Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

@Sorana that was brilliantly understated, once again perfectly in character and a delight to read! @Matrim's Dice, all I have to say is Yowch! I don't see how Spook could survive those flames you laid down. @DramaQueen I'm looking forward to reading your roast, you got this!

This is totally just an aside, but when you read about the Scouring of Aimia, do any of you also think of these guys? Was Endowment involved???

First off, I really like your theory about what Dai-Gornarthis' effect is, emotional manipulation, and how you've stitched together all known data points about Dai-Gornathis into a not just plausible but a likely theory. One data point to maybe add is that Dai-Gonarthis is a likely candidate for the Unmade that we know from WoB (spoilered below) was influencing the Davar household. Talk about drama! The Davar household, with the cremling mutilating Nan Balat, the suicidal Wickim, the alcoholic and abusive Linn, the alcoholic and defeatist Jushu, the proto Skybreaker abandoner of his younger siblings Heleran, the murderous mother and of course the parent killing Shallan, was a fetted nest of tangled emotions. There's also the Ghostblood connection, it's a real possibility that one of their objectives at the Davar estates was to study the resident Unmade. My money's on the Black Fisher being the Unmade influencing the Davar's. I think this is pretty easy to explain, given your theory about Dai-Gornathis' effects. He's described as the fisher of men's souls because he uses his power of emotional manipulation to sow general dissension to create an environment where his target will swallow the Odious lure of giving up their pain. If the fish he's hunting gets away team Odium still has the plus of the general discord that his effect creates. Win win. If your supposition about his effect is correct, then the dissension at the tower being attributable to him is very likely too. Also I like your explanation for the scouring of Aimia, but I do wonder how easy it would be to manipulate the emotions of hive mind beings like the Sleepless. Could be that it was the Siah Aimians that were the target of the manipulation, and that were used to scour Aimia. Or maybe more likely Dai-Gonarthis just sowed the seeds of dissension and an Odious assault force came in to do the actual scouring.

I'm going to respond to some of this, but really at this point it's all academic, the hinge upon which this theory was built is a flawed premise, namely that Voidlight is not of Odium. It seems our best information about the nature of Voidlight comes from Dalinar's impressions of Odium from the scene pointed out by @Honorless . In the continuum of Odiums flame, from red to orange to yellow gold to black-violet, the part that burns the hottest and consumes that on which it feeds is the black-violet flames, the fire that leaves only the Void. This is clearly the point where the object of Odious influence has fully capitulated to their hatred and is being consumed by it. On to Academia... This is still plausible, Sja-Anat is (maybe) trying to switch sides, and if a powerful entity capable of powering your magical energy hungry Tower applies for the job, even with a checkered past, you'd probably said yes. Possible too is that the Sibling/BAM was trapped in Urithiru like a Spren in a fabrial, and the Bondsmith's job was akin to chief engineer making sure that the power was flowing right. When I was trying to square the circle and make this theory work, I thought that just the Spren of Stone portion of the Sibling was what was referred to as BAM. Though they share a common Identity, they are still discrete, and I thought it was this portion of the Sibling that had been turned into an Unmade. The displaced Singer God of Spren and the displaced Singer God of Wind both walk near the eye of the Highstorm because the Stormfather is protecting them. That is in fact their slumbering, this state of non-interaction and isolation, sheltering in the Highstorm. The pronoun thing, Hessi's reference to BAM and that WoB are definitely problematic for this theory, but they can be overcome. Voidlight being probably the most Odious of Odium's manifestations of Investiture is a death knell for this theory. Again all good points, but as I look into the lifeless eyes of my trusty Ryshadium of a theory, and tenderly stroke it's neck I decide that it's time to admit that its inherent contradictions, its flawed premises and its magnificent speculative leaps have brought it down and it lives no more. It was a fun ride, but it's time to stop propping up a dead horse. Goodnight Sweet Suppositions, Goodnight Sweet Surmises, Goodnight Sweet Theory.

BAM could have been a commander in the Singer's forces and the battery of Urithiru before she/they were Unmade. The corruption by Sja-Anat could have been the means by which she/they started down the path to becoming an unmade. BAM being imprisoned in the Honor's Drop was just a fun conjecture and not central to the main theory. But more troubling to this theory is: I used the search inside feature of Google books that @The One Who Connects told me about to find the passage, a screenshot of it is Spoilered below because it's really tall: I have to think about this more, but it seems to be a pretty solid nail in the coffin of this theory, especially the part that says: If there was any doubt what Odium truly is the "Deep, deep within." part clears it up pretty decisively. This passage seems to imply that the violet-black fire is the most essentially Odium part about him. Thanks for pointing this out Honorless, I'll have to think on this a bit but right now it seems like pretty damming evidence.

Just noticed your request, here is your awakened humanoid rope: And here are some detail views of your awakened rope character.

I prefer to think of it as arranging the pieces so a different pattern emerges, haha, but for sure it's a highly speculative theory. That is a good point, but I would say that just because the Unmade are splinters of Odium, that doesn't mean he controls them. The example of Sja-Anat wanting to defect ( however dubious this claim is) implies that it's a plausible thing for an Unmade to do, namely switch sides. This implies a volitional component to the operation of the Unmade (at least the ones with higher levels of Sapience) and BAM could be wishing to switch sides because her allegiance is with the Singers and she realizes Odium's only goal is the destruction of Cultivation. If the Sibling were bonded by a Bondsmith I don't think it would have been an open question whether they withdrew from men with "intent" or not, unless the Sibling was bonded against their will. And if the Sibling were bonded against their will I don't see why anyone would have been surprised that the Sibling withdrew. And if the Sibling was willingly bonded and withdrew with intent, why wouldn't they let their Bondsmith know why they were withdrawing? You're totally right, it doesn't have to be the Honor's drop that was used to capture BAM, but it is a perfect gem that we know was in possession of the Radiants at the Tower prior to Melishi's strike force operation. Fair point, I still think that it's telling that preceding the alarmist entry about his/her fellow Truthwatchers a Lightweaver made an entry worrying about the Tower's defenses. I'm obviously looking for a pattern, but this seems like a pretty solid inference. Oh no the tower defenses might be comprised. Oh man we got watch those Truthwatchers. They are at the very least thematically related. Yes, good point. When put that way it's probably just showing what ethical folks the Stonewards were on the Eve of the mass lobotimization of an entire race. Not necessarily. I believe it was the arrival of the humans that caused new sprens to form that were the primary foci of Stormlight distribution and Cultivationlight distribution as perceived by the humans. If there is a reciprocal relationship between belief in and the access to power of God level spren, then the 3000+ years that the Singers were in slaveform probably significantly diminished the power of the original, dislocated Singer gods of Wind and Spren. I don't recall that part, but it's not unreasonable to think that the most duplicitous of all Spren, the Taker of Secrets herself, might have lied about that. Yeah, since it has appeared onscreen in OB it definitely wasn't imprisoning an Unmade until Dalinar trapped Neragoul in it.

