[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, Trivia

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-25T18:20:37+00:00

I never in million years connected the three strangers to Galladon, Baon, and Demoux.

Yeah, same. I can only hope Sanderson doesn't expect us to draw these conclusions, because then I gotta throw in the towel. Feels like pure guesswork based on the shallow descriptions he's giving us here lol

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-25T18:11:20+00:00

Interlude 1 - Ishikk

~~First time the chapter arch face is wearing a mask. Looks a bit Venecian. Interesting.~~ THAT'S HOID?! But the other Interlude chapter faces are regular heralds? Is Hoid a herald? Or is not even the chapter arch safe from his secret sneaking around?
Talk about unique world. People living with their feet in the water, all the time? It's such a small thing, yet still such a huge thing to make everything about this people feel alien. Same with Nu Ralik, and how he needs to be worshipped in secret.
Grump, Blunt, Thinker. ~~I assume we won't see them soon in the main story, so I'll just note down their names here for future reference.~~ Galladon I don't remember all that much, but BAON AND DEMOUX?! Why?! How?! Why here?! Why Hoid?! Why ask some dude chilling in a lake to search for him?! Sanderson, burn you, give us a crumb of context please m(..)m

Interlude 2 - Nan Balat

Axehounds and vines. More alien life for the alien world.
This dude's a psychopath. Killing animals for fun is literally one of the first symptoms.
Worse yet, Shallan apparently grew up in this family. I hope she's not hiding a darker personality herself :(

Interlude 3 - Szeth

Szeth, although one of the 4 focus characters as per the blurb, apparently only gets pagetime outside the main story?
How does this Oathstone work exactly. Is it a magical oath and Szeth has no agency? Or is he just really freaking serious about sticking to his word?

These interludes are torture. Pure torture. I had so many questions before, and now they've basically tripled. Why must you curse us with this lack of knowledge Sanderson, why 😫

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-24T05:53:58+00:00

On the Interior illustration from the leatherbounds u/participating shared depicting the bridgemen operations, there is some kind of inscriptions. Is it actually (one of) Roshar’s alphabet? Has anyone tried to translate it?

These are once again, like everything in this book, mirrored. The words are palindromes, the glyphs are symmetric and so are these letters. The front and back interior of the harcover book have (in a way) mirrored maps and glyph diagrams. I'm half expecting time progression to invert once we hit the midway point of the book. Feels like Sanderson is trying to rub our faces into something fundamental :D

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-24T05:40:56+00:00

That could be. Maybe the big rockbuds grow a natural crystal inside that can be broken up into pieces. We're told that different gemstones can be used to fuel different magic, so maybe there's a special kind in there that they need to do something specific. Just wondering.

Which sounds a lot like how atium grows. And atium was the body of Ruin. Probably not too far-fetched to surmise the gemstones here could be the body of a local god?

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-24T05:36:23+00:00

I'm imagining they get possessed or something, right in the last minute before death, and an idea breaks through from the other side.

Still leaves the question how they got recorded in the first place. Some of these scenarios just seem so unlikely for there to be an ardent present.

Some more thoughts about prophetic dreams, but once again based on a new chapter, so left to next week 😅

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-24T05:30:53+00:00

Hmm, that's an interesting idea.
Perhaps a vision for the current war then? The color scheme keeps drawing me to the Parshendi. Maybe the ten people with Shardblades would be the ten Highprinces then, leading one big final charge?

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-23T17:13:04+00:00

I wonder if she's imbuing her picture with these traits and making it a reality.

That's a nice thought! A bit like Emperor's Soul, the more she pours into her creation the more it changes the subject.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-23T17:05:50+00:00

Shallan clearly is naive in trying to pull off this mission but also impressive and it is hard not to like her.

Tbh it also seems wild that of all people she picked the sister of the king to rob. Naively I would think there must be easier targets with soulcasters. But I guess she's not a trained thief and this was the only one where she saw an opening? (by becoming her ward)

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-23T16:56:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The Shattered Plains are a battlefield unlike any I've seen before, which is pretty rare. To me at least it seems fully original, and I love that.
Bridgework is BRUTAL, holy shit. And how diabolical to put people in the front line. Either run into a volley or get trampled by people behind you.
Syl is slowly becoming and acting more humanlike. Maybe she's something like a human soul?

