Eshonai

Eshonai
by Exmakina
Family Parents Jaxlim Siblings Venli
Died	Battle of Narak, Ishishach 1173
Abilities	Forms of Power, Shardbearer, Willshaper
Bonded With	Timbre
Groups	Council of Five
Species	Singer
Nationality	Listener
Homeworld	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere
First Appeared	The Way of Kings

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“Progress is learning to control your world. Put up walls to stop the storms, choose when to become a mate. ”

—Eshonai

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

Appearance and Personality

by Antti Hakosaari

For more images, see /Gallery.

“Our people are crumbling. (...) We're being weathered away. ”

—Eshonai about the listeners

Appearance

Eshonai is a Singer; her skin, covered partially in carapace, is a marbled red and black, and she is large of stature, standing seven feet tall in Shardplate. Her Plate is silver, and has a red cape attached. She wears warform due to the conflict with Alethkar. When not wearing Shardplate, her uniform consists of a cap and a red cloth that stretches over her warform armor.

Personality

Her preferred form is workform because it is more flexible, limber, rugged, and because the form's aversion to violence forces her to think differently to solve problems. She finds it difficult to tolerate listeners who prefer mateform , and has trouble understanding why anyone would want to remain in that form for longer than necessary to produce offspring. Her confusion on this 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.

Though she accepts her duties as a general for her people, she feels trapped and constrained by the role, and by living on the Shattered Plains. Even her uniform contributes to her emotional discomfort, and the repetitive tasks of military life numb her mind. She blames her uniform for her personal worries. 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 as general so she can explore; even as a child, it was common for her to wander off in the middle of a task if something caught her attention. She even contemplates exploring human civilizations, though she has a preference for exploring the wilderness. However, she believes these feelings are 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. She goes so far as to accompany her strike forces even when wounded, because she was the only Shardbearer left 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. While she fights the Alethi out of necessity, she would prefer, and she even attempts, to negotiate a peace with them.

Abilities and Attributes

by taratjah

Despite her misgivings about the role, Eshonai is a skilled combatant and military commander, having managed to keep her people alive for more than five years of a war in which they are severely disadvantaged. She's fluent in Alethi, and is the best at it of any listeners, though she speaks it with a thick accent.

Shortly before her death, Eshonai attracted the attention of a Reacher nicknamed Timbre; however, she took on the stormform before the bonding process could begin, and only became a Surgebinder moments before her death.

Forms

Like all Singers, Eshonai can change her form by taking a spren into her gemheart during a highstorm. Out of preference, she spent most of her life in workform, which, while durable and strong, made her averse to violence. During the War of Reckoning, she uses warform instead, as its carapace and stockier build afford her greater strength and protection while allowing for fighting. Eventually, she takes on stormform, keeping her increased strength while also granting her the ability to cast red lightning and summon the Everstorm, though the latter requires cooperation with more stormforms.

Shardbearer

Eshonai is a full Shardbearer, owning both a set of Shardplate and a dead Shardblade. It's unknown how she came about having them, though it's possible she only acquired them after the War of Reckoning began. However that happened, she knows how to use them, and wearing Shardplate feels natural to her. She's highly skilled with the Blade, being able to keep up and even win against Adolin Kholin, though her fighting style is unlike what he's been taught, with no recognizable stances. However, she can get too focused on combat while ignoring her surroundings, which proves to be her downfall.

