[Theory] The Secrets of Gavilar Kholin

[dvoraen]

Disclaimer: This is a very large house of cards, I realize that, so please do not blow it down too forcefully.  It’s also somewhat disorganized as it’s a mishmash of random thoughts that I’m trying to make into a jigsaw puzzle.  I'm posting this because I finally had an epiphany about one part that was bothering me and so here I am with a start to the discussion!

Gavilar Kholin is one of the more mysterious characters, even long after his assassination in The Way of Kings.  Not only was he a member of a group working to return the Voidbringers to Roshar, but he knew of other secretive groups and their leaders, in addition to having access to supernatural knowledge and peculiarly Invested spheres.  So let’s take a trip into some of those mysteries and happenings and theories, starting off with this:

Gavilar Kholin could see the future.

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“I’ve seen how that can be reversed.  A new storm that will bring the Heralds out of hiding. A new war.”
-- Oathbringer, p24hb

From the way he speaks, it seems clear to me that Gavilar Kholin has seen the Everstorm.  In the visions shown to us that Dalinar has seen, the Everstorm is not directly present in any of them.  Honor mentions it, but we never see its effect on the world or the parshmen.  The complete destruction of the world, yes, but not the Everstorm.  Even when Dalinar goes outside the boundaries of the vision, all he sees is the light representing Odium, and the Champion with Nine Shadows.  Is it possible that Gavilar himself isn't seeing the future, but rather visions that Odium had sent him?  Yes, it is, as Meridas Amaram was proven to be in direct contact with Odium as well.  Could it be the Stormfather sending them, based on Taravangian's interlude?  I used to think so, but the fact that the Stormfather confirms that Dalinar was the first to bind him, strongly suggests that Gavilar wasn't a candidate for becoming a Bondsmith, and so it's my belief that Gavilar's visions have another source, and it isn't affiliated with Honor.

Gavilar Kholin found an Unmade but it was not Ba-Ado-Mishram.
This will be explained more below.

Gavilar Kholin found Sja-anat instead.
This one will require a bit of explanation, but I acknowledge first and foremost that it’s a tenuous assertion.  To explain how I narrowed it down to Sja-anat, let’s go into why it’s not most of the other Unmade:

• Ba-Ado-Mishram
  • The basis for it not being Ba-Ado-Mishram is largely covered by the fact that it seems strange that the Sons of Honor would not have simply released Ba-Ado-Mishram to allow her to bring back the forms of power.  Gavilar has directly stated that he wants the singers to have their forms of power as part of the plan to return the Heralds.
  • Ba-Ado-Mishram was likely in northwestern Roshar at the time of her capture.  There are multiple reasons I say this.  One, the Radiants began forswearing their oaths at Feverstone Keep.  Given the gemstone archives at Urithiru, the location of Feverstone Keep was in the same region as Rall Elorim, the so-called “City of Shadows.”  Two, the Radiants were still “fighting the devils” at the time of Feverstone Keep, suggesting that the singers still had access to the forms of power and that they had not had their Identity and more ripped out of them on account of Ba-Ado-Mishram’s capture.  In other words, the vision at Feverstone Keep was very likely the moment when Ba-Ado-Mishram was captured, or soon after.
• Nergaoul
  • Nergaoul has been active for some time in Roshar, including Dalinar’s younger years.  It’s very clear that Nergaoul has not been imprisoned for years.  Plus, Nergaoul has been mostly if not completely in the Cognitive Realm (per Oathbringer) and not eligible for easy capture and study in the Physical Realm.
• Moelach
  • Similarly to Nergaoul, Moelach has also apparently been active for some time, enough that Hessi has been able to track Moelach’s movements through multiple points in time, through Vorin areas of Roshar and elsewhere.
• Re-Shephir
  • Re-Shephir has been absolved by Shallan in terms of her location, having been lurking at Urithiru.
• Dai-Gonarthis
  • While Dai-Gonarthis is a candidate, there are indicators that suggest he(?) is restrained on Aimia as of Oathbringer.  The Aimians are actively trying to prevent Akinah from being rediscovered.  Hessi feels Dai-Gonarthis may have orchestrated the scouring of Aimia.  Given that Akinah earned a nickname of “The Void’s Playground,” per Kaza’s interlude in Oathbringer, this adds weight to Hessi’s speculation.
• Yelig-nar
  • Yelig-nar is troublesome, simply because of Queen Aesudan.  She speaks as if Yelig-nar was the one found, but Gavilar couldn't figure out how to bond him, but on the other hand, the legends behind Yelig-nar appear to be accessible enough to be found with a little looking.  (It's possible that it wasn't until Mythica was published that Aesudan "solved the riddle," though I rather suspect Odium telling her is how she achieved that.)  Given that Gavilar “found one of the ancient spren, but he could never discover how to bond it,” suggests that the Unmade that was found did not have this trait associated with them, and that plus Yelig-nar apparently not being captive makes me think that it was not Yelig-nar that was the found Unmade.
• Ashertmarn
  • This is the other Unmade that's troublesome, simply because the timeline for his arrival in Kholinar is fuzzy.  However, since the queen's indulgent behavior didn't occur until recently, I rather think that Ashertmarn was drawn to Kholinar rather than released into Kholinar.  It's also possible that Queen Aesudan had begun hosting Yelig-nar and this is what attracted Ashertmarn in the first place.  For example, the queen's meals in her rooms exhibit some inconsistency by looking intact yet infested with decayspren, which makes me wonder if she had been using Yelig-nar's power to preserve them without meaning to do so, or if Yelig-nar did it himself as a wool over the eyes to make her think she was in control of the power, and so on.
• Chemoarish
  • The Dustmother’s location and activity level are unknown, which does admittedly make her a candidate.  The reason for her exclusion, however, has more to do with why I think Sja-anat is a better fit.

