Happy new year, dear Cosmere Chickens, and welcome to the penultimate article in the Wind and Truth reread! It’s been a wild ride, but we’re not quite done yet! Some major character and plot arcs are wrapping up while others are being unraveled or transformed, and the new world in which our characters find themselves as they continue onward is starting to look very, very different from the Roshar we’ve come to know and love. Dalinar is gone, and Shallan is lost. Kaladin ascends to become a Herald, Taravangian has taken up the Shards of both Odium and Honor and thereby gained the attention of all the other Shards in the Cosmere, and everyone else has had their lives irrevocably changed by the conclusion of the pact. Join us as we dig into all the details and share our theories about what it all means…
The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series is intended as a reread 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 144 is titled “The Tower, the Crown, and the Spear,” and we get a Nale POV! He feels good. Or at least better. Then he feels not so good, and Ishar tells him that the Stormfather has died. Ishar can see what’s happened with Dalinar and Honor, and he knows that Taravangian has taken up Honor and joined it with Odium to form Retribution.
All seems hopeless, yet the Wind tells them there may be a way to bind Retribution in some small way, with a circle of ten and new oaths. Nale tells Ishar he can’t go back to the way it was, the torture. The Wind tells Ishar that there is a way to isolate their minds so they feel no torture, so they know peace between Desolations.
Nale sets the swords, only nine of them, in a circle and they go to Szeth, whose arm is burned away to the shoulder. Nale has a fabrial for Regrowth but there is no Stormlight, and the Wind tells them that Szeth can’t speak the Words.
Then they see the sky growing dark… A storm is coming. Nale thought there would be no more storms but Ishar replies there are no more highstorms, that there is now only one storm:
“The Night of Sorrows has come, Nale. The True Desolation is here.”
Nale says there’s no sense in fighting, that the Stormfather is gone and Honor is dead.
“Yes,” a quiet voice said. “Honor is dead.”
[…]
“But,” Stormblessed said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
SHIVERS! Did anyone else get shivers when Kaladin stepped up? Everyone should have gotten shivers! Kaladin is going to fulfill his true destiny and I am HERE for it!
POV Shift!
Kaladin goes to Syl and she tells him that her father is dead. She tells him she cannot protect the spren, that Odium holds Honor’s power and that they are a part of him… and he will unmake them. Kaladin replies that the Wind has a solution to this problem. Kaladin asks the Wind if an Oathpact can stop what will happen with Retribution in control. The Wind explains exactly what has happened, and what it means for Roshar. Kaladin asks what the Wind needs him to do, and Syl is crying real tears.
“Are you sure, Kaladin?” Syl whispered. “You know what it will mean? For you to…”
Storms, was she saying…?
Yes. He had known it the moment he stood up.
“We cannot ask this of you,” Syl whispered.
Kaladin steeled himself. “But I can offer.”
He knows that the people have nothing left, no storm, no god, no king… so he wants to give them some hope. Nale tells Kaladin that he doesn’t know what he’ll be getting himself into, that they may be going to torture for centuries. He insists it should be Szeth, with no more Connections. Kaladin responds that he can’t protect everyone, but that he can protect Szeth, who chose peace over war.
Ishar asks Kaladin if he thinks he can truly replace Jezrien—because Ishar really doesn’t think he can. Kaladin removes the cloak that Dalinar gave him from his pack and dons it.
“Nobility has nothing to do with blood, Ishar. But it has everything to do with heart.”
Kaladin remembers all of the previous versions of himself that are still a part of him and then he speaks, saying simply that he accepts this journey. Syl’s voice accepts his Words. He approaches the ring of swords and both Kaladin and Syl thrust their hands forward and a spear of light forms. They ram it into the ground and when the light fades, a silvery spear is there, not made from Syl—like the Honorblades, it’s made from Honor.
The other Heralds appear and go to their swords. Kaladin knows he can help them and he feels a Connection inside of him. Gloryspren appear and windspren spin in a ring of light above him. Kaladin starts glowing and the Wind thanks him. Kaladin’s eyes revert to brown, because of course, they do!
A moment later all of the other Heralds have vanished, leaving Nale and Ishar with Kaladin. Nale says he can feel the Oathpact and Ishar welcomes Kaladin as a new Herald of kings and of the Wind.
