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So, many of us speculate, that BAM could become Bondsmith Spren. But this Theory goes further. Shortly, i think Ba-Ado-Mishram allready WAS Godspren and had a Bondsmith. During the False Desolation. FIrst, we know that BAM was earlier general of Odium's forces, but wasnt able to do what she did during False Desolation. Bonding with entire Race was new, not expected by anyone ability. And spren normaly dont have new abilities by themselves. Spren are gaining new abilities by Bond. Or no, they not have new abilities, more like they find new aplications for their abilities. In most cases this is ability to manifest in Physical Realm as Shardblades, and also ability to larger interaction with items, but for Powerfull Spren this can be something different. For Stormfather could be Visions, and also images, map and so on. We know also Bonding Unmade is possible, like with any other Spren. We also know killing Bondsmith Spren would have massive consequences for whole Roshar. Imprisonment could do the same. We can also assume that BAM was able to comand not only Singers, but also Voidspren. They are integral part of Odium's forces, essential for recon, as messengers, spies, or fight in the Cognitive. Maybe BAM could comand Voidspren to start bonding Singers and this was her main power as Unmade. But during False Desolation BAM had ability to provide Voidlight, exactly like Stormfather, Nightwatcher or Sibling. While Stormfather has this ability without Bondsmith, Sibling for example needet Bondsmith, at least now, with damaged Connection to Honor. BAM is even called little god. Like Godspren? So this theory goes on. There is two thousand years between Last Desolation and False Desolation. What Singers do during this time? They doesnt fight against Humans all the time. They live, eat, change forms. And research. And have songs about Forms of Power. Someone from them, some Singer Scientist came to conclusion than he can try mimic Human-Spren Bond and try to bond Unmade. And was able to do this. And I can gues who he was. It was EL. El, Fused with very, very specific behaviour. Is fascinating with Humans, so I can see why he could try mimic human-spren Bond. He also is scientist, good partner with Raboniel. He literaly experiments with his own body, by replacing carapace with metal. What metal is this? Could be Duralumin? But El is Fused. Shouldnt he be on Braise during False Desolation? I think not. Fused are locked on Braise, but probably like Heralds, they need to be killed first and be sent back. If he wasnt killed, if he hide among Singers, it is possiblity he would live on Roshar all the time between Last and False Desolation. So how all action with False Desolation goes? Radiants and Melishi are fighting against Singers and came to conclusion there is something wierd about Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram. Singers have Voidlight and Forms of Power, but Odium is still on Braize. Singers have Bondsmith now. So Melishi wants to go for BAM, even while he knows about Risk for all Roshar. Radiants strike Team assault Singers with El, and Melishi uses his Bondsmith Powers to ripp off Bond with BAM from El. He replaces his Bond with Sibling with Bond with BAM, then he summons BAM similary to what Dalinar did to Stormfather, and he puts her in perfect gemstone. El sees this, and he strikes Melishi and kills him, but is killed by Radiants companions of Melishi and is sent to Braize. Sibling is damaged but was temporarly unbonded, so damage wasnt lethal. Melishi probably wants to Bond Sibling again, but was killed. When Melishi ripps off El's Bond, El loses ability to hear Rythms (literaly the same happened to Sibling!). When El arrives on Braize suffers Odiums wrath and mistakes his lose with this. He also brings Raboniel knowledge about imprisonment spren in gemstones. This is why El is so important. Is first Odium Bondsmith, and he is the one who brings knowledge nesessery to kill Heralds. What do you think?

Here's the theory. BAM specifically Connected herself to the power of the Nahel Bond on Roshar, and I think a lot of problems are caused by an asymmetrical breaking of the Bond. Perhaps the bond is now slightly too strong and unregulated. Elantris spoiler: Here's some things we know or highly suspect: When a Radiant dies, their spren does not become a Deadeyes, that only happens if the Radiant forsakes their Oaths. When this happens, the spren gets a more permanent tie to the PR, either they manifest as a Shardblade or they are dismissed while bonded to a Shardbearer. The deeper the bond, presumably the more damaged the Deadeye. BAM gained new abilities that allowed her to grant forms of power to the ancient Singers, possibly as a copy of Ishar's Knights Radiant. Singer forms by their very nature are spren bonds, Nahel bonds. Presumably when BAM was imprisoned, the Singers became Parshmen, unable to form bonds with spren to gain forms and they lost their minds in the process. Voidspren, particularly Ulim seem to have far, far more mental stability in the PR than they ought to, considering Ulim was able to leave Venli's gemheart with no negative consequences to his mind. There is an imbalance here. Not a new idea, but I agree with the idea that at the imprisonment of BAM, the Singers with forms of power, basically all of them except the Listeners, lost a portion of their Cognitive selves to the Voidspren that inhabited their hearts. This provided an anchor to the Voidspren in the PR, allowing them to retain their minds even when in the PR. This widespread rending of the fabric of Roshar's nature may have kicked off the decisions that lead to the Recreance, though 17 Sharders who track the history would need to check that. At the Recreance, by a similar mechanism the spren became Deadeyes, a portion of their mind trapped in the other realm. Just as a Deadeye can forcibly be Connected to a Shardbearer by application of Stormlight, perhaps the Everstorm on the first pass forcibly Connected the Parshmen to the CR and restored their ability to form bonds with Voidlight. This allowed the Fused to be more directly reborn in their bodies with the Everstorm. The restoration of their minds may have been a side effect, though Odium is likely better served by thinking, passionate Singers. Why did the Parshmen still have their lost minds after generations? Perhaps the mostly severed bond that kept the Voidspren sapient was passed down generation to generation. Nahel bonds can be passed. I also wonder if a Deadeye Enlightened by Sja-anat would have their mind restored with the Everstorm. Thoughts? I wrote this late at night, and needed to get it out of my head.

I listened to the Shardcasts on BAM and Kaladin and had a thought. I won't be too surprised if this isn't how it goes down, but I like the theory. I'll have to lay out a few pieces first though. First, I'm going off the idea that BAM is an Unmade that has Connection powers, which normally is just a power of Honor, but somehow she has access to it despite being of Odium. It's not crucial to my theory, but I do like the idea that was presented in the Shardcast that BAM was a spren of Roshar prior to becoming an Unmade of Odium, and I could see that BAM, who was/became Connected to the Singers, had a special relationship to the Singers and wasn't happy when humans barged in and spread from Shinovar which lead to her deciding to join Odium. Next piece, this theory has to do with whatever was going on with Kaladin's glowing yellow eyes when he took down Lezian. As far as I can think of, this is the only time we see someone actively using Adhesion to rend or kill someone. Szeth uses Adhesion as part of his collection of tricks to immobilize or cause mayhem when operating as the Assassin in White, but I don't think he kills someone directly with Adhesion. We know that BAM could grant Singers forms of power, so I'm wondering if there's some connection between Kaladin's weird glowing yellow eyes and BAM, though I don't know what that would be with BAM imprisioned. Third piece, now it could just be Bondsmith-specific hijinks, but this ties into why Odium's forces have never been able to free BAM themselves. We know that after Nergaoul was captured by Dalinar, they chucked the gemstone into the ocean as you can't easily hide an Unmade because it's extremely visible in Shadesmar. So if they know where BAM is, why not free her? If she's in a gemstone, presumably they would break it if they could, so it's not something that could be fixed with just an application of force. Hence my wondering if they have to have some sort of Adhesion or Connection power in order to free her, considering Kalak thinks they can free her, something reserved for those on the side of Honor, which would make sense why Odium's forces can't do it themselves. Last piece that ties this theory together, is that when Dalinar bound Nergaoul, he followed Navani's directions on how to capture a spren - you draw it in with something it loves and understands. Of all of the characters we've seen, Kaladin seems to be the only human that really cares about protecting the Singers. Others follow his example, but he was the one that made Rlain equal in Bridge Four, and we saw him emotionally ripped up at the battle in Kholinar when his human and Singer friends were killing each other. He also can/has used the power of Adhesion, Connections, in order to kill which is almost oxymoronic. BAM is deeply connected to the Singers and granted them forms of power, possibly so that they could kill to protect/retake their homeland from the human invaders. I think that might let her Connect with Kaladin in a way different from anyone else. All of this is why I think that not Shallan, but Dalinar and Kaladin might be the the ones to free Ba-Ado-Mishram. Thoughts?