BAM could have been The Sibling before they were the Unmade. They were made and then unmade. Just because BAM fought with the singers in past Desolations it doesn't necessarily follow that they were an Unmade at the time. The idea that they could be controlled through the Bondsmiths bond would probably be enough of a rationale for using a giant bondable battery to power Urithiru. If any Radiant order could be subject to overweening confidence, I think the Bondsmiths with the powers of gods could be thus deluded and believe themselves capable of controlling the Sibling even if they were an unwilling participant in the Bond. If Navani could make fabrials that she could usefully employ that use voidspren she wouldn't think twice about doing so. And Urithiru is a giant fabrial. I like that theory too, I'm just putting this out there as an alternate theory that ties up a lot of the loose ends. It's early days to be sure, but I think the gem archive tells a pretty compelling story. The Battery at Urithiru is failing, the Sibling Withdraws and suddenly the Singers have an entity capable of supplying Voidlight. That is very true, it's a very involved theory post (I still need to go back and edit out the typos and strange bits of formatting). What I meant was that pre-shattering there were 3 means of distributing investiture, and post shattering these different means of Investitute distribution were split along lines of Shardic intent. We know from WOB (I'll add the wob later, I'm typing on mobile right now) that Odium is not interested in Investing Roshar, so the innate Investiture of Gemhearts is most likely keyed to another Shard, hence the disconnect between the color of voidlight and Odiums shardic colors. Yeah, there are a lot of assumptions built into the theory, but they all have pretty solid foundations. This is definitely a speculative theory built of inferences and reasoned conjectures, but we have very little solid information about BAM and tge sibling. I'm sure this will all be cleared up when RoW is out, because it definitely seems like someone is going to bond the sibling and get Urithieu back up and running. But that still doesn't explain why the moon Selas is violet. I think something else is going on here. Exactly, because corrupting/consuming other forms of Investiture is a fundamental feature of his magic system. That's where the void part comes in. Could you qoute that passage? I don't have the OB ebook, and I lent my physical copy to my buddy so he could be caught up before RoW comes out. I honestly don't recall him being described as violet. As far as seeing the Fused use Voidlight, it makes sense because a primary feature of their biology is that they have a physical chunk of investiture that they are born with, their gemheart (or more precisely the Singer's body that they took over had one). And my surmise is that Odium allows that type of investiture to be converted from innate stored investiture to kinetic investiture, which manifests as the violet tinged anti-glow instead of a red or yellow glow because the Fused is in fact using their own innate investiture.

She was a commander of the Singers' forces in some of the Desolations so it makes sense that she was known to the Radiants. I'm only positing that BAM switched sides when she was bonded by a Bondsmith. This is speculative to be sure, but if BAM is a composite entity comprised of the Three God Spren of the Singers, then I believe Ishar would have known about them and further the affinity of the God of Wind to Stormlight and the God of Spren to Cultuvationlight, and could have used those Connections to compel BAM/the Sibling to switch sides. We konw how Cultivationlight looks like, so this lives us Odium. That WoB doesn't prove that Voidlight is Odium's investiture, all it says is that it's related to a different shard. That could mean it's related to Odium because Odium's investiture is capable of burning and releasing the innate investiture stored in gemhearts to produce Voidlight. It could also mean that it is Investiture keyed to an entirely different shard. I think it's most likely both, because post shattering all investiture was assigned to the 16 shards, and like it or not, Shards and their investiture are color coded. Odium's colors are red and yellow gold, not violet, and I think one of the reasons that red is an Odious color and also the color of corrupted investiture is because the ability to co-opt and consume other forms of Investiture is a feature of Odium's magic system.

I agree that being a Bondsmith doesn't grant prescient powers of understanding fully what their Bondsmith's Spren is doing at all times, but the fact that it was commonly believed before the Elsecallers investigation that the Sibling withdrew from men by intent is pretty clear evidence that the Sibling was unbonded. It seems highly implausible, using Dalinar's relationship with the Stormfather as a rough guide, that the Sibling wouldn't communicate their reasons for withdrawing from Urithiru. And there's the fact that the tower had partial functionality, how do you explain that if there was a Bondsmith bonded to the Sibling at Urithiru? The "you've hurt them enough" could also be from the imprisonment of one portion of the Sibling, namely the portion that was supplying voidlight to the singers. The severing of Connection and Identity between BAM and the Singers probably had a reciprocal effect on BAM as well. There is also no mention of Melishi breaking his bond, so it's quite possible that he never did. But the more likely case is that Melishi was bonded to the Nightwatcher, and the Nightwatcher was hurt. The way Cultivation seems to protect and instruct the Nightwatcher feels a bit like she is helping her to heal from some past trauma. The only problem with this is that the gem archive is a history of the Tower not working, the Sibling withdrawing, and ultimately the Tower being abandoned. This sounds an awful lot like a list of problems and a chain of events caused by having an unbonded Sibling.

