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== Appearance and Personality ==
[[File:Kaladin.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Kaladin concept art by [[Ben McSweeney]]]]
Kaladin is a fairly tall man. He is muscular and has multiple scars on his body.{{ref|b|twok|c|6}} He has tan skin.{{ref|b|twok|prologue}} He has shoulder-length wavy black hair typical of an Alethi and dark brown eyes{{ref|b|twok|c|1}} with an {{wp|Epicanthic fold|epicanthic fold}}{{ref|?|979|86|Normal eyes on Roshar are those with an epicanthic fold}} that appear faintly colored amber when he is holding [[Stormlight]].{{ref|b|twok|c|38}} His face is square and firm with strong lines and a proud chin. He prefers to be clean-shaven but during his slavery he grows a long, scraggly beard.{{ref|b|twok|c|46}} He is branded on his forehead with a ''sas nahn'' [[glyphpair]] indicating his slavery and a ''shash'' [[glyph]] meaning ''dangerous''.{{ref|b|twok|c|2}}
Kaladin is a natural leader who makes people want to listen to him. Men of his squad in [[Amaram]]'s army called him lucky. They believed they would be fine because they were in Kaladin's squad. In Bridge Four he took men who didn't care about anything and organized them into a very loyal squad of spearmen. [[Dalinar Kholin]] remarked his men thought very highly of him. He is very protective of the defenseless. He joined the army so he could look after his brother. When he became a squadleader, he always wanted to protect the men in his squad. He recruited the barely trained young kids to his squad by bribing other squadleaders so he could take care of them. He is deeply affected when he loses someone. By the time he'd joined Bridge Four, he had lost so many people he had just given up caring. He thought himself cursed because he always survived when others did not. Syl convinced him that there was nothing worse that could happen to the bridgemen and Kaladin decided to try one final time to try to protect the members of Bridge Four. During his time there, he again tried to save the people who could not protect themselves. He carried the men wounded on bridge runs and healed them. He also recruited the one-armed Lopen to Bridge Four. As a soldier who has been raised as a surgeon, Kaladin has many conflicts about killing. He knows sometimes there is no way but to kill, but his father's about the sanctity of life are engrained too deep within him. He constantly question if it is possible to protect by killing.
Kaladin is prone to bouts of depression. He often feels a sense of melancholy and despair, most frequently during the weeks of the Weeping. During his childhood, Tien cheered him up when he was feeling that way. Once he lost his brother, he dealt with these periods of sadness with indifference, not caring but also not despairing. After he was sold to Bridge Four, this devolved to the point where Kaladin stopped caring altogether, calling himself the wretch, and came very close to committing suicide. Fortunately, Syl managed to stop Kaladin from killing himself. Things that has been done to him in his life by Roshone, Amaram, Katarotam and others left Kaladin with a justified but unhealthy hatred of all lighteyes, although he is now beginning to trust Dalinar.
== History ==
=== Bridge Four ===
[[File:Kaladin_fullbody.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Kaladin as a bridgeman by [http://exmakina.tumblr.com/ Exmakina]]]
During his time in [[Bridge Four]], Kaladin grew more and more depressed. He eventually stopped caring about anything and Syl left Kaladin saying she would try to get back because she couldn't bear seeing Kaladin as he was.{{ref|b|twok|c|9}} The last man from Kaladin's first bridge run died, and between that and Syl leaving, Kaladin came to the point of suicide. He went to the [[Honor Chasm]] at night. Before he jumped down, Syl came back with a leaf of [[blackbane]], a deadly poison, hoping to make Kaladin feel better without understanding what she was bringing. Kaladin found this oddly sweet. She convinced Kaladin to try to protect the men of Bridge Four, saying there was nothing Kaladin could do to make their situation worse. Kaladin went back to the bridge sergeant [[Gaz]], bullied and bribed him to become the bridgeleader and so Gaz would stay out of his way. That night, he learned the name of every men in Bridge Four.{{ref|b|twok|c|11}} Next morning, Kaladin started training for bridge runs. He tried to get others to practice as well, but was ridiculed for the effort,{{ref|b|twok|c|14}} though soon [[Teft]] and [[Rock]] started training with him. Kaladin started bringing back the wounded back at this point.{{ref|b|twok|c|17}} Kaladin, Teft and Rock started collecting [[knobweed]] sap to use on the injured and to sell it so they could have money for supplies.{{ref|b|twok|c|21}} Kaladin told Rock to cook meals every night and soon every man in Bridge Four accepted Kaladin as their leader and started training with him.{{ref|b|twok|c|27}}
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