Shallan’s first spren

[Tripp she/her]

This is a question that most likely has been asked, but here we go. In WoR Kaladin was able to have his bond with Syl again after breaking his oath. Something patten says mentions that “ if their knigts still lived maybe something could be done”. He said that when talking of spren who are mindless. In RoW we see Shallans first spren, who she broke her bond with. Could she help her old cryptic and have two spren. I just want some theories or something for this question I’ve had.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Tripp

[alder24]

24 minutes ago, Tripp said:

This is a question that most likely has been asked, but here we go. In WoR Kaladin was able to have his bond with Syl again after breaking his oath. In RoW we see Shallans first spren, who she broke her bond with. Could she help her old cryptic and have two spren or is that just something with the orders that have oaths? I just want some theories or something for this question I’ve had.

Welcome to the Shard! 

Kaladin's situation with Syl was a bit different, because he didn't fully break his Oaths, but was very close to it. Shallan did it fully. Shallan can help her, it's very likely that if she reswear her Oaths, Testament will be fully back (which isn't possible for normal Deadeye, as their original Knights are dead, Shallan is alive). And Shallan is already in process of reconstructing her Oaths, I believe "I'm terrified" spoken in WoK was one of Oaths resweared.

Spoiler

enceladus_47

Does Shallan's "I killed my spren" count as a truth?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna leave up to theorizing, figuring out the timeline that's going on with Shallan. What we can say is that Shallan is reconstructing, in many cases, oaths she has said before. And it is working slightly differently than someone who is saying new oaths. And indeed, saying she killed her spren is one of those steps. I'll leave it to you to try and parse through that. It's actually pretty complicated. We have a nice big page explaining all of this stuff internally, to make sure that we're keeping it all straight. Because she has violated oaths and reconstructed them, is basically what's happening. And she is regressing, and she's doing a... 1.1 steps forward, 1 step back, sort of thing, kind of frequently.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

The dead Shardblades, could you possibly get Stormlight into them to reawaken them?

Brandon Sanderson

Dead Shardblade, could you pump enough Stormlight into them? That alone would not be enough.

Questioner

So you would have to find someone to re-swear with oaths?

Brandon Sanderson

There is something broken on the Spiritual Realm because of the broken oath and simple Stormlight will not fix that.

Questioner

So say--

Brandon Sanderson

If the person were still alive and could re-swear the oath then yes.

Questioner

But someone like [...] could go [...] the Spiritual Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

It is not outside of reason but it would be very, very, very difficult.

Firefight release party (Jan. 5, 2015)

 

Spoiler

Kaladin al'Thor

I noticed my last time reading Words of Radiance that there were several times-- vines that were on Adolin's shardblade as he summoned it. So I was wondering if maybe the Radiant who used it had was an Edgedancer?

Brandon Sanderson

You are right.

Kaladin al'Thor

You mentioned before that it would be possible to revive a dead shard[blade], but it would be very difficult--

Brandon Sanderson

Very difficult.

Kaladin al'Thor

Like I think what you said is that it would have to be the same person that broke the bond?

Brandon Sanderson

That would be the-- Yeah.

Kaladin al'Thor

So if it was an Edgedancer's blade if he made those same oaths could potentially he…

Brandon Sanderson

That would most likely not be enough. Something else would have to happen. Good guess though.

Firefight release party (Jan. 5, 2015)

 

And yes, it's possible to bond multiple spren

Spoiler

tganchero (paraphrased)

Is it true that humans can bond to multiple spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

They can theoretically bond to multiple spren.

Words of Radiance Lexington signing (March 18, 2014)

 

If you want to read some theories about Shallan's Truths with Testament and her recreating the bond, I will shamelessly promote my own here - https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/117629-shallans-true-truths-row/