Unseen winds, the Spiritual Realm, and the Child of Tanavast

[+mdross81 he/him]

The idea for this post started as me just noticing and trying to catalog the various times when spren are described as appearing to ripple or flutter in an unseen/unfelt wind. I'd initially chalked this up to spren weirdness, but as I dug more into it, I started to cobble together a theory about something deeper going on here.

Specifically, the TLDR is that I think when we see those unseen/unfelt winds, we are actually seeing waves or tides of power from the spiritual realm. And I think that Kaladin has shown how a human with honor in their heart can become attuned to that power and access it.

More on the theory below, but first here's a rundown of the times when we see the rippling phenomenon, sorted by category.

HONORSPREN

• Syl - Physical Realm
  • The windspren stood in the air just beside his head, white dress rippling in a wind Kaladin couldn’t feel. (WoK 2)
  • She walked with her hands clasped behind her back, her tiny, knee-length skirt fluttering in an intangible wind. (WoK 49)
  • She slid down onto his shoulder, moving like a stiff breeze had blown her. She crossed her legs, sitting ladylike, skirt rippling as he walked. (WoR 41)
  • She looked after Beard, her girlish dress rippling in wind that Kaladin couldn’t feel. (OB 73)
• Syl - Cognitive Realm
  • Adolin jumped to his feet, scrambling back. He almost collided with a young woman with blue-white skin, pale as snow, wearing a filmy dress that rippled in the wind. (OB 87)
  • Kaladin’s spren was different. She always seemed to be moving, slipping this way or that, girlish dress rippling as she walked, her hair swaying. (OB 93)
  • She closed her eyes as she walked, chin up, as if basking in a wind he could not feel. (OB 95)
  • Out through the room’s window, Kaladin could see Syl standing on the coast, watching out over the sea of beads. Her hair doesn’t ripple here, he thought. In the Physical Realm it often waved as if being brushed by an unseen breeze. Here, it acted like the hair of a human. (OB 97)
• Phendorana (Physical Realm) - Phendorana manifested as an older human woman, with mature features and non-nonsense Thaylen-style clothes, a skirt and a blouse. Her hair blew free as if in a phantom wind. (RoW 91)
• Yunfah (Physical Realm) - Yunfah stood on his cloud, his long beard whipping in the wind – though he had no real substance. (RoW 10)

STORMFATHER - Cognitive Realm

• He searched the sky and discovered a ripple in the air, like heat rising from distant stone. A shimmer the size of a building. (OB 1)
• Dalinar backed up, letting Fen rejoin the people and experience the end of the vision. As he folded his arms to watch, he noted a shimmering in the air beside him. (OB 34)
• Dalinar turned to the side, to where he glimpsed the air shimmering. The Stormfather. (OB 38)

OTHER SPREN - Physical Realm

• Anticipationspren
  • Anticipationspren – like red streamers growing from the ground and whipping in the wind – clustered around them. (OB 3)
  • Around the perimeter of the square, people hissed and whispered, anticipationspren flapping in an unseen wind. (OB 10)
  • Translucent red streamers rose from the stone, whipping as if in the wind, one end connected to the ground. Anticipationspren. Lunamor gave them the sign of respect, hand to his shoulder, then his forehead. These were lesser gods, but still holy. He could see their true shapes beyond the streamers, a faint shadow of a larger creature at the bottom. (OB 37)
  • The captain drew anticipationspren as he waited – ribbons that waved in the wind – and Kaza could see the beasts beyond, the creatures that accompanied the spren. (OB Interlude 4)
• Gloomspren - Kaladin looked up and noted an unusual spren whipping about. Long, grey, like a tattered streamer of cloth in the wind. It wound around him, fluttering. He’d seen it’s like only once or twice before. (OB 5)
• Creationspren - Around her, creationspren slowly vanished, most having taken the shapes of things about the camp. Swords that sheathed and unsheathed repeatedly, tiny tents that untied and blew in unseen wind. (WoR 78)

OTHER SPREN - Cognitive Realm

• Oathgate Spren - Hovering in the air were two enormous spren – they looked like stretched-out versions of people, and stood some thirty feet tall, like sentinels. Once was pitch-black in coloring, the other red. He thought them statues at first, but their clothing rippled in the air, and they shifted, one turning eyes down to look at him. (OB 87)
• Notum's Steed - Notum’s grand white steed was almost a horse, though it was more graceful and supple, with long legs and a neck that bent in a way no physical spine could manage. It had large eyes but seemingly no mouth, and its hair waved in a phantom wind, like long glowing ribbons. (RoW 34)

