BAM - Spren of the Divine Tones

[+mdross81 he/him]

I'm guessing I'm not the first person to theorize in this direction, so apologies if I'm piling onto someone else's BAM theory. Also, this post got way longer than I intended it to. But the gist is that I'm increasingly convinced that Ba-Ado Mishram is the spren of the Tones of Roshar.

I'm still not sure what to make of the "Ba" part of the name, but it seems solid that "Ado" is a reference to Adonalsium, or aspects of god/divinity more broadly. As for "Mishram," thanks to the wonders of the internet, I stumbled across the English translation of the Natyashastra, a Sanskrit work on drama, performing arts, theater, dance, music and various other topics. And "Misra" makes an appearance:

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When in a song, the Khañja and the Natkuṭa have been mixed up, and it is sung in the Tryasra or the Caturasra Tāla, it is called Miśra (the mixed one)

Here's a link to the site where I found the translation. Really the entire chapter (the tile of which is translated as "On the Time-measure") in which I found the above reads like the listeners songs. It's a listing of different instruments, and sounds, and beats.

So, Ado and Mishram together, I think is something along the lines of "the mixed song of God." I think BAM is the spren that represents the perception of the tones of the gods Invested on Roshar. It works on so many different levels.

It provides a mechanism for explaining how Odium's tone became one of the pure tones of Roshar. When Odium showed up and Unmade BAM, he did so by making his god-tone one of the tones of Roshar (just like how Raboniel was corrupting the Sibling).

It provides a possible explanation for how BAM Connected to the Singers - she used the tones to make a Connection to the spirit-webs of the Singers and provide Voidlight and forms of power. Their gemhearts basically acted as receivers picking up the tones BAM was sending out. And the listeners weren't impacted because they were in dullform and therefore had troubles hearing the tones.

And because BAM is the spren of the tones, when she was imprisoned, it more or less silenced the tones.

The Sibling pretty much lays it out that this is what happened. From RoW Chapter 49:

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I have … been wounded. Thousands of years ago, something happened that changed the singers. It hurt me too.

…

That terrible act touched the souls of all who belong to Roshar. Spren too.

…

I don’t know [why no spren have spoken of this]. But I lost the rhythm of my Light that day. The tower stopped working. My father, Honor, should have been able to help me, but he was losing his mind. And he soon died.

Then in Chapter 61, the Sibling says:

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For me, it all simply worked. Like a human child can breathe, so I used to make and use Light. And then … the tones went away … and the Light left me.

Then, later in Chapter 69, the Sibling says:

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The defenses no longer work because I don’t have the Light for them. I lost most of my strength when I lost the ability to hear the two pure tones of Roshar.

I don't think anyone has been hearing the tones for thousands of years until the events we see, both in present day and in flashbacks in RoW. I went back and searched for the word "tone" in the first three books. The tones of Roshar are never mentioned. I don't know that they've completely cut off, but at the very least they were seriously dampened.

And in the events of RoW, I think we're seeing people start to find moments where they are briefly able to hear the tones again, and that this starts reforging a connection to the tones despite BAM's imprisonment. A sort of workaround.

The earliest point in time when we ever see someone mention hearing the tones on screen is the Eshonai flashback in RoW 68:

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Eshonai gasped, the rhythms disrupting and vanishing – all but one, an overwhelming sound she’d never heard before. A stately, steady tone. Not a rhythm. A pure note.

Proud, louder than the thunder. The sound became everything to her as her previous spren – a tiny gravitationspren – was ejected from her gemheart.

The pure tone of Honor pounding in her ears, she dropped the shield – which flew away into the dark sky.

…

While it happened, it seemed to her that all of Roshar paused to sing Honor’s long-lost note.

It's only in that moment of transformation when they're touching the Spiritual Realm that they can hear the tone. Eshonai also makes reference to other listeners hearing Cultivation's tone while adopting workform:

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“There are songs of those who first adopted workform,” Eshonai said. “I believe they mention a similar experience: an outpouring of power, an amazing tone that belonged purely to Cultivation.

