Chapter 28: Playing Pretend

Spoiler Notice: This page contains full spoilers for Oathbringer through Chapter 28. If you haven't read this far, turn back now.

Summary

During a coalition strategy meeting in Urithiru, Shallan sits apart, sketching the malformed spren she saw in a dark corridor. Pattern identifies it as an ancient entity of Odium. She also reviews sketches of recent murder victims and notices that the victims appear in pairs with similar features; the spren seems to be copying earlier attacks. Malata, Taravangian’s Radiant, approaches and casually questions the Desolation’s validity, revealing herself as a Dustbringer.

The meeting is interrupted when Ialai Sadeas arrives with Meridas Amaram and declares him the new regent and heir of House Sadeas, essentially making him highprince. Dalinar accepts under protest, and Elhokar ratifies it. Adolin storms out; Shallan follows and, in a raw moment, reveals that Amaram killed her brother Helaran and took his Shardblade. Adolin reacts with shock and explains that the Shardbearer Kaladin killed on the battlefield—whose Shards Amaram then stole—was Helaran. Shallan, reeling, forces the realization aside.

As she wanders the tower alone, she discovers grotesque, unremembered sketches in her book: chaotic lines, screaming horses, a black void. Frightened but compelled by secrets, she visits Vathah and his squad of former deserters, finally giving them a dangerous mission that involves getting drunk—likely to help her track the copycat spren.

Key Events

  • Shallan sketches the same Odium-spren she glimpsed earlier and Pattern confirms its ancient origin.
  • She deduces that the recent murders mimic earlier ones; the spren is impersonating violence.
  • Malata, the Dustbringer, meets Shallan and shows skepticism about the Desolation.
  • Ialai Sadeas installs Amaram as highprince of House Sadeas; Dalinar reluctantly acknowledges him.
  • Shallan tells Adolin that Amaram killed her brother Helaran.
  • Adolin reveals that Kaladin killed a Shardbearer to save Amaram—and that Shardbearer was Helaran.
  • Shallan finds disturbing sketches she doesn’t remember drawing, hinting at an outside influence or fractured identity.
  • She recruits Vathah’s team for a covert mission watching the market for the copycat spren.

Character Development

Shallan continues to bury painful truths. When faced with the revelation that Kaladin killed Helaran, she reflexively shoves it away, a pattern underscored by the chapter’s title. Her forgotten sketches suggest a deepening dissociation—perhaps another persona surfacing or the Unmade’s influence creeping into her mind. Despite her fear, she compulsively pursues secrets, now actively deploying Vathah’s men to hunt the copycat spren.

Adolin’s loathing of Amaram is personal and visceral. The news about Helaran aligns his outrage with Shallan’s grief, but also forces him to confront the tragic irony that Kaladin’s heroic act enabled Amaram’s theft. His desire for a “true soldier” reveals a lingering idealism that politics keeps shattering.

Pattern shows rare unease, unable to recall when the disturbing sketches were made. His admission that the spren “is of him” (Odium) and that Dustbringer spren “like to break things” provides crucial spren-lore.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Playing Pretend: Shallan’s personas (Radiant), Amaram’s false nobility, and the political theater of the highprince declaration all reflect performance versus reality.
  • Forgetting and Suppression: Shallan’s instinct to “tuck it away” when Helaran’s death ties to Kaladin, and the unremembered sketches, signify a mind fracturing under pressure.
  • Copycat Violence: The spren mimicking past murders mirrors the mimicry of identity; it literalizes the book’s larger theme of destructive imitation.
  • Secrets and Investigation: Mraize’s hold over Shallan, the dark corridors, and her need to “make them hers” fuel her arc from passive observer to active seeker.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 28 weaves together three crucial threads. The political thread elevates Amaram to a formal highprince, hardening the enmity between him and Dalinar’s coalition—and setting the stage for Kaladin’s return to face his worst enemy in a position of power. The mystery thread advances the copycat spren plot: Shallan pieces together its pattern and decides to hunt it, enlisting Vathah’s men. Most devastatingly, the personal thread reveals the brutal, ironic connection between Kaladin and Helaran’s death. Shallan’s refusal to process it deepens her psychological crisis, while Adolin’s horrified response tightens the emotional knot between the three characters. These intertwined revelations make the chapter a quiet but essential turning point.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Shallan react by “tucking away” the truth about Helaran and Kaladin? Shallan’s lifelong coping mechanism is to lock away unbearable memories. Learning that Kaladin killed her brother would force her to confront guilt, loyalty to her family, and the possibility that Helaran may have been trying to kill Amaram for unknown reasons. By suppressing it, she maintains her fragile stability, but the pattern of avoidance is becoming dangerously unsustainable.

  2. What does Ialai’s installation of Amaram as highprince mean for Alethkar’s political stability? It formalizes Amaram’s authority over House Sadeas, giving an avowed enemy of Kaladin a legitimate seat at the coalition table. Dalinar is forced to accept it, which shatters Adolin’s hope of escaping Sadeas’s shadow. The move deepens internal divisions at a moment when unity against Odium is critical, and it ensures that unresolved personal vendettas will clash with wartime necessity.

  3. How do the unremembered sketches connect to the larger supernatural threat in Urithiru? The sketches appear without memory, much like the copycat spren mimics violence without apparent motive. Pattern’s inability to remember their creation suggests an external influence—likely the same ancient spren of Odium that Shallan sketched earlier. The black void and grotesque horses hint at an Unmade’s touch, tying Shallan’s deteriorating mental state directly to the tower’s hidden evil, a danger she now feels compelled to confront.

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