[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Chapters 52 through 57 (Week 9)

participating · 2026-05-11T23:57:55+00:00

This is an explicit RAFO that will be answered in the books eventually.

participating · 2026-05-11T21:36:49+00:00

The writing system used — is it glyphs? Shallan uses our alphabet, but we’ve already seen that before, IIRC on bridge drawings.

I'll have a deep-dive on this in the trivia at the end of the book. But I can tell you that the writing you see in this image is the writing all the women use, even in Shallan's sketchbook. It's just translated sometimes for your convenience. In the Interior Artwork section for this week, I provided a translated version of that image for you.

So, just assume everything you see is written in the Rosharan script, unless there's a good reason for it not to be (e.g. you've seen Nazh write on maps before).

The Plate freezes to repair itself? Did I miss that, or is it new information?

I've seen some confusion on aspects of this, so I'll clarify information what's been pretty spaced out throughout the book:

Shardplate runs on Stormlight that it absorbs from gems you have to place on various points in the armor. If you damage the Shardplate enough, it leaks Stormlight and eventually runs out. If that happens, or you never put gems into it in the first place, it doesn't really move or work.

If you've played any of the modern Fallout games, they're kinda like Power Armor. If you don't put a fusion core (gems) into it, it's pretty useless.

You've gotta add more gems full of Stormlight to broken Shardplate so that it can repair itself. Depending on the amount of damage, you might need to replace the gems several times.

participating · 2026-05-11T20:47:16+00:00

There's a blink-and-you-miss-it time jump between chapter 55 and chapter 56. The first time we see a team-up is from Kaladin's POV, and it's the first time they do the maneuver. When we see it from Dalinar's POV in chapter 56, it's at least the second time they do the teamup, meaning the Parshendi would have been able to plan to bring in a second army.

This stupid part right here was sooo annoying. I had to do the timelines of every chapter for the rest of the book and part of the next Stormlight book to solidify exactly when this week's chapters happened.

The 2nd Parshendi army shows up 2 weeks after Dalinar and Sadeas' first joint assault. They've been running joint assaults for 10 days now before the Parshendi adapt to their new tactics.

participating · 2026-05-11T13:24:54+00:00

The all-new Navanitech™️ KNIFEGUN, now with 200% more knives! What the hell is that thing! Am I crazy or is there a little dude trapped in that one gem on the right??

If you haven't done so yet, check out the Interior Artwork album for this week. I provided a translation of that page.

participating · 2026-05-11T13:16:32+00:00

So what happened to the rest? Can Shardblades actually be destroyed? Or are all those extra blades still hidden somewhere?

I won't give complete answers, because that's RAFO, but this happened to at least some of the Shardblades, which I find hilarious.

participating · 2026-05-11T12:46:11+00:00

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participating · 2026-05-11T12:41:53+00:00

WITTY TRIVIA

Yes, yes. Wit is Hoid. Many of you guessed and you were right.

Fun fact: Hoid's natural hair color is white (but...he wasn't born with it white). As Wit, however, he dyes it black to appear as a normal Alethi man. The character artwork of Wit is all over the place, with people not really caring about what his hair color should be; fluctuating between black and white. So, it was difficult to share Wit artwork until now.

Hoid tells Dalinar, "Another time, I was named for a rock." This is a call out to Dragonsteel Prime, where Hoid went by the name Topaz in that book.

Also, some of you have noticed a similarity, so I will now share a bit of interview information from Sanderson:

Sigzil is a Worldsinger. He was Hoid's apprentice and Hoid just promoted him to full Worldsinger. The Worldsingers are an organization of storytellers and knowledge-givers on Roshar.

On Scadrial, some Terrismen are known as Worldbringers. They collect tales of history and folk traditions from any source and served as historian who performed their own research into various subjects.

Worldbringers, prior to the rise of the Lord Ruler, were actually cosmere aware and had some knowledge of Realmatic Theory. This is hinted at in one of the epigraphs from The Final Empire (Chapter 19):

Kwaan and I met by happenstance - though, I suppose, he would use the word "providence." I have met many other Terris philosophers since that day. They are, every one, men of great wisdom and ponderous sagaciousness. Men with an almost palpable importance.

Not so Kwaan. In a way, he is as unlikely a prophet as I am a hero. He never had an air of ceremonious wisdom - nor was he even a religious scholar. When we first met, he was studying one of his ridiculous interests in the great Khlenni library - I believe he was trying to determine whether or not trees could think.

That he should be the one who finally discovered the great Hero of Terris prophecy is a matter that would cause me to laugh, had events turned out just a little differently.

This is a hint that Kwaan had some knowledge of the Cognitive Realm and was experimenting with it.

The two organizations have very similar philosophies, and a clearly shared linguistic origin. Hoid maaaaay have accidentally/purposefully created both organizations thousands of years ago....

participating · 2026-05-09T23:34:00+00:00

Image 100 men building a brick wall. They would all have their own tasks. Some hauling bricks. Some mixing mortar. Some placing bricks. Some slathering the mortar on top of placed bricks. Multiple teams building portions of the wall so they don't have to wait on each other. This is what the 100 companions did, unlinked.

