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#he would be a windrunner

koravelliumavast · 2 years

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Shoutout to me for asking a question like 5 times and then leaving the stream because of other obligations so idk if my question was answered

#if Kaladin wasn’t a Windrunner what order would he be or was he always going to be a Windrunner #that’s my question

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cosmerelists · 17 days

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Stormlight Characters Meet an Octopus

As requested by @miss-madithe-baddie :)

It's Octopus Time on Roshar!

1. Kaladin

Kaladin: [stares at octopus] Octopus: [stares at Kaladin] Kaladin: So it...what? Is it one of those creatures that squishes down into crevices during storms? It doesn't look like it has bones. Kaladin: Kinda big though. Would need a big crevice. Octopus: [stares at Kaladin] Kaladin: ... Kaladin: I feel like it's judging me, somehow.

2. Bridge Four

Moash: Well, I don't like it. Moash: An animal with no carapace is unnatural. Rlain: ...You're an animal without a carapace. Moash: W-Well, it's different for humans! We can build houses! Drehy: Maybe the giant squish bug builds houses. Drehy: We all saw it pick up the shell and put it on its head. Skar: That's more fashion than construction, I think. Sigzil: We saw it go into the water. It's a sea creature. Sigzil: Sea creatures don't need carapaces like land animals do. Moash: It's on the land right now!! Skar: Guys, shut up! It's wearing a shell as a hat again! Renarin: It really is quite fashionable.

3. Adolin

Adolin: Sure is weird looking! Adolin: Look! It has little sticky cups under its legs! Kaladin: D-Don't grab it! It's gonna bite you! Adolin: I bet it can crawl up walls 'n' stuff! Adolin: Hey, isn't that something you can do too, Bridgeboy? Kaladin: I use Stormlight! Not sticky vine legs! Adolin: Bet its some kind of tiny Windrunner. Kaladin: It is NOT!

4. Shallan

Shallan: Hush, all of you. Shallan: This thing is beautiful! Gorgeous! Octopus: [abruptly changes color to match surroundings] Shallan: !! Shallan: Talented! Amazing! Shallan: This might be the most important drawing I'll ever do! Adolin: ...You drew me last week for our wedding anniversary? Shallan: [already drawing] And you didn't even change color ONCE!

5. Lopen

Lopen: [staring intently at octopus] Lopen: [staring intently at octopus] Lopen: [staring intently at octopus] Lopen: [concentration face] Rock: ...You're trying to grow more arms, aren't you? Lopen: I didn't know EIGHT was an option!

6. Zahel

Zahel: I've seem those things before. Zahel: Very smart. Zahel: Very tasty. Rock: ...Tasty you say? Shallan: NO

7. Navani

Navani: Seeing this bizarre creature gives me so many ideas. Navani: Dalinar, do you think we should build semi-aquatic vehicles that can go on both land and water and develop color-changing camouflage technology? Dalinar [trying to be a supportive husband]: And perhaps the land-water vehicle could have...tentacles? Navani: No ideas are wrong in the brainstorming stage. Navani: But also no.

8. Dieno (the Mink)

Dieno: [gives octopus a bro nod] Octopus: [gives Dieno a bro nod back] Dalinar: ...What was that? Dieno: Ah, it is nothing! Just two master escape artists recognizing each other. Dalinar: Escape...artist? Dalinar: This creature has done nothing but sit on that rock and occasionally go into that pool this whole time. Dieno: Yet nevertheless, people like us...we recognize each other. Dalinar: ... Dalinar: [doubtfully] If you say so.

9. Dalinar

It is later. Dalinar is walking through Urithiru. Something from above touches his face with a thwick sound. He looks up. The Octopus is looking down at him from the ceiling, one tentacle reaching down. Lift is also in the ceiling. Lift gives him a thumbs up. Dalinar keeps walking.

10. Lift

Lift: Today has been the greatest day of my life. Lift: I had no IDEA there so many vents 'n' shit that someone like you could squish through! Lift: And when you used your dark water attack to push that button? Amazing! Lift: Even I had trouble keeping up with you!! Lift: Truly, you are my new best friend.

#cosmere #cosmerelists #Stormlight Archive #Kaladin #Adolin #Shallan #Dalinar #Navani #Lopen #Lift #Dieno #Zahel

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highly-invested · 8 months

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Dalinar studied him, taking note of his burned and bloodied uniform. Finally, he spoke. “I have multiple reports of you and your soldiers letting enemy Fused go once you’ve wounded them.” Kaladin relaxed immediately. That was what Dalinar wanted to talk about?

“I think we’re starting to reach a kind of understanding with them, sir,” Kaladin said. “The Heavenly Ones fight with honor. I let one of them go today. In turn, their leader—Leshwi—released one of my men instead of killing him.”

“This isn’t a game, son,” Dalinar said. “This isn’t about who gets first blood. We’re literally fighting for the existence of our people.”

“I know,” Kaladin said quickly. “But this can serve us. You’ve noticed already how they’ll hold back and attack us one-on-one, so long as we play by their rules. Considering how many more Heavenly Ones there are than Windrunners, I think we want to encourage this kind of encounter. Killing them is barely an inconvenience, as they’ll be reborn. But each of ours they kill requires training an entirely new Windrunner. Getting back wounded for wounded favors us.”

“You never did want to fight the parshmen,” Dalinar said. “Even when you first joined my army, you didn’t want to be sent against the Parshendi.”

-RoW ch. 10

This little exchange has always bugged me a bit because Kaladin is just right here! heavenly ones can come back every 13 days for as long as there are singers on the planet, with all of their experience and skill, but if a windrunner goes down, they need to find a new partner for the spren, who then has to be trained (granted, minimally if they're coming from the squires), and climb the oaths, plus if a full fledged windrunner dies, all their squires drop out of the air like flies! Nonlethal combat TREMENDOUSLY benefits the humans here, why in the world would Dalinar want to upset that? And then, he just completely dodges Kaladin's obviously correct rebuttal and it doesn't come back up again, even though the code of honor between the gravitation users is what stopped Kal from getting swarmed in the tower when he was flying around with navani's fabrial!

#rhythm of war spoilers #rhythm of war #stormlight spoilers #stormlight archive #kaladin stormblessed

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wanderingchanneler · 10 months

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I think it’s interesting that the Skybreakers are the only order of Radiant that we know all five Ideals for. It seems like most, if not all of the other orders have to discover things as they go, but the Skybreakers have it mostly worked out, with *some* room for individual choice

The First Ideal for Skybreakers is the generic “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.” They call it the Ideal of Radiance

The Second Ideal is the Ideal of Justice. In Szeth’s words, it’s “I swear to seek justice, to let it guide me, until I find a more perfect Ideal.”

The Third Ideal is the Ideal of Law. This is the one Skybreakers have to follow until and unless they swear the Fifth Ideal. I’m not sure what happens if the thing a Skybreaker chooses as their Third Ideal fails before they swear the Fifth, but something Szeth says in RoW makes me think that they’d have to find something else to follow so their Nahel bond isn’t broken. Then again, Szeth’s interpretation might not be accurate, especially since he holds so strongly to rules/codes/Ideals he’s latched onto. Either way, the Skybreaker Third Ideal according to Szeth is “I swear to follow the will of Dalinar Kholin. This is my oath.” We see him grapple with that more in his RoW interlude

The Skybreaker Fourth Ideal is the Ideal of Crusade. This is where they pick a larger goal to attain, and they can only accomplish it if their spren is satisfied. For Szeth, the Fourth Ideal is “I will cleanse the Shin of their false leaders, so long as Dalinar Kholin agrees.”

Again, this is where Skybreakers are different than other Radiants we’ve seen so far. For example, Windrunners don’t know the gist of their Fourth Ideal until they’re forced against it, if Kaladin is a fairly accurate example. Skybreakers know the *idea* of what their Fourth Ideal will be, even if the *details* take form over time. I also think it’s super interesting that they can state what their Fourth Ideal will be in advance, even if it takes months, years, or even decades to accomplish whatever goal they set for themselves. In OB chapter 90, a Skybreaker Master says that they were at the Third Ideal for two decades before attaining the Fourth.

And the Fifth Ideal for the Skybreakers is the Ideal of Law. This is where the Skybreaker becomes law and Truth. Nale is the only example we have in modern times of a Skybreaker who has sworn that Ideal, and his situation is complicated, since he’s a Herald. Even in OB chapter 90, though, a Skybreaker master says that it’s been centuries since a member of their order reached the Fifth Ideal. I don’t know if Nale was the last, or if there have been a few since he reached the Fifth Ideal.

