History Characters / TheStormlightArchive

* [[CareerKillers Career Killer]]: His entire role as a warrior from Shinovar, along with his Surgebinging abilities and Shardblade.

The most powerful and successful of the Alethi highprinces, and a direct rival to Dalinar. Unlike Dalinar, Sadeas does not possess a Shadblade, but he makes up for this with exceptional cunning and clever - if costly - combat tactics, such as the use of bridgemen. Adolin strongly suspects him of trying to undermine or eliminate Dalinar, but Dalinar views Sadeas as more of a friendly rival who is upholding the typical Alethi concept of viewing everything as a competition, and believes he can be reasoned with.

The Assassin In White sent to kill the former Alethi king, gets several viewpoint sections of his own throughout ''[[Literature/TheStormlightArchive The Way Of Kings]]''. His title of "Truthless" is never quite explained, [[spoiler: though Taravangian's words later make it seem as though he was given his Shardblade by his people.]]

* ExtremeDoormat: He will do anything the person who holds his Oathstone orders, except commit suicide or give up his Shardblade.

!!Highprince Dalinar Kholin (AKA: The Blackthorn)
The second major character of the first book, one of ten Alethi highprinces, fighting a war with the nominal aid of the other highprinces to avenge the assassination of his brother, the former king. Once renowned for his raw martial prowess, he is now plagued with doubts about his people's culture and the war they are fighting, and also by strange visions that seem to be of the distant mostly-forgotten past and which contain hints of a dark future that may be in store.

* [[spoiler: PreatoreanGuard]]: At the end of ''The Way Of Kings'', [[spoiler: Dalinar places him in command of a new royal bodyguard to protect Elhokar, and Bridger Four and many of the other bridgemen form the new guard, trained by Kaladin]].

TheHero of the story so far, and one of several viewpoint characters, Kaladin started as just your average son of a middleclass citizen. His father was a Surgeon, which is very high up for a Darkeyes. [[spoiler: Then he joined the military to protect his brother, [[FailureKnight failed]] and to make up for it, [[{{Badass}} he became a master with the spear]] and vowed to protect his squad. He failed, but in the process killed a Shardbearer. Which is effectively impossible without a Shardblade or Shardplate of one's own.]] After he became a slave, he winds up in the ownership of Highprince Sadeas and decides to try one more time. He vows to protect his bridge crew. [[spoiler: He is not only successful, he discovers he has [[GravityMaster magic powers,]] and beats ANOTHER Shardbearer in the process of saving Highprince Dalinar's life. Then he earns his freedom because Dalinar is a man of his word.]]

* TheAce

* DrivenToSuicide: Very nearly
* FailureKnight [[spoiler: he fails to protect his little brother]]

* HurtingHero: Such a lot.
* IShouldHaveBeenBetter: Feels this way about his failure to protect his brother.
* KnightTemplarBigBrother To his little brother

* TheHero
* TookALevelInBadass
* WalkingDisasterArea: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] constantly throughout the book. [[spoiler:Eventually justified upon the revelation that Syl is an Honorspren and has been giving Kaladin unconscious Surgebinding powers.]]

* GravityMaster: The thing that makes him so deadly, since nobody else understands his abilities or how to counter them.

!! Sylphrena "Syl"

TheHero of the story so far, and one of several viewpoint characters, Kaladin started as just your average son of a middleclass citizen. His father was a Surgeon, which is very high up for a Darkeyes. [[spoiler: Then he joined the military to protect his brother, [[FailureKnight failed]] and to make up for it, [[{{Badass}} he became a master with the spear]] and vowed to protect his squad. He failed, but in the process killed a Shardbearer. Which is effectively impossible without a Shardblade or Shardplate of one's own.]] After he became a slave, he winds up in the ownership of Highprince Sadeas and decides to try one more time. He vows to protect his bridge crew. [[spoiler: He is not only successful, he discovers he has [[GravityMaster magic powers,]] and beats [[BeyondtheImpossible ANOTHER Shardbearer]] in the process of saving Highprince Dalinar's life. Then he earns his freedom because Dalinar is a man of his word.]]

* HonorBeforeReason Accused of it by his enemies. [[YourMilageMayVary may or may not be true.]]

* PhotographicMemory: She can remember any scene perfectly with a bit of effort and a blink, and then forget it later, after sketching it. This may be a supernatural ability.

* PhotographicMemory: She can remember any scene perfectly with a bit of effort and a blink, and then forget it later, after sketching it.

** For those who haven't read it yet, [[spoiler: a [[SoulCuttingBlade shardblade]] takes ten seconds to summon. The scene means she has one, each of which are considered priceless and rare.]] Given her culture's sharply defined gender roles, it's practically unheard of [[spoiler: for a woman to have one]], much less someone with the image she tries to present in public.

* [[spoiler: HiddenDepths: According to [[WordOfGod Word of Brandon]], the scene with her counting heartbeats "means what you think it means"]].

!!Highprince Dalinar Kholin {AKA: The Blackthorn)

* [[spoiler: FourthWallObserver: Said by Hoid, "I began life as a thought, a concept, words on a page." Plus, his character has appeared in every Sanderson "world" barring that of the Alcatraz Series. Since all these seperate worlds are stated through WordOfGod to be in the same universe (the cosmere) this actually makes sense.]]

* BadassBookworm: She uses Soulcasting to great effect against some random thugs resulting in three of them being vaporized and one TakenForGranite... and then orders Shallan to treat her actions as a problem for research into ethics.

* HollywoodAtheist: Shallan initially assumes her to be this, actually averted, while she can be brusque and somewhat of an InsufferabeGenius at times, she's a genuinely good person who shows tolerance and respect for Shallan's religious beliefs.

* HollywoodAtheist: Shallan initially assumes her to be this, actually averted.