Melishi's Oaths and the Division of a Soul

[Blightsong]

Introduction

It's just about time for another extra-long Blightsong theory after the latest few waves of new WoB; the nature of the Parshmen and what was done to them has always been one of my favorite mysteries in the series and Oathbringer brought us to the very edge of it. After reviewing some related WoB I'm pretty sure I can fill in at least some of that mystery with some pretty plausible ideas. Let me know what you guys think!

Abstract

Spoiler

I believe that Melishi used Bondsmith specific powers and Ba-Ado-Misgram to destroy a piece of all the Singer's souls that is tied intrinsically to their gemhearts (which I believe to be more than they appear) leading to the Parshmen not having them. This act went against his oaths and put the Sibling into the slumber it is in now.

Melishi

First lets start off with what we already know. The event that transformed the Singers into what we saw at the beggining of the series took place at the end of a conflict between the last generation of Knights Radiant and a group of Singers lead by the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram. Innovation on the side of the Unmade, an ability to Connect to the Parshmen and facilitate forms of power, pushed certain scholar's within the orders of Knights Radiant to devise a before unheard of strategy to defeat the forces of Odium. They planned to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram in a gemstone like the one that Dalinar used to trap Nergaoul in an attempt to break the Connection she had to the Singers and ensure an easy defeat of the enemy forces once their leader and powers were incapacitated. This almost as far as our knowledge goes, but an epigraph in Oathbringer implies that maybe some unintended consequences of this imprisonment is what destroyed the Singer, read it below:

Quote

We are uncertain the effects this will have on the parsh. At the very least, it should deny them forms of power. Melishi is confident, but Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warns of unintended side effects.

While this may be the case, I have become certain that this is a red herring due to the little bit of history from this time frame we do have past the above point, read the below epigraph from both the in-world and real world Words of Radiance:

Quote

"So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address."

This is interesting not only because there seemed to be a change of plans from simply imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram and defeating the Singers in battle, but also because we can say for certain that trapping an Unmade is not a Bondsmith specific power as evidenced by Shallan's view of Re-Shephir's past. If this was not what Melishi did to defeat the Singers then what could he have done to destroy them? Lets take a look at how the Stormfather describes Bondsmith powers to get an understanding of what could have taken place here:

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Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, though they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle.

The wording here is interesting to me. What Melishi did seems to be the opposite of what the Stormfather is describing, he cut the Connection the Singers have to each other and destroyed an entire people with them. Syl had something very relevant to say about the restoration of the Singers in the below quote:

Quote

“The Everstorm,” Syl said. “Power has filled the holes in their souls, bridging the gaps. They didn’t just wake, Kaladin. They’ve been healed, Connection refounded, Identity restored. There’s more to this than we ever realized. Somehow when you conquered them, you stole their ability to change forms. You literally ripped off a piece of their souls and locked it away.”

It seems as if whatever Melishi did to destroy the Singers was seriously destructive in nature and I have some ideas on what exactly he did to them realmatically.

Nature of the Singers

A recent WoB tipped me off as to what exact function of the Singer's was destroyed by Melishi, read it below:

Quote

Krios (paraphrased)

If you have a form of manipulating your Identity and a form of healing, are you able to shapeshift or even evolve your body like growing wings?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You'd have to do some real work on your spirit web to make that work. It'd take more work than you're implying, but the Parshendi for instance are doing this. It'll take a little more work, it's not just blanking your Identity. Hemalurgy would make it very easy, but also very evil. But what you want to achieve is possible.

It seems as if a Singer's Identity is malleable and that their system of trapping a spren with their gemheart is how they change it. Also interesting to note is that Hemalurgy is also able to do something similar. After thinking about it a bit, I realized we have seen something extremely similar to the Parshmen before using that very system. Read the below WoB:

Quote

NinjaMeTimbers

How intelligent is a mistwraith? Could you raise and train mistwraiths like dogs or horses, controlling what forms they take by the bones you give them? Would you be able to train yourself a horsewraith steed by giving it only the bones of a horse?