Szeth hasn’t sworn the Fifth Ideal as a Skybreaker. I theorize that he will swear it at some point, partially because it fits so well with a previous headcanon of mine. I also think it’d be super meaningful/impactful for Szeth to swear an Ideal that allows him to make his own decisions/enforce his own will. In OB chapter 106, Nale tells Szeth that he’s the first in a new order of Skybreakers. There has to be some kind of significance to that, but we don’t have all the pieces yet. Nale didn’t prevent Szeth from joining Dalinar and the Coalition after the Battle of Thaylen Field, and I wonder if that was intentional.

If one Radiant swears the Fifth Ideal in KoWT, it *might* be Szeth. I do want him to reach that point eventually, but I also worry that it could feel rushed in KoWT, especially since he said the first Three Ideals so quickly (he said the first two Ideals on the same day, and the Third like a month later lol)

I think I got off track from my original point. This post definitely ended up being longer than I thought it would.

Tl,dr. Skybreakers are unique as far as I can tell/remember, and the fact that their Ideals are broadly laid out ahead of time makes for some interesting possibilities. And I also included Szethposting, because of course I did

#Stormlight Archive #Knights Radiant #Radiant Ideals #Skybreakers #Windrunners #Szeth-son-son-Vallano #Szethposting #Nale #Nale Herald #Nale Stormlight #Oathbringer spoilers #Rhythm of War spoilers #KoWT speculation #Fifth Ideal Radiants #speculation #headcanons

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youravraragechessenjoyer · 4 months

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Chekhov's Bondsmith?

STORMLIGHT 5 THEORY, SPOLIERS FOR ROW

Okay, so. There's a missing Bondsmith. And What if... Crackpot theory... It's Kaladin.

Okay, So I might just be talking nonsense which would track since 90% of my experiences with Stormlight is fawning over how cool Kaladin is, but I think it makes sense.

Now keep in mind that I've only read through Stormlight once and finished a few months ago.

So first off, It is possible for someone to have a double Nahel Bond, it's confirmed through a WOB though it is described as difficult to juggle between orders.

Next, The evidence:

I'll split it up between books:

In TWoK:

Jezrien led the Heralds and not Ishar and yes this by itself is nothing but it is a weird choice for Brandon to make as he could have just made Jezrien the Bondsmith but didn't.

Kaladin turns the Bridgeman into Bridge 4, all people of different nationalities and ideals and he UNITES them into one group.

And at the end he gains control of the UNITED bridgemen.

WoR:

Kaladin's arc in this one is about being less racist to Lighteyes and at the end he becomes the starting point for equalization of Darkeyes which we see in affect later in the series. He UNITES the classes both in his mind and in the world. He also lets Renarin in, furthering this.

He also gives Rlain the weapon and treats him with respect, UNITING him with Bridge 4 and in a sense he UNITES humanity and the listeners.

Oathbringer:

This is the book Kaladin starts his sympathies to the Singers, furthering the UNITY between them in his mind.

He starts UNITING all of the Bridgemen into Windrunners.

ROW: At this point he is a UNITING symbol and leader of the Windrunners, and is at dismay when he thinks about how Bridge 4 no longer exists and is UNUNITED

He also UNITES the humans in the tower to fight the Singer Occupation.

And his respect for the Singers grows even more. If you subscibe to KalxLeswi or KalxVenli than he could even UNITE them like that in the next book.

Also he's going to Shinover next book which could put him near the Valley when starting the journey or even when/if coming back for the champion battle whether or not he ends up being the champion.

There might be more I missed. Again it is a crackpot theory but the idea popped out to me and I had to write it down.

#brandon sanderson #cosmere #kaladin stormblessed #stormlight archive #Bondsmith #Windrunner

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onlycosmere · 1 year

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Kaladin Chapter One from Stormlight 5, Parts 1 and 2

Brandon Sanderson: This is first draft. So there's gonna be some stuff in this, things might change. Just be warning you.

This is Kaladin from [Stormlight] Book Five.

Chapter Kaladin One

Kaladin felt good.

Not great. Not after spending weeks hiding in an occupied city, forced to stretch himself both physically and emotionally far beyond the reasonable limit. Not after what had happened to Teft. No, Kaladin didn't feel great. But he stood in the sunlight, looking out the window of his room.

He thought that maybe he would someday feel great again. Knowing that, being able to recognize it, was enough. Indeed, there was an incongruent spring to his step as he walked to his barrack. Why did he feel good? Yes, they had protected Urithiru, but at great cost. Dalinar had set a deadline that was horrifically soon; war was coming upon them, and now Kaladin wasn't going to even be part of it. He was on leave; self-imposed this time.

He'd said the right words, but had realized that those words weren't enough. Stormlight healed his body, but his soul needed time. Bridge Four and the Windrunners would go to battle without him. He should feel awful. A part of him simply refused to do so.

He dug through his clothing, stacks of civilian clothing neatly laundered for him and delivered this morning. The world might be ending in ten days, but Urithiru's washwomen soldiered on. None of the choices felt right, and shortly he glanced to the wall where a new uniform hung, sent by the quartermaster to replace the one Kaladin had ruined during the fighting two days before. Leyten kept a rack of them in Kaladin's size.

Kaladin had stuck it there with a Lashing last night after Teft's funeral, testing something he'd been told by the others: Urithiru was awake now, with its own Bondsmith, and things were... different. That Lashing he had used should have run out after minutes; yet here this one was, ten hours later, still going strong. The extended powers only worked in the city, but he could already see that going forward, this would be a very different place to live. Assuming anyone survived the next two weeks.

A short time later, Syl poked her head into his room without any thought for privacy, as usual. Granted, his room didn't have a door, but a hanging cloth. Doors were in short supply, and they'd installed their first ones on the examination rooms up the hallway to offer privacy to the patients.

Not that a door would have stopped Syl; she could squeeze through the smallest cracks. Except, today, she was walking around full human-sized, for some reason, and wearing a havah instead of her usual girlish dress. She was doing that more commonly, as of late.

As Kaladin did the last buttons on the high collar of his uniform jacket, she bounced over to stand behind him, then floated up in the air a foot or so to look over his shoulder at him in the mirror.

"Can't you make yourself any size?" he asked, checking his jacket cuffs.

"Yeah. Within reason."

"Whose reason?"

"No idea," she said. "I tried to get as big as a mountain, once. It involved lots of grunting and thinking like rocks. Really big rocks. I managed a very small mountain; like, enough to fit in this room with the tip brushing the ceiling, but super narrow. That's as big as I could go."

"So, you could be tall enough to tower over me?" he said. "Why do you usually make yourself shorter than me, instead?"

"It just feels right," she said.

"That's your explanation for basically everything."

"Yep." She poked him. He could barely feel it; even at this size, she was insubstantial in the physical realm. "Uniform? I thought you weren't gonna wear one of those anymore. What happened?"

He hesitated, then pulled the jacket down at the bottom to pull the wrinkles across the sides. "It just feels right," he admitted, meeting her eyes in the mirror.

She grinned, and storm him, he couldn't help but grinning back. "Someone is having a good day," she said, poking him again.

"Bizarrely," Kaladin said. "If I understand right, the world is slated to end in ten days."

"To maybe end in ten days."

"And the enemy appears to be mobilizing for some reason, rather than just waiting for the deadline. What do they hope to accomplish?"

"Something nefarious, no doubt," she said.

"More people are going to die," he replied. "Perhaps people I care about. I won't be there to help them, and..."

"Kaladin Stormblessed!" she said, rising up into the air higher, arms folded. Though she wore a fashionable havah, she left her white-blue glowing hair floating free, waving and shifting in the wind. The non-existent wind, currently. She raised up until she loomed two feet above him. "Don't you dare talk yourself into being miserable!"

"Or what?"

"Or I," she thundered, "shall make silly faces at you all day, as only I can."

"Those aren't silly," he said, shivering.

"They're hilarious!"

"Last time, you made a tentacle come out of your forehead."

"High brow comedy."

"A spinning eyeball growing from the end of it?"

"Every joke needs a good twist."

"Then it slapped me!"

"Punchline. Obviously." She shook her head. "Storms. All the humans in the world, and I end up picking the one without a taste for refined humor."

He met her eyes, and her smile was storming contagious. "It just feels warm," he said, "to have finally figured a few things out. To have made progress, despite it all. To have let go of that weight I was carrying and to step out from the shadow. I know the darkness will return, but I think... I think I'll be able to remember, this time. Better than before."

"Remember what?"

