Stormlight Summary: Oathbringer

Previously on: Oathbringer - AAAAAAAAAUGH!!! Hey Internet, it’s me and it’s RAFO! Rhythm of War soon! Dawnshard now! There’s definitely no more time to read, so let me help you catch up. My last video sums up Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Edgedancer so if you need those, check it out. If you just need a refresher on Oathbringer, I got you covered right here. Prologue: Eshonai at the pre-assassination feast meets Gavilar, who shows her the wierd black sphere and tells her of his plan to return her gods. Back in Urithiru, Dalinar revisits his very first vision, a devastated Kholinar and a figure with nine shadows. Then everyone finds out Sadeas is dead.

Good riddance, 00:37 - that filthy crem covered piece of sh(ardplate)… Our first flashback of Dalinar, in his conquest of Alethkar for his brother. He pulls a Genghis Khan and recruits the guy that shot him. Navani asks about Dalinar’s first wife, whom Dalinar admits he can’t remember cause Nightwatcher. No priest wants Dalinar to marry his technical sister- in-law, so she suggests having the Stormfather do it. Wasting absolutely no time with thinking about it, everybody goes up to the roof and they get hitched. Dalinar starts remembering stuff.

01:02 - Kaladin makes it to Hearthstone and punches Roshone in the face. He summons his blade, meets his baby brother, and flies off to track the transformed parshmen. Shallan has trouble drawing Urithiru, then makes a holographic map with Dalinar. Someone else got murdered. Adolin’s on the case. We see the Blackthorn’s first experience at the Rift, when he wins Oathbringer from a kid. Dalinar tries to politic his way into other Oathgates with no luck. Elhokar complains about being usurped, but wants to save Kholinar. Taravangian agrees to meet. “No mating!” So Shallan and Adolin sword fight instead. Kaladin teaches the parshmen how to camp. Dalinar wrestles while arguing philosophy. He hears Navani say his late wife’s name. Veil does some investigative work in some bars and ends up stabbing through her own hand. Another pair of copycat murders is discovered. The Blackthorn forgot his dinner knife, so he dodges some boulders in a highstorm looking for it. No dice. That assassin has a nice one, so Dalinar stabs him with it and finally gets to eat dinner. Also he agrees to marry Evi.

Shallan and Adolin go visit Ialai and Mraize 02:00 - is there with an aviar. Exploring Urithiru she tells Pattern the story of the Girl Who Looked Up, then chases after the shadowy spren who was watching, all the way back to the market, where Rock gets stabbed in the hand. The Blackthorn almost kills Gavilar while being consumed by the Thrill, so he vows to never be king. Amaram gets made highprince of Sadeas’ princedom. Dalinar finds Oathbringer and gives it to Ialai. Shallan and company find Re-Shephir and she gets personal.

02:25 - Kaladin finally gives up camping, saves some humans from a highstorm with a windspren wall, then flies back to Urithiru. Jasnah arrives as well. Puuli has lots of wood to pick up to keep his lighthouse burning for “those with Light in their pockets.” Ardents are reading romance novels and translating the Dawnchant. Venli finds Eshonai’s body and shards, and gets chased by a tiny ball of light. Shallan has difficulty adjusting back to Jasnah’s presence. Apparently the jeweled pillar where Re-Shephir was is a big ol’ fabrial. Dalinar welcomes Queen Fen into his midnight essence vision. Bridge Four gets Radiant practice using the honorblade on the Shattered Plains. Elhokar recruits Kaladin to go to Kholinar. Rock breathes in stormlight and his family shows up! Apparently somethings wrong at the Peaks.

Meeting time! Jasnah wants to slaughter 03:08 - all the parshmen and murder the Heralds to prevent the Desolation. Shallan learns about the Sons of Honor and the Skybreakers. Veil bonds with her guards. Teft’s on a firemoss bender, sold his uniform coat, and gets chased by a honorspren. Kaladin and Rock bring him back. Dalinar gets Gawx in a vision but Lift busts him out. Moash kills and gets recruited by the Fused, abandoning his shardblade. Kaladin has expanded Windrunner recruiting efforts, and Skar starts glowing. Jasnah talks with Ivory, who tells her about Odium. We get a hint of childhood trauma, and also learn that Wit told her about the Recreance. Dalinar remembers Adolin’s birth, Jasnah’s apparent “lunacy,” and revolution at the Rift. The cast flies back to the warcamps, and Dalinar discovers Taln missing.

