Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Sadeas troops are influenced by Thrill after they have been bonded to spren, here are the relevant passages from OB: In Chaper 112, For the Living (when Kal and Co get to the Oathgate in Shadesmar): Then later in Chapter 115, the Wrong Passion, after the Thrill has transitioned from Shadesmar to PR: I mentioned it in the OP that I think the real nature of Odium's power is the ability to control vessels (humans or listeners) with access to investiture, and that voidbinding is really the process of controlling Investiture by proxy. I think the voidbinding chart in the endpapers of TWoK is solely representative of how Odium uses voidbinding to control the Singers. The quote above shows how the process work, Odium creates the proper mindset in the vessel to be voidbound by having the vessel give them their passion, creating an open space in their soul where he can insert his controlling hatred. That's one reason I think Odium is one of the most dangerous of all shards, because his power is the power to corrupt / hijack the investiture of other shards, and he does this by manipulating people's emotions and providing them an external rationalization for their evil actions.

You know that every Rosharan would set their telerials to the right channel when it was time for this show to come on air: The Odd Couple + Sword Setup: Refuges flood into Urithiru from all over Alethkhar, Herdaz, Emul, and Iri. Suddenly space is limited, Radiants who once had a room all to themselves now must live together. Due to the housing shortage Szeth, Lift and sword-Nimi are forced to live in the same apartment. Hilarity ensues. CUE THE MUSIC: EPISODE 1: Ground rules Setting: Interior of Lift's, Szeth's and Sword-Nimi's apartment. One side is barren, immaculately swept and has only one small square pillow and a pot with shinovar grass in it. The other side of the apartment is a sprawling mess, dirty dishes, half eaten chicken legs, old dirty curry bowls and dirty clothes wadded up and strewn over every flat surface. Szeth, sleeping cross legged on the square pillow, with nightblood strapped to his back, awakens and looks across the room at Lift's small form, hanging half way off the bed, snoring loudly with a half eaten roll clutched in one hand. SZETH: The young Radiant's burdens are light, she sleeps well sword-nimi. NB: Well, if you mean how loud she is, then Vasher slept even better. He sounded like 10 boulders rolling down a hill. (Laughtrack) (Lift wakes up, eats the half eaten roll in one gulp and then begins to scratch her backside with her shard-backscratcher.) (Laughtrack) SZETH: Ah, good you are awake. We can discuss the rules we will observe in our shared habitation. We must establish the bounds and determine the precepts of ordering our common living space. NB: Ah, the dirt and grime, all those dirty dishes. Let's destroy them Szeth, they look evil. LIFT: I've got a starvin' rule for you, stick to your side of the room and don't worry about my side. SZETH: I was thinking we could start with some common agreements about the cleanliness of our– (Szeth stops speaking mid-sentence as he is hit in the head with a half eaten chicken leg) LIFT: There, I just cleaned my side up some. Do you want me to clean some more Crazy face? (Laughtrack) NB: Oooh, she's so deevy (Laughtrack) SZETH: These are wise words, balance can only be maintained if– (Szeth is once again pelted, this time by a half full curry bowl. Curry drips off of his face and spills onto his formerly white robes) LIFT: Try balancing that on your face. Hey look, my side of the room just keeps getting cleaner and cleaner. I think if you keep talking like this I'll have my side clean in no time. (Laughtrack) NB: I told you Szeth, we should have slain those dishes, then they wouldn't have been able to attack your face like that. SZETH: I am a skybreaker of the 3rd Ideal, the surge of Division is mine to command. Perhaps instead of hitting me with rotting foodstuffs, I could assist you in the cleansing of your side by– (Lift throws another chicken leg at Szeth's head, but bursting with stormlight, Szeth raises his hand and applies a triple lashing to the chicken leg so that it goes speeding back towards Lift, who catches it in her mouth) SZETH: You will please let me finish, young Radiant. LIFT: (Talking around a mouth full of chicken) Sure thing crazy face, as long as you let me finish eating my starvin' breakfast. (Laughtrack) NB: Oooh, that was pretty deevy of you Szeth SZETH: I could use my surge of division to cleanse your side of the room of the accumulated filth and dirt, so that we could have a clean living space. LIFT: See now, I think you're missing the whole point. You clean up the room, sure, but then what happens? It gets dirty again. What's the point? Besides do you know how far away the kitchen is from here? Where am I going to put my food if I can't just leave it laying around. SZETH: You could requisition a larder or a hamper of some kind. LIFT: Yeah, a larder good that would do me. (Laughtrack) LIFT: I'd have to put my food into the larder and take it out of the larder, sounds ineffecient, and would probably make me real hungry doing all that, so I'd need to get more food. Then I'd probably need to get more larders and more hampers, so many that our whole starvin' room would be filled with larders and hampers. Wait a sec, look at our room, it kind of looks like the inside of a larder right now. (Laughtrack) NB: She has a point Szeth, it does look like a Larder. (Szeth stands up, robes and face dripping oily brown curry onto his clean floor, then walks over to the center of the room and places his hand on the floor. From his hand a brilliant orange line of light streaks across the floor, creating a scorched black line dividing the room in half). SZETH: You are wise. The room has been divided. Obey the simple precept that you shall not interfere on my side of the Room and I will not go on a Crusade to cleanse your side of the Room. (Nervous Laughter???) NB: Hey, what about my side of the room? SZETH: Shut-it sword-nimi. CUE END CREDITS. If you like episode one, feel free to write another episode of what is sure to be the most popular sit-com on all of Roshar.

