Elsecaller / King Lopen the First of Alethkar

The Stormlight Archive #2.1

by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Isaac Stewart

Two high-stakes Stormlight stories. One collectible volume.

"Angerspren are!" Ivory pulled Jasnah forward. "Called by your light and drawn by your fury. Calm it now or their food will be us!"

In Elsecaller, Jasnah Kholin faces threats beyond the physical realm as she navigates the dangerous intersection of Radiant powers and raw emotion. Written by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells for the 2024 Story Deck®.

Being assassinated wasn't as bad as Elhokar Kholin, king of Alethkar, had expected it to be. The thing that had kept him looking over his shoulder all these years had finally happened, and he'd lived through it.

In King Lopen: The First of Alethkar, survival is just the beginning when the impossible happens to one of Roshar's most unexpected rulers. Written by Brandon Sanderson and Isaac Stewart for the 2024 Story Deck®.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories

115 pages, Hardcover

Published December 4, 2025

About the author

I’m Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers.

The release of Wind and Truth in December 2024—the fifth and final book in the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive series—marks a significant milestone for me. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it’s the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be. Now is a great time to get into the Stormlight Archive since the first arc, which begins with Way of Kings, is complete.

During our crowdfunding campaign for the leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance, I announced a fifth Secret Project called Isles of the Emberdark, which came out in the summer of 2025. Coming December 2025 is Tailored Realities, my non-Cosmere short story collection featuring the new novella Moment Zero.

Defiant, the fourth and final volume of the series that started with Skyward in 2018, came out in November 2023, capping an already book-filled year that saw the releases of all four Secret Projects: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. These four books were all initially offered to backers of the #1 Kickstarter campaign of all time.

November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. Now that the first arc of the Stormlight Archive is wrapped up, I’ve started writing the third era of Mistborn in 2025.

Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, four of the five Secret Projects, and various novellas, including The Emperor’s Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded. If you’ve read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read.

I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which had its final book, Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, released in 2022. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn.

Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the three stories in Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. These two novellas are also featured in 2025’s Tailored Realities. There’s a lot of material to go around!

Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart, The Emperor’s Soul, Tress of the Emerald Sea, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.

I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan’s notes.

Sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.

Reviews

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had already read most of this as part of the story deck product, but I’m glad to see these two stories packaged together for convenient rereading. These shorts are canonical cosmere stories happening concurrently with Words of Radiance and fill in some interesting gaps. And the fantastic full color illustrations from the story deck cards are reproduced wonderfully.

[Rozarka · Rating 4 out of 5]

King Lopen the First of Alethkar: 5 stars, perfect character study (of Elhokar, I mean; sorry Lopen, I don't care about you that much).

Elsecaller: this one was kinda pointless. It promised to show us how Jasnah got back to Roshar, but frankly, it skipped over all the interesting things that happened on the journey and focused only on the fights (boring). It didn't help that the story felt rushed, her character "growth" and "sacrifice" happened out of the blue and left no emotional impact.
The art is gorgeous though.

[Jordan Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

As a self proclaimed Lopen hater, no one was expecting to hate King Lopen more than I. But I think Isaac Stewart pulled that off well! I also like Dan Wells other horror stories, so his story in Shadesmar with Jasnah being chased by Angerspren felt new and fun to read! I'm really excited to see what other authors can do in the cosmere. This book was a fun surprise I found at Dragonsteel Nexus that I didn't know existed and both short stories were quite good

[Sarah Crucilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t know this book existed until recently. King Lopen is super fun and insightful. Elsecaller is good, but is a little cliché and skips over a ton of juicy plot (tbh Jasnah’s adventures in Shadesmar could probably be its own book). Would definitely recommend to get more canon Stormlight flavor text.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun pair of stories.

King Lopen is lighter and fairly funny, following Lopen around for the afternoon that he was king of Alethkar.

Elsecaller, meanwhile, follows Jasnah as she falls into Shadesmar and journeys to get home.

[Tatum Loftus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is two separate novellas.
King Lopen was so funny yet meaningful and gave you an even better look in Elokhar’s life.
Elsecaller was just okay for me. It felt too short and could have been more flushed out. I enjoyed seeing Ivory as a character more but wish it didn’t end so soon.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this again from my story deck.
Glad they decided to put this in book form!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. It was really enjoyable to read both of these "Stormlight" stories. Fun, quick and, particularly in Elsecaller's case, very helpful backstory. The King Lopen story was hilarious but also provided some very interesting insight into King Elhokar. I hope Brandon continues to allow these other voices (Dan Wells and Isaac Stewart) to write these Stormlight side stories.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Elsecaller: five stars. I wish it was longer.

King Lopen the First of Alethkar: four stars. It was cute and fun.


Full review to come!

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much thought and care into this book. I appreciate the print quality and art, and the stories themselves are peak.

[Korynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to the prefaces of both of these stories, these are canonical stories. Crazy. However, they’re both side stories that you don’t need to read to enjoy the Stormlight Archive but will provide fun extra details to those interested. This dual-story book also has some great full-color artwork in it that is worth looking at. Overall I would recommend reading this book if you’re a Stormlight Archive fan.