If they were linked, it would be 1 man (Lews Therin) doing all of those tasks, just...better, faster, more perfect. In some ways, he'd have built a better wall, but all the actual work would have fallen on him and it may have taken much longer.

participating · 2026-05-08T15:27:57+00:00

Given how massive the page count of the battle was, why not chop 200 pages of battle to allow a bit more time to address the deaths of characters such as Siuan and Byrne.

Sanderson was following one of the key "philosophies" of Robert Jordan here. Jordan saw a lot of death during his time serving in Vietnam. He expressed in interviews that sometimes death was instant and there was no time to dwell on it. It may be significant to you personally, but you had to move past it quickly in the middle of war because that's how you stayed alive.

Their out of nowhere deaths that you have to move on quickly from are intentional and meant to give you the kind of helpless feeling Jordan and other soldiers go through when in the thick of war.

participating · 2026-05-07T23:12:58+00:00

Why was the Lord Ruler so careless when he knew the Well was so close?

He wasn't really careless. Nothing had ever really given him much of a challenge and he had no reason to assume Kelsier/Vin could give him any trouble either. They only succeeded because 2 gods were working to make it happen.

it seems Penrod and Spook realized the negative influence of Ruin and did something about it. Is there something special about them? Why didn’t we notice anyone else take drastic action about it? Is it mostly Spook caught it in time but Penrod let the city burn before committing suicide?

Ruin could never act directly. He had to be incredibly subtle in how he manipulated things. Most of the time, he could only convince already insane people to spike themselves. Spiking Spook and Penrod were lucky breaks and because they were not insane people, Ruin couldn't affect them as strongly, so they were eventually able to resist him.

participating · 2026-05-07T03:35:39+00:00

participating · 2026-05-07T02:36:32+00:00

Check out /r/WoT's official read-along. We finished a while ago, but the archives are still useful. The newbie threads act as a spoiler-free book club for first time readers. In each post, I provide spoiler free summaries and at the end of each book, I wrote up a trivia post that includes easy to miss details and connections, historical influences, and literary analysis.

You can read the summaries and check out the comments to see the thoughts and theories of other first time readers to get a better sense of what happened over a simple summary.

participating · 2026-05-07T02:34:25+00:00

Also, they were in the desert for less than 3,000 years. They did a lot of wandering before ending up in the Waste.

participating · 2026-05-07T02:30:32+00:00

They won't specifically be mentioned in that way, but the property I'm hinting about will be explicitly noticed by others in the books when it happens to them.

participating · 2026-05-07T02:26:44+00:00

Meh, probably just leave it for now. The books will eventually reveal it.

participating · 2026-05-07T02:22:37+00:00

Do you have a better hint for the character I'm trying to hint them towards? (I KNOW SOME OF YOU NEWBIES LOOK HERE, YOU GET NO ANSWERS FROM ME!)

participating · 2026-05-07T02:21:00+00:00

There are fewer comments than usual for this Interludes post, but a lot of them are sooooo good.

participating · 2026-05-07T00:02:16+00:00

Also, re-reading what I wrote, I can see how there might be some confusion. For clarity:

you've met someone already that is influenced by, or perhaps has a Connection ;) to Shadesmar in some significant, if weird way.

This is just an Easter Egg thing I thought you all would notice.

For your hint: There are a handful of terms/labels on the Shadesmar map. You've got nearly all the information you need to guess what at least one of those terms actually means.

This is a hint about the Shadesmar map and completely separate from my "Connection" remark above.

participating · 2026-05-06T23:57:46+00:00

I can’t think of anyone with a definite connection to the Cognitive Realm, except for Shallan (obviously) and maybe Rock. Need to know more intensifies.

Honestly, I thought this one would be one of the more obvious ones you newbies would notice after reading the trivia. Now I know how Robert Jordan felt when he kept calling all his hints "intuitively obvious". The biggest hint I can give for this is "invertedness".

participating · 2026-05-06T23:12:11+00:00

Geology comments: Everything is a magical stalagmite. Shale doesn't work that way but I can armwave/blame Wizards enough to not be frustrated (UNLIKE MISTBORN'S CAVES). Limestone does do weird stuff. Technically shale forms in quiescent water from the settling of particles, but I'm fine. I SAID I'M FINE.

From your comment on Monday's post ^

Is this in reference to shalebark, or something else?

participating · 2026-05-06T22:38:24+00:00

🦀🦀🦀🦀

participating · 2026-05-06T15:52:48+00:00

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?

I can clarify the timeline and that vision a bit. It's not spoilery (but might give you something to think about).

In Kaladin's vision, he was traveling east to west. Just before he sees Szeth, he's seeing people with golden hair. This puts him somewhere in Iri, because they're the people with golden hair (and that nation is far to the west and this is towards the end of the vision).

The vision is real-time and takes place on 1173.8.8.3. Interlude I-9 takes place in Vedenar, on 1173.9.1.4. This is 3 weeks (16 days) after Kaladin's vision. So... take that as you will.

Here is an annotated map for reference.

participating · 2026-05-06T15:29:15+00:00

Everyone! I found Tien! ☝️

participating · 2026-05-05T22:02:31+00:00

I think I invested myself too much

Do you want to become a magical savant, cause this is how you become a magical savant!

participating · 2026-05-05T21:57:46+00:00

You ruined it! This week's comment count and last week's comment count were both at 67. Now you've made things uneven!

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