 

Let’s now go into why I find Sja-anat the better fit for which Unmade Gavilar found:

• Sja-anat’s touch (Enlightened spren) has not been observed or reported until her appearance in Kholinar during Oathbringer.  Unless people in modern Roshar have been dismissing past reports as superstitious nonsense, or these spren have been in very secluded areas, Sja-anat was likely captive in Kholinar until her release.  With how much communication lines have improved, it seems unlikely that reports of “odd spren” would go dismissed unless they came from areas such as the Reshi isles that have stereotypes of paganism or oddity associated with them.
• Gavilar Kholin had privileged knowledge regarding the Unmade, particularly his knowledge about Ba-Ado-Mishram being the spren required for the forms of power.  The most likely reason is that he was told by an external source well acquainted with the Unmade and their powers, and that would mean only Odium -- a very real possibility -- or an Unmade capable of communication.  It’s possible the Ghostbloods have some of this knowledge, since Gavilar knows who Thaidakar is and the Ghostbloods have a clear interest in the Unmade and were likely one of those “watching [him]”, but I find it strange that they would just happen to know about Ba-Ado-Mishram’s capabilities in this respect.  Could a Herald have told him?  There was opportunity, yes, but why would they?
• Sja-anat has been in Kholinar for some time.  I have no hard proof of this, namely for how long, but I feel it has been implied that Sja-anat has been there for a bit.  The implication of Sja-anat being the Unmade below the Oathgate in the Cognitive Realm is due to her stating that she would “try not to kill you” to the group that used the Oathgate and landed on it in Shadesmar, where a large black hand just so happens to reach up out of the sea of beads from deep below, a being that Pattern speculates to be “likely one of the Unmade.”  This, combined with the heartbeat sound that started after the group ended up in Shadesmar, suggests that perhaps that entity had been slumbering, as Moelach supposedly does.  Even the possibility of having been slumbering would both explain the lack of Enlightened spren until present day, but would also corroborate her having been in Kholinar for a while.
• The Voidlight spheres.  More on these in the next section.
• Glys was Enlightened some time ago.  In particular, he found his way to Renarin at some point early in Words of Radiance.  We don’t have an exact idea when Glys was Enlightened, just that it had happened “before they had formed their bond,” but the fact that an Enlightened spren somehow got to the Shattered Plains is proof that Sja-anat was active and not a captive during Words of Radiance if not before then.

To further explain my suspicions about Gavilar, I have to go a little further into Sja-anat’s abilities, namely why I think she was the most feared by the Radiants.

