The Eila Stele [Cosmere Spoilers]

[navahgar]

Spoilers through Oathbringer in Stormlight Archive, and a minor bit through Hero of Ages in Mistborn.

The Eila Stele is the name of the source of the text in the Dawnchant that gets translated toward the end of Oathbringer, and reveals to our heroes that the humans were the original voidbringers.  My comment/theory has to do with the name: Eila Stele.

Eila is a city in Iri.  Stele is a word for a stone slab from ancient times that has text or pictures carved into it.  So the obvious conclusion is that the Eila Stele is a physical stone slab that was discovered/rediscovered in Eila.  It’s not clear from the text whether the original Eila Stele is still physically intact, or has eroded / been destroyed after being recorded.  

My theory is that it is still intact, and that the Dawnsingers used some unknown magic/technology to ‘carve’ the Eila Stele, and other Stele in city locations around Roshar.  Perhaps something akin to the surges of Tension, Cohesion, or even Division.  It would take something supernatural to have allowed the Eila Stele to remain intact from shortly after the first desolation to whenever in psuedo-modern times it was discovered in Eila and studied by modern humans. 

My other theory is that the Eila and other Stele will be discovered by Venli in book 4, in a fashion akin to the Lord Ruler’s messages in Hero of Ages.  This will help Venli advance along her journey as a  Willshaper, giving her deeper insight into the Dawnsingers’ initial struggles against humans, and showing her that the original fight was against Odium.  This will parallel her growth and memories of Eshonai, and will be the vehicle for her narrative arc in Book 4.  Culminating in her joining with Rlain to discover and help the free Singers.

Bonus side theory: Kaladin will, via Rlain, join with and lead these free Singers.  Jasnah’s ruthlessness will try to push Dalinar’s new Knights Radiant to be more aggressive and clear about Humans v. Singers.  But Kaladin will try to push the Knights Radiant to be about Honor (Human + Singers) v. Odium (Humans + Singers).  I don’t have an idea about how that will resolve.  I can see divisions in the Knights Radiant, with some joining Jasnah’s faction, and others joining Kaladin’s.  I wonder how this will affect and be affected by Dalinar’s drive for Unity. 

[Karger he/him]

I thought that all of the dawnchant fragments where preserved via oral tradition.

[navahgar]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

I thought that all of the dawnchant fragments where preserved via oral tradition.

Perhaps oral tradition is an aspect of the preservation.  But my theory is that the Eila Stele at least is sourced from a physical stone.  And that there are other physical stones.

[Calderis he/him]

4 minutes ago, Karger said:

I thought that all of the dawnchant fragments where preserved via oral tradition.

You're think of the listener songs. The Dawnchat is recorded and was unable to be translated until Dalinar's visions. 

@navahgar I don't know where the story is going to go, and personally I don't think that Jasnah is going to be a driving force for bloodlust as new evidence presents itself...

My only real issue with your proposal is that of Kaladin leading the singers. I'd much rather see a listener/singer on that role. 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Calderis

[navahgar]

Just now, Calderis said:

@navahgar I don't know where the story is going to go, and personally I don't think that Jasnah is going to be a driving force for bloodlust as new evidence presents itself...

I’m not suggesting that she’s bloodthirsty. But I think Jasnah is more practical and logical, and more inclined dispassionately to conclude that leaving any Singers alive is a risk, because even if today they say they reject becoming Fused, tomorrow they may change their minds, and/or their offspring may have different opinions.  So the best course is to eradicate all the Singers, and remove the problem that way.  At least, that’s how I see Jasnah analyzing the situation.

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

 

My only real issue with your proposal of Kaladin leading the singers. I'd much rather see a listener/singer on that role. 

That’s a good point.  Maybe Rlain becomes the Windrunner for the Singers.  And Kaladin simply fights alongside them.

[+Invocation]

59 minutes ago, navahgar said:

That’s a good point.  Maybe Rlain becomes the Windrunner for the Singers.  And Kaladin simply fights alongside them.

That, or Rlain becomes a Singer Bondsmith, being the Dalinar there. I'm fine with either, I just want more Rlain.

[Wandering Investor]

5 hours ago, Calderis said:

Jasnah is going to be a driving force for bloodlust

I wouldn't describe Jasnah as blood thirsty, just ruthless. She'd run an internal calculation and decide that the best long term choice requires the extermination of all singers.

The only reason I do back this is the confrontation between Kaladin and Jasnah in the tower. My first reaction was to expect Jasnah to consider the possibility of converting the Parshmen to allied forces, but she seems to serve as an opposition to Kaladin instead. So while I don't have a firm expectation that she'll serve as a ruthless[pragmatic] opposition in the future, I also wouldn't be surprised if she does. 

[Calderis he/him]

Jasnah is not bloodthirsty, and that was my point. 

She's pragmatic and will go directly to what seems to be the most effective answer to a problem, but as evidence presents itself to the contrary she's not going to continue blindly down that path. 

If she did, Renarin would be dead. She changed her mind because of a single look. 

