The Stormlight Archive

by Brandon Sanderson

92 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Kaladin Stormblessed — Darkeyed surgeon's son turned slave turned Windrunner captain — a man who cannot stop protecting others yet struggles to protect himself from despair.
• Shallan Davar — A Lightweaver who fractured herself into multiple personas to survive — brilliant artist and scholar hiding behind masks she can no longer tell from h
• Dalinar Kholin — The Blackthorn reborn — a warlord who burned a city and killed his wife, now a Bondsmith trying to unite humanity while refusing to be the man he was.
• Adolin Kholin — The perfect prince who isn't a Radiant — a charismatic duelist and fashion-obsessed soldier quietly proving that heroism doesn't require a magical bon
• Navani Kholin — Scholar-queen and fabrial genius who bonded Urithiru's own spren — a woman who spent decades being called 'merely' a patron before proving she was the
• Jasnah Kholin — Atheist scholar-queen in a world of gods — an Elsecaller whose ruthless logic and unshakable conviction make her Roshar's most formidable mind and its
• Renarin Kholin — A quiet, autistic-coded Truthwatcher bonded to a corrupted spren — seeing futures no one trusts while proving that courage has nothing to do with conf
• Lift — An Edgedancer street urchin who converts food to Stormlight and refuses to grow up — irreverent, compassionate, and utterly impossible to control.
• Szeth-son-son-Vallano — The Assassin in White — a Shin man declared Truthless and forced to kill on command, now a Skybreaker struggling to build a moral code from the wrecka
• Venli — A Singer Willshaper who summoned the Everstorm to save her people and doomed them instead — now seeking redemption by protecting the few listeners who
• Wit — The immortal Worldhopper known as Hoid — a storyteller who has walked between worlds for millennia, serving as the King's Wit while playing a game onl
• Sylphrena — An ancient honorspren who bonded Kaladin and fights to keep him alive — playful as wind, fierce as a storm, and terrified of losing him to despair.
• Pattern — A Cryptic spren of truths and lies bonded to Shallan — alien in thought, fascinated by human deception, and devoted to a woman who needed lies to surv
• The Stormfather — The largest spren on Roshar and the cognitive shadow of Honor — a being of storms and grief who bonded Dalinar against his own judgment and learned to
• Wyndle — A cultivationspren of order and propriety bonded to the most chaotic girl on Roshar — perpetually horrified, deeply loyal, and trailing vines wherever
• Ivory — An inkspren who broke his people's most sacred taboo by bonding a human — reserved, formal, and quietly defiant in his commitment to Jasnah.
• Glys — A corrupted truthwatcher spren who grants Renarin visions of possible futures — tainted by Sja-anat's touch but loyal to his Radiant despite the stain
• Design — A cheerful Cryptic spren bonded to Wit — obsessed with humor she cannot grasp, delightfully literal, and completely unbothered by the cosmic stakes ar
• Timbre — A lightspren who defied all precedent by bonding a Singer — communicating only through pulses of light and proving that the Nahel bond transcends spec
• The Sibling — The spren of Urithiru itself — a wounded, gender-neutral godspren who withdrew from humanity after betrayal and learned to trust again through Navani'
• The Nightwatcher — Cultivation's godspren who grants boons and curses to petitioners — an alien intelligence that bargains with mortal desires in a shadowed valley.
• Maya — A deadeye cultivationspren killed in the Recreance — Adolin's Shardblade who is slowly being revived through his refusal to treat her as a mere weapon
• Odium — The Shard of divine hatred, a cosmic god imprisoned on Roshar. Originally held by Rayse, later claimed by Taravangian. Patient, manipulative, and desp
• Taravangian — King of Kharbranth who bargained with the Nightwatcher, gaining wildly fluctuating intelligence and compassion. Created the Diagram to save humanity t
• Torol Sadeas — Alethi Highprince and Dalinar's chief political rival. Ruthless, cunning, and utterly pragmatic, he used bridgemen as expendable shields. Killed by Ad
• Meridas Amaram — Alethi brightlord who stole Kaladin's Shardblade and murdered his squad to cover it up. Projected an image of perfect honor while secretly serving the
• Moash — Former Bridge Four member who betrayed Kaladin and killed King Elhokar. Given an Honorblade by the Fused. He represents the dark mirror of Kaladin — w
• Rock — Unkalaki (Horneater) member of Bridge Four. Enormous, joyful, and fiercely loyal. Serves as the crew's cook and heart. Can see spren that others canno
• Teft — Grizzled Bridge Four veteran struggling with firemoss addiction and crushing self-loathing. Despite hating himself, he is unfailingly brave for others
• Sigzil — Azish member of Bridge Four and former Worldsinger trained by Wit. Methodical, precise, and bureaucratic. Serves as Bridge Four's administrator and re
• Lopen — Herdazian member of Bridge Four. One-armed, endlessly talkative, and irrepressibly optimistic. His humor masks genuine courage. Later healed by Storml
