Difference between revisions of "Listener"
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The '''listeners''' (called the '''Parshendi''' by the [[Alethi]]) are a group or ethnicity of [[
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]].
===The Last Legion and Abandoning of the Gods===
{{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}}}}
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}}
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}}
Since the listeners recall this story about throwing off the Fused, this event must have occurred prior to or around the time of [[
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.
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 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}}
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.
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 [[
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}}
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