Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'voidlight'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Categories

  • Brandon and Book News
  • Events, Signings, & Giveaways
  • Columns and Features
  • Site News
  • Shardcast

Forums

  • 17th Shard
    • Introduce Yourself!
    • 17th Shard Discussion
    • The Coppermind Wiki
    • Arcanum Discussion
  • Brandon Sanderson
    • General Brandon Discussion
    • Events and Signings
    • Sanderson Fan Works
    • Arcanum, the Brandon Sanderson Archive
  • Spoiler Zone
    • The Sunlit Man (No Cosmere Spoilers)
    • The Sunlit Man (Cosmere Spoilers)
  • The Cosmere
    • Cosmere Q&A
    • Cosmere Discussion
    • Stormlight Archive
    • Mistborn
    • Other Cosmere
  • Non-Cosmere Works
    • Cytoverse
    • Other Non-Cosmere
    • The Wheel of Time
  • Related Works
    • Writing Excuses and Intentionally Blank
    • Reading Excuses
    • Sanderson Curiosities & Unpublished Works
    • TWG Archive
  • Community
    • General Discussion
    • Entertainment Discussion
    • Forum Games & Random Stuff
    • Creator's Corner
    • Role-Playing
    • Social Groups, Clans, and Guilds

Blogs

  • Chaos' Blog
  • Leinton's Blog
  • 17th Shard Blog
  • KChan's Blog
  • Puck's Blag
  • Brandon's Blog
  • The Name of your Blog
  • Darth Squirrely's Blog
  • Tales of a Firebug
  • borborygmus' Blog
  • Zeadman's Blog
  • zas678's Blog
  • The Basement
  • Addy's Avocations
  • Seshperankh's Blog
  • First time reading The Well Of Ascension
  • Zarepath's Blog
  • "I Have Opinions About Books"
  • Test
  • Which actors would you like to see playing the characters of Mistborn?
  • Drifted Mists
  • Jaron's Realm
  • Roshar Speculative Theories
  • ChrisHamatake's Blog
  • Paradox Flint's Blog
  • Deoradhan's Blog
  • Storm Blessed's Blog
  • Elwynn's Blog
  • firstRainbowRose's Blog
  • Rotabush ShardBlog
  • Hoid's Compendium
  • InterContinental Adventures
  • Claincy Creates
  • Theories, quotes, and details to keep it all straight.
  • WoR Thoughts and Questions
  • Blogfalcon
  • David Coppercloud's Blog
  • yurisses' notes and theories
  • Lark Adventures
  • LUNA's Poetry
  • Inspiration Board
  • Trying to be Useful for a Change
  • Cosmere Nerd Things
  • The Way of Toasters
  • An Elephant's Blog
  • Shhh Spoilers for Ronald.
  • Wyn's Adventures in Geekiness
  • Words With Ene
  • Dapper's Blog
  • Things to talk about, stuff to do
  • Zelly's Healthy-Accountability Blog
  • Dapper's Music Blog
  • GM Test Blog
  • Rhythm of War Liveblog
  • Zephy’s Art Blog
  • Axioms Idioms & Adages
  • Weather Reports
  • Unnecessarily Overcomplicated
  • 5
  • The Blog of Dubious Copyright Legality
  • Trutharchivist's Rambles
  • Xino's corner of insanity
  • The Perfect Space Opera
  • My Journey Through Roshar (A Liveblog)
  • Lost Metal Liveblog by ccstat
  • D&D campaign design.
  • My Depression Log
  • Story Ideas and Whatnot
  • deltarune AU concept.
  • How I Relate to Every Character in The Stormlight Archive
  • A thing
  • random jank and jabber.
  • FNF crem

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


AIM


MSN


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Member Title


Location


Interests

Found 16 results

  1. So... why can Raysium conduct Anti-Voidlight without exploding? If it's a matter of alloying and a pure sample of Anti-Investiture can't destroy an alloy, then how are we framing Anti-Light killing Spren and Fused when it's unlikely that they are pure samples of their respective Investitures? If for whatever reason Honorspren and all Fused are basically pure samples of Stormlight or Voidlight, then does that imply that all other Radiant Spren are safe from until opposition with their varying composite Investiture that is manifested when they become a Shardblade? Is there a distinction between solid Godmetal versus gaseous Investiture, and does that mean Shardblades and Plate may not react to Anti-Stormlight? Couldn't find this posted already with a quick search.