I realize this theory is going out on a limb, and makes a couple of very big assumptions. But I really think this could be a possible route to how the things go in StormLight book 5. Ever since I finished Oathbringer, I've come to the conclusion that since Honor and Cultivation restrained Odium in some way, Odium himself is only a real threat while he has the fuzed and singers obeying him. Obviously, there are humans following Him, along with the Unmade and Thunderclasts, but the vast majority of his forces come from the singers. The Fuzed are basically helpless without willing singers to sacrifice their bodies for them. When I realized this, it also occurred to me that the way to defeat Odium is to find a way to separate him from the singers. My first, relatively stupid, idea was to simply find a way to have the humans and singers on different worlds. Obviously this is never going to happen, since the humans have lived on Roshar for so long, and since the singers were the original inhabitant species, both feel as if it rightfully belongs to them. So I started trying to figure out what might get the singers to turn on or reject Odium. I've posted a theory already about how I think it was the singers that started the wars in the first place. But that alone wouldn't be enough to change their minds. They might not be happy that it was the Fuzed and their like that started the fighting, but that doesn't seem like it could overshadow their anger at humankind. The years they spent as slaves to humans is what is truly fueling their rage. That's when it hit me. What if the humans weren't the only ones to blame for the singer's enslavement? Stick with me on this. During Dalinar's last vision in WoK, Honor tells Dalinar various pieces of puzzle in the conflict between Him and Odium. One line that specifically stood out to me was when he mentions that Odium has realized that the people of Roshar will fight amongst themselves if left alone. This is a fairly simple concept. Getting multiple enemies to turn on each other is one of the easiest ways to defeat opponents. He also claims He will be dead by the anyone ever receives the message, if anyone even does. So it's safe to say that Honor died shortly after he created that message. This line in Honor's message is the first of two pieces of information supporting this theory. Honor's death would have happened after the Herald's decided to abandon the Oathpact (since the visions not only showed their abandoned swords, but at least one vision afterward at FeverStone Keep), which means that two of the four largest unifying forces for humankind, their god and his heralds, would be gone. The main unifying forces left would be the Knights Radiant and the singers, humankind's enemy. You might be able to see where I'm going with this. If Odium could figure out a way to remove both of those, humans wouldn't be as strongly united anymore, and would likely turn on each other. This brings me to my main point. I think that Odium intentionally setup Ba-Ado-Mishram's imprisonment, knowing what would come of it. I believe that Odium realized what would happen if the singers were removed from the equation; that the Radiants and their spren would choose to end the orders if they no longer had an enemy to fight. Honor encouraged the radiants not to give up even after they found out that Roshar originally belonged to the singers, and he also acted as a check against their powers. With Him gone, they lost both of these things, and Odium was likely crafty enough to deduce that if he could remove the singers somehow, the knights would be gone, and humans would eventually start fighting amongst themselves. But what's the evidence that Odium did anything like this? It takes a some amount of reasoning, but there is another piece of information that supports it. The fact that the entire population of singers were bonded to BAM at the time of her imprisonment. Not counting the Listeners, since they were separated at the time. Previously, the Fuzed had taken over willing singers, and some voidspren had granted some singers forms of power. But, if it's possible for one of the Unmade to grant every existing singer a Regal status, then why didn't Odium himself do this? Why hasn't he done this during the current desolation? A larger quantity of powerful soldiers would be better for his army. It doesn't fit. With the way Regals act so aggressively, it's likely they've be even more willing to give themselves up to the Fuzed. Yes, it's possible that there just weren't as many singers at the time of BAM's imprisonment, and this evens things out, but that answer doesn't sit right with me. If their numbers were proportionally smaller, then the Radiants shouldn't have needed to imprison BAM to end the war. During one of Venli's flashback chapters, the voidspren Ulim talks to her about how BAM was imprisoned and what that did to the singers. The fact that he never mentions anything about Odium being responsible makes sense however, since he wouldn't want to reveal anything that might turn singers against Odium, assuming Ulim even knew about it. We don't know when exactly human's learned to imprison spren, but judging from the way the Fuzed were surprised by it, it was probably after Aharietiam. We also don't know where humans learned to imprison spren in the first place. It's entirely possible that Odium himself leaked that knowledge to humans, but i admit that's pure speculation. It's more likely he took advantage of humankind's ability to imprison spread in gemstones. And let's not forget that Odium would need to eventually bring the singers back. Obviously, this is done with the Everstorm. While the Stormfather said that the Everstorm is new, it is old of design, which means that the idea for it probably existed before the recreance, during the time of the desolations. So it could easily have been a part of Odium's plans. It is also possible that he just never thought that Taln would be able to resist for for over four thousand years, and figured by the time Taln broke (which never happened) the humans would be sufficiently divided. If the information that Odium was responsible for the singer's enslavement were somehow distributed to the singer population, I imagine that would turn the entire situation on its head. They might not be any less angry at humans, but if they found out the very god they were following, the one their ancestors had followed, had betrayed them and gotten them enslaved, they would probably abandon Him pretty quickly. It's the sort of thing that could end the war in a chaotic enough way to upend the new Odium's plans and bring a semi-conclusion good enough for the first half of the ten book installment. Of course, the contest of champions would still happen, but this would be a dramatic enough event to impact even that.

Preface: I'm definitely not super sold on this, but the thought came to me so I wanted to put it down in the best place to get other people to either shut it down or upgrade it) I thin Cultivation might have been involved in enabling the False Desolation. By which I don't mean she wanted it, but that she had something to do with Ba-Ado-Mishram. (TL;DR/theory in a few sentences at the bottom) The facts that lead me to this thought: - Ba-Ado-Mishram's ability to grant forms of power and Voidlight in the False Desolation was new, somehow. She didn't do that in previous desolations. - She's the only Unmade with two hyphens. Yes, it's time for a bit of morphology. She's also referred to by Kalak as "Mishram". This might be refering to what BAM was before being Unmade, and maybe Unmade Mishram was Ado-Mishram before becoming what she is now. As dumb as this sounds, I think the second hyphen might indicate involvement by another shard. At first I thought "hm, but who? Cultivation I guess, because she's the only one left", but a few more pieces of information might play into it. BAM gained new abilities somehow, which she didn't have before. These include being able to create Voidlight. Cultivation is able to do something similar. She both a) created a magic system together with Honor that uses Honor's Investiture but not hers and b ) gave Lift the ability to fuel her Surgebinding with Lifelight anyway. BAM was something before she was unmade. I like the idea that Odiums truest/signature Surge is Division, so I'm postulating that "Unmaking" isn't exactly a unique process, but Odiums Version of "changing an invested Being" or something like that. Point is, Odium isn't the only one who can change Spren, but Unmaking is just his version. (For exmaple, if Ruin were to do something similar, it'd end up with a Spren weaker and "less" than it was before, due to Ruin's nature) Another Shard could be able to do that too. We know that Ruin isn't the only shard able to control someone with spikes, so it can be argued that just like Future Sight and SpikeControl, any shard - whose intent wouldn't inhibit that - can corrupt or change investisture. Cultivation is training the Nightwatcher to understand human's better, for a reason we don't really know. This hasn't always been the case, but is a fairly recent development. (I can't find a source for this but I remember it being this way, I'd welcome any WoB or quote that either proves or disproves this). Cultivation, like Honor, was a god of the Singers and Spren before they swapped with Odium. Singers and Spren were affected by Ba-Ado-Mishram's imprisonment, but at that point in Time Odium was the god of only one of those groups, not both. Cultivation's plans have involved an Unmade on-screen once already. Cultivation is said to have excellent Future-Sight, and we have not heard from Sja-Anat that she was in contact with Cultivation, so Sja-Anat leading Odium to Nightblood (whom Cultivation might also have had a hand in creating) was either something they planned together or, more likely, part of Cultivation's plan. From a Meta Standpoint, the dead Shard Honor has been much more present in the fight against Odium than the alive shard Cultivation so far, and I think that that is not because she's inactive, but because her plans (as we saw with Taravangian in RoW or Dalinar in OB) are slow and long. Ever since Secret History, it's clear that Shards aren't easy to group into "good" and "bad". Preservation was good in comparison to Ruin, but would've been happy with an enternity of the Lord Ruler ruling Scadrial. Cultivation herself acknowledges she can't always control what happens to things she helps grow. To put it meanly, a Cancer cell is pretty aligned with Cultivation's intent, growth for the sake of growth is growth nonetheless. Now, to put the theory into words: I think Cultivation changed the Unmade that we now know as Ba-Ado-Mishram somehow. In a time of Odium's Absence/occupation with torturing Heralds, Cultivation "enhanced" (her version of the process which is "unmaking" for Odium) the Unmade, granting her new abilities in the process. As one of the godesses of Spren and Singers and Roshar itself, this process made Ba-Ado-Mishram more connected to those than she had been before. Ba-Ado-Mishram's imprisonment didn't create Deadeyes and Slaveform because of what she was before being Unmade, but because of the new part of her that was of Cultivation. So, the timeline of BAM would be like this: 1. "Mishram", whatever she was before being unmade. Kelek refers to her as this in a respectful/appreciate way, possibly because he knew what "Mishram" was before, 2. "Ba-Mishram", one of the 9 Unmade for the longest time. 3. Ba-Ado-Mishram, now changed once more by Cultivation, granted new abilities. The "ado" in her name comes from "adoda", meaning Light- A kind of pseudo-sibling, with both Odium and Cultivation's touch in her. She starts the False Desolation and her imprisonment taints all the other beings touched by Cultivations presence on Roshar. The Nightwatcher probably became Cultivation's "main project" only afterwards. Whether the false desolation was an intended or unintended consequence, I have no idea. Whether BAM wanted to betray Odium or even usurp him and came to Cultivation because of that, or if Cultivation "hijacked" BAM, I'm unsure. What do you guys think? Tinfoil hat theory, or might there be some merit to it?

