Words of Radiance Ending Explained: Narak, the Third Ideal and Urithiru

Words of Radiance ends with the Battle of Narak, where the Everstorm is summoned, Kaladin swears his Third Ideal and defeats Szeth, and Shallan opens the Oathgate to Urithiru. Dalinar then bonds the Stormfather, Renarin reveals himself as a Radiant, and the Knights Radiant are officially back. Full spoilers for book two follow.

What happens at the Battle of Narak?

The Battle of Narak is the expedition Dalinar Kholin has been pushing for all book: a joint march to the center of the Shattered Plains to end the War of Reckoning and fulfill the Vengeance Pact. The Kholin army marches with Aladar, Roion and Sebarial during the Weeping, four weeks without highstorms. What waits for them is not the old Parshendi army. Eshonai has led her people into stormform, red eyes and red lightning included, and Rlain, the listener spy hidden inside Bridge Four, surrenders to warn Dalinar that his people have become something else. When the listeners begin to sing, Rlain explains the song is summoning a storm. Dalinar orders an immediate attack to break the song, and Coppermind dates the battle that ends the war and opens the True Desolation to that single day.

How does Adolin fight at Narak, and what happens to Eshonai?

Adolin Kholin has the most physical arc of the battle and loses the most for it. Red lightning kills his Ryshadium, Sureblood, and throws him from the saddle, though his Shardplate shrugs off a direct strike. Instead of grinding through the lines, Adolin cuts a tunnel through a rock formation with his Shardblade and bursts out behind the Parshendi singers, breaking their song. Eshonai, the listener Shardbearer, finds him there, and their duel ends at a chasm edge, where Adolin slams into her chest and knocks her over. Skar and Drehy grab Adolin before he follows her down. Eshonai never comes back up. Rhythm of War later confirms that she survived the floodwaters by anchoring her Blade in the rock, then died of her wounds in the chasm, which makes this duel her last scene alive. Our Adolin Kholin guide follows the cost.

How does Kaladin swear the Third Ideal?

Kaladin swears the Third Ideal back in the warcamps, while the battle rages miles away, and the setup is the real climax of his arc in Words of Radiance. Syl has gone silent after he agreed to let Moash’s friends kill King Elhokar, and Kaladin has lost his powers. A drunk Elhokar visits him, admits his failures and apologizes, and Kaladin realizes Elhokar is Dalinar’s Tien. Kaladin limps to the palace, finds Graves’s men inside and Elhokar stabbed, and then faces Moash and Graves, both in Shardplate. Moash breaks his spear and his ribs. On his feet with only a knife, Kaladin says “I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right.” The Stormfather accepts the words, Syl becomes a Shardblade, and a frost glyph shaped like wings forms on the floor. The Windrunners guide covers the full set of Ideals.

How does Kaladin beat Szeth?

Kaladin beats Szeth because, for the first time, the Assassin in White is fighting a real Knight Radiant. Taravangian sent Szeth to kill Dalinar, and at Narak Szeth breaks Adolin, kills Roion by Lashing him into the sky, and Lashes Dalinar upward to fall to his death. Dalinar, falling, accepts that he could never have saved Gavilar from this man, and finds peace in it. Then Kaladin lands with a Shardblade, Dalinar floats safely down, and the duel moves above the storm clouds. Syl shifts between sword, spear and hammer mid fight, and Szeth finally admits he was never Truthless and could have stopped killing at any time. In the hardcover Kaladin severs his spine; later editions changed the blow to a cut wrist that sends the Honorblade tumbling. Our Kaladin vs Szeth breakdown compares both versions.

Why do two storms collide over the Shattered Plains?

Two storms collide over the Shattered Plains because the Stormfather decides to answer the Everstorm with a storm of his own. During the battle Dalinar finally hears the voice from his visions clearly, and it tells him it is not the Almighty but the Stormfather, a remnant of Honor, who was killed by Odium. Calling Dalinar a child of Honor, the Stormfather explains that the listeners are summoning a deadly opposing storm and that all he can do is send a cleansing highstorm to wash the bodies away. Dalinar denounces him for abandoning them. That out of season highstorm, roaring in from the opposite direction, is why the armies have only minutes to escape and why Kaladin and Szeth fight above two walls of weather. The Stormfather also warns that his daughter is disobeying him, which is Syl choosing Kaladin.

How does Shallan open the Oathgate to Urithiru?

Shallan opens the Oathgate by working out that it is a machine, not a ritual. Dalinar sends her and Renarin to find the gate in case the battle turns, and Shallan notices that one plateau at the center of the Plains is perfectly round, which marks it as the point the Shattered Plains broke from. Inside the dome they find a mural of ten divisions and an eleventh for Urithiru. Renarin’s Blade and then Adolin’s Blade do nothing in the keyhole, because both are dead Shardblades. Shallan infuses every sphere in the room in front of witnesses, summons Pattern as a living Blade, and pushes him like a lever toward the image of Urithiru. The whole plateau jumps to the tower city, armies included. Kaladin, arriving later with Szeth’s Honorblade, learns from Bridge Four how to follow. Our Lightweavers guide explains her powers.