  2. Warning: This post contains a single Stormlight 5 prologue spoiler, masked, and potentially significant spoilers should these theories prove accurate. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. Just as the Stormfather provides Stormlight and surgebinding powers to all of Honor's children, Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM) became the Voidmother proving Voidlight and voidbinding powers to all of Odium's children, all of her Singers, during the False Desolation. One BAM to Connect them all One BAM aligned them One BAM to draw them all And with her Voidlight bind them One gem severs the whole One gem divides them One gem rips away souls And then the darkness finds them In the Land of Roshar Where the Singers die And Listeners live We'll explore much relevant history leading up to and beyond BAM's imprisonment (see Coppermind's BAM and False Desolation articles for supporting canon references) and theories explaining the magical science behind what happened with BAM, her Singers, and related events. BAM-SINGER CONNECTION HISTORY The lead up to and fall out from BAM's gemstone capture includes: Long, long ago, Odium unmakes 9 spren who fight during many desolations in which BAM serves as highprincess and commander of Odium's forces, The last desolation comes where all but Taln survive, Taln holds Odium and his Fused on Braize all by himself (spanning a total of 4500 years), During the long imprisonment of Odium and the Fused, BAM somehow gains the ability to pull Voidlight into the Physical Realm and to Connect herself with all the Singers of Roshar, a feat previously only managed by Odium, making herself a little god (RoW 847-848), Even though Odium and the Fused are still trapped on Braize, BAM's newfound powers give her the ability to provide Singers with forms of power including all the Regal forms plus stormform, which allows BAM to wage war against the Knights Radiant during the False Desolation, with no end in sight, The Listeners, tired of endless war and manipulation from both Odium and Honor, "cast off everything - including our very forms - to find freedom," which severs their Connection to BAM (RoW 159), Honor's long, slow death begins around this time, The Knights Radiant form a special Strike Team to imprison BAM inside a gemstone in order to end the False Desolation, Because BAM is a little god and holds strong Connection to the spren and souls of every Singer in Roshar except the Listeners, these tethered souls and spren get sucked along their Connection to BAM, ripping out pieces of their souls, removing both their Identity and Connection, and possible damaging or destroying their gemhearts in the ripping process, Somehow even Honor and Cultivation's spren and the Sibling get damaged by BAM's imprisonment, though to a much smaller degree that perhaps signals a much smaller Connection between the Voidmother and "all who belong to Roshar," affecting the Sibling's abilities to make Towerlight and crippling Urithiru (RoW 621), Close to dying, Honor cannot help the Sibling, Urithiru, or the Knights Radiant, The Battle for Feverstone Keep begins before BAM's imprisonment since the enemy still pushes for that ground and parshmen are anything but pushy (OB 809), BAM's imprisonment, if during the Battle for Feverstone Keep, would have caused all fighting Singers to experience excruciating pain and then simultaneously transform into docile, mindless parshmen, All Singers Connected to BAM become parshmen through a break in Identity and Connection; only the Listeners escape because of their previously broken Connections to her, Hundreds of Windrunners and Stonewards at Feverstone Keep become the first to abandon their oaths en masse as Honor says, "they are the first" (OB 547), Two thousand years later, the Everstorm travels to Roshar through the Cognitive Realm and is brought through to the physical realm, and The Everstorm restores both Identity and Connection by repairing the Singers’ souls and possibly their gemhearts. SCIENCE-MAGIC THEORY BEHIND CONNECTION, CAPTURING SPREN, AND THE SINGERS' SOULS From Newton, we know: Force = mass * acceleration From Jasnah (OB 1179), we know that "concentrated Stormlight has a faint mass to it." So the more we accelerate the physical mass of the Stormlight, the stronger the physical force we have acting on the Stormlight and anything Connected to and by the Stormlight. How do we move or accelerate Stormlight? Navani's lecture on fabrial mechanics includes details on sucking Light into a gemstone in order to trap a spren inside a gemstone. We first lure a spren into close proximity to a gemstone with something it likes (e.g., flames for flamespren) and by using the type of gemstone it prefers (RoW epigraphs, Chapter 1). Interestingly, we already know the type of gemstones preferred by each Order of Knights Radiant (and each associated herald). Moash's knife had a large sapphire gemstone hilt that gave a subdued glow after capturing Jezrien's spren-soul (OB 1205), which makes me wonder if the gemstone in Leshwi's spear (RoW 80) that drained Kaladin's Stormlight and nearly sucked out his soul (RoW 101) was sapphire, as well. The first questions we must ask ourselves would be 1) what would BAM be attracted to and 2) what kind of gemstone would she prefer? To answer the second, maybe the Voidmother would prefer a heliodor, as the Stormfather would. As for the first question, she appears to like war and commanding, and she has shown particular interest in Feverstone Keep (OB 809). One might imagine Melishi, the False Desolation's Bondsmith, and her Strike Team showing up at the Battle for Feverston Keep with a large and perfect (or nearly perfect) heliodor gemstone, knowing that BAM would be nearby commanding her troops and in search of something in the area that interested her. Navani's next stages in capturing a spren (RoW epigraphs, Chapters 2-5) would be filling the gemstone to around 70% full of Stormlight (Voidlight in BAM's case) and then quickly sucking that Stormlight out to create a vacuum that will suck in a nearby spren. Suppose you