KandraAllomancer

Here is my take on Voidbinding. We know that Roshar is a very mathematical world (e.g. Julia set) and that spren are based on quantum mechanics. I assume here that, just like quantum field theory, Surgebinding and Voidbinding stem from basic principles: fundamental forces (Surges), symmetry and symmetry breaking. General overview I believe that Voidbinding is actually a fairly simple magic system based on 9 Surges and powered by Voidlight. It may, however, seem confusing because of several factors: A. Humans and Singers bond with Voidspren in a different way B. The Everstorm changed how Voidlight is obtained C. Voidbinding chart (TWoK rear endsheet) is an in–universe document and is not 100% reliable D. We actually see four different types of Voidbinders: Full Voidbinders – nine orders of the Fused, each with a full access to one Surge with two aspects: normal and corrupted Half–Voidbinders – the Regals, bonded to Voidspren, with access to one aspect of a Voidish Surge, normal or corrupted Half–Voidbinders, Half–Surgebinders – nine orders of Knight Radiants bonded to corrupted spren, with access to one Surgebinding Surge and a corrupted aspect of a Voidish Surge. Use Stormlight rather than Voidlight Humans (and probably Singers) bonded with the Unmade (effects vary depending on the Unmade) Voidish Surges Voidbinding is based on 9 Surges (Odium's number). Which Surge is missing? Progression. As described here, Voidlight does not provide the same healing abilities as Stormlight. What is more, each Voidish Surge has two aspects: normal, similar to their Surgebinding counterpart, and corrupted. For example, the Voidish Surge of Illumination comes in two variants: one akin to Lightweaving (“Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men. A form of power, like human Surges.”) and future sight (“Nightform predicting what will be, The form of shadows, mind to forsee.”), which have separate Forms of Power. Decayform seems to have access to a corrupted version of Division, able to destroy minds and break people (“Decayform destroys the souls of dreams.”), while Envoyform accesses Adhesion in a way similar to Bondsmiths (Spiritual Adhesion). I don't think we have enough information to tell exactly what kind of Surge Stormform uses (Transportation maybe, since they can summon the Everstorm from Braize). This version of Voidish Surges also works well on symbolical level: evil is sterile and can only imperfectly copy and twist what already exists (look at Re–Shephir or hemalurgy). As for the Fused, we know that they only have access to one Surge, and we only see the normal aspect of it. It would be very strange however, if Voidish Illumination Fused would be denied future sight when literally every other type of Voidbinder/Voidspren (Regals, Enlightened spren and Unmade) can have this ability. It's hard to tell if all the Unmade abilities count as Surges, but I believe they provide a tenth level of Voidbinding described by Khriss. Voidlight access I believe that every Voidspren is a conduit to Odium and has their own, restricted pool of Voidlight. Regals bonded to basic Voidspren have access to some abilities (Venli's Sipitual Adhesion in Envoyform, shooting lightning by Stormform) that seem to work without external source of Investiture. To achieve something more, however, either greater numbers (summoning the Everstorm) or external Voidlight is needed. The latter used to be provided by the Unmade (that's why it was said that Voidbinding originated with them), but with the Everstorm situation changed and now Voidlight is much more accessible. The Fused have more internal Voidlight than basic Voidspren, but much of it is probably used to maintain their life (situation similar to the Returned on Nalthis). Odium threatens Turash with removing this internal source of Investiture during the Battle of Thaylen Field. As a result of their particular status, the Fused rely on external Voidlight more than any other Voidbinders. Voidspren bond For humans, bonding with any Voidspren relies on specific mindset and environment (e.g. competition/battle for Nergaoul, death for Moelach) and is, by its very nature, temporary. If that wasn't the case, Moash/Vyre would probably bonded with a Voidspren already instead of relying on Jezrien's Honorblade. Unmade, such as Nergaoul, affect people's minds and can facilitate bonding with lesser Voidspren (another argument why Voidbinding originates with them). Because Singers have gemhearts and Forms of Power affect their emotional state, the bond is permanent. Humans can imitate this by swallowing a gemstone, like Amaram did, but it's very destructive. Corrupted spren We know Sja-anat always had the ability to corrupt lesser spren, probably by modifying their spiritweb. Given her willingness to defect from Odium and lack of malice observed in Glys, I don't think her recent ability to corrupt true spren is of Odium. Sja-anat was probably uncorrupted by Cultivation as a source of new agents to fight Odium, particularly those who (like Renarin) can interfere with his future sight. It would explain why Stormlight is used in this case rather han Voidlight. Each corrupted spren one Surgebinding Surge and a corrupted aspect of a Voidish Surge. Now, let's look at the Nahel bond table here. Truthwatchers have a corrupted version of Illumination (second Surge). Second Surge is also corrupted in the next four Knight Radiant orders. There are no corrupted Bondsmiths (you cannot corrupt a godspren), and then we go back to the beginning of the table – orders from Windrunners to Edgedancers have a corrupted first Surge. This way, nine KR orders can be mapped to nine orders of the Fused (by sharing the same corrupted Surge). Nine orders of the Fused can be then mapped (with some fuzziness) to the nine Unmade – that's why there's no Unmade corresponding to Bondsmiths, even though the left out Surge is Progression (which both Truthwatchers and Edgedances have in uncorrupted form). Also, we have 5 KR orders with a corrupted second Surge and 4 K orders with a corrupted first surge – and this kind of broken anti-symmetry would be considered unholy by Vorin standards. The Voidbinding chart (TWoK rear endsheet) seems to be an in–universe attempt to understand Voidbinding (an essentially asymmetrical magic system) in symmetrical, Vorin terms (a reason why modified glyphs are used) – that's why both Bondsmiths and corrupted version of Progression are present there, even though they shouldn't be.

