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What Vision POVs do you think Dalinar should have tested out? I think he should have tried out being one of the Midnight Essence. No clue what he may have learned, but at the minimum he could have tried talking to one of the Knights while in that form. But there's also the possibility he could have heard the commands of the person who summoned/released them, in which case he could then try being that person I also think he should have tried to be any of the Knights at Feverstone Keep, who give up their Shards. Do the Knights have an offscreen conversation? Can he talk to his Spren? Can he possibly not give up his Shards?

Here's a bit of a prediction -- and let me preface this by saying that while I've been doing a bit of lurking here, I haven't done a thorough search through all the contest of champions topics. If someone else has already come up with something along these lines, I apologize for a redundant theory. I've been thinking about setup for Odium's champion; narratively, how will Brandon produce Odium's champion in just 10 days (not counting flashbacks)? I feel that the simplest way to give Odium an active role in producing that champion will be to use visions -- it's an established part of his power set, and it's something Rayse already tried with Kaladin. Rayse's methods were very different from Tanavast's; his visions were a raw and brutal attempt to mentally and emotionally shatter a target (not unlike the methods employed with the heralds on Braise), whereas Tanavast's visions were designed to warn, enlighten, and perhaps transform someone by offering them a chance to accept a higher calling. I'm willing to bet that the shard's intent played a large role in how the visions were used, and Rayse was limited due to how long he had held the shard (which is not to say that his attempt to break Kaladin was necessarily a poor choice -- it almost worked, after all). Now we have a new vessel, Taravangian. Based on the RoW epilogue, he wants to do something unexpected for his champion selection -- which I think partially precludes El or someone else with established loyalty to Odium (though i admit I could easily be wrong). I predict that he will use carefully edited visions of the past and/or future to create his champion, and here's how I see it happening for a few of our frontrunner candidates: Szeth - based on his established mental instability, his impending crusade against his own people, and Taravangian's past experience with manipulating Szeth, I think Szeth is the most obvious choice for a turncoat champion (despite his current oath to serve Dalinar). I think that visions involving people from his past (especially people he killed) would prove useful to TOdium, especially if he plants new words into their mouths similar to what Tanavast did at the end of each vision. For example, despite his unwillingness to forgive himself, Szeth still seems vulnerable to someone seeding the idea that he can correct past mistakes by doing X (X being whatever TOdium wants him to do). TOdium could even seek to accelerate Szeth's progress as a radiant, in an effort to help him reach his fifth ideal and thus divorce him from his oath to Dalinar (this is something Rayse would likely never do, which is the main reason I consider it here). Alternatively, he could simply seek to fully break Szeth -- make him turn to Odium for relief from his agony -- though I think that's more of a Rayse method. In any case, we know that we're getting Szeth's flashbacks, which could easily provide in-book context for a TOdium-induced vision to capitalize on. Gavinor - I include him here (despite the fact that I don't like the child champion theory) because he does have a rather direct route to accepting the role of Odium's champion. Imagine how Gavinor would react if TOdium forced him to watch Dalinar pummel Elhokar and shatter his shardplate, without offering the context necessary to realize that Dalinar was not attempting to assassinate the boy's father? What if that was the final vision in a string of visions where he saw the Blackthorn brutally slaughtering his foes (and sometimes his allies) thanks to the thrill? The boy has a hero complex, and TOdium has plenty of material to work with if he wanted to make the boy believe that his great uncle is a villain. The usual merits of the child champion theory apply, as well (forcing Dalinar to renege on the terms, thus giving TOdium much more freedom and damaging Honor's remaining power -- possibly even killing the Stormfather and making Stormlight difficult or impossible to acquire). Nalan - You could basically copy and paste my thoughts on Szeth here; he's similarly unhinged and vulnerable to the manipulation of his ideals. He's even working for Odium at this point. The biggest issue with Nale as champion is that I'm fairly certain Taravangian is hoping to achieve more than merely winning the duel. Anyhow, those are my thoughts for now. Feel free to comment, criticize, and/or offer further speculation.

So I was rereading Oathbringer for like the 5th and something just really started bugging me. Has anybody wondered why he started Conquering Roshar.? What if Sunmaker started receiving the visions from Stormfather? We know Gavilar also saw the visions and was on his way to becoming a Bondsmith. But despite Gavilar knowing way more than Dalinar did ( I give Gavilar being a Son of Honor) credit for most of this knowledge. Sunmaker didn’t have this luxury. So let’s say he started getting the visions. Started hearing the whole Unite them rhetoric. Saw a few vision of what was to come and figured , you know what I’m no diplomat, I’ll just Comquer everyone , then when the Desolation gets here , Everyone from Alethkar to the Aziz to the Reri will be under one rule and we can fight them. I also find his Death mysterious , from all reports he was in his prime. Somebody that Nale would probably kill with Division and people mistook it for disease. There are four Kholin family members ( counting Elhokar ) who we’re chosen by spren. So he has the right pedigree. I just don’t see thrill encouraging him to Conquer , There is something more. Sanderson has brought his name up and refered to many times . Sanderson always has a reason for his comments . I wouldn’t be surprised if he writes a short story and confirms that Sunmaker was on his way to becoming a Bondsmith and was killed for it . Probably by Nale or the ghostbloods!

So I was rereading Oathbringer for like the 5th and something just really started bugging me. Has anybody wondered why he started Conquering Roshar.? What if Sunmaker started receiving the visions from Stormfather? We know Gavilar also saw the visions and was on his way to becoming a Bondsmith. But despite Gavilar knowing way more than Dalinar did ( I give Gavilar being a Son of Honor) credit for most of this knowledge. Sunmaker didn’t have this luxury. So let’s say he started getting the visions. Started hearing the whole Unite them rhetoric. Saw a few vision of what was to come and figured , you know what I’m no diplomat, I’ll just Comquer everyone , then when the Desolation gets here , Everyone from Alethkar to the Aziz to the Reri will be under one rule and we can fight them. I also find his Death mysterious , from all reports he was in his prime. Somebody that Nale would probably kill with Division and people mistook it for disease. There are four Kholin family members ( counting Elhokar ) who we’re chosen by spren. So he has the right pedigree. I just don’t see thrill encouraging him to Conquer , There is something more. Sanderson has brought his name up and refered to many times . Sanderson always has a reason for his comments . I wouldn’t be surprised if he writes a short story and confirms that Sunmaker was on his way to becoming a Bondsmith and was killed for it . Probably by Nale or the ghostbloods!

Honor has given certain guidelines to Dalinar in the first or you can say last vision that he sees in Twok. He tells him to Unite them, whatever that they actually mean, to found the Knights Radiants, Say the old Oaths again so become a bondsmith, to humans to stop in-fighting, and champions fight. this is tentatively the totality of Honors plan. But he also said to Dalinar, Read the book. Is there any confirmation that Honor was talking about The way of Kings? Could it be some other book entirely? he also says i m sorry to leave you alone but i have done all that i could for you. any ideas on what else could he have done for humanity besided leaving these visions?

