Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.

A Portion of the Southern Sea of Souls
Map image here.
I want to reiterate that Nazh is a gem. He’s much more present on this map than some of the others, with lots of annotations. I love it. 

First of all, what is that creature in the top left?! It looks reminiscent of a larkin but is clearly a creature of the Cognitive Realm and looks awesome. A less fanciful rendition of this absolutely has to appear in one of Shallan’s sketchbook entries in the future. I will petition for this.

The city names are great, and you can guess which spren might have founded each one. Oathbound Spires, Justice Untarnished, Lasting Integrity, Brilliance Eternal… and of course Perpetual Sobriety. I would have predicted Nazh’s reaction, but to have it spelled out on the page is delightful.

I do wonder if there is anything to be gleaned about the spatial arrangement of the spren locations and how they are analogous to physical realm cultures. Do cryptics congregate where they do because of something on the other side? How far back do you have to go in human/listener history to see the seeds of spren cities and the divisions that have formed there? Is the influence of spren on people and singers now strong enough to perpetuate those cultural differences?

I also really like the idea of a spren settlement called “Nameless.” That has some fascinating realmatic consequences that I want to see explored, even if only in an interlude.
...actually, Shallan’s path passes directly through that location, so it looks like we’ll get it in-story. Woot!

I am also particularly enthused by the label of Nohadon’s stairway. It’s been speculated that these were a feature in Shadesmar, but we haven’t gotten to see them yet. From what we saw of Navani’s researchers, they regularly visit the cognitive realm around Urithiru so these will have been known by now. I’m slightly disappointed that we don’t get to see Dalinar’s reaction to learning about them for the first time, with his focus on Nohadon, but seeing Shallan and Adolin descend them to start their journey should be just as good.

I will note that even in Shadesmar it is impossible to walk to Urithiru, given the fact that it is isolated in the bead ocean. So he was still exaggerating with poetic turns of phrase even if part of it was literally possible.