Jezrien's death means she won't try to kill the Heralds. And she only suggested genocide because literally everyone but Kaladin at that point believed that all of the parshmen has been turned into monsters. 

She's not going to kill non-combatants and children and innocents because she's not a storming monster. Especially as evidence emerges that these people are going to be fighting back themselves. 

[Karger he/him]

11 hours ago, Calderis said:

You're think of the listener songs. The Dawnchat is recorded and was unable to be translated until Dalinar's visions. 

But they only knew how to speak the words of dawnchant because a specific devotary had passed them down via oral tradition prior to them being written down.

[Calderis he/him]

Just now, Karger said:

But they only knew how to speak the words of dawnchant because a specific devotary had passed them down via oral tradition prior to them being written down.

There is a song that exists that is in the dawnchant that exists only through memorization as such, but it is not the only thing in the dawnchant. It even actually being the dawnchant was questionable.

Quote

“It’s a line from a song,” Navani said. “A chant by the Vanrial, an order of artists who live on the slopes of the Silent Mount in Jah Keved. Year after year, century after century, they’ve sung these same words—songs they claim were written in the Dawnchant by the Heralds themselves. They have the words of those songs, written in an ancient script. But the meanings have been lost. They’re just sounds, now. Some scholars believe that the script—and the songs themselves—may indeed be in the Dawnchant.”

But we have references to other things in the dawnchant. 

From Jasnah's notebook epigraphs. 

Quote

“Though many wished Urithiru to be built in Alethela, it was obvious that it could not be. And so it was that we asked for it to be placed westward, in the place nearest to Honor.”—Perhaps the oldest surviving original source mentioning the city, requoted in The Vavibrar, line 1804. What I wouldn’t give for a way to translate the Dawnchant.

Shallan studying maps to find the Oathgate with Pattern 

Quote

“You’re reading it?”
“It is a pattern.”
“You’re reading the Dawnchant.”
“Not well.”
“You’re reading the Dawnchant!”

All of them are unconfirmed to be the dawnchant itself, as the language as a whole was lost, but there are more than just the one song. There were scholars working on multiple projects the moment that Dalinar's translation key become available. 

[king of nowhere]

18 hours ago, navahgar said:

My theory is that it is still intact, and that the Dawnsingers used some unknown magic/technology to ‘carve’ the Eila Stele, and other Stele in city locations around Roshar.  Perhaps something akin to the surges of Tension, Cohesion, or even Division.  It would take something supernatural to have allowed the Eila Stele to remain intact from shortly after the first desolation to whenever in psuedo-modern times it was discovered in Eila and studied by modern humans. 

 

i strongly disagree.

it's a stone. stone tend to last for a long time. we're talking some 5000 years in this case. we got plenty of stone artifacts from the stone age perfectlly intact, and that's older. we  have painting preserved from longer than that. no need to assume a supernatural reason for what is perfectly natural

[+Invocation]

2 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

i strongly disagree.

it's a stone. stone tend to last for a long time. we're talking some 5000 years in this case. we got plenty of stone artifacts from the stone age perfectlly intact, and that's older. we  have painting preserved from longer than that. no need to assume a supernatural reason for what is perfectly natural

As long as it was protected from crem buildup and the highstorm winds and rain, I would tend to agree.

[CosmereScholar]

I would disagree with this. Many stone artifacts of that age in our world are quite illegible. Also, we know that Aharietion's stone formations are unknown to modern Rosharans, and they included evidence of liquification of stone holes where thunderclasts were. I think that erosion/crem is likely responsible. But, could the artifact have not just been sheltered?

[Angsos]

Back to Rlain, I doubt he'll be a common windrunner with basically Everyone around him becoming one even though he tried really hard.

[Jofwu he/him]

On 3/17/2019 at 0:07 AM, navahgar said:

My other theory is that the Eila and other Stele will be discovered by Venli in book 4, in a fashion akin to the Lord Ruler’s messages in Hero of Ages.  This will help Venli advance along her journey as a  Willshaper, giving her deeper insight into the Dawnsingers’ initial struggles against humans, and showing her that the original fight was against Odium.  This will parallel her growth and memories of Eshonai, and will be the vehicle for her narrative arc in Book 4.  Culminating in her joining with Rlain to discover and help the free Singers.

I've said elsewhere, and I'll say it again. I would LOVE if we got a set of epigraphs in book 4 that are (cryptic?) Dawnchant translations.

I imagined them coming from random fragments, but a set specifically from stele (dating from the First Desolation?) would work just as well!

[Ciridae]

31 minutes ago, Jofwu said:

I've said elsewhere, and I'll say it again. I would LOVE if we got a set of epigraphs in book 4 that are (cryptic?) Dawnchant translations.

I imagined them coming from random fragments, but a set specifically from stele (dating from the First Desolation?) would work just as well!

It would be amazing if we got to translate them ourselves. Maybe not all of them, but maybe one or two like the number code from the diagram in WoR. I love theose interactive parts and riddles in Stormlight.