Chaos Posted August 4, 2010 Report Share Posted August 4, 2010 Brandon just received the first author copy of The Way of Kings and posted on album on his Facebook of the pictures. http://tinyurl.com/23d8jq3 Hopefully that link works for you guys. It's the front and rear endsheet art which is really cool. Both show sweet icons which far surpass the excellence of the Mistborn icons. We have a map of the world... and a map of Shadesmar. Sweet. Let's discuss those icons. At first, since there were groups of four on the ends, I was thinking there would be sixteen of these. There's not; there are twenty total. Ten big ones, ten small ones. My theory is that these represent the ten Heralds and their respective order of the Knights Radiants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link Von Kelsier Harvey Posted August 8, 2010 Report Share Posted August 8, 2010 I had almost forgotten completely about Shadesmar until I saw this. I remember a lot of hubbub about it on TWG when Brandon mentioned that Hoid uses it for... some unspecified purpose. But now I remember and I'm even more excited about this book! If that's possible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted August 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2010 The fact that Shadesmar has a map is immensely fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juggernaut Posted August 23, 2010 Report Share Posted August 23, 2010 I wondered if the icons represented magic systems, but the Knights Radiant theory makes a lot more sense, since there are ten of each size of icon. The thing is, none of the icons look like the insignia on the flag on the cover of the book (except maybe that one on the right?), and I assumed that related to the Knights Radiant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsasikShulin Posted August 24, 2010 Report Share Posted August 24, 2010 Hey guys. The crab-looking symbol on the banner on the cover is probably a glyph representing the Alethi Prince holding the banner. Whelan likes to paint symbolically, so there's a good chance that the character on the cover represents a whole set of people and not just one person individually from the book. All said, that's a mighty fine looking book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyArianna Posted August 24, 2010 Report Share Posted August 24, 2010 Ooooh! Coolness! I haven't been over to TWG yet, so guess I'd better remedy that. I freaking LOVE maps! Having not seen this stuff yet, is it possible that one of the sets of ten might represent the Ten Essences? Hopefully that was ok to post. I don't think it's a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read the book yet. Smack me if it was! I learn better that way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 Posted August 25, 2010 Report Share Posted August 25, 2010 Milady, here is the link to TWG, that has hours and hours worth of Chaos's ramblings.... I mean of us theorizing! Of course that's what I meant... http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?board=14.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyArianna Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 Thanks! I have now infiltrated the TWG. This is an excellent step toward my goal of total world domination! Ramblings are awesome. That's about 75% of my communication. 98% if I'm with my brothers (I have 4. All younger, all geeks. Heaven forgive our parents!). [move]Doing my happy MAPS and RAMBLINGS dance[/move] tra-la-la! tra-la-la! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted September 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 Having not seen this stuff yet, is it possible that one of the sets of ten might represent the Ten Essences? At least on the front cover. On the back cover, I can't even surmise what those would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silus - Shard of Flame Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 I'm leaning more towards them being the Essences and associated orders of Knights Radiant, since I'm assuming that the faces along the border are the Heralds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstRainbowRose Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 She is actually just a pretty woman who is Alethi. I think... you do mean the girl with the yellow hair who is also on the side of the epic bookmark, yes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ka243 Posted September 8, 2010 Report Share Posted September 8, 2010 The 10 symbols on the front are the knights radiant and the 10 on the back are their evil counterparts, the knights... shadiant??? lol SPOILERS No seriously, did you read the Ars Arcanum at the back of the book? Each order of knights is associated with 2 divine attributes so I would guess the major symbols of the orders of knights and the minor symbols are the divine attributes, each order has 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shivertongue Posted September 9, 2010 Report Share Posted September 9, 2010 They are, quite possibly, among the sexiest fantasy book maps I have ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted September 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2010 The 10 symbols on the front are the knights radiant and the 10 on the back are their evil counterparts, the knights... shadiant??? lol SPOILERS No seriously, did you read the Ars Arcanum at the back of the book? Each order of knights is associated with 2 divine attributes so I would guess the major symbols of the orders of knights and the minor symbols are the divine attributes, each order has 2. I think the back symbols are related to Voidbinding, but we don't know enough (anything at all, really) to say what they mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew the Great Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 If you look closely, each of the larger ones is linked to 2 other large ones and two small ones. The small ones are the same. All of the large ones connect in the center, none of the small ones do. I imagine this is significant in some fashion. Possibly it is the Knights Radiant, and then a symbol for the magics each order is capable of using? Though I don't know why the Radiant's Symbols would connect to each other. The overlap in magic makes sense, though, as I seem to recall Jasnah mentioning that there were two orders of Radiants who could Soulcast, and they both did it slightly differently. I also quite like the Knights Radiant and they're divine attributes theory, though those don't overlap, which makes me think that they probably wouldn't be connected the way they are if that were the case. Although, this could just be me, you know, reading way to much into a few lines or