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Characters / The Stormlight Archive The Fused

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    Fused In General 

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

The spirits of ancient singers, transmuted into Cognitive Shadows by Odium and given the power to return from the dead by possessing the body of common singers (expelling the original soul in the process). They are organized into nine distinct classes known as brands, each of which commands a different Surge. (No brand has access to Adhesion).
  • The Altered Ones, who have access to Transformation. They can use this surge to transmute materials in a fashion similar to a Soulcaster.
  • The Deepest Ones, who have access to Cohesion. They can meld with rock or stone and pass through it, but cannot take anything that is not a part of their own body with them when they do so.
  • The Flowing Ones, who have access to Abrasion. They can use this to suspend the effects of friction on themselves or other people or objects.
  • The Heavenly Ones, who have access to Gravitation. They can redirect their own personal gravity without expending Voidlight, but must use it to heal themselves or to Lash other things.
  • The Husked Ones, who have access to Transportation. They can teleport from point to point as a ribbon of light, leaving behind a hollow husk of carapace. However, they cannot take anything that is not a part of their own body with them when they jump in this way.
  • The Magnified Ones, who have access to Progression. They heal more quickly and efficiently than other Fused, and can rapidly grow weapons, tools, etc out of their carapace.
  • The Masked Ones, who have access to Illumination. They can change their personal appearance, and can even make themselves appear human (down to bleeding red if cut).


  • Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed and Justified. In contrast to their more moral descendants, every Fused willingly serves Odium and is fully devoted to enslaving humanity. This is because they all willingly agreed to serve Odium in order to avenge humanity's crimes. They can change for the better though.
  • Boring, but Practical: Their millennia of experience with strategy, logistics, infrastructure, and engineering are at least as dangerous as their supernatural abilities.
  • Creative Sterility: Due to their immortality, the vast majority see no real need to change anything they do, as they feel they have already Seen It All and developed anything they could ever need. This is in direct contrast to humans of the True Desolation.
    Raboniel: Surely you've noticed that the Fused have a problem. We think along the same old, familiar pathways. We don’t create because we assume we’ve already created what we need to. We are immortal, and so think nothing can ever surprise us—and that makes us complacent.
  • Famed In-Story: They all have extensive histories, triumphs, rivalries, and deeds that stretch back more than seven thousand years. They're a bit miffed that after the pause between Desolations, these histories have been forgotten.
  • Forever War: The Fused and their war for Roshar has lasted over seven thousand years. A great many of the Fused are completely mentally broken by the experience of endless deaths and rebirths and having no respite from the endless conflict. Even the sane ones are still mentally scarred by the unending conflict, to the point that Raboniel just wants an end to it all by any means, even if that involves creating a weapon that can permanently kill a Fused to end their madness and suffering.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Most of the Fused were once civilians who took up with Odium. This is helpful for the new singers, as the Fused have plenty of skills besides combat—Moash witnesses a Fused instructing singer lumberworkers, and deduces he must have been a woodworker thousands of years ago.
  • Grand Theft Me: As spren, they have no physical body, so they must steal one from a living singer. The singer's soul is ejected from the body in the process, instantly killing them.
  • Healing Factor: Just like the Radiants, they can use Voidlight to heal from all but the most grievous of injuries, which is another factor that makes them so difficult to put down.
  • Master of One Magic: They have access to only one Surge unlike the Radiants who have two, but many lifetimes of practicing with this one ability means they've become very good at what they do.
  • Morphic Resonance: Fused impose their own marbling (and sometimes specific carapace patterns) on whatever body they take, which with practice lets you recognize individual Fused between bodies.
  • Motive Decay: A major problem for all the Fused, who struggle not to forget what ideals drove them to war in the first place. Most fail, simply becoming obsessed with war and destroying humanity.
  • Mundane Utility: Moash is surprised to see a Magnified One make a carapace sawblade and show a singer how to use it effectively.
  • New Body, Old Abilities: Fused spirits maintain the Surge they can bind, regardless of their host.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Ancient souls, infused and empowered by Odium, who look like Darth Maul complete with carapace Spikes of Villainy, who resurrect from Physical Hell when killed via Demonic Possession? Yeah... they qualify just a bit. They are explicitly called demons in the opening of Rhythm of War.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Strictly speaking, they are not the souls of the original singers, but rather spren or Cognitive Shadows of who they once were. This means that even Shardblades cannot kill them, as spren who are cut by the blades will eventually recombine.
  • Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: When the Fused are reincarnated through the Everstorm, their souls take over any willing singer bodies available, which might not match their usual sex.
  • Resurrective Immortality: Killing their physical body doesn't do anything in the long run, as they'll hop into a new one as soon as the Everstorm passes over a hapless singer.
  • Sanity Slippage: The passage of time and the endless cycle of life and death inevitably turns them insane and non-functioning.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Because of their Resurrective Immortality, the only way the Radiants could get rid of them in the past was sealing them away in Braize between Desolations or trapping them in gemstones like other spren.
  • Undying Warrior: As cognitive shadows under Odium's control, they have free rein of Roshar during the Desolations, inhabiting a new body the next Everstorm after they're killed, and return to Braize in between. This was a major motivator in creating the Oathpact. However, seven thousand years of this have left many of them exceedingly tired and/or utterly insane.
  • Weak, but Skilled: The Surges that the Fused use are more limited than the Radiants; Heavenly Ones, for example, can only Lash themselves once, limiting their speed in the air. But their powers are far more efficient, their core abilities not burning Voidlight. The Heavenly Ones rarely even touch the ground. And their millennia of experience give them a degree of control and expertise that human Radiants just can't match.
    • The Fused have this turned back on them by the Alethi and other human troops as well. Even without any surges, human soldiers can match Fused by using non-magical tactics and discipline. Heavenly Ones, despite their flight, cannot break through shield walls, and Deepest Ones can't use any weapons beyond their own claws and thus an alert soldier can grab and cut off their hands.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: Most of the different brands don't really get along with each other. The Heavenly Ones, in particular, dislike the dishonorable tactics many of the other brands use.

