Stormfather

Stormfather
by Exmakina
Abilities	Nahel bond, Bondsmith magic, Sliver, Splinter of Honor, Cognitive Shadow
Bonded With	Dalinar
Titles	Rider of Storms, Storm Rider, God of Storms, Spren of Storms
Aliases	Jezerezeh, Kelek
Species	Spren
Homeworld	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere

“ I am that which brings Light and Darkness ”

—Stormfather explaining his role to Dalinar.

The Stormfather is a powerful and unique spren on Roshar responsible for the highstorms. He is one of the three Bondsmith spren, and is currently bonded to Dalinar Kholin. To the listeners, he is known as the Rider of Storms.

Appearance and Personality

“ I have burned and broken cities myself. I can see … yes, I see a difference now. I see pain now. I did not see it before the bond. ”

— Stormfather

Vast majority of the time, the Stormfather is simply an disembodied presence in the skies, or an overpowering voice within the highstorm itself. On the occassions that he does show himself, he takes the form of an enormous, imperious face made out of the clouds, that seems to stretch from horizon to horizon into infinity.

He's extremely prideful and haughty, convinced of his own power and righteousness. He does not care for humanity, only serving them and sending visions because he was bid to do so by Honor. He is particularly focused on oaths and keeping them, and does not take kindly to those who would break them. His sense of justice does not mean he demands that men follow what is right, however; to him, a genocide is not an evil deed if it was done as punishment for oathbreaking.

He's often incapable of understanding human emotions and thoughts, and finds their unstable nature untrustworthy. Over time, when bonded to a human, he begins to gain a sense of empathy and understanding of people. He also begins to gain a sense of morality, understanding the harm his actions have brought to people. This does not mean he grows much more kind or gentle, though, as he still believed that the storms are his domain and his alone, and is fine with killing those who would dare to challenge him on that, like sailors on the open sea.

• Images of the Stormfather
• 

  The Stormfather by User: Exmakina

• 

  Bondsmith by Connor Chamberlain

• 

  Rider of Storms by Connor Chamberlain

• 

  The Stormfather by taratjah

• 

  The Stormfather by Noblesgal

History

The Stormfather is an incredibly powerful spren who likely had existed so long as there were highstorms. It appears he can hold onto memories perfectly or at least better than other spren, as he was aware of what had been done to the rest of the spren by their human counterparts.

The Stormfather is first seen directly when Kaladin is strung up to face his judgment by order of Torol Sadeas. Kaladin glimpses him as a large face, as vast as the entire sky before him but later questions whether he had just been delirious from the onslaught of the highstorm.

He is shown again directly the second time that Kaladin dreams of being the highstorm as it passes overhead. Here Kaladin recognizes the dream sequence and begins dreaming lucidly, allowing him to turn around and speak to the Stormfather directly. He accuses Kaladin of being a traitor who will hurt and kill Syl. He mentions that he believes humans cannot be trusted, and then gives Kaladin a warning and an apology before he wakes up.

At one point Dalinar began seeing visions from The Almighty. The Stormfather did this as it was instructed to him by Honor but personally saw it as a waste of time, as the Everstorm materialized nonetheless.

When Sadeas's assassination attempt on the Shattered Plains leads to Kaladin falling 70 meters into the chasm below he survives.

While Kaladin and Shallan are waiting out the highstorm in the chasms, the Stormfather appears again to Kaladin. Here he makes it clear that he has effectively killed Syl and that he would never again regain his powers. He is also seen by Shallan, although he does not address her directly.

He later speaks to Dalinar during the Battle of Narak, where he claims that the Alethi side is lost but promises to conjure a highstorm later in order to sweep away their dead as a sign of respect.

Kaladin could hear Syl arguing with him while attempting to protect Elhokar from Moash and Graves. Syl points out that he can only hold her back so long as Kaladin does not utter the words of the Knights Radiant and upon him doing so, the Stormfather reluctantly concedes that Syl may now rejoin Kaladin.

After ascending to the top of Urithiru, Dalinar speaks with him, successfully bonding him. The Stormfather requires that Dalinar go without Shardplate or Shardblade, and tells him that if Odium killed Honor he will surely do the same to him, but nonetheless accepts the words.

The bond allows the Stormfather to show Dalinar his visions at will. He also marries Dalinar and Navani atop Urithiru.

Abilities and Attributes

Nature

by taratjah

“ I am a sliver of the Almighty himself! ”

—Stormfather

Stormfather is a spren, making him naturally immortal and intangible. Unlike most other spren, he is mostly present in the Physical Realm rather than Shadesmar, and thus cannot see inside of it, even though his highstorms affect it. He is one of the most powerful spren, with an immense amount of Investiture, greater even than that of the Unmade, although he is much more restricted than them in what he can do with it.

He has merged with Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow, making him something akin to a Sliver along with being a Splinter. He considers himself to be a memory men created for the Almighty, now that the god himself is gone. It's unclear how much of Tanavast is left within him, as though he seems to share some of his memories and opinions, particularly in regards to Cultivation, his standoffish nature does not match what has been seen of Tanavast.

