Stormlight Archive Recap: World and History

Stormlight Recap Series: Main Characters | Other Notable Characters | Outstanding Mysteries

Welcome, welcome! One of the most common questions we see prior to any Stormlight Archive release is a request for good recaps of the previous books. Not everybody has time for rereads of the full series, of course. If you want to read Wind and Truth this December and the last Stormlight book you cracked open was four years ago... you might be in for a bumpy ride! Over on the Coppermind wiki you can find detailed chapter summaries for each book. If you don't have the time for a full reread but want something thorough, that's your best option. You can also check out our SpanReads podcast series, which will feature Stormlight Archive before Wind and Truth releases. And if you'd like something visual don't miss our Interactive Map and Timeline of Roshar!

But if you want something brief? Well, you've found the right place! This series of four articles will serve as a concise overview of the previous Stormlight Archive books. Rather than just giving a detailed book summary, I'm going to break things down by topic. Over these four articles we will cover: (1) the world and its historical background, (2) the main characters going into Wind and Truth, (3) other notable characters, and (4)some outstanding mysteries to keep an eye on! I'll try to link Coppermind articles, so if you find yourself itching for more details on some topic it will only be a click away. (though beware of spoilers for other Cosmere books) I certainly don't intend to cover EVERY notable detail, but if you feel like something major is missing let me know in the comments.

This article will have spoilers for the Stormlight Archive, but there will NOT be spoilers for other Cosmere books.

Let's do this!

ROSHAR

Let's begin with a quick overview of the world itself. Roshar is a harsh, rocky world with colossal "highstorms" sweeping across the continent on a regular basis, but the planet is teeming with alien life that has adapted to this extreme environment. Trees brace for storms, grass retracts into the ground, and native animals have hardened shells. Also native to Roshar is a sapient, humanoid species, called the singers (called parshmen, Parshendi, or listeners in the early books). The flora and fauna aren't the only alien aspect of Roshar however. Forces of nature and ideas come to life in the form of magical "spren", spirit-like creatures which can appear out of nowhere drawn by human emotions or acts of nature. These spren are but a glimpse into an entirely separate, overlapping realm called the Cognitive Realm, or simply Shadesmar, where the spren have more fully realized form. The various sapient species of spren even have cities, culture, and a civilization of their own.

Spren aren't entirely detached from the Physical Realm however, as they play an important role on several levels. They have formed bonds with animal life, enabling the development of creatures with remarkable size or magical abilities. The native singers have also learned to bond with spren in their own way by taking the spren into a natural gemstone within their bodies (gemhearts), which causes dramatic changes in their psychology and physiology depending on the type of spren. Spren have even developed a special sort of bond with some humans, allowing those humans to access the powers of Surgebinding--manipulation of the Surges, the fundamental forces, like gravity or friction, that drive the world. Behind the magic of Roshar are beings of godlike power, called Shards. Indeed, the spren are fragments of these deities that have developed their own sentience. The Shards themselves are the leftover pieces of an ancient god known as Adonalsium, slain by mortals with the use of the legendary Dawnshards. Each Shard carries one aspect of Adonalsium's nature--now separated from the other Shards which once held each other in balance. There are three Shards of note where Roshar is concerned, each named after that aspect which governs its nature. The first two, Honor and Cultivation, arrived long in the past. The third, Odium, arrived shortly after the original human migration to Roshar. The conflict between these three beings is, at its grandest scale, the story of the Stormlight Archive.

HISTORY

Now we can talk history, and we'll begin with one of the big reveals at the series so far: the humans are the Voidbringers! Well, from a certain point of view. You know how most life on Roshar seems to have lizard-crab-things somewhere in their evolutionary tree? It comes as no surprise that the singers called Roshar home even before Honor and Cultivation came into town. Apparently under the influence of Odium in some way, the humans showed up on Roshar's doorstep after destroying their own previous homeworld (Ashyn, another planet in the same star system) with magic. Honor and Cultivation encouraged the singers to welcome these refugees, but it didn't take long before things went terribly wrong and war broke out. Odium lent some of his power to create the Fused--singer souls who, upon death, could take over the body of another. These beings, effectively immortal and with access to the Surges, were joined by the Regals (singers granted magical "forms of power" by one of Odium's voidspren in their gemhearts), Thunderclasts, and the Unmade. To counter Odium's forces, Honor empowered his Heralds--ten immortal humans with ten powerful Honorblades. The Oathpact was established as a means to limit Odium's forces. Thus began the Desolations.

With each Desolation, Odium's forces would return to Roshar and the war would begin anew. Though the humans were always ultimately victorious the cycle wore down the resolve of the Heralds as they returned to Damnation after each Desolation along with the Fused, where they would be tortured until the point of breaking again. During this time, humans began to ally and bond with intelligent spren. This Nahel bond granted the humans access to Shardblades, Shardplate, and various forms of Surebinding. These Surgebinders organized and became known as the Knights Radiant. With their headquarters in the tower city of Urithiru and their philosophies inspired by Nohadon, author of The Way of Kings, they afforded some stability amid the Desolations. But even they could only do so much. After a series of particularly challenging Desolations, nine of the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact, leaving the tenth--Taln--to face Damnation on his own.

