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{{Ethnicities & Nationalities
{{lifeform
|species=[[Singer]]s
|world=Roshar
|books=[[The Stormlight Archive]]
}}
}}{{update|book=sa3}}
The '''listeners''' are a species of sapient creatures on [[Roshar]].{{book ref|sa2|I-1}} There are two main groups of listeners, the [[Parshendi]] on the [[Shattered Plains]], and the docile [[#Slave form (Parshmen)|parshmen]]. The [[Stormfather]] called them the Old Ones. {{book ref|sa2|89}}
 
The '''listeners''' (called the '''Parshendi''' by the [[Alethi]]) are a group or ethnicity of [[singers]] on [[Roshar]].
The listeners can communicate their emotions through certain rhythms to each other and can keep perfectly in time with these rhythms even when apart, although the parshmen do not have this ability. Male listeners grew beards, which they thread through beads infused with [[Stormlight]].
 
Prior to the [[True Desolation]], they lived on eastern Roshar, near the [[Shattered Plains]]. During the [[War of Reckoning]], they inhabited the city of [[Narak]].
 
==History==
Listeners have existed on Roshar a very long time, even before humans existed there.{{cite}}
 
===The Last Legion and Abandoning of the Gods===
At some point, after listeners felt [[spren]] betrayed them, giving [[Surge]]s to humans instead of them, the listeners turned to other gods.{{epigraph ref|sa2|28}}{{epigraph ref|sa2|32}} These gods, perhaps the [[Unmade]]{{epigraph ref|sa2|31}} -- though definitely something of [[Odium]]{{reddit ref|books|2ytg2h|crxbbsg|}}{{epigraph ref|sa2|34}}, changed them, into what became the [[Voidbringer]]s. Later, after the [[Desolation]]s, [[Jasnah Kholin]] theorized that these Voidbringers were not eliminated, but enslaved into what were called the parshmen.{{book ref|sa1|72}}
 
{{quote|Long are the days since we knew the dark home,” Mother sang softly to one of the Rhythms of Remembrance. “The Last Legion, that was our name then. Warriors who had been set to fight in the farthest plains, this place that had once been a nation and was now rubble. Dead was the freedom of most people. The forms, unknown, were forced upon us. Forms of power, yes, but also forms of obedience. The gods commanded, and we did obey, always. Always.|[[Eshonai's mother]] to [[Eshonai]]{{book ref|sa2|I-4}}}
After the Desolations, not all listeners were the unintelligent parshmen; there were several tribes of the dullform listeners, having thrown off the forms of their gods. Raids and assassinations were commonplace, and this later created norms as to how assassinations should have been carried out.{{qa ref|968|2|Parshendi once dis-unified|date=2013-02-22}} These disparate listener tribes eventually unified and moved near the [[Shattered Plains]].
 
The listeners were originally called the '''Last Legion''',{{book ref|sa2|I-4} and like other [[singer]]s in the [[Voidbringer]] army, they followed the commands of the [[Fused]], who the listeners termed their gods. They lived in somewhere called the '''dark home''' (but this might have been metaphorical for being under [[Odium]]'s influence, and not an actual place). The Last Legion was sent to fight in the farthest plains, probably the plains of [[Natanatan]] and the [[Shattered Plains]].{{book ref|sa2|I-4}
The [[Alethi]] discovered this tribe of listeners, shocked that there existed sapient versions of the parshmen. They named the listeners [[Parshendi]]. Eventually Alethkar formed a treaty with these Parshendi, but on the eve of the treaty, [[Gavilar|King Gavilar]] was assassinated, in an attempt to prevent the listener gods from returning. This led to the Alethi forming the [[Vengeance Pact]], and the [[War of Reckoning]] to destroy the assassins.
 
