Spren- which shard they are related to.

[valkynphyre]

I'm fairly certain spren are a product of the shard the Alethi refer to as the Almighty. "Elithanithile." He who transforms.

Since the spren only appear when change has occurred, as noted by Kaladin's mother and several of the scholars. I feel this is the natural fit.

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

My thinking is that the spren are a natural result of the ambient magics of all the Shards on Roshar.  Though that's a good thought too.

[Andrew the Great]

I don't know that we can claim that the spren are related to any one Shard. But if they were, a shard related to change would certainly be a good bet.

[Shivertongue]

The Shard of Awesome. Held naturally by a being known only as "That Dude".

[Chaos]

That's an interesting theory. I still worry that the quote where Elithanithile may refer to Adonalsium itself, not just the Almighty's Shard specifically. It does say that "the power by which the Almighty created Roshar," (or something very close to that. I'm paraphrasing) which would at least mean Adonalsium.

[Zas678]

What is the quote for Elithanithile? Just for reference.

[Munin]

That's an interesting theory. I still worry that the quote where Elithanithile may refer to Adonalsium itself, not just the Almighty's Shard specifically. It does say that "the power by which the Almighty created Roshar," (or something very close to that. I'm paraphrasing) which would at least mean Adonalsium.

Not necessarily. The Almighty could have created the planet on his own.

Or maybe the Vorin faith is wrong on that point.

[KChan]

True. We don't have much information on the Almighty's Shard, but Cultivation also seems like a good candidate. Perhaps the Almighty created the planet itself, Cultivation gave it live, and Vorinism, not knowing any better, attributed the whole process to the Almighty himself.

As for the spren, many of them seem to just be part of the ambient magic on Roshar, as has been mentioned before. However, two types of spren we've seen thus far - honorspren and the as-of-yet unnamed "symbolheads" (if they really are spren) - are different from the others; they are sentient, capable of communication, and are directly involved with two types of magic on Roshar: Surgebinding and Soulcasting, respectively. If any spren is a good candidate for being related to a shard, it's those two, not the more common varieties like rainspren or gloryspren.

[Munin]

My guess is that the symbol creatures are Stormlightspren.

[KChan]

Or Shadespren, since they're related to Shadesmar.

[Andrew the Great]

I don't know. Both Stormlight and Shadesmar are very broad, with a lot more involved than the wavy line spren. After all, the spren don't appear to be attracted to Shadesmar or Stormlight in particular. They just allow someone to use both of them. Most likely, they're spren attracted to some given personality trait, as we've seen so far. Although I'm not really sure what trait that would be. Intelligence?

[Chaos]

My personal thought is that the spren are of Cultivation.

[Munin]

I don't know. Both Stormlight and Shadesmar are very broad, with a lot more involved than the wavy line spren. After all, the spren don't appear to be attracted to Shadesmar or Stormlight in particular. They just allow someone to use both of them. Most likely, they're spren attracted to some given personality trait, as we've seen so far. Although I'm not really sure what trait that would be. Intelligence?

Thoughtspren?

[Zas678]

I wonder if Syl can see the Shadespren ( I like that name). Can the spren see each other even if others can't? We know that Rock can see Syl. Can he see Shadespren too? If not, does that mean that they aren't really spren?

[KChan]

I'm pretty sure you can only see the symbolheads if you're a Soulcaster, though I'm currently unsure whether or not you have to have inherent Soulcasting to be able to see them. Other spren might be able to, though. We haven't really seen them interact with their more typical cousins, so it's hard to say.

[Andrew the Great]

Of course, we haven't really seen their cousins interact with much of anything, so therein lies a large part of the problem.

The way that I saw it, the spren can see everything that humans can. We never see them seeing anything more or less. Although it would be interesting if Syl could see the wavy line spren.

[Deano Stormblessed]

My guess is that the symbol creatures are Stormlightspren.

They are obviously honestyspren. They feed off honesty which is an attribute linked to one of the ten essences, which is connected to an order of the knights radiant. Creativity is also an attribute of that same essence- which defines Shallan perfectly. That is why they follow her around.

[Andrew the Great]

I like truthspren better. Also, I'm not quite clear how creativity is in any way linked to honesty. In fact, in my experience, creativity tends to go better with lying, as you have to be creative to lie, whereas to tell the truth you don't really have to think. At all.

EDIT: Oh, never mind. You were talking about the ten essences. That makes SO much more sense. Ok. I could maybe see that then...

[Deano Stormblessed]

Truthspren, much better. Why didn't I think of that?  ??? 

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

I like truthspren better. Also, I'm not quite clear how creativity is in any way linked to honesty. In fact, in my experience, creativity tends to go better with lying, as you have to be creative to lie, whereas to tell the truth you don't really have to think. At all.

I dunno, it's said that art is an expression of truth the eye of the beholder.

After thinking of "He who transforms" and Geranid's Principle, I'm actually torn between thinking that the spren are the result of ambient magic or the Almighty specifically.

[Chaos]

Tell me again what "ambient magic" is?

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

Well, to me, "ambient magic" means the presence of of a Shard, or Shards, on a planet, which creates magic on its own.  My theory is that this is where all of the magic used by humans comes from.  It can also affect the environment, and in turn, be affected by it.  e.g., spren.

[Puck]

I'm with Chaos on this one; things like "ambient magic" are very un-Brandon. In his annotations on Elantris, he berates himself for having the source of the slime be something that couldn't be deduced from given information (even though it was just an ancillary touch of flavor). I can just imagine him cringing at phrases like "ambient magic."  Let's not settle for that solution; it's a little too wave-of-the-wand.

It can also affect the environment, and in turn, be affected by it.  e.g., spren.

By this you mean that Spren:[shard x]::Tears of Edgli:Endowment::Atium:Ruin::etc.? Now that might be something worth investigation

[Kykeon]

Honour spren were the almighty's gift to humanity so they might face the voidbringers on equal terms.

All other spren are basically splinters of the almighty's conciousness that manifest everywhere there is activity or change.

I believe this because king Noedan spoke of Honour-spren as sentient entities in one of Dalinar's vision, while Dalinar himself saw none of the common spren, and even commented on it to himself.

There are no life/ale/water spren, just different forms of the same power.

[Tulir]

Ok, so what I am about to say isn't really related to the subject, but I have no idea where else to put it. In the Interludes(I think thats what they are called), we are introduced to a spren researcher who appears to be immortal because he said his work would take only a couple more centuries, and to two ardents that were researching spren attributes and discovered that the spren change to match a measurement, and I was wondering, do we know how they relate to the book?