Listeners

Listeners, called Parshendi by the Alethi, are a group of former singers on Roshar.*

Once, there had been hundreds of thousands of listeners scattered across the Shattered Plains. Now a fraction remain. Even then, the listeners had been a united people. Still, there had been divisions, conflicts, even wars among their factions. But they had been a single people - those who had rejected their gods and sought freedom in obscurity.

The listeners had made a decision centuries ago, a decision that set them back to primitive levels. Choosing to murder Gavilar Kholin had been an act to affirm that decision of their ancestors.

Some of the listeners who later assumed stormform were taken by the Fused for new bodies, and it's entirely possible that most of them were used for that purpose. Venli, at least, doesn't know what else happened to any of them, and she's been told that she's the last of the listeners.^{[citation needed]}

However, in Rhythm of War, it is said and shown that other listeners are alive, such as the rebels who escaped before the Everstorm, and also Rlain.

Forms

Main article: Listener Forms

Each new form changes a listener, down to their ways of thinking, even their temperament. Despite that, one remains oneself.

Gods

“	Our gods were born splinters of a soul, Of one who seeks to take control, Destroys all lands that he beholds, with spite. They are his spren, his gift, his price. But the nightforms speak of future life, A challenged champion. A strife even he must requite.	”
–From the Listener Song of Secrets, final stanza

Upon returning to Dalinar's army after his defection, Shen - now Rlain - speaks to Dalinar of the Parshendi's gods:

“

They are the souls of those ancient. Those who gave of themselves to destroy.

”

“

They hate you and your kind, sir. This new form they have given my people ... it is something terrible. It will bring something terrible.

”

Songs

Main article: Listener Songs

Rhythms

Main article: Listener Rhythms

Notes

*Singers are a sapient species on Roshar, which humans have called the 'parsh' or parshmen.

Speculation

If the listeners were fortunate, perhaps some of them saw what was happening and either escaped or melded into the larger population of new singers before they were subsumed by the Fused.

Q&A with Brandon

Q. If a listener was on Scadrial, would they be able to hear Allomantic pulses, like a Seeker?

A. RAFO

Q. What would happen to the listeners if Odium were to be Splintered?

A. Odium being Splintered would not terribly affect the listeners. Now, various other members of that faction like the singers and the Fused might see effects. The listeners could deal with that very easily. Wouldn't even affect them.

Q. What form is a listener at birth?

A. Listeners are technically dullform, but they kind of view it as childform. And it is vibrant and alive in a way that dullform, later on, is not. It dulls as you get older. The listeners, I think I have them hitting maturity, right now, at seven or eight. I don't know if that works with the continuity. I just mentioned it in the lastest draft, so Peter and Karen will have to make sure that that's in continuity.

I don't bring it up a lot, because it would be really weird to people. But I think, in these Venli sequences, in the flashbacks ... I think Venli, right now, is probably fourteen. Because listeners mature, like ... their eight is our sixteen. They just mature faster. But I don't bring it up because it's one of those things like the fact that I don't often mention that Roshar has twenty-hour days, or I stay away from the five-day week. Just because it really kicks people out. You've gotta be really careful about how you write things like that. I'm like, "Venli is fourteen." You'd be like, "What? Venli does not feel fourteen." Well, she's not fourteen; she's fourteen for a listener. And some of these flashback sequences, she's ten. But she’s gonna read like she's sixteen or seventeen. Because that's what she would be in maturity level for a human.

It gets very sticky in those sorts of things. The answer is, they are dullform. But dullform acts differently with children.

Q. Could a modern human and a listener have fertile children?

A. RAFO. Good question.