Venli: Complete Character Guide

Venli is the listener scholar whose research brought back the Everstorm, the younger sister of Eshonai, and later the first singer of the True Desolation to become a Knight Radiant, as a Willshaper bonded to the Reacher Timbre. Her arc runs from Words of Radiance to Wind and Truth. Full spoilers follow.

Who is Venli in the Stormlight Archive?

Venli is a listener, one of the free singers of the Shattered Plains who kept their forms and their Rhythms while the rest of their species served as parshmen. According to Coppermind, Venli is one year younger than Eshonai, has red-and-white marbled skin with small black patches, a three-color pattern that is extremely rare among listeners, and wears her hair down to her waist. As children the sisters split their lives: Eshonai travelled, and Venli stayed home with their mother Jaxlim, learning the old listener songs. Venli grew into the role of scholar. After first contact with humans she created a written script for her people, and over five years her team recorded every listener song so it could be preserved and cross-referenced. That work uncovered nimbleform, and Venli joined the listener leadership as its representative.

Venli matters to the Stormlight Archive because the whole listener tragedy runs through her choices, not through her sister’s. Coppermind records that Brandon Sanderson planned from early on to kill Eshonai and shift the weight to Venli, because he always considered Venli the more interesting of the two sisters. Rhythm of War is built around that decision: Venli is the focus character of book four, and its flashbacks alternate between Venli and Eshonai. Venli is also one of only four singer viewpoint characters in the series, alongside Eshonai, Rlain and the Fused El. Readers meet Venli as an ambitious, manipulative scholar who wants power and recognition more than the safety of her people, and the rest of the series asks whether someone like that can change.

What did Venli do to the listeners?

Venli’s betrayal of the listeners started with a gemstone. According to Coppermind, citing Rhythm of War, Venli received a gem from Axindweth that held Ulim, a voidspren, and the two worked together on discovering new forms. On the day of the peace treaty with the Alethi, the Herald Nale told Venli and another listener, Klade, that King Gavilar intended to betray the listeners, and directed Venli to purchase Szeth, the assassin who killed Gavilar that night. During the war that followed, Venli told Eshonai she was researching mediationform to make peace with the humans. In reality she was trying to capture a stormspren to unlock stormform, a form of power tied to Odium. When the Five chose Eshonai rather than Venli to test the new form, Venli was jealous and believed her sister was stealing her discovery.

Stormform turned the listeners into the instrument of Odium’s return. Once Eshonai’s thoughts were altered by the form and she began transforming the whole people, Venli thought the strategy was too aggressive, but her objection was not mercy: Coppermind notes that Venli wanted to seize control from her sister and suggested killing the listeners who refused the new form. The listeners in stormform summoned the Everstorm during the Battle of Narak, the climax of Words of Radiance, and Eshonai died there. Venli later admits, in Oathbringer, that summoning the old gods was a horrible mistake and that she is responsible for the Everstorm. Our Words of Radiance ending explained walks through the battle that ended the listeners as a free people.

What is envoyform and why did Odium spare Venli?

Envoyform is the form of power Odium gave Venli in the Everstorm, and Venli is the only listener of her group who kept her own mind. According to Coppermind, Ulim chose nine listeners to receive new forms, including Venli and her former mate Demid. The Fused replaced the souls of the other eight and took their bodies, but Odium himself protected Venli. Envoyform makes Venli taller than even the Alethi and removes the red lightning of stormform, and in exchange lets Venli speak and understand any language, writing or signal on Roshar, human or singer. Odium used that gift: Venli became his chief propagandist, first in Kholinar and then in Marat, telling the freed parshmen a false story in which the listeners sacrificed themselves to free them. Venli later blames herself for Demid’s death.

The Fused kept Venli apart from other singers to protect her mystique, and that isolation is where the turn began. Before the Everstorm, when Venli found Eshonai dead and heard Ulim say he only wanted the Shardplate her sister wore, Venli could suddenly attune the old Rhythms again, and she glimpsed a strange spren escaping from under the body. That spren reappeared after the Fused took her companions, and Venli hid it from them. With no one else to talk to, Venli started speaking with the spren and nicknamed it Timbre. Coppermind records that at Timbre’s urging Venli admitted that she wished she could be like her sister. When Dalinar pulled her into one of his visions to negotiate, though, Venli still refused every offer of peace, until Odium broke into the vision.

How did Venli become a Willshaper?

Venli became a Willshaper at the end of Oathbringer, during the Battle of Thaylen Field. Venli spent most of the battle as a translator and accompanied Odium to watch what he expected to be Dalinar’s fall. When Dalinar instead recovered and summoned Honor’s Perpendicularity, Venli crept back to the ships and swore the First Ideal, bonding Timbre. According to Coppermind, the bond lets Timbre live inside Venli’s gemheart and trap the voidspren already there, so Venli keeps envoyform and can switch her eyes between red and normal at will. That disguise lets the first Radiant singer of the True Desolation hide in plain sight inside Odium’s army. Timbre, a Reacher, never speaks aloud and communicates only through the Rhythms. Shortly after the battle, Venli began telling the former parshmen the true story of the listeners.

The Order of Willshapers fits Venli because the order is built around freedom, the one thing her choices took from her people. Coppermind lists the Willshaper Surges as Transportation and Cohesion, with Reachers as their spren and Kalak as their Herald, and describes their philosophy as the belief that all people should be free to make their own choices. The Second Ideal Venli later swears is, in her own words, “I will seek freedom for those in bondage.” Willshapers tend to attract builders and artisans, which suits a scholar who invented a script and built her family’s home in Narak. The Third Ideal, to fight oppression, is required before a Willshaper can manifest a Shardblade, and Venli has not sworn it. Our guide to the ten orders compares Willshapers with the other nine.

