Why the Shin are Neutral

[Lightspine]

Ash dropped us this tidbit in today's chapter:

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“They are… unpredictable,” the Herald said. “I eventually left them behind. They tried to kill me, but that I could take. It was when they started to worship me…” Ash crossed her arms, pulling them tight. “They had legends… prophecies about the coming of this Return. I didn’t believe it would ever happen. Didn’t want to believe.”

This immediately reminded me of Nin's exchange with Szeth at the end of Words of Radiance:

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"Who are you?" Szeth asked.

"You spend this long obeying the precepts of your people and religion, yet you fail to recognize one of your gods?"

"My gods are the spirits of the stones," Szeth whispered. "The sun and the stars. Not men."

"Nonsense. Your people revere the spren of stone, but you do not worship them."

That crescent... He recognized it, didn't he?

"You, Szeth," the man said, "worship order, do you not? You follow the laws of your society to perfection. This attracted me, though I worry that emotion has clouded your ability to discern. Your ability to ... judge."

Judgement.

"Nin," he whispered. "The one they call Nalan, or Nale, here. Herald of Justice."

...

"No," Szeth whispered. "The Voidbringers have returned. I was right, and my people ... they were wrong."

"You were banished by petty men with no vision. I will teach you the path of one uncorrupted by sentiment. You will bring this back to your people, and you will carry with you justice for the leaders of the Shin."

Ash says that the Shin began to worship her, but Szeth explicitly says they worship "The sun and the stars. Not men." Now, some people might interpret Nin's conversation as implying that Szeth is part of some splinter religion that worships the Heralds—this is what I thought on my first read-through—but I don't think this is the case. Szeth must have been an extremely devout, or else he would never have obeyed his Oathstone with such dedication. He was also probably a religious leader, perhaps one of the Stone Shamans themselves. In his POV chapters, he constantly references his beliefs about stone, and refers to the Sun as the god of gods.

Nin isn't saying that Szeth worships the Heralds. Instead, he explicitly says "You, Szeth, worship order, do you not? You follow the laws of your society to perfection." This is not a truth about Szeth's religion. It is an observation made by a megalomaniac Herald who sees Szeth's devotion to law and calls it a religion because he thinks himself to be some sort of God of Law.

So, what's up with Ash's worship? And with those prophecies about a new desolation, which make it strange that Szeth's warnings were ignored?

The key here is Ash's statement that "I eventually left them behind." The current religion of Stone Shamanism is not at all the religion she was involved with. For all we know, it's been four thousand years since they worshipped Ash. Or maybe just a couple hundred. It would be great if she could tell us when things happened, but no such luck.

Anyway, the tenants behind Stone Shamanism has lead to a lot of theorizing about it being an ancient religion from before the Desolations. Oaths and Truth are very important to them, which smells of Honor. Ash has Shin eyes, so they might be the first Human ethnic group to come to Roshar. Their refusal to walk on stone is highly theorized to be a remnant from the first agreement of humankind to not expand beyond Shinovar. Worship of the spren of the stones is also quite likely tied to the Sibling, especially since they see Urithiru as holy. This idea is also supported by their language:

 

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Questioner

Did the Dawnchant originate on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

The Dawnchant originate on Roshar? Um, the Dawnchant… Yes… What I won't tell you or not is whether the Dawnchant is an evolution from a different language, but the Dawnchant itself is from Roshar.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

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Questioner

Is the Dawnchant native to Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

...Yeah. Dawnchant is what they were speaking when humans came over. It is their language. It is the Dawnsingers' language. So yeah, that is native to Roshar.

Oathbringer Houston signing (Nov. 18, 2017)

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IneptProfessional

Since you mention languages on Roshar, are there any languages that are completely unrelated to any other on the planet?

Brandon Sanderson

Our basic language families are:

Vorin: Alethi, Veden, Herdazian, and more distantly Thaylen. Nathan is close to dead, but shares a root, and Karbranthian is basically a dialect. Other minor languages like Bav are in here.

Makabaki: Azish is king here, and most the languages around split off this. There are around thirty of these.

Dawnate: A varied language family with distant roots in the dawnchant. Shin, parshendi, Horneater. They share grammar, but they diverged long enough ago that the vocabulary is very different.

Iri: Iriali, Reshi, Purelake dialects, Riran, and some surrounding languages.

Aimian: These two are lumped together, but are very different. Probably what you were looking for.

That isn't counting spren languages, of course. I might have missed something. Typing on my phone without my wiki handy.

General Reddit 2016 (Nov. 29, 2016)

In addition, there are some parallels between the Shin and Horneater worship of gods of stone and mountains. If we follow these threads, it would seem that some Shin traditions might be ancient, tying as far back as to the original culture of the Dawnsingers.

And I think this is precisely why they wanted to kill Ash.

The Shin follow the precepts given to them by the Dawnsingers long ago. They follow Honor and Cultivation. They follow the gods referenced in the Eila Stele: "spren, stone, and wind," but stone in particular because it was the Sibling who raised the Misted Mountains and separated Shinovar from the rest of the continent. (Roshar doesn't have plate tectonics. Where else could mountains come from? The continent moves from highstorm weathering and crem deposition, so the land to the west is newer than the land to the east. These mountains are new. The Sibling is their jail-keeper, warden, and God) They are still bound by their agreement to never leave Shinovar. In the times of the Silver Kingdoms, each Kingdom had a special role. Alethela trained soldiers and prepared for war. Shin Kak Nish may have been the opposite; a place of peace and neutrality, remembering the original contract between the Dawnsingers and Humanity.

Ash is a twice a traitor. She walks on stone and helps those who conquered Roshar. Then, she betrays the Oathpact and leaves Taln to suffer alone. Oaths and honesty are important to Stone Shamanism. I don't see them taking this well.

But why switch to worshipping her? Pay attention to phrasing:

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It was when they started to worship me…” Ash crossed her arms, pulling them tight. “They had legends… prophecies about the coming of this Return. I didn’t believe it would ever happen. Didn’t want to believe.”

One interpretation of this is that the Shin worshipped Ash because of their prophecies. Her betrayal allowed for the current situation, giving a chance for the Singers to return and take back their rightful land.

Presently, the Shin are neutral. They do not send forces against the Singers or the Coalition. They sit back and let the Stonewalkers receive their punishment. But they are not on the side of Odium. If this is their motive, it might explain a lot.

So yeah, that's my theory.

TL;DR: As others have theorized, Stone Shamanism is a leftover from Humankind's first contract with the Singers. Because of this, they remain neutral in the current Desolation and are maybe sort of pleased that it is happening. This could explain why they wanted to murder Ash initially, but then worshipped her after their prophecies surfaced.

Edit: I began this intending it as a post about Szeth, forgot that I began it in Character Discussion when I changed the topic a bit. Sorry mods! Please move this to a different thread if you feel it doesn't belong.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Lightspine