Szeth-son-son-Vallano: The Truthless Assassin of The Way of Kings

Overview and Identity

Szeth-son-son-Vallano is a Shin assassin bound by an Oathstone, condemned to obey whoever holds it. Branded Truthless by his people, he wields a Shardblade and commands Surgebinding—abilities that make him a nearly unstoppable force. The white clothing he wears on the day he kills King Gavilar is a Parshendi tradition, a warning that transforms him into a symbol of terror. Szeth’s tragedy lies in his absolute lack of agency: he is a weapon wielded by others, and each murder deepens his self-hatred. His story explores the weight of duty, the horror of power without responsibility, and the nature of truth and self-deception.

Plot Role and Chronological Arc

Szeth’s first appearance in the prologue sets the entire series in motion. On the night of the Alethi-Parshendi treaty celebration, he assassinates King Gavilar Kholin. Fighting through guards and a mysterious Shardbearer (later revealed to be Gavilar himself), Szeth completes his mission, but not before Gavilar entrusts him with a strange black sphere and a dying message for Dalinar. Szeth leaves the king’s Shardblade behind and escapes.

This act directly triggers the Vengeance Pact and the prolonged war on the Shattered Plains. Szeth reappears in a series of interlude chapters that track his descent into deeper servitude and greater horrors.

• Interlude 1-3 (Bavland): Szeth serves a petty crime lord named Took, enduring public humiliation. When footpads kill Took and seize the Oathstone, Szeth’s bondage transfers seamlessly to a new master, illustrating the absolute nature of his curse.
• Interlude 1-6 (Bornwater): Under crime lord Makkek, Szeth is forced into dramatic, theatrical killings. A masked servant of a hidden master kills Makkek and presents Szeth with a list of high-profile targets—including King Hanavanar of Jah Keved and multiple highprinces—demanding chaos.
• Interlude 1-9 (Death Wears White): Szeth attacks King Hanavanar’s feast. Anticipating him, the king springs a trap with two Shardbearers and soldiers bearing Half-shards. Szeth’s Surgebinding mastery overwhelms them; he slaughters the entire room, weeping and then becoming emotionally numb. The chapter is a brutal showcase of his power and psychological torment.
• Chapter 71 (Recorded in Blood): Szeth arrives in Kharbranth to assassinate King Taravangian, only to discover Taravangian is his true master. The king reveals a vast hidden hospital where the terminally ill are drained of blood so their dying words—Death Rattles—can be recorded for a prophetic project called the Diagram. Taravangian then orders Szeth to assassinate Dalinar Kholin on the Shattered Plains.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Szeth’s identity as Truthless defines his every action. In Shin culture, the Truthless are condemned to serve as slaves, bearing the sins of the world while never being absolved. Szeth explains: “Each life I take weighs me down, eating away at my soul.” Yet he never refuses an order. His obedience is not born of loyalty but of rigid adherence to the terms of his punishment. This fatalistic acceptance is his most consistent trait.

He is meticulous and exacting as a killer. He analyzes combat tactics, calculates Lashings, and exploits the weaknesses of Shardbearers with surgical precision. During the Jah Keved massacre, he dismantles two Shardbearers and dozens of soldiers, demonstrating a terrifying blend of creativity and lethality. However, his efficiency is undercut by visible anguish: in the prologue he whispers apologies, and during the feast slaughter he weeps openly. After killing King Hanavanar, he feels “numb,” unable to cry anymore, his mind “just couldn’t think.” This emotional collapse reveals a man stretched to his breaking point by guilt.

A sliver of his humanity survives in his respect for dying customs. When Gavilar makes a final request, Szeth feels bound by his people’s sacred tradition and scrawls the king’s message in blood: “Brother. You must find the most important words a man can say.” This moment underscores his deep internal conflict—he is at once a remorseless weapon and a man haunted by honor.

Relationships and Isolation

Szeth is profoundly alone. His masters view him as property, not a person. Took, Makkek, and even Taravangian speak of him in instrumental terms: a tool, a work of art, a tempest. The masked servant in Bornwater calls him “a god” and laments his “waste” on petty crimes, yet offers nothing but more killing. Taravangian, while polite and learned, uses Szeth without a hint of moral compunction.

The closest Szeth comes to genuine connection is with Gavilar. Though he killed the king, he fulfills the dying request—an act of respect that transcends his curse. It’s a fleeting moment of agency, but it only deepens the tragedy: Szeth can honor the dead, yet cannot stop making more.

