History Fridge / TheStormlightArchive

* After "Rythm of War", it becomes obvious that Taravangian's gift by Cultivation wasn't what he believed. It was obvious from the first book that he wasn't actually balancing intelligence and compassion, since even at his least intelligence he would not have stopped his plan, meaning he couldn't be ''that'' compassionate. The things that are in opposition, instead, are logical intelligence and ''emotional'' intelligence. Due to bias both in our own world and Roshar, the former is considered to be general intelligence and the latter is discounted and not noticed, and that's why Taravangian is mistaken to be simply "stupid" during those times (particularly since Taravangian is more focused on losing his logical skill and confusing him understanding the pain he causes with simple compassion to notice). The misunderstanding is intentional on Cultivation's part, though, since that's what leads Odium to seek Taravangian during those moments, believing he has the upper hand. ''However'', Odium is first and foremost a being made of passion, which means that he is actually most vulnerable to Taravangian manipulation in that state, even more so since he is underestimating him. This ends up actually being Rayse's undoing.

** It is interesting to note the lack of sexism in Vorin-based societies, despite the gender role restrictions. In fact, Vorinism places some very strict roles on gender, and while possible to circumvent by being an ardent, it still divides the sexes into tasks that are oddly awkward at times. However, Look at the roles that women fill: clerks, scientists, scribes, engineers, researchers, etc. Many of these roles, especially scribing and clerical work, are absolutely essential for any society to function. By requiring that specific roles essential for society to operate are locked to women, Vorinism ensures that women not only remain highly educated but also very powerful, effectively curbing the traditionally masculine society that would develop historically. This results in a society where sexism is virtually nonexistent. This exact notion of women's "power" is explicitly deconstructed, however, in Jasnah's writings.

* Vorinism, and Alethi culture in particular, makes a lot of sense when you learn in ''Oathbringer'' that [[spoiler: the humans of Roshar originally worshiped, and might even have been created by, Odium.]] Vorinism teaches that the meaning of life is to follow your Calling and achieve excellence in it, so that you will be able to better support the spiritual war effort in the afterlife. The Alethi go even further and turn everything into a contest to see who's stronger and better. [[spoiler: Odium is the Shard of passion and unbridled emotion, particularly hatred. Finding the thing you most like to do and trying to surpass all others in it is ''exactly'' what he'd encourage people to do.]] At the same time, Alekhar also has some very rigid caste and gender roles, and old traditions like the Codes that argue for strict discipline. [[spoiler: The humans eventually turned away from Odium and began worshiping Honor instead, and he likely tried to channel and control their passions by imposing rules on them in accordance with his own Intent.]] Which is the most noticeable offshoot from the church made to follow Honor? The ''Passions''.

* The different fighting stances used by shardbearers e.g. vinestance, smokestance, stonestance are [[spoiler: named after each type of spren that the Knights Radiant bonded with. Oathbringer shows us ash spren, and Cultivation spren are shown to be made up of vines.]]

* In ''Way of King'' we learn Shin consider the stone sacred and no human may walk on it according to their religion, which doesn't make any sense when most of Roshar is bare stone. Then comes ''Oathbringer'' and suddenly it makes ''perfect'' sense: [[spoiler: according to the pact with the Dawnsingers, human refugees where confined to the lands that later become Shin - the only place where stone was covered by soil]]. This prohibition is probably the only evidence of the original terms that largely forgotten by people.

* Seeing the future is a taboo on Roshar, and is in almost all cases linked to Odium, with a strong message of "don't trust anyone, who claims to see the future", [[spoiler: causing a lot of distress for Renarin.]] The reason for that may be less sinister than we assume:
** As we remember from Mistborn series, [[spoiler: Atium induced future seeing can be countered by another person that also looks into the future, making previous predictions no longer valid.]]
** [[spoiler: Not all visions of future are coming from the same source: they should not be trusted, because they can be countered by predictions coming from other sources, so expecting that X WILL happen may prove disastrous when someone else intervenes due to gaining a vision of the future from someone else.]]

** What is more, [[spoiler: Taraviangian's Diagram says that Renarin himself is a wild card, and his actions cannot be predicted - we must remember that Diagram itself comes from Cultivation's gift to Taravangian, so Renarin, whose powers come in part from Odium, is not as predictable as other, uncorrupted Radiants.]]

** When the nations begin to squabble, she organizes by giving the Azish the job of regulating meetings, the Thaylen in charge of commerce, etc.

