dvoraen

This is kind of a compilation of my thoughts about it. I'm sorry if it's hard to read but I couldn't get it to come together as a research paper so much as writing out outlined sections. (I made some edits for clarity.) I. The Case for Consumption Here, I talk about what I think Voidbinding actually is. Let's begin with the following WoB: My intent behind this question was to establish that the Unmade are using Voidbinding on some level. This has been a suspicion of mine ever since I came up with the model I will describe in a later section. The powers of the Unmade have not been mimicking established magic (Surgebinding or the Old Magic), so it seemed clear to me that they were doing something else entirely. As Splinters of Odium, it seemed the most likely that they were using Odium's magic to accomplish some of what they do. More on this is also in a later section, as I will be going into more detail on the powers of the Unmade there. I call this section "The Case for Consumption" simply because the term is heavily affiliated with the Unmade. Five of the nine (Yelig-nar, Dai-Gonarthis, Re-Shephir, Nergaoul, Ashertmarn) have all had the word directly used in some manner about them. Over half does not strike me as a coincidence. The Unmade are also believed to be "personifications of kinds of destruction" (The Way of Kings Ch. 45 epigraph), and consumption would be one way in which they achieve that. Note that I speak of Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual destruction, as we have seen examples of some of those in how the Unmade afflict people. The other point I raise about consumption being the primary core of Voidbinding has to do with the nature of the Shard of Odium itself. "This was something so terrible that it consumed light itself." (Oathbringer Ch. 57) Presumably, this is Dalinar being given a glimpse of the Shard as it exists in the Spiritual Realm, but he nevertheless describes it as this all-consuming force of hatred. Voidbinding, therefore, sources from that key nature. Between the Unmade being likened to "kinds of destruction" and the Shard itself being likened to an all-consuming flame, putting two and two together shows that Voidbinding is a destructive art. Given the name, and how Odium is referred to as "the empty pit that sucks in emotion", it seems plausible to me to assert that "consuming" would be the basis behind an Odium-based magic. II. The Model / Known Levels Let's just dive right into it, shall we? Note that I am intentionally leaving out the mindless Unmade here. Level 1 -- Consumption This level draws power from an external source, depleting it, similar to how one draws power stored in a metalmind. In this level, Voidlight is the result. One synthesizes the depleted attribute into Voidlight, and this does cause damage to the afflicted, which would justify Voidbinding as a "dark and evil thing". This is the level I believe to be most commonly used by the Unmade (all nine, in fact). They Invest themselves by way of consuming a target attribute and use that power directly for one or more purposes. I also note that performing this act would make it akin to the Old Magic, which (if we assume it's what the Nightwatcher does) also causes a depletion in exchange for something else. Here, we have depletion in exchange for power. (n.b. I suspect they have a name for this that's somewhat euphemistic, similar to how corrupted spren are "Enlightened".) Unknown Level - Midnight Essence Re-Shephir is the primary source of this. I have more to say about Re-Shephir later on. Unknown Level - Surge Binding Yelig-nar performs this "service" for his hosts, at the cost of consuming their soul. I note that the aspects involved seem to be Spiritual. Unknown Level - Enlightening Here we have Sja-anat's touch. While this does not seem very consumptive, because we haven't seen the effect performed on screen, I note that it is possible to change an organism through consumption, and I refer everyone to virology for more information on the subject. A hostile takeover of the host's internal workings is one of the ways viruses propagate throughout the body, and white cells consume affected cells as part of its means of fighting off the infection. Now picture that in reverse: Sja-anat's Investiture is playing the roll of the white cell trying to "consume" the "infected" (not of Odium) aspects of Investiture of a spren. She thus replaces Investitures not of Odium with Investiture that is of Odium, resulting in a being that is comprised of multiple. It's like a transplant, in other words, except her ability suppresses the immuno response to it. III. The Powers of the Unmade It is my belief that the Unmade are doing more than merely Voidbinding, and that their massive areas of influence are not Voidbinding at all, but supported by it. Nergaoul, at the minimum, was heavily Invested with Voidlight (note the gem shining with it after his capture by Dalinar), and this was just after consuming a 10,000 strong army of soldiers while in the Physical Realm. Nergaoul was also very large in the Physical Realm, covering a good portion of Thaylen City, according to Navani's annotated map in Oathbringer, and was a "mountain of power" in the Cognitive Realm according to Shallan's observation. Additionally, we have Pattern commenting on another being below Kholinar's Oathgate that "is likely one of the Unmade. It must be very large on this side." I note the size of the Unmade for further discussion in a moment. One oddity that has struck me is that the Unmade have areas of influence that affect people in different ways. Nergaoul encourages violence, Ashertmarn encourages excess, to name two of them. I will not be going into specifics on what I think all nine do, but rather I will attempt to explain that some of them, such as Re-Shephir, are using Voidbinding and their own natures as a spren to project these influences over very large areas to achieve new effects, and even larger areas when in the Cognitive Realm. I will use Re-Shephir as my case study here, because of the following assertion: Re-Shephir uses Voidbinding to create Midnight Essence (presumably from living creatures). She then uses her store of Voidlight to project her nature as a spren to shape the Essence into a desired form. The shaping of Midnight Essence is not something I consider Voidbinding. My basis for this thinking is in how Shallan sees Re-Shephir as like a creationspren gone wrong. Re-Shephir has been directly observed to be making copies of "creatures she saw or consumed" (Oathbringer Ch. 110 epigraph), which is indeed similar to creationspren mimicking recently observed Physical Realm objects. Now suppose we were to trap a creationspren inside a gemstone and hook it up to a fabrial. While the effect may be unknown, I wonder if perhaps it might be possible to influence mutable substances (water, mud) into desired shapes by capturing creationspren that are mimicking such shapes. The point I am trying to make, is that spren project their natures when in the presence of stimuli and Investiture (the gem's Invested state). We've seen this most commonly with flamespren that make heat fabrials. Flamespren "evoke" the concept of heat to which they are attracted. Now imagine a spren that doesn't need to be both in a gemstone and subjected to stimuli to do this, but rather is a spren that has access to large quantities of Investiture and was, say, subjected to a certain Vessel of Odium making them be able to evoke this nature. In Re-Shephir's case, that's mimickry, an influence which can be applied to Midnight Essence. We know that Midnight Essence can be "extracted and used independently" (WoB), so the shaping of it is not exclusive to Re-Shephir. This is why I bring up the possibility of creationspren-based fabrials allowing for creating works of art with mutable substances. This projection of nature is how I see Nergaoul as capable of affecting people with the Thrill over a massive area of influence. He is so large in the Cognitive Realm, and so Invested, that like a fabrial emitting heat, he "emits" the Thrill on a very large area simply due to sheer size and power. Similar reasoning would apply to the other Unmade that influence the mind. Much like a fabrial evoking an effect, they are broadcasting specific states of being on a wide area, and it's for this reason that I think calling them spren is very accurate. We have seen something like this with Shallan and Re-Shephir, which in her case would be "twisted creativity". She created multiple drawings she can't recall doing, but were still in her sketchbook, and she also created multiple mimicries of herself without having the need to draw them first. This influence on Shallan's drawing is why I suspect Re-Shephir is projecting an influence whose effect is what enables her to alter the shape of Midnight Essence. So, with that established, I think we can say that all nine have similar influences, and that we can potentially name them _____spren for what kind of influence they project, and that because they are all Invested Splinters of Odium, they are actually affecting people much like a fabrial hypothetically could. So there you have it, a lot of words about my thoughts on Voidbinding and how it relates to the Unmade. I will be very interested to hear what everyone has to say about this work.

