Swearing in Roshar

[ccstat he/him]

This is a compilation of all the curses and exclamations used in the Stormlight Archive. Hopefully it will illuminate the culture, magic, and history, and provide some entertainment as well. I appreciate your continued help in finding any that I have missed. This post is complete through Edgedancer. You can find a list incorporating curses from Oathbringer here.

UPDATE Sep 2017: I have reworked and consolidated the organization. In most cases, I have removed the speaker attributions for the sake of clarity, as I felt that the speaker’s identity was superfluous. The speaker is noted in some instances to help identify the cultural context. If you think a particular phrase should be attributed (or not), please make your case in a comment. I believe the list is now exhaustive for WoK, WoR, and Edgedancer.

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),

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, 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
  • Kelek's tongue
  • Ash's eyes
  • Ishar's soul
  • Nalan's hand
  • Pali's mind—(Adrotagia)
  • by Vedeledev's golden keys—(Kabsal)
  • Talat's hand
• Other Variants:
  • “Living Heralds above”
  • Heralds send”
  • "What in Kelek's name”—(Talik) notable because Rysn is amused at the usage of a Vorin curse by a Reshi trader

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

• Variants: "for Yaezir's sake," "Yaezir help"
• Kadasixes and Stars--used by an Azish vizier. Kadasix is their 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 the Herald Taln, though other possibilities have been proposed (see this thread). 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. We see explicit instances of this conflation from Kaladin, Moash, and Sigzil in WoK.
• Damnation is especially common among Vorin speakers. Zahel (a worldhopper living in Vorin society) has also used this curse. 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
• Flick my sparks –(Lopen) Herdazian exclamation, a reference to sparkflickers.
• Blight it all – (Axies) presumably Siah/Aimian
• Dustmother—(Ton, a Bavlander in a Szeth interlude of WoK). Possibly Vorin?
• Glories within—(Szeth) presumably Shin
• Kali’kalin’s ghost –(Rock) Unkalaki, possibly referencing a Herald?
• Starlight-(Geranid) Speaker is a Vorin ardent with extended residence in the Reshi isles

Spren So far, the only instances we have are from Wyndle: “Sweet virtue” and “Oh blessed mother”

 Unique or Uncategorized

• Drynets—a sailor curse implied to be quite inappropriate.
• Starving--unique curse used by food-obsessed Lift.
• 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.
• 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

Edited June 24, 2020 by ccstat
Reorganized List

[Kurkistan he/him]

Gamma Fiend also quite astutely observed that "shadows" is used as a curse in Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.

[kari-no-sugata]

Bit of a tangent but anyone else notice that Shallan seems to swear a lot more towards the end of the book? I haven't actually counted this though so it may be a false impression. I think it's just a "side effect" of her character development - it's like she spent the last 6 years repressing herself and is now making up for lost time...

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

I definitely noticed a weird fixation on Kelek's oropharynx. Kelek's breath is used 4 times, and one strange instance of Kelek's tongue. What in the world did Kelek eat that made his breath and tongue into a curse? 

[Peng the Just he/him]

Bit of a tangent but anyone else notice that Shallan seems to swear a lot more towards the end of the book? I haven't actually counted this though so it may be a false impression. I think it's just a "side effect" of her character development - it's like she spent the last 6 years repressing herself and is now making up for lost time...

i think a lot of characters swear more towards the end of the book. Something to do with the world as they know it ending...

[makromag he/him]

There is also "Dry nets" by Shallan, though I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with any religion.

[Swimmingly he/him]

I'd put "Three Gods" as well as any curses from the ancient past in their own category, as those would probably evolve with time.

[ccstat he/him]

Good suggestions. I've added the examples and categories mentioned.

@EMTrevor, I couldn't find the tongue reference. Do you know where that was? If I can get a quote I'll add it to the list.

 

I do think it is interesting that the heralds each have a body part association, but that is not same as the "body focus" found in the essences table.

"Ash's eyes" kind of makes sense since she is called the Herald of Beauty. The others I'm still wondering about.

[chikinllama]

Somehow I think Shallan's mistaken use of "Talat's Hand" is just her lack of knowledge of curses.

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

Chapter 86 Patterns of light. Page 1030 "What in Kelek's tongue is going on out here?"

Edited March 26, 2014 by EMTrevor

[Sphinx]

Kabsal says "by Vedeledev's golden keys" in Chapter 7 of the Way of Kings.

[Seloun]

 

“Pali’s mind ,” Adrotagia said, watching them rise. “I don’t believe it.”

 

I'd guess that Talat's hand should actually be Nalan's hand based on the [herald] [essence] pattern.

 

Edit: Also a really common one, but not mentioned in the list: Damnation!

Edited March 27, 2014 by Seloun

[ccstat he/him]

Great additions. OP updated. Thanks especially for finding Pali's mind--I remembered reading that one and couldn't locate it.

Also, can't believe I missed Damnation.

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

Kelek's Tongue was Aladar, sorry for the omission in my previous post. 

[Swimmingly he/him]

On "damnation", when Zahel uses it, he uses it weirdly, which makes sense given it's not his native tongue.

[cem he/him]

Ever since I read that chapter, the meaning of "drynets" has been bothering me. From Tyn's reaction, I'd say it's something sexual, and after all it's a sailor curse, so they are supposed to fit a certain stereotype. If the nets are dry, I guess that means they haven't been in sea for some time. So, maybe it means someone who hasn't gotten laid for a while? Cursing their luck or something?

 

What do you guys think?

[Lumen]

Well.  Nets do hold something.   My guess is this swear has to do with lacking the ability to, ah, perform.  

 

But I could be wrong.  Seems an odd thing to turn into a swear.

[RShara she/her]

I always thought it related to ummm how sometimes it's difficult for a lady to get...interested..and um..prepared...because lack of moisture...yeah.

 

Hard to explain this without getting in trouble lol!

[Swimmingly he/him]

The recently instituted swear filter should turn any awkward comments into hilariously awkward comments as long as your language is salacious enough.

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

I found another one. Chapter 1 Santhid, Yalb:

"It's this giant foot, young miss. Just a foot! Never finished the blustering statue. . ."

EDIT: Changed "gian" to "giant."

Edited April 6, 2014 by EMTrevor

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

This is not an in-world swear, but Adolin did say that he has "shat" in Shardblade, showing that Rosharans may use other variants of our s**t.

(I starred it to get around the filter, if the mods want me to remove that I will. )

[Patrick Star]

I wonder how Rosharian swearing makes its way into music.  I'd imagine that it's something like this:

 

I see you riding 'round town
With the girl I love and I'm like,
Storm you!
Oo, oo, ooo
I guess the spheres in my pocket
Weren't enough I'm like,
Storm you!
And storm her too!
Said, if I was richer, I'd still be with ya
Ha, now ain't that some crem? (ain't that some crem?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still wish you the best with a...
Storm you!
Oo, oo, ooo

[Numb]

Lift uses "starvin' " as a curse. Seems unique to her though 

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

Lift uses "starvin' " as a curse. Seems unique to her though 

 

I don't think we've seen anyone else from Rall Elorim, though. It could be unique to the city or to Iri.

[ccstat he/him]

Love the song, Patrick.

 

I added Yalb's blustering, as well as "glories within," which was used by Szeth in WoK. Starvin' was already noted, but thanks for pointing it out. Keep them coming!