Theory: The Fused are Humans

theSurgeOfPhysics · November 30, 2024

I’m posting this before WaT comes out, just to see how close I come to the true answer behind the mystery of the Fused. What follows is a theory I constructed after reading RoW, and I’ve broken it into subsections. The main idea is that the Fused are humans fused with singers in order to create a terrible irony of war between Odium and Honor and their respective followers. This theory was written in January 2023, but only now have I had the time and motivation to post it. Though some material may already be widely agreed upon, there are new points I’d like to address.

Let’s begin with what ticked me off about the voidspren. We know from OB that Voidbringers were humans from Ashyn, and the corresponding voidspren don’t seem right.

Voidspren Appearance and Personality:

Why, when Kaladin was traveling with the singers in OB, did the voidspren look humanoid? Perhaps the only reason is because Rayse was humanoid to begin with. This aside, consider Venli: her first bond causes her to lose her rhythms (RoW, pp. 696). Then, the rhythms return, though unnatural, attuning towards violence (RoW, pp. 741). Her relationship with Ulim is toxic and abusive, showing disdain towards her as a singer. He belittles her and hides things from her (RoW, pp. 847). Her mind even grows fuzzy when trying to think about Ulim’s manipulative nature, hinting at Ulim’s possible control over her mind and memories. His slang is like a human’s. His only forms taken are in the appearance of a lightning-like ball or a human, the latter of which Venli despises (RoW, pp. 880-881). In all of this, it seems that Slim and voidspren have human qualities and are of Odium. Having discussed voidspren, consider the case of the most-studied Fused — Raboniel.

Raboniel’s Behavior as a Fused:

Raboniel does not seem to care for singers, threatening to be reborn as an innocent singer to cause pain to that unfortunate one’s family (RoW, pp. 715). Why pretend to care for singers and fight for them if she would readily harm and kill one to her own desire?

Most concerning is Raboniel’s lack of rhythms even when shocked/surprised (RoW, pp. 723, 766). This also occurs when she recounts the time when humans came to Roshar. Her grandmother was a singer, but Raboniel is speaking with no “cadence” — no rhythms. It is as if her true nature comes out when she ruminates on her early years of existence. Was her mind parasitized with a human, and she can still remember her life as a normal singer? Was she a human-singer hybrid? Given her grandmothers’ distaste for humans, she likely wouldn’t have joined Odium when Fused were being formed.

As Raboniel dies, she confesses to Navani that she wishes that she could hear rhythms again. Apparently, something was blocking her from truly hearing them, just like Venli in the flashbacks (RoW, pp. 1181).

As an aside to Raboniel being steeped in human culture, her daughter hums a human tavern song from deep within her mind (RoW, pp. 947).

An Ancient History:

What is the basis for this theory? The history of Voidbringers and singers. Ash says that the Tranquiline Halls are merely the planet Ashyn. Sanderson mentioned in an unpublished work that Ashyn had a disease-based magic system. This implies a boon-curse tradeoff: powers come at a cost. Hense, Ashyn held the shard of Cultivation. RoW epigraphs say Odium is intent on killing all shards, so she likely fled to Roshar long ago as Odium destroyed Ashyn in search for her. He takes his human minions to Roshar who continue to manifest abilities of Cultivation’s disease-based system. The singers see these humans and describe their magic as from the Void — Voidbinding. Honor likely gave Adhesion to the singers, and when he helped Cultivation hide, they formed the 9 other surges. Honor would neutralize the curse to her boon in her magic system.

This raises the question of corruption to Cultivation. The Nightwatcher still had the boon/curse method, so did the curse portion come from Odium? Odium could give corrupted copies of the 9 surges to his followers, but only a single surge to any user. Perhaps he was involved in creating Voidbinding with Cultivation since the nine surges for Fused mirror those made by Cultivation and Honor. I’m not sure about this and it is tangential to the main theory.

When comparing Voidbinding to Surgebinding, the humans choose the surges, abandoning Odium and following Honor. Odium retaliates by creating a select few Fused, likely a fusion of singer and human. The Fused are a plague on the singers, created to slowly eat away at the singer population every time they are reborn. Fused themselves are enemies of humans of Honor and of singers. Odium hopes that this twist of fate eventually leads to humans destroying themselves, as the Fused will kill present-day humans while humans kill Fused (ancient humans) along with singers. Odium will have his ultimate revenge on humans (since they turned away from him) and on singers (who were the original followers of Honor and probably did not bend to his will).

