Spren bonds boost intelligence

[Ciridae]

I was always a little bothered by how Shallan was saved by the santhid, it felt too much like the getting saved by a dolphin trope to me. It was credited to the unusually high intelligence of the santhid, but there was no real explanation for why it was so much smarter than most other fauna. Other greatshells seem to share this trait, chasmfiends prove to be far more intelligent than Shallan or Kaladin expected. I don't know what the consensus is on how the Tai-Na work, but the greatshell's spren saved Rysn and could 'give' her a Larkin. Minor OB sample chapter spoiler: 

Spoiler

Ryshadium are another notable example of above-average intelligence fauna bonded to spren.

They all have the bond with spren in common, I propose that they are the reason for the increased intelligence.

We see something similar with the Listeners. In dullform they are basically helpless. It's not hard to see how a spren bond makes them more intelligent, and this is one of the few instances where we know for certain that it's the spren that causes the increase in intelligence. 

It's a little bit tricky for radiants, but I found something that could fit with the pattern. I recently read about the theory of multiple intelligences (link). It's a theory, not proven fact, but I thought it fit nicely with what we see in the books.

Kaladin seems to gain bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. He has increased proprioception and timing, and we see the lack of it when he's without Syl. While all radiants gain increased physical enhancements through stormlight, Kaldin's abilities with the spear are not limited to times when he has access to kinetic investiture. 

Shallan gains mnemonic abilities, her visual-spacial intelligence is boosted. We don't know much about Jasnah but if her good sense of orientation is her perk she may fall under this category as well. IIRC other ancient lightweavers had notable musical abilities (falling under mnemonic abilities) so they may have gained musical-rhythmic intelligence. 

Lift seems to gain either interpersonal or verbal-linguistic abilities judging from her interaction with the street urchin. 

I realize that most of these perks are the result of the mixing of powers and resonance, but I think a resonance could be classified as a boost in intelligence, depending on how you define it. The biggest issue I see is that there is no evident mixing of powers in the other examples. 

Sorry for the wall of text, let me know what you think.

 

[ZenBossanova]

Masterful! That makes a lot of sense, especially for a Cognitive Entity. 

[Spoolofwhool]

13 hours ago, Ciridae said:

Shallan gains mnemonic abilities, her visual-spacial intelligence is boosted. We don't know much about Jasnah but if her good sense of orientation is her perk she may fall under this category as well. IIRC other ancient lightweavers had notable musical abilities (falling under mnemonic abilities) so they may have gained musical-rhythmic intelligence. 

The mnemonic abilities are a resonance formed from possessing the ability to bind the surge of illumination and transformation. They're not due to the spren bond, and someone who gained the ability to surgebind from another source, such as holding an Honorblade, would gain that resonance as well.

[Ciridae]

1 hour ago, Spoolofwhool said:

The mnemonic abilities are a resonance formed from possessing the ability to bind the surge of illumination and transformation. They're not due to the spren bond, and someone who gained the ability to surgebind from another source, such as holding an Honorblade, would gain that resonance as well.

Mistborn spoilers,

Spoiler

You're right, the argument about lightweaver resonance as an example falls apart quickly when we look at twinborn, who also have resonances but no bond whatsoever. 

On another note though, hemalurgic spikes grant sapience to kandra, and Brandon has said that that is a common thing for them to do. Hemalurgy is basically shoving investiture into forcefully created soulcracks, adding to the spiritweb like a sprenbond. 

So perhaps there's a point at which additions of investiture like spren bonds can only minimally boost intelligence, so sentient creatures like santhidyn get closer to sapience while humans get minor boosts (inquisitors don't get as large a boost as kandra because they are already sapient).

I'd like to revise my point in Shallan's boost in intelligence. It's not that she can remember something incredibly well, its that she can replicate a memory with exceptional skill. This woukd still fall under visual-spacial intelligence. She may just be talented, but I think if Pattern ever left she would notice her skills decreasing. Kaladin also always thought his skill with the spear was pure talent and practice, and while he was talented, like Shallan is a talented artist, I believe the spren bond boosted their ability. 

