The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson is a fictional short story Focusing around a Forger

Called Shai. Forgers manipulate objects or people by altering their history to change them. And

Shai is captured trying to steal the Moon scepter and is forced in exchange for her life to forge

the Emperor's soul. The story deals with themes such as what manipulation is and what makes

us the way we are among other things.

Throughout the story one of the key themes is how perception and history change/define us;

this is explored primarily through forgery and soul stamps. For example, when Shai uses a

soulstamp on the table she says. “All I had to do was rewrite its past so that it was

maintained,rather than being allowed to sink into disrepair. That took hardly any work at all.”

This illustration of this principle is indicative to the overall theme of the text

Shai manipulates Gatona and others throughout the novella and at the end she reveals that she

manipulated Gatona the only way she could by being genuine and honest. Which brings into

question what is really manipulation.