Brandon Sanderson

This is feasible. One thing to keep in mind is that mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the Physical and the Cognitive Realm, messing with their ability to think. Think of them as mentally-stunted people. There's enough there to train, but then you have to dig into the ethics of it…

This is pretty much a matching description of what we see with the Singers, only missing the whole magic physical object component... or is it? If you think about it, gemhearts and the Hemalurgic spikes responsible for the Kandra blessings seem to be very similar in nature with one very slight difference, gemhearts are a natural phenomenon resulting from a leak of Investiture from the Spiritual Realm to the Physical one. Read the below WoB and passages to get a quick understanding of Singer gemhearts and their nature:

Quote

Viper (paraphrased)

The gemhearts/stormgems/whatever that are grown inside the beasts in Way of Kings ... is that the same as the way atium is grown inside geodes in the Pits of Hathsin?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's similar. The Pits are an area where there's like a leak from the Spiritual Realm into the Physical. That's what happens there.

Quote

Questioner

I was wondering, in Stormlight, what kind of gem the [singer] gemhearts were, or do they just, do they hold Stormlight well?

Brandon Sanderson

So, this is a good question. This is one that people have been asking me since the first book, if they had one, and I've finally kind of confirmed it in book three. So the reason people don't think [singers] have a gemheart is it is milky white, and looks like bone.

Questioner

But aren't their bones red?

Brandon Sanderson

Their bones, well-- Their bones are red-- not completely. If you're going to pull out the bone, what you're going to see-- I'll explain it in the next book. So what you're going to do is, if you break open the bone, you're going to find this white-- It's not marrow but it is, yeah I guess it's marrow. Anyway at the center kind of in their sternum there is a gemheart there, but it is fused to the bone and it is grown into the bone, and you have to kind of snap it open and find it inside, and it kind of just looks like marrow, but there's a gemheart in there. And it kind of relates to some stuff in Dragonsteel that I'm not gonna get into. But you'll see in the next books. But there's a good reason people just don't think that [singers] have a gemheart.

This whole WoB is very interesting to me, particularly the connection to Dragonsteel and that last sentence. First let me touch on the Dragonsteel bit here is a passage from the released sample chapters that details the main character encountering the bones of the Dragonsteel equivalent to the Parshendi while in the caverns of the Shattered Plains:

Quote

As Jerick turned, his eyes fell on a set of bones slightly paler than those around it, the remnants of its foreign armor hanging limply. Jerick approached slowly. Sho Del corpses were extremely rare, though Jerick didn’t know why. From watching up above, it appeared that just as many Sho Del were thrown into the chasms as men. Perhaps the demons came searching for their fallen dead, though Jerick’s mind rebelled at the thought. He couldn’t associate such an apparently noble act with the monsters he had watched kill his companions for the last four months.
The skull was alarmingly similar to that of a man. The creature’s bones were fractured, but not to the extent of the human skeletons around it. And, Jerick was drawn to them. There was a power to the skeleton, and he felt his skin grow cold despite the heat. He wanted to reach out. He did reach out. To touch the bones, to feel the power.

This makes me more certain that gemhearts are more than just gems that allow a singer to transform, I think that they are tied to their other Cognitive abilities as well as the race in this world are also able to communicate telepathically similar to the rhythms. I also find the color similarity between these bones and a gemheart very interesting.

For my second point about the above WoB, why would there be an assumption that Singers dont have gemhearts among humans. Wouldnt some physician be able to find it in a Parshmen at some point? This is even more confusing when you consider that this seems to be a lost knowledge, read the below quote from Venli:

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“Eshonai…?” she whispered, and nudged the corpse again. Demid gasped. Touching the bodies of the fallen was taboo. The old songs spoke of days when humans had hacked apart listener corpses, searching for gemhearts. Leave the dead to peace instead; it was their way.

