Anonymous

I've seen it posted places that Dalinar went to the Nightwatcher to ask for a boon and the result was that he was cursed to forget everything about his wife, including not hearing anything specific people say about her. If this has already been confirmed somewhere then I apologize. I'm new to the online community and don't know for certain what has and hasn't been discussed. My theory is that the empty place in his mind where his wife used to be is actually his boon, rather than his curse. We know he gets one of each, and the details of the event remain vague, along with everything related to his wife. It's possible that after his wife died he was so stricken with grief that he thought it would be better not to remember anything about her at all. In this sense, maybe the loss of memories isn't the curse, but the boon, or possibly both, as with Taravangian's variable intelligence.

As to the question of what order he belongs to, I would suggest a Windrunner. I forget the exact quote, and I loned my copy of the book in the hopes I could get someone else hooked, but I recall some of the epigraphs about the various orders mentioning relative numbers. I think Windrunners were mentioned as being one of, if not the most common. This is just wild speculation, but could it be that the proximity to Kaladin as a Radiant, following him as he pursued, to some extent, his ideals, led to them joining his Order. As one of the more combat intensive orders it would be necessary for there to be more of them, so this could be how the Windrunner ranks of old were constantly flooded despite the difficult to uphold ideals. Maybe most of Bridge 4 will become Windrunners and act as the first line of defense? Something related to this: What does the Stormfather's accepting of a Nahel Bond (if an unconventional one) mean for the honourspren. As I recall, it's been established that a large part of the reason Syl was the only honourspren to return was because the Stormfather forbade it, not wanting the spren, whom he considers his children, to be killed by the bond.

I originally thought that his killing Sadeas might have been a sign that he wouldn't end up a Radiant, thinking that it went against the First Ideal, specifically defending life. Kaladin's entire story arc centers around his struggles with this ideal, or at least one directly connected to it. What made me think this was the nature of the kill. It wasn't on the battlefield, it was a surprise attack, just barely more honest (for lack of a better word at the moment) than having him assassinated. Upon further thought, however, I realized that it could go either way. Different spren seem to have different levels of laxity in the upholding of the ideals, or at least varying ideals to uphold, with some leaving more room for interpretation than others. For instance, Pattern mentions to Shallan towards the end of the book that Lightweavers have only the First Ideal, meaning she would be less inclined to defend those she hates, to take an example from Kaladin's Ideals. In any case, I agree that what Adolin does in the aftermath of having murdered Sadeas will likely determine his candidacy for the Knights Radiant.

This has probably already been brought up and I'm just forgetting it, but do the mountain ranges spell anything out in the same script used by Navani in her notes on fabrials.