Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archives is a meta-modern masterpiece. The fundamental question it asks is what happens when you put the power of Gods in the hands of people and then add a bit of fantasy spice and mental health struggles.

It asks questions such as what truth is, how to become a better person, how to protect others, and more. Over the last four years, I have read the series four times, recently finishing the final book, Wind and Truth. This article is my analysis of the major characters and the themes they represent.

Kaladin

The Honor Chasm

Kaladin reached the base of the slope, wind-driven rain pelting his face as if trying to shove him back toward the camp. He kept on, walking up to the nearest chasm. The Honor Chasm, the bridgemen called it, for it was the place where they could make the one decision left to them. The “honorable” decision. Death.

Kaladin walked past the ladders, a little farther along the edge of the chasm. Then he sat down, legs over the side, looking down as the rain fell around him. He watched the drops of water streaking down toward oblivion in the crevasse. Little suicidal jumpers. Thousands upon thousands of them. Who knew what awaited them in that darkness?

“You were right, Father,” Kaladin whispered. “You can’t stop a storm by blowing harder. You can’t save men by killing others. We should all become surgeons. Every last one of us…”

He climbed to his feet on the lip of that chasm, and could feel his father’s disappointment looming over him, like the thunderheads above. He put one foot out over the void. “Kaladin!” He froze at the soft but piercing voice.

Syl unceremoniously alighted upon it, shaped like a skyeel clutching something dark in its mouth.

“I failed them. They’re dead now.”

“They would have died more quickly without you. You made it so they had a family in the army. I remember their gratitude. It’s what drew me in the first place. You helped them.”

“No,” he said, clutching the blackbane in his fingers. “Everything I touch withers and dies.” He teetered on the ledge. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Those men in the bridge crew,” Syl whispered. “You could help them.”

“Too late.” He closed his eyes, thinking of the dead boy earlier in the day. “It’s too late. I’ve failed. They’re dead. They’re all going to die, and there’s no way out.”

"What is one more try, then?" Her voice was soft, yet somehow stronger than the storm. "What could it hurt." He paused. "You can't fail this time, Kaladin. You've said it. They're all going to die anyway."

The men huddled in the barracks with barely a blanket to call their own. Frightened of the storm. Frightened of each other. Frightened of what the next day would bring. One more try. One more try. Kaladin opened his eyes. He was cold and wet, but he felt a tiny, warm candle flame of determination come alight inside him.

Kaladin died in that chasm. At least the slave Kaladin. He was reborn. He didn't know if he could ever live up to the person he was back in Amaram's army--the man they called Kaladin Stormblessed. But he would become something for these bridgeman to look up to.

And holy smokes, he does.

Kaladin Stormblessed

Kaladin Stormblessed. Surgeon, soldier, slave, bridgeman, captain, Knights Radiant, therapist. Throughout his journey in the Stormlight Archive novels, he has led a life of struggles, triumphs, hardships, and most notably, a deep and wallowing darkness that pervades all of it…

Kaladin's character raises fundamental questions like, is it possible to protect others by killing? What are we responsible for? How can we forgive ourselves for our faults?

To explore the answers to these questions we need to take a deep dive into Kaladin's journey predominantly through The Way Of Kings where he gets the spotlight as well as the next four novels.

Childhood In Hearthstone

Kaladin grows up the son of a surgeon alongside his father, Lirin, his brother, Tien, and his mother, Hesina. For most of his childhood he struggles with the dilemma of whether to become a surgeon like his father or a soldier like his heart pulls him towards. His father thoughts are clear: Kaladin is to become a surgeon, end of story.

Kaladin respects surgery, but he doesn't see in it the glory and honor of real battle. Being a soldier would mean joining the war effort between the Alethi kingdoms and the Parshendi forces. Legends have it, if a soldier kills a shardbearer on the battlefield, they can take the shards for themselves and become lighteyes. In battle, you get a Shardblade—a weapon that can cut through anything like butter. In surgery, you get a scalpel—a tiny knife that cuts through, well, mostly just butter.

The town doesn't see surgery with the glamour of battle either. Kaladin watches as the town disrespects his father, Lirin, especially the City Lord of Hearthstone, Roshone, who blames Lirin for forcing him to come to the town after he failed to save the life of the previous city lord, Wistiow.

This dilemma drives a melancholy that underlies Kaladins whole childhood. Thankfully, there is one person there to take him out of it: Tien. Tien was born two years after Kaladin but looks much younger, and still a child at heart. During the beginning chapters, he often brings Kaladin random rocks, goes bug catching, and other such shenanigans.

However, one day a wandering brightlord, Amaram, comes to his town to enlist soldiers for the Alethi war effort against the Parshendi. Roshone, manipulates the situation to ensure Tien is conscripted. With terrified eyes, Tien, makes his way over to Amaram. In that moment, Kalladin knew his hand was forced. He couldn't leave his brother to fight alone on the battlefield; he had to become a soldier.

Time In The Army

In the army Kaladin quickly picks up a reputation for his incredible fighting prowess. He was a natural with the spear, a whirlwind in battle, quick as the wind itself. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to stop what happened next.

During one battle, Tien is placed in the front lines of a skirmish. Kaladin, having taken on a leadership role within his squad, tries desperately to protect his younger brother. As the battle unfolds, Kaladin sees Tien surrounded and isolated, his inexperience and fear leaving him vulnerable. Kaladin fights desperately to reach Tien, but he is unable to get to him in time. Tien, frightened and out of his element, is struck down by an enemy spearmen. Kaladin arrives just moments too late, finding Tien already dead.

Kaladin joined the military to protect his brother Tien. Tien died. Kaladin failed in his promise. To him, it was as simple as that. This moment marks the beginning of Kaladin's struggle with responsibility, fault, and eventually forgiveness.

Scarred by Tien's death, Kaladin began paying other squad leaders to take new young recruits out of their hands into his squad. He sees Tien in their hearts. There, he would defend them ruthlessly in battles against other armies. He became such an incredible squad leader and had so few deaths in his squad, he gained the nickname Stormblessed.

If he was good with the spear before, now he was incredible. He seemed to be quicker than the wind itself. Sometimes, soldiers saw him on the battlefield, wiping out enemies in a whirlwind of death, the air around him seeming to shimmer. Aside from protecting young boys, his other mission is to get his squad to the Shattered Planes where they can be treated as a true army.

One day, during a regular skirmish assault, Kaladin spots Amaram about to get cut down by an enemy shardbearer wearing full glistening gold plate. Kaladin ran like a high storm itself and engaged the shard bearer in battle. Here he was, a young surgeons boy facing off against a soldier who was practically a God carrying a majestic blade. After a tense struggle Kaladin flung his arm to the side, slamming the spearhead right in the Shardbearers visor slit. The shardbearer creeked, then fell backward, toppling to the ground.

Kaladin had done the impossible, he killed a shardbearer with a regular spear. If he took the shardblade now, he could bring his entire squad with him to the shattered planes and finally be a true soldier. He would become a light eyes.

But he couldn’t.

The blade represented everything he’d come to hate about the lighteyes, and it had just slaughtered men he loved dearly. He could not become a legend because of something like that.

Thinking Kaladin might change his mind, Amaram slaughtered his entire squad in front of his eyes, and took the blade for himself. “For the good of the kingdom apparently.” Amaram branded Kaladin a slave as a mercy for saving his life and sent him off.

Once again Kaladin blames himself for his soldiers death, taking full responsibility, and the darkness that comes with it. "Once men had called him lucky. Stormblessed. Those had been lies--if anything Kaladin had bad luck."

At the same time, his hatred of light eyes boils up. In Kaladin’s words: "Each lighteyes Kaladin had known, whether as a slave or a free man, had shown himself to be corrupt to the core, for all his outward poise and beauty. They were like rotting corpses clothed in beautiful silk."

Kaladin attempts to escape from his slave caravan multiple times but is thwarted each time. After more than eight months of travelling, they reach their final destination. In a horrific act of irony, Kaladin steps from the caravan to find himself, in The Shattered Planes.

Bridge 4

In The Shattered Planes Kaladin attempts to join the army, but is instead put in the worst slave assignment possible, the bridge crews.

The bridge crews are a group of expendable, low-ranking slaves and soldiers responsible for carrying and positioning large, mobile bridges across the chasms of the Shattered Plains. These bridges allow the Alethi army to quickly move their troops across the broken landscape during battles and skirmishes against the Parshendi. During battle, they must run ahead of the main army, often under heavy enemy fire, and place the bridges across the chasms so that soldiers can cross.

As part of bridge 4, Kaladin experiences his first bridge, describing it as “hogs running to the slaughter.” Kaladin watched as four separate volleys marauded his bridge, dropping men directly by his side—men he hadn’t even seen face. Forced to keep running, they trampled the dead men, running for some glimmer of hope they might survive this hell.

It’s after the horrors of this first bridge run Kaladin, broken, estranged form his parents, Tien dead, his squad dead, and in the bridge crews, that he decides to venture to the Honor Chasm to end his life. And, well, we know how that goes. He comes back. Holy smokes, he comes back.

Kaladin spends the majority of the rest of the novel building a brotherhood among Bridge 4. He becomes a bridge leader and learns the names of his bridgemen. He makes an effort to heal every wounded bridge member after each bridge run in the chaos of battle. He puts itself at the front of the bridge—the most dangerous section—despite being bridge leader because in his words, “it’s his honor to be at front.” As a leader, he knows he can’t make someone else do what he wouldn’t be willing to do himself.

He begins having regular stew dinners with Bridge 4 to build moral. Bridge 4 and even the rest of the bridge crews begin to see each other as human. Beforehand, most hadn’t even bothered to learn each other's names. Why would you when you know you and everyone else will likely be dead within the week? Now, they laugh and joke around a night time fire.

But the good times can’t last forever. They are still bridge men and after Kaladin risks the success of a battle by trying a new bridge carrying technique—the side carry—he is strung up during a high storm as punishment. It’s basically a death sentence. His crew tell them they will continue to hold his ideals after he leaves. When they come outside after the storm, they find him strung up, limp, when suddenly, he takes in a sharp gust of air.

He survived.

This scene marks the beginning of when we and the rest of his crew begin to learn he has extraordinary powers—like the Radiants of old. Kaladin can consume the light from spheres to increase his strength, speed, and a variety of other things. That’s why he was able to move so quickly back in Amarams army and able to survive for so long among the bridge crews.

With the knowledge of these powers, Kaladin and his bridge crew begin hatching a plan to escape the Shattered Planes and forge their own life. For months, they train with the spear and think about their escape. During a climactic bridge run, Kaladin and his crew find themselves behind the rest of the army, with the perfect chance to escape. This is it; Kaladin can finally succeed in protecting the people he loves.

And yet, he doesn’t do it…

The Tower

Seeing Dalinars troops helpless and abandoned Kalladin realizes if he leaves, he’s essentially condemning them to die. They have no hope. Just like his brother Tien had no hope when out into the army. Yes, Dalinar is a light eye. But all the troops who serve under him will die as well.

His father’s voice rose to his head. Somebody has to start, son. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right. If nobody starts, then others cannot follow. Dalinar had come to help Kaladin’s men, attacking those archers and saving Bridge Four. The lighteyes don’t care about life, Lirin had said. So I must. So we must. So you must. … Life before death. I’ve failed so often. I’ve been knocked to the ground and trod upon. Strength before weakness. This would be death I’d lead my friends to … Journey before destination. … death, and what is right.

Kaladin says the second ideal of the Knights Radiant: I will protect those that can not protect themselves.

For the last time, Kaladin and his crew run against parshendi arrows, and save Dalinar. But this time, they’re running for a cause they believe in. They save Dalinar from certain death, and as a reward, Dalinar buys all the Bridgeman from Sadeas in exchange for his sharp blade. For reference, that’s like giving away a fighter jet, for a McDonalds Big Mac. But Dalinar considers it a good trade.