I don't recall Sja-Anat saying that the Oathgate Spren was the largest she had enlightened, I don't have the ebook for WoR, do you mind quoting that passage? The corruption by Sja-Anat is not essential to this theory, it just seemed to fit the evidence given the truthwatcher gem archive entries The abandoned Tower was definitely plagued by Reshiphir at the time of it's reoccupation by Dalinar and Co, but it seemed to me like the implication was that Reshephir had been imprisoned somehow in the tower and had escaped sometime after the Tower had been abandoned. This is actually as close to be being proven in text as you can get without an explicit statement. The inference that the Sibling was unbonded by a Bondsmith at the time of the False Desolation is pretty clearly established by just two data points. 1)The drawer 24-18 entry that states "This generation has had only one Bondsmith", and 2) The drawer 1-1 series, that show that an Elsecaller was investigating the anomalies they were experiencing with the Sibling powering Urithiru. Why would they need an external investigation if the 1 current Bondsmith was bonded to the Sibling? and for proof: This does not preclude the Sibling being a tripartite being, anymore than the use of they to describe Shallan would be if she had alters of differing genders. Also they is a necessarily ambiguous term, it is both a singular and plural pronoun. One of the of primary bits of evidence is the entry of the Elsecaller that investigated the Sibling in the CR (Drawer 1-1: first Zircon) talking about investigating the "cognitive reflections of the spren at the tower". Just as the ambiguity in the pronoun they is open to debate, this could be referring to all of the spren in the tower, but the entry is ultimately about the sibling, so a solid inference is that the whole statement is in reference to the investigation of the sibling. In Hessi's Mythica Hessi refers to BAM as a highprincess (with a clear gender associated), but if there are more than one part to the Identity of the Sibling, they could have more than one Gender or some of the components could dismiss the idea of gender identification altogether, and the collective Identity would find it ludricous to adopt a single gender. So that WoB in no way proves that the Sibling is a single non-composite entity. BAM was a commander in SOME of the Desolations, which to be honest could be as few as 2 Desolations. The fact that BAM participated in some Desolations does not preclude BAM from being the Sibling. The timeline is vague for the Heraldic Epochs, but we know that Knights Radiants copied the Heralds link with Honor with the Nahel bonds, which makes it logical to surmise that at least a couple of Desolations happened before the KRs developed, and it seems illogical to think that Urithiru would have been built before a Bondsmith had bonded the Battery of Urithiru, namely the Sibling. That gives ample time for BAM to have been a commander in some of the Desolations, pre Urithiru.

