ByDanielD
Eshonai is a minor character in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series — but her strength of will and sense of adventure has made her a fan favorite. She was a listener who lived on the Shattered Plains, and fought and died as a Shardbearer in the War of Reckoning against the Alethi. Ironically, it was Eshonai who originally found the humans and introduced them to her people, the singers. Her sister Venli is a fairly important character in the series.
In this article, we’ll give a concise overview of Eshonai’s life, her relationships, and her appearance and personality.
This biography seeks to cover only the most crucial moments in Eshonai’s life — subplots and minor events will not be referenced unless they are relevant to the series’ narrative.
This section contains major spoilers for all of the Stormlight Archive series.
Eshonai has red and black marbled skin/carapace. She is tall, standing seven feet in Shardplate. Her Plate is silver, and she wears a red cape. In warform, her uniform consists of a cap and a red cloth stretched over her armor, and her carapace has large armored protrusions. In stormform, her eyes are red, and her carapace is less bulky than in warform.
Eshonai was respected among her people, first for her discovery of the humans, and then for her strength as both leader and warrior. As general, she saw her role as a duty rather than a calling. While she led the singers in the war against the Alethi, she still longed to explore the world. She viewed military life as repetitive and restrictive — but never voiced these frustrations to those around her. Though she had no love for war, she fought hard to protect her people, and took her responsibilities seriously. Somewhat surprisingly given her youthful wandering, Eshonai ultimately proves both pragmatic and dependable. She blames herself for the War of Reckoning, believing that her contact with the Alethi set events in motion (which is technically accurate, though the humans would almost certainly have found the singers eventually).
Eshonai was a skilled warrior and strategist. She spoke Alethi well, though with an accent. While she saw the need for war, she preferred negotiation and sought peace when possible. She had a habit of becoming too focused during combat, ignoring her surroundings — which caused her issues both times she fought a Kholin Shardbearer. She is deeply loyal to her people, but struggles with the expectations placed upon her. Perhaps her greatest failure was in underestimating how stormform could change her mind, which turns her into something she no longer controls.
Exploration was what Eshonai loved; she regularly dropped her assigned task to explore the countryside. Her mother was the Keeper of Songs (a member of the community who memorizes and recites the singers’ oral history in song), and she tried to teach Eshonai the songs, but her daughter was too interested in mapping Natanatan to sit still long enough to learn the songs. Meeting the humans, and learning just how large the world actually was, amazed Eshonai — she fantasized about exploring both uncharted wildernesses and the civilizations of the humans.
Like all singers, Eshonai was able to change forms by bonding a spren in a highstorm, taking it into her gemheart. The different forms all granted different strengths, weaknesses, and temperaments. She spent most of her life in workform (bonded to a gravitationspren), which is strong and durable — workforms prefer to avoid violence and conflict. Eshonai’s brief time spent in mateform (bonded to a lifespren) was a “disaster”; she embarrassed herself in some way. In mateform (which is how singers reproduce), singers struggle to control their behavior more than in most other forms, being easily distracted and prone to silliness.
During the war, she takes warform (by bonding a painspren), which gives her greater strength and strong carapace armor, able to leap chasms and heal quickly from injury. However, warforms require lots of food and struggle with abstract concepts.
Later, she becomes the first listener to take stormform (by bonding a stormspren), gaining the ability to summon red lightning and help bring the Everstorm by singing the Song of Storms. This form has smoother carapace than warform (though the armor is nearly as strong), and seems to make the singer more aggressive and less empathetic. Eshonai hears a voice deep in her mind screaming when she is in stormform (this is a combination of her own self and “something” happening to Roshar).
Eshonai wielded both Shardplate and a Shardblade. She was highly skilled in combat, holding her own against Adolin Kholin despite using an unorthodox fighting style. She found Shardplate reassuring, and enjoyed the strength it gave her.
Eshonai respected her mother Jaxlim, but felt she had already lost her due to her dementia. Their relationship when Eshonai was younger wasn’t perfect — Jaxlim found Eshonai unreliable, and thought her exploration was a waste of time (until Eshonai found the humans). Eshonai’s failure to learn the songs of the singers also strained their relationship. Despite this, Eshonai’s connection to Jaxlim helps her resist stormform’s influence long enough to protect those who refuse to change: when Jaxlim refuses to take stormform, Eshonai assigns her old squad members to guard her and the other dissenters, despite knowing her squad might help the dissenters escape.
Venli is Eshonai’s sister — the two had a troubled relationship. When they were younger, Venli was both jealous and resentful of Eshonai’s freedom, and felt her sister’s wandering forced her into becoming the next Keeper of Songs. Venli’s impact on Eshonai’s life ends up being very significant: Venli pushes for experimentation with new forms, and Eshonai reluctantly agrees to test stormform, unaware of Venli’s true intentions (bringing the Everstorm).
We hope this biography had all the info on Eshonai you were looking for. Leave questions, comments, and thoughts on which form you’d most want to be in the comments below!
Art at the top of the page is by Antti Hakosaari, from the Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archive Tabletop RPG
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