Voidbringers

The Voidbringers are the ancient enemies of humanity on Roshar, the forces of Odium that invade the world during each Desolation to wage wars of annihilation. They are among the most feared figures in Vorin religion and the deep mythology of The Stormlight Archive, though the truth of their nature proves more complex than legend holds.

In Legend

In the Vorin tradition, the Voidbringers are monstrous destroyers who came in the Desolations to scour humanity and drive it back into savagery. Vorin teaching long held them to be embodiments of evil and ruin, and the Knights Radiant and Heralds were remembered as the champions who held them at bay.

The Truth

The reality revealed in the Archive is that the "Voidbringers" are intimately connected to the singers -- the native parsh people of Roshar -- and to the Fused, the souls of ancient singers granted a terrible immortality by Odium. The docile parshmen enslaved across Roshar are singers robbed of their forms, and when the Everstorm awakens them, they can take on powerful Voidbringer forms. The deeper history reveals that humans were not always Roshar's original inhabitants, complicating the ancient narrative of who the invaders truly were.

Role in the Desolations

During each Desolation, the Voidbringers, led and empowered by Odium and the returning Fused, assaulted human civilization. The Heralds and Knights Radiant resisted them, and the Oathpact bound their spirits to Braize between Desolations. Their return is the central threat reawakened in The Stormlight Archive.

Significance

The Voidbringers embody the existential threat to humanity on Roshar, and the unveiling of their true nature -- bound up with the singers, the Fused, and the contested history of the world -- is among the most consequential revelations of the saga.