How to become a Bondsmith

[Demiandre]

Hello everyone, I have a question about the "evolution" of Bondsmiths, and the specificities of their order. It might get tangeant sometimes though...

From what we learn in Words of Radiance :

Quote

But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious.

—Words of Radiance, chapter 16, page 14

• We know they were few, and had specific spren. From what we see with Dalinar, that last point is obvious, as the Stormfather is really specific ("godspren"/cognitive shadow of a Shard).

From what we know about Dalinar's case :

• We know that he received visions from the Almighty (through the Stormfather, IIRC ?)
• We know (at least, in comparison with the other orders), he can't posess Shardblade (Whether it stands also for Shardplate is yet to be seen, but that seems likely, as the Stormfather said "Shards")

From what we know otherwise :

• We know that some Spren sought the possible proto-radiant. IIRC, that is the case for the Cryptics (Pattern) and the Gardeners (Wyndle). some others probably went out to search for candidates.

In light of all this, I wonder if there will be other Bondsmiths other than Dalinar in the books.

If we take seeing visions during Highstorm as a clue toward someone being a proto-Bondsmith, then there are already three candidates that we have heard of. Indeed, we know that Gavilar had visions too, about the Almighty and a storm coming (WoR, Interlude I-4, Taravangian PoV - memory of a discussion with Gavilar the day of his assassination).

A Death Rattle also gives us a clue about another candidate :

Quote

CODES
That chanting, that singing, those rasping voices.
-Kaktach 1173, 16 seconds pre-death. A middle-aged potter. Reported seeing strange dreams during hightstorms during the last two years.

I don't really know if there is a causality in play, but we could have two possibilities here :

1. You are predisposed to be a bondsmith and you receive visions when you start believing in the First Ideal,
2. You star believing in the First Ideal and you are led toward the Bondsmiths through the visions the spren sent you because he chose you (The most probable answer, as the Stormfather says to Dalinar in Ch. 89 of WoR :

   Quote

   "The vision were his, then" Dalinar said, "and you the vehicle for choosing who received them?"

   YES.

    

The visions in themselves seem to be the path toward Bondsmithing : "Unite them". But in 2/3 of the cases we know, they seem to appear only after a person read the Way of King. And it got Dalinar at most 5 years between the time he heard of the book and the time he bonded the Stormfather.

So in my opinion, if this is the way to become a Bondsmith, there might be new Bondsmiths to come, but that will have to wait for the second part of the Stormlight Archive.

Unless there are other "Godspren"/Cognitive shadow of a Shard, that could become the spren of a Bondsmith, and started selecting candidates. But it seems unlikely because of what the Stormfather said to Dalinar about not "being bound in such a way as to kill me" which suggests to me that he bonds with multiple persons because if he is bonded multiple times, a person betraying his oath won't technically kill him.

There is as much holes as in Emmental cheese in this post, but maybe you genius will figure something out or discard it immediately

 

I searched for anything irrelevant but didn't find anything. If I err, I'm sorry !

 

EDIt : minor typo and change of point concerning the Shardbonding. Plus, I realized I'm not in the good topic. Could a moderator please help me move it in the relevant section ?

Edited November 10, 2016 by Demiandre

[tobar14]

I feel like that death rattle is talking about the parshendi

[1stBondsmith]

Well thought out @Demiandre. I had a couple thoughts I might add

1. Since stormlight is a great deal of investiture, there could be many reasons that there are vision during the storms (Cultivation's power near- "since She sees the future more clearly", one of the Unmade or Voidbringers' influence nearby- ala death rattles, message left by Honor, etc.) Perhaps this is not only an indication of Bondsmith bonding.

2. Yes, there will likely be more Bondsmiths, since some are needed at Urithiru and some in the field according to the quote.

3. I think that there are other "very specific spren" which are not Cognitive Shadows of the Shard. I think that is unique to the Stormfather because of Honor's death. IIRC, it happened long after there were Radiants, so Bondsmiths would have been bonded to spren without this addition.

4. A Bondsmith's role SEEMS to include uniting the Radiants and creating or breaking bonds with them or the Voidbringers (or both). With that mission, I can see needing a few of them, but not too many, as they could decimate the other Knight orders. That would be seditious.

 

[Demiandre]

52 minutes ago, tobar14 said:

I feel like that death rattle is talking about the parshendi

The content of the Death Rattle likely refers to the Parshendi, but the origin of the Death Rattle (see emphasis), isn't related

@1stBondsmith

1. Indeed, that seems likely. But nothing more than a storm is know from the vision of 2/3 of the samples. Cultivation (and Odium) can see farther in the future than Honor, so I suggest a vision from cultivation would provide further information than one from Honor. They have neither the same intent, nor the same precognition capabilities.
2. The quote only indicates that one Bondsmith was always in attendance in Urithiru, not that there will be more than one. The one in urithiru was " in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones ", a kind of  Bonder of nations. But the others could go to other needed places to bond other things (pacts, treaties, nations, peoples, etc...)
3. In my opinion, there could have been more specific spren at the time, but either they disappeared because of a lack of sentient thought toward them (less representation in the cognitive realm, and so their physical form is less potent => That borders on the Godspren/mythology concepts and I think that if fewer and fewer people believe in a thing, the concept of it (Ideal in Shadesmar) becomes weaker, the same goes for the Cognitive Shadows I suppose.) or they died like the other spren.
4. I totally agree, it is indeed said that it was seen as seditious for them to raise their number. But I read it as a sedition among selves rather than a complete decimation of the KR. If they create bonds and pacts and treaties but too much of them with too much interference in the intents, goals, or way of "ruling" are in action, it would become a problem for the Oathtakers. It is more akin to a conflict of interest in my mind.

   P.S. : Concerning the 2/3 sample, I want to add a saying :

Once is luck, twice is coincidence, thrice is a scheme

Edited November 10, 2016 by Demiandre
Edited for Clarification and typos

[Oversleep]

I've also theorized to that extent:

 

[Demiandre]

Thanks for the link, I didn't stumble upon, it.

However, I believe the timeframe of the potter and Dalinar visions overlap.

While reading the topic, I thought about Kaladin's visions. They could be linked but I don't think so. As bound to an Honorspren, Kaladin might have a connection to the Cognitive Shadow of Honor. But none to the Stormfather (AKA, he can communicate with him but not bond him. Shallan could see him but not hear him in the Chasms. If he can be seen, why not heard ? It could be a sign of proximity toward one's Shard, like Ruin and Preservation)