ODIUM'S FORCES

• Ulim - Physical Realm
  • Ulim settled on a patch of broken branches, arms folded, his long hair rippling in an unseen wind. (OB INterlude 3)
  • Indeed, it materialized into the shape of a small human – not a singer, but a human, with odd eyes and hair that waved in an unseen wind. (RoW 42)
• Aesudn/Yelig-nar (Physical Realm) - Aesudan stopped in the doorway to the king’s chambers. “I have outgrown you, Elhokar. I have taken the gemstone into me, and have harnessed Yelig-nar’s power.” Something started to twist around her, a black smoke, blown as if from an unseen wind. (OB 84)
• Sja-anat (Cognitive Realm) - She flowed up the steps in one realm, but barely moved in the other. Space was not entirely equal between the realms – it wasn’t that she had a foot in each realm; more, she was like two entities that shared a mind. In Shadesmar, she floated above the ocean of beads, her essence rippling. In the Physical Realm, she passed among singers who worked in the palace. (RoW Interlude 2)
• Odium (original flavor) - all realms at once presumably?
  • Dalinar jumped, scrambling backward. The man was old, with a wide, furrowed face and bone-white hair that swept back from his head as if blown by wind. (OB 56)
  • Odium held his hands to the sides, yellow-gold power streaming behind his figure like a wind made visible. (OB 115)

OTHER

• Nale (Phyiscal Realm) - Darkness seemed to flow like smoke down the stairs, footsteps growing softer, uniform rippling in an unseen wind. (ED 19)
• Girl Who Looked Up (Lightweaving in Physical Realm, all from OB 25)
  • A vibrant red scarf grew around the girl’s neck, twin tails extending far behind her and flapping in a phantom wind.
  • “The girl traveled far,” Shallan said, looking back toward the stage. “No predators hunted her, and no storms assaulted her. The only wind was the pleasant one that played with her scarf, and the only creatures she saw were the cremlings that clicked at her as she walked.”
  • Next to Shallan, the girl stood triumphantly on the wall’s top, her scarves and white hair streaming out behind her in a sudden wind.
• Unseen Tides/Currents
  • Carefully, Kaladin entered the rows. The cloths billowed outward in the wind, but then fluttered down, reminiscent of the plants he’d often passed in the chasms. Living things that moved and flowed with the unseen tides of the blowing wind. (RoW 15)
  • “There are currents to this world, Ishnah,” Shallan said. “They move unseen. They can tow you under suddenly, abruptly, when you thought you were swimming along perfectly safe.” (RoW 26)
• Honor's Perpendicularity (all three Realms, but in this scene viewed by Kaladin in the Cognitive during the climax of OB) - Sample of Particular Note - Shadesmar exploded with light. Fused screamed as a wind blasted them away, though Kaladin felt nothing. Beads clattered and roared. (OB 119)

***
ON TO THEORIZING

So that's pretty much all of them that I could find. You can see that in each of these examples, the thing doing the rippling/fluttering is something with a deep connection to the spiritual realm: spren, a Herald, the vessel of a Shard, a perpendiculity.

But it's the very last instance - when Dalinar opens the perpendicularity - that really sparked the idea in my mind that what characters are seeing when they see this unseen/phantom wind is ripples of power from the spiritual realm. We know that in that scene, Dalinar has opened a direct conduit to the Spiritual Realm. And when he does so a powerful wind blasts away several Fused who are about to attack Kaladin in Shadesmar. But Kaladin doesn't feel the winds.Why? Well, I think it's because in that moment, struggling as he is with what happened in Kholinar and his inability to swear the fourth Ideal, Kaladin is not properly attuned to Honor's power.

To explain what I mean, this is where I first have to back up and bring in one of my favorite quotes around which to theorize. This is from WoR chapter 82, part of the first conversation between Dalinar and the Stormfather. Dalinar asks who he's speaking to, and the SF responds:

Quote

“I am the one left behind,” the voice said. It wasn’t exactly as he’d heard it in the visions; this voice had a depth to it. A density. “I am the sliver of Him that remains. I saw His corpse, saw Him die when Odium murdered Him. And I … I fled. To continue as I always have. The piece of God left in this world, the winds that men must feel.”

But what happens when the honor of men is all but dead? At the start of present-day events in the SA, Alethi culture in particular has more or less inverted the words of the first ideal. Lives are not valued but carelessly thrown away. Strength is treated as something that makes the powerful worthy to rule, rather than worthy to serve. And the destination is all that matters - the ends always seem to justify the means with all the scheming of the highprinces. As a result, they can't feel "the winds that men must feel."

