Brandon Sanderson's Blog, page 26

Words of Radiance Chapter Kaladin Insert 3

This partial scene took place in chapter 32 after Kaladin awakes from his vision. Brandon eliminated the need for this section by having Kaladin already be at the Pinnacle when he woke up.

He was in his room of the barracks, alone. He’d been so tired following the patrol, he’d fallen asleep in his uniform, despite the impending storm.

Damnation! That dream…

Kaladin rolled off of his cot, scrambling to his feet. He grabbed his spear and flung the door open.

Outside, the wind still howled, the rain still pelted the ground with a sound like sticks breaking. Kaladin tried to make out the barracks in the darkness, but it was futile.

There was no lightning, however, and the wind—while violent—was not nearly strong enough to fling boulders or topple walls. The bulk of the highstorm had passed. Kaladin felt his way around the chill, rain-slicked stone wall of the barrack, head down against the wind, until he reached the front door of the barrack.

He shoved this open. Inside, the members of Bridge Four sat in a group around several spheres. They lit Sigzil’s face, animated, as he’d been telling a story to the others. Though, as an officer, he had his own room he had chosen to weather this storm with the men.

The suddenly-opened door caused cries of alarm, and men pulled back, some falling off of stools and cursing.

“K…Kaladin?” Rock asked. “Umalinita’ai! Is it you?”

“Grab your spears,” Kaladin snapped, stepping out of the wind. “I want every man armed and ready. All squads to the Pinnacle.”

“Now?” Leyten asked. “In the storm?”

“It is mostly over,” Kaladin said. “Up, men! Move! Storms, is Teft not back yet?”

“No,” Drehy said as the men scrambled to gather their gear. “We don’t know where he is.”

“I’m going on ahead,” Kaladin said, stepping back out into the storm. “Hurry as quickly as you can.”

“Yes, sir!” Drehy said. “But why?”

Kaladin stopped, looking back in at them. “Because something is coming.”

 

Kaladin ran through the storm, carrying his spear, holding a diamond mark for light. The wind was at his back, fortunately, as he ran westward toward the king’s palace.

There were no guards at the gates of the warcamps. They’d gone in for the storm. The streets were deserted, strewn with debris that Kaladin’s frail light barely illuminated.

The gates were closed. The bar across them could not be lifted by one man.

He, fortunately, had Stormlight.

As the bar thumped to the ground and he shoved the wooden gate open, Light streaming from his body, he heard cries of alarm from the nearby gatehouse. The men inside did not come out, did not even open a window shutter, but they heard.

Kaladin slipped out of the warcamps and splashed through deep puddles, running with everything he had for the Pinnacle up ahead. A light suddenly streaked down from the sky, like lightning, but more permanent.

Words of Radiance Chapter Shallan 13

The following abandoned scene was replaced by the second half of chapter 31.

Shallan walked up to the rim of a rock formation, looking to the northeast, toward the Shattered Plains. She couldn’t see them yet, but the caravan leaders promised they were only a few days off.

She wasn’t certain which emotion she felt more strongly—the desire to run the rest of the way and get there as soon as possible, or the desire to run the opposite direction. Ahead lay a difficult weight. She could feel it settling onto her shoulders already.

Tyn waited for her at the edge of the ridge, as they’d agreed. The woman’s long, black hair flowed out behind her, and she wore a set of large-cuffed gloves, the side of her coat exposing a thin dueling sword. She looked like a soldier. That was probably the idea. Dress the part, act the part, and become the part.

“All right,” Tyn said, falling into step beside Shallan as they walked the ridge. “You want to learn how to run the big cons. How to stop being a little nobody and rub elbows with the important.”

“I’m very curious,” Shallan said. Distantly, ***—Tyn’s golden-haired second in command—kept watch and made certain they weren’t interrupted.

“Well, the first thing you’re going to have to do is stop worrying about the people you’ll hurt. You’re soft.”

