Happy Monday, Cosmere chickens, and welcome to… ::drum roll:: Day Five! We’re starting off by checking in with Venli, spending some time with Dalinar, stealing a few moments with Sigzil, and then moving on to… Wait, who’s that Dalinar just found?!
We’ll see some major developments in the Spiritual Realm, and find out what’s been going on with Venli, Leshwi, and the listeners! In addition, the epigraphs at the beginning of the chapters are particularly meaty this time around, so you know we’ll be digging into this newest letter to Cephandrius (aka Hoid) and analyzing all the Cosmere intricacies therein! Come join the discussion, and don’t forget to check out the comment section to add your own thoughts and/or theories!
Note: 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
Hello, loyal Sanderfans! We begin with chapter 55, titled “Prayers, Heavens, and Songs.” This is, of course, a phrase uttered by Vedel within a vision in the Spiritual Realm, and it seems to fit well with the fact that Venli’s POV kicks off this chapter. She’s speaking to the stones in a little cave she’s shaped for herself with the surge of Cohesion. She wants to know if she’s endangered her people once again and asks the stones for their thoughts, but they only remember the past and just want to sing with Venli.
I remember when I loathed this character—and the Venli that she is now decidedly doesn’t like the Venli she once was, back when she was “searching” for forms of power. Present Venli remembers singing with her mother when she was a child, learning the Songs… and being jealous of Eshonai. But she’s grown past all of that and is now driven by concern for her people.
She encounters her mother, Jaxlim—who, you’ll remember, bonded with a spren at the end of Rhythm of War and came back to herself, recovering from her brain fog. Somewhere in that fog, Jaxlim knew that this wasn’t the way she should be, and so Stormlight healed her. I’m so happy she’s back; Jaxlim is a great character and she grounds Venli, I feel, giving her daughter a true north to follow, so to speak.
We learn a bit about the Chasmfiends who stroll about the listener encampment and interact with the listeners as if they were pets. They like to nap, and to be scratched and brushed, and they hunt and bring food for the listeners. It’s really quite astounding, and we’ll get to see more of their interactions during their journey to Narak.
After Venli’s POV, we jump to the Spiritual Realm where Dalinar opens his eyes on a vision of himself wearing black Shardplate, armies boiling around him toward a broken city. He balks at seeing himself as the leader of Odium’s forces, as we all do, but we know what lies ahead. He searches for a connection and finds that there are three strong bonds near him, as well as others that aren’t so strong. Of course, the three closely connected people are Navani, Renarin, and little Gavinor.
Dalinar finds Navani and they anchor themselves to a vision using the ribbon that Shalash had given Navani in the last vision. They find themselves in a stone room, with many of the soon-to-be Heralds around them. We learn eventually that Dalinar is Kalak and Navani is Pralla/Pailiah. Fitting for the scholar to show up as a scholar.
They head outside, where Dalinar senses a bond that tells him someone close to him is, well, close to him; he reaches out and yanks Gavinor straight into the vision (where the boy shows up as an odd spren to those around them). This is obviously quite confusing for everyone, especially little Gav, who had been tormented by voidspren in the Spiritual Realm before Dalinar found him.
Navani heads off to see what she can learn and Dalinar follows Jezrien to speak with a group of singers. There’s talk of war with the Makibaki and the head singer they speak with, Elodi, warns them to stay on their side of the mountain, despite Jezrien insisting that his people aren’t going to survive where they are.
Elodi talks of new gods and how he doesn’t like their words “but the old ones are losing their voices…” Then Dalinar speaks up about the possibility of being blessed by Honor and containing their powers as Surgebinders to make people trust them again. Ishar is quite taken aback by that statement and wants to know how Dalinar/Kalak knew about that, saying that they’ll discuss it later.
And so Elodi departs to take his people east after Jezrien tells him they can’t stay on their side of the mountains if humans are dying. Shalash watches the singers go, and Dalinar heads back to the cave-like room to search for another anchor.
