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ccstat

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  1. ccstat

    Chapter 90

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 90 (One Chance)
    Icons: Four this time. Jez, Nan, Ishar, Shash. Notably, Palah is absent so I don’t think Maya will show up this chapter.
    Epigraph: I wonder if it would make a difference if he knew that the current threat to his life and freedom was coming from a different quarter than the Fused? Also, don’t do it, Shallan.
    I’m once again curious about the political situation of Lasting Integrity, that Notum was expelled front the forum (and perhaps the city?) for his statements, and that the ruling class is able to exclude all of the opposition from this event. Does that mean the trial isn’t actually that impactful, or does it mean that the ruling party is powerful enough to impose itself this way? At least some of the spren sympathetic to Adolin are able to watch from above.
    Hm. There are six of the “ten honored by storms” present today. I presume that’s the form the ruling council takes, and not just individuals worthy of respect, but either way… I wonder if that means that 40% are in favor of Adolin or neutral and were thus excluded, or if his support is less than that and the other four just weren’t available to attend.
    That’s a pretty good opening statement. Bold move to invoke Cultivation on top of Honor, but I can see it working. She is the surviving deity, even if her involvement is far less than Tanavast’s was.
    Ooo, very nice, Adolin. “I could answer, but you don’t care.” This was a good rebuttal, attacking their sense of fair play and honesty in providing a true trial. I’m glad to see it working.
    His next bit, calling on their similarities to humans, is also excellent. Addressing their fear, their irrationality, the way they are casting about for solutions.
    Oh dear. The deadeye cryptic is recent, and now we think it’s Shallan’s first. That will go over well when it comes out. Not this chapter, but presumably soon.
    ***
    I like this intimate moment of Shallan and her husband, and the reminder that when she is with Adolin she is only ever Shallan. Because he can tell, and she is the one that he married.
    Adolin can’t decide what he wants to do about this imprisonment. I love that he is considering the honorspren’s position and having enough empathy to say, “You know what, maybe it isn’t fair to ask them to fight a war.” He might be willing to give them their way there. Good thing he practiced being in jail back in WoR.
    Yay Veil! Don’t follow through with Mraize’s suggestion. She and Radiant agree.
    Except, that only gives Shallan enough motivation to finally let Formless free. Chilling that she does so on the heels of Adolin’s judgement:
     
    Even if Shallan isn’t letting herself remember, she knows who is being blamed here. And with that Formless says It is time.
    And the worst part is that Adolin doesn’t notice. He would recognize Radiant or Veil, but Formless is either too new or too insidiously linked to Shallan’s core for him to know that she has intruded on this moment that is supposed to be sacrosanct in their relationship.
    Plus, Formless then echoes the same words Veil threw at Mraize… Maybe you’ll be surprised. This is all sorts of bad for her.
    Not to mention that it can’t possibly reflect well on the “we don’t kill spren” thing to use a soul stealing dagger to assassinate the person judging the case. I don’t see that as a particularly convincing demonstration of their trustworthiness.
     
  2. ccstat

    Chapter 89

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 89 (Voice of Lights)
    Icons: Kelek and Palah–Learned and Builder for Navani doing science things?
    Epigraph: Kelek thinks he’d be even more insane/fallen with more memories of his failures across his long life. I can’t really say he’s wrong, but it feels like the memories are incidental to his mindset. 
    That’s got to be rough for Navani to be out of contact with everyone. Is she still allowed to send notes to people or is she entirely isolated to her lab, with only singers to speak to?
    Key terms there: static and kinetic investiture. I know kinetic has been in use in the fandom for a while, but I think this is the first time we’ve had a real term for its complement. 
    The sand changes color in the presence of spren. I wonder, what is the limit of detection here? How little investiture leakage is enough to cause color change? Does the sand itself leak, such that a large amount of white sand could convert a small amount of black sand?
    Raboniel doesn’t know where the sand is from, which I at first didn’t believe but actually makes sense. It’s valuable enough to make the trading circuit, but it’s not a place people have been able to access for some time. Plus, Raboniel isn’t able to leave the Rosharan system any more than the heralds can. Actually, is that what she’s looking for with the whole anti-light search? Is she trying to find the same solution that Restares is seeking, so she can “get off this rock?” I imagine she has different motivations than he does, but the goal may well be the same.
    Oh, she just said that exact thing. Guess I could just read instead of stopping to speculate wildly…but then what would be the point of keeping this blog?
    Oh, that’s both funny and terrible. They sent Heavenly Ones to try to fly to Braize through normal space. I guess since they can reincarnate it wasn’t a huge burden to die of asphyxiation or decompression in space when their Light ran out. Still, that’s not the sort of space program I want to design my rockets.
    Electromagnets powered by stormform zapping! That’s delightful! I want to see singer fabrial science take off and have them build a maglev train powered by a team of stormform.
    What polarity do the gemstones have that would need to be swapped? Forget the idea of using electricity to effect the change, what even are you trying to accomplish here?
    Hm, it appears there is a ways to go before controlled use of stormform lightning can be used for actual sustained electric current.
    I love the tension of Navani only getting academic acknowledgement from her enemy, and for the encouragement to come from that quarter. I want Raboniel to tease out the insight that Navani doesn’t consider herself a scholar primarily because her first husband belittled her so much. It seems like the sort of hurtful bluntness that the Lady of Wishes would go for, and something Navani would struggle with because if it’s true then she’s agreeing with the enemy and letting them help her heal from that abuse. It’s a deliciously complicated possibility. We’ll see if it actually comes through in the text rather than just my imagination.
    Oh, now that is a mark of honor for sure. Navani no longer has to use elaborate titles to address Raboniel. That’s one way to prove sincerity of compliments.
    Is Navani recognizing rhythms now because she’s spent enough time in company with singers who use them, and is simply becoming acclimated as with any other language? Or is it deeper than that, and her study of Light and Tones has allowed her to begin attuning them?
    First, this is the confirmation that the Sibling is on the path to becoming another Unmade. Not something we want to happen, but it also isn’t necessarily disastrous. Going by Sja-Anat, they still have some degree of self-determination and volition outside of their patron shard. Actually, this is an interesting question. Going by the numerology, is the Sibling’s unmaking important for replacing either Sja-Anat or Ba-Ado-Mishram? What about Yelig-Nar? I wouldn’t think that the trapped unmade would stop counting toward the total of Nine, but the defector might. On the flip side, if they all still count, does adding the Sibling as a full Unmade change anything about the nature of the group? Do they become less in tune with Braize and/or Rayse? Will Sja-Anat’s departure be further enabled by a success with converting the Sibling?
    Second, it’s Significant that Raboniel considers this unmaking a “worse” thing. Wouldn’t she be in favor? I don’t think she recognizes the pain she causes in people as a moral wrong at all, so I’m not sure what about this is a line too far for her.
    Cymatics are ancient listener music? 
    Navani gets a singer title? A Fused title? That is incredible. And Voice of Lights is appropriate. 
    The sibling is not doing well. They can tell that they have eavesdroppers, though, which is an improvement. I’m still not clear on how that eavesdropping works.
    Okay, I’m calling B.S. here. You want to be able to reverse engineer a musical tone and rhythm from a cymatic pattern? A pattern that you generate to be a reverse-phased version of others you have seen? 
    I do like that the cymatics weren’t actually the music, just a side effect that the singers didn’t expect, and I like that it is coming into play this way after being teased in so many places. I look forward to Navani discovering the connections to the Dawncities and how they work with Light. However, this whole flow of science in the other direction, extrapolating from cymatics back to sound, really stretches my suspension of disbelief. 
    I know, I know. Why would that be the thing that makes me question stuff? It’s not like anything else has been improbable. I guess I’ll just hold out hope that it’s presented in a believable way.
  3. ccstat

    Chapter 88

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 88 (Falling Star)
    Icons: Three again. Kelek doubled, with Nale and Chach
    Lightning being the key to catching stormspren...–I’m going to presume that it’s just a strong enough resonance with the nature of storm spren to pull them across, not that the power and mundane energy in lightning is enough to thin the barrier between realms. 
    It’s pretty badass (are we still correcting that to bad chull?) that Venli was chasing down lightning strikes, though. I’m just imagining her running toward any flash of light in the storm, back and forth between points that keep drawing the lightning until she’s finally close enough to reach a strike zone before the spren disappear. That’s got to be a harrowing research project. (In my lab we would say “that’s what grad students are for” but I don’t think Venli uses assistants quite that way.)
    I like that humans are being favorably (?) compared to rockbuds. Yay stubbornness!
    Yes, yes you would. Except I have to say that on Roshar, that would doubly apply to Sleepless. 
    Oh, is that what the title is referring to? Is this where she first encounters Timbre? 
    Yelling at the Rider of Storms. I’d say calling him a traitor is a little too far, but without actually seeing behind the scenes, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion. And with how Restares suggested many of the nahel spren are considering defection to Odium’s side, I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question for the Stormfather to have possibly chosen that as well.
    By Vev’s golden keys, did she just encounter one of the storm striders? Are we actually going to get to see what they are?
    No, just a chasmfiend. Still, that kind of face-to-face encounter is pretty cool in itself.
    Hm. It is Timbre like I suspected, but I have no idea why there was a need for the chasmfiend to deliver him. (Her? I have been thinking of Timbre as female, but I think there were male pronouns used recently. I’m not sure.) Presumably spren could ride in the gemhearts of living creatures and influence them in that way, but why would Timbre need to do something like that? Is it to avoid detection/interception by the voidspren? Is it to help keep from losing their mind like Syl risked? Is it just to travel around better, since they probably share Willshaper’s joy of exploration? It’s weird.
    Although, presumably Timbre is the first one to even try forming a bond with a listener. Maybe the spren didn’t know it would work and had to test out some options with other gemhearted creatures?
     
