Natans Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) So, now I'm curious. There is another forum user (Natans) who routinely types Syl as "Sly." I had thought it was a misspelling, but what if it's a language variation in WoK translations? I'm pretty sure Natans is a Portuguese speaker. @EvilKetchupCow, was "Sly" intentional or a typo? Nops, no secret meaning, I'm dumb =) But i indeed think that Syl is Sly =) Sorry for my poor english I learned by myself and unfortunately I don't have time to aprimorate it Edited January 31, 2014 by Natans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccstat Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Gotcha. Just another example of digging too deep for clues (a common problem on these forums) And don't worry about English errors--they in no way imply "dumb". I think the worldwide representation on 17S is one of the real strengths of the community. Props to you and to everyone who has the guts to do this in a second language. (I definitely wouldn't try to use my Spanish or Japanese to post to a fan site.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Autocorrect ftw Actually, no. I meant what I wrote, as sly can mean "playfully mischievous; roguish: sly humour", which fits Syl perfectly. Therefore an entirely appropriate misspelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natans Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Gotcha. Just another example of digging too deep for clues (a common problem on these forums) And don't worry about English errors--they in no way imply "dumb". I think the worldwide representation on 17S is one of the real strengths of the community. Props to you and to everyone who has the guts to do this in a second language. (I definitely wouldn't try to use my Spanish or Japanese to post to a fan site.) Agree, you guys are great and this community is gold. It's good to walk in place where everyone try to be polite and nice =) I really don't mind, I know that I'm lacking in this departament, but to me is better try and fail, that give up without try =) About what are in the safe, my best guess is the "Dawnshard" that Honor talked about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duskshard Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Shallan during a mini flashback Fool. A memory rose unbidden. A silvery sword. A pattern of light. Truths she could not face. She banished them, squeezing her eyes shut. Another possible clue perhaps? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 What bothers me the most with the suggestion that it is a Shardblade that is glowing from inside the safe is that it would have to be really big or excessively long to fit it. Those things are huge, and I am not entirely certain it would be safe to keep it there. Having a strongbox seems kind of useless when its contents are likely to cut it open from the inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Rose Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 My guess would be the soulcaster. I don't believe we know when her father obtained it. The gemstones would glow. There is a lot of blood. If her father soulcast an attacker or more to blood like Jasnah did the Thieves to smoke that would be pretty traumatic. ... Or Shallan found the soulcaster and tried to help killing attackers by turning them to blood. After all a light weavers essence and body focus are both blood. If I did that to someone accidentally I would call myself a monster. That's my best guess but I think I'll be proven wrong. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 But i indeed think that Syl is Sly =) You make her sound like a Cryptic! My guess would be the soulcaster. I don't believe we know when her father obtained it. The gemstones would glow. There is a lot of blood. If her father soulcast an attacker or more to blood like Jasnah did the Thieves to smoke that would be pretty traumatic. ... Or Shallan found the soulcaster and tried to help killing attackers by turning them to blood. After all a light weavers essence and body focus are both blood. If I did that to someone accidentally I would call myself a monster. That's my best guess but I think I'll be proven wrong. Well, we know there were corpses in the room. Baseless speculation here, if it was some kind of instinctual use of power, the people were assassins after her father? Or after her mother, maybe? People who threatened the Ghostbloods? Do we know when she first saw Pattern? Or if she could Surgebind with the symbolhead Cryptics somehow before? There's just so much we don't know! Possibly the dead people were trying to steal whatever was in the safe - glowing seems to be a type of sign of value on Roshar, because it's something Invested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlehrma Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 Maybe he keeps the same things a wealthy person would, cash. Or in this case, a bunch of fully infused spheres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaladin Kal Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Maybe he keeps the same things a wealthy person would, cash. Or in this case, a bunch of fully infused spheres. I am not sure its just her father's riches, there was something else that scared shallan. They passed Father’s strongbox set into the wall. It glowed brightly, light streaming from the cracks around the closed door. A monster was inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aminar Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Well, I doubt the Monster is a Spren. What if it has something to do with gemhearts. A smaller creature of some kind that absorbs stormlight and murders people? Perhaps a voidbringer or something akin to the smokebeasts? An Aon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaladin Kal Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 A gemheart is a possibility.Well then another question is why Shallan is scared of it?.Why didn't she ever tried to access the strongbox after her father died. I think the voidbringers will be something dark with red eyes and I doubt aons will work outside the Sel. Shallan during a mini flashback Fool. A memory rose unbidden. A silvery sword. A pattern of light. Truths she could not face. She banished them, squeezing her eyes shut. Another possible clue perhaps? I guess this has something to do with the light streaming from the cracks of the closed door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brotherbard Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I am not sure its just her father's riches, there was something else that scared shallan. If she breathed in Stormlight without understanding it she might have thought it was attacking her. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaladin Kal Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 If she breathed in Stormlight without understanding it she might have thought it was attacking her. @Brotherbard your post made me think think . There is a chance that she might have used one of the Surges of Illumination unknowingly and did something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chlehrma Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Well, I doubt the Monster is a Spren. What if it has something to do with gemhearts. A smaller creature of some kind that absorbs stormlight and murders people? Perhaps a voidbringer or something akin to the smokebeasts? An Aon. A creature that absorbs stormlight. Certainly possible. My vote is for a very small herald. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 A creature that absorbs stormlight. Certainly possible. My vote is for a very small herald. Hark! I am Minimum'Elin Herald of the Altiny! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 And am I the only one felt that lullaby was so wrong especially the first two lines?. Contrast it with - "Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all." Though I think you're right that there's something significant about the lyrics. Regarding the dead bodies in the flashback... It appears that there was a shardblade involved. iirc, Shallan specifically recalls her mother's body lying face down, and is grateful that's the case because there's something off-putting about her dead mother's eyes. That sounds like a shard-blade to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefiantBurrito Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 (edited) To quickly recap the most popular ideas... 1. Shardblade/Honorblade 2. Soulcaster (or other Fabrial) 3. Infused Gem/Gemheart 4. Creature/animal that absorbs stormlight (perhaps a Larkin?) 5. A Spren of some sort 6. Something new #1-3 - Shardblade, Soulcaster, Fabrial, Gem - In my opinion, these are all unlikely because they are all inanimate. I think it's unlikely that Shallan would refer to any of those things as a "monster", even if they were used to kill somebody. #4 - Creature/Animal - I find this also somewhat unlikely because Shallan actually has an affinity for weird, even monstrous animals. If some strange unknown animal was in the safe she would be more likely to study it and draw it than call it a monster. Or, to put it another way, if she had been traumatized as a child by a strange dangerous "monster" animal, she would probably not be so comfortable around strange animals as an adult. #5 - Spren - I'm concluding that this is the most likely. It could be simply a weird/frightening spren, or an Odium-corrupted evil Spren, or maybe even a creature/animal infused with a corrupted Spren? #6 - Something new - Obviously we can't prove or disprove this, of course there could be something new we don't know about yet. So, strongly leaning towards #5 above, here's a rough theory... Notice that Shallan talks about a monster in the safe, but also refers to herself as a monster.... what if it's the *same* monster, in a sense? Theory: The safe contains an evil Spren that possessed Shallan, causing her to kill everyone - The "monster" in the safe is a powerful malevolent Spren, perhaps trapped in some sort of glowing fabrial, or even "trapped" in the body of some creature it's possessing. - The men came to steal the Spren. They forced Shallan's mother to open the safe, and then killed her with the Shardblade. - Shallan wandered in, somehow became possessed by the Spren, and "hulked out", using its powers to kill everyone violently. - Shallan's father shows up. He is able to recapture the Spren and put it back in the safe, returning Shallan to normal. - Shallan feels like a "monster" because she lost control and killed everyone. Meanwhile, the "monster" is now in the safe. - Shallan's father claims the Shardblade from the thieves. Shallan is possibly the only one who knows of its existence. She later kills her father so she can take the Shardblade before it falls into the wrong hands. IMO this is the best theory so far, but it still requires a lot of speculation obviously because we just don't have enough data. But I'm fond of the idea that the word "monster" in both places is very intentional. Edited February 6, 2014 by DefiantBurrito 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 To quickly recap the most popular ideas... 1. Shardblade/Honorblade 2. Soulcaster (or other Fabrial) 3. Infused Gem/Gemheart 4. Creature/animal that absorbs stormlight (perhaps a Larkin?) 5. A Spren of some sort 6. Something new #1-3 - Shardblade, Soulcaster, Fabrial, Gem - In my opinion, these are all unlikely because they are all inanimate. I think it's unlikely that Shallan would refer to any of those things as a "monster", even if they were used to kill somebody. #4 - Creature/Animal - I find this also somewhat unlikely because Shallan actually has an affinity for weird, even monstrous animals. If some strange unknown animal was in the safe she would be more likely to study it and draw it than call it a monster. Or, to put it another way, if she had been traumatized as a child by a strange dangerous "monster" animal, she would probably not be so comfortable around strange animals as an adult. #5 - Spren - I'm concluding that this is the most likely. It could be simply a weird/frightening spren, or an Odium-corrupted evil Spren, or maybe even a creature/animal infused with a corrupted Spren? #6 - Something new - Obviously we can't prove or disprove this, of course there could be something new we don't know about yet. So, strongly leaning towards #5 above, here's a rough theory... Notice that Shallan talks about a monster in the safe, but also refers to herself as a monster.... what if it's the *same* monster, in a sense? Theory: The safe contains an evil Spren that possessed Shallan, causing her to kill everyone - The "monster" in the safe is a powerful malevolent Spren, perhaps trapped in some sort of glowing fabrial, or even "trapped" in the body of some creature it's possessing. - The men came to steal the Spren. They forced Shallan's mother to open the safe, and then killed her with the Shardblade. - Shallan wandered in, somehow became possessed by the Spren, and "hulked out", using its powers to kill everyone violently. - Shallan's father shows up. He is able to recapture the Spren and put it back in the safe, returning Shallan to normal. - Shallan feels like a "monster" because she lost control and killed everyone. Meanwhile, the "monster" is now in the safe. - Shallan's father claims the Shardblade from the thieves. Shallan is possibly the only one who knows of its existence. She later kills her father so she can take the Shardblade before it falls into the wrong hands. IMO this is the best theory so far, but it still requires a lot of speculation obviously because we just don't have enough data. But I'm fond of the idea that the word "monster" in both places is very intentional. If that's the case, why doesn't she think of it on relation to the cryptics haunting her? Wouldn't she then be terrified of Pattern? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccstat Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 To quickly recap the most popular ideas... 1. Shardblade/Honorblade 2. Soulcaster (or other Fabrial) 3. Infused Gem/Gemheart 4. Creature/animal that absorbs stormlight (perhaps a Larkin?) 5. A Spren of some sort 6. Something new #1-3 - Shardblade, Soulcaster, Fabrial, Gem - In my opinion, these are all unlikely because they are all inanimate. I think it's unlikely that Shallan would refer to any of those things as a "monster", even if they were used to kill somebody.[...]So, strongly leaning towards #5 above Let me first say I don't have any strong opinion/prediction. Still, #5 (spren) seems the least likely out of those options. We don't know the mechanics for the whole spren-trapping thing yet, but my understanding is that nothing physical can capture a spren except for specially cut gemstones. It wouldn't do much good to put spren that can move through walls and seep up through the ground inside of your strongbox. If the spren is actually bound there into a gem, it is much more like a fabrial and can't leave to frighten Shallan, certainly not in any "possession" sort of way. We're really good at personifying. Something inanimate could certainly be seen as a monster by an 11-year old. Especially if said 11-year old picked it up and "it" did something terrible (like kill people) while she was holding it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 Let me first say I don't have any strong opinion/prediction. Still, #5 (spren) seems the least likely out of those options. We don't know the mechanics for the whole spren-trapping thing yet, but my understanding is that nothing physical can capture a spren except for specially cut gemstones. It wouldn't do much good to put spren that can move through walls and seep up through the ground inside of your strongbox. If the spren is actually bound there into a gem, it is much more like a fabrial and can't leave to frighten Shallan, certainly not in any "possession" sort of way. We're really good at personifying. Something inanimate could certainly be seen as a monster by an 11-year old. Especially if said 11-year old picked it up and "it" did something terrible (like kill people) while she was holding it. Agree on the spren thing. Personally, I'm in favor of the Shardblade, in part because we know that Shallan has one. And is hiding it. And the rest of her family likely doesn't know about it. My guess is that was obtained immediately after it was used to kill her mother, and her father locked it away instead of using it (or at least he didn't use it immediately). Then for unknown reasons, she acquired it later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Rose Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 I was under the impression that shard blades don't glow. And if it where a a shard blade why wouldn't Shallan or her Father be bonded to it keeping it safe (wherever blades go). From the little we know if his personality I would think he wouldn't hesitate to bond a blade he could easily sever the bond if he wanted to give it to someone else later. Of course it could have a shard blade with a bunch of spheres too and that would explain the light so it could be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasake Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 I don't think it is a Shardblade. Why would you put a Shardblade in a safe to keep it safe when you can just turn it to mist. I think Shallan's family was attacked by a group using a Shadeblade. During the attack Shallan walks in frightened picks up a Soulcaster( cause she has seen it used before and knows it's powerful) and kills them. After the deaths Shallan claims the blade by being curious and touches it. Her father seeing all this, scared out of his mind for his daughter, put the soulcaster in the safe calling IT a monster cause he doesn't want to blame his kid. Her father then becomes super protective of her cause he doesn't want her to remember the events and is scared of her a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloom Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 The monster doesn't have to be the source of the glow. It's a strong box. This is where you would keep your infused gems if I'm not mistaken. I don't know what the monster is, but I don't think Shallans father was all that frightened of it. That being the case, if he found it to be an object of value, then it would not be surprising if he put it in his strong box along with his other wealth. As far as a Shardblade goes however, the only reason I can think of to place such a valuable object in a strongbox instead of safely in the ether is that the person who is bonded to it is unwilling or incapable of sending it back. The only other reason I can conceive of is that you are unwilling to chance being assassinated with the Shardblade in the ether because this would cause the Shardblade to materialize next to you, where as if the blade is in a strongbox it is unlikely that it would disappear, then reappear next to your body. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilKetchupCow Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 (edited) I guess I should say that before this thread I always thought it was the safe itself that was leaking stormlight. Thinking that someone/something was trying to open the safe hence the dead people. But that really doesn't contribute to Shallan's character so probably not... Edited February 10, 2014 by EvilKetchupCow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.d41b1ca865930ccf5f63b08a839f908e.png){kind=logo}
Recommended Posts