Of course, Dalinar is still trying to learn about Honor, to find him and try to take up his power. Cultivation told him to learn about “the truth of the Heralds,” so they’re trying to figure out that cryptic little statement and find a vision of when the Oathpact is formed. But we’ll leave them for now…
Chapter 56 is titled “By Bonds and Spren,” and we peek in on Sigzil and some of his squires engaging Heavenly Ones. He reflects on his rapidly increasing losses—how after just one day, eight Windrunners have died. Sig kicks some ass and the Heavenly Ones retreat. He heads back to camp and is joined by Leyten, who reports that his plan to direct the enemy where the humans want them to go is working. Leyten says there have been no deaths but that they still haven’t gotten Stormlight from Urithiru. They know that Dalinar is absent and they had been counting on him to keep them supplied. Good luck with that, Sig.
With the Everstorm apparently staying for the duration of the ten days, Sigzil wonders if the Fused will regenerate immediately, going forward. He’s concerned that their numbers will not be reduced while the humans lose more and more troops. It’s a pressing concern, since they’re already so grossly outnumbered by the singers and Fused. Then Sig gets reports that Magnified Ones are approaching, and off he goes again.
We switch POVs back to Venli, who is taking Jaxlim to speak with Leshwi and the Heavenly Ones who defected with her. The Fused have lost their powers, something Venli thinks shouldn’t have happened. (To be completely honest, I don’t recall if we find out what happens, or if the Fused with Venli will regain those powers when they head back to Narak. Refresh my memory, Sanderfans!)
Venli has a thought about the chasmfiends as they pass one; the listeners haven’t given her a straight answer on how they came to be allied with the creatures. Venlin knows they don’t trust her, but Timbre has been speaking to the chasmfiends and she tells Venli she’s “close to figuring it out.” So I’m looking forward to that little tidbit, too!
Leshwi thinks they are going to ask her and the other Fused to leave and Thude tells her that isn’t the plan. Leshwi says she would cast out a servant if they’d “attracted Odium’s ire” and she expects the listeners to do the same with her and her four companions.
Instead, they propose a different option: They want the Fused to truly join with the listeners, though it would mean abandoning their powers completely. Leshwi isn’t sure she’s ready to do that. She’s unused to walking, she says, and her feet, which I imagine are super soft and delicate like a baby’s feet, hurt her when she walks. I’ve never disliked Leshwi and it’s odd to see her so vulnerable here. She doesn’t respond one way or the other to their offer, but leaves them to return to the others.
And, oh! Thude says it’s time to tell Venli of their alliance with the chasmfiends. And he composed a song… so he starts to sing it to her. Of course, we don’t get to learn more right now, we’ll have to wait for another Venli POV.
And that’s all for this week. But I wanted to touch on the POV shifts that we see in this book before you move on to Lyndsey’s and Drew’s sections. Some readers look at this book as a 1,300 page Sanderlanche, but a lot of people have noted the frequent POV shifts in this book, since some find it jarring to constantly switch between characters and storylines. The format of this book is markedly different, as we all know. Ten days instead of several parts. Multiple POVs per chapter instead of only one, as we’d been used to seeing. Personally, I feel like it’s an effective structure for this specific book: We had ten days until the contest so why not break the book into ten parts? And the POV switches aren’t jarring for me at all, because it’s just like, well, a Sanderlanche. What are your thoughts, Sanderfans?
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs and Maps
Chapter 55’s arch (which is beginning to show even more deterioration) features Jezrien and Kalak, both of which make sense considering the fact that they both physically appear in Dalinar’s POV section. Kalak is also pulling double duty, as Venli’s POV section is dealing in part with the bonding of the Reachers, which are Willshaper spren (and Kalak’s the patron Herald of that order).
In our next chapter arch, we see Taln, which makes perfect sense as part of this chapter’s devoted to Sigzil in his duties protecting Narak. Sig is exemplifying all of Taln’s aspects: dependable, resourceful, the quintessential soldier. Similarly, Venli is showing all the traits of Battah, who’s our other arch-holder for chapter 56. We observe her being both wise and careful, and she’s serving as a counselor for Leshwi.
Venli
“My people… by taking me in, by sheltering renegade Fused like Leshwi… will draw Odium’s ire. I have felt his anger. I worry that I’ve led destruction to the listeners. Again.”
