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  1. Well, you see, I open this entry because I am one of those who likes to theorize a lot about the possibilities and limits of the magical systems of the fantasy series and stories that I read. And within the Cosmere cosmology, none has given me as many headaches as voidbinding. And in an effort to collect all the information available from said system, I think I have ended up creating a very feasible scheme and I want you to take a look at it. I would also like you to forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes, since English is not my main language. We know from WoB's that the voidspren's can give access to it, as can the Unmade, but no matter how hard the Fused themselves tried, none of them have been willing to form a Nahel (as seen in RoW). Here I wonder, aren't they looking at it from the wrong point of view? voidspren's, unlike other types of spren, may find it impossible to form an oath in the same way as a Rosharian spren. My proposal is that in this case to access voidbinding it is through the passions. Now, I know that thinking that Odium is telling the truth is somewhat debatable (although Brandon has already said that it is 50/50[1][2]), let's keep in mind that spren are formed and change according to culture. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to think that a system related to them has to do with passions, this being an important cultural sign of the Fused. How exactly would a bond with a Voidspren work? Well, if a human felt passionate enough about something to attract a True Voidspren (remembering that they do have reason in the physical realm), it would offer him access to voidbinding in exchange for consuming his "passion." An operation that in practice would be very similar to the Luhel of the Lumar spores, that is, the voidspren would absorb the "passion" excessively and offers the benefit of a voidsurge and the potency depends on the level to which it is willing to reach (the 10 levels mentioned by Kriss). The control of the "voidsurge's" (for lack of a better name) would be in the hands of the Sprens and not the humans. Being something like the reverse case of the Aviars in First of the Sun, this operation would solve several situations present in the books: That Moash, despite hypothetically having a connection of this type with Odium, does not present apparent benefits [All RoW]. That Renarin's visions occur against his will (in this case, Glys would be driving them), and only after having had one can he reproduce them intentionally [RoW chapter 54]. Another difference with Surgebinding, is that the fuel is Stormlight, in voidbinding they would be the deeper emotions (also known as Passions), and each of the skills would depend on consuming a specific emotion. And Voidlight would simply be a method of increasing those emotions enough to not be consumed. The corresponding emotions would be those expressed by Navani on this page: Also, on a more realmatic level, it would be the opposite of the spren/radiant relationship, since in the latter, the spren identifies a crack in the person's soul[3], and proceeds to fill it with itself, a spren void would exacerbate said crack to The user limit. Likewise, it also gives us a symmetry, where Surgebending is binding to surges (Spren are living Surges), voidbinding is binding to the void, or rather the Voidbringers (Human beings with a lot of emotion to consume) Summarizing. Voidbinding is a system of magic where Voidspren are attracted to passions strong enough to attract their attention. The bond created is not as firm as a radiant bond; its fuel is emotion, which could consume it until it leaves the human. Without it, definitely (the voidlight would serve more than anything as a crutch so that this does not happen), and most likely the abilities it grants will be more than anything cognitive, as and if a being from the physical realm is linked to one from the cognitive realm in order to manipulate things in the physical. The most logical thing would be that the opposite is also possible: a being from the cognitive realm is linked to one from the physical realm in order to manipulate things in the cognitive realm. Renarin and Glys (Bonding with a Corrupted Sprens) Our only practical case does not seem to present any of the characteristics that I have exposed, right? Well, this would be because at first Glys was already a Spren belonging to Honor and Cultivation; he was already within the oath system. From everything I propose, it may be that although he consumes part of Renarin's soul when giving them the visions, he would also be replacing said soul with himself, as all the other radiant Spren do. And more specifically, Glys would be consuming the sadness lingering in him to give him access to the equivalent of Illumination.
  2. I've resisted the idea that this death rattle is related to voidbinders, but I have just now had an idea that I feel I must put out into the world, in the slim chance that it's right. Between the voidbinding chart and Brandon's implication that Renarin uses voidbinding, there is reason to think that voidbinders are something similar to the Knights Radiant (I sometimes like to refer to that hypothetical organization as the "Knights Vibrant"). The soul of voidbinding is to divine the future, so my theory is that the Ideals sworn by a voidbinder are actually the ending for their actual Ideals, as if they were seeing the end of their own service in the future. The death is my life (I have lived before I die, but my death comes now) The strength becomes my weakness (I was strong, and now I'm weak) The journey has ended (I have journeyed, and now I have arrived at my destination) The Knight (?) means to swear the actual oaths, but they simultaneously prophesy their own failure/ending/death. It would be a very Honor/Odium vibe to swear that you'll break your own oath, I think.
  3. TL;DR: I think Voidbinding is the reverse of a normal Radiant bond. In a normal Radiant bond, the human actively uses the powers; in Voidbinding, the spren uses the powers through the human. Renarin Renarin's visions are very strange because they're not a power he uses with Intent. Its possible to have subconscious Intent to use a power you don't understand, especially to survive (like Kaladin redirecting arrows or Vin burning traces of pewter), but that's still a basic Intent to survive. Renarin's visions happen even if he actively doesn't want them to. Also, even now when he has more control, he has to ask Glys to replay the vision. It's not like Shallan Lightweaving - Pattern can help her (like when Shallan attaches an illusion to Pattern) but it's still very much Shallan using the power, with Shallan's Intent. So it appears that Glys is the one actively using the power, and it's Glys's Intent that is relevant. Ars Arcanum In the Ars Arcanum, Khriss describes Voidbinding as "cousin to the Old Magic". That always struck me as a bizarre thing to say, since the Old Magic isn't really an Invested Art per se, it's just the Nightwatcher (and maybe Cultivation) messing with people. But from this perspective, it makes sense - in both the Old Magic and Voidbinding, the spren is the one actively using the power; the human is a necessary part of it, but not really active. Other Possible Examples I was going to say that Death Rattles are likely Voidbinding - future sight due to an Unmade acting through a human. But this WoB looks like there's no Voidbinding on screen in WoK or WoR, which does argue against it. It's still possible, though, because it's certainly not pointed out as Voidbinding. I think it's more likely, though, that the Death Rattles, the Thrill, and Ashertmarn's revelry effect aren't Voidbinding by themselves - but can be a pathway to access Voidbinding. When Nergaoul's Thrill allows a bunch of voidspren to possess the Sadeas army, that might be Voidbinding, even if the basic Thrill effect isn't. That would also fit with how Voidbinding in culture is presented as this dangerous temptation - if fairly common effects like the Thrill can be a pathway to it, that makes sense. Yelig-nar might also be Voidbinding. I am not sure if the human host is really using the Surges, or if Yelig-nar himself is. Amaram, at the point we see him fight Kaladin, appears pretty taken over, so it's hard to tell. We'd need a PoV from a Yelig-nar host, or a WoB, to distinguish. The Voidbinding Chart and the Ten Levels I'm not sure if the "ten levels of Voidbinding" mentioned in the Ars Arcanum are just the warped Surge symbols we see on the Voidbinding chart (in which case, why are they called "levels"?) or ten kinds of Voidbinding originating from the nine Unmade + one other thing (maybe Enlightened Spren or Odium himself)? If they're tied to the Unmade, then do the Surge-based symbols mean each Unmade is linked to one of the Surges (presumably lacking Adhesion)? Possibly Cognitive/Spiritual interpretations of them, like Nergaoul's rage being Division based, Sja-Anat's effect being Progression based, or Ashertmarn's effect being Cohesion on a cognitive or Spiritual level, softening minds or souls to make them malleable?
