#Jezrien Stormlight

[blindradiant]

I’m wondering about the Heralds’ relationship with their associated Radiant orders. Like obviously Nale has had a lot of influence over the Skybreakers. He’s the Herald of that order, a Skybreaker himself, and the only living one who has sworn the Fifth Ideal. Modern Skybreakers are the way they are largely because of Nale’s direction and enforcement of the order’s structure and methods.

But what about the other Heralds? Have any of them been involved with the Radiants at all, or do they try to forget? Does it depend on the Herald?

I don’t know if Jezrien was aware enough to be involved with the Windrunners before Moash killed him. We know pretty much nothing about Chanah and Vedel. I wonder what they think about modern Dustbringers and Edgedancers. Same with Pailiah and the Truthwatchers. I kind of think Ash would have absolutely no interest in being associated with the Lightweavers, and would actively try to distance herself as much as human(ish)ly possible. Batah and the Elsecallers??? Kalak is another one who I think would try to avoid any reminders of the past. Taln has been locked on Braize for 4500 years, and is now in no shape to be involved with the Stonewards. And we’ve seen how Ishar treats Dalinar.

I just think there’s a lot of potential to see how Heralds who aren’t Nale might have guided their Radiants at various points over time

[tyresw]

Brandon Sanderson when he writes Jezrien dying a third time

[cosmereplay]

Any fic recommendations for outside POVs experiencing the insanity of our main cast’s shenanigans? (ie. Hearthstone folks experiencing Kaladin as a Radiant but could be any character)

Thanks for the ask! This is a really interesting one. If you want an author who makes a habit of exploring unusual POVs and side characters on the edges of the main story, I highly recommend @wanderingchanneler's fics. Here are two:

Kakashah 1173 by BlindRadiant

Rated Teen, 4000 words, psychological horror, Spoilers for The Way of Kings. POV is the Shin sailor from one of the epigraphs.

“Come with me.” When Hevash hesitates, staring at the stone ground, Pela adds, “If you want work, you’ll have to make some sacrifices. If you don’t, though, I can have you brought back to the docks. If you couldn’t find work or passage in the past 12 days, you probably won’t be able to find any now. But who knows? Maybe your fortune could change.” She turns away and says something to the porter, then begins walking alone into the Concourse. Hevash makes a snap decision. Clenching his jaw against the blasphemy of what he’s about to do, he calls, “Wait.” Pela turns back around, an eyebrow raised. Hevash takes a deep breath. “I will come.” He steps out of the cart and onto the stone ground.

Keep reading

---

To Listen by BlindRadiant

Rated General, 1000 words, Lift & Szeth, RoW spoilers. Lift visits Szeth during his time in prison.

“Dalinar Kholin thought it wise for me to be here,” Szeth said to both of them. “I did not object. I am dangerous.” Navani Kholin had wanted Szeth to be executed, but Dalinar had disagreed. That had lead to where Szeth was now. If execution wasn’t an option, prison was the second best alternative.  “Still,” Lift said, “you just sit in here alone all the time?” I’m here too, the sword informed her. I’m great company. “You’re even crazier than he is, and that’s sayin’ a lot.” She tilted her head to one side, putting her hands in her pockets. “I guess it’s better than nothing, though.”

Keep reading

[virtualtear00]

Some of the design tests for Jezrien's honorblade

[onaslansside]

Lego Digital Designer versions of the Heralds from The Stormlight Archive (all made before the “official” art came out, but since those are also supposed to be based on legends rather than actually seeing them...I’m satisfied)

[cosmerepolls]

What's Your Opinion - Jezrien

[lamaery]

