Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

Cue Roshone crying and then when he orders the men to arrest Kaladin he gets out his Shardblade and writ from Dalinar. Which puts him on the 4th Dahn like Roshone.

Hm, you're right. I could have sworn Shardbearers were 3rd dahn, but it is 4th. Of course, as leader of the Windrunners he's arguably 2nd dahn (Highprince rank), but even ignoring that, Dalinar's writ will definitely put him in charge.

The whole Dahn system came after the Radiants so its not designed to handle them.

Also, Roshone's direct superiors are either I. dead or II. currently on the lam from an angry Highprince of War

The more I think about the ardents and Dalinar, the more pissed I get. They value their dogma—dogma which they know was passed down from a bunch of power hungry priests who liked to rewrite history books—over divinely inspired visions and the word of the most powerful supernatural being on the planet? Dalinar already gave them an out; he said that if the Almighty was dead, then obviously there must be something greater beyond him. Just declare that Tanavast was never the god they worshiped, just a representative, and bam, crisis of faith averted. Instead they're yelling about how these visions that have been accumulating more evidence by the day must be false.

I wonder if this is going to lead to a civil war in the church. In Words, didn't someone from the Ardentia promise Dalinar support after his visions (including that part about the Almighty being dead) got outed?

It was probably easier to support Dalinar (or humor him) before the Everstorm broke loose. Or the thing with the Queen in Kohlinar.

Or the Radiants *actually* returning.

The impression I got was that the guy was worried less about the religious implications and more about the political implications of Dalinar throwing the Vorin church into chaos. That and his personal history with Dalinar, anyway.

Speaking of which, who wants to bet that Dalinar was somehow responsible for his wife's death and that blocking his memory of that was what he asked the Old Magic for? And he got it, at the price of not being able to remember anything else about her, either.

edited 5th Sep '17 1:34:33 PM by NativeJovian

I was very glad 6 was also a Kaladin chapter.

Syl is also as fantastic as ever.

You know, I kind of think Kaladin didn't actually think about the fact punching Roshone won't really have consequences because of the Radiant issue before he did it.

Also the lack of Shallan continues to be conspicuous.

Edit actually now that I think about it, Kaladin is far too conscious of the class differences for it now to be a consideration. I still think it was largely subconscious though.

edited 5th Sep '17 3:59:38 PM by 32ndfreeze

Maybe he killed her during the rescue attempt, while the Thrill was upon him? Or worse, maybe he killed her on purpose for some reason, once the Thrill left. It's hard to say, but it takes a lot to make a battle-hardened soldier puke his guts out and then run away to live as a monk.

I think you're right that he wasn't really thinking about his status as a Radiant. When he was looking at Roshone's guard, he wasn't like "This man is disrespecting me," he was thinking "This man is a terrible excuse for a soldier, and is an insult to my profession." He probably punched out Roshone because he knew he could fight off the guard easily. He won't need to once he summons his Shardblade and pulls out the writ, but he's more used to having physical power to back him up than political authority.

I feel like I rambled incoherently on that second one.

(reads chapters)

Nice to know he doesn't outright hate Moash for, you know, betraying them and trying to kill him. But then, it's only been a few days. Ad that was evil, leaving it at that cliffhanger. And is it just me, or does one remember the chapters in Way and Words being longer?

Honestly, I'm expecting it to be something more nuanced than "he accidentally killed her while in the grips of the Thrill", if only because that's the obvious conclusion so therefore I expect Sanderson to hint at that, and then do something else more interesting instead, as is his wont.

I suspect they killed her and Dalinar went batshit crazy and basically singlehandedly murdered an entire city

His deal with the Old Magic was then to make him stop being that person

Anyone else pick up on Kaladin possibly having a new sibling?

Lirin mentions a new apprentice (Mara, so probably a sister if I'm inferring things correctly) he's had far a few years and Hesina says they have something to tell Kaladin while discussing their family.

edited 5th Sep '17 8:43:43 PM by Jaustin89*

When the Kaladin chapter was first dropped a few years ago, it ended when Kaladin was found by the guard. Now that was an annoying cliffhanger. This is just a satisfying moment that made an excellent end to the chapter.

That does sound like the sort of thing that the Alethi elite would congratulate him for, but he and his men would be like "what the fuck did we just do."

...if he does have a new sibling, she would either be around five (if Hesina was pregnant/was about to get pregnant when Tien and Kaladin left Hearthstone) or one (if they waited until they got word of Kaladin's death before trying for another baby). Either way, too young to be a new apprentice. Lirin mentions Mara in a "if you get rid of me, Mara will take my place" sort of way. Sounds like a young adult from the village who took the job because someone had to. I do like the idea of Kaladin having a new sibling, it just doesn't fit with her being his father's new apprentice.

I took the "we had to dedicate your spot to something else" line as a hint toward a possible new sibling, but that's more of a guess than anything concrete.

