Shallan Davar

Shallan Davar
by Exmakina
House Davar Spouse Adolin Kholin married Nanishah 1174 Parents Lin Davar, mother Siblings Helaran, Balat, Wikim, Jushu
Born	1156
Abilities	Surgebinder (Illumination/Transformation) Shardbearer
Aliases	Veil, Radiant
Profession	Scholar
Religion	Vorinism (Devotary of Purity)
Groups	Knights Radiant (Lightweavers) Ghostbloods
Nationality	Veden
Homeworld	Roshar

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“ I seek the truth. Wherever it may be, whomever may hold it. That's who I am. ”

— Shallan to Iyatil

Shallan Davar (Alethi pronunciation: [ʃə·ˈlan dəˈvar] sha-LAN da-VAR), also known as Veil and Radiant, is a lighteyed Lightweaver of the Knights Radiant from Jah Keved. Shallan is an emerging scholar whose greatest achievement is the discovery of the legendary city Urithiru. She is also renowned for her extraordinary talent of accurately reproducing even fleeting scenes with photographic accuracy. This ability, however, is affected by the presence of the Unmade.

Hailing from a mid-level noble house in Jah Keved, Shallan lives a sheltered life on her father's estate until the age of seventeen, when she leaves to seek an apprenticeship under Princess Jasnah Kholin as a scholar. While as an apprentice to Jasnah Kholin, she becomes the causal betrothed of Jasnah's cousin, Prince Adolin Kholin, who she later marries. She also learns of and shares in Jasnah's quest to stop the mysterious and calamitous Voidbringers.

Ever since childhood, Shallan has shared a bond with the Cryptic Pattern, allowing her to manifest Pattern as a Shardblade. Years later, this bond also allows her to access her powers as a Surgebinder. Eventually, during the Battle of Narak, her bond with Pattern allows her to become the first Lightweaver to be revealed as a Knight Radiant since the Recreance.

Appearance and Personality

Shallan, Veil, and Radiant together by Maddi

Shallan is a slim, pale-skinned young woman in her late teens with auburn-red hair that reaches past the middle of her back and blue eyes. There are freckles on her cheeks and nose, although they aren't very noticeable.

As a child, Shallan is considered shy, quiet, and delicate, although she has always had a quick wit, and often utters the first retort that comes to mind.. Her brother Balat considers her incapable of handling herself and the family's affairs, having never lived away from the family estates. Indeed, Shallan is initially naive and inexperienced, with little concept of money; for example, while trying to remain inconspicuous, she overpays for some street food by two hundred fifty times. However, when she leaves the family estates behind, she quickly opens up and gains confidence.

Shallan is bisexual.

After arriving at the Shattered Plains and encountering the Ghostbloods, Shallan takes on the identity of Veil. Shallan changes her appearance using Lightweaving to craft a new appearance for Veil. As Veil, Shallan appears as a slightly older darkeyed woman. Although Veil has the same height and build as Shallan, Veil has long, dark hair and an angular face with a scar across the chin.

Veil's personality is daring and bold, being an accomplished con-artist and spy. She’s willing to scam other people but still needs people to be around. She often drinks and will sometimes drink horneater lager which is supposedly the strongest drink in all of Roshar. She rarely shows signs of being drunk.

After arriving in Urithriu, Shallan developed a third personality, Radiant. Radiant looks mostly like Shallan, but with a bigger bust. Radiant learns sword fighting with Adolin, and is a capable surgebinder. Radiant does not care at all about how other people think of her, and easily dismisses people as stupid. She is similar to Jasnah.

Shallan unfortunately, is sometimes not fully in control, and her other personalities will peak out without her knowing. This is especially common with Veil.

