Tinfoil and Artform

[DrakeMarshall]

Well I was looking at the coppermind entry on parshendi forms. The artform one is particularly interesting:

 

 

“     Artform applied for beauty and hue.
One yearns for the songs it creates.
Most misunderstood by the artist it's true,
Come the spren to foundation's fates.”

—90th stanza of the Song of Listing^[12]

“     Artform for colors beyond our ken;
For its grand songs we yearn.
We must attract creationspren;
These songs suffice 'til we learn.”

—279th stanza of the Song of Revision^[13]

 

This is the only entry with two songs.

The traditional Song of Listing, and the Song of Revision, what appears to be the modern iteration of Song of Listing, carried down orally over the centuries.

Only somewhere in that transmission, a pretty significant change got made.

Originally, the song says that to find artform, you need a spren that artists don't understand.

The modern version says you need creationspren, which is probably the spren artists understand most of all. This seems a pretty dramatic change.

During the time of the SA books, the parshendi are searching for artform by trying to attract creationspren. But this seems to be incorrect.

It seems to me that this is proof that the songs have been tampered with. Something perhaps deliberately obscured the secret of artform from the parshendi.

And they may well have tampered with other parts of the song too.

It seems an awful lot like Venli was under Odium's influence before she ever took on stormform. We've never really figured out what caused that... But I think it was something in the songs.

I'm betting that there's something in the songs that Odium planted there, which is what originally corrupted Venli and made the release of the everstorm possible.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

Honestly, this reminds me of Mistborn Era 1. I mean, you have the prophesies twisted by Ruin to release him from his prison. It would make sense for him to do the same thing to the Listener's songs to make sure that the forms that they actually find are the ones that will lead to war. Artform is a form that would only take away from a warlike people.

At the same time, you also have smokeform:

“Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men.
A form of power, like human Surges.
Bring it 'round again.
Though crafted of gods,
It was by Unmade hand.
Leaves its force to be but one of foe or friend. ”

—127th stanza of the Song of Histories^[17]

“Smokeform for hiding and slipping 'tween men.
A form of power—like Surges of spren
Do we dare to wear this form again? It spies.
Crafted of gods, this form we fear.
By Unmade touch its curse to bear,
Formed from shadow—and death is near. It lies. ”

—51st stanza of the Song of Secrets^[18]

Though I feel like it applies to this one too. Most of the Songs of Secret are about the Unmade, and a couple speak of avoiding specific forms, like this one. However, while the Song of History's Stanza on Smokeform is very similar to it's Song of Secrets equivalent, it goes from heavy warning to avoid it all costs to saying that it is powerful, and ought to come again, despite being from an Unmade source.

 

So, Artform, a form that does not lend itself to war is made less likely to be discovered, while Smokeform, a form probably as dangerous as Stormform, if not worse, has it's song altered to seem less evil, and more enticing.

[DrakeMarshall]

Nice catch, that song also looks like its clearly been corrupted.

[+Extesian]

My hesitation is this

Quote

BLIGHTSONG

Can Odium change written word on Roshar like Ruin could on Scadrial? (I was wondering this because it would make it easy for him to manipulate Mr.T that way.

BRANDON SANDERSON

*apprehensive* This is not really a thing that Odium does. Um, yea.

And this

Quote

ZAS678

Can Odium influence people the same way that Ruin can?

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

[misunderstands question as a question about kandra/koloss/parshendi] Well, you see, the kandra and the koloss have a "hole" in them that allows Ruin to come in and take over. The Parshendi naturally are protected from this, but when they expose themselves to the storms, and the spren come in, many of these spren have that kind of "hole" in them, and that’s what allows Odium to take control of them.

ZAS678

No, I'm talking about how Ruin was able to push people, place things in their minds, stuff like that. Can Odium do the same thing?

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

Well, Odium wasn't around when those people were created [Here it sounded like the mankind that's on that planet, not the specific generation], so it's a little different for him than Ruin. So if he influences people in that way, it's through the Unmade.

It sounds like Odium doesn't work like that. Can't rule out it being done through the Unmade. But as it changed over time I don't feel it could be through a spren with the right hole.

Good analysis though. 

[Catfish]

I think that it wouldn't be BS to do something twice... think it would be tooo simple for BS...

 

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

5 hours ago, Catfish said:

I think that it wouldn't be BS to do something twice... think it would be tooo simple for BS...

 

Except that the two changes are opposite. One goes from a useful song to a useless one, because the form is peaceful one. The other goes from a warning song, to a more enticing one, because the form is one that would be useful in war.

Now, considering that Brandon knows about the Cosmere community, I'm fairly sure he intentionally leaves us with a few goose chases like this. It does a couple things: 1. It makes the Cosmere cooler, and the 17th Sharders more numerous and more excited. Thus you have more guys guarantied to buy his books (going a bit too far with it, but you get the idea). 2. It keeps us from guessing everything. If we have 20 avenues to follow, we'll follow most of them. If we only had 2-3, we follow those 2-3 very thoroughly. This way, he can hide the main plotline among other plot related, or Cosmere related hunts.

And I agree, this specific one goes a LOT deeper. I mean, this is Brandon Sanderson!!!!!