“The tones of Roshar,” Thude said, “welcoming us home.”

Then, early in RoW, Navani starts hearing hints of Honor's tone when Dalinar opens a perpendicularity. Just like how Navani explains that gemstones pick up the rhythms, she starts to become attuned to Honor's tone until in the climax of her arc it bursts forth from her.

And Venli starts to hear Cultivation's tone again when she sees Rlain and realizes she's not the only Listener left. She finally pulls it through in RoW 83 when thinking back to the songs she sang with her mother, almost like she's reforging a Connection to the tone:

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Venli searched for something else. The tone of Cultivation. Odium’s song could suffuse her, fueling her powers and enflaming her emotions, but that tone … that tone had belonged to her people long before he’d arrived. While she searched for it, she listened to her mother’s songs in her mind. Like chains, spiked into the stone so they’d remain strong during storms, they reached backward through time. Through generations.

To her people, leaving the battlefield. Walking away rather than continuing to squabble over the same ground over and over. They hadn’t merely rejected the singer gods, they’d rejected the conflict. Holding to family, singing to Love despite their dull forms, they’d left the war and gone a new way.

The tone snapped into her mind, Cultivation and Odium mixing into a harmony, and it thrummed through Venli. She opened her eyes as power spread from her through the stones. They began to shake and vibrate to the sound of her rhythm, liquid, forming peaks and valleys in time with the music. The floor, ceiling, and walls before her rippled, and a trail of her people formed from the stone. Moving, alive again, as they strode away from pain, and war, and killing.

There's more here to explore I think, but my Navani-like burst of thinking has come to an end. Would love to hear others' thoughts.

Edited January 31, 2021 by mdross81

[yulyulk]

I don't really have anything to add, except hearing Honor/Cultivation's tone while adopting war/workform sounds like a one-time event. I think Eshonai switches out of warform, and back into it, and doesn't hear that same tone again. Because there had not been any warform singers in millenia, Honor's tone was building up without anywhere to go, so it suddenly bursts forth? But does that make sense with the physics of Investiture, idk.

(I really enjoy reading your insights on here btw)

[Honorless he/him]

That... does make a lot of sense. It might also be why Honor and Cultivation, and possibly Odium as well, were attracted to the system *points at three moons, each the color of one of the Shards*... though that might've been perception influencing stuff, like the double-eye of the Almighty 

[+mdross81 he/him]

18 minutes ago, yulyulk said:

I don't really have anything to add, except hearing Honor/Cultivation's tone while adopting war/workform sounds like a one-time event. I think Eshonai switches out of warform, and back into it, and doesn't hear that same tone again. Because there had not been any warform singers in millenia, Honor's tone was building up without anywhere to go, so it suddenly bursts forth? But does that make sense with the physics of Investiture, idk.

(I really enjoy reading your insights on here btw)

Thanks @yulyulk and that’s a good point about it being a one time thing, at least for Eshonai. I found where she says that in Chapter 81. She turned back from a workform into a warform and did not hear the tone that time. I like the idea that after not being heard for so long the tones burst through when the Singers finally adopted those long lost forms.

[AquaRegia he/him]

3 hours ago, mdross81 said:

The earliest point in time when we ever see someone mention hearing the tones on screen is the Eshonai flashback in RoW 68:

I'm in no way arguing against your ideas - I agree BAM's importance is clear, and it can't be a coincidence that the Tones have become such a big theme.  But RoW is NOT the first time sound has been mentioned as having some deep underlying significance on Roshar.

In Kharbranth, the (fake) ardent Kabsal introduces Shallan to cymatics (WoK CH. 33 "Cymatics"):

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"As he drew the bow again, the plate made a sound, almost a pure note."  (emphasis mine)

The result is symmetrical patterns in the sand which mirror the geography / physical layout of some of the ten Oathgate Cities.  And cymatics is the same method which Navani later uses to produce Anti-Voidlight... and Raboniel, Anti-Stormlight.  Coincidence?  Not storming likely.