Interesting speculation @Farnsworth, we'll probably have to wait for the next campfire scene in the CR in Mistborn Secret History part 2, where everyone shares some horneater lagar and shows off their tattoos. You might be interested to note that when clicking on the topic of "horneater lagar" your thread is the only one that shows up. This somehow doesn't seem right.

Awesome post and great collection of quotes @Wit Beyond Measure. Nice enumeration of the possible states of trustworthiness of Sja-anat @Varion. I think that all of Shallan's interactions with Sja-anat are foreshadowing for the upcoming mission that Shallan will have in book 4, to deal with Sja-anat. Here's the cliffnotes summary of the brewing conflict in OB: Shallan, mentally unstable and teetering on the brink of personality disassociation, is contacted directly by the Unmade that was feared most by the old Knights Radiants, most likely for Sja-anat's ability to corrupt people and spren. Sja-anat alerts Shallan to a trap (that she was obviously involved in setting up) and professes her desire to defect. Then Shallan receives a letter from Mraize that contains her next assignment for the Ghostbloods: I think as you pointed out in your OP, it's incredibly interesting to have these two being setup for an upcoming confrontation. In a lot of ways they are the inverse of each other, just like how Sja-anat appears as a photo negative-like reflection of Shallan in the mirror (black form with white eyes). The hider of secrets taking on the Taker of Secrets. The one who uses transformation to help people change to be closer to their ideal self vs the one who corrupts, twists and deforms. Very interesting setup indeed, and the involvement of the Ghostbloods ups the stakes substantially. Can't wait to see how this plays out in book 4!

All of this totally makes sense, thanks for looking those up!

First off the title of the thread totally sounds like a Roshar Beauty product that no self respecting Alethi Brightlady should be without. @Belzedar, I like this and I think this is a very interesting theory. As far I understand realmatic theory the two qualities of the spiritual realm that can be affected by Investiture are Connection and Identity. So when Dalinar uses the surge of adhesion, he uses spiritual adhesion to increase his connection to the person he is adhering to, and can consequently understand their language. Thinking this out, maybe the Fused are able to change their spiritual connection to gravity, meaning that you have an absolute reference point so continual minor relativistic adjustments wouldn't be necessary to maintain the new orientation. While surgebinding gravitation would require constant investiture to shift the gravitational orientation due to the relative motion of the object/person being reoriented to the new position of gravity). I like the explanation of the flying Fused using their lashings as a corrective adjustment to their gravitational orientation, and not as a means of maintaining a different gravitational orientation (like surgebinders do). I think it's interesting that the Fused using violet investiture (not sure if it's really voidlight) might be able to permanently alter their gravitational orientation, and then only have to actively use investiture to modify this gravitational orientation. But there is the scene in Kholinar city where Kaladin is lashed by a flying Fused, and the lashing eventually runs out. Moash is similarly lashed by a flying Fused and that eventually runs out as well. Maybe the Fused are only able to modify their own spiritual connection to gravity, maybe that's a limitation like Dalinar needing to touch the person he uses Spiritual adhesion on. Maybe if they use gravitation on an entity/being other than themselves it has to be physical gravitation (with all of its inherent inefficiencies).

I think you are right, the only stormlight that is directly referenced as blue is coming from sapphire colored gems. I only have physical and audiobook copies of the books, so I don't have the searchable power of kindle editions. But I found about 3 references that mention stormlight as white light, like luminescent smoke, so maybe my impression came from the cover of WoR like @RShara found (nice find by the way). I still think there might be some reference where Kaladin puffs out blue smoke, but it's very hard to find when combing through physical copies. IIRC, eye color only changes when a KR summons a shard weapon, and the coloring of the eyes seems to reflect the color of the gem associated with the KRs order. Kaladin's eyes turn blue (like sapphire) and Lift's eyes turn white (like diamond at the battle of Thaylen fields after summoning her shard pole). I don't know if a lighteyed KRs eye color changes, when Shallan summons Pattern their is no mention (that I remember) of her eye color changing. And likewise when Renarin summons Glys for the first time in front of Adolin, Adolin doesn't mention his eye color changing either. That's not to say it doesn't happen, but I don't think we have an onscreen instance of it occuring (but I totally could be wrong too). I don't think the eyes of the heralds match the color of the gemstone corresponding to their order from the 10 essences table in Ars Arcanum. Jezrein has dark eyes (if they matched they would be sapphire blue), and Taln has dark eyes as well (if they matched they would be yellowy/amber orange like Topaz). Also that labeled voidbinding chart was made using the corresponding names of the Orders of Knights Radiant from the Surgebinding chart, so that is not necessarily what the orders of Voidbinders are called, the labels are just showing how the voidbinding orders relate to the surgebinding orders. Glad you liked the chart, I think the best observation was the pattern of coloration of the energy/connection lines.

