as a seed crystal to reconstitute the whole Shard. And I don’t like the thought of turning the Heralds into stormlight or Tanavastium to advance the plot, so I’m left with reconstituting Honor.
IIRC Ishar had described the process of making Honorbearer-cognitive shadows as like making Fused or Heralds and I don’t currently think that he would describe it as making Unmade. You’re right that we don’t actually know how the “main” Unmade were created, of course.
The “preserve some remnant of Honor” was a misdirection. The Shard of Honor was never shattered, just hiding in the Spiritual Realm. So, the Shard itself didn’t need to be reconstituted. The remnants of Honor that needed preservation turned out to be the Heralds and, especially, the spren. Kaladin was able to preserve them at the end of WaT.