Jaxlim
Venli and Eshonai's mother — keeper of songs for the First-Rhythm family of listeners, one of the very few in any family who knows the Song of Making Paper. A weaver at her loom even though the keeper's position would excuse her from such work; her marbled red-and-black skin pattern is among the most beautiful in the camp, and her singing voice cuts like a thin sharp knife. SA:RoW:Ch 45
Known facts
- keeper-of-songs-for-her-familyJaxlim holds her family's position of keeper of songs — the loftiest, perhaps most important office in the First-Rhythm family — and is one of the very few among the listener families who knows the Song of Making Paper, which she taught Eshonai to use for her maps. Her husband, the girls' father, left the family years before seeking the eastern sea.SA:RoW:Ch 45
- begins-forgetting-the-songsIn the months after the humans' first visit to the listener cities, Jaxlim begins to falter mid-recitation — the second such lapse in a week — a decline she insists is mere tiredness, and one Venli cannot yet bring herself to name aloud.SA:RoW:Ch 52
- volunteered-for-warform-to-save-her-mindWhen Venli tells Jaxlim that each form preserves a different way of thinking — some more resilient to physical and mental decay than workform — Jaxlim declares she will be the first volunteer to take warform in the hope of slowing the loss of memory that is unmaking her keeper-of-songs role.SA:RoW:Ch 62
- absorbs-warform-stone-from-eshonaiOut in the highstorm Jaxlim cannot make the captured painspren gemstone take to her; the light bursts from the stone and is absorbed instead by Eshonai beside her, who hears the pure tone of Honor and is taken into warform in her mother's place. Jaxlim later flees the storm for cover; Eshonai remains, the bonded gravitationspren of her previous workform ejected from her gemheart.SA:RoW:Ch 68
- forgetting-the-first-songEight years before the present, Venli finds Jaxlim picking apart a rug she has woven — *I got it wrong again. Wrong every time…* — and asks her to recite the first song of the listeners' departure from their gods. Her mother carries the chant on the Rhythm of Memories until her voice cracks and she trails off, forgetting the song again.SA:RoW:Ch 73
- dementia-onsetJaxlim is found wandering one of the outer plateaus of Narak, wounded only by a scrape but unable for a time to respond to her own name; the surgeon judges the fear far worse than the wound and gives her something to help her sleep. It is the first clear sign of the failing mind that will not leave her.SA:RoW:Ch 86
Events
- SA:RoW:Ch 45 Works at her loom while Venli recites, sings a melody that washes through her daughter, takes Venli's hands and tells her she has a keen and crafty mind, then walks her out to bring the news to the Five.
- SA:RoW:Ch 52 Stumbles through *Nimbleform has a delicate touch* a second time, sends Venli to find her sister, and lies down shaken not in body but somewhere deeper.
- SA:RoW:Ch 62 Drifts confused along the base of the cracked wall, then rallies enough to face the truth — she is losing her memory and her role — and at home agrees to be the first to try warform in the hope it will help her hold onto the songs.
- SA:RoW:Ch 68 Cradles the captured-painspren gemstone into the highstorm under cover of Eshonai's shield, fails to take warform when the stone's light leaps to her daughter instead, jokes about Eshonai's childbearing prospects, then flees the storm for cover while Eshonai is mid-transformation.
- SA:RoW:Ch 73 Sits in the family's home picking apart a rug she has woven, jumping when Venli enters; weeps that she gets it wrong every time; on Venli's prompt recites the first song of the listeners' departure on the Rhythm of Memories, then trails off as the memory slips.
- SA:RoW:Ch 86 Lies bandaged on her cot after being found wandering the outer plateaus; she sleeps under Mikaim's draught while her daughters sit beside her.
- SA:RoW:Ch 88 Sits in her home in a confused episode, seeing her grown daughters as children and chiding Venli for tracking water inside.
- SA:RoW:Ch 115 Sits by a reed tent, mind gone — does not recognise Venli — until the spinning lightspren enters her gemheart and the Song of Mornings reaches her. Her eyes focus. *Venli? Is that you?*
- SA:WaT:Ch 55 Steps up beside her daughter humming to Anxiety, blames herself for teaching the songs that drew Venli to forms of power, and hints that she has remembered an old song that may help.
- SA:WaT:Ch 56 Tells Leshwi that to be a listener is to belong to no god save Roshar itself, and later praises Venli for understanding that the choice must be Leshwi's own.
- SA:WaT:Ch 58 Listens to Thude's song with Venli, later wraps her in a long, humming embrace that Timbre joins, and tells her the chasmfiends drew the listeners to the Plains for the Oathgate and the abandoned Shardblades.
- SA:WaT:Ch 60 Joins the small crowd watching Venli's liquefied stone map mid-storm, and recognises the chorus of the stones as *a familiar voice welcoming me home*.
Backreferences
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 45
- factVenli
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 52
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 57
- factJaxlim
- factKeeper of Songs
- factKeeper of Forms
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 73
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 83
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 86
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 88
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 96
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 55
- factVenli
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 56
- factThude
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 58
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 60