Lightweavers Explained: Powers, Oaths and Illusions

The Lightweavers are the order of Knights Radiant that bonds Cryptics and wields Illumination and Transformation, the Surges of illusion and Soulcasting. Instead of swearing fixed Ideals, a Lightweaver grows stronger by speaking painful truths about themselves. Shallan Davar leads the refounded order, and Hoid carries a Cryptic of his own.

What are the Lightweavers in the Stormlight Archive?

The Order of Lightweavers is one of the ten orders of Knights Radiant on Roshar, and it sits between the Truthwatchers, who share its Surge of Illumination, and the Elsecallers, who share Transformation. The in-world Words of Radiance quoted in the chapter epigraphs describes the ancient Lightweavers as writers, artists, musicians, painters and sculptors, and credits them with lifting the other orders’ spirits after a defeat. Some were also the Radiants’ spies, which is why stricter orders like the Skybreakers distrusted them. Spoiler note: this guide covers all five Stormlight books, including Wind and Truth.

How do Lightweaver oaths work if they are truths instead of Ideals?

Every Radiant starts with the same First Ideal: life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. After that the Lightweavers break from every other order. Instead of swearing a fixed promise, a Lightweaver advances by admitting a truth about themselves. One epigraph in Words of Radiance tells of Malchin, a great warrior who could never join because he wanted simple, straightforward oaths. According to Coppermind, citing the roleplaying game handbook and Wind and Truth, early truths can be simple and emotional, later ones must hurt more, the third lets the Cryptic become a Shardblade, and the fourth brings Shardplate.

The truth-telling rule makes sense once you look at what Lightweavers do all day. An order that lives inside disguises and illusions needs a way to keep the real separate from the lie, and speaking truths is that anchor. Shallan’s first truth arrives at the end of The Way of Kings: “I’m a murderer. I killed my father.” Sanderson has also said that if Elhokar had lived long enough to speak a truth, his first would have been admitting that he was a bad king.

What powers do Lightweavers have?

Illumination is the famous half of the kit. A Lightweaver weaves light, sound and other waveforms into illusions: a new face for a disguise, a fake wall to hide behind, a crowd of soldiers to confuse an enemy. Each Lightweaver needs some kind of focus to make the weave work, and Shallan’s focus is drawing, which is why so many of her disguises begin in her sketchbook. Truthwatchers share the same Surge but use it differently, which is why Renarin’s Illumination produces strange lights rather than convincing illusions.

Transformation is Soulcasting. To change an object into one of the ten essences, the Lightweaver shifts their perception into the Cognitive Realm and persuades the object’s soul to become something else. For a beginner, the Cryptic relays what the object is saying, which is exactly how Pattern coaches Shallan through her early attempts. Elsecallers are better Soulcasters, a gap we break down in Jasnah vs Shallan. Transformation also explains one of Shallan’s oddest abilities: because she is bonded to two Cryptics, she can slip into Shadesmar on her own, although she cannot bring anyone with her or come back without help.

Combine both Surges and a Lightweaver can do something no other order can: give an illusion physical substance. Coppermind calls it Substantiation and names Shallan as the first known Lightweaver of the modern era to manage it, while Wind and Truth reveals the ability was once forbidden to humans. The Lightweavers’ secondary effect, their resonance, is mnemonic. In Shallan it becomes Memories, the ability to lock a scene in her mind with a blink and later draw it with perfect accuracy, which releases the stored image. Sanderson has said that in Tien, Kaladin’s younger brother, the same resonance appeared as an unusual way of experiencing light and colour.

What are Cryptics, the Lightweaver spren?

Cryptics are sapient spren that Coppermind describes as personifications of the mathematical truths governing Roshar and the Cosmere. In the Physical Realm a Cryptic looks like a shifting fractal pattern raised slightly off a surface, humming when it speaks, and it cannot turn invisible. In Shadesmar a Cryptic is a tall, willowy figure in stiff robes that hang as if made of glass, with a floating symbol of impossible angles where the head should be. Most live in Number City, and Wind and Truth reveals they were created deliberately by Honor and Cultivation together.

