The Way of Kings is a long book that starts in four places at once: a murder six years in the past, a slave on a bridge crew, a highprince who keeps hearing voices in the storms, and a scholar's ward with a secret. Brandon Sanderson braids those threads so tightly that, once you finish, it is surprisingly hard to say what happened first. This game tests exactly that. Eight moments from the book, shuffled. Put them back in story order, seal the timeline and see how many you got right.
How the timeline game works
You get eight illustrated moments from The Way of Kings in a random order. Tap a moment and it drops into the next open slot on the timeline, from first to last. Changed your mind? Tap a placed moment and it goes back to the pile. When all eight are on the line, seal it. Each slot then lights up gold if the moment is in its true place and red if it is not, one by one, and you get your score out of eight and a rank, from Lost in the Chasms up to Keeper of the Archive.
The score counts exact positions only. If you swap two neighbouring moments, both of them count as wrong, so a near miss in the middle of the book can cost you two points at once. That is deliberate: the middle of The Way of Kings is where the Kaladin and Dalinar storylines run side by side, and keeping them straight is the real test. Unlock the true timeline and you can see where every moment sits in the book, which part it belongs to and what it changed, plus a shareable card with your rank.
Why the order of The Way of Kings is harder than it looks
The Way of Kings is not told in a straight line. The prologue jumps back six years to the night King Gavilar is killed, and the rest of the book cuts between the bridge crews in Sadeas's warcamp, Dalinar's camp a few miles away and Shallan's studies in Kharbranth, with Kaladin's flashbacks woven through all of it. Sanderson also holds the payoffs back until the final part, so the moments that matter most land within a few chapters of each other. Readers usually remember the big beats perfectly and lose track of how they connect: which came first, the spear drills in the chasms or Dalinar's decision to trust Sadeas? That is the gap this game is built around.
All eight moments come from The Way of Kings itself. There is nothing from Words of Radiance or later books, so the only spoilers are for the first book, including its ending. If you have not finished it yet, finish it first: the last part is the best thing Sanderson has written, and it is better without knowing what is coming.
Want to go further?
If the game shook your memory loose, read nine things you probably missed in The Way of Kings, or go straight to The Way of Kings ending explained for what the final chapters set up. To test yourself across the whole series, try the Stormlight Archive Trivia Gauntlet, or the Who Said It? quote quiz if you know the characters by their voices. And if you are planning a reread, our Stormlight Archive reading order guide covers where the novellas fit.
Frequently asked questions
Does the timeline game contain spoilers?
Yes, but only for The Way of Kings, the first Stormlight Archive book, including its ending. Nothing from Words of Radiance, Oathbringer, Rhythm of War or Wind and Truth appears in the game or the answers.
Is the order the order of the chapters or the order of events?
It is the order the events happen in the story. For these eight moments the two match, except the prologue, which happens six years before everything else and also comes first in the book.
How is the score calculated?
One point for each moment that sits in exactly the right slot, for a maximum of eight. Six or seven makes you an Ardent Historian, and only a perfect eight earns Keeper of the Archive.
Can I play again?
Yes. Reshuffle at the end and the eight moments come back in a new random order every time.