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What do spren look like?


Elric

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I'm currently reading The Way of Kings, and I'm wondering -- what do spren actually look like? Is it different for different types? I imagined while reading something similar to fireflies with different colors, but when reading about deathspren it was described differently. I also imagine Syl as a sort of typical fantasy fairy-looking character. Are there any illustrations or descriptions for reference that you find helpful? 

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47 minutes ago, Elric said:

I'm currently reading The Way of Kings, and I'm wondering -- what do spren actually look like? Is it different for different types? I imagined while reading something similar to fireflies with different colors, but when reading about deathspren it was described differently. I also imagine Syl as a sort of typical fantasy fairy-looking character. Are there any illustrations or descriptions for reference that you find helpful? 

I like this one5e575ee0018c2_Emotionspren(1).thumb.jpg.f4d2dbb65f1a6d382f2dab8a30eb567b.jpg

Edited by Eternal Khol
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Each type of spren has a characteristic appearance. For example, angerspren look like pools of bubbling blood, lifespren appear as green motes of light, painspren look like grasping orange hands etc. You'll get more descriptions as you keep reading.

Syl takes on a variety of appearances but usually prefers to appear as a small humanoid woman, glowing blue-white. Brandon has mentioned that her penchant for switching between other appearances like a ribbon of light and her lack of wings was a deliberate choice to avoid her being too Tinkerbell-ish.

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9 hours ago, Elric said:

I'm currently reading The Way of Kings, and I'm wondering -- what do spren actually look like? Is it different for different types? I imagined while reading something similar to fireflies with different colors, but when reading about deathspren it was described differently. I also imagine Syl as a sort of typical fantasy fairy-looking character. Are there any illustrations or descriptions for reference that you find helpful? 

Here's some news to get you excited. It is confirmed via WoB that in Book 4 Rhythm of War, we will see artwork of all nine radiant spren both their physical and cognitive representations. I say nine, because they will be excluding the bondsmith spren to avoid spoiling what the Sibling is. 

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I think scale is important in addition to just shape, because I was imagining the spren as larger than they likely are.

https://www.tor.com/2017/10/26/revealed-the-full-endpapers-from-brandon-sandersons-oathbringer/ - these are in-world artistic drawings of what they imagine the Heralds to look like.  Although from Oathbringer there shouldn't be any spoilers in the images themselves.

The little colorful motes on the images are different relatively common types of spren.  The blue little zephyrs swirling around Jezrien (guy wearing a crown) are windspren (which Syl resembles when in motion), the green motes around Vedel (lady with the keys in one hand) are lifespren, the orange spheres rising in front of Ishar (old guy in robes) are gloryspren.

So they're a bit in scale with fireflies or sparks.  They probably look like colorful dots unless you're close enough to discern their unique shapes. There are always exceptions or larger varieties of course, but I think this gives a good sense of scale for your typical spren.

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On 2/27/2020 at 0:15 AM, Eternal Khol said:

I like this one5e575ee0018c2_Emotionspren(1).thumb.jpg.f4d2dbb65f1a6d382f2dab8a30eb567b.jpg

 

12 hours ago, Subvisual Haze said:

I think scale is important in addition to just shape, because I was imagining the spren as larger than they likely are.

https://www.tor.com/2017/10/26/revealed-the-full-endpapers-from-brandon-sandersons-oathbringer/ - these are in-world artistic drawings of what they imagine the Heralds to look like.  Although from Oathbringer there shouldn't be any spoilers in the images themselves.

The little colorful motes on the images are different relatively common types of spren.  The blue little zephyrs swirling around Jezrien (guy wearing a crown) are windspren (which Syl resembles when in motion), the green motes around Vedel (lady with the keys in one hand) are lifespren, the orange spheres rising in front of Ishar (old guy in robes) are gloryspren.

So they're a bit in scale with fireflies or sparks.  They probably look like colorful dots unless you're close enough to discern their unique shapes. There are always exceptions or larger varieties of course, but I think this gives a good sense of scale for your typical spren.

 

On 2/27/2020 at 0:27 AM, Weltall said:

Each type of spren has a characteristic appearance. For example, angerspren look like pools of bubbling blood, lifespren appear as green motes of light, painspren look like grasping orange hands etc. You'll get more descriptions as you keep reading.

Syl takes on a variety of appearances but usually prefers to appear as a small humanoid woman, glowing blue-white. Brandon has mentioned that her penchant for switching between other appearances like a ribbon of light and her lack of wings was a deliberate choice to avoid her being too Tinkerbell-ish.

Thanks — this is all good know. Spren are perhaps one of the most interesting elements of the book for me. I'm guessing by some of these replies that this concept gets deeper as the series continues. It helps to have this context. 

Edited by Elric
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