Spoiler - which herald died the same night as Gavilar

[Odontosaur Spren]

In the prologue to book 5 where we see events surrounding Gavilars death from his own viewpoint, the Stormfather cries out 

«A Herald… A Herald has died… No. I am not ready… The Oathpact… No. They mustn’t see. They mustn’t know…»

which herald is this? The only herald we know to be dead is Jez isn’t it? We know it isn’t Shalash (probably the one the other heralds refer to when saying «we saw her handywork» in the study with Gavilar). Many of the others are known to be alive in book 4; so who died during the assasination?

Does anybody know or have any thoughts?

[Quantus Knight Radiant]

As far as I know the current leading theory is that it was Shalash Chanarach who was secretly Shallan's mother.  As the theory goes, when Shallan killed her (as a child) with a surprise shardblade it was one of the few things that could kill a herald and send them back to Braize; she went back and then herself Broke (explaining how Taln didnt break per WOB).

Ive seen this one kicked around some but I dont know all the details that go into it or if the timeline fits.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Quantus
Wrong Herald

[StormingTexan Dawnsinger]

15 minutes ago, Quantus said:

As far as I know the current leading theory is that it was Shalash who was secretly Shallan's mother.  As the theory goes, when Shallan killed her (as a child) with a surprise shardblade it was one of the few things that could kill a herald and send them back to Braize; she went back and then herself Broke (explaining how Taln didnt break per WOB).

Ive seen this one kicked around some but I dont know all the details that go into it or if the timeline fits.

I think the leading theory is that it is Chanarach not Shalash. Same red hair. 

[Quantus Knight Radiant]

7 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

I think the leading theory is that it is Chanarach not Shalash. Same red hair. 

You're right, my mistake.  Fixed above.

[Erklitt Misting]

5 hours ago, Quantus said:

[...] or if the timeline fits.

According to some, the timeline fits exactly, as both events happen in the same month of the same year (no idea how they found that out).

Further evidence fitting with that theory (thanks to many other posters!)

- Chana has red hair (from official pictures as well as SA5 prologue), as had Shallan's mother 
- It would explain why the name of Shallan's mother was never mentioned; it would have given too much away
- Given various WOB's, we've seen pretty much every herald at some time or other, and Chana and Vedel are the only ones about whom we're not sure where that was. There's a theory the assassin hired by Jasnah in SA2 prologue might be Vedel (healing turned on it's head my madness)
- If Shallan knew her mother was a herald, that would explain what 'truth' could be even worse than what we already know: she didn't just kill her mother, she sent a herald to Braize who would probably break soon, starting a desolation. Quote from WoR (from memory, maybe not exact): 'The world ended, and Shallan was to blame'.