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  1. This is a thought dump for trying to figure out if Roshar Humans (some of the breeds) ever actually reincarnated in the Tranquiline Halls. We learned so much about spren-incarnation in OB, and I am left wondering if the Tranquiline Halls was just an idea stolen from Singers, or if humans once actually were utilizing reincarnation. Full Spoilers for all Cosmere Below: Specifically Emperor's Soul, Wax and Wayne Arc, and Oathbringer Basically, I want to know which shard allows for reincarnation. Did Odium grant the power to the Singers once the Humans switched gods? Did cultivation give the power to the singers, and Odium corrupted it? Is reincarnation via spren or via soul a Comsere-wide possibility? Here are some thing live noticed. Ideas: 1. In the Wax and Wayne arc we learn that certain people working for Trell can "serve again in the next realm". So it is possible for humans to serve again in some manner, so the Tranquiline Halls could be that or something similar to that. Do humans serve as shadows, or is there a cognative realm battle going on, or do some talanted humans reincarnate in bodies using Spren-Magic, Breath Magic, Forging Magic, or Hemalurgic Magic? - did Shai reincarnate the emperor of the Rose Empire? Would something similar be effective in a war? Could we bring back someone that way? 2. Since at least the beginning of the Oathpact, the singers could be reborn in a parshman. Eventually, the Oathpact stops the Singers from immediately re-spawning, and for a long time they were forced to live on in Damnation, waiting for their next desolation. It is unclear if spren-incarnation is something that Singers could do naturally before any shards arrived, or if they were invested by Odium, Honour, and or Cultivation at some point and given the ability. - did the humans learn this idea from the Singers and place it in their religious ideals. 3. At least some heritages of human were minions of Odium in the past. Odium must have granted them magic in some form. Did Odium allow humans to reincarnate on Ashyn/Braize in order to be more destructive? Which powers did humans have when they fled Ashyn/Braize for Roshar? 4. At least Ten Humans were given the power to reincarnate after a death. Who is copying whom with this magic? Did Odium originally have reincarnating humans, then the humans switched to team honour, Odium then reincarnates Singers, and then Ten Heralds then gain the ability to reincarnate as well? Or did the Singers reincarnate first and then the Heralds made a deal to copy the same process? - It doesn't seem that humans need to steal someone else's body in order to reincarnate, so how do heralds do it? Is it fuelled by Odium, or another shard? 5. When the Stormvengers were in Shadesmaar, humans were dying near them, yet we never once saw a person pass between the Cognative realm onto the spiritual realm on Roshar. Sure, we didn't see anyone die next to a character, but you would think our heroes would have seen someone pass on. They did see candles go out, but no one noticed a spirit. Is this because Honour wasn't there to meet them, or is it because their spirits are going somewhere else? What do you think? Are the Tranquiline Halls real for the average Human?
  2. Also, since the highstorm incident happened between Gadol's and Maps' death, it's more than likely that Moelach was near the Shattered Plains during Kaladin's recovery. Is it possible that the death spren are of Moelach, kind of like the hordelings of a Dysian Aimian? EDIT: For some reason there's a duplicate thread now, I have no idea how that happened.
  3. sheep

    Secret Keeper

    What does a Truthwatcher spren look like? Glys is designed to be somewhere in between Pattern and Wyndle, fitting the description of Ym's spren from the interlude chapter. For that matter, what does Renarin's toy thing look like? Another picture of Renarin, this time wearing Shardplate:
  4. Hi everyone, I am hoping that I can get some help filling in this chart with either facts or educated guesses or wild speculative guesses. Corrections are also welcome. This post assumes that related but lesser spren become shardplate (e.g. Syl’s cousins, the wind spren, become Windrunner shardplate). However, the comments about Jasnah and Dalinar have me wondering. Note 1, does the following refer to Jasnah's potential shardplate? That makes it sound like Cryptics are her shardplate? I am sure this is not right but would love other explanations. Note 2, doe the following refer to Dalinar's shardplate? If so, are these lightspren? Is there some sort of non-evil stormlight spren? Is this the same light as: Channeling my inner Pattern, both truth and lies in response to this would be appreciated.
