A Comprehensive Review of the Terris Prophecies (Pt. 1)

[AleStaar he/him]

One of the best things about the Mistborn trilogy was the way Sanderson wrote the tropes of prophecy and the Chosen One. And I have a lot to say about. Future sight, prophecy and Shards manipulating mortals have been my hyperfixations with Mistborn's plot. That's one reason this project exists. The other reason is the Terris Prophecies' history and intentions are shrouded in ambiguity.

Why are the Terris Prophecies so vague?

We know Ruin was altering them so Alendi (and later Vin) could release him from his chains of impotence. However, Ruin claims he was imprisoned for several thousand years. As such he would've been altering the prophecies for just as long. So the altered and "unaltered" prophecies of the First Generation, Rashek, Alendi and Kwaan's time would've unfortunately been successors to millennia of already-warped prophecies.

Then there are Preservation's actions. Before Ruin was imprisoned millennia ago, he created the original and unaltered Terris Prophecies. He used future sight that stretched out thousands of years into the future, used those predictions as the basis of prophecies, and gave prophecies to the original Terris people through an unknown method. I believe his intentions with the original Terris Prophecies were similar to those of the Mistsnapping's sign of sixteen. Mistsnapping happened around every 1024 years, and hid clues to the ultimate outcome of destroying Ruin's body.

I think when Preservation created the original prophecies, he made them intentionally vague. He intended for Scadrians to use them as a guideline that described the desired traits of each cycle's Ascendant. But that guide hid layers to trick Scadrians and Ruin's relatively poor future sight, for it hid the ultimate purpose of the true Hero of Ages. I believe each Ascendant was positioned by Preservation (mixed with tricking Ruin), so they achieve certain things that would make it easier for Pres to nudge towards the true Hero of Ages. For example, we know from SH he positioned Rashek. Rashek's role might've been to cause an apocalypse, officially reveal the existence of Allomancy, and hide atium. So that Leras could create the circumstances for his immediate successor, the atium Misting army, and a Terris rebel. I think even if Leras no longer remembered the plan by the time of SH, Vin's true role was to release Ruin, Ascend to Vessel, and make the way for Sazed.

Though with all this said, something I need to keep in mind is that even Preservation's future sight would've been more unreliable than initially thought - infinite web of layers upon layers of possibilities, probabilities of a possibility occurring, exact cause of death is cloudy to foresee, rippled by Ruin's future sight, can be wrong, doesn't always know the "whys" of a possibility.

What is this review about?

In my opinion the Terris Prophecies contained traits that were seen in people besides Sazed, Vin, or Alendi. Traits that could've made each of them the true Hero of Ages. If their experiences, personalities, and Connections were different from the story we followed.

I will be reviewing each known excerpt of the Terris Prophecies, and see how they could correspond to these characters - Alendi, Rashek, Kwaan, Vin, and Sazed. The first part - this post - will cover the excerpts from The Hero of Ages.

The second part will cover the excerpts from The Final Empire. The third part will be for The Well of Ascension.

Throughout this analysis, I will be keeping in mind possible reasons for why the prophecies exist:

1. There was never an ultimate Hero of Ages, and the plan was just to delay Ruin's escape as long as possible. IMO this was definitely not the plan.
2. Either the Ascendant or a Terrisman in each cycle could've been the true Hero of Ages. Reasonable but unlikely imo.
3. The Ascendants - false Heroes of their Ages - were steps towards the true Hero of Ages. IMO this was the plan, even if Leras no longer remembered it by the time of SH. Especially since he was facilitating people like Rashek, Kelsier, Vin, Elend, and possibly Sazed.

Excerpts from book 3

 

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Sazed shook his head. “I believe that she is. These prophecies still refer to her—even the unaltered ones that you have told me. They talk of one who is separate from the Terris people, a king of men, a rebel caught between two worlds. Ruin just emphasized that Vin was the one, since he wanted her to come and free him."'

HoA Chapter 71 -Sazed and the Firsts speaking of Vin’s altered prophecies, and the “unaltered” ancient prophecies known by the Firsts.

Alendi - Alendi was not of the Terris people, in a literal sense. He was from an unimportant village, then became the king of Khlennium. He was a king of men, as he united several nations (including Terris) under the banner of Khlennium. Throughout the epigraphs of The Final Empire, we learned about the emotional and literal conflicts he faced during his time as Khlennium's king. I think those conflicts were what made people believe him to be a "rebel caught between two worlds."