Let's just say I think that Gavilar's moment of death will be very educational in the next 2-3 years.

One thing I found absolutely fascinating about Chapter 1 was this: I couldn't help but wonder not only where she got the idea, but why she considered these spren so dangerous. (Likely source: the Fused, because they were instructing singers in a great deal during Oathbringer.) It made me wonder if singers have to be more aware of what spren inhabit an area than humans do. Why do I think that? Singers can bond them. Suppose these plaguespren inhabited an area and a highstorm rolls through. We know transformation with a singer isn't a precise art to them (per WoR interludes), so what do you suppose happens if they come out of the storm accidentally bonding one of the more "negative" concepts (e.g. painspren, plaguespren, rotspren)? My assertion is that singers will put human superstition about spren to the test and vice-versa, because singers can bond a spren and change based on that. As I said on Discord, I don't think this would necessarily mean a sudden form of power, but with plaguespren there is such a concept as being a natural reservoir for a disease, and their body could transform to incubate it and subsequently release it. Patient Zero, in other words. Thoughts?

The term squire is explicitly used in https://www.brandonsanderson.com/the-ten-orders-of-knights-radiant/#bondsmith

I am a Truthwatcher with Edgedancer not far behind. I can't recall what the %s were but the Truthwatcher was in the 70s. So I basically got what I would want to be.

Personally I've been of the mindset that you have one Bondsmith that "specializes" in Connection related to the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual side of things (depending on which spren they have) and this blurb went a long way towards me convincing myself that this is what is up. They each have their own niche, but they can do what the others can do in a pinch, if not as well.

My brief list of what I want to see, in no particular but completely biased order: A lot of details about the Unmade. (Epithets and powers, as well as what influences they have on people, are what I'm hoping to learn; I don't think we'll see their origins in the first five.) Voidbinding mechanics and whether some tiny % of the Fused can do so. (Enough said.) Mayalaran's full resuscitation (I predict a one year time skip has progressed her ability to communicate with Adolin quite a bit.) Details about the remaining Surges. (Example: What is Cognitive or Spiritual Cohesion?) Fabrial science with corrupted spren. (I have a suspicion that the artifabrian community knows about this already.)