take a brown paper lunch sack and suck the air out. It collapses, right? The same would be true of a Ziploc bag. By collapsing to reduce the volume, the bag equalizes the pressure. But what about something that has a rigid structure like a gemstone, especially a gemstone that doesn't leak? If you suck all the air out of a glass, for example, you'd suction that glass to your face since you've created a vacuum of extremely low pressure. Because air and Light will always seek the lowest pressure possible, they'll get sucked into a vacuum until the pressure outside of the gem roughly equals the pressure inside the gem. Since volume is inversely proportional to pressure, the larger the gemstone, the lower the pressure (where the lower pressure goes the stronger the vacuum becomes). And finally, the tighter the seal, the less a gemstone will leak and the stronger the vacuum will be. So large, perfect gemstones make the perfect traps for these gods. At this point, you might be asking yourself, how does the spren gets sucked in along with the Stormlight? That's where Connection comes in. When the Stormfather gives Stormlight to his children - his spren and his surgebinders - an invisible cord of Stormlight will Connect that spren or that Radiant to the Stormfather. The same can be said for the Voidmother's children - BAM's spren and her Singers: they're all Connected to their mother by a physical force from the Voidlight she provides. Let's say you have a massive gemstone and a larkin quickly sucking a ton of Light out of your stone. The gemstone will quest out seeking to replace all or almost all of the light it just lost with a powerful force. Once it captures a nearby Stormlight Connection cord, the spren will be drawn in along with the Stormlight the spren is tethered to. Yes, the Connection is mostly spiritual, but there is a small physical Connection, too (because the Stormlight Connecting them has a small mass, as Jasnah said, and mass * acceleration is force, as Newton said). If we yank hard enough on that tether, the spren cannot help but be pulled in. We see this with spren pulled into fabrials, yes, but also with human and Singer souls, tethered to their home planet by their Connection to the Investiture there. We saw Jezrien's spren-soul sucked into Moash's sapphire knife and Kaladin's soul nearly sucked into Leshwi's gemstone-capped spear, both of which had metal that specifically draws in Stormlight including the Stormlight cords of Connection. Let me digress for a smidge to explain that Identity and souls are nearly synonymous. For instance, the Fused (where each Fused is the soul of one ancient Singer fuzed together forever to a surgebinding spren, granting surgebinding powers and immortality) maintain their Identities - and most of their intellect, knowledge, and memories - even though they constantly lose the rest of their bodies because Identity is stored in the soul. Connection for the traditional Singer bond appears to be stored in their gemhearts since that is where their spren and probably their souls reside. Now I said all that to say this: this, this, this is how Singers' souls were ripped away, how their Identity and Connection were stolen, and how they became mindless parshman slaves, by having parts of their souls that were tethered to their Voidmother ripped free, likely destroying their gemstones in the process, as BAM and all her many Connections were sucked into her gemstone prison. With Singer souls damaged, they were not quite soulless and mindless nothings but nearly so. And with Singer gemhearts damaged or destroyed, the parshmen lost their abilities to bond any other spren or to hear the rhythms of Roshar inside their gemhearts. The Listeners were spared, maintaining their Identity and their abilities to Connect with other spren because they had previously severed their Connections to BAM before her imprisonment. TRAVEL & WORLDHOPPING We'd be remiss if, while we're here with Connection, we didn't speculate on travel and worldhopping. Connection tethers Invested individuals to their home planet, not letting them escape lest they rip out part of their souls, their Identity, and destroy their Connection. But of course there is a way around this problem, a way out, because this is Sanderson, after all. The remainder of the post includes a little speculation about how off-world travel may be possible based on what we know of Connection above and a single spoiler from the Knights of Wind and Truth prologue that gives a bit more detail regarding the quote above. Reading the prologue for Stormlight 5 first is recommended. I've kept all non-Stormlight cosmere spoilers out of this post.
  3. Wit and Jasnah are discussing warfare that will soon become obsolete when he says: A few pages later, Raboniel describes the outcome of combining Anti-Light with its positive as: We know that a compressed reaction will cause an explosion, seen earlier in the tower laboratories. Now that Navani’s journal has been sent to Kholinar for study, will we see a frightening new method of warfare by the Fused? This seems a bit too much like science-fiction, but it is not impossible in the plot given that we’ve seen flying airships. Thoughts?
  4. I was wondering, why doesn't the Everstorm fill spheres with Voidlight as a Highstorm does with Stormlight? Even though there is a LOT of Investiture in a Everstorm (which we know is present because of the fact that Singers can change forms in it), my guess as to why is doesn't renew spheres with Voidlight is due solely to Odium's Intent. Odium is inherently selfish, wishing to hold on to as much power as possible, relinquishing only the bare minimum to his Fused and Regals when they need it. Spoilers for Mistborn era 1. If this is common knowledge and I just totally missed it somehow, I do sincerely apologize.
  5. So, the Fused are said to not really expend voidlight much, like the heavenly ones being able to lash indefinitely and only using voidlight when healing. Is this becuase they can keep their void light in their gemheart and therefore keep it in a better container?
