Welcome back to the Words of Radiance Reread on Tor.com! Last week, Szeth sat on top of Urithiru, feeling sorry for himself and working himself up to go find better answers. This week, Eshonai reveals more of the difference in her character after her transformation to Stormform; as expected, this is not a cheerful event.
This reread will contain spoilers for The 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!
Interlude 11: New Rhythms
Point of View: Eshonai
Setting: Narak
Symbology: Listener, Kalak, Ishar
IN WHICH stormform Eshonai meets with the Five plus Venli to discuss the plan she has developed for fighting the humans—to get everyone possible into stormform; she lies and manipulates them to gain some cooperation; Venli is still keeping secrets; Eshonai circumvents the Five, announcing the immediate implementation of her plan; the sisters go out to the practice grounds, where Eshonai again announces her plan, requiring each soldier to choose immediately whether or not to join her in stormform; once the few who refuse the transformation are identified, she sends her soldiers to do the same among the civilians; all those who refuse are gathered with those few soldiers on the practice ground; Eshonai attunes her new Rhythms to block out any hints of self-awareness; when her old lieutenant indicates discomfort with the proceedings, she puts him and her former division in charge of the dissenters, knowing that she will have all of them executed once she’s got most of the people in stormform; she returns to the city, prepared to tell her people a concoction of lies to keep them in line; while she waits for the people to gather and settle for her speech, she is informed that the dissenters have escaped into the chasms; despite Venli and her spite, Eshonai shrugs them off as essentially dead already, since they cannot possibly get far enough away via the chasms before the next highstorm hits.
Quote of the Week
“Our people must take that form, Eshonai,” Venli said. “It is inevitable.”
Eshonai found herself attuning the new version of Amusement… Ridicule, it was. She turned to her sister. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew exactly what this form would do to me. You knew this before you took the form yourself.”
“I… Yes.”
Eshonai grabbed her sister by the front of her robe, then yanked her forward, holding her tightly. With Shardplate it was easy, though Venli resisted more than she should have been able to, and a small spark of red lightning ran across the woman’s arms and face. Eshonai was not accustomed to such strength from her scholar of a sister.
“You could have destroyed us,” Eshonai said. “What if this form had done something terrible?”
Screaming. In her head. Venli smiled.
“How did you discover this?” Eshonai asked. “It didn’t come from the songs. There is more.”
Venli did not speak. She met Eshonai’s eyes and hummed to Confidence. “We must make certain the Five agree to this plan,” she said. “If we are to survive, and if we are to defeat the humans, we must be in this form—all of us. We must summon that storm. It has been … waiting, Eshonai. Waiting and building.”
The new Eshonai makes me sad; I liked the old Eshonai, the one who is still screaming in her own mind, and I still hope she will somehow return. Venli, on the other hand… I never liked or trusted the old Venli, and the new one is even worse. She tacitly admits that she’s still keeping secrets.
I can’t help thinking that the only thing worse than these two and their spiteful semi-cooperation would be these two truly working together as a team. ::shudder::
Commentary
This chapter makes me melancholy. It’s so hard to watch Eshonai under the control of the stormspren, and it’s made worse by the ways in which she almost recognizes the differences. Between her own voice screaming at her from the Rhythm of Peace, the differences in the Rhythms she can hear, and the repeatedly slippery recognitions of behavior that is not quite natural, it’s pretty clear that there’s still something of the old Eshonai buried in there, and that the new Eshonai is being controlled by another entity.
