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Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
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Questioner

Are the Unmade the analogs to Heralds?

Brandon Sanderson

There is certainly something similar going on there. Be aware that it's not a one-to-one correlation, that they're not exactly the same. For instance: Many of the- the Unmade are referenced by Taravangian in this, and he uses a phrase for them, and that is correct, that's what they are.

Footnote: In the epigraph for WoR 81 the Diagram says "The Unmade are a deviation, a flair, a conundrum that may not be worth your time. You cannot 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."
#diagram #heralds #taravangian #unmade
Skyward Chicago signing ()
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Blightsong

People tend to hear a lot of voices on Roshar in their heads. And I've noticed that a lot of people either have been confirmed to be in contact with Unmade or show a lot of signs of that. Is there a correlation there?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

MisCon 2018 ()
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Chaos

Do you need a perfect gemstone to imprison an Unmade or a powerful spren?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. Well, the stronger the spren, the better the gemstone needs to be. Those flaws in the crystal structure are going to lead to leaking if it's not. But an Unmade requires an extra-special level of perfection.

Leipzig Book Fair ()
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Questioner

There's a scene where you can see from the perspective of Nan Balat, Shallan's brother, where he's maiming an insect. It's described as soothing his aches. Is that in any way related to how Kaladin feels depressed and down during the Weeping even in his early childhood?

Brandon Sanderson

What's happening to Nan Balat is magically enhanced. What's happening to Kaladin is mostly just chemical depression. Be he is really too young to be diagnosed with depression during some of these events, but he's got the seeds in there. So Kaladin is not magically depressed. Kaladin is just legitimatly a person with depression. Nan Balat... What's up with him is... ah... being exaggerated by certain forces moving in on Roshar. (last bit is a bit indistinctive)

Oathbringer release party ()
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Questioner

Is Re-Shephir related at all to the Midnight Essence in Aether of Night?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It's me, like-- Related in that Aether of Night isn't canon, and I really liked how that worked in the cosmere, and I ported it to this instead. So that's like--

Questioner

So you're not gonna write Aether of Night?

Brandon Sanderson

Aether of Night, I might eventually write, but the Mid--

Questioner

It may be different?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

JordanCon 2016 ()
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Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

1) The Nightwatcher and Stormfather are parallel entities such that Nighwatcher:Cultivation :: Stormfather:Honor.

2) There is sort of a parallel for Odium, but the parallel is the various Unmade instead of a single entity.

3) They are parallel in that they are all Splinters.

4) The Unmade are voluntary Splinters, because Odium ("like almost all of the other Shards") voluntarily Splintered part of it's power.

5) The Stormfather is different from the others because it's a Sliver.

When Worlds Collide 2014 ()
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Jeremy (paraphrased)

There are hints in Words of Radiance that the Thrill is tied to an individual entity that Taravangian has studied, possibly one of the Unmade. Does this have anything to do with the hints of why the Knights Radiant turned away? Were the Unmade some of those who did whatever-it-was that tore them apart?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

[This is the one where he stopped me partway through asking, probably due to the wording]. Does it have anything to do with it? Yes. Is it the root cause or the primary reason? I'm not going to reveal that right now.

General Twitter 2015 ()
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David J Foster

I name my computers and smartphones after spren. But I am out of names. Is there a name you wouldn't mind revealing?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, do you need good spren? Or is the occasional evil spren acceptable?

David J Foster

Your call! And evil spren would be fantastic for my new phone.

Brandon Sanderson

Ulim. (Also, the Unmade count as spren. You could look those up.)

johnny papshmere

I didn't think spren could be good or evil??

Brandon Sanderson

Most spren are neither. Sapient spren (capable of making choices) can be either one.

Worldbuilders AMA ()
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AmbiguousPuzuma

In Chapter 19 of The Way of Kings, when Dalinar has a vision of fighting Voidbringers (maybe something else?) as a farmer, he says that he felt the Thrill in the vision. Does this mean that Nergaoul was active there, at the time that vision was "recorded" or was it Dalinar's viewing of the vision that was affected by the Thrill? Would the actual person whose perspective he was seeing have felt the Thrill if he had fought?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a great question, and one I've never been asked before. The answer is going to be a little vague.

First, Dalinar could have felt the Thrill from Nergaoul, and imported it into the vision.

Second, Nergaoul could have been active then, and the farmer could have felt it when he fought.

So both theories are valid. Which is it? I am going to hang back from answering this for now, as I am digging more into the Unmade in a future book.

Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
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Questioner

Are the Unmade seeking anything on Roshar?  

Brandon Sanderson

The Unmade, are they seeking anything? Technically yes.  

Questioner

And are they attracted to something on Roshar?  

Brandon Sanderson

Um, yeees.  

Questioner

They are both of the above. And also you said--

Brandon Sanderson

The Unmade are not all necessarily sapient. Keep that in mind. Not sapient always in the way that we think of sapience.

FAQFriday 2017 ()
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2017-06-09 - FAQFriday.jpg

Questioner

Can holders of Shards give them up voluntarily? If so, what would happen?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, a Vessel for a Shard of Adonalsium can give up their power if they wish.

As for what would happen...well, there are some variables in there. Kind of like the variables in what happens to a bucket of water if you dump it out. Depends on where it falls, how strong the wind is, what the air is like.

