Jump to content

Preservation's Wings


Invocation

Recommended Posts

There's a curse in Era 2 that is Preservation's Wings. Why wings? Was it just because Preservation was a protective, enveloping thing sort of like an angel, or could it be that Leras was a dragon and Harmony, having seen the history of his powers, knew that and worked it in?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Invocation said:

could it be that Leras was a dragon and Harmony, having seen the history of his powers, knew that and worked it in?

But why would your first guess be "he's a dragon?" We've met Leras before in both HoA and Secret History. We know he's not a dragon. We don't even know if Cosmere dragons have wings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Unlicensed Hemalurgist said:

But why would your first guess be "he's a dragon?" We've met Leras before in both HoA and Secret History. We know he's not a dragon. We don't even know if Cosmere dragons have wings.

I can't currently find the WoB, but Brandon has said before that Dragons are his only "stereotypical fantasy race" 

We also know that in the Cosmere they can look human of they want to. 

Quote

Blightsong

Are sandlings from white sand an early concept for crustaceans on Roshar, with greatshells being a parallel to deep sandlings?

Brandon Sanderson

No, um, the idea for white sand came first, and it was more that I was exploring divergent ecology, but I've been doing that in Dragonsteel and in White Sand and in here with Roshar. I would say that the fact that white sand hadn't been published meant that I could do something's that were similar without worrying about repeating myself, but it's not like I used them specifically as models.

Blightsong

*jokingly* So are we going to get to see little dragons running around in Dragonsteel?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, well, in Dragonsteel the dragons are sapient, so when I write Dragonsteel I will put dragons in there, but the dragons are intelligent and uh, can take human form, but there are actual little dragons.

Blightsong

Wait, they can take human form?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes, yup.

source

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I can't currently find the WoB, but Brandon has said before that Dragons are his only "stereotypical fantasy race" 

We also know that in the Cosmere they can look human of they want to. 

 

To add to this. We know from the Traveler that Dragon's in human form have different and very distinct eyes. "The pupils were rimmed with a silver far too metallic to be natural, at least for a human." I would imagine that if Leras or Ati were dragon's in Human form before passing Kelsier would have at least mentioned that. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the Arcanum Unbound intro to the Scadrial section:

 

Quote

Yes, the Shards undoubtedly used humans from Yolen as a model (indeed, both of the Vessels for these Shards were human before their Ascensions) in creating life. Because of this, the flora and fauna on Scadrial are very similar to what you’ll find on Yolen. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2018 at 7:17 PM, Invocation said:

I just really want to know why they chose Wings as the curse and I like dragons. :/

I looked it up with a Kindle search. This invocation is used only once (so far), by Wax early on in The Alloy of Law (Ch. 3), exclaiming over some really good tea ("Preservation's Wings, man! This is good.").

The only other Era 2 invocation of Preservation beyond simply using that name alone ("Oh, Preservation", "for Preservation's sake"), or in reference to the actual Shard, was in Shadows of Self (Ch. 26), when Reddi curses: "Pure Preservation... They're going to turn into a lynch mob."

Saying "Pure Preservation" is probably a nicely alliterative light blasphemy in separating out a component of Harmony, similar to the more common "Rust and Ruin!", without going as far as cursing by Harmony himself ("Harmony's Bands", "By Harmony's lost testicles", and so on).

But "Preservation's Wings" does sound oddly specific, and to something we (as readers) had not associated with Preservation otherwise. I'm going to guess it's some kind of imagery used by Pathians, maybe a poetic way to refer to the mists?

Edited by robardin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, tmnsquirtle said:

Absolutely savage!

Heh, it's my "headcanon" that just as in our world, the now-quaint interjection "zounds!" derived from the Shakespearean "'swounds!" which was a euphemism for the blasphemous "God's wounds", maybe by Era 3 someone on Scadrial will drop a "spalls!"

Hey, maybe that's the distant origin for the term "slotnze" in The Reckoners books, which Sanderson originally intended to fit with his Cosmere works (until he decided definitively not to have any alt-Earths in the Cosmere). A corruption of a Scadrian curse from "God's lost nuts", LOL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...