The big question I have now, though, is whether that buried Eshonai is being clever—if desperate—in a few things. Specifically, did she deliberately put her “former friends” in charge of the dissidents, a group which includes her own mother, knowing that they would figure out what she was going to do to them and that they would attempt to escape? She shrugs off their departure just a shade too easily, and Venli accuses her of doing something deliberately, though even super-sneak Venli doesn’t seem to know quite what it might be. Earlier, Eshonai almost acknowledged something weird about the way she didn’t choose her own squad for the first group to transform; later, she consciously thinks that it was nice of Thude to make it so easy to get rid of him and the rest of her old squad. Combining this with the knowledge that the last we see of her in this book is as she’s falling into the chasms herself, I have to wonder. Did old-Eshonai, buried deep within, subtly manipulate new-Eshonai into setting up the dissidents to escape rather than be executed? And will that one little nudge end up being the thing that saves her life and her soul? I can hope…
Nonetheless, it’s deeply uncomfortable to be in her head as she displays impatience and contempt for so many of the people that she’s spent all these years leading and protecting. This new arrogance is revolting after the careful, humble stewardship we saw earlier.
I’m not going to recount every episode that caught my attention on the way through here, but I have to point out a few things. The “new rhythms” that give the chapter its title are creepy:
Buried within those new rhythms, the names of which she intuited somehow, she could almost hear voices speaking to her. Advising her. If her people had received such guidance over the centuries, they surely would not have fallen so far.
Ick.
There’s also the way those new rhythms make other people nervous. Is that simply because the rhythms are unfamiliar, because the others can’t hear the Rhythm she’s using? Or is there something in the rhythms themselves that causes uneasiness in those not (yet) attuned to the Voidbringer spren? It would be an interesting exercise to make a list of all the old and new Rhythms, and see how many direct correspondences there are, of the sort Eshonai makes between Amusement and “the new version of Amusement… Ridicule, it was.” Are all the new ones all a bitter twist on the old ones?
There are also repeated mentions of the red eyes, which she and Venli both have. During the meeting of the Five, Abronai whispers to himself, “Red eyes. Have we come to this?” Later, Eshonai thinks that her old friends will have to be executed, because she’d instilled in them too much fear of the old gods; they don’t trust her because of her red eyes. (Wise folk, these…)
Tied to that, I had to notice the number of times she can’t quite explain her own actions, and as noted above, I grasp at straws of hope that the old Eshonai can still be recovered.
Stormwatch
This Interlude actually jumps forward in time just a little; it takes place on the same day as the upcoming Chapter 60, six days after the last few chapters of Part Three.
Sprenspotting
Oh, the spren, the spren, the spren. What is the “cometlike” spren Eshonai keeps trying to chase away? Is it possibly the spren that was displaced when she took stormform? It certainly seems to be connected to her former self, anyway. Is it part of the screaming? And is it in any way similar to the way dead Shardblades scream when touched by a Radiant?
Then there are the stormspren. Thousands and thousands of them. Why are there suddenly so many of them around for Venli to collect? Were they always there, or are they now being sent? If the latter, by whom? Questions, questions. They also seem to have an… interesting effect on the local windspren:
Today’s clear sky rained down white sunlight, and a few windspren approached on a breeze. They stopped when they grew near, then zipped away in the opposite direction.
Best guess, windspren are too closely related to Honor-spren to be comfortable approaching Odium-influenced spren. Thoughts?
Heraldic Symbolism
I have to think that the Heralds on this interlude reflect the very twisted versions of their attributes presented by Eshonai and Venli. Kalak, the Maker, with his divine attributes of Resolute and Builder, is inversely reflected in Eshonai’s resolute direction of her people; she’s building them, all right, but building them into the antithesis of everything they’ve believed for centuries. Ishar, the Priest, with his attributes of Pious and Guiding, is reflected in Venli’s careful collection of the spren of their old gods, guiding the Listeners back to the Voidbringers they once served.
There. That ought to keep us busy until next week, when we dive into Part Four with bitter, gloomy Kaladin. Things just keep getting cheerier and cheerier up in here.
Alice Arneson is a long-time Tor.com commenter and Sanderson beta-reader. She is still moderately astonished every time another best-seller hits the shelves and she finds her name in the acknowledgements; that’s just bizarre. Fun, though.
The comet-like spren has been identified as being related to one of the order by Brandon, which one though is yet to be seen.
