Rock's Name

[Kiwi]

Wondering if anyone else has made this connection, and if there may be some significance to it.

 

"Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor," Rock said, the native Horneater sounds flowing easily from his lips. "Of course.  Is description of very special rock my father discovered the day before my birth." (Pg. 393, Location 7175 of E-book)

 

and

 

"Not just a rock," Tien said, taking out his canteen.  He wetted his thumb, then rubbed it on the flat side of the stone.  The wetness darkened the stone, and made visible an array of white patterns in the rock.

 

The strata of the rock alternated white, brown, black.  The pattern was remarkable...

 

Tien shook his head.  "I found it for you.  To make you feel better."

"I..." It was just a stupid rock.  Yet, inexplicably, Kal did feel better. (Pg. 247, Location 4352 of E-book)

 

I realize this isn't some grand revelation, just something I picked up on while re reading.  Stone seems to be pretty important in this world from what has been hinted at when reading Szeth's chapters.  Perhaps this is a preview of another surge? 

 

I may be drawing from the parallel I see between Vin and her younger sister who died, and Kaladin and his younger brother, by assuming Tien may have had a surge, but it's how I interpret the passages I quoted above.

 

Also, I kind of wonder if the rock really did make Kal feel better through the magic system.  We've seen Kaladin absorb Stormlight from spheres without knowing it, so it may not be too much of a stretch to think that Tien may have done the same.  Or it could have just been the nice gesture from his younger brother.

 

Anywho, let me know what you guys think.

[Claincy]

Hmmm. My first response was, cool idea but I doubt it. Thinking about it a bit more there might be something to this. I don't think that Kaladin feeling better was anything more than a nice gesture. But there might well be something important about rock on Roshar that we aren't aware of.

 

Let's review:

 

(some of this you already mentioned and I've just added detail to or briefly mentioned)

 

The Shin consider rock holy or something. We don't know why or much more details but Szeth describes so much as walking on stone as profane (from memory, I'll check the quote).

Also note in the interlude with the traders that the soulcast metal is hugely valuable to them as it was made without breaking rock.

 

Also note that rocks seem to be very very important to the horneaters as well. There's the example of Rock's name which you mentioned, but I'm fairly certain (again I don't have the book with me to check atm) that there was something special about rocks to his people. I think it might have been hinted at when one of the other bridgmen commented on the Horneaters eating rocks.

 

Another thing that probably isn't really evidence, but thunderclasts, from Dalinar's vision from words of radience. Appear to be made by some sort of spren or something bringing rock to life. I didn't see any indication in the vision that it was something like a fossil being animated or anything more than the spren thingy quite literally making the body out of rock. Also from the quote from the start of Way of Kings as he walks throught he battlefield noting the holes in the ground where thunderclasts had "ripped themselves free".

 

It comes together to suggest that maybe there is something that we don't know about it. *shrug* there's my thoughts.

Edited August 6, 2013 by lord_Ffnord

[Random]

Syl told Kaladin his ability to Surgebind was her doing so I doubt Tien could surge, but I have always thought there was something to Tien's love for rocks that was more than just ordinary.

[Binnut]

In TWoK Hoid mentions to Kaladin that he was named after a rock that became worthless by him wearing it.

This is somewhat a parallel to Rock's name.

[Windrunner]

Wondering if anyone else has made this connection, and if there may be some significance to it.

 

 

and

 

 

I realize this isn't some grand revelation, just something I picked up on while re reading.  Stone seems to be pretty important in this world from what has been hinted at when reading Szeth's chapters.  Perhaps this is a preview of another surge? 

 

I may be drawing from the parallel I see between Vin and her younger sister who died, and Kaladin and his younger brother, by assuming Tien may have had a surge, but it's how I interpret the passages I quoted above.

 

Also, I kind of wonder if the rock really did make Kal feel better through the magic system.  We've seen Kaladin absorb Stormlight from spheres without knowing it, so it may not be too much of a stretch to think that Tien may have done the same.  Or it could have just been the nice gesture from his younger brother.

 

Anywho, let me know what you guys think.

I think there is definitely something to the significance attached to rocks on Roshar. However, I think it's unlikely that there's a direct connection between Rock's name and whatever Tien seems to be doing.

 

 

In TWoK Hoid mentions to Kaladin that he was named after a rock that became worthless by him wearing it.

This is somewhat a parallel to Rock's name.

I see this as being extremely unlikely. Hoid is centuries to millenia old, born on another planet. Rock is in his twenties or thirties and born on Roshar. There just doesn't seem to be a possibility for overlap there.

[Shardlet]

I'm not sure that there is much to Tien in the story beyond his influence on Kaladin.  He is dead so there can be no development to him beyond Kaladin flashbacks.  I would be absolutely floored if there was going to be flashback-type POVs from Tien.  It doesn't seem like it would make much sense.  His development was so brief that I doubt we will get an analog between Tien and another character that would provide for an "Aha, so that is what was going on with Tien."

[Miyabi]

Brandon has a really bad (maybe good) habit of only talking about things in detail if it is important. The fact that he always mentions Tien's fascination with rocks means something. What? I don't know yet, but it is important or Brandon wouldn't have mentioned it in as much detail as he did as often as he did. He's not one to use a red herring very often. Generally description/consistency = important.

I can provide a lot of examples:

The fact that at the end of TFE Vin's earring is mentioned a TON of times. She put it back in before the fight, it gets ripped out, she puts it back in, she then thinks about it a few pages later.

There was a scene in one of the Alcatraz books where the shoes are mentioned and then again later they are mentioned, but are different and it ends up being a different person.

I'm too tired to think of any more off the top of my head, but this is something very consistent within Brandon's writing.

I have NO IDEA what the rocks mean, but they mean something.

[Gloom]

I would agree that stone is, or at least will be, significant in the Archive. Between Rock, Tien, and the religious beliefs of the Shinovar, we have strong reason to believe this is so. What that significance will be is beyond me. All I know for certain is that enough of the creatures that serve Odium during the Desolation's were hard enough that weapons capable of cutting stone were required to defeat them.

[Windrunner]

I'm too tired to think of any more off the top of my head, but this is something very consistent within Brandon's writing.

 

I think you have to talk about things that are important, or else everything that happens will just appear to be random. If no one ever talks about attaching significance to rocks, and then suddenly rocks are crucial in some way, then it just comes out of left field.