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[truthspeaker]

PLAYER INFO

Player: Raini
Age: 30+
Invited by: Open invite from the mod team... like all of them.
Contact: infel
Current Characters: None!

CHARACTER INFO

Character: Shallan Davar
Canon: The Stormlight Archive; End of Rhythm of War
Age: 18

Background Information: There is so much so have a (very spoilery) wiki link for her. Please be warned there is some cws in there for mental illnesses and child abuse. Her backstory is not a happy one.

Personality:

1) Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them.

Shallan is from a noble family, however her home was an unhappy one. It's not so much haughty, but when she's not trying she just doesn't have a filter, though this is a symptom of not trying to consciously keep a "good noble girl" image, which is either frustrating, amusing, or sigh-inducing for some, depending on who and when it is that her wit gets carried away. This feeds back into the same cw territory as the wiki link in her app, so with that in mind:

As her father's anger grew, and she watched her brothers face the brunt of his anger while she was the perfect daughter... or at least an illusion of one. It meant that she did what she was told as to not set off her father; Shallan mentions it after a very filterless comeback to Jasnah:

"Have I not a right to make reasonable demands of my potential students, Miss Davar?"

"Reasonable? Your demands are about as reasonable as the ones made of the Ten Heralds on Proving Day! With all due respect, Brightness, you seeem to want potential wards to be master scholars already. I may ne able to find a pair of eighty-year-old ardents in the city who might fit your requirements. They could interview for the position, though they may have trouble hearing well enough to answer your questions."

"I see," Jasnah replied. "And do you speak with such pique to your parents as well?"

Shallan winced. Her time spent with the sailors [tracking down Jasnah] had loosened her tongue far too much, Had she traveled all this way only to offend Jasnah? She thought of her brothers, destitute, keeping up a tenuous façade back home. Would she have to return to them in defeat, having squandered this opportunity? "I did not speak to them in this way, Brightness. Nor should I to you. I apologize."

"Well, at least you are humble enough to admit fault. ..."

She notes that she was scolded plenty by those same tutors to Jasnah when she goes to plead her case to become her ward and learn, mentioning that her tutors didn't like that she would try to be witty or "talk back":

"You have quite the mouth on you at times."

"At times? You mean it's not there at others? I'll have to . . ." Shallan trailed off, then bit her lip, realizing she'd gone too far. "Sorry."

"Never apologize for being clever, Shallan. It sets a bad precedent. However, one must apply one's wit with care. You often seem to say the first passably clever thing that enters you mind."

"I know," Shallan said. "It's long been a foible of mine, Brightness. One my nurses and tutors tried very hard to discourage."

"Likely through strict punishments."

"Yes. Making me sit in the corner holding books over my head was the preferred method."

She does realize that she shouldn't fall back on it too often, but actually speaking her mind conflicts with the "perfect daughter" ideal that was driven into her in order to avoid any conflict or yelling, which sets Shallan on edge, as this is something that happened often with her father on bad days. Being perfect meant she could avoid it, but it also meant that when she was with other people, she felt more herself instead of someone else.

To put it simply, slightly infuriating and perhaps too witty and sarcastic for her own good. In her introduction in The Way of Kings, Jasnah comments that she may be a noblewoman but the mouth on her is not noble, which is a very apt description of Shallan. In Words of Radiance, her first encounter with Kaladin has him infuriated. She poses as a Horneater princess, as he was an unknown person near where she was going, and she wasn't sure if she could trust him. Her demands of "Boots!" definitely left a bad taste in his mouth for some time as he was forced to give up his boots since he "offended" her. Once he warms up to her after the fact, it's just Business As Usual... though in her defense, it IS a defense for her as she's actually shy and not really a people person, preferring to people watch and be ignored. She eats a lot of humble pie when her mouth runs a little too much... which happens quite a bit.

Radiants' first impression is regal, noble, someone who knows what she's doing and will see it done. She is likely based off of Shallan's impression of Jasnah, who is smart, regal, and can be a little condescending; Radiant does have a streak of "you're not smart enough to talk to me" on occasion. Her motivations would be to take what Shallan thinks she should have in terms of knowledge of how to be a Knight Radiant but keep her femininity, and to eventually reintegrate like Veil did. She will eventually, perhaps, when Shallan feels she's strong enough to wield a shardblade again after everything that happened to her, but the main goal is to become one again.

Shallan's relationships are generally all right; she has a healthy relationship with her brothers, and she gets along with them just fine; they are the ones who trusted her with her initial quest to steal Jasnah's soulcaster in Way of Kings after she pitched the idea.