• Images of Shallan
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  Shallan summoning Pattern by User: Sheep

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  Portrait sketch by User: Sheep

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  Wearing boots by User: Sheep

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  With Cryptic by User: Sheep

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  Summoning Shardblade by User: Sheep

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  Killing with Shardblade by User: Sheep

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  Shallan wearing havah by User: Sheep

• Images of Veil
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  Shallan as Veil by User: Sheep

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  Veil in Tyn's clothes by User: Sheep

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  Veil and Shallan by User: Sheep

History

Shallan in the Shattered Plains by Michael Whelan

Early life (1156–1173)

Childhood

Shallan was born into the Davar household to Lin and her mother in 1156. Shallan is the youngest of five children, with four older brothers: Helaran, Balat, Wikim, and Jushu. The Davar household is a mid-level noble family, with the patriarch Lin holding the fourth dahn, while Shallan herself is of the fifth dahn. The Davar family's estates are in Jah Keved, in Highprince Valam's territory.

As a child, Shallan has a happy life with her parents and four brothers; she recalls when her father rarely becomes angry.

Murder attempt

By 1167, when Shallan is eleven, she begins bonding to Pattern and manifesting Surgebinding abilities. Her mother and an unknown associate (a Skybreaker acolyte) realize what is happening and attempt to kill Shallan. While they have Shallan cornered in a room, Shallan's father bursts in and attempts to save Shallan, but her mother's associate restrains him. Shallan summons Pattern as a Shardblade and, in self-defense, kills both her mother and her associate.

Shallan's father protects her by allowing the world to believe that he killed Shallan's mother and her lover. He also takes Pattern and locks him away in his strongbox, although unknown to him, Pattern simply vanished the instant he closed the door. Meanwhile, Shallan represses the memory of these events, only remembering that she was in the room with her father and two corpses, forgetting that she ever had a Shardblade or that she killed her mother.

Life after her mother's death

After her mother's death, Shallan doesn't speak for five months. Instead of drawing as she normally does, all she draws is the scene from the room where her mother and her associate dies. Meanwhile, her father becomes violent and easily-enraged, verbally and physically abusing the members of the household.

Five months later, Helaran informs Shallan and Lin that he must leave as he has issues to attend to. Lin protests and during the confrontation, Helaran summons a Shardblade and threatens Lin with it. Shallan speaks for the first time in months, stopping the violence and asks Helaran to stay. Helaran is unable to stay, but he promises to return and check on Shallan.

A year later, around 1168, Shallan speaks normally again, although the Davar family is deteriorating. Helaran visits sporadically and briefly, bringing Shallan drawing materials and avoiding their father. Her father is still in a constant state of anger; her brother Balat is increasingly destructive, setting fire in the servants' building; and Jushu settles into a state of despair, choosing to get drunk and gamble away his money and jewels.

Around 1169, their father throws a feast for the Tavinar family, a nearby lighteyed family. During the feast, while Lin is announcing that he is to be married to Malise Gevelmar, he is interrupted by Redin, the bastard son of Highprince Valam. Under orders from Valam, Redin has come to investigate the rumors of Shallan's mother's death, but Redin doesn't have enough evidence to proceed against Lin for murder and is forced to leave.

Half a year later, the entire Davar family is at the Middlefest Fair. During the fair, Shallan attempts to bring happiness to her brothers, setting up Balat on a date with Eylita Tavinar, giving Wikim complicated highstorm equations to work on, and preparing a list of duels to show Jushu. It is during this festival that Shallan first meets Hoid, who is conversing with her father as he bears a message from Helaran. Hoid is shocked at discovering Shallan, realizing that she is a Surgebinder. Hoid seeks out Shallan afterwards and questions her about her powers. Shallan deflects the questions and Hoid tells Shallan a story about finding happiness even in the most adverse conditions. Hoid leaves after confirming that Shallan has not yet mastered her powers.

Shallan finally took action when Lin seemed bent on killing her brother Balat. She gave him poisoned wine and then strangled him with a necklace he had given her. It is only after his demise that Shallan and her brothers could attempt to come together as a family once more, banding together to cover up the truth of his death while also working to save the House from the many debts their father accrued.

