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Somehow, up until this moment I never questioned how Seons, Splinters of Devotion, could leave Sel when most other Splinters like Spren cannot. There doesn't seem to be any special method, since if there was it would probably work on Spren and yet we know that no Spren has managed to leave Roshar as of ROW. So it must be innate so Seons, but why? What makes them so different that they can break the rule of Splinters being unable to leave the planet they came from?

So I was listing to the Overlady reads and they mention a box the Set used to communicate, assuming it was some kind of radio But then I thought, a metal box that transmits voices? We've seen that before, specifically on Roshar, used by the ghostbloods to communicate with Shallan I checked it out (end of chapter 16 and beginning of chapter 17) and sure eanough a mid sized cube that produces voices! I'm not sure what to do with this information nesiseserly but it implies to me some connection between the set and the ghostbloods and perhaps the source of there knowledge of hemalurgy, given Thaidakars nature XD That's basically it, I leave it to you arcanists to make sense of this information and any hints it might bring or tell me its just a radio Either way, please let me know if I'm onto something or not.

...or at least, unlocking AonDor. So, Selish arts being geographically locked is a result of Devotion and Dominion's combined investiture - collectively the Dor - having been shoved into the Cognitive realm by Odium after he splintered those Shards. Most end-poitive arts pull Investiture from the Spiritual Realm, Selish arts can't do that because it being in a location-dependent Realm keys parts of it to certain locations through Identity and Connection. Seons, meanwhile, are splinters of Devotion accidentally created as a side-effect of the splintering of Devotion. Which means that, while they do seem to be mostly-cognitive beings like spren, they weren't part of the central shardic mass of Devotion at the time it was trapped in the Cognitive. Now, Brandon has been cagey when asked about whether Seon communication is truly instantaneous, because if it's Spiritual in nature then it would be instantaneous since distance isn't a factor, but if it's Cognitive then there'd technically be a slight delay. The simplest means of achieving instant or near-instant communication, both over great distances and (Rhythm of War spoilers) between the Physical and Cognitive Realms using Cosmere mechanics that we've seen on-screen would be by manipulating Connection in a certain way. In the case of Seon-to-Seon communication, this would be the Connection between the two Seons, or possibly the two people speaking through them using Seons as a medium. So, quick recap: Shards can normally transmit Investiture at a distance because the live in the Spiritual Realm, and the reason this doesn't work on Sel is the Shards are in the wrong Realm. Seons were broken off of Devotion before it got moved to the wrong Realm. There is a good chance that Seons pull of their long-distance and inter-realm communication by manipulating Connection, just from what we know of Cosmere mechanics. Now, here's the kicker: So, you can use f-Duralumin - manipulating Connection - to hack AonDor and let an Elantrian use it at full power regardless of location. So, what if instead of having your Seon contact another Seon, you have it dial the Dor's metaphorical phone number? Could doing so allow you to use AonDor regardless of your location in the Physical Realm?

So Brandon said: Ansalem1 Hypothetically, if all of the Listeners were to go extinct would the Rhythms still exist? Brandon Sanderson Yes. WeiryWriter Are there any other species in the cosmere that also interact with the Rhythms like the listeners do? (Though not necessarily in the same way?) Brandon Sanderson Yes. /r/books AMA 2015 (Aug. 24, 2015) And Im thinking that he is talking about the seons. any ideas?

So I just finished the Stormlight archive(so far) and just barely finished Elantris today. I've also read Mistborn series 1 and 2 and have some questions. Splinters are part of a shard that's power was shattered, right? So Those splinters are, in essence, mini gods, right? Or information or energy is given identity and possibly sentience by the ideas of sentient beings? I don't know. However, I do know that despite the philosophy and speculation I have on the existence of splinters, I do want to know your guys' thoughts on if Seons are, in fact, splinters. And feel free to speculate on the other ideas I have. I'd love to hear what others have to say on this. Also, would a Kandra be a splinter, or would they be- - - I have no idea, besides just a non-sentient being, given sentience by someone elses conscience ripped out of them by hemalurgy?

