History Characters / TheStormlightArchiveHeraldsKnightsAndSpren

* MindControl: All of her curses that we have seen involve manipulating the subject's mind, often in very specific and neurologically identifiable ways.

* SlipperySkid: The Surge of Abrasion lets them manipulate friction. In one of Dalinar's visions, he sees one run through water as easily on dry land.

* SlipperySkid: The Surge of Abrasion lets them manipulate friction, so they can slide perfectly across a floor or stick to a wall like a gecko. They can use it for a strange version of SuperSpeed by slicking their entire bodies and skating across the ground, but ice-skating doesn't really exist in most of Roshar, so it's difficult for untrained Edgedancers to master the technique.

* BadassInCharge[=/=]TheLeader: Of the Heralds. Kalak mentions that he was once an actual king, and still holds himself with a regal bearing despite the fact that he hasn't worn a crown for centuries.

* {{Determinator}}: His defining trait. Out of the ten Heralds, he was the only one who ''never'' broke during their countless years of torture in Damnation. When the other nine Heralds broke the Oathpact, Taln then managed to singlehandedly hold out for four and a half millennia of torture before he finally broke (by contrast, the 99th Desolation was only a few months after the 98th). In fact, [[spoiler:it's even indicated that he may not have broken to cause the current Desolation. Voidspren were already sneaking through and the Everstorm had been building for years, so it's possible the Desolation happened in spite of Taln, not because of him.]] He has a brief moment of lucidity when speaking to Ash and realizes that he has been in Braize alone for over four thousand years, he is ''overwhelmed with joy'' that humanity was able to prosper and grow like never before in the interim, rather than mad at being abandoned as Ash expected.
** The prelude to book 5 [[spoiler: confirms that the night Gavilar died, another Herald died, one of the ones who had already broken.]]

* SealedEvilInACan: Dalinar seals him away at the end of the Battle of Thaylen City.

* TheOathbreaker: They all abandoned their Oaths, which had the side effect of killing their spren.
* OddNameOut: Every order is named "Noun Verber" except the Releasers. However, they also had the nickname "Dustbringers", which fits the pattern. They just hated that name due to its similarity to "Voidbringers."

* PoweredArmor: Knights who have sworn the Fourth Ideal are granted Shardplate, enchanted armor that grants superhuman strength and endurance to whoever wears it.

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: The Surge of Adhesion lets them... stick things together. Kind of underwhelming. It's implied there's more to it, though, and the Assassin in White makes good use of it by [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower gluing groups of enemies to the floor and sealing doors shut.]] It's hinted that Adhesion can also work on spiritual and emotional connections, and it contributes towards the Windrunners having more squires than other Orders.

* OathboundPower: Even more so than most Radiants. While most Orders have access to their full set of Surgebindings with the First Ideal, Releasers need to swear the higher Oaths to access certain abilities.

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: They're given some incredibly destructive powers, but their oaths and philosophy revolve around using them ''properly''. Unlike the other orders they don't get all their powers at once - Dustbringers unlock additional powers with each oath, once they've shown they understand how to use them properly.

* AngelUnaware: Possibly. An unverified [[WordOfGod Word of Brandon]] apparently stated that she was the ardent Shallan hid from while searching for a book in the Palanaeum, but later Words of Brandon have been evasive as to whether not this was true.

* TheGhost: She has (possibly) not appeared onscreen so far.

* EarlyBirdCameo: It's impossibly easy to miss on your first readings, but Nale and Kelek are the two men dining with Elhokar during the feast on the night of Gavilar's assassination. They were meeting with the latter for their own separate reasons. As each book clarifies the events of that night, their identities become clearer.

* TheGhost: The only Herald who has not been clearly seen on screen in the modern era. WoB is that she was seen in at least one point in the first two books.

* EarlyBirdCameo: It's impossibly easy to miss on your first readings, but Nale and Kelek are the two men dining with Elhokar during the feast on the night of Gavilar's assassination. They were meeting with the latter for their own separate reasons. As each book clairifies the events of that night, their identities become clearer.

* EarlyBirdCameo: It's impossibly easy to miss on your first readings, but Nale and Kelek are the two men dining with Elhokar during the feast on the night of Gavilar's assassination. They were meeting with the latter for their own separate reasons. As each book clairifies the events of that night, their identities become clearer.

