Moogle Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 (edited) Here's the tally of people with super light eyes (or eyes that are even lighter than the typical light eyes): Kaladin, who has 'pale blue eyes' now. Baxil's mistress (Shalash) who has eyes "so faintly violet they were almost white". Radiants that Dalinar sees in the past. WHY? Taln doesn't have these light eyes, but Shalash does? Nalan does not. Shallan has a Shardblade, but doesn't have the eyes, while Kaladin does? It seems that your eyes change color to the gem associated with your order. Stonewards have topaz eyes, Windrunners get sapphire eyes. So why does Shalash have violet eyes? The Lightweavers have garnet (which is reddish) as a gem. My original theory was that Stormlight savants got the eyes, but that theory has been soundly debunked by Kaladin, and I'm pretty confident that Stormlight savants end up like the Soulcaster ardents now. I wanted to make a theory about all of this, but then I found I couldn't. So... help? Anyone have ideas on why the Heralds don't have colored eyes (except for Shalash)? Why doesn't Shallan? Does it have to do with Kaladin speaking the Third Ideal while Shallan has only spoken her second? How would this apply to the Heralds? I'm extremely confused. Edited March 5, 2014 by Moogle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlehrma Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 Shallan's order does not have a final ideal at can be expressed in words. For her to become a full KR she has to embrace the truth she has buried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marianmi Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 The Heralds might not be from Roshar. Shalash might have violet eyes because she always had violet eyes, and be the only one on the planet like that (since she;s not actually from Roshar). Taln might have dark eyes because the he always had dark eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 In my re-read, I've been on the lookout for violet as a sign of Odium. I was wondering if we had any clues that Venli was his and sure enough, on page 168 of the hardback regarding Venli's eyes, "In the right light, they had a violet cast." In Roshar, violet is in general a sign of Odium's influence. By carryover if his moon Salas is mentioned, the violet one, likely in that scene you will see his influence. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numb Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 Kaladin's eyes only changed when he went full badass mode. We haven't really seen Shallan use anywhere near as much stormlight as Kaladin has so maybe it's just about saying the words along with excess stormlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleksiel Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 I think the Heralds are an exception; they are not children of Honor and likely predate humans on Roshar. Jasnah's eyes are violet which isn't the color of Elsecallers, so Kal looks like the exception here. In WoK: he was darkeyed, of course—perhaps a deep dark green, though with darkeyes it was hard to tell. They all looked brown or black unless you caught them in the right light. My theory is Kaladin's eyes were dark blue and paled with his advanced use of stormlight. Shallan and Jasnah already had lighteyes, so nothing changed. Whatever causes darkeyes to have such blackish-brown eyes gets 'cured' with the right amount of stormlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 I assume that Shallash left her Honorblade in the prelude to tWoK, but picked up a Radiantblade along the way somewhere. I do wonder whether she would experience the screaming. I assume that when a Radiant dies without violating their oaths, the spren is not killed. Could she have bonded a spren of Kak's order? Amethyst, per Wikipedia, is a purple variety of quartz, with a violet color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan Posted March 12, 2014 Report Share Posted March 12, 2014 I assume that Shallash left her Honorblade in the prelude to tWoK, but picked up a Radiantblade along the way somewhere. I do wonder whether she would experience the screaming. I assume that when a Radiant dies without violating their oaths, the spren is not killed. Could she have bonded a spren of Kak's order? Amethyst, per Wikipedia, is a purple variety of quartz, with a violet color. I think from the line about acquiring a Blade, we can assume Shallash doesn't have a Blade at all. As for the super light eyes, I equate it to an effect of massive Investiture. I can't help but wonder if some of the Stormlight is absorbed into a Radiant's sDNA over time, leading to the lighter and lighter eyes. It may not have occurred with Jasnah because her main ability she uses is Soulcasting, which gives away the Stormlight. Kaladin, however, primarily used Stormlight to enhance himself and was holing on to a LOT of it most of the time. Shallan has just started the Stormlight habit. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 I think from the line about acquiring a Blade, we can assume Shallash doesn't have a Blade at all. As for the super light eyes, I equate it to an effect of massive Investiture. I can't help but wonder if some of the Stormlight is absorbed into a Radiant's sDNA over time, leading to the lighter and lighter eyes. It may not have occurred with Jasnah because her main ability she uses is Soulcasting, which gives away the Stormlight. Kaladin, however, primarily used Stormlight to enhance himself and was holing on to a LOT of it most of the time. Shallan has just started the Stormlight habit. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. I don't see that assumption as justified. When your associates are thieves, you really don't want them knowing that you have a Shardblade. Even if they are not a threat, it's a pain to have to keep replacing them. In addition, you don't know who they might tell. It's just the sort of true lie that Pattern would appreciate. She could also have had a Shardblade sometime over the last 4500 years and then given it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seloun Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 I figured that it was due to the Heralds all having their natural eye color. However, Taln hasn't invested Stormlight since he returned, has he? Might explain why his eyes are dark. Shardblades burn out the eyes - maybe lightening of the eye is a related phenomenon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exitao Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 To properly Compare Kaladin's stormlight usage to Shallan's, you have to take into account that Kaladin has ridden a highstorm and filled and depleted himself completely during this. It took Moash a week to bond his shards, and change his eyes... While Radiants don't have to, I suppose you could equate the bonding as similar to using stormlight. Maybe. Light eye colour is really just caused by having less melanin in the eyes. Grey and blue eyes are primarily caused by lower melanin in the iris, while green, hazel, and violet eyes have an extra pigmentation in the stroma (an upper layer of the iris). Why stormlight would bleach one's eyes is a question only Brandon could answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 A side note, but I really do think Brandon uses violet as a cluebat to suggest the influence of Odium or trouble brewing. Jasnah is of course a hero and a favorite character, but she can be ruthless, having no problem with assassination if she sees it is needed. if she found the evidence that Mr. T mentions in his coded message that was just cracked, she might be the one that will fulfill his prediction of "One will betray the others," if she believes it is the logical thing to do. Eye color is such a theme in the books, that I don't think anyone's eye color is completely random. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanderton Posted March 13, 2014 Report Share Posted March 13, 2014 Aren't Kaladin's eyes a light blue because he's holding Jez's honour blade at the end? In the prologue of WoK, it's implied that holding this blade turns the holder's eyes blue. I might have missed something though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchSpren2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 Here's what I think: I don't think honorblades will actually chages the wielder's eye color. Firstly, because it's not a shardblade, I mean, you don't have to bond a spren to aquire surgebinding powers. The honorblade itself bestows that. That's why Taln's eye did not change and if I remember it correctly so does Szeth on the Way of Kings prologue. Let me just double check that... Ok, I can't find the exact quotes, but I'm sure I've read that in the first book. If someone found that quote about Szeth's eyes only changing color when using surgebinding, please let me know About Shallash, I would think her eyes were naturally violet, so even if she wields an honorblade or a shardblade it will not really change her eye color, just like a natural lighteyes won't change eye color when he obtains a shardblade. And also, about the theory that KRs change eye colors according to the gemstones of their order,I don't think this will affect her as she is not a KR, as a matter of fact, I don't think that's the case at all. Imagine Shallan getting a red eyes just because her gemstone is garnet... scary... About Shallan not going "super lighteyes" mode, I would think it's because she's not yet a full Radiant? Maybe this has something to do on your progress as a KR... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylveris Posted March 16, 2014 Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 I might be wrong... but isn't it stated in WoK by Dalinar that Navani has violet eyes? and I really don't think that mark her as someone influenced by Odium... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AerionBFII Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 The Heralds were around before this Lighteye prejudice came to be, or it could be Taln will slowly regain his eyes once he becomes more accustomed to being outside 'Damnation' again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seloun Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 I might be wrong... but isn't it stated in WoK by Dalinar that Navani has violet eyes? and I really don't think that mark her as someone influenced by Odium... Personally I have a (probably irrational) suspicion about Navani: - She has a fascination with fabrials - She's anti-KR (until at least the end of WoR) - She's the only one who has full access to Dalinar's visions. Everyone else who hears about them can't write, and we know she modifies the visions at least to some extent (to remove the parts about Tanavast being dead, for example) - Her relationship with Dalinar is almost certainly assisted by Dalinar losing memory of his wife. Dalinar's loss of memory is probably not a throwaway detail, and currently this is probably the biggest impact his loss of memory has had I realize we've seen her PoV couple of times, making this pretty unlikely (if she's a villainous mastermind, it's clearly only part-time) but she does feel very off for some reason to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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