Warbreaker



A standalone (for now) fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, author of Elantris and the Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker once again demonstrates Sanderson's fondness for cool new systems of Functional Magic, strong female leads of royal derivation, religious quandaries, and shocking plot twists.

In a world where magic is ruled by three aspects (color, voice, and Breath, the essential power of one's soul), where those who die nobly can return to life and be worshiped as gods, the minor kingdom of Idris wants to stay as far away from such things as possible. They wear muted colors, usually a simple gray or white, and look upon the use of Breath magic as an abomination. But in the neighboring kingdom of Hallandren, where the immortal God King rules over a court of deities returned from the dead, sinister plots are stirring and many are calling for war against the "rebels" in Idris.

The only way to avert it is for the king of Idris to honor an old treaty and send his daughter to the God-King's court to be his bride. He has trained up his beloved daughter Vivienna to do this, but when the time comes he pulls a switcheroo and sends his youngest daughter Sisirina instead. When Siri arrives, she's immediately pulled into a tangled web of plots and betrayals within the court of the Gods. Meanwhile, Vivi, at loose ends now that the husband she went through a lifetime of Wife Husbandry for has married someone else, sneaks away to Hallandren to save her little sister from the ruthless God-King and take her place. It doesn't quite work out that way, especially when the mysterious Vasher, a fighter with a black sword that speaks to him and enjoys killing people, takes notice of her...

The entire work can be found for free on Brandon Sanderson's website, as Sanderson performed a brave experiment with this novel: as he wrote and re-wrote it, he published each draft on his site, so that aspiring authors and/or curious readers could watch the story evolve artistically and technically. (For obvious reasons, he also kept a changelog.) As a result, spoilers abound; you know where to go if you want to get the story first. (Alternately, buy it on Amazon, where it has been officially published.)