Rashek - Rashek was of the Terris people, but not of their mentality. Most of the Terrismen that Alendi knew were content with using Feruchemy for scholarly and agricultural needs. Rashek loved his people. But Alendi believed Rashek represented a growing faction of rowdy, violent Terris youth who thought the Teris people could do greater things with Feruchemy. Whereas most Terris and nations accepted Alendi as the Hero of Ages / Rabzeen / the Anamnesor, Rashek disliked Alendi and saw him as an oppressor. Interestingly, even Kwaan admitted Alendi was an oppressor.

Rashek was a king of men in the "greatest" way possible. He created an empire that ruled over a continent for 1000 years and crushed all forms of resistance.  But he was a person who clearly loved the Terris people and Feruchemy. He ultimately knew the world's safety and stability took priority, and so did so many awful things to the Terris people. It definitely caused him much pain, but he thought it was the best thing to do. Rashek was a rebel of the Terris people caught between the two worlds of passion/love and duty. He might've even been a rebel to non-Terris people caught between the two worlds of hatred and protection. He wanted to protect humanity from Ruin's escape, but there was definitely a lingering sense of hatred towards Terris' oppressors or more advanced nations.

Kwaan - Much like Rashek he was of the Terris people, but not of mentality. Kwaan studied nature and the Cognitive aspect of trees, whereas other Worldbringers studied religion. Kwaan was initially the first Worldbringer to believe Alendi was the Hero of Ages, while the others scorned him. He was the Announcer, the prophet who identified Alendi as the Hero of Ages. And as such, he received much renown among the Worldbringers. So while he wasn't a king of men, he was probably near that level of recognition on the world's greater scale. And I'd imagine he was the main advisor to Alendi.

Vin - Vin wasn't a Terrisperson and didn't interact with Terrispeople often. But in a way, she was a king of men. Her actions during the siege of Luthadel was the catalyst for why Elend became the emperor of the New Empire, while Vin became its empress. The two worlds refer to her skaa urchin side VS noblewoman side.

Sazed - Sazed was the only Keeper to openly rebel against the Lord Ruler, whereas the others stayed in their secret organization. A king of men because he was the Chief Ambassador of the Final Empire, and would've been emperor in the event of Vin and Elend's deaths. A rebel who experienced struggles with rebellion, acceptance, masculinity, and faith.

Sazed as a Vessel - Harmony is not bonded to just the Terris people; he's bonded to all humans. He's the King of Mankind - creator of all present and future humans. The essence of his component Shards created all past humans. The Vessel Sazed is a rebel caught between the worlds of stagnation and decay. Sazed wants to act, but his actions are forced to be an exact balance of stagnation and decay. Could that change with Discord?

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HoA Chapter 71 - “We always assumed that the Hero would be a man,” Haddek said in his wheezing voice.
“So did everyone else,” Sazed said. “But, you said yourself that all the prophecies use gender-neutral pronouns. That had to be intentional—one does not use such language in old Terris by accident. The neutral case was chosen so that we wouldn’t know whether the Hero was male or female.”

Sazed before Ascending - The prophecies always used the gender-neutral, he thought. So that they could refer to either a man or a woman, we assumed. Or… perhaps because they referred to a Hero who wasn’t really either one?

Sazed writing the Words of Founding - “...And who decided to use the neutral pronoun, so that we wouldn’t know if the Hero was a woman or a man?

 

The First Generation of kandra told Sazed their era’s prophecies used gender-neutral pronouns. Sazed in the same conversation assumed the gender-neutral was used so humanity wouldn’t know if the Hero was male or female. Sazed right before he takes up the Shards and taps his copperminds, he wonders if the gender-neutral referred to a Hero who "wasn't really either one." As while Sazed identified as a man and didn't identify as a woman, he had doubts about his masculinity.

As Sazed wrote the Words of Founding he made the same conclusion as when he was conversing with the Firsts. The entire epigraph seems to be about Sazed not yet knowing Preservation created the original prophecies, or from questioning the identities of the original Terris people to whom Preservation gifted the prophecies. Or perhaps he was being humble and didn't want to jump to conclusions about their history.

But he did come to understand certain intentions tied to the prophecies. I think while Preservation was hiding layers about the gender of an Ascendant or the true Hero, he did so for when his future sight eventually showed the true Hero's gender. I doubt he foresaw it all the way back then.

