Cortez

At least it wasn't a ten year delay with the book being split into two along the way.

It was claimed that the visions were fabrications by the factions that destroyed the Heirocracy. I'm not sure those claims can really be trusted without seeing the relevant primary sources (i.e the letters). For me the command to unite them in Dalinar's visions suggests that the priests may well have shared the same visions as that is exactly what the priests tried to do. They tried to take control, to unite everyone.

Well it doesn't come up as a real word on solve it, which probably means its a Rosharish word which should help narrow it down. Assuming it is an anagram of course.

I thought Kaladin experienced the Thrill when he was first sparring with Jost; I've always interpreted that excitement as being the same as the Thrill.

I do. Not sure I can last another 3 months and 4 days. Not quite ready for the honour chasm yet though

I think you're right. She certainly doesn't seem to be brimming over with remorse when she confesses to the cryptic spren things. I've always assumed that the memory of Nan Balat bruised and Sallan holding a shardblade happened at the same time as her Fathers death. I really hadn't considered the possibility that these might be separate events.

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that. Where Shallan got her shardblade from is a big mystery. If the shardblade was her Fathers, why would Shallan, as a Vorin woman on Roshar, pick it up? That act goes against everything we know of the gender issues within Vorin society. She must have known what the Blade was and that picking it up would bind it to her. The only motive that I can think of for her picking up the Blade and concealing that she has it, is to cover up the fact that she was the murderer, given that any assassin would definitely take the Blade. This of course brings us back to Nan Balat not knowing about Shallan's act. At the moment we're all ignorant on this subject . We simply don't have enough facts to put together what really happened. What we do know is: Shallan has a Shardblade Shallan considers herself to have murdered her Father Her Father had a broken soulcaster found post mortem in his jacket pocket The soulcaster was probably damaged with a shardblade These things may all be related, they may not. Can't wait to find out.

Shallan would definitely be aware of what a shardblade is and what it can do, so I don't think you can read anything into the use of language there. The soulcaster however doesn't sound like a particularly delicate piece of jewellery She also describes the fabrial's damage as; This does not sound like the kind of damage that could be done by stabbing someone with an ordinary knife or sword, especially not when wielded by a young girl. I think a better analogy than a silver chain shirt would be if you stabbed someone in the chest and hit an old fashioned pocket watch. Do you think you would cut clean through it? The other issue of course is in the use of language. In this case Shallan uses the word sheared. Shear, sheared and shearing are used throughout this book to describe cutting with a shardblade. Sheared isn't always used to describe cutting with a shardblade but I don't recall the word being used to describe cutting with any other kind of implement in Way of Kings. @hoser Does Nan Balat know that Shallan killed their father? I was under the impression that he didn't know, in fact my whole theory hinges on him not knowing and thus not knowing that Shallan has a shardblade. Her most horrible act does not have to be murdering her father. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago there may be another skeleton in her closet. I would suggest you read the excerpt from one of Shallans flashbacks in Words of Radiance (if you haven't already). Also if the soulcaster was already broken then surely Luesh would have known? I think it has to have been broken at the same time as his death. p.s do we actually know what Shallan's fathers name is? I don't recall reading it.

Only Brandon Sanderson can enlighten you on this subject I'm afraid, and I suspect if you asked him you'll get told to RAFO. So you'll have to wait until March like everyone else . However it is entirely possible that Shallan has more than one skeleton in the closet.

