Tales Come From Somewhere

[Corax]

So listening to WoK again and the following passage stood out to me. I took its implication as a given the first time I read the book, but maybe it's a.. we'll say some sort of purelake fish, perhaps of a crimson color. ;P Aaaanyway...

Quote

There were stories of evil men made immortal, then tortured over and over again—like Extes, who had his arms torn off each day for sacrificing his son to the Voidbringers in exchange for knowledge of the day of his death. It was just a story, but tales came from somewhere.

- Chapter 49 (Emphasis mine)

Now compare that with the prelude.

Quote

Centuries, perhaps millennia, of torture. It was so hard to keep track. Those fires, those hooks digging into his flesh anew each day. Searing off the skin of his arm, then burning the fat, then driving to the bone.

 

Quote

The flesh burning. The fires. The pain over and over and over...

(emphasis again mine)

So, yeah. That doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. It's likely already been discussed, but just in case it hasn't, I thought I'd pipe up. Thoughts? Prognostications? Cookies?

Edited December 22, 2016 by Corax
Damnation take you, autocorrect!

[Exalted]

And sacrificing themselves to the Voidbringers is essentially what the Heralds were doing with the whole Oathpact thing...not for knowledge, per se, but for the safety of mankind. We know that other Rosharan cultures revere the Heralds under different names, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that the same thing is happening here.

[Corax]

My autocorrect changed the meaning. The quote is "sacrificing his son." I'll edit the above as well. (Stupid phone).

[CosmereQuestioner]

I had never considered that maybe the heralds are evil? Or were? (Yes they came and did good things between desolations, but they could have either been compelled, or have changed their evil ways). 

Thoughts?

[Kered he/him]

i think this is just an effort by Brandon to make the world seem a bit more real. Realistically something that happened so long ago, of course the story would change throughout the generations. Altered by many different cultures and what not. Like how in real life we don't know exactly what happened in Ancient Greece, there are hundreds of different stories about the same course of events. Same holds true on Roshar. 

Edited December 23, 2016 by KereDerek

[Tarion]

I just encountered this bit on my audiobook readthrough and had another perspective - What if it instead originates from the (Siah) Aimians? 

They're the other immortal beings in Roshar, who quite likely can have their arms ripped off forever. The name also fits with an Aimian- Axies and Extes are very similar, so likely come from a similar culture. 

[Corax]

Well, the first example is Kalak's own internal thinking, and as I recall, all of the Heralds were originally human. My initial point was that the suffering of the Heralds may have passed down through folklore and sayings more than we may have noticed. (Eg. "Talenelat'Elin, bearer of all agonies.")

You may have hit upon an interesting tangent, though, that is essentially this: things that aren't human now may once have been. Perhaps along the lines of kandra, and most likely by the intercession of Cultivation/the Nightwatcher. It seems less likely to me that this would apply to Dysian Aimians or Listeners, but the Siah Aimians could be a likely candidate.

[Yezrien]

The Heralds have been wandering Roshar for 4500 years. It's easy to imagine one of them getting drunk one day, and starting to ramble about how the Almighty makes people immortal, and then condemns them to an eternal cycle of arm-ripping torture. But if said Herald didn't explain the Oathpact and the desolations, people would assume he was talking about evil men, punished by the Almighty for their sins.

[ccstat he/him]

Came across the quote myself in a reread this week, and had a similar thought (about knowledge of the heralds passing into folklore). Glad to see others are noticing it too.