The Unmade and Listener Forms

[Maffu17 he/him]

I was hoping to refine theory this after another readthrough or two but i'll submit it as is and let the lord of chaos rule.

 

Ever noticed how the Unmade and Listener Forms seem to slot into the Ars Arcanum?

 

AA 4 : Edgedancers // Divine Attributes: Loving, Healing

 

Listener Form: Mate Form

 

5th Stanza

Mateform meek, for love to share,

Given to life, it brings us joy.

To find this form, one must care.

True empathy one must employ

 

Unmade: Nergaoul

 

Responsible for the Thrill, which manifests as hatred and a lust for violence. Being opposites of Loving and Healing.

 

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AA 6: Lightweavers // Divine Attributes: Creative, Honest

 

Listener Form: Art Form

 

90th Stanza

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

 

Unmade: Moelach

 

Responsible for the Death-Rattles, destructive in the sense that death is their price, and I believe as they are sent by an Unmade they are going to ultimately be misleading and untrustworthy, making everything Taravangian is working towards flawed because he used them as a base for his plans.

 

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AA 7: Elsecallers // Divine Attributes: Wise, Careful

 

Listener Form: Nimble Form

 

Nimbleform has a delicate touch.

Gave the gods this form to many,

Tho’ once defied, by the gods they were crushed.

This form craves precision and plenty

 

Unmade: Re-Shephir

 

Responsible for the Midnight Essence monsters in Dalinar's visions. Described as being inky which links to Jasnah's spren Ivory (Oil being the Elsecaller body focus in the AA). Also note their fighting style, which I would describe here with a biased opinion as stupid and reckless, given that they didn't show particular aptitude and fought to the death despite clearly being outmatched.

 

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We don't know much the Unmade so I feel like i'm crowbarring things in to suit, but there's certainly interesting arguments to be made. And if all the Unmade personify the antonyms of divine attributes we can keep an eye out for things which exemplify their opposites, such as cowardice, decay, selfishness, ignorance, disobedience, incompetence, deserting and the rest.

 

As for the Listener Forms there are so many comparisons I begin to think there are 2 Forms for each order, one good and one odious. 

 

e.g. 

 

ScholarForm = Evil version of NimbleForm

 

Scholarform shown for patience and thought.

Beware its ambitions innate.

Though study and diligence bring the reward

Loss of innocence may be one’s fate

 

So the Parshendi all thought Venli was in Nimbleform utilising a spren, but she was actually in Scholarform using a voidspren, and establishing an opening for the rest of the voidspren to follow.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Maffu17

[Argent he/him]

I think you are falling in the same trap I was - and still am, which is to assume symmetry everywhere. 10 Heralds, 10 Unmade. 10 Orders, 10 voidforms. 10 Surges, 10 Voids. And while some correlations work, it's not all as neat as we imagine it - the number of the Unmade is not 10, for example. So, I like this, there will probably some truth to it, but it's almost certainly wrong, at least partially.

[Moogle]

I agree with Argent that trying to link the Unmade up with everything else is a trap. I tried to link the Unmade up to the Heralds/Orders a while back, and now that we know there's not ten Unmade, all my theorizing has gone to waste. I still think there's some correlation between stormform, Blightwind, and Windrunners, though...

Edited May 8, 2014 by Moogle

[Kobold King he/him]

I agree with Argent that trying to link the Unmade up with everything else is a trap. I tried to link the Unmade up to the Heralds/Orders a while back, and now that we know there's not ten Unmade, all my theorizing has gone to waste. I still think there's some correlation between stormform, Blightwind, and Windrunners, though...

 

It may not be an in-universe connection. They might simply be similar because one of the main characters is a Windrunner and needs plenty of enemies and a boss fight. A narrative connection, not a symmetrical connection.

 

Though knowing Brandon Sanderson's work, there's a strong possibility of it being both.

[Numb]

I think you are falling in the same trap I was - and still am, which is to assume symmetry everywhere. 10 Heralds, 10 Unmade. 10 Orders, 10 voidforms. 10 Surges, 10 Voids. And while some correlations work, it's not all as neat as we imagine it - the number of the Unmade is not 10, for example. So, I like this, there will probably some truth to it, but it's almost certainly wrong, at least partially.

 

Have we not got semi-confirmation about Odium's number being 6? 

[Moogle]

Have we not got semi-confirmation about Odium's number being 6? 

 

We know the names of 6 Unmade, which is evidence for it, but I don't know of any semi-comfirmation. What semi-confirmation are you speaking of?

Edited May 8, 2014 by Moogle

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

As for the Listener Forms there are so many comparisons I begin to think there are 2 Forms for each order, one good and one odious.

In the past, there were apparently hundreds of forms. I could certainly agree with ten Voidforms, but I very much doubt there's any symmetry with the normal forms.

[Numb]

We know the names of 6 Unmade, which is evidence for it, but I don't know of any semi-comfirmation. What semi-confirmation are you speaking of?

 

I couldn't remember if we have evidence for it or confirmation. Thanks for clarifying.

[Argent he/him]

Technically, we know the names of two of the Unmade - Nergaoul and Moelach*. The others - Re-Shephir, Dai-gonarthis, Yelig-nar - are only speculations. In fact, I have grown skeptical of them in recent months. Partially because neither Nergaoul nor Moelach match the other three's hyphenated naming scheme, and partially because Yelig-nar had enough control over the physical realm during Nohadon's time that he was able to slaughter the king's wordmen. This hardly sounds like something the spren-like beings from the Diagram could accomplish. 

 

* I find it remarkable that my Google Chrome doesn't attempt to flag those names as invalid words (while "Moeloch," for example, gets the red underline)