Death Rattle

Death Rattle
Related to	Moelach
World of Origin	Roshar

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Death Rattles are a phenomenon related to the Unmade Moelach. His presences causes some dying individuals to experience precognitive events in the form of cryptic utterances, in the final moments of life. The emergence of the death rattles appears to coincide with the expedition of King Gavilar Kholin of Alethkar where the Parshendi were first encountered.^{[citation needed]}

King Taravangian of Kharbranth has been harvesting these death rattles, in a secret hospital under his palace, in an effort to supplement the Diagram.

Known Death Rattles

“You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die!”

—Collected on Chachabah 1171, 10 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a darkeyed soldier thirty-one years of age. Sample is considered questionable.

“The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather... we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.”

—Collected on Shashahes 1171, 31 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a darkeyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive.

“Ten orders. We were loved, once. Why have you forsaken us, Almighty! Shard of my soul, where have you gone?”

—Collected on Kakashan 1171, 5 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a lighteyed woman in her third decade.

“A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.”

—Collected on Tanatesev 1171, 30 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a cobbler of some renown.

“I'm dying, aren't I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.”

—Collected on Jesanach 1172, 11 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a Reshi chull trainer. Sample is of particular note.

This rattle appears to reference Shadesmar, based on the description of the sun and sky, and a Cryptic.

“I have seen the end, and have heard it named. The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm.”

—Collected on Naneses 1172, 15 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a darkeyed youth of unknown origin.

“I'm cold. Mother, I'm cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop?”

—Collected on Vevishes 1172, 32 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a lighteyed female child, approximately six years old.

“They are aflame. They burn. They bring the darkness when they come, and so all you can see is that their skin is aflame. Burn, burn, burn...”

—Collected on Palahishev 1172, 21 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a baker's apprentice.

“Victory! We stand atop the mount! We scatter them before us! Their homes become our dens, their lands are now our farms! And they shall burn, as we once did, in a place that is hollow and forlorn.”

—Collected on Ishashan 1172, 18 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a lighteyed spinster of the eighth dahn.

“Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red.”

—Collected on Jesachev 1173, 12 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject an ardent member of the Diagramists, overheard during his last moments.

“Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.”

—Collected on Chachanan 1173, 84 seconds pre-death, by Diagramists. Subject was a cutpurse with the wasting sickness, of partial Iriali descent.

This rattle appears to reference the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium. Three of which, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium, are invested in Roshar.

Notes

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