[Calamity Spoilers] Theory: Listener in Forms of Power Influenced by Odium similar to Epics?

[MasterK-Bob he/him]

So I'm chugging along in my full Cosmere reread in preparation for Dawnshard and Rhythm of War, and I'm on I think the third Eshonai interlude. The parallel I noticed is, Eshonai seems clearly not to be herself, but to be influenced by an external force, while thinking she is being herself. I think this external force might be the stormspren, which acts both as the mechanism by which the form is attained, and a direct connection to Odium. Singer mental acuity seems, to a major extent, to be a biproduct of the symbiosis between the physical singer brains, their cognitive minds, and connection with a spren acting the enhance the connection, and also to alter their physical forms based on a cognitive idea. The form-of-power spren are like an Odium filter there, so all thoughts get a hint of odium. I suspect other non-dullform spren are either of honor, cultivation, or some combination, but there is less powerful investiture in them to act as a filter, and less will put forward by the shards to make the filter achieve a particular end, rather than to let the singers be themselves. I thought the net result, however, was very very similar to the effects Calamity's selfishness and misanthropy has on Epics, and that Brandon is working with the theme of not being yourself, but almost being possessed, in both places. I don't think in Stormight it's a fear-based system like what we got in Reckoners, but the connection is strong, and fear is one of the main motivators in getting the Listeners to take Stormform in the first place. Eshonai's truespren seems to be trying to insulate her from the influence of the stormspren, and that's what it eventually does for Venli when it decided to bond her instead, though I think the form she was given might have been less intensely odious than a stormspren, at least in terms of its ability to motivate evil in an otherwise good person.

I don't know what to draw from all this, but I wanted to share the connection I think really is there and see what other people thought.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Otto Didact
Calamity Spoilers in title

[The Last SkyBreaker]

It's a possibility. I reread Calamity a little while ago, and now I think about it there is definitely a connection.

I wonder which Listener forms are of Honor and which are of Cultivation? And what does dullform come from?

[first void]

So, odium has an opening when they take in his power/forms. I think this is him bestowing the power, either directly or through his spren. If this is the case, Honor could have done similar things. Or, if he could not, the opposite affect might have happened. Ruin and Preservation had opposing abilitys, this might be the same.Honor and Odium could be a set. If so, the perception of Honor could have changed him. Cultivation, i have no clue about.