“I—”

“Don’t try to claim otherwise,” Tyn said, walking with hand on her sword. “I see how you act, how you speak to the soldiers. You buddy up to them. That’s great—it’s a wonderful skill. You are able to make people trust you.”

“Thank you?”

“Unfortunately, you’re a child. You think you can play games like this without hurting someone. That’s stupid. What are you going to do with those soldiers of yours?”

“Aren’t you planning for us to abandon them when we get to the Shattered Plains?” Shallan asked.

“Thereby leaving a group of twenty men who know your face and will hunt you,” Tyn said, shaking her head. “If you’re going to learn to do this, you have to plan—and plan well. That means eliminating threats.”

“I did eliminate the threat. I brought them to my side.”

“A place they’ll only stay until they realize you’re lying about who you are.”

“And maybe I’m not lying,” Shallan said. “I mean…maybe so far as they’re concerned, I’m not. If we make it big at the Shattered Plains, I can pay them as I’ve promised.”

“And see that their debts are canceled, their desertion forgiven?”

“Sure.”

Tyn turned, seizing her by the shoulder. “Stupid,” she said. “Their leader is plotting against you and the others only follow you because they were starving out here by themselves. They’ll drag you down and destroy you.”

“Then what?” Shallan asked, blushing. She would keep her word to those men. “What would you do?”

“The solution is staring you in the face. Those are wanted men. There will be a reward for turning in deserters; there always is. You get rid of them and you get paid doing it. That’s a real con, kid.”

Shallan pulled out of Tyn’s grip, then continued to walk along the edge of the ridge, plants curling up and pulling back in front of her. “That’s horrible,” she whispered.

“What?” Tyn said, walking beside her. “You think they don’t deserve it? Here’s the thing, kid. If you look hard enough, everyone deserves what you’re going to do to them. People are awful.”

“Not everyone…”

“Everyone. And even if they weren’t, they’re idiots. They’ll believe what they want to. So why are you to blame for giving them a little push along the way? You’re playing the game already. You’re not going to get out of it without people getting hurt. Either you’ll learn, or you’ll be the one who is hurt.”

 

You like my sword?

There’s always a cost.

 

Pattern: Do you believe that? Are we lying to the men?

Then what is the good of this woman?

Annotation The Way of Kings Chapter 9

Kaladin in Bridge Four

This chapter is probably the most depressing thing I’ve ever written.

Writing a depressed character, someone in this bad a situation, is risky. It goes against almost every writing rule out there. A character like this can’t be active, and there is basically no progress to the story. (I talked a little about this in the chapter 4 annotations for both The Way of Kings and The Hero of Ages.)

Sometimes I’ll read the writing of new authors in my class who will try to use depression as a character flaw. They’ve heard instructors—perhaps myself—talk about how internal conflicts can create a really strong character. They also know that depression is something real and difficult to deal with in life, so they figure it will make a good demon for the main character to overcome.

The trap is that if the author is truly good at writing depression, then nothing actually happens in the story. It can be wonderfully authentic and at the same time wonderfully boring to read.

This chapter is kind of the culmination of me breaking rules in the beginning of The Way of Kings. I think this chapter makes the story incredibly more powerful—but the chapter itself is like a kick to the face to read. Slow, depressing. I assume this is probably the biggest place where—if people are going to stop reading—they put down the book and never pick it back up.

As I’ve said before, The Way of Kings is the book where I decided to break many rules to create something I felt was awesome. Great risk, and hopefully great reward.

Syl Leaves

I hated sending Syl away from Kaladin here, but it had to happen—in part because of how much it hurt to send her away. She’s basically the only light left in these scenes with Kaladin in Bridge Four.

Syl wasn’t in the original draft of Kings. I developed her over the years between 2003 and 2009; there was a time when the four winds from mythology would be active and alive on Roshar, and she was one of those. Eventually, the spren developed as a concept. They grew out of the greater worldbuilding and magic system rules for the cosmere. (The connected universe of my epic books.)

