The Way of Kings

The novel takes place in an alternative universe, cosmere, which is also where a number of Sanderson’s others works, such as Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker are set. Cosmere’s grand narrative is about a powerful being or force called Adonalsium who is killed by a group of 16 people. These 16 individuals then break apart Adonalsium’s power into 16 Shards. Each shard is named after an intent, an action or an ideal, such as Ambition or Honor. The conspirators take the Shards, becoming Vessels, and travel to different worlds where they settle and create new systems of magic. Odium, one of the Shards, covets ultimate power and begins destroying the others. On Roshar, the world of The Stormlight Archive, Odium was able to kill Honor, but was trapped on the planet in the process.

As a way to fight Odium, Honor created the 10 Heralds, who in turn were helped by the Knights Radiant. The Heralds are able to contain Odium’s legions, the Voidbringers, in an alternative dimension. However, while they hold back the enemy, they are being endlessly tortured, until one of them breaks, opening an entrance onto Roshar and starting a new cycle of war and destruction, called a Desolation. At the very beginning of the novel, thousands of years before the main plotline begins, nine of the Heralds forsake their Oath to protect mankind, abandoning the last of their kind to eternal torture. They are all broken from countless cycles of torture and surrender and instead of returning to the alternative dimension, they abandon their task and tell the people of Roshar that the enemy was defeated for good and that the Heralds are ascending to the Tranquiline Halls, the equivalent of paradise. The novel picks up again after Odium has found a new way to destroy the world, while Dalinar Kholin and the reemerging Knights Radiant attempt to stop him.