Greetings, Cosmere Chickens, and welcome back to the climax of Elantris! In this week’s reread we finally reach the point where everything comes to a head, and it’s a glorious moment, to be sure. If you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for Raoden to find the answers he’s been seeking for the entirety of the book—well, this is the chapter for you. We’ll also be delving into the annotations to learn about some of the stuff that Brandon ultimately cut from the book… Won’t you join us?
Spoiler warning: This week’s article contains major spoilers from Mistborn: Eras 1 and 2. The spoilers are clearly marked, but proceed with caution if you haven’t read the books yet!
Last time on Elantris: STILL SANDERLANCHIN’…
We’ve reached the point of peak dramatic tension: Raoden has succumbed to his injuries and Galladon and Karata have carried him to the Pool. They are about to toss him in when he realizes what they need to do to save the Dor—but his startled shout surprises Galladon, who drops Raoden into the Pool. Meanwhile, Dilaf teleports Hrathen and Sarene to Teod, where he’s prepared to assassinate Eventeo and take the country by force. The prisoners back in Arendel and Elantris are about to be put to the sword or the torch. Things look very, very grim…
Chapter Essentials
POV Character(s): Everyone!
Discussion
Hrathen watched the dagger begin to slice Sarene’s skin. He thought of Fjorden. He thought of the work he had done, the people he had saved. He thought of a young boy, eager to prove his faith by entering the priesthood. Unity.
“No!” Spinning, Hrathen drove his fist into Dilaf’s face.
L: FACE TURN! FACE TURN! FACE TURN!
P: Woo-hoo! I loved this moment so much!
Hrathen has the most progression of any of the characters in this book. It’s fitting, therefore, that he should get the best character climax. Essentially, Elantris–at least Hrathen’s third of it–is a redemption story.
Back to Hrathen’s finest hour:
“Launch your ships, Eventeo!” he yelled. “Fjorden’s armies come not to dominate, but to massacre. Move now if you want to save your people!”
L: Gotta respect Hrathen for not only saving Sarene, who he’s got the hots for, but also the people of Teod.
P: Yes. Saving Sarene was one thing, he didn’t have to tell Eventeo what was happening. He truly does want to preserve life.
L: About time.
Though Dakhor bodies were unnaturally quick, their minds recovered from shock no more quickly than those of ordinary men. Their surprise bought Hrathen a few vital seconds. He brought his sword up, shoving Sarene toward an alleyway and backing up to block the entrance.
L: On the one hand, it’s awesome that Hrathen’s finally turned face and saved her at the eleventh hour. On the other, I so wish that Sarene could have saved herself and didn’t need to be turned into a damsel in distress.
P: True. But really, she had no chance against those monks. They’re beyond brutal. And really, she’s been saved like a damsel in distress a couple of times in this book so far.
L: Brandon does get better with his heroines as his writing career progresses (looking at you, Vin, Shallan, Jasnah) so we can look at this at the beginning of his “character” arc. All of us have to learn and grow as writers.
Shuden burst into motion. The young baron snapped forward, spinning like a dancer as he brought his fist around, driving it into the chest of a chanting warrior monk. (…) And Shuden did it all with his eyes closed. Lukel couldn’t be certain, but he thought he saw something else—a slight glow following Shuden’s movements in the dawn shadows.
L: Oh, well that’s certainly interesting! Glowing, you say?
P: Oh, I like hints!
The ChayShan wasn’t ever intended to be effective or successful–it’s not a Deus Ex Machina for the people trapped inside Elantris. It is a hint of things I plan to do with the future of this world.
Back to Raoden, who has just burst out of the Pool, to everyone’s surprise:
They had expected [Raoden] to dissolve—they didn’t understand that the pool couldn’t take him unless he wanted it to.
P:I find this very interesting. Like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter taking your wishes into account.
The pool represents giving in—though it’s giving in to peace instead of pain, it is still an admittance of defeat. I’ve mentioned over and over that the pain has no power against one who doesn’t give in to it. I don’t see why the peace should be any different. If you can resist one, then you can resist the other.
L: And this becomes a theme in Brandon’s work in general—one need only look at Dalinar and Kaladin to see that.
I’m honestly not sure what the pool is or how exactly it fits into the theory of this magic system. It was added as a plotting devise, as mentioned earlier, and therefore was never tied directly to the cosmology or theoretics of the world. When I do a sequel to this book, I think I’ll try and find a way to tie it in.
L: Looking back on this now, we have to laugh, because this is a Perpendicularity. Brandon may not have realized what he was doing at the time, but he linked it into the Cosmere eventually!
