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Exactly what it says: some ideas and theories on spren I had after reading RoW Cusicesh, the Protector The Sibling is, well, a sibling of the Nightwatcher and the Stormfather. Sja-anat calls them a cousin, which could imply that the relationship between the original spren that would be unmade by Odium and godspren is similar to the one between cousin and Radiant spren. It makes sense: Re-shephir seems like a superpowered creationspren, Yelig-nar a superpowered windspren etc. If that is the case, is there a superpowered gloryspren somewhere? Cusicesh seems like an interesting candidate, given that his most pronounces feature is the face (OK, faces), something he shares with the NW and the SF The Oathgate spren OK, this is super tinfoil territory, but while reading RoW I thought about the weird potential link between Oathgate spren and Cryptics. Given their Surge, it would make sense for the Oathgate spren to have features similar to Inkspren and Reachers, right? It works for the former, but I cannot see an Lightspren features in them. On the other hand we are specifically told that Cryptics' hands come in two colors, exactly the same as Oathgate spren. Is it possible that association between sapient spren and Surges works differently for Surge fabrial spren? Thunderclasts We know that there is more to Cultvation's magic than Old Magic and ancient Stoneshaping seems like an excellent candidate. It has some decent foreshadowing, really: Singer gods ('spren, stone, and wind') mentioned in the Eila Stele, Shin reverence for stone, Cultivation being identified with Roshar itself by many people. Ancient Stoneshapers being corrupted by Odium also explains the Thunderclasts, the only Voidbringer being we couldn't match to any magic so far. Given that they are essentially twisted Singer souls, it could imply that this Stoneshaping didn't require a spren bond (unless the spren was also corrupted and merged with the Thunderclast). Could it be a genetic ability, like what the Horneater Sighted have, or maybe something granted by Old Magic style spiritweb modification? Stormstriders We now know that larkins are sapient, something that Tai-na also share to some extent - and based on the RoW ending, there's something more to the chasmfiends than we previously realized. From WoR Rysn interlude we know that Tai-na, besides the usual luckspren, also seem to bond some spen (considered their "soul" by the Reshi people) in their gemhearts. If so, this situation could extend to other greatshells, including larkins / lanceryns. It's more intuition than proof, but it seems likely that such spren would be rather huge and unique, as well as easily available in Highstorms (assuming that the bonding mechanism is shared with the Singers). I think that Stormstrides could be such spren (and maybe provide lanceryn Forms?)

Parshendi Forms: From Eshonai's prologue, after Gavilar explains the fabrial: When Venli first meets Timbre, at Eshonai's body: And then Venli bonds with Timbre: And then when talking with the Fuzed named Rine: So the Nahel bond is more powerful than the Parshendi forms bond from capturing spren inside their gemhearts during highstorms to transform, presumably because the only stormlight needed for the Parshendi bond to work is during the bonding itself but not for any of the surges that come after the bond. When Aesudan and Amaram bonded with the Unmade spren, that seems to be a Parshendi bond since they swallowed gems (spheres) to make the bond, with Amaram's purple gemheart glowing in the end and Aesudan's gemheart glowing through her dress. Thunderclasts From the Thaylen City battle: So the stone has gemhearts that, when inhabited by Voidspren, transform the stone into something else. No wonder Szeth's people aren't stonewalkers, right? Does stone have other forms? Chasmfiends Chasmfiends obviously have gemhearts. I think they must have other forms, too. We know chasmfiends, skyeels, and greatshells all have the same spren. From the Kaza interlude, we know that greatshells do also have gemhearts. Are these three different forms for the same being? Do chasmfiends have other forms? Are they also thunderclasts? From Adolin's fight with the thunderclast: Urithiru And then: So we wake it just as the Fuzed woke Thunderclasts from stone, right? We bond Urithiru with a spren. Or multiple spren. Spren that can be trapped in a heart of emerald and ruby. And from the gem library: Dude, is Urithiru the Sibling?!!!! Sibling to the Nightwatcher and the Stormfather? So the Sibling was stolen away? And from the Stormfather's conversation with Dalinar: Slumbering! Sleeping! Just like Dalinar said Urithiru was! And this is why the Radiant says goodnight to Urithiru, goodnight to the Sibling! So we need to find the slumbering Sibling spren and restore her (or probably "them" because the Stormfather refers to the Sibling in the singular and the plural) to Urithiru's heart to waken Urithiru, right? And what will a wakened Urithiru be like? Will she move? Will she protect? Will she destroy? *************************** Related ideas: Fabrials are similar but not as alive as it would seem Urithiru will be and certainly not as alive as Parshendi, chasmfiends, or great shells. Parshmen may not have had gemhearts until the first Everstorm, which restored their gemhearts and thus enabled them to now have forms, including Voidforms. Different Parshendi forms likely come from different types of spren, with Voidform (forms of power) coming from corrupted or Unmade spren. Dullform might be having a gemheart with no spren bond since dullform is so close to parshmen. Are there secrets to other cities, not just Urithiru? Kabsal draws Kholinar as a triangular shape with three outlying wings and a peaked center (Pg 510 of WoK), which incidentally is the symbol on Gavilar's shardplate (Pg 29 of WoK), saying that the city was built on a rock formation already there. The stone windblades of Kholinar seem particularly significant, where Kaladin says the interior corridor of the windblades reminds him of the strata at Urithiru (Pg 785 of OB). I'm equally interested in the City of Shadows and even the City of Bells, but perhaps these cities are special in different ways.

