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10 years later, a look at the WoK back cover blurb


Wyndleblade

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One of the first things that fascinated me about WoK when I first read it was the back cover blurb and the world it hinted at. Ten years later I have looked back on it and there is so many questions about it that have been answered (we know the writer was a sleepless). And so many more questions that need to be asked. 

Here are some of mine along with the text...

Quote

I long for the days before the Last Desolation.

The age before the Heralds abandoned us and the Knights Radiant turned against us.

A time where there was still magic in the world and honor in the hearts of men.

The world became ours, and we lost it.

Does this to anyone else sound like the line of thinking of a Son of Honor? 

Why does the sleepless look fondly back on a time when humanity was near extinction from desolation after desolation?

With the reference to the world becoming theirs, is that a reference to it belonged to the sleepless?

Quote

Nothing, it appears, is more challenging to the souls of men than victory itself.

Or was that victory an illusion all along?

Did our enemies realize that the harder they fought, the stronger we resisted?

Perhaps they saw that the heat and the hammer made for a better grade of sword.

But ignore the steel for long enough, and it begins to rust away.

(These were my favorite lines originally, I love the visual metaphor)

Did the sleepless not know of Taln's sacrifice? They seem to claim it was bad for humanity.

Quote

There are four whom we watch.

The first is the surgeon, forced to put aside healing, to become a soldier in the most brutal war of our time.

The second is the assassin, a murderer who weeps as he kills.

The third is the liar, a young women who wears a scholars mantle over the heart of a thief.

The last is a highprince, a warlord whose eyes have been opened to the past and whose thirst for battle wanes.

Not much to say about this.

Quote

The world can change.

Surgebinding and Shardweilding can return; the magic of the ancient days can become ours again.

These four people are key.

One of them may redeem us,

And one of them will destroy us.

Hoid: "Never trust anyone who says they can see the future" Is this a prediction of the future? 

 

My major question:

The words us, we, our (ect) do not always seem to reference humanity but sometimes they do. Who is the us even if we know the I is a sleepless?

 

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I said this on another thread a few days ago, when someone speculated that Shallan would be the “one who destroys”. I will link the thread later when I get to my laptop.

I had a few questions:

1. When was the blurb written in-world? Concurrent to the action? Or post hoc?

2. I think that “fortune” mostly foretold Dalinar as Odium’s champion (renarin’s vision, Odium’s certainty, cultivation’s fear that Dalinar may become a tool). Fortune is a tricky thing, so how well a Sleepless can use it is important to know.

3. And, yes: who is “us”? Team Honor? Humans? Sleepless? Rosharans? That’s important.

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I think the most important part was those last two lines, “One of them may redeem us, And one of them will destroy us.”

Notice the may redeem us in the first half but in the second half it says one of them will destroy us. 

If we believe that these are true predictions of what will happen. Then the second half isn’t talking about Dalinar, at least not yet because he didn’t destroy them instead he kept his pain.

This means that if we believe what the sleepless said was true then one of the four character Kaladin, Szeth, Shallan, or Dalinar, will truly turn evil.

With how Oathbringer ended. With Szeth joining team radiant. Shallan choosing Adolin. And Dalinar keeping his pain and denying Odium my head turns to Kaladin. Who at the end is in a slump and is constantly hurting because of failing Elohkar, and thinking everything is pointless. I am sad to conclude that Kaladin has the most pain right now and that he might be willing to give it to Odium for the promise that he would protect bridge four.

Edited by Theoryspren
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@theoryspren I am more interested in the us in that sentance:

One of them may redeem us,

And one of them will destroy us.

I don't think the us is humanity as a whole. And if its not is destruction always bad? I have also tried reading the passage as the sleepless being on the fused side an that does not quite fit either. One of the lines talks about how the world became theirs and the fused were the original owners. I could see it as a someone is on the side of the Son's of Honor, they wish for a time when Vorinism ruled the world and that was lost when the Heralds abandoned them. Or maybe another secret society? But what society was also there all the way back in the past desolations.

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It also doesn’t say HOW one WILL destroy them. For all we know, it isn’t due to any great act of evil. No one has to turn bad. All we know is that someone will do something that will destroy them.
 

Perhaps they save the wrong person? Don’t help the right one? Turn right instead of left? Make what seems to be the correct decision, but it ends up being utterly wrong (think Eshonai)?

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@Wyndleblade what if "us" is the heralds? or Sleepless who conferred with Honor and agreed with the decision to do the oathpact? After all--who needs "redeeming"? Probably the Heralds or Radiants. Why would the Sleepless need redeeming? Or humanity?

@Theoryspren parsed "will" vs. "may". @Wyndleblade parsed "us". But what if the key word there to parse is "redeem"?

Definitions of Redeem:

  • compensate for the faults or bad aspects of (something)
  • (of a person) atone or make amends for (error or evil). 
  • save (someone) from sin, error, or evil.

Alternative definitions that could be fascinating:

  • pay the necessary money to clear (a debt).
  • fulfill or carry out (a pledge or promise).

wonder what they mean by "redeem". If it were just about saving the world from odium, it would probably say "save", right? 

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On 10/11/2020 at 10:58 AM, Theoryspren said:

With how Oathbringer ended. With Szeth joining team radiant. Shallan choosing Adolin. And Dalinar keeping his pain and denying Odium my head turns to Kaladin. Who at the end is in a slump and is constantly hurting because of failing Elohkar, and thinking everything is pointless. I am sad to conclude that Kaladin has the most pain right now and that he might be willing to give it to Odium for the promise that he would protect bridge four.

I disagree with parts of your assessment, chiefly that you've taken Shallan off the table, which I don't think you can. My post that @Bliev referenced:

Both Shallan and Kaladin are in vulnerable positions, both have different reasons for why Odium's offer of taking their pain would be attractive. Only one, however, is not having their problem widely recognized by people who could help, and will become isolated from most support structures over the course of this narrative. Only one is currently in the process of actively severing their pain in order to function, much like what Odium would do for them, should their current mechanism for doing so fail.

Edited by DeployParachute
adding context
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@BlievI like that line of thought. I don't think the us refers to the Heralds though because that would mean they were awkwardly writing in third person "The age before the Heralds abandoned us". Your mention of the oathpack though is interesting. In my opinion the oathpack needs to be destroyed. It is a losing proposition for the humans. Even from the beginning without torture, imprisoning ten souls for the sake of humanity raises some real moral questions(it reminds me of the great short story "The Ones who walk away from Omelas"). But if the oathpack is destroyed, what hope do the humans have left?

Lets assume the us is the oathpack (How is a sleepless part of the oathpack is an interesting question...) What would it mean to redeem the oathpack?:

@Bliev One of your alternative definitions, pay the necessary money to clear, could hint that one of the four will do what Taln did--pay the necessary cost and give up their life to eons/years of torture so humanity can prepare. A couple years could do the humans a lot of good. But if it is destroyed first as the sleepless seemed to foretell, redeeming it would mean creating a different pact that atones for the problems of the old and the cost it had on the people who agreed to it.

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@DeployParachute yes, the question of who the destroyer could be is really interesting, and I think it really depends on when the blurb was written as to what might be more likely...and that would be a great Brandon question. I can't find that anyone has asked it? But I'm usually pretty bad at sorting through all the WOBs. 

@Wyndleblade I agree, "us" as the Heralds would be awkward. Us as Sleepless? Maybe? maybe they made a pact or agreement that we don't know about yet? Maybe something about the Dawnshards that explains why folks like the cook in the Kaza interlude guard it with their lives? 

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