Vathah

Vathah is an Agent Lightweaver in the Unseen Court on Roshar. He is bonded to the Cryptic Mosaic. He takes part in the expedition to Kholinar in and the diplomatic mission to Lasting Integrity the following year.
== Appearance and Personality ==
Vathah is tall and bearded with disproportionately long arms and brown eyes. During his time roaming the wilderness in the region of the Shattered Plains, he is rugged-looking and grim, smells unwashed, has bad breath, and wears dirty clothing and old armor with the insignias of previous allegiances obscured. His time in the army and as a deserter leaves him without much emotion, hard, and intimidating. He is blunt, mistrustful, suspicious of lighteyes, and determined to stay away from the society he has deserted. After reluctantly finding himself bound to Shallan Davar's caravan and headed back to the Alethi warcamps, Vathah is disdainful of those of his men who believe Shallan's word that she can give them a second chance to be honorable men. He belittles his men and seems to think that they have no hope of changing. Vathah also feels disdain for Shallan's sketches and continually acts in a way that causes Shallan not to trust him. He often responds in grunts rather than expressing himself with words, and he generally performs tasks slowly and without enthusiasm.
Some of Vathah's appearance and attitude change once Shallan shows him what she is capable of, but he never does reach the point of fitting in with normal society. At times he still seems to be the dangerous man roaming the Unclaimed Hills with his band of deserters. He proves that he can be a leader during that time, and later on he shows a sense of thoughtful responsibility for those of his men who are still with him. Disliking the idea of looking like a soldier, Vathah deliberately leaves his appearance rough enough that he stands out from them. He doesn't look or dress sloppily, but he leaves his hair messy, and his facial hair is perpetually in a stage somewhere between stubble and a full beard. He remains dark, difficult to read, and more taciturn, still refusing to speak about his past. He shows himself to be an observant man, and he often throws himself into some solitary work to avoid the probing questions of others. Vathah still comes across to Shallan as cruel and sometimes corrupt, such as when he steals spheres off of some corpses. He is, however, regretful of his actions during the War of Reckoning and hopes to Lightweave himself into something different. His affinity for the espionage work Shallan has the Unseen Court learn to do brings a newfound enthusiasm into his life, and he finds more peace with life in general after devoting himself to Shallan's employ and striving to live more honestly. He ends up becoming one of the most trustworthy members of the Unseen Court.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
As a Lightweaver, Vathah can use the Surges of Illumination and Transformation. Vathah is the most naturally talented Lightweaver among the Unseen Court. He also has a great affinity for espionage and proves to be adept at planning operations. He can play a part well.
=== Soulcasting ===
The Soulcaster enters (or partially enters) the Cognitive Realm to convince the sentience of an object to change materials, transforming it into something else if successful. Some transformations are more basic than others, with more complicated transformations requiring a more skilled Surgebinder and more Stormlight. The method of soulcasting that works best for Vathah involves showing the object an example of what you want it to become; having a physical example of the final product helps.
=== Lightweaving ===
Lightweaving deals in illusions. It involves the manipulation of waves of sound or light and has a strong Spiritual component requiring a certain measure of Connection and a full mental picture of the desired illusion. Vathah doesn't immediately recognize what happens the first time he uses Lightweaving, having done it in a moment of panic. Later, Vathah learns to think like the thing he wants to be, and the Lightweaving takes over. It remains for him a far more instinctive and unconscious process than it does for many of the other Lightweavers.
== History ==
Vathah's early life is largely a mystery, although he never had anything he would consider a real family. He held a variety of jobs during his life, including a stint as a sailor.
=== War of Reckoning (1167 - 1173) ===
He was in Torol Sadeas's army for a time during the War of Reckoning, and he considered himself a good soldier until something broke in him. He saw that the purpose of the war shifted from revenge for the assassination of Gavilar Kholin to the acquisition of gemhearts, meaning that what he had thought he was fighting for was just a sham. This led him to regret his actions and to desert the army.
