Ishar

Ishar, also known as Ishi'Elin, Tashi, Tezim and Ishu-son-God, is one of the ten Heralds of the Almighty on Roshar, who served as a protector of humanity against the Desolations from 7000 to 4500 Rosharan years before the True Desolation, and as a leader of Tukar starting circa in the Vorin calendar under the guise of Tezim. He has been influencing the Shin Honorbearers for generations. He serves as a major religious figure in many world religions. He's known as the Herald of Luck, and serves as the patron of the Order of Bondsmiths. 
He is the current bearer of his own Honorblade.
== Appearance and Personality ==
=== Appearance ===
Ishar is a strong-looking man with the look of a warrior, outfitted in robes and wearing an ardent's beard and bald head. Rosharan artwork typically presents him as looking much older than other Heralds, with a full beard and grey hair. Modern Rosharans would consider him to look Shin, suggesting he's pale-skinned and lacks the epicanthic folds common to most people on the planet.
=== Personality ===
He is known to be incredibly charismatic, capable of swaying entire nations to follow him, as well as to convince the other Heralds of his opinions and his sanity. He also seems to be scholarly, and deeply interested in the inner working of the Oathpact and the mechanics surrounding it. In addition, Ishar is an excellent duelist, easily defeating five Windrunners of the Third Ideal with minimal use of Surgebinding. The Stormfather notes that among the Heralds he was only average in skill, though he was not a warrior at the beginning of the Oathpact.
In the present day Ishar, like other Heralds, is insane. His particular brand of madness seems to reflect his nature as a spiritual leader. He also bore part of the pain of the other Heralds and was partly corrupted by the Well of Control. He alternately believes himself to be above all other men, and hates who he is and wishes to die. The latter does not stop him from presenting himself as the ultimate authority and demanding utter respect as the god-priest of Tukar. Ishar tells Dalinar that his insanity could be temporarily cured by a Radiant swearing an Ideal near him.
This megalomania and charisma together make for a highly dangerous combination, as even now the other Heralds hold Ishar in particularly high esteem. Nale claims that Ishar has always been the wisest of them all, and Shalash believes that he would know how to cure Taln's madness. Additionally, Shalash presents him as a confident, eager man; energetic, and more of a battlefield commander than a wise scholar. He is bold rather than crafty, a man who pulled others after him on seemingly crazed ideas that ended up working.
He wishes to combine together the Shards and become Adonalsium reborn. He sees himself as an aspect of the Almighty.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
=== Herald of the Almighty ===
As a Herald, Ishar is immortal. When he dies, he travels to Braize and can return to Roshar, though at the cost of triggering a Desolation. He wields an Honorblade, having retrieved it from the Shin after abandoning it at Aharietiam. It grants him Surgebinding of the Bondsmiths, namely the Surges of Adhesion and Tension.
Ishar has mastered his fighting skills throughout the ages, and is capable of fighting multiple Shardbearers with ease. He is capable of summoning Honor's perpendicularity, draining Stormlight from Radiants by bonding them to the earth and even stealing away a Radiant bond. The Stormfather implies that without Honor to restrict him, the extent of his abilities is unknown.
=== Binder of Gods ===
Ishar possessed powers even before he became known as a Herald, and like most of the other future Heralds had access to the Surges. His particular powers are seemingly tied to the cosmere-wide phenomenon of Connection and at one point had access to the powers akin to Elsecalling. He is often described as the founder of the Oathpact, and is believed to have been the founder of the Knights Radiant, forcing them to organize and adopt precepts to live by, to prevent another Ashyn-like catastrophe. Even among the other Heralds, the Radiants were sometimes known as "Ishar's Knights".
With the help of Honor, Ishar would develop the idea of the Oathpact and would be the one to Connect each Herald to Honor and would be the last to join the bond. He also had the power to add people to the Oathpact, as seen when he makes Kaladin a Herald.
Perhaps due to his abilities, he appears to have been the Heralds' expert on Connection and bonds. He studied the Oathpact, and was the one who realized that one Herald was enough to keep it working. He also sought a way to preserve information between the Desolations, and in the present day, convinced Nale to hunt down budding Surgebinders, claiming it would prevent a new invasion.
When he was visited by Dalinar after the end of the Emuli campaign, in his duel against five Windrunners, he used his powers to Connect them to the ground, causing their Stormlight to drain away. He also demonstrated the ability to steal Dalinar's bond with the Stormfather, against both Dalinar's and the Stormfather's wills, as well as take Dalinar's Connection as Odium's opponent in the contest of champions, although neither taking was completed.