King Lopen the First of Alethkar—3/5 stars
Apparently Lopen was actually canonically king for a day, and this is the story of how that happened and what Lopen did as king. It was silly, as was to be expected whenever Lopen is involved. I enjoyed my time reading it, but I also don’t feel like it was important to the overall Stormlight narrative in any way.

Elsecaller—4.5/5 stars
This is the story of Jasnah after she goes away for a period of time in Words of Radiance. Definitely a story to be read after Words of Radiance if you don’t want to spoil a pivotal scene for yourself. I like Jasnah as a character, and thus I enjoyed this story a lot. It features references to other worlds in the Cosmere, including one I’ve not heard of before. I liked the two new characters we met too, and Brandon said in the preface to keep an eye out for one of them in future Cosmere novels, which piqued my interest. I felt like this story was more than just filler and was actually important to the overall Cosmere, but it is still not necessary to read to understand and enjoy the greater Stormlight books.

[ChristianK · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has long been talk about other authors inside Dragonsteel taking over stories in the Cosmere that Brandon is just not getting to. As fast as he writes, he can't possibly do it all. So why not involve his creative friends, who have been with him for a long time?

This collection of two stories is a good first taste of that. Initially these were for the Storydeck cards collectible at Dragonsteel Nexus, I believe.

I absolutely loved King Lopen by Isaac Stewart, VP of Creative Development at Dragonsteel. From the Preface we know that Brandon was more involved with this story to get the balance right. And it paid off. It is funny and endearing but not without substance and more insight into a Stormlight character (not Lopen). Wonderful.

Elsecaller was written by Dan Wells, VP of Narrative at Dragonsteel and himself a published author. It is about what Jasnah was doing, and I'm trying to be vague here, during one of the Stormlight books. We didn't really know until now and Brandon never got around to writing it, as he tells in the preface. Now we know. Good story. I always liked Jasnah and Dan got the tone right for her.

I think we will be in good hands concerning the expansion of the Cosmere with other authors joining to put Brandon's vision and ideas to the page.

[Nick Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

​I was initially hesitant to read these two novellas, as they weren't directly written by Brandon beyond the outlines. However, as they are official Cosmere canon, they felt like essential reads.

​Elsecaller is a solid 4 ⭐️ story. It effectively fills a gap in Jasnah's narrative from Words of Radiance, while introducing new characters, worlds, and prophecies for the second half of Stormlight. In my opinion, this served as a successful litmus test for Dan Wells’ ability to write within the Cosmere.

​King Lopen was less appealing—a generous 3 ⭐️ story. There was less narrative meat to work with, and while I appreciated the introduction of a more repentant Elhokar and the early signs of him seeing spren, the story felt more like a series of wacky antics with humor that generally fell flat. This makes me a bit more concerned about Isaac Stewart’s future Cosmere contributions, though to be fair, Lopen is a much harder character to balance than Jasnah. Furthermore, while I know Brandon intends for Lopen to be Hispanic-coded, the writing here felt a bit more cringe and leaned into uncomfortable racialized tropes.

[Echoes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at Dragonsteel 2025 not knowing anything about it other than it had a story about Lopen in it. What it is, is the completed texts of two stories from the collected story cards that were given out at Dragonsteel 2024. The first story is Elsecaller, chronicling the adventures of a certain Stormlight Archive character’s adventures in Shadesmar during her “disappearance” after an event in Way of Kings. I really enjoyed this story. The character has a nice self-reflection moment and introduces two interesting new characters. I also enjoyed the art and seeing more of said character’s spren and the anger spren in Shadesmar.

The second story was based on a throwaway line that Lopen said in one of the Stormlight books about him being the King of Alethkar one time. Apparently it was not just Lopen being Lopen 😂 It was funny and I got to see a lot of Herdazian culture. If you’re not a Lopen fan it might not be for you, but I enjoyed it a lot. Lopen’s mom is my new favorite Herdazian. I need to see more of her in the future.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elsecaller: I liked learning of Jasnah’s time in Shadesmar, especially as she learns more of the dangers there. She and Ivory meet a historian named Tyvneri and a young girl named Lorieta. Both are quite interesting. Through them, Jasnah learns of other worlds, and about herself. The end was quite good.

King Lopen: This was a little too much Lopen and not enough Elhokar. I liked seeing the period of time Elhokar spends with the Herdazians, and how/why that time was good for him. Lopen’s mother, Isa, is fantastic. It’s almost adorable how Stewart was afraid of being too silly with The Lopen even though that’s exactly who the character is. And yes, The Lopen WAS actually king for a part of a day.
I liked the addition of Sincerity spren :)

[Adriann Frerichs · Rating 4 out of 5]

King Lopen: This story is a 3 stars for me. It had funny moments, it had moments that i thought were interesting, and moments i found touching, but overall i didnt care as much as i cared about elsecaller lol. i dont LOVE lopen or elekar, so it just didnt hit super hard as far as character work for me

that being said; elsecaller: genuinely a 4.5 outta me. like a perfect novella in my eyes. i tabbed so much of it?? it made me almost tear up, it made me scream, i just i love jasnah so so much and i found this story so touching and fun. it was different than what i was expecting, but im so happy i read it lol. also like super excited for the future with some of the implications from this book. omfg. anywho yeah nearly perfect in my humble opinion lol

[Michael Brough · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love the Stormlight Archives and need to read everything connected to that series, then it might be worth it to get this book (2 short stories).

