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  1. Two WoBs from late 2010 plus an April 2016 WoB provide insight into the relationship between spren and the Knight Radiant (“KR”) Orders. I haven’t seen this discussed anywhere, so I thought I’d take a crack at it. As always, these are MY interpretations of the WoBs. SUMMARY 1. I think Radiantspren are made from two “lesser” spren, each of which Focuses a single power. I speculate a “lesser” spren is a sentient, pre-Shattering spren like gravityspren, firespren and lifespren. 2. IMO, the interaction of an appropriate spren and a “concept or an ideal mixed with an essence” is what defines the KR Orders and determines their placement around the KR “Round Table” (what I call the KR chart at the front of WoK…the KR are Knights, after all).I believe the “concepts/ideals” come from Honor. 3. I think each KR Order’s Secondary Divine Attribute determines that Order’s intrinsic “third” power, the one that’s “of their own.” These include Windrunner squires (“Leadership”) and Lightweaver mnemonic abilities (“Honesty”). 4. “Concepts/ideals” change over time, as human perceptions and ideas change. I believe Surgebinders may have evolved with these changes. This may be the reason Nohadon wrote the in-world Way of Kings – to forever fix his own concepts/ideals of the KR. RELEVANT WOBS Here are the three WoBs I rely on: From October 15, 2010 17th Shard Interview (excerpted, emphasis added): From December 25, 2010 Stormblessed.com Interview (excerpted, emphasis added): From April 23, 2016 JordanCon Report, excerpted, emphasis added): ANALYSIS Spren Combinations I think the reference to “two of the ‘smaller’ magic systems” in the October 2010 WoB means that Radiantspren are a combination of two of the “lesser” spren. Each pre-Shattering spren IMO is the Focus for a different power. That's why Radiantspren can Focus two powers. Some posters speculate that honorspren are an evolved form of windspren, and cryptics are an evolved form of creationspren. I think windspren and creationspren have already" evolved" from Adonalsium spren with an infusion of Cultivation's Investiture. The difference between these spren and honorspren and cryptics, IMO, is Honor's Nahel bond. IOW, an honorspren is a windspren bound by the Stormfather to a KR, and a cryptic is a bonded creationspren. KR Order “Concept/Ideals”: Primary and Secondary “Divine Attributes” The 2016 WoB defines spren as “pieces of Investiture…that because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about…or interacting with the power…take on a life of its own.” Power leaks into the Cognitive Realm to Invest the ideas there. IMO, each Radiantspren represents the power that Invests the idea of their “Primary Divine Attribute.” These Attributes are set forth in the WoK and WoR Ars Arcana charts. In the Meaning of Primary and Secondary Attributes?, I assert Primary Attributes attract the spren to a KR, and Secondary Attributes are “how that person behaves once the Nahel bond is in place.” IOW, spren seek only the Primary Attribute in a KR to decide whether to bond with them. KRs’ Secondary Attributes may be the “something…of their own” peculiar to each Order. Windrunners’ Secondary Attribute of “Leadership” is why they command more squires than other Orders. Lightweavers’ Secondary Attribute of “Honesty” causes their mnemonic abilities – an accurate (“honest”) memory. Skybreakers’ Secondary Attribute of “Confidence” gives them their “almost divine skill” to divide “the innocent from the guilty.” ( Chapters 55, 54 Epigraphs.) KR Order “Essences” Brandon says the “concept/ideal” is “mixed with an essence.” I speculate that the “essences” listed in the WoK/WoR Ars Arcana charts are the same ones the glyphs in the Round Table represent. These “essences” are “what they call the elements of this world.” (December 2010 WoB, quoted above.) I presume “they” refers to the “philosophers from ancient days, who created those tables.” I speculate those “philosophers” were Vorin, although that's uncertain. Khriss created these charts based on Nazh’s input. Jasnah tells us the Vorins destroyed or manipulated pre-Vorin writing. I suggest Khriss/Nazh have no source for their information other than Vorin texts. As Nyali and Skaa have noted, the “essences” on this chart seem mostly to align with earth’s “classical” elements of earth, fire, water and air. “Mostly” because two of the essences do not – the “life” or “aether” (“divine”?) essences associated with the Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers. Thus, the “air” essences align with Windrunners and Skybreakers, who can “fly” by manipulating the Gravitation Surge. The “fire” essences align with Skybreakers and Releasors, who share the Abrasion Surge. The “water” essences align with Lightweavers and Elsecallers, who share the Transformation Surge (presumably because water is “fluid”). The “earth” essences align with Willshapers and Stonewards, who share the Cohesion Surge (presumably because earth coheres into various solid states). The other two Orders, Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers, align with the “life” or “aether” essences. Their specific Surges seem less significant than their “divine” functions: bonding and foreseeing the future. All life requires bonding, and the growth (“cultivation”) of life requires foresight. Brandon says the sequence of Surges (and hence KR Orders) around the Round Table