=== God-Priest Tezim ===
In the current era, Ishar acts as the leader of Tukar, calling himself the god-priest Tezim. The Tukari are zealously religious, and indeed seem to believe him to be a god. For the past six years, they've been at war with the neighboring Emul over the port city of Sesemalex Dar, in the conflict known as Eighty's War. Ishar's reasons for leading the Tukari on Sesemalex Dar are unclear, though the two countries have always been embroiled in conflict. It's also uncertain how long Ishar's been influencing Tukari politics, though his official rise to power occurred somewhere around the start of Eighty's War.
As Tezim, Ishar refuses to participate in Dalinar's alliance and demands that the Alethi turn Urithiru over to him. Whether he has the power to back up his claim remains to be seen.
== History ==
=== Life on Ashyn and the Expulsion ===
Like most of the Heralds, Ishar was born on Ashyn prior to mankind's arrival on Roshar, over seven-thousand Rosharan years before the True Desolation. He was either a king, scholar, or general.
Ishar was the first to be tricked by Odium into experimenting with the Surges, that eventually left Ashyn uninhabitable and desolate outside of a few hospitable areas, and forced the population to flee to Roshar, and forcing those that remained on Ashyn into floating cities. He was also the first human on Ashyn to discover how to worldhop, enabling humanity to leave the planet when they needed to flee. He used these abilities to open a portal to Roshar, following the tones of the planet.
=== Herald of the Almighty ===
He, along with the rest of humanity, were granted modern-day Shinovar as territory by the native singer population. When relations with the singers broke down, due to humanity trying to push eastward for more fertile land, and the Fused started to appear, Ishar, along with nine other people, was raised to a Herald by Honor, creating the Oathpact. Ishar's part in the Oathpact was larger than that of the other Heralds, as he worked with Honor to design it and he would be the one to connect each Herald to Honor using his powers over Connection.
The Oathpact demanded that to stop the Desolations, the Heralds had to travel to Braize, the planet that collected souls, after each one ended. This led to them being tortured until at least one broke, sending them all -- and a Desolation -- back to Roshar. It was during one of those cycles that Surgebinders began appearing. Ishar was instrumental in transforming this scattered group into the Knights Radiant, although what precisely he used, other than threats of death and destruction upon those who wouldn't obey, is unknown. During that time, he also sought a way to preserve information between the Desolations.
After around two thousand five hundred years, however, the Heralds had had enough of their endless torture and Ishar was worried that they would lose their nerve before the enemy did. When Ishar voiced these concerns to Honor, the Shard realized what immortality was doing to them and let them chose if they wanted to abandon the fight. After this Desolation in which only Taln died in battle, Ishar suggested that one person may be enough to keep the following Desolations at bay. And so, the nine agreed to abandon the Oathpact, leaving Taln to suffer alone for over four and a half thousand years. This Desolation came to be known as the Last Desolation, or Aharietiam.
=== The Era of Solitude ===
Ishar's activities after the Aharietiam are largely unknown. Some three thousand years before the True Desolation, Ishar met with an elderly Derethil and wrote down the story of the Wandersail and tried to find the islands mentioned by Derethil. Some thousand years before the Desolation, Ishar took up the power of the Well of Control, which affected both Ishar’s sanity and the other Heralds. Using the Well of Control, he Connected to the land of Shinovar. 
At some point, he met with Nale and convinced him to hunt down and destroy all nascent Surgebinders, believing that the return of the Knights Radiant would unleash a new Desolation. He would begin to command the Honorbearers of Shinovar hoping to find replacement Heralds, though only Szeth would be acceptable to him. He would try to make an army of spren brought to the Physical Realm and would make the most of the Honorbearers into Fused. This caused the spren to leave Shinovar During this time, he also insinuated himself into the politics of Tukar and became its leader, the god-priest, under the assumed identity of Tezim. As Tezim, he waged Eighty's War against Emul.
=== The True Desolation ===
After the True Desolation began near the end of , Dalinar contacted Tukar around the middle of , hoping for it to join the fledgling alliance. Ishar refused, and instead demanded ownership of Urithiru and fealty from the newly refounded Knights Radiant. He was denied. Shortly after, Nale visited him again, hoping to gain more understanding as to why the Everstorm still happened, despite his efforts. What they talked about is unknown, but Nale later decided to abandon mankind and side with the singers.
==== Campaign in Emul ====
During the coalition of monarchs' campaign in Emul in , Dalinar had a crew of Windrunners fly himself, Szeth, and Nightblood to Ishar's camp in an attempt to learn more about his own Bondsmith abilities. While still in the air, Dalinar noted that he already had a Connection to the Herald, allowing him to identify him on sight. Ishar accused Dalinar of being Odium's champion, and refused his pleas for aid, though he did acknowledge that his "lies" were reasonable. 