After thinking a lot about this, the underlying principle of this may be why chunks of investiture, if left alone, become sentient or sapient. The amount of investiture the spren are composed of probably correlates with the level of intelligence they possess. Minor spren like painspren seem to be something like Cognitive Realm animals and seem to be sentient. Larger spren like radiant spren are fully sapient. After that, the spren grow more powerful but not necessarily more intelligent. The stormfather doesn't seem vastly more intelligent than a regular radiantspren. The point I made above about the upper limit being standard human sentience seems to apply to splinters too.

[Sanderson-Savant]

I like this theory, but what about shards? We know that ruin, a God and thus a LOT of investiture, could influence multiple ares of Scardrial at once, suggesting multiple trains of thought, which is pretty damnation smart. I think that the whole shard thing agrees with your overall theory, but less so with the human intelligence cap.

[roose bolton]

wow, I love this theory!

Could Mr T somehow related to this?

[Spoolofwhool]

8 hours ago, Ciridae said:

Mistborn spoilers,

  Reveal hidden contents

You're right, the argument about lightweaver resonance as an example falls apart quickly when we look at twinborn, who also have resonances but no bond whatsoever. 

On another note though, hemalurgic spikes grant sapience to kandra, and Brandon has said that that is a common thing for them to do. Hemalurgy is basically shoving investiture into forcefully created soulcracks, adding to the spiritweb like a sprenbond. 

 

Spoiler

Kandra don't gain sapience because of the spikes adding extra investiture to them. They become sapient because the spikes allow them to overcome a block between their cognitive and physical.

Quote

NINJAMETIMBERS

How intelligent is a mistwraith? Could you raise and train mistwraiths like dogs or horses, controlling what forms they take by the bones you give them? Would you be able to train yourself a horsewraith steed by giving it only the bones of a horse?

BRANDON SANDERSON

This is feasible. One thing to keep in mind is that mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the physical and the cognitive realm, messing with their ability to think. Think of them as mentally-stunted people. There's enough there to train, but then you have to dig into the ethics of it...

[Source]

 

8 hours ago, Ciridae said:

Kaladin also always thought his skill with the spear was pure talent and practice, and while he was talented, like Shallan is a talented artist, I believe the spren bond boosted their ability. 

I agree that the spren bond boosted his skill with the spear, but that would be a muscle memory improvement, not an intellectual improvement. 

Overall, while I agree that there is a general correlation, I don't think it is that spren bonds specifically improve intelligence, but more that intelligence is a part of what they improve overall, as it's part of the person. 

[kari-no-sugata]

8 hours ago, Ciridae said:

I'd like to revise my point in Shallan's boost in intelligence. It's not that she can remember something incredibly well, its that she can replicate a memory with exceptional skill. This woukd still fall under visual-spacial intelligence. She may just be talented, but I think if Pattern ever left she would notice her skills decreasing. Kaladin also always thought his skill with the spear was pure talent and practice, and while he was talented, like Shallan is a talented artist, I believe the spren bond boosted their ability. 

One interesting thing to bear in mind with Shallan is that she demonstrated those memory skills even during the period between her mother's death and her bond to Pattern being restored at the start of WoR (a 6 year period). During this time she was not sucking in Stormlight (that she knew of), she was not performing Surgebinding (with some minor exceptions in tWoK) and had no active link to Pattern. Her memory skills did not noticeably improve once her bond was restored either. Which suggests to me (though doesn't prove) that her memory abilities were permanently enhanced as a side-effect of bonding with Pattern originally.

 

8 hours ago, Ciridae said:

After thinking a lot about this, the underlying principle of this may be why chunks of investiture, if left alone, become sentient or sapient. The amount of investiture the spren are composed of probably correlates with the level of intelligence they possess. Minor spren like painspren seem to be something like Cognitive Realm animals and seem to be sentient. Larger spren like radiant spren are fully sapient. After that, the spren grow more powerful but not necessarily more intelligent. The stormfather doesn't seem vastly more intelligent than a regular radiantspren. The point I made above about the upper limit being standard human sentience seems to apply to splinters too.

It would be interesting to get a more specific description of what exactly is going on here from Brandon.

We know that a bond between a human and a spren affects both parties - it gives the human access to two Surges, it gives the spren the ability to exist in the Physical realm with sentience, as well as more subtle effects. Spren are Investiture in the first place so it doesn't seem unreasonable for the mere fact that a spren filling in the gaps of a human's Spiritweb can affect them mentally. The question then becomes, is it the nature of the access to the Surges that is causing these mental effects or is it through the spren itself. So for example, let's say that you have two different types of spren but both give access to the exact same Surges - would the mental side effects be identical or not?