He met her eyes, Lashing himself upward, floating until he was eye level with her. "That days like this exist, too." She nodded firmly. "I wish I could show Teft," Kaladin said. "I miss him like a hole in my own flesh, still."

"I know," she said softly. If she'd been a human friend, she might have offered a hug. Syl didn't seem to understand physicality like a human did, even if she had a more substantial body in the cognitive realm. He got the feeling she didn't actually spend much time there, though; she seemed more natural to this realm than the other honorspren, flitting about like the windspren she sometimes imitated. And indeed today, to cheer him up, she waved eagerly and led him out to the main living room of the family quarters. *inaudible* full human size wearing a havah, but flying about, moving with a swooping motion that was, honestly, a tad ridiculous to watch.

Kal didn't fall, though, continuing to hover. Because, why not? It felt like he wasn't even using up his Stormlight; or if he was, it was constantly replenished, like what happened when Dalinar opened a perpendicularity.

In the main living room, they found Oroden playing with his blocks. At Syl's suggestion, they spent a good half hour hovering the blocks in the air for the *inaudible*. It felt a strange use of his powers, literally harvested from the essence of a god. But, when he stopped, Oroden pointed. "Kaddin," the little boy said, pointing. "You need box!" "You," in this case, meant Oroden himself, who had noticed that everyone called him "you," and had decided that was just another name for him.

Kaladin smiled, hovering up another set of blocks. Syl, shrunken down, hopped from block to block in the air as Oroden swatted and moved them. What am I doing? Kaladin thought after a little of that. The world is ending, my best friend is dead, and I'm playing blocks with my little brother?

Then, in response, a voice deep from within him. Familiar, almost certainly imagined. Hold onto this, Kal. Embrace it. I didn't die so you could mope about like a wet Horneater with no razor. It didn't seem anything mystical, but instead... well, Kaladin had known Teft long enough to anticipate what the man would have said. Even in death, a good sergeant knew his job: keep the officers pointed the right direction."

"Pyl!" Oroden said, gesturing to Syl. "Pyl, come pin!" He was off a second later, with Syl following afterwards as he hopped and pointed, then starting spinning around in circles with her twirling around him.

Kaladin watched, seating on the floor amidst hovering blocks. His mother settled down beside him and nudged him in the side, then handed him a bowl with some lavis grain and spiced crab meat on the top. She wore her hair tied with a kerchief, like she'd always done when working back in Hearthstone. He took the bowl of food without complaint, though he didn't feel particularly like eating. As his mother eyed him, he dutifully started eating away. If there was a group more demanding than sergeants when it came to an officer's well-being, it would be mothers. When he'd been younger, this sort of attention had mortified him. Now, after years without, he found he didn't mind a little mothering. Truth be told, whether he wanted to eat or not, he needed the food.

"How are ya?" she asked.

"Good," he said around spoonfulls of lavis. She studied him. "Really," he said. "Good. Not great. Good enough."

A block flew past, steaming with Stormlight, Lashed upward precisely enough to counteract its weight. Hesina tapped it with a hesitant finger, sending it spinning through the room. "Shouldn't those fall?" she asked.

"Eventually, maybe?" He shrugged. "Navani has done something weird to the place. It's more than the fact that the tower is somehow warm now, and the pressure equalized. The entire city is infused, like a sphere." Water flowed, now, from holes in walls. You simply had to press your hand to the top of the hole and ask, and it came streaming out. You asked for a temperature, and it came out that heat. Suddenly, a lot of the strange basins and empty pools in the tower made sense. They'd expected spigots, but most locations didn't have those. Just mysterious outlets.

He smiled as he watched Syl spin around Oroden, twirling himself, then left him with a few blocks as a distraction. She popped to human size again and flopped down on her back next to Kaladin and his mother, her face covered in an illusionary approximation of sweat. "How," Syl said, "do small humans just keep going? Where does their energy come from?"

"One of the great mysteries of the cosmere," his mother said. "If you think this is bad, you should have seen Kal."

"Oooh," Syl said, rolling over and looking to her with wide eyes, her long, blue-white hair tumbling around her face. No human woman Kaladin had ever known had acted such a casual way wearing a havah. The tight dresses, while not strictly formal, weren't designed for rolling about on the ground bare-footed. Syl, however, would be Syl. "Embarassing childhood stories?" she said. "Go. Talk. While his mouth is full of food so he can't stop you."

"He never stopped moving," Hesina said, leaning forward, "except when he finally <clumped to the ground> to sleep, giving us brief hours of respite. I was required to sing his favorite song, and Lirin would have to chase him. And he could tell if Lirin was giving a half-hearted chase and would chastise him. It was honestly the cutest thing to see Lirin being chewed out by a three-year-old."

"I could have guessed," Syl said, "he would be tyrannical as a child."

"Not tyrannical," Hesina said. "He merely like things to be the way that they should be. As he saw them. Children often are like that, Syl, accepting only one answer to any question because nuance is difficult and confusing."

"Yeah," Kaladin said, scraping the last of the lavis from his bowl. "Children. That's a worldview that obviously only strikes children, never the rest of us."

His mother gave him a side hug, one arm around his shoulders. The kind that seemed to grudgingly admit that he wasn't a little boy anymore. "Do you sometimes wish," she asked him, "the world were a simpler place? That easy answers of a child were, in truth, the actual answers?"

"Not anymore," he said. "'Cause I think the easier answers would condemn me. Most everyone, actually." That made his mother beam, for some reason, even though it was a simple thing to say. Then her eyes got a certain mischievous sparkle to them. He knew his mother, and knew to be wary of what was coming next

"So. You have a spren friend," she said. "Did you ever ask her that important question you always asked me?"

He sighed, bracing himself. "And which question would that be, mother?"

"Poopspren," she said, poking him. "You were always so fascinated by the idea."

"That was Tien!" Kaladin said. "That was not me!"

She returned a knowing stare. Mothers; they remember too well.

"Fine," he said. "Maybe I was intrigued." He glanced at Syl, who was watching the exchange with wide eyes. "Did you ever know any...?"

"Poopspren?" she said flatly. He nodded. "Like, the stinky stuff that comes out of you when you think I'm not looking?" she said. "That stuff? The world is ending, and this is what you want to know? You're asking the only living daughter of the storms, princess of the honorspren, this question: how much poop do I personally know?"

"It's just something that came up," he said, "now and then, when we were boys, if poop actually had a spren, or..."

"Oh, I know tons," Syl said, barely keeping a straight face. "We had them over for dinner all the time. Stormfather and I. Knew an entire poop family."

"I do not want to discuss the topic anymore," Kaladin said. "Please, can we move on. I don't need to know more about poop."

Unfortunately, Oroden wandered over and was watching the conversation with interest. He stepped up and patted Kaladin on the knee. "It's okay, Kaddin," he said in a comforting voice, with a tone of repeating something he'd been told. "Poop goes in the potty. Do better next time and get a treat."

This, of course, sent Syl into a fit of uproarious laughter, flopping on her back again. Kaladin gave his mother his captain's glare, one he knew from experience was good enough to make any soldier go white. Mothers, however, ignored the chain of command. And the glare only made her seem more amused.

So it was that Kaladin was exceedingly relieved when his father appeared in the doorway, a spring in his step and a large stack of papers under his arm. His wife walked over to take these, curious. "Dalinar's medical corps layouts and current operating procedures," Lirin explained to her.

"Dalinar, eh?" she said. "A few meetings and you're on a first-name basis with the most powerful man in the world?"

"The boy's attitude is contagious," Lirin said.

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with his upbringing," Hesina said. "We'll instead assume that four years in the military somehow conditioned him to be flippant around lighteyes."

"Well, I mean..." Lirin glanced at Kaladin. Both looked into his eyes, which were a deep blue these days, never fading back to their proper brown. Didn't help that he was, even still, hovering a few inches off the ground. Air was more comfortable than stone, after all. He knew they found what he'd become to be somewhat unbelievable. He didn't blame them. He found himself stomping in on occasion and trying to believe it himself.

The two of them moved over to the counter at the side of the room, spreading out the pages. "It's a mess," Lirin said. "His entire medical system needs a rebuild from the ground up, with training on how to properly sanitize. Apparently, many of his best field medics have fallen in recent events."

"I hear the army has had a difficult time of things these last few years," Hesina said, scanning the pages.

