Difference between revisions of "Summary:The Way of Kings"
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==Part Two: The Illuminating Storms== |
==Part Two: The Illuminating Storms== |
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===Chapter Twelve: Unity=== |
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===Chapter 13: Ten Heartbeats=== |
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===Chapter 14: Payday=== |
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===Chapter 15: The Decoy=== |
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===Chapter 16: Cocoons=== |
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===Chapter 17: A Bloody Red Sunset=== |
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===Chapter 18: Highprince of War=== |
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===Chapter 19: Starfalls=== |
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===Chapter 20: Scarlet=== |
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===Chapter 21: Why Men Lie=== |
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===Chapter 22: Eyes, Hands, or Spheres?=== |
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===Chapter 23: Many Uses=== |
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===Chapter 24: The Gallery of Maps=== |
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===Chapter 25: The Butcher=== |
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===Chapter 26: Stillness=== |
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===Chapter 27: Chasm Duty=== |
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===Chapter 28: Decision=== |
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==Interludes== |
==Interludes== |
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===Interlude I-4: Rysn=== |
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===Interlude I-5: Axies the Collecter=== |
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===Interlude I-6: A Work of Art=== |
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==Part Three: Dying== |
==Part Three: Dying== |
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===Chapter 29: Errorgance=== |
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===Chapter 30: Darkness Unseen=== |
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===Chapter 31: Beneath the Skin=== |
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===Chapter 32: Side Carry=== |
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===Chapter 33: Cymatics=== |
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===Chapter 34: Stormwall=== |
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===Chapter 35: A Light By Which to See=== |
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===Chapter 36: The Lesson=== |
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===Chapter 37: Sides=== |
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===Chapter 38: Envisager=== |
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===Chapter 39: Burned Into Her=== |
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===Chapter 40: Eyes of Red and Blue=== |
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===Chapter 41: Of Alds and Milp=== |
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===Chapter 42: Beggars and Barmaids=== |
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===Chapter 43: The Wretch=== |
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===Chapter 44: The Weeping=== |
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===Chapter 45: Shadesmar=== |
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===Chapter 46: Child of Tanavast=== |
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===Chapter 47: Stormblessings=== |
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===Chapter 48: Strawberry=== |
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===Chapter 49: To Care=== |
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===Chapter 50: Backbreaker Powder=== |
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===Chapter 51: Sas Nahn=== |
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==Interludes== |
==Interludes== |
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===Interlude I-7: Baxil=== |
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===Interlude I-8: Geranid=== |
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===Interlude I-9: Death Wears White=== |
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==Part Four: Storm's Illumination== |
==Part Four: Storm's Illumination== |
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===Chapter 52: A Highway to the Sun=== |
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===Chapter 53: Dunny=== |
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===Chapter 54: Gibletish=== |
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===Chapter 55: An Emerald Broam=== |
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===Chapter 56: That Storming Book=== |
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===Chapter 57: Wandersail=== |
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===Chapter 58: The Journey=== |
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===Chapter 59: An Honor=== |
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===Chapter 60: That Which We Cannot Have=== |
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===Chapter 61: Right for Wrong=== |
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===Chapter 62: Three Glyphs=== |
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===Chapter 63: Fear=== |
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===Chapter 64: A Man of Extremes=== |
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===Chapter 65: The Tower=== |
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===Chapter 66: Codes=== |
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===Chapter 67: Words=== |
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===Chapter 68: Eshonai=== |
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===Chapter 69: Justice=== |
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==Part Five: The Silence Above== |
==Part Five: The Silence Above== |
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===Chapter 70: A Sea of Glass=== |
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===Chapter 71: Recorded In Blood=== |
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===Chapter 72: Veristitalion=== |
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===Chapter 73: Trust=== |
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===Chapter 74: Ghostblood=== |
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===Chapter 75: In the Top Room=== |
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==Epilogue: Of Most Worth== |
==Epilogue: Of Most Worth== |
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==Endnote== |
==Endnote== |
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==Ars Arcanum== |
==Ars Arcanum== |
Revision as of 04:48, 14 September 2010
This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of The Way of Kings. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book. Similar summaries will be completed about future books in the Stormlight Archive.
Editing Note from Andrew: I'm posting these as I read the chapters on my re-read, and they're bound to be messy. If you want to clean them up in any way, feel free.
