[OB] Ishnah

[Subvisual Haze]

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Veil started, then whirled around, hand going to her belt knife. The speaker was a woman in a brown havah. She had straight Alethi hair, dark brown eyes, bright red painted lips, and sharp black eyebrows almost certainly enhanced with makeup. Veil recognized this woman, who was shorter than she’d seemed while sitting down. She was one of the thieves that Veil had approached at All’s Alley, the one whose eyes had lit up when Shallan had drawn the Ghostblood’s symbol.

This briefly mentioned character caught my eye in the reading.  Ishnah was previously present in the bar scene with Shallan, but didn't say anything and the only notable thing she did was appear very interested when Shallan drew the Ghostblood symbol.  Now she suddenly appears at a crime scene expressing interest in Shallan.

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“I’m sure.” The woman stepped closer. “I’ve been waiting for you to turn up again.”

“You should stay away, if you value your life.” Veil started off through the market.

The short woman scrambled after her. “My name is Ishnah. I’m an excellent writer. I can take dictations. I have experience moving in the market underground.”

“You want to be my ward?”

“Ward?” The young woman laughed. “What are we, lighteyes? I want to join you.”

The Ghostbloods, of course. “We’re not recruiting.”

“Please.” She took Veil by the arm. “Please. The world is wrong now. Nothing makes sense. But you… your group… you know things. I don’t want to be blind anymore.”

Something about this character screams "more important than she seems".  For one, I think it might be important that she never names the Ghostbloods as who she wants to join.  That's certainly the logical conclusion based on what she's seen, but if she is "someone important", she might have actually been asking about the Radiants.

Also, I might just have the beautiful book insert-art on my mind, but the description of her eyebrows/lips/straight hair made me wonder...Ash?

[What's a Seawolf?]

Could she be Liss?

There's nothing really to go on, but like you said she is certainly going to play some important role, and the Shallan-Jasnah reunion scene could get very interesting very fast if there was a known Shardblade bearing assassin smack in the middle.

[Nymeros]

I doubt she will show up again. She may get brutally murdered but eh.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

I don't think she is Liss. Why is everybody suspecting that every character who shows up is Liss? Didn't we have guesses on Malata being Liss as well? I have nothing against it, I just don't get why Liss would show up disguised as other people.

It is possible that she is a Herald, but not Ash. Shallan would have commented on her beauty if that was the case. If she is anyone, I would bet on Vedel, but I don't find that likely either. 

I think she is a normal woman who seeks the power and protection of the Ghostbloods in uncertain times. I also think that she will have a role, and show up again. Having an enthusiastic new Ghostbloods-recruit to work with would make Shallans story even more interesting than it already is.

[Leyrann]

5 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Having an enthusiastic new Ghostbloods-recruit to work with would make Shallans story even more interesting than it already is.

Like she doesn't already have enough going on...

Poor Shallan.

[Dahak he/him]

3 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I don't think she is Liss. Why is everybody suspecting that every character who shows up is Liss?

Because all new female characters are Liss, Pa'Alm, Shalash, Khriss or Vivenna.

Khriss naturally has dark brown eyes and straight hair. Pa'Alm has whatever she's eaten. Shalash has glowing violet-white eyes without an epicentic fold, so even the eyedrops won't make her look alethi. Liss has, long dark hair, worn loose, and a plump, attractive figure that made her distinctive in all the right ways, which doesn't seem to fit Ishnah. Other than Siri (Dark eyed) eye colour doesn't seemto be mentioned in Warbreaker and vivenna can change her hair colour magically.

[Mulk he/him]

28 minutes ago, Dahak said:

Because all new female characters are Liss, Pa'Alm, Shalash, Khriss or Vivenna.

and all new items/stories/animals are offworld references.  amirite?

[Dahak he/him]

Just now, Mulk said:

and all new items/stories/animals are offworld references.  amirite?

Pretty much, though we do have Shinovar having a Scadrial/Yolen ecology to make that more frequent.

Plus two to four human mass interplanetary migrations and several worldhoppers.

[Mulk he/him]

1 minute ago, Dahak said:

Pretty much, though we do have Shinovar having a Scadrial/Yolen ecology to make that more frequent.

Plus two to four human mass interplanetary migrations and several worldhoppers.

I'm not saying there's not reason.  I'm saying the leap to say every new thing in the book is an offworld reference is a little much is all. *shrugs*

[+Wax he/him]

I think she can be a future squire for Lightweavers. She wants the light and the truth....

[Govir]

39 minutes ago, Mulk said:

I'm not saying there's not reason.  I'm saying the leap to say every new thing in the book is an offworld reference is a little much is all. *shrugs*

Welcome to the environment Sanderson has created. He's got us trained to jump at shadows and try to go down anything that even looks like a rabbit hole.

 

And I love it, because I'm almost never right.

[Mulk he/him]

lol. Fair enough, Govir.  I just imagine he probably shakes his head sometimes at the leaps we make on this forum.

[Steeldancer he/him]

Totally vivenna. 

[Subvisual Haze]

I freely admit that Ash is stretch, but the inclusion of the portraits of Heralds in the novel seems important.  Now that the Everstorm has appeared, the hiding Heralds should presumably start to show their faces more - although I suspect many of them are crazy and/or rather useless at this point to the war effort.  We know a back-5 book is planned to have Ash as a focus character, so at some point she will need to insert herself into the main narrative, even if subtlety at first.

Ash was the former patron of Shallan's order, and even more is presumably a master at lightweaving and disguising herself, so we would need to look for subtle "tells" that any new character might be her.  

