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Why Singers have such a hard time becoming Radiants-Theory


Letryx13

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Something that's cropped up every so often in the Stormlight Archives is that Singers have a much harder time bonding higher spren than humans.  In WoR, Syl flat out says that Parshendi can't become surgebinders.  Before RoW, I didn't really have any ideas as to why this was. But during RoW we got a clue that helped me come up with my first theory, and I recently came up with another.

The first theory is suggested by Rhabonial.  During her conversation with Venli on the way to Uritheru, she mentions how humans are much more externally focused, while singers are internally focused.  This might be part of why Singers line up better with Odium's power while humans can bond with Honor's more easily. Emotions are more of an internal concept, while Honor is more external.  These matchups may explain why both races can synch up with each Shard's power, but each race favors one or the other.

But I think there might be a better explanation. I think that the Singers might have sturdier souls than humans do, thanks to their stronger connection to the Spiritual realm.  In a WoB, Sanderson confirmed that the ability to hear the Rhythms is basically a connection to the Spiritual realm.  And while Navani proved it's possible to humans to perceive the tones, and likely rhythms, Singers have a much stronger connection.  I think it's likely that this stronger connection results in a stronger spirit web and soul than a humans would normally be.  Less easily damaged and cracked.

And since spren bond with humans by filling in the cracks of their spirit webs with power, it makes sense that they have a harder time bonding with a race that don't have as many cracks in their souls. Of course, we know of three singers who have bonded higher spren; Eshonai, Venli and Rain. But two of them swore the first ideal after taking a Regal form, and Rlain bonded a spren touched by Jah-Anat, likely making it easier for him to form a bond.  All three had Odium's power in the mix. 

Of course, singers bond lesser spren to take different forms, such as war form, work form, and so on. But since those are more basic spren, like gravity spren or pain spren, it makes sense that they'd be able to bond them more easily.  

Part of why I like this idea is that it means that the Singers having stronger souls actually prevents them from gaining the same kind of bond that humans can as easily.  It puts part of the first radiant ideal, Strength before Weakness, into new perspective.

Thoughts?

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I think it’s an unknown history that the spren have long memories about. They keep saying that the spren forgave them for their betrayal. 
maybe for siding with odium? That’s my first thought about why singers don’t form bonds. 
I like the theories but the singers being closer to the cognitive realm makes it sound like it’s easier to form a bond then more difficult.

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My theory about it was that Adonalsium specifically made sure they couldn't bond in that kind of way when he was designing the Rosharan system and its initial inhabitants, but I could totally see that it would have something to do with the strength of the soul too.

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27 minutes ago, Rg2045 said:

I think it’s an unknown history that the spren have long memories about. They keep saying that the spren forgave them for their betrayal. 
maybe for siding with odium? That’s my first thought about why singers don’t form bonds. 
I like the theories but the singers being closer to the cognitive realm makes it sound like it’s easier to form a bond then more difficult.

That's what would make it such a good literary twist. The Singers being stronger prevents them from gaining powers; their connection to the spiritual realm actually prevents them from forging a connection to beings made from divine power related to the cognitive realm.

23 minutes ago, Invocation said:

My theory about it was that Adonalsium specifically made sure they couldn't bond in that kind of way when he was designing the Rosharan system and its initial inhabitants, but I could totally see that it would have something to do with the strength of the soul too.

There's probably something to that, but it feels a little too easy to just say God made them that way,

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I think the "though broth are we, their meat is men" (Listener Song of spren), plus their history of the Desolations just meant that there had never had been a Singer Radiant, it was "not a thing" and "just not done", so to speak, rather than thought impossible, it was likely not thought of at all as an option.