Theory: Sja-anat can Enlighten Stormlight into Voidlight.
We have numerous examples of proof that she can Enlighten Investiture to become that of Odium, namely every single Splinter that was corrupted by her.  If she can corrupt the less sapient spren, which by definition are comprised of Investiture from Honor and/or Cultivation, then it stands to reason that she also has the ability to corrupt the raw form of Investiture itself.  Being unable to utilize Investiture against her would account for a great deal as to why the Radiants would not want to risk a confrontation with her, because it’s possible that Sja-anat can corrupt those abilities directly, or potentially do great harm to an individual holding Stormlight.  I’m not going to get into the subject of “Enlightened” Stormlight much here, however, but I bring it up here as the concept of Enlightening Stormlight is very much relevant to the creation of the “black spheres.”

Why do I bring this up?  I refer to this post and Peter’s coy response within it, which to me suggests strongly that Sja-anat’s Enlightening is a level of Voidbinding.

So with all that said, let’s summarize.  Gavilar Kholin has been:

• Actively searching for the Unmade.
• Actively searching for powers from the enemy; anything that would possibly return the Voidbringers.
• Leaving cryptic instructions to Dalinar about something he needs to do, dying words that had a prophetic undertone.
• Receiving visions of the Everstorm and its effects, which is in the future.  This is a key point.
• “Making” Voidlight spheres, which sources from the Shard of Odium.

And so I leave you with one thought that, to me, explains the mystery, including how he “made” those spheres:

Gavilar Kholin was learning to be a Voidbinder.

Edited August 27, 2018 by dvoraen

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

Gavilar didn't bond the Stormfather, but the potential was there. Basically like Dalinar before he came to Urithiru and said the First and Second Oath. Gavilar simply never progressed to that stage, and was going in the wrong direction than what the SF wanted. 

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Questioner

The visions Dalinar gets in WoK always struck me as odd - you don't just look at the past, you are able to act within this experience. Now we know that Gavilar was also on the way to being a Bondsmith - was he acting in a different way? Were the visions only basically the same but different in the end depending on the personal reactions? Is this something like a test?

Brandon Sanderson

He did see the same visions. They were the same thing. But... I will say that his reaction to them were very different from Dalinar's reactions to them. Anyway it was difficult for the Stormfather without a bond to determine/to tell the difference between very easily. When Spren are bonded, they gain a lot more ability to understand the world around then, so you'll find out soon more stuff about this in the third book.

source

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Ted Herman (paraphrased)

Has Dalinar been on the Bondsmith path for a long time? How about Gavilar?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes to both.

Brandon said that Gavilar had been on the Bondsmith path for longer than Dalinar has been.

source

That been said, that Gavilar was on the path to potentially become a Bondsmith doesn't prevent him from possibly becoming a Voidbinder. But I suspect that may have been more by accident than on purpose. It's possible he was chasing pure power, and Odium's power was easier to reach and see than Honor's where you have to swear the Oaths and not just go off in a destruction spree . Another possibility is that he was trying to Voidbind, believing he could pick it up and drop it after some experimentation. 

I'm not too convinced on the Sja-anat angle. It is entirely possible she played us during the brief time we saw her, but she seemed honestly worried of what Odium winning would mean for her and her spren. So I don't see her hastening along the Desolation of her own free will, or at the least dropping warnings with other people who would have worked to prevent it. 

[Li0nhunter]

I like it, and I’m not gonna blow to hard, but a heart beat means a sleeping unmade? That’s one hell of a stretch.

[+Child of Hodor]

7 hours ago, dvoraen said:

Disclaimer: This is a very large house of cards, I realize that, so please do not blow it down too forcefully.  It’s also somewhat disorganized as it’s a mishmash of random thoughts that I’m trying to make into a jigsaw puzzle.  I'm posting this because I finally had an epiphany about one part that was bothering me and so here I am with a start to the discussion!

Gavilar Kholin is one of the more mysterious characters, even long after his assassination in The Way of Kings.  Not only was he a member of a group working to return the Voidbringers to Roshar, but he knew of other secretive groups and their leaders, in addition to having access to supernatural knowledge and peculiarly Invested spheres.  So let’s take a trip into some of those mysteries and happenings and theories, starting off with this:

Gavilar Kholin could see the future.

From the way he speaks, it seems clear to me that Gavilar Kholin has seen the Everstorm.  In the visions shown to us that Dalinar has seen, the Everstorm is not directly present in any of them.  Honor mentions it, but we never see its effect on the world or the parshmen.  The complete destruction of the world, yes, but not the Everstorm.

