This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 68 through 75

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-12, I-13, I-14, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Chapter 68: Bridges

Arch Faces: Kalak - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Kalak

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: The Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3) The day after Chapter 67. Four days after Chapter 66.

Epigraph:

However, it seems to me that all things have been set up for a purpose, and if we—as infants—stumble through the workshop, we risk exacerbating, not preventing, a problem.

Summary:

Kaladin is on a scouting expedition to the Shattered Plains and has bad memories of being a bridgeman. He frets that he is unable to absorb Stormlight unless Syl is near him, and she admonishes him for being naughty and acts capriciously toward him. He grows angry that Syl doesn't agree with his decision and says he is broken, to which she replies that all the old Knights were. Kaladin decides to ignore her and enjoy the company of Bridge Four as they reach a plateau with a permanent scouting location. He overhears a scout tell Dalinar that a glowing flying man was spotted in the Plains, and Dalinar believes that this was Szeth, though it was actually Kaladin. Dalinar and Kaladin discuss how Renarin is fitting in with Bridge Four and if that is affecting him positively or not.

Kaladin has more difficulty absorbing Stormlight, finds Syl later, almost acting like a windspren, and she tells Kaladin to decide what he wants, and he realizes he made two conflicting promises to Moash and Dalinar which violates the code of Honor. He asks for advice and Syl tells him to find the Words, and then she flies away.

Shallan draws a sketch of one of the mechanical bridges being unfolded, and Kaladin also watches, and recognizes one of the carpenters. Moash shows up in his shards and salutes Kaladin, though he now outranks him, and says he will always be part of Bridge Four, even as a lighteyes. Moash says that the assassination plot is close to fruition, and that they only need Kaladin to create an opening, which makes him worry over what Syl told him. Adolin and Kaladin discuss contingencies for a possible attack by Szeth, and Adolin asks for advice about women. Adolin tries to get Kaladin to reveal his abilities but fails. Shallan joins them and starts sketching some moss, and they banter a bit, with Shallan getting upset that Kaladin insulted Adolin and that Kaladin acts so negatively despite Adolin's positive attitude.

Kaladin rejoins Bridge Four to carry their mobile bridge over the mechanical one, toward their destination where a chasmfiend was slain, and where Shallan plans to study the chrysalis. They reach the destination, and the carpenter that Kaladin recognized calls to Dalinar who crosses the bridge. Kaladin realizes the carpenter worked in Sadeas' lumberyard and cries out a warning. He gets Adolin and Dalinar off the bridge but is too late as the carpenter throws an emergency lever that causes the bridge to collapse with Kaladin and Shallan still on it.

Chapter 69: Nothing

Arch Faces: Shalash - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3) Immediately after Chapter 68.

Epigraph:

Rayse is captive. He cannot leave the system he now inhabits. His destructive potential is, therefore, inhibited.

Summary:

Kaladin falls into the chasm and is able to absorb a bit of Stormlight through desperate effort though he hears a pained scream from Syl as he does so, and hits the ground, falling unconscious. He awakes in darkness, since all his spheres were drained, and great pain, and hears a voice asking what has he done. Syl's scream haunts him. He is uninjured and gets to his feet, and runs into Shallan, and lies about how he survived, and Shallan explains how the bridge was collapsed. They search the bridge wreckage and find several bodies but don't see Dalinar or Adolin. Kaladin thinks that he somehow saved Shallan. Kaladin says that there was a parshendi attack right before the bridge fell, and that means that Dalinar probably retreated. Kaladin tells Shallan that they may have been rescued by a windspren as in folktales. Kaladin and Shallan discuss how they will survive and what dangers they may face, the worst of which is a highstorm due the following night. They decide to set out immediately for the warcamps.

Shallan is both annoyed and pleased to find Kaladin survived, and thinks that she saved both of them somehow. As they walk, she notices how much plantlife there is in the chasm. Kaladin walks silently and asks if Shallan will constantly chat as they travel and ignores her response, focusing on finding the shortest path back to the warcamps. Shallan tries to get Kaladin to relax but he reveals his prejudice against lighteyes and she says he only uses that as an excuse to be obnoxious. He brings up the incident with the boots, but then reveals that he doesn't have a grudge and that he doesn't actually dislike her as he does other lighteyes. Shallan is insulted and they start an argument that is cut off as they hear a loud scraping noise that seems to be approaching them. They realize the danger they are in, and begin to run.

Chapter 70: From a Nightmare

Arch Faces: Kalak - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Kalak

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3-4) Immediately after Chapter 69.

Epigraph:

Whether this was Tanavast's design or not, millennia have passed without Rayse taking the life of another of the sixteen. While I mourn for the great suffering Rayse has caused, I do not believe we could hope for a better outcome than this.

Summary:

Kaladin and Shallan flee as they are chased by a chasmfiend. Shallan chooses a path and orders Kaladin to follow her. They stop and Kaladin covers his Stormlight, and he realizes that she lured the chasmfiend back to their original location to the fresh corpses for food. Shallan decides she wants to see the chasmfiend, and get close to take a look at it as it fills the chasm and has small glowing spren around it like the spren that follow skyeels. They leave before the chasmfiend finishes its meal.

Shallan lets Kaladin lead, though she tries to keep track of where she is, and dwells on the chasmfiend. She grows tired now that all her Stormlight is drained. Kaladin says they should stop so they don't risk getting lost and going the wrong direction, and wants to wait until daybreak to get their bearings. They banter for a bit, with less antagonism, and Shallan sketches their path through the chasms in the form of a map, which impresses Kaladin.

Kaladin wakes her up after a short sleep, before daybreak. They set out, and when the sun rises, they think they are going the right direction. They banter further, with Shallan dishing out lighthearted insults while Kaladin resists replying in kind, unlike his earlier behavior. Kaladin asks why Shallan came to the Shattered Plains and she becomes serious, replying that she was trying to continue Jasnah's important research, and that Adolin was an added bonus. Kaladin asks if she was there to investigate the strange structures that they saw and she tries to dissemble but he sees through it, and explains his original suspicions of her. She says that she wants the parshmen exiled before they betray the Alethi, and he replies that they might be replaced with regular Alethi slaves and she empathizes with his former plight as a slave. Shallan tries to be lighthearted but Kaladin will have none of it, though he tries to not argue either. Kaladin explains that he thinks she is a typical pampered sheltered lighteyes which Shallan rephrases back as self-contradictory and convoluted, and Kaladin sees the flaws in his argument. Shallan tells Kaladin that she won't harm the Kholins and she is sincere in trying to prevent disaster, and he accepts this. Kaladin then checks their bearings and realize they are going the wrong direction.

Chapter 71: Vigil

Arch Faces: Vedel - Ishar ----- Ishar - Vedel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Teft

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 70.

Epigraph:

He bears the weight of God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is what he, unfortunately, wished to become.

Summary:

Teft and Sigzil are in the warcamp, sitting vigil for Kaladin, and Teft speaks of his childhood and of what his parents did as Envisagers. They knew things about the Radiants, and some Envisagers including his parents attempted suicidal stunts to see if they would manifest powers, and Teft ended up turning them into the authorities who had them executed. Dalinar shows up and inquires about their vigil and Teft proclaims that Kaladin definitely survived despite falling into the chasm. Sigzil proclaims his belief in Kaladin's return and Dalinar just tells them to not overextend themselves or stay out during highstorms, though the highprince believes that Kaladin is dead.

Kaladin feels like a fool for leading them in the wrong direction. He calls out for Syl but gets no answer. He also feels like a fool for the way he treats Shallan and for the incorrect assumptions he made about her. He compliments Shallan on her drawing ability as she sketches a more accurate map of the Shattered Plains, though it is getting much sooner until the next highstorm. She traces a couple of the plateaus nearby by walking around them, and Kaladin notices her having a mysterious conversation with someone and speculates that she might be a Radiant talking to a spren.

Shallan says that some of the series of plateaus are mirror images of others and Kaladin says that the Shattered Plains are symmetrical and that he knew that from a dream, and Shallan says she knows where the Parshendi are, and the Oathgate, and that she can map all of it since the Plains were not a natural forming pattern, but rather created through cymatics.

They follow a revised path based on Shallan's map, though they have to periodically check their route, slowing down their escape. Kaladin occasionally shouts up from the chasm to try to get the attention of Alethi scouts, but no one answers. Kaladin grows moody because he feels that he failed them, but Shallan tries to remain optimistic. Kaladin says he wished he could be like Shallan, but then Shallan describes how it is like to be depressed and hopeless and he understands that she wasn't always happy, but she somehow muddles through anyway, which inspires him. They banter again with Shallan trying to improve Kaladin's mood again like she used to do with her brothers, and he goes along with the joking to an extent.

The chasmfiend shows up again, and they try to flee, hiding in a narrow fissure. The chasmfiend fails to reach them, but it then settles nearby to wait as the highstorm is rapidly approaching, with about two hours left before it reaches them. Kaladin decides to try to distract the chasmfiend to allow Shallan to escape back to the warcamps with her vital information. He prepares to fight to the death, and tells Shallan to apologize to Adolin on his behalf. Shallan says that before he goes to fight to take her Shardblade.

Chapter 72: Selfish Reasons

Arch Faces: Kalak - Talenel ----- Talenel - Kalak

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 71.

Epigraph:

I suspect that he is more a force than an individual now, despite your insistence to the contrary. That force is contained, and an equilibrium reached.

Summary:

Kaladin asks how Shallan has a Shardblade and she replies that it is unimportant. He brushes against the Blade and doesn't hear screams like he did previously in the dueling arena. He reluctantly accepts the Blade and Shallan swears him to secrecy, then says she wants to get her satchel. Kaladin distracts the chasmfiend, dodging around it and leading it away from Shallan. He uses the confined space of the chasm to his advantage, and cuts the beast a couple of times, but then gets bitten in the leg as he tries to evade an attack. Shallan distracts the beast and he is able to retrieve the Shardblade but then collapses from pain. He picks up a sphere and tries to drain its Stormlight but only hears distant weeping. He sees an illusion of himself that distracts the beast momentarily before it vanishes in a puff of Stormlight which he somehow thinks that he created. He decides he has to go for the beast's head and stabs at it as its jaws reach for him.

Shallan sees the beast fall on top of Kaladin, and notices some spren around the chasmfiend seeming to leave it. Kaladin's body protrudes from the creature's mouth and she tries to pull him out, and he says ow. They banter as she uses her blade to try to cut him free, and he explains that he stabbed the chasmfiend in the brain to kill it. Once free, he asks her to bind his leg for him which she does. They take a brief rest, and despair that the storm will get them anyway. Kaladin then realizes that Shallan could use the Shardblade to cut out a cubbyhole above the waterline in the chasm for them to hide in from the storm and flood waters. She climbs up the dead fiend, then changes her blade to be knife-size and carves handholds in the chasm to climb above the waterline to carve a shelter out for them. They banter as Shallan cuts the rock, and it takes about an hour for her to finish. She uses a vine to help Kaladin climb up to the safe spot just before the floods reach them.

Chapter 73: A Thousand Scurrying Creatures

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.10.8.1) (Flashback) One year ago. A little over five months after Chapter 65. About six months before Shallan arrives in Kharbranth to try to become Jasnah's ward. A month and a half after Kaladin kills Helaran and is enslaved.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan and Jushu are in Balat's room helping him prepare to leave. They talk about the valuable deposits of stone recently found on their land, and how they find it strange to be wealthy all of a sudden. Despite the family's wealth, their father's mood has continued to grow darker. Shallan unfolds and reads a letter. Their contacts haven't been able to find Helaran, who seems to have disappeared. Balat is jumpy, worried that their father will discover that he intends to leave. His plan is to escape with Eylita, and if he can't find Helaran, they'll go to Highprince Valam and Redin, who years ago told them he'd listen to anyone willing to testify against their father. Jushu is skeptical, saying that their father is in favor now, and that the highprince is nearly dead.

Wikim slams the door open, telling them that Eylita is in the feast hall, that their father had summoned her. Balat and Wikim rush to find out what is happening. Shallan follows slowly, overwhelmed with panic, but she feels pulled forward. Somehow she knows that this has been coming, that it was inevitable. She collects the pouch of blackbane that Wikim had given her years ago, and heads downstairs.

Balat is arguing with their father about Eylita. Lin reveals that he knows about their plan to leave. Shallan enters the room and walks along the walls toward the kitchens. She notices something on the floor, blocking the kitchen doors from closing. Lin tells them that Helaran is dead; he died on a battlefield in Alethkar. Shallan reaches the bundle on the floor and realizes it's a body. It is Malise; she'd been killed by several blows to the head. Shallan concludes that he'd discovered the plan, sent for Eylita and waited for her to arrive, and then killed his wife. It was a calculated punishment, not committed in a moment of passion. She moves to where servants had left a pitcher of wine with cups.

Balat unsheathes his sword, followed by Lin. They clash brutally, and Lin is able to swat Balat's sword out of his hand. Lin tells them that he's always despised Balat, and of his sons only Helaran wasn't worthless. Shallan hands him a cup of wine, which he gulps down. Balat grabs his sword and tries to stab their father, but hits something metallic through his coat, which stops the blade. Lin tosses his sword aside and gets an iron poker from the fireplace. He slams it into Balat's leg over and over, berating him about being useless.

Lin's hands start shaking and the poker slips to the ground. Lin is surprised, and he stumbles and falls to his knees, then to his side. Shallan, feeling cold, tells Eylita to bind Balat's wounds, then kneels next to her father. Lin is motionless, staring at the ceiling. After her brothers' initial confusion, Shallan tells them that she poisoned their father by placing the blackbane in his wine. Jushu pulls a Soulcaster out of Lin's pocket, which had apparently been broken while blocking Balat's last strike. Just then, their father starts twitching, and his eyes focus on Shallan. She realizes that the poison has only paralyzed him, and says that they need to finish the job. Everyone else shies away, so she thanks her father for everything he did for her, then wraps her necklace around his neck. She twists the necklace around the handle of a fork for leverage, crying and whispering the lullaby that he'd sung to comfort Shallan in her childhood as he dies.

Chapter 74: Striding the Storm

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Vedel ----- Vedel - Pailiah

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 72.

Epigraph:

You, however, have never been a force for equilibrium. You tow chaos behind you like a corpse dragged by one leg through the snow. Please, hearken to my plea. Leave that place and join me in my oath of nonintervention.

Summary:

Kaladin reaches the sheltered alcove just before the floodwaters arrive. He and Shallan huddle together against the rock as the waters quickly rise, momentarily cresting over the edge of their carved out cubby. Kaladin tells Shallan how he was left to die in a highstorm by Sadeas. He looks up and thinks he sees a giant glowing figure followed by another figure walking in the storm. Shallan asks him to tell his story as a means of taking her mind off the highstorm, and he starts from when he was made a slave by Amaram, and speaks of his slavery and Tvlakv, his time with Bridge Four, and the rescue of Dalinar and fighting the Parshendi shardbearer. He hears chanting and sees strange spren flying around. After he finishes his story, Shallan says she killed her father, and tells about how her mother died, and what her life was like when she was a child. Kaladin realizes how much he had in common with her since his parents weren't abusive. He realizes that her brother was the shardbearer he killed when he saved Amaram, but doesn't reveal that fact to her. She tells of her original plan to steal the Soulcaster from Jasnah, and becoming her ward and Adolin's betrothed instead.

Shallan vanishes, and Kaladin realizes that he is having a vision. He sees a giant face and addresses it as Stormfather, and is called Child of Honor in return. He asks if Shallan is a Radiant and gets a rumble in return. He then asks about Sylphrena and the Stormfather says that Kaladin killed her and that she can't be brought back since she is now broken. He also declares that Kaladin will never ride his winds again, and then says goodbye as the vision ends. Shallan says she also saw the face of the vision, which he identifies as the Stormfather. After the storm subsides, they fall asleep.

Chapter 75: True Glory

Arch Faces: Vedel - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Vedel

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar / Shallan

Setting:

Timeline: (1173.10.8.5) The day after Chapter 74.

Epigraph: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

The cosmere itself may depend upon our restraint.

Summary:

Amaram implores Dalinar to speak with Sadeas and make peace with him before they begin their expedition. Dalinar looks at Navani but doesn't reply. They hear horns which announce the sighting of a chrysalis and its location, and Dalinar says they won't go after it on the way to the Parshendi camp. Amaram says that Sadeas will go after it on his own, and that his disobedience is causing the rifts in the kingdom to grow worse. Amaram says the Voidbringers are coming and they need to be united but Dalinar says the time and opportunity to work together with Sadeas has long past. Amaram tries to dissuade Dalinar from his expedition and says that even Dalinar won't listen to him anymore and why should anyone else, and Dalinar replies that he has to go out to seek the answers. Dalinar asks about Amaram's investigation into the madman, and Amaram says the madman was deluded about having a Shardblade. A messenger runs up, saying that Stormblessed has returned from the chasms.

Dalinar runs the entire way to the triage area where Kaladin is receiving medical attention, and Kaladin stands with great effort to salute him despite being told not to. Dalinar asks how he survived, and Kaladin says he is unsure but that spren were involved. Kaladin also indicates that he has brought Shallan safely back, and that he also killed a chasmfiend that had been prowling nearby, and presents its large glowing green gemheart to Dalinar. Shallan contradicts him and says the chasmfiend was already dead and rotting before they harvested it, and Kaladin confirms this story, but Dalinar suspects they are both lying. Navani appears and becomes protective of Shallan after her ordeal. Kaladin implores Dalinar to speak with Shallan of her discoveries before Dalinar leaves for his expedition. Dalinar tells Kaladin that Bridge Four held a vigil for him, with the confidence that he would return, and he asks if Kaladin has been the person that he was searching for. Kaladin replies that he once was but no longer is, and Dalinar grunts in response. He orders that any demands of Kaladin's are to be met as he is a hero, yet again. Dalinar wonders where Amaram went and decides to speak with Shallan.

Shallan rests in bed, accepting Navani's unexpected affection. Pattern repeats a conversation he heard between Dalinar and Navani when he was sent to spy on them. Notably, Dalinar wants Shallan to go on the expedition but Navani tries to protect Shallan by having her stay behind. Shallan tells Pattern she has to go and asks if she is a Radiant. He replies most likely not yet since she has more to do first, but he isn't sure since he hasn't always been sentient. Pattern tells of the Recreance, when most spren except the Stormfather and a few others were killed. Pattern thinks that the chance to learn is worth the possible cost of dying again. Pattern says that Shallan spoke the Words, but she lacks truth. Adolin appears and embraces her in a hug and kisses her. He says that he was visiting all the highprinces delivering an ultimatum to join Dalinar or be labeled as someone who refused to fulfill the Vengeance Pact. Shallan says she saw a dead chasm fiend that she wants to draw for him. Adolin apologizes for rescuing his father instead of her, and promises to protect her but she says that she doesn't need protecting and that she will never be "something" to be locked away again, though she doesn't elaborate on when she was previously locked away. Dalinar and Navani enter. Dalinar has a request, but Shallan, anticipating it, asks to go on the expedition despite the dangers since she thinks the ancient city that Jasnah was searching for is there. Dalinar asks her to expand on their map of the Shattered Plains and she agrees. Shallan also requests that they leave the parshmen behind since Jasnah felt they were dangerous. Dalinar says that he will do so, and that they are leaving within the hour.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 68 through 75

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-12, I-13, I-14, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Chapter 68: Bridges

Arch Faces: Kalak - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Kalak

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: The Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3) The day after Chapter 67. Four days after Chapter 66.

Epigraph:

However, it seems to me that all things have been set up for a purpose, and if we—as infants—stumble through the workshop, we risk exacerbating, not preventing, a problem.

Summary:

Kaladin is on a scouting expedition to the Shattered Plains and has bad memories of being a bridgeman. He frets that he is unable to absorb Stormlight unless Syl is near him, and she admonishes him for being naughty and acts capriciously toward him. He grows angry that Syl doesn't agree with his decision and says he is broken, to which she replies that all the old Knights were. Kaladin decides to ignore her and enjoy the company of Bridge Four as they reach a plateau with a permanent scouting location. He overhears a scout tell Dalinar that a glowing flying man was spotted in the Plains, and Dalinar believes that this was Szeth, though it was actually Kaladin. Dalinar and Kaladin discuss how Renarin is fitting in with Bridge Four and if that is affecting him positively or not.

Kaladin has more difficulty absorbing Stormlight, finds Syl later, almost acting like a windspren, and she tells Kaladin to decide what he wants, and he realizes he made two conflicting promises to Moash and Dalinar which violates the code of Honor. He asks for advice and Syl tells him to find the Words, and then she flies away.

Shallan draws a sketch of one of the mechanical bridges being unfolded, and Kaladin also watches, and recognizes one of the carpenters. Moash shows up in his shards and salutes Kaladin, though he now outranks him, and says he will always be part of Bridge Four, even as a lighteyes. Moash says that the assassination plot is close to fruition, and that they only need Kaladin to create an opening, which makes him worry over what Syl told him. Adolin and Kaladin discuss contingencies for a possible attack by Szeth, and Adolin asks for advice about women. Adolin tries to get Kaladin to reveal his abilities but fails. Shallan joins them and starts sketching some moss, and they banter a bit, with Shallan getting upset that Kaladin insulted Adolin and that Kaladin acts so negatively despite Adolin's positive attitude.

Kaladin rejoins Bridge Four to carry their mobile bridge over the mechanical one, toward their destination where a chasmfiend was slain, and where Shallan plans to study the chrysalis. They reach the destination, and the carpenter that Kaladin recognized calls to Dalinar who crosses the bridge. Kaladin realizes the carpenter worked in Sadeas' lumberyard and cries out a warning. He gets Adolin and Dalinar off the bridge but is too late as the carpenter throws an emergency lever that causes the bridge to collapse with Kaladin and Shallan still on it.

Chapter 69: Nothing

Arch Faces: Shalash - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3) Immediately after Chapter 68.

Epigraph:

Rayse is captive. He cannot leave the system he now inhabits. His destructive potential is, therefore, inhibited.

Summary:

Kaladin falls into the chasm and is able to absorb a bit of Stormlight through desperate effort though he hears a pained scream from Syl as he does so, and hits the ground, falling unconscious. He awakes in darkness, since all his spheres were drained, and great pain, and hears a voice asking what has he done. Syl's scream haunts him. He is uninjured and gets to his feet, and runs into Shallan, and lies about how he survived, and Shallan explains how the bridge was collapsed. They search the bridge wreckage and find several bodies but don't see Dalinar or Adolin. Kaladin thinks that he somehow saved Shallan. Kaladin says that there was a parshendi attack right before the bridge fell, and that means that Dalinar probably retreated. Kaladin tells Shallan that they may have been rescued by a windspren as in folktales. Kaladin and Shallan discuss how they will survive and what dangers they may face, the worst of which is a highstorm due the following night. They decide to set out immediately for the warcamps.

Shallan is both annoyed and pleased to find Kaladin survived, and thinks that she saved both of them somehow. As they walk, she notices how much plantlife there is in the chasm. Kaladin walks silently and asks if Shallan will constantly chat as they travel and ignores her response, focusing on finding the shortest path back to the warcamps. Shallan tries to get Kaladin to relax but he reveals his prejudice against lighteyes and she says he only uses that as an excuse to be obnoxious. He brings up the incident with the boots, but then reveals that he doesn't have a grudge and that he doesn't actually dislike her as he does other lighteyes. Shallan is insulted and they start an argument that is cut off as they hear a loud scraping noise that seems to be approaching them. They realize the danger they are in, and begin to run.

Chapter 70: From a Nightmare

Arch Faces: Kalak - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Kalak

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.3-4) Immediately after Chapter 69.

Epigraph:

Whether this was Tanavast's design or not, millennia have passed without Rayse taking the life of another of the sixteen. While I mourn for the great suffering Rayse has caused, I do not believe we could hope for a better outcome than this.

Summary:

Kaladin and Shallan flee as they are chased by a chasmfiend. Shallan chooses a path and orders Kaladin to follow her. They stop and Kaladin covers his Stormlight, and he realizes that she lured the chasmfiend back to their original location to the fresh corpses for food. Shallan decides she wants to see the chasmfiend, and get close to take a look at it as it fills the chasm and has small glowing spren around it like the spren that follow skyeels. They leave before the chasmfiend finishes its meal.

Shallan lets Kaladin lead, though she tries to keep track of where she is, and dwells on the chasmfiend. She grows tired now that all her Stormlight is drained. Kaladin says they should stop so they don't risk getting lost and going the wrong direction, and wants to wait until daybreak to get their bearings. They banter for a bit, with less antagonism, and Shallan sketches their path through the chasms in the form of a map, which impresses Kaladin.

Kaladin wakes her up after a short sleep, before daybreak. They set out, and when the sun rises, they think they are going the right direction. They banter further, with Shallan dishing out lighthearted insults while Kaladin resists replying in kind, unlike his earlier behavior. Kaladin asks why Shallan came to the Shattered Plains and she becomes serious, replying that she was trying to continue Jasnah's important research, and that Adolin was an added bonus. Kaladin asks if she was there to investigate the strange structures that they saw and she tries to dissemble but he sees through it, and explains his original suspicions of her. She says that she wants the parshmen exiled before they betray the Alethi, and he replies that they might be replaced with regular Alethi slaves and she empathizes with his former plight as a slave. Shallan tries to be lighthearted but Kaladin will have none of it, though he tries to not argue either. Kaladin explains that he thinks she is a typical pampered sheltered lighteyes which Shallan rephrases back as self-contradictory and convoluted, and Kaladin sees the flaws in his argument. Shallan tells Kaladin that she won't harm the Kholins and she is sincere in trying to prevent disaster, and he accepts this. Kaladin then checks their bearings and realize they are going the wrong direction.

Chapter 71: Vigil

Arch Faces: Vedel - Ishar ----- Ishar - Vedel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Teft

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 70.

Epigraph:

He bears the weight of God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is what he, unfortunately, wished to become.

Summary:

Teft and Sigzil are in the warcamp, sitting vigil for Kaladin, and Teft speaks of his childhood and of what his parents did as Envisagers. They knew things about the Radiants, and some Envisagers including his parents attempted suicidal stunts to see if they would manifest powers, and Teft ended up turning them into the authorities who had them executed. Dalinar shows up and inquires about their vigil and Teft proclaims that Kaladin definitely survived despite falling into the chasm. Sigzil proclaims his belief in Kaladin's return and Dalinar just tells them to not overextend themselves or stay out during highstorms, though the highprince believes that Kaladin is dead.

Kaladin feels like a fool for leading them in the wrong direction. He calls out for Syl but gets no answer. He also feels like a fool for the way he treats Shallan and for the incorrect assumptions he made about her. He compliments Shallan on her drawing ability as she sketches a more accurate map of the Shattered Plains, though it is getting much sooner until the next highstorm. She traces a couple of the plateaus nearby by walking around them, and Kaladin notices her having a mysterious conversation with someone and speculates that she might be a Radiant talking to a spren.

Shallan says that some of the series of plateaus are mirror images of others and Kaladin says that the Shattered Plains are symmetrical and that he knew that from a dream, and Shallan says she knows where the Parshendi are, and the Oathgate, and that she can map all of it since the Plains were not a natural forming pattern, but rather created through cymatics.

They follow a revised path based on Shallan's map, though they have to periodically check their route, slowing down their escape. Kaladin occasionally shouts up from the chasm to try to get the attention of Alethi scouts, but no one answers. Kaladin grows moody because he feels that he failed them, but Shallan tries to remain optimistic. Kaladin says he wished he could be like Shallan, but then Shallan describes how it is like to be depressed and hopeless and he understands that she wasn't always happy, but she somehow muddles through anyway, which inspires him. They banter again with Shallan trying to improve Kaladin's mood again like she used to do with her brothers, and he goes along with the joking to an extent.

The chasmfiend shows up again, and they try to flee, hiding in a narrow fissure. The chasmfiend fails to reach them, but it then settles nearby to wait as the highstorm is rapidly approaching, with about two hours left before it reaches them. Kaladin decides to try to distract the chasmfiend to allow Shallan to escape back to the warcamps with her vital information. He prepares to fight to the death, and tells Shallan to apologize to Adolin on his behalf. Shallan says that before he goes to fight to take her Shardblade.

Chapter 72: Selfish Reasons

Arch Faces: Kalak - Talenel ----- Talenel - Kalak

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 71.

Epigraph:

I suspect that he is more a force than an individual now, despite your insistence to the contrary. That force is contained, and an equilibrium reached.

Summary:

Kaladin asks how Shallan has a Shardblade and she replies that it is unimportant. He brushes against the Blade and doesn't hear screams like he did previously in the dueling arena. He reluctantly accepts the Blade and Shallan swears him to secrecy, then says she wants to get her satchel. Kaladin distracts the chasmfiend, dodging around it and leading it away from Shallan. He uses the confined space of the chasm to his advantage, and cuts the beast a couple of times, but then gets bitten in the leg as he tries to evade an attack. Shallan distracts the beast and he is able to retrieve the Shardblade but then collapses from pain. He picks up a sphere and tries to drain its Stormlight but only hears distant weeping. He sees an illusion of himself that distracts the beast momentarily before it vanishes in a puff of Stormlight which he somehow thinks that he created. He decides he has to go for the beast's head and stabs at it as its jaws reach for him.

Shallan sees the beast fall on top of Kaladin, and notices some spren around the chasmfiend seeming to leave it. Kaladin's body protrudes from the creature's mouth and she tries to pull him out, and he says ow. They banter as she uses her blade to try to cut him free, and he explains that he stabbed the chasmfiend in the brain to kill it. Once free, he asks her to bind his leg for him which she does. They take a brief rest, and despair that the storm will get them anyway. Kaladin then realizes that Shallan could use the Shardblade to cut out a cubbyhole above the waterline in the chasm for them to hide in from the storm and flood waters. She climbs up the dead fiend, then changes her blade to be knife-size and carves handholds in the chasm to climb above the waterline to carve a shelter out for them. They banter as Shallan cuts the rock, and it takes about an hour for her to finish. She uses a vine to help Kaladin climb up to the safe spot just before the floods reach them.

Chapter 73: A Thousand Scurrying Creatures

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.10.8.1) (Flashback) One year ago. A little over five months after Chapter 65. About six months before Shallan arrives in Kharbranth to try to become Jasnah's ward. A month and a half after Kaladin kills Helaran and is enslaved.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan and Jushu are in Balat's room helping him prepare to leave. They talk about the valuable deposits of stone recently found on their land, and how they find it strange to be wealthy all of a sudden. Despite the family's wealth, their father's mood has continued to grow darker. Shallan unfolds and reads a letter. Their contacts haven't been able to find Helaran, who seems to have disappeared. Balat is jumpy, worried that their father will discover that he intends to leave. His plan is to escape with Eylita, and if he can't find Helaran, they'll go to Highprince Valam and Redin, who years ago told them he'd listen to anyone willing to testify against their father. Jushu is skeptical, saying that their father is in favor now, and that the highprince is nearly dead.

Wikim slams the door open, telling them that Eylita is in the feast hall, that their father had summoned her. Balat and Wikim rush to find out what is happening. Shallan follows slowly, overwhelmed with panic, but she feels pulled forward. Somehow she knows that this has been coming, that it was inevitable. She collects the pouch of blackbane that Wikim had given her years ago, and heads downstairs.

Balat is arguing with their father about Eylita. Lin reveals that he knows about their plan to leave. Shallan enters the room and walks along the walls toward the kitchens. She notices something on the floor, blocking the kitchen doors from closing. Lin tells them that Helaran is dead; he died on a battlefield in Alethkar. Shallan reaches the bundle on the floor and realizes it's a body. It is Malise; she'd been killed by several blows to the head. Shallan concludes that he'd discovered the plan, sent for Eylita and waited for her to arrive, and then killed his wife. It was a calculated punishment, not committed in a moment of passion. She moves to where servants had left a pitcher of wine with cups.

Balat unsheathes his sword, followed by Lin. They clash brutally, and Lin is able to swat Balat's sword out of his hand. Lin tells them that he's always despised Balat, and of his sons only Helaran wasn't worthless. Shallan hands him a cup of wine, which he gulps down. Balat grabs his sword and tries to stab their father, but hits something metallic through his coat, which stops the blade. Lin tosses his sword aside and gets an iron poker from the fireplace. He slams it into Balat's leg over and over, berating him about being useless.

Lin's hands start shaking and the poker slips to the ground. Lin is surprised, and he stumbles and falls to his knees, then to his side. Shallan, feeling cold, tells Eylita to bind Balat's wounds, then kneels next to her father. Lin is motionless, staring at the ceiling. After her brothers' initial confusion, Shallan tells them that she poisoned their father by placing the blackbane in his wine. Jushu pulls a Soulcaster out of Lin's pocket, which had apparently been broken while blocking Balat's last strike. Just then, their father starts twitching, and his eyes focus on Shallan. She realizes that the poison has only paralyzed him, and says that they need to finish the job. Everyone else shies away, so she thanks her father for everything he did for her, then wraps her necklace around his neck. She twists the necklace around the handle of a fork for leverage, crying and whispering the lullaby that he'd sung to comfort Shallan in her childhood as he dies.

Chapter 74: Striding the Storm

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Vedel ----- Vedel - Pailiah

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.4) Immediately after Chapter 72.

Epigraph:

You, however, have never been a force for equilibrium. You tow chaos behind you like a corpse dragged by one leg through the snow. Please, hearken to my plea. Leave that place and join me in my oath of nonintervention.

Summary:

Kaladin reaches the sheltered alcove just before the floodwaters arrive. He and Shallan huddle together against the rock as the waters quickly rise, momentarily cresting over the edge of their carved out cubby. Kaladin tells Shallan how he was left to die in a highstorm by Sadeas. He looks up and thinks he sees a giant glowing figure followed by another figure walking in the storm. Shallan asks him to tell his story as a means of taking her mind off the highstorm, and he starts from when he was made a slave by Amaram, and speaks of his slavery and Tvlakv, his time with Bridge Four, and the rescue of Dalinar and fighting the Parshendi shardbearer. He hears chanting and sees strange spren flying around. After he finishes his story, Shallan says she killed her father, and tells about how her mother died, and what her life was like when she was a child. Kaladin realizes how much he had in common with her since his parents weren't abusive. He realizes that her brother was the shardbearer he killed when he saved Amaram, but doesn't reveal that fact to her. She tells of her original plan to steal the Soulcaster from Jasnah, and becoming her ward and Adolin's betrothed instead.

Shallan vanishes, and Kaladin realizes that he is having a vision. He sees a giant face and addresses it as Stormfather, and is called Child of Honor in return. He asks if Shallan is a Radiant and gets a rumble in return. He then asks about Sylphrena and the Stormfather says that Kaladin killed her and that she can't be brought back since she is now broken. He also declares that Kaladin will never ride his winds again, and then says goodbye as the vision ends. Shallan says she also saw the face of the vision, which he identifies as the Stormfather. After the storm subsides, they fall asleep.

Chapter 75: True Glory

Arch Faces: Vedel - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Vedel

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar / Shallan

Setting:

Timeline: (1173.10.8.5) The day after Chapter 74.

Epigraph: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

The cosmere itself may depend upon our restraint.

Summary:

Amaram implores Dalinar to speak with Sadeas and make peace with him before they begin their expedition. Dalinar looks at Navani but doesn't reply. They hear horns which announce the sighting of a chrysalis and its location, and Dalinar says they won't go after it on the way to the Parshendi camp. Amaram says that Sadeas will go after it on his own, and that his disobedience is causing the rifts in the kingdom to grow worse. Amaram says the Voidbringers are coming and they need to be united but Dalinar says the time and opportunity to work together with Sadeas has long past. Amaram tries to dissuade Dalinar from his expedition and says that even Dalinar won't listen to him anymore and why should anyone else, and Dalinar replies that he has to go out to seek the answers. Dalinar asks about Amaram's investigation into the madman, and Amaram says the madman was deluded about having a Shardblade. A messenger runs up, saying that Stormblessed has returned from the chasms.

Dalinar runs the entire way to the triage area where Kaladin is receiving medical attention, and Kaladin stands with great effort to salute him despite being told not to. Dalinar asks how he survived, and Kaladin says he is unsure but that spren were involved. Kaladin also indicates that he has brought Shallan safely back, and that he also killed a chasmfiend that had been prowling nearby, and presents its large glowing green gemheart to Dalinar. Shallan contradicts him and says the chasmfiend was already dead and rotting before they harvested it, and Kaladin confirms this story, but Dalinar suspects they are both lying. Navani appears and becomes protective of Shallan after her ordeal. Kaladin implores Dalinar to speak with Shallan of her discoveries before Dalinar leaves for his expedition. Dalinar tells Kaladin that Bridge Four held a vigil for him, with the confidence that he would return, and he asks if Kaladin has been the person that he was searching for. Kaladin replies that he once was but no longer is, and Dalinar grunts in response. He orders that any demands of Kaladin's are to be met as he is a hero, yet again. Dalinar wonders where Amaram went and decides to speak with Shallan.

Shallan rests in bed, accepting Navani's unexpected affection. Pattern repeats a conversation he heard between Dalinar and Navani when he was sent to spy on them. Notably, Dalinar wants Shallan to go on the expedition but Navani tries to protect Shallan by having her stay behind. Shallan tells Pattern she has to go and asks if she is a Radiant. He replies most likely not yet since she has more to do first, but he isn't sure since he hasn't always been sentient. Pattern tells of the Recreance, when most spren except the Stormfather and a few others were killed. Pattern thinks that the chance to learn is worth the possible cost of dying again. Pattern says that Shallan spoke the Words, but she lacks truth. Adolin appears and embraces her in a hug and kisses her. He says that he was visiting all the highprinces delivering an ultimatum to join Dalinar or be labeled as someone who refused to fulfill the Vengeance Pact. Shallan says she saw a dead chasm fiend that she wants to draw for him. Adolin apologizes for rescuing his father instead of her, and promises to protect her but she says that she doesn't need protecting and that she will never be "something" to be locked away again, though she doesn't elaborate on when she was previously locked away. Dalinar and Navani enter. Dalinar has a request, but Shallan, anticipating it, asks to go on the expedition despite the dangers since she thinks the ancient city that Jasnah was searching for is there. Dalinar asks her to expand on their map of the Shattered Plains and she agrees. Shallan also requests that they leave the parshmen behind since Jasnah felt they were dangerous. Dalinar says that he will do so, and that they are leaving within the hour.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

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Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

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SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 68 through 75

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Part Four: The Approach

Character Focus: Kaladin / Shallan / Dalinar

Chapter 59: Fleet

Arch Faces: Hoid - Nale ----- Nale - Hoid

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison.

Timeline: (1173.10.5.3) Three days after Chapter 58.

Epigraph:

I’ll address this letter to my "old friend," as I have no idea what name you're using currently.

Summary:

Kaladin feels claustrophobic in his prison cell. He asks Syl if she would help him break out if he wanted to and she says yes, but then inquires why he would break out since he entered there willingly. He hears a disturbance but isn't able to find out what causes it. He says he won't be executed and that he doesn't trust Dalinar anymore because Dalinar allowed his imprisonment and that he is the same as the other lighteyes. Syl asks him to repeat that and he is unable since he can't easily lie to his spren. Kaladin speaks out against Elhokar, saying the kingdom would be better off without him, and says that this is no different than when he was a slave, and she doesn't contradict him.

Wit appears, sitting on a bench outside his cell, tuning a musical instrument, mentioning his perfect pitch, and saying that he came for the story that he previously requested at their last meeting. Kaladin says he isn't in the mood but after some verbal sparring, Wit starts playing his instrument which affects Kaladin. Wit asks Kaladin to close his eyes and describe what he sees, and Kaladin thinks of a race, and says as such, and Wit sings lyrics that rhyme and repeat Kaladin's story in musical form, accompanying with his instrument. As Wit sings the story of Fleet, Kaladin pictures it in his mind, and each time Wit pauses, Kaladin tells Fleet's tale for Wit to expound upon. Fleet races against a highstorm from the eastern sea to the lands of Shinovar and reaches safety but dies due to his effort, causing the storm to stop, though Fleet's soul then rises to win the race and ride the winds thereafter. Wit tells Kaladin about the nature of stories and accepts the ending that Kaladin gave this tale and asks Kaladin what the meaning of this story was. Kaladin says that the storm caught Fleet, and Wit says the storm catches everyone and does it matter, and Kaladin says he doesn't know. Wit says that's good since Kaladin now has something to ponder on.

Chapter 60: Veil Walks

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Shallan's rooms in Sebarial's warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) Three days after Chapter 59. Same day as Interludes I-9 and I-11. Seven days after Chapter 55.

Epigraph:

Have you given up on the gemstone, now that it is dead? And do you no longer hide behind the name of your old master? I am told that in your current incarnation you've taken a name that references what you presume to be one of your virtues.

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern study maps of the Shattered Plains and old Natanatan as well as Amaram's notations while trying to locate Urithiru. Pattern tells Shallan that she must remember what she used to know about him and unlock her repressed memories so that she can gain her abilities. She practices with lightweaving but is unable to create sound using her illusion, though she figures out how to reduce her Stormlight glow. She also figures out that she can invest Pattern with Stormlight so that he can maintain her illusions and even make them move.

Chapter 61: Obedience

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.5.6.4) (Flashback) A year and a half ago. About a year and a half after Chapter 48.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan has become the perfect daughter. She keeps quiet now, particularly around her father, and spends most of her days in her rooms. Her father had proven several times that he wouldn't hurt Shallan if she angered him, but would beat others in her name. The only time she drops her mask now is with her brothers, making jokes to try to drive back the darkness in their home. She is also more involved in keeping House Davar's accounts, and their fortunes seem to have improved. Her father has shrewdly stopped being bullied by the other lighteyes and has started playing them off each other. New marble deposits have been discovered, which provide resources to keep up with his promises, bribes, and deals. Shallan hopes this will improve her father's temperament, but it doesn't.

Lin and Balat are arguing about who he will marry. Balat wants to marry Eylita Tavinar, but his father thinks she's of too low a status. He wants Balat to marry Sudi Valam, daughter of Highprince Valam, who is a widow in her fifties. Their argument escalates and Balat calls his father a murderer. In response, Lin coldly orders one of his new guards to kill Balat's new axehound pups. Balat is outraged and tells his father that Helaran is back, and that they had met only two days past. They lock eyes, then Balat stalks out of the room.

Shallan finds Balat in the kennel, where his new pod of axehound pups were dead in a pool of violet blood. She'd encouraged him to breed them and he'd been making progress with his demons over the years, rarely hurting anything larger than a cremling now. They discuss fleeing their house, and Balat tells her he wants to go to live in Vedenar with Eylita. Shallan says she can't go but will try to think of a way for them to escape, and returns to the house. While passing her father's door Shallan overhears him talking to Rin, one of the house's new guards. Her father tells Rin to find Helaran, ambush him, and bring back his head. He offers Helaran's Shardblade as payment. Malise, having also apparently overheard this, is shocked that her husband would order the murder of his own son. A violent, angry argument breaks out, and Rin leaves.

Chapter 62: The One Who Killed Promises

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.3) Five days after Chapter 59. Same day as Interlude I-10.

Epigraph:

This is, I suspect, a little like a skunk naming itself for its stench.

Summary:

Kaladin wakes up in his cell resigned to the monotony of solitude and darkness. He sees a strange spren that looks like taut wires. He talks to Syl who is nearby but hidden and tells him about a Cryptic, a revolting kind of spren who hid from Syl before she could find it, though she realizes that the Cryptic may be trying to bond another Radiant and that Kal may not be alone in the near future.

Dalinar shows up and Kaladin salutes him by reflex. Dalinar tells Kaladin to pretend he is guarding the prison cell and that Elhokar may relent soon and allow Kal to be released once the pardon doesn't make the king seem too ambivalent. Dalinar says that his men are being taken care of and that his reputation with Dalinar is not harmed, but Kaladin retorts that the king has a history of allowing people to rot in prison, and Dalinar knows about the situation that Kal is talking about and says he would prefer to not speak of the Roshone affair, which shocks Kaladin. Kaladin asks for a further explanation and Dalinar gives it reluctantly. Dalinar says that he wanted to demote Roshone but was overridden and ended up exiling him where he could do no harm, not knowing what happened later in Hearthstone. Kaladin says the mercy shown Roshone is rarely granted to darkeyes, and Dalinar replies that Kaladin is in a special position and that he has to show extra loyalty. Dalinar also explains that he trusts his instincts about Kaladin as a man that can help inspire positive change in the kingdom, and that he wants Kaladin to lead by example and not act erratically. After Dalinar leaves, Kaladin discusses the revelations with Syl and blames his family's misfortunes on Elhokar. Kaladin concludes that Moash is right and that the king must die.

Chapter 63: A Burning World

Arch Faces: Talenel - Shalash ----- Shalash - Talenel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. Temple grounds in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.4) The day after Chapter 62. Three days after Chapter 60.

Epigraph:

Now, look what you've made me say. You've always been able to bring out the most extreme in me, old friend. And I do still name you a friend, for all that you weary me.

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern hide in one of her illusions to watch a drop location secretly for anyone to try to leave instructions for her, while she chats with Adolin via spanreed. Shallan decides she must be irresistible to Adolin to keep his interest. She asks Pattern why Mraize didn't send instructions via spanreed and realizes that the Ghostbloods are trying to spy on her. She tells Pattern to find the spy and he locates Iyatil. Adolin sends a message that Shallan can join a scouting trip to the Shattered Plains as she requested, and she says she hopes to find a live chasmfiend for her research. She gives an excuse to Adolin to end their spanreed conversation, then destroys her illusion, and creates a new one of Veil attached to Pattern and tells him to make it seem that Veil is retrieving something from the tree, then to go to an adjacent alleyway. Shallan waits outside Iyatil's room, disguised as Veil, and confronts her when Iyatil enters the hallway, explaining how she was tricked by her "double". Iyatil gives her name and explains that Shallan has an urgent task to investigate a new arrival in Dalinar's camp and that she is to watch while Shallan performs it. Shallan tells Iyatil that she can join her instead of following her secretly.

Shallan and Iyatil ride in a palanquin as Shallan reads her instructions to investigate a supposed madman that Dalinar and Elhokar are interested in. Iyatil reveals that Mraize is her student, not her master, and that she wears a mask to reserve herself and allow her to adapt. Shallan removes her disguise without letting Iyatil notice by using the palanquin's curtains for concealment and is immediately recognized and permitted into Dalinar's camp. She has Pattern make a distraction so that she can withdraw into the palanquin and resume Veil's appearance without Iyatil noticing. Iyatil tries to guess how Shallan got them past the guards and Shallan flashes an enigmatic smile. The palanquin proceeds to their destination, and Shallan deceives an ardent into thinking that her sister needs medical attention for a psychological impairment, and they are admitted to the temple.

While some ardents try to diagnose Iyatil, Shallan sneaks off and creates an illusion of one of the ardents to move freely around the temple. Pattern locates the madman for her and picks the lock so that they can enter his dark cell. The man is whispering about the Return of Desolation and needing to prepare, and calls himself Talenel'Elin. She tells Pattern that she doubts that the man is one of the Heralds. Taln repeats his words and Shallan writes them down, since he doesn't answer her other questions. Shallan tries to recreate her illusion, but Taln sees this and grabs her and holds her against the wall in alarm, and speaks of one of Ishar's knights, then goes back to his bed and lies down and repeats the same whispers. Shallan summons her Shardblade to defend herself but doesn't need it. Her mind blanks out and she thinks of Mother's soul, then she wakes up and Pattern asks if she is crazy, and she replies yes. She goes to leave the room, but sees Amaram approaching it.

