Wind and Truth
by Brandon Sanderson
Contents
Overview
With only days remaining before a world-defining contest with Odium, Roshar enters a desperate new phase of war. Kaladin Stormblessed is trying to rebuild himself after trauma and loss when the Wind itself begins calling him toward Shinovar, where Szeth, the Heralds, and the oldest failures of the world are waiting. At the same time, Shallan Davar and Adolin Kholin chase answers about deadeyes, broken oaths, and the imprisoned power known as Ba-Ado-Mishram, while Dalinar Kholin and Navani Kholin search the Spiritual Realm for the truth about Honor, the Heralds, and Roshar’s first wars.
The novel expands the series’ central questions about duty, identity, and power. It asks whether old systems can be repaired, whether broken people can still choose goodness, and whether peace built on fear is peace at all. Across battles in Azimir, Narak, Thaylenah, Shinovar, Shadesmar, and the Spiritual Realm, the characters are forced to decide what their oaths really mean, what parts of themselves they will keep, and what they are willing to sacrifice for a future that may no longer resemble the one they planned to save.
Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers
In the aftermath of Urithiru’s liberation, Kaladin begins to recover from grief and burnout, only for the Wind to speak directly to him and warn that something worse than the war is coming. Shallan, meanwhile, confronts the truth of Testament, the Cryptic she bonded as a child, and learns that her damaged bond may still persist. That gives her a new purpose: understand deadeyes, heal Testament if possible, and discover what Ba-Ado-Mishram’s imprisonment did to both spren and people.
Dalinar sends Kaladin to Shinovar with Szeth to find Ishar, hoping the Herald can help with the coming contest. Wit reinforces that this journey matters for reasons beyond strategy, urging Kaladin to listen, to make art, and to become someone more than a soldier. Shallan and Adolin, trapped in Shadesmar after Lasting Integrity, learn that Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison was hidden in the Spiritual Realm. Their return becomes dangerous: Heavenly Ones attack them, Shallan reaches a new level of self-integration, gains Shardplate, and the group discovers a hidden singer invasion force moving toward Azimir.
Back in Urithiru, the coalition realizes Odium has already seized the initiative. Wit discovers that Odium altered his memories, proving the enemy is no longer the predictable Rayse. Taravangian has taken Odium’s power, and he immediately becomes far subtler and more dangerous. Shallan hunts the Ghostbloods inside Urithiru and Narak, infiltrates their meetings, and discovers that Mraize and Iyatil plan to shadow Dalinar into the Spiritual Realm. She also learns they are adapting anti-Light weapons capable of killing spren and Radiants outright.
Dalinar, pressed by Cultivation’s hints and the Stormfather’s evasions, enters the Spiritual Realm with Navani to witness the past directly. Ghostblood interference turns the experiment into a disaster, pulling Dalinar, Navani, and Gavinor bodily into visions of ancient Roshar. Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain pursue them there. In those visions, Dalinar and Navani witness humanity’s arrival from a dying world, the making of the Oathpact, Aharietiam, and the long unraveling of Honor’s plan. They eventually reach the crucial truth of the False Desolation: Melishi, under Honor’s authority, treacherously imprisoned Ba-Ado-Mishram during supposed peace talks. That act cripples the singers, contributes to the birth of slaveform, damages the bonds between spren and people, and helps drive the Radiants toward the Recreance.
The Spiritual Realm also forces personal revelations. Shallan finally recovers the memory of her childhood: her mother was the Herald Chana, Nale ordered her killed for becoming a Radiant, and young Shallan killed both Chana and Dreder in self-defense with Testament. Because Chana later broke on Braize, Shallan realizes her own family tragedy helped trigger the current Desolation. Renarin and Rlain, growing closer throughout these visions, conclude that Mishram’s prison cannot be treated as a purely human problem; if there is any hope of healing, humans and singers must choose together. Shallan also kills Iyatil and later outwits and kills Mraize with anti-Stormlight, finally ending his control over her.