Vathah became the leader of a group of around twenty-five other deserters which preyed on caravans headed to and from the Shattered Plains. One day in , they spotted Tvlakv's caravan and begin chasing slowly on foot, following the trail of crushed rockbuds left behind by the chulls. When Tvlakv and the others witnessed a group of bandits attacking Macob's caravan, Bluth drove Shallan Davar over to Vathah's group of deserters, and she used her powers of Lightweaving and Transformation to attempt to convince his crew to fight on her behalf. Vathah himself did not take her seriously and began ordering Gaz to tie her up. He and two others remained unconvinced, but the rest of the men were swayed by Shallan's speech and charged into the fight. The three holdouts followed in the end and joined the battle. Vathah executed the last of the bandits after the battle was over. He was angry that he had lost seven men in the battle, which he felt would not exonerate him or his men for what they had done, nor stop their recurring nightmares. He then confronted Shallan about why she had seemed so regal during their encounter before the fight but then looked like a child afterwards. She dismissed his questions, at which point he grabbed her and became threatening until be was distracted from her by Pattern. He distrusted Shallan's word, believing that she would not be able to do anything for them once they arrived at the Shattered Plains. He continued to lack any faith in Shallan during their journey and went so far as to insult his men because they believed what she told them about having a second chance and to sneer at those who asked for drawings from her.
As the newly combined caravans travelled towards the Alethi warcamps, Tyn wrote to some of her contacts to check up on the deserters and found that Vathah was worth four emerald broams in bounty. The contention between the two women came to a head when Tyn's contacts revealed Shallan's true identity to her, and Pattern called Vathah and his men to come help Shallan. They killed Tyn's soldiers who stood in the way and walked in on Shallan standing over Tyn's corpse holding her Shardblade, a sight which made a deep impression on Vathah. From that time on, he accepted Shallan as his master and began to gain respect for her. Vathah acted as the head of Shallan's guard as they entered the warcamps and searched for Dalinar Kholin. Learning that Dalinar and the other highprinces were with King Elhokar, Shallan took Vathah and Gaz with her and had Vathah announce her identity to get past the various guards. Vathah tried to follow Shallan right into the meeting, but he was detained. When Shallan left the meeting, she handed Vathah a writ of pardon from the king.
Vathah and his men were housed in a tenement in Highprince Sebarial's warcamp. Though he was given a wage due to Shallan's bargain with Sebarial, he often had nothing to do. One of the few tasks Shallan had for him at first was to look for a copy of Words of Radiance from the local booksellers. He and Gaz worked on this together, but they weren't able to procure a copy until the day that Shallan and her servants and guards set out towards what would become the Battle of Narak and the discovery of Urithiru. Vathah and some of the others filled their role as Shallan's guards proudly and competently during the march to Narak and went with her as she scouted for the location of the Oathgate.
=== Becoming a Lightweaver (1173 - 1174) ===
After the relocation to Urithiru, Vathah did not have much to do for a few weeks, so he started to take his job less seriously. He and Gaz played cards one day at the guards' checkpoint while waiting for Adolin and Shallan to come by. Once they did, the two of them acted as personal guards to the pair while they went to talk to Ialai Sadeas. Adolin suggested to Shallan during that outing that she needed to find some meaningful way to employ Vathah and the others, so Shallan later went to visit them in the barracks and gave them a job. The twelve of them who were left mostly agreed that she hadn't been mistreating them by leaving them to their own devices. Vathah shrugged at the news that they were going to have something to do, but he was more eager than some of the others. They began hunting Re-Shephir at Shallan's direction, in the guise of Veil. They spent time in the Breakaway market drinking and watching for Re-Shephir's signature behavior of copying acts of violence. When the Midnight Mother copied an execution that had taken place three days earlier, Vathah witnessed it and ran to fetch Veil. He stayed with her as long as he could, but she outran him and ended up facing off with the Unmade without any of her guards.
At a later time, Veil went to visit Vathah and his men as they were playing at pieces in the barracks. They discussed Shallan some, and Veil impressed Vathah by calling the formation of his cards exactly right. Vathah asked if Shallan had forgotten about them again, and Gaz implored Veil to tell Shallan to find them something else useful to do. Veil suddenly recognized Ishnah, who had come into the barracks in the disguise of a washwoman; after confronting the woman and hearing that she was trying to offer her services to Veil, Veil asked her to teach Vathah and the others to be spies. Vathah became very interested in Ishnah's training and was not drawn in to the rest of the guards' friendly banter. After an hour of training, Vathah was able to observe, memorize, and then describe people in the room.
