Venli
Known facts
- secretly-engineered-her-peoples-conversion-to-stormform-with-ulimVenli thinks back, in odd quiet moments when the new rhythms recede, on what she had spent years doing: meeting Ulim in secret, guiding her people toward stormform and the summoning of the new storm. She had told herself it was about saving her people; she admits to herself now that a form of power was what she had always wanted, and that the good of her people had always been secondary to her.SA:OB:Ch 35
- venli-saves-timbre-from-the-collapsing-visionPulled into Dalinar's Nohadon vision while in her cave in Marat; survives Odium's deconstruction of the vision and, as the city's stones begin to come apart again, releases her grip and slides toward Timbre to catch her in a fold of fingers. When the vision dies she crashes back to her own body with Timbre still pulsing in her hand.SA:OB:Ch 109
- venli-no-longer-glowing-redOn the field at Thaylen City Venli sees herself in the wet rock and finds her eyes do not glow red. Catching Dalinar's words — *you can change, you can become a better person, I did* — through the column of light, she whispers the first phrases of the Knights Radiant First Ideal and attunes the Rhythm of Joy. Timbre pulses Resolve and Victory inside her gemheart.SA:OB:Ch 120
- secret-radiantVenli is a secret Knight Radiant bonded to a small spren called Timbre, who hides inside her gemheart and protects her mind from the Voidspren that gives her envoyform. She has spoken only the First Ideal so far.SA:RoW:Ch 11
- voice-of-leshwiVenli serves as Voice to Lady Leshwi in occupied Kholinar — gate-keeper at the foot of the spire that leads to her mistress's High Chamber and translator of her hummed commands to mortals.SA:RoW:Ch 11
- rebuilding-the-listenersVenli is quietly recruiting trusted singers in occupied Kholinar, hoping to gather enough to escape both Fused rule and human dominion and re-form a free listener people — either by persuading a sympathetic Fused like Leshwi, or, failing that, by running.SA:RoW:Ch 11
- carries-voidlight-in-gemheartAs a Regal she carries a small amount of Voidlight in her gemheart — too little to use actively, Raboniel tells her, but enough to enflame her emotions. Most Regals are unaware of this.SA:RoW:Ch 31
- serves-as-raboniels-voiceHas been assigned to Raboniel as her Voice for the incursion against Urithiru — the only Regal on the femalen's staff and therefore the only one who can survive the mountain trek. So far her duties have been minor: setting out the bedroll, fetching water.SA:RoW:Ch 31
- first-kill-on-the-invasionKills an Alethi soldier with her own hands in the cavern at the head of the invasion route into Urithiru — slamming his skull against the stone twice — and is left shaking and sick. Raboniel, passing, asks if it is her first; *I was a scholar,* Venli says. *I did not go into battle.*SA:RoW:Ch 37
- experiments-with-painspren-to-find-warformAs an apprentice keeper of songs in her teens, Venli tries to attract new forms by staying near the shelter's edge during storms with different spren. She tells her mother she believes a painspren is the key to recovering warform — the first listener to hold it in generations, ever since the humans and the singers of old destroyed one another in their final battle.SA:RoW:Ch 45
- leads-conspiracy-to-flee-with-listener-survivorsSince Kholinar, Venli has been quietly recruiting a small inner circle out of the Alethi-raised singers in her staff and promising them an escape from the Fused into the wilderness around Urithiru — memorising the mountain route in, planning supply caches with Dul, and meaning to wait until a human revolt or attack covers their disappearance.SA:RoW:Ch 51
- takes-bloodred-gemstone-from-axindwethOn the broken plateaus near the Shattered Plains, Venli accepts a single blood-red gemstone from the human Axindweth — left sitting on the rock for her to take — with instructions to break it in a storm and so find a way to save those she loves.SA:RoW:Ch 52
- slips-into-rhythm-of-pleading-in-front-of-leshwiPressing Leshwi not to harm Kaladin's family, Venli involuntarily attunes Pleading — one of Roshar's old rhythms, not Odium's — and her Fused mistress takes note of it.SA:RoW:Ch 53