Could you point me to the source of this? I recall Stormfather saying "These Words … are accepted" but in this case he only accepted Dalinar's Third Ideal.

That might have mattered more during the Heraldic Epochs (though, as Nohadon claims in TWoK, not all spren are as discerning as honorspren). After the Recreance, ashpsren want two things in the Physical Realm: break things and exact vengeance on humans. Aerys and Cersei provide both in spades.

I agree. It doesn't help that Singers are naturally able to bond spren with their gemhearts in a way that's not a Nahel bond (it gives them forms, but doesn't grant sapience to spren). Combine this with the fact that (according to Eila Stele) they were forbidden from experimenting with Surges (by Tanavast probably) and it's hardly a surprise that they didn't discover Nahel bond until it was too late. Then Desolations happened and spren turned away from them. I think that decision is up to each spren. Stormfather definitely wouldn't allow Syl to bond with a human.

I don't think you can create a shardblade on Scadrial (particularly given lack of Harmony splinters), but you can create a hilt containing a powerful unsealed metalmind and some harmonium inside to give the blade Leecher ability. Works equally well

Bondsmiths: Jon Snow, Bran Stark (though he's closer to Nightwatcher really), Aegon VI Targaryen (book version) I think that Daenerys is closer to Nale - she has access to supercharged Gravity and Division (dragons), a legion of Skybreaker followers (the Unsullied) and can create laws to support her insane/cruel behaviour Jaime Lannister (book version) seems like a Windrunner squire on his way to become a Windrunner, due to Brienne's influence Dustbringers: Mad King and Cersei. Both share their fascination with fire Lady Stoneheart is a Skybreaker on a mission to punish those that broke the sacred laws of hospitality High Sparrow is an Edgedancer gone really dark

Thanks for the feedback! This would also explain the differences in Unmade's intelligence. The three great Mindless Unmade (Nergaoul, Moelach, Ashertmarn) seem to be made mostly of corrupted lesser spren (gloryspren, deathspren and hungerspren probably). True spren are responsible for higher level of intelligence. Ba-Ado-Mishram would probably have a very clever voidpsren (or maybe even some Fused if chronology allowed for it) thrown in the mix.

