I have seen the theory that Shallans mom is Chanarach. I have not seen anyone support the idea that shallan herself is Chanarach. I want to put some thoughts here and see what you guys come up with. Definetely some holes right now.
My theory:
Shallan is an illusion created by the herald Chana so she could escape her tortured mind. Restart life as a kid. The whole problem of being controlled by your illusions is the manifestation of Chana’s messed up mind. She was a light weaver in the first place. She used to be in control of the roles she could play, now she is controlled by them. That is why shallan gets sucked into her characters so completely. She isn’t just messed up in the head in a normal way, she is herald messed up in the head. The secret is that shallan herself is a Made up character, and formless is either the herald taking back over, or the last line of defense that keeps the herald from taking over.
Shallans ability to “take a memory” doesn’t fit super well with the rest of the radiant powers, and there is a moment where one of the heralds mentions that wit taught them how to use investiture to store memories. that ability is weirdly identical to what shallan does, so maybe shallan is actually doing the same thing since she learned how to do it from wit as a herald. To my knowledge we haven’t seen anyone else do this.
This is also why wit made such a wierd reaction to seeing her for the first time. He saw right through the illusion and was suprized to see a herald. It also explains why he is so nice to her. He has a huge soft spot for the heralds because they were tortured for so long, and helped keep odium locked up. He is trying to help Chana overcome her own mind. When he says things like “keep chipping at those bonds little one” he isn’t just talking about family problems (quote may not be exact) he is referring to a heralds effort to overcome their tormented mind.
Also explains why even though we see Nale hunting down tons of surgebinders, we get no mention of him showing up to harass shallan, even though she was one for a long time. I think I remember a section where shallan POV randomly notices a tall man in a suit in the crowd. Maybe that is a tiny hint of a reference at Nale showing up and immediately leaving her alone. (Definetely a stretch)
it also helps further explain why she is so opposed to thinking about mother. It is a hole in her lie, perhaps “mother” was Chana, and then ”Chana” took the real kids place, and now thinking of mom makes it hard to keep the lie in place. She herself is mother.
There are a lot of quotes that stand out when you read the books this way. Shallan saying things like “shallan was the biggest lie of them all” in reference to her personas falling apart.
Also gives more explanation behind her being given multiple spren, and pattern saying that he would die and they would “send another”. she’s a herald… she’s famous?
Spren fill the cracks in souls, perhaps the criptics hatched a plan to fix Chana’s soul by repeatedly bonding her to Spren until all the cracks were filled?
Some meta reasoning:
Brandon originally intended to have taln be a main character that didn’t remember who he was and slowly discovered his mission as a herald. It would be very Brandon to have “scrapped” this idea, but actually just reworked it into a different part of the story. He does things like this a lot.
The existence of Nale as a hunter in several stories of radiants, yet completely lacking from shallan despite her being radient for so long seems almost an extra proof in itself. Shallan as Chanarach needs something that makes her story different than the other knights. The lack of a run in with Nale will later serve as an extra kernel of support for her full story.
Other thoughts:
Heralds have all displays inversions or corruptions of their Divine attributes. The king is a beggar, the judge was wielding the law with prejudice and agenda, etc.
Chanas attributes are bravery and obedience. So how is she the opposite or inverted versions of these…
Cowardice or foolhardy bravery would be the fit for inversion of bravery. I think both can be extracted if you try hard enough :). Shallan is constantly being stupidly brave, steeling a soulcaster is the first plan we see her undertake. Pretty ridiculous. Then infiltrating the ghostbloods despite “no experience” with that sort of thing. The way she forces herself into Sabarials retinue in front of the entire court… Then there are the host of more minor things like stabbing the big horn eater man, drinking way too much with no real plan going in, the list goes on.
Cowerdice is also seen in the way she completely avoids soul casting for 3 whole books. At one point she blames that specifically on fear.
Disobedience is pretty apparent as well in almost every interaction with Jasnah, which is one of the only true authorities she is given in the books.
There is also Shallans boundless competence. She is supposedly just a kid from a backwater Veden house, yet she can infiltrate a cosmere wide organization like the ghostbloods effortlessly? Seems like every scene with her doesn’t make sense if it’s a ~20 year old kid…
Biggest hole In this theory is… How did she become a kid?
Can illusions make an adult look like a kid?
Can Chana soul cast well enough to make herself a different body?
Is there some wierd soul “magic” going on involving hemalurgy, or some other method to attach a herald soul to a child?
Could this be tied to what shallan means when she mentions mothers soul so often? Supposedly just the shardblade, but why does the wall glow in her memory sequences even though she later realized the sword vanished right away?
Sorry for the typos and messy grammar. Trying to get this off my mind so I can sleep.
Also sorry if I broke any rules with this, I’m new to this sort of thing.
