[OB] Ba-Ado-Mishram and Melishi's Strike Force

[ccstat he/him]

The recent Shardcast discussing the Part 3 Epigraphs (the gemstone recordings) brought some things together in my mind, and prompted an intriguing question.

Things we know:

• After Aharietiam the Fused were confined to Braize and Odium could not provide the Regals with voidlight. However, during an event known as the False Desolation, Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to stand in for Odium and provide voidlight to the singers, enabling them to use the forms of power. 
• Melishi the bondsmith came up with a plan to counter this and organized a strike force of Truthwatchers to capture Ba-Ado-Mishram. (For more about Melishi and the False Desolation, check out this thread or listen to the Shardcast linked above.)
• Ba-Ado-Mishram has not been active in modern Roshar, and is presumably still trapped. (For more about that, see this thread.)

Epigraphs where we learn about all this:

Spoiler

In-world Words of Radiance: (ch 58)

Quote

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address.

Radiant gem recordings, all emeralds (Truthwatcher) from the same drawer:

Quote

"Something must be done about the remnants of Odium's forces. The parsh, as they are now called, continue their war with zeal, even without their masters from Damnation."

"A coalition has been formed among scholar Radiants. Our goal is to deny the enemy their supply of Voidlight; this will prevent their continuing transformations, and give us an edge in combat." 

"Our revelation is fueled by the theory that the Unmade can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi."

"Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her."

"We are uncertain the effects this will have on the parsh. At the very least, it should deny them forms of power. Melishi is confident, but Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warns of unintended side effects."

"Surely this will bring - at long last - the end to war that the Heralds promised us."

"Don't tell anyone. I can't say it. I must whisper. I foresaw this."

Hessi's Mythica:

Quote

I find Ba-Ado-Mishram to be the most interesting of the Unmade. She is said to have been keen of mind, a highprincess among the enemy forces, their commander during some of the Desolations. I do not know how this relates to the ancient god of the enemy, named Odium.

There is very little information about Ba-Ado-Mishram in more modern times. I can only assume she, unlike many of them, returned to Damnation or was destroyed during Aharietiam. 

 

So what do we know about trapping Unmade? We saw it happen once in OB, along with some additional hints. While difficult to accomplish, it's only slightly more complicated that "grab the spren and stick it in a gem." You need one of the special "perfect" gemstones like the King's Drop and you need bait. You may or may not also need a bondsmith to lock the Unmade inside. The gemstone recording says "It would require a special prison. And Melishi." I don't know whether Melishi is functioning as bait or as prison warden here, but since his stratagem was "related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths" I am inclined toward the latter. 

But you definitely need bait. Taravangian describes it to Dalinar this way, in reference to lesser spren:

Quote

“Do you know how we capture spren for fabrials, Dalinar? From spanreeds to heatrials, it’s all the same. You lure the spren with something it loves. You give it something familiar to draw it in, something it knows deeply. In that moment, it becomes your slave.”

Remembering this, Dalinar decides to make himself the bait for Nergaoul during the battle of Thaylen Field. That is an obvious match since the Blackthorn is the perfect vessel for the Thrill, someone who was gleefully addicted it for decades. In the sub-basement of Urithiru, Shallan learns that a previous Lightweaver served as bait for Re-Shephir.

Excerpt of the Re-Shephir confrontation from Ch 30:

Spoiler

Quote

This spren was not completely aware, not completely cognizant. She was a creation of instinct and alien curiosity, drawn to violence and pain like scavengers to the scent of blood.

Shallan knew Re-Shephir at the same time as the thing came to know her. The spren tugged and prodded at Shallan’s bond with Pattern, seeking to rip it free and insert herself instead. Pattern clung to Shallan, and she to him, holding on for dear life.

She fears us, Pattern’s voice buzzed in her head. Why does she fear us?

[...]

Her creations had come to imitate what she saw in the world, but lacking love or affection. Like stones come alive, content to be killed or to kill with no attachment or enjoyment. No emotions beyond an overpowering curiosity, and that ephemeral attraction to violence.

Almighty above… it’s like a creationspren. Only so, so wrong.

[...]

The creature trembled, and Shallan finally saw the reason for its fear. It had been trapped. The event had happened recently in the spren’s reckoning, though Shallan had the impression that in fact centuries upon centuries had passed.

Re-Shephir was terrified of it happening again. The imprisonment had been unexpected, presumed impossible. And it had been done by a Lightweaver like Shallan, who had understood this creature.

It feared her like an axehound might fear someone with a voice similar to that of its harsh master.

 

So Re-Shephir is similar to creationspren, the presumed secondary spren of Lightweavers that are attracted to their artistic abilities. And Shallan is all about creating imitations of things, which makes her extremely compatible with Re-Shephir (note the Unmade's attempt to displace Pattern). So when Shallan opens herself to Re-Shephir, it is too much like the last encounter with a Lightweaver and Re-Shephir flees, fearing imprisonment.

Shallan encounters two more Unmade in Kholinar. Sja-Anat just talks to her, but Ashertmarn is attracted to her. The attraction isn't related to her Lightweaver status this time, but rather to her fracturing psyche full of competing desires:

Spoiler

Quote

Give it all to me, the voices whispered in Shallan’s mind. Give me your passion, your hunger, your longing, your loss. Surrender it. You are what you feel.

[...]