At that point, she became a sentient spren—one of many that would be in the books. Still, she was very special. I do worry about the Tinkerbell vibe that she gives off to some people. I tried hard to distance her from that. No wings, the constant shape changing, that sort of thing.

Her innocence and childlike nature is an important foil and balance to the darkness in Kaladin’s life. Then she leaves, and all innocence is gone from him.

Words of Radiance Bandit Attack Draft

This is a scrapped scene of the bandits attacking Shallan and Tvlakv’s wagons.

Clangs rose from behind, the sounds of metal and rocks. Shallan turned sharply and some of the slaves moaned. “What was that?” she demanded of Bluth.

“Tag left a trap,” he said. “Someone was poking around our fire.” So they’d been spotted after all.

Tvlakv’s wagon started moving faster, and Bluth took his long reed—used to steer the chulls—and rapped it on the shell of the one pulling their wagon. His beats became more and more frantic, and as Nomon—the second moon—began to rise, she could make out his face.

Panic.

Chulls had only two speeds: slow shuffle and moderate shuffle. They picked up speed, but not by much, and their faster gait caused the wagons to rattle and shake.

On the hillside, lights broke off of the firepits and moved steadily through the dark on an intercepting path. The rising moon would soon give enough light to spot the wagons, even from the distance.

“We can’t outrun them, Bluth!”

“We have to try!” he shouted. “They catch us, and we’re dead. If word of where they are got back to their lords, they’d be worse than hanged! They have every reason to leave no witnesses of their passing. You religious?”

“Yes,” Shallan said, voice catching in her throat.

“Write up a prayer,” Bluth said, whacking the chull. “Even just in your head. Ask the Almighty.”

“To deliver us?”

“No.” Whack. “Ask him to see us dead quickly.” Whack.

Behind, Tag’s chull slowed. Shallan twisted, looking behind, and was shocked to see that his wagon—the one with the slaves in it—had no driver. “They got him?”

“No,” Bluth said. “He’s running.”

Of course. Chulls were slow and loud, but human feet in this case were neither. When had he jumped free, and how far gone was he now? In the darkness, he might be able to avoid the deserters.

“Why hasn’t Tvlakv run?” Shallan asked.

“And leave his wares?” Bluth grunted. “How many merchants do you know that would do such a thing?”

Smart ones, Shallan thought, glancing at her bandaged feet. She wouldn’t get far. “What of you?”

He didn’t speak. But he did keep hitting the chull’s shell, even as Tvlakv—ahead—obviously noticed that Tag had run. She could hear the Thaylen man’s shouts even over the ruckus of the wagons. “You thieving cremling, Tag! I pay you to guard me! Come back here, you bastard!”

The two remaining wagons jostled up along the crevasse that Bluth had mentioned. As they rounded its side, Shallan caught sight of a group of men on the other side. One raised a lantern, inspecting the chasm with a perturbed expression. They were dark-haired Alethi with softly tanned skin and lofty features. Even the darkeyed Alethi had a nobility to them.

She could see in them the things Bluth had said. Though they carried spears and wore nice leather and steel armor, their hair was long, their faces unwashed, their uniforms—what she could see of them—unkempt. They had the hollow looks of desperate men.

You wish there were any honor left for you, but know you’ve already given it away…

“Probably killed their lord in a mutiny,” Bluth said. “Stormfather! Move, you lump of rock!” The whipping didn’t seem to be doing any good. Chulls couldn’t feel much sensation from their shells.

The Way of Kings: Tien’s Death Attempt 1

[Assistant Peter’s note: This is Brandon’s first attempt at writing Kaladin’s flashback scene including Tien’s death. Brandon quickly abandoned this version and then wrote the published version two days later.]

“This is a mistake,” Kaladin said, hurrying across the grassy rock through camp. “Amaram promised that he would remain a messenger boy.”

“He is a messenger boy,” Defer said with a grunt. He was a bald man with only three fingers on his right hand. Sergeant of the reserves, he marched through camp, seeing to last minute details before the battle began.