“Herald,” Kaladin said, “of Second Chances.”
Ishar says he must now make Kaladin immortal, and then they must leave Roshar.
Chapter 145 is titled “To Weep for the End of All Things,” and it begins with a Navani POV. She feels love… and then a farewell. The Sibling tells Navani that Dalinar is dead and Navani asks if he serves the enemy. The Sibling tells her that he shattered the contract and Honor. She says that it was a brilliant move, but adds that the enemy holds both Shards and is now Retribution, and that Cultivation has fled. The Sibling fears that they could be destroyed.
Navani resolves to grieve later and asks what to do. The Sibling tells her they must keep Retribution out of Urithiru, that he may destroy the spren but not them if they can create defenses. It will be Navani’s will, and the Sibling’s, against Retribution. And guess who’s on his way?
POV Shift!
Shallan is asking the Oathgate spren to transfer her but they say they can’t without Stormlight. They’re shrinking and they say the enemy has drawn all the Stormlight back to him. They say that there is no more Stormfather, no more Honor, no more Stormlight—that their era has ended. Shallan tries to wrap her mind around the absence of Stormlight and asks how long this will last; the spren tell her it’s gone forever.
POV Shift!
Retribution is loving life. He is so powerful, more powerful than anything. Only Harmony comes close and those powers are misaligned. But Honor and Odium want nearly the same things and they would work together. He senses that Rayse had killed other gods but never taken up their power. Taravangian thinks Rayse must have been a fool as he revels in all his newfound glory.
He prepares to deal with the spren, a remnant of Honor and a potential problem in the future. He tries to draw he spren to him… and nothing happens. His power tells him they are protected by and oath and a circle.
By Adonalsium’s strength. Ten stand against you, using the piece of us within them. Honor demands their oaths be followed.
Taravangian then notices that the other Shards can see what he’s done and understands that the battle for the cosmere has begun, though he is not ready. He blames Dalinar for this and turns to confront him only to find him dead, his body sheltering an unconscious Gavinor.
Taravangian thinks of what is happening and what to do. He is so angry with Dalinar and realizes that part of him still exists, on the other side… Dalinar’s soul. He seizes it and it falls into his power as Dalinar is an oathbreaker. Yet Dalinar’s soul slips away from him and the powers tell him that Dalinar’s soul is claimed by another.
But Taravangian finds part of Dalinar in the Spiritual Realm, a part of him that is the Blackthorn.
Retribution cradled it.
You are right, it said to him, making his ego soothe and anger soften. He was weak. I am not weak. I will not do the things he showed me […]. I will not back down from the fight and the conquest. I am the Blackthorn.
Will you serve me? Retribution asked. When I take war to the stars.
It is what I do, said the Blackthorn.
And with his general secured, Taravangian begins to search for Wit.
POV Shift!
Kaladin is on his knees before Ishar, who touches him on the sides of his head. Something burns inside of Kaladin and he can suddenly feel the others, who are worried that they’re heading toward torture.
The Wind tells him that it’s working, that the Oathpact preserves the spren.
Ishar expresses his concern that he might lose himself again, that he is weak of mind. Kaladin promises to help. Nale evaporates and his sword disappears from the ring. Ishar explains that when they Return, they use bodies of power.
Kaladin’s soul vibrates and light surrounds him. He feels Syl grip his hand. Ishar tells him his soul will be pulled with the rest of the Heralds but his body will be left behind… and it might hurt. Fire rips through him and he feels his eyes burn away. Then…
Nothing.
Chapter 146 is called “Night of Sorrows.” Sigzil is with Lirin, who is examining him, though he knows there’s nothing a surgeon can do about a Radiant who has lost his spren.
Then the door slams open and Wit is there. He tells them Dalinar is dead, that the Sibling is going into a coma to protect themself, and the world is ending. Wit shoves Lirin out of the room and tells Sig that he really needs his help. He says that the power that Odium now holds will identify Wit as the only thing on the planet that can harm him. He tells Sig that he’s holding something dangerous, that Odium absolutely cannot get access to. Wit needs someone to take it until he can return, and he’s chosen Sig as he’s no longer a Radiant.