So another flashback character becomes a Radiant… I can’t help it. On one hand Brandon says there is no pattern, but on the other hand, the pattern confirms itself…
The Parshendi’s fear of red eyes is probably the same fear the humans have: their legends say redeyes are Voidbringers. Remember Shallan’s reaction when she sees the eyes of a dead Parshendi in Stormform.
I for one hope that Eshonai is dead (or to quote Robert Jordan when asked about Sammael’s status after ACoS: “toast”). I like her character. Had she not fallen off the ledge, I would have wondered whether the buried part of her subconscious would reemerge. I am tired of characters that come back from apparent death. Szeth survived. If Eshonai survives, I will begin to wonder if Brandon can kill off any of his magically endowed characters. As of the end of WoR, I would like to see Eshonai be the dead character for whom one of the books will contain flashback scenes.
I would not be surprised to learn that most, if not all, of the dissidents survived. Unfortunately, I also think Venli survived as well. The dissidents and Venli are too big plot wholes that Brandon can eliminate off screen without any further explanation.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
On the bright side, you’ve given me some hope for Eshonai. I can barely handle reading this chapter, much less looking close for analysis. I hadn’t noticed that Eshonai may be getting subverted by her true self. I hope so.
It’s interesting looking at these three interludes as a whole. We have lift, who does the right thing because someone has to. She may not be able to grasp the big picture of politics and the transformations threatening her world, but she does what she can. We have Szeth, whose own conscience is screaming at him. But, he ignores it and tries to justify what he’s doing. He has the free will Eshonai has lost but he refuses to exercise it. Last, we have Eshonai, overwhelmed by the evil that is now controlling her but (hopefully) trying to fight back as much as she can.
I think what Sanderson does to Eshonai is probably the worst thing he’s ever done to a character. It’s among the worst thing I’ve ever seen done to a character and I’ve read some dark fics indeed. I think it’s the screaming that does it. Being possessed is one thing, having part of yourself still in there is another. Maybe the channellers turned to the Dark in the WoT are screaming at themselves but we don’t (thank the Light) get their point of view.
Sanderson is fond of generating drama by having his characters be fundamentally wrong about something (see Mistborn, see Warbreaker, see Kaladin), but this is just too far.
@1 It seems pretty obvious that the Comet Spren are the spren of the Willshapers which I am moderately sure Eshonai is a proto-radiant of. Think of her fascination with exploration. [Her maps for example…] This also explains why Kalak presides over the chapter as he is the patron of the Willshapers.
Poor Eshonai, having another entity “in the driver’s seat” so to speak, must be terrifying. I’ve assumed the screaming Eshonai hears is her old spren? Did Odium’s spren break the minds of all those Listeners’ current spren who bonded the storm spren?
Iron Eyes @5 – It certainly seems possible, but why “pretty obvious” other than that it fits with your supposition of Eshonai as a Willshaper? It’s a nice theory, and I rather like it, but I’d love to have some kind of evidence to support it.
@2 I never viewed Eshonai falling off the cliff as a death. The way it was written left me thinking “we will see her again”. However, for someone who veiwed this as a deadly fall, I can understand the frustration at the fake deaths (szeth, eshonai, jasnah)
@5 Iron Eyes – Willshaper wasn’t what jumped out at me for the comet spren’s order. My thought was that she was being “scouted” by a Highspren as a possible old-style Skybreaker. It’s more a gut feeling than anything else.
Eshonai’s actions toward the dissenters pushed me toward the proto-Skybreaker idea. Part of in-universe Words of Radiance Chapter 28 includes this (as part of the Chapter 55 epigraph):
“The considerable abilities of the Skybreakers for making such amounted to an almost divine skill, for which no specific Surge or spren grants capacity, but however the order came to such an aptitude, the fact of it was real and acknowledged even by their rivals.”
That sounds a lot like what she’s doing in separating the dissenters from the stormform Listeners and letting the dissenters go their own way. The really nice thing about this quote is you don’t need to be bonded to a Highspren to have this ability.