This theory pulls together a lot of the loose ends left dangling at the end of OB into the what I believe is the most compelling case for the identity of the Sibling. This theory has a little bit of something for everyone, an explanation for the significance of the color of the Moons of Roshar, a satisfying explanation of the Realmatic source of Voidlight, the true nature of the Stormstriders, what exactly happened with Melishi's strikeforce, and of course the identity of the Sibling. So grab some popcorn and buckleup, it's a long ride. This theory started percolating when considering the extreme oddity of the three Rosharan moons, and the most strikingly their color. And from the offhand comment the POV character made in the RoW Interlude included in Brandon's July 7th Newsletter (spoilered below). We know from WoB (spoilered below, emphasis added) that each of the invested Shards on Roshar has a specific color or system of colors associated with them, Odium is red/gold, Honor is white/blue and Cultivation is green. The color that is noticeably missing, that happens to be one of the colors of the 3 moons of roshar, and happens also to be the color of the weird anti-glow nimbus of someone using Voidlight, and is coincidentally one of the two colors depicting linking relationships in the voidbinding chart is violet (the other voidbinding chart color is a yellow gold, clearly signifying Odium). This was the basis for the theory, but all good theories live or die on the solidness of the proof. The main proof for this theory comes from looking at the records in the Gem Archive and assuming that the drawer locations and gem numbers of the individual entries imply a rough relative chronology. I think it plausible to assume that the earliest gems would be placed in the lowest number drawers, and that the sequentially numbered gems are explicitly stating their relative chronology. The entries that refer to external events would seem to confirm this chronological assumption (and are noted in the comments below the entries). At the end of this post all of the entries for the gem archive are placed in chronological order based on drawer numbers and gem numbers, for anyone who just want's to read through the raw chronological listing. The gem archive is comprised of the following 3 types of entries: Personal Records (of the least interest to us in this investigation, with the exception of the Truthwatcher ones) Entries about the Tower and the Sibling (very important ones) Entries about the War with the Parsh during the False Desolation (including Melishi's strike force (also very important ones)) So given the above divisions of content and the assumption that drawer location and numbers reveal a chronological ordering, we can arrange the significant entries into a rough thematic and chronological ordering. Each ordered entry states the Drawer-Sub drawer number: Gem Type (Associated Radiant Order) and CH# where the epigraph can be found in the text. After the entry is a contextualizing footnote. Before we begin, I have to say, that after ordering and arranging them a very singular narrative begins to emerge with gaps that can be filled in by some educated surmises. First I'll give you the facts and then present the Grand Unifying Theory. PART 1: Personal Records The only really noteworthy entry in this category (other than the Truthwatcher entries that will be placed in the Tower/Sibling subcategory) is the following Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 Boy is that a doozy! This clearly establishes that at the time of the False Desolation the Sibling was unbonded, because if the sole Bondsmith was bonded to the Sibling there wouldn't have been any uncertaintity as to what is happening with the functioning of the Tower. It also means that the sole Bondsmith, Melishi, was either bonded to the Stormfather or the Nightwatcher (more on this later). PART 2: Records about the Tower and Sibling In this series of entries you can see that the Gem Archive records start with an undisclosed Elsecaller investigating the Sibling, implying that something was off about the Sibling at the start of our Archive derived chronology. Drawer 1-1: First Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 68 On first reading, this would seem to imply that Sibling has already withdrawn. But I think based on the subsequent entry by (I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume) the same Elsecaller Radiant, the tower is still partially functional. This Elsecaller investigated the Sibling in the Cognitive realm, and I think the reason that he/she doesn't hold that the Sibling has withdrawn by intent is that in fact the Sibling at this point hasn't withdrawn, at least not fully. The "I find counter to that theory" implies that she has some direct evidence that either 1) The Sibling hasn't withdrawn by intent or 2) The Sibling hasn't fully Withdrawn, or 3) The premise that the Sibling has withdrawn is false because some other process is at work upon the Sibling (namely corruption by Sja-Anat) that is causing the malfunctioning of Urithiru's subsystems. I'll return to this later in the Grand Unifying Theory portion. Drawer 1-1: Second Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 69 This shows that even when some Radiants believed that the Sibling had withdrawn, something was still powering some of the subsystems at Urithiru. Drawer 1-1: Third Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 70 Just more confirmation by the Elsecaller who has investigated what is going on with the Sibling from the Cognitive Realm (who likewise knows that Urithiru, at this point, is still somewhat functional) that an abnormal process is at work with the Sibling. Drawer 2-22: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This is early in the Gem Archives and shows that the plan to abandon the tower followed pretty shortly after the beginning of the breakdown of Urithiru's subsystems. Drawer 3-11: Garnet (Lightweaver) CH 73 This one is far more interesting, and one of the prime pieces of evidence for the speculation that Sja-Anat had been assualting the Tower. The two Truthwatcher entries in this series are also evidence for this surmise, with the small emerald one basically being a confirmation that Sja-anat had been at the very least actively corrupting Radiant spren. Drawer 8-1: Amethyst (WIllshaper) CH 65 This entry, and the ones that highlight the divisions in the tower, shows that the withdrawal from Urithiru was a stepped process, not a single mass exodus. Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 60 This combined with the drawer 30-2 small emerald heavily implies Sja-anat's presence at the Tower. We know that seeing the future is actually voidbinding (per Argent's signed book WoB). So this Truthwatcher might be wary because his/her fellow Truthwatchers are being secretive about their spren (because they are corrupted) or because prophetic writing similar to Renarin's count down to the True Desolation had begun to appear in the Tower. Drawer 16-16: Amethyst (Willshaper) CH 63 Another entry that highlights the divisions in the tower and shows that the leaving of the tower was a protracted affair. Drawer 24-18: Smokestone (Skybreaker) CH 67 This entry is included to show its chronological context, because it is a VERY important entry, and the fact that the Sibling hadn't been bonded in a generation is very significant. Drawer 27-19: Topaz (Stoneward) CH 64 This entry is important for establishing a link to the external chronology by giving a plausible reason why the assualt at Feverstone keep was predominantly Windrunners. The record of 2-22 shows that at least one Skybreaker was displeased with abandoning Urithiru, and that group tends to act like a school of herring, one opinion is probably indicative of the opinion of the group. With the Skybreakers dragging their heels about leaving, and with the conflict between the orders at a fever pitch, it's a reasonable surmise to say this is one of the reasons that most of the Windrunners were present at the Feverstone Keep Recreance vision of Dalinar's. Drawer 29-29: Ruby (Dustbringer) CH 87 This, to me, reads like the last goodbye to Urithiru. And because it precedes the drawer 30 Melishi strikeforce Emerald series, it seems like at this point most of the Radiants had given up on the tower as a lost cause. Drawer 30-20: A particularly small emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 85 This entry shows that at least one Truthwatcher at the tower had their spren corrupted by Sja-Anat. With the alarmist tone of the Emerald in drawer 8-21 about being concerned about their fellow Truthwatchers, and the drawer 3-11 garnet expressing worry about the towers defenses being compromised, it's a reasonable surmise to think that Sja-Anat was active at the Tower. So the rough chronology of events about the Sibling and the Tower established through the Archive is the following: The Sibling began to behave strangely, things started to not work at Urithiru (assumed pre-archive) An Elsecaller investigated what was going on by checking on the Sibling in the CR and found that contrary to the general perception, the Sibling had not withdrawn with intent (this leaves several possibilities open, namely only part of the sibling had withdrawn or the sibling had been corrupted) Shortly after the Elsecaller's investigations into the problems at Urithiru, a decision was reached to abandon the tower. At least one Skybreaker objected to this, and this could be the start of the deepening divisions among the orders. Shortly after the decision to abandon the tower was reached, a Lightweaver expressed worry about the tower's defenses, implying that the problems with the Sibling were likely to affect the Tower's defense. Not too long after the concern over the tower's defenses were expressed, a Truthwatcher records his worry about his fellow Truthwatchers (sounds like a sublte assualt to me). General dissention reigns at Urithiru. The majority of the Radiants leave the tower. Melishi, the sole Bondsmith, and his strikeforce leave the tower to confront Ba-Ado-Mishram. PART 3: Records about the War with the Parsh & Imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram This is a pretty straightforward chronology, but where useful, the comments following the record entries contextualize the entry in terms of the Sibling/Tower chronology. Drawer 19-2: Third Topaz (Stoneward) CH 84 This is one of those records that establishes a correlation of the Archives with an external chronology. It's after the Willshaper returns to a squabbling tower (Drawer 16-16 amethyst) and before the disagreement with the Skybreaker and Windrunners record (Drawer 27-19 topaz). Of special note is the fact that there is no mention of the enemy having access to Voidlight at this point. Drawer: 20-10, Zircon (Elsecaller) CH 83 This I think is a small bit of foreshadowing, namely that the only perfect gem we know of, The Honor's Drop, is mentioned before the strikeforce sets out to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem. We know from Oathbringer that prior to the battle of Thaylen Fields the Honor's Drop wasn't imprisoning an Unmade, suggesting heavily that whatever had previously been imprisoned in the Honor's Drop no longer is. Drawer: 29-5, Topaz (Stoneward) CH 58 Chronologically and thematically this is interesting. On the eve of the Melishi's strikeforce operation, even the most dependable of Radiants were beginning to question themselves. Is this from the ramifications of what was going to be attempted with Melishi's strikeforce? Was this from the ravings of Honor? Was this from the corrupting influence of Sja-Anat? Whatever the cause, this record clearly sets the stage for the only view of the Recreance we get at Feverstone Keep, where predominantly Stonewards and Windrunners broke their bonds. Drawer: 30-20, First Emerald (Truthwathcer) CH 77 This is the beginning of the denouement for the Knights Radiant. This is the eve of the Recreance, and chronologically it's immediately preceded by a Dustbringer bidding adieu to Urithiru (abandoned), the Sibling (withdrawn possibly partially, fully, or corrupted), and the Radiants (who very shortly will cease to exist as a group due to the wholesale abandonment of their oaths). Drawer: 30-20, Second Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 78 My guess is that one of the scholar radiants in this group is the Elsecaller who investigated the anomalies of the workings of Urithiru regarding the Sibling at the start of the Gem Archive. And further that her special understanding of how Voidlight was supplied enabled Melishi's strategem. Drawer: 30-20, Third Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 79 This one is an obvious call back to the Drawer 20-10 Zircon (the one about capturing an Unmade in a perfect gem), and implies heavily that at least part of Ba-Ado-Mishram was trapped within Honor's Drop by Melishi post strikeforce ops. Drawer: 30-20, Fourth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 80 Of special note in this entry is the only parrallel between what BAM and Odium did was in regards to the Connection with the Parsh. The implication from continuing to read the sentence is that Voidlight is supplied through this connection, but the entry only explicitly states that only the manner of Connection was similar. This is VERY important in the Grand Unifying Theory portion below. Drawer: 30-20, Fifth Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 81 This seems to be only of Realmatic signifigance in that Connection and Identity are important for assuming forms of power. Drawer: 