At its heart, this Lashing created a bubble around the object that imitated its spiritual link to the ground beneath it. As such, it was much harder for the Lashing to affect objects touching the ground, where their link to the planet was strongest. Objects falling or in flight were the easiest to influence. Other objects could be affected, but the Stormlight and skill required were much more substantial.
LIGHTWEAVING
A second form of Surgebinding involves the manipulation of light and sound in illusory tactics common throughout the cosmere. Unlike the variations present on Sel, however, this method has a powerful Spiritual element, requiring not just a full mental picture of the intended creation, but some level of Connection to it as well. The illusion is based not simply upon what the Lightweaver imagines, but upon what they desire to create.
In many ways, this is the most similar ability to the original Yolish variant, which excites me. I wish to delve more into this ability, with the hope to gain a full understanding of how it relates to cognitive and spiritual attributes.
SOULCASTING
Essential to the economy of Roshar is the art of Soulcasting, in which one form of matter is directly transformed into another by changing its spiritual nature. This is performed on Roshar via the use of devices known as Soulcasters, and these devices (the majority of which appear to be focused on turning stone into grain or flesh) are used to provide mobile supply for armies or to augment local urban food stores. This has allowed kingdoms on Roshar—where fresh water is rarely an issue, because of highstorm rains—to field armies in ways that would be unthinkable elsewhere.
What intrigues me most about Soulcasting, however, are the things we can infer about the world and Investiture from it. For example, certain gemstones are requisite in producing certain results—if you wish to produce grain, your Soulcaster must both be attuned to that transformation and have an emerald (not a different gemstone) attached. This creates an economy based on the relative values of what the gemstones can create, not upon their rarity. Indeed, as the chemical structures are identical for several of these gemstone varieties, aside from trace impurities, the color is the most important part—not their actual axial makeup. I’m certain you will find this relevance of hue quite intriguing, particularly in its relationship to other forms of Investiture.
This relationship must have been essential in the local creation of the table I’ve included above, which lacks some scientific merit, but is intrinsically tied to the folklore surrounding Soulcasting. An emerald can be used to create food—and thus is traditionally associated with a similar Essence. Indeed, on Roshar there are considered to be ten elements; not the traditional four or sixteen, depending upon local tradition.
Curiously, these gemstones seem tied to the original abilities of the Soulcasters who were an order of Knights Radiant—but they don’t seem essential to the actual operation of the Investiture when performed by a living Radiant. I do not know the connection here, though it implies something valuable.
Soulcasters, the devices, were created to imitate the abilities of the Surge of Soulcasting (or Transformation). This is yet another mechanical imitation of something once available only to a select few within the bounds of an Invested Art. The Honorblades on Roshar, indeed, may be the very first example of this—from thousands of years ago. I believe this has relevance to the discoveries being made on Scadrial, and the commoditization of Allomancy and Feruchemy.
STONESHAPING
As I’ve had further occasion to study the use of Investiture on Roshar, and the curious manifestation of it known as Surgebinding, I’ve found occasion to ruminate further on the nature of Intent and Connection.
The power known as Stoneshaping, as practiced by the orders of Stonewards and Willshapers, is an excellent example of this. This ability manipulates the Surge of Cohesion, and is in many ways a cousin to the axial manipulation known as microkinesis—as both grant the ability to manipulate the forces that bind individual axi together. Fortunately, in my explorations, it appears that Stoneshaping is far less … explosive of a power, bounded by the rules that Honor placed upon it to protect from the mistakes that happened on Yolen.
Nevertheless, a practiced Stoneward or Willshaper can mold stone as if it were clay, weakening the bonds between axi. (Indeed, this can be done to other materials as well, I’m led to believe, but stone is the easiest and most common application.) This is not simply a chemical process. Normally, one might expect heat to be involved to excite the axi, but this is not the case. Indeed, it is the Intent of the user that is relevant here.
The stone senses the desire of the Stoneward, and the practitioner is able to shape it through desire as much as through physical force. I don’t believe I properly understood the way Investiture responds to the conscious Intent of the user until I read of the interactions of spren and sapient beings on Roshar. There is so much to learn here and so much to explore.