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HoA Chapter 75 - “Yes,” Haddek said. “But that is not Preservation, just an image—a remnant. Now that Ruin has escaped, I think we can assume that even it has been destroyed.”
“I think it is more,” another began. “We could—”
Sazed held up his hands, getting their attention. “If Preservation has not returned, then has, perhaps, someone else taken up his power to use in this fight? Is that not what your teachings say will happen? That which has been sundered must again begin to find its whole.”

Alendi - Unless it turns out Khlennium was once a massive empire way before Alendi's time, I have no comment. Scadrial lore is way too underdeveloped.

Rashek - Now that! Is! Ironyyy! Rashek did more sundering than he did uniting things. He ripped apart every kingdom, religion, culture, and societal group on the continent. Compartmentalized his continent's population into nobles, skaa, and Terris people. Moved all Scadrial's crust to a different latitude, and Isolated the Southern Scadrians from the rest of the world. The only unification he did was bring all humanity under one empire. And even then, well, he did it through so much division.

Vin - For the first time since Ruin's imprisonment, the Shard of Preservation was used by a Vessel with a whole mind and presence in all three Realms. Not even Kelsier's Ascension meant the Shard found its "whole," for he lacked presence in the Physical Realm.

Sazed - Adonalsium's essence was sundered during the Shattering, splitting into 16 Shards. So when Sazed took up Ruin and Preservation, it was the first time since that Shards were in their "whole." The first time they were united in a singular essence.

Sazed as a Vessel - I believe Sazed has a plan to permanently defeat Bavadin and take the Shard of Autonomy. Making it so a Shard of Adonalsium mixes with another, yet again. This comes from a quote in the Bands of Mourning where Wax asks Sazed if he's omnipotent, and implies "parts of me could be omnipotent if I make it do so." If he takes up Autonomy, his essence would be stretched all across the cosmere via Autonomy's territories, Avatars, and perpendicularities. He would gain the knowledge, memories, thoughts, and plans of an extremely competent, long-term thinking Vessel who seems to wield fantastic future sight. Sazed wouldn't literally become omnipotent, but getting Autonomy would be the closest thing. I think.

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HoA chapter 82 - The Hero would be rejected of his people, Sazed thought. Yet, he would save them. Not a warrior, though he would fight. Not born a king, but would become one anyway.

Alendi - Alendi was the son of a blacksmith in an unimportant town. Saw himself as a very unremarkable but mischievous kid. Started out as Kwaan's assistant, and most didn't believe he was the Hero of Ages. Even when most people believed him, Terrismen like Rashek or the Firsts hated him. But he lived a life full of death, war, and betrayal to save the world from the Deepness. He wasn't raised to be a warrior or king, but became the king of Khlennium that would fight to save all nations.

Rashek - Except for the monarchs he bribed with lerasium, all of humanity rejected Rashek's crusade. Yet, his actions saved humanity. Using the Well prevented Ruin's escape, hiding the atium set into motion a final phase of Preservation's plan, and building the storage caverns protected humanity from Ruin's apocalypse, He was the nephew of a Worldbringer raised in a nation of herdsmen and scholars. Wasn't raised to use Feruchemy for combat, but learned to do so. Wasn't born a king, but became emperor.

Kwaan - He was a scholar not taken seriously by his peers, then scorned, accepted, and finally exiled. His investigations of the prophecies brought Rashek into action. Kwaan's knowledge of Ruin's blindness was the catalyst of Rashek's knowledge, which prevented Ruin from getting the hidden atium. Kwaan saved the world, and he fought to expose Ruin's manipulation.

Vin - The nobility and Yomen rejected Vin's accomplishments. Yet, she saved the world and made it a better place. She was never a warrior, but fought to protect. She was never a royal member, but became empress.

Sazed - Sazed's rebellion was rejected by the Terris people, but he helped save them from the Lord Ruler's tyranny. Was a humble scholar, but would fight the Final Empire and monsters. Wasn't a king, noble, or member of the Synod. But he would Ascend to become the King of Mankind.

 

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

That's one reason this project exists.