Enter Kaladin Stormblessed. This is where I have to bring in another quote. This is something Tanavast says in one of Dalinar's visions.

Quote

Be strong. Act with honor, and honor will aid you.

After the tragedy of Tien's death, our boy Kal begins seeking out and protecting other youngsters like Tien. He starts acting with honor. And even before he's started to really bond with Syl and/or take in and use Stormlight, the winds begin to aid him.

From WoK 1

Quote

For a moment, Cenn thought he could see something surrounding the squadleader. A warping of the air, like the wind itself become visible.

Same battle, but from Kal's POV in WoK 47

Quote

His spear seemed to flow of its own accord. He swept the feet out from under one man, took down another with a thrown knife.

He was like water running down a hill, flowing, always moving. Spearheads flashed in the air around him, hafts hissing with speed. Not one hit him. He could not be stopped, not when he felt like this. When he had the energy of defending the fallen, the power of standing to protect one of his men.

Kaladin snapped his spear into a resting position, crouching with one foot forward, one behind, spear held under his arm. Sweat trickled from his brow, cooled by the breeze. Odd. There hadn’t been a breeze before. Now it seemed to envelop him.

Here's a description of the kata in the chasms in WoK 27:

Quote

Kaladin spun through the last motions of the kata, chasm forgotten, bridgement forgotten, fatigue forgotten. For a moment, it was just him. Him and the wind. He fought with her, and she laughed.

Here's the other members of Bridge Four watching and remarking on Kal fighting at the Battle of the Tower:

Quote

Living Heralds above, Teft thought, watching Kaladin fight. Just moments ago, the lad had looked near death, skin a dull grey, hands shaking. Now he was a shining whirlwind, a storm wielding a spear.

…

No, this wasn’t just Stormlight. This was a master of the spear with his capacity enhanced to astonishing levels.

The bridgemen gathered around Teft, amazed. His wounded arm didn’t seem to hurt as much as it should. “He’s like a part of the wind itself,” Drehy said. “Pulled down and given life. Not a man at all. A spren.”

There are plenty of other examples later where, above and beyond what Kaladin can do intentionally with Surgebinding, it seems that the winds themselves come to his aid and seem to grant him an almost atium-like ability to know what is going to happen. For example, during Adolin's duel in WoR:

Quote

Moments. He needed moments.

The wind began to blow around him. Syl returned to him, zipping through the air as a ribbon of light.

Kaladin ducked another blow, then slammed his improvised shield against the Blade of the other, throwing it back. Sand flew as Kaldin leaped back, a Shardblade biting the ground before him.

Wind. Motion. Kaladin fought two Shardbearers at once, knocking their Blades aside with the helm. He couldn’t attack – didn’t dare try to attack. He could only survive, and in this, the winds seemed to urge him.

Instinct … then something deeper … guided his steps. He danced between those Blades, cool air wrapping around him. And for a moment, he felt – impossibly – that he could have dogged just as well if his eyes had been closed.

The Shardbearers cursed, trying again and again. Kaladin heard the judge say something, but was too absorbed in the fight to pay attention. The crowd was growing louder. He leaped one attack, then stepped just to the side of another.

You could not kill the wind. You could not stop it. It was beyond the touch of men. It was infinite …

What's going on here? Well, if we're talking about someting infinite, beyond the touch of men, that starts to sound a whole lot like a refernce to the spiritual realm.

Conversely, look at what happens to Kaladin's interaction with the winds when he's broken his oaths. Here he is as at the sparring grounds in WoR 81:

Quote

He went through spear forms, doing his best to avoid putting weight on his wounded leg. He splashed in the waters. He sought peace and purpose in the comfortable forms.

He didn’t find either.

His balance was off, and his leg screamed. The rain didn’t accompany him; it just annoyed him. Worse, the wind didn’t blow. The air felt stale.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

So what's happening here? Well, I think that in these moments when Kal is moving with inhuman speed and reflexes, anticipating what's going to happen, and being aided by the wind, he's actually accesing the Spiritual Realm in small bursts. Consider a few more quotes and then I'm gonna try to tie it all together.

First, here's one of the earliest mentions of the winds on Roshar, in WoK 4:

Quote

The storm continued to blow, shaking the wagon. Those winds felt like live things at times. And who was to say they weren’t.

