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Stormlight Archive Main Characters


Morderkaine

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Thanks to the people over at Fantasy Faction we now have a (mostly) complete list of the main characters in The Stormlight Archive.

About eight minutes into part one of the three part video interview Brandon lists all ten of the major view point characters for the series.

Here is that list:

  • Kaladin
  • Dalinar
  • Adolin
  • Jasnah
  • Shallan
  • Navani
  • Szeth
  • Taravangian
  • Taln
  • Another Herald (unnamed, be he said we've met them)

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from that same interview we have Brandon's pronunciations of those names, which I dare say is definitive.

Shallan = Sha-lan (both long a's)

Kaladin = Kal-a-din

Dalinar = Dal-in-ar

Jasnah = Yas-nah

Szeth = Zeth

Taln = Taln (yep, exactly as it sounds)

Navani = Na-va-ni

Taravangion = Tar-van-gee-on

Adolin = A-doe-lin

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Thank you for posting, I'll have to watch it. So Jasnah's name definitely is from Polish (also Serbian, I think, and they even use that word as a name) "jasna" meaning "bright" (because it's pronounced exactly like that). Cool.

Edited by eri
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Betcha the second Herald is Shalash AkA Baxil's mistress.

I second this idea. Just what I thought, as well! If that's the case, we've met all of the main viewpoint characters, though clearly we can't get much from Shalash until after a few other things have been cleared up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I second this idea. Just what I thought, as well! If that's the case, we've met all of the main viewpoint characters, though clearly we can't get much from Shalash until after a few other things have been cleared up.

I'd say that's a definite possibility. Her name is exactly symetrical, and somewhere in the books Kasbal (i think) makes a reference to how Shallan has the 'perfect' name. Just one letter off from symetrical keeping her name from being "too holy". If vorinism is that strong of an influence can you think of any normal parent naming their child a name that is "too holy"?

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks to the people over at Fantasy Faction we now have a (mostly) complete list of the main characters in The Stormlight Archive.

About eight minutes into part one of the three part video interview Brandon lists all ten of the major view point characters for the series.

Here is that list:

  • Kaladin
  • Dalinar
  • Adolin
  • Jasnah
  • Shallan
  • Navani
  • Szeth
  • Taravangian
  • Taln
  • Another Herald (unnamed, be he said we've met them)

I'm quite disappointed not to see Syl on this list. I was pretty sure she was going to be, not just a major viewpoint character, but one of the "eight to ten" characters whose backstory becomes a major subplot of a book. :(

We've already got a backstory book for Kaladin (although Brandon has explicitly said that, if he does fewer than 10 different characters' backstories, there's a good chance we'll get another Kaladin book at some point. Presumably covering his time in Amaram's army after Tien's death, including the love story that's hinted at in a couple places).

Shallan and Dalinar will be our next two backstories. And it seems pretty glaringly obvious that Jasnah, Szeth, and Taln will get their backstories told eventually too. (Taln's will be the last book, I'm guessing.)

That leaves at least two "major viewpoint characters" who will also be "backstory characters." Any speculations here? My money's on Taravangian and the unnamed Herald, personally. (Adolin, for example, just doesn't seem like he has a mysterious enough past hinted at to become a backstory character.)

... and I'm still hoping that Syl will somehow break into the club, either because Brandon changes his mind about her becoming a major viewpoint, or because she's somehow the reincarnation of a Herald. :P

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Wow, I did not see a couple of those coming. Taravangian getting his own book really blind-sided me. And another Herald? So great! So the question now is, which one is getting the viewpoint? If we have already met them, there are only a couple of canidates. It's between Jezrian, the other herald in the prelude (who for some reason I can't remember the name of.), and possibly Baxil's mistress.

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Shallan and Dalinar will be our next two backstories. And it seems pretty glaringly obvious that Jasnah, Szeth, and Taln will get their backstories told eventually too. (Taln's will be the last book, I'm guessing.)

Actually there is a signing report on the board with the same name here at 17th shard (link-to-thread) that has information straight from Brandon about the order of the first five of the Stormlight Archive books (apparently it's actually two sets of 5-book arcs). The first five books have the following character foci:

1. Kaladin

2. Shallan

3. Szeth

4. Navanni

5. Dalinar

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Hmm, the first Herald that sprang to mind for the last book was Kalak, then Jezrien and then Shalash. I'm sort of hoping it's Kalak because it would in a sense have come full circle, considering the first book starts with him. Or maybe if he's in the epilogue, that would be good too. Heralds are going to be coming out the woodwork fairly soon I think when they hear about Talenel'Elin returning.

Random Challenge: Say "Talenel'Elin" 10 times really fast. :P

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I'll bet it's Elhokar.

I just put a couple things together on this.

Point A: His shardplate gems were drained that one time, in the fight with the Hugenormous crab.

Point B: His paranoia's cause. He's been positive several times that something is watching him. Shallan has the same thing. She has Truthspren that watch her. Kaladin has Sil. I think that Elhokar has some kind of spren watching him. he can tell its there but it's undetectable to normal folk.

