Lightweavers

The Lightweavers are one of the ten orders of Knights Radiant, masters of illusion and truth, wielding the Surges of Illumination and Transformation. They are associated with the Herald Shalash and bond cryptics (also called liespren). In The Stormlight Archive, Shallan Davar is the foremost Lightweaver.

Surges

Lightweavers command the Surges of Illumination and Transformation. Illumination, shared with the Truthwatchers, grants the power to weave light and sound into illusions of remarkable subtlety and realism. Transformation, also called Soulcasting and shared with the Elsecallers, grants the power to change one substance into another by addressing its soul in Shadesmar.

Ideals

The Lightweavers are unique among the orders in their relationship to oaths. Rather than swearing a fixed sequence of Ideals like the others, after the shared First Ideal a Lightweaver must speak progressively deeper personal truths about themselves, confronting realities they have hidden or denied. This makes the order's advancement a journey of brutal self-honesty -- a difficult path for those, like Shallan Davar, who use illusion to escape painful truths.

Spren

Lightweavers bond cryptics, strange Spren of pattern and lies who are fascinated by spoken untruths and by the creative deceptions of art and story. Pattern, bonded to Shallan Davar, is the most prominent cryptic in the Archive.

Notable Members

Shallan Davar, a scholar and artist from Jah Keved, is the foremost Lightweaver of the saga, bonded to Pattern. Her mastery of illusion and her struggle with her own buried truths exemplify the order.

Significance

The Lightweavers' fusion of illusion, Soulcasting, and the demand for self-truth makes them one of the most psychologically distinctive of the Knights Radiant orders.