  5. Hi, just made the account for this question. So we know that surges might have been responsible for destroying Braze( from the words of Odium so specifics and truth are not yet certain) Because of this , or because people jut couldn't be trusted with such power, or combination of these reasons Ishar decided to place some requirements(checks) on the bonds/surges, i don't remember the exect quote but i think there was talk of killing this proto-Radiants if they didn't agree to this check(or mayebe spren, depends which side of the bond had to agree, maybe both). So my main question is, how do this "checks" work. Do we have any information? Was it magic based? Like are the Spren physically unable to bond without those checks now? or is it more like they were unwilling to bond without those check fearing some divine asswhooping, wich after centuries devolved into spren believing they can't do it any other way? I think its safe to assume that this proto-Radiants didnt need to say oaths. So how did the spren bond people? Because i assume spren types didnt change, like Honorspren are still Honorspren so they would have wanted Honorable person to bond. And most important, if it was magic based, it was done by Ishar= Bondsmithpower, so can Dalinar remove these constraints(if he is the correct type of bondthmith out of three(but he is supperBondsmith now anyway so mootpoint)? or by anyone holding Ishars blade. P.S. we know that 3 bondsmith(s) don't have identical powers, but there are 10 Honorblades, meaning one for Ishar, so does ishars blade grant different/weaker/stronger bondsmith powers?
  6. So, something I've wondered about. And before I continue I would like to warn of spoilers for WoR, because I don't booksellers of any kind, so please make sure you have read the second stormlight book before continuing :). Please forgive me if I don't have all my facts right. But it is my understanding that to become a surgebinder, you have to be 'broken' Anyway, I'm wondering why Shallan was able to become a lightweaver. Yes, she has a pretty broken up past, but I want to bring up one thing. I always assumed her broken past was her ordeals with her father. But in WoR when we get to see her backstory, it is revealed that she formed a bond with Pattern before the death of her mother. So my question is, what else happened to her that makes her eligible to be bonded with a spren? Am I missing something? Or am I just not getting my facts right? Someone with more experience, please help me understand what's going on.
  7. Hey guys, a few months back when I first joined the Shard I put this question out there in the Cosmere Questions forum: After the epilogue of Oathbringer I grew super excited as something I thought of actually happened in the books (it's a storming rarity!). So, naturally, I'm pretty keen to discuss this. What I'm interested in discussing is: what does this mean for Hoid? How will this restrict him in terms of his worldhopping? We know he appears in MBE2, is the Cryptic with him then? And if so, how easily did he manage to take the Cryptic with him? Further questions I have would be things like: was it a long term plan of Hoid's to develop a Nahel bond? Or was it a "I simply need to stop the Fused getting it" kind of decision? I live in Australia so I won't get the chance to see Brandon anytime soon. But if you will see him and thus interests you too, please ask him about it. Lastly, I am really excited to potentially witness Hoid telling truths to his Cryptic to further the bond. I feel as though we may truly get some information about the elusive being. Plus... potential Hoid shardblade eventually?!
  8. So, there's a cometspren in Oathbringer that Venli nicknames Timbre, and there's some interesting things going on if you've read the whole book. I have a bit of a theory that will either be controversial or a completely obvious realisation that Timbre the cometspren (see I-3, I-11 for Timbre's introduction) is the remnant of Eshonai's mind, and that's why it was hanging around Venli, trying to redeem her and trap her Odiumspren? Timbre first appears from under Eshonai's corpse, and just a few chapters later in chapter 38, we get the full explanation that many Parshendi had left cognitive shadows behind on their death, it seems like a pretty reasonable assumption that the cometspren is simply what a Parshendi cognitive shadow manifests as in the physical realm in Roshar. Any thoughts?
