Search the Community

So now that Taravangian has Ascended, what happens to his boon/curse? If he is free of it, will his release from the boon/curse be his downfall? We know that he lost to Odium merely to save Kharbranth, specifically his own family and grandchildren (whom he also spared of any details concerning his political plotting). Cultivation made it so that his intelligence and empathy would be inversely related on any given day, so if he acts with intellect and empathy/passion, will he break down at the end of Book 5 because of needing to save his grandchildren in one scene? We know at the end of RoW, he's drinking in all this power and blinding everything else out, including Cultivation's offer to guide and teach him. So maybe in Book 5, we see that overwhelming amount of knowledge clear up as he accesses his deep emotion for his own family. Selfish, but it might just save Roshar—and "save them all"—from Odium. Thoughts?

Titles pretty self explanatory. Hypothetical. You visit the nightwatcher in the valley. You ask for a boon. What do you ask for? And what do you think would be a curse that balances the boon enough? Let me know your thoughts. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours

I was talking with my brother the other day, when he mentioned an interesting concept that I thought I would share with you guys. That Cultivation Pruned Dalinar so that he can become Honor. To what extent we don't know yet but let's look at the quote: This tells us about what she did. She was able to prune things from dalinar to allow him to grow. She didn't add anything she basically shaped parts of dalinar to remove temporarily. Now lets look at this quote: (Sorry I dont have the ebook so its a picture) There is the question in the text "Do you know why she did that?" to me that means not only did cultivation have a purpose with the pruning but Brandon is setting up this question to eventually be answered! Now if you were Cultivation, you had pretty good shardic future sight maybe among the best, and you were stuck in a war against Odium by yourself what would you want? Backup, a second shard. I believe she saw in dalinar a way to shape him so that he would bond the Stormfather, become a bondsmith, and start to learn how to use Honors powers. We have seen in mistborn This could very well be what Cultivation has planned for Dalinar similiarly. Dalniar has changed a lot from the man he used to be and we have seen dalinar already take a step in that direction anyways. Thanks to my brother for pointing it out(If he ever makes an account on the shard I will tag him )

I have been trying to figure out what Lift's boon and curse are. I think that her boon is that she can metabolize food into Stormlight (although there might be more to it than that). I used to think that her curse might therefore be, on the flip side, that she cannot draw in Stormlight. There was a discussion thread started a few weeks ago that I found, where this was confirmed - Lift can only derive Stormlight from food, which could be seen as both a blessing and a curse. But there are several reasons to believe that Lift's curse has something to do with nightmares. There is a line in Edgedancer seems to suggest that Lift doesn't like falling asleep, and at the time I thought it was because her curse was having frequent nightmares. Looking back, I am much less certain that this line actually suggests Lift has nightmares, although at the time I read it I was very certain. But there is some evidence in Oathbringer to suggest I might be right. For one thing, we don't know what the Nightwatcher is the spren of - I'm pretty sure this was discussed in an earlier thread. The Stormfather is the spren of the storm, the Sibling is the spren of Urithiru (possibly), and I think that the Nightwatcher is the spren of dreams. It would make a lot of sense, since people go to the Nightwatcher to make their dreams come true, and she rewards them with something good (like a dream) and something bad (like a nightmare). This is further suggested in OB when Dalinar visits the Nightwatcher. So I think it's a real possibility that the Nightwatcher is the spren of dreams. There is an element in Oathbringer that makes me think that Dalinar's visions are sort of like dreams, and so it seems plausible that the Nightwatcher might be able to influence them - the fact that Lift can enter Dalinar's visions. Because Lift can enter his visions, it makes me wonder if her curse is somehow related to the nightmares of other people. I think that the Nightwatcher, being the spren of dreams, cursed her so that every time she sleeps, she sees other people's dreams - "a life she couldn't have" - or other people's nightmares - " a life that terrified her." So Lift is able to enter Dalinar's visions because they are essentially dreams. The Stormfather himself makes a comment when Lift appears that makes it seem like that the Nightwatcher somehow orchestrated Lift's ability to enter the visions. I think it seems possible that the Nightwatcher actually extended her powers to Lift. The Nightwatcher is a spren, and Lift is more sprenlike than normal humans - she is partially in the Cognitive realm at all times, which allows her to touch Wyndle. Lift is also able to turn food into Stormlight, and the Nightwatcher is very connected with Cultivation, who is connected with growth, food and vegetation. And Lift can enter other people's dreams, while the Nightwatcher is the spren of dreams (according to my theory). I am starting to think that Cultivation is launching a major plot behind the scenes to topple Odium in a way he least expects it, and that her plan has something to do with her possible influence over Taravangian, and her possible influence over Lift. I am not sure how Lift's potential ability to see other people's dreams relates to her boon and curse, or if I am wrong about this whole thing, but it's definitely interesting to think about.

This is less of a theory and more of a looming concern in my mind: what if Dalinar is starting to remember Evi because his curse/boon was specifically worded in relation to his WIFE and he has a new wife now? As memories of Evi start to appear, will memories of Navani start to fade? Was this how it was when he forgot Evi as well? Color slowly bleeding out of a picture until it became gray then fuzzy then black? We now are pretty sure it's not the bond with the Stormfather causing the memories to return and I read an interesting theory on here about the watch fabrial which could still be valid but the following passage has me worried: Navani, he thought. On my arm. It still gave him a heady, surreal feeling. Dreamlike, as if this were one of his visions. He could vividly remember desiring her. Thinking about her, captivated by the way she talked, the things she knew, the look of her hands as she sketched—or, storms, as she did something as simple as raising a spoon to her lips. He remembered staring at her. He remembered a specific day on a battlefield, when he had almost let his jealousy of his brother lead him too far—and was surprised to feel Evi slipping into that memory. Her presence colored the old, crusty memory of those war days with his brother. I have no evidence but the passage puts memories of the two women right next to each other in a way that seems foreboding. The juxtaposition of vivid, fond memories of Navani and re-emerging memories of Evi feels like a literary tool to set us up for something. He also gives a fixed point by which the reader will be able to judge the deterioration of Dalinar's memory: a "specific day" on the battlefield when his jealousy nearly got the better of him; a day sure to be the subject of a soon-to-come flashback. Also, it feels like it would be just about appropriately soul crushing for us to see Dalinar get what he always wanted only to have it slowly drip away until he can eventually only hear Shshsh when someone says Navani's name. Anyways, just saying it smells like a Sanderson set-up. I'd love to get all your thoughts.

I've always wondered if maybe the Dalinar's asked the Nightwatcher to help him forget his wife making that his boon and not his curse... the Oathbringer conversations almost support that theory. What does everyone else think his boon and curse are?

Does it explicitly say that Dalinar's lack of being able to remember his former wife or hear her name is a CURSE from the nightwatcher? I ask, because I was discussing it with a friend and I always assumed that it was his BOON. My theory is that he asked the Nightwatcher to take away the pain from the death of his wife, and the form of the BOON was to forget her completely, and that we don't know yet what the curse is. But I wanted to verify if it says it's a curse explicitly. Thanks.

Basically, this is how I imagine the Life-Nightwatcher interaction went down. I may be fuzzy on time details but the major point is what I believe her "curse" is. Lift (age 10 Roshar years): Nightwatcher, give me something awesome! Nightwatcher: You amuse me child. I give you Wyndle, and bring you into the cognitive realm. You will be able to touch Wyndle and turn food into stormlight. Probably some other stuff go ask Brandon. Lift: Who? Nightwatcher: AS I WAS SAYING. You will exist partial in the cognitive realm...you will exist as an idealized concept of yourself, but still with a physical form. This is your curse. You are as you are now, Lift, forever 10, and forever *cringe* awesome. Half-joke half-serious, but really, is this why she seems so young at heart, and likes to ignore her age?

Hey everyone this is my first theory, it’s a pretty straightforward one. I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before. Alright it’s all based on this scene. Chapter 83 page 1003 “Storms” the surgeon said, “Highprince, you’re all scars under here. How many time have you been wounded in the shoulder” “Can’t Remember” “How can you still use your arm?” “Training and practice” “that’s not how it works…” she whispered eyes wider “I mean… Storms…” So my theory is that Dalinar got crippled and went to the Nightwatcher to be healed. Also after he bond with the Stormfather he breathed in stormlight and “he felt his wound healing in a familiar way, He’d done the before." The Nightwatcher healed him with stormlight.(see straightforward ) So what do you think?

I did a quick search for this and didn't find anything, but feel free to tell me if this has been done before. The questioned posed is thus: if you were to seek out the Old Magic, what boon would you ask of the Nightwatcher? You can keep your answer in-world or not as you desire. The caveat is that the next person to post after you has to tell you what curse you received to go with your boon. If there are no objections...I'll begin: After much internal debate, I would probably simply ask to be awesome.