    Leshwi 
A highly ranked Fused, though lowly among the true elite. She commands the Heavenly Ones, Fused who can use the Surge of Gravitation.
  • Affably Evil: For someone who's working whole-hearted to bring about the subjugation and/or extermination of the human race, she consistently displays a level of civility and moral character that even some of the human characters struggle to match. She's so affable that she eventually stops being evil entirely.
  • Anti-Villain: The most sympathetic of the Fused. She only works with Odium to protect the singers.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: She receives one from Venli, who asks whether Odium will really allow the singers the peace she is fighting for.
  • Benevolent Boss: Especially so for a Fused, most of whom are the opposite trope. She's very lenient with her minions failing, treats Venli with kindness despite the latter's status as a "traitor", and even allows a few humans to work amongst her staff. Her loyalty to her underlings is fully reciprocated, to the point that when she changes sides during the occupation of Urithiru, all of the singers serving under her do the same without a moment's hesitation.
  • Dark Action Girl: One of the foremost battlefield commanders of the Fused and a very dangerous combatant in her own right. Kaladin is the only member of the Radiants who can consistently match her in direct combat. She eventually drops the "Dark" part.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Kaladin, something recognized by both of them. They have similar combat styles (wielding a spear and using Gravitation to fly), and like Kaladin, Leshwi has strong moral principles, an ironclad will, and is A Mother to Her Men. The main sticking point is, naturally, that they happen to be on opposite sides of the war.
  • Fantastic Racism: Downplayed, she considers singers superior but knows that humans have value and would rather rule them than kill them. Which for a Fused is shockingly liberal. It is also unclear how much of this is genuine racism on her part and how much is political calculation of what lenience she can get away with in front of other Fused. It is at least a little of both.
  • Heel–Face Turn: She allies with the Knights Radiant at the end of Rhythm of War after Venli shows her that the Reachers have forgiven the singers for siding with Odium.
  • Humble Hero: From the singer perspective, though "humble" is relative. She truly believes in creating a better world for singers as a whole, not just the Fused who rule them, and considers herself a servant of the common people.
  • Girls with Moustaches: Defied. While Leshwi's most recent body is malen, she has any facial hair shaved off when she can, even if a human has to do it. Venli notes it's the one bit of vanity Leshwi has when otherwise the physical body's appearance doesn't matter to her.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her normal combat attire is a flowing gown with an extremely long train; so long that it drags on the ground whenever she's forced to fight indoors. Her flight and Healing Factor together mean that she doesn't have to care about practical battle gear.
  • Lady of War: Carries herself like a refined noblewoman whether she's politicking in the court of the Fused or commanding their forces on the battlefield. The fighting style of the Heavenly Ones demands speed and precision, and Leshwi's millennia of experience grant her flight a level of grace that none of the Windrunners can match.
  • Motive Decay: Inverted. She is one of the few Fused who still seems to primarily care about protecting the singers and creating a safe world for them, rather than allowing her hatred of humanity to consume her.
  • Noble Demon: Literally. Most notably, when facing an opponent in a one-on-one duel, she will allow them to retreat if injured as long as they stay out of the rest of the battle.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Raboniel notes that Leshwi takes great care to appear less competent than she really is. It lets her break conventions that other Fused cannot.
  • Out of Continues: After joining forces with the Radiants, she will no longer be allowed to return from Braize if she is killed again. While she is still immortal, Odium will subject her to an eternity of torture should she wind up in his grasp again.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Especially for a Fused, though this is admittedly a low bar.
  • Redemption Demotion: A Justified Trope. Once she turns against Odium, she effectively loses her infinite resurrections, as if she is killed and sent to Braize again, he will make sure she will never come back to Roshar as punishment.
  • Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: She's reincarnated into a malen body after Moash kills her. This is largely ignored, aside from her keeping her face meticulously clean-shaven out of preference.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: At her worst, she considers the war worth it for the world it will create for the singers when they win. This is moderate for a Fused, since she actually still has a motive.
  • Villainous Valor: Brave, principled, and willing to protect civilians even from other Fused.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • She recruits Moash because she was impressed that he was able to kill her.
    • She respects Kaladin as an enemy and always seeks him out for a one-on-one duel if they are on the same battlefield.