Cryptics are fascinated by lies, gathering and humming wherever a falsehood is told, yet they are terrible liars themselves and dislike the nickname liespren. They break codes, pick locks and mimic voices perfectly. Every Cryptic name translates into human speech as Pattern, so the refounded Lightweavers talked them into new names drawn from art and mathematics: Mosaic, Motif, Ornament, Design. After the Recreance many believed bonding was a death sentence, and Pattern volunteered for Shallan believing she might kill him the way she had killed Testament.

Who are the most important Lightweavers?

Shallan Davar is the order’s centre of gravity, and her bond is the strangest in the series. The Cryptics sent Testament to her when she was a child in 1167, and Shallan used Testament as a Shardblade to kill her mother, which left the spren a deadeye. Pattern bonded her later, knowing the risk. In Rhythm of War she recovers those memories and gives her first Cryptic the name Testament, and in Wind and Truth she summons Pattern as a Blade and Testament as a shield in the same fight. Back in Rhythm of War, roughly twenty Lightweavers had already surfaced to join the Coalition under her lead.

Elhokar’s story is the order’s saddest near miss. Cryptics watched over the young king, unintentionally feeding his paranoia with glimpses of symbols in mirrors, and finally sent Design to bond him. Elhokar was killed in Kholinar before he could finish the First Ideal, and Design ended up bonding Hoid instead, revealed in the Oathbringer epilogue. Mraize, whose Cryptic is Enlightened, meets the order’s craft from the other side. In Wind and Truth Shallan beats him with Lightweaving itself: he believes she has switched their knives, but the switch was an illusion, and he dies trying to heal with Stormlight.

What does Lightweaver Shardplate do?

Lightweaver Plate is made of creationspren, the little spren that gather around artists and that Pattern once dismissed as useless in Words of Radiance. In Wind and Truth, while the group crosses Shadesmar, beads from the sea cling to Shallan and fill her mind with the impression of her name being chanted over and over. When she emerges into the Physical Realm, those creationspren become red Shardplate, the sign that she has reached her fourth truth. The Plate reshapes itself around her mental image, so Shallan can make it sleeker or use the helmet to amplify her voice.

Lightweaver Plate also has a tactical trick no other order has shown. The creationspren can form around another person the Lightweaver is touching, although that person cannot move inside it, which Shallan discovers when she tests the Plate on Red. What looks like a limitation becomes a weapon, because armour that locks an enemy in place is a cage. Lightweavers also have an unusual affinity for Shadesmar beads, and can command them into shapes using their Plate as a model. The order that looked weakest in a straight fight ends the fifth book as one of the most versatile on Roshar.

Frequently asked questions

What Surges do the Lightweavers use?

The Lightweavers use Illumination and Transformation. Illumination weaves light and sound into illusions and disguises, while Transformation is Soulcasting, changing an object into one of the ten essences by persuading its Cognitive aspect. Combined, the two Surges let a skilled Lightweaver like Shallan give an illusion physical substance.

What spren do Lightweavers bond?

Lightweavers bond Cryptics, sapient spren of mathematical truth that appear as shifting fractal patterns in the Physical Realm and as tall robed figures with geometric heads in Shadesmar. Their Shardplate is made of creationspren, and a Cryptic bonded to a Lightweaver can become a shape-shifting Shardblade.

How do Lightweavers level up without Ideals?

After the First Ideal, which every order shares, a Lightweaver advances by speaking truths about themselves instead of swearing fixed oaths. Early truths can be simple and emotional, later ones must be harder to admit. The third truth lets the Cryptic manifest as a Shardblade, and the fourth brings Shardplate.

Is Hoid a Lightweaver?

Yes. The Cryptic Design was originally sent to bond King Elhokar, but Elhokar was killed in Kholinar before he could finish speaking the First Ideal. Design then bonded Hoid instead, which is revealed in the epilogue of Oathbringer. Hoid is one of several Lightweavers named in the series.

Who is the Herald of the Lightweavers?

The patron Herald of the Lightweavers is Shalash, also called Ash, the Herald of Beauty and the daughter of Jezrien. Since abandoning the Oathpact she has travelled Roshar destroying paintings and statues of herself, a perversion of the creative attribute her order is supposed to embody.