[OB] Concerning Urithiru and Oathgates

[She Who Cannot Be Named]

There are a few things that got me thinking about Urithiru (with musings inbetween):

The first glimpse we had at it was via Szeth's Interlude in WoR (page 708, hardcover):

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The highest tower in the world, hidden in the tops of the mountains, was perfect for his contemplation. ... The only place in the East where the stones were not cursed, where walking on them was allowed. This place was holy.

...

The massive tower was also empty; that was another reason he liked it. A hundred levels, built in ring shapes, each one beneath larger than the one above it to provide a sunlit balcony. The eastern side, however, was a sheer, flat edge that made the tower look from a distance as if that side had been sliced off by an enormous Shardblade. What a strange shape.

...

Glass windows. Facing east, toward the Origin. The first time he had visited this place - just after being exiled from his homeland - he hadn't understoof just how odd this windows were. 

A bit later there's also that:

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He dropped off the side of the tower... He filled himself with Stormlight and Lashed himself southward. ... He had just enough Light to free imself of the mountains and land in a village near the foothills.

Have Dalinar's people been able to pinpoint the exact location of Urithiru on a map? Otherwise those villagepeople are probably their best bet (aside from astronomers?)

Anyway, here's  the activation of the Oathgate in the Shattered Plains/Natanatan: (WoR, hardcover, page 1037)

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Shallan rammed it into the slot, and the weapon vibrated in her hands and glowed. Something deep within the plateau unlocked.

...

Now the mechanism's operation became clear to her. Shallan threw her weight against the sword, pushing it before her like the spoke on a mill. The inner wall of the building was like a ring inside a tube - it could rotate, while the outer wall remained in place. The sword moved the inner wall as she pushed on it, though it stuck at first, the fallen blocks of the cut doorway getting in the way. Adolin threw his weight against the sword with her, and together they pushed it around the circle until they were above the picture of Urithiru, half the circumfence from Natanatan where she'd begun. She pulled her Blade free.

The ten lamps faded like closing eyes.

As far as we know, the connection between Natanatan and Urithiru is the only one still working. Maybe it's a bitt offtopic, but I cannot help but wonder if all routes went through Urithiru. Taxing-wise it would make sense, being the centre of instantaneous travel and all. Also, there are ten platforms in contrast to everywhere else only one. Jumping to the assumption that all the Fabrial rooms steering the Oathgates are of the same design, theoretically travel between any of them at the height of the Radiants' power should have been possible. According to the Coppermind wiki, spanreeds have been developed during the War of Reckoning following Gavilar's death. Assuming that they are rather a reinvention of a forgotten fabrial than a completely new one, coordination between cities and their oath gates should have been possible. Just image a very stressed out person with 10 spanreeds to attend to, going into control tower mode :-)

For trade reasons the number of Oathgates in Urithiru is too high. Deployment of standing armed forces at any given moment to different locations on the other hand is a valid factor, whilst coordinating support at other locations.

 

This brings me to another topic: Stormlight conservation. Operating Oathgates consumes high quantities of Stormlight. Going through them has drained to a degree Spheres and Fabrials both. 

During all the exploration scenes going on at the end of WoR and a bit in the already published Oathbringer chapters, I never found any mention of preinstalled lightning. 

Even if one entire side of the tower is made of glass, the tower itself is way to big for windows to be the sole means of illumination during daytime. And I'm not even speakting about nights

So how were the Radiants of old able to go about their daily activies inside their city?

Any plundering of the tower is highly unlikely, and if there had been gem-lamps (is there an official name for it? Stormlight lamps?) mounted on the walls throughout such a big structure, there would very likely been mentions of that. Such a fortune on the wall cannot be ignored during exploration.

Now: no Stormlight illumination, no torches or lanterns (just think of the investment (no pun intended) to keep all of them supplied with oil....

There's this bit (at first maybe unconnected bit) from Oathbringer Chapter 21:

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“I think that’s the oddest part. Well, you’ll want to start being more careful with your Stormlight. Father mentioned he was trying to get you more infused spheres for practice, but there just aren’t any.”

“What about Hatham’s people?” she said. “They left out lots of spheres in the last highstorm.” That had only been…

She did the math, and found herself stunned. It had been weeks since the unexpected highstorm where she’d first worked the Oathgate. She looked at the sphere between Adolin’s fingers.

Those should all have gone dun by now, she thought. Even the ones renewed most recently. How did they have any Stormlight at all?

The gems are the same ones they brought from the Shattered Planes, unaltered. In another thread I briefly mentioned that, and got a response from @RYANHOME suggesting the outside factor of the sudden increase in Stormlight conservation could be connected to the strata lines constantly being mentioned by Shallan. 

