Difference between revisions of "Shallan Davar"
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== History ==
[[File:Whelan_Stormlight_Shallan.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Shallan in the Shattered Plains by [[Michael Whelan]]]]
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==== Childhood ====
Shallan is born into the [[House Davar|Davar]] household to [[Lin Davar|Lin]] and her [[Shallan's mother|mother]] in {{date/sa|year=1156}}. Shallan is the youngest of five children, with four older brothers: [[Helaran Davar|Helaran]], [[Balat Davar|Balat]], [[Wikim Davar|Wikim]], and [[Jushu Davar|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.{{book ref|sa2|52}} 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 [[Lin Davar|her father]] rarely becomes angry.
==== Murder attempt ====
By {{date/sa|year=1167}}, when Shallan is eleven, she begins bonding to [[Pattern]] and manifesting [[Surgebinding]] abilities. Her mother and an unknown associate 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.{{book ref|sa2|10}}{{book ref|sa2|88}}
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 away 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 had ever a Shardblade or that she killed her mother.{{book ref|sa2|10}}{{book ref|sa2|19}}{{book ref|sa2|88}}
==== 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.{{book ref|sa2|19}}
Five months later, Helaran returns to the house and informs Shallan and Lin that he must leave for a while. Lin protests, and Helaran, believing that Lin killed their mother, grows angry, summoning a Shardblade and threatens Lin with it. Shallan speaks for the first time in months, asking Helaran to stay, but Helaran leaves, although he promises to return.{{book ref|sa2|19}}
A year later, around {{date/sa|year=1168}}, Shallan speaks normally again, although the Davar family is deteriorating. Her father is still in a constant state of anger; her brother Balat is increasingly destructive, starting fires in the servants' building; and Jushu settling into a state of despair, choosing to get drunk and gamble away his money and jewels.{{book ref|sa2|27}}
After weathering years of abuse by her father (who hurt others in order to manipulate her, as he feared her too much to hurt her directly), Shallan finally took action when he 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) ===
Shallan spent several months chasing [[Jasnah]] across many cities, hoping to become her [[ward]] in order to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster. She finally caught up to Jasnah in [[Kharbranth]], and attempted to convince her to take Shallan as her ward, failing twice and finally succeeding on the third attempt.{{book ref|sa1|8}} Shallan is eventually able to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster{{book ref|sa1|36}} only to discover that it is a fake. Shallan also discovered her own Soulcasting abilities after this theft.{{book ref|sa1|45}}
During her studies with Jasnah, Shallan developed a friendship with the ardent [[Kabsal]] who accidentally poisoned both Shallan and himself during an attempt to assassinate Jasnah for the [[Ghostbloods]].{{book ref|sa1|48}} Shallan realized that her father also might have been a member of the same organization.{{book ref|sa1|74}} 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. {{book ref|twok|72}} {{book ref|wor|1}}
=== The
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, and Jasnah 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. {{book ref|wor|1}}
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