While these truths surface, Roshar’s open wars worsen. Adolin and Yanagawn defend Azimir in a grinding siege against singers, Fused, thunderclasts, and Abidi the Monarch. Sigzil takes command at Narak, holding the Shattered Plains through clever feints despite catastrophic shortages of Stormlight. Venli, Leshwi, and the listeners discover a hidden source of power beneath Narak and eventually secure a diplomatic settlement that gives the Shattered Plains to the listeners instead of letting the war consume them again. Jasnah, however, loses Thaylenah politically when Taravangian uses her own ruthless logic against her and wins Queen Fen without battle.
In Shinovar, Kaladin’s mission becomes less about killing Ishar and more about helping Szeth reclaim choice after a lifetime of obedience. The pair discover that Shinovar’s corruption comes not from an Unmade, but from Ishar’s use of Odium’s power and from the broken systems surrounding the Heralds. Nale joins them and slowly unravels under Kaladin’s compassion. Szeth learns the Honorbearer pilgrimage was really a selection process for a new Herald after Jezrien’s death, and Ishar has been shaping him for years. Szeth eventually reaches the Skybreakers’ Fifth Ideal, then rejects the corrupted form of that order entirely. Kaladin, facing Ishar’s overwhelming despair, speaks a new oath about protecting himself so that he can keep protecting others. The power of that Ideal purges much of Ishar’s ancient corruption and shakes the darkness out of the other Heralds as well.
On the tenth day, all the major arcs collide. Adolin, now maimed and exhausted, still helps save Azimir when Maya leads forgotten deadeyes to him; those deadeyes willingly provide Shards to the “Unoathed,” letting ordinary allies hold the line. Shallan reaches Mishram’s prison with Renarin and Rlain. Dalinar returns from the Spiritual Realm with Honor’s memories but no easy answer. Then Taravangian unveils Odium’s champion: not Elhokar, but Gavinor, aged and indoctrinated in the Spiritual Realm so that Dalinar must either kill his own grandson or forfeit.
Renarin and Rlain decide together to break Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison, believing the ancient wrong must end if anything is to heal. Her release changes everything. It removes a blockage that had prevented Honor’s full return, and Dalinar briefly takes up Honor’s power. But he sees that a direct divine clash with Odium would destroy Roshar, and he finally rejects both Honor’s rigid old logic and Taravangian’s utilitarian cruelty. Instead of honoring a corrupted contest, Dalinar renounces his oaths and shatters Honor’s pact with Odium entirely. The Stormfather dies in the resulting catastrophe. Taravangian seizes Honor as well as Odium and Ascends into Retribution, a far greater threat than either Shard alone. Yet Dalinar’s sacrifice is not pointless: by forcing this transformation into the open, he draws the attention of the wider cosmere and denies Taravangian the quiet centuries he wanted.
Roshar survives at terrible cost. To shield the spren from Retribution, the Heralds attempt a revised Oathpact, and Kaladin steps into Jezrien’s vacant place, becoming a new Herald and calling himself the Herald of Second Chances. Dalinar dies protecting Gavinor and escapes Taravangian’s final claim on his soul, though Retribution salvages the mythic image of the Blackthorn for future use. Navani and the Sibling are sealed away but alive. Stormlight and the old Oathgate system are gone. Azir becomes the only major sunlit refuge left on Roshar. Shallan is stranded in Shadesmar but secures a tense truce with Thaidakar and searches for a way to contact Adolin. Sigzil, burdened with Wit’s Dawnshard, escapes into Shadesmar. Offworld, Wit realizes Dalinar’s apparent defeat may have been a masterstroke: Roshar has been wounded, isolated, and transformed, but it has also been given time.
Characters
- Kaladin StormblessedA former Windrunner commander trying to heal from trauma and grief while being called into a new role by the Wind. His journey through Shinovar shifts him from warrior to protector-healer and ends with him taking a central place in Roshar’s last defense.
- Shallan DavarA Lightweaver whose search for Ba-Ado-Mishram forces her to confront Testament, her fractured personas, and the truth about her mother. Her arc centers on reclaiming agency from fear and manipulation while choosing what kind of person she will be.
- Adolin KholinA prince and battlefield commander who defends Azimir through skill, loyalty, and stubborn compassion rather than Radiant powers. His bond with Maya deepens into one of the book’s clearest signs that ancient damage can be healed.