I don't recall, is being a doctor consider a masculine job, a feminine one, or either/or? We know that Roshar's medical knowledge is advanced enough for people to actually go away to university where they can study full-time for several years in order to learn the field, rather than a more medieval apprenticeship type deal, which strikes me as seeming "scholarly", which is a feminine thing. But the issues with Kaladin and his dad and the rest of the village were less about "that's women's work" and more about class differences. Plus Mara strikes me as a feminine name, though I could be wrong there.

Surgery seems to be classified as men's work, though women's work can obviously include study of human biology and anatomy.

And I still stand by my theory that Dalinar was never actually married. There was something he needed to cover up, so he got the Old Magic to make everyone believe he had been married, himself included.

Although if he was married I wonder if teaching him how to read might be a way around the mental block he has concerning any information about his wife. Like most Alethi men, Dalinar is illiterate, so the curse may have decided all it needed to do to keep him ignorant of her was stop him from hearing any information about her or seeing any pictures she was in; it didn't do anything to stop him from reading about her because that seemed unnecessary. So if Navani decides to start educating him, now that they know many of the old Vorin customs were misguided . . .

edited 6th Sep '17 10:44:19 AM by RavenWilder

Did his wife die before or after Gavilar? I assume before, which would put a big hole in the theory that his request of the Old Magic induced him changing his ways from Chaotic Evil (essentially) to Neutral Good. A shame, because I quite liked that one.

And even if it's in the aftermath of a disaster, come on Sanderson, let us have a little catharsis in Kaladin coming back to his hometown a superhero. Wonder where Laral is. And also what's the secret, it sounds like they adopted someone maybe?

She died before.

As for Kaladin and Hearthstone, I think the chapter is cathartic. Everyone he cares about is alive, his parents aren't shunning him, and then he sees Roshone and gets to deck him. We'll have to see what happens next, but I highly doubt he's going to continue letting everyone think of him as some random deserter. Presumably he'll summon his Shardblade and pull out the writ Dalinar gave him, which will put him in charge.

As for Laral, I imagine she's just in another room. Maybe Roshone specifically kept her away because he knows she has a connection to Kaladin, or maybe he just thought it wasn't important enough to involve her. It's conceivable that she could be dead, but no one really seems to be seriously injured. Kaladin notes that they don't seem to have been attacked by Parshmen turned Voidbringers; presumably we'll get an explanation for that in the next chapter.

I read the last chapter in a bit of a rush yesterday since I read it right before I started work. I went back and reread it this morning, and a few things I found interesting I missed the first time.

You know, if would be actually pretty interesting if Roshone had genuinely became a better person in the five years Kaladin was gone.

We've only seen him for a few moment so far, but he doesn't seem to have any objections to the villagers hiding in the mansion. Plus he's the most likly person to be responsible for possible listening to Dalinar's advice. I doubt anyone else could have had spanreed access.

I mean, it's not necessarily true. But it could be interesting.

I also missed the brilliance of this line the first time around.

That last line implies that KALADIN s paying enough attention to know what he's talking about. I have this hilarious image of Adolin reading an Alethi fashion magazine and Kaladin reading over his shoulder...

I think I missed that last part of the line on my first read. Kaladin seems to believe they were fought off, instead of Roshone just sending the Parshmen away before the storm. Could there be another Radiant here? Is that why Laral hasn't popped up yet? Or is Kaladin just jumping to fighting because that's what he would have done to protect the town if he were there?

edited 7th Sep '17 11:02:40 AM by Discar

Didn't he see damage to the Parshman barracks that implied that they'd punched their way out?

I'm guessing that, rather than immediately going "Kill all humans!" the awakened parshmen have had some sort of homing instinct activated.

edited 7th Sep '17 3:05:42 PM by RavenWilder

*wmg* Jasnah popped out of Shadesmar right beyond the city, meaning she and Wit were at hand

"You?" "You!"

That would make sense. After all, from an overall strategic standpoint, it's a bad idea to have every parshman mindlessly try to kill everyone. Roshone had what, a dozen parshmen? Less? Even if they're stormform, a dozen parshmen aren't going to be able to slaughter a town filled with hundreds of people, most of whom are strong farmers. They'd kill a lot of people before being taken down, sure, but it would be a bad trade from their perspective and a waste of Odium's resources. It would be a better idea for them to just leave and meet up with other Voidbringers in the wilderness to form an army.

I am 100% sure that Kaladin will run into Jasnah sooner or later (the cover art seems to be of Jasnah repairing the Kholinar wall, which is where Kaladin is going next), but not sure beyond that. Jasnah returned from Shadesmar before the Everstorm (Hoid told her he thought it would hit Shinovar later that night), and then she and Hoid walked off to the nearest town, which could well have been Hearthstone.

edited 7th Sep '17 10:08:22 PM by Discar

It'd also cut down on any...clogging in Kaladins storyline after punching Roshone. Jashnah is 3rd Dahn + The Kings Sister so she can basically tell Roshone to stuff it. If Hoid tells her Kal is a Radiant too, she'll probably back him up.