Relationships with others are also generally all right; she has a very good relationship with her husband, and while it was meant to be more of a causal arranged marriage, the two ended up falling for each other. Somehow, Shallan asking if Adolin just... relieved himself while in full shardplate was enough to woo him. The true best way to describe them is Adolin is the himbo, Shallan is the brains:

"You're good at military thinking, for a bridgeboy," Adolin said.
"Coincidentally," Kaladin said, "you're good at not being obnoxious, for a prince."
"Thanks," Adolin said.
"That was an insult, dear," Shallan said.
"What?" Adolin said. "It was?"

As mentioned earlier, Adolin is aware of two of her personas and interacts with them. Though Radiant thinks she would do better with Kaladin, as he is also a Knight Radiant and Adolin is not, she respects Adolin's abilities as well.

Her relationship with Jasnah is still very much a student and teacher relationship; Shallan has an immense respect for Jasnah, and looks up to her. Though they were off to a rocky start, their relationship has improved. As long as Shallan is truthful in her wants and needs, Jasnah is willing to help.

Kaladin and Shallan also had a rocky start— it seems to be a repeating pattern here with some beyond Adolin and some like the sailors on the Wind's Pleasure— her first encounter with him was her acting like a Horneater princess in order to get into the warcamps on the Shattered Plains and taking his boots when her own shoes were gone or falling apart. When they meet again in the warcamps, they go back and forth in banter quite a bit:

"The only time you seem honest is when you’re insulting someone!"
"The only honest things I can say to you are insults."
--
"Storms, woman,” [Kaladin] said. "I don’t know what to make of you."
"Preferably not a corpse."
"I’m surprised someone hasn't already done that."
--
"Perhaps I am an insensitive rich woman. That doesn't change the fact that you can be downright mean and offensive, Kaladin Stormblessed."

While they have warmed up to each other after a tenuous night in a chasm, being hunted by a large monster known as a chasmfiend, during a Highstorm, they still banter but it's much more friendly. There is now a trust between them and the knowledge that they would do what they could for the other helps it along. The need for trust with Shallan is important to her. Veil held some romantic interest in him, but that has gone with Veil not only gone, but after she figured out that it was Kaladin who killed her eldest brother. So far that hasn't strained their relationship again.

As these are her main relationships, they are the most developed. She does hold trust with those in the Unseen Court, a group of followers and Shallan herself, that use Lightweaving abilities for those that have banded together with the rest of the newly awakened Radiants to stop the bigger threats to the world between the Fused, Odium, and the Everstorm, though they are mostly mentioned in passing or not in as great detail as the previous entities.

Since she has been sheltered most of her life, it doesn't feel like she cares much for first impressions unless she needs to care. It usually goes from her trying to make a decent impression if she has to, but she will always devolve into being herself, instead of feeling the need to impress. Being herself (or enough of herself) is easier than putting on airs.

2) What is a driving force your character has? What goals do they have, what motivates them, etc?
To find herself. How she should be. How she wants to be. Sure, yes, she's a lightweaver, a surgebinder, a Radiant but who is just Shallan Davar, not Shallan Davar the Radiant? Considering she wears masks (both figuratively and almost literally) to be who she thinks people wants, as well as how to cope with certain things such as handling a shardblade in her Radiant persona, she's definitely struggled to find what she really wants for herself. She's found a few things, such as an arranged-turned-for-love marriage, but there are still a lot of struggles. To be useful, helpful, and herself. To overcome her traumas and come to terms with what happened.

All of these are something she deals with either by herself or with Radiant at the helm to do it for her. During her attempt to steal Jasnah's soulcaster, it really did take a lot of pushing herself to try: remembering her family's situation after her father's death, the trouble they could be in without a way to make money and pay back debt collectors, among others, was enough to keep pushing her forward. Remembering what she needs to do and why, especially when it is important, is good motivation for her. When it comes to needing to learn how to wield and fight with a shardblade, that is where Radiant comes in... but she was borne from the desire to do what Shallan knows she needs to do. Having Radiant to be the middleman, so to speak, makes it easier on her and is a way for her to deal with her traumas involving the weapon.

3) What are their flaws as a character? What is something they've messed up, or have done that they regret?
As mentioned before, she's very speak first, think later in a lot of things, eating a heaping plate of humble pie later. However, the most egregious thing she has done? Is a major spoiler.

In her eleventh year, she killed her mother and an unknown assailant who was also trying to do her harm as she was awakening her powers; he fought with her father, before her mother took up the knife that was meant to harm her daughter, and in response, Shallan summoned a shardblade: a blade that can appear and disappear at her will. There is more to that, but that is unrelated to her backstory. This is a regret so heavy that, after it happened, she was silent for months, repressing the memories of what actually happened and only making the truth her father spoke to save his daughter from any major repercussions, that he was the one who killed his wife in a fit of anger after catching her with her lover the only one conscious... even if deep down she knew it was her when her surgebinding abilities were manifesting.