  4. Given what was reviled in the live read about the passions could there theology be connected to Fortune? I know wit says this is horse rust, but that doesn't mean it wasn't biased on truth could there be a type of void binding that controls fortune?
  5. So I’ve been studying the power of the various magic system and while Surgebinding and Elantrian Aons are cool I am under the impression that there are 3 Canadites for the strongest. Hemalurgy, Compunding, and Forgery. But I wanted to her other input and discussion.
  6. After Amaram’s bonds a unmade amethysts starts growing out of is body covering him and acting like some form of protection. Could this be the void equivalent to shared plate? In rhythm of war it's mentioned That void Spren Do not become fabrils, It's highly likely then that they don't become plate or blades either as this seems to be a similar mechanic. If there will be or has been at some time 10 orders of void binding, as The void binding chart implies, Could this be what they substitute for plate and maybe blade as well?
  7. This is my first Theory Post. I apologize if this has already been put forth before. I suspect the voidbinding the Fused use come not directly from Odium. Instead they are channeled via the 9 Unmade. In Rhythm of War the Sibling says they will be unmade if the corruption of the Tower is completed. This leads me to believe that perhaps The Sibling is not the sibling of the Stormfather, and the Nightwatcher, but instead more like one of their 10 children. One powerful Spren for each type of Surge. These are the true 9 siblings to The Sibling. These 9 powerful Spren of Honor and/or Cultivation were Unmade. 9 Unmade, and 9 voidindings. Not only would this explain why there are only 9 voidbindings, but also why the binding that is missing is the Bondsmith binding. None of the 3 known Bondsmith Spren have ever been corrupted into Unmade. If the Sibling, the Stormfather, or the Nightwatcher ever get corrupted into Unmade made it could allow for the 10th type of Binding. Taking this speculation further into territory that maybe should be a new post. If my theory is true this could also be the cause of the changing of the true tones of Roshar. My understanding of planet, star system, and magic system investiture is that the investiture is imbued by Shards into the planets. Which ties the Shards to the planets. On Roshar the Singers seem to be able to hear this investiture as rhythms. If Powerful Spren are tied to the investiture closely enough it would make sense that the corrupting of said Spren with the addition of Odium’s void investiture would change the investiture rhythms of the planet in much the same way that mixing of investiture Light changes the type of Light as discovered by Navani in RoW.
  8. I've gone over The stormlight archive searching for any reference types of Passions. As well as the flew glimpses Of void Spren we have so far and The void binding chart. There isn't much to go on so this is mostly speculation that will probably be wrong. Nevertheless I have put together a list of potential types of void Spren. I thought I posted here and see if anyone else had any thoughts or insights on it that I might have missed Or perhaps you have your own list. 1. The unmade 2. Odium Spren 3. Vengeance Spren 4. Compassion Spren 5. Power Spren. 6. Art spren 7. Redemption Spren 8. Chaos spren 9. Curiosity spren 10. Courage spren
  9. Brandon has stated in the past that a Shard's intent is filtered through the vessel, and the vessel can have an effect on how the Shard's intent is portrayed. My idea is that Honor's broad intent, without the filtering by Tanavast is that it wants to form Connections. We can see this in Surgebinding (an art which, while being of both Honor and Cultivation, seems to be mostly Honor) is initiated by forming a Nahel bond. I also remember hearing somewhere (although I don't remember where) that because Honor violated the pact the Shards made not to settle on the same world, that they mustn't have been clearly defined well enough. This seems to imply that Honor at least follows oaths and Connections by nature of its intent. If this is true, then I think it is a reasonable assumption that Odium, without the filtering by Rayse, is about severing Connections. If these both apply then I think that the method of initiation to becoming a Voidbinder requires you to severe a Connection of somekind. We also know that Voidbinding is usually related to the Unmade, so you might be able to come up with a more detailed theory including that. Note, I do not think that you necessarily have to break Radiant Ideals or severe a Nahel bond to become a Voidbinder, just that it requires some Connection to be broken.
  10. Know powers of void powers 1. Future sight (Renarin) 2. Passion control (the unmade, ulim) 3. Teleportation (ulim) 4. Connection (Venli) 5. Lighting (stormform) 6. Mindnight Essence 7. Surge binding mimicry (unmade) Any more I missed
  11. Hi! This is my first time ever posting on the Shard, I've been playing around with this theory ever since I learned about the Ashyn magic system. As a sort of preamble, I want to first just describe the overarching idea of this theory. 1) Voidbinding is a viral-based "hemalurgy" or spiritweb-stabbing magic. 2) The Shin have or had Voidbinding, practiced or no. As in, they are capable of being infected by a sort of viral disease empowered by Odium that attaches to one's spiritweb to give them power. Or at least, I believe that, originally, Voidbinding would do this. 3) Ashynians originally hoped to invade Roshar with the disease. 4) The Heralds were or are Voidbinders. We can blame the Ashynian magic system for their insanity, as well as Szeth's. Yes, okay. Now that we have my probably rather insane ideas. Let's dig in! Also a brief reminder all of this is insane speculation and a lot of it is me extrapolating information. I want to explain what I mean by Voidbinding, and how I describe the magic in this system. First, Odium sends a sort of proto-spren (a splinter of himself, potentially more like proto-Unmades) to attach themselves to a host. In order to "bond", the proto-spren begins a strong infection of the spiritweb in a way much like Hemalurgy. I believe this magic system was inspired by trunelife and the Sho Del on Yolen. A sort of extraterrestrial magic system that is capable of infecting anyone but also able to move between planets without forming a stable Connection. Essentially, it would corrupt as it spread to grant species of people incredible power, only to also infect them with Odium's powerful emotional control. Indeed, it could also explain why Ambition was first to go-- the Shattering was probably accompanied by a Dawnshard for Change to forcibly create a new power for himself. At the height of the system, Ashynians could use unrestrained Surges that were modeled after Yolen's own magic system (I also operate on the belief that Surgebinding comes from Yolen-- at least as a basic concept). I think Odium messed up a bit, and what ended up being created was a sort of Hemalurgic spike that'd destroy the spiritweb once it left the host, if it ever did. Indeed, we can later see how the influence of an Unmade on an area can disrupt one's spiritweb; I forgot the WOB, but it essentially stated that there was a relation to hearing screaming voices and Unmade influence. As a secondary theory, I also want to say that original Fused cognitive shadows are those who were initially Voidbinded. Essentially, they became infected enough that the disease attached to their spirits, making them Invested (Infected/Invested, same thing) enough to remain as Cognitive Shadows by Odium's desire. Of course, the constant cycle of rebirth has made the deeply spiritual disease continuously tear open their sanities. And then, and I know I don't have any information on this, once Odium realized that the humans were turning on him, he rescinded his powers from the cognitive shadows he had as his champions and turned them all into the Unmade we know today-- now Frankenstein's monsters of living beings. The remnants of this magical disease left on Ashyn has now evolved due to it not having access to Odium's power, now requiring the full absorption of the health of Ashynian people to survive. 