Faces on Chapter Arches

[Cole]

I am currently about 3/4 of the way through Words of Radiance on my first read through and one small thing keeps nagging at me every time I start a new chapter. This small thing is the random assortment of faces that make up part of every chapter arch. In the first few chapters in WoK, I thought they corresponded to the main characters, which they somewhat do, but sometimes they just make absolutely no sense in the context of the chapter. Then I thought that maybe they each show one of the ten heralds. I thought this had to be it, but I went and counted out the individual faces and found that there were at least 11 so that obviously doesn't work. There is no Pattern to this trend. There has to be a reason for this right, I can't imagine Brandon would just put in random faces for no reason. 

[Knight of Iron]

There most certainly is. It's pretty much confirmed they are the Ten Heralds, plus an unconfirmed eleventh, believed to be Hoid.

According to the Coppermind, we don't know much about it. It's only a theory that the Heralds depicted have something to do with the chapter. Here's a table of all of them. None I know of have deciphered the pattern yet, but with Brandon it's not random.

https://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Way_of_Kings/Headings

EDIT: And... there most definitely has to be meaning, right? I mean, the epilogue is Taln and Hoid. And the pictures for it are Taln and Hoid. And, like, every single Kaladin chapter has got at least one Jezrien in it. There's something going on.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Knight of Iron

[Smye]

On 2/9/2021 at 7:08 AM, Knight of Iron said:

And, like, every single Kaladin chapter has got at least one Jezrien in it

I read this, said "YUP!" then moved on... until just now when I decided to check out of curiosity. While I agree that it means something (It's Brandon Sanderson for crying out loud) and while Kaladin is absolutely connected to Jezrien (Winderunners, obvs)... it turns out to be not quite so simple as this.
In WoK, there are 28 Kaladin and 10 Kaladin Flashback chapters. Of these 38 total, 22 have no Jezrien at all! For all of Kal's chapters, here's the breakdown:
 

	Kaladin 1	Kaladin 2	Kaladin Flashback 1	Kaladin Flashback 2
Jezrien	8	6	0	0
Kalak	3	2	0	0
Talenel	4	13	2	1
Vedel	8	4	2	7
Shalash	0	0	0	0
Pailiah	0	0	1	0
Ishar	1	0	0	0
Nale	2	2	3	2
Hoid	0	1	0	0
Chanarach	2	0	1	0
Battar	0	0	1	0

 

So Jezrien has 14 total appearances, with both Taln (20) and Vedel (21) outpacing him by a fair margin for Kal. Curiouser and curiouser indeed...

Edited February 10, 2021 by Smye

[Halyo_Alex]

5 minutes ago, Smye said:

So Talenel has 14 total appearances, with both Taln (20) and Vedel (21) outpacing him by a fair margin for Kal. Curiouser and curiouser indeed...

Both Kaladin and Taln won't break.

[Smye]

22 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

Both Kaladin and Taln won't break.

Both likely came close, but neither ever did (at least according to my headcanon).

Edited February 9, 2021 by Smye

[Weltall]

Extremely relevant WoP:

Quote

Lurcher

 

Here are the lists of things that I've noticed could be reasons why certain Herald images get chosen. I also picked up on alot of this stuff because the folks over at Tor have done a WoR re-read and have a dedicated "Heraldic Symbolism" subsection they devote for each chapter. They speculate as to why the specific herald(s) were chosen. Specifically Alice Arneson (one of the re-readers) has seemingly done some good research into this, so I'll give her credit for a lot of this.

I mostly listed these out for my own reference as I've been meaning to do so (since I usually keep them in my head when figuring this out when reading).

1. Herald themselves (mentioned, talked about, or actually has an appearance)
2. Some object associated with a herald (example: A specific herald's honorblade)
3. Member of Order (ex: Kaladin=Windrunners=Jezrien)
4. Characters portraying divine attribute behavior (example: Loving and Healing)
5. Characters portraying the inverse of divine attribute behavior (example: Hating and Destroying)
6. Herald of <concept> - things associated with that concept. Known examples: 1) Shalash: Herald of Beauty 2) Nalan: Herald of Justice 3) Jezrien: Herald of Kings 4) Taln: Herald of War 5) Ishar: Herald of Luck
7. Roles associated with a herald Known Examples: 1)Chana: Guards 2)Taln: Soldiers/war 3)Ishar: Ardents/religion 4)Vedel: Physicians
8. Essences (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Ten_Essences ): Essence, body focus, Soulcasting properties...(this one is a stretch as I've never really could pinpoint this well enough)
9. Jester/Masked face (as mentioned in other posts on this thread). This can be tied to chapters with Wit them or tied to concepts related to him, the biggest one (I think) being storytelling.

How'd I do?

Note: I loved the "Four Lifetimes" chapter's heraldic symbolism in Oathbringer (I'm a little over halfway through the book), but I thought that was great showing the different roles/lives Kaladin has filled: Surgeon (Vedel), Soldier (Taln), Guard (Chana), and Leader/Windrunner (Jezrien). Bravo.

Peter Ahlstrom

 

How did you do? Pretty much a home run. There's only one thing you're missing, which you may have implied, and that's the gemstones. Also, there's a little bit more to #5 that will be explored further later in the series.

Your "Four Lifetimes" analysis is spot-on. Congratulations.

General Reddit 2017 (Nov. 22, 2017)

In other words, the icons are significant but they can mean a lot of different things.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Weltall

[Smye]

45 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Extremely relevant Wob:

In other words, the icons are significant but they can mean a lot of different things.

