Iriali | |
---|---|
Location | Iri (on Roshar) |
World of Origin | Roshar, Lumar |
Universe | Cosmere |
The Iriali are an ethnicity of people in the cosmere.
Appearance and Anatomy
The Iriali have metallic golden-blond skin and hair that breeds true.[1][2][3] They mostly have yellow eyes.[4] They have had what most would consider to be inhuman ancestry, depending on what is considered human.[5]
Culture
The Iriali worship a god they call "One". According to this belief, the One knew everything but had experienced nothing. And so the One became Many in order to experience all things. As each experience is different, it brings completeness to the One. Eventually, all will be gathered back in when the sum of land is attained and they will once again become One. Every person is a different mind of a single being experiencing different lives. As Many, they need ignorance. Each fragment of the One’s mind has its own body with different passions and inclinations. They exist in variety to experience all kinds of thought. That means some people must know and others must not. Just like some people must be rich and others poor.[2]
This religion and its philosophy of one becoming many may be slightly influenced by the Shattering of Adonalsium.[6] The philosophy behind the One is that the Spiritual Realm and the Beyond are the same thing and that, when a person dies, their soul goes with their Investiture to the Spiritual Realm. Most cosmere philosophers disagree with this belief.[7]
History
As part of their worship of One, the Iriali believe that they are part of something they call the "Long Trail," a series of seven Lands which all must be "attained" before they will become One again. The Fourth Land is Roshar,[2] which they arrived on from somewhere besides Ashyn and separately from the rest of humanity.[8][9] One of the subsequent[fn 1] Lands is Lumar, which they seemingly vanished from overnight about three hundred years before Hoid gained access to AonDor from Riina.[3]
Notes
- Footnotes
- ↑ The Iriali departed Lumar three hundred years prior to the start of Tress of the Emerald Sea, which—given the technology available at the time, Hoid gaining access to AonDor, and Sazed having released the kandra—takes place after at least the first half of The Stormlight Archive. Since the Iriali were also on Roshar for thousands of years prior to the beginning of Stormlight, the only way the timeline can be arranged is with Lumar coming after Roshar.
- References
- ↑ The Way of Kings interlude I-5#
- ↑ a b c Words of Radiance interlude I-2#
- ↑ a b Tress of the Emerald Sea chapter 2#
- ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 20#
- ↑ Skyward release party
— Arcanum - 2018-11-06# - ↑ Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A
— Arcanum - 2020-11-15# - ↑ Arcanum Unbounded release party
— Arcanum - 2016-11-22# - ↑ Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing
— Arcanum - 2016-12-06# - ↑ JordanCon 2018
— Arcanum - 2018-04-22#