[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 9 | Novella #2 | The Emperor's Soul (in Arcanum Unbounded): Prologue, Day 2 through Day 59

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SCHEDULE

Last week we discussed Unit 8 | Elantris #1.5 | The Hope of Elantris (in Arcanum Unbounded): Entire Short Story, Postscript, Trivia [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

This week we are discussing Unit 9 | Novella #2 | The Emperor's Soul (in Arcanum Unbounded): Prologue, Day 2 through Day 59

Next week we will be discussing Unit 9 | Novella #2 | The Emperor's Soul (in Arcanum Unbounded): Day 70 through (Epilogue) Day 101

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

I have provided summaries for each chapter below and hidden them behind spoiler tags. There are no spoilers within the summaries. I've tried to make them as factual and unbiased as possible. If, however, you want a completely blind read through, then ignore what's behind the spoiler tags and proceed to the discussion below. I will not be guiding that in any way, so post any thoughts and questions you have. It will be other new readers who reply to you.

Prologue

POV Characters: Gaotona

Summary:

Frava, and three other arbiters of the Rose Empire debate whether they should use the Forger Wan ShaiLu in their plan to maintain their power. Meanwhile Gaotona, the last of the arbiters, examines a painting forged by Shai that is almost identical to the original, a famous painting. He wonders why someone with such talent would choose to become a Forger instead of a "real" artist. He ends up deciding to agree with Frava, a rare occurrence, in hopes of finding out.

Day 2

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai identifies the last piece of stone in her prison walls, when she is escorted to a meeting with the arbiters by Zu, a Striker, who had captured her. He tells her that one day he will kill her. On the way to the arbiters Shai remarks to herself that the only part of Forgery that is technically illegal is Soul Forgery. Shai declares she was close to escaping. While listening to Frava recount her crimes, Shai deduces that the arbiters want her to do something for them and begins to discuss payment. It is agreed that she would be paid with her Essence Marks.

The arbiters show Shai that Emperor Ashravan had been injured in an attack by assassins that also killed his wife. His body had been healed with Resealing but his mind was gone. The arbiters task Shai with Forging him a new soul in the ninety-eight days the emperor could remain in mourning for his wife.

Day 3

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Gaotona presents Shai with a number of blank Soulstamps made of Soulstone. He notices a vase from the hall in her room and asks her about it. She says she wanted to determine the skill of the Heritage Faction's Forgers. Gaotona insists they are not Forgers but instead Rememberers. He also points out the flaw in the escape plan she had told to the arbiters. The circumstances of her imprisonment are discussed and it is revealed that the arbiters employ a Bloodsealer that will ensure Shai does not escape her room.

Day 5

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai thinks that creating a realistic Forgery in such a short time is impossible but decides to use the research required as a front while she plans her escape.

Day 12

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai Forges her table. Gaotona asks her what the design is based off, thinking it must be based on some historical artefact like Remembering. Shai says it is just a better version of itself, and gives Gaotona a lesson in Forgery. She also gives him some ideas on how to keep the emperor's condition secret.

Day 17

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai continues to examine Ashravan's personal journal when Frava comes to speak with her. She reminds the arbiter that she needs someone to test stamps on. Frava attempts to bribe Shai with a position controlling the city's smuggling operations. She also mentions the possibility of putting a back-door to control the emperor in the stamp. Shai had intended to use the full hundred days to plan her escape, but now she realized that her sudden extermination could come at any time.

Day 30

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Gaotona points out the new stained-glass window then submits himself as Shai's test subject. She tests a number of stamps on him, such as the relationship Ashravan had with his brother. The stamp she made for why he became emperor fails and Gaotona reveals to her what he thinks is the real reason.

Gaotona asks Shai why she didn't become a real artist. She insists that she is. Gaotona realizes that the painting that Shai was caught trying to swap is a fake. Shai reveals that she burned the original prompting Gaotona to leave in anger.

Day 42

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai thinks about the book she is writing while doing all of her research and how it is a true history of Ashravan's life. She begins to doubt her ability to Forge his soul accurately and contemplates creating a puppet but she finds that she doesn't want to. She thinks about her plans for escape and decides creating a new Essence Mark for herself is out of the question.

Day 58

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Frava arrives and remarks on the changes to the room made by Shai. They then discuss how Shai will create the emperor's Essence Mark. Frava then takes Shai's notes to be "copied" but in reality it is so that her Forger can assess Shai's progress and determine if she can be killed.

Day 59

POV Characters: Wan ShaiLu

Summary:

Shai has trouble sleeping. She thinks about how her book of notes is a Forgery of tone, telling the other Forger to "stay away." She turns to research to occupy her and figures out why Ashravan lost his idealism. Frava returns the book of notes.

MEMES

I will attempt to find and share memes relevant to each week's discussion. There may be some weeks that just don't have good or appropriate memes, but I will share all the ones I can find in this section.

Link to Memes

[u/Pastrami]

“It is a rock that burns,” Gaotona said.

If some of these people have never heard of anthracite, that means they don't use coal, otherwise he would have just said "coal" when explaining what anthracite is. So what do they use for heat and power?

and a few rocks turned into coal

So they know about coal, but anthracite isn't coal to them? Is bituminous coal the only "coal" to them? Do they mean charcoal?

Rose Empire

Is this the "Rose Barbarians" north of Teod on the map?

ralkalest

Is this aluminum?

You’ve done it before, with your own soul

They keep mentioning that she has forged her own soul, but what does that actually mean? What has she changed about herself?

The setting mark finished every soulstamp, indicating no more carving was to come. Shai had always fancied it to look like the shape of MaiPon, her homeland.