I've always assumed that Nan Balat was unconscious during the time she used/picked up the shardblade. Yes the shardblade could be used after death to cut the fathers body (and thus the soulcaster), but it seems unlikely that Shallan or anyone else would have done so. It seems equally unlikely that it was done by accident especially if the shardblade belonged to Shallan's father and so would appear next to him as he died. I suppose he could have already summoned it but not had time to use it. However as the corpse in the picture is described as lying face down it again seems unlikely that the blade could have cut the soulcaster in his pocket as he fell. Not impossible though. We know that Shallan normally has to blink and deliberately take a "memory" of a scene which she then translates to a charcoal picture. We also know that in times of stress/trauma (e.g. the attack in the alleyway) that she remembers these scenes vividly without having to do the blink technique thingy. I could see Shallan doing something similar as she killed her father and immediately after she killed him, but I don't see why she would deliberately memorise the scene later especially as she seems to want to forget about it and repress the event as much as possible. I could be wrong about the furnishings of House Davar. However nothing I've read so far leads me too the conclusion that you would describe them as lavish. House Davar is a minor house and Shallan describes the estates as being isolated and backcountry. Now I'm not saying that house Davar was especially poor or that the house was threadbare, just that the impression I get isn't one of lavishness. For example Shallan states that the library only had 87 books. Of course I could be wrong and that her father spent a lot of the quarry money on doing up the place and not on books etc. Shallan having a shardblade prior to her Fathers death is of course the big, gaping hole in the theory that a shardblade killed him. Where on earth could she have picked up one and why would she, as a woman on Roshar, pick it up? The initial logical assumption, especially as she calls it the fruits of her sin (or something like that), is that she got it from her Father. The problem with that theory is where did he get it from? It seems unlikely to be a family heirloom (shardbearers write their own ticket most places on Roshar so house Davar would probably be quite influential and not the other way round). It also doesn't really make sense for the Ghostbloods to give him one as well as the soulcaster, especially as if her Father had it, it was kept hidden and not used. This to me would make no sense, unless they have so many shards and plate that they can afford to give one as a bribe to hold Shallan's father to them. There are other possible origins for Shallans shardblade though, although these are pure conjecture and backed up be no evidence whatsoever. The first that comes to mind is that the blade was in the hands of an assassin sent to kill Lord Davar and that Shallan somehow ended up with it. The other possibility that I can think of is that the theory that Knights Radiants can create their own Blade and Plate is correct and that Shallan was able to do this somehow. However, while I like that theory because it would be so cool, it makes no sense for Shallan to be able to do so as she has only just started down that road since she reached Karbranth. In short I just don't think we have enough information to say where Shallan's shardblade came from, except that she feels she got it as a result of her Fathers death at her hands. Anything else is pure speculation at the moment. Sorry for the essay. Hmmm... I wonder if I should add a bibliography.......

I don't think that this sketch is a memory of her Father's death, nor do I think it is of Szeths assassination of the King of Jah Keved. First the scene she draws is different to the memory we have in chapter 7; There is no Nan Balat in the drawing, just a single man in a pool of blood. This also for me rules out the assassination of the King as Szeth describes it as a slaughter. There should be other corpses a signs of battle if this drawing depicts that event. The room described also sounds a bit too opulent to be Shallan's family home. I've never got the impression that the family is particularly well off although this is mostly speculation. In addition the "camera" angle of the drawing seems wrong to me. If this a memory of the moments immediately following her murder of her father then she would be standing over the corpse looking down at it and not viewing the scene from the other side of the room, which is where she would have to be in order to get the table and wall decorations into the picture. The other issue with it being a memory of the murder is in her reaction. Any other time she comes close to thinking about the murder she immediately rejects it telling herself not to think of it "Don't think of the past" and similar responses. In this scene she says that there is something wrong with her, with her drawings. This to me implies that what she drew was something she had never seen before. I also still think that Shallan's father was killed with a shardblade, which obviously would not leave behind a pool of blood. The reason I think this is because the soulcaster is described as being sheared across one of the gem settings (sorry I don't seem to be able to find the relevant quotes) which sounds to me like it was cut with a shardblade. I've seen the suggestion that the soulcaster was cut be accident after the death but this does not fit with some of the other facts regarding where the soulcaster was found. The soulcaster was described by Shallan (on two separate occasion I think) as being found on him after he was dead and also that it was found in his jacket pocket. It sounds to me like it would be very difficult to cut the soulcaster with a shardblade without killing the person wearing the jacket.