Theory on Elhokar *SPOILERIFFIC*

[Earendil]

It's amazing the things you pick up the second time through.  For instance, I just noticed that Elhokar shows signs of being a soulcaster!

From chapter 58 (page 826):

"... They watch me.  Always.  Waiting.  I see their faces in mirrors.  Symbols, twisted, inhuman..."

Compare that to the creatures that Shallan draws just before she soulcasts for the first time (Chapter 45, page 643):

...the beings standing around her--twisted symbols unconnected to their uneven shoulders.  Those not-heads had unreal angles, surfaces that melded in weird, impossible ways.

Also, since it seems likely that powers run in families (like mistborn, plus Hoid mentions that there is some reasoning to the establishment of lighteyed aristocracy), and Jasnah (Elhokar's full sister) is a soulcaster, the only explanation I can think of is that Elhokar has the potential to become a soulcaster.  Which leaves me wondering--how much of the Alethi aristocracy has the potential powers of Radiants?  Or is soulcasting completely separate from the radiants, and just an ability passed down in certain families?

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

Well, they say that having a Shard makes you a Lighteyes, I'm thinking that's a literal thing.  I'm betting that the reason the Lighteyes are the aristocracy is that people associated that with the Radiants.  Also explains why a good chunk of the magic users we've seen have been Lighteyes.

[Andrew the Great]

My mind is currently telling me that Talenel, the herald at the end of Way of Kings, has dark eyes. That could be totally unfounded, but if it's true, I wonder what role it will play in future books?

I agree, I think it's likely that Elhokar has the potential to become a soulcaster, though I don't think he will for a while, just because Brandon will want to avoid magic system overload where all of a sudden everybody and their dogs can use some form of magic....

[Munin]

My mind is currently telling me that Talenel, the herald at the end of Way of Kings, has dark eyes. That could be totally unfounded, but if it's true, I wonder what role it will play in future books?

He has dark eyes. It's mentioned in the epilogue.

[leinton]

I agree, I think it's likely that Elhokar has the potential to become a soulcaster, though I don't think he will for a while, just because Brandon will want to avoid magic system overload where all of a sudden everybody and their dogs can use some form of magic....

You mean everybody and their axehound .

I did not notice this in my second read through, maybe I'll have to do a third read through after I finish reading all of Brandon's other books...

[Zas678]

Curses! I posted too late...

[Warwolf]

Ya I noticed that too, did you also notice that Jasnah was surprised that Shallan could see (or at least draw) the "Soulspren" (for lack of a better term), she seemed to imply that this meant  Shallan was not the same type of Soulcaster as she.

That would also lead us to believe the King would be of that other type of Soulcaster.

[Ryan]

I suspect they're cognitionspren. They seem to be attracted to thinkers and associated with the cognitive realm. Also, it seems that association with them grants soulcasting abilities, which also seems related to the cognitive realm. (Which doesn't make any sense to me. A case of mind over matter maybe?)

[Chaos]

Holy crap, though. Elhokar is totally a Soulcaster. Awesome catch.

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

I sometimes feel really weird cuz I pick up on things on my first read through that other people don't.  Like this, or Shallan having a Shardblade.  I totally recognized that he was seeing the same thing as Shallan.  But the weird part is that I don't ever really want to mention it because I feel like I'm rubbing people's face in it which I kinda am but I'm not trying to...

I've been reading too much Hyperbole and a Half.

[Eerongal]

A thought occurs: How is Elhokar seeing these creatures? He obviously doesn't draw like shallan, which was the medium through which she saw them and she didn't see them in mirrors, and jasnah mentioned that seeing these creatures (outside of shadesmar) arent something that happens to her.

So it seems to me that Elhokar's version is a bit different. Shallan saw them because her subconcious or something was picking them up and throwing them into her drawings (they were ever only there when she let her mind wander when drawing). Elhokar is actually SEEING the things show up to him.

Now, he may very well be a (natural) soulcaster, but his situation just seems a bit different to me. Thoughts?

[leinton]

I'm pretty sure Shallan could see them in the corner of her eyes when she was in the hospital.

[Andrew the Great]

One of the Death Quotes from Taravangian's (I think that's is name....The King of Kharbranth) hospitals mentions a man with his head of wavy lines or some such. Apparently Elhokar isn't the only one that can just see them. I think he's most likely of the same order as Shallan is. He might also be further along in his progression of becoming a soulcaster than Shallan was. After all, Shallan was specifically trying to learn to soulcast. There's a good possibility that she learned faster because of that.

[Rew]

I would point out a couple things, and then give my thoughts.

1- Elhokar sees them in a different way than Shallan.  She has to use her drawings to know how she sees them, i.e. they are connected to her creativity.  This corresponds to her connection to Shash (creative/honest) and blood connection (what she Soulcasts when she does so unconsciously).  Elhokar can only see them in the mirror, out of the corner of his eye.  This to me suggests something different, it is not creative.  As well, it can be inferred that Jasnah, 1- knows what they are because she recognizes them from the drawings, but 2- she sees and knows them from a different situation/experience since she has no respect for the creative arts. 

