Elder Posted January 7, 2023 Posted January 7, 2023 Been listening my way through Stormlight, and I think I might have found a couple ideas that might indicate Shallan’s character arc moving forward. The basic premise: Shallan’s difficulty with Transformation/Soulcasting may be rooted in the same place as her excellence at Illumination/Lighteeaving, and her extra personae. She can’t face certain memories, certain truths. As such, she cannot change (or Transform). Changing requires acknowledging what something is. Can’t do that by living in what something (or what someone, particularly one’s self) isn’t. When she speaks the Truth she’s hiding from, that may be the breakthrough that helps her get better at soulcasting. Speaking of which, which ideal/truth is Shallan’s on anyway? I’m having trouble keeping track. I mean if I had to guess, she’s working on #4, since she has yet to manifest armor. That might also be the point where she reintegrates Radiant, and stands ready to fight. Not sure how Testament will fit in to the picture. 1
alder24 Posted January 7, 2023 Posted January 7, 2023 I think Brandon didn't confirmed if she'd spoken 4th one or not. So it's somewhere between. Spoiler enceladus_47 Does Shallan's "I killed my spren" count as a truth? Brandon Sanderson I'm gonna leave up to theorizing, figuring out the timeline that's going on with Shallan. What we can say is that Shallan is reconstructing, in many cases, oaths she has said before. And it is working slightly differently than someone who is saying new oaths. And indeed, saying she killed her spren is one of those steps. I'll leave it to you to try and parse through that. It's actually pretty complicated. We have a nice big page explaining all of this stuff internally, to make sure that we're keeping it all straight. Because she has violated oaths and reconstructed them, is basically what's happening. And she is regressing, and she's doing a... 1.1 steps forward, 1 step back, sort of thing, kind of frequently. YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020) Also I don't remember but some people claimed that Shallan can soulcast at the end of RoW normally. I can't check this unfortunately. Testament is seperate bond, so it progress differently than Patern's. I personally think she'd already spoken at least 3rd or even 4th with Testament as a kid - which I'm judging on sentences spoken by Shallan when she broke her bond with Testament. I believe words are important when breaking the bond. There were 6 short sentences, 3 would be use to negate 1st ideal(Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.), and then one sentence for each Truth higher. Also I wonder how much was she involved with Ghostbloods during her childhood - they suggest to know a lot about her childhood, she used Seon as a kid. What I believe will be her final Truth is (possible minor SA5 prolog spoilers later in discussion - it's in "Cosmere discussion" forum, but main post is cleared of spoilers I think):
Elder Posted January 7, 2023 Author Posted January 7, 2023 5 hours ago, alder24 said: I think Brandon didn't confirmed if she'd spoken 4th one or not. So it's somewhere between. Hide contents enceladus_47 Does Shallan's "I killed my spren" count as a truth? Brandon Sanderson I'm gonna leave up to theorizing, figuring out the timeline that's going on with Shallan. What we can say is that Shallan is reconstructing, in many cases, oaths she has said before. And it is working slightly differently than someone who is saying new oaths. And indeed, saying she killed her spren is one of those steps. I'll leave it to you to try and parse through that. It's actually pretty complicated. We have a nice big page explaining all of this stuff internally, to make sure that we're keeping it all straight. Because she has violated oaths and reconstructed them, is basically what's happening. And she is regressing, and she's doing a... 1.1 steps forward, 1 step back, sort of thing, kind of frequently. YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020) Also I don't remember but some people claimed that Shallan can soulcast at the end of RoW normally. I can't check this unfortunately. Testament is seperate bond, so it progress differently than Patern's. I personally think she'd already spoken at least 3rd or even 4th with Testament as a kid - which I'm judging on sentences spoken by Shallan when she broke her bond with Testament. I believe words are important when breaking the bond. There were 6 short sentences, 3 would be use to negate 1st ideal(Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.), and then one sentence for each Truth higher. Also I wonder how much was she involved with Ghostbloods during her childhood - they suggest to know a lot about her childhood, she used Seon as a kid. What I believe will be her final Truth is (possible minor SA5 prolog spoilers later in discussion - it's in "Cosmere discussion" forum, but main post is cleared of spoilers I think): By the beginning of RoW, she’s gotten better at Soulcasting with 8 months of tutoring, but, she still hasn’t mastered it. Beryl seems to have a much better handle on it, and a lesser proficiency on Light Waeving, the Shallan’s inverse. Beryl was used to changing herself for her clients. Quote Hopefully the cache of Soulcasting devices found in Aimia would relieve some of that pressure. Shallan watched from the near distance, sitting on a supply box, her expression unreadable. Though by far the most talented at illusions among her people, Shallan’s own abilities in Soulcasting had proven … erratic. Adolin had peeked in on her sessions to see only occasional lumps of grain. Other times, she accidentally created twisted things: flames, sometimes pools of blood, once a translucent crystal. Jasnah had finally, after eight months of work, officially released Shallan from her wardship. And Shallan truly had earned that release. She’d gone to lessons, memorized the works of scholars, and acted as the perfect ward. Though mastery of Soulcasting eluded her, she had improved over the year. I’ve skimmed the last couple chapters of Rhythm of War, and I haven’t seen anything that quite indicates she’s gotten better at Lightweaving. However, since she’s reintegrated veil, perhaps she will improve. On the other hand, maybe Shallan’s next/final truth has more to do with what Shallan’s can and will become. Veil was meant to help her cope with her past by hiding it from her. Radiant however is meant to help her cope with what she’s becoming: a Knight Radiant. If she reintegrated the Radiant persona, perhaps in addition to fully accepting her combat ability and gaining her plate, she’ll also get better at soul casting. After all, Radiant is partially based on Jasnah, and one of Jasnah’s biggest traits is her soul-casting, particularly in combat. I think Shallan’s is at 3 with Pattern, and she was definitely at least 3 with Testament.
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