Spren Exist Everywhere

[Bromo_Sapien]

So I'm in the middle of rereading The Emperor's Soul for the first time in awhile. On Day 12, Shai is explaining Forging to Gaotona in realmatic terms and says the following:

 

" '...as the wall wants to act as a whole.'

'The wall,' Gaotona said flatly, 'wants to be treated as a whole.'

'Yes.'

'You imply that the wall has a soul.'

'All things do.' she said. 'Each object sees itself as something.' "

 

Is it just me, or does that sound very much like the idea of spren? Spren are the physical embodiment of items' (alespren, flamespren, groundspren) and concepts' (awespren, hungerspren, painspren) perceptions of themselves. We have seen spren existing in Shadesmar, but what if there are "spren" in the other "worlds" in the Cognitive Realm? Basically what I'm saying is that the wall Shai uses in her example has a "spren" in the Cognitive Realm and Forging convinces this "spren" that it is different, somehow. We, or at least I, think of spren as being limited to Roshar/ Shadesmar but I believe that is merely the only place they are physically embodied as well as cognitively and that you could conceivably find the equivalent of tablespren and gloryspren in the Cognitive Realm of Sel, Taldain, Scandrial, or Nalthis (obviously adjusted for their specific cultures and peoples).

 

 

 

[Argent he/him]

Kind of. All things exist in all three realms (Shai's words), so all things have a cognitive aspect. Spren are just kind of... supercharged in that regard. So in a way, yes, there are spren everywhere, but I think it's more accurate to say that there are cognitive aspects everywhere, but they are very strongly expressed on Roshar.

[Bromo_Sapien]

Rereading my original post and Argent's reply, I realize I didn't explain myself well last night (that's what I get for trying to form a coherent post at midnight). It's not just that all things have a cognitive aspect; it's that all things have a cognitive aspect which can be interacted with within the Cognitive Realm. If all things have a Cognitive aspect which can be interacted with, then there could be a Selish equivalent of Cryptics or Scadrian Honorspren or Nalthian Highspren (obviously all existing solely in the Cognitive Realm, unlike the spren of Roshar), not merely a table whose history you could change.

[Stark he/him]

I'm not convinced.  We have seen in WoR when Shallan interacts with both the ship and the stick, that the items have cognitive aspects, and I believe that it has been confirmed that everything exists in all three realms.  But Spren are different.  The are sentient splinters of Honor, similar to the Seons.  The stick, the ship, the brick and the wall all have souls and cognitive identities, but I think to have a sentient cognitive aspect, you need a splinter.

 

Just being on an invested planet is not enough.  If it was, we would have seen Spren, and other Spren like beings everywhere already.  

 

I think you have the right idea.  The cognitive realm is *everywhere*.  But manifestations of it in the physical realm are very limited, and seem to be limited to locations where Shards were splintered and the splinters interacted uniquely the local investiture.  Everywhere else, you can find Cognitive representations of your everyday items in Shadesmar.  (Check out the Secret Histories for more examples?)

[JoModius]

There is also a distinction between Radiant spren, created by Honor/Cultivation, voidbringer spren, created by Odium, and regular spren, created by Adonalsium.

Now, I don't know if the regular spren are confirmed to be splinters of Adonalsium. but my recollection is that the physical and cognitive realms are very close on Roshar, potentially due to the high level of investment from Adonalsium in that area, and as a result the cognitive aspects that regular objects have can bleed through into the physical realm as spren.