Eshonai
| House / Order | Listeners (Parshendi) |
|---|---|
| Race / Culture | Singer (Listener) |
| Status | Deceased |
| Origin | Shattered Plains |
| Born | Shattered Plains |
| Died | Battle of Narak (during the birth of the Everstorm) |
| Weapon | Shardblade; Shardplate (recovered) |
| Fate | Lost to stormform; drowns in Shadesmar, leaving behind the spren Timbre |
| Portrayed by |
Eshonai is a character in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. A Singer (Listener) of the Shattered Plains and elder sister to Venli, Eshonai was a warleader and explorer of her people, and one of the few Listeners to wield a Shardblade and Shardplate. Her tragic fall to stormform -- a form of power that surrendered her to Odium -- marks one of the series' great losses.
An explorer at heart who longed to map the world beyond the Plains, Eshonai was thrust into war and leadership against her nature, and ultimately lost herself to the very power her sister helped discover.
Background
Eshonai was a Listener, one of the people who had escaped Odium's dominion generations earlier by abandoning their gods, living free on the Shattered Plains in "dullform" and other natural forms. Adventurous and curious, she dreamed of exploring the wider world. It was Eshonai who first made contact with humans -- the Alethi under King Gavilar Kholin -- a meeting that, through forces beyond her, led to Gavilar's assassination and the long war on the Plains.
Biography
The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance
As warleader, Eshonai commands the Listeners in the grinding War of Reckoning against the Alethi on the Shattered Plains. She recovers a Shardblade and Shardplate and becomes a formidable force in battle. Faced with annihilation as Dalinar's forces press toward the center of the Plains, the Listeners gamble on a lost form of power: stormform, researched by her sister Venli.
Eshonai adopts stormform to summon the Everstorm and save her people -- but the form reconnects her to Odium, gradually drowning her true self beneath a hostile, alien will. In a harrowing internal struggle she fights to retain herself, vowing not to become a monster. During the Battle of Narak, caught in the chaos as the Everstorm breaks, she falls and drowns, her body lost.
Legacy
Though Eshonai dies, her spren Timbre -- who had resisted Odium's corruption alongside her -- survives and later bonds her sister Venli, helping make Venli the first Singer Radiant. In this way Eshonai's resistance echoes forward into her people's redemption.
Character
Eshonai was warm, curious, and brave, an explorer forced into the role of warrior and leader. She loved her people and her sister deeply, and her tragedy is that her courage and sense of duty led her to embrace stormform to protect them -- only to lose herself. Even drowning under Odium's influence, she struggled to hold to her own identity, refusing to become the monster the power tried to make her.
Powers and abilities
As a Singer, Eshonai could attune the rhythms and adopt various forms by bonding different spren -- workform, warform, and ultimately stormform, which granted command of lightning and storms but bound her to Odium. As a Shardbearer she wielded a Shardblade and wore Shardplate, making her one of the deadliest warriors among the Listeners.
Relationships
- Venli -- her younger sister, whose ambition helped discover stormform and who later carries Timbre.
- Timbre -- the spren who resisted Odium with her and survived to bond Venli.
- Gavilar Kholin -- the Alethi king whose dealings with the Listeners preceded his assassination.
- The Listeners -- her people, whom she led and tried to save.
Quotes
I will not become a monster.
To Roshar, to all its peoples -- we go to seek the truth.