Urithiru
Urithiru | |
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World | Roshar |
Universe | Cosmere |
“ Urithiru was said to be the center of the Silver Kingdoms, a city that held ten thrones, one for each king. It was the most majestic, most amazing, most important city in all the world. ”
Urithiru is a tower-city on Roshar that functioned as the home of the Knights Radiant and the central point of the Silver Kingdoms during the Heraldic Epochs.
Location
![](/w/images/thumb/Urithiru_on_the_map.png/300px-Urithiru_on_the_map.png)
Urithiru is located almost exactly in the middle of the Rosharan continent, in the mountains that comprise the border of Emul and Greater Hexi.[2] The tower sits on the east side of one of those mountains, leaning against two slopes.[3][4]
The plateau on which the tower is located is at a considerable altitude. The air is thin enough to make physical activity difficult. [5] The cliffs beneath it extend further than the eye can see.[6] This location is high enough that both highstorms and the Everstorm pass beneath it, which makes it difficult for the tower's current occupants to obtain stormlight.[7]
Historically, there was some disagreement as to whether or not Urithiru is accessible by means other than Oathgate travel or flight. Ancient chroniclers Varala and Sinbian both stated that it was impossible, but in Nohadon's eighth parable from The Way of Kings, he claims that he walked from Abamabar to Urithiru (which he confirms in Dalinar's dream, saying that he did not use an Oathgate, only a guide, which was akin to "taking a ferry across a river.")[8][9]. As is later revealed, there is an entrance at the bottom of the mountain which can be used to exit the tower on foot. [7]
There is an unnamed village in the foothills of the mountain to the south of the tower, [10] but it is apparently not visible from the tower, as all Dalinar can see is clouds and rocks.[11] In addition, Urithiru sits relatively closely to the Valley of the Nightwatcher.[2]
Appearance
![](/w/images/thumb/Urithiru_topdown_view.jpg/250px-Urithiru_topdown_view.jpg)
Urithiru is as wide as a city and as tall as a small mountain.[12] It consists of 10 semi-circular levels, with each level being 18 stories tall, for a total of 180 floors. [13] Going down, each level is wider than the one above it, with the roofs of the wider levels having fields and gardens built on them. There are numerous balconies on the sides of the tower. The bottom level has wide sections jutting out at the perimeter, each the size of a plateau.[13] These areas have grooves, which in the past were furrows for growing crops, and planter boxes around the edges.[14] In front of the tower is a massive plaza surrounded by the ten Oathgate platforms.[4]
The lower levels "meld" into the mountain on either side, but the center and the upper levels have a flat side on the stormward side. Rooms in this flat side have windows facing the Origin. [7] The glass windows miraculously survived thousands of years of abandonment utterly intact.[15]
The center column of Urithiru is one solid window, facing the origin. This column has a footprint the size of a ballroom and is full of dozens of lifts, which look like the exterior balconies and crawl up and down vertical channels in the walls using Stormlight.[7]
Because the tower is high enough to be above the high storms, long chains with cages exist to lower gemstones down to renew Stormlight.[7]
The interior of Urithiru is filled with tunnels that twist about in strange curves, which Dalinar hypothesizes was done to fool invaders.[15] Navani's scholars have also found oddly shaped groups of rooms and murals of fanciful animals (including some that might be lions, though those do not exist on Roshar), along with gold and copper metals embedded in the walls, presumably fabrials that they have been unable to understand.[16]
The tower is comprised of multiple rooms of different functionality, including sleeping quarters, meeting halls, libraries and bathhouses. Most of them have high ceilings.[17]
Strata
Each tunnel in Urithiru has distinctive patterns of strata.[18] Known strata colors include shades of brown, yellow, red, orange, and emerald green, though it would appear that only Surgebinders are capable of perceiving the various colours.[19] The stone itself is smooth to the touch and hard enough that it can't be scratched with a knife.[20] Notably, the same strata patterns can be seen on Kholinar windblades, indicating similar, perhaps shared origin.[21]
Known Strata Descriptions
- Third floor corridor where Sadeas's body is found: "twisted with lines—natural strata of alternating earthy colors, like those made by crem drying in layers."[13]
