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This Theory focuses around the voidbringers and their apparent nature, it seems that the voidbringers we have seen so far are Parshendi/Listeners, that have bonded Voidspren. now this changes their likeness and even changes the way they see the world. mistborn spoiler: Now the Parshendi are able to bond the Voidspren because of there obvious closeness to the cognitive realm. In fact they depend on bonding an ordinary kind of spren to gain any form of sentience. The conclusion that this closeness to the cognitive realm is what makes them voidbringers has lead me to a separate theory. And that is that the Parshendi were not the only race to get sucked into Odium's army during the desolations, I believe that the Aimian's are also capable of becoming voidbringers. I think this because in our only chapter that we see from an Aimian's perspective, Axies the collector, we see an obvious closeness to the cognitive realm in his ability to change his appearance with thought. I believe that some of the more dangerous voidbringers were actually Aimian's I say this because a Parshendi needs a spren to change it's form, an Aimian can do it at will (to a degree). I also think that this is also the cause of the general dislike of Aimian's, I know that Axies says that it is just because they are different, but i think it is actually a dislike that has been built into Rosharan culture due to the Aimian's connection with the desolations. well that's all I have, I would link quotes to Axies' chapter but i feel that the whole chapter is pretty relevant to my theory so if you want to investigate, just read it.

That's the theory. They don't hold stormlight perfectly - they simply hold it so much better than one like Szeth that it seems, to one like Szeth, as if it were perfect. The logic for this I will use is an analogy to a circle. Here's how it works: If one person tries to draw a circle, but no matter how hard they try, the two ends don't connect perfectly, and the circle is "imperfect". So, then, if that person sees another person draw a circle, and the two ends are incredibly close to reaching the same point, and the circle is only barely elliptical, they'd still consider the circle to be "perfect", at least in comparison with theirs. Similarly, then, if one person tries to hold in stormlight, but it leaks away quickly, then they see another that holds the stormlight that is barely leaving, or leaving at, I dunno, a tenth of the speed, they may say that person holds the stormlight "perfectly". I don't really follow WoBs, so if he's said anything about this, sorry! I also searched for this idea and saw nothing (no threads on it, anyway). Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? Total disprove-ations?

I assume that Parshmen will be turned to Voidbringers by the Everstorm (Stormfather says so also). I further assume that Parshendi have a choice (Rlain and escapees). I assume that Parshmen can take on other Parshendi forms: dullform, mateform, warrior, ... Kaladin is going back to Hearthstone. Should Kaladin take Rlain somewhere to start converting Parshmen to Parshendi. Obviously, anybody who doubts that their slaves will become Voidbringers will not want them to become Parshendi. Politics and slave ownership aside, the humans are better off with allied or neutral Parshendi than Voidbringers, so they should be converting all the Parshmen they can to Parshendi. I assume that Parshendi would need to be emancipated, but that is a separate issue. I can't see anybody agreeing to free or change their slaves until they see the danger, but by then it will be too late. Should Kaladin and Rlain just do it to people's slaves because it's the right thing? Does this make sense or have I lost it?

So, my theory goes something like this. The Everstorm is said to distribue Odiumspren, and it has been established that the Greatshells bond with spren. Therefore, when the Everstorm comes around again, it will forcefully bond odiumspren to creatures such as Chasmfiends, creating the creatures that resembled Chasmfieds that were seen fighting alongside the Voidbringers. Heck, maybe the possessed greatshells are voidbringers, and the Stormform Parshendi are just the harbingers of the Everstorm and their infantry escorts. If any of this is true, possessed Greatshells (and thunderclasts) are probably what Shardblades are/were made to fight.

When reading the previews for WoR again, I stumbled across this line during Kaladin's inspection of Dalinar's camp in chapter 5: So is this just a superstition or is there some truth to it? Maybe Odium (or Odium-spren) can take over a dead body somehow? Or maybe Odium can capture souls and use them is some fashion like the Dark One in Wheel of Time? (*shudder*) I'm out of ideas. What do you think?

