Eshonai

Eshonai
by Exmakina
Family Parents Mother Siblings Venli
Abilities	Shardbearer
Groups	Council of Five
Ethnicity	Listener
Homeworld	Roshar

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Eshonai is a Parshendi Shardbearer who lives in Narak on the Shattered Plains of Roshar during the War of Reckoning. She is one of the first Parshendi to come in contact with Gavilar Kholin's soldiers in the Unclaimed Hills.

Appearance and Personality

Her skin is a marbled red and black, and she is large of stature, standing seven feet tall in Shardplate. Her Shardplate is silver, and she wears a red cape with it. She prefers to wear it because she enjoys the strength it gives her, and because she feels it lets her know that there is still something reliable in the world. She speaks Alethi with a thick accent. She wears warform due to the conflict with Alethkar, but prefers workform because it is more limber and rugged, and because the form's aversion to violence forces her to think differently to solve problems. When not wearing Shardplate, her uniform consists of a cap, and a red cloth which stretches over her warform armour.

She has a passion for exploring, and feels trapped upon the Shattered Plains. She yearns for the wilderness and has a desire to strike out on her own, and often feels the urge to explore, even showing a desire to explore human civilisations. However, she ignores that desire, feeling it meaningless in comparison to the need to protect her people, which she believes is her new destiny. She feels awkward in her rank as general, and performing the same tasks everyday numbs her mind.

She holds that remembering the fallen is important, but of lesser import than striving to protect those who still live, and prefers to stay with her strike forces as their only Shardbearer even when injured, despite the strain of jumping between plateaus on a wounded leg.

She believes that she is personally responsible for the War of Reckoning, because she was the first to make contact with the Alethi. Despite being fully aware of the dire predicament of her people, she does not blame the Alethi for their pursuit of vengeance against her people.

She seems to tolerate Listeners who prefer mateform poorly, and has trouble understanding why anyone would want to remain in that form for longer than necessary to produce offspring. Her confusion on the subject at one time extended to humans, when she was baffled by the fact that humans have only a single form that is easily distracted by sexual urges.

While she fights the Alethi to protect her people, she would prefer to negotiate with them than to fight.

The War of Reckoning

The Battle of the Tower

During the battle, Eshonai duels Dalinar Kholin as the army is making it's retreat. She defeats him in combat, and recognises him as the Alethi Shardbearer she's been searching for, but is stabbed in the leg by Kaladin Stormblessed, who makes his escape with Dalinar before she has a chance to speak with him. As the army makes it's retreat from the Tower, she salutes Dalinar as a gesture of respect. She allows the Alethi to escape the battle without attacking them once they clear the Tower.

The Everstorm

In an attempt to test the newly rediscovered Stormform, she is the first to adopt it, despite reluctance about using it -- and after doing so undergoes a major shift in personality, becoming more warlike and determined to wipe out the Alethi, despite originally wanting peace; it is implied that the form exerts the change over her. Her new, aggressive personality even makes her willing to kill Parshendi who do not obey her, including soldiers in her own division, those she considered close friends, as well as her own family; Venli and her mother, going so far as to have dissidents among the population of Narak rounded up to be killed. Her current status is unknown after her defeat at the hands of Adolin Kholin at the battle of Narak, where she is pushed into a nearby chasm.

She is one of the five on the Council of Five who voted on the assassination of King Gavilar, they all voted yes.

Her original intent in her search for Dalinar Kholin was to broker a peace between the Listeners and the Alethi.

Notes

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