1: The Shin had/have Voidbinding. Yes, I'm sorry, right off the bat I need to say that I think the people of Shinovar have Voidbinders, and that we'll finally see it in the next book. Not only is Shinovar the place most unlike the rest of Roshar, and due to it also being the one place where the Ashynians were originally supposed to be, I believe them to be inherently connected to the Voidbinding magic system. At the very least, the Shin have proven to be repeatedly war-like in the past, perhaps a bit Odious, at least to me. The fact that it is more of a throwaway line leads me to want to place even more emphasis on it. I think the fact that the Shin even attempted any sort of excursion into Roshar despite being isolationist in the present leads me to believe a large amount of influence was swaying their decision-making. Of course, it is also important, I believe, to note that the Shin also intone that there is a way to speak with stones in the same way that the Willshapers do (at least, Venli was able to do). Furthermore, Ashyn's magic had changed, and I think it is also different with the Shin-- especially since Odium seemed to have shifted his desires long after to focusing upon the Fused (which, by the fact that they kind of forcibly bond with beings, implies they, too, were kind of going through the motions of Voidbinding). Indeed, it seems odd that the Shin would have access to any sort of powers-- especially in going to reclaim the Honorblades for themselves, and having what seems to be quite a bit of cosmere awareness. So yes, they know a lot about what truly happened on Ashyn and the movement to Roshar, though the information is not completely accurate. Furthermore, without strong access to Stormlight (at least it was stated they don't use it much), I wanna assume they draw upon Voidlight to perform their magic. The Unmade influencing the Shin leaders is most likely also giving them these illness-like bonds, binding to their emotions and giving them powers. This influence probably leaves tears in the spiritweb, and Szeth's being in the higher echelon of Shin society would have inevitably given him access to the Ashynian illness. Indeed, this would leave a tear in his spiritweb, which would set him up for a Nahel bond, yada yada. 3: Ashynian offensive Okay, now that I've set up that the Shin could have this magic system's remnants floating around, I move to also explain how an invasion of Roshar could have went down. The humans crash down in Shinovar. The singers gave them the space to work with, but the Ashynians, probably influenced by the Ambition-side of their diseases, sought to spread out much further. To become Connected to Roshar, the Ashynian viruses spread out and infect singers left and right, subtly nudging them to Odium while also gaining a Connection to Roshar. I think it also may help to explain how the humans began to wane off of Odium's influence soon thereafter, probably due to the kindness of the singers, while the violence of their diseases affected the singers negatively. The two sides shifted due to the initial bonding of power. I think the reason why people think that mental disorders are requisite for a Nahel bond start here-- where the humans were afflicted with disorders upon removing themselves from the viral diseases. 4: The Heralds were Voidbinders I feel like this one goes without saying, but I want to say how it pertains to their insanity. If the Ashynian disease was a hemalurgic-sort of tear in the spiritweb, then anyone who forcibly removes themselves from it will become massively open to the influence of any Shard or Investiture like a spren. I don't think that the effects of it would kill the user, as it would mostly have torn at sanity and sense of identity. As such, it would explain why the Heralds and their agreement with Honor was formed; to fill in the holes left by them removing themselves from Ashyn's magic, Honor granted them Honorblades to mimic the powers they had on Ashyn. These blades, bonding with the spirit, allowed them to be generally safe from the influence of the Ashynian viruses as they fought against Odium. The Oathpact, being formed, hopefully was to also be used to give them sanity. However, these holes would only grow with more stress upon the spirit, and they began to become less and less sane. We can see today how most of the Heralds have ran away from their original personality traits, or have regressed. I think Nale is a special case because he was able to bond with a highspren; the opening of his spiritweb was filled up again by him also bonding himself with a spren and flying up to the Fifth Ideal to avoid the utter insanity associated with the savantism gained from being an Voidbinder. Furthermore, I think Taln was able to generally avoid giving in because he was both insanely based and badass but also because he never had the Ashynian sickness. He wasn't already broken down by the powers of the sickness, so he was generally able to avoid being torn apart as easily-- and in fact his connection to Honor was the strongest. I think he's still suffering from insanity induced by torture, but the fact that he maintained his oath is telling of a lack of Odium's effect. Sorry for making this so long. I have a lot of ways I could go with this theory, like, I'll probably post more later. But I just wanted to get this out there and discuss what I had made. Thanks
  12. First of all, I cannot take full credit for this theory, as the basic idea of “inverted Nahel Bond” comes from this post by @Seloun While re-reading Oathbringer I realized that it actually explains most, if not all, weird things and quotes about corrupted spren and Voidbinding, so I decided to write down all arguments in favor of it. The basic premise is that Voidbinding (at least the form shown in the Voidbinding chart) is an extension of Surgebinding and the Nahel Bond, caused by adding Odium's Investiture to the Radiant spren. As a result, a person gets two Surges from the bond, and the spren gets two matching Voidbindings, explaining the similarity between the two charts. This would make Voidbinding a magic system of all Rosharan Shards, with its name probably being a portmanteau of Odium/Void + Surgebinding Here are all the hints I was able to find: The Surgebinding chart shares the color theme with the map of Roshar, as beings from the Physical Realm get the powers; the Voidbinding chart using the colors of the Shadesmar map hints at spren being the ones to get powers Odium's Tone is now a pure Tone of Roshar, and Eshonai's last chapter in RoW implies that all Tones and Rhytms form a wonderful harmony. Spren getting powers and, by extension, a more equal footing with people, seems to be compatible with that way more than if Voidbinding was a separate thing purely of Odium. Also, spren now essentially share mortality with people, so getting powers would be a natural next step Voidbinding being the cousin of Old Magic makes a lot of sense now: people get Old Magic powers by being changed by the Nighwatcher, spren get powers by being changed by Sja-anat Corrupted Truthwatchers cannot control their visions, but their spren seem to have at least some level of control. Glys can record the visions to show to other people (possibly similar to how Lightweavers can capture Memories), and Tumi knows exactly what is going on during Rlain's first vision, even though Rlain is clearly surprised by the whole thing Glys having access to futuresight beyond what he shows Renarin would explain him talking in future tense and providing constant protection against Odium's futuresight Glys also wants to give his sorrow to Renarin, hinting at the reversal of typical roles in Voidbinding Tumi thanks Sja-anat for his eyes in her interlude in RoW, presumably referring to the futuresight We know about corrupted Truthwatchers and futuresight, which is most probably the Voidbinding of Illumination, but what about Progression? I believe that there might be some hints in Oathbringer about that. The quotes below were sometimes interpreted as Renarin having a gemheart: There's no way Renarin naturally has a gemheart, but what if Glys used his Voidish Progression to grow one in his body to have some place to hide? It wouldn't need to be big, as a cremling gemheart was enough for Tumi in RoW, and it would explain a lot, in my opinion
