A Greater Evil arrives... but where from?

[Benjibooboo]

So, I know a lot of us are hoping for a big show down, preferably Kaladin vs Seth (something I do not think will go down as most of us think it will), and as we have been led to believe with the WoR teasers the Parshendi are obviously becoming a bigger threat so who knows what's in store there.

 

However....having seen from the view point of Seth and the Parshendi, it is quite obvious that non of these are justifiably "evil", or rather evil enough for us to genuinely dislike them or fear them. "is anyone evil?" I hear you ask.....good point, i guess everyone has there own motives that make sense to them, however I think for this side of the story to hit home we need a bigger threat that is more difficult to understand (at least at this stage). Brandon has given us too much info on Seth and the Parshendi to simply route for the good guys completely with no remorse.

 

We know that the Everstorm is coming, which is potentially the doing of Odium's evil chull. So in order to really get our threat levels up to some serious heights we are inevitably going to see some bad guys (in whatever form) threatening our characters safety that originate from the Everstorm.

 

My question is....(and no doubt this will be answered, and answered very well by Brandon)...where will these bad guys come from? A rift in the fabric of the universe? The previous domain humans were purged from?(i forget the name apologies), simply willed into existence by Odium?

 

I would be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on where you think this large threat is going to originate from. So far to my knowledge nothing has been hinted at yet as to where each desolation originates from. yes, we have the notion that maybe the parshmen (or now that they are experimenting the Parshendi) may be these said "voidbringers" but assuming its a lot more complicated than this and things aren't so cut and dry where else? We know that during Dalinars visions we are privy to sights of much more dangerous creatures, are they simply hiding for all this time and waiting for the trigger to join the fight?

 

 

 

[Benjibooboo]

Before anyone mentions it, I am aware that the Parshmen and Parshendi are probably the same race

[Moogle]

I believe there is something of a consensus (as far as anything unconfirmed and rooted in speculation can be considered a 'consensus') on the matter of the Parshendi bonding with corrupted spren causing them to become a tool of Odium's. Odium can produce monsters in other ways, too (thunderclasts from corrupted spren, and there's the Ten Deaths and Unmade), so we don't need any "rifts in reality" to produce a source of monsters. Everything is set up and foreshadowed as necessary for the upcoming bad guys in my opinion. There won't be too many surprises as to their source.

 

That said, from a bad-guy perspective, the Alethi are probably the biggest villains of the series so far. They send slaves to carry bridges unprotected and let them die for wealth, after all. They sell people who saved them from death into slavery and steal their stuff. Even the 'best' Alethi is currently trying to commit genocide (for justifiable reasons, yeah, but still). I think we have something of a skewed view of the Alethi thanks to the fact that all of our PoVs come from the better members of the nationality.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Moogle

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Trollocs?

Oh, wait. Wrong series.

Um, yeah I'm thinking we'll start seeing actual 'voidbringer' type creatures, real monsters in the literal sense, or some of those good ol' Thunderclasts.
But everybody is going to have to get along first (Szeth, Dalinar, Mr. T, Kaladin, Jasnah, etc) which will probably take a little while to happen, (if at all).

[Benjibooboo]

I believe there is something of a consensus (as far as anything unconfirmed and rooted in speculation can be considered a 'consensus') on the matter of the Parshendi bonding with corrupted spren causing them to become a tool of Odium's. Odium can produce monsters in other ways, too, so we don't need any "rifts in reality" to produce a source of monsters.

 

That said, from a bad-guy perspective, the Alethi are probably the biggest villains of the series so far. They send slaves to carry bridges unprotected and let them die for wealth, after all.

If the Parshendi bond with these corrupted spren, this still may not account for the various other forms of bad guys like the Thunderclasts or the shadow spawn. These seem far too different from one another to simply be a different type of transformation for the parshendi. 

 

I agree with you, the Alethi are the biggest villains it would seem, although given that half our character roster derives from this race we really have no choice but to invest in them more so than anyone else at this point. I think Shallan/Jasnah/Kaladin/Dalinar and a few choice characters will certainly do their part to justify this investment we make in the Alethi by positively influencing everyone, whether it be by breaking gender barriers, breaking cast barriers etc..

 

For me, I would like a good explanation as to how these monsters come in to play other than Odium just having the ability to conjure them. After all odium is one of a few "gods" (shards, or whatever we wish to call them), what is stopping any of the others influencing things so heavily?

[Moogle]

If the Parshendi bond with these corrupted spren, this still may not account for the various other forms of bad guys like the Thunderclasts or the shadow spawn. These seem far too different from one another to simply be a different type of transformation for the parshendi.

 

Per Dalinar's vision in WoR, we know that thunderclasts can come from corrupted spren touched by one of the Unmade. So yeah, I don't think Odium can just conjure them, but it seems his champions/minions have the ability to do so. This mirrors Mistborn, where the gods could do nothing directly and had their minions fight for dominance.