2- Because Soulcasting as a power is only connected to two different orders, it would make the most sense for Jasnah and Shallan to respectively represent the two of them.  Which leaves the question then, what is Elhokar?

I really like the idea presented above by Ryan about them being "cognitive" spren or spren connected somehow with the Cognitive Realm. 

My thought is that Elhokar will line up with the order associated with Ishi, and heliodor gems.  This is mainly prompted by matching Elhokar's color scheme (gold- the color of his Shardplate and the gloryspren that are only associated with him) and the color schemes in the art on the front cover. I'm guessing that we have not seen any of the powers (unless someone can come up with some indication of what Elhokar did to drain his own gems instead of it being an attempt on his life, as he suspects) associated with this order.

Similarly, I think that that would be a great order for a potential king, with the connections to other orders (Jez, Palah and Tanat) and characteristics that would be important for him.  If I had to put forward a guess as per what the spren are and what powers he could use them for, I would probably suggest that they are somehow connected to the cognitive realm, but not with the sense of Soulcasting. Instead, it would probably have something to do with intuition, wisdom, "revelation" if you will- something to turn a headstrong and inexperienced boy king into a wise ruler (something his character arc seems to be pointing to).

Also, I think that having Elhokar be associated with piety/guiding and rulership, and his heretical sister with Palah (learned/giving) and the emeralds used to create food would create some interesting contrary themes for Brandon to play with.

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

Unfortunately, Soulcasting only has two orders, and we can reasonably assume the Garnet to be one of them.  The only two gems that share a magic system with Garnet are Zircon and Emerald, and only one of them can be the other Soulcasting order.  So, out of the three characters that we can assume do or will eventually Soulcast (Shallan, Jasnah, and Elhokar) two have to belong to one order at least.  Jasnah is connected to the Emerald, so would Elhokar also be Palah?

[Stormlightning]

I noticed this line when I read the book...but it didn't seem all that significant to me. That's mostly because I didn't connect seeing the spren with being a Soulcaster. Is there any way that these 'cognition' ('ambition' perhaps?) spren can being seen by someone who isn't a Soulcaster?

[happyman]

I noticed this line when I read the book...but it didn't seem all that significant to me. That's mostly because I didn't connect seeing the spren with being a Soulcaster. Is there any way that these 'cognition' ('ambition' perhaps?) spren can being seen by someone who isn't a Soulcaster?

All we know is that:

Shallan can see them.

Elhokar can see them.

Some random peasant killed by king Taringar can see them.

Jasnah says straight out that these spren are connected to Shallan's soulcasting abilities.

Honorspren are connected to Kaladin's abilities.

Spren fuel most fabrials and seem to be connected to most known magic so far, although this is tentative.

Most other people cannot see these weird spren.

With these, speculation that Elhokar is a soulcaster is reasonable but speculative.  So we speculate.

[Ari]

I noticed this line when I read the book...but it didn't seem all that significant to me. That's mostly because I didn't connect seeing the spren with being a Soulcaster. Is there any way that these 'cognition' ('ambition' perhaps?) spren can being seen by someone who isn't a Soulcaster?

We really don't have enough evidence to do anything more than throw out badly-founded guesses. So far we only know for sure about a single type of Spren binding to a person for a single order of Radiants. This might be the rule. It could be that multiple types of Spren can bind with a person to make the same order of Radiant. It could be that the same type of Spren could bind with different people and make different orders of Radiants in doing so. It could be both of those at once, which would mean that any system to the binding of Spren to make radiants is loose at best.

I'm inclined to believe that there's at least some relation between the type of Spren and the nature of a person's ability to manipulate Stormlight, (otherwise why would it matter that different spren can be bonded? It could just be for flavour I suppose but it seems a waste if so) but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Spren you bond with determines the order of Radiant you are, even though I'm inclined to believe that's where Brandon is going with this.

[happyman]

I noticed this line when I read the book...but it didn't seem all that significant to me. That's mostly because I didn't connect seeing the spren with being a Soulcaster. Is there any way that these 'cognition' ('ambition' perhaps?) spren can being seen by someone who isn't a Soulcaster?

We really don't have enough evidence to do anything more than throw out badly-founded guesses. So far we only know for sure about a single type of Spren binding to a person for a single order of Radiants. This might be the rule. It could be that multiple types of Spren can bind with a person to make the same order of Radiant. It could be that the same type of Spren could bind with different people and make different orders of Radiants in doing so. It could be both of those at once, which would mean that any system to the binding of Spren to make radiants is loose at best.

I'm inclined to believe that there's at least some relation between the type of Spren and the nature of a person's ability to manipulate Stormlight, (otherwise why would it matter that different spren can be bonded? It could just be for flavour I suppose but it seems a waste if so) but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Spren you bond with determines the order of Radiant you are, even though I'm inclined to believe that's where Brandon is going with this.

Minor correction:  I'm pretty sure that Shallan bonded with the Truthspren.  It's strongly implied at the end that the more true the statements are that she tells them, the stronger the bond.  It seems to be a very different type of bond from the one Kaladin experiences, but given the radically different type of spren the bonds are with (Honorspren vs. Truthspren), this probably isn't a surprise.