    Lezian, the Pursuer 
The first Fused to be killed by a human. Whenever he is killed, he ignores all else until he has killed his own killer.
  • Arc Villain: One of the key ones for Kaladin in Rhythm of War.
  • Can't Take Anything with You: The big limitation of his powers. Since he is effectively destroying and recreating his body, anything he was carrying would be left behind with his husk. It means he cannot carry spheres on him, and his gemheart only holds enough Voidlight for three jumps plus a bit of healing, meaning that he typically uses his third jump to retreat to a Voidlight stash. It also means he has no weapons, leading to him relying on grappling or broken shards of his carapace as improvised weapons.
  • Combat Pragmatist: One of his more terrifying traits. He makes brutal, sequential ambush attacks using Teleport Spam before fading away again. And when fighting Radiants, who can heal from wounds? He grapples them and paralyzes them by repeatedly severing their spine until they run out of Stormlight.
  • Cooldown: As a necessary condition to keep Lezian from being a completely unstoppable killing machine, his Teleport Spam is given a built in Power Limiter, namely that he can only use it four times before running out of Voidlight and needing to recharge. So when he goes in to battle, he keeps caches of charged spheres around (he can't carry anything with him) to recharge. Three jumps during the fight, then a fourth jump away to recharge. This is in stark contrast to all other Fused, whose abilities don't deplete their Voidlight (though healing does).
  • Counting Bullets: Kaladin pretty quickly figures out that Lezian can't take anything with him when he jumps and only has enough Voidlight for three jumps maximum, so every third jump he has to retreat to a cache of Void-spheres and recharge or he will be stuck in his current body, making him at least as vulnerable as a Fused can be. From that point on, Kaladin is constantly keeping track of which body Lezian is on during their fights.
  • Deader than Dead: After getting humiliated by Kaladin, the next time the Pursuer resurrects he's greeted by El, and gets used as a test subject to see if anti-Voidlight really will permanently kill a Fused. Given that Lezian's "soul ripped itself apart" upon contact, its pretty clear that it did, and the Pursuer isn't coming back.
  • The Dragon: He becomes this to Raboniel, who uses him as a weapon against Kaladin.
  • Godiva Hair: Due to how his powers work, the only clothes he can manage are his own hair.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: A very serious example. Kaladin starts calling him the Defeated One in their final duel to bait him, because he knows that for the Fused in general and Lezian in specific titles and legacy are Serious Business. After Lezian is defeated again in front of everyone and the legend of the Pursuer is permanently broken, "Defeated One" sticks.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the other Fused who offer commentary on him have anything positive to say. Though note that the Fused in question are all thoughtful and intelligent: many more consider him a hero.
  • Hate Sink: Hateful, brutal, disrespectful, and cruel, Lezian is perhaps the one Fused with zero redeeming qualities. And we get most of his characterization from the singers.
  • Humiliation Conga: Kaladin bests him in single combat while most of Kaladin's Radiant powers are sealed, and forces him to retreat instead of killing him. This completely destroys Lezian's fearsome reputation.
  • Immortal Assassin: Via his Resurrective Immortality, like all Fused. His ability to teleport makes him an effective assassin, and he makes a point of spending all his time hunting down and killing whoever killed his previous body when he comes back.
  • Implacable Man: Always chases anyone who has killed him with single-minded determination until he has avenged himself. Despite his Resurrective Immortality, no one has managed to kill him twice. Kaladin doesn't just kill him twice, but he also sends him running for the hills in full view of Urithiru, destroying his legend in the process.
  • Ninja Log: What his husks amount to. Very few people get enough practice fighting him to learn they have to stop stabbing the body he leaves behind, which he employs to brutal effect when breaking formations of troops.
  • Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Among the Fused who admire him for his heroic legend. He has no sense of formality and disregards the political games of the Nine, while forming a sharp contrast with the universally feared Raboniel.
  • The Power of Legacy: He is all about this, with his sole concern at this point being to fulfill his personal legend.
  • Red Baron: Known as the Pursuer and is seldom referred to by his given name.
  • Revenge Before Reason: He relentlessly seeks out anyone who kills him. It's terrifying, demoralizing, and tends to target the best of the enemy for assassination. It also leads him to ruin missions and ignore orders in pursuit of his goal. Worse, many of the other Fused consider him a hero and encourage him.
    • However, given the millennia of resurrections and the insanity that comes with it, Venli notes that he's practically become more spren than anything else, driven by an idea, and that he simply has to follow out his traditions, regardless of any reason.
  • Teleport Spam: His main gimmick as an opponent. He can't carry weapons, so he uses the spikes from his own carapace. This also means he can't carry extra Voidlight, so he still has to regularly retreat to recharge.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: His Teleport Spam doesn't allow him to carry weapons, but it's great for getting in close, so he specializes in grappling. Given he's had a few thousand years of practice, he's unsurprisingly become very effective.
  • You Have Failed Me: At the end of Rhythm of War, Odium resurrects him just so El can use him as a test subject for spren-killing weapons.

