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Using the numbers so far, the total volume of the structure is very close to 1/3 of a cubic kilometer. More meaningfully, we can guess at the usable area, comparable to the square footage of a house. If the entirety of Urithiru (on all levels) was open space, we'd have 62 square km (24 square miles). That's almost exactly the land area of Manhattan. Clearly there are walls taking up some portion of that space, so depending on how much of the tower you think is rock vs. usable space, you could guess that our heroes have access to anywhere from 1/5th to 2/3rds of that area.

@Extesian is right. Just to be clear: there is no way to make these cities work without invoking either magic or far-future sci-fi tech that allows large-scale manipulation of gravity. Given what we've seen of the setting so far, it's got to be magic. (That includes both the ability of the cities to float in the first place, and the local gravity they exhibit that keeps everyone from falling off the upside down half.) I agree. The implication is that a powerful "Incubation" spread epidemically their the population and the destruction was a result of all those people with an as-yet-unspecified ability.

Good questions! The height value is intended as an average, but I think it is probably pretty uniform for the purposes of this discussion. Adolin describes his enormous chamber as being four stories high, which makes me think that within each tier there is some communication between levels (vaulted ceilings, etc.) but the levels themselves are more-or-less consistent. So, here's the thing about material strength. I'm not an engineer. I spent way too long this afternoon trying to research tunnel strength in stone mines, pillar stress, and engineering constraints of stone. I can share my calculations if you care about the details, but the upshot is that allowing for ideal design (think perfect arches and flying buttresses) and using a very strong stone (like granite), in Roshar's 0.7g gravity the building could be self-supporting for at least 2 km of vertical height, possibly more than double that. So we aren't even close to maxing out the foundation. The thickness of the floors becomes important for two things. The less demanding task is supporting the contents of all the rooms and tunnels. That's no big deal with the right design, and the original 4.5m level+ceiling guess would easily cut it. The bigger issue is transferring loads and forces between pillars and walls that aren't precisely aligned between levels. For that, thickness matters, and I would like to go with at least 5m for that. However, this is the part where I don't have a great grasp of the forces involved, so I'm ready for an engineer or stonemason to jump in and correct my guesses with their expert knowledge.

The consensus seems to be that each level+ceiling should be more than 4.5 meters. I've upped it to 5.5, which rounds us out nicely at 1km high. I agree that the terraces should be wider to accommodate more garden area. For some reason I second-guessed myself on there being gardens on every tier, but that is how it is described. Does 50m per tier sound reasonable? More? Several of you commented on the shape. As far as symmetry, yes, Urithiru is sheer on the eastern side. If viewed from the north or south, you would only see half of the presented silhouette. The shape I drew should match what you would see if you were looking from the west, which I believe is where the Oathgates are located. I'm not entirely sure how the mountain fits into things, though. Initially I was imagining the city up against the mountain, with more uncarved cliffs abutting it. However, after compiling these quotes it sounds more like the city is alone on top of the peak. I also think I've severely underestimated the size of the Oathgate platforms. Looking at the Battle of Narak map from WoR and reading the descriptions of the number of soldiers, I'm inclined to revise it up to at least 120m across, probably more. I'm tempted to go as high as 300m, mostly based on the map, but if you have 10 of those platforms arranged in a circle around a field the whole area is between 4 and 6 times larger than that each individual platform, depending on how closely they are spaced. I highly doubt the Oathgate entrance field is 2 km across. I think I will wait for more descriptions/art before I to try to pin that part down.

