User:Blaze1616/Warbreaker

{{book |cover = Warbreaker Cover.jpeg |released = June 9, 2009 |publisher = Tor |ISBN = 0-7653-1177-1 }} Warbreaker is a stand-alone fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, which is available for purchase in bookstores or for free download from his website.[1]

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Plot SummaryEdit

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  • Brief summary of events, a few paragraphs at the most.

CharactersEdit

* denotes Point of View character

Sisirinah (Siri)*Edit

Siri is the main character of the book. She is the youngest princess of the small country Idris, and is known for being rebellious and colorful, rather than attempting to detract attention from herself as the Idrian doctrine of Austreism requires. On the day of Vivenna's birthday, when Vivenna is required to be sent to Hallandren, their father decides to send Siri in her place. Siri's ability to adapt and love for bright colors allows her to learn to enjoy Hallandren in a way that Vivenna would never have been able to. This, in turn, allows her to befriend the God King and Lightsong, as well as help defeat a plot to cause a war between Hallandren in Idris.

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Vivenna*Edit

Vivenna is Siri's sister, and the eldest child of the king of Idris. She is the perfect daughter: responsible, caring, and completely devoted to Austre. There is a contract with Hallandren that requires her to be sent to marry the God King and bear him a child(which will be still-born and become the next God King) on her eighteenth birthday. However, when the time comes for her to go, the king is unable to relinquish her, and takes advantage of the loose wording of the contract(it states only that "the Princess must be sent on Vivenna's eigtheenth birthday") to send Siri in her place. Due to this, Vivenna goes through a brief depression, in which she feels like her only reason for living has been taken by Siri. She soon decides to go rescue Siri, however, and falls in with the mercenaries Denth and Tonk Fah, whom she hires to help rescue her sister.

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Vasher*Edit

Vasher We don't know very much about Vasher until the end of the book, when we discover that he is one of theFive Scholars of Nalthis. He is presented as the villain until the middle of the book, when it is revealed that he is working against a war between Idris and Hallandren. He is quiet and unwilling to talk about his past, but there is something about him which makes Vivenna trust him. He is in possession of the sword Nightblood, as well as large amounts of BioChromatic Breath.

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Lightsong the Bold*Edit

Lightsong is the Returned god of bravery in the Hallandren court of gods. He has no memory of his life before being Returned, and his only connection to his past life is through Llarimar, his servant, who is forbidden from speaking of it. Because he is skeptical of the idea the he is a god and he wishes to stop the people of Hallandren from putting their faith in him, he acts outwardly foolish. This, however, does not seem to have an affect on how people view him, as they claim he must have died incredibly bravely to be returned. He is friends(or possibly more than friends) with the goddess Blushweaver, and eventually they end up working together.

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SusebronEdit

LlarimarEdit

Blushweaver the BeautifulEdit

VaraTreledees (Denth)Edit

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SettingEdit

Warbreaker takes place on the planet Nalthis, a Shardworld in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere.[2] The story occurs mostly in the city of T'Telir, capital of Hallandren, with some early scenes set in Bevalis, capital of Idris.

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Magic SystemEdit

Is there a way to put more than one link in this {{for}} template? It would be nice to link to BioChromatic Breath as well.

The magic system on Nalthis is known as Awakening. Using an individual's Breath, or part of their innate Investiture, as fuel, an Awakener can animate lifeless objects, such as scarves, rugs, straw, etc. Color is also a fuel for Awakening, and upon relinquishing one's Breath, color is drained from an object that the Awakener is touching (do they have to be touching?), though this object is not always the object being Awakened. The final piece to the Awakening puzzle is the Command, a verbal phrase that describes what the Awakener wants the object being Awakened to do. Awakening often requires many Breaths to perform. This is somewhat problematic, as each person born on Nalthis is born with a single Breath. An individual can give their Breath to someone else, however, thus making Awakening possible.

Holding many Breaths also grants the individual enhancements such as perfect pitch and perfect color recognition. These enhancements are obtained once an individual reaches specific Heightenings by holding a certain number of Breaths. There are ten known Heightenings, and the threshold of Breath for each Heightening varies from individual to individual, though approximations can be made.

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Easter Eggs (and cosmere connections)Edit

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Behind the ScenesEdit

Writing ProcessEdit

Warbreaker was a unique writing experience for Brandon. It started with him wanting to put a free e-book on his website. He did not want to place an unpublished book there, though, because he did not want to offer people an inferior product to what they could buy in a store. So, after getting permission from Tor, Brandon set out to write his newest novel, releasing each draft as he finished them onto his website. As a result he was able to get feedback from many of his fans, and his fans got the chance to see his writing process in action. When the novel was finished, Tor published the book in hardcover and later paperback, and Brandon placed this final version on his website for all to read and share.

Warbreaker can be downloaded for free here.

