Welcome back to the Words of Radiance Reread on Tor.com! Last week, Carl took us to meet a famed and ancient swordmaster, and Kaladin managed to refrain from offending a couple of people, maybe. This week, we’re back with Shallan and the “merchants,” trying their best to look insignificant so as to not be a primary target for banditry.
This reread will contain spoilers forThe Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and any other Cosmere book that becomes relevant to the discussion. The index for this reread can be found here, and more Stormlight Archive goodies are indexed here. Click on through to join the discussion.
Chapter 17: A Pattern
Point of View: Shallan
Setting: The Frostlands
Symbology: Pattern, Shalash
IN WHICH Shallan covers her anxiety with scholarship; her collection begins again with the santhid, a leaf, and Bluth; a column of smoke is observed behind; Tvlakv covers his anxiety with activity and faked reassurance; parshmen are made uncomfortable by conversation; another column of smoke is observed ahead; Shallan makes an executive decision; symbiosis is considered; excrement is vehemently NOT considered; Shallan consciously draws in Stormlight, but can’t figure out what to do with it; buzzing is interpreted and Pattern is revealed to be a scholar; hints about the Recreance are dropped; hints about Shallan’s past are also dropped (with a THUD!); the cook fire ahead is most definitely not a cook fire.
Quote of the Week:
“You spoke oaths.”
Shallan froze.
Life before death… The words drifted toward her from the shadows of her past. A past she would not think of.
“You live lies,” Pattern said. “It gives you strength. But the truth… Without speaking truths you will not be able to grow, Shallan. I know this somehow.”
Even without reference to signing reports, this is enough to let us know that Shallan was once well on her way to being a full Lightweaver. (According to reports on the 17th Shard website, Brandon has confirmed that Shallan spoke most (or perhaps all) of the Ideals of her Order when she was younger, but nearly broke her bond due to the trauma of the “Red Carpet, Once White” night.) The disturbing thing about this conversation, though, is how deliberately Shallan has blocked her memories, and how vast is the gulf between her past and present selves. Further, until she drops that gig and acknowledges the truth of her past—all of it—she will not be able to truly become a Radiant.
Commentary: Okay, y’all, this chapter is packed with stuff we need to talk about. For a chapter in which the only activities are limping and riding a wagon, there’s a lot going on here!
Right off the bat, Shallan has turned to scholarship to cover her anxiety about the probably-bandits who may or may not be following them. In this case, her ability to choose her mental focus is a wonderful thing. Can you fix it? No. Then do something you can do. (Duct tape for the mind?) She does it a couple more times right here in this chapter, too. Once, it’s in a good way again, when she does more studying and drawing to distract herself from things over which she hasn’t the faintest bit of influence. Once, though, it’s back to suppression at all costs, when Pattern tries to get her to remember. I wonder if it’s painful to him, when Shallan squashes her memories of him.
Then there’s this conversation:
“You consume some things, and turn them into other things… Very curious things that you hide. They have value? But you leave them. Why?”
“We are done with that conversation,” Shallan said…
Heh. (Insert some witticism here; I’m fresh out of good jokes about the excretory system.) But I thought this was pretty funny, in light of a certain conversation to come.
The title of this chapter is “A Pattern.” Obviously it refers to Pattern, but I expect it’s also related to this line:
“It happened to the others,” Pattern said, his voice softer now. “It will happen to me. It is… a pattern.”
He’s referring to the Recreance; is he right? Is there some kind of pattern set in place that will eventually cause the current Radiants to have to break their oaths? I personally believe he’s wrong, but… well, see the half-theory documented below.
This chapter gives a good strong hint cluebat that Shallan’s Memories are a distinctly different thing from normal memories, and that they are somehow released when she draws them. Her drawing of the santhid from her memory is good, but not as good as the first one. Likewise with her drawing of Yalb: it’s not quite right. But the picture of Jasnah, with her exhaustion and fear, is perfect, because Shallan’s never drawn it before. There’s something magicky going down.