You have no idea, Kaladin thought. They glanced at Syl, who had sidled over to sit next to him. Oroden went chasing blocks again, and Kaladin... well, he just basked in it for a time. Family. Peace. He'd been running from disaster to disaster for so long, he'd completely forgotten what this felt like. Even moments like dinners with Bridge Four, precious times of respite, had felt like the gasps of air you might get while drowning, rather than truly peaceful breaks. Yet, here he was. Retired, watching his brother play, sitting next to Syl, listening to his parents chat. Storms, it had been a wild ride. He'd survived it all, somehow. And it wasn't his fault that he had.

Syl sat upright next to him, then rested her head, insubstantial though it was, on the side of his shoulder as she watched the blocks float. Which was odd behavior for her, but he wasn't accustomed to her spending so much time in a human size, so maybe her head grew more tired when she was larger. "Why the full size?" he asked her.

"When we were in Shadesmar," she said, "something felt different, about the way everyone looked at me, treated me. I felt more like a person. Less like a force of nature. I'm finding I missed that."

"Do I treat you differently when you're small?"

"A little."

"And you want me to change?"

"I want," she said, "things to change and be the same all at once." She looked at him, and probably saw on his face that he found that completely baffling. She continued, leaning back and giving him a grin. "Suffice it to say that I want to make it harder for certain people to ignore me." With that, she poked him in the arm.

"Is it harder to be this size?"

"Yep," she said. "But I've decided I want to make the effort. Not all the time. More often, though, than I used to." She shook her head, making her hair swirl around. "Do not question the will of the mighty spren princess, Kaladin Stormblessed. My whims are as inscrutable as they are magnanimous."

"You were just saying you wanted to be treated like a person," he said, "not a force of nature."

"No," she said. "I want to decide when I'm treated like a person. That doesn't preclude me wanting to be properly worshiped, as well." She smiled, devious. "I've been thinking of all kinds of things to make Lunamor do, if we ever see him again."

He wanted to offer her some consolation on that, but he honestly had no idea if they'd ever see Rock again. Another hurt, different from the loss of Teft, different again from the loss of Moash; perhaps, the loss of the man he'd thought Moash had been.

"Son," Lirin said from the side of the room, "don't you have a meeting with Dalinar? He mentioned he had something for you to do."

"I already know what it is," Kaladin said, standing up. "He told me yesterday. Szeth is going to Shinovar to confront Ishar. Dalinar wants me to go with him and see if I can do something to help."

"Ishar?" Hesina said. "You mean Ishi'elin, priest of the Heralds, second only to the Almighty in glory and truth?"

"Yeah," Kaladin said. "Apparently he's gone mad? Not surprising, considering how Taln and Ash are faring."

Mother gave him an odd look, and it took a moment to realize it was because he was speaking so familiarly of Heralds, figures of lore that were the focus of religious devotion the world over. He wasn't certain of why he used the familiar tone and names so easily; he didn't know either of them, and was simply using the names they'd used in meetings. It felt natural to talk that way. He'd stopped reverencing people he didn't know the way Amaram branded him. God or king, if they wanted his respect... well, they could earn it.

"Son," Lirin said, turning away from the many sheets of papers they'd been studying, detailing out Dalinar's medical tent layouts. From the way Lirin said the word, Kaladin braced himself for some kind of lecture.

He was unprepared, then, for Lirin to embrace him. Awkwardly; it wasn't Lirin's natural state, this sort of attention. Yet, Kaladin appreciated it. The gesture conveyed things that Lirin found it hard to say. That he'd been wrong. That perhaps Kaladin needed to find his own way. So, Kaladin embraced him back.

"I wish," Lirin said, "I had fatherly advice for you. But I far outpaced my understanding of the way things work in life, so I guess... go be you. Go save the world."

"Dad," Kaladin said. "I'm not going to war. I'm not going to save the world. I'm just going to see if I can talk a crazy man out of a few of his issues."

"Then you are the best one to do it." Lirin pulled back. "I love you."

Kaladin forcibly suppressed an eye roll. This was what he'd wanted; he could deal with a little sappiness.

"Stay safe," his mother said, giving him another side hug. "And come back to us.

He gave her a nod, then glanced at Syl. She'd changed while he wasn't looking, from a havah to a Bridge Four uniform, with her hair in a ponytail like Lyn usually wore. It looked right, somehow, on Syl.

It was time to go. With one final hug for his brother, Kaladin strode out to meet his destiny, for the first time in years feeling like he was somewhat in control. Deciding for himself to take the next step in his life, rather than being thrust into it by momentum or act of society. And while he'd woken up feeling good, that knowledge, that sense of volition and control, felt legitimately great.

Chapter Kaladin Two

Kaladin soared up through the center column of Urithiru, accompanied by Syl. Dalinar still kept his meetings on the top floor, though Kaladin had trouble imagining the location was convenient for people who couldn't fly. He found it difficult not to think about the last time he'd flown up this corridor, following Teft's murder. Enraged, feeling like something unfamiliar had poisoned his blood. A rage, fraternal twin to the normal feelings of Stormlight. Eagerness to act, but this time also to destroy, a storm inside of him, this time red and broken with bloody lightning. That man he'd become after killing the Pursuer; that man frightened him. Even now, days later, lit by calm sunlight, remembering that man was like remembering a nightmare. Made more terrifying by the fact that he knew it had been Kaladin himself and his choices that had led him to that point.

He lighted at the top of the elevator shaft and noted a glow coming from a nearby room. "Navani," Syl whispered, eyes wide. She shrank down to the size of a spren and zipped off. There was something almost intoxicating about Navani to the spren of the city, something about her bond to the Tower and what it had done. Syl would be back shortly, but like vines seeking water, when they came near Navani these last little while, Syl had always flown off for a little bit.

Kaladin forced himself to walk, not glide, over to the room where Dalinar was taking his meetings today. As soon as he left Urithiru, Kaladin would need to go back to using Stormlight only when necessary. Best to be in the habit now.

Dalinar's meeting room had a smaller chamber outside for people to wait while meetings finished. Urithiru was getting more and more furniture these days, so there was a nice couch here in this small stone room where one could sit and wait. It was, unfortunately, taken up entirely by Wit, who was laying on his back, using space that could have accommodated three people, his foot up on one armrest, reading some kind of book and chuckling to himself. "Ahh, Wema," he mumbled, turning the page. "So you've finally seen what a catch Vadam is. Let's see how you screw it up."

"Wit?" Kaladin said. "I didn't realize you were even back in the Tower." It was probably a stupid thing to say, though. Jasnah was back, having been fetched by Windrunners and transported to the Oathgate in Azimir, so it made sense Wit had come along.

Wit, being Wit, finished his page of reading before acknowledging Kaladin. Finally, the lanky man snapped the book closed, then turned and lounged on the sofa in a different way, arms to the sides along the back, one leg crossed over the other, looking nothing so much as a king on his throne. A very relaxed king on a very cushy throne.

"Well," he said, eyes alight with amusement, "if it isn't my favorite flute thief!"

"You gave me that flute, Wit," Kaladin said, sighing as he leaned against the frame of the doorway.

"And then lost it."

"That's not the same as stealing."

"I'm a storyteller," Wit said with a flip of the fingers. "My kind have the right to redefine words as we see fit."

"That's stupid."

"That's literature."

"It's confusing."

"The more confusing, the better the literature!"

"That might be the most pretentious thing I've ever heard."

"Ah," Wit said, pointing. "Now you're getting it. I knew you'd understand."

Kaladin hesitated, trying to sort through what had just been said. Sometimes, during conversations with Wit, he wished he had someone to take notes for him. Wit just sat there, looking back at him, seeming self-satisfied. "So..." Kaladin said, "do you want your flute back?"

"Hell no! I gave you that flute, bridgeboy! Returning it back would be almost as insulting as stealing it!"

"What am I supposed to do with it, though?"

"Hmm," Wit said, reaching into a bag at his feet and slipping out a different flute, this one painted with some kind of shiny red lacquer. He twirled it in his hand. "If only there was something one could do with this curious piece of wood. These holes seem intended for some arcane purpose beyond the understanding of mortals." Kaladin rolled his eyes. "If only," Wit continued, "there was a way to learn to do something productive with this item! It has the look of some natural sort... maybe an instrument? Of curious, mythological design, perhaps intended for some useful purpose? Alas, my poor, finite mind is incapable of comprehending the-"

"If I don't interrupt," Kaladin said, "how long will you keep going?"

"Long, long past the time when it was funny."

"It was ever funny?"

"The words?" Wit said. "Of course not. Your face while I say them, though. Well, it's been said that I am an artist. This is true. Unfortunately, the primary subjects of my art can never experience the truth of my creations as displayed upon their features, them becoming the only one immune to the experience." He flipped the flute in his hand again, then handed it toward Kaladin. "For loan, this time. It has the same fingerings of the one I gave you, though not the same... capacity."