Rebelion:

Singers side with Dalinar in the end of RoW (Leshwi and her forces) and singers fight singers (RoW, pp. 1142), which may be why Odium agreed to a contest of champions (since this is a done deal and doesn’t rely on his army size which is now dwindling). In OB, humans learned about their true past as Voidbringers; now, in WaT, singers will learn that the Fused lied to them. The singers will learn the truth about their past.

In terms of rebellion against the Fused (who are humans), Eshonai says listeners will always be free of human enslavement (RoW, pp. 925). This is true, since the only listeners left (other than those in hiding) are Venli and Rlain, both of whom go against the Fused.

How this Factors into Odium’s Plot for the Cosmere:

Odium says that he doesn’t want to destroy humans, only that he wants soldiers (RoW, pp. 1175). But he told Taravangian that only Kharbranth will be spared. So, do all other humans become Fused? Epigraph mentions El’s legion of humans (RoW, pp. 1180). Odium even says that it is possible for Dalinar to join the Fused (RoW, pp. 1177). Oathbringer ch. 38 mentions that the Fused were kings and lighteyes, strongly hinting at a human origin.

Odium plans to make a new generation of Fused, but there are no new rules. He plans to use humans this time, just as he did the first time.

Edited November 30, 2024 by theSurgeOfPhysics

alder24 · November 30, 2024

4 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

Voidspren Appearance and Personality:

Why, when Kaladin was traveling with the singers in OB, did the voidspren look humanoid? Perhaps the only reason is because Rayse was humanoid to begin with. This aside, consider Venli: her first bond causes her to lose her rhythms (RoW, pp. 696). Then, the rhythms return, though unnatural, attuning towards violence (RoW, pp. 741). Her relationship with Ulim is toxic and abusive, showing disdain towards her as a singer. He belittles her and hides things from her (RoW, pp. 847). Her mind even grows fuzzy when trying to think about Ulim’s manipulative nature, hinting at Ulim’s possible control over her mind and memories. His slang is like a human’s. His only forms taken are in the appearance of a lightning-like ball or a human, the latter of which Venli despises (RoW, pp. 880-881). In all of this, it seems that Slim and voidspren have human qualities and are of Odium. Having discussed voidspren, consider the case of the most-studied Fused — Raboniel.

I can see several explanations for this. Why do Honorspren or Inkspren look like humans even though they predate human arrival on Roshar? Either they were made like this by Shards, or they took this appearance over 7,000 years because of the dominant human-centric perception of them. Voidspren like Ulim have another, third option that can explain why they look and behave like humans - because they might have originated from Ashyn and came to Roshar during the Ashynite migration.

Ulim belittled Venli not because she's a Singer, but because she's a Listener - a daughter of traitors. This is the reason why their relationship is like that. Of course, this doesn't mean that Ulim isn't normally abusive like this, but this isn't unique to humans only - everyone can be like this, Singers and spren alike.

4 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

Raboniel’s Behavior as a Fused:

Raboniel does not seem to care for singers, threatening to be reborn as an innocent singer to cause pain to that unfortunate one’s family (RoW, pp. 715). Why pretend to care for singers and fight for them if she would readily harm and kill one to her own desire?

She's a Fused, she's insane after living for 7,000 years just like all other Fused. They are no longer like humans, they are more like spren, driven by their singular intent. Lezian is obsessed with his Pursuer's reputation, while Raboniel is obsessed with ending this war for good - no matter which side wins or loses. She did this before, she created a disease that wiped a huge number of both humans and Singers and even other Fused were condemning her for this. Because of her obsession she couldn't care less about Singers - and humans too - as long as she finds a way to end this war.

There are however still some Fused who care about their fellow Singers - Leshwi for example. She honestly wants to win this war for Singers to live freely again.

RoW ch 15:

Quote

"Be wary of those Fused, kid. The longer one of us exists, the more like a spren we become. Consumed by a singular purpose, our minds bound and chained by our Intent. We’re spren masquerading as men."

