Taravangian

Taravangian
Biographical information
Nationality	Kharbranthian
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Physical Description
Hair Color	White
Social Information
Title(s)	King of Kharbranth/Jah Keved
Occupation	King
Appears in	The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance

Taravangian was the King of Kharbranth during The Way of Kings and is now also the King of Jah Keved (since the events of Words of Radiance). Publicly, he appears to be a kindly, philanthropic, but ultimately dim man. However, these features are merely skin deep, as he hides dark secrets behind this visage.

Background

Taravangian is the King of Kharbranth, an independent city-state, and one of the five Vorin kingdoms(?). He is not a terribly powerful king, as Kharbranth doesn't have a Shardblade and its only exports are fish, bells, and information.

Taravangian is considered to be a weak King by many lighteyes, who say that he panders to so many other monarchs and fears war, which is the most important Calling in the Vorin religion. However, he is popular among darkeyes, beloved for building and maintaining hospitals in his city, where everyone is cared for and nobody turned away. He is able to maintain these hospitals by charging admittance fees into the Palanaeum, the largest and finest library in Roshar.

Publicly, he is seen as being simple-minded. In secret, however, he is a masterful plotter, with his schemes spanning across nations. Apparently, Taravangian had sought the Old Magic, receiving both curse and boon from the Nightwatcher. As a result, his intelligence fluctuates from day to day, sometimes making him idiotic and sometimes a genius. He makes tests for himself on his smarter days and depending upon the score he achieves each morning, his guards place restrictions on what orders he can make if he scores too high or too low.

“	We leave it to His Majesty’s mind, on a strong day, to puzzle out the meaning of why the storms might be important, and what the poem may mean by indicating that there is silence both above and below said storms.	”
–Joshor, Head of His Majesty’s Silent Gatherers, Tanatanev 1173

He resides in the royal palace, within the Kharbranth conclave.

Biography

Taravangian granted Jasnah Kholin access to the Palanaeum, in exchange for freeing his granddaughter who was trapped, after a recent Highstorm had caused a cave-in within the Conclave. On this occasion, he was described by Shallan as elderly, with a wispy white beard, pale grey eyes, an open and kindly face, and as wearing royal orange robes.

He joins Jasnah and Shallan during lunch. Shallan makes a drawing for him while Jasnah and the King discuss Jasnah's atheism.

When Shallan is injured, he visits her at the Hospital.

Szeth describes Taravangian as no simpleton, due to his exposure to glimpses of the real person beneath the King's public face. He mentions the King's keen eyes and wise, knowing face, rimmed with a full white beard, the mustaches drooping like arrow points. After Szeth's assassination of multiple Highprinces, Jah Keved fell into civil war. Though it was of great magnitude, it ended quickly, as all the Highprinces converged on the capital and quickly killed each other. After the war was over, Taravangian visited the new King, Valam. On the way, he made sure his men were seen helping the survivors of war, quickly gaining support of the smallfolk. Szeth visited him unexpectedly, telling him of the existence of another Radiant. Taravangian soothed him, told Szeth to kill Dalinar Kholin while avoiding contact with Kaladin, and quickly went to refer to The Diagram once Szeth had left. Here, he identified that a bridgeman had to be the Knight Radiant from something he wrote, and emphasized that the bridgeman and Szeth could never meet. Afterwards, he went up to where Valam was dying. After a quick conversation, Valam made his bastard son, Redin, bear witness to his making Taravangian the new king, then made Redin kill him. This made Taravangian king of Jah Keved, and thus he had taken the first major step toward unifying the world.

Secret Activities

Taravangian discovered that sometime after King Gavilar's excursion into the Shattered Plains, the "death rattles" began. Taravangian believes these to be of extreme importance. "Their words might save us." Secretly, he began to use his hospitals to deliberately kill people by slowly draining their blood. He keeps scholars present at all times so they can record their Last Words.

Taravangian has no illusions about the nature of his actions, but he believes them to be necessarily evil, in his work toward the ultimate purpose of saving the world.

“

It is better for one man to sin than for a people to be destroyed ... ... I am the monster who will save this world.

”

Taravangian has employed Szeth to assassinate some of the most powerful and influential men in Roshar, including Hanavanar, the king of Jah Keved. He believes these serve the purpose of bringing stability to the world, according to a prophetic series of hieroglyphs, known as The Diagram, that he made during a day of extraordinary genius. He orders Szeth to kill Dalinar in order to prevent the latter from uniting the Alethi Highprinces.