“Well,” Kaladin said, “why are the messenger boys being issued spears and armor?”

“Because,” Defer said, “Amaram ordered it.”

“He couldn’t have. His word—”

“Look, boy,” Defer said, stopping in camp. Grass pulled away from them in a circle. He stabbed his middle finger—first on his hand—into Kaladin’s chest. “You don’t have the clout or the experience to talk to me like that. You want to spend the next seven weeks on latrine duty? Well, address me one more time with a hint of insubordination in your voice, and I’ll see it done.”

Kaladin choaked off a retort. He’d been in the army for one year now—with four years left on his and Tien’s five year enlistment. He was beginning to learn how things worked. He’d pushed as hard as he could against this man.

“Sorry, Sergeant Defer,” Kaladin said, looking down.

Defer grunted. “Your brother’s in a deep reserve unit. He won’t see battle. Probably. But recruitment is down, and we have wars to fight. The highmarshal can’t afford to let potential soldiers go to waste. So the messenger boys old enough will be trained in the spear, and they’ll form an extra reserve buffer. That’s that. If you want to argue it, talk to Brightlord Larcus.”

Larcus was the captain of the reserves, and he would not speak with a lowly darkeyed spearman. Kaladin would have about as much luck trying to go to Amaram himself.

And so, stewing, Kaladin made his way back toward the front lines to prepare for the battle. He’d just have to think of better arguments later.

Merin found his squad at the center of the army. The men weren’t in ranks yet; they were just standing or relaxing in patches, waiting for the battle to begin. The enemy held a hillside that—for reasons nobody had explained to Merin—Amaram wanted to seize. That meant they were on the offensive, and that meant they could take their time getting ready.

“Where have you been?” Varth snapped as Kaladin joined the others of his squadron.

Kaladin didn’t reply. He’d learned early on that arguing with his squadleader was an easy way to earn himself some serious headaches. And it was hard to open his mouth without arguing.

This

 

Varth, Kaladin’s squadleader, was rubbing some firemoss as he waited.

UK tour for Oathbringer + Updates

I am getting ready to head off to the UK for the last leg of my Oathbringer tour. You can check out my Upcoming Events page for full details, but if you’re near one of these tour stops, I’d love to see you there, but if you can’t make it that’s okay. The greatest compliment you can give me is to read my books.

Nov. 28 – London, Forbidden Planet
Nov. 29 – Birmingham, Waterstones
Nov. 29 – Liverpool, Waterstones
Dec. 01 – Leeds, Waterstones
Dec. 01 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, Blackwell’s
Dec. 02 – Edinburgh, Waterstones
Dec. 02 – Glasgow, Waterstones

It’s been an exciting few weeks since Oathbringer‘s release on November 14th. If you haven’t heard, Oathbringer currently #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Thank you so much for all of your support; it’s a truly humbling experience.

My Art Director Isaac Stewart put together an inside look at the art process for Oathbringer, you can read the first part here (you even get to watch him paint the Roshar world map found on the reverse side of the hardcover dust jacket).

The final round of voting for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards ends tonight at midnight (PST). If you’ve had a chance to finish Oathbringer and you think it worthy of your vote, you can do so here.

If you have been able to finish reading Oathbringer, the wonderful Alice Arneson and Paige Vest wrote a spoiler-filled review for Tor.com. Please don’t read this unless you’ve finished the book!

Annotation The Way of Kings Chapter 8

Shallan Rejected Again

I do wonder at reader reaction to these Shallan sequences. Some in the writing group found these scenes too long. They figured it was inevitable that Shallan would end up as Jasnah’s ward, and so spending several chapters with Shallan working overtime to secure the position wasn’t interesting to them.

I admit this is a potential problem with the sequence. However, I felt it important to show both Shallan’s determination and Jasnah’s character with these sequences. I needed to show Shallan working very hard for what she wanted. It also gave me several opportunities to show the contrasting timidity/insolence that makes up how I view Shallan as a character.

