Questioner
So, when Cenn dies, and he says "The Black Piper in the night, he holds us in the palm, playing a tune no man can hear." Is that a reference to Hoid?
Brandon Sanderson
No. Good question!
#1
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#1
#2
R'Shara
I was wondering if we can take the Death Rattles as written? So night is night, not knight. Reigns is reigns and not rains or reins, etc? Since they're written down by someone who is listening to someone else speaking, there could be confusion there. Then again, they're speaking Alethi, or the local tongue, and being translated to English, so their homonyms would be different. Also, are they always about the future, or can they be about the past?
Brandon Sanderson
So, this is a tricky one. I was tempted to go into it during the reigns/rains one--but since there is a follow up, let me see if I can explain it.
You note the mechanism I've said before that I rely upon, that of the idea that the books are done "in translation" from their original tongues. This is to give us another layer of plausibility in the linguistics--but it does introduce a kind of wildcard here in the interpreter. (Who is me.)
I am not against using word usages similar to homonyms as plot points, so long as the characters themselves are capable of making the misunderstanding. (The ending of the Mistborn trilogy involves some of these types of word and definition related issues.)
So you're not wrong to asking questions like this. I use them very sparingly, but I do use them. In that specific case, however, I was not intending there to be confusion.
#3
Zenith
In one of the death sentence things it says something like three of sixteen ruled, but now the broken one reigns. Is this referring to the Shards on Roshar and if so, is the broken one Odium?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
#4
Chaos
In the Death Rattle, "In the storm I awaken, falling, spinning, grieving," have we seen it on screen?
Brandon Sanderson
Not yet.
#5
Ianricks58 (paraphrased)
I asked him if Kelsier had died on Roshar would he be able to communicate with people using death rattles.
Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)
He said it would be difficult to do, but that the source of the death rattles were something different.
#6
gpmushu (paraphrased)
Has the Thrill existed longer than the Death Rattles or have they both been occurring for about the same period of time?
Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)
The Thrill and the Death Rattles started around the same time, but the locations for the two fluctuate and have been since they appeared.
#7
Brad
Will every Death Rattle have a canonized point of reference at some point in a coming novel?
Brandon Sanderson
I don't intend them all to. I intend most of them to, but I don't intend them all to. Some of them happened, but were not relevant to the story on screen, is what I've decided.
#8
Questioner
With the different headings [epigraphs] of each chapter of the Stormlight Archive books, obviously they don't all make sense as you go along, but five years from now, if I read the five books and I am reading at the start of The Way of Kings, all the words, all the last words of people [the death rattles], is it going to be this huge foreshadowing moment--
Brandon Sanderson
It will make a lot more sense.
#9
R'Shara
Are the Death Rattles always about the future, or can they be about the past?
Brandon Sanderson
They are not always exclusively about the future, but they are not generally going to be about the past either.
#10
Questioner
In The Way of Kings, there's a Death Rattle that reads, "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!" Have the events alluded to in this Death Rattle occurred, on or off screen, by the end of Rhythm of War?
Brandon Sanderson
No. *evil laughter*
Questioner
Could the tower, the crown, and the spear possibly be referring to Renarin?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO, RAFO, RAFO!