Maybe this has been covered before, and if so feel free to share the link. On my most resent reread of TWoKs I noticed this passage. Prologue : "To Kill" pg 24. The "he" referred to in the passage is Szeth. He is comparing how his body holds stormlight with Voidbringers ability. Bold text added by me. That is an interesting dichotomy. It could be read as though he is being punished by his people and religion for not letting go of a belief in the existence of the Voidbringers. Reguardless, his punishment demands that they do not exist. All right, so then what will happen when Szeth learns for certain that they do exist? Will he let go of his punishment because it is wrong? If he learns the truth before finishing his mission, maybe he won't kill Dalinar then?

Ok, so while this is by no means unanimous, many people agree that the Parshendi are probbaly not the Voidbringers, or at least not without being inslaved/influenced some way by Odium. I had previously posted about who the Parshendi are in http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6053-theory-dawnsingers-parshendi/ So while it seems at the end of WoK that the Parshendi are the Voidbringers, it is just too convenient, not to mention that it would be giving away a pretty big plot point awfully early. That said, while there are some theories floating around on who the Voidbringers are, I wanted to start a thread with a comprehensive listing of likely suspects. Please post or leave a link to any good theories below and who knows, one of them might be right! Common theories I have seen around the forums so far on the identity of the Voidbringers: - Spren that either belong to Odium or are controlled by him - The Parshendi

I did a quick search but didnt see these ideas, at least in concise form so my apologies if I'm repeating. This involves a theory on how mortals and spren interact.

"They were suddenly dangerous. Like a calm day that became a tempest." "...I believe it may reference the Voidbringers" page 471: Chapter 30: Darkness Unseen. "They changed, even as we fought them. Like shadows they were, that can transform as the flame dances. Never underestimate them because of what you first see." page 499: Chapter 33: Cymatics. "Born from the darkness, they bear its taint still, marked upon their bodies much as the fire marks their souls." Page 553: Chapter 38: Envisager First Theory: Odium will take control of the peaceful Parshmen and suddenly change their form and they will be very dangerous. (Possibly used as Voidbringers or just one piece of a much more complex puzzle.) Second Theory: This was a plan that Odium has had for a long time (possibly after the Last Desolation or thereabouts). He foresaw that humanity could not pass up on perfect obedient slaves and somehow tampered with regular Parshendi to make them like Parshmen instead. Now humans took the Parshmen as slaves and spread them across Roshar (Odium did not do this himself rather knew it would happen due to man's nature). Third Theory: These new parshmen will be able to utilize stormlight in some fashion or another. (Not so sure about this one.) Now to combine the theories: Parshmen have been strategically placed (see the second theory for what I mean by this) all over Roshar by Odium, and that in a moment Odium will utilize their telepathic ability and change them into a very dangerous form and then use them as "Voidbringers" or tools of them to accomplish his purposes. Odium or a servant of his will have complete control over them and use them in whatever way he sees fit. I think this is part of the reason why Jashnah has discovered that Parshendi are possibly the Voidbringers. Perhaps it is not the Parshendi race rather the parshmen. Some other quotes that might help this theory: (The green are my comments) "Death upon the lips. Sound upon the air. Char upon the skin." Page 567: Chapter 40: Eyes of Red and Blue. (The sound upon the air could be the way Odium or a servant issues his commands to the Parshmen who have been changed into something much more dangerous.) "They take away the light, wherever they lurk. Skin that is burned." Page 676: Chapter 48: Strawberry (They will be able to take in stormlight and use it for evil) "Flame and Char. Skin so terrible. Eyes like pits of blackness." Page 696. Chapter 50: Backbreaker Powder. (The dark eyes could reflect that they do not have have control over themselves but are rather animated by Odium or a servant of his) ------------------- From another book where this sort of thing occurred: Spoiler from the book A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. If anyone has read the book Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge then you will be familiar with this concept as demonstrated with Skode Riders and the Blight.