What does Venli do in Rhythm of War?

Venli spends Rhythm of War inside the occupation of Urithiru, serving the Fused as a Voice while secretly practicing as a Radiant. Venli first serves the Fused Leshwi, and Leshwi then lends Venli to Raboniel as an apology, so Venli arrives with the scouting troop that seizes the tower. According to Coppermind, a human soldier attacks Venli during the seizure and she kills him in a panic. Once Venli learns that the Fused’s secretspren cannot detect her, she practices Willshaper powers in a quiet corner of the tower. Venli finds Rlain, the listener who served in Bridge Four, still alive, and feels guilty because he does not know her role in the fall of their people. When Mraize hands Raboniel a caged Lift, Venli tries to swear the Second Ideal, and Cultivation refuses the Words.

Venli’s actions in the tower matter more than her powers, and every one of them is a small act of courage made in secret. Venli asks Leshwi to protect Kaladin’s parents, Lirin and Hesina, from the Pursuer, then uses Cohesion to free Lift so Lift can heal Kaladin, and claims to have a Shardblade rather than admit she is a Surgebinder. Raboniel gives Venli a writ and a map showing a listener settlement on the Shattered Plains, and Venli tells Rlain the whole story of what she did. During the final fight in the atrium, Timbre urges Venli to reveal her bond to Leshwi. Leshwi is overjoyed, takes it as proof the spren have forgiven the singers, and fights Lezian’s troops beside the humans. Our Rhythm of War ending explained covers that climax.

What happens to Venli in Wind and Truth?

Venli spends Wind and Truth returning to the listeners she nearly destroyed. At the end of Rhythm of War Venli finds the settlement on the map and discovers that Thude and her mother Jaxlim are alive. Jaxlim’s memory had been failing for years, and Coppermind notes that healing her mother was part of why Venli chased new forms in the first place. Venli brings a Reacher, sings the Song of Mornings, Jaxlim’s favorite of the old songs, and when Jaxlim recognizes her, Cultivation finally accepts Venli’s Second Ideal. In Wind and Truth the listeners have made peace with the chasmfiends, and the stones tell Venli to seek Narak and the fallen fourth moon of Roshar. Venli, the Five, Leshwi and several chasmfiends travel there and find Odium’s Perpendicularity beneath the central plateau.

Venli’s decisive move in Wind and Truth is a contract, the same kind of tool Dalinar uses against Odium. When El and other Fused find the listeners, Venli goes in secret to Sigzil, who leads the Coalition forces at the Second Battle of Narak. According to Coppermind, the two agree to a treaty that Jasnah Kholin signs as Queen of Alethkar, giving the listeners dominion over the Shattered Plains and keeping them out of Odium’s hands. The listeners fight on Odium’s side and Narak falls, but when the contest of champions begins Venli reveals the treaty to El, and El withdraws Odium’s forces from the plains. After Odium becomes Retribution, Venli’s group learns to receive Warlight, and Venli uses Cohesion to open a passage to Retribution’s Perpendicularity. For the wider plot, see our Wind and Truth summary.

“This may not be redemption. Not yet. Maybe just…atonement.”
Venli, Wind and Truth

Is Venli redeemed by the end of the Stormlight Archive?

Venli is not redeemed by the end of book five, and the Stormlight Archive is careful to say so in Venli’s own voice. Her final thought in Wind and Truth calls what she has done atonement, and says redemption may come later if she keeps improving. That distinction is why Venli is one of the most honest arcs in the series. Kaladin and Dalinar get dramatic oaths in front of armies, while Venli’s Ideals arrive quietly, once on a ship after the battle and once in front of her mother. Venli never becomes brave or likable in the usual way, and her pride survives every chapter. What changes is what Venli does with her fear: she frees Lift, protects Lirin and Hesina, and trades a war for a treaty. Read the singers’ side of the war in our Fused vs Knights Radiant comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Is Venli a Knight Radiant?

Yes. Venli is a Willshaper, one of the ten orders of the Knights Radiant. She bonds Timbre, a Reacher, after the Battle of Thaylen Field in Oathbringer by swearing the First Ideal, and Cultivation accepts her Second Ideal near the end of Rhythm of War.

Why did Venli betray the listeners?

Venli wanted power and recognition. Working with the voidspren Ulim, she pursued stormform while telling her sister Eshonai she was researching a form for peace. That research led to the Everstorm and to most of the listeners being consumed by the Fused, which Venli later admits was her fault.

Why was Venli not taken by the Fused?

Nine listeners, including Venli and her former mate Demid, were chosen to receive new forms in the Everstorm. The Fused took the other eight, but Odium protected Venli and gave her envoyform, which lets her speak and understand every language on Roshar.

Who is Timbre?

Timbre is the Reacher that bonds Venli. Timbre first appears near Eshonai’s body after the Battle of Narak, hides inside Venli’s gemheart, traps the voidspren already living there and speaks only through the Rhythms, encouraging Venli to resist Odium.

What happens to Venli in Wind and Truth?

Venli rejoins the surviving listeners, leads them to Narak and secretly negotiates with Sigzil a treaty, signed by Jasnah, that gives the listeners dominion over the Shattered Plains. At the contest of champions she reveals the treaty to El, who withdraws Odium’s forces from the plains.