I appreciate Brandon Sanderson expanding the authors who he collaborates with and has write projects and ideas he has. However, it's very obvious both of these stories are not written by Brandon directly (just in style) so it is slightly disconcerting given the voicing differences for characters.

Overall, I rate Elsecaller a 4 and King Lopen a 3, although neither one of them in my opinion truly captures the persona of either major character.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two short stories written by Dan Wells and Isaac Stewart originally for Dragonsteel Nexus as the Story Deck game. Elsecaller shows what happens after Jasnah is stabbed on the ship in WOR, how she survives it and Shadesmar, and how she finds her way back to the Physical Realm. King Lopen also takes place during WOR, after Kaladin stashes Elhokar with Lopen's family. King Lopen is by far my favorite of the two. Both feel rushed, but Elsecaller more so. I do enjoy being in Jasnah's POV more, but she's not very likeable in this story and there's just not very much material. King Lopen is funny and has a character arc in Elhokar that feels more complete.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these two little one shots. Jasnah didn’t seem quite the same to me. Dan Wells didn’t capture her as well as I had hoped. Though I love Shadesmar and I’m excited to see those two new characters show up elsewhere in the Cosmere.

And Lopen, my dear King of Alethkar, Lopen. I love him. Isaac Stewart did an impeccable job of capturing him. And to see Elhokar again 🥲 Having a loving mother’s hand guiding him in his troubles. So very tender.

Both great additions to the characters and the world.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Jasnah half first and found it alright I guess. Very little character development and left with more questions than answers. Jasnah is one of my favorite characters so walked away feeling a little let down if I’m being honest.

The Lopen and Elhokar part was surprisingly better. Even after reading The Dawnshard I never really cared about Lopen and I’ve never dived int Elhokar’s character before so getting to see into two characters I didn’t really have a serious attachment to and coming away from it feeling more connected to them is awesome. Pleasantly surprised by this one!

[Sarah Childre · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I enjoyed Jasnah and her journey in Shadesmar, the highlight of this whole mini stories was Elhokar. His time spent with Mama making the food and becoming more comfortable with her is such a comforting perspective of him. Minor Spoilers!! but the end with him hand on hers claiming them to be his cousins was such a key point in his story from now on. Another fantastic read but such a good little snippet of time with the two siblings.

[Andrea Del Valle Villafane · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10.

These two stories were so fun to read, especially because they’ve been labeled as “canon.” We got a bit more of a better look into Lopen, Elhokar, and Jasnah’s minds, and we got to experience a little bit of the Herdazian culture. Lopen’s mom is the best.

I recommend reading King Lopen after WOR and Elsecaller after ROW. I feel like that’s the best place for them.

[Izzy Kalakay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVEEDDD The Lopen short story. Lopen is one of my FAVORITE Stromlight characters and I just loved that book so unbelievably much :( if anything EVER happens to him I will lose it
And the Jasnah story was SO good as well. I absolutely LOVED seeing everything she did after almost being passionate and it was just so fun to experience this world again I missed it

[Jesse Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Elsecaller, and seeing what Jasnah was up to in Shadesmar before returning to Roshar. King Lopen was a fun little adventure, but my favorite scenes ended up being the Elhokar ones. Some good lessons learned.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both stories were fun! I’ve wanted to get more of Jasnah’s story for ages and I liked her little adventure though it did feel a bit rushed. The King Lopen story had a great balance of humor and seriousness. Overall fun additions to the cosmere

[Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it’s because according to the knights radiance quiz I am also an elsecaller, but I found Jasnah’s story to be one of the more compelling Rosharan short stories. King Lopen was also a very fun entry. Of the stormlight short stories these are my two favorites

[Ken Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of quick little cosmere stories that help fill some gaps. Would not classify they as must reads by any metric, but if you are are doing your full cosmere journey, it's worth throwing these in at some point (I would say after oathbringer)

[Damon Neanover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the concept of a double book, with a story on each side. One in shadesmar and then flip it over with one in Roshar.

Always great to learn more about Shadesmar and how it connects the Cosmere. And who can ever get enough Lopen.

[Scott Swanguarim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile read accounting for Jasnahs time in Shadesmar and Lopens time with Elokhar while he was avoiding assassination attempts. Very short stories on both, but fun. Along with some beautiful artwork to accompany both stories. Worth the quick read to add to the Cosmere experience!

[Casey Sobecks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick fun little read
The elsecaller story provided some good background in connection
King Lopen was just goofy
If I had to put this into my cosmere reading order, I would say it could go either before or after reading oathbringer