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Szeth's Spren [Discuss]


Child of Hodor

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Szeth's current spren has never spoken to him. He sees glimpses of it and can faintly sense it sometimes, but it doesn't talk to him directly. 

Szeth tells Nightblood that when Szeth was younger he had a voice in his head similar to Nightblood's

Quote

"I knew a voice like you once, sword-nimi."

The whispers?

"No. A single one in my mind, when I was young." ... "I hope things go better this time"  OB Ch. 90

Was the voice in Szeth's head from years ago actually his current spren? As in he bonded this spren at a low level years ago and it never really left him. Or they never quite bonded, but the spren has kept an eye on Szeth and thinks its OK to resume the bonding process now. 

That would be the writerly reason not to have them speak directly, Szeth would recognize the voice.  In-world you could say it's because the spren doesn't like Nightblood or something, but really it's to keep it a surprise.  

What's been going on in between then and now? I dunno, but we already had the testament / pattern weirdness we can have a dormant bond restored or the bond was not fully established and the spren has been hanging around Szeth observing. 

Edited by Child of Hodor
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16 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

Szeth's current spren has never spoken to him. He sees glimpses of it and can faintly sense it sometimes, but it doesn't talk to him directly. 

Szeth tells Nightblood that when Szeth was younger he had a voice in his head similar to Nightblood's

Was the voice in Szeth's head from years ago actually his current spren? As in he bonded this spren at a low level years ago and it never really left him. Or they never quite bonded, but the spren has kept an eye on Szeth and thinks its OK to resume the bonding process now. 

That would be the writerly reason not to have them speak directly, Szeth would recognize the voice.  In-world you could say it's because the spren doesn't like Nightblood or something, but really it's to keep it a surprise.  

What's been going on in between then and now? I dunno, but we already had the testament / pattern weirdness we can have a dormant bond restored or the bond was not fully established and the spren has been hanging around Szeth observing. 

Ooh, interesting thought.

Wouldn't Nale know if a highspren had been hanging out Szeth for years?  Wouldn't his spren have told him, and sent the Skybreakers to recruit him?  Or maybe they did, but then Szeth's whole truthless drama got in the way-- but would explain why Nale was on hand instantly to revive Szeth after he died-- if he was already on Nale's radar.


Unless this is some renegade highspren going off on his own.

Spren in general are rare in Shinovar, right?  Have we seen or heard of any Shin surgebinders at this point (either from Dalinar's visions of the past, or current day)?  Do the Shin even bond (other than Szeth)?

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The voice in Szeth's head when he was young was not his current spren. He's literally died since then. His current spren was basically given to him by Nale.

Unmade or some previous spren looking to bond him (the potential bond might be what actually led to him being deemed Truthless).

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12 hours ago, Leuthie said:

The voice in Szeth's head when he was young was not his current spren. He's literally died since then. His current spren was basically given to him by Nale.

Unmade or some previous spren looking to bond him (the potential bond might be what actually led to him being deemed Truthless).

I think it’s possible that Szeth’s current spren happens to be the same one from way back when. It could have been following him around the whole time, or it could have specifically sought him out after he joined the Skybreakers. 

 

But it could also be a completely different spren. There’s certainly something weird going on with the current spren, and I don’t think we have enough info to say either way.

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3 hours ago, Frustration said:

He never got to the point the bond would have broken.

So we're speculating that he had a spren bond the whole time? Why? Because he heard a voice like Nightblood? Totally possible, but would be a strange and barely relevant reveal at this point. We've already done the "previously had a spren/had a spren the whole time" with Shallan.

6 minutes ago, RedBlue said:

I think it’s possible that Szeth’s current spren happens to be the same one from way back when. It could have been following him around the whole time, or it could have specifically sought him out after he joined the Skybreakers. 

Of course it's possible that Szeth had a spren. He could have been followed around by the Rosharan version of Santa Claus. I guess I spoke in absolute terms, but anything is possible.

32 minutes ago, RedBlue said:

But it could also be a completely different spren. There’s certainly something weird going on with the current spren, and I don’t think we have enough info to say either way.

There's only something weird with the current spren because it's different from other spren. Lopen's spren doesn't speak to him (literally wrote on itself as a blade to inform Lopen that he reached 3rd Ideal). Spren aren't copies of each other, and we already know that highspren are considered strange even among spren. 

Personally, I believe the voice Szeth heard in his youth was a different spren, whether a Radiant spren or an Unmade.

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1 minute ago, Leuthie said:

So we're speculating that he had a spren bond the whole time? Why? Because he heard a voice like Nightblood? Totally possible, but would be a strange and barely relevant reveal at this point. We've already done the "previously had a spren/had a spren the whole time" with Shallan.

I was just saying that his "death" was not evidence against it, I don't think he had a bond, I'm thinking it's an unmade but that's besides the point.

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@RedBlueIt is my personal belief that the spren bonded to Szeth now isn't the one he was bonding/did bond then (if he was indeed on the process to become a Knight's radiant). My reason for this is that he has MASSIVELY changed as a person since then. Specifically the shenanigans he did as Truthless made him the sort of person that works with a highspren because he was forced to do things he wouldn't normally find okay to obey his oaths. That seems to fit how the Skybreakers operate now with Nale as their head. 

The real question is what order he would have fit and when it happened. If so, he's one of the first three people we know were communicating with Radiant spren (Jasnah and Shallan being the other two). That suggests he's a perfect fit for whatever order it is. 

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Random thought:  We're all assuming that the voice Szeth used to hear was a spren.  I mean it makes sense, because, Roshar.

But what if it wasn't?  What if it was a voice *like Nightblood*?  (I think that full Cosmere spoilers are okay in here?  Tagging just in case, for Mistborn Era 2)

Spoiler

I can't stop thinking about that Broadsheet ad, for "Are your tools talking to you?  Come see K(hriss?) and N(azh?), bring the tool with you" (paraphrase).  

We don't really know what kind of weird invested stuff is floating around out there.  Just because Nightblood is super extreme and dangerously unmistakable doesn't mean that there aren't others.  "Azure" definitely had an invested sword that seemed a lot more benign than Nightblood.  

I mean who KNOWS what is going on over there in Shinovar...

 

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