    Raboniel, the Lady of Wishes 
Formerly one of the Nine, the leaders of the Fused. While Raboniel was rumored to have succumbed to the insanity of the Fused, she comes out of retirement to propose an attack on Urithiru.
  • Affably Evil: Raboniel is on the side trying to conquer humanity, but Navani is constantly reminding herself of this fact because of how pleasant and charming Raboniel tends to be. She does have some genuinely sympathetic motivations and moments, and respects her enemies as well.
  • Alchemy Is Magic: Her brand of Fused can bind Transformation, giving her access to Soulcasting abilities similar to those of the Lightweavers or Elsecallers.
  • Arc Villain: She is the main antagonist of Navani's plot line in Rhythm of War.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: She has tried to exterminate humanity in the past, but is willing to co-exist with them as well. Having seen how much damage the war between humans and singers has done, her goal is to end it at any cost. She would prefer a singer victory, but she is so tired of war that she will accept a peaceful resolution as well, or even the humans winning, as long as the war just finally ends.
    • Although she's primarily saying so to manipulate Navani into working with her, she genuinely feels the same call to science and discovery that Navani does; her statement that the humans stand to gain more from sharing knowledge than the singers do turns out to be true also, as while both sides gained the destructive knowledge of anti-Light, the humans gained knowledge of god-metals, Taldain sand, manipulating Light via sound, and every other scrap of "lost" scientific knowledge the Fused carried; coupled with their already far more advanced artifabrian industries, the humans came out far ahead in the exchange. Meaning that she genuinely considered humanity gaining the upper hand an acceptable trade for the general advancement of Light technology.
  • Deader than Dead: Stabbed by a dagger charged with anti-Voidlight, which completely annihilates her soul beyond even Odium's capacity to restore.
  • Deadly Gas: In combat she can breathe it out, presumably as an application of her Soulcasting.
  • Death Seeker: Wants the war and her endless cycle of rebirths to end at just about any cost, and spends most of Rhythm of War trying to develop anti-Light weapons in order to force an end to the war by making it possible for Fused and Radiant spren alike to be truly killed.
  • Due to the Dead: After her death, Navani has her given the honours due a hero.
  • Evil Counterpart: As the Mad Scientist to Navani's Science Hero, she serves as her Fused equivalent, with each learning from the other during the Occupation of Urithiru. The main difference is that Navani's skills are mostly around various tools outside of direct conflict, while Raboniel concentrates on weapons.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The insane Fused who attends her is actually her daughter. One of the main reasons Raboniel is looking for something that can destroy Voidlight is to end her daughter's suffering.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When Navani tells her that the Shardblade she is having used to try to cut away the barrier around the Sibling's pillar is that of her dead son, Elhokar, she noticeably stiffens and seems somewhat ashamed. Understandable, considering her own loved one.
  • Final Solution: During the previous Desolation, she concocted a plague to exterminate humanity, although it was far less deadly than she intended. It "only" literally decimated the human population and also killed one in a hundred singers.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: All of the Fused respect her for her skill and are glad she's on their side. Any who are the slightest bit thoughtful also find her terrifying, and her having revived gets quite a reaction.
  • Humans Are Special: Despite her Fantastic Racism, Raboniel commends certain things about humanity, as she confesses to Venli, in deliberate contrast against the Fused's immortality-induced Creative Sterility.
    Raboniel: Do you know what the humans gain by being so forceful? By reaching to seize before they are ready? Yes, their works crumble. Yes, their nations collapse from within. Yes, they end up squabbling, and fighting, and killing one another. But in the moment, they are the sprinter who outpaces the steady runner. In the moment, they create wonders. One cannot fault their audacity. Their imagination.
  • Glad He's On Our Side: The Singers are very glad that she's pointed at their enemies. But a great many of them would also have been quite happy if she hadn't woken up this time.