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But we know that the the dawnsingers were surgebinders. When venli asks if they were radiants, the stones reply 'new things are made from old things' which means the dawnsingers had something similar. Later Leshwi says that venli being a radiant means that the spren have forgiven them for their betrayal, which makes me think that if singers hadn't done this ancient betrayal, they would still be surgebinders. Also

1)Leshwi has a honorspren frien Riah

 2)Leshwi is one the most honorable fused we have met

3) her band of fused( gravitation fused) are very similar to Windrunners

All this makes me think that Leshwi was a proto Windrunner

 

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It's certainly possible! Not necessarily though, the stones could've been referring more to the Surges rather than spren bonds (which is how I read that scene). And there is, of course, the fact that the older spren, who would've known of the possibility of any kind of bonds with the Singers, are likely all Deadeyes after the Day of Recreance 

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Just throwing out an idea, maybe Singers have difficulty becoming Radiants because they already have a Singer form that corresponds to each of the higher spren? Traditional Singer bonds with each spren seem to grant transformation to a specific form with an accompanying passive ability, which is quite different from the massive bursts of power seen in Radiants. Notably Rlain remains in Warform and Venli stays in Envoyform despite their Radiance. It's operating on a different method than their usual spren bond. It wouldn't surprise me if becoming a Singer Radiant somehow requires either avoiding the same transformation process that Singer forms naturally have, or hacking the system like Timbre seems to have done by sharing a gemheart with a captive spren. For that matter, Fused forms seem to have a power that is a passive ability that they can use indefinitely, such as flight, and abilities that require Voidlight, such as lashing other objects. Maybe a normal Singer bond with Honorspren still gives personal flight but no external abilities? That's pure speculation. 

This next thought is by no means related to the mechanics of Singer and spren bonds, but it reminds me of how koloss gain a passive ability and change in form, whereas an Inquisitor gets bursts of Allomantic power. They gain power through the same art of Hemalurgy, but the differences in methodology gives a passive effect to one and access to powers fueled by Preservation to the other. The difference between Singers and Radiants seems similar, passive ability versus abilities fueled by Honor's power.

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1 hour ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

You mean they used surges without spren bonds in that vision( from the stones)?

Possibly! We didn't see any spren in that scene, after all!

Or just spren bonds of a different kind than Radiant bonds (though not necessarily their Gemheart bonding thing)

Edited by Honorless
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16 hours ago, Honorless said:

I think the "though broth are we, their meat is men" (Listener Song of spren), plus their history of the Desolations just meant that there had never had been a Singer Radiant, it was "not a thing" and "just not done", so to speak, rather than thought impossible, it was likely not thought of at all as an option.

The broth and meat line is very significant in my opinion, I actually have an entire theory about how it's connected to how the desolations began.  However, the fact that both meat and broth are food suggests that higher spren are capable of feeding on the emotions of both humans and singers, but they can't do it as easily with the singers.

16 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

But we know that the the dawnsingers were surgebinders. When venli asks if they were radiants, the stones reply 'new things are made from old things' which means the dawnsingers had something similar. Later Leshwi says that venli being a radiant means that the spren have forgiven them for their betrayal, which makes me think that if singers hadn't done this ancient betrayal, they would still be surgebinders. Also

1)Leshwi has a honorspren frien Riah

 2)Leshwi is one the most honorable fused we have met

3) her band of fused( gravitation fused) are very similar to Windrunners

All this makes me think that Leshwi was a proto Windrunner

I suppose it's possible the dawn singers had some level of power, but likely much less than what the radiants are capable of. Or maybe the dawn singers had that kind of power before, but the singers had lost it by the time the humans came to Roshar.

Leshwi and the other heavenly ones probably were close to the Honorspren, and maybe even had some kind of connection to them, but since all fused imitate the power of a specific surge, there's no hard evidence they had that kind of power beforehand.

16 hours ago, Honorless said:

It's certainly possible! Not necessarily though, the stones could've been referring more to the Surges rather than spren bonds (which is how I read that scene). And there is, of course, the fact that the older spren, who would've known of the possibility of any kind of bonds with the Singers, are likely all Deadeyes after the Day of Recreance 

Hard to say about whether or not they're all dead-eyes.  But it seems unlikely that only the spren that spend time in the physical realm would know about the possibility of singers bonding spren.