  9. Some pre-publication observations and predictions: Spren Wars I think Syl and the yellow-white spren Yixli both personify the “protection” ideal. Yixli shepherds the listeners to Revolar, warns them of Kaladin, and then recommends Kaladin (Mr. Protection himself) to other listeners. Yixli’s spren type overflies the crowds and inspects buildings, like a police force. But Yixli appears to be a stone spren. I interpret this to mean listeners personify stone as “protection,” not the wind like humans do. This represents a different cultural perspective and relationship with their environment. Just as humans enslaved the listeners, I think human ideas (personified as spren) banished listener ideas (also personified as spren) from Roshar’s subastral (its place in the Cognitive Realm) to Braize’s. Brandon’s message: Colonization eradicates native cultures. Brandon says Braize is “like a prison.” Odium’s Invested and “captive” there. I think Braize is also a prison for the listener spren. IMO, the Oathpact bars the Cognitive Realm bridge between Roshar and Braize. When the Herald’s “break,” listener spren pour across the bridge; then into Roshar’s Physical Realm as listeners (and other lifeforms) assume their symbiotic forms. I bet Braize’s subastral holds gemstones instead of glass beads. IMO, that’s how listeners perceive ideas. Re-Shephir and Taln This reminds me of Taln left behind in Damnation while the other Heralds escaped. (I may have missed someone else first suggesting this.) It parallels the WoK Chapter 54 Epigraph’s death rattle: Posters think this epigraph refers to Taln (and it may). But what if it refers to Re-Shephir? It says the burdens of nine, not ten. Taln bears the burdens of ten, since he’s part of the Oathpact. Maybe Re-Shephir says, “Almighty, release me,” because she was glued to Urithiru’s Stormlightning Rod by massive amounts of Stormlight? Other questions: What were the Unmade doing in Urithiru’s basement when Desolation ended? Could this be the same moment as the Heralds’ Aharietiam “triumph?” Why weren’t the Heralds and Unmade fighting each other? Was Re-Shephir abandoned because Taln was abandoned? The Fused I’ve said for a long time that Odium’s magic can’t form bonds. Instead, Odium severs Connections. I think the Fused prove this. IMO, voidspren act like viruses and change the Spiritual DNA of a target spren. The “infused” voidspren mutates the “natural” spren, giving Odium control of the natural spren’s bonded host. The voidspren itself doesn’t bond the host. I think Syl hissed at the Fused-Spren because she sensed the corrupted natural spren that’s part of it. If the Fused can direct Odium’s power without a bond, then bonds can’t be Roshar’s Focus. (Sorry, @Calderis.) “Fusion” may turn out to be a form of bond, but the word implies a full joining, a union, not merely a symbiotic Connection. Gavilar’s Sphere @Pagerunner and others view Chapter 31 as proving Gavilar’s Sphere holds only Voidlight and not an Unmade. I think the Sphere holds both. Fabrial gemstones hold both Stormlight and a spren. I think this type of parallelism is important and intentional. I continue to believe there must be an “Everstormfather.” Just as the Stormfather personifies the highstorms and distributes Stormlight, the Everstormfather is a giant Odium spren that personifies the Everstorm and distributes Voidlight. (I agree the Everstorm is Odium’s Rosharan perpendicularity.) The Fused infuse themselves with (IMO) bond-breaking Voidlight. The Fused use the energy from their internal broken bonds to summon the Surges. I think the Urithiru Fused looks wasted and incomplete because his body breaks down to make his magic. The Origin As a total guess, I think the Origin may be the entrance to the Cognitive Realm bridge between Roshar and Yolen. Yolen is the “origin.” I’m unsure how this squares with our knowledge of perpendicularities, but I’ll throw this possibility out there…
  10. From Dalinar's vision of the recreance, we learn there were a lot more shardblades in Roshar during the shadow days than in the time of the novels. Dalinar seemed to notice more shardblades being dropped in front of Feverstone Keep than there were in the whole world in his time. What happened to all of these shardblades? When I read this chapter in TWoKs I didn't think much about it. I figured the blades were destroyed from misuse or something. However, WoR gives us a lot more information on shardblades. They are the remains of spren. Spren bodies are not going to be worn away from misuse. I don't know that anything in the physically can hurt a spren. The only things that could are words. In this case, the pen is truly mightier than the sword. A sword can't cut a spren, but a pen can define and trap it. Still, spren bodies are not going to rust or decay. They can be caught in gemstones but that will not destroy them. As for shardblades, they can't be cut or damaged by anything. I know this sounds like my other point, but my other point was more of a focus on the spren themselves. Now, I am just referring to the blades. They remain sharp no matter what they cut. The only thing that can shape them are the blades themselves. So we can be sure no one can just gather up shardblades and melt them down or bash them into a pile of scrap metal. Even in battles with other shardbearers the shardplate is the only thing that can be damaged. The blades never are damaged. So it appears shardblades are indestructible. Then where are all the shardblades the Radiences discarded? Did Nale and his Skybreakers or perhaps the Shin gather them up and store them somewhere? Did the blades that didn't have a mind to connect to finally fade away? So what happened to all of these shardblades? What do you think?
