crazy theory Different Dalinar's Wife Theory [Stormlight 3 Spoilers]

[Lightspine]

So an earlier theory said that Dalinar's wife could be Vivenna, but her description doesn't match at all. I thought a bit about people who could match her description, and came up with Sarene, from Elantris. Both Dalinar's wife and Sarene are described as tall and blonde haired. Both Navani and Ialai say that she is dull-witted, and playing dumb is one of Sarene's favorite tricks. In addition, Dalinar's wife is left handed, and while I couldn't find anything about Sarene's preferred hand in the text, the french cover for Elantris shows Sarene holding her syre in her left hand. I found this more credible than the fanart I also found with the syre in her right hand.

Though this theory is still obviously far-fetched, I feel Sarene matches the descriptions much better than anybody else. This next thought, however, might seem even more crazy: Dalinar sees an Elantrian in the highstorm, not a voidbringer. I am referring to the chapter that Brandon read aloud, the same one where Dalinar's wife is introduced. While in the highstorm, Dalinar sees a "gargantuan" figure from a distance, striding on "spindly, luminous legs." It seems to attack Dalinar by throwing a gust of wind and a boulder at him. Dalinar gives it a rude gesture and steps back inside. This seems to clearly be a stormform Parshendi, right? Except it doesn't make any sense chronologically. This happened twenty years before the Parshendi were found by the Alethi, and Gavilar hadn't started receiving visions yet. It completely defies reason for an actual Parshendi to be in the middle of Gavilar's army camp at that time. Unless it wasn't a Parshendi. Look at the description again. There is no mention of what color the light is, so that is no indication. However, it seems to be glowing too brightly to be a Stormform. Though some parts of its description match what Kaladin sees during the highstorm with Shallan, it is described as far more bright. (Kaladin says he sees shadowy figures in the storm). Stormform Parshendi glow along lines on there bodies, but the aren't exactly luminous, like the Elantrians are. What's more, it doesn't seem interested in attacking Dalinar. After the boulder is tossed, it does no more, and doesn't try to throw lightning, allowing Dalinar to go back inside peacefully. A voidbringer wouldn't allow somebody to see it and live.

You're probably wondering why, if the being was a peaceful Elantrian, it seemed to attack Dalinar in the first place, and how it did so. However, we have seen Elantrians create blasts of wind. When they teleport using Aon Tia. The "attack" was a total accident, caused when the Elantrian appeared there. The wind coming from it also picked up and threw the boulder.

I get that the second part seems extremely far-fetched, but I believe there was something fishy with the "voidbringer" Dalinar saw, even though I don't buy the theory completely myself.

[cloudjumper he/him]

Where did you find the excerpt from Oathbringer?

[Guest]

Did Sarene have a brother who was almost as tall as Alethi, but with slender limbs and a head of golden hair? If not, then it can't be her.

[Lightspine]

33 minutes ago, maxal said:

Did Sarene have a brother who was almost as tall as Alethi, but with slender limbs and a head of golden hair? If not, then it can't be her.

Elantrians can disguise themselves and others in what is basically lightweaving. 

And the excerpt is read aloud here: 

 

Edited July 3, 2016 by Lightspine

[Botanica she/her]

Yeah I've once drawn Sarene holding her syre with her right hand and that's only an assumption because there's no description in the book. Though I don't think we can depend on a book's cover art since what the cover art conveys is often not canon.

[Jondesu he/him]

Something that just came to mind about the left-handedness: Shshshsh wouldn't actually have needed to be left-handed for the results we hear about from Navani, simply very new to the idea of safehands and forgetful (or intentionally playing on people's assumptions). That said, Sarene wouldn't have married Dalinar.

I'm curious, it seems an obvious conclusion, but do we actually know for sure that the woman in the reading was Shshshsh?

jW

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Jondesu said:

Something that just came to mind about the left-handedness: Shshshsh wouldn't actually have needed to be left-handed for the results we hear about from Navani, simply very new to the idea of safehands and forgetful (or intentionally playing on people's assumptions). That said, Sarene wouldn't have married Dalinar.