- houses-the-fallen-radiants-in-the-model-roomTasked by Raboniel with caring for Urithiru's fallen Radiants, Venli gathers all of them — about fifty — into the single-entrance chamber that holds the stone model of the tower off the atrium, and posts her own loyalists as their caretakers, both to protect them and to give her circle a quiet place to stockpile blankets, broth, and clothing for an eventual escape.SA:RoW:Ch 56
- bonds-voidspren-from-axindweths-gem-in-the-stormEight and a half years before the present day, Venli takes Axindweth's blood-red gemstone alone into a highstorm and breaks it, releasing a small Voidspren in human-male shape who promptly bonds with her. The bond gives her, for the moment, no visible new form — she returns from the storm still in workform — but speaks of *incredible things* ahead and of needing to reach a southern storm in Shadesmar as soon as it can scout the present-day world.SA:RoW:Ch 57
- addressed-by-rider-of-storms-as-child-of-odiumBefore Venli breaks Axindweth's gem, the Rider of Storms appears to her in a moment of unnatural calm and asks whether she truly means to take this step on behalf of all her people — then withdraws, naming her *child of the plains* and *child of Odium.*SA:RoW:Ch 57
- tells-rlain-eshonai-is-dead-and-listeners-extinctVenli tells Rlain in the listener tongue that she saw Eshonai's corpse herself at the bottom of the chasms, that of their people only she and he are left, and that Odium kept her alive because he wanted a survivor to inspire the freed singers with stories of the listeners. He does not yet know that she is the one who caused it.SA:RoW:Ch 60
- attempted-next-oath-rejectedAlone in her rooms after persuading Raboniel to release Rlain into her care, Venli tries to speak her next Radiant oath aloud — *I will seek freedom for those in bondage* — and a distant femalen voice thrumming with the pure rhythm of Roshar tells her *these words are not accepted.* She realises she had ignored the caged child Mraize handed Raboniel only minutes before.SA:RoW:Ch 60
- brought-spren-trapping-technique-to-listenersVenli taught the listeners of Eshonai's family how to trap a spren in a cut gemstone — claiming to have learned the technique from the humans — and used the secret as her bid for standing among the Five. Her first stone, a topaz holding a painspren, was offered to the elders as the basis for recovering warform.SA:RoW:Ch 62
- shapes-stone-via-cohesionOn the eighth floor of Urithiru, Venli draws in Voidlight, presses her hand to the stone wall and at last opens her Cohesion Surge — the wall ripples beneath her palm, hums to her, and she can press a hand-print, peel off a piece, roll it like clay, melt it back into the wall, and reattach it as if it had never moved. Timbre thrums with delight; the Voidlight sphere is drained almost instantly by the effort.SA:RoW:Ch 67
- voidlight-fuels-radiant-surgesVenli confirms by experiment that Voidlight can fuel her Radiant powers despite coming from Odium: Stormlight infuses her body when she breathes it in but cannot pass the tower's defences, while Voidlight settles into her gemheart and powers her Cohesion freely. She does not know whether the ability comes from her being Regal or whether any singer with a bond could do the same.SA:RoW:Ch 67
- proposes-overawe-listeners-by-visiting-alethkarEight years before the present, Venli tells Ulim to have his agents nudge the Alethi king into inviting the listeners to visit; she means to bring her people into a great human city and overwhelm them with their own insignificance until they are afraid enough to accept forms of power. This becomes the seed of her later betrayal of the listeners.SA:RoW:Ch 73
- plans-to-tunnel-escape-routeWith Rlain's stolen map of the cavern complex beneath the tower, Venli begins planning an escape route for the listeners under her care — using her Surge to cut a fresh tunnel through stone that bypasses Raboniel's workstation and the corruption shield and intersects the lower caverns.SA:RoW:Ch 74
- chose-war-to-bring-formsCornered in the Kholinar guard room, advised by a Herald to attack Gavilar and prodded by Ulim, Venli decided to spark a war between her people and the Alethi so that the desperation of that war would force the listeners to accept the new forms of power her spren could offer.SA:RoW:Ch 77