[+mdross81 he/him]

11 minutes ago, AquaRegia said:

I'm in no way arguing against your ideas - I agree BAM's importance is clear, and it can't be a coincidence that the Tones have become such a big theme.  But RoW is NOT the first time sound has been mentioned as having some deep underlying significance on Roshar.

In Kharbranth, the (fake) ardent Kabsal introduces Shallan to cymatics (WoK CH. 33 "Cymatics"):

The result is symmetrical patterns in the sand which mirror the geography / physical layout of some of the ten Oathgate Cities.  And cymatics is the same method which Navani later uses to produce Anti-Voidlight... and Raboniel, Anti-Stormlight.  Coincidence?  Not storming likely.

Good point and sorry if I was unclear. I didn’t mean the first time the importance of sound was mentioned in the books. Rather I think the Eshonai flashback is the earliest mention of the tones of Roshar chronologically. That scene when she takes on warform for the first time likely occurred in 1167, five or so years before Shallan goes to Kharbranth. 

Edited January 31, 2021 by mdross81

[Frustration he/him]

15 minutes ago, mdross81 said:

 five or so years before Shallan goes to Kharbranth. 

Closer to eight.

Also Adoda means light in Alethi. So I think that has something to do with it, good theory though.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

3 hours ago, mdross81 said:

I went back and searched for the word "tone" in the first three books. The tones of Roshar are never mentioned.

That's probably helped along by the fact that our PoV characters have generally been humans, who don't hear the Rhythms in most cases.

3 hours ago, mdross81 said:

but it seems solid that "Ado" is a reference to Adonalsium, or aspects of god/divinity more broadly

Disagree. Well, not directly, anyway. "Adoda" is a Vorin word meaning "light", which with the way the language words, is turned into "Ado" when in names (example, Ado-lin, adoda linil [or perhaps "ini" rather than "linil", it's unclear to me which the "real" form of the suffix is, -in or -lin, though khokh linil makes me lean linil]). I wouldn't be surprised if this originated from Adonalsium, but I find it more likely the usage here is meaning "light" or perhaps "Light" rather than directly meaning Adonalsium.

The interpretation of the name I've been going with is using the Vorin naming rules, which take half of a word and combine that with halves of other words:

• Ba: "bah", "child of"
  • Example: "Rysn bah-Vstim", as Rysn is legally considered Vstim's child
• Ado: "adoda", "light"
  • Example "Adolin", "born unto light"
• Mish: "Mishim"
  • the green moon
  • perhaps Cultivation (listeners at least do associate the moons with the Shards, see "Honor's moon" for Nomon)
  • issue with that: why isn't Nomon named "Merem", if they're named after the Shards? Perhaps refers to Culti but doesn't mean "cultivation"
• ram: "maram"
  • part of Amaram's name
  • perhaps an older version of the word "merem", "honor", following the same vowel shift we see with Kalak -> Kelek
  • issue: "khokh linil" takes the first half of each, so under that pattern, should be "ramar", not "maram", but we have no indication of such a word. Could be a change in how the names are created over time, could indicate I'm wrong here.

Under this theory, we get "child of the light (or Light?) of Cultivation and Honor", which would make sense if perhaps Ba-Ado-Mishram was a spren along the lines of what the Sibling now is.

Asked Brandon about it, got this response:

Quote

LewsTherinTelescope

Does "Ba-Ado-Mishram" mean "child of the light of Cultivation and Honor"?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, but you're doing a pretty good job picking apart the linguistics of that.

General Reddit 2020 (Dec. 22, 2020)

Due to this, I feel I'm probably somewhere along the right track, but the issues raised above with both "Mishim" and "maram" make me think I am not quite there, and my final interpretation is thus incorrect.

