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  1. It's interesting to see that even temporary changes made to the Spiritweb can leave permanent changes to the Spiritwebs of a person's offspring. For example, we see this in the Koloss-blooded, where they retain a portion of their Koloss parent's strength, toughness, and altered genetic makeup. Listeners and Singers are capable of doing something similar with humans, being able to produce half human and half Listener/Singer children. Additionally, a Listener's or a Singer's Form is very similar to what Hemalurgy does, but in a more natural fashion. I think, therefore, that if a Listener or Singer had a different Form "equipped" that their offspring with a human would have effects from that Form, similar to how different Hemalurgic constructs should have different effects on their offspring. This could be part of why Horneaters and Herdazians have such different ethnicities (though it could also be due to more mundane reasons, such as being separate long enough to make distinct changes to their gene pools). As a side note, another interesting way that changes to the Spiritweb have been seen effecting offspring is due to Lighteyes; their Radiant ancestors had eyes that were only temporarily lightened, yet their children have a more permanent eye color change.
  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. Hey all! I’ve had this for a while but I finally went and recreated it digitally! Attached below is an unofficial script/language/alphabet that I created for the singer and listener people + a “user manual” because I made it far more complicated than necessary. I don’t know if we have any evidence of them having written language but I decided to make one regardless, and I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!
  4. Vyre, the new name of Moash, is because Vyre is not a singer's name or because it is a more singer's name? Sorry for grammar, I am from Spain.
  5. Something that I’ve been curious about since the start of the series is the physiology of the listeners. They’re described as having carapace, and when Kaladin removes the carapace from one of them in the chasms, he notes how unlike their anatomy is to that of humans. But he doesn’t really go into detail as to why it’s different. We know that they have breasts in mate form, which leads me to believe they could be mammals, but it’s also noted that all of the very few mammals that live on Roshar came over with the original humans from Ashyn. However, the fact that humans and listeners could breed (the horneaters and herdazians both have listener ancestry), seems to indicate that they could be mammals. Is their skin more lizard like, or soft and hairy? The males are mentioned to have beards, but the listeners describe their hair as “hair strands”, so is it the same physiologically as human hair? Ar e there any WOB or in-book quotes that would clarify this?
  6. A bit more scientific than previous questions: I love how Venli, when overcome with emotion such as anxiety or elation, mentions Timbre pulsing in her gemheart, similar to a human heart beating faster. This made me think: singers don’t have a muscular heart that can contract to pump blood. So, how does singer blood work? Either there is a separate heart pumping system that singers just don’t call a heart, or the blood acts like the lymphatic system, which relies on gradient flow rather than a pumping mechanism.
  7. How the hell are the singers maintaining their population ? Given that none of there soldiers, scholars, Artists, or even works can reproduce? Dose anyone have any ideas, so there a word of Brandon on this, is this a world building hole?
  8. So when a Singer bonds with a Voidspren and becomes a Regal, they gain some kind of cool power but at the cost of essentially becoming a slave to Odium. Could Aluminum provide a hack for this? Let's say a Singer became a Stormform and immediately put on an aluminum-foil hat, would that allow them to keep control or at least reduce Odium's influence over them while keeping their new Forms awesome powers? Here's a WOB that might support my theory: Edit: Here's another I found that seems relevant
  9. If a Kandra took the bones, carapace, and gemheart of a singer, would they be able to attune the rythms? What form would they take, dullform because their spren left the gemheart or does the spren stay and they take the shape the singer had right before they died? Are the rythms inherent to their Connection to Roshar (Odium with the new rythms), or are they connected to their organs and biology, so that a kandra could copy it? What do you think about this?
