Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance is the second novel in the high fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson. It is the sequel to The Way of Kings and is followed by Oathbringer, Rhythm of War, and Wind and Truth. It was originally published on March 4, 2014, by Tor. It enjoyed critical success on its publication, winning the 2015 David Gemmel Legend Award for best novel. Brandon Sanderson is a popular fantasy and high fantasy author whose other popular works include The Mistborn Saga (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages) and Elantris. Words of Radiance follows the characters of The Way of Kings as they continue to battle against the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains, though the threats to their world begin to worsen. The novel is known for its exceptional world-building and character development and explores themes such as The Burden of Responsibility, The Construction of Personal Reality, and Inequality Through Social Hierarchy.

This guide references the 2014 paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of mental illness, death by suicide, animal death, graphic violence, illness or death, physical abuse, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

Words of Radiance begins directly after The Way of Kings concludes. Jasnah Kholin and her ward, Shallan Davar, take a ship from Kharbranth to the Shattered Plains with two goals in mind. The first is to warn Jasnah’s family and the Alethi that the parshmen, the enslaved forces of the kingdom, have the potential to turn into the dangerous Voidbringers of myth. The second is to find a way to Urithiru, the capital city of the Knights Radiant, the ancient order that fought against the Voidbringers. On their journey, Shallan discovers that she has a spren—a magical helper that represents a fragment of the Almighty. Spren take different forms, and hers, named Pattern, is a liespren, drawn to her because of the lies she tells about herself. Pattern helps her to manipulate light, a magical technique known as Lightweaving. Jasnah also coordinates Shallan’s betrothal to her nephew, Adolin. Before they can reach the Shattered Plains, Jasnah is murdered by mysterious men, and Shallan uses her soulcasting abilities to transform their ship into water to escape.

She wakes alone on the shore with nothing but Jasnah’s trunk. She finds a caravan transporting enslaved people, and she convinces the people in charge of the caravan to bring her to the Shattered Plains. On their way, they are pursued by deserters from the Alethi armies at the Shattered Plains, though Shallan convinces them to support her and join forces with another caravan. A woman from this new caravan, Tyn, takes her in and trains her to be a conwoman, though when they reach the Shattered Plains, Shallan kills Tyn after discovering that Tyn’s men are responsible for killing Jasnah. She decides to meet Tyn’s organization in disguise in the warcamps.

Meanwhile, at the Shattered Plains, Dalinar Kholin plots with his family to unite the Alethi highprinces and make a final attack on a nonhuman race called the Parshendi, as troubling visions tell him he is running out of time before disaster. He has his son, Adolin, duel others for their Shardblades while he works to diplomatically convince the highprinces to work with him. His new bodyguard, Kaladin Stormblessed, supports and watches over the Kholin family, training his surgebinding abilities with his honorspren, Syl, when he can. Kaladin is a darkeyes, meaning that he belongs to the lower orders of this rigidly hierarchical society. He does not trust the upper classes, known as lighteyes, because of his past, and when his past arrives in the form of Brightlord Amaram, he seethes. Amaram killed his friends and doomed him to enslavement to claim a Shardblade, and now Dalinar seeks to have Amaram recreate the Knights Radiant.

One night, as Kaladin watches over the Kholin family, including Dalinar’s nephew, King Elhokar, he senses danger and evacuates the family. In the hall, they meet the Assassin in White, Szeth-son-son-Velano, who killed Dalinar’s brother Gavilar and began the conflict with the Parshendi. Szeth comes to kill Dalinar, and he nearly does with his Shardblade, until Kaladin tackles him out of an opening in the wall. Szeth flees, terrified to see Kaladin use the powers of a Surgebinder. Meanwhile, across the Shattered Plains, Eshonai, the military leader of the Parshendi, tests out a new power and transforms into stormform, meaning she is possessed by a lightning-like red spren. She becomes violent and power-hungry, telling everyone that if they all transform, they can summon a storm and wipe out the Alethi, ending their suffering. She forsakes thoughts of peace and commits a coup, forcing her people to follow.

In the aftermath of the assassination, Kaladin trains more seriously, both in defense against Shardblades and with his Surgebinding powers. He learns to replicate Szeth’s skills, running along walls and flying by manipulating the gravity around him. As he trains, one of his friends, Moash, tells Kaladin that Elhokar killed his grandparents by imprisoning them to help a friend get ahead in business. Moash now wants revenge and joins a group that seeks to assassinate Elhokar and replace him with Dalinar. Kaladin tells him to stop but will not report him. Moash asks Kaladin to join.

Shallan arrives at the warcamps and meets the Kholin family, preserving her betrothal to Adolin and delivering news of Jasnah’s death. She stays in another highprince’s warcamps and meets with the Ghostbloods, a secret society that employed Tyn in their quest to uncover the Parshendi’s secrets. During this meeting, she uses Lightweaving to disguise herself as a darkeyes woman named Veil. When she is instructed to investigate Amaram, she breaks into his manor and sees maps that support her theory that there are ruins of a city on the Shattered Plains. However, this leads her to realize that Urithiru is not on the Shattered Plains; instead, the Shattered Plains house an Oathgate that can transport her to Urithiru. As she and Adolin grow closer, she suggests to him that he may be able to use an obscure dueling practice—the Right to Challenge—to take revenge against Sadeas, the highprince who opposes Dalinar’s plans.