Sprenspotting: Pattern! Pattern! Except for a brief mention of chasing away rotspren, and Shallan being vexed by Bluth’s lack of spren to tell her how he’s really feeling, it’s all Pattern up in here. I got a real kick out of Shallan trying to figure out his various buzzes: confusion, excitement, annoyance, puzzlement. (I sure don’t envy the audiobook folks, trying to make sense out of all that!)
Pattern reveals that he is essentially a scholar, that he came to Shallan hoping to learn about humans again. Is this scholarship business true of all Cryptics? I rather think it might be; I also think that there are some lovely hints in this chapter about why they’re called Cryptics rather than the suggested “liespren.” While Pattern is fascinated by what he considers “lies”—i.e. any non-literal figures of speech—he seems to love truths even more. What he really seems to be drawn to, as near as I can tell, is the place where the figurative and the literal balance to reveal Truth; and of course, the more complex that Truth, the better.
I’m reminded of the scene in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, when the Prince, the children, and the marshwiggle are trying to describe the Overland but can only draw on similes from the Underland, which make pretty poor representations. They’re about to give up when Puddleglum says determinedly, “Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.” Just as they knew there was more to life than the witch’s dark, dismal Underland kingdom, we often know there’s more to life than what we can see around us. If we’re limited to literal descriptions, we can’t get very far in expressing it; we must turn to figures and metaphors, and when we get the right combination, it comes into focus to reveal greater Truth than we can see. “Cryptic: beyond one’s powers to know, understand, or explain.”
So… back to the spren. The symbiotic relationship formed by the bond gives the human the ability to control two of the natural Surges of the world, and it gives the spren sapience. Ideas that live and think. (I think we’re back to “beyond one’s powers to know, understand, or explain” here… It makes my head go all fuzzy.) The spren acquire the ability to manifest, communicate, and interact in the physical realm, while the humans acquire the ability to control and interact in the cognitive realm, each to a far more conscious and deliberate extent than they can without the bond. Cool.
At least until you get to that bit about “The knights killed their spren.” It’s hinted that the knights didn’t realize what would happen to the spren when their oaths were broken, which makes me feel a little better about it. I mean, really, no matter what the root was, I can’t see people with bonds to spren (spren!!!!!) like Syl and Pattern deliberately agreeing to kill them all en masse. I begin to suspect that something happened which made the Radiants feel that some of their own had been betrayed by spren (Odium’s spren?), and that if they maintained their own bonds they would inevitably become the betrayers of all humanity. To prevent that, perhaps the only thing they could come up with was to stop being bonded, and they didn’t realize what effect breaking those bonds would have on the spren. It’s a theory, and not very well articulated, but… there it is, for what it’s worth.
All Creatures Shelled and Feathered: Shallan makes some interesting observations about the flora and fauna here. One, the plants she’s been observing are cleverly designed to start new shoots from the leaves, which break off easily with a high wind or when brushed by an animal and so are carried and propagated far and wide. Two, chulls are smart enough to respond to rhythmic commands. Three, here in the Frostlands the land is much flatter than her home in Jah Keved; there are fewer plants here, but they are much more robust than those she knew in lands to the west.
FWIW, in that same WoB compilation, Brandon referred to Roshar as a lush planet. “Just look at the Shattered Plains, there’s grass everywhere and plants going all over the place. It’s just before a storm it becomes barren and then it becomes lush again.” I don’t think the Frostlands are quite so lush—they strike me as a bit tundra-like—but even so, I’m realizing that my mind hasn’t developed pictures that look quite like what he intends. My imagination must need a good shaking out.
Ars Arcanum: The only thing we get to observe in this chapter is the Stormlight healing Shallan’s feet, but there are two other allusions worth mentioning: One, there are a couple of references back to her Illusion at the campfire which terrified Tvlakv so much (yay!) last night, in which her dress and hair suddenly looked better and she did that whole glow-in-the-dark bit. Two, there’s a picture… which we’ll discuss in a few weeks. But you saw it here first, and don’t you forget it.
Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before?: Why yes, Nazh, yes, we have met. Just a time or two. What exactly were you up to, retrieving Shallan’s (and presumably Jasnah’s) luggages from the bottom of the ocean? Was that your own idea, or did your “friend” put you up to it? Did she ever give you that new coat?