Apologies if it has been discussed or I've forgotten something. What would happen to a sapient spren if it was captured in a gem? We've obviously seen lower spren be captured and we've seen Unmade like the Thrill and Ba-Ado-Mishram (kinda seen) be captured, but what about the in-between? Could you manifest some effect from a fabrial made with a Sapient spren? What would happen if the gem was broken and the spren escaped (would the spren experience a loss of function, cognition, etc.). (I think this has been somewhat discussed in some Shardcasts about Ba-Ado-Mishram.) Does this affect bonds (thinking Nahel) in strange ways?

Could the Sibling and Ba-ado-Mishram be one and the same? - a Godspren - light-producing - stuck inside a gem - missing a part of itself - wary of Knights Radiant! - both went dormant about the same time Could "Mishram" have been a three-part spren, an equal divide between the three Shards - the three pure tones - of Roshar... perhaps even created to symbolize the unity of the three when the Ashynian Refugees were accepted? Perhaps even created as *part of the Oathpact*?

All spoilers - RoW, Dawnshard, Cosmere, WoB, r/cremposting, whispers of fictive headmates, etc: In a nutgreatshell: I propose that the herald Ishi and the radiant Melishi are one and the same. 1. MELISHI We know that Melishi was a Bondsmith prior to the Recreance. He was bonded to the Sibling. He enjoyed a position of authority among the Knights Radiant. He lead a strike team to capture Ba-ado-Mishram. He was warned that this would have unintended consequences. He ignored this warning. 2. ISHAR We know that Ishar was a Herald of the Almighty. He is currently the mad God-Priest of Tukar. He is obsessed with spren, the Nahel bond, and Connection in general. He is preposterously skilled in combat - far more than even the Blackthorn and several Knights Radiant. Before he was a Herald, he was a part of the development of surgebinding on Ashyn, which led to the destruction of Ashyn, and was part of the subsequent exodus of humans from Ashyn to Roshar. He is still studying the fundamental forces of the Cosmere with an eye towards their manipulation. 3. SIMILARITIES I mean, basically all of it? ISHI, MELISHI - their names are pretty dang similar. Both had positions of authority in the Knights Radiant - Melishi from the way he is spoken of in the Gem Archive, and the Knights Radiant being literally called "Ishar's Knights." Both are closely associated with Bondsmiths. Melishi was a Bondsmith (bonded to the Sibling), the historical Ishar was the Heraldic patron of Bondsmiths, and the modern Ishar tried to steal a Bondsmith's bond to the Stormfather. Both are closely associated with Connection. We really only know Melishi in the context of gems mentioning Ba-Ado-Mishram, who in another gem is specifically discussed in terms of majuscular Connection. Ishar, in RoW, is all about that Connection. Melishi captured Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem (much the way Dalinar does to The Thrill). Ishar is studying a new way to capture spren, one that involves less jewelry and The historical Ishar was part of the development of surgebinding on Ashyn. The modern Ishar is trying to mess with the fundamental forces of Roshar. Melishi messed with the fundamental forces by capturing Ba-Ado-Mishram. The historical Ishar was part of the exodus of humans from Ashyn to Roshar. The modern Ishar is studying the persistence of Invested entities outside of their home. (This is pretty close to what Restares is doing on Roshar, and what Thaidakar is doing on Scadrial.) In the same way, Melishi was studying how to stop Voidlight from getting from Braize to Roshar by means of a spren. These seem similar - even progressive, one two three. The historical Ishar was part of the Surgebinding investigations that destroyed Ashyn. Melishi was part of the spren-capturing that caused the False Desolation and turned the parshendi into parshmen. The modern Ishar is on his way to becoming the subject of a Behind The Bastards episode. This guy genocides. And I mean, the methods of his madness are bad enough, but his *goals* are probably even worse! The guy should really be the Herald of Ignoring Externalities. "Playing with forces too big for him to control" seems like his bag, baby. He answers the question: What if Lanfear was like "okay, so we've got this Bore. What if we bored a BIGGER bore and then put THAT Bore in THIS bore? Problem solved!" This guy probably has a coffee mug that says "That's a problem for Tomorrow Ishar!" OMG I hate him so much. 4. PROBLEMS From the Gem Archive, we are told: ""This generation has had only one Bondsmith[...]" This suggests that there are multiple, changing Bondsmiths. But it does not imply that it all Bondsmiths are new. Heck, it tells us clearly that the 'multiple' part is not constant. I expect that none of these parts are constant. A) Heralds can bond spren. Look at Nale. Heralds can lead their Order - again, Nale. C) Heralds are immortal. Look at... well, 9 of them. (Sorry Jezza) D) We know that Ishi is older than the Heralds themselves. He was definitely alive during the time Melishi was alive. E) Again, Ishar tried to steal Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather - but another way of saying that is, he tried to bond a Bondsmith spren himself. F) Back in the day, the Nahel bond was less permanent. Maya says that she thought the breaking of her Radiant bond would hurt, but would not kill her. This implies that it would have left her able to be re-bonded to a new person, making a new Knight Radiant - much as she is on the road to doing with Adorablin. By this same method, a bondsmith could well have bon G) We are told by the Gem Archive that "This generation has only one Bondsmith." It does not imply that this one Bondsmith hasn't been a Bondsmith for generations - since, indeed, the beginning. And it does not imply that, just because there's only one bondsmith, only one of the Bondsmith spren is bonded. A person can have more than one Nahel bond at once. And if anyone was ever to do this it would be Mr. Bondypants himself. H) As a result, Melishi could have been bonded to more than one of the Bondsmith spren - before his attack on Ba-Ado-Mishram, or even, during it. I) Storms, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Ishar CREATED the Sibling - using his Bonding powers to combine Stormlight and Cultivationlight into a new "Bondsmith-level spren." (We need better vocabulary, here. Bondspren? Shardspren? Greatspren? Pleez halp.) J) Storms, I'm guessing that Ishi-Melishi is the one who created the Nahel bond entirely. 5. SIDE THEORY THAT'S TOTALLY BATSHIT, I KNOW Since Ba-Ado-Mishram was a Light-level spren, and the only other Light-level spren are the Bondsmith spren, I'm going to go ahead and suggest that Ba-Ado-Mishram could have been a Bondsmith-bondable spren. Ba-Ado-Mishram might have been a regular ol' spren of Odium, and her only association with Light was to forge a Connection between a Light-source - say Odium himself - and the parsh. Or, Ba-Ado-Mishram could have been the spren of Odium in the way the Stormfather is the spren of Honor, or the Nightwatcher the spren of Cultivation. BUT. What if Ba-Ado-Mishram was a spren like the Sibling - a meeting of the two? And what if, as I theorized about the Sibling, Ishar was involved in her creation? Ba-Ado-Mishram might have been a 'sibling' of Honor and Odium, or of Cultivation and Odium - creating a 'towerlight'-like blend of the two lights. Maybe the creation of such a blended greatspren was part of the Oathpact by which Odium and the Ashyn Refugees were allowed onto Roshar. Maybe there were two of them - three blended greatspren, in addition to one pure greatspren of Odium. Meaning there's one mixed greatspren, and one pure greatspren, that we have yet to meet - or at least to understand. If Ba-Ado-Mishram was a Bondsmith-spren, Ishi/Melishi could well have bonded her at one point - or indeed, could have been bonded to her even while he was imprisoning her. This might be the reason that the Sibling went into hiding, and refused to bond any new Radiant. His last Bondsmith had betrayed one of his other bonded spren! (Aside: I kind of wonder if the Sibling being tied to the Tower is actually not that far off from Ba-Ado-Mishram being trapped in a gem. But that's a bit metaphysical for the moment - save 4 l8r.) And, ifffff this is all true... ISHAR COULD STILL BE BONDED TO BA-ADO-MISHRAM. Still bonded. All this time! This could well be the reason that Ishar is so double extra super crazy at the moment. He could be bonded to a spren who is trapped in a gem and has been stuck underground for a few millennia. That's probably halfway to being trapped himself - halfway to being Taln. Probably not super awesome for the ol' mental health - just guessing. 6. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER My guess is that the history/mechanics went something like this. -Ishar was a human living on Ashyn -He was interested in the Surges - kind of the way Dr Faustus was interested in the spirits, Dr Oppenheimer in the atom, Dr. Eronaile the Power, or the current Ishar in playing Dr. freakin' Mengele with living spren. -Odium tempted Ishar with the power to manipulate the fundamental surges -Ishar did so, creating Surgebinders - probably creating the Nahel bond as we know it. -In doing so, he also delved_too_deep.gif, and created such instability on Ashyn that the planet was rendered uninhabitable - all but destroyed. (Side note - the name "Ishar" is quite a bit like the "Ishtar" of Biblical times. There's a lot of cross-pollenation among old deities, and their names... but Ishtar is associated with the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve with the forbidden knowledge that saw them cast out of Paradise. RIP Tranquiline Halls.) -Odium then asked Honor and Cultivation if he, and his people, could flee to Roshar. The Avasts agreed, under the condition that Odium would stay on Braize and not do, y'know, Odium Stuff. This was the Oathpact. -The Oathpact was created, not just by the power of the Shards, but by the power of Ishar the Bondsmith. He created the rules of the Oathpact. -The reason Ishar was able to bind Shards to an agreement, is the same reason that he was able to bind spren of the cognitive to people of the physical by means of the Nahel bond. It's the same reason that he is all about that Connection and always has been. You see, Ishar is - or at least, was - a Dawnshard. It could be UNITE, as in UNITE THEM; or it could be BIND, as in Surgebinding, as in Bondsmith ("binding contract" sounds a lot like an Oathpact to this attorney.) I'm guessing it's BIND. -Specifically, Ishar was given th Dawnshard of Binding by Odium. And specifically, he was given it by Odium *specifically* so that it would lead to the ruination of Ashyn, so that Odium could play upon Honor and Cultivation's sympathies to admit his people to their system - and in doing so, let him in, to war upon them, and kill them. -Ishar then wrote the Oathpact, and Bound the parties to it. The problem, here, is that - pacts are hard. Words are hard. Hell, I'm a lawyer. Writing contracts is hard. Ambiguities are unavoidable, and can be exploited by other parties - and sometimes ambiguities can be hidden by the drafter to exploit themselves. Odium found, or made, those ambiguities, and exploited them - leading to the death of Tanavast, the splintering of Honor, and the cycle of Desolations. -Hell, Odium might have done this same trick to the other Shards he Splintered. The Bondsmith's power to turn human words into the laws of the Universe is as beautiful and terrible as the very dreams of the skybreakers. (When you've got the Hammer of Gods, everything looks like a Nale. Sorry. No, no I'm not.) -I don't understand the current status of the Dawnshard of Bind. I know it profoundly affects Dalinar. That's all I know. It could be held by the Stormfather. It could be hidden, but was held long enough by Bondsmith-related entities that it suffuses all that they are. But, if I had to guess, part of the Oathpact was that the Dawnshard of Binding was splintered into ten pieces, and divided amongst the Heralds, whose main goal was not to be interplanetary warlords, but simply keepers of a power that was too great to combine - and too dangerous for Honor and Cultivation to want anywhere near Roshar. The Heralds, as prison-guards of the power that destroyed their home planet, were then banished to Braize, and never meant to return. Then Odium went all rules lawyer on them, found mad sploits, and thus the endless cycle of free-trips-to-Damnation. -Whether by Ishar's bindings, or the natural reordering of the world after Odium's people came to Roshar, the Nahel bond became as tied to Voidlight as it was to Stormlight and Cultivationlight. My guess is that three spren were created to be co-equal blends of the Shards in the system. The spren who resides in Urithiru is part Honor, part Cultivation. That spren has two siblings: Ba-Ado-Mishram, and an as-yet-unnamed (or at least, as-yet-unidentified) spren, one of which is of Honor and Odium, the other of Cultivation and Odium. -As a result of stacking playing-god on top of playing-god, Ishar/Melishi's capture of Ba-Ado-Mishram stopped what could well have been the imminent conquest of Roshar by Odium. But in doing so - well, Lews Sealing The Bore. Prepare For Unforseen Consequences. OOPS I DID IT A GAIN. This deprived the parshmen of cognition, deprived the spren of the ability to survive the breaking of their bonds, and probably other things that we don't even understand, because THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STICK YOUR DICK IN THE UNIVERSE. And... storms, it is quite possible that the name Ba-Ado-Mishram is a sobriquet. "Ado" could come from "Adora," the same root as the first syllable in Adolin's name, meaning "light" - and "Mishram" contains "Ish" and even "Ishr," which could be linked to the Herald. Maybe there's a Ba-Ado-Mishram and a, idk, Tet-Ado-Mishram, indicating Honor/Odium-light and Cultivation/Odium-light (or vice versa). Heck, maybe the "Sibling" is actually like Asha-Ado-Mishram - three Siblings, created simultaneously by the powers of a Dawnshard, in the hopes of a harmony that Odium immediately sought to destroy. Three multi-shardic blends - three little Harmonys - three little Adonalsiums - simultaneously beautiful in their unity, and terrible in their return towards that which was Shattered. -The phrase UNITE THEM is probably just a general, all-encompassing idea of the Dawnshard of BINDING. It might even be a mixed version, resulting from the Intention of dead Tanavast and mere echoes of the splinitered Dawnshard. However, I doubt it will be satiated until it has united the splinters of itself (if such they are), and, indeed, the Shards of Adonalsium. -I expect that is Hoid's biggest interest in the Rosharan system - the unification of the shards of the Dawnshard of Binding, towards his ultimate goal of the reunification of Adonalsium. -...which interest could very well be at conflict with the best interests of Roshar. -And, as a result, the biggest single piece on the Rosharan chessboard is probably... Rysn. Because A] maybe the only way out of the BINDing Oathpact is to CHANGE it... and B] because my girl Rysn real good at contract negotiation. TEAM RYSN BABY. ALL ABOARD DAT WANDERSAIL! Best from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where I am off-Trail hiding from a thunderclaststorm -Silver the Ridgerunner