I think this is true as well, I think the hack to fuel the surges is the conversion of the gemheart (physically manifest investiture) into kinetic investiture (the violet light that is seen like a nimbus around the flying Fused in particular). This investiture is used to access the normal surges (ineffeciently) and the voidbinding aspect of this system is that the vessels capable of accessing investiture are controlled by Odium. BAM provides Voidlight, as Odium once did. I believe with an active Desolation, and Odium on Roshar, Odium is directly providing the Voidlight to fuel his minions. I think that this is true as well, but we know that there are 10 orders of Voidbinding shown on the voidbinding chart but Nine is Odium's number. My postulate on this front is that Odium fills in the role (or his proxy, Odium's Champion) of the what would be the order of the Voidbinding Bondsmith. That's why there are only 9 types of Fused and 9 types of voidbinding. This of course, is speculation too.

First have an upvote, no theory is worth anything if it can't stand up to challenges. I have been looking for textual references to find how I got the impression that Stormlight was blue-ish tinged, but all the ones I've found so far mention it as white. I know that I have the impression that it is blue, but I have been unable to find any specific references. I always imagined it as a brilliant white with a faint nimbus of blue around it (like the light given off by flash powder mixed with Copper (I) chloride): Stormlight is also constantly referred to as luminescent smoke, and from first hand experience as a smoker, I can tell you that smoke has a slight blueish tinge to it as well. There's a WoB that explicitly states that the color red signifies co-opted investiture: So the fact that the Fused, the Stormform Parshendi and the Alethi being controlled by the Thrill all have red eyes is indicative that they are under the influence of one shard that has co-opted investiture from another source. This is the speculative part of theory, to try and explain why the Fused give off the violet light and seem to have a nearly limitless supply of violet light investiture. When Moash visits Hnanan, who is a highprince among the Fused, he sees some of the flying fused, casually floating while reading books: Supposedly the SIngers with their gemhearts are better vessels for maintaining stormlight, but not perfect (like a perfect gem). If the Fused float even when doing something as mundane as reading a book, this implies that they don't view violet light investiture as a limited resource, even though the Everstorm at this point is only coming once every 9 days. I mis-typed that, it was Eshonai who recieved the sphere from Gavilar (this has been edited in the original post). While true that Renarin's spren could have been corrupted at a different location, I think the more telling bit is that the Parshendi had access to a vast number of red stormform spren, which I still think are corrupted windspren. There might be something off in my analysis, but the coloring of the Voidbinding chart is as it is. I think that it is significant and should be looked at with more scrutiny.

So looking into this more, I think that the Voidbinding chart is actually revealing quite a bit more than you might think at first glance. If there are 3 native types of investiture, keyed to the colors of the moons of Roshar, Violet, Blue and Green, then I think this theory is definitely onto something that has only, up to this point, been adumbrated by a loose collection of details. I have created a labeled Voidbinding chart which I will explain in detail below (the positions of Odium's Champion and BAM are total speculation): Firstly, as I mentioned in the OP, the fact that all of the orders of voidbinding are linked to eachother by yellow lightning bolt connections while the orders of voidbindings are linked to their associated surges by violet lightning bolts is very significant. I believe the explanation for this is that voidbinding is a magic for controlling a vessel that has access to Investiture. This would make Odium a truly dangerous shard because it would give him the power to corrupt/control investiture from any shard. I have labeled points of interest on this chart from 1 to 6, and refer to them by number below in this discussion. The first things of interest are the surges associated with the god's eye orders of Voidbinders. Note how the surges of tension (1) and Illumination (4) are encapsulated in blue with spikes of energy that radiate inwards and that these are further encapsulated by violet spikes radiating outwards towards the left hand surges. Note how this is then mildly inverted for the surges of Adhesion (3) and Progression (6), where the surges are encapsulated in violet which radiates inwardly and this is encapsulated by green spikes of energy that radiate outwards towards the right hand surges. This would seem to imply an overlap of the 3 native types of Investiture to Roshar, and further seems to imply (by the vertical stacking order) a more meaningful relationship. The blue (honor coded) surges seem to imply that Stormlight can be converted into violet light investiture. While the green (cultivation coded) surges seem to imply that violet light investiture can be converted into Life force energy (for want of a better thing to call Cultivation specific Investiture). Some possible ramifications of the above observations (which are totally speculative): Perhaps Odium can only pick a bondsmith or a truthwatcher as his Champion Perhaps Renarin is able to use the voidbinding surge of illumination to see the future without having his eyes go red, because it's a matter of converting stormlight into violet light investiture and has nothing to do with Odium interferring directly with the surge of Illumination. There are possibly many more ramifications, but I think that this chart is information rich, and that the linkages and relationships in this chart are incredibly meaningful.

The items that you highlighted were parenthetical speculations, you're correct that there is no direct textual proof of either of those statements. They are just logical suppositions, I've edited my post to make this more obvious. The Voidbinding chart is in the endpapers at the back of the U.S. hardcover edition of The Way of Kings along with a map of Shadesmar. The U.S. hardcover edition also includes the Surgebinding chart and a map of Roshar in the front endpapers.

