Characters

Szeth-son-son-Vallano

Known facts

passed-hand-to-handFive years after the assassination of King Gavilar, has been resold dozens of times — from the Parshendi who tossed his Oathstone outside Kholinar to a string of cobblers, merchants, farmers, and finally a Bavland miner named Took — each owner growing uneasy with a slave who sounds like a lighteyes and knows more than they do.SA:WoK:I-3
windrunner-identityIs a Windrunner and Surgebinder in everything but name — when he summons his Blade his dark green eyes shift to glowing sapphire, a particular effect of his weapon. He hides the truth so completely that the men who give him their privies to muck have no idea.SA:WoK:I-3
gloried-in-wasteGlories in being wasted. Each day Took sets him to clean or dig is a day he is not made to kill, and a victory against the night five years ago when he was ordered to be seen butchering the king of Alethkar.SA:WoK:I-3
oathstone-changes-hands-againMakkek is killed and beheaded the same night Szeth kills Gavashaw. The masked figure who claims the Oathstone hands Szeth a list of two dozen names — six highprinces, a Selay gerontarch, the king of Jah Keved — and orders him to use the tactics he employed so well in Alethkar years ago.SA:WoK:I-6
begins-doubting-stone-shamanismHas begun to question the prohibitions he was raised on — how can these Easterners not walk on stone, when there is no soil in their lands? — and immediately recoils. To question the Shamanism is to question his own Truthless-nature.SA:WoK:I-6
assassinates-iri-kingSlaughters his way through the Iri king's honor guard at a feast hall — slashing hinges, kicking the door across the room, taking dining tables one leap at a time, listening to every dying scream and hating himself for each. Shatters the king's half-shard shield outside, breaks his arm with a double Basic Lashing, and answers his last question — *what are you?* — with one word. *Death.*SA:WoK:I-9
attacks-dalinar-at-the-warcampSent again by his masters, Szeth Lashes himself across the warcamps during a highstorm and assaults Dalinar in the top room of his complex. Dalinar survives — barely — by improvisation, drawing Szeth into a position where the Assassin cannot use Stormlight and forcing a withdrawal. The Assassin in White is defeated for the first time.SA:WoK:Ch 75
attacks-pinnacle-for-dalinarSzeth cuts a doorway through the rock of the Pinnacle during the highstorm, kills the bridgeman scout Beld and disables Hobber, walks the ceiling against Adolin, severs Kaladin's right forearm with his Shardblade, and tells Dalinar — kneeling under the killing stroke — that this attack was for the highprince, not the king.SA:WoR:Ch 32
flees-pinnacle-truthless-shakenFaced with another glowing Surgebinder who heals a Shardblade wound and names himself Windrunner, Szeth backs away through a puddle, his sapphire eyes darkening, and screams that he was named Truthless wrongly. Demanding twice over whether they have all returned, he turns and flees the Pinnacle eastward.SA:WoR:Ch 33
arrives-on-the-shattered-plainsJogging back across the bridge to the central plateau, Adolin catches a hooded man and asks for orders; the hood falls back to reveal large too-round eyes, a bald head, and filmy loose clothing: the Assassin in White, on the Plains.SA:WoR:Ch 84
blade-does-not-vanish-after-deathWhen Kaladin drives Syl through the assassin's chest on the stormwall, Szeth's silvery, unornamented sword slips from his fingers and does not vanish into mist the way a Shardblade would. Syl urgently tells Kaladin to grab it; he dives after it and catches it before the storm consumes it.SA:WoR:Ch 86
carried-an-honorbladeOn the round plateau the morning after the storms, Syl names the silvery, unornamented sword Kaladin took from the Assassin in White for what it is — an Honorblade, one of the swords of the Heralds. The Shin hold the rest, Syl says, and so Kaladin will face enemies with both Shards and the powers of Lashing in time to come.SA:WoR:Ch 87
restored-by-nin-as-a-skybreakerNin — Herald of Justice — waits at the place Szeth crashes after Kaladin kills him on the stormwall, lets the body die for certain, then restores him before the brain dies using a glowing fabrial held behind his back. Nin tells him his bond to his Honorblade is severed, he is reborn, and he is the most worthy man for the Skybreakers Nin has found in a long time. Szeth accepts: he was right, the Voidbringers have returned, and he was never Truthless.SA:WoR:Ch 88
given-a-black-sword-by-ninTo arm him against Szeth's own people — who hold the rest of the Honorblades — Nin tosses him a sheathed sword. The Blade is black, trailing what looks like Stormlight made dark. A cheerful voice speaks in Szeth's mind the moment he sees it: *Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?*SA:WoR:Ch 88
fourth-ideal-questReturns to Shinovar to cleanse what he names an evil there — a crusade of righteous cause undertaken to claim the Fourth Ideal of the Skybreakers (see the Ideals), the step before the fifth, in which a man becomes the law itself. Dalinar sends Kaladin with him as a companion against his wish to go alone.SA:WaT:Ch 6
now-calls-himself-son-honorBy the journey into Shinovar with Kaladin, Szeth has taken the name *Szeth-son-Honor* — neither *son-Neturo* of his father nor *son-Vallano* of his Truthlessness, but a bond-name claiming what he serves.SA:WaT:Ch 19
returns-to-shinovar-after-truthless-exileSzeth crosses the Misted Mountains back into Shinovar for the first time since his exile as Truthless. Cresting the southern pass with Kaladin, he sees soil under his boots instead of stonewalker-and-cremstone country — falls to his knees beside a patch of weed-dandelions and touches leaves that do not pull back. Two gloryspren appear above him; his highspren orders the moment cut short as unfitting of his station, and he obeys.SA:WaT:Ch 19
third-ideal-skybreaker-but-division-withheldSzeth has now reached the Third Ideal of the Skybreakers; Nale has granted him leave to use Division and he has the skill, but his highspren has so far forbidden him the art — *the time is not right*. He still does not know the spren's name; that distinction is not given lightly, and the spren has not given it to him.SA:WaT:Ch 19