Derp. Can't be. Mistook herald for person who could use magic for a second. Been a long day. NM

Edited by Aminar
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Random Challenge: Say "Talenel'Elin" 10 times really fast. :P

Talenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'Elin

Thanks to the wonders of copy paste, I did it flawlessly in 3 seconds! Shorter, if I hadn't made sure to count them out...

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Talenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'Elin

Thanks to the wonders of copy paste, I did it flawlessly in 3 seconds! Shorter, if I hadn't made sure to count them out...

I want to hear a recording of you saying that out loud.

No wonder his friends call him Taln. Or former friends now, as I imagine he's kinda pissed at them for walking out and leaving him alone to be tortured for 4500 years.

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Talenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'ElinTalenel'Elin

Thanks to the wonders of copy paste, I did it flawlessly in 3 seconds! Shorter, if I hadn't made sure to count them out...

I want to hear a recording of you saying that out loud.

SIIIIIIGH. Maybe after work, if I can remember. :P Hopefully the new microphone I bought doesn't make me chipmunk-y like my last one did.

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These aren't all necessarily getting their own book though, right? They're just the main people we will get viewpoints from? I thought he said some people might get 2.

Really excited about Taln's viewpoint though, and I agree that Shalash could be the other Herald.

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These aren't all necessarily getting their own book though, right? They're just the main people we will get viewpoints from? I thought he said some people might get 2.

Really excited about Taln's viewpoint though, and I agree that Shalash could be the other Herald.

he's said kaladin might get a second flashback book, and there's still some of his time as a slave that hasn't been covered... but i think most of those people on the list will be having books with their flashbacks. he can do that and still have room for one other kaladin book, depending on whether or not he does do two herald books.

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  • 1 month later...

Doesn't this confirm that the Heralds are immortal, as well? The actual Heralds are present. Not their descendants, but in the flesh, Heralds. If we've seen other Heralds, they've been around for 4,500 years without the benefit (I use that word very lightly) of being held in Damnation, which could arguably be outside Time/Space, etc.

Which brings me to my question: what are they?

Have we encountered anyone besides Shards (who have no mortal, human forms while holding the Shard) who are immortal without assistance from some other power or trick? i.e. Brandon stated Hoid hasn't lived all the years since Andolasium was shattered. He has been doing something to skip around. TLR wasn't immortal and I dare say he had quite a bit of power.

Also...I agree, I think Shallash might be the other Herald viewpoint. But you never know. We might have seen other Heralds and simply haven't recognized who they are. They've definitely been hiding, so it probably wouldn't be a stretch to say one of the characters is lying about who they are.

Edited by Droz
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although Hoid actually has lived more subjective years then a normal person could, so he has found some way to prolong his life, in addition to skipping forward in time. We don't know how that works.

And I suspect the Heralds had assistance from Honor to make them immortal.

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I remember Brandon making reference to individual Splinters (not Slivers) and how they can have magic of their own. The heralds might be connected to that.

And before someone points out that Honor hasn't been splintered, I've been thinking that when Adonalsium shattered peices smaller than Shards broke off as well. Meaning there may be people on Roshar and throughout the cosmere that hold Splinters. (Maybe that's one reason Brandon doesn't like reffering to "Shardholders"; because then you'd have Splinterholders, which sounds stupid.

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I remember Brandon making reference to individual Splinters (not Slivers) and how they can have magic of their own. The heralds might be connected to that.

And before someone points out that Honor hasn't been splintered, I've been thinking that when Adonalsium shattered peices smaller than Shards broke off as well. Meaning there may be people on Roshar and throughout the cosmere that hold Splinters. (Maybe that's one reason Brandon doesn't like reffering to "Shardholders"; because then you'd have Splinterholders, which sounds stupid.

So are you saying that each of the Heralds holds a Splinter, and that their individual Orders are the magic-users of that Splinter's system? Because these hypothetical Splinters have to be of Honor, because the way to access their power is through "Honoring" oaths. If these Splinters weren't related to Honor then the Radiants wouldn't have to be honorable. If this is not what you were saying, where did I misinterpret your thoughts?

Do we know that Honor hasn't been Splintered? From what we've seen with spren and all it seems likely to me, and haven't seen a quote saying otherwise. Either way, I don't think there were Splinters that are unrelated to any of the Shards, 16 is fundamental to the cosmere so saying, "There were 16 big pieces and then a whole bunch of random smaller pieces that don't fit with the others" seems inelegant. If so then all these Splinters would need their own unique intent, separate from the intents of the others. My main problem with it is the messiness it would create, with all sorts of random intents flying around. As always I could be totally off-base here, but Brandon's systems have always seem very orderly to me, and introducing random splinters throws everything into chaos.

Also, I think the reason Brandon doesn't like the word Shardholder is because he thinks people will mix it with Shardbearer. Also it seems he doesn't separate the Shard from it's holder as much as we do, they become the Shard, so to speak, so they don't need a different title.

I like the new perspectives though, and I'm interested to hear your responses.

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