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Shallan - Jasnah - Urithiru


Meg

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In The Way of Kings (by BS :)) Jasnah asks Shallan about her education and Shallan answered:

 

I have read through the complete works of Tormas, Nashan, Niali the Just, and—of course—Nohadon.

TWoK Chapter 5

I presume that Nohadon has written only one book (or at least only one book survived and this is the in-World WoK).

But then, much later Shallan ask Jasnah about Urithiru and was surprised by Jasnah's answer:

 

Really? Why hadn’t I heard of it before?

TWoK Chapter 45

So, given my prerequisite is right, Shallan should have had heard about Urithiru already. And Jasnah should have noticed this flaw.

I don't know what to do with this revelation but it strikes me as peculiar. I won't say that this is an important thing or that there's some special intent behind this discrepancy, but I wanted to share my thoughts.

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Niali The Just... Nale the Just?

 

Anyway, Nohadon did mention Urithiru several times. So either Shallan read a Different book by Nohadon, or she was lying, or you might be reading that scene wrong, which is doubtful. Most likely, Shallan was desperate, and just thew in Nohadon to try to claim the Postition. Yet Jasnah didn't Notice? I'm not certain.

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I may be wrong but I didn't think Shallan had read WoK until WoR because she has Gaz get her a copy so she can read it. I for sure know she does that, but maybe she'd read it previously. But I don't think so.

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Niali The Just... Nale the Just?

Nice catch!  

 

I may be wrong but I didn't think Shallan had read WoK until WoR because she has Gaz get her a copy so she can read it. I for sure know she does that, but maybe she'd read it previously. But I don't think so.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. The book Gaz got her was Words of Radiance (the copy she got from Jasnah had sunken with the ship).

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I'm sorry, but you're wrong. The book Gaz got her was Words of Radiance (the copy she got from Jasnah had sunken with the ship).

Oh goodness. You are right. My bad. I listened to the audio books recently one right after the other and I must have confused my facts. Thanks for catching it.

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Even Dalinar, who has read WoK numerious times, had problems recaling Urithiru. From one of his visions:

 

 

the knight said. “Very well. But should you wish to put that mysterious training of yours to use, come to Urithiru.”

“Urithiru?” Dalinar said. He’d heard that name somewhere.

 

My beast guess it it Urithiru was mentioned only once in the whole book and only Jasnah, being specifically interested in the city, took notice.

 

Urithiru is mentioned infront of Shallan very early in the book with Kabsal:

 

 

Jasnah waved for the parshman to place her books on the table. “Can that plate reproduce a cymatic pattern corresponding to Urithiru, priest? Or do you only have patterns for the standard four cities?”

Kabsal looked at her, obviously shocked to realize that she knew exactly what the plate was for. He picked up his book. “Urithiru is just a fable.”

 

And later on Shallan goes through Jasnah's notes and reads more about Urithiru

 

 

Notes on Urithiru, the first one declared inside. The notebook was full—it appeared—of quotes from and notations about various books Jasnah had found. All spoke of this place, Urithiru. Jasnah had mentioned it earlier to Kabsal.

 

The whole passage your question is based on is the folowing (chronologically after the previous quotes I gave)

 

 

“What is Urithiru?” Shallan found herself asking instead.

To her surprise, Jasnah answered without hesitation. “Urithiru was said to be the center of the Silver Kingdoms, a city that held ten thrones, one for each king. It was the most majestic, most amazing, most important city in all the world.”

“Really? Why hadn’t I heard of it before?”

 

Nohadon's WoK  pre-dates the KR, so it was never described in the manner we know it. The knowledge of what Urithiru became later on was lost to most people.

 

edit: tl;dr version - the 'it' Shallan claims not to know is the knowledge of Urithiru being the capital of the Radiants, not the name of the city.

Edited by Aleksiel
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Even Dalinar, who has read WoK numerious times, had problems recaling Urithiru. From one of his visions: ...

But it sounded at least familiar to Dalinar and I'm not surprised him not remembering where he knows that word from, given the circumstances: Living a vision where he just escaped death, saw, what he thought Voidbringers, saw Radiants falling down from the air and fighting, realizing that their helmets were just "gone" ... that was such an influx of information, stress and observation, that I can't blame Dalinar for not remembering where he heard of Urithiru. :)

 

And yes, you're right that Urithiru was mentioned in front of Shallan earlier, but not defined. Jasnah's notes referred to "a place", from that cities-sand-thing (I actually miss the word, sorry), Shallan could imagine, Urithiru would be another city.

Anyways, your interpretation might be right and "it" might only belong to the clarification that Urithiru was the center of the KR.

It seems I've read the question and the answer in another way (in my head the question was: "What is Urithiru?", and after Jasnah's explanation I linked the "it" back to "Urithiru").

Probably I'm wrong. :)

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