List Some time ago a friend on discord approached me with a prompt for a Szeth moment from Way of Kings. Mainly him getting the list with all the kings and head of states to assassinate. Image Description: Loose digital painting in a fairly monochrome set of blues, greys and violets with black as the dark colours for the shadows and a pale violet blue as the highlights, We see Szeth standing alone in a room in front of a table. His form is silhouetted by the Nomon's light falling through a window near the ceiling. He stands straight and very still, Jezrien's blade in one hand a piece of paper in the other, which he gazes down towards, although his profile is so shadowed that it is hard to read his expression. On the table before him the moonlight reflects off a plate and the bulky and gruesome form of a decapitated head. Soft wisps of stormlight waft from Szeth's hands and head. Leaving him a forlorn figure in the moonlight and its shadows.(edited)

[lesbianimus]

Quick Stormlight theory from a conversation with a friend

(WaT chapter 29)

This scene finally confirmed that Shallan actually went to Shadesmar physically in WoK, during the scene where she asks to be Jasnah's ward for real. At the time, Shallan explains this as her two spren pulling her into shadesmar, but later, after talking to her mother, Shallan thinks

(Wat chapter 118)

The heralds were all Surgebinders on Ashyn. We don't know how Ashyn surgebinding works, but we know that it tended to run in families (see: Shalash and Jezrien, Makibak and Nale). Lots of invested powers in the cosmere are inherited (see: allomancy, ferucmhemy, the royal locks of nalthis, whatever the fuck is happening on Threnody), so it's reasonable to guess that Ashyn surgebinding might've been inherited too. What if Shallan inherited the surge of Transportation from her mother, in the same way that a mistborn might have a misting child? The descriptions of her looking and falling into shadesmar are very similar to descriptions of Venli using Transportation.

If that's the case, then she'd likely have a resonance between Transportation and Lightweaving. That resonance would be something radiants can't normally do, because there is no radiant order with both of those surges. We know from her conversation with Kelek that Shallan's ability to see the Spiritual is not commonly found among radiants

(WaT chapter 7) I think that Shallan's ability to see the Spiritual might be a resonance between Lightweaving and Transportation. Lightweaving has a spiritual component (best seen in how Truthwatchers use it), and Transportation is used to see into Shadesmar as well as visit it. The ability to see into (and perhaps even visit) the Spiritual realm seems like a possible resonance for those two abilities, and it would fully explain all the weird unexplained shit we've seen Shallan do if that's the case. It also makes sense that, when Honor was picking the surges to grant his heralds, he'd avoid this particular combination -- Tanavast fears the Spiritual Realm (see the vorin prohibition on future sight, and Stormfather's objection to Dalinar's journey during the final 10 days), so when organizing the Oathpact, he would not have wanted heralds having this resonance.

[maspers]

I feel like those of us in the Cosmere fandom don't appreciate how the Stormlight Archive isn't a murder mystery.

(Well okay there's a little bit of one in Oathbringer but we aren't talking about that)

It could have been so easy for the death of Gavilar Kholin to have been a murder mystery. Let's look at the scenario, shall we? There's a big meeting and party, where peace is supposed to be declared, and then the King dies. Say we DIDN'T know whodunnit. Gavilar's death haunts the narrative, and every subplot in the story soon ties back to that single driving question of "Who Killed Gavilar Kholin?". Over the course of the story, we've seen the layers slowly peeled off, one by one, revealing a whole bunch of suspects.

There's Dalinar, the King's brother, seemingly a depressed drunkard but was once known a deadly warrior and general.

There's Sadeas, the highprince who is seemingly loyal to the king but is otherwise a backstabbing slimeball.

And there's another highprince, Amaram, who was talking with Gavilar for quite a while earlier in the day.

Jasnah, the King's heretical and highly intelligent daughter, and...

Also the person who hired Liss, an actual assassin, to spy on the event and possibly kill someone else.

Then there's Elhokar, the King's incompetent son who is nonetheless next in line for the throne.

And Elhokar's hedonistic wife, Aesudan, who was apparently enough of a problem that Jasnah was planning on killing her.

Speaking of wives, the King's own wife Navani is soon revealed to be cunning in her own right... and angry with her husband.

Dalinar's sons, Adolin and Renarin, don't seem to have been in attendance, but considering everyone else in the family was there there's no reason they couldn't've been around as well and nobody mentioned it.

