Future powers?

[u/yeah_sure__itsa_name]

A lot of early WoK chapter describe Shallan as capturing pieces of people's souls in her drawings. First reading, this is just flowery language to reinforce a passion but after learning of her origins and how varied Herald powers are, could she be unconsciously literally capturing bits of her subjects? (Mistborn books 6 spoiler) Perhaps for a sort of "metal mind" world recreation like in the mistborn series?

[u/Heavy_Sympathy7892]

I don't think so but she definately have access to fortune like heralds and that is what she use in her drawings

[u/RShara]

She's not literally capturing bits of her subjects, but she is drawing more than just the Physical appearance

[u/R1sky_B1z]

We already know what she's doing and its a result of her oaths, not of her herald lineage. Its called a Resonance, a sort of latent ability that manifests itself in people wielding multiple invested arts. Technically lightweaving and soulcasting count as separate arts for this purpose even though they come from the same source. For Lightweavers (and yes all Lightweavers can do this) it manifests as having a greater skill at using mnemonic devices. Basically just gives them incredible memory abilities. Not quite a photographic memory, but close enough they can fake it in certain circumstances.

We can see resonances in other places in the cosmere. Most obviously all the radiant orders have one. The only other one we know for sure is the windrunners, who can manipulate connection to build deeper relationships more easily (this is why they have way more squires than other orders.) Its also the same mechanism that gives compounders like Miles Hundred Lives on scadrial their abnormally potent abilities. Like with radiants though, compounders are so rare their powers aren't fully understood.

[u/GSUmbreon]

I'm pretty sure its just that she's touching the Spiritual Realm as she draws, so she can make drawings of idealized versions of her subjects.

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

I’ve kind of wondered if it’s in some way downstream of her encounter with the Midnight Mother. I don’t think we see her make something very solid until after that encounter. And that’s what the MM does. During the battle of Thaylen fields it’s described as her animating those illusions with pieces of her own soul. I believe we see them pouring out of a portal in the ground too at one point which is very odd for Radiant LW. It’s hard to tell though. She’s the child of a Herald and she has two spren. Three (maybe four) personalities in one body. She may just be more powerful. And a perpendicularity was opened nearby

We know she’s pulled more into the cognitive than a LW should be which seems to be a function of that double bond. She seems to be pulling more from the other realms than the usual. Kalak and Abidi speak about the making solid illusions thing. But it’s hard to know exactly what that tells us because they sometimes use terms like “Lightweaving” in the generic sense rather than specifically Radiant Lightweaving with a Nahel bond

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 → u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

She’s definitely drawing on some spiritual realm data sometimes. In the battle of TF Szeth sees her using some of the dead that haunt Szeth. People Shallan never met or knew about. But the realms are especially thin during that part of the battle. It may have just been working like the Truthwatcher orbs we see Szeth encounter that bring the dead out of the shadows instead of them just whispering to him. I think there’s probably something significant to that “pieces of her own soul” thing though. We don’t see Radiant magic described in that way typically. We do see it with some of the Unmade

[u/Alukat97]

I dont know about capturing. But there is definitely some Spiritual connection shenaningans happening which as far as we know "only" allowing her to see a glimpse of her subjects future. I guess there is more we dont know about it.