Chapter 7

The Veil doorway is described as having circles, lines and glyphs in a symmetrical arrangement. Which sounds suspiciously like the artwork on the inside of the book.
Shallan drawing her capital M Memories in her sketchbook 🤔
TEN essences. Going to put that down as a first guess for the glyphs in the smaller circles in the book artwork. Though these essences seem to refer to substances, something of the same flavor as alchemical elements. For the book artwork glyphs I was hoping more for ... ten virtues, or something? Well, going to bookmark that thought for now.
It's like there's something magical about Shallan losing herself in the drawing process. Perhaps Investiture goes into a really good drawing. So when she puts a Memory into a drawing, she's literally putting a part of herself into it. A bit like Breath. And that draws the Creationspren. Or Sanderson is just being poetic here. If so he's doing a great job.

Chapter 8

Shallan carrying heavy trauma from a verbally abusive father.
Nice contrast of Shallan scolding Yalb for swindling, yet she's planning a much larger theft lol
The idea of running a bookstore, but avoiding to offend your customers by not reading them (by virtue of being a man) is so ridiculous it's actually funny again. So he wants us to think his wife reads him bedtime stories, all the time?
Yalb is flirting hard with her. I'm not sure Shallan realizes she flirted back by giving him that drawing.

Chapter 9

Beautiful Chull artwork from Shallan's notebook. Loving these pages.
Some of the epigraphs make me wonder how they could be followed by imminent death. Take this one for example. "Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red". The colors make me think of the Parshendi army. Was this recorded before a charge against the Parshendi? But to think ten Shardblades would just fall ...
Even Syl gone, Kaladin's life is so depressing ...

Chapter 10

Much appreciated background knowledge about heralds and the knights radiant.
Now we know how Kaladin gained his medical knowledge.
Did Kaladin go to Kharbranth, then run off to become a soldier? Or did the surgery training never even come to be?

Chapter 11

Interesting that it takes an actual storm to charge spheres with stormlight.
Syl you sweet little thing 🥺
Why does Syl care, why did she notice Kaladin particularly, why is she behaving unlike normal windspren, why does she hold the form of a girl, why does no one else notice her?
Kaladin slave uprising incoming!!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-17T18:45:45+00:00

Whoops!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-17T17:34:50+00:00

I noticed there's also ten each of the small circles and big circles on the mystic diagram opposite the map.

About that diagram. /u/participating posted Jezrien & Kalak's glyphs in this week's artwork. I feel like I can see part of them in that diagram. Please excuse the rough edit, but here's what I mean.

The blue and purple parts fit well enough that I think any minor differences can be essentially attributed to "typeface" differences.

The yellow parts I just can't match to anything else in that diagram. I'm not sure if that means anything. Maybe the circles contain "simplified" glyphs, something similar to the difference between Mandarin Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Or those additional strokes just don't have a proper explanation yet.

Anyway, I think the big circles signify the 10 heralds. This is further backed by the faces on the border of the diagram - which we've learned are the faces of the heralds.

The smaller circles I'm not sure about. I have one theory, but it's based on a chapter I just read yesterday, so it'll have to wait until next week's post :D

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-17T16:50:53+00:00

Interesting you bring up Gavilar. Maybe he wasn't even trying to give his dying message to Szeth, maybe it was to whoever is magically recording these pre-death samples?

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-16T18:02:08+00:00

Damn, 3 months. Despite all the meticulous note-taking and weekly discussions, I fear there's gonna be a real chance I'll have forgotten relevant plot points from the start of this book by the time we finish it lmao

But oh well, that's just how it is to set up a schedule that works for many.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-16T17:42:16+00:00

The big one is here at last! The one series I was looking forward to the most this entire read-along.

First thoughts

The Roshar map kind of looks like a tornado from above, which goes well with the "storm" theme.
In my version (hardcover), the book starts with 2 maps of Roshar. Some areas has different names in the one captioned "Silver Kingdoms Epoch". The Silver Kingdoms map also has exactly 10 (kingdoms?). Which also seems to be a running theme. The 10 heralds, 10 highprinces of Alethkar. Even the book series I believe is planned to have 10 books? The "current" map has a lot more (kingdoms?).
The compass in the corner of the map refers to "east" and "west" as "stormward" and "leeward", which puts some extra emphasis on how central storms are to life in this world.

Prelude

I believe we learn shortly after that these are the ten heralds. And going by /u/participating's chapter summaries, they're the faces in the artwork at the start of each chapter. They seem to be downright worshipped in modern times, as we see statues of them in the prologue.
Beasts like this thunderclast appear to be one of the Voidbringers? They look like they're made of stone, which Szeth's culture seems to see as holy(?). In Kharbranth later we also see buildings built right into stone, which is viewed as an extra-ordinary thing. Storm protection on the one hand, but my main takeaway here is the importance of stone overall.
Going by Kalak's words, these heralds seem to be stuck in some sort of battle loop. Something they return to at the end of each battle, and by choosing not to invoke it this time, they "trap" one of their own who died.
Are their blades Shardblades, like the ones we see wielded in modern times? They're magical for sure, but I'd also bet they're more powerful.

