Nikli
A Sleepless swarm — the Twenty-Fourth and youngest of the twenty that still answer to the First — wearing a human-shaped body of woven hordelings under white tattoos covering the seams of its skin, posing as Rysn's tattooed Thaylen porter while the rest of the swarm spreads across Roshar to vote on whether she and her ship should be allowed to live. SA:DS:Ch 5
Rysn's burly tattooed porter and personal attendant, a soft-spoken foreigner whose white-on-scarred markings she has never been able to place in her travels; doing a commendable job of anticipating her needs as he carries her in palanquin and chair through Urithiru. SA:DS:Ch 1 superseded at SA:DS:Ch 5
Known facts
- claims-to-have-been-betrayedTells Rysn that he left his small village because he was betrayed by someone he trusted — a cover story that doubles as the genuine fracture between the Sleepless swarms over how to treat humans.SA:DS:Ch 5
- saboteur-revealedManufactured every omen aboard the Wandersail in an effort to turn it around — wormy grain, the dead santhid, planted blackbane in his own kit — and lost his accent the moment Rysn had him bound; was left manacled on the main island of Aimia beside his assistant Plamry for the rest of the voyage rather than risk a possible Fused in the hold.SA:DS:Ch 9
- poisoned-recipe-bookSearching his quarters turned up a second bag of blackbane and an annotated Azish recipe book full of notes on cooking for humans — including a marginal note that a spicy dish "will cover the taste" — implying he had positioned himself to take over the Wandersail's galley after Cord was framed and to dose the crew through their meals if his earlier omens failed.SA:DS:Ch 9
- cremling-body-revealedNikli's body is shown for what it is: not a man but a Sleepless swarm of fist-sized cremlings interlocking from the inside, each carrying its scrap of tattooed skin to form a counterfeit human surface — the *tattoo lines* on his arms and legs are the seams in the cover, and the figure can dissolve into the sea and reassemble at will.SA:DS:Ch 14
Events
- SA:DS:Ch 1 Transfers Rysn between her chair and the queen's palanquin, carries Chiri-Chiri's basket, and waits silently inside the audience chamber door.
- SA:DS:Ch 3 Carries Rysn aboard and into her new quarterdeck station, stows her chair, then waits at the steps reading the crew's hostile mood.
- SA:DS:Ch 5 Carries Rysn from the hold to her cabin to the quarterdeck, fetches the captain, and afterward warns Rysn that the Radiants have been hiding something — naming the Horneater specifically.
- SA:DS:Ch 7 Carries Rysn to the rail and helps Plamry set her on a high stool so she can see the dead santhid over the side.
- SA:DS:Ch 8 Sits with Rysn at the bonfire, shares half-true Aimian myths about the scouring, then later corners her at her chair to plant the suspicion that Cord is steering them into a trap.
- SA:DS:Ch 9 Produces a pouch of blackbane he claims to have found among Cord's things; is taken down by Kstled at Rysn's signal, drops his Thaylen accent entirely, and refuses every question except a final plea that Rysn turn back.
- SA:DS:Ch 14 Reassembles himself out of swarming cremlings on the deck of the Wandersail, greets Rysn by name, tells her the time for negotiation is past, and addresses Cord formally in Horneater and Veden.
- SA:DS:Ch 17 Assembles in the mural chamber with two other Sleepless swarms, dons a robe from the ancient weapons pile, and agrees to sit when Rysn presents the formal Thaylen trade posture.
- SA:DS:Ch 18 Negotiates across the bench-as-deal-table with Rysn, explains the Sleepless cover story, names himself for the first time as one of a non-native swarm species — then panics when the mural changes and the human shape falls apart again.
- SA:DS:Ch 19 Re-forms across the bench from Rysn, names the Dawnshards as the four primal Commands that undid Adonalsium, votes the deal through with the other Sleepless swarms, and bows to her as the new bearer of the secret.
- SA:WaT:I-15 Pours out of an air duct beside Rysn's chair, recognizes the illusion-clad stranger as a Dawnshard bearer who had walked away from the duty centuries ago, and is briefly unraveled into scrambling cremlings by the resonance of the two powers.
Backreferences
- summarySA:DS:Ch 1
- summarySA:DS:Ch 3
- summarySA:DS:Ch 5
- factAlalhawithador
- summarySA:DS:Ch 7
- factPlamry
- summarySA:DS:Ch 8
- factAlm
- summarySA:DS:Ch 9
- factChiri-Chiri
- factScreech
- summarySA:DS:Ch 13
- summarySA:DS:Ch 14
- factNikli
- factCord
- factCultivation's Perpendicularity
- factThe Sighted
- summarySA:DS:Ch 17
- factLongbrow
- summarySA:DS:Ch 18
- factGods Who Sleep Not
- summarySA:DS:Ch 19
- factChiri-Chiri
- factAncient Guardians of Akinah
- factMandra
- summarySA:WaT:I-15