  10. Assuming that a singer worldhopped to another planet and was able to bring a non-Radiant, form-granting spren with them (let's say the spren is captured in a gemstone to make thing simpler), and they wanted to change their form by bonding that spren, how do you figure they'd go about that? From what we've seen, it seems like it has to be done using one of the storms as a catalyst, but what are the important pieces there? Is it simply necessary that the singer have access to a lot of raw investiture floating around to fuel the change? If so, could a singer draw on the Mists to change form? Is it the fact that a Highstorm (and potentially the Everstorm as well) pulls the three realms closer together that makes it possible for singers to form or break their bonds with lesser spren? If so, could a singer change forms by standing close enough to another perpendicularity? I checked if there were any WoB specifically talking about the mechanics of how singers change forms, but wasn't able to find much.
  11. Something that's cropped up every so often in the Stormlight Archives is that Singers have a much harder time bonding higher spren than humans. In WoR, Syl flat out says that Parshendi can't become surgebinders. Before RoW, I didn't really have any ideas as to why this was. But during RoW we got a clue that helped me come up with my first theory, and I recently came up with another. The first theory is suggested by Rhabonial. During her conversation with Venli on the way to Uritheru, she mentions how humans are much more externally focused, while singers are internally focused. This might be part of why Singers line up better with Odium's power while humans can bond with Honor's more easily. Emotions are more of an internal concept, while Honor is more external. These matchups may explain why both races can synch up with each Shard's power, but each race favors one or the other. But I think there might be a better explanation. I think that the Singers might have sturdier souls than humans do, thanks to their stronger connection to the Spiritual realm. In a WoB, Sanderson confirmed that the ability to hear the Rhythms is basically a connection to the Spiritual realm. And while Navani proved it's possible to humans to perceive the tones, and likely rhythms, Singers have a much stronger connection. I think it's likely that this stronger connection results in a stronger spirit web and soul than a humans would normally be. Less easily damaged and cracked. And since spren bond with humans by filling in the cracks of their spirit webs with power, it makes sense that they have a harder time bonding with a race that don't have as many cracks in their souls. Of course, we know of three singers who have bonded higher spren; Eshonai, Venli and Rain. But two of them swore the first ideal after taking a Regal form, and Rlain bonded a spren touched by Jah-Anat, likely making it easier for him to form a bond. All three had Odium's power in the mix. Of course, singers bond lesser spren to take different forms, such as war form, work form, and so on. But since those are more basic spren, like gravity spren or pain spren, it makes sense that they'd be able to bond them more easily. Part of why I like this idea is that it means that the Singers having stronger souls actually prevents them from gaining the same kind of bond that humans can as easily. It puts part of the first radiant ideal, Strength before Weakness, into new perspective. Thoughts?
  12. I get that most of the forms for singes are asexual and are considered different genders (technically) but are any of them biologically capable of reproduction? My guess is no because the secondary sexual characteristics are subdued in them. However, if they were, it makes me wonder if they would produce different human/singer hybrids. I.e. mateform plus human = Unkalaki and workform + human = Herdazian and etc.
  13. Okay, so singers are normally asexual until they take Mateform. In addition, humans can gain Forms by growing a Gemheart via Hemalurgy. So let's say that Jasnah were given a Gemheart and for whatever reason took Mateform. Would she not be asexual while she had the form, or would it just not change her in that way? Also, would the physical changes of the Forms still effect a human, such as the pronounced secondary sexual characteristics of Mateform? (P.S. Sorry if this is a bit of a weird question.)
  14. If a singer were give another Gemheart or a bigger Gemheart via Hemalurgy, could they get a Form that was more powerful and more pronounced? For example, if a singer gained a second Gemheart and then bonded two painspren to gain Warform, would they be extra strong and muscular?
  15. If a singer's gemheart breaks, do they automatically change to slave form? Can their gemheart heal with time, or is it a permanent injury?
