Urithiru a cut out from the Palanaeum? [discuss]

[SpinningSky he/him]

Greetings friends!

This is my very first post in here, matter of fact I registered to get some opinions on this idea I got while re-reading WoK.

It's quite simple, though maybe a bit ridiculus, it feels to me like the Palaneum could be the hole created by the rock that was then moved to become Urithiru. Which isn't much, but goes some way in explaining the origin of the two locations.

it makes sense because:

• they're both gigantic mystical creations with misterious ancient origins
• one is a huge pyramid-like hole, one is a huge tower, which I guess you could carve from a pyramid
• the cities are fairily close
• Brandon did go out of his way to describe the library as "a giant staircase pointing toward the center of Roshar. ", with elevators to go up and down, which feels to me like an upside down Urithiru

It does not make sense because:

• I always imagined the palaneum to be far smaller, but looking around I have found no actual details about it, and we never did explore it fully
• It's more than a bit ridiculous

I found very few WOBs relating to the Palanaeum, but I do expect the library to be hugely important in the history of Roshar, I mean 'Stormlight Archive' right?

 

But please, tell me what silly thing I forgot that makes me inesorably wrong, cause I must be missing something!

 

Also sorry if this was already discussed, I looked around and don't believe it was

 

[Quantus he/him]

The Palenauem is Square shaped and 57 levels tall/deep; Urithiru's outer tiers are Circular, with ten tiers of 18 floors each makign 180 floors total. They also extend pretty deep into the ground where it is, so I really think Urithiru was simply birthed there originally and has never moved.  

But it does raise an interesting point as to the actual purpose of the Palanaeum and (Im assuming) Diamond-based Fabrial at it's bottom...  

[Icy]

I've always been interested in how the palanaeum is completely smooth, has strata similar to urithiru (though I guess that's just how rocks are), is shaped like a V, was cut directly into the stone, and holds a treasure trove of important information. 

I wonder if, similar to the plains, it follows some pattern. Could it have been made by some sort of sound wave? I.e. -----^---v----

I guess this would seem silly, because if so, where is the peak of that wave? But ultimately I'm wondering if it were man made / singer made with soulcasters/surgebinding, or if it was made by something... else, similar to the shattering of the plains. Was it put there on purpose long ago, perhaps, by a God intentionally shaping it that way? There was a theory going around about kharbranth being a safe haven, the bells possibly repelling specific tones - could this add credence to that theory? A wealth of information in the form of a library is something I would want in a secure spot, that's for sure.

All that is to say that I do think you're onto something / theorizing in a good direction with the palanaeum. At least I think so - seems like there's always been more to it. But I agree based on the above post that it seems unlikely to be the cutout for urithiru

Edited August 22, 2022 by Icy

[Rg2045]

I’m pretty sure that urithiru was carved from the mountain ulm or ur or something like that. It’s mentioned by the stones and Kriss in ars arcanium

[SpinningSky he/him]

Well yeah it makes much more sense that they're somehow connected but not physically a cut out one from the other 
Didn't realize we had a size for the palanaeum

 

20 hours ago, Quantus said:

But it does raise an interesting point as to the actual purpose of the Palanaeum and (Im assuming) Diamond-based Fabrial at it's bottom...  

It being a Fabrial makes a lot of sense, why do you say diamond base?

 

14 hours ago, Icy said:

I wonder if, similar to the plains, it follows some pattern. Could it have been made by some sort of sound wave? I.e. -----^---v----

This idea really intrigues me a lot, with the importance sound waves will have, though as you said it feel a bit far fetched as well, with the wave being so uneven.

But there might be some overall simmetry we're missing.

 

I guess what I'm wondering now is, what do you think the palaneum looks like in shardesmar? 

[Quantus he/him]

21 minutes ago, Spiningsky said:

Well yeah it makes much more sense that they're somehow connected but not physically a cut out one from the other 
Didn't realize we had a size for the palanaeum

 

It being a Fabrial makes a lot of sense, why do you say diamond base?

There's a big infused diamond at the base/point of the inverted Pyramid. Which as I type this, it might be interesting on it's own, since the diamond is described as Infused but it's not exposed to the sky & Highstorm. 

 

[Treamayne]

On 8/23/2022 at 7:34 AM, Spiningsky said:

Didn't realize we had a size for the palanaeum

On 8/23/2022 at 7:59 AM, Quantus said:

There's a big infused diamond at the base/point of the inverted Pyramid. Which as I type this, it might be interesting on it's own, since the diamond is described as Infused but it's not exposed to the sky & Highstorm.

The diamond is likely a perfect gemstone, like the King's Drop, and still holds it's illumination. Also, it could possibly be reinfused by other stones (as seen in RoW) or by Radiants before the Recreance. Here are the descriptions from WoK

Spoiler

Ch 7

Quote

Beyond the doors was a breathtakingly large room. The sides were of smooth rock and they stretched high; the dim illumination made it impossible to tell just how high, but she saw flickers of distant light. Set into the walls were dozens of small balconies, much like the private box seats of a theater. Soft light shone from many of these. The only sounds were turning pages and faint whispers. Shallan raised her safehand to her breast, feeling dwarfed by the magnificent chamber.
“Brightness?” a young male master-servant said, approaching. “What do you need?”
“A new sense of perspective, apparently,” Shallan said absently. “How…”
“This room is called the Veil,” the servant explained softly. “That which comes before the Palanaeum itself. Both were here when the city was founded. Some think these chambers might have been cut by the Dawnsingers themselves.”

Ch 33

Quote

The Palanaeum was shaped like an inverted pyramid carved down into the rock. It had balcony walkways suspended around its perimeter. Slanted gently downward, they ran around all four walls to form a majestic square spiral, a giant staircase pointing toward the center of Roshar. A series of lifts provided a quicker method of descending.
Standing at the top level’s railing, Shallan could see only halfway to the bottom. This place seemed too large, too grand, to have been shaped by the hands of men. How had the terraced levels been aligned so perfectly? Had Soulcasters been used to create the open spaces? How many gemstones would that have taken?

Ch 45

Quote

The hollow inverted pyramid rose toward the ceiling far above, the four walls expanding outward at a slant. The topmost levels were brighter and easier to make out, tiny lights bobbing along railings in the hands of ardents or scholars.
“Fifty-seven levels,” Shallan said. “I can’t even imagine how much work it must have been for you to create all this.”
“We didn’t create it,” Kabsal said. “It was here. The main shaft, at least. The Kharbranthians cut out the rooms for the books.”
“This formation is natural?”
“As natural as cities like Kholinar. Or have you forgotten my demonstration?”
“No. But why didn’t you use this place as one of your examples?”
“We haven’t found the right sand pattern yet,” he said.
. . .
 Not far below, the massive cavern came to a point. There was a large infused diamond there, marking the nadir.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Treamayne
Links

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

Interesting point about the diamond's infused state

Certainly a perfect gem... 

Spoiler

I wonder if BAM's storage location has been hiding in plain sight this whole time...?

 

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

Interesting point about the diamond's infused state

Certainly a perfect gem... 

  Hide contents

I wonder if BAM's storage location has been hiding in plain sight this whole time...?

 

Interesting, but doubtful, if only because we have seen that in Oathbringer:

Spoiler

Ch 120:

Quote

Dalinar Kholin knelt not far away, clutching a large ruby that glowed with the same strange phantom light as the Fused. The Reshi girl stood with her diminutive hand resting on his shoulder.

Stones holding an Unmade, seem to glow with Voidlight, not Stormlight - and the diamond wasn't mentioned to have anything weird about its radiance.