Chapter 64: Treasures

Arch Faces: Shalash - Ishar ----- Ishar - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison. Temple grounds in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.4) The day after Chapter 62. Immediately after Chapter 63.

Epigraph:

Yes, I'm disappointed. Perpetually, as you put it.

Summary:

Kaladin sits in his cell, moping and feeling dejected. He tries to absorb Stormlight from a sphere outside his cell, and has brief difficulty before he is able to soak it into his fingertips. Syl appears and says she is worried about Kaladin growing dark. Feeling slightly better, Kaladin takes his meal as a puzzled guard swaps out the dun sphere.

Shallan panics, but thinks quickly and creates an illusion of darkness to conceal herself within the cell. Amaram and Bordin enter the cell and close the door. Shallan feels muted anger at seeing Helaran's killer though she realizes that her brother may have been killed in self-defense as a possible assassin. Amaram looks at Taln and proclaims that his and Gavilar's plan has succeeded. Bordin tells Amaram that Taln spoke of a cache of Shardblades once to Bordin and Amaram asks Bordin to take him to the location before someone else finds it, and the two depart. Shallan feels like she is in over her head with the conspiracies, though Pattern doesn't understand her analogy.

Shallan returns to say goodbye to Iyatil after giving her the transcription of Taln's ramblings and a brief description of Amaram's visit. After verifying that Iyatil can escape on her own, Shallan apologizes to the ardents for getting lost in the temple and prepares to leave. Iyatil says how impressed she is, and asks who Shallan really is, and Shallan replies that she is a seeker of truth. Shallan then tells Iyatil that she will send a full report to Mraize. Mraize indicates that Shallan has proven herself and is safe from any danger from the other Ghostbloods, and that Shallan is to get a tattoo anywhere on her person to symbolize her loyalty to the Ghostbloods and that she is now admitted as a member of their group.

Chapter 65: The One who Deserves It

Arch Faces: Vedel - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.5.6.4) (Flashback) A year and a half ago. Two hours after Chapter 61.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is in her room. Not two hours have passed since her father ordered Helaran's assassination, and a pair of guards have been stationed outside in the hallway. She suspects the guards are there to keep her stepmother from trying to flee, though she doesn't even know whether Malise is still alive. She quietly slips from her room and walks toward the guards, hands trembling. She doesn't know them, all of the guards she'd grown up with have been replaced. One of the men puts his hand up to stop her, but she keeps walking, insisting that her father will need her. As she passes her father's door, she can hear Malise softly weeping.

Shallan finds her father slumped at the high table in the feast hall, but slips into the kitchen before he notices her. She mixes his favorite drink; deep violet wine warmed and spiced with cinnamon. When she returns to the feast hall and gives it to him, she looks into his eyes. She doesn't see the darkness there, which is very rare these days. Lin complains that no one listens to him, and that his house should support him. Shallan tells him that she'll speak with them and goes outside into the night air. She finds Balat laying on a bench in the gardens. He's been ripping the claws off of cremlings again. Shallan tells him that their father can't control himself anymore, and that he ordered the assassination of Helaran. They make a plan for Balat and Malise to escape with a letter from Shallan to warn their brother.

Shallan then returns to the house and goes to her father's sitting room. The guards stop her, but she holds her ground despite her fear, and they eventually let her pass. This is the first time she's entered this room in years, and she has to raise a hand to shade her eyes against the light coming from behind the painting. It is blinding to her and she wonders how anyone can stand it. Malise, curled up in a chair with her lip split and her arm broken, says that Lin will kill them all. Shallan starts treating the wounds, and tells her stepmother about the escape plan. As Shallan is about to leave, Malise asks her, "If I go, and Balat with me, who will he hate? Who will he hit? Maybe you, finally? The one who actually deserves it?" Shallan just replies, "Maybe."

Chapter 66: Stormblessings

Arch Faces: Hoid - Ishar ----- Ishar - Hoid

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison. Bridge Four barracks in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.7.4) Five days after Chapter 74.

Epigraph:

Is not the destruction we have wrought enough? The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of Adonalsium. Our interference so far has brought nothing but pain.

Summary:

Kaladin mopes in his cell, imagining paranoid fantasies of his incompetence and of bridge four placating him by saying they like to be bodyguards. Kaladin snaps to alertness as a jailer says he is pardoned with no loss of rank and free to go. Kaladin vows that he will never be imprisoned again by anyone as he leaves. He figures he was there for several weeks based on his beard. They pass another cell where Adolin is locked up, and he leaves his cell as well, and the jailer explains that Adolin demanded to be locked up until Kaladin was freed. Adolin says that he did this because it wasn't right for Kaladin to be locked up, since Kaladin saved his life and that of his brother's. The two banter and reconcile, and Adolin holds Elhokar responsible for the failure of their plan. Kaladin confirms that he was telling the truth when he accused Amaram and Adolin believes him despite Dalinar's friendship with Amaram.

They enter another room where most of bridge four awaits Kaladin to celebrate his liberation. Adolin calls for quiet and says that after the other shards were distributed, there was a full set remaining which he gives to Kaladin. Kaladin gives them to Moash, and Adolin objects until Kaladin explains his dislike of Shardblades, and that he is more than capable on the battlefield even without shards as he showed in the arena, for when Szeth returns, and that they would have an additional shard bearer for that confrontation in Moash. Adolin tells Moash to take the shards and that he will now be a lighteyes and can start his own house or join one of Dalinar's. Moash takes up the Shardblade, amassing gloryspren, and has the armorers put the armor on him. Bridge four then returns to their barracks to eat some stew that has been simmering the entire time that Kaladin was locked up. Teft brings Kaladin up to speed on bridge four's activities and emotions while he was away. Kaladin talks privately with Moash and says he agrees with the plan to remove Elhokar, and Moash is pleased and that they will possibly deal with Amaram next. Moash decides to go to the sparring grounds to practice, and Kaladin returns to the barracks to feast.

Chapter 67: Spit and Bile

Arch Faces: Kalak - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Kalak

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: The base of the hill below Elhokar's War Palace.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.2) Three days after Chapter 66.

Epigraph:

My path has been chosen very deliberately. Yes, I agree with everything you have said about Rayse, including the severe danger he presents.

Summary:

Dalinar and Navani watch two armies return from a hunt, and one of their guards leaves to get a status report. Dalinar thinks how disciplined Bridge Four is, and how Kaladin fit the ideal of the type of officer that Dalinar looked for. Navani talks about possible usages for fabrials and how gemstones weren't always used to bond Shardblades, a fact which alters their understanding of Shardblades. As she talks, he thinks about his more urgent preparations for their expedition to the Shattered Plains. She notices his distracted state and comments on it, then expresses her ongoing grief for the loss of Jasnah and Dalinar comforts her. Navani asks how Dalinar coped when shshshsh died, but he doesn't answer, though he thinks how he couldn't remember his wife anymore due to a hole in his memories. Dalinar mentions the secrets hidden by Gavilar and Navani says she will try to find something in her journals about that, though she has already checked many times. Dalinar says their immediate concern is the feast they are attending, and Navani admonishes him to try to be encouraging instead of contemptful of the other highprinces, before they separate to the gender segregated islands of the feast.

Dalinar goes to the king's island, noticing that people seem to be paying more attention to him as he walks by. Dalinar steps up to Vamah and inquires about his hunt strategy, but Vamah's response is interrupted by several people laughing nearby, and Dalinar leaves to investigate, ending up face to face with Aladar and Sadeas. Dalinar confronts them but they feign ignorance and walk away. Dalinar looks around for someone else to question, then hears Wit welcome Amaram to the feast with insults, though Amaram responds in a friendly manner. Dalinar asks Amaram about some papers being distributed, but is constantly interrupted by Wit's remarks until Dalinar and Amaram walk away from him. Amaram tells Dalinar that the papers have accounts of Dalinar's visions as dictated to Navani. Dalinar tells Amaram to bring Navani to him but she is already heading to him. Dalinar asks Amaram's opinion and he replies that he thinks the visions are authentic and meaningful for their roles as recreators of the Radiants. Dalinar asks about Taln, and Amaram replies that he is still investigating. Amaram also comments on his lack of faith in Kaladin's ability to protect Dalinar and that he would like an apology from him. Navani brings some of the papers, and tells Dalinar that the words and tone were changed to make it seem that Navani was humoring Dalinar by transcribing the visions, and that a mocking commentary was added. Dalinar asks if the visions were changed and Navani replies that they were not, and Dalinar says he will not be bothered by this attempt to embarrass him, and he quotes from The Way of Kings to shield himself from ridicule. Dalinar stands on a table to address the crowd and says that the accounts of the visions are accurate, despite the mocking tone and commentary, and that in the future he will have the accounts of his visions published for scholars to investigate. He vows that he will be vindicated instead of broken and says that he will talk to each of them individually and ask them to speak their minds to his face instead of anonymously.

Dalinar sits down to rest after hours of politicking and talking up his expedition to the Shattered Plains. Wit approaches and compliments Dalinar on his approach to dealing with the insults. Wit implies that Dalinar outshines Elhokar in importance, and Dalinar asks if he is a tyrant, and Wit replies that he is but that he is a benevolent one, which is preferable to a weak ruler, and what the world needs currently. Wit said that what was done to unify the kingdom years ago was good work, but Dalinar complains about how weak the kingdom is because of the means they used in unification, and that more than benevolent tyranny is needed according to Nohadon. Wit cryptically comments that he has to go somewhere but he doesn't know why, and when asked, denies that he is a Radiant or Herald, and that their goals do not completely align and that Wit would watch the world crumble and burn to get what he needs, though not happily, and that Dalinar can't trust Wit. Wit says that he will try to help carefully but must avoid being destroyed by Dalinar's enemy, the father of hatred.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

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Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

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SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 68 through 75

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Part Four: The Approach

Character Focus: Kaladin / Shallan / Dalinar

Chapter 59: Fleet

Arch Faces: Hoid - Nale ----- Nale - Hoid

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison.

Timeline: (1173.10.5.3) Three days after Chapter 58.

Epigraph:

I’ll address this letter to my "old friend," as I have no idea what name you're using currently.

Summary:

Kaladin feels claustrophobic in his prison cell. He asks Syl if she would help him break out if he wanted to and she says yes, but then inquires why he would break out since he entered there willingly. He hears a disturbance but isn't able to find out what causes it. He says he won't be executed and that he doesn't trust Dalinar anymore because Dalinar allowed his imprisonment and that he is the same as the other lighteyes. Syl asks him to repeat that and he is unable since he can't easily lie to his spren. Kaladin speaks out against Elhokar, saying the kingdom would be better off without him, and says that this is no different than when he was a slave, and she doesn't contradict him.

Wit appears, sitting on a bench outside his cell, tuning a musical instrument, mentioning his perfect pitch, and saying that he came for the story that he previously requested at their last meeting. Kaladin says he isn't in the mood but after some verbal sparring, Wit starts playing his instrument which affects Kaladin. Wit asks Kaladin to close his eyes and describe what he sees, and Kaladin thinks of a race, and says as such, and Wit sings lyrics that rhyme and repeat Kaladin's story in musical form, accompanying with his instrument. As Wit sings the story of Fleet, Kaladin pictures it in his mind, and each time Wit pauses, Kaladin tells Fleet's tale for Wit to expound upon. Fleet races against a highstorm from the eastern sea to the lands of Shinovar and reaches safety but dies due to his effort, causing the storm to stop, though Fleet's soul then rises to win the race and ride the winds thereafter. Wit tells Kaladin about the nature of stories and accepts the ending that Kaladin gave this tale and asks Kaladin what the meaning of this story was. Kaladin says that the storm caught Fleet, and Wit says the storm catches everyone and does it matter, and Kaladin says he doesn't know. Wit says that's good since Kaladin now has something to ponder on.

Chapter 60: Veil Walks

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Shallan's rooms in Sebarial's warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) Three days after Chapter 59. Same day as Interludes I-9 and I-11. Seven days after Chapter 55.

Epigraph:

Have you given up on the gemstone, now that it is dead? And do you no longer hide behind the name of your old master? I am told that in your current incarnation you've taken a name that references what you presume to be one of your virtues.

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern study maps of the Shattered Plains and old Natanatan as well as Amaram's notations while trying to locate Urithiru. Pattern tells Shallan that she must remember what she used to know about him and unlock her repressed memories so that she can gain her abilities. She practices with lightweaving but is unable to create sound using her illusion, though she figures out how to reduce her Stormlight glow. She also figures out that she can invest Pattern with Stormlight so that he can maintain her illusions and even make them move.

Chapter 61: Obedience

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.5.6.4) (Flashback) A year and a half ago. About a year and a half after Chapter 48.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan has become the perfect daughter. She keeps quiet now, particularly around her father, and spends most of her days in her rooms. Her father had proven several times that he wouldn't hurt Shallan if she angered him, but would beat others in her name. The only time she drops her mask now is with her brothers, making jokes to try to drive back the darkness in their home.

She is also more involved in keeping House Davar's accounts, and their fortunes seem to have improved. Her father has shrewdly stopped being bullied by the other lighteyes and has started playing them off each other. New marble deposits have been discovered, which provide resources to keep up with his promises, bribes, and deals. Shallan hopes this will improve her father's temperament, but it doesn't.

Lin and Balat are arguing about who he will marry. Balat wants to marry Eylita Tavinar, but his father thinks she's of too low a status. He wants Balat to marry Sudi Valam, daughter of Highprince Valam, who is a widow in her fifties. Their argument escalates and Balat calls his father a murderer. In response, Lin coldly orders one of his new guards to kill Balat's new axehound pups. Balat is outraged and tells his father that Helaran is back, and that they had met only two days past. They lock eyes, then Balat stalks out of the room.

Shallan finds Balat in the kennel, where his new pod of axehound pups were dead in a pool of violet blood. She'd encouraged him to breed them and he'd been making progress with his demons over the years, rarely hurting anything larger than a cremling now. They discuss fleeing their house, and Balat tells her he wants to go to live in Vedenar with Eylita. Shallan says she can't go but will try to think of a way for them to escape, and returns to the house.

While passing her father's door Shallan overhears him talking to Rin, one of the house's new guards. Her father tells Rin to find Helaran, ambush him, and bring back his head. He offers Helaran's Shardblade as payment. Malise, having also apparently overheard this, is shocked that her husband would order the murder of his own son. A violent, angry argument breaks out, and Rin leaves.

Chapter 62: The One Who Killed Promises

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.3) Five days after Chapter 59. Same day as Interlude I-10.

Epigraph:

This is, I suspect, a little like a skunk naming itself for its stench.

Summary:

Kaladin wakes up in his cell resigned to the monotony of solitude and darkness. He sees a strange spren that looks like taut wires. He talks to Syl who is nearby but hidden and tells him about a Cryptic, a revolting kind of spren who hid from Syl before she could find it, though she realizes that the Cryptic may be trying to bond another Radiant and that Kal may not be alone in the near future.

Dalinar shows up and Kaladin salutes him by reflex. Dalinar tells Kaladin to pretend he is guarding the prison cell and that Elhokar may relent soon and allow Kal to be released once the pardon doesn't make the king seem too ambivalent. Dalinar says that his men are being taken care of and that his reputation with Dalinar is not harmed, but Kaladin retorts that the king has a history of allowing people to rot in prison, and Dalinar knows about the situation that Kal is talking about and says he would prefer to not speak of the Roshone affair, which shocks Kaladin. Kaladin asks for a further explanation and Dalinar gives it reluctantly. Dalinar says that he wanted to demote Roshone but was overridden and ended up exiling him where he could do no harm, not knowing what happened later in Hearthstone. Kaladin says the mercy shown Roshone is rarely granted to darkeyes, and Dalinar replies that Kaladin is in a special position and that he has to show extra loyalty. Dalinar also explains that he trusts his instincts about Kaladin as a man that can help inspire positive change in the kingdom, and that he wants Kaladin to lead by example and not act erratically.

After Dalinar leaves, Kaladin discusses the revelations with Syl and blames his family's misfortunes on Elhokar. Kaladin concludes that Moash is right and that the king must die.

Chapter 63: A Burning World

Arch Faces: Talenel - Shalash ----- Shalash - Talenel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. Temple grounds in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.4) The day after Chapter 62. Three days after Chapter 60.

Epigraph:

Now, look what you've made me say. You've always been able to bring out the most extreme in me, old friend. And I do still name you a friend, for all that you weary me.

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern hide in one of her illusions to watch a drop location secretly for anyone to try to leave instructions for her, while she chats with Adolin via spanreed. Shallan decides she must be irresistible to Adolin to keep his interest. She asks Pattern why Mraize didn't send instructions via spanreed and realizes that the Ghostbloods are trying to spy on her. She tells Pattern to find the spy and he locates Iyatil. Adolin sends a message that Shallan can join a scouting trip to the Shattered Plains as she requested, and she says she hopes to find a live chasmfiend for her research. She gives an excuse to Adolin to end their spanreed conversation, then destroys her illusion, and creates a new one of Veil attached to Pattern and tells him to make it seem that Veil is retrieving something from the tree, then to go to an adjacent alleyway. Shallan waits outside Iyatil's room, disguised as Veil, and confronts her when Iyatil enters the hallway, explaining how she was tricked by her "double". Iyatil gives her name and explains that Shallan has an urgent task to investigate a new arrival in Dalinar's camp and that she is to watch while Shallan performs it. Shallan tells Iyatil that she can join her instead of following her secretly.

Shallan and Iyatil ride in a palanquin as Shallan reads her instructions to investigate a supposed madman that Dalinar and Elhokar are interested in. Iyatil reveals that Mraize is her student, not her master, and that she wears a mask to reserve herself and allow her to adapt. Shallan removes her disguise without letting Iyatil notice by using the palinquin's curtains for concealment and is immediately recognized and permitted into Dalinar's camp. She has Pattern make a distraction so that she can withdraw into the palanquin and resume Veil's appearance without Iyatil noticing. Iyatil tries to guess how Shallan got them past the guards and Shallan flashes an enigmatic smile. The palanquin proceeds to their destination, and Shallan deceives an ardent into thinking that her sister needs medical attention for a psychological impairment, and they are admitted to the temple.

While some ardents try to diagnose Iyatil, Shallan sneaks off and creates an illusion of one of the ardents to move freely around the temple. Pattern locates the madman for her and picks the lock so that they can enter his dark cell. The man is whispering about the Return of Desolation and needing to prepare, and calls himself Talenel'Elin. She tells Pattern that she doubts that the man is one of the Heralds. Taln repeats his words and Shallan writes them down, since he doesn't answer her other questions. Shallan tries to recreate her illusion, but Taln sees this and grabs her and holds her against the wall in alarm, and speaks of one of Ishar's knights, then goes back to his bed and lies down and repeats the same whispers. Shallan summons her Shardblade to defend herself but doesn't need it. Her mind blanks out and she thinks of Mother's soul, then she wakes up and Pattern asks if she is crazy, and she replies yes. She goes to leave the room, but sees Amaram approaching it.

Chapter 64: Treasures

Arch Faces: Shalash - Ishar ----- Ishar - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison. Temple grounds in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.4) The day after Chapter 62. Immediately after Chapter 63.

Epigraph:

Yes, I'm disappointed. Perpetually, as you put it.

Summary:

Kaladin sits in his cell, moping and feeling dejected. He tries to absorb Stormlight from a sphere outside his cell, and has brief difficulty before he is able to soak it into his fingertips. Syl appears and says she is worried about Kaladin growing dark. Feeling slightly better, Kaladin takes his meal as a puzzled guard swaps out the dun sphere.

Shallan panics, but thinks quickly and creates an illusion of darkness to conceal herself within the cell. Amaram and Bordin enter the cell and close the door. Shallan feels muted anger at seeing Helaran's killer though she realizes that her brother may have been killed in self-defense as a possible assassin. Amaram looks at Taln and proclaims that his and Gavilar's plan has succeeded. Bordin tells Amaram that Taln spoke of a cache of Shardblades once to Bordin and Amaram asks Bordin to take him to the location before someone else finds it, and the two depart. Shallan feels like she is in over her head with the conspiracies, though Pattern doesn't understand her analogy.

Shallan returns to say goodbye to Iyatil after giving her the transcription of Taln's ramblings and a brief description of Amaram's visit. After verifying that Iyatil can escape on her own, Shallan apologizes to the ardents for getting lost in the temple and prepares to leave. Iyatil says how impressed she is, and asks who Shallan really is, and Shallan replies that she is a seeker of truth. Shallan then tells Iyatil that she will send a full report to Mraize. Mraize indicates that Shallan has proven herself and is safe from any danger from the other Ghostbloods, and that Shallan is to get a tattoo anywhere on her person to symbolize her loyalty to the Ghostbloods and that she is now admitted as a member of their group.

Chapter 65: The One who Deserves It

Arch Faces: Vedel - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1172.5.6.4) (Flashback) A year and a half ago. Two hours after Chapter 61.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is in her room. Not two hours have passed since her father ordered Helaran's assassination, and a pair of guards have been stationed outside in the hallway. She suspects the guards are there to keep her stepmother from trying to flee, though she doesn't even know whether Malise is still alive. She quietly slips from her room and walks toward the guards, hands trembling. She doesn't know them, all of the guards she'd grown up with have been replaced. One of the men puts his hand up to stop her, but she keeps walking, insisting that her father will need her. As she passes her father's door, she can hear Malise softly weeping.

Shallan finds her father slumped at the high table in the feast hall, but slips into the kitchen before he notices her. She mixes his favorite drink; deep violet wine warmed and spiced with cinnamon. When she returns to the feast hall and gives it to him, she looks into his eyes. She doesn't see the darkness there, which is very rare these days. Lin complains that no one listens to him, and that his house should support him. Shallan tells him that she'll speak with them and goes outside into the night air.

She finds Balat laying on a bench in the gardens. He's been ripping the claws off of cremlings again. Shallan tells him that their father can't control himself anymore, and that he ordered the assassination of Helaran. They make a plan for Balat and Malise to escape with a letter from Shallan to warn their brother.

Shallan then returns to the house and goes to her father's sitting room. The guards stop her, but she holds her ground despite her fear, and they eventually let her pass. This is the first time she's entered this room in years, and she has to raise a hand to shade her eyes against the light coming from behind the painting. It is blinding to her and she wonders how anyone can stand it. Malise, curled up in a chair with her lip split and her arm broken, says that Lin will kill them all. Shallan starts treating the wounds, and tells her stepmother about the escape plan. As Shallan is about to leave, Malise asks her, "If I go, and Balat with me, who will he hate? Who will he hit? Maybe you, finally? The one who actually deserves it?" Shallan just replies, "Maybe."

Chapter 66: Stormblessings

Arch Faces: Hoid - Ishar ----- Ishar - Hoid

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Kholin warcamp prison. Bridge Four barracks in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.7.4) Five days after Chapter 74.

Epigraph:

Is not the destruction we have wrought enough? The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of Adonalsium. Our interference so far has brought nothing but pain.

Summary:

Kaladin mopes in his cell, imagining paranoid fantasies of his incompetence and of bridge four placating him by saying they like to be bodyguards. Kaladin snaps to alertness as a jailer says he is pardoned with no loss of rank and free to go. Kaladin vows that he will never be imprisoned again by anyone as he leaves. He figures he was there for several weeks based on his beard. They pass another cell where Adolin is locked up, and he leaves his cell as well, and the jailer explains that Adolin demanded to be locked up until Kaladin was freed. Adolin says that he did this because it wasn't right for Kaladin to be locked up, since Kaladin saved his life and that of his brother's. The two banter and reconcile, and Adolin holds Elhokar responsible for the failure of their plan. Kaladin confirms that he was telling the truth when he accused Amaram and Adolin believes him despite Dalinar's friendship with Amaram.

They enter another room where most of bridge four awaits Kaladin to celebrate his liberation. Adolin calls for quiet and says that after the other shards were distributed, there was a full set remaining which he gives to Kaladin. Kaladin gives them to Moash, and Adolin objects until Kaladin explains his dislike of Shardblades, and that he is more than capable on the battlefield even without shards as he showed in the arena, for when Szeth returns, and that they would have an additional shard bearer for that confrontation in Moash. Adolin tells Moash to take the shards and that he will now be a lighteyes and can start his own house or join one of Dalinar's. Moash takes up the Shardblade, amassing gloryspren, and has the armorers put the armor on him. Bridge four then returns to their barracks to eat some stew that has been simmering the entire time that Kaladin was locked up. Teft brings Kaladin up to speed on bridge four's activities and emotions while he was away. Kaladin talks privately with Moash and says he agrees with the plan to remove Elhokar, and Moash is pleased and that they will possibly deal with Amaram next. Moash decides to go to the sparring grounds to practice, and Kaladin returns to the barracks to feast.

Chapter 67: Spit and Bile

Arch Faces: Kalak - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Kalak

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: The base of the hill below Elhokar's War Palace.

Timeline: (1173.10.8.2) Three days after Chapter 66.

Epigraph:

My path has been chosen very deliberately. Yes, I agree with everything you have said about Rayse, including the severe danger he presents.

Summary:

Dalinar and Navani watch two armies return from a hunt, and one of their guards leaves to get a status report. Dalinar thinks how disciplined Bridge Four is, and how Kaladin fit the ideal of the type of officer that Dalinar looked for. Navani talks about possible usages for fabrials and how gemstones weren't always used to bond Shardblades, a fact which alters their understanding of Shardblades. As she talks, he thinks about his more urgent preparations for their expedition to the Shattered Plains. She notices his distracted state and comments on it, then expresses her ongoing grief for the loss of Jasnah and Dalinar comforts her. Navani asks how Dalinar coped when shshshsh died, but he doesn't answer, though he thinks how he couldn't remember his wife anymore due to a hole in his memories. Dalinar mentions the secrets hidden by Gavilar and Navani says she will try to find something in her journals about that, though she has already checked many times. Dalinar says their immediate concern is the feast they are attending, and Navani admonishes him to try to be encouraging instead of contemptful of the other highprinces, before they separate to the gender segregated islands of the feast.

Dalinar goes to the king's island, noticing that people seem to be paying more attention to him as he walks by. Dalinar steps up to Vamah and inquires about his hunt strategy, but Vamah's response is interrupted by several people laughing nearby, and Dalinar leaves to investigate, ending up face to face with Aladar and Sadeas. Dalinar confronts them but they feign ignorance and walk away. Dalinar looks around for someone else to question, then hears Wit welcome Amaram to the feast with insults, though Amaram responds in a friendly manner. Dalinar asks Amaram about some papers being distributed, but is constantly interrupted by Wit's remarks until Dalinar and Amaram walk away from him. Amaram tells Dalinar that the papers have accounts of Dalinar's visions as dictated to Navani. Dalinar tells Amaram to bring Navani to him but she is already heading to him. Dalinar asks Amaram's opinion and he replies that he thinks the visions are authentic and meaningful for their roles as recreators of the Radiants. Dalinar asks about Taln, and Amaram replies that he is still investigating. Amaram also comments on his lack of faith in Kaladin's ability to protect Dalinar and that he would like an apology from him. Navani brings some of the papers, and tells Dalinar that the words and tone were changed to make it seem that Navani was humoring Dalinar by transcribing the visions, and that a mocking commentary was added. Dalinar asks if the visions were changed and Navani replies that they were not, and Dalinar says he will not be bothered by this attempt to embarrass him, and he quotes from The Way of Kings to shield himself from ridicule. Dalinar stands on a table to address the crowd and says that the accounts of the visions are accurate, despite the mocking tone and commentary, and that in the future he will have the accounts of his visions published for scholars to investigate. He vows that he will be vindicated instead of broken and says that he will talk to each of them individually and ask them to speak their minds to his face instead of anonymously.

Dalinar sits down to rest after hours of politicking and talking up his expedition to the Shattered Plains. Wit approaches and compliments Dalinar on his approach to dealing with the insults. Wit implies that Dalinar outshines Elhokar in importance, and Dalinar asks if he is a tyrant, and Wit replies that he is but that he is a benevolent one, which is preferable to a weak ruler, and what the world needs currently. Wit said that what was done to unify the kingdom years ago was good work, but Dalinar complains about how weak the kingdom is because of the means they used in unification, and that more than benevolent tyranny is needed according to Nohadon. Wit cryptically comments that he has to go somewhere but he doesn't know why, and when asked, denies that he is a Radiant or Herald, and that their goals do not completely align and that Wit would watch the world crumble and burn to get what he needs, though not happily, and that Dalinar can't trust Wit. Wit says that he will try to help carefully but must avoid being destroyed by Dalinar's enemy, the father of hatred.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Interlude I-9: Lift

Arch Faces: Nale - Vedel ----- Vedel - Nale

Iconography: Banquet

POV Characters: Lift

Setting: The Bronze Palace in Azimir, the capital city of Azir.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) Six days after Chapter 58.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Lift and six other thieves climb over a wall of the Bronze Palace as they intend to rob it while a new Prime Aqasix is being chosen by the vizierate. Lift sees a man she calls Dustiness Ford Lalatina Darkness in the distance and frets that he is still pursuing her somehow. The thieves climb up the palace wall and Lift chats with her spren Wyndle, who says that he wanted to choose someone else with whom to bond but ended up with Lift since she had visited the Old Magic. Lift and Wyndle bicker as they infiltrate the palace. Huqin says they are there to steal clothes which aren't well guarded but will sell for a lot. Lift disobeys Huqin and wanders the palace with Gawx accompanying her. Lift tells Gawx that she wants to steal rich people food and she heads towards the Prime's chambers while he goes to the vizier quarters to find spheres. Wyndle helps her further infiltrate the palace while he teaches Lift about spren and her odd ability to convert food into Stormlight. Lift sneaks into the dining area and hides under the table as the vizierate reviews applications for Emperor. Lift listens as they debate what to do since no one wants to be Prime due to the recent assassinations. She steals a dinner roll then hesitates as she notices that Darkness is there. She tries to flee but is caught, and Darkness has her arrested and tells the vizierate that he has the proper forms. She tries to use her ability to escape but is inhibited by a larkin which drains her Stormlight. The head vizier protests that Lift will be executed for mere thievery, but Darkness adds the crimes of trespass and interrupting a holy conclave in session.

Lift escapes long enough to get a half-eaten roll which she quickly eats before being captured again. After a short time, Lift gains enough Stormlight to evade her captors, though she sees Darkness has abilities also as he chases her carrying a Shardblade. One of Darkness's companions slits Gawx's throat, and Darkness recaptures Lift, then berates his ally for killing the boy without filling out the correct paperwork. Lift escapes but then decides to save Gawx because someone has to care, and Wyndle says that her Regrowth ability could help if she was more trained. She returns to Gawx' body and breathes Stormlight into his mouth before Darkness again captures her and identifies her as an Edgedancer and tells her about their order. Darkness says he hunts her because her abilities could bring Desolations back to the world. Darkness draws his Shardblade to kill her but she is suddenly pardoned by the new Prime Aqasix, Gawx, who was elected due to his miracle survival. Darkness obeys the pardon to release Lift and praises Yaezir and leaves. Lift congratulates Gawx on his election and asks for food.

Interlude I-10: Szeth

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Szeth

POV Characters: Szeth

Setting: Atop the highest tower in the world.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.3) 18 days after Chapter 34.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Szeth sits atop the highest tower in the world, haunted by the screams of his victims. He dwells on his oath and errant banishment for being wrong about the return of the Radiants. He leaves the tower to seek answers - or someone to kill of his own choosing.

Interlude I-11: New Rhythms

Arch Faces: Ishar - Kalak ----- Kalak - Ishar

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) 16 days after Interlude I-8.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai tries to shoo away a spren but fails. She attunes her old rhythms as the new ones that she was listening to, which had voices that gave advice, tended to make other people nervous. She meets the others of the ruling council, with her sister Venli having taken stormform as well. Eshonai tells them that they need to transform more of their people to be ready for the Alethi push toward Narak, so they can summon a highstorm to use as a weapon. Eshonai tunes out the voice within that is screaming and attunes joy and tells how awesome she feels. Zuln dissents from Eshonai's proposal, saying it is not right. The meeting breaks up and Venli and Eshonai discuss their options for getting consensus on their plan and Venli says that she knew what the stormform would do to Eshonai, angering her sister. Eshonai asks how Venli knew but she doesn't answer. Eshonai addresses a crowd and tells them that the Five want to forbid the new form but that she will allow anyone who wishes to join her in a highstorm to transform, then she generates a miniature storm for them to see as a demonstration of her new ability, impressing the onlookers. She then asks for volunteers from her soldiers for the new form and is happy that almost no one refuses her. She then tells the soldiers that she wants to transform all the civilians also, and has them go through the city get volunteers and segregate anyone who refuses the transformation. Venli says that those unwilling to transform must be killed and Eshonai says that will happen after her soldiers all take stormform. Abronai refuses the transformation and is grouped with the dissenters, along with Zuln. Thude confronts Eshonai on her changes in behavior and attitude but she defends her actions as necessary to their people's survival. Eshonai sends Thude to guard the dissenters, which include her own mother. As she prepares to speak to her entire people, Varanis tells her that the dissenters escaped, helped by Thude, but Eshonai says not to pursue them since they will not survive the next highstorm anyway. Venli confronts Eshonai, who threatens to kill her sister but doesn't since she needs Venli for the stormspren. Eshonai lets Venli go and addresses the listeners as she planned.

TRIVIA

The rest of this post contains various trivia, including easy-to-miss details and long-running connections between books. It also incorporates external information from sources like author annotations and interviews ("Words of Brandon" or WoB). While most of this information is eventually revealed in the books, sharing it now enhances your overall understanding, aligning with Brandon Sanderson's practice of early fan engagement and clarification.

ALTERNATE REALITIES

Just a little bit of TV/movie news. Sanderson has been working on adapting both Mistborn and Stormlight for Apple TV. He's commented a bit on how the adaptation is going and what changes we can expect. One of the biggest ones he's mentioned is that the plot in The Way of Kings is spread out into too many locations for a TV show. (Which yeah, is ironic because there are only 2 main locations if you ignore the Interludes: The Shattered Plains and Kharbranth.) To that end, he's said that Shallan and Jasnah's storyline will also start in the Shattered Plains. So her journey through the Frostlands will be entirely cut. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

BAWK BAWK

As some of you noticed, Rosharan's call all birds "chickens". Rosharans as a whole have some linguistic oddities, particularly when it comes to consolidation. I've mentioned before that they will call a lot of the various entities in the cosmere a "spren", even if they aren't technically the same on a fundamental level. Some of these linguistic oddities are important, or hide important things, so be sure to note them when they happen.

NAHNDADAHN

There are two caste systems on Roshar, one for lighteyes called Dahn Rankings, and one for darkeyes called Nahn Rankings.

Here are the Dahn Rankings:

So, this is a general ranking, but there are a lot of caveats. Anything italicized isn't directly mentioned in the books, but is fandom speculation based off relative rankings and mentions throughout the series.

Anyone who is a Citylord could span from 4th to 6th dahn. Wistiow was the Citylord for Hearthstone when Kaladin was a kid. He was actually probably 4th or 5th dahn. Roshone is likely 6th dahn.

Kaladin's military status puts him equivalent to a Battalionlord, which would be 4th dahn, but Dalinar didn't dare give him an official rank beyond Captain, which puts him, militarily, at 6th dahn. As a darkeye though, he can't officially carry any dahn rank.

Normally, being a monarch would make you 1st dahn, but smaller nations like Kharbranth (King Taravangian) accept the rank of 2nd dahn to avoid antagonizing the Alethi.

Tenners are looked down on because they have to actually work, rather than generating passive income from landed estates or by ruling over other men.

If two lighteyes of different rank marry, the children will belong to the highest rank of the two. This only applies to "stable" ranks though. You'll note that Dalinar and Adolin are 2nd dahn, but Renarin is 3rd because he's not Dalinar's direct heir. Certain ranks only allow the direct heir to stay in that rank and all other children drop down one rank.

The 4th dahn appears to be an unstable rank because Lin Davar was 4th dahn, but Shallan is 5th dahn. However, she has a secret Shardblade that, if she revealed it, would make her 4th dahn. By the same measure, although her brother Helaran was disinherited, he was still of the 4th dahn because he had a Shardblade.

It's difficult to raise your dahn, particularly in the higher dahns. You can buy up a rank in the lower dahns, or you can jump up 2 or 3 ranks by royal appointment. An ardent who leaves the ardentia will be demoted to the 10th dahn.

We have less clear examples for the Nahn Rankings of darkeyes. Those at the highest levels of nahn enjoyed relative comfort and wealth while those at the lowest levels of nahn would be serfs restricted from being able to freely travel. Those in the 10th nahn are slaves and can be bought and sold by others.

1st and 2nd nahn are considered full citizens and it's possible for them to marry into a lighteyed family. Most nahns have the right to travel and losing that right means you or one of your ancestors had committed some wrongdoing.

Moving between nahns is easier than moving betweens dahns. Joining the army is one way to permanently increase your nahn. Accumulating wealth and buying nahn promotions is also easier in the lower ranks.

HANDS OFF THE MERCHANDISE

You all correctly noted that Mraize has a collection of off-world things. I'd like to catalog them all for you now. I want to preface this by acknowledging some of the shocking lore drops that I've mentioned previously, and some of your frustration at them being "unknowable" from just the text of the books and novellas we've read.

One of the primary goals of these trivia posts is to point things out in a way that means you don't have to finish the series and then re-read it to get everything you've missed. We're about at the half-way point of the published cosmere and it's only now that things are starting to come together. As we progress, things will come together more and more. A lot of what I've mentioned before does eventually make its way into the books, but if you waited for that point, all of the connections get muddied in the waters.

You don't technically need much of this trivia information to enjoy the stories on their own, I'm just trying to add an extra layer to a first time read through that normally wouldn't be possible if you were just picking up the books and going through them on your own.

So all that said, one of Mraize's items is going to fall into the "shocking lore drop" category, but it is the last big lore drop of this nature. In that, it's one of the "unknowable" things. Everything after this, though maybe obscure, should at least feel like it flows naturally from the information you already have, rather than appearing as if from nowhere.

Here are the items, as they were presented in Chapter 43:

• A vial of pale sand

• A couple of thick hairpins

• A lock of golden hair

• The branch of a tree with writing on it

• A silver knife

• An odd flower preserved in some kind of solution

• A chunk of pale pink crystal (delicate and flakes)

The pale sand is, as many of you guessed, white sand from Taldain. The hairpins haven't been confirmed, but some of the fandom thinks they could be hemalurgic spikes. The lock of golden hair hasn't been confirmed either, but they are likely either Royal Locks from Warbreaker, or Iriali hair (given their noteworthy golden hair).

The tree branch is a bit of fain wood, which I talked about in the trivia for the Arcanum Unbounded essays. Fain wood is a special type of wood from Yolen.

The silver knife is made from Threnodite silver, which I've previously mentioned is particularly valuable in the cosmere. The flower, as some guessed, is a Tear of Edgli, from Nalthis.

Finally we come to the chunk of pale pink crystal. This is the big lore drop item. This crystal is called an "aether". We know about aether from another unpublished novel of Sanderson's called Aether of Night. This book used to fall into the same category as White Sand in terms of how canon it was. However, whereas White Sand was made officially canon through the graphic novel release, Sanderson has gone on to say that Aether of Night is no longer canon. He's cannibalized aspects of that story into other storylines, and decided that some parts of the book just don't work for the cosmere. So it's been completely abandoned. Sanderson planned to release information about the aethers in an entirely different way, and has since done so. This is the start of that process.

I do want to let you you organically discover more about aether as we progress through the books, so I'm not going to reveal a lot of specifics, I mostly wanted you to know the word "aether". And 2 bits of important lore about them. The first is that aether is a separate type of magic, removed from Adonalsium. There's a big asterisk next to that claim, because (in Sanderson's words) in-universe scholars might refute it. Aether is still Investiture, and scholars would say that all things Investiture are of Adonalsium. But (and you'll get more details later), aether did sort of still exist independently of Adonalsium.

The other important lore bit relates to the trivia for Sixth of the Dusk. I mentioned that Autonomy steals magic systems, and that Sand Mastery is a pale imitation of a completely different magic system. Aether is that magic system.

HOIDSPOTTING

Shallan hugged Wit, and Adolin and Kaladin were rightly disturbed. You're not supposed to like/hug Wit! That chapter served as confirmation that Wit/Hoid was the messenger Shallan met during Middlefest, when she was 14, which many of you clocked when it happened.

And to clear up some of the confusion, the reason Hoid appeared in the arch for Chapter 43 is because, when Shallan saw Mraize from behind, she was reminded of Wit/Hoid:

He reminded her of someone, a man from her childhood. The messenger with the smiling eyes, the enigma who knew so much.

As Shallan notes, Mraize is not Hoid, it was just a brief resemblance from behind that was meant to foreshadow Chapter 45.

I'd also like to confirm that there is a perpendicularity in the Horneater Peaks and that Rock saw Hoid emerge from them when he arrived on Roshar. Hoid is Lunu'anaki, the Horneater god of travel and mischief. It's worth noting that there was another bit of information in that exchange that I didn't see anyone comment on. It'll be relevant later, so I'll point it out if no one notices.

YE OLDE OBSFUCATION

The epigraphs in this section are a bit esoteric. They're not Old/Middle English, or even Shakespearean English, but they are written to evoke an older and more elevated kind of prose. Since we have quite a few non-native English speakers, I'd like to provide some simplified interpretations of all of the epigraphs.

A lot of these have some deeper meanings that you aren't meant to be able to pull out yet, since you lack context and information revealed in later books, so I've got a walk a fine line to try to not reveal knowledge that I already have. So I might just leave out information in these simplifications, and sometimes it's because I'm deliberately trying to hide something, or it's because I'm omitting overly flowery, but substance-less prose. I'll leave it as an exercise to you all to find which is which if you want.

Chapter 35

They also, when they had settled their rulings in the nature of each bond's placement, called the name of it the Nahel bond, with regard to its effect upon the souls of those caught in its grip; in this description, each was related to the bonds that drive Roshar itself, ten Surges, named in turn and two for each order; in this light, it can be seen that each order would by necessity share one Surge with each of its neighbors.

This is talking about the process "they" used to create and set up the Nahel bond. It just reiterates what I've told you before about the Surgebinding chart, that there are 10 Orders, each with 2 Surges and that the Surges are shared between adjacent Orders.

Chapter 36

And when they were spoken of by the common folk, the Releasers claimed to be misjudged because of the dreadful nature of their power; and when they dealt with others, always were they firm in their claim that other epithets, notably “Dustbringers,” often heard in the common speech, were unacceptable substitutions, in particular for their similarity to the word “Voidbringers.” They did also exercise anger in great prejudice regarding it, though to many who speak, there was little difference between these two assemblies.

There is an Order of the Knights Radiant called Releasers. The Order was more commonly known as Dustbringers among the common people because their powers, and the Releasers didn't like the name because it was close to Voidbringers. Although the Releasers were very angry about the name, common folk didn't see much difference between Dustbringers and Voidbringers.

Chapter 37

Now, as each order was thus matched to the nature and temperament of the Herald it named patron, there was none more archetypal of this than the Stonewards, who followed after Talenelat’Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of War: they thought it a point of virtue to exemplify resolve, strength, and dependability. Alas, they took less care for imprudent practice of their stubbornness, even in the face of proven error.

Each Order was matched to a specific Herald via "nature and temperament". The Order of Stonewards closely matched the nature and temperament of Talenelat'Elin (Taln). (This suggests that other Orders might not match their given Herald as closely). The Order promoted resolve, strength, and dependability, but had a reputation for being very stubborn, even when proven wrong.

Chapters 38, 40, and 41

Now, as the Windrunners were thus engaged, arose the event which has hitherto been referenced: namely, that discovery of some wicked thing of eminence, though whether it be some rogueries among the Radiants’ adherents or of some external origin, Avena would not suggest.

That they responded immediately and with great consternation is undeniable, as these were primary among those who would forswear and abandon their oaths. The term Recreance was not then applied, but has since become a popular title by which this event is named.

This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at the time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal; and after they withdrew, about two thousand made assault upon them, destroying much of the membership; but this was only nine of the ten, as one said they would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine.

The Windrunners were fighting when something terrible was discovered. Someone named Avena refused to speculate if the discovery came from some faction inside the Knights Radiant or an outside source.

The Radiants reacted to this terrible discovery with shock and confusion, causing them to abandon their oaths. This event would later be called The Recreance.

The people already viewed the Knights Radiance as arrogant. The Recreance happened right in the middle of an intense period of fighting, which added to the sense of betrayal and caused 2,000 regular soldiers to attack the Radiants who had just abandoned their oaths, killing many of them. This only applied to 9 of the 10 Orders though. One of the Orders of Knights Radiant didn't drop their weapons and used trickery at the expense of the other 9 Orders.

Chapter 42

But as for Ishi’Elin, his was the part most important at their inception; he readily understood the implications of Surges being granted to men, and caused organization to be thrust upon them; as having too great power, he let it be known that he would destroy each and every one, unless they agreed to be bound by precepts and laws.

Ishi'Elin (Ishar) played an important role in the creation and organization of the Knights Radiant because he had a deep understanding of the Surges. He threatened to destroy the Knights if they didn't agree to have their powers bound in certain ways.

Chapter 43

And thus were the disturbances in the Revv toparchy quieted, when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, Nalan’Elin betook himself to finally accept the Skybreakers who had named him their master, when initially he had spurned their advances and, in his own interests, refused to countenance that which he deemed a pursuit of vanity and annoyance; this was the last of the Heralds to admit to such patronage.

The Herald Nalan’Elin (Nale) was the last Herald to allow himself to be tied to an Order of Knights Radiant (the Skybreakers), and only did so after the end of a civil war in the Revv toparchy (a small region or district). He spurned them, preferring to pursue his own interests, thinking the Skybreakers vain and annoying until he finally agreed to be their patron.

Chapter 44

But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious.

The Order of Bondsmiths usually only had 3 members and had "specific" spren. Growing their numbers was seen as seditious. During the time of Madasa , only a single Bondsmith lived in Urithiru.

Chapter 46

When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned; also, they were the most articulate and refined of the Radiants.

A man named Simol hid his shock when visited by the Order of Edgedancers, who were graceful, with a reputation for deadliness, refinement, and ability to speak clearly and effectively. After reading Interlude I-9, compare this reputation against Lift and I hope you have some sympathy for poor Wyndle.

Chapters 47 and 49

Yet, were the orders not disheartened by so great a defeat, for the Lightweavers provided spiritual sustenance; they were enticed by those glorious creations to venture on a second assault.

These Lightweavers, by no coincidence, included many who pursued the arts; namely: writers, artists, musicians, painters, sculptors. Considering the order’s general temperament, the tales of their strange and varied mnemonic abilities may have been embellished.

The Order of Lightweavers included a lot of artists and were rumored to have strong memory abilities, though the author doubts this when he considers the Order's general temperament. (Though we can see that the rumors are true, given Shallans Memories). Lightweavers also provided spiritual assistance and enticed a recently defeated group to rally for a counter attack.

Chapter 50

And now, if there was an uncut gem among the Radiants, it was the Willshapers; for though enterprising, they were erratic, and Invia wrote of them, “capricious, frustrating, unreliable,” as taking it for granted that others would agree; this may have been an intolerant view, as often Invia expressed, for this order was said to be most varied, inconsistent in temperament save for a general love of adventure, novelty, or oddity.

The Order of Willshapers were the most varied in their "nature and temperament", with the only common attribute among their members being a love of adventure and strange things. Someone named Invia called them erratic, frustrating, and unreliable. The way she wrote suggested most other people would agree with them. The author thought Invia's opinion was unfair though.