"I'm figuring it out, Nightblood said. I've had a lot of practice."
 * Achievements in Ignorance: Lightsong sometimes plays a kind of highly complex ball-game with the other gods. He makes a point of never learning the rules, but keeps managing impossible moves (and winning) on sheer force of dumb luck.
 * Also, how he rediscovers the skills he had in life. Entirely by accident, he learns halfway through the book that he is good at interrogation and finding hidden details. He has no experience like that in his life as a god, so he reasons that they must be skills from his previous life and wonders if he was a police detective or something similar.
 * Action Girl:  becomes one by the end of the story.
 * Adult Child: Word of God is that Sanderson felt he had to walk a very fine line with, to make him childlike enough to be believable as someone who's been largely isolated his whole life, without being so much that his   was squicky.
 * Affably Evil: is genuinely funny, witty, and charming. He's also
 * Also who is benevolent, fatherly, humble,.
 * The Ageless:
 * The Returned can continue to live indefinitely if they are supplied with Breath once per week but are otherwise as vulnerable to injury as anybody else,
 * Anyone can live indefinitely if they have the Fifth Heightening or above (People with less than that age more slowly, but the Fifth Heightening is when it stops completely). It's actually better than being a Returned since such people don't need a constant supply of Breath to live.
 * A God Am I: The Returned. Except Lightsong, who tends towards A God I Am Not.
 * And Call Him George: Tonk Fah and his pets..
 * Anti-Villain: and  are arguable examples.
 * Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Lampshaded when
 * Arranged Marriage: Siri and the God-King Susebron.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Blushweaver to Lightsong, about his former life: "What if you were a murderer, or a rapist? Worse, what if you had bad fashion sense?"
 * Artifact of Doom: Nightblood.
 * Artifact of Death: it has a distressing tendancy to try and kill whoever draws it, or make nearby people kill each other (but only if they're evil; good people get violently ill when they get too close), something Vasher was clever enough to weaponize- see Throwing Your Sword Always Works below for details.
 * The Atoner:
 * Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Siri goes through this every night before she is sent into Susebron's bedchamber.
 * Beleaguered Assistant: Llarimar, Lightsong's high priest, who does his best to keep his religion running despite its god's total lack of interest in it.
 * Big Bad: Teased constantly. At first it looks like, but he turns out to be harmless. Then it looks like , but it quickly becomes apparent that someone else is paying him. All the characters' suspicion then falls on , but it turns out he's a deliberate red herring for
 * Break the Haughty:
 * Buxom Is Better: All the gods, upon Returning, are transformed into their own idea of physical perfection. As a result, almost all the goddesses have enormous breasts.
 * Cast From Hit Points: How Returned magic works--it can accomplish things far beyond ordinary Awakening, but only at the cost of the Returned in question's life.
 * Chekhov's Gun: reveals in the prologue that he is able to  It turns out in the end that
 * Also, the D'Denir statues are.
 * Chekhov's Level-Up Perk: It's a good thing the heightening provides.
 * The Chessmaster: plotted out almost all the events of the novel like clockwork. Ultimately, it was only two factors he couldn't possibly have foreseen  that stopped him.
 * and are more well-intentioned Chessmasters.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Vasher. First with his technique of throwing Nightblood into groups of people, and then
 * Cool Sword: Again, Nightblood.
 * Corrupt Church: The priests of the various Gods are some of the main plotters in the intrigues at court.
 * Also subverted with
 * Dark Is Not Evil:
 * Deadly Decadent Court: Subverted--the Returned might be decadent, but really, nothing they do has a great deal of long-term relevance, and most of them simply can't muster enough interest to do anything important anyway.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone has their moments, but Lightsong unquestionably earns the grand prize.
 * Distaff Counterpart: Word of God has it that relationship is supposed to be a parallel of
 * Dragon with an Agenda:  is hired to act as The Dragon for  . While he does loyally fulfill this role, his primary motive remains
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Two of them!
 * Evil Chancellor:
 * This appears to be a subversion at the start, however, so it's not played 100% straight.
 * is a complete subversion--he's a bit of a jerk and is quite hidebound, but he's doing no more than what he believes Indeed, he's the Red Herring  uses to keep from being spotted.
 * Evil Overlord: Subverted. has a reputation as being this, especially in Idris,
 * Evil Weapon: Subverted with Nightblood. It's a black sword with magical powers that continually goads its wielder to kill people
 * Exotic Detective: Lightsong when he tries to solve the mystery of the murdered servant in Mercystar's palace--he uses his Fifth Heightening powers to see clues that no-one else could.
 * Expy: Word of God says that Siri and Vivenna were exported from a novel he never got around to completing. While he never was really satisfied with the book and shelved it half-finished, he and his alpha readers liked subplot with the two princesses, so he wrote a book about them instead. He also mentions that Denth is more or less the same concept as Kelsier,
 * Fallen Princess:
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The religion of Austre has some strong similarities to real world Christianity.
 * Fiery Redhead: The hair colours tend to play it straight, with red hair representing passion, temper, fire. Brown hair is described as pensive and is usually the colour that comes out when Siri/Vivenna are thinking intensely about something. Blonde is the colour of happiness. The ones that might subvert or avert the tropes are black and white.
 * Fish Out of Water: Siri, the Rebellious Princess who finds herself in a Princess Classic plotline. And, for that matter, Vivi, a Princess Classic in a Rebellious Princess plotline.
 * Flat Earth Atheist: Lightsong describes himself as the only god who doesn't believe in his own religion.
 * Forged by the Gods: Nightblood. While those who created him may or may not be gods per se, at the least they were/would be worshiped as such.
 * Functional Magic: BioChroma.
 * The Fundamentalist: Vivenna starts out as a mild version of this--she's not violent, but she is arrogant, judgmental, and closed-minded. Character Development helps her get over it.
 * Gambit Pileup: It becomes obvious almost as soon as Siri arrives at the court of the God King that everyone's plotting against everyone else in one way or another. But you won't believe how many people end up being involved, or how bad things get when the plots finally start to collide.
 * Genre Savvy: Denth, who uses it both for practical purposes and clever Lampshade Hanging. See Crowning Moment of Funny for a memorable example that is actually both.
 * Get Into Jail Free: Vasher gets arrested in order to get Breath from a captured rebel.
 * A God Am I:
 * God-Emperor: Susebron, the God-King. Although
 * A God I Am Not: Lightsong, who constantly denies his godhood, though he does acknowledge the powers that come with it.
 * Gods Need Prayer Badly: Variation--the gods are Returned and in order to survive, need a Breath given to them once a week in order to continue existing.
 * God Was My Co-Pilot:
 * Gone Horribly Right: Nightblood. Creating a sentient sword with the Command to destroy evil seems like a good idea. Trouble is, an Awakened sword doesn't even have a clear cut concept of life, let alone something as abstract as evil. So you end up with a weapon eager to kill anyone it considers evil. Doesn't take all that much to make Nightblood think you're evil...
 * God Was My Co-Pilot:
 * Gone Horribly Right: Nightblood. Creating a sentient sword with the Command to destroy evil seems like a good idea. Trouble is, an Awakened sword doesn't even have a clear cut concept of life, let alone something as abstract as evil. So you end up with a weapon eager to kill anyone it considers evil. Doesn't take all that much to make Nightblood think you're evil...