  13. Disclaimer: This theory is almost a copy paste from a post I made on Reddit, but with some extra things that i recently noticed to support it. Let me go straight to the point and develop from there. Voidbinding is from both Cultivation and Odium. So, the basis of this theory is what Fox exposes in this WoB https://wob.coppermind.net/events/379/#e12835 Since there are three Shards in Roshar, there should be hybrid magic systems, like Feruchemy in Scadrial, between pairs of Shards. It has been theorized that voidbinding could be either Honor+Odium system or Honor+Odium+Cultivation system, but I don't agree. We know some things about voidbinding. It is a cousin of the Old Magic, it is related to see the future and Renarin ability, it usually, but not always, originates with the Unmade... And how does that relate with Cultivation? Well, first of all, it is related to the Old Magic. There is a connection there. It is also related to see the future and who is one of the best Shards in that field? It's not Odium, but Cultivation. And what about the Unmade? Well, Odium certainly had to cultivate them in order to create them. He did something pretty similar to what Cultivation did with Dalinar, cut some things to make them grow the way he wanted. Furthermore, if we look at the Unmade that granted Renarin the ability of seeing the future, Sja-anat, we can easily see that Enlightening is some kind of cultivation, like the one Odium did with the Unmade and Cultivation with Dalinar. You could maybe argue that Voidbinding sounds like Odium's pure magic system, but... Why does it have TEN surges instead of NINE, while when he hacked the Surgebinding system to give powers to his Fused, he created NINE types of Fused? Nine is his number, it wouldn't make sense that in a hacked system he has that number but in his own system he does not. And yes, ten is actually Honor's number, but... We cannot see any other thing that relates Honor to Voidbinding apart from that. Furthermore, I recently noticed that if you look at Surgebinding and Voidbinding charts, you will see that the glyph for the Windrunners is the only one with a different color in each chart. Here, in the Surgebinding chart, is blue. But in the Voidbinding chart... it is violet. You can see it better here. As we all know, Windrunners are the purest order of Honor, represented by the color of his Light (the Stormlight) and associated to Honorspren. Therefore, since in the Voidbinding chart the "Windrunners" have a violet color, much like the Voidlight color, we could easily afirm that there is no Honor in Voidbinding. Because the purest Honor's order "changed" its colors to match Odium's ones. And now, after RoW, we have Odium and Cultivation kind of working together. It would totally makes sense that Voidbinding was their magic system, so we would see it pretty soon, while if it was only from Odium we would have already see it and if it was from Honor and Odium, we probably would never see it or, at least, not soon. I hope you liked my theory and I look forward to read your opinions. See you in the comments ^^
  14. This may be an odd theory, but please hear me out. I think there is a third type of binding of Surges on Roshar, that I've been calling Lifebinding. It hinges around a not uncommon theory that Voidbinding uses the Surges, but expresses them differently than traditional Surgebinding. The Voidbinding chart in Way of Kings shows the glyphs for the Surges, but has half of the glyph flipped upside down. To me, this suggests that Voidbinding uses the same Surges but that something about them is different. Renarin is the closest we've seen to a Voidbinder, as far as I can tell. He's not a full Voidbinder, based on the below WoB, but seems to be half Surgebinder, half Voidbinder. Now, Argent Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Argent Is that what voidbinding is? Brandon Sanderson No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there. Footnote: The chart referenced is the back endsheet in The Way of Kings. Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017) Now, in the Ars Arcanum, Khriss notes that there should be something more esoteric than Voidbinding and that she did not think it is the Old Magic. Thinking of the other forms of magic we know about on Roshar, none of them fit as more "esoteric" than Voidbinding. Singer forms, Regals, Fused, Fabrials, Honorblades- none strike me as more esoteric. In my mind, that suggests that there is a third system that deals with the Surges, one that we've seen no hints of yet. I propose that this is Lifebinding- a different way of expressing the Surges, not matching traditional Surgebinding (Stormbinding?) or Voidbinding. Now, this is not to suggest that traditional Surgebinding is not of both Honor and Cultivation. Instead, I'm suggesting that it uses Honor's expression of the Surges, while Voidbinding is Odium's expression. That would make Lifebinding Cultivation's expression of the Surges. Lift, note, is NOT a Lifebinder. She seems to fuel traditional Surgebinding with Lifelight, in the same way Venli fuels Surgebinding with Voidlight. Surgebinding doesn't seem too picky with what Light fuels it- as long as there is a connection to get the Light, the binder can use it as fuel. (This reminds me of how a Returned can survive on Investiture other than Breaths.) Now, I admit, this is wildly speculative and relies on a theory of Voidbinding that is far from confirmed. But I think it's an intriguing possibility.
  15. I posted about this in the comments for the Surgebinding Shardcast episode, but I wanted to elaborate on it more. So, Adhesion, according to the Ars Arcanum, is the surge of pressure and vacuum. While it is more broadly the surge of connection, this is at least its physical embodiment. Now, we have Odium being described by Syl: Odium is described as a Void, a vacuum, drawing in emotion. Through pressure. It seems like this description of Odium is very reminiscent of Adhesion, supposedly Honor’s truest surge. We know all the other nine surges are a combination of two shards. Honor and Cultivation. What if Adhesion is also a combination of two shards. But not Honor and Cultivation. Honor and Odium. Additionally, this effect is reflected in Raysium. According to Navani talking about Raysium in fused weapon stealing Stormlight: Again, a pressure differential being a key factor in Odium magics. Raysium is an investiture pressure vacuum. Anyway, this could be pure coincidence, but it does open up some interesting questions, particularly about Voidbinding. Specifically because some of the abilities of Voidbinders seem linked to Connection, an ability of Adhesion.
  16. I feel like one of the Ten Fools for not seeing this before. WoK Prime has the Double Eye chart on the twelfth page, showing ten Essences and ten Forces: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Way-of-Kings-Prime-by-Brandon-Sanderson_web.pdf I treated it as an early version of the Surgebinding chart, with Forces being an early attempt at Surges. However, after looking at it again for one of my new theories, I realized something: the topology of the chart is slightly off. The two Essences at the center are not connected to any Force. I doesn't look like a Surgebinding chart, but it's the same as the Voidbinding chart, just upside-down, with time manipulation / futuresight at the top. We know that Brandon cannibalizes a lot of elements from early books into later ones. Is it possible that the whole Magical Knight Magic (I don't remember the name, sorry) from WoK Prime became Voidbinding? That the Forces are the "set of abilities" Khriss calls Voidbindings? Something like a set of fundamental forces alternative to the Surges? There is actually one clue: in WoK Prime, using the Forces hurts the users somehow, which would indicate it might be an end-negative magic system. And we have this WoB from 2016, which possibly refers to Voidbinding:
  17. After watching the last few Shardcasts, I decided to play with @Argent's idea that Voidbinding might be about accessing the power of Odium directly, not about accessing Surges. It actually led to some interesting conclusions, which I'll try to present below Voidbinding doesn't use Surges The basic premise, obviously. There are some reasonable arguments that support this idea: The Knight Radiant, the Fused and fabrials all use Surges. Surges were also what destroyed Ashyn. Despite their ubiquity, we have not a single description of Voidbinding that mentions them explicitly. We only know about the ten levels and the existence of “Voidbindings”, whatever they are. Khriss is also unsure how they fit into the whole Orders/Surges/Essences paradigm Voidbinding is a cousin of Old Magic, which isn't Surge-based Renarin's futuresight isn't necessarily a Surge. He does have access to a separate, distinct version of Illumination, while his visions match what Tanavast says about his own futuresight (also, Renarin seems to see things that are of interest to Odium, not random visions). It seems possible that Renarin is accessing the Shardic power directly, rather then filtered through Surges In this WoB, Brandon describes futuresight as “dangerous territory, and drawing upon a Shard” The futuresight is described as “the soul of Voidbinding”. It's the only Voidbinding power that is widely known. It stands to reason that it might not be available to a single Voidish “Order”, but to all Voidbinders, possibly forming the first level of