The Unmade in Shinovar Theory

[Lock]

The Unmade (or at least one of the Unmade) in Shinovar is going to be Chemoarish - the Dustmother.

Evidence

Quote

Chemoarish, the Dustmother, has some of the most varied lore surrounding her... I do believe she is not the Nightwatcher, contrary to what some stories claim.

- Hessi's Mythica, Oathbringer Chapter 108 Epigraph

Chemoarish is considered the mother of Dust. She is also either physically or mythologically similar to one of the Spren derived from the Old Magic, implying that they may have been similar (a Spren derived from Stone like the Nightwatcher was derived from Night) before her corruption. Dust can also be made specifically of small bits of rock.

Quote

Dust blew with them, for dust goes where it wishes, ignoring all borders.

- The Way of Kings, Wind and Truth Chapter 22 Epigraph

This passage appears at the start of the chapter and section where Szeth tells Kaladin about an Unmade being present in Shinovar.

Dustbringers are one of the ten orders of Knights Radiant. They apparently have the ability to destroy large swaths of land, but they focus on control and mastery. If the Dustmother is connected to these powers of Division (and potentially Abrasion), just as the Midnight Mother appeared to be connected to Illumination and Transformation, then she may be able to cause similar mass destruction.

Prior to moving to Shinovar, she may have resided in Bavland. It is known to be very dusty and barren - potentially caused by the Dustmother. They also curse by Chemoarish's name, implying they have more knowledge/myth about her than other areas.

The Dustmother will be the Unmade inhabiting Shinovar. It is both culturally relevant as a Stone spren and also opposite to the otherwise green vibe of the area, meaning its effects may be more pronounced than elsewhere on Roshar. It is also one of the few Unmade with almost no information about them so far, and Brandon likely wouldn't reuse a previous Unmade.

Quote

A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.

- Death Rattle

This death rattle could be interpreted as being from the perspective of Szeth as a child, seeing the effect of the Unmade before leaving. Note that it specifically talks about dust.

I may be wrong about it already causing destruction in Shinovar, as the locals "embraced it", but I think its likely that it will appear in the book in Shinovar. (BONUS THEORY: Dai-Gonarthis is also in Shinovar, relating to the "waters surged beneath" part of the Death Rattle (as the Black FIsher) and also being related to the sorrow of the child in the Death Rattle ("... holds my sorrow" is one of the few quotes we have about him)).

Edited October 15, 2024 by Lock
Fixed some errors, clarified some statements

[logicless.bt]

In another thread someone pointed out that when I'm Honor's final vision where he talks about the end of the world, a huge dust storm consumes Dalinar. Seems relevant too, and seems to support your point. The new epigraph being purely about dust also is a major point in your favor.

 

I'm curious about DG, though. The two bits we have about it are that it consumes sorrow and maybe caused the destruction of Aimia. These are VASTLY different things. Sorrow consumption puts it on the same scale as the emotion-manipulating Unmade like Nergaoul, even if it's more intelligent than them. They're able to affect large groups of people but their effects are very abstracted (and we have a possible preview of what DG stripping emotion would look like in Moash).

 

Destroying an entire island is sooo different, though; it's power on a scale we haven't seen before. A "natural disaster" Unmade is more direct than anything we've seen the other Unmade do -- BAM affected the whole continent but only through Connection manipulation not direct destruction, and Yelig-Nar super powered one person but it was only ONE. It would strange if DG and chemoarish were the most physically destructive Unmade and they both hid out until they were found in book five. Idk

[Lock]

From reading the Coppermind it seems that Aimia's weather and ecosystem was protected by fabrials, and the 'scouring' was an invading force destroying these fabrials and presumably killing many of the inhabitants. This implies that Dai-Gonarthis may have some ability to either control, support, or suppress large groups of people if he was part of this, and not necessarily any physical abilities. If it is Cusicesh or similar DG may simply have the ability to depress or subjugate the population.

Spoilers for a WaT Szeth flashback chapter that was read by Brandon a while ago (let me know if this isn't allowed): 

Spoiler

It seems like an invading force was at least part of the downfall of Shinovar, which mirrors what happened in Aimia. As far as I know, we don't yet know what army this was. It may have been Tukar - led by Ishar - or one of the other countries we don't know as much about, but it may have some direct connection to Dai-Gonarthis - perhaps he isn't mindless but an actual military leader, or maybe he is akin to the Thrill and is able to inspire people into battle (although this may be too similar of an ability).