  • I Lied: She sees no reason to keep any bargains she makes unless it benefits her. This includes, most notably, her promise to leave Urithiru after Navani is done helping her, though she at least seems to regret her duplicity on some level.
  • Mad Scientist: Her role among the fused, delving deep into scholarship to provide them with new and terrible weapons.
  • Manipulative Bastard: She is alarmingly good at this. She spends most of Rhythm of War matching wits with Navani and largely coming out ahead. She also keeps Kaladin from killing her by stating that she will find the most innocent person to be reborn as that she can. One with a daughter "just old enough to understand the pain of loss. But not old enough to understand why her mother now rejects her."
  • Mercy Kill: One reason she wants to help Navani discover anti-Voidlight is to put her insane daughter out of her misery. Later she asks Navani to do this for her as well, true-killing her rather than allowing her to die with a Damaged Soul and come back mad.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: She prefers her current title, Lady of Wishes. It replaces her original title, Lady of Pain.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Navani mortally wounds her after luring her into a trap and stabbing her with an anti-Voidlight weapon. Then Moash hurts her further when she tries to stop him from killing Navani. Afterwards, Navani uses an anti-Voidlight weapon to grant her a death at her own request.
  • The Unfettered: She will do anything to achieve her goals.
  • Villain's Dying Grace: In her dying moments, she gives Navani her blessing and tells her where to find the notes she left behind. She even tries to fight off Vyre to buy Navani time to escape.
  • Villain Respect: She genuinely respects Navani's skills as a scholar, even if the woman herself can't recognize it due to Gavilar's gaslighting, and openly encourages her to see herself as a scholar as well. She also expresses genuine amazement and respect for humans as a whole, particularly the Alethi troops who managed to nearly recapture the Sibling's pillar using nothing but tactics, discipline, and adaptability.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Raboniel is one of the Fused who see their immortality as a curse. Or at the very least, has gone on too long. Knowing thousands of years of only pain and war have broken the minds of so many of her people. She herself is weary and tired of the whole ordeal. So much so that she sought a means to permanently kill Fused to free them from the endless cycle.
  • Wild Card: While she is one of Odium's Fused, she's disturbingly okay getting scores of singers killed in her pursuit of victory, to the point even the other Fused are cautious around her. She even proposes a way of killing Odium to Navani so the singers and humanity can find peace without their god's influence. That was ultimately a lie and she is on the singers' side, but she's also fine with humanity winning so long as it puts an end to the war.
  • Worthy Opponent: She and Navani come to respect one another greatly despite their opposing schemes. After some time with Navani working for her, she openly says that Navani does not need to call her by titles any longer, and says that she is to be recommended as her equal for her discoveries, something that Navani is aware is likely a very rare privilege.

    El 
The One Without Titles. A formerly high-ranking member of the Fused. He was demoted for proposing using humans as soldiers instead of exterminating them.
  • 24-Hour Armor: Whenever he takes a new host, he replaces his carapace with metal inclusions, which he fuses to his body with Voidlight and "his own special talents".
  • Horned Humanoid: Horns curl out from El's head, unlike carapace.
  • Last Episode, New Character: While he's the author of the epigraphs for Rhythm of War's fifth part, he doesn't appear in person until one of Rhythm of War's last chapters.
  • Red Baron: While he has been stripped of his title, he was once known as He Who Quiets, a title that has since been given to Moash.
  • Warrior Poet: He is the author of the epigraph in Rhythm of War's fifth part, and shows a very poetic style.
  • Wild Card: The most atypical Fused introduced so far, and the one put the most at odds with his fellow singers, who demoted him for his radical ideas. He even slays his fellow Fused Lezian simply to test the effects of anti-Voidlight, although apparently with Odium's blessing.
  • Worthy Opponent: He respects the passion of humans and looks forward to both fighting them and commanding them in battle.

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