  6. Ok, all investiture has different forms, such as gaseous. Stormlight is Honor’s gaseous investiture, while Voidlight is Odium’s. What are all the rest? What could combinations be called? Canon Honor - Stormlight Odium - Voidlight Cultivation - Lifelight Honor + Cultivation - Towerlight Speculation Honor + Odium - Warlight Preservation - Shelterlight Ruin - Razelight Preservation + Ruin - Blendlight Endowment - Biolight Autonomy - Libertylight/Sandlight/Sunlight Devotion - Loyallight Dominion - Powerlight Ambition - Goallight Invention - Idealight Mercy - Kindlight Whimsy - Laughlight Valor - Bravelight Edit: I am going to try to keep this list updated with ideas people suggest Just For Fun List @Chinkoln - Otterlight
  7. Can stormlight be used to fill a metal mind or fuel allomancy? Can burning metal or tapping a metal mind be used to fuel surges? If either is true can they be used to fuel other forms of investiture in the cosmere such as Chromatic Breaths or be fueled by other forms of Investiture? I saw it stated somewhere that Chromatic Breaths can fuel surges.
  8. When Navani is performing her experiment on the three types of light she sees that there is an expanded color in each one as compared to normal light. Stormlight is blue, which is Honor's color, Lifelight it is green for Cultivation's color, but for Voidlight it is violet. As far as I remember, Voidlight is the only instance where some of Odium's Investiture isn't Gold or Red, which strikes me as suspicious. I also don't know anything in the Cosmere which is associated with violet either. I also can't seem to find any WOB which directly confirms that Voidlight is of Odium. Closest I have been able to find is this one: Is this a thing, or am I seeing something imaginary?
  9. As a remote sensing scientist I like to think about color and visualizations. In case you didn't know, all the stuff around us reflects different wavelengths of light differently based on the materials its made of. This extends outside the normal visible spectrum of light! For example, most plants are green because they reflect green light, but if the human eye could see into the near infrared, plants would be that color, because they reflect several times as much of that radiation as they do green. Something cool we can think about now that we know investiture that is associated with a specific shard has a specific wavelength / color is how to visualize things powered by that light. Mixing two colors/lights to get something new is actually super interesting, and using any three colors / unique investiture flavors, we could have a full color image! On Roshar, we'd have blue from Honor, Green from Cultivation, and purple/void? from Odium. If we wanted to visualize it for our eyes we could shift the colors to the three we use most, RGB -> Cultivation to red, Honor ->green, Odium -> blue, and make some cool false color composite images. In real life this lets us know something about the structure, because it tells us what is absorbed and what is reflected. Many bugs and flowers are reflective to UV radiation in unique and beautiful ways, for them to attract different mates. Same with platypuses (Not for attracting mates (That we know yet), just cool colors!). I think it was mentioned that voidlight and Odium have been part of the Rosharan system so long that it has become incorporated into the ecology there. Likely this is referring to Roshar becoming invested by Odium, maybe Odium has a perpendicularity now or something. Anyway I thought this was kind of neat.
  10. We know what starts a desolation: Heralds returning to Roshar or staying on Roshar for too long. We have no similar idea when it ends. Yet the heralds knew. The present desolation has one new feature in the form of the Everstorm. In past desolations killed Fused would return in the next desolation only. So who has which interests after it is sufficiently clear who will win? Let's look at the actors: The Heralds They really do not want a desolation to formally end. For them the best possible world would be one where they do little to no fighting, but are allowed to stay on Roshar. The distinctions is important. They want to win the war, but not end it. A bit like mercenaries. The living Fused That depends on patriotism. From an individual biew point being alive on Roshar looks better than ghosting around on Braize. They might continue some kind of guerilla. If you want the SIngers to prosper, the next Desolation cannot come soon enough. The dead Fused They want the next desolation. For that the Heralds have to break. For them to break they need to be tortured. For them to be tortured they must be forced to return to Braize. If there is no longer a realistic chance of winning, it is better to give up and try again. The sooner, the better. Odium His view is likely close to a dead Fused. As soon as his forces are defeated and have done all the damage they can reasonably do on Roshar, it is better to withdraw for the next round to come quickly . Where does this leave us in terms of strategy? I am afraid I now need to ask you to liberate your inner psychopath and drop all hints of ethics. Let me look at Odium. After the first few desolations he has understood that he is in a war of attrition. Hence he will shift his focus from the field forces of Honor's troops to the population, as soon as he is losing. While you are winning captured population is good. They will make your supplies, perhaps you can even press some of them into your service. But you lost all prior desolations. You need to prepare to lose this one and be ready to switch. First you want to destroy any institutions that keep civilization working: hospitals, places of learning, port facilities, ship yards, mines, mills, forges ... But at some point this runs into diminishing returns. Then your next target become the people itself. If there are fewer Rosharans, you will face fewer soldiers the next time. And they will have a harder time getting civilisation running again. So whom do you target? Women and children, especially older girls. The factor (food aside) that sets a limit to the growth of a mammalian population is the availability of fertile females. Hence women and older girls (younger girls is not so good, because child mortality, which will be high, as you are confiscating food, would render a part of your job futile). Disgusting, but wars are not nice. Your enemy will try to stop you by means of fortifications. Warfare is sieges and assaults on fortresses, followed by a dash to catch retreating forces, then surpressing the people of the area you took. And once you are being beaten back, you slaughter civillians. And once you are beaten so much that the damage you do is no longer worth the time you are giving the Heralds, you retreat to Braize to start over. So, what, mechanically speaking, ends a desolation and forces the Heralds back to Braize? I have three candidates: The number of Fused on Roshar is getting too low (It cannot be zero or the Heralds would have tried capturing some, bashing their heads in and keeping them alive in a coma with Progression - yes, war is gruesome.) Fused cease to come to Roshar (This is unlikely, as it would allow the Fused to come, keep running and make Heralds return, leaving the Rosharans alone to fight. And you are not going to catch all armies of flying Fused) Odium turns off the tap of Voidlight - I think that is really the end of a desolation (and I would speculate that that was the reason Gavilar acquired spheres of Voidlight for experiments) The most important conclusion I am drawing is that the Heralds don't end a desolation. Odium does so, forced but deliberately.