One thing has been really bugging me about the Parshendi/voidbringers connection. The Parshendi seem to have been honorable and upstanding in everything we see of them. I can't really post this in the Stormlight section since it contains information from the WoR readings. (At least I think I am supposed to avoid posting WoR stuff down there.) When they sent Szeth, they required him to wear white so that his target would see him coming. They entered into the peace treaty in good faith, only sending Szeth when they learned of new information. They publicly owned up to their own assassination. When they fight on the plains, they only start bringing two armies to the fight after the Alethi start bringing two armies. I have seen suggestions that they did this because they didn't want to provoke the Alethi in to combining forces, but it seems to me that they have been fighting fair fights. Kaladins observations of their combat techniques and how they avoid targeting weak and injured Alethi. Compared to the humans, the Parshendi just don't seem to be tools of Odium at all. On top of that, spren are mostly Honor, Cultivation, or a mixture of the two. Apparently there may also be Adonalsium spren (I haven't seen the source for this.) The Parshendi forms are based on Spren, and one of the forms is a mating form. So, we have a race that seems to be consistently honorable in their behavior with a lifecycle that is dependent on spren that come from either Honor or Cultivation (or maybe Adonalsium). My big question is, where did the Parshendi come from, and how are they related to the voidbringers? Did Honor and Cultivation make them, and then Odium corrupts them? Maybe voidbringers are not related to Odium at all, maybe that is a mistake that built up through history? Are the Parshendi the natural forms, and maybe Odium stripped the spren to leave the Parshmen to be taken over? Personally, I think Jasnah is wrong. Mostly based on the behavior of the Parshendi in the WoK, and a feeling that if the Parsh are the voidbringers it seems too similar to the Kandra in Mistborn.