Would the seons be a type of spren?

Are the number of Seons equal to the number of Aeons or are there repeats?

I read Elantris, and I love it. However, I am confused about one thing: Is there only 44 Seons, one for each Aon, or are there seons that share aons? I know it is probably a stupid question, but it is bugging me a lot

This might be the most important of Cosmere topics. Now we understand that the different magics and peoples of the Cosmere are fascinating and amazing. But even more so are the entities that were never alive, yet have a personality and drive of their own. These Splinters are pockets of Shardic Power that develop a type of intelligence. It is apparent that these beings are critical to the overall narrative of the Cosmere, while some are likely the perpetrators of some of the greatest evils seen so far. What are these Splinters and how do you recognize one? Transcripts: I wish my father could have come to Roshar. Things that seemed mundane to others fascinated him to no end. The rocky hills and the crustaceous life that seems to make up this entire world are so different from the home I once knew. He would have written enough dissertations and filled enough sketchbooks to drown a man in the first week alone. He was odd, but he had a love of discovery, and visiting other worlds would have been a dream come true for him. And my brother…. He would have loved seeing all the different shapes spren come in. The spren are small spirit looking entities that appear around the planet. Forces and states of mind that normally too subtle to observe clearly are manifested visually making their study far easier to perform empirically. I believe that a spren is a physical representation of a cognitive entity. They are not physical in the sense that you can touch them, or that they have any sort of measurable mass. But they remind me of the simple minds that exist, attached to the objects in the Cognitive realm. However, these are not attached to any one object, rather they are bound to a purpose or intent. For instance, if one is provoked into anger, anger spren seem to be drawn out, and serve as a secondary indicator of the being’s intent. There are also Spren tied to more ecological forces, such as flame spren and river spren. I’ve even observed spren that seem to account for things unseen, such as wind spren and life spren. This aspect of spren and their natures yields promising potential in the fields of science and sociology. It must be far easier to consult or comfort someone when fear spren manifest their anxiety. In my personal journals I have been writing up my observations of the spren and their forms. My notes are far from professional and I doubt anyone but myself would be interested in these notations. I feel there must be some connection between the existence of spren and the High Storms which bring great rushing surges of Investiture. These cataclysmic storms occur most weeks if not multiple times a week. Such a rush of raging power must have metaphysical effects along with the violent weather phenomena that is the storm wall. Now while I would love to chat about spren all day, this letter is a particular note because I have a theory about what these spren actually are. You see they take up a form that is far too intelligent to be just a stray consciousness. Some of the larger spren are able to interact and mimic people, such as wind spren. They have an almost playful attitude towards life and have been known to play pranks on humans they encounter. No, there is something far greater at work here. As you know from my previous letter, I am now aware of the former existence of Adonalsium and of the shattering. These fractured Shards left and later developed a drive or fundamental nature to themselves. Shards are immense in scope and power. This power yields abilities that seem only limited to the imagination. In fact, we know from the “Words of Founding” that Shards have created life from their power. Now getting back to the topic at hand, these spren do not act like any animal I have ever come across. They seem to thrive on ideas and concepts of the human mind. By observing and often mimicking what they interact with, spren reveal that they have a core nature. They are drawn to some kid of theme or purpose. This tendency, to have and hold true to an idea or states of environment that reflects what they themselves are. In this way they remind me of matured Shards. As you recall, the Shards seem to have a compulsion to see out a particular ideal, usually summarized by the name they adopt. The spren seem to mimic this type of behavior and single-mindedness. I postulate, based on these observations that spren are little pockets of Shardic power. Unlike raw Investiture, which is simply harness-able energy, spren are power with a measured intelligence and will. They are like Splinters of a soul. It is easier to understand this position when you visit the Cognitive Realm. There the Spren seem far more complex, and even dangerous. There are whispers of larger spren that have intelligence and memories who live there. I