Next, from WoR 5, Syl continues to behave like a windspren even after remembering what she is:

Quote

When he said nothing more, Syl sighed and zipped into the air, becoming a ribbon of light. She followed him up there, moving between gusts of wind.

She said that she’s honorspren, Kaladin thought. So why does she still keep up the act of playing with winds?

He’d have to ask her, assuming she’d answer him. Assuming she even knew the answer.

Next, here's Syl talking to Kaladin in OB 6 about how the winds are of honor:

Quote

Sylked walked up to him in the air. “They’re like I remember them.”

“Remember them?” Kaladin whispered. “Syl, you never knew me when I lived here.”

“That’s true,” she said.

“So how can you remember them? Kaladin said frowning.

“Because I do,” Syl said, flitting around him. “Everyone is connected, Kaladin. Everything is connected. I didn’t know you then, but the winds did, and I am of the winds.”

“You’re honorspen.”

“The winds are of Honor,” she said, laughing as if he’d said something ridiculous. “We’re kindred blood.”

Speaking of Honor, we all know, of course that "Honor is not dead so long as he lives in the hearts of men!" Thanks Captain Notum.

And here's Hoid talking to Jasnah in the WoR Epilogue about where to look for salvation:

Quote

I’ll admit, Jasnah, that I empathize with your skepticism, but I don’t agree with it. I just think you’ve been looking for God in the wrong places.”

“I suppose that you’re going to tell me where you think I should look.”

“You’ll find God in the same place you’re going to find salvation from this mess,” Wit said. “Inside the hearts of men.”

Here's Teft with an intriguing line just after seeing Kal suck in Stormlight in WoK 38:

Quote

“Almighty, cast from heaven to dwell in our hearts … It is true.”

Lastly, consider that when he's not being likened to a storm or the winds, Kaladin is also compared to a banner flapping in the wind, a symbol for others to follow:

• He clung there, like a pennant flapping in the wind... (WoK 35)
• He was a symbol. A living banner to destroy. (WoK 65)
• "Or maybe they simply need something to keep them going, surgeon. A symbol they can trust when they can't trust their own hearts." (RoW 74)

We know that although Tanavast is dead, Honor's power remains. It's still there, just not really accessible most of the time. I take all the lines about unseen wind as evidence of spiritual winds emanating from the spiritual realm - "the winds that men must feel." And Kal starts to look like someone who, by acting honorably, attunes his heart to Honor's power (much like how a listener might attune a particular rhythm). In so doing, he more or less functions as a focus for pulling some of Honor's power through from the Spiritual Realm in the form of winds, much as the metals on Scadrial or the symbols on Sel become a conduit for power. And by doing so, Kal becomes a banner, flapping in those winds, a symbol to others that Honor's power remains and can still be accessed. Someone to show them the way and increase the number of hearts in which Honor still lives.

One thing I like about this theory is that it can explain the "Child of Tanavast" thing without requiring Kal to be some special chosen one. Anyone could have been the one to start acting honorably and, in so doing, call on Honor's power. It just so happens that, because of his upbringing and experiences, he ends up being the one to do so first.

Thanks for reading. As always, would love to hear what others think.

[Palantir Watcher he/him]

I really like your theory! I specially like how it manages to explain Kal being the "Child of Tanavast". 

Sadly I don't know enough to make any (potentially) useful comments. So I hope someone else sees this, cause I feel like it's a pretty good theory

[+mdross81 he/him]

25 minutes ago, Palantir Watcher said:

I really like your theory! I specially like how it manages to explain Kal being the "Child of Tanavast". 

Sadly I don't know enough to make any (potentially) useful comments. So I hope someone else sees this, cause I feel like it's a pretty good theory

Thanks! It’s one of my more unexpected theories considering where it started and where it ended up. 

[mathiau he/him]

Whether or not this is true this is definitely interesting.

Though the anticipationsprens are a red herring, their tong vibrate because they move them not because of Honour's wind

[+mdross81 he/him]

8 minutes ago, mathiau said:

Though the anticipationsprens are a red herring, their tong vibrate because they move them not because of Honour's wind

That’s probably right. I debated about even including them because they don’t seem to fit with the others. 

[Andy92]

The line you quoted from OB when Dalinar opens the portal to Shadesmar and Kal sees the huge rush of wind also ties in nicely to Odium presumably seeing Honor’s power alive once more.  

[+mdross81 he/him]

9 minutes ago, Andy92 said:

The line you quoted from OB when Dalinar opens the portal to Shadesmar and Kal sees the huge rush of wind also ties in nicely to Odium presumably seeing Honor’s power alive once more.  