Count me among those who want and expect Eshonai to return as her former self. I don’t believe that she died in that fall into the chasm having been protected from death by both her shardplate and stormform – if she was not caught on some vines that arrested her fall. She may have been seriously injured, however, to the point where the stormform has left her. I expect that she will be found by Thude and remnants of the Listener escapees, who will forgive her actions in stormform and choose her as their leader. It has been mentioned here that there is a hint to a future role as a Radiant. I’m looking forward to such events since I regard her as an interesting and sympathetic figure despite her more recent transformation to one driven largely by evil forces. I also agree that a remnant of the ‘old’ Eshonai remains and is responsible for her decision to exempt her old division from stormform and to allow them to guard the dissidents.
For sheer wild speculation fun, I searched through the descriptions of spren listed in the Coppermind. Keeping in mind that what Eshonai perceives as “danc(ing) around her head, shedding rings of like from its comet-like form” would look much different to a human, but would probably have some similarity such as dancing, light, zipping around the head, etc., the two I found that would most closely match are laughterspren and luckspren.
Laughterspren: “A few laughterspren—minnow-like silver spirits that darted through the air in circular patterns—began to zip about them.”
Luckspren: Shallan describes them as “tiny spren, flying around (skyeels) in a swarm as if riding their wakes. The sailors call them ‘Luckspren’ – I doubt it is their true name.”
There is, of course, no reason to dictate that we would have already seen their Physical representation, nor to expect necessarily that a bonding spren would appear similar to it’s non-bonding counterpart. However, since Sylphrena was logically mistaken for a windspren until her bond with Kaladin was more firmly established, it’s possible that the same would happen with other types, right?
So this is just for fun, and completely speculative, but I have to say that after looking at the characteristics of the various orders, if either laughterspren or luckspren are associated with one, Willshapers is the most likely possibility.
I skimmed this chapter, the second time. As others have said, it’s just so hard to be in her head right now. So I missed the part about the Wind & comet spren.
We know that she can survive a Highstorm, since they have to go out into them to change spren. Want to know more about that now that I think about it. But the flooding of the chasm would be harder to survive.
Anyone want to speculate that the good spren was able to reenter her during the storm? Maybe force the Void spren out? I would almost accept her living if that was the case better.
Like STBLST, count me in among those who expect Eshonai to come back. The Storm Father almost guaranteed Eshonai that she can survive a high storm.
I don’t believe Eshonai is going to be a Radiant. The series needs a POV from the side of the Parshendi and Odium. Eshonai is the best candidate so far. The real “Eshonai” is trapped in her own mind with the Voidspren taking over. I believe the Voidspren takes “possession” of its host. That’s why the Parsman basically “lost” their mind. That’s the only way they can survive.
Just my thoughts
This chapter I did not like as it did seem to be trying to make ambition into something always terrible. Wanting her people not to fall in power and influence is certainly something I can understand. Yes the way they do it here is terrible and awful but the idea that wanting to be powerful is somehow corrupt, not something I can get behind. I also always assumed the white spren was basically her old soul her old personality and that she has been basically possessed by odium at this point. Is that not the assumed interpretation by the rest of the fandom?
Okay I’ve been thinking about this and I don’t know if anyone has brought it up before but— Szeth was given a black stone by Galivar. We know spren can be held captive in gems and we know that Galivar’s plan was to do what Venli did – change the Parshendi back into the Voidbringers. I think Szeth gave that gem to the Parashendi and I think that gem held a trapped Voidspren. I think that that Venli figured out how to get what ever spren was trapped inside that stone out and bonded with it. If she didn’t bond with at the very least she might be influenced by that what ever spren was in that stone.
@15 kei_rin, sorry to burst your bubble, but that black stone was not given to the Parshendi – as per the dying king’s wishes. Instead, Szeth kept the stone until some new master brought him to Jah Keved where he buried it. I believe that is all set out in the first book. If Nalan is, indeed, acting as an agent for Rayse/Odium then he may have Szeth uncover the stone in order to release the evil force that it contains. We have already encountered two such embodied evil forces, presumably Moelach and Nergaol, last seen by Kaladin and Szeth as titanic figures striding across the chasm. These two may not need to wait for Szeth and Nalan, but may have the knowledge to locate and release their compatriot and others who may be similarly trapped.