"They used to call him other things, too, Nightblood said."
 * Good Is Not Nice: lampshaded several times when he points out that he knows full well he's got a bad temper and terrible people skills.
 * Government Conspiracy: It's obvious from early on that one exists. It turns out to be.
 * Guile Hero: and Denth have elements of this:
 * is almost a Deconstruction: he's trying very, very hard to accomplish his goals subtly and without too much bloodshed, but it's frequently commented by himself and others that he has almost no social skills, and sucks at stealth. Ultimately, he's more a magical universe's equivalent of a Science Hero, and
 * Denth, meanwhile, looks like a much cleaner fit. He's an Expy of Kelsier, he's witty and has a lot of contacts, and he easily wins people's trust.
 * Hair Colors: The hallmark of the Royal Family of Idris is the Royal Locks, hair that can change colors to reflect its owner's emotions: black for confidence, white for fear, red for anger, blond for happiness...
 * Heroic Sacrifice: The Gods are each able to perform a single miracle, at the cost of their own lives.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Played with concerning the mercenaries Denth and Tonk Fah. They're killers for hire, but they're good guys because they're funny and helpful to Vivenna. Maybe Sanderson's doing a Homage to his good friend Howard Tayler.
 * Hidden in Plain Sight:
 * Hidden Villain:
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Susebron and Siri.
 * Idiot Hero: Played with in interesting ways with Lightsong.
 * I Have Many Names:.
 * Hidden Villain:
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Susebron and Siri.
 * Idiot Hero: Played with in interesting ways with Lightsong.
 * I Have Many Names:.

""And are you going to explain why you consider competing with me to be the most sincere form of compliment?"
 * I Love the Dead:
 * Implacable Man: The chief advantage of the Lifeless. Unlike zombies in other worlds they aren't any stronger or faster than living soldiers and can't spread their condition, but they make up for it by not needing food or rest and being able to shrug off any wound that doesn't directly impair functioning.
 * Note that the real advantage of the Lifeless is that it was discovered near the beginning of the nation's founding how to animate one from a single Breath rather than the fifty it took before. That means that they double the size of their army without any difficulty.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: Lampshaded by Lightsong: he muses that his clothes are so impossibly cool that, were it not for the horde of servants in his employ, he would not be able to dress himself.
 * Insane Troll Logic: Used constantly and lampshaded by Lightsong.

"Of course I am,” Lightsong said. “My dear, have you ever known me to make an inflammatorily ridiculous statement without providing an equally ridiculous explanation to substantiate it?”

"Of course not," [Blushweaver] agreed. "You are nothing if not exhaustive in your self- congratulatory made-up logic.""

""When all else fails, use sexual innuendo," she said lightly..."
 * Jerkass Gods: Pretty much the entire court
 * We don't know for sure. It seem likely that among the gods in jerkass-ness, although more competent at it, but whether that means they all aren't so bad or she is worse is hard to say.
 * Justified and explained during Lightsong's philosophizing: When each god can only perform one miracle to help their people, and that at the cost of their own life, the truly good and noble ones die off quickly and those who stick around are the less compassionate.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lightsong's stated goal in life is to tick off as many people as possible in the most spectacular manner possible. When the chips are down, though, he turns out to be perhaps the most basically decent god left in the pantheon, with the possible exception of
 * Kaleidoscope Hair: The Royal Locks, the sign of Idrian royalty, change color according to the owner's mood. It also can be grown out at will.
 * Lampshaded Double Entendre: Blushweaver, constantly. It's in her name for crying out loud.


