Visions for Everyone!

[Moogle]

Here's an interesting thing about all the Radiants: they have visions, be it of the future, past, or present.

• Kaladin gets highstorm visions where he travels with the highstorm.
• Renarin gets visions of what appear to be the future during highstorms.
• Dalinar gets visions of the past during highstorms. Also, he gets neat dreams which may or may not be visions in the Spiritual.
• Shallan gets visions of other locations when she draws things sometime (Yalb, Shallash). This doesn't appear to be linked to the highstorm.

We haven't had a good look at other Radiants, but I do think this pattern merits further investigation.

 

As a general theory, I'd propose that each Radiant will gain visions or knowledge of events in other places depending on their Order's Surges.

• Windrunners, with Pressure/Adhesion + Gravity (which combined form a sort of representation of storms), get visions of the highstorm.
• Truthwatchers, with Illumination + Progression, see (through Illumination) visions of the future (through Progression).
• Lightweavers, with Illumination + Transformation, can only see visions of the present as they have no Progression. They use Transformation to draw these visions.
• Bondsmiths, with Adhesion + Tension, see visions of the past, or perhaps more general 'spiritual' visions. I'm not sure how to work their attributes in here.

Extending this to Orders we haven't seen with visions:

• Elsecallers, with Transformation and Transportation, should be able to write out on paper descriptions of events happening elsewhere, anywhere they choose (through Transportation), or perhaps descriptions of events happening in Shadesmar. They'd just sort of drift off and "automatically" write.
• Edgedancers, with Progression and Abrasion, could perhaps have very good instincts about what's going to happen in the future. They might 'feel' something is off.

Unfortunately, I can't really extend this list very well because most of the Surges make little sense in reference to visions, but I do like the idea. I've sort of been looking for excuses to extend the theory that all Radiants get 'metaphorical' use of their Surges as well, like Shallan being able to "transform" others through her words.

[Kurkistan]

I find this somewhat plausible. Interesting, at the very least.

[Moogle]

I find this somewhat plausible. Interesting, at the very least.

 

"Somewhat plausible" is a very good description. The fact that the Surges don't match up nicely is a huge mark against it, and I'm thinking of abandoning attempts to work my theory in. Just noting that the Orders all get special visions is enough to me, I think.

 

Other notes:

• Dalinar sees visions of the past, and Renarin of the future. Their Orders are opposite each other on the Surgebinding chart, and if you go with my previous speculation in other threads, Bondsmiths are 100% Honor and Truthwatchers are 100% Cultivation.
• Other possible opposites between Dalinar and Renarin are that Renarin may see things in the Physical while Dalinar sees in the Spiritual. (I know, I know, that theory is not very well substantiated. It still makes sense to me that Kaladin saw in the Spiritual in TWoK when it was pitch black and he could see everything, because this matches with Dalinar's dream, where everything is pitch black but he knows where it is anyways.)
• Kaladin's visions are very much focused on the highstorm, while Shallan, opposite him on the Chart, is completely disconnected from the highstorm when she has her "visions". It may be that even calling what Shallan has "visions" is misleading, and that we should be limiting our investigations to characters who have special experiences in highstorms only (Dalinar, Renarin, Kaladin).
  • Of note, the highstorms seem to break down the barriers between worlds - for a moment, Kaladin goes to a different Realm when the highstorm hits him. Similarly, it seems like listeners use the highstorm's Realm-breaking moment to temporarily visit the Cognitive to enact a physical change or more easily bond a spren. So it may be that Shallan is always more in the Cognitive, and so she doesn't need the highstorm to push her over the edge to let her have visions.
• Every Radiant seems to have some limited ability to see into the Cognitive. Kaladin does it, though we know the bottom-left Orders are the big ones when it comes to Shadesmar ability. I'm not sure what, if anything, this means for visions.
• To view something, it would make sense that you need a connection to it. Kaladin's connected to the highstorms very easily through Syl (the Stormfather being her "father"), so it makes sense he'd ride the storms. Shallan draws people who are very important: Yalb (who she worries about and is close to) and Shallash (patron of her Order, which naturally provides a connection).
  • We might be able to use this to predict the subject of other Order's visions: Skybreakers, like Nalan (does he count as a Skybreaker?), could have a connection to criminals and use this to view the past and see their misdeeds.
  • Edgedancers have a connection to the Nightwatcher, as Wyndle says she's his mother. Can they see people who come to ask the Nightwatcher favors, perhaps? It would be sort of like Kaladin. Sort of limited if true, but could prove for some interesting dreams on Lift's part. (Of note: Windrunners and Edgedancers are both in the corner and have a line connecting them.)

[jefftucker0525]

The only thing I see wrong with this theory is that we know that Dalinars visions aren't related to his Order. First off they began before he was even Bonded to the Stormfather, but secondly and what most strongly shows this is not right is the Stromfather explicitly states that he was forced to give the visions to someone though he didn't want to.

[Kurkistan]

The only thing I see wrong with this theory is that we know that Dalinars visions aren't related to his Order. First off they began before he was even Bonded to the Stormfather, but secondly and what most strongly shows this is not right is the Stromfather explicitly states that he was forced to give the visions to someone though he didn't want to.

 

Not quite.

 

Source: (paraphrase)

Regarding Dalinar: He said that Dalinar has had a bond with the Stormfather "for a while." He also only said one oath at the top of the Urithiru tower, not two. Dalinar conveyed a single idea in that particular oath.

 

As for the second point, for all we know this is a general comment on Stormy's part that he doesn't want to engage with humanity at all, or somehow singling out the "Tanavast-diary" visions as different. Recall also that the Stormfather claimed to have no part in Dalinar's last "vision".

Edited July 25, 2014 by Kurkistan

[Aleksiel]

Shallan also had a vision during the highstorm in the chasms. She and Kaladin both saw the Stormfather and I'm more inclined to believe Kaladin has visions during highstorms because the Stormfather chose to speak to him or some Windrunner/Honor's sliver dynamics.

 

Shallan sees distant places, Dalinar sees the past and Renarin - the future. Kaladin's visions don't seem to be of the same nature - something that has, is or will happen on physic realm Roshar. (Even if Dalinar's visions originate from the Spiritual realm, they still show events that originally occurred in the physical.)