Jasnah Kholin's Ward (1173)

Arrival in Kharbranth

Following the death of her father, Shallan traveled aboard Wind's Pleasure, a ship owned by Tozbek, in order to save her family from a life filled with misery and debt by forging connections will powerful allies in Alethkar. She arrived in Kharbranth, where she hoped to become the ward of Jasnah Kholin, a notorious scholar and sister to the current king of Alethkar. While Shallan hoped to learn more about the world and the field of logic whilst under the tutelage of Jasnah, she also had another goal in mind. Shallan spent several months chasing Jasnah across many cities in order to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster, a fabrial capable of transforming objects from one material to another, as she also believed that this tool would be the key to saving her destitute family. Once she finally caught up to Jasnah in Kharbranth, Shallan attempted to convince Jasnah to take her as her ward, but she failed twice before she finally succeeded on the third attempt.

The first attempt was when she failed to impress Jasnah due to her lack of talent in the field of logic and, notably, history. Despite Shallan's attempt to convince her that her artistic talent would surely impress her, Jasnah quickly turned her down. Shallan later attempted to convince Jasnah once more but waits in the scholar's reading alcove due to Jasnah currently being in a meeting. She wrote a logical letter arguing for wardship which managed to impress Jasnah but she is still rebuffed by the scholar. Dejected and tired from constantly attempting to persuade the heretical scholar, Shallan makes her way back to Wind's Pleasure to return to her hometown before she is convinced by Yalb, a sailor on Wind's Pleasure, to try once more. When she returns, Jasnah discovers Shallan's drawings she made while waiting in her reading alcove and is impressed by her artistry and passion from drawing even during her free time which she considered to be, in a way, a pursut of scholarship. Jasnah accepts Shallan as her ward and allows her to be her research assistant when she is not busy.

Stealing the Soulcaster

After spending more time with Jasnah, Shallan found that she was enjoying her warship with Jasnah but it was also becoming increasingly harder for to steal her Soulcaster. She later received word from her family in Jah Keved that the servant in their household who knew how to field the fabrial had died in their sleep and men were also visiting the house to ask about the whereabouts of their secretly deceased father and the Soulcaster they came to collect. Pressured by the news, Shallan came to the conclusion that she must steal the fabrial soon but was still uneasy about plan. While out for a stoll, Shallan witnessed Jasnah Soulcast four street thugs by turning ones essence into fire, another into pure quartz, and even two into smoke as they attempted to flee the scholar. After the ordeal, Shallan finally mustered the courage to steal the Soulcaster as she felt Jasnah did not deserve such a tool.

Shallan is eventually able to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster, but hesitated to use it due to not knowing hot to use the fabrial. After receiving advice from Kabsal, an ardent seemingly infatuated with Shallan, she attempted to use the soulcaster after its theft only to find that it does not work. Later, when Kabsal requested that she draw a picture of them together, she found herself plagued with strange shadows that seemed to follow her everywhere she went. When she attempted to flee them, she returned to her room where she found herself plunged into Shadesmar, a dark world filled with strange spheres containing items in the physical world, and accidentally Soulcasted a goblet into blood. Out of fear of being discovered by Jasnah, she cuts herself to make it look like an attempt at suicide to which Jasnah later blames herself for.

Discovering her Surgebindings

When Kabsal later visited Shallan at the hospital, he accidentally poisoned both Shallan and himself during an attempt to assassinate Jasnah for the Ghostbloods by failing to eat the strawberry jam laced with an antidote meant to counteract the poison in the bread they had eaten. In order to save Shallan's life, Jashan soulcasted Shallan's blood to draw the blood our of her body. Shallan attempted to inform Jasnah that the Soulcaster she currently possessed was the broken one Shallan had switched Jasnah's for but initially failed to realize that the scholar did not actually need one as she was a secretly Surgebinder. When Shallan awakened, Jasnah was furious at her deceit and relieved Shallan from her position as her ward after revealing the Kabsal had died due to his failed assassination attempt and that the fabrial Shallan stole from her was fake.

Numb from her experience, Shallan remained in her bed until she realized that Jasnah had eaten the bread without taking the jam that should have counteracted the poison she consumed, so she have also died like Kabsal did. She came to conclusion that Jasnah Soulcasted the jam, removing the antidote that should have cured both Shallan and Kabsal, while also removing the poison in her own bread she ate, all without a functional Soulcaster. Shallan then left her hospital bed and visited Jasnah where she revealed that she now knew that Jasnah can Soulcast without a fabrial and she could do it as well. Because Jasnah was initially doubtful of her claim, Shallan decided to prove this by returning to Shadesmar. She makes a deal with the mysterious shadow figure for passage into the world in exchange for a truth: that she killed her father. Jasnah also teleport ed there and saved Shallan from drowning in the spheres in the strange world . Shallan apologized to JAsnah for lying to the scholar and stealing her Soulcaster, and promised not do so again in exchange for teaching her how to Soulcast and sharing her reasearch into the Voidbringers.

