Dalinar’s Dream

[Kramerfarve]

About 3/4 of the way through an OB re-read, and reached the part where Dalinar has a dream where he has a conversation with Nohadon that he previously had never had in a vision. Nohadon talks to him about the way of kings and hints at its true meaning. A thunder last is walking about the city, and Nohadon says that it represents Dalinar’s fears or something like that. Given that we have seen shardic intervention in SA most predominantly through dreams and visions, is this dream coming from Cultivation? At this point, Dalinar has gotten most of his memory back, and so perhaps Cultivation sent him this to nudge him in the direction she wanted him to go with these memories now intact? The Stormfather says he did nothing to cause the vision in Dalinar, and it clearly wasn’t Odium’s handiwork.

[Quantus he/him]

I think it's entirely possible.  I'd have to say the jury is still out on if it's Odium, I dont personally think so but the possibility remains that it could be Odium or an Unmade easily enough.

[Subvisual Haze]

My guess is that it's the spirit of Nohadon himself.  Hanging around in the cognitive realm post-death and now trying to help Dalinar behind the scenes by whispering thoughts into his mind at crucial moments.

[Kramerfarve]

Yeah the reason I said it wasn’t Odium is because dream Nohadon wasn’t really trying to convince Dalinar to give up, and wasn’t acting in that patronizing way Odium normally does. Further, dream Nohadon actually incites the unity scene at the end by planting the question “what is the most important step ...?” in Dalinar’s head after explaining the three realms of existence. This evidences clearly it must be a being powerful enough to create a vision, and it must have access to some kind of foresight to be able to push Dalinar down such a specific path. The only groups I can think of with the motive would be those in Cultivation’s faction, and the most likely suspect being Cultivation herself. She has direct ties to Dalinar’s mind/memory and has been sending visions to him throughout the novel (The memories that have been coming back come in the form of 1rst person visions).

Edited January 23, 2019 by Kramerfarve
See the two posts below

[Quantus he/him]

3 hours ago, Subvisual Haze said:

My guess is that it's the spirit of Nohadon himself.  Hanging around in the cognitive realm post-death and now trying to help Dalinar behind the scenes by whispering thoughts into his mind at crucial moments.

That would be interesting, it would mean his spirit foudn some way (and/or had some help) in sticking around, even if he wasnt a radiant there are a number of ways it might have worked given the spren population and worldhopping caravans in Shadesmar.

54 minutes ago, Kramerfarve said:

Yeah the reason I said it wasn’t Odium is because dream Nohadon wasn’t really trying to convince Dalinar to give up, and wasn’t acting in that patronizing way Odium normally does. Further, dream Nohadon actually incites the unity scene at the end by planting the question “what is the most important step ...?” in Dalinar’s head after explaining the three realms of existence. This evidences clearly it must be a being powerful enough to create a vision, and it must have access to some kind of foresight to be able to push Dalinar down such a specific path. The only groups I can think of with the motive would be those in Cultivation’s faction, and the most likely suspect being Cultivation herself. She has direct ties to Dalinar’s mind/memory and has been sending visions to him throughout the novel. (Returned memories)

It would definitely be out of character for Odium directly, who at least so far hasnt engaged in a whole lot of direct subterfuge (at least as far as I can tell).  One of the intelligent Unmade would be a more likely option if it was from Odium's camp.  Cultivation (or various spren on her side) would make sense, or maaaybe some sort of Heraldic shenanigans (mostly by virtue of being some of the few that are long-lived and Invested enough to pull such things off). I doubt Nohadon was a Returned (if that's what you are implying?) but I would be very excited by that as I entirely expect there to be more Roshar/Nalthis interaction than we've see so far (for mostly Doylistic reasons). 

[Kramerfarve]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

I doubt Nohadon was a Returned (if that's what you are implying?)

Ahhh sorry, returned capitalized when I did not want it to, just meant that Cultivation was already in the process of giving Dalinar his memories back, and those came in visions/dreams that behaved very similarly

[SquishyRogues]

I was wondering if ot was Hoid. He probably has the power to do so, and Nohadon's mannerisms reminded me of him.

[Isilel]

On 23.1.2019 at 1:02 PM, Kramerfarve said:

 A thunder last is walking about the city, and Nohadon says that it represents Dalinar’s fears or something like that. Given that we have seen shardic intervention in SA most predominantly through dreams and visions, is this dream coming from Cultivation?

Never thought of it being Cultivation, which is a very plausible idea.

Personally, I always believed that he was Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow in disguise. Hoid mentioned that Tanavast used to be a fun person to go drinking with and dream "Nohadon's" ability to enjoy life to the fullest would fit with this. There was always this strange disconnect between the Stormfather being Honor's Cognitive shadow, and the fact that most other Cognitive shadows encountered in the Cosmere are complete personalities, rather than recordings of visions. But of course, the Stormfather already had his own personality and overriding and replacing it would have been unethical and likely contrary to Honor's Intent. So, it makes sense to me that he would have hidden his Vessel's Cognitive shadow in the Stormfather's subconsciousness, so that the corresponding Bondsmith could interact with it once they progressed far enough.