The Highstorm: Divine Fury and the Coming Everstorm

What Is the Highstorm?

In Words of Radiance, a highstorm is a world-shaping meteorological and supernatural event that sweeps across Roshar from east to west. It is not merely a storm—it is a vessel of Stormlight, the energy that infuses gemstones and fuels the Surges of the Knights Radiant. Within its winds, the Stormfather dwells: an ancient spren who is the memory of the Almighty (Honor) and the personification of the storm itself.

The highstorm is both physical and spiritual. Its rain carries crem, its winds reshape landscapes, and its arrival drives all life to shelter. But for those bonded to spren, it also brings visions. Dalinar receives divine warnings during highstorms. Kaladin hears the Stormfather’s voice and witnesses the face of eternity. The storm is a conduit between realms.

Key attributes of the highstorm:

  • Delivers Stormlight, the fundamental magic of Roshar
  • Hosts the Stormfather, a splinter of Honor
  • Transmits visions to potential Radiants
  • Recharges spheres with Light
  • Reshapes the geography of the Shattered Plains

Where the Highstorm Appears

The highstorm recurs throughout the novel, marking critical moments of character growth, revelation, and danger:

  • Chapter 2 (Bridge Four). Kaladin steps outside after a highstorm, organizing the former bridgemen. The storm’s aftermath frames his new command and the weight of freedom.
  • Chapter 25 (Monsters). Kaladin investigates the assassination attempt on Dalinar, using the highstorm’s timing to deduce the balcony was sabotaged after the storm passed.
  • Chapter 32 (The One Who Hates). Kaladin dreams he is the storm, meeting the Stormfather, who warns him: “YOU WILL KILL HER.”
  • Chapter 22 (Lights in the Storm). Kaladin guards Elhokar during a highstorm, seeing eerie red lights outside the window—spren that suggest Odium’s influence or future Voidbringers.
  • Chapter 49 (Watching the World Transform). Shallan and Adolin share their first real date on a terrace built for watching highstorms, and Shallan is mesmerized, staying until Adolin pulls her to safety.
  • Chapter 50 (Uncut Gems). Adolin waits out a highstorm in a bunker, encountering Sadeas and his political gambit.
  • Chapters 71-74 (Vigil / Selfish Reasons / Striding the Storm). Kaladin and Shallan, trapped in the chasms, race against the approaching highstorm. Their survival depends on carving a ledge above the floodwaters. During the storm, Kaladin meets the Stormfather face to face.
  • Chapter 85 (Swallowed by the Sky). The climax of the novel: the Everstorm, a red storm of Odium’s making, collides with a true highstorm summoned by the broken Stormfather.
  • Chapter 88 (Patterns of Light). Kaladin and Szeth duel in the sky above the converging storms, while Shallan activates the Oathgate.

How the Highstorm’s Meaning Changes

Initially, the highstorm is presented as a force of divine order. It brings renewal—crem fertilizes the land, Stormlight powers fabrials, and visions guide humanity. Dalinar relies on the highstorms for his visions from the Almighty. Kaladin draws on Stormlight to heal and fight. The storm is dangerous, yes, but it is also necessary.

As the novel progresses, the highstorm acquires darker connotations:

  • The Stormfather’s hostility. In Chapter 32, the Stormfather calls Kaladin a “LITTLE TRAITOR” and warns he will “MURDER MY CHILD.” The storm’s divine voice is not benevolent—it is grieving, angry, and convinced that humans will inevitably betray.
  • The red spren. During the highstorm in Chapter 22, Kaladin sees steady, faintly red lights like eyes in the darkness. This foreshadows the Everstorm and the arrival of Voidspren.
  • The Stormfather’s attempt at destruction. In Chapter 89, Dalinar confronts the Stormfather, who admits he sent the highstorm to destroy the Alethi armies: “HE WANTS TO END IT ALL, WASH EVERYONE AWAY, AND TRY TO HIDE FROM THE FUTURE.” The Stormfather is broken, acting out of despair.
  • The Everstorm. The Parshendi summon a new storm—one that blows the wrong way, crackles with red lightning, and brings spren of Odium. It is described in Chapter 32 as a second storm “so enormous as to make the continent—the world itself—into nothing by comparison. Everything fell into its shadow.” The highstorm now has a malignant twin, symbolizing the return of the Desolations.

By the climax, the highstorm is no longer a singular force of order. It is one half of a cosmic struggle, opposed by the Everstorm that will transform the parshmen into Voidbringers.