Shallan berates the book merchant

The timid nature is a result of the problems in her past (see book two’s flashbacks). I see the moments of flaring passion as being far more “her.”

Shallan’s father has an infamous temper; it’s buried deep within her as well. If she’d been allowed to grow up more naturally, without the oppressive darkness that her family suffered, she would have turned out as a very different person. Still, the person she could become is buried inside her. In my mind, this is one of the big connections between her as a character and Kaladin. It is also part of why both attract a certain type of spren…

Yalb the Sailor

This chapter is Yalb’s time to shine. One of the things I love about the Wheel of Time is Robert Jordan’s use of side characters who sometimes pop in, steal the show, then vanish. I love how they show up now and then in the text.

I’m not sure I can do the same thing here. Robert Jordan had worldbuilding reasons why small characters would get tied to the main characters and keep appearing in their lives again and again. I don’t have those reasons.

Still, writing Yalb, I wanted him to really pop off the page even though he’s only in the book for a few pages in these early scenes. I intend for him to return. In another type of story, he’d be one of the main characters.

Oathbringer Art Roundup Part 1

Brandon’s art director Isaac here with some insights on the art process for Oathbringer. We add a lot of illustrations to most of Brandon’s books, but the Stormlight Archive gets a special amount of attention. We fill each volume with sketches from Shallan and Navani, maps of cities and other locations, chapter arches and icons, color endpapers, and all sorts of in-world ephemera. As with other volumes, we hope you enjoy the extra work we put into this book in the series.

For Part 1 of this roundup, let’s talk a bit about the full-color art. While I work as Brandon’s personal art director, the amazing art directors at Tor—Irene Gallo and Seth Lerner—do an excellent job commissioning art for the covers of Brandon’s books. No discussion of the color art is complete without mentioning the fantastic job Michael Whelan did working with Tor on the cover for this book. Tor.com detailed the process here.

For a couple years now, Brandon has been talking about commissioning illustrations of the Heralds, meant to be in-world artifacts. For this book, we finally got to do just that. Dan dos Santos and Howard Lyon worked with us to create the front and back endpapers, and the results are fantastic.

There’s already been a lot of hype about these pieces online, and Howard will be posting process videos at some point, so there’s not much I can say about these that hasn’t already been said. Suffice it to say that both Dan and Howard are professionals to the core, and working with them was a great experience. Their thumbnail drawings were spot-on and approved with minimal amount of changes, and the end results are striking. Thanks to both of them for their attention to detail in illustrating the world of Roshar.

Speaking of the endpapers, here’s a side note from Brandon: “Some people found the Shalash painting to be a little too risque for their tastes, so at our request, Dan put together a slightly more opaque version for those who would rather have it for desktop wallpapers. We ended up really liking this one, so it will be the one on my website. But if you prefer the original, you can still find it in this post at Tor.com.”

As another note, prints of Howard’s Jezrien and Vedeledev paintings are available on his website. He also went into a bit more detail on the Muddy Colors blog. Dan will also be offering prints of his Heralds paintings and hopes to have them available in time for the holidays.

Many of you have already noticed this, but for Oathbringer we moved the color map from the back endpaper to the opposite side of the dust jacket. (The final version can be found here.) We first tested this out with the reissues of the Alcatraz books, and it worked so well that Tor was gracious enough to let us carry this over to the Stormlight books.

Because I’m still relatively new to painting in oils, my good friend Howard Lyon offered his expertise. So, for over a week, I worked out of his studio so he could look over my shoulder and make some suggestions. (You’ll see some of Howard’s amazing art hanging on the walls in the video below.) The map got as far as it did in part because of his great direction. I found the whole process of mixing paint, matching colors, and applying it to the canvas extremely satisfying, and I can’t wait to get back to painting at some point. Take a look at the time-lapse video below, please ignore that I look like I’m rocking out, and have fun trying to figure out what show I binge watched on my iPad as I painted.

