[OB] Why Shalash destroyed all art depicting her

[Leyrann]

I think Shalash wasn’t actually truly insane. Rather, she absolutely loathed herself for making Taln suffer Damnation on his own for four millennia. This is also why, now that she and Taln have met up together, she won’t suffer any “madness” anymore; Taln has already told her several times that he thinks bending (as I’ll call it) the Oathpact is the best thing they could have ever done. Once she lets this get through to her (if she hasn’t already), there’s no reason for her insanity anymore. This means that Ash and Taln will be the first two Heralds to stand with the refounded Knights Radiant.

[IntentAwesome]

We still don’t know what exactly caused their madness. The Stormfather mentioned that the Heralds all shared a bond—and the pain—when they were tortured. And Brandon has mentioned multiple times that the Oathoact wasn’t fully broken. I wonder if part of their madness comes from still sharing a bond with Taln even though they weren’t directly tortured. 

It seems that Nale, Ash, and now Taln have snapped out of it a little. Could this be because Taln isn’t actively being tortured anymore?

I don’t think that is all of their madness, else why haven’t they all recovered? But I think it was a piece of it  

And yes, I do think they are going to help the Knights Radiant, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to return to their position as Heralds.

 

[Leyrann]

I actually don't think Nale is going to help the Knights Radiant. He seems to have chosen the native inhabitants (listeners).

[IntentAwesome]

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I meant that Ash and Taln are going to help the knights Radiant. 

But I would say that Nale also has had a shift from insane to slightly less insane, even though he has chosen the Listeners. 

[Chaos he/him]

1 minute ago, IntentAwesome said:

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I meant that Ash and Taln are going to help the knights Radiant. 

But I would say that Nale also has had a shift from insane to slightly less insane, even though he has chosen the Listeners. 

*singers  

[IntentAwesome]

8 minutes ago, Chaos said:

*singers  

Right! How could I mix those up? *facepalm* 

[Chaos he/him]

Just now, IntentAwesome said:

Right! How could I mix those up? *facepalm* 

Well, probably because we've been calling them listeners for three years, not knowing that listeners still just refers to that group of singers, and not the whole species.

[Subvisual Haze]

I agree, while there is a compulsive nature to the action, Ash destroying images of herself is based on simple guilt.  She failed at her mission and abandoned a friend, and seeing humanity revering her name and image must feel painfully hypocritical for her.

I think a lot of the Herald's "insanities" will be of a more mundane manner than Nale's, not necessarily requiring a magical explanation.  These are humans who have lived for thousands of years, the overwhelming majority of those years spent in war or actively being tortured.  Even once freed from the tortures, they then had to spent 4500 years living in perpetual shame of their "failures".  I think this would turn just about anyone into a broken emotional wreck.

I think the final chapter with Ash further implies that this is the first time she has lost consciousness in thousands of years?  Not sleeping cannot be good for one's thought processes.  Sleep is a necessary psychological escape valve for disrupting ruminating negative thoughts.

[Leyrann]

2 minutes ago, Subvisual Haze said:

I think the final chapter with Ash further implies that this is the first time she has lost consciousness in thousands of years?  Not sleeping cannot be good for one's thought processes.  Sleep is a necessary psychological escape valve for disrupting ruminating negative thoughts.

There's a difference between sleeping and falling unconscious though.

That being said, I don't have the book here and I've only read the scene once, so maybe it does imply she never slept; I don't know.

[Subvisual Haze]

5 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

There's a difference between sleeping and falling unconscious though.

That being said, I don't have the book here and I've only read the scene once, so maybe it does imply she never slept; I don't know.

Good point, the definition of the term unconscious is more contentious than I realized.  (This embarrassingly coming from someone who worked in a Neurological ICU for a couple years and could calculate Glasgow Coma Scales off the top of his head.  I guess I've always seen unconsciousness as a spectrum of altered consciousness.)

[ROSHtaFARian2.0]

Actually, weirdly I think there's a lot more going on with Shalash destroying images of herself than mere insanity or guilt. I think it has something to do with the nature of magic on Roshar and the Oathpact and Heralds. Basically, every time it comes up, it makes me think of the Interlude from Way of Kings where we saw those two researches studying how the act of observing spren affects them. Surgebinding has a lot to do with quantum mechanics, and in quantum mechanics, the mere act of observing something has a lot to do with defining and shaping reality. Add to that the fact that Shalash is the Herald most closely linked with the Surge that allows for crafting illusions and affecting how people see and perceive things. 

Now again, this might just speak to Ash's state of mind and her guilt as others have said, but I do wonder if all of the above plays into the why her actions revolve around destroying her own iconography. Perhaps, either metaphysically and magically, or else merely just psychologically, for her the art that depicts her AS SHE WAS is similar to watching a spren to lock it into a certain state or form....as in art that shows her as a Herald, as Honorable, has connotations of binding her to that state of being and thus destroying that art is not mere self-loathing for her, but to her mind is an act of active rebellion, of breaking free of that state of being, that incarnation of herself, in a way that just breaking the Oathpact didn't. 

Alternatively, depending on how deep the connection to quantum mechanics goes in this magic system (and we know it goes pretty deep), destroying the images of herself as a Herald could be a result of manipulation, could have actual real, metaphysical consequences that keep her separated from what she was, from reclaiming her honor and her former nature as a Herald. Maybe similar to Nale killing off potential Skybreakers? 

Like, what if the Heralds' insanity might be a result of an Unmade taking advantage of whatever weakness walking away from the Oathpact left in them, and actively widening the cracks to keep them weak and unable to become the threat they once were? And thus the particular shape their insanity takes is directly linked to a means of KEEPING them weakened and insane, such as the Herald of Illumination and sight, perception, etc, destroying the very images that cast her as a Herald, as Honorable, as perceived by the masses as a being of power and a force for good.