The glyph for Vorin

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Until now there was never mentioned a glyph meaning the Vorin faith as such. Some symbols are there - as the double-pupiled eye, that is known to be the ancient symbol of the Radiants, but still is considered a most holy image, despite the reputation of the Radiants. But it is not a glyph. Glyphs mean so much for the Vorin religion, prayers are written and ritualistically burned, glyphs are drawn for all kinds of protective mystic goals. How could it be, that there would be no widespread glyph for the Vorin main principle itself?

 

What could the “Vorin” glyph be? Or since it’s not a sacred palindrome, as befits a meaning this symmetry-loving religion would of course try to apply to it’s self-identification, most likely the “Vorin” form is derivative from some more sacred root, like “vorov”, while the “-in” (or “-rin”) would be a suffix, so that the word “vorin” would mean “of the Vorov”. Or “of the Vov”.  Or… if it’s like the Roman inscriptions, where ‘V’ stands often instead of ‘U’ too, could this glyph, in some another transcription (or in a different dialect) read probably “Uru”?

 

My first guess about the possible meaning of the word „Vorin” was that it could be literally “Heraldic”. Because it’s the only known religion focused on the Heralds and claiming that it’s doctrine comes ultimately from the teachings of the Heralds. And aren’t usually religions describe themselves by the authority that gave them their teaching? However more than one Herald is referred with the (almost certainly) title “’elin” after their name, most significantly Talenel refers about himself as such “elin”, so most likely the word for “herald” is not “vorov” or “uru”, but exactly said “elin”.

 

As the Vorin religion has a history of describing itself as pure against heresies, another possibility is for it, as some real-world religions, to name itself as the Genuine, or orthodox, or authentic faith, or some other synonym of that. What would be a most fetching synonym of this line for Roshar? What about the “Original” faith? Since it is supposed to be the teaching given by the Heralds, who for every Desolation had to take humankind from primitive state back to civilization, so there would be surely those who would claim, that no other doctrine could be more original, than the doctrine (supposedly) given by the Heralds.

 

So the hypothesis: the word “vorin” meaning “of the Origin”.

 

Interesting about the Origin, as it is most often referred, that it does  represent not only the origin of the Highstorms, that bring the fertile rainwater and stormlight, but it’s coincidentally also the direction from where rises the other popular in mythologies symbol of Light and Fertility: the Sun comes from the same point the Highstorms come. I doubt the Vorin religion would fail to use this coincidence.

 

One possible usage of the symbol of the Sun is the name chosen by the king Sunmaker, who brought down the Hierocracy and enforced the current canon of Vorinism. Sunmaker’s very difficult war against the Church was not anti-vorin, but Sunmaker promoted another, more true form of Vorinism. He needed a propaganda slogan against the priests. Obviously Sunmaker used the most often used in sacred wars for a reformation of a faith idea - that the bad church has corrupted the original form of the faith, and now it’s Sunmaker who brings the more original true form. So in his throne name he would likely chose something to proclaim his fight for the Original Faith.

 

So now, in the Vorin kingdoms, where piety is so important in so many aspects of life, there must be widespread use of the symbols of this faith. Including the glyph for the faith itself. It must be very widespread.

 

The most likely candidate for this glyph in my opinion is the famous Windrose.

 

 It has the royal place among the glyphs of the ten Alethi highprinces, even if it is quite unlikely to mean Alethkar as kingdom (else the king’s own glyph would be much more prominently associated with it). But Alethkar is a Vorin kingdom, and it takes the authority for the holiness of the current social order from Vorinism. So it makes lot of sense to place the Vorin symbol in the middle.

 

In the depiction of Kharbranth we see the same “windrose” on the sail of one of the ships. Very much reminiscent of the big crosses on the sails of Columbus’ caravels. And what is more, on the same picture we have the same windrose depicted above the very top dome of the Conclave, like a rising sun. It’s exactly the place where the Highstorms are to come, because the lait of Kharbranth is oriented to give shelter against exactly this direction. Therefore it is the place the sun is to rise from too.

 

To note here is that both of these images seem to be quite for the common public, and not some arcane and esoteric charts, so there should be nothing there uncommon or strange in the symbolics.

 

Another interesting thing about the Origin, that it’s location is not so unambiguously certain as it could seem. Urithiru is said to be built where it’s built for the reason to be closer to the Origin. (By the way, could Urithiru be also named for being close to the Origin, literally “Origin-close city” or something?) And so it was built quite west of Alethkar. This means that for the more esoteric scholars the location of the Origin should be not just west of the continent, but otherwise. That must be the reason that the “windrose” could be placed on different locations on different maps. So on the map of Roshar by the Gavilar’s cartographer it is likely that the placement of the symbol will reflect some arcane knowledge from Gavilar himself, who had visions after all.

 

The promiscuity of windroses of the Thaylen map IMO should mean most likely that they included for reference the different prime meridians, that might be in circulation in different lands. It’s like about the maps before 1884 in the realworld, when some maps were according to Greenwich, others according to Ferro meridian, or to Paris meridian, or to Antwerp meridian, so in few cases for surety there were references to more than one prime meridian.

[Mysty]

Actually, the double eye symbol of the Radiants is a glyph, or at least there is an option to shape it as such. on the back of Amaram's cloak it was shaped as the glyph "oath" . See the very end of chapter 55, Rules of the Game.