  11. Based on what we have learned about Re-Shephir in the latest chapter I've come up with a theory, could the Unmade all be modeled after the spren of the Night Radiants? To me it would make sense because there are 9 Unmade and with the Bondsmiths only bonding to the Stormfather there would be 9 "naturally occurring" spren. With Re-Shephir being discribed as a messed up kind of creationspren, I think that the other Unmade will be much like the other Orders' spren, only made by Odium.
  12. So when a spren has progressed far enough in a bond with a human it's able to manifest in physical form as a shardblade. Nightblood is a spren who is in the form of a sword without being bonded to a human. Dose that mean that if he bonds with someone and progresses far enough he'll be able to turn into something more like other spren? And sorry if this has bin brought up already. There so many Nightblood posts.
  13. I know its been discussed here and there, but I feel like at this point it needs it own thread. What type of spren does a Dustbringer bond?? Here's what we know about it.. Given the fact that we had not even heard of honorspren, liespren, cultivationspren, or highspren before they started Bonding again, I think that Spark will also be totally new. My guess is that Spark is a curiosityspren. They would be obsessed with knowing how things work and what they're made of, like Pattern with lies. I see the initial meeting going like this, pretty much every time: Proto-Radiant: I wonder [insert literally any question] Curiosityspren: Well, you can blow it up. PR: Hmm...
  14. So is voidbinding just bonding a Spren to fill a void? The Listeners bind various types of spren to fill a void in them that they need filled to function. If there is nothing in that void, they are in slave form. They can bond inert spren (spren who lend no specific form) to ascend to dull form (if you left Parshman out in a highstorm would they become dull form?). They can bond specific spren to attain various useful forms. i.e. Work form, War form, Nimble form, Mate form, possibly art form, scholar form, or mediation form. And they can bond void spren to take the forms of power; Storm Form, Smoke form, night form, and decay form. Voidbinding differs from Surgebinding in that a surgebinder has to be broken, and a spren seeps into the cracks, while a Listener (and various wildlife) have a void that needs to be filled to function. The Greatshells and the skyeels may also be using voidbinding. A Spren has bonded with them to reduce the effect of gravity on them and to give them some level of sentience. Were the Ryshadium also made using Voidbinding? I may be completely wrong, or maybe this has all already been discussed. But I was more or less just musing.
  15. So with electrons and quantum physics, they can do virtually infinite things. We can measure an electron, but that essentially freezes it's existence, we can't know it's current momentum or what it was or could be, just what it currently is. If you measure and record a sprens current state, it freezes to that state. Not sure if this has a major impact on the overall story, but I'd say it makes sense.
  16. Rereading Edgdancer - and did anyone else attach any meaning, if there is any to be had, to the overactive spren who needed sugar water to calm down?