  16. In the Cosmere, Identity is a unique attribute held by an entity that separates it’s investiture from another entity’s investiture, such as with a Feruchemist’s Metalminds. However, I believe that Identity has more meaning than simply keying your investiture to you. I think that it acts as a natural separation form other spiritwebs, a natural defense from other’s control over you. We’ve seen multiple beings in the Cosmere that don’t have an Identity, and both of them can be controlled pretty easily by external influence; the Slaveform Singers and the Lifeless. Lifeless probably also have something else going on that makes them able to be controlled by others (their Awakened Commands), but here is a WoB that says if a Lifeless were to tap certain Metalminds, they may not stay a Lifeless. . . With the Slaveform Singers, they just do what anyone says without resisting. I believe the reason for this is that the natural Connection that is possessed by their human slavers can “dominate” them without much resistance. It would be a similar situation to a Connector Ferring dominating a Hemalurgic construct with an enhanced version of their natural attribute of Connection, only instead of having holes left in the soul by Hemalurgic spikes, it’s that the Singers don’t have any separating attribute in the first place. Having a higher intelligence and strength of will would likely allow them to resist control, but in many cases of mind control it seems like the targets are of only simple intelligence, which makes controlling them easy. It seems as though your Identity also has an influence on your state of mind, as we can see with Listeners and Singers who take different forms, so blanking your Identity may leave you feeling with significantly reduced motivation or emotion in general. It may be possible to Feruchemically enhance your own Identity and make yourself less susceptible to outside influence, or you may be able to more easily manipulate someone actively storing it. This theory may have some holes in it, but this is how I understand it now. Thanks for reading
  17. If a human were to hemalurgically gain a gemheart and take warform, would they grow carapace? If so, would it be less pronounced since they don't naturally have any? Would you be able to have two or more forms at once using hemalurgy? If you hemalurgically granted someone a Fused surge, would they gain physical traits reminiscent of that Fused Brand? Can you hemalurgically take a greatshell’s gemheart, and use it differently than a singer’s gemheart?
  18. There are now 8 works in the Rhythms of Desire Collection! All these fics feature singers, listeners, and/or Fused in situations that range from romantic to explicit. Please be kind to yourself and everyone around you - beware the ratings and the tags! The Rhythm of the Lost - Rated Teen, 1100 words Dul and Mazish gain sapience and take Mateform together. The Rhythm of Tension - Rated Mature, 3000 words Several months into their relationship, Renarin and Rlain visit the Listeners together. Renarin is looking forward to getting to know Rlain's childhood friends a little better. Five Rhythms - Rated Mature, 6500 words A series of five interrelated vignettes, exploring Renarin and Rlain's relationship through Rlain's forms - Scholarform, Mateform - and through rhythms - Anticipation, Mourning, Victory. Felled By You, Held By You - Rated Mature, 6000 words (new!) During their research, the tension and curiosity between Navani and Raboniel grows until neither of them can (or want to) deny it. If We Have Each Other - Rated Mature, 15,000 words A couple weeks into Mateform, Rlain and Renarin struggle with the conflict between Rlain's desire for touch and Renarin's aversion to it. Research - Rated Mature, 2000 words Raboniel and Navani discover the Rhythm of War, which leads to an entirely different avenue of research. Sexy Sociology - Rated Mature, 9200 words Set in a future Roshar AU, Rlain is an exchange student in Kharbranth, where Renarin is a classmate in Dr. Sja Anat's Sociology class. Pegged for Destruction - Rated Explicit, 2200 words Lezian the Pursuer is on the hunt for his latest target. Leshwi has taken an interest in the same target and will not allow Lezian to complete his horrible goal.
  19. 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.
