78 pages • 2-hour read
Words of Radiance
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Background
Series Context: The Mythology and Fantasy of The Stormlight Archive
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, illness or death, physical abuse, and enslavement.
As a high fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive contains a world constructed through a vast mythology of magic. The primary manifestation of magic in the world of the series is Stormlight. Stormlight is energy produced by the highstorms that rage across the continent of Roshar, controlled by a powerful spren called the Stormfather. Like other spren, the Stormfather is a manifestation of nature and human beliefs and emotion, representing a splinter of the Alethi god, the murdered Almighty. The Almighty was killed by his mortal enemy, Vex Odium, who controls the Everstorm, the inverse of highstorms. Highstorms come fairly regularly and can be predicted, except for the brief time of year when they stop and are replaced by a constant drizzle called the Weeping. Stormlight charges the gemstones the people of The Stormlight Archive use for light and currency, which are embedded in spheres, and offers a power source to Surgebinders. Surgebinders are those who bond with spren, the manifestation of natural forces. This symbiotic relationship allows Surgebinders to use Stormlight to obtain superhuman qualities, healing powers, and the ability to manipulate the world around them. Such powers include lashing, the manipulation of gravity, and Lightweaving, the ability to control light and create images.
In the past, Surgebinders joined different orders of the Knights Radiant based on their skills and, under the direction of the Heralds, fought the Voidbringers. Voidbringers are the enemies of humanity, and their battles against humanity were known as Desolations. However, at some point in the past, the Knights Radiant betrayed the trust of humanity and abandoned their posts, leaving humanity defenseless. These Knights wielded Shardblades and wore Shardplates. Powered by Stormlight, these weapons and accompanying armor are near indestructible. The Shardblades themselves can cut through any solid object; if a Shardblade cuts through a limb, the limb loses life, but if it cuts through spine or head, the soul is severed. Even though the Radiants disappeared, the Desolations ended, as the Heralds, powerful and immortal beings, left the world, changing the interactions between their realm and that of Roshar that enabled such devastation. However, during Words of Radiance, one of the Heralds returns, and the Voidbringers and Surgebinders return. Jasnah discovers that the Parshendi and parshmen can become Voidbringers, and Shallan witnesses this transformation when lightning-like red spren possess them, making their eyes glow red and granting them the power to summon the Everstorm.
Series Context: The World of The Stormlight Archive
The Stormlight Archives follows characters across the many kingdoms of Roshar, focusing primarily on the events happening in Alethkar. Alethkar is a kingdom comprised of 10 princedoms, led by highprinces loosely united under the king, Elhokar. In Words of Radiance, each highprince is stationed at the Shattered Plains, where they drove the Parshendi after their assassination of Elhokar’s father, Gavilar. Now, the Alethi seek to destroy the Parshendi and fulfill the Vengeance Pact that requires them by honor to avenge Gavilar. However, the princes do not trust each other and thus do not attack the Parshendi head-on. Instead, they hunt for gemstones, like the Parshendi do, and fight over them. The Shattered Plains are home to chasmfiends, large crustaceans that pupate on the plateaus, creating chrysalises. While inside, they are vulnerable, and both the Alethi and Parshendi seek to cut them open, claiming the gemhearts that grow inside chasmfiends. These gemhearts are then cut for ornamentation, currency, and light, as they can hold Stormlight. When a chrysalis is spotted, whatever highprince is closest takes his army to try and win the gemheart, often clashing with the Parshendi who have the same goal. This distraction keeps the Alethi from uniting around a common plan of war.
Another defining feature of Alethi society is the social hierarchy defined by the color of people’s eyes. In Alethkar, those with lighteyes are upper class and enjoy privilege and status. All ruling families and Shardbearers—those who possess both Shardplate and Shardblade—are lighteyes. Below them are those with darkeyes, who comprise the working class, the bulk of soldiers, and enslaved people. Within this system are dahns, further gradations of status that separate the lighteyes and some upper darkeyes from each other in society. It is possible to climb up in this system, but the job a person possesses often defines that person’s dahn. In society, lighteyes enjoy access to wealth and leisure and can abuse those below them with impunity. They are insulated from justice, whereas darkeyes are often severely criticized and even punished for minor transgressions. Alethkar depends on a system of enslavement, in which the enslaved parshmen, closely related to the Parshendi, keep the economy and society running. The Parshendi can change their form of being—including both their body type and their state of mind—under certain circumstances, but they can only hold one form at a time, and the majority across the continent are in “slaveform,” which makes them obedient, quiet, and dependent.
Series Context: The Stormlight Archive: The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance is the second novel in The Stormlight Archive and the sequel to The Way of Kings. The Way of Kings primarily follows Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar at the beginnings of their journeys. Dalinar Kholin is the most powerful highprince in Alethkar and uncle of King Elhokar. When his brother, Gavilar, was murdered during a feast six years prior, Dalinar was drunk and could not defend him, filling him with the desire to see the Vengeance Pact against the Parshendi fulfilled. At the Shattered Plains, Dalinar leads his armies but suffers from visions during highstorms, in which he hears the voice of the Almighty tell him to unite. He believes that the Almighty refers to the highprinces, and he works to convince them to join him in fighting the Parshendi. Highprince Sadeas agrees, but when they go to fight the Parshendi together, Sadeas withdraws and traps Dalinar and his army on a plateau. They are doomed to die until Kaladin bravely brings a bridge back. This betrayal fuels both Dalinar and Adolin through Words of Radiance.
In The Way of Kings, Shallan joins the scholar Jasnah Kholin as her ward, convincing her that she means to study. In reality, she is with Jasnah to steal her soulcaster and replace her family’s broken one. A soulcaster is a device that allows its user to transform any material into another. Shallan’s family’s wealth depends on using a soulcaster to turn earth to marble, and with her father now dead and their soulcaster broken, creditors and others are threatening Shallan’s brothers. Though Shallan manages to steal it, her deception is revealed, and Jasnah abandons her until Shallan proves to Jasnah that she has similar magical abilities to the ones Jasnah keeps secret. Jasnah informs Shallan of her discovery that Voidbringers are returning, and they decide to work together.
Meanwhile, Kaladin is enslaved in Highprince Sadeas’s bridge crews. Sadeas uses unprotected enslaved people to move his bridges so the Parshendi will kill them instead of his soldiers. It is a ruthless, doomed job. Kaladin is a highly trained soldier and surgeon, but after tension with the elite in his town forces him and his younger brother into Brightlord Amaram’s army, Kaladin’s life changes course. His brother dies, and he devotes himself to protecting others. When he kills a Shardbearer protecting Amaram, he refuses the weapon, and Amaram takes it, killing all witnesses and enslaving Kaladin to keep his honorable reputation intact. Now, at the Shattered Plains, Kaladin trains his bridge crew and finds a way for them to survive, angering those above them. He also discovers that he has an honorspren, Syl, who gives him special abilities. With these, he plans for his crew to escape, but he jeopardizes their freedom to save Dalinar and his army. In return, Dalinar trades his Shardblade for the bridgemen’s freedom.
Another important figure in The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance is Szeth-son-son-Velano. He is from Shinovar, a kingdom on the west coast of Roshar, and is Truthless, meaning he was banished for lying and is now forced to assassinate whoever his master tells him to kill, without question. He uses an honorblade, one of the original blades of the Heralds, which acts as a Shardblade. The blade grants him the powers of a Surgebinder, and he is instructed by the Parshendi to kill King Gavilar, causing the war between them and the Alethi. King Taravangian of Kharbranth later becomes his master and sends him to kill influential rulers across the continent.
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