** Reference to ten Orders of Radiants and, possibly, [[spoiler: Honor's death]].

** [[spoiler: Battle of Thaylend Field, where ten Surgebinders [[note]]Dalinar, Lift, Szeth, Jasnah, Kaladin, Shallan, Renarin, Teft, Taln and Shalash [[/note]] fought against Voidbringer army. ]]

** Tower and crown are symbols of House Kholin and the fallen title likely refers to Radiants. It may be about Kaladin becoming Captain of Guard for Kholins after his actions in ''Ways of Kings''.

** A dark inversion of the First Ideal of Radiants. Possibly in reference of how [[spoiler: Odium can give people a void-powered version of ten Surges.]]

** This either refers to Everstorm clashing with Highstorm during the Battle of Narak (which destoyed some plateaus), or to whatever event has created the Shattered Plains.

* Arrows have a habit of conveniently missing Kaladin ''just barely'' during bridge runs, hitting the wood near his hands and head instead. [[spoiler:Keep in mind that he usually carries his money on his person during these runs, and that the spheres always seem to go dun a lot faster than they ought to. Now, how did Reverse Lashing work again?]].
* At one point, the King's Wit talks to Dalinar and mentions how gibberish words are often the sounds of other words. Doesn't seem too important. [[spoiler: Then we find out that the "gibberish" that Dalinar speaks during his visions are actual words, only in an ancient dead language]]
* In the epilogue Wit mentions that the system of Lighteyed rule, despite seeming so bizarre, was created for perfectly logical reasons. Actual eye color is clearly as poor and indicator of intelligence and leadership qualities on Roshar as on Earth, but what probably happened, was that people remembered the Radiants having eyes that glowed, and are still deferential to bright eyes without remembering the reasons. Even more so, it's revealed that if you pick up a Shardblade, your eyes change color to light. It's quite probable that ''all'' lighteyes are the descendants of Radiants and Shardbearers.

* The Parshendi targeting the expendable and easily replaced bridgemen over other more worthwhile soldiers is a puzzle to the Alethi. But when you consider the Parshendi are shapechangers who move between different forms for specialized roles, it makes sense that they would consider targeting bridgemen worthwhile. The Parshendi don't really believe in cannon fodder, since any Parshendi can become any role. While they would likely grasp, intellectually, that humans don't shapechange, there would still be an innate belief that killing a human - any human - would remove a potential enemy soldier from the field, even if that combatant was a lowly bridgeman. As an added bonus, that's exactly what happens during the book: Bridge Four turns from being made of the lowliest of the bridgemen to a BadassCrew able to held its own in an actual battle. Notably, the first Radiant they face is a bridgeman. Not only that, but when Kaladin things about his CharacterDevelopment in ''Oathbringer'', it sounds a bit like he shifted through forms.
* There's a scene halfway through the book where Shallan is trying to figure out how to make Jasnah's Soulcaster work. One of the books she reads suggests humming is a key to making it work. Shortly after trying (and failing) this, Shallan is studying the patterns the Soulcast stone in the ceiling of her room when she first hears [[spoiler: the spren talking to her]]. Its rather subtle, but [[spoiler: Pattern is, well, made up of patterns, and he also likes to hum quite a bit. It's not really a coincidence that the first time he speaks to Shallan, it is after she tries humming to Soulcast, and starts studying patterns in her surroundings]].
* Pattern and the other cryptics appear in Shallans artwork at odd times. We are good later on though that Cryptics [[spoiler:attracted to lies.]] They appear in two pictures one of Taravangian and one of Kabsal. Both of which are [[spoiler:lying. Kabsal is misleading Shallan and Taravangian is feigning stupidity.]] The cryptics then follow Shallan [[spoiler:the biggest liar of all due to her status as a Lightweaver and everything she has reppressed in her momories.]]

* Remember the scene where Dalinar uses his Shardplate to [[MundaneUtility help some dark eyed workers perform construction]], something that has others looking at him like he's crazy? Taken on its own, it's an EstablishingCharacterMoment that shows Dalinar is willing to do the kind of work other Highprinces consider beneath their station. In ''Oathbringer'' we learn that [[spoiler: the powers of a Bondsmith, which Dalinar becomes at the end of ''Words of Radiance'' are paticularly suited to this kind of thing, far more than they are for straight up combat, which he demonstrates by helping the people of Thalinar rebuild their wrecked city]]. {{Foreshadowing}} done two books and six real-world years early.

