Eshonai

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

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 speaks Alethi with a thick accent. She wears warform due to the conflict with Alethkar. but prefers When not wearing Shardplate, her uniform consists of a cap, and a red cloth which stretches over her warform armour.

Though she accepts her recent duties as a general for her people, she feels trapped and constrained by the role, and in living on the Shattered Plains. She feels awkward in the position, and even her uniform when not wearing Shardplate contributes to her emotional discomfort, and the repetitive tasks of military life numb her mind. However she never speaks of her discomfort in her role. She enjoys the feeling of strength she gets from wearing Shardplate, and it gives her something reliable in the world.

Eshonai's true passion is exploration, and she yearns to be free of her role so she can explore, even contemplating the idea of exploring human civilisations, although she has a preference for exploring the wilderness. She does not indulge these feelings however, believing them to be meaningless in comparison to the importance of protecting her people. She holds that remembering the fallen is important, but of lesser concern than protecting the living, going so far as to accompany her strike forces even when she has an injured leg from the Battle of the Tower despite the strain from leaping the chasms, because she is the only Shardbearer among the Listeners.

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. While she fights the Alethi out of necessity, she would prefer to negotiate a peace with them.

Her preferred form is workform because it is more limber and rugged, and because the form's aversion to violence forces her to think differently to solve problems. 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.

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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