Chapter 51

In short, if any presume Kazilah to be innocent, you must look at the facts and deny them in their entirety; to say that the Radiants were destitute of integrity for this execution of one their own, one who had obviously fraternized with the unwholesome elements, indicates the most slothful of reasoning; for the enemy’s baleful influence demanded vigilance on all occasions, of war and of peace.

The author is commenting on the Knights Radiant executing one of their own members, Kazilah, for conspiring with the enemy, celebrating their integrity and stating that the facts of the case were pretty clear cut.

Chapter 52

Now, as the Truthwatchers were esoteric in nature, their order being formed entirely of those who never spoke or wrote of what they did, in this lies frustration for those who would see their exceeding secrecy from the outside; they were not naturally inclined to explanation; and in the case of Corberon’s disagreements, their silence was not a sign of an exceeding abundance of disdain, but rather an exceeding abundance of tact.

The author expresses frustration at not having much information about the Order of Truthwatchers because they never kept records or publicly spoke about their powers. He notes some incident called "Corberon’s disagreements" and comments that the Truthwatchers were silent on the matter, but considers their silence an act of tact, rather than disdain at whatever the disagreement was about.

Chapter 53

As to the other orders that were inferior in this visiting of the far realm of spren, the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they did never relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren; and the Lightweavers and Willshapers both also had an affinity to the same, though neither were the true masters of that realm.

The Order of Elsecallers were masters of the "far realm of spren". They helped other Orders visit and interact with that realm, but kept their influence as the primary liaisons. Lightweavers and Willshapers has some affinity with the realm, but did not approach the talent of the Elsecallers.

Chapters 54 and 55

There came also sixteen of the order of Windrunners, and with them a considerable number of squires, and finding in that place the Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty, there ensued a great debate.

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.

Sixteen Windrunners and a "considerable number" of their squires visited a place where Skybreakers were dividing members of that place into innocent and guilty divisions. The Windrunners began to debate with the Skybreakers.

It seems that Skybreakers had a talent for discerning guilt that bordered on divine, despite their Surges not directly granting them any such power. Even rival Orders admitted that they could truly tell when someone was guilty or innocent.

Chapter 56

Twenty–three cohorts followed behind, that came from the contributions of the King of Makabakam, for though the bond between man and spren was at times inexplicable, the ability for bonded spren to manifest in our world rather than their own grew stronger through the course of the oaths given.

This is an idle thought during a military march, with 23 military units provided by the King of Makabakam. The author notes that, although the spren bond is weird, a bonded spren can appear in the Physical Realm more and more as more oaths are given.

Chapter 57

Malchin was stymied, for though he was inferior to none in the arts of war, he was not suitable for the Lightweavers; he wished for his oaths to be elementary and straightforward, and yet their spren were liberal, as to our comprehension, in definitions pertaining to this matter; the process included speaking truths as an approach to a threshold of self-awareness that Malchin could never attain.

A man named Malchin wanted to be a Lightweavers, but was frustrated by the Order because they do not swear traditional oaths like the other Orders, but rather they speak deep truths about themselves that required a degree of self-awareness that he didn't have. It's not clear if he never became a Lightweaver or managed to join the Order, but couldn't progress far.

Chapter 58

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address.

A Bondsmith named Melishi planned to destroy the Voidbringers the following day. However, in the middle of the night he came up with a different plan, one related to the unique powers of Bondsmiths, something related to the Heralds themselfs. Because he was in a hurry, he didn't record what he planned to do.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 59 through 67

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Interlude I-9: Lift

Arch Faces: Nale - Vedel ----- Vedel - Nale

Iconography: Banquet

POV Characters: Lift

Setting: The Bronze Palace in Azimir, the capital city of Azir.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) Six days after Chapter 58.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Lift and six other thieves climb over a wall of the Bronze Palace as they intend to rob it while a new Prime Aqasix is being chosen by the vizierate. Lift sees a man she calls Dustiness Ford Lalatina Darkness in the distance and frets that he is still pursuing her somehow. The thieves climb up the palace wall and Lift chats with her spren Wyndle, who says that he wanted to choose someone else with whom to bond but ended up with Lift since she had visited the Old Magic. Lift and Wyndle bicker as they infiltrate the palace. Huqin says they are there to steal clothes which aren't well guarded but will sell for a lot. Lift disobeys Huqin and wanders the palace with Gawx accompanying her. Lift tells Gawx that she wants to steal rich people food and she heads towards the Prime's chambers while he goes to the vizier quarters to find spheres. Wyndle helps her further infiltrate the palace while he teaches Lift about spren and her odd ability to convert food into Stormlight. Lift sneaks into the dining area and hides under the table as the vizierate reviews applications for Emperor. Lift listens as they debate what to do since no one wants to be Prime due to the recent assassinations. She steals a dinner roll then hesitates as she notices that Darkness is there. She tries to flee but is caught, and Darkness has her arrested and tells the vizierate that he has the proper forms. She tries to use her ability to escape but is inhibited by a larkin which drains her Stormlight. The head vizier protests that Lift will be executed for mere thievery, but Darkness adds the crimes of trespass and interrupting a holy conclave in session.

Lift escapes long enough to get a half-eaten roll which she quickly eats before being captured again. After a short time, Lift gains enough Stormlight to evade her captors, though she sees Darkness has abilities also as he chases her carrying a Shardblade. One of Darkness's companions slits Gawx's throat, and Darkness recaptures Lift, then berates his ally for killing the boy without filling out the correct paperwork. Lift escapes but then decides to save Gawx because someone has to care, and Wyndle says that her Regrowth ability could help if she was more trained. She returns to Gawx' body and breathes Stormlight into his mouth before Darkness again captures her and identifies her as an Edgedancer and tells her about their order. Darkness says he hunts her because her abilities could bring Desolations back to the world. Darkness draws his Shardblade to kill her but she is suddenly pardoned by the new Prime Aqasix, Gawx, who was elected due to his miracle survival. Darkness obeys the pardon to release Lift and praises Yaezir and leaves. Lift congratulates Gawx on his election and asks for food.

Interlude I-10: Szeth

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Szeth

POV Characters: Szeth

Setting: Atop the highest tower in the world.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.3) 18 days after Chapter 34.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Szeth sits atop the highest tower in the world, haunted by the screams of his victims. He dwells on his oath and errant banishment for being wrong about the return of the Radiants. He leaves the tower to seek answers - or someone to kill of his own choosing.

Interlude I-11: New Rhythms

Arch Faces: Ishar - Kalak ----- Kalak - Ishar

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.6.1) 16 days after Interlude I-8.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai tries to shoo away a spren but fails. She attunes her old rhythms as the new ones that she was listening to, which had voices that gave advice, tended to make other people nervous. She meets the others of the ruling council, with her sister Venli having taken stormform as well. Eshonai tells them that they need to transform more of their people to be ready for the Alethi push toward Narak, so they can summon a highstorm to use as a weapon. Eshonai tunes out the voice within that is screaming and attunes joy and tells how awesome she feels. Zuln dissents from Eshonai's proposal, saying it is not right. The meeting breaks up and Venli and Eshonai discuss their options for getting consensus on their plan and Venli says that she knew what the stormform would do to Eshonai, angering her sister. Eshonai asks how Venli knew but she doesn't answer. Eshonai addresses a crowd and tells them that the Five want to forbid the new form but that she will allow anyone who wishes to join her in a highstorm to transform, then she generates a miniature storm for them to see as a demonstration of her new ability, impressing the onlookers. She then asks for volunteers from her soldiers for the new form and is happy that almost no one refuses her. She then tells the soldiers that she wants to transform all the civilians also, and has them go through the city get volunteers and segregate anyone who refuses the transformation. Venli says that those unwilling to transform must be killed and Eshonai says that will happen after her soldiers all take stormform. Abronai refuses the transformation and is grouped with the dissenters, along with Zuln. Thude confronts Eshonai on her changes in behavior and attitude but she defends her actions as necessary to their people's survival. Eshonai sends Thude to guard the dissenters, which include her own mother. As she prepares to speak to her entire people, Varanis tells her that the dissenters escaped, helped by Thude, but Eshonai says not to pursue them since they will not survive the next highstorm anyway. Venli confronts Eshonai, who threatens to kill her sister but doesn't since she needs Venli for the stormspren. Eshonai lets Venli go and addresses the listeners as she planned.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

NEWBIE TRIVIA

Most of the activity for these "Final Thoughts & Trivia" posts happen in the newbie thread. There I provide a lot of information about things new readers can easily miss during their first read through. Veterans often learn a thing or two as well, so be sure to read the body of that post. While veterans are welcome to read the post and the comments, they should be commenting in this thread to share their reactions to the information, or the newbies' thoughts.

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Chapter 52: Into the Sky

Arch Faces: Shalash - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Shalash

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Amaram's manor in Sadeas' warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.2) The same day as Chapter 51, in the evening. The day after Chapter 49, in the evening.

Epigraph:

Now, as the Truthwatchers were esoteric in nature, their order being formed entirely of those who never spoke or wrote of what they did, in this lies frustration for those who would see their exceeding secrecy from the outside; they were not naturally inclined to explanation; and in the case of Corberon’s disagreements, their silence was not a sign of an exceeding abundance of disdain, but rather an exceeding abundance of tact.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 11, page 6

Summary:

Kaladin POV

Kaladin walks through the Shattered Plains at night to the plateau where he encountered Wit a few weeks previously. He verifies that no one can see him, and he steps off the plateau into a chasm. After landing at the bottom, he runs through the chasm, with Syl alongside him. He tries to jump onto a wall but fails and lands on the ground. Syl offers some advice, and Kaladin agrees that he has to practice to be able to fight and Lash as well as Szeth. Then he realizes he has to get over fear of injury and is able to jump on the wall without stumbling or falling, then back onto the floor.

Kaladin becomes more comfortable in jumping between the ground and walls and tells Syl that everything about himself changed to allow this. He runs along the walls and leaps chasms and plateaus, draining all his gems and glowing with Stormlight. Sylphrena follows him along with dozens of windspren. He Lashes himself over the plateaus and hovers in place, noticing a pattern in the plains beneath him. As he stays in the same place, the windspren leave him. He asks if Syl was with him as a child and she says yes and no. He says that all his skill was due to her, but she says that it was due to both of them, which he accepts. Syl says that Szeth's weapon is special and was made to give abilities to men in the same way their bond does. Kaladin asks if a new unstained Blade can be forged and Syl says yes but doesn't say how. Syl confronts him on informing Dalinar about Moash's patriot friends and Kaladin replies that he wants to consider it some more first. He walks toward Sadeas' camp and contemplates killing Amaram for his role in Tien's death, but Syl gets him to reconsider in light of his accomplishments that evening. Returning to his barracks, he finds Shen there, who says that he has to leave immediately, and Kaladin permits it, saying he is a free man. Shen says his real name is Rlain, and that he thinks Kaladin is a good man.

Shallan POV

Shallan walks through Sadeas' warcamp disguised as a messenger boy. She enters Amaram's manor after passing a checkpoint guarded by Hav and waits for a maid and a man to leave the manor grounds, then changes her clothing and disguise to impersonate her, and enters the manor. Shallan enters the kitchen, trying to imitate the maid's mannerisms. The cook addresses her and gives her tasks to do, and Shallan just nods without speaking so as to not blow her cover. She almost runs into Amaram who she thought wasn't going to be in his home, and panics. She follows Amaram toward the room she wants to enter, and confronts him, saying that a messenger is waiting outside to give him a message, and he leaves to investigate. Shallan asks Pattern to pick the lock and she enters the shuttered room which turns out to be filled with maps.

She asks Pattern to act as lookout while she peruses the maps and predictions for highstorms. She takes memories of the maps which focus on the Shattered Plains and are more detailed than any she had seen before. She also deciphers the handwritten stormwarden glyphs though she is puzzled by them as they aren't meant to form sentences, and realizes that Amaram intends to find out from the Parshendi how to return the Voidbringers, and to reach the center of the Shattered Plains before Dalinar's army. She theorizes that Jasnah, the Ghostbloods, and Amaram all are interested in the same things. She also realizes that she has to avoid alerting Amaram that his private room was infiltrated.

Shallan returns to the kitchen disguised as Amaram using Pattern to imitate the brightlord's voice. She tells the cook that Telesh was on a secret mission for Amaram and that the cook is to pretend that she knows nothing of where Telesh was that evening and to not mention this conversation to Amaram at any point. Shallan then leaves the manor and changes her guise back to that of the messenger boy and returns to the front of the building as Hav and Amaram walk up. She says she has a message from Shallan Davar to request a time to sketch his Shardblade to which Amaram acquiesces. He summons his Shardblade and Shallan realizes that it used to belong to her brother, Helaran. Shallan requests the background of the Shardblade and Amaram lies and says he got it from a young Veden man who tried to assassinate him, and she thinks that Amaram killed Helaran. She then takes her leave, realizing that Helaran was caught up in the conspiracy. She cries, now knowing for sure her brother is dead.

Chapter 53: Perfection

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.3) Two days after Chapter 51.

Epigraph:

As to the other orders that were inferior in this visiting of the far realm of spren, the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they did never relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren; and the Lightweavers and Willshapers both also had an affinity to the same, though neither were the true masters of that realm.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 6, page 2

Summary:

Adolin duels Elit with precision, realizing that his previous tactics didn't persuade anyone into accepting his challenges. Adolin wears down Elit with small strikes to his armor, causing many small cracks until Elit's armor eventually is drained of Stormlight and he is unable to move. Adolin shoves Elit who falls to the ground, and is awarded judgment.

Adolin retires to his staging room where Renarin and Navani wait. Shallan shows up to congratulate him. Navani compliments Shallan and leaves before Shallan can say anything and Adolin says to give her time to grieve. Shallan says that she wants to have dinner and a walk with Adolin the next day and says that her research says that if Adolin wins his next bout in a spectacular fashion it could help him with his duels. Relis Ruthar storms into the staging area demanding the bout be nullified but Highjudge Istow refuses. Adolin offers to wager six shards and fight Relis alongside whoever Relis chooses and Relis accepts to duel in two days. Shallan explains her plan to Adolin.

Chapter 54: Veil's Lesson

Arch Faces: Ishar - Shalash ----- Shalash - Ishar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Ghostbloods' pavilion in the Unclaimed Hills.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.3) The day after Chapter 52.

Epigraph:

There came also sixteen of the order of Windrunners, and with them a considerable number of squires, and finding in that place the Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty, there ensued a great debate.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 28, page 3

Summary:

Shallan travels in her guise as Veil to a meeting with the Ghostbloods in the Unclaimed Hills, following a map sent via spanreed. Mraize quizzes Veil on the uses of a Parshendi blowgun and her answers make Mraize realize she is a scholar. Mraize asks Veil why Tyn failed at her mission and is surprised to learn that she succeeded instead as she provides him with reproductions of the locked room and maps. Shallan accidentally reveals her sketching ability then is forced to demonstrate it. Mraize offers Veil a job and realizes that she killed Tyn. Mraize cautions her that the Ghostbloods are protective of each other and have a greater purpose, and that she would be assigned another mission, and Shallan leaves. When she is out of sight of the Ghostbloods, she hides inside an illusionary rock. She tells Pattern to imitate her to tell the carriage to return to the warcamps. As she hides, she hears Mraize give instructions to someone to bring Shallan's sketches to Thaidakar. Her illusion wears off after several hours and she walks back to the warcamps, on the way encountering her burned out carriage wrecked with all the parshmen and the driver killed, which upsets Shallan greatly. Shallan and Pattern discuss uses of her lightweaving ability.

Chapter 55: The Rules of the Game

Arch Faces: Shalash - Hoid ----- Hoid - Shalash

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Sebarial's warcamp. The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.4) The day after Chapter's 53 and 54. Two days after Chapter 52.

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.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 28, page 3

Summary:

Kaladin guards Adolin as they get a carriage to bring them to Sebarial's warcamp to meet Shallan. Kaladin recognizes Wit as the carriage driver and is surprised. Wit berates Kaladin for abandoning his flute and mocks his lack of eloquent retorts to Wit's insults. Wit implies that he knows of Kaladin's abilities and asks Kaladin to tell him a story as they ride. When they stop to pick up Shallan, Adolin realizes Wit is the driver and exclaims as such. Shallan also exclaims upon seeing Wit and hugs him, which surprises Adolin. Kaladin joins the two betrothed in the carriage to better watch Shallan as she and Adolin flirt. They decide to go to see a menagerie. Shallan reads an account of a highprince named Yenev who was killed in a duel by Sadeas by the Right of Challenge and King's Boon because Yenev opposed Gavilar's unification campaign. Shallan says that Adolin can try to invoke this boon to challenge Sadeas, if he wins his upcoming duel spectacularly. Kaladin surmises that this boon could help him deal with Amaram. Kaladin decides that Shallan is not a danger to Adolin and that Adolin is falling for her.

They arrive at the menagerie and discover Wit has already departed. Syl admonishes Kaladin for his sour mood as they walk through the menagerie. Shallan draws sketches of the various animals and chats with Adolin. Syl asks Kaladin if he is almost ready, and he replies yes. Amaram and Dalinar appear at the menagerie. Amaram is wearing a distinctive cloak and Dalinar announces that he is refounding the Knights Radiant and that Amaram is their leader.

Chapter 56: Whitespine Uncaged

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Adolin / Dalinar / Kaladin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) The day after Chapter 55.

Epigraph:

Twenty–three cohorts followed behind, that came from the contributions of the King of Makabakam, for though the bond between man and spren was at times inexplicable, the ability for bonded spren to manifest in our world rather than their own grew stronger through the course of the oaths given.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 35, page 9

Summary:

Kaladin and Sigzil discuss Amaram's lack of surgebinding ability as they arrive at the dueling arena. With the entire Kholin household in attendance, Kaladin brings every guard that he could. Kaladin feels anger that Amaram is honored by his appointment by Dalinar after what Kaladin told Dalinar about Amaram, and decides that he has to do something about it if Dalinar won't. Sigzil suggests that Kaladin reveal his powers and join Dalinar's Knights but Kaladin ignores this and sends Sigzil to pass his orders to the guards. Kaladin orders Moash to lead a patrol duty the next day so that he is away when Graves is dealt with.

Adolin speaks with his Shardblade to prepare for his duel. He burns a glyphward painted by Shallan and tells Navani to give her a chance. They discuss the plan regarding the boon and some changes to the terms of the duel. They review Adolin's preparations and Adolin gets anxious when he realizes he doesn't have his mother's bracelet as a good luck charm. Adolin enters the dueling arena and waves to Shallan and checks to see if Sadeas is there. His opponents enter the arena and he is shocked that there are four instead of two like he expected.

Dalinar questions Sadeas about what is happening and Sadeas proclaims ignorance, until Elhokar questions him. Sadeas replies that since Adolin wasn't specific enough when naming the terms of the duel that he would be subject to a full disadvantaged duel. Dalinar tells Elhokar that Adolin would have to forfeit but Elhokar dissuades him, and the duel begins.

Adolin curses himself as he realizes his mistake in the way he issued and accepted the duel challenge. He realizes the four opponents include Relis, Elit, Abrobadar, and Jakamav. Adolin puts his back to a wall so he doesn't get surrounded, and Zahel shouts advice to him to try to fight them one at a time. Adolin takes an offensive approach and does well until Jakamav is able to surprise him with a hammer blow. Adolin tries to yield but in the chaos of the duel is ignored, and he realizes that he might be severely injured.

Dalinar realizes that Adolin can have two fellow duelists under the terms of the challenge and asks for Elhokar's Shardblade but the king refuses, since that would endanger Dalinar. Sadeas taunts Dalinar for not going into the arena to help Adolin. Dalinar watches alarmed as Renarin - without Shardplate - goes to help his brother.

Adolin battles on and tries to get some breathing room so that he can signal the judge to yield, but Relis threatens to have Renarin severely injured or killed if Adolin doesn't keep fighting and accept punishment for what he did to Elit. Adolin reluctantly agrees, but berates his supposed friend Jakamav.

Dalinar implores Istow to end the fight, then says he will end it since she ignores him, but she replies that her authority supersedes him in the arena. Renarin fights Abrobadar, but he is hopelessly outclassed. Abrodar seems content to only stop Renarin reaching Adolin, and does not fight to maim as the other three gang up on Adolin, and one of Adolin's shoulder segments breaks. Dalinar addresses the crowd, asking for someone to aid his sons. He looks at Amaram, who averts his eyes. Kaladin then volunteers to aid them, telling Dalinar to take care of his men if it goes poorly, then he jumps into the arena with his spear.

Chapter 57: To Kill the Wind

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) Immediately after Chapter 56.

Epigraph:

Malchin was stymied, for though he was inferior to none in the arts of war, he was not suitable for the Lightweavers; he wished for his oaths to be elementary and straightforward, and yet their spren were liberal, as to our comprehension, in definitions pertaining to this matter; the process included speaking truths as an approach to a threshold of self-awareness that Malchin could never attain.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 12, page 12

Summary:

Shallan wonders why Adolin doesn't surrender since he is outmatched, and berates herself for not seeing the loophole and failing her betrothed. She briefly considers jumping into the arena but discards that idea. She tells Pattern to try to distract Abrobadar to help out Renarin. She watches as Kaladin joins the fight.

Kaladin tells Syl that this better end differently than when he saved Amaram, and she says that it will. Relis ignores Kaladin and pays the price as he gets stabbed in a crack in his armor. Kaladin guards Adolin's back and says that Adolin will need to break their foes' Shardplate for him. Adolin says for Kaladin to distract one foe and to watch out for Renarin while he fights the other two and Kaladin agrees. Kaladin draws Relis' attention while Adolin fights Elit and Jakamav. Relis fights Kaladin for a short time but then goes back to fight Adolin who is skillfully dueling his two foes, so Kaladin uses a Lashing-enhanced kick to knock Relis down, breaking his own legs in the process, though he is able to heal them. Kaladin sees that he cracked some of Relis' shards. Adolin's own armor is mostly cracked but he gets a strong blow at Elit and cracks his chestplate, slowing Elit greatly. Kaladin sees Abrobadar waving his blade at the ground and Syl exclaims about something mysterious and flies over toward Renarin. Kaladin uses his broken spear to strike Elit in his exposed armor and forces him to yield.

The remaining three opponents gather to battle Adolin, leaving Renarin alone to sit in the sand. Kaladin demands Elit's helm and is given it; he puts it on his hand as an armored glove, and arms himself with a knife to help Adolin. Kaladin tricks Relis into backing away then he goes to help Adolin. Relis and Jakamav both try to attack Kaladin with Syl circling around him, and he dodges their Shardblades or blocks them with the helm until he runs out of Stormlight, realizing the helm drained it from him. Kaladin is backed against a wall, but Adolin appears and grapples Jakamav to the ground. Kaladin sees that Abrobadar was just defeated. Relis, the last man standing, rushes toward Renarin and Kaladin follows, yelling at Renarin to yield but he only dismisses his blade and does nothing. Relis raises his blade toward Renarin but is reluctant to kill him; when Kaladin draws close, Relis turns to swing at Kaladin. In desperation, Kaladin successfully performs a lastclap, catching the blade. He hears a scream that sounds like Sylphrena; Relis too hears the scream and drops the blade, fleeing the arena and forfeiting the duel. Jakamav yells at Adolin to fight him as he is held down and Kaladin walks up to him with his knife and places it by a crack in his armor and tells him to yield or else. Jakamav yields and Adolin is declared victor. Adolin laughs joyously at the spoils he won and asks Kaladin to help him remove his drained armor.

Elhokar announces how impressed he is by Adolin and offers him a boon. Kaladin notices Sadeas trying to leave the arena, but before he does, Adolin demands the right to duel Sadeas. Kaladin immediately demands to challenge Amaram for the crimes of murder and obstruction of justice, causing Amaram to cower. Adolin groans and the crowd goes silent. Elhokar orders Kaladin to be arrested.

Chapter 58: Never Again

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Torol Sadeas

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) Shortly after Chapter 57.

Epigraph:

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 30, page 18

Summary:

Kaladin, in chains, listens as Dalinar argues on his behalf while Elhokar berates Kaladin for besmirching a general and destroying their chance to defeat Sadeas immediately since Sadeas uses a loophole to delay the duel. Elhokar threatens to have Kaladin executed for slander but Dalinar says he won’t stand for it. Elhokar then orders Kaladin to be imprisoned until further notice which Dalinar accepts. Dalinar thanks Kaladin for saving Adolin and Renarin but then berates him for ruining their plan to defeat Sadeas and for his allegations which Dalinar has found seventeen witnesses who testify in favor of Amaram's statements. Kaladin argues against his punishment but Dalinar says that he will obey and serve his sentence.

Sadeas returns to his own quarters and contemplates his narrow escape. Ialai appears and Sadeas orders her to find incriminating information about Dalinar then have him assassinated.

Kaladin is led to a prison cell in Dalinar's camp prison. He tells Syl that he will never trust lighteyes again.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

Here is a YouTube video for a fan-made animation of Kaladin learning to use the Surge of Gravitation. As usually with YouTube videos I share, to avoid spoilers, to not look at the comments and try to avoid the suggested videos off to the side.

Kaladin Animation Test

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-9, I-10, I-11, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Chapter 52: Into the Sky

Arch Faces: Shalash - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Shalash

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Amaram's manor in Sadeas' warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.2) The same day as Chapter 51, in the evening. The day after Chapter 49, in the evening.

Epigraph:

Now, as the Truthwatchers were esoteric in nature, their order being formed entirely of those who never spoke or wrote of what they did, in this lies frustration for those who would see their exceeding secrecy from the outside; they were not naturally inclined to explanation; and in the case of Corberon’s disagreements, their silence was not a sign of an exceeding abundance of disdain, but rather an exceeding abundance of tact.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 11, page 6

Summary:

Kaladin POV

Kaladin walks through the Shattered Plains at night to the plateau where he encountered Wit a few weeks previously. He verifies that no one can see him, and he steps off the plateau into a chasm. After landing at the bottom, he runs through the chasm, with Syl alongside him. He tries to jump onto a wall but fails and lands on the ground. Syl offers some advice, and Kaladin agrees that he has to practice to be able to fight and Lash as well as Szeth. Then he realizes he has to get over fear of injury and is able to jump on the wall without stumbling or falling, then back onto the floor.

Kaladin becomes more comfortable in jumping between the ground and walls and tells Syl that everything about himself changed to allow this. He runs along the walls and leaps chasms and plateaus, draining all his gems and glowing with Stormlight. Sylphrena follows him along with dozens of windspren. He Lashes himself over the plateaus and hovers in place, noticing a pattern in the plains beneath him. As he stays in the same place, the windspren leave him. He asks if Syl was with him as a child and she says yes and no. He says that all his skill was due to her, but she says that it was due to both of them, which he accepts. Syl says that Szeth's weapon is special and was made to give abilities to men in the same way their bond does. Kaladin asks if a new unstained Blade can be forged and Syl says yes but doesn't say how. Syl confronts him on informing Dalinar about Moash's patriot friends and Kaladin replies that he wants to consider it some more first. He walks toward Sadeas' camp and contemplates killing Amaram for his role in Tien's death, but Syl gets him to reconsider in light of his accomplishments that evening. Returning to his barracks, he finds Shen there, who says that he has to leave immediately, and Kaladin permits it, saying he is a free man. Shen says his real name is Rlain, and that he thinks Kaladin is a good man.

Shallan POV

Shallan walks through Sadeas' warcamp disguised as a messenger boy. She enters Amaram's manor after passing a checkpoint guarded by Hav and waits for a maid and a man to leave the manor grounds, then changes her clothing and disguise to impersonate her, and enters the manor. Shallan enters the kitchen, trying to imitate the maid's mannerisms. The cook addresses her and gives her tasks to do, and Shallan just nods without speaking so as to not blow her cover. She almost runs into Amaram who she thought wasn't going to be in his home, and panics. She follows Amaram toward the room she wants to enter, and confronts him, saying that a messenger is waiting outside to give him a message, and he leaves to investigate. Shallan asks Pattern to pick the lock and she enters the shuttered room which turns out to be filled with maps.

She asks Pattern to act as lookout while she peruses the maps and predictions for highstorms. She takes memories of the maps which focus on the Shattered Plains and are more detailed than any she had seen before. She also deciphers the handwritten stormwarden glyphs though she is puzzled by them as they aren't meant to form sentences, and realizes that Amaram intends to find out from the Parshendi how to return the Voidbringers, and to reach the center of the Shattered Plains before Dalinar's army. She theorizes that Jasnah, the Ghostbloods, and Amaram all are interested in the same things. She also realizes that she has to avoid alerting Amaram that his private room was infiltrated.

Shallan returns to the kitchen disguised as Amaram using Pattern to imitate the brightlord's voice. She tells the cook that Telesh was on a secret mission for Amaram and that the cook is to pretend that she knows nothing of where Telesh was that evening and to not mention this conversation to Amaram at any point. Shallan then leaves the manor and changes her guise back to that of the messenger boy and returns to the front of the building as Hav and Amaram walk up. She says she has a message from Shallan Davar to request a time to sketch his Shardblade to which Amaram acquiesces. He summons his Shardblade and Shallan realizes that it used to belong to her brother, Helaran. Shallan requests the background of the Shardblade and Amaram lies and says he got it from a young Veden man who tried to assassinate him, and she thinks that Amaram killed Helaran. She then takes her leave, realizing that Helaran was caught up in the conspiracy. She cries, now knowing for sure her brother is dead.

Chapter 53: Perfection

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.3) Two days after Chapter 51.

Epigraph:

As to the other orders that were inferior in this visiting of the far realm of spren, the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they did never relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren; and the Lightweavers and Willshapers both also had an affinity to the same, though neither were the true masters of that realm.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 6, page 2

Summary:

Adolin duels Elit with precision, realizing that his previous tactics didn't persuade anyone into accepting his challenges. Adolin wears down Elit with small strikes to his armor, causing many small cracks until Elit's armor eventually is drained of Stormlight and he is unable to move. Adolin shoves Elit who falls to the ground, and is awarded judgment.

Adolin retires to his staging room where Renarin and Navani wait. Shallan shows up to congratulate him. Navani compliments Shallan and leaves before Shallan can say anything and Adolin says to give her time to grieve. Shallan says that she wants to have dinner and a walk with Adolin the next day and says that her research says that if Adolin wins his next bout in a spectacular fashion it could help him with his duels. Relis Ruthar storms into the staging area demanding the bout be nullified but Highjudge Istow refuses. Adolin offers to wager six shards and fight Relis alongside whoever Relis chooses and Relis accepts to duel in two days. Shallan explains her plan to Adolin.

Chapter 54: Veil's Lesson

Arch Faces: Ishar - Shalash ----- Shalash - Ishar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Ghostbloods' pavilion in the Unclaimed Hills.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.3) The day after Chapter 52.

Epigraph:

There came also sixteen of the order of Windrunners, and with them a considerable number of squires, and finding in that place the Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty, there ensued a great debate.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 28, page 3

Summary:

Shallan travels in her guise as Veil to a meeting with the Ghostbloods in the Unclaimed Hills, following a map sent via spanreed. Mraize quizzes Veil on the uses of a Parshendi blowgun and her answers make Mraize realize she is a scholar. Mraize asks Veil why Tyn failed at her mission and is surprised to learn that she succeeded instead as she provides him with reproductions of the locked room and maps. Shallan accidentally reveals her sketching ability then is forced to demonstrate it. Mraize offers Veil a job and realizes that she killed Tyn. Mraize cautions her that the Ghostbloods are protective of each other and have a greater purpose, and that she would be assigned another mission, and Shallan leaves. When she is out of sight of the Ghostbloods, she hides inside an illusionary rock. She tells Pattern to imitate her to tell the carriage to return to the warcamps. As she hides, she hears Mraize give instructions to someone to bring Shallan's sketches to Thaidakar. Her illusion wears off after several hours and she walks back to the warcamps, on the way encountering her burned out carriage wrecked with all the parshmen and the driver killed, which upsets Shallan greatly. Shallan and Pattern discuss uses of her lightweaving ability.

Chapter 55: The Rules of the Game

Arch Faces: Shalash - Hoid ----- Hoid - Shalash

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Sebarial's warcamp. The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.4) The day after Chapter's 53 and 54. Two days after Chapter 52.

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.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 28, page 3

Summary:

Kaladin guards Adolin as they get a carriage to bring them to Sebarial's warcamp to meet Shallan. Kaladin recognizes Wit as the carriage driver and is surprised. Wit berates Kaladin for abandoning his flute and mocks his lack of eloquent retorts to Wit's insults. Wit implies that he knows of Kaladin's abilities and asks Kaladin to tell him a story as they ride. When they stop to pick up Shallan, Adolin realizes Wit is the driver and exclaims as such. Shallan also exclaims upon seeing Wit and hugs him, which surprises Adolin. Kaladin joins the two betrothed in the carriage to better watch Shallan as she and Adolin flirt. They decide to go to see a menagerie. Shallan reads an account of a highprince named Yenev who was killed in a duel by Sadeas by the Right of Challenge and King's Boon because Yenev opposed Gavilar's unification campaign. Shallan says that Adolin can try to invoke this boon to challenge Sadeas, if he wins his upcoming duel spectacularly. Kaladin surmises that this boon could help him deal with Amaram. Kaladin decides that Shallan is not a danger to Adolin and that Adolin is falling for her.

They arrive at the menagerie and discover Wit has already departed. Syl admonishes Kaladin for his sour mood as they walk through the menagerie. Shallan draws sketches of the various animals and chats with Adolin. Syl asks Kaladin if he is almost ready, and he replies yes. Amaram and Dalinar appear at the menagerie. Amaram is wearing a distinctive cloak and Dalinar announces that he is refounding the Knights Radiant and that Amaram is their leader.

Chapter 56: Whitespine Uncaged

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Adolin / Dalinar / Kaladin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) The day after Chapter 55.

Epigraph:

Twenty–three cohorts followed behind, that came from the contributions of the King of Makabakam, for though the bond between man and spren was at times inexplicable, the ability for bonded spren to manifest in our world rather than their own grew stronger through the course of the oaths given.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 35, page 9

Summary:

Kaladin and Sigzil discuss Amaram's lack of surgebinding ability as they arrive at the dueling arena. With the entire Kholin household in attendance, Kaladin brings every guard that he could. Kaladin feels anger that Amaram is honored by his appointment by Dalinar after what Kaladin told Dalinar about Amaram, and decides that he has to do something about it if Dalinar won't. Sigzil suggests that Kaladin reveal his powers and join Dalinar's Knights but Kaladin ignores this and sends Sigzil to pass his orders to the guards. Kaladin orders Moash to lead a patrol duty the next day so that he is away when Graves is dealt with.

Adolin speaks with his Shardblade to prepare for his duel. He burns a glyphward painted by Shallan and tells Navani to give her a chance. They discuss the plan regarding the boon and some changes to the terms of the duel. They review Adolin's preparations and Adolin gets anxious when he realizes he doesn't have his mother's bracelet as a good luck charm. Adolin enters the dueling arena and waves to Shallan and checks to see if Sadeas is there. His opponents enter the arena and he is shocked that there are four instead of two like he expected.

Dalinar questions Sadeas about what is happening and Sadeas proclaims ignorance, until Elhokar questions him. Sadeas replies that since Adolin wasn't specific enough when naming the terms of the duel that he would be subject to a full disadvantaged duel. Dalinar tells Elhokar that Adolin would have to forfeit but Elhokar dissuades him, and the duel begins.

Adolin curses himself as he realizes his mistake in the way he issued and accepted the duel challenge. He realizes the four opponents include Relis, Elit, Abrobadar, and Jakamav. Adolin puts his back to a wall so he doesn't get surrounded, and Zahel shouts advice to him to try to fight them one at a time. Adolin takes an offensive approach and does well until Jakamav is able to surprise him with a hammer blow. Adolin tries to yield but in the chaos of the duel is ignored, and he realizes that he might be severely injured.

Dalinar realizes that Adolin can have two fellow duelists under the terms of the challenge and asks for Elhokar's Shardblade but the king refuses, since that would endanger Dalinar. Sadeas taunts Dalinar for not going into the arena to help Adolin. Dalinar watches alarmed as Renarin - without Shardplate - goes to help his brother.

Adolin battles on and tries to get some breathing room so that he can signal the judge to yield, but Relis threatens to have Renarin severely injured or killed if Adolin doesn't keep fighting and accept punishment for what he did to Elit. Adolin reluctantly agrees, but berates his supposed friend Jakamav.

Dalinar implores Istow to end the fight, then says he will end it since she ignores him, but she replies that her authority supersedes him in the arena. Renarin fights Abrobadar, but he is hopelessly outclassed. Abrodar seems content to only stop Renarin reaching Adolin, and does not fight to maim as the other three gang up on Adolin, and one of Adolin's shoulder segments breaks. Dalinar addresses the crowd, asking for someone to aid his sons. He looks at Amaram, who averts his eyes. Kaladin then volunteers to aid them, telling Dalinar to take care of his men if it goes poorly, then he jumps into the arena with his spear.

Chapter 57: To Kill the Wind

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) Immediately after Chapter 56.

Epigraph:

Malchin was stymied, for though he was inferior to none in the arts of war, he was not suitable for the Lightweavers; he wished for his oaths to be elementary and straightforward, and yet their spren were liberal, as to our comprehension, in definitions pertaining to this matter; the process included speaking truths as an approach to a threshold of self-awareness that Malchin could never attain.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 12, page 12

Summary:

Shallan wonders why Adolin doesn't surrender since he is outmatched, and berates herself for not seeing the loophole and failing her betrothed. She briefly considers jumping into the arena but discards that idea. She tells Pattern to try to distract Abrobadar to help out Renarin. She watches as Kaladin joins the fight.

Kaladin tells Syl that this better end differently than when he saved Amaram, and she says that it will. Relis ignores Kaladin and pays the price as he gets stabbed in a crack in his armor. Kaladin guards Adolin's back and says that Adolin will need to break their foes' Shardplate for him. Adolin says for Kaladin to distract one foe and to watch out for Renarin while he fights the other two and Kaladin agrees. Kaladin draws Relis' attention while Adolin fights Elit and Jakamav. Relis fights Kaladin for a short time but then goes back to fight Adolin who is skillfully dueling his two foes, so Kaladin uses a Lashing-enhanced kick to knock Relis down, breaking his own legs in the process, though he is able to heal them. Kaladin sees that he cracked some of Relis' shards. Adolin's own armor is mostly cracked but he gets a strong blow at Elit and cracks his chestplate, slowing Elit greatly. Kaladin sees Abrobadar waving his blade at the ground and Syl exclaims about something mysterious and flies over toward Renarin. Kaladin uses his broken spear to strike Elit in his exposed armor and forces him to yield.

The remaining three opponents gather to battle Adolin, leaving Renarin alone to sit in the sand. Kaladin demands Elit's helm and is given it; he puts it on his hand as an armored glove, and arms himself with a knife to help Adolin. Kaladin tricks Relis into backing away then he goes to help Adolin. Relis and Jakamav both try to attack Kaladin with Syl circling around him, and he dodges their Shardblades or blocks them with the helm until he runs out of Stormlight, realizing the helm drained it from him. Kaladin is backed against a wall, but Adolin appears and grapples Jakamav to the ground. Kaladin sees that Abrobadar was just defeated. Relis, the last man standing, rushes toward Renarin and Kaladin follows, yelling at Renarin to yield but he only dismisses his blade and does nothing. Relis raises his blade toward Renarin but is reluctant to kill him; when Kaladin draws close, Relis turns to swing at Kaladin. In desperation, Kaladin successfully performs a lastclap, catching the blade. He hears a scream that sounds like Sylphrena; Relis too hears the scream and drops the blade, fleeing the arena and forfeiting the duel. Jakamav yells at Adolin to fight him as he is held down and Kaladin walks up to him with his knife and places it by a crack in his armor and tells him to yield or else. Jakamav yields and Adolin is declared victor. Adolin laughs joyously at the spoils he won and asks Kaladin to help him remove his drained armor.

Elhokar announces how impressed he is by Adolin and offers him a boon. Kaladin notices Sadeas trying to leave the arena, but before he does, Adolin demands the right to duel Sadeas. Kaladin immediately demands to challenge Amaram for the crimes of murder and obstruction of justice, causing Amaram to cower. Adolin groans and the crowd goes silent. Elhokar orders Kaladin to be arrested.

Chapter 58: Never Again

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Torol Sadeas

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.5) Shortly after Chapter 57.

Epigraph:

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 30, page 18

Summary:

Kaladin, in chains, listens as Dalinar argues on his behalf while Elhokar berates Kaladin for besmirching a general and destroying their chance to defeat Sadeas immediately since Sadeas uses a loophole to delay the duel. Elhokar threatens to have Kaladin executed for slander but Dalinar says he won’t stand for it. Elhokar then orders Kaladin to be imprisoned until further notice which Dalinar accepts. Dalinar thanks Kaladin for saving Adolin and Renarin but then berates him for ruining their plan to defeat Sadeas and for his allegations which Dalinar has found seventeen witnesses who testify in favor of Amaram's statements. Kaladin argues against his punishment but Dalinar says that he will obey and serve his sentence.

Sadeas returns to his own quarters and contemplates his narrow escape. Ialai appears and Sadeas orders her to find incriminating information about Dalinar then have him assassinated.

Kaladin is led to a prison cell in Dalinar's camp prison. He tells Syl that he will never trust lighteyes again.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

Here is a YouTube video for a fan-made animation of Kaladin learning to use the Surge of Gravitation. As usually with YouTube videos I share, to avoid spoilers, to not look at the comments and try to avoid the suggested videos off to the side.

Kaladin Animation Test

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Chapter 44: One Form of Justice

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.4) Three days after Chapter 41.

Epigraph:

But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 16, page 14

Summary:

Kaladin arrives at the lighteyes training grounds and asks Zahel to train him, Moash, Teft, and Yake. Zahel plays a game where he throws rocks into a circle and tells Kaladin to do laps around the grounds, but then tells him to stay as it was only a test. Zahel gives instruction to Renarin, then brings one of the king's Shardblades for the bridgemen to practice with. Zahel tells them he got permission from Dalinar and Elhokar for them to learn sword stances to better counter Szeth's attacks. Zahel says there is nothing holy about the sword and that he is not a very good ardent. Moash, Teft, and Yake practice with the Shardblade but Kaladin declines since he has bad memories of friends being killed by them. Kaladin tells Zahel to swing the blade at him without a guard so that he can have practice facing one. Syl thanks Kaladin for not using the blade. As Kaladin is dodging Zahel's swings, he meets Adolin who gives him a nod of respect. Ivis takes Zahel's place and trains the bridgemen on the ten Shardblade stances.

After the practice, Kaladin gets some water and glances around the training grounds, and spots Shallan. Yake says she is good looking but Kaladin retorts that she is lighteyed. Teft says they should keep an eye on Shallan as a possible assassin and Kaladin agrees. Kaladin goes to talk to Shallan and Adolin joins him, saying she is probably there to ogle him and that she can't stay as it would set a bad precedent. Shallan goes to speak to Nall and doesn't even notice Adolin. Shallan asks permission to sketch the Shardplate and Shardblades for the royal record and receives it from Nall. Adolin says he thinks Shallan is there to watch him, but Shallan says that Adolin is egotistic for thinking that, and she tells Kaladin she returned his boots slightly modified, and that she still wants to take a walk with Adolin. Shallan abruptly leaves them to watch Renarin and Zahel, and Adolin grins and says that Shallan is insufferable for ignoring him and he then walks away. Kaladin rejoins Moash and the others but watches Adolin, Renarin, and Shallan. Moash says that Elhokar had his family executed and explains how it happened and that another lighteyes was also involved. Kaladin asks if Moash cut the balcony railing and Moash says they can't speak there since it is too open. Moash doesn't deny it and Kaladin grows agitated and threatens to turn Moash in but is convinced not to as long as Moash stops trying to kill the king. Moash says others are involved and asks Kaladin to meet them and he agrees to. Syl says they should go to Dalinar and that she senses danger but Kaladin says that he wants to find out more first.

Kaladin practices with the Shardblade and ignores laughter and frowns from some lighteyes, thinking he was actually worthy for defeating that shardbearer, and on how Alethi society is hypocritical on its treatment of darkeyes. Kaladin asks Syl for advice on who is right to kill and who isn't and Syl says it depends if he is killing to protect or not. Kaladin asks to learn the lastclap maneuver, which Dalinar used to catch Szeth's Shardblade, from Zahel but he says it won't be useful to learn, and the swordmaster is happy that Kaladin accepts his explanation.

Chapter 45: Middlefest

Arch Faces: Hoid - Vedel ----- Vedel - Hoid

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1170.6.1.1) (Flashback) Three and a half years ago. Six-ish months after Chapter 39.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan and her family are attending the Middlefest Fair on her father's estates, which draws people from hamlets and villages all around. A Thaylen merchant has a colorful show chicken, Jeksonofnone, on display, and Shallan thinks it bizarre. She follows her father to their box at the dueling arena, where they are soon approached by Brightlord Revilar. Revilar tries to force her father into an unfavorable business deal, noting his popularity with Highprince Valam and House Davar's declining status. Eventually her father bows his head and they send Shallan away.

She is excited to see the fair unchaperoned but forces herself to do work first. After finding Eylita Tavinar, who gives her a note, she sets off to find brother Balat. While searching she thinks of her mother and her mind goes blank. Jix, one of her house's guards, eventually finds her and agrees to accompany her. Balat is at the Axehound fights in the gambling pavilion, watching intensely, fixated on the animals killing each other. Shallan gives him the note, and he's surprised and excited by the meeting she's arranged. After he leaves, Shallan sits on a rock, relieved to be out of the pavilion and happy she was able to help Balat, even in a small way.

When she returns to her father's box, he's in a meeting with a man she doesn't recognize. The man, dressed in black, seems startled when he sees Shallan and almost drops his glass. Malise tells her that the man claims to have brought word from her brother Helaran. When asked what news the man brought, her father commands her not to speak Helaran's name and declares him disinherited.

Shallan leaves and seeks out their carriage. Wikim is within, depressed and despondent. He asks whether their father sent her, or whether she came on "one of her new little missions of mercy". He tells her that she can't fix their family, and that he won't be around to see their collapse because he'll be dead by then. Feeling like a fool, she gives him the gift she had prepared, a set of math problems, then hastens away from the carriage fighting back tears.

Sitting on a rock and trying to compose herself, the messenger in black starts talking with her. He tells her that the message sent by Helaran to her father is that he "has eyes nearby, and is watching." He then asks her if spren talk to her, which causes her to think about "twisted symbols the eye should not see" and "her mother's soul in a box". She tells him that of course they don't and that she should be returning to her father. The man tells Shallan that Helaran was right, her father is destroying their family, but wrong about everything else. He points out that Wikim is engrossed in the math problems that she had given him. He asks her to tell him the most beautiful thing she can imagine, and she describes a scene with her family happily living together. As she talks, he pulls out some spheres and wisps of Stormlight hang in the air between them. When she notices, she draws back and the light fades. The man tells her that she will need to understand the nature of lies and see truth before she can expand upon it.

Chapter 46: Patriots

Arch Faces: Nale - Talenel ----- Talenel - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.5) The day after Chapter 44.