  4. ccstat

    Chapter 87

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 87 (Trial by Witness)
    Icons: Another triple icon set. I’m starting to think I am putting too much stock in this supposed departure from the norm. I’ll keep tracking it to see if anything important shows up, but in all likelihood this was just how Dragonsteel decided to do a more-or-less random set of chapters. Anyway, this time it’s Palah doubled, with Jez and Nan opposed.
    Epigraph: I suppose that loss of memory could be blamed for feeling dissolute or not oneself, but from what we know of the Returned on Nalthis I suspect the memories would have minor effect compared to the continuity of soul.
    Interesting that the weather in the cognitive realm directly affects the moods of spren. It makes sense, but it’s not something I’d have necessarily predicted.
    Ah, top of my list of encouraging things I hope my impartial judge will say to me.
    Only twenty honorspren deadeyes in the fortress, out of two thousand total. Did the others not gather to Lasting Integrity for the trial, along with the rest of those outside the fortress? Where are they now? I presume they are wandering the bead sea, as mentioned before. Still, only 1% is a lower number than I expected. Also, 2000 blades is a lot. It lines up with estimates of pre-Recreance shard counts, but we really have no idea where all of those could still be hiding.
    That the first argument focuses on deadeyes reinforces again that Maya will be the key. I hope Shallan doesn’t do anything rash before Mayalaran can make her case.
    Woah. Lore drop! Melishi ended his bond with the Sibling immediately prior to the incitement of the Recreance. How? Why? And why don’t the honorspren (or anyone else) know about it? Surely someone has gone to talk to the Sibling or learn about the Recreance in the past few millenia?
    Good line.
    Adolin, I had the exact same thought. Is Kelek writing anything related to the trial, or is he just doodling?
    Is…is that an apple? Where did Kelek get that, and how did it stay good? Was it manifested in Shadesmar? Can you eat a manifested item? I guess the answer might be pretty different for a herald and a mortal.
    What does he mean by “unchained” Bondsmith? I’m not sure what that term is meant to indicate. Haven’t we already established that Dalinar is subject to the same restrictions that Ishar implemented back in the beginning?
    Oof. Yeah, having your attorney be called as a witness for the prosecution is not an encouraging look.Blended is a good speaker, but I won’t quote a bunch of her lines. Good turns of phrase, though. I like Adolin’s rebuttal about bonds being natural, and I’d like to see him or someone like Shallan bring up the example of Ryshadium. That would take us into a lengthy digression that doesn’t actually serve to case, so it’s probably for the best that I’m not there to make the argument.
    Ironic, that he’s being tried by a fallen herald who embodies one of the ten fools, then…and that Adolin doesn’t seem to make that connection.
    Oh dear. Notum is the third witness. That’s a kick in the pants.
    Nice. Adolin succeeds by being himself rather than the man he thinks his father would be in his place. Reaching out to Notum is a good move, and wholly in line with who Adolin is as a person.
    Oh dear. I’m concerned about the effect this uproar is having on Kelek. It’s rough that something that can turn the audience to his side might have the opposite effect on the judge, even one as fickle as Kelek is currently said to be.
    I’d appreciate a little more elucidation of the political schisms within the honorspren. Kelek mentions several, but we don’t really have a sense for the balance and what nuances might exist.
    ***
    Wow. This is a horribly transparent ploy, and you are letting Pattern do the talking for you? This is one of those “so bad it’s good” plans isn’t it. Are honorspren just unused to deception to the extent they don’t look for it?
    I feel dumb for not recognizing this reference. What event(s) is she talking about here?
    So the Ire have an alternate method for storing Light. Is it more permanent and less prone to leakage? It’s jar’s or vats–what’s the mechanism here? I don’t recall if we got a closer look at this stuff in Secret History.
    Looks like they also have leak-proof perfect gems for storage. I wonder if that emerald Veil stole is going to be more valuable than the stormlight it contains. Probably not, but it would be a neat twist.
    And Pattern’s response is “Thank you for letting me lie.” Why didn’t he get to be involved in Kaladin’s heist scene? I mean, other than the fact he’s terrible at it.
  5. ccstat

    Chapter 86

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 86 (The Song of Mornings)
    Wow. Watching the near-genocide of her people convinces Venli she made the right decision to incite this war? I am not a fan of this mentality that Ulim is effecting in her. (And I hope he really is to blame, because thinking of that as her native thought process is creepy and disgusting.)
    Yes, she’s feeling glee when looking at their losses. That is an Odium-influenced passion without doubt.
    She’s subverted Denshil, but was that by way of her scholar in-group or something else? 
    Yes, putting your bravest listeners where they are most likely to be killed is definitely the way to prepare for victory in the coming war. Your logic is flawless, Venli. 
    Hmm. She’s recognized her selfishness and decided it’s not a bad thing. She’s working to gain ultimate “freedom” by removing anyone’s potential hold over her, and she’s doing it at the expense of the people she started out trying to help. I feel bad for future Venli being haunted by these memories. This corruption of the freedom she seeks as a Willshaper is going to be a constant reminder of Odium’s lies, but more poignantly of how she fell for them and what it cost.
    The farming gemstones break when sung to–presumably because of the rate of stormlight flow? It’s notable that the breakages occur during active use through tonal manipulation of light.
    I guess that explains how they created enough gems for transforming so many of their people.
    A nice Roshar-ism for “speak of the devil” and equivalents. I suppose this one is specific to listener culture and language. I wonder what the analogous phrase would be in Alethi or other human languages?
    Looks like Ulim has been leaving her after all, so she doesn’t need as much babysitting as it seemed like in her previous chapter.
    The storm in Shadesmar blocked the path to Braize? Then how did the various voidspren get through? Oh, I guess it drew some with it. It’s just a gathering of power and malevolence, not a strict barrier.
    Hm. So the Everstorm that was summoned is a piece of the gathered storm from Shadesmar, broken off from the main body of Odium’s power for this purpose. That makes sense, and matches the fact that no previous Return involved this sort of storm.
    Venli is getting a bit full of herself to say the storm is hers for the fact of leading the summoning. It’s painful to watch her get managed by Ulim this way, but I guess hubris is a thing for a reason.
    What is the “better rhythm” that is a counterpart to Skepticism? Is it one of the harsher rhythms connected to Odium that she isn’t able to attune currently because Ulim is outside of her gemheart? Or is it something else, better in a different way that doesn’t match her deluded mindset?
    Yes, the jealousy is pretty bad. “I wish I could have gotten my nice things without you getting anything.”
    Dementia to the point that their mother doesn’t even remember her own name? That is sad progress.
    A remarkably salient point. Insightful, even.
    Gavilar wasn’t working with Odium’s agents at all, according to Ulim, and was actually trying to counter them. That’s an unexpected confirmation, and means the Sons of Honor were not being manipulated in the way I thought they were. It also raises questions about the source of Gavilar’s voidlight, as Venli notes.
    Eshonai wanted to receive a form fit for diplomacy, but it was Venli who eventually received envoyform. 
    Sad–a classic missed opportunity for confession. Also, “you’re always right. That’s part of what I hate about you.”
  6. ccstat

    Chapter 85

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 85 (Dabbid)
    Icons: Chach (obedient/brave) and Vev (healing) makes sense as attributes of Dabbid and his actions in working to heal Kal
    Epigraph: meh. Nothing to comment on
    I’m not sure how I feel about Dabbid’s continued mutism being a deliberate choice to hide his mental slowness. It makes a lot of sense for the character and is a great examination of belonging, but it also feels like a retcon after three and a half books established that character trait. It feels like the wrong kind of reveal.
    Lift is great. “Fused still gotta poop, poor saps.” And Rlain just cannot comprehend anything she says has a point.
    Yes, Lift. Leaving food out to go bad is exactly like leaving a sword out to get stepped on by a baby. Definitely the queen’s fault you got food poisoning.
    Kaladin’s healing was even harder than reviving Gawx, presumably because Odium was taking a direct hand in keeping him ill. Was Odium interested in killing him or just in tormenting him?
    “Touched” as a euphemism for mental slowness is a very English term and feels strange to me to read in Alethi translation. It is certainly plausible either as a literal convergence in terminology or as a tone-appropriate translation, but it doesn’t feel natural to me to hear Lift say it, for whatever reason.
    Curing Dabbid’s mental deficiencies by bonding a spren, that sounds like a can of worms.
    Lift can wake up all the Radiants? How? That doesn’t sound like regrowth or healing directly, because the tower isn’t injuring them. It’s just suppressing something. If I were to guess, she’s giving them access to enough stormlight to resist the suppression…but that would mean that once it runs out the resistance will wear off and they will fall unconscious again. So as long as they have access to infused spheres they’ll be okay? That’s as good a hypothesis as any. I’m not sure what the realmatic explanation would be if this really is a one-shot cure.
    I'm disappointed in you, Lift. But I guess having access to super communication skills for each individual you're talking to allows for personalized insults as much as compassionate understanding.
    Wait, Wyndle is gone? Where did he go? And I guess this means Lift wasn’t listening to any second conversation during Venli’s chapter about breaking her out. Too bad.
    New swear for the list, and a really unique one compared to all the others we’ve compiled so far.
    Fun little mirroring of the “pulled from Damnation” bit, especially because this time it was more literal than Dabbid knows. 
     
