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Are Spren endemic to Roshar ?


Friendshipspren

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Ok so why aren't Spren more common in the Cosmere ? I understand they are like bits of shards namely honor and cultivation. But why only roshar ? Sure seons and skaze are basically Spren but they aren't nearly as diverse as Spren , not to mention Spren have entire ecosystems in the cognitive realm. 

Hmmm could if be that Spren could exist on Sel as well , but the dor is dangerous to them too , like sel's cognitive realm is the magical equivalent of a nuclear wasteland from what I've read and so could it be that only the seons and skaze which reside completely in the physical realm survived ?? 

Also are Spren present on Ashyn ?

Khriss says they are present on braize too but idk. I'm pretty sure braise is only inhabited by parshendi ghosts . 

And it's stated that Highstorms were phenomenon that existed before the Shattering , albeit in a less magical way . So could Spren have existed pre shattering as well ? Maybe they would all be non sentient and very less diverse and rarer but could they exist without Shardic investiture .

If that's the case , then again why only Roshar or the greater Rosharan system as the case maybe  ??? 

Also  there's the  ambiguity about ambition. Like we know she was splintered but don't know if her investiture was contained into the cognitive realm like the dor , but I guess it probably wasn't. So could Spren also exist somewhere in the threnodite system or the hypothetical planet where ambition went to die ? 

Edited by PrinceGenocide
A little polishing
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Roshar has a lot of free floating investiture just hanging around, which makes it easier to coalesce and become sentient. Also, a lot of them were created by Adonalsium before the Shattering. Other places don't tend to have enough free investiture to form into spren, and the Shards in those areas aren't interested in creating them.

Seons and Skaze are basically spren. Remember that the definition of a spren, in Roshar terms, is just sentient (or sapient) investiture.

Khriss says Ashyn is inhabited by sapient Splinters. I would call them Cognitive Shadows rather than spren, myself.

If you consider Cognitive Shadows as spren (I don't) then the shades on Threnody could be considered spren (probably of Ambition). Her investiture was probably not contained in the CR, since there was no one around to do that--she managed to get away from Odium before she died and Splintered.

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I think it’s just that different shards have different types of splinters whether intentionally or as a byproduct of their intent.  

I’d assume that spren are native to the entire rosharian system and weren’t there before shardic inhabitation. However they would no longer be on Ashyn because it’s completely (I think) abandoned and spren rely on other beings to form.

Edit: welp rshara beat me too it. I’d probably go with her thoughts. 

Edited by Truthwatcher_17.5
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As @RSharasaid, spren is just a local term, and we've Sen similar thing elsewhere.

But spren are inbuilt into Roshar. They are not only a result of the free floating Investiture, but a fundamental part of the ecology itself, as the system was designed by Adonalsium. 

The sapient spren didn't exist before the Shards arrived (with a few exceptions), but spren bonds in the singers and other fauna are integratel to the way the ecological system functions. This in built system is actually why there are more spren as a result of Honor's splintering than the Seons and Skaze on Sel, despite them being a product of Dominion and Devotions deaths as well. 

Quote

sufficientlyadvanced

It says that it's dangerous to travel to Shadesmar on Sel. Why?

Brandon Sanderson

It has to do with the Dor and the lack of an entity controlling much of the power Odium left in his wake on Sel.

Phantine

Woah, that's interesting. I had no idea Odium left little bits of his power on Sel... I guess it kinda makes sense for evil monks to be powered by pure hate, though.

Brandon Sanderson

Odium did not leave his power behind, one should note. He left several other powers which are now, to a large extent, mindless...

Windrunner

If you wouldn't mind answering, does Roshar have a similar problem, with Honor being Splintered?

Brandon Sanderson

No, Roshar does not have the same problem. There are some differences going on. (One reason being that the spren are far more extensive on Roshar, and provide something of a "release valve." The seons and the skaze on Sel are not numerous enough to fulfill a similar function. Though, of course, that's only one part of the puzzle. Raw power is dangerous.

It's one reason everyone should be thankful Kelsier was around on Scadrial.

General Reddit 2013 (March 11, 2013)

 

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