In Dalinar's words, a life is priceless.

Kaladin is made the first dark-eyed captain and put in charge of Dalinar’s Honor Guard, starting the glimmers of Kaladin, realizing light eyes aren’t as bad as they seem.

Words Of Radiance

Kaladin is put in charge of Dalinar’s honor guard and is responsible for training the new troops of Dalinar’s army. During his time as honor guard, Moash confronts him, offering to join a plot to kill the King, Elhokar. He reluctantly joins, losing his powers due to breaking his bond to protect.

While on the shattered planes, an assassin tries to kill Dalinar, but Kaladin saves him. But as a result, he falls into the chasms alongside Shallan.

It’s in this unlikely duo, Kaladin learns not all light eyes have had posh easy lives. While in the chasms with Shallan, he finds someone that has every reason to be more broken than him. She killed her mother, father, and had a terrible childhood of abuse and reclusion. And yet, she continues to smile anyways.

Kaladin spends the last part of book two healing in the war camps from the chasms while Dalinar and three other high princes go off into the shattered planes to try and finish off the Parshendi. It’s perfect for the assassination plot against the king. He’s alone, with no one to help him.

But Kaladin still feels something is wrong with it. He agonizes for hours until finally he goes to Zaharris and asks how he chooses between two equally bad decisions. Zahale says he would choose the thing that helps him sleep at night.

Kaladin has a realization that. The King. The king was Dalinar’s Tien. And even though he’s a bad king, he’s trying his best. Can’t Kalladin resonate with trying and failing?

If you only project those you like, then are you really protecting for the good of humanity?

In a last act of desperation, he goes against his former friend Moash—resplendent in shard plate and shard blade—but right when it seems like he’s going to be slaughtered, he swears the third ideal of the Windrunners: "I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right."

He regains his powers and bursts into light, defeating Moash and traveling to the Shattered Planes, where he saves Dalinar from the Assassin in White's assassination.

Oathbringer

Kaladin begins book three exploring his hometown of Hearthstone to discover more about the Voidbringer army. He reconnects with his parents, who are proud yet uneasy about his transformation into a Radiant. He faces the war’s impact on ordinary people and is reminded of the vulnerability and innocence he left behind. He struggles with the reality that he cannot stay to protect them, as he must ultimately return to Dalinar’s side to prepare for the impending desolation.

He quickly realizes that the creatures of midnight black with a sole lust for killing aren't what people thought they were. The Parshmen Kaladin comes across are normal people with their own children, playing games to pass the time, and trying to survive.

In his words: “Storms, I shouldn’t be here. I’m starting to want to defend these people! Teach them to fight. I don’t dare—the only way I can fight the Voidbringers is to pretend there’s a difference between the ones I have to protect and the ones I have to kill.”

These Parshmen are no longer the docile slaves he once knew; they are awake, aware, and possess their own fears, hopes, and aspirations.

This empathy comes to a climax in the battle over Kolinar. Kaladin saw them. All of them. Sah and the parshmen, fighting to keep their freedom. The guardsmen who had been rescued, fighting for their king. Azure’s Wall Guard, terrified as their city fell around them. The Queen’s Guard, convinced they were loyally following orders. In that moment, Kaladin lost something precious. He’d always been able to trick himself into seeing a battle as us against them. Protect those you love. Kill everyone else.

But … but they didn’t deserve death. None of them did.

He locked up. He froze, something that hadn’t happened to him since his first days in Amaram’s army. The Sylspear vanished in his fingers, puffing to mist. How could he fight? How could he kill people who were just doing the best they could? “Stop!” he finally bellowed. “Stop it! Stop killing each other!” Nearby, Sah rammed Beard through with a spear. “STOP! PLEASE!”

Kaladin brings these haunting doubts with him as he escapes with Adolin and Shallan into Shadesmar. He is haunted by memories of his past failures and by his fear that he will never be able to protect everyone who depends on him. This internal struggle is intensified by the psychological toll of Shadesmar itself, where he faces bizarre, often terrifying landscapes that defy human logic and reinforce his sense of isolation.

Emerging from Shadesmar and returning to Urithiru, Kaladin is a changed man. He has faced some of his darkest fears and has come to realize that true strength as a Windrunner means not only being willing to fight but also being willing to understand those he once considered his enemies. As he joins the climactic battle for Urithiru, he fully embraces his role as a protector, recognizing that his responsibility extends beyond his own friends or even his own people. He stands in defense of all those who suffer, regardless of their race or their past. His willingness to see the humanity in both allies and enemies is a crucial step toward embodying the ideals of the Windrunners.

Rhythm Of War

Kaladin's journey in Rhythm of War begins with him leading the Windrunner squires in defending Urithiru and training new recruits, though his increasing episodes of depression, post-traumatic stress, and questioning whether he should even be fighting in the first place continue to grow. At the beginning of the book, Kaladin freezes during combat, again nearly resulting in disaster. This incident, combined with his freezing at Kolinar upon seeing Moash, leads Dalinar and the others to recognize that Kaladin needs to step back from front-line duties.

The transition proves soul-crushing at first. Imagine, the major way you have shown your worth to others for most of your life, taken away as your friends continue to fly out protecting others. So Kaladin turns to the one thing he knows he can do aside from fighting, surgery. Working alongside his father Lirin in the tower's hospital Kaladin realizes he can protect people in other ways aside from fighting. He can protect people from themselves.

During one scene, Kaladin discovers Noril and many other people sent to the Ardents for "help" with their mental health struggles. To his dismay, they have all been put inside dark stone rooms, barded interaction with each other in fear it will "worsen their symptoms." He discovers he can relate to these people, because they have the same darkness he does. In turn, he makes it his mission to improve the therapeutic practice in the Tower.

This mission halts when the Fuse taker over Urithiru. Unable to access his powers due to the tower's suppression, he must rely on stealth and basic survival skills. He serves as Navani's secret confidant in the tower where he helps protect it from further corruption by protecting the nodes all while being hunted by Pursuer.

Throughout this period, Kaladin continually gets visions from Moash who Odium has sent to break him. Moash's hope is he can bring Kaladin so much pain he will give up and relinquish it all to Odium, like he did, and ultimately proving himself right for killing Elhokar. “The void awaits, Kal,” Moash said. “The emptiness. It lets you do anything—even kill a king—without regret. One step. You’ll never have to feel pain again.”

Imagine, you've been stepped down from duty because you have worse mental health than most of the people you are trying to protect. Then, you are put in the sole role of protecting the tower from an army of fused, WHILE having reduced Radiant powers, and getting sent visions from Moash, and then you find out Moash has killed Teft. The combination of these things leads to a psychological apex when Kaladin must protect his father in the medical ward from the Pursuer, and he is brought into a storm-filled vision where he must confront the ghosts of his past. In it, he sees Tien again, and he apologizes repeatedly for not saving. He couldn't protect him.

This is what Tien had to say. “See, that’s the wrong way of looking at it.” Tien held him tighter. “Since we all go to the same place in the end, the moments we spent with each other are the only things that do matter. The times we helped each other.” “If he kills us,” Tien said, “he’s simply dropped us off at a place we were going anyway. We shouldn’t hasten it, and it is sad. But see, he can’t take our moments, our Connection, Kaladin. And those are things that really matter.”

Kaladin swears the fourth ideal of the Windrunners, something he has been knowing he needs to swear for a long long time: “I accept it, Stormfather! I accept that there will be those I cannot protect!”

Kaladin gains Radiant Shardplate armor, defeats the pursuer, saves his father, and regains control of the tower. After talking to his father, Lirin and he reconcile their differences in how they protect people. Lirin accepts that Kaladin in his own way inspires others to be better even if he does so in a way Lirin doesn't agree with himself. When he goes to touch Kaladin's forhead, his slave brands begin to fade away. He’s not a slave to the need to protect at all costs anymore. He’s realized he can't save them all. But that's okay because the moments he gives them, even if they do die, are what matters.

Wind And Truth

Kaladin begins Wind and Truth at Uruthiru, getting told by Dalinar he must help Szeth’s mental health as he goes to talk to Ishar and cleanse Szeth’s homeland, Shinovar. A mysterious power called The Wind pushes him to journey into Shinovar as well for something extremely important. He says goodbye to his family, Bridge 4, and his other friends, then begins his journey.

Before leaving he meets with Wit who gives him his flute and teaches him the basics of playing. Kaladin thinks it stupid but promises he’ll play the flute anyways.

Kaladin tries many things to help Szeth including giving advice, opening up himself, making stew, and more, but little of it works at first.

He and Szeth are similar but different. They are both great fighters. Both want to do what’s right. Both have a darkness inside created by their way of taking high responsibility and attributing the fault to themselves.

But Kaladin constantly questions what’s right, whereas Szeth offloads what’s right to the authorities.

Slowly, Kaladin gets through to Szeth, shown in this exchange: “You’ll have to decide,” Kaladin said, getting another spoonful of stew. “You’re supposed to give me the answers!” “You wanted my therapy,” Kaladin said. “This is how it goes. I don’t give answers. I just…” … give questions to think upon? Damnation. Wit, you crafty bastard. “You just what?” 12124 asked. “I just listen,” Kaladin said.

Alongside this Kaladin can enjoy himself more. For one, he’s able to move beyond his brands. Those were healed now from swearing the fourth ideal, and he added his own Bridge 4 tattoo to his forehead, showing his growth.

In addition, he can enjoy himself in the present in ways he never was before. He has one scene with Syl that is beautiful: “He danced through it, and Syl danced with him, both riding the eddies of the Wind. And if he’d ever known a perfect moment in his life—crystallized joy, like light made into something you could hold—this was it. Worries abandoned. No, worries battered away. Worries refused. In that—at the edge of the world and the advent of the end of all things—Kaladin Stormblessed allowed himself to be happy. For what felt like the first time since Tien’s death.”

Kaladin ends the fifth book by replacing Jezrien as king of The Heralds instead of Szeth. This seals Retribution, the new combined powers of Honor and Odium inside Taravangian, on Roshar by tying him to the Oathpact.

Themes Of Kaladins Character

How Do You Protect Others?

Kaladin is constantly burdened with anxiety about one question: how can he protect others?

Protect as a surgeon, a soldier, a slave, a bridgeman, a Radiant, or a therapist?

His father, Lirin, certainly has an opinion. In his words: "There are two kinds of people in this world, son. Those who save lives, and those who take lives. I'm proud to count myself among the first." "And what of those who protect and defend? The ones who save lives by taking lives?" His father snorted. "That's like trying to stop a storm by blowing harder. Ridiculous. You can't protect by killing."

Lirin believes you can’t put a price on a person's life. It’s why killing to save doesn’t work. And it’s why he doesn’t ask for money when giving his surgeon services.

But something inside Kaladin knows this is too black-and-white of an outlook on killing. Killing to protect can’t _always_be wrong. Would you stand and watch as a group of thugs attacked your family? Kaladin can’t. It’s why he joins the army to protect Tien when he’s drafted.

Kaladin sees fighting as giving him more control over those he protects. Yes, surgery can prevent death through ailing disease and healing wounds. But what if a bunch of enemies storm into your surgery room? Nothing you can do then, unless you know how to fight.

Kaladin becomes a legendary soldier inside the army, fantastic at protecting his squad through killing. It’s here he begins to embody the second ideal of the Windrunners: "I will protect those that cannot protect themselves." But slowly Kaladin is slammed with the fact that it’s not always possible to protect everyone. Tien dies, Amaram murders his squad, fellow slaves die as he tries to escape from his imprisonment, and bridge men die as he is on the shattered planes. Despite these deaths, he continues trying, believing if he isn't able to protect those he loves, he's worthless.