Then, one day, the Last Legion fled, leaving the forms of power for dullform. Despite being cripplied, it would lead to freedom from their gods. These listeners composed many songs to remember their history and forms, such as the [[Song of Listing]], [[Song of Secrets]], and [[Song of Histories]] because they risked forgetting everything. They had only known how to transform into forms other than dullform and mateform with the help of gods.{{book ref|sa2|I-4}
During the war, these listeners moved their population to [[Narak]] from the western edge of the Shattered Plains, where the Alethi warcamps are now situated, though hundreds of thousands of listeners had lived scattered across the entirety of the Plains.{{book ref|sa2|i|1}}{{book ref|sa2|i|4}} Eventually, [[Venli]] persuaded [[Eshonai]] that they would die unless they did something drastic. Venli had discovered stormform, one of their old gods' forms, and Eshonai took the form and was controlled by the form, forcing many other listeners to adopt it as well in order to stop the Alethi and the destruction of their species.▼
 
Since the listeners recall this story about throwing off the Fused, this event must have occurred prior to or around the time of [[Ahartiam]], the Last Desolation, as Fused been trapped in [[Damnation]] for four and a half millennia after that point.
At the [[Battle of Narak]], where [[Highprince]] [[Dalinar Kholin]] led an expedition to end the [[War of Reckoning]], the listeners in stormform, now referred to as Voidbringers, summoned a storm. Eshonai thought the stormform abilities would summon a highstorm, but they instead summoned the [[Everstorm]], leading to the start of the [[True Desolation]].▼
 
Later, near the time of the [[Recreance]] and what was probably the [[False Desolation]],{{book ref|sa3|56}} the [[Unmade]] [[Ba-Ado-Mishram]] Connected to most singers, providing the singers with [[Regal|forms of power]] and [[Voidlight]].{{epigraph ref|sa3|80} The [[Knights Radiant]] sought to stop this threat by imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram. They succeeded but in doing so, stole part of singers souls, turning them into slaveform.{{epigraph ref|sa3|81}} The listeners somehow were spared from this event and became the only singers on Roshar with their minds still in tact.
Parshendi at some point in their history interbred with humans. The descendants of these Parshendi-human hybrids are modern Roshar's [[Unkalaki]] and [[Herdazian]] peoples.{{qa ref|1084|9|Horneaters are human/Parshendi hybrids.|date=August 13th, 2014}}{{reddit ref|books|2ytg2h|crds34r}}
 
The listeners inhabited the broken kingdom of Natanatan and the Unclaimed Hills in eastern Roshar for long time, unknown to most humans.{{book ref|sa2|I-4} For much of this, they knew only dullform and mateform, but eventually discovered warform and workform (and much later, nimbleform).
The Parshendi learned how to capture spren in gemstones by watching humans, then working out the process for themselves. This allowed them to make changes to their forms much more reliably, where before there was an element of chance with the transformation.{{book ref|sa2|i|4}}▼
 
The listeners were much less unified than they are when seen during the [[War of Reckoning]]. They were once split into a number of separate tribes, with raids and assassinations as a relatively frequent occurrence. This is reflected in the listeners having enough cultural experience with assassination to have norms as to how an assassinations ought to be carried out.{{qa ref|968|2|Parshendi once dis-unified|date=2013-02-22}}
== See Also ==▼
*[[Parshendi]]
*[[Voidbringers]]
*[[Herdaz]]▼
*[[Unkalaki]]
 
===Alethi Notes Discovery===
<references>▼
 
To modern humans, the listeners were originally discovered by Alethi [[Gavilar|King Gavilar]]'s brother [[Dalinar Kholin]] during a hunting trip.{{book ref|sa1|28}}{{book ref|sa1|45}} Dalinar was scouting in a forest which had not been on any maps. In a valley south of the [[Shattered Plains]] and about two weeks' march from the [[Drying Sea]], Dalinar saw the first listener camped on the other side of a tributary of the [[Deathbend River]]. The Alethi called these "intelligent parshmen"--the listeners--the Parshendi.
{{reddit ref|books|2ytg2h|crds34r|text=The Horneaters and the Herdazians are both descendants of Parshendi/human interbreeding.|date=17 may 2015}}
 
The Alethi made a treaty with the listeners to secure trade routes. Due to a translation error, the Alethi interpreted the listener gods to be the [[greatshell]]s on the Shattered Plains, the [[chasmfiends]], and not the Fused. However, Gavilar, having seen visions, knew more than he let on. Gavilar came up with a plan to bring back the listener gods to bring back the [[Herald]]s{{book ref|sa3|prologue}}. Gavilar gave [[Eshonai]] a black sphere--filled with [[Voidlight]]--to the listener leaders, the Five, and Gavilar hoped they would welcome their gods returning.
 
