Renarin Kholin: Complete Character Guide

Renarin Kholin is the only Knight Radiant whose powers come from the enemy, and the only person on Roshar that Odium cannot see coming. For four books he is the quiet one standing behind Adolin, apologising for existing. By the end of the fifth he has freed an Unmade and turned down a crown. The Stormlight Archive rarely says it out loud, but Renarin is its answer to a question every other character dodges: what if the thing everyone calls a curse is simply a different way of seeing?

1. Who is Renarin Kholin?

Renarin is the second son of Dalinar and Evi, born in 1154 while his father was away fighting the Veden. Evi asked Dalinar for a name by spanreed and never got an answer, so she built one herself: the Riran name Re joined to Alethi syllables, meaning roughly “Re, born unto Dalinar.” Dalinar disliked it and read it as “one who was born unto himself.” Years later Sja-anat gives Renarin a title with the same shape, Son of Thorns.

He is soft-spoken, thoughtful and slow to answer, which people mistake for dullness. He fidgets with a small box or with a length of chain that belonged to his mother, dislikes being touched unexpectedly, and avoids eye contact. Sanderson has confirmed that Renarin is on the autism spectrum and lives with anxiety, and that he is gay. As a boy he also had a “blood weakness” that kept him out of combat; Kaladin later recognises it as a form of epilepsy.

2. The Way of Kings: the useless prince

Our first real look at Renarin is on the chasmfiend hunt, where he rides onto the plateau to help and forgets to draw his sword. That night Sadeas calls him useless in front of the court. Dalinar asks, very calmly, whether he heard correctly, because if he did he will have to summon his Blade and break the Vengeance Pact. Sadeas decides he misspoke.

At the end of the novel Dalinar trades his Shardblade to Sadeas for Kaladin and the bridgemen, then gives his Shardplate to Renarin. It is half of a promise made in love and in total misunderstanding: Dalinar believes the Plate’s strength can overcome his son’s weakness, when his son was never trying to be strong in that way.

3. Words of Radiance: Bridge Four and the screaming Blade

In book two Adolin wins a Shardblade from Salinor Eved in a duel and gives it to his brother. Zahel, the grumpy swordmaster who is secretly Vasher from Warbreaker, trains Renarin and is surprised by how obedient he is, making him jump off the roof in Plate until he trusts it. But every time Renarin summons the Blade he freezes, and nobody understands why.

He also walks into the Bridge Four barracks and asks Kaladin to let him join. Kaladin hands him the stew bowls to wash. The bridgemen are uncomfortable at first, and then they are not, and Bridge Four becomes the one place Renarin can simply be himself.

Meanwhile, numbers keep appearing scratched into walls during highstorms, counting down to the Everstorm. The book lets you suspect Dalinar, or a spren, or something worse. At the end Renarin walks into the first meeting of the new Radiants and quietly explains everything. He is a Truthwatcher. He wrote the numbers. He stopped wearing his spectacles because Stormlight healed his eyes. And he froze with the Blade because he could hear its dead spren screaming. It is one of the best reveals in the series because every clue was on the page.

4. Glys and the Enlightened Truthwatcher

Here is the twist Oathbringer hides until its climax. Renarin’s spren, Glys, is a mistspren corrupted by the Unmade Sja-anat before the bond formed. Sja-anat calls this Enlightening. Glys looks like a red crystalline snowflake instead of the usual shifting light, and he prefers to stay hidden inside Renarin.

That corruption changes the powers. Renarin still has Progression, and he heals as well as any Truthwatcher, though not injuries a person has fully accepted as part of themselves, which is why he cannot restore Rysn’s legs. His Illumination is different: no illusions, only lights that sometimes act strangely. With that light he can show someone an alternate version of themselves, and in Oathbringer he uses a surge of Stormlight to drive the life out of a thunderclast.

Then there are the visions. They strike like fits, dark glass spreading underfoot and cracking into stained glass windows of possible futures, sometimes with numbers underneath. Glys can record them so Renarin can replay them later. They show possibilities, not certainties, and because Renarin acts on what he sees, he becomes a black spot in Odium’s own future sight. So does anyone close to him, which is why Dalinar, and later Szeth, are hard for Odium to read.