- distributes-voidspren-to-scholar-circleVenli hands gem-trapped Voidspren to five listener scholars she has hand-picked in Narak, inviting them into the work of bringing forms of power back to her people — and casting it as her circle's job to save the listeners from the war Eshonai has just brought down on them.SA:RoW:Ch 81
- finds-tone-of-cultivationPractising in a quiet hallway of the tower, Venli reaches past Odium's rhythm and finds the tone of Cultivation that her people held long before the enemy came — and uses the two together to shape a small frieze of her ancestors out of the living stone.SA:RoW:Ch 83
- frees-lift-from-her-cellVenli uses her stone-shaping to cut a hole through the wall of Lift's cell in the tower and free her, on the condition that Lift tells no one — even other Radiants — what powers were used to do it.SA:RoW:Ch 83
- true-goal-personal-freedom-through-powerBy the time the listener war with the humans is well under way, Venli has stopped pretending her work is about saving her people. What she truly wants is freedom — power enough that no one, listener or spren, will ever have authority over her again.SA:RoW:Ch 86
- gemstone-stockpile-with-denshilVenli has Denshil embezzling a slice off every captured gemheart before turning the rest over to the fields, building a clandestine stockpile of gemstones — one for every listener in Narak — to be filled with stormspren when she finally captures them.SA:RoW:Ch 86
- first-stormspren-capturedA year and a half before the fall of Urithiru, Venli captures her first stormspren inside a fist-sized emerald by walking out into a highstorm and snatching one in the moments after a lightning strike, when the spren are pulled through to the Physical Realm.SA:RoW:Ch 88
- dismissed-from-raboniels-serviceAcknowledged by Raboniel as a divided servant whose true loyalty is to Leshwi, and formally released from Voice duty as Raboniel moves toward unmaking the Sibling.SA:RoW:Ch 92
- admitted-to-self-she-is-a-cowardDuring the simultaneous arrival of the Everstorm and the highstorm over Narak, huddled between two stones with a broken building torn away around her, Venli is forced to admit to herself what she has always been: not a scholar forging her people's future (everything she had 'discovered' came from Ulim), not a queen worthy of rule (she cares only for herself), not powerful (she has always been small) — a coward.SA:RoW:Ch 95
- watched-eshonai-fall-without-feelingWatched Eshonai get shoved off the lip of a chasm during her Shardplate duel with a human Shardbearer on the day the Everstorm came, and felt nothing for her sister at all. The absence frightened her more than the fall itself; she told herself her sister would survive the drop in armour and that she would go look for her later.SA:RoW:Ch 95
- spared-by-a-human-soldierWas caught alone by a human spearman on the battlefield at Narak and pleaded with him in his own language that she was a scholar with no weapon; he raised his spear, hesitated, and then simply left. The kindness disoriented her: she could not find the proper rhythm to feel about being saved.SA:RoW:Ch 95
- confessed-listener-betrayal-to-rlainIn the partitioned tower infirmary, Venli tells Rlain the full unfiltered story of how she sought new forms, took the sphere from the strange human woman, worked with Ulim, and helped bring stormform and the Fused back — admitting she is responsible for what happened to the listeners.SA:RoW:Ch 96
- has-raboniel-writRaboniel releases Venli from infirmary duty and gives her a writ of authority that lets her requisition supplies and pass through the Oathgates to Kholinar no questions asked — ostensibly so she can investigate the surviving listener nomads in the hills near the Unclaimed Hills.SA:RoW:Ch 96
- plan-smuggle-kaladin-familyStuck at the Oathgates by Vyre's absence with a highstorm inbound, Venli hands her Raboniel writ and the listener map to Mazish and resolves to use the writ to smuggle Stormblessed and his family out of Urithiru rather than slip away alone. Her band hums to Consideration.SA:RoW:Ch 102
- chose-to-help-not-because-of-timbreForcing her way through the Pursuer's perimeter into the atrium, Venli discovers she genuinely wants to help Stormblessed and Rlain — not because Timbre is pushing her, but because of the songs of the stones and the whispers of the listener ancestors — and crosses to Leshwi to watch with her.SA:RoW:Ch 104