Epigraph:

When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned; also, they were the most articulate and refined of the Radiants.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 20, page 12

Summary:

Kaladin reviews bridge seventeen and tells Pitt how impressed he is, which is a lie but spoken to motivate. He then checks on bridge eighteen where there are problems with cohesion. Kaladin gives them a motivational speech and decides to split them up if their morale doesn't improve. As Kaladin goes to check on bridge nineteen, Syl chides him on working instead of eating dinner. She tells Kaladin that she sees red spren sometimes and Kaladin thinks there is a connection to the countdown which points to the Weeping. Kaladin relents and goes to his barracks for dinner stew. Kaladin scoffs in disbelief that more of Lopen's cousin's joined Bridge Four. Kaladin finds Shen and gives him a spear and tells him that he will be permitted to train and Shen praises Kaladin, and starts to tell him something else but is interrupted by Moash, who tells Kaladin to join them going out. As they walk through the warcamp, they hear rumors of war in Jah Keved and a new emperor in Azir, and Sigzil pays the crier for more information. Moash picks a tavern called the Ornery Chull for them to visit, and Peet concurs. The bridgemen order drinks and Rock speaks of his homeland and how the Horneaters ended up living in the mountains with the help of the gods. Rock says the hot springs are not just regular water, but rather a connection to the gods and a place to view the place of the gods. Rock tells the bridgemen that there are certain details that he cannot divulge since they are complicated, such as the reason why he can see spren, and also tells them to stop making incorrect assumptions about the story. Rock says he met a god named Lunu'anaki from the hot springs who cannot hurt people, and Sigzil is startled by his physical description. The conversation turns to how Sadeas has not been obeying the hunt rotations, causing people to talk in the warcamps. Kaladin fantasizes about bringing Sadeas down using his abilities.

Moash tells Kaladin that the people he wants Kal to meet have arrived, and the two leave to see them in a private dining room with four people inside and a couple of guards. A man named Graves greets Kaladin heartily, and Kaladin recognizes Danlan also. Kaladin calls the so-called patriots out on their plans to kill Elhokar, and Graves defends their goal as protecting the kingdom from a terrible ruler and getting a replacement in Dalinar. Kaladin argues against their plans, but eventually says he will consider helping them, and leaves with Moash. Kaladin tells Moash he wants nothing to do with the plot and that Moash is just pursuing his grudge and not acting out of patriotism, and that Moash is not to meet with them anymore.

Chapter 47: Feminine Wiles

Arch Faces: Shalash - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Sebarials's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Two days after Chapter 44. Five days after Chapter 43.

Epigraph:

Yet, were the orders not disheartened by so great a defeat, for the Lightweavers provided spiritual sustenance; they were enticed by those glorious creations to venture on a second assault.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 21, page 10

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern discuss several maps of Roshar that seem to contradict other maps over the actual historical location of Urithiru. Pattern reads the maps and partially deciphers the Dawnchant language that had mystified scholars for a long time. Shallan and Pattern take a carriage to meet Adolin, and Shallan practices lightweaving while traveling.

Chapter 48: No More Weakness

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Vedel ----- Vedel - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1170.10.1.1) (Flashback) Three years ago. Four months after Chapter 45.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan, Balat and Wikim are relaxing in the gardens when they hear a carriage arriving at their house. Balat goes to see who it is, and Wikim tells Shallan that what she's been doing has been helping their family. He gives her a bag of dried blackbane that he's been carrying for over a year, indicating that he no longer wants to kill himself, then jogs off to the house. Though unsettled by the blackbane, she returns to her drawing.

A short time later she is interrupted by shouting. When she reaches the house, she finds three men standing before her father and Jushu kneeling on the floor with his hands tied behind his back. Lin says he won't pay Jushu's gambling debts, despite his son's pleas, and tells the men that they can have him. Shallan begs Ballat to do something as Jushu is dragged away, but he doesn't know what he can do.

Shallan follows her father into his study. The house's ledgers are open and she can see that they are in staggering debt. Her father tells her that he doesn't have the spheres to pay the men, and commands her confined to her rooms.

Crying, she runs back into the feast hall, asks Balat and Wikim for the daggers their father had given them, then chases after Jushu and the men. She manages to convince the men to take the daggers and her necklace (which they decide not to keep) in payment of Jushu's debt, though they are only worth about half of it. She tells Jushu, who's been beaten and can't hear well, that Balat and Wikim saved him.

She returns to her rooms and waits, hearing the inevitable shouts. Eventually her father opens the door to her room. She can see the crumpled form of Minara, their serving maid, in the hall. Her arm is broken and she leaves a streak of blood on the wall as she tries to crawl away. Her father tells Shallan that he's found a way to control himself, he just needs to let his anger out, and that his anger is created when people disobey him. He tells her that he would never hurt her, and so he wouldn't want to have to punish others because she defied him again.

Chapter 49: Watching the World Transform

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Shortly after Chapter 47.

Epigraph:

These Lightweavers, by no coincidence, included many who pursued the arts; namely: writers, artists, musicians, painters, sculptors. Considering the order's general temperament, the tales of their strange and varied mnemonic abilities may have been embellished.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 21, page 10

Summary:

Shallan arrives at an open-air winehouse to meet Adolin for lunch. Shallan tries to focus on her purpose of allying with House Kholin but is distracted by romantic considerations. Shallan and Adolin make small talk until Shallan is alarmed when Adolin says that a highstorm is expected soon and she considers how exposed their lunch table is. Adolin explains that there is a new trend to stay outside during the approach of highstorms and wait until the last minute to seek shelter. Shallan asks Adolin to talk about his experiences with plateau runs to show interest in him but ends up derailing the conversation by asking an inappropriate question which ends up impressing Adolin and making him more open.

Shallan then asks about the chasmfiends and draws some sketches of chrysalises from memory as Adolin answers and points to one of the drawings to indicate what chasmfiends look like. Shallan theorizes that the hunts are culling the chasmfiend population and that a study should be made to verify this, and that she would like to be involved in that, and that she wants to go on a hunt to gather first-hand information. Adolin tells Shallan about the upcoming summit with the Parshendi and the political situation in the warcamps and Dalinar's visions and plans. In turn, Shallan confides in Adolin about Jasnah's research and about how the parshmen are related to the Voidbringers and asks if the parshmen could be removed from the warcamps but Adolin doesn't think that is possible. As the highstorm arrives, the winehouse area is vacated for the shelters, but Shallan stays transfixed as she watches the storm approach, despite Adolin's attempts to get her to go indoors. She has a sudden desire to sketch, but Adolin drags her inside before the doors are closed. Adolin says that he will try to get her permission to go on a hunt before they split up into separate rooms divided by gender. Shallan feels satisfied at her progress despite her unorthodox methods and ignores jealous looks from women as she plans how to sneak into Amaram's house.

Chapter 50: Uncut Gems

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Immediately after Chapter 49.

Epigraph:

And now, if there was an uncut gem among the Radiants, it was the Willshapers; for though enterprising, they were erratic, and Invia wrote of them, “capricious, frustrating, unreliable,” as taking it for granted that others would agree; this may have been an intolerant view, as often Invia expressed, for this order was said to be most varied, inconsistent in temperament save for a general love of adventure, novelty, or oddity.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 7, page 1

Summary:

Adolin sits in the storm shelter listening to the highstorm. Adolin chats with Elit who vows to win their upcoming Shard duel. Sadeas sits next to Adolin and makes him uncomfortable. Sadeas flaunts some emeralds that he obtained from an unauthorized hunt, and taunts Adolin about the bridgemen and his renouncing of his title of Highprince of Information. Sadeas says he is trying to save their kingdom from Elhokar and Dalinar and that Adolin will make a good Highprince and Adolin replies in anger, threatening Sadeas, who then walks away.

After the highstorm ends, Adolin along with two bridgemen guards leaves the market, putting Sadeas out of his mind to think about how much he likes Shallan. Adolin spends some time shopping for jewelry for Shallan before returning to his complex. Adolin finds some bridgemen outside Dalinar's sitting room, and glyphs on the wall that say thirty-two days, seek the center. Adolin calls for the area to be restricted and for Navani to be summoned.

Dalinar determines the glyphs were inscribed with his knife and Navani says that they were probably etched by Dalinar himself. Adolin says he is worried because Dalinar is foretelling which is something of the Voidbringers supposedly. They discuss the meaning and decide that they will follow the advice to seek the center of the Shattered Plains in thirty-two days during the Weeping, which they think will be easier if their peace summit with the Parshendi is successful. They cover up the glyphs and swear the guards to secrecy. Adolin asks about the parshman bridgeman being armed and Dalinar said he allowed it out of curiosity.

Chapter 51: Heirs

Arch Faces: Ishar - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Ishar

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Shattered Plains. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.2) The day after Chapter 50.

Epigraph:

In short, if any presume Kazilah to be innocent, you must look at the facts and deny them in their entirety; to say that the Radiants were destitute of integrity for this execution of one their own, one who had obviously fraternized with the unwholesome elements, indicates the most slothful of reasoning; for the enemy's baleful influence demanded vigilance on all occasions, of war and of peace.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 32, page 17

Summary:

Adolin joins a planning meeting with Dalinar, Navani, Khal, Teshav and Kaladin to discuss tactics for the upcoming summit with the Parshendi. Adolin decides to attend the summit in Dalinar's place to keep his father out of harm's way.

Adolin rides Dalinar's Ryshadium, Gallant, to keep up pretenses, as he travels to the meeting with the Parshendi. After Adolin arrives at the designated plateau, the Parshendi arrive as well. Adolin and his scribe Brightness Inadara meet alone with Eshonai. Adolin says they are there to discuss terms of a Parshendi surrender, but Eshonai laughs and says things changed since she spoke with Adolin previously. Adolin senses a different demeanor to Eshonai, who says there will be peace only when one of the sides is wiped out, and that she only appeared to see Dalinar in person. Adolin asks why they killed Gavilar and she replies because he revealed his plans to return the Parshendi gods, then she leaves. Adolin returns to the warcamps with his entourage.

Adolin broods that he should have allowed Dalinar to go instead, but Dalinar replies that Adolin did well and that now they can battle the Parshendi with a clear conscience. Dalinar reveals a battleplan to take as many soldiers and highprinces as possible to the center of the Shattered Plains during the Weeping to bring an end to the war. Dalinar implores Adolin to fight more duels and says he will try to convince neutral highprinces to join the expedition.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 52 through 58

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Chapter 44: One Form of Justice

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.4) Three days after Chapter 41.

Epigraph:

But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 16, page 14

Summary:

Kaladin arrives at the lighteyes training grounds and asks Zahel to train him, Moash, Teft, and Yake. Zahel plays a game where he throws rocks into a circle and tells Kaladin to do laps around the grounds, but then tells him to stay as it was only a test. Zahel gives instruction to Renarin, then brings one of the king's Shardblades for the bridgemen to practice with. Zahel tells them he got permission from Dalinar and Elhokar for them to learn sword stances to better counter Szeth's attacks. Zahel says there is nothing holy about the sword and that he is not a very good ardent. Moash, Teft, and Yake practice with the Shardblade but Kaladin declines since he has bad memories of friends being killed by them. Kaladin tells Zahel to swing the blade at him without a guard so that he can have practice facing one. Syl thanks Kaladin for not using the blade. As Kaladin is dodging Zahel's swings, he meets Adolin who gives him a nod of respect. Ivis takes Zahel's place and trains the bridgemen on the ten Shardblade stances.

After the practice, Kaladin gets some water and glances around the training grounds, and spots Shallan. Yake says she is good looking but Kaladin retorts that she is lighteyed. Teft says they should keep an eye on Shallan as a possible assassin and Kaladin agrees. Kaladin goes to talk to Shallan and Adolin joins him, saying she is probably there to ogle him and that she can't stay as it would set a bad precedent. Shallan goes to speak to Nall and doesn't even notice Adolin. Shallan asks permission to sketch the Shardplate and Shardblades for the royal record and receives it from Nall. Adolin says he thinks Shallan is there to watch him, but Shallan says that Adolin is egotistic for thinking that, and she tells Kaladin she returned his boots slightly modified, and that she still wants to take a walk with Adolin. Shallan abruptly leaves them to watch Renarin and Zahel, and Adolin grins and says that Shallan is insufferable for ignoring him and he then walks away. Kaladin rejoins Moash and the others but watches Adolin, Renarin, and Shallan. Moash says that Elhokar had his family executed and explains how it happened and that another lighteyes was also involved. Kaladin asks if Moash cut the balcony railing and Moash says they can't speak there since it is too open. Moash doesn't deny it and Kaladin grows agitated and threatens to turn Moash in but is convinced not to as long as Moash stops trying to kill the king. Moash says others are involved and asks Kaladin to meet them and he agrees to. Syl says they should go to Dalinar and that she senses danger but Kaladin says that he wants to find out more first.

Kaladin practices with the Shardblade and ignores laughter and frowns from some lighteyes, thinking he was actually worthy for defeating that shardbearer, and on how Alethi society is hypocritical on its treatment of darkeyes. Kaladin asks Syl for advice on who is right to kill and who isn't and Syl says it depends if he is killing to protect or not. Kaladin asks to learn the lastclap maneuver, which Dalinar used to catch Szeth's Shardblade, from Zahel but he says it won't be useful to learn, and the swordmaster is happy that Kaladin accepts his explanation.

Chapter 45: Middlefest

Arch Faces: Hoid - Vedel ----- Vedel - Hoid

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1170.6.1.1) (Flashback) Three and a half years ago. Six-ish months after Chapter 39.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan and her family are attending the Middlefest Fair on her father's estates, which draws people from hamlets and villages all around. A Thaylen merchant has a colorful show chicken, Jeksonofnone, on display, and Shallan thinks it bizarre. She follows her father to their box at the dueling arena, where they are soon approached by Brightlord Revilar. Revilar tries to force her father into an unfavorable business deal, noting his popularity with Highprince Valam and House Davar's declining status. Eventually her father bows his head and they send Shallan away.

She is excited to see the fair unchaperoned but forces herself to do work first. After finding Eylita Tavinar, who gives her a note, she sets off to find brother Balat. While searching she thinks of her mother and her mind goes blank. Jix, one of her house's guards, eventually finds her and agrees to accompany her. Balat is at the Axehound fights in the gambling pavilion, watching intensely, fixated on the animals killing each other. Shallan gives him the note, and he's surprised and excited by the meeting she's arranged. After he leaves, Shallan sits on a rock, relieved to be out of the pavilion and happy she was able to help Balat, even in a small way.

When she returns to her father's box, he's in a meeting with a man she doesn't recognize. The man, dressed in black, seems startled when he sees Shallan and almost drops his glass. Malise tells her that the man claims to have brought word from her brother Helaran. When asked what news the man brought, her father commands her not to speak Helaran's name and declares him disinherited.

Shallan leaves and seeks out their carriage. Wikim is within, depressed and despondent. He asks whether their father sent her, or whether she came on "one of her new little missions of mercy". He tells her that she can't fix their family, and that he won't be around to see their collapse because he'll be dead by then. Feeling like a fool, she gives him the gift she had prepared, a set of math problems, then hastens away from the carriage fighting back tears.

Sitting on a rock and trying to compose herself, the messenger in black starts talking with her. He tells her that the message sent by Helaran to her father is that he "has eyes nearby, and is watching." He then asks her if spren talk to her, which causes her to think about "twisted symbols the eye should not see" and "her mother's soul in a box". She tells him that of course they don't and that she should be returning to her father. The man tells Shallan that Helaran was right, her father is destroying their family, but wrong about everything else. He points out that Wikim is engrossed in the math problems that she had given him. He asks her to tell him the most beautiful thing she can imagine, and she describes a scene with her family happily living together. As she talks, he pulls out some spheres and wisps of Stormlight hang in the air between them. When she notices, she draws back and the light fades. The man tells her that she will need to understand the nature of lies and see truth before she can expand upon it.

Chapter 46: Patriots

Arch Faces: Nale - Talenel ----- Talenel - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.5) The day after Chapter 44.

Epigraph:

When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned; also, they were the most articulate and refined of the Radiants.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 20, page 12

Summary:

Kaladin reviews bridge seventeen and tells Pitt how impressed he is, which is a lie but spoken to motivate. He then checks on bridge eighteen where there are problems with cohesion. Kaladin gives them a motivational speech and decides to split them up if their morale doesn't improve. As Kaladin goes to check on bridge nineteen, Syl chides him on working instead of eating dinner. She tells Kaladin that she sees red spren sometimes and Kaladin thinks there is a connection to the countdown which points to the Weeping. Kaladin relents and goes to his barracks for dinner stew. Kaladin scoffs in disbelief that more of Lopen's cousin's joined Bridge Four. Kaladin finds Shen and gives him a spear and tells him that he will be permitted to train and Shen praises Kaladin, and starts to tell him something else but is interrupted by Moash, who tells Kaladin to join them going out. As they walk through the warcamp, they hear rumors of war in Jah Keved and a new emperor in Azir, and Sigzil pays the crier for more information. Moash picks a tavern called the Ornery Chull for them to visit, and Peet concurs. The bridgemen order drinks and Rock speaks of his homeland and how the Horneaters ended up living in the mountains with the help of the gods. Rock says the hot springs are not just regular water, but rather a connection to the gods and a place to view the place of the gods. Rock tells the bridgemen that there are certain details that he cannot divulge since they are complicated, such as the reason why he can see spren, and also tells them to stop making incorrect assumptions about the story. Rock says he met a god named Lunu'anaki from the hot springs who cannot hurt people, and Sigzil is startled by his physical description. The conversation turns to how Sadeas has not been obeying the hunt rotations, causing people to talk in the warcamps. Kaladin fantasizes about bringing Sadeas down using his abilities.

Moash tells Kaladin that the people he wants Kal to meet have arrived, and the two leave to see them in a private dining room with four people inside and a couple of guards. A man named Graves greets Kaladin heartily, and Kaladin recognizes Danlan also. Kaladin calls the so-called patriots out on their plans to kill Elhokar, and Graves defends their goal as protecting the kingdom from a terrible ruler and getting a replacement in Dalinar. Kaladin argues against their plans, but eventually says he will consider helping them, and leaves with Moash. Kaladin tells Moash he wants nothing to do with the plot and that Moash is just pursuing his grudge and not acting out of patriotism, and that Moash is not to meet with them anymore.

Chapter 47: Feminine Wiles

Arch Faces: Shalash - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Sebarials's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Two days after Chapter 44. Five days after Chapter 43.

Epigraph:

Yet, were the orders not disheartened by so great a defeat, for the Lightweavers provided spiritual sustenance; they were enticed by those glorious creations to venture on a second assault.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 21, page 10

Summary:

Shallan and Pattern discuss several maps of Roshar that seem to contradict other maps over the actual historical location of Urithiru. Pattern reads the maps and partially deciphers the Dawnchant language that had mystified scholars for a long time. Shallan and Pattern take a carriage to meet Adolin, and Shallan practices lightweaving while traveling.

Chapter 48: No More Weakness

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Vedel ----- Vedel - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1170.10.1.1) (Flashback) Three years ago. Four months after Chapter 45.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan, Balat and Wikim are relaxing in the gardens when they hear a carriage arriving at their house. Balat goes to see who it is, and Wikim tells Shallan that what she's been doing has been helping their family. He gives her a bag of dried blackbane that he's been carrying for over a year, indicating that he no longer wants to kill himself, then jogs off to the house. Though unsettled by the blackbane, she returns to her drawing.

A short time later she is interrupted by shouting. When she reaches the house, she finds three men standing before her father and Jushu kneeling on the floor with his hands tied behind his back. Lin says he won't pay Jushu's gambling debts, despite his son's pleas, and tells the men that they can have him. Shallan begs Ballat to do something as Jushu is dragged away, but he doesn't know what he can do.

Shallan follows her father into his study. The house's ledgers are open and she can see that they are in staggering debt. Her father tells her that he doesn't have the spheres to pay the men, and commands her confined to her rooms.

Crying, she runs back into the feast hall, asks Balat and Wikim for the daggers their father had given them, then chases after Jushu and the men. She manages to convince the men to take the daggers and her necklace (which they decide not to keep) in payment of Jushu's debt, though they are only worth about half of it. She tells Jushu, who's been beaten and can't hear well, that Balat and Wikim saved him.

She returns to her rooms and waits, hearing the inevitable shouts. Eventually her father opens the door to her room. She can see the crumpled form of Minara, their serving maid, in the hall. Her arm is broken and she leaves a streak of blood on the wall as she tries to crawl away. Her father tells Shallan that he's found a way to control himself, he just needs to let his anger out, and that his anger is created when people disobey him. He tells her that he would never hurt her, and so he wouldn't want to have to punish others because she defied him again.

Chapter 49: Watching the World Transform

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Shortly after Chapter 47.

Epigraph:

These Lightweavers, by no coincidence, included many who pursued the arts; namely: writers, artists, musicians, painters, sculptors. Considering the order's general temperament, the tales of their strange and varied mnemonic abilities may have been embellished.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 21, page 10

Summary:

Shallan arrives at an open-air winehouse to meet Adolin for lunch. Shallan tries to focus on her purpose of allying with House Kholin but is distracted by romantic considerations. Shallan and Adolin make small talk until Shallan is alarmed when Adolin says that a highstorm is expected soon and she considers how exposed their lunch table is. Adolin explains that there is a new trend to stay outside during the approach of highstorms and wait until the last minute to seek shelter. Shallan asks Adolin to talk about his experiences with plateau runs to show interest in him but ends up derailing the conversation by asking an inappropriate question which ends up impressing Adolin and making him more open.

Shallan then asks about the chasmfiends and draws some sketches of chrysalises from memory as Adolin answers and points to one of the drawings to indicate what chasmfiends look like. Shallan theorizes that the hunts are culling the chasmfiend population and that a study should be made to verify this, and that she would like to be involved in that, and that she wants to go on a hunt to gather first-hand information. Adolin tells Shallan about the upcoming summit with the Parshendi and the political situation in the warcamps and Dalinar's visions and plans. In turn, Shallan confides in Adolin about Jasnah's research and about how the parshmen are related to the Voidbringers and asks if the parshmen could be removed from the warcamps but Adolin doesn't think that is possible. As the highstorm arrives, the winehouse area is vacated for the shelters, but Shallan stays transfixed as she watches the storm approach, despite Adolin's attempts to get her to go indoors. She has a sudden desire to sketch, but Adolin drags her inside before the doors are closed. Adolin says that he will try to get her permission to go on a hunt before they split up into separate rooms divided by gender. Shallan feels satisfied at her progress despite her unorthodox methods and ignores jealous looks from women as she plans how to sneak into Amaram's house.

Chapter 50: Uncut Gems

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Outer Markets, outside the Alethi warcamps in the Shattered Plains. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.1) Immediately after Chapter 49.

Epigraph:

And now, if there was an uncut gem among the Radiants, it was the Willshapers; for though enterprising, they were erratic, and Invia wrote of them, “capricious, frustrating, unreliable,” as taking it for granted that others would agree; this may have been an intolerant view, as often Invia expressed, for this order was said to be most varied, inconsistent in temperament save for a general love of adventure, novelty, or oddity.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 7, page 1

Summary:

Adolin sits in the storm shelter listening to the highstorm. Adolin chats with Elit who vows to win their upcoming Shard duel. Sadeas sits next to Adolin and makes him uncomfortable. Sadeas flaunts some emeralds that he obtained from an unauthorized hunt, and taunts Adolin about the bridgemen and his renouncing of his title of Highprince of Information. Sadeas says he is trying to save their kingdom from Elhokar and Dalinar and that Adolin will make a good Highprince and Adolin replies in anger, threatening Sadeas, who then walks away.

After the highstorm ends, Adolin along with two bridgemen guards leaves the market, putting Sadeas out of his mind to think about how much he likes Shallan. Adolin spends some time shopping for jewelry for Shallan before returning to his complex. Adolin finds some bridgemen outside Dalinar's sitting room, and glyphs on the wall that say thirty-two days, seek the center. Adolin calls for the area to be restricted and for Navani to be summoned.

Dalinar determines the glyphs were inscribed with his knife and Navani says that they were probably etched by Dalinar himself. Adolin says he is worried because Dalinar is foretelling which is something of the Voidbringers supposedly. They discuss the meaning and decide that they will follow the advice to seek the center of the Shattered Plains in thirty-two days during the Weeping, which they think will be easier if their peace summit with the Parshendi is successful. They cover up the glyphs and swear the guards to secrecy. Adolin asks about the parshman bridgeman being armed and Dalinar said he allowed it out of curiosity.

Chapter 51: Heirs

Arch Faces: Ishar - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Ishar

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Shattered Plains. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.4.2) The day after Chapter 50.

Epigraph:

In short, if any presume Kazilah to be innocent, you must look at the facts and deny them in their entirety; to say that the Radiants were destitute of integrity for this execution of one their own, one who had obviously fraternized with the unwholesome elements, indicates the most slothful of reasoning; for the enemy's baleful influence demanded vigilance on all occasions, of war and of peace.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 32, page 17

Summary:

Adolin joins a planning meeting with Dalinar, Navani, Khal, Teshav and Kaladin to discuss tactics for the upcoming summit with the Parshendi. Adolin decides to attend the summit in Dalinar's place to keep his father out of harm's way.

Adolin rides Dalinar's Ryshadium, Gallant, to keep up pretenses, as he travels to the meeting with the Parshendi. After Adolin arrives at the designated plateau, the Parshendi arrive as well. Adolin and his scribe Brightness Inadara meet alone with Eshonai. Adolin says they are there to discuss terms of a Parshendi surrender, but Eshonai laughs and says things changed since she spoke with Adolin previously. Adolin senses a different demeanor to Eshonai, who says there will be peace only when one of the sides is wiped out, and that she only appeared to see Dalinar in person. Adolin asks why they killed Gavilar and she replies because he revealed his plans to return the Parshendi gods, then she leaves. Adolin returns to the warcamps with his entourage.

Adolin broods that he should have allowed Dalinar to go instead, but Dalinar replies that Adolin did well and that now they can battle the Parshendi with a clear conscience. Dalinar reveals a battleplan to take as many soldiers and highprinces as possible to the center of the Shattered Plains during the Weeping to bring an end to the war. Dalinar implores Adolin to fight more duels and says he will try to convince neutral highprinces to join the expedition.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Part Three: Deadly

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Adolin / Navani

Chapter 35: The Multiplied Strain of Simultaneous Infusion

Arch Faces: Kalak - Battar ----- Battar - Kalak

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin / Navani

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) The day after Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

They also, when they had settled their rulings in the nature of each bond's placement, called the name of it the Nahel bond, with regard to its effect upon the souls of those caught in its grip; in this description, each was related to the bonds that drive Roshar itself, ten Surges, named in turn and two for each order; in this light, it can be seen that each order would by necessity share one Surge with each of its neighbors.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 8, page 6

Summary:

Adolin paces about on a plateau, wearing his Shardplate, dwelling on the assassination attempt the prior evening. Adolin tries to practice throwing his Shardblade but loses focus often since he did not get any sleep because he was guarding his father's quarters throughout the night. Adolin thinks that his three bridgemen guards are useless, but reflects that Kaladin was unusually effective in protecting Dalinar, though he is also very unlikable and strange. Adolin succeeds in throwing his Shardblade, and returns to the warcamp with his bodyguards, and notices a procession of Soulcasters that usually aren't seen during daytime. Adolin converses with the main ardent Soulcaster Kadash and learns that their services are in high demand and that they have to increase their training and work shifts. Adolin watches as a group of Soulcasters working behind a silk screen for concealment use their fabrials in concert to create a stone windbreak. Adolin questions Kadash about the old Radiants and Kadash answers noncommittally at first until Adolin expresses that he needs information urgently due to the fact that the assassin had Radiant-like abilities and Kadash then agrees to do research for Adolin.

Navani stands on an observation platform in the engineering grounds and supervises an experiment to use a fabrial to cause a platform to be raised into the air. After extensive preparations and careful implementation, their attempt to cause a round wooden parapet to float in the air without support succeeds. Adolin joins Navani and they talk in private, with Navani explaining in technical terms how she arranged fabrials in tandem to act like levers to produce the desired results. Adolin realizes the military application for this, but Navani says there are more practical applications than raising archers in a battlefield. Adolin confronts Navani over her relationship with Dalinar and the awkward position that his father is in regarding violating social customs that he lectures other highprinces about following, but she scoffs at those traditions, and tells Adolin that he is free of his betrothal for the time being due to Jasnah's disappearance. Adolin and Navani leave for a meeting with Dalinar and Elhokar.

Chapter 36: A New Woman

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Shalash ----- Shalash - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains. King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) The day after Chapter 34 (which technically spilled over past midnight into this day). Shortly after Chapter 35.

Epigraph:

And when they were spoken of by the common folk, the Releasers claimed to be misjudged because of the dreadful nature of their power; and when they dealt with others, always were they firm in their claim that other epithets, notably "Dustbringers," often heard in the common speech, were unacceptable substitutions, in particular for their similarity to the word "Voidbringers." They did also exercise anger in great prejudice regarding it, though to many who speak, there was little difference between these two assemblies.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 17, page 11

Summary:

Pattern opens a lock on one of Tyn's trunks for Shallan and she examines the contents, finding clothing and spheres among other useful items. Vathah reports to Shallan that he has burned all the bodies of Tyn and her guards, and she says that she will deal with the skeletons to avoid uncomfortable questions. Macob sends a servant to retrieve a palanquin for Shallan, then goes his own way.

As Shallan enters the warcamp, accompanied by Vathah and his deserter guards, and her slaves, she frets over her betrothal and plans to continue Jasnah's research. She learns that Dalinar is in conference with Elhokar, and orders her palanquin to be brought to the meeting. As she travels to the palace, she draws a sketch of herself confidently confronting Dalinar to try to boost her own morale. At the palace, Shallan enters with Vathah and Gaz as attendants. They reach the conference room at the top of the palace, and Kaladin spots her, and asks her if Adolin is betrothed to a Horneater princess and she replies that she was trying to travel incognito. Kaladin has Gaz seized, and says that Shallan is an impostor since Adolin's real betrothed was lost at sea, but Shallan gives a spanreed printout to Kaladin to have Navani authenticate her claims. Shallan becomes upset at Kaladin's lack of accommodation and they have a heated argument. Kaladin stalks away angry, but Shallan feels that the disturbance will lead to the desired result of her receiving an audience with Dalinar. Gaz mentions that Kaladin was a slave in the lumberyards recently and is very dangerous. Kaladin enters the chamber with the paper, and returns after a short time, summoning Shallan to enter.

Chapter 37: A Matter of Perspective

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Nale ----- Nale - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 35. Immediately after Chapter 36.

Epigraph:

Now, as each order was thus matched to the nature and temperament of the Herald it named patron, there was none more archetypal of this than the Stonewards, who followed after Talenelat'Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of War: they thought it a point of virtue to exemplify resolve, strength, and dependability. Alas, they took less care for imprudent practice of their stubbornness, even in the face of proven error.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 13, page 1

Summary:

During a break two hours after the meeting started, Adolin ponders on the lack of consensus on how to deal with the threat that Szeth poses to the kingdom and how dangerous he is even with the number of shardbearers that are available to protect Elhokar and Dalinar, based on the reports of Szeth's other attacks. Adolin drinks some wine and taunts Relis over his boasts about wanting to duel Szeth to try to bait him into a duel. Adolin then directly challenges Relis but Relis says that Adolin has to rise in the rankings according to protocol before he can fight him. Relis declines despite Adolin offering to wager five shards against one, but Elit accepts a duel for the same proceeds. Relis is upset that Elit accepted the duel and tries to taunt Adolin to a violent comeback and possible voiding of the duel agreement but Adolin restrains himself. Sadeas taunts Adolin more effectively, causing Adolin to come near to punching him before he is restrained by Amaram who counsels him to ignore Sadeas. Adolin tells Amaram to abandon Sadeas for Dalinar but he refuses and says that he is able to keep the kingdom from falling apart further by bridging the gap between Sadeas and Dalinar. Adolin's mind wanders as Amaram speaks about how Sadeas' and Dalinar's goals are the same despite the different means they use, and he sees Shallan and is drawn to her immediately. Amaram comments on his flightiness and need to settle down and comments that the girl is probably from Jah Keved, and Adolin realizes who she is and goes over to meet her, as she speaks with Dalinar and Navani about Jasnah being lost at sea.

Chapter 38: The Silent Storm

Arch Faces: Battar - Shalash ----- Shalash - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 36. Immediately after Chapter 37.

Epigraph:

Now, as the Windrunners were thus engaged, arose the event which has hitherto been referenced: namely, that discovery of some wicked thing of eminence, though whether it be some rogueries among the Radiants' adherents or of some external origin, Avena would not suggest.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 6

Summary:

Shallan offers her condolences on Jasnah's loss to Dalinar and Navani, reflecting on her own grief but using her sketch to project strength and suppress her emotions, and Dalinar thanks her. Shallan mentions that she also brought some of Jasnah's belongings and has information on Jasnah's research, which Navani scoffs at. Shallan notices Adolin looking at her and feels some attraction toward him. Shallan gives a detailed account of the attack on the Wind's Pleasure at Navani's demand, and Navani berates Shallan for saying she set the ship on fire despite Jasnah's already fatal wound but Dalinar defends Shallan's action and Navani apologizes and leaves. Shallan tells Dalinar an abbreviated version of her journey via caravan from the Frostlands to the warcamps and about being rescued by deserters to whom she pledged clemency in reward for their service, and Dalinar promises pardons from the king for them. Shallan then brings up the betrothal and Adolin joins them, smiling. Shallan and Adolin flirt awkwardly and Adolin offers to maintain the betrothal, but Dalinar asks Adolin to get some wine so he can talk privately with Shallan. Dalinar inquires about Shallan's family and her interest in Adolin, and she explains the situation as Jasnah described it to her. Dalinar allows the betrothal to stand temporarily based on Jasnah's implied endorsement of Shallan pending further developments, and offers her a position as a clerk. Their discussion is abruptly interrupted by Highprince Sebarial who gets Dalinar to return to the conference table to resume the meeting.

Shallan mentally notes the attendees of the meeting, realizing that there are three primary factions with Elhokar and Dalinar opposing Sadeas, Ruthar and Aladar, and Hatham leading a group of mediators, and Sebarial as an outsider excluded from the factions. Shallan dissects the meaning behind the arguments until she is drawn into the discussion. Shallan says that she has little knowledge about the events in Jah Keved since she wasn't there at the time of the assassination and that she is there as Jasnah's ward and has personal business, and Aladar realizes she is Adolin's betrothed. Several highprinces want to get her own testimony about events in her home country but she doesn't want to be used, so she lies and says that she took a job to work for her supposed distant relative Sebarial and he plays along with her ploy. Shallan speaks privately with Sebarial, saying that their arrangement will be mutually beneficial. Dalinar disrupts the discussion and says that the war is failing and that they will change their strategy to either make peace with the Parshendi or march in full force and wipe them out. Hatham expresses disdain and Sadeas insults Dalinar, which upsets and provokes Adolin momentarily. Dalinar mentions the Parshendi envoy who offered an olive branch right before the assassination attempt and wonders at the coincidence and if the Parshendi are still controlling Szeth as they claimed to have when Gavilar was killed. Dalinar outlines his plans to scout the plains and outfit a major expedition to the center of the plains and choose and train new Shardbearers to use the armor and weapons that he thinks Adolin will win through duels, then brings the meeting to a close.

Sebarial leaves and Shallan says she will meet him, and goes to speak to Elhokar personally about his sister. She then brings a writ of pardon to Vathah, which amazes him, and tells him that they all have a place to stay.

Chapter 39: Heterochromatic

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1169.10.3.1) (Flashback) Four years ago. One year after Chapter 27.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan's father is having a feast, trying to pretend that their family hasn't grown impoverished. The guests are Brightlord Tavinar and his wife and daughter. They don't seem like they want to be there, and conversation is terse and stunted. Eventually, Shallan's father calls for a toast and announces that he has found a new wife, Malise Gevelmar, who will be coming to the estate soon. The response is subdued, which makes him angry, but he gives celebratory gifts to his children anyway. The boys receive fine daggers, and Shallan gets a silver necklace.

The door to the feast hall slams open, and a man walks in. The man is Redin, bastard son of Highprince Valam, and he has come to investigate rumors about Shallan's mother's death. Lin says that his wife was murdered by her lover, but Redin says that others tell a different story. They speak alone for a while, and Lin eventually slams his hand down on the table in anger. Calmly, Redin stands up and announces that any lighteyes of high birth can provide witness, and asks if any of the children will come with him to do so. Balat grabs the sides of his chair as if to stand, but seeing Lin's face stops and whispers that his father will kill him. Shamespren stir among the children, then Redin states that if any of them remember something they want to tell, they will find willing ears. After Redin leaves, Shallan's father shrinks down in his seat with his head in his hands.

Chapter 40: Palona

Arch Faces: Vedel - Kalak ----- Kalak - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 38.

Epigraph:

That they responded immediately and with great consternation is undeniable, as these were primary among those who would forswear and abandon their oaths. The term Recreance was not then applied, but has since become a popular title by which this event is named.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 6

Summary:

Sebarial and Shallan return to his warcamp after the meeting. Sebarial explains that he profits from manufacturing and farming and selling his goods to the other highprinces, greatly offsetting his fines for not participating in hunts. They arrive at Sebarial's manor and Shallan is introduced to Palona, his mistress. Palona helps Shallan settle into her living quarters.

Chapter 41: Scars

Arch Faces: Vedel - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Vedel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Bridge Four barracks in Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Later in the day, same day as Chapter 36.

Epigraph:

This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at the time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal; and after they withdrew, about two thousand made assault upon them, destroying much of the membership; but this was only nine of the ten, as one said they would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 20

Summary:

Kaladin gives orders for Teft to train bridge seventeen in the chasms. There are thirty-seven days remaining before the mysterious glyph countdown reaches zero. Syl asks Kaladin what his goal is now that his bridgemen are relatively safe. Kaladin says he wants to beat Szeth but Syl scoffs at Kaladin's explanation that he is trying to protect Dalinar. Kaladin encounters Sigzil who is speculating with Rock and Lopen about Szeth's motivations and true employer as he was trained by his master to ask questions. Kaladin tries to duplicate Szeth's feat of walking on walls but fails. Sigzil wishes he could see Syl and she appears to him. Kaladin asks both Syl and Sigzil about Windrunners so he can be better prepared to battle Szeth but neither is able to give any information. Sigzil, Rock, and Lopen discuss the attempt to make Elhokar fall off his balcony but Kaladin ignores them and suddenly has an insight and a vision of another world that allows him to walk on the wall of the chasm.

Kaladin tells Syl that he protects Dalinar so that he can know if Dalinar lives up this reputation as being honorable, and Syl says that honor lives in people and spren like her. Kaladin says that if he trusts Dalinar, he will share the knowledge of his abilities with him. Kaladin says that he will kill Amaram for his betrayal. Kaladin falls from the chasm wall and lands in the chasm with Stormlight aided strength. Kaladin explains his theory about the shardbearer slicing the balcony after the highstorm. Kaladin notices gouges from where a chasmfiend passed and is concerned that it will be dangerous to train here.

Kaladin and the others return to their barracks and find a tense dinner gathering. Renarin asks to join bridge four to become a warrior like Dalinar and Adolin and to be glorified in the Tranquiline Halls. Renarin eventually persuades Kaladin to allow him to provisionally join Bridge Four as a new recruit, and shows a good attitude even when given menial tasks to do. Moash expresses doubt but Kaladin says that Renarin is different from most lighteyes and could fit in with them. Kaladin ponders how to confront Moash over suspicion of him helping to assassinate Elhokar. Moash advises Kaladin to try to get a duel against Amaram to deliver his own justice. Moash and a few bridgemen leave to go drinking and invite Kaladin but he declines and stays to eat dinner.

Chapter 42: Mere Vapors

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Later in the day, same day as Chapter 40.

Epigraph:

But as for Ishi'Elin, his was the part most important at their inception; he readily understood the implications of Surges being granted to men, and caused organization to be thrust upon them; as having too great power, he let it be known that he would destroy each and every one, unless they agreed to be bound by precepts and laws.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 2, page 4

Summary:

Shallan wakes up in her new quarters in the evening. Shallan and Pattern converse and Shallan teaches her spren some figures of speech. Shallan opens her trunk and finds the spanreed blinking an alert light, and sets it up to receive messages. Shallan reads Tyn's old correspondence regarding Jasnah, House Davar, and the Ghostbloods. Pattern points out a code that he detects in the messages. Shallan frets that she will not be able to infiltrate the Ghostbloods, but then uses her sketching ability and lightweaving to create an illusionary disguise for herself. Shallan receives a message on the spanreed that indicates the Ghostbloods want to meet with Tyn that evening, but Shallan says that she is not well and that she will send an apprentice in her (Tyn's) place. The intermediary eventually replies that the Ghostbloods will meet the apprentice and gives a map and time for the meeting. Shallan wears Tyn's clothing, Bluth's hat, and a darkeyes disguise and leaves to go to the rendezvous.

Chapter 43: The Ghostbloods

Arch Faces: Hoid - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Hoid

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Immediately after Chapter 42.

Epigraph:

And thus were the disturbances in the Revv toparchy quieted, when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, Nalan'Elin betook himself to finally accept the Skybreakers who had named him their master, when initially he had spurned their advances and, in his own interests, refused to countenance that which he deemed a pursuit of vanity and annoyance; this was the last of the Heralds to admit to such patronage.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 5, page 17

Summary:

Shallan walks to the meeting using her map as a guide. Shallan tells Pattern to follow her and try to see if anyone tries to trail her and Pattern reports that no one is tailing her. She reaches the destination which is a tenement building and is admitted by a Horneater guard. The guard points her to a staircase leading down and she finds another room with a trapdoor and takes a ladder down further and ends up in a carpeted trophy room with several people. One of the people reminds her of a messenger from her past. The man points a blow gun past her and shoots a dart at a target behind her. The man questions Tyn's story and Shallan revises it, saying that Tyn wants to work through an intermediary for now. The man praises Shallan's boldness and tries to bribe Shallan into revealing where Tyn is hiding, but Shallan declines, and calls his bluff of torturing her successfully. The man says he revised his plan to kill Shallan and track down Tyn, and that he is satisfied at Tyn's partial success but unhappy that Tyn didn't show up in person. Five other people including a masked woman are present. Shallan takes a moment to examine the shelves of mementos. The man, who identifies himself as Mraize, says his next target is Amaram. Mraize says that Tyn is to learn Amaram's secrets from his manor and bring information the following week. Shallan aka Veil accepts the assignment and doesn't haggle over the payment and is dismissed.

After Shallan leaves the building, Pattern warns her that the masked woman is tailing her. She draws a sketch and creates an illusionary wall to hide from her pursuer. Shallan's disguise vanishes as her Stormlight runs out and she ditches her coat and hat and returns to the manor, feeling excited over her adventure. Shallan makes plans to investigate Amaram and interact with Adolin.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 44 through 51

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Part Three: Deadly

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Adolin / Navani

Chapter 35: The Multiplied Strain of Simultaneous Infusion

Arch Faces: Kalak - Battar ----- Battar - Kalak

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin / Navani

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) The day after Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

They also, when they had settled their rulings in the nature of each bond's placement, called the name of it the Nahel bond, with regard to its effect upon the souls of those caught in its grip; in this description, each was related to the bonds that drive Roshar itself, ten Surges, named in turn and two for each order; in this light, it can be seen that each order would by necessity share one Surge with each of its neighbors.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 8, page 6

Summary:

Adolin paces about on a plateau, wearing his Shardplate, dwelling on the assassination attempt the prior evening. Adolin tries to practice throwing his Shardblade but loses focus often since he did not get any sleep because he was guarding his father's quarters throughout the night. Adolin thinks that his three bridgemen guards are useless, but reflects that Kaladin was unusually effective in protecting Dalinar, though he is also very unlikable and strange. Adolin succeeds in throwing his Shardblade, and returns to the warcamp with his bodyguards, and notices a procession of Soulcasters that usually aren't seen during daytime. Adolin converses with the main ardent Soulcaster Kadash and learns that their services are in high demand and that they have to increase their training and work shifts. Adolin watches as a group of Soulcasters working behind a silk screen for concealment use their fabrials in concert to create a stone windbreak. Adolin questions Kadash about the old Radiants and Kadash answers noncommittally at first until Adolin expresses that he needs information urgently due to the fact that the assassin had Radiant-like abilities and Kadash then agrees to do research for Adolin.

Navani stands on an observation platform in the engineering grounds and supervises an experiment to use a fabrial to cause a platform to be raised into the air. After extensive preparations and careful implementation, their attempt to cause a round wooden parapet to float in the air without support succeeds. Adolin joins Navani and they talk in private, with Navani explaining in technical terms how she arranged fabrials in tandem to act like levers to produce the desired results. Adolin realizes the military application for this, but Navani says there are more practical applications than raising archers in a battlefield. Adolin confronts Navani over her relationship with Dalinar and the awkward position that his father is in regarding violating social customs that he lectures other highprinces about following, but she scoffs at those traditions, and tells Adolin that he is free of his betrothal for the time being due to Jasnah's disappearance. Adolin and Navani leave for a meeting with Dalinar and Elhokar.

Chapter 36: A New Woman

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Shalash ----- Shalash - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains. King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) The day after Chapter 34 (which technically spilled over past midnight into this day). Shortly after Chapter 35.

Epigraph:

And when they were spoken of by the common folk, the Releasers claimed to be misjudged because of the dreadful nature of their power; and when they dealt with others, always were they firm in their claim that other epithets, notably "Dustbringers," often heard in the common speech, were unacceptable substitutions, in particular for their similarity to the word "Voidbringers." They did also exercise anger in great prejudice regarding it, though to many who speak, there was little difference between these two assemblies.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 17, page 11

Summary:

Pattern opens a lock on one of Tyn's trunks for Shallan and she examines the contents, finding clothing and spheres among other useful items. Vathah reports to Shallan that he has burned all the bodies of Tyn and her guards, and she says that she will deal with the skeletons to avoid uncomfortable questions. Macob sends a servant to retrieve a palanquin for Shallan, then goes his own way.

As Shallan enters the warcamp, accompanied by Vathah and his deserter guards, and her slaves, she frets over her betrothal and plans to continue Jasnah's research. She learns that Dalinar is in conference with Elhokar, and orders her palanquin to be brought to the meeting. As she travels to the palace, she draws a sketch of herself confidently confronting Dalinar to try to boost her own morale. At the palace, Shallan enters with Vathah and Gaz as attendants. They reach the conference room at the top of the palace, and Kaladin spots her, and asks her if Adolin is betrothed to a Horneater princess and she replies that she was trying to travel incognito. Kaladin has Gaz seized, and says that Shallan is an impostor since Adolin's real betrothed was lost at sea, but Shallan gives a spanreed printout to Kaladin to have Navani authenticate her claims. Shallan becomes upset at Kaladin's lack of accommodation and they have a heated argument. Kaladin stalks away angry, but Shallan feels that the disturbance will lead to the desired result of her receiving an audience with Dalinar. Gaz mentions that Kaladin was a slave in the lumberyards recently and is very dangerous. Kaladin enters the chamber with the paper, and returns after a short time, summoning Shallan to enter.

Chapter 37: A Matter of Perspective

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Nale ----- Nale - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 35. Immediately after Chapter 36.