Moash tries to convince him that he can protect others through killing Elhokar. The idea is killing those that are incompetent will help protect those you love from them. But through interacting with Elhokar and the Parshendi or supposed “Voidbringers,” and experiencing multiple friends fighting each other in the battle of Kolinar, Kaladin makes a very important realization: most people who kill to protect believe they are doing the right thing.

He’d always been able to trick himself into seeing a battle as us against them. Protect those you love. Kill everyone else. But … but they didn’t deserve death. None of them did.

This realization embodies itself in his third ideal for the Windrunners: "I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right."

This insight applies eerily well to society. Humans often create characteristics differentiating them from fellow humans, give them a name, and then dehumanize those outside that group. We do this in religion, in political orientation, and so on.

It’s this tendency to form groups and the resulting myside bias that comes from it which has led to some of the most heinous acts in history like World War 2, the Rawandan Genocide, and so much more.

What we often don’t appreciate enough is that most people have good reasons or at least think they have good reasons for why they do the things they do. People are, to a large degree, a product of their circumstances. Yet so often, we disrespect or fight others because we believe they are a product of their own doing.

We would feel very differently if we had been born in their situation.

This realization helps Kaladin overcome his hatred of light-eyes. He understands they are people, too, with their own problems, strengths, and weaknesses. Not all are bad: Dalinar, Adolin, and Shallan are genuinely good people.

What happens when we don’t realize this and fight out of vengeance? The Singers are liberated from their oppression with the help of the Voidbringers. This is it! This is what they have wanted for thousands of years. To be free. To be able to form a peaceful society away from the humans.

And what do they do with it? They become slaves to the Fused, with many forming bridge crews to fight against the humans in the exact same way they were oppressed before.

Kaladin doesn’t fall for the same trap: he understands there might be differences between us but ultimately we are all joined under the shared group heading of being human. When we kill others to protect our group, we are often killing other good people.

This realization drives his depression throughout the later books as he realizes the predominant way he has protected people has been by killing good people. This realization evolves into Kaladin understanding that protecting others doesn’t just mean protecting them physically but from their very selves. He begins fleshing out the beginnings of therapy.

At first, he’s solely able to empathize because of the darkness he’s felt most of his life. But as time goes on he becomes better and better especially while trying to help Szeth. He realizes giving people advice rarely helps but asking people questions, listening, and telling stories works a lot better. Wit is finally getting a shout out!

The problem with advice is that it’s prescriptive, often irrelevant to an individual's life, and can come across as self-righteous and judgmental. Asking questions, however, allows the person to gain insight into themselves.

Similarly, storytelling has an incredible power for transformation. Stories don’t come across as preachy in the way advice does. They have a great emotional hold over us. They build empathy and insight by putting us into the being mode. If you want to read more about how stories affect us, check out my article.

I don’t know if we will see Kaladin doing more therapy in the second half of the series, but I think we will. Regardless, we know he’ll be finding a way to protect those he loves.

Responsibility, And Depression

The hallmark of depression is a feeling of a lack of control and apathy. A darkness that resides over you, saying no matter what you do, nothing will change.

Kaladin is depressed because of his essential fault: he sets far too high expectations for his ability to protect, then blames all of his failures on himself. It doesn't matter if he couldn't have done anything about it, he could always do better.

Even when he saves all of Bridge Four and Dalinar promotes him to bodyguard and captain, he still feels depressed, perhaps more so. As a bridgemen, the bubble of people he was concerned with was bridge four. Once he becomes bridge captain, this bubble expands even more, exasperating his lack of control.

Depression doesn’t always go away from changing circumstances. It can help with it. But mental health isn’t as easy as a change in environment. Kaladin is still Kaladin. The rest of the bridge crew are able to get their slave brands removed in book two, but Kaladin remains stuck. He is unable to stop letting his past failures define him.

In the second book, there’s a beautiful scene where he uses Stormlight to break himself, but it only targets his wounds. Only when he sees his crew later that day does it lift his spirits.

Ironically, Kaladin's Windrunner powers only make his depression worse. His most significant value is to protect those he loves. He loves the sky, free from standard physical rules, literally and metaphorically, the expectations he puts on himself. But this also is his curse. He’s faster as a Windrunner, making the people he could technically protect greater and his unreasonable expectations even worse.

The depression darkens more once Kaladin realizes the goodness in the Parshmen and light eyes like Dalinar, Elhokar, and Adolim. He keeps freezing from questioning if he should be killing others. What truly disturbs Kaladin is when he sees how killing to protect can lead to more killing, which actually makes it harder to protect! He’s caught in this horrible clash between being great at killing to protect, only living when it’s happening even, and realizing it’s making his job harder. The ultimate lack of control.

This darkness is why Kaladin feels more intimate with Moash and Shallan than with other characters. They both have their own demons, childhood trauma, dead grandparents, and more.

Moash handles this darkness in a different way than Kaladin. It's what makes him Kaladin's perfect villain. Moash is what Kaladin could become if he stopped letting himself feel. Moash kills, but he doesn’t let his emotions in. He gives his pain to Odium, taking zero responsibility for his actions. He is "unchained."

Kaladin kills, but he puts all responsibility on himself. Kaladin knows the value of being empathetic from his surgery. It’s what makes it hard for him to relate to Lerin, who doesn’t have that much empathy. Moash kills those he hates even if they are good people. Kaladin realizes almost everyone has good reasons for what they are doing. Moash kills those he hates and hides it under the veil of protecting.

Thankfully, Kaladin learns to forgive himself... In a poignant scene with Tien at the end of book four Tien tells him. “See, that’s the wrong way of looking at it.” Tien held him tighter. “Since we all go to the same place in the end, the moments we spent with each other are the only things that do matter. The times we helped each other.” “If he kills us,” Tien said, “he’s simply dropped us off at a place we were going anyway. We shouldn’t hasten it, and it is sad. But see, he can’t take our moments, our Connection, Kaladin. And those are things that really matter.”

Kaladin realizes he might have failed to protect everyone he loved. But he succeeded massively in one respect: he gave them the gift of more moments of connection. Isn’t that enough?

He swears the fourth ideal of the Windrunners "I accept that there are those I cannot protect."

To forgive someone else is a trifle. But to forgive oneself is monumental. This realization lifts the terrible depression Kaladin has felt throughout most of the series. He continues to protect, but he doesn’t put all the fault for his failures on himself. He lowers his expectations, and this gives him a much higher degree of control.

Kaladin completes this journey in book five of The Stormlight Archives when he swears the fifth ideal: I will protect myself, so that I can continue to protect others.

Kaladin has always put others above himself. Tien, the slaves during his slave escapes, Bridge 4, Dalinar, and more.

This is why Kaladin will always be a bridgeleader. What characteristics does a bridge have? Crosses gaps, makes journeys possible. This is what Kaladin does. He helps others see the path, the way forward. He gives the bridgeman and many others a new life. But, he never lets himself cross the bridge. He eternally carries it, even after exiting the bridgecrew.

Only in books four and five does he finally let himself cross it himself. Now, he’s learned that to put others first, he must put himself first.

This is his choice. For most of his life, he has acted as if he’s been forced into his responsibilities with no other option. Now, he realizes it’s everyone’s right to choose what they pursue. So even though he continues to protect others, he chooses to do so.

This realization allows him to move beyond the slave brands he’s been stuck with for a large part of his life. In book five, he finally gets the Bridge 4 tattoo on his forehead. He’s changed, and his body reflects those changes.

It’s also why Kaladin replaces Jezrien as King of The Heralds instead of Szeth. Kaladin chooses to become a herald. Szeth has spent his life letting other people or things choose for him. He can’t become herald on someone else’s choice again. He has to learn to decide for himself. Kaladin gives him this freedom.

Shallan

Death Of Shallan's Father

Shallan watched in horror as her father pulled his sword from his sheath and began to beat his son Balat with it ruthlessly. Each blow seemed to shake the living room. Or was it the thunder?

Her father had discovered Balat's plan to escape the house with his wife Elyta and with it the wrath he had unleashed on his children for their entire childhoods. He wasn't happy.

Thinking quickly and almost not at all to save her brother Shallan filled a glass of wine with some Blacksbane--a potent poison and gave it to her father in between blows. He drank it all and than grabbed a poker from the fireplace, going back to Balat for round two.

"Why," Smack. "Can't." Smack. "You." Smack. "Do." Smack."Anything." Smack. "Right?"

He raised the poker again to strike, but then the weapon slipped from his fingers to the ground as he slumped over.

Shallan took a deep breadth. It was over. Then fathers fingers spasmed. He was still alive. She had to finish the job.

She took the necklace from her neck and twisted it around his.

"Now go to sleep, in chasms deep, with darkness all around you ...

Though rock and dread may be your bed, so sleep my baby dear.

Now comes the storm, but you’ll be warm,

She felt his eyes on her, her skin squirmed as she held the necklace tight.

The wind will rock your basket ...

The crystals fine will glow sublime ...

Father stopped moving.

And with a song ... you’ll sleep ... my baby dear."

Shallan Davar

Shallan Davar, the reclusive, shy child turned independent, strong-willed ward of Jasnah Kholin, Knights Radiant and member of The Ghostbloods.

Her character raises fundamental questions like: what is truth and what is our true self? To explore the answers to these questions, we need to take a deep dive into Shallan's journey through the Stormlight archives, starting with her childhood.

Shallans Childhood

Shallan’s childhood is shaped by a constant atmosphere of fear and turmoil as she grows up in the shadow of her abusive and violent father, Lin Davar. Her father, once a respected nobleman, gradually becomes unhinged, especially after the mysterious and traumatic death of Shallan’s mother.

Lin rules the household with an iron fist, his unpredictable temper frequently erupting into violent outbursts, mostly directed at Shallan’s older brothers. Though young, Shallan assumes the role of protector, using her wits and careful manipulation to shield her brothers from the worst of their father’s wrath. Despite her fear, she often placates Lin, finding ways to defuse his anger and spare her siblings from further harm.

A big turning point in Shallan’s childhood comes with the death of her mother. Later, it is revealed that her mother had tried to kill Shallan after discovering the strange abilities she was beginning to develop as a future Knights Radiant, and in an act of self-defense, Shallan ended up killing her mother. This act is what starts her fathers decent into abuse and madness that ruins their family.

The horrifying memory is buried deep within Shallan's mind. Shallan deals with this trauma in the same way she deals with most of the emotions that hurt her, repressing and using them as strength to get things done.

Imagine barely being a teenager and having the responsibility of caring for not only your terrible mental health but the mental health of your brothers as well. It's a wonder Shallan can even smile. On the outside, she shows strength. But underneath, she is deeply scarred by the oppressive environment she must navigate.

Her father's abuses get worse, regularly beating her brothers, housemates, and scolding her. One day, when he discovers Ballat trying to escape, his beatings go too far, and he kills Shallan's step-wife and heavily injures Ballat. This is the beginning scene we saw where Shallan kills her father.

However, after the death of her father, her family's fortunes have plummeted, leaving them in financial ruin.

Shallan as a Scholar

Shallan decides on a insane plan: become the ward of Jasnah Kholin, one of the most powerful women in all of Roshar, and steal her soulcaster to use for profits that could save her family from financial ruin.

Shallan travels to Kharbranth, a coastal city known for its massive library, the Palanaeum. There, she seeks out Jasnah, hoping to become her student. After initial rejection, Jasnah eventually takes her as a ward due to Shallan's persistence, wit, and scholarly aptitude. Shallan revels in her newfound freedom. She's finally outside of her estate and loving it.

