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

Title: The Divided God
Presumably this is related to his dual capacities with Passion and his intelligence/foresight/etc. 
I note that the chapter illustration is altered from the intelligent/compassionate representation in Rhythm of War. This Taravangian has swords and frowns in both directions.
This does also suggest that Taravangian is once again the (or at least one) repeating interlude character. Lots of reveals and secrets to look forward to in that case.

Icon: Nale
Well, Nale and his skybreakers are allied with Odium, so I suspect we’ll see some interaction there. Odium doesn’t really go in for Justice to look for a heraldic virtue connection.

Holding a dying child, huh? Are you channeling your compassionate hospital years, Vargo, or your (identical) sinister death rattle harvesting operation? I am very concerned about this.

Had to check the map. Tu Bayla is between Jah Keved and the Purelake. Nice that we get a brief infodump of culture in this country (sophisticated musical traditions, flower and star names, everybody has pet minks) before we never see it again. 

He’s feeling (Passions!) empathy and sorrow for these starving children in famine-ravaged Tu Bayla, to the extent that he forms a physical avatar to be with them in their suffering. And Cultivation has stepped from the ether to speak with him. I can’t decide if Odium is using this part of his nature to manipulate her, but I expect that’s the case, even if he’s being genuine in his thoughts and feelings.

The pact Rayse made forbids Odium from “taking direct action against any who are not fully given to you.” I wonder what that “fully” is doing, and how “against” precludes helpful urges as well.

Alright, I read through the rest of that conversation without taking specific notes. The gist of it is Taravangian demands the alleviation of suffering through divine intervention, arguing that enough free will can be preserved. He also (at least vocally) committed to the mission of ensuring a single god rules the cosmere–this is ambiguously phrased to imply he wants to continue Rayse’s homicidal approach, but doesn’t actually confirm that Taravangian is similarly against recombining the powers. 

The space of this conversation is limited, so I shouldn’t be too critical, but the philosophy on display here feels very simplistic. Maybe it’s because Taravangian is so focused on/distracted by the emotions he’s feeling. Maybe it’s just because I recently read a story steeped heavily in several centuries of Buddhist philosophical tradition, and the comparative depth (across half a million words, so obviously not a fair comparison) stands out.

The piece that did stick out to me was his indictment of the other shards as fundamentally too afraid of death to utilize their power to the extent he deems appropriate to make the cosmere what it “ought” to be. In his mind, they killed Adonalsium and thus know that gods can die, and so they are guarding against that eventuality when they should be risking themselves to make things better.

There are interesting parallels and differences with Mormon theology, a faith tradition Brandon has drawn from in the past for aspects of his worldbuilding. Here Taravangian is most similar to Lucifer, who in that tradition became Satan because he sought to (aggrandize himself by) removing free will so people wouldn’t suffer from the consequences of their now-nonexistent choices. The similarities are clear. As for differences, Taravangian’s approach is more tempered, appears less selfish, and is in opposition to flawed beings rather than a God of divinely perfect character. I like the complexity of the character, but I’m not sure I like the “villain origin story” coding that imbues this presentation of Taravangian’s plan and values.

Anyway, I remain very curious how Taravangian’s stated goals and plans might differ from his internal intentions. I’m still rather expecting the current contest of Champions with Dalinar to be a bizarre bait-and-switch where the new Odium actually wants to lose in a specific way to achieve his real win condition. Probably a crazy assumption, but that’s my take–not sure if I’ve mentioned it here already.

He’s clearly making an effort to keep the vessel and the shard distinct, with his Taravangian personality dominant. His ultimate plan remains to save everyone he can, and his priorities and choice of trade-offs are likely unchanged from his days with the Diagram.