Edgedancers Explained: Powers, Oaths and Lift

The Edgedancers are the order of Knights Radiant that heals, rescues and remembers ordinary people. They bond cultivationspren, wield the Surges of Abrasion and Progression, swear Ideals about the forgotten and the ignored, and their best known member is Lift, the Reshi thief bonded to Wyndle. Spoilers through Wind and Truth follow.

Who are the Edgedancers in the Stormlight Archive?

The Order of Edgedancers is one of the ten orders of Knights Radiant on Roshar, the order whose oaths point down toward ordinary people instead of up toward kings and battles. Edgedancers bond cultivationspren, follow the Herald Vedeledev and are tied to the diamond polestone. Their core philosophy, as the Coppermind summarizes it from the Stormlight Handbook, is a single phrase: I will remember. Where Windrunners protect and Skybreakers judge, the Edgedancers hold that the people with no voice are the ones a Radiant truly serves. The irony Sanderson builds into the order is that it looks the least dangerous on paper and was feared on the battlefield anyway. An in-world history quoted in Words of Radiance says Edgedancers were not the most demanding of orders, yet their graceful movements hid a deadliness that was renowned.

What powers do Edgedancers have?

Edgedancer powers start with Abrasion, the Surge of friction. An Edgedancer can remove friction from her body so that she slides across stone like water, slips out of almost any grip and crosses a city at speed. Lift calls this her Slickness: she makes everything slick except her palms and the soles of her feet, drops to her knees and pushes herself forward with her hands. Advanced Edgedancers can also increase friction, sticking to walls or pushing off surfaces with more force, and Lift begins using this reverse Abrasion offensively in Wind and Truth. The Herald Nale, of all people, gave the order its best description when he told Lift that the old Edgedancers could ride the thinnest rope at speed, dance across rooftops and move through a battlefield like a ribbon on the wind. Our Stormlight magic system guide places Abrasion among the ten Surges.

The second Edgedancer Surge, Progression, governs growth. At its simplest it makes plants grow at astonishing speed, which Lift uses to force locked windows open with vines. Its more important form is Regrowth, healing: an Edgedancer breathes Stormlight into a wounded person and their body repairs itself far beyond its natural limits. Sanderson has explained that healing someone else is weaker than healing yourself, and that old wounds are the hardest to fix, but a Radiant bond lets a person’s spiritual self move closer to how they see themselves. The ex-ardent Godeke is the clearest example, healed of a lifelong deformity once he bonded his spren. Progression is shared with the Truthwatchers, which is why Renarin also heals. Our Renarin Kholin guide covers the Truthwatcher side of the Surge.

What are the Ideals of the Edgedancers?

The Ideals of the Edgedancers all focus on noticing and serving ordinary people. Every Radiant first swears the shared First Ideal: life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. Lift speaks the Edgedancer Second Ideal in the Words of Radiance interlude, “I will remember those who have been forgotten,” when she returns to heal a dying boy instead of escaping. She speaks the Third Ideal in the Edgedancer novella, “I will listen to those who have been ignored,” while the Herald Nale is trying to kill her. According to the Stormlight Handbook, the Third Ideal must be sworn before an Edgedancer can manifest her spren as a Shardblade, and the Fourth Ideal is individual to each Edgedancer but always centers on advocacy, carrying common people’s concerns to those with the power to fix them. Reaching the Fourth Ideal grants Shardplate formed of lifespren.

“I will listen to those who have been ignored.”
The Third Ideal of the Edgedancers, sworn by Lift in Edgedancer

What did the ancient Edgedancers do before the Recreance?

The ancient Edgedancers worked closer to ordinary life than any other order of Knights Radiant. The Coppermind, drawing on Sanderson’s own essay on the ten orders, records that a mid-sized town might have an Edgedancer or two on permanent assignment, healing the sick and working for the common good. In wartime they acted as mobile medics who pulled out the wounded, though some were skilled enough to serve as scouts or special forces alongside Windrunners and Skybreakers. They were also the most religious of the orders, the one most likely to attract former ardents. One Oathbringer epigraph from the Urithiru gem archive captures them best: when the Radiants recorded their thoughts about abandoning their oaths, the Edgedancers sent nobody, because they were too busy relocating the tower’s servants and farmers. Our Recreance guide explains that decision.

Who is Lift, the most famous Edgedancer?