But this love is shadowed by an anxiety over the knowledge that it can't last: she must steal the soulcaster, ruining her chances at a wardship with Jasnah. Being characteristic Shallan, she represses these emotions through her favorite activity, drawing, and talking with a new love interest of the Ardentia--Kabsal.

Jasnah begins to teach Shallan philosophy, history, and the more profound mysteries of their world, including the Shattered Plains and the Voidbringers. As her training progresses, Shallan becomes more conflicted about her plan to steal Jasnah’s Soulcaster. Despite this moral dilemma, her family's need becomes increasingly desperate, and after Jasnah teaches her a questionable ethics lesson by killing four robbers, she goes through with the theft.

Shallan continues wardship while learning more about mysterious powers she seems to be building like the Knights Radiant of old. She sees figures in her drawings she never meant to draw. She accidentally soul casts blood and has to hide it from Jasnah by pretending she is trying to kill herself. Yikes.

Kabsal turns out to be a massive bloody bugger only getting near Shallan to try and poison Jasnah. He messes up the assassination attempt, getting Shallan poisoned and having Shallan's robbery revealed to Jasnah. Oh, he also dies from his own poison. Silly bugger. Instead of punishing her, Jasnah acknowledges Shallan’s desperation and offers her a chance to continue learning under her, now fully aware of her abilities.

Jasnah reveals the great secret she has come to. Humans never beat the voidbringers--they are still alive and here in the form of parshmen. Parshmen, the slaves that exist in practically every society in Roshar thought as innocent and harmless. To discover more and warn the rest of Roshar, they must travel to the Shattered Planes at the center of the conflict between the Alethi and Parshendi.

Words Of Radiance

On the way, their ship is raided, and Jasnah Kholin apparently dies. Shallan is forced to take control of her own fate. Alone and vulnerable, she travels to the Shattered Plains and comes across a traveling con artist named Tyn. Tyn teaches her much of what she knows about conning, but Shallan is eventually forced to kill her when she discovers her work in assassinating Jasnah.

Arriving at the Shattered Planes, she integrates herself into Highprince Dalinar’s court by proving her value as a scholar and a Surgebinder. Shallan must navigate the intricacies of court politics and military strategy, all while keeping her own powers hidden. But she’s more confident than when she started Jasnahs wardship.

It's there she meets Adolin, the son of Dalinar Kholin and her betrothed. They have an instant liking for each other. Adolin likes Shallan because she isn't like the other girls he's dated--she's raw, unfiltered, and funny--not feminine just to impress him. Shallan likes Adolin because she feels she can be herself around him, loved for who she is instead of the normally repressed version of herself she must be.

As her bond with Pattern strengthens, Shallan discovers and refines her ability to Lightweave, creating illusions. Believing she isn't strong, confident, or sly enough to be a spy, she adopts the persona of "Veil," allowing her to infiltrate dangerous groups like the Ghostbloods. Through Veil, Shallan operates in the underworld of the war camps, gathering critical intelligence while maintaining her dual identity. This duality begins to reflect Shallan's internal struggle—she is both the scholar determined to protect her family and the undercover agent embroiled in espionage.

Repressed Memories

Shallan's entire journey in Words of Radiance as well as The Way Of Kings is marked by the resurfacing of repressed memories. It starts off small. Glimpsing off into space for minutes on end without knowing why. Being reminded of her childhood and starting a rampant drawing session.

As her Lightweaving powers develop, Shallan is forced to confront the traumatic events of her childhood. She recalls that she killed her mother in self-defense when her mother, discovering Shallan’s powers, attempted to murder her. Later, Shallan also remembers the day she killed her father to protect her brothers from his escalating violence. These memories, long buried, haunt her as she struggles with the guilt and emotional fallout from her actions. Suppressing and covering up these memories with her various identities become cornerstones of her ways of coping with them.

Shallan’s intellectual prowess becomes key in uncovering Urithiru, the lost city of the Knights Radiant. This comes in clutch because it allows her to teleport Dalinar and the rest of the Alethi Army away when the Parshendi summon the Everstorm during their climactic final conflict.

Oathbringer

In Oathbringer, Shallan continues her journey of self-discovery, trauma, and the struggle for identity as she tries to balance her multiple personas in the face of mounting personal and external conflicts.

Early on, Shallan is drawn to Urithiru, the lost city of the Radiants, where she immerses herself in exploring and understanding its mysteries. She takes on the role of scholar and spy for Dalinar, helping him understand Urithiru and uncovering ancient secrets that may prove crucial in the coming desolation.

However, as Shallan immerses herself in these responsibilities, she also begins to feel the strain of her fractured mind, relying more on her identity of “Veil” and creating a new identity—Radiant—to help her navigate her responsibilities as a knights radiant. These identities initially help her navigate complex social situations and handle dangerous missions, but they also become a means of escape from her trauma and insecurities.

As Shallan shifts between these identities, she loses her sense of self. The personas start to feel more real than her identity, which she views as weak and broken. A pivotal moment for Shallan comes when she is sent to infiltrate Kholinar, Alethkar’s capital, which has fallen to the enemy forces.

While in Kholinar, she slips into the identity of Veil to gather intelligence among the city’s underground networks and interact with some of the lowest echelons of Alethi society. Veil’s confidence and adaptability help her navigate the dangerous environment, but when Veil accidentally causes the death of an innocent homeless boy while thinking she is doing good, it proves too much to bear. Shallan thought she could hide behind her actions by using Veil as a stronger persona, but ultimately, all our actions will come back to us, even if we believe we can escape them for a bit.

By the time she and her companions are forced to escape through Shadesmar—the Cognitive Realm—Shallan is struggling to keep herself together mentally and emotionally. The surreal experience of traveling through Shadesmar heightens her internal conflict, as she is forced to reckon with the nature of her bond with Pattern and the responsibilities of being a Lightweaver.

Here, she begins to understand that her powers are tied to her ability to create illusions for others and her willingness to face the truths about herself. Her bond with Pattern, which gives her power, demands that she confront and accept her past, including the murder of her parents and the trauma she has tried to bury. The journey through Shadesmar ultimately pushes Shallan to face a choice: continue hiding behind her personas or accept the painful truth of who she really is and use her powers to help the war effort.

As Shallan returns and joins In the climactic battle for Thaylen City, she is forced to use all her identities—Veil’s cunning, Radiant’s bravery, and her own intelligence—as well as many other people she knows and forms into a light weaver army with the power of Dalinar’s Perpendicularity to protect those she loves and stand against overwhelming odds. This integration of her personas, while not perfect, represents a step toward healing, as she starts to accept that each part of her has value and that she cannot simply ignore her pain by hiding behind masks. By the end of Oathbringer, Shallan’s journey has brought her closer to self-acceptance, though she remains conflicted and fractured.

Rhythm Of War

Shallan's journey in Rhythm of War centers around her mission to infiltrate the Sons of Honor in Urithiru, helping Adolin convince the Honor Spren to rejoin the Radiant war effort, and her struggle with her fractured identities. The story begins with her working as a spy alongside Adolin and the Ghostbloods, to uncover Ililai Sadiase's plans as the new Leader Of The Sons of Honor. In this interaction Shallan learns there is a spy in her retinue. While leading Ililai out, she suddenly collapses from being poisoned, but Shallan has no idea who poisoned her.

The investigation into the Sons of Honor and her journey into Shadesmar afterward lead Shallan to uncover disturbing connections between the Ghostbloods and her past. Through flashbacks, we learn the full extent of her childhood trauma: her mother was part of the Ghostbloods and attempted to kill her because she was a nascent Lightweaver. The young Shallan killed her mother in self-defense using her Shardblade.

A central turning point occurs when Shallan confronts Mraize about these revelations. She discovers that the Ghostbloods want access to the transportation system between worlds and are particularly interested in Ba-Ado-Mishram's imprisonment. The psychological pressure of these discoveries, combined with her spy work, causes a fourth form, Formless, to emerge more frequently, threatening to become her dominant personality.

Formless becomes even more pronounced when Shallan through a witty plan, discovers Pattern, her own Spren, is the spy! He's been secretly talking to Wit in Shadesmar without telling her. Feeling betrayed by the one thing who knows the truths of her past, she almost gives in entirely to Formless. Formless almost goes through with killing the judge of the Honorspren trial, Restares, so she can artificially rule the trial in Adolin's favor and get the Honorspren to join back in the Radiant conflict.

Veil tries to protect her from Formless taking over by explaining what she's doing. “I know why you’re doing this, Shallan,” Veil said. “There’s no fourth persona. Not yet. You’ve given yourself another name so you can tuck away the pain. You take that step though, and it will be real.”

Shallan believes she needs Formless to be strong enough to do what she must. To hide her pain behind a web of lies.

“Adolin is right,” Veil said. “He’s always been right about you. Tell me. Who is the strongest of mind? The woman whose emotions are always on her side? Or the woman whose own thoughts betray her? You have fought this fight every day of your life, Shallan. And you are not weak.” “Aren’t I?” Shallan demanded, spinning. “I killed my own father! I strangled him with my own hands!” The words cut deep, like a spike through the heart. Veil winced visibly. But that cut to the heart somehow let warmth bleed out, flowing through her. “You have borne that truth for a year and a half, Shallan,” Veil said, stepping forward. “You kept going. You were strong enough. You made the oath.”

This speech leads Shallan to realize a deep truth about her past. Something which she has been hiding for years upon years. Pattern wasn't Shallan's original spren, Veil was. And when she killed her mother, she broke her oath, killing Veil in the process.

But Veil continued to protect Shallan even in death, becoming another persona for her with its own memories and skills. The part of her mind that protects her from her past. She's her veil.

But now, it's time to let the veil loose. Veil tells Shallan, “But I have no strength that you do not.” “You are me. We are me.” Veil became Stormlight, glowing brightly. The color faded from her, becoming pure white. Her memories integrated into Shallan’s. Her skills became Shallan’s. And Shallan recognized everything she had done.

But this time, she didn't try to escape. Escape wasn't strength. Strength was taking responsibility for what you had done, even if you disagreed with it, even if it was terrible, and then standing up anyway. This leads to her decisive break from the Ghostbloods, choosing to stand against them rather than continue as their agent. She no longer needs the Ghostbloods. She was attracted to them because of their deceptive and mysterious nature and the way they pushed her to be someone else. She didn't need to be someone else any longer. She was Shallan.

Wind And Truth

Shallan starts Wind And Truth in Shadesmar connecting with her old Spren Testament who protected her from her childhood memories.

After integrating Veil into her, she feels more whole. Radiant still exists, but she believes she can better navigate the clash between her and Shallan by not keeping them separate.

Now that she is no longer a part of The Ghostbloods, she wants to forge her own path forward by working against the organization that used her for so long. She learns that the Ghostbloods want to find Mishrams' prison, so she makes plans to find it first.

Along the way, She achieves her fourth ideal when she swears to Abidi, The Monarch, during an ambush in Shadesmar that she’s afraid. “Afraid of everything. Terrified. Of the world. Of what might happen to [her] family. Most of all, of [herself]. [she] always has been.”

But now she has a new struggle: navigating the fact she’s killed almost every one of her mentors.

Her mother, her father, Testament, and Tin all died at her hand. Now she’s scared she will do the same to Mraize. Is this inevitable? Does it highlight something deeper about her that is broken and unlovable?

Alongside Renarin and Rlain, she gets caught in the spiritual realm when Dalinar and Navani venture in with Wit for a test run. There, she continually tries to foil The Ghostblood's attempts at finding Mishram.

From the spiritual realm, she learns that her mother was actually Channah, a herald, and didn’t die when Shallan killed her all those years ago. She realizes her mother loves her deeply and only killed her out of fear of her starting the next desolation because of her radiance. Ironically, Channa’s death led to the next desolation because she immediately broke on Braize, allowing a rift to open to Roshar.