Totally the stormfather. I mean, he's a grumpy old man AND a big chunk of God, how awesome's that? I WILL NOT COME WHEN YOU CALL ME, MY LUMBAGO IS ACTING UP. YOU TRY CHUCKING BOULDERS AROUND ALL DAY. And how many times have we gotten to read this little gem too: "The stormfather grumbled distantly." I mean come on, show the grumpy old man some love! Also, just to be devil's advocate, @Toaster Retribution you might want to add Ulim to the list, that voidspren has some good one liners and it's sometimes fun to root for the villains.

*EDITED* See bottom of OP for Potential Problems with this theory. These have more or less been resolved by the WoB about Rosharan Shard colors, added below. Grab some popcorn, this is a long one, but well worth the read. The primary thesis of this theory is that 3 primary modes of distribution of Investiture existed on Roshar prior to the shattering of Adonalsium, and that Voidlight as it is used to power the voidbinding of the Fused is a hacked magic system and is not Odium's actual manifestation of Investiture. An extension of this thesis is that the 3 pre-shattering modes of distribution of investiture (previously splinters of Adonalsium) translate to the post-shattering 3 primary god spren that the Bondsmiths are able to bond. 2 of these splinters have been absorbed into the intents of Cultivation and Honor, while the 3rd god spren is separate and is possibly still a composite of different shardic investiture, but is not of Odium. All WoBs are going to be in spoiler tags so you can read them if you want to or not. We know from a couple WoB's that after Adonalsium was shattered, all pre-existing investiture was assigned to a shard but also there wasn't a 1 to 1 correspondence, rather the investiture was proportionally assigned to different shards based on the nature of the pre-existing investiture and the intent of the shard. Also what has been previoulsy referred to as Voidlight I will be calling violet light, because I think voidlight implies a causal link that is not there. You can see by this WoB that Brandon is somewhat cagey about linking this violet light to Voidbinding: I believe these were the 3 means of distributing Investiture that existed before Adonalsium was shattered: The highstorm (distributes storm light, post-shattering was invested by Honor) The ecological system for maintaining life on a rocky soil-less system and general distribution of life based magic across Roshar (distributes crem, minerals, etc to plants, helps life-based spren become sentient and creates magic purelake fish. I believe the vehicle for distribution of this investiture is the high storm as well and is invested by Cultivation. Further I think this god spren is the gigantic spindly legged glowing form seen walking in the highstorm) The force that allows gemhearts to be created, and allows gemhearted life to bond with spren by creating an invested focal point for the other two forms of investiture (this is the shardicly unaligned force, and the conversion of stored investiture to energy (i.e. the burning away of the gemheart), presents as violet light, while the natural coalescing of this investiture results in the creation of the gemheart itself). FOUNDATIONAL FACTS (Rosharan Ecology and Investiture Pre-shattering) We know from this WoB that the Highstorms are a pre-shattering phenomena on Roshar: And further we know that the Parshendi were created pre-shattering from this WoB: And that they bonded spren pre-shattering as well from this WoB: We also know, post shattering, that the Parshendi can only change forms during a Highstorm (prior to the Everstorm), this implies that Stormlight investiture is necessary for the transformation and further that Stormlight investiture was distributed by the Highstorm pre-shattering. From these data points we know the following: Highstorms and the means of distributing stormlight existed pre-shattering Investiture was used to faciliate life on Roshar pre-shattering Gemhearts and mechanisms to affect life (physical transformation) existed pre-shattering. SUPPORTING DETAILS The three moons are highly symbolic, and we know that Adonalsium created the Rosharan system before the arrival of Honor, Cultivation and Odium, so it seems somewhat safe to assume that the Rosharan moons existed pre-shattering as well. Salas the violet moon which rises first in the night time sky (possibly representing the force of investiture that allows the growth of the gemheart vessel that can house the renewable form of investiture, i.e. stormlight) Nomon the blue moon which rises second and is, according to the Natan origin myth story, the most powerful of the moons (makes sense because it is possibly the most active vehicle for distribution of investiture in the form of Stormlight) Mishim the green moon that according to the same myth is the cleverest of the moons. The color associated with Honor and the direct investiture of the Highstorm is blue (Honorspren are blue, stormlight breathed out or leaking out of skin manifests as blue light as well). The color associated with Cultivation is Green (the color of lifespren, the color of the Nightwatcher) The color associated with Odium is yellow-white (the color of voidspren, the color of the metal of the Dagger Moash uses to kill Jezrien) I think, meaningfully, the color violet does appear but not with any specific association to any of the 3 shards. It's the color of greatshell blood and also is the color of the carapace of Chasmfiends. Also, I think that the one real clue that we've gotten about voidbinding, namely the Voidbinding chart in the endpapers of TWoK shows two different colors of connection between each order of Voidbinder and the surges that they access, yellow and violet, and I think this explains a lot. Here's the chart: Note the yellow lines in the chart connect the orders of Voidbinders together, but don't connect to the surges themselves, those are all violet connections. Also note how the two god's eyes orders of Voidbinders don't have any direct violet connections, they instead show violet energy radiating out from the gem that they are contained in. I think that this is the strongest proof that Voidbinding uses a separate investiture to access the surges, and that further, as we see voidbinding working with the Fused, they are converting the gemhearts of their Singer host's from stored material investiture into energy to access a particular surge. The energy comes from the conversion of the gemheart, the focus comes from the voidbinding. Also, interesting to note, the two god's eye surges suggest that their could be two Orders of Voidbinders that are able to convert and distribute violet light investiture to other Voidbinders. We know from a WoB that Renarin uses Stormlight to fuel voidbinding (specifically seeing into the future), so voidbinding isn't only fueled by violet light investiture: I think that if Renarin's eyes glowed red when he was seeing the future that it would have been mentioned in the scene where Jasnah almost kills him. The fact that his eyes don't glow red, shows that this use of Voidbinding is not a hacked implementaton (unlike for the Fused whose eyes glow red, or the storm form Parshendi who's eyes also glow red). This implies that the conversion of the stored (violet godspren) based investiture in the gemhearts of Singers is a hacked system and therefore the violet light based investiture IS NOT of Odium. If this is true, this would also explain why the Fused use violet light investiture so cavalierly, if they can convert the gemheart of their host into violet light