I have to say, I’m actually really happy to see this from Venli. It’s no secret that she’s not my favorite character by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s grown a lot from the self-centered person she used to be. She’s genuinely trying to atone for her mistakes (unlike some characters I could mention ::cough:: MOASH) and I’m growing to like her sections more and more with each book. She’s growing and taking accountability, as we see in this quote:
“Mother,” Venli said. “No. I’ve spent too many months trying to avoid taking responsibility. I won’t have anyone give me more excuses, not even you. I did what I did, and it was not your fault. The terrible choices were mine.”
It would be so easy for Venli to just let her mother take some of the blame here, but she doesn’t. She’s not allowing herself to take the easy way out or to reason away any of her mistakes. She made them, she’s owning them, and she’s trying to do better.
Although she hadn’t gotten her answers, when speaking with the stones she couldn’t help but find a sense of place. She hadn’t realized, until a quiet day at Urithiru, how much the songs meant to her. How much her heritage meant to her. She’d squandered these wonders all her life, her own eyes on the future—and only the future.
Yet another thing I’m admiring about her character growth. She was so self-centered in the past—though she did a good job of lying to herself in order to convince herself that she was doing the things she did for her peoples’ benefit—that she never took the time to appreciate and admire anything outside of herself, never thought about how focusing on the world and people around her might benefit her. She was so caught up in her own rivalry with Eshonai and wanting to prove herself, to make a “better future” for her people in order to surpass her sister, that she missed out on nature… music… art… And meaningful connections with those around her.
Giant lumps of monstrous chitin, who were content to lounge around with people literally climbing all over them. They liked to be brushed or scratched like giant axehound pups.
I know this doesn’t strictly have anything to do with character arcs, but I had to point it out because THEY’RE SO CUTE. I want a little axehound or chasmfiend pup!
“She will make the right choice,” Jaxlim said to Resolve.
“How do you know?” Thude asked.
“Because it’s her choice to make,” Venli said, grasping what her mother meant. “And so her choice is the right one. We will respect it.”
Wow. Night and day difference from the Venli we started off with! And her changes are bearing fruit:
She’d never felt like she was enough for her mother. She had spent years blaming Eshonai; how strange to realize that all Venli truly needed to do to win her mother’s praise was … well, be worthy of it.
How strange, indeed. Venli’s arc has been a long one, and I wonder if this book completes it. If we see her again in the back five, will she be a supporting character without an arc? Only time will tell, I suppose.
Dalinar
It’s merely a possibility. It won’t happen.
And yet… it does, in a way. Sorry, Dalinar. (And the Cosmere as a whole, because HOO BOY does this ever bode ill for every planet that has to face the Blackthorn.)
A bond with someone whose love he didn’t deserve, yet sometimes still took for granted. Someone whose touch made him come alive, and whose smile made him a better man.
Dalinar and Navani’s romance is so well done. It’s somewhat rare to see well-done mature romances in fantasy (and by that, I mean romances that are between people over the age of 40). It’s refreshing to see a beautiful, passionate romance in which both partners are so in love with one another. (Sanderson does seem to like these; Queen Fen and Kmakl share a similar pairing.)
Dalinar groaned.
Little Gav cringed. “Don’t be angry, Grampa. Don’t be angry.”
Oh god, this poor child. He’s obviously been abused and traumatized. And the worst is, horribly, still to come.
Gavinor
The boy buried his face in Dalinar’s chest. “I was with Mother again,” he whispered. “Over and over. I hate those red spren…”
Everything about his fate makes my blood boil.
Gavinor had been through so much—being abandoned to evil spren by one parent, then losing the other moments later.
Yeah… that’s putting it mildly. I really hope that Gavinor can find some healing and peace before (and during) the back five set of novels. I’d love to see him become a main character, with a huge arc of his own.
Sigzil
He missed those Heavenly Ones, who had not only been more honorable, but more sane. It was almost as if maintaining a code throughout the centuries had kept them from deteriorating.
That’s a theme we’ve seen recurring in this book. People who have something to hold onto, whether that be a code of Ideals or a specific job, will have a more stable hold on their mental state of being. We see it in Kaladin and the people he’s helping, and to a lesser degree in Shallan and even Adolin, later in the book.
“Stormblessed’s training,” another squire, Deti, whispered.
Sigzil shot them a glare. They knew what he thought of them mythicizing him and the other members of Bridge Four.