  17. I was browsing through forum discussions on here and I found this quote in a topic about the Nightwatcher: What stood out to me more about this quote though was the bit about Adonalsium at the end. Maybe I've just missed this or something, but I personally believed Adonalsium to be the original Power of Creation that was held by a person similar to how people hold the Shards. I believe Brandon referred to Adonalsium as a "he" at one point, which may not necessarily have been a reveal of any sort. However, there was also this quote from Khriss in Secret History: So it's seems Khriss also believed Adonalsium to be a being holding the power. However, the bit at the end of the WOB seems to be Brandon slipping out that Adonalsium was the original, whole Power of Creation that had become sentient, similar to a Splinter, which is a known property of Investiture when not held by a being for a time. This idea seems very cool to me, as when Brandon writes the Dragonsteel books and we learn more about Adonalsium, it would be very interesting to see what kind of mind a pure force/energy like that would have, especially when not influenced by the intents of the sixteen Shards. I would expect it to really be a God figure in temperament, because Brandon has said that the intents of the Shards were loosely inspired by attributes of deity. The fact that Adonalsium would be a sentient being of pure energy from the Cosmere rather than a human or other mortal being given that power could also lend Adonalsium credibility as a true God figure in the eyes of some. And from what we've seen of The Liar of Partinel potentially implying that Adonalsium was destroying Yolen through the fain life, it would be interesting to see what potentially went wrong in its mind, since it could be some effect of the Investiture. This could also be the reason the sixteen Shattered Adonalsium, because its Investure mind went wrong somehow and they believed that humans/other species needed to hold the power to prevent this. I think it could ultimately go either way (Adonalsium being a being or sentient Investiture) but if Adonalsium really was pure sentient Investiture, I'd be very excited to read more about that. Let me know if this was already commonly accepted information though.
  18. Hey Sharders! Long time lurker, but first time poster! Hopefully im not regurgitating a theory posted elsewhere, and apologies if this theory expands a bit beyond the confines of roshar, it's about an entity on roshar but by necessity has to expand a bit further! Let me know if i should move this to cosmere theories! but i have some ideas about the origin of the Nightwatcher. It starts with our current understanding of the nature of spren capable of nahel bonds. From what I understand, these spren are small pieces of honor, and cultivation to varying degrees depending on the variety. And have been referred to as splinters of honor or cultivation. These splinters are bits of investiture left without will or a host long enough that it gains sentience. (There has been confirmation in a WoB that spren are splinters similar to the way seons are on sel) I've come accross a number of theories proposing that the nightwatcher is of cultivation, possibly a kind of cognitive shadow similar to the stormfather. This doesnt hold up in my opinion, there is a WoB that i dont know how to link which tells us that cultivations holder is still alive, and from what we know of the old magic, it doesnt seem to fit into the types of investiture made possible by honor and cultivation. (nor the possible iterations of voidbinding that we'll see more of soon) I propose that the nightwatcher is actually a splinter of adonalsium from pre-shattering. There were already other spren on Roshar before any of the shards came there. I think it's possible that this is a magic system that predates all other kinds on roshar, and was put into place before any shards were taken up. The concept of a boon and a curse doesnt feel at all like the symbiosis present in all of the magic from honor, cultivation, or even odium. Thoughts?