Even because of this, lying does not come easy to her, though it has gotten easier over time... as has killing in necessity and acting in the shadows, though she doesn't like it.

She knows she can go too far, as mentioned before, when trying to be witty, or just speaking without a filter. Her Veil persona was a little more calculated and with her reintegration, Shallan likely is now as well. Radiant is well-spoken and does think before she speaks, something Shallan will gain (maybe) once Radiant also reintegrates with her, whenever that will be. Shallan does strive to be better, to be stronger, and while that is where Formless initially came from, she knows she can be the things she wants to be. Getting there and past her traumas may require hiding from them and creating ways to deal with them, but she does, in the end, do just that.


4) Optional: What is something unique and interesting about them, or what is a fun little tidbit that sets them apart from the crowd?

While it's not particularly fun, because of the deep-seated trauma from her childhood, she has something similar to the real-world's DID - it's fantasy-worlded, in the sense that it's not sensationalized as it would be in a movie and rooted more in the disorder itself, and as a result she has at least two "personalities," with one having become her again, in a sense: it was always a part of her actual personality, but she finally accepted her Veil persona at her canon point. The two remaining are Radiant, a noble... well, Radiant Knight, and Formless, one that she hasn't quite understood as of yet. These personas are distinct from red-haired Shallan, as she designed them to be who she would think is perfect in each role they served: Veil for sneaking around and blending in to common darkeyes or even criminals, and Radiant to be what is an upstanding Knight Radiant, as well as the one to be able to wield a blade again when she would otherwise not want to from her subconscious trauma from her childhood.

Formless is just that, and hasn't manifested much, and wasn't one that Shallan created on parchment with charcoal as she did with Veil and Radiant. How it may manifest later on is to be seen. (If you're curious, you can see someone's art of them all here: Shallan in the middle, Radiant on the right, Veil on the left, Formless in the background.)

Shallan's DID, as mentioned before, is a major part of her character: it helps her cope with what she's already lived through, and also helps her deal with things that she doesn't think she'll be able to deal with.

She comes clean about it to her now-husband, Adolin, after fighting with herself on if it would be wise to do so. While he also shares a secret with her, it does help the two to become closer, and it allows him to help his wife, going so far as to even become drinking buddies with one of the personalities, and practicing sword arts with Radiant in order to help Shallan overcome the fear of them, besides learning a proper form.

At the present, only Radiant is the one that she can call on, as Formless comes out when she pleases, and Veil reintegrated with her after Shallan realized that she didn't necessarily need the personality any longer: Veil was helping in suppressing some memories that Shallan had recalled but didn't want to remember, regarding her family, her murdered mother, and how her father truly died. As Formless has not really been introduced to others, she will try to keep that under wraps and not show anyone... if she can help it.
Formless is a facet of Shallan, of course: one that seems to be much more pessimistic than Shallan would normally feel or let on, much colder than Shallan would be; Formless snaps at Adolin, who knows Veil and Radiant but not Formless and though he knows something is off, he doesn't press or realize it isn't the three he knows. Formless has the ability to 'lock' away the others, though if the others are strong enough, they can break free as well.

The personalities can 'talk' to Shallan, and Veil very much does when it comes to Formless, going so far as to call Shallan out on what Formless really is:

I know what you're doing, Veil whispered. I've finally figured it out.
Formless froze. She checked on Radiant— tucked into the prison of her mind, trying to break free but unable to speak. So why could Veil?
Well, she could ignore a voice or two. Formless sat at the desk and sketched the layout of the judge's home. They'd paced it off yesterday, and peeked in windows. With her talent for spatial awareness. this floor plan should be accurate.
You aren't a new persona, Veil thought. If you were, you couldn't draw like that. You can lie to yourself, but not me.

...

"Veil," Pattern said [to a disguised-as-Veil Formless]. "This is not a good idea."
He is right, Veil thought. He is right, Shallan.
I am Formless, she thought back.
No you're not, Shallan.

...

Formless was a composite of the three— a single person with Shallan's drawing and Lightweaving abilities, Radiant's determination and ability to get things done, and Veil's ability to push aside the pain. Veil's ability to see truth.

Lies, Shallan, Veil thought. Storms. I should have seen this. I should have known...

Formless is Shallan, but the Shallan that feels that she is weak and unable to do anything. While Veil reintegrates with Shallan after this particular scene, it is to be seen if Formless will continue to be or if Formless has also disappeared like one of Shallan's illusions, as this is the end of Rhythm of War and the only other Shallan-centered chapter after this doesn't mention Formless. It is possible this persona will come back.

That isn't to say she doesn't have a fun thing that does, in fact, set her apart from the crowd! Because of Shallan's abilities as part of the order of Lightweavers, she's able to remember and draw with perfection scenes or people she has seen. While it is later explained as a surgebinding ability (what the Lightweavers use to do their cool tricks, basically), before she thought it could just be because of her more sheltered upbringing. She'll draw and study her surroundings when bored, when stressed, or when she just wants to relax.