the magic system Additionally, per Taravangian's word, all Unmade have some sort of access to futuresight, despite having other distinct powers and roughly matching the KR Orders. Given that, futuresight doesn't seem to be tied to any single Surge Comparison with the Metallic Arts Comparing Rosharan and Scadrian magic leads to some interesting analogies that might elucidate the nature of Voidbinding: Surgebinding corresponds to Allomancy/Feruchemy, with 10 Surges / Orders / KR Spren types fulfilling the same roles as 16 metals Fabrials correspond to ettmetal-based magitek Old Magic corresponds to lerasium, as both can be used by anyone to change their spiritweb Voidbinding, finally, has the same role as atium There are two important thing about atium that I believe are relevant here (besides the obvious fact of providing futuresight): Atium requires the power of another Shard to work. Without Allomancy, Feruchemy or some magical ability to steal via Hemalurgy, atium is useless Preservation tweaked Allomancy, so that atium could be used against Ruin I'm not sure if Voidbinding can exist as a fully standalone magic system; it might require some other power (typically Surgebinding) to work. Based on this WoB: I think that what is called Voidbinding might actually stem from Surgebinding hacked (e.g. via spren corruption) to give people non-Surge powers, to Odium's detriment. It would also explain the name “Voidbinding”, which doesn't sound like something Odium's followers would use The Voidbinding chart If that is the case, the Voidbinding chart isn't a Voidbinding chart per se; it's more like a Surebinding + Voidbinding chart. My current theory is that it might have originated on Ashyn, and its history might have been more or less like this: People were experimenting with Surges provided by Odium and his Voidspren, creating a chart that is extremely similar to the one for Rosharan Surgebinding, but with different Surges / Orders (e.g. “Voidish” Illumination would be Renarin's balls of light) Two “Orders”, Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers, turn out to be special though: both have access to the Surges with the most Spiritual aspects they kind of match Dawnshards quite well: one on them can bind people and spren, which seems very Bondsmith-like, and the Change Dawnshard is a “will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better”, which fits nicely with Renarin showing people their perfected selves Sja-Anat has a weird affinity for Truthwatchers and BAM started exhibiting Bondsmith-like powers during the False Desolation; both happen to provide Voidbinding abilities, to Signers and humans respectively I believe Bondsmiths and/or Truthwatchers might have been the ones to figure out that you can use the magic to tap Odium's power directly, likely with the help of the Dawnshards – which is why they are surrounded by a red gem on the chart and not connected to any Surges. Odium wasn't very happy about it, so he pushed them towards the planet's destruction. Voidbinding was left unused and partially forgotten, until some Unmade started experimenting with it again during the False Desolation, possibly given some knowledge by Cultivation or a Herald starting to go mad. BAM sudden unexplained powers might actually be our only hint at the higher levels of Voidbinding
  18. tl;dr version: In this post I will try to convince you that Voidbinding is a nascent magic system of both Odium(“void”) and Honor (“binding”), and present a theory on how it was created Voidbinding doesn't make sense as Odium's magic system The name: we now know from multiple sources that Adhesion, the Surge of binding things together, is the one closest to Honor. The Fused don't even recognize it as a Surge; they talk about Surges, but don't seem to use the word Surgebinding. They are called Voidbringers (I'm sorry, Singers ). Why would Odium's magic have 'binding' in its name? It's pointless: why would Odium grant anybody the power of futuresight if it interferes with his own and ultimately leads to his downfall? 10-centric: Voidbinding has ten levels. Yes, there are nine Unmade and they lack the Bondsith one, but that's just happenstance – we know from the Sibling that the tenth Unmade can be created. Why would Voidbinding be based on the number associated most closely with Honor? Why is the Voidbinding chart so similar to Surgebinding and so unlike the Fused abilities? Lore: the first mentions of mortals using Voidbinding abilities we know seem to be from around the time of the False Desolation: Listener songs mention the Nightform (and BAM as a source of Forms of Power) and we see potential information about corrupted Truthwatcher spren in Urithiru Gem Archive. Besides that we only have the general idea that futuresight is of Odium, but that could have come from the Unmade alone (per Taravangian's word, they all can grant it). There's rich lore about the Unmade, but none about Voidish Surges besides Illumination. The Fused are surprised that Voidspren can bond with humans and they don't see anything weird with the fact that there are no Nightforms around during the Final Desolation. Previously I believed that Voidbinding might have originated on Ashyn, but BAM's deep ties to Roshar seem to disprove that Unexplained phenomena: what's the source of BAM's massive Connection ability? Why did her imprisonment caused so much damage to Roshar if she was just Odium's splinter? Why did the Sibling stop hearing Honor's Rhythm? How could BAM and Sja-anat rebel against Odium's will? Why was Warlight never discovered before? Surgebinding vs fabrials Before we move further, one more thing needs to be discussed: why are there two magic systems of Honor and Cultivation? The Rhythm of War finally gave me some idea about the difference. The fabrials are like feruchemy – they are a perfect balance between the powers of two Shards, as indicated by the nature of the Sibling and the Towerlight. Surgebinding is also of both Shards, but it's biased towards Honor. It uses more of his Investiture: it's powered by Stormlight, Honorblades are Honor's splinters, the most powerful and mystical Order is based around uniting, not growth. What happened with the surplus of Cultivation's Investiture then? It's simple: it became the basis for the Old Magic, a magical “appendage” originating from a single Shard Ba-Ado-Mishram is the source of Voidbinding I believe that's what Odium wanted: a simple set of magical powerful abilities to be used by the Unmade to do his bidding. That's why the Voidbinding was called the cousin of the Old Magic. It was always meant to be used by the Unmade only, not become a full magic system. I believe, however, that at some point something extremely important happened – BAM was infused with Honor's Investiture and completely transformed. I'm not sure how or who did it; we have several plausible suspects: Ishar, Honor, Cultivation and (Dawnshard spoilers) Whoever that was, as a result of their action BAM became deeply Connected to Roshar and turned into something similar to the Sibling. She was suddenly able to produce Warlight and use it to control the Singers, just like the Sibling controls fabrials. She was able to grant Forms of Power from a completely new magic system: full, 10-centric Voidbinding, whose relation to the original Unmade abilities is just like the relation between the Old Magic and Surgebinding. Her abilities (and newfound autonomy) extended, to some extent, to other Unmade, especially Sja-anat, allowing her to corrupt True Spren. The one thing she couldn't do in the days before her imprisonment, however, was to create spren that would grant full Voidbinding – there wasn't simply enough Odium Investiture on the planet. Now, however, the situation has changed: the Everstorm circulates Roshar and clashes with the Highstorm, providing the exact conditions that she needs, once she's released (most likely in Book 5). This will lead to unleashing the full power of Voidbinding, which will become a major plot point (and a weapon against Odium) in Arc 2
