Words of Radiance characters

Appears from the start

The former slave and bridgeman revealed at the close of the previous book as a reborn Knight Radiant, able to draw the light of the storms into himself and defy gravity. Now captain of Highprince Dalinar's honor guard, with his free crew of Bridge Four at his side and the spirit Syl bonded to him, he remains fiercely protective of the men he leads and deeply distrustful of the lighteyed nobility who once ruined him.

Also known as Sylphrena

Appears from the start

The wind-spirit bonded to Kaladin, now clearly far more than a simple spren: an honorspren whose growing awareness is tied to the oaths Kaladin keeps. Loyal, curious, and quick with a joke, she is bound to honor itself, and her wellbeing rises and falls with his choices.

Appears from the start

The young noblewoman and gifted artist who, by the end of the previous book, had begun to manifest the forbidden powers of a Knight Radiant, able to weave light into convincing illusions and to transform matter. Trained by the scholar Jasnah, she carries her patron's dangerous research and a hidden burden of family secrets, hiding fear and grief behind a quick, disarming wit.

First appears in chapter 4

The spren bonded to Shallan, a being that appears as an intricate, shifting geometric pattern and speaks in a soft hum. Fascinated by lies and by the truths behind them, he is her constant companion and the source of her Radiant gifts, earnest and often baffled by human behavior.

Also known as The Blackthorn

Appears from the start

The highprince whose storm-visions were confirmed, at the last book's end, as genuine messages rather than madness. Convinced that an ancient enemy is returning, he is determined to reunite the fractured Alethi highprinces and to somehow refound the lost Knights Radiant, guided by an old code of honor that his rivals see as weakness to exploit.

Appears from the start

The widowed queen mother of Alethkar, mother of King Elhokar and widow of the murdered King Gavilar. A brilliant scholar and engineer fascinated by the mechanical magic of the age, she is sharp, worldly, and drawn to Dalinar, sharing his conviction that the visions carry a real warning.

Appears from the start

Dalinar's elder son, a famed duelist and Shardbearer, charming and impulsive and forever failing at courtship. Devoted to his father, he defends the Kholin name in the dueling arena and in politics, uneasy about the strange path his family is walking but loyal to it without question.

Appears from the start

Dalinar's quiet younger son, long kept from battle by a blood weakness. Thoughtful and easy to overlook, he yearns to prove himself useful to his warrior family and watches the Kholins' growing entanglement with old powers with anxious interest.

Appears from the start

The brilliant, heretical scholar-princess, daughter of King Gavilar, who took Shallan as her ward and who has secretly been one of the returned Knights Radiant. She has spent years researching the ancient enemy she believes is coming back, willing to do ruthless things in pursuit of the truth.

Also known as The Assassin in White, Szeth-son-son-Vallano

Appears from the start

The Shin assassin bound to obey whoever holds his oath-stone, wielder of surgebinding and a Shardblade, who murdered King Gavilar and terrorizes the eastern kingdoms. Anguished by every killing yet unable to refuse, he has been turned by his current master toward the Alethi leadership, hunting kings.

Appears from the start

The elderly, gentle king of Kharbranth, famous across Roshar for his charity, his hospitals, and his seemingly simple, kindly nature. A monarch who prefers good works to warfare, he is generally regarded as harmless and easily led, the least dangerous of the world's rulers.

Appears from the start

The scheming highprince who betrayed Dalinar on the battlefield in the previous book, leaving his army to die. Now the Kholins' open enemy, he continues to plot for power at court, confident and vindictive, treating the war and the kingdom as instruments of his own ambition.

First appears in chapter 2

A warleader and explorer of the Parshendi, the alien people who killed King Gavilar and now fight the Alethi on the Shattered Plains. Curious about the wider world and reluctant about the endless war, she is one of the few of her people to have seen the human lands, and she carries the weight of decisions that could save or doom her nation.

Appears from the start

One of Kaladin's closest friends from Bridge Four, a skilled and driven soldier who has risen with the crew into Dalinar's service and begun training with Shards. Beneath his loyalty burns an old, bitter hatred of the lighteyed nobility, and a private grievance he has never let go.

Appears from the start

A highlord widely admired as a rare man of true honor, favored by the powerful and lately drawn into Dalinar's circle. To Kaladin, however, he is the officer who once betrayed him, stole a fortune from him, and had him branded a slave to hide the crime, a face the world praises and Kaladin cannot forgive.