The Way of Kings

Social hierarchy is an important theme in the book and closely resembles the Western Medieval model of society. Alethkar is organized along the lines of a feudal state with one king commanding multiple lords who each have their own army and lands and enjoy varying degrees of autonomy. In Western feudal societies, the most important factor in determining social status was lineage, which determined the inheritance of power, wealth, and titles. In Alethkar, Sanderson takes the notion of family lineage and aristocratic bloodlines to an extreme, with genetics playing a major role. People with light eyes are automatically considered of high social status, as this phenotypical trait evokes the glowing eyes of the legendary Knights Radiant. Those with dark eyes are seen as commoners, regardless of how they got their eye color. In such a world, there is almost no possibility of social mobility. The one exception is when a darkeyes wins a Shardblade in battle and his eye color lightens. There is a brief mention of the possibility of a high-ranking darkeyes marrying into a low-ranking lighteyes family, but that does not seem to be a prevalent trend, as the social hierarchy of Alethkar incentivizes aristocratic families to marry and procreate only with similarly light-eyed people to preserve power and status.

Sanderson directly connects social hierarchy to the ideas of morality and personal responsibility. People with light eyes often feel entitled and behave badly toward their subordinates. People with dark eyes, such as Kaladin, who desire more out of life often end up feeling dissatisfied and unhappy. Being a member of the aristocracy, however, can be limiting in its own right. Dalinar struggles to reconcile his love for his brother’s widow with social convention, and fears the loss of his power for behaving out of sync with Alethi social norms. Dalinar’s perceived eccentricity threatens not only his status, but his life and the lives of his sons when Sadeas betrays him. Similarly, while Sadeas’s betrayal cannot be proven illegal, it is an immoral act. However, since society, as a whole, including both lighteyes and darkeyes, supports and reinforces such a system, as attested by the villagers’ tacit approval of Lord Roshone’s mistreatment of Kaladin’s family, most people go along and do not take responsibility for their actions. Kaladin, his father, Dalinar, and to some extent Jasnah and Shallan, are markedly different from the rest of their societies as they not only know the difference between right and wrong, but behave accordingly, and consciously take responsibility for their choices.

Not all of Roshar bases its social hierarchy on genetics. Some places use age as a deciding factor. No matter the means, however, there is always some way societies choose to split people into different groups. None of the states mentioned in The Way of the Kings is run as a democracy or espouses egalitarian society. Additionally, certain cultures are also associated with distinct physical features. For example, the parshmen and Parshendi have marbled skins, while the Horneaters tend to be tall and red-haired. For the most part, these differences in physical appearance are noted as details of Roshar’s world, without specific connotations. In the case of the parshmen, however, their outer appearance seems to be the main reason they are treated as slaves. Other kinds of people can become enslaved, due to various reasons, but the parshmen are born as slaves. There are also no known free people with their outer appearance, until Gavilar encounters the Parshendi. This situation inevitably leads to comparisons with the way slavery in the New World was predicated on perceived skin color differences.

The parable of the desiccated emperor of Uvara exemplifies the tension in the novel between social norms and moral behavior. Sanderson proposes that people use social structures to justify objectively immoral actions including theft or murder, regardless of their position within the social hierarchy. In The Way of Kings, social norms become a secondary, imposed morality that takes precedence over the more difficult to identify objective morality unless directly confronted. Because of their experiences in the novel, Shallan, Kaladin, and Dalinar are all forced to make such a confrontation.