Timewaster's Guide Archive

We recently received another piece to the puzzle of deciphering the Knights Radiant orders.

See Brandon Sanderson interview:
http://www.17thshard.com/forum/index.php/topic,324.0.html

In his interview, he states that each order has 2 powers, and each power is shared by 2 orders.  The small glyphs in the front cover signify the powers.  Thus, it is adjacent orders that share specific powers.

Thus, with Shallan being order Shash, Jasnah could only possibly be Palah, Shash, or Betab.  Since her personality eliminates Shash, that leaves only Palah or Betab, which are the two possible orders put forth for her earlier.

This also forces Kaladin and Szeth to be in the same, or adjacent, orders.

Another common image for Kaladin is Vev, with the attributes Loving/Healing.  Almost all of Kaladin's past scenes have her, as well as many of his present ones.  She always seems to be in the chapter heading when Kaladin is trying to heal someone, or when his old surgeon side comes out.

Maybe sometimes a Herald image was chosen to match a quality or qualities being displayed in that chapter, which, in Kaladin's case, was healing.

Also, the most telling image for Kaladin's order specifically would have been the chapter "WORDS", where he says the Second Ideal specific and unique to his Radiant Order.  In that chapter, it is Jezrien's image alone that appears, linking Kaladin with the 1st order and the attributes Protecting/Leading.  (In fact, the words "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves" suggests the attribute of protecting for Kaladin's order.)
Thus, I would highly suspect that Kaladin is of the 1st order.

Of course, the question now is, what common thread runs through those Kaladin chapters where Talenel's image appears?  (as healing runs through most of the Vev chapters)

The chapter where Elhokar mentions seeing the spren (Ch. 58) does have the Zircon herald as one of the two Heralds.  Whether this choice was due to Elhokar or not is another matter entirely.

It is also possible that some of the choices of Herald images signify the qualities being displayed in that chapter, and not just the powers someone has. 

It would be nice to find out if Brandon Sanderson was ever random on the images chosen, if he put a lot of thought into all of the images, or only put a lot of thought into some of them.

One question to consider is how Brandon chose the images for each chapter, and what those might tell us about those chapters.  For instance, most chapters with Jasnah have the woman associated with Emerald.  The two main times we see her obviously soulcast, this Herald is in the chapter headings.  Yet, the time both Jasnah and Shallan go to Shadesmar, the Herald in the chapter heading besides Shalash is the one associated with Zircon.
The first one has the attributes Just/Confident
The second one has the attributes Wise/Careful

I think these may be the two main options we have for Jasnah's order.

It would be interesting to see what all we can surmise from the Heralds chosen in the chapter headings.

I believe I have discovered the identities of all the Herald images.

First, if one looks in the Ars Arcanium, one may notice that the ten numbers for the ten essences are actually shortened versions of the Herald names. 
1)Jes=Jezrien
2)Nan=Nalan
6)Shash=Shalash
8)Kak=Kalak
9)Tanat=Talenel (also known as Talenelat)
10)Ishi=Ishar

Thus, we have the element association of each of the Heralds, as well as on abbreviated form of all of their names.

Also, note that on the front inside cover, the image with all the symbols surrounded by the Herald images, if one starts with the blue symbol and moves clockwise around the image, the symbols appear to match, in order, with the Gemstones.
1)Blue-Sapphire
3)Red-Ruby
4)White-Diamond
5)Green-Emerald
6)Red-Garnet
8)Purple-Amethyst
9)Dark Yellow-Topaz

Now, note that approximately above each symbol is one of the Herald images.
My theory is that the Herald image above each symbol is the Herald of that gemstone.

Supporting evidence:
1) The image easily identified, Jezrien, is associated with the sapphire symbol.
2) It is stated that the Heralds are 5 female, 5 male.  Of those, Jezrien, Nalan, Kalak, and Talenel are all known to be male.  The gemstone symbols connected to these 4 are all associated with male images. 
3) Many believe that Ishar is a male-sounding name, and believe Ishar to be the fifth male.  Ishar's gemstone symbol is associated with the fifth male image.
4) It is noted that whenever Hoid appears, his image appears.  Assuming that there is some pattern to the appearing of the other images, another image can be positively identified.  In the epilogue, the helmed image appears.  Thus, it appears Talenel is the helmed image.  Note now that the helmed image is associated with Talenel's gemstone symbol, Topaz.
5) From the specifics of Shallan's attributes, it has been thought that Shallan is of the 6th radiant order, Garnet, thus associated with Shalash.  Note that each of the times she enters Shadesmar, the image of the lady with a jewel on her forehead appears.  This image is the one associated with the garnet symbol.

On a side note, there are only 3 non-Shallan chapters where the proposed-Shalash image appears.  One of those is the Baxil chapter, where that image is the only one.  It has been separately proposed that Baxil's mistress is actually Shalash, which fits well with that image being the sole one for the chapter.
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