What does Shallan remember about her mother?

Shallan remembers that she killed her mother, and Words of Radiance saves that memory for its quietest chapter. In Urithiru, Pattern picks her quarters, and Shallan Lightweaves the room from her father’s house: a white carpet, two bodies and a painting hiding a strongbox. Her mother and her mother’s friend tried to kill Shallan when they discovered what she could do, and Shallan killed her mother in self defense with a Shardblade that was Pattern. Her father took the blame, and the family broke apart around that lie. The same chapter opens with Mraize waiting for her in the tower. The Ghostbloods have identified Veil as Shallan, they hold her brothers, and Mraize invites her to be both a Radiant and a Ghostblood. The Shallan Davar guide traces where that leads.

What happens to Szeth, Sadeas and Amaram after the battle?

Szeth, Sadeas and Amaram each get an ending that sets up Oathbringer, and none of them is the ending the reader expects. Szeth wakes alive, revived by Nale, the Herald of Justice, who calls him worthy of the Skybreakers, begins his training and throws him a black sword that leaks smoke. The sword speaks: “Hello, would you like to destroy some evil today?” That sword is Nightblood, from Warbreaker. Sadeas corners Adolin in Urithiru, promises to take everything from Dalinar, and Adolin kills him with a stab to the head, then hides the evidence. Amaram, exposed earlier by Dalinar as a liar, writes to Restares that the Sons of Honor have achieved their crisis, and smuggles the Herald Taln out of the warcamps. See Shardblades vs Honorblades vs Nightblood for why Szeth’s new sword matters.

How does Dalinar become a Bondsmith?

Dalinar becomes a Bondsmith on the roof of the central tower of Urithiru, in the final chapter. Still angry that the Stormfather nearly washed his armies away, Dalinar confronts him, and the Stormfather explains he is like a spren to the Almighty. Dalinar swears the First and Second Ideals of the Bondsmiths, and the Stormfather bonds him reluctantly, on condition that Dalinar give up his Shardblade, and refuses ever to serve as one. When the Stormfather warns that Dalinar is nothing compared to the Almighty, Dalinar answers that if the Almighty could be killed, so can Odium. Downstairs he draws in Stormlight before Kaladin and Shallan, and Renarin walks in to reveal he is a Truthwatcher. Our Bondsmiths guide explains what the bond means.

What does the Words of Radiance epilogue set up?

The Words of Radiance epilogue sets up Jasnah Kholin’s return, which readers had been told was impossible since the stabbing on the Wind’s Pleasure. Wit waits in the wilderness, talking to himself about art and expectation, until Jasnah steps back from the Cognitive Realm. She threatens and interrogates him, and Wit shrugs it off: he already knows the Everstorm has arrived, Urithiru has been found and the Knights have been refounded. They agree to pool their knowledge and walk back toward civilization together. Meanwhile, the bigger picture is grim. Kaladin leaves to warn his parents in Hearthstone because the Everstorm is changing every parshman on Roshar, Thanadal and Vamah stay behind in the warcamps, and both the Ghostbloods and the Sons of Honor count Narak as a win. Read Oathbringer Ending Explained for where it lands.

Frequently asked questions

How does Words of Radiance end?

Words of Radiance ends with the Battle of Narak. The listeners summon the Everstorm, Kaladin swears his Third Ideal and gets Syl back as a Shardblade, he defeats Szeth above the storms, and Shallan uses Pattern to open the Oathgate that carries Dalinar’s armies to Urithiru. Dalinar then bonds the Stormfather as a Bondsmith.

What is Kaladin’s Third Ideal?

Kaladin’s Third Ideal is “I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right.” He speaks it in the palace while Moash and Graves, both in Shardplate, try to kill King Elhokar. The Stormfather accepts the words, Syl returns, and she becomes a Shardblade in his hand.

Does Szeth die at the end of Words of Radiance?

Yes, but not permanently. In the original hardcover, Kaladin severs Szeth’s spine. Later editions changed the scene so Kaladin cuts Szeth’s wrist and the Honorblade falls. Either way Szeth falls, and Nale, the Herald of Justice, revives him, makes him a Skybreaker apprentice and gives him Nightblood.

Who killed Sadeas in Words of Radiance?

Adolin Kholin killed Torol Sadeas in Urithiru in the final chapter. Sadeas told Adolin he would take everything from Dalinar, the two men grappled, and Adolin stabbed him in the head. Adolin then threw away Sadeas’s Shardblade and covered his tracks, a secret that carries into Oathbringer.

How did Shallan open the Oathgate?

Shallan realized the Oathgate lock works like a fabrial and needs a living Shardblade. Renarin’s and Adolin’s dead Blades did nothing in the keyhole, so she summoned Pattern as a Blade, turned it like a lever toward the image of Urithiru, and the whole plateau was transported to the tower city.