Five Scholars

The Coppermind has spoilers for all of Brandon's published works, now including The Sunlit Man. Information about books that have not yet been released, like Stormlight 5, is allowed only on meta-pages for the books themselves. For more details, see our spoiler policy. To view an earlier version of the wiki without spoilers for a book, go to the Time Machine!

Five Scholars
World of Origin Nalthis
Universe Cosmere

The Five Scholars are a group of Returned[1] who made major breakthroughs in Awakening and BioChroma.[2] Their most notable discoveries are the ability to create Lifeless with only one Breath, the formulation of the Ichor-alcohol necessary to ensure their continued and efficient operation, and the ability to Awaken inorganic materials like steel. At least some of the scholars are worldhoppers.[3]

DiscoveriesEdit

AwakeningEdit

One of the Five Scholars discovered a Command for creating Lifeless with one Breath. Before this, Lifeless required fifty Breaths to create, and so were expensive to make.[2] This Command was leaked to the world by Shashara.[4]

Ichor-alcoholEdit

Yesteel discovered Ichor-alcohol, which allowed a Lifeless to continue functioning for a much longer period of time without maintenance.[5][6]

Awakening SteelEdit

Shashara discovers how to Awaken steel with a thousand Breaths, and, with Vasher's help, created Nightblood.[7]

HistoryEdit

The Five Scholars' discoveries were massive breakthroughs in the usage of BioChroma and Awakening that would forever change Nalthis.

Creation of NightbloodEdit

Shashara, also known as Glorysinger by the Cult of the Returned, was fueled by a desire to not be outdone by Yesteel's discovery of Ichor-alcohol. She creates Nightblood together with Vasher in the days that they were in love.

During the ManywarEdit

The ability to create Lifeless with greatly increased longevity so cheaply was one of the reasons for the Manywar.[2] When the Manywar started, the Five Scholars split among the various factions, with lovers Vasher and Shashara on the side of Hallandren, then known as Hanald. This caused the different sides of the Manywar to have access to different Awakening knowledge and techniques.[2] Vasher created powerful Lifeless from Awakened bones encased in stone,[8] and used them to seize power away from the royal family, who fled to the mountains.[2] Denth tried to keep the peace between the various factions and stop the Manywar, but eventually joined his sister, Shashara, and Vasher.[9]

End of the ManywarEdit

Shortly after Shashara and Vasher's marriage, Shashara draws Nightblood in battle for the first and last time in the final battle of the Manywar: The Battle of Twilight Falls. Shashara is impressed by the power of the blade and insists on using the sword in battle, and on giving away the secret to creating more, similar to how she leaked the ability to Awaken Lifeless with a single breath.[4] Vasher is disgusted by the trail of death it leaves behind. This causes a falling out between her and Vasher that ultimately leads him to kill her, using Nightblood, to prevent more weapons of Nightblood's caliber from being created.[10]

Post-ManywarEdit

Denth was furious, and wants Vasher to pay for killing his sister.[11] Vasher ended the Manywar by calling back his Lifeless.[2] Arsteel attempted to reconcile them, only for Vasher to kill him due to a misunderstanding.[12] Vasher eventually kills Denth as well.[13] After the events of Warbreaker, Vasher moves to Roshar, the only planet he had been to besides Nalthis.[14]

MembersEdit

Relationships between the Five Scholars
Key
Parents/Children
Siblings
Ancestors/Descendants
Marriage
Partnership/relationship
  Deceased

NotesEdit

This article is still missing information. Please help The Coppermind by expanding it.