"Of the Unmade, Sja-anat was most feared by the Radiants."

[dvoraen]

Hi! Let's talk about the title of this post: Sja-anat. This is a topic I have spent way too much time thinking about, ever since the epigraphs of Mythica in Oathbringer. I read a comment on reddit saying that we'll see why she's so scary in book five that finally made me want to write this all out and explain.

 

The Core of Sja-anat's Ability

While I'm not going to go into this part too much, I want to talk just a little bit about her ability to Enlighten spren from the perspective of what the Unmade, as a collective, seem to do. The root word "consume" has been used with a significant number of them; Yelig-nar, Nergaoul, Re-Shephir, Dai-Gonarthis, and Ashertmarn have all had that exact word or variations of it attributed to them. One or two of the Unmade might be a coincidence, but we have at least five, which heavily implies a pattern.

Given that, I think it's safe to say that the term applies to all nine, in their own way, including Sja-anat. This will be relevant later.

At the moment, I liken Sja-anat's ability as something seen in virology, as viruses propagate by taking over cells and reprogramming them to fabricate more viral material. This is "kind of" seen in Day One of Wind and Truth, where the Azimir Oathgate spren seems to be only partly changed, rather than fully altered into the "blood red" color Shallan observes staining the darker-hued spren (and the other was not the red color that the Kholinar Oathgate spren had become). This suggested to me that Enlightening is not necessarily an instantaneous process, at least with sapient spren, leading me to believe Sja-anat simply began the process with the Azimir Oathgate and is letting the change take hold over time.

So in essence, I think what Sja-anat's Enlightening is, is the Investiture equivalent of a mutagenic virus, consuming the existing power to fuel the propagation of Odium's Investiture.

The Overlap with Fabrial Science

We saw in Oathbringer one very explicit scene where Sja-anat made contact with Shallan after the group had been forcibly transferred into Shadesmar. An Enlightened gloryspren flew in their direction and landed upon Shallan's arm, and as soon as it made contact with her, she heard Sja-anat speaking to her in her head. This tells us two important things about Sja-anat:

• She can control Enlightened spren to an extent. (We don't know the details here, but I would wager that "lesser" spren are a certainty for her ability to control them.)
• She can communicate via Enlightened spren.*

So what does this have to do with fabrial science?

Quote

Rhythm of War, Chapter 6 Epigraph

"...spren, when trapped, respond to different types of metals in different ways..."

The important point here is that spren used in fabrial science react to a stimulus, which is currently understood to be primarily metal touching the gemstone, and the gemstone containing the spren must also be Invested in order to power the effect. We were also shown that Enlightened spren can be used in fabrials running off of Voidlight. This is very relevant.

Now consider the following: if Sja-anat can control her children, is it not feasible that, if she has complete control of lesser spren she Enlightens, that she could forcibly induce them to react as if they were a fabrial spren having one or more metals touching the gemstone? (I imagine this could be done using something like a Rhythm, as we saw with the "agricultural trick" involving lifespren and growing plants with Stormlight.)

Additionally, we know that at least one of the Unmade can provide Voidlight**. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Sja-anat could theoretically do the same. When Nergaoul was captured, the description of the ruby he was placed in made it seem like it was heavily Invested with Voidlight.

Quote

Oathbringer, Chapter 121

Dalinar Kholin knelt not far away, clutching a large ruby that glowed with the same strange phantom light as the Fused.

(We know for a fact the Fused are using Voidlight.)

So, with those two points in mind, imagine this: Sja-anat Invests an Enlightened flamespren with Voidlight and controls that flamespren to act as it would as if it were being stimulated by contact with pewter, emitting extreme temperatures of heat until its Voidlight runs out. Now multiply the number of flamespren. Fireball salvo, anyone? And that's just one example of one type of spren.

The Thing Most Feared

If the previous idea didn't seem frightening, let's get to the meat and potatoes. I think the biggest thing about Sja-anat is that Invested Arts may be useless near her if she wants them to be. While we don't know exactly how one might defeat an Unmade with magic, I think there are multiple hints that strongly suggest that Sja-anat can consume and repurpose Investiture.***

And if she can indeed use her lesser spren to "express their attributes as force" as a pewter cage would in a fabrial, then yeah. I'd be pretty scared of that too. Especially if the idea of her consumption of Investiture applies to other powers used in her vicinity. Like Regrowth. Or escaping. Being unable to use those (because it would get devoured by the Unmade) seems like a bad time.

So yeah. I think someone's been keeping her cards pretty close.

 

Nothing to See Here >.>

* Any takers on this being how Renarin can get into contact with her? Once Renarin revealed in Rhythm of War that he had been in contact with Sja-anat, it seemed relatively clear to me that Glys was how this was accomplished. I imagine Renarin's contact with Sja-anat was how Shallan brokered that deal with her that led to Tumi's arrival at the tower.

** A scene in Words of Radiance and in Oathbringer both lead me to think that Dalinar might have been getting Voidlight from Nergaoul over the years in tiny amounts. I would have to go looking for the exact passages, but it's a bit of a tangent as it is.

*** I do think this is a Voidbinding ability.

[Cocoa he/him]

On 9/23/2024 at 7:56 PM, dvoraen said:

* Any takers on this being how Renarin can get into contact with her? Once Renarin revealed in Rhythm of War that he had been in contact with Sja-anat, it seemed relatively clear to me that Glys was how this was accomplished. I imagine Renarin's contact with Sja-anat was how Shallan brokered that deal with her that led to Tumi's arrival at the tower.

I don't have strong feelings for or against this theory, but I do want to point out that we see her contacting Taravangian just fine through mirrors without any enlightened spren being involved. If she chooses to make herself known to someone, it seems that she really only needs physical (and cognitive, since she's kind of smeared between the two realms) proximity to do so. Since the Tower's defenses weren't functional prior to Navani bonding the Sibling, she wouldn't have had anything blocking her from showing up in Shallan's mirrors to broker the deal, and we know she was in the general vicinity of the Emul campaign if she wanted to talk to Renarin (see: her appearing to Taravangian as part of the same campaign).

[dvoraen]

13 hours ago, Cocoa said:

I don't have strong feelings for or against this theory, but I do want to point out that we see her contacting Taravangian just fine through mirrors without any enlightened spren being involved. If she chooses to make herself known to someone, it seems that she really only needs physical (and cognitive, since she's kind of smeared between the two realms) proximity to do so. Since the Tower's defenses weren't functional prior to Navani bonding the Sibling, she wouldn't have had anything blocking her from showing up in Shallan's mirrors to broker the deal, and we know she was in the general vicinity of the Emul campaign if she wanted to talk to Renarin (see: her appearing to Taravangian as part of the same campaign).

This is certainly plausible, but given that Shallan got the message about the spren (Tumi) being sent to the tower at roughly the same time Sja-anat was in Kholinar, I can only assume that it was long distance communication, and the best way I can see this happening without being caught out (especially by Odium) is that Glys can sometimes act as a direct line to her, as we saw with the Enlightened gloryspren in Oathbringer.

This isn't to discount what you're saying in general, just that some of the timing seemed off on the communication line with regards to brokering the deal that led to Tumi's bond. Her interlude suggests she hadn't been to the tower for a long time (since we know multiple Unmade have gone there before for unknown reasons, in the past). I certainly think she and Renarin have been in direct contact when possible, and the entire Emul sequence certainly suggests Renarin and Sja-anat had direct contact, but in general I think with Rayse-Odium watching her, she didn't make unsanctioned movements.

I'd be really curious if Renarin's proximity blocked Odium from seeing what Sja-anat was planning.