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Theory: Honorspren, Cryptics, and the Ten Essences


skaa

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(Edit: According to Senior Feesh, Kiwi, and shardbearer, the original post was difficult to understand. So I revised a lot of things to improve clarity and added a list of the 17 Essence-pairs to help explain the theory. I hope it's clearer now.)

So, I was reading the WoK Ars Arcanum this morning, specifically the table of the Ten Essences, and I was trying to link each Essence to the different kinds of spren that we've seen. Note that at the start, it was all just for fun; at the time I didn't really think spren had any connection to the Essences.

Anyway, so I started with Zephyr. It obviously reminded me of windspren and Sylphrena's windspren-like form. Then there's Vapor, which could be linked to the smokespren we've seen on chasmfiends since smoke is linked to Vapor. Next, Spark reminded me of flamespren. Then I came upon Lucentia (a.k.a. light)... and then I suddenly remembered Syl's other form: the "Radiant" swordsman (swordswoman?) who fought the Deathspren around Kaladin.

It was interesting that Syl seems to be related to two of the Essences (Zephyr and Lucentia), but at first I thought it was just coincidence. Then I looked at the Divine Attributes linked to each Essence and found another coincidence: Zephyr is linked to Protecting and Leading, and Lucentia to Loving and Healing. All those things can be attributed to Kaladin, the person that Syl decided to bond to. It is also noteworthy that Syl was in her "Lucentia form" when Kaladin was in need of healing (fighting the spren associated with death), and in "Zephyr form" when he needed to protect and lead.

This made me wonder if other spren who bonded with Surgebinders showed a similar double connection to the Essences. We only know of one other such spren (unfortunately), so I decided to check them out. I'm talking about the Cryptics that bonded to Shallan, of course. We know that Shallan is dependable and resourceful, which are the attributes of Talus. And Shallan was asked by the Cryptics to say something true, meaning they value honesty, which is linked to Blood. So, the Cryptics might be linked to the Talus and Blood Essences, although I admit that it's not as convincing as Sylphrena's case.

 

To cut to the chase, here's my theory: The spren that bonded to the Knights Radiant were each connected to two Essences.

 

Let us look at the Knights Radiant chart:
tWoK_ENDSHEET-FRONT-1-webres.jpg

If you notice, the colors for each Order symbol are actually based on a gemstone associated to an Essence:

Zephyr: Top right. Sapphire. Blue, the color of the sky. Symbol of Windrunners.
Vapor: Smokestone. Smoky symbol.
Spark: Below Vapor. Ruby. Fiery red symbol.
Lucentia: Bottom right. Diamond.
Pulp: Bottom center. Emerald. Leafy symbol.
Blood: Bottom left. Garnet. Blood-red symbol.
Tallow: Blue Zircon.
Foil: Above Tallow. Amethyst.
Talus: Top left. Topaz.
Sinew: Top center, above Pulp. Heliodor.

I'm theorizing that each line connecting two Orders/Essences represents a kind of spren that has two Essences. You'll see a line connecting Zephyr and Lucentia, and a line connecting Talus and Blood, so that neatly ties in to my previous speculations regarding Syl and the Cryptics. There are 17 lines connecting each Essence all in all. Here they are, including their Divine Attributes and the possible spren connected to them:

 

(Edit: Added the spren revealed in WoR)

Zephyr-Vapor (Protecting, Just, Leading, Confident)
Zephyr-Lucentia (Protecting, Loving, Leading, Healing) - Honorspren
Zephyr-Blood (Protecting, Creative, Leading, Honest)
Zephyr-Sinew (Protecting, Pious, Leading, Guiding) - Stormfather?
Vapor-Spark (Just, Brave, Confident, Obedient)
Vapor-Tallow (Just, Wise, Confident, Careful) - Ivory?
Spark-Lucentia (Brave, Loving, Obedient, Healing)
Spark-Foil (Brave, Resolute, Obedient, Builder)
Lucentia-Pulp (Loving, Learned, Healing, Giving) - Wyndle
Lucentia-Talus (Loving, Dependable, Healing, Resourceful)
Pulp-Blood (Learned, Creative, Giving, Honest)
Pulp-Sinew (Learned, Pious, Giving, Guiding)
Blood-Tallow (Creative, Wise, Honest, Careful)
Blood-Talus (Creative, Dependable, Honest, Resourceful) - Cryptics
Tallow-Foil (Wise, Resolute, Careful, Builder)
Foil-Talus (Resolute, Dependable, Builder, Resourceful)
Talus-Sinew (Dependable, Pious, Resourceful, Guiding)

Have we met people who seem to match any of the above attributes?