  19. Welcome to the second Episode of "Letters from the Cosmere!" Today we talk about the origins of the current Cosmere system and the implications of the Shattering of Adonalsium. You may notice a few changes to the series, most noticeably the name change. Yes, I have read White Sand (now) and yes the name correlation was literally happenstance. However, despite this I do not want to cause confusion about who is who in the Cosmere so I made the change to my character. It is slight, but it made the most sense. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this episode. Hope you enjoy! I will put the transcript in text below: Adonalsium. Such a strange word. I remember when I first found it as I studied the Words of Founding. In that moment, I thought little of it. Of all the incredible revelations that came in the wake of the Destruction of “The World of Ash” I was distracted. Now all these years later, I discovered that it was all connected. If you, dear reader, think for a second that I have been fooled into quiet worship and submission you are woefully mistaken. If there ever was a God, he is long since dead. There are merely scraps to pull this knowledge from. Yet just as scraps of a tapestry can yield a pattern, the grand machine that is the Cosmere is starting to become apparent. No one seems to know what Adonalsium was, except that it was incredibly powerful. It stood above all, and held the creative and destructive powers of the Universe. I say it because there is no indication if this entity had an intelligence like a sentient man. The Scholar seems to think so, but she thinks a great many things that seem to convoluted, and they cannot all be true. She seems content to sit back and learn, content to watch worlds crumble and die rather than using the knowledge she has. However, I am indebted to her, for each of the two times I have crossed paths with her she seemed pleased to answer my questions. Unlike you. However, The Scholar was not who first told me of the Shattering, but The Wanderer. I met him just before I was called back to start these letters. I never learned his name but like me, he seemed to Wander from place to place. Something about him was off, and he seemed so focused on striding deeper into Roshar I almost escaped his notice. Yet when he did notice me he seemed adamant that I listen to his story. I mostly had no idea what he was talking about until he brought up the death of Scadrial. He spoke of the powers Preservation and Ruin, and called them by names I had never heard. Then he told me quite frankly about how these powers, these so-called Gods, were once men. Men who had risen up against Adonalsium. They rebelled against It, and shattered it into 16 primal powers. Wanderer didn’t say much more than this, except to tell me that these people slowly were changed by this power. He spoke of Ati, who had once been a good man, who later manifested as Ruin and sought to destroy all life in the Universe by braking it. His parting words were the only words he seemed to take seriously. He told me that history would be repeating itself before long, and that I would have to make a choice. Almost as if his words heralded some great tragedy, I could feel something change. Odium had come. At the time I didn’t know Odium or what he brought with his influence. But for the first time I wondered if watching would be enough. It wasn’t. As you know, I would eventually dedicate my very existence to fighting for the lives left behind on Roshar. The Desolation that Odium began and the destruction caused by his Everstorm left hundreds of thousands cowering in the dark. I left my life of grieving solitude, and took upon myself a mantle of leadership. Wanderer was also there; I assume fighting in his own way. And all this time, I was thinking about the 16 who took upon themselves such great power. Apparently they dispersed, moving through the cosmere and building up peoples and cultures across the stars. The worlds I have touched have been both crafted and scared by their fumbling hands, hands of men ascended. They created many great and incredible peoples, and gifted unto them the investitures that allow men to touch the divine. But at what cost? For it seems they see fit to destroy what they create. That their Shards have twisted them into intelligent agents of the Shard’s will and Purpose. I do not understand it, but the nature of each Shard eventually bleeds through these ascended men and overcomes their personalities, twisting them into dangerous servants bound by their instincts. And now we suffer the consequences of their lack of restraint. Who were these people? What right did they have to become Gods in the place of the Thing they had killed? Apparently this Odium has murdered several of his fellow Shards, dispersing their power so as to continue his rise to domination. All along this path of Power and Control, Millions have died. To these ascended beings, our lives must seem as the ants of the dirt. When I see the destruction that Ruin and Odium have been allowed to cause, I am resolved by one simple truth. These flawed Gods should never