There's Eshonai and the other Parshendi drummers, a.k.a. the opposing faction. Eshonai in particular seems to be dangerous.

And her sister, Venli, is also dangerous, was also present, and probably wasn't supposed to be.

At least four of the legendary Heralds are soon revealed to be present as well. The King was planning on betraying Kalak and Nale, Jezrien was drinking with Dalinar, and Shalash was defacing the artwork.

Taravangian, the seemingly weak and compassionate King of Kharbranth who secretly is planning on orchestrating a LOT of murdering.

There's the mysterious "Thaidakar", leader of the Ghostbloods who Gavilar himself thought was the one responsible for killing him.

Since it's a Cosmere work and we didn't yet know Hoid couldn't hurt people, it would be easy to assume he's an available suspect as well.

Gavilar could have even committed suicide, as some part of an elaborate scheme.

A huge assortment of servants and partygoers, all of which could have been the killer. Not to mention the spren (and a seon!), who are soon revealed to not necessarily be as mindless as they seem.

Literally anyone else in the story becomes fair game at first glance. Even though she definitely wasn't there at all, Shallan Davar is revealed to have history with that particular night as well. You can keep going and connect everyone to the murder somehow, at least at first.

And lastly Szeth-son-son-Vallano, a mysterious Shin man in white, seen roaming the halls with a very bizarre sword.

Of course, we all know what happened. It was Szeth, in the King's chambers, with the honorblade. And he did it on the orders of the Parshendi. There's no whodunnit, or even a howdunnit (and even the whydunnit is only partially hidden from the reader, Jasnah's POV reveals Eshonai and the other Parshendi were pretty upfront about why they did it). There's no ambiguity, the death is merely a spark that kicks off the plot into motion.

"The Mysterious Murder of Gavilar Kholin" would have been a crutch. It would have been so easy for Sanderson to use it as a backup sideplot, supporting the other stories and keeping things tied together. There's an AU out there where Kaladin ends up being the amateur detective who puts the last piece together and confronts Szeth in an epic battle in the sky. That could have happened. But it didn't.

Brandon Sanderson does not need to rely on a murder mystery to keep his story standing. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, he had enough faith in his narratives to make them stand on their own, moving forward beyond the death of one pathetic man. The Stormlight Archive is not about how people die, it's about how people choose to live. So it cast aside its crutch, walked forward on its own legs, and became one of the best dang fantasy sagas in history.

And then, in the ultimate "psych!" moment, things went back around and kept connecting to that night anyway. Like a bizarre episode of Columbo, where everything else around the extremely upfront murder gets revealed instead. Instead of using the murder mystery as a device to support the plot, the entire rest of the story is used as a device to support the account of the murder. So that even though it WASN'T a murder mystery we're thrown by the plot twists anyway.

And then, of course, while we're still reeling from those reveals, the rest of the plot hits us with some more Sanderlanches, because this story is still going. And it was never really about Gavilar, anyway.

It's brilliant. How the heck does Sanderson pull these crazy writing shenanigans off?

[loud-n]

What's up with Roshar's Money and Why is Sapphire so Valuable

I recently started my reread of Stormlight Archive to prepare for book 5, and coincidentally, this happened at roughly the same time the cosmere rpg started kickstarting. So, reading TWoK and the beta rules of the rpg at the same time, a few things happened to come together. For one, the rpg had this table:

I thought this was very interesting. I hadn't ever seen anything like this (though, checking coppermind, a similar chart has been available since an interview in 2018 that I wasn't aware of). It's a nice way for me to contextualize just how much money Shallan throws around at the beginning of TWoK (for example, based on remarks from Yalb in chapter 3, we know that a week's wages for a sailor is roughly one ruby mark/firemark, or 10 diamond marks/clearmarks), and while it seems like it might be simplified for gameplay purposes, it's also broadly consistent with the other sources.