  19. This is kind of a compilation of my thoughts about it. I'm sorry if it's hard to read but I couldn't get it to come together as a research paper so much as writing out outlined sections. (I made some edits for clarity.) I. The Case for Consumption Here, I talk about what I think Voidbinding actually is. Let's begin with the following WoB: My intent behind this question was to establish that the Unmade are using Voidbinding on some level. This has been a suspicion of mine ever since I came up with the model I will describe in a later section. The powers of the Unmade have not been mimicking established magic (Surgebinding or the Old Magic), so it seemed clear to me that they were doing something else entirely. As Splinters of Odium, it seemed the most likely that they were using Odium's magic to accomplish some of what they do. More on this is also in a later section, as I will be going into more detail on the powers of the Unmade there. I call this section "The Case for Consumption" simply because the term is heavily affiliated with the Unmade. Five of the nine (Yelig-nar, Dai-Gonarthis, Re-Shephir, Nergaoul, Ashertmarn) have all had the word directly used in some manner about them. Over half does not strike me as a coincidence. The Unmade are also believed to be "personifications of kinds of destruction" (The Way of Kings Ch. 45 epigraph), and consumption would be one way in which they achieve that. Note that I speak of Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual destruction, as we have seen examples of some of those in how the Unmade afflict people. The other point I raise about consumption being the primary core of Voidbinding has to do with the nature of the Shard of Odium itself. "This was something so terrible that it consumed light itself." (Oathbringer Ch. 57) Presumably, this is Dalinar being given a glimpse of the Shard as it exists in the Spiritual Realm, but he nevertheless describes it as this all-consuming force of hatred. Voidbinding, therefore, sources from that key nature. Between the Unmade being likened to "kinds of destruction" and the Shard itself being likened to an all-consuming flame, putting two and two together shows that Voidbinding is a destructive art. Given the name, and how Odium is referred to as "the empty pit that sucks in emotion", it seems plausible to me to assert that "consuming" would be the basis behind an Odium-based magic. II. The Model / Known Levels Let's just dive right into it, shall we? Note that I am intentionally leaving out the mindless Unmade here. Level 1 -- Consumption This level draws power from an external source, depleting it, similar to how one draws power stored in a metalmind. In this level, Voidlight is the result. One synthesizes the depleted attribute into Voidlight, and this does cause damage to the afflicted, which would justify Voidbinding as a "dark and evil thing". This is the level I believe to be most commonly used by the Unmade (all nine, in fact). They Invest themselves by way of consuming a target attribute and use that power directly for one or more purposes. I also note that performing this act would make it akin to the Old Magic, which (if we assume it's what the Nightwatcher does) also causes a depletion in exchange for something else. Here, we have depletion in exchange for power. (n.b. I suspect they have a name for this that's somewhat euphemistic, similar to how corrupted spren are "Enlightened".) Unknown Level - Midnight Essence Re-Shephir is the primary source of this. I have more to say about Re-Shephir later on. Unknown Level - Surge Binding Yelig-nar performs this "service" for his hosts, at the cost of consuming their soul. I note that the aspects involved seem to be Spiritual. Unknown Level - Enlightening Here we have Sja-anat's touch. While this does not seem very consumptive, because we haven't seen the effect performed on screen, I note that it is possible to change an organism through consumption, and I refer everyone to virology for more information on the subject. A hostile takeover of the host's internal workings is one of the ways viruses propagate throughout the body, and white cells consume affected cells as part of its means of fighting off the infection. Now picture that in reverse: Sja-anat's Investiture is playing the roll of the white cell trying to "consume" the "infected" (not of Odium) aspects of Investiture of a spren. She thus replaces Investitures not of Odium with Investiture that is of Odium, resulting in a being that is comprised of multiple. It's like a transplant, in other words, except her ability suppresses the immuno response to it. III. The Powers of the Unmade It is my belief that the Unmade are doing more than merely Voidbinding, and that their massive areas of influence are not Voidbinding at all, but supported by it. Nergaoul, at the minimum, was heavily Invested with Voidlight (note the gem shining with it after his capture by Dalinar), and this was just after consuming a 10,000 strong army of soldiers while in the Physical Realm. Nergaoul was also very large in the Physical Realm, covering a good portion of Thaylen City, according to Navani's annotated map in Oathbringer, and was a "mountain of power" in the Cognitive Realm according to Shallan's observation. Additionally, we have Pattern commenting on another being below Kholinar's Oathgate that "is likely one of the Unmade. It must be very large on this side." I note the size of the Unmade for further discussion in a moment. One oddity that has struck me is that the Unmade have areas of influence that affect people in different ways. Nergaoul encourages violence, Ashertmarn encourages excess, to name two of them. I will not be going into specifics on what I think all nine do, but rather I will attempt to explain that some of them, such as Re-Shephir, are using Voidbinding and their own natures as a spren to project these influences over very large areas to achieve new effects, and even larger areas when in the Cognitive Realm. I will use Re-Shephir as my case study here, because of the following assertion: Re-Shephir uses Voidbinding to create Midnight Essence (presumably from living creatures). She then uses her store of Voidlight to project her nature as a spren to shape the Essence into a desired form. The shaping of Midnight Essence is not something I consider Voidbinding. My basis for this thinking is in how Shallan sees Re-Shephir as like a creationspren gone wrong. Re-Shephir has been directly observed to be making copies of "creatures she saw or consumed" (Oathbringer Ch. 110 epigraph), which is indeed similar to creationspren mimicking recently observed Physical Realm objects. Now suppose we were to trap a creationspren inside a gemstone and hook it up to a fabrial. While the effect may be unknown, I wonder if perhaps it might be possible to influence mutable substances (water, mud) into desired shapes by capturing creationspren that are mimicking such shapes. The point I am trying to make, is that spren project their natures when in the presence of stimuli and Investiture (the gem's Invested state). We've seen this most commonly with flamespren that make heat fabrials. Flamespren "evoke" the concept of heat to which they are attracted. Now imagine a spren that doesn't need to be both in a gemstone and subjected to stimuli to do this, but rather is a spren that has access to large quantities of Investiture and was, say, subjected to a certain Vessel of Odium making them be able to evoke this nature. In Re-Shephir's case, that's mimickry, an influence which can be applied to Midnight Essence. We know that Midnight Essence can be "extracted and used independently" (WoB), so the shaping of it is not exclusive to Re-Shephir. This is why I bring up the possibility of creationspren-based fabrials allowing for creating works of art with mutable substances. This projection of nature is how I see Nergaoul as capable of affecting people with the Thrill over a massive area of influence. He is so large in the Cognitive Realm, and so Invested, that like a fabrial emitting heat, he "emits" the Thrill on a very large area simply due to sheer size and power. Similar reasoning would apply to the other Unmade that influence the mind. Much like a fabrial evoking an effect, they are broadcasting specific states of being on a wide area, and it's for this reason that I think calling them spren is very accurate. We have seen something like this with Shallan and Re-Shephir, which in her case would be "twisted creativity". She created multiple drawings she can't recall doing, but were still in her sketchbook, and she also created multiple mimicries of herself without having the need to draw them first. This influence on Shallan's drawing is why I suspect Re-Shephir is projecting an influence whose effect is what enables her to alter the shape of Midnight Essence. So, with that established, I think we can say that all nine have similar influences, and that we can potentially name them _____spren for what kind of influence they project, and that because they are all Invested Splinters of Odium, they are actually affecting people much like a fabrial hypothetically could. So there you have it, a lot of words about my thoughts on Voidbinding and how it relates to the Unmade. I will be very interested to hear what everyone has to say about this work.