This is something I just thought of while finishing RoW. Typically a Darkeye can become a Lighteye when they bond a Shardblade or become a Knight Radiant. Yet somehow we have had natural born Lighteyes that has continued for just a bit under 4000 years, most likely since the Recreance. We also know that Deadeyes only started appearing since the Recreance. The link between both "races" would seem to be that the eyes were affected since this happened. We are aware that the sealing of BAM had wide reaching affects on Roshar. A similar example we observe is how the Parshendi were affected by the sealing of BAM, specifically in my opinion is that their Identity was taken away from them. Deadeyes also seem to be in a "Identity"-less state like the Parshmen are. So it feels like something was ripped from the Spiritweb of the spren and imprinted on the humans at the time of unbonding. This then became a hereditary trait on the few people who unbonded their spren/took the dropped shards and continued to pass it onto their descendant's spirtiwebs. TBH I think this might have been very obvious for some people but this just hit me like the stormwall haha.

So I am listening to the newest Shardcast, and as usual I came up with a new theory. The latest Shardcast is discussing Ba-Ado-Mishram, and as they were spitballing some things I have come up with a hot take on the origins of this most mysterious Unmade. So there is some mention in Oathbringer/WoR epigraphs (I believe the Hessi's Mythica sequence) that Ba-Ado-Mishram was "A Highprincess of the enemy forces" and this seems to imply that she was some kind of mortal. Of course, this is in-book research so there can be all kinds of Recreance shenanigans. Later, in RoW, Kalak references a character called Mishram, with a certain amount of familiarity. Also, there is one point in RoW part 2 (maybe, don't have the book on me right now but it's the scene where the Fused and Venli are invading Urithiru) where Rabonial swears by "Ado," which as one Shardcaster pointed out is the first part of the Alethi glyph for light- and also similar to Adonalsium. In addition, and I'm not sure this is relevant, Chaos keeps pointing out that there are not one, but two hyphens in Ba-Ado-Mishram's name, which is unique among the Unmade. Ba-Ado-Mishram has some kind of Connection to the Parsh, Spren, and Roshar as a whole, which is unusual since Adhesion (the Surge of Connection) is called "Honor's purest Surge." My theory: Ado, the entity that Rabonial refers to, is the Spren of Lights (as in the physical representation of Investiture on Roshar), a being on a level with the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher. Mishram, the person that Kalak refers to, was once a mortal Singer who eventually bonded (in a Bondsmith-like process) with Ado, and then was corrupted/Unmade somehow by Odium, leading to the entity that modern Rosharans refer to as Ba-Ado-Mishram. The "Ba" in this case would mean something along the lines of "both" or "together." Let me know what ya'll think! I'm pretty new to theory crafting and I'd love to hear any thoughts you guys have on my style.

