Wind and Truth

Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth (2024) is a high-fantasy novel set in the fictional world of Roshar, which is part of the author’s intricate universe, the Cosmere. Wind and Truth is the fifth novel in Sanderson’s acclaimed Stormlight Archive series and marks the end of the first arc of the series.

Set immediately after the events in Rhythm of War (2020), Wind and Truth follows protagonists Dalinar, Kaladin, Szeth, Shallan, and Adolin as they prepare to engage in a contest of champions for the fate of Roshar. The novel is split into 10 parts, each of which depicts the events of one day. (Individual chapters and sections within the parts are dedicated to each of the protagonists.)

This guide is based on the 2024 Tor edition of the novel.

Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide feature depictions of mental illness, child abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Wind and Truth takes place over the course of 10 days. At the end of those 10 days, Dalinar Kholin (the king of Urithiru and the leader of the human coalition on Roshar), has agreed to fight in a contest of champions against the god Odium. This contest is meant to end the cycle of war that has been taking place on the planet of Roshar for centuries; the conflict has raged between the forces of Odium and the forces of the god Honor.

Dalinar doesn’t yet know how to beat Odium, and he hopes to use the 10 days to find a solution. In the agreement to the contest, there is also a stipulation about territories in each side’s control. Whoever holds a territory when the contest arrives will become the legal possessor of that territory. As a result of this clause, fierce battles rage on multiple fronts around the world. The novel depicts battles on the Shattered Plains, in the city of Azimir, and briefly in other places as well.

The narrative opens with Kaladin Stormblessed having stepped down from his leadership of the order of Knights Radiant (known as the Windrunners). Dalinar tasks Kaladin with a mission to travel with the former assassin Szeth-son-Neturo to the distant nation of Shinovar. Their objective is to meet with the Herald Ishar, who is reportedly behaving erratically and experiencing delusions that he is the champion who will face Odium. Szeth is also on a mission to cleanse Shinovar (his homeland) from a corrupting influence that he will later discover is Ishar himself.

Szeth recounts his life story to Kaladin in a series of flashbacks interwoven throughout the novel. These recollections reveal Szeth’s coming-of-age journey, wherein he was manipulated into military training in his youth and compelled to become an Honorbearer—a leader of the monastery and a wielder of one of 10 sacred, ancient swords. During this earlier time, he was often visited by a disembodied voice that urged him to take actions that were counter to his nature. Now, Kaladin encourages Szeth to recognize his own agency and the power of his choices.

Szeth believes that the voice he hears is a servant of the god Odium. (He will later discover that the voice is in fact the Herald Ishar, who has been corrupted by Odium’s powers.) Meanwhile, to cleanse his homeland, Szeth must travel to each of the Honorbearer monasteries and defeat the corrupted Honorbearers who reside there; they are his former peers and teachers. At one of the monasteries, the Honorbearer is Szeth’s estranged sister, Elid. She reveals the true nature of his pilgrimage, which is really an audition orchestrated by the Heralds to assess his potential to replace the fallen Herald Jezrien and re-form the Oathpact. (The Heralds are the 10 servants of the god Honor; each one is associated with a different order of the Knights Radiant. The Oathpact is an ancient agreement that the Heralds swore to Honor in exchange for magical abilities.)

Finally, Kaladin and Szeth confront Ishar. In the aftermath, recognizing Szeth’s hard-won peace and his desire to forge his own path, Kaladin makes the decision to become the final Herald and leave his mortal life behind.

Meanwhile, with the looming threat of Odium, Dalinar finds himself at the center of a desperate struggle for the fate of Roshar. Faced with approaching enemy armies, Dalinar convenes a council of monarchs to strategize their defense. He sends his son Adolin to help with the battle in Azimir, and he sends his niece Jasnah to Thaylen City. Dalinar then meets the god Cultivation, who urges him to understand the history of their world before confronting Odium and hints that Honor is seeking a new vessel. This news prompts Dalinar and his wife Navani to travel to the Spiritual Realm to gain a greater understanding of their country’s past. An accident occurs when they are entering the Spiritual Realm, and their young grandson, Gavinor, is pulled in with them.

In the Spiritual Realm, they witness visions of pivotal moments in Roshar’s history, including humanity’s arrival from another planet, the formation of the Oathpact between Honor and the Heralds, and the escalating conflict with Odium. Dalinar and Navani witness the breaking of the Oathpact by the Heralds and the power of Honor’s rejection of its mortal vessel at that time, Tanavast. (Honor rejected Tanavast when he betrayed an oath and a potential path to peace by imprisoning a powerful spren named Ba-Ado-Mishram. Spren are personifications of emotions and elements of the natural world; they have the power to bond with humans.)

Upon his return from the Spiritual Realm on the day of the contest of champions, Dalinar faces the god Odium. (Odium kidnapped the young Gavinor in the Spiritual realm and caused many years to pass for the boy, using this time to convince him that Dalinar is evil and committed great wrongs against his family.) Now 20 years old, the brainwashed and misguided Gavinor wants to avenge himself on Dalinar, who is desperate for a solution that does not require him to kill his grandson.

The power of Honor, which is now a sentient force without a stable vessel, circles Dalinar. In a pivotal moment, Dalinar speaks the words that bind the power of Honor to him. However, recognizing the inherent danger in such an absolute and inflexible force, Dalinar then renounces his oaths, effectively betraying the power of Honor in a bid to buy time for his companions to create a new future for Roshar. This act results in his death and the merging of the powers of Odium and Honor into one vessel as a new god, Retribution.

Meanwhile, tasked with defending the city of Azimir against Odium’s approaching forces, Adolin Kholin (Dalinar’s son) travels west. Soon, the city is besieged by the armies of Odium. Despite the overwhelming odds and the eventual fall of Azimir, Adolin, along with a small group including the Azish emperor Yanagawn, retakes the throne room before the deadline of the contest. Adolin and his companions receive unlikely reinforcement from deadeye spren (spren who no longer hold bonds with humans) and hold the throne room until the critical hour, thereby maintaining control of the country.

Meanwhile, Shallan Kholin (who is married to Adolin) must deal with her complex history with a crime syndicate known as the Ghostbloods. This connection now places her in a precarious position. Her desire to prevent the Ghostbloods from reaching Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison in the Spiritual Realm drives her to infiltrate their ranks and discover their plan to follow Dalinar into that plane of existence. (Ba-Ado-Mishram is a powerful, dangerous spren who was imprisoned long ago by Honor and the Knights Radiant.)

Now, Shallan launches a quest to locate Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison alongside Renarin (second son of Dalinar and younger brother of Adolin) and his companion Rlain. Shallan’s encounters in the Spiritual Realm force her to confront painful childhood memories, including the revelation that her mother, Chana, was a Herald. Shallan fights and kills her former mentors from the Ghostbloods. Rlain and Renarin destroy the prison holding Ba-Ado-Mishram. The fragmentation of the realms following Dalinar’s rejection of Honor leaves Shallan stranded in Shadesmar, the Oathgates unusable.