Is Eshonai dead?

[cremling]

Don't forget the non-stormform Parshendi who escaped into those same chasms just a few days earlier... I have to assume that that was not coincidental. Otherwise, there was no reason not to just have them all killed and assassinated.

Eshonai wakes up to see her mother, her old guard captain and the other non-stormform parshendi who have some secret lair down there and somehow saved her...and they work to bring her back from Odium.

[Cheese Ninja]

When was the last time a (major) fictional character died from falling off a cliff?

[Moogle]

When was the last time a (major) fictional character died from falling off a cliff?

 

Warbreaker spoilers:

I think Warbreaker did it best, really.

 

And Vasher was shoved backward out the window.

Vivenna blinked in surprise. That wasn’t what she’d been intending. Denth cut away the cloak, pushing Tonk Fah back.

All was silent in the room for a moment.

“Go grab our squad of Lifeless!” Denth said. “Now!”

“You think he’ll live?” Tonk Fah asked.

“He just fell out the third- story window, plummeting toward certain doom,” Denth said. “Of course he’ll live! Send the squad to the front doors to

slow him!” Denth glanced at Vivenna. “You, Princess, are far more trouble than you’re worth.”

Such genre savvy from Denth.

[Bramble Thorn]

When was the last time a (major) fictional character died from falling off a cliff?

 

I am going to need more information. Is this hypothetical major fictional character in a western? If so, what color hat are they wearing?

[darkanimereal1]

I'd say there's definitely a good chance she's still with us. More than anything else, because of the contention with that small part inside of her that's still her and wants to fight back against what she's become with storm form.

While I can't say I would be surprised if she's actually dead, I still feel that she has a part to play, and let's be honest, we didn't see a corpse, and that's always a red flag for character survival.

 

I think someone mentioned it already, but Kaladin gets him and Shallan lost in the chasms because the floods retreat differently the further out you go.

 

From the words of brandon thread.  Technically, there's no reason we couldn't have flashbacks for a dead character but i've gone ahead and taken it as gospel that she's fine.  Well, maybe not "fine" but definitely, "alive".

 

Actually, Brandon has said multiple times that he is willing to kill of a character (presumably for good) before their flashback book. He keeps using Dalinar as an example: Just because Dalinar's flashback series is book five does not mean he'll live that long. His explanation was that he just couldn't logistically make it work.

[Meg]

Honestly: I can't come up with a decision whether to believe she's death or not. Viewed objectively I think she must have died even with Shardplate and Stormform. Being immune to a Highstorm isn't the same as surviving in a chasm after falling a few hundred feet to its bottom (I think the Shardplate could eventually lessen the damage but would be destroyed then), especially with the two storms coming from opposite directions and hitting each other "exactly" where she fell. The water currents must be immense; wouldn't she be tossed around and drowning?

That we were shown no corpse might not really be a hint at her surviving.

On the other hand we don't really know about her abilities.

Though I can't decide I feel that Eshonai being dead would be "right." I can't describe that better. It's my gut feeling.

[Aether]

I haven't read the whole Thread, so I ight be repeating what has already been said, but allow me to point out that she still has a Flash-back book. While she could die before that, as Brandon has sad would be possible for either of the FB characters, but that won't be before book four, and it seems difficult to keep her "alive" in the minds of the readers for an entire book if she is dead already.

 

No, I think that she survived the fall and that she'll stay alive at least until the ending of the third book.

[Patrick Star]

My 3 rules for when magic is involved:

 

1) NEVER go towards an evil person with more power than you (and/or a present ally).  Direct confrontation WILL result in your death.

 

2) If you think you killed something but don't have the body, you didn't kill it!

 

3) Even if you do kill something and have the body, chop off its head and skewer its brain.  Otherwise, it WILL come back to life (or reveal that it wasn't actually dead).

 

By rule 2, and partially 3, Eshonai is alive.

[Dihatimus]

I remember when first reading Mistborn the shock of a certain Survivor getting snuffed. I didn't expect a major character to get offed early in a series. This was before reading Game of Thrones where if anyone from book one survives to the end it will be a miracle. Throughout Mistborn, BS managed to kill off a good majority of the good guys. He killed off a couple people in Elantris, and in Warbreaker. After Mistborn I have admired BS and his ability to kill off people I thought important. "Turn a liability into an advantage"? More like "Turn a support character into a hero," Spook I'm looking at you. 

 

There are 10 books in this series. Having been influenced by WoT, we know that heroes of tomorrow are not necessarily in books of today. It may be a trope that no body=no death, but the ability to craft intrigue and mystery is kicked up a notch by no body=maybe dead. For 8 books we may have a chance to wonder who killed Asmodean if she will come back. 