* SanitySlippage: Implied; in the prologue of ''Words of Radiance'', Jasnah runs into Nale and another Herald (possibly Kalak) talking about how "Ash" is "getting worse." She admits in ''Rhythm of War'' that ''all'' of the Heralds are mad in some fashion, herself included. Part of her madness is a compulsive need to deface any depiction of herself she finds.

* EasilyForgiven: Talenel, when briefly lucid, forgives her for betraying him to suffer Damnation alone since that let the world survive four and a half thousand years without a Desolation, giving humanity a chance to thrive and grow. Ash actually wishes that he hated her, and begs him to do so.

* StopWorshippingMe: She's very peeved about people treating her like some sort of divine being. When she overhears a man in the queue near her cursing by "Ash's eyes", she launches into a tirade (in her head) about how no-one should pray to her or her fellow Heralds.

* IHaveManyNames: Or rather, gained several names after the last Desolation. These include Jezerezeh'Elin and Stormfather.

* AGodAmI: With Odium sealed away, she tried to take his place as the god of the singers.

* SealedEvilInACan: Sealing her is what led to the enslavement of the parshmen.

* SealedEvilInACan: Sealing her is what led to the enslavement of the parshmen. King Gavilar somehow ended up with the gemstone that contained her, though it's unclear if she was in the stone he gave to Eshonai or the one he gave to Szeth.

** She's not ''supposed'' to have the ability to corrupt true spren like honorspren or the ones that control Oathgates, but she somehow managed to corrupted a Truthwatcher spren, which Renarin bonded. [[spoiler: It only works if the spren ''volunteer''.]]

* GravityMaster: They typically used this ability to affect their own gravity and effect flight, but they could also use it offensively by changing someone else's gravity.

** For context, Ishar, another Herald, took on five Windrunners simultaneously in an absolute CurbStompBattle, despite only using his powers to restrain them because he preferred not to kill. And the Stormfather considers him to be of average strenght. Meanwhile, Kalak says that Taln habitually won fights others - implicitly including other Heralds - considered ''hopeless'', by himself.

* BalloonOfDoom: Re-Shephir, and her creations, are essentially smoke wrapped up in a preternaturally tough balloon capable of sprouting bone [[SpikesOfDoom teeth and spines.]]

* ManaDrain: [[spoiler:He can drain Stormlight from Radiants by connecting them to the ground so their powers think the ground is part of their body and tries to fill it with magic. He can also ''steal the Nahel bond''. He attempts to steal Dalinar's bond with the Stormfather for himself and is only stopped because Nightblood was able to sever the magical rope connecting him to Dalinar.]]

* ThirdPartyDealBreaker: A nasty surprise in ''Rhythm of War''. [[His unchecked Bondsmith power over spiritual Connection turns out to extends to the bond between a Knight Radiant and their spren, and he very nearly ''steals'' Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather before he's distracted.]]

* {{Determinator}}: His defining trait. Out of the ten Heralds, he was the only one who ''never'' broke during their countless years of torture in Damnation. When the other nine Heralds broke the Oathpact, Taln then managed to singlehandedly hold out for four and a half millennia of torture before he finally broke (by contrast, the 99th Desolation was only a few months after the 98th). In fact, [[spoiler:it's even indicated that he may not have broken to cause the current Desolation. Voidspren were already sneaking through and the Everstorm had been building for years, so it's possible the Desolation happened in spite of Taln, not because of him.]] He has a brief moment of lucidity when speaking to Ash and realizes that he has been in Braize alone for over four thousand years, he is ''overwhelmed with joy'' that humanity was able to prosper and grow like never before in the, rather than mad at being abandoned as Ash expected.

The Unmade who created the Midnight Essence that Dalinar saw in one of his visions. She can create creatures out of it and mimic human appearances to some extent.

* BalloonOfDoom: It, and her creations, are essentially smoke wrapped up in a preternaturally tough balloon capable of sprouting bone [[SpikesOfDoom teeth and spines.]]

* BalloonOfDoom: It, and her creations, are essentially smoke wrapped up in a preternaturally tough balloon capable of sprouting bone teeth and spines.

The only Herald to die in the Final Desolation. While the other Heralds abandoned the Oathpact, he was forced to stay true to it by being tortured in Damnation. He's proven to be the most resistant one of them, holding the Desolation back for over four and a half thousand years before breaking.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: Their mastery of Soulcasting could make them terrifyingly effective in combat when necessary. In addition to [[BalefulPolymorph directly Soulcasting opponents]], Jasnah has a trick where she creates a puddle of oil and immediately lights it on fire.