Shallan took Vathah, Ishnah, and Red along on the expedition to Kholinar. After flying to the city and finding lodging at Adolin's tailor's house, Vathah and Red helped prepare the rooms they would all be staying in and learned some search procedures while Ishnah took apart Yokska's room. Shallan revealed to them the fact that she was also Veil, something which Vathah hadn't guessed at all but took in stride. During their stay in Kholinar, Shallan realized that she needed to infiltrate the Cult of Moments in order to get close enough to unlock the Oathgate. To do so, she had her team help her steal food from Nananav to attract the cult's attention. Vathah wore a Lightweaving of Shallan's during the operation, and he acted as her assistant while they gathered up Nananav's rugs that had been damaged due to the Everstorm's arrival. Shallan teased Vathah while she sketched Nananav so she could impersonate her, and Vathah admitted to being very nervous but also to liking the experience. He and Shallan successfully made it to the larder, where they filled sacks with provisions and lowered it in the dumbwaiter to the ground floor. Once back downstairs, Vathah, Shallan, and Red filled the rugs with the food and loaded them onto their wagon. Vathah nearly panicked when Nananav discovered the theft and closed the gates to Rockfall before they could escape. Shallan managed to scare away the guards, but in the process she was shot in the head by a crossbow bolt. Vathah went to open the gates at Shallan's prompting, and then he pulled the bolt out of her head once he was back on the wagon. They gave the food away to Grund, Muri, and others, although Vathah got to eat one of the sausages. To further increase Shallan's reputation with the Cult of Moments, Vathah and Ishnah periodically went out wearing an illusion of Shallan and handed out more food.
Vathah also began planning operations himself, with Ishnah's guidance, during their stay in Kholinar. At the inn where he and Veil were meeting, he laid out his plans to rob the Mausoleum, expressing his distaste at the lighteyes tradition of Soulcasting their bodies to stone, something which the family there did for their servants. Vathah suggested robbing the mansion of its riches as well, but Veil limited their objective to the food in the larder. Veil presented Vathah with some choices for an alias to take on during their infiltration, and he chose one. The innkeeper walked in on them, and Vathah was so startled he accidentally took in Stormlight and created an illusion of his chosen alias around himself. He became emotional when Veil told him what he had done. She explained that he was likely becoming her squire, telling him that she wanted him to practice with his powers the following day. They then left to steal from the Mausoleum. After pulling off the theft without a hitch, Vathah drove Veil to the Oathgate platform and helped her unload the food. Leaving her to join the revel by herself, he took the wagon a couple of streets away and waited, watching for Veil in case she made an emergency jump off the edge of the platform. Veil fled after scouting the revel and met up with Vathah again. She sent Vathah to brief Elhokar on the information she had gained. He and the others waited for Shallan to return to Yokska's house, and she delayed long enough that Vathah grew worried. Immediately after her return, Kaladin, Adolin, Elhokar, and Shallan enacted their plan to assault the palace and open the Oathgate. In the events that followed, Vathah was among those who got stranded in the city. He, Red, and Ishnah managed to escape Kholinar with Drehy, Skar, and Gavinor, and they found a merchant with a spanreed who was able to get in contact with the Alethi leadership and convey their location. Kaladin met up with the small group of refugees after the Battle of Thaylen Field and helped them return to Urithiru.
=== Trip to Lasting Integrity (1175) ===
Sometime during the year following the Battle of Thaylen Field, Vathah bonded his own Cryptic named Mosaic and became a fully-fledged Lightweaver. He assisted in the operation when Shallan was working on tracking down Ialai Sadeas in the old warcamps on the Shattered Plains. Vathah and four other Lightweaver agents from the Unseen Court arrived on the scene with Adolin's strike team, and Shallan directed Vathah, Ishnah, and Beryl to accompany Ialai and make sure she talked to no one as they escorted her away. They only made it to the antechamber of her quarters before she succumbed to poisoning and died in front of them. Vathah identified the poison as blackbane, having seen its effects before, and the team worked to search Ialai's rooms and clean up the situation. Ialai's suspicious death caused Shallan to believe she had a Ghostblood spy among the Unseen Court. While Vathah practiced his powers and sparred with Red in their headquarters underneath Urithiru, Shallan tried to figure out who would be the most likely candidate. Vathah ranked highly on the list of potential spies, and he was also among the most eager to go on the upcoming mission to Lasting Integrity. In the end, Shallan decided to include him in the mission.