 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: The one major downside to coming back to life as a god is forgetting the entirety of your past life. Memories are lost, but not skills or talents.
 * Lighter and Softer: Though the central storyline is still serious, the setting and characters are notably not as dark as in Mistborn or even Elantris.
 * Literal Genie: The key limitation of the magic system is that everything you try to Awaken behaves like this, though not out of a sense of malice; becoming a better Awakener means learning how to phrase commands so that they actually work and don't backfire on you.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father:
 * Luke Nounverber: Many of the Returned have very Noun Verber names, although not all. Gods like Peacegiver, Warbreaker, and Blushweaver fit the trope, but there are others, like Lightsong, Mercystar, and Weatherlove, who do not. Allmother kind of looks like she works, but not quite.
 * The Magocracy: Inverted. Being a powerful Awakener isn't a guarantee of social status, but most of the wealthy and powerful buy lots of breaths so that they have the power available if they need it. In other words, magic is a sign of status, rather than the other way around.
 * Marriage to a God: Siri. An arranged marriage, at that.
 * May-December Romance:  are a... complicated example. Chronologically, he's in his fifties and she's in her late teens. Mentally, she's an adult  Physically, they're about the same age because of how
 * This veers into Mayfly territory when the shippers pair Vivenna with
 * Although in this setting anybody can become immortal (barring accidents) if they have enough Breath so it's not that big of an issue.
 * Meaningful Name: Austre, the name the people of Idris give to God, evokes "austerity", which is a hallmark of their religion.
 * Mistaken for Granite: The D'denir statues.
 * Mr. Exposition: Hoid the storyteller.
 * My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Lightsong.
 * Nay Theist: Lightsong remarks early on that he must be the only God ever to not believe in his own religion.
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain:
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Sanderson really likes this one. Not used as heavily here as in his earlier books, but it shows up.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: The Lifeless are reanimated corpses. They don't rot, they don't eat brains (or anything else) and they're intelligent enough to take orders, if you know the magic password to command them.
 * Arguably the Hallandren gods themselves, as they're people who've died and been Returned; supposedly the Iridescent Tones (or to the Idrians, Austre, God of Colors) Return those individuals who die exemplifying one of the "great virtues of human existence." They require at least one Breath a week to continue living, and whether or not they're actually gods is up for debate.
 * Considering the way the Returned feed off Breath, they might also be considered a (relatively harmless) variation of Our Vampires Are Different.
 * Perma-Stubble: Vasher. Vivenna briefly wonders if he actively trims it to look like that after awhile.
 * Physical God: The Gods of Hallandren...for a loose definition of god.
 * Anyone with enough Breath to reach one of the upper Heightenings would probably qualify as well under most definitions, even if they aren't actually Returned. The Tenth Heightening, so far seen only as a product of the tens of thousands of Breaths the God-King carries, gives one the ability to Awaken perfectly by pure instinct (bypassing the key limitation of this magic system, the need to know how to phrase something exactly to make the Awakened object do it properly). There is a reason the God-King is such a powerful figure.
 * Princess in Rags: Happens to at one point.
 * Psycho for Hire:  Literally, as he's a mercenary.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Nightblood comes off like this at times.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old:
 * Rebellious Princess: Siri is a free spirit living in a very conservative culture, though she's able to get away with being somewhat rebellious because she's the youngest of four children and thus not very important in the grand scheme of things. Ironically, this independence is what helps her adjust to Hallandren, and she comments in the narrative that Vivenna, who was trained to go, would have been hindered by that very training.
 * Of course, Vivenna similarly comments that she is much better suited for Hallandren than poor Siri. This book is full of characters misjudging each other, and contains several occurrences of the literary equivalent of a Description Cut.
 * Vivenna herself is a subversion--even when she does go against her father's wishes, it's only out of what she sees as her royal duty.
 * Rousseau Was Right: Pretty much every character in the story has good (or at least sympathetic) motivations for their actions. In the end, the only truly evil person in the novel is who is ultimately just The Dragon's hired help.
 * Sarcastic Confession: pull this several times with regards to, but the truth doesn't get realized until it's too late.
 * Sequel Hook: in the epilogue, Vasher tells Vivenna that Word of God is that Warbreaker was always intended to be a two-book series, but the release of volume two, Nightblood, was delayed by working on The Wheel of Time. As Warbreaker stands on its own fine, however, this wasn't a serious issue.