mirror Roshar’s natural forces; their sequence is neither accidental nor arbitrary. This is consistent with the foregoing classification of essences and the following quote from the WoR Chapter 35 Epigraph: the placement of each Nahel bond “was related to the bonds that drive Roshar itself, ten Surges, named in turn and two for each order.” The History of Surgebinders – Changes Over Time Concepts and ideas change over time. Thought is not static. Brandon describes the interaction of thought and power at the Madison OdysseyCon (emphasis added): This WoB highlights the circular nature of the interaction. Spren come from our perceptions, but the KR oaths come from the spren. What would have happened if humans first perceived Surgebinders as “super” men and women unbound to any rules but their own? Would the spren who emulated the Honorblades have changed to be consistent with this perception? Perhaps that’s why Ishar immediately “caused organization to be thrust upon them; as having too great power, he let it be known that he would destroy each and every one, unless they agreed to be bound by precepts and laws.” (WoR Chapter 42 Epigraph). This quote suggests that Ishar created the Orders, or at least their predecessors. But we don’t know what “precepts and laws” he obligated Surgebinders to follow. We also don’t know how accurate this in-world Words of Radiance statement is or whether this in-world book was written before or after Nohadon’s in-world Way of Kings and was therefore influenced by it. It’s possible there WAS no “organization” or bonding to “precepts and laws” before Nohadon, and the in-world Words of Radiance is simply wrong. We do know that Nohadon thought that “not all spren are as discerning as honorspren.” We also know that Surgebinders fought each other during his time. The fact that Surgebinders would seek prominence over one other and fight to achieve it strongly suggests the in-world Words of Radiance author may have been wrong about what Ishar did. Nohadon’s book sought to change that. His parables caused perceptions of Surgebinders to change and the KR to form. Radiantspren changed to accommodate these new perceptions: oaths arose to ensure the incremental accretion of both responsibility and power in equal amounts. Oaths are the “safety valve” to prevent Surgebinder wars and Surgebinder dominance over “mere” humans. The Recreance and the advent of Vorinism destroyed existing Surgebinders and the ability of spren to create new ones (even had they wanted to). Surgebinders and the KR were now viewed as “evil” and untrustworthy. I suggest the spren would not have returned to bond with humans had Nohadon’s book not found its way back from obscurity. This is why I think so many Kholins are potential Surgebinders – they’ve all read the in-world Way of Kings or had read the book read to them, absorbing its ideals.
  2. In Moogle's recent thread about Focuses, I mentioned how I remember Brandon saying in a past interview that Shardworlds had a certain influence on how Investiture manifests on them. I couldn't recall at the time where I read that WoB, but after an hour of wading through every single mention of "planet", "world", and "Shardworld" in Theoryland's Sanderson interview archive, I finally found one piece of evidence that I wasn't just hallucinating: (Edit: I finally found a good WoB for this! Now, back to the theory. ) So it seems that both the Shardworld and the Shards have some say in what goes on Investiture-wise. Now, we know that Shards have a particular Intent through which they can shape their Investiture (e.g. Ruin prefers Investiture that ruins things). But how about Shardworlds? Do they have an Intent as well? For example, did the soul of Scadrial simply decide on a whim that any Shard that Invests in it shall have to deal with metals? Or is metal-based Investiture somehow integral to the nature of Scadrial? The idea of Scadrial being inherently associated with metal-based Investiture first popped into my mind several weeks ago while I was staring intently at the table of Essences for something like the hundredth time (don't judge!). I looked at the Essence of Foil, and my mind went straight to Scadrial. Well, I highly doubt Sanderson would make Kalak and his Knights use Scadrian Metallic Arts (though I certainly wouldn't complain if he did! ), but it still got me searching for patterns relating Shardworlds and Essences. Here are some other coincidences I noticed: The Essence of Vapor has the Body Focus of Exhalation. This reminds me of BioChromatic Breath on Nalthis. The act of speaking requires exhalation, which makes spoken Commands exhalation-based. Vapor also has "Just" as its Primary Divine Attribute, which I assume pertains to Skybreakers' devotion to man-made laws, which is basically what Commands are all about. Then there is the importance of the color black both to Nalthian Investiture (as the best color for Awakening) and to Vapor symbolism (as the color of smoke and smokestone). Also, we see in WoR that Nalan (the Herald of the Skybreakers and of Vapor) has somehow gotten hold of a certain BioChromatic Entity that he claims is a suitable tool for Skybreakers. The Essence of Talus pertains to rock and stone, which I believe can be interpreted as simply the solid landmass of a planet. Selish Investiture requires some sort of connection with a region of land, the shape of which is used in all the Form-based abilities