Cymatics, and the Heralds.

[Calderis he/him]

I just finished my plodding reread of tWoK, and had a random thought to propose. 

In the Epilogue, Taln makes his entrance. I call him Taln because he is wet on arrival as if he had appeared outside the gate covered in condensation like an appearing Shardblade. 

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His muscles glistened, wet as if he’d just swum a great distance.

I know I'm not the first to mention this. Bear with me a moment. 

A few moments later, he then drops his Shardblade and an extra sentence is the  added to emphasize that it does not disappear. 

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He slumped forward, hitting the rocky ground, Shardblade clattering down behind him. It did not vanish. The guards inched forward. One prodded the man with the butt of his spear.

So he was weary enough to pass out and be unconscious, which kills the possibility of a blade command to allow the blade to stay. So we can assume it is an Honorblade. 

Again nothing new here. 

So Taln appears immediately outside the gates of Kholinar. Kholinar is one of the "Dawncities" Kabsal showed with his cymatics sand patterns.

If these patterns do tie in to the way in which the world itself was created, and the cities themselves are significant, I think each of the 10 cities would be the places that the Heralds first manifest. 

Each Herald would be tied to a specific city. And if that is true, I'd guess Ishar is tied to Urithiru. 

[Rasarr she/her]

The idea that Heralds are tied to cities has been floated before, I believe, though mostly in reference to the Silver Kingdoms. This being said, I always though that Dawncities were significant due to having Oathgates (though that might be just me extrapolating from Kholinar apparently having one), so Urithiru wouldn't be counted among them. And apart from that, Urithiru has that status of being the city where all Orders meet, so having a Herald tied to it seems counterintuitive to me.

I'd say Ishar could be tied to Sesemalex Dar. It's a holy city, and Ishar is associated with being pious; it's been speculated in-universe to be a Dawncity; and the mysterious Tukari god-priest Tezim (who some Sharders have theorized might be Ishar) is one of the central figures in the conflict over who Sesemalex Dar belongs to.

[Frostlander]

4 hours ago, Rasarr said:

The idea that Heralds are tied to cities has been floated before, I believe, though mostly in reference to the Silver Kingdoms. This being said, I always though that Dawncities were significant due to having Oathgates (though that might be just me extrapolating from Kholinar apparently having one), so Urithiru wouldn't be counted among them. And apart from that, Urithiru has that status of being the city where all Orders meet, so having a Herald tied to it seems counterintuitive to me.

I'd say Ishar could be tied to Sesemalex Dar. It's a holy city, and Ishar is associated with being pious; it's been speculated in-universe to be a Dawncity; and the mysterious Tukari god-priest Tezim (who some Sharders have theorized might be Ishar) is one of the central figures in the conflict over who Sesemalex Dar belongs to.

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I like the idea of Heralds being tied to specific cities, especially since Taln is the Herald of War and Alethela was associated with war historically (and now). I also agree that Urithiru was meant to be neutral ground.

I'd been thinking of Tukar and/or Sesmalex Dar for Ishar, though that region strongly identifies, I believe, with Jezrien. It's possible that the region has reconstructed its memory. An alternative would be that part of Ishar's Heraldic corruption turned him into a theocrat and he's moved in on Jezrien's turf while Jezrien is drooling.

[+Extesian he/him]

Interesting idea @Calderis, makes some sense. I'm not sure about Taln=Alethela and Ishar=Urithiru though. I've tried to find something real to potentially assign Heralds to regions, but the best I can come up with is the names of the regions themselves or other lore we know.

Ishar - number Ishi - Silver Kingdom Rishir - current region Herdaz

Taln - number Tanat - Silver Kingdom Natanatan - current region Frostlands (and part of Alethkar)       

Kalak - number Kak - silver kingdom Shin Kak Nish - current region Shin

Jezrien is known as Yaezir, Kadasix of Kings in Azir, silver kingdom Makabakam                           

Vedel - Vedelev's golden keys is an expression in Kharbranth, Silver Kingdom Thalath

Completely speculative of course, and no idea for the others. But the only three that really linguistically fit are Ishar, Taln and Kalak. But then the idea of Taln being in Alethela, the war kingdom, makes sense.

Anyway, I've realised this post has no point  Other than to draw your attention to the linguistic connections between some Heralds/numbers/kingdoms.

 

[Calderis he/him]

@Extesian thanks. It could use some direction. It was seriously just a random thought due to Taln seeming to have popped up at one of the few cities we know to have a cymatic pattern. 

The explanation in book by Kabsal links these to the Dawncities, and and Jasnah then asks him about a cymatic pattern for Urithiru, and that's how my brain jumped to including it. 

By the in book explanation of Cymatics, the only confirmed Dawncities we have are Kholinar, Vedenar, Thaylen City and Akinah. One of those we know is... Not inhabited.

My brain has been stuck on, 10 Heralds, the Honorblades, 10 dawnsingers? 10 Dawnshards? I've been wondering about how the things we know little about are connected. 

I wanted to throw it out there for discussion, because well researched and in depth theories are awesome, but I am unfortunately much more accustomed with random intuitive leaps, and speculation is fun.  Plus, anything to kill time til Oathvember. 

[+Extesian he/him]

I get that Calderis, and I approve. If my Roshar theory recently had just been "hey guys, I reckon Braize is both the Tranquiline Halls and Damnation, and Rosharan humans came from Braize. Discuss" it may have been more useful  Sometimes all you can do is point out a pattern and co-opt others to help figure it out. Hence also my relatively useless contribution to this post, but maybe one that helps trigger other ideas.

I'm super keen as well to figure out the connections between the 10 everythings, other than the simple fact that 10 is Roshar's number. And whether all the Dawn-things are related, or if it's just a linguistic device that means 'something super old'.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

If we go by Extensians liguinism, Vedel fits pretty well with Vedenar. 

Jezrien was the King of the Heralds, so I reckon that Urithiru would be his spawnpoint.

Taln seems to be a good fit for Kholinar, and Ishar works well for Sesemalex Dar (we need to short that name for ease of discussion). 

Thaylen City... could be anyone. A merchant related Herald would be obvious here, but we have none.

I have not gone deep into Oathbringer spoiler areas, so I have no idea about what Akinah might fit. 

If I may suggest some other cities:

*Capital of Azir (forgot the name): Nalan. It seems to be a very strict society with complex laws. That is totally Nales jam.

*Rall Elorim: A herald might have spawned here, which could be the reason for its nickname, City of Shadows. I have no idea which Herald this would be though.