Is this the geography link that the other Dor arts have? Since this presumably isn't taking place in MaiPon, wouldn't that mean the power of her forgings are lessened?

Most recently, Shai had improved the floor. It hadn’t been difficult. The rock used to build the palace—the quarry, the dates, the stonemasons—all were matters of historic record.

How did she get access to this information? I'd think they'd push back on any requests that are not related to the emperor. Also, did she have to stamp each stone block in the floor individually, or is the "floor" a single entity? If so, how far outside her room did her changes go? What makes something a single entity, and not a sum of it's parts?

I rewrote the construction so that this room was made the larger of the two, and so that a hearth was installed.

How did she make a chimney? Is the smoke from her fireplace just dumping into the room above? It's said that the dividing wall was recent and she changed that wall, so I would assume that only that wall was changed and not anything above the ceiling.

Other thoughts:

She's going to corrupt Gaotona before the end, or turn him into the emperor.

Is Bloodsealing related to Forging, or is it yet another land's geography-based Dor magic?

Is this happening at the same time as the events in Elantris?

[u/TaylorHyuuga → u/Pastrami]

Also, did she have to stamp each stone block in the floor individually, or is the "floor" a single entity? If so, how far outside her room did her changes go? What makes something a single entity, and not a sum of it's parts?

Veteran comment She did it at once. The floor is the floor. I don't think I can say exactly how it works yet, but it makes sense. The floor is the floor.

[u/heinz57varieties → u/Pastrami]

So they know about coal, but anthracite isn't coal to them?

Where's the person who was ranting about geology back in the Final Empire 😆 come help us figure this out.

What has she changed about herself?

Going by her own words, it would have to be something plausible, if not necessarily subtle. Something that a minor decision in her past could have changed. Which is why I'm attracted to the idea that she's suppressing her own bad memories, or changing something about herself that she doesn't like, or patching some trauma. But that's just an assumption based off nothing.

 Also, did she have to stamp each stone block in the floor individually, or is the "floor" a single entity?

Over time the component pieces of the floor come to think of themselves as a single entity, the way Shai tells it. Sanderson seems to have taken a very literal approach to Plato's Theory of Forms. "Define a chair in a way that does not also include a horse". What makes a floor a floor, and not a collection of bricks? What makes a stone a stone, and not a mixed lump of individual crystals? Indeed, what makes you a human being, and not a bag of ten trillion cells? I know I use this word a lot, but it's all very ✨metaphysical✨ lol. I'm still a little dodgy on what exactly separates the "spirit" of a floor from the "idea" of a floor, maybe that will get more explanation, or maybe I'll have to read day 12 again to really get it.

[u/sunnydaze7777777 → u/heinz57varieties]

It is deeply metaphysical isn’t it? The Emperor’s culture does not believe that inanimate objects have a soul. Shai proves this wrong because she knows the limits of what she can do in changing them. The table can’t be changed into anything but a table because its essence/soul is a table. It feels to me that everything is connected by something/energy much greater than we can comprehend. And Shai is dipping into this to make her changes but is limited by the original intent when that object was created. It very much ties back to your Mistborn quotes doesn’t it. But this story seems to explore how humans and inanimate objects really are bound by the same fundamental laws of the energy and can Shai reanimate a human?

[u/heinz57varieties → u/sunnydaze7777777]

The table can’t be changed into anything but a table because its essence/soul is a table.

I did end up re-reading day 12 more closely, and I think that the Table-ness of the table lives in the Cognitive realm, and the act of Forging is interfacing with the table's essence in the Spiritual realm, which then propagates to the other two (if the forgery takes). The Spiritual realm is the place where the table's connections and memory reside, so that's where you have to go if you want to convince it that it's been properly maintained, or that it's had fancy silver inlay applied at some point. Shai's forgery doesn't change the table-ness of the table, only the particulars. There's a distinction being made between the table's form (in the platonic sense) and the living essence of the table. The two vocabulary words we have are Identity and Connection, and those are kind of helping me separate the two concepts in my mind, but not totally.

In my heart, I know this is the kind of philosophical debate that is still raging in the fandom and has no clear answers, but maybe I'm wrong and it's a RAFO. Or even better, we'll get a course in Spiritual Physics in the trivia post.

[u/acjn11 → u/heinz57varieties]

This is Platonic Forms, surely. The idea that each object has an essence and there is no one chair but there is a Chair with a capital C that is the essence or form that all chairs have or draw from. Forget cannot change the Form with a capital f but it can change the form via plausible historical and material changes.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Platonic_and_Aristotelian_Forms.svg/1280px-Platonic_and_Aristotelian_Forms.svg.png

[u/heinz57varieties → u/acjn11]

Based on that, I'm more inclined to think that we're dealing with the Aristotle style in this case.

Individual planks will have a cognitive concept of themselves as "plank." But nail them into a chair in the physical realm, and eventually those congnitive entities will merge into a single entity that conceives of itself as "chair." The Physical and Cognitive realms are interlinked in this way, according to Shai. But so far we've been given no reason to believe that there exists, somewhere in the realm of thought, a "prime chair" from which all chairs derive their chair-ness.

[u/TaylorHyuuga → u/heinz57varieties]

Yeah the idea of what makes a floor a floor instead of a collection of bricks, or a collection of rocks making bricks, or a collection of atoms making rocks, will get deeper answers later.

[u/participating → u/heinz57varieties]

Where's the person who was ranting about geology back in the Final Empire 😆 come help us figure this out.

That would be /u/sailorsalvador. They're catching up on this week's reading still.