First and foremost, I have been away from the forums and the cosmere in general for some time, so my sincere apologies if I am repeating ideas and theories without correctly citing them. That being said, I have had a lot of catching up to do and so hopefully I can start to contribute usefully. I was reading various theories and I started to wonder if the history of Roshar was even less clear-cut than we might have otherwise assumed. In particular, agrooster proposed a theory in which humans are not the native species to Roshar. In particular, the theory claims that due to ecological differences (chitaneous vs mamallian), Parshendi are the native sentient species and the history of wars with humans was in fact the "Desolations." This theory appeals to me since there was a recent quote (which I cannot place now) that essentially said "other nearby planets have influenced Rosharing mythology," specifically referring to the Tranquiline Halls. Note that Rosharians believe they were brought to Roshar from this place. I then did a cursory poking-about (which almost certainly missed things, and my apologies to others who have written on this subject) and noticed this theory which almost assuredly shows that the dark sphere has an Odium-corrupted spren trapped in it. I think there is very little wiggle-room available with what we know to contest this idea. So, with credit to those theorists and my continued apologies to those I have missed, I propose the following idea: The Parshendi killed Gavilar because he proposed to reinstate the Knights Radiant. Let us start with some founding arguments: Sadeas claims that Dalinar is starting to act like Gavilar in his final days. We attribute this to The Way of Kings, which we know is basically a blueprint for the Knights Radiant. Perhaps Gavilar leapt the chasm that Dalinar required Tanvast to throw him across, namely the importance of the Knights Radiant. A key point here is not specifically the Knights themselves, but instead the existence of such an order. I make the following claim: the existence of the Knights Radiant is somehow tied to the Oathpact. Even if the KR were not extant when the original Oathpact was laid down, it could be that their existence somehow fullfilled a clause that prevented further Desolations. This assumption is somewhat justified, since there hasn't been a Desolation since the KR disbanded and might provide insight as to why they abandoned their orders. "If it walks like a god and quacks like a god, it's a god." The Parshendi "gods," as they were, are not Shard-level powers, but instead a group of entities that can force the Parshendi to their will. Suppose, for contradiction, that the Parshendi are aware of the Shards of Adonalsium. They would then know that the reconstitution of Honor (or another Shard) is a very complicated process. Thus, they cannot mean literally that Gavilar will bring back their gods. We then assume that they mean gods in the sense I indicated. I agree with agrooster that the Parshendi culture is very much more like the ideals of Honor than that of the humans. This would suggest that they were originally created by Honor, or at the very least shaped by his existence. This is not to say that Honor was more protective of the Parshendi as compared to humans. Note that the Parshendi took credit for killing Gavilar, knowing full well that they would be hunted to the ends of the earth by the Alethi (see below). So how does this all tie together? Supposing what I and others have proposed is true, events proceed in the following way: Roshar (with its highstorms) is settled by Honor, and then there are Parshendi. Some time later, either due to Honor, Odium, or some other force, humans arrive on Roshar. Odium notices, and in an attempt to be odius, corrupts some spren. These corrupted spren then bond with Parshendi (possibly unilaterally) and cause them to go on mass murderous rampages against the humans. Honor is really not too pleased with this turn of events, and strikes a deal somehow with the Heralds, Odium, and possibly additional parties. They forge some divine agreement that regulates these Desolations in ways we don't yet fully understand. In particular, I claim that Honor (or his executor) gets the Knights Radiant/Heralds if and only if Odium gets to corrupt Parshendi (Voidbringers)/ten leaders of Voidbinders. Now, this didn't work out so well for any of the parties involved. In particular, the Heralds have fallen from grace and Tanavast is dead. However, Odium hasn't been able to outright destroy the world, and his Voidbinders are gone from all but legend. What if this is the direct consequence of the loss of the Knights Radiant? Perhaps the Oathpact prohibits the existence of Voidbringers (i.e. corrupted Parshendi) if there are no equivalent opposing forces? (Note that this system still admits an "Odium wins" solution, through infighting on the humans side and some unspecified looming threat.) The Parshendi realize this, of course, and kill Gavilar to prevent him from accidentally giving Odium free reign to take over their people again. They are willing to die for their cause en masse because the alternative is so much worse. Note that any theory for why the Parshendi killed Gavilar must satisfy this criterion, since they knew the consequences of the assassination. As a final aside, this might shed some light on what Natan is proposed (in the above theory) to be running around killing Surgebinders. The realization by any number of parties that Surgebinding is only forgotten, not lost, would prompt them to recreate the Knights Radiant in some guise. It might only be a school of medicine that utilizes Growth, but this might satisfy whatever requirement that the Oathpact demands to allow Voidbringers. Closing thoughts: This would make for a somewhat interesting dynamic in the story - to prevent the creation of new Voidbinders, the Parshendi have driven the Alethi to war and accidentally prompted the reinstatement of the Knights Radiant. In maybe the cruelest twist of fate I can imagine, what if Odium himself motivated Gavilar to The Way of Kings so that he could attempt to reinstate the KR and thus let the Voidbringers wash over the world. My apologies for the rambling writing and any unattributed theories - feel free to let me know so that I can credit your ideas. Thanks for reading!

http://images.wikia.com/stormlightarchive/images/2/2d/TWoK_Rear_Endsheet.jpg I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I'm not fluent enough with this website (yet) to conduct extensive searches. ...Also, this is the first time I've been in front of a computer I could access this site from in about 2 weeks, so time, 'tis a harsh task master...and.... Anyway, my point would be related to the above image, which presumably depicts the Ten Orders of Voidbringers and their Surges. Unlike the simple lines which connect the Ten Orders of Knights Radiant to their Surges, the connections for the Voidbringers appear to be lighting bolts. (Well, actually, lighting bolts appear all over that image.) And, while I'm not exactly for or against the thought that the Parshendi/Parshman are the Voidbringers, I do find this image very interesting. Namely, what form has recently been (re)discovered by the Parshendi?