30-20, Final Emerald (Truthwatcher) CH 82 Just a reminder that the False Desolation occurred after Aharietiam, and the fact that the Heralds lied about the Last Desolation is just one more reason to throw in the towel and give up on Radiance. The rough chronology of events in the War agains the Parsh in the False Desolation (with asides about where this fits in with the events in the Sibling/Tower timeline) are: The subsystems are failing at Urithiru, and there are fractious divisions amongst the Orders at Urithiru before the war with the Parsh (that comprises the False Desolation) are mentioned. The first mention of the war that would turn into the False Desolation is the drawer 19-2 topaz that talks about the Parsh's push to Feverstone Keep (which is a significant location because that's our one view of the Recreance) Before Melishi's strikeforce leaves to imprison BAM, even the Stonewards are questioning thier place as Radiants. That's a bad sign. Melishi's strikeforce sets out with the stated aims of 1) Denying the enemy their source of Voidlight and 2) Imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram (heavily implying that the second objective will accomplish the first). PART 4: The Grand Unifying Theory A lot of the preliminary thought about this is covered in my post about Voidlight not being Odium's Investiture which I initially abandoned but am starting to reassess as perhaps being more or less on the right track (spoilered below): So, you have seen the rough chronological progression of events, as reconstructed from the Gem Archives. Here is the Grand Unifying Theory, with each link in the speculative chain presented with evidence spoilered below it. The color of the Moons of Roshar corresponds to the 3 types of Investiture present on Roshar. Nomon (blue) represents Honor's investiture, Stormlight, (distributed through the Highstorm), Mishim (green) represents Cultivation's investiture, Cultivationlight, (most likely distributed through the Crem cycle), and Selas (violet) represents another type of Investiture,Voidlight, which I believe is another ecological manifestation of investiture, namely the formation of gem hearts in the native fauna on Roshar. We've seen spheres infused with Voidlight, the Fused giving off a nimbus black-violet anti-glow implying they are using Voidlight, and a Fabrial that uses Voidlight to suppress Radiance. The only explicity stated source of Voidlight was BAM in the False Desolation. Ba-Ado-Mishram (note the double hyphenation) is a tripartite being, and is the Sibling. The Sibling is a fusion of the original gods of the Singers, the spren of Spren, Stone and Wind, formed from the primitive beliefs of the native life on Roshar pre-shattering. I believe that it's a reasonable surmise that the 3 means of dispersing Investiture predated the arrival of Honor and Cultivation, and that the Singers original Gods were powerful Spren born of the accretion and focus of the three different systems of Investiture distribution. To extend the surmise, it's quite likely that when Honor and Cultivation invested on Roshar, and began investing in 2 of the 3 pre-existing channels for investiture distribution, namely the High Storm and the Crem cycle, the Singer's original Gods of the Wind and the Spren were displaced, leaving only the God of Stone (the one responsible for gemheart formation) with unfiltered Power, and speculative to be sure, but the God of Stone portion of the Sibling is probably the Sibling's primary aspect due to it's unsupplanted function. Probably the most compelling piece of evidence that Ba-Ado-Mishram is the Sibling is the chronological series of events presented in thg Gem Archive. When the battery for Urithiru stopped working, suddenly the Singers fighting in the False Desolation had an entity capable of supplying them with power in the form of Voidlight. Melishi, a Bondsmith not bonded to the Sibling, was able to use his Bondsmith abilities to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram (or as I posit a single aspect of the tripartite being) and the consequence of this imprisonment and Melishi's use of his Bondsmith power to affect Connection was a severing of Connection and Identity of all of the Singers connected to BAM. The Portion of the Sibling able to Connect and Distribute Voidlight, namely the Portion that was imprisoned by Melishi, was (until the start of the True Desolation at least) residing on Braize. The Everstorm is of Odium, the lightning it produces is Red (an Odious color) and for it to have the assumed ability to replenish Voidlight something else needs to be going on. I think this is best explained by the reasoned surmise that Odium, Connected to the portion of BAM that is able to supply Voidlight, is using that Connection to supply Voidlight through his storm. This is just like how Dalinar uses his Connection to the Stormfather to Supply Stormlight to his Radiants. The other two portions of the Sibling, the God of Wind and the God of Spren, are the massive Stormstriders seen hiding in the Eye of the Highstorm. . Here are possible objections to this theory and rebuttals. In the Hessi's Mythica epigraph in CH106 of OB, BAM is described as the following: This clearly states that she was a Highprincess among the Enemy Forces and the commander during SOME of the Desolations. If the Sibling/BAM is a composite Entity of the original Spren Gods of the Singers, it would make sense that they would initially side with the Singers. Also, one of the Desolations where she was a commander would definitely be when she was supplying Voidlight and Connection to the Singers during the False Desolation. So covering the vague SOME only requires her to be a commander during 2 Desolations really, but I think it's probably likely that she was a Commander for the Singers up until the Construction of Urithiru, it seems to have as it's foundational design principle the idea of big battery to install, so I think it likely that one of the first Bondsmiths to Bond the Sibling/BAM also was instrumental in creating the tower, and in terms of Absolute chronology this would have to be before Nohadon, because it's impossible to Walk to Something that hasn't been built yet. How do we know that Cultivationlight is part of the Crem cycle? We don't, this is just surmise, but we do know that Crem is invested based on a couple of WoBs spoilered below: How do we know that Sja-Anat corrupted the Sibling and was the reason, some/all of the Sibling withdrew? We don't but we have seen Sja-Anat is able to corrupt massive spren (the Kholinar Oathgate Spren), and the Drawer 8-21: Second Emerald and Drawer 30-2: particularly small emeralds about Suspecting fellow Truthwatchers at the Tower and the confirmation that at least one Truthwatcher was voidbinding (saw the future) is pretty compelling circumstantial evidence that Sja-Anat was active at the tower. I'll add more of these as you all start testing the limits of this theory with your amazing wobbery and generally sharp analysis Here's the closing portion where I'm going to put this all together in a chronological sequence of events that I think does the best job of explaining the crap ton of dangling threads that we had at the end of Oathbringer. Prior to the shattering, during the time when the Singers were the predominant sapient species on Roshar (and possibly the Reshi Islands too), there were 3 distinct methods of Investiture distribution. The Investiture that would later become Stormlight was distributed by the Highstorm, the investiture that would later beomce Cultivationlight was distributed by water and the Crem cycle to make the inhospitable rocky planet capable of sustaining life, and the investiture that would later become Voidlight was distributed as innate investiture sink in the form of gemhearts. The gemhearts were most likely just a means by which the megafauna of Roshar could access and be affected by the other forms of Rosharan investiture. Due to the importance of all 3 systmes of investiture, the Singer's gods coalesced as Mega Spren, namely the God of Spren (cultivationlight), the God of Wind (stormlight) and the God of Stone (voidlight/gemhearts). (The Shin and Unkalaki likewise worship a God of Stone, heavily implying that that this entity is still existant). After the Human's came, they brought their new ideas about the local phenomena, and the Influence of Cultivation and Honor's Investing of Roshar caused the original singer gods of Spren and Wind to be displaced. The three primary gods of the Singer then became to the Singers a single Entity and the Sibling was born. The Sibling thus Formed, aided their worshippers in the Wars against the true Voidbringers, namely the Human immigrant's from Ashyn (this is the portion referred to in Hessi's Mythica were BAM was a commander for some of the Desolations). At some point during the Heraldic Epochs, after the Knights Radiants were formed, the new Order of Bondsmiths discovered they could bond the Spren that are Conduits for the 3 type of Investiture on Roshar, namely the Stormfather (the God of Wind had been displace), the Nightwatcher (the God of Spren had been displaced) and the God of Stone (who at this point was combined with the original God of Wind and the original God of Spren). The Tower City of Urithiru had to be created after the Sibling was bonded, because it's built around the central Gem column to provide power to it's internal subsystems, and most likely to provide cultivationlight to the crops, and I also think that prior to the withdrawl of the Sibling, Urithiru recieved direct power from the Highstorm (using the component God of Wind to key and transfer Stormlight investiture). This takes us up to the time of the Gem Archive, when only 1 Bondsmith had been active for a generation (Drawer 24-18: smokestone), meaning that the Sibling was unbonded when subsystems at Urithiru began to fail. Shotrly after this, an Elsecaller investigating the Sibling in the CR (Drawer 1-1: zircons 1-3) noted that, unlike some thought, the Sibling hadn't withdrawn with intent. This combined with worry about Urithiru's defenses failing (Drawer 3-11: garnet) and the alarmist note of the Truthwatcher suspecting his fellow Truthwatchers (Drawer 8-21: second emerald), heavily implies that Sja-Anat had infiltrated the Tower, and that at least one of the Components of the Sibling had been corrupted. The Singer's at the start of the False Desolation don't appear to have been supplied with Voidlight (Drawer 19-2: third topaz), and it is only stated explicitly that they are Recieving Voidlight from BAM (Drawer 30-20: Fourth emerald) after the Tower had been mostly abandoned and the Sibling had fully withdrawn (Drawer 29-29: ruby). The Details of Melishi's strike force combined with the fact that the Singers were obviously lobotomized after the False Desolation and only had their Identity and Connection restored with the Coming of the Everstorm for the True Desolation, shows that at least along some fronts Melishi's strike force was successful. The gem archive entries about imprisoning BAM in the Honor's Drop imply heavily that this was the means to do it, and I think it can be surmised that just the God of Stone portion (the one able to supply Voidlight and connect with the Singers) was imprisoned. But at least at the beginning of the Battle of Thaylen Fields, BAM was no longer imprisoned, because the Honor's Drop was empty. The evidence of a Giant Luminous Spren, and a Sleek Alien Spren striding through the Highstorm close to the eye of the Storm, is heavily suggestive that these are the Components of the Sibling/BAM that were not captured by Melishi's strikeforce, and further more their descriptions fit with them being the Singer's original Gods of Wind and Spren (because their descriptions somewhat parallel the features of the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher, the Spren that displaced them from their original roles). The fact that Gavilar had access to a fabrial capable of teleportation of gems to Braize and that he had spheres filled with Voidlight, suggests that the portion of BAM capable of supplying Voidlight was at some point released from her prison in the Honor's Drop and returned to Braise to wait rebirth at the start of the next Desolation. Odium's Everstorm though seemingly capable of replinishing Voidlight, does not of itself replinish voidlight, because Voidlight is not Odium's investiture, it's a native flavor of Investiture (that probably has a shardic analog, but unknown which). The Everstorm has red lightning bolts, voidspren are golden-yellow or red, Voidlight is being bridged by BAM through BAM's Connection to Odium, and then pushed out through the Everstorm. The bonding of the Sibling is likely going to require the de-corruption of the Singer God of Stone prior to a Bondsmith being able to bond the Sibling, but if the Sibling is really a tripartite being, this gives the Sibling Bondsmith some room to maneuver, becasue from the gem archive we have seen that Urithiru can partially function, so if necessary the Sibling's bondsmith could probably venture out of the Tower with one of the 3 if necessary. That's it for Now, I am sure there are some edits that I am going to make to this monster of a theory, but this took far longer to put together than I was planning on spending. I'll address any critiques of this theory probably this weekend, cuz unfortunately crafting Cosmere theories doesn't pay the bills. Pip, pip, and as Sherlock Holmes would say, the game is afoot. *All records from the Gem Archive, organized just chronologically by drawer-sub drawer number spoilered below*

