I-11. New Rhythms: The Listener Transformation

Spoiler Notice

This analysis covers the events of Chapter 70, "New Rhythms," and reveals major plot developments. Proceed only if you have read this far in Words of Radiance.

Summary

Eshonai, clad in Shardplate and fully immersed in stormform, climbs the central spire of Narak for a meeting with the Five. She experiences the intoxicating new rhythms that accompany her form, though one—the Rhythm of Peace—disturbingly screams at her. She dismisses this.

During the meeting, she proposes transforming every listener into stormform, arguing they need the numbers to summon a highstorm against the exposed Alethi army during the Weeping. The Five resist; Zuln, the dullform, flatly refuses. When debate stalls, Eshonai publicly defies them, shouting to the assembled crowd that she will grant stormform to any who wish it in two days. She summons a miniature tempest as a display.

Eshonai then rallies her soldiers, securing near-universal agreement to transform. She orders a city-wide census, corralling dissenters onto the practice grounds. Abronai is dragged in for protesting; Zuln is singled out. Eshonai learns her own mother is among the refusers. She assigns her former friend Thude and her original division to guard the dissenters, secretly planning their execution after the soldiers are fully transformed. However, Thude helps the dissenters escape into the chasms by cutting down a bridge. Eshonai dismisses their flight, certain the approaching highstorm will kill them. Venli questions Eshonai's actions, and Eshonai physically threatens her before proceeding to deliver a pacifying speech to the captured populace, consolidating her total control over Narak.

Key Events

Eshonai hears the Rhythm of Peace scream, but suppresses the warning.
The Five debate mass transformation; Zuln, Abronai, and Chivi express doubt.
Eshonai stages a public coup, declaring she will transform anyone regardless of the Five's decision.
She summons a miniature highstorm in her hands to awe the crowd.
Eshonai rallies all seventeen thousand soldiers, demanding loyalty to stormform.
A city-wide roundup collects roughly a thousand dissenters.
Thude and Eshonai's former division flee with the dissenters into the chasms after cutting a bridge.
Eshonai assaults Venli, who warns that killing her would doom the transformation plan.

Character Development

Eshonai: The chapter charts her complete descent. She moves from exhilaration with her new power to ruthless authoritarianism. She suppresses awareness of the corrupting influence—the screaming rhythm, her unnatural desire for control—and rationalizes betrayal of her closest friends. Her plan to eventually execute dissenters, including her mother, marks a moral event horizon.
Venli: Revealed as the architect of stormform's discovery through undisclosed means. She admits she knew the form would change Eshonai before taking it herself. Her composure under threat and open ambition to seize control indicate she is more than a scholar; she is a co-conspirator with her own agenda.
Thude: Eshonai's loyal lieutenant sees through her deception. His decision to lead the escape rather than guard the prisoners shows moral courage breaking through conditioned obedience. He chooses defiance despite the likelihood of death in the chasms.
The Five: Their authority collapses. Davim's cautious temptation, Abronai's principled objection, Chivi's discomfort, and Zuln's blunt refusal highlight the council's powerlessness against charismatic, supernatural influence.

Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

Corruption of Identity: Stormform does not simply grant power; it rewrites personality. Eshonai repeatedly notes, "None of this feels like me," yet the rhythms surge and drown introspection. The form's influence mimics addiction—providing euphoria while eroding self-awareness.
The Scream in Peace: The Rhythm of Peace screaming Eshonai's own voice in pain symbolizes her true self trapped and crying out. It is a direct metaphor for internal possession, the native consciousness being subsumed by an external, divine (or infernal) will.
Control and Consent: Eshonai frames forced transformation as a "right" of individual choice while simultaneously preparing to kill those who refuse. This hypocrisy exposes how totalitarian power masks coercion as liberation.
The Storm as Weapon: The miniature highstorm Eshonai conjures foreshadows the intended genocide. The storm, once a neutral force of nature, is corrupted into a tool of targeted destruction, mirroring the listeners' own transformation.

Why This Chapter Matters

"New Rhythms" is the inflection point where the listener society ceases to exist as a free people and becomes an instrument of Odium. Eshonai's coup transforms a defensive war of survival into an apocalyptic offensive. The chapter sets the immediate stakes for the novel's climax: a race against time as the Alethi march toward Narak, unaware that a highstorm they cannot predict—and cannot shelter from—awaits them.

Simultaneously, it lays the tragic foundation for the listeners' near-extinction. The escape of Thude's small band into the chasms preserves a seed of resistance and independent listener identity, suggesting that total damnation is not complete. Eshonai's internal scream confirms that somewhere beneath the stormform, her original self still exists, however buried.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Eshonai ignore the screaming within the Rhythm of Peace, and what does this denial reveal? The scream is her own voice, indicating her core self recognizes the violation. By suppressing it and attuning other rhythms, she demonstrates that stormform warps not only emotions but the capacity for self-examination. The denial reveals how the form protects itself by actively silencing dissent from within.
How does Thude's escape subvert Eshonai's expectations about loyalty and form-based obedience? Eshonai believes her former division knows her too well and would question her, hence she excluded them from the initial transformation. She assumes warform soldiers will follow orders by conditioning. Thude proves that personal loyalty and moral judgment can override both martial obedience and the fear of gods. By assigning him to guard duties, she inadvertently creates the vulnerability he exploits.
What is the strategic logic behind forcing the entire population—not just soldiers—into stormform? Eshonai states that the strength of the summoned highstorm scales with the number of stormforms. A city-wide transformation maximizes their offensive power for a single, decisive strike. However, the unstated logic is totalitarianism: by eliminating non-stormform listeners, she removes any potential for organized resistance and cements a monoculture fully attuned to the new, violent rhythms.