At the beginning of the video, you’ll notice that the canvas isn’t blank at all. There are a few early steps I was unable to capture a time-lapse for. I transferred my digital version of Roshar to the canvas using a printout and tracing paper; after that, I created an underpainting in acrylics to help get a rough idea of what colors I wanted in the right spots. Then I set to work on the oils.

Where’s part two of the video? Well, that’s forthcoming. See, as with the Alcatraz map, I had the chance to paint Roshar in acrylics and oils. And also as with the Alcatraz map, I didn’t finish the physical art in time and had to finish everything up digitally. We’ll eventually create a new art print for this one, but in the meantime, the Roshar map from Words of Radiance is still available.

Next week I’ll go into more detail concerning the new interior art we produced for the book.

The Way of Kings early brainstorms / outlines

Assistant Peter’s note: Following are some of Brandon’s notes when he was planning the 2010 version of The Way of Kings. At the beginning of these it looks a lot like Way of Kings Prime, but then it starts to look more like the version we know and love. These notes offer an insight to Brandon’s writing process.

Chapter One:

VP of the other guy.

Other team didn’t want him; Merin traded for him. Other teams think Weak members kill the team. Merin’s team believes in protecting the team—weak members aren’t a liability, because they’ll become strong later.
—Later, flashback, guy who protected Merin.
Merin has given GUY a dagger spear.
They see a nobleman; not a Shardbearer. Introduce concept. Other teams work away from him.
Merin has a buckler which is odd, since people don’t wear shields as spearmen. He bangs on it, though, with a distinctive sound to give his team orders. Something he thought of that otthers don’t use.
Merin’s team takes down the nobleman by working as a team. Merin protects GUY. Nobleman strikes for GUY, but merin blocks it with spear, catches the sword, distracts the guy while another of his team actually kills the nobleman.
“Nobleman always act like they’re working alone. They duel, not fight.” —Merin
Merin ties bandages on his men.
Sharbearer comes through their own line and kills GUY.
. . .
Merin fights NAMELESS. Lots of thoughts: 1) uses helm to block a blow. 2) Moves around horse; Sharbearer has more trouble with sides than Merin. 3) Drops to the ground; hard to hit with sword. But forgot how long Shardblades are and it almost takes him. But the guy has to lean down to get a good swing, so while he’s precarious, Merin daggers through the strap of the saddle and hits the horse, making it rear. By this point Merin has been hit and nearly trampled by the horse, which as done more damage to him than the Shardbearer. Shardbearer falls to the ground, as does Merin. Merin gets up, drives dagger into his face—sees the face, Merin is the only one to see the face direclty—then passes out. Others attack vigorously, pulping the face.

Chapter Two

At night on the stone fields. One of his team telling a story about a Stoneshade coming out of the rock. Merin is distracted, thoughtful. Worried that he can’t just go backk to being a farmer; he’s too hardened, too broken. Doesn’t think that life will suit him. Tells the other that it’s foolishness and there is no such thing as Stoneshades. The man talks about the other dead king. Merrin says it was the assassin. The other man talks about the six—SIX!—shardbearers who had been found dead around the king, along with over a hundred soldiers. Who could do such a thing? No man. Merrin goes to see the prisoner, but gets called in to meet with Dalinar instead.

Braninstorms

They get back to the city, Merin knows about the assassins, they’re planning to just protect the king. He decides that they should search out the assassins, rather than just waiting for them.m
Got to keep some insecurities for him. Think about feeling loanly; he’s an outsider, made himself into one now. He’s also got to think about the fact that he’s young, and that he just puts on a front. “He figured that someday, someone would see through him, and that would be that. He’d be off mucking latrines. But until then, why
Once he makes a promise to do something, he does it. Period. This goes back to how he was even in flashbacks. His father taught him that. “Never leave a job half-done.”
He agrees to work for Dalinar (or perhaps decides this after agreeing) because he sees Renarin as a youth he can protect, even though Renarin’s the same age he is.
Can go back and forth between different classes: trained himself in the skill so he could talk to lords to get things for his men. “Did you just call me sir, Sal? Hell, do I look like I’m wearing a fancy coat? Do I sound like I bloody grew up in a palace? Don’t call me sir, you fool.” Renarin VP, watching, as he comes back and talks in a much more up-scale accent?