11 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

You mean they used surges without spren bonds in that vision( from the stones)?

Or maybe they could form some kind of bond, but a much weaker one than the radiants. The storm father says that Odium tricked Ishar into experimenting with the surges back on Ashyn, so obviously there are multiple ways to surge bind. So either is possible.

10 hours ago, Duxredux said:

Just throwing out an idea, maybe Singers have difficulty becoming Radiants because they already have a Singer form that corresponds to each of the higher spren? Traditional Singer bonds with each spren seem to grant transformation to a specific form with an accompanying passive ability, which is quite different from the massive bursts of power seen in Radiants. Notably Rlain remains in Warform and Venli stays in Envoyform despite their Radiance. It's operating on a different method than their usual spren bond. It wouldn't surprise me if becoming a Singer Radiant somehow requires either avoiding the same transformation process that Singer forms naturally have, or hacking the system like Timbre seems to have done by sharing a gemheart with a captive spren. For that matter, Fused forms seem to have a power that is a passive ability that they can use indefinitely, such as flight, and abilities that require Voidlight, such as lashing other objects. Maybe a normal Singer bond with Honorspren still gives personal flight but no external abilities? That's pure speculation. 

I suppose its possible. I don't think it's likely, but it'd be interesting to see what they looked like.

11 hours ago, Duxredux said:

This next thought is by no means related to the mechanics of Singer and spren bonds, but it reminds me of how koloss gain a passive ability and change in form, whereas an Inquisitor gets bursts of Allomantic power. They gain power through the same art of Hemalurgy, but the differences in methodology gives a passive effect to one and access to powers fueled by Preservation to the other. The difference between Singers and Radiants seems similar, passive ability versus abilities fueled by Honor's power.

Well the Koloss spikes were created specifically to create Koloss, likely the same with Kandra blessings. But considering how Ruin was able to spike Spook, almost any kind of metal stabbed through someone into another person would work in the inquisitor power granting method.

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My general assumption is that the singers always could have formed Nahel Bonds but they didn't historically because those didn't exist until after the wars had started (and hence the 'betrayal' that Leshwi mentions) given that we know bonding only happened due to spren mimicking what they saw Honor do with the Heralds. So everything before the cycle of Desolations began is kind of a moot point because there were no Nahel Bonds, and we also have the WoB that while Adonalsium was around he'd set limits on what spren could do which includes No Mating Surgebinding.

The 'broth and meat' comparison also suggests that even when bonding is an option, humans simply provide more benefits to the spren half of the bond so they would be preferred in general.

12 hours ago, Duxredux said:

This next thought is by no means related to the mechanics of Singer and spren bonds, but it reminds me of how koloss gain a passive ability and change in form, whereas an Inquisitor gets bursts of Allomantic power. They gain power through the same art of Hemalurgy, but the differences in methodology gives a passive effect to one and access to powers fueled by Preservation to the other.

Hemalurgy works like all the other Metallic Arts, in that each metal does something specific. The same iron spikes used to make koloss can also be used to make the kandra Blessing of Potency and you could give an H-Iron spike to a human without transforming them into something else. The difference with Inquisitors is that they tend to get different spikes that are specifically used to grant allomancy and sometimes feruchemy. So it's less 'different mechanics for X and Y' and more how the one mechanic is being used.

A closer example to what we see on Roshar might be the way that the Fused manipulate the same Surges that Radiants do, but they apply them in slightly different ways. They're similar enough that Szeth is able to counter the Fused equivalent of Abrasion using his own training with that power and Windrunners in general are able to grasp how the Shanay-im work because their Gravitation works on the same basic principles.

Edited by Weltall
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10 hours ago, Weltall said:

The 'broth and meat' comparison also suggests that even when bonding is an option, humans simply provide more benefits to the spren half of the bond so they would be preferred in general.