met-shinovar-unmade-in-his-youth-with-a-rockSzeth tells Kaladin that an Unmade has been awake in Shinovar since before Kaladin became a Radiant and that his people have embraced its darkness. He is certain of the identification because he met the thing himself before his exile; the encounter began in his youth, *with a rock*. The cleansing of his homeland of this presence is the retribution he intends to deliver alongside the hunt for Ishar.SA:WaT:Ch 22
boyhood-dancer-of-clearmountAs Szeth-son-Neturo at eleven, Szeth was a Shin shepherd's son on the southeastern grasslands of Shinovar near Clearmount — already regarded by villagers as the best dancer among them, though all he cared about was doing it *right*. His family's territory included a single sacred family stone, which had never known the hands of man and to which he gave his dance.SA:WaT:Ch 24
second-family-stone-found-in-his-dancing-ringAt the close of the flashback day, Szeth finds a second stone — a handspan wide, freshly emerged from the packed earth of his dance-ring, perhaps brought up by overnight rain. It is the first stone he has ever seen emerge; the older ones in Shin country had stood for years, carefully marked off and revered. He and Elid share a stunned look and he runs to fetch Neturo.SA:WaT:Ch 24
first-given-a-choice-that-was-not-oneAsked by his father to *choose* whether the family should relinquish their home to the Stone Shamans or covertly move the newly-emerged stone, eleven-year-old Szeth picks the option his parents transparently wanted — and is left with a quiet, shameful resentment at being made to author a decision that was never really his. The moment is the formative wound of his later need to be *told* what is right and his rage when those who told him were wrong.SA:WaT:Ch 27
uncharacteristic-choice-to-search-for-molli-aloneTwenty-six years before the contest, with three sheep including the favoured Molli missing, a boy Szeth makes a wholly uncharacteristic choice: he puts out his lamp and walks alone into the night back toward the family homestead under stonewalker attack, trusting filtered moonlight. The narration flags this as the kind of decision he would not have made on any other night — a turning point shaped by the Farmer's words that humans are defined by their power to act.SA:WaT:Ch 36
first-killing-as-a-boy-with-the-worshipped-stoneAs a boy, Szeth killed his first man — one of the Farmer's patrolling soldiers, sent to drive off stonewalker raiders — after the soldiers butchered his sheep Molli for sport at the family's worshipped stone. He beat the man to death with that same stone after the soldier, eyes flashing red from within, attacked him. He stood over the body all night until morning.SA:WaT:Ch 38
first-heard-spren-voice-after-killingImmediately after his first killing, Szeth heard a soft voice open in his mind for the first time — *here now, what are you?* — that did not return when he waited for it.SA:WaT:Ch 38
granted-division-by-spren-as-full-skybreakerPinned in stone by Rit in the duel for Talmut's Blade, Szeth obeyed his spren to the point of suffocation rather than touch his second Surge without permission. His spren — *some said you were not worthy because you would not choose the law as your guide; now I prove them wrong* — at last granted him Division, opening him to the full powers of a Skybreaker.SA:WaT:Ch 41
won-yesoran-blade-by-pilgrimage-of-truth-and-was-exiledAs a young man, Szeth completed the Shin *pilgrimage of Truth* — trained at each monastery, defeated Yesoran's Honorbearer without powers to take Yesoran's Blade, then carried it to face the other seven. Instead of being inducted into the eight Honorbearers, he was exiled with the Blade, which he kept until it was stolen by Moash.SA:WaT:Ch 42
szeths-highspren-admits-szeth-is-first-bonded-knightSzeth is the first knight ever bonded by his highspren, a fact the spren had hidden behind the air of long experience. While Szeth walks with Kaladin outside Koring, the spren confesses it — *you are my first, and so I will not see you ruined, lest I never be given the chance again* — and frames the talk of warrior thoughts with Kaladin as a forging it intends to subject him to.SA:WaT:Ch 45
family-chose-to-follow-into-soldier-trainingRather than send eleven-year-old Szeth away alone to train under the Farmer's soldiers after the killing at the stone, Father declared he would go too — *if you mean to teach my son to kill, you will teach me, so he is never alone with what he must do* — and Mother folded the rest of the family in behind him, with Elid free to move to her cousins in town. Szeth would not go into the darkness alone.SA:WaT:Ch 48
heard-his-highspren-voice-the-night-of-his-first-killingThe first time Szeth heard a spren voice — the same kind of voice he would not be granted again for years — was the night his parents and the Farmer argued his fate outside the doorway and he whispered to himself that he would never be worthy to hear them. A reply came: *don't be so certain. We watch you. We are curious.*SA:WaT:Ch 48
family-volunteered-to-follow-him-into-soldier-campWhen young Szeth is conscripted into the Shin military for his first killing, Neturo and Zeenid sign on as volunteers — a rarity at the camp — so that the family will not be split. They could have left him to cousins, but did not.SA:WaT:Ch 51
first-hears-the-voice-at-soldier-campOn surrendering his colour kerchief at the camp gate, Szeth hears for the first time the disembodied Voice in his head — a coach who claims to be the *spren of the stone* he discovered as a child and who walks him through Betheth's recruit assessment with a single, surgical spear-stroke that flags him for officer training.SA:WaT:Ch 51
rerouted-to-officer-training-after-camp-assessmentBetheth pulls Szeth aside after the carcass assessment and walks him to the camp general's tent for officer training, judging his single, controlled spear-thrust at the dead sheep's neck the right answer to a test his peers spectacularly failed.SA:WaT:Ch 51
