Why "The Stormlight Archive?" (Spoilers)

[LightReader she/her]

The visions that Dalinar has, those are like a collection of archive footage put together by The Almighty before he died aren't they? Other possible candidates to be in-world authors of something called "The Stormlight Archive" could be Jasnah as a historian, or Sigzil as a storyteller, though neither of them would have memories of the time before the last desolation. Taln is a possibility since he's a Herald and would remember previous desolations, but we don't know enough about his personality to know if he's the type to do a lot of writing, and he would only have memories of the desolations themselves since he spent all the time in between living in Damnation.

[haiamehs]

My best guess is that it's written from the point of view of a sentient spren. Spren seem to be immortal, or at least extremely long-lived, as evidenced by Syl's eventual recollection of the days of the Knights Radiant. They seem to be keeping an eye on the four key players, as evidenced by the symbol-heads watching Shallan and Syl finding Kaladin. They would have an intimate knowledge of the magics of Roshar, would feel the loss of those magics as acutely as any human, and would feel betrayed by Radiants and Heralds both when they called it quits.

AFAICT, nothing in the text contradicts this theory. I don't know if there's a lot that supports it, but I can't think of anyone else that fits.

if its from the point of view of of sprens, then how will they be "redeemed" and who, among the four, will destroy them?

[Wisdom he/him]

I know this topic may be fairly old but I thought I might point out something that I believe supports the idea that The Stormlight Archive is in some sense a historical document - in short, the annotations to the sketches included in the book (which can also be found here)

These annotations (on the spearman's map of Sadeas' warcamp, Navani's Battle of the Tower sketch, Vandonas' map of the Alethi warcamps and the map of Alethkar) make them seem like historical sources included with the actual text for completeness, especially the dates. My idea of the Stormlight Archive is not as a historical document itself (as in it is written in the future about the events we read about) but more of a collection of contemporary documents (or near contemporary) detailing the events surrounding the True Desolation (as I believe it is referred to). People from the future have copies of all the books and have grouped them together and called them The Stormlight Archive as well as including relevant documents they have found (i.e. the pictures). The books are more historical sources, in the same way that anyone studying the end of the Roman Republic might read Cicero's Philippics or the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Deed's of the Divine Augustus).

I may, of course, be reading too much into it. I shall just have to wait for more books to come along. Oh well

EDIT: I'd also like to tentatively suggest Kalami, Teleb's wife as the author - taking into account that this is only the first book of ten and a better candidate may come up in the later ones. It says on page 370 that she's a historian "of note" and plans to write a history of the war which is why she is sitting in on meetings. Assuming my theory is true of course .

EDIT^2: Or, as Odium Shard suggested, it could be the group Jasnah is part of - although I can't remember their name I can remember that they are supposedly dedicated to a true and unbiased account of history. On the other hand, they might be focusing on their history rather than contemporary events. Also I haven't heard of anyone who belongs to the same order/organisation asking questions. As for the Ghostbloods, I somehow think they wouldn't give a balanced account - then again we don't really know who or what they are so its possible.

Wow this has gotten long.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Wisdom

[Stormlightning she/her]

Actually, these are really good points.

Somebody in-world almost certainly wrote that document, and it's wasn't any of the viewpoint characters so far.  It's the wrong perspective for Hoid, too.

So are we now looking for another functionally immortal person, this one native to Roshar?  Dang.  Well, at least we know what to look for now.

Can I throw something REALLY premature out there? Reading this, and then the back flap again, I'm setting my sights on the third man from the Interlude where Vao(Galladon), Temoo(Demoux), and Thinker(???) are searching for Hoid. The only reason I hesitate is because Ishikk treats him as though he's apparently the most foreign of them all(who knows, that could be an act, partially). But I really think that the person writing this isn't someone we know even a little bit. It's probably someone who has been referenced but never made seemingly important.

p.s., I'm not certain if I labeled those correctly. Sorry if i didn't.

[Zarepath he/him]

Can I throw something REALLY premature out there? Reading this, and then the back flap again, I'm setting my sights on the third man from the Interlude where Vao(Galladon), Temoo(Demoux), and Thinker(???) are searching for Hoid. The only reason I hesitate is because Ishikk treats him as though he's apparently the most foreign of them all(who knows, that could be an act, partially). But I really think that the person writing this isn't someone we know even a little bit. It's probably someone who has been referenced but never made seemingly important.

p.s., I'm not certain if I labeled those correctly. Sorry if i didn't.

I'm pretty sure that the third guy isn't native to Roshar. Not sure where the quote is, but I'm pretty sure someone's said that all three of them are from other, different worlds.

[Odium's_Shard]

I know this topic may be fairly old but I thought I might point out something that I believe supports the idea that The Stormlight Archive is in some sense a historical document - in short, the annotations to the sketches included in the book (which can also be found here)

These annotations (on the spearman's map of Sadeas' warcamp, Navani's Battle of the Tower sketch, Vandonas' map of the Alethi warcamps and the map of Alethkar) make them seem like historical sources included with the actual text for completeness, especially the dates. My idea of the Stormlight Archive is not as a historical document itself (as in it is written in the future about the events we read about) but more of a collection of contemporary documents (or near contemporary) detailing the events surrounding the True Desolation (as I believe it is referred to). People from the future have copies of all the books and have grouped them together and called them The Stormlight Archive as well as including relevant documents they have found (i.e. the pictures). The books are more historical sources, in the same way that anyone studying the end of the Roman Republic might read Cicero's Philippics or the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Deed's of the Divine Augustus).

I may, of course, be reading too much into it. I shall just have to wait for more books to come along. Oh well

Perhaps it is the Ghostbloods? Or whatever faction Jasnah is again. Those seem like very likely candidates. Were they the Versitilians or something?

[dj26792 he/him]

Jasnah is a Veristitalian historian, but I always assumed that was more like being a Modernist or a Post-Modernist or an Empiricist in our world, a way of thinking rather than an organisation.

[Captain.Kaulu]

As for the back flap, I don't think we have enough evidence for a conclusion yet, but it could always be the Nightwatcher ...

I'm pretty sure that the third guy isn't native to Roshar. Not sure where the quote is, but I'm pretty sure someone's said that all three of them are from other, different worlds.

Yeah, Brandon told me that at his last San Diego signing.