9 Things You Missed in The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings hides nine details that only pay off once you know how the series ends. They run from the chapter epigraphs to the parshmen to Wit’s borrowed flute, and each one below is checked against Coppermind, the community Cosmere wiki. Spoilers for all five Stormlight Archive novels follow.

1. What are the chapter epigraphs in Part One of The Way of Kings?

The epigraphs heading the chapters of Part One and Part Four are death rattles, the cryptic last words of dying people, gathered by King Taravangian’s Silent Gatherers. Coppermind attributes the phenomenon to Moelach, one of the Unmade. The first epigraph, in the Prologue, ends with a countdown: “It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.” Coppermind counts 1,227 days between that rattle and the storm’s arrival in Words of Radiance, so the round number runs a little short, but the warning was real. Chapter 5’s epigraph names the Night of Sorrows and the True Desolation, phrases that Coppermind’s editors read as a reference to Odium taking the Shard of Honor.

2. Which death rattles predicted the end of the series?

Several rattles read like plot summaries once Wind and Truth is finished. Chapter 9’s epigraph, “Ten people, with Shardblades alight,” is listed on Coppermind’s page for the Unoathed, the group Adolin founds in the finale. Chapter 11’s line, “Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns,” most likely points at Taravangian becoming Retribution after Honor and Odium merge and Cultivation leaves. Chapter 54’s “The burdens of nine become mine” appears to come from Ishar, who took on the pain of the nine Heralds who abandoned Talenel. Coppermind labels these readings as theory, so treat them as strong fan interpretations rather than confirmed canon.

3. Why are the parshmen so strange in The Way of Kings?

Parshmen appear as background labor from the first chapters, and the book plants details that only look odd in hindsight. Coppermind’s page on the singers cites three: parshmen rarely speak (chapter 7), they object when anyone tends their dead (chapter 26), and they simply sit when left alone (chapter 36). The Alethi word Parshendi means “parshmen who can think,” a hint the Prologue already hands readers. The payoff is that parshmen are singers whose Connection and Identity were stripped away, a wound tied to the capture of Ba-Ado-Mishram, and Coppermind records that the Everstorm later heals and restores them in Oathbringer.

4. What did Gavilar do in his final minutes?

Gavilar’s death in the Prologue is packed with choices that Szeth’s point of view keeps hidden. Coppermind’s account says Gavilar put on his Shardplate while Sadeas played the fleeing king, and Szeth fell for the decoy until he realized Gavilar was not following. As Gavilar lay dying, he pressed a small black sphere into Szeth’s hand and told him not to let an unknown group get it. He also wanted his brother to hear “the most important words a man can say.” Szeth wrote those words in Gavilar’s blood, Jasnah later deciphered them, and Dalinar took them to mean the words of the Knights Radiant.

5. What clue did Shallan find about Gavilar’s treaty?

Shallan’s research in the Palanaeum holds one of the book’s quietest mysteries. Coppermind’s summary says she studies Gavilar’s meetings with the Parshendi before his death and notices a discrepancy: the king took an uncharacteristic scholarly interest in them. Nobody in Kharbranth can explain why, and the book leaves the question hanging. The answer arrives in Oathbringer’s prologue, where Coppermind records Gavilar telling Eshonai that he wanted to bring back the listeners’ old gods, the Unmade, and start a new Desolation. The treaty that Alethkar celebrated as peace was a step toward the opposite.

6. How does the book hint that Jasnah is a Radiant?

Jasnah enters the story as an infamous heretic with a famous Soulcaster, but Coppermind’s synopsis notes that she can also see the spren Shallan keeps drawing and can Soulcast without a fabrial. Two scenes carry the hints. On a night walk in Kharbranth, Jasnah answers a mugging by Soulcasting one attacker to fire and another to crystal, then kills the last two with Stormlight lightning. Meanwhile Shallan sketches Taravangian at lunch and discovers that her drawing has grown creatures with symbols for heads, the Cryptics, which she never intended to draw. Both scenes look like Radiant powers on a reread, even though no one names them yet.

7. Who really owns the Assassin in White?

Szeth works through a hit list in the interludes, and Coppermind’s Szeth page explains who holds the leash. After Gavilar’s death the listeners threw away his Oathstone as they fled Kholinar, and the stone changed hands many times, through a merchant named Avado, a transient worker and a small-time crook named Makkek, before reaching a mysterious new master. The last name on the list, King Taravangian, turned out to be that master. Taravangian showed Szeth the hospitals where patients are slowly killed to draw out death rattles, then ordered him to kill Dalinar. The gentle king in Shallan’s chapters is the man collecting the epigraphs.

8. Why does Wit ask Kaladin to look after Sigzil?

Wit is Hoid, and Coppermind’s Hoid page shows how much of his screen time in the book is about people he already knows. He became the King’s Wit only a few months before the greatshell hunt, then told Kaladin the story of Derethil and the Wandersail, gave him a Trailman’s flute and asked him to take care of Sigzil. Sigzil is Hoid’s former apprentice, an Azish man he trained as a Worldsinger, who was made a slave and bridgeman after a failed attempt to kill someone. Coppermind adds that Wit knew Sigzil was enslaved on the Shattered Plains and kept his distance. Our Hoid and Wit guide follows the rest of that trail.

9. Who can see Syl besides Kaladin?

Syl starts the book as a nearly mindless windspren because, per Coppermind, leaving Shadesmar stripped away most of her cognition, and her mind returns only through her closeness to Kaladin. Rock, another bridgeman, can also see her, a detail planted in chapter 21. Syl later shows herself to all of Bridge Four at Kaladin’s urging and admits she is no ordinary windspren, but she does not remember her true nature as an honorspren until the Battle of the Tower. The slow awakening is the honorspren side of a Nahel bond, and it makes every early prank read differently on a reread.

Frequently asked questions

What are death rattles in The Way of Kings?

Death rattles are cryptic, prophetic last words that some dying people speak seconds before death. Coppermind ties them to Moelach, one of the Unmade, and notes that the effect is regional and moves around Roshar. The epigraphs of Part One and Part Four of The Way of Kings are death rattles collected by the Silent Gatherers.

Who owned Szeth’s Oathstone in The Way of Kings?

After Gavilar’s assassination the listeners threw Szeth’s Oathstone away, and it passed through many hands, including a merchant, a transient worker and a small-time crook named Makkek. The last name on his kill list, King Taravangian of Kharbranth, turned out to be his secret master.

Is Wit really Hoid in The Way of Kings?

Yes. Wit is one of the guises of Hoid, a worldhopper who became King Elhokar’s Wit only a few months before the greatshell hunt. Hoid is also the former teacher of Sigzil, the bridgeman in Kaladin’s crew, which is why he gives Kaladin his Trailman’s flute and asks him to look after Sigzil.

Why are the parshmen important in The Way of Kings?

Parshmen are singers whose Connection and Identity were stripped away, which left them docile and easy to enslave. The Way of Kings shows small clues, such as how rarely they speak, and later books reveal that the Everstorm restores them. The listeners, called Parshendi by the Alethi, are the singers who escaped that fate.

Do I need to read The Way of Kings again before Wind and Truth?

A reread is not required, but it rewards fans. Many details in the epigraphs, the interludes and the Prologue only read as prophecy or foreshadowing once you have finished Wind and Truth, so rereading Part One with the finished story in mind changes what the early chapters mean.