Prelude to the Stormlight Archive
The Prelude opens just after one of the Desolations (huge battles between humanity and the Voidbringers). Kalak, one of the Ten Heralds of the Almighty, is walking the desolated battlefield. The landscape is torn and ruined, apparently due to Surgebinders fighting and thunderclasts ripping themselves free from the ground. Kalak expresses relief that he didn't die in the battle (He's apparently died before), and also reveals that after each Desolation, the Heralds are supposed to return to an unspecified location where they are tortured until the next desolation. He contemplates just walking away instead.
Kalak goes to meet the other nine Heralds in the location they had chosen before the battle. Instead of the other nine, however, he finds only one waiting for him. That Herald, Jezrien, explains to Kalak that one of the Heralds (Talenel) was killed, and was sent back automatically to their place of torture. The rest of them decided that rather than face the torture again, they would simply go their separate ways.
Jezrien alludes to the Oathpact, apparently an agreement among the Heralds and possibly with some other entity, and says it is time for the Oathpact to end. Talenel, who was killed, will still be bound to the Oathpact. The other Heralds, by abandoning Talenel and walking away, remove themselves from the Oathpact.
The Heralds leave, abandoning mankind to the care of the Knights Radiant and Talenel. They plan to tell the men who fought on their side that they had finally beaten the Voidbringers for good. The Heralds go their separate ways. Kalak looks back at the ring formed by the Heralds' abandoned swords, and thinks about Talenel and his fate. He silently pleads for forgiveness, but leaves anyway.
Prologue: To Kill
The prologue begins with Szeth, a Truthless Shin assassin, waiting quietly in a large room, watching the Alethi celebrate the signing of a peace treaty with the Parshendi. None of the Alethi seem to notice him.
- “He was just a servant, and Shin were easy to ignore. Most out here in the East thought Szeth's kind were harmless. They were generally right.”
- -The Way of Kings, Pg 21 (Hardcover), Prologue: “To Kill”
- “He was just a servant, and Shin were easy to ignore. Most out here in the East thought Szeth's kind were harmless. They were generally right.”
Szeth leaves the room, noting that his Parshendi masters have seen him and will soon withdraw. He notes several important Alethi, particularly Dalinar Kholin, the king's brother, who is passed out drunk at a table, and Elhokar, the king's son and heir, who is talking to two foreigners.
Szeth wonders why the Parshendi have commanded him to kill King Gavilar of the Alethi.
- “They did not seem offended. They did not seem angry. And yet they were going to break their treaty of only a few hours. It made no sense.”
- - The Way of Kings, Page 22 (Hardcover), Prologue: “To Kill”
- “They did not seem offended. They did not seem angry. And yet they were going to break their treaty of only a few hours. It made no sense.”
Szeth also explains that he wears white because the Parshendi commanded him too. The Parshendi apparently believe that if you are going to assassinate a man, he deserves to see you coming.
By this point, Szeth has reached an area just outside of the king's quarters. Making use of his abilities as a Surgebinder, Szeth uses the Stormlight from the gems that light the corridors to fight his way past all the guards. This is when Szeth explains another of the oddities in his orders from the Parshendi, the fact that he was instructed to kill the king, but be seen doing it. Make a scene.
As Szeth reaches the king's quarters, he sees the king leave with his guards through a side passage. Szeth is confronted by a Shardbearer, who he fights until he is able to get past the man.
As he is pursuing the king, Szeth realizes that the Shardbearer isn't following him. This is odd behavior for a bodyguard, and Szeth realizes that the Shardbearer is actually King Gavilar, and the man he's been pursuing is a decoy.
Szeth goes back to face Gavilar for the second time. He is nearly killed in the fight. Gavilar has the advantage of Shardplate, while Szeth is forced to rely on his Surgebinding to survive. Eventually, Szeth is knocked out onto the balcony of the King's Quarters, where Gavilar follows him. Szeth Lashes the balcony to the ground several times, making it five times as heavy as it normally would be. The balcony collapses under the weight, and Gavilar plunges to the ground below. Szeth, however, is able to keep from falling by Lashing himself to the wall of the palace.
Szeth goes down to see the king, who is near death. The king asks Szeth who sent him, and when Szeth tells him that the Parshendi are his masters, Gavilar says, “The Parshendi? That makes no sense.”
Gavilar then gives Szeth a strange black sphere and tells him, “You must take this. They must not get it.” The king then instructs Szeth to tell his brother that he must “find the most important words a man can say.”
Szeth leaves a note for Dalinar with the King's message, as the Shin consider a dying wish to be sacred. He takes the sphere and leaves, leaving the King's Shardblade behind, thinking “The Blade Szeth already carried was curse enough.”