03:49 - Moash heads toward Kholinar with the Fused. He meets Leshwi, the Fused he killed, and gets set free. Then tries to pull a Kaladin and teaches some listeners the spear. Jasnah tears Amaram a new one, and Renarin finds the gemstone library. Rlain still feels excluded from Bridge Four, as well as his people. Then he’s conspicuously absent for the rest of the book. Dalinar meets Odium, who turns down a champion fight. Lift shows up and Odium vanishes. A smokey soulcaster and crew reach Aimia, but ate some bad food. That’s the risk when your cook is a bunch of bugs and wants to prevent the “ends of worlds.” Taravangian has a smart day, and decides to support, then supplant Dalinar. He doesn’t think they can defeat Odium.

04:29 - Venli faces the Everstorm and Odium bars her from becoming a Fused. She hides the tiny spren. Dalinar and company make it to Thaylen City and he gets into a sword fight with Queen Fen’s son, leaning it to getting stabbed. He heals himself with stormlight, then heals a wall with some more. Fen joins up. Kaladin and crew make it to besieged Kholinar, deciding to sneak in. Adolin brings them to his tailor. Shallan draws altered spren, and they hear about the Wall Guard and Cult of Moments.

04:55 - Shallan and Kaladin try and deliver a letter to the Queen, but instead she gets stabbed and sees Sja-anat in the mirror. Dalinar heads to Azir. He gives them essays, manipulates spiritual Connection to understand their language, and chills with Lift. Then all his past memories came flooding back. Shallan feels fine after being murdered, so she goes into the city and finds Wit telling a story about one of the moons. He tells her about the Heart of the Revel. The rest of the group goes to a lighteyed party.

05:20 - Except Kaladin, who goes to the wall instead, where he meets Azure and joins the Wall Guard. The Blackthorn back at the Rift meets with Tanalan, the boy he spared. He chases after a traitorous caravan. Veil and her boys go steal some food from a wealthy lighteyed woman and she gets shot in the head with a crossbow. After waking up from her second murder, she distributes the food in the city. Shallan starts to split, her different personalities becoming harder to control. She draws Elhokar as he could be, which almost brings him to tears. At the Rift, Dalinar got a hillside dropped on him and it made him REALLY mad. He makes some terrible, heartbreaking decisions. And still hears the screams of his wife. Back in Kholinar, Vathah creates a stormlight illusion. They’re allowed into the Revel and Shallan makes her way to the center of the Oathgate platform, which is covered in a dark mass.

A different voice warns her of a trap, and she notices her shadow pointing the wrong way. The wall alarm sounds, and she runs. Meanwhile, Kaladin is questioning Azure about her history and weird shardblade. Then the wall gets attacked. Kaladin fights and manages to kill a Fused, hitting its gemheart. He summons his Shardblade and teams up with Azure to hold the walls. Azure shows him the aluminum lined room and soulcasters for food. Kaladin tells her about the Oathgate.

06:31 - Shallan goes into the city to distribute her remaining food and finds out it was all being stolen. This breaks her real bad, flipping through hundreds of personalities. Wit finds her and gives her a pep talk, retelling the Girl Who Looked Up with lightweaving. The gang gets back together and they assault the palace while the Fused assault the walls. Kaladin, Skar, and Drehy go fight off a Thunderclast while Adolin, Elhokar, and Azure cut their way in toward the queen, who is acting like nothing’s wrong.

Kaladin and Syl find Gavinor, 06:58 - her son, and manage to stab a spren. She brags about bonding an ancient spren, then her eyes turn red. They run away. Meanwhile Shallan returns to the Oathgate platform and confronts the Unmade there. Her Shardblade does nothing to the giant purple heart, so she touches it. Bad time. She screams for Wit to help, and the heart oozes away. Shallan, Adolin, and Azure make it inside and meet Sja-anat. The Oathgate is a trap. Kaladin sees friends kill each other while Elhokar starts to say the first ideal, but the words, like the spear in his chest, get stuck. Moash salutes Kaladin - I hate that guy! - and the corrupted queen descends the stairs. Drehy and Skar hold the retreat. Kholinar is lost. The rest of the group make it to the Oathgate and Shallan activates it, with Sja-anat promising “I’ll try not to kill you.” They flop into Shadesmar, meeting the larger forms of Pattern, Syl, and Adolin’s shardblade.

