Navani's journal entries

[Cromptj he/him]

Now that the whole of the prologue, chapter 1 and chapter 2 are up on Tor, there are more epigraphs, specifically, entries from Navani's journal.

Is it just me, or do the journal entries remind you of the epigraphs in WoA. Specifically Chapter 2 when she writes

"Our first clue was the Parshendi. Even weeks before they abandoned their pursuit of the gemhearts, their pattern of fighting changed. They lingered on the plateaus after battles, as if waiting for something."

This suggests to me that some similar large reveal will happen at the end of WoR, and, more importantly, that it will be a disaster (for the Alethi, anyway).

[Natans he/him]

Yeah, I got the same "end of the world vibe". First thing that crossed my mind are Dalinar death, that would explain  sadness and the guilt in the notes.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Natans

[hoser he/him]

I think the entries are continuous, like the letter in tWoK.

 

Looking at them together:

To be perfectly frank, what has happened these last two months is upon my head. The death, destruction, loss, and pain are my burden. I should have seen it coming. And I should have stopped it. Our first clue was the Parshendi. Even weeks before they abandoned their pursuit of the gemhearts, their pattern of fighting changed. They lingered on the plateaus after battles, as if waiting for something.

We also know from the blurb:

The war with the Parshendi will move into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains in a bold attempt to finally end it.

Presumably a catastrophe struck the united Alethi forces.  If Navani is writing a journal, they are not all dead.  I hold out hope that Dalinar has survived. 

Edited January 8, 2014 by hoser

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

I mentioned this in the other thread, but the date on the Navani's journal entries is Jeseses, the first day of the year of 1174.  We can tell that the majority of Way of Kings took place in a two month span in 1173, WoR picks up directly after it, but since we don't know the exact dates in WoK, we don't really know how long we have until the end of the year.  Characters in the book haven't even started mentioning the coming Weeping as the year's end approaches.

 

As always, here are the death vision epigraphs, with the dates on them for comparison, spoiler tagged for space-saving reasons.