  Reveal hidden contents

Gavilar Kholin was learning to be a Voidbinder.

 

Dalinar knew of the Everstorm from his visions in WoK. 

You must unite them, the strange, booming words had told him. You must prepare. Build of your people a fortress of strength and peace, a wall to resist the winds. Cease squabbling and unite. The Everstorm comes.”— Dalinar's memory from one of the visions^[6]

[dvoraen]

7 hours ago, Li0nhunter said:

I like it, and I’m not gonna blow to hard, but a heart beat means a sleeping unmade? That’s one hell of a stretch.

My thought about the heartbeat was that it was both unusual and suggestive of an entity becoming more... awake if that makes sense.  It is a leap of logic, but why else would there suddenly be a heartbeat sound coming from the presumed-Unmade unless it was "stirring" so to speak.

 

With respect to Dalinar and the visions, I admit I had completely forgotten the WoB's about Gavilar seeing visions from the Stormfather as well.  I don't think it completely undermines my claim that Gavilar was seeing other things pertaining to the future as well, because the visions don't answer how Gavilar knew the Everstorm would fix the issue caused by Ba-Ado-Mishram's capture.  Unless Brandon omitted some content from them on purpose, the visions Honor made don't explain how Gavilar knew about the link between Ba-Ado-Mishram and the singers.  He had some pretty specific, privileged information in his conversation with Eshonai, and between that and "how dark he'd gotten" (Navani's assessment of his character), I think it's pretty clear Gavilar was being influenced by Odium either by Odium directly speaking to him, which is possible, or through one of the Unmade.  My thought is on the latter, given that it seems to be a fact that Gavilar had discovered and found an Unmade.

[LadyLameness]

I read this the other day when you first posted but didn't have a chance to respond to it. It's a cool theory though I don't necessarily agree with it. 

The one thing that does jump at to me though;

On 27/08/2018 at 5:26 PM, dvoraen said:

Gavilar Kholin could see the future.

Quote

“I’ve seen how that can be reversed.  A new storm that will bring the Heralds out of hiding. A new war.”
-- Oathbringer, p24hb

From the way he speaks, it seems clear to me that Gavilar Kholin has seen the Everstorm.  In the visions shown to us that Dalinar has seen, the Everstorm is not directly present in any of them.  Honor mentions it, but we never see its effect on the world or the parshmen.  The complete destruction of the world, yes, but not the Everstorm.  Even when Dalinar goes outside the boundaries of the vision, all he sees is the light representing Odium, and the Champion with Nine Shadows.

I came across this accidentally in my reread but the Stormfather did have the capacity to show the Everstorm to people. 

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“Something rose before Kaladin. A second storm, one of red lightning, so enormous as to make the continent – the world itself – into nothing by comparison. Everything fell into its shadow.”

“Words of Radiance.” Chapter 32

Between this and what White Leeopard pointed out above about Dalinar's visions referencing the Everstorm makes me think that Gavilar wasn't seeing the future. 

Which now has me slightly alarmed as to why the Stormfather is showing people things that had not yet happened. 

I think that he learned about BAM and the capture of the parshmen (though I don't think it's ever stated that he knew it was BAM, just that it was a 'crucial spren') through one means and the Everstorm through another and came to the conclusion that the storm could reverse what could be done. 

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

I think that the evidence, as the OP stated, points to Gavilar having Sja-Anat. Furthermore, I think that the black sphere that Gavilar gave to Eshonai had Sja-anat encapsulated in it.

EVIDENCE:

Exhibit A: Gavilar talks to Eshonai about how he can return their lost gods to them. Would Voidlight in a sphere do this?

Exhibit B: The stormform spren that the Listeners bond seem an awful lot like corrupted wind spren. They flit around as visible red streaks, Syl and Kaladin both comment on them before the eve of the Everstorm. I believe that Sja-anat was corrupting wind spren to create these storm form spren. How else do explain the fact that they have enough voidspren to effect the transformation of hundreds (or is it thousands) of listeners right on the eve of the Everstorm?

Exhibit C: Renarin's spren. It's fully 6 years after the death of his dad that we see renarin manifesting radiant abilities, and we know by the end of Oathbringer that Glys is a corrupted spren. This is ample time for Saj-anat to have corrupted the appropriate truthwatcher spren that was already pre-disposed to bond Renarin. The proximity probably helped, and maybe was insturmental.

