Search the Community

Hello, I have decided to save up some money to commission a work of art to hang in my home. I would like it to be of Dalinar and incorporate the quote about the most important step a man can take being the next one, which is one of my favorites. I was wondering if anyone has any artist recommendations I should look at that might be a good fit. Thanks.

This theory started out when I was rereading tWoK, and an epitaph stood out to me. It read: "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!" - Dated Vevahach, 1173, 8 seconds predeath. Subject: a prostitute. Background unknown. What stands out to me here is the clear allusion to the Kholin family crest: two glyphs in the shape of a tower and a crown. But then there's the odd duck: the spear. Why is the spear being grouped with the Kholin Crest? I think that this is the prediction that Kaladin is going to have to take up the mantle of the Kholin house. This got me to thinking: why would Kal have to do this? The obvious answer would be that all the Kholins die. And I think that's part of it. Navani, Renarin and Adolin I believe are going to die. This makes Dalinar believe he is the perfect candidate to be a Herald: used to war, already set up to take up Ishar's mantle, and now completely numb through heartbreak. I think Brandon's already been hinting that Dalinar is going to become a Herald, along with several other characters(Szeth for instance), and this would give him the perfect opportunity to do so. Shallan, now completely heartbroken over Adolin's death, refuses to take up the Kholin mantle, and Jasnah is already the queen. It would be possible for her to do it, but it doesn't seem in character for her to do it to me. So who's next in line? Kaladin. The former head of the Cobalt Guard, and the man who Dalinar trusted more than anyone. Also the most experienced Windrunner on Roshar at this point. So that's my prediction/theory. I don't know if anyone has caught this, or if Brandon has said it won't happen. Let me know your thoughts.

Buenas tardes, Primero que nada aclar que es mi primer post y que mi ingles no es muy bueno. Asi que lo Escribiré en español. Es algo que he tenido en mente durante algunos meses luego de releer por 4ta vez, el ritmo de la guerra. Todos o casi todos estamos seguros de que Dalinar perderá el combate de campeones, La pregunta es como sucederá, y creo tener una idea algo clara sobre que es lo que podría salir mal con eso. Empezar aclarando que en el Cosmere existen 2 Tipos de Muerte : Muerte Física : Pasa cuando te asesinan en el reino físico (Clubs, Dockson, amaran,etc) Muerte Definitiva o Muerte Total : Pasa cuando tu alma llega al reino cognitivo y luego pasa al reino espiritual, no hay forma ( que nosotros sepamos ) de regresar. (vin, elend, Wayne, Evi, eshonai, etc) Ahora la teoria en si : Dalinar solo conoce la MUERTE FISICA, ya que es la que ha experimentado y visto y causado toda su vida, el no conoce que existe la posibilidad de que una vez esto suceda, la Esquirla, en este caso TOdium pueda Investir a su campeón luego de morir Físicamente. Para convertirlo en una Sombra Cognitiva, pudiendo asi "revivirlo" o no dejarlo morir completamente. Ahora en cuanto al contrato solo se especifica que sera una "Lucha a Muerte", que puede sonar muy literal y claro pero al mismo tiempo no lo es ya que deja abierta esa posibilidad. Pienso que es ese el hueco en el contrato que puede usar TOdium utilizara a su favor para intentar algo que resulte a su favor. Eso seria todo. Acepto Criticas y opiniones.

He then opens a perpendicularity, saving the battle of Thaylen Field for our heroes. Later, Odium is ranting to Taravangian about how Dalinar wasn't supposed to Ascend, with a capital A. The question - is Odium's use of the word "Ascend" referring to ascending to the next Ideal of the Bondsmiths, or is there something more going on there? Brandon Sanderson I used a capital letter there intentionally, and normal saying of oaths would not get a capital letter. That is in a character's perspective. There's a character using that capital letter, the character uses that capital letter intentionally. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/509-youtube-spoiler-stream-5/#e15974 What do you think?

