Where Did Kaladin and Dalinar Go?

[Moogle]

 

He hit hard. His vision flashed with sparkling lights that melded together and were followed by blackness. Not unconsciousness, blackness. Kaladin blinked. All was still. The storm was quiet, and everything was purely dark. I’m dead, he thought immediately. But why could he feel the wet stone roof beneath him? He shook his head, dripping rainwater down his face. There was no lightning, no wind, no rain. The silence was unnatural. He stumbled to his feet, managing to stand on the gently sloped roof. The stone was slick beneath his toes. He couldn’t feel his wounds. The pain just wasn’t there. He opened his mouth to call out into the darkness, but hesitated. That silence was not to be broken. The air itself seemed to weigh less, as did he. He almost felt as if he could float away.

In that darkness, an enormous face appeared just in front of his. A face of blackness, yet faintly traced in the dark. It was wide, the breadth of a massive thunderhead, and extended far to either side, yet it was somehow still visible to Kaladin. Inhuman. Smiling.

Kaladin felt a deep chill—a rolling prickle of ice—scurry down his spine and through his entire body. The sphere suddenly burst to life in his hand, flaring with a sapphire glow. It illuminated the stone roof beneath him, making his fist blaze with blue fire. His shirt was in tatters, his skin lacerated. He looked down at himself, shocked, then looked up at the face. It was gone. There was only the darkness. Lightning flashed, and Kaladin’s pains returned. He gasped, falling to his knees before the rain and the wind. He slipped down, face hitting the rooftop.

 

 

Dalinar stood in darkness. He turned about, trying to remember how he’d come to this place. In the shadows, he saw furniture. Tables, a rug, drapes from Azir with wild colors. His mother had always been proud of those drapes.

 

My home, he thought. As it was when I was a child. Back before conquest, back before Gavilar . . . Gavilar . . . hadn’t Gavilar died? No, Dalinar could hear his brother laughing in the next room. He was a child. They both were.

 

Dalinar crossed the shadowed room, feeling the fuzzy joy of familiarity. Of things being as they should be. He’d left his wooden swords out. He had a collection, each carved like a Shardblade. He was too old for those now, of course, but he still liked having them. As a collection. He stepped to the balcony doors and pushed them open. Warm light bathed him. A deep, enveloping, piercing warmth. A warmth that soaked down deep through his skin, into his very self. He stared at that light, and was not blinded. The source was distant, but he knew it. Knew it well. He smiled. Then he awoke.

 

Dalinar and Kaladin both go to a place that is dark, and yet they can see in it. Seems like it could conceivably be the same place. I've heard previous speculation that Dalinar went to the Spiritual Realm, but it just seems... unlikely. It could be, though. Anyone have any thoughts? Perhaps I'm making connections where none exist.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Moogle

[Patrick Star]

I'd like to point out that both of these incidences happened at the height of a Highstorm (right around the point where Stormfatherface appears).

 

They definitely went SOMEWHERE, and it almost certainly wasn't Shadesmar, as that would be too boring.

 

I'm going to bet that they visited the Origin.  I have absolutely no substantial evidence, but just wanted to come up with the crackpot theory of the day.

[Kurkistan]

I'd like to point out that both of these incidences happened at the height of a Highstorm (right around the point where Stormfatherface appears).

 

This is incorrect. Dalinar specifically notes (and double checks) that his vision did not come during a highstorm.

[Rew]

There also another point - in WoR - Shallan and Kaladin the Chasm during the highstorm - suddenly it is dark, the 'cubby' is expanded so Kaladin can stand up, and his leg no longer hurts - and he interacts with the Stormfather - it doesn't say what Shallan did, but seems to imply she had a similar experience.  

 

Based on the 'out-of-body-ness' of it all -(e.g. the fact that his pain disappears) I always thought it was the cognitive realm, but to a place there dominated by the Highstorm and thus completely different from the normal view of Shadesmar we see with Jasnah/Shallan.  

 

But that doesn't seem to fully explain what the place was.  Either way, I don't think they went there physically...  Some place betwixt and between the realms as it were? Thus the darkness (clouding of both physical and cognitive realms)? 

[skaa]

In the first excerpt, Kaladin wasn't physically transported anywhere. He was still on top of the roof, which he could still feel even as it turned dark. Note that the Parshendi experience the same thing when spren-bonding:

The storm vanished. Wind, rain, sound . . . gone. Eshonai stood up, dripping wet, her muscles cold her skin numb. She shook her head, spraying water, and looked up into the sky.

The face was there. Infinite, expansive. The humans spoke of their Stormfather, yet they never knew him as a listener did. As wide as the sky itself, with eyes full of countless stars. The gemstone in Eshonai’s hand burst alight.

As for Dalinar's last "vision", there were no reported highstorm when that happened, and the Stormfather denied that he had anything to do with it. The dream may be supernatural in origin, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing that Kaladin and the Parshendi experience. Edited May 4, 2014 by skaa

[Argent]

I've been wondering about that ever since Kaladin got strung up in The Way of Kings. My best theory (and, boy, am I stretching the definition of this word) is that the Stormfather carries the highstorms, in a way. It's an inaccurate description, but it's how I think about it. He, being a spren or spren-like being, resides in the Cognitive Realm, and so he has to enter the physical realm, at least partially, if he wants to affect it - and nothing affects the physical realm on Roshar more than highstorms. So, instead of fully switching realms, he kind of... blends the two realms around himself, kind of like how Shallan does when she tries to Soulcast the stick. This way he is not as incapacitated as the other "regular" spren are (because he is still partially in the Shadesmar), but gets to influence the physical world.

 

Furthermore, my largely unfounded theory claims that the Stormfather "carries" the highstorms around Roshar - he "pops up" somewhere around where the Origin is, builds a highstorm up around himself (so he is in the eye of the storm), and goes on a field trip around the planet. When he passes over gemstones, he infuses them, because of some kind of Investiture bleedthrough or something that happens because of the blending of the realms around him. When a Radiant, or at least somebody with a Nahel bond, is caught outside during a highstorm, they get a chance to talk briefly with the Stormfather as he passes over them - and they are relatively safe during this time, because the center of the storm is not entirely in the physical realm. Which is why Kaladin reports everything going silent, the wind disappearing, and even the environment changing. Then the eye of the storm, along with the Stormfather and his twisting of the realms, passes and the physical storm comes back.

 

Wow, this is difficult to explain. I might need to come back and clarify a few points...

[Aleksiel]

I am doubtful if there's a connection between the two. Kaladin meets the Stromfather, but what Dalinar experiences isn't of him. Dalinar notes a familiar light and sensation, without being able to remember why it's familiar. 

 

I've been toying with the idea of Dalinar's last non-Stormfather vision is related to the Nightwatcher, but I really can't back it up with anything solid. 

 

 

Warm light bathed him. A deep, enveloping, piercing warmth. A warmth that soaked down deep through his skin, into his very self. He stared at that light, and was not blinded. The source was distant, but he knew it. Knew it well.

 

Warm light.. Doesn't seem to be like the distant dark sun of the cognitive realm, so may be the spiritual? Kaladin's experiences with the Stormfather and the darkness never contained any of his memories. So, I think those are two different places. One is dark and with the Stormfather, the other has warmth and light.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Aleksiel