I'm becoming increasingly suspicious myself that Moelach's primary purpose is to interfere with Realmatic transition, thereby making it very dangerous to project oneself into Shadesmar, Soulcast, and/or use Transportation if he should be nearby. When I say interfere with transition, I mean I think he consumes the (I'm not sure what to call it) inertia that's involved in changing Realms, thus making him very suited for guarding a Perpendicularity. I do agree with @Calderis that the Death Rattles lean closer to a side-effect of what it is Moelach actually does. If we can trust the Diagram, all of the Unmade have relevance to precognition, but I think Moelach stands out because he is the one who offers it up to anyone instead of being the sole beneficiary of that precognition. "This seems common of the less self-aware spren," per Mythica. Which, if true, raises interesting implications for the sapient Unmade in particular. EDIT - One other thing I want to add is that I think being parked at Cultivation's Perpendicularity is going to have some very nasty developments transpiring with the Horneaters. That is, I would not be surprised if we find out that many of them become schizophrenic and/or develop disassociatve identity disorder. I'm a little suspicious that Moelach's influence will lead to people getting bits and pieces of those visions of the future on account of the Perpendicularity's presence causing a bit of bleedover from the Unmade, and over time that's going to have some pretty gnarly effects on people.

My thoughts on this are that "normal" Voidbinders cannot. I think they can create something similar (*pointing at Midnight Essence*) but not a Shardblade that has the same properties as what an individual with a Nahel bond can summon. My opinion is also that a normal Voidbinder doesn't really need one, because I am increasingly certain that Voidbinding is a very destructive* art at its core (to power it), similar to how a Hemalurgic spike is not good for the donor's health. * I'm not counting Renarin here.

@Stormlightning @Child of Hodor The problem that I have with the two being Nale and Kalak boils down to one question: Why would Nale permit this? I don't understand what his motive for this experiment would be when he's been actively pursuing individuals that, in his words, could tamper with and/or weaken the seal keeping the Fused and Voidspren locked up on Braize. Typically that's been due to removing budding Surgebinders, but the conversation is explicitly talking about bringing something from Braize, which is pretty blatantly against Nale's stated goal of keeping matters as they are.

One thing I really want to comment that I'm seeing in this thread is that there's a very big assumption being made that the two to whom Gavilar is speaking are Nale and Kalak. Sure, they were given as "Ambassadors from the West" per Jasnah's prologue, but was it ever explicitly said that they were the only people described as "Ambassadors from the West"? To my recollection, that's not the case, and there were multiple foreign dignitaries in Kholinar that day, including Taravangian.

Actually, tell you what. I'll double-down on it and wager that we'll see him turn a Stormlight sphere into a black/Voidlight sphere.

So would anyone like to place wagers on Navani seeing Gavilar "make" the black sphere right after this part that was read? It seems pretty clear to me that he had his "found" Unmade by that point, but it didn't seem like the feast was in full swing yet at the time of this reading.

If the majority of them were left by Feverstone Keep, that's roughly in northwestern Roshar (since it has relevance to Rall Elorim), and we've hardly gotten a thing about that region. Rall Elorim has a reputation of some sort, but we know as little about it as anything else. The point being, for all we know people avoid it too. I am suspicious that it being "just like they say" is that people call the place cursed, myself.

I suspect it will depend on the nature of the Sibling and the Cognitive reflection of the tower. With ten Oathgate platforms, there is most likely those ten platforms sitting in the Cognitive Realm, but the gemstone pillar could partly exist in the Cognitive Realm in its own way as well, or the Sibling could exist in both the Physical and Cognitive and draw it from a Cognitive highstorm directly.

I'd say the Heralds would be of use, depending on who was doing the talking. Regardless of their mental states, they undoubtedly know a lot about matters, past and present. There is still some lucidity with them, as shown with Nale and Ash seeming to be somewhat intact mentally (but not necessarily behaviorally). It really depends on what kind of cognitive breakdown they each have and how far it has progressed. This is also assuming Odium, the Unmade, and/or other elements aren't doing anything to them to interfere, either. We have no idea what Mraize stood to gain from his talk with Ash, for example.

I'm not convinced the Everstorm is a tenth Unmade or even close to them in capability. I rather suspect that the process of birthing a tenth Unmade would "expose Odium to a strike from Cultivation." If he chose not to destroy the Stormfather for this reason, who per WoB is on a "similar level" with the Unmade, then I don't see how Splintering his own power to create another being on that same level wouldn't merit the same consideration of whether Cultivation could harm him.