  7. ccstat

    Chapter 84

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 84 (Scholar)
    Icons: Another 3-image header, with Palah being repeated, and Jez and Chach each getting a single instance. Am I reading too much into this? Palah being learned matches the title of scholar and the research Navani will be doing. Chach for destruction or bravery, Jez for protection? I’m not sure why this one deserves another departure from the established pattern.
    Epigraph: Hmmm. Does this use of Midius indicated Hoid (most likely) or the person that Hoid stole that name from? That’s not a very likely possibility, but it’s possible that some of the heralds also came from Yolen. Just throwing out some wild speculation.
    It’s nice to see that Navani was having a measurable effect on the research effort, even if it was unwittingly by providing access to the Sibling. Her contributions mattered, so she can expect to matter again–especially now that without her input Raboniel’s progress has slowed.
    Navani could have done science earlier, “but there had been a Blackthorn to seduce.” At least her priorities are in order. 
    Her requisitions from Kholinar included “many gemstones bearing corrupted spren to power fabrials.” 
    Somehow I totally forgot that Sja-Anat was actually in Kholinar and nominally working with Odium’s forces there, which means that Navani has access to her through the occupying Fused. She’s felt very distant, so I wasn’t expecting a direct hand in things that wasn’t part of hidden plots. My mistake, of course.
    She made Indiana Jones spike traps! She’s going to turn the pillar room into the Temple of Doom! I thought the heist chapters were fun, but now I can’t wait for the lost city adventure sequence.
    It’s a toss up for me whether Raboniel will be fooled by the disguised weapons. I suspect that she will assume a subversive, hidden function but won’t have the fabrial knowledge to know what each one does. 
    Magnets to activate the traps is clever. I had sort of forgotten they had access to some of those mundane engineering tricks.
    Raboniel can’t make warlight by herself (as far as Navani can tell). So what’s different about Venli? Is Timbre close enough to Lifelight to help with that process, or as a surgebinder is that type of attunement restricted to Stormlight? Where does Venli’s talent and ability come from?
    Actually, the wording is more general than that: “The Fused couldn’t create it without a human’s help.” So presumably the Fused are too in tune with Odium to harmonize with Stormlight, while Navani at least is too deaf to directly manipulate Voidlight. With that backdrop, Venli creating Warlight would have been unsurprising, but the use of Lifelight in place of Stormlight for the alloying process is still odd enough to be worth noting.
    Why does Navani think that the mystery sphere contained Anti-Voidlight, as opposed to Anti-Stormlight or Anti-Lifelight, or any of the other options that she doesn’t know about? Is it just the color similarity? Because that doesn’t sound like it’s necessarily specific or predictive once you are dealing with “opposites” along arbitrary conceptual axes.
    Raboniel’s daughter (do we have a name? Is it the one Rlain invoked, perhaps?) is humming a human song. That’s intriguing.
    The spren reacts to the same tone as the stormlight, which isn’t surprising but is important. And the spren is too large to escape the gem the same way that light does.
    Wait, what? Releasing a flamespren from a split ruby results in two flamespren? That’s fascinating and strange. What’s going on there?
    Hm. Jezrien’s death was a complication to the anticipated capture. I had assumed that the herald capture/killing was at Odium’s orders, and that one outcome was as good as the other, but this sounds more like it’s a research project Raboniel is running, and she has plans for the souls she captures.
    Who is She Who Dreams, and what is her relationship to Raboniel? I’m very curious. 
    The dagger only captured half the spren? That’s important. Oh, and the two halves remained conjoined? And not only that, but active? This is huge. In the drawing from the notebook, the gem in the dagger was a ruby. Could the dagger have worked to capture the flamespren if a different gem had been affixed? What else would change with interchanging the gems? How would that conjoining be affected?
    Huh. And the movement is amplified (possibly by an integer multiple of three) from dagger to free ruby. Hmm. Navani posits it’s a size difference (mass or volume would give the same ratio, so hard to say which is important) that causes the force amplification.
    Where did Raboniel get sand from Taldain? Presumably by trade or seizure, but with Autonomy’s isolationist stance that sort of export is going to be exceptionally rare, even by the standards of offworld items. 
    That compliment is well earned, but feels premature after Navani only just resolved to try scholarship an hour ago. Even though we the readers have been expecting it for weeks of in-world time, Navani is facing it much more abruptly and won’t be able to accept it.
     
  8. ccstat
    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Navani’s Notebook Part III
    Art here.
    Okay, first thing to note, before I translate anything, is that this is almost certainly Shallan’s gemstone dagger from Mraize. And yet, this is Navani’s notebook. So how did it get delivered to Navani for study? Were the notes made during the course of this book (presumably in part V when the cast reunites)? Or Is this based on descriptions and sketches from Shallan, or possibly a different instance of that artifact type?
    Okay, transcription time:
    (Note: I made my comments as I deciphered the text line by line, so as you’ll see I frequently contradict my own speculation as I go.)
    Well, that answers that question. Apparently they are more common than I thought, and that is a very concerning discovery. Also, when did Navani see this in action and get close enough access to make this analysis?
    Where did Navani learn the word investiture? From Raboniel presumably? She hasn’t used it yet in the text, I think? Hard to remember for sure.
    Oh, well if she’s learning words like Raysium then she’s definitely getting a crash course in cosmere terminology. Also, is Raysium necessary as a component or could another godmetal work?
    Ah, the Raysium seems essential, and is a determining factor on the power of the blade, or at least its capacity to channel a soul of particular size/strength.
    Aaaaa! Line by line authorship changes. This is: 
    Horrifying for Navani’s ability to keep scientific integrity in her notes, with this degree of oversight.  Impressive that navani will express her doubts with this much candor. Confirmation that those stupid part 3 epigraphs were in fact a mix of authors penning the in-world Rhythm of War. No wonder it didn’t partition easily between Navani and Raboniel in tone or implied understanding. It was a conversation between the two, without attributions. And the temptation to split between text and undertext was a red herring, since they both wrote wherever they wanted.  Impressive again that Nazh would risk acquiring this document. Presumably Raboniel is possessive of her research materials. I’m not confident in that last word. Is “ho” a question mark, and Nazh added the other one to the end? Scanning down the the next question mark, it is preceded by the same “ho” so I’m going with that interpretation.
    That is optimistic, Navani, and I suspect at least partially written as an encouragement to Raboniel that you are working in her expressed interests as well as your own.
    You think so, do you? Bold claim, Raboniel. (eyeroll)
    Um, I don’t recognize that as an allomantic metal. Silver itself is allomantically inert, but I sort of recall it being included in some of the alloys, so I could be wrong. However, nickel is not a base allomantic metal either, so it seems unlikely that this would be a realmatically active metal from what we know. Then again, I don’t trust Raboniel to be telling the full truth here. (Or to be fully knowledgeable about fabrial science, which we know Navani is better at than she is.)
    Hm. I wouldn’t have thought split rubies from spanreeds to be the first experiment. Although it’s certainly probable that there were others performed before this.
    Reversible, huh? So it is also a soul injector, not just a stealer? I presume that Raysium functions as a diode in these sorts of circuits, then?
    Who are we going to be injecting souls into with this, and will they appreciate being stabbed? 
    This is probably the most realmatically dense notebook page since Way of Kings. The introduction of spren and fabrials probably trumps it since that was a bigger, more general reveal, but this one doesn’t have to teach us the alethi script and can just deliver information about fabrial science, about Navani and Raboniel’s research relationship, and about the authorship of Rhythm of War. 
    I am so glad that I take the time to appreciate the art pages, and that Brandon and company give us such rich material in the books. Navani’s pages are also done by Ben, right, in addition to Shallan’s? I don’t remember for sure. Massive kudos all around.
     
  9. ccstat

    Chapter 83

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 83 (The Games of Men and Singers)
    Icons: Vev for healing, Kelek for Willshaper shenanigans?
    Epigraph: It feels like a partial homage to Bilbo’s “butter scraped over too much bread” line, though it could just be coincidence with the similar underlying idea.
    The name of the tower being Ur came up back in chapter 49, but Venli confirms here that Ur has the same meaning as one would expect from Earth linguistics: “original.”
    Listeners have accelerated childhood and abbreviated adolescence compared to humans. Adulthood comes at age 10. That is bound to have some major impacts on culture and society.
    Hm. That’s interesting that the passions that appear to be missing from Odium’s “God of Passion” schtick are love and caring–the emotions most associated with passion in (modern Western) English culture. I’m not sure if Venli is correct in the general sense, but it certainly seems to have been the case for her experience.
    The ancient singers didn’t just reject the Fused, they rejected the Fused’s war, the conflict. That is an important clarification, Venli. Well considered.
    Venli, by searching for Cultivation’s tone, is able to instantly mix and harmonize Odium and Cultivation together, drawing on both or the combination of them. Is that helped by the fact that she has Timbre and a voidspren in her gemheart already? Or because she is in the tower where the Sibling has already been attuned to a mixture of Tower light and Voidlight?  This was much faster, more instinctive, and more natural than the duet that Navani and Raboniel managed together. How important is that difference?
    I’m not sure that leaving a diorama of the “traitorous” listeners out to be discovered is the best move, Venli. You might want to clean that up.
    I wonder if Venli’s obvious spying on behalf of Leshwi is what has allowed her to hide her status as Radiant. Raboniel hasn’t internalized the idea of “always another secret,” so any of the things she might notice get written off as plotting by another Fused rather than the effect of growing Radiance.
    I don’t remember which one nightform is. A quick search shows I haven’t made a note of it in my liveblog yet, so it is possible this is the first mention of them by that name. If the Ars Arcana doesn’t have a list of Regal forms this time, I’ll have to do a dive through the coppermind.
    Leshwi has a deep respect for Raboniel’s plotting and says her goals are inscrutable to her, much less to mere mortals. I’m not encouraged about knowing which way she’ll push things.
    Let me expand my earlier statement. I’m not encouraged about anything to do with the Lady of Wishes. Odium at least seems to want the world to still exist when he’s done with things.
    Lirin is really struggling here with his principles. Claiming that Kaladin doesn’t want to be his son any longer is a poor interpretation of their disagreement, and a big stretch from what Kal said, but I can see how Lirin would think that’s what was meant. This argument with Rlain is rough.
    Go Hesina! That’s right, Kal’s mom is awesome, and her position isn’t in direct support of either side in the Kaladin–Lirin debates, so she can help her son without being conflicted.
    Oh, that’s exciting! I definitely didn’t see where Timbre was going with things, but a daring rescue of Lift sounds like an excellent swerve from this morose defeatism. Yay Timbre!
    How do Venli’s powers help get through the aluminum shielding? Is Lift not inside the ralkalest box any more?
    It’s interesting the different reaction that spren have to lies. Venli here hiding her Radiant status, the type of blade she has, her role in summoning the Everstorm, everything else, doesn’t seem to phase Timbre at all. Dalinar had so much angst about coming clean to those around him, Kaladin can’t lie to himself or anyone else without hurting his honor. Contrast with Cryptics who are attracted to deception of all types. I guess I wasn’t expecting to find a spren that simply didn’t care either way.
    Hm. The expression of surges is different for Venli’s Willshaping versus the Deepest Ones. They merge with the stone, while Venli displaces it. I think they’re still using the same surge, but I’m not certain. I may need to make another chart.
    I wonder what Wyndle was telling Lift during this conversation. I’d like to get his take on things.
    Lift seems to buy the “not a Radiant” line, but it’s hard to tell.
    She’s still looking for the chicken. Love it. Also, new favorite word is “buttress.” Prison is good for pondering the important things in life.
    I wonder if the further corruption of the tower has caused further suppression of Lift’s abilities, or if she remains largely immune due to her special circumstances.
     