Ishnah nonchalantly appearing at the scene of the 3rd copycat crime seems a bit too convenient.  The way she artfully deflects suspicion from herself by implying that Shallan must have a thing for stabbing Horneaters (distracting Shallan by putting her on the defensive) again implies that Ishnah is more than she appears.  Ash as an identity is a stretch, but Ishnah does seem to be up to something.  She might be involved in the crimes herself, investigating them, or possible spying on Shallan for one of the other secret societies.

[Calderis he/him]

16 minutes ago, Subvisual Haze said:

Ash was the former patron of Shallan's order, and even more is presumably a master at lightweaving and disguising herself, so we would need to look for subtle "tells" that any new character might be her.  

Except Shallash's Honorblade is with the Shin. She can't lightweaver without it, unless she's already attracted a spren. 

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

20 hours ago, Mulk said:

I'm not saying there's not reason.  I'm saying the leap to say every new thing in the book is an offworld reference is a little much is all. *shrugs*

It's an inevitable reaction to realizing how much secret stuff Brandon hides in these books.

First time Sanderson reader:

1. Reads book
2. Wow, that was really good!
3. Goes online to learn more about it
4. "omg there is so much neat stuff in there that I totally missed"
5. <feels foolish>

Experienced Sanderson reader:

1. Reads book
2. Every time a new character, object, idea, piece of history, etc, is introduced, rushes online to post all possible crackpot theories about who or what that might really be
3. Eventually, more is revealed
4. 99.99% of the crackpot theories lead nowhere, but inevitably (by virtue of all possible theories having being expanded out and posted) some few will turn out to be correct
5. "Aha, I called it!"
6. <feels smugly satisfied>

Edited October 25, 2017 by shawnhargreaves

[Mulk he/him]

31 minutes ago, shawnhargreaves said:

It's an inevitable reaction to realizing how much secret stuff Brandon hides in these books.

First time Sanderson reader:

1. Reads book
2. Wow, that was really good!
3. Goes online to learn more about it
4. "omg there is so much neat stuff in there that I totally missed"
5. <feels foolish>

Experienced Sanderson reader:

1. Reads book
2. Every time a new character, object, idea, piece of history, etc, is introduced, rushes online to post all possible crackpot theories about who or what that might really be
3. Eventually, more is revealed
4. 99.99% of the crackpot theories lead nowhere, but inevitably (by virtue of all possible theories having being expanded out and posted) some few will turn out to be correct
5. "Aha, I called it!"
6. <feels smugly satisfied>

Upvote That's pretty much exactly what my reaction is.  I just didn't post it that way, in part because I kinda worried individual people (no idea who, just someone) would interpret it as a shot at them.  My first website of this sort was dedicated to Wheel of Time, and it was the same sort of attitude there - theories based on all forms of minutiae, and like 1% would turn out right and that led to an absurd amount of crowing. It was hilarious and annoying at once.  I free admit I roll my eyes a lot at stuff I read here, but there's also a lot of things that make me laugh and a lot of others that make me think and reread.

[Leyrann]

8 minutes ago, Mulk said:

Upvote That's pretty much exactly what my reaction is.  I just didn't post it that way, in part because I kinda worried individual people (no idea who, just someone) would interpret it as a shot at them.  My first website of this sort was dedicated to Wheel of Time, and it was the same sort of attitude there - theories based on all forms of minutiae, and like 1% would turn out right and that led to an absurd amount of crowing. It was hilarious and annoying at once.  I free admit I roll my eyes a lot at stuff I read here, but there's also a lot of things that make me laugh and a lot of others that make me think and reread.

Hello fellow WoT fan!

I originally come from Dragonmount. How about you?

[Mulk he/him]

 

Just now, Leyrann said:

Hello fellow WoT fan!

I originally come from Dragonmount. How about you?

WoTMania, then Dragonmount when it absorbed WoTMania.  I haven't been back in some time though.

[Blacksmithki]

I find a lot of people on here like WoT (me to!) but I only started being involved with any discussion forums when they started to prerelease these chapters, besides, I read WoT after Brandon finished the series, I found out about it through it being mentioned by family that stopped reading it partway through and saw Brandon mentioning him finishing it.

[kari-no-sugata]

On 24/10/2017 at 4:51 PM, Subvisual Haze said:

The short woman scrambled after her. “My name is Ishnah. I’m an excellent writer. I can take dictations. I have experience moving in the market underground.”

There's been enough said on overblown theories so let's treat her as she says she is.

So anyway, going by the line above, she does have some useful experience. I don't blame Shallan for firmly shutting the door on her for now. But, what if she tries again? (Shallan tried a few times with Jasnah after all). One thing that has come up is that Shallan technically has a maid but said maid doesn't have much to do since Shallan has lots of secrets. Well, what if Shallan has someone who can fulfil a basic maid job but help Shallan with other things?

Maybe she'll turn up again when Shallan gets her soldiers drunk. If she gets involved with that and getting rid of the Odium spren thing then there might be no going back...

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

27 minutes ago, kari-no-sugata said:

There's been enough said on overblown theories so let's treat her as she says she is.

 

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My name is Ishnah. I’m an excellent writer.

 

Brandon cameo: confirmed!

[treblkickd he/him]

I think I should go ahead and complete the trifecta: clearly Ishnah is May Aladar in disguise. 

So there we have it, Liss=Vivenna=May Aladar (= every new female character introduced in OB)

 

[StormingTexan he/him]

3 hours ago, shawnhargreaves said:

It's an inevitable reaction to realizing how much secret stuff Brandon hides in these books.

First time Sanderson reader:

1. Reads book
2. Wow, that was really good!
3. Goes online to learn more about it
4. "omg there is so much neat stuff in there that I totally missed"
5. <feels foolish>

 

Ah the simple days when I just read Brandon's books before finding this site.