[OB] Swearing on Roshar (Oathbringer Edition)

[ccstat he/him]

I previously made a compilation of the curses and exclamations used in the Stormlight Archive. Because moving that topic to the OB board would remove it as a reference for people who have not yet finished Oathbringer, I have decided to start a new topic here that will incorporate the new material. This can replace or merge with the other thread when spoilers are no longer a concern.

To my knowledge, the list is exhaustive for WoK, WoR, and Edgedancer. I have added all the new instances from OB of which I'm aware, but I'm sure that I have missed some. I appreciate your help in completing the collection. OB entries have been incorporated into the catalog below, but a list of the new curses is spoilered here for those who want to identify the novel entries discovered in OB.

Spoiler

New Material, with citation

• Blessed gods of sea and stone - (Rock) ch 37
• Beautiful lights and fallen stars - (Rock) ch 37
• Why in Damnation? - (Stormfather) ch 38
• Blood of my fathers - (Dalinar) ch 38 *Occurs multiple times in WoK, but hadn't been catalogued
• By purity's eye - (Nazh) illustration pg 519
• Blessed passion - (Yokska) ch 62
• Heavens, no! - (Wit) ch 68
• Vev knows - (Shallan) ch 68
• Damnation me - (Azure) ch 70
• Ishar's soul (Adolin) ch 93
• Merciful Domi - (Riino) ch 97
• Taln's palms - Dalinar ch 100
• The blustering Everstorm - fen's admiral ch 107
• Frozen (Malata) **more an insult than a curse
• Taln's nails (Adolin) ch 116
• Starve me (Lift) ch 117
• By Kelek, storms, and Passions alike (Kmakl) ch 118
• Oh Mother, Oh Cultivation (Wyndle) ch 118
• Stones Unhallowed (Szeth) ch 118
• Oh God. Oh, Adonalsium! (Ash, ch 121)

On attributions: In most cases, speaker attributions are omitted for the sake of clarity, but speakers are identified parenthetically if their identity adds important context to the entry. If you think a particular phrase should be attributed (or not), please make your case in a comment.

Storms and Storming are universal, and people use them frequently. So far we haven’t had many scenes from people on the western half of the continent where the storms are weaker; there is a good chance that the storms are invoked far less in such regions. Notably, Taffa uses a storm-related curse in Dalinar’s Starfalls vision, indicating that it was used historically as well. Variants and related curses: "Stormwinds" (Lirin, Taffa), "Storms alight" (Jasnah), "Blustering" (Yalb, a Thaylen Admiral),

The Heralds, collectively and as individuals, are invoked across many Rosharan cultures.

Vorin speakers most frequently swear by Kelek, but by the end of WoR Vorin speakers have invoked each of the ten Heralds at least once. As they occur in curses, the Vorin forms are: Jezerezeh, Nalan, Chana, Vev/Vedeledev, Pailiah/Pali, Ash, Battah, Kelek, Talat, Ishi

• [Herald] knows or [Herald] send are frequent formulations. ”Chana help” is a similar construction
• [Herald’s] [attribute] A herald is often paired with a body part or attribute. Some appear to be traditional associations, but others are most likely spontaneous variations. Examples
  • Kelek's breath / tongue
  • Ash's eyes
  • Ishar's soul
  • Nalan's hand
  • Pali's mind—(Adrotagia)
  • by Vedeledev's golden keys—(Kabsal)
  • Talat's hand / palms / nails
• Other Variants:
  • “Living Heralds above”
  • "Heralds send”
  • "What in Kelek's name”

Azish speakers use alternate names for the heralds, primarily invoking Yaezir (Jezrien)

• Variants: "for Yaezir's sake," "Yaezir help"
• Kadasixes and Stars -- Kadasix is the Azish word for Herald, but the association with stars is interesting, especially considering cosmological features like Taln's scar and the gas giants shown in the star chart in Arcanum Unbounded.

Tashikki speakers frequently invoke Tashi, probably either Taln or Ishar (see this thread for discussion). Variants: "Tashi above," "Tashi, God of Gods and Binder of the World"

Other Vorin Curses

• Almighty is a frequent Vorin curse, referencing Honor/Tanavast. Many variants of usage are found:
  • "Almighty above"
  • "by the Almighty's tenth name"
  • "what in the Almighty's own eyes?"
  • "by the names of God himself"
  • "Almighty, cast from heaven to dwell in our hearts"
• Stormfather is a ubiquitous Vorin curse. NOTE: While the general usage is distinct, we should remember that Vorinism has conflated the Stormfather with Jezerezeh/Jezrien. In contrast, the Natan people conflate him with Kelek.
• Damnation is an especially common curse among Vorin speakers. Variants and related phrases:
  • “What in Damnation's eleventh name?"—(Sebarial)
  • “What in the Halls”—(Van Jushu) a reference to the Tranquiline Halls

Other Cultures

• Passions--Thaylen. Rendered "Blessed passion" on one occasion (Yokska). Thaylen speakers also say things like "I had Passion that help would come," meaning hope or expectation. Both usages are related to (but distinct from) the Passion spoken of by singers Fused, and Odium himself. The singer version so far does not appear to be used as a curse.
• Flick my sparks –(Lopen) Herdazian exclamation, a reference to sparkflickers.
• Blight it all – (Axies) presumably Siah/Aimian, but Axies is a traveler and could have acquired it elsewhere
• Dustmother—(Ton, a Bavlander in a Szeth interlude of WoK). Possibly Vorin?
• Glories within—(Szeth) Shin
• Stones Unhallowed -- (Szeth) Shin
• Kali’kalin’s ghost – (Rock) Unkalaki, possibly referencing a Herald
• Beautiful lights and fallen stars -- (Rock) Unkalaki
• Blessed gods of sea and stone -- (Rock) Unkalaki
• Starlight - (Geranid) Speaker is a Vorin ardent with extended residence in the Reshi isles

Spren It is not yet clear how spren culture divides, so instances are noted by speaker:

• Wyndle: “Sweet virtue” and variants of "Mother" including “Oh blessed mother” and "Oh Mother, oh Cultivation!"
• Stormfather: "Why in Damnation", an apparently Vorin appropriation.