[Ciridae]

1 hour ago, kari-no-sugata said:

One interesting thing to bear in mind with Shallan is that she demonstrated those memory skills even during the period between her mother's death and her bond to Pattern being restored at the start of WoR (a 6 year period). During this time she was not sucking in Stormlight (that she knew of), she was not performing Surgebinding (with some minor exceptions in tWoK) and had no active link to Pattern. Her memory skills did not noticeably improve once her bond was restored either. Which suggests to me (though doesn't prove) that her memory abilities were permanently enhanced as a side-effect of bonding with Pattern originally.

While she regressed down to before the first oath after killing her mother, she didn't kill Pattern. I'm not sure what the consensus is on the time frame between regressing and speaking the first oath, but to me they were still bonded. She did not break the bond, nor did Pattern. So while she may not have gotten access to surges due to lack of advancement in the bond, she would have received other benefits of the bond. As you say, for most of her life she's had her mnemonic abilities which to me proves that the bond to Pattern was still active to an extent, even if she couldn't use stormlight. 

1 hour ago, kari-no-sugata said:

The question then becomes, is it the nature of the access to the Surges that is causing these mental effects or is it through the spren itself.

We would have to differentiate between her ability to take Memories, which should be her resonance and caused by the surges, and her ability to reproduce her Memories, which I ascribe to the spren bond itself.

[kari-no-sugata]

3 hours ago, Ciridae said:

While she regressed down to before the first oath after killing her mother, she didn't kill Pattern. I'm not sure what the consensus is on the time frame between regressing and speaking the first oath, but to me they were still bonded. She did not break the bond, nor did Pattern. So while she may not have gotten access to surges due to lack of advancement in the bond, she would have received other benefits of the bond. As you say, for most of her life she's had her mnemonic abilities which to me proves that the bond to Pattern was still active to an extent, even if she couldn't use stormlight. 

IIRC there's a WoB that Shallan was a level 3 Radiant all this time (same as Kaladin at the end of WoR) and that she only progressed once that we saw (at the end of WoR when she becomes level 4).

[The One Who Connects he/him]

38 minutes ago, kari-no-sugata said:

IIRC there's a WoB that Shallan was a level 3 Radiant all this time (same as Kaladin at the end of WoR) and that she only progressed once that we saw (at the end of WoR when she becomes level 4).

I searched Theoryland and could only find these so far: Here, Here, and Here.

Quote

Question

Why didn't Shallan summon her Shardblade on the ship when they were attacked?

Brandon Sanderson

The Shardblade has a lot of... I mean if you look at it she thought about it. She has this psychological thing where she ignores the past, and it's so painful to her, the things that happened.

Quote

Kythis

How did Pattern actually become a Shardblade even though he hadn't been fully pulled into the Physical Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

He was pulled into the Physical Realm before, when Shallan was younger. And she almost broke her bond. Q: He didn't go mad though. A: She didn't completely break the bond. She didn't reject him completely. But it was dangerous for a while.

Quote

tganchero

No specific question.

Brandon Sanderson

Not completely sure on this one: He said that at one point Shallan may have said all the oaths for her order (or may have been capable of saying all of the oaths by the end of the book) but has since regressed due to "memory loss/repression."

Are any of these the one you are thinking of?
Edit: I haven't gone through the Reddit WoB's section yet, so it may be in there

Edited June 6, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, The One Who Connects said:

I searched Theoryland and could only find these so far: Here, Here, and Here.

Are any of these the one you are thinking of?
Edit: I haven't gone through the Reddit WoB's section yet, so it may be in there

I'm looking as well. I know I've seen one that says she's one ahead of Kaladin. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

Just now, Calderis said:

I'm looking as well. I know I've seen one that says she's one ahead of Kaladin. 

it only says that she's ahead of Kaladin at the end of WoR though.

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

There is an upper-limit/threshold to the number of oaths a Radiant may make. By the end of WoR, Shallan is a step higher than Kaladin.

I ignored this one since it didn't relate to kari-no-sugata's point.

[Calderis he/him]

5 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

it only says that she's ahead of Kaladin at the end of WoR though.

I ignored this one since it didn't relate to kari-no-sugata's point.

