Bonding with an Unmade?

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

So the Unmade are basically super-spren that came from Odium, they're similar to the Godspren like the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher and the Sibling, though probably a step beneath them on the totem pole.

So my question is could someone Bond with an Unmade?

Not Yelig-Nar I mean like Sja-Anat or Nergaoul, would it be possible with one of them?

If so what kind of craziness would arise from that?

 

[Why Kaladin?]

I mean I've thought about this and Brandon has confirmed it so we know it's possible. I'm guessing it will do something not good, but maybe if you bonded a sentient Unmade it would go better?

Quote

Questioner
Someone asked you last year if the Unmade could be bonded and you said technically yes. Have we seen any evidence of this, or will we?

Brandon Sanderson
Uhh, you-- Eh-- Not yet, no. It doesn't really happen. Technically it could but it just doesn't really happen.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/80/#e5292

 

[Returned]

16 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

So my question is could someone Bond with an Unmade?

Not Yelig-Nar I mean like Sja-Anat or Nergaoul, would it be possible with one of them?

Almost explicitly yes, from the text itself. There is a sequence in Oathbringer in which the Midnight Mother "tugs at" Shallan's bond with Pattern and tries to insert herself in its place. I suspect nothing good comes of such a bond, though-- it certainly seems to go poorly for Yelig-Nar's hosts.

My guess is that the nature of bonding would be different for the Unmade, since they won't be following in the wake of Honor's fetish for oaths and are much more powerful than ordinary spren (as opposed to the Stormfather, Nightwatcher, and Sibling). The Unmade also seem to be pretty functional in the physical realm and mentally intact even without a bond. Sja-anat isn't bonded to anyone but seems to have all of her mental faculties, while the Stormfather's introspection and mental abilities seem to be expanding as his bond with Dalinar deepens (much like we've seen with Syl and Pattern). Given these, I'm not sure that being bonded would be desirable or useful for an Unmade, regardless of whether or not it's good for their hosts (Yelig-Nar excepted, as he seems to need a host to manifest usefully in the physical realm).

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

I have a Super-Radical idea what probably won't work the way I think it will.

So I remember the Coppermind page for Shards saying that Shards have to honor (heh) any formal agreements that they made, would this apply to Splinters as well?

Because then if you tried to Bond with an Unmade, you might be able to set up a situation where instead of you swearing Oaths, the Unmade would have to swear them, it seems really ironic and cool.

[Returned]

16 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I have a Super-Radical idea what probably won't work the way I think it will.

So I remember the Coppermind page for Shards saying that Shards have to honor (heh) any formal agreements that they made, would this apply to Splinters as well?

Because then if you tried to Bond with an Unmade, you might be able to set up a situation where instead of you swearing Oaths, the Unmade would have to swear them, it seems really ironic and cool.

I'm not sure the same rules apply to Splinters as to Shards. Ulim, at least, seems a bit slick with what he promises to Venli, and Adolin's trial by the Honorspren doesn't seem quite like what was promised. Sja-anat is a much bigger Splinter than most spren, and she's playing all sides and is interested in actively betraying Odium (though she may have never made any promises to him-- we don't have much reason to think that she did).

My impression is that the bonds formed by Roshar's spren and humans are especially binding because they're imitating what Honor did with the Honorblades. Sprens' bonds with Singers (typically) aren't based on oaths but instead seem like a sort of resonance or natural fit between a spren's nature and the Singer's mindset (maybe through a Cultivation-like avenue, and maybe not).

I suspect that a bond with an Unmade wouldn't necessarily require a formal agreement of any kind, that they wouldn't necessarily honor the spirit of the deal even if they did make one, and that they wouldn't do anything to place them under others' power more than they had to. But if one did make a formal oath to bond, I think that they would be bound by that oath like any other spren. Just not through their nature as Splinters.

[+Harrycrapper]

It's also worth mentioning that bonds with the Unamde aren't going to work the same way as bonds with Radiant Spren and Godspren. Ishar supposedly created the whole Oath system and the order he imposed on the Nahel Bond likely doesn't exist for the Unmade. The rules, if any, would be different. There might not even be a route to advance the Bond in any meaningful way.