[OB] Will the real Shallan please stand up

[StrikerEZ he/him]

26 minutes ago, SLNC said:

Yep, it would be very weird if she's completely different after everything we saw.

Still, I see especially Veil so juxtaposed from what maskShallan represents, that I find it also weird to consider them both part of the same person, without one of them being fake.

I'm in a precarious position here.

You see, with Veil, I see her as just Shallan, without all the tragic stuff about her parents affecting her and less of Shallan’s qurkiness and humor. Veil is a part of Shallan simply because Veil is Shallan, but there are parts about of her that are not true. There are parts of Shallan that are not true. There are parts of Radiant that are not true. But at the core of each of these masks/personas/whatevers is a piece of who Shallan really is, with some extra stuff added on top. At least, that’s how I view it.

[Kon-Tiki he/him]

Like Kaladin says of Dalinar giving up the Shardblade, at what point does the act become real?

[Rushu42 she/her]

It's a very complex topic, especially since I don't know anything about psychology, but I doubt that the "real" Shallan is going to be completely different. I think that perhaps her real self is closest to what we saw when she didn't have to pretend about anything. That was very rare, but we do see it occassionally, like when Shallan was on the Wind's Pleasure for the first time. Obviously a lot has happened to her since then, so she will have changed, but I think that a lot of that part was authentic. Or maybe I'm just not wiling to give up Shallan as the witty, adventurous scholar with a knack for drawing and an eye for nature.

[Sedside she/her]

I also agree that Veil has the most truth of all the personas. maskShallan seems kinda useless. What did Shallan accomplish using maskShallan? She just sits, draws and wants to run away and hide. Whenever she needs to do something meaningful she uses either Veil or Radiant. maskShallan only serves one purpose - to show her to others. And I totally agree with SLNC and quote about "Shallan became the perfect daughter". I think she invented maskShallan after killing her mother and lived in it for probably almost all her childhood. But she was not maskShallan when helping her brothers, especially dealing with Jushu's debt. This behaviour is much closer to Veil with her compassion, proactivity and bravery.

It actually seems to me that Shallan has pushed too much of her problems to other personas, leaving maskShallan almost empty. She doesn't even know what she wants. What's left there, except for drawing skills and Adolin, who is meant to hold it in place? Well, she'll get bored with Adolin in a year of timeskip, push her drawing skills to Radiant, and dismiss maskShallan.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Sedside

[Guest]

Hm, maybe I worded myself badly.

I don't want to suggest, that maskShallan is worthless or not part of Shallan. Indeed, I believe, that the scholar, that likes to draw is inherently part of her. What I rather want to do is counter the idea, that maskShallan is Shallan and Veil and Radiant are not parts of Shallan, but rather pure fabrications.

[Jofwu he/him]

Yep. This is just off the top of my head, in this moment, but... Looking at each of these personas, some of the things that stick out which I think are part of the "real" Shallan would be...

"MaskShallan"

• artist -- Shallan sees the world as an artist and loves capturing her observations and experiences with art
• scholar -- Shallan loves to learn/study things, particularly natural history and biology
• optimistic -- I think Shallan is usually hopeful and tends to see (or at least look for?) the good in people. This also seems tied to her naivety?
• encourager -- Hard to distill this into a single word, but I think Shallan has a talent for encouraging others. (though she doesn't always put this to use, and sometimes uses it in manipulative ways)
• goofy -- She's a dork. Partly tied to the scholar/artist bits, with her being a bit of a nerd. She likes jokes, good or bad. She likes teasing people.

Veil

• daring -- Shallan is a risk taker, and that really shines in Veil.
• rogue -- Another one that's tough to capture in a word. I think Shallan hates responsibility. She doesn't like people expecting things of her. She doesn't like the pressure of others depending on her. In Veil, she does what she wants without answering to anybody. Similarly, she doesn't like relying on others. She wants to control her own destiny

Radiant

Huh... This one's really hard, though it's the one we've see the least of so maybe that's not surprising. Perhaps...

• elitist/prideful? -- This negative aspect of Shallan really shines in Radiant. I just get this sense that Shallan thinks she's better than others sometimes. As Radiant it seems like she can be a real snob.

There's definitely more that could be said in all of these... You could also look at the flip side: what aspects of these personas is very much NOT Shallan. And we also have this interesting question of... Is she acting this or that way because she IS like that... or because she WANTS to be like that. For now, it's my bedtime.

What would you guys add/change/remove?