So I kept reading until I got to this line:

"Emeralds were the most valuable, for they could be used by soulcasters to create food." (The Way of Kings ch. 3, pg. 72 on the trade paperback)

This line lays out explicitly that the soulcasting traits of a gem are the primary way (or at least a very significant one) that these values were assigned. This makes a lot of sense: the ability to soulcast food is the key component that allows Roshar the kind of military structures it has, and would provide an extremely valuable way to compensate for issues with harvests that might come with Roshar's 'temperamental' weather patterns.

(some major oathbringer spoilers below the cut)

I then wanted to know how this translates to the other types of gem. Many of these make a lot of sense: amethyst can be used to soulcast metal, which is important and difficult to obtain on roshar (coppermind notes that this may also be the only way to get aluminum on Roshar); ruby, smokestone, and zircon are all used as part of infrastructure for food preparation and waste management (and rubies seem especially common in the fabrials we've seen); garnet, heliodor, and topaz all provide less vital (though still useful) and less valuable materials; and diamond can be used to soulcast quartz, glass, and crystal, none of which are particularly valuable (especially given easy access to even light with stormlight and danger from highstorms making windows difficult and less valuable).

However, one gem caught my eye here.

Why is sapphire so valuable?

Sapphire's soulcasting can produce translucent gas or air, which seems a bit redundant with smokestone, a stone we know is regularly used. To my knowledge, we don't see any characters ever use soulcasting powered by a sapphire (please correct me if I'm wrong, I may be forgetting or confusing an instance with smokestone). So unless there's something we're missing or something to come, it doesn't seem like sapphire's value is because it is especially useful in soulcasting.

If this isn't the case, I can think of three possible explanations for why sapphire is worth so much:

Sapphire is less common. We know that obtaining emerald is a major part of the Rosharan economy and a significant reason for the continued occupation of the shattered plains at the start of the series. This might also be the case for sapphire: greatshells with sapphire gemhearts may be less common or more difficult to farm, making sapphire more scarce and thus more valuable.

Sapphire is especially useful in fabrials. So far, we've only seen one fabrial using sapphire that I can remember: the soul-harvesting dagger used to kill Jezrien (Oathbringer ch. 121). Even this may not be a specific trait of all sapphires, but rather due to the fact that sapphires are associated with Jezrien and the windrunners. I think it's possible and maybe even likely that sapphires are the gems used in half-shards, since none of the examples ever specify what gem is used and Taravangian states that the spren within could have graced a knight radiant (Oathbringer ch. 100) - possibly an honorspren trapped within a sapphire. This may also have been Taravangian lying, though.

The value is somehow associated with Jezrien and the Windrunners. This one seems the most far-fetched to me: at the start of the series, the knights radiant are not viewed especially fondly, and I doubt the Windrunners would have enough staying power to change the value of a gem. The idea that it may be association with Jezrien seems to me to have more merit; Jezrien seems to generally be elevated to a point beyond the other heralds.

Based on the information we have, I think that my second proposal has the highest chance of being at least partially correct. Association with Jezrien seems far-fetched, sapphire being especially scarce seems like something too far off course to get significant confirmation of in-text, and fabrials are one of the elements of the world still being developed in universe that we also don't have a lot of extra information about.

If any of this is going to be answered, I honestly think it might come through the rpg: the first wave of releases will include a world guide with canon information that might shed some light on these elements less important to the actual story, and the rules will also detail a lot of information about fabrials that could answer my questions about half-shards. Until then, though, I'm just going to have to sit here and wonder (and keep a special eye out for mentions of sapphire on my reread for anything I missed).

[luchibelle-throughthecosmere]

W&T

REVIEW WITH SPOILERS

Kal.- Such a beatiful journey for my boy. Ever since leaving his hometown he unwittingly became a legend. Only a few actually got to see the mortal (Kaladin) behind that inmortal mask of determination (Stormblessed). His journey resounds in so many of us because beyond his inhuman abbilities he is a human just like us. The ultimate protector. The last remnant of Honor. Kaladin. Herald. Herald of Kings. Herald of the Wind. Herald of Second Chances.

