Szeth

Szeth-son-son-Vallano
by Ben McSweeney
Family Parents Neturo
Born	1138 EoS
Abilities	Windrunner, Shardbearer
Nationality	Shin
Homeworld	Roshar

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Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, was a Shin from Roshar. He was short and bald like most Shin and his eyes were normally dark green, but changed to pale sapphire blue when he summoned his Shardblade. Presumably he is son of Neturo, who is son of Vallano.

Story

   Szeth carried an Oathstone. Whoever owned his Oathstone owned Szeth. Szeth was obliged by his honor to do as the owner commanded. The exceptions to this rule were that he was forbidden to exercise any actions which would directly lead to his death, and he was also forbidden to give up the Shardblade he possessed.

   He was named Truthless at approximately 27 years of age and was traded to the Thaylen merchant Vistin shortly afterwards. At some later point Szeth came into Parshendi possession by as of yet unknown means. Their orders were to murder King Gavilar of Alethkar during the Alethi-Parshendi treaty-signing celebrations, in public, and be seen doing it with live witnesses. A fierce battle between Gavilar and Szeth commenced. Fooled into believing Gavilar was a bodyguard in the beginning, Szeth was forced into chasing after the escaping target, instead of fighting a protracted battle. However soon after, he realized the target was simply a decoy, since Gavilar would be much safer in his own Shardplate, fighting with his Shardblade, instead of fleeing for his life. Doubling back, Szeth abandoned chase and returned to kill Gavilar. In the ensuing battle, Gavilar almost succeeds in killing Szeth with a Shardplate enhanced punch, but ultimately fails and falls to his death upon a piece of wooden debris, impaling him in a spot where the Shardplate had been broken. Before dying, Gavilar had two last requests: to tell his brother to say the most important words a man could say, and to protect a mysterious black orb that shone dark light. Szeth honored the first one and scrawled a message to Dalinar into the wood with Gavilar's own hand and blood. Eventually he would also hide away the black orb somewhere in Jah Keved. Szeth was around 29 years of age at this time. 

   He wore traditional white Parshendi assassin attire on the night he killed Gavilar, which led to him being known as the Assassin in White. Parshendi customs bade assassins to wear white, for if someone were to be assassinated, they were owed a fair warning.

   Following Gavilar's death, the Parshendi threw away his Oathstone as they fled Kholinar. Szeth was eventually picked up by Avado. The travelling merchant took him to Jah Keved in fear of possible Alethi retributions against strange foreigners in the wake of their king's death. Over the course of more than 5 years, the Oathstone changed possession many times before landing in the hands of Took, a transient worker. Took was robbed and killed after a night of drinking in Ironsway, a town in the Bavland, and Szeth's Oathstone went to Makkek. With Szeth under his control, Makkek set out to gain wealth, first by killing his fellow robbers, and then establishing a gambling den in Bornwater. 

On one of Makkek's missions, this time to eliminate a rival who had opened his own gambling place, Szeth infiltrated the local lord's mansion where his target Gavashaw resided. There he met a mysterious stranger who knew of Szeth and his role in Gavilar's death, revealing in detail of Szeth's powers, and also of a new master they both now served, revealing his Oathstone taken from Makkek. Gavashaw and Makkek had both been killed. With the Oathstone, the stranger gave Szeth a list of high ranking targets, all of whom were to be eliminated with the same skill displayed over five years ago in Kholinar. Szeth set out to do his work.

Powers & abilities

He possessed a Shardblade and was a Surgebinder who had Windrunner powers. Whether he was bound to an honorspren like the other known Windrunner, Kaladin, is unknown. Szeth seemed to possess a relatively informed knowledge of the Windrunner order of the Knights Radiant, knowing the name of the order as well as their name for the powers they possessed: the three Lashings.