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

Chapter 64 (Personal Reminder)
Icons: Wit’s around somewhere.
Epigraph: Maybe the undertext is Jasnah, rather than Navani? The writer can’t leave Greater Roshar, implying a spren bond. She also has access to Wit’s insight on artifacts like the one she describes. I’m a bit lost about what the chain might be, though. It’s from the “lands of the dead” which makes me think of Threnody first, though it could be Sel if that’s a reference to dead shards rather than the shades. What sort of “Cognitive anomalies” would one use an anchor for? 

This experience of Jasnah seeking out personal understanding of war is a great sequence. She’s analyzing her own feelings, but not escaping from them.

Pile vines, huh? Add that to the flora of Roshar catalog.

I like the limited asymmetry of these armies. The Fused have apparently adapted to regimented warfare, with an advantage in surgebinding but a disadvantage in cavalry (and other mobile troops, perhaps?)

As someone who has not been to war myself, I too have difficulty envisioning what 40,000 enemy looks like, or blocks of 5,000 spearmen advancing together. 

Ah, a new Fused. Magnified Ones, surge of Progression. Let’s see how they use it.

Hm, something Jasnah isn’t confronting about herself. First, I’m more surprised than I should be about that. Second, what is it? Her bloodthirstiness that she denies in her own mind? That’s my current guess.

Yeah, Jasnah didn’t manage to hide her abilities very long. Swift summon of Ivory, shape changing Ivory, healing a stab through her eye, reshaping her Plate… not sure how much the subterfuge is helping here.

Was her helm’s scream audible to everyone or just her? Because that would be an even bigger giveaway. (Also, further evidence that multiple cousin spren make up each set of Plate.

Hm. Soulcasting oil on your enemies to immediately set alight is certainly a tactic. I see we’re abandoning subtlety now.
Can she perpetually see the cognitive forms of spren? Is her Elsecaller vision similar to listener sight in that way? 

“Why am I breathing again?” –questions you don’t usually ask yourself. #RadiantProblems.

It’s not the Thrill, I’m pretty positive. Is her hyperfocus supernatural at all, or just herself? I’m leaning toward the latter, but I think we’ll find out for sure soon.

She’s surprised that people are exhausted after fighting nonstop for two hours? I think she needs to spend more time around normal people…but I guess that’s what this whole thing was about, in part. Not sure she took away the right lessons.

Jasnah’s reluctance to “remove” her armor despite “dismissing” her helm suggests that manifesting Plate is neither instantaneous nor trivial, even for those who have achieved the requisite tier of Oaths.

Interesting to see that Jasnah is not as farsighted of future developments as I might have expected from her. She’s brilliant but not prescient and cannot predict the outcome of magitech arms races on war doctrine.

Ooo, yes! Jasnah-Wit dialog is fun, but a conversation with the Mink is what I’m excited to see. (How did that happen, anyway?)

What!? The Sleepless fooled Wit? That is some tricksy skill. More importantly, why are they at odds with what Jasnah and Wit are doing? What is their stance on anything, and when can we learn more?

Sleepless in the Ghostbloods? That’s going to complicate a lot of things. I’m betting that’s what was going on with the one Venli spotted. However, the thing that I’m focused on right now is slightly less grave…how did they get their tattoo? Did they have to tattoo each member of their swarm intelligence? Grow one into the required logo? Just arrange a few into the right shape on occasion?

And, of course the chapter cuts off before anything of import about Thaidakar can be said. Now we’re just being teased.