The Unmade Explained: All Nine and What They Do

The Unmade are nine ancient spren that serve Odium in the Stormlight Archive. Each Unmade is a Splinter of the Shard Odium with one terrible power, from battle rage to the corruption of other spren. Some are mindless forces, others think and scheme. Here is every Unmade, what each one does and where each stands after Wind and Truth.

What are the Unmade in the Stormlight Archive?

The Unmade are a group of nine ancient, twisted spren on Roshar, and according to Coppermind each one is a Splinter of Odium, the Shard of divine hatred. Odium made the Unmade after the Fused, during his long war against Honor, and they fought on his side in the Desolations. Between Desolations the Unmade lose their bond to Odium, which is why several of them slumbered or wandered for centuries after Aharietiam, until the arrival of the Everstorm in Shadesmar revitalized them. The Unmade exist halfway between the Physical and Cognitive Realms, and simply standing near one fills people with a deep sense of wrongness. Vorin theology blurs the nine into one vague evil, and many educated Alethi treated them as folklore until the events of Oathbringer proved them real. Spoiler note: this guide runs through Wind and Truth.

How many Unmade are there, and what are their names?

The nine Unmade, with their common titles, their level of awareness and their status at the end of book five, based on Coppermind and the Hessi’s Mythica epigraphs in Oathbringer:

The Unmade count is not settled inside the story itself: some Rosharan tales claim ten Unmade, and Coppermind notes that not every in-world scholar accepts Dai-Gonarthis as one of them. The listener songs, however, name all nine and remember them as gods the listeners swore never to follow again. Hessi’s Mythica, quoted in the Oathbringer epigraphs, sorts the Unmade by intelligence. Ashertmarn is called the last of the “three great Mindless Unmade,” while Chemoarish is explicitly excluded from that group. Coppermind also points out that compound names roughly track awareness: Ba-Ado-Mishram, the most intelligent, carries three parts in her name, and Sja-anat, Re-Shephir and Yelig-nar carry two. Nergaoul and Ashertmarn behave more like oversized emotion spren than like thinking beings.

What does Nergaoul, the Thrill, do?

“Nergaoul was known for driving forces into a battle rage, lending them great ferocity.”
Hessi’s Mythica, Oathbringer, chapter 99 epigraph

Nergaoul is the Unmade behind the Thrill, the battle euphoria Alethi soldiers have chased for generations and the one Dalinar Kholin was addicted to in his youth. Nergaoul appears as an enormous red mist full of the shapes of men fighting and dying, and according to Hessi’s Mythica it lends that ferocity to both sides of a conflict, singer and human alike. During the Battle of Thaylen Field in Oathbringer, the Thrill helped Voidspren bond with Sadeas’s soldiers and turn them into warriors for Odium. Dalinar, who understood the Thrill better than anyone alive, coaxed Nergaoul into the King’s Drop, a perfect ruby, in chapter 120. In Rhythm of War that gem was sealed in an aluminum box and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Who is Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel?

Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel, is a mindless Unmade whose gift to people, in the words of Hessi’s Mythica, is not prophecy or battle focus but a lust for indulgence. Ashertmarn appears as an enormous black, inhuman heart that grows veins into the ground, and the people caught in its influence abandon duty for feasting and debauchery. In Oathbringer, Ashertmarn sat over the Oathgate platform in besieged Kholinar, where the revel swallowed much of the Alethi elite while the city collapsed around them. Shallan, Kaladin and Adolin had to cross that revel to reach the Oathgate. According to Sja-anat, Ashertmarn left the platform on purpose as part of a trap for the rescue party, and Ashertmarn’s location after Kholinar is still unknown.

Who is Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother?

Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother, is the Unmade that spawns Midnight Essence, spren that copy the people and creatures around them in a clumsy attempt to understand humanity. Re-Shephir appears as a mass of black tar with screaming faces bubbling to its surface, and she is drawn to violence and pain. Before the Recreance, a Lightweaver managed to trap Re-Shephir, an act once thought impossible, but the Midnight Mother later escaped and hid in the heart of Urithiru for centuries. In Oathbringer, chapter 30, Shallan Davar confronts her in the depths of the tower. Re-Shephir senses the same power as the Lightweaver who once imprisoned her and flees rather than risk capture again. In Rhythm of War she reports to the Fused, wrongly, that the Sibling is dead.

Is Sja-anat on humanity’s side?

Sja-anat, the Taker of Secrets, is the Unmade who corrupts spren, a process she calls Enlightening, and she can do it to lesser spren, to true spren and even to the spren of an Oathgate. Sja-anat appears as a jet-black shadow with white holes for eyes that points the wrong way, and she is usually glimpsed in mirrors because seeing her requires reflected light. In Oathbringer she was forced to corrupt the Kholinar Oathgate as a trap, yet she warned Shallan and promised to try not to kill her. Rhythm of War, interlude 2, confirms the twist: Sja-anat is quietly working against Odium while pretending loyalty. Her corrupted windspren helped Taravangian lure Rayse within reach of Nightblood, and her child Tumi bonded Rlain.

How does Yelig-nar, Blightwind, work?

Yelig-nar, called Blightwind, is the one Unmade with no fixed body: he joins with any human or singer who swallows the gemstone that holds him and grants that host command of the Surges. Yelig-nar’s hosts gain red eyes, grow crystals from their bodies and move wreathed in black wind, and anyone who joins with him has to control him or be consumed. In Oathbringer, Queen Aesudan Kholin swallowed the gem in Kholinar and was eventually consumed by it. At the Battle of Thaylen Field, in chapter 118, Meridas Amaram took Yelig-nar instead and fought as a living weapon until Kaladin and his men brought him down. Yelig-nar is the clearest case in the series of an Unmade turning ambition into a trap for whoever reaches for its power.

What does Moelach have to do with the Death Rattles?

Moelach is the Unmade tied to precognition, and Moelach’s presence is what produces the Death Rattles, the eerie last words that dying people speak in the Stormlight Archive. Moelach’s true appearance is unknown, but in Oathbringer the Herald Jezrien describes hearing him wheezing and scratching at time like a rat breaking through walls. In the years before the True Desolation, Moelach rested near Kharbranth, where King Taravangian systematically killed the sick and recorded their final words to refine his Diagram. The Death Rattle epigraphs that open many chapters of The Way of Kings come from that program. Late in 1173 Moelach drifted west, and by early 1174 he had settled in the Horneater Peaks, sharply cutting the Death Rattles Taravangian could collect.

What do we know about Dai-Gonarthis and Chemoarish?

Dai-Gonarthis, the Black Fisher, is an Unmade of median intelligence first named in a Death Rattle in The Way of Kings, chapter 67 epigraph, where a dying street juggler cries that the Black Fisher holds her sorrow and consumes it. Dai-Gonarthis may have been involved in the Scouring of Aimia, and Wind and Truth finally shows the Black Fisher’s power: using Connection to open Elsegates between two places with a high concentration of Investiture. The Black Fisher’s Elsegates appear as circles of violet light that sink into the ground like a pit. In Wind and Truth, the Fused El uses Dai-Gonarthis to bring a second army to the Shattered Plains, and Coppermind notes that the gift carries a cost that does not have to be paid immediately.

Chemoarish, the Dustmother, is the least understood of the nine Unmade, and none of the five main novels shows her active since Aharietiam. Chemoarish has more varied lore than any other Unmade, which makes sorting lies from truth extremely difficult, according to Hessi’s Mythica. Many Rosharans confuse the Dustmother with the Nightwatcher, the spren of Cultivation who grants boons and curses, but Hessi believes they are different beings. The people of Bavland swear by the Dustmother’s name, and the Stormlight roleplaying game links Chemoarish to the disappearance of entire cities during the Desolations. Because so little has been revealed, many readers expect the Dustmother to matter in the back five books, but that expectation is fan speculation, not a confirmed plot point.

