29 replies to this topic

[Dryone]

It's Shalash, one of the heralds. She's destroying all pictures and statues of herself, that's why her statue is missing in the prologue. Apparently she's revered as "Lady of Dreams" by the Emul.

It also explains why Baxis can't decide her race.

Thought's?

[Munin]

Do we know that Shalash is female?

[Dryone]

Not for sure, but it sounds like a female name to me (cf. Shallan, Hashal)

We do know there were female heralds, though.

[Munin]

Not for sure, but it sounds like a female name to me (cf. Shallan, Hashal)

We do know there were female heralds, though.

We do?

[mycoltbug]

Nothing I've read or heard has proven that there are female Heralds.  We do know that there are female Radiants though from Dalinar.  Are you sure Dryone you aren't confusing the Radiants with Heralds?

[Dryone]

You are right, I can't find any mention of female heralds. At least two of the heralds faces in the chapter headings look feminine, though (at least to me. But I also thought that the picture of Nalan'Elin depicted a woman).

OTOH it nowhere explicitly says that all heralds were men, either. So I stand by my theory! 

[neverearth]

You are right, I can't find any mention of female heralds. At least two of the heralds faces in the chapter headings look feminine, though (at least to me. But I also thought that the picture of Nalan'Elin depicted a woman).

OTOH it nowhere explicitly says that all heralds were men, either. So I stand by my theory! 

Five of the chapter faces are female. Six are male, and one only appears when Hoid/Wit is in the chapter. So assuming the other ten are the Herald's faces (which I think is pretty solid; you can see my thoughts about it here), that would mean there are five female Heralds. All five male Heralds are named (Jezrien, Nalan, Kalak, Talenel, Ishar), so it's a pretty safe bet that Shalash is female.

And I really like the idea that Shalash might be the woman destroying the artwork. When I read that chapter, I thought it was just there to give a solid explanation of the Old Magic, but I was utterly bewildered by Baxis' mistress. This theory is as good as any, though I would like to point out that Shalash=Shash (theoretically) and the Primary Attribute of Shash is creativity. Kinda odd that she'd be destroying art, which could be considered the height of creativity.

[Erik Holmes]

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but his Mistress had the same type of eyes as the Knights Radiant.

If you look at the various times we see a Knight Radiant, they all have "almost white" or "nearly white" eyes. She is the only person we see in the book who'd not a Radiant that has the eyes.

Which makes me think that the idea that she's one of the Heralds is a pretty good one.

[Munin]

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but his Mistress had the same type of eyes as the Knights Radiant.

If you look at the various times we see a Knight Radiant, they all have "almost white" or "nearly white" eyes. She is the only person we see in the book who'd not a Radiant that has the eyes.

Which makes me think that the idea that she's one of the Heralds is a pretty good one.

Except that Talenel has dark eyes.

[Andrew the Great]

That being said, this is a truly awesome theory. Now that we've gotten past the Dula drama, we should start pestering Brandon with questions about whether we've seen heralds other than Taln in Way of Kings (not counting the prelude) and then try to work it down from there.

[Erik Holmes]

Except that Talenel has dark eyes.

After looking at this I noticed that none of the Heralds we meet use Shardplate. Its the Shardplate that seems to give them their almost white eyes. I'm assuming its because Radiant shardplate is more powerful than the plate we see in WoK's.

So either the Mistress used to be a Knight Radiant or if she was a Herald she used shardplate.

I still think the idea of her being a Herald is a good one. I'm betting that shardplate just gets in some of the Heralds way, depending on their powers.

[Munin]

Yeah, I agree it's possible she's a herald.

Hoid makes it pretty clear there's some significance to eye color in the last chapter, but I think we're just gonna have to wait and find out what that's about.

[Timemaster11]

See  "Herald Chapter Pictures--Identities *spoilers*" topic for additional evidence for Baxil's mistress being Shalash.

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

Page 285 of WoK.

He began walking, leading Adolin around the back rim of the temple chamber. They passed statues of the Heralds, five male, five female. In truth, Adolin knew very little of what Kadash was saying. He’d never had much of a mind for history that didn’t relate directly to the command of armies.

(I stole this from the other thread, but whatever)

I think the fact that she was destroying art makes it even more likely to be Shalash.  If she's turned her back on being a Herald and everything tied with it, she might resist the traits that are associated with her and that time.  Thus, the destroying of art.  Such a dramatic thing would probably be exactly the kind of thing a Herald would do.

[Andrew the Great]

Also, it could be that she's ashamed of what she did on some level, and actually wants to eliminate herself from history as ever having existed. She's trying to make it appear that there were only ever nine heralds. Granted, that seems like it'd be near impossible to do, and you would think that with Vorinism as widespread as it is it actually would be impossible, but it sounded like decent motivation to me. I doubt that she'd actually care enough about making the point that she's turned her back on being a herald  to do something as pointless as going around destroying art, especially 4500 years after turning her back on being a herald.

It could also be possible that she's trying to avoid being recognized, though since no one actually recognizes her, that doesn't seem like a good possibility.

[Erik Holmes]

This is just a guess, but I'm thinking that she hates the fact that people worship her. From the prelude its obvious that the heralds don't see themselves as such, so she probably just wants to do what she can to stop it.

[happyman]

Either that, or she's just a little bit nuts after all this time.

BTW, I agree with the identification of Baxil's mistress.  It took the inexplicable, and made it make at least a little more sense.

[Andrew the Great]

That, and Brandon refused to answer any of my questions about her, which in general means that it's something you should be paying attention to, or that at least has potential to be important.

[Ipood]

I'm sorry to be a bother, but my copy will not be returned to me until Thursday, and I cannot for the life of me remember who Baxil was? Could anybody please tell me? It did'nt say anything in the wiki.

[neverearth]

I'm sorry to be a bother, but my copy will not be returned to me until Thursday, and I cannot for the life of me remember who Baxil was? Could anybody please tell me? It did'nt say anything in the wiki.

Baxil is from the Interludes. He's the hired bodyguard/helper of a woman who breaks into places to destroy art.