 

Now, do I think she is dead? Nah. Shardblade and Shardplate are pretty useful stuff. As she falls, I imagine her summoning her blade (if she dropped it) and ramming it into the stone and riding the wall down like a pirate riding a sail down with his knife (mythbusters tackled that scenario but that is where shardplate enhanced strength may be handy). Plus the incredible jumping ability of parshendi, aided by shardplate, she probably could leap halfway up the chasm and do that jump off a shardblade trick adolin did, you don't think that flashy scene was put in for nothing do you? It would be like Luke Skywalker jumping out of the freezy thing when he was fighting Vader, all sneaky and stuff.

[Moogle]

There's no way Eshonai is dead. Sanderson is not the type to make the listeners two-bit villains who do nothing but be controlled by Odium. There will be listeners who rebel and try to fight back against Odium, or I will eat my hat. (Fortunately, I won't have to, as Rlain technically counts already.) He's already established Eshonai as the type to be able to fight back the influences and urges of her forms.

 

Kaladin and Shallan survived a fall into the chasms, and Shardplate offers the same benefits as Stormlight (to the point where Renarin could casually fall on his head from a huge fall and be fine). Eshonai went down without her Shardplate being seriously damaged, and the highstorms just provide an easy way to wash her away from the Shattered Plains and wake up like Shallan did from her shipwreck.

 

Sanderson's comments about being willing to do a book of flashbacks from the PoV of a dead character are a misdirection. It's not going to happen except, perhaps, with Dalinar or one of the back five characters. Szeth is obviously alive, and I'm giving Eshonai 99% odds of survival.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Moogle

[Patrick Star]

Sanderson's comments about being willing to do a book of flashbacks from the PoV of a dead character are a misdirection. It's not going to happen except, perhaps, with Dalinar or one of the back five characters. Szeth is obviously alive, and I'm giving Eshonai 99% odds of survival.

 

Technically, Szeth DID die (his resurrection also proves my Third Rule).  I think he was talking about Szeth and/or trolling us.

[Lumen]

Eshonai had a comet-like spren focusing on her.   Sanderson has said that there have been no Parshendi Knights Radiant in the past, but that it is not impossible.  There has never been an everstorm before either, but this has happened know.  

 

I think it is possible the comet-like spren will replace the void-spren, and give her a new Knights Radiant form.  Not sure what order this would be though.   With her love of exploration...  what order would make sense?

 

Also, isn't here a quote from Sanderson regarding the comet spren (in general) being important? 

[Aether]

Eshonai had a comet-like spren focusing on her.   Sanderson has said that there have been no Parshendi Knights Radiant in the past, but that it is not impossible.  There has never been an everstorm before either, but this has happened know.  

 

I think it is possible the comet-like spren will replace the void-spren, and give her a new Knights Radiant form.  Not sure what order this would be though.   With her love of exploration...  what order would make sense?

 

Also, isn't here a quote from Sanderson regarding the comet spren (in general) being important? 

What comet spren? I don't remember any comet spren.

[Lumen]

What comet spren? I don't remember any comet spren.

 

The one that was in her hand, when she was in storm form, addressing the parshendi leaders.  While she held it, she heard herself screaming, or something like that.  It seemed like it was pushing the void-spren back, so she could hear herself.  

[Moogle]

What comet spren? I don't remember any comet spren.

 

Eshonai hears screaming in her head, and then a spren bursts from her chest. I believe strongly that the cometlike spren and screaming is her Shardblade. We've had confirmation from Brandon that the cometlike spren are important to one of the Orders of the KR, which only further cemented my position. (I also think it's likely the Skybreaker's spren, because Gravity + Division makes sense for a comet, but I could be wrong.)

 

Here's the passages:

 

Eshonai waved her hand as she climbed the central spire of Narak, trying to shoo away the tiny spren. It danced around her head, shedding rings of light from its cometlike form. Horrid thing . Why would it not leave her alone? Perhaps it could not stay away. She was experiencing something wonderfully new, after all. Something that had not been seen in centuries . Stormform. A form of true power.

...

She sat down, then gasped. That rhythm! It sounded like . . . like her own voice yelling at her. Screaming in pain. What was that? She shook her head, and found that she had reflexively pulled her hand to her chest in anxiety. When she opened it, the cometlike spren shot out.

[Terra of Roshar]

Eshonai hears screaming in her head, and then a spren bursts from her chest. I believe strongly that the cometlike spren and screaming is her Shardblade. We've had confirmation from Brandon that the cometlike spren are important to one of the Orders of the KR, which only further cemented my position. (I also think it's likely the Skybreaker's spren, because Gravity + Division makes sense for a comet, but I could be wrong.)

