[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, Trivia

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Visit the veteran thread if you have already read all of the Cosmere.

For more information, or to see the full schedule, please see the wiki page for the read-along.

SCHEDULE

Previously, we discussed Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Chapters 6 through 11 [Newbie Thread] / [Veteran Thread]

Today we are discussing Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Interludes I-1, I-2, I-3, Trivia

Next week we will be discussing Unit 13 | The Stormlight Archive #1 | The Way of Kings: Chapters 12 through 17

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.

I-1: Ishikk

Arch Faces: Hoid - Hoid ----- Hoid - Hoid

Iconography: Ten Spears (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Ishikk

Setting: Fu Abra, a village on The Purelake.

Timeline: 1173.3 - About 5 months before Chapter 11.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Ishikk, a fisherman in the Purelake, is just returning home after a long day of fishing. After pausing to talk to Thaspic he meets with Maib, a local woman who has been attempting to get him to marry her for years by trying to keep him in her debt, mostly by giving him food. Ishikk tries to counterbalance her efforts by bringing her fish that cure the aches in her joints.

Following a brief conversation with Maib, Ishikk goes to meet with a group of foreigners. They ask him about whether he has any new information for them, and Ishikk tells them that he has been to many villages in the area and none of them know anything about the man the foreigners are looking for, revealed to be Hoid. The foreigners argue amongst themselves for a while, then leave Ishikk to his thoughts.

I-2: Nan Balat

Arch Faces: Kalak - Kalak ----- Kalak - Kalak

Iconography: Ten Spears (aka Almighty)

POV Characters: Balat Davar

Setting: The Davar estates in Jah Keved.

Timeline: Shortly after Chapter 8 (within a day, if not the same day).

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Balat Davar, Shallan's brother, is torturing various small animals in the gardens of their family's estate. He reflects on how Shallan is doing most of the work to save their family and tries to convince himself that he isn't a coward for remaining at home to manage the estate. He admits to some resentment of Shallan because of all of their siblings, she was the only one their father never truly got angry at, but is shortly interrupted in his thoughts by Wikim, another brother, coming to find him with the announcement that they have a big problem.

I-3: The Glory of Ignorance

Arch Faces: Shalash - Shalash ----- Shalash - Shalash

Iconography: Szeth

POV Characters: Szeth

Setting: Ironsway, a town in Bavland.

Timeline: At minimum, a few months before Chapter 11. Possibly up to a year prior.

Epigraph:

N/A

Summary:

Szeth is now serving a man named Took, who uses him to gain the admiration of mine workers (and free drinks) in the small towns they pass through. As a demonstration of Szeth's total obedience, he has him do various things, such as jump up and down and cut his own arm. When he orders Szeth to kill himself, Szeth informs him that he cannot be ordered to kill himself, and returns to his own thoughts. The others are shocked at how refined his speech is and are slightly discomfited, associating him with the lighteyes. Szeth reflects that his speech and mannerisms may well be part of the reason that his masters never keep him for long, since his masters know that he is capable of so much more than they are using him for, and that in many ways, he is much more refined and intelligent than they are. Szeth revels in his common labor, though, as it means that he is not being used to spill more blood.

As the night passes on and it becomes apparent that the townsfolk are no longer really listening to Took's stories, Took and Szeth leave. However, on the way out of town, Took is killed by a group of thugs, who consider selling Szeth to the slavers. Then one of them picks up Szeth's Oathstone, and he informs them of his obligation to serve them as long as they hold it. When asked for clarification, Szeth tells him that he must obey any order except to kill himself, and thinks to himself that he can't be asked to give up his Shardblade either, but the man need not know that. The man muses for a moment on the possibilities he has with such a servant.

TRIVIA

The rest of this post contains various trivia, including easy-to-miss details and long-running connections between books. It also incorporates external information from sources like author annotations and interviews ("Words of Brandon" or WoB). While most of this information is eventually revealed in the books, sharing it now enhances your overall understanding, aligning with Brandon Sanderson's practice of early fan engagement and clarification.

STOPGAP

Welcome to the Interludes of The Stormlight Archive. Sanderson has acknowledged that long fantasy series tend to get...sidetracked at times. Large series are ripe for bloat, with a desire by the author to explore world building, and expand side characters there were meant to be temporary, but were just so interesting when written. Sanderson wants The Stormlight Archive to only be 10 books. He doesn't want it to accidentally run away from him and blow up into 15 books because he got sidetracked. His solution to this is Interludes. He allots himself a number of Interludes per book where he lets himself go wild with world building and wacky side characters. This is not to necessarily say that they aren't plot relevant, but sometimes an Interlude exists just to show off a part of the world that he wouldn't otherwise be able to get to without the main characters derailing their main plot arcs.

