More Fuel For The Fiery Redhead (Shallan's Mom) [SA 5 Prolgue]

[+Child of Hodor]

As you may be aware, there is a theory that Shallan's mother was the Herald Chanarach. (Credit to @teknopathetic) 

Before the SA 5 prologue the only direct evidence was they both have red hair, there's all kinds of weird mysterious things going on with Shallan's family and Chana was known as "the Guard" yet she tried to kill her own child which would fit with the Heralds' madness manifesting as inversions of their divine attributes. Then some things happened in the SA 5 prologue that made it seem like Brandon was directly hinting at this being the case. 

Aaaanyways, we got this WoB from Brandon talking about how Shallan has extra abilities that Lightweavers don't get and some of the hints of its source should be kind of obvious now.  

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Spun Lines

We’ve seen Shallan’s drawings appear to make people into “better versions of themselves.” But we also see her draw Yalb surviving the shipwreck, and later find out he did. Is she actually seeing the future in which she just happens to inspire people to be better? If so, this would make Wit’s warning to her in Oathbringer more concerning.

Brandon Sanderson

As will all sort of future sight/foretelling in the cosmere, it is not necessarily telling the future so much as seeing possibilities. And Shallan has… we’ll get into this in Book Five. Shallan’s a little extra good at this, for Spiritual mumbo jumbo. (It’s not necessarily just Spiritual mumbo jumbo, 17th Shard.) In this case, we have a very distinct reason why this is happening with Shallan that you might be able to put together. It’s pretty obvious. But you should be able to see these things with Shallan very early in the books. As early as Words of Radiance, I was sticking in little nods to this. She is able to grab glimpses of the Spiritual Realm in ways that even other Lightweavers can’t do. Lightweaving always has a bit of this, right? And this comes back to what’s going on with the Realmatic Theory and Plato’s Theory of the Forms as kind of a foundational text that helped me develop this in my mind. You’re seeing more perfect versions of who you could be. When she’s doing a sketch, she’s sometimes sketching not who you are, but who you could be.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 6 (Dec. 19, 2023)

If it's obvious then it is either that she has multiple Spren or she is the child of a Herald. If it's the two spren thing why not just say that? Does she have a third spren that's a truthwatcher spren?  

Is the extra future sight / ability to see in other realms more than a Lightweaver coming from being naturally more invested because she's part cognitive shadow???  Chanarach is the Dustbringer Patron which has no overlap with Truthwatcher powers and Chanarach can't surgebind without the Honorblade she gave up it would not make sense for Shallan to inherit those powers.  

I think Shallan's mother being Chanarach explains some things. Why all these secret societies were swirling around a country noble estate of little influence (until they get the soulcaster)  Why are fewer female Heralds active (as far as we know) in front 5? Shallan killed one. 

Why give her a second spren after what she did? She "killed" her spren and years later she (justifiably) murdered her father. Yet they still chose to gamble another spren's life on her. 

Also, arguably, why Shallan was made a radiant so young? Yes, Lift was also young, but Cultivation directly altered her and that's why the Cultivation spren chose her for Wyndle (he whines about it in her WoR interlude).  Tien was getting his powers fairly young, but he acts like more of child than he is. He was 12 or so when he started doing the "look, I found a technicolor rock" act.  The age gap between Kaladin and Shallan is greater than him and Tien. I think she was closer to single digits in age when began the bond. 

[Shadman306]

I love this theory! I’m rereading Oathbringer now and the stormfather said that talenelot came back to join “the other 9 living heralds”. 

If this theory is true, and I think it is, then either the stormfather doesn’t know that a herald died (doubtful) or he’s lying (which we apparently see in the SA 5 prologue. 
 

Further, if the stormfather is lying about this, then this would seem to be the key piece of information regarding exactly what the heralds were “risking” by breaking the oath pact. 

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

I still love the Shallan's Mom theory personally, but that WoB doesn't seem to support it that much IMO

Like... nothing in Shallan's story is "pretty obvious" for supporting her extra Spiritual insight 

• Two Spren? That was not "obvious" until end of RoW
• Her mom is a Herald... is still not "obvious" though it's a great theory, esp with the SA5 prologue timeline 

I think for HIM it's all very clear, but for us who are nipping at shadows and scraps, none of it is obvious in my opinion

[Duxredux he/him]

Just gonna drop this here:

Spoiler

Questioner

There's a lot of situations where people hear voices or see visions, stuff like that. What would be the effect, if somebody had something like mental condition like schizophrenia or multiple personality? Because you talk about-- Because a lot of the magic is about their will, you know?

Brandon Sanderson

Schizophrenia in the cosmere is going to-- So, anytime you're seeing the future, and things like that, you're kinda glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm. That's why it happens so often, because the magic systems are the way they work, are coming down from the Spiritual Realm. Schizophrenia will make you more open to that, so you are more likely to actually see the future. But you won't be able to tell it from the things your mind is making up, which is gonna be really dangerous.

Questioner

So, what if you had, like, one personality wanna do one thing, and another one trying to do something else, would it cancel each other out?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily. I mean, we're going a little that direction with Shallan, anyway. You'll see.

Oathbringer Houston signing (Nov. 18, 2017)

Might be that Shallan's mind and soul is more fractured than just about any other Lightweaver. In fact, the extreme cracks in her soul might be what enable multiple Nahel bonds to exist in the first place.

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Questioner

Is someone limited to how many Nahel bonds they can form, or could someone go play Pokéspren and catch them all, getting access to all Surges?

Brandon Sanderson

There are limits to what a soul can handle. These limits are soft caps, not hard caps. Pokéspren is theoretically possible, but there would be hoops, not just the normal "I want to bond two spren" hoop, which is already a pretty big one.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022)