Difference between revisions of "Dalinar Kholin"

 

In his youth, Dalinar had feelings for [[Navani]], but he realized that Gavilar was also interested in her. For Gavilar's sake, he steps aside. Later, Navani admitted to having an interest in Dalinar during this time, but since Gavilar was the one who chased her, she chose to accept his proposal.

 

==== Unifying Alethkar ====

{{quote

|We looked at this place here, this kingdom, and we realized, 'Hey, all these people have stuff .' And we figured ... hey, maybe we should have that stuff. So we took it.

 

The Kholins started by conquering their neighbors by force. From the beginning, Dalinar was an unstoppable terror on the battlefield. In some part due to his close connection with the [[Thrill]] and Dalinar's own callous bloodlust, he quickly created a reputation for being able to win any engagement. Dalinar by himself could clear a battlefield of opponents, losing himself in the ease of killing.

 

In the early days of the unification war, Dalinar hand-picked his own elite force of soldiers, sometimes even selecting enemy combatants and winning them over. One notable encounter of this was when fighting Brightlord Yezriar, an enemy soldier shot Dalinar with massive black arrows. The wounds were very serious, but Dalinar was so impressed at the distance the archer shot from that he chased him down. This archer was [[Teleb]], and Dalinar recruited him on the spot. Those black arrows with which Teleb shot Dalinar mark the incident that gave Dalinar his famous moniker of The Blackthorn.{{book ref|sa3|3}}

 

Over the next year, Dalinar won his own Shards. His Plate he won in combat that involved kicking a man off of a cliff. The Plate was still new to him when the war took them to [[Rathalas]], otherwise known as the Rift, where Brightlord Tanalan ruled. Dalinar knew that Tanalan had a Shardblade, and in the ensuing battle, he went straight to Tanalan to kill him and win the Blade. He defeated Tanalan but Tanalan's body was taken away by his men before the Shard appeared. Dalinar tracked down the place where Tanalan was taken and found Tanalan's widow, and Tanalan's young son holding the Shardblade. Dalinar took the Blade but couldn’t find it within himself to kill Tanalan's family. After the battle, Gavilar told Dalinar that the Blade he won was [[Oathbringer_(Shardblade)|Oathbringer]], the sword that belonged to the legendary Alethi conqueror, [[Sadees]] the Sunmaker.{{book ref|sa3|11}}

 

A year later, the war had started to slow down and the Kholins were looking for allies. They turned to [[Rira (country)|Rira]] and [[Iri]]. They negotiated with [[Toh]] and [[Evi]], a Westerner Brightlord and his sister. During one of their initial meetings, Dalinar impressed them by walking about in a highstorm and stopping an assassin from killing Gavilar in a notably casual manner.{{book ref|sa3|19}}

 

Two years after that, the war was still on going. Dalinar and Evi were betrothed, not yet married. Dalinar led the attack against Highprince [[Kalanor]], intent on winning the Shards that Kalanor held. While in the battle, Dalinar got so caught up in the Thrill that he didn't realize he killed Kholin men during the assault. Dalinar killed Kalanor in single combat, winning his Shards, but the Thrill was so strong in him that when Gavilar approached him afterwards, Dalinar went after his own brother with the intent to kill him. Only when Gavilar took off his helm and smiled at him did Dalinar snap out of it. Deeply ashamed of himself, Dalinar gifted Gavilar the Shards he had just won, swearing to himself that he must never be king.{{book ref|sa3|26}}

 

==== Married Life ====

|side=right|size=350px

}}

 

Gavilar was present at Adolin's birth, but brought Dalinar some bad news. He'd been unable to contain the situation at Rathalas. He'd decided not to send Dalinar to fight there, however, opting to send him instead to fight the Herdazians and Vedens on Alethkar's border as a gesture of Kholin strength.{{book ref|sa3|49}} Dalinar fought on the border against the Herdazians for four years, ensuring the security of Alethkar's border and gaining leadership experience and capability to match his personal prowess in combat, becoming known as his brother's best general. Unfortunately, for all that time, the princedom of Rathalas still refused to submit. Evi brought Adolin and their second son, [[Renarin]], to the battlefront. It was the first time Dalinar met Renarin, and he wasn't pleased to learn the meaning of Renarin's chosen name: "Like one who was born unto himself." Evi reminded Dalinar that he didn't answer many of her [[spanreed]] messages and he could have had input into Renarin's name if he'd wanted to. It bothered Dalinar that even so long after battle, even while interacting with his family, that the Thrill takes so long to fade.{{book ref|sa3|52}}