Yanagawn the First
also known as Ch.V.D. Yanagawn the First, Emperor of Makabak
The fifteen-year-old Prime Aqasix of Azir, newly enthroned after the Assassin in White killed his two predecessors. The viziers chose him on questionable lineage and put about a miracle of his — that he raised a child from the dead — to give the throne a divine mandate. SA:OB:Ch 12
Known facts
- saw-yaezir-in-dalinars-visionBrought into the Aharietiam vision by Dalinar without warning. Reads the experience through his own theology — the Heralds choose to speak through a Prime miraculously raised to the throne — and treats sighting Yaezir himself, white-and-blue on a boulder, as confirmation of his calling before he ever realises that the Blackthorn is standing next to him.SA:OB:Ch 45
- installed-after-assassins-killing-of-emperorsTells Dalinar outside Feverstone Keep that he is only on the throne because the Azish viziers were terrified the assassin in white would come back: emperors he had burned the eyes from could be replaced, and a child was the safest replacement they could find. He insists the Heralds' miracle was Lift, not him, and that he is not really ruling the empire.SA:OB:Ch 56
- cannot-wield-imperial-shardsOn paper Yanagawn owns every Shard of the greater empire, but in practice most are held by kingdoms that pay him only lip service, the rest are granted out under imperial rights to distinguished soldiers, and even if they returned the blades to him he could not wield them — Azish doctrine treats the emperor as too important to risk.SA:WaT:Ch 14
- yanagawn-asks-adolin-to-teach-him-towersYanagawn confesses he has never heard of towers — Noura has been teaching him political history, social structures, languages and contracts. Adolin declares this a hole in any field commander's education and promises that after the war he will start the emperor on the game himself. The emperor accepts gratefully and thanks Adolin for coming when this is not his fight.SA:WaT:Ch 37
- grants-imperial-blessing-of-viewershipYanagawn dispenses the *blessing of viewership* on Adolin and his armorers so that they can remain in the imperial pavilion while he changes — an honour Azish commoners are otherwise rationed to a handful per day, the price of his being a *symbol of the health of the nation* watched even while he bathes.SA:WaT:Ch 52
- imperial-starmetal-is-aluminumYanagawn reveals to Adolin that the imperial *starmetal* — used for ceremonial candelabra cast from a fallen star, for forks at his table, and now for plates lining his bedchambers against the Fused — is aluminum. At Adolin's suggestion he orders the regalia stripped to the armorers for Shardblade-blocking shields.SA:WaT:Ch 76
- yanagawn-learns-sunmakers-gambit-from-adolinAdolin uses a three-way towers game with May to teach Yanagawn that two weaker players will always ally against the strongest — the *Sunmaker's Gambit* — and that one-on-one combat is warfare, but three-party combat is negotiation. The lesson lands; the Azish emperor catches the principle on the spot.SA:WaT:Ch 119
- led-the-band-into-the-palace-as-a-thiefFaced with Noura's plea to stay safe, Yanagawn draws himself up and declares *I am emperor — I will lead them.* He strips off the imperial robes and stands in an undershift: *my people don't need an emperor right now. They need a thief.* The man who as Gawx had once snuck into the Azimir palace with Lift uses that skill to lead Adolin's small force back in.SA:WaT:Ch 127
Events
- SA:OB:Ch 45 Brought into the Aharietiam vision as a teenage spearman with limbs too long for his clothes. Hears the Herald King's false-victory speech, treats it as confirmation that the Heralds are speaking through him, and tells Dalinar the Azish history of the Sunmaker's atrocities by way of declining to trust him.
- SA:OB:Ch 56 Pulled into the vision through the highstorm passing over Azir. Scrambles onto a boulder to watch the Radiants abandon their Blades more closely, and uses the moment to confess to Dalinar that he is only on the throne because the viziers were afraid of the assassin in white.
- SA:RoW:Ch 19 Stands and speaks for himself in excellent Alethi, accepting the Emul proposal on behalf of the Makabaki union, with the exiled Emuli Prime at his shoulder.