Adolin struggles to convince others to duel him, everyone knowing that he is trying to take their Shardblades and Shardplate. He is finally able to convince the nephew of a highprince to duel him, and he embarrasses the man as he wins. Angered, the man’s cousin wants retribution, and Adolin promises him that he will duel and that his opponent can bring whoever he wants. This proves to be a mistake as the man, Relis, brings three other opponents to the duel, and Adolin is severely outmatched. They plan to hurt him, and though Dalinar protests, the judge will not stop the duel. Adolin is allowed two companions, and his brother, the untrained Renarin, joins but is of no help. Kaladin also jumps into the arena and secretly uses his Surgebinding skills to help Adolin win the duel. Following Shallan’s suggestion, Elhokar grants Adolin a Right to Challenge, an honor bestowed on a champion who completes an astonishing feat in the arena. He challenges Sadeas, hoping to kill him, but when Kaladin demands a duel against Amaram, Elhokar arrests him, and Sadeas escapes.

Elhokar throws Kaladin in jail, and Dalinar begs Kaladin to move past his need for revenge. While he sits in prison, Kaladin comes to agree with Moash that Elhokar is not a good leader. When he is released, after Elhokar calms down, he finds that Adolin sat in a prison cell as well, protesting Kaladin’s treatment. Adolin gifts Kaladin Shardplate and a Shardblade, but he refuses and gives them to Moash. He also promises to help Moash assassinate Elhokar.

Peace talks with the Parshendi fail, and Dalinar commits to a final assault on their city in the center of the Shattered Plains to end the war, as the countdown in his visions warns him that disaster approaches. He plans to attack the city on the day the countdown stops, during the Weeping, a time of year when highstorms do not come. On an expedition to the Shattered Plains to plot their course, Kaladin and Shallan fall into the chasm when a bridge collapses as part of an assassination attempt on Dalinar. Both survive, but Syl, Kaladin’s honorspren, disappears, disapproving of Kaladin’s new commitment to kill the king. Shallan and Kaladin make their way through the chasms back to the camp, with only two days until a highstorm floods it. As they walk, Shallan draws a map as she passes plateaus and finds that the Shattered Plains are symmetrical, supporting her theory that they are actually the ruins of an ancient city, with the Oathgate in the middle. When they are attacked by a chasmfiend, Shallan gives Kaladin a Shardblade, and he kills it, though it seriously wounds his leg.

Shallan then uses the Shardblade to climb up the wall of the chasm and carve out a small cave as the highstorm hits. Kaladin climbs up, and they hide. During the storm, Kaladin sees the Stormfather in the sky. The Stormfather tells Kaladin that Syl is dead, killed by Kaladin, and that he will never see her or use her power again. When the highstorm passes, they return to the warcamps, where Shallan shows Dalinar the map she makes and agrees to go on the assault against the Parshendi, knowing that the Oathgate will likely be their only means of escape. Kaladin must stay behind, his leg too injured, but before Dalinar leaves, he reveals that he believes Kaladin’s accusations against Amaram and dismisses Amaram.

After days of traveling, Dalinar’s army, joined by only three other highprinces, reaches the center of the Shattered Plains as the countdown ends. A storm begins to develop as the Parshendi, with glowing red eyes, begin to sing. Dalinar launches an attack, and when a scout points out an error in Shallan’s map, she discovers that the Oathgate is nearby, on a circular plateau that disrupts the map’s symmetry. She ventures to the Plateau, and with Adolin’s brother Renarin, cuts her way into a ruined building, finding the Oathgate. Meanwhile, Adolin fights the Parshendi and defeats the singers. The Parshendi’s singing works, and the storm they have summoned, the Everstorm, approaches. Adolin faces Eshonai. Taking advantage of her ambition to defeat him, he distracts her so she falls into a chasm. The battle done, he turns to see Szeth returned.

Back at the warcamps, Kaladin learns that Moash’s assassination plans are in play but realizes that he cannot let Elhokar die. He rushes to the castle and protects the king, though his injuries make him no match for Moash. He declares that he will protect everyone who needs him, even those he hates, and his oath is enough to revive Syl, who heals him and becomes a Shardblade in his hands. He sees the storm on the Shattered Plains and flies to it. He arrives just as Szeth is about to kill Dalinar and Adolin. Szeth and Kaladin battle in the air, and Szeth is incredulous as Kaladin’s abilities make clear that the Surgebinders have returned. Szeth was condemned to become an assassin because he claimed that the Surgebinders would return. This claim was held to be false, rendering him Truthless in the eyes of his people. His role as an assassin is his punishment. Now he realizes that his original claim was true, and therefore, he never needed to be an assassin. In despair, he gives up and lets the storm take him. As they battle, Shallan manages to activate the Oathgate and evacuate everyone to Urithiru, a solitary tower in the mountains.

After the battle, Kaladin joins Shallan and Dalinar in Urithiru. Dalinar speaks with the Stormfather from the roof of the tower and convinces him to make him a Surgebinder. With his new power, he, Kaladin, Shallan, and Renarin, who reveals that he also possesses abilities, found the new Knights Radiant. The storm that the Parshendi summoned, though, will return, turning any parshmen it passes over into Voidbringers. They vow to do all they can to save people.