AliasMcFakenames

I agree that it’s probably not one of the adjacent expanses, just that if it is one Broken Sky seems the best fit, especially if the one-way holes in the shroud could be seen as holes in the sky in Shadesmar. And probably Sel is the more likely origin for humans there anyway if there is any connection to humans from another world.

My read on this is that Yumi with her stacking broke into another Yoki-Hijo prison. Since the Yoki-Hijo there was the only thing not made of Shroud, she was revealed when the Shroud got pushed back. From her perspective it would’ve looked like a section of the world was falling apart, either revealing the modern city or just raw Shroud, either one would be a terrifying sight enough to provoke a Yoki-Hijo to reach out to try and stop it.

It’s important to note that Hoid is translating basically all of the dialogue except for occasionally the phrase “yoki-hijo” and that he is specifically doing so for a Rosharan audience. The -nimi honorific is likely just an extension of that. They certainly have a similar concept in Torio, but it would not be exactly the same word. They also do have stones which they routinely walk upon. The floors of their houses and the areas around and bottoms of the cool springs make for at least two off the top of my head. I could maybe see a path to get there still. The Desolations were a long period of time when cultures mixed at Urithiru and there was relatively easy access to Shadesmar. Maybe a faction of Shin-traditionalist-Vedens (couldn’t just be Shin, since Cultivation’s investment on Roshar is the reason for all the local human adaptations) decided they were tired of the war and just struck out in a random direction with the idea that their ancestors left a dying planet, why not them? One of the cool springs could perhaps be a perpendicularity, and from there they could come through to the physical realm and settle down. On the modern Shadesmar map of Roshar, presumably during the time of the Shroud, it could easily be seen as the Expanse of the Broken Sky.