Very good essay. Some notes (rather than a bunch of quotes and responses):

• Kwaan was, initially, considered the Announcer, rather than one of the Heros of Ages
  • Not that that obviates your points, just a distinction that the announcer's role had separate defining traits than the HoA - such as Kwaan effectively "announcing" Rashek's Hero Journey by his letter warning Rashek to not allow Alendi to be fooled into freeing the Well)
• Another possibility of the neuter pronoun - Leras foresaw the possibility of many Heroes of Ages; some male, some female - each contributing a piece of the whole. Neuter Pronoun includes both possibilities.
• Sazed was considered King of Terris (well, the refugees living near the Pits) - but he refused to take the role (See below - HoA Ch 17, 22)

 

Spoiler

HoA Ch 17:

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And, like Sazed, they kept them cleaned of ash, showing the colorful V-shaped patterns that ran down the fronts. Those patterns had once indicated the noble house that the steward served.

“Lord Sazed!” one of the men said eagerly.

“Your Majesty!” said another.

Your Majesty. “Please,” Sazed said, raising his hands. “Do not call me that.”

HoA Ch 22:

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“Will you not reconsider your place with us, Master Keeper?” asked another. “We want not for food or for land. Yet, what we do lack is a leader.”

“The Terris people were oppressed long enough, I think,” Sazed said. “You have no need for another tyrant king.”

“Not a tyrant,” one said. “One of our own.”

“The Lord Ruler was one of our own,” Sazed said quietly,

The group of men looked down. That the Lord Ruler had proven to be Terris was a shame to all of their people.

“We need someone to guide us,” one of the men said. “Even during the days of the Lord Ruler, he was not our leader. We looked to the Keeper Synod.”

The Keeper Synod—the clandestine leaders of Sazed’s sect.

<snip>

Sazed shook his head. “I cannot be the man you wish me to be. Not right now.”

“You are a Keeper.”

“I was the lowest of them,” Sazed said. “A rebel and a reject. They cast me from their presence. The last time I left Tathingdwen, I did so in disgrace. The common people cursed me in the quiet of their homes.”

“Now they bless you, Master Sazed,” said one of the men.

“I do not deserve those blessings.”

“Deserve them or not, you are all we have left.”

 

 

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

I think the possibility should be considered that the prophecy was created by a Feruchemist tapping fourtune. For those who don’t know, fourtune basically improves guessing ability. Someone not tapping fortune would have a one in a million chance to make a one in a million guess. Someone tapping an amount of fortune X would have a one in 500,000 chance. 2X gives a 1 in 250,000. So someone tapping enough fortune could guess at what would happen in the future, and only make correct guesses. Oathbringer spoilers:

Spoiler

Odium originally thought that that was how Taravangian made the diagram.

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“Taravangian!” Odium said. “This is remarkable.” The walls and furniture faded, leaving behind the words, which hung in the air and started glowing with a golden light. “You did this without access to Fortune, or the Spiritual Realm? Truly incredible.”

 

That’s also how the paintings in the Court of the Gods work; the gods are given access to a small amount of fortune by endowment.

That would explain the vagueness of the prophecies, as the prophet had a limited, though very large, amount of fortune, and so could’nt make his guesses to specific. I remind you that preservation chose Vin, not Sazed, as the one who could use the mists. Why not Sazed? Because he didn’t know. He intended Vin to be his heir, not Sazed. This would also explain the references to Discord, which is far, far in the future. It might also provide a reason that Ruin didn’t Ruin the prophecy in the first place: he thought that a mortal could never produce something that important. 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

For those who don’t know, fourtune basically improves guessing ability. Someone not tapping fortune would have a one in a million chance to make a one in a million guess. Someone tapping an amount of fortune X would have a one in 500,000 chance. 2X gives a 1 in 250,000. So someone tapping enough fortune could guess at what would happen in the future, and only make correct guesses.

That's not at all how Fortune works. We have already had it described and seen it a few times in action. For example:

Spoiler

M:SH 3-3:

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“Pity,” Preservation repeated. “Is that . . . is that what I’ve become? Yes . . . Yes, it is.”

He reached up with a vaguely outlined hand and seized Kelsier’s arm from underneath. Kelsier gasped, then cut off as Preservation grabbed him by the back of the neck with his other hand, locking his gaze with Kelsier’s. Those eyes snapped into focus, fuzziness becoming suddenly distinct. A glow burst from them, silvery white, bathing Kelsier and blinding him.

Everything else was vaporized; nothing could withstand that terrible, wonderful light. Kelsier lost form, thought, very being. He transcended self and entered a place of flowing light. Ribbons of it exploded from him, and though he tried to scream, he had no voice.