takes-edgedancer-and-elsecaller-honorblades-from-pozenInside Shadesmar, Szeth defeats the young Edgedancer Honorbearer with Nightblood in its golden form, then watches Pozen fall on his own Elsecaller sword rather than surrender it. He carries both Edgedancer and Elsecaller Honorblades back to the Physical Realm.SA:WaT:Ch 53
opens-first-elsegateAnchored not on technique but on his own quest — his people's survival and the unsolved question of his father's death — Szeth opens his first Elsegate with the Elsecaller Honorblade and tumbles out of Shadesmar back onto the grass of Shinovar beside Kaladin's camp.SA:WaT:Ch 53
ordered-to-the-slaughterhouse-and-the-defensesOn a state visit to Szeth's Shin soldier camp, the elderly Honorbearer Pozen-son-Nash sets the boy a course of training meant to harden him for combat: one weekly shift at the camp slaughterhouse, plus a posting to the rear guard at the next raid. The General is to assign him though he is judged too young. Szeth accepts because Pozen has answered his question — *how do you know what is right* — with *follow your superiors*.SA:WaT:Ch 57
refuses-the-stone-in-the-practice-yardAt fourteen, pinned in the practice yard by Jormo after a sparring match, Szeth closes his hand on a half-buried rock kicked loose during the bout — then deliberately lets it go. *Not again.* He has lost control with a stone once and someone died; he resolves never to lose it again. The Voice is unhappy with the choice.SA:WaT:Ch 57
first-restored-to-life-by-the-voiceDuring his coastal raid against the stonewalker ships at nineteen, Szeth takes a sword to the gut and is left dying on the enemy deck. The Voice restores him on the spot — sealing the wound and *killing the foreign bacteria in his gut* — calling it a gift not earned, and warning Szeth to remember the debt.SA:WaT:Ch 59
burns-the-stonewalker-fleet-at-the-fishing-villageAt nineteen, taking *show initiative* at its broadest reading, Szeth designs and executes a trap that destroys two of three stonewalker raid ships on the Shin coast: his soldiers infiltrate the ships as fake slaves with hidden blades and burn the holds. Stabbing two surviving raiders the way he had been stabbed, he sends the captain home with a warning he calls down as a Stormrider. The Shin Farmer and General Kinal judge it overreach and recall him to camp for judgment.SA:WaT:Ch 59
plans-his-own-death-after-pilgrimageSzeth tells Kaladin that his new clarity has brought him not freedom but the resolve to end himself: he will complete the pilgrimage and cleanse his homeland, then deliver justice on his own life. Now that he knows he is not Truthless, he can pronounce judgement on himself for his many killings.SA:WaT:Ch 64
taken-from-home-at-elevenSzeth tells Kaladin he was eleven when he was taken from his home and sent to the Stoneward monastery — a child who loved to dance, ripped from a peaceful life and remade into a killer.SA:WaT:Ch 66
taken-to-pozen-monastery-as-acolyteEighteen years before the present, Szeth is plucked from his soldier post by the Voice and brought to Pozen's monastery to begin training as a shaman acolyte — recast publicly as a *hero* whose ship-burning was a covert test of his abilities and obedience.SA:WaT:Ch 68
takes-lightweaver-honorblade-from-mossSzeth solves Moss's Lightweaving puzzle from the air — with hidden help from Syl — and stabs through the eye of the Shush face set in floor mosaic, killing Moss and recovering the Lightweaver Honorblade from a hollow beneath the tile.SA:WaT:Ch 73
leaves-shinovar-on-honorbearer-pilgrimageOn the day he leaves Shinovar on his Honorbearer pilgrimage — to train in turn with Sivi and each of the other Honorbearers — the Voice tells Szeth in the monastery's rock garden that *every important moment in his life had purpose,* that the Voice orchestrated it all, and that the next stretch will be the hardest, among those who do not revere it as Pozen does.SA:WaT:Ch 75
kills-tuko-takes-windrunner-honorbladeAt the close of his seven-year first pilgrimage, Szeth duels Tuko to the death in the monastery's grand hall — a clash that lasts under five minutes over a tiled floor depicting Yesoran king of the Heralds — and rises with the Windrunner Honorblade in hand. He cradles the dying Tuko in his lap as the older man warns him *he'll throw you away too,* the only line of dissent Szeth has yet been allowed to hear.SA:WaT:Ch 83
refuses-the-final-monastery-duelAt the Dustbringer monastery, Szeth drops his Blade and sits down rather than fight the masked Honorbearer sent against him — recognising before he sees her face that her swings hold no killing intent — and is later identified by Nale as having finally chosen to be *done* with killing.SA:WaT:Ch 90
pilgrimage-revealed-as-heraldship-auditionElid, dissolving in his arms, tells Szeth the truth of his pilgrimage: the Oathpact is broken, the circle is shattered, the Heralds degrade, Jezrien is dead, and this whole pilgrimage has been Nale and Ishar auditioning him to take Jezrien's place. Nale confirms it: he is to take up the mantle of a Herald.SA:WaT:Ch 90
refused-the-voice-recognising-the-unmadeAt the Bondsmith monastery beyond Ayabiza, with the Voice's shadow already coming for him through a chamber of spren nailed to the walls, Szeth recognised her at last as one of the Unmade — and, for the first time since his childhood, refused her. He turned and fled the cavern instead of stepping into it to worship.SA:WaT:Ch 94
chosen-as-replacement-heraldNale and the highspren confirm to him that the whole of his pilgrimage has been an audition for a place among the Heralds — that the Heralds have been waiting for *a man with no attachments, trained in the best arts of war,* who will fight on command and follow the bond. Nightblood was first put in his hands by Nale as a test of character, and he has passed.SA:WaT:Ch 95