[Jace21 he/him]

I agree that her decision to become "the perfect daughter" was probabky the last time the "true" Shallan emerged fully.

I have always read it as maskShallan being the "original" Shallan but with a lot of traits buried. Her rogueishness, pride, daring, adventurousness etc. that formed part of her personality were buried, along with her fears, guilt and insecurities, creating the "perfect daughter" persona.

Some of the more positive traits slipped out sometimes when she felt comfortable, such as with her brothers, and some of her personal issue manifested more when under stress or confronted with a direct reminder.

She has then put the buried positive traits, along with added things, into Radiant and Veil, which along with maskShallan became full personas.

But she won't become "Shallan" again until she accepts Radiant and Veil's strengths as her own and also truly accepts her past and her weaknesses. Despite the 4th ideal and Radiant and Veil having their own issues, I still think Shallan's inability to deal with her past is stopping the issues being fully resolved. 

Not a pyschologist but thats my take on it.

[Sedside she/her]

14 hours ago, SLNC said:

Hm, maybe I worded myself badly.

I don't want to suggest, that maskShallan is worthless or not part of Shallan. Indeed, I believe, that the scholar, that likes to draw is inherently part of her. What I rather want to do is counter the idea, that maskShallan is Shallan and Veil and Radiant are not parts of Shallan, but rather pure fabrications.

Maybe I worded myself badly too, I only meant that maskShallan was invented after the death of her mother. The idea of her being worthless is the thing I added from myself.

Regarding countering the idea of Veil/Radiant being not Shallan, well, I think there is even a text evidence for that:

Quote

Shallan blushed. It occured to her that this person she became when she put on the hat and dark hair was not an imitation of someone else, not a different person. It was just a version of Shallan herself.

This WoR chapter is called "Veil's Lesson", and I think this is the lesson, actually.

1 hour ago, Jofwu said:

• artist -- Shallan sees the world as an artist and loves capturing her observations and experiences with art
• scholar -- Shallan loves to learn/study things, particularly natural history and biology
• optimistic -- I think Shallan is usually hopeful and tends to see (or at least look for?) the good in people. This also seems tied to her naivety?
• encourager -- Hard to distill this into a single word, but I think Shallan has a talent for encouraging others. (though she doesn't always put this to use, and sometimes uses it in manipulative ways)
• goofy -- She's a dork. Partly tied to the scholar/artist bits, with her being a bit of a nerd. She likes jokes, good or bad. She likes teasing people.

She struggles with scholar in OB. There is a moment on the meeting with Jasnah and scholars, where she is in doubt that scholarship is the thing she wants. After that she decides to run away and join Kholinar mission. I also think that encourager is not the part of maskShallan as well. It's probably more to Radiant, as it requires confidence.

1 hour ago, Jofwu said:

• daring -- Shallan is a risk taker, and that really shines in Veil.
• rogue -- Another one that's tough to capture in a word. I think Shallan hates responsibility. She doesn't like people expecting things of her. She doesn't like the pressure of others depending on her. In Veil, she does what she wants without answering to anybody. Similarly, she doesn't like relying on others. She wants to control her own destiny

I would add compassion here. She cares about people in Kholinar and their problems deeply trouble her. She also is more somewhat lively - she likes to spend time with people, drinking, laughing with men and so on. Maybe passionate as well.

1 hour ago, Jofwu said:

elitist/prideful? -- This negative aspect of Shallan really shines in Radiant. I just get this sense that Shallan thinks she's better than others sometimes. As Radiant it seems like she can be a real snob.

Confident, rational, brilliant, maybe aristocratic. Well, Jasnah type, you know.

Edited February 3, 2019 by Sedside

[insert_anagram_here]

@Jofwu  

I can't fail to notice that you are attributing just negative things on Veil and Radiant. Nobody is perfect and it comes to reason that Shallan isn't perfect either. By attributing just negative attributes to Veil and Radiant, you're essentially proving the point that this is what Shallan has been doing as well. Pushing back stuff she doesn't like unto 'other people'. But as Wit said 'find the balance, accept the pain, but don't accept that you deserved it', they are parts of her, that is the truth and she should've just faced it, especially before jumping into a marriage.

I've also noticed that you claimed a few posts ago that the personas are pretty much static, that's not true. Shallan obviously had different masks in the past. If you go back and re-read WoR you can distinctively notice her, multiple times, changing into different people after being overcome by a sense of 'coldness'. One of those moments she killed Lin as well. Those masks initially didn't even have names, she couldn't even differentiate them as separate parts of her, but they were there nonetheless. And they have been evolving ever since. 