Time didn’t pass; time had no relevance here. It was not a place. Location had no relevance. Only Connection, person to person, man to world, Kelsier to god.

<snip>

“I saw everything,” Kelsier mumbled. “Everyone, everything. My Connection to them, and . . . and . . .”

Spreading into the future, he thought, grasping at an explanation. Possibilities, so many possibilities . . . like atium.

“Yes,” Preservation said, sounding exhausted. “It can be trying to recognize one’s true place in things. Few can handle the—”

“Send me back,” Kelsier said, scrambling up to Preservation, taking him by the arms.

“What?”

<snip>

In fact, his ties to Preservation were trivial by comparison to these hundreds of black fingers which attached him to that thing Beyond. He sensed a powerful satisfaction from it, along with an idea. Not words, just an undeniable fact.

You are mine, Survivor.

Kelsier rebelled at the thought, but in this place of perfect light, truth had to be acknowledged.

Straining, soul crumbling before that terrible reality, Kelsier turned toward the tendrils of light spreading into the distance. Possibilities upon possibilities, compounded upon one another. Infinite, overwhelming. The future.

He dropped out of the vision again, and this time fell to his knees panting. The glow faded, and he was again on the banks of Lake Luthadel. Preservation settled down beside him and rested his hand on Kelsier’s back.

“I can’t stop him,” Kelsier whispered.

“I know,” Preservation said.

“I could see thousands upon thousands of possibilities. In none of them did I defeat that thing.”

“The ribbons of the future are never as useful as . . . as they should be,” Preservation said. “I rode them much, in the past. It’s too hard to see what is actually likely, and what is just a fragile . . . fragile, distant maybe. . . .”

WoK Ch 75:

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The figure didn’t answer immediately. Then he said, “You’re probably wondering if this is a vision of the future.”

Dalinar started. “I just… I just asked…”

This was familiar. Too familiar.

He said that exact thing last time, Dalinar realized, feeling a chill. This all happened. I’m seeing the same vision again.

The figure squinted at the horizon. “I cannot see the future completely. Cultivation, she is better at it than I. It’s as if the future is a shattering window. The further you look, the more pieces that window breaks into. The near future can be anticipated, but the distant future… I can only guess.”

 

Fortune is a Spiritual Realm property, because in the SR there is no time or location (all times and locations are one). Accessing Fortune is looking into the SR and trying to read the divergent Futures (E1Atium and Electrum also access Fortune, in more limited ways). E2 Scadrial the Terris are trying to figure this out, and think it has to do with "luck" because they do not yet understand it. 

WoBs:

Spoiler

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Questioner

So, in Allomancy, most of the metals are in pairs, they're equal and opposite, pushing and pulling, Rioting, Soothing, that kind of thing. The god metals have always-- lerasium and atium, have always struck me as kind of unbalanced in a way. Like, lerasium gives you the power to use all these metals, plus atium being one of them. Is there a reason for that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there is, and it kinda has to do with Snapping and some of the fundamental rules of the Mistborn world and the fact that people have Preservation and Ruin inside of them and all these sorts of things. So, the answer is yes.

Partially, narratively, I built that in partially just 'cause I wanted atium to seem odd in the placement, right, when people got to it it's like "What? Why is this one-- This one doesn't match the others. This doesn't really work." When I was building Mistborn, one of the big things I wanted was this idea of a periodic table that was, kind of a flawed construct, that, as you read the books, you came to understand better and better. And that was something I executed-- I don't think I executed that 100% right, but I'm pleased with the general concept and how it plays out. And so I wanted atium to stick out like a sore thumb.

The other thing is, I knew I needed some good foreshadowing for Fortune, for people being able to kinda see the future or versions of the future, for the whole cosmere to work. And, so, I built in atium specifically to do those things. And I built in lerasium to have, kind of, the ultimate sort of benevolent endowment sort of thing. (Not Endowment the Shard, you know what I mean.) But I also wanted to show these two magics were intrinsically tied together on Scadrial because the way that humankind was created. We're getting into some deep stuff, I'll just leave it there. But that was what was going through my mind as I was building those things all out. 

Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

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Chaos

Odium said to Taravangian, "You did this without access to Fortune or the Spiritual Realm?" How does one access Fortune without the Spiritual Realm or Feruchemical chromium, as almost all future sight tends to utilize the Spiritual Realm in some way?

Brandon Sanderson

So, that line is mostly just me saying... *long pause* I think you're picking apart those things too much.