- Bathhouse where Vedekar Perel's body is found: "spiraled, twisting around the floor, ceiling, and walls like the threads of a screw"; "curving, twisting medley of oranges, reds, and browns—ballooning out across the sides of this chamber in wide bands before coiling back into narrow stripes to continue down the hall that led out the other side"[18]
- On the way to Dalinar's quarters: "wide reddish strata alternating with smaller yellow ones"; "sloping slightly upward"[15]
Notable locations
Breakaway
Breakaway is a large, cavernous hall within Urithiru's walls. While its previous function is unknown, after the Alethi arrive at the tower, it becomes their central market area, with stalls, foodstands and taverns.[14]
The Gem Archive
The Urithiru gem archive is used as a study hall for scholars and scholarly ardents working on uncovering the city's mysteries. As is later discovered, the panels on its walls are actually drawers, holding rows of gemstones that, when stormlight is put in them, vibrate in certain patterns, allowing them to hold messages.[22] It is also where meetings concerning the city's functionality and fabrials are held.[16]
Re-Shephir's Chamber
The room in which Re-Shephir hides until being banished by Shallan has likely once been a library; however, by the time the Alethi arrive there, its collection has been destroyed by the Unmade. A notable feature of the room is a column of gemstones in its center, around which Re-Shephir coiled when discovered. Though it's appearance is unusual, its purpose - and whether there is a purpose to it beyond decoration - remains unknown.[23] Renarin theorizes that it is a giant fabrial that does "being a city."[16]
The Top Platform
The platform atop Urithiru is the smallest floor of the whole tower. It is open-air, allowing the viewer to observe their entire surroundings. It appears to be Dalinar's favourite spot in the tower to think, and has seen its fair share of notable events related to him, such as him swearing his First and Second Ideals as a Bondsmith and marrying Navani.[24][7]
The Meeting Room
The meeting room is located near the top of the tower. From the moment the Alethi arrive in the city, it is used as their main meeting chamber, both for discussing strategy and when speaking with foreign dignitaries. Though it is initially barren, a table is brought in at some point, which Shallan and Dalinar use it to create a real-time map of Roshar.[24][15][25]
Mechanisms
Urithiru displays a number of unusual properties that allow humans to survive despite its high altitude. Among those are heightened pressure; increased temperature; and general conditions encouraging plant growth.[26] In addition, there is a number of fabrials, such as the elevators connecting Urithiru's floors and the gem archive capable of preserving recordings of human voices.[15][22] There is also a strange column of gems in the tower's lower levels, although its current purpose is unclear.[23]
Urithiru was once home of the spren Sibling.[27] However, at some point it withdrew from mankind, and currently slumbers.[28][25] This explains why many of Urithiru's systems are currently non-functional.[29] At the present, only some elevators work when gemstones are inserted, and the gem archive appears to be the sole functional fabrial remaining. Of the life support system, only increased pressure remains maintained.[26]
History
Pre-Recreance
Urithiru was constructed at some point early on during the Silver Kingdoms era.[30] Initially, many wished for it to be constructed in Alethela; however, it was eventually built elsewhere, in a place considered to be "closest to Honor".[31] It's unclear whether it was created by Heralds, Surgebinders or Shards themselves.
Though its unclear whether it was originally built for this purpose, Urithiru was the headquarters of the Knights Radiant orders, as well as the center of the Silver Kingdoms, holding ten thrones, one for each king. Even following the temporary end of the cycle of Desolations, it remained an important location as both the home of the Radiants and the Oathgate hub.[32] During that time, Urithiru had a large population of not only Radiants, but also ordinary people - servants, traders, craftsmen and so on.[33] At one point, the Unmade Re-Shephir invaded the tower, and was trapped and sealed by an unknown Lightweaver.[23]
Eventually, the unknown systems that allowed people to inhabit Urithiru - most importantly, raising its temperature to allow people to live comfortably and grow foods - began to fail for unclear reasons.[26] This forced the Knights Radiant to abandon the tower, leaving behind only the gem archive where they coded their last messages.[34][35]
Between this and the Day of Recreance, the Oathgates in the 9 surviving cities were sealed, leaving Urithiru locked away from the world.