Shallan Chapter

Drawing Jasnah. She asks her to stop. Ehlokar waks in; Shallan pictures him, draws, good description of how he looks in the moment. Adds a line to indicate sweat.

Scene: Shallan has tried to sketch the face from Merin’s description, but can’t get it. She is now growing suspicious. Draws her brothers face; ads a helm from Shardplate. Merrin watches. “Hey, yeah. That’s him. Who is it?” My brother.

Shattered Plains Brainstorm
Set up:

Merin has killed a Shardbearer, but that has gotten him into even more trouble. Now he’s being turned into a bridge runner.
Ral Eram hasn’t yet been discovered. It’s a myth.
Prahl is an unexplored place.

Questions:

Why isn’t Prahl explored?

Past isn’t well known. They’re in a dark age, after all, and have lost the learning of the past. Once the world was much more connected than it is now. Oathgates aren’t known or active.
Think of the far east. Most the world is an unfamiliar and dark place.
Maybe could have a map that shows known areas, with more vague descrpitions pointing other directions.



Part One: The War

They’re fighting the war, trying to defeat the Prahl, who are holed up in the middle of the

Merin fights his way up as a Bridgeman
Dalinar trys to get his nephew to give up on the war.
Shallan investigates Soulcasting

Part Two: Exploring Ral Eram
Part Three:
NAMING
Time

The shadowdays, the years before the histories.
Back before the Tyranicus,

People

Hamash, slavemaster. He’s Thelen, from Thaleth.
Bluth, one of his mercinaries.
Amaram—the lord’s army he joined.
Telim: Merin’s brother.

Merin’s Team

Dalwet

Bridge Four

Gaz: The overseer of Bridge Four.

Lord Tabath: Lord of Merin’s army.

Sadeas

Races

Thalen people:

Stark white eyebrows and white beards.
The man said, voice lightly accented, putting the emphasis on the wrong syllables of his words and lengthening his ‘a’ sounds. “I will not lose an entire wagon for one man.”
“You see” as a tag.
Not the same religion.
Tosbek, Shallan’s captain.
The sailor nodded—she thought his name was Yalb, a name that was difficult for her Veden tongue to pronounce. Why were the Thaylen people so fond of mushing their words together, without proper vowels and to give them space?
Common men word: Blustering

Veden People

Sugar their food a lot. Shallan puts it in everything.

Hashikk

Wear wrapps.
Can’t grow beards.

Places

Kharbrath—free city. City of Bells.

Things

Krum

Legger—centipede thing.

Chulls

The horse-sized crustacians were curling up, pulling into their shells for the night with clawfulls of grain for feeding. Soon they were nothing more than six lumps in the darkness, barely distinguishable from boulders.

First Moon

Marked by the rising of Salas, smallest and least illuminating of the moons.

Nomon, the middle moon, largest but medium bright, blue-white light.

Accounting

Pure (Diamond) 30 sky

Blood (Ruby) 20 sky

Green (emerald) 10 sky

Sky (Sappire) 1 sky

1 full sphere = 5 mark

1 mark = 5 chips

1 full sphere = 25 chips

Two

Two blood Spheres: Middle price for a slave.

One mark: Greenmark.

One sapphire chip: (a sky chip) Ride through the city in a cart.

Bridge Four

Teft.

The Lopen. I am THE lopen. No other people named that. I asked, like, everyone in the villiage. And it’s a really really big villiage, like one hundred. . .or two hundred. . .lots of people, you know. And nobody had heard of that name so I picked it.

I don’t think you know me well enough to use that name, Aleth. Maybe you should buy me some drinks first or something.