InspirationsEdit

  • The theme of reversals within the novel came about from Brandon wanting to write a book where reversals happen often,[3] as well as Brandon doing similar yet different concepts as his earlier works Elantris and the Era 1 Mistborn trilogy.[4]
  • Siri and Vivenna were inspired by the fiary tale archetype of the peasant/royalty swap.[5]
  • The Idrian monks came to be because Brandon wanted to write about monks that are not very religious.[6]
  • Lightsong was inspired by Brandon's desire to write a story about what it is like to live as a member of a pantheon of gods.[7]
  • Llarimar is based off of Scott Franson, a man who attends Brandon's church.[8]
  • T'Telir was inspired by Hawaii.[9]
  • Lifeless were inspired by Brandon wanting to make an undead creature that was not the zombie or vampire trope.[10]
  • Nightblood came about because Brandon wanted a talking sword in one of his books.[11]
  • Blushweaver was created to be a foil to Lightsong.[12]
  • Denth formed from Brandon's desire to have a bad guy who was likeable and funny.[13]
  • Bluefingers originated from Brandon's desire to tell a story about a scribe in a palace who was looked down upon for his simple birth, but ended up being the hero. Though Bluefingers wound up not being the hero, he is a hero in his own mind. [14]
  • Color Distortion was added halfway through the first draft to allow stronger visual indication of someone who had reached the top Heightenings.[15]
  • Vivenna's actions when living on the streets are very similar to the character Fantine from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.[16]
  • When creating Vasher, Brandon wanted a hero ho was different from his standard; someone who wasn't glib, who wasn't good with people, who had trouble expressing himself and let anger get the best of him.[17]
  • Warbreaker was inspired by Dadradah, one of the religions that Sazed preached about, which focused on worshipping art.[18]
  • The scene where Susebron and Siri have their midnight meal in Chapter 36 is a direct representation of Brandon's honeymoon where he and his wife would order room service at 3 a.m.[19]

CannibalizationsEdit

  • Vasher was originally in the 2002 version of The Way of Kings.[20]
  • Siri and Vivenna were originally side characters in the book Mythwalker, which Brandon never finished.[5]
  • The Royal Locks, or hair that changes color based on the individual's emotions, was a concept Brandon had tried in other unpublished works.[21]
  • The ability for Returned to heal someone at the cost of their Divine Breath and their life was originally in Elantris, and involved Seons sacrificing themselves and the Aon in their center. Brandon removed this from Elantris because he felt it was too contrived.[22]
  • The God King being a pawn was a concept originally used in Mythwalker.[4]
  • The term Awakening was originally used in The Way of Kings, but was pulled due to not accurately describing the magic, like it does in Warbreaker.[23]



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AnnotationsEdit

Brandon has published chapter by chapter annotations for Warbreaker on his website. They can be found here.

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Publication HistoryEdit

  • WARBREAKER (Tor, Summer 2009)
  • Audio rights (unabridged) to Recorded Books
  • Audio rights (dramatic abridgment) to Graphic Audio
  • Chinese rights (complex, Taiwan) to Gaea
  • Czech rights to Talpress
  • German rights to Heyne
  • Italian rights to Fanucci
  • Polish rights to MAG
  • Spanish rights to Ediciones B
  • UK rights to Gollancz
  • French rights to Calmann-Levy
  • Bulgarian rights to Bard[24]


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AwardsEdit

  • Chosen by Library Journal as one of the 5 best SF&F novels of 2009
  • Chosen by Barnes & Noble as one of the 5 best SF&F novels of 2009
  • Chosen by The Onion A.V. Club as a Best of 2009
  • Nominated for the 2010 David Gemmell Legend Award
  • Nominated for 2009 Romantic Times Award, Best Epic Fantasy
  • An ALA Top Five Fantasy of 2009
  • 24 on NY Times hardcover list[24]


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Cover Art GalleryEdit

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NotesEdit

  1. Warbreaker Portal
    Brandon's website - ?#
  2. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-10#
  3. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-07-22#
  4. a b Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-10-14#
  5. a b Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-07-15#
  6. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-07-27#
  7. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-07-29#
  8. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-03#
  9. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-10#
  10. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-10#
  11. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-12#
  12. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-24#
  13. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-09-02#
  14. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-09-07#
  15. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-10-14#
  16. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2011-01-24#
  17. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2011-02-22#
  18. The Well of Ascension Annotations
    Arcanum - 2008-12-03#
  19. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2011-01-03#
  20. When you were planning Zahel being Vasher, how long did you do that?
    Theoryland - Mar 6th, 2014#
  21. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-08-23#
  22. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-09-09#
  23. Warbreaker Annotations
    Arcanum - 2010-12-09#
  24. a b Awful Agent page
    — {{{site}}} # Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "{{{site}}}-Awful Agent page" defined multiple times with different content

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