Neturo-son-Vallano
Szeth's father — a Shin shepherd of the Clearmount grasslands who oversees the other shepherds of the region as well as the family flock. He runs the homestead with the help of his brothers and is between assignments at the start of the flashback, plugging a hole in the family roof while his children practise their splash-arts. SA:WaT:Ch 24
Known facts
- family-privately-interprets-the-shamans-teachingsNeturo and Zeenid live outside Clearmount in part so that the family can quietly *interpret* the Stone Shamans' teachings rather than accept them whole — devotion is something they *choose*, and they conceal a freshly emerged stone (handling it with gloves and a Soulcast shovel, then reburying it in a tree's roots) when honesty would cost them their home.SA:WaT:Ch 27
- gave-up-best-administrator-post-to-follow-szeth-into-trainingThe night after Szeth's killing of the Shin soldier, Neturo gave up his post as the Farmer's *best administrator* and committed publicly to enter soldier training alongside his eleven-year-old son so that the boy would never have to do what he must do alone.SA:WaT:Ch 48
- aide-de-camp-to-general-kinalNeturo rises within the soldier camp to become aide-de-camp to General Kinal, handling appointments, work routines, and discipline. Visiting Honorbearers credit the camp's much-improved morale to his methods; he is openly being groomed by Kinal as a long-term anchor of camp administration.SA:WaT:Ch 57
- gives-up-soldier-life-to-follow-szethWhen the Honorbearers insist Szeth must come *alone* to begin acolyte training, Neturo refuses to be parted from him a second time and bargains his way out of his soldier posting to take an administrator's job in the city beside Pozen's monastery — costing him his marriage to Zeenid.SA:WaT:Ch 68
- relationship-with-siviLong before the pilgrimage, Neturo has formed an attachment to Sivi — a relationship Szeth has quietly deduced and refuses to condemn. His mother left them, he tells Elid, and is happier without his father; better, then, for Father to find what comfort he can. Elid is the one who minds, because their family is splintering further.SA:WaT:Ch 75
- walks-the-pilgrimage-with-szethAt the bridge out of the city, Neturo meets Szeth in the rain and asks him to be honest about whether he truly wishes to walk alone. He tells his son their family's fracture was never the boy's fault — that he persuaded their mother to question, and they were forced to live outside their village because of it. Elid will not have him; he will walk the road instead.SA:WaT:Ch 75
- stayed-with-szeth-hoping-for-answersAt the cookfire after Szeth's return from the Bondsmith monastery, Neturo admits why he has never left his exiled son: he stayed *hoping I'd be able to find them for you* — the answers his own father, Vallano, did not have for him before he died.SA:WaT:Ch 96
- vanished-without-trace-day-after-szeth-met-the-voiceThe day after Szeth's visit to the Voice in the cavern, he returned to the hidden camp and found it empty — Neturo gone with no sign, no note, nothing left behind. Six weeks later, sneaking through Pozen's hallway, Szeth fears his father has been taken hostage and wonders what the price of his own choices will be.SA:WaT:Ch 102
- neturo-takes-bondsmith-honorbladeOffered the position of grand senator and Bondsmith — bearer of the wavy, writing-etched Honorblade of the Bondsmith monastery — by Sivi and Pozen as the only way they could see to save his son, Neturo accepts. He puts on the Bondsmith colours of blue, brown and green and stands across the field from Szeth at the cliff battle, telling him the Voice is no Voidbringer.SA:WaT:Ch 111
Events
- SA:WaT:Ch 36 Arrives at the fireside late in the scene; the Farmer takes him aside to talk.
- SA:WaT:Ch 48 Outside on the steps with Zeenid and the Farmer the evening after the killing at the stone; refuses to let Szeth be taken alone and quits as the Farmer's best administrator to enter soldier training with him.
- SA:WaT:Ch 51 Stays at his son's shoulder through arrival, intake, and the initial assessment, refusing to be sent to family quarters with Zeenid and Elid.
- SA:WaT:Ch 57 Greets Szeth in the General's outer office, admits to being mildly angry about the Szrand incident, and sketches his long-term plan: a permanent post for Szeth at the training grounds once the current cohort cycles out, so his mother might find a home here.
- SA:WaT:Ch 59 Rides down with General Kinal from the monastery to the burning shore, embraces a blood-spattered Szeth with what Szeth hears as horror in his voice — *what have you done?*
- SA:WaT:Ch 68 Speaks for his son's good nature, then refuses to let him leave alone — packing to follow Szeth to the monastery city.
- SA:WaT:Ch 75 Meets Szeth at the bridge in the rain, pack on his shoulder, insisting on walking the pilgrimage with him.
- SA:WaT:Ch 96 Waiting at a windblown waystop cookfire off the road, Neturo talks his frantic son down with deep breaths and tells the story of his own father's last week.
- SA:WaT:Ch 111 Steps out from among the betraying Stoneward ranks in the Bondsmith colours, summons the wavy Bondsmith Honorblade and plants it in the ground in front of his son, then takes him into an embrace and tells him plainly that the Voice is not a Voidbringer.
- SA:WaT:Ch 117 Speaks for his son against the harshest options around the fire — weeps openly, pleads for *another way,* and at the end is left on the ground in trodden grass as soldiers haul Szeth away.
- SA:WaT:Ch 130 Hooded, bald, robed, Neturo takes Sivi's Blade from the ring and stands at the front of the six — Szeth sees his father's face and whispers *Father?*
- SA:WaT:Ch 130 Neturo throws the first punch and leads the others into the pile — face a snarl, but the eyes already wet with tears.
- SA:WaT:Ch 132 Neturo grabs Szeth by the white uniform and throws him across the stone, then leads the others back in.
- SA:WaT:Ch 133 Neturo keeps hauling Szeth up by the white uniform — face a snarl, eyes weeping — and whispers between his clenched teeth *please. Help. Us. Son. Please, Szeth. It hurts.*
- SA:WaT:Ch 140 Among the six Honorbearers who rise as the cord is cut, weeping openly as he raises his Blade against his son.
- SA:WaT:Ch 143 Confesses, weeping and forcing the sentences through gritted teeth, that he had been following his son for answers and that the corruption had taken him step by step — then welcomes Nightblood through his chest and sighs his thanks as he vanishes into dark mist.
Backreferences
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 24
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factMolli
- factClearmount
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 27
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 36
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 48
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 51
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 57
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- factGeneral Kinal
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 59
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 68
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- factZeenid-daughter-Beth
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 75
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 96
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- factVallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 102
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 106
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 111
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factNeturo-son-Vallano
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 117
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano
- factHonorbearer
- factThe Voice
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 130
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 132
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 133
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 141
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 143
- factSzeth-son-son-Vallano