He summoned his own Honorblade, which he claimed to have received from Szeth's father before he thanked Ishar for letting him die. Ishar attacked Dalinar, easily defeating the five Windrunners. As Dalinar opened a perpendicularity, Ishar approached him and created a Connection with Dalinar, meaning to steal his bond with the Stormfather as well as Dalinar's Connection to Odium, in which he sensed Odium's and Dalinar's opposition to each other. At the last moment, Szeth used Nightblood to sever Ishar's new Connection and then collapse the perpendicularity, which Ishar had been holding open against Dalinar's will. Nightblood was then able to chip a piece from Ishar's Honorblade. Shocked by the damage to his Blade, Ishar opened his own perpendicularity, which the Stormfather was unable to sense, and fled into Shadesmar with his men. Once Ishar was gone, Dalinar heard the Herald's voice through the perpendicularity. Sounding much more sane, he informed Dalinar that he could be restored temporarily if a Radiant swore an oath near him. Ishar claimed to know a way of resetting the Oathpact, and asked Dalinar to meet him in Shinovar, before reverting to madness.
Ishar had been experimenting on Radiant spren, somehow bringing their cognitive forms into the physical realm and measuring how long they were able to survive—usually mere seconds—and then performing autopsies. The Stormfather was extremely distraught at this revelation and called it an abomination.
==== The Cleansing of Shinovar ====
He first appeared to Szeth and Kaladin on their first night in Shinovar and told them to go on a pilgrimage to the various monasteries across Shinovar. 
Ishar next encountered Szeth and Kaladin, who were traveling with Nale on the day of the Contest of champions, at the Bondsmith monastery. He had Szeth fight all of the Fused Honorbearers all at once. During the fight, he ignored Kaladin who was trying to help Ishar overcome his insanity, and stop his plans with Szeth. Szeth would swear the Fifth Ideal near him, hoping for him to gain his sanity back due to the release of power on swearing, but it did not work as Ishar had placed protections against being healed by sworn Ideals. 
He made Kaladin feel the darkness of the Heralds to explain what he had been enduring for the others. Kaladin managed to convince Ishar that he would feel better eventually and swore the Fifth Ideal of the Windrunners unexpectedly to Ishar, forcing the power of Odium out of Ishar. 
Ishar remade the Oathpact in order to protect the spren from Retribution at the request of the Wind who had been pushing towards this. The Wind suggested that they create a place for their minds to go separate to their bodies, like the visions from the Stormfather. Kaladin choose to become a Herald instead of Szeth to facilitate it with Jezrien no longer being around to fulfil his position. Ishar used his abilities to send the Heralds, including himself and Kaladin, to Braize. 
When Szeth awoke, he believed that Ishar had killed Kaladin, as Kaladin's body was left behind. Ishar, like the other Heralds, ended up in a vision where their minds were preserved while their souls were tortured on Braize.
== Relationships ==
=== Nale ===
Ishar is greatly respected by Nale, who believes him to be the only one who hasn't succumbed to madness. It was likely at Ishar's suggestion that Nale began his crusade against Surgebinders, and when the Everstorm comes, Nale goes to Ishar for comfort and advice. Ishar believes that Nale is weak.
=== The Stormfather ===
Ishar has a negative view of the Stormfather, cursing him at night.
=== Szeth ===
Ishar spent decades grooming Szeth to become a Herald by talking to him since his youth.
== Culture ==
As one of the Heralds, Ishar is venerated throughout Roshar. In the Vorin tradition, he is known as Ishi'Elin, and associated with number 10 (Ishi), the Essence of Sinew, and the divine attributes of Pious and Guiding. He is often listed alongside Jezrien and Kelek as one of the most important Heralds. 
"Ishi be praised" is a common phrase. However, unlike with most Heralds, Ishar's true name remained in use among the Vorins, with places like Ishar's Field, and the curse of "Ishar's soul". Names such as Ishal, Ishnah and Ishikk are likely derived from his. 
Unlike in the East, where Jezrien is placed as the most important, in the West Ishar is often considered the leader of the Heralds. In Makabaki nations, he's called Tashi, and is titled the God of Gods and the Binder of the World. The people of Tashikk in particular -- which itself may be named after Tashi -- place him as equal, though opposed to Odium, or Nun Raylisi, and believe that as long as they stay in their homeland, Tashi protects them from evil. In Yeddaw, the tenth of the traditional ten pancakes of the Weeping is dedicated to Tashi, and is imagined rather than actually made. Tashi's Light Orphanage is named after him, and "Tashi above" is a commonly-used phrase. 
Further west, in Shinovar, he's known as Ishu-son-God.
== Known Names and Titles ==
== Quotes ==
== Trivia ==
* Ishar is featured as one of the Oathbringer endpapers.
* The phrase "Ishar's soul" has so far only been used by Adolin Kholin.
* Ishar's portrait used in the chapter arches is called the Priest by the Dragonsteel Entertainment staff.
== Notes ==
es:Ishar