I have sent my best agent to embed among the Stonewards. His research has been most illuminating. It suggests there are three ways we can look at the nature of Intent as it relates to Stoneshaping.
Willingness: Stone seems to be uniformly willing to obey the commands of a Surgebinder attuned to Cohesion. This is curious, as stone is often among the most difficult of materials to work with in Soulcasting—even more difficult than living beings, depending on those beings’ emotional, mental, and spiritual states.
Why is stone so eager to change for a Stoneward or Willshaper? What about it makes it so likely to respond to their desires, to incorporate them, and to enjoy the result? Like a willing audience at a comedy, the stone lets the Surgebinder guide it.
Connection: The stone can sense the Intent of the Surgebinder, and even their past. I have reliable reports of stone reaching back through generations of Connection to display events, feelings, emotions, and ideas from long ago. It will shape the faces of Stonewards long dead. It will create pictures of events long forgotten. What I initially dismissed as an inferior form of microkinesis is, indeed, much more focused and—in some ways—more remarkable. There is a divining property to Stoneshaping I had not thought to find.
Command: The Stoneshaper must often make a Command, mental or verbal, to truly control the stone. This is much like many other arcana around the cosmere, and is in itself not that novel. However, I find electrifying the news out of the mountains of Ur, that their current queen seems to have been able to Command the creation of an anti-Investiture. Long theorized, this will be my first true evidence it is possible—and can only be created through Intent.
I think that perhaps Foil, deep within his ocean, would find this information supports my theories over his. And he’d do well to listen to me on this matter if he ever wishes to achieve control over the aethers, as he has insisted is his goal.
BOOKS BY
BRANDON SANDERSON®
THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE®
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Oathbringer
Rhythm of War
THE MISTBORN® SAGA
THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY
Mistborn
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
THE WAX AND WAYNE SERIES
The Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
The Bands of Mourning
Elantris
Warbreaker
Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere® Collection
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds
ALCATRAZ VS. THE EVIL LIBRARIANS
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener’s Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent
THE RECKONERS®
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity
SKYWARD
Skyward
Starsight
The Rithmatist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brandon Sanderson grew u
p in Lincoln, Nebraska. He lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. He is the author of such bestsellers as the Mistborn trilogy and its sequels, The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and The Bands of Mourning; the Stormlight Archive novels The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer; and young adult novels, including the Reckoners series beginning with Steelheart, the Skyward series, The Rithmatist, and the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series. In 2013, he won a Hugo Award for Best Novella for The Emperor’s Soul, set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. Additionally, he was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time® sequence. For behind-the-scenes information on all of Brandon Sanderson’s books, visit brandonsanderson.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Preface and Acknowledgments
Book Four: Rhythm of War
Prologue: To Pretend
Part One: Burdens
1. Calluses
2. Severed Cords
3. The Fourth Bridge
4. Architects of the Future
5. Broken Spears
6. A Loose Thread
7. The Rarest Vintage
8. Surrender
9. Contradictions
10. A Single Casualty
11. Passion and Courage
12. A Way to Help
13. Another Hunt
14. Voice
15. The Light and the Music
16. An Unknown Song
17. A Proposal
18. Surgeon
19. Garnets
Interludes
I-1. Sylphrena
I-2. Sja-Anat
I-3. Into the Fire
Part Two: Our Calling
20. The Unseen Court
21. The Seething Knot
22. No Use Talking
