Oathbringer opens with the night King Gavilar dies, told through the eyes of the listener scout Eshonai. Gavilar reveals forbidden knowledge, a strange lightless sphere, and a plan to return the listeners’ gods. Terrified, the listener leaders hire an assassin, sacrificing a fragile peace to prevent a greater calamity. Decades later, Dalinar Kholin—now bonded to the Stormfather—wakes to a world reshaped by the Everstorm, a new storm that empowers the parshmen. He vows to unite the nations through the ancient Oathgates in the city of Urithiru, even as an internal shock arrives: Highprince Sadeas is found murdered in the tower, threatening Alethi cohesion.

Dalinar consolidates authority, marries Navani Kholin despite Vorin censure, and begins a diplomatic campaign by spanreed to rally monarchs. Azir stalls, Thaylenah hesitates, and fear of Alethi conquest dogs every exchange. Meanwhile, Kaladin returns to his home, Hearthstone, in the Everstorm’s wake and discovers parshmen have awakened and fled rather than massacred their human neighbors. Choosing empathy, he embeds with a band of these singers, learning a Voidspren guides them and that the Everstorm restored what humans once stole—their ability to take forms. His duty shifts from killing an enemy to protecting people on both sides.

At Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates a series of murders mirroring Sadeas’s death and follows the trail into forgotten depths. There she confronts Re‑Shephir, the Midnight Mother, an Unmade that imitates the shapes and violence it witnesses. Through Lightweaving and hard-won resolve, Shallan forces the creature to flee and reveals a towering gemstone pillar that hints the city itself is a fabrial. Her triumph steadies the tower, but fractures within her personas widen as she builds the Veil alias for covert work.

Dalinar’s visions intensify. He sees a field of nine abandoned Honorblades and learns the true shape of the ancient war: the Fused are ancient singer souls reborn, and the Heralds once bound them at a terrible cost. He also recovers a buried past through flashbacks of conquest and the Thrill, a battle‑lust that once ruled him. Courts remain unconvinced by letters; Dalinar pivots to a new tactic—sharing visions directly. A vision with Queen Fen of Thaylenah moves her from suspicion to cooperation, while Azir’s young emperor wavers after a disruptive intrusion by Lift.

Determined to secure Alethkar’s Oathgate, a small team—Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and King Elhokar—flies the highstorm to Kholinar. The city is ruled by fear: the Wall Guard fights to hold the walls under a mysterious Highmarshal Azure, spren appear corrupted, and a frenzied Cult of Moments feasts around the palace Oathgate. Shallan discovers the Heart of the Revel (Ashertmarn) smothering the control building and a second Unmade, Sja‑anat, quietly corrupting spren. In a desperate assault, the team takes the palace approaches; Kaladin rescues the prince’s son, and Elhokar—on the cusp of swearing the First Ideal—is murdered by Moash, a former bridgeman. Azure holds a retreat, and with the Oathgate trapped, Shallan transfers only the control room through the device—hurling the survivors into Shadesmar instead of Urithiru.

Stranded in the Cognitive Realm, Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and Azure trek across bead‑seas and glass forests. They navigate a spren port under growing Fused influence, barter for passage, and are captured and then freed by honorspren politics. Pursuit intensifies; the group leaps ship, and Azure turns back to aid the crew, while the others flee inland toward Thaylen City’s Oathgate. Their path and Kaladin’s storm‑borne vision point to Thaylen City as the enemy’s true target.

Back in the Physical Realm, Dalinar’s coalition assembles in Thaylen City on uneasy terms. Explosive revelations unravel trust: new translations, the Eila Stele, claim humans were the original invaders of Roshar; leaks suggest Dalinar seeks a crown; and he admits meeting the enemy god, Odium. Dalinar’s private crisis deepens as his erased memories of Evi and the burning of Rathalas return. When the Everstorm arrives early, Odium lands an army: thunderclasts rise, the Fused descend, and the Thrill surges through Amaram’s men as Odium turns an Alethi host against the city.

Urithiru is struck as well by an infiltrator who steals a sacred Honorblade, and Bridge Four reels under the blow. In Thaylen City, defenders fracture. Jasnah confronts Renarin’s anomalous bond and stays her hand when she realizes his futures can be wrong. Kaladin in Shadesmar keeps Fused occupied to buy time for Shallan at the Oathgate; in the city, Navani and Queen Fen coordinate triage while the Gemstone Reserve is breached and a perfect ruby—the King’s Drop—is stolen.

On the shattered field, Dalinar faces Odium. Offered oblivion for his guilt, he relives the atrocity at the Rift and the death of his wife. Odium tries to claim him as champion by drowning him in the Thrill. Dalinar instead accepts responsibility, refuses to yield his pain, and speaks new Words. Proclaiming “I am Unity,” he forges Honor’s Perpendicularity, briefly joining realms, refilling gemstones, and opening a shining road from Shadesmar. Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin surge through the light to the battlefield.

The tide turns. Jasnah seals breaches with Soulcasting; Renarin heals the wounded and steadies the Oathgate; Teft, swearing the Third Ideal, rises glowing with Bridge Four. Lift and Szeth race through chaos to recover the King’s Drop. Amaram, hosting the Unmade Yelig‑nar, duels Kaladin aloft; Kaladin cracks the gemstone at Amaram’s heart, and Rock ends the traitor with a Shardbow. Dalinar enters the red fog of the Thrill, understands its nature as the Unmade Nergaoul, and imprisons it in the perfect ruby. With the Thrill silenced, Odium’s momentum collapses; the Fused withdraw, and Thaylen City endures.

In the aftermath, the living count their debts. Venli, a singer used by the Fused, secretly bonds Timbre and resolves to reclaim her people’s identity. Szeth swears to follow Dalinar, becoming his perilous bodyguard. Jasnah is crowned Queen of Alethkar after Adolin refuses the throne. Kaladin rescues Gavinor and recommits to protecting the living, even amid unsettling truths. Taravangian, on a diminished day, bargains with Odium to spare Kharbranth, offering information and a stolen Honorblade. Moash, embracing a new name—Vyre—accepts that blade and uses a golden knife to kill the Herald Jezrien, a final act that trembles through the world. Dalinar, at last able to face himself, asks Navani to teach him to read and begins writing the account of his journey—Oathbringer.