there. Talus' Body Focus is Bone, and there are at least two bone-based Investitures on Sel. The Essence of Blood is associated with the Order of Lightweavers. There is another planet where one particular manifestation of Investiture is also called Lightweaving: Yolen. So basically my theory is that each Shardworld has an affinity to a particular Essence, and this affinity affects how Investiture manifests on that Shardworld no matter which Shard or Shards occupy it. Ten Shardworlds, ten Essences. I've proposed Essences for Scadrial, Nalthis, Sel, even Yolen. Now you might be wondering: What about Roshar? I intentionally left that Shardworld from the list above because it is by far the trickiest to analyze. The problem is that all ten Essences are involved in Rosharan Investiture. Heck, I even posted a theory once about how the ten Essences themselves are the focus on Roshar. How can that be if a Shardworld only has affinity to one Essence? In order to solve this puzzle, I had to figure out what all Rosharan Investiture have in common. I had to ignore distractions caused by Honor, Cultivation, and Odium's Intents, delve into more abstract Realmatics, and discover what Roshar the Shardworld really is all about. And when I tried to do that, the first thing that came to mind was one word: spren. We know now that spren already existed on Roshar even before the Shattering, so they must be the key to finding Roshar's Essence. And what are spren, again? Jasnah says spren are "fragments of the Cognitive Realm that gained sentience." And what is the Cognitive Realm? Shai from Emperor's Soul defines it as "how an object is viewed and how it views itself." In other words, the Cognitive Realm is where perceptions exist. Just as the Spiritual Realm is where abstract concepts originate, the Cognitive Realm is how those abstractions receive Identity by being sensed, both by themselves and by others. The Ten Essences, on their own, are just abstract concepts. In order for them to gain Identity in the Cognitive Realm, they need to be actualized into things that are more concrete and perceivable, like gemstones, or the Body Focuses, or the Soulcasting properties, or even the different types of spren. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed apparent that all types of Roshar Investiture deal with making the ten Essences perceivable in all sorts of ways. Imagine Roshar's soul as a glass prism for Investiture. Light (Investiture) hits it on one side, and a rainbow of colors (the Essences) appears on the other side. As it turns out, there is one Essence associated with glass prisms and perception. It is the Essence representing the glass Identity beads of Rosharian Shadesmar, as well as its obsidian land. It is the Essence with a Body Focus that can perceive things (the eyes). It is the Essence whose Latin definition pertains to being viewable. It is, I believe, the Essence of Roshar: the Essence of Lucentia. Interesting developments: (2014-04-09) I found a possible origin for the table of Essences, and it supports the Shardworld-Essence theory. (2015-12-04) Yata posted a WoB that seems to contradict the theory. (2016-02-29) After Mistborn:Secret History, I've decided to significantly revise my thoughts on the matter and create what is technically a brand new theory .
  3. This is based on celder23761's question at the Firefight prerelease about Adolin's Shardblade being previously owned by an Edgedancer. He noticed that there was a description of Adolin's Blade appearing in the form of vines in his hand before fully becoming formed. Since Lift's spren, Wyndle, makes her "awesomeness" visible to her in the form of vines, he connected the two and received a positive answer to his question. Notice in the Ars Arcanum the order of the Surges. Edgedancers use the fourth and fifth surges: Abrasion and Progressiom. Now look back one page at the table of the Ten Essences. The fourth and fifth Soulcasting properties are (4) quartz, glass, and crystal, and (5) wood, plants, and crystal. On page 683 Lift describes Wyndle thus: "Wyndle grew up to her, leaving a small trail of vines that people didn't seem to be able to see. The vines hardened after a few moments of sitting, as briefly becoming solid crystal, then crumbling to dust." Let's break this down: the fourth and fifth Surges of those listed in the Ars Arcanum just happen to be the ones that apply to an Edgedancer. The fourth and fifth Soulcasting properties of the Ten Essences list just happen to contain vines and crystal, which is what Wyndle manifests as. My theory is that we can connect the Surges to the table in this manner and perhaps find out something about the other Surges. Maybe the orders can draw Stormlight better from gemstones that fit their Surges, I don't know. Look at some other Surgebinders: Windrunning uses the first two Surges on the list: Adhesion and Gravitation. Looking at the Soulcasting properties, they are (1) Translucent gas, and air, and (2) Opaque gas, smoke, and fog. Syl can be tied to these in the form that Kaladin sees. Lightweaving uses the sixth and seventh Surges on the list: Illumination and Transformation. The Soulcasting properties for these are (6) blood, and all non-oil liquid, and (7) All kinds of oil. From my view, it seems that with Pattern's ever-shifting form this could apply to him in a way. What thoughts does everybody have on this?
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