That's kind of what I'm talking about.  Part of my point on this is to explain how and why humans are able to provide more benefits to the spren than singers. Perhaps the singers could have formed Nahael bonds, but that seems unlikely, if Syl is correct in telling Dalinar that a BondSmith discovered the Nahael bond.

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On 5/21/2022 at 10:03 PM, Weltall said:

The 'broth and meat' comparison also suggests that even when bonding is an option, humans simply provide more benefits to the spren half of the bond so they would be preferred in general.

perhaps it's got something in the same vein as spren more often bonding someone of the opposite gender?

if spren and singers are more alike than spren and humans, it may be that they get more from a bond with an entity further removed from them?

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23 hours ago, Anomander Rake said:

perhaps it's got something in the same vein as spren more often bonding someone of the opposite gender?

if spren and singers are more alike than spren and humans, it may be that they get more from a bond with an entity further removed from them?

That's another possibility.  One of the Listener's songs touches on that, something about being too close to "their realm".  I think they kind of tie together.  Being too close to Shadesmar is probably also part of their connection to the spiritual realm, strengthening their souls. Or maybe their connection is what brings them too close to Shadesmar.

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Ah another thought we know that singers grow up fast but need a form to be “in the mood” to produce children. Maybe when humans came they were more numerous and created spren more  like themselves so the new spren felt more kinship to the humans then the singers 

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The reason spren don't like bonding Singers is because bonding requires sentience, and Singers really are only all there when they have a spren in their gemhearts, meaning they have already bonded a spren, and Spren don't like bonding someone who already has a spren.

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On 5/24/2022 at 11:08 AM, Rg2045 said:

Ah another thought we know that singers grow up fast but need a form to be “in the mood” to produce children. Maybe when humans came they were more numerous and created spren more  like themselves so the new spren felt more kinship to the humans then the singers 

I suppose that's a possibility.  We know that some types of spren were imagined by someone other than humans. Maybe even someone other than singers, now wouldn't that be a good twist.

On 5/27/2022 at 10:33 AM, Frustration said:

The reason spren don't like bonding Singers is because bonding requires sentience, and Singers really are only all there when they have a spren in their gemhearts, meaning they have already bonded a spren, and Spren don't like bonding someone who already has a spren.

That seems unlikely. Pattern bonded Shallan, despite her already having bonded Design.  Pattern even says in Oathbringer that if Shallan kills him, the Cryptics will send another to bond her.  And if Design was willing to bond Shallan so young, they'd probably bond young singers too, who don't require taking a form to think.  And Timber bonded both Eshonai and Venli, who were both Regals, and Rlain with Tumi. 

Edited by Letryx13
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3 hours ago, Letryx13 said:

That seems unlikely. Pattern bonded Shallan, despite her already having bonded Design.  Pattern even says in Oathbringer that if Shallan kills him, the Cryptics will send another to bond her.

Deadeyes are probably not counted, but Spren do not like bonding people who are already bonded.

Spoiler

Questioner

Is there a limit to how many Shardblades you can have? Be bonded to?

Brandon Sanderson

Theoretically, not really. There are some things that could bound that. I can imagine people having a lot. In the original draft of The Way of Kings (2002) Amaram had two. And so, it's definitely possible to have multiples, and I had not thought of someone trying to bond every Shardblade. 

Questioner

So that means you can be bonded to more than one spren.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, those Shardblades... Can you be bonded to more than one spren? That question's answer is also yes. Potentially. But there is a much harder limit on that.

Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014)

Questioner

Could someone bond with two spren and wield two swords?

Brandon Sanderson

It is theoretically possible, but the spren aren't going to like it.  So you are not going to see it very often.

Firefight Seattle Public Library signing (Jan. 7, 2015)

Aradanftw

Let's say you wanted to be the Mistborn equivalent of a Surgebinder, having all ten Surges, would the best way to do that to bond at least five Honorblades or can you bond more than one spren?