investiture, they could use this perpetually until the gemheart was consumed. This would kill their current host, but they would just fuse a different host when the next Everstorm passes. I don't think that the Everstorm functions as distribution system for violet light investiture, I think rather it is a conduit from the Cognitive realm on Braize to Roshar to allow the Singers to bond either Voidspren or the Cognitive Shadows of ancient Singers. SPECULATIVE THEORIES BASED ON THE ABOVE: I speculated in the [OB] Third Bondsmith and Urithiru thread that Ba-Ado-Mishram might be the third godspren, and might be the Sibling that the Stormfather talks about in OB: The formulation is a little looser than this post, but I think the theory is actually quite sound. Especially looking at the Voidbinding chart, where one of the god's eyes order might be instrumental in controlling BAM to distribute non-destructive violet light to the armies of Odium. The other god's eye order of Voidbinder is likely Odium's Champion (with such a strong connection to Odium, it would be highly probable that this particular Voidbinder could channel and direct Odium's actual investiture and possibly convert gemhearts in the followers of Odium to violet investiture. It might have been one of the responsibilites of the 3rd bondsmith, keeping BAM from going over to the side of Odium and being bonded by a Voidbinder. Melishi might have made the determination after BAM was Unmade that it was safer to seal the Sibling away in a perfect gem prison than to try and fix BAM so that BAM could again be used to power Urithiru. I think we haven't really seen what Odium's investiture is capable of. I think we have seen it being used inefficiently to hack a separate magic system (that predates the shattering of Adonalsium) and that we really won't know what true voidbinding is until the Army that emerges from the Origin with light in pockets (mentioned in the Puuli interlude) arrives. @Wit Beyond Measure, @Varion, @MonsterMetroid put some really good work in building up evidence that Thuderclasts are formed by mindless fused bonding gemhearts embedded in stone in the [OB] Secrets to Parshendi Forms, Thunderclasts, & Urithiru thread. If the theory that violet light investiture is created by conversion of gemhearts to energy, then I think that this is one more point in favor of the Thunderclast theory. I also think that the gemstone that Eshonai got from Gavilar contained the unmade Sja-anat. We know from revelations at the end of WoR that Venli and her fellow scholar form listeners had all tried out stormform before Eshonai did, and the red color of the spren implies corrupted investiture. My guess is that Venli got the sphere from Eshonai and released Sja-anat, and Sja-anat created voidspren by corrupting windspren that allowed the Parshendi to assume stormform. There were a lot of Listeners that assumed storm form, and we know that windspren are plentiful, and before I was always wondering how they found so many of these stormform spren around the shattered plains and why they hadn't bonded them before. But thinking along the lines of this theory it's obvious, the corrupted windspren allowed the listeners to create the Everstorm, which acts like a functional bridge between Braize and Roshar. The reason no listener used violet light investiture before the Fused arrived is because it consumes the gemheart of the host. A cognitive shadow joined to a host wouldn't die as their gemhearts were slowly consumed, but a non-fused Parshendi probably wouldn't last long converting their heart into investiture. Another point in favor of this theory is that Renarin bonded a corrupted truthwatcher spren at the shattered plains, which wouldn't have been possible if Sja-anat wasn't also at the shattered plains. **************************************************************************** POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEORY **************************************************************************** Thanks to @Darvys, @RShara, @Wit Beyond Measure and especially @StrikerEZ I know that some of the foundational principles of this theory have proven to be just plain wrong. This is the place that I will use to highlight all of the erroneous assumptions, and highlight compelling counter arguments to the main premises of the theory. As @StrikerEZ and @Darvys pointed out, reading too much into the significance of color is problematic, and it leads to oversimplifications that confuse the issue. The theory really hinges on the fact that the color associated with the shards is a compelling causal link, but Stormlight is NOT blue, it is in fact white. We haven't really seen enough of Cultivation to associate anything with her Investiture (other than an ability to manipulate the spirit web/minds of people who specifically sought her out) and Voidspren are not just yellow-gold, Ulim who helps Venli find Eshonai's corpse in the Part 1 interlude is a Red spren. *EDIT* Most of the apparent problems with this theory had to do with the colors not corresponding correctly, but the assumptions of color matching the 3 different types of Investiture on Roshar holds, after this WoB (spoilered below with emphasis added) that explicitly states that Odium is associated with Red/Gold, Honor is Associated with Blue/White and Cultivation is associated with Green. The obvious color missing is the Violet, like the violet moon Selas and the black-violet antiglow of Voidlight. Also there's a WoB that implies pretty strongly that no Spren is completely derivative of a single shard, but is more a proportional mixture of different Shardic investiture, so inferences based on the coloration of spren are most likely more complicated than stated in the OP, and don't prove a causal connection: *EDIT* This really has no bearing on the matter upon further reflection. As @StrikerEZ pointed out, Voidlight looks to be the proper term to use to refer to violet investiture. There is a reference in the Gem Archive that states that Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to provide Voidlight to Odium's followers: *EDIT* This is not really a salient issue, Voidlight is the proper term. Gemhearts are most likely not consumed in order to provide voidlight, but there is a WoB that they are physically manifest Investiture: *EDIT* This still remains to be seen, the examples of Yelig-nar consuming his host and the Fused Taking over the body of their host provide countervailing arguements that this might indeed be true, that Gemhearts can be consumed to produce Voidlight in the absence of an alternate source of Voidlight. It's more likely that gemhearts are created from Investiture "leaking" from all the Invested shards on Roshar (given the fact that gems of all different types exist on Roshar and that they are keyed to different fabrials and correspond to the 10 essences in relation to soulcasting). This doesn't preclude the fact that there could be another loose source of Investiture on the Rosharan system, but it makes it less likely that gemhearts are solely composed a single type of Investiture. *EDIT* I No longer agree with this statement. I think they are a particular expression of the 3rd flavor of Investiture on Roshar, I will link to my BAM theory when I've posted it. I still think the Voidbinding chart is information rich and worth scrutinizing. It still feels like there is something hiding in plain sight, something revelatory and amazing. If anyone has anything else to add to this Mia Culpa disclaimer, please let me know. Wild speculation is fun, but good information is better.