[LadyLameness]

Hmm, I disagree that if Gavilar had Sja-Anat then he gave her to Eshonai.  If he did, then surely the Alethi would have seen more corrupted spren on the Shattered Plains during the entire war? Szeth was also given a sphere as well.

If Gavilar found Sja-anat, I'm more inclined to agree with OP that she was stuck in Kholinar. 

22 minutes ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

Exhibit A: Gavilar talks to Eshonai about how he can return their lost gods to them. Would Voidlight in a sphere do this?

 

Depends on what you think the purpose of him giving the sphere to her was for. I don't think he was giving her something to try and bring back her gods, I think he gave it to her as a reminder of the power that the Listeners were denying themselves.

18 minutes ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

Exhibit B: The stormform spren that the Listeners bond seem an awful lot like corrupted wind spren. They flit around as visible red streaks, Syl and Kaladin both comment on them before the eve of the Everstorm. I believe that Sja-anat was corrupting wind spren to create these storm form spren. How else do explain the fact that they have enough voidspren to effect the transformation of hundreds (or is it thousands) of listeners right on the eve of the Everstorm?

 

But the corrupted spren that we see in Kholinar are still recognisable as what they once were, where as it's never mentioned that the stormspren look the same (but corrupted) as windspren and Syl notices them several times before the Everstorm but never says anything about them being similar to windspren. 

Though I have no answer to your question about how they had enough stormspren. 

 

 

[Juanaton he/him]

On 8/27/2018 at 9:17 AM, Li0nhunter said:

I like it, and I’m not gonna blow to hard, but a heart beat means a sleeping unmade? That’s one hell of a stretch.

Particularly when Ashertmarn manifested as a heart...

[Juanaton he/him]

47 minutes ago, LadyLameness said:

Hmm, I disagree that if Gavilar had Sja-Anat then he gave her to Eshonai.  If he did, then surely the Alethi would have seen more corrupted spren on the Shattered Plains during the entire war? Szeth was also given a sphere as well.

If Gavilar found Sja-anat, I'm more inclined to agree with OP that she was stuck in Kholinar. 

Depends on what you think the purpose of him giving the sphere to her was for. I don't think he was giving her something to try and bring back her gods, I think he gave it to her as a reminder of the power that the Listeners were denying themselves.

But the corrupted spren that we see in Kholinar are still recognisable as what they once were, where as it's never mentioned that the stormspren look the same (but corrupted) as windspren and Syl notices them several times before the Everstorm but never says anything about them being similar to windspren. 

Though I have no answer to your question about how they had enough stormspren. 

 

 

I don’t think Gavilar gave a sphere to Eshonai at all. He showed it to her, and talked about it, but he only gave it up to Szeth when he was dying.

[LadyLameness]

Nah, @Juanaton he definitely gave it to her. 

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He set it on the table before her. “Take that to the Five and explain what I told you. Tell them to remember what your people once were. Wake up, Eshonai.”

He patted her on the shoulder, then left the room. She stared at that terrible light, and—from the songs—knew it for what it was. The forms of power had been associated with a dark light, a light from the king of gods.

She plucked the sphere off the table and went running.

They might have left it behind but I doubt it. 

[CalaCrisp88]

14 hours ago, Juanaton said:

I don’t think Gavilar gave a sphere to Eshonai at all. He showed it to her, and talked about it, but he only gave it up to Szeth when he was dying.

Yes, it was made clear in the books he had multiple spheres. He gave one to Eshonai, then one to Szeth. There's also a WoB on this.

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Jofwu[PENDING REVIEW]

Gavilar's black sphere. What was inside of it and how many does he have?

Brandon Sanderson[PENDING REVIEW]

Well, it is what you think it is. And he had... yeah... He had access to several. Did we canonize this Karen?

Karen Ahlstrom[PENDING REVIEW]

*shakes head*

Brandon Sanderson[PENDING REVIEW]

No, we haven't canonized it. I'm going to say RAFO on the number, but it is what you think it is and what the third book implies that it is.

source

 

[Juanaton he/him]

On 8/29/2018 at 7:54 AM, LadyLameness said:

Nah, @Juanaton he definitely gave it to her. 

They might have left it behind but I doubt it. 

Ah...the drawbacks of getting everything from audiobooks. I missed that, you are right.