World Guide Lore: the Night

[RedBlue]

I remember there was a lot of speculation following WaT about the ancient spren, Night, and what happened to her.

According to the new info in the World Guide, the Night became the Nightwatcher. From chapter 3:

Quote

She [the Nightwatcher] doesn’t resemble humans as closely in appearance or mindset as do most sapient spren. Instead, she’s closer to her original form as the primal spren of night.

Because the Nightwatcher seems to be subordinate to Cultivation, I suspect that whatever happened to the Night to make her as she is now, Cultivation must have been very involved.

Tenuous speculation time: maybe Cultivation hijacked Night for her own purposes, turning her into the Nightwatcher. Some Rosharans may have found that extremely objectionable, as Night was essentially a deity in her own right at one point, and may have been important to their religions and even natural functions of the planet. This could have led to Taln’s plot to kill Cultivation, perhaps with the hope of restoring Night.

[Jult]

16 hours ago, RedBlue said:

I remember there was a lot of speculation following WaT about the ancient spren, Night, and what happened to her.

According to the new info in the World Guide, the Night became the Nightwatcher. From chapter 3:

Because the Nightwatcher seems to be subordinate to Cultivation, I suspect that whatever happened to the Night to make her as she is now, Cultivation must have been very involved.

Tenuous speculation time: maybe Cultivation hijacked Night for her own purposes, turning her into the Nightwatcher. Some Rosharans may have found that extremely objectionable, as Night was essentially a deity in her own right at one point, and may have been important to their religions and even natural functions of the planet. This could have led to Taln’s plot to kill Cultivation, perhaps with the hope of restoring Night.

Very interesting. I had assumed the Nightwatcher came from part of Night as the Stormfather did from Wind and the Sibling did from Stone. But this does make it sound like the entirety of Night went into the Nightwatcher.

What's also interesting is that the Sibling says Night left Roshar and that Cultivation "replaced her" with the Nightwatcher (WaT Chapter 21). So, either the Sibling is unaware of the Nightwatcher's origins or he was lying.

The timelines on the creation of the bondsmith spren are pretty hazy. Our main source of info for this is the Sibling, and he just isn't a very reliable source.. However, I think Taln's attempt to kill Cultivation would have pre-dated the Nightwatcher's creation.

[lacrossedeamon]

I do think there might be some wiggle room here. I don't think we will fully understand the relationship until the herald flashbacks in the back half.