History

Exploration

Eshonai was an explorer who often travelled the wilderness of Natanatan. She started out exploring alone, creating maps and expanding the listeners' understanding of the world, then began leading expeditions during her teenage years, after her adventures sparked interest amongst her people. Her exploration led to the listeners' first contact with humans in 1165, when she encountered Gavilar's expedition to the south of the Shattered Plains.

by Shuravf

Eshonai meeting with Gavilar on the night of his death

Assassination of Gavilar

On the day of his assassination, Gavilar spoke to Eshonai privately. She was the first listener to learn that Gavilar wanted to bring back the listeners' old gods. He gave her a dark gemstone and told her to give it to The Five. Taking the gemstone, Eshonai went to the Five and told them of Gavilar's plans, and the group decided to assassinate the Alethi king. Though Eshonai was not yet on the Council of Five, the council gave her a vote and listened to her advice due to her role as an interpreter. She voted in favor of killing Gavilar, in order to keep the listeners free of their gods and to affirm the decision made by their ancestors centuries ago.

The War of Reckoning (1167-1173)

Narak

Sometime between the assassination of Gavilar and the Battle of the Tower, Eshonai became a member of the Council of Five and was made the general of the listener army. After the death of the king, the listeners relocated to Narak in the hopes that a war of attrition would deter the Alethi from pursuing longterm action. Unfortunately, the presence of chasmfiends on the Shattered Plains allowed the war to continue for many years, with the Alethi and listener forces clashing over the beast's gemhearts. Eshonai would sometimes join her troops in the skirmishes over these gems.

The Battle of the Tower

During the battle, Eshonai dueled Dalinar Kholin as the army made its retreat. She defeated him in combat, and recognised him as the Alethi Shardbearer she had been searching for, but was stabbed in the leg by Kaladin Stormblessed, who made his escape with Dalinar before she had a chance to speak with him. As the army made its retreat from the Tower, she saluted Dalinar as a gesture of respect. She allowed the Alethi to escape the battle without attacking them once they cleared the Tower.

The Everstorm

by Casey Fallon

Eshonai bonding with a stormspren during a highstorm

“With enough of us bearing this form together, we could bring it. We could bend the storms to our will, and could bring bring them down upon our enemies. ”

—Eshonai in stormform

Eshonai was the first to adopt Stormform after it was rediscovered by her sister Venli, although she did so reluctantly. The new form caused Eshonai to become more warlike and destructive, leading her to switch from seeking peace with the Alethi, to desiring their extermination. Her new aggressive personality made her more willing to kill disobedient listeners, including her comrades, friends, and family. Any who refused to obey her orders were rounded up by Eshonai, whose intent was to have them all killed.

In the Battle of Narak, she led the listener army, who had all taken Stormform, to battle, with the intent to destroy the Alethi forces. After Adolin pushed her into a chasm, she rammed her Shardblade into the ground, in an attempt to not be swept away by the floodwaters. Because of her efforts, Eshonai did not drown, instead she died shortly after from wounds inflicted during her fight for survival in the chasm.

After her death, the Rider of Storms briefly stopped her soul from entering the Beyond in order to let her ride his winds across all of Roshar as the highstorm swept over the continent.

Later, Ulim leads Venli and Demid to Eshonai's body to retrieve her Shards.

Relationships

Jaxlim

Eshonai thinks little of Jaxlim, her mother, due to her memory loss, though Eshonai still respects her. However, their bond is strong enough that Eshonai somewhat overcomes the singled-minded influence of stormform; when her mother refuses to change to stormform and is rounded her up with the other dissenters, Eshonai assigns her old squad members to guard them, seemingly aware they would assist them. She does not give chase when they escape, either.

Venli

Eshonai has a difficult relationship with her younger sister and her views.^[expand]

Trivia

• The reason Eshonai was killed off and replaced by Venli as the main singer character was that the series already had overabundance of paragon soldiers trying to do the right thing, making her feel superfluous to Brandon.
• Eshonai was originally going to be the sole flashback character in Rhythm of War; eventually, Brandon decided on using a mix of her and Venli's flashbacks.
• While Michael Whelan has said that the US cover of The Way of Kings isn't meant to depict specific characters, Brandon has indicated that she is one of the people on that cover.
• She's unnamed throughout The Way of Kings; however, chapter 68 of the book -- the only one she appears and speaks in -- is named after her without explanation.

Notes

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