 * On his blog, Sanderson revealed that he felt it would be better to get his extremely ambitious Stormlight Archive series established before the release of what he admits will be a tonally different follow-up to the first book.
 * Shapeshifter Baggage: Averted. Siri can make her hair grow from short to very long in a matter of moments, but it makes her very, very hungry.
 * Shout-Out: Early in the book, Parlin acquires a green hat, described as being "like a sock, though much larger." Remind you of anyone?
 * The Sociopath: is heavily implied to be this in the novel; Word of God confirms it.
 * Soul Power: The Idrians believe Breath is a person's soul, and thus hold Awakening to be the worst sort of heresy. The people of Hallandren are less convinced of this, and don't revile Awakeners or believe losing one's Breath is so terrible, as long as they're paid well for it (or do it for a good cause, like sustaining the Returned).
 * Spanner in the Works: Almost everyone at the Court of Gods was prepared for Idris to sent Princess Vivenna to marry/be the hostage of the God King. When the King of Idris exploits a loophole in the contract to send Princess Siri instead, they're all convinced that she must be part of an elaborate plot against them and are thrown into a frenzy trying to adjust their webs of schemes. But actually, the king just doesn't love Siri as much as he loves Vivenna and figures he'll have an easier time sending her to be raped and killed instead.
 * Spare to the Throne: The oldest princess was groomed from birth to become the God-Emperor's wife. The second oldest princess was the "spare," trained in case something happened to her sister. Their father sent the youngest princess instead, mostly because she was a wild card that no one had ever bothered to spy on. Word of God and a bit of his narration also indicate that despite being basically a decent man, the King really didn't love Siri as much as he loved the others, so found it less painful to sacrifice her.
 * Stuffed in The Fridge:
 * Ahem, not to mention
 * Talking Weapon: Nightblood.
 * Terse Talker: Parlin.
 * They Do: Awww.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Nightblood's powers make him more useful as a grenade than a sword. He possesses the power to tempt people with impure souls, and gets them all to kill each other. It doesn't always work because he can't do anything to sinless men.
 * Title Drop: real name (well, more or less) is Warbreaker the Peaceful.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Played with--Siri and Vivenna are set up as the two roles, and then Siri ends up in an Arranged Marriage dealing with social intrigue while Vivenna has to be a Rebellious Princess.
 * Treacherous Advisor: and
 * Uncanny Valley: Invoked with the Lifeless. The most disturbing part of them is that they don't look dead... or alive, really.
 * The Unfavorite: Word of God confirms that, as much as he may rationalize to himself otherwise, King Dedelin does in fact love Vivenna more than Siri, and that most of the political and tactical reasons he gives for sending off Siri instead of Vivenna are largely efforts to delude himself. This is also hinted at in the narrative.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Vivenna to  Blushweaver to the Big Bad.
 * The Vamp: Blushweaver comes across like this at first--Character Development gradually moves her more into Femme Fatale.
 * Possibly more into My Girl Is a Slut. She's flirtatious, sure, but legitimately means well for both the country and the target of her affections.
 * Virginity Makes You Stupid:.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: All of the Returned can do this, though most don't know it (hence subconsciously shapeshifting into idealized versions of what they looked like as humans, but not showing the ability any other way)..
 * Walking the Earth: Vasher
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist:
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: The princess (who could be Siri or Vivenna) depicted on the cover. In the text itself, their hair (and all their family's) changes color to match their mood, and it's only white when they're scared or very nervous.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Several, at least at the beginning.
 * whose entire experience of the world consists of a book of fairy tales his mother read him as a child.
 * Vivenna has a real tendency to view everything in terms of absolute black and white. She gets better.
 * Siri also starts out quite naive and idealistic.
 * Word of God: Identifies as one of the Shards from Sanderson's wider cosmology. It is named Endowment.
 * Sanderson tends to expose a lot of otherwise-unshown background in this way. Another tidbit: Clod the Lifeless was made from Arsteel's corpse.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Vivenna, pre-Character Development
 * You Fail History Forever: Implied to be pretty much everybody.
 * : Denth hates Vasher because of it.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Poor
 * You Fail History Forever: Implied to be pretty much everybody.
 * : Denth hates Vasher because of it.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Poor