  10. ccstat

    Chapter 82

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 82 (Knife)
    Icons: Back to two heralds, following the usual pattern. Kalak and Nale. Hmm.
    Epigraph: Why was the previous one so long, and the rest of these relatively short? This one would be impactful if we hadn’t already had the 7000 year figure floated twice in the story recently.
    Yes, irony and all that, but the important information here is that Gavilar was a member of the Sons of Honor, not just their inspiration. The organization (and its name, presumably) predates his death. I had previously been under the impression that the Sons of Honor and the Diagrammists arose from Gavilar’s influence but not following directly in his path. While that may be true if he was keeping all these ridiculous secrets from everybody, it’s now seeming likely that the Sons were just continuing the work he’d already explicitly started them on.
    “First, open the cube.” This is not a good instruction to follow, Veil. This is obviously a specific countermeasure prepared against you. Best guess: a piece of jewelry that belonged to her mother, or a memento of Helaran. You do not need to be emotionally devastated right now.
    Oh, I was wrong. It was the gemstone knife to trap heralds in. I guess my paranoia about Mraize (and Iyatil! Don’t forget Iyatil!) may be a little oversensitive.
    Thaidakar has an “affliction similar to that of the Heralds.” Is that talking about their growing insanity from acting counter to the Intent of their nature under the oathpact? Is it talking about the oathpact that dragged them off to Braize and back to Roshar? Something else entirely? The vagueness is expected, but unhelpful.
    Hm. Kelek, whose primary virtue is Resolute, is manifesting insanity in the form of crippling indecision. This makes a lot of sense. It also explains why he would be easily manipulable compared to other heralds, but not really why it wasn’t worth attempting to capture the others in this way. In addition, it suggests that Adolin’s trial may not go the way anyone expects.
    It’s pretty clear to the reader that Mraize is leaving things out of his explanation and framing it in a pretty twisted angle, but going by what Shallan knows of the situation he’s being remarkably convincing. I hope She, Veil, and Radiant (and maybe Formless?) can see around his obfuscations.
    Becoming a Ghostblood is attractive because…it will bring her closer to reliving her lost memories? Because she’s always wanted a tattoo? What’s the end goal, Shallan?
    Ah, did I understand that correctly? Did Mraize just intimate that he’s aware of Formless and that he thinks she should give over control to that part of herself? Or was he talking about Veil?
    ***
    Bondsmiths must have pretty awesome potential, given how Kelek recoils from Adolin by the mere association with Dalinar.
    Kinda defeatist there, aren’t you. “Only thing to do is find a way off the sinking ship.” “Honor is dead. The world belongs to Odium now.” Not the attitude one would hope for from their divine protectors.
    Kelek seems to enjoy contradicting people. This trial might partially hinge on trying to get the opposite party to request something that Kelek can overturn with great pettiness. I’m hoping for a Kafka-style scene at least once in this Trial. 
    As fun as that sort of resolution would be, the winning move is still going to be Maya appearing to overturn expectations. I’m looking forward to that, while also being concerned about how Shallan’s knife is going to poke things in the background.
  11. ccstat

    Chapter 81

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 81 (Trapped)
    Hm. I’m not sure I get Eshonai’s mentality yet. Why would she need to reassure herself that warform wasn’t a prison? Where are we in the timeline? It’s a good opening, but I need some context.
    I didn’t realize that Rlain was part of Eshonai’s warform circle. Did I just miss it before when he was mentioned, or is this his first appearance in the flashbacks? He and Eshonai share a wariness about warform, but the way they experience it appears to be different.
    That’s absolutely valid from the emotion side of things, but I think this is the first time anyone has been described as attuning two different rhythms at once. In light of Navani’s hybrid tone experiments to produce harmonics from the rhythms, this feels significant.
     
    Also, as an aside, I like that depiction of the ocean as a network of streams. That’s something that could show up in a Wit story and be perfectly at home.
    I appreciate that Eshonai retains her interest in exploration and mapping even through the various forms she takes. That would be a fascinating (if nervewracking) way to discover your personality, by seeing what wasn’t lost as you transitioned into new phases and mentalities of life at regular intervals.
    I’m looking for Willshaper ideals in Eshonai’s speech, but it doesn’t feel like much of note. Yes, she invokes freedom, but it’s more to do with the listeners’ circumstance than with her evident desire to not be trapped on the Plains. 
    ***
    The respect is understandable, after getting out of the confrontation with Nale, but the never “abandoning” her sounds more like he’s been babysitting to make sure she doesn’t have a chance to think clearly.
    I hadn’t really thought about Venli’s scholars all being her inner circle in working for the Return. I was imagining it just being her and Demid. Did she pick five because she was mirroring the council of five that leads her people, or was it just the number of voidspren she had available?
    The hubris of claiming that they would come out on top over the spren who have been manipulating everything is sad, but the part of this that really stings is the way she blames Eshonai for starting the war. 
  12. ccstat

    Chapter 80

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 80 (The Dog and the Dragon)
    Title: You mean an axehound? What are you talking about, Wit? Stop making up animals.
    Icons: As expected, Jester/Fool matches the title. Not sure why Jezrien is there.
    Epigraph: Yes, Jezrien was trapped in a gemstone. I like that Kalak is critical of the singer’s cleverness in taking 7000 years to figure that out.
    Kal feeling like the wind hates him because of power suppression is unexpected but totally makes sense as something that would feed into his depressive state.
    Are these hateful flashes of light the Sibling? Is it that far gone to voidlight already? Or am I jumping to conclusions? 
    Wait, is this just a normal nightmare, not a power-influenced vision? The leaving Syl behind thing is so counter to his previous chapter that I can’t see where it would come from besides his own internal fear.
    Oh, hold up. This description sounds like Braize. How did he get to Braize? That would explain the pervasive Hate that’s everywhere, though. And it would explain why Syl is too far away. I worry about what effect this is actually having on Syl in the waking world. Obviously the bond is still intact, but the distance will have strained it heavily.
    If this is what happens to the Heralds, I can see how they wouldn’t last long. Notably, Kaladin is seeing visions of people he can’t protect. Those quotes about torture in Damnation where the heralds remember knives and the scent of burning flesh…there’s nothing that I recall specifying the torture was of them individually rather than, for example, being forced to watch a town of people be massacred while they stood by powerless. That’s not to say that physical torture of the heralds didn’t also happen (Kal certainly isn’t having a good time), but it definitely casts a new light on some of those passages. I’ll need to go back and read those with new eyes.
    Which tone is he hearing? Best guess is Honor’s but I’m not sure. The title and icons indicate this is a Wit chapter, so the light could well be Wit coming to the rescue, and he has access to all sorts of light. Could be any number of shard flavors. 
    Yes, it is Wit rescuing him, though there’s no indication yet of the variety of light he’s using. Also, this is really not how one keeps a low profile from Odium. Nor is hanging out with Jasnah for a year and a half, now that I think of it. What’s going on there? Is he still trying to obfuscate his presence from the local shards?
    Hm. A vision akin to Dalinar’s but from Odium…and Wit doesn’t know how Odium found Kal.
    Aww, I miss Rock.
    Wit is being remarkably silent compared to his usual sort of intervention.
    Ah, and Kal asked for a story, totally making Wit’s year I bet. Very sweet. Let’s see what the offering is. I doubt it will live up to “The Girl Who Looked Up,” but that’s a supremely high bar. 
    Wit’s Cryptic excitedly waving at Kal is cute. I need more screentime for this energetic bundle of patterns who is undoubtedly loving the many, many flavors of lies it gets to find by hanging out with Wit.
    And she tells puns. “I’m irrational” indeed. 
    Yep, Kal gets an explanation of what a dog is. I hadn’t realized that dragon was also a word he wouldn’t know. I’d have assumed that it would translate into greatshell or something when Wit said it, since giant mythical monster is kind of a staple, but no. Yolen exists, and dragons are a specific thing that can be referenced in the cosmere, so Kal will need an explanation of that as well.
    Huh. Axehounds are the result of domestication, not a natural outgrowth of the ecology of Roshar. Obviously the species existed first, but the form it’s in now is the dog version, rather than the wolf version. I would be interested to know more about convergent examples of domestication.
    Hmm. I enjoy the description of a dragon through the eyes of someone familiar with Rosharan fauna. “Only four legs” and “small pieces of shell” are fun reactions. It does confirm for the first time the appearance of cosmere dragons: four legged, winged, large. European ideal, one might say.
    What!?! There’s a dragon on Roshar? Is it cultivation’s vessel, or is it someone else? Can we meet her?
    Oh, the cryptic’s name is Design. That’s got a very different connotation than Pattern, despite the many synonymous meanings. I wonder how important that is.Design’s approach to spoilers is endearing. The proof was valid. I hope she shows up in Wit’s future cameos. Can you imagine how that would have gone if he’d already bonded her before this? 

     
    Wit is getting far too much mileage out of having a compliant audience. I bet he wants to say that to people almost as often as they want to say it to him.
    How can someone look assiduous? That’s a weird description for the illusion of a farmer’s child. That word is supposed to describe character and actions, not appearance.
    Also, Design is great.
     

