Truthspren/Liespren and the Map of Roshar

[Gaussian]

So, first, for those who are not aware of the hidden easter egg in the map of Roshar, this will bring you up to speed

 

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6912-hidden-things-in-map-of-roshar/page-36

 

Next, for a few quotes from WoK/WoR:

 

"Above the stiff high collars, where the creatures' heads should be, each had a large, floating symbol of twisted design full of impossible angles and geometries."  -WoK, p. 467

 

"Each had a different symbol, twisted and unfamiliar to her, hanging above a neckless torso"  -WoK, p. 642

 

"Those not heads had unreal angles, surfaces that melded in weird, impossible ways." -WoK, p. 643

 

"...it had a complex pattern with a huanting symmetry." -WoR, p. 66

 

"The pattern seemed impossible to capture.  Its complex repetitions twisted down into infinity...She drew it spiraling out of a center point, then re-created each branch off the center, which had its own swirl of tiny lines.  It was like a maze designed to drive its captive insane." -WoR, p. 67

 

"This pattern was different from the symbolheads in her drawings, but it was also somehow the same.  A flattened-out version, without torso or limbs.  It was an abstraction of one of them, just as a circle with a few lines in it could represent a human's face on the page."  -WoR, p. 67

 

"At the moment, he had lifted himself up off the surface of the deck, forming a ball of swirling blackness-infinite lines that twisted in ways she could never have captured on the flat page." -WoR, p. 104

 

"The complex pattern of his head, with its sharp lines and impossible geometries..." -WoR, p. 118

 

" 'Do you have a name?  I've called you Pattern, but it's more of a description.'

  'Name is numbers,' Pattern said.  'Many numbers.  Hard to say.  Pattern...Pattern is fine.' " -WoR, p. 216

 

I think this is enough quotes to the effect that Pattern's essence, as we may describe it, would be that of a fractal.  Thus his name is a set of number, Many, or infinite numbers, that describe his specific fractal.  That fractal appears to be in more than three dimensions, thus leading to the impossible geometries that Shallan observes.

 

This leads to my final conclusion, which is that the multidimensional fractals of the cryptics are directly related to the multidimensional fractal that describes Roshar (at least, the fractal from which the two dimensional projection of a three dimensional slice is the pattern for the map of Roshar).  Thus, pattern is easily able to help Shallan figure out the map of the Shattered Plains, not just because he is good at spotting patterns, but also because it is part of his very nature.  This is also why Pattern is able to help her with Illumination, with her providing the pattern, and then he guides the Stormlight iteratively to match the pattern, easily dealing with the projection from two to three dimensions by correcting the essentially chaotic expansion of the light into order based on Shallan's drawing and Memory.

 

I don't know that I have expressed this in the best way, but it is a start at least for some discussion.

[Savanorn]

It makes sense to me, especially because we've been told that is what unborn Cryptics essentially are -patterns in nature- 

 

It might also explain why they hold to no Ideals and oppose the very heavily constructed morality of the Honourspren. Nature is chaotic and not necessarily fair or moral. 

Edited August 15, 2014 by Savanorn

[Shaggai]

This is an interesting idea, but I doubt it. It's at the wrong level of arbitrarity. See this for more.