Ishar (The Stormlight Archive)

"A warning, from Tezim the Great, last and first man, Herald of Heralds and bearer of the Oathpact. His grandness, immortality, and power be praised. Lift up your heads and hear, men of the east, of your God’s proclamation.

None are Radiant but him. His fury is ignited by your pitiful claims, and your unlawful capture of his holy city is an act of rebellion, depravity, and wickedness. Open your gates, men of the east, to his righteous soldiers and deliver unto him your spoils.

Renounce your foolish claims and swear yourselves to him. The judgment of the final storm has come to destroy all men, and only his path will lead to deliverance. He deigns to send you this single mandate, and will not speak it again. Even this is far above what your carnal natures deserve."

- Ishar's reply to Dalinar's request for a coalition.

Summary
Ishar, also known as Ishi'Elin, Tashi, Ishu-Son-God and Tezim, is one of the Ten Heralds of the Almighty, and the Patron of the Order of Bondsmiths. He fought in countless Desolations over the millennia, protecting mankind from the Voidbringers, and returning to Braize to be tortured by Fused in order to uphold the Oathpact.

He was the man who first led humanity to experiment with Surges on Ashyn, and thus was ultimately the one who brought about the destruction of Ashyn, and the exodus of the ruined planet and into Roshar around -6000. They arrived in Shinovar and were not met kindly by the Singers, though Honor and Cultivation allowed them to inhabit the planet, giving them ownership of the area that is now known as Shinovar.

When relations with the native Rosharan singers broke down and the Fused started to appear, Ishar, along with nine other people, was raised to a Herald by Honor, creating the Oathpact. His part in the creation of the Oathpact was larger then most, to the extent he was known as its founder.

He fought in many Desolations, and had been tortured on Braize for many years between them. Serving as a hero to mankind, and a scourge to the Singers, for many, many years.

Around -5000, he served to be the one who helped to organize the Knights Radiant when Surgebinders began to appear across Roshar. During this time, he also sought a way to preserve information between the Desolations, as it kept being lost and mankind kept being sent back to a more primitive level of advancement between each Desolation.

Eventually, around the year -3333, he was the one who spread the idea of abandoning the Oathpact among the broken Heralds, saying that it only required one of them to stay on Braize, therefore they could leave Talenel, who died in a previous battle, on Braize while they went their separate ways. And this came to be, resulting in the Aharietiam.

Some time after the Aharietiam, 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. Some time after this meeting, he became embroidered in Tukari politics, and eventually rose as the God-Priest Tezim, becoming their theocratic leader. And in the year 1167 he initiated the Eighty's War, fighting in order to reclaim Sesemalex Dar, likely out of irredentist philosophy or for the great effectiveness of the city as a port. And causing great economic damage to both nations.

During some point, he began experimenting on bringing the manifestation of Spren into the Physical Realm and measuring how long they were able to survive, sually only surviving for a few seconds, and doing autopsies on them. The exact reasons he has for doing this are not yet known.

In 1174, he was asked to join in the Coalition of Monarchs, though he adamantly rejected their request, and instead demanded them to bow down to him, demanding ownership of Urithiru and fealty from the newly refounded Knights Radiant. He was also refused.

During the Coalition's Campaign in Emul, Dalinar Kholin once again requested aid from the mad Herald. However, Ishar accused Dalinar of being Odium's champion, and refused his pleas. He summoned his Honorblade and attacked Dalinar and the five Windrunners which accompanied him, easily defeating them. As Dalinar opened a Perpendicularity, Ishar approached him and created a Connection with him, meaning to steal his bond with the Stormfather as well as his Connection to Odium. However, at this moment the bond was severed by Nightblood and  Szeth also attacked him, chipping his Honorblade, causing him to open up a Perpendicularity and flee.

Opening this caused him a degree of lucidity, and led him to informing him not only that he could have his lucidity temporarily restored when a Knight swears an Oath nearby him, but also that he knew a way of resetting the Oathpact, and asked him to meet him in Shinovar, before falling back into his madness.

Personality
Not much is known about Ishar's personality before his madness, but 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; and that he has a very scholarly nature.

Tezim
As Tezim he is a megalomaniac with a God-Complex, who demands utter respect and worship from all people. He is crazed and unstable, and once he comes to believe something it is nearly impossible to convince him otherwise, such as his adamant belief that Dalinar is Odium's Champion, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

He shows himself as possessing little care for others, with his practices on Spren being extraordinarily cruel and causing many deaths. Despite this he continues his experiements.

The Heralds
All of the Heralds deeply respect him and see him as very wise, he was always able to make them come to believe in his ideas and stand by them due to his charisma.

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.

