Spren Evolution

[Trusk'our he/him]

Given Navani's latest attempts to tame Spren, I wonder, could individual Lesser Spren begin to evolve into more unique beings?

Like, let's say an artist attracts a Creationspren every time they doodle. They take note of it, pleased at its mimicry, then try directly copying its depiction of their art. The Spren changes more based off of the attention they're given, adapting further over time.

Eventually, assuming the artist recognizes the Spren over a long enough period of time, will it develop more of a unique Identity? Identity is tied to appearance (as the tamed Flamespren and Taln show us in WaT), but Identity also seems to bring with it greater cognition and autonomy.

So, how far will it go? Will it incorporate little bits of Investiture over time into itself to match its growing Identity, maybe become a unique True Spren eventually? 

Or, what if an individual Lesser Spren sticks with a group, maybe a guild, gang, or family. If many members of the group put a lot of thought into the Spren, will it stick around more and help them in small ways? Maybe the Spren will adapt over generations?

It'd be kinda cool if an army learned to incorporate Spren as a direct weapon this way, carrying Stormlight with them so the Spren could activate their abilities (like how Lifespren can use Stormlight and the right Rhythm to grow plants, maybe they could help heal the wounded, or maybe Flamespren could zip out and burn the enemies of the army, or Windspren deflect incoming arrows).

[Lord Ruler Sylphrena He/Him]

14 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Given Navani's latest attempts to tame Spren, I wonder, could individual Lesser Spren begin to evolve into more unique beings?

Like, let's say an artist attracts a Creationspren every time they doodle. They take note of it, pleased at its mimicry, then try directly copying its depiction of their art. The Spren changes more based off of the attention they're given, adapting further over time.

Eventually, assuming the artist recognizes the Spren over a long enough period of time, will it develop more of a unique Identity? Identity is tied to appearance (as the tamed Flamespren and Taln show us in WaT), but Identity also seems to bring with it greater cognition and autonomy.

So, how far will it go? Will it incorporate little bits of Investiture over time into itself to match its growing Identity, maybe become a unique True Spren eventually? 

Or, what if an individual Lesser Spren sticks with a group, maybe a guild, gang, or family. If many members of the group put a lot of thought into the Spren, will it stick around more and help them in small ways? Maybe the Spren will adapt over generations?

It'd be kinda cool if an army learned to incorporate Spren as a direct weapon this way, carrying Stormlight with them so the Spren could activate their abilities (like how Lifespren can use Stormlight and the right Rhythm to grow plants, maybe they could help heal the wounded, or maybe Flamespren could zip out and burn the enemies of the army, or Windspren deflect incoming arrows).

I feel its highly unlikely lesser spren could evolve into true spren just because there creation methods are different. Domesticated spren is definitely something that should be explored though. In the same way that Syl grew more aware as her bond with Kaladin grew I imagine you could create a rapport with a flame/windspren.

I don't think individual spren are capable of much. They just don't have enough investiture or strength in the physical realm to do much. However, with bondsmithing or some other way to increase connection a herd of lesser spren could do a lot. Radiant plate is just many lesser spren forming together. It could be possible to bypass the oaths and make a shardplate fabrial if you have command of enough lesser spren. More powerful regular fabrials is also a strong possibility.

I feel the end goal could be making humans similar to singers or ryshaduim. Amaram's army bonded void spren during the battle of Thaylen Field so humans are clearly capable under special circumstances. Imagine a army of humans all 10 feet tall or able to leap large distances with gravitation spren. You could also gain Kaladins early windrunner power of deflecting arrows with windspren. Moash had some crazy crystal spikes in his eyes and I imagine trapping some spren and implanting them would be a excellent way to facilitate a lesser spren human bond. Making friends with them also works but at the end of the day hemalurgy is easier.

I think the 3 most useful things you could potentially do with lesser spren are: making new fabrials such as shardplate or better half-shards. Use herds of spren to cause chaos in enemy ranks/mess up their fabrials. Make a form of proto-singer with humans gaining the enhanced physical stats of a ryshadium etc.

These seem like ways to dramatically boost the power of the average Rosharan but unfortunately the phrase herding cats comes to mind when thinking of this idea. Maybe with Lord Ruler levels of emotional allomancy you could pull it of but otherwise I think being spiked would be less emotionally taxing.

Edited March 11, 2025 by Lord Ruler Sylphrena
Added info

[Elite01]

I think its akin to forging a bond with animals. If you were a shepherd and your family watched over a flock for generations then the sheep could act differently for you than for other people. Like maybe some sailors have windspren that power their boat, things like that would be possible but like animals wouldn't always be consistent. 

Its tough to say now but my main theory is there will be spren farmers/herders who cultivate groups of spren to get them to help with certain tasks. 

[Nitpicking]

On 3/11/2025 at 1:11 PM, Lord Ruler Sylphrena said:

I feel its highly unlikely lesser spren could evolve into true spren just because there creation methods are different.

Syl explains how truespren are created: from regular spren. What she describes isn't spontaneous, but it is the transformation of windspren into Honorspren.