5 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

As Raboniel dies, she confesses to Navani that she wishes that she could hear rhythms again. Apparently, something was blocking her from truly hearing them, just like Venli in the flashbacks (RoW, pp. 1181).

As a Fused she can use only Rhythms of Odium, just like other Regals. They had Rhythms of Roshar overwritten by Rhythms of Odium. However, Anti-Voidlight consumed most of her soul and her Connection to Odium and Roshar. She was unable to hear Rhythms in her dying moments because her Connection to Odium and Roshar was partially destroyed.

Spoiler

Falling Lore

In Rhythm of War Chapter 53, when Venli mentions that Leshwi seems to respect Kaladin, Leshwi hums to a rhythm that feels familiar to Venli, but she can’t identify it. What was that rhythm? And why did Venli’s powers fail to identify it?

Brandon Sanderson

So, this is at the point where Venli is not quite aware of the old… Both of them, what’s going on with them, is: there are rhythms of Roshar, and there are rhythms of Odium. And what’s going on is: Venli sometimes… Normally, when you become a Regal, you have all the rhythms of Roshar overwritten with the rhythms of Odium, and you can no longer use the pure rhythms of Roshar. And what’s going on here is: Venli used to know all of those rhythms by heart, and they’ve been stolen from her. And Leshwi is humming to one of those, instead. Not intentionally; kind of accidentally, because, again, they’ve been stolen from Leshwi, as well. And this just is an indication (and you’ll see them all around) that sometimes they’ll use the wrong rhythms, or the rhythms they’re not supposed to be able to use.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 6 (Dec. 19, 2023)

5 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

What is the basis for this theory? The history of Voidbringers and singers. Ash says that the Tranquiline Halls are merely the planet Ashyn. Sanderson mentioned in an unpublished work that Ashyn had a disease-based magic system. This implies a boon-curse tradeoff: powers come at a cost. Hense, Ashyn held the shard of Cultivation. RoW epigraphs say Odium is intent on killing all shards, so she likely fled to Roshar long ago as Odium destroyed Ashyn in search for her. He takes his human minions to Roshar who continue to manifest abilities of Cultivation’s disease-based system. The singers see these humans and describe their magic as from the Void — Voidbinding. Honor likely gave Adhesion to the singers, and when he helped Cultivation hide, they formed the 9 other surges. Honor would neutralize the curse to her boon in her magic system.

Not really. Yes, currently on Ashyn there is a disease-based system, but it wasn't always like this. It changed because of the destruction of the planet. Humans fled Ashyn not to pursue Cultivation, but because they were escaping an apocalypse they'd caused. Cultivation was indeed on Ashyn, Ashynite magic is mostly Cultivation based, but Cultivation was only there for a short moment. Ashyn wasn't a major Shardworld, it wasn't a planet on which she settled on, Roshar was and she settled on Roshar together with Honor at the same time.

Singers were forbidden from using Surges by spren and gods. This ultimately caused them to switch places with humans and turn to Odium, while they turned to Honor and Cultivation. Surges weren't created by Shards directly, they are natural manifestations of powers of creation and they materialized after Honor and Cultivation settled on Roshar.

Eila Stele:

Quote

They came from another world, using powers that we have been forbidden to touch. Dangerous powers, of spren and Surges.

Song of Secret:

Quote

The betrayal of spren has brought us here.
They gave their Surges to human heirs,
But not to those who know them most dear, before us.
'Tis no surprise we turned away
Unto the gods we spent our days
And to become their molding clay, they changed us.

I'll RAFO that. It isn't exactly the same as it was.

Skyward release party (Nov. 6, 2018)

Spoiler

Questioner

You have talked about writing a book about Ashyn, the first planet in the Rosharan system. You said that they have a magic system based on disease, but they are currently without a Shard. Can you tell us what the source of that magic system is?

Brandon Sanderson

Skyward San Diego signing (Nov. 7, 2018)

5 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

This raises the question of corruption to Cultivation. The Nightwatcher still had the boon/curse method, so did the curse portion come from Odium? Odium could give corrupted copies of the 9 surges to his followers, but only a single surge to any user. Perhaps he was involved in creating Voidbinding with Cultivation since the nine surges for Fused mirror those made by Cultivation and Honor. I’m not sure about this and it is tangential to the main theory.