I've been thinking about this some more, and I really think that the key to the 3 Bondsmiths and their god spren is that Mosiac in the basement of Urithiru. We know that their are 3 shards on the planet, and really 3 separate forms of Investiture. The figure hovering above the ground before a large blue disc might be the representation of a spren capable of distributing voidlight, the thundercloud is the spren capable of distributing stormlight, and the woman tree is the general dispersal of life force (most likely necessary to maintain life on a rocky, soil less planet). This is the highly speculative part of the theory, but I think that this actually has some merit. We know that the numerology of Roshar is based on the number 10, we know that the Rosharan system was created by Adonalsium prior to the shattering and we know that there are likely 9 unmade (Hessi's mythica only definitely lists 8, but Hessi states that she is confindent there are 9 because it is an unholy number and associated with Odium (and Dai-Gonarthis is the least certain of the Unmade)). So, what if all of the unmade were originally the splinters of Adonalsium that were left on Roshar when the system was first created by Adonalsium? The Highstorm which is responsible for maintaining the ecology of Roshar was one and their were 9 others, and these 9 others were somehow Unmade into splinters of Odium. What if Stormlight and Voidlight both were manifestations of Investiture on Roshar from the Adonalsium days? The Listeners seem particularly adapted to use this, and as @aemetha pointed out: So after the shattering, everything that was heavily invested by Adonalsium pre-shattering was most likely a composite of different shardic intents. So, what if what Odium did to create the unmade was to somehow splinter away the portions of the native pre-shattering god sprens that were incompatible with the intent of his shard? This would explain the cryptic "They were made and then they were Unmade" description of the Unmade that we get from Syl. Also this might be the explanation for what the sibling bondsmith spren is. This is the heavily speculative part, but that's the fun part right, so what if Ba-Ado-Mishram is the sibling spren? We know that BAM is capable of channeling voidlight investiture (like the stormfather and would make a great Urithiru battery). Further we know that the Stormfather talks about how the previous Radiants hurt "them" (referring to the sibling) before the sibling fled the tower, and there is a theory on a different thread that the hyphens in the name of an unmade implies a higher level of sentience most likely due to the fact that they are composite spren. We know the Radiants left Urithiru after Urithiru stopped working properly and that shortly after that Melishi and his KR strike force went to capture BAM. There is also another entry in the gemstone archive that says that the Sibling is now slumbering (possibly a great description for what a powerful spren trapped in a perfect gemstone would be experiencing) I think the most likely chisel that Odium used to splinter away the non-compatible intents from the native Rosharan god spren to unmake them into the Unmade was the breaking of the Heralds in Damnation. We know that there is a possible KR order specific affinity for each of the unmade, and it has been speculated before that this is the way Odium has created the Unmade: Mind you this is pure speculation, we have no confirmation that of any of this, but prior to the arrival of Honor, Cultivation and Odium, the original Adonalsium godspren might have been more in line with the shardic intent of any of the 16 new shards. This might explain why certain of the unmade are red (showing they have corrupted investiture) while others are not (like Re-Shephir who is black), or maybe this is just a sign/symptom of the completeness of alignment of intent with Odium (no corruption/warping of the spren is necessary for it to act, it's intent is completely aligned with Odium). The midnight mother, pools of darkness that coalesce to kill sounds pretty inline with Odium's intent. Now, there are definitely problems with this theory, one being that Hessi's mythica describes BAM as being one of Odium's great generals, and also that BAM was able to provide voidlight to the Fused. But we only have 4,500 years of recorded history, all really after Aharietiam, and the legends about BAM could come solely from the fighting during the False Desloation. We know that shards can take an exceptionally long time to die, so the process of Unmaking a heavily invested splinter could likewise have a long time scale. So it could be possible that after the breaking of the 9th herald in Damnation, Ba-Ado-Mishram was slowly splintering until the god-spren that previously had been a composite of H+C+O investiture shed it's H+C portions, left Urithiru, brought voidlight to the Fused for the False Desolation, was captured by Melishi and his KRs, and BAM (the sibling) was imprisoned in a perfect gem and is now slumbering. If this is true (which is a pretty big stretch, but interesting to think about) would it still be possible for a bondsmith to bond to BAM and power Urithiru with voidlight? One thing that supports the speculation that the 3 different types of investiture, Voidlight, Stormlight and Life energy existed on Roshar before the shattering of Adonalsium is the physical manifestation of the three moons. Salas is a violet moon (like the violet inverted glow of voidlight), Nomon is blue (like the light of honorspren and the color of expelled stormlight), and Mishim is green (the color of life spren, the Nightwatcher, etc). We know from OB that the god color associated with Odium is Yellow-Gold (also the color of the voidspren that round up the newly awakened Singers), so I think that it is logical to assume that these 3 different forms of investiture could have pre-dated the arrival of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium. And if this bit of speculation is true, then I think that it is also possible that Ba-Ado-Mishram might have been an original godspren of pre-shattered Adonalsium responsible for directing voidlight investiture. This is pretty out there, but a lot of moving pieces fit together with theory, but like I said it probably has a million holes too.

