Greetings and salutations, Cosmere Chickens—this week we’re digging into the beginning of Day Four! Dalinar and Navani are continuing on their quest through the Spiritual Realm, and after some time to regroup, so are Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain. Kaladin and Szeth are on a quest as well… a quest of enlightenment and self-awareness! Well… They’re on an actual quest too, but the therapy aspect takes center stage this week. Join us as we delve into the plot, characters, revelations and theories!
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 43 is titled “The Origin of Songs” and we finally get to the Spiritual Realm story arc! If you recall, Dalinar, Navani, Shallan, Rlain, Renarin, and little Gavinor got sucked into the Spiritual Realm, along with Mraize and Iyatil, when Mraize struck the Perpendicularity with an anti-Light dagger at the end of Part 1. We’ve waited a whole “day,” and now we get to see what has befallen everyone!
Dalinar is floating comfortably in nothingness… unless he opens his eyes; then he sees bits of memory, chaotic and jarring. He thinks to use Wit’s rock to anchor him and demands, then begs, to be able to see, but a voice responds, first telling him that seeing will destroy him and then that it will destroy “us.” Still, he’s pulled—or pulls himself—into a vision where he’s a singer in a small group pursuing chull rustlers. Eventually he feels a tug, and Navani appears. She’s used him as an anchor, just as he used the rock as an anchor. She says she thinks there are others in there with them.
Then a strange current sweeps past them and a voice… more like a chorus of voices, greeting them and noting that they must be there to witness “the arrival.” We’re told that they’re talking to the Wind, only it refers to itself as many instead of one. The Wind that Kaladin speaks to seems to speak as a singular entity. This Wind speaking to Dalinar and Navani talks of seeing the past, the present, and into the Physical Realm… and they tell the Bondsmiths that the soldier and the assassin are where they stand now, but in another time.
Dalinar asks how to get Honor to accept him and is told he can’t persuade it. Then… the arrival.
Thus begins the Bondsmiths’ quest to learn more of their past, and Dalinar’s quest to hopefully take up the shard of Honor. We’ll spend a lot of time with them in the Spiritual Realm and visit many visions, so we’ll get to learn along with them. And isn’t it going to be cool to see the Heralds before they were Heralds?
Chapter 44 is titled “A Semblance of Reality” and begins with Shallan, floating just as Dalinar had been doing. Then a room appears around her and Pattern, Testament, Renarin, and Rlain show up. Renarin explains that Glys created the room from his memories and that they can use it as a staging area until they decide what to do next. Shallan actually apologizes for getting them into this mess; Renarin is quite relaxed about it, as least outwardly. He says that if Mraize is hunting for Mishram, then it’s just as well that they’re in there, too.
Shallan wants to find Dalinar and Navani but Glys and Rlain’s spren both react violently, stating that if they’re seen, they’ll be destroyed. They say that they must go in secret, using illusions to protect them. Renarin wonders if they even need to find Mishram’s prison and says that they could just find Mraize and Iyatil and stop them. Pattern pipes up about how great Shallan is at murder and though she balks, he’s not really wrong. So Renarin and Rlain sit down and concentrate on finding the Bondsmiths while Shallan experiences a moment of hesitation at the thought of killing Mraize and tells Radiant that she may have to step in when the time comes; Radiant replies that’s why she exists.
Looking around at the toys scattered around the room, Shallan, Pattern, and Testament share a touching moment, as the spren speak mournfully of Shallan’s painful childhood; she reassures them that it wasn’t all terrible, and that she’d had some happy times too. Pattern and Testament, squeezing her hand, promise to stay close. Renarin announces that they’ve located Dalinar, and thus the three friends (are they friends?) and the four spren embark on their quest to find Mraize and Iyatil to stop them from finding Mishram’s prison.
