Has Anyone Asked...?(I know, there's probably a million of these.)

[Random Observations R Me]

I am currently in the middle of my college semester, and don't have the ability to make it to any of the events for the foreseeable future. So, I was wondering if anyone has received an answer for any of the following questions:

 

1) What do the surges we haven't seen yet allow the Knights Radiant to do? More specifically, what does Division allow them to do?

 

2) Has he provided any other oaths sworn by orders that we haven't seen yet, other than the "I will stand when others fall," one from a while back?

 

Okay... so maybe I'm a little impatient to see what happens in the next book, and more Radiants in general.

[Argent he/him]

No concrete answer to either one of those. We (I?) strongly suspect Division is kind of like nuclear fission, only not as powerful - the ability to break things apart, or maybe explode them essentially. As for the Oaths, I think the Skybreakers had one along the lines of "I will uphold the law above all else," but I also think this was something a fan made up and I loved it so much, I canonized it in my head.

[The Sovereign]

No concrete answer to either one of those. We (I?) strongly suspect Division is kind of like nuclear fission, only not as powerful - the ability to break things apart, or maybe explode them essentially. As for the Oaths, I think the Skybreakers had one along the lines of "I will uphold the law above all else," but I also think this was something a fan made up and I loved it so much, I canonized it in my head.

 

The second Skybreaker oath was:

I will put the law before all else.

 

If I remember correctly, Brandon gave this in a signed copy of Words of Radiance. We really ought to start a thread specifically with the purpose of archiving these.

[Shadowthrone he/him]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but has anyone asked this question of Brandon? I'm from India, so really hard to get my questions answered directly from the author.

 

Is Dalinar the biological father of Adolin and/or Renarin?

 

Sure, it sounds like some sitcom twist, but there are three reasons for the hypothesis. 

 

Firstly, and most importantly, Dalinar's memory erasure of his wife's memory is very inconsistent with his character. It is hard to imagine him doing it because he couldn't handle the emotions etc. Most people would treasure their memories of a loved one. He is a pretty tough guy emotionally and wouldn't resort to such an extreme merely for even far-fetched scenarios like loveless marriage, wife being traitor and so forth. If, however, he were party to information that Adolin and/or Renarin were illegitimate sons of Gavilar, it could be potentially destabilizing to the throne of Alethkar and his own loyalty to Gavilar would suffer. Putting his other great duty to the newly forged kingdom of Alethkar over his antagonism towards Gavilar (remember his Calling is leadership and even the Dalinar of youth wouldn't want to jeopardise the kingdom he'd helped build) he would effectively eliminated possibility of treason from himself in the future.  It could be his great act of selflessness that marked him out to be a Radiant. 

 

Secondly, there is a disproportionate number of Radiants in the Kholin family. Perhaps Gavilar knew that he would father several Radiants so he simply wanted to maximise his progeny by passing off his own children as his brother's (who better?), giving them the advantage of a privileged childhood and being groomed for leadership roles, as opposed to illegitimate children borne of concubines.  

 

Thirdly, Dalinar is the pivotal character of the series. He was the first character of SA conceived by Brandon, has extremely complex motivations and needs an ideal foil story. These point to the enigmatic memory wipe episode, which would typically end with a twist or two and should showcase his honor and sacrifice.

 

Hence the question. If the opportunity presents itself, would be great if someone put it to him and get a WoB on this.

 

On a separate note, I think the author could be pulling a Mistborn-type trick here whereby Kaladin is the protagonist in terms of screen-time (like Vin) but the hero who saves the day is Dalinar (like Sazed) who could even be the Champion of Honor. 

[Argent he/him]

I am almost entirely certain - though I could be misremembering - that I asked if Dalinar was Renarin's biological father, and Brandon confirmed that he is. It was during one of the Chicago signings, possibly Firefight.

[Shadowthrone he/him]

Hmm. So assuming Adolin is also his biological son, the other possibility could be that she's still alive but in a state which causes constant pain to Dalinar. I say this because in WoR when Shallan infiltrates the Kholin temple to search for Taln Pattern tells her that there's an "interesting" woman there who rubs excrement on walls. Could it be her?

[heridfel]

I believe that someone asked whether Dalinar's wife was still alive and got a RAFO, so it's possible that she is in a broken state. The main question I'd have is how that would relate to Dalinar's blessing/curse from the Nightwatcher. It seems unlikely that Dalinar's forgetfulness is the blessing if she's still alive - maybe his wife was dying, and he wished for her to be healed? I don't know whether that fits the structure of other Old Magic blessings, but she may have been healed of one problem and broken in a different fashion, while Dalinar's curse is to forget the woman that he tried to save.

[maxal she/her]

I believe it has been asked, a long time ago, if both Renarin and Adolin were Dalinar's legitimate children and the answer was yes. At the time though, I believe the assumption was Adolin perhaps had a different unknown father due to him not physically resembling his father. Also, considering neither actually show any resemblance whatsoever to Gavilar, I'd say it is highly improbable. I have entertained the possibility Elhokar might be Dalinar's son (unknown to him) but I wish it won't be the case. 

 

We also do not know if Dalinar purposefully asked to forgive his wife: I personally suspect it was his curse and not his boon. This being said, the RAFO on Shshshshsh's status was puzzling. I think it is safe to assume she died of natural consequences: if she hadn't, her death surely would have left a trace on her sons. It could be she became insane and put away in an asylum, but the boys were told she died or something along those lines but it seems a too big secret to keep it hidden for so long, especially from both Adolin and Renarin. Had she slowly fell into dementia surely someone would remember it, but nobody thinks twice about it.

 

I personally would not be pleased if a supposed dead character turns out being mysteriously alive... Too many death have come back, I don't think Brandon can afford to do it a third time around. My speculation is thus Shshshshsh is dead, dead. Probably of sickness or childbirth.