Powers and Stats
Name: Ishar, Ishi, Ishi'Elin, Ishu-Son-God, Tashi, Tezim, Herald of Luck, Herald of Mysteries, Binder of Gods, Tezim the Great, Herald of Heralds, Bearer of the Oathpact

Age: At least 7,000

Gender: Male

Classification: Herald of the Almighty, Patron of the Bondsmiths, Shardbearer, God-Priest of Tukar

Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics (When pulling upon Stormlight, he experiences an increase in his strength and reactivity in proportion to the amount of Stormlight that he pulls upon) and Regeneration (When using Stormlight, the body restores itself to its Spiritual Ideal, in essence healing the body and Spiritweb back to its undamaged state, a form of regeneration. The degree to which he can regenerate depends on how much Stormlight he as to draw upon)

Limited Durability Negation and Soul Manipulation via his Honorblade (Shardblades pass through living flesh without truly touching the flesh, instead just passing through and slicing apart the soul), Weapon Mastery with his Honorblade (He has an extremely great level of skill with his Shardblade, honed over millennia of practice. He is described as almost seeming able to see the future in his skill)

Immortality (He is capable of living for extraordinarily long stretches of time, having survived the 4,500 year gap between the Aharietiam and the True Desolation)

Resurrection (After dying, he is resurrected on Braize, and can be brought back to Roshar)

Soul Manipulation, Language Decipherment (Type 1) (Is capable of creating a Spiritual Connection to an individual, and in doing so temporarily learn how to speak in and understand their native language), and Adhesion Manipulation via Surge of Adhesion

Rigidity Manipulation via Surge of Tension (Is able to alter the Rigidity of physical objects)

Limited Reality Warping (Is capable of merging together the Three Realms in a limited space in order to temporarily open a Perpendicularity),

Herald =

Honorblade
He received from Honor a special form of Shardblade known as an Honorblade. This is made directly from the essence of Honor himself and by using them they draw upon his power.

They do not act as ordinary blades in that they do not cut living flesh, but rather effervesce and pass through it, leaving the flesh unharmed and instead cutting the Spiritweb itself. If the Blade cuts the core of a person's limb, the person feels a flash of incredible pain and then the limb turns gray and becomes limp and numb. If an internal organ is pierced by a Shardblade, it may be killed or cease to function. If the spine or head is cut, the eyes of the person blacken and burn out with a dark smoke rising from them.

When cutting through something not classified as alive, they still cut far better than any other sword, able to cut through any non-Invested material with relative ease. A cut from a Honorblade, or even a Shardblade for that matter, leave distinctive perfectly clean cuts.

He was skilled enough with his Honorblade to fight off five Windrunners of the Third Ideal with ease, without the use of Surgebinding. Moving almost as if he was able to predict their movements. Whether this was seeing the future, or a result of prediction and skill, is currently unknown.

Surgebinding
From his Honorblade, he gains the power of Surgebinding, capable of using the Surges of Tension and Adhesion.

Unlike most Knights Radiant, they receive power directly from Honor through the blade, therefore do not need to collect Stormlight. Due to this they also have access to raw power far beyond that of any normal Radiant. And Ishar himself is notably powerful even amongst the Heralds.

Surge of Adhesion


The Surge of Adhesion can be manipulated to bind things together. This is considered the "Surge of Binding and Oaths", and is deemed to be "Honor's Truest Surge", and as a result it is more difficult to suppress.


 * Full Lashing: This ability creates an extremely powerful temporary bond between two objects. This is used by infusing a surface with Stormlight, and after the infusion anything touching it would become bound to the infused surface. This is such a powerful binding that most objects would break apart before the binding itself does. The duration of this bond is determined by the amount of Stormlight infused.


 * Spiritual Adhesion: Using the Surge of Adhesion to manipulate spiritual, rather than purely physical forces, a Bondsmith can touch another person and forge a spiritual Connection between them. This allows the Bondsmith to temporarily speak the other person's native tongue. Whether the Bondsmith must remain physically close to this other person for the ability to be continually used is unknown. It lasts for longer than a few hours, but shorter than a few days.


 * Other Uses: He has shown other abilities in manipulating Connection, such as Connecting various Knights Radiants to the ground and draining their Investiture. and even showing the capability to steal Dalinar's Nahel Bond to the Stormfather.

Surge of Tension
The Surge of Tension can be manipulated to alter the stiffness of an object. This can be used to alter the stiffness of an object, taking something flexible and making it rigid. This ability is highly resisted by Investiture.

When mixed with the Surge of Adhesion, this can be used to repair inanimate objects. This, overall, is one of the less understood Surges.

Immortality
The Heralds, Ishar included, have a very potent form of Immortality. They do not age, allowing them to survive for millennia, and when attacked they are far more difficult to kill than an ordinary human, able to heal from significant wounds that would be fatal to most beings.

Even if killed, they would return to Braize and resurrect.

However, they can perish under special circumstances. With a specially crafted Raysium dagger, which upon being stabbed by it, would have their soul trapped into the gemstone at its hilt. With the Oathpact severed and Honor Splintered, they can not survive long without a body, and would fade away and perish within weeks. This is ultimately how Jezrien himself perished.

Cognitive Shadow Nature
He is no longer human, but rather, is a Cognitive Shadow. He naturally lacks a body, but gets a new one returned to him with every Return.

As a Cognitive Shadow, he is Connected deeply to the Rosharan System, and is thus incapable of leaving it by any normal means.

Post-Aharietiam = He was one of the only Heralds, not regarding Nale, which reclaimed their Shardblade and Surgebinding ability after the Aharietiam. He is noted as being no longer restricted by Honor.