The Way of Kings Prime

The Way of Kings Prime is the original draft of The Way of Kings, written in 2002. It is the thirteenth novel Brandon Sanderson wrote, and the last one that he wrote prior to becoming a published author.
Plotted as the first in a ten-book series, at the time of its writing it was by far the most ambitious project Brandon had attempted. Brandon was generally happy with the book when he completed it, but he knew that his publisher might balk at publishing an extremely long novel, especially since he was still relatively unproven at the time. He decided to revisit the series after he had progressed in his career. Upon reflection years later, Brandon believes that this was for the best, as he considers elements of Prime to be a "failure" compared to the standards that he eventually set through other works. After many revisions, The Way of Kings was published in 2010 as the first book of The Stormlight Archive. 
After finding success in his career, Brandon wanted to share draft versions of some of his works in relatively "raw" form to show fans his process and evolution as an author. The Way of Kings Prime became the first of these drafts to be released as a "Sanderson Curiosity". Dragonsteel Entertainment published it in-house in 2020 as a free ebook and limited edition hardcover as part of The Way of Kings leatherbound Kickstarter. It was also included as an add-on for the Words of Radiance leatherbound campaign on Backerkit. The book can be downloaded here. A free audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, is available here.
== Notable Differences from the Published Version ==
* The book's series was known as the "Oathshards Series" instead of The Stormlight Archive. 
* Many names of characters and places were changed. Kaladin was known as "Merin", Szeth was known as "Jek", and Gavilar was called "Nolhonarin".
* Other minor in-world terms were also changed; for example, Ardents were simply called monks,, crem was known as "crom", and the Alethi demonym was instead "Aleth".
* Taravangian was deaf and called "Ahven".
* Adolin was called "Aredor" and he was executed by Elhokar.
* Dalinar's name was spelled "Dalenar".
* Elhokar had a wife named Nanavah and a son named Ahrden. Elhokar and Dalinar came into conflict, with Dalinar killing his nephew.
* Taln was a regular viewpoint character, and far saner than he appears in Words of Radiance. It was also unclear for much longer whether he actually was a Herald or just thought so.
* The Heralds resurrected by taking over the bodies of Rosharans, similar to how Fused work in The Stormlight Archive. This fueled the mystery of "is Taln the real deal, or is he just some crazy guy".
* Many aspects of the magic system and the culture surrounding it were reworked. For example, magic users are known as Awakeners (similar to Soulcasters rather than Nalthian Awakeners) and they are able to create Shardplate. Gemstones are involved in the magic, but are used through a concept known as Soul Tones instead of Stormlight.
* Lhan was a viewpoint character, though he was more similar in character to Lightsong.
* Jasnah Kholin was also a main viewpoint character. She was betrothed to a wealthy merchant named Meridas Isvenda.
* Shallan did not exist. Instead, Jasnah had another red-headed apprentice, called Shinri Davar. Her plotline and character were completely different from that of Shallan, and though Shinri did eventually evolve into Shallan, Brandon considers the two to be separate characters.
* Kaladin accepts the Shards at the beginning of the novel, instead of refusing them, and the story is about him becoming a Shardbearer.
* The Heralds had the ability to sense other Honorblades by holding their own, though Taln initially assumed it was an ability to sense each other. In one of the scenes of the original draft, he used this to try and track down his fellow Heralds, only to find the abandoned Blades.
* Vasher made an appearance as an ardent teaching Shardblades under his real name rather than as Zahel.
* Spren were not a part of Roshar yet.
* The Diagram was written by Renarin Kholin, whose mind was destroyed by the knowledge.
* All but one of the Heralds were male.
* Hoid was not a part of the story.
* The Oathgates were intact.
* Brandon has referred to other changes, but some of that information may have only existed in the notes or outlines for future books in the series.
== Trivia ==
* A sequence of six chapters from The Way of Kings Prime is included in the Altered Perceptions Anthology.
* Dalinar Kholin was the first character Brandon Sanderson ever wrote when he was 15 years old. What he originally had in mind was a king (Elhokar) who is terrible at leading and the King's uncle not knowing whether to take charge or not.
== Notes ==
category: list articles