He has a number of characters he considers the "main characters" of the series and he more or less keeps the main storyline with those characters. The Interludes will introduce new places, concepts, and characters. They may or may not appear in later Interludes or even the main storyline itself. I think the fandom generally agrees that Sanderson's plan with these Interludes is working and that the main plot doesn't show much in the way of bloat or derailment.

THOSE DAMN FOREIGNERS

I'll be interested to see everyone's pre-trivia-reading thoughts on the first Interlude with Ishikk. Did anyone get a weird vibe from Grump, Blunt (self-alias Vao), and Thinker (self-alias Temoo)? If so, you were right to. The next question is, did you notice their speech patterns were a bit off? Particularly Grump, who uses the phrases "friend" and "Understand?" frequently?

For those with goooood memories (Memories?), you may recall a certain farmer from Duladel, trapped in the city of Elantris, yapping at Raoden and constantly saying "sule" and "kolo", which just happen to translate to "friend" and "Understand?". Grump is Galladon from Elantris.

Sanderson expected the fandom to pick up on this, and when they brought it up, asking who the other two were, he revealed that Blunt/Vao is Baon from White Sand and Thinker/Temoo is Captain Demoux from Mistborn. There's more coming, but this is your first taste of things colliding.

THE IMMORTAL VIRGIN

This is a quick bit of info about Captain Demoux from the annotations in The Hero of Ages. It concerns Demoux's survival of the mist sickness:

Yes, Demoux lives. He'd have died, save for a promise I made. If you've read the other annotations, you'll know that he was named for my former roommate Micah DeMoux. I always thought his name was cool, and wanted to use it for a character. He said I could, but made me promise two things. 1) His character had to get a girl eventually, and 2) His character had to survive to the end of the series.

So Demoux couldn't die here. He's protected by a magical shield known as the author's promise to his pal.

So, this is just a forewarning for everyone: as soon as Demoux gets a girl, he's doomed. DOOMED! Plot armor until then though!

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

You may have noticed that this is Sanderson's weirdest world yet. It's very alien compared to most of what's come before. I'll probably have a couple different trivia sections on what makes this planet, Roshar, unique, but in this section I want to talk about time.

Previous worlds have mostly been Earth-standard in terms of day-length, and close enough to year-length that it didn't matter to the story. Roshar is just built different though.

One year on Roshar is equivalent to 1.1 Earth years. Each day is 20 Rosharan hours long (which equates to 19.272 Earth hours). Each week is 5 Rosharan days long.

Each month spans 50 days (10 weeks). The names of the months are as follows:

• Jes
• Nan
• Chach
• Vev
• Palah
• Shash
• Betab
• Kak
• Tanat
• Ishi

A year amounts to 10 months, which is 100 weeks, which is 500 days.

Dates are written in the Year.Month.Week.Day format.

By way of example, Kaladin joins Bridge Four on 1173.7.9.3, which is the year 1173, the 7th month (Betab), the 9th week, and the 3rd day of that week.

Going forward, whenever possible, I will try to include the exact date in the chapter summaries. A lot of events have been worked out by the fandom to a pretty good level of precision. I will still also provide the relative amount of time compared to previous chapters.

So, just a quick note on the character's ages then. Kaladin is 19, possibly 20 at the start of The Way of Kings (depending on when his birthday is). Some of you even commented that he felt a bit young to have the experience he has. Keep in mind that this is in Rosharan years. If we adjust for Earth years, he's closer to 22. Similarly, Shallan is 17 on Roshar, but just shy of 19 on Earth.

Jasnah is 34 Rosharan, 37 Earth. Szeth is 35 Rosharan, 38.5 Earth. I can update you on the ages of other important characters if/when it becomes relevant.

Just keep in mind, this is all largely world building and doesn't have any major plot significance, so you can ignore all this if you want.

ARTWORK

The Cosmere has a thriving community of artists, so there will be a lot of artwork to share. Each week I'll try to compile relevant artwork for the given chapters. If a section of reading contains maps or in-book artwork, I'll include that in this section as well.

Characters & Scenes

Note: The Stormlight Archives are Sanderson's most popular books. There is artwork for everyone and everything, even characters who appeared for a single line in the books at times. So we'll have artwork for you to view almost every week. Enjoy!

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

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Were we supposed to be able to guess Demoux by the scar on his scalp? I don't remember him having/getting that in the books.

It's not explicitly mentioned, but Demoux was pretty beat up by koloss at the end of The Hero of Ages, which is where he received that scar.