Favourite books: The Final Empire, The Bands of Mourning, The Emperor's Soul, Shadows for Silence and (treating a Stormlight book as a trilogy) final part of Oathbringer Favourite characters (one per series/era/novella): Dalinar, Hrathen, Shai, TenSoon, Steris, Vivenna, Bavadin I have several Stormlight theories I'd like to share - I posted one yesterday, at least two more are coming up in the next days.

This is something I came up with at 3 am, so let me know if it gets too crazy Here it goes: We know that Ashyn doesn't currently have any Shard (WoB), but a question if there was ever a Shard there is considered a spoiler (WoB). Ashyn magic wasn't always disease-based (WoB), but used to similar to surgebinding (WoB). Given that Ashyn people used Dawnshards “known to bind any creature voidish or mortal” (Poem of Ista) to destroy their planet and were able to escape it using powers “of spren and Surges” (Eila Stele), it seems certain that there were spren (and therefore probably a Shard) there. Could that Shard be Odium? That seems very unlikely – it would mean that sometime during his Shard killing spree he decided to make a stop (next to a dishardic planet!), Invest there and give people weapons potentially able to harm him (Dawnshards). No, Odium would make a detour to Ashyn only if there was a real threat to him there that needed to be neutralized before taking care of Roshar. That leaves Cultivation and Honor, but as far as we know they've Invested in Roshar before the arrival of humans, so it's unlikely that any of them is responsible for Ashyn magic. My theory is that this Shard was a child of Cultivation and Honor – Unity. It was confirmed that Shards Vessels could have children (WoB) and that being a Shard affects pregnancy (WoB). I assume here that a Shardic child would be considered a Shard with a big asterisk (using terminology from this WoB on Patji), but would still count as two Shards together with their parents (Tanavast + Slammer + Unity = Honor + Cultivation). This way, we still have three Shards overall in the Rosharan system, even though the number of Vessels may not match. Unity would probably have a very atypical childhood (to say the least), so many human concepts (such as gender) could be foreign to them – and this attitude would be shared with their godspren, the Sibling (WoB). It's hard to say if Unity would have their own type of Investiture, but if they used Cultivationlight (WoB) instead, it would explain why we see so little of it compared to Stormlight. Finally, Unity would explain why we see two mixed (Cultivation + Honor) magic systems – Surgebinding was created directly by their Investment in Roshar and fabrials (part of the another magic system per this WoB) were originally developed on Ashyn by Unity and then brought to Roshar by humans. The latter is corroborated by the fact that humans left Ashyn using a type of Oathgate before there were any fabrials on Roshar at all (this WoB, though it's technically not canonized yet due to Spiritual Realm mechanics issues). At the beginning Unity would be underpowered as a Shard, but nothing stops them from travelling across Cosmere. gathering unclaimed Honor/Cultivation Investiture and growing stronger. This would also explain Unity's apparent effect on some of Cosmere's religions (Shu-Keseg concept of unity on Sel, “The One” worshipped by Iriali who later travel to Roshar). This sounds a lot like Autonomy, doesn't it? I think this might set up a future (post–Stormlight) conflict between both Shards, which can be seen as opposing forces. I also believe that at some point during their Cosmere journey, Unity recruited Dysian Aimians (whom we know to be worldhoppers present on many worlds: WoB here and here) as their agents, possibly because of their nature being an actual embodiment of Unity's intent. Anyway, Unity finally brings some humans to the Rosharan system, settles on Ashyn and Invests there, creating a fabrial–based magic system using Dawnshards (probably Unity's splinters, analogically to Honor and Honorblades). What are Dawnshards? I think they're tools for capturing, storing and transforming spren of any kind. The first two are kind of obvious, but what about transformation? We know that in many ways spren behave like wave–functions in quantum mechanics (flamespren study in one of interludes in The Way Of Kings). If so, we should theoretically see things like quantum superposition or Bose–Einstein condensates. In Cosmere