Odium didn't gave his Surges to anybody, Fused and Regals are still using Honor and Cultiation's Surges and Surgebinding. Voidbinging wan't really used before, it's something new and it's probably what Renarin does. RoW ch 31:

Quote

“Nine brands of Fused,” Raboniel said. “Nine Surges. You know of the Surges?”
“The innate forces by which all life, all reality, are connected. Gravitation. Transportation. Transformation. But … I thought there were ten?”
“That is human talk,” Raboniel said to Derision. “They claim a tenth, of Honor alone. Adhesion is not a true Surge, but a lie that was presented to us as one. True Surges are of both Honor and Cultivation—Cultivation for life, Honor to make the Surge into natural law. Things must fall to the ground, so they created Surges to make it happen.”

Not always. But usually.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA (Oct. 22, 2018)

5 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

When comparing Voidbinding to Surgebinding, the humans choose the surges, abandoning Odium and following Honor. Odium retaliates by creating a select few Fused, likely a fusion of singer and human. The Fused are a plague on the singers, created to slowly eat away at the singer population every time they are reborn. Fused themselves are enemies of humans of Honor and of singers. Odium hopes that this twist of fate eventually leads to humans destroying themselves, as the Fused will kill present-day humans while humans kill Fused (ancient humans) along with singers. Odium will have his ultimate revenge on humans (since they turned away from him) and on singers (who were the original followers of Honor and probably did not bend to his will).

I don't believe Fused were Singers and humans fused together. The Stormfather directly stated that Fused are souls of ancient Singers and Leshwi reaction to Venli's Radiant bond also confirms in my mind that she was just a Singer. She remembers the time before she became a Fused, she refers to herself as a Singer and stuff like this. Moreover, Odium doesn't want to destroy neither Singers or humans, he wants to rule over them, be their only god and use them in his conquest of Cosmere, to fight against other Shards. OB ch 38:

Quote

IT STARTED WITH THE CREATURES YOU NAME VOIDBRINGERS, the Stormfather said, voice rumbling and low, distant. Introspective? AS I SAID, MY VIEW OF THESE EVENTS IS DISTORTED. I DO REMEMBER THAT ONCE, LONG BEFORE THE DAY YOU’RE SEEING NOW, THERE WERE MANY SOULS OF CREATURES WHO HAD BEEN SLAIN, ANGRY AND TERRIBLE. THEY HAD BEEN GIVEN GREAT POWER BY THE ENEMY, THE ONE CALLED ODIUM. THAT WAS THE BEGINNING, THE START OF DESOLATIONS.
FOR WHEN THESE DIED, THEY REFUSED TO PASS ON.
“That’s what is happening now,” Dalinar said. “The parshmen, they’re transformed by these things in the Everstorm. Those things are…” He swallowed. “The souls of their dead?”
THEY ARE THE SPREN OF PARSHMEN LONG DEAD. THEY ARE THEIR KINGS, THEIR LIGHTEYES, THEIR VALIANT SOLDIERS FROM LONG, LONG AGO. THE PROCESS IS NOT EASY ON THEM. SOME OF THESE SPREN ARE MERE FORCES NOW, ANIMALISTIC, FRAGMENTS OF MINDS GIVEN POWER BY ODIUM. OTHERS ARE MORE … AWAKE. EACH REBIRTH FURTHER INJURES THEIR MINDS.

RoW ch 109:

Quote

“What have you done, Venli?” Leshwi said. “What have you done?”
“I … I swore the First Ideal of the Radiants,” Venli said. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry…” Leshwi said. A joyspren burst around her, beautiful, like a blue storm. “Sorry? Venli, they’ve come back to us! They’ve forgiven us.”
What?
“Please,” Leshwi said to Longing, “ask your spren. Do they know of an honorspren named Riah? She was my friend once. Precious to me.”
Leshwi … had friends? Among the spren?
Storms. Leshwi had lived before the war, when men and singers had been allies. Honor had been the god of the Dawnsingers.