Even in OB, Veil went through a transformation, by receiving Shallan's compassionate feelings for the people of Kholinar. If it wasn't for Grund's death, Veil wouldn't have 'broken'. It's not that Veil shouldn't have existed in the first place, but Shallan still placed the blame for Grund's death on Veil and then stuffed her at the back of her mind.

The truest moment that Shallan was the most whole, she couldn't even identify herself, and 'Shallan' was just one part of her. (OB Loc 15033) :

Quote

Nobody could see her. Had anyone ever seen her? She stopped on the street corner, wearing shifting faces and clothing, enjoying the sensation of freedom, clothed yet naked skin shivering at the wind’s kiss. Around her, people ducked away into buildings, frightened. Just another spren, Shallan/Veil/Radiant thought. That’s what I am. Emotion made carnal. She lifted her hands to the sides, exposed, yet invisible. She breathed the breaths of a city’s people. “Mmm . . .” Pattern said, unweaving himself from her discarded dress. “Shallan?” “Maybe,” she said, lingering. Finally, she let herself slip fully into Veil’s persona. 

3

I'm not trying to change your mind, but I have a different interpretation of this, as for a group of other people do as well.

[Void89 he/him]

Malchin was stymied, for though he was inferior to none in the arts of war, he was not suitable for the Lightweavers, he wished for his oaths to be elementary and straightforward, and yet their spren were liberal, as to our comprehension, in definitions pertaining to this matter, the process included speaking truths as an approach to a threshold of self-awareness that Malchin could never attain.

 

That said, I think Shallan simply speaks way too few truths and is lying far too much compared to her truths which leaves her clueless who she even is. I think that self awareness is so freakishly important for Lightweavers because if they don't exactly know who they are they will get lost in their power.

Let's just kind of reverse engineer that:

 

Shallan "lied" to herself all those years about what happened to her mother. That's one lie and everything was more or less stable at that time.

Then she had to go to Jasnah and steal the soulcaster, on her way there she didn't yet lie to anybody - she knew what she was doing and so did her brothers, she accepted it, she was sort of free - also when she told jasnah later about it - all in all when she came clean with her stuff she was happier, more relaxed and I think the so far "truest self".

(Shredding Book merchants, talking to sailors the way she did, giving Jasnah lip at her "examination", etc)

And then when Jasnah "died" the whole stuff started to fall apart.

She had to infiltrate the ghostbloods, talk herself into wooing adolin (at that time she didn't made it out of love or affection but because she had a plan "she couldn't mess this up" - sure the fact that he is handsome helped, but it wasn't something she made out of potential feelings someday but pure calculation)

After that she lied a lot, to Adolin, to herself, to the Ghostbloods, to Ameram to literally everybody except Kaladin (not going into that too much because not really important here - but chasm scene aside, when she talks to him she is usually nasty and the most honest with her insults than we see her at any other time).

 The balance of lies and truths just isn't there anymore and she creates Veil, which gives her more stuff to lie about, then she creates radiant - more lies.

And somewhere along the way she just doesn't know who she is anymore, because she lied too much to cope and there is no end for it in sight, her spren might be liberal and like lies, because that's where her powers are rooted, but in order to progress in order to excell you have to speak truths as a lightweaver, and shallan just is more than reluctant to do so.

 

All that said, I don't think any of the 3 "Veil/maskShallan/Radiant" is the true one or one more true than the other by default - it's more like a situational thing - how many truths did she speak at that time? How many lies, was there a moment of a powerful truth when she was in one or the other persona? (like Re-Shephir) - they are all her, but not constantly the same amount like 1/3 Veil, 1/3 maskShallan, 1/3 Radiant.

 

I hope this makes at least somewhat sense to you, because I don't think I could break it down any more, this really is a freaking complicated topic

Edited February 3, 2019 by Void89

[Sedside she/her]

I've noticed a couple more interesting quotes in OB today, and I am struggling with understanding them:

Quote

Maybe she could move into Rockfall, act the part. And the former lady of the house? Well, she was an inferior version, obviously. Just deal with her, take her place. It would feel right, wouldn’t it?

With a chill, Veil let one layer of illusion drop. Storms … Storms. What had that been?

“Not to give offense, Brightness,” Vathah said, putting his sack of sausages in the dumbwaiter, “but you can stand there and supervise. Or you can storming help, and get twice as much food along with half as much ego.”

“Sorry,” Veil said, grabbing a sack of grain. “That woman’s head is a frightening place.”