Epigraph:

Now, as each order was thus matched to the nature and temperament of the Herald it named patron, there was none more archetypal of this than the Stonewards, who followed after Talenelat'Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of War: they thought it a point of virtue to exemplify resolve, strength, and dependability. Alas, they took less care for imprudent practice of their stubbornness, even in the face of proven error.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 13, page 1

Summary:

During a break two hours after the meeting started, Adolin ponders on the lack of consensus on how to deal with the threat that Szeth poses to the kingdom and how dangerous he is even with the number of shardbearers that are available to protect Elhokar and Dalinar, based on the reports of Szeth's other attacks. Adolin drinks some wine and taunts Relis over his boasts about wanting to duel Szeth to try to bait him into a duel. Adolin then directly challenges Relis but Relis says that Adolin has to rise in the rankings according to protocol before he can fight him. Relis declines despite Adolin offering to wager five shards against one, but Elit accepts a duel for the same proceeds. Relis is upset that Elit accepted the duel and tries to taunt Adolin to a violent comeback and possible voiding of the duel agreement but Adolin restrains himself. Sadeas taunts Adolin more effectively, causing Adolin to come near to punching him before he is restrained by Amaram who counsels him to ignore Sadeas. Adolin tells Amaram to abandon Sadeas for Dalinar but he refuses and says that he is able to keep the kingdom from falling apart further by bridging the gap between Sadeas and Dalinar. Adolin's mind wanders as Amaram speaks about how Sadeas' and Dalinar's goals are the same despite the different means they use, and he sees Shallan and is drawn to her immediately. Amaram comments on his flightiness and need to settle down and comments that the girl is probably from Jah Keved, and Adolin realizes who she is and goes over to meet her, as she speaks with Dalinar and Navani about Jasnah being lost at sea.

Chapter 38: The Silent Storm

Arch Faces: Battar - Shalash ----- Shalash - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 36. Immediately after Chapter 37.

Epigraph:

Now, as the Windrunners were thus engaged, arose the event which has hitherto been referenced: namely, that discovery of some wicked thing of eminence, though whether it be some rogueries among the Radiants' adherents or of some external origin, Avena would not suggest.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 6

Summary:

Shallan offers her condolences on Jasnah's loss to Dalinar and Navani, reflecting on her own grief but using her sketch to project strength and suppress her emotions, and Dalinar thanks her. Shallan mentions that she also brought some of Jasnah's belongings and has information on Jasnah's research, which Navani scoffs at. Shallan notices Adolin looking at her and feels some attraction toward him. Shallan gives a detailed account of the attack on the Wind's Pleasure at Navani's demand, and Navani berates Shallan for saying she set the ship on fire despite Jasnah's already fatal wound but Dalinar defends Shallan's action and Navani apologizes and leaves. Shallan tells Dalinar an abbreviated version of her journey via caravan from the Frostlands to the warcamps and about being rescued by deserters to whom she pledged clemency in reward for their service, and Dalinar promises pardons from the king for them. Shallan then brings up the betrothal and Adolin joins them, smiling. Shallan and Adolin flirt awkwardly and Adolin offers to maintain the betrothal, but Dalinar asks Adolin to get some wine so he can talk privately with Shallan. Dalinar inquires about Shallan's family and her interest in Adolin, and she explains the situation as Jasnah described it to her. Dalinar allows the betrothal to stand temporarily based on Jasnah's implied endorsement of Shallan pending further developments, and offers her a position as a clerk. Their discussion is abruptly interrupted by Highprince Sebarial who gets Dalinar to return to the conference table to resume the meeting.

Shallan mentally notes the attendees of the meeting, realizing that there are three primary factions with Elhokar and Dalinar opposing Sadeas, Ruthar and Aladar, and Hatham leading a group of mediators, and Sebarial as an outsider excluded from the factions. Shallan dissects the meaning behind the arguments until she is drawn into the discussion. Shallan says that she has little knowledge about the events in Jah Keved since she wasn't there at the time of the assassination and that she is there as Jasnah's ward and has personal business, and Aladar realizes she is Adolin's betrothed. Several highprinces want to get her own testimony about events in her home country but she doesn't want to be used, so she lies and says that she took a job to work for her supposed distant relative Sebarial and he plays along with her ploy. Shallan speaks privately with Sebarial, saying that their arrangement will be mutually beneficial. Dalinar disrupts the discussion and says that the war is failing and that they will change their strategy to either make peace with the Parshendi or march in full force and wipe them out. Hatham expresses disdain and Sadeas insults Dalinar, which upsets and provokes Adolin momentarily. Dalinar mentions the Parshendi envoy who offered an olive branch right before the assassination attempt and wonders at the coincidence and if the Parshendi are still controlling Szeth as they claimed to have when Gavilar was killed. Dalinar outlines his plans to scout the plains and outfit a major expedition to the center of the plains and choose and train new Shardbearers to use the armor and weapons that he thinks Adolin will win through duels, then brings the meeting to a close.

Sebarial leaves and Shallan says she will meet him, and goes to speak to Elhokar personally about his sister. She then brings a writ of pardon to Vathah, which amazes him, and tells him that they all have a place to stay.

Chapter 39: Heterochromatic

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1169.10.3.1) (Flashback) Four years ago. One year after Chapter 27.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan's father is having a feast, trying to pretend that their family hasn't grown impoverished. The guests are Brightlord Tavinar and his wife and daughter. They don't seem like they want to be there, and conversation is terse and stunted. Eventually, Shallan's father calls for a toast and announces that he has found a new wife, Malise Gevelmar, who will be coming to the estate soon. The response is subdued, which makes him angry, but he gives celebratory gifts to his children anyway. The boys receive fine daggers, and Shallan gets a silver necklace.

The door to the feast hall slams open, and a man walks in. The man is Redin, bastard son of Highprince Valam, and he has come to investigate rumors about Shallan's mother's death. Lin says that his wife was murdered by her lover, but Redin says that others tell a different story. They speak alone for a while, and Lin eventually slams his hand down on the table in anger. Calmly, Redin stands up and announces that any lighteyes of high birth can provide witness, and asks if any of the children will come with him to do so. Balat grabs the sides of his chair as if to stand, but seeing Lin's face stops and whispers that his father will kill him. Shamespren stir among the children, then Redin states that if any of them remember something they want to tell, they will find willing ears. After Redin leaves, Shallan's father shrinks down in his seat with his head in his hands.

Chapter 40: Palona

Arch Faces: Vedel - Kalak ----- Kalak - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Shortly after Chapter 38.

Epigraph:

That they responded immediately and with great consternation is undeniable, as these were primary among those who would forswear and abandon their oaths. The term Recreance was not then applied, but has since become a popular title by which this event is named.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 6

Summary:

Sebarial and Shallan return to his warcamp after the meeting. Sebarial explains that he profits from manufacturing and farming and selling his goods to the other highprinces, greatly offsetting his fines for not participating in hunts. They arrive at Sebarial's manor and Shallan is introduced to Palona, his mistress. Palona helps Shallan settle into her living quarters.

Chapter 41: Scars

Arch Faces: Vedel - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Vedel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Bridge Four barracks in Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Later in the day, same day as Chapter 36.

Epigraph:

This act of great villainy went beyond the impudence which had hitherto been ascribed to the orders; as the fighting was particularly intense at the time, many attributed this act to a sense of inherent betrayal; and after they withdrew, about two thousand made assault upon them, destroying much of the membership; but this was only nine of the ten, as one said they would not abandon their arms and flee, but instead entertained great subterfuge at the expense of the other nine.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 38, page 20

Summary:

Kaladin gives orders for Teft to train bridge seventeen in the chasms. There are thirty-seven days remaining before the mysterious glyph countdown reaches zero. Syl asks Kaladin what his goal is now that his bridgemen are relatively safe. Kaladin says he wants to beat Szeth but Syl scoffs at Kaladin's explanation that he is trying to protect Dalinar. Kaladin encounters Sigzil who is speculating with Rock and Lopen about Szeth's motivations and true employer as he was trained by his master to ask questions. Kaladin tries to duplicate Szeth's feat of walking on walls but fails. Sigzil wishes he could see Syl and she appears to him. Kaladin asks both Syl and Sigzil about Windrunners so he can be better prepared to battle Szeth but neither is able to give any information. Sigzil, Rock, and Lopen discuss the attempt to make Elhokar fall off his balcony but Kaladin ignores them and suddenly has an insight and a vision of another world that allows him to walk on the wall of the chasm.

Kaladin tells Syl that he protects Dalinar so that he can know if Dalinar lives up this reputation as being honorable, and Syl says that honor lives in people and spren like her. Kaladin says that if he trusts Dalinar, he will share the knowledge of his abilities with him. Kaladin says that he will kill Amaram for his betrayal. Kaladin falls from the chasm wall and lands in the chasm with Stormlight aided strength. Kaladin explains his theory about the shardbearer slicing the balcony after the highstorm. Kaladin notices gouges from where a chasmfiend passed and is concerned that it will be dangerous to train here.

Kaladin and the others return to their barracks and find a tense dinner gathering. Renarin asks to join bridge four to become a warrior like Dalinar and Adolin and to be glorified in the Tranquiline Halls. Renarin eventually persuades Kaladin to allow him to provisionally join Bridge Four as a new recruit, and shows a good attitude even when given menial tasks to do. Moash expresses doubt but Kaladin says that Renarin is different from most lighteyes and could fit in with them. Kaladin ponders how to confront Moash over suspicion of him helping to assassinate Elhokar. Moash advises Kaladin to try to get a duel against Amaram to deliver his own justice. Moash and a few bridgemen leave to go drinking and invite Kaladin but he declines and stays to eat dinner.

Chapter 42: Mere Vapors

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Later in the day, same day as Chapter 40.

Epigraph:

But as for Ishi'Elin, his was the part most important at their inception; he readily understood the implications of Surges being granted to men, and caused organization to be thrust upon them; as having too great power, he let it be known that he would destroy each and every one, unless they agreed to be bound by precepts and laws.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 2, page 4

Summary:

Shallan wakes up in her new quarters in the evening. Shallan and Pattern converse and Shallan teaches her spren some figures of speech. Shallan opens her trunk and finds the spanreed blinking an alert light, and sets it up to receive messages. Shallan reads Tyn's old correspondence regarding Jasnah, House Davar, and the Ghostbloods. Pattern points out a code that he detects in the messages. Shallan frets that she will not be able to infiltrate the Ghostbloods, but then uses her sketching ability and lightweaving to create an illusionary disguise for herself. Shallan receives a message on the spanreed that indicates the Ghostbloods want to meet with Tyn that evening, but Shallan says that she is not well and that she will send an apprentice in her (Tyn's) place. The intermediary eventually replies that the Ghostbloods will meet the apprentice and gives a map and time for the meeting. Shallan wears Tyn's clothing, Bluth's hat, and a darkeyes disguise and leaves to go to the rendezvous.

Chapter 43: The Ghostbloods

Arch Faces: Hoid - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Hoid

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Highprince Sebarial's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.3.1) Immediately after Chapter 42.

Epigraph:

And thus were the disturbances in the Revv toparchy quieted, when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, Nalan'Elin betook himself to finally accept the Skybreakers who had named him their master, when initially he had spurned their advances and, in his own interests, refused to countenance that which he deemed a pursuit of vanity and annoyance; this was the last of the Heralds to admit to such patronage.

–From Words of Radiance, chapter 5, page 17

Summary:

Shallan walks to the meeting using her map as a guide. Shallan tells Pattern to follow her and try to see if anyone tries to trail her and Pattern reports that no one is tailing her. She reaches the destination which is a tenement building and is admitted by a Horneater guard. The guard points her to a staircase leading down and she finds another room with a trapdoor and takes a ladder down further and ends up in a carpeted trophy room with several people. One of the people reminds her of a messenger from her past. The man points a blow gun past her and shoots a dart at a target behind her. The man questions Tyn's story and Shallan revises it, saying that Tyn wants to work through an intermediary for now. The man praises Shallan's boldness and tries to bribe Shallan into revealing where Tyn is hiding, but Shallan declines, and calls his bluff of torturing her successfully. The man says he revised his plan to kill Shallan and track down Tyn, and that he is satisfied at Tyn's partial success but unhappy that Tyn didn't show up in person. Five other people including a masked woman are present. Shallan takes a moment to examine the shelves of mementos. The man, who identifies himself as Mraize, says his next target is Amaram. Mraize says that Tyn is to learn Amaram's secrets from his manor and bring information the following week. Shallan aka Veil accepts the assignment and doesn't haggle over the payment and is dismissed.

After Shallan leaves the building, Pattern warns her that the masked woman is tailing her. She draws a sketch and creates an illusionary wall to hide from her pursuer. Shallan's disguise vanishes as her Stormlight runs out and she ditches her coat and hat and returns to the manor, feeling excited over her adventure. Shallan makes plans to investigate Amaram and interact with Adolin.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

I-5: The Rider of Storms

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Interlude I-4. Same day as Chapters 33 and 34.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

As a highstorm approaches the city of Narak, Thude reports to Eshonai that they have a meeting in seven days with the Alethi and that he didn't see either Dalinar or the Surgebinder when he arranged the meeting. Eshonai attunes Resolve and brings her captive spren into the highstorm to transform. Eshonai stands in the storm, with a shield braced against a rock to protect her from the winds, to face the Stormfather head on rather than sheltering in rocks. The wind blows her shield away leaving her exposed, though she is able to hold onto some rocks to keep from being blown away. The eye of the storm reaches her and the Stormfather asks if this is really what she wants. The red spren breaks free from its crystal and shoots out red lightning. Eshonai has a bad premonition and says no and tries to elude the spren, but it hits her in the chest shooting out red tendrils. The Stormfather says that this was inevitable, he cannot protect Eshonai, and he is sorry. Eshonai begins to transform.

I-6: Zahel

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Zahel

Setting: Ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) A couple hours after Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Zahel wakes up suddenly, sensing that someone is approaching. He opens the door, feeling the aftermath of the highstorm, as Kaladin is about to knock. Zahel comments on how bad Kaladin looks, and Kaladin explains that he just stopped an assassination attempt on Elhokar a couple of hours previously. Kaladin asks if Zahel's offer to train him is still open and Zahel says no and to come back and ask again at a more reasonable hour and to have a good attitude. Zahel goes back to sleep missing the voice that he used to hear in his head years ago.

I-7: Taln

Arch Faces: Hoid - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Hoid

Iconography: ???

POV Characters: A madman claiming to be Talenelat, Herald of War

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Late in the evening, on the same day as Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Bordin speaks to Elhokar and Dalinar of his journey with Wit to transport a seeming madman to the Shattered Plains, as the madman listens on and thinks of various torments that he has undergone. The madman identifies himself as Talenel'Elin, Herald of War, and speaks of the desolations wiping out past knowledge and of the other Heralds helping to prepare the world for the Time of the Return and Desolation, though his audience can barely understand him since he is speaking inaudibly with a northern Alethi accent. Bordin says the madman just dropped his Shardblade and that his eyes were always dark. Bordin suggests sending the madman to the ardents to take care of him. The madman comments that the coming days will be difficult but humanity will survive, and that he must be brought to their leaders. Dalinar says he has a use for the Shardblade and needs Bordin's assistance as well. The madman comments that he thinks he is late this time and asks himself how long had it been.

I-8: A Form of Power

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Interlude I-5.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai returns after the highstorm to Narak to a large crowd who were curious about her transformation. Eshonai feels energetic, and sees tiny red lightning bolts when she flexes her fist, and has lost her bulky warform in favor of small ridges in her skin. She is able to leap a chasm by crouching and throwing herself into the air, with less effort than warform required. Thude confronts her, saying her eyes are red which is something referenced in the songs but Eshonai cuts him off. Venli approaches, and is told that with the Stormform that she can move in the highstorm unimpeded and that she can feel a storm building beyond the rhythms, a highstorm that they can guide to use against their enemies. Eshonai addresses the crowd, saying that she saw the betrayal in the Storm Rider's eyes, and that he intends to help humans against the Parshendi, but that they can now fight back using this new form, and the crowd hums to Awe in appreciation. Eshonai glories in the praise but a voice inside her screams in horror.

TRIVIA

The rest of this post contains various trivia, including easy-to-miss details and long-running connections between books. It also incorporates external information from sources like author annotations and interviews ("Words of Brandon" or WoB). While most of this information is eventually revealed in the books, sharing it now enhances your overall understanding, aligning with Brandon Sanderson's practice of early fan engagement and clarification.

SLIM SHADY

Congrats to those who noticed the shady guy that Rock chased off in Chapter 31. This was, indeed, Nazh. In week 1 of this book, the interior artwork had sketches of the Bridge Four tattoos. The note on that sketch states that Nazh is the one who made the sketches and that he had to spend hours watching Bridge Four in order to copy the glyphs accurately.

NAZH, JAMES NAZH

Speaking of glyphs...

In 2018, at a fan event for the Wheel of Time, called JordanCon, Isaac Stewart gave a presentation. Isaac is one of the artists that creates sketches, illustrations, and iconography for Brandon Sanderson's books, and is currently the art director for Sanderson's company, Dragonsteel Entertainment.

Isaac is also the inspiration for Nazh. In one of Sanderson's non-Cosmere books called The Rithmatist, there is a character called Nalizar. Isaac repeatedly mispronounced that character's name as Nazrilof. Sanderson and Isaac eventually developed this mispronunciation into the character of Nazh (whose name is actually Nazrilof). I'll let Isaac talk more about it:

The story behind Nazh is, I was in Brandon's writing group when we were workshopping The Rithmatist. And there's a character named Nalizar in that book. I could never remember his name, so I kept calling him Nazrilof. So it became this running gag with Brandon, like ... "Nalizar and Nazh are different people. Nazh is your alter ego, Isaac, and Nalizar is a character in The Rithmatist."

When we got to The Alloy of Law, Brandon and I were firmly in the camp of including maps that are artifacts from the world. And we thought, where are they getting these? And who's labeling them? Diana Wynne Jones wrote a book called The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and there's a map in the front that basically says that if a location is labeled on the map, then by golly you’re gonna go to the place during the course of the story. Fantasy maps have gotten this reputation of being kind of spoilery.

So when we got to the map of Elendel, we were looking at it, thinking if we only labeled the places that were necessary for the story, then we're falling into this trope of fantasy. So how can we subvert this a bit? So, if the novel is compiled by Khriss, presumably, then maybe she has somebody who goes and gets the maps and labels them for her with pertinent information. It might still feel a little like "these labeled things are the important parts" but at least there's an in-world reason why that is. That allowed us to develop a character around that. Brandon said, "Why don't we have Nazh do this?" to which I agreed, and Brandon said, "Isaac, welcome to the cosmere."

Since then, Nazh's role has grown into basically a sidekick for Khriss. Now, when working with Nazh, we think of him as a grumpy James Bond.

Just a couple quick Nazh facts:

• Isaac says Nazh is "basically a young Peter Capaldi," and looks like him as well.

• Nazh's accent is meant to sound Scottish.

• Nazh is Isaac's 2nd favorite character in the cosmere, after Dalinar.

• Nazh likes fried eggplants since they remind him of a similar vegetable from Threnody.

Over the years, Isaac has gained a lot of trust from Sanderson, who has given Isaac free reign over anything he thinks is important in the cosmere. To this end, Isaac will be the first person (who isn't Sanderson himself) ever to publish a written piece of the cosmere, in an upcoming novella (actually, it was drafted as a novella in 2022, but has since become a full novel). It doesn't have a release date yet, but I'll talk more about this in a future trivia post.

GLYPHY

Speaking of glyphs, for real this time... which is what the last section was supposed to be about, but I got sidetracked...

The presentation that Isaac gave at JordanCon was about how he created the glyphs in Stormlight. Aaaaand, that presentation has spoilers, crap. Not big ones, but I'm going to leave my shame visible to you here and let you know that this section will appear in a later book!

MONSTERS

Here's a quick interaction Sanderson had during a Q&A:

Question: Do you by chance suffer from hippophobia, which is the fear of horses?

Sanderson: I don’t, but I’m not terribly fond of them either. They’ve been mean to me when I’ve ridden them.

Question: I was just curious, because Kaladin and Vin are both cautious when it comes to horses.

Sanderson: Yep

BUSTED

So, in the last trivia post, I talked about Shardblades and cheese. I mentioned that I had modified the interaction a bit because of spoilers, and what I was hiding was that Sanderson's expanded answer was a result of someone asking explicitly about how Dalinar caught Szeth's blade on the sides. The friction on the sides, which would eventually stop a Shardblade from cutting through a big enough block of cheese, is what allowed Dalinar to do what he did.

The Mythbusters TV show did a take on this (as one of you mentioned on Monday) that "busted" this myth that you can catch a blade with your hands. However, Dalinar's situation is unique in 2 ways. The first is that, in Mythbusters, they are testing with a blade that is smaller than a human hand, and they suggest that the blade would just continue forward and slide through the palms. Recall though, that Shardblades are ridiculously big anime swords with a much wider than normal width, so that the full hands can contact the sides of the blade.

In addition to this, Shardblades are "magic", in the sense that they violate physics a bit. They are much, much lighter than a normal sword would be. Experienced Shardblade users compensate for this by using a much lighter swing than you'd normally expect from even a normal sized sword. Treating a Shardblade like a normal blade would end up wearing the wielder out too quickly.

So given the increased blade width and Szeth's much lighter swing, catching and stopping his blade is something that's possible, though still implausible and incredibly lucky.

CONTINUM

In addition to the above, you also saw the use of "guards" along the edges of Shardblades that let people safely train with them. I saw some theorizing that these guards were aluminum, and you're right to think that, because Sanderson wanted them to be aluminum. However, there are continuity reasons why they can't be, and Sanderson addresses this:

So, they are not [made of aluminum]. Peter will not let me make them made out of aluminum. He's my continuity editor, he keeps me honest. I tried to get them to be aluminum, but there are reasons why they can't be. So we had to make them their own weird little thing, unfortunately. But you could make a sheath out of aluminum for a Shardblade that would work. He keeps me honest, so it's good, but I did try to fit them in that way.

There's a little bit of a disjointed (because this happened on Twitter) discussion in a different interview:

Question: Hi, the community has a [question], we have two WoBs: Shardblades can cut aluminum and Shardblades can't cut it. Which one is true?

Sanderson: Hm. Yes, I wondered last night if I'd ever answered this before. Truth is, the answer is contentious at Team Sanderson.

I've been pushing for one answer, but Peter (whom I trust) is pushing back. We will see what ends up in the books as canon.

Problem with magic like I do is sometimes you have to wait for the scientific consensus... :) Err on "no" for now.

We do know what they likely are, but it's outside the spoiler scope at the moment, so start guessing and RAFO.

Peter Ahlstrom: Oh, I think aluminum would stop Shardblades from magical cutting. But if it's too thin like foil, a sword...

...would cut it anyway. What I'm arguing is that something else that Shardblades don't cut doesn't need...

...to necessarily be made of aluminum, for various reasons.

The fandom does have a bit of a consensus on what the guards are, but that's a RAFO for now. Feel free to guess though!

DOLLA DOLLA BILLS YA'LL

As requested, here's some information about the currency on Roshar. Every nation uses spheres, which are small gemstones encased in glass beads. In general, the glass is flattened a bit on one side to keep them from rolling away when you set them down. Though the size of the gemstone inside will vary, all of the glass encasings are the same size; a little bigger than a thumbnail in diameter.

Their values are determined by the type of gemstone and by their size. Gemstones are precisely weighed before being encased. At the lowest value are "chips", which are 0.1 carats. You'll see diamond chips referred to as "clearchips". Five clearchips equals one clearmark. "Marks" are the next denomination of current and equate to 0.5 carats. The next step up, is a "broam", which equals four marks or twenty chips. They are 2 carats.

When gemstones are put out into a highstorm, they become infused with stormlight. They will stay infused for about a week. Technically, dun spheres are equal in value to infused spheres, but dun spheres are suspect because the gem is harder to see. Sometimes a moneylender might have to be called in to judge the authenticity of a gemstone. And occasionally, some people might charge to exchange dun spheres for infused sphere. It's worth noting here that cut gemstones hold stormlight better than uncut gemstones.

For common people, infused sphere primarily serve as lighting. A chip provides visible light far fainter than a lamp. A mark provides a little less light than a candle. And a broam provides the light of several candles.

Within a given denomination (chip, mark, or broam), the type of gemstone also indicates value. This value is a combination of rarity and use in fabrials and soulcasting. Emeralds are the highest in value because you use them to make food with soulcasters. Diamond is the least valuable. Here are their relative values from least to most valuable:

• Diamond (clearchip/clearmark), transparent
• Heliodor, light yellow
• Garnet (bloodchip/bloodmark), deep violet
• Topaz, pale orange
• Smokestone, translucent (uncommon as a coin/sphere)
• Ruby (firechip/firemark), deep red
• Zircon, pale blue
• Sapphire (skychip, skymark), deep blue
• Amethyst, pale violet
• Emerald, deep green

I don't think the books have mentioned them yet, but this is just a small worldbuilding detail that isn't plot relevant, but is technically a small spoiler: Sometimes people use glass spheres that don't contain any gemstones. They are called "ends" and primarily serve as fake money to be used when play gambling if they don't want to use real money.

Here is an album of spheres

MISDIRECT

In my chapter summary for the epilogue in The Way of Kings, I wrote:

He claims to be Talenel'Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of the Almighty.

Most of you read that epilogue and took it at face value that the man that appears was the real Taln, Herald of the Almighty. My wording in the summary then kind of threw some of you off. That wasn't really meant to be my intention though.

First, I will confirm that this man is the real Taln, if for no other reason than that all the good memes require you believe he is Taln and that the books (and I) aren't trying to trick you. My wording was mostly a hold-over from The Way of Kings Prime (the original draft of the novel). In that version, Taln was a much more significant character and a large plot point revolved around Taln himself questioning whether he was actually a Herald, or if he was going insane. Sanderson talks about the editing changes a bit and mentions that Dalinar's questioning of his sanity, because of the visions he's experiencing, made Taln's plot point redundant, so he decided to remove the ambiguity in the re-write.

For a bit of a tease on Taln, he is one of Sanderson's favorite characters in the entire cosmere. Sanderson considers him to be the best individual fighter in all of the cosmere and the fandom likes to make memes about him in the same format that Earthicans make memes about Chuck Norris.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 35 through 43

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

I-5: The Rider of Storms

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Interlude I-4. Same day as Chapters 33 and 34.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

As a highstorm approaches the city of Narak, Thude reports to Eshonai that they have a meeting in seven days with the Alethi and that he didn't see either Dalinar or the Surgebinder when he arranged the meeting. Eshonai attunes Resolve and brings her captive spren into the highstorm to transform. Eshonai stands in the storm, with a shield braced against a rock to protect her from the winds, to face the Stormfather head on rather than sheltering in rocks. The wind blows her shield away leaving her exposed, though she is able to hold onto some rocks to keep from being blown away. The eye of the storm reaches her and the Stormfather asks if this is really what she wants. The red spren breaks free from its crystal and shoots out red lightning. Eshonai has a bad premonition and says no and tries to elude the spren, but it hits her in the chest shooting out red tendrils. The Stormfather says that this was inevitable, he cannot protect Eshonai, and he is sorry. Eshonai begins to transform.

I-6: Zahel

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Zahel

Setting: Ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) A couple hours after Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Zahel wakes up suddenly, sensing that someone is approaching. He opens the door, feeling the aftermath of the highstorm, as Kaladin is about to knock. Zahel comments on how bad Kaladin looks, and Kaladin explains that he just stopped an assassination attempt on Elhokar a couple of hours previously. Kaladin asks if Zahel's offer to train him is still open and Zahel says no and to come back and ask again at a more reasonable hour and to have a good attitude. Zahel goes back to sleep missing the voice that he used to hear in his head years ago.

I-7: Taln

Arch Faces: Hoid - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Hoid

Iconography: ???

POV Characters: A madman claiming to be Talenelat, Herald of War

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Late in the evening, on the same day as Chapter 33.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Bordin speaks to Elhokar and Dalinar of his journey with Wit to transport a seeming madman to the Shattered Plains, as the madman listens on and thinks of various torments that he has undergone. The madman identifies himself as Talenel'Elin, Herald of War, and speaks of the desolations wiping out past knowledge and of the other Heralds helping to prepare the world for the Time of the Return and Desolation, though his audience can barely understand him since he is speaking inaudibly with a northern Alethi accent. Bordin says the madman just dropped his Shardblade and that his eyes were always dark. Bordin suggests sending the madman to the ardents to take care of him. The madman comments that the coming days will be difficult but humanity will survive, and that he must be brought to their leaders. Dalinar says he has a use for the Shardblade and needs Bordin's assistance as well. The madman comments that he thinks he is late this time and asks himself how long had it been.

I-8: A Form of Power

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Interlude I-5.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai returns after the highstorm to Narak to a large crowd who were curious about her transformation. Eshonai feels energetic, and sees tiny red lightning bolts when she flexes her fist, and has lost her bulky warform in favor of small ridges in her skin. She is able to leap a chasm by crouching and throwing herself into the air, with less effort than warform required. Thude confronts her, saying her eyes are red which is something referenced in the songs but Eshonai cuts him off. Venli approaches, and is told that with the Stormform that she can move in the highstorm unimpeded and that she can feel a storm building beyond the rhythms, a highstorm that they can guide to use against their enemies. Eshonai addresses the crowd, saying that she saw the betrayal in the Storm Rider's eyes, and that he intends to help humans against the Parshendi, but that they can now fight back using this new form, and the crowd hums to Awe in appreciation. Eshonai glories in the praise but a voice inside her screams in horror.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

NEWBIE TRIVIA

Most of the activity for these "Final Thoughts & Trivia" posts happen in the newbie thread. There I provide a lot of information about things new readers can easily miss during their first read through. Veterans often learn a thing or two as well, so be sure to read the body of that post. While veterans are welcome to read the post and the comments, they should be commenting in this thread to share their reactions to the information, or the newbies' thoughts.

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Chapter 24: Tyn

Arch Faces: Shalash - Kalak ----- Kalak - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.5) Four days after Chapter 21.

Epigraph:

Decayform destroys the souls of dreams. / A form of gods to avoid, it seems. / Seek not its touch, nor beckon its screams, deny it. / Watch where you walk, your toes to tread. / O’er hill or rocky riverbed / Hold dear to fears that fill your head, defy it.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 27th stanza

Summary:

Shallan listens to Gaz's and Red's stories of how they were recruited into the Alethi army and how they ended up deserting due to the lack of progress on the Vengeance Pact because of the greed of the Highprinces and because of their service oaths binding them to virtual slavery. Vathah derides Gaz for being overly solicitous of Shallan, but Shallan defends Gaz and argues that the deserters have redeemed themselves and insults Vathah to the point that he leaves. Shallan asks about Gaz's debt but he refuses to discuss it and leaves.

Shallan studies Jasnah's notes about the Shattered Plains and Urithiru. Shallan complains to Pattern about how the historians weren't as factual and objective as she would like but Pattern says that truth is subjective. Shallan and Pattern discuss spren and Voidbringers, which disturbs Pattern, and Pattern describes what spren are, mentioning three Shards: Honor, Cultivation and Odium, speaking in a high-pitched tone when mentioning the latter name.

One of Shallan's slaves delivers a summons to visit Tyn, and the two get together to eat dinner. Tyn asks about Shallan's identity and says that she has sent inquiries about Shallan Davar and deduced that her story is so improbable that Shallan is really a con artist and impersonator trying to pull off a scam. Tyn offers to help Shallan with her con and Shallan plays along, implying that she has dangerous secrets about Dalinar.

Chapter 25: Monsters

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: The western edge of Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.5) Four days after Chapter 23.

Epigraph:

Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men. / A form of power, like human Surges. / Bring it ’round again. / Though crafted of gods, / It was by Unmade hand. / Leaves its force to be but one of foe or friend.

–From the Listener Song of Histories, 127th stanza

Summary:

Dalinar orders Kaladin and Bridge Four to learn how to ride horses so they can travel more quickly around the camp. Moash advises against trusting Dalinar but agrees eagerly to learn to ride for the battlefield advantage that horses give. Jenet, the stablemaster, is displeased but lectures Bridge Four on horsemanship. Adolin appears but is chased off as Jenet tries to hit him with some rocks. After the lecture, Kaladin and the others practice riding the horses, which is difficult for Kaladin at first though he gains a small amount of proficiency. Kaladin questions one of the bridgemen, Natam, about the night that Elhokar almost fell off the balcony. Kaladin realizes the sabotage must have happened after the highstorm. Adolin taunts Kaladin into abandoning his training horse to ride an untamed horse, though Kaladin gives a different reason to Syl, saying it is to get over his fear. Kaladin mounts the new horse, Dreamstorm, using Stormlight to adhere himself to the saddle. The horse tires itself out trying to buck Kaladin from the saddle, and eventually succeeds when the Stormlight runs out. Dalinar orders Kaladin to start patrolling outside the camps using the horses. Kaladin further questions Natam who says that he saw Moash go onto the balcony after the storm but Kaladin dismisses him as a suspect. Kaladin seethes with anger as he sees Dalinar have a friendly chat with Amaram.

Chapter 26: The Feather

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Kalak ----- Kalak - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.1.2) Seven days after Chapter 14. Two days after Chapter 25.

Epigraph:

They blame our people / For the loss of that land. / The city that once covered it / Did range the eastern strand. / The power made known in the tomes of our clan / Our gods were not who shattered these plains.

–From the Listener Song of Wars, 55th stanza

Summary:

Adolin and Jakamav lead an Alethi charge against the Parshendi to capture a gemheart on a pyramid shaped plateau. Jakamav mentions that Adolin isn't supposed to be there and observes that Dalinar is trying to increase cooperation between the highprinces. Adolin and Jakamav reach the chrysalis but they are too late as Eshonai already retrieved the gemheart and gave it to another Parshendi who escaped with it. Eshonai tells Adolin that she wants to parlay with Dalinar. Adolin agrees to tell Dalinar and Eshonai says that a messenger will be sent.

Adolin checks on Renarin and finds out from a guard that Renarin intended to join battle at one of the bridges but had one of his fits after he summoned his Shardblade.

Jakamav comments that Adolin will eventually lose a duel but Adolin complains that he is having difficulty getting anyone to accept a duel. Jakamav reveals that Sadeas has been bribing people to refuse duels but says that Adolin should try challenging Eranniv. Adolin asks to talk about his relationship problems at a winehouse that evening but Jakamav declines, stating that it is not popular to be seen around Adolin due to Dalinar's proclamations.

Adolin stalks off, frustrated, to ride his horse. Renarin tells Adolin that he didn't have a fit when he froze on the battlefield and that it was simply fear. Adolin notices Renarin isn't wearing his glasses. Renarin comments that they need to be ready for the coming storm.

Chapter 27: Fabrications to Distract

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1168.10.1.4) (Flashback) Five years ago. Six months after Chapter 19.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is outside in the gardens of their estate sketching. She longs to stay out there, where people do not scream at each other, where there is peace. Unfortunately, it is a fake peace, cultivated like the garden itself. She hears shouts from the nearby manor house, which cause her to tense up and ruin the sketch she's working on. She thinks of her brother Helaran, who brings her the fine sketching paper. His returns home are unpredictable and short, and no one knows where he goes when he leaves. She stares at a blank piece of paper, and loses track of time.

Eventually noticing the sky has darkened, Shallan packs up her things and heads inside. Her father has been throwing feasts regularly, and it is almost time for the one tonight. She turns up the stairs to get ready. There would be a new dress for her to wear as she sits quietly. She suspects her father doesn't like that she has begun speaking again. Perhaps he does not want her to be able to speak of things she has seen. Her mind goes blank.

Her brother Jushu finds her on the stairs, staring at the wall. Jushu's jacket is undone and askew, and his cheeks are flush with wine. He has no cuff links or belt, having gambled them away. When asked, Jushu tells Shallan that he heard the yelling. Balat has been starting fires again, and nearly burned down the servants building. Jushu says that he is the only one left in the family with any sense. They pass their father's quarters. It is being tidied with the door open, which allows Shallan to see the far wall. She stumbles. Though hidden behind a painting, she can see the outline of the strongbox glowing, blazing like fire. Jushu asks what she is staring at, but when she tells him, he thinks she is crazy. Shallan continues to stare at the light, thinking a monster hides there. That her mother's soul hides there.

Chapter 28: Boots

Arch Faces: Talenel - Shalash ----- Shalash - Talenel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.3) Eight days after Chapter 24 and Chapter 25.

Epigraph:

The betrayal of spren has brought us here. / They gave their Surges to human heirs, / But not to those who know them most dear, before us. / ’Tis no surprise we turned away / Unto the gods we spent our days / And to become their molding clay, they changed us.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 40th stanza

Summary:

Tyn guides a chull wagon and gives friendly advice on being a con artist and impersonator to Shallan. Tyn explains how carefree she is and how fleeting personal belongings and missions are to her, and that her most recent mission ended without a positive resolution, though Shallan senses some tension when Tyn says this.

The caravan encounters four uniformed horse riders, and Tyn and Shallan separate from the group to meet with them. Tyn speaks with the riders, and proclaims Shallan to be a Horneater Princess, and Shallan attempts to play the role. One of the riders, Kaladin, inquires if they have seen any bandits and Tyn replies that they had and asks why he cares. Kaladin replies that they represent the Alethi King and want to patrol the area to clear it of bandits, and presses for more details on the attack. He then comments that Shallan looks too thin to be a Horneater, and she acts offended and demands his boots in compensation, which he gives up reluctantly before their patrol departs. Tyn compliments Shallan on her impersonation but criticizes her for being overly empathetic as that is not a good quality in a con artist.

Chapter 29: Rule of Blood

Arch Faces: Shalash - Talenel ----- Talenel - Shalash

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Torol Sadeas

Setting: The Shattered Plains. The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.4) Seven days after Chapter 26.

Epigraph:

Artform for colors beyond our ken; / For its grand songs we yearn. / We must attract creationspren; / These songs suffice ’til we learn.

–From the Listener Song of Revision, 279th stanza

Summary:

Sadeas rests after a prolonged battle against the parshendi, reveling in the Thrill before the feeling fades away and contemplating how it grows less sweet as he dwells on the pointlessness of the fights for gemhearts and the lack of progress toward his ultimate goals of conquest. Amaram tells Sadeas that his ploy of carelessness in going on the raid out of turn failed since the correct armies showed up before he left with the gemheart, but Sadeas replies that he doesn't care. Amaram expresses disapproval of Sadeas and says he wants peace with Elhokar and Dalinar, but Sadeas says that he knows how ruthless Amaram really is. Amaram acknowledges this, but says that there is a bigger picture to be concerned with. Amaram asks if Sadeas ever worries about the costs of war, and Sadeas replies that a realistic viewpoint is necessary to achieve anything in life. Hatham confronts Sadeas, who concedes the gemheart and proclaims that he was bored, and then leaves to return to the warcamp.

Sadeas sits at the dueling arena, contemplating that his fashionable clothes are very uncomfortable and wishing that he could wear a simple uniform like Dalinar's if that didn't send the wrong message. Sadeas thinks about aging and desire to achieve a form of immortality through conquest. Ialai shows up and praises Sadeas' stratagem of giving away the gemheart to undermine Dalinar's accusations of greed. Sadeas says he is not pleased that Eranniv accepted the duel despite his efforts to block Adolin from having any dueling opponents, and that he wants Dalinar's plan to fail so that he can rebuild their kingdom to his own specifications. As Adolin duels with Eranniv, Ialai described the failed assassination attempt on Elhokar, and they debate the ramifications of it, as Sadeas ponders that Elhokar must die and Dalinar must be dealt with so that he can wipe the slate clean. Sadeas and Ialai decide to expose Dalinar as a hypocrite since he didn't involve Sadeas in the assassination investigation which would be only proper as Sadeas is the Highprince of Information. Sadeas says he will renounce his post in protest when it will cause the most harm to Dalinar's strategy. Sadeas realizes that Adolin is toying with his opponent and that he is very skilled and clever to win while appearing to be losing. Sadeas tells Ialai to stop from interfering with Adolin's dueling aspirations to try to take advantage of Adolin's hotheadedness, and to invite Ruthar on his next hunt.

Chapter 30: Nature Blushing

Arch Faces: Shalash - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Chapter 28.

Epigraph:

'Tis said it was warm in the land far away / When Voidbringers entered our songs. / We brought them home to stay / And then those homes became their own, / It happened gradually. / And years ahead ’twil still be said ’tis how it has to be.

–From the Listener Song of Histories, 12th stanza

Summary:

Shallan is excited to see a small naturally occurring diverse ecosystem of plants and small animals protected by a rock overhang, and has their caravan diverted to investigate it. Shallan settles down to draw sketches of the small garden and is joined by Gaz, who requests that she draw a sketch of him, to which she replies that she will. Shallan draws a quick portrait with slight modifications from reality to make Gaz appear more impressive and Gaz is very appreciative. Vathah tells Shallan they are stopping for the night and Pattern tells Shallan there will be trouble, and Shallan agrees. Shallan draws a bunch of sketches of the thicket, then draws whatever floats into her mind, including a rocky ocean shore with some indistinct figures of which one reminds her of Yalb and a woman taking a hammer and chisel to a statue, though Shallan does not know why she drew the last picture.

Tyn tells Shallan she has artistic talent but should practice forgery instead of drawing, and that she wants to introduce Shallan to some friends in the Shattered Plains. She also claims Shallan needs a dose of realism in order to be ready for the real life of a criminal. Tyn asks if Shallan wants to back out of their criminal enterprise, but Shallan says she is committed and that her planned scam is to impersonate the betrothed of Adolin Kholin. Tyn gives Shallan some advice on carrying out her love scam. As they talk, Shallan worries about the state of the betrothal even though it is secondary to her research on Urithiru and the Voidbringers, and about what to do with Tyn when the fake scam falls through, though she is also excited as well.

Chapter 31: The Stillness Before

Arch Faces: Ishar - Vedel ----- Vedel - Ishar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaldin / Shallan

Setting: Bridge Four barracks in Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Chapter 28. Shortly after Chapter 30.

Epigraph:

Smokeform for hiding and slipping ’tween men. / A form of power—like Surges of spren. / Do we dare to wear this form again? It spies. / Crafted of gods, this form we fear. / By Unmade touch its curse to bear, / Formed from shadow—and death is near. It lies.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 51st stanza

Summary:

Kaladin, along with forty bridgemen from Bridge Seventeen, returns to Bridge Four's barracks for evening stew. Pitt, one of those bridgemen, apologizes to Kaladin for being glad when Bridge Four went on hunts instead of Seventeen, and says he will do his best to motivate his crew. Rock chases off a man trying to draw sketches of the bridgemen. Kaladin eats his dinner quickly in anticipation of going to protect Dalinar during the upcoming highstorm.

Tyn watches Shallan practice sleight-of-hand tricks and inquires about her practice with accents and lectures her on how she needs to overcome her prudishness. Their caravan reaches the outskirts of the war camps and they decide to stop for the day. Tyn tells Shallan the Veden king is dead, along with six highprinces, all killed by Szeth, and that she expected to learn more via spanreed later that evening. Macob agrees with the decision to stop the caravan due to the upcoming highstorm that night.

Chapter 32: The One Who Hates

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps. In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Chapter 31.

Epigraph:

The spren betrayed us, it’s often felt. / Our minds are too close to their realm / That gives us our forms, but more is then / Demanded by the smartest spren, / We can’t provide what the humans lend, / Though broth are we, their meat is men.

–From the Listener Song of Spren, 9th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin falls asleep during the highstorm and dreams he is the storm and speaks to the Stormfather about Syl. The Stormfather says that Kaladin will betray and kill Syl and that he is already beginning to do so. As they speak, a second larger storm with red lightning appears and the Stormfather says he is sorry, and tells Kaladin that "He comes". Kaladin wakes up as Adolin and Renarin are discussing the upcoming meeting with the Parshendi envoy. Kaladin goes to the balcony to check on the weather but only sees the diminishing of the winds as the highstorm passes.

Pattern whimpers during the highstorm and ignores Shallan as the highstorm passes over.

Syl tells Kaladin something is wrong and that the "one who hates" is coming, and that something bad is going to happen. Heeding Syl's warning, he goes into Dalinar's and Navani's small room to tell them they need to take the king and leave the palace and head into the warcamp. Kaladin explains that his instincts sense danger and Dalinar agrees to trust his senses and leave the palace despite Elhokar's dissent. Kaladin sends Beld and Hobber to scout their way out and leaves Moash and Ralinor to guard their rear while Mart and Eth stay with the king. As they flee through the palace, they find a dark hallway where the spheres were drained of light and a hole cut into the palace through the rock wall. Szeth appears, Stormlight leaking from his body.

Dalinar orders Renarin to take the king and flee. Dalinar, Adolin and Kaladin stay to fight Szeth, Dalinar and Kaladin armed with spears and Adolin with his Shardblade. The three rush Szeth but he eludes them using a Lashing, then binds Adolin to the ceiling. Kaladin and Dalinar both stab Szeth with their spears, but he chops the weapons in half with his blade and smacks down Dalinar as he heals using Stormlight. Adolin falls to the ground when the Lashing runs out, and he stays down. Kaladin uses his spear like a quarterstaff and with Syl flying around him attacks Szeth, hitting him a few times and forcing him to draw in more Stormlight. Szeth is able to dodge a strike and stab Kaladin through his arm with the Shardblade, causing it to go numb and lifeless, and Kaladin then is kicked into a wall, and slumps in frustration as Szeth goes to chase down his prey.

Syl tells Kaladin that Szeth is not a radiant but something worse and pleads for Kaladin to get up. Dalinar confronts Szeth and says he won't let the king die but Szeth says he is there to kill Dalinar instead. As Szeth swings it from above his head at him for a killing blow, Dalinar catches the Shardblade between his palms, and Kaladin arrives and knocks both himself and Szeth through the hole in the wall into open air.

Chapter 33: Burdens

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Nale ----- Nale - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaldin / Adolin

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Immediately after Chapter 32.

Epigraph:

But it is not impossible to blend / Their Surges to ours in the end. / It has been promised and it can come. / Or do we understand the sum? / We questioned not if they can have us then, / But if we dare to have them again.

–From the Listener Song of Spren, 10th stanza

Summary:

As Szeth and Kaladin plunge toward the ground, Szeth starts glowing more brightly and Kaladin uses Szeth's gemstones to draw in some Stormlight before he loses his grip on the assassin. Kaladin lands hard but the Stormlight quickly heals him. His right arm is still grey and lifeless, although he has some slight sense of feeling in the arm. Szeth is shocked at Kaladin's survival and thinks that he accidentally lashed Kaladin to slow his fall. As Szeth pauses in confusion, Kaladin uses his Stormlight to bring his right arm back to life, and Szeth cries out in surprise. Szeth jumps back in shock and asks what Kaladin is and Kaladin replies that he is a Windrunner, the same as Szeth. But Szeth denies this, angrily shouting that he was named Truthless, and asks if the Radiants are all back. Kaladin says yes and Szeth flees. Kaladin collapses in exhaustion.

Kaladin wakes up with Syl hovering nearby and expresses surprise at his ability to heal the Shardblade wound, which Syl did not expect. Syl tells him there are dead at the battle scene and goes with Kaladin back inside the palace. Kaladin tracks down the king's entourage. Dalinar is shocked at Kaladin's survival and Kaladin says that he held onto Szeth as they fell and somehow lived due to Szeth's abilities, which the others believe. Kaladin wants to tell Dalinar about his abilities but not Adolin or Elhokar so he says nothing. Kaladin says that Szeth escaped and that he saw a light in the darkness which earns a glance from Syl though it wasn't a complete lie. Elhokar says that Szeth came for him and no one corrects him on his mistake. Kaladin leaves to do something and tells the others to stay there.

Adolin ponders the strangeness of Kaladin apparently healing from a Shardblade wound and surviving a great fall but dismisses his suspicions as paranoia. Elhokar goes to get more wine and they find a series of glyphs carved into the wood and Renarin says that in thirty-eight days, it will be the end of all nations.