Seriously, though, those are some cool sketches. I wonder if there is some wondrous mathematical significance, or if they are simply and beautifully a set of complicated, symmetrical… doodles?
Heraldic Symbolism: Shalash presides over this chapter, in which Shallan begins drawing again despite her certainty that she couldn’t possibly. There is also discussion of Lightweaving, so that fits, and as noted, the picture of Bluth-as-he-might-have-been, which…well, we’ll get there.
That’s it for the moment. Jump in on the comments, and then come back next week to join Carl, still on duty in the warcamps with Kaladin, Zahel, and Renarin falling off buildings. On purpose.
Alice Arnesonis a long-time Tor.com commenter and Sanderson beta-reader. She has been a fantasy lover since the age of eight, when her third-grade teacher loaned her his copy ofThe Hobbit. (Thanks, Mr. Hamilton!) She’s also a full-time wife & mom with degrees in engineering, literature, and chemistry. Nice combination, eh?
I’ve always wondered if Shallan’s Memories operate on the same principle as a Feruchemist’s copperminds.
Nice job. Do we know who Nazh retrieved the page for? I don’t remember ever reading anything about it in the text.
flyingtoastr @1 – Hmm. That’s an interesting thought… I’ll have to muse on it a bit. Better yet, is anyone going to see Brandon soon? Good question to ask.
AhoyMatey @2 – So far as I know, Brandon has refused to reveal who Nazh is working with/for. Someone asked him “Does Khriss owe Nazh a new coat?” and his response was that he’s remaining tightlipped about Khriss. Pretty sure his intent is to remain silent about Nazh’s affiliations as well, but he deflected to the Khriss question. Might have been accidental, might have been deliberate. You never know.
We know that Nazh is from Threnody and that the information he’s collecting goes to a woman, but that’s about it. I wants more, I does…
How did most of the picture of Pattern not smudge? How deep were the trunks, Shallan’s pictures and other items Nazh recovered? I had the impression that all the items sank to the bottom of the sea (which is what Nazh’s note indicates). If that is the case, did Nazh dive to the bottom of the sea? Can he breath under water? Why did the woman want this particular picture retrieved from the bottom of the ocean? What interest does she have in spren (and Cryptics, in particular)?
Do non sentient spren show up on other worlds on other Cosmere worlds? Do sentient spren show up? Can other Cosmere peoples access Shadesmar (as can certain Knights Radiants)?
Is anybody born on Roshar a member of the 17th Shard?
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
(aka the musespren)
Wetlandernw I like your theory about the radiant /spren bond and why they broke it. This would have been easier if there were like buttons here; but that wouldn’t work unless you could push like for specific paragraphs in a post (not to imply that I didn’t like the whole post, but specifically that paragraph stands out. Hope it is true and they can find some way to avoid that cycle.)
The two parshmen are aparently thing one and thing two :)
I like how there are fingernail scratches on the bottom of Shallan’s wagon calling back to TWoK.
If Nazh recovered Shallan’s drawings will she get reunited with them one day?
Also, for her first day back to drawing she draws an awful lot. She wants to be distracted but I wonder if she also wants to bulk up the number of her drawing quickly so she doesn’t have to be reminded of what she lost.
“It’s hinted that the knights didn’t realize what would happen to the spren when their oaths were broken”
I find that hard to believe. It seems to me that if you have hundreds of knights bonded to spren eventually one of them is going to mess up and break the bond. Which would mean they would know what was going to happen. And if you know that breaking your bond is going to kill your spren how bad must the alternative be…
My guess is that the Radiants learned that their bond was causing the desolations. This would explain why one of the heralds is killing radiants and why he feared them.
My guess is that the Radiants learned that their bond was causing the
desolations. This would explain why one of the heralds is killing
radiants and why he feared them.
@7 That may be what he thought,but he was obviously wrong.The Parshendi did it because of the Alethi slowly ruining them.the Heralds may be cracked from all the desolations they’ve seen.My guess was the bond could be tampered with by Odium,or they were tired of the oaths holding them back so they broke them.