1. “The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather…we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.”—Collected on the first day of the week Palah of the month Shash of the year 1171, thirty-one seconds before death. Subject was a darkeyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive. (271) [6-5-1]
2. “You’ve killed me. Bastards, you’ve killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die!”—Collected on the fifth day of the week Chach of the month Betab of the year 1171, ten seconds before death. Subject was a darkeyed soldier thirty-one years of age. Sample is considered questionable. (315) [7-3-5]
3.“Ten orders. We were loved, once. Why have you forsaken us, Almighty! Shard of my soul, where have you gone?”—Collected on the second day of Kakash, year 1171, five seconds before death. Subject was a lighteyed woman in her third decade. (377) [8-6-2]
4.“A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.”—Collected on the 4th of Tanates, year 1171, thirty seconds before death. Subject was a cobbler of some renown. (404) [9-1-4]
5.“I’m dying, aren’t I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.”—Collected on the 3rd of Jesnan, 1172, 11 seconds pre-death. Subject was a Reshi chull trainer. Sample is of particular note. (8) [1-2-3]
6.“I have seen the end, and have heard it named. The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm.”—Collected on the 1st of Nanes, 1172, 15 seconds pre-death. Subject was a darkeyed youth of unknown origin. (51) [2-1-1]
7.“I’m cold. Mother, I’m cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop?”—Collected on Vevishes, 1172, 32 seconds pre-death. Subject was a lighteyed female child, approximately six years old. (196) [4-10-1]
8.“They are aflame. They burn. They bring the darkness when they come, and so all you can see is that their skin is aflame. Burn, burn, burn….”—Collected on Palahishev, 1172, 21 seconds pre-death. Subject was a baker’s apprentice. (249) [5-10-4]
9.“Victory! We stand atop the mount! We scatter them before us! Their homes become our dens, their lands are now our farms! And they shall burn, as we once did, in a place that is hollow and forlorn.”—Collected on Ishashan, 1172, 18 seconds pre-death. Subject was a lighteyed spinster of the eighth dahn. (477) [10-6-2]
10.“Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red.”—Collected: Jesachev, 1173, 12 seconds pre-death. Subject: one of our own ardents, overheard during his last moments. (14) [1-3-4]
11.“Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.”—Collected: Chachanan, 1173, 84 seconds pre-death. Subject: a cutpurse with the wasting sickness, of partial Iriali descent. (107) [3-2-2]
13.“I’m standing over the body of a brother. I’m weeping. Is that his blood or mine? What have we done?”—Dated Vevanev, 1173, 107 seconds pre-death. Subject: an out-of-work Veden sailor. (159) [4-2-4]
14.“He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!”—Dated Vevahach, 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. Subject: a prostitute. Back ground unknown. (173) [4-5-3]
15.“The burdens of nine become mine. Why must I carry the madness of them all? Oh, Almighty, release me.”—Dated Palaheses, 1173, unknown seconds pre-death. Subject: a wealthy lighteyes. Sample collected secondhand. (201) [5-1-1]
16.“A woman sits and scratches out her own eyes. Daughter of kings and winds, the vandal.”—Dated Palahevan, 1173, 73 seconds pre-death. Subject: a beggar of some renown, known for his elegant songs. (217) [5-4-2]
17.“Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us.”—Dated Palahakev, 1173, 16 seconds pre-death. Subject: a Thaylen sailor. (239) [5-8-4]
18.“I hold the suckling child in my hands, a knife at his throat, and know that all who live wish me to let the blade slip. Spill its blood upon the ground, over my hands, and with it gain us further breath to draw.”—Dated Shashanan, 1173, 23 seconds pre-death. Subject: a darkeyed youth of sixteen years. Sample is of particular note. (257) [6-2-2]
(19)“And all the world was shattered!” Maps yelled, back arching, eyes wide, flecks of red spittle on his cheeks. “The rocks trembled with their steps, and the stones reached toward the heavens. We die! We die!” (No Date)
20.“ReShephir, the Midnight Mother, giving birth to abominations with her essence so dark, so terrible, so consuming. She is here! She watches me die!”—Dated Shashabev, 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. Subject: a darkeyed dock-worker in his forties, father of three. (284) [6-7-4]
21.“Above the final void I hang, friends behind, friends before. The feast I must drink clings to their faces, and the words I must speak spark in my mind. The old oaths will be spoken anew.”—Dated Betabanan, 1173, 45 seconds pre-death. Subject: a lighteyed child of five years. Diction improved remarkably when giving sample.(307) [7-2-2]
22.“The death is my life, the strength becomes my weakness, the journey has ended.”—Dated Betabanes, 1173, 95 seconds pre-death. Subject: a scholar of some minor renown. Sample collected secondhand. Considered questionable.(306) [7-2-1]
23.“In the storm I awaken, falling, spinning, grieving.”—Dated Kakanev, 1173, 13 seconds pre-death. Subject was a city guardsman. (359) [8-2-4]
24.“The darkness becomes a palace. Let it rule! Let it rule!”—Kakevah 1173, 22 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed Selay man of unknown profession. (370) [8-4-5]
25.“I wish to sleep. I know now why you do what you do, and I hate you for it. I will not speak of the truths I see.”—Kakashah 1173, 142 seconds pre-death. A Shin sailor, left behind by his crew, reportedly for bringing them ill luck. Sample largely useless. (380) [8-6-5]
26.“They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”—Kakashah 1173, 13 seconds pre-death. A rickshaw puller. (380) [8-6-5]
27.“I see them. They are the rocks. They are the vengeful spirits. Eyes of red.”—Kakakes 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed young woman of fifteen. Subject was reportedly mentally unstable since childhood. (386) [8-8-1]
28.“That chanting, that singing, those rasping voices.”—Kaktach 1173, 16 seconds pre-death. A middle-aged potter. Reported seeing strange dreams during highstorms during the last two years. (393) [8-9-3]
29.“Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Daigonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it!”—Tanatesach 1173, 28 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed female street juggler. Note similarity to sample 1172-89. (403) [9-1-3]
30.“They named it the Final Desolation, but they lied. Our gods lied. Oh, how they lied. The Everstorm comes. I hear its whispers, see its stormwall, know its heart.”—Tanatanes 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. An Azish itinerant worker. Sample of particular note. (406) [9-2-1]
31.“All is withdrawn for me. I stand against the one who saved my life. I protect the one who killed my promises. I raise my hand. The storm responds.”—Tanatanev 1173, 18 seconds pre-death. A darkeyed mother of four in her sixty-second year. (409) [9-2-4]

None of those take place in 1174, even the very last one is still 91 days away.

[hoser he/him]

Good work on the dates, CN!

 

Navani might not have written in her journal immediately. 