Kaladin finds Beld's corpse and laments that he failed the bridgeman, but Syl says that he died protecting and that was Beld's choice. Kaladin asks about how skilled the assassin was and if Kaladin has more words to speak, but Syl says that though there are more words, he is not ready yet to speak them. Kaladin asks how the assassin could have found a spren to bond and yet still slaughter without honor and compares that to his killing of Parshendi, and Syl says the two situations are totally different since Kaladin is protecting, and that Szeth's Shardblade is somehow different and that he uses the wrong amount of Stormlight.

Kaladin finds Hobber still alive, but with both legs disabled, and says he will stay with Bridge Four as a cook, and brings him back to get medical attention.

Chapter 34: Blossoms and Cake

Arch Faces: Nale - Shalash ----- Shalash - Nale

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Chapter 32.

Epigraph:

Our gods were born splinters of a soul, / Of one who seeks to take control, / Destroys all lands that he beholds, with spite. / They are his spren, his gift, his price. / But the nightforms speak of future life, / A challenged champion. A strife even he must requite.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, final stanza

Summary:

Shallan reads a dispatch on Tyn's spanreed about the political situation in Jah Keved and dwells on the consequences for her family if there is a succession war. Tyn asks if Shallan personally knows any of the important players for the Veden throne but Shallan says she wasn't important enough. Tyn says they might want to go to Jah Keved to take advantage of the chaos once they are done in the Shattered Plains. The spanreed report continues with information about the deserters and reward bounties from their former leader, Sadeas. Shallan is angered that Tyn wants to turn them in and says that she promised them amnesty but Tyn scoffs at this and says that a con artist can't afford to believe their own lies and that Shallan has no chance to get Sadeas to forgive the deserters. Shallan is upset at this and worries that she will soon get caught up between the truth and Tyn's misguided notions over who Shallan really is. Tyn continues reading the spanreed and gleefully announces that there is good news and Shallan reads the printout about Jasnah being dead and the Wind's Pleasure being lost with all hands. Tyn confirms that this was her job to the south.

The spanreed also mentions about Jasnah taking a new ward, a girl named Shallan. Tyn reacts immediately, slamming Shallan to the ground and asking if Jasnah somehow survived. Shallan says no. Pattern distracts Tyn briefly but it is not enough for Shallan to break free. Tyn draws her sword to kill Shallan, but Shallan uses Stormlight to create an illusion to distract Tyn long enough for her to summon her Shardblade and kill Tyn.

Vathah, Gaz and the other deserters appear at the tent, saying they heard a voice telling them to help Shallan, then heard Shallan's screams and fought their way through Tyn's soldiers to help Shallan. Vathah sees the Shardblade and says that Shallan could have killed all the bandits on her own. Shallan tells them the voice they heard was her spren, Tyn was an assassin, and they are to search Tyn's tent for any documents for Shallan to read. Shallan watches as the spanreed continues to write that Tyn's employers, who happen to be the Ghostbloods, want to hire her for another job and inquires if she would like to have a meeting arranged in the warcamps. Shallan realizes that the city the Ghostbloods are investigating is Urithiru, and replies "yes".

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-5, I-6, I-7, I-8, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Chapter 24: Tyn

Arch Faces: Shalash - Kalak ----- Kalak - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.5) Four days after Chapter 21.

Epigraph:

Decayform destroys the souls of dreams. / A form of gods to avoid, it seems. / Seek not its touch, nor beckon its screams, deny it. / Watch where you walk, your toes to tread. / O’er hill or rocky riverbed / Hold dear to fears that fill your head, defy it.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 27th stanza

Summary:

Shallan listens to Gaz's and Red's stories of how they were recruited into the Alethi army and how they ended up deserting due to the lack of progress on the Vengeance Pact because of the greed of the Highprinces and because of their service oaths binding them to virtual slavery. Vathah derides Gaz for being overly solicitous of Shallan, but Shallan defends Gaz and argues that the deserters have redeemed themselves and insults Vathah to the point that he leaves. Shallan asks about Gaz's debt but he refuses to discuss it and leaves.

Shallan studies Jasnah's notes about the Shattered Plains and Urithiru. Shallan complains to Pattern about how the historians weren't as factual and objective as she would like but Pattern says that truth is subjective. Shallan and Pattern discuss spren and Voidbringers, which disturbs Pattern, and Pattern describes what spren are, mentioning three Shards: Honor, Cultivation and Odium, speaking in a high-pitched tone when mentioning the latter name.

One of Shallan's slaves delivers a summons to visit Tyn, and the two get together to eat dinner. Tyn asks about Shallan's identity and says that she has sent inquiries about Shallan Davar and deduced that her story is so improbable that Shallan is really a con artist and impersonator trying to pull off a scam. Tyn offers to help Shallan with her con and Shallan plays along, implying that she has dangerous secrets about Dalinar.

Chapter 25: Monsters

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: The western edge of Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.5) Four days after Chapter 23.

Epigraph:

Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men. / A form of power, like human Surges. / Bring it ’round again. / Though crafted of gods, / It was by Unmade hand. / Leaves its force to be but one of foe or friend.

–From the Listener Song of Histories, 127th stanza

Summary:

Dalinar orders Kaladin and Bridge Four to learn how to ride horses so they can travel more quickly around the camp. Moash advises against trusting Dalinar but agrees eagerly to learn to ride for the battlefield advantage that horses give. Jenet, the stablemaster, is displeased but lectures Bridge Four on horsemanship. Adolin appears but is chased off as Jenet tries to hit him with some rocks. After the lecture, Kaladin and the others practice riding the horses, which is difficult for Kaladin at first though he gains a small amount of proficiency. Kaladin questions one of the bridgemen, Natam, about the night that Elhokar almost fell off the balcony. Kaladin realizes the sabotage must have happened after the highstorm. Adolin taunts Kaladin into abandoning his training horse to ride an untamed horse, though Kaladin gives a different reason to Syl, saying it is to get over his fear. Kaladin mounts the new horse, Dreamstorm, using Stormlight to adhere himself to the saddle. The horse tires itself out trying to buck Kaladin from the saddle, and eventually succeeds when the Stormlight runs out. Dalinar orders Kaladin to start patrolling outside the camps using the horses. Kaladin further questions Natam who says that he saw Moash go onto the balcony after the storm but Kaladin dismisses him as a suspect. Kaladin seethes with anger as he sees Dalinar have a friendly chat with Amaram.

Chapter 26: The Feather

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Kalak ----- Kalak - Pailiah

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.1.2) Seven days after Chapter 14. Two days after Chapter 25.

Epigraph:

They blame our people / For the loss of that land. / The city that once covered it / Did range the eastern strand. / The power made known in the tomes of our clan / Our gods were not who shattered these plains.

–From the Listener Song of Wars, 55th stanza

Summary:

Adolin and Jakamav lead an Alethi charge against the Parshendi to capture a gemheart on a pyramid shaped plateau. Jakamav mentions that Adolin isn't supposed to be there and observes that Dalinar is trying to increase cooperation between the highprinces. Adolin and Jakamav reach the chrysalis but they are too late as Eshonai already retrieved the gemheart and gave it to another Parshendi who escaped with it. Eshonai tells Adolin that she wants to parlay with Dalinar. Adolin agrees to tell Dalinar and Eshonai says that a messenger will be sent.

Adolin checks on Renarin and finds out from a guard that Renarin intended to join battle at one of the bridges but had one of his fits after he summoned his Shardblade.

Jakamav comments that Adolin will eventually lose a duel but Adolin complains that he is having difficulty getting anyone to accept a duel. Jakamav reveals that Sadeas has been bribing people to refuse duels but says that Adolin should try challenging Eranniv. Adolin asks to talk about his relationship problems at a winehouse that evening but Jakamav declines, stating that it is not popular to be seen around Adolin due to Dalinar's proclamations.

Adolin stalks off, frustrated, to ride his horse. Renarin tells Adolin that he didn't have a fit when he froze on the battlefield and that it was simply fear. Adolin notices Renarin isn't wearing his glasses. Renarin comments that they need to be ready for the coming storm.

Chapter 27: Fabrications to Distract

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1168.10.1.4) (Flashback) Five years ago. Six months after Chapter 19.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is outside in the gardens of their estate sketching. She longs to stay out there, where people do not scream at each other, where there is peace. Unfortunately, it is a fake peace, cultivated like the garden itself. She hears shouts from the nearby manor house, which cause her to tense up and ruin the sketch she's working on. She thinks of her brother Helaran, who brings her the fine sketching paper. His returns home are unpredictable and short, and no one knows where he goes when he leaves. She stares at a blank piece of paper, and loses track of time.

Eventually noticing the sky has darkened, Shallan packs up her things and heads inside. Her father has been throwing feasts regularly, and it is almost time for the one tonight. She turns up the stairs to get ready. There would be a new dress for her to wear as she sits quietly. She suspects her father doesn't like that she has begun speaking again. Perhaps he does not want her to be able to speak of things she has seen. Her mind goes blank.

Her brother Jushu finds her on the stairs, staring at the wall. Jushu's jacket is undone and askew, and his cheeks are flush with wine. He has no cuff links or belt, having gambled them away. When asked, Jushu tells Shallan that he heard the yelling. Balat has been starting fires again, and nearly burned down the servants building. Jushu says that he is the only one left in the family with any sense. They pass their father's quarters. It is being tidied with the door open, which allows Shallan to see the far wall. She stumbles. Though hidden behind a painting, she can see the outline of the strongbox glowing, blazing like fire. Jushu asks what she is staring at, but when she tells him, he thinks she is crazy. Shallan continues to stare at the light, thinking a monster hides there. That her mother's soul hides there.

Chapter 28: Boots

Arch Faces: Talenel - Shalash ----- Shalash - Talenel

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.3) Eight days after Chapter 24 and Chapter 25.

Epigraph:

The betrayal of spren has brought us here. / They gave their Surges to human heirs, / But not to those who know them most dear, before us. / ’Tis no surprise we turned away / Unto the gods we spent our days / And to become their molding clay, they changed us.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 40th stanza

Summary:

Tyn guides a chull wagon and gives friendly advice on being a con artist and impersonator to Shallan. Tyn explains how carefree she is and how fleeting personal belongings and missions are to her, and that her most recent mission ended without a positive resolution, though Shallan senses some tension when Tyn says this.

The caravan encounters four uniformed horse riders, and Tyn and Shallan separate from the group to meet with them. Tyn speaks with the riders, and proclaims Shallan to be a Horneater Princess, and Shallan attempts to play the role. One of the riders, Kaladin, inquires if they have seen any bandits and Tyn replies that they had and asks why he cares. Kaladin replies that they represent the Alethi King and want to patrol the area to clear it of bandits, and presses for more details on the attack. He then comments that Shallan looks too thin to be a Horneater, and she acts offended and demands his boots in compensation, which he gives up reluctantly before their patrol departs. Tyn compliments Shallan on her impersonation but criticizes her for being overly empathetic as that is not a good quality in a con artist.

Chapter 29: Rule of Blood

Arch Faces: Shalash - Talenel ----- Talenel - Shalash

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Torol Sadeas

Setting: The Shattered Plains. The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.4) Seven days after Chapter 26.

Epigraph:

Artform for colors beyond our ken; / For its grand songs we yearn. / We must attract creationspren; / These songs suffice ’til we learn.

–From the Listener Song of Revision, 279th stanza

Summary:

Sadeas rests after a prolonged battle against the parshendi, reveling in the Thrill before the feeling fades away and contemplating how it grows less sweet as he dwells on the pointlessness of the fights for gemhearts and the lack of progress toward his ultimate goals of conquest. Amaram tells Sadeas that his ploy of carelessness in going on the raid out of turn failed since the correct armies showed up before he left with the gemheart, but Sadeas replies that he doesn't care. Amaram expresses disapproval of Sadeas and says he wants peace with Elhokar and Dalinar, but Sadeas says that he knows how ruthless Amaram really is. Amaram acknowledges this, but says that there is a bigger picture to be concerned with. Amaram asks if Sadeas ever worries about the costs of war, and Sadeas replies that a realistic viewpoint is necessary to achieve anything in life. Hatham confronts Sadeas, who concedes the gemheart and proclaims that he was bored, and then leaves to return to the warcamp.

Sadeas sits at the dueling arena, contemplating that his fashionable clothes are very uncomfortable and wishing that he could wear a simple uniform like Dalinar's if that didn't send the wrong message. Sadeas thinks about aging and desire to achieve a form of immortality through conquest. Ialai shows up and praises Sadeas' stratagem of giving away the gemheart to undermine Dalinar's accusations of greed. Sadeas says he is not pleased that Eranniv accepted the duel despite his efforts to block Adolin from having any dueling opponents, and that he wants Dalinar's plan to fail so that he can rebuild their kingdom to his own specifications. As Adolin duels with Eranniv, Ialai described the failed assassination attempt on Elhokar, and they debate the ramifications of it, as Sadeas ponders that Elhokar must die and Dalinar must be dealt with so that he can wipe the slate clean. Sadeas and Ialai decide to expose Dalinar as a hypocrite since he didn't involve Sadeas in the assassination investigation which would be only proper as Sadeas is the Highprince of Information. Sadeas says he will renounce his post in protest when it will cause the most harm to Dalinar's strategy. Sadeas realizes that Adolin is toying with his opponent and that he is very skilled and clever to win while appearing to be losing. Sadeas tells Ialai to stop from interfering with Adolin's dueling aspirations to try to take advantage of Adolin's hotheadedness, and to invite Ruthar on his next hunt.

Chapter 30: Nature Blushing

Arch Faces: Shalash - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Chapter 28.

Epigraph:

'Tis said it was warm in the land far away / When Voidbringers entered our songs. / We brought them home to stay / And then those homes became their own, / It happened gradually. / And years ahead ’twil still be said ’tis how it has to be.

–From the Listener Song of Histories, 12th stanza

Summary:

Shallan is excited to see a small naturally occurring diverse ecosystem of plants and small animals protected by a rock overhang, and has their caravan diverted to investigate it. Shallan settles down to draw sketches of the small garden and is joined by Gaz, who requests that she draw a sketch of him, to which she replies that she will. Shallan draws a quick portrait with slight modifications from reality to make Gaz appear more impressive and Gaz is very appreciative. Vathah tells Shallan they are stopping for the night and Pattern tells Shallan there will be trouble, and Shallan agrees. Shallan draws a bunch of sketches of the thicket, then draws whatever floats into her mind, including a rocky ocean shore with some indistinct figures of which one reminds her of Yalb and a woman taking a hammer and chisel to a statue, though Shallan does not know why she drew the last picture.

Tyn tells Shallan she has artistic talent but should practice forgery instead of drawing, and that she wants to introduce Shallan to some friends in the Shattered Plains. She also claims Shallan needs a dose of realism in order to be ready for the real life of a criminal. Tyn asks if Shallan wants to back out of their criminal enterprise, but Shallan says she is committed and that her planned scam is to impersonate the betrothed of Adolin Kholin. Tyn gives Shallan some advice on carrying out her love scam. As they talk, Shallan worries about the state of the betrothal even though it is secondary to her research on Urithiru and the Voidbringers, and about what to do with Tyn when the fake scam falls through, though she is also excited as well.

Chapter 31: The Stillness Before

Arch Faces: Ishar - Vedel ----- Vedel - Ishar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Kaldin / Shallan

Setting: Bridge Four barracks in Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Two days after Chapter 28. Shortly after Chapter 30.

Epigraph:

Smokeform for hiding and slipping ’tween men. / A form of power—like Surges of spren. / Do we dare to wear this form again? It spies. / Crafted of gods, this form we fear. / By Unmade touch its curse to bear, / Formed from shadow—and death is near. It lies.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 51st stanza

Summary:

Kaladin, along with forty bridgemen from Bridge Seventeen, returns to Bridge Four's barracks for evening stew. Pitt, one of those bridgemen, apologizes to Kaladin for being glad when Bridge Four went on hunts instead of Seventeen, and says he will do his best to motivate his crew. Rock chases off a man trying to draw sketches of the bridgemen. Kaladin eats his dinner quickly in anticipation of going to protect Dalinar during the upcoming highstorm.

Tyn watches Shallan practice sleight-of-hand tricks and inquires about her practice with accents and lectures her on how she needs to overcome her prudishness. Their caravan reaches the outskirts of the war camps and they decide to stop for the day. Tyn tells Shallan the Veden king is dead, along with six highprinces, all killed by Szeth, and that she expected to learn more via spanreed later that evening. Macob agrees with the decision to stop the caravan due to the upcoming highstorm that night.

Chapter 32: The One Who Hates

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Shallan

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps. In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Chapter 31.

Epigraph:

The spren betrayed us, it’s often felt. / Our minds are too close to their realm / That gives us our forms, but more is then / Demanded by the smartest spren, / We can’t provide what the humans lend, / Though broth are we, their meat is men.

–From the Listener Song of Spren, 9th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin falls asleep during the highstorm and dreams he is the storm and speaks to the Stormfather about Syl. The Stormfather says that Kaladin will betray and kill Syl and that he is already beginning to do so. As they speak, a second larger storm with red lightning appears and the Stormfather says he is sorry, and tells Kaladin that "He comes". Kaladin wakes up as Adolin and Renarin are discussing the upcoming meeting with the Parshendi envoy. Kaladin goes to the balcony to check on the weather but only sees the diminishing of the winds as the highstorm passes.

Pattern whimpers during the highstorm and ignores Shallan as the highstorm passes over.

Syl tells Kaladin something is wrong and that the "one who hates" is coming, and that something bad is going to happen. Heeding Syl's warning, he goes into Dalinar's and Navani's small room to tell them they need to take the king and leave the palace and head into the warcamp. Kaladin explains that his instincts sense danger and Dalinar agrees to trust his senses and leave the palace despite Elhokar's dissent. Kaladin sends Beld and Hobber to scout their way out and leaves Moash and Ralinor to guard their rear while Mart and Eth stay with the king. As they flee through the palace, they find a dark hallway where the spheres were drained of light and a hole cut into the palace through the rock wall. Szeth appears, Stormlight leaking from his body.

Dalinar orders Renarin to take the king and flee. Dalinar, Adolin and Kaladin stay to fight Szeth, Dalinar and Kaladin armed with spears and Adolin with his Shardblade. The three rush Szeth but he eludes them using a Lashing, then binds Adolin to the ceiling. Kaladin and Dalinar both stab Szeth with their spears, but he chops the weapons in half with his blade and smacks down Dalinar as he heals using Stormlight. Adolin falls to the ground when the Lashing runs out, and he stays down. Kaladin uses his spear like a quarterstaff and with Syl flying around him attacks Szeth, hitting him a few times and forcing him to draw in more Stormlight. Szeth is able to dodge a strike and stab Kaladin through his arm with the Shardblade, causing it to go numb and lifeless, and Kaladin then is kicked into a wall, and slumps in frustration as Szeth goes to chase down his prey.

Syl tells Kaladin that Szeth is not a radiant but something worse and pleads for Kaladin to get up. Dalinar confronts Szeth and says he won't let the king die but Szeth says he is there to kill Dalinar instead. As Szeth swings it from above his head at him for a killing blow, Dalinar catches the Shardblade between his palms, and Kaladin arrives and knocks both himself and Szeth through the hole in the wall into open air.

Chapter 33: Burdens

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Nale ----- Nale - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaldin / Adolin

Setting: King Elhokar's War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Immediately after Chapter 32.

Epigraph:

But it is not impossible to blend / Their Surges to ours in the end. / It has been promised and it can come. / Or do we understand the sum? / We questioned not if they can have us then, / But if we dare to have them again.

–From the Listener Song of Spren, 10th stanza

Summary:

As Szeth and Kaladin plunge toward the ground, Szeth starts glowing more brightly and Kaladin uses Szeth's gemstones to draw in some Stormlight before he loses his grip on the assassin. Kaladin lands hard but the Stormlight quickly heals him. His right arm is still grey and lifeless, although he has some slight sense of feeling in the arm. Szeth is shocked at Kaladin's survival and thinks that he accidentally lashed Kaladin to slow his fall. As Szeth pauses in confusion, Kaladin uses his Stormlight to bring his right arm back to life, and Szeth cries out in surprise. Szeth jumps back in shock and asks what Kaladin is and Kaladin replies that he is a Windrunner, the same as Szeth. But Szeth denies this, angrily shouting that he was named Truthless, and asks if the Radiants are all back. Kaladin says yes and Szeth flees. Kaladin collapses in exhaustion.

Kaladin wakes up with Syl hovering nearby and expresses surprise at his ability to heal the Shardblade wound, which Syl did not expect. Syl tells him there are dead at the battle scene and goes with Kaladin back inside the palace. Kaladin tracks down the king's entourage. Dalinar is shocked at Kaladin's survival and Kaladin says that he held onto Szeth as they fell and somehow lived due to Szeth's abilities, which the others believe. Kaladin wants to tell Dalinar about his abilities but not Adolin or Elhokar so he says nothing. Kaladin says that Szeth escaped and that he saw a light in the darkness which earns a glance from Syl though it wasn't a complete lie. Elhokar says that Szeth came for him and no one corrects him on his mistake. Kaladin leaves to do something and tells the others to stay there.

Adolin ponders the strangeness of Kaladin apparently healing from a Shardblade wound and surviving a great fall but dismisses his suspicions as paranoia. Elhokar goes to get more wine and they find a series of glyphs carved into the wood and Renarin says that in thirty-eight days, it will be the end of all nations.

Kaladin finds Beld's corpse and laments that he failed the bridgeman, but Syl says that he died protecting and that was Beld's choice. Kaladin asks about how skilled the assassin was and if Kaladin has more words to speak, but Syl says that though there are more words, he is not ready yet to speak them. Kaladin asks how the assassin could have found a spren to bond and yet still slaughter without honor and compares that to his killing of Parshendi, and Syl says the two situations are totally different since Kaladin is protecting, and that Szeth's Shardblade is somehow different and that he uses the wrong amount of Stormlight.

Kaladin finds Hobber still alive, but with both legs disabled, and says he will stay with Bridge Four as a cook, and brings him back to get medical attention.

Chapter 34: Blossoms and Cake

Arch Faces: Nale - Shalash ----- Shalash - Nale

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: In the Unlaimed Hills, just south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.5) Shortly after Chapter 32.

Epigraph:

Our gods were born splinters of a soul, / Of one who seeks to take control, / Destroys all lands that he beholds, with spite. / They are his spren, his gift, his price. / But the nightforms speak of future life, / A challenged champion. A strife even he must requite.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, final stanza

Summary:

Shallan reads a dispatch on Tyn's spanreed about the political situation in Jah Keved and dwells on the consequences for her family if there is a succession war. Tyn asks if Shallan personally knows any of the important players for the Veden throne but Shallan says she wasn't important enough. Tyn says they might want to go to Jah Keved to take advantage of the chaos once they are done in the Shattered Plains. The spanreed report continues with information about the deserters and reward bounties from their former leader, Sadeas. Shallan is angered that Tyn wants to turn them in and says that she promised them amnesty but Tyn scoffs at this and says that a con artist can't afford to believe their own lies and that Shallan has no chance to get Sadeas to forgive the deserters. Shallan is upset at this and worries that she will soon get caught up between the truth and Tyn's misguided notions over who Shallan really is. Tyn continues reading the spanreed and gleefully announces that there is good news and Shallan reads the printout about Jasnah being dead and the Wind's Pleasure being lost with all hands. Tyn confirms that this was her job to the south.

The spanreed also mentions about Jasnah taking a new ward, a girl named Shallan. Tyn reacts immediately, slamming Shallan to the ground and asking if Jasnah somehow survived. Shallan says no. Pattern distracts Tyn briefly but it is not enough for Shallan to break free. Tyn draws her sword to kill Shallan, but Shallan uses Stormlight to create an illusion to distract Tyn long enough for her to summon her Shardblade and kill Tyn.

Vathah, Gaz and the other deserters appear at the tent, saying they heard a voice telling them to help Shallan, then heard Shallan's screams and fought their way through Tyn's soldiers to help Shallan. Vathah sees the Shardblade and says that Shallan could have killed all the bandits on her own. Shallan tells them the voice they heard was her spren, Tyn was an assassin, and they are to search Tyn's tent for any documents for Shallan to read. Shallan watches as the spanreed continues to write that Tyn's employers, who happen to be the Ghostbloods, want to hire her for another job and inquires if she would like to have a meeting arranged in the warcamps. Shallan realizes that the city the Ghostbloods are investigating is Urithiru, and replies "yes".

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Part Two: Wind's Approach

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Adolin / Sadeas

Chapter 13: The Day's Masterpiece

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.5) Shortly after Chapter 11 (later in the same day).

Epigraph:

Warform is worn for battle and reign, / Claimed by the gods, given to kill. / Unknown, unseen, but vital to gain. / It comes to those with the will.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 15th stanza

Summary:

Shallan travels towards the Shattered Plains on one of Tvlakv's wagons. She sits next to Bluth, one of the stoic mercenaries hired by Tvlakv, who drives the wagon. She distracts herself by studying their surroundings - the flora of the southern Frostlands is completely unfamiliar to her. When they stop at midday for a meal, Shallan asks Tvlakv to set up one of the empty slave wagons as a carriage for her. Wooden sides, typically used as protection for the slaves during highstorms, are hooked onto the sides of the cage to provide her some privacy. She also gets the cage's key from Tvlakv, though he seems hesitant to give it to her.

She crawls across the newly enclosed wagon - her feet are injured and standing on them is painful enough to make painspren appear - and opens the lid to Jasnah's trunk. Pattern, who had been instructed to stay hidden, waits inside. Shallan tells him that the notes need to reach the Shattered Plains, and that she intends to finish Jasnah's work of finding Urithiru and convincing the Alethi that the return of the Voidbringers is imminent. Pattern confirms that the threat from the Voidbringers is real and that they are the reason he was sent to her. As she continues to go through the contents of the trunk, Shallan finds a sketch she had done of Jasnah and is overcome with grief over her mentor's death, as well as the loss of the rest of her sketches. She also laments the loss of the broken Soulcaster, which is at the bottom of the ocean, and speculates that the attackers could have been from the same group as Kabsal and her father (The Ghostbloods).

Chapter 14: Ironstance

Arch Faces: Kalak - Kalak ----- Kalak - Kalak

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.9.9.5) Six days after Chapter 12.

Epigraph:

Mateform meek, for love to share, / Given to life, it brings us joy. / To find this form, one must care. / True empathy one must employ.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 5th stanza

Summary:

Adolin mentally prepares for his first duel under Dalinar's plan by speaking inspirationally to his Shardblade. He leaves the preparation room and walks to a staging room, where Renarin and Navani are waiting to equip his Shardplate. Navani burns a prayer glyph for safety and glory. Adolin inquires about Jasnah, and Navani replies that her daughter has likely gone missing due to a change of plans, and would reappear at a later time. Renarin verifies that Adolin finished his lucky pre-duel rituals, and Navani scoffs at their superstitions. Adolin tells Renarin that he has suspicions about Kaladin.

Adolin enters the arena to duel Salinor. A large crowd attends as this is the first formal duel at the Shattered Plains for more than a year. Adolin begins in Windstance, but thinks of his father's words and switches to Ironstance and aggressively battles his opponent into submission, winning despite protests from the highjudge BrightLady Istow that Adolin did not follow proper duel protocols. Salinor protests that Adolin cheated and Adolin threatens to choke him until he surrenders his Blade, which Salinor then does, and Istow proclaims Adolin as the official victor. Renarin praises Adolin's victory, and Adolin gifts his new weapon to Renarin, who reluctantly accepts it with a frown. Navani praises Adolin for winning without putting his full ability on display in order to deceive future opponents into underestimating him and accepting duels.

Chapter 15: A Hand with the Tower

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.9.5) Five days after Chapter 13.

Epigraph:

Workform worn for strength and care. / Whispering spren breathe at your ear. / Seek first this form, its mysteries to bear. / Found here is freedom from fear.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 19th stanza

Summary:

Shallan comments about Tvlakv wearing different shoes than on the first day they met, but Tvlakv lies and says he only owns one pair. Shallan asks Pattern to spy on a conversation between Tvlakv and Tag, and Pattern records and replays the chat for Shallan in secret, revealing that Tvlakv intends to protect Shallan, but also to profit from her rescue to try to escape a debt. Shallan uses this information to keep Tvlakv off-balance and to gain the upper hand in their dealings, warning the trader not to play games after Tvlakv expresses doubt over Shallan's story about her betrothal and pending wealth. As she gets up to leave, Tvlakv flinches away from her, and she notices that she is glowing faintly with Stormlight and has a majestic appearance, which she hopes that Tvlakv misinterprets as a trick of the darkness and campfire light. She returns to her wagon and notices that the pain in her infected feet has lessened.

Bluth returns to the camp in a panic, putting out their campfire. Bluth tells them that he spotted a likely caravan of army deserters who may have turned to banditry nearby. They quickly pack up the wagons and travel east to try to escape notice. Bluth explains to Shallan that they probably would not be able to bribe their way past the bandits, since desertion makes them very desperate people.

Chapter 16: Swordmaster

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) The day after Chapter 14.

Epigraph:

Nimbleform has a delicate touch. / Gave the gods this form to many, / Tho’ once defied, by the gods they were crushed. / This form craves precision and plenty.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 27th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin leads a bodyguard patrol, along with Moash and Drehy, through the lighteyes training ground as they scout the area while waiting for Adolin and Renarin. Kaladin converses with an ardent who explains the Alethi tradition of allowing lighteyes to train with royal Shardblades so they are ready if needed in battle.

Moash asks about Kaladin's feelings toward Amaram, and says that the two of them will get their revenge on the lighteyes who have wronged them in the past. Syl asks Kaladin to tell her what is troubling him, and Kaladin says that Dalinar is tainted by his association with Amaram. After Syl warns Kaladin not to lie, he admits that he thinks Dalinar is honorable and has been deceived by Amaram. Syl advises Kaladin to tell Dalinar how Amaram really got his Shardblade, but Kaladin demurs, thinking that he would not be believed.

On the arrival of Renarin and Adolin, Kaladin reports to them that the area is relatively secure. Adolin confronts Kaladin over his insolence and mentions his suspicions as well, but Kaladin retorts that his place is only to protect Adolin. Syl tells Kaladin she does not like either Adolin or Renarin, and it is implied this is because they carry Shardblades, though Syl says the blades did not used to be the abominations she now considers them to be.

Kaladin surveys the area and sees someone who appears to be suspicious and goes to investigate. Kaladin speaks with Zahel, an ex-soldier ardent, who is observing Adolin and Renarin train, and who tells Kaladin that he isn't going to harm either of the brothers. Zahel says the two Kholins need to be chosen by a master, and as he speaks, he is summoned by Adolin to join the other gathered ardents. Kaladin asks if Zahel seems odd to Syl, and she replies that all humans seem odd to her except for Rock.

Chapter 17: A Pattern

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) The day after Chapter 15.

Epigraph:

Dullform dread, with the mind most lost. / The lowest, and one not bright. / To find this form, one need banish cost. / It finds you and brings you to blight.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, final stanza

Summary:

Shallan sits next to Bluth who is guiding their wagon, and distracts herself from worry by talking about plants that she found. She also draws some sketches of a leaf, the santhid, and Bluth in one of Jasnah's old notebooks, to try to recreate her lost sketch collection. The caravan stops, and Shallan sees smoke on the horizon, which indicates that the deserters are following them and not worried about being seen. Tvlakv says the deserters will give up the chase eventually as long as they keep moving with few stops.

To distract herself further, Shallan chats with the two parshmen but they are unforthcoming. Shallans sketches more plants, then notices a column of smoke along their current path. Tvlakv says that indicates another caravan if they are lucky. They discuss whether to go toward the new group or take a detour east while hoping the deserters run into the second group. Shallan orders Tvlakv to try to intercept the new group and he complies. As she rides along, she draws more sketches, including various sketches of women with Shallan's face. She then moves into the covered wagon to use knobweed sap on her feet and notices they have healed significantly. She asks Pattern if it healed her but he seems ignorant of how to cause or heal injuries to humans. Shallan and Pattern converse about Lightweaving and the Knights Radiant. Shallan asks how to use Stormlight but Pattern doesn't know, so she figures it out on her own and breathes it in, though she is unable to make it do anything. She notices that her wounds heal noticeably however. Pattern reveals that he is a scholar and is excited to learn about humans before he is killed by Shallan, as he believes will eventually happen due to the Knights Radiant somehow killing their spren. Shallan denies that she is a Knight Radiant, but Pattern refutes this by saying that she spoke oaths and is on a possible path to joining one of the Orders.

She leaves the wagon and notices a lot of smoke ahead, and realizes that it is from burning wagons.

Chapter 18: Bruises

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 16.

Epigraph:

Scholarform shown for patience and thought. / Beware its ambitions innate. / Though study and diligence bring the reward, / Loss of innocence may be one’s fate.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 69th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin and Lopen guard Adolin and Renarin as they take instruction from Zahel. Lopen leaves to carry out some orders and Kaladin patrols the grounds and stops to observe Zahel and Renarin. Zahel tells Renarin to jump off the roof of the arena to practice being comfortable with his Shardplate. Kaladin criticizes Renarin's clumsiness but Zahel dismisses this and praises Renarin's attitude. Zahel offers to train Kaladin but Kaladin declines. Zahel tests Kaladin's abilities with a blunted Shardblade to make sure he is ready to protect Adolin and Renarin. Zahel defeats Kaladin in a mock duel, though Kaladin did enough simulated damage to slow down the weapons master, and believes he would have given enough protection for Renarin to escape. Adolin makes an insulting comment which enrages Kaladin, and he attacks Adolin. Adolin smashes Kaladin with a plate enhanced punch, and Kaladin is stunned and severely injured as Zahel berates the prince for his carelessness. Kaladin surreptitiously heals himself with Stormlight and tries to attack Adolin again but runs out of strength and collapses. Zahel compliments Kaladin on his tenacity and quick-thinking but says it won't be enough against shardbearers, and says he won't force Kaladin to train. Kaladin asks Syl why he lost strength suddenly and Syl observes that Kaladin was not protecting anyone when it happened.

Chapter 19: Safe Things

Arch Faces: Nale - Shalash ----- Shalash - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1168.4.10.1) (Flashback) Five and a half years ago. Five months after Chapter 10.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is wearing a new silk dress, a gift from her father. The dress is that of a woman as she is now old enough to cover her safehand. She starts to think of her mother, then stops, like a candle suddenly snuffed. Two maids bustle past, getting ready for guests. Shallan overhears one softly whisper "She saw. Poor thing was in the room when it happened. Hasn't spoken a word in five months. The master killed his own wife and her lover." Shallan thinks that because she does not speak, apparently the maids do not think she can hear either. At times, she wonders if she is invisible or not real.

The door suddenly slams open and her brother Helaran enters. Grinning wide, he gives her a gift of charcoal pencils and thick, expensive paper. He has missed her drawings and asks her to practice more. He tells her she needs to be strong and that he needs her to look after the other brothers for him. The door slams open again, this time admitting her father, Lin Davar. Her father and brother start arguing, and Helaran calls their father a murderer and summons a Shardblade. Lin cuts off, putting his hands up and says "you don't know what you think you know. Your mother-", but Helaran cuts him off. Shallan manages to say "No" to Helaran, stopping him from killing Lin. Helaran leaves, saying that he has important work to do, but warns their father that he will be checking in on the house.

Chapter 20: The Coldness of Clarity

Arch Faces: Battar - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 17.

Epigraph:

Artform applied for beauty and hue. / One yearns for the songs it creates. / Most misunderstood by the artist it’s true, / Come the spren to foundation’s fates.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 90th stanza

Summary:

Shallan's caravan arrives at the source of the smoke and they find burned wagons and the aftermath of a battle with corpses and some survivors. As Shallan and Tvlakv debate whether to approach the burning wagons or flee, a woman from those wagons confronts them, and notes the deserters chasing Shallan. Shallan offers the woman her protection but she laughs and says Shallan can join her caravan to die as they now face two possible enemy groups. Shallan sends Tvlakv to the woman's caravan while she has Bluth drive her with a wagon toward the deserters to confront them. Using Stormlight to weave a disguise to make her appear noble, she speaks to the deserters, asking them for help against the other bandit group and offering amnesty and a fresh start. Vathah, the leader of the deserters, scoffs at her offer but many of his followers are enticed and charge toward the battle to fight the bandits. Shallan then convinces Vathah and the rest to help out. Shallan used all her Stormlight so she stays out of the fighting. Pattern compliments Shallan on her ability to use words to transform people without using soulcasting. Shallan draws a prayer glyph for hope and awaits the outcome of the battle.

Chapter 21: Ashes

Arch Faces: Nale - Talenel ----- Talenel - Nale

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 20.

Epigraph:

Mediationform made for peace, it’s said. / Form of teaching and consolation. / When used by the gods, it became instead / Form of lies and desolation.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 33rd stanza

Summary:

Shallan says a prayer for Bluth, who died fighting the bandits, though the bandits ended up being defeated. Shallan speaks with the caravan owner, Macob, and the lead guard, Tyn. Shallan explains that she got the deserters to work for her and asks the caravan to accompany them to the Shattered Plains. Macob agrees to Shallan's request.

Vathah forcefully confronts Shallan and asks why she doesn't look majestic anymore, and Shallan dissembles about his conscience tricking him. Shallan tries to reassure Vathah that she will protect him from prosecution for desertion but he does not believe her, and Pattern tricks Vathah into letting Shallan go.

Tvlakv confronts Shallan with a conspiracy theory about Bluth being a bandit but Shallan disproves it and demands the non-parshmen slaves in compensation for saving his life. Shallan frees the slaves but offers to hire them as servants. Shallan watches as one of the women from the caravan offers a paper with a glyph of thanks written on it to the one-eyed deserter (Gaz), who accepts it and burns it as the rest of the caravan folks observe.

Chapter 22: Lights in the Storm

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: King Elhokar's quarters, in his War Palace outside the ten warcamps. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Later in the evening, same day as Chapter 18.

Epigraph:

Stormform is said to cause / A tempest of winds and showers, / Beware its powers, beware its powers. / Though its coming brings the gods their night, / It obliges a bloodred spren. / Beware its end, beware its end.

–From the Listener Song of Winds, 4th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin sees a reddish glow through the shutters during a highstorm while in King Elhokar's quarters but it vanishes before he can investigate it. Adolin peruses a catalog while Renarin idly opens and closes a small box. Dalinar and Navani are nearby in a small side-room. Kaladin studies a ruby heating fabrial which Renarin says was developed by Navani. Kaladin makes a brusque comment on Adolin's reading material and they argue over whether Kaladin needs to be there to protect them during a highstorm, with Elhokar taking Kaladin's side. After the storm ends, Dalinar and Navani exit the side-room and Dalinar reports that no mysterious numbers have appeared on the wall. Dalinar talks to Renarin about his visions but stops when he notices Kaladin listening. Dalinar asks Adolin about his progress in setting up more duels and Adolin says that he is only getting refusals now. Dalinar speaks of the situation with Sadeas, and of trying to convince Amaram to secede from Sadeas' princedom, and of Amaram trying to make peace between Kholin and Sadeas. Kaladin states that the shardbearers may be boycotting Adolin's requests to duel and Dalinar agrees and says they have to focus on undermining Sadeas.

Kaladin speaks to Dalinar in private about Amaram's betrayal of Kaladin and about how he actually got his Shardblade. Dalinar asks for proof of the serious accusations and Kaladin mentions witnesses present at the scene. Dalinar tells Kaladin to not speak of the incident and pledges to investigate it, and dresses down Kaladin over his insubordination. Kaladin and Syl discuss the conversation with Dalinar, and Kaladin states that Dalinar will not do anything and he will take matters into his own hands. Syl replies that Kaladin isn't a Skybreaker and that she worries about him.

Kaladin returns to his barracks and notices a new Herdazian crew member there who is a cousin of Lopen's that abandoned Brightlord Roion's army and allows him to stay. Shen confronts Kaladin over his prohibition on being armed, and says he is being treated like a slave, which upsets Kaladin. One of the guards from the palace, Natam, suddenly appears at the barracks, speaking of an assassin going after the king.

Chapter 23: Assassin

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: King Elhokar's quarters, in his War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Almost immediately after Chapter 22.

Epigraph:

Nightform predicting what will be, / The form of shadows, mind to foresee. / As the gods did leave, the nightform whispered. / A new storm will come, someday to break. / A new storm a new world to make. / A new storm a new path to take, the nightform listens.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 17th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin returns to the king's quarters to find that everyone is ok and that there is no pending danger. Kaladin and Moash go out to the balcony and find one of the railings torn loose where Elhokar had leaned on it and almost fallen to his death, barely being rescued by a guard. Kaladin finds a joint that had been cut clean through and discusses his findings privately with Dalinar. Kaladin says this was an incompetent or cowardly attempt on the king's life, and that the cut was made by a Shardblade which helps them narrow down the possible suspects. Dalinar says it must be an inside job, and puts Kaladin in charge of guarding Elhokar effective immediately. Kaladin hears Elhokar's complaints about not being protected adequately and thinks the king does not display proper composure, then decides that he should focus on guarding the king and not on judging him.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 24 through 34

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Part Two: Wind's Approach

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Adolin / Sadeas

Chapter 13: The Day's Masterpiece

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.5) Shortly after Chapter 11 (later in the same day).

Epigraph:

Warform is worn for battle and reign, / Claimed by the gods, given to kill. / Unknown, unseen, but vital to gain. / It comes to those with the will.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 15th stanza

Summary:

Shallan travels towards the Shattered Plains on one of Tvlakv's wagons. She sits next to Bluth, one of the stoic mercenaries hired by Tvlakv, who drives the wagon. She distracts herself by studying their surroundings - the flora of the southern Frostlands is completely unfamiliar to her. When they stop at midday for a meal, Shallan asks Tvlakv to set up one of the empty slave wagons as a carriage for her. Wooden sides, typically used as protection for the slaves during highstorms, are hooked onto the sides of the cage to provide her some privacy. She also gets the cage's key from Tvlakv, though he seems hesitant to give it to her.

She crawls across the newly enclosed wagon - her feet are injured and standing on them is painful enough to make painspren appear - and opens the lid to Jasnah's trunk. Pattern, who had been instructed to stay hidden, waits inside. Shallan tells him that the notes need to reach the Shattered Plains, and that she intends to finish Jasnah's work of finding Urithiru and convincing the Alethi that the return of the Voidbringers is imminent. Pattern confirms that the threat from the Voidbringers is real and that they are the reason he was sent to her. As she continues to go through the contents of the trunk, Shallan finds a sketch she had done of Jasnah and is overcome with grief over her mentor's death, as well as the loss of the rest of her sketches. She also laments the loss of the broken Soulcaster, which is at the bottom of the ocean, and speculates that the attackers could have been from the same group as Kabsal and her father (The Ghostbloods).

Chapter 14: Ironstance

Arch Faces: Kalak - Kalak ----- Kalak - Kalak

Iconography: Adolin Dueling

POV Characters: Adolin

Setting: The warcamps' dueling arena.

Timeline: (1173.9.9.5) Six days after Chapter 12.

Epigraph:

Mateform meek, for love to share, / Given to life, it brings us joy. / To find this form, one must care. / True empathy one must employ.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 5th stanza

Summary:

Adolin mentally prepares for his first duel under Dalinar's plan by speaking inspirationally to his Shardblade. He leaves the preparation room and walks to a staging room, where Renarin and Navani are waiting to equip his Shardplate. Navani burns a prayer glyph for safety and glory. Adolin inquires about Jasnah, and Navani replies that her daughter has likely gone missing due to a change of plans, and would reappear at a later time. Renarin verifies that Adolin finished his lucky pre-duel rituals, and Navani scoffs at their superstitions. Adolin tells Renarin that he has suspicions about Kaladin.

Adolin enters the arena to duel Salinor. A large crowd attends as this is the first formal duel at the Shattered Plains for more than a year. Adolin begins in Windstance, but thinks of his father's words and switches to Ironstance and aggressively battles his opponent into submission, winning despite protests from the highjudge BrightLady Istow that Adolin did not follow proper duel protocols. Salinor protests that Adolin cheated and Adolin threatens to choke him until he surrenders his Blade, which Salinor then does, and Istow proclaims Adolin as the official victor. Renarin praises Adolin's victory, and Adolin gifts his new weapon to Renarin, who reluctantly accepts it with a frown. Navani praises Adolin for winning without putting his full ability on display in order to deceive future opponents into underestimating him and accepting duels.

Chapter 15: A Hand with the Tower

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.9.5) Five days after Chapter 13.

Epigraph:

Workform worn for strength and care. / Whispering spren breathe at your ear. / Seek first this form, its mysteries to bear. / Found here is freedom from fear.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 19th stanza

Summary:

Shallan comments about Tvlakv wearing different shoes than on the first day they met, but Tvlakv lies and says he only owns one pair. Shallan asks Pattern to spy on a conversation between Tvlakv and Tag, and Pattern records and replays the chat for Shallan in secret, revealing that Tvlakv intends to protect Shallan, but also to profit from her rescue to try to escape a debt. Shallan uses this information to keep Tvlakv off-balance and to gain the upper hand in their dealings, warning the trader not to play games after Tvlakv expresses doubt over Shallan's story about her betrothal and pending wealth. As she gets up to leave, Tvlakv flinches away from her, and she notices that she is glowing faintly with Stormlight and has a majestic appearance, which she hopes that Tvlakv misinterprets as a trick of the darkness and campfire light. She returns to her wagon and notices that the pain in her infected feet has lessened.

Bluth returns to the camp in a panic, putting out their campfire. Bluth tells them that he spotted a likely caravan of army deserters who may have turned to banditry nearby. They quickly pack up the wagons and travel east to try to escape notice. Bluth explains to Shallan that they probably would not be able to bribe their way past the bandits, since desertion makes them very desperate people.

Chapter 16: Swordmaster

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) The day after Chapter 14.

Epigraph:

Nimbleform has a delicate touch. / Gave the gods this form to many, / Tho’ once defied, by the gods they were crushed. / This form craves precision and plenty.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 27th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin leads a bodyguard patrol, along with Moash and Drehy, through the lighteyes training ground as they scout the area while waiting for Adolin and Renarin. Kaladin converses with an ardent who explains the Alethi tradition of allowing lighteyes to train with royal Shardblades so they are ready if needed in battle.

Moash asks about Kaladin's feelings toward Amaram, and says that the two of them will get their revenge on the lighteyes who have wronged them in the past. Syl asks Kaladin to tell her what is troubling him, and Kaladin says that Dalinar is tainted by his association with Amaram. After Syl warns Kaladin not to lie, he admits that he thinks Dalinar is honorable and has been deceived by Amaram. Syl advises Kaladin to tell Dalinar how Amaram really got his Shardblade, but Kaladin demurs, thinking that he would not be believed.

On the arrival of Renarin and Adolin, Kaladin reports to them that the area is relatively secure. Adolin confronts Kaladin over his insolence and mentions his suspicions as well, but Kaladin retorts that his place is only to protect Adolin. Syl tells Kaladin she does not like either Adolin or Renarin, and it is implied this is because they carry Shardblades, though Syl says the blades did not used to be the abominations she now considers them to be.

Kaladin surveys the area and sees someone who appears to be suspicious and goes to investigate. Kaladin speaks with Zahel, an ex-soldier ardent, who is observing Adolin and Renarin train, and who tells Kaladin that he isn't going to harm either of the brothers. Zahel says the two Kholins need to be chosen by a master, and as he speaks, he is summoned by Adolin to join the other gathered ardents. Kaladin asks if Zahel seems odd to Syl, and she replies that all humans seem odd to her except for Rock.

