theSurgeOfPhysics

I’m posting this before WaT comes out, just to see how close I come to the true answer behind the mystery of the Fused. What follows is a theory I constructed after reading RoW, and I’ve broken it into subsections. The main idea is that the Fused are humans fused with singers in order to create a terrible irony of war between Odium and Honor and their respective followers. This theory was written in January 2023, but only now have I had the time and motivation to post it. Though some material may already be widely agreed upon, there are new points I’d like to address. Let’s begin with what ticked me off about the voidspren. We know from OB that Voidbringers were humans from Ashyn, and the corresponding voidspren don’t seem right. Voidspren Appearance and Personality: Why, when Kaladin was traveling with the singers in OB, did the voidspren look humanoid? Perhaps the only reason is because Rayse was humanoid to begin with. This aside, consider Venli: her first bond causes her to lose her rhythms (RoW, pp. 696). Then, the rhythms return, though unnatural, attuning towards violence (RoW, pp. 741). Her relationship with Ulim is toxic and abusive, showing disdain towards her as a singer. He belittles her and hides things from her (RoW, pp. 847). Her mind even grows fuzzy when trying to think about Ulim’s manipulative nature, hinting at Ulim’s possible control over her mind and memories. His slang is like a human’s. His only forms taken are in the appearance of a lightning-like ball or a human, the latter of which Venli despises (RoW, pp. 880-881). In all of this, it seems that Slim and voidspren have human qualities and are of Odium. Having discussed voidspren, consider the case of the most-studied Fused — Raboniel. Raboniel’s Behavior as a Fused: Raboniel does not seem to care for singers, threatening to be reborn as an innocent singer to cause pain to that unfortunate one’s family (RoW, pp. 715). Why pretend to care for singers and fight for them if she would readily harm and kill one to her own desire? Most concerning is Raboniel’s lack of rhythms even when shocked/surprised (RoW, pp. 723, 766). This also occurs when she recounts the time when humans came to Roshar. Her grandmother was a singer, but Raboniel is speaking with no “cadence” — no rhythms. It is as if her true nature comes out when she ruminates on her early years of existence. Was her mind parasitized with a human, and she can still remember her life as a normal singer? Was she a human-singer hybrid? Given her grandmothers’ distaste for humans, she likely wouldn’t have joined Odium when Fused were being formed. As Raboniel dies, she confesses to Navani that she wishes that she could hear rhythms again. Apparently, something was blocking her from truly hearing them, just like Venli in the flashbacks (RoW, pp. 1181). As an aside to Raboniel being steeped in human culture, her daughter hums a human tavern song from deep within her mind (RoW, pp. 947). An Ancient History: What is the basis for this theory? The history of Voidbringers and singers. Ash says that the Tranquiline Halls are merely the planet Ashyn. Sanderson mentioned in an unpublished work that Ashyn had a disease-based magic system. This implies a boon-curse tradeoff: powers come at a cost. Hense, Ashyn held the shard of Cultivation. RoW epigraphs say Odium is intent on killing all shards, so she likely fled to Roshar long ago as Odium destroyed Ashyn in search for her. He takes his human minions to Roshar who continue to manifest abilities of Cultivation’s disease-based system. The singers see these humans and describe their magic as from the Void — Voidbinding. Honor likely gave Adhesion to the singers, and when he helped Cultivation hide, they formed the 9 other surges. Honor would neutralize the curse to her boon in her magic system. This raises the question of corruption to Cultivation. The Nightwatcher still had the boon/curse method, so did the curse portion come from Odium? Odium could give corrupted copies of the 9 surges to his followers, but only a single surge to any user. Perhaps he was involved in creating Voidbinding with Cultivation since the nine surges for Fused mirror those made by Cultivation and Honor. I’m not sure about this and it is tangential to the main theory. When comparing Voidbinding to Surgebinding, the humans choose the surges, abandoning Odium and following Honor. Odium retaliates by creating a select few Fused, likely a fusion of singer and human. The Fused are a plague on the singers, created to slowly eat away at the singer population every time they are reborn. Fused themselves are enemies of humans of Honor and of singers. Odium hopes that this twist of fate eventually leads to humans destroying themselves, as the Fused will kill present-day humans while humans kill Fused (ancient humans) along with singers. Odium will have his ultimate revenge on humans (since they turned away from him) and on singers (who were the original followers of Honor and probably did not bend to his will). Rebelion: Singers side with Dalinar in the end of RoW (Leshwi and her forces) and singers fight singers (RoW, pp. 1142), which may be why Odium agreed to a contest of champions (since this is a done deal and doesn’t rely on his army size which is now dwindling). In OB, humans learned about their true past as Voidbringers; now, in WaT, singers will learn that the Fused lied to them. The singers will learn the truth about their past. In terms of rebellion against the Fused (who are humans), Eshonai says listeners will always be free of human enslavement (RoW, pp. 925). This is true, since the only listeners left (other than those in hiding) are Venli and Rlain, both of whom go against the Fused. How this Factors into Odium’s Plot for the Cosmere: Odium says that he doesn’t want to destroy humans, only that he wants soldiers (RoW, pp. 1175). But he told Taravangian that only Kharbranth will be spared. So, do all other humans become Fused? Epigraph mentions El’s legion of humans (RoW, pp. 1180). Odium even says that it is possible for Dalinar to join the Fused (RoW, pp. 1177). Oathbringer ch. 38 mentions that the Fused were kings and lighteyes, strongly hinting at a human origin. Odium plans to make a new generation of Fused, but there are no new rules. He plans to use humans this time, just as he did the first time.