...also, as Vorin religion dictates, she hides her left hand as a "safe" hand, and it's taboo for it to be seen naked by anyone other than immediate family, and her clothes will generally hide it. Wearing a glove is still very weird, though she's slowly getting used to it, to instead have full control of both of her hands instead of one hidden and not as adept to grab or hold things. Her eyes are also indicative of her noble status of 'lighteyes', though that is a practice that is likely fading away... somewhat. Food is also a touchy subject since everything is split between masculine and feminine. Vorin traditions are weird.

Regarding Vorinism, the religion of basically all of Roshar after the Recreance, a point in history when the Heralds betrayed humanity (at least, what is written in history as this moment), it is part of every day life.

As a noblewoman of a fairly high house, she was offered more in the way of the ability to not have to do much other than what is expected of a noblewoman: be knowledgeable in the way of the feminine arts of reading, writing, sciences and arts, perhaps some scholarship and histories and be ready to be married off for a favourable marriage in the future, a perfect example of what a noblewoman should be.

As the times have changed slightly after the appearance of the Everstorm, a more violent storm that circles their world opposite the Highstorms, which are already something you don't want to be caught outside in— think of a Cat 5 hurricane but stronger: it travels at 370 mph! The Everstorm is different, more like a Cat 1 or 2, but the two colliding is quite violent. Because of this, a lot of the traditions are being left behind since there are bigger things to worry about beyond men not reading or women not taking up a weapon, or if a noblewoman wears a glove over their safehand instead of a full havah. Hard to care about such things when there's the Everstorm or the Voidbringers fighting the humans to wipe them out to worry about. Some things, of course, are still observed, such as being chaperoned when you're courting— something Shallan asks her spren, Pattern, to do when her fiancé at the time visits her in her room. He reminds them, quite happily, to have "no mating" happening... something he repeats even when they are married.

Shallan is openminded to a point, however. Jasnah is an atheist, and despite Shallan being fairly devout she does try to make sure she keeps an open mind in order to learn from Jasnah, even though her initial reason for pursuing a wardship with the princess is not for her to expand her horizons. It helps when there are certain revelations that turns everything that she knows upside down:

That the true Voidbringers, who they thought were something completely different, were the humans all along. The Parshendi, those who killed the Alethi king 5 years prior to the happenings in The Way of Kings are the original inhabitants of the planet.

Having an open mind does help soften the blow of this info, though what one was been raised to do is still ingrained pretty well into her, though wearing a glove instead is still a little alien to her, even if it's easier.

Abilities & Inventory: There is... A Lot(TM) so I'm just going to link to individual things for explanations. Her general abilities are here, a very long explanation of what surgebinding is here (her two main "investitures" or powers are illumination and transformation), an explanation of Soulcasting here.

Since Stormlight, the essence that breathes life into her abilities, is not present in this world, I'll assume the magic tattoo that magic users have to get will be short bursts of it to power her. She'll be refilling those pretty often most likely with some practice in controlling how much is used, or get multiples to draw from, if allowed. For any nerfs, likely a loss of soulcasting, though hers is transformation: she wouldn't be able to do much in terms of it here without a stronger connection to Shadesmar, the cognitive realm of Roshar. Maybe turning some things into food, but nothing bigger than that.

Pattern, her spren mentioned, is usually present in the physical realm as a shifting... pattern... on her havah (her dress). Since he'd already be present near her or traveling on her in that form instead of his full form, he will be present here. He does hold her ability to use and call a shardblade, but considering her aversion to them at current unless in her Radiant persona, she may not use it often. Pattern can be seen and heard, though he may stay quiet most of the time. He helps Shallan come to terms with things, advises her, and can be used to move her illusions for her espionage around. While he has his own personality and such, I don't think people actually rp the spren, Pattern or otherwise, anywhere lmao.

ARMADA SELECTION

While there is a possibility that she could fit into either, Corsairs fit her more: while she is ultimately a force for good in the Knights Radiant (them being an ancient order that protected the world and all) her espionage and illusions can also be used for ill. Order and having strict rules is not something she does well with, looping back to her own backstory involving her father, and she finds the freedom away from her family's estate in the first book liberating. Not having those freedoms would not work well with her at all, and she would prefer to be as free as she is now. Depending on what her crew needs, she would be an excellent spymaster and be able to provide some disguises from the help of her abilities. Perfect for getting in and out on a job when you're on the wrong side of the law, wouldn't you agree?

SAMPLE

Test Drive Sample: Right here

Questions: About the tattoos: is it possible to get multiples to draw on before they run out? Or is it just the one that goes for, say, two weeks before they need to be reapplied?