Nalan'Elin
also known as Nalan, Nale, Nalan'Elin
One of the ancient Heralds and leader of the Skybreakers — according to Mraize's letter to Shallan, the only Herald not gone wholly mad, ruthless without pity or mercy, who has spent decades hunting down anyone close to bonding a spren: recruiting those he wants to his order and eliminating the rest. SA:OB:Ch 42
Known facts
- recruited-into-oathpact-by-jezerezehIn the Connection Dalinar forges with him, Nale is shown as the law-giver who taught scholars to write *the law cannot be moral, but you can be moral as you create laws*, and as the man Jezerezeh personally came to with the Oathpact — naming him *the single most honorable man I have ever had the privilege of opposing.* Nale accepted the duty, refusing to consider it an honor.SA:RoW:Ch 47
- sent-szeth-to-kill-gavilarForbidden by his own legal scruples from acting against the king directly, Nale used Venli as a proxy: he warned her of Gavilar's coming betrayal of the listeners, invoked a treaty provision that legalised a pre-emptive strike, and pointed her to a Shin slave in the Kholinar market who carried Jezrien's Honorblade and knew how to use it.SA:RoW:Ch 77
- shin-law-founded-by-jezrien-on-arrivalNale tells Kaladin that Shinovar was humanity's first home on Roshar, and that the law of the land was set down there by *God himself and the monarch he had chosen* — Jezrien, King of Heralds and Herald of Kings — at the founding. That divine origin is, in Nale's view, the foundation of all Shin law.SA:WaT:Ch 71
- remembers-standing-between-darkness-and-lifePressed by Kaladin to talk about the early days, Nale briefly remembers — and feels — what it was to stand between darkness and life when Odium first taught singers to butcher humans and to execute their kin if they refused. The lucid moment passes; he names his old self *flawed* and refuses to revisit it. Kaladin takes the moment as evidence that reaching Nale is about reminding him of who he was, not arguing him out of who he is.SA:WaT:Ch 89
- killed-ym-the-cobbler-in-iriIdentified, by the prism-light spren Uma who saw him do it, as the killer of Dyel's grandfather Ym — a cobbler in Iri whose surviving daughter has spent months tracking the "tall Makabaki" responsible.SA:WaT:I-11
- ordered-chana-to-kill-shallanVia a seon carried by his Skybreaker Dreder, Nale reached his fellow Herald Chana at the Davar estate in Jah Keved and ordered her to kill her own daughter Shallan, whose Surgebinding had drawn the Radiants' attention. *Kill her. Those are my orders.*SA:WaT:Ch 93
- alaswha-resister-with-his-uncle-makibakBefore he became a Herald, Nale was a young man on Alaswha — one of a group with darker skin than the empire-aligned majority — walking out of Rayse's grand conference at his uncle's side and naming the empire's promises as obvious lies. *We must make our own alliance, Nale*, the older man said. Their defiance is what drew Tanavast's notice and led him, that night, to offer them the power to resist Rayse — the gift that would become the Honorblades.SA:WaT:Ch 104
- finds-his-sister-dead-in-the-burning-of-ashynAmong the dead Tanavast looks down upon is Nale himself, walking the ash and screaming when he finds the body of his sister. He gathers her into his arms. It is one of the moments Tanavast will carry forward; the loss is on the page when Nale later agrees to follow Jezrien across to a new world.SA:WaT:Ch 107
- herald-immortality-sealed-by-arts-separate-from-the-oathpactForced to accept Kaladin's champion-fight, Nale tells Szeth frankly that even if he did kill him, *I will be reborn — our immortality was sealed through ancient arts related to, but not dependent upon, the Oathpact.* The implication: cutting down a Herald in single combat does not end them.SA:WaT:Ch 108
- uses-the-true-skills-of-a-heraldPressed at the Skybreaker monastery, Nale reveals that Heralds hold abilities they almost never deploy — a small blur of preternatural speed and shift that lets him dodge attacks he should not be able to dodge, and casual physical strength enough to shatter Kaladin's Plate by smashing him three times into a stone wall. *It is rare,* he says, *that I must use the true skills of a Herald against a mortal.*SA:WaT:Ch 109
