Confirmation that Dalinar is the Dawnshard of Unity?

[Crucible of Shards he/him]

So we know from Rysn’s novella that the bearer of a Dawnshard... is the Dawnshard. “That’s how it works.” Now, in Oathbringer, right before Dalinar does his massive power tap, he of course says, “I am Unity.” And what does Odium say? “We killed you!” Seeing as how he is addressing Dalinar, and seeing as how Dalinar has 0 years of experience in being dead, the question then becomes, “ How could Odium have killed Dalinar if he has never killed Dalinar?” The answer, is of course, that Odium is addressing the Unity Dawnshard, who happens to at this time be Dalinar. Because “that’s how it works.”

Odium killed the previous bearer of the Unity Dawnshard and is quite put out to find that a replacement was found. Change my mind.

[Frustration he/him]

Dalinar does not appear to be any stronger than Ishar

[+mdross81 he/him]

I'm not sure whether this works for or against your theory, but Dalinar does seem to give a kind of explanation of what he is shortly after declaring himself to be Unity.

Quote

He opened his eyes, and slowly his column of gloryspren faded. The power within him withdrew, leaving him exhausted. Fortunately, the field was covered in glittering gemstones. Stormlight in plenty.

A direct conduit to the Spiritual Realm, the Stormfather said. You renew spheres, Dalinar?

“We are Connected.”

I was bonded to men before. This never happened then.

“Honor was alive then. We are something different. His remnants, your soul, my will.”

I've taken this to be what Dalinar means by Unity: The combination of Honor's remnants (his power), the soul of the storm, and Dalinar's will. It's reasonable to say that Dalinar's will is to see Roshar united, so that could work in favor of your theory.

On the other hand, the Sleepless seemed dead set against Rysn ever becoming a Knight Radiant now that she's a Dawnshard, believing it would be dangerous. Given that we haven't seem the Sleepless come after him to try to neutralize him, and that the Stormfather hasn't said anything about Dalinar being a Dawnshard, I'm kinda disinclined to think that he is one.

[AquaRegia he/him]

I very much doubt I will change your mind, but I'm not buying the "Dalinar is a Dawnshard" idea.  If my logic is sound, there are three possibilities:

1)  Dalinar encountered a Dawnshard at some point in the previous novels and "became" it (or whatever the right term is).

2)  Dalinar became a Dawnshard at some point NOT shown in the novels.

3)  Dalinar has never (yet) become a Dawnshard.

If you have any evidence for 1) I'd love to hear it - I don't see any.  2) would be incredibly bad storytelling; Brandon is too good a writer to make an arc-climax event like that be a surprise to the reader by having it happen offscreen where we can't see it.  I think it's safe to bet that Oathbringer gave us the entirety of Dalinar's backstory, and it did not include any Dawnshards.

Therefore we are left with 3).  I'm not saying it's impossible for Dalinar to become a Dawnshard... but it has not happened yet, and I really don't think Dawnshards will be a big part of Stormlight 5.  Not enough groundwork has been laid - in the novels - for them to become a plausible plot point that soon.  My guess is they will become important in the back half.

I interpret the "we killed you" line as a reference to the Vessel of Honor, toward which Dalinar's arc seems to be moving.

Edited April 15, 2021 by AquaRegia
grammar

[Crucible of Shards he/him]

18 hours ago, Frustration said:

Dalinar does not appear to be any stronger than Ishar

I see what you’re saying, but Dalinar himself is admittedly ignorant of how to even use his powers, and I doubt you can utilize a Dawnshard without intent. We still have a lot to see when it comes to Ishar and Bondsmiths in general.

 

1 hour ago, AquaRegia said:

I very much doubt I will change your mind, but I'm not buying the "Dalinar is a Dawnshard" idea.  If my logic is sound, there are three possibilities:

1)  Dalinar encountered a Dawnshard at some point in the previous novels and "became" it (or whatever the right term is).

2)  Dalinar became a Dawnshard at some point NOT shown in the novels.

3)  Dalinar has never (yet) become a Dawnshard.

If you have any evidence for 1) I'd love to hear it - I don't see any.  2) would be incredibly bad storytelling; Brandon is too good a writer to make an arc-climax event like that be a surprise to the reader by having it happen offscreen where we can't see it.  I think it's safe to bet that Oathbringer gave us the entirety of Dalinar's backstory, and it did not include any Dawnshards.