hope to do more direct observing as soon as I have established myself with the peoples here. I have seen enough to recognizes that there is something nearly supernatural about these beings. It seems reasonable to assume that these spren are pieces of a greater whole. Splinters are entities of power that were never alive as a humanoid, but attain a level of… consciousness. This is where things are still a bit fuzzy. It cannot be denied that the spren are intelligent, at least in a broad sense. By contrast the Returned on Nalthis also carry with them a Splinter in the form of a divine breath. In fact, all breath might be considered a splinter since they are portions of a Shards power, but a Divine Breath is unique. Yet it must be asked, are the Returned a person brought back from death by infusing their soul with a splinter, or does the Splinter itself inherit the body of a dead person? The answer to this might simply be both, and for this particular argument the distinction is not important. What matters is that there is an intent behind both a spren and Divine Breath. I would then also guess from my studies that Seons could be considered Splinters. They are far more than just a symbol of Aon-dor, and they exemplify obedient intelligence with a profound memory and distinct personality. In this way they might be the most advance form of documented Splinter to date. However, there is a potential in the spren, and if the Nightwatch and Stormfather can be confirmed as massive spren, they might be the most powerful Splinters known to man. I am particularly intrigued by this Nightwatycher. There are rumors that she can grant requests that come with an associated boon. If this is more than a myth, the implications are… staggering. Regardless I plan to make the journey to see this being. I also hope to find a good location to watch a High Storm, hopefully I will be able to observe this Storm Father for myself. As I’ve pondered these findings, my thoughts turned to Scadreal. At first I couldn’t think of any beings or entities there that would count as Splinters. In fact, I still feel that Scadreal has never seen a Splinter according to the historical records that we have. Yet I pause at the thought of the Kandra. The shapeshifters are intelligent beings that once were mindless creatures. They gained their intelligence via the powers of two hemalergic spikes. This was when I made the connection between spikes and Splinters. This may be an unrelated correlation, but the similarities are strong, and only separated by scope. Most hemalergic spikes are simply a form of spiritual surgery, ripping one soul apart and splicing pieces of that soul into another person. But with the kandra, they grant actual consciousness as if they were a Splinter themselves. Perhaps they are. However, I abhor the thought of anyone performing an investigation. Any testing with Hemallergy will be destructive beyond the point of rationality. What troubles me are the whispers of these Voidbringers. On Roshar there are tales of monsters built of stone and darkness that once sought the destruction of all sentient life on this world. The rumors are whispers at best, but I have made several well informed connections. If my discoveries here are accurate and these void spren are actually real, then we are dealing with splinters that are openly hostile. My guess is that these spren move with an intent and were created purposefully by a destructive Shard. I see now why I was sent here, for history seems ripe to repeat itself. I wish to be absolutely wrong about this, but my gut feeling is that there is a great destruction coming. To you, I suggest the following caution. Should I prove right, and find that there are evil spren sent to do the work of a destructive shard, be sure to look for the patterns. These splinters seem to be mimics or replicas of what already exists here. This goes against all that I have observed on other worlds where the Shards manifest uniquely when exerting their respective Investiture powers. If this Dark one seeks to mimic his fellows, then his touch may be subtle. Look for the signs of madness or corruption of what already exists. Red eyes… perhaps this is another sign to watch for. There are reports that the people who wage war here have recently been seen with glowing red eyes. This might be the only reliable way to recognize the servants of this being. Then again, it is possible that there are multiple Shards attempting to cause upheaval and destruction. That thought alone sends a shiver up my spine. I will continue to look into these Void bringers, and there are more reports coming in all the time. Something inside me feels as if there is a great bell just beginning to toll the final hours of this place. The air almost hums with tension and I fear that someday this world will break. I hope your messengers can find me amidst what is to come. Perhaps I am wrong, but this seems all too familiar. I wish I had more time, but I am afraid… afraid that I will once again watch innocent lives be snuffed out. I don’t want to watch another world die. Elsric