Lift is a Reshi thief who grew up in Rall Elorim in Iri and became the first known Edgedancer of the modern era. Before she ever bonded a spren, she traveled to the Valley to ask the Nightwatcher for a boon and met Cultivation herself, asking to stay the same and not become someone else. The Coppermind notes she made the request because she does not truly believe her mother is dead and wants to be recognizable when they meet again. The boon left her partly in the Cognitive Realm, able to touch spren, and able to turn food directly into Lifelight instead of drawing Stormlight from gems. The Ring, the council of cultivationspren, then assigned Wyndle to bond her. Wyndle complains constantly that he was a respected gardener in Shadesmar who grew crystal sculptures from the souls of chairs, and Lift calls him her pet Voidbringer.

Lift’s arc as an Edgedancer tracks her Ideals. In Azimir she joins a thieves’ crew to rob the Bronze Palace, sees a boy named Gawx get his throat cut, and goes back to heal him, swearing the Second Ideal. The viziers believe Gawx healed himself and crown him Prime Aqasix Yanagawn, and Lift becomes one of his closest advisers. In Yeddaw she confronts Nale and swears the Third Ideal. At the Battle of Thaylen Field she chases Honor’s Drop with Szeth and hands it to Dalinar to trap the Unmade Nergaoul. In Rhythm of War she is captured in occupied Urithiru, freed by Venli, heals Kaladin and Teft, and has her legs ruined by Moash. In Wind and Truth she agrees to train with Zahel. Sanderson has said Lift is the flashback character for book six, so her full history is still coming. See the Stormlight book 6 guide.

“Someone has to care. Too few people care these days.”
Lift, Words of Radiance, Interlude I-9

Who are the other known Edgedancers?

The refounded Edgedancers grew quickly after Lift, and the Coppermind notes that all known members serve Dalinar’s coalition of monarchs. The most developed is Godeke, a former ardent bonded to the cultivationspren Archinal, who appears in the Cognitive Realm as a short woman made of vines and crystal. Godeke helps evacuate Hearthstone in Rhythm of War, survives a stomach wound while a Fused fabrial blocks his healing, and then volunteers as the diplomat on the Shadesmar mission to the honorspren with Adolin and Shallan. The Coppermind also lists Lorain and Baramaz, both bonded to unnamed cultivationspren. One more Edgedancer matters even though nobody knows her name: Sanderson has said Mayalaran, the deadeye cultivationspren that serves as Adolin’s Shardblade, was bonded to an Edgedancer before the Recreance. The Adolin Kholin guide follows that Blade’s story.

How do Edgedancers compare to Dustbringers and Truthwatchers?

The Edgedancers sit between the Dustbringers and the Truthwatchers on the Surgebinding chart, sharing Abrasion with the first and Progression with the second. The overlap shows how each order’s oaths shape the same power. Dustbringers pair Abrasion with Division, the Surge of destruction, so the combination leans toward control and danger, while Edgedancers pair it with healing and make it a tool for rescue and escape. Truthwatchers pair Progression with Illumination, and Renarin learns directed healing early while Lift relies mostly on Abrasion, which fans read, as an inference rather than a confirmed rule, as a sign that most Surgebinders favor one of their two Surges. Sanderson has also confirmed that Edgedancers, like every order, have a Resonance that merges their Surges, but what it does has not been revealed. Our ten orders guide compares all ten side by side.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Edgedancers’ Surges?

The Edgedancers use two Surges, Abrasion and Progression. Abrasion controls friction, letting an Edgedancer slide frictionless across any surface or grip harder than normal. Progression controls growth, making plants grow at incredible speed and, through Regrowth, healing wounds. Dustbringers share Abrasion and Truthwatchers share Progression.

What are the Ideals of the Edgedancers?

The Edgedancers swear the shared First Ideal, then “I will remember those who have been forgotten” as the Second and “I will listen to those who have been ignored” as the Third. According to the Stormlight Handbook, the Fourth Ideal is personal to each Edgedancer but always centers on advocacy for ordinary people.

What spren do Edgedancers bond?

Edgedancers bond cultivationspren, spren of the Shard Cultivation that look like creeping vines studded with crystal. Lift’s cultivationspren is Wyndle, a former gardener from Shadesmar, and the ex-ardent Godeke is bonded to a cultivationspren named Archinal. Their Shardplate, per Sanderson, is formed of lifespren.

Who is the Herald of the Edgedancers?

The patron Herald of the Edgedancers is Vedeledev, also called Vedel or Vev, the Herald of Healing. Before the Oathpact she lost her people and became a healer, and she trained surgeons ahead of each Desolation. Vorin expressions like swearing by Vedeledev’s golden keys come from her.

Is Lift the only Edgedancer?

No. Lift was the first known Edgedancer of the modern era: Wyndle is the first cultivationspren known to form a Nahel bond since the Recreance. By Rhythm of War the order has grown, with members like Godeke, Lorain and Baramaz, and the Edgedancers serve Dalinar’s coalition as healers on missions such as the evacuation of Hearthstone.