In the breakfast hall at Urithiru, a newly Ascended Dalinar explains something very important to a hungry Reshi urchin:

Top of the Ninth, 3 Fused on base, Cultivation throws a wicked curveball, Odium swings and misses, and HE CAUGHT IT! Good job Dalinar!

@TheBrian I like this idea a lot, I think the most likely route for this to happen is for Szeth to swear as his crusade ideal "I will destroy evil as I cleanse the Shin of their false leaders". The Alignment of Szeth's 4th ideal and of Nightblood's awakened command might pull Nightblood into the bond, and talk about the possibilities for strange resonances! I like the idea of the high spren helping sword Nimi figure out the ethics and morality of interpreting his programmed intent.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I think Renarin is invisible to Odium because he was spared due to Jasnah's compassion. I think compassion is to Odium what words written in metal are to Ruin. It's his blind spot, he predicts the future based on assumptions that are inline with his intent, but compassion seems to be a virtue in diametrical opposition to the intent of his shard, and therefore impossible to use as a predicate for future actions. That's also why Taravangian vacillates between extreme intelligence and extreme compassion, one state allows him to see the future as Odium sees it, the other state allows him to act in a fashion that is invisible to Odium. I actually think Odium made a strategic blunder visiting T on one of his compassionate/stupid days because T's motivations were opaque to Odium. He acted from a position of pure compassion, letting his love of his grandchildren dictate the nature of the bargain with Odium. I think we are going to see in the course of the remaining books how compassion proves to be the ultimate undoing of Odium, and I think the act of compassion of sparing, saving, and rehabilitating Renarin will be instrumental in Odium's eventual downfall.

I think the thing to think about in all of this is that Taravangian asked for the capacity to save humanity and the compassion to do what is right. These are sometimes at cross purposes as his two states of existence echo these requests. The thing that Odium may be blind to is irrational love i.e. compassion, and this is precisely the portion of T's plans that slip in under Odium's radar. I think the reason that Renarin is outside of Odium's purview is that he was likewise spared through an act of compassion. That's why I think Taravangian is the subtle Odium destroying knife purposely forged by Cultivation, his intelligence and foresight allow the diagram to be adjusted and his compassion is a veil that Odium cannot pierce.

You're a mean one, Sadeas You really are a heel You're as cuddly as cremling You're as slipp'ry as an eel, Sadeas You're a bad high prince who loves to double deal You're a monster, Sadeas You're heart's an empty void Your brain is like a spider's You've got chull dung in your soul, Sadeas Wit's insults for you were— The best I've ever Hoid You're a vile one, Sadeas You have lie spren in your smile You have all the tender sweetnes of a whitespine in a rile Given the choice between the two of you I'd pick the whitespine by a mile You're a foul one, Sadeas Your'e a nasty, wasty mink You're heart's a crem filled cistern Your soul is full of ink Sadeas The three words that best describe you, Are as follows, and I quote" Stink! Stank! Stunk! Now you're rotting, Sadeas With a stab wound through your eye My only true regret is that I didn't see you die Sadeas Your soul is an appalling latrine Overflowing with the most disgraceful Assortment of deplorable excrement imaginable Smelling worse than a dirty pigsty You nauseate me, Sadeas with your reeking fetid stench Your corpse is gross and bloated so we threw you in a trench You're a nose-plugger stinker with a stench that's so vile that Even the weeping cannot drench.