Understandable reaction here from Sigzil. Hero worship doesn’t do anyone any favors, and it must be annoying to constantly be viewed as some sort of mythological being and not the person you are.
Leshwi
“I do not know my place anymore. I am… unaccustomed to walking.”
This must be akin to undergoing a traumatic event that leaves you disabled. If you’re so used to flying everywhere that this is your norm, losing that would likely be similar to someone in the real world losing the ability to walk.
“I have seen thousands of years. I at times feel more spren than singer. Walking like this makes me wince with each step. I cannot change.”
I don’t think it’s possible for us, mere mortals that we are, to understand the reality of a thousand years of life. We can imagine how it would be, but I don’t think we can really ever truly understand. I’ve lost things that were a staple of my life for a mere twenty years and it was emotionally devastating; I cannot conceive of how much worse it would be across that vast amount of time.
Battle Tactics
Narak Four was the first of their intentional weak points, and Sigzil’s big mathematical gamble. Make the enemy waste resources taking ground that Sigzil’s people could afford to lose.
Narak Four is circled in red below. The blue shaded areas are those that Sigzil’s forces still hold. Focusing fire on Narak Four is diverting attention from Narak Two, which is the most strategically important point to hold. Losing that will lose them access to the Oathgate and their method of retreat should all else fail.
He trusted the Bondsmith to do what had to be done, but storms … they’d been counting on Dalinar to offer a continually renewing supply of Stormlight.
Hmm. I have to wonder if Dalinar had realized this before heading into the Spiritual Realm. I know he had only intended this to be a quick scouting mission, but it still seems odd that he’d left absolutely no form of backup. (Though, to be fair, only Navani could have stood in for him, in this regard.)
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
Dearest Cephandrius,
Your rebuttal is eloquent, as always, but did you think I would be moved?
I have kept my part of the bargain, and will not be budged. I have stayed upon my land, bringing blessings to the people of Nalthis—gifting them the power of gods, as I was so long denied. I do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Oh, how I have missed you, cherished Letters.
We are, once again, treading into the lands of Shardic politics. We begin with a letter from Endowment to Hoid, castigating him for his meddling and restating her insistence on sticking to the agreement the Shards made after the Shattering of Adonalsium. She will remain on Nalthis, by herself, the Cosmere be damned.
Remember, this is the same Endowment who said “good riddance” to Uli Da and the Shard of Ambition, and who basically said Aona and Skai were asking for it by shacking up together on Sel. She has essentially no regard for what’s going on on Roshar, and thinks Hoid needs to butt out altogether because he turned down a Shard after the Shattering.
We’ll be keeping a very close eye on the epigraphs for this Day, as the Shardic letters often contain fascinating glimpses at the hidden past of the Cosmere. Until Dragonsteel gets rewritten and publishing, this is our best look at what happened with Hoid, Frost, and the Sixteen.
They named themselves Ko, the stones of the hills, but sometimes spoke as if all stone—indeed, all Roshar—were one.
I actually didn’t remember that there were unique identities among the stones until rereading this section. I certainly don’t remember the Wind being anything other than the Wind, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for little wrinkles like that as we go on. The Night seems pretty darn singular, especially with Cultivation’s meddling and the Nightwatcher, but Stone (or the stones) clearly has something a little different going on.
This is our first Venli point-of-view for the book, and it’s basically a quick recap of her recent past, along with some setup for her current conflict. Not a whole lot going on just yet, but it’s noteworthy that there are now two dozen Willshapers among the Listeners. We still haven’t gotten that much about that Order, despite the minor focus on Venli in Rhythm of War.
Then we’re back with Dalinar as he navigates the Spiritual Realm, and we get one of the most intriguing and potentially horrifying moments in the whole book:
For the briefest moment, he stood on a burned hillside at night, in a land with a strange pale moon. A broken city smoldered before him, one with high walls that had been shattered, and within it a strange people. He raised what he knew was a weapon, though it was no sword or polearm, and unleashed lines of light while his armies surged around him.
This sounds an awful lot like Elantris.
The black Shardplate and Shardlaserpistol are vibey, but not altogether shocking—those who’ve kept up with Brandon’s readings have been aware of the potential for Radiants using laser pistols since 2020, when he read a selection from what would become Isles of the Emberdark—but the idea of Rosharan armies crushing Elantris is pretty wild. Radiants are powerful, but Elantrians are mega-invested beings that can pretty much reprogram reality at will. The implications of this vision are disturbing, when taking the long game into account.