Venli has become a singer 07:50 - storyteller/propagandist. Her strange spren refuses to leave. Mem is good at her job of getting otherworldly stains out of clothing. Her assistant turns out to be a herald, which Mraize was counting on. A brightlord from Amaram’s army meets an oceanic hog in Herdaz. After the Rift, Dalinar dove headfirst into destructive alcoholism. He can still hear her screams. Eventually, after the Parshendi are discovered, he throws his sons out in a fit of rage while trying to find more booze. Renarin quietly comes in with a small bottle and gives Dalinar a hug. He breaks down. Szeth is in the Purelake! He speaks the first ideal with other Skybreaker hopefuls. There’s a test to find some escaped convicts, and Szeth realizes the main criminal is the embezzling warden. He draws Nightblood and kills him, then recites the second ideal.

08:34 - After a rough night in Shadesmar, Adolin, Kaladin, and Azure all do a kata. After getting chased by some angerspren (I’m not angry! stare I’m a little angry!), they come to a lighthouse. The coalition of nations has its first meeting in Urithiru. After much politicking, Navani allocates roles based on the various nations’ strengths. Kaladin tries to scout the lighthouse, but anticipationspren sort of give him away. (blalalalalalalala) He meets the Elantrian inside and touches his ball. Crystal ball. Kaladin sees a vision of Dalinar in danger at Thaylen City, and they barter passage onto a ship. Back in the Purelake, Szeth has a chalk fight. Then Nale shows up. Dalinar begins to feel the Thrill again and flees to Urithiru. Desperate for a diversion, he gives in to wine. After time on the ship, the Shadesmar Six plus Maya make it to Celebrant. They split up.

Kaladin sees a pretty painting, they get chased by Fused, and Syl reveals herself 09:22 - to an Honorspren ship so they can escape. Dalinar has a vision of going shopping with Nohadon and a bunch of Thunderclasts. What’s the most important step a man can take? He remembers Gavilar’s funeral, and Jasnah reading him the Way of Kings. He decides to seek the Old Magic. Szeth and Nale fly to the southern coast. Nale dual-wields shardblades and tells Szeth about Aharietiam. Dalinar comes out of hiding and realizes they need to protect Thaylen City.

He plans on meeting a singer leader during the next highstorm. The Shadesmar gang are on another boat. Shallan is struggling with her personalities, Azure is planning on leaving, Kaladin attracts a bunch of windspren, and Adolin thinks he’s hot. Dalinar meets Venli in a vision, into which Odium breaks. And I do mean breaks. Dalinar holds it together long enough for Venli to grab Timbre. Odium promises peace after Dalinar destroys the world.

The Shadesmar Six plus Maya become 10:16 - the Shadesmar Six without Azure, who stays on the boat. They head toward Thaylen City. Dalinar’s there already, meeting with the coalition. An early Everstorm just hit Shinovar, and it turns out that humans were the Voidbringers all along. The coalition falls apart. Kaladin remembers Tarah. They make it to Thaylen City and see the Oathgate, surrounded by an army of spren. Venli speeches and then gets put on a boat, ready to assault the city.

10:40 - Rysn’s working in the Thaylen Gemstone Reserve and helps her babsk start an audit. One of the guards was a lightweaving fused, who tried to steal the King’s Drop before Rysn shot him in the face. Another fused steals the honorblade from Bridge Four while wearing Teft’s coat. Dalinar visited the Nightwatcher and begged for forgiveness. Cultivation offered a “pruning” instead. The Everstorm arrives. Dalinar grabs his copy of the Way of Kings and heads out into the city. Jasnah seeks out Renarin and sees his corrupted spren. She summons her shardblade. Teft’s being chased by his spren, and sees listeners arrive in Urithiru. Navani and Queen Fen are confident on the wall. Then two thunderclasts show up. Venli and Kaladin watch from both realms as the Thrill arrives and enters Amaram’s army. They turn and attack the city. Kaladin approaches the Oathgate and takes some Fused on a merry chase.

11:26 - Dalinar finds Rysn who tells him about the King’s Drop, which Odium is now in possession of. Shallan makes it to the Oathgate thanks to a group of illusions sprinkled with real folk. The Oathgate spren say she can’t pass through. Szeth and Nale are watching the battle from above. Lift splits from Gawx and meets Dalinar exiting the city; he tasks her with getting the ruby back. Adolin gets stabbed and Maya attacks the Fused that did it. He and Shallan jump in the beads to get Kaladin, who ran out of stormlight. Lift gets rocked by a Thunderclast, which then gets cut in half by Szeth. Navani and the Thaylen royalty are captured by Amaram’s soldiers. Ash finds Taln. Renarin sees his own death and Dalinar’s submission to Odium. Dalinar asks for a contest of Champions. Didn’t know he was going to bat for the other team. Odium floods Dalinar’s memory with his atrocities.