I'm halfway satisfied with that. Granted. You can instantly master any skill/discipline written about in book form even if you don't consciously understand what the book is saying. You could read army training manuals and instantly be proficient in hand to hand combat. You could read journals on brain surgery and instantly be one of the world's foremost brain surgeons. Your bane is that all you want to read are books about tying flies for fly fishing and Keto diet cookbooks. I wish for something dappled and exquisite.

The Nightwatcher looks at you with her adorable "Whatchoo talkin' bout Willis" look and the studio audience laughs uproariously. In sibillant tones she says "Such an easy bubble to burst, I could have given you just a "magical" bane, proving that magic is real, and then sent you on your way, but instead I will grant your true wish. I will grant a small application of magic to the pale blue little dot of a planet upon which you reside." Turning to camera two with the same canned expression she says, "How'd he get to my Valley Willis?". The studio audience is in stitches. You wake up in your bed with the over the top laughter still reverberating in your skull. In that special hyper lucid state that sometimes occurs during the transition from sleep to wakefulness, you realize it was no mere dream, and further you have an intuitive understanding of how the magic system that is now at play on earth works. You realize that the key to practicing magic on Earth is the plucking of and the magical consumption of unsightly body hair. Back hairs when plucked and burnt as fuel for the magic grant increased physical strength. Shoulder hairs when plucked and burnt grant superhuman speed. Nose hairs grant the power to slow down time. Ear hairs grant the practitioner telepathy for short periods of time. Knuckle and finger hairs grant the power of telekinesis. The longer and coarser the hair the more potent the magic and the longer it's effects can be sustained. Your bane is related to your boon, in that you have been endowed with enough fuel for the practice of this magic to be the most powerful magic user on earth. But it's pretty dope, you can connect the bushy bunches of hair sprouting from both of your ears into a sweet pony tail, and you have enough hair coming from your nose to make it appear to be a handlebar mustache. I wish for half of something.

