The Way of Kings Cover art by Michael Whelan
Earlier this year, Brandon Sanderson gave us a major update on the final five books of The Stormlight Archive, which should make a lot of fans very happy.
For years, we have known that the flashback characters for Books 6 through 10 are planned to be Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, and Jasnah. What we didn’t know is whether these five would be replacing Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and the other characters who carried the first half of the series?
According to Sanderson, that is not the plan.
During his December 2025 birthday spoiler livestream, Sanderson confirmed that Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin should remain about as important as they have been so far.
“Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin should remain about the same level of import that they have.”
He also gave us a better idea of how much attention the five flashback characters will receive. Lift, Taln, and Jasnah are currently expected to have larger roles, while Renarin and Ash may be closer to Navani and Szeth in the front half, meaning they are still main characters but may receive less page time.
That gives us a much clearer picture of the back half. These books will not simply trade the old cast for five replacements. Instead, Sanderson appears to be building an even larger group of central characters around the completely changed version of Roshar left behind at the end of Wind and Truth.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Wind and Truth and the wider Cosmere.
Who is Returning for Stormlight Archive Books 6-10? [Video]
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Lift Could Become One of Roshar’s Most Important Radiants
The planned flashback character for Stormlight Book 6 is Lift.
I know Lift is not everyone’s favorite character, but we need to remember that there will be a roughly 10-year time jump before the second half begins. Give Lift a decade to grow up, throw in a ridiculous training montage with Zahel (aka. Vasher), and she could become one hell of a character.
More importantly, Lift has one massive advantage over nearly every other Radiant on Roshar: She can metabolize food into Lifelight and use it to power her Surges.
That was always a useful quirk. After Wind and Truth, it could become one of the most valuable abilities on the planet.
Roshar has entered the Night of Sorrows. The Stormfather is gone, the highstorm has been consumed by the Everstorm, and Retribution has pulled Stormlight away from the world. The Radiants who remain will need to find new sources of Investiture, whether that means Warlight, Towerlight, or something we have not seen yet.
Lift can eat.
That does not automatically make her the most powerful Radiant alive, but it may make her the most self-sufficient. While other Radiants struggle to fuel their abilities, Lift can potentially bypass the problem entirely as long as she has access to food.
That could matter even more once the conflict spreads beyond Roshar. The final phase of the Cosmere is moving toward wars between planets, Shards, and magic systems. If Lift can travel off-world with her bond and abilities intact, she may be uniquely suited for missions where carrying a supply of Stormlight is impossible.
She may have started as the strange kid who wanted to remain young forever, but the version of Lift we meet in Book 6 could be one of the most capable people left on Roshar.
Renarin May Be Roshar’s Answer to Future Sight
Renarin is planned as the flashback character for Book 7, and it is difficult to overstate how important he has already been.
Throughout the first five books, Renarin’s bond with Glys, an Enlightened mistspren, allowed him to see possible futures. It also interfered with Odium’s ability to predict events around him. Renarin became a blind spot in the plans of a god, and without that advantage, Roshar’s resistance may have collapsed long before the end of Wind and Truth.
Now Renarin and Rlain could help make bonds with Enlightened spren more accepted and more common.
That matters because future sight will not only be useful against Retribution. It could be critical against threats from elsewhere in the Cosmere.
Scadrian Allomancers provide the clearest example. Burning atium allows an Allomancer to see an opponent’s immediate future, making that person nearly impossible to defeat unless the opponent has a way to counter the same ability. Some Aviar can also grant access to forms of future sight or protective awareness.
As the Cosmere’s worlds begin colliding, Roshar cannot afford to be the only major power unable to plan around opponents who can glimpse what comes next. Renarin may be the beginning of Roshar’s answer to that problem.
His story also has enormous political potential. Wind and Truth leaves Renarin taking a larger role in holding Alethkar’s remaining leadership together, while his relationship with Rlain could help bridge the divide between humans and singers. Even if Sanderson gives him less page time than Lift or Taln, Renarin may still be one of the most consequential people in the entire back half.
Ash Could Finally Reveal the Truth About the Heralds
Ash, also known as Shalash, is currently planned as the flashback character for Book 8.