Ooh, good call! He does say that right after Dalinar opens the perp. 

[crème de la crèmling]

I love this! It's such an elegant interpretation, one that illuminates a lot of the more miraculous things Kaladin does.  

1 hour ago, mdross81 said:

And Kal starts to look like someone who, by acting honorably, attunes his heart to Honor's power (much like how a listener might attune a particular rhythm). In so doing, he more or less functions as a focus for pulling some of Honor's power through from the Spiritual Realm in the form of winds, much as the metals on Scadrial or the symbols on Sel become a conduit for power. And by doing so, Kal becomes a banner, flapping in those winds, a symbol to others that Honor's power remains and can still be accessed. Someone to show them the way and increase the number of hearts in which Honor still lives.

I'd like to add something that I've seen that I feel supports this theory, specifically that there is a strong element of choice/agreement in surges that are more closely aligned with Honor. The best I can phrase this is that Honor is often called a god of laws, and that those laws are subject to agreement by the governed.

Quote

“Giving up all pretense of obeying natural laws again, I see,” he said. 

“Natural laws?” Syl said, finding the concept amusing. “Laws are of men, Kaladin. Nature doesn’t have them!” 

“If I toss something upward, it comes back down.” 

“Except when it doesn’t.” 

“It’s a law.” 

“No,” Syl said, looking upward. “It’s more like . . . more like an agreement among friends.”

WoR Chapter 9: Walking the Grave

 

The spren claimed it was not Surgebinding that let them walk on the walls here; the long-standing presence of the honorspren instead allowed the tower to choose a different type of natural law.

RoW Chapter 78: High Judge

So I think there is precedent for this idea that Honor's laws (and Honor's powers?) can be guided by widespread agreement. It totally makes sense to me that the more people there are who agree that Kaladin is this hero, this symbol, the more empowered he is by the slivers of Honor that "still live in the hearts of men" and the better a conduit he is. And when he accesses the Spiritual Realm, he's tapping into his ideal self, isn't he? It certainly seems to square the idea that Kaladin is at his most powerful when he's protecting someone, and also being "extra-aligned" to Honor's Intent to a somewhat unhealthy degree. I, too, really like the idea of Kaladin being a subversion of the chosen one trope by being the first to choose to behave this way. (Novelty really is the thing people value the most!) 

I find it also adds some extra dimension to RoW 80, where Kaladin perceives the wind as hating him ... what is that in this context, Kaladin feeling the winds of Odium's storm as opposed to Honor's? 

[+mdross81 he/him]

3 minutes ago, crème de la crèmling said:

I'd like to add something that I've seen that I feel supports this theory, specifically that there is a strong element of choice/agreement in surges that are more closely aligned with Honor.

This is a great point and frankly something else that I agree comes up over and over again. The theme of characters choosing. 

 

5 minutes ago, crème de la crèmling said:

find it also adds some extra dimension to RoW 80, where Kaladin perceives the wind as hating him ... what is that in this context, Kaladin feeling the winds of Odium's storm as opposed to Honor's

Also a really good point and presumably why that particular nightmare had such an impact on Kal, who at that point is used to feeling beloved by the winds.

[apepi]

I do wonder if a lot of the spren references is their look imitating the wind or if there is an actual cognitive wind that are affecting the spren.

Also small theory, some of the spren look more human like are the ones 'closer' to Honor, because they see him looking human, so they imitated him.

[+mdross81 he/him]

1 hour ago, apepi said:

I do wonder if a lot of the spren references is their look imitating the wind or if there is an actual cognitive wind that are affecting the spren.

I had thought about this too, but it seems there’s no wind in the cognitive realm.

From OB 97

Quote

Eventually, Kaladin saw something out on the horizon, beyond where Syl sat on the rocks. Yes, that was a ship, sailing in from the west. Except … it didn’t have a sail. Had he even felt wind in Shadesmar? He didn’t think so.

Also, from OB 116:

Quote

Kaladin thought he could hear the wind as he stepped from beneath the obsidian trees. Syl said this place had no wind. Yet was that the tinkling of glass leaves as they quivered? Was that the sigh of cool, fresh air coursing around him?

Note in this second one that Kal is feeling the wind anyway.  I think this is because of the gloryspren heading toward Dalinar as he’s about to open the perpendicularity.

[+mdross81 he/him]

Just popping back by this topic to add in another moment I came across where it feels like these unseen winds show up during a pivotal scene, possibly even subtly nudging characters who are sufficiently attuned to Honor in the right direction. It's in OB 118 when Jasnah stops herself from killing Renarin:

Quote

Jasnah raised her Blade over Renarin’s head.