EDIT: Updated with some suggested numbers from the thread It is a little hard to grasp the scale of the tower city. Even Shallan can't capture it on the page! (To talk about that issue and whether it is driven by scale, psychology, or magic, see this thread.) Here are all of the physical descriptions we have of Urithiru. (If I've missed something you consider important, include a quote and I'll add it to this post. My chapter 87 quote is incomplete at the moment.) Summary: There are 10 tiers of 18 levels each, seemingly carved into the mountain. Each level is larger than the one above it, at least by the width of a balcony. The whole thing looks like The roof of the top level is ~100 yards across. The lowest level has a large plateau in front with the 10 oathgate platforms The oathgate platforms are raised 10 feet over surroundings, and are large enough to hold three armies worth of Everstorm survivors The lowest level also has large gardens/farms surrounding it. Assumptions: We have to make a lot of these. I'll update them as we get more information, or as others make convincing arguments, but for now let's go with: A Rosharan yard is close to 1 meter. Each balcony is 1.5 meters wide. Each new tier extends 20m 50m past the bottom of the one above, to accommodate gardens. Each floor is 4.5m 5.5m high, including the thickness of stone that supports the floor above. 20,000 people crowded onto the oathgate plateau at the end of WoR. (Does someone have a better number for this?) They pack closely but don't stab each other, about ~4 people/sq meter. This gives us an 80 meter diameter platform. The plateau is described as several hundred yards across, so we'll assume 300m for now. Conclusions: Using these numbers, we get a tower that is 1.5km wide at the base, and 1km high. Here's how that looks when compared to tall buildings on Earth (modified from this image on Wikipedia). A circular arrangement of ten 300m Oathgate platforms has an inner diameter of ^700m, and an outer diameter >1300m. To my mind, these are probably underestimates. As has been mentioned, Burj Khalifa is the tallest building on earth at 830 meters, and it has 160 floors to Urithiru's 180. At 4.5m per level+ceiling, I don't believe that our assumed thickness of stone has the structural integrity to hold up that massive a structure when it is filled with tunnels and cavernous spaces. Yes, surges could augment that strength, but I'm skeptical of a fabrial that would function to keep the city standing for millenia. I think we need to add more thickness to these load-bearing floors, and probably more width to the tiers. But before I modify the above assumptions, I'd like to see what the rest of you think. EDIT: Here is a perspective view of the tower and the oathgate complex. There is some disagreement in the thread about the arrangement of oathgates relative to the city, so I've included three versions here. Please comment to make your case for the arrangement you think is correct (one of these, or something different). Previous images:

I'm one who thinks this is a magical effect. Shallan has an incredible ability to reproduce what she sees, with or without a taking a Memory first. She has drawn images of Shadesmar itself so I think it can't be cognitive realm slippage. The chapter 9 title references the hallway where the striations in the truck looked like threads on a screw, and Shallan takes a conscious Memory of it to draw later. I think this is setting up for scene where she is unable to sketch from that Memory, leading to more clues about the city. The alternative explanation I would accept is that Shallan is distraught after speaking her truths and can't draw anything. But that seems unlikely to me since we have seen her messed up before, and she took refuge in her art then.

Mraize says Tezim is likely to be either nonhuman or a world hopper (or both). I've been leaning towards world hopper, possibly kandra, but if he's sincere in his claim about the Almighty that makes me think Tezim might be local. So far we've only seen the Sleepless as observers, but do you think one of them might be acting as a world leader in this way? Aside: I'm pretty sure when Mraize says "The old fool sows chaos..." earlier in that quote he's referring to Taravangian, not to Restares.

I was having trouble remembering where "watcher at the rim" came from. It's part of this quote from the Starfalls vision (with the midnight essence).

Lots of new and fascinating magical interactions to speculate about. The one that disturbs me most is Shallan's inability to draw Urithiru. Ominous! Also, I love that she called Kal "Brightlord Brooding-Eyes"

Agreed, though I did notice that the surge for movement is named Rosh. I'm pretty convinced that is part of the decision to name the place Roshar.

The first of Brandon's annotations for The Way of Kings just went up on his website. The introduction says that he only wrote annotations up through chapter 12, but I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting things to learn. For example, the first post discusses the endsheets, including some early versions of the surgebinding chart which have marked differences from the final chart we ended up with. I never realized that the front endsheet was supposed to be a mural made of stones and gems.