“Well, I did say that Nananav is notoriously difficult.”

Yeah, Veil thought. But I was talking about Shallan.

Are those Shallan's thoughts to deal with Nananav and take her place? Or are those Shallan's thoughts influenced by Nananav's disguise?

And another quote:

Quote

It’s too small, she thought. That was what Jasnah would say. I’m thinking too small.

Along the street, she passed people who whimpered and suffered. Far too many hungerspren in the air, and fearspren at nearly every corner. She had to do something to help.

Like throwing a thimbleful of water onto a bonfire.

She stood at an intersection, head bowed, as the shadows grew long, reaching toward night. Chanting broke her out of her trance. How long had she been standing there?

Bold emphasis mine. We remember from WoR that she had several episodes of standing and staring to nowhere when reminded about her mother's death. Same thing is happening here to Veil when she is thinking that her help won't be enough. What does it mean? Is she suppressing something as Veil too?

Edited February 3, 2019 by Sedside

[Void89 he/him]

Well Veil still has all the shallan memories as well, could be some parallel to the way she tried to soothe her father.

He did take the blame and was influenced to act the way he did, and shallan knew she was somehow softening the whole thing, that's why she didn't want to leave with balat "father would have no one and we would let him alone with that monster" (or something like that, don't remember the exact quote).

That as well was something alike "throwing a thimbleful of water into a bonfire"

That's just on top of my head, could be something else entirely too

 

As for the above stuff, no idea - could be way too much, like Shallan losing herself completely and just adapting to whatever situation she's in - part of her "evil side" shining through after fragmenting too much... dunno, that part is interesting though!

Edited February 3, 2019 by Void89

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Sedside said:

She struggles with scholar in OB. There is a moment on the meeting with Jasnah and scholars, where she is in doubt that scholarship is the thing she wants. After that she decides to run away and join Kholinar mission. I also think that encourager is not the part of maskShallan as well. It's probably more to Radiant, as it requires confidence.

 

7 hours ago, insert_anagram_here said:

I've also noticed that you claimed a few posts ago that the personas are pretty much static, that's not true. Shallan obviously had different masks in the past. If you go back and re-read WoR you can distinctively notice her, multiple times, changing into different people after being overcome by a sense of 'coldness'. One of those moments she killed Lin as well. Those masks initially didn't even have names, she couldn't even differentiate them as separate parts of her, but they were there nonetheless. And they have been evolving ever since. 

I also don't think, that her masks are static at all. Indeed, they are constantly changing.

During a discussion with some other people, that love to try to figure Shallan out, I was inspired to a certain idea, which I'll try to explain by comparing it to - yes, this might sound weird at first, but bear with me - hardware virtualization.

They are few and far between, but I think we actually see some moments, where Shallan drops all pretences and is herself. Sometimes she is nudged by others to be that (her interactions with Hoid are a big hint of that, I think, but also her interactions with Kaladin during the chasms. Adolin, too, where she tells him her broken vase allegory), and sometimes it happens out of sheer panic - like the creation of Radiant. Or in moments of deep introspection, like what Anagram quoted, where she decided, that she dons Veil fully.

For reference, here is a schema:

If I would try to apply this schema to the whole construct of maskShallan (who calls herself Shallan, but I renamed it for clarity's sake)/Veil/Radiant, I'd do the following.

1. The hardware is a pool of "resources" - or in Shallan's case her body, her mind and a whole number of different personality traits.
2. The hypervisor is a routine, that allocates those "resources" to the different virtual instances - or in Shallan's case herself. Her real self.
3. The virtual machines (or instances) are sandboxed and share the host hardware - or in Shallan's case maskShallan, Veil and Radiant.

I want to make one thing clear: The hypervisor is a very specialized piece of software, firmware or hardware, that doesn't do anything else but, create virtual machines and allocate resources to the virtual machines at runtime.This is exemplified by the fact, that unlike the VMs (or Veil, maskShallan or Radiant) the hypervisor doesn't have a OS.
That is all Shallan is doing at the moment, creating virtual instances of herself, naming them, customizing them, allocating body and mind time towards the instances (basically switching between them) and allocating personality traits. Nothing else, she can't because she doesn't see herself as good enough. Ór in IT words, she doesn't have an working, but corrupted, Operating System to interface with the hardware to perform higher functions, but I believe, that she retained a sort of very basic interface to the hardware - like a safe mode. That is what sometimes shines through in those moments, that I mentioned above.