@16
Damn that theory made so much sense and I didn’t remember Szeth talking about it at all after the opening prologue.
@16
Okay I looking through Szeth’s chapters in WoK and I can’t find where they are speaking of the crystalline sphere that Galivar has been buried. I found in I-3 where they talk about the Parshendi throwing Szeth’s Oathstone into a field but nothing about the sphere Galivar had. They are two different stones are you sure you aren’t confusing the two? Either Szeth still has the stone Galivar gave him with his dying wish, or Szeth gave that stone to the Parshendi but I found no mention of it being buried in the e-book version of the book.
Been thinking about Mateform. Is there a Voidbringer version of it? Or do they get their minds back when they go into Mateform to reproduce and keep the Voidbringer ranks up?
Wait, how do the slave parchmen reproduce? Are they secretly going into Mateform or can Slaveform reproduce on its own?
Maybe any form can reproduce and Mateform is just better at it.
@18 – While the miner is telling stories in the tavern, Page 179 of my ebook version.
“The tale always discomforted Szeth, as it reminded him of the strange black sphere Gavilar had given him. He’d hidden that carefully in Jah Keved. He didn’t know what it was, but he didn’t want to risk a master taking it from him. “
@20
Ah, I see it now. I don’t know how I read over that line twice in as many minutes. Okay so the sphere is buried in Jah Keved. Probably going to be important later.
I actually really like this chapter. There is so much tension and tragedy and interesting new information about the Listeners. I really like the idea that Eshonai is subconsciously sabotaging the imposed evil personality. And IMHO her being still in there, somewhere, while terrible, also is a sign of hope. Full possession is either irrevocable or can only be defeated from without, but this, with some luck, can be fought from within. After all, the Parshendi managed to escape once…
The spren pursuing her can’t be the mindless one that gave her the Warrior form… after all, they bind and release different spren routinely, it wasn’t removed artificially, it wouldn’t still be tied to her. No, I agree with folks above that it is, a spren of the higher order, one that can confer Radianthood. Maybe the spren decided to experiment more broadly because of the betrayal of Recreance… or maybe the Listeners are normally better attuned to their existence and don’t break as easily as humans, so there is no purchase for higher spren in them. But Eshonai has gone through so much between Gavilar’s assassination and this moment, and also the Stormform is so antithetical to her basic character and so hurtful to her that maybe it would now work with her. And of course we have seen that she had a fitting character.
I really don’t count her fall into the chasm as a fake death, since we have been shown repeatedly how highly protective and enhancing the Plate is, and she also has her Blade and is in a pretty tough Form. Unlike Szeth or Jasnah (I love her and am glad that she returned, though), I never felt that we were supposed to think her dead. So, I don’t see a slippery slope in this particular case, though in general, yea… And yes, IMHO the raging highstorm will somehow help Eshonai to force the stormspren out.
There is WoB who confirms it: the comet-like spren is related to a Radiant order.
Well, technically, the WoB states that “the comet spren is very important to an order of Knights Radiant.” Just sayin’…
@24: It indeed does, but what else could it possibly mean?
Heh. I can’t imagine, but this is Sanderson. He constantly surprises me! :D
I’ll agree that it probably means this spren is the bonding spren of one of the Orders, but I’m learning not to assume that probable means anything for certain.
@26: I like your thinking… I am among those who hates how easily everyone seems to be attracting those sprens. I thus do not want this comet-like spren to be a Nahel bond spren, especially considering Parshendis have never been Radiants before, so why oh why would an early spren spontaneously choose the species not authorized to perform the Nahel bond? This does not make sense to me…
I have no quarrel in accepting probable may not mean anything certain.
