Author Topic: RE: Hoids aquaintance at the end of the book and the nature of his sword. (SPOILER)  (Read 9283 times)

Kykeon

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At the end of the book, a figure that seems to be the 10th herald breaks down in front of Hoid.
Who do you think will get his armor & blade, and do you think this will be important for the story?
Is it one of the "Dawnshards"?
Why are they sent to "hell" after each death?
I hope I'm not spewing nonsense, lol.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2010, 08:13:39 PM by Kykeon »

Munin

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Re: Who will get the 10th herald's blade? Is it one of the "Dawnshards"?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2010, 07:52:57 PM »
He's not dead.

Also, you should really edit the thread title so it doesn't give out huge spoilers.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2010, 07:56:29 PM by Munin »
There's a difference between what's best and what's right. What's best might be different tomorrow or the day after, but right and wrong will stay the same after a thousand years.

Phaz

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At the end of the book, a figure that seems to be the 10th herald breaks down in front of Hoid.
Who do you think will get his armor & blade, and do you think this will be important for the story?
Is it one of the "Dawnshards"?
Why are they sent to "hell" after each death?
I hope I'm not spewing nonsense, lol.

If you read the description of his blade it comes off as being very spear-like.  Thus I'd say eventually it ends up in the hands of Kal.

Random112

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Okay I'm confused.

I thought that if a Shardbearer dropped his or her Blade, it would dissipate, to prevent it being taken? It says the Herald's Blade didn't dissipate, so I would think he WAS dead?

Pechvarry

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Read the Prelude again.  Heralds' blades behave the opposite.  They only disappear when their bearer dies.   Something else I find worthy of note: Taln leaned on his sword with the point into the ground, and it only cut a finger's breadth in.  A  normal shardblade would've, in theory, dropped clear to the hilt.

Of course, if it were his dawnshard or dawnblade or whatever you wanna call it, I would've expected it to be described more as more ornate than it was (see the Prelude again, on the beautiful flowing designs on all the other weapons).

VegasDev

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I don't have my book in front of me right now so this is going more from memory but I thought that in the section where the King gets knocked to the ground by the Chasmfiend and his sword dissipates, that it mentions that a sword could remain solid if you willed it.

There may be differences in the blades themselves though because in one section it mentions that someones sword was really long and would be unwieldy by someone without full shardplate but in another section Dalinar mentions that the blades are practically light as air. He could of course be factoring in shardplate. In any case, I'll have to reread the book to come across the exact quotes again but I remember thinking, that it was odd.
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douglas

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Something else I find worthy of note: Taln leaned on his sword with the point into the ground, and it only cut a finger's breadth in.  A  normal shardblade would've, in theory, dropped clear to the hilt.

As I recall, he dragged it rather than leaning on it, though I haven't gone back and checked the book to be sure.  If he angled it so that the flat of the blade is downward, it would naturally not cut very far.

Kykeon

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Read the Prelude again.  Heralds' blades behave the opposite.  They only disappear when their bearer dies.   Something else I find worthy of note: Taln leaned on his sword with the point into the ground, and it only cut a finger's breadth in.  A  normal shardblade would've, in theory, dropped clear to the hilt.

Of course, if it were his dawnshard or dawnblade or whatever you wanna call it, I would've expected it to be described more as more ornate than it was (see the Prelude again, on the beautiful flowing designs on all the other weapons).
Hoid has seen many things on many different worlds, so he probably wouldn't mentioned it in his mind...
A herald's blade disappears because they are reincarnated over and over again.
Since the catastrophe announced by the visions is called "The true desolation", this cycle is no longer necessary, and the blade remains when it's bearer dies.
Or maybe not, lol.  :-\


Castleguard

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I don't think he is dead. If I where to guess I would say that you could only get one of the Heralds Blades if it is given to you.  Of course if you have one of there blades then maybe you would become a Herald.

 

Cheese Ninja

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I thought he might be dead, since he was prodded and didn't move, and since the sword didn't disappear (but, as well already mentioned, if it's his Herald's blade, it behaves by different rules.), but I was reading some of Sanderson's online interviews just now.

http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2010/09/brandon-sanderson-interview-stompingmad.html

Quote
At this point I believe you have met every one of the major viewpoint characters for the series. I don’t want it to spiral out of control. I think too many viewpoint characters is a danger to epic fantasy, putting a writer in difficult predicaments for subsequent books--whether to leave some characters out, or whether to show a little bit of each of them without getting any major plot arcs for any of them.

So you’ve seen pretty much everybody. Now, at this point there are several who are major viewpoint characters for the series who we have not had many or any viewpoints from yet--Jasnah is one, a character who shows up in the epilogue is another, and there are a few others--but there are in my mind essentially eight or ten major characters in this series, and it will stick to that.

If Taln was dead, he wouldn't be getting any viewpoint scenes.  And I really don't know why he'd be waving around a normal shardblade instead of his Herald blade.

AndrewMM

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Okay, he is not dead. Also as has been stated previously by others the blades of the heralds do not dissipate when dropped. I am pretty sure that the blades of the heralds are dawn-shards. From the prelude one herald died in the final battle before the breaking of the oath pact. The other nine go their separate ways leaving the one who died still bound by the oath pact, this Herald being of course Talenel. His shard being spear like perhaps he will in time give it to Kaladin but, no he is not dead now.



AndrewMM


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Munin

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So far, the only real information on the Dawnshards that we have comes from Jasnah's notes in the epigraphs:

'Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above."

I'm curious as to exactly what "bind" means in this context.
There's a difference between what's best and what's right. What's best might be different tomorrow or the day after, but right and wrong will stay the same after a thousand years.

Stormblessed

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So far, the only real information on the Dawnshards that we have comes from Jasnah's notes in the epigraphs:

'Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above."

I'm curious as to exactly what "bind" means in this context.

Binded to the oathpact maybe?
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
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Munin

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So far, the only real information on the Dawnshards that we have comes from Jasnah's notes in the epigraphs:

'Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above."

I'm curious as to exactly what "bind" means in this context.

Binded to the oathpact maybe?
Well, it says it can bind "voidish" creatures, which I assume means Voidbringers. And it doesn't seem to make much sense to be able to bind them into the Oathpact.
There's a difference between what's best and what's right. What's best might be different tomorrow or the day after, but right and wrong will stay the same after a thousand years.

Stormblessed

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So far, the only real information on the Dawnshards that we have comes from Jasnah's notes in the epigraphs:

'Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above."

I'm curious as to exactly what "bind" means in this context.

Binded to the oathpact maybe?
Well, it says it can bind "voidish" creatures, which I assume means Voidbringers. And it doesn't seem to make much sense to be able to bind them into the Oathpact.

If a voidish creature can be binded in some way or form maybe we will see some bond between Kaladin and Shen?
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
 -- Darkeyed Soldier