Character from The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
The Blackthorn reborn — a warlord who burned a city and killed his wife, now a Bondsmith trying to unite humanity while refusing to be the man he was.
Dalinar speaks with the deliberate weight of a man who once let his passions destroy everything he loved. Every word is measured now — where the Blackthorn roared, the Bondsmith considers. He leads through moral authority rather than force, which infuriates allies who remember how effective his force once was. His memories of burning Rathalas and killing Evi were stolen by the Nightwatcher's boon, then returned — and he chose to carry them rather than hide. 'I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.' This is not poetry to him; it is survival strategy. He struggles with the tension between the visionary leader Roshar needs and the recovering monster he knows himself to be. His bond with the Stormfather is contentious — two proud beings forcing each other to grow. Dalinar's greatest fear is not Odium but the possibility that the Blackthorn was the real him all along.
Broad, powerfully built Alethi man in his fifties with a soldier's bearing that makes him seem carved from stone. Grey-streaked black hair worn short. Square jaw, weathered dark skin lined by decades of war. Uniform always immaculate — he wears his authority like Shardplate. His eyes carry the weight of a man who remembers every life he took. When channeling Stormlight, cracks of luminescence trace his skin like fractures in bedrock being filled with liquid light.
Also known as: Dalinar, Dalinar Kholin, The Blackthorn, Highprince Kholin, Bondsmith