Yeah I'm still trying to decide how I feel about Brandon's answer to you on that particular point (voices in the head and the Unmade). I feel like I've both overthought it, and that it's a lot simpler than we think. The latter means: "people affected by the Unmade are more open/vulnerable/receptive to other things", because the Unmade 'consume' and have been shown to cause Cognitive damage (Ashertmarn, Nergaoul) as well as Spiritual damage (Yelig-nar, Ba-Ado-Mishram's capture). In other words, Rosharan people may well be at "1.5 cosmere standard" for cracks in the soul, you might say.

The real question I have about the Sibling is why the Sibling went into hibernation in the first place. Presumably it was the death of their Radiant, but shouldn't that have happened numerous times over the course of millenia, simply from old age? Not only that, the Sibling has been sleeping for over two thousand years. The Stormfather knows the Sibling's state, so it stands to reason the Stormfather might have tried to rouse the Sibling, as he did Sylphrena, but to no avail. So why is the Sibling still asleep? The Elsecaller epigraph strongly suggests an external influence causing this comatose state, but given that it's become unclear if all nine Unmade were captured in that era, it's hard to say if the Unmade are the reason why, or something else entirely.

What I don't want the most: Little to no info about the Unmade. >.> *drops mic*

RE: Bolded Not necessarily. We don't know the full extent of the Unmade's powers, particularly how far Ba-Ado-Mishram's influence had spread when she was Connected to the singers before her capture. Not only that, but we know next to nothing about Dai-Gonarthis and Chemoarish, and I suspect we have not seen everything Yelig-nar is capable of doing either. For example, how many hosts can Yelig-nar have at one time? Can he choose how fast he consumes one, allowing for sleepers to travel across the world? We have not seen the sapient Unmade do a whole lot, which I find very curious if not deliberate. Sja-anat was said to be the most feared by the Radiants, yet she didn't really do a whole lot in Oathbringer to validate that claim. Knowing that she can spy on you with a shadow is neat and all, but I don't know that I'd call it fearsome on its own. There's just so much we don't know about the Unmade.

Yet a spren caught in a gemstone is required for "modern*" fabrial science, for the fabrial to actually do anything. I think there's a very good chance a painspren is required for a painrial to cause and reduce pain. The point I was trying to make, though, is that there have been hints that everyday spren such as flamespren and the like can evoke an effect on the Physical Realm under the right circumstances, presumably via bonding combined with a source of Investiture. Just look at the entire Singer race, skyeels and greatshells for proof of that. The Singers generally can't transform into everyday forms without bonding a spren or the Unmade getting involved. And so, based on those hints, I think it stands to reason that Sja-anat touching and controlling a lesser spren could very well allow her to generate those effects. Her touch for a fact creates a bond of sorts (or else she couldn't control spren she touches) and an Unmade certainly qualifies as a source of Investiture, so I don't think it's farfetched to say Sja-anat can Do Things(tm) with lesser spren besides spy with them. * I refer to the fabrials we've seen on screen the most, the type that Navani's involved in creating, not the fabrials such as Soulcasters.

When it comes to Sja-anat, I think her ability to corrupt spren and gain control over them is the very relevant point for why she was so feared, but for reasons that relate to what Kaladin did to repel the highstorm. I don't think it's farfetched to say that he bonded with those windspren and used them to briefly control the wind in his small area of influence. Now imagine Sja-anat doing similar, except using any kind of spren that are nearby. Bunch of painspren nearby? Kind of hard to fight if they're being touched then used against you like with Navani's painrial. This line of thinking is why I'm wondering if the Radiants lured all of the Unmade* to Shinovar to try and capture them: because of Sja-anat being too strong except in a place where spren typically don't manifest. Another point, though this one is much more tenuous, is the possibility that Sja-anat can corrupt and control Investiture in general. If she can corrupt a spren, and spren are basically instantiations of Investiture, why not the more general form as well? If she can actually interfere with and/or consume their magic, then regurgitate it, that's pretty scary stuff because they'd effectively be powerless against Sja-anat. * Remember Shallan's impressions about Re-Shephir: "She'd felt isolation and loneliness from Re-Shephir, a sense of being torn away while the others escaped" (OB Ch 32), implying the Unmade were together at the time the Radiants managed to imprison Re-Shephir.

Personally, I do think he was close to that with Nergaoul, but not necessarily in the Nahel bond sense. There are a couple oddities with Dalinar and Nergaoul that don't align with some of what we've seen in bonds with spren, and Brandon has flat out said that Dalinar has a personal connection with Nergaoul which was "very important" in capturing Nergaoul.

Presumably. We don't have any reason to think she was lying about how "we've never managed to Enlighten such powerful spren before." It's entirely possible that Glys is the first higher spren to become corrupted, and that led to other things.