Make it quick. Make it painless.

Most threats to a dynasty come from within.

Renarin was obviously corrupted. She’d know there was a problem the moment she’d read that he had predicted the Everstorm. Now, Jasnah had to be strong. She had to do what was right, even when it was so, so hard.

She prepared to swing, but then Renarin turned and looked at her. Tears streaming down his face, he met her eyes, and he nodded.

Suddenly they were young again. He was a trembling child, weeping on her shoulder for a father who didn’t seem to be able  to feel love. Little Renarin, always so solemn. Always misunderstood, laughed at and condemned by people who said similar things about Jasnah behind her back.

Jasnah froze, as if standing at the edge of a cliff. Wind blew threw the temple, carrying with it a pair of spren in the form of golden spheres, bobbing in the currents.

Jasnah dismissed her sword.

“Jasnah?” Ivory said, appearing back in the form of a man, clinging to her collar.

Jasnah fell to her knees, then pulled Renarin into an embrace. He broke down crying like he had as a boy, burying his head in her shoulder.

"What's wrong with me?" Renarin asked. "Why do I see these things? I thought I was doing something right, with Glys, but somehow it's all wrong.."

"Hush," Jasnah whispered. "We'll find a way through it, Renarin. Whatever it is, we'll fix it. We'll survive this, somehow."

Storms. The things he'd said about Dalinar ...

"Jasnah," Ivory said, becoming full size as he stepped free of her collar. He leaned down. "Jasnah, this is right. Somehow it is." He seemed completely stunned. "It is not what makes sense, yet it is still right. How. How is this thing?"

Renarin pulled back from her, his tear-stained eyes going wide. "I saw you kill me."

"It's all right, Renarin. I'm not going to."

"But don't you see? Don't you understand what that means?

Jasnah shook her head,

"Jasnah," Renarin said. "My visions was wrong about you. What I see ... it can be wrong."

As mentioned up top in my original post, we know those unseen winds were blowing around this time as part of what was about to happen with Dalinar. But it's interesting to see the change happen here in terms of what Jasnah, Renarin, and Ivory think is right. The scene begins with Jasnah reluctantly resigned to killing her cousin because she thinks it's "right."

But then she freezes and the "wind" blows through the temple carrying the gloryspren, and she changes her mind. Part of me wonders if this is even actual wind, or just currents from the Spiritual Realm that she is able to feel because she's acting honorably. To quote the Stormfather, this may be Jasnah experiencing "the winds that men must feel," and Jasnah can feel them because "Honor is not dead so long as he lives in the hearts of men."

Even Ivory is impacted, suddenly realizing that, even though it's not what makes sense, it's right. Renarin to gets some reassurance that he's been doing the right thing with Glys too and is pushed toward toward the realization that his visions can be wrong; that they can change things.

My original post really focused mainly on times where the winds seem to aid Kaladin, but I'm sure there are other key turning-point moments like this where a character is making a choice, and there's a conspicuous mention of the wind or a breeze blowing.

Sometimes, it even goes the other way, with windspren being scared away from Odious behavior, as in WoR I-11, just before Eshonai, bearing stormform, carries out her coup:

Quote

Eshonai regarded the others of the Five. Today's clear sky rained down white sunlight, and a few windspren approached on a breeze. They stopped when they grew near, then zipped away in the opposite direction.

Lastly, this brings me around to the thought that sunlight on Roshar may be associated in some way with Odium. Here we have it raining down on Eshonai.

Then there's this line from Szeth atop Urithiru in WoR I-10:

Quote

Bright sunlight shone down to banish the shadows, which kept those screams to a minimum. The screamers deserved their deaths, of course. They should have killed Szeth. I hate you. I hate ... everyone. Glories within, what a strange emotion.

He did not look up. He would not meet the gaze of the God of Gods. But it was good to be in the sunlight.

There's also this bit from Edgedancer chapter 3 about wearing a shiqua to cover up before "Nun-Raylisi":

Quote

Nissiqqan was the deputy scribe of immigration on duty for today. The older man was wrapped head-to-toe in a yellow shiqua, though he'd pulled the face portion down to expose a furrowed face with a cleft chin. They were in home lands, and the need to cover up before Nun Raylisi - the enemy of their god - was minimal. Tashi supposedly protected them here.

Perhaps others have previously picked up on this association between Odium and the sun, but I've only just started to notice it.