Difference between revisions of "Kaladin"

'''Kaladin''' (<small>Pronounciation:pronounced</small> {{wp|Help:IPA_for_English#Key|/ˈkælædɪn/}} {{wp|Wikipedia:Pronunciation_respelling_key|'''''<small>KAL</small>'''-a-din''}}), nicknamed '''Kal''', renowned as '''Kaladin Stormblessed''', is a [[darkeyes|darkeyed]] [[Alethi]] male [[Surgebinder]] who is on the path to becoming one of the first [[Knights Radiant]] since the [[Recreance]] on [[Roshar]]. He was born in [[Hearthstone]] to [[Lirin]] and [[Hesina]] in late 1153, and two years later his younger brother [[Tien]] was born. Lirin started teaching Kaladin surgery at age eight. He eventually wanted to send him to [[Kharbranth]] to train as a surgeon, but Kaladin secretly harbored a childish desire to become a soldier for some time as well. The family had a more or less happy and peaceful time until the Citylord [[Wistiow]] died in 1166, and his replacement [[Brightlord]] [[Roshone]] accused Lirin of thievery of a substantial amount of [[spheres|money]]. Knowing there wasn't enough evidence to win an inquest, Roshone applied pressure on the family by turning the townspeople against them, therefore impoverishing the family. The conflict came to a climax when Lirin failed to save the life of Roshone's son [[Rillir Roshone|Rillir]]. For revenge, Roshone made sure Tien was conscripted to Brightlord [[Meridas Amaram|Amaram]]'s army, and in order to protect his younger brother, Kaladin also volunteered to join the army in 1168.

Only a few months later, Tien died in battle while Kaladin could do nothing but watch. Extremely depressed by this, Kaladin obsessively threw himself to his spear fighting practices. He was soon renowned as the best spearman in Amaram's army, and promoted to the rank of squadleader and given his own squad. In Kaladin's final battle in Amaram's army in 1172, a [[Shardbearer]] tried to kill the Brightlord. Instead, Kaladin fought and killed the man and saved Amaram's life, but lost almost all of his soldiers in the process. Disgusted by the [[Shardplate]] and [[Shardblade|Blade]] that had been used to kill so many of his friends, Kaladin refused to take them up, and gave them to one of the few surviving members of his squad. Amaram, however, wanted the Shards for himself, and had Kaladin's men killed and Kaladin branded as a slave.

Kaladin spent eight months under various slavemasters, and tried to escape ten times. After his last failed escape attempt, he was branded with the ''shash'' glyph and sold to another slavemaster named [[Tvlakv]]. Tvlakv took him to the [[Shattered Plains]] and sold him to Brightlord [[Sadeas]]'s army, in late 1173, where Kaladin was assigned to [[Bridge Four]] to work as a [[bridgeman]].

Kaladin grew more and more despaired during his time as a bridgeman. He eventually came close to committing suicide, but was convinced by the [[honorspren]] [[Sylphrena]] to try one last time to protect the bridgemen. He spent the subsequent period trying to win the loyalty of the bridgemen, and, once he did, to find a way to save their lives. He tried to establish training regiments, and alternative methods of carrying the bridge. After he caused a battle to be lost in a disastrous attempt to carry the bridge sideways, he realized that the purpose of the bridgemen was to be bait to the [[Parshendi]] arrows, and decided if they wanted to live, they would have to escape. He started training the Bridge Four as spearmen so they could fight when they escaped. In the [[Battle of the Tower]], when they had the chance to easily escape, he and Bridge Four saved the lives of [[Dalinar Kholin]] and his men. In return for their sacrifice, Dalinar freed all the bridgemen from slavery, and offered them a job as soldiers in his army, to be trained and led by Kaladin.

Kaladin was granted the rank of captain, a first for a darkeyes, and given command of a thousand former bridgemen. Along with training his men, Dalinar gave Kaladin the responsibility to protect himself, [[Elhokar Kholin|the king]], and the other members of [[House Kholin|Kholin family]].

Kaladin shows a deep sense of loss when those under his protection die, and has a tendency toward depression in various forms. By the time he joins Bridge Four, he has lost so many people he falls into a deep depression. He thinks himself cursed because he always survives when others did not.{{ref|b|twok|c|2}} At his lowest points, Kaladin falls into apathetic despair and becomes suicidal.{{ref|b|twok|c|11}} He is also prone to seasonal depression, feeling a sense of heavy melancholy during the weeks of the [[Weeping]].

