Chapters 3-5 up on Tor

[Swimmingly he/him]

Someone needs to slap Jasnah for telling Shallan to study her spren and write things down about it. That can't be good.

Shallan and her "special" spren, best buddies for life while one of them is frozen in character development?

[The Rooster he/him]

Elhokar seems...un-knight-worthy to me right now, kind of confused about his whole character at this point (a la gamma's observations and his 'most likely having a spren watching him').

 

But did anyone notice that's most likely a larkin on his desk?  Maybe even the dead ones stil have a use, or they're like locust or something else and come back to life with some stormlight.  Obviously tied to the radiants, and personally I think they have a use besides helping Darkness steal awesomeness.

 

Remember that not all spren are discerning as Honorspren.  The Liespren are attracted to Shallan even tho she has a blade.  Also from the back cover excerpt it seems like the only real requirement is to have a "broken soul" that needs filling.  

 

I think its a dead larking used as a paperweight to show off wealth.

 

Shardbearer, on 14 Jan 2014 - 4:00 PM, said:

Someone needs to slap Jasnah for telling Shallan to study her spren and write things down about it. That can't be good.

 

I think he means that by writing things down about it she limits it, a la the research ardents in the one epilouge.

 

Edited January 14, 2014 by AG Rooster

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

 

 

....what? I'm really confused, is this a joke or something? How is Shallan studying her spren and learning more about it while taking notes for others to learn from a bad thing?

I think they're referring to the whole 'quantum spren' bit, the act of observing and recording a spren in a certain state will make it stay that way.

So I think a lot of people here are worried that since Shallan drew (or captured) her Spren in it's juvenile/limited state, it will stay that way.

Or at least have to grow from there.

Which this theory definitely has more merit

although we still don't know why it started appearing in this simple state instead of the full formed Cryptics from before.

[Moist_von_Lipwig he/him]

I'm not afraid to admit, I squealed and giggled like a little girl while reading these chapters. Also, i'm surprised at the pacing set by this book. 5 chapters in and Dalinar has already announced he wants to reform the Radiants. And it seems from that last part that Kaladin will reveal his powers to Dalinar in a few chapters time.

 

This book looks like its going to be quite action packed.

 

Further musings:

 

- Shallan's spren. Adorable.

- Sadeas was underwhelming, and his motivations were disappointing. He was better in tWoK, but we didn't see much of him (edit:In this chapter). Hopefully he'll get more interesting throughout the book.

- Dalinar announces he's going to reform the Radiants, at the same time that he says he's going to round up all the Alethi shards. I wonder what he might use them for?

- I think the '62 days' refers to Szeth's assassination attempt or it is more likely a warning from the Parshendi of when they'll attack, in Stormform!

Edited January 14, 2014 by Moist_von_Lipwig

[Moogle]

although we still don't know why it started appearing in this simple state instead of the full formed Cryptics from before.

 

Every single spren we've seen in the Physical realm has had a 'slow' period. Wyndle never spoke to Lift for weeks, Syl took forever to regain her personality, Ym's was still stuck in the dumb stage. There's nothing really special, here. Spren that pass through to the Physical just take a while to get back on their feet (and have to take a piece of soul from their Radiants).

 

Also, yes: Shallan's spren is adorable, like a kitten. I hope it never grows up.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Moogle

[Shardbearer he/him]

Yay, I'm glad! It always seemed a very apt analogue to me. This just in: I think about Vorin gender roles FAAAR more than is probably healthy. They're just so stinking fascinating. And I'm glad you're liking Adolin! Poor boy seems to be taking some flack over here, and he's growing nearer and dearer to my heart because of it.

 

 

....what? I'm really confused, is this a joke or something? How is Shallan studying her spren and learning more about it while taking notes for others to learn from a bad thing?

 

Because by recording it she will limit it. And since it's obviously underdevolped right now, that's a bad thing.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Ah, right. That makes sense, Gamma. Hopefully that won't be a bad thing if it does happen, though the binding effects aren't permanent if I remember correctly

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I don't think her recording her observations would have any restricting effect.  The ardents had to actively measure the spren, not just make observations.

[zandi she/her]

Something made Dalinar fall asleep, then left a message.  I don't think a spren could actually write the message.  Renarin's spren helped Dalinar sleep, then Renarin wrote the message?  Just a wild idea, doesn't seem likely. 

 

Maybe a parshendi/parshman? Shen?

[Shardbearer he/him]

Ah, right. That makes sense, Gamma. Hopefully that won't be a bad thing if it does happen, though the binding effects aren't permanent if I remember correctly

Only for as long as the recorded information stay in place.

[hoser he/him]

I think the '62 days' ... is more likely a warning from the Parshendi of when they'll attack, in Stormform!

This seems like a possibility that fits with the chapter heading quotes from Navani's journal.  Chapter 4 epigraph anyone?

 

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

Edited January 14, 2014 by hoser

[zandi she/her]

“Ah,” said Rushu—a young female ardent with long eyelashes and buttonlike lips. “Look at the sloppy lines! The improper symmetry. Whoever did this is not practiced with drawing glyphs. They almost spelled death wrong—it looks more like ‘broken.’ And the meaning is vague. Death follows? Or is it ‘follow death’? Or Sixty-Two Days of Death and Following? Glyphs are imprecise.”