- dispatched-helaran-to-kill-amaramNale confirms to Kaladin that he sent Helaran — the Skybreaker acolyte — to murder Amaram for digging into the vanished Knights Radiant. He regrets not having known Kaladin himself, a spear squadleader, was the *real* target; *I would have gone myself and made sure you didn't leave that battlefield alive.*SA:WaT:Ch 109
- rationalises-pre-desolation-radiant-killings-as-correctConfronted with the fact that the Everstorm and the Desolation came regardless, Nale concedes the practical point — *the Desolation may still have arrived* — but rules himself *correct to do so* on the grounds that he was acting on the best information at the time and following Ishar's direction. The Everstorm, he announces, is *meaningless.* Syl reads it from inside Kaladin's head as a man re-shuffling his own rationalisations.SA:WaT:Ch 109
- nale-broke-mind-thousand-years-agoNale admits to Kaladin that, more than a thousand years ago, he woke one day and realised he had hurt someone by accident out of irritation — and concluded that he was losing himself. That was the moment he turned to law as an external anchor: forcing himself to hold to the person he wanted to be because he could no longer trust his own mind.SA:WaT:Ch 110
- nale-became-herald-for-the-little-peopleAsked at last why he became a Herald, Nale answers that he feared the others — highborn save Taln — would forget the little people of the lands; he fought on their behalf for centuries.SA:WaT:Ch 110
- nale-gives-skybreaker-honorblade-to-szeth-for-safekeepingWrapped in Kaladin's blue Kholin cloak by the fire of the broken monastery, Nale summons his Honorblade — distinct from his Radiant Blade — and presses it on Szeth: *Hold it until I am sure I can carry it again. I am not a man, or a Herald, of justice right now.*SA:WaT:Ch 119
Events
- SA:RoW:Ch 47 Rises onto the platform with a silvery Blade to confront Dalinar as an unrighteous Bondsmith; takes an arrow to the face and pulls it free, slaps Szeth aside, then breaks away in horror after Dalinar's touch and bursts away on his own Stormlight.
- SA:RoW:Ch 77 Walks into the Kholinar guard room as a royal ambassador, presents a seal of deputation, takes Venli into custody, then deputises her to assassinate Gavilar using a Shin slave armed with Jezrien's Honorblade.
- SA:WaT:Ch 62 Returning from patrol with the news that El still lives and has joined the Fused.
- SA:WaT:Ch 64 Reluctantly swears; afterwards proposes the unknown horse keeper as the tenth.
- SA:WaT:Ch 65 Walks the party to Taln, presents the disc as the offer of a second chance, argues the circle should include someone who is not a king.
- SA:WaT:Ch 66 Waits in the monastery courtyard with two highspren splitting the air at his head; announces he has come to *accompany* the quest, the highspren having gone for reinforcements rather than running in shame.
- SA:WaT:Ch 71 Strides ahead of Kaladin and Szeth on the dusty road, his uniform clean where theirs is filthy, drawing Kaladin into a debate on the divine origin of law.
- SA:WaT:Ch 72 Bars Kaladin at the monastery doorway, forbidding any help during the pilgrimage trial.
- SA:WaT:Ch 77 First to follow Jezrien and Ishar — sets down his Blade with a shiver and walks out without a word.
- SA:WaT:Ch 85 One of the two Heralds Dalinar spots at the back of the parley pavilion among the Radiants of several orders.
- SA:WaT:Ch 86 Stomps past the fire, hates Kaladin's flute song, and pronounces a Soulcast ration bar a perfect food.
- SA:WaT:Ch 86 Alights beside the others and tells Szeth that his gods have gathered to witness the salvation of this land.
- SA:WaT:Ch 89 Lectures Kaladin on the depth of Shinovar's ancient laws, briefly remembers the early days when he stood as light against the darkness, then dismisses the reverie and reminds Szeth that an Unmade in Shinovar is fair to kill.
- SA:WaT:Ch 90 Approves of Szeth refusing help, reveals afterward that his pilgrimage has been an audition to take Jezrien's seat, and announces that the Honorbearers in the monasteries are all already dead.
- SA:WaT:Ch 104 Walks out of Rayse's conference at his uncle Makibak's side, voicing his distrust of the empire's promises. Receives Tanavast's nighttime offer of *the power to resist our shared enemy*.