In Mistborn, it is shown that Preservation took a piece of his mind and used it to craft Ruin's prison. However, Preservation's power, in the form of the mists, was still in abundance. Thus, we see that Shards can take a piece of their mind and separate it from itself. Except for a few exceptions, these pieces of the Shards mind are called Splinters. If a piece is large enough, it may gain sentience. This event is not uncommon in the Cosmere, and many Shards do it voluntarily. Endowment regularly gives individuals Splinters, in the form of a Divine Breath. Honor, Cultivation, and Odium have all done this to create spren. Even Adonalsium did it, also creating spren. However, if done by an outside force (often/always another Shard), the pieces become so numerous that there is little in the way of a central mind that can, if necessary, regather the broken pieces. This happened with Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. In all these cases, there is strong evidence that the power of the Shards is still out there and perfectly good to be used, from Roshar's Stormlight-bringing highstorms to the power allowing AonDor, Forgery, Dakhor, etc to be practiced. The pieces of the Shard are seen as Seons, Skaze, and what we call Radiantspren. The primary ability of the Shard's mind is the ability to access the Shard's power. A Shard can, without much error, be called a force of nature. The mind of a Shard accesses that force in abundance, and, if large enough, can control the force. The Seons and Skaze of Sel are so numerous and small pieces that they have no noticeable control over the power of those Shards, leaving them to fight in a highstorm-like fury of Investiture. In fact, I would not be surprised if the Cognitive Realm of Sel resembles the outcome of the Everstorm hitting the Highstorm. And that is, basically, what I think spren, Seons, Skaze, and whatever else is.

Recently, I reread Elantris 10th anniversary addition, and notice the extra epilogue on Hoid discussing whether he would succeed in being initiated as an Elantrian with a Skaze, there is a quote that caught my attention: "Yes, they [skaze] did have a wider range of emotions than Hoid had assumed. He needed to be careful not to let interactions with one member of a race - even a synthetic race - color his view of them all." What does Hoid mean by "synthetic"? It could imply that Skaze are artificial, and not something of natural occurrence. Due to the similarity between Seons and Skaze, we can sensibly infer one's characteristics to another. We have known that the Aons in Seons are in face Splinters, but not Seons themselves, which supports further that Seons, similar to Skaze, are artificial. We can infer that if there isn't any interference, these Splinters of Devotion and Dominion will NOT form Seons and Skaze. So who created them? The first possible candidates are Selish, especially those who can access the Dor in a large, significant manner, i.e. Elantrians, and later, Dakhor Monks. However, they do not appear to be viable candidates. First, there is no mention of the creation of Seons in the libraries of Elantris, though it is possible that Raoden has yet to discover related records, but very unlikely, as Elantris had been an advanced society for quite some time, and the lack of mention of the creation of Seons is rather suspicious. Second, even if Elantrians are indeed the ones who creates Seons, it does not explain the creations of Skaze, due to the fact that they are completely oblivious of their existence. Third, it would appear that Skaze has existed as long as Seons, but Dakhor Monks are reasonably a very recent creation of the Fjordell Empire, so they could not possibly be the creators of Skaze. It would seem that, Odium appears to be a pretty viable candidate for the creation of Seons and Skaze. It is known that Odium splintered Devotion and Dominion. It is also known that Seons and Skaze contains or consist tof Splinters. This is pure conjecture, but could it be Odium who creates Seons and Skaze? Could it be That in order to kill a shard, to Splinter a shard, it would take a Shard's investiture, and create something new, so that no one can pick up the shard and become its vessel? I originally want to involve Sprens, but as I do my research I discover many inconsistencies and sophistication involving the nature of them, so I will just leave it as it is for now. The main question I asked today, is that did Odium created Seons and Skaze, as the product or result of Splintering Dominion and Devotion?