Highstorms

Stormfather commads the highstorms, the powerful hurricanes that scour Roshar at regular intervals. While he ordinarily sticks to his schedule, he can summon them to a particular location if need be. The highstorms also grant him the ability to summon Stormlight, although he cannot do so outside of a highstorm.

While he rides the storms, and can perceive everything within them. However, his consciousness is not restricted to them -- he is capable of speaking to Dalinar from great distances, and unlike other Radiant spren, he does not need to remain close to him. This being said, he does not have absolute control over everything that happens within his storms, and he's incapable of stopping singers from using it to bond with spren, even voidspren.

Within a highstorm, Stormfather is capable of communicating with people, appearing as an enormous face and speaking in a thunderous voice. It's uncertain whether there are prerequisites to being able to see him, altough so far, only Surgebinders and singers have met with him in this manner.

Visions

For more information, see Dalinar's visions.

Stormfather is capable sending people visions, so long as his target is in an area experiencing a highstorm. Whether or not a person is currently awake or asleep is irrelevant, and it appears that the vision cannot be resisted. The visions can be given to more than one person at a time, as long as all other than his bonded Surgebinder are within a highstorm.

The visions Stormfather sends out have been bestowed upon him by Honor near the end of the Shard's life, to be given to those who would be best served by them, such as possible future Bondsmiths. They play out as a pre-recorded, heavily interactive scenes, set in another place and another time. The target of the vision assumes the role of someone who lived in that time and place, and the people conjured up by the vision interact with them as though they were that person.

The target cannot summon their Shardblade, although they are capable of using their Surgebinding abilities. They can, however, feel pain and attempt to act out their actions within a vision, which sometimes requires that their physical bodies be restrained. They will speak the language matching the time period and location of the vision, even if they aren't normally able to speak it.

While the Stormfather ordinarily has a cycle of visions he goes through on a loop, he can send his bonded Bondsmith to them even outside of a highstorm, and transport the Bondsmith into any area of the vision "map". He has almost complete control over the visions, being able to insert people as various characters within them and manipulate the passing of time, but entities such as Shards or Lift can override him.

Dreams

Outside of the visions, Stormfather is capable of communicating through dreams. Those dreams usually take place in a blank space that seems outside of time and space. People experiencing them feel as though everything around them fades away, replaced by solid ground and wind that seems to stop in place. Unlike the visions, the dreams seem to take up no time at all in the real world.

Nahel Bond

“ I will not be a simple sword to you. I will not come as you call, and you will have to divest yourself of that... monstrosity that you carry. You will be a Radiant with no Shards. ”

—Stormfather upon bonding Dalinar.

Stormfather is one of the three great Bondsmith spren. Forming a Nahel Bond with him grants one the power over the Surges of Cohesion and Adhesion. He is currently bonded with Dalinar Kholin.

While a Bondsmith can use Adhesion the way a Windrunner would, they can also apply their powers in different manner, using them more in the Spiritual. Using Spiritual Adhesion, a Bondsmith can form a connection between themselves and another person, allowing them to speak their language. They also seem capable of hearing the spiritual aspects of objects, and use this to mend broken things back whole. Bondsmiths can also summon stormlight at will, although this requires significant effort.

There are several differences between Stormfather and other Radiant spren. Unlike them, he is capable of maintaining consciousness in the Physical Realm even without the Bond, although it grants him deeper understanding of humanity and its foibles, along with the ability to empathize with others and more human responses, like cursing. He also doesn't become a Shardblade, either due to his immense power or due to his immense dislike for humanity. He can, however, speak directly into his Surgebinder's mind -- something other spren are only capable of when in Shardblade form.

Honorspren

Stormfather is the creator of the modern honorspren, a duty that was bestowed upon him by Honor shortly before the latter's death. Following the Recreance, where almost all of them have been killed, he stopped doing so; however, he would eventually create ten of them, which would eventually create others, leading to the resurgence of the race.

Today, many honorspren treat him as an honored ancestor and obey his wishes, with Syl in particular referring to him as her father. Stormfather, in turn, considers them his children. He apparently exerts some influence over their ability to form Nahel Bonds, although he cannot stop them if their Surgebinder sais the proper Oaths.

Culture

The Vorin religion often identifies the Stormfather with the Almighty, as well as one or more of the Heralds. In Alethkar, it's commonly believed that Jezrien and the Stormfather are the same entity. In Natanatan, the same is said about Kalak. A common punishment for some criminals in Vorin countries is being strung up in a highstorm, to be "judged by the Stormfather", which typically equals a death sentence.

The listeners believe him to be a traitor to his kind, who protected humans instead of them. They still respect him, though, believing that he would kill anyone who doesn't, leading to a mix of awe and fear in their society.

Trivia

• Stormfather has two different "modes" of speech. He uses all caps when talking to those unbonded to him, or when speaking so that everyone can hear him. He speaks normally when communicating directly with Dalinar after the latter becomes a Bondsmith. Interestingly, there are only two other characters shown speaking in all-caps -- Cultivation, and Syl, the latter only when about to be resurrected by Kaladin.
• While Stormfather refers to several people as "children of Honor", Kaladin is the only one he calls "child of Tanavast". There is some significance to it.

Notes

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