- openly-glowed-as-radiant-before-leshwiWatching Leshwi's singers ordered to slaughter unarmed humans who had thrown themselves between the Pursuer's soldiers and the helpless Radiants, Venli drew Stormlight from the spheres in her pocket and let herself begin glowing in plain view. Leshwi hummed to Destruction and seized her face.SA:RoW:Ch 107
- revealed-as-radiant-and-swore-first-ideal-aloudHeld by the face, Venli told Leshwi she had sworn the First Ideal of the Radiants. Leshwi dropped to her knees — *they've come back to us; they've forgiven us* — and asked whether Timbre knew an honorspren friend of hers from before the war, named Riah.SA:RoW:Ch 109
- can-power-radiance-with-voidlight-inside-the-towerInside Urithiru — where ordinary Stormlight does not work — Venli can use Voidlight to power her Radiant abilities, glowing more brightly with it than an ordinary Regal or a Fused.SA:RoW:Ch 109
- does-not-yet-have-a-living-shardbladeVenli admitted to Rlain that she had lied about cutting Lift free with a Shardblade — she does not have one. Timbre says she is a long way from earning one.SA:RoW:Ch 109
- spoke-second-listener-ideal-by-jaxlims-sideKneeling beside her healing mother and singing the Song of Mornings to the gathered listeners, Venli spoke her next Words of the Knights Radiant — and a distant femalen voice told her they were accepted.SA:RoW:Ch 115
- brought-reacher-bonds-to-two-dozen-listenersVenli has brought a full two dozen listeners — beginning with her mother Jaxlim — into bonds with the lightspren, a brilliant outpouring of the Radiant orders refounded far faster than any of the others. The Reachers have been eager.SA:WaT:Ch 55
- traces-pool-tone-to-tunnel-beneath-narakFollowing a tone the chasmfiends and only she can hear, Venli traces it from the chasms beneath the central plateau down into the stone itself and Soulcasts a hole through the chasm wall into a tunnel that leads far beneath Narak. Thude appoints a watch and only the Five descend with her.SA:WaT:Ch 89
- forms-counterplan-against-odiums-ultimatumSitting at the edge of the Five's circle in a flattened plateau of the Shattered Plains, Venli hears her people gnaw at the impossible offer to serve Odium again and finally lets her own oath answer it: to *seek freedom and help those in bondage.* The plan she conceives — a counterpoint to her surrender years before — becomes the offer Sigzil will receive at the end of the day.SA:WaT:Ch 101
- hides-body-in-stone-during-narak-approachStretching her Willshaper practice further than ever before, Venli sinks her real body down into the stone of a plateau under a cloak — leaving the Odium-aligned guards above to assume a sleeper underneath — and approaches Narak in envoyform under a separate guard. *She is improving.*SA:WaT:Ch 105
- asks-sigzil-to-loop-jasnah-into-the-planAfter hearing Sigzil's proposal and judging it insufficient, Venli suggests combining his idea with one of her own — and tells him the revised plan will need Jasnah, at Thaylen City, to make it work.SA:WaT:Ch 105
- venli-faction-brings-chasmfiends-to-narak-assaultVenli's listener band rides three chasmfiends onto the staging plateau above the cracked walls of Narak — the reason their arrival matters to the Fused, who have brought down half the Focused Ones but need beasts capable of challenging Shardbearers and breaking down walls. El holds the second wave back so that he can personally try to kill some of the defenders' spren first.SA:WaT:Ch 112
- receives-rhythm-of-war-for-listenersA day after Retribution's Ascension, Venli returns to the cavern she had quietly opened beneath Narak and finds Odium's hidden pool returning — now a brilliant black-blue, pulsing to a new rhythm whose name comes to her instinctively: the Rhythm of War. She tells Thude and Bila their small reclaimed land has been given a very powerful duty in the world to come.SA:WaT:Ch 146
Events
- SA:OB:Ch 109 Pulled across the Stormfather bond from a cave in Marat into a tall, fragile human body in Nohadon's palace; refuses Dalinar's offered terms, hears Odium break the sky, sees the Radiant tower bow to his glow, and silently attunes the Rhythm of Awe — *Neshua Kadal* — at the sight.