We're still not entirely clear on what Splintering a Shard entails and what effects it has on both the magic and the Shardworld in general, but this has been swimming around my head for a while now. What if, when a Shard is Splintered, the Splinters are in the form of the Focus for that Shardworld? Seons are formed around an Aon, and those Aons are Splinters of Devotion (WoB). This means that Seons are an instance of a Splinter both being related to the Focus of a magic system and sentient. The second piece of this is the spren - and specifically Honorspren. Honorspren are Splinters of Honor (WoB) and are sentient. Where they fit in in relation to Roshar's Focus is as yet unknown, because all magic on Roshar that we know of in any detail uses both Stormlight and spren. If this theory was to hold any water, spren would have to be Roshar's focus rather than Stormlight. There's not a lot to go on here, and I'd appreciate that if someone had WoB that contradicts this to point me along to it.

So, I remembered one of the other thoughts I had whilst re-reading... There are two points in the book where Ashe comments on religion. The first he says to Sarene "Your god would never allow it to happen" or words to that effect (I forget the exact phrasing). The second he mentions the possibility of converting to Shu-Korath - the line is something like "If He keeps you safe, then He might have His first Seon convert." So my question is this: is Ashe just following normal human speech patterns and mannerisms (and in the first example, attempting to off Sarene comfort) or do Seons know more about the nature of Gods on Sel that we first thought?

This is a sort of corollary to my Shardic Constructs theory, it's been a work in process for a while (Although corollary sounds a tad pretentious...). However, it got stopped by a problem that I couldn't seem to get around for quite a while. So I'll start there and then move onto some other stuff. In the old topic, someone brought up this quote. I couldn't get around this. I believed that Cognitive aspects were created by the interaction of Spiritual and Physical aspects. But how could one exist primarily in the Cognitive Realm? I think I have a potential answer to this question now. Humans are primarily Physical, right? They exist on the Physical Realm, everything they consciously interact with and see is in the Physical Realm. So presumably the same would be true of a creature that was primarily Spiritual in nature. But what if a creature was more balanced? Nearly half of both? I think that they would "exist" primarily in the Cognitive Realm, and would live and interact there. So hopefully this is that problem solved. Now, onto what I'd planned on saying the whole time. Last time I connected Spiritual energy to sentience, how it interacts with the Physical portion of a creature gives it a mind. However, given a little thought, it's obvious that it's not quite as simple as that.After all, Radiants get filled with Spiritual energy all the time, yet their mind isn't too enhanced. Returned and Awakeners don't seem to be any more intelligent than your average person. There are minor Cognitive changes, but as a whole, it's not doing a lot. So, what gives? I think the reason for this disparity we're seeing here is that the Spiritual power needs not just a Physical conterpart, but a Physical structure to create a Cognitive aspect. To use a poor analogy, this is like the difference between dipping a chip in some dip, and baking a several layer cake. Returned, for example, are suffesed with power. But it's not built into their Spiritweb, it's just sitting on top of them. A layer of Spiritual power, like dip sits on a chip. Same goes for the Radiants. However, when this power is added to the Spiritweb, such as in Hemalurgy, it can work to create sentience. The perfect illustration comes, I think, when you look at the Divine Breaths and Seons. Divine Breath is not sentient. It's not structured at all, so it's not really conscious either. But then again, look at the Seon. The Aon itself is the Splinter, and it has a structure, a Physical form in the shape of an Aon, so it is sentient. A thought that just occured to me right now is that this structure could be responsible for the Splinters that have their own intents separate from the larger Shards. It's obvious that unstructured Splinters like the Divine Breath don't really have an intent. But a structure could posssibly constrain a Splinter's larger intent into something more specific. It would probably be worth asking if the personality of a Seon is affected by that Seon's Aon. All right, what do you guys think? Comments and disagreements are always welcome, that's how we figure out so many cool things!