This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. 

Endpages

Wait a minute. Wait just a minute! What the what?
This is the Nightwatcher standing by Cultivation. This is not a herald, this is one of the gods. Presumably then we have another one on the front. Surely not Odium, that does not match his description. Is this honor? Is this Tanavast? Checking the illustration list, yes to both. Honor and Cultivation are accompanied here by Talenel and Battah. 

Okay, if I’d taken a moment to think about it I would have remembered that we have had eight heralds already, so I might have expected the gods to accompany them in our portraiture, but somehow I completely forgot about that.

There’s lots to say about each of these pictures, and I'm particularly excited about how much the nightwatcher resembles some of the fan art we saw after book 3. In fact, I'm going to start with Cultivation because that picture is the one I am most excited about. 

Cultivation
Obviously the first thing I do, after getting over my initial excitement, is to look for evidence of her draconic nature. I see suggestions of it in the form of the vines trailing behind her in a shape slightly reminiscent of a tale, as well as the way the mist from the night watcher is flanking her sides in the vague suggestion of wings. It’s subtle, but unless my my own wishful thinking is getting away from me, I believe the artist chose to represent hints of her true form in this depiction. 

Had to quickly double check her name on the coppermind (thank you, arcanists, for the time machine feature!). The name we know for Cultivation’s vessel is Koravellium Avast, which I’ll shorten to Kora here. 

Looking next at the environment surrounding Kora, there are life spren dotting the page and I love the glow that they provide along with a real sense of depth. The flower petals and vines and trees all show great affinity with her domain of cultivation and life. The backlight and halo effect push that traditional depiction of divinity, while at the same time she's very physically present. 

Her stature is imposing while also being welcoming, in a way that she appears strong and maternal. Her hands seem to be in an act of either bestowal or creation but also offering welcome. The glowing green tinge in her eyes is eerie and contributes to the impression of otherworldliness. I like how physically real she seems with the teased hair and very human form, which contrasts prominently with the ethereal nature of the Nightwatcher in the foreground. 

The Nightwatcher is very spooky and other, and remains imposing on her own. 

Notably, Cultivation does not wear a glove to cover her safe hand. This is in direct contrast to Battah on the facing page. I will need to look at the previous artwork some of which depicted covered versus uncovered safe hands to possibly speculate about the origin of that tradition. I recall Chana did not wear one, but Vedel did. Looking again at the other female heralds, Pali and Ash both had their safehands obscured in their portraits wither with a glove or a sleeve. Looks like Chana is the exception for some reason, but not unique since Kora/Cultivation here is also not hewing to Vorin sensibilities.

Battah
Obviously the first thing to notice here is the string of four bird skulls pain from her belt sash. At first I was thinking the numerology matched, but no, Battah is associated with the number seven, not four. More importantly, why birds? We know that “chickens” are neither widespread nor numerous here on Roshar. As the patron of elsecallers, I wonder if images for imagery a flight and death are meaningful here. 

The regal pose and then diadem on her forehead definitely evoke a sense of nobility. One hand is covered in accordance with Vorin sensibilities, and as mentioned earlier may help us speculate about the origins of that cultural tradition. The other hand holds a branch of leaves with perhaps soul casting implications? More obviously appropriate to the elsecallers, the stars in her dress and cape make me think of the beads in shadesmar and the potential for travel through the cognitive realm. 

The moon behind her is large and prominent, I believe the purple one is Salas? Confirmation needed. I don't know what symbolic significance each moon has, but it is interesting that one of them would be associated with her particularly. Ah, yes I was right about the violet moon being Salas. Hard to believe I actually remembered that correctly. Salas is also the smallest of the moons, so the size here is even more exaggerated. Hm, I also just confirmed that the color associated with her symbol in the Double Eye chart and the 7th gas giant in the system chart are more of a turquoise hue, quite different from the violet moon behind her. The association with Salas is not a simple matter of color correspondence. (Her gem of zircon comes in many colors on earth, but presumably is also turquoise-ish in its polestone variety.)