    Oh, so Wit is still escaping notice and is open to being attacked if that fails. Actually, the specific wording is important here:
     
    Was it Wit’s interference with Kaladin, the act of creating the bubble, that violated the agreement, or is it his interference on Roshar in general? Given Wit’s comment about the vision “not playing fair” at the beginning, presumably his justification for stepping in, I’m left to assume that the agreement was about taking direct action against Rayse, and his activities with Jasnah wouldn’t qualify. Hard to say for sure, though.
    Hoid’s true power: annoying the protagonist until they get motivated to Do Something About It.
    Final verdict: a decent story, but fun mostly for the contrast to Roshar’s animals. Nowhere near as awesome as Girl Who Looked Up, but it does feature Design in the storytelling, which is a great redeeming quality.
  13. ccstat

    Chapter 79

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 79 (Open Wound)
    Bridge Four chapter. Not Teft yet, I’m guessing. Probably the group out on campaign.
    Epigraph: Now we get an actual substantive excerpt to play with, since we’ve been introduced to Restares who is now confirmed as the author of these epigraphs. Seems a little abrupt to give up the illusion so suddenly. I would have put the Jezrien mention in the previous chapter, perhaps. Regardless, this is notable:
    How long was Jez trapped in that knife before he actually died? Was he intended to die or would Odium have preferred him to persist? What does that mean for the immortality of the remaining heralds?
     
    Oh, it’s Rlain, at least to start with. Not sure if he’ll get the whole chapter. I shouldn’t have been surprised at his inclusion, but I’d already mentally slotted him into “candidate for corrupted Sibling Bondsmith” rather than Windrunner which overshadowed his membership in Bridge Four. I feel bad for having treated him as separate just like all the prejudiced characters in the book.
    The combined ostracization from humans and his own people is difficult and very obviously something that people deal with on Earth when they begin to bridge between outgroups. Being the bridge is hard. Being seen only as a stereotype and not as a person is at least as hard.
    At least the ventilation for the tower is working now via Voidlight. It’s a pretty necessary part of living in a cavernous warren system and of living at high elevation. 
    Looks like the water and heat are still nonfunctional, though. Not ideal for preserving the city.
    I feel oblivious for never realizing that Shen was a derivation of Parshendi. I just thought it was a regular name. I can totally see why he would consider that offensive. However, we also know that Parshendi translated to “Parshmen that can think” so does Shen by itself mean thought or intelligence or thoughtful? That wouldn’t be too bad a connotation. To use his “name the child Human” analogy, maybe it would be closer to turning  Homo sapiens into Sap or something. (While I’m on the topic, though, I can’t help but think of the Koloss named Human from Era 1 Scadrial.)
    Is that cremling actually bonded to a voidspren through its gemheart, or is that Venli’s mistaken supposition? I’m inclined to suspect Sleepless whenever we see suspicious cremlings, but if possession by voidspren is also a concern, this is going to make spy identification very tricky.
    Did we know the Pursuer’s name before? I don’t recognize Lezian, but it’s been a while since I read the chapter where he was introduced. I could easily have forgotten it.
    Interesting that Raboniel countermanded the Pursuer’s order about disallowing the shash glyph tribute. Not sure if she’s aiming to keep the humans docile by allowing them to keep the symbol of hope, or to let malcontents self-identify.
    Lirin’s mixed opinion about Kaladin is really interesting in how it bleeds over, or doesn’t, into relationships with Rlain and others. And Hesina’s support of Kal despite that tension is endearing.
    A camp on the edge of the Shattered Plains, its occupants still unidentified? Is this the lost legion? Did someone actually survive? Don’t give me this hope after I started to accept that they might be gone after all, when they hadn’t appeared for more than a year.
    Wow. Dabbid is talking still, after first opening up to Kaladin, and he’s doing it in full sentences! He’s way more articulate than I’d expect from someone who’d been mute for nigh on two years. Very touching that helping save Kaladin is how he eventually overcame that hurdle.
     
  14. ccstat

    Chapter 78

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 78 (The High Judge)
    Epigraph: At least we know the mysterious person is writing, now. A letter or a journal, or something physical that they are recording themselves.
    Icons: This may be the first instance in four books so far of a chapter headed by 3 different icons rather than 1, 2, or 4. To my knowledge, if one of the icons was mirrored, the other always would be as well. Nale (judgement/justice) on one side faces off with Kalak (Resolute) on the other, with an instance of Battar (wisdom) accompanying each. Remarkably appropriate for a trial if that’s what’s happening now, but striking that this chapter would be the one that deviates from the previously established pattern.
    Oh. That actually makes a ton of sense. The wrongness about the other cryptic was that it was a deadeye. Just gonna say that the prior description was totally not clear on that point. Without this clarification I wouldn’t have clued in for quite a while. 
    So (if I’m not totally misinterpreting) Shallan did in fact kill her first bonded spren, but she was good enough at lying that the cryptics doubled down and tried again with the same person. No wonder Pattern expected her to kill him, he had a much more recent precedent to look at than just the Recreance. 
    If that’s true there are still questions, among which one of the most insistent at the moment is what did Veil know about this that Radiant did not? Also, why would Radiant be the one most likely to slip out if she thinks about the deadeye cryptic?
    Pattern got a copy to the trunk’s key from Wit? What the heck? How was this a good plan, and what else was riding on it?
    Oh, Wit has a second Radio that Pattern can tune in to communicate. Not sure why he was contacting Mraize with it at the same time, though. Presumably that will come out soon since we’re in “clear the air” mode.
    Oh, I see. The sleepless that was spying on Wit overheard Pattern’s heart to heart about what’s going on with Shallan. This has several important consequences. First and foremost, Mraize is fully informed not only about events in Shadesmar but also about Shallan’s fragile mental state. This is, shall we say, not ideal.
    Second, it shows just how capable the Ghostbloods are to be able to work around Wit, obviously knowing who he is, and apply the knowledge they gain there.
    Your trust kills, Shallan says Formless (but not formless, b/c Shallan knows exactly who it is). 
    This feels like it should be a big clue to what happened with her mother, but the more I think about it the less specific it feels. There is a lot of ambiguity still tucked away in these words and it’s not really helpful in narrowing down what happened. At the same time, it definitely illuminates her mentality, so it’s doing the important job in the story.
    Oh, I totally forgot about Ialai’s death being unsolved. Hm. Lots of possibilities, none of which incriminate Pattern, but it’s a good point that this doesn’t end the mysteries.
    The phone call took a long time to connect, and she’s calling at a time she didn’t plan to. It’s unexpected, and Mraize is otherwise occupied?
    Azure left Lasting Integrity 5 months ago, so presumably she arrived with the other Nalthians…oh wait, no. There was a year time skip between books. So she came to visit her friends, then left again? When did the tower’s xenophobic policy get instated? Because she shouldn’t have been able to enter after having gone to Alethkar etc.
    The other honorblades have apparently left Shinovar, and significantly have escaped the Ghostblood’s tracking. I’m guessing this means that Szeth’s family are out and about, ready to meet our protagonists at the drop of a hat.
    Oh, aside from all that, I wonder what “in the wind” means as a Rosharan expression? I was going to say that the bearers of the honorblades were in the wind (i.e. location unknown, can’t be accounted for) but I’m sure that idiom would not translate directly.
    I like this reframing of Shallan’s detective mission. 
    ***
    Not sure who the high judge could be if it’s not an honorspren. We know they don’t get along with the highspren, so the obvious choice for a judge is out the window. Would it be a unique spren ala Cusicesh? That doesn’t jive with the wording that they are rare (implying more than one).
    I love that this is a valid way of giving directions.
    Honorspren like owning books but don’t much care to read them. Appropriate to their name, inkspren are much more in line with scholarship. 
    Of course Adolin’s mental reference for oil sheen is “the colors on a freshly oiled sword.” Why would I expect anything else? Also, Blended is a cool name for a spren.
    I love it. I hope Adolin is taking notes for the next time he interacts with the bridgeboy.
    Oh, it’s even better: that’s the words of the official diplomat to the honorspren. Got to admire the tact.
    Blended would kill anyone trying to bond with her. That’s slightly surprising. I assumed a bond couldn’t begin without the spren’s willing volition. Also, I wouldn’t have thought a spren fully in the cognitive realm would have the ability to kill a human. I want to know more about Blended’s contingencies.
    I’m glad that Blended is taking her duties as counsel/attorney seriously despite her antipathy toward Adolin and her thoughts on the merits of his case. She’s doing a good job and giving sound advice.
    I think it’s overstating things to say that Adolin’s swordsmanship is obsolete in the face of Radiants. Yes, the individuals that turn a battle are now fighting at a much higher level, but we saw with Jasnah in the Emul campaign that the army is still entirely necessary. Adolin may no longer be the pinnacle of achievement, but he is still very useful and has an important role to play even if he confined himself to martial prowess. Not that I’d expect the son of the Blackthorn to see anything less than supremacy as acceptable or worthwhile. Hopefully his wife can help him with that. Oh, wait. Nope, she’s indisposed. Sorry Adolin. You’ll have to discover your self worth on your own.
    Oh, Blended makes a good point. Spren are inherently a tautology. Honorspren are honorable, so whatever they do is necessarily in accordance with their honor. You cannot catch them in a contradiction because the fact that it is them making the decision means they are in the right. Without a god or the weight of human civilization behind you, you cannot enforce a version of their ideal upon them no matter how objective/subjective. That puts him in a difficult position.
    It’s looking like Maya is going to be a central feature of his defense, even though he’s not planning on that. I can’t decide if this is actual foreshadowing or intentional red herrings, though.
    Hm. The geometry of Lasting Integrity is not an active effect, but rather a passive consequence of the honorspren’s longterm presence. Is this specific alteration (i.e. gravity malleability) limited to honorspren? Would a different type of spren congregating produce a different alteration? Or could the tower have chosen something else?
    The High Judge is human? That’s unexpected. If it’s Restares then things have just become ridiculously entangled.
    ***
    Ah, yup. Veil ID’d Restares as the judge. This is going to be awesome.
    It’s Kalak. The one who comes across as bumbling in the prologue. Why the heck is he supporting the Sons of Honor? Is it his herald madness or something else? Is he actually supporting them? His name has been invoked in a number of places, but we really know nothing about him. 
    More to the point, why does Mraize want to kill him specifically? Out of the heralds that he could target, what makes Kalak a threat to the Ghostbloods or their plans? As the patron of the Willshapers, he… I don’t know. Not really much to go on yet.
    It does make sense why Mraize didn’t think Restares would bond a spren.
    Why the chapter icons, though? Wouldn't Kalak have featured more prominently than one of three in the chapter he appears? Why was Battar the one who was doubled?
  15. ccstat
    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    (Do I even need to be warning about spoilers any more? It's taken me a much longer time to get through this liveblog than I expected, and it's now well past a year post publication. IIRC, though, the big stormlight books have an 18 month spoiler period here on 17S, so I guess I'm still within that cautionary period. 
    Shallan’s Sketchbook Part VIII (Inkspren)
    Art here.
    These inkspren are much more angular than I imagined. The “oil sheen” description for their coloration had me mistakenly thinking that they were goopily malleable in form like animated oil. It looks like that is fairly opposite the truth, where their forms are firm and essentially armored all over. 
    In the physical realm they apparently can’t even change shape at all, despite being able to adjust their size. I wonder if that inability it change has anything to do with their positioning in the chart of radiant orders, or if there’s anything to be gained by comparisons to the adjacent cryptics (ever changing but always within a set bound of certain rules) or the cultivationspren at a further remove (constant change that creates emergent features of similarity) and the honorspren on the opposite side (malleable in every way). It could be instructive to arrange Shallan’s art into the double eye configuration and see if any associations emerge.
    Also, I have to laugh at the weapon thing. Their giant swords float on their backs without anything to hold them on. Brandon found a way to be even more anime/video game in his Rosharan weapons. I remind you that this world started in part based on the idea of “how could you justify swords that are actually as ridiculous as you find in some fantasy art?” Good job, Inkspren. You are fulfilling your purpose.
     
