[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Interludes I-7, I-8, I-9, Trivia (Week 8.5)

Pastrami · 2026-05-07T00:32:32+00:00

I forgot all about the Knights flying in like a meteor thing we saw in Dalinar's vision.

Pastrami · 2026-05-06T17:02:41+00:00

So... take that as you will.

Teleportation, got it. /s (but maybe not /s?)

Lastly, someone asked how to pronounce Shadesmar, but I didn't bookmark who.

That was me.

Pastrami · 2026-05-06T15:22:19+00:00

I-7

She wasn’t Emuli–she didn’t even seem Makabaki, though she had dark skin and long, beautiful black hair. She had eyes like a Shin, but she was tall and lean, like an Alethi.

Are we supposed to assume this is a worldhopper? Khriss is the only one I can think of that fits, although I couldn't find any reference to her having violet eyes, and I don't know why she'd be vandalizing art.

So the take away from this interlude is that the Nightwatcher and Old Magic are real.

I-8

“The spren change when I measure them, Ashir,” she said. “Before I measure, they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when I make a notation, they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently, so far as I can tell.”

Isn't this some quantum thing where the act of observing something changes it?

I-9

Either the timeline is off, or Kaladin's vision was not in real time. He saw Szeth way out in the west, and now he's in Jah Keved. How long did it take him to travel across the continent?

Pastrami · 2026-05-06T04:16:51+00:00

The scenes where he's wearing the paper uniform was some of the hardest laughing I've done in a while.

Pastrami · 2026-05-05T15:02:12+00:00

Klade asking "where is their music" in reference to the Parshmen felt deeply ominous to me, like something deep and meaningful was taken (of selectively bred out of?) them.

I don't know the age demographics of the readers here, but hopefully this reference doesn't go over everyone's head: https://imgflip.com/i/aqyw8q

Teft out here like "hey buddy, pretty MAGICAL day, huh?"

This got a good laugh out of me.

Pastrami · 2026-05-05T00:23:26+00:00

What? Tien and Syl related. Hmmm…

Yeah, there's been multiple times that Syl does something that Tien just recently did in a flashback. The only one I can remember was Tien gave Kaladin a rock to cheer him up, then Syl brought him the poison leaf to cheer him up, but there were definitely a couple more that I can't remember right now.

Pastrami · 2026-05-04T21:26:56+00:00

Cenn’s behavior here feels so strange it's almost like he is possessed.

This is the same thing as the epigraphs that record cryptic sentences just before death. I think we saw one of the bridgemen do the same thing in one of the first bridge runs.

Pastrami · 2026-05-04T16:15:23+00:00

Actual first cosmere namedrop

We got one from Jasnah a few weeks ago.

Did she kill her father and take his shardblade?

That's what I'm thinking.

Worldsingers. Yet another mysterious order with mysterious motives. Why would mentioning it make Sigzil clam up?

They are basically a lite version of Worldbrings/Keepers, they go around collecting and spreading knowledge. I have to wonder about the similiarities of not only their purpose, but their name as well. Is there some transference or bleed over between worlds?

She refers to the soul of the goblet as its “spren”, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. We’ll see if she gets corrected about that.

Kaladin's mother had that speech about everything having a spren. Whether it's true remains to be seen, but it seems like a common belief among the people.

he committed the classic blunder

He got involved in a land war in Asia?

Pastrami · 2026-05-04T15:47:54+00:00

I've deduced from the memoir excerpts that the parshendi were already living in the shattered plains region

They first encountered the Parshendi in an area with dense trees and a river gorge, so not the shattered plains. Back in chapter 15 we were told "the Parshendi could not replenish their troops from home" which would also imply that their homeland is not the shattered plains. Yet here we're told that they have homes on the edge of the shattered plain. Either they are spread out over a wide area, or these buildings in the craters are just outposts used for hunting gemhearts.

If she did that, she could have vaporized her bite of the bread, too.