 

Dalinar has to whip the other highprinces into shape, then do some force unification/retraining before launching the expedition.  The Parshendi had weeks where they lingered after battles, then they stopped chasing gemhearts. The timing seems to me like it could be right for the Parshendi to go mass storm-form as the Alethi approach the center of the plains.  Or maybe they get taken over by corrupted spren and Voidbring the heck out of the Alethi.  

 

I think the Chasmfiends may be intelligent too.  I don't know how that would play out. 

 

Does somebody have a better idea?

[Unknowingly he/him]

Wait. I thought the events in the way of kings happened over a year. A two month span seems a little unrealistic to me

[Cayden]

Could they be waiting at the end for Dalinar to show up? from the Eshonai PoV's we've seen so far, she wants to talk to him, but whether they would all stay or not is another matter.

 

But yeah I think they are going to develop another form, maybe from deathspren, if the Alethi start really destroying them.

[Cromptj he/him]

I agree with Natans, Dalinar probably dies, but they could find some voidbringers which cause some destruction or something.

[Windrunner he/him]

Wait. I thought the events in the way of kings happened over a year. A two month span seems a little unrealistic to me

It's just a few months, although we don't have a specific timeline. Keep in mind though, two months on Roshar is one hundred days, so it's a little longer than our concept of two months.

[Unknowingly he/him]

Thanks Windy

 

However, I am not completely ignorant to the year cycle in WoK. I suppose I just assumed that because a Roshar year is 1.09 Earth years that everything happened in about a year. But I suppose that it is believable that everything happened in 4 months (200 days), give or take. I would prefer if it was more but there is not much that I can really do about it is there

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

I'm not sure how long Kaladin is in the slave wagon for that we see at the beginning of the book, or how long he initially spends in Bridge 4 before all the Bridge member that were there when he arrived have either left the Bridge or died.  But I tried to figure out the math for the days from Kaladin reconsidering his suicide at the Honor Chasm to the end of the book here.  That period can't really be more than 75 or so days, which does seem astonishingly short, but I'll copy the TLDR from that thread here.

 

I'm still not entirely sure about Dalinar, but it looks like Kaladin spent at the very most, 2 months on the Shattered Plains. If new Bridgemen are only added on Chachel, that means there was either 15 or 20 days between chapters 9 (Kid that reminds him of Tien joins and immediately dies) and 32 (Lopen joins), and another 15 days between 32 and 46 (Shen joins). Then another few weeks between 46 and 55, then maybe another week or two before 61, and then 10 days between 62 and 63. So it's probably actually closer to a Roshar month and a half.

Actually, I wasn't counting the period leading up to chapter 9, in which Kaladin is completely despondent and not keep tracking of time, but that period was probably somewhere well under a month.

 

Point being, If the events that Navani are reflecting on all happen in this book,  we're probably looking at a similarly short span of time.  I just wish we had a concrete month/week/day for any single event in WoK.  If I pretended that Kaladin's bridge leap epigraph was given at the same time that he did it (that would be [7-2-2], 193 days from the end of the year),  we still have a huge period of time to cover.

 

I've always thought that this epigraph: "26.“They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”—Kakashah 1173, 13 seconds pre-death. A rickshaw puller. (380) [8-6-5]."  would reference an event in a later book, in which Kaladin and Renarin fall into a chasm and they come out of there with a gemheart.  Although I guess it could be anyone + Kaladin, not necessarily Renarin.  Ah, you need Kaladin there to keep whoever it is from actually dying by Kaladin using Windrunner abilities to slow the fall.  Everyone still assumes they died though, hence the "two dead men".

Edited January 9, 2014 by Cheese Ninja

[marianmi]

The journal entries definitely look like something bad happened, but certainly not a Desolation. I might even say that it's not even related to the voidbringers. 

There are only weeks until we shall find out, but let me make my predictions

 

Alethi push deep in the shattered plains, almost destroying the parshendi, when ...

 

1) something like midnight essence strike. 

 

2) dead parshendi rise up as zombies and kill the altehi.

 

3) Renarin and Adolin have a fight about Shallan, Renarin destroing half of the alethi army because he cannot control his powers.

 

4) an army of hundres of shardbearers appears and kills the alethi.

 

5) my favorite - Kalladin and Bridge 4 now containing more surgebinders are sick with the killing of Parshendi and starts fighting the alethi.

 

I think the voidbringers are the parshendi gods, not the parshendi themselves. Navani gets to understand the parshendi can bind spren in a process somehow similar to fabrials.

