Mishim

Mishim is described to be small and green - the final moon - rising in the east of Roshar. It is also the third and slowest of the moons.
Mishim is known to easterners (i.e., non-Shin peoples) as the 'third' moon. They also consider Mishim (and all three Rosharan moons) to be male.
The Shin consider Mishim to be female and 'she' is known in Shinovar as 'Third Sister'.
==Character==
According to Wit ...
Mishim is crafty.
==Beliefs==
To be mortal is to be flawed; it is not right to expect perfection of mortals.
==The Story of Mishim==
In Wit's story of Mishim, the moon tells Queen Tsa that she builds such fine towers in her grand city and the moon enjoys viewing them each night as it passes.
The queen tells Mishim that their engineers labor ceaselessly to erect the most splendid of mortal accomplishments.
Mishim tells her that they almost reach to its domain. The moon says that one wonders if she is trying to obtain it.
Addressing the moon as Great Celestial One, she tells it never; that her domain is the land, and the sky belongs to Mishim.
Mishim loathes being hung in the sky each night, far from the delights of the world below, and the pleasures that only mortals know.
Still, Mishim tells the queen that it's a pity that she cannot see the constellations from up close.
Mishim then tells the queen it's a pity that she cannot converse with the starspren, as they tell delightsome stories.
The moon later tells the queen that it's a pity that she cannot see the beauty of her kingdom from above.
Mishim is not yet finished. While the queen is pious, the moon is crafty. (Wit leaves it to the people to decide which of them is the more powerful.)
The moon then tells the queen that while her city is grand, it's so sad that one of the towers has a flawed roof. Further, that it's but a minor blemish that she shouldn't worry about. Mishim appreciates the effort her craftsmen, however incompetent, put into their work.
When the queen pleads with the moon to tell her which one, Mishim replies that it cannot say. That to be mortal is to be flawed; it is not right to expect perfection of mortals.
When Tsa asks Mishim if there is a way that she can visit the heavens, the moon tells her that it's a forbidden thing that she asks because the two of them would have to trade places, and hope that Nomon doesn't notice. Mishim says this with much glee, though hidden, for this request is the very thing the moon desires.
When the queen tells Mishim that she'll feign that she is the moon and that she'll do all that it does, and that they'll switch back once she is done, and that Nomon will never know, Mishim and Queen Tsa trade places.
Mishim comes down amongst mortals and Tsa climbs the heavens to sit in the place of the moon. Mishim spends the remaining hours of the night drinking, and courting, and dancing, and singing, and doing all the things it has watched from afar. The moon lives frantically during its few hours of freedom. Mishim is so captivated that it forgets to return, and is shocked by the dawning of sunlight. It hurriedly climbs to the queen's high tower, but Tsa has already set, and the night has passed. Mishim now knows not only the delights of mortality, but the anxiety as well. The moon passes the day in great disquiet, knowing that Tsa will be trapped with wise sister Nomon and solemn brother Salas, spending the day in the place where moons rest. When night again comes, Mishim hides inside the tower, expecting that Salas will call out and chide it for its appetites. But, Salas passes without comment.
When Tsa then rises in the sky, the moon asks her what happened. That Mishim's siblings did not call to it. The moon asks the queen if she somehow went undiscovered.
Queen Tsa replies that Mishim's siblings immediately knew her as an impostor.
Mishim then suggests that they trade places quickly so that it may tell them lies and placate them.
When Tsa tells the moon that they are already placated, that they think she is delightful, that they spent daylight hours feasting, Mishim muses that its siblings had never feasted with it before.
When Tsa tells the moon that she and its siblings had sung sweet songs together, Mishim acknowledges to itself that its siblings had never sung with it before.
When Mishim tells Queen Tsa that it loves the stories of the starspren and the sights of the gemstone constellations up close, the queen tells the moon that she thinks she might stay.
Mishim now knows another mortal emotion: loss. The moon panics and thinks of its grand view from up so high, where it could see all lands and enjoy - if from afar - the art, buildings, and songs of mortals. The moon remembers the kindness of Nomon and the thoughtfulness of Salas.
The moon then protests, telling Tsa that she's broken her word; that she's spoken to the starspren and gazed upon the constellations.
When Tsa tells Mishim that Nomon said that she could do as she did and was not harmed, Mishim tells her that she broke her word nonetheless. That she must come back to earth, mortal, for their bargain is at an end.
To Mishim's relief, Tsa relented. The queen climbed back down into her tower, and Mishim scrambled up into the heavens. With great pleasure, the moon sank toward the horizon. Though just before it set, Mishim heard a song.
It was a song of laughter, of beauty. A song Mishim had never heard. The moon took long to understand the song. Months later, Mishim passed in the sky at night and saw the queen in her tower holding a child with skin that was faintly blue. They didn't speak, but Mishim knew that it had been tricked by the queen. Tsa had wanted to spend one day in the heavens, to know Nomon for a night. She had given birth to a son with pale blue skin, the color of Nomon himself. A son born of the gods, who would lead her people to glory. A son who bore the mantle of the heavens.
Because of the son she bore, the Natan people have skin of a faintly blue shade. And it's why Mishim, though still crafty, has never again left its place. It's also how the moon came to know the one thing that before, only mortals had known. Loss.
==Speculation==
It has been speculated that Mishim seems to correspond to one of the three Shards on Roshar, Cultivation.
==References==
Category:Culture
Category:Stories