Are spren attracted to somebody/something or do they cause it?

[Windrunner he/him]

Second, while the Team Sanderson may not have officially vetted the link, they haven't discredited it either. The fact that the Night Watcher was absent from the list when the book referenced it in regards to spren may or may not be a factor. You think Tor publishes information like this without getting approval and a nod from the materials creator? If so, then why wasn't the Night Watcher included? Sloppy research? Really? From his publisher?

I really think Brandon and his team have more important things to be doing than fact checking a Tor opinion blog. They're busy getting Words of Radiance done, working on art, revising, and all that other good stuff that gets us the work of art that Brandon always produces. Brandon's not gonna have Peter drop his editing of WoR and fact check the Tor blog. And, why would Brandon refute the article even if it did have an error? As you so rightly said, they're his publisher, that wouldn't look terribly good. Everyone understands these articles to be basically Carl's thoughts on spren along with some facts that he collected.

 

And on the topic of the Nightwatcher. In The Way of Kings, we're not supposed to understand the nature of the Nightwatcher. So why would Brandon give them behind the scene information on the Nightwatcher to exclude it in his article? This is nothing more than a simple oversight on Carl's part, or perhaps he personally doesn't consider the Nightwatcher to be a spren.

 

You're absolutely right in saying that the book quotes are a great refresher or resource. i would just be hesitant to consider any of Carl's opinions as factual. He calls them opinions too. He doesn't differentiate Syl from the rest of the windspren, which we all know to be untrue.

[Gloom he/him]

Officially, I doubt that Brandon's team would take the time to vet a Tor publication. Unofficially, I'd be pretty surprised if Brandon hasn't taken the five minutes out of a day in the months that it has been available to read it. It concerns his work. He's a curious person. He is a likable person, but he's also proud of his work. He considers himself a professional. He keeps himself informed. These are the impressions I have gotten about Brandon from his posts, his interviews, and his pod casts. Would he bother to inform Carl of an error? Possibly, but not if informing him of it would give something away.

 

I agree with your assessment of the NIghtwatcher. I'll withhold judgement on speculating as to why Carl omitted the Nightwatcher. The entire second paragraph was written in frustration because someone decided to throw your post from a different thread back in my face after I'd acknowledged that the article shouldn't be taken as fact in the thread it was intended for. I have no problem with having my opinions or theories refuted. I do have a problem with someone using a Moderators post from a different thread as an I told you so.

 

Feel free to delete this post as well as post 52 as they really don't contribute to topic of this thread.

[nightwatcher he/him]

obviously some spren have the capacity to manipulate the world around them- honorspren and Chasmfiend spren are just a couple of examples. from there, is it too much of a stretch to say that at least some of them exacerbate the phenomena they're associated with?

Edited August 18, 2013 by nightwatcher

[Gloom he/him]

Nope, I'm in favor of the theory that spren are attracted to their namesake and reinforce that event. So Honorspren would be attracted to an honorable person, and reinforce that persons honorable behavior. This helps me rationalize some of Kaladins behavior which has at times appeared to be inhumanly honorable. This would also explain why Syl went through the effort of fighting off the Deathspren. It would help explain why everything outside of Shinovar isn't a near lifeless wasteland as Lifespren would reinforce life after each Highstorm, helping it recover and adapt to the extremely harsh conditions, the lack of ground based nutrients, etc. Gloryspren obviously bring attention, and therefor more glory to the glorious.

 

It's hard to say whether this is true in regards to other spren, Do Fearspren make it more difficult to overcome fear? Do Rotspren spread infection? Do Alespren keep you drunk longer?

 

I'm open to the idea that not all spren are created equal. Some spren are stronger and have a greater influence on the world around them. This is backed up to some degree by Kaladin when he talks about larger spren having a greater amount of influence on the material world. But I would postulate that this is only scratching the surface. I think that the influence of spren on the world and its inhabitants is varied by not only size, but by type as well.

 

Edit: grammar

Edited August 18, 2013 by Gloom