- SA:WaT:Ch 107 Searches among the dead in the ash, finds his sister, and clutches her body as Jezrien arrives with his soldiers to offer peace.
- SA:WaT:Ch 108 Waits in the broken Skybreaker monastery with Blade planted in the floor, demands Szeth swear blind obedience for the final monastery, and when he refuses, calmly accepts Kaladin as champion — *I will be your death, Stormblessed.*
- SA:WaT:Ch 109 Duels Kaladin sword-against-spear in the broken Skybreaker monastery — first as an ordinary swordsman, then with Plate of his own, finally with the casual preternatural skills of a Herald — and shatters Kaladin's armour against the stone wall once it is clear ordinary skill will not finish him.
- SA:WaT:Ch 110 The opponent in the Skybreaker monastery. Crushes Kaladin's wooden flute, pulls every spark of Stormlight from the room, then collapses to his knees weeping as Kaladin tells him the tale of Derethil and the Wandersail.
- SA:WaT:Ch 119 Sits frail against the broken-monastery wall, eyes red, wrapped in Kaladin's blue Kholin cloak — gives Szeth the Skybreaker Honorblade for safekeeping, and reveals that the *Unmade* of Shinovar is Ishar drawing on Odium's pool. *We are Truthless. Ishar, Herald of Wisdom, is Truthless.*
- SA:WaT:Ch 135 Approaches to argue for changing the plan, takes Ishar's touch on the arm, and drops wheezing — told he must bear his own madness now.
- SA:WaT:Ch 138 Huddled on the ground with his eyes squeezed shut, full force of his failures returning now that Ishar has stripped his protections — he knows he will never escape this.
- SA:WaT:Ch 139 On the ground with the others, cord of white light running to Ishar and the Heralds' darkness pinning him.
- SA:WaT:Ch 140 Cut free of the Bondsmith's tether by Nightblood alongside the others, the darkness gone from him for the first time in centuries.
- SA:WaT:Ch 142 Stumbles up beside Ishar, confused, a hand to his head — and shakes his head when Kaladin looks to him for Stormlight.
- SA:WaT:Ch 143 Begs Ishar, distant, to stop the sword — and is told the sword will consume any of them who touches it now.
- SA:WaT:Ch 144 Argues that the reforging should fall to Szeth — a man he had prepared for over a decade — relents to Kaladin's claim, places the Honorblades in the ring as Ishar asks, and at the end smiles and nods at *Second Chances.*
- SA:WaT:Ch 145 Stiffens and evaporates into nothingness as his sword vanishes from the ring.
Backreferences
- summarySA:OB:Ch 42
- summarySA:OB:Ch 43
- summarySA:OB:Ch 47
- summarySA:OB:Ch 53
- factEthid
- factEthid
- summarySA:OB:Ch 57
- factNale's Honorblade
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 47
- factNalan'Elin
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 50
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 71
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 77
- factNalan'Elin
- summarySA:WaT:Prologue
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 28
- factHonorbearer
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 58
- factDalinar Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 62
- factPailiah
- factHonor Disc
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 64
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 65
- factTalenel
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 66
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 71
- factNalan'Elin
- factThe Heralds
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 72
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 73
- factSylphrena
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 77
- factJezrien
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 86
- factShinovar
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 89
- factNalan'Elin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 90
- factThe Oathpact
- factThe Oathpact
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factThe Everstorm
- factElid-daughter-Zeenid
- factHonorbearer
- summarySA:WaT:I-11
- factDyel's Mother
- factUma
- factYm
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 93
- factNalan'Elin
- factShallan Davar
- factDreder
- factVeden Voidcraft Act
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 95
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 103
- factthe Wind
- factthe Wind
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 104
- factNalan'Elin
- factMakibak
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 107
- factNalan'Elin
- factZoral
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 108
- factNalan'Elin
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factKaladin
- factSkybreaker Monastery
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 109
- factLift
- factNalan'Elin
- factNalan'Elin
- factNalan'Elin
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 110
- factNalan'Elin
- factNalan'Elin
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 119
- factNalan'Elin
- factIshar
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 122
- factThe Heralds
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 135
- factIshar
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 138
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 140
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 142
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 143
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 144
- factHerald of Second Chances
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 145