23. Binding Wounds
24. Full of Awe
25. Devotary of Mercy
26. A Little Espionage
27. Banners
28. Heresies
29. A Cage without Bars
30. The Betrayal
31. Daughter of Traitors
32. Of Three Minds
33. Understanding
34. A Flame Never Extinguished
35. The Strength of a Soldier
36. The Price of Honor
37. Silence from the Dead
38. Rhythm of the Terrors
39. Invasion
40. In for All
41. The Most Dangerous
42. Armor and Teeth
43. Men and Monsters
Interludes
I-4. Vyre
I-5. Lift
I-6. A Boon and a Curse
Part Three: Songs of Home
44. Tinder Waiting for the Spark
45. A Bold Heart, A Keen and Crafty Mind
46. The Weight of the Tower
47. A Cage Forged of Spirits
48. Scent of Death, Scent of Life
49. Soul of Discovery
50. Queen
51. To Sing Hopeless Songs
52. A Path Toward Saving
53. Compassion
54. The Future Become Dust
55. Kinship With the Open Sky
56. Nodes
57. Child of Odium
58. Spanreeds
59. The Lattice of a Growing Crystal
60. Essai
61. Oil and Water
62. Keeper of Forms
63. Practice
64. Personal Reminder
65. Hypothesis
66. Bearer of Agonies
67. Song of Stones
68. One Family
69. Pure Tones of Roshar
70. Well
71. Rider of Storms
72. Outmatched
Interludes
I-7. Szeth
I-8. Chiri-Chiri
I-9. The Sword
Part Four: A Knowledge
73. Which Master to Follow
74. A Symbol
75. The Middle Step
76. Harmony
77. The Proper Legality
78. The High Judge
79. Open Wound
80. The Dog and the Dragon
81. Trapped
82. Knife
83. The Games of Men and Singers
84. Scholar
85. Dabbid
86. The Song of Mornings
87. Trial By Witness
88. Falling Star
89. Voice of Lights
90. One Chance
91. Worth Saving
92. A Gift
93. Strong Enough
94. Sacrifice
95. What She Truly Was
96. A Thousand Lies
97. Freedom
Interludes
I-10. Hesina
I-11. Adin
I-12. Vulnerable
Part Five: Knowing a Home of Songs, Called Our Burden
98. An Unwholesome Shade
99. Not Bound
100. Watchers at the Rim
101. Undertext
102. Highstorm Coming
103. The Legend You Live
104. Full of Hope
105. Children of Passions
106. A Hundred Discordant Rhythms
107. Uniting
108. Moments
109. Emulsifier
110. Reborn
111. Unchained
112. Terms
113. Emotion
114. Broken Gods
115. Testament
116. Mercy
117. One Final Gift
Epilogue: Dirty Tricks
Endnote
Ars Arcanum
Books by Brandon Sanderson
About the Author
Copyright
ILLUSTRATIONS
NOTE: Many illustrations, titles included, contain spoilers for material that comes before them in the book. Look ahead at your own risk.
Map of Roshar
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Urithiru
Shallan’s Sketchbook: The Atrium
Navani’s Notebook: The Fourth Bridge
Navani’s Notebook: The Arnist Method
Folio: Contemporary Singer Fashion
A Portion of the Southern Sea of Souls
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Mistspren
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Cryptics
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Ashspren
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Honorspren
Navani’s Notebook: The Crystal Pillar Room
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Cultivationspren
Map of Eastern Makabak
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Reachers
Folio: Envoyform Fashion
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Highspren
Alethi Glyphs Page 2
&
nbsp; Shallan’s Sketchbook: Peakspren
Shallan’s Sketchbook: Inkspren
Navani’s Notebook: Dagger
Navani’s Notebook: Experiments
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
RHYTHM OF WAR
Copyright © 2020 by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC
Mistborn®, The Stormlight Archive®, Reckoners®, Cosmere®, and Brandon Sanderson® are registered trademarks of Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC.
All rights reserved.
Cover art © Michael Whelan
All illustrations © Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC, except when otherwise noted
Illustrations preceding chapters 11 and 61 by Dan dos Santos
Illustrations preceding the prologue, chapters 22, 24, 29, 36, 53, 75, and 78, and interludes 5 and 7 by Ben McSweeney
Illustrations preceding chapters 3, 6, 41, 84, and 97 by Kelley Harris
Map of Roshar, sword glyphs, chapter arches, and illustrations preceding chapters 20, 46, and 73 by Isaac Stewart
Viewpoint icons by Isaac Stewart, Ben McSweeney, Howard Lyon, and Miranda Meeks
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First Edition: 2020
Rhythm of War (9781429952040) Page 148