Varion

I'm still wondering about all those drawings Shallan discovered in her sketch books, with no memory of drawing them. I am assuming that some of these drawings were depictions of the shaft that led down to the chamber Re-Shephir was holed-up in, and the foreboding sense of darkness a hint towards Re-Shephir herself. But how was Shallan drawing them, and why could she no remember having drawn them? And what of the darkest, most violent images, like the flayed horse? Did those images come from Re-Shephir directly? And if so, was it deliberate or conscious by Re-Shephir? Or was Shallan just somehow tuning into Re-Shephir's thoughts without either of them being aware of what was happening? Did Renarin have any similar experiences? It was well explained in the text that Shallan, as a Lightweaver, and Renarin, as a Truthwatcher, have some connection with Re-Shephir, probably related to the surge of illumination. We know that when Shallan made contact, Re-Shephir tried to bond with Shallan, attempting to break Pattern's nahel bond. And we know that both Renarin and Shallan felt the presence of Re-Shephir, when Dalinar, and presumably any surgebinders from other orders, could not. But those unexplained pictures suggest a deeper, subconscious connection that not only foreshadows complications when we meet Re-Shephir again, but may have implications for other Unmade and the radiant orders that associate with them. A couple of possibilities for Re-Shephir could be: That Re-Shephir is unaware, and Shallan discovers that she can use these images to track her down; That Re-Shephir is aware, or becomes aware of her ability to send images to Shallan, and thus uses them to manipulate and confuse her

I agree with @Belzedar that the people in the bottom are representations of the Heralds. The major clue for me is the flame following them out of the perpendicularity, and which most likely signifies Damnation. We know that in Rosharian mythology, Damnation is assumed to be an inferno, and so this would be an obvious sign to any Rosharin, in the same way that Hell is signified by flames in christian art on Earth. The scene would therefore be a depiction of a new Desolation. And if that is Jezrien on the right, then they could be honor spren coming to meet him.

Absolutely agree. Taravangian has no reason to mistrust her. I suspect the secret society comments were throw away lines, but certainly, we should be careful drawing any conclusions about Malata based on what we've seen so far. Having said that, while Taravangian doesn't have any reason to distrust her, he may have reason to be unhappy with her performance in front of Dalinar -- not because she gave anything away, but because the end result was that Dalinar felt suspicious. Assuming his plan was to stay in Dalinar's confidence, I'm sure he would be upset to know that Dalinar left their first meeting feeling uneasy about Malata. But once again, I'm making assumptions about Taravangian's motives and strategy. Well played Sanderson, I say.

I'm loving the serialisation format. It make me savour every chapter, and gives me a week to consider and pick over every detail. I love to binge read too, and I will once Oathbringer is release, but this is a different type of fun. I also like that this community is all reading the book together too. I'm getting much more out of the experience, reading three chapters, then coming here to see everyone's real time responses, and share my own. I've been a member of this site for 4 years, and through many Sanderson books, but it's only now that I've really been drawn in enough to post, and I that's definitely due to the episodic release schedule.

That sequence of events makes a lot of sense. Much cleaner than Taravangian finding a Releaser and then convincing her to join him. I wonder, has anyone found any hint of Malata in WoK or WoR? Is there a woman in the background of any scene with Taravangian that could fit her description? Sanderson often uses the same phrases to describe people over time, so there may be a "middle-aged lighteyed woman", dressed "after a Southern style, with the top buttons of the blouse undone", and hair "short in a boyish cut" with "gloves on both hands".