  20. So, I've had a couple of theories for a while now that I've wanted to put out there. I don't know if a WoB contradicts them, but I figured I should post this first one. The storm father's explanation in Oathbringer of how the desolations started began with the fuzed and singers attacking humans and the heralds creating the oathpact to stop them. But why exactly did the ancient singers attack in the first place? The way the books are set up, it appears as though after humans arrived on Roshar, they attacked the singers, and the singers retaliated, turning to Odium for power. But this never made much sense to me. First of all, it's never explicitly stated what the humans did to the ancient singers, and second, why would Honor choose to side with human invaders over the people of the world he'd made his home? The first point is actually very important. Sanderson has managed to use character's assumptions to set the tone of the series to great effect so far. Describing the thrill in such a way that readers naturally assumed it to be adrenaline is one of the best examples. The Ella Stele, the ancient document showing that humans were the original VoidBringers, only states that the humans betrayed them, with the betrayal extending to spren, stone, and wind. But, just as with the "Lost Radiants", the betrayal is not explicitly described. That seems intentionally vague to me. As if leaving enough room for something to be interpreted as a betrayal, with the singers interpreting the humans' actions as one, even if it hadn't been intended as one. As I said, the second thing that didn't make sense was why Honor would choose humans who'd supported Odium over the singers who had been of Roshar, especially if they had betrayed the singers who had taken them in. Imagining it as humans going back and forth between Honor and Odium seems unlikely. I think it much more likely that the human abandoned Odium shortly after arriving on Roshar. They saw Honor, and maybe Cultivation, as being more worthy deities, and chose to worship them instead. But then, what triggered the Desolations? Jealousy. As the introduction to chapter 32 of WoR, we get the following passage from a listener's song. The spren betrayed us, it's often felt. Our minds are too close to their realm That gives us our forms, but more is then Demanded by the smartest spren, We can't provide what the humans lend, Though broth are we, their meat is men. This is the passage that sparked this theory when I first read WoR and then Oathbringer a few years ago, with the last line being the most significant to me. If the Listeners had this song, then they knew about the bond between spren and humans/singers. And this passage makes it seem like spren seem to prefer humans to singers for some reason. The betrayals between singers and spren are mentioned in RoW on at least two occasions. The first is mentioned by Blended during Adolin's trial, when she's testifying against him. The second betrayal is implied by Leshwi to Venli, when she says the spren have forgiven them. But what exactly were these betrayals? I think it has to do with how humans can become surge binders much more easily than singers. Syl tells Kaladin in WoR that Parshendi can't become surgebinders, and Venli expresses her surprise to bonding Timbre in Oathbringer for the same reason. I don't know why spren can bond humans more easily, my current guess is because their emotions are more accessible, but if large numbers of spren were drawn to humans and away from singers after the humans arrived, that could easily be seen as a betrayal that extends to the spren, wind, and stones. This leads to my previous conclusion, where singer jealousy is specifically what triggered all this, which is also the betrayal mentioned by Blended. Odium almost certainly fanned the flames, increasing the ancient singers' jealousy of humans drawing the spren, and making them angry at the spren for "betraying" them, but that jealousy was his opening. The singers turned to Odium, who granted them the power to take revenge on humans, which made them the easily manipulated army he wanted. Thoughts?
  21. Inquisitors can here the rhythms Evidence: Brandon said the rhythms are a cosmere wide phenomenon marsh said the spikes "throb [with pain]" and "are affected by his emotions" the definition of "throb" is: beat or sound with a strong, regular rhythm; pulsate steadily Kar linked different types of pain to emotions most notably "the pain of joy" And finally, the most convincing piece of evidence is how strikingly similar, Ruins control of Marsh, and Odium's control of Eshonai were: That of having their body, emotions, and very mind controlled by the shot, yet still able to reserve a small piece of themselves, able to break free of their control, if only for a moment.
