Jasnah's experiences

[Djarskublar he/him]

I was reading the scene at the start of WoR where Jasnah's shadow pointed the wrong way, and noticed something interesting. She doesn't dismiss the idea that she may be cursed because she knows some superstitions are rooted in fact based on her own experiences. She didn't know about the Nahel bond yet, and she hadn't even started her research on the Listeners being the Voidbringers. So what could she be talking about? My first thought was that she visited the Nightwatcher, but I don't know if she would call that a superstition since so many of the Alethi elite visit her and she is fairly well documented as being real. It probably isn't some super rare spren, that is Axies' shtick. So what could she be talking about? I suppose you could stretch what she was talking about and say she knows some superstitions are real because Dalinar visited the Nightwatcher, but that isn't really her own experience unless she went with him and saw her, which I doubt.

I honestly have no solid idea about what she is talking about here. Does anyone else have two cents to chip in?

[Ciridae]

I think she might be referring to the fact that it's not the first time her shadow points in the wrong direction. She thinks to herself "Not again" as it happens. 

We know that some people believe that Siah are cursed because of the way their shadow acts, and I think after experiencing it once she would have come across those folktales, wanting to know what was going on with her. She specifically says some superstitions are rooted in fact, I take that to mean she doesn't think she is actually cursed like people say the Siah are, but rather that something funky is going on with them, like her, and that this phenomenon is the cause of superstitions. 

[Djarskublar he/him]

No, I don't think she was just talking about other times her shadow moved. This is the relevant passage:

Quote

Jasnah composed herself. What did these episodes of hers mean? Superstitious folktales she'd read said that misbehaving shadows meant you were cursed. She usually dismissed such things as nonsense, but some superstitions were rooted in fact. Her other experiences proved that. She would need to investigate further.

That reads to me as her saying 'I am having these episodes, I may be cursed, even though it should just be superstition. I have had other experiences that confirmed that some are rooted in fact.' I don't think she would feel the need to investigate if she had already proved it to be rooted in fact.

I agree that she doesn't actually think she is cursed, but she does want to know the root cause. She is commenting that her other experiences with superstition have proved that some are rooted in fact, so she wants to investigate why her shadow is misbehaving. What I want to know is what those other experiences with superstition are. I.e. are any of them actually important.

[Calderis he/him]

3 minutes ago, Djarskublar said:

No, I don't think she was just talking about other times her shadow moved. This is the relevant passage:

That reads to me as her saying 'I am having these episodes, I may be cursed, even though it should just be superstition. I have had other experiences that confirmed that some are rooted in fact.' I don't think she would feel the need to investigate if she had already proved it to be rooted in fact.

I agree that she doesn't actually think she is cursed, but she does want to know the root cause. She is commenting that her other experiences with superstition have proved that some are rooted in fact, so she wants to investigate why her shadow is misbehaving. What I want to know is what those other experiences with superstition are. I.e. are any of them actually important.

Could this somehow be related to the things Gavilar was doing? If she was doing any research for her father she may well have come across myths made real. 

[galendo]

It's also possible that her "other experiences" were just the natural results of bonding a spren.  We know that Kaladin and the bridgemen went through some pretty strange experiences before they figured out the whole Stormlight shtick.  Her experiences might have been relatively "mundane" things like being followed/harassed by a sentient spren.  That's how Kaladin's and Syl's relationship started out, it's how Lift and Wyndle's relationship started out (as near as I can tell), and it's just possible -- even probable -- that Jasnah and Ivory's relationship also started out with some events that seemed uncanny.  If you count the visions, even Dalinar's and the Stormfather's relationship started out pretty bizarrely.

Long story short, while Jasnah's "experiences" might refer to something deeper, they also might just be the result of bonding Ivory.

[+Extesian he/him]

I've done a full search for superstition and the best I can think of is that Voidbringers were regarded as superstition, perhaps she had an idea all the way back then that they existed. But that's highly tenuous and I don't think the timing or context fits. Glyphwards are superstitious but she knows that. So I suspect it's simply something in get past experience that we haven't heard yet. 

This isn't a very helpful post but there's certainly nothing searchable in the books to give a clue. You do have me interested though. 

[Stormlightning she/her]

The only thing I think we could reasonably predict right now is something related to Gavilar. He'd been changing to follow the Codes and seeing visions of the Almighty. Jasnah seems one that he would have confided in about it more than most. 

It may also just be a reference to her being a Veristitilian. "Others find supernatural causes for abnormal occurrences, I find natural causes for them" or something like that. So she might just be referring to the fact that her studies have led her to believe that everything must be based in something explainable.

[Fulminato he/him]

9 hours ago, Stormlightning said:

(1) The only thing I think we could reasonably predict right now is something related to Gavilar. He'd been changing to follow the Codes and seeing visions of the Almighty. Jasnah seems one that he would have confided in about it more than most. 

(2) It may also just be a reference to her being a Veristitilian. "Others find supernatural causes for abnormal occurrences, I find natural causes for them" or something like that. So she might just be referring to the fact that her studies have led her to believe that everything must be based in something explainable.

(1) Jasnah ask to her father "what is it you aren't telling me?" and i think the visions are part of the thing of gavilar jasnah don't know

(2) in the opening of the chapter "everyone expected dalinar to lose himself to wine during a feast - but the king's doughter, admitting to the heresy? that was unprecedented" , i think her veristitilian scholarship drive her to find the true beyond myth and folktales, and deny the almighty divine nature is a piece of it.