* If Amaram's actions weren't [[MoralEventHorizon horrible enough]], they were entirely pointless if you believe his justifications. He told Kaladin that a Shardblade would be wasted on a darkeyes with no sword training, he can use it to its full potential, he needs a spotless reputation, and a Shardblade in his hands would save Alethkar. The thing is, Kaladin willingly gave up the Shardblade to one of his men, who refused it. Amaram could have claimed it, and given his command of the rumor mill, let the rumor spread that his darkeyed soldiers admire him so much that they passed over nobility and willingly gave him a Shardblade. He'd have everything he said he'd want; destroying all the witnesses and claiming that he slew the Shardbearer isn't pragmatism, it's spite.

* All along, Renarin seems to be trying to overcome physical disabilities through sheer force of will. Everyone applauds him for making the effort, but it doesn't actually matter, except for what it says about his character. The only remotely useful thing he does at any point is use his Shardblade to cut through stone. [[spoiler: then you get to the end and find out he's a Radiant. This means that handling the Shardblade is exactly as hard for him as it is for Kaladin. But he was still doing it anyway with just mild winces.]] Now that is a HandicappedBadass.

* A VERY subtle hint that [[spoiler:Shardblades are spren very early on]]. Navani told Dalinar that early Shardbearers learned to do the hammerspace storage thing by slapping a gem on their Shardblades. In Adolin's duel however, when his opponent unbinds from his Shardblade, Adolin takes of the binding ruby and crushes it in his hands. There is no mention of [[spoiler:a spren escaping]], as there was when Eshonai broke HER gem when she changed form. As the narration mentioned doing that was unnecessary to actually taking someone's Shardblade, that means the gem was perfectly fine and he could have used it as it was, and the [[spoiler:spren]] hadn't 'run out'. So... where was [[spoiler:the spren]] that should have been paired with the gem to make it a functioning piece of magitech? IN THE BLADE. Real subtle Brandon...

* The first two Highprinces to join Dalinar on his march to the center were Roion and Sebarial, the cowards. They are also the two Highprinces least likely to feel the Thrill, which drives Alethi to violence and infighting. Even better by ''Oathbringer'', when you learn that [[spoiler: the Thrill is actually an Unmade, an agent of Odium, who in turn is acting to bring back the Voidbringers. It's not just the infighting, it's preventing them to moving against its master.]]
* When it is first noticed that Jasnah is missing, Navani says that it's nothing unusual for her. She says her daughter has a tendency to appear somewhere other than where she was supposed to be going, and to be reluctant to explain What happened. Considering the kinds of enemies she has, it's probable that this isn't the first time she's had to teleport after narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt.

* Kaladin expresses an irrational fear that if he reveals his abilities to Dalinar, then the lighteyes will try to steal his powers the way they've taken everything else from him that he's loved. And while his fears regarding Dalinar taking his powers are unfounded, he's right in the sense that there are AntiMagic tools that can drain Stormlight from a Radiant and that spren like Syl could theoretically be captured in gemstones to sever his bond. He's also right in that a lighteyed person did take away his powers: Moash, who has started to become a lighteye after getting his Shardblade and Plate, was the catalyst for Kaladin's HeroicBSOD that broke his oath and depowered him.

* In the final chapters when Lopen [[spoiler: accidentally swears the Second Ideal he asks why then and is informed that he wasn't ready when he attempted it before. What was different this time? He was cheering up wounded soldiers by doing magic tricks and telling them that there is still hope, "protecting" them from falling into despair when they couldn't do it themselves.]]
* Throughout the book, Shallan [[spoiler:increasingly becomes just another personality occupying her own mind]]. There's a very good reason for that. Surgebinders become Surgebinders because they're {{BrokenAce}}s, and Shallan was broken as a child. Now that she's grown up, she still hasn't gotten over that pain. That means that she still sees herself, possibly on a Spiritual level, as being a scared little girl. Her mind can't process her own CharacterDevelopment and so even though she's gained new skills and confidence, the only way she knows how to process that change is to create more lies; she's convinced herself that all Shallan can be is a coward. The reason she's not a scared little girl is also the very reason she thinks she is.