Chapter 17: A Pattern

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) The day after Chapter 15.

Epigraph:

Dullform dread, with the mind most lost. / The lowest, and one not bright. / To find this form, one need banish cost. / It finds you and brings you to blight.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, final stanza

Summary:

Shallan sits next to Bluth who is guiding their wagon, and distracts herself from worry by talking about plants that she found. She also draws some sketches of a leaf, the santhid, and Bluth in one of Jasnah's old notebooks, to try to recreate her lost sketch collection. The caravan stops, and Shallan sees smoke on the horizon, which indicates that the deserters are following them and not worried about being seen. Tvlakv says the deserters will give up the chase eventually as long as they keep moving with few stops.

To distract herself further, Shallan chats with the two parshmen but they are unforthcoming. Shallans sketches more plants, then notices a column of smoke along their current path. Tvlakv says that indicates another caravan if they are lucky. They discuss whether to go toward the new group or take a detour east while hoping the deserters run into the second group. Shallan orders Tvlakv to try to intercept the new group and he complies. As she rides along, she draws more sketches, including various sketches of women with Shallan's face. She then moves into the covered wagon to use knobweed sap on her feet and notices they have healed significantly. She asks Pattern if it healed her but he seems ignorant of how to cause or heal injuries to humans. Shallan and Pattern converse about Lightweaving and the Knights Radiant. Shallan asks how to use Stormlight but Pattern doesn't know, so she figures it out on her own and breathes it in, though she is unable to make it do anything. She notices that her wounds heal noticeably however. Pattern reveals that he is a scholar and is excited to learn about humans before he is killed by Shallan, as he believes will eventually happen due to the Knights Radiant somehow killing their spren. Shallan denies that she is a Knight Radiant, but Pattern refutes this by saying that she spoke oaths and is on a possible path to joining one of the Orders.

She leaves the wagon and notices a lot of smoke ahead, and realizes that it is from burning wagons.

Chapter 18: Bruises

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Lighteyed training grounds, attached to the ardents' living quarters.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 16.

Epigraph:

Scholarform shown for patience and thought. / Beware its ambitions innate. / Though study and diligence bring the reward, / Loss of innocence may be one’s fate.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 69th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin and Lopen guard Adolin and Renarin as they take instruction from Zahel. Lopen leaves to carry out some orders and Kaladin patrols the grounds and stops to observe Zahel and Renarin. Zahel tells Renarin to jump off the roof of the arena to practice being comfortable with his Shardplate. Kaladin criticizes Renarin's clumsiness but Zahel dismisses this and praises Renarin's attitude. Zahel offers to train Kaladin but Kaladin declines. Zahel tests Kaladin's abilities with a blunted Shardblade to make sure he is ready to protect Adolin and Renarin. Zahel defeats Kaladin in a mock duel, though Kaladin did enough simulated damage to slow down the weapons master, and believes he would have given enough protection for Renarin to escape. Adolin makes an insulting comment which enrages Kaladin, and he attacks Adolin. Adolin smashes Kaladin with a plate enhanced punch, and Kaladin is stunned and severely injured as Zahel berates the prince for his carelessness. Kaladin surreptitiously heals himself with Stormlight and tries to attack Adolin again but runs out of strength and collapses. Zahel compliments Kaladin on his tenacity and quick-thinking but says it won't be enough against shardbearers, and says he won't force Kaladin to train. Kaladin asks Syl why he lost strength suddenly and Syl observes that Kaladin was not protecting anyone when it happened.

Chapter 19: Safe Things

Arch Faces: Nale - Shalash ----- Shalash - Nale

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1168.4.10.1) (Flashback) Five and a half years ago. Five months after Chapter 10.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan is wearing a new silk dress, a gift from her father. The dress is that of a woman as she is now old enough to cover her safehand. She starts to think of her mother, then stops, like a candle suddenly snuffed. Two maids bustle past, getting ready for guests. Shallan overhears one softly whisper "She saw. Poor thing was in the room when it happened. Hasn't spoken a word in five months. The master killed his own wife and her lover." Shallan thinks that because she does not speak, apparently the maids do not think she can hear either. At times, she wonders if she is invisible or not real.

The door suddenly slams open and her brother Helaran enters. Grinning wide, he gives her a gift of charcoal pencils and thick, expensive paper. He has missed her drawings and asks her to practice more. He tells her she needs to be strong and that he needs her to look after the other brothers for him. The door slams open again, this time admitting her father, Lin Davar. Her father and brother start arguing, and Helaran calls their father a murderer and summons a Shardblade. Lin cuts off, putting his hands up and says "you don't know what you think you know. Your mother-", but Helaran cuts him off. Shallan manages to say "No" to Helaran, stopping him from killing Lin. Helaran leaves, saying that he has important work to do, but warns their father that he will be checking in on the house.

Chapter 20: The Coldness of Clarity

Arch Faces: Battar - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 17.

Epigraph:

Artform applied for beauty and hue. / One yearns for the songs it creates. / Most misunderstood by the artist it’s true, / Come the spren to foundation’s fates.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 90th stanza

Summary:

Shallan's caravan arrives at the source of the smoke and they find burned wagons and the aftermath of a battle with corpses and some survivors. As Shallan and Tvlakv debate whether to approach the burning wagons or flee, a woman from those wagons confronts them, and notes the deserters chasing Shallan. Shallan offers the woman her protection but she laughs and says Shallan can join her caravan to die as they now face two possible enemy groups. Shallan sends Tvlakv to the woman's caravan while she has Bluth drive her with a wagon toward the deserters to confront them. Using Stormlight to weave a disguise to make her appear noble, she speaks to the deserters, asking them for help against the other bandit group and offering amnesty and a fresh start. Vathah, the leader of the deserters, scoffs at her offer but many of his followers are enticed and charge toward the battle to fight the bandits. Shallan then convinces Vathah and the rest to help out. Shallan used all her Stormlight so she stays out of the fighting. Pattern compliments Shallan on her ability to use words to transform people without using soulcasting. Shallan draws a prayer glyph for hope and awaits the outcome of the battle.

Chapter 21: Ashes

Arch Faces: Nale - Talenel ----- Talenel - Nale

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Frostlands, south of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Shortly after Chapter 20.

Epigraph:

Mediationform made for peace, it’s said. / Form of teaching and consolation. / When used by the gods, it became instead / Form of lies and desolation.

–From the Listener Song of Listing, 33rd stanza

Summary:

Shallan says a prayer for Bluth, who died fighting the bandits, though the bandits ended up being defeated. Shallan speaks with the caravan owner, Macob, and the lead guard, Tyn. Shallan explains that she got the deserters to work for her and asks the caravan to accompany them to the Shattered Plains. Macob agrees to Shallan's request.

Vathah forcefully confronts Shallan and asks why she doesn't look majestic anymore, and Shallan dissembles about his conscience tricking him. Shallan tries to reassure Vathah that she will protect him from prosecution for desertion but he does not believe her, and Pattern tricks Vathah into letting Shallan go.

Tvlakv confronts Shallan with a conspiracy theory about Bluth being a bandit but Shallan disproves it and demands the non-parshmen slaves in compensation for saving his life. Shallan frees the slaves but offers to hire them as servants. Shallan watches as one of the women from the caravan offers a paper with a glyph of thanks written on it to the one-eyed deserter (Gaz), who accepts it and burns it as the rest of the caravan folks observe.

Chapter 22: Lights in the Storm

Arch Faces: Nale - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: King Elhokar's quarters, in his War Palace outside the ten warcamps. Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Later in the evening, same day as Chapter 18.

Epigraph:

Stormform is said to cause / A tempest of winds and showers, / Beware its powers, beware its powers. / Though its coming brings the gods their night, / It obliges a bloodred spren. / Beware its end, beware its end.

–From the Listener Song of Winds, 4th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin sees a reddish glow through the shutters during a highstorm while in King Elhokar's quarters but it vanishes before he can investigate it. Adolin peruses a catalog while Renarin idly opens and closes a small box. Dalinar and Navani are nearby in a small side-room. Kaladin studies a ruby heating fabrial which Renarin says was developed by Navani. Kaladin makes a brusque comment on Adolin's reading material and they argue over whether Kaladin needs to be there to protect them during a highstorm, with Elhokar taking Kaladin's side. After the storm ends, Dalinar and Navani exit the side-room and Dalinar reports that no mysterious numbers have appeared on the wall. Dalinar talks to Renarin about his visions but stops when he notices Kaladin listening. Dalinar asks Adolin about his progress in setting up more duels and Adolin says that he is only getting refusals now. Dalinar speaks of the situation with Sadeas, and of trying to convince Amaram to secede from Sadeas' princedom, and of Amaram trying to make peace between Kholin and Sadeas. Kaladin states that the shardbearers may be boycotting Adolin's requests to duel and Dalinar agrees and says they have to focus on undermining Sadeas.

Kaladin speaks to Dalinar in private about Amaram's betrayal of Kaladin and about how he actually got his Shardblade. Dalinar asks for proof of the serious accusations and Kaladin mentions witnesses present at the scene. Dalinar tells Kaladin to not speak of the incident and pledges to investigate it, and dresses down Kaladin over his insubordination. Kaladin and Syl discuss the conversation with Dalinar, and Kaladin states that Dalinar will not do anything and he will take matters into his own hands. Syl replies that Kaladin isn't a Skybreaker and that she worries about him.

Kaladin returns to his barracks and notices a new Herdazian crew member there who is a cousin of Lopen's that abandoned Brightlord Roion's army and allows him to stay. Shen confronts Kaladin over his prohibition on being armed, and says he is being treated like a slave, which upsets Kaladin. One of the guards from the palace, Natam, suddenly appears at the barracks, speaking of an assassin going after the king.

Chapter 23: Assassin

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: King Elhokar's quarters, in his War Palace outside the ten warcamps.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.1) Almost immediately after Chapter 22.

Epigraph:

Nightform predicting what will be, / The form of shadows, mind to foresee. / As the gods did leave, the nightform whispered. / A new storm will come, someday to break. / A new storm a new world to make. / A new storm a new path to take, the nightform listens.

–From the Listener Song of Secrets, 17th stanza

Summary:

Kaladin returns to the king's quarters to find that everyone is ok and that there is no pending danger. Kaladin and Moash go out to the balcony and find one of the railings torn loose where Elhokar had leaned on it and almost fallen to his death, barely being rescued by a guard. Kaladin finds a joint that had been cut clean through and discusses his findings privately with Dalinar. Kaladin says this was an incompetent or cowardly attempt on the king's life, and that the cut was made by a Shardblade which helps them narrow down the possible suspects. Dalinar says it must be an inside job, and puts Kaladin in charge of guarding Elhokar effective immediately. Kaladin hears Elhokar's complaints about not being protected adequately and thinks the king does not display proper composure, then decides that he should focus on guarding the king and not on judging him.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

I-1: Narak

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.2) Eight days after Chapter 12.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai leads the Parshendi as they return to their home plateau after successfully harvesting a gemheart that was brought back by Devi, who is allowed to carry it as a reward for spotting the chrysalis. She wonders where Dalinar is, and feels a need to speak with him, but she can't join battles since her leg is still injured from when Kaladin stabbed her during the Battle of the Tower. She wanders through the ancient ruins on the plateau they named Narak, or Exile, where her people came to escape their gods. She enters the Hall of Art to observe the heretofore futile efforts to rediscover a new form for making art, as an incremental step towards discovering other more useful forms, but Varanis, one of her lieutenants, is unsuccessful in trying to attract creationspren to his novice attempts at painting. She contemplates the six current known forms, and laments the loss of the hundreds that their old songs mention, thinking her people may die off if they don't become more versatile.

She leaves the Hall, and encounters three mateforms who are playing idly in a pool, and berates them for being unproductive. She reflects back on how she and the rest of the Parshendi leaders conspired to assassinate Gavilar, to prevent the Parshendi gods from returning, at the cost of the slow annihilation of her people. She returns to her home, and finds her sister, Venli, and tells her of the plateau run and that Dalinar was not present on the Alethi side. Eshonai says that she wants to talk to Dalinar and sue for peace but Venli thinks that he wouldn't accept, and says that she discovered stormform. Eshonai exclaims that this could cause their gods to return, but Venli says that is a moot point since the Alethi now have Surgebinders, though Eshonai isn't sure about this. Demid, Venli's former mate, agrees that they should risk using stormform to protect their people from being wiped out. Venli says she wants to raise the issue with the Five, and Eshonai says she will consider supporting it.

I-2: Ym

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Ym

Setting: Somewhere in Iri.

Timeline: Exact date unknown, but roughly concurrent with the events in this book so far.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Ym is in his shop trimming a small block of wood. The cobbler had been taught to make the wooden forms himself, so he does. It's the way it's been done for centuries, which is good enough for him. A spren moves in the dimness to his right. It has been coming around more often lately, and Ym had never seen one like it before. As it moves it looks like specks of light, like those from a piece of crystal suspended in a sunbeam. When it stops, light creeps upward from it, like small plants growing, which withdraw when it starts moving again.

They talk briefly about the shoes, and that Ym finds himself needing more shoes for children lately. The spren shakes suddenly, and warns "He Comes." Anxious, Ym stands up looking for "the watcher," a man in a military coat, but finds only a child peering through the door. Ym invites the urchin in, who's feet are dirty and scraped. The boy is Iriali, with their characteristic golden skin and hair, and walks with a limp. Ym offers him a pair of shoes in exchange for his story. As the boy speaks, Ym cleans his feet to fit the shoes. One of the feet has a nasty cut on the bottom, infected and crawling with rotspren. Ym cleans it and puts on antiseptic, then subtly uses some Stormlight to heal the cut. They speak of Ym's religious beliefs, and the boy leaves after receiving the shoes.

The spren whispers "He's still here," and Ym spins as he hears a rustling behind him. A dark-skinned man with a crescent scar on his cheek steps out of the shadows in the back of the shop. The man accuses Ym of commiting a murder in his youth. Ym tells the man that it wasn't intentional, but the man says he is guilty nonetheless, then summons a Shardblade. Ym runs, but he is old and quickly tires. He stops, trying to pull out a sphere for some Stormlight, but the dark-skinned man slams him against a wall and stabs him in the chest with the Shardblade.

I-3: Rysn

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Rysn

Setting: Relu-na, a moving island in the Reshi Isles.

Timeline: (1173.3.1.4) Seven months after Interlude I-4 in The Way of Kings.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Rysn is traveling with Vstim to the Reshi isles to do trading, but Vstim is very sick. Gu, the flotilla's guide, takes them there, guiding them since the islands move. Rysn is quite shocked and amazed when she realizes that the moving islands are huge great shells. The group lands on one of the islands, and Vstim tells Rysn that she must go and trade with the Reshi, as he is too ill to do so. He tells her to be bold, and although Rysn is nervous, she agrees to do so. Kyrlm and Nlent, two of the guards, accompany her as she ascends the island. While Rysn is observing the island, she sees Axies the Collector hanging upside down. They talk for a bit, and then Rysn and the guards continue their way up the island.

They make it to the king, and as Rysn approaches to speak with him, Talik, a Reshi trader, comes forward to speak on his behalf. Talik is disappointed that Vstim himself did not come to trade, and initially turns her away. Rysn is insistent in her trade, wishing to prove herself to Vstim, and the king eventually relents so that Rysn is speaking to the king, and not to Talik. The Reshi are opposed to trading with Rysn since they do not yet respect her and do not know if they can trust her. The king eventually dismisses Rysn, telling her that she did very well.

Rysn, worrying that Vstim is dying, instead insists on talking to the greatshell that is the island, Relu-na. She slides down the side of the head on a rope and begins to talk with it, pleading her case. Talik attempts to bring her back on top of the island, but Relu-na takes a bite of the fruit at the bottom of the rope and breaks it, causing Rysn to fall. As she crashes into the water, spren cushion her fall, and Rysn falls unconscious.

Rysn wakes up in a hut on the island with her legs paralyzed. She sees Vstim, a Reshi healer, and Talik around her. They scold her for her stupidity, but Rysn insists that it was boldness, to allow for the trade. Rysn realizes that it was all a test that Vstim had set up for her to trade, and feels foolish. Vstim reveals that the trade was for a larkin corpse, but that Rysn has been granted a live larkin by the island itself. Vstim and Rysn will stay on the island while she heals.

I-4: Last Legion

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.3) Eleven days after Interlude I-1.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai, Thude, and Bila examine a gemstone with a captured stormspren inside that Venli believes will allow them to rediscover stormform. Bila thinks that anything that will help in the war against the Alethi is worth it, but Eshonai worries about provoking the old gods. They depart, and Eshonai decides that she will see her mother. On her way, she sees a group of Parshendi that have chosen the dullform, the form most like the Parshmen. Eshonai questions them on the cause of their transformation, and they respond that they do it so the Alethi will not kill them when they come. Eshonai is concerned by this response but understands that the Parshendi are free to choose their own forms, as they are no longer ruled by the old gods. Continuing on her way, Eshonai eventually arrives to see her mother, who suffers from dementia and believes Eshonai to be her sister, Venli. Despite her mother's declining memory, Eshonai is still able to elicit some information from her regarding Parshendi history. Her mother tells the story of the Last Legion, the Parshendi warrior-people who rejected the old gods, giving up advanced thought and knowledge of the forms of power in exchange for freedom. This left them with only dullform and mateform, but the Last Legion had composed songs as a way to remember the many forms of old in hopes that they would one day be rediscovered. Before Eshonai leaves, her mother gives her a sack of old maps from Eshonai's days as an explorer, which makes her long for the past.

Eshonai leaves her mother's house to attend a meeting with the Five regarding Venli's plan to attempt rediscovery of stormform. Eshonai is hesitant, expressing her concerns regarding the old gods, but eventually agrees to the plan under the condition that she be the first one to try assuming the new form, as Venli's studies and knowledge of the forms are too valuable to risk undergoing the transformation herself.

TRIVIA

The rest of this post contains various trivia, including easy-to-miss details and long-running connections between books. It also incorporates external information from sources like author annotations and interviews ("Words of Brandon" or WoB). While most of this information is eventually revealed in the books, sharing it now enhances your overall understanding, aligning with Brandon Sanderson's practice of early fan engagement and clarification.

STRUCTURES

A quick word on certain story-telling structures within this series. First, let's start at the beginning; the prologue. Words of Radiance's prologue took place at the same time as the prologue for The Way of Kings, in mostly the same setting. The main difference is that this book's POV was Jasnah, whereas last book's POV was Szeth. That will be the case for the rest of the series (or rather, the first 5 books). Each book's prologue will provide a different perspective for this same night, all in and around this party that ends in Gavinar's assassination.

I've mentioned before that the Interludes are Sanderson's attempt to avoid his long, epic fantasy getting bogged down with side characters and world building that doesn't necessarily serve the plot. He allows himself Interludes to stray from the main narrative and to just go wild if and when he wants. However, all of the information in the Interludes does inform on the overall plot in one way or another.

In addition, each book has a "main character" for their respective Interludes. Szeth was the main character in the Interludes for The Way of Kings. For Words of Radiance, we get Eshonai.

Many of you also noticed that Jasnah gave Shallan a book, titled Words of Radiance. Which... should be familiar, as it's also the title of the book we're reading. Recall that The Way of Kings had a significant focus on Dalinar's interest in the in-world book also called The Way of Kings.

This is the conceit for the titles of the books in this series. The Stormlight Archive is a collection, or archive, of in-world books that are significant to the plot of this series. Each book has a focus on a specific in-world book that informs not only the characters, but us readers as well.

Speaking of books, Sanderson's working title for this book was the Book of Endless Pages, which was a completely different book that Jasnah gave Shallan in Chapter 48 of The Way of Kings (which, for confirmation, has now sunk to the bottom of the ocean, along with the rest of Shallan's things). Sanderson eventually realized the irony of naming a giant, 1,000+ page fantasy novel Book of Endless Pages and went with Words of Radiance instead.

ALMIGHTY ICONS

In the previous book, most Interlude chapters had an icon called "Ten Spears (aka Almighty)". For this book, and the remainder of the published Stormlight Archive books, Sanderson chose to rework that icon into the one shown in this book: Five Swords (aka Almighty). Both icons are stylized versions of the Double Eye of the Almighty. Sanderson hasn't really talked about why he made this change, but has suggested that the Ten Spears version will return at some point.

ON A LARK

BEHOLD! A larkin! They are cute, and I won't hear otherwise. They are the only winged cremling-ish creature on Roshar. I don't have much to say in this section, beyond mentioning that there will be larkin artwork below. This section primarily exists to inform you that the creature on the Surgebinding Chart, which many of you thought was a chasmfiend, is actually a larkin.

TIMESQUIGGLES

This section isn't exactly a timeline, but I wanted to clarify some terminology and dates for things that I've noticed causing people repeated confusion. All of this is mostly spelled out in the books already, it's just a matter sitting down and plotting it all out. I am going to provide dates for some of these. The exact dates aren't really mentioned in the books, and their approximate dates haven't necessarily been mentioned yet either, but you should be able to work out approximate dates for a lot of these. Providing exact dates, while technically a minor spoiler, just serves to prevent some awkward phrasing in the presentation of the events. I'd planned to provide something like this later, but I think it helps to have it all outlined now for clarity going forward.

The Desolations: This was a cycle of various wars against the voidbringers. I won't provide a timeline for this because that is a bit too spoilery, but it was a loooong time. Another name for this time period is called the Silver Kingdoms Epoch or the Heraldic Epochs. The interior artwork for The Way of Kings provided a map of the nations on Roshar during that time. The Heralds led mankind against the voidbringers in periodic wars. We see the end of the last one of these in the prelude for The Way of Kings.

Aharietiam: This brings us to Aharietiam, or the Last Desolation. This was 4,500 years ago (or the year -3,327 on the current Rosharan calendar) and is what we saw in the prelude. We learn in that prelude that 9 of the 10 Heralds lived, abandoning the one that did die, Talenelat, and lying to humanity that they had finally won against the voidbringers.

The Recreance: The fall of the Knights Radiant, when they betrayed humanity for reasons unknown. This happened about 2,000 years ago. The fandom has worked out that it happens in the year -826, plus or minus 25 years.

The Hierocracy: This is the name of the government that arose when the Vorin church took control of much of eastern Roshar. There aren't exact dates for this because it was a gradual take over and, as Jasnah told Shallan, they destroyed or rewrote a lot of records that really blurred history. The Hierocracy ended in the year 673, plus or minus 50 years. This was about 500 years ago.

Some of you have questioned what significant event happened 1173 years ago that caused the current calendar system. The answer to that is a bit anticlimactic. Although The Hierocracy rose to power and was eventually dismantled, the Vorin religion itself existed both before and after that government. A lot of this is largely fandom exposition, but we do know from Sanderson that Vorinism is based on the writings of one person (name unknown, we can call them Vori).

It took time for these writings to spawn the actual Vorin religion, and it's likely that, some time after the church was a significant entity (possibly even during The Hierocracy), they set the start of their new calendar to be the date Vori was born, or died, or finished their writings. Regardless of whenever the calendar was invented, it likely became a global standard during The Hierocracy. All of this echoes the implementation of Earth's Gregorian Calendar, where our years number from the start of Christianity, and the Rosharan years likely number from the start of Vorinism.

All this said, the analogy isn't exact and "religion" as it appeared before the rise of Vorinism was also pretty close to what Vorinism is today, with adjustments. So... actually yeah, the analogy is probably more exact than you'd expect actually.

WHO CUT THE CHEESE?

I promised really dumb trivia because one of you questioned why Sadeas' Shardblade remained upright and didn't sink through his table. Here's the basis of the reason, the dumb part:

Question: Would a big block of cheese stop a Shardblade? All I can think of is how hard it is to cut cheese with a knife no matter how sharp it is because the cheese can form a suction to the sides of the blade and make it way harder to cut. Would that be a problem for a Shardblade?

Sanderson: When I first designed Shardblades all the way back when, I added in my head a little bit of extra de-friction-izing to the Shardblade blade itself, and some little bit of magic-ing going on to allow them to actually cut at the level I want them to. Because it's not just cheese that would do that. Cutting through stone, even if you have the sharpest thing in the earth, that stone... It doesn't work as easily as it would if you were just extra sharp. And so, Shardblades are magically good at cutting, to the point that they would cut through a block of cheese as easily as they would cut through something else. Or a wheel of cheese, a giant thing of cheese. Any editorial additions to this?

Peter Ahlstrom (Sanderson's editor): Dalinar does, when he's using the Shardhammer to cut the latrine. He does talk about-

Sanderson: It does get wedged in, and you can wedge in and hang from it, but I think cutting any stone, unless you have a little bit of extra magic on it, I don't think it would work. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it actually would.

I particularly think when you cut a block and it actually falls, then it's gonna still put pressure on the blade. But when you slice into a rock, you're not getting rid of any of the stone with a blade. Where does that extra stone to make the hole go? Magic! That's where we're getting into magic-level sort of stuff, because I'm just not convinced that no matter how sharp you were, that you would be able to-

Peter Ahlstrom: Does it go to the Cognitive Realm, or the Spiritual Realm?

Sanderson: RAFO! Shardblades are magically good at slicing so we can actually have Shardblades that cut through stone. That's your answer. And so it would work on cheese the same way.

Four days later, someone followed up on this stupid cheese question though, and Sanderson wrote this on reddit:

Sanderson: So, I'll admit, I've been considering the cheese question since it was asked.

I'm not sure if it has to be cheese. But any object that is sufficiently thick but also sufficiently pliable that it's going to press down on the blade while it's cutting IS going to create drag on the blade.

The Blade does, by necessity of my understanding of the relevant physics, need to be able to vaporize a tiny bit of matter into Investiture while cutting, in order to create space for the Blade to continue to slide through. This is related to why it doesn't cut things with souls.

At the same time, I'm not convinced that this is relevant to the actual question being asked. I think that I have to relent that, with a sufficiently large block of cheese and a Shardbearer trying to cut lengthwise through it, the drag produced on the flat of the blade is going to tire the Shardbearer. Making cheese legitimately more difficult to cut through than stone or metal. And a big enough block of cheese might stop the slice straight up, because the weight placed on the blade will be pretty heavy.

That said, the top replies to this thread are pretty relevant, and are correctly explaining the mechanics of the situation. There is this little "shield of vaporization" around a Blade while it cuts, so a thinner Blade might not have this drawback at all. It depends on how far back the shield of vaporization extends, and how thick the blade is.

My current instinct says that wider blades would be stopped by this, and so those of you planning to make ten-foot-thick walls of cheese to stop an invading Shardbearer can continue in your...endeavors.

Remember, kids, use a thin Shardblade for actual combat (for multiple reasons.) Only use the big showy Shardblades when you're trying to look intimidating. (With a nod to the fact that a thick blade does tend to be better for getting through Shardplate, giving you more mass to hit with. Choose Adolin's Blade for Shardplate Duels. Szeth's Blade for cheese.)

I have modified the actual text of this interaction ever so slightly to avoid some spoilers. This whole conversation is weirdly relevant to this book...

So, all that said, there is a degree of friction on the sides of a Shardblade. If a bearer is actively pressing a Blade through stone or cheese or whatever, it vaporizes as it cuts and, depending on circumstances, that friction on the sides can inhibit the Blade.

If, however, the bearer is not actively applying a force to the Blade, the friction of the sides is enough to stop the Blade from sinking into the ground (or table, in this case). You have seen this previously, and will see it again, where a bearer will press the tip of their Blade into the ground and it will just sit there while the bearer does something else, ready to be picked up again when they are ready.

If the bearer walks off and no one picks up the Blade, eventually it will slowly sink deeper and deeper, as highstorms and general ground vibrations slowly wiggle the Blade down deeper and deeper into the ground. This is how a lot of Blades are just permanently lost, explaining how few are around compared to expected estimates.

Have some extra cheese related trivia, since we're on the topic:

Question: Has Marsh made a grilled cheese?

Sanderson: Yes, I would say he has... Although they would probably call it a croquette.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

WARNING: The last picture in this album is a bit spicy. Maybe don't open at work.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 13 through 23

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

I-1: Narak

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the Parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.10.2) Eight days after Chapter 12.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai leads the Parshendi as they return to their home plateau after successfully harvesting a gemheart that was brought back by Devi, who is allowed to carry it as a reward for spotting the chrysalis. She wonders where Dalinar is, and feels a need to speak with him, but she can't join battles since her leg is still injured from when Kaladin stabbed her during the Battle of the Tower. She wanders through the ancient ruins on the plateau they named Narak, or Exile, where her people came to escape their gods. She enters the Hall of Art to observe the heretofore futile efforts to rediscover a new form for making art, as an incremental step towards discovering other more useful forms, but Varanis, one of her lieutenants, is unsuccessful in trying to attract creationspren to his novice attempts at painting. She contemplates the six current known forms, and laments the loss of the hundreds that their old songs mention, thinking her people may die off if they don't become more versatile.

She leaves the Hall, and encounters three mateforms who are playing idly in a pool, and berates them for being unproductive. She reflects back on how she and the rest of the Parshendi leaders conspired to assassinate Gavilar, to prevent the Parshendi gods from returning, at the cost of the slow annihilation of her people. She returns to her home, and finds her sister, Venli, and tells her of the plateau run and that Dalinar was not present on the Alethi side. Eshonai says that she wants to talk to Dalinar and sue for peace but Venli thinks that he wouldn't accept, and says that she discovered stormform. Eshonai exclaims that this could cause their gods to return, but Venli says that is a moot point since the Alethi now have Surgebinders, though Eshonai isn't sure about this. Demid, Venli's former mate, agrees that they should risk using stormform to protect their people from being wiped out. Venli says she wants to raise the issue with the Five, and Eshonai says she will consider supporting it.

I-2: Ym

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Ym

Setting: Somewhere in Iri.

Timeline: Exact date unknown, but roughly concurrent with the events in this book so far.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Ym is in his shop trimming a small block of wood. The cobbler had been taught to make the wooden forms himself, so he does. It's the way it's been done for centuries, which is good enough for him. A spren moves in the dimness to his right. It has been coming around more often lately, and Ym had never seen one like it before. As it moves it looks like specks of light, like those from a piece of crystal suspended in a sunbeam. When it stops, light creeps upward from it, like small plants growing, which withdraw when it starts moving again.

They talk briefly about the shoes, and that Ym finds himself needing more shoes for children lately. The spren shakes suddenly, and warns "He Comes." Anxious, Ym stands up looking for "the watcher," a man in a military coat, but finds only a child peering through the door. Ym invites the urchin in, who's feet are dirty and scraped. The boy is Iriali, with their characteristic golden skin and hair, and walks with a limp. Ym offers him a pair of shoes in exchange for his story. As the boy speaks, Ym cleans his feet to fit the shoes. One of the feet has a nasty cut on the bottom, infected and crawling with rotspren. Ym cleans it and puts on antiseptic, then subtly uses some Stormlight to heal the cut. They speak of Ym's religious beliefs, and the boy leaves after receiving the shoes.

The spren whispers "He's still here," and Ym spins as he hears a rustling behind him. A dark-skinned man with a crescent scar on his cheek steps out of the shadows in the back of the shop. The man accuses Ym of commiting a murder in his youth. Ym tells the man that it wasn't intentional, but the man says he is guilty nonetheless, then summons a Shardblade. Ym runs, but he is old and quickly tires. He stops, trying to pull out a sphere for some Stormlight, but the dark-skinned man slams him against a wall and stabs him in the chest with the Shardblade.

I-3: Rysn

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Five Swords (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Rysn

Setting: Relu-na, a moving island in the Reshi Isles.

Timeline: (1173.3.1.4) Seven months after Interlude I-4 in The Way of Kings.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Rysn is traveling with Vstim to the Reshi isles to do trading, but Vstim is very sick. Gu, the flotilla's guide, takes them there, guiding them since the islands move. Rysn is quite shocked and amazed when she realizes that the moving islands are huge great shells. The group lands on one of the islands, and Vstim tells Rysn that she must go and trade with the Reshi, as he is too ill to do so. He tells her to be bold, and although Rysn is nervous, she agrees to do so. Kyrlm and Nlent, two of the guards, accompany her as she ascends the island. While Rysn is observing the island, she sees Axies the Collector hanging upside down. They talk for a bit, and then Rysn and the guards continue their way up the island.

They make it to the king, and as Rysn approaches to speak with him, Talik, a Reshi trader, comes forward to speak on his behalf. Talik is disappointed that Vstim himself did not come to trade, and initially turns her away. Rysn is insistent in her trade, wishing to prove herself to Vstim, and the king eventually relents so that Rysn is speaking to the king, and not to Talik. The Reshi are opposed to trading with Rysn since they do not yet respect her and do not know if they can trust her. The king eventually dismisses Rysn, telling her that she did very well.

Rysn, worrying that Vstim is dying, instead insists on talking to the greatshell that is the island, Relu-na. She slides down the side of the head on a rope and begins to talk with it, pleading her case. Talik attempts to bring her back on top of the island, but Relu-na takes a bite of the fruit at the bottom of the rope and breaks it, causing Rysn to fall. As she crashes into the water, spren cushion her fall, and Rysn falls unconscious.

Rysn wakes up in a hut on the island with her legs paralyzed. She sees Vstim, a Reshi healer, and Talik around her. They scold her for her stupidity, but Rysn insists that it was boldness, to allow for the trade. Rysn realizes that it was all a test that Vstim had set up for her to trade, and feels foolish. Vstim reveals that the trade was for a larkin corpse, but that Rysn has been granted a live larkin by the island itself. Vstim and Rysn will stay on the island while she heals.

I-4: Last Legion

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Eshonai

POV Characters: Eshonai

Setting: Narak, the parshendi home in the center of the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.10.2.3) Eleven days after Interlude I-1.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Eshonai, Thude, and Bila examine a gemstone with a captured stormspren inside that Venli believes will allow them to rediscover stormform. Bila thinks that anything that will help in the war against the Alethi is worth it, but Eshonai worries about provoking the old gods. They depart, and Eshonai decides that she will see her mother. On her way, she sees a group of Parshendi that have chosen the dullform, the form most like the Parshmen. Eshonai questions them on the cause of their transformation, and they respond that they do it so the Alethi will not kill them when they come. Eshonai is concerned by this response but understands that the Parshendi are free to choose their own forms, as they are no longer ruled by the old gods. Continuing on her way, Eshonai eventually arrives to see her mother, who suffers from dementia and believes Eshonai to be her sister, Venli. Despite her mother's declining memory, Eshonai is still able to elicit some information from her regarding Parshendi history. Her mother tells the story of the Last Legion, the Parshendi warrior-people who rejected the old gods, giving up advanced thought and knowledge of the forms of power in exchange for freedom. This left them with only dullform and mateform, but the Last Legion had composed songs as a way to remember the many forms of old in hopes that they would one day be rediscovered. Before Eshonai leaves, her mother gives her a sack of old maps from Eshonai's days as an explorer, which makes her long for the past.

Eshonai leaves her mother's house to attend a meeting with the Five regarding Venli's plan to attempt rediscovery of stormform. Eshonai is hesitant, expressing her concerns regarding the old gods, but eventually agrees to the plan under the condition that she be the first one to try assuming the new form, as Venli's studies and knowledge of the forms are too valuable to risk undergoing the transformation herself.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

WARNING: The last picture in this album is a bit spicy. Maybe don't open at work.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

NEWBIE TRIVIA

Most of the activity for these "Final Thoughts & Trivia" posts happen in the newbie thread. There I provide a lot of information about things new readers can easily miss during their first read through. Veterans often learn a thing or two as well, so be sure to read the body of that post. While veterans are welcome to read the post and the comments, they should be commenting in this thread to share their reactions to the information, or the newbies' thoughts.

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Blurb, Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Chapter 6: Terrible Destruction

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Four days after Chapter 3.

Epigraph:

We had never considered that there might be Parshendi spies hiding among our slaves. This is something else I should have seen.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesan 1174

Summary:

Shallan sits on the deck of the Wind's Pleasure, bundled up because of the cold. She's observing and taking notes on the complex geometric spren, who she had named Pattern. Pattern asks about the concept of food and replies, "Terrible! Destruction!" when Shallan describes eating. Shallan notes that Pattern is connecting increasingly complex thoughts. When she asks him about his first memories, Pattern starts to vibrate and Shallan can hear wind blowing through branches, and the deck starts to turn to a dirt path in front of her. Shallan is horrified and the images vanish. Just then, Yalb comes over and introduces her to "New kid", a six-foot-tall hulk of a man. Yalb tricks New Kid into doing galley duty for him, which Pattern seems to like. Shallan asks him if he likes lies, to which pattern replies that he likes "good lies... True lies."

Shallan heads below deck to her cabin where she gets caught up in her research. Hours go by before she closes her books, and her spheres are getting dim. She feels satisfied, her life seems to finally be coming together. She fishes some newly-restored spheres out of her safepouch to replace those in the goblet, but strangely they are completely dun. When she goes to ask Jasnah for some new spheres, Shallan notices that Jasnah is uncharacteristically disconcerted. She seems exhausted, and her poise has been replaced by worry. They discuss the return of Surgebinding, and Jasnah asks that Shallan focus on learning the Illumination Surge rather than Soulcasting, as the latter can be dangerous. Jasnah also reveals that she is worried about the parshmen, who she thinks are secretly the Voidbringers. They worry that because the parshmen are so integrated into Vorin society they could cause utter collapse if they rebelled. Jasnah speaks of how in ages past, the Heralds would return before Desolations and train the Knights Radiant. She reveals that she hopes to find a path to Urithiru, the legendary city of the Knights Radiant, in the Shattered Plains. There she will try to find information that will convince the Alethi leaders to expel the parshmen.

Before Shallan leaves, Jasnah gives her a book that contains information on the Order of Lightweavers. The book is called Words of Radiance. Shallan goes to sleep planning to read the book in the morning. She is awoken by screams, shouts, and smoke.

Chapter 7: Open Flame

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Immediately after Chapter 6.

Epigraph:

I was unprepared for the grief my loss brought—like an unexpected rain—breaking from a clear sky and crashing down upon me. Gavilar's death years ago was overwhelming, but this... this nearly crushed me.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Shallan wakes up in a panicked state, and rushes out of her cabin into the passageway. She sees three men holding torches with their backs to her, and one of them throws Jasnah's body to the deck, then stabs her through the heart. She screams, recognizing one of the men as a "New kid", and returns to her cabin, locking the door. The men break down the door, but fail to see Shallan as she manages to draw in Stormlight then create an illusion of shadow to hide in, and another visible moving image for them to chase to another part of the ship. She sends Pattern to spy and he tells her the regular sailors are being killed on the main deck. She makes her way to Jasnah's cabin. She finds Jasnah's chest and opens it to access her spheres, and hears as the sailors are being murdered. Shallan tells Pattern she wants to soulcast the bottom of the ship to sink it and use the confusion to help the sailors, and Pattern intercedes, giving her passage to Shadesmar. Pattern is there also, appearing like a symbol-head. He tells her to find the bead representing the Wind's Pleasure and persuades it to change and sink so that it can possibly save some of the sailors that it serves. Shallan returns to the physical plane and the sinking ship, and starts going under as she cannot find the way out, then something grabs her, dragging her down.

Chapter 8: Knives in the Back - Soldiers on the Field

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: The Shattered Plains. Dalinar's quarters in his warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Two days after Chapter 4.

Epigraph:

I seek not to use my grief as an excuse, but it is an explanation. People act strangely soon after encountering an unexpected loss. Though Jasnah had been away for some time, her loss was unexpected. I, like many, assumed her to be immortal.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Dalinar watches as Highprince Aladar's army, which has arrived to the plateau faster than his own, fights the Parshendi over a gemheart. Dalinar feels bitter and jaded, as he no longer believes the plateau runs represent the fulfillment of the Vengeance Pact. Kaladin and his guards cross a bridge to guard Dalinar as he joins Aladar on his command plateau adjacent to where the battle is being fought, while Adolin and General Khal lead the Kholin forces to the fight. Dalinar joins Aladar and tells him that he saved the other Highprince from losing, but Aladar complains that he will earn less and that he is being punished for being successful. Dalinar threatens Aladar on the consequences of disobedience, but Aladar counters that Gavilar didn't use honor to unite the kingdom originally, which strikes a nerve. Aladar thinks the Parshendi are about to push, but Dalinar thinks otherwise, and turns out to be correct about them getting ready to harvest the gemstone and withdraw, and they end up victorious. Dalinar notices the Parshendi Shardbearer watching from a distance, having never entered the battle, and states that this has never happened before. Aladar thanks Dalinar for his advice, but refuses to trust him regarding politics since he fears betrayal.

Back in his bunker, he notes there are now sixty days left in the mysterious countdown, and receives a letter announcing that an old friend of his would be coming soon to the Shattered Plains and might solve some of the problems Dalinar is dealing with.

Chapter 9: Walking the Grave

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4) The day after Chapter 8.

Epigraph:

I wish to think that had I not been under sorrow's thumb, I would have seen earlier the approaching dangers. Yet in all honesty, I'm not certain anything could have been done.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Kaladin leads the way down into the chasms, accompanied by Rock, Teft, Sigzil, Sylphrena, and the forty bridgemen from the reorganized crews who were chosen to practice spears under Teft's guidance and become future sergeants. Kaladin and Syl stroll off, debating the laws of physics and Syl jokes about her ability to defy gravity. They discuss Dalinar's plan to refound the Knights Radiant, which Syl likes, and the mysterious countdown. Syl mentions dangerous red spren that she sees on occasion. Kaladin asks if there are other Surgebinders and Syl says yes, and there are other spren of different types doing what she is, but that she is the only honorspren and that she defied the Stormfather to do so. Syl tells Kaladin to be what Dalinar is looking for, and he says that he will try, despite his painful past. Rock interrupts them, praising Syl and offering to build a shrine dedicated to her. Rock says that Teft moved their training to a different spot, and says the bridgemen are becoming less reticent. Kaladin agrees to allow Sigzil to do his testing now to determine the extent of Kaladin's abilities.

Chapter 10: Red Carpet Once White

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1167.10.8.4) (Flashback) Six years ago.

*Note: This happens to be the exact same day King Gavilar is assassinated.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan believes the world is ending and it is her fault. As her father tries getting her to sleep he wipes some blood from her face and starts singing a lullaby. The affection makes Shallan uncomfortable. In the room are two corpses, one a man who bled and one a woman in white - Shallan's mother - who lies face-down, hiding her "horrible eyes." As Shallan and her father pass his safe in the wall, she can see the light from the monster inside of it. After the song ends her father leaves the bedroom closing the door on the corpses.

Chapter 11: An Illusion of Perception

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The southern shore of Roshar, in the Frostlands.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4 through 1173.9.8.5) The day after Chapter 7.

Epigraph:

But, understandably, we were focused on Sadeas. His betrayal was still fresh, and I saw its signs each day as I passed empty barracks and grieving widows. We knew that Sadeas would not simply rest upon his slaughters in pride. More was coming.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Shallan awakes on a rock surrounded by ocean water, just offshore. She sees the santhid that saved her swim off toward the horizon. Pattern says that the ship sank and doesn't know if any of the sailors survived. Shallan forces herself to accept that Jasnah is dead. She manages to tread water and reach the shore. She waits on the beach for a while looking for signs of survivors but sees none. Pattern says that he found someone and urges Shallan to follow him, and leads her to Jasnah's trunk, which contains her books and notes intact in a waterproof enclosure.

Shallan is unable to build a fire, so she decides to try to soulcast one. Pattern eases her into Shadesmar, and she sees large, fuzzy-looking, bird-like spren that hover overhead, which are exhaustionspren that are drawn to her. She takes a bead that represents a piece of wood and tries to persuade it that it could be fire, but it prefers to be a stick instead. Her sphere is drained of Stormlight and she flees from Shadesmar, having failed to make a fire start. She gets up and starts walking, though her feet are cut up and bleeding, and ends up encountering a group of strangers around a fire, and due to her state of exhaustion, lays down next to the fire and goes to sleep.

Shallan wakes up as someone with a Thaylen accent addresses her as Brightness, but he isn't one of the sailors as she initially thinks. She realizes that they are slavers, led by a man named Tvlakv, and asserts herself as she imagines that Jasnah would, introducing herself and ordering them to retrieve Jasnah's trunk and escort her to the Shattered Plains, overcoming Tvlakv's objections by sheer force of will and gaining his reluctant compliance.

Chapter 12: Hero

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Highprince Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4) Shortly after Chapter 9.

Epigraph:

Unfortunately, we fixated upon Sadeas's plotting so much that we did not take note of the changed pattern of our enemies, the murderers of my husband, the true danger. I would like to know what wind brought about their sudden inexplicable transformation.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Sigzil finally gets the chance to "measure" Kaladin's abilities. Down in the chasms—while Teft and Drehy are working with others to train them—Kaladin, Sigzil, Rock, and Lopen are doing experiments. Lopen guards the location to avoid unbidden guests. They try to measure how long a rock which Kaladin infuses with Stormlight and sticks to a chasm wall stays stuck. Rock hints at spren that pull the stone to the wall. Kaladin sees them too, when looking close, but Sigzil does not.

Sigzil takes notes, writing them down in glyphs. And he is confused. He says he would need a clock to properly measure times and that he has no real references to compare. So they start testing other things, things Kaladin can do in battle with his Stormlight. For example, Infusing his spear and making it stick to the spear of a foe or Infusing the ground causing others that step on it to topple. For these experiments, Lopen and Rock join Sigzil as sparring partners. It's shown that Rock indeed knows how to fight, though he still refuses to do so aside from this sparring for testing Kaladin's abilities. Teft comes and sees the last part of the sparring. He asks Kaladin to release him from his task of training new recruits, but Kaladin refuses.

When Kaladin and his men leave the chasm, a darkeyed soldier tells him that a hero has arrived at Dalinar's warcamp. When Kaladin hears the man's name, he rushes to Dalinar's command complex to see the newcomer with his own eyes. Kaladin sees Dalinar clutching hands with his old friend, Brightlord Amaram.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Blurb, Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12

In two days we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, Trivia

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Chapter 6: Terrible Destruction

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Four days after Chapter 3.

Epigraph:

We had never considered that there might be Parshendi spies hiding among our slaves. This is something else I should have seen.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesan 1174

Summary:

Shallan sits on the deck of the Wind's Pleasure, bundled up because of the cold. She's observing and taking notes on the complex geometric spren, who she had named Pattern. Pattern asks about the concept of food and replies, "Terrible! Destruction!" when Shallan describes eating. Shallan notes that Pattern is connecting increasingly complex thoughts. When she asks him about his first memories, Pattern starts to vibrate and Shallan can hear wind blowing through branches, and the deck starts to turn to a dirt path in front of her. Shallan is horrified and the images vanish. Just then, Yalb comes over and introduces her to "New kid", a six-foot-tall hulk of a man. Yalb tricks New Kid into doing galley duty for him, which Pattern seems to like. Shallan asks him if he likes lies, to which pattern replies that he likes "good lies... True lies."

Shallan heads below deck to her cabin where she gets caught up in her research. Hours go by before she closes her books, and her spheres are getting dim. She feels satisfied, her life seems to finally be coming together. She fishes some newly-restored spheres out of her safepouch to replace those in the goblet, but strangely they are completely dun. When she goes to ask Jasnah for some new spheres, Shallan notices that Jasnah is uncharacteristically disconcerted. She seems exhausted, and her poise has been replaced by worry. They discuss the return of Surgebinding, and Jasnah asks that Shallan focus on learning the Illumination Surge rather than Soulcasting, as the latter can be dangerous. Jasnah also reveals that she is worried about the parshmen, who she thinks are secretly the Voidbringers. They worry that because the parshmen are so integrated into Vorin society they could cause utter collapse if they rebelled. Jasnah speaks of how in ages past, the Heralds would return before Desolations and train the Knights Radiant. She reveals that she hopes to find a path to Urithiru, the legendary city of the Knights Radiant, in the Shattered Plains. There she will try to find information that will convince the Alethi leaders to expel the parshmen.