I'm curious, it seems an obvious conclusion, but do we actually know for sure that the woman in the reading was Shshshsh?

jW

Hmmm it seemed pretty obvious it was her... if only because of the hair. It is interesting to note how often Dalinar comments on golden hair: back in WoK he refers to them rather often whenever he thinks of his son. In the flashback, it may be the first thing he notes from the strangers, their hair. Shshshshs walks into the room, Dalinar may have been thinking about Navani, but his eyes were on the newcomer and he refers to her as a "candle into the darkness" or something along those lines.

The timeline is also spot on to have Dalinar meet Shshshsh, then court her for three years. The left-handed comment comes from Navani describing Shshshsh as clumsy, always trying to eat with her left hand, which undeniably marks her as left-handed. 

Also, it has been implied in the books Adolin's mother was Iriali, so to have Iriali strangers arrive during the right time frame pretty much confirms it.

Finally, the last argument is Dalinar himself. He may not remember his wife, but he remembers he loved her. The scene when she walks into the room, the one where Dalinar states she was like a candle, is very reminiscent of the scene where Shallan walks in. Dalinar's eyes, just like Adolin, are locked onto the beautiful stranger and both father and son note the hair. If Dalinar is intrigued by the golden hair, but Adolin is relived to find no black hair onto Shallan.

Therefore, I'd say the hair, the hair comments pretty much, all by themselves, confirm we indeed have the right person. Not to forget, they had a stolen Shardplate they were willing to use as a bargaining chip to ensure their safety. My personal theory is Toh got the upper hand: he outsmarted Gavilar. The Plate was supposed to be given to the king to be, it wasn't.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Hey I've edited the title of this topic.  Please keep in mind that not everyone reads/listens to previews from unpublished works.

[kenod]

SO, why all these theories about Dalinar's wife? Was there a WoB that she was a Worldhopper or is this just rampant speculation, like the theory that Kaladin was Dalinar's son?

[Eki]

26 minutes ago, kenod said:

SO, why all these theories about Dalinar's wife? Was there a WoB that she was a Worldhopper or is this just rampant speculation, like the theory that Kaladin was Dalinar's son?

I think it's just rampant speculation... I'm not sure why though. I mean, yeah, she's mysterious because we don't know anything about her, but we do know enough to be able to assume she's roughly who we've been told she is. I'm interested in her personality and what exactly happened to her (and her brother!), but I think her origins as an Iriali exile are pretty clear.

[Oversleep]

4 hours ago, kenod said:

SO, why all these theories about Dalinar's wife? Was there a WoB that she was a Worldhopper or is this just rampant speculation, like the theory that Kaladin was Dalinar's son?

Two factors:

One, I posted a crazy theory which originated few months ago in a unrelated topic and only recently managed to post it. This probably was a catalyst which made people think about the issue.
Two, there was a reading of an excerpt with Dalinar's flashback and from what I've heard around the Shard Dalinar's wife is in it.

[cloudjumper he/him]

Isn't Elantris set way before Stormlight Archive?

[Oversleep]

29 minutes ago, cloudjumper said:

Isn't Elantris set way before Stormlight Archive?

It is (a few thousand years IIRC). And what of it? Worldhoppers usually have knowledge to deal with such insignificant obstacles like aging.

[cloudjumper he/him]

On 7/5/2016 at 5:24 PM, Oversleep said:

It is (a few thousand years IIRC). And what of it? Worldhoppers usually have knowledge to deal with such insignificant obstacles like aging.

There's a real age gap between Sarene and Dalinar then. Why would she be attracted to someone who's practically a baby compared to her? And isn't Sarene already married?

[Jondesu he/him]

4 hours ago, cloudjumper said:

There's a real age gap between Sarene and Dalinar then. Why would she be attracted to someone who's practically a baby compared to her? And isn't Sarene already married?

That's the big thing to me.  Sarene is not only happily married to Raoden last we saw, but she's not the Elantrian, he is.  Unless she's also turned, she'd need some other source of magic to have even lived that long.

jW