  11. WARNING The following contains spoilers about Parshendi anatomy & Oathbringer. You have been warned Do Parshendi have gemhearts? If they did, it would explain a LOT of things. For one, at the beginning of "The way of Kings" Szeth says that "Voidbringers could hold [stormlight] perfectly". Now, if we assume that this refers to the Parshendi, this could be because of Parshendi anatomy. OR, it could be because they store it in a gemheart. Parshendi can also switch forms by bonding with spren. Most assume that this is because of a form of nahel bond. BUT, what if the spren ACTUALLY went into their gemheart, and turned them into some kind of "Living fabrial". This would also explain how the Fused posses the Singers in oathbringer.
  12. So I’m greatly interested in how the Fused power their surges . Logic would have us thinking it work Like stormlight . Yet the Fused don’t carry spheres .we know that everstorm does not recharge spheres with stormlight . So I’m going to come up with a theory and see what u guys think . The everstorm brings Voidlight with it when it comes . The Voidlight is captured in the Fused gemheart , gems woven into the Fused hair, and possibly even its skin . We have seen the Fused glow constantly with Voidlight . I think the Fused are extremely efficient with their use of Voidlight . We see the Flying Fused that lash constantly Float around to where they hardly ever walk . So when it comes to surges they are extremely efficient or it cost little to anyvoidlight . it could possibly cost more for Healing as we saw a Fused survive a shardblade tp the stomach. It wasn’t until the Gem heart was destroyed and possibly the source of its Voidlight healing did the creature die ! as the everstorm comes more often than a highstorm , they usually have enough to last until the next everstorm . If u ask me the Fused have more efficient powers . KR have to have constant stormlight and it runs out way too fast. And the high storm does not come around enough . What do u guys think
  13. *EDITED* See bottom of OP for Potential Problems with this theory. These have more or less been resolved by the WoB about Rosharan Shard colors, added below. Grab some popcorn, this is a long one, but well worth the read. The primary thesis of this theory is that 3 primary modes of distribution of Investiture existed on Roshar prior to the shattering of Adonalsium, and that Voidlight as it is used to power the voidbinding of the Fused is a hacked magic system and is not Odium's actual manifestation of Investiture. An extension of this thesis is that the 3 pre-shattering modes of distribution of investiture (previously splinters of Adonalsium) translate to the post-shattering 3 primary god spren that the Bondsmiths are able to bond. 2 of these splinters have been absorbed into the intents of Cultivation and Honor, while the 3rd god spren is separate and is possibly still a composite of different shardic investiture, but is not of Odium. All WoBs are going to be in spoiler tags so you can read them if you want to or not. We know from a couple WoB's that after Adonalsium was shattered, all pre-existing investiture was assigned to a shard but also there wasn't a 1 to 1 correspondence, rather the investiture was proportionally assigned to different shards based on the nature of the pre-existing investiture and the intent of the shard. Also what has been previoulsy referred to as Voidlight I will be calling violet light, because I think voidlight implies a causal link that is not there. You can see by this WoB that Brandon is somewhat cagey about linking this violet light to Voidbinding: I believe these were the 3 means of distributing Investiture that existed before Adonalsium was shattered: The highstorm (distributes storm light, post-shattering was invested by Honor) The ecological system for maintaining life on a rocky soil-less system and general distribution of life based magic across Roshar (distributes crem, minerals, etc to plants, helps life-based spren become sentient and creates magic purelake fish. I believe the vehicle for distribution of this investiture is the high storm as well and is invested by Cultivation. Further I think this god spren is the gigantic spindly legged glowing form seen walking in the highstorm) The force that allows gemhearts to be created, and allows gemhearted life to bond with spren by creating an invested focal point for the other two forms of investiture (this is the shardicly unaligned force, and the conversion of stored investiture to energy (i.e. the burning away of the gemheart), presents as violet light, while the natural coalescing of this investiture results in the creation of the gemheart itself). FOUNDATIONAL FACTS (Rosharan Ecology and Investiture Pre-shattering) We know from this WoB that the Highstorms are a pre-shattering phenomena on Roshar: And further we know that the Parshendi were created pre-shattering from this WoB: And that they bonded spren pre-shattering as well from this WoB: We also know, post shattering, that the Parshendi can only change forms during a Highstorm (prior to the Everstorm), this implies that Stormlight investiture is necessary for the transformation and further that Stormlight investiture was distributed by the Highstorm pre-shattering. From these data points we know the following: Highstorms and the means of distributing stormlight existed pre-shattering Investiture was used to faciliate life on Roshar pre-shattering Gemhearts and mechanisms to affect life (physical transformation) existed pre-shattering. SUPPORTING