  20. Bondsmiths are special, we all know that. To quote the Stormfather: They get the most unique spren, which, apart from granting Tension and Adhesion, have some unique abilities or phenomena associated with them. Based on that, I always assumed that the Unmade would be the spren for the Voidbinding equivalent of the Bondsmith Order. What if that is not the case? I'd like to present some arguments why I believe the “privileged” Order of Voidbinding could be the Truthwatchers: Truthwatchers are opposite to Bondsmiths on the Surgebinding chart, symbolizing Odium and Honor as opposing forces Odium doesn't really care about uniting anyone. Spiritual Adhesion is a special, cherished power in Surgebinding. Amongst the Voidbringers, the Envoyform is granted by a lesser Voidspren and relatively low on the hierarchy Odium's signature moves are futuresight (Voidish Illumination) and corrupting Investiture/spren/people (spiritweb modification = Progression). These are also the most Spiritually oriented Voidish powers we know, just as Bondsmiths get the most Spiritually oriented Surges amongst the KR (WoB) Voidbinder's futuresight interferes with Odium's own and it would make sense for it to be available only to his very selected servants Odium's Champion, likely the most powerful Voidbinder possible, is described as surrounded by multiple shadows, a possible nod to (Mistborn spoilers) Futuresight, unlike other Voidish powers, is granted (directly or indirectly) by at least two Unmade: Sja-anat and Moelach. I would also add Ba-Ado-Mishram as a likely candidate for granting the Nightform somehow (we know from Pashendi Songs that the Unmade might provide them). Why? The Nightforms existed for the last time during the False Desolation and they apparently predicted the Everstorm (“A new storm will come, someday to break” line from Song of Secrets). That's seeing hundreds (thousands?) years into the future – a feat I can only ascribe to the influence of an extremely powerful Unmade Sja-anat seems to be the Unmade whose additional powers correspond to the Truthwatcher Order and she was the most feared amongst them. We've seen her corrupt two kinds of sentient spren: Truthwatcher and Oathgate spren. Of these, only the former get a new, distinctive Surge variant, which I think might be caused by their direct Connection to Sja-anat herself (she definitely has a Connection to her lesser spren “children” as she can communicate with people through them) Voidbinding is very mysterious, but (based on chart similarity with Surgebinding) I would assume that it requires a permanent bond with sapient Voidspren. We also know that Voidbinding typically originates with the Unmade and is somehow similar to the Old Magic. How could all of this fit together? Unmade being Truthwatcher spren offers a solution, I think: once you bond an Unmade permanently, your spiritweb and body gets seriously and visibly corrupted (think of Amaram and Aesudan) and you get a Spritual Progression ability to corrupt others in a similar way, allowing them to bond Voidspren permanently
  21. They bond a non-sentient voidpsren and are fueled by Voidlight (Ba-Ado-Mishram took over the supply during the False Desolation, so we know that). Red eyes are a sign of a Shard taking over another Shard's system. Why would that be the case if they were voidbinding? It cannot be explained by the Spren being somehow corrupted, as Renarin does not have red eyes. So I would draw the conclusion pointing at the missing link: They are not voidbinding. Odium can generate powers that are not Voidbinding (Yelig-Nar and the Fused). What does that leave us with? Regals are using the Old Magic and their eyes are red, because they are bound to Voidspren rather than the original Spren of the Old Magic.
  22. This theory started as a crazy idea in my head (that Voidbinding might be Odium's equivalent of fabrial magic system rather than Surgebinding), but the more I thought about it, the more sense it had, so here it goes: The nature of Odium's magic Based on what we can infer from the nature of the Unmade and the Fused, Odium's magic typically seems to be a twisted and corrupted version of something that already exists. The Fused (and most of the forms of power) were Odium's response to Surgebinders. From a recent reading of this Rhythm of War we know that the Nightwatcher is not a “natural” spren – she was specifically created by Cultivation to not be influenced by the perceptions of humans and given very specific powers (the Old Magic) – and the Unmade seem to mimic that. Although that might seem counterintuitive at first, I believe that Voidbinding and fabrials might be connected in a similar way. Fabrials originated on Ashyn We know that the magic on Ashyn wasn't always disease-based, but used Surges somehow. Given that: we have a WoB suggesting that fabrials existed on Ashyn the Dawnshards (originally from Ashyn) and Surge fabrials are both linked to Aimia, which doesn't seem like a coincidence I assume that fabrials are the original magic system of Ashyn, which was then somehow moved to Roshar. On the origin of Voidbinding We know that Voidbinding (in most cases) originates with the Unmade. They can provide it in an indirect way: Sja-anat can corrupt true Spren and Ba-Ado-Mishram could possibly have been responsible for some Voidbinding-related forms of power (e.g. the Nightform) that are noticeably absent on modern Roshar. That's not “pure” Voidbinding, however – not in the sense described by the Voidbinding chart. The Unmade are probably the Voidbinding's equivalent of Bondsmith spren, granting Voidish versions of the Surges of Tension and Adhesion. But what about the other Voidbinding “orders” (levels?) shown in the Voidbinding chart? They are not only missing (their spren imprisoned on Braize?) but completely forgotten – in popular consciousness Voidbinding is only associated with the Unmade and predicting the future. Why is that? Voidbinding has ten levels, so it cannot be originally from Braize – that leaves us with either Roshar or Ashyn. It was well understood by humans once (someone must have created the chart, assuming it's an in-universe document) but it's barely known by the ancient Singers (Turash is surprised that the Voidspren can even bond humans). That strongly implies Ashyn – which makes sense. If Voidbinding existed (alongside fabrials) long before Surgebinding and the Fused, the knowledge of both was probably partially forgotten and partially suppressed, as they both might have been part of Ashyn's downfall. Voidbinding Initiation and the Wheel of Time analogy OK, so how do you become a Voidbinder? We know that humans can be temporarily affected by the Unmade (the Thrill, death rattles etc.) and even temporarily bond some (probably lesser) Voidspren (Amaram's army). That requires a particular mental state (broadly described as giving your pain or control to Odium), but that alone doesn't constitute Voidbinding yet. We have, however, one example of an attempted bond that goes further – Aesudan's and Amaram's bond with Yelig-nar, which requires swallowing a gemstone and trying to control him. While the first part is probably not necessary for all Voidbinding spren, I believe that gemstones and trying to control the power might be, next to the right emotional state, crucial elements of Voidbinding Initiation (though predicting how a said gemstone could be used is very hard). Based on that, we can actually make an interesting analogy to the basic principles of channeling from Wheel of Time. The magic of Ashyn represent saidin. You have to capture and take control of the spren in order to use magic. An incredible amount of power can be held by individuals with the help of Dawnshards (equivalents of saidin-specific Sa'angreal) and it literally led to the destruction of the world. Roshar, on the other hand, is more about saidar. Magic systems that originated there require a submission to either Oaths or Voidspren possession. What is more, Singers, the original inhabitants of Roshar, have the natural ability to link their power (just look at the summoning of the Everstorm) and in large number might potentially act like a saidar-specific Sa'angreal (I wonder if the whole Singer race could count as a Dawnshard different from the rest...)