12:11 - A Fused steals Nightblood’s sheath from Szeth, and he’s unable to drop the sword. Kaladin tries to say the next ideal but can’t. Navani takes out her captors with a painrial. Odium destroys Dalinar’s favorite book. Uncool! Lift tries to heal Szeth, then gets tapped by Nightblood too. Jasnah chooses not to kill Renarin. If that vision was wrong, maybe others could be too. “You cannot have my pain!” Dalinar recites his next oath: I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man. He grips a realm in each hand and unites them. And hears Evi’s forgiveness. Light explodes in Shadesmar, and the gang hops through Honor’s Perpendicularity. Taln becomes lucid, overjoyed that he held off Desolations for four thousand years. Teft will protect those he hates, even if the one he hates most is himself.

Dalinar gets flocked with gloryspren, and 12:59 - stormlight fills scattered spheres on the ground. The abundance of stormlight sates Nightblood, who was apparently really hungry. Everyone gets to Dalinar, who gives orders. Amaram swallows a rock and dual wields Oathbringer and his original blade. He starts to leak smoke and attacks Kaladin. Adolin’s healed and runs off to find Jasnah while Shallan lightweaves an army, assisted by Veil and Radiant. Jasnah’s doing just fine - Let there be wall -, so Adolin goes to help Queen Fen. She’s fine too, so Adolin goes to fight a Thunderclast. Dalinar confronts the Thrill. Szeth eventually gets the King’s Drop but gets chased by Fused, so he hucks it and joins back with Lift. Amaram gets more and more funky looking. Venli bonds Timbre, which contains the voidspren in her gemheart, and says the first ideal. Adolin chops off a Thunderclast foot, learns his sword’s name, and teams up with a Thaylen shardbearer.

They both get thunderslapped, and Maya comes 13:51 - back three heartbeats early. Renarin shows up, gets crushed, is fine, cuts off a thunderhand. Szeth catches the ruby and does a fake handoff to Lift, who dives in to the Thrill. Amaram monologues while fighting Kaladin, eventually taking to the sky - which is Kaladin’s. He cracks the gemstone in Amaram’s chest, then gets swarmed by Fused. Jasnah makes it to Shallan, who is Radiant. Jasnah’s a soulcasting BOSS. Renarin beats the thunderclast and heads for the Oathgate. Teft arrives, leading Bridge Four. Lift gives Dalinar the ruby, and he embraces the Thrill one last time. Kaladin runs out of stormlight as the Thrill vanishes. Amaram gets up to attack, then drops with two massive arrows in his head and chest. Glowy Rock knows how to shoot.

14:31 - With the Thrill contained, Amaram’s troops give up and the Fused retreat. Venli tells retreating parshmen of the listeners - her people. Szeth swears his Third and Fourth ideals to Dalinar. Lopen jokingly swears his second ideal and flips off the Stormfather. Ash feels her father die and falls unconscious. Jasnah recognizes them, thanks to drawings from Hoid. Kaladin finds Skar and Drehy, with Elhokar’s son. Taravangian meets Odium and strikes a deal to save Kharbranth. Renarin may be key. Adolin and Shallan are gonna get hitched, and Dalinar wants Adolin to be king. He admits to killing Sadeas. Which means about Jasnah, we can finally say JAS QUEEN! Moash gets Jezrien’s honorblade and they name him Vyre - He Who Quiets. Shallan’s brothers get to Urithiru with a note from Mraize instructing her to recruit [Sja-anat] to the Ghostbloods. Dalinar begins writing Oathbringer.

15:22 - Epilogue: Wit pontificates on the meaning of art, performs an adoption, and rescues the cryptic that was going to bond Elhokar. “Life before death, little one.” Three months after that, Dawnshard. A year after, we have Rhythm of War. Hopefully this recap was helpful in preparing you for jumping in to that. If you want more info, the 17th Shard recently finished an interactive map and timeline of Roshar which is super fun to explore, as well as an excellent article series on Roshar’s history and characters, both of which you can see in the description. As always thank you to the incredible artists that allowed me to show their work here. Give them some love as well. Pre-orders, and even digital release party tickets are still available for Rhythm of War, so make sure to get your copy. That way, you can Read And Find Out! .