Roshar is a storm-ravaged world where fierce tempests shape life and civilization. Centuries after the fall of the Knights Radiant, their mystical Shardblades and Shardplate remain central to warfare, with kingdoms and wars fought for their power. One such war unfolds on the Shattered Plains, where Kaladin, a former medical apprentice turned slave, struggles to protect his fellow soldiers in a senseless conflict where ten armies fight a single foe.
Meanwhile, Brightlord Dalinar Kholin, a commander haunted by visions of ancient times, questions his sanity and the meaning of his life, drawn to an ancient text, The Way of Kings. Across the ocean, a young woman named Shallan, seeking mentorship under Dalinar’s niece Jasnah, a renowned scholar and heretic, pursues hidden motives as her studies hint at lost secrets of the Knights Radiant and the war's true cause. Together, their stories unfold in The Way of Kings, the opening book of the Stormlight Archive, as the ancient oaths call for the Knights Radiant to rise once more: “Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before Destination.”