Clearly I need to do some research, write up my whole theory, and post it here for y’all to shoot holes in. However…
The “hint” to which I referred is this conversation:
Pattern assumes that the Radiants didn’t intend to kill their spren; I assume he knows more about it than I do. While this could simply be a case of a character not knowing the truth, it could also be a hint to us that there was something more than we’re guessing so far.
On the other hand, if the Radiants assumed that their presence/bond was the direct cause of the Desolations, they were wrong – though I can’t see why they would think so, since there was always a goodly period of time between Desolations, during which they maintained their training so that they’d be ready to train up the rest of the world when the time came. Brandon has confirmed that the Desolations came about when any one of the Heralds couldn’t handle Damnation any more. They were always free to leave, but doing so triggered a Desolation; the interval lasted as long as the “weakest link” of the Heralds. Of course, I’m guessing only the Heralds themselves knew that, but still – I don’t see a reason for the Radiants to think it was because of them.
Wetlander,
I agree about Shallan’s Memory being magicky, but her drawing from Jasnah is not. In WoK Shallan had to Blink to collect a Memory, which she lost by drawing. But in chapter 6 (when Shallan sees Jasnah with her guard down) she is not Blinking.
IMO here she is drawing from normal memory and that’s why she is so pleased to have captured the emotions right. Notice also that in the beginning of this chapter she is also not drawing from Memory, but only sketching Bluth – I don’t know why though.
With or without Memory, she is obviously a skilled illustrator.
Not much to add to the discussion, really. Pattern is pretty cool here, showing off his growing intelligence and wit. Shallan continues to frustrate with her willful ignorance of her past.
I haven’t formed a full understanding of the Recreance yet, I think it’s still premature to say what the goals of the Radiants were. How much of Odium was public knowledge in the past, before the Recreance? How much was known by the Radiants? We never hear him referred to by name in Dalinar’s memories, so it’s unclear. I definitely think that the Heralds likely knew more than the Radiants did, even when the Radiants were at their height of power, but unfortunately most of the Heralds are now raving destructive madmen/madwomen. Or crazy and useless in the case of Taln.
As for not picturing Roshar as a lush land, the cover art might be somewhat to blame – it’s beautiful, but it’s all bare stone crags.
Wetlandernw @9 I take that quote a little differently. I thought it was kind of like when people say “no one thinks they are going to get divorced when they are getting married.” And, I really hate that example but I couldn’t think of another one. Anyway, you could still be right but there is more than one way to interpret what pattern said there.
Pattern’s study of human food reminds me of the android Mac in Acorna’s Rebels:
If a desolation started whenever the first herald broke, why did not one start immediately after the prologue of TWOK? I mean, all but one broke at the same time there.
@15: One can presume that in order to start a Desolation, a Herald first has to return to Damnation – and only Taln did that.
I would be surprised if the Knights had no idea what would happen to the spren. It makes it less of a moral failing, and more of a big oops.
15. Alphaleonis That is a good question. Of course, they were all working together at earlier times. Not that we have a good clear explanation of why or when the Desolations happened. Let’s not go too far with that “Desolation=Herald Broke” idea until we know a bit more.
Aw, come on. There’s more than 17 comments worth of discussion material in this chapter…
Bellaberry @13 – good point. He might have just been saying that no one starts out intending to break their bond.
Ok – Wet called me out (and I happened to have a few minutes open to look back at the chapter)
This thought jumped out at me based on the use of the word “idealized” – Shallan doing her second sketch of Bluth (the first was how he sat with his funny little hat – “at least it would be an interesting composition) –
Of course, this is the one that Bluth eventually steals and tries to keep, the one that maybe persuades him to be a better person. “Idealized” jumped out at me because of the possible connection (some hypothesized, some other stuff from WoB?) with the spiritual realm. Is art and/or Shallan’s ability to produce it tied in there?
On Shallan’s “Memory”- it seems to be somewhat analagous to the belief some peoples have had about photography – it “takes” or “copies” a little bit of the soul. Is this why she can’t get the “spark” into her sketches after the fact? Connecting with the above about “idealized” and Spiritual Realm? Can’t help but wonder if that was the genesis for the ability in BWS’s mind? Could have interesting implications, if so, within realmatic theory…
“roots” – people are always eating roots here. At first, I thought of them as sort of like potatoes, but after thinking about it, they are probably more like carrots, so they could be eaten without cooking if needed… How do you all view them? Do they sound delicious? How do they grow? Are the plants strong enough to split the rocky ground or do they somehow grow above ground? in which case, would they really be “roots”?
