The Parshendi Gods

[Argent]

I've been talking about this on and off in different threads, but I wanted to make an attempt to put my thoughts together in a cohesive manner and maybe create something I can call a theory. Perhaps not a terribly groundbreaking* one, but at least it will be all official.

I believe the beings the Pershendi call their gods are the Unmade. There are two, maybe three, pieces of evidence I find significant here.

First, there are forms the Parshendi refer to as "forms of power" - stormform being the one we see, but it is strongly implied that smokeform and decayform are two of the others. If stormform is any indication, those forms of power give certain abilities to the Parshendi, allowing them to perform feats of magic similar (in magnitude, not direction) to what the Surgebinders can do. In other words, listeners who embrace those forms turn into Voidbringers, creatures whose (primary) Investiture comes from Odium. This is never stated explicitly, but the destructive capacity and emotional direction of those forms and their Rhythms is as clear of an evidence as I can hope for. I find this an important, though perhaps a little obvious, point to make because it segues into the other beings we are almost entirely certain belong to Odium - the Unmade.

We still know very little of the Unmade, but it seems like they are fixed in number (10), powerful, and spren-like - if not outright spren. They have unique names, personalities, and powers, and are capable of seeing the future to a varying degree. Assuming Taravangian is correct in his knowledge of the Unmade's spren-like nature, it's very likely that they can be trapped in gems, just like ordinary spren. When Eshonai examines the stormspren captured by her sister, she sees a "smoky creature moving about inside [the gemstone]." Since this is at least the second time we see smoke associated with Odium (the Midnight Essences being the other one), we can reasonably assume that it, and perhaps darkness, are (side) effects of his Investiture.

Now, to the juicy bits. The sphere Gavilar gives to Szeth is described as black, somehow glowing with dark light. This is no smoke, it's straight-up darkness. Considering that this sphere is very likely related to his plan to bring back the Parshendi gods, plan that earned him a very quick assassination, we can imagine that it was directly related to them - either directly (i.e. the black sphere was the instrument that would bring back those gods) or as a stepping stone (i.e. the existence of this sphere, and whatever Gavilar meant to do with it, could or would lead to the return of those gods). By Occam's Razor, the first option seems more likely - and simplifying things even further, it's possible that the sphere contained one of their gods.

How do we go back to the Unmade from here? Simple. In I-4: The Last Legion, Eshonai tells her mother that "dabbling in things we shouldn't, things that might bring the eyes of the Unmade upon us." She is concerned that embracing even a single form of power by a single listener will be enough to draw the attention of Unmade. She expresses pretty much the same concern to a few other people, only using the phrase "listeners' gods" instead of "the Unmade," very strongly suggesting that the two are the same. So the Unmade are related to stormspren, which are a type of voidspren, which in turn seem related to Gavilar's sphere, which is related to the Parshendi gods - and we've made a full circle, which validates the theory in my eyes.

There is also the thing about the various Rhythms the Parshendi can attune to and listen to at will. From what I understand, they are like... well, rhtyhms, melodies without words, playing on demand in each listener's mind. Kind of like different radio stations, actually. Those Rhythms, and especially the new ones Eshonai discovers, are what governs communication and, to a lesser extent, behavior among the listeners. I have another theory, based on two recent Words of Brandon, saying that the Parshendi "weren't originally" of neither Cultivation nor Odium - implying that at some point they were Invested by either one of those Shards. My theory posits that it was Cultivation who uplifted the original Parshendi, creatures not very different from the modern day parshmen, by Investing them in a way that allowed them to attune / listen to different... Shardic wavelengths (see spoiler if you want), one of which is the Rhythm of Peace. If this is correct, then the new Rhythms (such as the Rhythm of Craving) are just Odium's radio stations, his wavelengths (and if the Rhythm of Peace comes from Cultivation, it is no wonder that Eshonai hears screaming when she attunes to it while in stormform). Which could be tied to the Unmade instead of the Shard directly. I admit, I haven't entirely thought this part through, so I have only a general idea about my argument... which is why it looks so all-over-the-place when you read it =\

The Well of Ascension / The Hero of Ages Spoilers

I am reminded of the thumping Vin hears as she grows more attuned to the Well of Ascension, Preservation's shardpool. I think Brandon used the word "wavelength" to describe it once, but the context eludes me. Either way, this is similar to how Seekers perceive Preservation's Investiture activated nearby (i.e. allomancy). Using Investiture leaves an... echo only those with the appropriate abilities can detect, and if the Unmade are spren - or at least Splinters - of Odium, then their very existence is going to pulse with those echoes. Perhaps it is this that the listeners "listen" to.

As a final piece of supporting evidence, we know that Amaram was planning something with Gavilar - in secret - on the night the Alethi king was murdered. We don't know what, but Amaram's current plans include the forced summoning of a Desolation, which (he believes) would in turn summon the Heralds back. His chapter suggests that he is still following the original plan he had made with Gavilar, so it makes sense for Dalinar's brother to have been in possession of a captured Unmade, a creature I envision as a lieutenant of some sorts in Odium's army.