  22. WoB tells us that it would be possible to Replicate Singer Forms with Hemalurgy. As far as I know, we don't knwo details for how exactly that would work, but it would still be fun to speculate, wouldn't it? So, to maybe spark some fun debate and conversation: Let's say our Hemalurgist (as in, someone with the knowledge of Hemalurgy, wherever they originate from) is aware that it might be advisable to spike just one Singer rather than going around becoming a living embodiment of the song of forms. Question 1: What forms would be attractive? Especially, what particular forms would be attractive to particular worldhoppers? Warform sounds like the simple attractive one, in my opinion, especially for someone who is already a Pewterarm. But maybe an Elantrian would prefer Scholarform? Do you think a Seeker (Bronze) who spikes a Singer with a Form of Power could hear Odium's Rythms too, or would they need a Voidspren for that too? Could any other kind of Cosmere Magic make stormform's lightning abilities more reliable? Maybe a Coinshot would be able to shoot a piece of conductive metal behind you, then use that to direct the Lightning in that direction? This is the wildest and most destructive use I've come up with so far. Certainly, Envoyform is very useful if you plan to travel the Cosmere a lot. Question 2: Or even if you decide to spike not the form, but the ability to grow a Gemheart - what Spren would be nice to take with you, if you managed to attract one? Anyway, that's just my thoughts. I'd love to hear thoughts from other people on this! (Note: I haven't quite finished RoW yet, so spoiler tags would still be appreciated)
  23. So here's my idea. Remember how Navani could faintly feel the rhythms only when she was touching a large amount of Stormlight? Thus proving the rhythms really do come from it? Well, in Mistborn, burning Bronze let a Mistborn hear the Rhythms of other allomancers, therefore giving them the ability to tell which metal they were using. Coincidence? Correlation? Thoughts?
  24. We all know of the rhythms on roshar, the singers and larkins hear them, and can use them to manipulate their own emotion. But what about the rhythms elsewhere, like on Scadrial: 1.if a seeker were to burn bronze on roshar they would sense the rhythms, but if a singer can hear rhythms even if they were born off world. So it seems like the rhythms pervade the cosmere but have a special connection to roshar. Additionally it seems like bronze sensing and rhythm hearing may be connected as bronze can hear rhythms, as bronze can hear rhythms and bronze pulses would be “familiar” to a singer. 2. Rhythms and Soothing appear to act very similarly. Both can manipulate emotions and both (as you can see in the latter case with help with enhanced Seeking) rely on pulsing to do so. And with copper disallowing the user to be affected by Soothing, that would all mental allomantic abilities related to the rhythms in some way. 3. Inquisitor “Throbbing” responds to emotions, could the throbbing be in time with the rhythms? Kar said he felt “the pain of joy”. Regardless, seems there are more to rhythms than meets the eyes
  25. Putting this is the RoW sections because Rlain/Renarin and Kaladin/Leshwi. Okay! So, Singer sexuality. In every form but mateform they pretty much have no sexual desire whatsoever. Also, no one wants to go into mateform because "Yay, mateform, my favorite!" You go into mateform (at least on purpose) for the sole purpose of having children, after having found a person of the opposite sex who you think would make a good partner. At least, that's the overwhelming impression I got from the Singer/Listener POVS. Which makes me wonder if Renarin's crush on Rlain can even be reciprocated. Sure, it's implied that in mateform Rlain is gay, but in warform he has no interest in either dudes or ladies. I mean, if it was a het human/singer pairing, I could at least see the singer saying, "this person seems like she would make a good mother, I suppose I might as well make halfie babies with her." But Rlain doesn't even have that excuse to go into mateform. On that note, for all the people shipping Kaleshwi: Leshwi is almost certainly in a malen body at the end of RoW. As her days of bodysnatching are at an end, well, unless she becomes a Radiant and transitions, she's stuck as biologically malen. So again, no possibility of making crabhuman babies, no reason she'd go mateform with him. If Fused can even do regular forms. Some thoughts of how your favorite ship possibly could get around this: -maybe malens and femalens have something akin to asexual romantic feelings? It's possible they don't choose their mates solely for practical reasons. Not like we've seen any choosing happen, can't disprove anything. -shenanigans involving a singer going out into the storm with a partner and then ending up not compatible. I mean, that's kinda what was implied to have happened with Rlain, right? So you've got a mateform dealing with *urges*, the next highstorm is weeks away, there's a meet-cute with another mateform or a human, hilarity ensues... -adventurous singer willing to "experiment" with their human best bud
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