Coming back to the very first quote of Urithiru being a "holy place" to the Shin, and soulcast metal being the only acceptable form of metal to them as rock wasn't broken whilst procuring it, Urithiru very likely is Soulcast too. (Or was constructed by as of yet unknown other Surges - I'm thinking of Cohesion and Tension too)

Therefore those Strata lines in the rock could very well be artificial. It's a bit of a jumping conclusion, but I could imagine them not just being some sort of directional signpost for Lightweavers (not everyone pays such close attention to detail after all), but two other important things at once: Stormlight storation and illumination. Just imagine the whole tower having veins of Stormlight infused ore running through the whole of it, maybe even working as a giant fabrial of itself (and as some kind of battery for all Radiants around).

The downside of this speculation is the fact that after thousands of years of disuse, the tower should have had its fair share of Highstorms passing through. With no one to use up all that Investiture, it should all be fairly aglow now. But it is not. Of course, the fabrial could be broken, or there could be a correlation between Stormlight storage and Radiants present... Well, to less info on all of that

Thanks for reading, and I hope I haven't accidentally repeated a lot of things previously discussed

[Knight Oblivion]

I was of the impression that Urithiru was at such a high elevation that it was above the storms. This isn't a horrible idea though, just needs some tweaking. Maybe the baskets/cages I vaguely remember reading about conducted stormlight to the structure.

Edited October 15, 2017 by Knight Oblivion

[Erunion]

I like it. The city being designed to glow? Works for me. 

Possible that it needs a radiant to transfer light to the city? Feed it? 

 

Orrrrr..... it’s been fundamentally broken by something and this has to do with the ‘sense of wrongness’ and possibly the copycat murders. 

[She Who Cannot Be Named]

10 hours ago, Knight Oblivion said:

I was of the impression that Urithiru was at such a high elevation that it was above the storms. This isn't a horrible idea though, just needs some tweaking. Maybe the baskets/cages I vaguely remember reading about conducted stormlight to the structure.

Phew I have to go look for those passages in this case :-) Thanks for pointing that out. But they have to procure Stormlight in some fashion, otherwise the whole concept of the Knights being bunkered up somewhere without Stormlight in Wartime seems... off. 

 

3 hours ago, Erunion said:

I like it. The city being designed to glow? Works for me. 

Possible that it needs a radiant to transfer light to the city? Feed it? 

 

Orrrrr..... it’s been fundamentally broken by something and this has to do with the ‘sense of wrongness’ and possibly the copycat murders. 

Looking at the dimensions of the city, and if there really are no storms up in this spot, the amount of Stormlight needed would be way too high, even if Radiants would go out in Storms and pour it all into the City upon arrival. Or at least the amount of Radiants around at the moment. I really don't know how many Radiants were there at their peak. Three bondsmiths + 200 Windrunners/Stonewardens, assuming around a hundred full Radiants for each other order leaves me at 903-ish Radiants in total for a very crude approximation. 

Well, after so many years of disuse it could very well be broken. I concur, something fishy is going on there...

 

 

[Guest]

I'm an idiot. Removed.

Edited October 16, 2017 by SLNC

[Starla]

@She Who Cannot Be Named The process for procuring Stormlight is mentioned in Oathbringer Chapter 4:

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The scholars had discovered long chains and cages, apparently used for lowering spheres down into the storms, so they’d be able to renew their spheres—if the highstorms ever returned.

I too am interested in their process for maintaining enough infused spheres to run the place, including the oathgates, lifts, heating, sewage system, lighting, etc. It must take a fortune in spheres and people constantly raising and lowering those cages and moving spheres around. I don't think they've mentioned finding any gemstones at Urithiru. Or maybe there were some in the oathgate, but I don't recall hearing of any in Urithiru itself.

Regarding this from your original post:

17 hours ago, She Who Cannot Be Named said:

Have Dalinar's people been able to pinpoint the exact location of Urithiru on a map? Otherwise those villagepeople are probably their best bet (aside from astronomers?)

I'm not sure if Dalinar and co. have figured it out, but the location is included on the map on the interior cover of Oathbringer. You can see it if you zoom in on the map in this thread. It is next door to the Valley, where the Nightwatcher is located.

[Yata]

Also if not explicity stated, I am quite sure Dalinar knows exactly where Urithuru is.

The whole knowledge of the Everstorm's timing is more than enough to spot where Urithuru is. Much more he is bonded with a being who leterally knows every outer places of Roshar (Shinovar maybe not because the Highstorms can't reach it) and I find unlikely Dalinar never asked him, they talked a lot after all.

The whole Stormmap scene is a big indication of the Stormfather's knowledge on the Roshar's locations