TL;DR Version: Odium's Investiture seems to manifest as smoke and darkness. Eshonai was concerned that the smoky stormspren (a type of voidspren) and the stormform could bring the Unmade. She expressed similar concern on the night of the peace treaty when Gavilar shared his plans with the Five, except the subject of her concern were her gods and instead of a gemstone seeming filled with smoke, we have one that glows with darkness. Given how similar the two situations are, I find it safe to assume that Gavilar's voidsphere contained a being more powerful than Venli's stormspren, which was directly related to the Parshendi gods - in all likelihood by being one of them. Which, to complete the similarity between the two situations, would be the Unmade.

* If you think about this, it's a really clever pun. You know, because the Parshendi now live in the Shattered Plains, where the ground is broken...

Edited March 17, 2014 by Argent

[hoser]

I agree that the listener gods are the Unmade.  I think they were once living creatures who gave up their bodies to become spirits of a sort, hence the name Unmade.  They would be the ten counterparts of the Heralds, with unique powers for each one.  I know nothing, but I don't see them as spren or likely to be captured in a gem. 

 

Eshonai describes being controlled by voices in the new rhythms of the form and the verses about it provide strong support for the third paragraph of the OP IMO.  

[Youngy]

Did Taravangian imply that the Unmade were the ones causing the Deathquotes and the Thrill? He seemed to think that they weren't a really big deal though - and practically dismissed them - which seems a bit odd if they are in fact Odium's lieutenants.

Also, it seems that it is the Unmade who can Voidbind... or cause Voidbinding in others. We have been told time and time again that seeing the future is a thing of Voidbinding - and Taravangian said that all them had some connection to the future...

 

 

The Unmade are a deviation, a flair, a conundrum that may not be worth your time. You cannpt help but think of them. They are fascinating. Many are mindless. Like the spren of human emotions, only much more nasty. I do believe a few can think, however.

 

 

There is one you will watch. Though all of them have some relevance to precognition, Moelach is one of the most powerful in this regard. His touch seeps into a soul as it breaks apart from the body, creating manifestations powered by the spark of death itself. But no, this is a distraction. Deviation. Kingship. We must discuss the nature of kingship.

 

 

The Thrill is at least as strong here as it is in Alethkar. Maybe stronger. I will speak to our scholars. Perhaps this will help pinpoint Nergaoul.

I would rather know where Moelach is moving. Hopefully, Moelach hadn't decided to slumber again. 

The Thrill doesn't really fit that, though... Battle lust isn't really foresight related.

Also, these names don't match the style of the names in the Deathquotes... I guess that could be a culture thing more than anything though.

[name_here]

Actually, Taravangian didn't exactly dismiss them. He said he had no idea what they could do if they did find one. Also, I feel like the epigraph is using Unmade to refer to voidspren in general, instead of Yelignar and company. It just feels like it's talking about a very large group.

As for the main theory, sounds pretty good. However, I don't think you're right about smoke being associated with Odium specifically. It's one of the ten essences, so i'd expect to see it in surgebinding too. Odium seems to have red as his primary calling card.

[Argent]

Fair enough on the smoke point. Though I will argue that it's neither this, nor that - neither Surgebinding-specific, nor Voidbringing-specific. It's a little difficult to make a case for this point, considering how little evidence we have, but I believe that Ten Essences are used in both (likely in all three) magic systems on Roshar. Perhaps the strongest support I have for this is how magic works on Scadrial - all three of the Metallic Arts use the same foci, but they use them differently.

I doubt the Unmade is a term used to collectively describe all voidspren. The fact that we have names for at least a few of them suggests individuality.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Argent

[Moogle]

I agree - the Parshendi gods are the Unmade. The parallel is made clear in these two quotes:

 

She looked to her stormforms, who saluted and broke apart, moving in warpairs. Eshonai stepped back, folding her arms, watching as these visited each other division in turn. The new rhythms thrummed in her skull, though she stayed away from the Rhythm of Peace, with its strange screams. There was no fighting against what she had become. The eyes of the gods were too strongly upon her.

 
“Our people are crumbling,” Eshonai said. “We’re being weathered away. We moved to Narak and chose a war of attrition. That has meant six years with steady losses. People are giving up.”
“That’s not good,” Mother said.
“But the alternative? Dabbling in things we shouldn’t, things that might bring the eyes of the Unmade upon us.”

 

Now, and more interesting my opinion, is that I don't believe they're spren. Or well, they are very different spren mixed with listeners. The fact that they are capable of thinking and speaking on the Physical (as the epigraphs say) implies the spren are bonded. Thus, I think our best hypothesis currently is that the Unmade were once listeners who gave themselves up to Odium to destroy the humans and Nahel spren who betrayed them. They were 'unmade' by Odium, and then he placed Splinters of himself in them, making for a parallel to the Heralds and a strange fusion of Odium-spren and listener. This is supported by these quotes:

 

“It means our gods have returned,” Rlain whispered.
“Who are your gods?”
“They are the souls of those ancient. Those who gave of themselves to destroy.” A different rhythm to his words this time, slow and reverent. He looked up at Dalinar. “They hate you and your kind, sir. This new form they have given my people  .  .  . it is something terrible. It will bring something terrible.”
 
