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Just started another re-read/listen to the Way of Kings, kind of as prep for SA 5 later this year. I noticed something that caused me to pause in thought, and wonder about life on Roshar, and laugh a little bit. In chapter 15, Dalinar uses the metaphor “like a pat of butter sliding off a too-hot knife” to describe his memories of his wife. And I suddenly thought “where are they getting milk for butter?” The only “common” mammals outside of Shinovar are horses/Ryshadium, minks, and they mention swine being used as bait in the greatshell hunt. My guess is that they use horse milk, just because that would be most similar to cultures on earth (nomadic Mongolian people often use horse milk) and my Wikipedia research says that while pig milk is similar to cow milk, pigs don’t tolerate milking well, lactating sows are too aggressive. My partner insists that mink milk must be the answer, but how do you milk a mink?!?! They’ve got to be too small. I guess people milk is an option as well? But using either people or Ryshadium for milk would be odd, humans don’t tend to like using other sentient beings as food sources. Shallan specifically mentions enjoying jam imported from Shinovar, but I would think that dairy products would be too delicate to ship very far for trade on Roshar. Even though I suppose that fabrials would enable refrigeration. Am I forgetting some part where they talk about obtaining dairy products? Anybody know of a “word of Brandon” on this?

So I have been doing research for the wiki on the Ryshadium, Sureblood and Gallant. And as I have been looking back through Oathbringer I have noticed some interesting development and a lot of glaring gaps when it comes to the Ryshadium, specifically the way they choose a rider. Every time in every book when taming the Ryshadium or being chosen by a Ryshadium is brought up it is vague or cut off in the characters thoughts. I am starting to think this is on purpose. We know that you must be chosen by a Ryshadium otherwise they cannot be tamed, we don't know anything about this process. Additionally there is some interesting development with Dalinar in relation to horses in the flashbacks of Oathbringer. At the beginning he rides a horse and doesn't care at all when he breaks it's back in battle, compared to now when he has this special connection with Gallant. For me that shows a lot of development in a lot of ways. He went from a man who would never be chosen by a Ryshadium, to one who was chosen. Also does anyone have any theories as to why music spren would be seen around Ryshadium? Are there any book descriptions of music spren?

So, something small but funny I did not see mentioned on this pages, I thought I'd bring up. There is a rather hilarious MeLaan horse joke in the book. There is WoB somewhere that the first mental image of Wax and Wayne books he had was Wayne riding into a Roughs town on a kandra disguised as horse. He then had to abandon that scene because other things became more important. The fact that the whole "Oh, you mean *riding* them?" is an homage to that first mental image he had, makes it even more fun to read....