Therefore we are left with 3).  I'm not saying it's impossible for Dalinar to become a Dawnshard... but it has not happened yet, and I really don't think Dawnshards will be a big part of Stormlight 5.  Not enough groundwork has been laid - in the novels - for them to become a plausible plot point that soon.  My guess is they will become important in the back half.

I interpret the "we killed you" line as a reference to the Vessel of Honor, toward which Dalinar's arc seems to be moving.

Solid point. I don’t have any hard evidence, and there are posts that go more in-depth than I can about the light that Dalinar experiences that the Stormfather is seemingly unaware of. Some people think that may be related, some don’t. So you got me there. I’m really just spitballing an idea I had while getting off work. I’ll keep thinking about it.

[Honorless he/him]

It could've been that Tanavast was the previous Dawnshard, and with his passing & subsequent merging of his Cognitive Shadow with the Stormfather, Dalinar inherited the Dawnshard via his Bond.

Dalinar doesn't need to be more powerful than Ishar as a bearer of a Dawnshard, because Rysn isn't either. Apparently she couldn't use the Dawnshard (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/444/#e14333)

[Frustration he/him]

2 minutes ago, Honorless said:

It could've been that Tanavast was the previous Dawnshard, and with his passing & subsequent merging of his Cognitive Shadow with the Stormfather, Dalinar inherited the Dawnshard via his Bond.

Dalinar doesn't need to be more powerful than Ishar as a bearer of a Dawnshard, because Rysn isn't either. Apparently she couldn't use the Dawnshard (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/444/#e14333)

Rysn doesn't have access to an invested art.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

5 hours ago, Honorless said:

It could've been that Tanavast was the previous Dawnshard, and with his passing & subsequent merging of his Cognitive Shadow with the Stormfather, Dalinar inherited the Dawnshard via his Bond.

Feels weird for him to say people don't have access to the Dawnshards, if so.

[Honorless he/him]

12 hours ago, Frustration said:

Rysn doesn't have access to an invested art.

There was something about Nikli not wanting her to Bond a spren, wonder what that was about

6 hours ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Feels weird for him to say people don't have access to the Dawnshards, if so.

Maybe it's inactive somehow, maybe it got damaged? Hence Odium saying "we killed you". I'm still more for Unity is Dalinar's interpretation of Honor's Intent but I'm open to this idea.

[ElMonoEstupendo]

Dawnshards are the primordial Commands Adonalsium used to create all things. "Unity" isn't a command - Dalinar's line can't be referring to that, although the instructions he gets to UNITE THEM could count. He could be talking about a new Shard's name, though, in a similar way to Harmony, but it's difficult to see where or how that would have happened right then and there.

More likely he was talking about being the unison of some or all of these things:

1. The Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms. That unison is what a Perpendicularity is, which he then opened for the first time.
2. The fragmented aspects of Honor - the different, dispersed powers and responsibilities the Almighty once held, which he is now in possession of.
3. The hearts and souls of men - his quest the whole book has been to unify the nations.
4. The conflicting aspects of himself, flung into contrast by the reveal just beforehand.

Odium's "We killed you!" line seems far more likely to indicate that he thinks he's seeing Honor reborn. The more interesting part of that is "We"...

Vessels might have some degree of sway over what their actual Shard name is - for example, by WoB we know that Harmony could just as easily have been Discord depending on how Sazed handled it. Honor is the Shard associated with bonds and rules and oaths - "Unity" could be Dalinar's interpretation of that, meaning he really is in the process of Ascending.

 

[Leuthie]

On 4/17/2021 at 2:49 PM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Feels weird for him to say people don't have access to the Dawnshards, if so.

The "recordings" Dalinar was experiencing were recorded around the time of the Recreance and/or just after. It's quite possible that the Change Dawnshard came to Roshar after the recordings were made. The timeline slips my mind, but I believe the Scouring of Aimia was after the Recreance, and I'm almost certain the Scouring was directly related to the Dawnshard's arrival. What I'm saying is that it's possible that there was no Dawnshard available at that time.

It could also be that Honor or another made the Dawnshard unavailable through some deal that Honor and his forces are bound to. If Honor's forces used a Dawnshard in their fight previously (and there's evidence that they have), then the Sleepless would really want to make sure that didn't happen again.

In any case, Dawnshards definitely won't be part of Book 5, and I doubt they'll be part of the back 5. Brandon is teasing them in a bit, but won't really be bringing them out until he can detail them in Dragonsteel. I think he's said specifically that he doesn't want to tie his hands for that story by creating unnecessary canon regarding Dawnshards.