[Benjibooboo]

Per Dalinar's vision in WoR, we know that thunderclasts can come from corrupted spren touched by one of the Unmade. So yeah, I don't think Odium can just conjure them, but it seems his champions/minions have the ability to do so. This mirrors Mistborn, where the gods could do nothing directly and had their minions fight for dominance.

Good point.

 

I am really hoping for some unity between seth and kaladin to face some of these things together. Seth is obviously the most capable (in terms of surgebinding) characters we know of so theres no better way for Kaladin to learn and learn quickly than to have Seth teach him.

 

I am thinking that Seth thinks of himself as unique and in his culture having these abilities seems like a curse rather than being a good thing. My guess is the moment he notices Kaladin has a similar ability then he will change his mind set and eventually they become allies of sorts.

[hoser he/him]

There are some unreliable hints in tWoK:

• In Hoid's story, the Wandersail goes to find the origin of the Voidbringers.
• The midnight essence show up in rural Natanatan. 
• The corrupted "spren" that turns into a thunderclast shows up at the purelake.

There are supposedly the ten fools, and the Parshendi came from somewhere to be away from their "dark gods", so these people could be arriving geographically. 

 

The Wandersail travels westward, but if they know the world is a sphere, they may figure that they can get anywhere.  Taln dies holding a passage near a northern waterway.  All these locations are near coasts, so maybe the enemy arrives from overseas?  

 

Edit: filled in real information for vague memories

Edited February 26, 2014 by hoser

[Gloom he/him]

 

The knight sniffed dismissively. "Voidbringers? These? No, this was Midnight Essence, though who released it is still a mystery."

TWoKs Ch. 19

 

We can assume, either correctly or incorrectly, that the Midnight Essence is one of the ten deaths. Thunderclasts are likely another of the ten deaths. As Thunderclasts are almost certainly not Parsh in origin, and Midnight Essence is released from somewhere, we could definitely see these or other deaths in the near future. We still aren't certain who the Voidbringers are yet, but we can assume that if Taln is free, so are the Ten Fools.

[Moogle]

We still aren't certain who the Voidbringers are yet, but we can assume that if Taln is free, so are the Ten Fools.

 

Based on my mostly-baseless theory on Odium having to limit himself to the strength of his opponents, I'd actually say there's a decent chance there's only going to be one Fool. Though I guess the other Heralds are still around, so perhaps not.

[Shumei he/him]

Truthfully, the Heralds themselves (apart from Taln) are probably villains at this point.  They have all abandoned their posts, and at least one is hunting down surgebinders.

[TomR]

We know that the Everstorm is coming, which is potentially the doing of Odium's evil chull. 

 

We've heard about Stormform and the Everstorm.  I'll be very surprised if these two things are not directly related, Stormform causing the Everstorm.  Especially given Navani's journal entries, when she talks about transformation of her husband's murderers being the true danger.

Edited February 26, 2014 by TomR

[1empyrean]

There are some unreliable hints in tWoK:

• In Hoid's story, the Wandersail goes to find the origin of the Voidbringers.
• The midnight essence show up in rural Natanatan. 
• The corrupted "spren" that turns into a thunderclast shows up at the purelake.

There are supposedly the ten fools, and the Parshendi came from somewhere to be away from their "dark gods", so these people could be arriving geographically. 

 

The Wandersail travels westward, but if they know the world is a sphere, they may figure that they can get anywhere.  Taln dies holding a passage near a northern waterway.  All these locations are near coasts, so maybe the enemy arrives from overseas?  

 

Edit: filled in real information for vague memories

 

• There are 10 of a lot of things in on Roshar, and the ten fools don't strike me as anything important, just a construct of vorinism.
• Hoid knows too much.  How does he know so much?  Was he there, actually on the wandersail?
• Rosharans are probably unaware of the shape of their world, and even if they were, sailing during a highstorm isn't likely to result in survival, so I doubt much exploration of the seas has occurred.
• threat might come from one of the moons...maybe...

[The Count he/him]

Well, there is precedence for living things just turning up out of "nowhere" since Taln materialised somewhere close to Khilonar.

 

I see no reason why the evil league of evil cannot be similarly transported to Roshar if Odium could harness enough power to do so.

 

If the Parshendi are potentially one species of Voidbringer and they can assume stomform, presumably they could take control of a highstorm and use its power to let Odium transport his voidish armies from Damnation to Roshar.

 

I also wonder if we will see proper darkside surgebinders, or a cult of Odium or something like that.

Edited February 26, 2014 by The Count

[Asperity he/him]

I wonder if we would even see the "prime" evil of the Stormlight arc as soon as Book 2.

Or if there will be different main evils in the first half versus the last half.

[AerionBFII he/him]

Whatever splintered Adonalsium sounds pretty scary 

[Colby Jack he/him]

Say what you will, but I think Vorinism is about to make a huge comeback. They'll run around in red robes and smother people with their comfy chairs!