DETAILS The three moons are highly symbolic, and we know that Adonalsium created the Rosharan system before the arrival of Honor, Cultivation and Odium, so it seems somewhat safe to assume that the Rosharan moons existed pre-shattering as well. Salas the violet moon which rises first in the night time sky (possibly representing the force of investiture that allows the growth of the gemheart vessel that can house the renewable form of investiture, i.e. stormlight) Nomon the blue moon which rises second and is, according to the Natan origin myth story, the most powerful of the moons (makes sense because it is possibly the most active vehicle for distribution of investiture in the form of Stormlight) Mishim the green moon that according to the same myth is the cleverest of the moons. The color associated with Honor and the direct investiture of the Highstorm is blue (Honorspren are blue, stormlight breathed out or leaking out of skin manifests as blue light as well). The color associated with Cultivation is Green (the color of lifespren, the color of the Nightwatcher) The color associated with Odium is yellow-white (the color of voidspren, the color of the metal of the Dagger Moash uses to kill Jezrien) I think, meaningfully, the color violet does appear but not with any specific association to any of the 3 shards. It's the color of greatshell blood and also is the color of the carapace of Chasmfiends. Also, I think that the one real clue that we've gotten about voidbinding, namely the Voidbinding chart in the endpapers of TWoK shows two different colors of connection between each order of Voidbinder and the surges that they access, yellow and violet, and I think this explains a lot. Here's the chart: Note the yellow lines in the chart connect the orders of Voidbinders together, but don't connect to the surges themselves, those are all violet connections. Also note how the two god's eyes orders of Voidbinders don't have any direct violet connections, they instead show violet energy radiating out from the gem that they are contained in. I think that this is the strongest proof that Voidbinding uses a separate investiture to access the surges, and that further, as we see voidbinding working with the Fused, they are converting the gemhearts of their Singer host's from stored material investiture into energy to access a particular surge. The energy comes from the conversion of the gemheart, the focus comes from the voidbinding. Also, interesting to note, the two god's eye surges suggest that their could be two Orders of Voidbinders that are able to convert and distribute violet light investiture to other Voidbinders. We know from a WoB that Renarin uses Stormlight to fuel voidbinding (specifically seeing into the future), so voidbinding isn't only fueled by violet light investiture: I think that if Renarin's eyes glowed red when he was seeing the future that it would have been mentioned in the scene where Jasnah almost kills him. The fact that his eyes don't glow red, shows that this use of Voidbinding is not a hacked implementaton (unlike for the Fused whose eyes glow red, or the storm form Parshendi who's eyes also glow red). This implies that the conversion of the stored (violet godspren) based investiture in the gemhearts of Singers is a hacked system and therefore the violet light based investiture IS NOT of Odium. If this is true, this would also explain why the Fused use violet light investiture so cavalierly, if they can convert the gemheart of their host into violet light investiture, they could use this perpetually until the gemheart was consumed. This would kill their current host, but they would just fuse a different host when the next Everstorm passes. I don't think that the Everstorm functions as distribution system for violet light investiture, I think rather it is a conduit from the Cognitive realm on Braize to Roshar to allow the Singers to bond either Voidspren or the Cognitive Shadows of ancient Singers. SPECULATIVE THEORIES BASED ON THE ABOVE: I speculated in the [OB] Third Bondsmith and Urithiru thread that Ba-Ado-Mishram might be the third godspren, and might be the Sibling that the Stormfather talks about in OB: The formulation is a little looser than this post, but I think the theory is actually quite sound. Especially looking at the Voidbinding chart, where one of the god's eyes order might be instrumental in controlling BAM to distribute non-destructive violet light to the armies of Odium. The other god's eye order of Voidbinder is likely Odium's Champion (with such a strong connection to Odium, it would be highly probable that this particular Voidbinder could channel and direct Odium's actual investiture and possibly convert gemhearts in the followers of Odium to violet investiture. It might have been one of the responsibilites of the 3rd bondsmith, keeping BAM from going over to the side of Odium and being bonded by a Voidbinder. Melishi might have made the determination after BAM was Unmade that it was safer to seal the Sibling away in a perfect gem prison than to try and fix BAM so that BAM could again be used to power Urithiru. I think we haven't really seen what Odium's investiture is capable of. I think we have seen it being used inefficiently to hack a separate magic system (that predates the shattering of Adonalsium) and that we really won't know what true voidbinding is until the Army that emerges from the Origin with light in pockets (mentioned in the Puuli interlude) arrives. @Wit Beyond Measure, @Varion, @MonsterMetroid put some really good work in building