I actually agree with you Ansalem, even if I didn't express it well in my post. Malata taken on her own is not doing anything overly suspicious. My point was more meta. Sanderson was very deliberately trying to make the reader suspicious of Malata, using her association with Taravangian to prejudice our expectations. Then the ambiguous smile, Dalinar's reaction, and the little reminder that Dustbringers had a bad reputation, all confirmed those expectations. Which is, as I said in my first post, itself very suspicious. In this way, people are actually reading exactly what's written for them. Is this misdirection from Sanderson? We really don't know yet. It's hard to imagine a scenario where we (and I mean we as readers cheering for Dalinar) shouldn't be suspicious of Malata, at least initially. Although, we also need to acknowledge that Dalinar, who does not have any of those contextual clues, who is generally a good judge of character, and who tends to err on the side of being over-trusting, was clearly suspicious. He didn't like the way she smiled, and he immediately began to wonder whether she may in fact have an Honorblade in disguise. So she was obviously acting suspiciously enough to put Dalinar on guard. As for the Taravangian Bondsmith theory, I can see the different dots there, but the connections between them are still pretty tenuous. I'll keep reading with interest.

That's an interesting idea, but what reasons do you have for it? Have I missed a discussion of this elsewhere on the boards? Taravangian may have the same higher goal as Dalinar (to save Roshar from Odium) but his methods are much different. Dalinar is focused on uniting people, and upholding oaths -- which fits with what little we know about the Bondsmiths. Taravangian, by contrast, is a chess player, manipulating pieces on the board to setup long term strategies. He only unites people when it suits his needs, and being held by oaths would only restrict his options. I'm not sure what Order would suit Taravangian more, but I don't see him as a Bondsmith. She's suspicious for a few reasons: 1: She's with Taravangian. We know his plans, and they are not friendly; 2: Her creepy smile suggests she knows something Dalinar doesn't, and given that she's with Taravangian, the obvious conclusion we are to make as readers is that she knows about the diagram, or at the very least, is in on some plan to kill/overthrow Dalinar; 3: We can also safely assume that Taravangian, the meticulous genius, wouldn't deliver a radiant to Dalinar unless he was 100% certain that she was under his control, and safe to play a central part of his plans; 4: Even though Dalinar trusts Taravangian, he's still suspicious of Malata; 5: Dustbringers historically had a suspicious reputation. Therefore, Malata is suspicious. Very obviously suspicious. I mean, Sanderson is hitting us over the head with how suspicious she is. Which is, you have to admit, a bit suspicious.

I also believe that there is something extremely significant about the striations in the walls of Urithiru. And I think their significance is tied to the deeper secrets of Urithiru, not merely some trigger effect they have on Shallan and her repressed memories. The following lines from Chapter 13 of Oathbringer jumped out at me in particular, and I took special note of them: A few things stood out to me: - the repeated references to darkness, whether it be the strata or tunnels twisting towards darkness, or the ceiling of the market looming over the people; - the twisting strata are repeatedly described as "lines of madness" and "mesmerising", suggesting an effect on the human mind; - the fact that Shallan didn't realise that she'd made over twenty drawings, suggesting, that she has herself either been mesmerised, or lost some memories of seeing the walls and drawing them. I know Shallan is an expert at repressing memories, but I don't believe this memory loss is related to her past. Rather, I agree much more with the idea that the patterns are some form of Urithiru defence mechanism. My personal guess is that they aren't a code, disguising information directly, but act as a sort of optical lock, hiding certain parts of Urithiru from discovery by non-Radiants. We have been led to believe that little valuable information has been discovered in Urithiru because it is extremely large. But perhaps the real reason is that the important parts are hidden in plain sight. Shallan has stumbled across several tunnels that lead into darkness -- a foreboding image, but one that might simply suggest that no one has ventured inside and "switched the lights on" so to speak. The only evidence of these darkened tunnels are her sketches -- she has no memory of them, and presumably no one else does either. But her sketches, and perhaps Shallan's developing powers, are no doubt the key to unlocking them. In fact, when we read thise lines back again, that series of sketches might form a map, starting with "a corridor she'd passed through the other day", perhaps near the "large market cavern", and then progressing through a sequence of darkened tunnels leading to a room where the strata "coiled about itself in a mesmerising manner". Could Shallan have already discovered the way to Urithiru's library, for example, only to have the memory erased by the mesmerising strata?