Voidlight

Voidlight
Artwork by Ari Ibarra[1]

Voidlight is, perhaps, best described by Eshonai as having a dark, yet faintly violet light, due to the fact that she'd had a sphere - given to her by Gavilar - that seemed to glow with it.

Further, the dark sphere given to Szeth by Gavilar is described as glowing with a black light as if it had an aura of blackness, a phantom light that is not light. Faintly violet. It seemed to suck in the light around it.

When Demid transforms to become Hariel (i.e., one of the Fused), his body pulses with a dark violet power - a glow that somehow evokes both light and darkness at once.

Further still, the sphere (i.e., the King's Drop ruby) with which Dalinar traps the Unmade Nergaoul, glows with a dark, bizarre light.

Characteristics

Voidlight can be trapped like Stormlight can.

Epigraphs

“	A coalition has been formed among scholar Radiants. Our goal is to deny the enemy their supply of Voidlight; this will prevent their continuing transformations, and give us an edge in combat.	”
–From drawer 30-20, second emerald

Notes

According to Brandon, the dark light of the sphere is something different and distinct, and is related to a Shard.

While he hasn't explicitly confirmed what the dark spheres contain, he has said that the sphere's light is different from Stormlight, related to Odium, and that "it is what the third book (i.e., Oathbringer) implies it is."

Navani says to Raboniel, "Three gods. Three types of Light." That to which she is referring are Honor, Odium and Cultivation, and each their connections to Stormlight, Voidlight and Lifelight, respectively.

Speculation

This Investiture is of Odium, like Stormlight is of Honor, by which Voidbinding is fueled. The light of the spheres can be referred to as Voidlight.

Q&A with Brandon

Q. The UV wavelength is wider for Voidlight. Is there an Investiture reason why the bands are wider instead of brighter? Wider bands doesn't make sense in physics due to Snell's law, but brighter works.

A. The reason I did this, I actually did this very intentionally. This can go two ways. What I'm hoping you'll see is: this is Brandon understanding the physics of our world and saying, "It's okay to let go, because I am not using the physics of our world." This is supposed to say to you, "All right, I understand this doesn't work the way it's supposed to." Because what I'm doing with the constructive and destructive interference requires Cosmere intervention in order to actually work. Destructive interference is not magically different in any way than constructive interference, or than any other sound wave, it's just where you position it. You couldn't look at it by itself and be like, "Oh, that is the anti-song to this song." That's not how it works. The anti-song to this song a song that is aligned differently; they sound the same to you. They're just played in such a way that is destructive interference. And I needed there to be a dividing line that said, "We are actually working in Cosmere physics here."

And the main reason to do that is that, the nuts-and-bolts reason, is so that those who knew their physics could be like, "Ah, okay, we are in a fantasy world. We are in a world where people don't irradiate each other with redshifts, and indeed this destructive interference can be magically known as the opposite of this other sound because humans beings are considering it so and that makes it so." And there are a couple of other things about the physics through the books that are done that way.

What's the in world reason that it's like that? That is a RAFO.