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It is possible to Bond certain Awakened objects, such as Nightblood, to obtain more effects from them. I think that it would be possible then to form a Bond with a Hemalurgic spike that was Invested enough, had the correct Spiritweb fragments spliced into it, and perhaps that had the correct Command. This could be interesting, as the Bindpoint you place the spike in wouldn't matter so much- the Bond is what would transfer the use of powers to the Hemalurgist, not the Bindpoint hotwiring itself. This might, then, be another way to gain access to more than one power with only one spike. Basically, it's like making an artificial version of Yelig-nar, but reigned in with better Commands (hopefully. Playing with such powers is probably going to have complications at some point or another). Plus, you probably wouldn't have to bear the spike yourself, just have it nearby to gain access to its powers.

I remember that once you give up the power of a Shard, you become a Sliver and your soul is expanded. So would this mean you could handle more Bonds, or maybe attract more Spren to you? I read a few WOB's and one of them said that it was technically possible for multiple Spren to Bond with a human, though they wouldn't like it. Perhaps because the average soul can only properly support a single Nahel Bond and it would be difficult for two Bonds to advance to any meaningful degree, thus leaving the Spren unable to gain more sapience. And perhaps a Sliver could properly support more Bonds, thus preventing their spiritweb from getting clogged up by the number of deep spiritual Bonds. And yeah I know that it's also because of potentially conflicting Oaths but not all of them are going to conflict, I'd think that one could easily uphold the Oaths of both a Windrunner and a Willshaper with minimal difficulty.

It is my current understanding that a Bond is essentially a Connection between to entities that also utilizes Identity somehow. So, if you were to spike someone Hemalurgically with a duralumin spike, split the spike into two pieces, then implant a half in two different people, would the two people have a Bond since they now have a shared Connection and at least some overlapping Identity?

If you used a Hemalurgic spike to grant an Aviar a piece of a Radiant Spren, would the person who bonded the Aviar gain Radiant powers?

I was considering the nature of Bonds in the Cosmere when I had an idea. If you were to give a Koloss a large number of Breaths (lets say, at least a thousand), then take them to Roshar and Bond them via they're Hemalurgic weakness, would be person who Bonded them gain powers? We can see from this WoB that going to Roshar while possessing a bond other than that of humans and Spren could potentially provide powers to someone, which I think supports this theory.

What Exactly defines a “Bond”? Is it just an extra strong Connection between two beings, or is it something more?

Is it only an aviar’s bonded companion that gets their power, like the spren of Roshar, or do the aviar benefit from their own talents as well? If someone could modify themselves somehow to be able to eat the same worms that provide the aviar with their talents, would the person also get those benefits, or would they need to bond with someone else to make it work?

So a while back I made a list of the things I would love to see happen in the Cosmere, one of them was this: Humans being the equivalent of spren: I want to see a Shardworld where a Bond with a human grants the non-human (preferably a Cognitive Entity) access to an Investiture system Basically, a reverse of the trope of humans being granted magic by a magical entity, with the humans themselves granting magic to other entities A while before that, I'd also made a topic speculating on how Bonds between human beings could be possible in the Cosmere I don't know if we'll ever get to see exactly those, but now that I think about it, a workaround may be possible to have something similar, via Cognitive Shadows The idea seeded from this WoB: Stormlight Archives & Mistborn might provide some evidence for the possibility of such a thing occurring. Spren, which are Cognitive Entities, seem to require some Connection to the Physical, both via the ideas that they represent being channelled by beings in the Physical Realm and via the Nahel Bond for higher cognitive functioning if they want to enter the Physical Realm itself. It's the same case for Kelsier according to Preservation, he lacked a Connection to the Physical. Could this Connection take the form of a Bond? Other examples from the Cosmere which could possibly support this can be found in on the world of Threnody with the Shades. Silence's grandmother's Shade was possibly more self-aware as it is stated that she didn't ever try to attack Silence, there were also some interesting rumors regarding her waystop being protected by the Shade of her dead husband, possibly actually referring to her grandmother's Shade. So, am I cuckoo or is this idea feasible? Are there better ways? Can you Bond Cognitive Shadows and can doing so grant you access to the Investiture system that person had access to when they were alive? Also, could a stronger Connection to the Physical by this method possibly help a Cognitive Shadow escape the inexorable pull of the Beyond? The topics I mentioned: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/88470-things-i-want-to-see-in-the-cosmere/ https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/87727-human-bonds/

