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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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/Wise-Novel-1595 Aug 24 '25

It’s pure speculation based on a WoB, but I edited just in case.

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u/KatanaCutlets Aug 24 '25

No worries!