 

maybe the broken one (odium) has come to be associated with death due to desollations and so glyphs are similar- here's a thought

maybe a herald (or parshman) wrote it using an ancient written glyph form that has evolved to mean death so Navani is the one who misinterpreted, not the writer.

[Argent he/him]

Also, yes: Shallan's spren is adorable, like a kitten. I hope it never grows up.

 

I thought of a puppy, but yes. Awesomesauce.

[hoser he/him]

Normal soldiers slightly invested?  This is new.  Another candidate ability for the final surge?

 

Beyond him, the fight began in earnest, water splashing, rock grinding. Soldiers approached bearing hammers, and unexpectedly, these men now also glowed with Stormlight, though far more faintly.

[PeterAhlstrom he/him]

Scandalous! Jasnah is walking around with her safehand uncovered.

 

Peter, if you read this, could you confirm that this isn't an error?

Her hand wasn't uncovered. If it had been, Shallan would have noticed and remarked on it.

[Moogle]

Normal soldiers slightly invested?  This is new.  Another candidate ability for the final surge?

 

More likely that they were Radiants-in-training. I think the theory about getting Shardplate after you speak all of the Ideals has some merit, and naturally their Stormlight would be weaker than the full Radiant.

[bookspren]

I like the idea that the glyph has a kind of dual meaning. "Broken/death follows" could be indicating that the Broken One (a.k.a. Odium) is coming to bring another Desolation. I wonder who or what put it there though. My first thought was Szeth but that doesn't make much sense to me. I'm leaning towards a Parshendi doing it.

 

Also, did anyone else laugh when Kaladin thought Adolin was spoiled and cocky? I see some major conflict between those two. Especially if Kaladin and Dalinar start working together to bring back the Radiants.

[zandi she/her]

I agree with you - but now i'm convincing myself more about a herald - since that's what heralds do, announce things - I can't decide Shen v. herald as the wall writer...

[rags]

Wow!! That's around 35000 words of awesomeness so far!! And I haven't included the interludes we have from steel hunt and the readings and youtube videos!! If they post more chapters we are going to end up having over 20% of the book before Mar 4th!!

[Argent he/him]

I've never seen Tor release more than 10 chapters of any book. Given the length of Words of Radiance, that's about how many I would expect.

 

I too like the potentially intentional ambiguity of the writing. It could be a red herring though - it is entirely possible that whoever wrote - drew? - this was just not very good at it. Roshar is a world where the ability to draw glyphpairs is limited to only a fraction of the population. 

[shadewolf]

It's pretty much impossible to match up epigraph dates with in book events.  The "but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes." bit isn't helpful unless we can be entirely sure what is meant by "the Everstorm".  The 62 days doesn't quite seem to match up with it, since that would put us only at 1173-5-2-4. (year-month-week-day)  That's a more than half a year away from the Navani's journal entry that we're getting now.  It's possible, but much farther from the end of the year than I thought, and it means the "above the final void I hang" epigraph would be referring to an event two whole months before it was given.

 

 

Yeah I think you're recalling the date wrong. The last dated death quote in WoK is 1173-9-2-4, so that means there's 91 days(at a minimum it's possible everything that happened at the end WoK was a couple days after that date) before 1174-1-1-1. We don't know exactly how many days have passed between WoK and WoR, but I want to just say 3 weeks have passed to the point when the message appeared. Also I doubt navani wrote her journal on the exact day that the countdown ended, maybe a week went by or something like that. so using this as base there are roughly 9 days that are still unaccounted by my reasoning. These 9 day however could be placed sometime in the gap between Wok and WoR, and the gap between whatever happened and Navani's journal entry, and it wouldn't change much

Edited January 14, 2014 by shadewolf

[zandi she/her]

Maybe they have bad handwriting (or are not very literate)and it is ambiguous in meaning...

Yeah could also be a red herring....Looking forward to finding out though!

[dionysus]

 

Except I don't think that Shallan's spren was bound against its will.  "As the last line dried, the pattern rose before her. She heard a distinct sigh from the paper, as if in relief."  It wanted to come through, but I do seem some merit to the idea that it was brought in an immature state, this spiral snowflake pattern is said to have infinite complexity, so even if Shallan drew it to the best of her ability, it still has to develop the rest of the way on its own.

 

Also, Chapter 5 had double Chach as its Headings, which marks the first time we've seem him used in the Stormlight Archive.  Chach is

Number=3; Gemstone=Ruby; Essence=Spark; Body Focus=The Soul; Soulcasting properties=Fire;

Divine Attributes=Brave/Obedient.

 

          

I am not up to date on the current state of Herald tracking, but could this mean we saw Chach or alternatively a future radiant of his order? Isn't there a slight correlation to the herald symbol on the chapter and the chapter having something to do with that herald?

 

Alternative, the chapter, while from Kal's POV is alot about Dalinar and maybe it is an indication of his order alignment (if he even is going to be a KR.)

Edited January 14, 2014 by dionysus

[Swimmingly he/him]

I don't think her recording her observations would have any restricting effect. The ardents had to actively measure the spren, not just make observations.

For flamespren - who are aren't even sentient. It's like assuming a spider monkey works identically to a human.

[PeterAhlstrom he/him]

My own, vaguely coherent, mostly shouting liveblog can be found over here.

Thanks. Any other liveblogs, please keep me informed.