** Ruin's own use of prophecy mainly composed of altering existing prophecies to serve his ends, sometimes moment by moment to fit the situation. Odium is noted to be ''very'' good at making his own prophecies and sees very far into the future, to the point that predicting the future is actively taboo on Roshar due to how closely it is tied to Odium. They don't even play gambling games that rely on guess the future result of, say dice rolls, because that smacks too much of prophecy, instead playing variants where they guess the numbers ''after'' dice have been rolled, since that makes it a past event.
** In appearance, Odium tends towards gold and white colors, and appears as a gold and/or white clad member of the species he is appearing to. Ruin tends toward black and dark gray, and appears as someone the viewer knows. Odium tries to make the person he is talking to trust and surrender to him with a calming, AffablyEvil demeanor while Ruin takes advantage of already-established trust and subverts it to his own ends.
** Both are a source of Investiture and use their Investiture to power and physically alter certain minions. In this, they are actually very alike, both utilizing corrupted versions of other Shards' Investiture, with many of their minions undergoing noticeable physical changes. With Odium, however, ''most'' of these changes are natural parts of his minions biology stemming from changes to their spiritual or Cognitive aspects that trickle down to the Physical Realm. Ruin actively alters and mutilates his minions in the Physical Realm with stolen bits of Spiritual data to alter and add to their Cognitive and Spiritual parts.

** Both utilize forms of mind control. Odium does it by implanting Physical beings with spren/Cognitive beings aligned to him, and Ruin does it by spiking them with Hemulurgical spikes, physically opening them up to his Cognitive tampering and control. Notably, all of Ruin's forces were in the Physical realm, with him being the only Cognitive presence, while Odium, while having a sizeable force on the Physical Realm, has a significantly more massive force in the Cognitive Realm, and is also able to corrupt and control Cognitive beings.
** Speaking of mind control, Odium's acts of subversion tend toward deals and pacts that he is completely up front and honest about, and will actually go through with in both spirit and letter. This allows him to take control of populations and essentially conscript whole peoples to his side by subverting their leaders, with eventual trickle down effects. Ruin, however, plays ALL sides. The leaders, the mooks, the rebels AND the heroes. By massive and subtle manipulations, everyone is unknowningly on Ruin's side even as they are impelled to try and destroy everyone else, and even when they think they're opposing him.
** Before becoming Shards, Ati, Ruin's holder, was noted as being a good man who was corrupted into being the crazy creep that came to destroy Scardrial, and being very honest about it. Rayse, Odium's holder, has apparently ALWAYS been an evil asshole, yet currently presents himself as a friendly, wise and relatable guy... when he's trying to con you into dealing away EVERYTHING to him.
*** This also explains their difference in methods. Ati wasn't evil, he succumbed to the shard impulses, so Ruin was unable to hide them, and he used his powers to impose himself on others and stripe their mind away, just like it happened to him. Rayse, however, ''wanted'' it, and got control on his shard, and this is reflected in his subtelty.

** Finally, both Ruin and Odium [[spoiler:are killed because of deliberate actions of the other Shard they share the planet with]], who use their superior ability to see into the future to do it, using people the other that they thought they could subvert and control to deal the fatal blow, and [[spoiler:both are replaced by a new bearer of the Shard]]. Notably, the change to a new bearer makes the Shard overall ‘’stronger’’. And while Ati’s soul might to the the beyond, since he’s only normal dead, Rayse is NIGHTBLOOD dead. The investiture making up his soul has been EATEN. It’s unlikely anything of him went Beyond. While the new bearer of Ruin’s power is a good man who intends to be hands-off and use his power to affect the world as little as possible, taking the power on a new path, the [[spoiler:new Odium intends to stay the course Rayse set, and is likely an even more capable and evil force than the previous one.]]

* In this book, we get rough translations for the names of Dalinar and Evi's children. "Adolin" means "Born unto Light", and "Renarin" roughly means "Like one who was born unto himself". By the end of the book, Adolin looks to be on the path to Radiance (or something adjacent to it, at least), and whatever Renarin is going to become, it's clear that it's nothing that's ever existed before and he will have to, so to speak, create himself.

* The Parshendi's song of dullform mentions that in order to become one, the singer needs to "banish the cost." This sort of terminology fits how Moash[=/=]Vyre talks about giving up his emotions and the "cost" of being chained to humanity. During his perspective chapters, Vyre also mentions how he actively seeks out dull, basic, repetitive manual labor... which is exactly what Parshmen did. Vyre has, for all intents and purposes, become a human version of a dullform Parshman.