“I don’t have time to explain all the ramifications, but we cannot let Odium have the Dawnshard. He is the last being in all the many worlds who should hold it.”
“And…” Sigzil said. “And so you brought it here to his planet?”
Wit took a deep breath, then nodded.
“Idiot,” Sigzil said.
“Guilty.”
Sig agrees to take the Dawnshard, thinking it will make up for his failings—that he’ll redeem himself. Wit tells him to get off of Roshar as soon as he can and to keep the Dawnshard away from Odium at all costs. Wit promises that he’ll find Sig.
Sig feels a force overlap him, an ancient, wonderful, terrible power.
It bore a single all-powerful directive, which thrummed through Sigzil.
Exist.
Then Retribution is there and it vaporizes Wit.
Sig falls into Shadesmar, surrounded by light and spren.
POV Shift!
Renarin is in Urithiru, watching Navani floating in the center of a crystal. She’s glowing, eyes closed, in the green-blue light. The tower continues to function as it had when it awakened, and Towerlight is available to Radiants, but they can’t communicate with Navani or the Sibling. Rlain and Jasnah are there, and Jasnah says she’s never seen anything like this but that her mother must survive as Jasnah needs her.
(Paige is totally not crying right now.)
An impassable dome of light surrounds the entire tower. The Oathgates are also inside the dome but, of course, they don’t work. Renarin and Rlain had transferred from Shadesmar at the last possible moment, leaving Shallan behind. Renarin had heard that Adolin was alive but with no more Stormlight or spanreeds, he isn’t sure of this.
They go to another room where Sebarial and Aladar are waiting, and they look to Renarin now, with Navani indisposed and Renarin’s father… well, you know.
He announces that he will not be their king, then Renarin tells Jasnah he wishes to adopt her system, a representative government. Jasnah says she will show him how. Renarin says they will have an elected senate and a Ministerial Exemplar. Renarin is surprised at his confidence. I’m super proud of the kiddo! The prince, the man that he’s become!
They all go to the roof where Gavinor, fully grown, sits with Oathbringer in his lap. Renarin kneels by his father’s corpse and hugs his father for the last time. He thanks Dalinar for being proud of him, for showing him the heights they’re able to reach.
“No hero dies alone,” Renarin read, written in halting words by his own hand, “for he carries with him the dreams of everyone who continues to live. Those dreams will keep my father company in the Beyond, where he taught us we go when we die. No continual war. No more killing. My father is finally at peace. And we live because of his sacrifice.”
Aladar states that Dalinar failed, that he lost the world. Renarin knows that Dalinar will be remembered as a hero who failed.
Renarin has asked Jasnah to Soulcast his father to stone so he can be set with the ancient kings of Urithiru. Rlain embraces him. Although he’s somewhat embarrassed at embracing in front of others, he knows they need to see that singer and human can truly work together.
POV Shift!
Szeth awakes to find the land covered in darkness, covered by the Everstorm. Szeth finds Kaladin’s corpse and thinks that Ishar killed him. He calls out to Sylphrena but she doesn’t answer. Nightblood does, however. Nightblood thinks it killed Kaladin but Szeth assures the sword that isn’t the case—at most, Kaladin lost a few fingers. Nightblood points out Szeth’s missing arm and he says it was a price he paid to save his family and that it was Nightblood who freed them.
The horses and wagon are gone and all that’s left is Kaladin’s pack. Szeth looks through it and finds a carved wooden horse along with the small woolen sheep his mother had made for him from Molli’s wool. And he weeps. Szeth asks about the Heralds and Nightblood says they were destroyed by something powerful, a new god in the sky.
Nightblood asks him what they are going to do and Szeth replies that he was told to live better and that he will. His people will need help, and there are still Skybreakers to be found.
And so Szeth-son-Neturo, the last bearer of Truth of Shinovar, put his sword to his shoulder and started walking.
POV Shift!
Jasnah walks through Urithiru feeling like she’d failed Dalinar, and herself, as well as failing to protect Thaylen City. She’d given up the Shattered Plains, though they still had the treaty… but without the Oathgates, she thinks that the treaty is inconsequential. She had hoped to rebuild Alethkar as a nation in the Unclaimed Hills but, without working Oathgates, they couldn’t travel there and Alethkar is truly lost.