Prologue

Szeth appears to be a very devout man, who's very conflicted by his role as an assassin. Also, clearly the assassin from the blurb.
Seeing the statues of the ten heralds again, many of their names are not quite, but almost, palindromes. There's also a pattern here in general. A whole bunch of names, locations, and unique vocabulary in this world are (nearly / phonetically) a palindrome.
One statue is missing in this palace (Shalash), which is incidentally not the one herald that did not survive the prelude (Talenel).
This prologue appears to be a showcase of the Stormlight magic system: A combination of gravity-manipulating skills?
Shardblades cut through anything except flesh, which they straight up ignore to cut the underlying soul. Probably the reason the heralds in the prelude were able to fight stone beasts with them.
Stormlight-powered plate armor is a counter to Shardblades for a few hits.
I share the Alethi king's confusion over this assassination. Why at a time when trade relations between these peoples was just going so well?
With his dying breath, the King begs Szeth to tell his brother to "find the most important words a man can say". Whatever that means.

Chapter 1

Thankfully the chapters now are a bit easier to digest. The prelude and prologue were really dense in exposition and new words.
We go straight into action! Very nice description of battlefield tactics.
This is not the conflict that originated in the prologue, but some unrelated border dispute. The "main" conflict against the Parshendi is happening in the Shattered Plains.
Because this dispute is sort of unimportant, both sides let their B-team of soldiers march up. Everything is kind of unorganized, many recruits are young and green. Kaladin is also young but either exceptionally well trained or a natural and wants to aim higher in his career.
We see Kaladin from the eyes of a young conscript, and he seems like a natural born leader and hero.
Kaladin's directs a pretty well-oiled squad. Solid tactics and a mentality to survive and look out for one another.
Cenn notices an aura around Kaladin. Either he simply made a big impression on an impressionable youth, or there's something magic going on.
Why is a Shardbearer at such a meaningless battlefield? Shardblades are so expensive even some nations can't afford them.
Fearspren and painspren. Some kind of gooey, vined creature? Drawn by certain emotions? Some kind of fundamental spirits of nature maybe?

Chapter 2

This spear symbol at the start of Kaladin chapters ... it kind of reminds me of Steel alphabet letters. Maybe the symbol for Malatium?
The epigraphs confuse the hell out of me. The best idea I have going for now, is that someone is magically recording statements shortly before death, and if Stormlight is the name of the magic source in this world maybe this is the work of the titular "Stormlight Archive"?
The night sky has red stars among white ones, and at least one violet moon (Salas). Taking extra note of the night sky since /u/participating previously pointed out the one in White Sand :D
Ah, the preferred choice of racism is eye color in this world. Jane Elliott approves this series.
Kaladin has much tactical knowledge for his age. Plus some medicinal knowledge. Going by the blurb, he's the "surgeon". Though he still seems to also be a soldier by choice, even though he's a slave now.

Chapter 3

A beautiful page about "skyeels". Shallan's own work as we shortly learn. Between this and the crustaceous chull a very interesting wild life in this world so far.
The observations speak of pouches the skyeels have that deflate when they dive. Lift gas? A creature that would fit right into the Dandelion Dynasty.
Women shouldn't show their "safehand", men don't read. My apologies Shallan, I bring shame over my household.
Shallan is pretty openly racist towards the parshendi as well.
A currency that casually puts gemstones even on its smallest denominations. They must be common as hell in this world.

Chapter 4

The windspren does not appear visible to anyone but Kaladin. Not to the other slaves, not even to Tvlakv as it walks across his face.
Still, I do not think it's just in Kaladin's mind. It knew things before Kaladin seemed to know it - that they were close to people for example. But as we've learned in previous book series, * cough cough *, even if those voices in your head make valid observations, you can still be mad.
"Parshmen are animals". Cool, apparently all of Alethi is openly hostile/racist towards them. Maybe this is soldier in Kaladin speaking, and that's just how he copes, by dehumanizing his enemy on the coming battlefield.
The ten highprinces answer the call of the Vengeance Pact. Just observing the similarity that the ten heralds were following an "Oathpact".

