Who originally Voidbound?

[Ixthos he/him]

Outside of the Ars Arcanum, Voidbinding has been mentioned only once in setting, by Kadash when talking to Adolin about Dalinar's visions and Vorin history:

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“The problem, bright one,” Kadash said, “was mysticism. The priests claimed that common men could not understand religion or the Almighty. Where there should have been openness, there was smoke and whispers. The priests began to claim visions and prophecies, though such things had been denounced by the Heralds themselves. Voidbinding is a dark and evil thing, and the soul of it was to try to divine the future.”

That is it. That is the only mention of voidbinding by any character in the story so far, aside from Khriss's own musings on the ten essences and the magic in the Rosharan system:

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Ancient scholars also placed the ten orders of Knights Radiant on this list, alongside the Heralds themselves, who each had a classical association with one of the numbers and Essences.
I’m not certain yet how the ten levels of Voidbinding or its cousin the Old Magic fit into this paradigm, if indeed they can. My research suggests that, indeed, there should be another series of abilities that is even more esoteric than the Voidbindings. Perhaps the Old Magic fits into those, though I am beginning to suspect that it is something entirely different.

 

Where it not for Kadash's own musings I would assume Voidbinding was something that was still to come on Roshar, some unique manifestation of power due to Warlight, as Voidbinding has ten levels. And we know Renarin's own abilities are likely to be voidbinding of some form, though whether this is imperfect voidbinding or a proper form of it, who can say (I personally think Glys isn't yet fully in command of its own nature yet, as I think when complete Glys will be equal parts of all three Rosharan bound shards). But if voidbinding is something that has existed on the planet before - as evidenced by Kadash talking about it, and mentioning a power associated with it we now can see manifested with Renarin and Glys - then WHO in the Rosharan system originally used it?

The Fused use surges, not voids. And we have seen fabrials that use surges, but none using voids. Was voidbinding a weapon used by Odium? But then who originally used it if not the Fused? Did the Fused use it on occasion - is that how the Defeated One was brought back so quickly? Was it a weapon used AGAINST Odium? That would make sense in that Shards' powers can in principle be used against a shard, see Paalm, and used without the Shard's approval. And the ten associated with it and the idea of binding would indicate Honour is involved. But then who originally used it, and against whom?

And also, what would this more esoteric power be, that is sibling to both? And in what way would voidbinding be esoteric itself - perhaps as a softer magic than the rigid rules of surgebinding?

What do you think?

[Frustration he/him]

Voidbinding originates with the unmade.

Every word was suggested by my phone, this is kind of creepy.

*States at Ruin*

I am working on a theory about it.

[Ixthos he/him]

27 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Voidbinding originates with the unmade.

Every word was suggested by my phone, this is kind of creepy.

*States at Ruin*

I am working on a theory about it.

Quick! Ask it how Era 4 will end!

[LewsTherinTelescope]

Few WoBs I feel are relevant. One, this WoB that I assume Frustration is referring to, Voidbinding usually but not always originates with the Unmade:

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dvoraen

"To see the future originates with the Unmade..." "Voidbinding is a dark and evil thing, and the soul of it was to try to divine the future." Is it therefore safe to say that Voidbinding, by extension, also originates with the Unmade?

Brandon Sanderson

Not always. But usually.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA (Oct. 22, 2018)

Second, Voidbinding has in the past been looked into somewhat but not fully explored:

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TheFoxQR (paraphrased)

Is there temporal symmetry in between the Surge-binding and void-binding charts, from the front and back covers of The Way of Kings? As in, Surgebinding is a re-emerging system of the past, vs Voidbinding being a newly emerging system that will fully exist in the future?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You can assume that Voidbinding has not been fully explored, but that parts of it have been looked into in the past. So I wouldn't say that temporal symmetry fully holds.

General Reddit 2019 (Aug. 3, 2019)

Lastly, Voidbinding is not exactly using SL to fuel a different set of abilities, but is close (and Renarin is very relevant):

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Argent

Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen?  

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. 

Argent

Is that what voidbinding is? 

Brandon Sanderson

No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there. 

Footnote: The chart referenced is the back endsheet in The Way of Kings.
Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

I unfortunately have not managed to draw any good conclusions from these, but they seem relevant, so I figured I'd note them.