She does have one touchstone that’s still stable: her opposition to the Vorin religion. But her whole moral philosophy is basically kaput.
I let my position of authority guide me to believe I knew what the greatest good was. That I was capable of making that decision for others.”
She realizes that the whole philosophy of the greater good had never been the answer and that she’d dedicated her life to an ideal she didn’t believe. Exhausted, she lays down in bed and finds a note.
I’m sorry, it said in Wit’s handwriting. You are right, and your letter to me was—characteristically—full of wisdom and excellent deductions. I accept that we cannot continue as we have…
Goodbye. It might be a great long time before we ever see one another again, if ever.
Jasnah laughs, though she wishes she had someone to hold in that moment. She feels more alone than she has since being locked away when she was a child and she sobs.
Overwhelmed, worn out, and—worst of all—wrong.
POV Shift!
Venli sits in Narak, looking toward a sunset blocked by black clouds and red lightning that stretches in all directions. It’s been a day since Odium Ascended to Retribution and he had spoken to them via messenger. He says he’ll be in touch but, for now, the listeners may use his Light to fuel their powers and to grow crops. She thinks of her sister and feels peace.
She hears Bila calling to her and they go to the pool, which had been empty, to find it refilling with a thick, black-blue liquid which pulses with a new rhythm: The Rhythm of War. Thude asks what it means and Venli replies that they have a powerful duty, that their land will be important to the coming world.
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs
Kaladin
“Welcome, Kaladin Stormblessed. Herald of Kings. Herald of the Wind. Herald of…”
“Herald,” Kaladin said, “of Second Chances.”
I find it difficult to put into words what emotions the ending of Kaladin’s journey brings up in me. He was always my favorite character, the one I related to the most, the one who I tried to be, the one who went through the same struggles I had. His struggle to figure out who he was, what he should be, how to balance his desire to help others with his own self-preservation, resounded within me in ways I didn’t know I needed.
As such, this ending is… bittersweet, but with more sweet than bitter. Kaladin has become the hero that we all knew he has been this whole time. He sacrifices himself to save others, giving up the potential of a human life in order to repay that debt to the spren, who had already given so much on humanity’s behalf. He sacrifices himself to save Szeth from having to endure that fate, to protect his friends and family, and ultimately to help the Heralds in their new life. From the very beginning, I wanted peace for him… but I also wanted him to remain the hero I knew he was, the hero that would stand up for the oppressed, the beaten, the broken. And he’s found both of those things, though not in the way he (or I) expected.
Dalinar
The damage done by the winds and tempest had been too much for Dalinar—but beneath him, sheltered from the storm, Gavinor survived, unconscious but alive. Protected in one last act of self-sacrifice.
It’s fitting that Dalinar’s final act was one of love. He sacrificed himself to save the boy whom he had failed.
Kaladin and Dalinar: Thematic Bookends
In these chapters, we find two beautifully crafted, perfectly deployed bookends to the journeys of both these characters. First, Kaladin’s:
“Yes,” a quiet voice said. “Honor is dead.”
[…]
“But,” Stormblessed said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
And then in the next chapter, Dalinar’s:
What is my life worth?
Kaladin first spoke these words right before the duel when he jumped in to save Adolin in Words of Radiance, and Dalinar originally voiced the same question when he traded his Shardblade for the lives of Bridge Four in The Way of Kings. In each case, Sanderson was laying the groundwork for the overall character arcs and major themes that would play out through these characters, and here he’s tied up those ends in neat little bows. Kaladin is doing what he can to protect others, Honor be damned. And Dalinar is accepting that human life is worth far more than anything else, and worth doing anything to protect. Both men are doing everything they can to preserve life.
The Blackthorn
Oof. The creation of this… this amalgamation of all the worst parts of Dalinar’s personality, being set loose to wage war on the Cosmere at whole, is a terrifying concept. It lacks everything that made Dalinar human—his ethics, his love, his fear. All that’s left is cold-blooded violence.
With incredible battle acumen, brilliant understanding of tactics and strategy, and Dalinar’s stubborn force of will. But without the weak inhibitions of his old age, such as having been broken by his wife’s death.
It’s like we’re in a video game and now we have to face the shadow-version of our favorite character.