So, we learn from Leshwi that the ancient Singers apparently did something to anger the spren, current-day spren seem to be much more fine with the Singers, with such a long gap without Desolations and the memory of the Recreance, plus the fact that most of the older spren became Deadeyes during the Recreance. Moving over to the Sibling, they are not fine with fabrials, even though the modern-day spren are fine with it, as fabrials employ non-sapient spren. Fabrials employ gemstones to capture spren... which is also what the Singers do to change their Forms, they capture spren within their Gemhearts. We've seen other creatures with Gemhearts before in the series, notably we've seen the process of Gemheart extraction when Eshonai pulls the Gemheart out of a Chasmfiend. Chasmfiends use spren bonds with Mandra or Luckspren so that they are not crushed by their own weight. These spren are seen flitting around Chasmfiends as well as other Greatshells like the Tai-Na [minor Dawnshard spoilers] We also see them around Skyeels, iirc, who probably use their bond with them to fly. Similarly, Musicspren seem to flit around the Ryshadium who might be in a bond of some kind with them. Though Ryshadium don't have Gemhearts. Spren can be captured in gems the same as Lights because they are made of Investiture. Is the purpose of Gemhearts really to capture spren? Because it would seem you can bond spren without trapping them in Gemhearts. They are attracted to natural phenomena and emotions... and the Rhythms. We saw the Dawnsingers seemingly Stoneshaping by using the Rhythms. We saw Lifespren responding to the Rhythms. Spren, like the Investiture they are made of, respond to the Rhythms. We saw other creatures that have gemhearts and need spren bonds, and they didn't seem to trap spren within their gemhearts. The spren were flitting about freely with them. They extract gemhearts from the Chasmfiends but did they ever find a Luckspren trapped within their Gemheart? We saw Eshonai extract a Gemheart from a Chasmfiend but there was no spren within it. (Would the spren be free upon the creature being killed or only if the gem itself is cracked?) What if the Dawnsingers originally used their Gemhearts to store Light? What if the crime that the ancient Singers committed against the spren which angered them was this? Trapping spren within their gemhearts to change their Forms.

I've been thinking about the effects of aluminum (for my alleyverse Character) and I was wondering; If a Knight Radiant or someone bonded to a dead shardblade was also an aluminum gnat/mistborn, and they flared Aluminum, what would happen? I believe that if Aluminum is flared enough, It cleanses the spiritweb. Spren attach themselves to the Radiants spirited when they bond, and deadeyes act similarly. So, would the allomancer Shardbearer/Radiant lose their bond?

We've seen spren bonds, we've seen Seon bonds, we've seen Aviar bonds. We know that Cognitive Shadows can be bonded as is the case with Stormfather and There's also a Dawnshard which is said to be able to create Bonds with mortals Can human beings also be similarly bonded? I think yes, though we've only gotten confirmation of Cognitive Entities, including Cognitive Shadows, being bound, they only form one half of the pair, the other half is human. A Bond between two human beings should be possible, in fact, I believe we've already seen a malevolent expression of this: Hemalurgy. Stealing and grafting parts of other people's Spiritwebs. A more benign version of such a Bond should certainly be possible, akin to the Nahel Bond. What would be the result of such a Bond? What would be the result of such a Bond if neither of the bonded have access to a magic system? If one of them is Invested? If both of them are Invested? I think such a Bond could function akin to a telepathic link, maybe even a teleportation link as part of an Investiture system. The unInvested would also get access to the magic system of the Bondmate. If both Bondmates are Invested, I believe we might even see strange resonances. They should definitely be able to share Investiture, maybe even have an easier time converting between different types of Investiture if they have access to different systems.