Before Shallan leaves, Jasnah gives her a book that contains information on the Order of Lightweavers. The book is called Words of Radiance. Shallan goes to sleep planning to read the book in the morning. She is awoken by screams, shouts, and smoke.

Chapter 7: Open Flame

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Immediately after Chapter 6.

Epigraph:

I was unprepared for the grief my loss brought—like an unexpected rain—breaking from a clear sky and crashing down upon me. Gavilar's death years ago was overwhelming, but this... this nearly crushed me.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Shallan wakes up in a panicked state, and rushes out of her cabin into the passageway. She sees three men holding torches with their backs to her, and one of them throws Jasnah's body to the deck, then stabs her through the heart. She screams, recognizing one of the men as a "New kid", and returns to her cabin, locking the door. The men break down the door, but fail to see Shallan as she manages to draw in Stormlight then create an illusion of shadow to hide in, and another visible moving image for them to chase to another part of the ship. She sends Pattern to spy and he tells her the regular sailors are being killed on the main deck. She makes her way to Jasnah's cabin. She finds Jasnah's chest and opens it to access her spheres, and hears as the sailors are being murdered. Shallan tells Pattern she wants to soulcast the bottom of the ship to sink it and use the confusion to help the sailors, and Pattern intercedes, giving her passage to Shadesmar. Pattern is there also, appearing like a symbol-head. He tells her to find the bead representing the Wind's Pleasure and persuades it to change and sink so that it can possibly save some of the sailors that it serves. Shallan returns to the physical plane and the sinking ship, and starts going under as she cannot find the way out, then something grabs her, dragging her down.

Chapter 8: Knives in the Back - Soldiers on the Field

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: The Shattered Plains. Dalinar's quarters in his warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.3) Two days after Chapter 4.

Epigraph:

I seek not to use my grief as an excuse, but it is an explanation. People act strangely soon after encountering an unexpected loss. Though Jasnah had been away for some time, her loss was unexpected. I, like many, assumed her to be immortal.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Dalinar watches as Highprince Aladar's army, which has arrived to the plateau faster than his own, fights the Parshendi over a gemheart. Dalinar feels bitter and jaded, as he no longer believes the plateau runs represent the fulfillment of the Vengeance Pact. Kaladin and his guards cross a bridge to guard Dalinar as he joins Aladar on his command plateau adjacent to where the battle is being fought, while Adolin and General Khal lead the Kholin forces to the fight. Dalinar joins Aladar and tells him that he saved the other Highprince from losing, but Aladar complains that he will earn less and that he is being punished for being successful. Dalinar threatens Aladar on the consequences of disobedience, but Aladar counters that Gavilar didn't use honor to unite the kingdom originally, which strikes a nerve. Aladar thinks the Parshendi are about to push, but Dalinar thinks otherwise, and turns out to be correct about them getting ready to harvest the gemstone and withdraw, and they end up victorious. Dalinar notices the Parshendi Shardbearer watching from a distance, having never entered the battle, and states that this has never happened before. Aladar thanks Dalinar for his advice, but refuses to trust him regarding politics since he fears betrayal.

Back in his bunker, he notes there are now sixty days left in the mysterious countdown, and receives a letter announcing that an old friend of his would be coming soon to the Shattered Plains and might solve some of the problems Dalinar is dealing with.

Chapter 9: Walking the Grave

Arch Faces: Nale - Nale ----- Nale - Nale

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4) The day after Chapter 8.

Epigraph:

I wish to think that had I not been under sorrow's thumb, I would have seen earlier the approaching dangers. Yet in all honesty, I'm not certain anything could have been done.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Kaladin leads the way down into the chasms, accompanied by Rock, Teft, Sigzil, Sylphrena, and the forty bridgemen from the reorganized crews who were chosen to practice spears under Teft's guidance and become future sergeants. Kaladin and Syl stroll off, debating the laws of physics and Syl jokes about her ability to defy gravity. They discuss Dalinar's plan to refound the Knights Radiant, which Syl likes, and the mysterious countdown. Syl mentions dangerous red spren that she sees on occasion. Kaladin asks if there are other Surgebinders and Syl says yes, and there are other spren of different types doing what she is, but that she is the only honorspren and that she defied the Stormfather to do so. Syl tells Kaladin to be what Dalinar is looking for, and he says that he will try, despite his painful past. Rock interrupts them, praising Syl and offering to build a shrine dedicated to her. Rock says that Teft moved their training to a different spot, and says the bridgemen are becoming less reticent. Kaladin agrees to allow Sigzil to do his testing now to determine the extent of Kaladin's abilities.

Chapter 10: Red Carpet Once White

Arch Faces: Vedel - Vedel ----- Vedel - Vedel

Iconography: Pattern

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: (1167.10.8.4) (Flashback) Six years ago.

*Note: This happens to be the exact same day King Gavilar is assassinated.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Shallan believes the world is ending and it is her fault. As her father tries getting her to sleep he wipes some blood from her face and starts singing a lullaby. The affection makes Shallan uncomfortable. In the room are two corpses, one a man who bled and one a woman in white - Shallan's mother - who lies face-down, hiding her "horrible eyes." As Shallan and her father pass his safe in the wall, she can see the light from the monster inside of it. After the song ends her father leaves the bedroom closing the door on the corpses.

Chapter 11: An Illusion of Perception

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Pattern (Inverted)

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: The southern shore of Roshar, in the Frostlands.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4 through 1173.9.8.5) The day after Chapter 7.

Epigraph:

But, understandably, we were focused on Sadeas. His betrayal was still fresh, and I saw its signs each day as I passed empty barracks and grieving widows. We knew that Sadeas would not simply rest upon his slaughters in pride. More was coming.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Shallan awakes on a rock surrounded by ocean water, just offshore. She sees the santhid that saved her swim off toward the horizon. Pattern says that the ship sank and doesn't know if any of the sailors survived. Shallan forces herself to accept that Jasnah is dead. She manages to tread water and reach the shore. She waits on the beach for a while looking for signs of survivors but sees none. Pattern says that he found someone and urges Shallan to follow him, and leads her to Jasnah's trunk, which contains her books and notes intact in a waterproof enclosure.

Shallan is unable to build a fire, so she decides to try to soulcast one. Pattern eases her into Shadesmar, and she sees large, fuzzy-looking, bird-like spren that hover overhead, which are exhaustionspren that are drawn to her. She takes a bead that represents a piece of wood and tries to persuade it that it could be fire, but it prefers to be a stick instead. Her sphere is drained of Stormlight and she flees from Shadesmar, having failed to make a fire start. She gets up and starts walking, though her feet are cut up and bleeding, and ends up encountering a group of strangers around a fire, and due to her state of exhaustion, lays down next to the fire and goes to sleep.

Shallan wakes up as someone with a Thaylen accent addresses her as Brightness, but he isn't one of the sailors as she initially thinks. She realizes that they are slavers, led by a man named Tvlakv, and asserts herself as she imagines that Jasnah would, introducing herself and ordering them to retrieve Jasnah's trunk and escort her to the Shattered Plains, overcoming Tvlakv's objections by sheer force of will and gaining his reluctant compliance.

Chapter 12: Hero

Arch Faces: Jezrien - Jezrien ----- Jezrien - Jezrien

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: In the chasms below the Shattered Plains. Highprince Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.4) Shortly after Chapter 9.

Epigraph:

Unfortunately, we fixated upon Sadeas's plotting so much that we did not take note of the changed pattern of our enemies, the murderers of my husband, the true danger. I would like to know what wind brought about their sudden inexplicable transformation.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Summary:

Sigzil finally gets the chance to "measure" Kaladin's abilities. Down in the chasms—while Teft and Drehy are working with others to train them—Kaladin, Sigzil, Rock, and Lopen are doing experiments. Lopen guards the location to avoid unbidden guests. They try to measure how long a rock which Kaladin infuses with Stormlight and sticks to a chasm wall stays stuck. Rock hints at spren that pull the stone to the wall. Kaladin sees them too, when looking close, but Sigzil does not.

Sigzil takes notes, writing them down in glyphs. And he is confused. He says he would need a clock to properly measure times and that he has no real references to compare. So they start testing other things, things Kaladin can do in battle with his Stormlight. For example, Infusing his spear and making it stick to the spear of a foe or Infusing the ground causing others that step on it to topple. For these experiments, Lopen and Rock join Sigzil as sparring partners. It's shown that Rock indeed knows how to fight, though he still refuses to do so aside from this sparring for testing Kaladin's abilities. Teft comes and sees the last part of the sparring. He asks Kaladin to release him from his task of training new recruits, but Kaladin refuses.

When Kaladin and his men leave the chasm, a darkeyed soldier tells him that a hero has arrived at Dalinar's warcamp. When Kaladin hears the man's name, he rushes to Dalinar's command complex to see the newcomer with his own eyes. Kaladin sees Dalinar clutching hands with his old friend, Brightlord Amaram.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 16 | Mistborn Era 2 #2 | Shadows of Self: Ars Arcanum, Final Thoughts, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Blurb, Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Blurb

Provided For Reference:

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

The ancient oaths have at last been spoken; the spren return. Men seek that which was lost. I fear the struggle will destroy them.

It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit. Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves. They can brace a broken soul; but they can also widen its fissures.

The Windrunner, lost in a shattered land, balanced upon the boundary between vengeance and honor. The Lightweaver, slowly being consumed by her past, searching for the lie that she must become. The Bondsmith, born in blood and death, striving to rebuild what was destroyed. The Explorer, straddling the fates of two peoples, forced to choose between slow death and a terrible betrayal of all she believes.

It is past time for them to awaken, for the Everstorm looms.

And the Assassin has arrived.

Prologue: To Question

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Jasnah Kholin

Setting: Kholinar, capital city of the kingdom of Alethkar.

Timeline: (1167.10.8.4) (Flashback) Six years ago.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Jasnah leaves the feast celebrating the signing of the Alethi treaty with the Parshendi. On her way to a clandestine meeting that she had scheduled, she notices her shadow pointing the wrong way. Her shadow slowly returns to normal, but she is disconcerted. This is not the first time this has happened to her, and she wonders if she is cursed. As she continues, she observes a group of oily black figures materialize before her. Jasnah then transfers to Shadesmar for the first time. She almost drowns in the sea of beads before figuring out how to form the beads into the shape of one of the palace hallways. One of the figures approaches her drawing a sword and Jasnah manifests a statue of Talenel to protect herself. The figure bows to her while his companions whisper to each other, and Jasnah is transferred back to the Physical Realm. She notices that the lanterns near her have been drained of Stormlight.

She hurries on to the meeting, where she tells the assassin Liss that she only wants her brother's wife, Aesudan, watched for now. Jasnah reminds Liss of their first agreement: Jasnah will match payment of any offer made against a member of her family, in exchange for the name of whoever tried to have them assassinated.

As she leaves, Jasnah hears the Parshendi's drums cease. In the hall, she hears two men discussing an individual named Ash as well as what Jasnah believes is a Shardblade. Continuing on, Jasnah hears screams and starts running, following a trail of destruction that leads to her father's rooms. She watches as Szeth collapses the balcony beneath himself and Gavilar. She begins to cry as he stands over her father and wonders what he is doing. When he walks away she sees that her father is dead, his blade having appeared next to him, and despairs over failing in her efforts to protect her family.

Members of the Parshendi ruling council, including Klade, Gangnah, and Varnali, approach Jasnah and apologize. They confess to hiring Szeth to assassinate Gavilar, claiming he was about to do something very dangerous.

Part One: Alight

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Dalinar

Chapter 1: Santhid

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Pailiah

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.6.5) The day after the Battle of The Tower (TWoK, Chapters 64 through 69, and Chapter 73). Four days after Shallan confronts Jasnah (TWoK, Chapters 70 through 74). Five days before the Epilogue of The Way of Kings.

*Note: I put the date of Chapter 75 (the last non-Epilogue chapter) of The Way of Kings as "1173.9.7.1-ish". I hadn't read this chapter closely at the time of figuring out that date yet. I went and found some confirmation though. Chapter 75 actually happened just after midnight, the evening after the Battle of The Tower, so it shares the same date as this chapter, which just happened in the morning, after the highstorm. I've updated the previous post, so if anyone goes back looking at dates, they'll see the most accurate dates possible.

Epigraph:

To be perfectly frank, what has happened these last two months is upon my head. The death, destruction, loss, and pain are my burden. I should have seen it coming. And I should have stopped it.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

The chapter opens with Shallan sketching Shadesmar aboard Tozbek's ship, the Wind's Pleasure, sailing south of Roshar. While sketching, she notices an embossed pattern appear on her sketch. The pattern moves when Shalland tries to touch it, startling her and causing her to drop her sketches which Yalb collects for her.

A scout spots something in the water which turns out to be a Santhid--a large, rare sea creature viewed by sailors as good luck and whose shell is the only thing anyone ever sees. Seeing an opportunity, Shallan decides she needs to sketch the first ever picture of a living Santhid. After much debate with Yalb and Tozbek, and after conversing with Jasnah about Shadesmar and Spren in some detail for the first time, the sailors finally agree to allow Shallan to be lowered over the side of the boat to get a look at the Santhid. Jasnah tells Shallan that she has spoken to Navani about the possibility of repairing the Soulcaster Shallan possesses so that her brothers can give it back to the Ghostbloods. Shallan is also informed that she has been betrothed to Adolin Kholin, which she accepts willingly.

Chapter 2: Bridge Four

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.6.5) Same day as Chapter 1.

Epigraph:

Our first clue was the Parshendi. Even weeks before they abandoned their pursuit of the gemhearts, their pattern of fighting changed. They lingered on the plateaus after battles, as if waiting for something.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Kaladin rides out the first highstorm since being freed in a small room attached to his mens' new barracks within Dalinar's war camp. Upon exiting the room he is greeted with cheers by his men who have been shaving their beards during the storm with Rock's razor. Kaladin contemplates the betrayals of both Sadeas and Amaram while speaking with Skar, Teft, and Moash about how to proceed training the newly freed bridgemen. There are some 1,000 men situated in 20 now empty buildings in Dalinar's camp; buildings recently emptied after the betrayal of Sadeas and the subsequent loss of soldiers. Kaladin decides they will find the most eager bridgemen and train them personally, sending them back to pass on their training to larger groups of bridgemen, all of whom have been given permission to leave as free men although the majority of them have not done so. Kaladin says his worst case scenario plan is to have all 1,000 men trained and able to leave the war camp as a cohesive band of mercenaries if it comes to that. Having been named Captain by Dalinar, the highest rank Dalinar dared appoint a darkeyes, Kaladin plans to name Sigzil, Rock, Teft, Moash, and Skar lieutenants. Rock will be quartermaster with Lopen as his second, Teft will be in charge of training, Sigzil will be the clerk, and Moash, Skar, and Kaladin will be mainly in charge of guarding Dalinar, who they have mutually agreed after some discussion, is their best hope for remaining free men.

Later, the men previously of Bridge Four visit a tattooist. The tattooist sets about covering the slave brands with tattoos of freedom, including some details of who freed them and when. First Hobber decides he wants a Bridge Four glyph added and after this decision, the rest demand the same. Not to indicate freedom from Bridge Four, but to embrace the unity they found there. Even those members of Bridge Four who were without slave brands opt to get the tattoo including Shen, most on their foreheads though Moash chooses to get it on his arm. Finally Kaladin sits for his tattoo but the ink will not take--his stormlight expelling it--even after banishing his stormlight until the tattoo is set, the ink immediately melts away when he again sucks in stormlight.

After leaving, Kaladin and his men walk through the war camp noting the general mood. Kaladin decides the camp has an air of dread to it following Sadeas' betrayal. The men receive Bridge Four salutes from a few people they pass, Kaladin wondering where they even learned the salute. The men visit the head quartermaster, Rind, to discuss uniforms for the bridgemen. Rind hands out what's left of the old Cobalt Guard uniforms and the men try them on, eventually coming to admire how they look in them. After some discussion with Kaladin, explaining to him that they all identify as Bridge Four despite being free, Kaladin requests that Rind commission new Bridge Four glyph patches for the uniforms.

Chapter 3: Pattern

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.7.4) Four days after Chapter 1.

Epigraph:

Soldiers reported being watched from afar by an unnerving number of Parshendi scouts. Then we noticed a new pattern of their penetrating close to the camps in the night and then quickly retreating. I can only surmise that our enemies were even then preparing their stratagem to end this war.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Shallan sits in her cabin on the Wind's Pleasure reading a book written by Jasnah about Vorinism and the Recreance and its effect on the documentation of history, such as the existence of Shadesmar. While studying, the embossed pattern shows up again, this time on the cabin wall, vanishing when she looks directly at it. Shallan notes the similarity between the pattern and the symbol headed creatures she had seen previously. She immediately attempts to sketch the pattern, attracting many creationspren, though she found it difficult to capture the precise pattern. When finished, the pattern seem to rise from the drawing and moves to the floor. Jasnah comes to Shallan's room just as Shallan leaves to find her. Shallan catches a glimpse of what Jasnah explains to her is her own spren, Ivory, just as she tells Shallan that the pattern is Shallan's spren, a Cryptic or liespren. Jasnah explains about the Knights Radiant and the Orders, explaining that their Soulcasting is a shared surge, but that their Orders are not the same, judging by their different spren. A lengthy discussion of the nature of spren and Jasnah's opinions of the Almighty and the Heralds follows.

Chapter 4: Taker of Secrets

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: A vision of the past. Dalinar's quarters in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.1) Six days after The Way of Kings, Chapter 75.

Epigraph:

The next clue came on the walls. I did not ignore this sign, but neither did I grasp its full implications.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Dalinar is experiencing another vision. He describes how he is running through what he believes to be the Purelake along with about a dozen armed and armored men, though he notes that they are clad in ancient leather armor. At first he is unsure if they are running away from something or toward something, until he notices a Fortress apparently made completely out of onyx. His group meets up with another one led by a Knight Radiant in deep red glowing Plate. Dalinar thus determines that this vision takes place before the Recreance. The Radiant informs them that Caeb thought he saw something and tells them to look around. When one of the men hears Dalinar mumbling to himself, as he describes what is happening, he tells Dalinar to look for a spren that isn't behaving the way it should because spren that were touched by Sja-anat are different. Dalinar repeats the words quietly, hoping that Navani will record them, when he notices that the female Knight is talking to apparently nobody. As he looks around he sees a face of shadow with red eyes in the water. When he points this out to the others, the Knight, after noting that this is Sja-anat's spy, sends Caeb to the checkpoint and tells the others to keep watching for the carrier. Dalinar chases after the spren while describing it, when it is suddenly joined by a six-foot-tall spren. As the second one dives into the rock, Dalinar stumbles back. He gets pulled back further by one of the men as the ground starts to tremble. Dalinar watches as the spren, having somehow apparently animated the rock, starts to climb out of the rock with its new rock body. The soldiers, recognizing it as a Thunderclast, start yelling for Hammers.

Dalinar wakes to Navani fervently transcribing the last of his words before recording Dalinar's detailed description of the vision to be used by his scholars in their attempts to translate Navani's transcription. The two then discuss Dalinar's plans to publish his proclamation as Highprince of War in the next few days, Navani having convinced him to first release the news to the other highprinces in private. Dalinar, exhausted by the growing burden of responsibility bestowed upon him by his visions, falls asleep by the fire following Navani's departure. He wakes hours later, the fire burned out, and rises to attend to his duties. Dalinar stops suddenly when he notices a series of marks newly scratched on the wall to form glyphs, reading "Sixty-two days. Death follows."

Chapter 5: Ideals

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Sadeas

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. Sadeas' quarters in his warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.2) The day after Chapter 4.

Epigraph:

The sign on the wall proposed a greater danger, even, than its deadline. To foresee the future is of the Voidbringers.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Kaladin and the members of Bridge Four listen to a crier read Dalinar's proclamation. The proclamation states that all gemhearts won in battle will now belong to the king, and shares of that wealth will be apportioned at the Crown's discretion. The men are concerned that this will sow even more discontent among the highprinces, making their job as bodyguards to Dalinar more difficult. Kaladin orders Rock to start training cooks for the other bridgeman barracks, hoping it will make them less despondent, then heads to the Pinnacle to relieve Skar's team. On the way, Syl worries that Kaladin no longer laughs.

Meanwhile, Torol Sadeas sits in front of an elaborate stone table with Oathbringer stuck through it. He thinks about how often he had lusted after the weapon, but now possessing it feels hollow. His wife Ialai enters the room, and mentions that she has used Dalinar's heavy recruitment drive to place more spies in his war camp. They talk about how the other highprinces hate the proclamation, and plan to fan the flames of discontent. Torol wants conquest. He plans to let Dalinar alienate the other highprinces and fracture the kingdom, at which point he will "forge a new Alethkar from flame and tears".

Once at the king's palace, Kaladin is allowed to stay for a meeting consisting of Dalinar, King Elhokar, Adolin, Navani, Renarin, General Khal, and his wife Teshav. Teshav reports that the highprinces are irate. They had hoped that Dalinar would reconsider, and sending the proclamation out to the public has provoked them. Elhokar says that it is a disaster, and fears that they'll be dead before the week is out. Dalinar says he'll unite the kingdom or destroy it trying. The proclamation was made in order to re-focus the highprinces' attention on the war, and Dalinar did this knowing that it would enrage them. He wants the highprinces angry, to remind them of why they came to the Shattered Plains in the first place. He then announces his intention to "disarm" the highprinces by having Adolin begin dueling for the Shardblades and Shardplate in their armies. Lastly, when prompted on his endgame, Dalinar states his intention to refound the Radiants. He isn't sure why exactly he needs to do this, but he knows he has to. Dalinar also plans to have Kaladin and his men start guarding King Elhokar.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Map

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the veteran thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the newbie thread if this is your first time reading, or you've only read some of the Cosmere novels.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 16 | Mistborn Era 2 #2 | Shadows of Self: Ars Arcanum, Final Thoughts, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Blurb, Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Chapters 6 through 12

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries of each chapter we will be discussing. I've tried to make them unbiased, but if you see anything that could be construed as spoilery, please point them out because I'm using these same summaries in the newbie thread. I'd like to keep their experience as spoiler-free as possible, so even if I make a tiny mistake, please let me know.

I usually make a comment for each chapter, but feel free to start your own comment thread to discuss anything you want.

Blurb

Provided For Reference:

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

The ancient oaths have at last been spoken; the spren return. Men seek that which was lost. I fear the struggle will destroy them.

It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit. Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves. They can brace a broken soul; but they can also widen its fissures.

The Windrunner, lost in a shattered land, balanced upon the boundary between vengeance and honor. The Lightweaver, slowly being consumed by her past, searching for the lie that she must become. The Bondsmith, born in blood and death, striving to rebuild what was destroyed. The Explorer, straddling the fates of two peoples, forced to choose between slow death and a terrible betrayal of all she believes.

It is past time for them to awaken, for the Everstorm looms.

And the Assassin has arrived.

Prologue: To Question

Arch Faces: Battar - Battar ----- Battar - Battar

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Jasnah Kholin

Setting: Kholinar, capital city of the kingdom of Alethkar.

Timeline: (1167.10.8.4) (Flashback) Six years ago.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Jasnah leaves the feast celebrating the signing of the Alethi treaty with the Parshendi. On her way to a clandestine meeting that she had scheduled, she notices her shadow pointing the wrong way. Her shadow slowly returns to normal, but she is disconcerted. This is not the first time this has happened to her, and she wonders if she is cursed. As she continues, she observes a group of oily black figures materialize before her. Jasnah then transfers to Shadesmar for the first time. She almost drowns in the sea of beads before figuring out how to form the beads into the shape of one of the palace hallways. One of the figures approaches her drawing a sword and Jasnah manifests a statue of Talenel to protect herself. The figure bows to her while his companions whisper to each other, and Jasnah is transferred back to the Physical Realm. She notices that the lanterns near her have been drained of Stormlight.

She hurries on to the meeting, where she tells the assassin Liss that she only wants her brother's wife, Aesudan, watched for now. Jasnah reminds Liss of their first agreement: Jasnah will match payment of any offer made against a member of her family, in exchange for the name of whoever tried to have them assassinated.

As she leaves, Jasnah hears the Parshendi's drums cease. In the hall, she hears two men discussing an individual named Ash as well as what Jasnah believes is a Shardblade. Continuing on, Jasnah hears screams and starts running, following a trail of destruction that leads to her father's rooms. She watches as Szeth collapses the balcony beneath himself and Gavilar. She begins to cry as he stands over her father and wonders what he is doing. When he walks away she sees that her father is dead, his blade having appeared next to him, and despairs over failing in her efforts to protect her family.

Members of the Parshendi ruling council, including Klade, Gangnah, and Varnali, approach Jasnah and apologize. They confess to hiring Szeth to assassinate Gavilar, claiming he was about to do something very dangerous.

Part One: Alight

Character Focus: Shallan / Kaladin / Dalinar

Chapter 1: Santhid

Arch Faces: Pailiah - Pailiah ----- Pailiah - Pailiah

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.6.5) The day after the Battle of The Tower (TWoK, Chapters 64 through 69, and Chapter 73). Four days after Shallan confronts Jasnah (TWoK, Chapters 70 through 74). Five days before the Epilogue of The Way of Kings.

*Note: I put the date of Chapter 75 (the last non-Epilogue chapter) of The Way of Kings as "1173.9.7.1-ish". I hadn't read this chapter closely at the time of figuring out that date yet. I went and found some confirmation though. Chapter 75 actually happened just after midnight, the evening after the Battle of The Tower, so it shares the same date as this chapter, which just happened in the morning, after the highstorm. I've updated the previous post, so if anyone goes back looking at dates, they'll see the most accurate dates possible.

Epigraph:

To be perfectly frank, what has happened these last two months is upon my head. The death, destruction, loss, and pain are my burden. I should have seen it coming. And I should have stopped it.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

The chapter opens with Shallan sketching Shadesmar aboard Tozbek's ship, the Wind's Pleasure, sailing south of Roshar. While sketching, she notices an embossed pattern appear on her sketch. The pattern moves when Shalland tries to touch it, startling her and causing her to drop her sketches which Yalb collects for her.

A scout spots something in the water which turns out to be a Santhid--a large, rare sea creature viewed by sailors as good luck and whose shell is the only thing anyone ever sees. Seeing an opportunity, Shallan decides she needs to sketch the first ever picture of a living Santhid. After much debate with Yalb and Tozbek, and after conversing with Jasnah about Shadesmar and Spren in some detail for the first time, the sailors finally agree to allow Shallan to be lowered over the side of the boat to get a look at the Santhid. Jasnah tells Shallan that she has spoken to Navani about the possibility of repairing the Soulcaster Shallan possesses so that her brothers can give it back to the Ghostbloods. Shallan is also informed that she has been betrothed to Adolin Kholin, which she accepts willingly.

Chapter 2: Bridge Four

Arch Faces: Talenel - Talenel ----- Talenel - Talenel

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains.

Timeline: (1173.9.6.5) Same day as Chapter 1.

Epigraph:

Our first clue was the Parshendi. Even weeks before they abandoned their pursuit of the gemhearts, their pattern of fighting changed. They lingered on the plateaus after battles, as if waiting for something.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Kaladin rides out the first highstorm since being freed in a small room attached to his men's' new barracks within Dalinar's war camp. Upon exiting the room he is greeted with cheers by his men who have been shaving their beards during the storm with Rock's razor. Kaladin contemplates the betrayals of both Sadeas and Amaram while speaking with Skar, Teft, and Moash about how to proceed training the newly freed bridgemen. There are some 1,000 men situated in 20 now empty buildings in Dalinar's camp; buildings recently emptied after the betrayal of Sadeas and the subsequent loss of soldiers. Kaladin decides they will find the most eager bridgemen and train them personally, sending them back to pass on their training to larger groups of bridgemen, all of whom have been given permission to leave as free men although the majority of them have not done so. Kaladin says his worst case scenario plan is to have all 1,000 men trained and able to leave the war camp as a cohesive band of mercenaries if it comes to that. Having been named Captain by Dalinar, the highest rank Dalinar dared appoint a darkeyes, Kaladin plans to name Sigzil, Rock, Teft, Moash, and Skar lieutenants. Rock will be quartermaster with Lopen as his second, Teft will be in charge of training, Sigzil will be the clerk, and Moash, Skar, and Kaladin will be mainly in charge of guarding Dalinar, who they have mutually agreed after some discussion, is their best hope for remaining free men.

Later, the men previously of Bridge Four visit a tattooist. The tattooist sets about covering the slave brands with tattoos of freedom, including some details of who freed them and when. First Hobber decides he wants a Bridge Four glyph added and after this decision, the rest demand the same. Not to indicate freedom from Bridge Four, but to embrace the unity they found there. Even those members of Bridge Four who were without slave brands opt to get the tattoo including Shen, most on their foreheads though Moash chooses to get it on his arm. Finally Kaladin sits for his tattoo but the ink will not take--his stormlight expelling it--even after banishing his stormlight until the tattoo is set, the ink immediately melts away when he again sucks in stormlight.

After leaving, Kaladin and his men walk through the war camp noting the general mood. Kaladin decides the camp has an air of dread to it following Sadeas' betrayal. The men receive Bridge Four salutes from a few people they pass, Kaladin wondering where they even learned the salute. The men visit the head quartermaster, Rind, to discuss uniforms for the bridgemen. Rind hands out what's left of the old Cobalt Guard uniforms and the men try them on, eventually coming to admire how they look in them. After some discussion with Kaladin, explaining to him that they all identify as Bridge Four despite being free, Kaladin requests that Rind commission new Bridge Four glyph patches for the uniforms.

Chapter 3: Pattern

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Shadesmar

POV Characters: Shallan

Setting: Aboard the ship Wind's Pleasure, along the southern coast of Roshar.

Timeline: (1173.9.7.4) Four days after Chapter 1.

Epigraph:

Soldiers reported being watched from afar by an unnerving number of Parshendi scouts. Then we noticed a new pattern of their penetrating close to the camps in the night and then quickly retreating. I can only surmise that our enemies were even then preparing their stratagem to end this war.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Shallan sits in her cabin on the Wind's Pleasure reading a book written by Jasnah about Vorinism and the Recreance and its effect on the documentation of history, such as the existence of Shadesmar. While studying, the embossed pattern shows up again, this time on the cabin wall, vanishing when she looks directly at it. Shallan notes the similarity between the pattern and the symbol headed creatures she had seen previously. She immediately attempts to sketch the pattern, attracting many creationspren, though she found it difficult to capture the precise pattern. When finished, the pattern seem to rise from the drawing and moves to the floor. Jasnah comes to Shallan's room just as Shallan leaves to find her. Shallan catches a glimpse of what Jasnah explains to her is her own spren, Ivory, just as she tells Shallan that the pattern is Shallan's spren, a Cryptic or liespren. Jasnah explains about the Knights Radiant and the Orders, explaining that their Soulcasting is a shared surge, but that their Orders are not the same, judging by their different spren. A lengthy discussion of the nature of spren and Jasnah's opinions of the Almighty and the Heralds follows.

Chapter 4: Taker of Secrets

Arch Faces: Ishar - Ishar ----- Ishar - Ishar

Iconography: Kholin Crest

POV Characters: Dalinar

Setting: A vision of the past. Dalinar's quarters in the Kholin warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.1) Six days after The Way of Kings, Chapter 75.

Epigraph:

The next clue came on the walls. I did not ignore this sign, but neither did I grasp its full implications.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Dalinar is experiencing another vision. He describes how he is running through what he believes to be the Purelake along with about a dozen armed and armored men, though he notes that they are clad in ancient leather armor. At first he is unsure if they are running away from something or toward something, until he notices a Fortress apparently made completely out of onyx. His group meets up with another one led by a Knight Radiant in deep red glowing Plate. Dalinar thus determines that this vision takes place before the Recreance. The Radiant informs them that Caeb thought he saw something and tells them to look around. When one of the men hears Dalinar mumbling to himself, as he describes what is happening, he tells Dalinar to look for a spren that isn't behaving the way it should because spren that were touched by Sja-anat are different. Dalinar repeats the words quietly, hoping that Navani will record them, when he notices that the female Knight is talking to apparently nobody. As he looks around he sees a face of shadow with red eyes in the water. When he points this out to the others, the Knight, after noting that this is Sja-anat's spy, sends Caeb to the checkpoint and tells the others to keep watching for the carrier. Dalinar chases after the spren while describing it, when it is suddenly joined by a six-foot-tall spren. As the second one dives into the rock, Dalinar stumbles back. He gets pulled back further by one of the men as the ground starts to tremble. Dalinar watches as the spren, having somehow apparently animated the rock, starts to climb out of the rock with its new rock body. The soldiers, recognizing it as a Thunderclast, start yelling for Hammers.

Dalinar wakes to Navani fervently transcribing the last of his words before recording Dalinar's detailed description of the vision to be used by his scholars in their attempts to translate Navani's transcription. The two then discuss Dalinar's plans to publish his proclamation as Highprince of War in the next few days, Navani having convinced him to first release the news to the other highprinces in private. Dalinar, exhausted by the growing burden of responsibility bestowed upon him by his visions, falls asleep by the fire following Navani's departure. He wakes hours later, the fire burned out, and rises to attend to his duties. Dalinar stops suddenly when he notices a series of marks newly scratched on the wall to form glyphs, reading "Sixty-two days. Death follows."

Chapter 5: Ideals

Arch Faces: Chanarach - Chanarach ----- Chanarach - Chanarach

Iconography: Spears & Banner

POV Characters: Kaladin / Sadeas

Setting: Dalinar's warcamp in the Shattered Plains. Sadeas' quarters in his warcamp.

Timeline: (1173.9.8.2) The day after Chapter 4.

Epigraph:

The sign on the wall proposed a greater danger, even, than its deadline. To foresee the future is of the Voidbringers.

–From the personal journal of Navani Kholin, Jeseses 1174

Summary:

Kaladin and the members of Bridge Four listen to a crier read Dalinar's proclamation. The proclamation states that all gemhearts won in battle will now belong to the king, and shares of that wealth will be apportioned at the Crown's discretion. The men are concerned that this will sow even more discontent among the highprinces, making their job as bodyguards to Dalinar more difficult. Kaladin orders Rock to start training cooks for the other bridgeman barracks, hoping it will make them less despondent, then heads to the Pinnacle to relieve Skar's team. On the way, Syl worries that Kaladin no longer laughs.

Meanwhile, Torol Sadeas sits in front of an elaborate stone table with Oathbringer stuck through it. He thinks about how often he had lusted after the weapon, but now possessing it feels hollow. His wife Ialai enters the room, and mentions that she has used Dalinar's heavy recruitment drive to place more spies in his war camp. They talk about how the other highprinces hate the proclamation, and plan to fan the flames of discontent. Torol wants conquest. He plans to let Dalinar alienate the other highprinces and fracture the kingdom, at which point he will "forge a new Alethkar from flame and tears".

Once at the king's palace, Kaladin is allowed to stay for a meeting consisting of Dalinar, King Elhokar, Adolin, Navani, Renarin, General Khal, and his wife Teshav. Teshav reports that the highprinces are irate. They had hoped that Dalinar would reconsider, and sending the proclamation out to the public has provoked them. Elhokar says that it is a disaster, and fears that they'll be dead before the week is out. Dalinar says he'll unite the kingdom or destroy it trying. The proclamation was made in order to re-focus the highprinces' attention on the war, and Dalinar did this knowing that it would enrage them. He wants the highprinces angry, to remind them of why they came to the Shattered Plains in the first place. He then announces his intention to "disarm" the highprinces by having Adolin begin dueling for the Shardblades and Shardplate in their armies. Lastly, when prompted on his endgame, Dalinar states his intention to refound the Radiants. He isn't sure why exactly he needs to do this, but he knows he has to. Dalinar also plans to have Kaladin and his men start guarding King Elhokar.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Map

Interior Artwork

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

This is the newbie thread. Make sure you read the rules before commenting.

Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 16 | Mistborn Era 2 #2 | Shadows of Self: Chapters 17 through 26, Epilogue [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 16 | Mistborn Era 2 #2 | Shadows of Self: Ars Arcanum, Final Thoughts, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 17 | The Stormlight Archive #2 | Words of Radiance: Blurb, Prologue, Chapters 1 through 5

NEXT UNIT

Next week we will be returning to Roshar, with Words of Radiance, the 2nd book in The Stormlight Archive.

Like with The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance has a blurb that is written by an in-world character and is considered canon. You can read the blurb here, since not all editions include it.

TRIVIA

The rest of this post contains various trivia, including easy-to-miss details and long-running connections between books. It also incorporates external information from sources like author annotations and interviews ("Words of Brandon" or WoB). While most of this information is eventually revealed in the books, sharing it now enhances your overall understanding, aligning with Brandon Sanderson's practice of early fan engagement and clarification.

OOPS, I FORGOR

So, I meant to have this section in the trivia post for Sixth of the Dusk, but completely forgot. But it still works out well here.

Back in the trivia for Allomancer Jak, I mentioned how Sanderson RAFO'd questions about whether or not the bird Jak saw was a kandra. A lot of you thought the RAFO was suspicious, and that if it wasn't a kandra, Sanderson would have just answered "No." However, you are now aware of a 2nd possibility. The full interaction is as follows:

Question: Is the bird that talked to Allomancer Jak a kandra?

Sanderson: Haha, RAFO. Allomancer Jak thinks that it probably must be.

Question: Are you gonna say if it's an Aviar?

Sanderson: I'm going to say Allomancer Jak has a strange blend of trustworthiness and not. He doesn't think that he's lying when he says things.

THE DRAMA

Speaking of Allomancer Jak, there's some amusing behind the scenes drama you can infer if you look close enough.

The broadsheet from The Alloy of Law was The Elendel Daily. The broadsheet in Shadows of Self is The House Record. Take a closer look at the start of Allomancer Jak's story from The House Record:

I need not remind my astute readers of the precarious situation in which I was left at the end of last week's column, but for those of you whose heightened tastes have just now led them from the gutters of disgraceful journalism to the noble pages of The House Record, let me present a short recapitulation.

What this implies is that Jak has some sort of disagreement, probably financial, with The Elendel Daily and chose to sell his writings to The House Record instead, whereupon he starts badmouthing The Elendel Daily.

You'll note that, compared to his previous stories, this one has a lot of in-story advertising of products.

RETCON

Some of you questioned if we'd seen Paalm before. The technical answer is "yes", but...not really. I talked a little about this in the trivia for The Hero of Ages. The 10th Anniversary Edition of The Hero of Ages (which was released after Shadows of Self was published), added a small paragraph to chapter 7:

VarSell eyed him. He was of the Fifth Generation—two centuries younger than TenSoon. Indeed, even among those of the Third Generation—with scant exceptions such as Paalm, constantly sent on personal missions by the Father—few kandra had as much experience with the outside world as TenSoon.

We've now gotten to the point where, when I try to google things to confirm them, my own trivia comes up first... I couldn't find the exact quote, but apparently these small retcons were Sanderson's editor's idea and he ran with it.

SHOW ME THE LIGHT

In the trivia for Sixth of the Dusk, I prompted you all to answer "What is stormlight*. /u/heinz57varieties managed to get the answer I was looking for, which was "gaseous Investiture".

I've mentioned that a Shard's Investiture leaks out and can condense into a few different forms. Most commonly, it's liquid, in the form of wells/lakes/pools, which are more formally known as perpendicularities. They can also condense into a solid, in the form of God Metals, like atium and lerasium. Sometimes they condense into blobs of sentience, like with seons and spren. And finally, Investiture can condense into a gas or vapor.

Stormlight is the vapor form of condensed Investiture from one or more of the Shards on Roshar (RAFO'ing the details for now). Notably though, we've seen "stormlight" before: the mists on Scadrial. If you wanted to, you could call the mists Preservationlight (or, modernly, Harmonylight). Preservation explicitly denied access to Preservationlight, so people can't just "breathe in" the mists to power Allomancy. Sazed continues this tradition.

However, we did see one exception to this: Preservation allowed Vin to draw on the mists to power her Allomancy. She did this twice, first in The Final Empire to defeat the Lord Ruler, and again at the end of The Hero of Ages, when she "breathed in" all of the mists and Ascended to Preservation herself.

Mechanically, what she did was the same thing that Kaladin is doing when he breathes in stormlight. If Sazed allowed it, he could let others power their Allomancy from the mists, instead of requiring metals to key into his Investiture directly. Sanderson talks about some of the mechanics involved here:

Question: If metals shape the Investiture in Allomancy, causing a Steelpush or whatever, how is it that the mists can be used to perform the same feat? What is 'shaping' the inhaled mists into a Steelpush, if there's no metal "nozzle" to do so?

Sanderson: Consistently through the cosmere, once you have the power in hand and it has permeated you, will becomes your nozzle. This can be seen in Warbreaker, where the power has been distributed and inhabits the people. The nozzle idea is important for Magics that are drawing power externally, as it keeps the power from overwhelming and destroying you. (Which, basically, happened to Vin at the end of the Trilogy--she got consumed by the magic. She became something new, now, so it didn't KILL her. It destroyed what she was, transformed her into something else.)

So you see magics like on Sel and Scadrial where a specific nozzle is needed--as the power source is external, at least with Allomancy. Will and intent take a backseat, though still pop up on occasion. On Nalthis (and in a lesser way, Roshar) will and intent are more important, and what you are trying to do shapes the magic more directly.

A little direct manifestation in this is found in the subtle differences between Allomancy and Feruchemy. In Allomancy, when you enhance the senses, you just get a blast of power--and all senses are enhanced, whether you want them all or not. In Feruchemy, you can be more precise, and pick a specific sense to store. The power is internal here, and therefore more limited in how much you can draw--but you can also be more precise with its manipulation.

Note that Roshar Surgebinding is a special case, as the magical symbiosis there is stronger than it is on other worlds, as much of the magic involves bits of power who have become sapient.

Question: How much crossover is there in use? Like if one "breathes" in the mists they can use it to power their allomancy. Could an Allomancer utilize stormlight to power his allomancy as well?

Sanderson: Most of the magics can be hacked together in one way or another, but some are easier to interchange than others.

SHADOWS OF SELF

If you're curious about the title of this book, Sanderson has answer directly why he called it Shadows of Self:

There are two answers to this. One is the kandra are kind of doing different versions of themselves. The other is that Wax is trying to decide which person he is, through this. The term "shadows of self" is actually a phrase that one of the kandra use in the first trilogy talking about this idea of changing who they are and things like that, so the phrase had import to me in-world.

STERIS IS BEST GIRL

That is all. It's written in the trivia post, therefore it is true. Fight me.

Ok, and just as an aside, a lot of you questioned why Wayne is so mean to Steris. Wax literally saved Wayne's life. They've been together for the better part of 2 decades. Wayne was there throughout Wax's entire relationship with Lessie. He saw how happy they were together; real love, affection, and devotion. Lessie made Wax happy, in a genuine way.

Wax and Steris's marriage is one of convenience. You could practically call it an arranged marriage, if only one arranged by Wax himself. Wayne doesn't want to see his best friend tied down to what he perceives as a loveless relationship with an odd woman. He thinks Wax is just hiding away and running from real happiness with this marriage. In his mind, he knows Wax could do better, be happier, and pursue something "real", rather than go through with a sham marriage of convenience.

He believes he's looking out for his friend.

CHART ME A COURSE

I've shared partial charts before, but I wanted to go ahead and provide the full, official charts for Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. These were each provided in the various 10th Anniversary Editions of the original trilogy, but had slight spoilers for this Era. Now they don't contain anything explicitly spoilery, but there is new information you can glean from them. So feast your peepers on these:

Metallic Arts Charts

TID-BITS

Here are just a few random WoB's that relate to Scadrian magic systems. There are tons of these, so I'll spread them out on the remaining Mistborn novels. I may even put some in the Stormlight trivias.

Question: Does Iron store mass or weight?

Sanderson: Excellent question. The thing is it really does involve mass, but I’m breaking some physics rules, basically. I have to break a number of physics rules in order to make Magic work in the first place. Those whole laws of Thermodynamics, I’m like “You are my bane!” (laughter) But I try to work within the framework, and I have reasonings built up for myself, and some of them have to be kind of arbitrary. But the thing is, it does store mass if you look at how it interacts, but when a Feruchemist punches someone, you’re not having a mass transference of a 1000 pounds transferring the mass into someone else.

So there are a few little tweaks. You can go talk to Peter, because Peter has the actual math. Oh Peter’s back there. Peter is dressed up as Allomancer Jak from the broadsheet. In fact we’re giving some out broadsheets, aren’t we Peter. So when you come through the line, we’re giving out Broadsheets. Please don’t take fifty—I think we might have enough for everybody. The broadsheets are the newspaper from the Alloy of Law time. It’s an inworld newspaper. It’s actually reproduced in the book in four different pages, and we put it together in one big broadsheet.

So anyway, you can talk with him, he’s got more of the math of it. I explained the concept to Peter and he’s better with the actual math, so he said “We’ll figure it out.”

///

Question: Let's say we had a platypus Feruchemist, who can sense electric fields. Could he make a tinmind for that sense?

Sanderson: (Paraphrased) Platypus tinmind should work.

///

Question: Let's say some Mistborn jerk tosses Nightblood into the mists. What happens?

Sanderson: (Paraphrased) I suspect the mists would pull away from Nightblood, though he'd try to feed on them.

///

Question: Does Shardplate provide protection against emotional Allomancy?

Sanderson: Yes. Don't dismiss your helmet when you're around an Allomancer.

///

Question: How fast could a steel/steel Twinborn move?

Sanderson: You'd hit physical limits eventually. While the Metallurgic arts generally enhanced the body to deal with the powers granted, things like air resistance would hold you back--perhaps even kill you--if you weren't careful.

///

Question: Could a Seeker savant tell the difference between regular Allomancy and Compounding?

Sanderson: It is possible!

///

Question: Can a Shardblade interrupt iron or steel lines?

Sanderson: (After mulling it over a bit, he was very interested in this question) It would be theoretically possible, because steel lines manifest themselves on the Spiritual Realm. Also, there are other things that can cut/interfere with steel lines.

///

Question: So, would Allomancy work if the metals were a suppository?

Sanderson: That is theoretically possible, but gross... There's nothing special about the stomach. It's kinda getting it into your spirit, and things.

///

Question: If you took somebody-- an Allomancer and them in a different one of your worlds, could they still burn metal there?

Sanderson: Could Allomancers burn metal on other planets in the cosmere, yes they could. Good question.

///

Question: I was wondering, what would happen if you Steelpushed or Ironpulled on liquid metal?

Sanderson: It would work a lot like ferrofluid works. You'd be able to push or pull on it. It would just respond in a fluid way.

///

Question: Is the metal on Scadrial specially Invested? Can an Allomancer use metals from other planets?

Sanderson: Metal is a key, not the source of power itself. Most is not specially Invested. It glows [to Ruin/Preservation/Harmony's eyes] because of the power seeking to come through it, not because of the power within it.

///

Question: Can a Seeker burning bronze detect a Surgebinder using Stormlight? Do different Surges have different pulses?

Sanderson: Yes, and yes. Good questions.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes