The Stormfather Question (SA 5 Prologue Spoilers)

[ArchangelCaesar]

So, like everyone else, I've been thinking non-stop about the Prologue since I heard it read the first time, like a good Vorin man. The ardent, Sando did a wonderful job.


And I have some theories. Part of this is me purposefully trying to go against the grain since the prevailing Susfather Theory is that the Stormfather is not the Stormfather. 
So, I have an alternate solution:

The Stormfather IS the Stormfather in the prologue and he Bonds with another between guiding Gavilar and Dalinar.

Firstly: The Stormfather isn't tied to the storm at this point. This isn't something I've seen questioned before, but what if the Stormfather wasn't always Connected to the storm, but rather chose to be in  it at certain times. Or just wasn't in it at all. Thus, the Stormfather was in a different form when he approached Gavilar, a form that allowed him greater flexibility. 

Secondly: The Herald Gavilar was going to replace wasn't Taln, it was Ishar. The Stormfather is trying to forge a new Oathpact, and to do that, he needs to have a powerful Bondsmith. In the Prologue, Gavilar assumes he is going to replace Taln, but that is based off the assumptions that all the other Heraldic buns are getting Braized currently.

Thirdly: After the Night of the Prologue, the Stormfather, acting like a teenager that goes back to a toxic relationship because they can "fix them this time," approaches and Bonds Ishar in order to cure his madness (Spoiler, it doesn't, at least not fully). Ishar, being excited with all these returning powers, starts his experiments we see at the end of RoW. Spooky, scary Spren-etons, send shivers down your spine. 

Fourthly: Chaos. Arguments. Vases get throw at heads. Doors get slammed. The Stormfather breaks the bond (the mechanics are a bit sketch, but at the very least, I don't think Ishar would break it on purpose). In the process of the break, the Stormfather binds himself/is bound to the storm in order to hide himself from Ishar for the time being. 

Fifthly: at some point in the relationship, the Stormfather mentions the Shin with the Honorblade. After the bad break-up, Ishar needs a rebound, so he goes to the Shin and steals the Bondsmith Honorblade. 

at this point, I think its possible that Cultivation intervened and tells the Stormfather to bond Dalinar because plans, but I just wanted to theorize about what could be going on here. Would be a nice subplot for Dalinar and the Stormfather to retread as the 10 days go forward in SA 5.

I do think that there would be some rewrites to the prologue needed to clarify this and direct the foreshadowing to this particular thing, but that is a given with all the theories about the prologue, I think. 

[Olmund]

Interesting thoughts. I think that his shimmering projection from the SA5 prologue is just closer to how he manifests in shadesmar, and he could still do it with Dalinar -- but he didn't like the fact that Gavilar treated him as a lackey, so he chooses not to. He decided that it's better to maintain a distant, austere, powerful, unknowable self-image to garner more respect.

I do think that you're on the right track with regard to the prologue Stormfather being the actual Stormfather -- the Stormfaker theory misses the mark imo. We already knew that the Stormfather knew more and was capable of more than he let Dalinar know; he refuses to talk about the recreance (which he knows about in explicit detail), for example. The fact that Gavilar caught him in a lie (or a web of lies, if you will) doesn't disqualify him from being a splinter of Honor; we see in RoW that there are plenty of Honorspren that think lying is perfectly justified when one's aims are "Honorable."

As for why the Stormfather changed his mind and bonded Dalinar anyways, I think part of it was involuntary. After Cultivation's pruning, Dalinar became truly honorable -- enough that he was willing to forsake Alethi traditions and his own self-image in order to do what was "right" or "just." Just as Syl was drawn to Kaladin's honor, Dalinar's honorable actions resonated with the Stormfather's intrinsic investiture and created a connection -- whether the SF wanted it or not. Eventually, the SF had to either choose Dalinar and send him the visions, or sever/ignore his proto-bond and try to find someone else (which might be difficult).

[ArchangelCaesar]

17 hours ago, Olmund said:

The fact that Gavilar caught him in a lie (or a web of lies, if you will) doesn't disqualify him from being a splinter of Honor; we see in RoW that there are plenty of Honorspren that think lying is perfectly justified when one's aims are "Honorable."

And a lot of the "lies" that Gavilar realizes are things we hear from Gavilar's thoughts, not from the Stormfather's mouth, so the Stormfather probably just *let* him believe a lot of things. Additionally, as I was rereading Oathbringer chapter 38, Dalinar makes a comment about something feeling like "cheating," and the Stormfather's reply was "Cheating? You made no oath." 
This tells us the Stormfather's orientation towards morality. Some things are more flexible as long as he is still maintaining his oaths. In the prologue, the Stormfather would only be bound by his oath to Honor (or the intent Honor infused him with).
 

17 hours ago, Olmund said:

I do think that you're on the right track with regard to the prologue Stormfather being the actual Stormfather -- the Stormfaker theory misses the mark imo. 

The Susfather theory has a bunch of credibility in my mind, and it fits a lot of the things we see in the prologue. However, I think neither of these theories fully explain all the stuff we saw, but I expect a bunch of revisions between now and release day (which is way too friggin far away). Rereading this prologue is gonna be so interesting when he releases the final version. The direction of these rewrites will most likely point to the correct solution.

Edited April 5, 2022 by ArchangelCaesar
weird sentence structures fix