It's the only one I'm aware of that places her at the Lightweaver equivalent of the fourth Oath. I know it doesn't address what she's been, but as far as I'm aware, no other WoB actually places her at a level other than that one. 

[ZenBossanova]

20 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said:

The mnemonic abilities are a resonance formed from possessing the ability to bind the surge of illumination and transformation. They're not due to the spren bond, and someone who gained the ability to surgebind from another source, such as holding an Honorblade, would gain that resonance as well.

True, probably, but missing the point. A spren (or Seon, or Skaze,etc) are a tiny piece of a shard. The Cognitive gain is the same, regardless of whether you have a tiny piece of shard (spren) or a tiny link to the full shard. Either way, it exists in the Cognitive Realm (as well as other realms) and it has a Cognitive effect. So, we should see some kind of an effect in Mistborn, even though there are no Harmony-spren. 

 

9 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said:

muscle memory improvement, not an intellectual improvement

That is too narrow a way to view the Cognitive Realm. Muscle Memory is a matter of nerves and neuron connections. It is cognitive even in the Real World. 

 

9 hours ago, kari-no-sugata said:

So for example, let's say that you have two different types of spren but both give access to the exact same Surges - would the mental side effects be identical or not?

A two spren might have one surge in common, but if they had two surges in common, they would be the same kind of spren. If we know of any counter-examples, I would love to hear it. There may be some commonality, but I doubt we will see too much repetition.

Let me propose an even stronger statement: The spren and the Surges they have, all have a Physical Aspect, a Cognitive Aspect and a Spiritual Aspect. 

[Calderis he/him]

9 minutes ago, ZenBossanova said:

A two spren might have one surge in common, but if they had two surges in common, they would be the same kind of spren. If we know of any counter-examples, I would love to hear it. There may be some commonality, but I doubt we will see too much repetition.

I thought the same. The confirmation that Bondsmiths bond to three distinct spren undermines this. 

12 minutes ago, ZenBossanova said:

True, probably, but missing the point. A spren (or Seon, or Skaze,etc) are a tiny piece of a shard. The Cognitive gain is the same, regardless of whether you have a tiny piece of shard (spren) or a tiny link to the full shard. Either way, it exists in the Cognitive Realm (as well as other realms) and it has a Cognitive effect. So, we should see some kind of an effect in Mistborn, even though there are no Harmony-spren. 

I don't think this is true. If your hypothesis is correct, I believe it's directly related to the way bonds function on Roshar. Mistborn don't form a bond to any kind of investiture. They have access to it yes, but when they aren't burning a metal, there is no investiture beyond what is innate to a Scadrian. 

[ZenBossanova]

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

The confirmation that Bondsmiths bond to three distinct spren undermines this. 

I presumed this was 3 distinct Bondsmith spren named Larry, Moe and Curly. Distinct yes, but the same kind of spren, like Syl know other honorspren but is distinct. 

 

2 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I don't think this is true. If your hypothesis is correct, I believe it's directly related to the way bonds function on Roshar. Mistborn don't form a bond to any kind of investiture. They have access to it yes, but when they aren't burning a metal, there is no investiture beyond what is innate to a Scadrian. 

I think this is a difference without a distinction, but I don't have enough to prove it. 

[Calderis he/him]

1 minute ago, ZenBossanova said:

I presumed this was 3 distinct Bondsmith spren named Larry, Moe and Curly. Distinct yes, but the same kind of spren, like Syl know other honorspren but is distinct.

Unless there are two other stormfathers, I'm fairly sure distinct means unique spren. 

[kari-no-sugata]

Hmm. Maybe I was imagining that Brandon had been as specific as I thought. Anyway, going back to the original topic and what was saying previously, we do know that Shallan's memory is supernatural:

Quote

 

ALTERODENT

Does Shallan's bond improve her art?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Shallan's memorization is supernatural, and her memorization affects her ability to do art, so I would say yes.

 

It comes from her Order (ie her bond with Pattern):

Quote

 

WETLANDER

In addition to the two abilities given by each surge, does a Knight Radiant order have a third blended ability, the interaction of its two given surges?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Not specifically as phrased there, but each order has quirks that are unique to it. They are magical quirks, but it's not necessarily a blend of the powers.

WETLANDER

So Shallan's Memories is kind of a...

BRANDON SANDERSON

Is associated with her Order, yes.

