Reader of Books

The fact that the assassination takes place in the future relative to when the sketch is drawn is why I find the concept of the sketch depicting the attack so fascinating. The cryptics presumably must have some way of verifying/sensing truths, I'm wondering if that includes the potential to sense powerful future truths, i.e. "The king of Jah Keved will be assassinated at a banquet." We know from Hoid's ability to know when he needs to be as he jumps through time that some degree of future-sight is possible in the Cosmere, so seeing into the future in this way doesn't violate the laws of the Cosmere on a fundamental level, though its certainly possible that the cryptics simply can't do it. If they can, though, Shallan might be able to channel their knowledge and thus produce a sketch about a future event. That in turn could explain why the details are off somewhat...looking into the future may very well be an imprecise business or, alternatively, the cryptics may not be particularly interested in the accuracy of the minutiae, just the underlying truth. Admittedly there is a lot to take on faith here and I don't know that I quite believe it myself at this point (I began the post before I noticed that the cryptics repeated the question, "what are you?" when Shallan soulcasts the cup, which weakens the connection to the assassination). I still think its worth considering, though, as an alternative to the theory that the sketch is depicting Shallan's father's murder because her reaction and description just doesn't feel right to me if it is her father. When seeing the sketch she: Its true that she reacts violently, but she also reacts pretty dramatically (and understandably so) when the cryptics appear in her sketches, so that alone doesn't indicate she's viewing a traumatic scene from her past. Moreover, nowhere in this description is any sense of 1) guilt - she generally seems to feel this when thinking of her father's death 2)recognition - there is no hint that she has seen the room or the dead man before 3)flashback or repressed memories - often when thinking of the events surrounding her father's death she hints at buried memories Also, the fact that she doesn't seem to understand whats happening to her or her sketches would be odd if it is a picture of her father's death. She had just spent a great deal of time reliving and evaluating the morality of Jasnah's killings, so it would seem natural for her mind to turn to her own murder when left to wander. While having unconsciously sketched her dead father may be disturbing to Shallan, I doubt it would produce the same confused/weirded out vibe she gets.

Going back to the issue of who is depicted in Shallan's sketch, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Isomere's suggestion that it's the king of Jah Keved whom Szeth assassinates. I had previously concluded, as most people in this thread seem to have, that the scene Shallan draws is depicting her father's death, but my friend is reading WoK for the first time and he mentioned the sketch to me and my mind jumped immediately to Szeth and the king before I thought about Shallan's father. Then he mentioned that in the next Shallan chapter she hears a voice (presumably the cryptics) ask her: These are also the king's last words, directed at Szeth, before being killed, which adds another link to that scene. It's worth noting, though, that the cryptics ask Shallan this again in Chapter 45 right before she soulcasts the goblet, so it is entirely possible that this is unconnected to the assassination. It does seem like something of a coincidence though that Shallan mysteriously draws a dead brightlord in a dining hall and then next chapter she just so happens to hear the dying words of a king assassinated in a dining hall...and I've come not to trust seemingly innocuous coincidences in Brandon's work to actually be coincidences. Shallan's sketch is described as follows: While it's possible that this is describing Shallan's father and her home, I find that's a strangely aloof description if it is. I would think there would be some element of recognition that the room is from where she grew up or that the corpse is her father. I know Brandon had Kelsier hold back important info in his POV's but I've heard Brandon say multiple times on Writing Excuses that he felt this was cheating and he only did it because it was essential to the story, and even still he still would generally at least signal that Kelsier had a secret he was refusing to think about. He does this elsewhere with Shallan, but I don't see it here which seems odd if this is a depiction of her father's murder, particular because hiding that the scene was about her father's murder is hardly essential to the story. It does sound to me, though, like it could be describing the scene where Szeth kills the king. He interrupts a feast, so there would be a half eaten meal on a long table, and the description of the swords on the wall reminds me of a great hall in a castle where a feast like that would take place. This could also explain the blood (I had always assumed Shallan killed her father with her shardblade, so the blood seems weird to me if it is her father. I don't remember the quote that made me think this though). Szeth slams into the king and breaks his arm before finishing him with the shard blade. If that was a compound fracture his arm could have bled heavily before he died. I do agree that there is no way that Shallan could have witnessed the assassination actually take place. In fact I doubt it's happened yet. IIRC, with the exception of Elantris and WoT, Brandon has said his books are strictly chronological, and the assassination comes after the sketch and her hearing the voice. This is precisely what I find so interesting about this possibility though. We know some degree of future-sight is possible in the Cosmere because Hoid does this (admittedly with feruchemy, but its possiible the same affected could be achieved with different magic systems and this is proof that future-sight doesn't violate the laws of the Cosmere). I can only wonder if Shallan's connection to the cryptics is making her manifest some sort of prophetic capability. I admittedly don't know as much as I probably should about how the magic systems on Roshar work, but presuming Shallan is a lightweaver and her surges are illumination and transformation I don't know that predictive ability would fit into either of these...perhaps illumination if taken figuratively, but I would be inclined to take it in the literal, light manipulation sense. If this is actually a picture of the assasination, then, it could have interesting implications for how the magic system works on Roshar because it would suggest you can manifest abilities though a spren bond beyond those covered in the surges. I'm still far from certain that the sketch is actually of the dead king (Shallan's father or some other random dude are definitely possibilities), but I think there is at least enough evidence to make this worth considering, if only because its implications would be really cool.