Shallan's Horrid Soulcasting - Testament

[teknopathetic]

I wonder if Shallan is a terrible soulcaster because of her broken bond with Testament? I am not sure if it is blocked since she doesn't want to remember soulcasting, or if her soulcasting abilities are somehow more connected to Testament in terms of use.

One clue is that Shallan seems to hear Testament when she soulcasts the blood, so my guess is she will never be able to fully do it until she revives or releases Testament.

Make me wonder too if soul casting is the secret to Shallan's weird past. Did she soulcast something as a child and that is what got her in trouble? 

[Dancer]

When she was formless she was able to Soulcast just fine. She Soulcast the lock on Kalak's door easily saying that is was a no problem and that Shallan was just useless at it. So it's not that her ability to Soulcast is tied to Testament it's just that Shallan gave the ability to Soulcast to one of her alters. 

[teknopathetic]

15 hours ago, Dancer said:

When she was formless she was able to Soulcast just fine. She Soulcast the lock on Kalak's door easily saying that is was a no problem and that Shallan was just useless at it. So it's not that her ability to Soulcast is tied to Testament it's just that Shallan gave the ability to Soulcast to one of her alters. 

But formless isn't a real alter? She just decided to disregard all of her emotional hangups and go full-dark. I wonder if faux-formless remembered Testament or not? 

Edited December 28, 2020 by teknopathetic

[Theoryspren]

In the book it was made clear that Formless was actually the Shallan alter just really angry and scarrerd and that Shallan had lied to herself and tried to convice herself it was another alter but it was really just her. We get this when Veil is talking to Formless after she takes over and says something like, Shallan I know it is you, you can't hide from me I am your veil. 

[Bri-Y]

I think I remember that it’s much easier to soulcast in Shadesmar for whatever reason. And Shallan wasn’t doing anything complicated like food. She did a basic soulcast into smoke.

[the winter system]

On 12/28/2020 at 1:27 PM, Theoryspren said:

In the book it was made clear that Formless was actually the Shallan alter just really angry and scarrerd and that Shallan had lied to herself and tried to convice herself it was another alter but it was really just her. We get this when Veil is talking to Formless after she takes over and says something like, Shallan I know it is you, you can't hide from me I am your veil. 

As an actually plural person, it's completely possible that the statements "Formless was actually the Shallan headmate but hurt" and "Formless was a different headmate" can coexist. - Nix. 

[Frustration]

45 minutes ago, the winter system said:

As an actually plural person, it's completely possible that the statements "Formless was actually the Shallan headmate but hurt" and "Formless was a different headmate" can coexist. - Nix. 

So are you saying that it's possible that Formless is inside the Shallan, that's in Shallan.

Do I want to ask?

[the winter system]

7 minutes ago, Frustration said:

So are you saying that it's possible that Formless is inside the Shallan, that's in Shallan.

Do I want to ask?

Subsystems are a thing, though I meant more along the lines of "identity blurry and the line between a headmate in a strongly different mood and an entirely different headmate isn't very solid."