"Wit. I can't play this flute any more than I could play the other one you gave me. I have no idea how."

"So?" Wit flipped the flute again, then extended it further toward Kaladin.

"I guess... I have to wait until Dalinar is done," Kaladin said, looking longingly at the door, which remained closed. Dalinar often took his time in meetings, ignoring appointment times, despite of Navani's attempts to get him to pay attention to one of the many clocks she delivered him. So there was no telling how long Kaladin would be up here.

Wit grinned. And, well... Kaladin felt indebted to him. As infuriating as the man (or whatever he actually was) could be... Well, when Kaladin had been in the worst darkness of the storm, Wit had been there to pull him out. Somehow, despite it being a vision or a nightmare of some sort, Wit had come for him. This man was a friend, and Kaladin appreciated him, quirks included, so he played the role the man obviously wanted.

"Will you teach me?" Kaladin said, taking the flute. "I don't have a lot of time but-"

Wit was already moving, whipping some sheets of paper from the bag at his feet. They had a strange kind of symbol on them, which made Kaladin nervous, but Wit insisted that it wasn't actually writing. Just the marks on paper representing sounds. He said that part with a smile, and it took Kaladin a few minutes to realize the inherent joke to them. Still, over the next hour (Dalinar really was taking his time), Kaladin listened and followed Wit's instructions. He learned the basics of fingering, of reading music and making notes. It was a different experience entirely from trying to figure it out on his own, though he'd largely forgotten about the flute. When Wit would let him in recent months.

When he'd first got it, he had legitimately tried. He knew that he had to blow air across the thing in just the right way, but it wasn't until Wit showed him exactly how to hold his hands that Kaladin managed to coax a few timid notes from the thing. An hour later, he forced out a stumbling rendition of the first line of music with notes that sounded far more shrill than Wit's version. It was an incredibly simple accomplishment, just a handful a notes; yet Kaladin felt he'd climbed a mountain in accomplishing it. He was smiling in a stupid way as Syl peeked back in to investigate the source of the noise. Probably wondering who's been stepping on a rat, Kaladin thought to himself.

"Nice work," Wit said. "Next time you're in a fight, start with a bit of that. The enemy is sure to drop their weapon and cover their ears."

"If anyone asks me about my skill, I'll just be sure to tell them who my teacher is." Wit grinned at that. "Am I at least going to get a story this time?" Kaladin asked, handing the flute back as he sat beside the man on the couch. When was Dalinar going to be done?

"That depends on how well you listen. And if you do what I say. And if you're willing to make up a few of your own." He rapped the flute with his knuckles.

"It was a fun enough way to pass the time while waiting, Wit," Kaladin said, "but I have to ask. Music? Me, playing a flute? What relevance is any of that?"

"Ah. Now there's a question for the ages," Wit said, leaning back. "What use is art? Why does it hold such meaning and potence to us? I can't tell you, because the short answer is unappealing and the long answer takes months. I will instead say this: every society in every region of every planet I've visited (and I've been to quite a large number) has made art."

Kaladin nodded thoughtfully at that. It made sense; Wit wasn't answering it as an actual question, but Kaladin was accustomed to that by now. Protesting would only lead to mockery.

"Perhaps the question isn't 'what use is art?'" Wit mused. "Perhaps even that simple question misses the point? It's like asking the use of having hands or walking upright or growing hair. Art is part of us, Kaladin. That's the use; that's the reason. It exists because we need it on some fundamental level. And the use is simply that: to be made.

When Kaladin didn't respond, Wit eyed him. "I can accept that," Kaladin said. "It's a tautology. Which is the point: the more confusing, the better, right?"

Wit grinned, and then that grin faded. He glanced through the door into Dalinar's meeting room.

"Wit," Kaladin asked, "I get the feeling this next part is going to be difficult."

"Yeah," Wit said softly. "I feel it too." A straight answer. Those were always strangely disturbing.

"Do you have any words of wisdom? Encouragement?"

"Everything you've done, Kal, everything you've been, has prepared you for this. It's going to be hard. Fortunately, life has been hard, so you're working under familiar constraints. We just carry these weights, son; eventually, we'll get to put them down."

Kaladin glanced to the side to where Wit was staring off into space, idly spinning the red flute in his fingers. Something in his voice, his face. "You're talking," Kaladin said softly, "like you think one of us won't survive this."

"I wish I were optimistic enough to think one of us would survive."

"Wit, I'm pretty sure I've heard you say that you're immortal."

"Yeah. Immortality doesn't seem to go as far as it once did, kid." He glanced at Kaladin, then plastered on a smiling face. "Listen. I think you can rise to this. Probably. Difficult though it will be. You're up for a different kind of challenge now. As am I." Wit tapped the flute. "You're going to have to learn to play music, Kaladin. Without using your breath or your lips."

"Wit. I know we've been joking about being confusing. Can you try for once to be clear?"

"I am trying. You'll win when you don't play music with your own breath, and when you fight without your own muscles. Play the flute, but don't. And fight, but don't."

"I think you've been reading too many stories, Wit. Riddles aren't actually helpful in real life."

Wit launched himself off the couch, crossing the room on legs that suddenly seemed spindly. He passed Syl, human-sized again, lingering in the doorway and watching him with a frown. "Listen," Wit said, sounding almost frustrated. "It will make sense when you get to it, maybe, if you can take this next journey down the right path. Keep your hope strong."

"Jasnah doesn't believe in hope," Syl whispered at the doorway. "I heard her complaining about it once."

"Jasnah would make an excellent Wit," Wit said, pointing at Syl. "She's the right amount of smart and the right amount of stupid all at once." He smiled in a fond way, and Kaladin wondered if there was anything to the rumors about those two. Wit spun toward Kaladin. "Do you know about the Passions?"

"That's some old Thaylen religion," Kaladin said, shrugging. "Something about emotion."

"Derived anciently from the teachings of Odium," Wit said, crossing the room and spreading his hands. "Though, honestly, it's not polite to point out that fact to practitioners of the Passions. People don't like hearing the way their religion was, mythologized like all others, as if myths can't be true. Regardless, the Passions teach that if you are fervent enough, if you care enough, your emotion itself will influence yourself. Not simply because of positive thinking. The Passions, as a religion, teach that if you want something badly enough, the cosmere will provide it for you."

Kaladin nodded slowly. "There might be something to that."

"Kid," Wit said, leaning down before where Kaladin still sat on the couch. "The Passions are utter horseshit."

"Why? It's good to be hopeful. The Passions sound nice."

"The wrong people get far too much mileage out of things that sound nice," Wit said. "The amount of money, effort, and lives wasted on things that sound nice would astonish you. Take it from a guy who is all too capable of the lie: nothing is easier to sell somebody than the story that they want to hear.

"Nice doesn't mean true, or even helpful. The Passions are deeply insulting if you spare even a moment to consider. I once spoon-fed broth to a trembling child in a kingdom that no longer exists. I found her on a road leading away from a battlefield after her parents, simple peasants who were caught between clashing armies, were slaughtered. Her elder brother lay half a mile behind, having starved hours before I found her. You think that kid who starved didn't want to eat? You think her parents didn't want badly enough to escape the ravages of war? You think if they had Passion enough, the cosmere would have saved them? How convenient to be able to believe that people are poor because they simply didn't care enough to be rich? That they didn't pray hard enough? So convenient to make suffering their own fault, rather than the result of life being unfair and birth mattering more than aptitude or storming Passion."

Kaladin met Wit's eyes, frowning. He didn't know if he'd ever seen the man so riled up by a simple concept, one that barely seemed to have anything to do with their conversation. But one could never tell with Wit. Non sequiturs that ended up being relevant were the daggers he kept strapped to his boots to be employed when his foes were distracted.

"You're a lighteyes now, Kaladin," Wit said, leaning forward even further. "You've hauled yourself up out of the crem, and done something incredible in that. You deserve praise. But be careful of assuming that people only get what they deserve in life. That's been sold a hundred different ways: positive thinking leading to opportunity, absolutist prosperity doctrines, the Passions. I've seen the same ideas recycled in a dozen different worlds, sure to emerge among useful ideas like storming weeds on a battlefield. They're all the same: deliberate, pernicious lies devised by powers who know their success was due to to luck at best, crass exploitation and larceny at worst. So they have to invent some kind of moral rationalization, a lie that lets them think they deserve what they have. Then, after inhaling their own stench long enough, they decide to package and sell it. And when it doesn't work for anyone else; well, they have the ultimate excuse. It isn't the idea that is flawed. You just don't care enough."