Sigzil
“And…” Sigzil said, his mind racing, the pain fading before this information. “And so you brought it here to his planet?”
Wit took a deep breath, then nodded.
“Idiot,” Sigzil said.
It’s nice to see that Sigzil has grown enough that he can be this truthful and flippant to Wit, whom he’s always held in such reverent regard. Maybe it’s just his depression talking, but I like to think that he’s grown beyond his blind idolization of Hoid.
Get off this planet as soon as you can. Keep it away from him, Sig.
And off he goes, into the pages of The Sunlit Man.
Renarin
[Renarin] continued up the steps, surprised by how confidently he spoke. Ordering around highprinces? Demanding they give up their power?
Renarin has grown, too. He’s faced monsters and ancient horrors, and—perhaps worst of all—the demons of his own past. He’s lost his father and mother, and found love in the most unlikely of places (unlikely in the sense of his own expectations, of course). This is an entirely different man from the shy, timid boy we met in The Way of Kings.
Being strong didn’t mean that you didn’t need anyone. Those around you were the source of your strength.
I love that this is the lesson he’s come away from this book with. It’s very… Bridge Four.
He raised his hand toward her, and let her nod before hugging her, as had always been their way.
Neurodivergence recognizing neurodivergence. It’s very fitting that Renarin would understand and respect Jasnah’s dislike of casual physical contact.
Szeth
“I was told to live better,” Szeth said. “And I will.
He’s not letting what he thinks is Kaladin’s sacrifice go to waste.
Jasnah
Two key quotes, here:
The greater good… regardless of the means used to reach it… That wasn’t the answer. It never had been. She’d dedicated her life to an ideal she didn’t, deep down, believe.
And a few moments later:
[…] She hadn’t felt so utterly alone since that day she’d been locked away as a child. And there was no one to dry her tears as she shook, trying to hold it back, curled up in her bed. Overwhelmed, worn out, and—worst of all—wrong.
And so her character arc truly begins. Everything we’ve seen of Jasnah up until now was setting her up for this fall, laying the groundwork for her to find herself in the back five set of books. (Or so I assume, since it’s been said that she’s to be one of the main characters of the upcoming novels.) Will Jasnah become a hero? A villain? What path will she find that resonates within herself? What Words will she find? Only time will tell.
Venli
This may not be redemption, Venli thought. Not yet. Maybe just… atonement. The redemption comes later, after we see if I can keep improving.
I’m not sure if Venli should get the “most improved” character award, but she’s definitely a contender.
“Yes, our ancestors walked away.” She looked to the light. “We, in turn, have to come back. We make a nation, a strong one, for any singer who wants to join us. Anyone who seeks to listen, and hear, the peaceful rhythm in the stillness of the storm’s heart.”
Venli is still seeking to help her people, but now she’s doing so by being open and listening, and not by just doing what she thinks is right.
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
“We must reforge the circle,” Ishar replied. “If the spren are to be preserved, if a Splinter of Honor is to be kept from Retribution’s touch, we must stand tall again. Reaffirm our oaths, exploit that weakness he made in himself for us.”
In typically shifty Sanderson style, we get the obvious conclusion in the least obvious manner. For years, debate raged in the fandom about Kaladin or Dalinar or Shallan (or all the main characters) becoming the new wave of Heralds, and the Oathpact being reforged, and whether the Everstorm had made the Oathpact pointless.
It did make the Oathpact pointless, of course. It circumvented the Fused rebirth cycle on Braize, just like one side of the argument claimed. But now we have a new Oathpact and Kaladin steps up, just like the other side of the argument claimed.
There’s a lot of great imagery and symbolism in this chapter, too. Kaladin’s eyes go back to brown, signifying a return to a truer, more authentic state of being. He forms an Honorspear, rather than an Honorblade, signifying his uniqueness amongst the old Heralds. He dons the Kholin cloak, fulfilling the “Tower, Crown, and Spear” death rattle from allllll the way back in The Way of Kings. Syl forms the Honorspear with Kaladin, signifying a new equality between them.
Lots going on here.
Cultivation has been freed from the planet, and runs, fearful of what she has done. Honor and Odium combine. Retribution will absorb all of the power, and will create weapons from it. New Unmade. Terrible Unmade.