Shallan.- Always wanted her to be a worldhopper but couldn't really see how that might happen once she married Adolin. Now she is trapped in Shadesmar among other worldhoppers. Yay. Also, she got on well with Thaidakar (whose motivations and needs don't disturbe Shallan's unlike Mraize and Iyatil's did). And- CHARANACH IS HER MOM.

Taln did NOT break. Ever. It was Shallan who triggered it all (poor thing has no fault really). Love the fact that Taln never broke, it always felt wrong. Reminds me of Dabbid a little -although his lack of words is trully caused by trauma not pretended-. Gotta make him tells us why he tried to kill Cultivation.

Jasnah.- Never liked her morality. It always felt wrong. Never liked her character because of it. That night at Karbranth, the assassins she hired, considering the extermination of the singers, stabbing a highprince... And then Brandon used the reverse card and actually confronted her about her actions and intentions. That is exactly what she needed. She will grow so much in the coming books! We still don't know why exactly she was confined as a kid but she kind of hinted that her mother was not okay with it, rescued her as soon as she got back from her travels. Hopefully, she will be the one to take Navani out of her self-induced coma.

Lift will finally let herself grow up and Vasher will help her about it! Will Cultivation's absence affect her powers? Since she never used Stormlight (or Towerlight) creating Lifelight out of food instead, will anything change for her now that Cultivation flee? Maybe Lift's presence lures her back to Roshar someday.

Sezth.- Never liked the idea of him becoming an Herald, even if it thematically worked since he won Jezrien's Shardblade. Glad how it turned out, he deserves a quiet life with the sheeps. Also, him being a Skybreaker finally clicked for me, it was about gainning agency and deciding for yourself. And we got to learn Aux's backstory as well!

Adolin not becoming a surgebinder was perfect. After how disappointing Wayne holding up a gun was, it was refreshing how Adolin stood by his decision not to become a Radiant. Really beautiful to see how despite the unoathed not being broken they can form an attachment to the spren. Now he is learning how to read which is fulfilling in itself, just like he was okay with women holding weapons he needs to be okay with men reading. Times are changing and they have to change as well, otherwise they will be left behind. Change can be good, both Lift and Adolin got to learn that finally.

Dalinar.- He understood Honor but didn't fit in. There was always something about him becoming the vessel of Honor that didn't work out for me. Now we have another vessel having trouble with the two Shards and their conflicting interests. Wished we could have seen a little bit more of what it meant to be the Stormfather's Bondsmith, now we will never get a chance unless we get new flashbacks. Syl, as the Ancient Daughter, is currently the oldest honorspren we have. Will she eventually take his place? The storm in her eyes... Also, really liked how Dalinar didn't have to fight Gav and found the answers where he always did, in Nohadon's pressence.

Rlain and Renarin paralleling Windrunner Garith and the Regal femalen singer was genius. Proof that both races can coexist and any conflict between them is each individual's fault, not the race they belong to. Both of them grow up a lot in this book and grow away from what their people want them to be, they become who THEY want to be. Agency. Individuality. Self-worth.

[shayberri789]

Way of Kings Reread

I just finished Sunlit Man in prep for Wind and Truth, and Nomad had described 'roshar's own Damnation' as being cold, yet coppermind says that (in vorinism at least, maybe Azish religion says otherwise?) Damnation was firey, and even Kalak references fire on Braize?

My friends and I think maybe the memory of Ashyn and lingering understanding of the Spiritual Realm inspired Tranquiline Halls, and the memory of Ashyn as humans fled (ie: destroyed and on fire) (is it still firey?) got conflated with the idea of Odium and 'voidbringers' being sealed away on Braize, making Damnation Braize But On Fire

And in actuality Braize is cold but the Fused like using fire as torture devices. Who knows!

Prologue:

I forgot musicspren were a thing???

Okay I remembered that Gavilar met with Kalak and Nale. I did NOT remember Elhoker talking to them, Szeth encountering Jezrien, or the implication that Shalash was ALSO present (to steal her own statue ofc). That's like just under half of all the rosharian-side heralds present???

