Kholinar

Kholinar is the capital city of Alethkar and the traditional seat of House Kholin, the ruling house of the Alethi. A great walled city built among natural rock formations, Kholinar was the home of King Gavilar Kholin and later of his brother Dalinar Kholin, and it features prominently in the events of The Stormlight Archive.

Geography

Kholinar is distinguished by its windblades -- enormous, thin formations of rock that rise around and through the city, giving it a dramatic and defensible character. The city is surrounded by walls and contains a royal palace, markets, and the ardentia's complexes. As with other settlements in eastern Roshar, its architecture accounts for the regular highstorms.

History

As the seat of House Kholin, Kholinar was the heart of Alethkar both during and after the unification of the Alethi princedoms under Gavilar. After Gavilar's assassination and the departure of the Alethi highprinces to the Shattered Plains, the city was left under the rule of the crown in Vorin tradition.

During the events of the Archive, Kholinar fell under siege and was beset by the influence of the Unmade and the returning Voidbringers. Its Oathgate became a critical objective, as control of it would link the city to Urithiru. The city's fall was a grievous blow to the human coalition and to House Kholin.

Significance

Kholinar's Oathgate made it strategically vital, and its loss marked a turning point in the war against Odium. As the ancestral home of Dalinar Kholin, Elhokar, and their line, the city carries deep significance for the central figures of the saga.