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

Chapter 114 (Broken Gods)
Icons: Betab and Palliah, doubled but not mirrored, similar to last chapter. Hm. Has the symmetry been broken by the ascension of a new Odium? Is that what’s going on here? I guess I’ll have to see if the pattern holds.
Chapter icon is intelligent Taravangian.

Epigraph: Speaking as a human, I’m not too keen on being helped to my “final Passion,” thanks. Sorry, El. Not a fan of this approach.

 

Rlain’s spren is named Tumi, and it’s the one they kept thinking was a voidspren. 

I like the title “Bridger of Minds” for Rlain, and I’m glad that he got a spren, but I’m not really enthused by him being one of the aberrant Radiants via Sja-Anat, or being a Truthwatcher. Neither feel right to me, and I’m still salty that he didn’t end up as the Bondsmith with the Sibling. I suppose that would have undercut Venli’s first-listener-Radiant accomplishment, and Rlain’s not really the strong personality type to negotiate with Dalinar, so it’s probably for the best. But still, why have his spren be the special-flavor kind? It sets him apart as different yet again. Also, why have another truthwatcher spren be the sja-anat touched one?

Leshwi and company have become listeners and are following Venli into the hills to find the lost legion. Nice, and it’s great to see Kaladin and Leshwi parting on mutually acknowledged positive terms. Still, it’s kind of sad that they won’t be best frenemies any more. That dynamic was ship-tastic.

And Teft gets a funeral.

***
Well, that answers the question of Szeth. He figures that the burned-out corpse is Taravangian. 

Taravangian is struggling against the overwhelming Passion of Odium’s mantle, but he’s been prepared for this. He was given the capacity to stop what was coming, not only by being attuned to pick up the power, but also by being trained to handle overwhelming emotion and overflowing intellect. He is uniquely able to remain himself under its weight.

And he’s about to talk to Cultivation, but of course we don’t get to see any of that.

***
Teft and Phendorana get memorials in Urithiru. Everyone is there except Rock.

And things are ambiguously worded again to try to convince us Rock is dead. “Kaladin wouldn’t be seeing Rock again.” Right, we believe that, definitely. It’s not as though he’s obviously passed through into Shadesmar for a reappearance down the line. *eyeroll*

Nice moment with Kaladin and Syl, here. I still find it weird that she gets to be human sized sometimes, though. Spren should always be chibi-sized, imo
***
Oh, we do get to see Cultivation!
Description: black hair, dark skin, and “another shape as well, deeper and truer than the others.”
Welp, I guess she’s one of our dragon Vessels. I don’t know if we’ve established how many of those there are, but here’s one accounted for.

And Taravangian explains the whole training/attuning thing better than I did.

Quote

“All I could do was hope that if you succeeded, my gift would work. That I had changed you into someone who could bear this power with honor.”

That “with honor” is a loaded phrase, given the other dead god in the room.

Oh dear, Taravangian is very spookily thinking of all the loopholes he can use to win that Rayse was too blinded to see. He’s thinking of ways to get around what Cultivation is asking him to do. He has a lot of agency here, and we have no idea what he actually wants. 

Quote

Taravangian was going to save them all.

Well, crap. Looks like we have an antagonist, folks. I have to say, though, this is a much more interesting antagonist than Rayse ever could have been. If this gives us another complex character and relationship like Raboniel, I am all in favor.