- SA:RoW:Ch 101 Hosts the meeting in his borrowed Azish home in Emul; eats fruit primly before a rank of camp followers in vivid Azish patterns, then removes his headdress and asks Jasnah for a blunt assessment. Chews hidden nuts, accuses Jasnah of arguing against every option, defends hope as what makes them human, baffled that a king would parley with Ishar in person. Asks Dalinar to send word if Lift is found.
- SA:WaT:Ch 52 Tries on Adolin's borrowed Shardplate in his pavilion, then sits through a Flat Face towers lesson in the gambeson afterward.
- SA:WaT:Ch 52 Plays Flat Face towers with Adolin still wearing Plate, asks to be called by his name, and reasons out the value of reserves in his first match.
- SA:WaT:Ch 76 Spars Adolin, plays towers, then identifies the imperial starmetal as aluminum and orders the regalia stripped for armour.
- SA:WaT:Ch 85 Dressed for battle with a sword drooping in his fingers, having brought his entire honor guard out because Kushkam called up every soldier; finds the corpse field already won.
- SA:WaT:Ch 95 Plays an executed envelopment over the towers board against Adolin and quotes Sadees on a hundred days of preparation for one day of spontaneity; admits he relieved Gezamal under the azaderach-tor.
- SA:WaT:Ch 119 Plays towers against Adolin and May in his guarded courtyard, learns the Sunmaker's Gambit the hard way, and at the desperate horn-call wants to fight; Adolin orders his guards to take him to the saferoom.
- SA:WaT:Ch 125 Stands among the rescue party holding a lantern aloft in the city already lost, having flatly refused to be flown to safety until Adolin is with them; later joins the wounded in the saferoom beneath the hospital.
- SA:WaT:Ch 126 Perches in his finery on the only pillow in the saferoom, looking too small for his headpiece, and asks whether the survivors should *do something* — observing that one Emul-style trade of tyrants is no worse than dying for nothing.
- SA:WaT:Ch 127 Invokes the fifth-dynasty *troubles* — the precedent that in a disputed Azish city the throne room confers legitimacy — proposes that with his old thief's knowledge of the Azimir palace he can lead a small force back in, sheds his imperial robes, and stands in an undershift announcing his people need a thief, not an emperor.
- SA:WaT:Ch 128 Hunched in a cloak like the urchin he once was, Yanagawn leads the strike team to a hidden section of wall, reveals the smuggler's port his uncle refused to use, and rallies Noura when she objects.
- SA:WaT:Ch 129 Yanagawn leads the team through the smuggler's tunnel into the palace, shares a grin with Adolin inside, and tries the jammed hidden door before the trap closes.
- SA:WaT:Ch 134 Asks Colot why the enemy has not charged, runs through Adolin's four ways to win against a larger force, and gasps as the throne-room doors blow open and his Shardbearer steps through.
- SA:WaT:Ch 135 First of the Unoathed to grab a helm and let the Plate resize and slam together around him; takes a Blade and turns to face the Fused line.
- SA:WaT:Ch 136 Inside Plate, grabs Adolin by the shoulder as the line begins to crumble — *position, tactics, even luck* cannot account for this, *but we're winning anyway* — then pulls off his helm and gives the Fused their orders as an emperor.
- SA:WaT:Ch 147 Sits at the Prime's table in his regalia — Blade and Plate of the Unoathed summonable at will — confirms that Xorm continues to heal, and finally has friends in his fellow Shardbearers despite Noura's disapproval.
Backreferences
- summarySA:OB:Ch 12
- summarySA:OB:Ch 45
- factThe Sunmaker
- summarySA:OB:Ch 56
- summarySA:OB:Ch 116
- factLift
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 19
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 101
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 14
- factYanagawn the First
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 17
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 18
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 20
- factAzimir Imperial Guard
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 37
- factYanagawn the First
- factDalinar Kholin
- factAdolin Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 39
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 42
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 52
- factYanagawn the First
- factAdolin Kholin
- factGezamal
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 54
- factNoura
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 67
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 76
- factYanagawn the First
- facttowers
- factstarmetal
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 85
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 95
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 119
- factYanagawn the First
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 125
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 126
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 127
- factYanagawn the First
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 128
- factThe Bronze Palace
- factJaskkeem
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 129
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 134
- factAdolin Kholin
- factBlade of Memories
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 135
- factAdolin Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 136
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 147
- factXorm