Character Connections

Kaladin

Kaladin’s relationship with the highstorm evolves from terror to communion. In Chapter 74, he steps into the vision-space during the highstorm and meets the Stormfather directly, asking how to save Syl. The Stormfather’s reply—“YOU HAVE KILLED HER”—shatters him. Later, in Chapter 83, Kaladin’s oath-breaking leaves him unable to draw Stormlight, and the storm becomes a threat he must survive through sheer will and Shallan’s help. His eventual reconciliation with Syl and his ability to fly again in the climax restore the storm as a source of power rather than condemnation.

Dalinar

Dalinar’s entire quest is shaped by the highstorm visions. In Chapter 89, he climbs to the top of Urithiru to confront the Stormfather directly, bonding him as a Bondsmith. He speaks the Second Ideal: “I will unite instead of divide.” The highstorm is the vessel for his calling, but also the force that tried to kill him. Dalinar must accept its dual nature—divine mandate and wounded, destructive rage—to become a Radiant.

Shallan

Shallan’s life is marked by highstorms. She murdered her father during a highstorm, strangling him while singing his childhood lullaby (Chapter 73). In the chasms with Kaladin, she confesses this during another highstorm, the storm becoming a confessional and a crucible. Her fascination with the storm—staying on the terrace until the last second—shows her reckless hunger for beauty and truth, even in destruction.

Szeth

For Szeth, the highstorm is simply a battlefield. In Chapter 86, he fights Kaladin above the converging storms, his scream of “Truthless” lost in the infinite sky. The highstorm is the domain of the Windrunner he cannot defeat.

Thematic Connections

  • Honor and the Weight of Oaths. The Stormfather’s accusations—that Kaladin will kill Syl, that men cannot be trusted—mirror the central theme of broken oaths. The highstorm delivers the power of Honor, but also carries the memory of ancient betrayals. Dalinar’s bond with the Stormfather is an attempt to rebuild trust between humanity and the divine.

  • Rebirth and Transformation. The highstorm brings destruction, but also renewal. Stormlight heals, infuses, and transforms. Kaladin is reborn as a Radiant after Syl returns; Shallan speaks her truths and accepts her mother’s murder. The storm strips away pretense and forces growth.

  • Cycles of Desolation and War. The Everstorm is a perversion of the highstorm cycle. Where the highstorm once brought only Stormlight, the new cycle brings Voidspren and the transformation of the parshmen. The collision of the two storms symbolizes the collision of two cosmic cycles—Desolation and reprieve, Honor and Odium.

4 Study Questions with Answers

1. How does the Stormfather’s attitude toward Kaladin reflect the novel’s theme of broken trust between gods and humans?

The Stormfather repeatedly calls Kaladin a traitor and warns that he will kill Syl (Chapter 32: “YOU WILL MURDER MY CHILD AND LEAVE HER CORPSE TO WICKED MEN.”). This mirrors the historical betrayal of the Knights Radiant during the Recreance, when they abandoned their oaths. The Stormfather has seen humans break their bonds before, and he expects Kaladin to do the same. Kaladin nearly fulfills this prophecy when he breaks his oath to protect Elhokar, causing Syl to lose sentience. The Stormfather’s distrust is not arbitrary—it is grounded in the cyclical failure of human honor.

2. What is the symbolic significance of the Everstorm as a dark twin to the highstorm?

The Everstorm (Chapters 32, 86, 89) blows from west to east—the opposite direction of highstorms—and carries red lightning and the spren of Odium. It transforms parshmen into Voidbringers, reversing the normal pattern of renewal. The highstorm brings Stormlight and feeds spren of Honor and Cultivation; the Everstorm brings Voidlight and enslaves the Listeners to Odium’s rhythms. The twin storms embody the dualistic conflict at the heart of the Stormlight Archive: creation and destruction, order and chaos, Honor and Odium.

3. How does the highstorm function as both a physical threat and a spiritual revelation in Kaladin and Shallan’s chasm sequence?

In Chapters 71-74, the approaching highstorm creates immediate physical danger: floodwaters will drown them. Shallan carves a ledge with her Shardblade to escape the water. Once sheltered, however, the storm plunges Kaladin into a vision-state where he confronts the Stormfather. For Shallan, the storm provides the setting for her confession of patricide. The highstorm thus operates on two levels—killing body and exposing soul.

4. Why does Dalinar’s bonding of the Stormfather in Chapter 89 represent a turning point in the symbol’s meaning?

Throughout the novel, the Stormfather is a hostile, despairing force—he calls the storm early to destroy the Alethi armies during the Everstorm’s arrival. When Dalinar speaks the Second Ideal of the Bondsmiths (“I will unite instead of divide”), the Stormfather reluctantly accepts the bond. This transforms the highstorm from a purely destructive or indifferent force into a source of agency for humanity. The Stormfather remains broken and resistant, but the bond means the storm now has a human partner. The symbol shifts from divine abandonment to fragile, hard-won cooperation.