WETLANDER

It's not just because she had that wonderful ability, and Pattern came along and went, "Oh, I like this one!"

BRANDON

No that is not necessarily what attracted Pattern.

 

Note Brandon doesn't specifically say it comes from the interaction between Surges, just that it's associated with her Order.

This is also interesting:

Quote

 

HAVOC

In WoK, Shallan is being chased by Cryptics. She begins to summon her Shardblade, stops and then Soulcasts for the first time. We know from WoR that it's her bond to Pattern, her Shardblade that allows her to Soulcast. So my question is, if Shallan had not begun to summon her Blade, would she have been able to Soulcast?

BRANDON SANDERSON

She would not have been able to. No one has ever asked me that before.

 

And also:

Quote

 

CCSTAT

Shallan's drawings in WoK showed multiple cryptics. Were there other cryptics accompanying Pattern at that time?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

CCSTAT

Did they approve of what Pattern's choices?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes. The cryptics are much like what is happening with Lift, where there is more of a conscious effort on their part. As opposed to what is happening with Syl or Jasnah where there is hesitance. What the cryptics are driven to do is in part because of what a few of their members have been experimenting with.

 

 

So anyway, we know that Shallan's memory improvement comes directly or indirectly from her bond with Pattern. I don't think there's been any confirmation that her mental abilities in general are improved (though improved memory should help in all sorts of ways). I'm not sure if we can say for certain whether her memory improvement is directly related to the spren she is bonded with or because of the pair of Surges her bond gives her. There has been talk of "resonances" between Surges and those resonances would be specific to the Radiant Order but I don't remember Brandon saying that everything that is specific to the Order is due to resonances - there could be side effects both due to resonances and due to the particular spren.

Going back to what I was saying about Shallan's memory: that it was still supernaturally good even while her bond with Pattern was nearly broken indicates to me that the steps taken in originally forming her bond with Pattern have permanently changed her. ie it feels more like that her inherent memory ability has improved not that she is sharing/borrowing Pattern's mental abilities. It would be interesting to know whether or not completely breaking her bond with Pattern would affect her memory ability.

With regards to what Radiant "level" Shallan was at for most of the first two books, I would argue that the bond can strengthen and weaken independently of the "level". When Kaladin's bond to Syl was weakened and nearly broke, he didn't have to re-start from zero. Pattern also told Shallan that she didn't need to re-swear the first Oath.  It's not 100% confirmed but it seems that Shallan could have summoned Pattern at any time in the last 6 years, which would make her "level 3". So I would say that the available evidence indicates that Shallan's Radiant level was 3 all this time, but the bond itself was weakened, rather than she reverted back to level 0 or 1 or something. In tWoK we do see Shallan speak two Truths but those weren't with Pattern - I would argue that that was a temporary bond with another Cryptic and didn't affect her Radiant "level" (though did help resurrect the bond she have with Pattern).

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, kari-no-sugata said:

With regards to what Radiant "level" Shallan was at for most of the first two books, I would argue that the bond can strengthen and weaken independently of the "level". When Kaladin's bond to Syl was weakened and nearly broke, he didn't have to re-start from zero. Pattern also told Shallan that she didn't need to re-swear the first Oath.  It's not 100% confirmed but it seems that Shallan could have summoned Pattern at any time in the last 6 years, which would make her "level 3". So I would say that the available evidence indicates that Shallan's Radiant level was 3 all this time, but the bond itself was weakened, rather than she reverted back to level 0 or 1 or something. In tWoK we do see Shallan speak two Truths but those weren't with Pattern - I would argue that that was a temporary bond with another Cryptic and didn't affect her Radiant "level" (though did help resurrect the bond she have with Pattern).

I agree that the are more milestones than levels, and that the state of the bonds is independent of those. I think Kaladin is the most obvious example of this. Shallan's bond, while shown more subtley, is definitely a stronger example. 

On the Shardblade part I don't quite agree. I think for the Spren, the Oaths act as a binding agent between them and the Physical realm. So while Shallan may have regressed down to nearly breaking the oath, pattern only regressed cognitively. This lowered his level of sentience in the physical realm, but didn't allow him to be free of the physical aspects of that binding. So yes she could have summoned Him as a blade, but his level of sentience, and her abilities as a radiant were below that of a typical Lightweaver with a blade. 