Wonder what the others felt to see Jez old and senile, while they were virtually unchanged appearance-wise and considered themselves sane....

"For if you were going to assassinate a man, he was entitled to see you coming" remains a great line

Do we know why Shardblades form from mist? Is it like Leras's investiture being Mist, or something to do with the pure form of investiture in general/the spiritual realm?

Why does using a lot of investiture/stormlight cause frost to form of Szeth's clothes?

*assassination attempt happens* "is this kelsier's doing?"

My dude's reputation stretches far and wide (to think, the last time I read this prologue was before mistborn, when I didnt know who Kelsier was, nvm thaidakar)

Gavilar: "okay so not thaidakar. Reatares? Why?" Me: Gav, kalak was literally at your party you just had a meeting with him

Branderson was right: the Cenn pov WAS necessary. Kaladin man that you are, man that you were—

How did I forget that kaladin is EXTREMELY skilled and accurate with both knife fighting AND throwing the buggers. Hello?! Like even BEFORE he fought Helaran

(It may be a minute before I update since I am busy + reading several books at once. Once the reblog gets big enough I'll post it lol)

[hamelin-born]

My brain keeps bouncing between @nevertheless-moving 's Stormlight Archive AUs - they're unutterably fantastic, go and read them right now if you haven't already - and now I just. Uh.

I wanna see a time-travel AU featuring herald!Kaladin. Because it would be so fun, and have the potential for so much crack.

YOU WANTED A HERALD? YOU GET A DARKEYED HERALD WHO IS FULL OF THE OVERARCHING MAJESTY OF THE ALMIGHTY, RADIANT IN HIS GLORY, AND why are all of you looking at him like that, he's just a guy?

There are multiple avenues this could take, but the one I like to play around with is that Kaladin is misinterpreted as Jezrien's reincarnation.

If he doubles-down and denies everything people just think he's unaware of his status at least part of the time, with his herald!self basically - possessing him at times and leaving no memory of the event behind?

People are freaking out. Does this mean that all the Heralds have been reincarnated?!

If we tie this in with @nevertheless-moving's au, we can have bridge four collectively going I KNEW IT!

If you really want to have fun with this, we could actually have an AU where Kaladin is Jezrien reincarnated, and character-of-your-choice is herald-of-your-choice reincarnated.

[sweetteaanddragons]

Stormlight Archive: Wind and Truth Thoughts and Theories

Lots of spoilers below.

Kaladin - I love the herald thing. I think it retroactively makes @nevertheless-moving's AU of Kaladin being time traveler mistaken for a herald even funnier, and it was already hilarious. I am dying to see fic where Kaladin-as-herald DOES time travel, someone DOES assume this, and they are actually correct, but not in the way they think. They start guessing historical names, and Kaladin has to go, "Well, I guess Jezrien is closest, but it's not quite like - " and everyone runs with it.

I am hoping for SO MANY reveals/interactions when he returns in the next series. I want him to go flying in to save Adolin from something in an 11th hour rescue and Adolin to have that "You're ALIVE?" moment. I want him to reconnect with his baby brother. I want Szeth to try to murder Ishar to avenge Kaladin's death only for Kaladin to have to intervene.

I love it.

Adolin - I love his arc in this book, and I love how his habit of talking to his weapons/armor has paid off such huge dividends. Slightly concerned about the firemoss; having seen what addiction did to his father, I hope he'll resist that path, but it does worry me a little.

Shallan - I'm assuming she won't manage to return in the interim between series, so this is looking like a long separation. At least she can talk to Adolin?

. . . her nausea/hand to her stomach thing is entirely understandable from emotional context, but given *tropes,* I'm kind of thinking she might be pregnant.

Szeth - I enjoyed his arc, and I loved learning he got married; I'm hoping he's very happy.

Gavinor - I'm betting his storyline and Lift's are going to be heavily entertwined in the next series since Lift feels partially responsible for him going through the rift in the first place. I'm also betting his storyline will ultimately end positively, as a counterpart to his father's tragedy.