• Drehy — Bridge Four member and Windrunner. A solid, dependable fighter who happens to be gay — a fact treated matter-of-factly by his squadmates. Reliable in
• Dabbid — Bridge Four member who is non-verbal, long assumed to be mentally disabled. In truth, he understands everything and performs extraordinary acts of her
• Rlain — A Singer (listener) and the only non-human member of Bridge Four. Formerly a listener spy named Shen. Struggles with belonging to neither the human no
• Elhokar Kholin — King of Alethkar and Gavilar's son. Insecure, paranoid, and desperate to live up to his father's legacy. Was on the verge of swearing the First Ideal
• Gavilar Kholin — Former King of Alethkar and Dalinar's brother. United the Alethi highprinces through war, then sought higher purpose. Assassinated by Szeth on the nig
• Aesudan Kholin — Elhokar's wife and queen of Alethkar. Left to govern Kholinar, she was corrupted by the Unmade Ashertmarn and descended into hedonistic madness while
• Taln — Herald of the Almighty, patron of the Stonewards. Held the Oathpact alone on Braize for 4,500 years of unimaginable torture without breaking. The sing
• Nale — Herald of the Skybreakers. Has been active on Roshar for centuries, hunting and killing nascent Knights Radiant to prevent a new Desolation. Follows l
• Ash — Herald of the Lightweavers, also known as Shalash. Spends centuries destroying artistic depictions of herself out of guilt for abandoning the Oathpact
• Ishar — Herald of the Bondsmiths. Once the wisest of the Heralds, now utterly mad. Claims to be God. Conducts horrific experiments pulling spren into the Phys
• Eshonai — Listener explorer and warform warrior, Venli's elder sister. Sought peace with humans but was corrupted by Stormform, losing herself to a Voidspren. H
• Raboniel — The Lady of Wishes, an ancient Fused scholar who has lived thousands of lives. Brilliant and weary, she seeks to end the war permanently through her r
• Leshwi — A Fused warrior who retains her honor and sanity across millennia of rebirth. She respects Kaladin as a worthy opponent and is among the most principl
• Ulim — A manipulative Voidspren who convinced Venli and Eshonai to adopt Stormform. Cowardly and scheming, he serves as Odium's agent among the Listeners, en
• Mraize — A scarred Ghostblood operative and hunter who collects trophies from across the cosmere. Serves as Shallan's handler and antagonist, pursuing the orga
• Ialai Sadeas — Sadeas's cunning wife who continues scheming against the Kholin family after her husband's death. A master political manipulator who works from the sh
• Restares — Leader of the Sons of Honor, secretly the Herald Kalak in hiding. A broken, terrified immortal who founded the organization to bring back the Heralds'
• Malata — A Dustbringer Radiant who secretly serves Taravangian and the Diagram. Bonded to a spren but uses her powers to advance the Diagram's agenda rather th
• Lirin — Kaladin's father and a skilled surgeon in Hearthstone. A committed pacifist whose moral opposition to violence creates deep tension with Kaladin's rol
• Hesina — Kaladin's mother and Lirin's wife. A lighteyed woman who married down out of love. Practical and warm, she mediates between Kaladin and Lirin's confli
• Turinad Sebarial — An Alethi highprince who cultivates a lazy, hedonistic reputation while being surprisingly competent. Provides comic relief but proves a reliable ally
• Lyn — A Windrunner scout and one of the first women to serve in the Alethi military. Associated with Bridge Four, she represents the changing social order u
• Zahel — A grumpy ardent swordmaster at the Kholin warcamp who is secretly the Worldhopper Vasher from Nalthis. Ancient and knowledgeable, he knows far more ab
• Azure — A mysterious Worldhopper who leads the Wall Guard in Kholinar's defense. Actually Vivenna from Nalthis, she carries a strange aluminum sword and pursu
• Cultivation — The Shard of growth and change on Roshar, a dragon in origin who plays the longest game. She pruned Dalinar's memories, groomed Taravangian to replace
• El — A deeply unsettling Fused known as 'He Who Quiets,' distinguished by his lack of carapace rhythms. Ambitious and alien even by Fused standards, he see
• Tien — Kaladin's younger brother whose death in a bridge crew defined Kaladin's deepest wound. A gentle boy who loved rocks and light, he was conscripted as
• Cord — Rock's brave daughter who becomes a Shardbearer and carries on her father's legacy. Her Horneater name is Hualinam'lunanaki'akilu, and she proves hers
• Adrotagia — Taravangian's longtime confidant and head of the Diagram's scholarly operations. Practical and unsentimental, she helps execute the Diagram's ruthless
• Palona — Sebarial's sharp-tongued Herdazian mistress who functionally manages his household. Not formally his wife but runs his warcamp operations with brisk e
• Laral — Kaladin's childhood friend from Hearthstone who married a lighteyes. She represents the life Kaladin might have had and the rigid social divisions of