declares-the-desolation-aloneStanding in the corridor of the Windrunner monastery the morning after killing Tuko, Szeth told the ten shamans of the house that the other Honorbearers of Shinovar served one of the Unmade — a being they called the Voice — and declared on his own authority that the Desolation had arrived and the Voidbringers returned. He was the only Honorbearer willing to say so, and from that day began organising the people of Shinovar for a civil war within the priesthood.SA:WaT:Ch 98
aborts-pozen-assassination-and-declares-openlySix weeks after taking Tuko's seat, Szeth crept into Pozen's Elsecaller monastery meaning to kill the elder Honorbearer in the dark and take his Blade. Overhearing Sivi discuss the conspiracy from the hallway, then unwilling to murder a friend in a prayer chamber on the chance she might be deceived, he confronted her instead — and when Pozen returned, dismissed his weapon, retreated, and called openly through the corridor that he had begun raising the banner of Truth himself.SA:WaT:Ch 102
wins-first-battle-of-his-rebellionSzeth fights and wins his first true battle as a leader: a few hundred sloppy acolytes pitched against a small town's militia, who fold once he flies low past their line killing twenty before they can react and infuses a *holy boulder* to crash into their reserves. He privately judges his troops too soft for the Voidbringers to come and resolves to harden them.SA:WaT:Ch 106
marches-on-the-stoneward-monastery-for-his-fathers-armyRealising his small revolt cannot scare the other Honorbearers into engaging him, Szeth orders Visk to break camp and turn south along the mountains — toward his home village and the Stoneward monastery, where decades of disciplined soldiers had been trained under his father Neturo's administration. Those troops, he believes, will follow him.SA:WaT:Ch 106
refuses-to-be-a-thing-and-claims-his-own-choicePressed by Nale for a sight-unseen oath of obedience at the Skybreaker monastery, Szeth — for whom obedience to a master has always been the easy test — refuses. *I am not a thing,* he tells the Herald. *I'm not a rock to be handed between people, exchanged like money. I'm a person.* If he is to take up the mantle of a Herald, he will at least choose what he is walking toward.SA:WaT:Ch 108
names-kaladin-his-champion-against-naleConfronted with the choice of killing or being killed, Szeth does neither — he drops his Shardblade and is saved by Kaladin's spear intercepting Nale's blow. He then names Kaladin his champion. *I cannot fight you. I choose not to. But he defeated me. He can defeat you.* The choice to refuse the killing himself is the choice he had needed.SA:WaT:Ch 108
szeth-surrenders-judgment-to-neturoConfronted on the cliff battlefield by Neturo — alive, real, wearing the Bondsmith colours and bearing the Bondsmith Honorblade — Szeth collapses inward. Convinced he is a fool and a child who cannot trust his own judgement, he surrenders it wholly to his father: *Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. If you tell me.* This is the moment that yokes him to whatever followed — and, through Neturo's captivity, ultimately to the Voice.SA:WaT:Ch 111
szeth-spared-other-honorbearersDuring the cliff battle outside the Stoneward monastery, Szeth fights both Moss and Sivi without making killing strokes — refusing to be the assassin or murderer the other Honorbearers expect. He breaks Moss and sends him fleeing, then disarms Sivi in a sword-against-sword duel the enemy ranks make room to watch.SA:WaT:Ch 111
szeth-named-truthless-at-cookfireOn the night after the failed rebellion, with his wrists bound at a cookfire, Szeth himself asks to be declared Truthless — telling his father and the assembled Honorbearers that the only alternative is for him to kill all of them, and that he can no longer trust his own judgement. He swears the Oathstone oath — to do whatever its holder commands, except kill himself — and feels immediate, terrible liberation: no more choices.SA:WaT:Ch 117
voice-orders-szeth-keep-the-honorbladeJust as the Honorbearers move to take the Jezrien Honorblade from him, the Voice speaks through them to forbid it; Szeth is to keep the Blade into his exile. The vow is amended on the spot — he may not give the Blade away, and *a stonewalker should never hold it.* Pozen then renames him *Szeth-son-son-Vallano,* stripping the patronymic in his father's name.SA:WaT:Ch 117
decides-ishar-must-be-stoppedListening to Nin and Kaladin argue, Szeth privately makes the first deliberate moral choice of his adult life: Kaladin is right, and Ishar must be stopped. As the last bearer of Truth in Shinovar and final Honorbearer, he resolves to find a way to undo what has happened here — for his family, for his people, and this time also for himself.SA:WaT:Ch 128
chooses-to-lose-the-final-test-on-purposeBefore Ishu's final test, Szeth huddles with Kaladin and Syl and reframes the trap: he will lose deliberately and let Kaladin use the chance to argue Shinovar free, while he reaches for his father and sister through whatever puppet-string Ishar has tied to them. If Ishar releases the people, his quest is fulfilled and the Fourth Ideal becomes available — the only door left.SA:WaT:Ch 130
speaks-the-fourth-ideal-of-the-skybreakersPummelled past pain, broken-nosed, ribs cracked, Szeth hears the litany he has carried since childhood — *I am Truthless, I do not ask; I do as my masters require* — and rejects it. Lifting his head from the cold stone of the ridge, he speaks his Fourth Ideal as a Skybreaker: *I am my own agent. I make my own choices. I am the Law.* Light erupts around him.SA:WaT:Ch 133
speaks-the-fifth-ideal-of-the-skybreakersAs the column of light fades, Szeth's highspren tells him what he has done: he has spoken the Fifth Ideal of the Skybreakers and *become the law*. Szeth understands it as a claim on every man, not on him alone — that all should follow the law because they have chosen it, and fight it when it is wrong.SA:WaT:Ch 135
releases-his-highspren-bondMere moments after reaching the Fifth Ideal, Szeth thanks his highspren and tells it he will not follow Nin's Skybreakers — he will seek out the dissenters who keep the old ways and find another spren there, or build one himself. He releases the bond. The wrench is worse than the beating that left him bloody, but he stays on his knees and chooses it anyway.SA:WaT:Ch 135