P: I really love this so much. “I’m going to put this random thing in my book to advance my plot but I have no idea how important it will become in my overarching universe.” Just perfect.
When aid finally did come, it was from an odd source: the women.
Several of Sarene’s fencers snatched up pieces of wood or fallen swords and fell in behind Lukel, thrusting with more control and ability than he could even feign to know.
P: I knew this would happen! Good on Sarene and her lessons!
The women attack because it fulfills the form of this novel. This is a book about people who resist despite hopelessness, and it is about making use of your limitations to overcome your hardships. It’s about the spirit of mankind.
L: I love this so much. It’s bringing these women full circle, and fulfilling a promise made to the reader. Their sword lessons were Chekhov’s gun placed on the mantle for us—why show us learning to fight, if we weren’t ever going to see them use those skills?
P: Exactly! This is truly so satisfying to see. Their hard work during Sarene’s lessons is paying off!
I wanted them to give a nod to the theme of the book while at the same time fulfilling Sarene’s ‘fencing plot’ cycle. The women did her proud–they fought back while their men waited to be slain.
Back to Sarene and Hrathen, who is discarding his heavy armor:
“The burden of my calling,” Hrathen said, pulling off his final greave. Its bloodred paint was now scratched and dented. “A calling I no longer deserve.”
L: I do love a good antihero face-turn, and this one absolutely qualifies.
P: Or maybe it’s a calling that he no longer quite fits into. He’s grown past it.
[Elantris is] the story of a man struggling to understand what faith is, and what that faith requires of him. In the end, his decision to save Sarene comes as a rejection of the sins of his past. And, in a slight way, it is a rejection of the heartless, logical man he assumed himself to be.
L: And we see this exemplified a little later, in his conversation with Sarene:
“Why did you do it, Hrathen?” she asked. “Why turn against your people?”
Hrathen hesitated. Then he looked away. “Dilaf’s actions are evil.”
“But your faith…”
“My faith is in Jaddeth, a God who wants the devotion of men. A massacre does not serve Him.”
P: Some of this religion’s ideas are funky but that’s a good baseline to have.
He stood bare-chested, wearing only a pair of thin, knee-length trousers and a long cloth sleeve around his right arm.
L: Hrathen doing his best romance-novel-cover impression here—maybe a last-ditch effort to try to seduce Sarene? All he needs is the long hair blowing in the wind. And maybe a kilt.
P: Oh my, Lyndsey… you made me snort-laugh.
L: I’ll be here all week. Tip your servers!
Ahead, Raoden grabbed a long stick from the ground, then he started to run, dragging the length of wood behind him.
Past!Brandon has some thoughts about this:
Now, perhaps, you see why I was worried that I had Raoden too far up on the slope. In order for the plot to work, I had to get him down to the city in a hurry so that he could draw the Chasm Line. … He also runs, dragging the stick, longer than I imply. I think the pacing here is important to keep up the tension. However, if you draw the line, you’ll see that he had to cross a good distance of land while dragging his stick.
L: A stick? But you could be a plot device…
P: Stop! You’re killing me!
L: Never.
A soldier finished the swing that separated Karata’s beleaguered head from her body.
P: Oh, nooo… I so liked her!
I’m sorry for killing Karata. It felt like the right thing to do right here, even though my readers universally disagree with this decision. This is a very important series of events. If I didn’t have any real danger for the characters, then I think earlier events—where characters did die—would come across feeling more weighty. Karata and Galladon throw themselves at a troop of armed soldiers. There was no way for that to end well.
L: I guess we’ll forgive you this time, Past!Brandon. I’d say “don’t make a habit of it,” but, well. We all know how that holds up. (Mistborn spoiler:) Kelsier, Wayne… (End of spoiler)
P: Yes, and more beloved than Karata.
Light exploded from the ground.
It burst from the dirt like a silver river, spraying into the air along the line Raoden had drawn. The light enveloped him—but it was more than just light. It was essential purity. Power refined. The Dor. It washed over him, covering him like a warm liquid.
And for the first time in two months, the pain went away.
L: Finally!
P: Payoff, baby! It’s been such a long, painful wait since Raoden first started practicing the Dor!
The city complex was an enormous Aon—a focus for Elantrian power. All it had needed was the Chasm line to make it begin working again. One square, four circles. Aon Rao. The Spirit of Elantris.
L: So the shape of the city itself is the spell that makes the Dor work. Sort of like how the shape of the Shattered Plains in Words of Radiance has significance… Brandon seems like imbuing the topography or structure of his cities with magical importance.
