Difference between revisions of "Kaladin"

 

=== Slavery (1172–1173) ===

Kaladin spent the next eight months under five different slavemasters in harsh conditions of constant beatings and deprivation. He always demanded his wages be given to him as was required by the law, but the slavemasters always managed to cheat him out of it by charging for housing or food. He managed to keep his defiance and made ten escape attempts, even managing to get away a few times, but he was always captured and taken back. Around his sixth month of slavery, he noticed [[Sylphrena|a windspren]] following him around. He spent time with a [[Selay]] man<!-- named Goshel --> who told him about about the [[Old Magic]] and its ability to curse people under his fifth slavemaster. In his last escape attempt, he led a group of twenty armed slaves, but all of them except Kaladin died. According to Kaladin, he should have been killed for that, but finding him "intriguing," his previous master branded his forehead with the ''shash'' [[glyph]], meaning dangerous, in addition to the ''sas nahn'' [[glyphpair]] already there and sold him for a pittance to another slavemaster named [[Tvlakv]].{{ref|b|sa1|c|2}}{{ref|b|sa1|c|4}}{{ref|b|sa1|c|43}}

 

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}}

 

==== Side Carry ====

The training cut down their losses in bridge runs but Kaladin didn't feel it was enough. They started practicing carrying the bridge sideways so they could use it as a shield from the arrows.{{ref|b|twok|c|30}} This, however, undermined the strategy of the army in the [[Tower]] and caused the army to lose the battle.{{ref|b|twok|c|32}} As punishment, Kaladin was strung up on the side of a building facing east during a [[highstorm]] to be judged by the [[Stormfather]].{{ref|b|twok|c|34}} During the highstorm he had a vision of an inhuman, smiling face of darkness that was as large as he could see.{{ref|b|twok|c|35}} His [[Surgebinding]] abilities allowed Kaladin to survive the highstorm but he was still severely injured.{{ref|b|twok|c|38}} It took him ten days to recover, which was found to be miraculous and people started calling him Stormblessed again.{{ref|b|twok|c|40}} Lamaril was executed and his replacement Brightlord [[Matal]]'s wife, Brightness Hashal, informed Kaladin that Bridge Four would always work in chasm duty from then on. Kaladin realized that the bridgemen were bait to the [[Parshendi]] and knowing no matter how much they cut their losses it would never be enough, he proposed that they escape and started training the Bridge Four as spearmen.{{ref|b|twok|c|43}}