up evidence that Thuderclasts are formed by mindless fused bonding gemhearts embedded in stone in the [OB] Secrets to Parshendi Forms, Thunderclasts, & Urithiru thread. If the theory that violet light investiture is created by conversion of gemhearts to energy, then I think that this is one more point in favor of the Thunderclast theory. I also think that the gemstone that Eshonai got from Gavilar contained the unmade Sja-anat. We know from revelations at the end of WoR that Venli and her fellow scholar form listeners had all tried out stormform before Eshonai did, and the red color of the spren implies corrupted investiture. My guess is that Venli got the sphere from Eshonai and released Sja-anat, and Sja-anat created voidspren by corrupting windspren that allowed the Parshendi to assume stormform. There were a lot of Listeners that assumed storm form, and we know that windspren are plentiful, and before I was always wondering how they found so many of these stormform spren around the shattered plains and why they hadn't bonded them before. But thinking along the lines of this theory it's obvious, the corrupted windspren allowed the listeners to create the Everstorm, which acts like a functional bridge between Braize and Roshar. The reason no listener used violet light investiture before the Fused arrived is because it consumes the gemheart of the host. A cognitive shadow joined to a host wouldn't die as their gemhearts were slowly consumed, but a non-fused Parshendi probably wouldn't last long converting their heart into investiture. Another point in favor of this theory is that Renarin bonded a corrupted truthwatcher spren at the shattered plains, which wouldn't have been possible if Sja-anat wasn't also at the shattered plains. **************************************************************************** POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEORY **************************************************************************** Thanks to @Darvys, @RShara, @Wit Beyond Measure and especially @StrikerEZ I know that some of the foundational principles of this theory have proven to be just plain wrong. This is the place that I will use to highlight all of the erroneous assumptions, and highlight compelling counter arguments to the main premises of the theory. As @StrikerEZ and @Darvys pointed out, reading too much into the significance of color is problematic, and it leads to oversimplifications that confuse the issue. The theory really hinges on the fact that the color associated with the shards is a compelling causal link, but Stormlight is NOT blue, it is in fact white. We haven't really seen enough of Cultivation to associate anything with her Investiture (other than an ability to manipulate the spirit web/minds of people who specifically sought her out) and Voidspren are not just yellow-gold, Ulim who helps Venli find Eshonai's corpse in the Part 1 interlude is a Red spren. *EDIT* Most of the apparent problems with this theory had to do with the colors not corresponding correctly, but the assumptions of color matching the 3 different types of Investiture on Roshar holds, after this WoB (spoilered below with emphasis added) that explicitly states that Odium is associated with Red/Gold, Honor is Associated with Blue/White and Cultivation is associated with Green. The obvious color missing is the Violet, like the violet moon Selas and the black-violet antiglow of Voidlight. Also there's a WoB that implies pretty strongly that no Spren is completely derivative of a single shard, but is more a proportional mixture of different Shardic investiture, so inferences based on the coloration of spren are most likely more complicated than stated in the OP, and don't prove a causal connection: *EDIT* This really has no bearing on the matter upon further reflection. As @StrikerEZ pointed out, Voidlight looks to be the proper term to use to refer to violet investiture. There is a reference in the Gem Archive that states that Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to provide Voidlight to Odium's followers: *EDIT* This is not really a salient issue, Voidlight is the proper term. Gemhearts are most likely not consumed in order to provide voidlight, but there is a WoB that they are physically manifest Investiture: *EDIT* This still remains to be seen, the examples of Yelig-nar consuming his host and the Fused Taking over the body of their host provide countervailing arguements that this might indeed be true, that Gemhearts can be consumed to produce Voidlight in the absence of an alternate source of Voidlight. It's more likely that gemhearts are created from Investiture "leaking" from all the Invested shards on Roshar (given the fact that gems of all different types exist on Roshar and that they are keyed to different fabrials and correspond to the 10 essences in relation to soulcasting). This doesn't preclude the fact that there could be another loose source of Investiture on the Rosharan system, but it makes it less likely that gemhearts are solely composed a single type of Investiture. *EDIT* I No longer agree with this statement. I think they are a particular expression of the 3rd flavor of Investiture on Roshar, I will link to my BAM theory when I've posted it. I still think the Voidbinding chart is information rich and worth scrutinizing. It still feels like there is something hiding in plain sight, something revelatory and amazing. If anyone has anything else to add to this Mia Culpa disclaimer, please let me know. Wild speculation is fun, but good information is better.