And that is also why the maskShallan, Veil and Radiant are not static. They do change over time, when Shallan - the hypervisor - decides, that they need a certain trait in a certain situation. A resource to solve a problem. Or she decides, that certain traits are not helpful right now and allocates them to a different instance.

Normally, this structure is pretty rock-steady as VMs are subject to the hypervisor. However, when the reality of the fact, that she herself killed her mother shook her, she soon decided to truly give in to the masks. Basically, she gave them control over herself and by that the hypervisor. This is what resulted in those rapid switches all the time. She lost control of her own system.

Edited February 3, 2019 by SLNC

[Jofwu he/him]

10 hours ago, Sedside said:

She struggles with scholar in OB.

A little bit, but I still think it's who she is. They show up in Kholinar and what does she do? She starts performing experiments to understand the corrupted spren better? She digs for information about the Unmade. She chafes under the expectations of others and the control of Jasnah. She doesn't enjoy every topic that she has to study.

I suppose "scholar" simply isn't the best word... But I do think she loves to study and learn new things, depending on the topic. She's just more of a Darwin who wants to be out in the world than a stuffy professor.

10 hours ago, Sedside said:

I also think that encourager is not the part of maskShallan as well.

I'm thinking of the way she holds her family together mainly. And the way she recruits the Gaz and company. Maybe a few other cases. Keeping up Kaladin's spirits in the chasms? But this is kind of a murky observation for sure.

10 hours ago, Sedside said:

I would add compassion here... Maybe passionate as well.

...

Confident, rational, brilliant, maybe aristocratic.

Yep, great list! I'm not entirely sure about the last 2... Have we seen Radiant be brilliant or aristocratic? I get the sense that she probably supposed to be those things, I just can't think of a time we've seen it. But this is a great list.

8 hours ago, insert_anagram_here said:

I can't fail to notice that you are attributing just negative things on Veil and Radiant.

I dont think "daring" is negative at all? And I didn't mean for "rogue" to come across that way. (I'd say it's good and bad)

But you're right. It was late and I was getting lazy Just wanted to put the thoughts down and pose the question for others. I think Sedside's list has a lot of great positive attributes for each of them.

8 hours ago, insert_anagram_here said:

I've also noticed that you claimed a few posts ago that the personas are pretty much static, that's not true.

I think my main point there was that "maskShallan" is NOT static. But saying the other personas ARE definitely doesn't seem right. Thanks for the challenge. Shallan can change them as needed, like SLNC is saying just above me, and I'd also say they can change naturally. (like with Grund)

Sorry if any of this is scatterbrained... Typed it on my phone while putting a baby to sleep.

[Void89 he/him]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but another quite interesting quote about Shallan that is easily missed because it's so very short:

When Pattern talks with Shallan after the Chasm scene in WoR on how she could progress as a Lightweaver:

 

"There is something more you must do". - "Words?" Shallan said. - "You have said the words." Pattern said. "You said them long ago. No. It is not words that you lack it is truth." - "You prefer lies." - "Mhhh, Yes and you are a lie, a powerful one. However what you do is not just lie. It is truth and lie mixed. You must understand both."

(WoR, Chapter 75, True Glory)

 

That really leads me to believe that we haven't seen the real Shallan quite yet, various aspects of her, more or less truthful sure, but an illusion nonetheless.

[Rushu42 she/her]

Shallan herself is an excellent illustration of a lie taken too far. At some point she stopped juist lying to ithers and moved to lying to herslef as well. It kind of reminds me of a line from the musical Dear Evan Hansen (my apologies to everyone who hasn't listened to it). This is when Evan, the title character is confessing all about the lies he's become tangled up in. The whole song, Words Fail, reminds me a lot of Shallan, but a few parts stood out. 

"And you want to believe it's true
So you make it true
And you think maybe everybody wants it
And needs it, a little bit too"

 

"No, I'd rather pretend I'm something better than these broken parts
Pretend I'm something other than this mess that I am
'Cause then I don't have to look at it
And no one gets to look at it
No, no one can really see".

I know that this isn't really a contribution to the theory, but I noticed this and thought that it was interesting. In context of Stormlight, however, I did wonder whether or not Pattern is actually good for Shallan. Even aside from the whole killing-her-mom thing, I don't think that he's a very good influence, emotionally. You can see Syl really helping Kaladin, pulling him out of depression (well, partially), giving him a new outlook on life, a friend he desperately needs, etc. But I think Pattern's love for lies has encouraged Shallan and led her down into her current state of mind. As a Lightweaver I think that part of it is finding the balance between truth and lies, which Shallan has, in no way achieved. Eventually even Pattern realizes that it's gone too far, but by then Shallan is so embroiled that she can't really break free. The way  I see it is that the normal balance is the Spren teaching lies and the Radiant discovering ineer truths in the process. Shallan, however, is so inclined toward lies that it rather backfires. At least, that's how I saw it.