In WoK 28, Dalinar's mother is mentioned, with a bit of information. (A couple of lines). Just in case if someone wants to add her. Or at least, mention her in Dalinar's page. I prefer to not mess with the code.

I've been considering a Stormlight Archive tattoo (and a Mistborn one, but for now Stormlight Archive) and am running into a problem when I think of what I want. Dalinar's Oathbringer quotes really resonate with me - you know the ones (rise a better man, most important step, I will do better). My first thoughts were to get the Bondsmith Glyph and then to put a line of text above and/or below it. I would probably go with the "Always the next step" part of that quote or "I will do better" as they encompass the soul of the whole quote to me without being too wordy. The problem? I don't really identify as a Bondsmith. When I think about the orders and which one I would fit into there are many options but Bondsmith isn't really one of the ones that come to mind so I'm not sure I want a Bondsmith glyph. The only other thing I can really think of would be the Kholin glyph but I'm not sure what other ideas are out there. Thoughts?

I have seen speculation that Dalinar would either become a Fused or pick up Honor in SA5. Both are interesting outcomes, but... Venli once said that if humans had a war form, it would look like Dalinar. So, what if Dalinar picked up both Honor and Odium and became a God of War? I think it would be cool if the Rhythm of War became his Dalinar's Rhythm.

The Stormfather said that a Highstorm naturally cycles higher and lower in the sky and will at the highest point engulf the top of Urithiru. The last Highstorm we saw was at end of RoW, a few days before the end of the book yet before the 10-day countdown began, and Kaladin described it as being just below the rooftop. So in 10 days, the Highstorm will likely envelop the rooftop and make for a great battle scene! The timing of the contest is important, as the Stormfather may be able to extend time in Dalinar's last moments of the fight (if Dalinar does indeed serve as his own champion). He may ask for this if, say, he becomes severely wounded. It would be very interesting to see Dalinar take a pause in the fight and be able to think it through, and given the additional Investiture from the Tower (and potential Investiture from the Valley if the Highstorm lines up with both locations simultaneously— see linked topic below), then he'd have a lot of time to work with. The only problem is that Odium set the date and time of the contest, and he probably knows when the next storm will be, so does he want a Highstorm for the contest? If so, why? Perhaps Odium has done this so that he can command the Everstorm to meet with the Highstorm at this moment, causing a WoR-level phenomenon that we saw before. This is just speculation, so maybe we won't see any Highstorm, but we've seen either a Highstorm or the Everstorm used in the last battles since WoR, so it would only make sense for us to see them used again.

When Dalinar speaks to Kaladin as Tien, right before the 4th Ideal, it reminded me of his “I am Unity” scene in OB. His message to Kaladin is being there in the moment for others, not just thinking about the end goal. It’s a reiteration of the First Ideal, journey before destination. Dalinar likes to focus on that one, similar to OB, where he says it can’t be a journey if it doesn’t have a beginning.

I realized that Kaladin doesn’t use adhesion the same way that Dalinar does. Is this because of his radiant order, or because he doesn’t want to make a Connection with others in fear of losing them?

Listening through RoW for the second time, I’m given to wonder: are Shards coming back together? We know that Stormlight and Voidlight mix into Warlight. Will the Shards themselves come together? And would peace be achieved by creating a combined Shard of War? Dalinar, as the Bondsmith of the Stormfather, seems to have as much power as can be had that once belonged to Honor. If the Storms merged, or perhaps if Dalinar loses the contest of Champions, but Odium goes down anyway…. Could Dalinar become War? Part of me thinks that this might be a step backwards for Dalinar. Part of me thinks it would be kinda lame for Brandon to do the exact same thing on Roshar as he did on Scadrial…… but maybe the Shards are coming together. They were never meant to be separate. Maybe Dalinar’s next big challenge is to fail in his contest and fall back into war, and claw his way into something better. And then there’s a question of what kind of Shard War would be. Hatred, restricted by oaths and discipline? Battle, but organized, with rules of engagement, Codes that control violence? Battle being handled by soldiers so that civilians are left in peace? I don’t know…..

Another one of my random ideas occurred to me recently. Everyone is focusing on how the contest of champions and the agreement relating to it is going to decide the future of Roshar. I agree that it is almost certainly going to be the deciding event in book 5, but there will obviously be a lot more going on than just that. So I've been wondering what else might happen that could cause conflict between the various groups on Roshar, and I think I found a good one. In order to find out as much as possible to be able to fulfill his plan to make a deal with Odium, Tarravangian abducted people from his hospitals and slowly killed them, with people he trusted standing by to record any death rattles that the dying might speak. As far as we know, the only people to know about this are the members of the Diagram and Szeth. Tarravangian revealed that he had sent Szeth to kill Dalinar, but as far as I know, the King of Karbranth never revealed that he was using people like this. So what would happen if this information were to be revealed to the people of Karbranth. As of right now, Karbranth is neutral in the conflict between the forces of Honor and Odium. Odium is supposedly bound by his promise, to Tarravangian ironically, not to touch Karbranth, and Dalinar is currently uninterested in attacking them due to their insignificance. But what would happen if the city were to go into a rebellion, upon learning that their former ruler, the father of their current queen, was abducting citizens and killing them for his own twisted reasons? If that somehow got out, I can only assume because of Szeth, and there was any kind of evidence to support it, it's not hard to imagine the city being spurred to revolt. Now of course, there are a couple of issues with this theory. First of all, since the two people who made the deal to protect Karbranth are now essentially the same person, is that deal even binding? I brought up that very point with someone who had a different idea (and arguably an even better one) about how to turn the Karbranth protection deal against Odium. I don't think we know enough to really answer that question, so we'll have to wait and see. The second issue is how exactly this would get out and why hasn't it before? Well, as I said, Szeth is the only one outside of the Diagram organization who knows about what they were doing to hear the death rattles, and as we learned with the anti voidlight sphere, he's not always the most forthcoming with information except when directly asked. And if a conversation regarding Tarravangian's other actions, such as him having Szeth kill monarchs across Roshar, were to occur, it's not unreasonable to assume that something regarding the death rattles were to pop up. The next problem is how would anyone get proof (if any is left), and the only way that I can think of is for someone to infiltrate Karbranth, which I think could make for a a good mission for some characters, maybe some of Shallan's agent LightWeavers, to go on. The biggest problem with this theory is that until someone figures out Tarravangian is Odium, there's not really a good reason to stir up trouble in Karbranth. If and when it gets out, having Karbranth on the verge of collapse, disrupting the very thing Tarravangian worked to hard to prevent, would be a fantastic way to expose his corruption and cause a huge distraction for the newest Shard. Not to mention it would be a great twist, doing to Tarravangian the exact same thing he did to Dalinar in OathBringer. But as it stands right now, the only person not under Odium's command that is likely to find out about Todium is Hoid. And while he might very well decide to cause such a rebellion as a way to help indirectly, he'd have to find out about Todium quickly enough and make it to Karbranth in time to expose things. I'm trying to think of other reasons good enough for the Radiants, or even another group like the GhostBloods or even the Listerners, to stir things up in Karbranth. So far, I haven't come up with anything.

So... Dalinar's going to be the champion. His own champion, not Kaladin. But... Kaladin's younger. He has Shardblade and Plate. He might even be a better fighter. And yes, I get that it would be better for his arc and mental health for him not to fight. And he just basically fought an entire war by himself, and seriously needs a break. But... he's got such better chances that it bugs me.

I’ve been thinking about Adolin’s time in Lasting Integrity, and how he says that he doesn’t think Radiants force bonds. It reminded me of how people were saying Navani and the Sibling shouldn’t have bonded, because Navani “forced” the Sibling to bond her. (Ok, don’t come for me. I put it in quotations because it’s an opinion, idk. Regardless, this hasn’t happened yet in the book.) That in turn made me think of Dalinar bonding the Stormfather at the end of WoR. You know, when he says this: Even though the Stormfather eventually agrees, I was surprised that the honorspren didn’t bring this scenario up at the trial. It’s the perfect piece of evidence—it shows that Dalinar was trying to kind of force a bond, and that the Stormfather believed that if he were to be bound that he would be killed, and so resisted. So why didn’t they bring this up? I suppose they might not have known about it, but they seem to know a lot. They only talk about Dalinar almost breaking his bond, however. What do you guys think?

What if instead of lying drunk while his brother was killed the Blackthorn was ready for Szeth would he have won with the help of Gavilar? Or on his own?

After re-reading Oathbringer, I started wondering about the old magics. So I went and looked it up on the coppermind where I found that Lift's bane isn't listed. That made me think some more. It seems that the boon/bane effect is mostly physical with the Nightwatcher. She tried to convince Dalinar to choose a physical boon, either an object or physical enhancement. In addition the boon and bane can be completely unrelated: see Av's father who got a heap of good cloth in exchange for seeing the world upside down. The three times we have seen Cultivation step in, the boon/bane seems more cognitive/spiritual. More important they seem to be the same thing. The boon IS the bane, with a little added flair from Cultivation to influence the world without anyone knowing. To get what you want, you have to take all of the result. Like the old adage. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you eat it, you also have to lose the cake and potentially add a pound. Think of Dalinar: Boon - Loss of Spiritual whispers and guilt for the murder he had committed. -Cognitive loss Bane - Loss of all memories relating to Evi -Cognitive loss Cultivation's meddling: Allowing Dalinar to grow strong enough to resist the call of the Thrill and being used by Odium Now, the boon could not exist without the bane. If Dalinar could remember her death, the boon would be ineffective. If Dalinar could remember her enough to ask about her death or, really, have any meaningful conversation with other about her, her death would be brought up eventually. So Dalinar could not remember her and grow the way he needed to become the "good" Dalinar of present day. So it was all boon, just with side effects. Next, Taravangian: Boon - The intelligence to keep Kharbranth intact while Rayse was Odium and the capacity to become the Shard's new Vessel -Cognitive enhancement Bane - The inability to have both intelligence and compassion at the same time -Cognitive enhancement Cultivation's meddling - All of it really. Mostly replacing a dangerous enemy with a potentially more amenable one. Note: The boon and bane descriptions come from the coppermind oldmagic article. I would disagree a bit there. Taravangian needed BOTH intelligence and compassion to be able to do what he asked which was "Capacity. Capacity to stop what was coming. The capacity to save humankind." So, Cultivation gave him the capacity he needed: mental capacity and emotional capacity. She even made it inverse, which seems wise. It is very had to strategically plan knowing you will cause thousands of deaths and even more suffering if you are also being compassionate. At the same time, you need have time to be compassionate to be able to remember why you are doing what you are doing and relate to the people you are saving. You really cannot have both at once. If you really want to keep the boon/bane mentality, then I would say the bane was the unpredictability of the effects. But even then, someone smart enough to make the Diagram would figure out the pattern and design a way to work around the compassionate side. Like Dalinar, seems like all boon, just really annoying side effects. Now for Lift: Boon - Produce Lifelight from mass; using Lifelight to Surgebind, being partially stuck with the Cognitive Real, vision manipulation Bane - unknown Cultivation's meddling - Experimentation of creating her own kind of Radiant Note: As with Taravangian's section, I pull the descritions of boons and banes from the coppermind. That list of boons seems pretty long, doesn't it. Not really Cultivation or the Nightwatcher's MO, giving so many boons but no obvious banes. So lets theorize a bit here. Producing Lifelight from mass and using to surge bind are not part of the boon, but what Cultivation was trying to obscure with the granting of the boon. The boon it self was "she was suppose to stay the same and the world was supposed to change around her". So Cultivation uses this ask to change her spirit web to use Lifelight which pulls her partially into the cognitive realm. This in turn grounds her mind in how she sees herself ( ie not more than ten) cognitively like spren are controlled by perception. So she keeps her mental age, but her physical body continues to age. (Though I kinda like the idea of her being more like Returned, where when she hits a certain age, she will stop aging). Being partly in the cognitive realm allows her to interact with it more, hence touching of spren and vision manipulation. But there are what could be called banes or side-effects. Imagine being a child in a grown woman's body. Imagine being on the brink malnutrition constantly. Definitely down sides. But Cultivation doesn't have a storm. How else could she have gotten light to her budding Radiant? I went on this particular tangent because of a WOB: Note that he mentions boons and curses from the Nightwatcher. In reference to Lift, it is just a boon. Now this is some what proven to be an omission as in a different WOB he mentions both a boon and a curse: But I wonder if someone could actually use BOTH lights, or if the process of changing the spirit web makes that impossible or at least very unlikely. Note that he also calls it Stormlight here even though we now know it is Lifelight. Final supporting WOB: So, to sum up. Cultivation doesn't really give boons/banes. She sees a request that she can do a single cognitive/spiritual manipulation that will provide an effect at least correlated to the request but also serves to influence the world the way she wants.

Dalinar says it multiple times: Kaladin's not a warrior, he's a soldier. What exactly does he mean by this? Kaladin is definitely a good fighter. So what does Dalinar mean by this? Also, the most recent repeat of this idea is after Navani says "And I doubt anyone the enemy presents can best Stormblessed." To which Dalinar says he's not picking Kaladin. Navani says, "Why not? He's our best warrior." Navani has joined the Kaladin Is Unbeatable Club, accompanied by all of Bridge Four, Dalinar, Vyre, Venli, Leshwi, and all of the citizens of Urithiru. Dalinar says "no he's our best soldier." What is the difference? I don't understand...?

Rhythm of War spoilers ahead. Odium's deal with Dalinar says that if Dalinar's champion loses, Dalinar has to become an agent of Odium in the Cosmere. This might happen, but if it does, I think this won't end with Dalinar re-embracing brutality forever, so I suspect that it won't happen at all. Why? Because Brandon Sanderson's son is named Dallin. He is 12 years old now, about old enough to start reading the Stormlight books and noticing that a cool character has a name like his. Maybe Brandon did that intentionally. Maybe not. Either way, I bet this will be meaningful to the young lad. Would Brandon turn his son's special character into an evil monster forever? I think not. Dalinar will not be a brutal monster in the end. Edit: I just watched a Brandon video where he says that his son Dallin, to this day, thinks that Dalinar's name is Dallin R. This supports my theory.

Greetings all, With Stormlight 5 in the works I thought it worth discussing how much of Honor's investiture would be needed to re-forge the Shard. Honor spren are of course made from Honor's investiture. The higher the oath, presumably the more highly invested the Windrunner (I know other orders are of Honor, but Windrunners are the most closely linked to him). Other substantial amounts of Honor's investiture can be found in the Honor blades and the Stormfather. I imagine since the Stormfather merged with Tanavast cognitive shadow, Dalinar is the most highly invested being associated with Honor currently. Nale is a herald and Knight Radiant of the fifth Ideal, but again he is a Skybreaker, so maybe let's not count him as one to pick up the shard. Jezrien is dead. So I would rank them Dalinar>Herald>Kaladin> other Windrunners. Would reforging or combining all the honor blades and bonding it be enough concentrated investiture to cause a person to ascend? If Dalinar reaches the fifth ideal since Tanavast died cause him to ascend. Would 5th ideal Dalinar + all honor blades be enough to cause him to ascend. What do you all think?