Key Decisions and Their Consequences

Szeth’s arc is defined by moments where his choices—or his refusal to choose—shape the world.

1. Leaving Gavilar’s Shardblade and delivering the message. By not taking the immensely valuable Blade, Szeth acts against his own material interest but adheres to a personal code. His delivery of the message sets Dalinar on a path toward the Knights Radiant.
2. Accepting the list from Taravangian’s servant. Szeth knows the chaos this will sow, but he kneels. The resulting assassinations plunge Jah Keved into civil war and destabilize the continent, serving the Diagram’s machinations.
3. Obeying Taravangian’s order to kill Dalinar. At the end of The Way of Kings, Szeth is dispatched to the Shattered Plains, setting up a direct confrontation with the story’s central characters. His compliance, even after witnessing the horrors of the Death Rattle hospital, shows how completely the Oathstone binds him.

Each decision reinforces the central theme: Szeth is a prisoner of his own perceived truth, and that self-deception—the belief that he has no choice—permits atrocities.

Thematic and Symbolic Connections

Szeth’s story intertwines with several of the novel’s core themes (explored further on the theme pages).

• Honor and Betrayal: Szeth is an inversion of honor. As Truthless, he is stripped of every shred of dignity, yet his adherence to the Oathstone is a twisted form of honor. He betrays his conscience every time he kills, yet he would see himself as a traitor if he refused. This mirrors the betrayal of the Heralds, who abandoned their duty, and sets a baseline against which characters like Kaladin and Dalinar measure their own codes.
• Leadership and Responsibility: Szeth has immense power but no leadership. He is the ultimate follower, a weapon aimed by others. His existence poses a question: what is responsibility without the freedom to choose? This contrasts sharply with Dalinar’s struggle to lead with vision and Kaladin’s acceptance of responsibility for Bridge Four.
• Truth and Self-Deception: Szeth believes he is Truthless because his people declared it so. But what if the truth was a lie? The novel hints that Szeth’s banishment may be based on a misunderstanding about the Voidbringers or the Desolations. His self-deception—that he must obey because he is damned—locks him in a cycle of violence. This directly connects to the book’s exploration of how personal truths can be both destructive and liberating.
• War and Its Futility: Szeth’s assassinations are not meant to win wars but to create chaos. Taravangian explicitly wants instability to prepare for the True Desolation. Szeth’s massacres are exercises in futility; they bring no lasting change, only more death. He embodies the horror of conflict stripped of purpose.

Five Insightful Questions about Szeth

1. Why does Szeth wear white on his assassinations?

It is a Parshendi tradition forced on him by his earliest masters in the prologue. The white clothing acts as a warning, a signal that death is coming. Later masters, like Taravangian, continue the theme, using it to spread fear and rumor of the "Assassin in White."

2. What is the Oathstone, and why does Szeth obey anyone who holds it?

The Oathstone is a physical object that represents Szeth’s status as Truthless. His people’s Shamanate decreed that he must serve whoever possesses it without question, as atonement for whatever truth he allegedly denied. To Szeth, disobedience would mean rejecting his punishment—and risking exile from existence in the afterlife.

3. Why does Szeth hate himself if he has no choice?

Szeth believes he bears the moral weight of every life he takes. He explains, “I am not absolved… Each life I take weighs me down.” Even though he acts under compulsion, he holds himself accountable. This self-hatred manifests as weeping, numbness, and a deep longing for an end to his torment.

4. How does Szeth’s relationship with Taravangian change his understanding of his role?

When Szeth discovers Taravangian is his master, he is horrified to see a “kindly, contemplative man” behind the slaughter. Taravangian’s justification—that the murders serve a greater purpose, to prepare mankind for the Desolation—forces Szeth to confront the possibility that his killings might be part of a larger plan. It doesn’t ease his guilt, but it complicates his self-perception from mere weapon to unwilling servant of a cause.

5. What is the significance of the black sphere Szeth receives from Gavilar?

Gavilar begs Szeth to take the sphere and keep it from “them.” It is dark yet seems to glow with a black light, unlike any Stormlight sphere. While its exact nature is not fully explained in this book, it hints at Voidlight or an artifact tied to Odium. Szeth carries it away, and it becomes a key mystery for the series.

Szeth-son-son-Vallano is a portrait of power without agency. Trapped by the very truth he clings to, he walks a path of blood and tears, a storm that others direct. His arc in The Way of Kings raises profound questions about guilt, duty, and whether absolution can ever be earned when one’s hands are never one’s own.