Chapter 45 is titled “Self-Mastery and Control” and we’re back with Kaladin, Syl, and Szeth. And Nightblood! Can’t forget about him. Her. It. We follow Kaladin’s POV as they encounter a wall around the town in front of their destination, the Willshaper monastery. As they continue toward the gates, Kaladin engages with Szeth, edging into therapy again. Szeth is afraid that if he allows himself to feel emotion, his anger and passion will rule him. Kaladin thinks that’s partly the fault of the Shin society that punishes a young boy for defending himself. Kaladin speaks about his own struggles, the progress he’s made, and how he’s worked to change his own thinking. Eventually, Szeth asks how he could approach thinking a different way, and isn’t impressed with Kaladin’s explanation of using good thoughts to fight off bad thoughts.
Then Kaladin asks Szeth how he feels and Szeth admits that he feels awful all the time. He asks Kaladin the same and Kaladin honestly says that he feels better lately. Then Szeth reconsiders the strategy of having “warrior thoughts” ready to counter the dark thoughts when they attack. It’s better than outright rejection, I suppose. And so Kaladin begins to chip away at Szeth’s barriers…
We switch to Szeth’s POV now, as his spren interjects, telling him that while it’s good for Szeth to hear the words of the Windrunner, he must not heed them. Sneaksy spren, filling Szeth’s head and directly counteracting the good Kaladin is trying to do.
Both Kal and Szeth had noticed that this settlement didn’t feel corrupt, unlike the first one they’d visited. Upon speaking to the townspeople, they learn that other towns have attacked them over the last few years, and that they were the only ones who weren’t somehow different… “dark.” The monastery is boarded up, so Szeth creates an opening in the roof using Division. Inside, they find a dead shaman, Sivi-daughter-Sivi, holding the Willshaper Honorblade. Written in the stone beside her are the words “I will not bow to him.”
Szeth informs Kaladin that he must now visit each of the monasteries and essentially free them from the darkness that has taken the land. Szeth’s spren questions this planned course of action, but Szeth offers up some strong arguments and the spren relents, though he states that Szeth doesn’t have all of the facts. Of course, he won’t divulge what Szeth doesn’t know, insisting that the information must be earned.
Then Szeth uses a “thought soldier!” He hears the whispers in the shadows and the thought soldier declares that Szeth has a purpose, and is capable of making his own decisions. Szeth actually tries Kaladin’s suggestion, and it works! I truly love this moment, as it shows that he is willing to listen to, and to heed, Kaladin’s words. Way to go, Szeth!
Aaand then he thinks about how, once he cleanses Shinovar, he can finally end himself. One step forward, two steps back.
And so Szeth’s mission continues with the cleansing of Shinovar, and Kaladin’s continues with him trying to provide Szeth with therapy that he doesn’t actually want. Nobody said it would be easy!
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs
Taln and Ishi are the heralds in this chapter’s arch. Ishi certainly makes sense, as this takes place in Shinovar where he’s currently (in the present time and place) camped out. Taln, though, requires a bit more thought. Neither his title (Herald of War) nor his associated Radiant order (Stonewards) have any bearing on this chapter, so we can only assume that his attributes are what are linking him to the narrative. Dalinar is having to be resourceful as he attempts to get answers from the Singers, and he IS a soldier… If we want to get a little more esoteric, his soulcasting properties are “rock and stone,” and Shinovar reveres stone. That’s really reaching, though.
We’re beginning to see more of the arch deterioration with this chapter, and I find the fact that Chana’s eyes are worn away on a Shallan chapter to be VERY interesting. Knowing what we know about Chana’s real identity, and how Shallan feels about her… this is pretty fascinating. Shalash is probably here since we’re seeing Shallan (a Lightweaver).
In this chapter arch, we have—once again—Chana, with her eyes “closed.” I’m curious to see if the position of the damage remains constant, or if there might be more clues that we can glean, in terms of symbolism, based on the damage that is done to the arches as the book continues on. Anyway, Chana is likely here because Szeth uses a Dustbringer power. Kalak is the patron Herald of the Willshapers, whose monastery they’re liberating in this chapter.
Dalinar
In a flash it was his wedding night with Evi, where he performed inadequately in a drunken stupor.
Ooof. Aside from the (ahem) embarrassing nature of that vision, I find it interesting that he was already drinking at this point. For some reason I had always assumed that his alcoholism hadn’t really kicked into gear until after the Rift, but this would indicate that his struggles with alcohol started far earlier.
He was a youth, angry at being mocked by well-dressed men from Kholinar.