This is heading into the realm of pure speculation, now that we’re in the final chapters of the book. The Cosmere stories we’ve gotten so far that take place after Wind and Truth have been very delicate in revealing any information about the status of Roshar, Retribution, and Cultivation—even Isles of the Emberdark, which came out only months ago. There’s nothing we know about new Unmade (perhaps this was prevented entirely by the new Oathpact, though I somehow doubt it). We have no clue where Cultivation went, or if/how the other Shards banded together against Retribution.
Sure, there’s a Cosmere-wide cold war happening between Roshar and Scadrial, but despite the many references to that, we have heard remarkably little about the two combination Shards central to those worlds post-Wind and Truth. Does Retribution still exist during Emberdark? Is Taravangian still behind the steering wheel? And what about Sazed, and Harmony/Discord? Presumably that’ll be the focus of Mistborn Era 3, if not Era 4, but we’ve gotten essentially zilch about his status in the various secret projects.
“No… more Stormlight?” Shallan asked. “For how long?”
“Forever.”
Some eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that, this whole time, I’ve never mentioned “Stormlight Book [#]” when referring to the back half of the series. Well, that’s because I’m 99% certain that, while Book Six may say “The Stormlight Archive” on the cover, it’s going to open with “Prelude to the Voidlight (or Warlight) Archive.”
There’s no more Stormlight. How can it be the Stormlight Archive without Stormlight?
An interesting wrinkle to this is a conversation I had with Brandon at Dragonsteel Nexus 2024. Sadly there’s no official audio recording/Arcanum entry for this, as it occurred at the pre-event dinner for the beta readers, but we talked about the endpages of The Way of Kings… and the Voidbinding chart. He mentioned that, when that book was in production (and during the time when he wasn’t the mega superstar bestseller he’s become, with all kinds of artistic control over the books), he was under the impression that the endpages would be the same for every one of the ten books. So he chose art that would fit for both the beginning and the end of the series.
Thus, the mysterious and confounding Voidbinding chart that had no impact whatsoever on the contents of The Way of Kings.
He breathed in, reaching to draw all spren—of Odium, and of Honor—to him.
This made me perk up. Everything around the creation of the new Oathpact talks about Honor, but this line (and the surrounding sequence in general) indicates that even the Odium spren are protected. Ba-Ado-Mishram is hidden. “Nothing happened” when he pulled at them all.
Did Ishar’s Connection with Odium’s perpendicularity inadvertently include the Unmade and the voidspren?
You cannot have him, the powers said, for he is claimed by another.
And of course we have Dalinar, and the Blackthorn. I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of how this was handled here. It feels a little bit like having your cake and eating it too, that Retribution gets his supergeneral while Dalinar gets to slip off into peaceful oblivion/the afterlife/Beyond—but this line in particular is another possible hint toward Nohadon being much, much more than he seems.
Exist.
Lots going on, once again, all of it in quick succession. Wit has to make one final gamble before Retribution gets his hands on him, and that means dumping the Dawnshard on Sigzil.
For those who read the Cosmere books in publishing order, we knew that Sigzil held a Dawnshard at some point between Rhythm of War and The Sunlit Man. I’m not sure how many people were expecting him to get it right here, but such is the way it goes. He gets a fun new toy (Note: Not actually very fun), and we get a second Dawnshard command to go with Rysn’s Change. And so begins a crazy sequence of events that’ll end with the Night Brigade showing up on Canticle many years later.
And so Szeth-son-Neturo, the last bearer of Truth of Shinovar, put his sword to his shoulder and started walking.
We’ve talked a bit throughout these readalong posts about the splinter factions of Skybreakers. I doubt, given what we know about the focus characters in the Voidlight Archive (natch), that we will get much of Szeth and Nightblood, Attorneys at Law, but I at least hope that they have some big moments. It’ll be frustrating if Nightblood once again shows up in someone else’s hands with no explanation, as happened with the journey from Vasher to the Nightwatcher to Nale.
“What does it mean?” Thude asked her, looking up from where he knelt by the gathering pool of blue-black liquid light.
As Venli rightly points out, it means the Listeners are super important now. They control the only perpendicularity on Roshar.