All of this together leads me to believe that the pieces of a Singer's soul that Melishi ripped away (ones that seems similar to what gives a Kandra's sapience and blessing) are the ones directly tied to the Singer's gemheart and that on top of the physical change wrought to their bodies that made them more like dullform they also had their very gemhearts taken from them like a Kandra losing its second spike. While I cant tell you exactly how Melishi did this all, I can say it did still likely involved Ba-Ado-Mishram seeing as how the Last Legion, Singers that had abandoned their Connection to their gods, were left unaffected.

Consequences of Division

My emphasis on how similar this all is to Hemalurgy should tell you just how evil what Melishi did to the Parshmen is. The very nature of this act seems to spit in the face of the Bondsmith oaths, leading one to question how his spren managed through this. I'm sure you all know I'm about to suggest the Sibling was involved because of how obvious it is but let me back up this point with a few more WoB pointing towards its involvement:

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Jozomby

I was mostly trying to find out if the Sibling was bonded, and if the break in the bond is what caused the Sibling to go into slumber

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say this is a RAFO with the promise that I intend to answer the question relatively quickly.

Quote

wiresegal

In OB, you explained that the Singers have four sexes. I was wondering... Can the Singers have genders other than those four, like humans? Even as simple as just not going with male, female, or malen/femalen. Could a transgender Singer use their ability to shift forms to change their biological reality? And, finally, could a Spren be non-binary, if it wasn't personified in a typical male/female way?

Brandon Sanderson

In the cosmere as a whole, a person's perception of themselves has a lot of power over both their Spiritual and Physical forms. It is possible, with Investiture, to change their biology to match Cognitive perceptions--and while this could be easier for some races (like the Singers) it's not outside plausibility for any race.

There are non-binary spren, actually--and you should be meeting one important one quite soon in the books.

A strain between Melishi and the Sibling's bond also makes sense within the context of the degradation of Urithiru and the Sibling's apparent "withdrawal from men" described in the gem archive.

Conclusion

So what do you guys think, is there a relationship between what happened to the Singers and their gemhearts? Did Melishi end up harming the sibling in the process? Feel free to poke holes anywhere you see them. Have a good day folks!

Edited June 8, 2019 by Blightsong

[+Ark1002]

That seems...

really long

it also seems...

really awesome

nice theory!

[Wander89]

This is one of those theories that, no matter how many times I read it, I often wonder how I can read the books so many times and not even come up with a slither as impressive as this.

[+Doomstick]

16 hours ago, Blightsong said:

Uritheru

Oof

[Blightsong]

1 minute ago, Doomstick said:

Oof

[+Doomstick]

Just now, Blightsong said:

[Argent]

I think there is strong evidence that the Stormfather was the only Bondsmith spren bonded during the Recreance (and, by extension, during the False Desolation and the singer genocide). Does that change much in your theory?

[Blightsong]

1 hour ago, Argent said:

I think there is strong evidence that the Stormfather was the only Bondsmith spren bonded during the Recreance (and, by extension, during the False Desolation and the singer genocide). Does that change much in your theory?

I did discuss this with @Calderis yesterday and I havent been totally convinced but that might just be me being stubborn. Is there evidence other than the timeline on the gem archives or the below quotes possible implications on the nature of the Sibling's bondsmith that I should be aware of? If not I do have arguments against those pieces of evidence.

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.

Even if Melishi wasnt bonded to the Sibling the parts of the theory that involved what exactly was done to the Singers still hold and I do still think that Melishi's actions would have been against his oaths.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Blightsong

[Argent]

2 hours ago, Blightsong said:

Even if Melishi wasnt bonded to the Sibling the parts of the theory that involved what exactly was done to the Singers still hold and I do still think that Melishi's actions would have been against his oaths.

I thought similarly; the Sibling bit is a relatively minor and largely independent part of the overall idea, I just wanted to bring it up.

