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What are the unmade?


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The Unmade are some of the more mysterious of Odium's forces, there are many theories about their true nature, this is my take.

There are 9 Unmade each has a unique name. Ashertmarn, Ba-Ado-Mishram, Chemoarish, Dai-Gonarthis, Moelach, Nergaoul, Re-Shephir, Sja-anat, and Yelig-nar.

The problem with identifying the Unmade is the large variety among them. Some are mindless while others are intelligent and able to make plans, even to counter Odium's goals. This seems to imply that the Unmade are not all the same thing. We know that the Unmade were originally made, then they were unmade. This means that some of them may not have been the same thing before they were unmade by Odium. My theory sets the Unmade into 3 groups based on what I believe they were before they were Unmade.

Group one is Ashertmarn, Chemoarish, Moelach, and Nergaoul. I believe that these are the mindless Unmade. We know definitively that Ashertmarn and Nergaoul are mindless unmade and while we don't have on-screen appearances of Chemoarish and Moelach, we can safely assume that Moelach is also mindless due to the similarity of his powers to Ashertmarn and Nergaoul, both of them have regional powers that bring some sort of effect to people within their general vicinity, which is exactly how the death rattles, produced by Moelach, work. I believe that these Unmade are pure splinters of Oduim, created similarly to the Nightwather, who was created by cultivation.

Group two is Dai-Gonarthis, Re-Shephir, Sja-anat, Yelig-nar. These are the Unmade with minds. We know for a fact that Re-Shephir and Sja-anat both have minds because Shallan talks to both. We don't see Yelig-nar speak on screen but it is possible that he is capable of doing so. One interesting note is that Amaram has to swallow a gemstone to bond with Yelig-nar, this is similar to how singers have spren enter their gemhearts to gain forms. We also know that voidspren can communicate with the spren they are possessing and because Yelig-nar is basically a big voidspren its possible that he can communicate with the person he is possessing as well. In Hessi's Mytchica she says "Yelig-nar, called Blightwind, was one that could speak like a man, though often his voice was accompanied by the wails of those he consumed." Assume this is accurate we can place Yelig-nar in the category of Unmade with minds. Unfortunately, we have not seen Dai-Gonarthis on screen so far but this death rattle "Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-Gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it!" Shows a similarity from Dai-Gonarthis to Moash, and I think it is likely that Moash is under his influence. While we can't use this to prove that he has a mind, it is interesting. I belive that these Unmade were originally powerful spren like Cusicesh the Protector but they were unmade by Oduim. We do know for a fact that powerful spren can be unmade by Odiums forces because the Sibling is almost unmade by the fused.

Group three has only Ba-Ado-Mishram who I believe is unique among the Unmade. Ba-Ado-Mishram is interesting for a multitude of reasons, during the false desolation Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to grant voidlight and forms of power to the singers. Another point is that Kallak calls Ba-Ado-Mishram simply Mishram which may show that he once knew Ba-Ado-Mishram before Ba-Ado-Mishram was an Unmade. However, the most important fact is that when Ba-Ado-Mishram was trapped in a gemstone all of Roshar was affected, singers became parshmen, spren could become dead-eyes, and the Sibling lost the ability to produce towerlight. This is troubling because to be able to affect so much you would assume that Ba-Ado-Mishram had a powerful connection to Roshar, this is odd because Adhesion is Honor's purest surge. The only surge the fused cannot use is Adhesion because Odium cannot use Honors purest surge. This is why I believe that Ba-Ado-Mishram was specifically linked to Honor, similarly to how the Nighwather is linked to Cultivation. We know that the Stormfather is older then the shard of Honor itself. I believe that originally Honor had his own child, similarly to Cultiviations child the Nightwather. Odium then Unmade that child and Honor was forced to co-op the Stormfather because he needed an heir.

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I agree that some of them are pure splinters of Odium but we don't know that all of them are. In Rythm of War, the Sibling flat out says that if the fused succeed in corrupting it, then it will become one of the Unmade. If a corrupted spren can become one of the Unmade then how do we know that Odium has not done something similar in the past. it is totally possible that Odium created new Unmade by corrupting preexisting spren.

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First they were made, then they were unmade. They are Unmade because they were something else prior to Odium...unmaking them. What Raboniel was doing to the Sibling (or something like it) was done to each of them. Odium didn't make them out of whole cloth.

I contend the mindless ones are collections of lesser spren corrupted and coagulated. There are no party/revelry spren or war/violence spren around. Odium corrupted them all and piled them into singular masses that impart what they once sought. The mindful ones are greater spren, maybe even bondspren level spren that were corrupted by Odium and turned to his purpose.

Sja Anat seems to deal in Identity
Ba Ado Mishram seemed to deal in Connection
Ra Shepnir seems like a powerful Radiant spren, seeking out what it is to be human, only horribly twisted

This seems like one of those sets of mysteries that Brandon wants to hold close to the vest for the back 5. We get a little drip of info about them in each book. Oathbringer let us see a few directly. ROW let us see a process used to create (uncreate?) one.

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Quote

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

1) The Nightwatcher and Stormfather are parallel entities such that Nighwatcher:Cultivation :: Stormfather:Honor.

2) There is sort of a parallel for Odium, but the parallel is the various Unmade instead of a single entity.

3) They are parallel in that they are all Splinters.

4) The Unmade are voluntary Splinters, because Odium ("like almost all of the other Shards") voluntarily Splintered part of it's power.

5) The Stormfather is different from the others because it's a Sliver.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

 

 
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Brandon Sanderson

I'm just curious what the theories are. Book 3 the black sphere is-- Everyone who reads the books will know what the black sphere is by the end of Book 3.

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

 

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Jofwu

Gavilar's black sphere. What was inside of it and how many does he have?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, it is what you think it is. And he had-- yeah... He had access to several. Did we canonize this Karen?

Karen Ahlstrom

*shakes head*

Brandon Sanderson

No, we haven't canonized it. I'm going to say RAFO on the number, but it is what you think it is and what the third book implies that it is.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)

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I'm not sure about you but when I read the third book I did not get any implications of it being anti-voidlight. WOBs are secondary cannon, Brandon can change his mind or even purposefully misdirect us. Additionally, there are many WOBs where he just misspoke or misunderstood a question, especially in the case of the WOB you used, it was paraphrased, which allows much room for error on the part of whoever he told it to.

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1 hour ago, Chinkoln said:

 

 

FYI:

 a splinter is simply an entity with a large amount of the Shard's power. It could be JUST the Shard's power given form, or it could be some other Shard's power corrupted by a large amount of the Shard's power. Or it could be a living thing given significant amount of a Shard's power. The Returned are considered splinters of Endowment as Divine Breaths are large enough pools of power to be considered splinters.

Voluntary means Odium willingly gave his power to the entity that becomes a splinter. He wasn't forced to create the Unmade. The Unmade didn't steal his Investiture.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/5/2021 at 5:31 PM, yulyulk said:

The number of dashes in an Unmade's name indicates its power level -_-

Brandon has said that they were beneath the Stormfather but above Nightnlood so, I don't think that holds, there isn't a lot of room to double in power there.

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22 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Brandon has said that they were beneath the Stormfather but above Nightnlood so, I don't think that holds, there isn't a lot of room to double in power there.

I was joking :0 it just seemed funny that B-A-M is agreed upon to be the most intelligent/capable Unmade, while Nergaoul, Moelach et al have no sentience and no dashes in their name 

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