For Poly:

Ch=s

Next Merin Chapters:

Wakes up. Doesn’t want to move. So sore.
Remembers quote from his first captain, but not in detail here. Just curses him, and we get the quote later. “A man isn’t measured by what he accomplishes on the day of resolution. But what he accomplishes on the day after.”
Gets up. The other men are watching him, want to see. He checks on the wounded, then runs bridges practice. Some of them gather outside. None help. He’s dissapointed.
Gaz tells him that the wounded don’t get food or pay. It’s the high lord’s decision—was going to punish, then thought that it would be better to show why. Starvation and slow death. That way, other bridgemen won’t raise the issue.
Hear that the other three teams lost a ton more men. Maybe Rock tells him. Bridge four lost the leats. Bridge four NEVER loses the least. Even if you count the three wounded, they lost the least.
Thinks in frustation that he needs money for the men. Asks for donations. Is ignored. This is where Rock talks to him.
I need food and anticeptic. Gets an idea. Convinces Gaz to let them gather rocks for the awakeners outside. Gaz thinks Merin’s doing him a favor, since one of the heavily wounded crews was supposed to do this.
Syl hunts out the stalks. Rock and he recruit Taft. Rock “Are you with us?” merin thought: since when has it been ‘us’? Taft and Rock shake hands, exchange names. Merin realizes that most of the bridgemen still don’t even know one another’s names.
The three gather reeds, hide them in the carts, squeeze out the jusce. Merin sells it to the apothocary. Trades for good money—apoth can sell to the army—and some supplies. Apoth “I’m not going to discover that bottles of this have gone missing from the army stores, am I?”
Buys a large cooking pot. Gets some wood scraps from the lumbermen by offering to do some work for them. Cooks food for the men. Something primally inviting about a camp fire. Gathers some more of the men. Teft a flute. Rock cooks.
Next day, some of them help him run the bridges.


Buy bandages and a flute.
Syl: Why were you watching me in the first place? I wasn’t. There was another man I was playing pranks on. Why do windspren play pranks, anyway? Other spren don’t.
He gets them to turn their bridge.
Foreshadows by claiming he wants to teach them to carry with different muscles, to keep them from cramping. Doesn’t work, but they’ve got it practiced.
Springs it when they’re out there.
They are protected.
Get to the chasm a little late.
He’s hung in the Highstorm.
Later: Discovers that bridgeleaders get double pay.
Has something over Gaz.
Gaz gets thrown into them for stealing spheres in storms.
He’s frightened because Merin saw him.
Practices with a spear beneath. They see him. “You really can use one.”

Next Shallan

Jasnah takes her out to see the lower parts of life. They get attacked, she Soulcasts a crook. Now the real life philosophy. Tell me, did I do something evil by promting his attack? Or am I innocent? Do you deserve evil to come upon you if you knowingly place yourself where it will be? Something needs to prompt this. Shallan saying something about tempting fate or the like.
Sees that Jasnah keeps the mo’chal in a locked box; need to get the key. That’s the first step.
Talk with brother.
Talk with ardent. She teaches you only one side. Book of Endless Pages. Look at how the world is shaped and even how our letters form.


Goes up, draws to relax.
Thinks needs a plan.
Draws Jasnah.
Add blinks.
Looks at her, uses it to build an argument.
You obviously appreciate persistance. Otherwise you wouldn’t have. . .
You obviously. . .
Guy appears.
He thinks that she’s part of it. During, mistaken.

Annotation The Way of Kings Chapter 7

I’ve taken some visual art classes. I’m terrible at drawing—as you would expect from someone without a lot of experience—but I felt it would be important to know how visual art works and how artists think. Listening to the professors talk was in many ways more useful than the practice itself, though I did enjoy the drawing as well.

(As a side note, my final project for an art class in 2002—a basic drawing class—was a landscape of Roshar with rockbuds and the like. I took a stab at doing my own concept art, and bad though it was, it did help me start to visualize the world.)

How Shallan thinks here is really a blend of how I think as a writer and how I’ve heard visual artists think of their process. I’m drawing heavily on my own experience, and because of that blend, I suspect that to many artists her process will sound odd.