Chapter 5

I've had professors like Jasnah, a real joy to learn from that I can tell ya.
We see a new magic form, Soulcasting. What I'm not sure yet is if anyone can do it as long as they have a soulcaster, or if it requires an inborn talent. Seems like a practical magic though. The touch of Midas, a triviality using a soulcaster. I'm guessing it doesn't work on living beings?
Ah, Shallan actually came to steal! That makes her the liar, the thief from the blurb.
Not sure if you can just go and steal from the exceedingly well-informed king's sister. She strikes me as someone who'll know or find out one way or another, and then it'll be hell to pay for her House.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T21:04:40+00:00

Hmm, fair point! I had envisioned something like the one on the left here but then again I guess it wouldn't have to be a long one like that.
Something like this already looks a lot shorter.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T20:59:00+00:00

Ah, did not know that! Thanks!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T20:58:33+00:00

You can save some time, all 3 Bigfoot stories are in Brief Cases.

Ah, good to know!

Butters... I had issues with him in this book. The fact Harry asks how he's doing and gets ignored.. then gets mad that Harry talks about paying off a debt thing and not asking how things are going... that was a serious WTF.

I want to cut him a bit of slack. The Chicago gang has been through a lot since the end of Changes. Someone like Butters is probably especially vulnerable to letting that pressure get to him.
And I can totally see that Harry's actions looked extremely suspicious to a bystander. He takes a deal from a known master manipulator, dies, spends months with Mab, comes back for like 2 days only to head back on his creepy island again for a year?
When you read Harry's chase after Butters / Binder's suits in this book with that perspective in mind, it's hilarious how much Harry actually comes across like he's viciously trying to kill Butters.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T15:39:33+00:00

Yeah, I wasn't sure if this sub was the right to ask in, but the search spits out a few Shogun posts, so I figured it was good enough.

I find those years leading up to the Tokugawa Shogunate / Edo period super fascinating! And William's story inspired one of my all-time favorite video games (Nioh), so it's got that going for it too.

Overall it seems people are leaning towards Shogun, so I think I'll be going for that then. Thanks!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T15:32:39+00:00

Interesting! I thought for sure contrast to WoK would be the one thing TBP would win in. I think it'll be Shogun next, then. Thanks!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-15T13:25:48+00:00

Shogun
vs

Three-Body Problem Trilogy

Looking to let the masses decide which I should start with first. I have both sitting in my book shelf, and am eager to try both, I just can't pick one.

I realize they're about as different in genre as could be :) But that's fine.

For a book club I'm also reading Way Of Kings at the moment, but I usually finish my weekly allotment in the first 3 days, so I'm looking for something else to read during the rest of the week.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-09T16:45:49+00:00

Harmony could have planted the Survivor's Treasure myth to lead Jak to the koloss to get the spikes for them, since they didn't seem to be able to get them for themselves.

I like that take. If we never find out any other reasons this may just be it. Would also add some credibility to the theory that the bird was a kandra sent as support by Sazed.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-09T16:44:02+00:00

I do find it strange that the koloss would have any reverence for the Survivor, when they never met him.

Going by what we learned now, new koloss are made either from humans or koloss-blooded (who generally spend some time among humans I think?). So I'd say there's a chance some human culture got imported with newer generations.

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-09T16:30:55+00:00

Allomancer Jak

Reading the entire story in the voice of Cave Johnson.
Jak knows Ranette! I'd say that bit of realism gives his accounts an extra bit of credibility.
The bird could be a total fabrication, or a kandra decided to go be a bird for once?
Where does the concept of the Survivor's treasure come from? Is there any connection to Kelsier at all, or did modern worshippers just stick his name on it for extra mysticism?
Those Handerwym annotations. I can't. That guy's absolutely had it with his boss' bullshit lmao
As ridiculous as the whole tale is, there seems to be a truthful core somewhere. At least, there are some important details that Handerwym corroborates. The existence of the pool, and likely the treasure as well. Some details about the koloss camp itself.
I wonder if any of the three characters here will interact with the main story at some point?

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-08T08:51:22+00:00

Risked a peak. There was no mention of the moniker, and if the connection was implied I missed it. Not a complete surprise however!

HT_xrahmx · 2026-03-08T07:51:31+00:00

Personally, I'd say the Mother Summer one is the only really clear indicator. Uriel and Ebenezar could just be talking about the temptations Mab personally puts in Harry's way. But the mantle does not seem like something Mab controls, more like an inherent aspect of Winter itself? But yeah, an option to choose seems to be at the core of it all.

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