Odium: You know that cut Hamilton song? "You have invented a new kind of stupid/a let all the animals out of the zoo kind of stupid/a you really did not think this through kind of stupid/Listen?"

Yeah, that's how I feel about his decision to recruit the Blackthorn and I am delighted.

It is 100% in character, given what he tries to do with Dalinar and Jasnah throughout the book. It is also, I think, a fatal mistake.

He has recruited the Blackthorn. A being with all the memories of his other self. A being with all the potential of his other self.

All of it. Including the bits that grew to fight Odium.

Navani is still alive. His sons are still alive. Does Odium really think they'll let this last remainder of Dalinar just . . . trot merrily off to war without trying to stop him?

Retribution ACKNOWLEDGES that the perception of Dalinar is what shapes the Blackthorn. Public perception that largely paints him as Retribution wants, sure . . . but Dalinar, prior to his death, become a tragic hero known for fighting Odium and RELEASED A BOOK WITH HIS WHOLE LIFE STORY.

Does Retribution really think he can keep that public perception pointed in the right direction forever?

The Blackthorn doesn't even make him any promises. He just says that fighting is "what I do."

He is 100% going to turn on Retribution eventually, and it is going to be glorious.

Other thoughts:

Dova is going to be a problem eventually.

I like the time bubble aspect; that'll let the events of Mistborn trilogy three play out before we catch up with Roshar.

I think the next Roshar series is going to be a massive crossover event for the cosmere.

I adored the musical chairs aspect of the final fight in Azir.

Loved the reprise of "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do."

(I also love the wind's little "Please don't hate me" to Kaladin.)

Definitely convinced that the overall plot of the cosmere is going to be "So we shouldn't have killed Adonalsium, now we need to put the pieces back together. This is exactly what I wanted, so I'm thrilled!

Oh! And given the emphasis in the book on the dangers of Shards turning their backs on planets and their people for too long, I think Retribution is going to find his distraction is going to cost him. He made a lot of promises in this book . . . and then did huge damage to the ecosystem and the landscape, massive psychological damage by hiding the sun, and vanished, utterly failing to enforce whatever social plans he had.

People are going to be TICKED.

Which of course provides opportunities.

Especially when the two territories NOT affected by Retribution are right there, enjoying the sun.

(Jasnah, returning for round two of debate for Fen: I can guarantee you that neither I nor any of my descendants are going to block out the sun.

Fen: Will you just let us sign the paper already?)

[moash]

yea i gotta be honest, i think caring about moash killing jezrien as a bad thing he did is just something people say when they know he was justified in killing elhokar but still want to hate him

i’ve decided it’s actually funny when people just. forget. that moash was a slave of the fused. i used to get the occasional “what about when he killed jezrien?” and it’s like. the fused told him to do it and he was their slave, idk what you want me to say.

[awindandtruthliveblog]

[Wind and Truth: Chapter 88]

How does 8 POVs sound like a small number?

Ooh I hope we get more information on the properties of anti-Light. Thanks Navani!

Yelig-nar, just like that. It's like progressing in a game until bosses become regular enemies.

I wonder if Sigzil renounces by just, like, murdering Moash. Keep it simple.

Jasnah sent troops, but is she out of Stormlight? Thaylenah could really back them up with that reserve again.

Fucked up that this vision of the future is just as real as his visions of the past. They're just not certain to happen yet.

Wow I hope we watch Gavilar die again. Dalinar can see he's shitty maybe? Odium could have messed up.

Wow Jezrien with Fortune? I think that's the right attribute for the whole "right place right time" thing Hoid does. And maybe Shallan, if Kalak was right about her.

Sometimes kids talk a lot of things they don't fully understand, like Gav does here. It doesn't feel incredibly natural here, but I can see it. Most of what Gavinor has known is fighting.

Can the humans break the contract? Would that not give Odium power over them in a way he doesn't have yet?

Off to Braize, but a vision?

Also where did El go