- SA:RoW:Ch 41 Trails Raboniel as her servant in the mural corridor and library rooms; fetches wine, listens, and is named the Last Listener.
- SA:RoW:Ch 42 Silently cheers the human soldiers from the foot of the stairs as Timbre exults to the Rhythm of Hope, then turns away rather than watch the final slaughter.
- SA:RoW:Ch 45 Recites all ninety-one stanzas of a song for Jaxlim in their tent, swings between Annoyance and Awe and Anxiety, and steps up before the Five to announce her warform experiments only for the drums to cut her short.
- SA:RoW:Ch 62 Sits among the elders as if she belongs there, presenting her topaz with its trapped painspren and claiming the technique for warform; later, at home, persuades her mother to volunteer for the new form.
- SA:RoW:Ch 68 Lurks in the shadows of a fissure in the city wall waiting for the new warforms to return, presses Eshonai to take the family's Shards and use them, and trails them as they go to visit Sharefel instead.
- SA:RoW:Ch 73 POV. Hears the rhythms hidden from her people and savours their flattery; gathers scholars as cover for forms she means to 'discover'; lets Ulim flatter and rebuff her in turn; walks home unintentionally to find Jaxlim picking apart her own rug; sits cross-legged to listen to the first song; admits she has always wanted more than to help her mother; resolves to use Ulim's agents to terrify her people into accepting forms of power by exposing them to Alethi might.
- SA:RoW:Ch 74 POV. Walks the tower halls reaching for Conceit and finding Anxiety; uses Rlain as servant-cover; takes the stolen tunnel map and passes it to her loyalist Jial; tells Lirin plainly that Leshwi's favour is what protects them from the Pursuer; ends up fetching water on his command without thinking; defends the meaning of the shash glyph to Lirin and hears an unfamiliar rhythm from Timbre.
- SA:RoW:Ch 81 Gathers her chosen scholars in Narak and hands each one a Voidspren in a gemstone.
- SA:RoW:Ch 88 Bursts in soaking from the storm clutching the first captured stormspren inside a fist-sized emerald, and presses Eshonai to take it to the Five.
- SA:RoW:Ch 102 POV of the first scene; on the plateau outside Urithiru with her band of fifteen, argues with Timbre about being a coward, takes charge when Vyre's absence stalls the Oathgate, and decides to use Raboniel's writ to extract Kaladin's family rather than slip her own people away alone.
- SA:RoW:Ch 104 POV for the third scene; uses her Voice authority to get through the perimeter, finds that she genuinely wants to help, and crosses to Leshwi to watch the duel — who tells her the Pursuer has used all his husks and now cannot flee for fear of his audience.
- SA:RoW:Ch 106 POV for the atrium scene; watches Kaladin's grief and the Heavenly Ones' silent vigil, with Timbre pressing her to reveal what she has become.
- SA:RoW:Ch 107 POV for the atrium scene; begs Leshwi to be better, picks out Rothan and Malal hesitating among the soldiers, then draws Stormlight from her pocket and lets herself glow as Leshwi seizes her face.
