Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.

Shallan’s Sketchbook Part VII (Peakspren)
Art here.

Peakspren have clear ties to the Unkalaki (as expected). It’s interesting that their appearance draws from the full range of stone textures and colors. I wouldn’t have expected that degree of variety. I wonder how much it varies within single individuals, as opposed to across the population. I.e. does a single peakspren have limbs of different textures and colors, or is their whole body uniform? Does a peakspren retain their appearance throughout life, or do they adopt different textures and colors as they associate with different stones? I presume that they are uniform and persistent in appearance, but that’s mostly guesswork rather than informed speculation.

I’m particularly intrigued by the idea that their surface cracks take the form of glyphs. Is that a matter of actually being glyphs but in a different form than Shallan is able to read? Or do the spren have a degree of affinity to rhythms or fundamental ideas that cause their cracks to approach glyph-like forms but not actually adopt them? Or, alternatively, is it a matter of glyph components being basic enough shapes that angular cracks would necessarily be reminiscent of some intelligible arrangement, and the human mind (especially a scholarly one) would strive for pattern recognition?

The physical realm manifestation of these spren is interesting. Very stone golem in appearance, or perhaps elemental is the better comparison. As with other spren their size appears mutable, but these seem to be a type that are inherently visible and must physically hide themselves rather than simply willing themselves out of sight.