Timeline of Taravangian Interlude

[Walker]

The timeline of the Taravangian interlude is somewhat puzzling.  In this interlude, Taravangian discovers that one of the bridgemen is a radiant.  He then instructs sleepers to do what they can to separate this man (Kaladin) from Dalinar so that Szeth can strike.  Indeed, we learn that this is exactly what Graves was trying to do with the assassination plot.

 

However, the introduction to Graves is in a chapter before the interlude.  So either the Taravangian interlude actually happened before that chapter, or Graves changed his mission objective to include Kaladin later.

 

I am inclined to believe the interlude is out of order, and takes place before the initial Graves chapter.  What do others think? 

[Seloun]

Graves specifically says he was operating on his own initiative. I assumed that he got the message from Taravangian about the Diagram quotation, but that he'd already been plotting his plan beforehand. In particular Graves makes it pretty clear (at the end, where he's talking about the Diagram to Moash) that he thought Dalinar was supposed to take the throne. The original assassination attempt wasn't related to Kaladin at all. I don't think Graves is saying that he was trying to keep Kaladin away from Szeth; what he's saying is that he didn't think Kaladin would become Radiant if Szeth wasn't involved.

[Walker]

Graves' specific quote is 

 

We focused on making certain you were separated from Dalinar and not on what our actions might push you to become.

 

 

 

While he may not have originally focused on keeping Kaladin away, this did become his primary focus.

[Seloun]

The relevant epigraph appears to be:

 

 

"One danger in deploying such a potent weapon will be the potential encouragement of those exploring the Nahel bond. Care must be taken to avoid placing these subjects in situations of powerful stress unless you accept the consequences of their potential Investiture."

 

The 'potent weapon' is almost certainly Szeth. When Graves says 'focused,' I don't think it means that's what his actions are focused on, but that they assumed without Szeth directly involved that there wasn't a possibility of Investure - the 'focus' is the focus on Szeth's actions rather than their own.

 

Graves doesn't do anything special to make sure Kaladin is separated from Dalinar. His assassination attempt certainly doesn't seem to be fake, and he tries the first attempt without any involvement of Kaladin at all. He honestly seems to think killing Elhokar will result in Dalinar allying with Taravangian.

[Windrunner]

Either that, or he simply is lying to the people he's recruited for his mission. No one's on board for throwing all of Alethkar into chaos. He can make them kill the king themselves, and once Szeth takes care of Dalinar, Alethkar falls into the same trap of Jah Keved.

[Seloun]

Either that, or he simply is lying to the people he's recruited for his mission. No one's on board for throwing all of Alethkar into chaos. He can make them kill the king themselves, and once Szeth takes care of Dalinar, Alethkar falls into the same trap of Jah Keved.

 

This is certainly possible, but it feels strange to me that Graves would be so open about the Diagram but lie about that specific bit. It's possible he's doing some kind of long con on Moash and is trying to justify why Taravangian/other Diagrammies will talk about trying to off Dalinar, but in that case it seems like it would have been easier not to share anything about the Diagram with Moash. Given that there's a lot of debate over how to interpret the Diagram, what Graves says seems perfectly natural taken at face value.

[Cheese Ninja]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArL6Bg_UUQkIdFQ2NVVMa2tlT2VERFVVQU0yZUhOWUE&gid=1

 

There's 38 days between when Szeth attacks them the first time to the climax of the book.  Graves meets with Kaladin 5 days after Szeth's attack.  In those 38 days, Szeth travels from the Shattered Plains, to Urithiru (in I-10), to Vedenar, and then back to the Shattered Plains.  Since in chapter 87, we're told that Urithiru is somewhere in the mountains in the center of Roshar, near Emul or Tu Bayla, Vedenar is more or less directly on the path from Urithiru to the Plains. 

 

We really don't know how quickly he covers the distance with Windrunning, but I think it would take him a good bit longer than those 5 days to go all the way to Urithiru, and then go to Vedenar.  It would also take far less time that the remaining 33 days for him to get back to the Shattered Plains in that case.

 

Graves probably modified his plans slightly after Taravangian's meeting with Szeth, but his meeting with Kaladin happened too early for your assumption that the Taravangian interlude is that far out of order.

 

Edit: Also, I made a timeline for Words of Radiance, but it's still incomplete.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Cheese Ninja