Under Taln's resolve alone the cycle of Desolations nearly halted. After the "Last Desolation", Odium's forces did not gather again for thousands of years. When they did, during the so-called "False Desolation" it was without the support of the Fused, still bound by Taln. The singers were, however, still granted forms of power in this conflict from their leader, the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram. Honor himself was slowly dying, for reasons not entirely known, and the integrity of the Knights Radiant was collapsing with him, but the Knights Radiant were ultimately victorious... At great cost. They captured Ba-Ado-Mishram, intending to prevent the singers from taking forms of power, but this act came with unfathomable unintended consequences. Most of the living singers--all but the listeners, who abandoned their gods and their forms--were stripped of spiritual Identity and Connection, leaving them as near-mindless "parshmen". They were not the only casualty however, as the act also is believed to have left the planet itself with some great wound and to have affected the spren in unexpected ways. Fearing some greater danger, the Knights Radiant and their spren abandoned their oaths--their Shardplate left behind and the spren frozen as Shardblades. This event would become known as the Recreance. 

Time passed, and power was re-consolidated. The Silver Kingdoms of the past warped into the nations of modern Roshar. New religions developed to explain the past and the place of humans on Roshar. In eastern Roshar, the Vorin church developed significant political influence and encouraged extensive revisionist history before Sadees, the Sunmaker, ended their "Heirocracy". And so it was, until the Alethi king Gavilar Kholin discovered a rogue band of intelligent singers…

The novels open with the assassination of Gavilar, Dalinar Kholin's elder brother, at the hand of Szeth, "the Assassin in White"--who was hired by the Parshendi on the very night they planned to sign a peace treaty. Gavilar told Eshonai of his desire to bring back the Fused--something that the Parshendi wanted no part in. While Gavilar's own dealings and motives--which involve several other suspicious groups and machinations--were surrounded in mystery, the result of his assassination was simple for Dalinar and the Alethi, who swore vengeance upon the Parshendi. Thus began the War of Reckoning--with the Alethi laying siege to the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains.

CURRENT EVENTS

Over the course of the novels, we saw Dalinar discover (through visions granted by the Stormfather) that their God, Honor, was dead and that a new Desolation would soon arrive. Dalinar united as many of the Alethi highprinces as he could and assaulted the Parshendi at the center of the Shattered Plains. Though they technically won that battle, the listeners succeeded in mustering the Everstorm, and as the Everstorm swept across Roshar, it restored the minds of the parshmen worldwide. With the Everstorm also came the Voidspren, Fused, and a stronger presence from Odium himself, who organized these former slaves and ignited a global war with the humans. The humans refounded the Knights Radiant and rediscovered the ancient city of Urithiru, with Oathgates allowing for fast travel. Led by Dalinar, a loose coalition was formed between Urithiru, the Alethi refugees, King Taravangian of Kharbranth and Jah Keved, Queen Fen of the island nation Thaylenah, Emperor Yanagawn of Azir, and several smaller states. The two sides ultimately clashed at the Battle of Thaylen Field, where Dalinar seized fragments of Honor's power and temporarily repelled the Shard of Odium.

The war continued for a full year until, as the coalition began a new military campaign to retake occupied Emul, Taravangian betrayed his allies in exchange for the protection of Kharbranth. Urithiru was captured by the Fused Raboniel as a result. With the help of Kaladin, Navani Kholin was able to protect and bond the Sibling, the awakened spren of the tower city, and drive out the invaders. Odium visited Dalinar once more to finalize their agreement to a contest of champions, but then met his sudden demise at the hands of Taravangian--perhaps on the strings of Cultivation herself. Rayse, the once-mortal who held Odium, was dead, and Taravangian himself seized the Shard of Odium.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Much of the past is still a big mystery to us! How did the first Desolation begin? What have the Heralds been up to? Is there more story behind the Recreance that we don't know? What schemes was Gavilar involved in and what was he ultimately trying to do?

And of course, the future of the world hangs in the balance with the contest of champions just ten days away!

That will be all for this time. In the next article we will begin exploring characters! If you found this helpful, make sure to tag your friends or share it around. If you feel like something important was left out, or if you have a question, let us know in the comments. If you haven't visited our forums and Discord server, consider this your welcome! We'd love to hear your voice in the conversation. Until next time, Life before Death!

Check out our other articles in our Stormlight Recap Series: Main Characters | Other Notable Characters | Outstanding Mysteries

Special thanks to the artists whose work was used in this article!

• Dalinar Wind and Truth Concept Art by Petar Penev
• Shallan painting by Michael Whelan
• Honorblades by Antti Hakosari on behalf of Brotherwise Games
• Map of Roshar by Isaac Stewart