"Storms," Syl said, crossing the room. "This is important to you."

"And yet," Wit said, glancing at her, "wanting and praying desperately for all of them to choke on their own fingers as they reach down their throats to pull forth further nuggets of regurgitated idiodicy, it hasn't happened. Funny, that."

"Hope matters, though," Kaladin said. "You just told me earlier to hope."

"Sure, it matters. Of course it matters. You think I'd be here if it didn't? Hope is a virtue. But the definition of that word is relevant. You know what a virtue actually is? It's not that difficult."

"If this entire conversation is the way I learn," Kaladin said, "then I dispute the point of it not being that difficult."

Wit chuckled, then stepped back and threw his hands in the air. "Virtue is something that is valuable, even if it gives you nothing. A virtue persists without payment or compensation. Positive thinking is great, vital, useful; but it has to remain so, even if it gets you nothing. Belief, truth, honor: the moment these exist only to get you something is the moment you've missed the storming point."

He glanced at Syl. "This is where Jasnah is wrong about hope, smart though she is in so many other ways. If hope didn't mean anything to you despite losing, then it wasn't ever a virtue to you in the first place. Took me a long time to learn this, even though I've had it explained to me a long time ago by a smart man. A man who lost every belief he thought he had, but started over now."

"Sounds like someone wise," Syl said.

"Oh, Saze is among the best. He might be the wisest man I've ever known."

"Too bad none of it rubbed off," Kaladin said.

Wit tossed his flute, spinning it, then pointed it directly at Kaladin. "Congratulations. You've practiced music, you've listened to a self-important rant, and you've delivered quips at awkward points. I dub you a graduate from Wit's school of practical impracticality."

Syl sat down on the couch, though she left no impression in its cushions, hovering as always rather than truly sitting. She seemed completely baffled by all of this.

"Wit," Kaladin said, "does that make me your apprentice?"

Wit belted out a full-stomach last, one that lasted an extended time, long enough to be uncomfortable. "Kal," he said, gasping for breath, "you've learned a few things, but you're still far, far too useful a human being to be an apprentice of mine. You'd end up actually helping people! No, I have to refuse. I've already got one bridgeboy as an apprentice, and he's plenty incompetent to keep a hold of the position for many years to come."

"I'm sure Sig will love that description of him," Kaladin said. "I'll have you know he's doing a fine job leading the Windrunners."

"You've been corrupting him," Wit said. "I'm trying to return that favor to you. No, you're not my apprentice, but that doesn't mean you can't pick up a thing or two. A kind of cross-training into uselessness."

"You're so storming melodramatic," Kaladin said.

"Just trying to give you a proper send-off," Wit replied. "We're at the end, Kaladin, and you are needed. I want to send you to your divine destiny with a spring in your step."

"I don't know why everyone talks like that," Kaladin said. "War might be coming, but I'm heading away from it. Dalinar wants me to help a maniac come back to himself, and perhaps keep another one in line during the trip."

"That's it, eh?" Wit said. "Yeah, that's it. A little thing. Just you becoming the world's first therapist."

Kaladin glanced at Syl, who shook her head. "We have no idea what that is, Wit."

"Because," Wit said, "you haven't finished inventing it yet!" He leaned in. "About time someone figured out a method to counteract what I've been doing. Makes my job more fun, because a challenge is always appreciated. Now go, the two of you. The world needs you: more than you, or it, or anyone other than your humble Wit yet realizes. The fight ahead of you is going to be legendary. Just remember what I said. You can't fight this one with the strength of muscle. You'll have to wield the spear another way."

"And learn to play the flute," Kaladin said flatly, "without playing it."

"Yep, you've got it."

With a sight, Kaladin stood up. Then, the most remarkable thing happened. Wit extended his hand. Then didn't pull it back as Kaladin hesitantly took it, but gave it a firm shake.

"Thank you," Wit said.

"For what?"

"For the inspiration."

Kaladin frowned again. "I'm never going to see you again, am I, Wit?"

"Nobody knows the future, Kal," he replied, "not even me. So instead of saying goodbye, let's call this an extended period of necessary separation, requisite to give me time to think of the most perfect, exquisite insult. And if I never get to deliver it to you in person; well, kindly do me the favor of imagining how wonderful it was, all right?"

"All right."

Wit winked at him, then let go of his hand and walked over to rap at the door. Dalinar himself opened it a moment later. "You finally done with him, Wit?" the man asked. "I've been waiting for a storming hour, and there isn't time to waste!"

"He's yours," Wit said. "Remember what I told you."

"I will," both Kaladin and Dalinar said at the same time. They glanced at each other.

"Wit," Kaladin called just before the man vanished. "What about my story? What about my story?"

"You will tell your own story this time, Kaladin," Wit said, with a last glance and a wink. Then he was gone, his whistle from outside slowly retreating.

"You ever think," Kaladin said to Dalinar, "that you'd end up dancing on that man's whims?"

"I suspect," Dalinar said, stepping back and waving for Kaladin to enter, "we've been dancing to them for years without knowing it. I think he's some kind of god."

"No," Syl said, joining Kaladin as they walked in, but looking over her shoulder. "He could have been a god, but he turned it down. Which makes him something else entirely."

Dalinar grunted, then gestured into the chamber. "Come. I have a few things to tell the two of you, then you need to be on your way."

#the stormlight archive #kowt #stormlight 5 #cosmere #brandon sanderson #cosmere future #cfsbf #root #long post

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nevertheless-moving · 1 month

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For au 8: what extremely awkward joke about said severed leg are they in the middle of (too tired to move, out of Stormlight, have moved on to camadere stage of the fight) when the bridge comes for them?

Stormlight AU Number 8: Kaladin slightly further along in powers during initial szeth fight. Could happen due to other au concepts. Epic windrunner battle across camp, rooftops, clouds, onto shattered plains. Szeth and Kaladin end up running out of stormlight, stranded on the plains together. Sanderson incredible battle of Champions gradually fading to exhausted delirious slap fight. eventually they both have to get rescued. (of course the bridgemen would search for him after the battle). Comedic scenes with Kaladin’s chopped off leg.

Hello! Thank you for asking! You know, to be completely honest, it actually didn't occur to me that Kaladin might manage to use his incredibly potent Power Of Friendshipᵀᴹ to get all the way to camaraderie that early on. I was mostly imagining Szeth dissociating wildly at one edge of the plateau while Kaladin clutches a dagger half awake on the other side. Syl has to keep chasing Szeth away. Occasionally they might shuffle around and yell extremely hinged things at each other.

Kaladin manages to get a very small fire going that night, hoping that one of the sentries might see it. They don't. but fortunately, all the bridge crews are out looking for him, and Renarin decides to tag along with bridge four for some reason, insisting that he had a feeling they would be found that direction, because of, um. math. second sons are allowed to math, alright?

My inital reaction to this ask was

to gently shoot down the idea of them having a funny conversation as one that I couldn't personally make work. They kind of need a third person to lighten the mood, otherwise their default common language right now is dead serious warrior guy. HOWEVER you raise an excellent comedic concept and that is 75% of my motivation for writing so perhaps...

let's say Kaladin and Szeth did manage to have a whole conversation at this point, again this is right after they met and promptly tried to fight to the death in a brilliant cataclysmic battle the likes of which hadn't been seen in millennia.

Kaladin was still hiding his powers from the warcamps (though, he realizes with tired dread, considering how many walls they slammed eachother through, that swordcat is probably out of the bag). He just figured out wall walking (and subsequently flying) a few days ago, motivated by a security briefing on the latest Assassin in White attack in Azir. He wasn't expecting to have to use his powers this soon, this publicly, but when the Assassin showed up...what else was he supposed to do?

Thank Taln that Teft had started double checking if he was carrying extra spheres after learning his captain might be fighting an evil radiant. Thank Syl that enough stormlight let him heal from shardblade injuries. Unfortunate that the Assassin had apparently trained to double strike at someone with an ability as absurd as that. Fortunate that he didn't really need most of his left leg while fighting in the air, considering his body and mind agreed he couldn't spare the stormlight to heal it entirely.

Probably wasn't much talking at all during the battle, on Kaladin's end at least — outmatched in practice and weaponry, his only hope during the new most terrifying fight of his life was letting the Assassin burn through his stormlight first. Let him recklessly scream while Kaladin held his breath and tried to push the man away from new sources of light.

