Szeth
| Szeth-son-son-Vallano | |||||
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| Born | 1138 EoS | ||||
| Abilities | Windrunner, Shardbearer | ||||
| Nationality | Shin | ||||
| Homeworld | Roshar | ||||
Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, was a Shin from Roshar. He was short and bald like most Shin and his eyes were normally dark green, but changed to pale sapphire blue when he summoned his Shardblade. Presumably he is son of Neturo, who is son of Vallano.
Story
Szeth carried an Oathstone. Whoever owned his Oathstone owned Szeth. Szeth was obliged by his honor to do as the owner commanded. The exceptions to this rule were that he was forbidden to exercise any actions which would directly lead to his death, and he was also forbidden to give up the Shardblade used.
He was named Truthless at approximately 27 years of age and was traded to the Thaylen merchant Vistin shortly afterwards. At some later point Szeth came into Parshendi possession by as of yet unknown means. Their orders were to murder King Gavilar of Alethkar during the Alethi-Parshendi treaty-signing celebrations, in public, and be seen doing it with live witnesses. A fierce battle between Gavilar and Szeth commenced. Fooled into believing Gavilar was a bodyguard in the beginning, Szeth was forced into chasing after the escaping target, instead of fighting a protracted battle. However soon after, he realized the target was simply a decoy, since Gavilar would be much safer in his own Shardplate, fighting with his Shardblade, instead of fleeing for his life. Doubling back, Szeth abandoned chase and returned to kill Gavilar. In the ensuing battle, Gavilar almost succeeded in killing Szeth with a Shardplate enhanced punch, but ultimately failed and fell to his death upon a piece of wooden debris, impaling him in a spot where the Shardplate had been broken. Before dying, Gavilar had two last requests: to tell his brother to say the most important words a man could say, and to protect a mysterious black orb that shone dark light. Szeth honored the first one and scrawled a message to Dalinar into the wood with Gavilar's own hand and blood. Eventually he would also hide away the black orb somewhere in Jah Keved. Szeth was around 29 years of age at this time.
He wore traditional white Parshendi assassin attire on the night he killed King Gavilar, which lead to him being known as the Assassin in White. Parshendi customs bade assassins to wear white for if someone were to be assassinated, they were
Following Gavilar's death, the Parshendi threw away his Oathstone as they fled Kholinar, and Szeth was eventually picked up by Avado. The travelling merchant took him to Jah Keved in fear of possible Alethi retributions against strange foreigners in the wake of their king's death. Over the course of more than 5 years, the Oathstone changed hands many timesbefore landing in the hands of Took, a transient worker.
Powers & abilities
He possessed a Shardblade and was a Surgebinder who had Windrunner powers. Whether he was bound to an honorspren like the other known Windrunner, Kaladin, is unknown. Szeth seemed to possess a relatively informed knowledge of the Windrunner order of the Knights Radiant, knowing the name of the order as well as their name for the powers they possessed: the three Lashings.
Notes