Odd asymmetry at the end of OB (OB spoilers)

[Marabout]

During the battle of Thaylen City, Dalinar looks around looking for 10 people or at least expecting 10.

I always assumed that the tenth was Venli.  I also was expecting all 10 orders to be represented so that there is symmetry.

So we end up with:

Kaladin, Windrunner

Jasnah, Elsecaller

Szeth, Skybreaker

Lift, Edgedancer

Renarin, Truthwatcher

Venli, Willshaper

Taln, representing the Stonewards

Dalinar, Bondsmith

This is where it gets odd.  There are then two people representing Lightweavers, Shallan and Ash, and nobody representing the Dustbringers.

I find this to be a very odd error in symmetry and one that I don’t think BS would make by mistake.

So I have to theorize that either Shallan or Ash are representing the Dustbringers.

So which of the following makes more sense?

1.  Ash isn’t who she says she is and is actually Chana.

2.  I had a previous theory that Shallan has a gemheart and that Chana’s investiture is residing (hiding?) in it (but comes out as Radiant).  This would then mean that Shallan / Chana was the Dustbringer representative.

Thoughts?

 

[StormingTexan]

There has been discussion that Shalash will become a Dustbringer which makes since with her destroying art and you know the nickname Ash.  

Edited December 23, 2022 by StormingTexan

[Quantus]

22 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

There has been discussion that Shalash will become a Dustbringer which makes since with her destroying art and you know the nickname Ash.  

She's also one of the 10 POV/Flashback characters, and Dustbringer is the only Order unaccounted for among that roster.  

 

 

Quote

 

PyroSkink

Is each book in this series a focus on a particular character? Did I read that somewhere?

Brandon Sanderson

Each one has a flashback sequence dedicated to a certain character, and a plot that has something to do with the flashback sequence. I do this to help differentiate them, and we sometimes call it "their" book--but that's a little of a misnomer, as the main plot may not revolve around the flashback sequence. It will simply relate to it.

PyroSkink

Ah right. It was Kaladin then Shallan, next is Dalinar? Or is it Szeth?

Brandon Sanderson

This one is Dalinar most likely. Then (probably) Eshonai, then Szeth. Unless I swap those two.

Back five are Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, Jasnah. Not necessarily in that order. (Though that is the planned order right now.)

I do have to give my standard disclaimer. Someone getting a flashback sequence does not indicate they survive until that book. I'm fully willing to flashback to a character who died in an earlier volume. So that isn't as much of a spoiler as it seems.

And Taln is defined as "The man who thinks of himself as the Herald Taln, and whose viewpoint we got briefly in Words of Radiance."

Stormlight Three Update #4 (Sept. 9, 2016)

 

 

[Erklitt]

I don't think it's either of the two possibilities. I don't remember where Malata was at that moment, but guess she probably was there and represented the Dustbringers. She definitely is the only one whom Dalinar would recognize as a Dustbringer at that time. We're seeing this scene through his eyes, and he sees 9 orders represented.

I can't point to any specific WoB right now, but I remember that on several occasions he said something to the effect that there is a limit to how long it is acceptable to misdirect your readers on any given subject. E.g. he promised after WoR that we would soon know whether the man entering Kholinar in that epilogue was really Taln, and he kept that promise in OB. 

By that reasoning alone, Shallan is definitely out as a secret Dustbringer. She's an experienced Lightweaver by now and bonded to a cryptic who is one of the main characters. Even if Chana was really somehow hiding inside Shallan, that wouldn't change the fact that Shallan herself is a Lightweaver, I just don't see BS suddenly coming around the corner with: 'I fooled you all about her real nature'.  

And I would claim almost the same for Ash really being Chana, though a little more tentativly. But we see her talking about how her father was just killed, she destroys Shallash images not Chana images, and all in all is too well established as herself by now in my opinion for BS to pull such a trick.

 

17 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

There has been discussion I believe that Shalash will become a Dustbringer which makes since with her destroying art and you know the nickname Ash.  

I do think it's possible that Ash will become a dustbringer and is the 'real' representative on Honor's side, though Dalinar doesn't know it.

[Quantus]

That being said, it would not be out of theme for those assumptions to be a fake-out, and we see Ash become "true" Lightweaver representation and Shallan go through some more trauma that attracts an Ashspren.  I mean, if hypothetically Shallan managed to Deadeye a second spren, I easily could see her devoting herself hard to the Dustbringer concepts of Self-Master and Handling Power with Care.  She's be pretty resistant to speak the Words again, but she wouldnt be the first radiant to resist, and we're talking about several years and a timeskip away.  

[Marabout]

Some really good replies!

I think that the idea of Ash becoming a Dustbringer makes much more sense than what I originally listed.

It would also nicely resolve the symmetry issue.

[StormingTexan]

48 minutes ago, Erklitt said:

I don't remember where Malata was at that moment, but guess she probably was there and represented the Dustbringers. She definitely is the only one whom Dalinar would recognize as a Dustbringer at that time. We're seeing this scene through his eyes, and he sees 9 orders represented.

She was not there. She was opening the Kholinar Oathgate to let the singers into Urithiru. So there was not a Dustbringer there that we know of. 

[HavingTheHasHoidAPurpose?]

I think that really, Dalinar wasn't counting them by their orders, He was just seeing 9 people, and feeling that it should be 10

[StormingTexan]

48 minutes ago, HavingTheHasHoidAPurpose? said:

I think that really, Dalinar wasn't counting them by their orders, He was just seeing 9 people, and feeling that it should be 10

But he literally said the Orders as he was counting them. 

Quote

 

Skybreaker, Dalinar thought, counting them off. Edgedancer. That was seven. He would have expected three more.

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 1141). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

 

After this he sees Ash and Taln to make 9. The missing one is a Dustbringer but also weird because there would be two Lightweavers. 

Edited December 23, 2022 by StormingTexan

[Frustration]

2 hours ago, Erklitt said:

I don't think it's either of the two possibilities. I don't remember where Malata was at that moment, but guess she probably was there and represented the Dustbringers. 

She would have left with Taravangian's forces.