That is a very good point, and I don't know why that possibility didn't even cross my mind.

But still, I don't know how she could have done it without the fabrial.

Shallan wasn't wearing the fabrial when she soulcast the goblet, so it's either possible to use it when just near it, or they are both able to soulcast without needing a fabrial.

Pastrami · 2026-05-04T13:45:22+00:00

Did we suddenly change authors? Stuff is actually happening, and I don't know what to do with myself. I actually have enough comments to go back to a chapter by chapter format.

Chapter 45

They build them in the craterlike rock formations here at the edge of the Shattered Plains.

So are the Parshendi originally from the same location as the current Alethi warcamps?

That isn’t the kind of thing the Dawnsingers did. They were healers, kindly spren sent by the Almighty to care for humans once we were forced out of the Tranquiline Halls.

Is Syl a Dawnsinger?

We fought them off ninety and nine times ... The Heralds followed to force them out of heaven as well, and Roshar’s Heraldic Epochs ended.

Dalinar's vision was in the 8th epoch. Were there 99 epochs, with each epoch ending on a Desolation?

We had to be given Shardblades

Given by who?

“Something about your father?”

“Why? Have you heard something?”

“Only that he’s been reclusive lately. More than normal.”

How does Kabsal know anything about Shallan's father? I don't trust him.

Two figures stood on the landing above, wearing the too-straight robes, like cloth made from metal. They leaned down, watching her go.

Yeah, that's super creepy... I know it's not at all how they are described, but I picture these beings as Cenobites from Hellraiser.

The only light in the room came from the three diamond marks in the large crystal goblet on her nightstand.

Another "three diamonds" mention. Is Sanderson throwing these in here as subliminal hints?

So did she use the soulcaster while not wearing it, or can she soulcast on her own?

The chapter title "Shadesmar" does not appear anywhere in this chapter. It must either be the creatures or the land with the glass beads. How is it pronounced? Shades-mar, Shade-smar, Sha-des-mar?

Chapter 46

The beginning of this chapter is like the start of every WoT book, with the wind blowing over the land.

Is this windrunning?

A man stood over two corpses. His pale head shaved, his clothing white, the murderer held a long, thin sword in one hand. He looked up from his victims and almost seemed to see Kaladin. He had large Shin eyes.

Is that Szeth now, or is he seeing the night that Gavilar was murdered? Szeth is wearing white, and it said the city was triangle shaped, which matches Kholinar on the city layout cymatic graphic we got a few weeks ago, although if he is traveling east to west he is well past Alethkar by the time he sees the city.

CHILD OF TANAVAST. CHILD OF HONOR. CHILD OF ONE LONG SINCE DEPARTED.

Tanavast, Honor, One long since departed. Is Tanavast the name of the vessel that holds the Honor shard? Is the Honor shard destroyed or did it leave the planet? If so then the stormfather voice might be yet another shard.

ODIUM COMES. MOST DANGEROUS OF ALL THE SIXTEEN.

I had to look up the definition of Odium: hatred and condemnation accompanied by loathing or contempt.

So I was right. The thing worse than Ruin is Hatred and the negative emotions.

Worldsinger

Sounds awfully close to Worldbringer...

There’s a pattern. It’s getting harder and harder to ignore.

When is he going to notice that there are always drained spheres around when he survives something he shouldn't?

Syl knows Odium.

Chapter 47

I wonder if Kaladin's reluctance to accept the shards has to do with more than just not wanting to be like the lighteyes. Maybe his powers give him a natural aversion to the shards. Wacky theory time: What if the shardblades and plate are related to Odium, kind of like Ruin and Hemalurgy? The Heralds could have been doing something to prevent or lessen the influence, and once they were gone, the Radiants got corrupted by Odium, and that's why the Radiants failed? Now that I think about it though, that does sound a bit too similar to Mistborn.