  16. ccstat

    Chapter 77

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 77 (The Proper Legality)
    Icons: With a title like that, what would you expect besides double Nale?
    Woah, we’re already at the feast? I was expecting some other visits to show up in the flashbacks before we got all the way to the fateful night. I guess it’s time to see how involved Venli was and where Szeth’s employment actually came from.
    Interesting that they’ve noted several times that the timekeeping rhythm is Rhythm of Peace, which is also the one here that Venli attunes to calm herself. It’s prominent enough that I’m wondering about deliberate juxtaposition with the Rhythm of War.
    That is a different way of saying “she was lucky” than I anticipated, and I wonder how manipulable Fortune is in this system (compared to Feruchemy, for example). So far the rhythms have almost entirely been limited to emotional states, rather than other concepts, and something as abstract as fortune isn’t something I was expecting to encounter this way.
    And that says about everything we need to know about Venli’s current character development.
    Why does Ulim adopt a human rather than listener form? Is it because Odium was originally a god of the immigrant humans? Or is it the type of spren he is? It’s been a long time (7000 years apparently) since Odium involved himself with the listeners.
    Axindweth was discovered–by whom? The heralds? The Ghostbloods? Someone else?
    Wait, who’s the other feruchemist? Are they still with the Sons of Honor during the current events of Rhythm of War? Who are they an agent for, and how did they detect Axindweth? (Are they a named character from Era 2 Scadrial?)
    I am enjoying this cross-cosmere interaction, but as much as I love puzzling things out and looking for connections, I’m concerned about how it will appear to people who are only familiar with Stormlight or who are casual fans of the cosmere and don’t keep track of everything. Presumably Brandon has betas who fall into those categories, so I trust that feedback is occurring. Still, this is rapidly reaching the point where other series start to feel like prerequisites to reading, and I am not sure that’s a good thing.
    “We have no plans” says Ulim, and his anger makes me believe him. So the assassination was orchestrated by a different party, counter to my expectations.
    Venli’s stuck in time out for the feast? Current guess is she gets released right before Szeth makes his move.
    Ulim didn’t even expect the heralds. This is looking more like a big trainwreck rather than a mastermind’s plan.
    Nale followed Ulim back to Venli, is trying to take custody of her, and is speaking to Ulim out of recognition. This is definitely not the encounter Venli is prepared for, but I’m hopeful that we’ll get information dropped about the heralds’ perspective.
    Huh. Rockbud shells are apparently the same color as Nale’s skin tone. I had imagined them more reddish in hue.
    Sad day that the Herald’s are so obviously insane that Venli considers voidspren the more trustworthy option, even knowing how she’s been manipulated.
    Oh dear. How much of this is a misunderstanding on Nale’s part, and how much is he discovering? Was Gavilar actually seeking a weapon against Odium, only for the Sons of Honor to turn toward beckoning the desolation after his death? Or did that idiocy start with him? What was he promising the heralds? At any rate, it sure looks like Nale is going to be responsible for Szeth’s availability.
    Why is Nale tracking Jezrien’s honorblade, but not the others? Is it simply because Szeth’s truthless nature makes his situation unique in some way? Or is Nale already scouting Szeth for the Skybreakers? Or is there something else going on?
    Also, I’m not buying the “reasons that are unimportant to you” deflection for not touching the honorblades. Sorry Nale, it’s just not convincing.
    Storms, that’s a disturbing act of legality, on all sides. I don’t think “Fortunately” has any business introducing that explanation.
    Ulim has the same reaction I do: “That was…Wow.”
    Venli “hesitated to let him in.” I didn’t realize she had a choice in the matter of letting him back into her gemheart. That’s a crucial ability right there, and even if she’s compromised now it creates an opportunity. 
    At least Venli is concerned about the coming casualties, on both sides even. This despite having Ulim warp her thinking directly. She’s far gone, but not lost (as we clearly know since these are flashbacks, but at least it’s selling that state through the narration in context).
  17. ccstat

    Chapter 76

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 76 (Harmony)
    Title: It’s tempting to guess at a Scadrial connection, but that is supremely unlikely. If we’re lucky it will be an idea about harmonious blending of the various lights; otherwise it’s about “getting along” with Raboniel.
    Epigraph: Still no indication of the medium or audience. The speaker is still a cosmere-aware individual who considers themself a has-been. Restares is still a possibility, Ishar much less so in my mind. This person is way too humble compared to the letter he sent Dalinar’s coalition of monarchs during Oathbringer.
    Is this just a hypothetical or does Raboniel actually keep journals that Navani might have read if their positions were reversed? If so, does that help identify the Rhythm of War author? I don’t think so–those excerpts were too contradictory for me to get a grasp on, but it’s possible.
    Okay, first, Raboniel’s grandmother was present for the arrival of Humans from Ashyn significantly compresses the timeline that I was working with in my mind. The first desolation, or the seeds of it, had to have happened very quickly. Are most of the Fused from that same early generation? 
    Second, the idea that those early humans were so severely and ubiquitously burned that the scars were mistaken for skin patterning analogous to listener traits really gets across the degree of devastation that they escaped.
    Confirmed (rough) timeline from Raboniel says 7000 years since humans arrived on Roshar. That’s a good confirmation to have.
    Raboniel’s manipulations are transparent yet effective. She’s good at getting the response she wants, and I’m rather impressed that with her reputation she hasn’t resorted to more painful methods yet.
    Watching Navani and Raboniel do science together as enemies is the best mix of tension and magical discovery. 
    Odium’s rhythm is:
    That’s not ominous at all. It’s basically the standard description of Eldritch evil that corrupts as you comprehend it. It does not bear good omens for those close to the source.
    If it’s really a matter of attuning different rhythms then humans will definitely not be the ones with the advantage in manipulating light.
    I’m curious how musical notation works in the women’s script, or in the listener’s tongue. Presumably the rhythms wouldn’t be represented in either, since listeners would have no need beyond naming them, and humans wouldn’t have a need or desire to do so. That means any system Navani devises here will be a de novo method, deriving from her scientific pursuits primarily while possibly drawing on musical tradition. If the description is cool enough, I’ll hope to see it show up in one of the notebook pages.
    Oh, she’s not trying to note down the rhythms or tones, she trying to give herself physical contact to filled gems to enhance her ability to sense their pulsing.
    It worked, and the hand holding moment where they achieved harmony would be triumphant if it weren’t so patently obvious that it will end in tears. 
    So the Rhythm of War is the tone and rhythm produced by combined Odium/Honor investiture. I would assume that this was Rayse’s plan and goal all along if we didn’t already have Word of Brandon that he doesn’t want to dilute his essence or change his personality. So as bad as Warlight (or whatever we decide to call it) appears to be, it’s not something that Odium is actually trying to accomplish on a large scale. 
    With this confirmation, though, it seems that the in-world Rhythm of War from which the part 3 epigraphs were drawn is definitely a new document, comprising research notes that Navani and/or Raboniel compile about the current set of experiments. I still don’t have a handle on the authorship and the undertext, though. It’s really a confusing mess, still.
    Raboniel is seeking the method of killing a Shard? That’s very, very concerning. But also could be useful. She states that she doesn’t know how Honor was killed, and I am left to wonder if she is speaking of the vessel’s death or the shattering that followed. Does she even distinguish between the two? 
    Sorry, Navani. I don’t believe that Gavilar knew what he was doing with that “Anti-Light.” He bought into the Sons of Honor thing way too thoroughly for me to give him that much credit. Although, it would explain why the heralds were giving him any of their time and attention, much less all of them that showed up that night. Hm. I suppose it’s possible, though I remain doubtful.
    -another variation to add to the swears list. 
    Well, i’m a little shocked that Raboniel is just calling this the end and telling Navani her promise of withdrawal was a lie. I thought she’d string Navani along for a while yet, or set her another task. Why would she simply abandon a line of inquiry when it doesn’t immediately yield the superweapon she anticipated? It’s a new area of discovery, and she has to know from her long, long experience of research that there is more to discover and exploit. Even if she’s not going to be involved personally, she ought to be giving direction to Navani’s further research. Just letting the woman do her own thing is not the smart path forward, even if she does set spies to steal anything Navani discovers.
     