Well, that explains a bit more about Dalinar’s annoyance at Adolin’s love of fashion.
Renarin and Shallan
We see a lot of interesting growth in both Renarin and in Shallan in chapter 44. Renarin is standing up for himself and being far more confident! Well… Maybe not FAR more, but he’s absolutely displaying more of a backbone than he has in the past. Maybe taking down that thunderclast back at the end of Oathbringer is helping to boost his self-esteem. As for Shallan, she’s made peace with all the different aspects of her personality, allowing them to step forward and help her when needed. But she’s needing that less and less these days.
Kaladin and Szeth
Meanwhile, I’m 100% here for the burgeoning buddy-comedy between Szeth and Kaladin. There’s some really, really beautiful movement here, not only in Szeth’s understanding of himself, but in their relationship. Kaladin’s efforts are really beginning to bear fruit, as Szeth is listening to him rather than immediately discounting everything he says out of hand, and even uses one of Kaladin’s methods at the end of the chapter! We’re even seeing a little friendly banter between the two of them.
“No,” Szeth said, “but the Skybreakers teach that if my emotions rule me, I will leave corpses in my wake.”
“You haven’t done so anyway?” Kaladin said.
Point: Kaladin.
Notes on Color Theory
Cyan, magenta, yellow, she thought, remembering her color theory lessons.
(Puts on my rarely-needed “I minored in Studio Art in college” hat…) Well, that’s fascinating. These three colors are the primary colors of the CMYK model—the model used for printing, as opposed to RGB (used primarily for digital screens). CMYK is a subtractive model, as opposed to an additive one. In CMYK, each pigment absorbs all the light except for the spectrum of the pigment itself. As you combine colors, more light is absorbed. The conclusion to this is that a combination of all colors absorbs all light and gives you black.
In RGB, each color adds to the spectrum, creating a rainbow (white—which is why you see a rainbow when light is divided through a prism).
What can we glean from the fact that we are seeing subtractive light in the Spiritual Realm? Any thoughts, Drew?
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
And we’re off to Day Four!
Let’s start with Lyn’s point from above. I definitely don’t have the art or color theory background she does, but this is an interesting point. It reminds me of the inversion of shadows in the Cognitive Realm, a little bit. A signpost that things don’t work the same way here.
That said, it also feels like an opportunity to get a little meta and review Sanderson’s Laws of Magic. If you haven’t read the FAQ there, it’s a nice glimpse into his philosophy around creating magic systems and how to use them in relation to narrative conflict. In many ways, this theory is what spawned the idea of “hard” and “soft” magic.
These three laws can be found all over Sanderson’s books. But there’s a hidden, fourth law… or perhaps zeroth law: “When in doubt, err on the side of awesome.” If it’s cool, Brandon says, go for it. And, in my opinion, using CMYK here feels cooler than RGB.
But we do have to loop back around to my regularly scheduled epigraph programming. Sadly, Day Four’s epigraphs are a great deal less fun than Day Three’s. We’re revisiting Words of Radiance—not that one, the other one.
These first three deal with the differences between and within the different Orders of Knights Radiant, specifically calling out the Willshapers and Skybreakers:
While Willshapers embraced this very sense of contrarity, an attitude that will come as no great surprise to any conversant with their predilections, and indeed might be found unexpected in its absence, the presence of such strife among Skybreakers is a source of no small stupefaction to many.
Carving through the excessively flowery syntax and language, we understand that Willshapers are often different from one another, and this makes sense—they’re all about independence, personal freedom, unique expression—but the strict, law-abiding Skybreakers also had variance with their ranks. This is mentioned again later in the book, though not in any substantial manner. It feels like something being set up for the back five, to be honest—a Chekhov’s Gun where we weren’t expecting one at all.
But it’s all right that the epigraphs in Day Four aren’t as interesting as those words from the Sleepless, because Day Four brings with it one of the most baffling elements in all of the Cosmere: the Spiritual Realm.
When he made the mistake of peeking, chaos reigned, trying to tear him from the warmth.
Dalinar and Navani have been cast into this most nebulous of Realms, and they have to figure out what the heck is going on and how the heck to manage it. And along the way, they hope to get clues as to the true nature of Honor and the history of Roshar.