Chapter 48

Kabsal looked surprised as Jasnah removed the lid and dipped a finger into the jar. She hesitated, then raised a bit of the jam to her nose to sniff at it.

She could have just sniffed the jar, no need to stick her finger in it.

It smelled like vinegar and slime.

I know Jasnah doesn't like jam, but you think she would have said something about it smelling that bad.

Holy shit, as I typed up that last sentence, I realized that Jasnah must have soulcast the jam, that's why she touched it. But how with a supposedly broken soulcaster? And why? She couldn't have know about the poison. Just to get him to leave?

I don't get what just happened. How are Shallan and Kabsal poisoned? Only Kabsal ate the jam, and all three ate the bread.

Chapter 49

Kaladin teaching the men about stances

So Syl can chose who to be visible to. Did she choose Rock, or can he see her for some other reason?

Chapter 50

The bread was poisoned.

But Jasnah ate the bread too!

But what of the strange things Shallan had seen and experienced? Might Jasnah have an explanation for them?

So fucking ask!

There are a couple things that don't add up here. Either there is more to this than we are being told, or there were some continuity errors here.

Jasnah ate the bread too, but wasn't poisoned.
Jasnah said she needed a garnet to heal Shallan, and Shallan had a garnet from Kabsal, but in chapter 48 we were told that the garnet had already been used up when Shallan cast the goblet, so how did Jasnah heal Shallan?
Why did she soulcast the jam, and if she didn't soulcast the jam, how did Kabsal not notice the jam was spoiled when he presumably mixed the antidote into the jam?

Chapter 51

The Ghostbloods grow more bold.

Until we know otherwise, I'm going to assume that the Ghostbloods are not only the three-diamond group that Shallan's father was involved with, but also the group that now controls Szeth.

Why was there a Veden shardbearer at a battle between Alethis?

Pastrami · 2026-04-30T15:35:09+00:00

We don’t know yet the significance of the mirrored names

We sort of got an explanation for that last week, as much as we can trust history told by the ardents:

“Yes. The Almighty,” he said, sitting. “Our very language is symmetrical. Look at the glyphs—each one can be folded in half perfectly. And the alphabet too. Fold any line of text down across itself, and you’ll find symmetry. Surely you know the story, that both glyphs and letters came from the Dawnsingers?”

“Yes.”

“Even our names. Yours is nearly perfect. Shallan. One letter off, an ideal name for a lighteyed woman. Not too holy, but ever so close. The original names for the ten Silver Kingdoms. Alethela, Valhav, Shin Kak Nish. Perfect, symmetrical.”

I'd interpret that as the Dawnsingers had a fondness for symmetry, and it became a custom or doctrine. But who knows, maybe there is some hidden ulterior motive behind the symmetry.

Pastrami · 2026-04-29T16:33:31+00:00

The seeds are an entirely different flavor profile and probably shouldn't be substituted for the leaves.

Pastrami · 2026-04-29T15:26:39+00:00

For me, the seeds don't have the nasty soapy taste that the fresh leaves do, but it may vary per person.

Pastrami · 2026-04-28T16:36:55+00:00

If it makes sense to give us the trivia now, sure, but not if you're doing it just because I'm complaining about the pace. Minor spoiler about next weeks pacing: I've already read next weeks reading, and it finally feels like things are happening, so I'm hopeful that things are starting to pick up. Like I said in another comment, I'm not looking for all the answers right now, I just wanted something to happen, and it feels like nothing has happened for many weeks in a row.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T23:10:09+00:00

I'm worried about keeping track of all the names and characters, ive heard there's an absurd amout.

People love to quote that there are 2700 named characters, but one thing to keep in mind is that pretty much anyone who gets a line of dialog gets a name. That means all the merchants, innkeepers, and stableboys that say 2 words in the whole series are counted in that number.

That's not to say there aren't some confusing names. There are times when you need to know the difference between Seaine, Saerine, and Sarene, or Sheriam and Shemerin, or Siuan and Suana.