terms, it would mean that spren could be merged with each other to create something new. Merging lesser spren associated with a given order of Knights Radiant is already believed by many to be the source of Shardplates. I believe that a similar process, merging of one or many inkspren and lighspren, leads to the creation of unique Oathgate spren (the same mechanism applies to other Surge fabrial spren as well). This could also explain the origin of the Unmade, who were “made, then unmade”. Not created or born. Made – created from other spren by Dawnshards, only to be later corrupted by Odium. For example, Yelig–nar might have originally been an attempt to create a spren able to form Nahel Bond giving all the surges (Rosharan version of lerasium, basically). Re–Shephir seems like a supercharged version of creationspren, Chemoarish – ashspren etc. We know that one Dawnshard is different from the rest (WoB) and that at least one of them is “known to bind any creature voidish or mortal” (Poem of Ista). I believe they're one and the same, and that binding a mortal creature means creating a Cognitive Shadow copy of a person, providing exactly the same form of immortality that the Heralds and the Fused would later use. What is more, this particular Dawnshard seems to be still active on Roshar. That's why Dalinar can be forgiven by Evi during the Battle of Thaylen Field and that's why his second vision of Nohadon is so strange – they are both Cognitive Shadows. The Tranquiline Halls myth in Vorinism is not just a tale of how people left Ashyn – it has additional hidden meaning. Some chosen people don't just go Beyond, they are given some sort of immortality to join the fight with Odium (or be useful to Unity in other ways). I think that's the reason Odium created Moelach. His power seems useless to Odium at first, but he can “seeps into a soul as it breaks apart from the body” (Diagram) and works “at the transition point between realms. When a soul was nearing the Tranquiline Halls” (Hessi's Mythica). He can prevent a person from being captured by a Dawnshard and extract information from them (something the Sleepless of Aimia are afraid in Kaza's interlude in Oathbringer). Moelach's purpose is to search for Dawnshards and interfere with their activity. It's hard to tell if Cognitive Shadows can be merged just as spren, but if they do, that might potentially explain the weird nature of Cusicesh the Protector with it's multitude of rapidly changing human faces. The special Dawnshard also provides an explanation for another question – how Unity could survive their fight with Odium. Before Ashyn was destroyed, Unity's followers (the Sleepless) escaped to Roshar with two Dawnshards. One of them, used for creating Surge fabrials, ended up in Aimia (WoB). The other one, storing a copy of Unity's mind, was hidden by Cultivation (we know that her magic can hide things from Odium – Lift hides from Odium in one of Dalinar's visions). Where such a thing could be stored? My best bet is the Origin of Storms. This place is clearly important, as indicated by Puuli's interlude and Wandersail story (also, Cusicesh always looks in that direction). If the Highstorm really originates there (or, more likely, simply recharges there), the place must be full of Investiture to power a device storing Cognitive Shadows of a Shard and a great number of people. Also, as Investiture resists Investiture, the Origin would be very hard to spy on by Odium's forces. As a result, Odium isn't aware that Unity is alive until the Thaylen Field (his future sight is useless here, as Cultivation and Unity are together equally good at it, or even better) and ends up screaming "No, we killed you. We killed you!". tl;dr version: Unity is the child of Cultivation of Honor and the original Shard on Ashyn. They created the first fabrial–based magic system utilizing Dawnshards that can (A) bind and merge spren into more powerful, unique spren (e.g. Surge fabrial spren) and (B) create Cognitive Shadow copies of people. Using the latter, a Cognitive Shadow of Unity survived the fight with Odium and was hiding with Cultivation's help, planning to strike Odium and finally revealing themselves during the Battle of Thaylen Field.

Based on my personality, it would probably be Autonomy

Hello! I've been a Cosmere fan for some time and after reading all the published works (and large parts of the Arcanum) I decided to join in. Ising of the you of the meeting and you guys!