Seeing how the past can be reinterpreted and influence the future gives Shallan the realization she can rewrite the future. She can end Mraize not because she’s doomed to kill her mentor but because he’s doing evil and must be stopped.

Eventually, she confronts Mraize himself and ultimately kills him. But she realizes while doing it, her killing him doesn’t have to set in stone her future. It doesn’t mean she is doomed to forever kill her mentors. She can influence the future even when the past is in stone.

She ends the series more integrated in herself than ever before, having stopped the organization she once worked for and excited to see her lover Adolin again. Is her mental health journey over? No, but I’m confident if we see her in the next arc, we will see Shallan continue to integrate the parts of her self together.

Themes Of Shallans Character

What Is Truth?

The concept of truth is at the core of Shallan's character. While Shallan herself hates openly lying, she plays with the divide between lies and truth in every other aspect you could. She represses memories of her past so she can live without a veil of depression. She plays with accents, stories, and fashion so she can get people to believe she is people she is not. She adopts different identities so she can do different things.

I don't think Shallan's character ever highlights exactly what truth is full-heartedly. But she does allude to an essential aspect of it.

Truth is in large part what you believe it to be.

The core idea of this is shown in a conversation with Jasnah at the beginning of words of radiance. “There is a secret you must learn, child,” Jasnah said. “A secret that is even more important than those relating to Shadesmar and spren. Power is an illusion of perception.” Shallan frowned.

“Don’t mistake me,” Jasnah continued. “Some kinds of power are real—power to command armies, power to Soulcast. These come into play far less often than you would think. On an individual basis, in most interactions, this thing we call power—authority—exists only as it is perceived. “You say I have wealth. This is true, but you have also seen that I do not often use it. You say I have authority as the sister of a king. I do. And yet, the men of this ship would treat me exactly the same way if I were a beggar who had convinced them I was the sister to a king. In that case, my authority is not a real thing. It is mere vapors—an illusion. I can create that illusion for them, as can you.”

Shallan initially rejects this idea but later uses it in many ways to get what she wants. As a spy and a member of the Ghostbloods, she carefully selects which truths to reveal and which to withhold to stay involved. During her trip to the Shattered Plains, she draws a portrait of slading trader Bluth as a heroic warrior, which at first remains untrue until he later risks his own life protecting Shallan against Bandits. So, was the portrait false? She pretends she is a Herdazian Queen to, well, steal Kaladin Stormblesse's boots.

This question of truth is, in part, why Shallan likes drawing so much. It’s both a truth and a lie. It’s an abstraction of what is. But it can simultaneously change people by influencing what could be.

This conception of truth helps Shallan navigate her fear that she’s doomed to kill all her mentors in book five. In the spiritual realm, Shallan sees how the past can be reinterpreted and influence the future. She learns that her mother did love her but killed her out of fear of another desolation coming.

This gives Shallan the realization she can rewrite the future. She can end Mraize not because she’s doomed to kill her mentor but because he’s doing evil and must be stopped. She can influence the future even when the past is set in stone.

Another way Shallan’s journey juggles with the truth is through self-deception. Throughout her story, she constantly lies to herself to survive emotionally. One of the predominant ways she does this is through humor. She makes witty jokes and witticisms to hide the serious things which plague her behind walls of insincerity.

This self-deception is most evident in her creation of multiple personas—Shallan, Veil, and Radiant. Each persona represents a different aspect of her psyche and a way to cope with her various traumas and challenges. However, this fragmentation of her identity also reflects her inability to fully accept the truth of who she is.

While both of these ways of dealing with the truth help Shallan throughout the books, they also cause her tremendous pain and struggle. Kalladin initially hates Shallan because of her stint with taking his boots, but this isn't cleansed until they get stuck together in a chasm. Shallan's relationship with Adolin is in a constant struggle because of her difficulty being Shallan around him. She is almost assassinated when working for the Ghostbloods when she tries to get into Amaram's office without him seeing.

While Shallan's arc clearly shows the ambiguity of truth, it also showcases another important aspect of it: we must at some point, face the truth, no matter how painful.

We can suppress it, we can avoid it, but at some point the truth catches up to us. We must be ready when it does. We can live our lives lying to fix our problems in the short term. But like a hydra that grows another head every time we cut it off, each of our lives creates another problem we might have to lie to get ourselves out of again. Eventually, the heads grow so numerous, the lies so great, and we collapse under the weight of it all and start worse off than we were in the beginning. It's better to face the truth earlier on and deal with the consequences then live a life of falsehood until we fall.

What Is Our True Identity?

I'm sure you've experienced a situation in which you or someone else acts entirely differently from what you're used to. Is that person a fake? Is it a part of the greater whole?

Throughout the books Shallan deals intimately with this struggle. She creates many identities for herself to navigate the problems she comes across.

Veil serves as the strong-willed, confident spy she needs to work for the Ghostbloods. Radiant serves as the strong, virtuous, competent self she needs when working as a Knights Radiant and sometimes when interacting with Adolin. The question is which one is really her?

I believe Shallan herself is a persona, and to truly understand her character you must integrate Veil, Radiant, Formless, and Shallan together. I first got this idea from a theory video from Reading The Pattern which dives deep into evidence for this throughout the books. To understand why, we must first understand the disorder Shallan has.

In the DSM5 Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is eerily similar to what Shallan seems to be going through and Brandon Sanderson himself alludes to Shalan suffering from this in interviews. He explains in later books that he dove deep into the DSM5 and even had someone with DID as one of his Beta-Readers. Clearly, there is something to the idea.

So what is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)? Key features of this disorder include:

1. The presence of two or more distinct personality states or identities
2. Gaps in memory for everyday events, personal information, and/or traumatic events
3. These symptoms cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning
4. The disturbance is not a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice

One of the main "cures" for DID is integration therapy in which all of a persons unique selves are integrated together into one more stable self.

This brings us back to the question of which identity is Shallan? I think she is all of them, Shallan, Veil, Radiant, and Formless.

Without these identities, she couldn't do some of the things she does. She identifies with them. She is changed by them.

If you identify and change through something, is that something really separate from you anymore?

To explore this further, we must look for examples of Shallan herself as a person throughout the books.

The first piece of major evidence is how Cryptics are attracted to both truth and lies. We know Pattern bonded with Shallan very early on in childhood because she killed her mother with her shardblade. The theory is that when this happened, Shallan herself became a persona she adopted to survive the terrors and depression of childhood. Shallan is giddy, funny, and compassionate, the very things that would allow someone to navigate a childhood like that.

There's a quote from Chapter 60 of Words of Radiance that really hits this idea home. Pattern is trying to get Shallan to remember her past. But she responds with a quote: "Would you have me unable to laugh, would you have me crippled? That is what those memories would do to me. I can be what I am because I cut them off."

She forms an image of herself instinctively out of stormlight.

"Shallan as she should be. Curled in a huddle on the bed. Unable to weep for long, she ran out of tears. This girl, not a women, a girl, flinched whenever spoken to. She expected everyone to shout at her. She could not laugh for laughter had been squeezed from her by a childhood of darkness and pain. That was the real Shallan. She knew it as surely as she knew her own name. The person she had become instead was a lie. One she had fabricated in the name of survival."

Another moment where Shallan as a persona is seen occurs when Shallan is fighting Tyn for helping kill Jasnah she says: "She didn't attack like the prim, excitable girl who had been trained by cautious Vorin society. She attacked like the franzied child hod had murdered her mother. The cornered woman who had stabbed Tynt hrough the chest. She drew upon the part of her that hated the way everyone assumed she was so nice, so sweet. The part of her that hated being described as diverting or clever."

Shallan gives us powerful insights into what our true identity is: all of them. Throughout our lives, we have a myriad of different faces we show in different situations. Sure, some of these may be more or less us depending on how true to our selves they feel. But ultimately, the solution to navigating these differing identities isn't to eliminate all of them until one remains.

The solution is to integrate the best parts of them together, to form a more stable, and perhaps more true version of our selves.

All your parts are trying to help you navigate life in their own ways. We have our judge mental parts, our anxious ones, our fun loving ones and more. Many of these parts are burdened with unprocessed emotional experiences like Shallan loads onto Veil.

The solution is to accept none of these parts are inherently bad. They are simply often misguided. We can create a more true holistic self by exploring, understanding, and integrating these parts together.

Accept the pain your burdened parts hold. But don’t accept that you deserve it.

This is what Shallan does in book four. She lets Veil reintegrate into herself, taking the memories and skills she had. For the first time, she truly let herself remember what she did to her mother. How she killed her spren.

But this time she didn't try to escape. Escape wasn't strength. Strength was taking responsibility for what you had done, even if you disagreed with it, even if it was terrible, and then standing up anyway. This leads to her decisive break from the Ghostbloods, choosing to stand against them rather than continue as their agent. She no longer needs the Ghostbloods. She was attracted to them because of the deceptive and mysterious nature they had, the way they pushed her to be someone else. She didn't need to be someone else any longer. She was Shallan.

The true Shallan, the integration of all of her parts into herself.

If you want to explore more on this notion of integrating parts I recommend you check out my article on Internal Family Systems therapy.

Dalinar

The Rift

The smoke billowing out of the Rift was growing thick, lit red by the fires. Civilians in droves were shot down as they tried to escape the deathly fire by Sadeas's archers. Dalinar coughed, then smiled as he caught sight of Tanalan--the rebelling highlord who had almost killed Dalinar in a trap--standing and watching in horror just a bit away.

Tanalan turned to Dalinar. “Please,” Tanalan said, clothing ashen from the smoke, as he was hauled up over the stone rim. “My family. Please.” Dalinar could hear them screaming below. “I,” Dalinar said softly, “am an animal.” “What—” “An animal,” Dalinar said, “reacts as it is prodded. You whip it, and it becomes savage. With an animal, you can start a tempest. Trouble is, once it’s gone feral, you can’t just whistle it back to you.”

“You should not have betrayed me,” Dalinar whispered, raising Oathbringer. “At least this time, you didn’t hide in your hole. I don’t know who you let take cover there, but know they are dead. I took care of that with barrels of fire.”

Tanalan blinked, then started laughing with a frantic, crazed air. “You don’t know? How could you not know? But you killed our messengers. You poor fool. You poor, stupid fool.” Dalinar seized him by the chin, though the man was still held by his soldiers. “What?” “She came to us,” Tanalan said. “To plead. How could you have missed her? Do you track your own family so poorly?

Dalinar roared, standing, pushing toward the flames. However, the fire was too intense. Where he had once seen himself as an unstoppable force, he now had to admit exactly how small he was. Insignificant. Meaningless. Once it’s gone feral, you can’t just whistle it back to you. He fell to his knees, and remained there until his soldiers pulled him—limp—away from the heat and carried him to his camp.

An entire city burned to the ground in from his word, his wife Evy dead in the crossfire, how had it come to this?

Dalinar Kholin

Dalinar Kholin, barbarian, alcoholic, tyrant, king, bondsmith, and Honor. Throughout the books, he has a journey filled with political intrigue, inner conflict, and a growing awareness of the mystical forces at play in Roshar.

Her character raises fundamental questions like: can a person that has done wrong in the past redeem themselves, do the ends justify the means, and how does one follow religion healthily?

To explore the answers to these questions we need to deeply dive into Dalinar’s journey throughout the Stormlight archives, starting with his time as a barbarian under a different name, The Blackthorn.

The Blackthorn

Dalinar was a vicious tyrant, a bloodhound, a barbarian, no better than an animal. They called him the Blackthorn because one fight he was chocked so full of arrows he looked like a thorn bush.