They also have a tremendous opportunity at hand, thanks to their treaty with Jasnah. While Navani is on ice, the Radiants have only one real access point to Investiture, and it’s the Listeners. (Lift notwithstanding, but we already knew she was gonna be EXTREMELY important in the Voidlight Archive.) Whether it’s the Listeners building up stores of Warlight to share with Urithiru or giving the Radiants direct access to the perpendicularity, they now have a stranglehold on the magical economy of Roshar.
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 with our final reread discussion, covering chapter 147 along with the Epilogue and Postlude, and our wrap-up on the book in general!
I did not see the author of the in-world Knights of Wind and Truth to be Szeth’s future wife. Szeth being married in the future was not on my bingo card.
Just a hunch, but when the Heralds return in Books 6-10, I think they will be able to work with the three original forces of Roshar – not sure if they are Spren – Wind, Stone and Night to grant certain people a type of Surgebinding. Stone: something similar to stonewarding [shaping of stones]; Wind [something similar to the surge of gravitation]; and Night [a new type of surge that has elements of traveling through shadows and the night]. Plus, the Surges that the 9 spren who could create a Nahel Bond grant but without the restrictions imposed by Honor. These are the former Deadeyes and unaligned spren like Notrum. The Wind did accept Kaladin’s words. So perhaps the Wind, Stone and Night will be able to grant some type of Surge through what might remain of Adonalsium. Or perhaps the few small pieces of Honor that split off before Taravangian took up the Shard of Honor, will be able to provide some form of Surges.
I also did not predict that Dalinar would in essence default on the agreement, allowing Odium to leave the Roshar system. Yet I did predict that Dalinar would not survive the contest.
I do not like that Shallan got stuck in Shadesmar. I would have preferred for Brandon to have written the story so that Shallan could have made it back to the Physical Realm. And have an easier time being with Adolin. These two deserved to have a chance to live together as husband and wife. Although this could be because Shallon is my favorite character in the Stormlight Archives. On a related note, I will be so disappointed if Adolin is addicted to firemoss at the beginning of Book 6
I am convinced that the Nahadon Dalinar sees in his visions (the ones where Nahadon knows he is speaking to Dalinar) is an echo/Sliver or some other type of remains of Adonalsium. When Taravangian’s powers said that Dalinar’s soul was claimed by another, I think that is the echo/remains of Adonalsium.
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.
I hated that Taravangian was able to find/cultivate (no pun intended) the spirit of Blackthorn and use him as his armies in future Cosmere wars. I thought it would have been cleaner if all of Dalinar’s personality went to the Realm Beyond. If the original Dalinar can grow, I would think that the Blackthorn can grow. I would think this element of the Blackthorn has the seed that Cultivation planted from when Dalinar sought a boon from Cultivation. If not, then this Blackthorn still has a part of its spiritual DNA that part in Dalinar who wanted to change. He was still the Blackthorn before he went to Cultivation. Ultimately, I see Blackthorn growing as did OG Dalinar. I think this is one “seed” that Taravangian/Odium will miss.
Is the Blackthorn now a new Unmade, created using the power of Retribution? If so, that implies that the other Unmade were also created from something found in the Spiritual Realm (whether spren, beads, or rejected aspects of people I can’t begin to guess; although Sja-Anat being a reflection of Ishar mades some sense).
Is it just me that thinks it was Cultivation that had the prior claim on Dalinar’s soul and therefore prevented its destruction? If so, does she still have a piece of Taravangian or did Ascending remove that?
Is Syl still bound to Kaladin, and what about Nale’s spren? Are they both Unoathed because of the oathpact?
While I understand that the next reread discussion is the last, I would appreciate seeing a 1st 5 wrap-up. I’m especially interested in which Death Rattles have been fulfilled and which haven’t, if that’s something Drew is willing to put together.
Regarding Syl, she becomes the Storm…Daughter(?) before the end of the book, but that’s an interesting question considering that Nale had a spren bond as a Herald; does Kal have to start over from scratch to re-bond with Syl, or is she a Bondsmith spren now?
I found this on the coppermind!
Death Rattle/list – The Coppermind – 17th Shard
As someone who has always identified most with Hoid (personality-wise), it always makes me giggle when people call him on his BS. He’s absolutely full of it, and only gets as far as he does because people just accept what he says as fact.