Honorblades on the Part title pages

[antwon87]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned, I searched around a bit and didn't see it. Anyway, I just noticed that there is a sword design in the background on each of the Part title pages (the pages that show a piece of paper and say "Part 1 Above Silence," etc). The sword on parts 1 and 5 is the symbol of the windrunners which is depressed into the front of the hardcover, what I think I've seen mentioned as the depiction of Jezrien's honorblade. So, whose blades do the other two represent? I kinda think those images would have been put there deliberately, perhaps indicating the future Radiant order of a character in that part.

So, we can match the blades' hilts to the radiant order symbols on the herald/order/surge diagram. The blade on part 2 and 4 looks to me like the right hand side top symbol, Nalan's, although it is kind of hard to tell. The characters listed in both parts are Kaladin, Dalinar, and Adolin. So, perhaps Dalinar or Adolin (or both) will become part of Nalan's order of Radiants. The attributes just and confident certainly fit them in my opinion.

The blade on part 3 looks very similar to the right hand side bottom symbol, Chach's. Shallan and Kaladin are the listed characters for that part, so, Shallan may be in Chach's order. I'd say she's brave, and... maybe obedient. Now, I know that there are theories about Shallan's future order that clash with this, and I'm not sure how to rectify them. But I thought I'd throw this out there anyway.

I'd be surprised if nobody's noticed this before, so if it's been mentioned just disregard and point me towards the old discussion. If somehow it is new info though, let me know what you think :)/>

[Senor Feesh]

I'll have to dig out my copies and have a look at these, that's really interesting. Just and Confident, whilst arguably could be both, I'd say fit very closely specifically with Dalinar (Just) and Confident (Adolin). Dalinar doesn't really display confidence until after the Tower, and Adolin seems to have more of a sense of personal justice than Dalinar's grand vision. I'd be surprised if we didn't see both displaying more of these attributes though in future.

I think I've missed an info-dump somewhere which gives the key to the diagram of Surgebinder orders and their respective Radiants - I'd love a link if anyone has one. People are often discussing the Surges and Orders, and I'm often in the dark - I'm not even sure where we know the names of all 10 heralds from!

As for Shallan - Brave, certainly. Obedient... yes, I think I can see that. She came to Kharbranth at her family's behest, but she's also very good at following Jasnah's instruction in her studies. I would love to see further discussion on this.

[FlashWrogan he/him]

If someone would care to link a picture of these title pages I would love it, as I don't have access to my hardcopy right now.

As far as previous info on Heralds and Radiants, this has a good chart to show most of the info we know. I know there is a post somewhere that has a picture of the Knights Radiant symbols with some good analysis on it, but I couldn't find it.

[Takeshi]

I'm 90% confident that the blade symbols are corresponding to the symmetrical nature of the Ketek used as the titles for each part. The Ketek used in WoK (noted after the epilogue) is symmetrical, as all Ketek are, and broken into 5 parts. So you could order the parts as 1 2 3 2 1 as opposed to 1 2 3 4 5. If you then order the Orders numerically according to the Ars Arcanum, 1 would be the Zephyr order, 2 would be the Vapor order, and 3 would be the Soul order. Hopefully that made sense.

I'm not even sure where we know the names of all 10 heralds from!

I think so far it's been a combination of the Vorin numbering system (indicated in the Ars Arcanum) and hints throughout the book. We know Jezrien (Jes), Kalak (Kak), Ishar (Ishi) and Taln (Tanat) from the prelude. Szeth mentions Shalash (Shash) in his prologue (along with the Vorin versions of Jezrien, Ishar , Kalak and Taln). I can't think off the top of my head where we got the others.

[Windrunner he/him]

We don't know all the Herald's names. The full names of the Heralds attached to the numbers Chach and Palah are still unknown.

[antwon87]

Here is the radiant order/surge diagram and the part title pages.

Takeshi, that's an interesting point that the blades mirror the symmetrical nature of the ketek. I wonder what the significance of that is? Do the words of the ketek have something to do with the orders represented by each blade? Or maybe a relation to the characters in the part? Has there been much discussion about the ketek in the past?

Illuminating storms/storm's illumination certainly seems to fit with Dalinar's visions during highstorms. Above silence could represent Kaladin's will to protect others around him rather than simply remain silent. I'm not sure about silence above though. Or Dying in Part 3. That's a bit vague... although, to take a wild guess, Part 3 deals with Shallan, who is in Karbranth, where Taravangian is doing his research involving a lot of death. Also, if that image is Chach's blade, Dying does fit with Chach's body focus: the soul.

[Torian'Omil Stonespark]

Here is the radiant order/surge diagram and the part title pages.

Takeshi, that's an interesting point that the blades mirror the symmetrical nature of the ketek. I wonder what the significance of that is? Do the words of the ketek have something to do with the orders represented by each blade? Or maybe a relation to the characters in the part? Has there been much discussion about the ketek in the past?

Illuminating storms/storm's illumination certainly seems to fit with Dalinar's visions during highstorms. Above silence could represent Kaladin's will to protect others around him rather than simply remain silent. I'm not sure about silence above though. Or Dying in Part 3. That's a bit vague... although, to take a wild guess, Part 3 deals with Shallan, who is in Karbranth, where Taravangian is doing his research involving a lot of death. Also, if that image is Chach's blade, Dying does fit with Chach's body focus: the soul.

I would think that Kaladin would have a lot more to do with the storms here...and the silence above could very well relate him also, but the illuminating storms as a deposit of knowledge sounds good and fitting for Dalinar as you propose

"CHILD OF TANAVAST, CHILD OF HONOR. CHILD OF ONE LONG SINCE DEPARTED" Perhaps the absence of Tanavast is the cause of the the Silence above, or there is some correlation between his absence and the inability of men to ride the storms in his absence, that cause the silence. However the quote falls under the part of the book entitled "Dying" so I could be completely wrong. I just gained the understanding that the Ketek and the book separation are tied together so I may need to go back and revise my entire thoughts on it.

[antwon87]

Resurrecting this since there is the same pattern (with different blades) in WoR. I don't really have anything new to theorize, but maybe someone else can come up with something. I updated the album of part title pages with the WoR material. This time the blades look like the symbols for Shalash (part 1 and 5), Betab (part 2 and 4), and Kelek (part 3).