While his brother Gavilar fought to unite the Alethi high princes and eventually create a kingdom, Dalinar fought because it was the only time he truly felt alive. Every fight he got in, he drank in the thrill like it was a bottle of alcohol. One particular battle he described it well: “He dug deeply within, and found the Thrill waiting. It filled him, driving away dissatisfaction. Within moments, he was roaring his pleasure. Nothing these men did could touch him. He was a destroyer, a conqueror, a glorious maelstrom of death. A god.” He gets so drunk on the thrill one battle he almost kills his brother Gavilar and swears to never become king.

For years he lives a half life of duties at home contrasted with the glorious thrill of battle. That is until he kills his wife Evy by accident at the Rift. This begins Dalinar's dark period.

Dalinar's Dark Period

In an attempt to escape the death of Evy and all the people he killed during his time as the Blackthorn, Dalinar resorts to Alcohol. He drinks droves of it. Gavilar tries to hide alcohol from him in the palace, but Dailnar resorts to drinking with homeless drunkards to escape what he did.

Gavilar's Death

It was on the night of Gavilar's assassination that Dalinar was once again drunk out of his mind. Dalinar would never forgive himself for being unable to protect his brother against the Assassin in white that night. But Gavilar's death reinvigorated a spark for battle he had lost after the death of Evy. He wanted vengeance, to get revenge on the Parshendi by driving them into oblivion. So, the Alethi go to war.

On the way to The Shattered Planes, Dalinar takes a pit stop by the Nightwatcher, a mythical spread with the power to do miracles. Instead of getting just the Nightwatcher though, he gets Cultivation herself to give him a boon. Dalinar wishes for forgiveness, which Cultivation grants him by getting rid of ALL his memories of Evy at the cost that they will someday come back. With those memories forgotten Dalinar is finally strong enough to fight The Parshendi and he makes his way to The Shattered Planes.

Way of Kings

Five years into this conflict, we find Dalinar at the beginning of The Way of Kings, plagued by doubt regarding the brutal Alethi war culture that glorifies conquest and personal glory. His younger self had been a ruthless warrior, but now he questions the point of endless fighting against the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains, especially after the death of his brother, King Gavilar, at their hands. Dalinar’s discomfort with the Alethi way of life grows as he experiences visions during highstorms, urging him to “unite them.” These visions leave him questioning his sanity, especially as other highprinces, including Sadeas, begin to doubt his leadership abilities.

Dalinar’s adherence to the ancient Alethi text, The Way of Kings, written by the long-dead King Nohadon, sets him apart from other warlords. This book’s emphasis on leadership through moral integrity conflicts with the cutthroat politics of the Alethi court, putting him at odds with his peers. Yet, Dalinar remains committed to reforming Alethkar, focusing on unity and honor over personal glory.

The Rift Between Dalinar and Sadeas: The Tower

In The Way of Kings, Dalinar’s relationship with his friend and fellow highprince, Sadeas, deteriorates. Initially, they share a common goal of defending Alethkar and defeating the Parshendi, but their methods diverge. Dalinar, who grows increasingly concerned with the state of the kingdom, tries to reform Alethi politics and promote unity among the highprinces. Sadeas, on the other hand, remains cynical and focused on personal ambition. This leads to a major betrayal when Sadeas abandons Dalinar and his army on the battlefield, leaving them to die during a critical mission against the Parshendi.

Dalinar’s escapes from this near-certain death with the help of his son, Adolin, and a rogue group of bridgeman--our boy Kaladin Yay!--. Instead of retaliating, Dalinar knows attacking Sadeas in the open would break the Alethi Coalition. So instead, he relunctantly lets Sadeas's betrayal go and buys the entirety of the bridgeman from him by giving up his shardblade Oathbringer, a weapon worth kingdoms on its own.

For reference, that’s like giving away a yacht, for some Chicken McNuggets. But Dalinar considers it a good trade. In Dalinar's words, a life is priceless. He makes Kaladin the first dark eyed captain ever and puts him in charge of his own personal Honor guard, starting the glimmers of Kaladin realizing light eyes aren’t as bad as they seem.

Words Of Radiance

In Words of Radiance, we find Dalinar Kholin walking a precarious path between the warrior he once was and the leader he strives to become. The book opens with him implementing his controversial new system of joint plateau assaults, attempting to force cooperation between the notoriously independent Highprinces. It's a bold move that immediately shows how far he's come from the Blackthorn's days of solo glory, but it also paints a target on his back.

His visions grow more intense throughout the book, with the Stormfather himself beginning to communicate with Dalinar directly. These episodes become particularly crucial when they reveal information about the Parshendi and their connection to the Voidbringers. Yet each vision also brings scrutiny - whispers in the courts about his sanity and his family's concerns about his fitness to lead. The power of these visions comes to a head when he manages to drag others into them, proving their reality and vindicating years of what many had dismissed as mere delusion.

His relationship with Navani deepens throughout the book, complicated by his still-missing memories of his first wife. There's a particularly poignant scene where he finally allows himself to move forward, officially courting Navani despite the political complications it creates. This personal growth parallels his political evolution—learning to embrace change while honoring the past.

The revelation about the true nature of the Parshendi and their transformation into Voidbringers forces Dalinar to adapt his entire strategy. His response shows his growth—instead of calling for immediate military action, he first seeks to understand, to find a diplomatic solution if possible. When that fails, he coordinates the evacuation of the war camps with an efficiency that combines his strategic military mind with his new appreciation for saving lives rather than taking them.

The book's climax sees Dalinar truly coming into his own as a leader during the battle for the Tower. When the Everstorm approaches and chaos erupts, he doesn't just fight—he organizes, protects, and unites. His decision to open the Oathgates and his growing connection to the Stormfather mark him as something new in Roshar: neither purely a warrior nor simply a politician, but something more—a leader who can bridge the ancient ways with the needs of the present.

Oathbringer

Oathbringer serves as the culmination of Dalinar Kholin's journey from the Blackthorn to something far greater, though the path proves more harrowing than anyone could have predicted.

The book begins with Dalinar in perhaps his strongest position yet—the founder of a new coalition of monarchs called the Alliance of Nations and a nascent Bondsmith. He has an incredible task before him, no longer to Unite just the Alethi highprinces but to Unite the world as a whole to fight against the voidbringers. The beginning chapters see him meeting with many political leaders, struggling, and sometimes succeeding in getting them to join the coalition. His reputation as the Blackthorn precedes him and nearly ruins any chance of alliance before negotiations can even begin. Many assume he is simply trying to form a coalition to backstab his allies, and others think he's forming it so he can wage war against those who don't join.

Half way through the book, however, he learns he can bring people into his visions. He uses this useful ability to draw leaders into visions with him and discuss the coalition. Through pure authenticity he slowly convinces many to join him.

Dalinar's bond with the Stormfather continues to deepen, and their relationship evolves from a reluctant partnership to genuine understanding, particularly as Dalinar begins to grasp the true nature of Honor's perpendicularity and his role as a Bondsmith.

However, these positive developments crack as his past comes back to haunt him. As his memories of his first wife Evi slowly return, we see Dalinar struggling to maintain his composure in the present while being forced to confront his brutal past. These memories don't return as a flood, but rather as torturous drops—a face here, a voice there—each one chipping away at the foundation of the man he's tried to become. The return of these memories coincides with his attempts to unite the nations of Roshar against the coming Desolation, creating a painful parallel between his past failures at unification and his present struggles.

It gets even worse when most of the coalition leaves Dalinar after a calculated political backstabbing by Taravangian hits him. It's revealed Dalinar met with Odium without telling the coalition, and a even worse truth, humans were the original voidbringers on Roshar, not the parshmen, and there original God was Odium. The coalition disbands, and Dalinar is forced to protect Thaylen City alone alongside Queen Fen when it's attacked by the voidbringers.

At the battle of Thaylen city, Dalinar attempts to get the upper hand against Odium by forcing him into a Contest of Champions. Surprisingly, he agrees, but reveals his chosen champion is Dalinar himself. Odium attempts to break Dalinar by forcing him to confront his past in its entirety. The memories of the Rift, of Evi's death, of all his failures come crashing back. Odium reveals he was alongside Dalinar during this whole time, subtly influencing his passion and building him to become the champion of Odium he was meant to be. His pain therefore, is not his responsibility to bear. He should give it to Odium.

In the iconic scene of the book, Dalinar, pushes back against Odium, and says "YOU can not have my pain. You can not have my pain!"

“I did kill the people of Rathalas,” Dalinar shouted. “You might have been there, but I made the choice. I decided!” He stilled. “I killed her. It hurts so much, but I did it. I accept that. You cannot have her. You cannot take her from me again.” “Dalinar,” Odium said. “What do you hope to gain, keeping this burden?” Dalinar sneered at the god. “If I pretend … If I pretend I didn’t do those things, it means that I can’t have grown to become someone else.”

“I will take responsibility for what I have done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”

Here, Dalinar opens the largest perpendicularity ever seen--a bonding of the three realms and a source of infinite stormlight. Adolin, Kaladin, and Shallan come through the perpendicularity and with the help of the Thaylens and other Radiants they drive back the force of Odium.

The book concludes with Dalinar in a position no one could have predicted - not just a leader of armies or nations, but a figure who represents the possibility of change itself. His success in uniting even a fraction of Roshar's nations, his ability to open Honor's perpendicularity, and most importantly, his victory over Odium's attempt to break him, all serve to establish him as a truly transformative figure in the world of Roshar. The man who was once known only for tearing things apart has become someone capable of bringing them together, not despite his past, but because he finally understands and accepts it.

He then does something unprecented: he has Navani teach him to read and write. He writes a book, Oathbringer summarizing his Glory and his Shame, which he hopes will serve as a beacon to do good and become better among the rest of the monarchs of the world and the Radiant force which is growing and growing.

Wind And Truth

Dalinar begins Wind And Truth anxious about the upcoming contest of champions with Odium and scare he doesn’t have what it takes to win. He needs something to even the odds.

So he creates a crazy plan with the rest of the world’s leaders: venture into the Spiritual Realm to take up the lost shard of Honor. In the spiritual realm he learns how The Heralds created the oathpact and what led to Aharietiam: Ba Ado Mishram took up the power at the Pool of Odium and became a pseudo God for the singers. He then realizes a terrible truth for why Honors shard won’t accept a human.

Tanavast broke his word.

When Singers began falling in love with humans during Aharietiam, Ba Ado Mishram agreed to meet with Honor and some Radiants to put an end to the war. When Mishram showed up to the meeting in peace Tanavast and the current bondsmith Melishi trapped her in a fabrial device, trapping the singers in dull form and ending the desolations.

In response, Tanavast opened himself to be killed by Odium.

Before Odium killed Tanavast, he was terrified The Radiants would destroy the world with their powers unchecked by the Voidbringers. That’s what they had done to the previous human homework of Ashen. He didn’t want to let it happen again.

So Tanavast did two things: First, he revealed the Voidbringers were actually the humans. Secondly, he gave them a final vision of a desolate world created if The Radiant powers were left unchecked.

The resulting event: The Recreance. Hundreds of Radiants relinquished their powers and shards by breaking their oaths to ensure the world wasn’t destroyed.

Despite all the good Tanavast did, the power Honor couldn’t comprehend the breaking of honor for capturing Ba Ado Mishram. So, it distrusted humans.

In the Spiritual realm, Dalinar tries to convince Honor to let him take the power throughout the visions. While doing this, Odium feeds him visions tailored to his insecurities. His biggest insecurity is he is unable to solve problems without brute force.

As The Blackthorn, he murdered and burned to unite the Alethi Highprinces. As a general in The Parshendi Alethi Conflict, he practically took control of the Kingdom even though Elhokar was king. As Bondsmith, responsible for uniting Roshar, he constantly felt out of his element, being more political and savvy.

Now he’s trying to take the power of Honor. How? Again, through force. Is this really what it means to be a great king?

