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Theory: Who are the Voidbringers?


JamesW

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So here is a completely off the wall idea. What if the Shin are the Voidbringers. I've got almost no evidence to support this, but let's try and pull out a few things that might support this.

The Shin revere stone, and we know that the Voidbringers were creatures of stone to some extent. Maybe this reverence of stone is a carry-over from when they were Voidbringers. They also practice "Stone Shamanism" and that is linked in some way to Szeth being Truthless.

We know that Shallan had to tell the creatures a "Truth" of her own in order to access Shadesmar. What if the Shin are creatures of shadesmar (Maybe the void?), so szeth being "Truthless" means that he is disallowed access to shadesmar by the rest of his people?

Stormlight is also incredibly important for accessing Shadesmar, what if in becoming falsely victorious over the voidbringers, the victors settled them in the lands which became Shinovar. This land is isolated from the Highstorms to a large extent, and we already see they use a barter system instead of using spheres, so maybe they have limited access to stormlight. The fact that Szeth feels the Alethii using stormlight for "Mere illumination" was another blasphemy. Perhaps they believe that stormlight should only be used to access Shadesmar?

The Shin are also regarded as incredibly docile, and are often servants. We know however that Szeth is deadly even without stormlight or Shardblade, so them being deadly could just be a result of their training.

Those mountains caused the highstorms to break and fade, making Shinovar one of the only places in all of Roshar where highstorms did not reign.
And yet they thought nothing of walking on stone or using Stormlight for everyday illumination. They ignored the spirits of things that lived around them, and they ate whatever they wanted on any day they wanted.

I'm thinking this quote shows the shin to be more in tune with Shadesmar then others, particularly the "Ignoring the spirits of things around them" part.

And so it was that we asked for it to be placed westward, in the place nearest to Honor.

We know that the place nearest to honor is Westward, and that mankind fought against the Voidbringers for the Tranquiline Halls. If they were driven out of the Halls, and the lie told by the heralds from the Prelude is that they won, then perhaps Mankind was driven away from the West, the place nearest to Honor, the place occupied now by the Shin.

Also, Hoid's story to Kaladin that Derethil's Goal was to sail Westward, seeking the origin of the Voidbringers, perhaps another pointer that the Voidbringers are from the West. We know that the Parshendi are concentrated on the Shattered plains, far to the east, so it's also unlikely that the Parshendi are the Voidbringers for this reason.

He had heard that the Voidbringers could hold it in perfectly. But, then, did they even exist? His punishment declared that they didn’t. His honor demanded that they did.

Szeth's punishment might have been for believing in the Voidbringers. He could be descened from the Voidbringers, and that his honor demanding that they exist is from his heritage. But his punishment declaring that the Voidbringers don't exist could also be the result of whichever actions led to him becoming Truthless. Maybe these involved him believing in the existence of the Voidbringers?

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Stone-Shamans sound like they're connected to Voidbringers and there are several good points but its still off the wall idea :D

I don't remember Voidbringers being from west... It was City of Knights Radiant(Urithiru?) in west and place where Honor was strongest or something like that. And I always thought that place was Aimia?(thats an island on map). You can't go there by foot because of sea. And it really feels like an island from Hoid's story(I don't remember if it was Hoid's...) where people were doing something for fear of their king but he was dead in his tower all that time or something like that... King is Honor. People have just forgotten who their king was and are doing something for him he never asked... I need to reread WoK...

I just thought about honor being westward... From what? It could be clever twist if whatever was westward back then now is eastward - Shattered Plains. BS did something like that in Mistborn already though...

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I have always thought that the Shin were followers in some way of Cultivation, partially for how they treat their farmers,

"Shin are a curious folk," he said. "Here, warriors are the lowliest of men-kind of like slaves. Men trade and sell them between houses by way of little stones that signify ownership, and any man who picks up a weapon must join them and be treated the same. The fellow in the fancy robe? He's a farmer. ... They treat all farmers like that, lavish them with attention and respect."

These just don't seem to be the type of people that the Voidbringers are said to be, for instance Kabsal when speaking to Shallan says

They were creatures of terrible destructive power, forged in Damnation, created from hate.

Created from hate. So, they are a creature of Odium. Another thought about the direction of where the Parshendi attack are that the Heralds and then Radiants always pushed back the Voidbringers as far as we know, so it would make since for mankind to be "retreating" towards Honor, whom they view as the "Almighty." I do see your point about how they were kicked out of the Tranquiline Halls though.

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