I don't think I am particularly shocked by anything in your write-up though, it seems reasonable and in line with things we either know or things I've long assumed to be true. Melishi somehow crippling the singers, stripping away their ability to change forms and hear the Rhythms, and achieving that by way of trapping Ba-Ado-Mishram has been about as solid of a theory as we get these days, and codifying this process by saying that it has to do the singers' gemhearts sounds like a reasonable way of explaining it all. I am not too hot on the actual physical gemheart being removed, but some kind of magical separation sounds alright.

I've been explaining a lot of things with Spiritweb merging recently, and so I am going to slap this mark here too, and say that the whole thing about the singers' Identity being malleable makes sense in this context - the spren responsible for a singer's current form is partially fused with their Spiritweb, and it is the gemheart that facilitates this, similarly to how a Nahel bond works. 

[Blightsong]

23 minutes ago, Argent said:

and achieving that by way of trapping Ba-Ado-Mishram has been about as solid of a theory as we get these days, and codifying this process by saying that it has to do the singers' gemhearts sounds like a reasonable way of explaining it all. I am not too hot on the actual physical gemheart being removed, but some kind of magical separation sounds alright.

I think I made clear in the first part that I dont believe it was the trapping of Ba-Ado-Mishram that caused the damage to the Singers, just that it was involved (obviously). I think that the line in that relevant gem archive epigraph was a red herring due to the below quote and that Melishi somehow used Ba-Ado-Mishram's Connection to the Singers to destroy them either during or after the imprisonment.

Quote

"So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address."

Edit: I also want to add that the trapping of an Unmade doesnt seem to be a Bondsmith only power despite what the gem archive says. Its important to remember that they didnt fully understand this process at the time. I agree that it is definitely possible that a Bondsmith is needed but I personally think that quote is a red herring due to what Shallan learns and the wording during that scene:

Quote

Re-Shephir was terrified of it happening again. The imprisonment had been unexpected, presumed impossible. And it had been done by a Lightweaver like Shallan, who had understood this creature.

And later during the end of Oathbringer:

Quote

“Shallan saw one of the Unmade in the tower,” he whispered. “When she got close, it was afraid, but I don’t think the Thrill comprehends like it did. You see, it can only be bested by someone who deeply, sincerely, understands it.” He lifted the gemstone above his head, and—one last time—embraced the Thrill.

Im curious as to what about my logic for the disappearance of the Listener gemhearts you disagree with. On top of the evidence I provided in the OC there is a precedent for physical changes being a natural consequence of spiritual ones so it seems pretty within reason.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Blightsong

[Argent]

10 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

I think I made clear in the first part that I dont believe it was the trapping of Ba-Ado-Mishram that caused the damage to the Singers, just that it was involved (obviously).

Amd you did, I just got too caught up in wordsmithing my sentence and didn't realize I was different things.

12 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

Edit: I also want to add that the trapping of an Unmade doesnt seem to be a Bondsmith only power despite what the gem archive says. Its important to remember that they didnt fully understand this process at the time.

I am actually confused by this edit. My understand of your theory was that the original plan was to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram (which I agree is not a Bondsmith-specific thing, but I don't think the text contradicts that either, hence my confusion), but just before the Radiant SWAT team was about to do that Melishi came up with a different plan - one "related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths." Specifically, to sever the connection to their gemhearts, thus not only denying them forms of power (which the original plan would've done just fine), but to also deny them any form, instantly winning the war. And so, if I've understood everything correctly, you didn't need to reemphasize all of this

20 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

Im curious as to what about my logic for the disappearance of the Listener gemhearts you disagree with. On top of the evidence I provided in the OC there is a precedent for physical changes being a natural consequence of spiritual ones so it seems pretty within reason.