 

Here's the passages:

 

There's also a theory that it's a Willshaper spren, because we already have a Skybreaker in Szeth, and Eshonai's love of exploration fits well with what we know of the Willshapers:

And now, if there was an uncut gem among the Radiants, it was the Willshapers; for though enterprising, they were erratic, and Invia wrote of them, “capricious, frustrating, unreliable,” as taking it for granted that others would agree; this may have been an intolerant view, as ofter Invia expressed, for this order was said to be most varied, inconsistent in temperament save for a general love of adventure, novelty, or oddity.

 

-From Words of Radiance, chapter 7, page 1 

(from WoR, p. 582, emphasis mine)

[Moogle]

There's also a theory that it's a Willshaper spren, because we already have a Skybreaker in Szeth, and Eshonai's love of exploration fits well with what we know of the Willshapers:

(from WoR, p. 582, emphasis mine)

 

Comets would also be somewhat for them, but I do not think there is any reason Eshonai needs a Willshaper's Blade. It's possible she'll be the first Radiant listener by bonding with her Blade (I like the theory), or perhaps listener-bond with the spren to make a new type of form, but I don't give it a very high probability of happening.

 

Also: Adolin's Blade was likely an Edgedancer's (it's vine-y), and most people put him in the Dustbringers, so again there's no need for her Blade to be a Willshaper's.

[Terra of Roshar]

Comets would also be somewhat for them, but I do not think there is any reason Eshonai needs a Willshaper's Blade. It's possible she'll be the first Radiant listener by bonding with her Blade (I like the theory), or perhaps listener-bond with the spren to make a new type of form, but I don't give it a very high probability of happening.

 

Also: Adolin's Blade was likely an Edgedancer's (it's vine-y), and most people put him in the Dustbringers, so again there's no need for her Blade to be a Willshaper's.

 

I wasn't saying that she had the Blade and/or Plate of a Willshaper, or that she would become a Radiant by reawakening her Blade's spren, though that's certainly possible. My thought was that her being a Shardbearer was unrelated to the comet spren and her possible Radiant-hood, much like how Renarin and Dalinar bonded spren and had dead Shardblades.

 

I do kind of like the idea of her making a new form by bonding with the spren, but if it's a Radiant-spren, I hope that doesn't happen, since the spren used in listener bonds don't seem to gain any sentience from the bond. It'd be sad to do that a spren that could've had as much of a personality as Syl or Pattern.

[Moogle]

I wasn't saying that she had the Blade and/or Plate of a Willshaper, or that she would become a Radiant by reawakening her Blade's spren, though that's certainly possible. My thought was that her being a Shardbearer was unrelated to the comet spren and her possible Radiant-hood, much like how Renarin and Dalinar bonded spren and had dead Shardblades.

 

Sorry, I must have misinterpreted you.

 

I do kind of like the idea of her making a new form by bonding with the spren, but if it's a Radiant-spren, I hope that doesn't happen, since the spren used in listener bonds don't seem to gain any sentience from the bond. It'd be sad to do that a spren that could've had as much of a personality as Syl or Pattern.

 

Would it really be that sad, though? If she bonded with the Blade, it might cause the unceasing torment of the spren to be temporarily stopped. I think that would be a huge benefit, if no one knows how to actually revive Shardblades and put the spren back in Shadesmar.

[Hulaine]

I really like the idea of Eshonai surviving by either being found by the listeners who refused Stormform, or of her changing forms during the highstorm and somehow surviving - I wouldn't mind if this was another Voidbringer form, as long as she ends up coming back to herself/the 'right' side sometime soon! Looking through the forms we know about, I don't think any would fit the bill, but maybe that's part of the fun of us discovering the Falling-From-A-Chasm-Surviving-Underwater-In-Powerful-Winds-And-Lightning form...

But I agree, no body no death. Heck, body no death, thanks to the final scenes of WoR!

[ZenBossanova]

On 3/17/2014 at 4:29 PM, Swimmingly said:

"Eshonai woke up. She felt her limbs trembling like leaves, her mind ensconced in a thick syrup. Each tremor brought enormous pain; the shattered remnants of Shaedplate clung to her in only a few small places. Yet somehow, she was alive. She had survived the storm and the flood."

Where did this come from? Is there more? 

[Farnsworth]

Maybe Parshendi die differently than humans, more like spren. When they die in battle, it's like their oath with their warspen is broken, and they permanently die. I dunno, just weird speculation.

[+Wax]

Well, Kaladin and Shallan fell into a chasm and survived due to surgebinding.  I am assuming similarly Eshonai would have survived?

But then, why did the rest of the stormform parshendi not survive (they are not there when Kaladin returns).

[maxal]

On 4/6/2017 at 8:22 PM, ZenBossanova said:

Where did this come from? Is there more? 

2014. This probably was something someone wrote for the fun of it.