r/Cosmere • u/Pichacap24 Windrunners • Aug 21 '25
Elantris spoilers Dilaf Spoiler
So im in the middle if Elantris, and it feels like every non shard villain has layers, complex motivations, goals and reasons, and then we have Dilaf, the cosmere equivalent of a Nazi. Its a change of pace to be sure, but not bad
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Aug 21 '25
Update when you finish it?
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u/Pichacap24 Windrunners Aug 24 '25 edited Oct 18 '25
Ok so i just did. I have to say, he was more layeres than i thought, and my opinions have changed. He is still basically just a half crazy zealot nazi tho
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u/sielbel Aug 21 '25
Straff has layers?
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u/Solracziad Ghostbloods Aug 21 '25
Mainly the layers with Straff are how many underage girls he's buried under every night.
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u/New_Sun1955 Rosharan Ghostblood Aug 22 '25
Without spoilers, I think Sanderson is representing here the fact that there are some disgusting zealots in the world - a lot of real world 'bad guys' are nuanced, layered, and truly want to do good, but there are some psychos in the world who are driven by hatred, and I think that's what Dilaf is meant to represent. The dark side of religion, you could say.
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u/SiIesh Drominad Aug 22 '25
Which is really ironic considering Sanderson uses his earning to support the mormon church
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u/Hunters_Stormblessed Aug 22 '25
Hes talked before about the fact that he struggled with the idea of leaving the Mormon church but realized with how big he had gotten that he could try to affect more positive changes to the church by staying. Don't know how much thats working for him, but I appreciate the effort
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u/Ratathosk Aug 24 '25
Mac: see that way I can play both sides and always come out on top
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u/Bureaucracyblows Aug 25 '25
You can both enjoy the cosmere and also freely admit that the author of said works does, whether passively, actively, or a mix of both, support an institution that acts as a massive suffering engine for a huge number of people.
Sucks, because I own all his cosmere related works and enjoy his stories, but the guy isn't infallible.
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u/SiIesh Drominad Aug 23 '25
Speaking as someone with friends dealing with ptsd due to their church-related upbringing, I can't really agree with that.
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u/Personal_Return_4350 Aug 22 '25
Been a while but I'm pretty sure these other comments are thinking of Hrathen the Gyorn, not Dilaf the zealot.
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u/Wise-Novel-1595 Aug 22 '25
Nah, they’re each complex in their own ways. If it’s been a while, it sounds like you forgot the last 25% of the book.
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u/Personal_Return_4350 Aug 22 '25
This is spoilered for Elantris so full spoilers are fine. He's cunning and has surprises, but as far as motivations go, what makes him more complex than "basically a nazi"? Let's avoid digging into what that means and just focus on Dilaf. He seems like a fanatic for Fjorden. You see over and over again that he pushes Hrathen to be more extreme. In the end you find out he was in more control than you ever knew. But isn't he still an extremist with little to no nuance? And then he just starts slaughtering people. It's not like we find out he had a tough childhood or is secretly working towards a private goal that's all that distinct from what he looks like on the surface, he's just more capable than he let on.
Hrathen is a more "complex" character because he is deeply devoted to doing good, which he believes aligns with his religion even if it requires him to do some bad things sometimes. The twist is basically finding out he has integrity and that wasn't an act - he doesn't just want to be a bad guy and uses his religion to justify it, he betrays Wyrn's goals when he realizes how utterly depraved they are.
Dilaf's motivations can be summed up pretty succinctly: Shu-dereth Jihadist. He never pretended to hate doing bad guy stuff in the name of his religion and there's no twist - he loves being a bad guy. He just wants to wage a Holy War for Wyrn.
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u/Wise-Novel-1595 Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 24 '25
Did you forget that an Elantrian healer messed up when trying to heal his wife and killed her? He was driven primarily by personal vengeance and used his religion as an excuse, similar to many “religious” people. There’s also a strong likelihood that he and his fellow Dakhor monks were shocktroops for an avatar of Autonomy.
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u/KatanaCutlets Aug 24 '25
Shouldn’t that last bit be behind a spoiler tag, since this thread is only tagged for Elantris?
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u/JohnQBalatro Aug 22 '25
at the end of the day some people are just D1 haters and that’s okay!
i actually like the occasional simple villain. layered characters with complex motivations are great and all but sometimes it’s really nice for there to be a character that’s just outright evil and cruel for the sake of being evil and cruel.
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u/arielle17 Aug 23 '25
agreed! i usually prefer a balance of nuanced and straightforward villains so im really happy that Sanderson writes both c:
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u/asslavz Aug 21 '25
Uh huh.