A quick thought, but I realized that the orders themselves each have themes tied to Honor (Bondsmith— Unite/ cooperation; Windrunners— Protection; Lightweavers— Honesty; Edgedancers— Equity among others; Willshapers— Freeness of the individual . . . etc.). To add to this, the 5-Ideal-system is tied to Cultivation's progressive Intent.

Makes me wonder, the POV calls Hoid the Trickster Aspect. Is he something fabricated directly by Adolnasium? Since shards have intent (Ruin, Honor, Autonomy, etc.), does Hoid have an intrinsic intent, and his true name could be something like Artifice or Guile? Not a shard, but something inhuman. Makes me wonder how much Hoid will contribute to SA5 and push the boundaries of non-intervention.

Is Pattern a character on the autism spectrum? He has difficulty understanding social cues and communicating with others (iirc). I’m forgetting a lot from WoR with his character development, but please confirm with quotes, WoB.

The Night of Sorrows seems tied to Death Rattles that mention darkness. Perhaps the sun approaching the horizon is not a reference to a Shadesmar sun, as Honor wouldn't call that entity a sun but rather what it truly is (SR?). Instead, the sun could be stuck permanently on the horizon, like a twilight. This could happen if Odium wins and uses his power to tidally lock the planet. The singers can use rhythms to grow food, but the humans would struggle. Thoughts?

Thanks for clearing up these points.

Interesting. So was Rayse’s Intent discordant with the Shard? Was Rayse trying to justify a shard of Passion over Odium, which went against the very nature of the Shard?

Odium Splintered Honor. However, Honor originally made some Splinters, such as honorspren, Stormfather, etc. way before Odium came on the scene. That being said, we don’t know where all of the Odium-shattered Splinters are currently. I think some are in the Cognitive Realm, which is why we see some unique magic like the Purelake fish being a potential location-based magic. There may be other examples but this is the first that comes to mind. Other Splinters are likely in the Spiritual Realm. Here’s how Dalinar can reform Honor’s Shard. He taps into a ton of investiture, enters the Stormfather’s visions and is able to travel to every point on Roshar. This accounts for collecting any splinters in the physical realm. Then he uses someone like Jasnah or Venli to see into the Cognitive Realm at every point on Roshar and collect those splinters. Finally he throws himself into the Spiritual Realm through a Perpendicularity and finds the remaining splinters there. Since the SR acts as a singularity where all things are one, he can combine all the splinters into one and reform the shard of Honor. “Unite them”… unite the shards of Honor?

Why Odium Chose Dalinar as His Original Champion: We know Odium’s plan was that he used the Thrill and molded Dalinar to become the perfect champion. I think Odium wanted Dalinar because he is the optimal vessel for Honor. If Odium broke Dalinar and made him his champion, there would be no vessel to take up Honor. It’s considered that opening the perpendicularity in that scene was Dalinar taking up a sliver of Honor and perhaps Ascending for a short moment, showing that he has the potential of being a full vessel. That is again why the contract in RoW involves Dalinar himself. Odium wants him specifically as a Fused, as it would likely be difficult/impossible to Ascend if he belongs to Odium. Rayse likely knew this and that’s why he formed the contract just prior to imploding (Odium’s vessel was cracking by the time of the contract) and allowing for Taravangian’s Ascension. Taravangian may not yet have figured out that Dalinar is a good candidate for Honor’s Vessel, and may not care, so Rayse’s contract is a way of ensuring Dalinar does not Ascend. All of this said, another champion can be chosen that destroys Dalinar’s honor and disqualifies him from being a proper vessel to contain Honor. Thoughts?