Chaos

Right, that makes sense. Hey, Odium said it, so I didn't know-- Gotta take that seriously, so.

Brandon Sanderson

So, yeah, don't read too much into picking apart those two things. You can read it as-- Honestly, that is me making sure I am being clear in the text.

Chaos

That there are those are two different things.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah those are two different things, but they are just interrelated. Fortune is a property, and the Spiritual Realm is a place, but not a place. Do you know what I mean? To use Fortune, you're always involving the Spiritual Realm, but in the Spiritual Realm, you're not always involving Fortune.

MisCon 2018 (May 26, 2018)

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Weltall (paraphrased)

That gave me the opportunity to ask one last question, about Feruchemical chromium and whether storing fortune would cause you to risk experiencing really improbable things, like the entropy curse in The Dresden Files.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said he wasn't going to answer questions about fortune, that the MAG shouldn't be taken as gospel on this point (I don't remember how it works there and didn't mention it, he brought it up on his own) and that he's planning something different than we might be thinking, for how that mechanic will function.

Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing (Nov. 30, 2016)

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Xyrd (paraphrased)

You've mentioned before that Hoid ends up where he needs to be.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, and usually without knowing why.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Is chromium involved in that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. Well, he's not necessarily using chromium, but the underlying mechanic, yes.

Arcanum Unbounded Fort Collins signing (Nov. 29, 2016)

Quote

Questioner

So the scene at the end of Oathbringer, when Odium is confronting Taravangian and he uses futuresight to expand upon the Diagram, we have this blacked out section with Renarin's name linked to it.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Is that because Renarin's abilities interfere with Odium's futuresight similar to how electrum interferes with atium?

Brandon Sanderson

Any time that someone else is seeing the future in the cosmere, it's going to have ripples against your ability. Like they are-- you can't-- It's the same sort of thing that if-- someone who has access to atium is going to mess up anyone else's futuresight in any way, because once you use that it's going to cause you to act differently, which then-- And remember futuresight is not very good in the cosmere anyway. But yeah, it's just gonna mess things up.

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018)

 

 

2 hours ago, BigBadBagsworth said:

That’s also how the paintings in the Court of the Gods work; the gods are given access to a small amount of fortune by endowment.

The Paintings work on Connection. An artist, channelling the Iridescent Tones puts part of their soul into the work. A returned can "read" that connection to understand what the painting is portraying. 

Spoiler

Warbreaker Annotations to Ch 26:

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Lightsong Sees
the Painting of the Red Battle

This is our first major clue (though a subtle one at the same time) that there might be something to the religion of the Iridescent Tones. Lightsong does see something in this painting that a regular person wouldn’t be able to. A well crafted piece of art, made by a person channeling the Tones and connected to them via Breath, can speak to a Returned. Now, in this case, it doesn’t work quite like Llarimar says it does—Lightsong doesn’t actually prophesy about the black sword in the way the priest thinks. In other words, Lightsong isn’t prophesying that he’ll see the Black Sword (Nightblood) in the day’s activities.

Instead, Lightsong is seeing an image of a previous war, which is prophetic in that another Manywar is brewing—and in both cases, Nightblood will be important to the outcome of the battle.

The person Lightsong sees in the abstract painting is Shashara, Denth’s sister, one of the Five Scholars and a Returned also known as Glorysinger by the Cult of the Returned. She is seen here in Lightsong’s vision as she’s drawing Nightblood at the battle of Twilight Falls. It’s the only time the sword was drawn in battle, and Vasher was horrified by the result.

It’s because of her insistence on using the sword in battle, and in giving away the secret to creating more, that Vasher and she fought. He ended up killing her with Nightblood, which they’d created together during the days they were in love—he married her a short time before their falling out. That marriage ended with him slaying his own wife to keep her from creating more abominations like Nightblood and loosing them upon the world.

WoB:

Quote

BlackYeti (paraphrased)

In Oathbringer, Kaladin sees a painting from the Court of Gods which, it is claimed, shows something different to every person who sees it. However, as I understand it, the Returned only see things in the paintings because of their Divine Breath, there isn't anything intrinsically magical about the paintings themselves; what then is going on with this painting?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He was very evasive here, ultimately he only said that not everything that you see is in the painting.

Oathbringer Newcastle signing (Dec. 1, 2017)

 

 

Hope that helps

Edited August 21, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG