Kaladin
also known as Stormblessed
A young darkeyed squadleader in Brightlord Amaram's army — taller than his men, dark-haired, dark-eyed, said to be lucky. Carries a slightly longer shortspear with two knives sheathed on the haft. His squad has the lowest casualties on the field and he places himself at the front rather than in rank. SA:WoK:Ch 1
Presence
appears mentioned absent
Known facts
- reputationAmong his men he is called Stormblessed. His squad lost only one man in their last battle; soldiers say he is lucky and that he fights like a storm.SA:WoK:Ch 1
- pay-to-runnersKaladin pours most of his pay into bribing field runners to carry his wounded off the battlefield — work that is otherwise reserved for the lighteyed wounded.SA:WoK:Ch 1
- recruits-the-youngHe hates to see barely-trained boys sent to battle and pays to pull them into his squad. About half a dozen of his current men were brought in this way; Dallet thinks they all remind Kaladin of someone.SA:WoK:Ch 1
- branded-deserterOn his last day in Amaram's army, Kaladin was given the slave brand — the deserter glyphpair — on his forehead. He believes that 'honor died' that same day.SA:WoK:Ch 2
- shash-brandHis third forehead brand, fresh and infected when this chapter opens, is the shash glyph: 'Dangerous.' His most recent master gave it to him after a failed escape attempt involving twenty armed slaves, then sold him at a steep discount.SA:WoK:Ch 2
- escapesTen escape attempts in eight months, fleeing five different masters. He believes no slave with a forehead brand can stay free for long.SA:WoK:Ch 2
- surgeon-fatherHis father trained him to recognize and treat injuries — burns, the grinding coughs, rotspren-fouled wounds — well enough that he diagnoses other slaves on instinct.SA:WoK:Ch 2
- the-deadHe has lost everyone he tried to protect, naming Tien, Tukks, Dallet, and Cenn in his grief, plus ten successive groups of fellow slaves.SA:WoK:Ch 2
- ageNineteen years old. He joined Amaram's army four years before, when he was about fifteen.SA:WoK:Ch 4
- father-stormwardenHis father kept stormwardenry as a hobby — Kaladin can predict highstorms by date with the same calculations.SA:WoK:Ch 4
- wants-amaram-deadHe privately admits to himself that, given a chance, he would gut Amaram with his own hands and twist his head from his neck.SA:WoK:Ch 4
- bridge-four-assignedSold to Sadeas's army by Tvlakv as a deserter, Hashal marks Kaladin for special treatment and assigns him to Bridge Four — the worst of the bridge crews — without sandals or a vest.SA:WoK:Ch 6
- first-bridge-runSurvives his first bridge run, the only frontline carrier of Bridge Four still alive after the Parshendi volleys. He collapses on the plateau and is nearly left for dead before Syl rouses him.SA:WoK:Ch 6
- victim-philosophyLoses the thread of his father's two-kinds-of-people speech and concludes he belongs to a third group — the ones who exist only to be killed or saved. He stops learning bridgemen's names.SA:WoK:Ch 9
- childhood-surgeon-trainingApprenticed to his father Lirin from age eight; at ten he already wipes blood, hands knives, and recognizes when a finger must be amputated rather than saved.SA:WoK:Ch 10
- childhood-name-kalPrefers the shorter "Kal" because the full Kaladin sounds like a lighteyes's name — and being different in Hearthstone is already painful enough.SA:WoK:Ch 10
- honor-chasm-decisionWalks out to the Honor Chasm in the riddens of a highstorm, blackbane crushed in one hand and Syl cupped in the other, ready to jump — then turns back, choosing to try once more for the bridgemen he is now responsible for.SA:WoK:Ch 11
- bridgeleader-takeoverReturns from the chasm, throttles Gaz in the wet bridge yard, and seizes leadership of Bridge Four — bribing Gaz one mark in five and reclaiming his full bridgeman pay rather than putting it toward his slave debt.SA:WoK:Ch 11
- drags-bridge-four-outThe morning after the Honor Chasm, hauls Moash out of his blanket as an example and tells Bridge Four there will be no more sleeping in — they will train at running the bridge each morning before chores so they can carry it faster in the final stretch.SA:WoK:Ch 14
- primary-duty-keep-aliveDeclares to the assembled crew that as bridgeleader his primary duty is to keep them alive — that since he cannot stop the Parshendi arrows, he must instead make the men strong enough to outrun them. Intends that Bridge Four never lose another man.SA:WoK:Ch 14
- borrows-carpenter-plankWhen the crew laughs him off, Kaladin borrows a heavy plank from the carpenter's yard and runs it across camp on his own shoulder for hours to demonstrate. Rock suspects it of being a lightweight ringer and pays out a chip when he lifts it himself and finds it real.SA:WoK:Ch 14
- quarterstaff-momentAt twelve, watching the older Hearthstone boys spar, young Kal asks to try a round — and finds for one instant that the quarterstaff fits his hands. He freezes against Jost at the end and takes a blow to the side, but the moment of clarity sings to him long afterward.SA:WoK:Ch 16
- first-patient-deathAt thirteen, two months after Wistiow's death, finds Miasal bleeding out from a compound fracture. Tournames the artery with his shirt, holds it closed with his fingers, takes the heated knife from Valama and cauterizes — and saves the leg. The girl dies anyway of a head wound he hadn't seen. Lirin tells him afterward, sitting on the surgery steps, that he must learn when to care and when to let go — that he'll grow calluses.SA:WoK:Ch 19
- morning-after-first-bridge-runWakes battered after the previous day's run, checks his three wounded (Leyten hanging on, Hobber grateful, Dabbid in battle shock), washes his own wound, and goes back out to walk the plank again — slower, but unwilling to embarrass himself by falling. The other bridge crews watch with outright hostility.SA:WoK:Ch 20
- trades-favor-for-stone-detailApproaches Gaz and trades his cooperation — accepting stone-gathering duty for Bridge Four (taking the work Bussik's crew is too thin to do) in exchange for the rare excuse to get his crew outside the warcamp.SA:WoK:Ch 20
- recruits-rock-and-teftRecruits Rock and Teft as his first lieutenants. To Teft he says only that they are all broken and they can either keep going or give up and die. Teft, who has stood on the edge himself, agrees.SA:WoK:Ch 20
- smuggles-knobweed-back-to-campOn the stone-gathering detail, scans the broken ground for the boulder-shadow tufts of knobweed. With Rock and Teft he fills hidden bundles tied beneath the wagon bed — every drop he can get of sap for Leyten and the others.SA:WoK:Ch 22
- killed-a-lighteyes-as-soldierTells Rock and Teft only that he killed a lighteyes in Amaram's army — was thanked by someone important for it — and that lighteyes do not react well when you turn down their gifts. He will not say more.SA:WoK:Ch 22
- surgeons-called-butchersAt thirteen, overhears two Hearthstone women in an alley call his father and surgeons in general butchers — that cutting into people is not the Almighty's will, that the dead body of the little Miasal proves it. Hears the village blame his father for the failed attempt rather than thank him for the saving work that came before. The memory will not leave him.SA:WoK:Ch 25
- sells-knobweed-sap-to-apothecaryTwo days after the stone-gathering detail, walks into the camp apothecary with his vials of milked sap and sells them back to the very shop forbidden by Sadeas from giving him supplies. He takes payment in coin and in the bandages, antiseptic, and salves his wounded need — buying around the standing order without breaking it.SA:WoK:Ch 27
- trains-twenty-nine-bridgemenBridge Four all twenty-nine remaining members are now running morning exercises and bridge-carry drills with him, Rock, and Teft. The other crews and the carpenters laugh from a distance; Gaz watches with one-eyed displeasure.SA:WoK:Ch 30
- invents-side-carryDrills the crew on a side-carry — the bridge held on its right side rather than overhead — as a way to use different muscles and let them keep moving when fewer men remain to lift after a heavy run. Gaz inspects the awkward formation and smiles wickedly: a side-carry on an actual assault could be a disaster.SA:WoK:Ch 30
- makes-moash-squadleaderNames Moash one of his subsquad leaders precisely because Moash resisted hardest and longest. Moash takes the role; says plainly that unlike Rock and Teft he does not think Kaladin is a gift from the Almighty — he is just curious.SA:WoK:Ch 30
- picks-lopen-from-new-recruitsWhen Gaz divides the latest batch of conscripts among the crews and grudgingly grants Kaladin one extra to keep Bridge Four above thirty, Kaladin picks the one-armed Herdazian the Lopen — recognising in him the half-formed instinct that turned Tien into a survivor: that a man written off as a liability can choose to become an asset.SA:WoK:Ch 32
- side-carry-disaster-on-the-towerOn an assault on the Tower he runs Bridge Four in the new side carry, using the bridge as a shield against the Parshendi arrows. The crew survives almost intact — but the other crews try to copy his approach at different speeds, the Alethi archers can no longer time their volleys, and the whole assault collapses. Over two hundred bridgemen die. Sadeas is forced to claim a small corner of the Tower with his Shardbearer's body. Kaladin realises he has just lost the battle.SA:WoK:Ch 32
- outmaneuvers-gaz-and-lamaril-postbattleWhen Gaz and Lamaril come for him with reserve spearmen, Kaladin talks them down: if they kill him outright their superiors will read it as a cover-up; if they leave him alive he will say they had nothing to do with it. Lamaril orders him beaten instead of killed and walks away. The spearmen kick him to the ground and take his spheres.SA:WoK:Ch 32
- tied-stormward-as-judgementHung by his ankles from the ring on Bridge Four's eastern barrack wall, face stormward, to face a highstorm — Sadeas's wall-roping. Ribs cracked, collarbone broken, jaw swollen, one eye crusted shut. Sadeas calls him a selfish coward and leaves him to the Stormfather's judgement. Teft slips him a dun skymark for luck and the bridgemen retreat into the barrack.SA:WoK:Ch 34
- survives-wall-ropingSurvives the wall-roping — clings to the iron ring on the barrack roof through the bucking winds; Syl stands on his chest with her hands forward as if splitting the wind. In a black silent moment the sky-spanning smiling face appears in front of him and his held sphere bursts to sapphire flame. After the storm passes Bridge Four finds him hanging like skinned meat — and then his eyes snap open.SA:WoK:Ch 35
- accepts-his-fathers-theftOn learning the truth in the violet moonlight, Kal cannot decide if his father was incredibly brave or incredibly wrong — and chooses both. He resolves to take the stolen spheres to Kharbranth and pay them back to Laral, not to Roshone. He also takes a new name: from now on, the full Kaladin, not the boy's Kal.SA:WoK:Ch 37
- draws-stormlight-while-feveredLies in fevered halls in the Bridge Four barrack as Teft sits beside him with a spheres-pouch. The sphere in his hand goes dun; light streams from his skin in faint wisps and knits some of the deeper cuts. The puffy redness around his wounds shrinks. His eyes leak faint amber for a moment. Then it is over. Teft kneels with his head to the rock floor and weeps.SA:WoK:Ch 38
- slides-back-toward-wretchCannot share in the firelight celebration. The chapter epigraph — *eyes of red and blue* — would require him to believe Bridge Four could survive, and on this night he cannot make himself believe it. He feels the crushing weight of being asked to carry the hopes of all the bridgemen and confesses to himself, in silence, that he is sliding back toward the wretch he was.SA:WoK:Ch 40
- discovers-he-could-killStands at the operating table watching his father save the man who has tried to ruin them. Realises in shock that he would have let Roshone die — would perhaps have flicked the knife to hasten it. Lirin once laughed at the idea his gentle son could kill; for the first time Kaladin understands that he could.SA:WoK:Ch 41
- proposes-bridge-four-escape-planWakes with dread on the barrack floor and decides he can no longer ride out the slow attrition of Bridge Four. Outside in the riddens he kicks a fallen spear toward Moash and tells the men he will train them to use the weapon. They will attack a guard post at night and make a break — knowing Sadeas will hunt them, knowing they will likely never even leave the camp, but choosing to spit in Alethi faces over remaining slaves.SA:WoK:Ch 43
- volunteers-to-go-with-tienWhen Brightlord Amaram comes to Hearthstone in the Weeping to conscript and Roshone (smiling) picks the small, fearful Tien for the levy, Kaladin steps forward and asks to take his brother's place. Amaram says he cannot — but he can take Kaladin in addition. Kaladin volunteers. Two hours to gather his allotment. He promises his father, standing in the rain, that in four years he will bring Tien home safely — by the storms and by the Almighty's tenth name.SA:WoK:Ch 44
- kills-shardbearer-refuses-bladeOne year ago in Amaram's army in the Unclaimed Hills, kills a Parshendi Shardbearer with a spear when the rest of the squad has fallen back — including Dallet and Toorim, who died on the Blade. By tradition the Blade and Plate are his and he is a lighteyes. He looks at his reflection in the Blade and gives it instead to Coreb of his own squad. He walks back to camp alone, tears on his cheeks, leaving the honor guard ashamed in the hollow.SA:WoK:Ch 47
- secret-spear-training-in-chasmsDrills Moash, Drehy, Skar, and the rest of Bridge Four in spear stances during chasm duty — out of sight, with spears salvaged from the Parshendi and bridgeman dead. Moash drinks the resetting-stance exercise in two hours; Drehy and Skar are nearly as quick. They are, Kaladin realises, the fittest training-ready recruits he has ever had — Sadeas himself prepared them by trying to beat them down.SA:WoK:Ch 49
- escape-plan-rope-bowA week after Dunny's death, on a plateau assault that for once arrived ahead of the Parshendi, Kaladin has Rock secretly produce a small bow — Horneater knowledge, learned where he will not say — and sets Lopen to buy a length of rope quietly through one of his many cousins. The escape plan firms up: bow, rope, a guard post hit at night, and a flight east.SA:WoK:Ch 55
- escape-armor-plan-setHas Lopen arrange to grab a bundle of armor during the next bridge run — Herdazian, bridgeman, and cripple all in one body makes him invisible to the camp guards. The armor will be passed to Kaladin just before the final plateau assault, ahead of the planned escape.SA:WoK:Ch 59
- wears-a-prayer-glyphwardTies a three-glyph prayer cloth around his upper arm before an assault. Moash scoffs. The assault goes remarkably: no Bridge Four bridge lost, a Shardbearer just happens to rescue them, Sadeas himself compliments them. A cut on Kaladin's arm bleeds through the prayer — and the Stormlight he is unconsciously drawing has not quite healed it.SA:WoK:Ch 62
- first-stormlight-burst-saves-dalinarBridge Four lags behind Sadeas's retreating army carrying their bridge and two wounded — and Kaladin makes the call. Rather than save themselves, they will run TOWARD the Tower. He hurls himself into the closing ring of Parshendi around Dalinar and EXPLODES into Stormlight — a wave of white force flings the front Parshendi rank back. Teft shields his eyes. Moash whispers *something just changed*. Kaladin spins into the Parshendi as a living storm.SA:WoK:Ch 66
- speaks-the-first-idealStanding over the wounded on the Tower after the rescue, Kaladin looks at Syl and speaks aloud the first words of the Knights Radiant: *Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.* Syl grows brilliant. She becomes a silvery Shardblade in his hands — small, slim, a blade he can wield.SA:WoK:Ch 67
Appearances
- SA:WoK:Ch 1 (present)
- SA:WoK:Ch 38 Fevered on the barrack floor; unconsciously draws Stormlight from Teft's spheres and partially heals
- SA:WoK:Ch 40 Sits with the bowl Dunny brings him and does not eat; thinks he is losing his grip
- SA:WoK:Ch 49 Watches, leaning against the chasm wall, a frillbloom opening orange fronds beside his head
- SA:WoK:Ch 55 POV; watches the assault from a plateau the army won early; coordinates the escape-prep
- SA:WoK:Ch 57 Receives the story; afterwards presses Teft for what he has been holding back
- SA:WoK:Ch 59 POV; locks in the armor-grab plan with Lopen
- SA:WoK:Ch 62 Wears the prayer; works on the wounded after the run
- SA:WoK:Ch 66 POV; consciously bursts Stormlight for the first time; spear in hand against the Parshendi rank
- SA:WoK:Ch 67 POV; speaks the First Ideal at the chasm
- SA:WoK:Ch 75 Accepts captaincy of Dalinar's bodyguard with Bridge Four
Related
- relatedTien — Kaladin remembers Tien among the dead he could not save — the most personal grief in his litany of failures. SA:WoK:Ch 2
- relatedAmaram — Kaladin's slave brand was given in Amaram's army; his bitterness about lost honor traces back there. SA:WoK:Ch 2
- fulfillsTien — Tien wanted to come fight in the king's army on the Shattered Plains. Kaladin reaches the Plains by accident, in a slave's cage, eight months too late. SA:WoK:Ch 4
- relatedBridge Four — Assigned to Bridge Four by Hashal on arrival in Sadeas's camp SA:WoK:Ch 6
- relatedSylphrena — Bonded windspren who refuses to leave him SA:WoK:Ch 6
- relatedSylphrena — Leaves him — fearing for her own self if she stays in Sadeas's camp — promising to try to return SA:WoK:Ch 9
- relatedLirin — Father; surgeon-apprenticeship under whom Kal trains from age eight SA:WoK:Ch 10
- relatedHesina — Mother; assists in serious operations SA:WoK:Ch 10
- relatedJam — Childhood acquaintance whose quarterstaff training Kal sneaks off to watch with Tien SA:WoK:Ch 10
- relatedTeft — First bridgeman whose name Kaladin learns; the start of Bridge Four as something more than expendable SA:WoK:Ch 11
- relatedBridge Four — Takes the bridgeleadership and the responsibility for the men SA:WoK:Ch 11
- relatedLaral — Childhood companion, the citylord's daughter — already a complicated friendship SA:WoK:Ch 16
- foreshadowsBrightlord Wistiow — Bequeathes the loan-sphere globe as Kal's Kharbranth tuition — the act seals Kal's path before he can choose it himself SA:WoK:Ch 16
- relatedMiasal — The first patient he loses — at thirteen, before he has decided who he is SA:WoK:Ch 19
- relatedRock — Recruits Rock as a Bridge Four lieutenant SA:WoK:Ch 20
- relatedTeft — Wins Teft's loyalty after the shared-edge speech SA:WoK:Ch 20
- foreshadowsKnobweed sap — The reason he needs the stone-gathering detail — he intends to harvest knobweed for antiseptic SA:WoK:Ch 20
- foreshadowsAmaram — Tells Rock and Teft only that he killed a lighteyes in Amaram's army and was punished for refusing the reward — the wound has not closed SA:WoK:Ch 22
- relatedLirin — First time he hears the village call his father a butcher SA:WoK:Ch 25
- relatedSadeas-camp Apothecary — Sells him milked knobweed sap in return for the supplies Sadeas forbade SA:WoK:Ch 27
- relatedMoash — Names him subsquad leader for the very stubbornness that fought him SA:WoK:Ch 30
- relatedLopen — Picks the one-armed Herdazian into Bridge Four against Gaz's better judgement SA:WoK:Ch 32
- fulfillsRoped to the Wall — Hung from the barrack wall to be killed by the next highstorm SA:WoK:Ch 34
- foreshadowsThe Face in the Stormwall — The smiling face in the silent moment of the storm — Kaladin does not yet know what it was SA:WoK:Ch 35
- foreshadowsTeft — Teft sees the dun sphere and understands something he had thought lost from the world SA:WoK:Ch 35
- foreshadowsLaral — Vows to repay the stolen spheres to her, not to Roshone — even as he hears that Rillir is about to claim her SA:WoK:Ch 37
- foreshadowsThe Knights Radiant — Teft is the first witness — Stormlight bleeds from a sphere into Kaladin's wounds, the very thing the Envisagers tried to provoke SA:WoK:Ch 38
- relatedBrightlord Roshone — Realises he would have let Roshone die — discovers he is capable of killing SA:WoK:Ch 41
- foreshadowsTien — Promises Lirin in the rain that he will bring Tien home in four years — by the storms and the Almighty's tenth name SA:WoK:Ch 44
- fulfillsCoreb — Gives him the won Shardblade rather than be made a lighteyes by it SA:WoK:Ch 47
- fulfillsBridge Four — Begins turning the crew into a trained spear-squad in the chasms SA:WoK:Ch 49
- foreshadowsThe King's Wit — The Wandersail story plants the choice Kaladin will have to make SA:WoK:Ch 57
- fulfillsStormlight — First conscious, undeniable burst — a wave of white force flings the Parshendi rank back SA:WoK:Ch 66
- fulfillsThe Knights Radiant — Speaks the First Ideal SA:WoK:Ch 67
- fulfillsDalinar Kholin — Frees Bridge Four and makes Kaladin captain of his bodyguard SA:WoK:Ch 75
Thread
- SA:WoK:Ch 1factreputation: Among his men he is called Stormblessed. His squad lost only one man in their last battle; soldiers say he is lucky and that he fights like a storm.
- SA:WoK:Ch 1factpay-to-runners: Kaladin pours most of his pay into bribing field runners to carry his wounded off the battlefield — work that is otherwise reserved for the lighteyed wounded.
- SA:WoK:Ch 1factrecruits-the-young: He hates to see barely-trained boys sent to battle and pays to pull them into his squad. About half a dozen of his current men were brought in this way; Dallet thinks they all remind Kaladin of someone.
- SA:WoK:Ch 1introIntroduced as “Kaladin”
- SA:WoK:Ch 2edgerelated: Tien — Kaladin remembers Tien among the dead he could not save — the most personal grief in his litany of failures.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2edgerelated: Amaram — Kaladin's slave brand was given in Amaram's army; his bitterness about lost honor traces back there.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2factbranded-deserter: On his last day in Amaram's army, Kaladin was given the slave brand — the deserter glyphpair — on his forehead. He believes that 'honor died' that same day.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2factshash-brand: His third forehead brand, fresh and infected when this chapter opens, is the shash glyph: 'Dangerous.' His most recent master gave it to him after a failed escape attempt involving twenty armed slaves, then sold him at a steep discount.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2factescapes: Ten escape attempts in eight months, fleeing five different masters. He believes no slave with a forehead brand can stay free for long.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2factsurgeon-father: His father trained him to recognize and treat injuries — burns, the grinding coughs, rotspren-fouled wounds — well enough that he diagnoses other slaves on instinct.
- SA:WoK:Ch 2factthe-dead: He has lost everyone he tried to protect, naming Tien, Tukks, Dallet, and Cenn in his grief, plus ten successive groups of fellow slaves.
- SA:WoK:Ch 4edgefulfills: Tien — Tien wanted to come fight in the king's army on the Shattered Plains. Kaladin reaches the Plains by accident, in a slave's cage, eight months too late.
- SA:WoK:Ch 4factage: Nineteen years old. He joined Amaram's army four years before, when he was about fifteen.
- SA:WoK:Ch 4factfather-stormwarden: His father kept stormwardenry as a hobby — Kaladin can predict highstorms by date with the same calculations.
- SA:WoK:Ch 4factwants-amaram-dead: He privately admits to himself that, given a chance, he would gut Amaram with his own hands and twist his head from his neck.
- SA:WoK:Ch 6edgerelated: Bridge Four — Assigned to Bridge Four by Hashal on arrival in Sadeas's camp
- SA:WoK:Ch 6edgerelated: Sylphrena — Bonded windspren who refuses to leave him
- SA:WoK:Ch 6factbridge-four-assigned: Sold to Sadeas's army by Tvlakv as a deserter, Hashal marks Kaladin for special treatment and assigns him to Bridge Four — the worst of the bridge crews — without sandals or a vest.
- SA:WoK:Ch 6factfirst-bridge-run: Survives his first bridge run, the only frontline carrier of Bridge Four still alive after the Parshendi volleys. He collapses on the plateau and is nearly left for dead before Syl rouses him.
- SA:WoK:Ch 9edgerelated: Sylphrena — Leaves him — fearing for her own self if she stays in Sadeas's camp — promising to try to return
- SA:WoK:Ch 9factvictim-philosophy: Loses the thread of his father's two-kinds-of-people speech and concludes he belongs to a third group — the ones who exist only to be killed or saved. He stops learning bridgemen's names.
- SA:WoK:Ch 10edgerelated: Lirin — Father; surgeon-apprenticeship under whom Kal trains from age eight
- SA:WoK:Ch 10edgerelated: Hesina — Mother; assists in serious operations
- SA:WoK:Ch 10edgerelated: Jam — Childhood acquaintance whose quarterstaff training Kal sneaks off to watch with Tien
- SA:WoK:Ch 10factchildhood-surgeon-training: Apprenticed to his father Lirin from age eight; at ten he already wipes blood, hands knives, and recognizes when a finger must be amputated rather than saved.
- SA:WoK:Ch 10factchildhood-name-kal: Prefers the shorter "Kal" because the full Kaladin sounds like a lighteyes's name — and being different in Hearthstone is already painful enough.
- SA:WoK:Ch 11edgerelated: Teft — First bridgeman whose name Kaladin learns; the start of Bridge Four as something more than expendable
- SA:WoK:Ch 11edgerelated: Bridge Four — Takes the bridgeleadership and the responsibility for the men
- SA:WoK:Ch 11facthonor-chasm-decision: Walks out to the Honor Chasm in the riddens of a highstorm, blackbane crushed in one hand and Syl cupped in the other, ready to jump — then turns back, choosing to try once more for the bridgemen he is now responsible for.
- SA:WoK:Ch 11factbridgeleader-takeover: Returns from the chasm, throttles Gaz in the wet bridge yard, and seizes leadership of Bridge Four — bribing Gaz one mark in five and reclaiming his full bridgeman pay rather than putting it toward his slave debt.
- SA:WoK:Ch 14factdrags-bridge-four-out: The morning after the Honor Chasm, hauls Moash out of his blanket as an example and tells Bridge Four there will be no more sleeping in — they will train at running the bridge each morning before chores so they can carry it faster in the final stretch.
- SA:WoK:Ch 14factprimary-duty-keep-alive: Declares to the assembled crew that as bridgeleader his primary duty is to keep them alive — that since he cannot stop the Parshendi arrows, he must instead make the men strong enough to outrun them. Intends that Bridge Four never lose another man.
- SA:WoK:Ch 14factborrows-carpenter-plank: When the crew laughs him off, Kaladin borrows a heavy plank from the carpenter's yard and runs it across camp on his own shoulder for hours to demonstrate. Rock suspects it of being a lightweight ringer and pays out a chip when he lifts it himself and finds it real.
- SA:WoK:Ch 16edgerelated: Laral — Childhood companion, the citylord's daughter — already a complicated friendship
- SA:WoK:Ch 16edgeforeshadows: Brightlord Wistiow — Bequeathes the loan-sphere globe as Kal's Kharbranth tuition — the act seals Kal's path before he can choose it himself
- SA:WoK:Ch 16factquarterstaff-moment: At twelve, watching the older Hearthstone boys spar, young Kal asks to try a round — and finds for one instant that the quarterstaff fits his hands. He freezes against Jost at the end and takes a blow to the side, but the moment of clarity sings to him long afterward.
- SA:WoK:Ch 19edgerelated: Miasal — The first patient he loses — at thirteen, before he has decided who he is
- SA:WoK:Ch 19factfirst-patient-death: At thirteen, two months after Wistiow's death, finds Miasal bleeding out from a compound fracture. Tournames the artery with his shirt, holds it closed with his fingers, takes the heated knife from Valama and cauterizes — and saves the leg. The girl dies anyway of a head wound he hadn't seen. Lirin tells him afterward, sitting on the surgery steps, that he must learn when to care and when to let go — that he'll grow calluses.
- SA:WoK:Ch 20edgerelated: Rock — Recruits Rock as a Bridge Four lieutenant
- SA:WoK:Ch 20edgerelated: Teft — Wins Teft's loyalty after the shared-edge speech
- SA:WoK:Ch 20edgeforeshadows: Knobweed sap — The reason he needs the stone-gathering detail — he intends to harvest knobweed for antiseptic
- SA:WoK:Ch 20factmorning-after-first-bridge-run: Wakes battered after the previous day's run, checks his three wounded (Leyten hanging on, Hobber grateful, Dabbid in battle shock), washes his own wound, and goes back out to walk the plank again — slower, but unwilling to embarrass himself by falling. The other bridge crews watch with outright hostility.
- SA:WoK:Ch 20facttrades-favor-for-stone-detail: Approaches Gaz and trades his cooperation — accepting stone-gathering duty for Bridge Four (taking the work Bussik's crew is too thin to do) in exchange for the rare excuse to get his crew outside the warcamp.
- SA:WoK:Ch 20factrecruits-rock-and-teft: Recruits Rock and Teft as his first lieutenants. To Teft he says only that they are all broken and they can either keep going or give up and die. Teft, who has stood on the edge himself, agrees.
- SA:WoK:Ch 22edgeforeshadows: Amaram — Tells Rock and Teft only that he killed a lighteyes in Amaram's army and was punished for refusing the reward — the wound has not closed
- SA:WoK:Ch 22factsmuggles-knobweed-back-to-camp: On the stone-gathering detail, scans the broken ground for the boulder-shadow tufts of knobweed. With Rock and Teft he fills hidden bundles tied beneath the wagon bed — every drop he can get of sap for Leyten and the others.
- SA:WoK:Ch 22factkilled-a-lighteyes-as-soldier: Tells Rock and Teft only that he killed a lighteyes in Amaram's army — was thanked by someone important for it — and that lighteyes do not react well when you turn down their gifts. He will not say more.
- SA:WoK:Ch 25edgerelated: Lirin — First time he hears the village call his father a butcher
- SA:WoK:Ch 25factsurgeons-called-butchers: At thirteen, overhears two Hearthstone women in an alley call his father and surgeons in general butchers — that cutting into people is not the Almighty's will, that the dead body of the little Miasal proves it. Hears the village blame his father for the failed attempt rather than thank him for the saving work that came before. The memory will not leave him.
- SA:WoK:Ch 27edgerelated: Sadeas-camp Apothecary — Sells him milked knobweed sap in return for the supplies Sadeas forbade
- SA:WoK:Ch 27factsells-knobweed-sap-to-apothecary: Two days after the stone-gathering detail, walks into the camp apothecary with his vials of milked sap and sells them back to the very shop forbidden by Sadeas from giving him supplies. He takes payment in coin and in the bandages, antiseptic, and salves his wounded need — buying around the standing order without breaking it.
- SA:WoK:Ch 30edgerelated: Moash — Names him subsquad leader for the very stubbornness that fought him
- SA:WoK:Ch 30facttrains-twenty-nine-bridgemen: Bridge Four all twenty-nine remaining members are now running morning exercises and bridge-carry drills with him, Rock, and Teft. The other crews and the carpenters laugh from a distance; Gaz watches with one-eyed displeasure.
- SA:WoK:Ch 30factinvents-side-carry: Drills the crew on a side-carry — the bridge held on its right side rather than overhead — as a way to use different muscles and let them keep moving when fewer men remain to lift after a heavy run. Gaz inspects the awkward formation and smiles wickedly: a side-carry on an actual assault could be a disaster.
- SA:WoK:Ch 30factmakes-moash-squadleader: Names Moash one of his subsquad leaders precisely because Moash resisted hardest and longest. Moash takes the role; says plainly that unlike Rock and Teft he does not think Kaladin is a gift from the Almighty — he is just curious.
- SA:WoK:Ch 32edgerelated: Lopen — Picks the one-armed Herdazian into Bridge Four against Gaz's better judgement
- SA:WoK:Ch 32factpicks-lopen-from-new-recruits: When Gaz divides the latest batch of conscripts among the crews and grudgingly grants Kaladin one extra to keep Bridge Four above thirty, Kaladin picks the one-armed Herdazian the Lopen — recognising in him the half-formed instinct that turned Tien into a survivor: that a man written off as a liability can choose to become an asset.
- SA:WoK:Ch 32factside-carry-disaster-on-the-tower: On an assault on the Tower he runs Bridge Four in the new side carry, using the bridge as a shield against the Parshendi arrows. The crew survives almost intact — but the other crews try to copy his approach at different speeds, the Alethi archers can no longer time their volleys, and the whole assault collapses. Over two hundred bridgemen die. Sadeas is forced to claim a small corner of the Tower with his Shardbearer's body. Kaladin realises he has just lost the battle.
- SA:WoK:Ch 32factoutmaneuvers-gaz-and-lamaril-postbattle: When Gaz and Lamaril come for him with reserve spearmen, Kaladin talks them down: if they kill him outright their superiors will read it as a cover-up; if they leave him alive he will say they had nothing to do with it. Lamaril orders him beaten instead of killed and walks away. The spearmen kick him to the ground and take his spheres.
- SA:WoK:Ch 34edgefulfills: Roped to the Wall — Hung from the barrack wall to be killed by the next highstorm
- SA:WoK:Ch 34facttied-stormward-as-judgement: Hung by his ankles from the ring on Bridge Four's eastern barrack wall, face stormward, to face a highstorm — Sadeas's wall-roping. Ribs cracked, collarbone broken, jaw swollen, one eye crusted shut. Sadeas calls him a selfish coward and leaves him to the Stormfather's judgement. Teft slips him a dun skymark for luck and the bridgemen retreat into the barrack.
- SA:WoK:Ch 35edgeforeshadows: The Face in the Stormwall — The smiling face in the silent moment of the storm — Kaladin does not yet know what it was
- SA:WoK:Ch 35edgeforeshadows: Teft — Teft sees the dun sphere and understands something he had thought lost from the world
- SA:WoK:Ch 35factsurvives-wall-roping: Survives the wall-roping — clings to the iron ring on the barrack roof through the bucking winds; Syl stands on his chest with her hands forward as if splitting the wind. In a black silent moment the sky-spanning smiling face appears in front of him and his held sphere bursts to sapphire flame. After the storm passes Bridge Four finds him hanging like skinned meat — and then his eyes snap open.
- SA:WoK:Ch 37edgeforeshadows: Laral — Vows to repay the stolen spheres to her, not to Roshone — even as he hears that Rillir is about to claim her
- SA:WoK:Ch 37factaccepts-his-fathers-theft: On learning the truth in the violet moonlight, Kal cannot decide if his father was incredibly brave or incredibly wrong — and chooses both. He resolves to take the stolen spheres to Kharbranth and pay them back to Laral, not to Roshone. He also takes a new name: from now on, the full Kaladin, not the boy's Kal.
- SA:WoK:Ch 38edgeforeshadows: The Knights Radiant — Teft is the first witness — Stormlight bleeds from a sphere into Kaladin's wounds, the very thing the Envisagers tried to provoke
- SA:WoK:Ch 38factdraws-stormlight-while-fevered: Lies in fevered halls in the Bridge Four barrack as Teft sits beside him with a spheres-pouch. The sphere in his hand goes dun; light streams from his skin in faint wisps and knits some of the deeper cuts. The puffy redness around his wounds shrinks. His eyes leak faint amber for a moment. Then it is over. Teft kneels with his head to the rock floor and weeps.
- SA:WoK:Ch 40factslides-back-toward-wretch: Cannot share in the firelight celebration. The chapter epigraph — *eyes of red and blue* — would require him to believe Bridge Four could survive, and on this night he cannot make himself believe it. He feels the crushing weight of being asked to carry the hopes of all the bridgemen and confesses to himself, in silence, that he is sliding back toward the wretch he was.
- SA:WoK:Ch 41edgerelated: Brightlord Roshone — Realises he would have let Roshone die — discovers he is capable of killing
- SA:WoK:Ch 41factdiscovers-he-could-kill: Stands at the operating table watching his father save the man who has tried to ruin them. Realises in shock that he would have let Roshone die — would perhaps have flicked the knife to hasten it. Lirin once laughed at the idea his gentle son could kill; for the first time Kaladin understands that he could.
- SA:WoK:Ch 43factproposes-bridge-four-escape-plan: Wakes with dread on the barrack floor and decides he can no longer ride out the slow attrition of Bridge Four. Outside in the riddens he kicks a fallen spear toward Moash and tells the men he will train them to use the weapon. They will attack a guard post at night and make a break — knowing Sadeas will hunt them, knowing they will likely never even leave the camp, but choosing to spit in Alethi faces over remaining slaves.
- SA:WoK:Ch 44edgeforeshadows: Tien — Promises Lirin in the rain that he will bring Tien home in four years — by the storms and the Almighty's tenth name
- SA:WoK:Ch 44factvolunteers-to-go-with-tien: When Brightlord Amaram comes to Hearthstone in the Weeping to conscript and Roshone (smiling) picks the small, fearful Tien for the levy, Kaladin steps forward and asks to take his brother's place. Amaram says he cannot — but he can take Kaladin in addition. Kaladin volunteers. Two hours to gather his allotment. He promises his father, standing in the rain, that in four years he will bring Tien home safely — by the storms and by the Almighty's tenth name.