  23. I was looking at these two diagrams and noticed something I hadn't seen before. It was easiest to see when switching between tabs on the same browser on these pages: https://coppermind.net/w/images/TWoK_Rear_Endsheet.jpg and https://coppermind.net/w/images/TWoK_Front_Endsheet.jpg. The symbols for the surges (the little circles) have their left sides identical, while their right sides are vertically flipped versions. The surgebinding one they're symmetrical left and right, but the voidbinding one is based on the same symbol, but instead of being symmetrical, the right half is a 180 degree rotation. Symmetry is important on Roshar. I've never heard anyone talk about it (though I'm sure it's out there), but I think that symmetry is meant to represent the making and keeping of oaths. I think these voidbinding symbols where the second half is the first half flipped on its head might be meant to represent the breaking of oaths. Oddly though the symbols corresponding to the symbols for the Orders of Radiants (the big circles) remain symmetrical right and left, though they have very different styles to their surgebinding equivalents. Maybe because they keep different kinds of oaths? I'm also wondering who the woman on the outside is, where it has the heralds on the surgebinding one. I wonder if she might be one of the unmade. Sja-anat? Ba-Ado-Mishram? I don't know.
  24. Here is my take on Voidbinding. We know that Roshar is a very mathematical world (e.g. Julia set) and that spren are based on quantum mechanics. I assume here that, just like quantum field theory, Surgebinding and Voidbinding stem from basic principles: fundamental forces (Surges), symmetry and symmetry breaking. General overview I believe that Voidbinding is actually a fairly simple magic system based on 9 Surges and powered by Voidlight. It may, however, seem confusing because of several factors: A. Humans and Singers bond with Voidspren in a different way B. The Everstorm changed how Voidlight is obtained C. Voidbinding chart (TWoK rear endsheet) is an in–universe document and is not 100% reliable D. We actually see four different types of Voidbinders: Full Voidbinders – nine orders of the Fused, each with a full access to one Surge with two aspects: normal and corrupted Half–Voidbinders – the Regals, bonded to Voidspren, with access to one aspect of a Voidish Surge, normal or corrupted Half–Voidbinders, Half–Surgebinders – nine orders of Knight Radiants bonded to corrupted spren, with access to one Surgebinding Surge and a corrupted aspect of a Voidish Surge. Use Stormlight rather than Voidlight Humans (and probably Singers) bonded with the Unmade (effects vary depending on the Unmade) Voidish Surges Voidbinding is based on 9 Surges (Odium's number). Which Surge is missing? Progression. As described here, Voidlight does not provide the same healing abilities as Stormlight. What is more, each Voidish Surge has two aspects: normal, similar to their Surgebinding counterpart, and corrupted. For example, the Voidish Surge of Illumination comes in two variants: one akin to Lightweaving (“Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men. A form of power, like human Surges.”) and future sight (“Nightform predicting what will be, The form of shadows, mind to forsee.”), which have separate Forms of Power. Decayform seems to have access to a corrupted version of Division, able to destroy minds and break people (“Decayform destroys the souls of dreams.”), while Envoyform accesses Adhesion in a way similar to Bondsmiths (Spiritual Adhesion). I don't think we have enough information to tell exactly what kind of Surge Stormform uses (Transportation maybe, since they can summon the Everstorm from Braize). This version of Voidish Surges also works well on symbolical level: evil is sterile and can only imperfectly copy and twist what already exists (look at Re–Shephir or hemalurgy). As for the Fused, we know that they only have access to one Surge, and we only see the normal aspect of it. It would be very strange however, if Voidish Illumination Fused would be denied future sight when literally every other type of Voidbinder/Voidspren (Regals, Enlightened spren and Unmade) can have this ability. It's hard to tell if all the Unmade abilities count as Surges, but I believe they provide a tenth level of Voidbinding described by Khriss. Voidlight access I believe that every Voidspren is a conduit to Odium and has their own, restricted pool of Voidlight. Regals bonded to basic Voidspren have access to some abilities (Venli's Sipitual Adhesion in Envoyform, shooting lightning by Stormform) that seem to work without external source of Investiture. To achieve something more, however, either greater numbers (summoning the Everstorm) or external Voidlight is needed. The latter used to be provided by the Unmade (that's why it was said that Voidbinding originated with them), but with the Everstorm situation changed and now Voidlight is much more accessible. The Fused have more internal Voidlight than basic Voidspren, but much of it is probably used to maintain their life (situation similar to the Returned on Nalthis). Odium threatens Turash with removing this internal source of Investiture during the Battle of Thaylen Field. As a result of their particular status, the Fused rely on external Voidlight more than any other Voidbinders. Voidspren bond For humans, bonding with any Voidspren relies on specific mindset and environment (e.g. competition/battle for Nergaoul, death for Moelach) and is, by its very nature, temporary. If that wasn't the case, Moash/Vyre would probably bonded with a Voidspren already instead of relying on Jezrien's Honorblade. Unmade, such as Nergaoul, affect people's minds and can facilitate bonding with lesser Voidspren (another argument why Voidbinding originates with them). Because Singers have gemhearts and Forms of Power affect their emotional state, the bond is permanent. Humans can imitate this by swallowing a gemstone, like Amaram did, but it's very destructive. Corrupted spren We know Sja-anat always had the ability to corrupt lesser spren, probably by modifying their spiritweb. Given her willingness to defect from Odium and lack of malice observed in Glys, I don't think her recent ability to corrupt true spren is of Odium. Sja-anat was probably uncorrupted by Cultivation as a source of new agents to fight Odium, particularly those who (like Renarin) can interfere with his future sight. It would explain why Stormlight is used in this case rather han Voidlight. Each corrupted spren one Surgebinding Surge and a corrupted aspect of a Voidish Surge. Now, let's look at the Nahel bond table here. Truthwatchers have a corrupted version of Illumination (second Surge). Second Surge is also corrupted in the next four Knight Radiant orders. There are no corrupted Bondsmiths (you cannot corrupt a godspren), and then we go back to the beginning of the table – orders from Windrunners to Edgedancers have a corrupted first Surge. This way, nine KR orders can be mapped to nine orders of the Fused (by sharing the same corrupted Surge). Nine orders of the Fused can be then mapped (with some fuzziness) to the nine Unmade – that's why there's no Unmade corresponding to Bondsmiths, even though the left out Surge is Progression (which both Truthwatchers and Edgedances have in uncorrupted form). Also, we have 5 KR orders with a corrupted second Surge and 4 K orders with a corrupted first surge – and this kind of broken anti-symmetry would be considered unholy by Vorin standards. The Voidbinding chart (TWoK rear endsheet) seems to be an in–universe attempt to understand Voidbinding (an essentially asymmetrical magic system) in symmetrical, Vorin terms (a reason why modified glyphs are used) – that's why both Bondsmiths and corrupted version of Progression are present there, even though they shouldn't be.
  25. "Unless maybe Brandon is playing with words (we've seen those things, but we haven't seen them doing magic)." is this something that brandon said? well if so, then there is one instance that comes to mind where this is possible. During the battle of Thaylen City, the Amaram's army appears to have bonded with Voidspren. it was said also by i think one of the fused that lord, have you learnt to bond voidspren with humans? to which odium replies that it was always possible but it requires a specific mindset and environment to achieve.. i think, what those soldiers were doing were forming the equivalent of Nahel Bond with voidspren. they probably were capable of voidbinding. but we never saw it onscreen because they were very newly formed and knew not how to.. moreover, the moment dalinar trapped thrill, the environment + mindset changed and they may be kind of lost their bond to the voidspren and are left crying. i think some were even heard crying that why have you abandoned me so!!
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