She may be the hardest member of this group to predict because we still know relatively little about what her present-day role will become. That uncertainty is also what makes her chapters so interesting.
Ash gives Sanderson a direct viewpoint into the history of the Heralds. We have seen pieces of their past, but there is still a huge amount we do not understand about their relationships, the earliest Desolations, the Oathpact, and how thousands of years of war and torture changed them.
Among the original Heralds, Ash also appears more functional than many of the others. That does not mean she is fine. None of them are. But she may be one of the most reliable characters through whom we can experience their history and whatever role they play after the Oathpact is reforged.
The Heralds should be far more central to Books 6 through 10, especially with Kaladin now joining their ranks. Ash can connect that new story to everything the original Heralds endured, and her flashbacks may finally answer questions that have been hanging over the series since the prelude to The Way of Kings.
Taln Could Become the Back Half’s Biggest Fan Favorite
Taln is planned as the flashback character for Book 9, and Sanderson has suggested that he will be one of the more prominent members of the new group.
That should surprise absolutely no one.
Talenel is already one of the most legendary figures in the Cosmere. He endured roughly 4,500 years of torture on Braize without breaking. When he briefly regained himself in Wind and Truth, he tore through Fused with his bare hands, crushing gemhearts as if he had been waiting thousands of years to remind everyone who he was.
The problem is that Taln remains deeply damaged. His strength is not just physical. His mind, his memories, and his ability to function after everything he endured could become the heart of his story.
Kaladin was the great warrior at the center of the first half, but his journey has moved beyond simply being the unstoppable soldier who arrives to save everyone. Taln could fill some of that space in the back half, only on an even more frightening scale.
He is brutally powerful, almost impossibly resilient, and completely broken in ways we have only begun to understand. If Sanderson can give Taln a recovery arc without taking away the weight of what happened to him, he has a real chance to become one of the most popular characters in The Stormlight Archive, if not the entire Cosmere.
Jasnah May Be the Most Dangerous Person in the Group
Jasnah is currently planned as the flashback character for the tenth and final Stormlight book.
That alone tells us something. Sanderson is saving her history for the end.
Jasnah is already one of the most dangerous Radiants alive. Through Transformation, she can Soulcast enemies directly and end fights before they have a chance to respond. Her command of Transportation gives her access to Shadesmar, and a fully mastered Elsecaller should theoretically be capable of returning to the Physical Realm without relying on a permanent perpendicularity.
That ability could become enormously important after Wind and Truth. Roshar is isolated, Shallan is stranded in Shadesmar, and the traditional routes between realms and worlds have become far less reliable. Jasnah may eventually possess a form of mobility that very few other people in the Cosmere can match.
But her powers are only part of what makes her fascinating.
Jasnah is emotionally and politically shattered by the end of Wind and Truth. Taravangian defeats her without a sword or a Surge. He attacks the contradictions in her philosophy and forces her to confront the gap between the ruthless decisions she believed she could make and what she was actually prepared to sacrifice.
The uncomfortable truth is that Jasnah and Taravangian have always shared some philosophical ground. Both are willing to discuss terrible actions if they believe those actions will save more people in the end.
That is why I would not rule out Jasnah working with Retribution at some point.
I do not think that necessarily means she becomes a villain or accepts everything Taravangian wants. She may decide that cooperating with him is the only way to survive a larger war against other Shards. If Retribution begins expanding across the Cosmere, Jasnah could become one of his most valuable allies, his most dangerous opponent, or somehow both at the same time.
Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin Are Not Going Anywhere
The biggest takeaway from Sanderson’s update is that the five flashback characters are not replacing the three surviving leads from the first half.
Kaladin is now a Herald and will be working with the others inside the vision created through the new Oathpact. His setting and responsibilities have changed completely, but Sanderson’s comments tell us that his story is far from over.
Shallan is trapped in Shadesmar and separated from Adolin, but her powers continue to grow. Her connection to the Spiritual Realm and her ability to use Substantiation, creating solid Lightweavings by combining Illumination and Transformation, could make her more dangerous and versatile than ever.
Adolin, meanwhile, has formed the Unoathed and established a new kind of bond with Maya and the other deadeye spren. Ten years later, he could have an entire force of Unoathed fighting alongside restored deadeyes.
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