Let's talk about spheres. (This post assumes you've read chapters 4 and 5 of the Oathbringer preview.) From the chasm scene in WoR, we know that spheres recharge during highstorms, specifically at the moment when the Stormfather appears with his odd timelessness. But we just saw the Stormfather appear like that at the wedding, and he doesn't bring stormlight so it isn't him causing the recharge. The evidence points to sphere infusion being a specific effect of Honor's perpendicularity, which we have good reason to think travels with the highstorm. In addition, we have confirmation now that the Everstorm doesn't charge spheres with either stormlight or voidlight. We can assume then that the Everstorm does not carry a perpendicularity with it. So now I have three questions: If you took a sphere to/through Cultivation's perpendicularity in the Horneater peaks, would it infuse? If so, would it contain regular stormlight or a different flavor of investiture? i.e. Does Cultivation's investiture manifest as stormlight? How confident are we that Gavilar's sphere contained investiture from Odium? The first Szeth interlude in WoK features a (very unreliable) tavern tale in which a similar sphere is stolen from the Nightwatcher. For the record, I still think it's 98% likely to be from Odium, but I want to float alternatives for discussion. Where did Gavilar's "voidlight" come from? Until shown evidence otherwise, I'm going to believe that Rayse doesn't have a perpendicularity on Roshar. But then we need an avenue to get his investiture into a sphere. Let's pull some hints together, getting us to my current theory: We've seen surgebinders infuse things (including gems) with the stormlight they held inside them. We've seen Lift get stormlight from a route other than inhaling. We also know from WoB that Honor powered the Heralds directly, without them needing to inhale stormlight. We've seen magically enhanced strength and speed from people feeling the Thrill (i.e. influenced by an Unmade), which mirrors some of the passive effects of holding stormlight. I propose that someone feeling the Thrill (or accessing another of the Unmade's powers) could learn to take that Odious investiture and infuse it into something else, and that is how Gavilar did it.

What about the time he was sad because chouta tasted good?

Glad I wasn't the only person to think this! I can't quite say I think it's true, because that would be a lot of stormlight to use when there is almost none to be found. But as fun, longshot speculation goes, I approve!

I am in full agreement that Shallan's silence is intentional and mysterious, a way for Brandon to make us suspicious. Then I read this comment by @sooyangi While unlikely given how little stormlight is available, what if the Shallan we've seen so far is actually a lightweaving attached to Pattern? It would explain her silences. If so, what is she actually off doing? This is concerning. Is it true of all Radiants or is Dalinar special? Kaladin hid underground, but didn't mention being noticed. Finally, while this conversation has been great fun, carefully reading last week's thread and trying to meaningfully contribute to the discussion has been a huge time sink for me, and I am sorry to say that I will not be able to keep this up. I'll be skimming the discussion threads and commenting where I can for the rest of the preview chapters, but I won't be nearly as active. Props to all those who keep the conversation going!

Listening to this, I keep trying to jump in on the conversation to agree/disagree. I'm pretty sure you can't hear me, though. Thanks for doing this. Now I need to go organize a discussion group of my own.

Two minor thoughts after rereading the Tower scenes from WoK: Regarding squires, the first evidence for squire abilities comes immediately after Kaladin swears his second ideal. Teft watches Kaladin land on the other side of the chasm, and notices "his wounded arm didn't seem to hurt as much as it should." That's a pretty clear indication of how soon a KR can empower squires, at least with passive abilities like healing. Dalinar's apparent habit of acquiring talented people and paying the price they name adds extra dimensions to the way he buys the bridgemen from Sadeas with Oathbringer. The exchanges are framed differently, especially in how Dalinar thinks of them (his purchase of Kaladin and company being explicitly made in gratitude, rather than in expectation of further service) but the parallels are unavoidable. I'm interested in reanalyzing Dalinar's conscious and subconscious motivations in light of what we'll learn from the flashbacks.

I considered that, but I don't think so. The corresponding vision in WoK (ch 75) ends after the Everstorm blows through, with Honor calmly saying he is dead. There's no yelling or "unite them" instructions while the storm is destroying things. When Honor is present in the vision he seems to speak normally, and though his disembodied voice is described as booming, it isn't shown in all caps.

I read the vision again, and noticed an oddity that hasn't been mentioned yet. Both during and after the vision, the Stormfather is using his inside voice (depicted with italics), but the last thing before the vision shatters is a line from someone speaking in all caps. I'm not sure whether the Stormfather interpreted Dalinar's demand "leave me" as "don't pull me out yet" or "go away." He didn't see the light or the figure, but we can't say for sure if that's because it came from another Shard or because he ducked out of the vision early. Either way, I don't think he suddenly decided to yell "UNITE THEM" with no context just as the vision ends. That was someone else. To me, this is the best evidence for the theory proposed earlier in this thread that Cultivation inserted that "champion" sequence into the end of the vision. (And just to reiterate, there is plenty of room for misinterpretation here. Dalinar is the one who assumes the figure is a champion, and the Stormfather identifies Odium and the Unmade from Dalinar's description since he couldn't see that part. I'm not sure what parts I trust yet, but I personally would be surprised if all of Dalinar's chapter one conclusions are correct.)