RoW ch 112:

Quote

“Do you know why I make men fight, Dalinar? Why I created the Thrill? Why I encourage the wars?”
“To destroy us.”
“Why would I want to destroy you? I am your god, Dalinar.” Odium shook his head, staring into the infinite golden distance. “I need soldiers. For the true battle that is coming, not for one people or one miserable windswept continent. A battle of the gods. A battle for everything.
“Roshar is a training ground. The time will come that I unleash you upon the others who are not nearly as well trained. Not nearly as hardened as I have made you.”

5 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

Singers side with Dalinar in the end of RoW (Leshwi and her forces) and singers fight singers (RoW, pp. 1142), which may be why Odium agreed to a contest of champions (since this is a done deal and doesn’t rely on his army size which is now dwindling).

That was just a few individuals, they don't matter and don't reduce his army size. He agreed to the contest because he lost his second champion (Kaladin), he lost the Tower and Dalinar spoke to Ishar and Odium now thinks they work together. He's afraid of Dalinar. Both Odium and Rayse actually appreciated what Leshwi had done and deemed it as serving the Passion - even if they both didn't like it. RoW ch 112:

Quote

“I know you went to see Ishar. What did he tell you?”
Dalinar clasped his hands behind him and used the old commander’s trick of remaining silent and staring in thought. Stiff back. Strong posture. Outwardly in control, even if you’re one step from collapsing.
“You were supposed to be my champion, Dalinar,” Odium said. “Now I see how you resisted me. You’ve been working with Ishar all along, haven’t you? Is that how you learned to bind the realms?”
[...]
Yet you’re afraid of me, Dalinar thought. Of the idea that I might fully come into my power. That you’re losing control of your plans.

RoW ch 113:

Quote

You should not tempt me today, Taravangian! Odium thundered. I have lost my champion AGAIN, and now I am bound by an agreement I do not want. How do they know how to move against me? HAVE YOU BETRAYED ME, TARAVANGIAN? Have you been speaking to Sja-anat? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

Spoiler

Striker_EZ

Why didn't Odium take the Investiture away from the Fused that rebelled against him at the end of Rhythm of War? At the end of Oathbringer, Odium tells one Fused that questioned him that he could take "that which gave [the Fused] life." So why didn't he do that to Leshwi and the others?

Brandon Sanderson

This is actually an excellent question. Odium, in his previous incarnation-- we'll see how he acts now-- part of the driving force of Odium is this kind of belief, mistaken or otherwise, that Odium represents all emotion, and strength of emotion, and basically the Passions in lore. Rebelling against him in the way that they did is actually in line with Odium's personal directives. The Vessel may not like it, in fact the power may not like it, but at the same time, there's a part of both of them that acknowledges, this is what they set in motion, and this is an appropriate use of the agency of the agents they chose. And so, unilaterally destroying those who turn against him is actually not an Odium thing. It's more an Honor thing than it would be an Odium thing. It's just not in line with how Odium acts or thinks, even though it's possible and there's threats and... That's not saying Odium wouldn't do it. But acting like Honor is not something Odium would necessarily want to do.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022)

6 hours ago, theSurgeOfPhysics said:

Odium says that he doesn’t want to destroy humans, only that he wants soldiers (RoW, pp. 1175). But he told Taravangian that only Kharbranth will be spared. So, do all other humans become Fused? Epigraph mentions El’s legion of humans (RoW, pp. 1180). Odium even says that it is possible for Dalinar to join the Fused (RoW, pp. 1177). Oathbringer ch. 38 mentions that the Fused were kings and lighteyes, strongly hinting at a human origin.

Fused are just Cognitive Shadows of Odium. Everyone can be a Fused. Odium can use humans by making them bond with his Voidspren, like we saw him do during the battle of Thaylen Field. He doesn't need to make everyone into Fused, he doesn't even need to make them all bond to Voidspren, he just needs them to be obedient.

The Stormfather said that Fused were kings and lighteyes (there were no Lighteyes back then) because he was speaking in terms Dalinar will understand - kings aren't unique to humans, other races can have kings as well, Lighteyes simply means nobility. Fused were simply the leaders of Dawnsingers, the most important Dawnsingers at that time - not humans.

Theory: The Fused are Humans

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