Thanks @nutellaspren! I was watching Santa Claus is Coming to town, and the scene where Kris Kringle redeems the Winter Warlock by telling him that "Changing from bad to good is as simple as taking your first step" got me to thinking about how things could have gone differently for poor Yelig-nared Meridas Amaram. Put one Foot In Front of the Other (only lyrics changed are bolded) Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door You never will get where you're going If you never get up on your feet Come on, there's a good tail wind blowing A fast walking man is hard to beat Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door If you want to change your direction If your time of life is at hand Well don't be the rule, be the exception A good way to start is to stand Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door If I want to change the reflection I see in the mirror each day (Oh you do!) The next step it's just my selection (Just that!) Then I'll be walking the right way You put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor You put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor Put one foot in front of the other And soon you'll be walking out the door

The Way of Kings Has Saved Dalinar (sung to the Tune of We Three Kings of Orient Are): The Way of Kings has saved Dalinar From destroying all of Roshar Man of passion, must refashion The life he has lead thus far O man of wonder, man of might Man of splintered honor's light Radiant leading, voice he's heeding Unite them for the coming fight Born a man, a beast he became Killed his wife with vengeance's flame Bent and broken, words were spoken But that didn't end his shame O man of wonder, man of might Man of splintered honor's light Radiant leading, voice he's heeding Unite them for the coming fight Visions from the god of the sky Showing the old deity die End of nations, Desolations Sorrow the end is nigh O man of wonder, man of might Man of splintered honor's light Radiant leading, voice he's heeding Unite them for the coming fight Pain is his, it's his cross to bare Noahadon has helped get him there Grieving, striving, odium denying The weight he alone must bear. O man of wonder, man of might Man of splintered honor's light Radiant leading, voice he's heeding Unite them for the coming fight Glorious now behold him Ascend All Three Realms his powers transcend Words Accepted, Words Accepted! He is Unity in the end O man of wonder, man of might Man of splintered honor's light Radiant leading, voice he's heeding Unite them for the coming fight

Hmm, interesting, maybe the Fused after they have taken over the corporeal form of a Singer are only able to hold one spren in their gemheart, and maybe this is what grants them access to only one surge (like Leshwi only having the surge of gravitation). Also, I think it's been pretty clearly hinted at throughout the books that parshendi gemhearts are more effecient vessels for storage of investiture (Szeth mentions in WoK I believe), so that's one explanation for why the flying Fuzed never seem to run out of Voidlight, because there use of investiture is less leaky than the human equivalent. I think it's funny in the scene where Moash is going to talk to the High prince fused Hnanan that the flying fused float even when they are reading books, the casual use of investiture implies a highly efficient use for the primary surge: Makes me think that at night the flying Fused sleep like Dana Barret from the orginal Ghostbusters:

@Personification Brilliant in-world adaptation of a Holiday classic. Makes me want to drink a warm cup of warm mulled violet, and look at the safe hand sleeves hung by the heatrial with care, in that hope that Storm father christmas soon will be there. My favorite part of your Let it Rain song is this: Ah Dalinar, we're all glad that you're not insane, you crazy Ascending nut you. Here's a challenge, I have to get some work done, so I don't have time to do any Holiday songs right now, but I think this would be an amazing song, if you are up to the challenge @Personification, how about "The Way of Kings Has Saved Dalinar" sung to the tune of "We Three Kings of Orient Are"? Gave you an upvote on another one of your posts because Let it Rain is SO GOOD!

This is very interesting @Wit Beyond Measure, also coupled with the fact that the fused say that the most powerful of their number have yet to return from damnation. Here are a couple of relevant WoBs about Chasmfiends: So the great shells share a common ancestry, have evolved to hold investiture more permanently in their gemhearts, and the Chasmfiends have a known correspondence to Thunderclasts. It is quite possible that great shells, with massive gemhearts, have held enough investiture to become cognitive shadows that can be respun out by the perpetual Odium desolation machine. If this is true, could those other more ancient and powerful souls waiting in Braize maybe be other greatshell spren/Cognitive Shadows capable of similarly creating Titan level monsters when bonding to one of the primary god substrates (Wind, Sea and Stone)? Here's a tentative guess as to what this would look like: Cognitive shadow of fully pupated Chasmfiend ---> Thunderclast (titan of Earth and Stone) Cognitive shadow of Reshi Island ---> Cusicesh or some other Kraken like Monster with the sea invested like stone is for thunderclasts (titan of Water and the Coastal Regions) Cognitive shadow or corrupted Mandara spren or maybe Larceryn (if they fly) ---> Hurricane like Gale force wind, possibly invested with the power of storms and lightning (similar to storm form worn by the parshendi, Titan of Wind and Lightning) I think this might be a possible explanation for Cusicesh, maybe he/she/it is a mindless remnant from the false desolation before the recreance, essentially a Monster with severed connection and identity, like dull form listeners. The Physical Realm manifestation of Cusicesh is just so creepy and so strongly mirrors the PR manifestation of the Thrill that something nefarious seems to be at play here. I think it's going to be very interesting to see what the more ancient and powerful souls are that come from Braize, I like the idea too that there might be Titan like scourges that invest the 3 primary manifestations of the old gods of the Singers too.