[Ixthos he/him]

10 hours ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Few WoBs I feel are relevant. One, this WoB that I assume Frustration is referring to, Voidbinding usually but not always originates with the Unmade:

Second, Voidbinding has in the past been looked into somewhat but not fully explored:

Lastly, Voidbinding is not exactly using SL to fuel a different set of abilities, but is close (and Renarin is very relevant):

I unfortunately have not managed to draw any good conclusions from these, but they seem relevant, so I figured I'd note them.

The issue though is that those are all out of series bits of information. In the books the term voidbinding has only been used once in the main text in the Way of Kings, and in the Ars Arcanum. Nowhere else has it been used, not even to describe what the Unmade are doing. This becomes my main issue - in the series, no character other than Kadash has so much as referenced voidbinding, and most of what we know has been from Brandon hinting at things but not confirming.

[Honorless he/him]

We do have another chart, which is probably the Voidbinding chart so there are probably Voidbinding Orders, which would be cool to see. I think Taravangian would be more inclined to use them than Rayse.

Maybe Voidbinding is how the Ashynites accessed the Surges. Hey, maybe Ishar created the Oathpact / bound the Surges using Voidbinding and that's why Odium didn't give the Fused access to the Surge of Adhesion.

[Ixthos he/him]

19 minutes ago, Honorless said:

We do have another chart, which is probably the Voidbinding chart so there are probably Voidbinding Orders, which would be cool to see. I think Taravangian would be more inclined to use them than Rayse.

Maybe Voidbinding is how the Ashynites accessed the Surges. Hey, maybe Ishar created the Oathpact / bound the Surges using Voidbinding and that's why Odium didn't give the Fused access to the Surge of Adhesion.

Ahhh! That would be cool :-) that does make me wonder why they stopped using it though, either Odium or the Heralds. Was it too powerful? Or is that what happens when a Knight has surges unrestricted, they stop surgebinding and star voidbinding?

[KandraAllomancer he/him]

1 hour ago, Honorless said:

Maybe Voidbinding is how the Ashynites accessed the Surges.

1 hour ago, Ixthos said:

Ahhh! That would be cool :-) that does make me wonder why they stopped using it though, either Odium or the Heralds. Was it too powerful? Or is that what happens when a Knight has surges unrestricted, they stop surgebinding and star voidbinding?

The more I think about this, the more I'm leaning towards these opinions as well.

First of all, after seeing the Fused Surges and what unchained Ishar can do, Renarin's futuresight looks more and more like fully unrestricted (and barely controlled) Illumination. If that is the case, Voidbinding might simply give users access to unrestricted Surges, while terms like "Voidbindings" or "ten levels" might relate to how the power is obtained (corresponding to Oaths or Nahel Bond, maybe?).

Anyway, here is my proposition for the timeline:

Odium arrives on Ashyn and people start bonding some Voidspren (the bond is probably temporary and depends on the emotional state) or maybe even Unmade (if they exists at this point). The combination of Odium's Surges and Dawnshards leads to unrestricted Surges, which destroy the planet. Still, people learn about Surges and create the Voidbinding chart, which explains this WoB:

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TheFoxQR (paraphrased)

Is there temporal symmetry in between the Surge-binding and void-binding charts, from the front and back covers of The Way of Kings? As in, Surgebinding is a re-emerging system of the past, vs Voidbinding being a newly emerging system that will fully exist in the future?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You can assume that Voidbinding has not been fully explored, but that parts of it have been looked into in the past. So I wouldn't say that temporal symmetry fully holds.

General Reddit 2019 (Aug. 3, 2019)

Later, Surges (of both KR and the Fused) are generally restricted, at least until the False Desolation happens. Something weird is going on with the Unmade (at least with BAM and Sja-Anat), Odium's tone becomes a pure tone of Roshar and both sides gain access to futuresight (Nightforms and corrupted Truthwatchers). Hopefully we'll get some answers in Book 5, because there are so many potential reasons / factors here (Honor being close to death? act of Cultivation? broken Oathpact? Ishar's unchained Honorblade? Dawnshards?) that figuring out the exact reason of the change seems impossible at this time. Releasing BAM (and Honorblades possibly leaving Shinovar) should lead to even easier access to unrestricted Surges, which I expect to be a major (or even main) topic of Arc 2

Edited January 16, 2021 by KandraAllomancer