kills-pozen-his-first-teacherWith Nightblood in hand and his Lashings restored, Szeth thanks his first teacher for the training and runs the black sword through him — Pozen explodes into dark smoke, his Blade clanging away across the Shin stones.SA:WaT:Ch 141
kills-his-sister-elidOut of the Truthwatcher Honorbearer's gallery of whisper-shades, Szeth's sister Elid steps to circle him with her Blade. He sees that what she trails behind her is red where his is white — she is not alive any longer, only something else — and after telling her she does not deserve any of this, kisses her forehead and ends her with Nightblood.SA:WaT:Ch 141
kills-his-father-neturoPressed against a stone pillar at the end of the Honorbearer fight, Neturo confesses that he had been following his son for answers, not the other way around — and that the corruption took him step by step until it had him. Szeth lets his father shove him back, ducks the sweep, and runs Nightblood through him; Neturo sighs *thank you* and vanishes into dark mist.SA:WaT:Ch 143
refuses-to-let-nightblood-take-himAlone among the dark shadow-shades after killing his family, Szeth sees Nightblood still reaching for his soul and recognizes the easy door — and refuses it, because letting the sword end him would betray everything Kaladin had taught him. *Yes, Szeth could choose. And he needed to choose better.*SA:WaT:Ch 143
loses-arm-becomes-truth-of-shinovarSzeth wakes after the end of the Heralds' Oathpact-rite under the black sky of the Everstorm, his right arm gone above the shoulder — the price Nightblood took to free his family — and walks one-handed out of the field where he buried Kaladin to serve a confused and frightened Shin nation as the last bearer of Truth of Shinovar.SA:WaT:Ch 146

Events

SA:WoK:I-9 POV; slaughters the feast hall and Lashes to the fleeing king
SA:WoK:Ch 75 Attempts the assassination in a highstorm; forced to withdraw
SA:WaT:Ch 6 Sits in the antechamber of the meeting room dressed in white with his long Shardblade across his lap, meditating; agrees to wait two hours for the flight south.
SA:WaT:Ch 8 Waits in the antechamber, Nightblood sheathed at his back; agrees to meet Kaladin at the Oathgate in two hours.
SA:WaT:Ch 52 Eats stew on a stump nearby, reports the next town as *corrupted*, then wanders off into the night before the kata ends — leaving his pack, both Honorblades, and Nightblood by the fire.
SA:WaT:Ch 64 Walks the storm beside Kaladin; takes Kaladin's hand-counselling and answers with his plan to die.
SA:WaT:Ch 71 Walks behind Nale and Kaladin, answering Kaladin only in flat monotone since Nale's arrival; turns at the unmarked side path that leads to the Lightweaver monastery.
SA:WaT:Ch 86 Settles on a rock near the fire to wait, and over a bowl of stew tells Kaladin he is caught between two choices.
SA:WaT:Ch 86 Comes running to point out the river of spren streaming northeast toward the final monasteries.
SA:WaT:Ch 89 Trails behind on the switchback up to the Dustbringer monastery and tells Kaladin the past is dead and he must focus on stopping the Unmade ahead.
SA:WaT:Ch 103 Meditates apart from camp at first, returns to find Kaladin has cooked carrots for breakfast, tries one in surprise — *surprisingly good* — and urges they pack up since Nin will be waiting.
SA:WaT:Ch 109 Watches the duel from the side, clutching the pack of swords including Nightblood; at the end tries to step between Kaladin and Nale to swear obedience and save him — *I'll do as you say. I'll obey, Nin. It's over!* — and is pushed aside.
SA:WaT:Ch 110 Catches Kaladin after the first inhuman punch and pleads for the fight to end; reaches out at the close to take the weeping Nale's hand.
SA:WaT:Ch 119 Accepts Nale's Honorblade for the night, learns that the divine force he obeyed for years was Ishar rather than an Unmade, and commits to confronting *Ishu-son-God* at the final monastery.
SA:WaT:Ch 126 Hitches the two old Shin horses to the borrowed wagon in the pre-dawn rain, pays the Shin couple with broams whose gems were *grown in the hearts of beasts,* and drives the cart toward the Bondsmith monastery — at peace with the journey for the first time.
SA:WaT:Ch 129 Driving the wagon up the last ridge, Szeth tells Nightblood to guard the Honorblades and walks with Kaladin toward Ishu in the shadow of the cathedral stones.
SA:WaT:Ch 131 Szeth takes the beating on the stone field nearby — pulled into the air with a Lashing at one point, broken arm twisted the wrong way, cries cutting through Kaladin's argument.
SA:WaT:Ch 134 Stands inside the column of light his Fifth Ideal has summoned as the Honorbearers collapse around him.
SA:WaT:Ch 135 Thanks his highspren for trying, dismisses Nin's order as corrupted, releases the bond — and reaches for Nightblood just as Ishar's hand seizes his shoulder.
SA:WaT:Ch 138 Curled up on the stone, too exhausted to answer even Nightblood when the sword calls his name from a few feet away.
SA:WaT:Ch 139 Opens his eyes when Kaladin steps in front of him, groans, looks up — kept upright by another man choosing to stand.
SA:WaT:Ch 140 Freed when Kaladin cuts the cord, accepts Nightblood from his hand — drawing the sword's price from Kaladin's Light, not his own soul — and turns to face the six Honorbearers in restored Lashings.
SA:WaT:Ch 141 Moves as and with the wind across the Honorbearers, running up a Stoneward's raised wall as if it were a promenade, scattering five at once with sparks flying from their Blades.
SA:WaT:Ch 143 Disintegrates into the sword's smoke from the hand outward — restored only when the sword chooses not to take him.
SA:WaT:Ch 144 Lies unconscious on the springy ground, his arm gone all the way to the shoulder and the skin scored and blackened — alive, but in no state to bear the Oathpact Nale had prepared him for.
SA:WoR:Ch 32 Steps from a side corridor over Beld's body in flowing white, drawing Stormlight visibly from his skin and bearing a silvery Shardblade that gouges a furrow in the stone behind him.