It appears she's standing on a liquid or sea. Is that intended to be the physical ocean? Or perhaps the bead ocean in the cognitive realm? Many questions. The clouds in the sky have a very physical-realm form, which limits how much cognitive symbolism should be assumed. 

Taln
Now this is a heroic pose. The burning sword, stalwart demeanor, and determined expression fit the patron of the Stonewards, as well as the man who withstood Damnation for a thousand years. He seems to be physically emerging from the rock behind him… or perhaps it is billowing smoke? It could well be either given the surges of cohesion and tension, though the more I look at it the more I’m inclined to go with smoke. The way the shadow creeps around his feet at the bottom gives it a particularly ominous feeling, and while the texture makes it look like smoke, it could also be striations of rock. 

Those pillars behind him, however, are extremely disturbing. There are many bodies in apparent pain, symbolizing the torment of Braize–whether of the heralds themselves or of those they were forced to see tortured around them. Kaladin’s visions in Braize give just a few hints about what Damnation entailed. 

I do think it's interesting that he has a scarf or tassel of some kind descending from his pauldrons. It has the glyph of stonewards printed upon it, just like the symbol in the stone step at his feet. It's a very visually striking accent to the armor that drives home this is a man of importance, not simply a warrior. 

The embers dancing through the smoke around him are presumably the stoneward spren, though I don't remember what they're called at the moment. I'll have to double-check the art from book 4. Um, nope. That was wrong. Peakspren are the ones that look like stone golems in the physical realm, and have no similarity to these motes of flame.

I note the glyph for number nine at his feet, which is the expected numerology. I have no idea what the other characters on the face of that step are meant to show. I suspect that these are not transliterated as we see in the other internal art, but rather intended to be genuine Rosharan language. As such it is unlikely to be decipherable, but I look forward to seeing attempts by other fans in case it is.

Honor
Tanavast! I shouldn't be surprised that his characteristic color is blue, but I suppose I am to an extent. Or perhaps it’s not–those are more likely wind or honor spread passing through the gem (sapphire?) in front of him. That brings up a host of questions about the interrelation between gems and spren, especially given that modern fabrials are not reflective of past technology. 

His clothing is very billowy, especially in the legs and sleeves. It makes me wonder whether this is a Rosharan fashion, or instead something from his homeworld with received tradition causing the art to depict it with some accuracy. He has almost elegant features, if a rather forbidding expression. The long flowing white hair seems to be blown in the wind. 

I'm also slightly surprised to see the lightning behind him matches in color to that of the everstorm on the front cover. Well, perhaps it's not a perfect match. This is more purple than pink or red. Of special note though, is the shattered stone beneath and around him. Is this a reference to Ashyn’s destruction, which would have been the point at which humanity first encountered him? That feels like a stretch. Is it a reference to the power of the highstorms? Or more symbolically, does it indicate the way that he and his power were shattered? Is it both? It does appear that he is surrounded by circular clouds as though in the eye of a storm or the center beat of the high storm. 

I'm very excited to have these depictions Of Honor and Cultivation along with their heralds.

Front matter

Acknowledgments 
Wow, that's a lot of artists! I only recognize about half of those names. I'm excited for more of the wonderful artwork that sets this series apart.

Peter is “inviting” this time. 

I note the DID and amputee/prosthetics experts. Glad to see them acknowledged. Those are some of my favorite parts of these books, and I'm glad Brandon makes the effort to get them right.

Table of contents 
Now this is a departure from form. We have interludes between each of the 10 days rather than the five parts as in the previous books. We'll have to wait and see whether that means more interludes or simply more spaced out. 

It is notable that the 10 days are so explicitly marked out from each other. This will be interesting, given the way Brandon's cast will be splitting up across many locales, and their various climaxes and development will be divorced from each other. In the past time passed faster or slower narratively for groups in different places so that the climaxes could be moved around to fit Brandon’s desired narrative flow. That will be harder to do with such strictly forced chronology.

From a structure perspective it makes for some complications on the writing side, without the option to desynchronize some of those storylines. I look forward to seeing how Brandon juggles that. 

Map 
The map appears to be identical to that from the previous book. Not a surprise given that that follows directly and has not had time to skip in which borders or other features would change.