I am pretty sure that I saw someone else say something about this, but for the life of me I can’t find the post. It is an interesting theory so I want to hear ideas. When BAM was imprisoned, it affected the entire land and created slave form among the singers. It created a new state of being for them. What if it also affected the spren of the Knights Radiant?. What if before the imprisonment of BAM, the bond could be broken without killing the spren, only some pain on their part. BAM getting imprisoned changed the land and the Knights didn’t know anything had changed. They had the plan to end their oaths but they didn’t realize it would kill the spren.

"Honor is dead, but he lives on in the hearts of men" - I think this phrase is going to be very significant, and is related to what is wrong with humans/deadeyes post-Recreance (more specifically with how to fix it). Kalak's epigraphs reveal a lot about what is going with spren/Connection on Roshar - he talks about the mechanics of what happened to Jezrien (and the Heralds are functionally spren who remain Connected to Roshar through the Oathpact). The usual Nahel bond functions by humans giving spren conscious in exchange for power (the Connect): "The bond is what keeps us alive. You sever that, and we will slowly decompose into ordinary souls—with no valid Connection to the Physical or Spiritual Realms." - Kalak (Sanderson, Brandon. Rhythm of War). I think this applies to spren, except pre-Recreance the spren would still have a valid Connection through Honor and would probably return to Shadesmar. However now, Kalak tells us: "I felt it happen to Jezrien. You think you captured him, but our god is Splintered, our Oathpact severed." So when a human breaks their oath, spren do not have a valid Connection through Honor, but they ARE connected to Mishram (as Odium is now part of Roshar), and thus remain trapped in the physical. So when Radiants sever the bond post-Recreance, the spren who usually would have Connected to Honor (keeper of oaths) instead Connect to BAM, hence their minds being trapped. Reversing this requires a version of the Nahel bond that functios according to Odium, which is what we see between Adolin and Maya. With the usual Nahel bond, humans take power from spren in exchange for their minds. Re-reading the trial scene when Maya speaks, and the exchange between her and Adolin is so similar to how Odium takes pain (Passion) from people. "Adolin...felt her pain somehow.A deep agony. And...anger?" He gives her some of his "strength" and feels a warmth deep inside: I think this works the same way it does for the Sibling - they couldn't hear Honor's tone anymore so I don't think any deadeye spren on Rohsar can. However, if they Connect with a human they can because Honor lives on in the hearts of men - as Navani proved.

tl;dr version: In this post I will try to convince you that Voidbinding is a nascent magic system of both Odium(“void”) and Honor (“binding”), and present a theory on how it was created Voidbinding doesn't make sense as Odium's magic system The name: we now know from multiple sources that Adhesion, the Surge of binding things together, is the one closest to Honor. The Fused don't even recognize it as a Surge; they talk about Surges, but don't seem to use the word Surgebinding. They are called Voidbringers (I'm sorry, Singers ). Why would Odium's magic have 'binding' in its name? It's pointless: why would Odium grant anybody the power of futuresight if it interferes with his own and ultimately leads to his downfall? 10-centric: Voidbinding has ten levels. Yes, there are nine Unmade and they lack the Bondsith one, but that's just happenstance – we know from the Sibling that the tenth Unmade can be created. Why would Voidbinding be based on the number associated most closely with Honor? Why is the Voidbinding chart so similar to Surgebinding and so unlike the Fused abilities? Lore: the first mentions of mortals using Voidbinding abilities we know seem to be from around the time of the False Desolation: Listener songs mention the Nightform (and BAM as a source of Forms of Power) and we see potential information about corrupted Truthwatcher spren in Urithiru Gem Archive. Besides that we only have the general idea that futuresight is of Odium, but that could have come from the Unmade alone (per Taravangian's word, they all can grant it). There's rich lore about the Unmade, but none about Voidish Surges besides Illumination. The Fused are surprised that Voidspren can bond with humans and they don't see anything weird with the fact that there are no Nightforms around during the Final Desolation. Previously I believed that Voidbinding might have originated on Ashyn, but BAM's deep ties to Roshar seem to disprove that Unexplained phenomena: what's the source of BAM's massive Connection ability? Why did her imprisonment caused so much damage to Roshar if she was just Odium's splinter? Why did the Sibling stop hearing Honor's Rhythm? How could BAM and Sja-anat rebel against Odium's will? Why was Warlight never discovered before? Surgebinding vs fabrials Before we move further, one more thing needs to be discussed: why are there two magic systems of Honor and Cultivation? The Rhythm of War finally gave me some idea about the difference. The fabrials are like feruchemy – they are a perfect balance between the powers of two Shards, as indicated by the nature of the Sibling and the Towerlight. Surgebinding is also of both Shards, but it's biased towards Honor. It uses more of his Investiture: it's powered by Stormlight, Honorblades are Honor's splinters, the most powerful and mystical Order is based around uniting, not growth. What happened with the surplus of Cultivation's Investiture then? It's simple: it became the basis for the Old Magic, a magical “appendage” originating from a single Shard Ba-Ado-Mishram is the source of Voidbinding I believe that's what Odium wanted: a simple set of magical powerful abilities to be used by the Unmade to do his bidding. That's why the Voidbinding was called the cousin of the Old Magic. It was always meant to be used by the Unmade only, not become a full magic system. I believe, however, that at some point something extremely important happened – BAM was infused with Honor's Investiture and completely transformed. I'm not sure how or who did it; we have several plausible suspects: Ishar, Honor, Cultivation and (Dawnshard spoilers) Whoever that was, as a result of their action BAM became deeply Connected to Roshar and turned into something similar to the Sibling. She was suddenly able to produce Warlight and use it to control the Singers, just like the Sibling controls fabrials. She was able to grant Forms of Power from a completely new magic system: full, 10-centric Voidbinding, whose relation to the original Unmade abilities is just like the relation between the Old Magic and Surgebinding. Her abilities (and newfound autonomy) extended, to some extent, to other Unmade, especially Sja-anat, allowing her to corrupt True Spren. The one thing she couldn't do in the days before her imprisonment, however, was to create spren that would grant full Voidbinding – there wasn't simply enough Odium Investiture on the planet. Now, however, the situation has changed: the Everstorm circulates Roshar and clashes with the Highstorm, providing the exact conditions that she needs, once she's released (most likely in Book 5). This will lead to unleashing the full power of Voidbinding, which will become a major plot point (and a weapon against Odium) in Arc 2

We now know that Bondsmiths existed on Ashyn before the Nahel Bond was discovered and they were able to bind Surges somehow (Surge fabrials, probably) and use Connection to achieve spectacular results. Comparing this description with what the Dawnshards were supposed to do, it seems quite likely that they were simply using them. If so, is it possible that Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to get one somehow and use it to cause the False Desolation? Each Unmade can be mapped (with some fuzziness, of course) to a KR order, with the exception of Bondsmiths. BAM's abilities during the False Desolation, however, seem like a supercharged, Roshar-wide, version of what Bondsmiths can do (providing Connection and Investiture). It was also the first time she showed these powers: the KR weren't sure how she did it ("Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people") and we know that historically they feared Sja-Anat more. I think it is in the realm of possibility that her original powers were completely unrelated to this, but, against all odds, she was able to obtain a Dawnshard. Maybe it was stolen from Aimia? In such case, the Scouring might have been an attempt to repeat the False Desolation by Dai-Gonarthis

0. TL;DR Ba-Ado-Mishram is an ancient, natural Bondsmith spren of Odium, and the "spren" of the Eila Stele's "spren, stone, and wind"[27]. 1. Wait, isn't that the Sibling? 2. Okay then, why Ba-Ado-Mishram? 3. But why do you think she wasn't Unmade? 4. And if she was Unmade? 5. Why did she gain new abilities at the time of the False Desolation? 6. There's a few WoBs and quotes that contradict the theory... 7. References

