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Theory: Shallan's father never had a soulcaster, he used Shallan instead


LordFlea

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Lin never displayed any features of a soulcasting savant. I think it's worth noting how much he may have soulcast if enticed by debt collectors and the restoration of his house.

Shallan displays difficulty soulcasting as evidenced in RoW. I think it relates to a mental block with her final truth, perhaps partially because of Testament's bond as well.

Something else of note is how protective Lin was of Shallan, maybe just not because she was his only daughter, and a shardbearer. I think it was also because she was the literal salvation of his house.

The obvious hole in the theory is the Ghostbloods and the broken soulcaster. Owing to shallans unreliable narration a d tge nature of her story, it wouldnt surprise me if the Ghostbloods were involved with her family much earlier. Maybe they new of Shallan in her childhood and were pressuring Lin to eventually give her to them. (That's a wildcard theory).

This could tie in with the Shallan's Mother is Chanarach theory as well.

 

Lemme know what you think

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Ghostbloods couldn't have known about Shallan otherwise Veil would have been found out instantly, or the Ghostbloods wouldn't have put so much pressure on her brothers.

 And as Lin has to have an actual one, and on top of that Mraise keeps speaking of a debt the loss of the Soulcaster puts her under.

Edited by Frustration
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Lin didn't use the Soulcaster himself, he had that Ghostblood agent on staff that was supposedly responsible for it, I think his name was Luesh. And I think people that exhibit the savantism effects are people that have been Soulcasting constantly for years to facilitate societal needs like food and housing. Lin was having deposits made at a rate that wouldn't look suspicious but was enough to get him funds to play whatever political games he was playing. Luesh had only been with the Davars for a year or so, likely not enough time to become a Soulcaster savant. It's still possible you're correct here, but savantism doesn't really figure into this

Edit: Forgot to mention, there is something else suspicious about Luesh. First, he didn't have the Ghostblood tattoo, he just had a pendent, meaning he wasn't a full Ghostblood. Second, why would the Ghostbloods kill him if he was one of their agents or at least working for them? And then come back later asking for the Soulcaster? They wouldn't have killed Luesh without interrogating him, so if they had done that they would have known it was both broken and Shallan had taken it with her. So, if someone wanted to misdirect the remaining Davars(and us the readers) into thinking he was a Ghostblood, they could have planted the pendent after they killed him. Meaning he could have been a double agent from one of the other clandestine secret societies on Roshar. Even if not, something doesn't add up there, although after RoW the Ghostbloods don't seem as competent as we were lead to believe early on. 

 

Edited by Harrycrapper
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It makes sense, but I don't think it's what happened. Combined with the abuse of his children, involvement with a dodgy organisation in the Ghostbloods and attempts to gain favour through his wealth (not to mention the actual Soulcaster, assuming it's not another fake like Jasnah's) I don't see why he wouldn't just get someone else to do it for him. He's clearly not all that interested in the welfare of people not named Shallan and is willing to use somewhat underhanded means to get what he wants, so I can definitely imagine that he would force someone to soulcast to the point that they suffer savanthood symptoms (assuming that they are doing it enough to reach that point).

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