I kind of glanced over that the first time around. After a more careful reread, I can't say I am a fan. It's certainly a possibility, and I think... @Calderis had a similar theory? One that explained the similarities between dullform and "slaveform" as parts of the Spiritweb "folding in" on themselves in the former, where in the latter they were completely "ripped away", and it was those parts that were responsible for spren bonding? You could explain the missing gemheart with something like the singers losing their "gemheart Spiritual gene," and so they no longer get a gemheart, and therefore lost all the benefits that come with it... But I just don't think any of that is necessary. You get pretty much the same results by simply "deactivating" the gemheart, which seems like far fewer steps to me. 

[Blightsong]

2 minutes ago, Argent said:

(which I agree is not a Bondsmith-specific thing, but I don't think the text contradicts that either, hence my confusion)

It does here, I thought you're comments were based off that, my apologies:

Quote

"Our revelation is fueled by the theory that the Unmade can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi."

 

5 minutes ago, Argent said:

I kind of glanced over that the first time around. After a more careful reread, I can't say I am a fan. It's certainly a possibility, and I think... @Calderis had a similar theory.

This theory was inspired by Calderis' and I discussed these ideas with him before posting so its not by accident that they are similar theories.

Quote

You get pretty much the same results by simply "deactivating" the gemheart, which seems like far fewer steps to me. 

I agree, "deactivation" of the gemheart could be a possibility within the theory if you mean deactivation as a loss of the gemstone's realmatic functionality entirely, including holding stormlight (which itself is a kind of physical change). They basically wouldn't even be gemhearts at that point in a sense, just hunks of crystal. If you mean deactivation of the gemstones as a loss of the Singer's ability to use their gemstones then I dont agree. In that case they would still hold the value that past Rosharan humans went out of their way to obtain and it just doesn't make sense that all of Rosharan society would suddenly ignore that value to the point of all knowledge of the gemstones being lost. I just dont see another (in Brandons words) "good reason people just don't think that [singers] have a gemheart".

[Confused]

Excellent analysis, @Blightsong! I like your idea Melishi had other plans for BAM than a gemstone prison. Here are some unsupported, fanciful thoughts to play with.

WHAT IF ...

1. Melishi is not a Bondsmith but “Ishi’Elin” – Ishar, the Binder of Gods himself. Ishar’s power during the False Desolation is greater than any Bondsmith because Honor still lives.

2. BAM is not an Unmade but a human who serves as the Sibling’s Bondsmith. Hessi describes BAM as “keen of mind, a highprincess among the enemy forces, their commander during some of the Desolations.” Except for Sja-anat (maybe), none of the Unmade seem “keen” – certainly not keen enough to command armies. This raises doubt BAM is an ancient Unmade.

3. BAM switches sides to help the Singers and leads them in the False Desolation. BAM’s “keenness” makes me question whether BAM led Singers in earlier Desolations (at least 2,500 years before) despite what Hessi says. Maybe?

4. BAM literally sells her soul to Odium to become an Unmade with access to Voidlight. BAM uses her bond with the Sibling to Connect Voidlight to the Singers via their gemhearts. The Fused seem to get Voidlight through their possessed body’s gemheart. But could BAM keep her bond to the Sibling when she’s Unmade, even (hypothetically) with Cultivation’s help? A mixed soul?

5. Melishi/Ishar forcibly bonds the Sibling to himself to cut off Singer access to Voidlight. Ishar’s assault breaks BAM’s bond to the Sibling and pushes the Sibling into “slumber.” Singer gemhearts no longer work, and Singers lose their ability to bond spren and transform. If the Stormfather slumbered, would the highstorms still distribute Stormlight? Idk.

6. Voidlight slips into Ishar before BAM’s bond breaks. It makes him more crazy than torture alone does. Through the Oathpact’s Connection among Heralds, the other Heralds’ insanity intensifies. As Cognitive Shadows made wholly of Honor’s Investiture, Voidlight can’t be good for the Heralds. And poor BAM! What did Ishar do to her, and where is she now?

I end with a question about the False Desolation: Even with Voidlight, how do Singers gain forms of power? I presume living Singers did not suddenly drop dead and rise again as Fused. My guess is these were Regal forms of power granted by voidspren, not the power to bind Surges. Even with Voidlight, how do voidspren manifest on Roshar with the Oathpact still in effect?

