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Namespace collision with the Shash glyph?


kabu

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Going through various sources, it looks like "shash" is used for two different things -- one of Kaladin's slave brands with the meaning "dangerous," and also as the glyph to represent the Lightweavers.

 

http://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Shash_glyph.svg

 

"The glyph shash, one of the Ten Fundamental Glyphs. It is associated with the Essence Blood, the Herald Shalash, the divine attributes of Creative and Honest, as well as the Order of Lightweavers."

 

http://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Shash.svg

 

"Shash, meaning dangerous."

 

Is there some relation between the two?

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Kaladin's brand (lowest one is shash)

 

Surgebinding chart, with the glyph for Lightweavers in the lower left.

 

As is mentioned in the book many, many times, the problem with glyphs is that they can basically be shaped however you want them to be. It's like hearing a french person say a word you don't understand with the hard A sound in it, then trying to spell it. Er? Et? Ez? One of half a dozen other ways that phoneme is written? The two could be very similar. Or they could be nothing alike.

 

A lot of Aons meanings have changed over time. Ehe once meant simply fire, but due to a cultural association with fire meaning danger, the aon has that meaning now, too. Or it can represent warm food for sale, or artists sometimes take it in their own names to represent passion. Ene's meaning has shifted over the years, too.

 

So, to basically answer your question, I wouldn't be surprised if the glyph for "blood" also has connotations of "danger" (perhaps some of the subtleties to how it's drawn change the meaning from "blood" to "this is something that will make you bleed".

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Interesting thoughts!  I guess it does make sense that the historic thousands-of-years-old meanings of glyphs would drift over time.

 

Anyway, I am asking because I want to engrave the Lightweaver glyph on my phone case, and wanted to make sure I was doing the right one.

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