Chapters 12 & 13

[dvoraen]

https://reactormag.com/read-wind-and-truth-by-brandon-sanderson-chapters-12-and-13/

Discuss!

One thing I noticed: Sja-anat has been a busy bee. If you look at the Urithiru drawing at the end of Chapter 13, it looks like seven of the Oathgates have been Enlightened. They were introduced as a white-and-black pair (one of each color), and the drawing clearly shows seven pairs that are black and not white.

Edited September 9, 2024 by dvoraen

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Well that's incredibly bad, without Oathgates there will be no more instant travel. I guess Sja-Anat must have gotten to them during the Occupation.

I guess that they'll need to work on those flying ships as quickly as possible for the timeskip, since those will become the next fastest, safest way to travel after the Oathgates are gone. 

I wonder, the corrupted ones are talking about being 'liberated', so are they planning on leaving the Oathgates themselves?

[Ashbringer he/him]

The timing on this is slightly odd.

Shallan mentions (I think) that the Shadesmar invading force would have had to be en route for months. That tracks with the plan to corrupt the Oathgate spren and invade Azimir. But how does that track with the singer’s original plan of capturing Urithiru? That also shut off the Oathgates, and was seemingly planned to be permanent. Corrupting the Oathgate spren might have been then necessary, but it feels like seperate plans.

Maybe these singers were supposed to go into the captured Urithiru - and then everywhere - but after Sja-anat’s fragile loyalty, the tower reactivating, and the original Ten Day Contest agreement, the fleet was reordered to here.

Or maybe this was already Odium’s (Rayse’s) plan, to capture significantly more territory before the Contest and leave the timeframe so the Coalition can’t retaliate.

[Dofurion]

1. Half of my theory was confirmed, the Oathgate Sprens ended up being Inksprens (I thought the white one was a Lightspren). Does this mean that with a quick reconfiguration they can become giant Soulcasters?
2. Well it seems that Shallan will be sensible and fight with a sword and shield (or double daggers) instead of a two-handed sword.

3. On 9/9/2024 at 7:45 PM, dvoraen said:

   One thing I noticed: Sja-anat has been a busy bee. If you look at the Urithiru drawing at the end of Chapter 13, it looks like seven of the Oathgates have been Enlightened. They were introduced as a white-and-black pair (one of each color), and the drawing clearly shows seven pairs that are black and not white.

   One thing we can't confirm yet is the state of these pairs. It seems that in the case we see, the white one hasn't accepted (at least not yet) since we know that when they are corrupted they are red. But the black ones remain practically the same so there may be doors where only the white ones accepted. How would this make a difference? I have no idea.

[Ashbringer he/him]

These also seem quite different than the Corrupted Oathgate spren in Kholinar, who were black and red, and weirdly stretched out. That might be Sja-anat experimenting.

[dvoraen]

11 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

These also seem quite different than the Corrupted Oathgate spren in Kholinar, who were black and red, and weirdly stretched out. That might be Sja-anat experimenting.

I think what we saw with the Azimir Oathgate spren was the early stages of being Enlightened, since only *part* of the darker-colored spren had changed, when we saw with the Kholinar Oathgate that the white one had fully turned red. Combined with the darker one saying that their companion also agreed to the change suggests it'll take on the red trait as well. The part that confuses me was the Oathgate spren saying "There was no warning to give." I can't help but think that Sja-anat either Enlightened the Azimir Oathgate from Urithiru's side*, or she can deliver her touch through her children, which is a possibility from Oathbringer when we saw her able to communicate with Shallan through the Enlightened gloryspren. The latter feels the more likely, because an Enlightened spren would be much easier to slip by sentries watching the Oathgates from Shadesmar, versus Sja-anat herself showing up (presumably, a number of the Unmade are massive in the Cognitive Realm and Brandon himself has said it's hard to hide an Unmade in the Cognitive Realm).

I'd very much like to know Sja-anat's activity after she left Emul, because if my interpretation of Shallan's drawing of the seven Oathgates being Enlightened is correct, Sja-anat has been booking it across Roshar and/or has been using her children to long-distance extend her influence as mentioned above (the influence increase is corroborated by Wit in the Rhythm of War epilogue).

 

* I've been wondering if the Oathgate spren are in a kind of quantum entanglement state, where they're in two places simultaneously so as to faciliate the transfer from both ends. This is a possibility due to the "familiar" Oathgate pair in the drawing, which corresponds to Thaylen City. And so if they were talked into being Enlightened from the other side, it causes both sides to change.

Edited September 11, 2024 by dvoraen

[Miyabi She/Her]

On 9/11/2024 at 7:59 AM, dvoraen said:

* I've been wondering if the Oathgate spren are in a kind of quantum entanglement state, where they're in two places simultaneously so as to faciliate the transfer from both ends. This is a possibility due to the "familiar" Oathgate pair in the drawing, which corresponds to Thaylen City. And so if they were talked into being Enlightened from the other side, it causes both sides to change.

Spren in general seem to work this way.  We see Spren in the physical world, but they are still primarily within Shadesmar; Radiant Spren notwithstanding.  Though I think in this instance it would have to be the place where their consciousnesses is centered.  I feel like their "presence" in these other places would primarily be ancillary, functional, but  not necessarily present.

[dvoraen]

Am I crazy, or did the drawing for Urithiru on ReactorMag's site get updated, so that it looks like the Oathgates are no longer in an Enlightened state? Also, wasn't there a "This pair seems familiar." comment on the fifth from the right?

[who_slew_aicirtap she/they]

35 minutes ago, dvoraen said:

Am I crazy, or did the drawing for Urithiru on ReactorMag's site get updated, so that it looks like the Oathgates are no longer in an Enlightened state? Also, wasn't there a "This pair seems familiar." comment on the fifth from the right?

Huh thats really weird.

Heres the current one:

And the original:

Edited October 5, 2024 by who_slew_aicirtap