Wetlandernw @11
Is chasing spren the same as hunting snipe? Turns out creation-, glory-, star-, and flamespren also light up like a glow stick or somehow look bright. It’s easy to imagine any one of them having a comet-like tail if they were darting around with abandon. I can definitely get behind an arrangement-of-old between a Nahel-bonding version of a gloryspren and the Stonewards, with Taln at the helm. It’s a short leap to Eshonai-the-Stoneward from there. The usual disclaimers apply (lack of evidence, yada, yada). How it’s going to work out with crazy-pants, maybe-Taln heading up the revived Stonewards, well, that’s a question for another day. And I don’t doubt that Eshonai will be back either, Radiant or not. YMMV.
Re: new rhythms
The new ones I jotted down are fury, spite, ridicule, derision and destruction. More bitter twists: fury/peace and derision/praise. Maybe destruction/appreciation too. Later we get another new one, craving, which could pair against satisfaction. I think it’s random (for now), but it’s fun to play mix and match.
@28 Ways
Snipe Hunting? Hmm, but how to convince someone you could catch a Spren with a bag?Ooh, or maybe you just hand the Listener a really big, heavy rock to “trap” the spren in, and tell the poor sap not to drop it or set it down no matter what…
I always assumed the spren was something more dire. . . . Syl is always mentioning these new red spren that feel evil that she is seeing more of. Kaladin sees some similar-sounding spren (at the dead chasmfiend, I think?) and we are led to believe they are the same ones. It seems like this new, alien, bad-feeling spren which accompanies the supposed return of the voidbringers would be the same that is following eshonai around as a voidbringer, unless it is actually a displaced, more wholesome spren and that is why its presence annoys her “possessed” self. I totally agree it is sad what has been done to eshonai, and seems almost redundant, but I definitely get the feel that she will return as her normal self. It seemed fairly well-hinted that she was not falling to her death.
Was the sword given to Szeth in another of Sanderson’s books?
@28 & 29: LoL. Snipe hunting. Good one.
On that note, everyone have a fun and safe Halloween / Saints Day / weekend – depending upon your inclination.
I’ll be watching over a mini Luke Skywalker and a baby Dalak most will mistake for a ladybug.
New rhythms: they take the old rhythms and take them into the mean edge of their spectrum. Never a good thing.
Sarcasm and wit are fun, but when turned mean = problems.
Will not be fun to read PoVs from this side in book 3. It will be enlightening if there are some. But it will not be a “fun” section to me.
@30, yes. The sword is Nightblood from Warbreaker.
An interesting sword and character. I hope Brandon does deliver a chapter from its PoV in SA 3. A hint of one came across his FB / Twitter freed awhile back.
If the lesser spren as shardplate theory is correct, there are spren that are important to Radiants without being bonding spren.
@31: LOL. Completely out of subject, but I have an Izzi (from Jack and the Pirates) and a dragon. Both are carrying swords… just because.
Four days later…wow, did we manage to kill the thread.
But this chapter has to be one of the most depressing in an “I don’t want to relive it” sense. Therefore, not too surprising we are not talking in abundance over this chapter.
To all my fellow WoT fans on the thread… Hope you are enjoying the WoT Companion!
Let me do my part in keeping this thread going. I once asked about the quality of the Listener ‘songs’ that are chapter epigrams without receiving a response. They strike me as sophomoric attempts at poetry. Is this a deliberate ploy to indicate that the Listeners aren’t as talented as their ‘human’ counterparts? I recall that the ‘poems’ were assigned to various people by Brandon. There is some poetry within the text that is much better, and the Lin Davar lullaby composed by Brandon’s father-in-law is clearly superior to those epigrams. What was the point of the epigram compositions other than to convey certain information?
I don’t think that the epigrams are suppose to be read as songs but more like chants. I think I remember that Sanderson was talking about Vedic poetry being a influence for the Listeners songs. Which when you read Vedic verse it’s not much by the way of rhyming or lyrical-ness but more like general chanting beat that comes about when you read with the emphases on the right words.
@37: Two quick theories:
1) “translation” errors
2) The Listeners were so destroyed as a people, that when they created the songs again, they were behind in education levels.