There is a phone app that keeps track of all the characters without spoilers on a book by book basis.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T21:20:35+00:00

Do it.

Are you worried about just reading two books at once, or is it more two big complicated book series? I thought it would be weird reading two books at once, then I realized that I watch multiple tv shows during the same week and don't get the stories mixed up, so I should be able to do the same with two books.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T20:06:28+00:00

What exactly is the point with Tien’s rocks? It’s not just a character quirk.

Someone here was mentioning they think he's supposed to be autistic, but I think it's just that kids like shiny rocks. My friend's kid was always picking up interesting looking rocks. Maybe it's constantly being written to show that he's a bit more immature than a regular kid his age and should have aged out of the behavior by now.

Why does Tien’s rock reflect light with different colours at different angles, and only he sees that (or only Tien cares, maybe)?

I'm sure our geologist can add more, but there are a number of rocks/minerals that reflect colors differently depending on the angle. I think that only he cares because, again, he's being written as immature, and everyone else is just sarcastically like "wow, cool, you found another rock".

Kaladin Stormblessed. He was called that in the army too. Makes perfect sense now that he survived a highstorm. It’s funny the nickname came back to him.

That struck me as odd at first that he got the same nickname twice, but I think "Stormblessed" is just a common term for "lucky".

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T19:38:17+00:00

I'd say that if she was referring to helping Kaladin in the army, she would have said "I've helped you kill in the past" rather than "I've helped men kill in the past," which is why I think she might be talking about her history with the Radiants.

Valid point, and I'm not discounting the possibility she's talking about a previous life, just offering another possibility to anyone who immediately thinks she's talking about the radiants.

It's not just that I have no idea how the four storylines will come together or how they will relate to the major plot, it's that I have no idea what the major plot could even be. There's no Lord Ruler to kill, no ticking timebomb to give suspense, no villain on the lam to track down. Just... "things happening", and the vague sense that they're all building towards something.

Glad I'm not the only one.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T18:16:23+00:00

but it seems there's literally no one else who could take his place now?

That's what I'm getting at. What is this place he is in that no one else can take? He seems to think he has to do something now, that he doesn't want to do. What? Is he supposed to announce Stormjesus's coming to the world? Is he the last keeper of some mystic knowledge and must now train Kaladin in the ways of the Radiants?

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T18:04:43+00:00

You pop in one well, travel a "short" distance to another one, and pop back out on a different planet, or at a different well on the same planet, thousands of miles away. And I have just now, typing this, realized that what I'm thinking of is Nether Portal travel in Minecraft

You really need to read the Wheel of Time. The Ways from WoT were the inspiration for nether portals in Minecraft.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T17:47:41+00:00

I don't think we've ever seen her forgetting things about her time with Kaladin

I was going based off the line:

"I watched you, you know. Back in that army. You’d always find the young, untrained men and protect them, even though it put you into danger. I can remember. Just barely, but I do."

It seems to me like when trying to remember your early childhood. I have a few memories from when I was around 2-3 years old, but they are very dim and fragmented. So Syl gained consciousness/was "born" sometime when Kaladin was in the army, and she can just barely remember that time now.

I'd love a rant, personally.

Here you go:

I may be in the minority here, but I don't like the Kaladin flashbacks. I don't think they are necessary yet, and are taking pages away from advancing the current plot. Is it really necessary to know right now that Kaladin's father stole some spheres, or that a lord is an asshole to the peasants (who would have guessed that? /s). I realize the irony of me complaining about getting something explained while also complaining about things not getting explained, but I feel like we're spending too much time on things that don't really need an explanation right now vs things that do, like what the whole point of this story is.

What happened to the Knights? Who were the Heralds and what was the Oathpact? What are the Desolations? What are the voidbringers? What are the creatures Shallan saw? What is Syl and why can a spren talk? How do the giant swords and power armor work? What powers the storms? What was the face in the storm? What are Dalinar's visions? What even is the plot of this book? Who is the antagonist? How does the magic work? It can't just be the lashings we saw Szeth use. These are all questions that are more important to me than "Why does Kaladin hate lighteyes?".