P: I loved so much that the actual city was an Aon. It was just ::chef’s kiss::.
Because Elantris was an Aon, it stopped working just like all of the other Aons did when the Reod occurred. I’ve established several times in the book that the medium an Elantrian draws in—whether it be mud, the air, or in this case dirt—doesn’t matter. The form of the Aon is the important part. By putting a line in the proper place, Raoden creates a gate that allows the Dor to flow into Elantris and resume its intended purpose.
Raoden steps out of the light, and…
The terrified soldiers stumbled away. Several made wards against evil, calling upon their god.
“You have one hour,” Raoden said, raising a glowing finger toward the docks to the northeast. “Go.”
He lets them go?!
Yes, Raoden lets the Dakhor monks go. That’s the sort of thing that happens in this book. If you want something more gritty, you can read Mistborn.
L: ::puts on Ninth Doctor hat::Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!
P: I really need to watch Doctor Who, don’t I?
L: I wasn’t aware that you hadn’t, so yes. Emphatically yes.
Lukel wasn’t watching the walls. His mouth opened in amazement as he stared at the pyre of corpses—and the shadows moving within it.
Slowly, their bodies glistening with a light both more luminous and more powerful than the flames around them, the Elantrians began to step from the blaze, unharmed by its heat.
P: Ahh! I love this! Nobody is lost (except Karata, sad face)!
I like having this scene from Lukel’s viewpoint. If nothing else were gained from his other sections, I think the scene of the Elantrians emerging from the flames would be enough to justify his viewpoints in these last few chapters.
L: I’m with Past!Brandon on this one. That’s an awesome mental image.
P: Right? Glowing bodies emerging from the pyre. Very cool!
L: You know, Brandon may claim to not be gritty and dark, but then he comes out with this:
Only the two demon priests seemed capable of motion. One of them screamed in denial and dashed at the emerging Elantrians, his sword upraised.
A flash of power shot across the courtyard and struck the monk in the chest, immolating the creature in a puff of energy. The sword dropped to the paving stones with a clang, followed by a scattering of smoking bones and burnt flesh.
L: Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much. That’s pretty dark. (Not that I’m complaining! That monk had it coming!)
P: Oh, did he ever. They all did, really, for massacring the people of Kae. I’d have been like, “No mercy!”
Raoden stopped, his hand poised next to the gleaming character—Aon Daa, the Aon for power.
L: Aon alert!
“Take your men to the docks, monk,” Raoden said. “Board your ships and go. Anything Derethi, man or vessel, that remains in my country after the next hour’s chime will suffer the force of my rage. I dare you to leave me with a suitable target.”
L: I do love that he gets to have a badass speech to go along with his “get off my lawn” proclamation.
P: “Get off my lawn…” OMG, you’re on it today! ::laughing some more::
L: Thank you, thank you.
I keep promising that I’ll tell you about some of the other silly character revelations I had pop up in the book. This one is particularly embarrassing. To be honest, I have NO idea what I was thinking.
L: Oh, this ought to be good. We’ve got to include this.
In the original draft of the book, Hrathen turns out to have been from Duladel the entire time. It’s revealed in this scene, when he and Sarene are running from the Dakhor. He was of Dula blood, having grown up there, then moved to Fjorden as a teenager. Yes, I know. I must have been tired when I wrote that chapter. Anyway, at one point it must have seemed like a good idea. It didn’t make even the first cut, however—my first readers rose up in open rebellion, and I joined them. I figure I must have decided that it was more dramatic to discover that Hrathen had betrayed his own people by destroying Duladel. Yes, again, I know. It was stupid. We writers do stupid things sometimes.
L: I’m going to be honest here… I could see this working well, if not maybe at this place in the novel. The whole “he betrayed his own people” twist could be really cool. But at this point there would have just been too much going on. It would have been overwhelming.
P: I agree with you. There’s a lot happening in this Sanderlanche and this would have been just too much for us to swallow.
I didn’t even pause to think that the drama of Hrathen betraying his own people and religion in the present is far more powerful than a betrayal that happened before the book even started.
L: Yeah, there’s that, I guess… but his own people in the present are dicks, so…
P: Indeed, they are. Wyrn is just evil incarnate.
I denied his entire character by trying to rely on some whim that seemed like a clever, unexpected twist. Don’t let yourselves do things like this, writers. Let the twists help develop the character, not exist simply to surprise.
L: A very fair point there. But I still think that it could have worked.
P: ::takes notes:: Any advice Brandon has to offer is good advice, in my opinion.
We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments, and hope to join you there! Next week, we’ll be back with chapter 62.
