Epilogue - Chapter Arch Rebuilding?

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

One of my favorite parts of WaT was the slow crumbling/disintegration of the chapter arches and their eventual collapse. 

I also love that in the final chapter possible we see a brand new Herald arch stone

 

Kaladin's arch is fresh, clean, his bridge 4 tattoo prominently displayed, and while it's not much, there is a stone below his arch stone for his arch stone to sit on that wasn't there in the previous chapter. 

 (see? no middle stone as above where Kaladin is resting!)

This gives me hope at the end of the things along with the postlude.

What do the rest of you think? did you enjoy the gimmick of the arches slowly crumbling and collapsing throughout the book? 

[Raven Wilder]

It was a really neat gimmick, though it took me an embarrassingly long time (something like 500 pages in) to catch on that it was happening.

[Shardbearer he/him]

Oh I caught the crumbling archs somewhere around day 6 or 7 maybe. Didn't even notice Kaladin's new stone in the epilogue .

[scottos]

I missed this too. Thanks for pointing this out!

[Ahriman he/him]

I noticed it breaking down and rebuilding but I didn't know that was supposed to be Kaladin, or that the original faces were supposed to be Heralds. I don't know what any of these people look like and I don't look at pictures, so I usually forget there's even a graphic at the beginning of a chapter and just go for the words. So thank you for telling me what that actually meant!

[Treamayne]

26 minutes ago, Ahriman said:

I noticed it breaking down and rebuilding but I didn't know that was supposed to be Kaladin, or that the original faces were supposed to be Heralds. I don't know what any of these people look like and I don't look at pictures, so I usually forget there's even a graphic at the beginning of a chapter and just go for the words. So thank you for telling me what that actually meant!

WoBs, if you want more info:

Spoiler

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17th Shard

Please explain the arches and symbols that are seen at the beginning of each chapter and why you decided to do them.

Brandon Sanderson

The arches and symbols are a series of arches and symbols at the beginnings of chapters. There's an explanation for you. They rotate and change for every chapter. What they mean should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer, as Robert Jordan used to say.

I decided to use them because I wanted to have interesting things at the start of each chapter. These were done by Isaac. I originally sat down with Isaac and said, "I want to be able to build symbols at the beginning of my chapters. Something like in The Wheel of Time, which I really like, but I don't want to imitate them, I want to go somewhere different. I want to have different pieces that interlock together that form some stonework symbol that's at the beginning of every chapter." I also told him what I wanted the symbols to mean (among other things) and he actually transmogrified all that into an archway. I had originally been planning it to be some sort of inscribed rock stamp or something like a little relief at the beginning of each chapter, but he persuaded me that an archway with a different kind of symbol in the center [would be better]. So, they became arches through Isaac's working with the art and changing things and deciding what would look good visually.

17th Shard Interview (Oct. 3, 2010)

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Questioner

You know the artwork... the arches with the faces? What are those?

Brandon Sanderson

Those are each of the Heralds. And those archways, Isaac picks based on what he thinks the themes of the chapter are. I don't pick which faces go on there. He reads the chapter... he tries to align what's happening with the emotions represented by the various characters. 

Questioner

And the thing underneath it is?

Brandon Sanderson

Generally the symbol of the viewpoint character. But those shift. Like for instance we sometimes start with a general one, and as the characters get more individual we add ones specifically for them. Usually you'll have one that's the viewpoint character, and then like for instance the ones for Jasnah and Shallan split apart when originally they just had one, and stuff like that.

Emerald City Comic Con 2018 (March 1, 2018)

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Argent

Hey Peter,   I've been meaning to ask you about this since Alice's article on the Heralds went up. In it, she lists each Herald's role (e.g. Jezrien is the King, Battar is the Counselor, Kalak is the Maker, etc.), and I noticed that those same roles were listed (but not used) in the Radiant Quiz as the archetypes for each Order. Some of these show up in the books, but a few don't, and the source for those appears to be an old old email from you. I wanted to know how canonical these are, and whether I can include them in the Coppermind (and if I can, it would be nice to know what they are - roles, titles, archetypes?)

Peter Ahlstrom

These, along with Jester, are the names of the Photoshop layers for the faces on the chapter arches. Since the words themselves don’t really appear in the books, I couldn’t say that they’re canon. In our internal wiki we call them Face/Title. I don’t have an opinion on putting them in the Coppermind.

Footnote: The roles, starting with Jezrien's and going clockwise, are: King, Judge, Guard, Healer, Scholar, Artist, Counselor, Maker, Soldier, and Priest.
Miscellaneous 2020 (Aug. 4, 2020)

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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)

Chapter Arches Thread (circa 2021)

Hope that helps

[Akimikoisthecutest]

I thought that the arches crumbling were super cool. I didn't realize that the figures were heralds. I only realized the arches were crumbling about page 400 of WaT

[Kfish]

Did kaladin actually get the tattoo?

[Treamayne]

46 minutes ago, Kfish said:

Did Kaladin actually get the tattoo?

Yes. WaT Ch 12:

Spoiler

“I might be,” he admitted. “Wit says … well, it’s not important. Less than nine days left, and I don’t think any of us know for sure what happens then. So I wanted to leave you with some words … in case it’s a while.”

Those in the group began to nod quietly, as if they understood. Then, one at a time, arms rose to tap wrists. The Bridge Four salute. Solemnly, without cheers. Kaladin returned it. And storms, seeing them, he couldn’t keep those tears back anymore.

As he looked to the doorway, he saw the person he’d talked to earlier—a tattoo artist, paid to come here with tools. The others parted, then hushed, realizing what this must mean. Long ago, they’d all gotten tattoos on their foreheads. Covering up brands for many of them, done in solidarity by the rest. Kaladin hadn’t been able to get one then, as his body had refused the ink.

It hadn’t yet been ready to move beyond his brands. Those were healed now, and as Kaladin settled down in a chair, the others gathered around and cheered as the tattoo artist started the proper glyphs on his head.

Bridge Four.

This time, the tattoo took.

Hope that helps

Edited September 4, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[earthexile]

It's just too bad the nice stone carving can't show he's still got his own brown eyes. That made him so happy.

King of the Heralds, a darkeyed spearman.

[Ripheus23]

So one of the early chapters says that Cultivation's voice sounds like crumbling rock/stone. The strong appearance of the cracks starts around the same time Dalinar meets Cultivation then. I wonder if there's any esoteric relationship between the crumbling of her plans and the visual...