I've been thinking about how Szeth's oaths may play out in SA5; and some possible ways his narratives may come together, especially given that Szeth will be the flashback character in SA5. Here's our oaths to start as a reminder: I'm interested to see if Dalinar looses the contest of champions then how does Szeth's future play out in light of his Third Ideal? Does he become an agent of Odium by proxy of Dalinar's will? Does he break his oath to follow Dalinar consequently killing his (mysterious) Highspren? Does he say his Fifth Ideal, circumventing his Third Ideal? Or does Dalinar have the power of will to release Szeth from his Third Ideal without breaking it? What ever happens I think we will see a conflict for Szeth brought to light as we learn his backstory, particularly with that caveat in his Fourth Ideal: "So long as Dalinar Kholin agrees"... and it's going to be GOOD READING! Bonus theory: Imagine if Szeth-Nightblood are tricked/convinced into being (T)Odium's champion...? (T)Odium guy has so much emotional leverage over Szeth already, I can see him giving it a go... especially if Taravagian uses the advantage of no one knowing of his ascension to his advantage. Szeth has his Fifth Ideal as a nice little get out of my Third Ideal card to draw too! By the Almighties Tenth Name that would be a terrifying scenario for Dalinar, et., al! Nice knowing you team!

Hi, I am not sure about the timeline and I was not able to find it out myself. But did Dalinar still have his memory about his wife when his brother died? I think, no, as far as I understand it, he "got rid of it" before that, but I am not sure.

This was an assignment for my creative writing class. What do you think of it? I tried to make it so that it could be canon. Dalinar’s boots clinked against the cobbled stone floor of the recently captured keep. He drew in a deep breath from his nose, exalting in the metallic odor of spilled blood. They had put up a good fight, but they could not stand against him. No one could stand against him. A small, wiry man in white clothes scurried up to him. “My lord, do you require assistance?” he asked, fidgeting his hands. He looked at the gash on Dalinar’s muscular bicep. Dalinar shoved his way past the surgeon and exited the large doorway out of the keep. He looked down on all the corpses laid down at the feet of the drawbridge. Dalinar snorted with contempt, kicking them out of his way and into the dirty moat water. Off to the side he could see the surgeon returning to the medical tents, where wounded soldiers cried out in pain. He tore a strip of fabric from his shirt and tied it roughly around the bleeding wound. He made his way through the former battlefield to the command tent. The massive blue tent fell silent as a powerful figure filled the opening. A stately man with a crown stood up. “Ah, Dalinar, we were just discussing your recent success! Well done!” Gavilar praised. Dalinar grunted and sat down next to the various diplomats and tacticians, several of whom visibly recoiled. He grabbed a cup of wine and looked at it in distaste. Yellow. Not nearly strong enough. The wooden chair creaked under him, and the tent filled with the stench of his wounded arm, but Gavilar, however, was unfazed. “What with our success,” with this he motioned to Dalinar, who was taking a long drink, “I am feeling somewhat bold. I believe that the next target that we need to go to is in fact Dumadari.” Dalinar’s drink spewed out of his mouth in utter shock. He laughed. “That’s more than somewhat bold!” he boomed. “Does that mean that you do not recommend that course of action?” Gavilar questioned. “Ha! Foolhardy? Yes. But,” he lammed a dagger into the table to punctuate his words,” it sounds fun enough.” Gavilar simply smiled. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dalinar grinned like a madman, swinging his sword in broad, sweeping strokes. He was so consumed in it all that he barely noticed the various cuts and bruises that he had accrued throughout the fight. He was enraptured in this feeling, this euphoria, this… thrill. The thrill of battle, the thing that drove him on. His eyes darted wildly, and his clenched teeth held back peals of vicious laughter. Red mist clouded the edges of his vision as he cut down ranks of foot soldiers. They were lesser beings than him, everyone was. Out here, on the battlefield, he was like a god. Every crunch, every satisfying swing, all of it. He was unstoppable. He spotted a man riding a gleaming white horse in Shardplate. Dalinar grinned. He had found his target. He started swinging his way towards the man, called Narat. Narat was the leader of the resistance here. If he could kill him, then the army would be like an axehound without a head. The ranks of soldiers surrounding the man were no problem. Dalinar cut through the ranks of basic soldiers until he reached Narat’s honor guard. Their gold and white uniforms made them stand out in the battlefield His glory was put to an end when his sword deflected off something. He growled and looked into the eyes of the man who had resisted him. Brown eyes, in a uniform of white and gold. He was a peasant, not even worthy to shine Dalinar’s gore encrusted shoes. Dalinar laughed at how desperate Narat was that he would let darkeyes serve in his honor guard. Dalinar’s laughing was stopped when the man’s thin blade stabbed into his elbow through a chink in his armor. He roared and swung his sword towards the peasant who had dared to stop him, to resist him, to end his rush of power. He was even more surprised when his sword failed to cut the man down. The peasant had dodged. Dalinar looked at the man and saw that he was smiling. Dalinar grinned back. Finally, a challenge. Dalinar surged forward with a mighty roar, bringing his sword in a brutal cut towards his opponent. The man ducked and jumped back with an eerie grace about him. He jumped back towards Dalinar and brought his thin blade into an overhead swing. Dalinar deflected it off his own weapon and kicked at the man. The darkeyes dropped his weapon and caught Dalinar’s leg in both hands. He twisted it and let go, making Dalinar fall to the ground. The peasant retrieved his sword and stabbed down at the prone Dalinar. Dalinar grabbed the sword that he had dropped when he fell and deflected the strangely thin sword away. He jumped to his feet and brought his sword up. The guard was more skilled than he had originally thought. No matter. He stepped forward and brought his massive sword down upon the darkeyes’ head with all the strength he could muster while red clouded the edges of his vision. He found it stopped against the edge of the thin blade of the man. With a mighty heave, the darkeyes shoved back against Dalinar, knocking him back. The man was strong. The peasant lunged forward, his sword driving towards Dalinar’s heart. Dalinar shifted his right foot backwards and twisted out of the way. How is he so strong? The rapier screeched off his armor. Dalinar brought his broadsword before him and stabbed back, but the man darted out of the way. The darkeyes swung his weapon towards Dalinar’s neck, where there was some exposed skin. Dalinar jumped backwards as the Thrill pumped through his veins. He roared and barreled into the man who deftly darted aside. The man delivered a kick into Dalinar’s side, causing him to stumble. Dalinar just barely brought his sword up to deflect the sword heading for his heart. He jumped back to gather his thoughts. The Thrill no longer sustained him. He was beginning to feel the pain of his wounds. He needed to end this now. Dalinar launched into an attack. He stepped forward and drove a swing of his massive sword into the peasant’s side. The man simultaneously stabbed forwards. The man grunted as his armor caved in under the strike, and Dalinar grunted as the sword slipped in between his lower left ribs. Dalinar, glimpsing victory through the pain, drove another strike into the man’s side. The darkeyes collapsed to the ground. Dalinar stood over him, holding his side. He walked away holding his side, motioning for his soldiers to finish the man off. He had not made 5 steps before he felt a piercing pain in his back. Turning around, he saw the man looking at him before standing up. Dalinar ripped the knife out of the back of his armor, but his vision was already clouding. He looked back at the grinning man. Dalinar fell to the ground unconscious, but not before he noticed that the man’s eyes were bright red. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dalinar blearily blinked awake. Fuzzy shapes were standing over him. His side burned where he had received the sword wound, but what hurt most was his back where the knife was. He heard the figures talking about something, although he could only hear some of what they were saying through his agony. “. . . the knife . . . poison . . . yes. . . deadly . . . surgery . . . I know” Suddenly his pain spiked. He bellowed and fell back into the comforting dark of nothingness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dalinar fell, fell, deeper into the nothing. He heard voices shouting, but they were muffled and quiet. He just wanted to fall asleep. It was so comforting. He turned away from the voices. Dalinar turned back and realized what was happening. He grunted and tried to wake himself up, but to no avail. It was hopeless. He should just return, go back. He closed his eyes again. Yes, you made the right choice. Come to me. I will take everything. You will never have to feel again. The voice echoed in his mind. Dalinar turned to the voice in the ever-growing darkness of his mind. He could clearly see a kindly old man holding out his arms, dressed in a golden robe. He uncertainly walked towards the old man. With each step he took the darkness grew more complete, more final. That was when he heard a voice that he knew extremely well. “Fight, brother.” Dalinar looked back to the kindly old man. The man’s eyes flashed red, and in that single flash he saw everything. He saw men fighting and screaming on the battlefield. He saw people weeping over the dead body of a mother. He saw himself, Dalinar, unfeeling and uncaring. He saw portions of the future- a green dragon, a man with blue eyes and white hair, and a pattern that seemed to be endlessly curling into itself, its lines beautiful. He stumbled back. “Who are you?” The man did not answer. He scowled, his eyes turning blood red. Dalinar reached for his sword and found that he had none. He backed off. That was when he felt the red creeping in on his vision. He grinned. He charged the man. His fingers closed around a red sword of mist, and he chopped at the old man. The man disappeared. Dalinar looked around and found himself surrounded by inky black creatures. He snorted. This was everything? Dalinar chopped and weaved for what seemed like eternity. His accumulated cuts were nothing as he was being fueled by the Thrill. He took down monster after monster after monster. They didn’t bleed, but instead deflated as something fled out of their body. Finally, he brought down the last one. He looked around to see if there were any more. There wasn’t. He strode to the edge of the darkness and drove his misty sword through. Bright light poured through the rend and he was blinded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He woke to the sound of cheering. His memories of what had happened were already slipping away. Dalinar looked around to see soldiers surrounding him. There was Gavilar, his brother. They clasped hands. Dalinar winced at the pain in his side. “Welcome back, brother. Welcome back.”