- SA:RoW:Ch 109 POV for the opening scene. Watches Leshwi drop to her knees and ask after Riah, then carries the Voidlight-fuelled glow of her Radiance the rest of the day; later confesses to Rlain that she does not have a Shardblade.
- SA:RoW:Ch 111 At Rlain's side as the trap closes; Timbre tells him through her that he is spoken for.
- SA:RoW:Ch 114 Promises to write Rlain by spanreed once she finds the listeners; takes her new bonded singers down into the chasm to begin the hike east.
- SA:WaT:Ch 101 Rejoins the Five beneath the dark sky of the chasm and listens, settling herself outside the circle until an idea drops into place.
- SA:WaT:Ch 137 Pulls the oiled pouch with Jasnah's treaty from her cloak and hands it to Thude, her soul attuned without thought to Joy as the sun breaks over the freed plateau.
Backreferences
- summarySA:OB:Prologue
- summarySA:OB:Ch 35
- factVenli
- factUlim
- factUlim
- factDemid
- factStormform
- factRhythm of Craving
- factRhythm of Fury
- factRhythm of Derision
- factRhythm of Satisfaction
- factRhythm of the Lost
- factThe comet-like spren
- summarySA:OB:Ch 109
- factNeshua Kadal
- summarySA:OB:Ch 111
- summarySA:OB:Ch 115
- factTurash
- summarySA:OB:Ch 116
- summarySA:OB:Ch 117
- summarySA:OB:Ch 118
- summarySA:OB:Ch 119
- summarySA:OB:Ch 120
- factVenli
- summarySA:OB:Ch 121
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 11
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factTimbre
- factEnvoyform
- factSecretspren
- factMavset-im
- factDul
- factMazish
- factShumin
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 14
- factLeshwi
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 31
- factRaboniel
- factAdhesion
- factHonor's Moon
- factFlowing Ones
- factThe Pursuer
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 37
- factVenli
- factRhythm of Peace
- factRhythm of Panic
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 38
- factRhythm of the Terrors
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 41
- factRaboniel
- factRaboniel
- factThe Pursuer
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 42
- factStormform
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 45
- factVenli
- factJaxlim
- factthe First-Rhythm Family
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 51
- factVenli
- factRaboniel
- factScholarform
- factMediationform
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 52
- factVenli
- factJaxlim
- factAxindweth
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 53
- factVenli
- factLeshwi
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 56
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 57
- factVenli
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 60
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factEssai
- factVenli
- factJaxlim
- factKeeper of Songs
- factKeeper of Forms
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factTimbre
- factSong of Stones
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 73
- factVenli
- factUlim
- factJaxlim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 74
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 77
- factVenli
- factNalan'Elin
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 79
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 81
- factVenli
- factDemid
- factTusa
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 83
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factLeshwi
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 86
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factUlim
- factDenshil
- factMikaim
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 88
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 91
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 92
- factRaboniel
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 95
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 96
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factThude
- factHarel
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 100
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 102
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 104
- factVenli
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 106
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 107
- factVenli
- factMalal
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 109
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factLeshwi
- factLeshwi
- factVenli
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 55
- factVenli
- factKo
- factZumble
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 56
- factBila
- factThe Song of the Beasts
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 58
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 60
- factThe Shattered Plains
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 72
- factChasmfiend
- factEshonai
- factThundercloud
- factKunona
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 78
- factLeshwi
- factThundercloud
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 89
- factVenli
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 90
- factOdium's Pool
- factOdium's Pool
- factCultivation's Pool
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 91
- factEl
- factEl
- factEl
- factHusked Ones
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 101
- factVenli
- factLeshwi
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 103
- factSigzil
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 105
- factVenli
- factVenli
- factThe Knights Radiant
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 112
- factVenli
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 118
- factThe Shattered Plains
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 137
- factEl
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 146
- factVenli