I have endeavored never to drown. We dance, without rythym. It hurts. Repellantly the Kragniblob descended the Vuscelator. I aspirated bacon for you, darling. They walked and then they rested. Knives, it seems, make poor pillows.

That's a very good point. With my limited understanding of DID, it does seem like there is an internal self selection of the body controlling alter that is best suited to handle a given situation, so it might be highly unlikely that Shallan would inadvertently switch to her child alter in a scene, that as a reader, I would hate to experience. Well, I'm really of the opinion that Odium already made his choice, Dalinar, and it was in the presence of a Bondsmith (Dalinar), so I tend to think of that as a done deal. But I've seen enough good speculation on the Shard to be less confident in that assessment, and my point was that having someone with DID turn out to be the Champion of the enemy didn't seem very plausible, mostly because Brandon would be trying to avoid negative stereotypes in an attempt to be respectful of those who have DID in real life. But the more I've thought about it after reading posts on this thread, the more I agree with your point. If Shallan is depicted realistically then her actions are her own, and the DID she struggles with is just a part of her character that doesn't control or dictate her arc anymore than someone who stutters would be controlled by their struggles to speak. I really did start off being very annoyed that Shallan was going down the DID path, but that's the nice thing about civil discourse with intelligent people, it's one of the few spaces where meaningful change can occur. I can clearly see the way forward for Shallan, and her struggles are just a much a part of her as Kaladin's, Teft's, or Dalinar's. She's not a medical condition substituting for a character, she's a character with a medical condition. The DID doesn't make her good or bad, it's just part of who she is, and Brandon being the skilled author that is, only needs to portray her condition realistically, not filter her actions through a lens meant to pander to an underdog community. The fact that it was a multiplicity in a single body doesn't change the extreme poignancy of the scene in Kholinar where Wit tells Shallan that she is the version of herself that stood up, in a lot of ways it makes it even more touching. Accepting yourself for who you are also means accepting the struggles that define you as well, that's just part of the journey. Big hug for you @Calderis, you are such an amazing guy. You're a pillar of what I think is the best online community of them all (I've never joined any other except for Tor to comment on pre-release chapters before OB's release, so take that with a grain of salt). Your thoughtful posts, insightful analysis and just big heart are some of the reasons I'm still active on the shard. You've set a really nice tone for this discussion, and quite frankly are one of the reasons that I gave this issue enough thought to change my mind about this. And that video @Kargerlinked to was great as well.

Very good points @IntentAwesome, there's also the fact that Kaladin has already infiltrated a group of Singers, and justifiably quickly gained their trust. I think Kaladin and Venli will be instrumental in creating an alternate path for some of the Singers to leave Odium's side and join the coalition, but I also think that this will most likely be mediated by the character that they both have a past history with and who has been suspiciously absent for quite awhile, Rlain. I think it's interesting too that once the Singers had their Connection restored they spoke with their own regional dialects, and further they took on some of the basic biases of the city/kingdom that they had lived in when in dull form. This implies a sort of innate allegiance because of a shared system of values among groupings of Singers, so I think it will be easier to convince some singers to switch sides than others, and we might see something similar to the fault lines in Dalinar's coalition mirrored in the Singers who are willing/unwilling to join the coalition. One other interesting thing to consider is how much are Singers affected by the Everstorm? Are there inherent dangers with having the Singers join the coalition? If something as fundamental as their Connection can be altered through the storm, what else is Odium able to do to the Singers when his heavily invested Storm passes over them? We know he was able to use it to communicate with and torture Venli (who admittedly had bonded a voidspren), but with the Singers having gemhearts (an internal focus for investiture), the warnings about the baleful influence of their gods in the Listeners songs, and the fact that without their control or consent the Singers in dull form had their Connection restored, it seems like Odium might be able to exert some malign influence over the Singers that do join the coalition. Singers have to willingly open themselves to become Fused, but it seems like Venli didn't have a choice when she was assigned Envoy form. Also, at the very least, it seems like Odium could use his power through the Everstorm to torture and interrogate coalition Singers, essentially using the Singers as an unwitting fifth column.

Onomatopoeia Drip. Drip. He stood looking down at the urinal and felt a whooshing sense of dislocation. Wham. Slamming into his consciousness like a 160lb bull mastiff, a realization had clobbered his brain box. The Brooklyn native in the stall next to him said, "Oh, no mat to pee, uh?"

Looks sweet, nice work! Hmmm, makes me wonder, do Cryptic portrait painters use spirographs?

