The Way of Kings Prime

The Way of Kings Prime
by Isaac Stewart
Released	July 7, 2020

The Way of Kings Prime is the original draft of The Way of Kings written in 2002. It is the thirteenth novel Brandon Sanderson wrote and the last he wrote before being published. It was released as a free ebook and limited edition hardcover as part of The Way of Kings leatherbound Kickstarter. The book can be downloaded here. A free audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading is available here

Differences from the published version

• Much like the published Way of Kings, WoK Prime was the first book to an epic fantasy series; however, at the time, the cycle was called the "Oathshards Series".
• Kaladin was known as "Merin".
• Kaladin accepts the Shards at the beginning of the novel, instead of refusing them, and the story is about him becoming a Shardbearer.
• Szeth was known as "Jek".
• Jasnah Kholin was also a main viewpoint character.
• Vasher made an appearance as an ardent teaching Shardblades under his real name rather than as Zahel.
• Shallan did not exist. Instead, Jasnah had another red-headed apprentice, called Shinri Davar. Her plotline and character were completely different from that of Shallan, and though Shinri did eventually evolve into Shallan, Brandon considers the two to be separate characters.
• Spren were not a part of Roshar yet.
• The Diagram was written by Renarin Kholin.
• Ardents were called monks.
• Adolin was called "Aredor".
• Taln was a regular viewpoint character, and far saner than he appears in Words of Radiance. It was also unclear for much longer whether he actually was a Herald or just thought so.
• The Heralds resurrected by taking over the bodies of Rosharans, similar to how Fused work in The Stormlight Archive. This fuelled the mystery of "is Taln the real deal, or is he just some crazy guy".
• The Heralds had the ability to sense other Honorblades by holding their own, though Taln initially assumed it was an ability to sense each other. In one of the scenes of the original draft, he used this to try and track down his fellow Heralds, only to find the abandoned Blades.
• Dalinar's name was spelt Dalenar
• Shardplate is said to be made by Awakeners which are different from Nalthian Awakeners and the equivalent of Soulcasters.

Trivia

• A sequence of six chapters from The Way of Kings Prime is included in the Altered Perceptions Anthology.
• Dalinar Kholin was the first character Brandon Sanderson ever wrote when he was 15 years old. What he originally had in mind was a King (Elhokar) who is terrible at leading and the King's uncle not knowing whether to take charge or not.

Notes

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