Hearing Tones

[CMac716]

This is more of an inconsistency... but why does the Sibling bond give Navani the ability to hear the Tones of Roshar, but the Stormfater bond doesn't do the same for Dalinar? They're both ancient Spren of Roshar that emit their Tone and can hear the rest, so what's the deal?  The only time I remember Dalinar commenting on hearing them is when he got thrown into the Spirit Realm

[Treamayne]

59 minutes ago, CMac716 said:

This is more of an inconsistency... but why does the Sibling bond give Navani the ability to hear the Tones of Roshar, but the Stormfater bond doesn't do the same for Dalinar? They're both ancient Spren of Roshar that emit their Tone and can hear the rest, so what's the deal?  The only time I remember Dalinar commenting on hearing them is when he got thrown into the Spirit Realm

The Sibling's bond didn't so much "give Navani" the ability to hear the Tones of Roshar as it made such things easier. Navani had already trained herself to hear and hum/sing the Tones and Rhythms of Roshar (that's the largest portion of her Arc in RoW - and how she Bonded Sibling to begin with, she supplied Honor's Tone for Sibling's Cultivation Tone and they worked together to recreate the Tower Tone and Rhythm). RoW Ch 110

Spoiler

Her bloody hand slipped down to her side, leaving marks on the pillar.

I can hear my mother’s tone, the Sibling said. But not my tone. I think it’s because my father is dead.

“Honor…” Navani whispered. “Honor is not … dead. He lives inside the hearts … of his children.…”

Does he? Truly? It seemed a plea, not a challenge.

Does he? Navani searched deep. Was what she’d been doing honorable? Creating fabrials? Imprisoning spren? Could she really say that? Odium’s tone rang in her ears, though she’d stopped humming its inverse.

Then, a pure song. Rising up from within her. Orderly, powerful. Had she done harm without realizing it? Possibly. Had she made mistakes? Certainly. But she’d been trying to help. That was her journey. A journey to discover, learn, and make the world better.

Honor’s song welled up inside her, and she sang it. The pillar began to vibrate as the Sibling sang Cultivation’s song. The pure sound of Lifelight. The sound began to shift, and Navani modulated her tone, inching it closer and closer to …

The two snapped into harmony. The boundless energy of Cultivation, always growing and changing, and the calm solidity of Honor—organized, structured. They vibrated together. Structure and nature. Knowledge and wonder. Mixing.

The song of science itself.

That is it, the Sibling whispered to the Rhythm of the Tower. My song.

“Our emulsifier,” Navani whispered to the Rhythm of the Tower.

The common ground, the Sibling said.

Part of the equation is likely Intent - Navani has recognized these Tones, Rhythms and Lights as important to her, their bond, and Fabrials. Also, Sibling is already comprised of two of the three tones anyway. Dalinar has none of that going on - he has not learned the Tones, nor does he view them as important to what he is doing as Stormfather's Bondsmith. He could liklely learn, as Navani did; and the Bond would probably make that easier for him than it was for her before her Bond - but it hasn't come up because it was not a part of his Character Arc. 

Hope that helps

[CMac716]

That makes sense. Pretty much what i figured was going on

[Nitpicking]

Also, it's established that Navani is a trained lower-case-s singer. She's just plain better at music.

I wonder if there's a magic system somewhere on Roshar that uses music and dance in time with the Rhythms to produce magical effects, the way there's a martial art on Sel that involves forming symbols with your body.

[Light In the Darkness]

We see an effect adjacent to that with the singers using lifelight, emeralds, and rhythms to make plants grow faster. I don't know that dance is going to as much; the gemstones with Light were necessary to those effects because they needed a power source, whereas on Sel the power being in the CR made it more accessible via physical shapes/patterns.