Shallan's Chapter Picture

[LegitName he/him]

OK so for most of Words of Radiance We see things like this cool symbol whenever Shallan has a PoV chapter:

Whenever we get one of her flashbacks we see something like this:

With inverted colors.

 

However... It wasn't always like this.

Below is Shallan's last PoV chapter (chapter 7)

Look familiar?  Yes.  Look at the Prologue, which features Jasnah:

It has the same picture.

Why did Shallan's picture change from a view of Shadesmar (Better question: it's shadesmar, right?) to a swirling patten?  And I know what some of you may be thinking, but Pattern is described as a set of lines - not curves (I am 87.32% sure).  So I don't think that its Pattern.  Did it have something to do with the events of Chapter 7?  Possibly.  In this chapter, Shallan lightweaved (not for the first time, though, right?).  She also soulcast an ENTIRE ship into water (once again, not for the first time, right?).  You guys are smarter than me and maybe even discussed this already.  What are your theories?

[Agent34]

Curves are also a kind of line. I'm not sure of why it was changed (although it may be because she was on her own as opposed to being connected with Jasnah) but I'm fairly certain it's Pattern.

[Oversleep]

How can you say it's not Pattern when there is a whole page of illustration dedicated to Pattern? It was right between chapters 2 and 3:

[LegitName he/him]

Ah I did not see that.

So that raises the question, why did her picture change to Pattern after her separation from Jasnah?

Or maybe I'm the only person who cares about this stuff.

[RShara she/her]

Maybe because she doesn't ever touch Shadesmar after leaving Jasnah?  After that, it's learning about Pattern and how to use stormlight.

[Doomdrinker she/her]

That picture is the chaper header for Jasnah in her oathbringer chapters. 

[PhoenixQuill]

If I remember correctly the picture of Shadesmar is the picture used for the Shallan chapters in The Way of Kings. It then changes to the picture of Pattern for the majority of Words of Radiance. They then use the same picture of Shadesmar for the few Jasnah chapters.

[Tesh Any pronouns]

They did the same thing with the flashbacks in OB and tWoK. 

Shallan's picture was like that until she and Jasnah were separated. (And, @RShara, technically, Shallan did go back into Shadesmar twice after that. If you count the time where she soulcasted The Wind's Pleasure. Then the "I am a stick" sequence). Then in OB, the chapters from Jasnah's PoV are also headed by the picture of Shadesmar. It's probably just because when Shallan thought she had lost Jasnah, she sort of pushed her soulcasting ability aside, and focused on lightweaving instead. 

[Mestiv he/him]

I'd like to remind everyone that this thread is not in the OB board, so no spoilers from OB are allowed. So far nobody posted anything really spoilery, but OB has been mentioned, so I write it just in case. 

[RShara she/her]

Here's a clarification from Brandon

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

You know the artwork, the arches with the faces? What are those?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Those are each of the heralds. And those archways, Isaac picks based on what he thinks the themes of the chapter are. I don't pick which faces go on there. He reads the chapter, he's the artist who does all the maps and symbols and stuff, he tries to align what's happening with the emotions represented by the various characters. 

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

And the thing underneath it is?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Generally the symbol of the viewpoint character. But those shift. Like for instance we sometimes start with a general one, and as the characters get more individual we add ones specifically for them. Usually you'll have one that's the viewpoint character, and then like for instance the ones for Jasnah and Shallan split apart when originally they just had one, and stuff like that.

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