Kaladin was born in late 1153 to a family of second [[nahn]], Lirin and Hesina, in the town of [[Hearthstone]] in [[Sadeas]]'s princedom. Two years later, his younger brother Tien was born. Because his family was the only one of second nahn in the town and the superstitions surrounding his father's work as a surgeon, Kaladin had to grow up mostly in isolation. As a result, he was very close with his brother, and, after being encouraged by his family, became friends with the daughter of the citylord, [[Laral Wistiow]]. As a child he didn't want to be called by his full name, because he thought "Kaladin" was a lighteyes name,; andinstead insteadhe went by "Kal." When he reached age eight, his father started training Kaladin in surgery. He was talented and learned quickly.{{ref|b|twok|c|10}}

In 1164, at age ten, Kaladin helped his father perform a surgery on a fifteen-year-old girl named [[Sani]], who had badly injured her [[safehand]]. He was late to the surgery because he was with [[Jam]], who had been showing Kaladin and Tien the quarterstaff fighting his father had been teaching him. Lirin admonished Kaladin for his tardiness when his son came to the surgery room, but said they would discuss it after the surgery. Lirin told him to wash his hands, claiming it was the wisdom of the [[Herald]]s that water repulsed [[rotspren]] and [[deathspren]]. Although Kaladin immediately went to wash his hands, he answered his father by saying that he'd heard that the Heralds were demons from an [[ardent]]. Lirin told him he was mixing Heralds with the Knights Radiant, and Radiants weren't demons, but betrayers. Once that done, the two removed the makeshift bandages on Sani's hand, and Kaladin saw they would have to amputate the girl's third finger. Lirin did the actual amputating, while Kaladin helped him as a nurse. They finished the surgery, able to save Sani's other four fingers, applied antiseptic and bandages. When they were finished, his father told Kaladin he still had to work on his nerves, and it was alright to care, as long as it didn't interfere with his ability to perform surgery. He asked why Kaladin was late, and Kaladin told him about Jam. The conversation shifted to Jam's father, and then surgery, with Kaladin trying, poorly, to impress they needed soldiers, and Lirin claiming they needed surgeons more. Eventually his father told Kaladin there were two kinds of people in the world; those who savesaved lives, and those who taketook lives. After the conversation died down, Lirin quizzed Kaladin on surgery. He praised him when Kaladin answered perfectly, and announced he would like to send him to Kharbranth when he turned sixteen years old to train as a much better surgeon than Lirin.{{ref|b|sa1|c|10}}

In mid 1166, Kaladin told Laral that Lirin wanted to send Kaladin to Kharbranth. At age twelve, he was becoming interested girls for the first time, and he was attracted to Laral. She was angry that he hadn't told her about his father's intentions for two years and made her think he would join the army to win a Shardblade and become lighteyes. She tried to convince him to join the army by saying the Alethi had a noble heritage of soldiery. Kaladin's answer wasn't very enthusiastic, which prompted Laral to say that she hated speaking with him when Kaladin was moping around. Tien joined the two, and showed Kaladin a rock he had found, as was the younger brother's habit, to make Kaladin feel better, and somehow succeeded in boosting Kaladin's morale. Once Tien left, Kaladin and Laral saw a group of older boys who usually worked at farms, and, at Laral's prompting, went to meet them to see them. They found out the boys were talking about darkeyes becoming lighteyes by winning Shardblades. One of the boys, [[Jost]], claimed his father had won a Shardblade in the wastescum skirmishes in the north but it was stolen by someone else when his father was unconscious. Kaladin pointed out there weren't any Shardbearers in those battles. At Laral's provocations, Jost grew angrier and challenged Kaladin to a fight with quarterstaffs. At first, Jost easily overwhelmed Kaladin, but once he grew angry because he was in pain, Kaladin felt an [[Thrill|exhilaration]] and almost beat the older boy, but stopped at the last instant because he didn't want to hurt him. The other boy didn't have the same inclination, so he beat Kaladin to the ground. Laral left for her home without saying anything or helping Kaladin up. Kaladin asked Jost to teach him how to fight, but the older boy refused by saying that Kaladin should be what he is. Kaladin met with Tien, and he walked towards home thinking about what he wanted to be. When they got home, Lirin told Kaladin that Brightlord Wistiow was dead, and he had left them a goblet full of spheres so Kaladin would study to be a master surgeon in Kharbranth, then return home.{{ref|b|sa1|c|16}}

Two months, in which he had barely seen Laral, after Wistiow's death, Kaladin attempted to heal a five year old girl named [[Miasal]] on his own. He was thirteen, but thought he was well trained. The girl had compound fracture in her leg after a fall, a bleeding head wound, and was bleeding due to a severed artery in her lower leg. Kaladin cauterized the wound and tied off the artery, but he was too late as the little girl died due to blood loss. An hour later, his father found Kaladin in front of the surgery room crying to himself. Lirin told him he was proud of Kaladin's work and there was nothing he could have done to stop the girl's death. Kaladin told Lirin he didn't want to be a surgeon, but Lirin answered he would have to learn when to care.{{ref|b|sa1|c|20}}