- Dalinar KholinThe coalition’s leader and Odium’s intended rival, driven into the Spiritual Realm to learn the truth about Honor, the Heralds, and Roshar’s oldest betrayals. His final choices reshape the conflict from a local war into a wider cosmic crisis.
- Navani KholinA scholar-queen and Bondsmith who enters the Spiritual Realm with Dalinar and approaches its dangers through observation, pattern, and experiment. She becomes crucial to understanding the visions and to preserving Urithiru after Dalinar’s fall.
- SzethKaladin’s companion in Shinovar, burdened by a lifetime of obedience, killing, and spiritual abuse. His pilgrimage reveals that he has been manipulated for years toward becoming a Herald, forcing him to choose his own morality at last.
- SylphrenaKaladin’s honorspren, partner, conscience, and emotional anchor. She helps define his growth beyond battle, supports his new oaths, and shares in the larger crisis facing all spren.
- WitAn ancient storyteller and strategist who guides Kaladin and Dalinar, uncovers Odium’s changed identity, and tries to manage the wider consequences of Roshar’s collapse. Even when outmaneuvered, he remains one of the few people thinking on a cosmere-wide scale.
- PatternShallan’s current Cryptic, deeply involved in her healing, her lies, and her search for truth. He steadies her through repeated crises and helps her face both Mraize and her own past.
- TestamentShallan’s first Cryptic, left as a deadeye by childhood trauma and rejection. Her damaged bond to Shallan is one of the book’s central mysteries and one of its strongest symbols of wounded relationships that might still be restored.
- Renarin KholinA Truthwatcher whose unusual futuresight and bond with Glys make him vital in the Spiritual Realm. His arc links Mishram’s mystery, Dalinar’s search through history, and a future built on human-singer understanding.
- RlainA singer Radiant who challenges human-centered versions of history and insists that singer experience be part of any healing. His growing partnership and romance with Renarin becomes a living bridge between divided peoples.
- TaravangianThe new Vessel of Odium, later the fused power called Retribution, whose mix of compassion, fear, ambition, and control makes him more dangerous than his predecessor. He wages war through philosophy, manipulation, law, and finally divine transformation.
- Jasnah KholinA queen and Radiant scholar trying to defend Thaylenah, hold the coalition together, and reason clearly in a collapsing world. Taravangian’s attack on her methods and principles leaves her in political defeat and moral crisis.
- SigzilKaladin’s successor among the Windrunners and the primary commander at Narak. His battlefield intelligence holds the Shattered Plains longer than anyone expects, and his later loss of Vienta reshapes his future entirely.
- VenliA singer Radiant struggling to undo the damage she once helped cause. Her plotline ties the listeners, Leshwi, Narak, and the hidden powers beneath the Shattered Plains into a fragile but meaningful path toward peace.
- NaleA Herald whose devotion to law has curdled into cruelty, contradiction, and despair. Kaladin’s empathy gradually breaks through that armor, revealing both the damage he has done and the person he once was.
- IsharThe unstable Herald whose schemes shaped Szeth’s life, corrupted Shinovar, and nearly remade the Heraldic system in monstrous ways. He carries enormous knowledge and equally enormous delusion, making him both source of truth and danger.
- Ba-Ado-MishramAn imprisoned ancient power whose capture damaged singers, spren, and Roshar’s spiritual bonds. Her release becomes one of the decisive events of the book, tying together the False Desolation, the deadeyes, and Honor’s return.
- MraizeShallan’s former Ghostblood mentor, a manipulator who mixes genuine insight with control, abuse, and secrecy. He remains one of Shallan’s most personal enemies because he understands her well enough to weaponize her fears.
- IyatilThe harsher Ghostblood superior whose long surveillance of Shallan shapes many of the book’s covert conflicts. Her use of anti-Light and disguise makes her especially dangerous in the Spiritual Realm struggle.
- MayaAdolin’s deadeye spren, increasingly lucid and emotionally present as their bond strengthens. She becomes central not only to Adolin’s growth but to the wider hope that deadeyes and abandoned oaths are not beyond healing.
- YanagawnThe young Azish emperor whose growth under siege parallels Adolin’s mentorship. His legitimacy and courage become essential to Azir’s survival when military victory is no longer enough.
