Modern Roshar Disease

[Darth Revan he/him]

From what I remember, there are three times throughout the book where disease is mentioned.

1. When Lirin is letting the refugees into Hearthstone, he thinks about how he has been hearing of a new plague.
2. When Raboniel is introduced, Leshwi explains how she tried to use a disease to wipe out the humans.
3. When Kaladin is acting as a surgeon, many people seem to have a cough, including Teft.

I was sort of expecting there to be some sort of reveal. For example, maybe Raboniel released her disease again, but humans have evolved to be resistant or immune, which is why we only see people experiencing mild symptoms. However, I do not recall there being any payoff to these elements that were set up. Did I miss something or is this maybe just laying the foundation for something in the future?

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

10 minutes ago, Darth Revan said:

From what I remember, there are three times throughout the book where disease is mentioned.

1. When Lirin is letting the refugees into Hearthstone, he thinks about how he has been hearing of a new plague.
2. When Raboniel is introduced, Leshwi explains how she tried to use a disease to wipe out the humans.
3. When Kaladin is acting as a surgeon, many people seem to have a cough, including Teft.

I was sort of expecting there to be some sort of reveal. For example, maybe Raboniel released her disease again, but humans have evolved to be resistant or immune, which is why we only see people experiencing mild symptoms. However, I do not recall there being any payoff to these elements that were set up. Did I miss something or is this maybe just laying the foundation for something in the future?

It’s the common cold. A worldhopper brought it to Roshar by mistake. Demoux from Mistborn, specifically.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

A common cold could still wreak havoc!

[Darth Revan he/him]

5 minutes ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

It’s the common cold. A worldhopper brought it to Roshar by mistake. Demoux from Mistborn, specifically.

Is that mentioned in this book? I only remember Demoux being in that one Interlude in The Way of Kings.

[Necessary Eagle she/her]

58 minutes ago, Darth Revan said:

Is that mentioned in this book? I only remember Demoux being in that one Interlude in The Way of Kings.

I think WoR mentions offhand that there's been a plague in the Purelake.

[Darth Revan he/him]

10 minutes ago, Necessary Eagle said:

I think WoR mentions offhand that there's been a plague in the Purelake.

Thanks! Kind of makes me feel like this is supposed to be a minor thread running through the books, and it's getting a teensy bit more spotlight now. I would be pretty surprised to see a full-on pandemic in book 5, which I assume will only span ten or so days, but hopefully there's some kind of resolution.

[Mason Wheeler]

We kindasorta got a bit of a resolution in this, where someone (Lirin?) mentioned that the new "plague" they'd been hearing about previously turned out to be a fairly mild disease afterall.  (As mentioned above, it was the common cold, brought in by worldhoppers.  This has been established by WoB for many years now.)  I doubt it will turn out to be anything particularly significant in the 5th book; just a bit of background info.

What would be truly interesting is if someone were to accidentally carry an Ashyn disease to another world!

[Knight of Iron]

1 hour ago, Darth Revan said:

Thanks! Kind of makes me feel like this is supposed to be a minor thread running through the books, and it's getting a teensy bit more spotlight now. I would be pretty surprised to see a full-on pandemic in book 5, which I assume will only span ten or so days, but hopefully there's some kind of resolution.

Well, viruses spread quickly. And never assume something when Brandon’s involved. Everyone always assumes that the contest of champions has to be the end of the book, therefore the book is ten days.