RHYTHM OF WAR SPOILERS! TL;DR: Adolin and Shallan release Ba-Ado-Mishram and revive all the Deadeyes. Some Tinfoil And Some Facts After completing WoR, I had a big question I never asked 'cause I thought Stormfather was exaggerating what had happened... but I'll come back to this point in a min. What are Deadeyes? Spren whose bonded radiant broke their oaths. But isn't the cost too high? Humans who can't keep their oath lose their Surgebinding at the cost of a dead spren? After reading RoW, we know what happens to a spren whose Radiant broke their oaths after the Recreance. Testament died after Recreance when Shallan broke her oaths... err, truths? Now back to my first point. Stormfather told Kaladin that he killed Syl. Back then I assumed he was lying and Syl will just return to Shadesmar after their bond breaks completely, which never happened. Now that I think about it, Stormfather wasn't lying. Syl would have died if her bond with Kal broke completely. Read This Before Conclusion Syl said this about Honorblades: If a Spren reqiure checks, will it just die if the the requirements are not met. I don't think so. Maya agrees with me: Spren thought they will suffer from pain, not death. And Kalak says: I certainly think this is related to formation of Deadeyes after a Radiant break oaths after the Recreance The Conclusion Before Ba-Ado-Misharm was imprisoned, a spren would not die if their Radiant broke their oaths. They would just be sent back to Shadesmar. And ever since the Recreance, any broken bond results to death of the spren. But why Ba-Ado-Mishram is so important? How can an Unmade scar Roshar in such ways? I think Ba-Ado, and all the unmade for the fact, were once of Honor and Cultivation with important roles in Rosharan Spiritual ecology. Later currupted by Oduium. But that's another theory for another day. Adolin and Shallan's arc is now going towards reviving the Deadeyes. Maya and Adoin have been theorized for long. Now we have Shallan and Testament too. I think Adolin and Shallan's next quest will be to find Ba-Ado and free her. In freeing her, they will revive the Deadeyes. Another Tinfoil Titbit Ba-Ado-Mishram was once tasked to check Surgebinding in ways that it remains safe and whatever happened to Ashyn is not repeated. She kept doing it even after Odium Unmade her 'cause Odium don't want to destroy Roshar either. After her imprisonment, Radiants and their spren realized that Nahel bonds are no longer safe and decided to break them.