Brandon Sanderson

You could bond five Honorblades. That'd be the easiest way by far. Because convincing multiple spren to bond you is going to be really tough, so by far the easiest way is just to get... you'd actually need all ten Honor... No, you'd need five Honorblades for the five... Yeah.

. . .

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

3 hours ago, Letryx13 said:

And if Design was willing to bond Shallan so young, they'd probably bond young singers too, who don't require taking a form to think.  And Timber bonded both Eshonai and Venli, who were both Regals, and Rlain with Tumi. 

Well they likely aren't trying to bond Singers in the first place, and children don't tend to have strong personalities. Shallan is clearly the exception, not the norm.

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7 hours ago, Frustration said:

Deadeyes are probably not counted, but Spren do not like bonding people who are already bonded.

  Hide contents

Questioner

Is there a limit to how many Shardblades you can have? Be bonded to?

Brandon Sanderson

Theoretically, not really. There are some things that could bound that. I can imagine people having a lot. In the original draft of The Way of Kings (2002) Amaram had two. And so, it's definitely possible to have multiples, and I had not thought of someone trying to bond every Shardblade. 

Questioner

So that means you can be bonded to more than one spren.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, those Shardblades... Can you be bonded to more than one spren? That question's answer is also yes. Potentially. But there is a much harder limit on that.

Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014)

Questioner

Could someone bond with two spren and wield two swords?

Brandon Sanderson

It is theoretically possible, but the spren aren't going to like it.  So you are not going to see it very often.

Firefight Seattle Public Library signing (Jan. 7, 2015)

Aradanftw

Let's say you wanted to be the Mistborn equivalent of a Surgebinder, having all ten Surges, would the best way to do that to bond at least five Honorblades or can you bond more than one spren?

Brandon Sanderson

You could bond five Honorblades. That'd be the easiest way by far. Because convincing multiple spren to bond you is going to be really tough, so by far the easiest way is just to get... you'd actually need all ten Honor... No, you'd need five Honorblades for the five... Yeah.

. . .

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

That is a good point, but there are a couple of problems. For one thing, he says the spren wouldn't like it, so you wouldn't see it very often.  Which means it's possible, but not common. Syl said that Parshendi can not become surgebinders, meaning that as far as she knew, it was impossible, not unlikely.  

Secondly, Brandon appears to be referring to higher spren, since the questioner asks about having two shardblades. Admittedly, Syl once seemed possessive of Kaladin when some glory spren appeared around his head in Oathbringer. But on the other hand, radiants form bonds with the shardplate spren, which are lesser spren, as part of the fourth ideal, so it doesn't seem out of the question.  And the radiant spren don't always like the lesser spren of shardplate. Pattern even calls the creation spren that gather around Shallan useless things in WoR.

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

Well they likely aren't trying to bond Singers in the first place, and children don't tend to have strong personalities. Shallan is clearly the exception, not the norm.

Well, my point is to explain why the spren don't like bonding singers.  And while radiants like Shallan might be the exception, it's still a possibility, so that alone shouldn't exclude Singer children.

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I’m doing my reread of the stormlight and in RoW lift is talking to windle (storming voidbringer) and windle mention that one of the reasons that spren choose children is to mold them into the perfect radiant. So maybe humans and children are more open about their emotions then singer children and adults (they literally hum their emotions) making it easier to decide who will be a good choice?

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53 minutes ago, Rg2045 said:

I’m doing my reread of the stormlight and in RoW lift is talking to windle (storming voidbringer) and windle mention that one of the reasons that spren choose children is to mold them into the perfect radiant. So maybe humans and children are more open about their emotions then singer children and adults (they literally hum their emotions) making it easier to decide who will be a good choice?

A lot of people have had a similar theory; that humans being more expressive of their emotions makes them easier to feed off of. It was the theory I subscribed to, until I had this idea. 

Either one seems seems like a good explanation to me. But as far as I knew, I was the first one to come up with this idea about singer souls being stronger (say that three times fast) and so I wanted people’s thoughts on it. 