Our gods were born splinters of a soul,
Of one who seeks to take control,
Destroys all lands that he beholds, with spite.
They are his spren, his gift, his price.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Moogle

[Argent]

There is something to this. I think I am persuaded that the Unmade are not just spren (and if you refer to my, now edited, write-up, you will see I consider the idea that they are merely-spren like, or even Splinters that are not necessarily spren), but something much more akin to... not a Herald, but a Radiant whose Nahel bond has progressed very very far. I feel a symbiosis here, or maybe even a parasitic relationship, in which the candidate-Unmade provides the physical body, and Odium supplies a certain type of voidspren that starts to co-inhabit the body in some way.

[adbf]

Weren't the stormspren Syl draws Kaladin's attention on before Eshonai's transformation, red in color? I don't remember any instance of the captured smoky stormspren being described as specifically dark. Couldn't it be reddish smoky, in accordance to the red glowing eyes of the Parshendi obsessed by Odium? And in accordance to the glowing red eyes of the deathspren and the spren that raised the thunderclast in the Dalinar's vision in the Purelake.

 

If excess Stormlight goes out of a body as glowing white smoke, and if the whole Roshar resembles so much a Yin-Yang symbol, wouldn't the dark light be suspect to be manifestation of Cultivation's investiture. It would be fetching - like the dark soil where the seed has to begin it's growth...

[Argent]

The red light is probably a better symbol for Odium, given the red lightning and the red eyes. You would think that a captured stormspren, a spren that looks like a red lightning, would retain at least its primary color when captured in a gem, but Eshonai makes no mention of red in her description of the sphere - and it feels like she would have, considering how unnatural this would look to her. I guess what I am saying is that she wouldn't describe something as odd as red smoke as just "smoky."

[adbf]

Yes, as I checked, the captured spren couldn’t look as red smoke, because so Eshonai would recognize for what it is, and what it manifested to be when it was released:

The spren escaped from its prison and spun around her, giving off a strange red light. Splinters of lightning sprang from it. Angerspren?

 

This was wrong.

 

I SUPPOSE THIS MUST BE, the Stormfather said. IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.

 

“No,” Eshonai said, stepping back from that spren. In a moment of panic, she cast from her mind the preparations that Venli had given her. “No!”

 

The spren became a streak of red light and hit her in the chest. Tendrils of red spread outward.

 

It seems that Venli managed somehow to veil the captured spren. Or it disguised itself. But the telling red light - it was hidden.

 

So does that mean that Odium investiture has a true open manifestation as a “strange red light”, and a second disguising “manifestation” as smoky darkness? Probably it does match the combination of red and black in the fragments about the Voidbringers gathered by Jasna.

[duladen]

I really like this theory. To throw another idea out there, perhaps each voidspren that creates a form of power has an associated Unmade. In much the same way as Syl views the Stormfather and Wyndle views the Nightwatcher ("Mother"). Just a thought.

[banestar]

This whole thing makes a lot of sense. The Unmade as the Parshendi "gods" ... and those "gods" being the fusion of listener bonded with high-level Odium spren ... yep. Seems supported by the text you quoted.

 

I wonder this, though ... are the Unmade the spren themselves, or the fusion of these "advanced" spren and their listener. It may not be the same thing as the Nahel bond, which gives something to both sides, but rather something more parasitic ... but I'd think being attached to a listener (and not, uh, trapped in a sphere held by a nutbar) might give this Unmade kind of a power boost.

 

... this keeps me thinking about the nature of symbiosis in the first two books of the Stormlight Archive. From the way the Nahel bond works, to even the stuff early in the book about the santhid and it's fish, to Szeth and his blade(s). Just seems like there's a lot going on there, and a real focus on symbiotic relationships.

[Aoibheann]

Thank you for writing this all out!  This is exactly what my thoughts were regarding the Unmade and the Listeners. 

 

Now to write out my theory on angerspren to tie it back to this. 

[CCQ]

 

 Our gods were born splinters of a soul,

Of one who seeks to take control,

Destroys all lands that he beholds, with spite.

They are his spren, his gift, his price.

 

Is it possible that Odium split himself into splinters and those became the Unmade. In parallel you have Sazed combining Ruin and Preservation.

[jefftucker0525]

Plus, i dont think we know what is keeping Odium on Roshar (we know he is Invested in something there and leaving would reduce his power) so having Splinters of himself in the Unmade would probably do it. he cant leave until he gets them back and cant get them back until he breaks the Oathpact (kind of an assumption on my part)

[Moogle]

Is it possible that Odium split himself into splinters and those became the Unmade. In parallel you have Sazed combining Ruin and Preservation.

 

Maybe! It might explain why the Unmade are so powerful, as each is 1/11th of a Shard or something. I don't think it's true, though, because Kaladin "sees" Odium at one point during a vision, and he's a storm bigger than the Stormfather. I can't imagine Odium giving up that much of his power. Him just giving up teensy bits to make the Unmade fits more in my opinion. (Sorry if I misinterpreted you! I think were you saying Odium sort of 'killed' himself by making super-huge Splinters.)

Edited September 17, 2014 by Moogle