But, the listeners feared their gods' return, having cast them off for so long. After frantic debate, the Five decided they would maintain freedom at any cost. So, they hired an assassin, [[Szeth]], on the eve of their treaty. They instructed him to wear white because it was a Parshendi tradition for assassinations.{{book ref|sa1|prologue}}
 
The assassination led to the formation of the Alethi [[Vengeance Pact]] and caused the [[War of Reckoning]], a prolonged war between the listeners and the Alethi on the Shattered Plains.
 
===War of Reckoning===
 
During the war, these listeners moved their population to [[Narak]] from the western edge of the Shattered Plains, where the Alethi warcamps are now situated, though hundreds of thousands of listeners had lived scattered across the entirety of the Plains.{{book ref|sa2|i|1}}{{book ref|sa2|i|4}} The war of attrition lasted for six years, and their population slowly dwindled.{{book ref|sa2|i|4}}
 
▲During the war, these listeners moved their population to [[Narak]] from the western edge of the Shattered Plains, where the Alethi warcamps are now situated, though hundreds of thousands of listeners had lived scattered across the entirety of the Plains.{{book ref|sa2|i|1}}{{book ref|sa2|i|4}} Eventually, [[Venli]] persuaded [[Eshonai]] that they would die unless they did something drastic. Venli had discovered stormform, one of theirthe oldforms gods'of formspower, and Eshonai took the form and was controlled by the form, forcing many other listeners to adopt it as well in order to stop the Alethi and the destruction of their species.{{cite}}
 
▲At the [[Battle of Narak]], where [[Highprince]] [[Dalinar Kholin]] led an expedition to end the [[War of Reckoning]], the listeners in stormform, nowsung referreda to as Voidbringers, summoned aterrible stormsong. EshonaiIt thought the stormform abilities would summon a highstorm, but they instead summonedformed the [[Everstorm]], leadingand towith the start ofit, the [[True Desolation]] began.
 
After the battle, [[Rlain]] laments that with the listeners taking up stormform, the listeners no longer exist.{{book ref|sa2|87}}
 
===The True Desolation===
 
Shortly after the [[Battle of Narak]], the Fused began to Return in the [[Everstorm]] and took over former listener's bodies and killing them in the process. [[Venli]] nearly sucuumbed to this, until [[Odium]] stopped a Fused from entering her. Venli instead received envoyform.{{book ref|sa3|i-7}}
 
Odium used Venli to tell the story of the listeners to try and inspire the newly restored singers to fight.
 
==Other==
 
Male listeners grew beards, which they thread through beads infused with [[Stormlight]].
 
▲The Parshendilisteners learned how to capture spren in gemstones by watching humans, then working out the process for themselves. This allowed them to make changes to their forms much more reliably, where before there was an element of chance with the transformation.{{book ref|sa2|i|4}}
 
== Notable Listeners ==
{{for|:Category:Parshendi|a full list of listeners|Category: Parshendi}}
{{columns|
*[[Eshonai]]
▲*[[HerdazKlade]]
*[[Devi]]
*[[Varanis]]
*[[Venli]]
*[[Demid]]
*[[Rlain]]
}}
 
▲== See Also ==
*[[Singer]]s
*[[Fused]]
*[[Voidbringer]]s
 
== Notes ==
▲<references />
 
</references>
{{partial}}
{{Stormlightstormlight}}
[[category: notable articles]]
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