Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 113-116 The origins of the Oathpact, Jasnah’s downfall, and our favorite Navani impersonator. By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on October 6, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome, Sanderfans, to another installment of the Wind and Truth Reread! We’ve got some very tense debates this week between Taravangian and Jasnah, as well as LOTS of juicy new insights from Tanavast. We even get to see Navani’s reaction at discovering that Lift’s been masquerading as her all this time! So let’s get to it… The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs Chapter 113 is “Accommodation,” an Honor chapter, which takes place seven thousand fifty years ago. We see how Tanavast created the Stormfather, a spren which was like him if he was free to simply exist. Then Kor arrives back on Roshar and tells him how Rayse has killed not only Uli Da… he’d also killed two other Shardbearers: Aona, who held Devotion, and Skai, who held Dominion. They decide to attack Rayse as he is weakened, but when they reach him, he warns them that Roshar will be destroyed if they fight him. They find him with the singers and Tanavast feels betrayed that they seem to like. Rayse and his talk of passion. They attack, but then they see glimpses of the future: Roshar, burned and full of broken bodies. “THE FUTURE,” RAYSE SAID, “IS DEATH, MY FRIENDS.” He brings up the destruction that occurred when he killed Ambition, and Tanavast considers the utter devastation that was wrought by the clash between Rayse and Ambition. Horrified, Tanavast and Kor realize they must refrain from attacking Rayse. IN THAT MOMENT, I LEARNED SOMETHING INCREDIBLE. I KNEW WHY ADONALSIUM, AT THE END, HAD NOT FOUGHT US. Rayse says that they must make an accommodation, a deal. Thinking of the proxy war they’d unleashed upon Ashyn, Tanavast immediately says that they must not make the same mistake again, giving humans so much power. Kor offers a way to limit and place conditions on the power they grant to humans—a system of equations, accounting for both greater and lesser powers. Rayse doesn’t want to be bound and thinks it might be better if he seeks a different world, but Tanavast does not want him wreaking havoc on defenseless victims, and insists that the three of them must stay and share the Rosharan system. Kor threatens Rayse into compliance by saying that if he doesn’t agree, she’ll gather the rest and they’ll deal with him as they dealt with Adonalsium. Rayse accepts the terms. Honor binds the three of them, surprising Rayse. However, as Tanavast and Kor leave, they feel Roshar beginning to adopt Rayse, just as it had previously adopted the two of them. Chapter 114 is titled “The Greatest Good.” Jasnah is incredulous at Taravangian’s claim that he’ll conquer Thaylen City. At first, Jasnah and Taravangian argue morals and philosophies. He promises Fen peace and prosperity. She leans toward the Coalition, as she’s loyal to it and to Dalinar. Jasnah argues that he won’t bring peace because he’s a murderer who just wants control. Then Taravangian tells Fen of how Jasnah lured the thieves in Kharbranth into attacking her in order to destroy them and to teach Shallan a lesson. She falters a bit as she defends herself. Next, he produces a contract for Fen to read; the contract that Jasnah took out on Aesudan, in case she decided to assassinate her sister-in-law. She defends that, too, but Taravangian uses it as an example of the lengths Jasnah will go to protect her family and her people. Jasnah realizes that Taravangian, unlike her, hadn’t come to argue competing philosophies, but to argue against her. POV Change! Navani is back in Urithiru in the Physical Realm. She’s bereft at leaving Dalinar behind in the Spiritual Realm. She thinks that if he doesn’t make it back, then she’ll take his place in the contest herself. She hands Gavinor off to a nursemaid with instructions to let him sleep on a couch in the next room so she can check on him. Then she enters the chamber where Lift is masquerading as her. In the midst of that weirdness, Wit arrives wearing Dalinar’s face, though the illusion quickly evaporates. Navani tells Wit that she left Dalinar behind, and that Wit’s going to help her save him. He asks if Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain returned with her. She’s confused, saying she didn’t know they were in there. They go off to discuss what had gone wrong with their experiment seven days ago, and Wit assures her that he may be able to think of a way to help Dalinar. Chapter 115 is another Honor chapter titled “Binding,” which takes place seven thousand years ago. Tanavast wants to confront Odium, as he fears that Rayse is moving to conquer the cosmere. Against Kor’s wishes, he reaches out to the other Shards to see if they’ll help. None will. So he goes to Ishar and other humans who’d had the power of Surgebinding on Ashyn, who still retained a seed of that power. He promises Surgebinding to Ishar and his allies if they will obey and accept Honor’s rules. Of course, they agree, and thus the Oathpact is forged and the allies become Heralds. Chapter 116 is titled “Two Women,” and here we see Jasnah’s downfall. She’s argued very well and nearly beat Taravangian. In the end, she’s done in by the undeniable fact that she would do anything to protect her family and Alethkar, no matter the cost. She states that she wouldn’t take the same deal from Odium to protect Alethkar, and Fen knows she’s lying. Fen, despite her previous loyalty to the Coalition, agrees to join Odium. As they haggle about the future of Thaylenah, Jasnah sits, quietly stunned, and attempts to come to grips with her defeat. Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs Tanavast/Honor SO INCONSISTENT WERE THESE SINGERS! SO UNTRUSTWORTHY!I HESITATED. THAT WASN’T TRULY HOW I FELT, BUT THE POWER WITHIN ME—THE POWER CALLED HONOR—WAS OFFENDED BY THEM TURNING FROM THEIR PROMISES. We see how the power of the Shards slowly changes their bearers’ personalities time and time again in the cosmere—the most obvious case being Sazed, slowly becoming paralyzed by the warring dichotomy of the two Shards he holds. But it’s chilling to think about something changing the very essence of who you are, and doing it in such a slow, insidious manner that you barely realize what’s happening. Taravangian/Odium When I have control of the cosmere, the peace that shall be known will bring joy to more people than you can imagine exist.” Ah yes… the old “only by uniting everyone under my rule can there be peace” chestnut. How many dictators in fiction have perpetuated this myth as justification for their power grabs? “Jasnah, what would you do if you were in Fen’s situation?”“Keep my promises,” she said.“Is that so?” he asked. “You would do the moral thing instead of the right thing?” This entire game of wits between the two of them has the feel of impending disaster—which is fitting, of course, as Jasnah does lose this battle. I find it terrifying how easily Taravangian turns Jasnah’s own actions and personality against her. Jasnah If you, right now, thought Fen were a threat to your family—if she were planning to destroy Alethkar—would you eliminate her?”“Any queen would,” Jasnah said.“I don’t… know if I would,” Fen whispered. Interesting that Jasnah makes such an assumption about all leaders. She seems to assume that all leaders, once they reach a certain level of power, will act with clinical logic and reason, as she would. This oversight—ignoring the impact of emotions over reason—will, of course, contribute to her downfall in this matter. She didn’t enjoy this, but a part of her was engaged in a way she had rarely been in her life. Arguing with someone who had the genuine capacity to not merely match her every point, but defeat her. Wanting the opportunity to match wits with an equal, if not a superior, intellect is understandable. If only Taravangian wasn’t such a… well, the things I want to call him wouldn’t really be suitable for polite company, so let’s just go with “jerk.” Perhaps, if Jasnah and Taravangian could have worked together for the greater good… but what is the greater good, in this instance? The good of the Alethi? The people of Roshar? All the people in the cosmere? The scale is so grand that it’s difficult to contemplate. Ultimately she’s like any of us: Family. Kingdom. World. In that order.” I would suggest that this aligns with the “monkeysphere” philosophical concept, or “Dunbar’s number,” which states that a person can only hold so many sociological connections (suggested to be around 150 stable relationships). Past that number, people don’t care so deeply. It’s harder to empathize with people outside of your direct experience; you just naturally care more for those you interact with more frequently. There’s also some aspects of the trolley problem at play here; who would you save? A family member for whom you care deeply, or ten innocent strangers? These are the underlying philosophical concepts at play in Taravangian’s argument here. Jasnah clearly would choose to save her family over all the people of Thaylenah; to claim otherwise would be disingenuous. No, a part of her thought. Freedom is more important.But did she believe that? Or did she believe that keeping people safe was right, regardless? Oof. That’s a hell of a thought, isn’t it? Which is better, a free people constantly at war and in danger of death? Or a people enslaved, but in peace? As an American, I’ve been conditioned my whole life to stand by freedom. But in this instance, I truly don’t know if freedom is worth the instability and destruction and death. She’d loved them too much to kill them, which meant her moral philosophy was an utter sham. Taravangian has turned her love for her family into the ultimate weapon to defeat her. She couldn’t know what was right.The cosmere, even the world, was just too big. And so we come to the ultimate question driving any analysis of ethics and morality: how to determine what is right. Interestingly we saw this same quandary in Kaladin’s section earlier in the book too, when he was debating the subject with Nale. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories Well, chapter 113 opens immediately with some clarifying language: IMPRINTED MYSELF UPON [THE STORMS], MADE THEM AN AVATAR OF ME. A WORD USED BY THE GODS FOR AN ASPECT OF THEMSELVES THAT WORKS WITH A CERTAIN SELF-DETERMINATION. The idea of avatars has been around in the Cosmere for the better part of a decade now, but I still see a lot of confusion around just what an avatar is. It seems Brandon has been seeing the same thing, because he comes right out with an explanation here. It’s useful, especially in the wake of Mistborn Era 2 and Isles of the Emberdark and all that stuff Autonomy is getting up to. THE HEALER? OF ALL PEOPLE, HE’D ATTACKED AONA? This chapter is just packed with Shardic lore. This particular moment isn’t new—it’s some nice dramatic irony, as we readers have known about Odium’s work with Aona and Skai since The Way of Kings—but it does set up some new context for the splintering of Devotion and Dominion. Odium somehow got them to turn on each other and weaken themselves before he stepped in with the killing blows and shoved all that Investiture into the Cognitive Realm at Sel. Sel is actually a strange parallel to what’s going on with Roshar, too. We’ve been operating under the assumption that Sel was unique—and in some ways it is—with un-held (un-Vesseled?) Shards just floating around and gaining sentience. But Wind and Truth reveals that Honor was in a similar boat: not splintered, not sitting in the Cognitive Realm and impacting the geographic elements of the magic, but gaining intelligence nonetheless. I have to wonder if Virtuosity is experiencing something similar, as well. As we head into the second half of the general Cosmere narrative, we’ve suddenly gotten information about a sizable number of Shards just… sitting there, in one form or another. This feels like really important information, and possibly even a potential point of conflict for the major powers in the late-stage Cosmere. Speaking of late-stage Cosmere, it seems increasingly certain that Threnody is going to be important—and certainly the residents of Threnody will be, as the Night Brigade sweeps across the stars. I LOOKED TO THE PLACE WHERE AMBITION HAD DIED—OUT IN SPACE, DISTANT. THEIR CLASH HAD BEEN DESTRUCTIVE, THE ENTIRE REGION—INCLUDING MULTIPLE PLANETS—HAD BEEN ANNIHILATED. OTHER PLANETS LAY BROKEN, BARELY HABITABLE. So we know that Odium began his conflict with Ambition in the Threnodite system, and she was gravely wounded there. But that’s not where Uli Da found her ultimate demise, nor where Ambition was fully splintered. So where was it? There are a lot of different names for Taln’s Scar floating around the Cosmere. The Red Rip is another. Most people, if they give much thought to this particular stellar phenomenon, assume that this is related to the Shattering of Adonalsium, perhaps a signal that fainlife has been spreading from Yolen across the systems of the Cosmere. But what if this is, in fact, a relic of Odium’s struggle with Ambition, leaving a ravaged wake behind them? Threnody is one of the worlds where we’ve seen mythology spring up around it… “EACH VIOLATION OF OUR WORD WEAKENS US, OPENS US TO ATTACK.” We’ve heard variations of this before, through Hoid and the conversations about the contract with Odium, but this feels extra important given the context of chapter 113. So much of this chapter is themed around the death of Vessels and the destruction of Shards—even a reference to the Shattering of Adonalsium—that I think we have to consider what happened with Devotion and Dominion. Did Odium entice them into breaking some agreement they had with each other? Was the simple fact that they ignored the agreement about shacking up together enough for him to exploit? And then there’s the enigmatic Word of Brandon about Autonomy’s help during Odium’s foray on Sel, and the long-running theory that Jaddeth is an avatar of Autonomy. How much of a mess are we looking at when there are four Shards all interacting with each other? […] EURIDRIUS, HOLDER OF REASON—WHO HAD VANISHED. This is a reread, so we already know about this particular Shard and Vessel, but I have to call out once again how much fun that little spike of joy is, every time we got a new Shard named over the years. Incredibly, all sixteen original Shards have been named. I can’t say that we’ll never get another new Shard again—heck, we just got Retribution in this novel, and who knows how many other combination Shards will pop up over the rest of these books—but a small part of me will always look fondly back on the early days of theorizing Shards and trying to assign Shards into type quadrants and all of that. The cosmere has changed a lot in the last 19 years. CHAN KO SAR, INVENTION, WHO TRAVELED THE COSMERE CREATING GREAT MARVELS. Judging by the name, Chan Ko Sar is likely another Sho Del Vessel, like Uli Da. But this line resonates especially strongly after Isles of the Emberdark and all the lore about the Grand Apparatus. Some people seem to think that Adonalsium created the Grand Apparatus, but I suspect it was actually Invention’s doing—and Invention certainly has interest in it. Now a world like Canticle? I think that has to be Adonalsium’s doing. But I feel like it’s a safe guarantee that we’re gonna see some crazy stuff Invented as we get into Mistborn Era 4, and maybe if (…when? Probably “when”) Sanderson drops more Secret Projects on us. Cuz c’mon. Does anyone really think he’s done doing that? There’s always another secret. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. Please note that here won’t be a new reread article next week, but we’ll be back on Monday, October 20th with our discussion of chapters 117 through 120![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 113-116 appeared first on Reactor.