some such..... Alternately, it could be that the two groups of Ten symbols on the front are there only because they correlate directly with Roshar, while the ones on the back correlate directly with Shadesmar. In that case, they could both be related to the Radiants, though I admit to having absolutely no idea what they would mean in this case. I assumed the ten faces around the inside front cover were the Heralds. Is the crazy scary epic chick on the back cover supposed to be someone, or is she just there for decoration? It seems like there was a lot of thought put into this art, so it doesn't really make much sense to just throw some random chick on the border. But hey, it's entirely possible. And that's about all I can come up with based on those particular symbols. The maps, however, fascinate me to no end. First of all, I love that everything on the first map is a palindrome (well, aside from th and sh, but those don't count. They probably have a special single character for those sounds in-book, so it's still a palindrome......) The other map, a few pages later, has a few really interesting things to ponder on. Dawn's Shadow? That sounds interesting.... The Shallow Crypts, Mourn's Vault. All of these are apparently important enough that His Royal High Cartographer Isasik Shulin felt that His Royal Majesty King Galivar Kholin needed them on his map. It's also interesting that we didn't here anything about any of these places, and yet they're still here. I wonder if Brandon will include different maps as the series progresses..... The back map is the one that most intrigues me. Obviously, the second time Shallan tried to Soulcast, she accessed Shadesmar via the Nexus of Truth. The first time, however, I recall no truths being given. It seems most likely, then, that she accessed Shadesmar via the Nexus of Imagination, though I suppose it could have been the Nexus of Transition (I was actually going to comment on how I had no idea what it would entail to get into Shadesmar via the Nexus of Transition....and just did....) That said, we have the Expanse of the Vapors (Shardblades being mist when not summoned, anyone?), the Expanse of the Densities, and the Expanse of the Broken Sky. Sea of Regret, Sea of Souls, Sea of Lost Lights. Also, apparently Shadesmar is an inverted map of Roshar. Why is that? Isn't Shadesmar accessible from other Shardworlds? I thought we'd determined that Shadesmar was what allowed Hoid to....well...be Hoid. Planet-hopping and such. The names in Shadesmar are also really interesting. Vapors and Densities are kind of related, but then we get the Broken Sky. Souls, regret, and lost lights? About as random a group as I've ever seen. Truth and Imagination both are centered around thought (well, kind of), but then we get Transition. I pretty much have no idea where I'm going with this. Aren't ramblings great? And, I pretty much have no more coherent thoughts on the maps. More will come, I'm sure, but not now. Voidbinding.... it's a definite possibility, but like you say, we have absolutely no idea what Voidbinding is and how it works, so..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silus - Shard of Flame Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 What I thought about the Shadesmar mirroring Roshar was that this was just a part of the Shadesmar, and in fact, it mirrors everywhere, even other planets. I'm assuming traveling in the Shadesmar is easier than traveling in the normal world (Jasnah hovering on a raft made of spheres?) and that would make it so that Hoid can planethop. Shadesmar is just another name for the cognitive realm, right? I thought somebody said that somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link Von Kelsier Harvey Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 That was my original understanding. Somewhere on TWG, I'm sure of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew the Great Posted September 10, 2010 Report Share Posted September 10, 2010 Well that would probably have a lot to do with my lack of knowing this - until a few days ago, I literally hadn't been on TWG since November of last year, and prior to that, it had been several months. I dunno. I just didn't find anything there particularly interesting after I didn't have anything to theorize about anymore, and I felt like we'd gone about as far as we could on the shards at the time. With Stormlight Archive, I don't see this as being a problem anytime in the near future. Which makes me happy, as I've really missed the good old insane theory days.....So excited to be back. However, I still haven't caught up on the shards and the rest of the cosmere that I missed in that time, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little behind the times for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano Stormblessed Posted September 16, 2010 Report Share Posted September 16, 2010 From the front cover symbols, I think ten big symbols are definitely the ten essences which forms the double eye of the almighty. Maybe the smaller symbols reflect the ten heralds. *Spoiler* Notice that in the epilogue Talenel calls himself Stonesinew, linking himself to two of the essences and each of the smaller symbols are linked to about 2 or 3 different essences. *Spoiler end* No idea about the back cover I do sometimes hate not being in the US. In Australia we received the WoK somewhat earlier than in the US, but our copy doesn't include any maps of Shadesmar or any symbols. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverearth Posted September 16, 2010 Report Share Posted September 16, 2010 I actually think that the large front cover symbols are the hilts of the Dawnshards, since the sword imprinted on the cover and the swords behind the Part titles have hilts exactly like three of the symbols. For the back symbols, I'd like to mention that one of the large ones appears on the map of Kharbranth on page 454. Possibly a city sigil? Maybe they're city sigils for ten of the major cities of the five Vorin nations? Or they could be sigils for the ten Silver Kingdoms, that got passed down. For the smaller symbols, I'd like to point out that the back cover ones are ambigrams. They are also the opposites of the ones on the front cover. Look at them; the basic shape of the front cover small symbols are reversed on the back. I have no idea what that means, but it is significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 Posted September 21, 2010 Report Share Posted September 21, 2010 Andrew- Shallan does give a truth the first time. She says she's frightened, and the voices say something like "that is true". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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