Dalinar during chasmfiend attack and other questions.

[aeshma]

Noticed this(among a few other things) during second read through. When Dalinar catches the claw he seems to glow, Adolin makes a special note of this. Later in the book we see Radiants in plate all glowing.  So Dalinar seems to have radiant powers too.  Lots of people showing signs of magic in the family.  We have Jasna soulcasting, and Elhokar seeing symbol heads.

And what to chasmfiends pupate into anyway?

[Stormblessed]

I think that Dalinar is of the first order of the Knights Radient, established by Jezrien, symbolised by the sapphire.  Basically, this order has the primary divine attribute of leadership, and the secondary deivine attribute of protecting, which both fit Dalinar perfectly.

This said, when Dalinar protects his nephew from the chasmfiend's claw, he unwittingly attracts of spren towards him that allows him to harness the stormlight. Elhokar's shardplate, already cracked from his fall becomes a good source to gain the stormlight, thus explaining the eight drained gems. He takes in the stormlight, making him stronger, and starts glowing just like Kaladin.

[guy]

personally, i think the first order of the radiants is more like Kaladin, he is more of a leader and a protecter in my opinion, besides the form the first one takes is wind, and Kaladin is a windrunner and all

[Galavantes]

It should be noted that there is no evidence that states the original radiants required stormlight to operate. Dalinar may have nothing to do with the broken gems

[Stormblessed]

personally, i think the first order of the radiants is more like Kaladin, he is more of a leader and a protecter in my opinion, besides the form the first one takes is wind, and Kaladin is a windrunner and all

Yet most of his chapters are mainly accompanied with the picture of Taln, which is the order of Tanat - dependable and resourceful which does describe Kaladin in some way. Dalinar's chapters however is accompanied with the picture of Jezrien, which is the first order Jes - leading and protecting. This of course is not a strong link, but it is one to consider.

It should be noted that there is no evidence that states the original radiants required stormlight to operate. Dalinar may have nothing to do with the broken gems

I think its a good assumption to make that the old knights radients used stormlight. The whole magic system is based on stormlight, and Brandon is pretty strict with following his own rules. The knights also tend to glow like Kaladin did when he absorbed the stormlight at the end.

[Galavantes]

The knights also tend to glow like Kaladin did when he absorbed the stormlight at the end.

Careful there, it says their plate glows, not them. I'm not saying they didn't use stormlight, because they probably did. I'm just saying we've never seen anything that specifically proves that. We still don't know for sure why they were able to use their powers in plate when Szeth cannot, so clearly there is SOME difference there.

And yes there is certainly a reason why Elhokar's plate has an inordinate amount of broken gems, but his plate wasn't that seriously damaged so I don't think Dalinar was pulling from those gems. It seems to me that he would pull from the gems inside his -own- plate first, since they are closer to him. -Something- broke Elhokar's gems, I just don't think it was Dalinar.

We also don't know for sure that the system runs on stormlight. It could be more intricate than that. It's possible that the Spren require stormlight for some reason in order to provide the abilities to a person. But it's entirely possible that this wasn't always the case....off the top of my head I would say perhaps when the almighty was around he was providing the power directly to Spren to act as vessels for who ever they were bonded to, but when the almighty died (and his shard possibly splintered) the spren no longer had direct access to his power. So now they require "batteries" in the form of gems infused with stormlight in order to provide those benefits.

Sorry long winded, but my point is that there are other things that could be going on here, that's just one example of what it might be.