Four months after the townspeople stopped their donations, Roshone invited Lirin to the mansion for dinner. Although Lirin tried to hide it from Kaladin and Hesina tried to keep him occupied, Kaladin caught up with his father and insisted on accompanying him. Lirin acceded, and the two climbed in the carriage Roshone sent for Lirin. They arrived at the mansion to find Roshone already dining. The servant tried to get them to a side table, but Lirin insisted on joining the same table as Roshone. While the two older men were discussing the spheres, Kaladin let out an outburst, and Lirin told him to wait in the kitchen. Humiliated, Kaladin went to the kitchen, and was given a child's meal by the cook, which compounded his embarrassment. As he sat there, Roshone's son Rillir sauntered in along with Laral. Rillir tried to get Kaladin to fetch them supper. Kaladin responded by saying he was no kitchen servant, but he proved no match for the lighteyed boy, and was even more embarrassed as the two left at Laral's insistence. When Lirin walked in, Kaladin told him that he wanted to be a surgeon, surprising his father. As they discussed how their meeting went, Kaladin realized that his father had, indeed, stolen the spheres from Wistiow. Lirin claimed that Wistiow would have given them those spheres if he could regain enough lucidity, and that he had merely made sure that promises were kept. Kaladin said he would go to Kharbranth even with stolen spheres, but he would find a way to pay them back to Laral eventually. He told his father that from then on he wanted to be called by his full name "Kaladin."{{ref|b|sa1|c|37}}

Some time later, Roshone and Rillir were brought to Lirin's surgery room with serious injuries that they had sustained while hunting [[whitespine]]. Kaladin pushed past the screaming Laral, and entered the surgery room to help his father. They quickly assessed that Rillir was beyond their help, and, despite the Brightlord's protest, started working on the older man's wounds. They anesthetized both the father and son with [[dazewater]], because it was the only mercy they had to offer Rillir. There was an instant where Lirin could have killed Roshone and got away with it by cutting the femoral artery of the already bleeding man, and both Lirin and Kaladin considered it. However, Lirin looked at his son's eyes, and whenwent on to saving Roshone as Rillir died. That evening, Kaladin asked why his father hadn't let Roshone die. Lirin answered that it would be murdering Roshone, and that he wasn't a killer. He said the lighteyes didn't care about life, so he must. As Kaladin considered his father's words, he realized he would have killed Roshone if he were in Lirin's place.{{ref|b|sa1|c|41}} The next day, Lirin spent one of the spheres from Kaladin's education money for the first time.{{ref|b|sa1|c|44}}

In the [[Weeping]] of 1168, Brightlord Meridas Amaram visited Hearthstone with his army. As he lay on the roof of his house, Kaladin was feeling depressed and thinking dark thoughts, when Tien joined him. As he always did, he managed to cheer Kaladin a little with his optimism. The younger brother gave Kaladin an intricately carved, small wooden horse he'd made in the carpenter shop he'd been working. Hesina was amused to find his sons lying on the roof, but joined them there. When Tien included her in their conversation, she comforted him by saying things weren't as bad as they seemed, and Lirin was making them seem worse in order to make Roshone think he was winning. She told Kaladin that he was free to become whatever he wanted, not limited to surgery, and said that she didn't think it would be long before men were allowed to learn to read, which made Kaladin aghast. He briefly considered how it would be to a [[stormwarden]], but dismissed it by saying he wanted to become a surgeon. Some time later, Lirin arrived, remarked their irregularity, and told there was a gathering in the town square called by Roshone. They went there to see that Laral was now engaged to Roshone himself after Rillir's death. When the crowd quited, Amaram spoke to the crowd to announce he was there to recruit new soldiers for the army. When only six men volunteered, Amaram told Roshone to announce the men they would conscript. He could not take Kaladin, because as his father's apprentice, he provided an essential function to the town. However, Tien wasn't under the same protection of the law, so Roshone got his revenge by forcing the younger boy into military. Amaram tried to get Roshone to choose someone else, but when the citylord didn't budge, he told Lirin he would make Tien a runner boy for a year or two so that he wouldn't be in combat. Looking at his younger brother, Kaladin tried to take Tien's place, but when Roshone told him law said he could choose whomever he wanted, Kaladin volunteered to join the army alongside Tien. Tien was thankful, although their parents were understandably overwhelmed. Kaladin promised them he would bring Tien back in four years. The two brother reported to the army, and their drill sergeant [[Hav]].{{ref|b|sa1|c|47}}