Just before they left, Jasnah Kholin tested the Lightweavers' abilities with Soulcasting to make sure they would be able to provide for the group in Shadesmar. Vathah successfully transformed a block of obsidian into a hard chunk of lavis pulp, although he was not able to make it into individual lavis seeds. This was enough for Jasnah, and Vathah joined the group that was subsequently transferred into Shadesmar. As the delegation sailed from Nohadon's Stairways to Nameless, Radiant directed Vathah to assist the crew of peakspren sailors. On the fourth day aboard the ship, Radiant attempted to interrogate Vathah to see if he could be the Ghostblood spy. He was helping measure the depth of the bead ocean when Radiant approached, but she waited until he moved on to scrubbing the deck and then went to help him. Vathah was touchy at first about being asked why he was volunteering to work so much, but then Shallan took over from Radiant and managed to draw him out a bit more. They discussed the desire to escape their past by Lightweaving themselves into someone new, and Shallan deftly inserted a comment about seeing a corrupted fearspren earlier on in the voyage--she had described a different spren to each of the Lightweavers as part of her plan to discover which might be the spy. Before moving on, Shallan expressed the care of the Unseen Court for him. She made a bad joke while doing so, but Vathah thanked her "for smiling" before she left.
The barge made a stop at Nameless, and Vathah and Shallan disguised themselves as cultivationspren to scout for potential trouble. They returned with a clear report, so the rest of the delegation went into town to explore and trade for supplies. Shallan decided that Vathah could not be the Ghostblood spy as they continued their journey by land from Nameless towards Lasting Integrity, which conclusion relieved her. The delegation went to the rescue one day when they saw Notum and his group being attacked by a caravan of humans. Vathah, Ishnah, and Beryl searched the bodies of the attackers that had died, Vathah covertly pocketing some spheres he found. When they arrived at Lasting Integrity later that day, the honorspren refused admittance to any besides Adolin, Mayalaran, Shallan, and Pattern. Vathah and the rest of the group camped outside the fortress for a while. Arshqqam, Zu, and Adolin's soldiers left after a while to bring word of Adolin's trial to Dalinar, but the three Lightweaver agents and Godeke remained in Shadesmar through the conclusion of Adolin's trial.
== Relationships ==
=== Shallan Davar ===
Vathah initially harbors a deep dislike of Shallan, presuming she is just a young, naïvely optimistic lighteyes who has somehow tricked his group of deserters into following her with empty words of redemption. His attitude towards her begins to change when he comes to her rescue in Tyn's tent and finds her standing over the other woman's corpse holding a Shardblade. He begins to treat Shallan respectfully and even seems to show some enthusiasm for filling the role of her guard, but he is still shocked that she actually manages to acquire a writ of pardon for him and his men after arriving at the Shattered Plains, not having quite believed she would keep her word. Despite growing somewhat bored during their stay in Sebarial's warcamp, Vathah doesn't take offense at the lack of jobs given to him by Shallan and even seems to grow in both his protectiveness of Shallan and his sense of pride in being her personal guard.
After the move to Urithiru, Vathah unwittingly finds himself liking to hang out and work with Shallan as she presents herself to him and his men as Veil. He doesn't catch on that they are the same person until Shallan deliberately shows him during their trip to Kholinar. Even then, his reaction is just to take it in stride. Vathah accepts Veil, alongside Ishnah, as a mentor in espionage training and seems to feel somewhat inferior to her calm and competent actions during high-stakes infiltrations when things don't go according to plan. By the time of the coalition's diplomatic mission to Lasting Integrity, Shallan seems to feel somewhat conflicted about Vathah. On one hand she considers it possible that someone is bribing him to spy on her, but on the other hand she considers him one of the most trustworthy members of the Unseen Court and feels genuinely dismayed by the idea of him being a spy.
=== Unseen Court ===
Half of the members of the Unseen Court are former deserters who used to belong to the band led by Vathah and have similar experiences in their past of which they are ashamed. He and the other Agent Lightweavers exchange methods of using their powers and practice together to master using them in combat, and they become a very close-knit group. Vathah, despite retaining many of his darker personality traits from the days of being a deserter, appreciates the fact that his life as a Lightweaver has brought him into something akin to a family.
== Notes ==