Jasnah revealed that they are both members of the Knights Radiant and the Voidbringers may be real. In addition to this, Shallan realized that her father also might have been a member of the same organization that Kabsal belonged to. After this realization and the revelation that the Parshendi and Parshmen were Voidbringers, she and Jasnah set off for the Shattered Plains to attain more information.

The Shattered Plains (1173)

Shipwrecked

Jasnah and Shallan have taken passage on the Wind's Pleasure, traveling to the Shattered Plains. Several days into the journey, Shallan spies a santhid - an elusive and ancient dweller of the ocean - moving alongside the ship. She wants to observe the santhid underwater in order to sketch it, but is dissuaded from the dangerous task by Captain Tozbek. Jasnah soon joins her, and detecting her ward's innattention to her reading, explains the nature of Shadesmar and spren to her. Shallan mentions the patterns of lines she has been noticing. Jasnah also details the measures she has taken to help House Davar: sending money to Shallan's brothers, communicating with her mother about the broken Soulcaster, and setting up a causal betrothal with Adolin Kholin. Finally, Jasnah gives Shallan words of advice on power and how even its illusion can be enough to create authority. Taking these words to heart, Shallan commands the captain to help her go overboard in order to observe the santhid.

One night on the journey, their ship is attacked and Shallan sees Jasnah stabbed in the chest. She smells smoke in the cabin. Using lightweaving she creates an indistinct human form, which the attacking men chase. She then entered Jasnah's cabin and observed a large amount of blood on the floor, but no body. She assumes the men removed Jasnah's corpse. She hears sounds above and Pattern tells her that the ship's crew are being executed. Out of desperation Shallan attempts to soulcast the hull of the ship. With a huge amount of stormlight and the help of pattern she reached into shadesmar and soulcasted the Wind's Pleasure into water to escape.

Urithiru

Adolin and Shallan build their relationship while in the tower city. Adolin begins to teach her how to use a shardblade. Shallan cannot bring herself to use the blade so she creates a new personality, one she calls Brightness Radiant or just Radiant, to take on while using the shardblade.

Dalinar asked her to learn as much as she can about her powers. She begins to better control her creations and can now cause them to move. She puts on a play for Pattern using just her illustions. She uses Veil to become knowledgable about the darkeyes society in the city. Recently Sadeas was killed, and then another person just like him was killed the same way. Shallan investigates as Veil, and learns that there have been severel double murders and later discovers that whatever is copying the murders is copying all violence. She uses her guards to try and figure out the problem. She discosers that the violence copier is the Unmade Re-Shephir. With Adolin and Bridge Four's help she attacks the Unmade. She forces the Unmade out of Rep-Shephir.

After Jasnah comes back and Shallan realizes that she is still her ward Shallan begins to dislikes it. She schemes on ways to get out of it. As Veil she meets Ishnah who was once a spy and begins to learn from her. She begins to realize her way out of Urithiru and convinces Elhokar to let her go and help take back Kholinar.

During her period switching between Shallan, Veil and Radiant, Shallan has an identity crisis that borders on multiple personality disorder, unable to determine which version of her is really herself. She enjoys Veil's carefree attitude, describing her as someone who doesn't "hurt", but also enjoys being Radiant for the simple focus and time with Adolin.

Attributes and Abilities

Surgebinding

Because of her Nahel bond with spren Pattern, Shallan possesses the ability to Surgebind. She has access to the surges Illumination and Transformation. As with all Surgebinders, she has superhuman speed, strength, and healing when she holds Stormlight. She has demonstrated her ability to Soulcast multiple times, though the full scope of her abilities remain yet to be seen. She is in the process of becoming a Knight Radiant.