- SA:WoK:Ch 47edgefulfills: Coreb — Gives him the won Shardblade rather than be made a lighteyes by it
- SA:WoK:Ch 47factkills-shardbearer-refuses-blade: One year ago in Amaram's army in the Unclaimed Hills, kills a Parshendi Shardbearer with a spear when the rest of the squad has fallen back — including Dallet and Toorim, who died on the Blade. By tradition the Blade and Plate are his and he is a lighteyes. He looks at his reflection in the Blade and gives it instead to Coreb of his own squad. He walks back to camp alone, tears on his cheeks, leaving the honor guard ashamed in the hollow.
- SA:WoK:Ch 49edgefulfills: Bridge Four — Begins turning the crew into a trained spear-squad in the chasms
- SA:WoK:Ch 49factsecret-spear-training-in-chasms: Drills Moash, Drehy, Skar, and the rest of Bridge Four in spear stances during chasm duty — out of sight, with spears salvaged from the Parshendi and bridgeman dead. Moash drinks the resetting-stance exercise in two hours; Drehy and Skar are nearly as quick. They are, Kaladin realises, the fittest training-ready recruits he has ever had — Sadeas himself prepared them by trying to beat them down.
- SA:WoK:Ch 55factescape-plan-rope-bow: A week after Dunny's death, on a plateau assault that for once arrived ahead of the Parshendi, Kaladin has Rock secretly produce a small bow — Horneater knowledge, learned where he will not say — and sets Lopen to buy a length of rope quietly through one of his many cousins. The escape plan firms up: bow, rope, a guard post hit at night, and a flight east.
- SA:WoK:Ch 57edgeforeshadows: The King's Wit — The Wandersail story plants the choice Kaladin will have to make
- SA:WoK:Ch 59factescape-armor-plan-set: Has Lopen arrange to grab a bundle of armor during the next bridge run — Herdazian, bridgeman, and cripple all in one body makes him invisible to the camp guards. The armor will be passed to Kaladin just before the final plateau assault, ahead of the planned escape.
- SA:WoK:Ch 62factwears-a-prayer-glyphward: Ties a three-glyph prayer cloth around his upper arm before an assault. Moash scoffs. The assault goes remarkably: no Bridge Four bridge lost, a Shardbearer just happens to rescue them, Sadeas himself compliments them. A cut on Kaladin's arm bleeds through the prayer — and the Stormlight he is unconsciously drawing has not quite healed it.
- SA:WoK:Ch 66edgefulfills: Stormlight — First conscious, undeniable burst — a wave of white force flings the Parshendi rank back
- SA:WoK:Ch 66factfirst-stormlight-burst-saves-dalinar: Bridge Four lags behind Sadeas's retreating army carrying their bridge and two wounded — and Kaladin makes the call. Rather than save themselves, they will run TOWARD the Tower. He hurls himself into the closing ring of Parshendi around Dalinar and EXPLODES into Stormlight — a wave of white force flings the front Parshendi rank back. Teft shields his eyes. Moash whispers *something just changed*. Kaladin spins into the Parshendi as a living storm.
- SA:WoK:Ch 67edgefulfills: The Knights Radiant — Speaks the First Ideal
- SA:WoK:Ch 67factspeaks-the-first-ideal: Standing over the wounded on the Tower after the rescue, Kaladin looks at Syl and speaks aloud the first words of the Knights Radiant: *Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.* Syl grows brilliant. She becomes a silvery Shardblade in his hands — small, slim, a blade he can wield.
- SA:WoK:Ch 75edgefulfills: Dalinar Kholin — Frees Bridge Four and makes Kaladin captain of his bodyguard
Backreferences
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 1
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 2
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 3
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 4
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 6
- factSylphrena
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 9
- factSylphrena
- factBridge Four
- factGemheart
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 10
- factLirin
- factLirin
- factHesina
- factHearthstone
- factDeathspren
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 11
- factThe Lost Radiants
- factGaz
- factSylphrena
- factBridge Four
- factTeft
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 14
- factKaladin
- factGaz
- factSylphrena
- factSylphrena
- factMoash
- factRock
- factLeyten
- factDunny
- factThe Nightwatcher
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 16
- factBrightlord Wistiow
- factLaral
- factJost
- factSnarlbrush
- factThe Origin
- factTien's Rocks
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 19
- factMiasal
- factHarl
- factValama
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 20
- factSadeas
- factSylphrena
- factHobber
- factDabbid
- factEarless Jaks
- factSadeas-camp Apothecary
- factKnobweed
- factKnobweed sap
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 22
- factMishim
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 25
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 27
- factGaz
- factBridge Four
- factSadeas-camp Apothecary
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 30
- factKaladin
- factBisig
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 31
- factLirin
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 32
- factKaladin
- factKaladin
- factKaladin
- factLopen
- factSide carry
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 34
- factSylphrena
- factBridge Four
- factLamaril
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 35
- factSadeas
- factTeft
- factThe Face in the Stormwall
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 37
- factKaladin
- factLirin
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 38
- factTeft
- factThe Envisagers
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 40
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 41
- factKaladin
- factLirin
- factRillir
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 43
- factBridge Four
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 44
- factKaladin
- factLirin
- factBrightlord Roshone
- factThe Weeping
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 47
- factCoreb
- factToorim
- factThe Parshendi Shardbearer
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 49
- factSkar
- factFrillbloom
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 53
- factMoash
- factDunny
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 55
- factKaladin
- factRock
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 57
- factTeft
- factThe King's Wit
- factThe Wandersail
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 59
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 62
- factPrayer Glyphward
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 66
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 67
- factKaladin
- factSylphrena
- factFirst Ideal of the Knights Radiant
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 75
- factDalinar Kholin