Jaxlim
| Unknown | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| Species | Singer | ||||
| Residence | Narak | ||||
| Nationality | Listener | ||||
| Homeworld | Roshar | ||||
| Universe | Cosmere | ||||
Eshonai's mother is an elderly Parshendi who lived on the Shattered Plains on Roshar.
Appearance and Personality
She has a solid build despite her advanced age, although she sometimes seems frail.[1] She has a neat round face, and wears her hair strands in a braid tied with a ribbon given to her by Eshonai.[1] She prefers workform and stays in that form even as new ones are discovered, believing that her people should not place value on any particular form in order to avoid social stratification.[1] She once had one of the best memories in the city.[1] She sings often and has a calming, sonorous voice.[1] She had some conflicts with Eshonai while raising her, but Eshonai always respected her.[1]
History
She is first seen in her shack on the outskirts of Narak tending to her shalebark gardens.[1] She appears to be senile, as she does not always recognize her daughter and sometimes seems to hallucinate.[1] Eshonai says that she has not heard wise words from her mother in years.[1]
Eshonai's mother appears to be one of the few Listeners who can still recall certain old songs which tell of Parshendi history.[1] Eshonai asks her about the Listeners leaving the "dark home", and her mother sings a song to a Rhythm of Remembrance that reveals tidbits of Parshendi history.[1] Eshonai's mother saved some maps of the former kingdom of Natanatan that Eshonai made in her youth, and she gives them to Eshonai.[1]
She is rounded up with the Parshendi who refuse to adopt Stormform when Eshonai begins to take control of Narak. She escapes into the chasms with Thude and the rest of the dissenters.[2]
Songs
““Daring was the challenge made,” Mother sang, “when the Last Legion abandoned thought and power in exchange for freedom. They risked forgetting all. And so songs they composed, a hundred stories to tell, to remember. I tell them to you, and you will tell them to your children, until the forms are again discovered.” ”
—Eshonai's mother, to Eshonai[1]
The old songs recounted by Eshonai's mother include information about the Parshendi that is not widely known. According to her songs, the Listeners, then known as the Last Legion, were warriors who were sent to fight in a shattered nation. The people were not free, because the Forms of Power had been forced upon them, bending them to the will of their gods. During a storm, the Last Legion decided to abandon the dark home and adopt a form that would allow them to escape the influence of the gods. They knew this form would cause them to lose most of their mental faculties, so they composed songs to try and preserve their history. They decided to spread out into small tribes to avoid conflict.[1]