Dalinar’s had a few weird feelings of light and warmth in both WoR and OB. But there’s also been one distinctly odd vision in OB where he and Nohadon go shopping while a thunderclast stomps around. There’s a lot about it that just itches at me, so welcome to my summary + analysis, complete with increasingly wild theories. First let’s talk about the ~light~. When the vision begins, Dalinar can’t even look at the balcony because the light is so intense. The odd point to me is that he also describes it with sound, mentioning noises from it: "They sounded like the voices of people, but muffled” and then describing it as “loud sunlight”. A scratching distracts him, a door shuts behind him, and he notices the light from the door is gone. Nohadon is older, but the city is full of life this time (unlike when he was younger and the view was of death and destruction). Nohadon is also oddly flippant and does not react normally to things. Then we get to the big “Parable of the Grain” as I like to call it. Nohadon buys "golden, captivating grain, like the light of captured flames", which is rather curiously descriptive (especially in a vision so “light” themed) and also vaguely sounds like captured spren. The scales won’t balance, so he pushes on the grain side to force balance, meaning that he paid for more than what he received. Nohadon rather bluntly refers to this a metaphor when asking, So Dalinar’s had his fill of giving things up for principle/honor, such as not courting Navani when he was younger to best keep the peace with Galivar. However, I’m thinking Nohadon is referring to OB focus events: the death of Evi, living in shame/grief/horror, and then loss of memories of her. Dalinar paid some hefty prices, which start to seem unfairly paid as painful memories return, except that Cultivation has her finger on the scale. Things balance as Dalinar is able to ultimately find forgiveness and become a better person. Holding the bag of grain (representing the forgiveness Dalinar will later achieve), Nohadon touches the thunderclast: Nohadon starts talking about how everything exists in the 3 realms, mentioning As multiple thunderclasts (representing tears, pain, and burdens) crash down on him, Nohadon asks, “What is the most important step a man can take?” We know that Dalinar will later answer this (and withstand his pain crashing down on him) by saying it is the next step, and the next after that, as a journey means continuing. THEORY TIME 1) Dalinar has a connection to his Spiritual self, which is appearing as Nohadon to relay the vision to his physical/cognitive self. This is the perfect Dalinar beyond pain and uncertainty that is mentioned in the vision, which is what we see Dalinar starting to become at the end of Oathbringer. Nohadon also quotes Dalinar to himself: “Sometimes, a hypocrite is nothing more than a man who is in the process of changing.”Wait. Hadn’t Dalinar said that? Back when he’d felt stronger? More certain? More like his complete Spiritual self, perhaps? The light he feels could be the Spiritual Realm, which he can’t access but is growing more aware of. 2) Cultivation is manipulating his visions. Odium has appeared in and affected his visions, so why not Cultivation, if more subtly. “Change” is a big part of who/what she is, and the vision not only mentions “a hypocrite is nothing more than a man who is in the process of changing”, but also sets up the imagery of his burdens crashing down on him as he learns to accept them. 3) Dalinar is using his Bondsmith abilities to “pull” on Renarin to create a compound of abilities, similarly to what he did with Shallan when they created a map of Roshar. 4) Nohadon was Bondsmith and is connected to Dalinar (here’s a whole topic on this: 5) A Lightweaver is affecting Dalinar/sending him visions. This would explain the light and sounds cutting in and out weirdly. Unlikely. 6) Dalinar is connecting to the mysterious Sibling, who is the spren of dreams and resides mostly the Cognitive Realm. Pure speculation. 7) Hoid is somehow sending Dalinar visions. Unlikely. I do think Nohadon acts like him a bit, though mostly just the flippant glibness.

I am pretty new here, so this may easily have already been discussed. But one of the theories I had in my reading came up with this repeated line from Honor, "unite them". While it's of course easy to believe, like Dalinar, that he is supposed to unite the Alethi, I think that Honor is talking about so much more - I think perhaps, that he is telling Dalinar to unite the Alethi and the Parshendi, OR perhaps the Alethi and as many other kingdoms as possible. What do others think? It just seems so likely to lead Dalinar, and therefore the reader, down the side path of believing that "unite them" has a simple meaning. Also, it seems like even a unified Alethi would have trouble handling this "Everstorm" by itself... ... This also leads me to think that, considering other theories I've read, uniting the Alethi and Parshendi could have other implications. What I mean is... What if the Parshendi are of Cultivation? Since they aren't exactly humans, what if humanity is of Honor, and parshendi (and all their cremling/chasmfiend forms?) are of Cultivation, and one of the main ways Odium has overcome them and the Oathpact is by leading the 'creations' of Honor to conflict with the 'creations' of Cultivation? That's a theory based on very little, just what I've read around this forum so it could be way off.

So this is just an open question, to see if anyone has theories or knows of WoB that pertain to this. It's been bugging me for a while now how, for lack of a better term, special the Kholins seem to be. To my knowledge, becoming a Knight Radiant is not a matter of genetics (again, unless there's a WoB somewhere about this). This makes sense given how the magic system is essentially sentient; the spren choose the humans they bond with, and I don't think there has been any mention of them being limited by or drawn to different bloodlines. So why the Kholin's??? Dalinar is a Bondsmith, Renarin is a Truthwatcher, Jasnah is an Elsecaller. Elhokar describes seeing Cryptics in WoK (and keeps making obvious references to searching for the pattern of how things work, in both books - it is actually a defining, and very whiny, character trait), implying that he at least has the potenital to be a Lightweaver (maybe he is or was on some kind of shortlist of candidates :P). Beyond that, before Dalinar was chosen by the Stormfather to receive Honor's video diary, it is heavily implied that it was shown to Gavilar first. It is mentioned that he told Taravangian just before his death that he had visions about the Almighty and a storm. So yeah, that's a lot! Of the six Kholin's we've seen in the books (not counting Navani, since she is Kholin by - double! - marriage), five are either Knights Radiant or in some way special. No real theory on my part yet, still thinking it over, but it strikes me as very odd and I'm wondering if anyone has a theory or WoB to help shed light on this.