 Regardless of this it is certainly interesting that DG seems to be the only Unmade we know about with a direct connection to water as an element. We now know that Wind, Night, and Stone were all Old Magic and I think its pretty likely that the Unmade were derived from them just like the Stormfather, Sibling, etc. (Midnight mother being the most obvious example). Therefore DG is pretty strong evidence of at least one more of these Old Magic gods existing. I wonder how many there will be, it seems like something Brandon may want to keep up his sleeve until the second half.

[Lightspine]

48 minutes ago, Lock said:

 Regardless of this it is certainly interesting that DG seems to be the only Unmade we know about with a direct connection to water as an element. We now know that Wind, Night, and Stone were all Old Magic and I think its pretty likely that the Unmade were derived from them just like the Stormfather, Sibling, etc. (Midnight mother being the most obvious example). Therefore DG is pretty strong evidence of at least one more of these Old Magic gods existing. I wonder how many there will be, it seems like something Brandon may want to keep up his sleeve until the second half.

The Unkalaki founding myth talks about gods of the waters and trees, so I agree with you here. There's also "spren" from the Eila Stele. It's possible some of these are the same (could Night be the same as "spren" or "tree"? Mostly bringing it up because of the Nightwatcher's vibe, I don't think it's particularly likely) but there's definitely something to do with water that we haven't seen yet.

On that note, anyone else think that Chemoarish being mistaken with the Nightwatcher might be because of Chemoarish stemming from the original Night, or perhaps even their unmaking being why the original Night vanished?

As for them being in Shinovar, I don't think there's enough evidence to conclude Chemoarish has anything to do with stone, but I still agree that she's probably there primarily because she's one of the few Unmade whose whereabouts we haven't seen. Only her and Dai-gonarthis are unaccounted for. 

[Slayd_07]

12 hours ago, Lock said:

A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.

Tying in this death rattle really convinced me. From an Alethi perspective, we've always heard Szeth's eyes be called child-like, so I could see this death rattle subtly referencing that. And, this latest epigraph bringing up dust as well is just plain suspicious. 

 

Between RoW and W&T we've been seeing that the Unmade, the Bondsmith spren, and these primordial forces like the Wind are all extremely connected. And since Raboniel was trying to Unmake the Sibling, it follows that one of the "primordial spren" could also be Unmade. Plus, it would make a lot of sense for Chemoarish to be Stone, unmade into Dust. It would help explain why the Shin began to worship her - she hijacked their existing worship of stone. 

[Lock]

50 minutes ago, Lightspine said:

On that note, anyone else think that Chemoarish being mistaken with the Nightwatcher might be because of Chemoarish stemming from the original Night, or perhaps even their unmaking being why the original Night vanished? 

As for them being in Shinovar, I don't think there's enough evidence to conclude Chemoarish has anything to do with stone, but I still agree that she's probably there primarily because she's one of the few Unmade whose whereabouts we haven't seen. Only her and Dai-gonarthis are unaccounted for. 

I did have the thought of the Night connection, but the name Dustmother - as well as the several notable mentions of dust in-text above - don't seem to connect in any way to the concept of Night, while having a much closer connection to Stone (although I will concede that dust can also be dead skin or soil and not necessarily rock). It is possible they were both formed by Cultivation before Chemoarish was Unmade or maybe are a combination of two of the Old Magics (Stone and Night) if that's something that can happen.

However them being created by Cultivation goes against another of my theories that all of the Unmade were originally formed by Honor before being unmade by Odium, with 9 Unmade + the Stormfather = 10 (Honor's number) - and potentially being what the Stormfather was referring to when he said "Our shame." in the latest chapter.

It very well could be as simple as the Nightwatcher being the only other Spren of that magnitude that any normal person would have seen, or both taking the form of a mist/dust cloud when interacting with people - although I see where you're coming from, Sanderson does love his multi-layer foreshadowing.

Edited October 15, 2024 by Lock
Fixed a statement