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On 5/21/2022 at 10:03 PM, Weltall said:

The 'broth and meat' comparison also suggests that even when bonding is an option, humans simply provide more benefits to the spren half of the bond so they would be preferred in general.

On 5/22/2022 at 8:32 AM, Letryx13 said:

That's kind of what I'm talking about.  Part of my point on this is to explain how and why humans are able to provide more benefits to the spren than singers. Perhaps the singers could have formed Nahael bonds, but that seems unlikely, if Syl is correct in telling Dalinar that a BondSmith discovered the Nahael bond.

On 5/24/2022 at 10:01 AM, Letryx13 said:

That's another possibility.  One of the Listener's songs touches on that, something about being too close to "their realm".  I think they kind of tie together.  Being too close to Shadesmar is probably also part of their connection to the spiritual realm, strengthening their souls. Or maybe their connection is what brings them too close to Shadesmar.

Here's the relevant Song (WoR Ch 32)

Spoiler

 

The spren betrayed us, it’s often felt.

Our minds are too close to their realm

That gives us our forms, but more is then

Demanded by the smartest spren,

We can’t provide what the humans lend,

Though broth are we, their meat is men.

—From the Listener Song of Spren, 9th stanza

 

I took it to mean that prior to the arrival of humans, the only bond between Singers and Spren were the bonds of forms; which are (as far as we know not done with Sapient spren**) not enough to meet the needs of the sapiant Spren. The humans came, then the first Nahel bonds were formed. Then the rift and wars came, but singers never tried to form Nahel bonds the way humans did - this verse was about comparing the Form bond and the Nahel bond, as used by Singers and Humans respectively.

Only now, finally, Timbre started trying for a Nahel Bond with a Listener (well.... two). Since Timbre communicates with Rhythms, we don't know if she is gaining Sapiance the same way that, for example, Syl did. We also don't know if Venli's ability to understand is due to the Nahel Bond, Envoy form's abilities, or the combination of both. When we see other Listeners forming bonds in book 5, that should clarify - not to mention Rlain's experience contrasted with Renarin's. 

This was also foreshadowed in Ch 33's next stanza:

Spoiler

But it is not impossible to blend

Their Surges to ours in the end.

It has been promised and it can come.

Or do we understand the sum?

We question not if they can have us then,

But if we dare to have them again.

—From the Listener Song of Spren, 10th stanza

**Note:

Spoiler

Ulim lived in Venli's gemheart without generating a different form - though there was unlikly to be a Nahel bond of any kind. And Timbre also stays in Venli's gemheart. Neither one displaced the spren that was there to provide the form - so while we know the Sapaint Spren can co-exist with a Spren in the form bond, we don't know if the sapiant spren can make a form bond since absence of data does not indicate a negative.

 

Edited by Treamayne
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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree.  I envision the Dawnsingers using the Surges directly, without needing spren mediators, or working with varying spren to accomplish a task.  After Ashyn and the humans' arrival, Honor placed restrictive limits on Surgebinding, perhaps even banning it entirely.  For a time, spren preferred humans because they were mentally farther from the Cognitive Realm.  Singers, feeling betrayed, turned to Odium who claimed he could give them the passion and emotion spren sought in humans.  As humans moved out from Shinovar, conflict between human and singer became more common.  As the conflict grew into all-out war, Odium created the first Fused.  In return, Honor created the Heralds and the Honorblades, allowing the Heralds to Surgebind again.  The spren followed Honor's lead and bonded to humans just as Heralds did to Honor.  As a result, spren became the Investiture conduit.  At this point, humanity existed in a near constant state of war.  The Singers felt rejected by the spren and did not even attempt bonding.  This state of war finally ended with the Recreance, which destroyed the Singers' minds.  As a result, bonding a spren would be near impossible.  It is quite possible that bonding with a Singer was thought to be impossible to both humans and spren, and so was never attempted.  Honor's death has also seemed to remove many restrictions from Surgebinding, which may also play a role.

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