have been. Tell our Friend that I intend to fight until the lives of men can continue under their own wills. Tell Him that this war is far from over, and that I will struggle against Odium and all other Shards who fall. I do not feel that I can do much else than be a knife in the dark. I will gather the precious few I can save and set them up as a banner, to fight back however we can. I am unsure how to fight a God, but that won’t stop me from trying. Be wary of this Wanderer, a man who is far more removed from time than I am. He moves with a purpose that I cannot comprehend. I am grateful to him and see him as a mentor of sorts. Yet I cannot help but be cautious of his intent. Even now I wonder if he hinted to me of The Shattering simply to recruit me for his side. Because of my choice I am actively being pursued by the members of the 17th Shard. I do not know what will happen if they catch me, but as of yet I have not let them get too close. However, as I cast my thoughts back to the Shattering, back where this all began, there is one thought that chills me to my very core. These 16 usurpers struck down a God. Something with, for all intents and purposes, unlimited power. Yet these men shattered Adonalsium. What could mere men wield that could kill a God? And worse, where is this weapon that can lay waste to the powers of Creation? This weapon could be more threatening than even Odium, for he is only a part of what the Weapon destroyed. Odium is the most prevalent of threats, but I fear more for the resurgence of this fiendish secret. For if the Weapon can destroy a God, what unspeakable things could it do to the peoples of the Cosmere? {Sigh] This fight, what it represents… it has taken a toll on me. Perhaps I can learn to trust, to believe that such power can be wielded for the good. Preservation did try to lock away Ruin, and even restored hope to a failing Emperor. And Honor left some of his will behind, granting visions and Nahel bonds to his people. I am uncertain if what they offered us will be enough to stop the destructive Shards, but perhaps what they did will give us a chance. Regardless I have a work to do, for I am determined to keep my people alive if at all possible. Until the next time, Elsric
  20. Because he claims to be an aspect of the Almighty, and roughly half the spren are, in fact, splinters of Honor. Actually, while I'm aboard the Crazy Theory Train, Tezim is the third bondspren. But he's gone a bit nuts since the Recreance. He's trying to unite by conquest, like Mr. T, but he's not doing a very good job at it because he doesn't get humans. Or Tezim's an Unmade, and he's doing his job perfectly well.
  21. Chapters 10-12 were released today, and everyone's talking about the big comedy moment: the image of Syl watching Kaladin have sex. Yes, the peeping spren is indeed hilarious. But it's also so much more. I think Brandon may have just dropped some epic foreshadowing, disguised as an innocuous joke. Spren do not respect closed doors. Spren are usually invisible to most people. Radiants are popping up all over Roshar, so sapient spren are about to be almost as common as regular spren. Conclusion? There is no more privacy on Roshar. Every single private conversation and covert activity is vulnerable to spyspren. No secret is safe. The Sleepless are nothing compared to spyspren. We've already seen Pattern used this way, but any Radiant spren should be able to do the same. And it's too big an advantage not to use. In fact, I'm a little disappointed that Shallan hasn't shared this technique with Dalinar and the others. It would probably be a big help in the murder investigation. Speaking of which... Adolin did a bad thing at the end of WoR, and he doesn't think there were any witnesses. Same for the copycat killer. (Assuming Adolin himself isn't the copycat killer.) But there could always be a spyspren. And what about voidspren? What if Odium has little eyes and ears all over the place, and no one can see them?
  22. This is a longer post than I intended. I foolishly read the thread about Taravangian after writing the first part of this post. That thread in turn led to the discussion of oath interpretation and Knight Radiant behavior. Advance apologies for lumping all that together here, but I think they are related issues. Radiantspren “True” Names I theorize each Radiantspren is the personification of the human ideal represented by their KR Order’s “Primary Attribute.” IMO, these ideals are the spren’s true names, reflecting what they are. The names in the novels are the names Radiantspren call themselves. These self-identifying names may reflect spren self-perception, but not the human perception each Radiantspren personifies. Examples: I describe the Radiantspren we know the most about in these terms. I don’t address all Radiantspren because we haven’t met them all. Honorspren IMO are “Protectingspren.” Syl protects Kaladin during the highstorm, holding back winds that would tear him apart. When Kaladin tumbles into the chasm, Syl’s last act before the bond breaks (Rock-a-bye Baby?) forces Stormlight into Kaladin, protecting him