Roshar, Spren, Shards, Sentience: A Hypothesis

[Leuthie]

Short version:

-- Highstorms are natural to Roshar. Life evolved to protect itself from and make use of these storms.

--Stormlight is a natural part of Highstorms; a Spiritual leak. Whether one causes the other is not part of this. Life on Roshar developed to make use of Stormlight, growing gems in which to store it.

--Sentient life is not native to Roshar. It was created or brought to Roshar by Shards.

--The introduction of sentient life to Roshar and its cognitive interaction with the world combined by the Leak resulted in Spren.

--The interaction of Spren and native life resulted in Parshendi, a sentient being that relies on symbiotic relationships with Spren to determine Cognitive ability and Physical form.

--This ability of Spren to form bonds with life may have been spurred on by Shards.

Long form to come. Inspired by C.S. Friedman's Darkfire Trilogy, for anyone who has read it.

[Elwynn]

I love that series. But it's Coldfire trilogy for anyone who wants to look it up or read it. It's very good.

 

Short version:

-- Highstorms are natural to Roshar. Life evolved to protect itself from and make use of these storms.
--Stormlight is a natural part of Highstorms; a Spiritual leak. Whether one causes the other is not part of this. Life on Roshar developed to make use of Stormlight, growing gems in which to store it.
--Sentient life is not native to Roshar. It was created or brought to Roshar by Shards.
--The introduction of sentient life to Roshar and its cognitive interaction with the world combined by the Leak resulted in Spren.
--The interaction of Spren and native life resulted in Parshendi, a sentient being that relies on symbiotic relationships with Spren to determine Cognitive ability and Physical form.
--This ability of Spren to form bonds with life may have been spurred on by Shards.

Long form to come. Inspired by C.S. Friedman's Darkfire Trilogy, for anyone who has read it.

 

The first half is pretty good, and pretty plausible too.

 

I'd like to read more on the Rakh parallel you're refering to (which could be the spren or parshendi), it seems that is where it takes the largest leap of logic. Specifically how the spren manifested from cognitive interaction. We know the ones we've seen so far are of Honor or Cultivation, or some mixture of them, which I can't quite connect to the statement yet...

 

...but looking forward to reading your expanded version.

[Leuthie]

That leads to another question: What does "of Honor" or " of Cultivation" mean? We know that Spren are "access points" to Shard based magics. Being "of Honor" may mean the particular Spren had access to Honor's power, not necessarily that the Spren was created by Honor for that purpose.

In other words, Spren spring out from Human cognitive processes and are claimed by or tied to a Shard based on how well the Spren lines up with the Shard's intent; making an Intent conduit into the Shard's power, if you will.