I'm not super good at making and explaining my theories, but here goes... I think that in the latter half of the series, Dalinar will become the Shard Unity (Honor, Odium and Cultivation combined) (or War (Honor and Cultivation), if Unity isn't possible). Dalinar has big ideals about unifying everything. I think that during the latter half of the series, the Stormfather will somehow become Honor, Dalinar will continue to be Bonded to the Stormfather, but in a different way--he's the Vessel of Honor. He's going to kill Taravangian and beat Odium, but I don't think that it will end there. Instead of attempting to Shatter Odium, he will try to take over the power, becoming the Shard of War. After that, he's going to continue to try to unify Roshar by taking over Cultivation's powers, becoming Unity. He won't stop there, and attempt to Unify the whole Cosmere (with Cephandrius' help, of course). Eventually, he will become the new Adonalsium unless the rest of the Cosmere has anything to say about it. I know I'm not providing evidence, but it just makes sense in my head and it's kind of hard to explain it. If anyone wants to improve and shoot down this theory, feel free (basically, feedback is very wanted, be it good or bad). If anyone can find more evidence, please tell me so that I can put that in. If anyone wants to just rewrite it but better, that's awesome. Thanks!

Adolin killed Sadeas, a Highprince, and then even confessed to his father about it. Why hasn't Dalinar done anything about it? Isn't that kind of crime punishable by exile at the least, execution at worst, even if the one committing the crime was a highprince's son? I love Adolin's character, but it feels that this hasn't really been resolved yet. It feels...weird, and frankly a little messed up in my opinion that all the characters who know of this just kind of ignore it. Am I missing something?