But once they were both grounded... He probably wouldn't do the whole 'yes all the radiants are back' bluff. Why bother? It was just him, as far as he knew, and he didn't understand why. Maybe the Assassin had answers? Szeth — his name was Szeth, come to think of it, how was the man's name a mystery up to this point, he screamed it often enough — though usually he killed the people who would have...ok that...probably explained it.

Anyway if Kaladin managed to coherently get through to Szeth that yes I'm a radiant, or close enough anyway, what does truthless mean, no I guess this means you were never really truthless, and somehow managed to keep the man from jumping into a chasm, I think this would end with Szeth swearing his undying fealty to Kaladin because that's kind of his only trick, and Kaladin has that affect on people. So.

Szeth: It will grow back, my lord. Kaladin: Please — Can you not call me that? Szeth: Your leg will grow back, your brilliance. Kaladin: How about Kaladin? Can you call me Kaladin. And how do you know that, for sure? Szeth: The blades are used in my village for healing such things, and your natural powers are derived from the same source. As an honorblade holder, I was required to train to withstand and keep fighting through such injuries, Brightlord Kaladin. Kaladin: That's horrifying. And Almighty above, definitely DO NOT call me brightlord. What about Captain? I can live with captain. Just — anything but Brightlord, alright? Szeth: Yes, My Lord Captain. Kaladin: I... if you're up for it, please go see if you can find any more rockbuds for water, alright? Szeth: Yes, My Lord Captain. Kaladin: Kaladin: Kelek's breath, the guys are never going to let this one go.

And they don't.

the original comedic scene i was imagining happens after they rescued Kaladin from the plateaus and bring him enough stormlight (no one was allowed to bring spheres on the manhunt) for him to regrow his leg. there are variations. i'll make a separate post.

#my au #stormlight archive #ask #stormlight au no 8 #nevertheless cosmere #words of radiance au

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sorchasolas · 4 months

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Thinking abbout what would happen if Kaladin and Darrow met. Kaladin, a slave who rose up to a high position. And Darrow, a slave who rose up to a high position. Execpt Kaladin, in pursue of his own personal oaths, did not yearn for leadership— and, yes, he’s the leader of the Windrunners, but I’m talking more about ambition. Kaladin didnt exactly try to lead them— he just eneded up doing it. He rose up to that position naturally. (And honestly kaladin doesnt actively avoid bigger leadership roles, its just kinda how things turned out— if it turned out people needed him to be a king for whatever reason, i feel he would absolutely try to rise to that)

Darrow, on the other hand, fights tooth and nail constantly to climb the ladder and to keep the trust of his allys.

While Darrow has to basically fight for trust, people just inheritly trust Kaladin— but thats because their struggles are different. Darrow’s mission is to overthrow the society he, at the same time, is working to lead— while Kaladin, while generally opposed to the way his society functions, makes no giant moves to resist it or change things. The cloest he gets to this is helping people in the sanitarium, and beside that just exisitng as a person— a darkeyed man who became one of the most powerful men on earth. While it’s Darrow’s entire mission, it’s just a general value Kaladin has.

And now I get to what would happen if they met. Like, Darrow would probably mistake Kal for a Blue or Brown— depending on the time they meet and just. Kinda bc I still don't really grasp how these people look- and Kaladin would mistake Darrow for a Riran. I think Darrow would be?? Vaguely irritated by Kaladin. Like, Kaladin has the resources, connections, and status to significantly change his society for the better and he just. Kinda doesn’t. Kaladin would be lowkey repulsed by Darrow? Like this guy kills needlessly and betrays his friends and abandons oaths for his pursuit for power? Ewwww.

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koravelliumavast · 1 year

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Bridge four notices one day that Kaladin isn’t the most observant at times. So they try to tackle and see how much he actually observes. It starts small with Sigzil asking him weird questions and Kaladin answering them with no second thoughts. Then Lopen brings Rlain over and is like this is my cousin and Kaladin doesn’t bat an eye. This escalated into involving Shallan and Adolin and she does lightweaving and makes Adolin look like Kaladin. It doesn’t phase him. Then it involves all the other radiants and Kaladin notices nothing. Some people go to Lirin and Hesina and they get involved but with a laugh because “Kaladin doesn’t notice anything unless you’re injured.” So with a bit of lightweaving, they fake some injuries. Kaladin doesn’t notice. It escalated so much that Dalinar gets involved. Nothing. Nobody seems to find the thing that will phase him. So it just slowly dies out over time.

Kaladin knew the whole time. He just wanted to see how long they would stick it out. When the windrunners found out, they rioted.

#cosmere #stormlight archive #this was inspired by aftg and the bets and also that one scene in the office #kaladin stormblessed #this is so so stupid

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shallahi-and-snowflake · 5 months

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MY FIRST ASK GAME!

Basically, go to the linked site and do the quiz as your muse(s), then report back with your results via reblog. It’s not quite like your typical ask game.

Shallahi, of course, is a Lightweaver, but her as a Windrunner, Truthwatcher, or Edgedancer wouldn’t be out of the question.

If you end up with Bondsmith, remember that there’s three unique Bondsmith Spren:

• The Stormfather (He/Him): Honor’s ghost, basically. Lives in the Highstorm. Likes when people honor oaths.

• The Sibling (They/Them): Honor and Cultivation’s child.

• The Nightwatcher (She/Her): Cultivation’s Daughter. Gives out Boons and Banes under the Old Magic. Likes change and growth.

Make your best guess as to which your muse would bond.

#ooc post #rotomblr #pkmn irl #ask game

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saffronique · 1 year

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Ranking potential Kaladin fates from best to worst in my opinion. Obviously this is just my personal feelings:

Desirable Outcomes:

1: My Ideal World:

Kaladin stays romantically uninvolved, but ends up in a position where he is responsible for kids. Maybe he's a teacher, maybe he raises Shadolin's kids if something happens to them, maybe he raises Oradin. He would be great with kids, he's such a protector and I think the unconditional love of a kid would be good for him personally. He is ideal for a found family setup, honestly, and I don't particularly want to see him get paired off with a woman just to create a nuclear family.

2: Impossible but beautiful world:

Kaladin, Adolin, and Shallan polycule. They understand him, they love him, they are both capable of providing him with different types of support and won't be intimidated by his personality. Adolin is an absolutely crucial part of the puzzle here, though. To me, Adolin x Kaladin can work without Shallan, Adolin x Shallan works without Kaladin, but Kaladin x Shallan cannot exist without Adolin because it would be catastrophic.

3. Monster fucker win:

Kaladin ends up in a partnership with Leshwi that is probably somewhat ambiguous but has a distinct romantic undertone to it. They already have a warriors bond and respect/have a vested interest in each others continued survival. There's a deep relationship there for sure. I don't personally see it as romantic but I think it'd work fine if it was. Wouldn't detract from either character.

Neutral Outcomes:

4. The Easy Way Out:

Kaladin finds Tarah again and ends up with her. This feels like the most obvious and perhaps most likely possibility. It's boring, it's uninventive, I don't want to see it happen, but I guess it's fine? It's a nice conclusion to Kaladin learning to live in the present, but it just feels too easy.

5. Windrunner bloodline:

Kaladin gets back together with Lyn. She can do better tbh. I love Kaladin but hes a lot. He also is kind of a traditional type of guy when it comes to gender and relationships I think, and Lyn is the type of woman who wants to break away from tradition. They just don't fit to me. Only reason this happens is because they specifically want Kaladin to marry a Windrunner and have kids that seem destined to be Windrunners also until they're not.

6. Blaze of Glory:

Kaladin dies in book 5 saving someone else. It would be so so so upsetting for this to happen and unfair to Kaladin personally but it wouldn't butcher his character at least. Like it would suck, I would go catatonic, but it'd be like Vin and Elend dying. It seems like a believable fate for him to meet, as heartbreaking as it is.

Bad Outcomes:

7. White Woman Jumpscare:

Kaladin ends up with Laral. What can i even say about this. Childhood friends to enemies to strangers to Kaladin pitying Laral in a way that really pissed her off because of how condescending and patronizing it was. I don't want them together.

8. Chrom's fate:

Kaladin gets married to a random, unimportant woman between books 5 and 6 solely for the purpose of creating plot relevant children that will likely ultimately be used to hurt him.

9. Depressed together:

Adolin dies and Shallan ends up with Kaladin. Any outcome where Adolin dies is unacceptable to me but thus one especially. I love Kaladin. I love Shallan. I love them both in a relationship with Adolin, mutually or separately. But they cannot under any circumstances be allowed to date just each other. They understand each other's trauma and are drawn to each other, but neither of them is capable of helping the other process their trauma while also dealing with their own feelings. It's a relationship destined to crash and burn from my perspective.