In addition there's a WoB that says the number of oaths for a Shardblade is generally 3, but varies by order. 

And out of curiosity, why do you think another Cryptic is involved? 

[kari-no-sugata]

14 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I agree that the are more milestones than levels, and that the state of the bonds is independent of those. I think Kaladin is the most obvious example of this. Shallan's bond, while shown more subtley, is definitely a stronger example. 

On the Shardblade part I don't quite agree. I think for the Spren, the Oaths act as a binding agent between them and the Physical realm. So while Shallan may have regressed down to nearly breaking the oath, pattern only regressed cognitively. This lowered his level of sentience in the physical realm, but didn't allow him to be free of the physical aspects of that binding. So yes she could have summoned Him as a blade, but his level of sentience, and her abilities as a radiant were below that of a typical Lightweaver with a blade. 

Maybe I wasn't clear enough - I was mostly talking about Shallan's side of things, so wasn't addressing what Pattern was going through in much detail.

When I said that the Soulcasting Shallan did in tWoK helped resurrect Pattern I don't mean that Pattern was conscious at the time in tWoK. Rather, that the various actions Shallan took collectively helped Pattern begin to "awaken", which we started seeing early in WoR. So I agree that Pattern was regressed cognitively. Essentially you could say that he was in "deep sleep" the last 6 years and that the events of tWoK affected Shallan enough that the bond began to strengthen and Pattern began to awaken and was in "light sleep" until Shallan fully summoned him back to the Physical realm early in WoR. I would guess that he was stuck between the Physical and Cognitive realms until then.

It would be interesting to know what would have happened if Shallan hadn't been interrupted in summoning Pattern in tWoK. I'm guessing that Pattern wouldn't have been responsive but maybe it would have helped restore the bond and awaken Pattern over time? It's possible that the Cryptic who spoke to Shallan (interrupting her) might have accidentally made a mistake.

 

14 minutes ago, Calderis said:

In addition there's a WoB that says the number of oaths for a Shardblade is generally 3, but varies by order. 

And out of curiosity, why do you think another Cryptic is involved? 

Because Pattern was in deep sleep at the time and we also know that there were other Cryptics around Shallan at the time. Also, in WoR she thinks back on those events in tWoK and thinks that the voice that spoke to her is different (not Pattern). I think the Cryptics have been hanging around Shallan, trying to encourage her to resurrect the bond with Pattern. I think that Jasnah said in WoR that she thinks it was likely that the other Cryptics were trying to encourage Shallan to meet with Jasnah. I wonder if they somehow encouraged Shallan to come up with the idea to steal the Soulcaster?

On a completely different note, if the Cryptics have been hanging around Shallan for a long time (quite possible) then maybe that's what surprised Wit/Hoid when he met Shallan the first time (during the Middlefest). I had been thinking that he noticed she was highly Invested somehow but if there was Cryptics hanging around her back then that would explain a few things.

[Calderis he/him]

6 minutes ago, kari-no-sugata said:

On a completely different note, if the Cryptics have been hanging around Shallan for a long time (quite possible) then maybe that's what surprised Wit/Hoid when he met Shallan the first time (during the Middlefest). I had been thinking that he noticed she was highly Invested somehow but if there was Cryptics hanging around her back then that would explain a few things

I won't say I think they were never around prior, but I think they were drawn to her then because her bond was already beginning to be restored. 

Either way something had to have changed with her bond. Either to draw more Cryptics, or to allow her mnemonic device to see partially into the Cognitive Realm. She'd been taking memories and drawing for years and never captured a Cryptic in her drawings before. 

Being that the mnemonic device is her resonance, I don't believe the strength of the bond can change what it does. Either way though, something changed for her to start seeing them in Kharbranth. 

[kari-no-sugata]

57 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I won't say I think they were never around prior, but I think they were drawn to her then because her bond was already beginning to be restored. 

Either way something had to have changed with her bond. Either to draw more Cryptics, or to allow her mnemonic device to see partially into the Cognitive Realm. She'd been taking memories and drawing for years and never captured a Cryptic in her drawings before. 

Hmm.

To be honest, neither option seems particularly compelling - there doesn't seem to be any obvious event that would mean Shallan could suddenly capture Cryptics in her Memories leading up to when she did it the first time, and also it seems like a stretch that she never saw one in her Memories before if she was capable and they were wandering around her in general. It also seems unlikely that there were never other Cryptics around her until then.