I was just reading the Szeth/Shin Conspiracy thread, and it got me thinking. The basic speculation was that Shin discovered Honorblades, and built Shone Shamanism around hiding the secret. I've been doing a second read-through of tWoK, and I like many parts of this theory. However, I'd like to propose my own. I don't think sacredness of stone has to do with Honorblades, but rather thunderclasts. Let me explain. Part 1: Mistborn spoilers*: *If you skipped this spoiler, it simply contains some evidence that Sanderson is capable of this kind of conspiracy-laden writing We also know that Shin religion has other truths preserved in its religion, after others have forgotten. Note that the Shin still know about stormlight (and by the use of the word "sacred" in this quote, I do think it stems from Shin religion, and not just Shen's knowledge of surgebinding): So, in The Stormlight Archive, we see the present-day application of Shin religion: Shin do not walk on (or interact with) stone. I would suggest that this branches from the ancient knowledge of thunderclasts, and their relation to stone. We know, from the Prologue, that thunderclasts 1) are made of stone, and 2) come from stone: I would suggest that Shin culture has preserved the danger associated with stone by labeling it "sacred". End part 1 of my conspiracy theory. Part 2: Think about the geography of Shin in the world. Think about the geography of stone. Shin religion, and its application with regard to stone, has effectively secluded the Shin people to the west in Shinovar. Likewise, they remain somewhat protected from the events of the east. Shin religion could be protecting Shin from the area of the world where Odium has influence. Where are the parshendi and parshmen (who may or may not have some direct relation to voidbringers)? Should the thunderclasts 'return', where would they arise (i.e. where is the world's mass of stone)? In fact, what has the landscape looked like in EVERY one of Dalinar's visions (the supposedly significant moments in the evolution of the world)? All of the visions have been based in rocky, highstorm-afflicted areas (i.e. not Shinovar). Everything that is associated with instability, change, and danger is located in the east, where Shin religion effectively forbids its people to 'trod'. Part 3: In the same way that I feel Shin reverence of stone is related to something significant, I think there's a reason that parshendi leave bodies untouched and lying on stone. In the event that the bodies do not die on stone, they are carried there. The parshendi affinity for stone, juxtaposed with the Shin deference, is somewhat telling. I don't have a solid enough theory to elaborate on this, but I would speculate that it has something to do with thunderclasts, pupating (as seen with chasmfiends), and the parshmen/parshedi ability to change forms. On Honorblades: Here's why I think the Honorblade theory (of Shin discovering and hiding the Honorblades) is incorrect: Through the same reasoning contained in what I said above, the physical landscape of the place where the Honorblades were left does not match that of Shinovar. I haven't seen anything that points to Shinovar being the location of anything of historical/mythological significance. That said, the fact that Shinovar isn't prevalent in any historical analysis we've seen seems significant and possibly telling. Here's a reason I could be wrong: Shinovar has been speculated by many to be the home of, or at least under the influence of, Cultivation. Based on Argent's thought, Cultivation could very well be involved in an elaborate cover-up. Why, though? I've got no idea. Tangents: Because I've dealt so heavily in this post with geography, I'd just like to bring forward the relative influences of the different Shards on different parts of the world. I think it's pretty well-accepted that the vegetation differences in Shinovar are attributable to Cultivation, while the Highstorms are attributable to Honor. From a Brandon Sanderson Q&A: The highstorms are not arbitrary. What their function is, I do not know for sure. However, as for speculation: I would guess that Cultivation has similar functions somewhere in the world. This means a "conciousness" and a "body". I reject the hypothesis that Cultivation is the Night Watcher, because nothing we've seen about Shards in other books indicates they can have an anthropomorphic form in the world (the nature of the Night Watcher does not seem to fit that of Cultivation, either). There is some power bestowed by Cultivation within the world that we have yet to see or to recognize. I would suggest that this material or energy is contained within Shinovar.

Hi all, Just something I noticed from the reading I wanted to post. Look away now if you do not want to know what happens!! Ok, so The way I heard the actions of the scene was that a 'spren that was not acting like it should' was being hunted by the KR (with help from regulars) and when it was discovered, bonded (or maybe possessed?) the bedrock of the lake and formed a Thunderclast. Now, if these black spren (odiumspren?) can bond with rock to form a known type of voidbringer and we know that the Parshendi change form when bonding with spren.... Source of Jasnah's voidbringers maybe? Just a thought.