This theory pulls together a lot of the loose ends left dangling at the end of OB into the what I believe is the most compelling case for the identity of the Sibling. This theory has a little bit of something for everyone, an explanation for the significance of the color of the Moons of Roshar, a satisfying explanation of the Realmatic source of Voidlight, the true nature of the Stormstriders, what exactly happened with Melishi's strikeforce, and of course the identity of the Sibling. So grab some popcorn and buckleup, it's a long ride. This theory started percolating when considering the extreme oddity of the three Rosharan moons, and the most strikingly their color. And from the offhand comment the POV character made in the RoW Interlude included in Brandon's July 7th Newsletter (spoilered below). We know from WoB (spoilered below, emphasis added) that each of the invested Shards on Roshar has a specific color or system of colors associated with them, Odium is red/gold, Honor is white/blue and Cultivation is green. The color that is noticeably missing, that happens to be one of the colors of the 3 moons of roshar, and happens also to be the color of the weird anti-glow nimbus of someone using Voidlight, and is coincidentally one of the two colors depicting linking relationships in the voidbinding chart is violet (the other voidbinding chart color is a yellow gold, clearly signifying Odium). This was the basis for the theory, but all good theories live or die on the solidness of the proof. The main proof for this theory comes from looking at the records in the Gem Archive and assuming that the drawer locations and gem numbers of the individual entries imply a rough relative chronology. I think it plausible to assume that the earliest gems would be placed in the lowest number drawers, and that the sequentially numbered gems are explicitly stating their relative chronology. The entries that refer to external events would seem to confirm this chronological assumption (and are noted in the comments below the entries). At the end of this post all of the entries for the gem archive are placed in chronological order based on drawer numbers and gem numbers, for anyone who just want's to read through the raw chronological listing. The gem archive is comprised of the following 3 types of entries: Personal Records (of the least interest to us in this investigation, with the exception of the Truthwatcher ones) Entries about the Tower and the Sibling (very important ones) Entries about the War with the Parsh during the False Desolation (including Melishi's strike force (also very important ones)) So given the above divisions of content and the assumption that drawer location and numbers reveal a chronological ordering, we can arrange the significant entries into a rough thematic and chronological ordering. Each ordered entry states the Drawer-Sub drawer number: Gem Type (Associated Radiant Order) and CH# where the epigraph can be found in the text. After the entry is a contextualizing footnote. Before we begin, I have to say, that after ordering and arranging them a very singular narrative begins to emerge with gaps that can be filled in by some educated surmises. First I'll give you the facts and then present the Grand Unifying Theory. PART 1: Personal Records The only really noteworthy entry in this category (other than the Truthwatcher entries that will be placed in the Tower/Sibling subcategory) is the following Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 Boy is that a doozy! This clearly establishes that at the time of the False Desolation the Sibling was unbonded, because if the sole Bondsmith was bonded to the Sibling there wouldn't have been any uncertaintity as to what is happening with the functioning of the Tower. It also means that the sole Bondsmith, Melishi, was either bonded to the Stormfather or the Nightwatcher (more on this later). PART 2: Records about the Tower and Sibling In this series of entries you can see that the Gem Archive records start with an undisclosed Elsecaller investigating the Sibling, implying that something was off about the Sibling at the start of our Archive derived chronology. Drawer 1-1: First Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 68 On first reading, this would seem to imply that Sibling has already withdrawn. But I think based on the subsequent entry by (I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume) the same Elsecaller Radiant, the tower is still partially functional. This Elsecaller investigated the Sibling in the Cognitive realm, and I think the reason that he/she doesn't hold that the Sibling has withdrawn by intent is that in fact the Sibling at this point hasn't withdrawn, at least not fully. The "I find counter to that theory" implies that she has some direct evidence that either 1) The Sibling hasn't withdrawn by intent or 2) The Sibling hasn't fully Withdrawn, or 3) The premise that the Sibling has withdrawn is false because some other process is at work upon the Sibling (namely corruption by Sja-Anat) that is causing the malfunctioning of Urithiru's subsystems. I'll return to this later in the Grand Unifying Theory portion. Drawer 1-1: Second Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 69 This shows that even when some Radiants believed that the Sibling had withdrawn, something was still powering some of the subsystems at Urithiru. Drawer 1-1: Third Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 70 Just more confirmation by the Elsecaller who has investigated what is going on with the Sibling from the Cognitive Realm (who likewise knows that Urithiru, at this point, is still somewhat functional) that an abnormal process is at work with the Sibling. Drawer 2-22: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This is early in the Gem Archives and shows that the plan to abandon the tower followed pretty shortly after the beginning of the breakdown of Urithiru's subsystems. Drawer 3-11: Garnet (Lightweaver) CH 73 This one is far more interesting, and one of the prime pieces of evidence for the speculation that Sja-Anat had been assualting the Tower. The two Truthwatcher entries in this series are also evidence for this surmise, with the small emerald one basically being a confirmation that Sja-anat had been at the very least actively corrupting Radiant spren. Drawer 8-1: Amethyst (WIllshaper) CH 65 This entry, and the ones that highlight the divisions in the tower, shows that the withdrawal from Urithiru was a stepped process, not a single mass exodus. Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 60 This combined with the drawer 30-2 small emerald heavily implies Sja-anat's presence at the Tower. We know that seeing the future is actually voidbinding (per Argent's signed book WoB). So this Truthwatcher might be wary because his/her fellow Truthwatchers are being secretive about their spren (because they are corrupted) or because prophetic writing similar to Renarin's count down to the True Desolation had begun to appear in the Tower. Drawer 16-16: Amethyst (Willshaper) CH 63 Another entry that highlights the divisions in the tower and shows that the leaving of the tower was a protracted affair. Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This entry is included to show its chronological context, because it is a VERY important entry, and the fact that the Sibling hadn't been bonded in a generation is very significant. Drawer 27-19: Topaz (Stoneward) CH 64 This entry is important for establishing a link to the external chronology by giving a plausible reason why the assualt at Feverstone keep was predominantly Windrunners. The record of 2-22 shows that at least one Skybreaker was displeased with abandoning Urithiru, and that group tends to act like a school of herring, one opinion is probably indicative of the opinion of the group. With the Skybreakers dragging their heels about leaving, and with the conflict between the orders at a fever pitch, it's a reasonable surmise to say this is one of the reasons that most of the Windrunners were present at the Feverstone Keep Recreance vision of Dalinar's. Drawer 29-29: Ruby (Dustbringer) CH 87 This, to me, reads like the last goodbye to Urithiru. And because it precedes the drawer 30 Melishi strikeforce Emerald series, it seems like at this point most of the Radiants had given up on the tower as a lost cause. Drawer 30-20: A particularly small emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 85 This entry shows that at least one Truthwatcher at the tower had their spren corrupted by Sja-Anat. With the alarmist tone of the Emerald in drawer 8-21 about being concerned about their fellow Truthwatchers, and the drawer 3-11 garnet expressing worry about the towers defenses being compromised, it's a reasonable surmise to think that Sja-Anat was active at the Tower. So the rough chronology of events about the Sibling and the Tower established through the Archive is the following: The Sibling began to behave strangely, things started to not work at Urithiru (assumed pre-archive) An Elsecaller investigated what was going on by checking on the Sibling in the CR and found that contrary to the general perception, the Sibling had not withdrawn with intent (this leaves several possibilities open, namely only part of the sibling had withdrawn or the sibling had been corrupted) Shortly after the Elsecaller's investigations into the problems at Urithiru, a decision was reached to abandon the tower. At least one Skybreaker objected to this, and this could be the start of the deepening divisions among the orders. Shortly after the decision to abandon the tower was reached, a Lightweaver expressed worry about the tower's defenses, implying that the problems with the Sibling were likely to affect the Tower's defense. Not too long after the concern over the tower's defenses were expressed, a Truthwatcher records his worry about his fellow Truthwatchers (sounds like a sublte assualt to me). General dissention reigns at Urithiru. The majority of the Radiants leave the tower. Melishi, the sole Bondsmith, and his strikeforce leave the tower to confront Ba-Ado-Mishram. PART 3: Records about the War with the Parsh & Imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram This is a pretty straightforward chronology, but where useful, the comments following the record entries contextualize the entry in terms of the Sibling/Tower chronology. Drawer 19-2: Third Topaz (Stoneward) CH 84 This is one of those records that establishes a correlation of the Archives with an external chronology. It's after the Willshaper returns to a squabbling tower (Drawer 16-16 amethyst) and before the disagreement with the Skybreaker and Windrunners record (Drawer 27-19 topaz). Of special note is the fact that there is no mention of the enemy having access to Voidlight at this point. Drawer: 20-10, Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 83 This I think is a small bit of foreshadowing, namely that the only perfect gem we know of, The Honor's Drop, is mentioned before the strikeforce sets out to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem. We know from Oathbringer that prior to the battle of Thaylen Fields the Honor's Drop wasn't imprisoning an Unmade, suggesting heavily that whatever had previously been imprisoned in the Honor's Drop no longer is. Drawer: 29-5, Topaz (Stoneward) CH 58 Chronologically and thematically this is interesting. On the eve of the Melishi's strikeforce operation, even the most dependable of Radiants were beginning to question themselves. Is this from the ramifications of what was going to be attempted with Melishi's strikeforce? Was this from the ravings of Honor? Was this from the corrupting influence of Sja-Anat? Whatever the cause, this record clearly sets the stage for the only view of the Recreance we get at Feverstone Keep, where predominantly Stonewards and Windrunners broke their bonds. Drawer: 30-20, First Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 77 This is the beginning of the denouement for the Knights Radiant. This is the eve of the Recreance, and chronologically it's immediately preceded by a Dustbringer bidding adieu to Urithiru (abandoned), the Sibling (withdrawn possibly partially, fully, or corrupted), and the Radiants (who very shortly will cease to exist as a group due to the wholesale abandonment of their oaths). Drawer: 30-20, Second Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 78 My guess is that one of the scholar radiants in this group is the Elsecaller who investigated the anomalies of the workings of Urithiru regarding the Sibling at the start of the Gem Archive. And further that her special understanding of how Voidlight was supplied enabled Melishi's strategem. Drawer: 30-20, Third Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 79 This one is an obvious call back to the Drawer 20-10 Zircon (the one about capturing an Unmade in a perfect gem), and implies heavily that at least part of Ba-Ado-Mishram was trapped within Honor's Drop by Melishi post strikeforce ops. Drawer: 30-20, Fourth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 80 Of special note in this entry is the only parrallel between what BAM and Odium did was in regards to the Connection with the Parsh. The implication from continuing to read the sentence is that Voidlight is supplied through this connection, but the entry only explicitly states that only the manner of Connection was similar. This is VERY important in the Grand Unifying Theory portion below. Drawer: 30-20, Fifth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 81 This seems to be only of Realmatic signifigance in that Connection and Identity are important for assuming forms of power. Drawer: 30-20, Final Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 82 Just a reminder that the False Desolation occurred after Aharietiam, and the fact that the Heralds lied about the Last Desolation is just one more reason to throw in the towel and give up on Radiance. The rough chronology of events in the War agains the Parsh in the False Desolation (with asides about where this fits in with the events in the Sibling/Tower timeline) are: The subsystems are failing at Urithiru, and there are fractious divisions amongst the Orders at Urithiru before the war with the Parsh (that comprises the False Desolation) are mentioned. The first mention of the war that would turn into the False Desolation is the drawer 19-2 topaz that talks about the Parsh's push to Feverstone Keep (which is a significant location because that's our one view of the Recreance) Before Melishi's strikeforce leaves to imprison BAM, even the Stonewards are questioning thier place as Radiants. That's a bad sign. Melishi's strikeforce sets out with the stated aims of 1) Denying the enemy their source of Voidlight and 2) Imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram (heavily implying that the second objective will accomplish the first). PART 4: The Grand Unifying Theory A lot of the preliminary thought about this is covered in my post about Voidlight not being Odium's Investiture which I initially abandoned but am starting to reassess as perhaps being more or less on the right track (spoilered below): So, you have seen the rough chronological progression of events, as reconstructed from the Gem Archives. Here is the Grand Unifying Theory, with each link in the speculative chain presented with evidence spoilered below it. The color of the Moons of Roshar corresponds to the 3 types of Investiture present on Roshar. Nomon (blue) represents Honor's investiture, Stormlight, (distributed through the Highstorm), Mishim (green) represents Cultivation's investiture, Cultivationlight, (most likely distributed through the Crem cycle), and Selas (violet) represents another type of Investiture,Voidlight, which I believe is another ecological manifestation of investiture, namely the formation of gem hearts in the native fauna on Roshar. We've seen spheres infused with Voidlight, the Fused giving off a nimbus black-violet anti-glow implying they are using Voidlight, and a Fabrial that uses Voidlight to suppress Radiance. The only explicity stated source of Voidlight was BAM in the False Desolation. Ba-Ado-Mishram (note the double hyphenation) is a tripartite being, and is the Sibling. The Sibling is a fusion of the original gods of the Singers, the spren of Spren, Stone and Wind, formed from the primitive beliefs of the native life on Roshar pre-shattering. I believe that it's a reasonable surmise that the 3 means of dispersing Investiture predated the arrival of Honor and Cultivation, and that the Singers original Gods were powerful Spren born of the accretion and focus of the three different systems of Investiture distribution. To extend the surmise, it's quite likely that when Honor and Cultivation invested on Roshar, and began investing in 2 of the 3 pre-existing channels for investiture distribution, namely the High Storm and the Crem cycle, the Singer's original Gods of the Wind and the Spren were displaced, leaving only the God of Stone (the one responsible for gemheart formation) with unfiltered Power, and speculative to be sure, but the God of Stone portion of the Sibling is probably the Sibling's primary aspect due to it's unsupplanted function. Probably the most compelling piece of evidence that Ba-Ado-Mishram is the Sibling is the chronological series of events presented in thg Gem Archive. When the battery for Urithiru stopped working, suddenly the Singers fighting in the False Desolation had an entity capable of supplying them with power in the form of Voidlight. Melishi, a Bondsmith not bonded to the Sibling, was able to use his Bondsmith abilities to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram (or as I posit a single aspect of the tripartite being) and the consequence of this imprisonment and Melishi's use of his Bondsmith power to affect Connection was a severing of Connection and Identity of all of the Singers connected to BAM. The Portion of the Sibling able to Connect and Distribute Voidlight, namely the Portion that was imprisoned by Melishi, was (until the start of the True Desolation at least) residing on Braize. The Everstorm is of Odium, the lightning it produces is Red (an Odious color) and for it to have the assumed ability to replenish Voidlight something else needs to be going on. I think this is best explained by the reasoned surmise that Odium, Connected to the portion of BAM that is able to supply Voidlight, is using that Connection to supply Voidlight through his storm. This is just like how Dalinar uses his Connection to the Stormfather to Supply Stormlight to his Radiants. The other two portions of the Sibling, the God of Wind and the God of Spren, are the massive Stormstriders seen hiding in the Eye of the Highstorm. . Here are possible objections to this theory and rebuttals. In the Hessi's Mythica epigraph in CH106 of OB, BAM is described as the following: This clearly states that she was a Highprincess among the Enemy Forces and the commander during SOME of the Desolations. If the Sibling/BAM is a composite Entity of the original Spren Gods of the Singers, it would make sense that they would initially side with the Singers. Also, one of the Desolations where she was a commander would definitely be when she was supplying Voidlight and Connection to the Singers during the False Desolation. So covering the vague SOME only requires her to be a commander during 2 Desolations really, but I think it's probably likely that she was a Commander for the Singers up until the Construction of Urithiru, it seems to have as it's foundational design principle the idea of big battery to install, so I think it likely that one of the first Bondsmiths to Bond the Sibling/BAM also was instrumental in creating the tower, and in terms of Absolute chronology this would have to be before Nohadon, because it's impossible to Walk to Something that hasn't been built yet. How do we know that Cultivationlight is part of the Crem cycle? We don't, this is just surmise, but we do know that Crem is invested based on a couple of WoBs spoilered below: How do we know that Sja-Anat corrupted the Sibling and was the reason, some/all of the Sibling withdrew? We don't but we have seen Sja-Anat is able to corrupt massive spren (the Kholinar Oathgate Spren), and the Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald and Drawer 30-2: particularly small emeralds about Suspecting fellow Truthwatchers at the Tower and the confirmation that at least one Truthwatcher was voidbinding (saw the future) is pretty compelling circumstantial evidence that Sja-Anat was active at the tower. I'll add more of these as you all start testing the limits of this theory with your amazing wobbery and generally sharp analysis Here's the closing portion where I'm going to put this all together in a chronological sequence of events that I think does the best job of explaining the crap ton of dangling threads that we had at the end of Oathbringer. Prior to the shattering, during the time when the Singers were the predominant sapient species on Roshar (and possibly the Reshi Islands too), there were 3 distinct methods of Investiture distribution. The Investiture that would later become Stormlight was distributed by the Highstorm, the investiture that would later beomce Cultivationlight was distributed by water and the Crem cycle to make the inhospitable rocky planet capable of sustaining life, and the investiture that would later become Voidlight was distributed as innate investiture sink in the form of gemhearts. The gemhearts were most likely just a means by which the megafauna of Roshar could access and be affected by the other forms of Rosharan investiture. Due to the importance of all 3 systmes of investiture, the Singer's gods coalesced as Mega Spren, namely the God of Spren (cultivationlight), the God of Wind (stormlight) and the God of Stone (voidlight/gemhearts). (The Shin and Unkalaki likewise worship a God of Stone, heavily implying that that this entity is still existant). After the Human's came, they brought their new ideas about the local phenomena, and the Influence of Cultivation and Honor's Investing of Roshar caused the original singer gods of Spren and Wind to be displaced. The three primary gods of the Singer then became to the Singers a single Entity and the Sibling was born. The Sibling thus Formed, aided their worshippers in the Wars against the true Voidbringers, namely the Human immigrant's from Ashyn (this is the portion referred to in Hessi's Mythica were BAM was a commander for some of the Desolations). At some point during the Heraldic Epochs, after the Knights Radiants were formed, the new Order of Bondsmiths discovered they could bond the Spren that are Conduits for the 3 type of Investiture on Roshar, namely the Stormfather (the God of Wind had been displace), the Nightwatcher (the God of Spren had been displaced) and the God of Stone (who at this point was combined with the original God of Wind and the original God of Spren). The Tower City of Urithiru had to be created after the Sibling was bonded, because it's built around the central Gem column to provide power to it's internal subsystems, and most likely to provide cultivationlight to the crops, and I also think that prior to the withdrawl of the Sibling, Urithiru recieved direct power from the Highstorm (using the component God of Wind to key and transfer Stormlight investiture). This takes us up to the time of the Gem Archive, when only 1 Bondsmith had been active for a generation (Drawer 24-18: smokestone), meaning that the Sibling was unbonded when subsystems at Urithiru began to fail. Shotrly after this, an Elsecaller investigating the Sibling in the CR (Drawer 1-1: zircons 1-3) noted that, unlike some thought, the Sibling hadn't withdrawn with intent. This combined with worry about Urithiru's defenses failing (Drawer 3-11: garnet) and the alarmist note of the Truthwatcher suspecting his fellow Truthwatchers (Drawer 8-21: second emerald), heavily implies that Sja-Anat had infiltrated the Tower, and that at least one of the Components of the Sibling had been corrupted. The Singer's at the start of the False Desolation don't appear to have been supplied with Voidlight (Drawer 19-2: third topaz), and it is only stated explicitly that they are Recieving Voidlight from BAM (Drawer 30-20: Fourth emerald) after the Tower had been mostly abandoned and the Sibling had fully withdrawn (Drawer 29-29: ruby). The Details of Melishi's strike force combined with the fact that the Singers were obviously lobotomized after the False Desolation and only had their Identity and Connection restored with the Coming of the Everstorm for the True Desolation, shows that at least along some fronts Melishi's strike force was successful. The gem archive entries about imprisoning BAM in the Honor's Drop imply heavily that this was the means to do it, and I think it can be surmised that just the God of Stone portion (the one able to supply Voidlight and connect with the Singers) was imprisoned. But at least at the beginning of the Battle of Thaylen Fields, BAM was no longer imprisoned, because the Honor's Drop was empty. The evidence of a Giant Luminous Spren, and a Sleek Alien Spren striding through the Highstorm close to the eye of the Storm, is heavily suggestive that these are the Components of the Sibling/BAM that were not captured by Melishi's strikeforce, and further more their descriptions fit with them being the Singer's original Gods of Wind and Spren (because their descriptions somewhat parallel the features of the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher, the Spren that displaced them from their original roles). The fact that Gavilar had access to a fabrial capable of teleportation of gems to Braize and that he had spheres filled with Voidlight, suggests that the portion of BAM capable of supplying Voidlight was at some point released from her prison in the Honor's Drop and returned to Braise to wait rebirth at the start of the next Desolation. Odium's Everstorm though seemingly capable of replinishing Voidlight, does not of itself replinish voidlight, because Voidlight is not Odium's investiture, it's a native flavor of Investiture (that probably has a shardic analog, but unknown which). The Everstorm has red lightning bolts, voidspren are golden-yellow or red, Voidlight is being bridged by BAM through BAM's Connection to Odium, and then pushed out through the Everstorm. The bonding of the Sibling is likely going to require the de-corruption of the Singer God of Stone prior to a Bondsmith being able to bond the Sibling, but if the Sibling is really a tripartite being, this gives the Sibling Bondsmith some room to maneuver, becasue from the gem archive we have seen that Urithiru can partially function, so if necessary the Sibling's bondsmith could probably venture out of the Tower with one of the 3 if necessary. That's it for Now, I am sure there are some edits that I am going to make to this monster of a theory, but this took far longer to put together than I was planning on spending. I'll address any critiques of this theory probably this weekend, cuz unfortunately crafting Cosmere theories doesn't pay the bills. Pip, pip, and as Sherlock Holmes would say, the game is afoot. *All records from the Gem Archive, organized just chronologically by drawer-sub drawer number spoilered below*

