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Much To Consider - Blog Posts
Quick Stormlight theory from a conversation with a friend
(WaT chapter 29)
This scene finally confirmed that Shallan actually went to Shadesmar physically in WoK, during the scene where she asks to be Jasnah's ward for real. At the time, Shallan explains this as her two spren pulling her into shadesmar, but later, after talking to her mother, Shallan thinks
(Wat chapter 118)
The heralds were all Surgebinders on Ashyn. We don't know how Ashyn surgebinding works, but we know that it tended to run in families (see: Shalash and Jezrien, Makibak and Nale). Lots of invested powers in the cosmere are inherited (see: allomancy, ferucmhemy, the royal locks of nalthis, whatever the fuck is happening on Threnody), so it's reasonable to guess that Ashyn surgebinding might've been inherited too. What if Shallan inherited the surge of Transportation from her mother, in the same way that a mistborn might have a misting child? The descriptions of her looking and falling into shadesmar are very similar to descriptions of Venli using Transportation.
If that's the case, then she'd likely have a resonance between Transportation and Lightweaving. That resonance would be something radiants can't normally do, because there is no radiant order with both of those surges. We know from her conversation with Kelek that Shallan's ability to see the Spiritual is not commonly found among radiants
(WaT chapter 7) I think that Shallan's ability to see the Spiritual might be a resonance between Lightweaving and Transportation. Lightweaving has a spiritual component (best seen in how Truthwatchers use it), and Transportation is used to see into Shadesmar as well as visit it. The ability to see into (and perhaps even visit) the Spiritual realm seems like a possible resonance for those two abilities, and it would fully explain all the weird unexplained shit we've seen Shallan do if that's the case. It also makes sense that, when Honor was picking the surges to grant his heralds, he'd avoid this particular combination -- Tanavast fears the Spiritual Realm (see the vorin prohibition on future sight, and Stormfather's objection to Dalinar's journey during the final 10 days), so when organizing the Oathpact, he would not have wanted heralds having this resonance.