So we are 3 books into the Stormlight Archives and we have multiple magic users. Good so far. Yet all of our new Surgebinders are different than what we've been led to believe they were in the past. Dalinar has a power boost from his Bondsmith spren because it holds Honor's Cognitive Shadow. Kaladin and Jasnah bonded spren that went against the orders of their societies. Shallan broke and rebonded her spren. Timbre bonded an entirely different species. Renarin's Glys is corrupted, Lyft is a half-spren, Malata and Spark hold power granted by Honor and is working directly against his remnants. Szeth belongs to an Order that never disbanded so his bond should be typical, yet he wields a robot spren as an add on to his powers or so it seems. I brought up these examples to raise a few questions. One, Have we been misled as far as what we've been told the Radiants used to be? Edgedancers are supposed to be elegant but Lyft belongs. That's just the most blatant example. Are our new Radiants closer to the Ideal or were the pre-Recreance Radiants just as screwed up as our current crop? Next, should we expect any Radiants introduced from now on to be screwy or will the behavior of the orders even out as their ranks fill back up? One more. I presume that the Radiants present at the Avengers Assemble moment at Thaylen City will be the leaders of their respective Orders. At least that's how they've been presented so far. So will their idiosyncrasies influence how the Orders will conduct themselves moving forward or will they change to conform to the way their Orders were traditionally viewed? These are just questions I've thought about. I haven't truly attempted to answer them but if anyone wants to take a crack at it feel free. Also, if the post raises further questions please share.

So I've been wondering, what exactly would a radiant bonding an honorblade entail? For one, would a radiant actually be able to bond an honourblade in the first place? Yes they can hold it without the screams but does their bond with a spren interfere here. But if they could and were to do so, then presumably they would gain the ability to use the surges associated with that honorblade. Once they have done this, would they still face the issues Szeth did with Jezrien's honorblade? Where stormlight would leak more quickly and such? Or would those things be overcome by their status as a radiant and the powers which come with that. Further, if this were possible, then how many could one person bond? Would it be possible to have a Windrunner say who then bonds all the honorblades and becomes a mega radiant? Or would the bonds interfere and get all confused? I welcome any input.

Hey 17th Shard, My best friend shared with me an interesting theory that I wanted to run past you. He is not much for the forums but he did say he would be OK if I shared it here. I took his idea and built up a quick assumption list to help solidify his insight. Assumptions: 1. Bondsmiths can make and break Nahel, and other, bonds between a person and a spren. This assumption is not, necessarily, pivotal to the theory but perhaps the Bondsmiths are the ones who figured out what to do. 2. There is some sort of fundamental, underlying principles that dictate how these bonds are formed. Perhaps it is the innate system of the Rosharan system that makes the rule, perhaps Honor/Cultivation have a hand in it, perhaps it is a mix of those two, or perhaps it is something else altogether. Whatever the reason is, I do not think it is too big of a stretch to say that Brandon would create governing principles for the Rosharan magic systems. 3. The Knights Radiant of old (pre-Recreance) knew that Parshendi (or Parshmen) were Voidbringers. Or, since there is some debate about what a Voidbringer actually is, we might say that the Knights Radiant of old were aware that Parshendi/Parshmen were involved, somehow, with Desolations and Voidbringers. Theory: The Knights Radiant, knowing that Parshendi were related to the Desolations/Voidbringers (see assumption 3), discovered a way to break (see assumption 1) the underlying magical principle (see assumption 2) that allowed Parshendi to bond with Voidspren. In doing so, however, they also had to break their own bonds as well because the underlying principle applied to both their Nahel bond and the Parshendi bond. The Recreance was a direct result of the Knights Radiant deciding to give up their bonds because they thought it would forever prevent the Voidspren from bonding with the Parshendi again. We know that one Order of Radiants (possibly the Skybreakers) secretly kept their bonds which means that whatever a Bondsmith (see assumption 1) did to break the underlying principle (see assumption 2) was not completely successful - either due to the Order that secretly refused or perhaps because the Bondsmith just did something wrong. This mistake/accident/betrayal meant that some of the Parshendi remained Parshendi (Eshonai's people) and most turned into the Parshmen. This also means that the line in the Diagram about Taravangian possibly reusing the secret that broke the Radiants before could be referring to this. If the current Radiants were told that they could break all of the Voidspren's bonds with Parshendi by sacrificing their spren what would Kaladin, Shallan, and the others do? Could they justify to themselves not doing this? If they could save the world by sacrificing their spren... well, I think it would be hard for them to refuse. What say you Sharders? Is it possible that the Recreance was caused by the Knights Radiant delibrately trying to break the bonding process so that Parshendi could never again join with a Voidspren?

