Dalinar is the brother of Gavilar .. or is he?

[Miyabi]

OK, so I have a theory that is.... quite far out there.

We know that Dalinar has used the Old Magic in order to forget something, this apparently happens to be his wife.

I'm going to take this further. I'm going to say that at some point in his life Dalinar wished, "To not remember the things which hurt him so he could be happy." Because the pain of losing his wife was SO great he doesn't remember her. Other instances, such as the death of Gavilar are different whereas the turmoil and mess caused by him not remember Gavilar would cause more trouble and pain than just not remembering him. How the Old Magic decides these things is beyond me, but that's what I'm going with for my theory here.

Now I'm purposing here that Dalinar is a Herald and that's why he worded his request to the old magic the way he did. This would allow him, as he lived on through the millenia, to forget old lives he took up and be happy and forget his betrayal of the Oathpact.

Now, in regards to Gavilar. How often does a royal family send both their sons out into the world to fight and explore in dangerous hunts of giant animals? Not very often I think. I purpose that at some point Gavilar and Dalinar met whilst both of them were trouncing about the world. They then became friends and did all of the amazing things they did together together. After a certain amount of time Gavilar (or even Gavilar's father) adopted Gavilar into the Kholin family, making him Gavilar's brother.

The visions, which are now coming during Highstorms, are the power of the Oathpact trying to fight its way past the Old Magic. The Highstorms are supposed to be when the Almighty is out and is strongest. This could be why these visions only happen during the Highstorms. The Almighty and the Oathpact magics are slowly breaking through the power of the Old Magic in order to demand Dalinar take up his place as the Herald he is supposed to be. Perhaps the Old Magic itself is allowing these things through whereas remembering these things now will create the least amount of grief in Dalinar's life as he returns to Heraldship.

This would add to the symbolicness of him giving up his current Plate and Blade where, when he takes up his mantel as Herald, he will then be gifted with his Dawnshards once again.

I may have forgotten a few things, and I'm sure there are holes. What are your thoughts on this?

[DocHoliday]

Just stabbing holes, but when Gavilar and Dalinar go hunting, 5 years ago?, Gavilar has kids who are 15+ years of age. In the Middle Ages of you survived that long you weren't thought to be in extreme peril of dieing of illness or some such and so house Kholin is pretty much guaranteed to continue.

 

Also Gavilar is the first King of Alethekar in centuries I believe, so it's not like  Royalty in the sense we think of. I.e. Tudors and Louises and such. More like Prince William living in the same house as a woman pregnant with his child. He's highborn, and he's going to do whatever he wants.

[Miyabi]

Right, that makes sense. I was just trying to find a way to stab at them both being out and about the world and fighting wars.

I didn't necessarily mean that Dalinar was added to the Kholin family in order to keep the house going, but more just as a form of "gift" to his best friend who had grown to be like brothers.

I'm not sure on that last part if you misunderstood what I said or I misunderstood what you said. xD Either way it's clarified now.

[Shardlet]

Another hole would be that, as a Herald, Dalinar would not substantially age.  So he would have had to been adopted by a man who was likely of a similar age (in appearance) and been very close to a young man young enough to be his son.  This seems unlikely to result in being considered a brother. 

 

Also, in Alethi society, if you are a lighteyed male, you go out and fight and win otherwise you are not accounted for much.  Look at the ridicule Renarin must endure and he has a physiological reason why he cannot go out and fight.  Imagine the opinion of society if he simply chose not to fight.

[Miyabi]

I concede your argument about him needing to be out fighting.

The Heralds, as far as I can tell have varying ages and descriptions. When you look at the picture here they appear to be of vastly ranging ages. Granted, someone would PROBABLY have noticed over the last 20 years Dalinar having not aged. Though this could perhaps be another affect of the Old Magic. His appearance is described as 'aging' so perhaps that contributes to the lack of speculation on his lack of aging.

And are we sure that the Heralds are ageless? I haven't seen anything which says that for sure. It's a likely assumption and you're probably right, but in support of my crackpot theory I'm going to assume that either the Old Magic or some ability (which Dalinar would be unaware he is using) allows him to appear or become aged. EDIT:: After all, Lightweaving is an ability which can be used by some Orders.

The fact that Dalinar is such a good warrior, described as the best of all time, could be due to innate knowledge he has about warfare after having spent millenia fighting in the Desolations.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Miyabi

[Vortaan]

I'm not a huge fan of the school of thought where the Old Magic can basically change the perceptions of... you know, everyone. There's a lot of evidence in Dalinar PoV that he grew up with Gavilar and that he was always envious of his older brother, even as he loved him. I can't really agree with your assessment that forgetting his wife was Dalinar's blessing. I really feel like it was his curse, but we'll see I suppose.

 

Also it seems odd that this wouldn't have come up as a jibe from Sadeas. "If Gavilar had adopted a REAL man to be his brother, he'd still be alive!"