10. Hell and hate on planet Roshar

Syl takes a physical form and gets romantically involved with Kaladin. Literally the worst possible thing I can imagine happening to either of them. Their souls are bound together, they are vital to one another, and they love each other, but not Like That. It's closer to a sibling relationship than anything. This particular situation could only arise from a gross misunderstanding of their relationship as its been developed thus far.

#my opinion #stormlight archive #kaladin stormblessed #knights of wind and truth #kowt #speculation

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cosmerelists · 2 months

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Hey Radiants, if you had to join a new order, which one would you choose & why?

1. Kaladin: Skybreaker

Kaladin: I mean...I can't give up the sky, so I suppose I would have to become a Skybreaker. Kaladin: Even though I feel like I spent so long unlearning their ideas about justice, that it feels kind of...wrong. Syl: That's because it IS wrong! Kaladin: But Syl...the sky...

2. Sigzil: Skybreaker

Sigzil: Seems obvious. I'm sure no one is curious as to what my reasons might be. Sigzil: Hey, do you think my name could be cooler?

3. Eshonai: Bondsmith

Eshonai: An instant way to learn new languages and connect with people? Hell yeah. Eshonai: If able to choose, I would bond the Stormfather. Eshonai: He and I had a moment, once.

4. Shallan: Willshaper

Shallan: I've never been much of a sculptor, but at least there is SOME artistic aspect to this one.

5. Szeth: Edgedancer

Szeth: I am a graceful man. Szeth: But I could be more graceful, if I could ice skate around.

6. Dalinar: Stoneward

Dalinar: I have taken great satisfaction from those moments when I have had the chance to work with my hands, to help people by building or rebuilding. Dalinar: I think I would make an excellent Stoneward.

7. Lift: Bondsmith

Lift: I betcha the Nightwatcher is feelin' left out of the whole Bondsmith business. Lift: I think she and I would make quite the pair!

8. Renarin: Windrunner

Renarin: It is honestly a bit hard to imagine myself not with Glys, but... Renarin: ... Renarin: Could be fun to be a Windrunner, like a lot of my friends. Renarin: Just, like, charging into battle from the sky. Renarin: It would be like the time Zahel kept making me jump off the wall, only I wouldn't fall directly into the ground!

9. Jasnah: Lightweaver

Jasnah: To be honest, I would be loath to give up my soulcasting abilities. Jasnah: And I can certainly understand the utility of being able to mask or change one's appearance to suit new conditions. Jasnah: ...Even if every lightweaver I know is just a tad...irritating sometimes.

10. Navani: Dustbringer

Navani: I can definitely understand the desire to take things apart to see how they work. Navani: That's just basic science.

11. Rlain: Elsecaller

Rlain: I understand that had things played out differently, I might have bonded the Sibling as a Bondsmith. Rlain: But I do like the notion of an order that cares chiefly about self-improvement, about finding your true potential no matter where you started.

12. Hoid: Truthwatcher

Hoid: Speaking truth to power? Hoid: I do that already! And with style.

13. Venli: Bondsmith

Venli: The humans should not have EVERY Bondsmith. Venli: I'll take the Sibling. Venli: They understand that humans suck.

14. Lopen: Edgedancer

Lopen: Healing would be great 'n' all! Lopen: But mostly I think I'm great at remembering the forgotten. Lopen: Nobody remembers us Herdazians, you know!

15. Nale: Stoneward

Nale: I know that humans are fallible. That is why I follow the Law. Nale: But of all of us...Talenel was the one who didn't break. Nale: He was the one who kept the oath. Nale: Maybe he was simply better than any us. Nale: So if I had to change...maybe I should, for once, try to be more like him.

#cosmerelists #cosmere #I'd be interested to hear what other orders you guys think would be good!#Kaladin #Sigzil #Eshonai #Shallan #Nale #Lopen #Venli #Hoid #Jasnah #Dalinar #Navani #Renarin #Lift

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willshaper · 2 years

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WAIT A MINUTE WAIT A MINUTE WAIT A MINUTE.

So. Two things we know:

1. The truthwatchers share a lot with the bondsmiths (similar placement on the double eye)

2. During the occupation of urithiru only the surges of adhesion and regrowth worked

3. Adhesion is a surge of honor

I always thought that the reason lift was able to use regrowth was because she was touched by cultivation and had her magic shit going on

But instead, it's because she was using a surge that was closest to cultivation!!

And in that vein, truthwatchers MUST be the closest to cultivation, just like how bondsmiths are the closest to honor. In fact, what has cultivation been doing these past thousands of years?? She's been sitting back and watching. With just a little nudge here and there.

And if we look at how the different types of orders naturally organize themselves, windrunners and lightweavers (both adjacent to bondsmiths and truthwatchers respectively) are complete opposites.

Windrunners have a clear command structure with straight forward ideals which push them closer and closer to honor.

Lightweavers have the most unorthodox ideals of all the radiant orders. Ideals that push them closer and closer to self actualization.

AND THEN. if we look at the orders that are furthest away from bondsmiths and truthwatchers, we get: willshapers, elsecallers, skybreakers, and dustbringers.

Willshapers are connected to odium not just through Venli's ability to use voidlight to power her abilities. Willshapers are staunch believers in freedom. One of the amethyst gemstones in urithiru (aka a gemstone from a willshaper) includes a confession that some radiant back before the recreance hated urithiru because of all the rules. Chaos. Whenever odiums rhythm is described it is ALWAYS described as chaotic.

Skybreakers are the only order that has defected to Odium's side. (atleast that I am aware of) Now, skybreakers are BIG on rules, something that is an aspect of honor. The opposite of willshapers in that respect. When we see Nale he is following laws to exactness to achieve his goals. However, the current day skybreakers are a broken order. (And, I think that's because they've clung too close to honor but I don't have the time for that rn ajdndkdj) Odium has said that he follows oaths in spirit, not in letter. The later skybreaker ideals are about accepting chaos into law. Becoming the law. If it was just about following oaths to exactness, the order would be finished by the 3rd ideal.

We currently don't know much about elsecallers, other than that Jasnah is one. However, Ivory has said that he likes jasnah because she isn't as emotional as most humans and is instead dictated by logic. What other human do we know is emotionless and dictated by logic? That's right. Moash. I think there's a reason Jasnah and Kaladin have clashed so much in their brief encounters.

And of course. Dustbringers. Known for their destructive potential and capabilities that are frighteningly dangerous. Little is known of them as of yet, but I doubt I need to argue for their connection to odium. However, dustbringer ideals are about control. Controlling the chaos. Ideals that, unlike for skybreakers, bring them further from odium and closer to cultivation.

I don't really have a conclusion I just was filled with words and thoughts. Anyways augh I love this series

#stormlight archives #cosmere #this isnt really theorizing this is just analyzing #i just had an epiphany today #while relistening to row

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isdalinarhot · 2 years

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Kholins ranked by their willingness and ability to carry my groceries on the long walk from the bus stop to my apartment

Gavilar: would carry my groceries but only because he views me as weak and beneath him. He is doing this to exert power and to flex. 6/10

Navani: would take half of my groceries because “it’s fair that way” but my half would be the half with a gallon of milk in it. Fuck off. 4/10.

Dalinar: depends on the era. Blackthorn era Dalinar would carry my groceries to show off his sick muscles. Bondsmith era Dalinar would carry my groceries because the way of kings probably has a parable about Nohadon carrying groceries to Urithiru or some shit. At any rate, he’s carrying my groceries. 10/10

Evi: would carry my groceries in a heartbeat. Would also fall over from the weight in a heartbeat. She’s trying her best though. Love you Evi. 10/10

Adolin: Adolin has the kind helpful attitude of his mother and the giant strong muscles of his father. He is perfectly engineered to carry groceries and I’ll even let him try a banana afterwards. 12/10

Renarin: Renarin would not actively carry my groceries let’s be real but he would take the bags from me for a handful of seconds while I stop to catch my breath. 5/10

Jasnah: Jasnah would give me a lecture on self reliance and not help and I would be like yes ma’am right away ma’am. 1/10

Elhokar: Elhokar would not be any help at all I would be like hey can you carry my milk and he would be like I Must Become A Better King…,, For My People…… For The Windrunner…… and I’d be like ok! It would be very funny though. 2/10

Aesudan: Aesudan would steal my groceries. 0/10

Gavinor is 5. 0/10

#luke.txt #posts that mean nothing #I am so tired of carrying groceries. when will it end #greatest hits

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