On 6/9/2019 at 0:03 PM, Blightsong said:

If you mean deactivation of the gemstones as a loss of the Singer's ability to use their gemstones then I dont agree. In that case they would still hold the value that past Rosharan humans went out of their way to obtain and it just doesn't make sense that all of Rosharan society would suddenly ignore that value to the point of all knowledge of the gemstones being lost. I just dont see another (in Brandons words) "good reason people just don't think that [singers] have a gemheart".

SLA shows how much humans can forget. Singer gemhearts are hidden. Listener Shattered Plains corpses ended eaten or in the chasms. Humans wouldn't even think to look for a gemheart in the listeners. 

P.S. – Blightsong, when you quote WoBs, could you please include the linked source in the quote box? Thanks!

Edited June 15, 2019 by Confused

[+TheFoxQR]

Life in Roshar seems to have a unique component - the presence of so much readily accessible investiture in the ecosystem has caused life to use it much more. Honor and Cultivation being dominant on the planet probably helped matters too. Beings like the Chasmfiend have evolved to use Spren bonds as an integral part if their physiology, and the Singers seem to take this one step further.

First, Spren are investiture come to life, and so should have a spiritweb of their own. The Singers seem to be taking advantage of this - they seem to have evolved to have some kind of symbiotic spiritweb, where some part of their spiritweb is external to them, and comes from whatever spren they bond to. This would allow them to have almost composite souls, where parts of the spiritweb that define stuff like gender, identity, and to an extent even cognition, are partially external and variable. This would explain the effect of different forms on the cognitive capability of singers, where certain forms make them better fighters and others make them better at producing art.

After OB, I always assumed what had happened with the Parsh was the result of Bo-Ado-Mishram being connected to the Parshmen, providing them with this external portion of their own spiritweb, and the Bondsmith ability to use Adhesion to spiritually connect to others. As in Bo-Ado-Mishram was connected to the Parsh, and when it was pulled in, Melishi used Adhesion to maintain or maybe even strengthen its bonds with the Parsh while the Unmade was being pulled in, ripping apart parts of their spiritweb that connect with the external spiritwebs and imprisoning them with the Unmade.

It's like normally, the Parsh computers attach to Spren USB sticks. Then Bo-Ado-Mishram, a giant external Hard drive, connects to a lot of Parsh computers with USB cables. And then while being imprisoned, instead of Melishi just pulling the cables out and leaving in the capability to connect with other USB sticks, used super glue to glue together the cable with the USBsockets, causing the USB sockets to rip themselves out from from the Parsh Spiritweb computers, leaving them unable to connect with anything at all, and leavig parts of their spiritweb ruptured.

The Everstorm then, would have an additional purpose of healing the Parsh, since a big portion of Odium's army, the cognitive shadows of ancient Singers require Parsh spiritwebs to manifest in the Physical (the Fused).

I'm just trying to the How if your theory. Also, I do think Bo-Ado-Mishram is an Unmade.

My personal theory on the nine unmade is that each of them was unmade from one specific realm. This there would be three Unmade from the physical, three unmade from the cognitive, and three unmade from the spiritual. I think Bo-Ado-Mishram, Yelig-nar and Sja-Anat were unmade from the physical, and as such are closest in nature to Spren, having very little presence in the physical and capable of doing all the different things that spren can do.

Am I making sense?

Edited June 16, 2019 by TheFoxQR

[Karger]

On 6/8/2019 at 1:19 PM, Argent said:

I think there is strong evidence that the Stormfather was the only Bondsmith spren bonded during the Recreance (and, by extension, during the False Desolation and the singer genocide). Does that change much in your theory?

What evidence? 

What if?

The sibling has always struck me as a spren of order.

Perhaps by destroying the singer's ability to bond spren Melishi violated his oath to maintain order as that singer ability is important to Rosharan ecology.