- NouraYanagawn’s chief adviser, protective to the point of near-maternal fear. She represents Azir’s institutional caution and helps frame the legal and political stakes of holding the throne.
- Queen FenThe Thaylen ruler forced to choose between alliance, survival, and sovereignty while Taravangian courts her directly. Her decision shows how Odium’s victories now come as much through politics as through war.
- StormfatherHonor’s great spren and Dalinar’s bondspren, burdened with Tanavast’s memories and with centuries of fear, secrecy, and failed judgment. His relationship with Dalinar drives the book’s deepest revelations about Honor and ends in tragedy.
- the SiblingUrithiru’s spren, bound to Navani and deeply concerned with the ethics of power, fabrials, and survival. The Sibling becomes both guide and victim as the tower’s systems and Roshar’s magical order begin to fail.
- CultivationA Shard whose interventions push Dalinar and Taravangian toward their decisive transformations. She acts obliquely, offers revelation rather than rescue, and remains one of the few powers willing to oppose the new threat directly.
- Gavinor KholinElhokar’s son, first as a traumatized child and later as the center of Taravangian’s cruelest manipulation. His role turns the contest with Odium from a formal duel into a moral catastrophe.
- MoashKaladin’s former friend, now an instrument of Odium who returns with new powers and anti-spren weapons. His murders of Windrunners and spren deepen the book’s sense that the war has entered a crueler phase.
- ElA dangerous singer leader elevated under the new Odium, ambitious, intelligent, and willing to use both terror and opportunity. He becomes a major military and political force in the late stages of the war.
- NightbloodSzeth’s sentient sword, destructive, childlike, and morally confused, yet oddly capable of growth. Its appetite for power shapes several climactic confrontations and nearly kills the very people trying to wield it.
Themes
Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth is ultimately a novel about what it means to choose who you are when history, trauma, and ideology insist on choosing for you. Across its many fronts, the book keeps returning to the same question: what kind of person remains when power, pain, and old oaths are stripped bare?
- Healing as an active, unfinished choice. Kaladin begins the book in a rare moment of genuine peace, recognizing that recovery is not the absence of darkness but the ability to remember good days when darkness returns. Shallan’s arc mirrors this: by confronting Testament, Veil, Radiant, Formless, and finally the truth about her mother, she learns that healing does not erase fractured selves; it integrates them. Even Szeth’s journey through Shinovar turns on this idea, as Kaladin slowly helps him see that he is not merely a weapon shaped by other people’s judgments.
- Law, oaths, and the danger of empty righteousness. The novel relentlessly questions whether rules are moral simply because they are ancient or binding. Nale and Ishar embody law severed from compassion, while Kaladin and Dalinar struggle toward a more humane ethics. Dalinar’s final rejection of a contest twisted into cruelty is the book’s clearest statement: an oath is not holy if it serves horror. Likewise, Adolin repeatedly values promise over prestige, whether defending Azimir or standing by Yanagawn.
- The burden of power and the corruption of savior logic. Taravangian/Odium insists that domination is mercy; Dalinar, Navani, and Jasnah each confront versions of that temptation. Jasnah’s debate in Thaylenah shows how utilitarian logic can become morally unstable when abstract “greater good” loses sight of individual freedom. Taravangian’s rise into Retribution completes this theme: the desire to save everyone becomes indistinguishable from the desire to rule everyone.
- Reconciliation against inherited hatred. The revelations about Ba-Ado-Mishram, the ancient betrayal of the singers, and the release of her prison recast the war as a wound caused by both peoples. Rlain, Renarin, Venli, Leshwi, and Adolin all represent fragile alternatives to the cycle of blame. The listeners’ political recovery of the Shattered Plains, and Renarin and Rlain’s bond, suggest that peace begins not with forgetting history but with finally telling it truthfully.
- Hope, art, and story as resistance. Wit’s flute lessons, Shallan’s drawings, Kaladin’s music, and the recurring power of stories all insist that art is not ornamental. It is how characters remember themselves, imagine change, and speak across despair. In a book obsessed with storms, this is its deepest faith: meaning survives through the stories people choose to keep telling.