from the fall. She denies the Stormfather to help Kaladin reinstate his oaths. Protection is Syl’s purpose, what she is. Cryptics IMO are “Creativespren,” to be distinguished from creationspren. The essence of artistic creativity is pattern-recognition, seeing what others do not see. Pattern aids Shallan’s creativity by pushing her to more self-discovery and self-understanding, seeing the patterns within herself. That is necessary for her art to grow. He gives her creative advice throughout. When Shallan cannot see the “pattern” of the Oathgate, Pattern tells Shallan she should back up for perspective. Wyndle, whatever he and his fellow Ring members call themselves, IMO is a “Lovingspren.” He “mothers” Lift and frets about her health and safety. He scolds her to eat more (as every mother does), so that her Surgebinding won’t make her too skinny. Wyndle’s purpose is to love Lift, to care for her, so that she can love and care for others. Inkspren IMO are “Learnedspren.” Ivory seems willing to let Jasnah die in the WoR Prologue if she cannot learn how to use the Shadesmar beads properly. He acts like an exam proctor, testing her “learnedness” before he “passes” her into KR status. I think the following WoB (the third quote from @Calderis's “oath interpretation” post) supports the distinction between human perception and spren self-perception. Spren “self-identity” IMO doesn’t change their human-personified behavior. Rather, highspren think “honorspren will let their people break their oaths if they think it’s for a good cause.” IMO, an honorspren’s “good cause” is protecting people, which appears to supersede the oaths. I think the WoB’s last part addresses whether oaths are objective or subjective, not the human-personified nature of the spren itself – “how they work,” not what they are: KR Oaths @Calderis makes excellent points in his thread on KR behavior. (Upvotes not only for him but also for @Extesian, who supplied the quotations.) KR are not good or evil and may act “cruelly,” as Brandon says. Agreed, but I think a bit overstated. The Radiantspren won’t begin to bond unless the KR candidate has the same “temperament” – Primary Attribute – as the Radiantspren: protecting, creative, loving, etc. I think Attribute alignment places intrinsic limits on KR variance within the same Order. IMO, each KR Order’s Primary Attribute solely determines a KR candidate’s placement in that Order. Thus, I’d expect KR personalities to differ. I think many personality types can be protecting, or creative, or loving. It makes sense to me that the precise oath statement would differ from KR to KR within an Order. It’s also possible same-type spren themselves show personality differences. Radiantspren are “people” too. But IMO these differences don’t affect their nature, their Primary Attribute. I’m unconvinced all same-type spren personality variations “come from the person they are bonded to,” as @Calderis states (emphasis in original). FWIW, I think Radiantspren resemble Shards and their Mandates (intents). IMO both are power imbued with cognitive limitations. Both exercise their power subject to those limitations, even though (as Brandon says of Vessels) their personalities also affect their power exercise. KR Behavior So…to say KRs can act “dishonorably” seems obvious. Each Order is bound only by its common Primary Attribute. Oaths strengthen that bond, but again, only to more closely align a KR with its Order’s Primary Attribute. Attributes like Protection and Creativity don’t necessarily bear any relationship to one another. Windrunners and Lightweavers can have different goals and different means of obtaining them. Such differences can easily lead to conflict among Orders. @Calderis suggests Taravangian could be an Elsecaller like Jasnah. If I’m correct that Inkspren are “learned” spren, Taravangian clearly qualifies and could well attract an Inkspren. More so, because Brandon says in one of @Calderis’ WoBs that, until bonded, spren don’t fully comprehend the person they bond with. (That’s a fascinating comment!) I wonder how long Taravangian’s Nahel bond would survive, though. The Elsecaller Secondary Attribute is “giving.” Taravangian IMO deliberately misleads others. He does not share information, he shares misinformation. Maybe that counts as giving, but…. Posters discuss whether Taravangian is misguided or “evil” in a moral sense on the “Mr. T” thread. I won’t add to that discussion here. I do note the extent to which the Diagram seems to support Nale’s notion about the KR’s danger. Jiminy Cricket to the KR’s Pinocchio?
  23. So, just for fun, what are some ideas for new spren that everyone has? Here are my ideas. depressionspren (Gloomspren)((I'm special) relaxationspren
  24. So this deserves a separate thread. Some of the old spren used to have 4 genders because people didn't imagine them. Parshendi have 4 genders. Male, malen, female, femalen. That was cool. And significant. And oh bother... the spren had 4 genders originally because the Parshendi were the first ones responsible for directing their identity!
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