(Credit goes partly to asmodeus and extremepayne, who partially picked the name apart for some of these words on the Discord.)

[Frustration he/him]

@LewsTherinTelescope thanks, I was going to look for that WoB later. I think that Mishram would be one word like the others, and Ryan is named in Theylan, but Adoda is Alethi, not hugely relevant due to how old BAM is, but maybe Mishram is found in a third language.

Edited January 31, 2021 by Frustration

[+mdross81 he/him]

3 minutes ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

That's probably helped along by the fact that our PoV characters have generally been humans, who don't hear the Rhythms in most cases.

That could be right. But before the Everstorm, the only non-lobotomized singers were the listeners. And we know from Eshonai's flashback that they generally did not hear Honor's and Cultivation's tones. The only mention of the tones being heard was when the first time that they adopted workform (Cultivation's tone) and warform (Honor's tone).

Also, in the Sja-anat Interlude, we get this:

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His presence came upon her like the sun piercing the clouds. Powerful, vibrant, smothering. Some Fused in the hallway noticed it and looked around, though the common singers weren’t attuned enough to hear Odium’s song – like a rhythm but more resonant. One of the three pure tones of Roshar.

So even the common singers restored by the Everstorm don't generally hear Odium's tone. I still think that something about imprisoning BAM dampened or silenced the pure tones.

Your other points about teasing out the linguistics are solid, but I think there's still room for the tones to be part of the equation with BAM.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

33 minutes ago, Frustration said:

@LewsTherinTelescope thanks, I was going to look for that WoB later. I think that Mishram would be one word like the others, and Ryan is named in Theylan, but Adoda is Alethi, not hugely relevant due to how old BAM is, but maybe Mishram is found in a third language.

Thaylen and Alethi are part of the same language family, and the Vorin language family is really close, to the point where Brandon considers three of the five main languages to just be dialects. So I feel comfortable saying that "bah" and "adoda" are both either shared or very nearly the same in both languages.

Quote

IneptProfessional

Since you mention languages on Roshar, are there any languages that are completely unrelated to any other on the planet?

Brandon Sanderson

Our basic language families are:

Vorin: Alethi, Veden, Herdazian, and more distantly Thaylen. Nathan is close to dead, but shares a root, and Karbranthian is basically a dialect. Other minor languages like Bav are in here.

... General Reddit 2016 (Nov. 29, 2016)

 

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Kharbranth

...

They do have their own language, as hinted at in this chapter, but it's very similar to Alethi and Veden. I consider the three languages to really be dialects of Alethi, and learning one is more about learning new pronunciations as it is about learning new words. (Though there are some differences in vocabulary.) I would put them even slightly closer than Spanish and Portuguese in our world.

...

The Way of Kings Annotations (Oct. 20, 2017)

 

Edit: replying to the other comment:

31 minutes ago, mdross81 said:

So even the common singers restored by the Everstorm don't generally hear Odium's tone. I still think that something about imprisoning BAM dampened or silenced the pure tones.

That might just indicate that generally you don't hear the pure tone of a Shard without a strong enough Connection to it, which seems exactly how I would expect that to work. But point taken.

Edited January 31, 2021 by LewsTherinTelescope

[+Bzhydack he/him]

6 hours ago, yulyulk said:

I don't really have anything to add, except hearing Honor/Cultivation's tone while adopting war/workform sounds like a one-time event. I think Eshonai switches out of warform, and back into it, and doesn't hear that same tone again. Because there had not been any warform singers in millenia, Honor's tone was building up without anywhere to go, so it suddenly bursts forth? But does that make sense with the physics of Investiture, idk.

(I really enjoy reading your insights on here btw)

This is similar to what happened if someone recives large amount of Breaths. If he hasn't Breaths long Time, experience would be very intensive.

[Bejarden he/him]

Also the dor in elantris 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Bejardin1250