5. Oathbringer: the vision that was wrong

During the Battle of Thaylen Field Renarin kneels in the temple of Pailiah, drowning in visions. He sees his father become Odium’s champion. He sees Jasnah walk in and kill him. Then Jasnah does walk in, having worked out that his spren is not a real mistspren, and summons Ivory to end the threat.

Renarin accepts it. He turns, sees her, and nods. Jasnah, the most ruthless person in the series, sees his tear-streaked face, dismisses her Blade and hugs him. What follows is the key to the character: his vision was wrong about her, so what he sees can be wrong. Sanderson has said this is his favourite scene in Oathbringer, and it is easy to see why. It turns Renarin’s curse into a question instead of a sentence.

6. Rhythm of War: the quiet kingmaker

Book four uses Renarin sparingly, and two quiet choices matter most. When Glys asks who else deserves an Enlightened spren, Renarin names Rlain, and Tumi later bonds him as the second Enlightened Truthwatcher. And he visits Taravangian, tells him there is still a point of light in the darkness around him, and later sends him a note that says “I’m sorry” with two gems holding corrupted windspren. Those gems are how Taravangian summons Rayse to the moment Nightblood kills him. How much Renarin understood of that plan is still open, and that ambiguity is the point.

7. Wind and Truth: choosing a future

In book five Renarin finally leaves his brother’s shadow. He goes with Shallan and Rlain through the Oathgate into Shadesmar and then into the Spiritual Realm, hunting the Ghostbloods, who want the prison of the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram. Inside the visions of the Heralds’ past he stands in for Vedel, and Glys offers to feed him the original dialogue so he never has to worry about saying the wrong thing. Renarin notices what that offer really costs.

The emotional peak is a choice about the future rather than a fight. Tired of futures shaped by Odium, Renarin uses his own Light to clear the visions and sees versions of himself: an ardent, a stormwarden, a general, and one with Rlain. Glys warns that humans and singers alike may reject them on that path. Renarin chooses it anyway, because the war only ends when people change their minds, and he kisses Rlain.

Then the two of them find Ba-Ado-Mishram’s gemstone beside the corpse of the Radiant Melishi. Against Shallan’s cry, they shatter it and free her, a human and a singer doing it together on purpose. When she lashes out at Renarin, Rlain steps in front of him. After the contest, grieving Dalinar, Renarin refuses the crown of Urithiru and asks Jasnah to help build a representative government instead. The boy who could not draw his sword ends the book as the Kholin who will not take the throne.

Sanderson has said Renarin will be the flashback character for Stormlight book seven, by which point he would be in his thirties, while warning that this does not guarantee he is alive in it. Either way, the character built to be overlooked is now one of the series’ load-bearing walls.

Frequently asked questions

What order of Knights Radiant is Renarin Kholin?

Renarin calls himself a Truthwatcher, but he is not a standard one. His spren, the mistspren Glys, was corrupted by the Unmade Sja-anat before they bonded, which makes Renarin the first Enlightened Truthwatcher. He still has Progression and can heal, but his Illumination only produces lights, and the bond gives him visions of possible futures that normal Truthwatchers do not have.

Why can Renarin see the future?

Because Glys was touched by Sja-anat, the bond draws on the same kind of future sight Odium uses. The visions appear as panes of stained glass forming over dark glass underfoot, and they show possibilities, not certainties. A side effect is that Renarin is a blind spot in Odium’s own future sight, and so is anyone close enough to act on what Renarin sees.

Is Renarin Kholin autistic?

Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that Renarin is on the autism spectrum, and he also lives with anxiety. As a child he had a blood weakness that Kaladin identifies as a form of epilepsy. Stormlight eventually heals the seizures, but the bond replaces them with involuntary vision fits.

Are Renarin and Rlain together?

Yes. Sanderson confirmed years ago that Renarin is gay and had feelings for Rlain, and in Wind and Truth the two finally act on it. Inside the Spiritual Realm Renarin chooses the future where he is with Rlain, knowing both humans and singers may reject them, and kisses him.

What happens to Renarin in Wind and Truth?

He enters Shadesmar and then the Spiritual Realm with Shallan and Rlain to stop the Ghostbloods from reaching Ba-Ado-Mishram. Renarin and Rlain find her prison, and together they shatter the gemstone and free her. After the contest he refuses the crown of Urithiru, asks Jasnah to help build a representative government, and speaks at his father’s body.