nambjorn Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Hi, new on the forum, so i hope you will forgive if this topic have already been discussed. Tried to find a topic about it but was unsuccesfull. I was wondering why Shallan was travelling so far to steal a soulcaster to solve her familys depts. I think we can all agree that she have a shardblade. Why not sell it instead. It would be much safer, she doesn't act like she really want to keep it, and i'm sure it would fetch a price that could pay all debts, with plenty of spheres to spare. Any suggestions? Nambjorn ps. Im from Denmark, so my english is not that good. Hope you will ignore any spelling and/or grammar errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Shardblades aren't the sort of thing people normally sell for simple money, in addition if she tried to sell it people would ask questions about where she got it, and since she probably got it from killing her father she doesn't want to attract that kind of attention. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nambjorn Posted January 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 I will agree with you that Shardblades arn't sold all that often, but that doesn't mean it would be impossible to sell one. And if Shallan told the king that she wanted to sell the blade to him, since her dead father had left the family in deep debt and her brothers where cribbles i dont think the king would ask to many questions about, he would propably be very happy to have an extra blade. And IMO the risk that someone would investigate would be much smaller then the risk of getting caught stealing a Soulcaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 King Travangian (if that's how its spelled..) specifically says: "If only we had a Shardblade," However I acknowledge that this is during the 'gentle King' act, and also he will probably not want one now since he has both a Shardblade and a capable warrior who will do whatever the hell you say to cause mayhem throughout any kingdom you desire without fail! Man, Szeth is beast a very respectable fighter in his thirties from Shinovar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveAM Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 It's also possible that it's important to keep the existence of the Shardblade a secret. We don't know how Shallan got the Shardblade, I've read theories about it being related to the Ghostbloods and the Soul Caster in the first place. Shallan has multiple older brothers, and she's the youngest, so it's very doubtful that it was in the family all along and that she inherited it (by passing her older brothers and going to the young girl, who, in that culture, aren't expected, trained, or even approved of to fight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Then that is, surely, the best place to hide it. Nan Batan is killed because he is second oldest. No Shardblade? Ah, how clever, they gave it to the youngest son! Killed, no Shardblade. Hm... well, it must have gone with the first brother, who went missing. Wild goose chase: Success. So they hide it with Shallan, who whips it out when the time is right, and gives it to a capable fighter to defend them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 I'm pretty sure Shallan's dad had the Shardblade and Shallan took it off his corpse. People finding that out would... not end well. Also, she doesn't have Shardplate and probably doesn't really know much about how to use the Shardblade, so it's entirely possible anyone she tried to sell it to would decide they'd rather take it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 But that's... trafficking! It was in British news today that they are changing the legislation to 'forced exploitation', so forgive the pun, Americans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese Ninja Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 I think that there were factors that made it impossible for Shallan to sell her Shardblade. It may not be have been House Davar's originally, and any attempt to sell it might occur in both its loss without recompensation, and more people would look into House Davar and discover their father's death. Also, there seem to be two camps about what Shallan did: 1. She killed her father with her shardblade. 2. She killed her father by conventional means, and took the shardblade after his death. I think #1 is the smaller camp, but it's the one I'm in. The facts we have from that event are pretty limited. Nan Balat got beaten to a bruised and bloody degree, and got a permanent limp. There's the soulcaster, which was found in the father's interior coat pocket, sheared in multiple places. ("Shearing" is strong evidence of a shardblade being used.) There's Shallan's Memory of a corpse face down in a pool of blood. (Assumed to be her father by many, slight evidence against a shardblade, since any strikes while alive would not cause bleed, but any strikes after death would cut into the body as normal.) Her brothers never mention the Shardblade, so we aren't even sure that they know about it. Then again, we have very little interaction with them and even Shallan tries to forget its existence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortellini Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 I had wondered about this also. I came to the conclusion that: It would actually be quite possible to sell the shardblade for enough money on the "black market". Given their importance, almost any king would buy one no questions asked, and for enough to save Shallan's family. Shallan is definitely not the type of person to do this. Even if her family already knew about the blade (which I think they don't), none of them have the criminal contacts, experience or potential to do that kind of deal. The chance to get yourself killed is much, much higher, and there's no room for errors. Also, for Shallan it may be a moral issue - a shardblade is an instrument of death, so giving it to someone makes you partially responsible for what he does with it. For her, direct theft is preferable to indirect murder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiken Frost Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 And also, remember what happened to Kaladin. A king or any other buyer that acquires the blade would be tempted to kill Shalan and all her family to avoid blackmail. She and her family might have thought of that and thought that the risk was too big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the95th Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 ok maybe i missed a chapter (entirely possible) But were abouts does it reference Shallans Blade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese Ninja Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 All of the mentions of her blade are pretty brief, but the first ones are in chapter 7 and 8. Memories attacked her. Nan Balat bruised, his coat torn. A long, silvery sword in her hand, sharp enough to cut stones as if they were water. As always, thinking of her father made her feel ill, and the pain started to constrict her chest. She raised her freehand to her head, suddenly overwhelmed by the weight of House Davar’s situation, her part in it, and the secret she now carried, hidden ten heartbeats away. Chapter 45, right before she soulcasts: Storms! she thought, frantic. I can’t use that. I promised myself. She began the process anyway. Ten heartbeats, to bring forth the fruit of her sin, the proceeds of her most horrific act. She was interrupted midway through by a voice, uncanny yet distinct: Again, back in Chapter 39: Of course, there was one other aspect of that night that Shallan had to think of. She carried a concealed weapon that she hadn’t used. She felt foolish for not even thinking of getting it out that night. But she wasn’t accustomed to— Shallan froze, realizing for the first time what she’d been drawing. Not another scene from the alleyway, but a lavish room with a thick, ornamented rug and swords on the walls. A long dining table, set with a half-eaten meal. And a dead man in fine clothing, lying face-first on the floor, blood pooling around him. She jumped back, tossing aside the charcoal, then crumpled up the paper. Shaking, she moved over and sat down on the bed among the pictures. Dropping the crumpled drawing, she raised her fingers to her forehead, feeling the cold sweat there. I may have missed a few more as well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the95th Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 god knows how i missed that! Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveAM Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 god knows how i missed that! Thank you Don't worry, LOTS of people missed that. I only caught it after a complete 2nd read through of WoK. In hindsight it just seems so obvious huh. =p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkthinker Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 She's not stealing the soulcaster to sell it, is she? I thought the plan was to steal it and then use it. Her family's problem's run deeper than just debt, selling the blade (which, as mentioned, it may not even be known by her brothers that she HAS it) is a short-term solution, not a method by which her family and their holdings may be saved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confutus Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Shardblades are worth fortunes. Palaces, cities, even kingdoms, as Sadeas observes. They are just too valuable and too coveted to sell by normal means. For her to offer it for sale would be indistinguishable from an invitation to be robbed; especially if she were to offer it clandestinely. She wouldn't keep it five minutes from anyone with training in fighting shardbearers without more knowlege of the masculine arts than we've been told she has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eerongal Posted January 14, 2012 Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 She's not stealing the soulcaster to sell it, is she? I thought the plan was to steal it and then use it. Her family's problem's run deeper than just debt, selling the blade (which, as mentioned, it may not even be known by her brothers that she HAS it) is a short-term solution, not a method by which her family and their holdings may be saved. This. She was going to get the soulcaster to *USE*, because that's what her father did (it was his "secret" so to speak) to "find" the marble they dug up and sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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