SA:WoR:Ch 33 Lands on his feet in the rain in his bone-white silks, asks himself in his own language whether he Lashed Kaladin to the ground or accidentally upward, and breaks when Kaladin heals and claims to be a Windrunner — fleeing eastward as a streak of light.
SA:WoR:Ch 84 Walks the central plateau in hood and filmy white, stopped by Adolin for orders — the hood falls back, the eyes are too round, and the Assassin in White is on the Plains.
SA:WoR:Ch 85 Strides into the storm in white plastered to his skin, names himself *Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar*, thanks Dalinar for extending his agony by not dying easily, and fights him to broken ribs and a knee. Then Lashes Roion and finally Dalinar himself into the black sky to kill them.
SA:WoR:Ch 86 Hovers above the cloud-tops in sunlight, names himself *Truthless* again and again, insists Kaladin has stolen Honorblades, screams futilely into the infinite sky when Syl reshapes from sword to spear in Kaladin's hand. On the stormwall he finally confesses he was never Truthless, closes his eyes, and lets Kaladin's Blade through his chest below the neck.
SA:WoR:Ch 88 Wakes on empty rock somewhere beyond the Plains after dying on the stormwall, recognises Nin by the crescent mark, accepts that he was right and his people were wrong, and kneels before the Herald of Justice to be taught the path of the Skybreakers — receiving a black sheathed sword that smokes like dark Stormlight and speaks in his mind.

Relations

fulfillsFirst Ideal of the Knights Radiant — Szeth speaks the First Ideal alongside the other Skybreaker hopefuls. SA:OB:Ch 90
fulfillsSecond Ideal of the Skybreakers — Szeth speaks the Second Ideal of the Skybreakers after Ki takes him as her squire. SA:OB:Ch 92
relatedTook — Current Oathstone-holder; Szeth's most stable owner so far precisely because Took finds his obedience natural SA:WoK:I-3
fulfillsGavilar Kholin — Reflects on the night five years before when he was sent — for the first time — to kill loudly and be seen SA:WoK:I-3
relatedVstim — Owned him seven years ago; still wishes Thresh would let him buy another SA:WoK:I-4
foreshadowsThe Masked Master — Szeth's new owner has the ambition and understanding to use him for what he is SA:WoK:I-6
foreshadowsThe Assassination List — Two dozen names; six highprinces; the king of Jah Keved SA:WoK:I-6
fulfillsThe Assassination List — First name on the list crossed off — the Iri king SA:WoK:I-9
foreshadowsDalinar Kholin — Dalinar warns Kaladin that this clumsy attempt is not the storm they have to fear: if Sadeas decides to strike, or the assassin who killed his brother, the cost will be far higher. SA:WoR:Ch 23

Backreferences

summarySA:ED:Ch 9
summarySA:ED:Ch 10
summarySA:ED:Ch 15
factWyndle · volunteers-to-eavesdrop-on-skybreakers
summarySA:ED:Ch 16
summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 51
summarySA:OB:Prologue
factYanagawn the First · description
summarySA:OB:Ch 24
summarySA:OB:Ch 31
summarySA:OB:Ch 40
summarySA:OB:Ch 41
summarySA:OB:Ch 56
factYanagawn the First · installed-after-assassins-killing-of-emperors
summarySA:OB:Ch 60
summarySA:OB:Ch 64
summarySA:OB:Ch 73
summarySA:OB:Ch 77
summarySA:OB:Ch 90
factNightblood · description
factKi · description
summarySA:OB:Ch 92
factNightblood · nightblood-mentions-shashara-and-vivenna
factMinister Kwati · description
factWinnow · description
summarySA:OB:Ch 98
factWarren · description
factTy · description
summarySA:OB:Ch 106
summarySA:OB:Ch 107
summarySA:OB:Ch 116
summarySA:OB:Ch 117
summarySA:OB:Ch 118
summarySA:OB:Ch 119
summarySA:OB:Ch 120
summarySA:OB:Ch 121
summarySA:OB:Ch 122
factHonorblade of Jezrien · description
summarySA:RoW:Ch 16
factNem · description
summarySA:RoW:Ch 27
summarySA:RoW:Ch 38
summarySA:RoW:Ch 47
summarySA:RoW:Ch 50
summarySA:RoW:Ch 76
summarySA:RoW:Ch 98
summarySA:RoW:Ch 101
factNightblood · chipped-the-bondsmith-honorblade
summarySA:WoK:Prologue
factSphere · dark-variant
factSphere · description
summarySA:WoK:I-3
factTruthless · forbidden-suicide
factTook · description
factOathstone · description
factWindrunner · description
factSurgebinder · description
factBavland · description
summarySA:WoK:I-4
factVstim · owned-szeth-seven-years-ago
factVstim · description
factThresh-son-Esan · description
summarySA:WoK:I-6
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · oathstone-changes-hands-again
factMakkek · description
factGavashaw · description
factThe Masked Master · description
factThe Assassination List · description
summarySA:WoK:I-9
factThe Iri King · description
summarySA:WoK:Ch 75
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · attacks-dalinar-at-the-warcamp
factDalinar Kholin · trades-oathbringer-for-bridgemen
summarySA:WaT:Prologue
summarySA:WaT:Ch 6
factIshar · holds-honorblades-in-shinovar
summarySA:WaT:Ch 8
summarySA:WaT:Ch 12
summarySA:WaT:Ch 13
summarySA:WaT:Ch 19
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · now-calls-himself-son-honor
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · returns-to-shinovar-after-truthless-exile
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · third-ideal-skybreaker-but-division-withheld
summarySA:WaT:Ch 22
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · met-shinovar-unmade-in-his-youth-with-a-rock
summarySA:WaT:Ch 24
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · boyhood-dancer-of-clearmount
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · second-family-stone-found-in-his-dancing-ring
factNeturo-son-Vallano · description
factElid-daughter-Zeenid · description
factMolli · description
factSplash · description
factHonorbearer · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 27
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · first-given-a-choice-that-was-not-one
factZeenid-daughter-Beth · description
factStone Shamans · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 28
factHonorbearer · pilgrimage-trains-at-each-monastery-mastering-each-surge
summarySA:WaT:Ch 33
summarySA:WaT:Ch 35
factNightblood · starting-to-realise-the-killings-are-his-own
summarySA:WaT:Ch 36
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · uncharacteristic-choice-to-search-for-molli-alone