What was Gavilar doing with the Parshendi treaty? Why does he have at least two little black spheres filled with voidlight. Why does he give one to Eshonai and one to Szeth? Where are they now? There are lots of hints that the sphere contains Ba-ado-mishram, and I agree with this theory but how can one fused be trapped in two spheres? She was captured in one perfect gemstone and then split. Somebody tried to make a conjoined fabrial out of an unmade. Someone was trying to use Ba-ado-mishram's powers, to connect with the parsh, to grant forms of power, to grant voidlight, to lead them. Or to put it simply to create an army of loyal voidbringers. Gavilar's gift was a Trojan horse, his treaty and his words to Eshonai lies. Gavilar meant to seduce the listeners with power, transform them into an army and then enslave them to his will. Who on Roshar could oppose such a force? The radiants at his back, the stormfather on his shoulder, the voidbringer armies at his left hand and Dalinar at at his right. He could make the conquests of the Sunmaker, his idol, look like a footnote. He could bring Vorinism to every corner of the continent. He could unite Roshar. The sphere Gavilar kept on him has the power to connect to and enslave singers in regal form. Szeth drops it in Jah Keved. Lin davar finds it where it corrupts him, turning him power hungry and violent. He attempts to control its horrific influence by wrapping it in aluminum and protects it by hiding it on his 'precious' daughter. Then all the nosy treasure seekers come looking, ghost bloods, hoid, daybreakers, etc... The sphere Venli has can summon voidspren and grant voidlight. We see her scholars producing stormspren somehow on the shattered plains. Odium must know she has it though, perhaps it's been taken by the fused.