Era of Solitude
Some time after the tower was abandoned, Re-Shephir broke out of her confinement, but remained within the tower.[23]
Though Urithiru had faded into myth by the Era of Solitude, Szeth was familiar with it, and would visit it often after becoming a Truthless. He had gone by the village at the bottom of the tower's mountain so many times that he mused that at some point, they had started thinking of him as some sort of god, leaving out tributes of spheres for him to use for stormlight.[10]
Jasnah Kholin began an effort to rediscover the city after growing convinced that a new Desolation was coming.[36] While she herself was unable to do so, her student, Shallan Davar, managed to complete her works and pinpoint the location of Stormseat, an ancient city that possessed an Oathgate, but was destroyed long before Urithiru was abandoned.[37] She eventually managed to locate Stormseat - now called Narak - and, as the Listeners summoned the Everstorm, transported the Alethi army through its Oathgate, rediscovering Urithiru.[38]
True Desolation
Following the arrival of the Everstorm, Urithiru became the centre of Alethi military power, with most highprinces, chief among them House Kholin, relocating there along with their armies. The Alethi began to reinhabit the tower, although they were unable to reactivate most of Urithiru's systems, such as the heating or the main elevator.[13] Following a string of strange accidents, Re-Shephir was tracked down and banished from the tower by a team led by Shallan Davar[23] Several Oathgates - that of Vedenar, Azimir and Thaylen City - were unlocked to reenable fast transportation across the continent.[6]
As a prelude to the Battle of Thaylen Field, the Voidbringers attacked Urithiru through the subverted Kholinar Oathgate.[39] Although initially somewhat successful, they were eventually pushed back and out of the city.[40]
Trivia
- The Shin consider the stones in Urithiru to be fine to walk on - or "unhallowed" - in contrast to the rest of Roshar. This is cultural rather than magical.[41]
- For some time, it was theorized that Urithiru might be a spaceship or something akin to a spaceship that Ashynites used to travel from their ruined homeworld to Roshar. This has been debunked.[42]
- In similar vein, it has been theorized that the Kholinar windblades power Urithiru in some fashion, though this, too, was debunked.[19]
Notes
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 45#
- ↑ a b Map of Roshar
- ↑ It is on the east side of a mountain.
— Theoryland - Jan 8th, 2015# - ↑ a b Urithiru.jpg
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 46#
- ↑ a b Oathbringer chapter 58#
- ↑ a b c d e f Oathbringer chapter 4#
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 34 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 103#
- ↑ a b Words of Radiance interlude I-10#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 86#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 24#
- ↑ a b c d Oathbringer chapter 2#
- ↑ a b Oathbringer chapter 18#
- ↑ a b c d e Oathbringer chapter 8#
- ↑ a b c Oathbringer chapter 44#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 15#
- ↑ a b Oathbringer chapter 9#
- ↑ a b FanX 2018
— Arcanum - 2018-09-06# - ↑ Oathbringer chapter 13#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 61#
- ↑ a b Oathbringer chapter 53#
- ↑ a b c d e Oathbringer chapter 29#
- ↑ a b Words of Radiance chapter 89#
- ↑ a b Oathbringer chapter 111#
- ↑ a b c Oathbringer chapter 69 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 87 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 70 epigraph#
- ↑ JordanCon 2018
— Arcanum - 2018-04-21# - ↑ Nohadon, who lived before the Knights Radiant were founded, visited it, so it had to be fairly early on.
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 35 epigraph#
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 46 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 72 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 65 epigraph#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 61 epigraph#
- ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 6#
- ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 47#
- ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 86#
- ↑ Oathbringer interlude I-14#
- ↑ Oathbringer chapter 120#
- ↑ Words of Radiance Seattle signing
— Arcanum - 2014-03-08# - ↑ Oathbringer Newcastle signing
— Arcanum - 2017-12-01#