How about another option: Shallan was capable of capturing Memories of them for the last 6 years and they were around her, but until recently the Cryptics had deliberately avoided being visible or in her light of sight. The first time she sees one is with Taravangian and the second time is with Kabsal, both of whom could be described as "dangerous" to Shallan so it was possible that they were trying to warn her...? A bit too much of a coincidence to be random luck?

Oh to have a hotline to Brandon to ask him questions

It would be nice to see this come up again in Oathbringer. Maybe with Elhokar, or maybe when she explores Shadesmar more.

 

57 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Being that the mnemonic device is her resonance, I don't believe the strength of the bond can change what it does. Either way though, something changed for her to start seeing them in Kharbranth. 

Maybe. I think the strength of the bond could affect the strength of these side benefits (there might be more than one, depending upon the underlying cause). If so, it's possible that some of the side benefits might not be noticeable until the bond is at maximum strength, for example.

[Spoolofwhool]

On 6/6/2017 at 8:39 PM, ZenBossanova said:

That is too narrow a way to view the Cognitive Realm. Muscle Memory is a matter of nerves and neuron connections. It is cognitive even in the Real World. 

Except, it's not too narrow a view. The Cognitive Realm is the realm of perception. Entities there, as well as cognitive aspects of entities in other realms, are defined by how they perceive themselves, as well as how other entities perceive them. It's not the realm of intelligence and mental attributes, as you seem to think. Muscle memory, as a matter of nerves, neurons, and other physical connections, is a physical realm item. 

On 6/6/2017 at 8:39 PM, ZenBossanova said:

True, probably, but missing the point. A spren (or Seon, or Skaze,etc) are a tiny piece of a shard. The Cognitive gain is the same, regardless of whether you have a tiny piece of shard (spren) or a tiny link to the full shard. Either way, it exists in the Cognitive Realm (as well as other realms) and it has a Cognitive effect. So, we should see some kind of an effect in Mistborn, even though there are no Harmony-spren. 

Shards primarily exist in the Spiritual Realm, not the Cognitive Realm. This is why some manifestations of investiture can be used even at a distance from the place where the shard's power was invested, as in the Spiritual Realm, distance isn't a constraint. Also, 

Elantris spoilers

Spoiler

Do you have any examples of seons improving the intelligence of the people they were bonded to?

 

22 hours ago, kari-no-sugata said:

How about another option: Shallan was capable of capturing Memories of them for the last 6 years and they were around her, but until recently the Cryptics had deliberately avoided being visible or in her light of sight. The first time she sees one is with Taravangian and the second time is with Kabsal, both of whom could be described as "dangerous" to Shallan so it was possible that they were trying to warn her...? A bit too much of a coincidence to be random luck?

Another possibility is that the cryptics weren't really following Shallan, but were actually in Kharabanth to observe Taravangian's work, especially what he was doing with death rattles. This makes a bit of sense when you consider that one of the people who issued a death rattle apparently saw some cryptics standing over him.

Quote

“I’m dying, aren’t I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.”
- Way of Kings, Chapter 4

It also follows when you consider when Shallan first drew a cryptic, during her lunch with Taravangian, with the cryptic lurking in the hallway behind the king. Afterwards, she started drawing them observing her, but never did before then. My theory then is that they noticed that she had seen them and were curious. She didn't draw them previously in Kharabanth because they were usually around the king, and that was possibly the first she had been around him and drawing. 

I'm not dismissing the idea that they were cryptics following and guiding Shallan, and I do agree that there were. However, I think the reason she suddenly started drawing them was because there were two groups. The first group, following her, was aware of her powers, so stayed out of her way so she couldn't draw them. The second group, observing Taravangian, wasn't aware of her and her powers, so they didn't try to hide, which is why she accidentally drew them, which then attracted their attention.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

On 6/7/2017 at 7:50 AM, kari-no-sugata said:

With regards to what Radiant "level" Shallan was at for most of the first two books, I would argue that the bond can strengthen and weaken independently of the "level".

I agree with this. The bond weakens, and in order to restrengthen that bond, the Radiant has to re-swear their Order's Oaths. They are at a pseudo level 1(in terms of what needs to be said), while not actually being back at level one.