Anyway, if my theory is correct, each Order might be related to more than one type of spren. Perhaps each Order has subgroups bonded to different types of spren. It could also mean that each spren can be associated to more than one Order (but probably not).

I would also like to speculate that all the spren that bonded with Surgebinders see themselves as honorspren, though they may have other names. So Cryptics might call themselves honorspren as well as truthspren, etc. Update: Wrong, as per Lift's Interlude.

What do you guys think?



Update: We now have plenty of spren-related info from Words of Radiance as well as from interviews with Brandon, and some of it provides support for my theory. One obvious example is Wyndle, who exhibits both Pulp and Lucentia properties by having an appearance of a crawling vine with crystals attached. Wyndle implied that honorspren and cryptics are separate things, so I'll have to rename this theory to fix the terminology.

Jasnah's spren Ivory is described as oily, which fits the Tallow Essence. It's kind of tricky to pinpoint a second Essence (too bad there's no Essence linked to shadows), but I'm guessing that it is Vapor. Why? Because Jasnah's spren remind me of Midnight Essence and those creatures bleed smoke (a Vapor substance). Also, Nalan (the Vapor Herald) is referred to as "Darkness" by Lift. Anyway, I think people would agree that "just, wise, confident, and careful" fits Jasnah perfectly.

We also know that Cryptics wear stiff robes, which reminds me of the Tension Surge's ability to make soft things rigid. Tension is associated with Talus and Sinew, and so this fits my Blood-Talus assignment for Cryptics.

Edited by skaa
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Not to put too much of a downer on this, but I think you might be ignoring other data to fit the theory. The Windrunner symbol also links to the symbols for orders 2 (vapour - just/confident), 6 (blood - creative/honest) and 10 (sinew -pious/guiding). I notice also that some orders only link to three others, instead of four, so I'm not sure what this implies (if anything).

 

It's always possible that there's more interplay between the orders than we've seen, but without more supporting evidence I don't see this panning out.

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Not to put too much of a downer on this, but I think you might be ignoring other data to fit the theory. The Windrunner symbol also links to the symbols for orders 2 (vapour - just/confident), 6 (blood - creative/honest) and 10 (sinew -pious/guiding). I notice also that some orders only link to three others, instead of four, so I'm not sure what this implies (if anything).

 

It's always possible that there's more interplay between the orders than we've seen, but without more supporting evidence I don't see this panning out.

 

It may just be me, but when I look at this Surge chart, I see a lot of unnecessary lines.  I believe the only ones the really matter are the line connecting Orders with Surges.

 

As for skaa's theory, it's not completely bad.  Seems a little convoluted, but maybe I'm just not understanding it correctly.  The thing I wonder about, though, is if a spren can be associated with different orders, or better yet, if multiple spren can be associated with one order, what is the deciding factor in what abilities are received?  Do the 2 spren have to be similar?  Can they be vastly different?

 

Idk... seems strange.

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Not to put too much of a downer on this, but I think you might be ignoring other data to fit the theory. The Windrunner symbol also links to the symbols for orders 2 (vapour - just/confident), 6 (blood - creative/honest) and 10 (sinew -pious/guiding). I notice also that some orders only link to three others, instead of four, so I'm not sure what this implies (if anything).

As I said, each line represents a spren with two Essences. I wasn't ignoring those lines at all! I said that if my theory was correct, each Order might be associated to more than one spren. That's because there are more than one line connecting an Order to other Orders.

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As I said, each line represents a spren with two Essences. I wasn't ignoring those lines at all! I said that if my theory was correct, each Order might be associated to more than one spren. That's because there are more than one line connecting an Order to other Orders.

 

Apologies; I misread. This could mean something then I guess - Considering the effort gone into this diagram, I doubt it any of the lines are unnecessary. It will be interesting to discover what the connections between each order mean. I hereby rescind my previous statement ;) although I'm not supporting the theory as such until we get more info, I'm not going to discount it either.

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You must be interpreting the KR table differently than I am, because from my thinking this wouldn't work. Basically, I see each Surge as aligning with an Essence. So zephyr would be the Essence of Gravity, while vapor aligns with Pressure. This would mean that the Windrunners have those two essences, while the next order would have vapor and spark.