This theory comes from thinking about the likelihood that Adonalsium and his shards and attributes are based on or closely related to Earth religions. It is important to note that I am not suggesting that these books are allegorical. Their internal consistency and foundation have been made stronger by the study of world religions. These ideas were sparked by thinking about Odium as a manifestation of divine wrath: This is something that has been discussed already, but I think it is a huge clue to what is going on with the shards more generally. Although Odium is described as “divine hatred,” I think readers have correctly interpreted this to mean “wrath.” (I think it’s also possible that some of the other shards—perhaps especially those with weaker or very compatible vessels—have gone a little “batty” from being isolated from other divine virtues that would have kept them from going overboard with their Intent.) So, anyway, substituting Odium for the theologically familiar “wrath” is a smart move, as it allows for some speculation but is not blatant. Some shards, such as Endowment and Dominion are actual theological concepts, but they are less obvious to readers than Wrath would have been. This brings me to another possible substitution: “Honor” as a replacement for “Covenant.” There is a lot of debate over the relationship between goodness and honor, but what if Honor represents the covenants that a god makes with a people? (Covenant—or compact, if you like—also has legal and social meanings in addition to the theological one.) Thinking of Honor as representing covenants maintains the oath and bonds aspect of Honor, but it should allow us to talk about honor (and Honor) with less emphasis on goodness. On the other side of the coin, it also allows for more flexibility and room for interpretation with how covenants, oaths, and bonds are “honored” in-world. (Rightness vs. Justice vs. Letter of the Law, etc.) It is probably more useful to think of “honor” as a verb: to enforce or follow through on a covenant, oath, or to maintain a bond. Again, I am not arguing that the possible use of the concept of a covenant is allegorical. Tanavast never sent a rainbow after a particularly bad Highstorm. Gods make promises to and agreements with their followers. I won’t attempt to rewrite our understanding of the Cosmere or even of SA with this theory. I am more interested in how it could influence existing discussions and current and future theories. The one application I’ll suggest is also probably the most obvious. I suspect Adonalsium already had a covenant with the Listeners before his shattering: Post shattering, Honor, now separated from “the whole” appeared with the more Physically-inclined, spren-attracting humans and a willingness to betray or downgrade preexisting covenants. For a Listener, flirting with some other gods would not be unreasonable under those circumstances. Keeping in mind that Honor may have been a little intense with his Intent as a shard, are there other ways that covenants and agreements might have ended up a bit “off”? What is the Oathpact? Why do the Heralds blame Honor for their situation? Is a hypothetical Parshendi covenant still in existence somehow? Finally, I realize that this doesn’t touch on Cultivation’s role, though hopefully it will lead to speculation about how she fits into this picture. I’m very interested to hear thoughts on this idea! Also, I'm just realizing the bad timing of suggesting a theory just before we dig into the first chapters of Oathbringer. Oh well!

So, I've scoured all the questions and can't seem to find one that answers mine, so correct me if I'm wrong. In one of the WoB threads I read, Brandon answers a question that honor blades can't be bonded, "Q: Can someone bond more than one Honorblade A: Honorblade? You can't bond an Honorblade, though it can be given to you. Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one. [This was cleared up at a later signing.]" but at the end of WoR, Szeth clearly severed his bond with the blade, when Syl says to Kaladin, "He has released the bond. He's nothing without that sword! It must not be lost!" (1256 paperback ed.) So my question is, can an honor blade be bonded or not? And if it is bonded how is it done? With a gem at the bottom like "regular" shardblades?