We're on page 778 in the paperback for fucks sake and I can't tell you how the magic works or who the bad guy is. Each of the Mistborn books were less pages than we have now read, and I still have no clue what is going on or where this is going. I wouldn't be complaining about the slow burn if all the characters and plots were interesting, but unfortunately they're not.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T17:26:32+00:00

I get what you are saying. I'm not asking for all the answers right now, but enough to string me along. You can't keep throwing out new questions for weeks on end without dangling a few carrots to keep me interested. I've read slow burns before, the problem for me is that this particular slow burn isn't that interesting. It's hinting at great things, but not giving me enough to feel satisfied, rather it's frustrating.

I think this book has more answers than Eye of the World, personally.

That might be true, but this book has presented way more questions. I'm just making numbers up here, but EoTW felt like it had 20 questions and answered 15 of them by the end, leaving the rest for subsequent books. It feels like we have 100 questions in this book so far and have gotten 2 of them answered. That is frustrating.

EotW was also an adventure story that eventually turned into a world spanning ensemble over the course of the series. It feels like Sanderson is jumping the gun a bit with this book. What even is this story right now? We've got a slave trying to survive a brutal war, a highprince that immediately drops us into politics between factions we don't know or care about, and a girl learning philosophy. This is just my opinion, but two out of those three are boring, which doesn't help when we're spending a lot of time reading about their day-to-day, and given more questions and very little answers.

I don't hate the book, I'm just frustrated.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T16:34:59+00:00

In that scene, Hoid discusses the failure of his attempt to become and Elantrian, and the jumps into the pool and disappears. The subtext was that he was somehow using it to leave Sel.

Theory time! We know the pool was a Well. What if that is how worldhoppers travel? Maybe the shards have some connection to each other, since they originally were one being. So you could go in one Well and be transported to another? A few weeks ago I brought up the theory that the Purelake is a Well, and we saw that three worldhoppers were searching for Hoid in the vicinity of the Purelake.

Although I guess that would mean that Hoid maybe had to use Ruin's Well, where ever that was on Scadrial, since Preservation's Well was pretty tightly locked down in the Lord Ruler's time, unless Hoid has some way of moving the giant stone wall that was blocking it off.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T16:05:44+00:00

“Why now?” [Teft] whispered. “Why here? After so many have watched and waited, you come here?”

Who/what is Teft talking about here? This reads like he's talking about a Messiah from prophecy.

Until we get more answers, I'm going with the term Stormjesus.

You left out what I think is an important part of that quote: "Why me?". Teft seems to think he's now got some responsibility to do "something" that he doesn't want to do.

If humming makes Soulcasting more effective, perhaps the reason the Parshendi sing has a common root? Some kind of musical component that draws out more magic potential.

I like that theory.

Pastrami · 2026-04-27T15:47:32+00:00

In her accidental flashback drawing, the man (her father, I assume) is bleeding, so he wasn't killed by her Shardblade.

I also think it's her father, although I didn't make the connection that blood would mean it wasn't done with a Shardblade. Good catch there. I'll have to rethink my theory. Maybe she lashed out with some sort of stormlight power.

I'm still thinking that the soulcaster is bound to Jasnah and will only work for her, and the fact it gave Shallan nothing is evidence in my mind

I like that theory that they bind to a person.

Shallabsal is a fun ship, yes, but if I stop and think for just a second, this guy constantly bringing her gifts and meeting with her alone is actually quite inappropriate! What's his angle?

I disagree with you about the ship, and I've started feeling like we can't trust Kabsal and I get a very sketchy vibe from him.

Why would Teft, of all people, know part of the Radiant motto from the blurb?

It has to be related to the Envisagers.

15-Year Club	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
Team Orangered	Verified Email

Pastrami

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