narkis

I haven't seen any theories about The Rift/Rathalas yet, so I'll just throw mine out there: Based on the map of Roshar, Rathalas is in ambiguous territory. It could be part of The Eastern Crownlands, or Thanadal's Princedom, OR the Kholin princedom. My theory is based on viewing it as part of Princedom Kholin. If it is the latter, it wouldn't make sense, in terms of Gavilar's war of unification, to have a battle there--it's already part of his princedom. But consider this WOB (copied and pasted from another thread): Brandon: "Gavilar was 4th dahn before becoming highprince, for example. His branch of the Kholin family wasn't considered a prime contender for the highprince throne--until he took it for himself." Question: "His branch of the Kholin family? Does this imply there are other branches of the Kholin family? Meaning, there are other Kholins elsewhere?" Brandon: "Well, not as many as there once were..." I was trying to come up with something that was so terrible that it effected Kadash, a seemingly hardened and tough warrior, so strongly. Maybe Rathalas was where Gavilar and Co. wiped out the other Kholin branches.

He's been king of Alethkar, certainly, but I still think his current goal of uniting the entirety of Roshar represents a profound shift. The reason I find this goal weird is because it doesn't seem to corroborate with history, as evidenced by Dalinar's own visions. IIRC, when Dalinar meets a KR in one of his visions and asks her which kingdom she fights for, she makes it clear that the KR are autonomous and fight for all kingdoms. So it seems that in the past, Desolations didn't unite Roshar. So why would Dalinar now conclude that this is what he must do?

Yes! I'm a longtime lurker on this site and made an account just to ask this question because it was bugging me so much. Beyond the sub-par (and exposition-heavy) writing, what really struck me was how out of character Dalinar seemed. We've spent two entire books with a character whose primary personality trait was reservedness and restraint due to his deeply rooted desire for power and his attempt to not give in to these instincts. Suddenly he's not only confident in his ability to become a leader/ruler, but views as his main goal the unification of Roshar, presumably with him as the de facto leader? I get the fact that the battle changed a lot and the stakes are now raised, but it's been a mere few days. I would have, at the very least, expected to see some sort of inner conflict over his choices. A part of me feels like it's deliberate, though, and that bonding the Stormfather somehow changed Dalinar.