Transformation

The Surge of Transformation allows Shallan to use Soulcasting. She has discovered that she can soulcast without the need of a fabrial by visiting Shadesmar and changing a goblet into blood. She has also learned that the soulcaster she had been determined to steal is a nonfunctional fake, and that Jasnah can also soulcast without one. She used this ability to sink Wind's Pleasure by turning the ship into water during the assassination attempt.

Illumination

In Words of Radiance, Shallan discovered the ability to project images into life although incorporeal. Due to a lack of practice and experience, she can only create the images after sketching them first. She also discovered she could use Pattern to project sounds when in the image. The range of an image is limited to its proximity to a source of Investiture as the user moves away from an image it will begin to blur and then dissolve when its connection is broken, increased focus on the part of a user can increase the range but not greatly.

Memory

Shallan had the ability to deliberately memorize a scene (usually involving blinking) after which she could paint or draw that scene with remarkable accuracy. She had a passion for learning and a great talent for drawing. She was never without her sketchbooks and charcoal, so she might draw whatever caught her interest. Shallan frequently drew and made notes on the world around her, in order to promote her Calling of natural history. Shallan's ability to memorize scenes and reproduce them accurately seems similar to the ability of a Feruchemist to store memories in a coppermind, in that both talents involve the removal of a memory from the mind and its replacement in another medium - in Shallan's case, a sketch rather than a coppermind. This ability is affected by the presence of the Unmade.

Relationships

House Davar

Shallan grew up as the only daughter in the minor noble family. After first manifesting her Surgebinding abilities, her mother and her lover attempted to kill her, forcing to Shallan to fatally wound her mother out of self-defense. Her father, Lin Davar, took responsibility for Shallan's action, showing that that he did care for her daughter. After dealing with public scrutiny and the slow decline of his family, Lin Davar became an abusive father and would often beat his sons and servants, even blaming Shallan for his actions. Fed up with her father's abuse she and her brother arranged his death and eventually successfully murdered their own father.

While Shallan had a poor relationship with her parents, she seemed to have a close relationship with all four of her brothers. Out of all of them, she seemed to be closest to her eldest sibling, Helaran. Helaran was shown to constantly bring gifts for Shallan and even visited the house despite his poor relationship with his father. After learning about the death of Helaran at the hands of Kaladin, Shallan became extremely depressed and even briefly resented the dark-eyed soldier. While not as close with her other brother, Balat, Shallan cared for him and was shown to communicate with him often despite his disturbing fixation with killing small animals. Shallan was shown to be the only one to care for her other brother, Jushu, when he suffered from his gambling addiction, even going as far as to sell her Soulcasted necklace and convince her brothers to give up their daggers to pay off his debt. While this did not pay all of his debt, Shallan convinced the debt collectors to let him go by sharing that he comforted her when her mother died. Wikim, the twin brother of Jushu, was often the target of their father's abuse and Shallan would often comfort him during his periods of depression. She was shown to be able to cheer him up by gifting him with sheets of mathematics.

Despite her miserable childhood, Shallan had maintained a amicable personality until she was forced to confront her past. It is likely that the confrontation of her past experiences with her family triggered the manifestation of her dissociative identity disorder.

Pattern

Pattern, a Cryptic-type spren, is Shallan's steadfast companion, and perhaps her only friend since childhood, although she herself did not know this for many years. Shallan and Pattern have shared a bond ever since Shallan was a young child. When Shallan's mother attempts to kill her, Pattern manifested himself as a Shardblade, allowing Shallan to defend herself. However, Shallan represses this memory and didn't remember this incident or even Pattern until years later. When faced with pressing situations, Shallan would briefly contemplate on whether she should call on Pattern as a Shardblade.

Eventually, Shallan comes to meet Pattern again, who initially is unable to talk and has a weak connection to the physical world. As their bond solidified and Shallan spoke more Truths to Pattern, Pattern grew in intelligence and developed the ability to affect the Physical Realm. In addition to this, Pattern is now capable of becoming a fully formed Shardblade which Shallan uses against enemies such as Tyn.