[shadewolf]

The timing seems to me like it could be right for the Parshendi to go mass storm-form as the Alethi approach the center of the plains.  Or maybe they get taken over by corrupted spren and Voidbring the heck out of the Alethi.  

 

 

I agree with this, I feel like the storm forms will be a huge deal to do with whatever destruction that happens. The first entry seemed to put me off on the idea initially, considering how would you  have predicted that the parshendi could change forms, but then I realized, she had access to dalinar's visions and maybe her daughter had discussed this with her. There however should be more to what happened, because she's taking this loss really harshly.

 

I also feel that the journal entry happens sometime mid book. The reason I say this is because, it would reveal to much so early on in the book otherwise.

 

For some reason I feel like Navani is going to die.

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

Now that there's been a bit more posted, let's update this thread.

To be perfectly frank, what has happened these last two months is upon my head. The death, destruction, loss, and pain are my burden. I should have seen it coming. And I should have stopped it.

Our first clue was the Parshendi. Even weeks before they abandoned their pursuit of the gemhearts, their pattern of fighting changed. They lingered on the plateaus after battles, as if waiting for something.

Soldiers reported being watched from afar by an unnerving number of Parshendi scouts. Then we noticed a new pattern of their penetrating close to the camps in the night and then quickly retreating. I can only surmise that our enemies were even then preparing their stratagem to end this war.

The next clue came on the walls. I did not ignore this sign, but neither did I grasp its full implications.

The sign on the wall proposed a greater danger, even, than its deadline. To foresee the future is of the Voidbringers.

 

Here's a question, does the "last 2 months" period only begin after the "62 days Death (broken) follows." period?  If so, I think that puts the beginning of the book in near the end of the 7th month (2 months+62 days is around 162).  This is would almost fit with Kaladin's chasm leap happening the same day the death rattle was given. (7-2-2)  If we assume that Navani did some rounding down for the "two months", it really does work.

[Delightful]

Sorry to be a little off topic, but how do dates on Roshar work? How do we know 100 days is two months?

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

Brandon has remarked on the length of the year, Peter has commented on how dates work, and some examination of the dates given in the epigraphs fill in any gaps.  It's on the coppermind wiki as well.  Each month is named for a Herald, as is each week inside a month, and the 5 days of a week all correspond to the first 5 Heralds as well. [Month][Week][Day] So Jezrien becomes Jes, Jes =1, [Jes][es][es] Is the first day of the first week of the first month of the year, [1-1-1]

[shadewolf]

Now that there's been a bit more posted, let's update this thread.

 

Here's a question, does the "last 2 months" period only begin after the "62 days Death (broken) follows." period?  If so, I think that puts the beginning of the book in near the end of the 7th month (2 months+62 days is around 162).  This is would almost fit with Kaladin's chasm leap happening the same day the death rattle was given. (7-2-2)  If we assume that Navani did some rounding down for the "two months", it really does work.

 

I think the 2 months include the 62 days. I believe this because I feel that the final death rattle featured in as an epigraph was dated 9-2-4. Somebody already explained that there would be 91 days in between which I could see someone using two months to represent. Now the the epigraphs could be dated from the future; but I disagree. In the endnote, there was also another death quote, and a short journal entry from Joshor, Head of His Majesty's Silent Gatherers, dated also 9-2-4. The fact that this was the endnote, makes me think, this is date where everything happened towards the end of WoK.

[Delightful]

Brandon has remarked on the length of the year, Peter has commented on how dates work, and some examination of the dates given in the epigraphs fill in any gaps. It's on the coppermind wiki as well. Each month is named for a Herald, as is each week inside a month, and the 5 days of a week all correspond to the first 5 Heralds as well. [Month][Week][Day] So Jezrien becomes Jes, Jes =1, [Jes][es][es] Is the first day of the first week of the first month of the year, [1-1-1]

Thank you!

[Cheese Ninja he/him]

Yeah, I was the one who mentioned the 91 days thing.  I didn't actually notice that “Above silence, the illuminating storms—dying storms— illuminate the silence above.” was Tanatanev as well, so that's interesting.

 

But I don't think the last epigraph matches up to the date at the end of Way of Kings.  Only about two months pass in Way of Kings, once you exclude the first and flashback chapters, and since the epigraphs cover a period of over two years, only a few could even match up.  I still think the mostly likely to match up, if any do at all, would be Kaladin's chasm leap, which was on 7-2-2.  It's been not quite two weeks since the end of Way of Kings, so in that case, we haven't even reached the middle of Betab.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Cheese Ninja