The Sibling's Bondsmith

[LadyCallista]

Hi all, I'm new here but I've been reading Cosmere since Elantris, and need to bounce a theory off people.  

I recently took a deep dive into the wiki to get ready for WaT, and got stuck on wanting to know why the Sibling was so bitter towards humans, and towards her previous Bondsmith, Melishi.  

I have a few thoughts on this, and was wondering if someone could point me to a topic on it, as I'm sure I'm not the first to consider it.  Or I'd love to start a chat on it here if people have thoughts. 

Edited September 24, 2024 by LadyCallista

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

There's a good thread over on the Wind and Truth spoiler board exploring Ishi's and the the other Heralds' insanity following Honor's death that briefly mentions her, you may be able to get a good piggyback ride over on that thread if you interject nicely

Knowing what i know, I try hard to not trouble them, but, realistically, folks on discord are usually surprisingly open and inviting to any random adhoc topical discussions about very nearly any character for any exploratory reason if you prefer that path.

The search button in your upper right is powerful for reviewing and understanding previous discussions, but there's no substitute for a good living thread and this forum, by necessity of available manpower not out of malice, maintains strict discipline against reviving "dead" topics. It's perfectly fine and acceptable to re-initiate conversations with new fine tuning or a fresh perspective, and nobody here hates zombies per se, but the products of necromancy on old posts are objectively filthy and exceptionally difficult to properly care for. Otherwise, Good luck and welcome to the Shard!

I'd like to think that the sibling's bitterness and resentment are scars born of immaturity and misplaced feelings to be perfectly frank. They were revered as a god, when they seem like they only ever wanted to be a friend, and treated, abused, and exploited like a naive child, when they should have been respected, and probably feared, as a borderline divine creature. There's a complex story there with a lot of well-glossed-over and masked traumatic, manipulative, and exploitative undertones lying all over the place if you ask me.

[LadyCallista]

Thanks for the answer, although I'm apparently missing more than I realized, cause I never considered the Herald's insanity having an affect on the Sibling's Bondsmith abilities.  

I did consider this being something that had been discussed already, which is why I asked for a link about it, cause I did spend some time searching but nothing really seamed to match what I wanted to ask. 

Because where my mind went was well Bondsmiths Unite.... and could capturing BAM in a gemstone, severing the singers from their Connection, have broken Melishi's oaths to unite... and that's where the issues with the city started? Cause we know spren get weaker if bonds are broken... 

Edited September 24, 2024 by LadyCallista

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

9 minutes ago, LadyCallista said:

Thanks for the answer, although I'm apparently missing more than I realized, cause I never considered the Herald's insanity having an affect on the Sibling's Bondsmith abilities.  

I did consider this being something that had been discussed already, which is why I asked for a link about it, cause I did spend some time searching but nothing really seamed to match what I wanted to ask. 

Because where my mind went was well Bondsmiths Unite.... and could capturing BAM in a gemstone, severing the singers from their Connection, have broken Melishi's oaths to unite... and that's where the issues with the city started? Cause we know spren get weaker if bonds are broken... 

I'm going to offer the unsolicited opinion that you would probably fit in well with and be appreciated in a live discord thread with these types of questions and considerations. You're poking at some rather esoteric material; the armies of Discord absolutely love and thrive on that kind of nourishment.

Hopefully that helps.

[LadyCallista]

I'm not sure how it's esoteric, lol, and I've heard of discord and I guess will have to figure out how that works. I miss just having a discussion on the actual site. 

Cause my question was about if breaking the oath of Unite would have broken that Bondsmith's oaths, since they basically genocided the singers instead of uniting them in a common cause. 

I had a thought on how that might have damaged the bond with the Sibling, since that's clearly not uniting ..

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

3 hours ago, LadyCallista said:

I'm not sure how it's esoteric, lol, and I've heard of discord and I guess will have to figure out how that works. I miss just having a discussion on the actual site. 

Cause my question was about if breaking the oath of Unite would have broken that Bondsmith's oaths, since they basically genocided the singers instead of uniting them in a common cause. 

I had a thought on how that might have damaged the bond with the Sibling, since that's clearly not uniting ..

Er...Q & A is a bad place for discussion, the sort order and nature of the space is intended to make best sense for readers rather than contributors is all. It's interesting to consider that bondsmith spren might behave fundamentally differently than normal spren in how they treat oath-violations if they do not manifest as deadeyes though, that would be a very important discovery if proven.

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Shard. Please consider checking out the Sharder FAQ for tips on how this forum works and links to resources. 

9 hours ago, LadyCallista said:

I recently took a deep dive into the wiki to get ready for WaT, and got stuck on wanting to know why the Sibling was so bitter towards humans, and towards her previous Bondsmith, Melishi.  

I have a few thoughts on this, and was wondering if someone could point me to a topic on it, as I'm sure I'm not the first to consider it.  Or I'd love to start a chat on it here if people have thoughts. 

I did find some old topics (see eblow) and have started a new one so that you have a good place to discuss your topic - here.

Older topics I linked in the new thread:

• Recreance Plot
• Was the Sibling a Deadeye?
• Melishi's Biography

Hope that helps

[alder24]

10 hours ago, LadyCallista said:

Hi all, I'm new here but I've been reading Cosmere since Elantris, and need to bounce a theory off people.  

I recently took a deep dive into the wiki to get ready for WaT, and got stuck on wanting to know why the Sibling was so bitter towards humans, and towards her previous Bondsmith, Melishi.  

I have a few thoughts on this, and was wondering if someone could point me to a topic on it, as I'm sure I'm not the first to consider it.  Or I'd love to start a chat on it here if people have thoughts. 

We don't know what happened between the Sibling and Melishi. What we know is that shortly before the Recreance, the Sibling withdrew (either willingly or something not) and banished everyone from the Tower, shutting off the Oathgates. There were some concerns among Radiants about Unmades infiltrating Urithiru at this time and some other systems failed as well, which is a clue that something wrong was happening with the Sibling. Lastly, the Sibling and Melishi broke their bond (before the Recreance and before BAM was captured, which means it didn't result in the Sibling's death), but not before Melishi created a shield fabrial to protect them just in case. 

Then Mishram was imprisoned, the Sibling was wounded by this and couldn't hear their Tone, nor Honor's Tone anymore. The Recreance happened shortly after and ever since then the Sibling hated humans for it. All of this was also happening when Honor was dying, which probably contributed to the Sibling's state. But we have nothing that would explain what happened between them and Melishi, why the Sibling banished everyone from the Tower and what caused Urithiru to fail in the last days before the Recreance. 

Most of this information is from the Urithiru Gem Archive from OB epigraphs and from RoW quotes. It's likely that we might find out more in WaT now that Navani and the Sibling are bonded. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Edit:

5 hours ago, LadyCallista said:

Cause my question was about if breaking the oath of Unite would have broken that Bondsmith's oaths, since they basically genocided the singers instead of uniting them in a common cause. 

I had a thought on how that might have damaged the bond with the Sibling, since that's clearly not uniting ..

Well, possible but I don't think so. Singers were their enemies so any action taken against them wouldn't really matter for their bond and the Sibling broke their bond before Mishram was imprisoned and Parshmen were created. Nobody knew this would happen, so I doubt this was the cause of their problems. It may be something about spren because the Sibling is the bridge between humans and spren and if Melishi did something that worsen those relations it may cause their bond to deteriorate (but I doubt this would cause the Tower to fail). 

Edit2 (I really need to start to first read every post in the topic and then write my response):

If you're interested in continuing this discussion, I recommend to continue it in the topic made by Treamayne.

Edited September 24, 2024 by alder24