That’s a lot.
Our first tableau is a pretty fascinating moment, too: the arrival of humanity on Roshar. There has certainly been speculation about this over the years (with theories as farfetched as humanity flying from Ashyn to Roshar via Spaceship Urithiru), but here we see something (relatively) more mundane. It was an Elsegate.
There, in the near distance, a light split the sky—and a portal opened to another world.
But it was an Elsegate opened by none other than everyone’s favorite Herald Bondsmith, Ishar. Surgebinding sure worked differently back then, eh?
To be honest, this is the beginning of what is a bit of a nightmare for the hardcore lore section of the fandom. The Spiritual Realm, lore about the Wind (and the Stone and the Night)… At this stage of the game, at least, this all feels quite a bit further down the Soft/Hard Magic scale than is typical for the Cosmere. A lot of it just sort of… happens, because reasons. We’ll be circling back to this throughout the book, trying to make heads or tails of any deeper logic.
And of course, Dalinar and Navani aren’t the only ones who were cast into the ever-shifting chaos of the Spiritual Realm. Shallan, Renarin, Rlain, and their spren were collateral damage as well, and they find themselves working together to navigate this new Realm… but in a slightly different manner.
Luckily for them, Enlightened spren like Glys and Tumi have an affinity for the Spiritual Realm, and they quickly find Shallan. With their help, Shallan and company start developing a plan to find Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison, and it starts by tracking Dalinar’s vision—and affirming their goal of stopping the Ghostbloods by any means necessary.
Again, this feels a bit softer than usual. Why are spren touched by Sja-anat more attuned to the Spiritual Realm? All spren are made of Investiture, after all, and the Spiritual Realm is the Realm of Investiture. Is it because Odium’s distinct flavor of Investiture has better future sight than Honor’s, and future sight is tied to the Spiritual Realm? Possibly, but Radiant spren are (mostly) a blend of both Honor and Cultivation… and Cultivation is particularly adept at seeing the future.
And lastly, we return to Kaladin and Szeth in chapter 45. This is mostly a wind-down chapter after the fireworks of Szeth’s duel with Rit, but it does offer another interesting tease:
The corpse belonged to Sivi-daughter-Sivi, a woman he had once known very well.
At the end of the book, during Szeth’s final battle against Ishar, Sivi is not represented among the Stone Shaman/Fused/Cognitive Shadows. The physical corpse here is a nice tease—with a touch of the macabre—as to what is really going on with the Honorbearers.
It’s wild to think that we’re already nearly 450 pages into this book, and we’re just getting started on the craziness of the Spiritual Realm. More secrets lie ahead!
Highlights/Fan Theories:
We wanted to highlight some interesting thoughts from the comment section of our previous discussion, in case you missed them!
RogerPavelle has an interesting view on Lyndsey and Drew’s discussion last week about Taravangium and Odium manipulating each other. Go check out his comment.
Then AndrewHB chimed in:
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.
Finally, Jeff McClung (Aeon Dork) asked:
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
…and we can certainly all relate to that!
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. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
We’re actually going to be off next week, but we’ll see you the following week on Monday, March 17th with our discussion of chapters 46, 47, and 48!
Lindsey was pondering the way the arch is crumbling and whether the damage to some of the Heralds in the arches will be consistent or become worse. I noticed that all three of the arches themselves (not counting Heralds) seem to show the same damage, but the damage to the heralds changes (and is inconsistent inside the arches themselves).
In 43, the damage seems to be reflected/mirrored between the left and right sides of the arch.
In 44, the damage on Shalash is mirrored while the damage on Chana is the same (both on her left eye).
In 45, the damage on both is the same (not mirrored) but, Chana is on the inside of the arch instead of the outside.
So, the damage is somewhat consistent for the arch itself and for each Herald, but not their location on the arch.
Chapter 44 was the first time I noticed the wearing down of the icons on the stone arches. I believe the Wind noted in Day One that over time, Wind can wear down stone.
Shallan knows subtractive colors from her art, but for Lightweaving she needs to learn about additive colors.