  18. ccstat

    Chapter 75

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 75 (The Middle Step)
    Title: I don’t remember if we had a “first step” chapter with Shallan/Adolin before in this book. It’s probably worth going back to look, but I won’t right now.
    Epigraph: This could still be a letter, but I’m starting to think it might be something that will be said by one of the people we’re trying to meet: Either Ishar speaking to Dalinar, or Restares speaking to Shallan
    A “crystalline” day in Shadesmar. That sounds tautological to me.
    Oh, a timeskip forward by several weeks. That’s slightly unexpected, but I guess we have to synchronize events with the invasion of Emul and the occupation of the Tower if we want to get the Sanderlanche timing right.
    Oh. Crystalline is a name for the weather, so it’s actually a valid adjective to use here.
    Hey, neat. Lasting Integrity is a literal Escher drawing, which you can apparently do in the cognitive realm. This makes me suddenly super eager for the Silverlight novel/novella or whatever we end up getting about it. I just read Naomi Novik’s scholomance books (which are fabulous by the way, highly recommended) and I’m in the mood for more physics-defying magic school. I have an inkling that the university of investiture studies is a good candidate for filling that desire.
    What causes the waves (and tides?) in the bead sea of shadesmar? Is there some gravitational force? Do the highstorms propel them? Is it simple cognitive resonance to the way a sea ought to behave? Or are there giant creatures churning the depths and sending ripples out through the undulating mass? Some of those possible answers are more disconcerting than others.
    Adolin can observe the rhythms (at least one rhythm) in how the lifespren react as a collective, but why would that be regionally specific to this part of Shadesmar?
    Hm. So only Godeke, Felt, and Malli are waiting around for Adolin. The rest took off to tell Dalinar what’s going on. (This seems like something else that the Stormfather ought to be aware of, being the patron/parent of the highspren, but I guess instant communication needs to have lots of limits.)
    Woah. Deadeyes are flocking to Maya. I did not anticipate that at all. It’s a huge development, and I can’t imagine the payoff will fully come in this book, but if Maya’s progress culminates here like I expect, I can see this as a set up for the knock-on effects to become a big part of the Book 5 climax.
    I checked the art page on highspren to see if Vaiu is depicted, and it looks like he’s not. I wonder if any of those spren match to individuals that will be described?
    Oh, I guess that’s a viable theory as well: The deadeyes are gathering to the trial about the Recreance, and the culpability of modern humans in that event. It’s more straightforward than my theory about Maya, and makes more realmatic sense, but I don’t like it as much.
    Yay! Back to Veil! I’ve been missing these girls. 
    Oh dear. Formless is coming into being in response to Pattern’s perceived betrayal. I’d say we should hope for a quick resolution to that relationship issue, but I’m not so naive to expect anything of the sort.
    Hm. Shallan’s not in a mental position to draw Lasting Integrity, which is why we don’t get any pictures. I’ll accept that reasoning. I know we won’t see any, at least in this book, but I kinda want to get Veil’s drawing of the place as a consolation prize. 
    Huh. I’m as surprised as Radiant about the non-honorspren residents of Lasting Integrity. I guess it’s honorable to grandfather in people who lived there under the prior policy.
    Yeah, Restares’ mission and the goal of the Sons of Honor sounds really stupid when you say it like that, and it feels very odd that he would be in hiding in Lasting Integrity if that was actually how it went down from his perspective. I’m hoping for some nuance and explanation when we do eventually catch up with him. 
    Nalthian traders hanging out in Lasting Integrity. Why are they still there? What’s the point of staying? Radiant learns that’s where Azure is from, but how? Did they know her by name, description, or personally? I want to know more!
    A clan of horneaters living in Shadesmar makes lots of sense, though it’s not clear why they don’t have communication with the physical realm clans. The family here in Lasting Integrity seem unlikely to be significant in the plot.
    She’s still reporting to Mraize? Makes sense, though I’m surprised that she can do so undetected and unobserved. That radio must be quite the thing.
    Restares is calling himself “Sixteen.” Yeah, his ambitions are way larger than anything as provincial as Roshar. Desolation Smesolation. We’re talking cosmere-wide plans undoubtedly. But, if the epigraphs are in fact from Restares, I’m guessing his actions have created consequences beyond his anticipation or reach.
    Nice to see Veil’s drawing trick still works sometimes to get Shallan to surface.
    Statues of spren that became deadeyes isn’t odd at all, when you think about it. I’m not sure if Veil just doesn’t get memorialization or artwork in general, or if there’s something she sees about it that I’m missing.
    Veil remembers things about Shallan’s life that Radiant doesn’t? That’s a new twist. I didn’t expect the partition to be so complicated.
    Huh. Was Pattern not the same spren that Shallan originally bonded? I know it’s an out-there theory, but it would be a fascinating thing to need to puzzle out. I doubt it’s the case, but it’s worth adding to the stack of possibilities.
    Oh storms. This is not good. Radiant confronted Pattern about the lying (I mean, he’s a cryptic–of course he lied) but the danger of that confrontation was from the effect it had on Shallan not from the change in the relationship with Pattern. What are you trying to accomplish here, Pattern, and who have you brought?
    Is this really just another cryptic? Is the head being “twisted and wrong” a description of weird fractal patterns, or is it an indication of Sja-Anat’s touch? Or something else? No matter who it is, how did they get into Lasting Integrity? Were they here all along waiting? That seems supremely unlikely.
    Oh dear. Radiant and Veil both got depowered and imprisoned by Shallan. That is not going to help keep Formless at bay.
    Hm. Shallan is easily duped, I guess. That was absolutely the sort of offworld person that is important to pay attention to. I’m not convinced he wasn’t Restares, but even if he’s not you can’t dismiss him. He’s definitely Significant. 
    Shallan is making bad decisions left and right. Not surprising, but definitely sad. “Yes, let’s just ignore whatever Pattern did, pretend it didn’t happen except for how we don’t trust him any more. Then, let’s keep him close and go contact Mraize while we’re emotionally unbalanced. Nothing could go wrong.”
     
  19. ccstat
    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Shallan’s Sketchbook Part VII (Peakspren)
    Art here.
    Peakspren have clear ties to the Unkalaki (as expected). It’s interesting that their appearance draws from the full range of stone textures and colors. I wouldn’t have expected that degree of variety. I wonder how much it varies within single individuals, as opposed to across the population. I.e. does a single peakspren have limbs of different textures and colors, or is their whole body uniform? Does a peakspren retain their appearance throughout life, or do they adopt different textures and colors as they associate with different stones? I presume that they are uniform and persistent in appearance, but that’s mostly guesswork rather than informed speculation.
    I’m particularly intrigued by the idea that their surface cracks take the form of glyphs. Is that a matter of actually being glyphs but in a different form than Shallan is able to read? Or do the spren have a degree of affinity to rhythms or fundamental ideas that cause their cracks to approach glyph-like forms but not actually adopt them? Or, alternatively, is it a matter of glyph components being basic enough shapes that angular cracks would necessarily be reminiscent of some intelligible arrangement, and the human mind (especially a scholarly one) would strive for pattern recognition?
    The physical realm manifestation of these spren is interesting. Very stone golem in appearance, or perhaps elemental is the better comparison. As with other spren their size appears mutable, but these seem to be a type that are inherently visible and must physically hide themselves rather than simply willing themselves out of sight.
     
  20. ccstat

    Chapter 74

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 74 (A Symbol)
    Epigraph: Is this another letter? Is this Jaxlim’s sad goodbye given over the course of years? I don’t know yet.
    Venli considers attuning a rhythm of an emotion she doesn’t feel a lie not to others or to herself but to Roshar. I want a cryptic’s take on this.
    What kind of rumors are circulating about you two? Is it about loyalty issues? Sanity? Or (my first thought) shipping? That seems less likely, but it was what it sounded like when Venli first brought it up.
    Ah, so that’s how Rlain mingled. He just covered his tattoo, and nobody knew he was anything different from the rest of the singers.
    Oh! Willshapers can do stuff on the same scale as the Deep Ones. I was thinking of smaller manipulations, but she’s imagining a much more involved surgebinding.
    Every time Venli or someone else talks about hiding something from Raboniel or planning around what she knows I get this sinking feeling. The Lady of Wishes already outplayed Navani, and some of the things we know she learned have definitely compromised Rlain. I heavily doubt that she is unaware of Lirin and Hesina’s disposition, and only Venli’s radiant status seems like a true secret at this point.
    Lirin and Kaladin continue to be very much at odds. The people are following him, though, and the symbol he represents.
     