Dalinar fights with this dilemma until he takes Honor's power by showing that he understands it by witnessing the visions. This alongside his incredible honor, is why he’s the best candidate for holding its power.

As he’s taking the shard Odium reveals his champion as Gavinor. Gavinor has been trapped in the spiritual realm influenced Odium for the past twenty years to hate Dalinar. Now Dalinar must choose between killing an innocent or losing the Contest Of Champions and freeing Odium: both solutions done through brute force. It seems like an easy decision to kill Gavinor, but to do so would be to admit Taravangian is right. The ends justify the means, and Dalinar can only brute force his way through things.

Instead, Dalinar makes a choice that could cost the world. A choice which seems idiotic. A choice that proves he isn’t the brute force man Odium believes him to be anymore.

He breaks his Oaths.

Dalinar realizes the problem he has seen with the shards through the whole series. They are blind to their one value. Honor values sticking to one’s word but so blindly it doesn’t realize when sticking to one’s word can do more harm than good. Odium values passion but so much he ignores when it leads to vast amounts of killing and suffering for the “greater good.” Dalinar can’t beat Odium on his own with a single shard. He needs another strategy.

So he breaks his oaths. By breaking his oaths he opens Honor up to being taken by someone else, someone with a spotless honor record: Odium. Odium being greedy takes up the shard becoming Retribution. A being of Honor and Odium.

This seems like a terrible idea at first. But in reality, Retribution has opened itself to attack. Becoming the only being controlling two shards makes itself the common enemy of all the other shards. The other shards can no longer watch as Odium terrorizes Roshar in the excuse it “won’t come for them.”

Unfortunately, Dalinar dies by Odium’s hand once he breaks his oaths. And Odium captures his soul to use as a general in his intergalactic war. But, he gives The Cosmere a fighting chance against the being of Odium. Something he could never have done had he not become a better person.

Themes Of Dalinar’s Character

Can We Become Better?

In the early parts of Dalinar’s life, he was not a good person, a self-proclaimed animal. He butchered people on the battlefield drinking in the thrill because it was the only thing that made him feel alive. This led him to killing the most important person in his life—Evy—a pain so great it gave him severe PTSD, he became an alcoholic, and after Gavilar’s death, he had to go to the Nightwatcher to get rid of his memories. Until they came back…

Can these actions be reconciled? I think Dalinar’s character is a strong testament that they can.

Throughout the books, Dalinar tries to become a new, better person.

Dalinar does everything he can to show he has changed:

• He follows the words of The Way Of Kings despite everyone around him touting its stupidity
• He follows the Altethi War Codes of old despite being in direct opposition to the values of the other high princes. They tell him to:
  • Be prepared for battle at all times
  • Never be drunken during times of war
  • Restrain from needless dules, arguments, or squabbles
  • Never ask something of your soldiers you would not be willing to do yourself
  • Do not abandon allies on the field or profit off of one's allies
• He saves Kaladins entire bridge crew from Sadeas by giving up his shardblade Oathbringer
• He struggles and struggles to keep the high princes united like his dead brother Gavilar wanted
• Attempts to show his sons Adolin and Renarin the ways of virtue
• He forms the coalition to fight against the Voidbringers
• He gets in a relationship with the biggest milf of The Stormlight Archives, Navani—okay maybe that’s not a sign of virtue but still what a G.
• He sacrifices himself for the good of the Cosmere by breaking his Oaths when he takes up Honors power.

Amidst all of these actions, he is constantly questioned, ridiculed, and doubted for his intentions. The high princes call him a hypocrite. His sons believe he is going mad. And the coalition believes he is secretly trying to conquer them all.

Yet, he remains relentless in his pursuit to become better. In a particularly poignant scene Dalinar confronts Amaram who killed Kaladin's soldiers after he refused to take the shardblade.

“You murdered defenseless men,” Dalinar said through gritted teeth. “Men who had saved your life.” Amaram stooped, lifting Oathbringer. “And what of the hundreds, even thousands, your wars killed?” They locked gazes. “I respect you greatly, Brightlord,” Amaram said. “Your life has been one of grand accomplishment, and you have spent it seeking the good of Alethkar. But you—and take this with the respect I intend—are a hypocrite.

"Sometimes a hypocrite, is nothing more than a man in the process of changing."

Dalinar understands his past self was a monster. But he knows that’s not a validation to continue being on.

In the iconic scene where Odium tries to tell Dalinar to give him his pain, Dalinar says, he can’t have it. He cannot have his pain. That’s for him and him alone.

If he pretends he didn’t do those things, it means that he can’t have grown to become someone else. He will take responsibility for what he has done. And if he must fall, he will rise each time a better man.

In further words by Dalinar, "A journey will have pain and failure. It's not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles, trials, and knowledge that we will fail and hurt those around us. But if we stop and accept the person we are, when we fall, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination. To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found through painful experience that the most important step a person can take is always the next one."

We can make our own codes to pass through life, our values, rules, and ways of being in this world. We can begin that business, start that exercise regime, and ask that person out on a date. Yes, we might dislike the things our past selves did. But that doesn’t stop us from changing for the better.

This is how we take great power without letting it corrupt us—powers like those of Gods, The Knights Radiant, and politics. We continue to hold to our values, our rules, and our selves. We don’t tread on our means of doing things for “the greater good.” That’s how we turn into the very thing we are trying to stop.

We don’t have to make this transformation on our own. Dalinar had The Way Of Kings, The Stormfather, Navani, his two sons, The Codes, The Visions from The Almighty, his advisers, and so much more to help him. We have our friends, family, the internet, and so much more to help us on our way. The most important step isn’t what we did in the past. It’s the next one, always the next one.

Do The Ends Of Victory Justify The Means?

In a meeting at the Pavilion between Sadeas and Dalinar "Sometimes the prize is not worth the cost. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself." It was a very un-Alethi way of thinking. "The prize is worth any cost, Brightlord Dalinar," Sadeas said. "Winning the competition is worth any victory, any expense." "It is a war," Dalinar said. "Not a contest.”

As King Nohadan says in The Way Of Kings: “We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived. “ ‘In the end, I must proclaim that no good can be achieved of false means. For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement but in the method.”

There are many examples of what happens when the ends are used as a justification for any means.

Amaram murders Kaladin’s squad in gold blood and brands him a slave because quote: “he will put the sword to better use.”

Sadeas leaves thousands upon thousands of Dalinar’s troops to die on The Tower at the hands of the Parshendi because he believes he is too soft for what the Alethi need.

Taravangian kills countless innocents hoping to get valuable information regarding the Voidbringers in their Death Rattles. He sends the Assassin in White to kill the major leaders of Roshar and sow chaos because, apparently, you need to break down a structure to build it back stronger.

Why do these people believe this is okay?

I think Taravangian voices it well in a conversation with Dalinar by firelight.

“Our laws will claim innocent men—for all judges are flawed, as is our knowledge. Eventually, you will execute someone who does not deserve it. This is the burden society must carry in exchange for order.” “I hate that,” Dalinar said softly. “Yes … I do too. But it’s not a matter of morality, is it? It’s a matter of thresholds. How many guilty may be punished before you’d accept one innocent casualty? A thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred? When you consider, all calculations are meaningless except one. Has more good been done than evil? If so, then the law has done its job. And so … I must hang all four men.” He paused. “And I would weep, every night, for having done it.” The burden for the blood of those wronged must rest somewhere. I am the sacrifice. We, Dalinar Kholin, are the sacrifices. Society offers us up to trudge through dirty water so others may be clean.” He closed his eyes. “Someone has to fall, that others may stand.” The words were similar to things Dalinar had said, and thought, for years. Yet Taravangian’s version was somehow twisted, lacking hope or life.

Taravangian and many of the leaders who believe the ends justify the means abstract their actions into cold, emotionless terms. They are beings only of destinations, not the journeys to getting there. They believe what makes something right is if it might lead to the most quote-on-quote ethical utility—for example, overall lives saved.

Dalinar himself recognizes the issues with these arguments.

The issue is that abstraction discounts the emotion involved in our decisions. Sure, Taravangian killing a few innocents to hear their death rattles and gain more insight into the Voidbringers assault might save more people in the long run, but it discounts the emotional burden such a thing inflicts on the leader and the people of that society.

Good people rarely do evil things outright. Rather, they fall slowly into evil by accumulating ever bigger “necessary sacrifices.” Do you think most of the soldiers under Hitler thought they were doing evil things? Would they have slaughtered millions of Jews if told to do so outright before Hitler rose to power? No. They were slowly corrupted through ever worse measures under Hitler until they became blinded by their ruthless pursuit of the ends over the means.

To quote Batman: “You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.”

We’re humans, with emotions, relationships, and a predisposition to love fuzzy things.

Because we have emotions, it’s irrational to be fully rational. We can’t just abstract our decisions. We can’t use the ends to justify the means. We must take into account not just end, but the emotional impact the means of getting there will have. Everyone’s eventual end is death.

In addition, the ends can’t be separated from the means. The means we use to achieve our ends affect the chance the ends will be achieved. Sure, one means might lead us to create a good end, but for how long?

For example, a world in which we kill anyone who enters a hospital for their organs in case we can save more by doing so would be terrible because of the fear it creates for entering a hospital.

Dalinar comes to this realization most starkly in Wind And Truth. All his life, he has brutally forced his way through problems. This is also a faulty means of achieving his ends. So, in his final moments, he rescinds his oaths to Honor, opening himself to being killed and allowing Odium to take the shard of Honor. What initially seems like a terrible decision puts Retribution as the number one enemy to the rest of the Cosmere. Dalinar dies making a decision that isn’t brute force, but crafty.

How Does One Follow Religion Healthily?

Throughout the books, Dalinar struggles with immensely in his relationship with religion.

According to his visions, The Almighty, God himself, is dead. By speaking this out, he is essentially undermining the entire Vorin Church much of Alethi society and other nations is based on. It’s like he set out to sea on a wooden boat and then set it on fire. Obviously, this leads to a lot of problems.

The Vorin church and specifically Kadash—one of Dalinar’s old friends—continually come to Dalinar and beg him to reconsider his beliefs. Dalinar engages in a variety of debates regarding religion but the most interesting to me was when Kadash told Dalinar he must believe in the Vorin Church because of the rich history of tradition underlying it. How could he think he, in a single lifetime, could question a doctrine which has stood for thousands of years?

Dalinar says this chilling story in response: When I was young, our branch of the Kholin family didn't have grand monasteries or practical grounds. My father found me a teacher, Harth, from two towns over. He wasn't a true swordmaster, but good enough. Harth was very strict about procedure—he wouldn't let me train until I learned to put on a takama properly. You had to wrap the belt around yourself three times, and I found that annoying because it was too tight. The first time I went to duels, I noticed everyone else had belts with long, dro

I asked Harth why we did it differently, and he told me it was the “right way.” Later, I sought out Harth's master, and found something interesting. Harth was short, and when I asked him, he laughed. He tied his belt three times so the ends wouldn't hang down and trip him.

That's when I realized something important: while I love tradition and fight for it, merely being tradition doesn't make something worthy.

We can't just assume that because something is old, it's right.

Dalinar’s thoughts regarding religion in The Stormlight Archives echo my own in real life. Ultimately, I resonate deeply with the values that underlie many religions. Kindness, gratitude, and honesty are my favorite styles of pina coladas.

We should celebrate the amazing diversity of religions. But there are two major problems I have with religion: when it blinds people from other ideas, and when it leads to needless violence and group polarization.

While many religions have great underlying values, they are based on beliefs I fundamentally can’t agree with. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in original sin. I don't believe in hell unless you count the waiting room for Doctors appointments.