factThe Farmer · teaches-szeth-volition-as-the-mark-of-humanity
factThe Farmer · description
factThe Cook · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 38
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · first-killing-as-a-boy-with-the-worshipped-stone
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · first-heard-spren-voice-after-killing
factthe Sunken-Eyed Soldier · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 40
factTalenel · blade-was-swapped-by-shin-on-his-return
factThe Shin · kept-sacred-truth-of-honorblades
factRit-daughter-Clutio · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 41
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · granted-division-by-spren-as-full-skybreaker
factRit-daughter-Clutio · drew-on-mysterious-power-source-during-duel
summarySA:WaT:Ch 42
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · won-yesoran-blade-by-pilgrimage-of-truth-and-was-exiled
factKaladin · tells-szeth-radiants-watch-the-rim-for-the-people
summarySA:WaT:Ch 43
summarySA:WaT:Ch 45
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · szeths-highspren-admits-szeth-is-first-bonded-knight
factWillshaper · description
factWillshaper Honorblade · description
factSivi-daughter-Sivi · description
factKoring · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 48
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · family-chose-to-follow-into-soldier-training
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · heard-his-highspren-voice-the-night-of-his-first-killing
factNeturo-son-Vallano · gave-up-best-administrator-post-to-follow-szeth-into-training
summarySA:WaT:Ch 51
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · family-volunteered-to-follow-him-into-soldier-camp
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · first-hears-the-voice-at-soldier-camp
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · rerouted-to-officer-training-after-camp-assessment
factThe Voice · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 52
summarySA:WaT:Ch 53
factNightblood · appears-as-blazing-golden-sword-in-shadesmar
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · takes-edgedancer-and-elsecaller-honorblades-from-pozen
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · opens-first-elsegate
factPozen-son-Nash · description
factEdgedancer Honorblade · description
factElsegate · description
factDulo · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 54
factNoura · personally-elevated-yanagawn-and-took-him-as-duty
summarySA:WaT:Ch 57
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · ordered-to-the-slaughterhouse-and-the-defenses
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · refuses-the-stone-in-the-practice-yard
factJormo-son-Falk · description
factSergeant Szrand · description
factGeneral Kinal · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 59
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · first-restored-to-life-by-the-voice
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · burns-the-stonewalker-fleet-at-the-fishing-village
factThe Voice · bonded-only-to-people-of-shin-land
factthe Stormriders · description
factLumo-son-Tumo · description
factJathen · description
factAthszen · description
factCade · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 64
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · plans-his-own-death-after-pilgrimage
summarySA:WaT:Ch 66
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · taken-from-home-at-eleven
factThe Shin · city-populations-mustered-at-bondsmith-monastery
factKaladin · three-rules-for-szeth
factSylphrena · bond-growth-increases-physical-strength
factSzeth's Stuffed Sheep · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 68
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · taken-to-pozen-monastery-as-acolyte
factNeturo-son-Vallano · gives-up-soldier-life-to-follow-szeth
factThe Voice · speaks-to-honorbearers
factVambra · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 70
summarySA:WaT:Ch 71
summarySA:WaT:Ch 72
factMoss-son-Farrier · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 73
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · takes-lightweaver-honorblade-from-moss
factSylphrena · helps-szeth-solve-lightweaver-trial
factMoss-son-Farrier · hid-acolytes-behind-the-illusions
factLightweaver Honorblade · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 74
summarySA:WaT:Ch 75
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · leaves-shinovar-on-honorbearer-pilgrimage
factNeturo-son-Vallano · relationship-with-sivi
factNeturo-son-Vallano · walks-the-pilgrimage-with-szeth
factElid-daughter-Zeenid · cuts-szeth-off-at-the-rock-garden
summarySA:WaT:I-10
summarySA:WaT:Ch 83
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · kills-tuko-takes-windrunner-honorblade
factPozen-son-Nash · architect-of-szeths-replacement-of-tuko
factTuko-son-Tuko · dies-with-rattle-of-the-climb
factTuko-son-Tuko · description
factGearil · description
factThe Voice · description
factAyabiza · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 86
factShinovar · river-of-spren-streaming-toward-monasteries
factKaladin · accepts-the-listening-kind-of-help
fact12124 · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 88
summarySA:WaT:Ch 89
summarySA:WaT:Ch 90
factThe Oathpact · broken-and-degrading
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · refuses-the-final-monastery-duel
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · pilgrimage-revealed-as-heraldship-audition
factElid-daughter-Zeenid · revealed-already-dead-at-dustbringer-duel
factHonorbearer · pilgrimage-opponents-are-summoned-dead
summarySA:WaT:Ch 91
factTaravangian · ascends-by-killing-rayse-with-nightblood
summarySA:WaT:Ch 92
summarySA:WaT:Ch 94
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · refused-the-voice-recognising-the-unmade
factThe Voice · description
factSheathing of Swords · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 95
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · chosen-as-replacement-herald
summarySA:WaT:Ch 96
factNeturo-son-Vallano · stayed-with-szeth-hoping-for-answers
factVallano · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 98
