Characters that appear in The Sunlit Man.
For tropes about Hoid, see the main Cosmere character page.
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Nomad
Nomad/Zellion
The main protagonist of the novel, though not first introduced here. A Rosharan worldhopper who is perpetually running from the Night Brigade, never staying on one world for too long lest they catch up to him, accompanied only by his Deadeye Spren Auxiliary. He has a Torment that prevents him from committing direct violence, and is always looking for sources of Investiture to use to hop to another world, trying to get as far ahead of the Night Brigade as possible.
Arriving on Canticle his search for Investiture is hampered by the sheer hostility of the planet and its lack of accessible Investiture. Stuck on Canticle, Nomad finds himself roped into local conflicts, albeit only to try and leverage them to his own gain, and not out of actual care for the planets inhabitants.
Or at least he attempts to not care about Canticle.
- A Day in the Limelight: He first appeared as the notable, but supporting character Sigzil, a member of Bridge Four, in The Stormlight Archive. Here he's the main protagonist.
- The Chosen One: The people of Beacon think he is the Sunlit Man of their legends come to save them, helped by his tendency to do things thought impossible to the people of Beacon. Nomad tells them he wishes they would not see him as a savior, believing that he doesn't actually have a way to save them, but they persist anyway. While he does ultimately lead them to a dead end, he ends up going back to save Beacon from the Cinder King rather than just hopping to another world, making him their savior in the end.
- Dimensional Traveller: He quite often hops from planet to planet, to outrun the Night Brigade, having done so across countless worlds. He is originally from Roshar.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Nomad is a very well honed warrior on a planet that doesn't really have any warriors at all, meaning any fight would be heavily skewed in his favor. So he has a Torment that prevents him from even attempting to commit direct violence, forcing Nomad to get creative in fights, therefore leading to interesting action scenes. When he's able to remove the violence-restricting part of his Torment near the end, he promptly gets into a fight with Charred outnumbered twenty-to-one... and wins easily.
- Meaningful Rename: For most of the book, he goes by Nomad, symbolizing how he isn't attached to one place. By the end of the book, he’s taken on the new name of Zellion from the people of Beacon, symbolizing how Canticle has become a new home for him.
- Took a Level in Badass: When we last saw Sigzil, he had hadn't risen to the Fourth Ideal in one Order of Knights Radiant. By the time of this book he has been prominent in two orders, and he descriptions of his Shardplate forming around him mention two separate kinds of armor, implying that he rose to at least the Fourth Ideal in both.
- Wrong Context Magic: Thanks to being a worldhopper from Roshar, his magic works differently than what the people of Canticle are used to, with sis Shardblade is nothing like the people of Canticle have seen before. Additionally his lack of connection to the planet means he can't share heat like the people there can, or as the Cinder King finds out, can't have it absorbed from him. That last part goes away once he's granted the name Zellion and begins to seriously care about Canticle, as it results in him gaining genuine Connection to the planet, and therefore heat sharing with those from Canticle.
- You Can't Go Home Again: He left Roshar to prevent the Night Brigade from coming down on the people he cares about, as the Night Brigade will follow him wherever he goes. Happens again at the end of the novel, as Canticle has become a second home to him, but there is no option than to flee from the Night Brigade, and if he returns at all it will make it clear that he has some sentiment for the planet, which would result in the people of Canticle being targeted by the Night Brigade.
The Cinder King
The Cinder King
The main antagonist of the novel, a brutal tyrant who rose to power via using violence in an environment that was not used to violence. He believes that all cities on Canticle should be united under his rule, into one city, Union. Hunting down all other cities not part of Union, he forces them to join, with death being the alternative.
- Big Bad: He is the biggest threat faced in the novel, with the main conflict revolving around fighting him. The Night Brigade, while more powerful, stays firmly in the background, as do the Scadrian scientists enabling the Cinder King.
- The Bully: The Cinder King is, at his core, nothing more than a bully who enjoys having power over others that he can do as he wishes with. Nomad even notes that the Cinder King doesn't bully people around because of insecurities he has, he just does it because he enjoys it.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Cinder King can certainly act polite and friendly, even inviting Nomad to a civilized conversation, promising no tricks, part way through the story. However, he is fundamentally a bully who likes to assert his power over others, his affability nothing more than surface level. He's not exactly a man of his word either, breaking his promise of no tricks when talking with Nomad by bringing Rebeke in as a hostage to try and blackmail Nomad into serving him with.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: According to himself, he was once someone who took the condemned to their execution, and not much more. But then he was able to find out how use Investiture to create Charred, and was able to use that to assert his power and become a tyrant who controls much of the ships on Canticle, forcing the ones who don't to join or die.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: By Cosmere standards, his combat abilities and minions aren't really that impressive. But on Canticle, where the sheer difficultly of surviving on the Death World means that people don't have time to fight each other, the use of violence at all to get your way is something new, allowing him to rule as a despotic tyrant. Nomad is the first serious challenge the Cinder King has faced, since while Nomad is not particularly standout Ace, he does have experience with fighting, far more than the Cinder King, and is something the Cinder King can't quite handle.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: The Cinder King routinely absorbs the heat, effectively their life essence, from others, having done so for thousands of souls. He specifically absorbs some of the survivors of his gladiator games after each one. Gets turned back on him, when Zellion pulls the trick against him in the end, leaving the Cinder King dying and Zellion with enough Investiture to teleport away.
The Refuge
The Refuge
A promised place of sanctuary from the sun on Canticle. However, as Nomad deduces quickly, its nothing more than a science outpost for Scadrian scientists, and that it isn't an actual refuge.
- Asshole Victim: The epilogue heavily implies they will get tortured for information on Zellion by the Night Brigade. But given that they enabled the Cinder King to rise to power, and were very callous towards the plight of Beacon, or for that matter, anyone on Canticle, what the Night Brigade will do to them comes off as somewhat karmic.
- Everyone Has Standards: For as amoral as they are about enabling the Cinder King, and callous about his actions, even they seem to be horrified when he leaves all of Beacon to burn in the sun, recognizing as the act of brutal, personal, cruelty that it is.
- Lack of Empathy: They could hardly care less about what is happening on Canticle, dismissing the Cinder King's atrocities as simply just what happens on backwater planets. They even trade with him, enabling his rule through the technology they give him, and treat it as just business.
The Night Brigade
The Night Brigade
The force that chases Nomad, they are a powerful and vicious group of mercenaries, who intend to capture, and use him, lethally to accomplish their own ends.
- Even Evil Has Standards: One Sergeant thinks its wrong to attack the people of Canticle, since both groups are from Thernody, not to mention the people of Canticle are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Admiral does not agree with this, as they simply see wrong place, wrong time, as what gets a lot of people killed, and this situation no different. They don't seem to actually attack Canticle though, mostly because it would be pointless.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Night Brigade are threat far beyond anything the Cinder King can pose, and have influence across the Cosmere. They are the reason Nomad's on Canticle at all, as he cannot fight them. Their goal is to harvest a Hemalurgic Spike for Nomad, which will allow them to find a Dawnshard that can be used to devastate worlds. However, the Cinder King is the primary villain faced in the story, while the Night Brigade doesn't really get directly involved in the main plot, leaving them to be followed up on in other books.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The Night Brigade are mercenaries, who while exceptionally brutal in their methods, being known to have scourge entire planets, they don't do it for fun. If they're not paid for it, they won't bother.