That wasn’t Stormlight, but it felt similar. That was control of the Surges, centuries before the Knights Radiant. The action seemed to attract a spren—a glowing figure forming behind her, in the darkness. Something was familiar about it, like… an echo of something Dalinar had seen earlier.
I admit that I’m at a loss as to what this glowing figure might have been. Honor himself, maybe? But that seems unlikely, given the relative magnitudes between simple spren and Shards (especially with how Tanavast appears in later visions). And it’s interesting here that she’s using non-Stormlight Investiture; maybe it’s Lifelight, since Vedel ends up as patron of the Edgedancers and maybe has a closer tie to Cultivation, but even that seems wrong. How would they be accessing Investiture on Roshar if it’s not Stormlight or Lifelight?
And she says “prayers, heavens, and songs” as she begins to glow, which is… evocative, to say the least. Feels very Ashyn-centric (prayers, heavens, The Silence Divine, floating cities, etc.) but even that doesn’t fully satisfy me—how could Vedel access Ashynite Investiture while on Roshar? We’ve certainly seen characters use non-native Invested Arts, but they typically need to fuel those with local Investiture (or Purified Dor/Breaths, neither of which would be available to Vedel at this point in history).
It’s a magical conundrum, and one I hope gets explored in the back half of the series. (I find myself saying that a lot more than I expected, rereading this book.)
One last note:
“Gwythiadri!” Jezrien snapped once he was gone. A… curse word? Dalinar thought it might be a name.
As far as I know, this is the first and only time this name has been mentioned in the Cosmere. A cursory search of the Arcanum database brought up nothing, and it doesn’t appear again in Wind and Truth. Yet another teaser of the past on Ashyn, I expect, but it’s one that’s going to sit in my head for a while. It reminds me a bit of Edgli, the name of Endowment’s Vessel. Perhaps another Shard visited Ashyn at some point, before even Odium and Honor, and left some remnants of mythology or religion behind?
Fan Theories & Comments:
Wizard72 had this to say about Moash, in the comments of our last reread article:
I suspect that Moash isn’t an Inquisitor in the same way that Nightblood isn’t a Shardblade, and for the same reasons. There will be overlap, of course, but some real differences as well. The exact nature will become clear in the Back 5, and possibly beyond. Maybe probably beyond. I don’t see Kaladin as the one to finish him. There may be a final confrontation between the two, but Kal is basically done with him now. There’s someone else who I think will do it.
Do you think we’ve seen who might do it, Sanderfans? Let us know your thoughts!
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.
We’ll be taking a week off for Easter, so we’ll see you on Monday the 28th with our next discussion article on chapters 57 and 58!
Nothing substantive to say about these chapters. Paige, Drew and Lyndsey. I am enjoying your insights as always.
Did OG stone-shaping use light (I can’t double check right now)? Perhaps Wind and Night had lightless arts, as well.
Moderators,
Is there a character limit on posts? I finally split a longer one into three separate posts since keeping it as one or splitting in two wouldn’t work (nothing happened when I clicked Post Comment).
Lyndsey,
How can you have missed the obvious about Venli…speaking with the stones helps her become grounded!!!!!
With Leshwi, I am left wondering whether Fused muscles atrophy if they are not used. Flying instead of walking for a thousand years could certainly make walking again quite painful just by moving in an unaccustomed way.
And Navani wouldn’t be able to substitute for Dalinar because she, presumably, could only produce Towerlight, which is not a straight substitute for Stormlight.
Drew,
I think you missed something important about Endowment when she says she is gifting the people of Nalthis with the power of Gods. This is a very interesting way of looking at Breaths (each being a piece of divinity), and the more you can accumulate, the closer to Godhood you become. It is also interesting that she was somehow denied this power/godhood for a long time (could Adonalsium bestow Investiture), and that gaining it would have been her reason for participating in the Shattering.
How many types of Stones have we seen? There’s regular rock, which makes up Roshar. There’s the rock that makes up the Wind Blades around Kholinar. I’m guessing whatever the crashed moon is will be a third type. Would Ko be a fourth type or one of the above?