I was just reading the Szeth/Shin Conspiracy thread, and it got me thinking. The basic speculation was that Shin discovered Honorblades, and built Shone Shamanism around hiding the secret. I've been doing a second read-through of tWoK, and I like many parts of this theory. However, I'd like to propose my own. I don't think sacredness of stone has to do with Honorblades, but rather thunderclasts. Let me explain. Part 1: Mistborn spoilers*: *If you skipped this spoiler, it simply contains some evidence that Sanderson is capable of this kind of conspiracy-laden writing We also know that Shin religion has other truths preserved in its religion, after others have forgotten. Note that the Shin still know about stormlight (and by the use of the word "sacred" in this quote, I do think it stems from Shin religion, and not just Shen's knowledge of surgebinding): So, in The Stormlight Archive, we see the present-day application of Shin religion: Shin do not walk on (or interact with) stone. I would suggest that this branches from the ancient knowledge of thunderclasts, and their relation to stone. We know, from the Prologue, that thunderclasts 1) are made of stone, and 2) come from stone: I would suggest that Shin culture has preserved the danger associated with stone by labeling it "sacred". End part 1 of my conspiracy theory. Part 2: Think about the geography of Shin in the world. Think about the geography of stone. Shin religion, and its application with regard to stone, has effectively secluded the Shin people to the west in Shinovar. Likewise, they remain somewhat protected from the events of the east. Shin religion could be protecting Shin from the area of the world where Odium has influence. Where are the parshendi and parshmen (who may or may not have some direct relation to voidbringers)? Should the thunderclasts 'return', where would they arise (i.e. where is the world's mass of stone)? In fact, what has the landscape looked like in EVERY one of Dalinar's visions (the supposedly significant moments in the evolution of the world)? All of the visions have been based in rocky, highstorm-afflicted areas (i.e. not Shinovar). Everything that is associated with instability, change, and danger is located in the east, where Shin religion effectively forbids its people to 'trod'. Part 3: In the same way that I feel Shin reverence of stone is related to something significant, I think there's a reason that parshendi leave bodies untouched and lying on stone. In the event that the bodies do not die on stone, they are carried there. The parshendi affinity for stone, juxtaposed with the Shin deference, is somewhat telling. I don't have a solid enough theory to elaborate on this, but I would speculate that it has something to do with thunderclasts, pupating (as seen with chasmfiends), and the parshmen/parshedi ability to change forms. On Honorblades: Here's why I think the Honorblade theory (of Shin discovering and hiding the Honorblades) is incorrect: Through the same reasoning contained in what I said above, the physical landscape of the place where the Honorblades were left does not match that of Shinovar. I haven't seen anything that points to Shinovar being the location of anything of historical/mythological significance. That said, the fact that Shinovar isn't prevalent in any historical analysis we've seen seems significant and possibly telling. Here's a reason I could be wrong: Shinovar has been speculated by many to be the home of, or at least under the influence of, Cultivation. Based on Argent's thought, Cultivation could very well be involved in an elaborate cover-up. Why, though? I've got no idea. Tangents: Because I've dealt so heavily in this post with geography, I'd just like to bring forward the relative influences of the different Shards on different parts of the world. I think it's pretty well-accepted that the vegetation differences in Shinovar are attributable to Cultivation, while the Highstorms are attributable to Honor. From a Brandon Sanderson Q&A: The highstorms are not arbitrary. What their function is, I do not know for sure. However, as for speculation: I would guess that Cultivation has similar functions somewhere in the world. This means a "conciousness" and a "body". I reject the hypothesis that Cultivation is the Night Watcher, because nothing we've seen about Shards in other books indicates they can have an anthropomorphic form in the world (the nature of the Night Watcher does not seem to fit that of Cultivation, either). There is some power bestowed by Cultivation within the world that we have yet to see or to recognize. I would suggest that this material or energy is contained within Shinovar.