So, thinking about squires... We know that Windrunners had more squires than other orders, but most of the orders had some. We can only speculate which orders didn't have any (though I suspect the Bondsmiths for one). But the important question I have is whether the Lightweavers went in for squires? Because Kaladin isn't the only current radiant with a loyal following, or with a follower missing a body part. Shallan has her crew of former deserters, including a certain one-eyed gambler. So will Gaz pull a Lopen and get his depth perception back?

I want to confirm that yes, the map is being updated with each new post! (Someone, probably @The Young Bard, entered the most recent handful before I got to them.) ____ So, a question to the community: The original Master List and associated map were compiled from locations shared in threads like this, as well as from the Introduce Yourself or Events threads when users mentioned their locations. Since converting to this Geotracking 2.0 thread, the cataloging of new members has stopped, and we've only been adding people when they post here. I can't decide whether I think adding locations learned in other threads is a good idea or a bad idea. I am sort of leaning towards not collecting that info elsewhere, but would like to hear other opinions. Issue 1: Privacy. It seems safest to only include people who explicitly wish to be added, but I can also see the point that if they have willingly shared their location in the forums, they are comfortable with that information being available to our community. The locations are limited to country or (nearby) city, so I don't feel that there is any inherent danger in cataloging these with user names. Issue 2: Effort. It is much simpler to use a dedicated thread than to read a bunch of other threads and user profiles for location information. Issue 3: Usefulness: While it is fun to look at the map as a whole and see pins all over the world, the utility of this map comes (in my opinion) from the ability to make connections with those who live near you (or in places you've lived before). For example, when Brandon came to Boston I used the map to contact other Sharders in the area and coordinate a meetup. When members self-select to be on the list, the ones you find on the map are more likely to be active Sharders who will see and respond to a message. On the other hand, including everyone lets you cast a wider net and maybe meet more friends. Take the past few weeks for instance: we have had a lot of new members join for the Aether of Night manuscript, who I imagine will visit the site again only rarely. Some of those will have posted their country of origin--does adding them to the map increase or decrease it's usefulness?

Perhaps, but giving a rationale to the people you want to lead never hurts. The Blackthorn didn't unite Alethkar by himself last time; Gavilar was there to take care of the politicking, which is definitely necessary now if Dalinar doesn't want to waste too much time conquering the entire world. Seems to me that giving an explanation like @eveorjoy's is more likely to accomplish that goal.

This is a great point. I'm sure it's not what Dalinar was thinking, but it sounds like a very valid argument to justify the action after the fact. I almost hope this is the angle he takes for assuming command.

Thanks for the link. I'd missed that thread. The quote referenced there (from one of the Unfettered flashbacks) lists the same three conquests but in a different order: Shin, Sunmaker, Hierocracy, rather than Shin, Hierocracy, Sunmaker. I'm going to conclude that we haven't learned anything about chronology yet.

Re: Dalinar's authority, it is significant that he doesn't even pretend that the appointments come from Elhokar. Maybe when they announce it they'll do it in the king's name, but for now he doesn't say, "I'll have Elhokar appoint you to the post," he says "I'm naming you for the position." This is a big shift for the man who swore to himself never to take the kingship. I also want to point out the amazing description of Urithiru. This place is bigger than I was imagining! 10 tiers of 18 levels, carved into the stone. Depending on how much space there is between levels for minor things like load-bearing floors, that adds up to a bare minimum of 700 meters, with a more reasonable estimate well over 1000 meters high. The description in WoR suggested the whole thing is substantially wider than it is tall. This really is a city. What was the planning meeting for this like? "We've picked a spot for the city. It's up in the mountains." "Great. Make sure you are high enough. The lowest level has to be taller than a giant magical hurricane." "Sure thing. We'll teleport everyone to the bottom, and we've invented elevators so height shouldn't be a problem." "Perfect. I was thinking of making it look like a kilometer-high wedding cake, just to show off." "Sounds good. I'll schedule the work crews." I am curious, though, where the 18 comes from. That doesn't really fit with our 10-obsessive Rosharans.