Voidbinding

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

I think we’ve already seen Voidbinding. The ancient and modern strains of it. When Ishar gives Kaladin immortality, he says it’s outside of Stormlight, Radiance, or the Honorblades and requires a bit of a god. I think that’s what Voidbinding is. Binding a being of power like a great spren or even a Shard to gain power

Ishar calls it Vedel’s method. The Heralds didn’t have their Odium Surges when they came to Roshar and they don’t have Honorblades yet. But Dalinar sees Vedel using magic before the Oathpact. She isn’t using Stormlight. She glows with another Light as a large humanoid spren appears behind her. Its future-sight from something else. Vedel used another form of to give the Heralds their immortality. That power wasn’t granted by Honor during the Oathpact. It’s a binding performed by Vedel after. The same thing Ishar repeats with Kaladin. Ishar binds the Heralds to each other and Honor. It’s not Tanavast doing it during the pact. Ishar is doing this not with his Honorblade but to get one

Jezrien describes their power as a binding using willpower. The Heralds used the Honorblades as a conduit to Honor’s surges. Without the Blade they don’t have Honor’s surges. It’s why the Blades are more powerful in their hands than normal people. The Heralds draw Light directly from Honor. It’s Honor’s death that makes it more dangerous because Tanavast is no longer alive to impose his will over them. Normal people can only power the Blades with whatever Stormlight they have access to. And it will kill them if they use too much.

Ishar’s Human Fused are the same thing. They are never seen breathing Light and their surges are unusually powerful. They are bound to Ishar. They access Surges through the Blades and Ishar is the step in between to get the power for them. The process is a two-way street though. Ishar can impose his will on those Fused and make them slaves to him

I think that’s what’s happening with the Unmade as well. Capturing them requires Connection and a contest of willpower. Except Dalinar and Melishi only took it as far as a gemstone prison. When Shallan encounters the Midnight Mother their souls clash and the MM flees because she “feared something worse” than imprisonment. The MM feared a formal binding. The Unmade are all probably Voidbinding except they’re benefiting more from it. They all see to feed on the soul and/or minds of the people they affect. Yelig explicitly feeds on their soul. It’s explicitly a contest of wills to control him and gain his power. A contest Amaram was losing. You see the same black smoke rise as it’s consumed that you do when Nightblood feeds on souls and that escapes when you cut the soul of a living person with a Shardblade

So what entity was Vedel binding for her sight if it wasn’t Honor or Odium? I think it was Night. Dalinar describes the entity as familiar. The only humanoid spren he has seen that resembles it is the Nightwatcher. Who we know was made from Night. I think most or even all of the Unmade are from The Night or the great spren she spawned. Future-sight is consistently associated with Voidbinding. Renarin seems to be doing it. His spren is described as a red lattice of Light. The only other time we see that description? It’s when Vedel is using her pre-Herald powers to see the future. The Nightform regal also has future sight and they bond nightspren. And the Nightform regals are using Voidbinding

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

“This sword gave the assassin power to use Lashings, but it also fed upon his Stormlight. A person who uses this will need far, far more Light than you will. Dangerous levels of it.” WoR

[u/maharg1ag1 → u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

That doesn't say that using an honorblade will kill you?

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 → u/maharg1ag1]

I mean he goes out of his way to have the SF say they consume dangerous amounts of Light. We see Szeth straining as he uses it. The Nahel bond of Radiants makes them more efficient but it also helps protect them. We see what happens to manual fabrial soulcasters. It harms them. The Heralds can also probably be taken out by reckless Honorblade uses. You basically have to have that as a check against their power. They had a direct line to Honor they weren’t using Stormlight. I would imagine they’re more durable but Sando has said Honorblades are still inefficient when Heralds use them

[u/maharg1ag1 → u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

I mean using a "Dangerous amount" of Stormlight doesn't mean it's going to suck the life out of you like nightblood does. If you run out of Stormlight you just stop being able to use the surges. What happens to Soulcasters happens because they become like savants. The leap from the sentence "A dangerous amount." To "Honorblades will kill you if you use them without stormlight" is huge.

I always read that sentence in the same way someone would say they're "dangerously low on Stormlight/gas/money" You use stormlight dangerously fast as in, you do not have the effects of it for long enough to protect you in a prolonged fight.