I really like Brandon Sanderson's books. Warbreaker is his 5th novel (not counting his kid's books). Sanderson, like myself, is Mormon, and truth - all truth is important and part of the gospel - no matter where it comes from. Here is some truth that I found in Warbreaker.
In this quote Susebron & Siri are talking. Susebron is a Returned, and the God-King of Hallandren and Siri is his wife, and they are only just getting to know each other. The form of magic in this book is based on Breath. Each person has one and they can give it away. A Returned is someone who has come-back from death and is worshipped as a god by the Hallandren.
A person can buy Breaths and the more that you have the greater powers you have. 50 Breaths is the 1st level and you have the ability to tell at what level others are. 200/2nd level gives you perfect pitch, 600/3rd level gives you perfect color recognition and on and on it goes. Most people, even buying Breath, only get a couple of thousand.
300 years ago the God-Kings started with a massive amount of Breath & have been given 2 Breaths a week from their public since then. Susebron therefore has over 50,000. But he had his tongue cut out as a child so that he could never use the Breath for anything. This left him childlike and uneducated, knowing only what his mother taught his from his favorite children's book.
Susebron and Siri have been talking about her home kingdom in the mountains...
"Susebron was writing again. I suspect that the mountains are beautiful, as you have said. However, I believe the most beautiful thing in them has already come down to me.
Siri started, then flushed. He seemed so open, not even a little embarrassed or shy about the bold compliment. "Susebron!" she said. "You have the heart of a charmer."
Charmer? he wrote. I must only speak what I see. There is nothing so wonderful as you, even in my entire court. The mountains must be special indeed, to produce such beauty.
"See, now you've gone too far," she said. "I've seen the goddesses of your court. They're far more beautiful than I am."
Beauty is not about how a person looks, Susebron wrote. My mother taught me this. The travelers in my storybook must not judge the old woman ugly, for she might be a beautiful goddess inside.
"This isn't a story, Susebron."
Yes it is, he wrote. All of those stories are just tales told by people who lived lives before ours. What they say about humankind is true. I have watched and seen how people act. He erased, then continued. It is strange, for me, to interpret these things, for I do not see as normal men do. I am the God King. Everything, to my eyes, has the same beauty.
Siri frowned. "I don't understand."
I have thousands of Breaths, he wrote. It is hard to see as other people do - only through the stories of my mother can I understand their ways. All colors are beauty in my eyes. When others look at something - a person - one may sometimes seem more beautiful than another.
This is not so for me. I see only the color. The rich, wondrous colors that make up all things and gives them life. I cannot focus only on the face, as so many do. I see the sparkle of the eyes, the blush of the cheeks, the tones of skin - even each blemish is a distinct pattern. All people are wonderful.
He erased. And so, when I speak of beauty, I must speak of things other than these colors. And you are different. I do not know how to describe it."
The reason that I really like this exchange is because I can see it as a way that Heavenly Father sees us. God is "No respecter of persons." He doesn't favor anyone because of what what job they have or how they look.
More to the point 1 Samuel 16:7 says
"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
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