The discussion of spren and being “wounded” or “broken” is really reminiscent of Kaladin and Syl’s discussion later about Humans being the weird ones because they can die and become just a meat sack – thus, Spren, don’t necessarily have souls and aren’t able to connect with the Spirit realm? Is that a stretch?
This part:
Who the storms is ‘her’? Who is he talking about? There is no real antecedent. Is it the Nightwatcher/his mother (assuming he is related to her like Wyndle is)? Is it the Herald over his order (Shalash)? Is the fact that Shallan “ordered” him to tell her something a clue? I don’t think she’s ever ordered him before – can she order him around? Is this just her assuming her privilege and power? Do spren in a bond gain or lose agency through the bond? We know they gain “sapience”, but do they have to give up a little bit of their own personal freedom? They bind themselves to a human, losing some of their ability to travel freely of course, but are they also binding themselves into a deliberately chosen subservient state? What does this mean for the Radiant? Does this make the Recreance even worse – i.e. the Radiants didn’t just betray coequals in the bond, but those beneath them who have bonded themselves and are fully dependent upon them? spit-balling here…
Very interesting, that the lies are a source of (her) power, but the truth is what allows growth (or maybe life?). Power without growth is stagnant and destructive? There’s a WoB floating around that Stormlight from the Highstorms helps plants grow – is that connected? What are the philosophical implications of that and how does that relate to Cryptics as “liespren”/”truthspren”? What about the greater philosophical system of the Radiants, along with Honor and Cultivation?
Just throwing out lots of questions to see if anyone has thoughts, spark some discussion maybe. I certainly don’t have any quick answers…gonna have to mull it over a bit.
OK, we’re all the way up to 20 comments here, unless someont beat me to it and then we would be in the low 20’s. (Do we get honey here for 20? No? That would be sad. 100? That’s OK)
@19 A bunch of good questions to which I as a novice to this series have no answers. (Only read it twice and spent very little time on 17th shard or any other study sites) I put off even starting this series until TWOT was finished. Hesitated even then because it is doubtful I will be alive when it is finished at Brandon’s current rate of writing it. A book every 3 years? That is 23 more years by my calculations. I will be way past the expected life span.
@18 Wetlander. There are many reasons that this reread may have fewer posts than others (TWOT most notably)
1) It was started before the second book in a ten book series was even published. Versus a well established readership and demand for discussion of TWOT
2) You and Carl do not do as much headdesking, controversial topic expostulation, swearing, etc as the moderator of TWOT reread
3) I had three, really, but senility kicked in. But it was good!
“Hmmmm. You sound like her. More and more like her.”
I get the impression that Pattern is referring to Shallan as she used to be before she almost severed the bond after the night of Red Carpet, Once White.
I thought he was talking about Jasnah. But since we’re throwing out crazy ideas maybe her mother?
@1 Feruchemy works by taking the attribute (in this case, a memory) and placing it in storage. The Feruchemist cannot remember anything he stored in the coppermind until he moves it back to his own mind. Shallan’s Memories, on the other hand, appear to work by imprinting the memory onto her mind – she has full memory of the scene (and it actually burdens her when she has too many Memories). Drawing the picture releases the Memory onto the page, wiping it from her mind.
Just before Shallans “conversation” with the parshmen is this statement: “Parshmen weren’t cheap, and many monarchs and powerful lighteyes hoarded them.”
Something to keep in mind for Book 3 when we see the effects of the everstorm.
I agree we didn’t made it very far comment-wise, but it seems like we’ve already spent weeks and weeks on the Shattered Plains with Shallan. Honestly, not very much happens. – I’m already looking forward to the next Kaladin chapter, have already read it and made notes. Though there is the likely chance that Carl will cover all my points…
Regarding the “her” in Patterns “you sound like her” I first though it must be Cultivation but I think Shallan’s mother could be a less likely possibility. I would rule out Jasnah, since Pattern only regained his thoughfullness recently and don’t think he has learned enough to make that connection.