Spot ON!!

To examine things a little further, I've broken down all of Kal through Oathbringer:
WOR:

	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Total
Jezrien	9	8	8	9	34
Kalak	2	0	0	2	4
Talenel	1	4	4	1	10
Vedel	2	1	1	2	6
Shalash	3	0	0	3	6
Pailiah	1	1	1	1	4
Ishar	1	2	2	1	6
Nale	8	5	5	8	26
Hoid	1	1	1	1	4
Chanarach	2	8	8	2	20
Battar	0	0	0	0	0

 

OB:

	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Total
Jezrien	6	6	6	7	25
Kalak	3	1	1	3	8
Talenel	5	5	4	5	19
Vedel	2	2	2	1	7
Shalash	3	4	4	3	14
Pailiah	1	1	1	1	4
Ishar	0	0	0	0	0
Nale	0	0	0	0	0
Hoid	0	0	0	0	0
Chanarach	3	2	3	3	11
Battar	0	2	2	0	4

 

For a grand total (for Kal) of:

	Kaladin	Shallan	Dalinar	Navani	Moash	Eshonai
Jezrien	73	16	48
Kalak	17	6	6
Talenel	49	10	28
Vedel	34	23	14
Shalash	20	82	2
Pailiah	9	50	12
Ishar	7	23	23
Nale	35	25	26
Hoid	5	12	5
Chanarach	34	38	39
Battar	5	25	19

You'll note a need to complete this table... maybe tomorrow - so many more folks to add to the x-axis... and then RoW to boot!

Also, I stand corrected @Knight of Iron, Jezrien does indeed take the cake if I bring WoR and OB into it.

(edit: I went ahead and did Shallan & Dalinar for kicks)

Edited February 9, 2021 by Smye

[teknopathetic]

I wonder if it is some kind of numeric code? 

[Honorless]

15 hours ago, Smye said:

I read this, said "YUP!" then moved on... until just now when I decided to check out of curiosity. While I agree that it means something (It's Brandon Sanderson for crying out loud) and while Kaladin is absolutely connected to Jezrien (Winderunners, obvs)... it turns out to be not quite so simple as this.
In WoK, there are 28 Kaladin and 10 Kaladin Flashback chapters. Of these 38 total, 22 have no Jezrien at all! For all of Kal's chapters, here's the breakdown:
 

	Kaladin 1	Kaladin 2	Kaladin Flashback 1	Kaladin Flashback 2
Jezrien	8	6	0	0
Kalak	3	2	0	0
Talenel	4	13	2	1
Vedel	8	4	2	7
Shalash	0	0	0	0
Pailiah	0	0	1	0
Ishar	1	0	0	0
Nale	2	2	3	2
Hoid	0	1	0	0
Chanarach	2	0	1	0
Battar	0	0	1	0

 

So Talenel has 14 total appearances, with both Taln (20) and Vedel (21) outpacing him by a fair margin for Kal. Curiouser and curiouser indeed...

 

14 hours ago, Smye said:

Spot ON!!

To examine things a little further, I've broken down all of Kal through Oathbringer:
WOR:

	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Total
Jezrien	9	8	8	9	34
Kalak	2	0	0	2	4
Talenel	1	4	4	1	10
Vedel	2	1	1	2	6
Shalash	3	0	0	3	6
Pailiah	1	1	1	1	4
Ishar	1	2	2	1	6
Nale	8	5	5	8	26
Hoid	1	1	1	1	4
Chanarach	2	8	8	2	20
Battar	0	0	0	0	0

 

OB:

	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Kaladin	Total
Jezrien	6	6	6	7	25
Kalak	3	1	1	3	8
Talenel	5	5	4	5	19
Vedel	2	2	2	1	7
Shalash	3	4	4	3	14
Pailiah	1	1	1	1	4
Ishar	0	0	0	0	0
Nale	0	0	0	0	0
Hoid	0	0	0	0	0
Chanarach	3	2	3	3	11
Battar	0	2	2	0	4

 

For a grand total (for Kal) of:

	Kaladin	Shallan	Dalinar	Navani	Moash	Eshonai
Jezrien	73	16	48
Kalak	17	6	6
Talenel	49	10	28
Vedel	34	23	14
Shalash	20	82	2
Pailiah	9	50	12
Ishar	7	23	23
Nale	35	25	26
Hoid	5	12	5
Chanarach	34	38	39
Battar	5	25	19

You'll note a need to complete this table... maybe tomorrow - so many more folks to add to the x-axis... and then RoW to boot!

Also, I stand corrected @Knight of Iron, Jezrien does indeed take the cake if I bring WoR and OB into it.

(edit: I went ahead and did Shallan & Dalinar for kicks)

Oh my, good work!

Kal is just full of Divine Attributes, lol! 

[AquaRegia]

I've been wondering about those faces for YEARS.  I even started doodling ideas on paper in a halfhearted attempt to "crack the code"... but nothing like @Smye has done.  (This was, of course, before I found this amazing community and saw that others had compiled the data far more completely than I could ever have been bothered to do.)  I'm glad to see some official confirmation that it's a complex and deliberate artistic choice, rather than some arbitrary pattern or cipher.

Hats off to Lurcher, for making such excellent progress, and to @Weltall, for finding and posting it!

[Cole]

This makes so much more sense now. It really threw me off that there were 11 different faces but the fact that Hoid/Wit is one of the 11 really clarifies the whole situation. Good job to everyone who is putting in the effort to explain this.