Testing since a different comment I’ve been trying to post won’t.
It doesn’t seem to like copied text for some reason. Retyping without copying seems to have worked.
I also am having trouble posting this week (though I often do).
Drew wondered why Enlightened spren are better able to navigate the Spiritual Realm. I have two thoughts that are tangentially related.
First, because their Spirit Web was changed by Sja-Anat, they may have a better sense of their spiritual self than others.
Second, I wonder if they actually are more attuned to the Spiritual Realm or less. Since they were changed, maybe they are able to see it from more of an outsider’s perspective, giving a broader view of whatever landmarks or beacons might be found.
Cyan and magenta were the colors of the Hion lines of Komashi (Yumi and the Nightmare Painter).
A short comment on soft and hard magic:
The vaunted hard magic systems are an attribute of the cosmere worlds typically accompanied by a Shard (dead or alive). But that means, they are literally designed and powered by Whimsy. So if we enter the realm of the Shards, the rules must of necessity become softer and more indefinite. Either because the are less fix or because noone is there, not even Hoid, to teach our heroes the rules (and that means us.). Which one? Well let us Read and Find out!
It was interesting to see how the Rhythms of Roshar pop up — in the vision of the arrival on Roshar, we hear both “hummed to a rhythm Dalinar couldn’t pick out” and “the others hummed in what seemed disagreement”, as well as Dalinar calling out when the singers’ rhythms are changing. And in chapter 44 Renarin responds to Rlain’s humming (which in Shallan’s POV is just “Rlain hummed something”) with “yes, it is curious.” So we are seeing signs that Dalinar and Renarin are both Connected enough to start to hear the tones of Roshar. I’ll add that to my list of things to keep an eye out for as we progress in the reread.
Back in the Arrival vision, I assume that the “little gods” referenced would be spren of some form (the question about why mud is mud got redirected to the little gods), and note that the line about until the Origin of Songs returns was “Until then, we have the Wind, the Stone, the spren.” (No Night.) So apparently the Night has been gone for some time when humans arrived, but Honor and Cultivation had not been there for especially long, either. I’m kind of forced to suspect that Odium had something to do with the Night’s disappearance, which in turn causes me to go back to me “became an Unmade” theory.
I was slow to finish my careful reread of chapter 45 but there seems to be a key insight into Division hidden within: “he placed both hands against the gates into the monastery. He closed his eyes, feeling the weight of the doors, which saw themselves as part of the monastery. He severed that, and burned the sides so that when he opened his eyes and pushed, the gates collapsed forward”. Those three words “he severed that” seem so be saying that Division can separate an arbitrary Connection. We see it as separating the axial connections (i.e.,, chemical bonds) in a handful of places but this is talking about what we might call the soul of the monastery doors. It seems worth considering if this level of ability to remove Connection is the Skybreaker resonance or whether Dustbringers would be able to do it as well — I haven’t come up with a reason to think that this is the resonance in action (yet, at least). I think that Nale had not retrieved his blade when Szeth was doing his initial training and so Szeth would have been able to experience the resonance in that way, so his lack of commentary about it does not seem to add much data.
Interesting that you phrased it “the soul of the monastery doors” because the power actually seems to be the inverse of forgery, as seen in The Emperor’s Soul.
Ah. (I was waiting to finish my Elantris reread before reading that one, but got sidetracked.) I think I have read enough coppermind to know what you mean, at least.
There are definitely some parallels, here — I was thinking that the way Szeth describes using Division is like a combination of what soulcasters and stonewards do — the soulcasters have to persuade (or command) the object’s soul to change, and the stonewards have to “know” or feel kinship with the stone, and to use Division he has to know the object well enough to persuade it to subdivide itself, if that makes sense. Which takes a lot of control, of course.
Did we ever find out why Sivi-daughter-Sivi rejected Ishar in the end? We find out later that she basically inducts Szeth’s father into the honorbearers and helps stop Szeth’s initial rebellion. I wish we had got a little more about her change of heart.
Big difference between following a herald and learning hes corrupted and planning to turn you all into hollow husk robocops
The epigraph was setting up the Rogue/rebel skybreaker faction that broke off from Nale for sure