"Title Heading" Letters: Which came first?

[Elsecaller3414 she/her]

Originally, I thought that the letter (in the headings) in the Way of Kings came first, but I read them both backward the other day, and I realized that it makes more sense if you read them backward.

I am posting the letters below, just in case some of you don't have access to the books, and passages are numbered for parts that seem to correspond.

 

Words of Radiance:

I'll address this letter to my "old friend,"(1) as I have no idea what name you're using currently.
Have you given up on the gemstone, now that it is dead(2)? And do you no longer hide behind the name of your old master? I am told that in your current incarnation you've taken a name that references what you presume to be one of your virtues.
This is, I suspect, a little like a skunk naming itself for its stench.
Now, look what you've made me say. You've always been able to bring out the most extreme in me, old friend. And I do still name you a friend, for all that you weary me.
Yes, I'm disappointed. Perpetually, as you put it.
Is not the destruction we have wrought enough? The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of Adonalsium. Our interference (3) so far has brought nothing but pain.
My path has been chosen very deliberately. Yes, I agree with everything you have said about Rayse, including the severe danger he presents.
However, it seems to me that all things have been set up for a purpose, and if we - as infants - stumble through the workshop, we risk exacerbating, not preventing, a problem.
Rayse is captive. He cannot leave the system he now inhabits. His destructive potential is, therefore, inhibited.
Whether this was Tanavast's design or not, millenia have passeed without Rayse taking the life of another of the sixteen. While I mourn for the great suffering Rayse has caused, I do not believe we could hope for a better outcome than this.
He bears the weight of god's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is what he, unfortunately, wished to become.
I suspect that he is more of a force than an individual now, despite your insistence to the contrary. That force is contained, and an equilibrium is reached.
You, however, have never been a force for equilibrium. You tow chaos behind you like a corpse dragged by one leg through the snow. Please, hearken to my plea. Leave that place and join me in my oath of nonintervention (3).
The cosmere itself may depend upon our restraint.

 

the Way of Kings:

Old friend (1), I hope this missive finds you well.  Though, as you are now essentially immortal, I would guess that wellness on your part is something of a given.

I realize that you are probably still angry.  That is pleasant to know.  Much as your perpetual health, I have come to rely upon your dissatisfaction with me.  It is one of the cosmere's great constants, I should think.

Let me first assure you that the element is quite safe(2).  I have found a good home for it.  I protect its safety like I protect my own skin, you might say.

You do not agree with my quest.  I understand that, so much as it is possible to understand someone with whom I disagree so completely.

Might I be quite frank?  Before, you asked why I was so concerned.  It is for the following reason: Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.  Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met.

He holds the most frightening and terrible of all of the Shards.  Ponder on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence on nonintervention (3) holds firm.  Because I assure you, Rayse will not be similarly inhibited.  One need only look at the aftermath of his brief visit to Sel to see proof of what I say.

In case you have turned a blind eye to that disaster, know that Aona and Skai are both dead, and that which they held has been Splintered.  Presumably to prevent anyone from rising up to challenge Rayse.

You have accused me of arrogance in my quest.  You have accused me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin.  Both accusations are true.  Neither point makes the things I have written to you here untrue.

I am being chased.  Your friends of the Seventeenth Shard, I suspect.  I believe they're still lost, following a false trail I left for them.  They'll be happier that way.  I doubt they have any inkling what to do with me should they actually catch me.  If anything I have said makes a glimmer of sense to you, I trust that you'll call them off.  Or maybe you could astound me and ask them to do something productive for once.

For I have never been dedicated to a more important purpose, and the very pillars of the sky will shake with the results of our war here.  I ask again.  Support me.  Do not stand aside and let disaster consume more lives.  I've never begged you for something before, old friend.

I do so now.

 

1:  The mention of "old friend" here seems chronological.  The author of the letter in WoK (presumably Wit) uses it in the same way as the author of the letter in WoR.

 

2: The object/gemstone seems to be consistent.  I am not entirely sure, though.

 

3:  Nonintervention.  The way Wit expresses it makes it sound as if he was accused in the previous letter.

 

However, mentions of Rayse seem to be the opposite of this suggested chronology, since the mention in WoR seems to be a consolation to the worries of that in WoK.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Elsecaller3414

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Eh I think it's pretty clear that the Second letter is a response to the first one.  They both mention similar things because the Recipient is responding to the things that Hoid is bringing up (except for the element as that is Hoid's bead of lerasium, not the gemstone).

[DreamEternal]

(except for the element as that is Hoid's bead of lerasium, not the gemstone).

Was that confirmed? Just curious.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Was that confirmed? Just curious.

 

Yes.

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

Do we know who wrote the letter in WoR? Reading the letters makes me think that it might be Harmony. These are my reasons.

1.Hoid says they are now immortal. They were not always immortal, but they became so.

2."Ali was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him" this sentence seems to imply that the person receiving the letter knew Ruin and saw the destruction he caused firsthand.

3. The writer says our inheiritence right after a sentence about Adonalsium. This seems to imply that the writer is a Shardholder.

4. The writer talks about things being in equilibrium. Harmony is the balance of two opposing ideas.

[DreamEternal]

Do we know who wrote the letter in WoR? Reading the letters makes me think that it might be Harmony. These are my reasons.

1.Hoid says they are now immortal. They were not always immortal, but they became so.

2."Ali was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him" this sentence seems to imply that the person receiving the letter knew Ruin and saw the destruction he caused firsthand.

3. The writer says our inheiritence right after a sentence about Adonalsium. This seems to imply that the writer is a Shardholder.

4. The writer talks about things being in equilibrium. Harmony is the balance of two opposing ideas.

As far as I am aware, Brandom confirmed the author if the second letter is a dragon. So, no.

[Elsecaller3414 she/her]

wait... there's dragons in the Cosmere?

[Ari he/him]

wait... there's dragons in the Cosmere?

 

Brandon's creative writing thesis is called Dragonsteel, and it's a cosmere novel he wants to come back to. (The version some people have read has had some of its best content lifted and put into The Way of Kings, apparently, so it would need re-writing) People who have read said novel have a guess as to which Dragon is being referred to, but it is technically an unpublished work, so the information in it isn't final, although it makes sense to give him a name of some sort.

 

As to the OP, contrast letter 1, from WoK: (emphasis mine)

 

 

I realize that you are probably still angry.  That is pleasant to know.  Much as your perpetual health, I have come to rely upon your dissatisfaction with me.  It is one of the cosmere's great constants, I should think.

 

with letter 2 from WoR: (again, emphasis mine)

 

Yes, I'm disappointed. Perpetually, as you put it.

 

The "old reptile" is replying to Wit/Hoid, as he references what is said in Wit's letter, allowing us to place them chronologically. Sorry to bust your theory.

 

The letters are in a lot of ways a mirror to each other, but that's simply because they both disagree with each other so much, but clearly have some sort of relationship the two are both still invested in, as each of them wants to convince the other of their own position.