I like this one or a variation. I think the oath might be something like “I will protect, even if I must sacrifice that which I hold dear”. He wouldn’t sacrifice his life, as that would mean every Windrunner would die upon swearing the last ideal. Rather, he might have to give up the spear, learn ways of peace, since he started to do that in RoW, where he realized there were many ways to protect.

So now that Taravangian has Ascended, what happens to his boon/curse? If he is free of it, will his release from the boon/curse be his downfall? We know that he lost to Odium merely to save Kharbranth, specifically his own family and grandchildren (whom he also spared of any details concerning his political plotting). Cultivation made it so that his intelligence and empathy would be inversely related on any given day, so if he acts with intellect and empathy/passion, will he break down at the end of Book 5 because of needing to save his grandchildren in one scene? We know at the end of RoW, he's drinking in all this power and blinding everything else out, including Cultivation's offer to guide and teach him. So maybe in Book 5, we see that overwhelming amount of knowledge clear up as he accesses his deep emotion for his own family. Selfish, but it might just save Roshar—and "save them all"—from Odium. Thoughts?

Can you soulcast a lightweaving image into, say, stone?

Totally missed this! I was thinking about the color, though, how both are red. Thank you for the link.

Why does Todium have to go through with the contest of champions? It was explained away in a sentence at end of RoW, but Todium is not Rayse at all. Why not just admit to Dalinar that he killed Rayse and took up the Shard of Odium? He's not the same person as Rayse and shouldn't be bound by Rayse's oath (at least how I see it).

Interesting connections with the garnet gem: both the Sibling's strata and spanreeds are garnet, and both are used for communication. What other gems have more specialized purposes?

Illumination is the Surge of "Light, sound, and various waveforms". So, have we seen all the waveforms yet? I'm thinking another could be energy in the form of heat.

It would likely be something we’ve seen hinted at before, like her Shadesmar journey. Jasnah is a great character, but after WoK, we don’t see too much of her. Her story is planned to be Book 10, so Brandon would likely only give more and more hints before he drops the big reveal of her past at the end of the back half of the series.

Chapter 100 of RoW is titled “Watchers at the Rim”. Why is this so familiar, and what is its meaning?

May have been discussed before, but why is the Sibling called the Sibling? Why not the Child? I feel that this is hinting that Honor and Cultivation created more than one spren together. Perhaps they made 10 children, all siblings of each other, and 9 of them fell to Odium as the Unmade. Sja-Anat calls the Sibling her cousin. She also says Odium can unmake spren: She mentions that their memories are lost, and we saw the Sibling slowly losing control in the chapters after all nodes were destroyed. Will there be a way to remake an Unmade, as Book 5 will deal with BAM?

Zahel mentions something interesting regarding Cognitive Shadows: Going back to this scene after the book, I see that it ties in nicely with the idea of Heralds being like spren. So who is “she” here? Is it Ba-Ado-Mishram (BAM)? I’m wondering because Kalak mentions something similar in his last epigraph, and we know BAM affects the memories and thinking of spren and natives of Roshar (singers): If it is BAM, how does Zahel know so much?

Yes, also because he may subconsciously realize that Odium blinded his thinking and brainwashed him. If he wants to remain blind in that regard, then so too physically.

What exactly is happening here? This is when Moash is in the burning manor basement with Kaladin. Moash is taunting him when a pure, concentrated light explodes into the room: The figure in the light was Renarin, so is this his attempt at lightweaving? Does he lightweave possibilities (as he is able to see them), and he saw Moash’s alternative path which would’ve led to him living as a respectable Radiant Windrunner? Why does this cause Moash to feel pain again (he says to take the pain away)? This also ties in with Moash at the end, when he begins to feel pain: Is this weakening of the Connection similar to the scene in Ch. 8? Thoughts?

Wit and Jasnah are discussing warfare that will soon become obsolete when he says: A few pages later, Raboniel describes the outcome of combining Anti-Light with its positive as: We know that a compressed reaction will cause an explosion, seen earlier in the tower laboratories. Now that Navani’s journal has been sent to Kholinar for study, will we see a frightening new method of warfare by the Fused? This seems a bit too much like science-fiction, but it is not impossible in the plot given that we’ve seen flying airships. Thoughts?

That answers this nicely. Thank you

A bit more scientific than previous questions: I love how Venli, when overcome with emotion such as anxiety or elation, mentions Timbre pulsing in her gemheart, similar to a human heart beating faster. This made me think: singers don’t have a muscular heart that can contract to pump blood. So, how does singer blood work? Either there is a separate heart pumping system that singers just don’t call a heart, or the blood acts like the lymphatic system, which relies on gradient flow rather than a pumping mechanism.