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · declares-the-desolation-alone
factTuko-son-Tuko · was-already-planning-rebellion
factFaraz-daughter-Daraz · description
factWindrunner Monastery · description
factGonda-son-Darias · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 102
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · aborts-pozen-assassination-and-declares-openly
factNeturo-son-Vallano · vanished-without-trace-day-after-szeth-met-the-voice
factSivi-daughter-Sivi · tells-szeth-she-may-have-been-deceived
factPozen-son-Nash · knew-tuko-was-killed-deliberately-for-szeth
factElsecaller Monastery · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 103
factthe Wind · tells-kaladin-szeth-will-soon-be-a-herald
factCarrot · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 106
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · wins-first-battle-of-his-rebellion
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · marches-on-the-stoneward-monastery-for-his-fathers-army
factThe Voice · pushes-szeth-to-bait-the-honorbearers-with-a-larger-army
factThal-son-Geord · description
factVisk-daughter-Brador · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 108
factNalan'Elin · herald-immortality-sealed-by-arts-separate-from-the-oathpact
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · refuses-to-be-a-thing-and-claims-his-own-choice
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · names-kaladin-his-champion-against-nale
factKaladin · agrees-to-fight-nale-without-stormlight
factSkybreaker Monastery · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 109
summarySA:WaT:Ch 110
summarySA:WaT:Ch 111
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · szeth-surrenders-judgment-to-neturo
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · szeth-spared-other-honorbearers
factNeturo-son-Vallano · neturo-takes-bondsmith-honorblade
factDrodli · description
summarySA:WaT:Ch 117
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · szeth-named-truthless-at-cookfire
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · voice-orders-szeth-keep-the-honorblade
factHonorbearer · shin-honorbearers-declare-no-voidbringers
factThe Voice · voice-promises-to-harden-szeth-and-return-in-a-decade
summarySA:WaT:Ch 119
factNalan'Elin · nale-gives-skybreaker-honorblade-to-szeth-for-safekeeping
factIshar · ishar-drew-on-odiums-pool-to-play-god-in-shinovar
summarySA:WaT:Ch 126
summarySA:WaT:Ch 128
factThe Heralds · more-resilient-than-mortals-vedel-kalak-chana-weakening
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · decides-ishar-must-be-stopped
factKaladin · rejects-the-cost-of-an-edge
summarySA:WaT:Ch 129
summarySA:WaT:Ch 130
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · chooses-to-lose-the-final-test-on-purpose
factHonorbearer · nine-blades-of-ten-set-into-the-aharietiam-ring
summarySA:WaT:Ch 131
summarySA:WaT:Ch 132
factNightblood · kills-permanently-edgedancer-honorbearer-cannot-return
factHonorbearer · react-to-ishars-emotions-as-puppets
summarySA:WaT:Ch 133
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · speaks-the-fourth-ideal-of-the-skybreakers
factShinovar · ishars-madness-spread-to-the-whole-land-leaving-it-hollow
summarySA:WaT:Ch 134
factIshar · shields-himself-with-solid-stormlight
summarySA:WaT:Ch 135
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · speaks-the-fifth-ideal-of-the-skybreakers
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · releases-his-highspren-bond
summarySA:WaT:Ch 138
summarySA:WaT:Ch 139
factKaladin · tells-ishar-he-is-szeths-therapist
summarySA:WaT:Ch 140
factNightblood · learns-the-surges-from-the-honorblades
summarySA:WaT:Ch 141
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · kills-pozen-his-first-teacher
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · kills-his-sister-elid
summarySA:WaT:Ch 142
summarySA:WaT:Ch 143
factNightblood · chooses-not-to-kill-his-friends
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · kills-his-father-neturo
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · refuses-to-let-nightblood-take-him
summarySA:WaT:Ch 144
summarySA:WaT:Ch 146
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · loses-arm-becomes-truth-of-shinovar
summarySA:WaT:Ch 147
summarySA:WoR:Prologue
summarySA:WoR:Ch 31
factKing Hanavanar · dead
factThe Veden Succession War · description
summarySA:WoR:Ch 32
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · attacks-pinnacle-for-dalinar
factKaladin · right-arm-severed-by-shardblade
summarySA:WoR:Ch 33
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · flees-pinnacle-truthless-shaken
factDalinar Kholin · knows-szeth-came-for-him-not-elhokar
factKaladin · claims-windrunner-and-szeth-flees
factHobber · legs-deadened-promised-cook-place
factWall numbers · king-door-countdown
summarySA:WoR:Ch 35
factAdolin Kholin · tasks-kadash-with-radiants-research
summarySA:WoR:Ch 37
summarySA:WoR:Ch 38
summarySA:WoR:Ch 41
summarySA:WoR:Ch 44
factDalinar Kholin · schedules-private-meeting-with-parshendi-leaders
summarySA:WoR:Ch 51
summarySA:WoR:Ch 67
summarySA:WoR:Ch 68
factIalai Sadeas · was-the-one-who-engaged-the-assassin-in-white
summarySA:WoR:Ch 77
factMoash · holds-the-king-in-the-palace-during-the-weeping
summarySA:WoR:Ch 82
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · arrives-on-the-shattered-plains
summarySA:WoR:Ch 85
factDalinar Kholin · fights-szeth-and-survives
factDalinar Kholin · sets-down-the-gavilar-boulder
factKaladin · catches-dalinar-out-of-the-sky
factAdolin Kholin · outclassed-by-the-assassin-in-white
factRoion · killed-by-the-assassin-in-white
factRoion · description
summarySA:WoR:Ch 86
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · blade-does-not-vanish-after-death
factKaladin · kills-szeth-on-the-stormwall
factSebarial · herds-roions-army-to-the-round-plateau
summarySA:WoR:Ch 87
factHonorblade · description
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · carried-an-honorblade
factKaladin · description
factBisig · loses-a-hand-to-the-assassin-in-white
summarySA:WoR:Ch 88
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · restored-by-nin-as-a-skybreaker
factSzeth-son-son-Vallano · given-a-black-sword-by-nin
factNin · description