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Yep, it's March, with hints of spring for some and harbingers of autumn for those in southern hemisphere climes -- but here on Supernatural Underground it's time for Instalment #2 of great leaders in Fantasy and Science Fiction!
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| Stormlight #1 |
The series I'm focusing on today (which currently comprises five books) is the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson -- although I'm chiefly talking about Book One, The Way of Kings. I also had an impossible task deciding whether the featured leader should be Kaladin Stormblessed or Dalinar Kholin. In the end, I decided there was nothing for it but to discuss both, so here goes!
Kaladin and Dalinar of "The Stormlight Archive" Fame
The Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy, set in the world of Roshar. As the story unfolds, we learn that Roshar has endured many cycles of cataclysmic war, but has currently experienced over a millenium of peace. It's still a world where warfare, inequalities, and injustice, are rife, however, and from the story's outset, both Kaladin and Dalinar are enmeshed in its strife.
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| Stormlight #2 |
Dalinar is the brother of the recently assassinated king of Alethkar. Historically, he was also his brother's principal general in successive wars of conquest, with a violent and bloody past. Well suited, in other words, to lead Alethkar's armies in a war of vengeance against the enemies (Parshmen) who engineered his brother's murder.
Kaladin
Again at the story's outset, Kaladin is a young commoner with a soldiering background, who has been enslaved and serves as a "bridgeman" for the Alethkar armies. The terrain where they are fighting is distinguished by deep (and monster infested) chasms, and the bridgemen's part is to carry the wooden bridges that enable the soldiers to cross the chasms and close with the enemy. Needless to say, being slaves, they are unarmed but must go ahead of the main force, so casualties are high and morale correspondingly low. |
| Stormlight #3 |
Kaladin's morale is also at very low ebb (unsurprisingly!) when he is forced into the bridge carriers. Yet he is also a natural leader, with a gift for motivating others, chiefly through leading by example. He is also poured from the mold that I term "his brother's keeper", in that he both feels and takes responsibility for the wellbeing of those about him -- in this case, his fellow bridge slaves. Although as the backstory unfolds, the reader discovers that it's a considerable part of why he is enslaved.
What makes Kaladin a great leader, is that he not only feels responsibility but acts upon it. He is also physically courageous and tactically adept, as well as having a charisma that inclines other to follow him. It's not just charisma, though -- Kaladin also has a gift for inspiring others to be and do better, irrespective of circumstances. Together, these qualities enable him to instill the discipline and train the bridge carriers in tactics that greatly improve their effectiveness and survival rates.
During the course of The Way of Kings, Kaladin's circumstances change for the better. In large part because of his leadership qualities and because he has an ethical compass that endures despite slavery, injustice, and brutalization.
These qualities continue to define Kaladan's path through the Stormlight Archive -- but as to how and why his personal fortunes change, that's in large part because both path and fate cross that of Dalinar Kholin.
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| Stormlight #4 |
Dalinar
Dalinar, as mentioned, has a chequered past. Correction, a very chequered past, and his path requires significant personal change, from brawler, drunkard, and war leader, to statesman. In this he is guided by chaotic visions and a book titled the Way of Kings, both of which set him on a path at odds with received wisdom and the traditional behaviors of Alethkar nobility.Dalinar's outstanding personal quality is his willingness to remake himself. Like Kaladin, he has personal courage in spades. Unlike Kaladin, the ethical compass must be learned. Yet Dalinar persists, despite considerable private and public cost, because he perceives the new path, and the attendant changes required of him, as necessary -- not just for the survival of Alethkar and its peoples, but also Roshar.
In other words, Dalinar is a big picture thinker. Convincing others, however, firstly to believe him capable of change, then to follow his path at all, requires more and harder work. Chiefly of persuasion, cooperation, and demonstrating respect, rather than war and destruction (his previous m.o.) Dalinar's willingness to put in that work (again, like Kaladin, leading by example) is part of what makes him an effective leader. Picking and promoting subordinates on proven merit is another -- which leads us back to Kaladin.
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| Stormlight #5 |
When their paths cross, Dalinar not only perceives Kaladin's courage and outstanding leadership qualities. He also believes that he owes Kaladin a profound debt of honor. Convenience might dictate overlooking the debt owed to a slave, but having adopted the Way of Kings, Dalinar is not prepared to renege on its tenets. He pays a kingly price to uphold his honor, one that most of Alethkar's nobility would never contemplate -- because he not only sees a larger picture, but understands that it must apply equally to individual dealings as well as affairs of state.
Dalinar is a head of state and leader of armies, and throughout the Stormlight Archive he holds his followers to a high standard. But he holds himself to it first, which is the core of his personal integrity and leadership style, and why others, however reluctantly in some cases, are prepared to follow him.
Even, as it turns out, to contesting the ending of the world and surviving the death of their god.
About Helen Lowe
Helen
Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four
books published to date, she is currently completing the final
instalment in The Wall Of Night series.
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Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.