 Unique or Uncategorized

• Drynets—a sailor curse implied to be quite inappropriate.
• Starving--unique curse used by food-obsessed Lift. Variants include "Starve me"
• Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms Above. (Lift) Originally Reshi, Lift has travelled widely, so it is difficult to assign a parent culture.
• Blood of my fathers / ancestors -  Used so far by Dalinar, Amaram, and Moash, this may be a feature of the violent Alethi culture
• frozen -- (Malata) derogatory adjective, possibly Veden
• By the Brightcaller's Rays -- used by Drehy, so presumably a phrase from far western Roshar (presumably Rira)

Past Eras, as seen in Dalinar’s visions

• Three Gods--(Taffa)
• Sweet wisdom of Battar--(Taffa)

Worldhoppers

• Shadows—(Nazh) Threnody
• By purity's eye - (Nazh) Threnody
• Merciful Domi - (Riino) Sel
• Damnation--(Azure) A Vorin curse, notable because Azure uses it ungrammatically as "Damnation me" and "Damnation these creatures," betraying her incomplete command of the language
• Oh God. Oh Adonalsium! - (Ash)
• Heavens, no--(Wit) Notable only for the lack of similar phrases by native Rosharans.

Edited June 24, 2020 by ccstat

[Steeldancer he/him]

I learned something sad. 

The dustmother isn't Chana. Therefore, I'm back to having no idea where Chana is in WoK. 

Stupid curses. 

[ccstat he/him]

There's no real reason it couldn't be a reference to Chana. I haven't categorized that as a Herald reference, but that could be my own mistake.

[Steeldancer he/him]

The dustmother is an Unmade. Which kind of throws the whole theory under the bus. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

On 11/18/2017 at 9:52 PM, ccstat said:

"What in Kelek's name”—(Talik) notable because Rysn is amused at the usage of a Vorin curse by a Reshi trader

Upon further examination, I don't find this one as all that odd anymore.

Talik is a Reshi, but we know he spent time in Thaylenah learning to be a merchant. Per the Coppermind, Thaylenah is primarily a Vorin nation, in spite of the Passions. Spending a good deal of time in a Vorin nation would probably help one pick up some choice curses from it.

Maybe we can use that as a clue, if we see any other foreigners using Vorin curses.

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

On 11/18/2017 at 7:52 PM, ccstat said:

To my knowledge, the list is exhaustive for WoK, WoR, and Edgedancer. I have added all the new instances from OB of which I'm aware, but I'm sure that I have missed some.

This is important work you are doing here, seriously awesome post,

[+Extesian he/him]

This is wonderful. Bless you. 

[ccstat he/him]

Added two I failed to include earlier (Vev knows - Shallan, and Merciful Domi - Riino)

12 hours ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

This is important work you are doing here, seriously awesome post,

12 hours ago, Extesian said:

This is wonderful. Bless you. 

Thanks! I'm glad it's being appreciated. 

On 11/24/2017 at 6:05 PM, The One Who Connects said:

Upon further examination, I don't find this one as all that odd anymore.

Good point. I've edited the commentary.

Edited December 16, 2017 by ccstat

[Obvcop]

I can't be the only person who would occasionally like a This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules* or This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules thrown in the dialogue once in a while, even the most extroverted characters could benefit from the occasional hard swear, id imagine a word like either of those two would be universal (no names of gods or anything like that) 

Edited December 17, 2017 by Obvcop

[ccstat he/him]

9 hours ago, Obvcop said:

I can't be the only person who would occasionally like a storm or rust thrown in..

FYI, this site has a swear filter that replaces common Earth profanities with various in-world curses from Sanderson's works.

(Although it looks like your post has also been modded in accordance with site rules.)

Edited December 17, 2017 by ccstat

[Botanica she/her]

Thanks so much for the compilation! That’ll be of great help =)

[ElvisSpren]

Taln's Palms! this is good work

[Stark he/him]

I think Malata's 'Frozen' as a derogatory remark is more linked to her bond with spark and her order than her region.  Similar to how Starving applies only with Lift, I feel Frozen refers to the abrasive/divisive nature of Dustbringers and their tendency to set things on fire.

 

Given the heat nature of her spren, and how much she seems to communicate with it, frozen as a derogatory seems like it would be a Dustbringer insult for others.  Almost if Windrunners called people 'Earthbound', or Lightweavers disparaged people's art, or Jasnah attacking people's logic.

[Nymeros]

Merciful Domi - Still the best in the Cosmere....love it.

 

Great job OP.

[ccstat he/him]

Thanks to the Tor.com reread, I found out that "blood of my fathers" isn't new from Oathbringer. It wasn't on my earlier list, but it shows up frequently in WoK used by Dalinar, Amaram, and Moash.

[AC12 he/him]

Also "Blood of my fathers" or something along those lines is used frequently by Dalinar

EDIT: Just saw the hidden comments in the original post and it was there. Well done, a rather thorough investigation I would say.

Edited March 1, 2018 by AC12

[Kaladins]

This post is truly blessed, and I thank the Herald's someone did it. 

[MountainKing]

rust

 

That cool