[Sedside she/her]

10 hours ago, Jofwu said:

A little bit, but I still think it's who she is. They show up in Kholinar and what does she do? She starts performing experiments to understand the corrupted spren better? She digs for information about the Unmade. She chafes under the expectations of others and the control of Jasnah. She doesn't enjoy every topic that she has to study.

Yes, I agree, I forgot about that.

10 hours ago, Jofwu said:

I'm thinking of the way she holds her family together mainly. And the way she recruits the Gaz and company. Maybe a few other cases. Keeping up Kaladin's spirits in the chasms?

This is an encouraging thing, but I thought it was not what maskShallan did. She was acting more like Radiant, when recruiting Gaz and co, and chasms... Let's not talk about chasms, I am doing my best to restrain myself from Shalladin stuff in this thread, but this is a risky road  

11 hours ago, SLNC said:

I also don't think, that her masks are static at all. Indeed, they are constantly changing.

Great comparison with Virtual Machines, have an upvote! I agree, that personas are not static at all, she uses them constantly as a "dump" for everything she doesn't want at the moment.

Actually, that's what I see as the current picture of Shallan's character history:

1. Prior to killing her mother she was probably whole and mostly all right. She had traits or Veil/Radiant/Shallan all mixed up and probaby something more.
2. She kills her mother and invents maskShallan, who became a perfect daugther and, as in a mentioned above quote about Nananav, took realShallan's place in her family and home. She was kinda empty at start and the only thing she did was sketching, as Helaran told her. So sketching is probably something that originally mostly belongs to maskShallan. Creation of maskShallan and falling totally in this lie is what initially caused her to alsmost break her bond with Pattern. I would also like to notice, that this maskShallan is not necessarily a persona. It is just like a vessel or a virtual machine, that just uses a part of resources, while everything else is forgotten. She probably didn't have different personas back then, inventing them was a loophole to avoid facing the painful truth while not forgetting about it.
3. During her life in her father's estate she was facing some troubles that needed her intervention - keeping up the family together, joking with her brothers, helping them with their troubles (Jushu's debt, Balat's girlfriend, Wikim's studies), so she was subconsciously bringing up some of realShallan's forgotten skills into maskShallan as she needed them, though the vast majority was still buried in the back of her brain.
4. Then she killed her father and left her home. Under the influence of "outside" life's dangers and problems she kept remembering her real skills and traits, growing more self aware and therefore bringing Pattern back to life. Wind's Pleasure sinking catalysed this process drastically, and she became very capable. During WoR her skills grow, she becomes stronger, and, storms, she is just amazing Kaladin can nervously smoke in the corner.
5. But then Pattern demands the third Truth from her. And this is what catalyses some kind of a backward process, but as she can't push those memories into nowhere, because she said the truth, she creates Radiant and uses already existing Veil as a loophole to avoid memories. She started emptying maskShallan again, but now those traits are sorted into two personas instead of nothingness. And, in my opinion, her bond is weakening again. There were some quotes about Pattern going drowsy, not noticing his own sarcasm, Shallan losing his grip and so on, but there is one more, I think noone has quoted this before:

   Quote

   “I’ll consider,” she said. “Grund, is everything all right?”

   “Right. Sure, everything is great!” He paused. “Unless it shouldn’t be?”

   Pattern hummed softly on Veil’s coat. She agreed.

   <...>

   “Grund tells lies, doesn’t he?” Pattern whispered.

   Earlier in OB Pattern had read Mraize's letter and said there were lies in it, but now he is not sure if an urchin is lying or not? He is definitely not as smart as he was before.

Predictions time  We know, that Wit comes to our Radiants when they struggle with their Ideals the most. Wit came to Kaladin when he was imprisoned, but thankfully his case was resolved in the same book. Wit came to Shallan in Kholinar, but she hasn't yet understood his message, she probably has to hit the bottom of the chasm to get it. I think her reintegration will require her final Truth and this truth should be something like "I'm whole" or "I'm one person" or something similar to Dalinar, like "I accept my pain" or "I'm not pretending" or whatever.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Sedside