  14. This is a far from common presentation of the flame that accompanies the Pharaoh's Serpent chemical reaction (ignited Mercury(II) thiocyanate), but this is a pretty amazing possible visualization of Voidlight (starting at about 20 seconds into the video, and especially at 56 seconds in): Anyone else have any videos that shows a real world analog for the wickedly creepy dark violet light that is Voidlight?
  15. I think the Everstorm brings Voidlight to Roshar. Just as Stormlight enables bonds and “makes things grow,” Voidlight IMO breaks bonds. Voidlight frees the Parshmen, but only Stormlight enables them to bond again. IIRC, @Calderis theorizes Melishi stripped out part of the Parshmen Spiritwebs, putting them into slaveform. He suggests the Everstorm causes the stripped-out part to regrow. I think the opposite is true, that Bondsmiths can make bonds but not break them. I think Melishi bonded Parshmen with a blank pseudo-spren to turn them into slaves. The Everstorm’s Voidlight breaks the bond with the pseudo-spren, rather than regrowing Parshmen Spiritwebs. I think Parshmen exposed to the Everstorm return to their natural sapient state. Parshmen still need Stormlight to bond with spren. Kaladin’s companions may not yet have been exposed to Stormlight and may be unbonded. I think Voidbringing changes the Spiritual DNA of the spren Parshmen (and other lifeforms/objects) bond with. We’ll see how Kaladin’s companions act when exposed to Stormlight. Some of them may bond corrupted spren; some of them may not bond at all; and some may bond uncorrupted spren. The yellow spren IMO is a Voidbinding spren, Odium’s version of a Radiantspren. Such spren are not necessarily evil, since the Shards themselves are not evil. Some Voidbinding spren may be cruel, just as some Radiantspren are. The difference between spren is magical – how they perform magic – not moral. This yellow spren does not appear evil (so far). I believe Voidbinders use the same Surges as Surgebinders, but Voidbinders access the Surges by breaking the internal bonds that make them who they are. I think the Unmade are “unmade” because using Odium’s magic over time reduces Voidbinders and their Spiritwebs. Voidbinders IMO catalyze their magic by consuming Voidlight to break their bonds. Hate gives you power, but you pay a price. Becoming “unmade” – having hate consume you – is Odium’s price for his power. The yellow spren sees Kaladin as a Voidbinding candidate. I suspect it notices Kaladin’s “protecting” character. The yellow spren itself first warned of Kaladin’s presence, a form of protection, and seems to be marshalling the Parshmen towards their rendezvous. I think the yellow spren is Odium’s version of honorspren – “protecting spren” - even if it does turn out to be a Shinovar stone spren. That may explain Syl’s ambivalence towards it. Just some thoughts before tomorrow’s chapters blow them apart…
  16. Let's talk about spheres. (This post assumes you've read chapters 4 and 5 of the Oathbringer preview.) From the chasm scene in WoR, we know that spheres recharge during highstorms, specifically at the moment when the Stormfather appears with his odd timelessness. But we just saw the Stormfather appear like that at the wedding, and he doesn't bring stormlight so it isn't him causing the recharge. The evidence points to sphere infusion being a specific effect of Honor's perpendicularity, which we have good reason to think travels with the highstorm. In addition, we have confirmation now that the Everstorm doesn't charge spheres with either stormlight or voidlight. We can assume then that the Everstorm does not carry a perpendicularity with it. So now I have three questions: If you took a sphere to/through Cultivation's perpendicularity in the Horneater peaks, would it infuse? If so, would it contain regular stormlight or a different flavor of investiture? i.e. Does Cultivation's investiture manifest as stormlight? How confident are we that Gavilar's sphere contained investiture from Odium? The first Szeth interlude in WoK features a (very unreliable) tavern tale in which a similar sphere is stolen from the Nightwatcher. For the record, I still think it's 98% likely to be from Odium, but I want to float alternatives for discussion. Where did Gavilar's "voidlight" come from? Until shown evidence otherwise, I'm going to believe that Rayse doesn't have a perpendicularity on Roshar. But then we need an avenue to get his investiture into a sphere. Let's pull some hints together, getting us to my current theory: We've seen surgebinders infuse things (including gems) with the stormlight they held inside them. We've seen Lift get stormlight from a route other than inhaling. We also know from WoB that Honor powered the Heralds directly, without them needing to inhale stormlight. We've seen magically enhanced strength and speed from people feeling the Thrill (i.e. influenced by an Unmade), which mirrors some of the passive effects of holding stormlight. I propose that someone feeling the Thrill (or accessing another of the Unmade's powers) could learn to take that Odious investiture and infuse it into something else, and that is how Gavilar did it.
×
×
  • Create New...