This post brings in some of my thoughts on Oathbringer, Voidbringers, and Voidbinding but also builds on a lot of the ideas I've read on this site. I’ve been speculating about the title of the book, Oathbringer, (and its likely in-world literary counterpart and Dalinar’s old sword) in light of the idea that “void” refers to the breaking of oaths, bonds, and contracts. If this is the case, “Oathbringer” serves as a very clear opposite to Voidbringer in a more substantial way. We know that this book will be about Bondsmiths, but I suspect that it is also necessary to lay the groundwork for the final two books of the first five. The idea that Roshar is bond-focused, rather than spren-focused (borrowing from others here!), makes a lot of sense when thinking about the tactics and strategies of the parties involved. There are those who create protective, consensual bonds and oaths to protect Roshar, and those who void oaths and (likely) form twisted, nonconsensual bonds. Spren are willing, and perhaps unwilling, partners in forming these bonds, too. In addition to learning more about the significance of bonds and oaths and the role of Voidbringers and Voidbinding, I think the consensual nature of bonds and oaths will come into play. We know that it’s possible for Listeners to voluntarily give up forms, so the bondage of the Parshmen is even more terrible. If humans used something on the void-side of things to deprive the Parshmen of forms, that would demonstrate a corruption of the honor-based system of bonds, as humans showed a willingness to use voidlike tactics. I’m also thinking about the bondage of spren. Nahel spren, as far as we know, choose to bond, sometimes even against the wishes of other spren in the Cognitive Realm. But we’ll likely be seeing more about the consequences of bondage, perhaps especially with regard to spren trapped in gemstones against their will or against nature. From WoR, it seems that the Parshendi may have started down a dangerous path when they learned how to trap spren, rather than attract them: And who knows what the dark side of fabrial science might be? We might find out more in this book, though. At any rate, I think that Oathbringer will help set up the opposition between forming a bond and voiding or twisting a bond, while also exploring the nature of bonds made freely and bonds that more closely resemble bondage. This will establish more specific stakes for the last two books. I’m interested to see where others think this possible focus for the book might lead! P.S. Sorry if I got carried away with hiding spoilers on a spoiler board!

Following are my thoughts on this matter: (started form Argent's post about Spren History.) I realize little of this might not be new for some of you, I am sorry if nothing here is novel for the group. A quick search for Nahel brings up the Arabic name which loosely translates as "[One/He/She] who quenches its thirst". As the spelling is exactly the same I am inclined to believe this is a clue as to why the bonds are formed. ALL spren thirst for physical experience. It was discovered that by connecting themselves with physical beings they are able to get those experiences. I disagree with the common thought that the bond brings them closer to the physical realm. I believe that spren can jump into the physical as wind spren don't seem to have a bond but they are in the the physical realm to some extent and able to minimally interact with physical things. The bond allows them to experience it in a very different way then just observing and minimal interactions. BTW I am on board with Argent's postulate that ALL bonds grant surgebinding especially in context that a Selish person with a bonded Aon (that was able make the jump to Roshar) would have access to some form of Surges. The higher spen is the higher a creature needs to be to fill this need. The Radiant Spren NEED more then a skyeel, cremling, or greatshell to quench their thirst. They need something intelligent and self aware. I suspect they couldn't bond with the listeners until the Shards came and the ambient magic system (think of the birds on First of the Sun) moved into a actively wielded magic system. Then the Radiant Spren started bonding with the native race, but then moved on to humans when they were shown they could get better experiences from more physical beings possibly from seeing how much more powerful the Heralds were. They may have surmised that Humans could wield the surges more powerfully and deduced that meant they would get better/stronger experiences. Following this I believe that a human will always outstrip a Listener in power because as the Spren gets more it can give more. The only reason Void spren are not bonding forcibly with Humans to get the better/stronger experiences is the fact that the further from the cognitive realm a being is the more free it will be to reject the bond. but this gets off topic slightly. TLDR: Spren thirst for physical experience, they can get minimal experience just by interacting with the world, but get more by bonding with a physical being. The word Nahel is used to hint at this relationship as the bonds quenches this thirst. It is easier to bond with unintelligent / unaware creatures, but less is gained for the spren and less is granted in return.

I have just a basic understanding of the Cosmere (though I guess that's true of most of us until BS writes more books), but I'm confused about the whole shard/splinter/spren thing. (I'm talking about the shards of Adonalsium here - not shard blades or plate). If I'm not mistaken, I read/heard somewhere that the spren are splinters of Honor, who has died. It was his death that caused him to splinter. I realize it was just Honor's holder that died, but didn't the shard itself splinter into smaller pieces? But what about the Stormfather? He is also called a splinter of Honor and the Windspren are his children. So, are the Windspren splinters of a splinter? Next, the Nightwatcher is of Cultivation. So, has cultivation died/splintered too and Nightwatcher is one of her splinters? Or is Nightwatcher actually Cultivation as a whole? Wyndle (Lift's spren) talks about his Mother, so is he actually of Cultivation/Nightwatcher? If so, are some of the Knights Radiant of Cultivation instead of Honor? Also, how can Cultivation have Splinters (Spren) if she hasn't died/splintered? Finally, aren't the evil spren of Odium? How can he have splinters if he hasn't died/splintered? Also, does he have a "super spren" like Honor's Stormfather and Cultivation's Nightwatcher?