Power dropped like this, if left alone, could end up Splintering and turning into something like spren/seons. It could become something more like the Stormfather--a large, self-aware entity. It could become something like the Dor or many of the Unmade--something proto-aware, but not truly an individual. There are other possibilities as well, depending on lots of factors. (Are sapient beings involved? what is being done with the power--is it concentrated in the Spiritual Realm as normal, or is it being pushed somewhere else?)

Skyward Pre-Release AMA ()
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dvoraen

In the Midnight Essence vision Dalinar has in The Way of Kings, the female Radiant was wondering "who released it". Shouldn't the Radiants have known then that it was Re-Shephir that was the general source of Midnight Essence?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but Midnight Essence can be extracted and used independently.

Skyward Chicago signing ()
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Argent

When the Everstorm passes over Kholinar in Oathbringer. That is when Ashertmarn appears, that's when they start reporting, "Hey there's a darkness around the palace." Did the Everstorm bring Ashertmarn there? Or did it kind of awaken or unleash it?

Brandon Sanderson

A little of both.

Orem signing 2014 ()
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zas678 (paraphrased)

Can Odium influence people the same way that Ruin can?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Well, you see, the kandra and the koloss have a "hole" in them that allows Ruin to come in and take over. The Parshendi naturally are protected from this, but when they expose themselves to the storms, and the spren come in, many of these spren have that kind of "hole" in them, and that's what allows Odium to take control of them.

zas678 (paraphrased)

No, I'm talking about how Ruin was able to push people, place things in their minds, stuff like that. Can Odium do the same thing?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Well, Odium wasn't around when those people were created, so it's a little different for him than Ruin. So if he influences people in that way, it's through the Unmade.

Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
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Argent

The last Unmade, the one that's hypothesized to Dai-Gonarthis. It looks suspiciously to me like Cusicesh, because of the feeling of being drained, because it's a large spren-- Is there something to that or is the feeling just because Cusicesh is a large spren?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna RAFO.

Figment chat ()
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Questioner

What’s the most dangerous non-Shard thing in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood’s up there, Hoid is up there, but not deadly dangerous, a different type of dangerous, yeah no, what we know of, right now, those, those are in the running. Chasmfiends, chasmfiends are pretty nasty. Whitespines are a little more nasty probably. The… the Unmade are pretty nasty. Yeah. There’s a couple of mercenary troops that you haven’t met yet that are really quite, quite dangerous, I would list them as well.

Oathbringer London signing ()
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MadhavDeval

So, if Dalinar used Spiritual Adhesion to forge a bond between Sja-anat and Honor or Cultivation or whoever, then could Sja-anat corrupt a spren, an Odiumspren back to Honor or Cultivation?

Brandon Sanderson

Maybe. Nyeh...

MadhavDeval

What about the Fused?

Brandon Sanderson

The Fused-- I mean, it's the same kind of thing, they're a Cognitive Shadow. Eh? Eh. I'm gonna give you an "Eh." on that one... I don't know how you write that on the forums.

Orem Signing ()
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Questioner

You've previously said that Nightblood is the most powerful non-Shardic being in the Cosmere. Is he more powerful than the Unmade or Stormfather in terms of raw Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Raw Investiture? Here's the thing, when you say powerful, it can mean lots of different things. More raw Investiture than the Stormfather... probably not. Than the Unmade, probably. I would have to look, I don't have the numbers on this. But the Stormfather is very restricted in what he can do.

Skyward release party ()
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Questioner

Are the Unmade and the spheres that contain them only on Roshar or are they in other planets in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

You need to rephrase that question a little bit. Ask me again, remembering there's a big difference between the Rosharan system and the rest of the cosmere. There's three planets in the Rosharan system.

Questioner

*Gestures* Particularly in these ones.

Brandon Sanderson

It's possible that Unmade influence and existence would extend beyond Roshar.

JordanCon 2018 ()
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Pagerunner

The Starfall vision. Ten Deaths, referring to the Midnight Essence. That's what the one Radiant said, they're the Ten Deaths. Is that the Unmade, the Ten Deaths.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, there's nine Unmade, so...

Skyward Pre-Release AMA ()
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dvoraen

Excluding Midnight Essence from Re-Shephir, have we seen at least two examples of the Unmade creating spren that people dismiss as normal, uncorrupted spren? (One type in The Way of Kings, one in Oathbringer, specifically.)

Brandon Sanderson

Humans are not terribly good at determining whether a spren has been touched by Re-Shephir. (That's a yes.)

Blightsong

Did you mean Sja-Anat or can that Unmade also affect Spren in a similar, if not the same, manner?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that was just me typing too fast.

JordanCon 2018 ()
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Argent

Ba-Ado-Mishram. Just the name sounds a little bit like a Shin name to me because they're all 'Somebody son Somebody' or 'Somebody daughter Somebody', was she a Shin woman at one point?

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that cause that comes down to, they even asked this in Oathbringer, were they people or not? 

Argent

'Cause one of them says they needed to be made and then unmade. 

Brandon Sanderson

Mmhmm, so I do not feel I've explicitly said either way.

Argent

And you haven't, no.

OdysseyCon 2016 ()
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Blightsong

Was Sadeas ever affected directly by Odium or an Unmade, not counting the Thrill?

Brandon Sanderson

NOT counting the Thrill, ok uhhhhm. There are affects of other unmade around, and Odium's effect - direct effect? I'm going to say, no, maybe some indirect effects.

Blightsong

What about Roshone?

Brandon Sanderson

Uhhhm, no. The Thrill is the main thing that is getting the Alethi so, I mean, there are others around, but it's not as obvious with that as with other things.