I'm a super curious individual, and to me, religion can hurt that curiosity. Imagine all the things you could explore in the world is starlight filtered through stained glass, creating thousands of truth shattered hues. Religions to me, take one color they see, and name it things like Christianity. For when you believe in Him, you put on rose tinted glasses, every other color combining in masses, to the only color it could be, God, God, God, pray to me.

But what makes me sad is they'll never see, how many other colors there could be.

Of course there can be curious religious people. And, of course, science or atheism can become religions when followed dogmatically. As Dalinar says, in either case—religion or atheism—we can’t just assume because something is old, or “scientifically studied” it is right. We need to continue questioning; we need to be open to dialogue with those of differing views, and we need to see the myriad of colors there could be rather than deciding one color is all of the world there is.

If you want to learn more read my article about why I respectfully don’t believe in God.

For the second arc of the series, it looks like Dalinar will become a Fused to fight in Odium’s army because of losing his soul during the Contest Of Champions. I don’t know if we’ll ever see our virtuous changed Dalinar again, but whatever happens with this character I’m excited for.

Szeth

Szeth, dancer, murderer, and Assassin. Throughout his journey, Szeth struggles intimately with questions such as what truth is and how we should follow it.

Let’s explore Szeth’s childhood and journey throughout the Stormlight Archives to understand this journey more deeply.

Szeth’s Background

Szeth grows up in Shinovar, a world which sees society divided into two parts: adders and subtracters. Adders add things to the world, making it a more bountiful and creative place. Subtracters subtract through killing and destruction. In Shinovar, adding is seen as the highest of arts where, as subtraction is seen as unholy and base.

Szeth grows up being an adder through his incredible dancing. Throughout his childhood he has a deep hunger for what is right. He asks what is right to farmers, his father, and more getting different answers from everyone.

One day, a drunk Shinovar patrol eats his favorite sheep without his notice. Szeth voices his anger, and one of the warriors comes at him in a drunken rage. In self-defense, Szeth beats him to death with a stone, turning him into a subtracter.

Szeth’s family moves with him to the warrior training stronghold where Szeth begins honing his fighting abilities. Every day, he hates himself. Hates himself for turning into a subtracter. But he must admit he is a fantastic fighter. A phenomenal one.

He quickly grows past all his fellow fighters and becomes better than the trainer himself. Soon, he grabs the attention of some of the Honorbearers from the other monasteries. He asks Pozen, the Stoneward honorbearer what truth is.

“Listen to your superiors,” the Honorbearer said. “Follow the chain of command.” “I trust in the General and the monasteries,” Szeth said. “But how do you know what is right?” “Our chain of command,” the Honorbearer said, “ends at the Heralds, who serve the Lifebrother—spren of soil—and the spren of mountains, sun, and moons. They, in turn, report to God himself. Do you question these?” “No, I suppose not.” “Then follow what you’re told, young man,” the Honorbearer said, “and count yourself lucky to be one who defends Truth.”

Satisfied with this answer, Szeth begins following the orders of those above him, rising in ranks over the years as one of the greatest fighters of Shinovar. He begins leading patrols to fight against stonewalker raiders. During one particularly bad raid, he burns the ships of the raiders as a way of scaring them from coming back. But, the General of his monastery isn’t happy with his decision.

“You went too far!” the General called from behind. “Burning their ships? They’ll come back with hundreds more!” “I saw to it that they won’t, sir,” Szeth said, frustration building inside him. “You shouldn’t have made this decision.” “But I followed the chain of command,” Szeth said, growing even more angry. “I was told to protect the shores. That was your order. You told me to patrol, and to find a strategy. That’s what I did! I did exactly as I was told.” “You took too much upon yourself, son,” Neturo said. “Stones! How am I to know that?” Szeth said, exasperated.

Despite this mishap, Szeth continues to rise in ranks as a fighter, developing his relationship with Pozen and the other honorbearers. It’s revealed, he like them, hears a voice in his head that tells him what to do. A voice that Szeth believes is the ultimate authority and therefore knows what is right.

However, one day, in his training, Szeth is led to see the true identity of the voice, and believes it to be an Unmade. We learn later this was actually the voice of Ishar—a broken Herald trying to grow Szeth into someone who can replace one of the broken Heralds. Regardless, the honorbearers of Shinovar are sworn to protect against voidbringer invasion. But they’ve been working for an Unmade the whole time?!

Distraught, Szeth leads a revolt against the other honorbearers, hoping to make them see reason. But, he’s outnumbered and defeated, outcast and named as Truthless by his whole society. One who is Truthless is unable to see the truth, so they must refer to others. In Szeths case, he gets an Oathstone, a stone that whoever holds bestows on them supreme authority over Szeth. They can tell him to do anything they want to as long as it doesn’t involve killing himself.

Way Of Kings

It’s here where we find Szeth at the beginning of The Way Of Kings. He is ordered to assassinate Gavilar by The Herald Nin to stop him from bringing The Voidbringers back. Killing Gavilar starts a five year long war between The Alethi and Parshendi.

For those five years Szeth spends his time following the orders of relatively innocuous people. Until his Oathstone falls in the hands of Taravangian…

Words Of Radiance

Taravangian forces Szeth to kill the major world leaders to spark chaos. According to Taravangian, sometimes you must break a system's walls to build a new structure.

Yet he cannot assassinate the last person on his list: Dalinar Kholin. Each time he tries he is stopped by Adolin, Kaladin, or someone else. Eventually, he gets in a climactic fight with Kaladin Stormblessed, who defeats him above the battlefield on the Shattered Planes in the final fight of Words Of Radiance.

Oathbringer

The Herald Nin saves Szeth from death, giving him another life if he becomes a Skybreaker. Why another chance? Because Nin values the law above all else, and Szeth has followed the words of others to a tea.

Szeth is given the sword Nightblood by Nin—an incredibly dangerous weapon which rapidly consumes investiture and even its owner if that runs out. The sword is so powerful it even has the power to kill Gods.

He quickly rises in the ranks of The Skybreakers reaching the fourth ideal and swearing to follow the word of Dalinar as the truth.

Rhythm Of War

For most of Rhythm of War Szeth is traveling with Dalinar in an army to talk to Ishar. Dalinar wants to learn more about his bondsmithing powers and believes Ishar can help.

Along the way Taravangian betrays the coalition by putting his troops against Dalinars army to slow them down. He is imprisoned and Szeth visits him to see why he did it. In his visit Taravangian is pulled into a vision with Odium and Nightblood comes with him as Szeth was in the room. Taravangian kills Odium with Nightblood taking the Shard of Odium for himself unbeknownst to Szeth.

Wind And Truth

Szeths major quest during Wind And Truth is to cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the authorities who said he was wrong about the Voidbringers returning years before.

He is sent alongside Kaladin, whose quest is to help Szeth’s mental health alongside Ishar.

Kaladin tries to show Szeth he deserves to have better mental health. The problem is Szeth thinks the opposite: he should suffer for what he has done. He has inadvertently caused the deaths of tens of thousands alongside killing thousands by his own hand.

Why should he feel good?

So he lives with his mind constantly tormenting him. Even if he did want to improve his conscience, he doesn’t know where to start.

His own conscience says he can’t follow his own conscience.

One exchange between Kaladin and Szeth shows the extent of Szeths torment.

Szeth wasn’t so much like Kaladin as … “Szeth,” Kaladin said. “How old were you when they took you from your home?” “Eleven,” Szeth whispered, hoarse. “I was eleven.” Szeth wasn’t Kaladin. Szeth was Tien. Szeth wasn’t the young man who had gone to war, determined to save and protect. He was the child who had been ripped from his peaceful life, then transformed into a killer against his will. A scared little boy who just yearned to go home.

Slowly through campfire nights, questioning, music and more Kaladin convinces Szeth he deserves to feel better and make his own choices. He’s not a thing, he’s a person.

“If I choose this,” Szeth whispered, “it’s as good as admitting that there are no right answers. That no one knows the truth. That terrifies me.” “It means,” Kaladin said, “that neither truth nor answers are easy to find. We still have to try, rather than giving up that responsibility to someone else. Maybe someone has found the truth. I certainly hope so. But let’s talk about what you genuinely want, and work from there.” “I want…” Szeth said. “I … want to stop killing.” He looked to Kaladin, wide-eyed, as if admitting this were some terrible transgression. “I want to be done with it. I want to cause no more pain.”

By making this realization, Szeth achieves the fifth ideal of The Skybreakers becoming the law and accepts that he has the right to make his own choices. The first of those choices is to reject becoming a Herald and stop killing. He ends book five with Kaladin taking his place as The King of The Heralds and thinking on what he will do in his new path.

Themes Of Szeth’s Character

What Is Truth And How Do We Follow It?

Throughout Szeth’s childhood Szeth is constantly questioning what truth means. He gets different answers each time and is dissatisfied with the ambiguity. Finally when he asks Pozen his thoughts, he’s told truth is what higher authority tells you.

This sends Szeth down a dark spiral of relinquishing his own will to choose to those above him.

For the whole series he does the terrible actions he does because of this, despite wanting nothing else than to stop killing.

But as his journey shows, there are problems with this conception of truth.

Firstly, the law is flawed.

The law is the product of the many. Szeth was exiled because of the consensus of the many. He had served master after master, most of them using him to attain terrible or at least selfish goals. You can not always arrive at excellence based on the average number of people.

This doesn’t mean the law shouldn’t be considered when considering right and wrong. But it shouldn’t be taken as the word of God. There are many laws in real life that I find ridiculous—for example—psychedelics being as illegal as hard drugs in the U.S. Laws often reflect the unconscious biases of society at the time. The Jim Crow laws were seen as great by many at the time even though today we see them as terrible relics of oppression.

Secondly, authority isn’t in itself an indicator as having higher truth.

Many political leaders today wouldn’t be described by people as “wise” even though that is the value you would hope a political leader would have most. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s very easy to reach a high position of authority and get corrupted along the way. Especially if you believe the ends justify the means, like many of the evil characters throughout The Stormlight Archives.

Thirdly, authority must still be interpreted.

Even if we follow the word of law or our superiors to a tea, we must subjectively interpret how to follow it in our specific context. This becomes clear to Szeth while fighting back against stonewalker raiders from his homeland. His orders were simply to ”fight back.” So, he made a decision to burn their ships so the stonewalkers would be skeptical about coming back.

However, when the general heard of his actions, he was enraged. He felt Szeth should have intuitively known this was a bad idea even though he never specified it was. This shows how even when we have the word of authority to lead us, we must make subjective interpretations of how to follow it. Just following our orders is not enough.

So, how do we follow truth instead?

Szeth’s character shows us truth lies not solely in what our authorities tell us. But it does not lie in our own subjective beliefs regarding truth. If that were so everyone could simply say what they wanted to do.

Truth lies in the relationship between our subjective interpretations, and authority. This is Szeth's conclusion when he realizes he deserves to make his own choices. He is not a thing. He’s a person, deserving of their own will and good mental health.

This terrifies Szeth because it means there is no right answer to the question what is right. It’s not a question with a hard answer because it’s something that must be constantly re-evaluated and changed. In turn, all the actions he made while following orders might have been evil the whole time.

We can’t apply blanket laws and truth to all of society without some individuation because all cultures are different. Szeth’s culture sees addition as much more important than subtraction. Stones are sacred. The Heralds are prayed to rather than The Almighty. Each culture has different values and therefore what is right in each can differ.

So, how do we determine the balance between our individual choice and authority? It’s impossible to say for sure because to do so would be to make our own authoritative truth statement. But the journey of finding truth is in navigating both.

Szeth ends the story reflecting on what he wants his new choices to be as Kaladin takes the position of King of The Heralds in his stead. I don’t know if he will be a significant character in the second arc of the series, but I’m excited to see him in whatever form he shows up in.