We know that before Dalinar, the visions were sent to Gavilar (as Taravangian knows some of its contents since Gavilar confined in him). Why? I suspect it has to do with the Way Of Kings and Alethi War Codes. Way of Kings probably is like a Bible to Radiants and if somebody follows its teachings, he or she becomes Radiant material as he or she exhibits behaviour and attitude which attracts spren. I suspect that combined with the Alethi Codes of War which, among others, contain teaching for what a leader should be, they make a Bondsmith material (as Bondsmiths seem to be about leading/uniting people: "I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together" and the Divine Attribute of Guiding). That would explain why the next recipient after Gavilar is his own brother. Because Dalinar did what Gavilar did. Followed the same teachings. Now, I'm not sure whether Gavilar was chosen because of his actions to unite Alethkar or perhaps he united Alethkar because of the visions. I suspect it was the former, as he started behaving differently only recently. Dalinar continues his work, becoming obsessed with keeping Alethkar whole. But no, this is a distraction. Deviation. We must discuss the nature of my theory. I say that the visions are sent to those who are proto-Bondsmiths. This makes sense, as Stormfather can sense those individuals (much like Shallan's lies attracted a Cryptic, Kaladin's behaviour attracted honorspren and so on). Perhaps he doesn't want to bond them, and who says he did? Maybe Dalinar was the first to actually progress to the point of bonding the Stormfather? But I digress again. Who said Dalinar was the second one to receive the visions? Who said Gavilar was the first to receive the visions? Maybe the visions were sent to him only after the previous candidate failed/died? Let's go further with that. How many times were the visions sent throughout the history? Did Sunmaker receive them? Maybe Talenel had a hard time back then and it made Stormfather react with selecting an individual. Then Talenel pulled himself together. Then he started breaking again in the modern times and visions were sent once again.

i have been thinking and reading several threads have led me to think about the visions. A death rattle was recorded by an individual known to have visions during high storms. Gavilar had them (is there actual proof of that?) and Dalinar has them. Can multiple people have these visions? Are they the same for everyone? How does a vision work? It seems that Dalinar can interact very specifically with his visions. He can fight beasts, the radiant notices his skill at fighting and tells him to go to Urithiru to become a radiant. Does this have an impact on the past or the man (Heb?) who's body he was in during the vision? Did he influence Nohadon to write the Way of Kings? Is there more to this than we have seen so far?

So I'm on another re-read of WoR and something caught my eye in the scene where Dalinar and co first notice the strange writing on the wall (I'm using kindle so I can't give pg numbers). Now I read in another thread somewhere where it was put forward that Renarin was the one responsible for writing the warnings, based on his ability to see ahead as a Truthwatcher and wanting to warn everybody without attracting attention to himself. In this scene Dalinar wakes from his vision and tells it to Navani and everybody leaves him alone in his room, at which time he promptly falls asleep. This scene stuck with me because he mentions how weird it was for him to fall asleep during the day. The second Surge of the Truthwatchers is Progression which is the 'Surge of healing and regrowth.' My theory is that Renarin was somehow able to use this surge to put Dalinar to sleep so that he could etch the warning without anyone noticing him. What do ya'll think? I don't know if this has been discussed yet or not so feel free to tear it up.

Hi! I exist!! Sorry if this is the wrong place for this by the way but yeah I have a theory pertaining to the mysterious visions dalinar receives from the almighty!!! And it's probably totally wrong and it's really quite baseless but here it goes. Now dalinar as we all know has a phrase that he uses an awful lot something like "blood of my fathers", now upon first look I thought nothing of it although upon my subsequent reread, before words of radiance arrives, I noticed that he happened to say it during a vision, the one where he is heb I think, and I just thought well maybe what he is experiencing is the memories and trials of his forefathers. That's pretty much it but yeah I was interested by it. The only other thing I can think to support the idea of dalinars visions being from his ancestors is that we know that blood is important, not only in this series but also in the other cosmere works. So yeah, that's it, thanks

We saw at the end of AoL that Miles had what appeared to be one of the visions from WoK. He prophesised about the coming of men of crimson and gold. I don't have my copy of the book on me at the moment. But it seems very likely that he actually had one of the death induced visions. What I'm wondering is if that was the first time he had one. Since he's a gold compounder, it is quite likely that he had come inches from death before and gotten glimpses into whatever it is the dying see that cause them to speak out. If he could, then the Lord Ruler could have had the same thing happen and may have known far more about the Cosmere than we thought previously. Thoughts?