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Difference between revisions of "War of Reckoning"
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== Background ==
While exploring a forest south of the [[Shattered Plains]], King Gavilar's brother [[Dalinar Kholin]] encountered a society of non-[[slaveform]] [[singers]] who called themselves '''listeners'''.{{book ref|sa1|28}} Not knowing what they are, and seeing their similarity to [[parshmen]], Gavilar's [[stormwarden]]s coined the term '''Parshendi''',{{book ref|sa1|45}}
Diplomatic relations were established, and eventually a treaty was made between the Alethi and the so-called Parshendi. The king invited a Parshendi delegation to celebrate the signing of the treaty in [[Kholinar]].{{book ref|sa1|prologue}} That night, Gavilar revealed to [[Eshonai]], a member of the delegation who could speak Alethi, his secret intention to bring back the [[Fused|old singer gods]] in order to also bring about the return of the [[Herald]]s. He mistakenly believed that the Parshendi would welcome this idea. In reality, the ancestors of the listeners had abandoned their gods in favor of freedom, and they did not want their gods to return.{{book ref|sa3|prologue}}
The majority of the Alethi armies were composed of [[darkeyed]] spearmen organized into battalions and led by [[lighteyed]] officers. Darkeyed soldiers were only allowed spears{{book ref|sa1|prologue}}, so Alethi archers and swordsmen were all lighteyes.{{book ref|sa2|76}}
Aside from regular weapons, the Alethi also had around twenty [[Shardblade]]s.{{book ref|sa1|52}}
The Alethi also had [[fabrial]]s, some of which, like [[grandbow]]s, had military applications.
Seeing the steady decline of her people and becoming war-weary, Eshonai was eager to find a way out of the protracted war. She had been planning to approach Dalinar Kholin and sue for peace. However her sister, the scholar [[Venli]], did not believe such a plan would work. Instead, Venli argued that they should use a [[Singer#Forms_of_Power|Form of Power]] in order to defeat the Alethi.{{book ref|sa2|i|1}}
Secretly guided by the voidspren [[Ulim]],{{book ref|sa3|i|3}}
Prior to bonding the stormspren, and with the help of Dalinar's son [[Adolin]]{{book ref|sa2|26}} and the listener warrior [[Thude]], Eshonai was finally able to arrange a meeting with Dalinar to discuss a possible end to the war. The plan was for the meeting to happen in seven days. Having received confirmation of the arrangement, Eshonai went out to experiment with stormform.{{book ref|sa2|i|5}}
Stormform gave Eshonai a different kind of armor and the ability to jump chasms more easily. She started attuning to a new set of [[Singer#Rhythms|Rhythms]] that were more aggressive.{{book ref|sa2|i|8}} More importantly, the new form changed Eshonai's personality, making her more arrogant and belligerent. She abandoned her plan to negotiate. Instead, she challenged the Alethi to try and destroy her people if they could.{{book ref|sa2|51}} She planned to lure the whole Alethi army out far away from their warcamps and destroy them with a summoned highstorm.{{book ref|sa2|i|11}}
Along with Venli, Eshonai organized the adoption of stormform for all of their people. A few of the listeners did not agree to this plan and managed to escape.{{book ref|sa2|i|11}} [[Rlain]], a listener spy who infiltrated the Alethi army and joined [[Bridge Four]], returned from his espionage mission, and discovered the new stormform army. He decided not to join them.{{book ref|sa2|78}}
=== The Battle of Narak ===
Szeth arrived on the battlefield on a mission from [[Taravangian]] to assassinate Dalinar, but was thwarted by [[Kaladin]].{{book ref|sa2|86}} [[Shallan Davar]] managed to find and activate the ancient [[Oathgate]] within the city, and the surviving Alethi army was safely transported to [[Urithiru]] before the combined Everstorm and highstorm destroyed the whole city of Narak.{{book ref|sa2|84}}{{book ref|sa2|86}}
The surviving remnants of the stormform army eventually ended up as vessels for the [[Fused]], the immortal commanders of [[Odium]]'s army that returned through the Everstorm. The exception was Venli, whom Odium spared for his own purposes.{{book ref|sa3|i|6}}
The non stormform listeners who escaped into the chasms survived with the help of a chasmfiend.{{book ref|row|115}}
== Warfare ==
Dalinar did not use those bridges because he was convinced that officers shouldn't demand anything from their soldiers that they would not do themselves and reproached Sadeas for wasting lives.{{book ref|sa1|15}}{{book ref|sa1|65}} Later, though, Sadeas and Dalinar worked together. Sadeas, who could reach a plateau faster than anyone else with his light bridges, went ahead with most of his force and secured a foothold; Dalinar followed at the pace of his chull-drawn bridges, although he could reach the contested plateau twice as quickly because he crossed on some mobile bridges Sadeas had lent him so he didn't need to stop and lower his own bridges at each chasm. At the final plateau, Dalinar would put his own bridges forward so as not to waste bridgemen's lives.{{book ref|sa1|58}}
Kaladin was the first to train a bridgecrew of a light bridge{{book ref|sa1|14}} and had considerable success with it.{{book ref|sa1|59}} Not only did he manage to make them faster than other crews, he also devised the method of "side carrying" the bridge so that it could shield arrows from bridgemen.{{book ref|sa1|32}} Although this method significantly protected the bridgemen, it was a strategical failure to Sadeas' army. The [[Parshendi]] archers realized [[Bridge Four]] were too well protected and focused their arrows on the bulk of soldiers instead, causing heavy loss of trained soldiers instead of expendable bridgemen. Other bridgecrew who awkwardly tried to imitate them failed to deliver the bridges and this resulted in a lost battle. As punishments, [[Lamaril]]
<!--- fits passage about the parshmen bone shield in here? --->
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