These earlier Shallan chapters serve the purpose of illustrating her development from a shy, reticent teen-ager to a more confident, commanding adult who uses her renewed illusion creating power to achieve her goals. She, thereby models the ‘real-life’ behavior of her mentor, Jasnah. The latter is the likely subject of Pattern’s observation of Shallan becoming more like her. Pattern had already achieved a level of cognition to recognize Jasnah’s behavior pattern prior to her ostensible demise. The alternative interpretation that refers it to a very young Shallan prior to the trauma of killing her mother in self defense is also possible, and opens the door to a revelation of the ‘original’ Shallan. Perhaps that is the implication of Mraizi’s statement near the end of the book that Shallan’s ‘real’ self is the more confident and adventuresome character, Veil, that Shallan had created in dealing with the Ghostbloods.
Count me among those who think the “her” in Pattern’s statement was Jasnah. Later on there is a scene where Shallan has all the books spread on her bed and she tells Pattern that she is doing scholarship. Pattern mentions that Jasnah used a desk when Jasnah was doing scholarship. Given Pattern’s later comment, his comment in this chapter (IMO, at least) strengthens the argument that he meant Jasnah.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
(aka the musespren)
Pattern can change his size:
“He had shrunk, growing as small as a fist, half his usual size.”
Rats. I had a good comment going here, and hit the wrong key… My bad for trying to type here instead of in a word processor first! Maybe I’ll go figure it out again… but for now the new post should be up. Whee! Let’s go see what kind of trouble Kaladin can make for himself today!
Ok, so when Kaladin says he’s not a Radiant because he’s broken, and Sylphrena laughs back, “We all are, silly”, that means that spren have cracks, too. In order to become a Surgebinder, one must fill their ‘crack’ with the bonding with a spren. Before a spren is be able to bond with a human, it needs its ‘crack’ filled with the essences of one of Roshar’s Shards.
So, you are saying that maybe if that crack got recracked or wedged wider, an HonorSpren like Sylphrena, might be open to OdiumEssence, right? So a 100%Honor spren could be reshaped into at least a partial (say 60%Honor,40%Odium) spren. And if that’s what happened to a lot of the Radiants’ sprens, the Radiants would have almost no other choice but to break their oaths with their spren, even if that killed those spren. Because the spren themselves, in their ‘right’ state, would WANT them to, would not want to be part Odium. I can see that!
Re: why Sylphrena was so upset with Kaladan and made such a storming fuss, I think it’s because of the “No Lies!!!” part of their Oathpact. Kaladan can gripe all he wants internally and to his friends about how Dalinar is just another traitorous light-eyes, blowing off steam, but he CANNOT say that to Sylphrena and Sylphrena cannot let him get away with losing track of the truth of the matter, because THAT’S LYING. Pattern says it, you cannot move along the path toward Radiance if you do not improve in your truthfulness to yourself.
Perhaps Odium’s wedge into Honor/Cultivation spren is via lies. Especially self-protective lies like Kaladin’s and Shallon’s. That makes sense to me, and why a spren is so adamantly diligent about training truth into their Shardbearer.
Remember that we think Pattern has been observing Shallon for a long time. He’s seen the entire Shallon/Jasnah’s relationship progress. I think he’s talking about Jasnah.
Oh, and as for killing the spren in the Shardblades, they aren’t dead. They are stuck in a screaming cycle of pain with a significant portion of their consciousness torn out (their Nahel bond), according to WOB. I think that’s what the Radiants didn’t know would happen. Clean death is tragic. What the oath-broaken spren have endured is beyond horrible. I think that’s why Sylphrena hates it so much – not because the KR killed their spren, but because they didn’t, leaving them in that horrid state.
I had this crazy thought that Bluth was a drab and that is why Shallan couldn’t see any spren around him. I’m thinking my worldhopping musings may be a little screwy.
@31 I can’t help but think that the gem that was installed into each shardblade has a lot to do with something, but don’t know how to articulate.