Hahaha, well, I do love Brandon's books and I am actually usually quite "jolly on the spot" when I'm reading his works. I truly appreciate that he writes with a moral imperative, Dalinar's oath of "If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man" is powerful, motivational stuff, and I think including characters with personality attributes that some would dismiss as flaws but that Brandon highlights as just struggles that make them who they are is really good. My point really was that he didn't by necessity need to take Shallan down the DID path, but it's a choice that he has made (and in fairness to Brandon, I do think he will do a very good job with it). And this will have implications for Shallan's character arc because giving a character DID makes them the narrative equivalent of the 3 legged dog Little Brudder from Strong Bad (he could have passed for a 1000 yards). The character is necessarily going to be insulated from certain outcomes because of his desire to be respectful and sympathetic to the condition. If she was just trapped in a series of self-delusions, suffering from PTSD, and not fully dissociated, it would still be believable that she could possibly be Odium's champion. But the fact that she has a real world condition, and that real people with this same condition will look to her as a lens for understanding their own condition, makes it so he has less room to maneuver with Shallan. That's really more of my concern with this choice, I think like you said Brandon will steer clear of sensationalizing the condition, but also for narrative purposes he might choose to less accurately portray it (which, with his powers as an author is fully his right to do). I liked your sand in a cup analogy, by the way, I hope you have a cup full sand sitting by your desk. If you do, then you could place a small fold-up drink umbrella in it, and then position the cup and umbrella so that the sun is directly behind it, and be transported to the beach in your home/office. Nice stuff. Yeah, but with Elhokar, he was on the path to Radiance because he was trying to get past his Narcissism, not because of it. It's one of those conditions that is unsympathetic, because at it's base the individual experiencing it has underdeveloped empathy, and I find it hard to believe that an arc of Radiance could include the maintenance of full blown Narcissism. Highly functioning narcissists are successful, low functioning narcissists (like Elhokar) are not. The success reinforces the condition, the lack of success undercuts a core belief, namely that everything should work out because they are exceptional. Addressing the other one below, Mistborn Spoilers: Everyone has struggles in life to be sure, and their is no right path to where you want to go. I think it is to the good that Brandon is exploring what it means to struggle with mental health with his books, and I think that some of the most powerful moments have come about because of his desire to address these issues (Kaladin at the Chasm, Shallan's Discussion with Wit in Kholinar, and Dalina's refusal to give Odium his pain). I personally would have liked to see Shallan not have DID, mostly because I liked the wildcard element of her narrative arc, and it seems like with her having a real world condition Brandon (in an effort to be respectful) will have her have a fully sympathetic arc. It's a bit like knowing that a character is going to be in a sequel, and seeing them in the first movie in a point of danger, you know that nothing is really going to happen so the tension is lost.

I think one of the primary dangers here is the PT Barnum syndrome, at what point is this just sensationalism? Really, this rubs me the wrong way, not for the reasons mostly mentioned, but because it's a bit like Oliver Stone's defense of the ultraviolence in his movie Natural Born Killers. Saying that it's a critique on how violent movies have become while still capitalizing on the interest in violence is a hypocritical position. Just like having a character with an exotic mental illness while saying you are treating it respectfully is still a kind of voyeurism that I find distasteful. Even though Brandon has a beta reader with DID, I'm always skeptical when a single person speaks for a larger community, and I think this is compounded in this case when the multiplicity of one is trying to represent the multiplicity of an entire community of multiplicity. DID has a lot of innate interest built into it, and quite frankly is a plot device that I wish Brandon had stayed away from. Ultimately he is choosing how to tell his story, and I get that a major component of Stormlight Archive is the fact that people have to be broken in order to find their link to power. It's a nice moral, a good message, but I think it runs the risk of having the Knights Radiants become a catalogue of DSM conditions. This also begs the question, is Brandon going to create a sympathetic sociopathic character? What about a highly functioning narcissist? What about a character with uncontrollable impulsive thoughts? I really like Shallan as a character, but this seems like a tacked on thing. I might have a different opinion of this if Brandon hadn't stated time and time again that he was going to steer clear of the whole DID with Shallan. With this choice of direction, I think Brandon is running the risk of having the story warped around the exigencies of the condition, and also he runs the real risk of not accurately portraying the condition. In watching the video linked by @Karger above, it seems like people with DID have some similar common alters, one of which is an alter frozen in childhood. In pursuit of a realistic depiction of the condition, this alter might be added to Shallan's multiplicity, and from a narrative stand point that is just horrible. Having a major character switch basically to the mind frame of a child while in the midst of a bloody, grisly war (definitely an adult situation) would be awful. But if he doesn't include a child alter than is he really accurately depicting the condition or is this just the Hollywood narrative device version of the condition? Also, I don't like the implications for the narrative, because Shallan has this condition and isn't just trapped in a confusing web of self delusions, it pretty much rules her out of the running for Odium's champion. Brandon's hands will be tied in what he can do with Shallan because he will want her to be a sympathetic character, which necessarily limits the range of the possibilities for her character progression.

Well, there is the fact that if Mrall is the world hopping Kandra he would be in direct communication with the most powerful shard in the Cosmere. Also, given that Preservation's futuresight was one of the best in the Cosmere, using intel from Harmony Mrall could easily make himself indispensable to the Diagramatists. This is pure speculation, but it makes the most sense to me, that given his access to Cosmere wide knowledge, the Diagram itself could have instructed Taravangian to recruit Mrall. And further, if the Diagram is the 3 dimensional chess game being played by Cultivation that some of us believe, then drawing in and exerting control over the major active piece in an external Shard's game on Roshar likewise makes a lot of sense. By assigning Mrall a very specific and daily role, Cultivation is really limiting his ability to act independently, and his role of daily tester is very clearly spelled out in the diagram. Once again, if this is truly the case, Cultivation is brilliant.

Hmm, I wonder if it's as simple as turning the fabrial dial to a specific point that connects the infused gemstone to the aluminum plating. Like the end of the gem that is next to the dial is fitted with contacts that connect to contacts on the dial when in the proper rotational position, and likewise these contacts connect to contacts connected to the aluminum plates. That was confusing, so here's a diagram. Like @Karger's analogy of stormlight functioning similarly to electricity, the aluminum could function as an energy sink. We know that Navani and co are using aluminum to shield conjoining and reversing fabrials, and that Azure used aluminum to mask the signature of soulcaster usage, so the field effect of or the Electromagnetic propagation that results from stormlight use is apparently nullified by the aluminum. Also aluminum's effect in Allomancy seems suggestive of it's role as an energy sink. Pure speculation, but maybe aluminum is like an earth ground, that by its connection to all investiture, it is merely returning the shielded/absorbed investiture to it shardic fount based on the investiture's spin.