Locations

• Roshar — A storm-scoured planet where crem-encrusted landscapes shelter retractable life, spren manifest from human emotion, and the echoes of a shattered god
• Alethkar — The most militaristic kingdom on Roshar, ruled by lighteyed highprinces under the Kholin dynasty — a nation that defines itself through war and the Th
• Kholinar — Ancient capital of Alethkar, seat of the Kholin dynasty — a walled fortress city that fell to the Fused and their Singer armies, its Oathgate corrupte
• Hearthstone — A small rural town in northern Alethkar — Kaladin's home, where his father Lirin practices surgery and where the weight of darkeyes' lives under light
• The Shattered Plains — A vast expanse of plateaus separated by bottomless chasms — the killing field where Alethi highprinces waged a war of attrition against the Parshendi
• The Warcamps — Ten semi-permanent military settlements on the western edge of the Shattered Plains — each highprince's camp a small city of soldiers, merchants, and
• The Chasms — Deep, narrow valleys between the plateaus of the Shattered Plains — dark, flooded during highstorms, and hiding both danger and unexpected intimacy.
• Narak — The central plateau of the Shattered Plains and the Listener capital — where the Parshendi made their last stand and summoned the Everstorm that chang
• Urithiru — The ancient tower city of the Knights Radiant, ten tiers tall, hidden in the mountains — rediscovered and now the coalition's headquarters, powered by
• Jah Keved — A Vorin kingdom west of Alethkar, second in military power — Shallan's homeland, torn apart by civil war after its king was assassinated by Szeth.
• Azir — A bureaucratic empire in western Roshar ruled by viziers and paperwork — where the Prime Aqasix is selected by essay competition and Lift steals food
• Thaylenah — An island nation of long-eyebrowed traders and sailors — home to Thaylen City's ancient Oathgate and the site of the desperate Battle of Thaylen Field
• Shinovar — The western land behind the mountains, shielded from highstorms — a place with soil, grass, and horses that looks like another world entirely. Szeth's
• Kharbranth — The City of Bells, carved into seaside cliffs — home to the Palanaeum, Roshar's greatest library, and secretly ruled by Taravangian and his Diagram.
• Shadesmar — The Cognitive Realm — a mirror world where thought defines reality, solid ground becomes an ocean of glass beads, and spren live in cities built from
• Lasting Integrity — A fortress-city of honorspren in Shadesmar — where Adolin Kholin stood trial to convince spren who hate humans to join the war against Odium.
• The Horneater Peaks — Sacred mountains with hot springs that serve as perpendicularities to Shadesmar — homeland of Rock and the Unkalaki people, who can see spren.
• The Purelake — A vast, shallow inland sea — warm, shin-deep water stretching to the horizon, where laid-back fishers wade barefoot and refuse to worry about anything
• Aimia — A mysterious island continent, mostly destroyed and fiercely guarded — home of the Sleepless swarms and the enigmatic Siah Aimians who cannot be perma
• Emul — A southern Rosharan nation that became the primary theater of the Singer war — where the coalition's armies clash with Odium's forces in grinding conv

Items

• Shardblades — Weapons of immense power — dead spren frozen in blade form, summoned in ten heartbeats. They cut through anything except living flesh, which they seve
• Shardplate — Magical plate armor that enhances strength and blocks Shardblade cuts — ancient suits cracked and reassembled over millennia, with living Plate made o
• Nightblood — A sentient black sword from another world, inscribed 'Destroy Evil' — it devours Investiture ravenously and is possibly the most dangerous weapon in t
• Honorblades — The original Surgebinding weapons of the ten Heralds — they grant Radiant powers without a Nahel bond but consume Stormlight at a ruinous rate.
• Soulcasters — Fabrials worn on the hand that enable Soulcasting — transforming one substance into another by convincing an object's cognitive identity to change. Th
• Spanreeds — Communication fabrials using paired pens — what one writes, the other reproduces across any distance. Roshar's telegraph system, essential for militar
• Oathgates — Ancient transportation platforms built by the Knights Radiant — ten paired gateways connecting major cities to Urithiru, requiring a Radiant with a li
• Stormlight Gems — Gemstones infused with Stormlight during highstorms — serving as currency, light source, and fuel for Surgebinding and fabrials. Ten polestone types,
• Dawnshard — Primordial Commands used in the Shattering of Adonalsium — power beyond Shards, beyond gods. Rysn holds one. 'CHANGE' is one known Command.
• The Nahel Bond — The magical bond between a spren and a human that grants Surgebinding — requiring sworn Ideals, deepening with each oath, and killing the spren if bro

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