She became a new person with every heartbeat. The voices seemed thrilled by this. They assaulted her, growing to a frenzy. Shallan was a thousand people in a moment. But which one was her?

 

This affinity is real, but doesn't seem anywhere close to the oneness that Shallan experiences with Re-Shephir, or that Dalinar has Nergaoul.

The odd thing to note is that Melishi's strike team appears to consist entirely of Truthwatchers. This indicates that members of that order may be uniquely suited to act as bait for Ba-Ado-Mishram. So what are the qualities of Truthwatchers, and what can that tell us about the personality/effects of this particular Unmade? (Presumably we could draw conclusions about the Truthwatchers from information about the Unmade, but we know even less about her than we do about the order.)

We know that they use Progression and Illumination. They are associated with Pailiah's divine attributes: learned and giving.  The in-world Words of Radiance has this to say:

Quote

Now, as the Truthwatchers were esoteric in nature, their order being formed entirely of those who never spoke or wrote of what they did, in this lies frustration for those who would see their exceeding secrecy from the outside; they were not naturally inclined to explanation; and in the case of Corberon's disagreements, their silence was not a sign of exceeding abundance of disdain, but rather an exceeding abundance of tact.

They were secretive and... that's about it. If only Ba-Ado-Mishram and not Sja-Anat were the Unmade known as the Taker of Secrets. But no, that can't be it. 

Honestly I'm pretty stumped at this point. Brandon has repeatedly RAFO'd information about the Truthwatchers, so we don't have any useful WoBs about their resonance, their nahel spren, or the lesser spren associate with their order. The only thing we have is a soft confirmation that they are an order that "is about using knowledge to help people" (questioner's phrasing). There has been a fair amount of speculation in other threads about the Truthwatcher resonance, but nearly all of our data comes from Renarin who, after the reveals of OB, is clearly not representative. He says he "sees," which I believe applies to more than his atypical future sight, but there is not clear textual support for that yet.

I'm still pondering this relationship between the Truthwatchers and Ba-Ado-Mishram, and I will be looking for more hints on my reread. My best guess at this point has to do with discerning the essence of things. She served as a general during Desolations, and that ability to perceive would be extremely useful in that context. I look forward to seeing your suggestions and speculation.

[Dlyol]

Was the strike team formed solely of Truthwatchers? All we know is that there was a coalition amongst 'scholar Radiants' to work out how to imprison Ba-ado-Mishram in which there was at least one Truthwatcher and that there was a strike team formed to perform this task of which Melishi was a member. Nothing about this implies that the former and the latter groups were the same, indeed the exact quote implies a degree of distance between them to me;

Quote

"Ba-ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her."

Presumably, Melishi was involved in both groups but that was because as we are told several times what he did was 'related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths' and that the only things they needed were 'a special prison and Melishi' which says nothing about whether Truthwatchers were required. As far as I can see the involvement of Truthwatchers in this was related rather more to the fact that with a divine attribute like knowledge they probably were disproportionately represented amongst 'scholar Radiants' rather than any especial power they possessed. 

[ccstat he/him]

Hm, good points. I can see how some of my assumptions are weak, starting with the idea that those doing the research went on the mission. I also assumed that each gem corresponded to a unique radiant, and the team of truthwatchers just stuck their gems in together, but that may not be the case. One person could have taken sequential research notes and stored them all in his/her drawer. It looks like the other drawers housing multiple gems also contained a single type of gemstone. So the correspondence may be one drawer per person, not one gem per person.

(I was also guessing that each gem contained substantially more text and we only got a snippet, but maybe there isn't much storage space in them and the multiple gems are necessary to convey longer thoughts/messages.)

Edited December 6, 2017 by ccstat

[Braizier]

I love all of this. 

[I think I am here. he/him]

Perhaps it has something to do with the Truthwatcher qualities “Learned and Giving” as you put it. We know according to Hessi that Ba-Ado-Mishram was said to be “keen of mind”, “a highprincess” among the enemy and apparently their commander.

To me this speaks a high level of intelligence that may exceed other Unmade. Starting off topic for a second, there was a theory that the Unmade with hyphens in their name are more intelligent than those that don’t (Re-Shephir and Sja-Anat being more intelligent than Neragoul and Ashertman, who seem more like the embodiment of forces (the Thrill, indulgence etc.)) Following this theory, it’s possible Ba-Ado-Mishram was extremely intelligent, even among the Unmade.

This Intelligence seems to fit with the logical Truthwatcher attribute of “Learned”. The other attribute “giving”, seems to fit even better, since Ba-Ado-Mishram is a giver of voidlight among the Parshmen.

So it’s apparent that she is also Learned and Giving just like the Truthwatchers, but in similar fashion to Re-Shephir’s ‘creation and curiosity” to Shallan’s, the values are wrong and twisted. Just as the Truthwatcher’s give knowledge and Progression, Ba-Ado-Mishram does the same, spreading knowledge of tactics and giving Voidlight to the Parshmen.

Maybe Ba-Ado could identify with a quality in these Truthwatcher’s (in similar vein to Re-Shephir identifying with Shallan’s creations and curiosity). Maybe what draws Ba-Ado in, attracts it in is this “giving” quality? When someone wants to spread their knowledge, spread their power around to everyone (Progression) for the greater good, maybe Ba-Ado can identify with that.

Maybe this giving quality of her’s could be because Odium “gave” her the most? As in most Intelligence, most power (if she can single-handedly Power the Parsh’s forms of power).