* It can seem bizarre that Shallan is so worried about people hating her if they learned she killed her spren as it seems a lot less of a problem than the death of her parents. It being a bit of an overreaction is part of the point however, she herself couldn't remember what she had done but thought it must be something so bad that she didn't deserve love because that's how she felt about herself. Her truth isn't that she killed her spren, her truth is about how she is deserving to be loved.

* If Jasnah's research proves correct that [[spoiler: the Parshmen are docile Parshendi, and we know the Parshendi - and, by extension, the Parshmen - have a Borg-style mind connection, all of Roshar is very fucked due to how used people have gotten to having Parshmen servants around to do whatever chores and look after children]]. In the second book, Jasnah points out that they won't even have to violently rebel (although she assumes that's the plan). All they have to do is [[spoiler:walk off the job, and every country's economy would be completely devastated]]. When the big reveal is made, [[spoiler: Shallan notes that there are two Parshmen standing literally within meters of them. That is just how commonplace the Parshmen are]]. Made even better in ''Oathbringer'' where [[spoiler: all most parshmen do is walk off the job.]]
* In Chapter 48, after [[spoiler:cutting herself to mask that she had soulcasted the contents of a goblet into blood]], Shallan wakes up in a hospital. In Kharbranth. King Taravangian's hospital. The one that [[spoiler:has patients slowly drained of blood so that they are in a state of dying, and speak the Death Rattles.]] Even if she wasn't at risk, both Shallan and Jasnah were '''that''' close to a [[spoiler:very large conspiracy.]]
* By all appearances, Lin Davar's Soulcaster actually ''was'' a fabrial soulcaster, not a prop to hide Surgebinding abilities like Jasnah's (it only seems to have been able to create stone, for one thing). And as we see in later books, using a fabrial Soulcaster gradually transmutes the user into the appropriate Essence. Every time Lin used his Soulcaster to get the money he needed for his schemes, he pushed himself a little closer to becoming stone.

* When the Everstorm clashed with a highstorm, the two amplified each other's effects, creating a tempest powerful enough to shatter the stone ground of Roshar. And since the two storms are traveling in opposite directions and (as we later find out) at different speeds, they are going to keep clashing in various places across Roshar every nine days or thereabouts. Either storm on its own is surviveable, but can any lait or architecture stand up to the fury of their collision?

* With the reveal of Kalak being Restares we also now know he is the one to order the execution of Kaladin and his crew. Kaladin's own namesake tried to kill him and is the cause of his time as a slave.

* Not only could Taravangian alter Hoids memories but he also would have to be able to see them in order to know what to change. He will have seen everything that Hoid has been up to throughout the Cosmere, all the way back to the Shattering. Taravangian not only is a Shard but has all the knowledge they could possibly need about the other Shards and the significant events that took place in the Cosmere as well as to what other worlds are capable of.

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** Finally, both Ruin and Odium [[spoiler:are killed because of deliberate actions of the other Shard they share the planet with]], who use their superior ability to see into the future to do it, using people the other that they thought they could subvert and control to deal the fatal blow, and [[spoiler:both are replaced by a new bearer of the Shard]]. Notably, the change to a new bearer makes the Shard overall ‘’stronger’’. While the new bearer of Ruin’s power is a good man who intends to be hands-off and use his power to affect the world as little as possible, taking the power on a new path, the [[spoiler:new Odium intends to stay the course Rayse set, and is likely an even more capable and evil force than the previous one.]]

* The metals mentioned as being used in fabrial making cause fabrials to enact effects similar to what the metal is used for in Allomancy. Zinc in brass cause spren to manifest more or less strongly, and since spren have a strong emotional component, the fact that the metals that used in emotional Allomancy do this makes sense. Bronze, the metal used to detect allomantic pulses, is used in warning fabrials.

*** Alternately, it could reference one of the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Unmade]].

* Each order of the Knights Radiant swear the First Ideal, and it's the only Lightweaver oath, which means that when the last generation killed their spren during the Recreance, they all broke that vow. Whether they broke Life before Death or Strength before Weakness depends on your interpretation of the vows, but they definitely broke Journey before Destination by accepting that they would no longer fight or move forward.

* Shallan doesn't just refuse to tell the others that she killed her parents, she won't even let herself remember. But she clearly has a conversation with Pattern about how she killed her mother at the end of ''Words of Radiance''. Then it turns out that the real memory she's suppressing is that she killed the first spren she bonded with.

[[folder: ''Rhythm of War'']]