When Shallan realized that Pattern was the Shardblade she used to kill her mother, she initially expressed her anger and even disgust towards the spren. After reflecting on the situation, Shallan dropped all hostility towards the spren. Despite Shallan's reassurance that she no longer bears any ill-will towards Pattern, the spren is adamant about his belief that Shallan wants to kill him as an act of revenge.

Jasnah Kholin

Jasnah Kholin is Shallan's tutor. Initially reluctant to take on Shallan as a ward, she eventually gave in after Shallan's persistence. Although Shallan initially became Jasnah's ward as a ruse in order to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster, Shallan eventually enjoyed learning from Jasnah and even came to respects her greatly. During her time with Jasnah, her Surgebinding abilities manifested for the first time. Jasnah, who herself has Surgebinding abilities and is a nascent member of the Knights Radiant, helped Shallan to develop her own powers. Recognizing her potential, Jasnah also arranged a causal betrothal for Shallan to her cousin, Adolin Kholin. When Shallan believed that Jasnah died during the shipwreck of Wind's Pleasure, Shallan was clearly distraught by her apparent death.

When Jasnah resurfaced and eventually made her way to Urithiru, she expected that Shallan would continue her duties as a ward. Shallan, however, did not want to return to her old role. While attending meetings of the Knights Radiant, Shallan expressed her frustrations with the scholar and even displayed her annoyance when around Jasnah. Despite this, Shallan and Jsanah still remain on good terms. Eventually Shallan proposed the idea that Jasnah should queen of Alethkar following the deah of Elhokar death.

Kaladin

Shallan and Kaladin are the first two publicly-revelealed Knights Radiant in centuries. They initially had a strained relationship. During their first meeting, Shallan was forced by Tyn to lie to Kaladin, leading to her humiliating Kaladin and taking his new boots. During their later meetings, Shallan believed that she was being treated unfairly by Kaladin, who was holding a grudge against her for events beyond her control. This clash of personalities is reflected in their respective spren, as the Cryptics and honorspren (to which Kaladin's spren Syl belongs) are involved in a complex spren conflict.

Later, when stranded in the chasms of the Shattered Plains, they grew to respect and admire one another. They reveal some of their personal history and secrets to each other, including the fact that Shallan has a Shardblade. Due to this time, they both suspect each other of being a Knight Radiant. While Shallan and Kaladin both showed some romantic interest in one another towards the end of the second book, both of their feelings for one another seem to have dissipated by the end of the third book. After learning that Kaladin killed her eldest brother, Helaran, Shallan has mixed-feelings towards him.

Adolin Kholin

Adolin Kholin was causally betrothed to Shallan after Jasnah proposes marriage between the two adolescents to secure the stability the Shallan needed for her family. She accepts, hoping to use his power to save her family. They meet on the Shattered Plains and Shallan is immediately smitten by his looks. Shallan was quickly able to be comfortable around Adolin, sharing her true self with him and even revealing her identity as a Knight Radiant to him. After Shallan reveals herself to be a Knight Radiant, he teaches her how to fight with a Shardblade. The two have shown a profound amount of trust for one another as seen when they both exchange their deepest, darkest secrets with one another. Shallan revealed to Adolin that she suffers from dissociative identity disorder while Adolin shared his part in the murder of Highprince Torol Sadeas. At the end of Oathbringer they are married by the Vorin church.

Wit

Shallan first met Wit at the Middlefest Fair about three years ago when he comforted her after thinking about the state of her family and the seemingly dark dealings her father was involved in. Since then, Shallan is shown to think highly of the court jester and seems to be the few people able to tolerate him in Roshar. She was even excited to see him again when they encountered one another in the Shattered Plains as seen when she affectionately hugged him much to the surprise of Adolin and Kaladin.

When Shallan began to doubt herself while in Kholinar, Wit comforted her despite his assurance that he is not the kind man she believes him to be. While talking, they discuss the meaning of power, eventually giving Shallan the advice she needed to infiltrate the Cult of Moments. After this, he leaves her with the bill for the food he ate, much to her displeasure.

Trivia

• Shallan did not exist in The Way of Kings Prime.
• Shallan has been confirmed to be bisexual.

See Also

• Shallan's sketchbook

Notes

Footnotes

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