Order of Bondsmiths

Order of Bondsmiths
Herald	Ishar
Spren	Nightwatcher, Stormfather, Sibling
Surges	Tension & Adhesion
Plate spren	Unknown
World of Origin	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere

The Order of Bondsmiths is an order of the Knights Radiant on Roshar.

The Bondsmiths are Surgebinders who use the Surges of Tension and Adhesion, and they are associated with the heliodor polestone. Adhesion gives the power known to Szeth as a "full lashing." They form a Nahel Bond with one of three unique spren: the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, and (presumably) the Sibling. The exact nature of the Nahel Bond that Bondsmiths share with their specific spren is unclear; it may or may not be similar to other orders of the Knights Radiant.

Ideals of the Bondsmiths

The Ideals of the Knights Radiant, also known as the Immortal Words, are a set of rules by which the Radiant lived. The First Ideal, identical for all orders of the Radiants, is used as their motto. Each of the Radiant Orders then has an additional four ideals that are unique to each order.

The theme of the Bondsmiths ideals are "I will unite".

The First Ideal

“Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. ”

—The First Ideal of the Knights Radiant.

The Second Ideal

“I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together. ”

—The Second Ideal of the Bondsmiths, as sworn by Dalinar Kholin.

The Third Ideal

“I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man. ”

—The Third Ideal of the Bondsmiths, as sworn by Dalinar Kholin.

The main focus of this oath is about becoming a better person over time.

Abilities

“"No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, though they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle. " ”

—The Stormfather to Dalinar.

The Bondsmiths have access to Tension, the Surge of Soft Axial Interconnection, and Adhesion, the Surge of Pressure and Vacuum.

Adhesion

Full Lashing

Using the Full Lashing, a Surgebinder can pool Stormlight into an area. All objects that subsequently touch this area will be bonded to the object, sticking them there and hindering their movement. The bond ends when the Stormlight runs out.

Spiritual Adhesion

Using the Surge of Adhesion to manipulate spiritual, rather than purely physical forces, a Bondsmith can touch another person and forge a spiritual connection between them. This allows the Bondsmith to temporarily speak whatever languages this other person can speak. Whether the Surgebinder must remain physically close to this other person for the ability to be continually used or if it can transfer any other skill or knowledge is unknown. The power bears a great similarity to other applications of Connection such as duralumin Feruchemy on Scadrial.

Tension

The Tension Surge can be manipulated by the Surgebinder to alter the stiffness of an object.

Other abilities

Spren and Shardblades

Each Bondsmith shares a Nahel bond with one of three unique spren: the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, and an unnamed third who slumbers. Bondsmiths typically do not have access to a Shardblade, although it is possible to 'force' their bonded spren into a shape of power that allows them to activate Oathgates.

Connection and lightweaving

Bondsmiths are able to boost other Radiants' powers. The boost given is different for each Order. For example, allowing a Lightweaver to create a three-dimensional projection of Roshar.

"Healing" inanimate objects

Bondsmiths may be able to feel and hear the cognitive aspects of certain broken objects around them. With some combination of physical effort, Tension and Adhesion, they can fix them. It has been suggested that this ability may have similarities to Progression-based healing - it is easier for users of Progression to heal those who are recently wounded, and it gets harder as the "soul" becomes accustomed to the wound.

History

In the time before the Recreance the Bondsmiths commonly had no more than three members, making them the smallest of the Orders. However, this is not a constant and there has been a time where there was only one Bondsmith, and never more than three.

Known Bondsmiths

• Melishi (Ancient Bondsmith)
• Dalinar Kholin (bonded to the Stormfather)

Quotes

“But as for the Bondsmiths, they had members only three, which number was not uncommon for them; nor did they seek to increase this by great bounds, for during the times of Madasa, only one of their order was in continual accompaniment of Urithiru and its thrones. Their spren was understood to be specific, and to persuade them to grow to the magnitude of the other orders was seen as seditious. ”

—Words of Radiance, chapter 16, page 14

“So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address. ”

—Words of Radiance, chapter 30, page 18

Theories and Speculation

This page or section deals with theories or speculation.

Please read carefully and note that this is not necessarily canonical.

Destruction of the singers

“We are uncertain the effects this will have on the parsh. At the very least, it should deny them forms of power. Melishi is confident, but Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warns of unintended side effects. ”

— Drawer 30-20, fifth emerald

It is possible that a Bondsmith's powers are responsible for the act that robbed nearly every singer of their minds. During the False Desolation a strike team of Radiants attacked the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram, who had Connected with the singers centuries after Aharietiam. The Bondsmith Melishi's goal was to use his abilities to imprison Ba-Ado-Mishram within a perfect gem to deny the enemy forms of power and Voidlight. This attack was apparently successful at imprisoning the Unmade, but perhaps inadvertently the singers Connected to the Unmade had a piece of their soul ripped out, rendering them into the servile parshmen.

Nature of Bondsmith spren

“Are there others, though? Spren like you, or the Nightwatcher? Spren that are shadows of gods? ”

—Dalinar Kholin to the Stormfather

As Bondsmith spren have been described as shadows of gods, some hold that these spren are in some way be directly related to or associated with the Shards worshiped as gods on Roshar. This might explain why Bondsmiths are said to only bond specific spren, and also why there is a maximum total of three Bondsmiths at any given time, due to the the three Shards relevant to Roshar. Indeed the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher are Bondsmith spren that are associated with Honor and Cultivation respectively. It has been suggested that the third Bondsmith spren may be the mysterious Sibling, but even still the nature of this unknown spren remains unclear. As Odium is the third Shard with significant influence on Roshar, it is possible that this third Bondsmith spren is associated with Odium in some way, even perhaps symbolically. However the concept of a Bondsmith that represents or is related to the enemy of the Knights Radiant is somewhat self-contradictory. Alternatively, it may be a spren that represents a balance between Honor and Cultivation.

Notes

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