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Some possible interpretations of the connections:

  • The circle created by the connections between surges forms an eye (or more specifically an iris)
  • All the orders are paired into a male-female connection. Could represent a "marriage" or a complement system. If that is true they may share oaths and other attributes with orders they connect to. 
  • The element combination theory: Crystal is a mixture of earth, air, fire and growth; smoke is a mixture of fire, air and water; molten metal is a mixture of earth, fire, water; blood is a mixture of water, earth, air and growth
  • The connections were drawn this way to mimic a fabrial stormlight pattern that resembles a sideways hourglass
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Apologies; I misread. This could mean something then I guess - Considering the effort gone into this diagram, I doubt it any of the lines are unnecessary. It will be interesting to discover what the connections between each order mean. I hereby rescind my previous statement ;) although I'm not supporting the theory as such until we get more info, I'm not going to discount it either.

 

It's okay. I guess I really need to practice clarity in my writing. :)

 

You must be interpreting the KR table differently than I am, because from my thinking this wouldn't work.

 

Allow me to be demonstrate what I did, then. :)

 

Please look at the table of the Ten Essences, particularly the Gemstone column. Then see if I matched each Essence to each Order in the above chart properly:

 

Zephyr: Top right. Sapphire. Blue, the color of the sky. Symbol of Windrunners.

Vapor: Smokestone. Smoky symbol.

Spark: Ruby. Fiery red symbol.

Lucentia: Bottom right. Diamond.

Pulp: Emerald. Leafy symbol.

Blood: Bottom left. Garnet. Blood-Red symbol.

Tallow: Blue Zircon.

Foil: Amethyst.

Talus: Top left. Topaz.

Sinew: Heliodor.

 

Anyway, just for reference, here's all the 17 Essence-pairs in the chart (including their Divine Attributes):

 

Zephyr-Vapor (Protecting, Just, Leading, Confident)
Zephyr-Lucentia (Protecting, Loving, Leading, Healing)
Zephyr-Blood (Protecting, Creative, Leading, Honest)
Zephyr-Sinew (Protecting, Pious, Leading, Guiding)
Vapor-Spark (Just, Brave, Confident, Obedient)
Vapor-Tallow (Just, Wise, Confident, Careful)
Spark-Lucentia (Brave, Loving, Obedient, Healing)
Spark-Foil (Brave, Resolute, Obedient, Builder)
Lucentia-Pulp (Loving, Learned, Healing, Giving)
Lucentia-Talus (Loving, Dependable, Healing, Resourceful)
Pulp-Blood (Learned, Creative, Giving, Honest)
Pulp-Sinew (Learned, Pious, Giving, Guiding)
Blood-Tallow (Creative, Wise, Honest, Careful)
Blood-Talus (Creative, Dependable, Honest, Resourceful)
Tallow-Foil (Wise, Resolute, Careful, Builder)
Foil-Talus (Resolute, Dependable, Builder, Resourceful)
Talus-Sinew (Dependable, Pious, Resourceful, Guiding)
 
The attributes would be the things that each "bondspren" looks for in its host. Perhaps we can look for characters that match one of those 17 sets of attributes. Do any of these sound like someone we've already met in WoK?
Edited by skaa
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Ok, I see what your saying. For some of what we know your model makes more sense than mine. But I do have one reason that's keeping me from changing my mind for the time being. Let me try to explain my thinking.

post-2885-0-15617500-1371322210_thumb.jp

As you can see, I added "stonesinew" to Taln's order, because that is one of his nicknames. Since the body focus of talus is rock and stone, stonesinew seems like a combination of those two essences.

Edit: maybe you can't see it. I had to shrink the image to get it to the right file size.

Edited by shardbearer
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As you can see, I added "stonesinew" to Taln's order, because that is one of his nicknames. Since the body focus of talus is rock and stone, stonesinew seems like a combination of those two essences.

 

Ah, I see what you mean. I think "sinew" in this case doesn't refer to the Essence, because "Stonesinew" implies a body made of stone (metaphorically speaking in the case of Taln, I'm sure), while the Essence of Sinew would be associated specifically with bodies made of meat/flesh.

 

Of course, under my model, Taln's Order would be able to bond with "Talus-Sinew" spren, so it actually can accommodate your interpretation of that moniker. :D

Edited by skaa
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