  21. ccstat

    Chapter 73

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Chapter 73 (Which Master to Follow)
    It’s Part 4! Time for new PoVs, including my favorite collective in a single body! Title page indicates we’ll be getting the Shadesmar crew, Navani and Venli, plus Bridge Four. I’m slightly dubious about Bridge Four being given PoVs again–it worked before, but at the moment I feel like that’s indulging in character creep. I’m sure I’ll appreciate it when we actually get to that part, though. Teft in particular is going to need some attention if he wakes up before part five.
    Anyway, we’re back to the flashbacks. Let’s see what the sisters are up to.
    Interesting that Venli doesn’t recognize the new rhythms as sinister. Even in her tightly controlled state after first assuming stormform, Eshonai knew the rhythms were wrong and uncomfortable. 
    Wow. That flattery isn’t transparently fake at all, Ulim. Way to really sell it. “You are the specialist snowflake ever. Just do what I say and you’ll be famous.”
    And, here’s the sad part. Her thoughts have been warped enough to focus on jealousy and coveting new forms for herself at the expense of gifting her mother a form that (in her hopes at least) could stave off the dementia.
    The agents of Odium have to pull the voidspren across at the Origin? How do they get there? Even with the industrial strength of other worlds, I have serious doubts about how well a vessel could survive on the ocean in a highstorm, especially at (presumably) the strongest point of the storm where the singularity pours power into it. I suppose they hang out east of the Origin until the riddens of the previous storm passes them, then move to the Origin to do their thing. But they have to pass the filled gems to the mainland somehow, and that’s a long journey. My best guess at the moment is that they have some manner of submersible that allows them to escape the worst of the storm's wrath when it passes over. However, santhid aren’t the only creatures in the ocean, and I or one would not volunteer to pilot an early-industrial submarine when Rosharan greatshells are about.
    At least she’s not simply naive. When she starts to think about Ulim’s manipulative nature, and how that might be concerning, her thoughts get fuzzy. She’s very much a tool more than an actor at this point.
    This does make me think that Venli, Rlain, and the other singer/listener radiants of the new era will have a much closer bond to their spren, and manifest extreme versions of the stereotypical personality traits of their given order. Having a spren inside their gemhearts leads to a more synchronous attunement through the bond than early stage human radiants.
    I wasn’t expecting this sort of self assurance and casual dismissal from Ulim. It’s a different manner of speech than we’ve seen from any of the other spren, and feels closer to modern colloquial English than any of the other characters. It’s odd, but I can see how it fits…assuming the society of Voidspren that have been planning this resurgence really have been interacting with many people and cultures.
    Interesting to hear about the False Desolation from Ulim’s perspective. It’s basically what we expected from Ba-Ado-Mishram, but the point about her having too little power and being thereby susceptible to Melishi’s attack is new-ish, as is the circumstances of the Unmade starting the False Desolation.
    I appreciate Venli’s backtalk in support of her “traitorous” ancestors. She’s not fully subverted yet.
    Yay! Jaxlim anchors Venli to the old rhythms.
    Oh storms. Venli, no, that’s an awful idea. I thought the Sons of Honor were unique in their madness, but apparently they had a mirror here. In fact, it’s so similar that I’m betting they were both created by the same manipulations. Venli wants to terrify her people, and trap them in a war of attrition to force them to seek out forms of power. Meanwhile, Gavilar and company want to force those forms of power into being so that humanity will be threatened enough to bring the Heralds back. Good grief.
     
  22. ccstat

    Art: Alethi Glyphs

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Alethi Glyphs
    Artwork here.
    I’m not much into the glyphs and trying to decipher them. I have been far more involved and interested in the transliterative alphabets we got for Alethi and Thaylen in the past books, and trying to pull useful meanings from the encoded text. Glyphs are cool, but I am willing to let others do the work of puzzling them out and identifying phonemes. 
    Without looking closely at the chart, I’ll just say that it looks very similiar to what we’d seen before, either given by Dragonsteel and the text so far, or deciphered by other readers. In fact, this is apparently titled “page 2,” which means it likely follows directly from the page in the previous book. I’ll have to take a look at them side by side, but for now I’ll give my attention to Nazh’s commentary.
    Speaking of which, this is by far the most verbose Nazh has ever been.  I’m glad to get more from him, but much of his humor was contained in the terse commentary and offhand notes added to the materials he collects. I’m not sure if I enjoy the longform essay as much. It feels a little bit like it’s trying too hard with all those parentheticals.
    Regardless of that…The obviously important piece of this picture is the reveal about the glyph for Roshar. A superposition of “Light of Tavast,” “Light of Koravari,” and “Light of Rasan” has been used to indicate the planet. 
    First of all, this gives us a name for Cultivation’s vessel, at least in Alethi form. Koravellium Avast, “She Who Brings the Dews at Dawn” joins Tanavast. I’m going to call her Kora for short. Tantalizingly, she’s given a surname or title of Avast, which sure sounds like a close association to Tanavast. I look forward to learning more about her and her history.
    It’s also worth noting that this glyph for Roshar was necessarily created after the arrival of humans and their god Odium to the system, and it’s hard to think it would predate Odium becoming heavily invested here.
    As for Nazh’s translation, I do have some skepticism about the “Light of” being repeated separately each time. I’d need to spend a little more time with it to see how the pieces were put together, but it seems just as likely that the names were arranged separately or together around “Light” as a reference to the planet or system’s investiture in general, rather than specifically to its component parts. 
    I also think it’s likely that “friendly cremling” is a reasonable etymology for “love” given what we know of the planet, and the ancient nature of the Sleepless.
     
  23. ccstat

    Interlude I-9

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Interlude I-9 (Taravangian / The Sword)
    Icon: Compassionate Taravangian is on top today.
    Title: Are we meeting Nightblood? I’m not sure how I feel about that.
    That’s a mood right there. Beautiful concision to convey his situation. A great line.
    Yes, as expected he’s trying to work through Szeth. It’s got to be tough manipulating people when you only remember your plan some of the time.
    It’s a little disturbing how Taravangian thinks of himself as two people. They are both named Taravangian but they aren’t the same person, in his mind.
    Yay Renarin! This is a conversation I didn’t know I wanted to happen in this way. I’m glad Renarin is taking the initiative.
    Renarin’s compassion is a good match for today’s Taravangian. I wonder what changed in his visions to trigger this meeting?
    Ah, and Szeth is there as well, after all.
    Taravangian thinks Nightblood can work against Odium. That’s encouraging (sort of)
    He knows Szeth’s dad died? Where does he get his intel? (Also, what does that mean for the honorblade? For the rest of Szeth’s family?)
    Hm. Nightblood will only work if wielded from inside one of Odium’s visions. That’s going to be tough to pull off.
    And Szeth refuses out of principle. Smart move on his part, since he doesn’t have the same knowledge the reader does, but it’s hard to see after Taravangian revealed that Renarin is a blindspot and asked Szeth to consult with Dalinar. Looks like we don’t get the first attempt in an easy way.
  24. ccstat

    Interlude I-8

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Interlude I-8 (Chiri-Chiri)
    Just want to say that the larkin image in the chapter header is delightful. Can’t wait to see what Chiri-Chiri looks like all grown up!
    I find it wonderful that Rysn and her ilk are called “soft ones.” That is such a flexible term, with potential to serve as insult, endearment, or anything in between. 
    Important! Chiri-Chiri notes the lack of rhythms in human conversation, suggesting that she is just as in tune with the rhythms of Roshar as the singers. Is that a function of the gemheart? Are all forms of native Rosharan fauna in tune with those rhythms? Or just the sapient ones? That would be a fascinating thing to explore. Siah Aimians might be the first thing to test that hypothesis. I don’t recall anything in Axies’ PoV that suggested an affinity for the rhythms.
    Well, at least Chiri-Chiri is helpfully avoiding Dawnshard spoilers. “The event at the homeland” is circumspect enough to not give anything away. We do know that Rysn encountered the Sleepless there (shocking if she hadn’t) and more interestingly that Chiri-Chiri recognized Aimia as the larkin homeland. (Her personal homeland? Where did she actually come from before the Reshi Isles?)
    Ah, sounds like Rysn gets to be Ambassador to the Sleepless. That’s a cool job that I’m glad someone else is doing. *shudder*
    Chiri-Chiri seems to be adept at sensing emotions in others, even when she doesn’t understand them. It’s a sense close to but not the same as her sense for the rhythms. I want to know more about this empathic ability, and if it’s something that other cremlings (the Sleepless?) share.
    I’d forgotten that Rysn’s chair was a hover chair with fabrial tech. Is that new? I’m gonna have to go back and read the bit in Oathbringer.
    And now Rysn realizes her friend can talk. (Sort of. She’s still learning, but with motivation like head scritches, she’s sure to pick it up fast.)
  25. ccstat

    Interlude I-7

    By ccstat,

    Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.
    Interlude I-7 (Szeth)
    Interludes! I have to say I am super thrilled that Chiri-Chiri gets the next interlude after this one, though I’m concerned about continuity and spoilers since I haven’t read Dawnshard yet. Oh well, that’s for later. At the moment it is time for Szeth…
    Hold up. Szeth-son-Honor? That is a changeup and a half. Someone’s internalized identity has been making leaps and bounds of progress since the end of Oathbringer. I don’t remember what we saw from Szeth in Oathbringer exactly, but I’m pretty positive he didn’t think of himself like this yet.
    Just a friendly guy and his sword having a chat. 
    Shame that Dalinar doesn’t like talking to sword-nimi. I wonder if it’s the clash with Honor’s essence, or the familiarity with the Thrill, or something less realmatically based.
    Aww, little Gav wants to be a Windrunner when he grows. No offense to all those other possible Orders (or to Daddy Bondsmith).
    And  isn’t that a concerning use of a transitive verb. 
    Huh. Szeth can see his own afterimage. That’s got to be disconcerting. I really wasn’t expecting it to show up to his own sight.
    This interaction between Szeth and his spren is weird. Super weird–he doesn’t even know his spren’s name! It’s a huge contrast to the other orders we’ve seen so far. I guess that’s what you get when one of them has continuity across centuries while the others are newly finding their own way, but still. I’m getting real Jedi/Sith vibes here.
    This crusade sounds like something we’ll hear a lot more about in Unhallowed Stones (assuming that’s still the working title for #5). I don’t know how the story would have been structured if Dalinar and Szeth’s books swapped places as originally planned.
    Anyway… Szeth has to stop following Dalinar and “become the Law” in order to earn his plate at the 4th ideal. That kind of self confidence does not sound like a good moral approach. I definitely wouldn’t do well as a skybreaker.
    An Oathstone is certainly ominous, but if I’m guessing this is intended as a lure to get Szeth to talk to him, not something that Taravangian actually wants… though it could well fill two purposes. Kill two chickens with one stone, etc. There’s a good chance we’ll see something about this in the upcoming interlude, though, so I won’t speculate too much. 
    Before that, though–On to Chiri-Chiri!
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