Who is Ba-Ado-Mishram, and why did her prison matter?

Ba-Ado-Mishram is the most intelligent of the Unmade, remembered in Hessi’s Mythica as a highprincess among the enemy and a commander during some of the Desolations. About 2,500 years after Aharietiam, Ba-Ado-Mishram Connected with nearly all of Roshar’s singers, granted them forms of power and supplied Voidlight, starting the war scholars call the False Desolation. A Knights Radiant strike team ended that war by trapping her in a perfect gemstone: the Bondsmith Melishi performed the binding, and the Heralds Nale and Kalak were present. Trapping Ba-Ado-Mishram cut her Connection to the singers and stripped away their minds, which is how the singers became the enslaved parshmen of the modern era. The Radiants did not grasp the full cost at the time.

“please find Mishram and release her. […] For the good of all spren.”
Kalak, Rhythm of War, chapter 97 epigraph

Kalak’s journal in Rhythm of War reframes that ancient victory as a wound, and Coppermind ties Ba-Ado-Mishram’s imprisonment to the damage behind the Recreance and to the deadeyes created when Radiants broke their bonds. Shallan spends Rhythm of War racing the Ghostbloods, led in the field by Mraize and Iyatil, for the gemstone. In Wind and Truth, Renarin Kholin and Rlain reach her prison in the Spiritual Realm and free Ba-Ado-Mishram. Dalinar feels a discordant note that had vibrated through the soul of Roshar finally fall silent, and deadeye spren begin to heal. A freed, intelligent Unmade who resents both Honor’s betrayal and Odium’s control is a loose thread the back five will have to pull.

Can the Unmade be captured or killed?

Capturing an Unmade appears to require two things: a perfect gemstone and a deep Connection to the Unmade itself. Dalinar Kholin explains the second condition in Oathbringer, chapter 120, saying the Thrill can only be bested by someone who deeply, sincerely understands it, and that understanding is how he trapped Nergaoul in the King’s Drop. Captured Unmade can still think, they do not fade the way imprisoned Heralds do, and a crack in the gem lets them speak to people outside. Re-Shephir’s ancient escape shows that these prisons can fail. No character in the series has destroyed an Unmade outright, and in Rhythm of War Sja-anat fears that Odium could unmake them again, ripping apart their memories. For now, a polestone at the bottom of the ocean is the best defense Roshar has.

Frequently asked questions

How many Unmade are there in the Stormlight Archive?

There are nine Unmade: Ba-Ado-Mishram, Sja-anat, Re-Shephir, Yelig-nar, Nergaoul, Ashertmarn, Moelach, Dai-Gonarthis and Chemoarish. Some Rosharan stories claim there were ten, but the listener songs name nine, and Coppermind lists nine Splinters of Odium.

Which Unmade is the smartest?

Ba-Ado-Mishram is the most intelligent of the Unmade. Hessi’s Mythica calls her a highprincess among the enemy forces and a commander during some Desolations, and she alone Connected with nearly every singer on Roshar to start the False Desolation.

Is Sja-anat good or evil?

Sja-anat is neither a simple villain nor a true ally. Rhythm of War, interlude 2, shows her secretly working against Odium while pretending to serve him. She spared Shallan at the Kholinar Oathgate, sent the corrupted windspren that helped Taravangian kill Rayse, and let her child Tumi bond Rlain.

Who freed Ba-Ado-Mishram?

Renarin Kholin and Rlain freed Ba-Ado-Mishram from her gemstone prison in the Spiritual Realm in Wind and Truth. According to Coppermind, her release silenced a discordant note that had troubled Roshar for millennia, and deadeye spren began to heal afterward.

What happened to Nergaoul after Thaylen Field?

Dalinar Kholin trapped Nergaoul, the Unmade behind the Thrill, inside the King’s Drop, a perfect ruby, during the Battle of Thaylen Field in Oathbringer. In Rhythm of War the gem was sealed in an aluminum box and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.